A quartz oscillator for quadrature modulation has a quartz oscillating circuit including a transistor, a quartz oscillator, a capacitor, and a resistor, a double-mode quartz filter, a reactance element, and an amplifier. The quartz oscillator is constituted so that an output of the quartz oscillating circuit is a first output, and its output is connected to one terminal of the double-mode quartz filter where a common electrode is grounded. The reactance element is connected in parallel between the other terminal and the ground, and a second output is obtained from a connected point via the amplifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oscillator for quadrature modulation to be used in digital communication. The invention particularly relates to a piezoelectric oscillator for quadrature modulation in which consumption current is reduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, high-speed high-capacitance systems that transmit/receive large amounts of information at high speed are the primary systems as mobile communication systems. In such mobile communications, QPSK and QAM which are suitable for high-speed communications are widely used as modulation schemes since usability of frequencies is high. The QPSK or the QAM modulating circuits of mobile telephones use a quadrature modulation scheme of multiplying carrier waves having phase difference of 90 degrees by modulating signals, respectively. The quadrature modulation scheme is disclosed in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 08-223233, and 2001-217886.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a 90 degree phase shifter disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-217886. The 90 degree phase shifter includes an oscillator 21 that generates a local signal Lo, a phase shifter 22 that generates two local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′ having phase difference from the local signal Lo, an oscillator 23 that generates a clock signal CLK having a frequency twice as high as those of the local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′, a D flip-flop 24 that inputs the local phase shifting signal LoQ′ and the clock signal CLK, and outputs a quadrature component LoQ of the 90 degree phase shifting signal, and a D flip-flop 25 that inputs the local phase shifting signal LoI′ and an inverted clock signal CLK, and outputs a phase component LoI which is the same as that of the 90 degree phase shifting signal.
The local signal Lo output from the oscillator 21 is input into the phase shifter 22, and the phase shifter 22 outputs the two local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′ whose phases are different. Since the local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′ include a phase shift error, their phase difference is not 90 degrees. The local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′ are input into the D flip-flops 24 and 25, respectively.
A clock signal CLK having a frequency which is twice as high as the frequency f1′ of the local phase shifting signals LoI′ and LoQ′ (fCLK=2×f1′) is input into the D flip-flop 24, and an inverted clock signal CLK is input into the D flip-flop 25. The local phase shifting signal LoQ′ input into the D flip-flop 24 is shaped at a rise time of the clock signal, so as to be output as a phase shifting signal LoQ. On the other hand, the local phase shifting signal LoI′ input into the D flip-flop 25 is shaped at a fall time of the clock signal because the inverted clock signal is used, so as to be output as a phase shifting signal LoI.
As a result, the phase shifting signals LoQ and LoI are synchronized with each other as signals having a phase difference of ½ period of the clock signal CLK (¼ period of the phase shifting signal), namely, signals having a phase difference of 90 degrees with respect to each other so as to be output. FIGS. 8a to 8e are timing charts of respective sections of the 90 degree phase shifter shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 8a shows the clock signal CLK, FIG. 8b shows the local phase shifting signal LoI′ as the same phase component as the local signal Lo, FIG. 8c shows the local phase shifting signal LoQ′ as the quadrature component of the local signal Lo, FIG. 8d shows the same phase component LoI as the 90 degree phase shifter, and FIG. 8e shows the quadrature component LoQ of the 90 degree phase shifter.
In order to obtain a quadrature output, however, the conventional phase shifter uses the oscillator that generates a clock signal having a frequency twice as high as that of a local signal and the two D flip-flops so as to generate two local signals (carrier waves) with phase difference of 90 degrees. For example, when a local signal (carrier wave) of 100 MHz is to be obtained from the 90 degree phase shifter, an oscillating circuit for a clock signal of 200 MHz is required. In order to maintain oscillation in the high-frequency oscillating circuit, negative resistance of predetermined level has to be generated, thereby requiring large electric current. Furthermore, the electric current cannot be reduced, because consumption current of a dividing circuit is added.

Piezoelectric oscillator for quadrature modulation


Active acoustic damping is provided with a motor or similar propulsive element such as a multi-phase brushless direct current (DC) motor. To produce the appropriate canceling effect with the motor, the relationship between the operating mode of the motor and the noise produced is observed. This data can be used to identify a relevant transfer function that can be applied to produce a control signal for the motor. For a multi-phase motor, the current control signals provided to at least one phase may be made asymmetric with respect to the other phases to produce actuating forces upon the motor. This actuating force can be used to modify acoustic signals produced by the motor. The active acoustic damping techniques may be applied in any vehicles or devices, including unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), in either an open loop or closed loop manner.

Most people are exposed to many types of undesirable acoustic disturbances every day in both indoor and outdoor environments. Such acoustic "noise" includes undesired audible sounds, but also mechanical vibrations or other acoustic disturbances as well. Common sources of acoustic noise include automobiles, airplanes, trains, motorcycles, lawn mowers, chain saws, construction equipment, ventilator systems and other industrial and commercial products. Typically, noise results from vibrations emanating from motors, blowers, pumps, fans or other components of such devices. In addition to being annoying to humans, different types of acoustic noise can affect the operation of vehicles (e.g. aircraft or seacraft) and other machines.
One technique for reducing the effects of noise, called "active acoustic damping", involves providing an additional sound, tone or other vibration to effectively cancel the undesired noise at a particular location. Active damping is commonly used on many vehicles, as well as in many industrial or commercial settings. Commercial aircraft, for example, commonly use active damping techniques to reduce the level of noise in the passenger cabin emanating from aircraft engines and other sources. By providing an appropriate "canceling" tone at some point between the source(s) of the noise and the listener, the effect of the noise upon the listener can be effectively reduced. Typically, this canceling tone is provided by audio speakers or other vibrating devices located near the cabin, resulting in noise suppression throughout the passenger cabin. Alternatively, active damping can be provided by headphones or the like worn by passengers and/or crew members. Similar concepts are applied in other settings, including many industrial and commercial settings where excessive noise is present.
Conventional active damping techniques, however, typically require additional hardware (e.g. loudspeakers, tuning forks or other devices capable of producing an appropriate canceling vibration). This additional hardware can add undesirable bulk, weight and complexity to a vehicle or product. In certain implementations (e.g. aircraft, seacraft and the like), this excess weight and bulk can present significant design issues. Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), for example, typically require exceptional acoustic performance, yet have very stringent weight and volume requirements.
Accordingly, it is desirable to create an active acoustic damping technique that can be readily implemented without excessive additional hardware. Further, it is desireable to create systems and techniques that are capable of actively canceling acoustic reverberations in vehicles and the like without adding substantial weight or bulk. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Method and apparatus for active acoustic damping motor control


A new Ageratum plant, characterized particularly as to novelty by its bicolor purple and violet flowers, early flowering, strongly branched plant habit and compact growth.

The present invention comprises a new distinct cultivar of Ageratum, botanically known as Ageratum houstonianum. The new cultivar is propagated from cuttings resulting from the cross of 'S494-2' as female parent and 'S228A-2' as male parent. This cross was made in October 1998. 'S494-2' is not commercially available and has not been patented. 'S228A-2' is not commercially available and has not been patented.
As a result of this cross, the present cultivar was selected in August 1999 in Enkhuizen, Netherlands and has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings in Enkhuizen, Netherlands, in Gilroy, Calif., and in Sarrians, France over a three-year period. The dictinctive characteristics of this new Ageratum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction. It takes 8 to 10 weeks to produce a finished plant, depending on the temperature.
This new Ageratum plant is an annual in most climatical zones in the US, only in zones 9 and 10 it is a perennial plant.


Peptides endowed with antiinflammatory activity consisting of 25 aminoacids having a sequence with an homology of at least 25% with the 1-25 fragment of the 10 Kda heat shock protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to peptide derivatives of heat shock proteins, and to the use thereof in the treatment of inflammatory pathologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heat shock proteins (hereinfrom "HSP") are produced by cells under stress conditions, especially by mycobacteria. Procaryotes such as mycobacteria, express high HSP levels, some of which, e.g. a 65 kD protein, are immuno-dominant antigens, thus their use as vaccine was envisaged, e.g. antitubercolotic vaccine (Kaufmann, S. H. E. et al., Eur. J. Immunol., 17, 351 (l987)!. WO 89/12455 gives a hint about the use of a protein of such class or a fragment thereof, specifically referring to a 65 kD protein, as a vaccine against non-viral infections and to induce an immune response.
Specific proteins within the same class were described as useful in different pathologies. For example, WO 90/10449 relates to the use of a HSP of 65 kD as a diagnostic agent and in the treatment of the insulin-independent diabetes. The same protein was found to posses a mycobacterial-specific epitope envolved in the pathogenesis of the auto-immune arthritis Gaston, J. F. et al., Nature, 331, 171 (1988)!.
The HSP sequence weighing 10 kD is disclosed by Baird, P. N. et al., J. Gen. Microb., 135, 931-939 (1989) which describes it as coming from Mycobacterium tuberculosis BGC, while Mehra, V. et al., J. Exp. Med., 175, 275-284 (1992) discloses a homologous protein having the same weight from Mycobacterium leprae. Barnes, P. F. et al., J. Immun., 148, 1835-1840 (1992) discloses a 10 kD protein coming from Mycobacterium tuberculosis as highly immuno-reactive antigen hypothetically useful as anti-tuberculotic vaccine. Hartman, D. J. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89, 3394-3398 (1992) identified, in the mammal, a protein homologous to the 10 kD proteins described in the literature above mentioned.


