A system and a method are provided for two-way communications, automated request handling, and push notifications, via SMS, MMS, IM, email, and other electronic messaging systems, between (1) residents confined to a secure facility, such as a jail or a prison, and (2) persons located outside the secure facility who have friendly or family relationships with the confined residents.

Because of security requirements and other considerations, residents of a detention environment are typically limited as to which persons outside of the environment they may communicate with. As such, direct, uncontrolled communications using standard telephone systems, including SMS and MMS messaging and IM, are unsuitable, and administrators of detention environments may go to great lengths to prevent such communications.
Persons wishing to communicate with individuals residing inside detention environments have limited methods and time-windows in which to have telephone and/or video calls. Outside persons normally cannot call inmates of detention environments, but can only leave voicemails, or use traditional mail or participate in visitation day. There is a need for a more convenient way for outside persons to communicate with inmates while maintaining the safety and security features that detention environments require.
Some of the limitations associated with detention environment communications result from the rules promulgated by the detention environments, some limitations result from limited availability of visitation rooms or telecommunications equipment, or funds available, while others result from conflicting schedules of the residents of the detention environment and those on the outside. Historically, staff personnel at detention environments have needed to be personally and individually involved in arranging visitations for the confined residents, and there are no suitably automated systems for managing and overcoming the above barriers.

Communications system for residents of secure facility


A pulse system for detaching ice includes a power supply for applying a high-power heating pulse to the interface between ice and an object such as a cold plate of an ice making system, an ice-container, a heat-exchanger, a refrigerator surface or an airplane wing. Pulse heating may be generated within a metal foil or resistive film disposed upon an object to be deiced, or a capillary tube proximate the object to be deiced. An interfacial layer of ice is melted and the ice is released from the object. A force, for example gravity, pressure of vaporization or mechanical scraping, removes the ice from the object.

Detaching ice from surfaces is important in applications such as, for example, deicing of equipment that is stationary or is used outdoors (e.g., aircraft, power lines, roadways, roofs), deicing of equipment that builds up ice in operation (e.g., heat exchangers, freezers), and icemaking equipment.
In conventional residential and commercial ice makers, ice is slowly grown from water cooled by a cold plate or grid. After ice growth is completed, the cold plate/grid is heated slowly above an ice melting point to release the ice; this heating stage Consumes both energy and time, thus reducing ice-maker efficiency and productivity. Moreover, it takes significant heat flow to warm up ice-maker hardware and the grown ice from ice growth temperature to the ice melting point. It then takes even more time and energy to re-cool the ice-maker hardware before new ice begins to grow.

Pulse systems and methods for detaching ice


A file shredder has an integrated unit for automatic feed of sheets of paper or similar materials. An upper device part contains a cutting mechanism, at least one drive, and a control device. A feed shaft leads from the top of the upper device part, and a secondary channel leads from a chamber-like intake opening disposed on the side, to the cutting mechanism. A hinged lid pivotable about an axis is assigned to the chamber-like intake opening, and the upper device part sits on a lower device part. A barrier is disposed near the front, lower edge of the face surface of the hinged lid, and along this edge. The barrier rests on the top sheet of the stack of sheets laid into the chamber-like intake opening, and removes any objects still adhering to this sheet, particularly staples, when the sheet is drawn in toward the cutting mechanism.

In the state of the art, file shredders of the said construction, having an automatic paper intake for continuous intake of the material, are known in many different embodiments, e.g. a ripping machine according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,205, a paper shredder according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,759, a feed device for document shredders according to DE 36 14 028 C2, a shredding device according to DE 22 14 800 A, or a file shredder according to DE 10 2006 028 828 A1.
In the case of files held together with staples, if the staples have not been removed, too many sheets of paper can be drawn in during intake, for one thing, which cannot be shredded all at the same time by the device, and therefore cause jamming in the shaft or overloading of the cutting mechanism, with the consequence that the device, the file shredder, stops the shredding process; for another thing, a sheet of paper that has been drawn in can be pulled to the back by subsequent papers with staples, so that the file shredder either cannot draw the sheet of paper in correctly and therefore terminates the shredding process, or the sheet pulls in the sheets that are stapled together, thereby causing the paper to be jammed in the file shredder and causing the shredding process to be stopped.
Since, in a normal case, the sheets/papers to be shredded consist of stapled files, the staples usually have to be removed first, before the stack of sheets is laid into the file shredder for shredding.
On the one hand, removing the staples is time-consuming, but on the other hand, the stapled papers are not automatically shredded by every file shredder, particularly those in the lower price segment. Furthermore, persons who do not often operate the file shredder forget to remove the staples before placing the stack of papers on the paper deposit zone of the file shredder.


