A voice firewall for providing communication between a user endpoint at a user location and a provider endpoint at a provider location is provided. The voice firewall includes a command input port for receiving a connect command that includes a private connection address embedded within a data portion of the connect command. The voice firewall is configured to manipulate the connect command by substituting a public connection address for the private connection address. The voice firewall also includes a voice communication port that is associated with the private connection address on a private side of the firewall and the public connection address on a public side of the voice firewall.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications call processing and in particular to a voice firewall that facilitates communication and provides protection for telephony components connected via a private network to a public network.
2. Description of Related Art
Interest in sending voice communications over the Internet has grown rapidly in recent years. The idea first became a reality with the introduction of Internet telephone software that was designed to run on a personal computer (PC) having a sound card, speakers, microphone, and a modem. The software compressed voice communications and encoded them into internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet. Although this telephone software allowed two parties to communicate using the Internet as a transmission medium, both parties were required to use a PC running the telephone software.
Transmitting voice communications over the Internet (commonly referred to as voice over IP, or VoIP) presents many advantages. The most compelling is reduced cost. For telephone companies, a VoIP network carries voice communications cheaper than traditional switched circuit telephone networks because available bandwidth is more efficiently used. A public switched telephone network (PSTN) allocates a 64 kilobit per second end-to-end circuit for each call. A VoIP network using the same bandwidth carries a much higher number of calls by compressing voice data into "packets" that are transmitted according to IP. The ability to carry more calls results in significant cost savings to the telephone company.
For the everyday user, VoIP communication reduces costs by allowing the user to bypass per-minute, long distance telephone charges over the PSTN. Currently, the only charge incurred while communicating over the Internet is a periodic charge, such as a monthly charge levied by the Internet Service Provider.
Since the first software packages enabling voice communication over IP networks, software and hardware developers have significantly enhanced the cost effectiveness and practicality of using VoIP. One of the most wide-reaching advances is the use of gateways to connect VoIP networks to traditional PSTNs. Gateways process voice signals to enable communication between VoIP devices and standard telephones on the PSTN.
IP telephones are very often connected to private networks, especially private LANs. Private LANs connected to public networks, such as the Internet, typically use a firewall to "hide" devices on the LAN from the outside world. A conventional firewall, such as a network address translation (NAT) firewall, allows all IP devices within a business to share a single public (i.e. Internet) IP address. All the devices within the business LAN use private IP addresses. Therefore, devices on the LAN are invisible to devices outside the LAN. This presents several problems for Internet telephony since telephones on remote private LANs, public networks, or the PSTN calling an IP telephone on a private LAN will not be able to "see," and thus communicate with, the IP telephone.
Referring to FIG. 1 in the drawings, the basic operation of a conventional firewall is described in more detail. A first device 11 such as a personal computer (PC) is located on a private LAN. First device 11 desires to communicate with a second device 15 that is located on a public network (i.e. Internet Address space). A conventional firewall 21 forms a bridge between the private LAN and the public network. In a first step A, first device 11 sends a user datagram protocol (UDP) original packet to second device 15. This packet has a public destination address/port of 126.96.36.199:2000 associated with second device 15 and a private source address/port of 220.127.116.11:1000 associated with first device 11. A person having skill in the art will recognize that the actual IP addresses could vary and are shown for illustrative purposes only. Since the packet's destination address is a public address and since firewall 21 is specified as the default gateway on first device 11, the packet is sent to firewall 21. Firewall 21 receives the packet and, because it is the first packet with this source and destination address/port, a new session is created in firewall 21. The session records the source and destination address/port of the packet, plus it allocates a port for returning packets. In the illustrated case, the allocated return port is port 3000.
In step B firewall 21 relays the packet to the public network, but firewall 21 replaces the original source address/port with a firewall source address/port, the firewall port being the return port allocated for the newly created session. Second device 15 receives the packet and because of the source address/port change, the second device is totally unaware of the address/port of first device 11.
In step C second device 15 responds by sending a return packet back to what second device 15 believes is the original packet's source, the firewall source address/port. Firewall 21 receives the return packet at port 3000, looks up the session associated with port 3000, and then uses the information to route the return packet to first device 11. In step D firewall 21 relays the return packet to first device 11, replacing the destination address given by second device 15 (i.e. the firewall address) with the address/port of first device 11.
The preceding operational description illustrates that the act of sending a packet from a local device opens a temporary "hole" in firewall 21 for packets that are returned to the local device. The hole is only open for packets that exactly match the firewall source address/port. No other packets are sent through the hole. After a few minutes of inactivity, the hole is automatically closed.
As mentioned previously, a conventional firewall attached to a private LAN prevents the visibility of an IP telephone that is connected to the private LAN. Although an IP telephone could call another IP telephone on a public network, the private IP telephone could not call an IP telephone connected to another private LAN because each of the telephones on the two private LANs are not visible to the other. Similarly, an IP telephone would have difficulty connecting to a PSTN gateway at a service provider since the service provider likely protects devices on the service provider network with a conventional firewall.
A need exists, therefore, for a method of providing communication between two IP devices connected to different private networks. A need also exists for a method of providing communication between a provider endpoint at a provider location and a user endpoint at a user location where both the provider endpoint and the user endpoint are located behind conventional firewalls. Finally, a need exists for a voice firewall in the form of a computer program product that facilitates communication between the provider endpoint and the user endpoint.


There is provided a door hole seal installed between an inner panel 1 and a door trim 2 of an automobile door, a part of which is provided with a slit mechanism 15 through which a wire harness 3 is pulled out, wherein said slit mechanism 15 is prepared by: watertightly installing at least an upper end of a sub-seal 30 on an outer-cabin side of a main seal 20; providing a first slit 21 on said main seal 20 in a horizontal direction; and providing a second slit 31 on the sub-seal 30 at a lower position than the first slit 21 in a horizontal direction.

The present invention relates to a door hole seal installed between an inner panel and a door trim of an automobile door to secure waterproofing, a part of which is provided with a slit mechanism through which a wire harness, for example for a window regulator, passes.
Generally, a door hole seal is installed between an inner panel of an automobile door and a door trim on a cabin side of the automobile door in order to secure favorable waterproofing. Some of the door hole seals are provided with a linear slit (straight slit) 41 extending in a horizontal direction which is used to pull out a wire harness 3, for example for a window regulator, from an outer-cabin side 70 to a cabin side 60 as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10. For prevention of entrance of water 80 from the straight slit 41, a flap for water stop 42 having a fixing part 43 on an upper end and both side ends thereof is provided on a surface of the outer-cabin side 70 of the door hole seal 40.
The use of the door hole seal 40 provided with the straight slit 41 causes a high resistance in pulling out the wire harness 3 so that the operation to pull out the wire harness 3 becomes difficult. In order to overcome this difficulty, a door hole seal 50 provided with a round-shaped slit (round slit) 51 instead of the straight slit 41 shown in FIG. 11 has been proposed. The door hole seal 50 is also provided with a flap for water stop 52 by means of a fixing part 53 on the surface of the outer-cabin side 70 for prevention of the entrance of water 80 from the round slit 51.
Unfortunately, however, although the door hole seal 40 with the usual straight slit 41 is provided with the flap for water stop 42 of which the fixing part 43 at the upper end and both side ends thereof is fixed to the door hole seal 40, a lower end of the flap for water stop 42 is widely open so that there has remained a problem that water 80 including rainwater and car washing water enters the cabin side 60 directly or along the wire harness 3 through the straight slit 41.
On the other hand, the door hole seal 50 with the usual round slit 51 has an advantage that lower frictional resistance generates when pulling out the wire harness 3 so that the operation to pull out the wire harness 3 becomes easy, but there remains a problem that the round slit 51 opens more widely than the straight slit 41 so that water 80 is more likely to enter.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a door hole seal which is capable of preventing water from entering a cabin side and simplifies an operation to pull out a wire harness.


Methods, systems, and devices are described for control information processing and utilization in a wireless communications system that utilizes one or more flexible bandwidth carriers. The methods may include receiving control information over a first channel of one of the one or more flexible bandwidth carriers, determining a processing time for the received control information over the first channel of the one of the one or more flexible bandwidth carriers based on a processing time of control information for another bandwidth carrier, and utilizing the received control information over the first channel of the one of the one or more flexible bandwidth carriers during a first transmission time interval of the first channel of the one of the one or more flexible bandwidth carriers subsequent to the processing time for the received control information over the first channel of the one of the one or more flexible bandwidth carriers.

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Service providers are typically allocated blocks of frequency spectrum for exclusive use in certain geographic regions. These blocks of frequencies are generally assigned by regulators regardless of the multiple access technology being used. In most cases, these blocks are not integer multiples of channel bandwidths, hence there may be unutilized parts of the spectrum. As the use of wireless devices has increased, the demand for and value of this spectrum has generally surged, as well. Nonetheless, in some cases, wireless communications systems may not utilize portions of the allocated spectrum because the portions are not big enough to fit a standard or normal waveform. The developers of the LTE standard, for example, recognized the problem and decided to support many different system bandwidths (e.g., 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz). This may provide one partial solution to the problem.
Flexible bandwidth systems, also referred to herein as scalable bandwidth systems, may provide for better utilization of bandwidth resources. However, some flexible bandwidth systems may face timing issues due to time dilation when they include multiple carriers that may utilize different bandwidths.