Call data collected from the switch at a Mobile Telephone Switching Office is combined with location information of a mobile unit to generate information reports concerning the electromagnetic coverage of a geographic region. The collection of call data from the switch permits consideration of uplink information in the analysis of system performance. The uplink information reflects performance of specific equipment that is in use by the wireless customer. This uplink information may be combined with downlink and location information to remove from the performance evaluation transient effects associated with, for example, local terrain and other physical impairments.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile communications systems and, more specifically, to a method and system for optimizing performance of a mobile communications system.
2. Background of the Invention
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional cellular radiotelephone communication system 5 which includes cells 6, radio base stations or cell sites 8, and a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) or mobile telephone switching center 9. As a mobile telephone customer 7 moves from one cell to another a switch in the MTSO automatically switches connections with the respective radio base stations to maintain a continuous connection with the public switched network (not shown). Typically, a switch in an MTSO 9 is connected to approximately one hundred cell sites.
A problem associated with the management of a cellular radiotelephone communications system is geographically locating an area within the zone of radio coverage or cell where faulty coverage exists. An example would be an area within a cellular telephone system that provides poor service due to moderate levels of interference. Typically, this situation is uncovered in one of two ways; customer complaints or the persistent drive team testing by system operators. Neither of these approaches, however, provides a very timely or comprehensive means of identifying, diagnosing, and curing faulty coverage.
In response to these deficiencies, the cellular industry has turned to the aid of electromagnetic coverage prediction tools to assist in the search for holes in the coverage. Typically, these methods of monitoring system performance include observing downlink information along with other system parameters. (Downlink being defined as signals travelling from the cell site to the mobile unit and uplink being defined &as signals travelling from the mobile unit to the cell site). The assumption has been that if the downlink was closed (i.e., a good connection was attained), the available uplink power would be sufficient to close the uplink.
One such electromagnetic coverage tool which takes into account uplink information is discussed by Kurt Nikkinen in "Switch Reality", AT&T Wireless Service, Apr. 15–16, 1997, and hereby incorporated by reference. This electromagnetic coverage tool involves transmitting location information of a mobile unit to a base station using a cellular modem and also gathering call information from a switch location. The location and call information is then collected at the base station and entered into a map plot.

Method and system for optimizing performance of a mobile communications system


A bundling tie for looping about plural articles includes a head, a tail and elongate strap body therebetween. The head and the strap body include cooperative locking means for securing the strap in the head of the bundling tie. The tail of the bundling tie includes outwardly projecting tactile elements for enhancing the gripability of the tail to facilitate pulling the strap body through the head of the bundling tie. The head and the tail also permit the removable holding of the tail in the head of the bundling tie prior to locking engagement of the strap body with the head.

Cable ties have long been used to bundle a variety of objects such as electrical wires or cable. Early examples of such cable ties are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,186,047 and 3,486,201. Each of these cable ties includes an elongate member having a head at one end, a tail at the other and a longitudinal strap body therebetween. The cable tie is used by wrapping the tie around a bundle of articles and inserting the tail through the head. The head and the body include cooperative locking elements so that when the tail is pulled tightly through the head, the locking elements secure the strap body in the head.
Cable ties come in various shapes and sizes. Often, multiple small cable ties are employed at spaced locations longitudinally along the bundle of wires. Use in this manner presents two distinct problems.
First, given the small size of the cable tie, it is difficult to grasp the tail and to securely pull it through the head. There is a tendency for the tail to slip out from between the fingers of the installer making securement around the bundle difficult. Also, when multiple small cable ties are employed, it is often necessary to loosely wrap the tie around the bundle at the spaced locations and then, in sequence, tighten each cable tie around the bundle. When using small cable ties, there is a tendency for the tail to "pop out" of the head prior to locking engagement therewith. When this occurs, it is necessary to rethread the tail through the head and possibly realign the cable ties which may have shifted prior to securement.
It is desirable to provide a cable tie having a tail which may be easily, manually grasped to facilitate pulling the tail through the head. It is also desirable to provide a cable tie where the tail may be removably held in the head prior to locking engagement of the strap with the head.

Cable tie having improved tail gripping and holding feature


The present invention relates to a composition which is useful for the reversible binding of a nucleic acid molecule. The composition, which may be packaged in a kit, includes a paramagnetic particle in an acidic solution.

Access to cellular components such as nucleic acids is imperative to a variety of molecular biology methodologies. Such methodologies include nucleic acid sequencing, direct detection of particular nucleic acid sequences by nucleic acid hybridization and nucleic acid sequence amplification techniques.
The preparation and purification of high-purity double-stranded (ds) plasmid DNA, single-stranded (ss) phage DNA, chromosomal DNA, agarose gel-purified DNA fragments and RNA is of critical importance in molecular biology. Ideally, a method for purifying nucleic acids should be simple, rapid and require little, if any, additional sample manipulation. Nucleic acids rendered by such a method should be immediately amenable to transformation, restriction analysis, litigation or sequencing. A method with all of these features would be extremely attractive in the automation of nucleic acid sample preparation, a goal of research and diagnostic laboratories.
Typically, the preparation of plasmid DNA from crude alcohol precipitates is laborious, most often utilizing CsCl gradients, gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography, or RNase, proteinase K and repeated alcohol precipitation steps. These methods also require considerable downstream sample preparation to remove CsCl and other salts, ethidium bromide and alcohol. Similar arguments extend when using any of these methods for purifying DNA fragments. A further problem with these methods is that small, negatively-charged cellular components can co-purify with the DNA. Thus, the DNA can have an undesirable level of contamination.
Nucleic acids can also be purified using solid phases. Conventional solid phase extraction techniques have utilized surfaces which either (1) fail to attract and hold sufficient quantities of nucleic acid molecules because of surface design to permit easy recovery of the nucleic acid molecules during elution, or (2) excessively adhere nucleic acid molecules to the surface, thereby hindering recovery of the nucleic acid molecules during elution. Conventional metal surfaces which cause these problems when utilized in solid phase extraction include certain silica surfaces such as glass and Celite. Adequate binding of nucleic acids to these types of surfaces can be achieved only by utilizing high concentrations of chaotropes or alcohols which are generally toxic, caustic, and/or expensive. For example, it is known that DNA will bind to crushed glass powders and to glass fiber filters in the presence of chaotropes. The chaotropic ions typically are washed away with alcohol, and the DNAs are eluted with low-salt solutions or water. Importantly, RNA and protein do not bind. However, a serious drawback in the use of crushed glass powder is that its binding capacity is low. In addition, glass powders often suffer from inconsistent recovery, incompatibility with borate buffers and a tendency to nick large DNAs. Similarly, glass fiber filters provide a nonporous surface with low DNA binding capacity. Other silicas, such as silica gel and glass beads, are not suitable for DNA binding and recovery. Currently, the solid phase of choice for solid phase extraction of DNA is Celite such as found in Prep-A-GeneT.TM. by Bio-Rad Laboratories. As with the crushed glass powders, high concentrations of chaotropes are required for adequate binding of the DNA to the Celite.
However, the hydration of silica substances has, in some instances resulted in elimination of the need for such high concentrations of chaotropes to elute bound DNA from the silica substance as taught in references such as EP 0 512 767, EP 0 585 660, U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,997 and EP 0 832 897.
There are numerous protocols for purifying DNA. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,978 discloses a process for purifying DNA in which a solution of protein and DNA is passed over a hydroxylated support and the protein is bound and the DNA is eluted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,342 discloses purification of DNA by selective binding of DNA to anion exchangers and subsequent elution. U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,952 discloses DNA isolation by precipitation with water-soluble ketones. A DNA purification procedure using chaotropes and dialyzed DNA is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,677.
Diatoms have also been utilized for purification of nucleic acids as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,809 to Boom et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,430 to Little et al.
Yet a further technique utilized for purification of nucleic acids is binding to specifically adapted paramagnetic particles. Examples of such techniques may be found in references such as European Specification EP 0 446 260 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,439 (Homes et al.) which describe monodisperse, superparamagnetic particles having a particle diameter standard deviation of less than 5%. Each particle carries a plurality of molecules of an oligonucleotide, with each oligonucleotide having a section serving as a probe for a target nucleic acid molecule of interest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,040 (Josephson) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,393 (Whitehead et al.) describe magnetically responsive particles for use in systems to separate certain molecules. The particles have a metal oxide core surrounded by a stable silicone coating to which organic and/or biological molecules may be coupled.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,518 (Giaever) describes a method of sorting and separating a select cell population from a mixed cell population. The method utilizes small magnetic particles which are coated with an antibody to the select cell populations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,687 (Forrest et al.) describes an automatic apparatus and method to assay fluid samples. The apparatus utilizes a particulate material with a reagent bound thereto. The particulate material is magnetic, and the reagent is a substance which takes part in a reaction in the reaction mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,685 (Senyei et al.) describes a method for magnetic separation of cells. The method utilizes magnetically-responsive microspheres which are coated with staphylococcal Protein A to which is bound antibody.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,265 (Ugelstad et al.) describes a process for preparing magnetic polymer particles. The particles are compact or porous polymer particles treated with a solution of iron salts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,782 (Charmot) describes magnetizable "core-shell" microspheres which have a core of a magnetizable filler and a shell of crosslinked organopolysiloxane.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,688 (Wang et al.) describes magnetically responsive fluorescent polymer particles which have a polymeric core coated evenly with a layer of polymer containing magnetically responsive metal oxide.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,068 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,946 (Benjamin et al.) describe an assay method for detecting the presence of bacteria using magnetic beads with specific antibodies immobilized thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,644 (Ullman et al.) describes a particle separation method. The method utilizes magnetic particles with surface functional groups, and optionally, an additional surface coating.
European Patent Specification EP 0 444 120 B1 (Homes et al.) describes a method for detection of target RNA or DNA. The method utilizes magnetic particles carrying a single stranded 5'-attached DNA probe capable of binding the target RNA or DNA.
International Publication No. WO 96/18731 (Deggerdal et al.) describes a method for isolating nucleic acid from a sample using a particulate solid support and an anionic detergent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,628 (Hawkins) describes a method for DNA purification and isolation using magnetic particles with functional group-coated surfaces.