A bed frame system for supporting a mattress. The bed frame system includes length and height adjustable bed rails. A groove is provided in each bed rail for receiving the end of a transverse support slat. A length adjustable support slat is provided. Unique height adjustable support feet are removably coupled to the bed rails and/or slidably mounted beneath the slats. Preferably, the bed rails, the slats and the support feet are formed of moldable polymeric material.

Conventional beds that consist of a mattress and box springs are commonly supported by a bed support consisting of two longitudinal bed rails extending between the comer bed posts of a footboard and a headboard to support the box springs from both lateral sides. Each bed rail is typically an elongated angle member that includes two downwardly directed hooks or fingers at each end. In this arrangement, the footboard and headboard actually support the bed rails and therefore the mattress. The bed rail hooks are designed to fit into a vertical slot in each bedpost of the headboard and footboard and hook over two horizontal pins disposed in the slot.
Conventional bed rails of the type described above are typically formed of stamped metal. Stamped metal bed rails are relatively expensive to manufacture because of the costs of the raw materials (typically steel), the metal forming processes, and a separate painting step. Moreover, the metal bed rails are heavy, substantially increasing the costs of shipping and handling the bed rails.
Mattresses of different sizes (e.g., twin size, full size, queen size, king size, and California king size) have different lengths. Bed rails as described above typically are not length adjustable. Therefore, a retailer who sells beds of different sizes and wishes to provide bed rails for each such bed must have bed rails of appropriate length for each bed size. Moreover, even if the corresponding size bed rail is available, it often does not provide a close length fit, in which case a gap may be left between the mattress and the headboard or footboard or, if no footboard is used, the frame may protrude beyond the end of the mattress. Attempts have been made to provide length adjustable bed rails as described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,080,577 to Pascale et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,933 to Silverman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,894 to Short, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,261 to Stanley et al. However, each of the described bed rails suffers from one or more drawbacks in manufacture, assembly, or effectiveness.
Today, mattresses and mattress and box spring sets are available in a range of thicknesses. In particular, so called "pillow top" mattresses have become popular. In the past, mattresses were typically only 6 to 8 inches thick. Today, premium mattresses often exceed one foot in thickness because of longer internal springs and thicker padding on both sides thereof. While they are more comfortable than older, thinner mattresses, thick mattresses cause several problems, especially with older headboards/footboard sets that were designed to be used with thinner mattresses. One problem is that esthetically footboards and headboards were normally designed so that the top of the mattress assumes a prescribed elevation relative thereto. However, with thick mattresses, the top of the mattress may rise several inches above the top of the footboard. A similar problem occurs at the head of the bed. Although a thick mattress would not likely rise above the top of most headboards, a thicker mattress may be nevertheless not achieve the esthetic appearance described. Another problem is that bed coverings such as comforters and quilts, which are intended to hang off the sides of the mattress towards the floor, are not spaced properly from the floor when they are atop a thicker mattress. Also, the pillows and upper end dressings do not properly align with the headboard. A further problem, especially with elderly people and shorter people, is that thicker mattresses result in the bed surface being at a higher elevation and thus more difficult to get in to and out of, possibly leading to injury. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide means for selectively adjusting the height of a mattress relative to the ground.
Generally, and particularly in the case of larger mattress sizes, transverse slats are provided extending between the bed rails. Typically, the ends of the slats are supported by the flanges of the bed rails which also support the edges of the mattress. The slats are often 3/4 inch or more thick. The slat thickness projects upwardly into the mattress so that the mattress is not uniformly supported. As a result, the mattress may be unstable and may have uncomfortable ridges or bulges.
Mattresses of different sizes have different widths. Thus, slats of different lengths are required for different size mattresses. Typically, the provided slats are simply wooden boards which are cut to a length corresponding to the width of the mattress. Attempts have been made to provide length adjustable slats as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,080,577 to Pascale et al, U.S. Pat. No. 1,504,897 to Brotherton Jr., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,452,808 to Tucker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,832 to Mitchell, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,884 to Spitz, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,261 to Stanley, et al. Each of these slat designs suffer from one or more drawbacks in manufacture, installation, or use.
Another problem encountered by bed retailers is the growing popularity of California king size mattresses. California king size mattresses are 4 inches longer and 6 inches narrower than conventional king size mattresses. Because the mounting slots of the headboard and footboard of a king size bed are typically preformed to fit a standard king size mattress, conventional bed rails do not properly fit the California king size mattress.
Thus, there is a need for a bed frame system having bed rails which are cost effectively manufactured. Further, the bed rail should have relatively light weight and be otherwise cost effective to ship and handle.
There is a need for a bed rail which is conveniently length adjustable and which also provides effective and substantially uniform support for a mattress. There exists a need for such a bed rail which is height adjustable to accommodate different thicknesses of mattresses. In particular, there exists a need for a bed frame system which may be assembled to custom fit and support mattresses of substantially all commonly available sizes and which, moreover, provides for selective mattress height adjustment.
Further, there exists a need for a bed rail which allows the provision of transverse support slats but which reduces or eliminates the irregularities in mattress support caused by the thickness of the slats.