Grant processing for flexible bandwidth carrier systems


Disclosed is a note caddy which includes a binder with several sheets. The sheets have perforated scoring to facilitate their removal from the binder. Further, the sheets are divided into sections by perforated scoring, and note panels are adhered to each section. Each note panel has a note surface and an adhesive surface. The note surface of the panels are designed to receive notes penned or penciled thereon by the user of the invention.. The carrier sheets are constructed in a manner to allow the adhesive surface of the panels to releasably adhere thereto; for example, the carrier sheets can have a release coating on them which will cause the adhesive of the adhesive surface of the panel to adhere to the carrier sheet but be removable from it with the adhesive remaining on the panel for use in thereafter adhering the panel to a file, ledger or the like. Thus, the panels, when removed from the carrier sheets, can then be transferred to a ledger, page or file dedicated to the topic of the notes made on the specific panel and the adhesive surface, which is pressure sensitive, will adhere to the ledger, page or file tightly for a permanent binding of the panel to the page.

The present invention relates generally to an article to facilitate the taking of notes during the course of meetings and telephone conversation and the direct transfer of such notes to files, notebooks or pages of paper dedicated to a single subject. The present invention relates more particularly to a note caddy which provides a convenient means for carrying adhesive backed note panels on one's person or in a brief case or the like, enabling the user to take notes on the segregated panels and then remove the notes from the note caddy and transfer them directly to a ledger, file or sheet dedicated exclusively to the subject matter of the note. The note is attached to the ledger, file or sheet by the adherence of the adhesive backed panel to the ledger.
Practically everyone has experienced the disruption of a telephone conversation, with respect to either a personal or business matter, when one cannot find a piece of paper on which to take notes. Likewise, frequently when a note pad or piece of paper is available, their exists the inconvenience of having notes directed to a variety of topics all on the same page when the notes later have to be transferred or rewritten to a file relating to the subject matter of the particular note.
The inconvenience of not having a note pad readily available is one that has been addressed on many, many occasions in a variety of ways. Note pads, "Post-Its".RTM. notes, tablets and the like can all be made available for the taking of notes in the course of a phone conversations, meetings or the like. However, note pads are generally difficult to maintain in a file or transfer to a file since they are too small to clip to a regular file through traditional means such as a two-hole binder clip. Notes taken on the back of business cards, napkins or the like get misplaced or lost. Larger note pads, including the standard 81/2.times.11 so-called "legal pads" are open invitations to take notes on several topics on the same sheet of paper. Again, the filing of such notes is difficult because it requires recopying the material relating to the various topics onto separate sheets so that they can be filed in separate files according to the subject matter of the individual topic. Those who are sufficiently organized to take the notes in a systematic fashion may try to tear a 81/2 sheet of paper into several pieces, depending on the topic covered on the portion of the sheet of paper, but still the filing of those notes is very inconvenient.
In light of the foregoing general discussion, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that in the course of day to day activities, individuals in their personal lives as well as their business lives regularly make graphic notes of important information or reminders of activities that require attention. One would expect that the most frequent occasion creating circumstances of the nature just described occurs during the course of telephone conversations. However, meetings, either planned or by chance, present the same dilemma. An individual, while talking over the phone or meeting with someone about either a personal or business matter, may want to make a note about something said in the conversation. The statement made during the conversation may include such information as the name of a person to contact, a telephone number or address of someone to contact, an appointment, or any variety of other types of information. During the course of that same telephone conversation, another topic may arise during which it becomes convenient to make a note regarding the subject matter of that second topic. Still a third topic may be discussed during the course of the conversation which would require further notes on the third topic on the same page.
One attempt to try to address the problem to which Applicant's invention is directed is disclosed in the patent to Pennock, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,903 issued on Jul. 9, 1991. In the Pennock patent, a wallet size note pack is provided which includes a paper web, at least one side which is provided with a release coating and a plurality of low tack adhesive note sheets. The paper web includes at least two fold lines divided in the web into three substantially equal sized panels, each of which is provided with a plurality of low tack note sheets arranged in an orderly arrays. The product disclosed by Pennock is a step in the right direction but is lacking in certain respects. Specifically, the product can sometimes be too bulky for certain situations. It does not facilitate those occasions in which a single sheet of note panels would be desired, for example where the user wanted to put a sheet of note panels in his pocket to carry with him before initiating a brief telephone conversation. Applicant's note caddy is an improvement over the Pennock device because it has means to facilitate the tearing off of a single sheet of the panels or individual panels in those circumstances where a small number of the note panels are needed. Further, my invention contemplates a fast adhesive (as opposed to a low tack adhesive) on the back of the note panel. My invention is a part of an overall system to facilitate note taking to allow one to transfer notes taken on an individual panel to be transferred to a sheet dedicated to the subject matter of the particular note.
Applicant has addressed these deficiencies of the prior art and has developed a note caddy that overcomes these deficiencies in a practical, economical and efficient manner.


A measurement pattern is moved on a display, and an image of the measurement pattern is captured by making a visual field of an image sensor follow the scroll of the measurement pattern. On the basis of the captured image, a motion picture response curve is obtained. Then, the motion picture response curve is transformed into an MTF (modulation transfer function). A normalized spatial frequency value N_Sf(a %) at which an MTF value starts declining by a predetermined percentage from a highest luminance portion of the MTF is determined. Then, the motion image quality of the display is evaluated on the basis of the normalized spatial frequency value N_Sf(a %). Thus, the evaluation of the motion image quality of the display can be achieved on the basis of an intuitively understandable motion image quality evaluation index.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display evaluation method and apparatus for evaluating a motion image quality of a display of a to-be-evaluated display device on the basis of scrolling of a measurement pattern displayed on the display.
2. Description of Related Art
For evaluation of a motion image quality, it is a conventional practice to measure scrolling of a motion picture displayed on a display of a display device such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT), a plasma display panel (PDP) or an electroluminescence display device (EL).
One exemplary evaluation method of this type is such that the scrolling of the motion picture is followed by a camera as by eyeballs. The motion picture is captured as a still image, and the sharpness of the captured still image is measured. Particularly in the case of a display device such as an LCD which has a longer image response time, the sharpness of an edge of an image is reduced. In this conventional display evaluation method, the reduction of the sharpness is digitized into an index (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-204049).
However, the motion image quality evaluation method described above merely focuses on objective analysis of the profile of an image displayed on a monitor when the scrolling measurement pattern is captured by the camera. In this motion image quality evaluation method, an index indicative of a motion picture display capability of the display device is not accurately and directly derived.
Accordingly, there is a demand in this technical field for an intuitive index indicative of the motion picture display capability of the display. Such index is, for example, an index indicating a maximum possible display speed or maximum possible viewing angular speed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a display evaluation method and apparatus which are capable of easily acquiring an intuitive index for the evaluation of the motion image quality of a display.