Method for purification and manipulation of nucleic acids using paramagnetic particles


A sensing system and a sensing signal measuring method thereof are provided. The sensing system includes a signal source, a connecting device, a frequency sweep circuit, and a controller. In the method, the signal source is activated to generate a specific signal. The controller controls the frequency sweep circuit to switch a frequency band of a frequency sweep signal to a first frequency band corresponding to each of a plurality of types of multi-point sensors. The controller receives a sensor signal of each multi-point sensor through the connecting device, where the sensor signal is a variation of a measurement signal output by each multi-point sensor in response to the specific signal and the frequency sweep signal. The controller executes an adaptive algorithm on the sensor signal to construct a correspondence between an eigenvalue of each multi-point sensor and a location of the first frequency band, and records the correspondence.

Multi-point sensors or array sensors have been widely used in various fields, such as touch control, electronic skin, pressure sensing, electromagnetic field sensing, and distance sensing. For instance, Electrick is to connect electrodes around objects on which a conductive spray is sprayed, and a touch location is determined according to current shunting and phase delay principles. A radio frequency (RF)-based gesture input device measures a gesture according to time domain reflectometry (TDR).
In a measuring system using the foregoing multi-point sensors, each sensor may be functionally equivalent to a time-varying transfer function, and a number of characteristics with a resonance frequency in this transfer function may be excited by specific signals or signals of specific frequencies, such as white noise, square waves, and impulses. Due to different natures of measurement signals (such as electromagnetic waves, ultrasonic waves, light waves, and mechanical waves), the various measurement signals have different wave speeds, and are adapted to different measurement applications, and their response frequencies are easily subject to a manufacturing process or the environment where the sensors are used. Therefore, how to reduce the variation range of the various sensors is one of the important issues to be solved at present.

Sensing system and sensing signal measuring method thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A turbine component and a process of fabricating a component are disclosed. The process includes excavating a base metal of the component to form a fill region and filling the fill region with a filler metal. The filler metal has a filler metal elongation that is at least 25% greater than a base metal elongation of the base metal. The filler includes, by weight, between about 4% and about 7% iron, between about 14% and about 17% chromium, between about 15% and about 17% molybdenum, between about 3% and about 5% tungsten, up to about 0.02% carbon, up to about 1% manganese, up to about 2.5% cobalt, and a balance of nickel and/or the filler metal elongation is greater than about 35% in/in per two inches.

Gas turbines are increasingly being subjected to higher temperatures and/or increased temperature gradients in order to increase efficiency. Such temperature conditions can result in thermal fatigue. Some gas turbine components have geometric features, such as edges, that augment the effect of such temperature conditions.
Thermal fatigue can initiate/form cracks or other fatigue features, expand cracks or other fatigue features, and/or propagate/extend cracks or other fatigue features. Such cracks or other fatigue features can be undesirable for operational and/or cosmetic reasons. Often, such cracks or other fatigue features limit the capability of components and/or materials from being used under high temperatures and/or large temperature gradients.
Known processes include treating regions of components that are subjected to high temperatures or large temperature gradients. Some processes involve using high amounts of energy to modify the surface of such components, thereby resulting in an increased resistance to thermal fatigues. Such processes suffer from the drawback that they can be costly and can be limited in applicability based upon where such processes can be performed.
Other known processes include using a single material that is resistant to thermal fatigue. Such materials can be expensive and can include other properties that are not desirable. Previously, processes did not use multiple materials due to the additional steps and expense as well as potential compatibility issues associated with using multiple materials.
A turbine component and a process of fabricating a component not suffering from one or more of the above drawbacks would be desirable in the art.

Turbine component and a process of fabricating a turbine component


A method for routing a plurality of calls to a single endpoint of a plurality of endpoints at a common destination is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of: initiating (202) a call over a first network (118) having a first network type, the call being directed to a destination (106) that has a plurality of endpoints 108, 110, 112, 114. Establishing (204) the call over the first network with a first final endpoint (108) of the plurality of endpoints. Receiving (206) a temporary endpoint identifier. Initiating (208) a second call to the destination by sending a request message for a second call of a second network (120), having a second network type, the request message including the temporary endpoint identifier. Establishing (210) the second call, simultaneously with the first call, over the second network with the same final endpoint.

Wireless data continues to proliferate to wireless networks as well as wired or optical networks. As high speed data such as multimedia and internet protocol services evolve to wireless networks, combinational services that utilize multimedia sessions (e.g. voice and video sharing) provided across different network domains are also emerging. For example, the 3GPP standard defines combinational services as the combination of circuit switched (CS) domain and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services. The IMS, in general, is a standardized networking architecture that uses a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation based on a 3GPP standardized implementation of SIP. IMS runs over the standard Internet Protocol supporting both packet-switched and circuit-switched systems.
Combinational services provide a method to route two different types of calls over two different types of networks (CS and packet switched (PS)/IMS). However, where a network routes a first call to a destination that further routes the call to one of a plurality of final endpoint, such as a specific agent in a call center for example, the mobile station initiating the call will not know the final endpoint in order to direct the second call to the same endpoint. Therefore the user can not initiate an IMS session to the same endpoint as the identification of the exact endpoint with the call center is not known. A method does not exist for a user to establish combinational services with a call center, i.e. having a destination characterized by a plurality of final endpoints.
The various aspects, features, and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Drawings and accompanying Detailed Description.

Method for routing combinational services to a single endpoint


A solid state imaging device including light receiving change Modulation Device as pixels arranged in the form of a matrix, including a horizontal scanning circuit to output video signal current, and vertical scanning circuit for sequentially selecting successive rows by applying a pixel readout driving signal to each row line-by-line. A signal is applied to the non-selected rows forming an integrating voltage during a horizontal blanking period and forming an overflow voltage during a horizontal video effective period. The pixel readout driving signal is applied to the selected row and consists of a readout voltage, followed by a reset voltage during the horizontal blanking period. A signal forming an overflow voltage during the horizontal video effective period is then applied to the selected row. The video signal currents for each column line are simultaneously stored in a storage means, which is operated to sequentially output the video signal currents simultaneously stored for each of the column lines. With this arrangement, the period of integrating time and the blooming resistance for each pixel become consistent regardless of pixel position.