A system includes a bulkhead, a seat spaced from the bulkhead, and an airbag supported by the bulkhead and inflatable towards the seat to an inflated position. The airbag in the inflated position includes a vertex spaced from the bulkhead, a knee-impacting portion tapering from the vertex downwardly and towards the bulkhead, and a head-impacting portion extending upwardly from the vertex. The head-impacting portion includes a head-receiving depression. The head-receiving depression is round.

During a vehicle impact, occupants may move in a direction influenced by the momentum of the vehicle. In a frontal vehicle impact, an occupant may be biased toward a vehicle component, e.g., an instrument panel, in front of the occupant. Some vehicle impacts, e.g., front impact, side impact, frontal offset impacts, far side oblique impact, near side oblique impact, etc., may cause the occupants to move at an angle towards vehicle components or another occupant.


A curved waveguide and a linear waveguide are formed in a planar waveguide, and the curved waveguide has a discontinuous structure broken by the planar waveguide. A light signal input to the curved waveguide is reflected at a discontinuous surface of the curved waveguide thereof, and each light is wave-divided and focused on a linear waveguide. Furthermore, each light signal having each wavelength input to the linear waveguide is wave-divided and focused on the discontinuous portion of the curved waveguide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveguide device for wave-dividing and outputting each input light signal having each wavelength that is wavelength-multiplexed and wave-multiplexing each light signal having each wavelength. In particular, the present invention relates to a multiplexing wave division device having the waveguide formed in a planar waveguide.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of optical communication, a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexing) system, which encodes a plurality of signals as respective separate division lights and transmits by way of an optical fiber, has been developed. In this system, it is required to divide or multiplex lights having different respective wavelengths so as to input and output. Conventionally , various types of devices such as array waveguide grating devices, devices utilizing gratings, and so forth have been acknowledged as such optical wave division devices. Examples of optical wave division devices utilizing the gratings are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In the device shown in FIG. 1, a linear waveguide 2 is provided on a substrate 1, and a linear chirp grating 3 is formed thereon. A planar waveguide 4 is formed parallel with the linear waveguide 2, and one or more output waveguides 5 are formed and connected to the boundary face thereof. The light input from a part of the linear waveguide 2 is reflected onto the grating 3, and input to a planar waveguide 4 through the linear waveguide 2.
The closer to the top position the grating 3 is, the smaller the period thereof becomes. Accordingly, the light transmits so as to be focused onto the boundary portion of the planar waveguide 4 as shown in the figure*1. Each focusing point having each wavelength is different from the other corresponding to the interference condition of the light depending on the wavelength on this boundary, and it becomes possible to select each light having each wavelength if the output waveguide 5 is provided in the boundary. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, another method, in which such a special grating as used in the structure of FIG. 1, has been proposed.
In the structure of FIG. 2, the grating, formed at even intervals, is provided in a curved waveguide 13 arranged in the shape of an arc, and not in a linear waveguide. Furthermore, a planar waveguide 14 is provided along the curved waveguide 13, and one or more output waveguides 15 are provided in a central position of the arc of the curved waveguide 13*2. The grating is tilted to the center of the waveguide in order for the light reflected onto the grating to gather at the center of the arc thereof According to the structure of FIG. 2, it is possible to condense the light to a point even if the grating is formed at even intervals.
It is a primary object of the present invention to replace a conventional grating with a reflecting surface capable of being manufactured through a waveguide manufacturing process. The present invention includes an output waveguide and a curved waveguide for an input in a planar waveguide, whereby the curved waveguide for the input forms a discontinuous structure. In addition, optical signals are wavelength-divided by way of reflection by the discontinuous surface thereof and each optical signal having each wavelength is focused in an output waveguide. Accordingly, it is possible to form the structure having the best suitable waveguide shape and the reflecting surface, and thus a qualified controllable device is capable of being formed.