A piston for reciprocal movement within a combustion chamber (4) of a compression ignition engine (2) having a fuel injector (20) for forming a fuel injection plume (40) having a relatively deep angle (7.degree. to 40.degree. from a plane perpendicular to the central axis of the combustion chamber) and a piston (8) having a centrally located symmetrical upwardly opening cavity for forming a combustion bowl (30) especially arranged to complement the plume in a manner to maintain very low entrainment of soot in the lubrication oil of the engine and to maintain other engine emissions, e.g., CO and smoke, within acceptable ranges suitable to meet TALuft standards. In particular, the combustion bowl (30) as formed by an upwardly opening cavity formed as a surface of revolution having a centrally raised floor section (42) with relatively large radius of curvature R.sup.1 and an upwardly flared outer bowl section 48 having relatively smaller radius of curvatures R.sub.2. The ratio of R.sub.2 divided by R.sub.1 is greater than 0.14 and less than or equal to 0.32. Other important dimensional relationships would apply.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an injection nozzle and piston designed for use in a compression ignition (diesel) internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Internal combustion engine designers continue to confront an ever more demanding set of governmentally mandated emissions standards and performance objectives. Modifications made to meet one standard or improve engine performance may lead to increased emissions of a type that cause another standard to be exceeded. Thus, designers are often confronted with not only the challenge of meeting a desired performance objective or a newly imposed emission standard but to do so in a way that does not cause other emissions standards, previously met or newly imposed, to be exceeded.
An example of the difficulties created for engine designers is that created by a new set of diesel engine standards, known as TALuft, that have been promulgated for application in the European market. These standards require the diesel engine to operate below the following limits at all engine operating points based upon a fuel consumption greater than 552 pounds per hour:
NO.sub.x 2 grams/M.sup.3 PA1 Carbon Monoxide 650 mg/M.sup.3 PA1 Unburnt Hydrocarbon (HC) 150 mg/M.sup.3 PA1 Particulate 130 mg/M.sup.3 PA1 A. the ratio of BD/CD is greater than or equal to 0.54 and is less than or equal to 0.75, PA1 B. the ratio of BD/L is greater than 6.2 and is less than or equal to 7.0, PA1 C. wherein the ratio of BD/R, is greater than or equal to 1.3 and is less than or equal to 3.4, or PA1 D. the ratio of R.sub.2 /R.sub.1 is greater than 0.14 and is less than or equal to 0.32. PA1 A. the ratio of BD/CD is greater than or equal to 0.54 and is less than or equal to 0.75, and is preferably 0.70; PA1 B. the ratio of BD/L is greater than 6.2 and is less than or equal to 7.0, and is preferably 6.67; PA1 C. wherein the ratio of BD/R.sub.1 is greater than or equal to 1.3 and is less than or equal to 3.4, and is preferably 1.42; and PA1 D. the ratio of R.sub.2 /R.sub.1 is greater than 0.14 and is less than or equal to 0.32, and is preferably 0.152.
These levels are for 5% dry oxygen in exhaust
Changes in any one of a variety of engine design variables or engine operating variables such as engine compression; combustion chamber shape; rate and location of combustion chamber cooling and/or fuel injection spray pattern, pressure, timing and/or flow rate can have an effect on the emissions in one or more of the above categories. However, such changes can often cause emission in another category to exceed the acceptable limit. For example, as the brake mean effective pressure (bmep) is desirably increased, a tendency arises for smoke in the engine's exhaust to increase. This problem is accentuated by the need to achieve other critical engine operating characteristics such as fuel economy, high torque output, low operating costs and/or reduced maintenance. As one example, the amount of soot that is entrained in the engine's lubrication oil can have a profound effect on the cost of operation and the length of service before a major overhaul is required. Soot is very abrasive and can cause high wear if allowed to become entrained in the engine's lubrication oil to any substantial degree. The amount of soot entrained in the engine's exhaust can be effected by a number of factors such as combustion chamber shape and fuel injection spray angle but changes in these variables can have the undesired effect of actually increasing the other emissions such as smoke and CO emissions entrained in the engines's exhaust.
Many attempts have been made to produce an ideal flow pattern for the charge air and fuel within the combustion chamber of an internal combustion chamber. For example, provision of a combustion bowl in the upper region of a piston to cause, among other things, fuel/charge air mixture within a direct injection engine is well known as disclosed the article entitled "Future Developments . . . ", Automotive Industries, Oct. 15, 1952. While most of the combustion bowl designs disclosed in this article appear to be symmetric about a central axis, the article does not address the critical relationship of the combustion bowl shape and the fuel injection pattern on the specific problems addressed by the subject invention.
A variety of piston designs have been disclosed including symmetrical bowl shaped recesses formed in the upper surface of the piston crown to achieve desired flow patterns within the combustion chamber formed in part by the piston. For example, U.S Pat. No. 4,377,967 discloses an articulated piston assembly including a crown containing a symmetrical combustion bowl in the top surface defined by a cone shaped central floor section which connects at its base to an arcuate surface of revolution coaxial with the central axis of the cone surface wherein the surface of revolution flares upwardly to join with the uppermost surface of the piston. The base of the cone shaped central floor section extends over no more than approximately, 50% of the diameter of the bowl.
The following patents disclose piston designs including cavities in the upper section of the pistons which appear to be symmetrical about a central axis and have a central raised floor section extending radially for a substantial portion of the diameter of the combustion bowl wherein the raised floor section has a relatively large radius of curvature in diametric cross-section and wherein the outer portion of the bowl is characterized by a surface of revolution coaxial with the raised floor section and shaped to form an upwardly curved outer sidewall of the cavity: U.K Patnt Application No. 2,075,147 published Nov. 11, 1996 (FIGS. 1 and 2); U.S. Patent No. 5,029,563 issued Jul. 9, 1996 (FIG. 4) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,531 issued Apr. 28, 1970 (FIG. 2). In diametric cross section the curved sidewall, in each instance, would appear to have a radius of curvature that is substantially less than the radius of curvature of the central raised floor section. None of these references discloses any critical size ratios for the disclosed combustion bowl designs and none discloses the importance of the angle of the spray orifices in relationship to the combustion bowl shape.
The assignee of the subject invention, Cummins Engine Company, Inc., is also the assignee of previously issued patents disclosing diesel engine piston designs which incorporate combustion bowl designs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,865,841 issued Jul. 5, 1932 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,948 issued Jan. 6, 1981 disclose pistons having a combustion bowl with a "Mexican-hat" design but both of these patents fails to disclose that the combustion bowl has crucial dimensional relationships that are required to achieve specific engine functionalities.
The Cummins Engine Company, Inc. has used commercially articulated pistons having a symmetrical bowl formed in the upper surface of the piston crown but wherein the base of the cone shaped center section extends over a substantial portion of the diameter of the bowl and the apex of the cone is truncated to form a frusto-conical surface.
Many other piston designs containing symmetric combustion bowl designs have been disclosed in previously issued patents. Note, for example, the following patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,805,677 4,662,319 4,056,044 4,781,159 4,161,165 4,909,132 4,180,027 4,989,559 4,286,505 5,040,454 Foreign Patents European Patent No. 0,071,994 Feb. 16, 1983 German Patent No. 1,301,657 Aug. 21, 1969 Japanese App. No. 59-155551 Sept. 4, 1984 German (East) Patent No. 1588 06 Feb. 2, 1983 Russian App. No. SU 1107870 A Aug. 15, 1984 Japanese App. No. 60-135651 July 19, 1985 U.K. App. No. 2,079,851 Jan. 27, 1982 ______________________________________
Other prior art piston designs have been disclosed with combustion bowls having specialized shapes designed for producing a desired effect within the combustion chamber. For example the following patents disclose pistons with asymmetrical shapes:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,709,992 5,305,720 3,020,900 5,320,075 4,759,323 5,322,042 5,020,485 Foreign Patents U.K. Pat. Spec. No. 465,656 May 10, 1937 U.K. Pat. Spec. No. 713,637 Aug. 18, 1950 German Patent Doc. No. M17120 Ia//46a Aug. 30, 1996 French Patent No. 1,217,467 Dec. 7, 1959 ______________________________________
Despite the many examples of piston designs including combustion bowls in the upper portion of the piston contained in the prior art, none has disclosed a design that is said to function cooperatively with an injector spray plume in a manner to minimize soot entrainment in the engine lubrication oil and simultaneously maintains acceptably low exhaust emissions. A need, thus, exists for a piston and complementary injector design that is capable of achieving this combination of functionality.

Deep angle injection nozzle and piston having complementary combustion bowl


A mobile telephone with a camera function has an optimum shooting posture and optimum storage ability. The mobile telephone has a first housing and a second housing which are so connected by a hinge to enable longitudinal folding. A main display section has an operation section containing a set of a ten-key pad and functional keys, which are respectively provided on the inner surfaces of the first and second housings and are invisible when the housings are folded. A subsidiary display section and a camera section are respectively provided on the outer surfaces opposite to the inner surfaces and a shutter switch and a phone to camera changeover switch are provided on the outer surface of the housings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile telephone that is equipped with a camera function and can be folded in two. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile telephone that enables the user to shoot while viewing a photo image.
2. Prior Art
Recently mobile telephones comprising two housings hinged to be folded have been prevailing. Particularly, such mobile telephones with a camera function and an image transmitting function have been highlighted.
Some foldable mobile telephones with a camera function provide a camera section on the outer surface or on the hinge section. Each of such mobile telephones is so constructed as to expose the main display when the mobile telephone is opened outward. The main display shows a picture image taken by the camera section. The user shoots while monitoring the picture image on the main display. (See Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-253124.) Contrarily, an unfoldable mobile telephone has a main display on the front surface, and has a camera section on the rear surface. The user can shoot monitoring picture images on the display while holding the mobile telephone with its longitudinal axis kept horizontally. (See Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-253124.)


In a radio communication system having narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels and a wide-band down-link radio channel, when a radio terminal is to receive data through the wide-band down-link radio channel, the narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels are assigned to the radio terminal in advance. With this operation, communication an be performed by using the wide-band down-link radio channel. In addition, the narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels can be used as radio channels for performing control to efficiently transmit data by using the wide-band down-link radio channel.