This invention relates to a solid state imaging device and, more particularly, to a solid state imaging device in which the charge integrating time and the blooming resistance for each pixel are constant regardless of pixel positions in a light receiving area.
Recently, a solid state imaging device using light receiving elements of amplification type as pixels has been proposed. As a light receiving element of amplification type, there is known a so-called Charge Modulation Device (hereinafter abbreviated as a CMD), for example. This CMD type light receiving element is described in detail, by way of example, in a paper entitled "A NEW MOS IMAGE SENSOR OPERATING IN A NON-DESTRUCTIVE READOUT MODE", pp. 353-356, Proceedings of International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM), 1986.
One example of arrangement of such a solid state imaging device using CMD type light receiving elements as pixels is shown in FIG. 1. CMDs 51-11, 51-12, . . . , 51-mn constituting respective pixels are arranged in the form of a matrix, and video voltage V.sub.DD (>0) is commonly applied to respective drains of the CMDs. Respective gate terminals of a group of CMDs in each row arrayed in the X-direction are commonly connected to corresponding one of row lines 52-1, 52-2, . . . , 52-m, whereas respective source terminals of a group of CMDs in each column arrayed in the Y-direction are commonly connected to corresponding one of column lines 53-1, 53-2, . . . , 53-n. The column lines 53-1, 53-2, . . . , 53-n are commonly connected to a video line 56 through column select transistors 54-1, 54-2, . . . , 54-n, respectively, and also commonly connected to a line 57, in turn grounded to GND, through non-select transistors 55-1, 55-2, . . . , 55-n, respectively. The video line 56 is connected to a current-voltage conversion type preamplifier 58 with its input terminal virtually grounded, so that a video signal of negative polarity is time-serially read out at an output terminal 59 of the preamplifier 58.
Meanwhile, the row lines 52-1, 52-2, . . . , 52-m are connected to a vertical scanning circuit 60 and applied with signals .phi..sub.G1, .phi..sub.G2, . . . , .phi..sub.Gm, respectively. Gate terminals of the column select transistors 54-1, 54-2, . . . , 54-n are directly connected to a horizontal scanning circuit 61 and applied with signals .phi..sub.S1, .phi..sub.S2, . . . , .phi..sub.Sn, respectively. Gate terminals of the non-select transistors 55-1, 55-2, . . . , 55-n are connected to the horizontal scanning circuit 61 through inverters and applied with inverted ones of the signals .phi..sub.S1, .phi..sub.S2, . . . , .phi..sub.Sn, respectively. The CMDs are formed on the same single substrate which is applied with voltage V.sub.SUB (<0).
FIG. 2 is a chart of signal waveforms for explaining operation of the solid state imaging device arranged as shown in FIG. 1. The signals .phi..sub.G1, .phi..sub.G2, . . . , .phi..sub.Gm applied to the row lines 52-1, 52-2, . . . , 52-m each comprise readout gate voltage V.sub.RD, reset voltage V.sub.RS, overflow voltage V.sub.OF and integrating voltage V.sub.INT. Then, each non-selected row is applied with the overflow voltage V.sub.OF during a horizontal blanking period t.sub.BL of the video signal and with the integrating voltage V.sub.INT during a horizontal video effective period t.sub.H thereof, whereas each selected row is applied with the readout gate voltage V.sub.RD during the horizontal video effective period t.sub.H and the reset voltage V.sub.RS during the horizontal blanking period t.sub.BL.
The signals .phi..sub.S1, .phi..sub.S2, . . . , .phi..sub.Sn applied to the gate terminals of the column select transistors 54-1, 54-2, . . . , 54-n are signals for respectively selecting the column lines 53-1, 53-2, . . . , 53-n, of which voltage values are set in such a manner as to turn off the column select transistors 54-1, 54-2, . . . , 54-n and on the non-select transistors 55-1, 55-2, . . . , 55-n at a low level and turn on the column select transistors and off the non-select transistors at a high level.
The conventional solid state imaging device thus arranged has, however, suffered from the following problems. First, while all the pixels in the same row are simultaneously reset, the signals are read out by sequential scanning. This results in different periods of integrating time between the pixel located on the left side of the light receiving surface and the pixel located on the right side thereof. Such a difference in the integrating time causes a serious obstruction in point of providing a high-speed shutter function to the solid state imaging device.
Secondly, while the overflow operation for the purpose of improving the blooming resistance is performed at once during the horizontal blanking period, the signals are read out by sequential scanning as mentioned above. Depending upon the pixel positions on the light receiving surface, therefore, amounts of exposure made after the end of the overflow operation until the readout of signals from the pixels are different from one another. This results in different degrees of the blooming resistance depending upon the horizontal positions of the pixels.
Thirdly, in the conventional solid state imaging device arranged as mentioned above, fixed pattern noise (FPN) occurs due to fluctuations in offset currents from pixel to pixel. As means for solving this problem, there has been proposed a method whereby a component of the fixed pattern noise is stored beforehand in a storage unit externally of the solid state imaging device, and this stored noise component is subtracted from the video signal obtained through accumulation of light. But, this method has a problem of complicating the system configuration. As means for overcoming the disadvantage of the above subtraction method using the external storage unit, there is known a photoelectric conversion device as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-86471. However, the disclosed photoelectric conversion device has another problem that it is applicable only to the case of processing a signal from each pixel as a voltage value, but not to the case of reading out the pixel signal as a current value.

Solid state imaging device having a constant pixel integrating period and blooming resistance


In a projection type picture display apparatus, three degrees of freedom out of six degrees of freedom which are adjusted by an angle-of-view adjusting mechanism are adjusted by using one adjusting plate (three-axis adjusting plate). The adjusting plate on which a projection unit is fixedly supported rotates the projection unit around the X-axis or Z-axis with respect to a screen disposed in parallel to the XY plane and translates the projection unit in the Y-axis direction to adjust three degrees of freedom. The adjusting plate has first, second and third support shafts extending in the Y-axis direction, a first adjusting shaft engageable with the first and second support shafts, and a second adjusting shaft engageable with the first and third support shafts, and adjusts the three degrees of freedom of the projection unit on the basis of the combination of the engagements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection type picture display apparatus in which pictures output from a projection unit are projecting to a back face of a screen to thereby display the pictures.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art is shown FIGS. 7-11. In FIGS. 7-11, xe2x80x9cXxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cZxe2x80x9d show the Z-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis of the three dimension space. FIG. 7 is a side view showing the inside of a conventional multi-projector. Here, the multi-projector described above means a display apparatus which is designed to display a large display frame (picture) by arranging and stacking plural projection type picture display apparatuses (rear projection type video projectors) vertically and horizontally. In FIG. 7, it is illustrated that two conventional projection type picture display apparatuses 160 are stacked in the vertical direction.
As shown in FIG. 7, the projection type picture display apparatus comprises a cabinet (the housing of the projection type picture display apparatus) 101, a projection unit 102 which is disposed at the rear side in the cabinet 101 and projects an output picture to the front side, a screen 103 provided at the front face of the cabinet 101, and a position adjusting mechanism 150 for correcting a position of a outline of a picture to be projected from the projection unit 102 to the screen 103. The projection unit 102 projects an output picture to a back face of the screen. A large display frame can be displayed by combining and using a plurality of projection type picture display apparatuses 160 each having the above structure. In this case, the projection unit 102 is secured to the upper portion of the position adjusting mechanism 160 so that the position thereof is adjustable.
FIGS. 8 to 10 are diagrams which conceptually show pictures displayed on the screen 103 while each picture is displaced with respect to the screen 103. As displacements on the screen 103 exist six kinds of displacements which are a vertical displacement (a displacement in the vertical direction), a horizontal displacement (a displacement in the right-and-left direction), an inclining displacement, a projection magnification displacement, a longitudinal trapezoidal distortion and a lateral trapezoidal distortion, or a combination thereof.
In FIG. 8, reference numeral 104a represents a picture which is improper in projection magnification to the screen 103 (magnification-improper picture), reference numeral 104b represents a picture which is improperly inclined with respect to the screen 103 (improperly-inclined picture), and reference numeral 104c represents a picture which is improperly displaced in the vertical and horizontal directions with respect to the screen 103 (vertical/horizontal improper picture).
In FIG. 9, reference numeral 104d represents a picture in which a longitudinal trapezoidal distortion occurs (longitudinal trapezoidal improper picture), and in FIG. 10 reference numeral 104e represents a picture in which a lateral trapezoidal distortion occurs (lateral trapezoidal improper picture).
In most cases, Braun tube (CRT) has been mainly applied to the projection unit 102 because the displacements on the screen 103 of the Braun tube can be easily corrected by an electrical circuit. However, in place of the Braun tube, a liquid crystal device or a digital mirror device for which the optical path cannot be electrically corrected have been recently mainly applied to the projection unit 102 because of the tendency of digitalization of pictures. In this case, a position adjusting mechanism 150 is indispensable for the projection unit 102 for which the optical path cannot be electrically corrected.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing the outlook of a conventional position adjusting mechanism 150.
In FIG. 11, reference numeral 150a represents a Y-axis moving plate which can move the projection unit 102 in the Y-axis direction, reference numeral 150b represents an Y-axis rotating plate which is rotatable around the Y-axis, reference numeral 150c represents a Z-axis rotating plate which is rotatable around the Z-axis, reference numeral 150d represents an X-axis rotating plate which is rotatable around the X-axis, reference numeral 150e represents a Z-axis moving plate which is movable in the Z-axis direction, and reference numeral 150f represents an X-axis moving plate which is movable in the X-axis direction.
Next, the position adjusting operation of the conventional picture outlook adjusting mechanism 150 shown in FIG. 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 11.
A picture projected from the projection unit 102 is projected onto the screen 103. At this time, the projection magnification of the picture can be corrected by the adjusting operation of the Z-axis moving plate 150e. Further, the lateral trapezoidal distortion can be corrected by the Y-axis rotating plate 150b, and the inclination of the picture can be corrected by the adjustment of the Z-axis rotating plate 150c. The longitudinal trapezoidal distortion can be also corrected by the adjustment of the X-axis rotating plate 150d. Still further, the vertical and horizontal position can be corrected by the adjustment of the X-axis moving plate 150f and the Y-axis moving plate 150d.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-8-32907 discloses another prior art, and specifically it discloses a technique of separating one display unit (projection type picture display apparatus) into a front side cabinet and a back side cabinet.
As described above, in the conventional projection type picture display apparatuses, six adjusting functions must be adjusted for the position adjusting mechanism 6, and also six adjusting functions must be provided every adjusting mechanism performing only one adjustment. Therefore, the number of parts of the apparatus and the weight of the apparatus are increased, and the cost is also increased.
Therefore, the present invention has been implemented in view of the above circumstances and has an object to provide a projection type picture display apparatus which can reduce the number of parts and the weight.
In order to attain the above object, according to the present invention, a projection type picture display apparatus comprising a projection unit for projecting a picture to a back face of a screen and a position adjusting mechanism for supporting the projection unit and for giving six adjusting functions including X, Y, Z directional adjustments for moving the projection unit along X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis of three dimension space respectively, and X, Y, Z rotational adjustments for rotating the projection unit around X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis respectively, characterized in that said position adjusting mechanism has an adjusting plate member for performing three adjusting functions of said six adjusting functions.
The adjusting plate member performs the three adjusting functions including Z rotational adjustment for rotating the projection unit around Z-axis, X rotational adjustment for rotating the projection unit around X-axis, and Y directional adjustment for moving the projection unit along Y-axis.
Further the adjusting plate member has a first support shaft extending in the Y-axis direction, a second support shaft which is disposed so as to be in parallel to said first support shaft and spaced from said first support shaft at a predetermined interval in the Z-axis direction, a third support shaft which is disposed so as to be in parallel to said first support shaft and spaced from said first support shaft at a predetermined interval in the X-axis direction, a first adjusting shaft which is selectively engageable with both of said first and second support shafts or only said second support shaft through a gear switching operation, a second adjusting shaft which is selectively engageable with both said first and third support shafts or only said first support shaft through a gear switching operation, and an adjusting plate is supported on said first, second and third support shafts for supporting the projection unit.
Also the adjusting plate member performs said Z rotational adjustment when said first adjusting shaft engages with both said first and second support shaft and said second adjusting shaft engages with said first support shaft but no-engages with said third support shaft, said X rotational adjustment when said first adjusting shaft engages with said second support shaft but no-engages with said first support shaft and said second adjusting shaft engages with said first support shaft but no-engages with said third support shaft, and said Y directional adjustment when said first adjusting shaft engages with both said first and second support shaft and said second adjusting shaft engages with both said second and third support shafts.
In the projection type picture display apparatus, one end of said first adjusting shaft has a knurled portion on the outer peripheral portion thereof, and said knurled portion is engaged with a member having a knurled portion on the inner peripheral portion thereof to stop the rotation of said first adjusting shaft.
Further the adjusting plate member has a first support shaft extending in the Y-axis direction, a second support shaft which is disposed so as to be in parallel to said first shaft and spaced from said first support shaft at a predetermined interval in the Z-axis direction, a third support shaft which is disposed so as to be in parallel to said first support shaft and spaced from said first support shaft at a predetermined interval in the X-axis direction, and first, second and third motors for adjusting said first, second and third support shafts respectively, and said adjusting plate member has a adjusting plate is supported on said first, second and third support shaft for supporting the projection unit which is equipped with a projection unit for projecting a picture to a screen and an angle-of-view adjusting mechanism for supporting the projection unit so that the position of the projection unit is adjustable and with which the picture projected from the projection unit is projected from the back of the screen, is characterized in that the angle-of-view adjusting mechanism has an adjusting plate for adjusting three degrees of freedom out of six degrees of freedom of the projection unit.