An electronic memory which cannot be modified or erased, such as one-time programmable or add-only (OTP/AO) memory is used for storing direct or indirect indications of characteristics of a gaming terminal or its components. Preferably, a plurality of gaming terminal boards includes memory that has one or more rows of OTP/AO memory for storing information such as memory or board serial numbers, manufacture date, processor speed or type, software or hardware version numbers, and the like. Such information is preferably used in connection with assuring the appropriateness of modifications or configurations of the gaming terminal, such as downloading software or other software modification and/or changes to hardware configuration. OTP/AO information can be used in connection with verifying identity or characteristics of software or hardware, e.g. for warranty purposes. The non-erasable and non-modifiable nature of the information provides assurance that software downloads or other modifications will not be inappropriate because of inadvertent or intentional misidentification of a component.

The present invention relates an identification method and apparatus for use in identifying components of a gaming device such as a slot machine, card game machine, keno machine and the like, and, in particular, identification for machine components using a non-erasable electronic memory or memory portion such as a memory with write-once or add-only characteristics.
Many current gaming machines are configured with electronic components, commonly mounted on one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs). Many such electronic components use programming or other information stored in memories. In at least one typical configuration, a gaming terminal or gaming machine will include a controller board, a communications board or module, and one or more so-called peripheral boards such as a display controller board, a currency acceptor board, a coin handler board, and the like. Typically one or more of the boards, such as, e.g., the game controller board, a processor (microprocessor) or other computer unit which often operates based on programming or other information (software or firmware) stored in a memory such as one or more electronically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMS). Such software or firmware may be programmed or stored in the memory locations during the manufacturing or assembly of the gaming device. Additionally, software or firmware may be provided to replace or supplement the software or firmware in a gaming device which is in operation (in the field), e.g. to update the machine configuration (such as adding new features, new games and the like, and/or to correct programming errors). In either case, the new firmware or software is transferred or xe2x80x9cdownloadedxe2x80x9d from a source (which may be, e.g., a computer such as a workstation, personal computer, laptop computer, and the like) to the xe2x80x9ctargetxe2x80x9d memory in a particular gaming terminal or machine.
Although downloading from one computer to another is, in general, a process that is currently known, downloading software or firmware to components of gaming devices presents particular problems not readily addressed by conventional downloading techniques and apparatus.
One feature applicable to gaming device downloading is the stringent regulatory oversight and control exercised by gaming regulatory authorities in many jurisdictions. In many, and perhaps all, regulated gaming jurisdictions, downloading of software or firmware to a gaming terminal will not be permitted without some assurance that the new software or firmware will comply with local regulations. For example, a gaming regulatory authority in one jurisdiction may require assurance that downloading to, e.g., update bill acceptor software will result in a machine having bill acceptor software appropriate (and approved) for that jurisdiction (and will not, e.g., run the risk of inadvertently and/or intentionally downloading bill acceptor software that was approved in a different jurisdiction, or not at all).
It is also commonly found that gaming devices occur in a wide variety of configurations, such as employing numerous different types of processors, memories, game configurations, versions and types, peripheral hardware and software and the like. Additionally, owing to differences in manufacturing dates, maintenance history and the like, gaming devices are often encountered with a wide variety of different hardware and software components which may not be apparent (or may be discernable only with difficulty) from a visual inspection of the gaming device, its components or operation. For this reason, when it is desired to download software to a particular gaming terminal, it is typically necessary to select a particular software version for downloading, bearing in mind the types of software and hardware found on the particular gaming terminal, lest the newly-downloaded software is incompatible with the gaming terminal or results in operation which is not approved by a particular jurisdiction. Additionally, it is possible that the software or firmware which is to be downloaded is, in fact, already present on a particular gaming terminal so that the download process represents a waste of time and effort.