The present invention relates to a transmission control method for a radio communication system and, more particularly, to a communication system which performs SDL (Super high speed Down Link) transmission in which down-link transmission can be performed through a radio channel at a higher speed than up-link transmission.
With the widespread use of compact, portable data processing and electronic instruments, communication functions have been added to these portable instruments, and services using various networks have been provided.
In general, as a communication means to be applied to a portable electronic instrument, a communication means allowing a user to easily communicate any information with anybody at any time in any place is desirable in consideration of the merits of portability.
As such a communication means, it is best to use a radio communication system such as a PHS (Personal Handyphone System; convenience portable telephone), or a mobile communication system (portable telephone or a mobile telephone system), which can be connected to a public network and for which many radio base stations are distributed. This system allows transmission/reception of data by radio communication between the radio base stations and the radio terminals within the service areas of the respective radio base stations.
In such a radio communication system, when a radio terminal transmits a communication request signal, the request signal is supplied to a radio base station through an up-link radio channel. With this operation, the radio base station assigns a communication channel to the radio terminal, so that the radio terminal can communicate with a destination terminal by using the communication channel through the radio base station. The radio terminal transmits data to the radio base station through an up-link radio channel. Data is transmitted from the radio base station to the radio terminal through a down-link radio channel.
In a radio communication system of this type, when a multimedia service such as picture communication as well as simple speech communication is to be realized, the amount of data greatly increases. In order to handle video picture data, a large amount of data must be transmitted within a short period of time. For this purpose, a wide-band channel is required. This means that high-speed transmission is required in terms of transmission speed in communication.
When a multimedia service such as VOD (Video On Demand) or digital electronic publication (newspapers, magazines, and books in electronic forms), in particular, is to be provided, the amount of data transmitted through a down-link radio channel is much larger than the amount of data transmitted through an up-link radio channel which is used to transmit only a request and an Ack message (acknowledgment message). For this reason, transmission must be performed at a much higher speed through a down-link radio channel than through an up-link radio channel.
This is because, small-volume data such as speech data and data for requesting information are transmitted through an up-link radio channel, whereas large-volume data such as picture and text data are transmitted through a down-link radio channel.
In a conventional radio communication system, however, the transmission speed in an up-link radio channel is equal to that in a down-link radio channel. That is, the transmission speed of a signal transmitted from a radio terminal is set to be equal to that of a signal received by the radio terminal.
According to the conventional idea of a system configuration, in order to realize a multimedia service in a radio communication system, the system must be designed to perform high-speed transmission between a radio base station and a radio terminal by using wide-band channels as up- and down-link radio channels.
However, high-speed transmission demands a radio wave in a high-frequency band, and hence very high power. In general, a portable instrument as a terminal side uses a battery as a power source. With an increase in power consumption, therefore, a recharging operation must be frequently performed on the terminal side, resulting in a deterioration in operability. As is apparent, the battery capacity of the terminal may be increased. If, however, the battery capacity is increased, the size and weight of the instrument increase as well as the cost.
An SDL system (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 6-137621) has been proposed as a radio communication system which solves such problems. In this SDL system, in order to reduce the power consumption, no wide-band transmission section (transmission section with high transmission speed) is arranged on the radio terminal side, and wide-band communication is limited to a reception function while transmission is performed as narrow-band communication (low transmission speed) with low power consumption. With this arrangement, up- and down-link communications can be performed while a decrease in power consumption of the terminal can be attained.
As described above, in order to realize a multimedia service by using a radio communication system, high-speed transmission must be performed between a radio base station and a radio terminal through a wide-band radio channel. However, high-speed transmission demands radio waves in a high-frequency band, and very high power.
As a technique for solving this problem, the SDL system has been proposed. As described above, in the SDL system, in order to reduce the power consumption, no wide-band transmission section (transmission section with high transmission speed) is arranged on the radio terminal side, and wide-band communication is limited to a reception function while transmission is performed as narrow-band communication (low transmission speed) with low power consumption. With this arrangement, up- and down-link communications can be performed while a decrease in power consumption of the terminal can be attained.
The narrow-band communication function may include a down-link (reception) channel as well as an up-link (transmission) channel, and battery supply control may be performed such that communication which does not require high-speed transmission is performed by using narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels, while the power to the wide-band reception section of the terminal is turned off. With this control, a further reduction in power consumption of the terminal can be attained.
If the narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels are used not only as radio channels for data transmission but also as channels for controlling data transmission using the wide-band down-link radio channel, efficient data transmission using the wide-band down-link radio channel can be realized.
No transmission control procedure, however, has been proposed, by which narrow-band up- and down-link radio channels are used for efficient data transmission using a wide-band down-link radio channel.
In the SDL system, since different transmission distances and different allowable error rates are required for transmission of narrow-band and wide-band signals, it is conceivable that the frequency of a radio carrier used for transmission of the narrow-band signal is lower than that used for transmission of the wide-band signal. In practice, when a radio transmitter for transmitting narrow-band signals is formed, harmonic components having frequencies higher than the frequency of a signal oscillated by an oscillator and used as a carrier transmitted from a modulator is generated owing to the nonlinear characteristics of the mixer, the power amplifier, and the like. These harmonic components are attenuated by the filter function of the duplexer (transmission/reception shared unit) so as not to be radiated from the antenna.
In an apparatus having a structure in which a narrow-band radio transceiver and a wide-band radio receiver are incorporated in the same housing, even if the above harmonic components are not radiated from the antenna, harmonic components may be received by the antenna or the low-noise amplifier, interconnections for connecting these components, or the like on the wide-band radio receiver side owing to electric or magnetic coupling, leakage, or the like in the housing.
If such a harmonic component has the same frequency as that of a carrier at the radio section or intermediate-frequency section of the wide-band radio receiver, a received wide-band signal may not be properly demodulated. Conventionally, when devices susceptible to electric or magnetic coupling are to be arranged nearby, in order to solve such a problem, the devices are isolated with insulators and surrounded with a shield. With this structure, the two devices are isolated from each other to obtain a high attenuation gain.
For this reason, in a terminal having both a narrow-band transceiver and a wide-band radio receiver, the weight and volume of the terminal increase owing to an additional unit for providing such isolation.
A radio terminal currently has a data processing function, an advanced display function, and the like and hence can use various services using various networks. For example, various types of data such as speech, data, a still picture, and a motion picture are transmitted through a radio channel. In order to allow radio transmission of such data by using one radio terminal, an optimal transmission scheme must be provided in accordance with the type of data to be transmitted. In transmitting such data by radio, the following two schemes can be used: a scheme of multiplexing data with one modulating signal or carrier, and a scheme of using different carriers in accordance with the attributes of data.
An RF amplifier is one of the factors that interfere with a reduction in the size of a radio terminal which should be compact. In order to reduce the size, cost, and power consumption of the RF amplifier, different frequencies or transmission schemes suitable for different types of data are preferably used.
If, however, different frequencies or transmission schemes are used, some data can be transmitted by radio but other data cannot be transmitted in the same environment. In other words, the types and qualities of services which can be provided vary.
This is because, service areas greatly vary in accordance with frequencies used, and power consumption also varies. Consequently, services which can be provided vary in accordance with the battery residual capacity. In addition, the types, qualities, times, and the like of services which can be provided when two radio terminals receive a communication service are greatly influenced by the types, number, and qualities of radio signals which can be received by the distant terminal and its battery residual capacity as well as the types, number, and qualities of radio signals which can be received by the self-terminal and its battery residual capacity. Conventionally, however, the types, qualities, and times of services which can be provided cannot be determined in consideration of the state of the distant terminal.
If, however, a user cannot know specific services of various available services which can be currently used and the current state of each service, the user can determine whether he/she can use a desired service only when he/she performs an operation for using the desired service. In addition, the user can determine whether a provided service is satisfactory or not, only after he/she uses the service. That is, the user uses services by trial and error, resulting in poor operability. Furthermore, the user must pay the charges for services. If, therefore, a service is not satisfactory, the cost is wasted. That is, it is uneconomical to use such a service. Although various services can be used, the user cannot know which service can be currently used and its current state. For this reason, even if an environment that allows anybody to use a radio terminal with advanced functions anytime is provided, anybody cannot always use the system easily, interfering with the popularization of the system.
Demands have therefore arisen for an easy-to-use radio system which allows users in various age groups to easily receive various services using radio terminals.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method of classifying cells into subpopulations using cell classifying data is described. The method comprises receiving and analyzing image data to identify object areas in the image data to determine, for at least one selected first cell, one or more measurements. A first parameter set is derived from the measurements for the first cell, the first parameter set comprising at least one of said one or more measurements. The first set of cells are classified into subpopulations, and identified to produce first identifying data. Cell classifying data for use in classifying a second set of cells into subpopulations is derived from the first parameter set and the first identifying data. A second set of cells is classified into subpopulations on the basis of one or more measurements taken for cells in the second set of cells, by use of the cell classifying data. The parameter sets of cells may be represented as vectors in an n-dimensional space.