Projection type picture display apparatus


A wheel-mounting sleeve and retainer is described. The wheel-mounting sleeve includes a sleeve body, formed and dimensioned for mounting through a wheel-bearing bore in a wheel and into telescoped relation over an axle having a retaining notch. The wheel-mounting sleeve includes at least one retainer discrete from the sleeve body. The retainer includes monolithic spring and lug portions, and is coupled to the sleeve body such that the lug portion is resiliently positionable through a port in the sleeve body and into the axle bore to a detent position wherein the lug portion engages the retaining notch of the axle to constrain the axle within the axle bore. A method of using the wheel-mounting sleeve and retainer is also described.

Useful conveyances with inexpensive plastic wheels are ubiquitous. In the home, for example, most households have utilitarian wheeled garbage or recyclables carts. Many households also have more luxurious wheeled barbeques or wheeled furniture. Similar products are in the workplace as well.
In many applications, such products are subject to a harsh environment and use, with minimal or no maintenance. Trash or recyclables carts may be left outdoors permanently and are thereby subject to extremes of temperature and sunlight. Moreover, rough handling is common, such as that which occurs when loaded garbage carts roll over curbs and other obstacles.
Typically, such carts are formed of injection, blow, or rotationally-molded plastic and have injection, blow, or rotationally-molded plastic wheels, which are mounted on the ends of a metal axle by a hub member. To hold the wheels in place, the wheel hub is secured onto the end of the axle in place by, for example, a pawl nut or a cotter pin and washer. Removal of such plastic wheels in order to replace or repair the same has been difficult because the hubs require special tools for their removal or essentially must be destroyed to remove them from the axle. Sometimes this process also damages the axles. Thus, more recently, wheel-mounting assemblies have been devised which snap onto the axle or axle stub to hold the wheel to the axle.
Snap-on wheel-mounting assemblies, however, often have been unduly complex, visually unappealing or not well suited to the shock loading and vibration, which is commonly encountered in connection with wheeled refuse carts. Moreover, the cost of many snap-on couplings has been undesirably high, as has their rate of failure.
Typical wheel-mounting assemblies can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,978,277, 3,907,370, 5,222,786, 5,603,555, 5,716,107, and 6,170,920.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,277 to Gaudry, a two-piece hub assembly is used to secure a wheel on an axle stub. The two hub halves are forced together to simultaneously capture the head of the axle and a dove-tailed cross section of the wheel. This approach is based, in part, upon mating frictional engagement of the hub halves, but under shock loading and high vibration, which refuse carts typically experience, frictional engagement of components can be unreliable. The need for multiple hub pieces and an axle with an enlarged head also is not desirable.
The wheel-mounting assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,370 to Bard employs a mounting sleeve, which is keyed to slide over the keyed end of a specially formed axle. The sleeve mates with spokes in a wheel recess and is held in place by a washer and cotter pin. An annular cap is placed over the cotter pin and washer. This approach requires axle keying, a plurality of parts and the use of tools to secure and release the cotter pin and cap.
A multiple piece hub assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,107 to Parker et al. In this wheel-mounting assembly a retainer member is used to lock the wheel assembly on a groove or annular notch at the end of the axle. The hub cover is snapped into the wheel and then the wheel snapped onto the axle. Such notched or grooved axles are in wide spread use in connection with trash carts, but this assembly, again, requires multiple pieces and, in this case, special tools and tedious manipulation are required in order to release the resilient retainer ring fingers from the inside of the wheel so that the wheel can be removed from the axle.
The devices of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,222,786 and 5,603,555 employ sleeve assemblies formed for mounting through the wheel in telescoped relation over the axle. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,555 has a sleeve with at least one snap-acting, axle-engaging shoulder thereon which releasably retains the sleeve on the axle and at least one wheel-engaging shoulder retaining the wheel on the sleeve. Both of the wheel-mounting sleeve assemblies in these patents, however, are relatively complex and employ a plurality of pieces in order to secure the wheel on the axle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,920 to Markling shows an axle retainer assembly having a housing with transverse sleeves that support an axle and a spring biased retainer pin that mounts to an annular groove at the axle. The spring and retainer pin are separate, and the housing is supported in a cavity formed in a wheel spoke. Just as with the devices of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,222,786 and 5,603,555, Markling disadvantageously employs multiple pieces in order to secure the wheel on the axle.
Accordingly, there is a need for a wheel assembly and wheel-mounting sleeve that can be used to mount plastic wheels, or the like, to a relatively simple notched metal axle.
Moreover, there is a need for a plastic wheel assembly for a trash cart or the like which is economical to manufacture, easy to mount and compact so as to allow its use on a wide variety of different refuse carts, and is durable and capable of withstanding substantial shock loads, side-to-side shifting and vibration during normal use. Should degradation or failure occur, there is a further need for products that may be removed to enable repair or replacement of the wheel assembly with a minimal number of parts.