In typical previous situations, in order to download software or firmware to a gaming terminal, characteristics of the gaming terminal and/or its components were determined manually, such as by visually inspecting the components and/or running tests of diagnostics on a component in an attempt to determine characteristics such as the version or type of a particular board, the processor speed associated with a particular board, the version of software or hardware components, and the like. Such manual determination of characteristics has, in the past, typically required a significant investment of time, especially when a relatively large number of gaming terminals are being programmed or re-programmed, and, to make matters worse, the time investment is typically made by relatively highly-trained personnel who have the background and experience required to analyze the hardware/software components that are present. Such investment of time by relatively highly-trained personnel represents a significant expense involved in downloading information which, owing at least partly to the regulatory environment found for gaming devices, was previously believed to be largely unavoidable. Furthermore, it has been found that even relatively highly-trained personnel have a undesirably high error rate when attempting to determine characteristics needed for a download, which may lead to inoperability or improper operation of a gaming device, violation of gaming jurisdiction laws or rules and may require an additional investment of time to detect and/or correct such errors.
In addition to a downloading context, identification of gaming device components or component characteristics may be useful in the context of gaming device maintenance, service or warranty fulfillment. For example, when determining whether a repair of a gaming terminal is covered by a warranty, it may be necessary to determine when the gaming terminal was manufactured or when one of the components was manufactured or last repaired or revised.
Another feature of many gaming devices which affects the manner in which revisions of software or firmware (or hardware) can or should be performed is the fact that gaming devices are often configured to dispense money so that there is a potential for modifications or downloads to be intentionally performed in an unauthorized fashion in such a manner as to create unauthorized or improper payouts. This is a potential which is typically not present in many other types of downloads from one computer to another. Accordingly, it is important, not only to gaming regulatory authorities but also casinos or other game operators, to achieve a level of confidence that, not only will inadvertent (e.g. cross-jurisdictional) downloads be avoided, but there are procedures in place to avoid or prevent intentional or unauthorized downloads.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for downloading by which the characteristics of a gaming terminal needed to avoid inadvertent or intentional improper downloads can be determined substantially automatically, i.e. while reducing, or, preferably, eliminating the need for manual characteristic determination, visual inspection of machines, their components or operation and the like. It would be particularly advantageous to provide a download process which can obtain such gaming terminal or gaming terminal component characteristics entirely automatically, i.e. using only computers or other machines and without the need for any human input or effort to accomplish such determination of characteristics. It would further be advantageous to provide such a system and method which would reduce or eliminate the potential for errors in, or unauthorized tampering with, the identification system.
The present invention includes providing gaming terminal or gaming terminal components with information usable for characterizing gaming terminal components, which is electronically stored in a memory or portion of memory which is add-only memory (AO) or one-time programmable (OTP) memory. By storing, in such memory, information which either uniquely identifies a component or identifies characteristics of a component, it is possible to configure a download system which can automatically obtain the information needed to perform a download while achieving a level of security required to make such automatic download feasible in view of the requirements of gaming regulators and/or game operators. In one embodiment, a game controller card and a plurality of peripheral cards are each provided with certain memory locations which contain information in a fashion that such information, as a practical matter, cannot be erased or changed. Such memory locations can be used to store, e.g., a unique serial number or other unique identifier, hardware characteristic information such as processor type or speed, vendor identification, date of manufacture, and the like. In this way, before downloading information to a gaming terminal, it is possible to automatically (substantially without human intervention or effort) verify that the download will be proper, such as to verify that the jurisdiction for which the gaming terminal is configured (or where the casino or other purchaser is located) is the same as the jurisdiction for which the new software has been approved, to verify that the clock speed and/or data transfer speed for which the new software is designed (or at which the download is to take place) is compatible with the clock speed of the gaming terminal or its component, that the software to be downloaded is known to be compatible with other software and/or hardware on the gaming terminal that will remain in place, and the like.