There is currently a need in drug discovery and development and in general biological research for methods and apparatus for accurately performing cell-based assays. Cell-based assays are advantageously employed for assessing the biological activity of chemical compounds.
In addition, there is a need to quickly and inexpensively screen large numbers of chemical compounds. This need has arisen in the pharmaceutical industry where it is common to test chemical compounds for activity against a variety of biochemical targets, for example, receptors, enzymes and nucleic acids. These chemical compounds are collected in large libraries, sometimes exceeding one million distinct compounds. The use of the term chemical compound is intended to be interpreted broadly so as to include, but not be limited to, simple organic and inorganic molecules, proteins, peptides, nucleic acids and oligonucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, or any chemical structure of biological interest.
In the field of compound screening, cell-based assays are run on populations of cells. The measured response is usually an average over the cell population. For example, a popular instrument used for ion channel assays is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,215. A typical assay consists of measuring the time-dependence of the fluorescence of an ion-sensitive dye, the fluorescence being a measure of the intra-cellular concentration of the ion of interest which changes as a consequence of the addition of a chemical compound. The dye is loaded into the population of cells disposed on the bottom of the well of a multiwell plate at a time prior to the measurement.
In general, the response of the cells is heterogeneous in both magnitude and time. This variability may obscure or prevent the observation of biological activity important to compound screening. Heterogeneity may result from either physiological or genetic differences in cells, or from experimental sources. A method that mitigates, compensates for, or even utilizes the variations would enhance the value of cell-based assays in the characterization of the pharmacological activity of chemical compounds.
Quantification of the response of individual cells circumvents the problems posed by the non-uniformity of that response of a population of cells. Consider the case where a minor fraction of the population responds to the stimulus. A device that measures the average response will have less sensitivity than one determining individual cellular response. However, analysis of the responses of individual cells will be time-consuming in the case of populations of large cell count.
The cell cycle is of key importance to many areas of drug discovery. On the one hand this fundamental process provides the opportunity to discover new targets for anticancer agents and improved chemotherapeutics, but on the other hand drugs and targets in other therapeutic areas must be tested for undesirable effects on the cell cycle. Historically, a wide range of techniques have been developed to study the cell cycle both as a global biochemical process and at the molecular level.
Known methods include those that produce data describing the proliferative activity of a cell population.
Measuring the incorporation of [14C]- or [3H]-thymidine (Regan, J. D. and Chu, E. H. (1966) "A convenient method for assay of DNA synthesis in synchronized human cell cultures" J. Cell Biol. 28, 139-143) by scintillation counting was one of the earliest methods of determining cell proliferation, and is still widely used today. More recent developments (Graves, R. et al. (1997) "Noninvasive, real-time method for the examination of thymidine uptake events—application of the method to V-79 cell synchrony studies" Anal. Biochem. 248, 251-257) have allowed thymidine incorporation to be measured in a homogeneous microplate assay format.
Several non-radioactive alternatives to thymidine incorporation assays have been developed. These include enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) nucleotide bromo-deoxyunridine (BrdU) (Perros, P. and Weightman, D. R. (1991) "Measurement of cell proliferation by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a monoclonal antibody to bromodeoxyuridine. Cell. Prolif. 24, 517-523; Wemme, H. et al. (1992) "Measurement of lymphocyte proliferation: critical analysis of radioactive and photometric methods" Immunobiology 185, 78-89) into replicating DNA, and staining of proliferation-specific antigens such as Ki-67 (Frahm, S. O. et al (1998) "Improved ELISA proliferation assay (EPA) for the detection of in vitro cell proliferation by a new Ki-67-antigen directed monoclonal antibody (Ki-S3)" J. Immunol. Methods 211, 43-50).
Colourimetric methods based on substrate conversion (Mosmann, T. (1983) "Rapid colourimetric assay for cellular growth and survival: application to proliferation and cytotoxicity assays" J. Immunol. Methods 65, 55-63; Roehm, N. W. et al. (1991) "An improved colourimetric assay for cell proliferation and viability utilizing the tetrazolium sal XTT" J. Immunol. Methods 142, 257-265) by mitochondrial and other cellular enzymes are also used to measure cell growth. Although these assays are often referred to as cell-proliferation assays, strictly speaking they are cell-mass assays. Unlike measuring thymidine or BrdU incorporation, these assays do not provide any inherent measure of cell cycle progression, and give only a measure of cell mass ie. increase in cell number, relative to another population.
Other methods for measuring cell proliferation (i.e. increasing cell numbers) have been reported based on measuring electrical impedance (Upadhyay, P. and Bhaskar, S. (2000) "Real time monitoring of lymphocyte proliferation by an impedance method" J. Immunol. Methods 244, 133-137), dissolved oxygen (Wodnicka, M. et al (2000) "Novel fluorescent technology platform for high throughput cytotoxicity and proliferation assays" J. Biomol. Screen. 5, 141-152) and others. However, as for the colourimetric assays discussed above, these do not directly report cell cycle parameters and have not been widely adopted.
All of the above methods provide data on the overall proliferation within a cell population under examination, but do not identify the status of individual cells. Adaptation of these assays to imaging, for example by micro-autoradiography of [3H]- or [14C]-thymidine incorporation (Dormer, P. (1981) "Quantitative carbon-14 autoradiography at the cellular level: principles and application for cell kinetic studies" Histochem. J. 13, 161-171) or by immunocytochemical or immunofluorescence detection of BrdU (Dolbeare, F. (1995) "Bromodeoxyuridine: a diagnostic tool in biology and medicine, Part I: historical perspectives, histochemical methods and cell kinetics" Histochem. J. 27, 339-369) permits identification of cells that have traversed S phase, but does not yield information on the cell cycle position of other cells under analysis.
To determine the cell cycle status of all cells in a population it is a prerequisite that the analytical technique can resolve at least to the level of a single cell. Of the two qualifying techniques available, flow cytometry and microscopy, flow cytometry has become firmly established as the standard method for analysing cell cycle distribution.
The DNA content of cell nuclei varies through the cell cycle in a predictable fashion—cells in G2 or M have twice the DNA content of cells in G1, and cells undergoing DNA synthesis in S phase have an intermediate amount of DNA. Consequently, staining of cellular DNA with propidium iodide (Nairn, R. C. and Rolland, J. M. (1980) "Fluorescent probes to detect lymphocyte activation" Clin. Exp. Immunol. 39, 1-13) or other fluorescent dyes (Smith, P. J. et al (2000) "Characteristics of a novel deep red/infrared fluorescent cell-permeant DNA probe, DRAQ5, in intact human cells analyzed by flow cytometry, confocal and multiphoton microscopy" Cytometry 40, 280-291) that are compatible with live cells, followed by flow cytometry permits measurement of the relative proportion of cells in G1, S and G2/M phases. However, analysis by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry is necessarily destructive and hence requires multiple samples to study cell cycle progression, which can become rate limiting where many hundreds of samples are to be analysed. In addition, flow cytometry does not yield fine resolution of cell cycle position in G2/M as the DNA content is the same in all cells.
A combination of DNA staining with pulsed BrdU incorporation can be used to resolve the cell cycle position further (Dolbeare, F. et al. (1983) "Flow cytometric measurement of total DNA content and incorporated bromodeoxyuridine" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 5573-5577). Dual-parameter analysis of DNA staining and/or BrdU incorporation can also be used with antibodies to cell-surface markers to profile cell cycle distribution in a defined subpopulation of cells (Mehta, B. A. and Maino, V. C. (1997) "Simultaneous detection of DNA synthesis and cytokine production in staphylococcal enterotoxin B activated CD4+T lymphocytes by flow cytometry" J. Immunol. Methods 208, 49-59; see also Johannisson, A. et al. (1995) "Activation markers and cell proliferation as indicators of toxicity: a flow cytometric approach" Cell Biol. Toxicol. 11, 355-366; see also Penit, C. and Vasseur, F. (1993) "Phenotype analysis of cycling and postcycling thymocytes: evaluation of detection methods for BrdUrd and surface proteins" Cytometry 14, 757-763).
Although to date flow cytometry has remained the dominant method for analysing the cell cycle, many of the above techniques have also been applied to microscopic analyses (Gorczyca, W. et al. (1996) "Laser scanning cytometer (LSC) analysis of fraction of labeled mitoses (FLM)" Cell Prolif. 29, 539-547; Clatch, R. J. and Foreman, J. R. (1998) "Five-colour immunophenotyping plus DNA content, analysis by laser scanning cytometry" Cytometry 34, 36-38).
The techniques described above all provide information in various forms from a single point in time (e.g. propidium iodide staining for DNA content) or integrated over a period of time (e.g. thymidine or BrdU incorporation). One further technique, cell-division tracking (Nordon, R. E. et al. (1999) "Analysis of growth kinetics by division tracking" Immunol. Cell Biol. 77, 523-529; Lyons, A. B. (1999) "Divided we stand: tracking cell proliferation with carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester" Immunol. Cell. Biol. 77, 509-515), allows the replicative history of a cell population to be analysed. In this method cells are loaded with a fluorescent dye such as carboxy-fluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE), which is partitioned between daughter cells at each successive round of cell division with a twofold reduction in fluorescence. Subsequent analysis of cell fluorescence by flow cytometry reveals the number of cell divisions undergone by each cell in the population. This technique has also been used in multi-parameter analyses combined with BrdU and proliferation-marker staining (Hasbold, J. and Hodgkin, P. D. (2000) "Flow cytometric cell division tracking using nuclei" Cytometry 40, 230-237).
International patent application WO 01/11341 describes a method for the automated measurement of the mitotic index of cells using fluorescence imaging. The technique involves immunoflourescence which reports specifically on mitotic cells by signals emitted from the cell nuclei, dependent upon the phosphorylation of histone H3. A mitotic index is determined by detecting the number of mitotic cells compared with the number of nuclei detected in a separate fluorescence channel. The technique involves simply counting cells having a signal above a given threshold, and is unsuited for the detection of cell cycle phases other than mitosis. Furthermore, the signal thresholds have to be predetermined, or entered by an operator.
The application of GFP and imaging techniques to cell cycle analysis has enabled significant advances to be made in understanding the timing of the molecular events that control the cell cycle. Fusing. GFP with key cell-cycle-control proteins has provided significant insights into the molecular organisation behind the cell cycle (see (Raff, J. W. et al (2002) "The roles of Fzy/Cdc20 and Fzr/Cdh1 in regulating the destruction of cyclin B in space and time" J. Cell Biol. 157, 1139-1149; Zeng, Y. et al. (2000) "Minimal requirements for the nuclear localization of p27(Kip1), a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor" Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 274, 37-42; Huang, J. and Raff. J. W. (1999) "The disappearance of cyclin B at the end of mitosis is regulated spatially in Drosophila cells" EMBO J. 18, 2184-2195; Weingartner, M. et al. (2001) "Dynamic recruitment of Cdc2 to specific microtubule structures during mitosis" Plant Cell 13, 1929-1943; Arnaud, L. et al. (1998) "GFP tagging reveals human Polo-like kinase 1 at the kinetochore/centromere region of mitotic chromosomes" Chromosoma 107, 424-429) and other cellular components (Kanda, T. et al. (1998) "Histone-GFP fusion protein enables sensitive analysis of chromosome dynamics in living mammalian cells" Curr. Biol. 8, 377-385; Reits, E. A. et al. (1997) "Dynamics of proteasome distribution in living cells" EMBO J. 16, 6087-6094; Tatebe, H. et al. (2001) "Fission yeast living mitosis represented by GFP-tagged gene products" Micron 32, 67-74)). However, although these specialised approaches provide valuable data on the mechanisms and components involved, they are not generic methods for monitoring the cell cycle.
Another purpose of cell cycle analysis (and for example cyclin cell lines) is to first classify the cells in the population, then to perform analysis of other parameters on each subpopulation separately using reporters in other channels. Cells at different stages will respond differently to different compounds (e.g. cell surface receptors cannot be activated in mitotic cells.)