Wheel assembly having wheel-mounting sleeve and retainer


A digital broadcast receiver capable of adequately receiving a higher-level layer service along with a lower-level layer service even if the reception CNR degrades. A demodulation decoding section (2) of the receiver judges on the basis of transport and multiplexing configuration control information whether the TS packet allocated to each slot is adapted to a higher-level layer service or a lower-level layer service and informs a code writing section (3) of the result. The code writing section (3) writes, in each TS packet, a layer identification code for judging whether the TS packet is adapted to a higher-level layer service or a lower-layer service and synthesizes a resultant TS packet. A stream separating section (4) reads the layer identification code along with the PID in the packet header included in the TS packet and finds and extracts a desired TS packet.

BS (Broadcasting Satellite) digital broadcasting provides services such as audio, video, and data broadcasting in a plurality of levels such as a higher-level layer service and a lower-level layer service. For example, the higher-level layer service uses 8PSK (8 Phase Shift Keying) as its modulation method, and the lower-level layer service uses QPSK (Quadrature-PSK) or BPSK (Binary-PSK) as its modulation method.
A digital broadcast receiver receives a BS digital broadcasting service, and if it becomes unable to sufficiently receive a higher-level service because a reception CNR (Carrier-to-Noise Ratio) is degraded by rain or the like, it switches to a lower-level layer service to prevent the service from being intercepted.
For example, if the higher-level layer service is for HD (High Definition) video signals and the lower-level layer service is for audio signals and the reception CNR degrades to such an extent that the higher-level layer service cannot be received sufficiently, a conventional digital broadcast receiver freezes or shuts down the HD video signals of the higher-level layer service. After the HD video signals are frozen or shutdown, the conventional broadcast receiver executes a pre-stored application and displays, for example, a message to the effect that the higher-level layer service cannot be received, on a television receiver or the like.
In this case, the conventional digital broadcast receiver changes the received transport stream packet (hereinafter called a TS packet) for the higher-level layer service to a null packet. In this manner, the performance of receiving the lower-level layer service can be prevented from being degraded.
Namely, the conventional digital broadcast receiver detects a PID (packet ID) allocated to a received TS packet and corresponding to a desired program number and separates the TS packet into an audio PES (Packetized Elementary Stream) and a video PES. When the lower-level layer service is to be received, the conventional digital broadcast receiver changes the TS packet of the higher-level layer service to a null packet in accordance with transport and multiplexing configuration control (TMCC) information read from a received signal, and thereafter separates the TS packet into the audio PES and video PES. Even if the received data representative of PID has errors unable to be corrected, it is therefore possible to prevent the TS packet of the higher-level layer service from being extracted as the TS packet of the lower-level layer service.
However, the conventional digital broadcast receiver cannot receive the higher-level layer service while it receives the lower-level layer service because of rain or the like. It is therefore impossible to satisfy the user requirement of receiving the higher-level layer service even if the reception CNR is degraded.
If the audio PES and video PES are separated without changing the TS packet of the higher-level layer service to the null packet while the lower-level layer service is received, the lower-level layer service is adversely affected and cannot be received reliably although it can be received otherwise normally.
The present invention has been made under such circumstances and aims to provide a digital broadcast receiver capable of adequately receiving the higher-level layer service along with the lower-level layer service even if a reception CNR is degraded.

Digital broadcast receiver and digital broadcast receiving method


A telecommunication arrangement for transporting power control information, comprising a base station, a radio network controller for controlling the base station, and where information between the base station and the radio network controller is transmitted on transport channels carried by transport bearers, each having a one-to-one relationship to a transport channel, a user equipment communicating with the base station, the base station comprises means for mapping data received from the user equipment onto transport channels. The mapping means is configured to map power control information from a transport channel onto a different transport bearer than the bearer with which the transport channel has the one-to-one relationship.

In a mobile communication system using CDMA (Code Division Multiple access), power control plays a vital role in system performance. Power control is needed both in the uplink and downlink directions. On the uplink, the aim is to receive all signals in a base station with the same signal power. Without power control, mobiles close to a base station would dominate in signal strength mobiles located further away from the base station. In CDMA systems, signals sent by one base station are orthogonal with each other but reflections of signals and signals sent by other base stations cause interference, which is why power control is needed also in the downlink direction.
There are two types of power control: open loop and closed loop. In the open loop power control, power adjustments are based on measurements of the connection at the signal-receiving end. The performance of the open-loop power control depends on the duplex mode used in the network. In a network using TDD (Time Division Duplex), the outer loop control works well, since the transmitted and received signals are sent on the same frequency. In a FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) system, however, performance of the open-loop power control is not guaranteed, since the different frequencies used for transmitting and receiving signals can be subject to different kind of interference. In the closed loop power control, the measurements regarding the transmission are sent from the receiver back to the transmitter, which can adjust its transmission power according to the received measurement information.
For instance in UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), in the FDD mode fast closed-loop power control, i.e. inner loop power control is used. In this method, the signal-to-interference ratio is measured over one time slot, and the signal transmitting end is ordered either to increase or decrease its transmission power. In the outer loop power control method, the signal-to-interference ratio is adjusted by the base station, and the ratio is used in the fast closed-loop power control mechanism.
Basically, transportation of information in UMTS is performed basically using two types of channels, i.e. control channels and traffic channels. At the protocol level, the channels can be divided into physical channels, transport channels and logical channels. Transport channels are channels that define the radio interface transmission at the radio network layer and that are used between layer 1 and layer 2. Logical channels are used within layer 2. A transport channel defines how data is to be sent over the physical channels, whereas a logical channel defines the type of data to be sent.
Terminal equipment can simultaneously have several dedicated connections active, for instance some connections for real-time speech transmission and some for non-real-time data transmission. For instance, in the UMTS system's FDD mode on the uplink, this would result in having several DPDCH (Dedicated Physical Data Channel) channels in the physical layer, which channels are mapped onto corresponding transport channels for the transport network layer transmission. The transport channels are conveyed by transport bearers, each of which typically transmits its own power control information in the form of indicators, such as CRCI (Cyclic Redundancy Check Indicator) and QE (Quality Estimate). In the known solutions, the power control information is transported in the transport bearers real-time, not taking into account whether the corresponding transport channel is allocated for real-time or for non-real-time information.
The current solution for transporting power control information is poorly suited for a normal usage situation of a mobile terminal, where real-time and non-real-time applications can be active at the same time. The current solutions are not optimized for the usage of an important resource in a telecommunication network, i.e. bandwidth.


The present invention, which transforms multiple images so that positions of corresponding points will coincide between the images and composites the images with the corresponding points matched, provides an image pickup apparatus, image processing apparatus, image pickup method, and image processing method which make it possible to obtain an intended all-in-focus image or blur-emphasized image even if there is camera shake or subject movement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus, image processing apparatus, image pickup method, and image processing method, and more particularly to an image pickup apparatus, image processing apparatus, image pickup method, and image processing method which obtain an all-in-focus image or blur-emphasized image by compositing multiple images with different focus positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an all-in-focus image in which the entire image is in focus or an image with a controlled blur has been obtained by compositing multiple images shot by focus bracketing which involves taking successive shots by changing a focus position. However, the compositing process has a problem in that any camera shake or subject movement during the successive shooting will reduce correlation among the images used for the process, making it impossible to obtain an intended image.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-84444 discloses an image pickup apparatus which can obtain images under shooting conditions suitable for a compositing process by switching to shooting conditions different from those in normal shooting mode when creating an image with a controlled blur by compositing multiple images of different focal lengths. When shooting in focus-bracketing mode, the image pickup apparatus can minimize camera shake and subject movement using shooting conditions provided by a combination of a minimum exposure time of an image pickup element and such an f-stop number that will minimize the exposure time.

Image pickup apparatus, image processing apparatus, image pickup method, and image processing method