Gaming device identification method and apparatus


An image processing apparatus has an obtaining unit configured to obtain a region from a medical image, and a generating unit configured to generate a display image by superimposing, on the basis of a position being in a schema image and corresponding to the region, an image of the region on a diagram representing a human body structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer program, used for the display of a schema.
2. Description of the Related Art
Before medical documents such as charts and image diagnostic reports were made electronically available, doctors used to draw a schema by hand on a paper-based medical document. The term "schema" generally refers to a "diagrammatic illustration" or "sketch". In the field of medicine, however, the term "schema" refers to a diagram representing a structure of a predetermined part of a human body. In recent years, medical information systems, such as a hospital information system (HIS) and a picture archiving and communication system (PACS), have become increasingly widespread. As these medical information systems have become widespread, medical documents are gradually being made electronically available. That is, medical support apparatuses capable of using information equipment to electronically generate and display medical documents (e.g., charts and image diagnostic reports) that otherwise used to be drawn by hand by doctors, are beginning to be used, which apparatuses are further capable of communicating with other medical information systems.
During generation of an electronic medical document, text can typically be relatively easily input using a keyboard. Also, graphics of many shapes can be drawn by manipulating an input device, such as a mouse or tablet. Then, loci drawn by manipulating such an input device can be input as line drawing information. However, generation of a schema typically involves drawing of a human body structure having a fairly complex shape, and thus cannot be easily made using a mouse or tablet.
Accordingly, a medical support apparatus may store many templates of schema images (hereinafter each such template is referred to as a "basic schema") in advance, and allow a doctor to select a basic schema therefrom. After selecting a basic schema, the doctor draws, on the selected basic schema, a simple graphic representing an affected area. Thus, a schema can be relatively easily generated thereby.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-181146 proposes a technique in which a shape of an anatomic structure (e.g., an organ) of a subject is estimated from a medical image, and the estimated shape is compared with a shape of an anatomic structure represented by a basic schema. When a doctor specifies a position of an affected area on the medical image, the corresponding position on the basic schema can be displayed. Thus, a graphic representing the affected area can be drawn at an appropriate position on the basic schema.
The proposed technique allows easy use of a schema on an electronic chart. The use of a schema may be advantageous in that a positional relationship between a body part and an affected area can be clearly presented to the doctor. However, there may be a disadvantage in that since information about the affected area can only be presented as a simple graphic, it may be difficult to obtain detailed information about the affected area from the schema.
With the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-181146, when a doctor specifies a position of an affected area on a medical image, the corresponding position on a basic schema can be displayed. Therefore, the affected area can be drawn relatively accurately only in terms of the position of the affected area. However, this technique may only allow a position specified on a medical image by a doctor to be displayed on a schema, and may not allow detailed information about an affected area to be presented to the doctor.
Detailed information about an affected area may be recorded as a medical image (e.g., roentgen image, X-ray computerized tomography (CT) image, positron emission tomography (PET) image, or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image). Since a basic schema is an image that is not dependent on a specific patient, a medical image and a basic schema are given as different images. Therefore, when a doctor wants to obtain detailed information about an affected area, it may be necessary to refer to the medical image separately from the basic schema. However, if the doctor refers to the medical image and the basic schema separately, it may not be possible to take advantage of the schema to clearly present a positional relationship between a body part and an affected area to the doctor.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program storage medium


An encoding device (200) is comprised of a band dividing unit (201) that divides an input signal (207) into a low frequency signal (208) representing a signal in the lower frequency band and a high frequency signal (209) representing a signal in the higher frequency band, a lower frequency band encoding unit (202) that encodes the low frequency signal (208) and generates a low frequency code (213), a similarity judging unit (203) that judges similarity between the high frequency signal (209) and the low frequency signal (208) and generates switching information (210), “n” higher frequency band encoding units 205 that encode the high frequency signal (209) through respective encoding methods and generate a high frequency code (212), a switching unit (204) that selects one of the higher frequency band encoding units (205) and has the selected higher frequency band encoding unit (205) perform encoding, and a code multiplexing unit (206) that multiplexes the low frequency code (213), the high frequency code (212) and the switching information (210), and generates an output code (214).