Classification of cells into subpopulations using cell classifying data


A laser-scanner for a LIDAR system scanning in a scanning direction, having a laser-source to emit a plurality of individual light-beams into a plurality of angular-ranges which are situated next to one another transversely to the scanning-direction. A receiver-optics of the laser-scanner is configured to concentrate reflected portions of the emitted-light-beams on exposure-regions of a sensor-plane of the laser-scanner that are situated next to one another transversely to the scanning-direction. A plurality of sensor-pixels of the laser-scanner are situated next to one another in the sensor-plane transversely to the scanning-direction. The sensor pixels are situated at an offset vis-a-vis the exposure-regions transversely to the scanning-direction. A control-electronics of the laser-scanner is configured to actuate the laser-source so that a plurality of light-beams is emitted in a time-staggered manner such that no more than the reflected portion of one of the light-beams impinges upon a sensor-pixel at the same time.

In a LIDAR system, laser beams are moved in a scanning direction. The laser beams are widened in the form of an individual fan transversely to the scanning direction. A laser beam thereby illuminates an angular range. Because of the scanning movement over time, the laser beam illuminates a strip that is as wide as the angular range. A receiver optics focuses light from the laser beams reflected by an object on a sensor. The light from an angular range is focused on a sensor pixel. A resolution of the LIDAR system transversely to the scanning direction is defined by the number of emitted laser beams.

Laser scanner for a LIDAR system and method for operating a laser scanner


The invention relates to a large-size OSB-board having improved technical and mechanical properties. The aim of the invention is to solve the technical problems posed by an OSB-board which is suitable for using on large surfaces and also, for example, for the construction of buildings. To this end, the board has a width of at least 2.60 m and a length of at least 7.0 m, and the flectional elasticity module is it least 700 N/mm2 in the main loading direction.

An OSB panel in the sense of the present invention consists of at least one layer constituted by flat wood chips, so-called strands. The strands of this layer are oriented in a preferred direction (here in production direction=longitudinal panel direction. Even in the case of a single-layer panel, a lower and a mirror-equal upper face sheet are normally combined into an internally homogenous layer in course of manufacture of this panel.
In case of a multi-layered construction, the previously described layer constitutes the lower and upper face sheet, and the medial layer (in case of a 3-layer model) with no preferred orientation of the strands is located between them. This dispersion is also designated as "random" in language of the specialized field. The innermost layer of the panel is designated as the medial layer. Thus a 3-layer panel consists of an upper and a lower face sheet and a medial layer, a 5-layer panel or one with more layers consists of an upper and lower face sheet of a medial layer and of layers between the upper or the lower face sheet and the medial layer. A preferred embodiment of the invention is in form of a 3-layer panel, a 5-layer panel or one with even more layers (whereby an odd number of layers is rational). Even numbers of layers are however just as possible.

Large-size OSB panel having improved properties, especially for the construction industry


A detector for gas chromatography using two or more ionization sources within a single body to separately provide ionization energy to a column gas eluent to provide electrical discharge to two or more collecting electrodes provides improved selectivity and may be so used. Use is made of combined bias/collecting electrodes or of sets of separated bias and collecting electrodes. The use of multiple ionization sources permits generation of multiple detector outputs from within a common body and of a common constituent flow. The ionization sources and any applicable discharge gas and dopant may be selected based on desired selectivity.

1. Field of Invention
An improvement to ionization detectors for gas chromatography and methods of use is disclosed. More specifically, a detector for gas chromatography with at least two separate ionization sources within a single body to separately provide ionization energy to, via a discharge gas, permit ionization of a column gas eluent to provide electrical discharge to two or more collecting electrodes, which may be combined bias/collecting electrodes or may be sets of separated bias and collecting electrodes, and methods of use provides improved selectivity, is disclosed. Additionally, the single body may include a structure to partially obstruct the flow path between, or partially isolate, the discharge sources to increase sensitivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gas chromatograph systems used to detect the presence of specific compounds include the well-known use of ionization detectors. A sample is vaporized and introduced to the head of a gas chromatographic column, where it is transported through the column by the flow an inert, gaseous mobile phase, and is separated according to physical properties of each compound in the sample. The eluent from this gas chromatography column is then flowed into the enclosed elongated chamber of an ionization detector. Helium, or another noble gas, or combinations thereof, is also introduced to the detector as a discharge gas and is ionized in a discharge chamber section of that enclosed elongated chamber, wherein energy is absorbed and the atoms transition to an exited state. The ion combine with another atom to form a diatomic metastable molecule, which then emits emitting a molecule emission—one or more photons. In an adjacent reaction chamber section of the enclosed elongated chamber, the separated constituents or compounds, in accordance with their retention time in the column, become ionized from photons emitted from the ionized discharge gas, each according to its composition. As each ionized compound encounters a collecting electrode, an electrical current is generated, which is useful in identification of each compound in the sample according to its ionization potential (IP) and retention time. Various benefits of this non-destructive nature of this detection have been identified.
Variations of the means of ionization of the discharge gas exist, including those which use an electric discharge, whether a direct current discharge (a pulsed discharge) or an alternating current discharge, others which use a dielectric barrier discharge, and others which use a lamp. Each ionization source provides its own benefits. The pulsed discharge detector (PDD), for example, has the advantages of stability and long lifetime. These detectors have been found useful in various areas, including trace gas analysis, semiconductor manufacturing, and environmental applications.
These detectors have used a single collecting electrode, which may be part of a system including at least one bias electrode, or may use a single combination bias/collecting electrode, where the collecting electrode is itself biased. Unfortunately, use of a single collecting electrode limits the information which may be obtained from within the detector cell. Moreover, these systems are non-selective, as they respond to all compounds except the carrier gas. While several methods for improving selectivity have been published, these have not been found sufficiently successful for adoption. Among these attempts has been the use of operating two separate gas detectors, each with a different discharge gas type, in parallel, using a division of the eluent from the gas chromatography column into each detector. Splitting the eluent, however, can create difficulties in ensuring an equal division of compounds between the two associated detectors. Moreover, the two detectors may produce differing results, such as by the result of contamination or deterioration of the detector components, which cannot be addressed by reference to a standard.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a photo ionization detector for gas chromatography with increased selectivity which features within a common body two separate ionization discharge locations which separately ionize an undivided eluent, and for methods of use thereof.

Photo ionization detector for gas chromatography having at least two separately ionizing sources