The drive circuit drives a plurality of piezoelectric elements connected in a matrix connection, each of the piezoelectric elements having a first electrode and a second electrode, and the drive circuit comprises: a drive signal generating device which generates a drive signal with voltage of a single polarity to be applied to the piezoelectric elements; a drive controlling device which controls a timing for applying the drive signal to each of the piezoelectric elements; and a plurality of switching devices which apply the drive signal to the piezoelectric elements according to control of the drive controlling device, a number of the plurality of switching devices being smaller than a number of the plurality of piezoelectric elements, wherein the drive controlling device sequentially applies the drive signal with voltage of the single polarity to the first electrode and the second electrode in succession.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive circuit of piezoelectric elements, a driving method thereof, a liquid ejection apparatus and an image forming apparatus, more particularly to a drive technology of a piezoelectric element which is a pressurizing device for an ejection head, the technology being used in an inkjet recording apparatus and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of the image forming apparatus, there is known an inkjet recording apparatus which has an inkjet head (ejection head) having disposed multiple nozzles (ejection elements) therein, and forms an image on a medium (ejection receiving medium) by causing the nozzles to eject ink while relatively moving the inkjet head and the medium.
There are various ink ejection methods in an inkjet head of the inkjet recording apparatus. For example, there is known a piezoelectric method where a diaphragm constituting a part of a pressure chamber is deformed by deformation of a piezoelectric element to change the capacity of the pressure chamber, followed by introduction of ink from an ink supply path into the pressure chamber when the capacity of the pressure chamber is increased, and then the ink inside the pressure chamber is ejected as droplets from the nozzle when the capacity of the pressure chamber is reduced. Also there is known a thermal inkjet method where ink in an ink chamber (pressure chamber) is heated to generate bubbles, and then the ink is ejected with the inflation energy occurring when the bubbles grow.
A pressurizing device, such as a piezoelectric element or a heater, which pressurizes ink ejected from the nozzle is driven by means of a switching element such as a transistor. The switching element is turned on or off using a drive signal corresponding to the image data, in response to which the electric power is supplied to the pressurizing device, whereby ejection energy provided to the ink from the pressurizing device is generated. When the ejection energy acts on the ink inside the pressure chamber, the ink is ejected from the nozzle.
However, in an inkjet head such as a full line type inkjet head having multiple nozzles, the number of the switching elements, along with which the number of signal lines that transmit drive signals to the switching elements increases. Such increase of the switching elements and the signal lines contributes to expansion of the head, and has an impact on the increase in electric power consumption and the cost. Therefore, in the inkjet having multiple nozzles, various measures are exercised in order to reduce the switching elements and signal lines.
As an example of reduction of wiring, there are proposed a method for driving grouped nozzle by means of a common signal line for each group, and a method for sharing a signal line by means of a signal line configured in a form of matrix.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-208000 discloses a printing method, which includes supplying ink from an ink reservoir through an ink channel that connects the ink reservoir with ink ejection chambers formed on a first surface of a substrate. The ink channel is connected at a first end to the ink reservoir and at a second end to a separate inlet passage for refilling each of the ink ejection chambers with ink. A group of the ink ejection chambers in adjacent relationship forms one of a plurality of primitives on the first surface of the substrate in which only a maximum of one of the ink ejection chambers is energized at a time. An ejection element within one of the ink ejection chambers is energized to cause the plurality of ink drops to be ejected onto a media surface at a single pixel location in a single pass of the substrate over the media surface. The plurality of ink drops are maintained as substantially separate drops until the plurality of ink drops merge upon impact with the media. Thereby, the inkjet hardcopy apparatus achieves photographic image quality.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-320670 discloses an inkjet recording apparatus, in which a drive circuit of heater elements is constituted by a switching element which drives each of the heater elements, a level shifter which drives the switching element, an AND gate matrix circuit having an AND gate laid over a segment line as the print data and a common line which selectively scans, a segment circuit which load the print data for each print with the number of segment lines, and a common circuit which generates selective scan signals for the number of divisions obtained by dividing the total number of nozzles by the number of segment lines. The drive circuit of heater elements is a drive circuit which has a matrix configuration of the segment line and the common line and is driven in a time-shared fashion, wherein logical multiplications of the segment line and common line are generated in the AND gate, and a calculation result thus obtained is constituted so as to be converted to an application signal and driven in a matrix fashion, whereby it is possible to realize a compact inkjet recording apparatus which has high quality of drive and in which a large number of nozzles and the drive circuit can be integrally created in a long substrate.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 58-153661 and 58-153662 disclose an inkjet recording apparatus, which comprises a plurality of nozzles that are arranged in x direction and y direction, a first electrode provided on an inner wall of each nozzle or in the vicinity of each nozzle, a second electrode provided at the back of the first electrode or around each nozzle on an ink droplet chamber side on a nozzle substrate face, and a third electrode provided on a recording paper side. The inkjet recording apparatus is constituted so as to apply a pulsing voltage corresponding to image information to the first electrode, apply a pulsing voltage, which has characteristics opposite of those of the pulsing voltage applied to the first electrode, to the printing column of the second electrode, apply none or a pulsing voltage, which has the same polarity as the pulsing voltage applied to the first electrode, to a non-printed column, and apply a certain voltage, which has a reverse polarity from that of the pulsing voltage applied to the first electrode, to the third electrode, so as to stably perform the ink ejection.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 4-341849 discloses an inkjet print head, which is provided with a plurality of electrodes on the surface and the back face of a piezoelectric substrate, has disposed therein a nozzle plate provided with nozzles so as to correspond to the region where the surface electrode and the back face electrode intersect, and comprises ink which is held in a gap between the piezoelectric substrate and the nozzle plate, and a drive device which selectively applies a voltage to between the electrodes, the voltage changing in a cycle equal to resonance frequency of the piezoelectric substrate. Each of the electrodes is constituted so as to share a plurality of crossing regions, and makes the ink into the form of a mist by the resonance of the piezoelectric substrate to obtain a gray-scale image.
However, in the method for printing described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-208000, and the inkjet recording apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-320670, driving elements (transistors, combinations of transistors and AND circuits, or the like), the number of which is equal to the number of pressurizing elements such as ink ejection elements or heater elements, are required, thus it is difficult to minimize the head or drive circuit.
Moreover, in the inkjet recording apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 58-153661 and 58-153662, and in the inkjet print head described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 4-341849, if lines are connected simply in the form of matrix, a voltage is applied to all of the rows and columns. Further, driving elements are operated using a plurality of signals having different polarities, and power supply units having different polarity and a polarity reversal circuit are required, thus it is difficult to minimize the drive circuit. In addition, the maximum difference in potential between the positive and negative voltages with different polarities has to be less than a withstanding voltage (Vp) of the piezoelectric elements. On the other hand, by applying a deviation voltage from an offset voltage, similar control is possible with the single polarity power supply; however, it is necessary to add the offset voltage and the deformation voltage to the element, whereby a voltage of the piezoelectric voltage that can be used for deformation with respect to the allowable voltage becomes small.

Drive circuit of piezoelectric element, driving method thereof, liquid ejection apparatus and image forming apparatus


The present invention is directed to methods and systems for improving the operation of a transmission for an automotive vehicle, and in particular the transmission as installed by the original automobile manufacturer. The methods and systems of the present invention modify the original hydraulic fluid circuits of the automotive transmission provided by the automobile manufacturer to enable the transmission to select first gear at any time, and to enable the transmission to produce quick applies during upshifts and fast releases during downshifts for high performance operation with only minimum ratio sharing or overlap during gear changes. The modification of the original automotive transmission to achieve these goals includes modification of the hydraulic fluid circuits of the factory installed transmission; by enlarging the size of pre-existing orifices and by plugging other orifices; and by adjusting pre-existing spring and pressure values for adjusting the fluid flow and operation of the original factory installed automotive transmission.

The methods and systems of the present invention are directed to the modification and improvement of transmissions for automotive vehicles of the type installed by the original equipment manufacturers. The invention is particularly directed to the improvement and modification of the automotive transmissions commonly known as the "4L80E" or the "Hydramatic 4L80E" which are "factory installed" in automotive vehicles manufactured by General Motors Corporation.
The present inventor owns U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,549, issued Oct. 19, 1993 and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Automatic Transmissions For Vehicles"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,938, issued on Dec. 13, 1988 and entitled "Filter For Removing Particulate Matter From Fluid Within A Movable Body"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,140, issued Dec. 8, 1987 and entitled "Throttle Valve System For Automatic Transmission"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,426, issued on May 22, 1984 and entitled "Laminated Separator Plate Means For Recalibrating Automatic Transmission"; U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/333,552, filed November 2, 1994 and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Transmissions For Motor Vehicles" (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,628, issued Jul. 30, 1996); U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/494,844, filed Jun. 26, 1995 and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Transmissions For Motor Vehicles" (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,342, issued Apr. 29, 1997); U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/515,098, filed Aug. 14, 1995 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,823, issued Apr. 28, 1998) and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Transmissions For Motor Vehicles; U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/595,810, filed Feb. 2, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,823, issued Apr. 28,1998) entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Transmissions For Motor Vehicles"; U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/697,625, filed Aug. 28, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,953, issued Jun. 23, 1998) and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation of Transmissions For Motor Vehicles"; and U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/816,715, filed Mar. 13, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,507, issued Oct. 13, 1998) and entitled "Methods And Systems For Improving The Operation Of Transmission For Motor Vehicles". The basic operation of transmissions for automotive vehicles is discussed in the aforementioned patents and patent applications, and these patents and patent applications are expressly incorporated by reference into the disclosure of the present patent application.
The basic principles of operation of the factory installed General Motors 4L80E transmission for automotive vehicles, including the specific modes of operation thereof and the hydraulic circuits and interrelationship of hydraulic circuits, are well known to those skilled in the automotive transmission art. Attention is respectfully invited to the operations manual and text entitled HYDRA-MATIC 4L80-E TECHNICIAN'S GUIDE (1990), published by General Motors Corporation, said publication describing in detail the operation of the "factory installed" 4L80E General Motors transmission, including a discussion of the structure, the hydraulic circuits, and the interrelationship between the structure and the hydraulic circuitry and fluid flow during normal operation of the transmissions in automotive vehicles. The disclosure of the aforementioned publication in its entirety is expressly incorporated by reference into the disclosure of the present patent application as disclosing and illustrating background material known to those of ordinary skill in the automotive transmission art.
In the original design of the 4L80E "factory installed" transmission, the first gear ratio cannot be obtained above a vehicle speed of approximately 35 miles per hour. (See the aforementioned General Motors Corporation publication). A primary object of the present invention is to enable the driver of a vehicle having a 4L80E General Motors transmission to select first gear at any time, thereby enabling the driver to obtain a "first" gear ratio whenever the gear selector lever is placed in the "1" position without regard to the actual vehicle speed and engine rotational speed. This objective is accomplished by modification of the structure and operation of the existing hydraulic circuits of the original transmission and the addition of a new hydraulic circuits to the original transmission.
It is also desirable to modify the "factory installed" automotive transmission to result in quick application during upshifts and quick release forces during downshifts with minimum ratio sharing (overlap) during gear changes, for improved performance particularly when the vehicle is operated at high performance conditions such as racing applications. This object is obtained by varying the structure and operation of the hydraulic circuits of the original transmission to enlarge or reduce existing orifices to control the apply and release fluid flow through the hydraulic circuits, in conjunction with the modification of different spring and pressure values of the pre-existing hydraulic circuits of the factory installed transmission.
Other objects, improvements and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description in conjunction with the drawings.