As a technology to encode a general audio signal to be represented by a small amount of bits for acquiring a high-quality reproduction signal, there is a well-known method utilizing band division encoding. Such method is realized by dividing an inputted audio signal into a signal having a plurality of frequency bands through band division filter, or by transforming an inputted audio signal into a signal in the frequency domain through a time-frequency transform such as Fourier transform and dividing the resulting signal into a plurality of bands in the frequency domain, which is followed by the allocation of appropriate encoding bits to each band. The reason why band division encoding provides a high-quality reproduction signal is that processing on the basis of human auditory characteristics is performed in such method at the encoding stage. Generally, the human sense of hearing is less sensitive to a high-frequency sound at around 10 kHz and to a sound at a low level. Furthermore, there is a well-known phenomenon called frequency masking, due to which it is difficult for a person, when there is a high level sound in a certain frequency band, to perceive a lower level sound in the proximity of such frequency band. Concerning such sounds that are hard to be perceived because of the human auditory characteristics, it results in little contribution to the improvement in the quality of a reproduction signal even if encoding is performed by allocating a large number of bits and therefore there is no point of performing such encoding. This means, however, that it is possible to improve the quality of a reproduction signal by allocating encoding bits which are allocated to the parts a person cannot perceive well without taking into account the human auditory characteristics, to the parts to which the human hearing is sensitive, and then by performing a detailed encoding for such parts.
As a representative example of encoding utilizing the above-mentioned band division, exists ISO standard MPEG-4 AAC (ISO/IEC 14496-3). The following explains the operation of the MPEG-4 AAC (to be referred to as "AAC" hereinafter) with reference to figures.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an encoding device 100 in accordance with the conventional AAC system. The encoding device 100 is an encoding device for evaluating an input signal 109 on the basis of the human auditory characteristics so as to encode such input signal 109 by allocating the amount of bits according to the result of such evaluation. Such encoding device 100 is comprised of an auditory characteristics evaluating unit 101, a transform block length selecting unit 102, an MDCT transforming unit 103, a band dividing unit 104, a spectral signal processing unit 105, a bit allocating unit 106, a quantizing unit 107, and a code multiplexing unit 108. The input signal 109 is divided in units of 1024 samples which is the basic frame length per frame and then is inputted to the auditory characteristics evaluating unit 101 and the MDCT transforming unit 103. The auditory characteristics evaluating unit 101 evaluates the input signal 109 according to the human auditory characteristics and outputs an auditory characteristics evaluated value 110. The transform block length selecting unit 102 selects a transform block length suited to encode the input signal 109 according to the auditory characteristics evaluated value 110 and outputs the selected transform block length to the MDCT transforming unit 103. Then the MDCT transforming unit 103 transforms the input signal 109 into MDCT coefficients 111 with such selected transform block length. In the case of the AAC, a transform block length is 128 samples or 1024 samples. The shorter transform block length is provided if the input signal 109 is a transient signal, while the longer transform block length is provided if the input signal 109 is a stationary signal.
MDCT (Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) employed here is a kind of cosine transform, and the determined MDCT coefficients 111 serve as coefficients representing the frequency spectrum of the input signal 109. The determined MDCT coefficients 111 are divided into a plurality of frequency bands (sub-bands) by the band dividing unit 104. Then, for MDCT coefficients 112 divided into each frequency band, the spectral signal processing unit 105 makes such predictions as contribute to encoding of an increased efficiency and performs noise shaping on the basis of the auditory characteristics evaluated value 110. Moreover, if the input signal 109 is such signal as a stereo signal made up a plurality of channels, the spectral signal processing unit 105 performs processing called joint stereo which enhances the efficiency of encoding by utilizing an inter-channel correlation of signals. Furthermore, there is a case where processing called PNS (Perceptual Noise Substitution) is carried out, a detailed explanation of which is given later.
Meanwhile, information concerning what kind of processing is performed in the spectral signal processing unit 105 is outputted as an auxiliary information code 114. The bit allocating unit 106 determines bit allocation 115 required for quantization and outputs such bit allocation 115 to the quantizing unit 107. The quantizing unit 107 quantizes MDCT coefficients 113 for which processing is performed in the spectral signal processing unit 105 with the number of bits indicated by the bit allocation 115. Quantization is performed for a combination of normalized gain information of each sub-band called the scale factor and values of MDCT coefficients normalized by the scale factor. The code multiplexing unit 108 multiplexes the auxiliary information code 114 outputted from the spectral signal processing unit 105 with a spectral code 116 outputted from the quantizing unit 107 and then puts the resulting code into a specified format to output it as an output code 117. Note that in the case of the AAC, since the number of bits to be allocated for the basic frame can be arbitrarily determined on a per-frame basis, encoding is basically performed at a variable bit rate. However, by providing a buffer called bit reservoir before the final output processing so as to have such buffer absorb bit rate variations of each frame, it is possible for a signal to be transmitted at a fixed bit rate.
Next, an explanation is provided for PNS processing. In PNS, it is judged whether or not the above-mentioned each sub-band has noise characteristics in terms of the auditory sense. When judged to have noise characteristics, MDCT coefficients in such band are substituted with a noise signal to be generated randomly. Since there is no need for quantizing values of MDCT coefficient in a band substituted with a noise signal and therefore only the gain information corresponding to the scale factor needs to be quantized, it is possible to make a significant reduction in the number of encoding bits required for quantization.
Through such encoding processing, the AAC enables a high-quality encoding of a stereo signal in a wide band at 20 Hz 16 kHz or over at around 96 kbps, for instance.
However, when the bit rate is further lowered to around 48 kbps, for example, there occurs a problem that the bandwidth of a stereo signal for which high-quality encoding is possible becomes narrower, resulting in a muffled sound from an audibility standpoint.
Furthermore, too frequent use of PNS for the sake of reducing the number of encoding bits of MDCT coefficients at the stage of lowering the bit rate leads to an increase of parts to be substituted with a noise signal, and therefore the resulting sound is with much noise and distortion even to human ears.
In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention aims at providing an encoding device, a decoding device, an encoding method, and a decoding method which allow high-quality decoding of an audio signal in a wide bandwidth on the part of the decoding device which receives a code, when transmitting the code of such audio signal encoded in the encoding device at a low bit rate.