A packed mass transfer tower for establishing intimate gas-liquid contact and efficient mass transfer that is less susceptible to gas or liquid channeling, gas surging and uneven distribution of gas or liquid across the cross-sectional area of the tower. The packed tower includes a mobile bed mass transfer stage including a packed bed of mobile packing material, such as hollow spheres.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to packed tower or packed column structures used for intimate contact between a gas and a liquid to effect mass transfer therebetween. More particularly, this invention relates to a mobile packing material arrangement for a packed tower that provides unique advantages when the method of using the tower includes cocurrent downflow contact between gas and liquid, and provides new and unexpected results in cleaning the packing material. The method of contacting gas and liquid downwardly over a bed of mobile packing material provides intimate contact between gas and liquid, and is particularly useful for gas-liquid mass transfer in relatively large absorption towers having a cross-sectional area more than about 3 ft.sup.2, where gas channeling, and surging of gas and packing material is most prevalent using counterconnect flow of gas and liquid. This invention is particularly useful in gas-liquid contacting processes where the packed tower or column is prone to undergo plugging due to the formation of solid material as a result of the gas-liquid contacting process.
2. Related Technology
It is well known that packed towers or columns are often useful for efficient gas-liquid contact to provide interactions, reactions and other mass transfer operations between gas and liquid. However, in some such operations the fluid passing through the packed bed contains suspended solid particles that tend to accumulate on the packing, eventually resulting in a reduction in gas-liquid volumetric flow rates and, in extreme cases, plugging of the tower. In particular, when such solids are being formed by chemical means within the tower, such as by crystalization of salts from solution or by precipitation of sulfur by oxidation of soluble surfides, the newly formed solid particles are prone to deposition on any surfaces with which they come into contact.
Such plugging problems occur, for example, when a packed tower is used with liquids or gases that contain particulate material, or when particulates are formed within the tower as a result of a chemical interaction, reaction or the like, that precipitates solids as a result of mass transfer between the liquid and the gas. For example, in flue gas scrubbing that utilizes a liquid stream that includes an aqueous solution or suspension of limestone or the like, to remove sulfur dioxide contained in a gas stream, a calcium sulfate precipitate is formed in the tower, and the resulting aqueous slurry causes plugging problems. Another example is a gas-liquid interphase oxidation process for removal of hydrogen sulfide from a gas stream in which the scrubbing liquid is an oxidizing solution that effects oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to form elemental sulfur particles. Such particles may cause plugging of packed towers, requiring periodic shutdown of the process for a difficult and time consuming cleaning of the tower.
Some prior processes used packed towers for contact of hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2 S)-containing gases with an aqueous iron-chelate solution or a so-called "Stretford"-type alkaline vanadium ion-containing wash solution that converts H.sub.2 S to elemental sulfur (S.degree.). The elemental sulfur formed is entrained in the liquid mixture, and removed from the liquid, e.g. by settling or filtration. In this type of H.sub.2 S removal process, some of the sulfur settles on the packing material, thereby lowering gas and liquid flow rates and, ultimately, the sulfur plugs the tower. Mobile packing beds have been used in packed towers for sulfur removal from H.sub.2 S-containing gas streams but suffer from uneven gas distribution and channeling problems, particularly in larger cross-sectional area towers, resulting in decreased efficiency.
It is well known that two of the most important characteristics necessary for effective and efficient gas-liquid mass transfer in packed towers are: 1) the tower must contain adequate passages for both the liquid and the gas streams without excessive liquid holdup or pressure drop; and 2) the tower must provide good contact between liquid and gas. The requirement of good contact between liquid and gas is the most difficult to meet, especially in large towers. Ideally, the liquid, once distributed over the top of the packing, flows in thin films over all the packing surface completely down the tower. Actually, the films tend to grow thicker in some places and thinner in others, so that the liquid collects into small rivulets and flows along localized paths through the packing. Especially at low liquid rates, and in the larger towers, some of the packing surface may be dry or covered with a stagnant film of liquid. This effect is known as "channeling" and is the main reason for poor performance in large packed towers. Similarly, a countercurrently flowing gas stream in larger towers sometimes tends to follow localized paths instead of being distributed across the entire cross-section of the tower, with a consequent increase in velocity through these localized paths, and this effect is known as "surging".
The use of mobile packing beds to decrease or eliminate packing material fouling adds to the "channeling" and "surging" problems inherent in packed towers of relatively large cross-sectional area due to the tendency of the relatively light mobile packing material to collect along the sides and other localized areas of the tower, further decreasing the desired cross-sectional uniformity of gas and liquid flow. This low efficiency problem in relatively large mobile bed gas-liquid contact devices has been recognized for many years but, to date, no adequate solution to the channeling and surging problems has been achieved. Others have provided vertical partitions in the columns between grids, to provide a plurality of partitioned packing beds between grids, thereby decreasing the cross-sectional area of each separate packing bed. This partitioning has aided the gas and liquid flow uniformity, but not completely satisfactorily, and has created other problems, such as the attendant difficulty in loading and unloading packing material and making sure that loading is done uniformly within each separate compartment.
When plugging occurs in a packed column of fixed packing material, the cleaning procedure is not easy to accomplish and is sometimes ineffective. The best method of cleaning which has been developed to date involves:
a) Shutting off the gas flow;
b) Closing the liquid drain valves at the bottom of the vessel;
c) Filling the tower with water or other aqueous cleaning solution to a level above the top of the fixed packing;
d) Bubbling gas through the vessel at a relatively high rate (.apprxeq.20 ACFM/ft.sup.2) to achieve a lifting and agitation of the packing to free the sulfur;
e) Allowing the sulfur to settle through the cleansing solution and the packing into the bottom of the scrubber,
f) Repeating d) and e) several times,
g) Draining the liquid out of the scrubber; and
h) Returning the scrubber to the normal service.
This procedure usually cleans the packing elements sufficiently for continued operation but, if not, the alternative involves mechanically removing the packing and washing it with water, which is very time-consuming and costly.
As an alternative to fixed packing elements, others have used a Mobile Bed Absorber (MBA) technique, using hollow plastic spheres of about the size and shape of ping-pong balls to replace the fixed packing in counterflow columns. This MBA technique has been used successfully in a number of applications, particularly in small columns. While this MBA countercurrent flow approach has proven satisfactory for small diameter towers there have been serious difficulties in larger diameter columns; i.e., those over about 2' in diamter. While the spherical hollow packing elements are almost always maintained in a sufficiently agitated state to prevent fouling with sulfur, high efficiency operation cannot be obtained unless the distribution of gas and liquid flow across the cross-section of the tower is very uniform. This uniformity becomes extremely difficult to obtain as the horizontal dimension of the scrubber approaches the vertical depth of the packing material when not aerated (static).
This uneven cross-sectional distribution of gas and liquid has caused serious problems in some large commercial units. Partitioning the fluidized bed into a number of small, parallel counterflow absorbers aids in providing more uniform gas and liquid flow, but achieving uniform gas flow within the compartments remains a problem, even with compartmentalization of stages. Also, in large cross-section towers, e.g. 12'.times.15' horizontal dimensions, 20 compartments measuring 3 feet by 3 feet are required, and the logistics of loading and unloading the spherical packing are difficult.
The present invention solves this gas-liquid flow problem within mobile bed packed towers, without vertically partitioning the mobile beds, by providing a method that uses cocurrent downward flow of gas and liquid over spherical mobile packing material to provide good mass transfer efficiency at an unexpectedly low pressure drop, comparing favorably with random, dumped packings, and having unexpectedly even liquid and gas flow without channeling and surging problems. The spherical shape of the light, mobile packing elements have some rotational motion during cocurrent downflow mass transfer to provide some self-cleaning and a decreased tendency to plug the tower. Further, the spherical packing shape eliminates corners and crevices between packing elements to decrease build-up of solids between packing elements. Most unexpectedly, the spherical mobile packing elements can be cleaned easily on a periodic basis, in a new, more effective and simpler manner since the spheres float in water during the cleaning cycle to separate the packing elements from the settled solids with little or no upward gas bubbling required thorugh the beds of packing material, thereby providing a liquid-filled volume for particulate settling without interference from packing material; and the spherical shape of the packing elements makes them less subject to recapture of particulates.

Multi-bed cocurrent downflow mass transfer column with spherical packing


The invention is a clamping device attaching to a bar clamp or pipe clamp which, instead of providing a flat surface for singular longitudinal compression, the device allows for angular clamping, the device having a rotating base and clamping portion allowing for perpendicular or angular force application in two angular vector directions.

None
1. Field of Invention
The invention is a clamping device attaching to a bar clamp or pipe clamp which, instead of providing a flat surface for singular longitudinal compression, the device allows for angular clamping, the device having a rotating base and clamping portion allowing for perpendicular or angular force application in two angular vector directions.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to different varieties of clamps. In a general search, several products are indicated upon which this device is to be applied and used, some of these products revealed in the web searches, indicating general descriptions of the type of clamps to which the invention is applied, namely the Bessey Clamps(copyright), found in the cited material at http://store.yahoo.com/toolsplus/bskybml.html and http://www.woodsmith.com.main/ws128 clamps long.html. However, the device may be used on any bar clamp or pipe clamp.
Bi-directional clamps allowing for compression in two perpendicular planes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 242,959 to Naglee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,257 to Gonzalez, U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,601 to Gurule and U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,589 to Smith III. These clamps indicate a clamping of inserted material in two perpendicular planes, but lack the ability to draw one piece into another for a T-joint. They also lack the ability to rotate the clamping directions to an adjusted acute angle of less than 90 degrees. U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,541 to Huray discloses a composition clamp having multiple clamping features, including a pipe holding attachment. Attachments for pipe clamps to assist in the reduction of bowing of the clamped object in a flat plane are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,060 to Novak and U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,870 to Cetnar.
Multiple component clamps are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,583 to O""Connor and U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,542 to Wolff, combined to allow for perpendicular plane joining and clamping. T-clamps are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,826, to Calvert and U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,869 to Williams used for style and rail clamps and also for right angle glueing of multiple pieces. A perpendicular board clamp is disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D 425,771 to Dearing. In U.S. Pat. No. D 279,646 to Ferdinand, the type of pipe clamp to which the current invention is applied is disclosed, the invention inserted onto the pipe in place of the sliding piece shown in FIG. 3, and the left sides of FIGS. 1 and 4-6, suing the pipe clamp embodiment of the invention.
The primary objective of the invention is to provide a adapted end for a pipe clamp or bar clamp allowing for angular clamping, primarily in dadojoints or other clamping situations where two directions of force are required. Especially in a situation where a T-joint clamp is required, none of the other inventions previously cited, allow for the holding of one piece of the joint material to be grasped while clamping that grasped piece to another piece at an angle from 90 degrees to a very acute angle.
A second objective of the invention is to provide this device adapted to fit on conventional pipe clamps and bar clamps as an accessory in addition to the already available pipe clamps and bar clamps in lieu of requiring the purchase of an entire clamp, reducing the cost to a consumer craftsman.