Methods and systems for improving the operation of transmissions for motor vehicles


A system for producing EUV light using a drive laser beam to irradiate a stream of material droplets. There is included a monitoring system for monitoring at least one of drive laser beam reflection from the drive laser beam and EUV radiation pulses and producing a detector signal, the detector signal being a pulse train. There is also included an arrangement for analyzing the detector signal to ascertain whether there exists at least one satellite droplet in the stream of material droplets.

Extreme ultraviolet light, e.g., electromagnetic radiation having wavelengths of around 50 nm or less (also sometimes referred to as soft x-rays), and including light at a wavelength of about 13.5 nm, can be used in photolithography processes to produce extremely small features in substrates, e.g., silicon wafers.
Methods to produce EUV light include, but are not necessarily limited to, converting a material into a plasma state that has at least one element, e.g., xenon, lithium or tin, with one or more emission line in the EUV range. In one such method, often termed laser produced plasma ("LPP") the required plasma can be produced by irradiating a target material having the required line-emitting element, with a laser beam.
In an example arrangement, LPP light sources generate EUV radiation by depositing laser energy into a source element, such as xenon (Xe), tin (Sn) or lithium (Li), creating a highly ionized plasma with electron temperatures of several 10's of eV. The energetic radiation generated during de-excitation and recombination of these ions is emitted from the plasma in all directions. In one common arrangement, a near-normal-incidence mirror (often termed a "collector mirror") is positioned at a distance from the plasma to collect, direct (and in some arrangements, focus) the light to an intermediate location, e.g., focal point. The collected light may then be relayed from the intermediate location to a set of scanner optics and ultimately to a wafer. In more quantitative terms, one arrangement that is currently being developed with the goal of producing up to about 100 W of EUV power at the intermediate location contemplates the use of a pulsed, focused 10-12 kW CO2 drive laser which is synchronized with a droplet generator to sequentially irradiate about 40,000-100,000 tin droplets per second. For this purpose, there is a need to produce a stable stream of droplets at a relatively high repetition rate (e.g., 40-100 kHz or more) and deliver the droplets to an irradiation site with high accuracy and good repeatability in terms of timing and position (i.e. with very small "jitter") over relatively long periods of time.
For a typical LPP setup, target material droplets are generated and then travel within a vacuum chamber to an irradiation site where they are irradiated, e.g. by a focused laser beam.
One technique for generating droplets involves melting a target material, e.g., tin, and then forcing it under high pressure through a relative small diameter orifice, e.g. 0.5-30 μm. Under most conditions, naturally occurring instabilities, e.g. noise, in the stream exiting the orifice may cause the stream to break-up into droplets. In order to synchronize the droplets with optical pulses of the LPP drive laser, a repetitive disturbance with an amplitude exceeding that of the random noise may be applied to the continuous stream. By applying a disturbance at the same frequency (or its higher harmonics) as the repetition rate of the pulsed laser, the droplets can be synchronized with the laser pulses.
If the repetitive disturbance signal has a single frequency, a micro-droplet is produced for each period of the disturbance waveform. To cause multiple micro-droplets to coalesce together into a larger droplet, the disturbance signal may be modulated and may employ multiple characteristic frequencies. For example, the disturbance waveform may include a main carrier frequency and one or more modulation frequencies, which is/are typically smaller than the main carrier frequency. An example modulation frequency may be implemented using a harmonic of the carrier frequency (such as for example a third of the carrier frequency). The modulation frequency/frequencies causes different micro-droplets to depart the nozzle at different velocities, thereby causing them to coalesce after exiting the nozzle.
In an example, a plurality of micro-droplets, such as 60 micro-droplets, may coalesce together to form a larger main droplet. The stream of main droplets may then be irradiated by pulses from the main drive laser beam (which may involve one or more main pulses and optionally one or more pre-pulses for each main droplet) to create the aforementioned plasma.
If some of the micro-droplets do not coalesce into a larger droplet, the stream of droplets may include both the larger main droplets and some micro-droplets that failed to coalesce. The existence of the micro-droplets that failed to coalesce (so-called "satellite droplets") in the droplet stream represents a non-optimal situation.
For one, the main droplets are optimally sized to generate the desired EUV radiation. The presence of satellite droplets, i.e., micro-droplets that failed to coalesce, means that one or more of the main droplets lack optimal size/mass/shape for optimal irradiation. Further, if the micro-droplets are irradiated, some of the laser energy that should be directed toward the main droplets is instead diverted to these undesirable satellite droplets, resulting in reduced system performance. Additionally, the irradiation of satellite droplets in the stream of main droplets creates unwanted plasma and may cause unintended instability in the droplet stream.
For these and other reasons, it is desirable to detect the presence of satellite droplets. The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for such detection.

Methods and apparatus for laser produced plasma EUV light source


Methods for the production of a board (11) with printed circuit (12) shielded against interfering radiation and having electronic components (14) comprise the steps of positioning of the electronic components (14) on contact points (15) designed for them, and the application of a shield (20), comprising a preformed metallized plastic film (30) over the top of the electronic components (14) and in electrical contact with the earth (13) on the board (11) with printed circuit (12), and also fixing the electronic components (14) on the board (11) with printed circuit (12) by means of an electrically conducting fixing agent (16); and fixing of the shield (20) on the board (11) with printed circuit (12).

The present invention relates to a method for the production of a board with printed circuit (printed circuit board) shielded against interfering radiation and having at least one electronic component.
It is customary for an electronic device to be protected, either in order to protect the electronic device itself against interfering radiation coming from an external source or in order to protect the environment against radiation generated by the electronic device itself.
Electronic devices which may be sensitive to interfering radiation, such as electromagnetic radiation, are electronic regulating, control and switching devices, and likewise communications equipment and data processing equipment, comprising one or more boards having a circuit on them and provided with electronic components, which circuit comprises a network of electrical conductors. Examples of such devices comprise, for example, microdata processors, computers, integrated circuits, microswitches, mobile telephones, transmitting and receiving equipment, pagers, television and so forth.
The term "shielding" is used in the art when referring to such protection of electronic equipment. The requirements which the abovementioned devices have to meet as regards such protection are becoming increasingly strict, and to an increasing extent are being laid down at international level.
Suitable shielding materials are generally composed of materials with good electrical and/or magnetic conducting properties, and are consequently often composed of metal. Examples of such shielding are metal casings or plastic coverings provided with a thin metal layer and generally applied to the inside of a housing. Various techniques are known for the application of such a metal layer directly to the inside of a housing or to a thin plastic film. Examples are metal painting, electroless plating, electroplating, vapour deposition and sputtering. In addition to these often complex, and therefore expensive techniques, in-mould foiling is a known process, in which either a metallized plastic film is deformed in a mould, for example by deep drawing, or a previously deformed metallized plastic film is placed in a mould, and in both cases a molten resin is subsequently poured into the mould, in order to place a carrier against the deformed metallized plastic film. Said carrier is often the housing or a part of the housing. This technique and the shielding materials used in it are described in, for example, WO99/40770 of the applicant.
EP-A-0,806,892 also discloses a production method, in which a shield is used, which shield consists of a plastic substrate which is first deformed and then metallized. Such a metallization of an already deformed plastic substrate is, however, difficult to carry out. The shield is fixed by means of conducting adhesive tape to an earth track of a board with printed circuit.
Although some of the abovementioned techniques provide good shielding results, there is a need among manufacturers of the abovementioned electronic equipment for simple shielding techniques, in particular for techniques that can be used by the manufacturer himself during the assembly of the electronic equipment.

Methods of manufacturing a printed circuit board shielded against interfering radiation