In an electric power steering driving unit provided with an electric motor that outputs auxiliary torque to a handwheel of a vehicle, a control apparatus having semiconductor switching devices that each control a current to the electric motor, and a noise filter that prevents noise, produced when the semiconductor switching devices each control a current to the electric motor, from being emitted, the noise filter is configured with a plurality of coils, capacitors that make pairs with the respective corresponding coils, and a bus bar that performs connections among the coils and the capacitors, and part of or all of the noise filter is configured as a structural member that is different from the control apparatus.

To date, there has been known an electric power steering driving unit that is provided with an electric motor that outputs auxiliary torque to the handwheel of a vehicle and a control apparatus that performs driving control of the electric motor and in which the control apparatus is mounted in the electric motor. In general, as the method of driving the electric motor, a PWM method is utilized; the PWM method is realized by pulse-driving the electric motor by use of a semiconductor switching device. In the case where a large current is controlled by the semiconductor switching device, a great deal of EMI noise occurs, as an adverse effect thereof. Accordingly, in order to prevent the noise from being emitted to the outside of the apparatus, a noise filter is incorporated in the control apparatus (e.g., refer to Patent Document 1).
As far as the motor driving apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is concerned, there has been proposed a motor driving apparatus in which an integrated power module is formed of a plurality of switching devices so that it can be utilized for various kinds of motors such as a brush motor and a three-phase brushless motor.
The motor driving apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a structure in which a plurality of switching devices for controlling the electric power of an electric motor are integrated into a module and this power module is mounted on a heat sink and in which a control board 33 on which small-current devices such as a microcomputer and the like are mounted is incorporated and a control unit drives the power module. The motor drive apparatus incorporates a choke coil inside the heat sink on which the power module is mounted, so that an EMI noise filter for preventing the EMI noise from leaking out of the power supply line is configured. Patent Document 1 does not describe the detail of the configuration of the filter; however, it is conceivable that a normal mode filter or a common mode filter is anticipated.

Electric power steering driving apparatus


A computer implemented internal area access communication system is used for communication between internal applications originating internal communication and running in an internal transaction area on a host computer and external applications originating external communication and running outside of the internal transaction area. Included are an external communication module to convert external communication having formats noncompliant with the internal transaction area, a virtual host terminal to run on the host computer and to execute virtual terminal functions associated with language of the external communication that is noncompliant with the internal transaction area and associated with language compliant with the internal transaction area. Also included is an access state controller to route the external and the internal communication based upon the tracked state information for the internal applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to computer applications, systems and methods, and more particularly to computer systems and methods to communicate with host internal area access systems including host bridges, bridge exits, and program exits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some conventional legacy host computer systems include host internal area access systems such as host bridges, bridge exits, and program exits to allow communication with one or more internal application programs running in internal transaction areas of the legacy host computer systems. A host internal area access system allows for one or more cycle points of the internal application programs, which give control of the internal application programs to external applications including host and client applications and modules that run outside of the internal transaction areas. This control of the internal application programs allows users of the external applications to access internal application program data, which would otherwise typically be accessed through antiquated legacy application systems. In order to access the internal application programs through a host internal area access system, the external applications typically communicate in languages oriented toward the internal transaction area of the legacy host computer system.
For instance, for its Customer Information Control System (CICS), International Business Machines (IBM) provides a host internal area access system, CICS 3270 Bridge, which allows access into CICS applications from an IBM 3270 terminal perspective. In this case, users of external applications running outside of the CICS system must first develop interfaces to communicate with host internal area access systems, such as the CICS 3270 Bridge, that are written in languages oriented to the internal transaction area of the host, such as CICS.
Unfortunately, expertise in internal transaction areas, such as CICS, is highly sophisticated, which tends to discourage development of communication between external applications and internal applications through host internal area access systems such as the CICS 3270 Bridge. This expertise typically includes knowledge of older programming and assembly languages and data structures involved with such languages as COBOL, PL/1, 370 Assembler and other languages. The expertise also generally includes, but is not limited to, the internal architecture, pseudo-conversational transactions, and conversational transactions of the internal transaction area, associated quasi-reentrant programming models, asynchronously started transactions, and continuity of multiple instantiations of multiple internal applications to achieve some overall goal.
Additionally, host internal area access systems are not designed to service other external applications such as terminal emulation applications that emulate terminals unrelated to the internal transaction area of the host computer system. Since the host internal area access systems, such as the CICS 3270 Bridge, are oriented to particular native terminals compliant with the internal transaction area 108 (such as IBM CICS), such as the IBM 3270 terminal, the host internal area access systems are not designed to handle non-native terminal communication, such as non-3270 terminal communication that is non-compliant with the internal transaction area, which further limits the utility of the host internal area access systems.
Furthermore, host internal area access systems typically do not readily facilitate secured transactions such as when usernames and passwords are used. Consequently, those involved with external applications must develop workarounds to address requirements associated with secured transactions such as providing usernames and passwords. These workarounds tend only to be partially satisfactory. For instance, external applications have limited ability to communicate with the host internal area access systems regarding aspects related to secure transactions, which results in the external applications having no feedback as to whether the usernames and passwords, which are sent, are correct. In cases when usernames and passwords are incorrectly provided by the external applications, the secured transactions with the host internal area access systems fail without indication of the failure provided to the external applications. Herein are described computer based systems and methods directed toward these and other issues.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

System and method for communication with host internal area access


A method of reconditioning a rotating blade (1) with a shroud (8) following the operation in a gas turbine, includes the application of a barrier (14) placed on the edge of the shroud (8) facing the edge of a shroud (8) of an adjacent blade having creep deformation. The barrier (14) prevents hot gas ingestion into a shroud cavity (10). It is pre-fabricated or built-up layer-by-layer by welding or laser cladding or other methods. Additionally, the mass of the shroud (8) is reduced in order to re-establish the initial mass of the shroud. A thermal barrier coating (15) is additionally applied to the surfaces of the shroud (8) that are exposed to the hot gas of the turbine. The method significantly increases the lifetime of the blade (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of reconditioning a rotating turbine blade following the use in a high temperature environment or as part of the production of a new blade and in particular to the reconditioning of the blade shroud.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Blade shrouds for gas turbines as disclosed in US 2001/0006600 are typically used to reduce primary leakages by providing a seal between the rotating blade and a stationary component, for example a honeycomb or abradable system fastened to the turbine inner casing. A typical shroud element includes a shroud platform and one or more knife-edges extending radially away from the platform with respect to the turbine rotor and towards the stationary component on the turbine casing. These knife-edges can be placed along the edges of the platform as well as on a center portion of the platform. A shroud cavity is defined by the knife-edges define together with the platform and the stationary component opposite the blade shroud.
A blade shroud constitutes an additional mass at the extreme radial distance from the blade root, which cause increased centrifugal forces and resulting stresses in the root region of the blade.
During operation of the turbine blade the shroud can be damaged by creep deformation or lifting of the shroud, mainly of the shroud platform. Such deformations of the shroud can lead to mismatches between adjacent blade shrouds and hot gas ingestion into to the shroud cavity with resulting over heating of the shroud.
Blade shrouds damaged in this way have until today been considered as irreparable. Therefore, they have been traditionally replaced by a blade with a complete new design aimed at an increased blade lifetime, which may include the design of cooling channels within the shroud in connection with a reduction of the weight of the shroud as suggested for example in US 2001/0006600.
DE 199 25 781 discloses a method for reshaping a turbine component by fixing the component to a matrix having a specified mould, immersing the component into an incompressible medium such as water or oil, and introducing a pressure wave into the medium. However, in this method the design of the blade and the driving force of the blade degradation is not changed and no increase in blade lifetime can result.

Method of reconditioning a turbine blade


A CCD imager designed to combine two consecutive lines of signal charges into a signal line to provide a picture signal according to a television system, such as NTSC with an image sensor having a photosensor array, or another television system, such as HDTV or EDTV. When the NTSC mode is selected by a selector, the vertical shift registers are clocked rapidly so that a vertical scan is repeated twice in each horizontal scanning period to reduce the number of scanning lines in half.

The present invention relates to solid-state imagers, and more specifically to solid-state imagers fabricated in conformity with the standards of a high picture quality television system.
Presently, Japan, the United States and many other countries employ the NTSC television system using a total of 525 scanning lines. The newly developed high picture quality TV system such as EDTV or HDTV, on the other hand, requires about twice as many lines as the NTSC system. Conventional solid-state imagers having pixel formats corresponding to the NTSC system are utterly incompetent for the EDTV or HDTV. Recently, research and development are being made to realize and improve imagers at the level of definition of the ED or HD system.
New imagers adapted to the EDTV or HDTV system are not readily used for the NTSC system. One way is to convert a picture signal of a new imager into a picture signal of the NTSC system by performing interpolation in the horizontal scanning period with a down converter. This technique, however, cannot provide a video camera capable of producing picture signals of both television systems by itself. In such a state of art, it is required to produce solid-state imagers on two different standards at the cost of production efficiency.

Solid-state imager for use with two different TV systems