Band-division encoder utilizing a plurality of encoding units

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


In the color imaging element and the imaging device according to an aspect of the present invention, a basic array pattern is repeatedly placed in a first direction and in a second direction, the basic array pattern includes four or more rectangular patterns each corresponding to 3×2 pixels each composed of a first filter, a color filter array includes therein grating filter lines surrounding the four directions of the rectangular pattern, the color filter array includes therein the first filters each disposed in each line in the first direction, in the second direction, in a third direction, and in a fourth direction, and the basic array pattern includes therein one or more second filters of each color, each disposed in each line in the first direction in the second direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color imaging element and an imaging device and, in particular, relates to a color imaging element capable of reducing occurrence of color moire and achieving high resolution, and an imaging device using such a color imaging element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a single-plate color imaging element, a single color filter is provided on each pixel, and hence each pixel has color information about only a single color. For this reason, an output image of a single-plate color imaging element is a RAW image (mosaic image), and thus multichannel images are obtained by a process (demosaicing process) of interpolating a pixel of a missing color from surrounding pixels. What matters in this case is reproduction characteristics of a high frequency image signal. The color imaging element is likely to cause aliasing in a captured image in comparison with a monochrome imaging element, and thus it is important to achieve a high resolution by expanding a reproduction band while reducing occurrence of color moire (false color).
In a primary color Bayer array as a color array of color filters most widely used in the single-plate color imaging elements, green (G) pixels are placed in a checkered pattern, and red (R) and blue (B) pixels are disposed line-sequentially. Thus, there is a problem with reproduction precision when G signals generate high frequency signals in diagonal directions, and when R and B signals generate high frequency signals in horizontal and vertical directions.
Assume a case where a monochrome vertical stripe pattern (high frequency image) as indicated by the (A) portion in FIG. 14 is incident on a color imaging element including color filters in a Bayer array indicated by the (B) portion in FIG. 14. When this pattern is disposed in a Bayer color array and compared for each color, R forms a light and flat color image, B forms a dark and flat color image, and G forms a light and dark mosaic color image as indicated by the (C) to (E) portions in FIG. 14. There is no density difference (level difference) between RGB with respect to the original monochrome image, but the image is colored depending on a color array and an input frequency.
Similarly, assume a case where a diagonally monochrome high frequency image as indicated by the (A) portion in FIG. 15 is incident on an imaging element including color filters of a Bayer array indicated by the (B) portion in FIG. 15. When this pattern is disposed in a Bayer color array and compared for each color, R and B form light and flat color images, and G forms a dark and flat color image as indicated by the (C) to (E) portions in FIG. 15. Assuming that a value of black is 0 and a value of white is 255, the diagonally monochrome high frequency image turns green since only G is 255. Thus, the Bayer array cannot correctly reproduce a diagonal high frequency image.
Generally, in an imaging device using single-plate color imaging elements, optical low pass filters made of a birefringent material such as crystal are placed in front of the color imaging elements to optically reduce a high frequency wave, thereby avoiding this problem. This method can reduce coloring due to aliasing of a high frequency signal, but has a problem that the resolution lowers due to a negative effect of this method.
In order to solve such a problem, a color imaging element has been proposed, wherein a color filter array of the color imaging element is a three-color random array satisfying array limitation conditions in which arbitrary pixels of interest are adjacent to three colors including colors of the pixels of interest on any of four sides of the pixels of interest Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-308080).
In addition, an image sensor (color imaging element) with a color filter array has been proposed, wherein the image sensor includes a plurality of filters having different spectral sensitivities and in which first filters and second filters are alternately disposed in a first period in one of diagonal directions of a pixel grid of the image sensor, while the first filters and second filters are alternately disposed in a second period in the other one of the diagonal directions (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-136766).
Further, a color array has been proposed, wherein the color array in a color solid state imaging element (color imaging element) of three primary colors of RGB equalizes appearance probabilities of each RGB by disposing sets of three pixels of horizontally-disposed R, G and B in a zig-zag pattern in the vertical direction, and allows arbitrary straight lines (horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines) on an imaging surface to pass through all colors (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-285012).
Furthermore, a color imaging element has been proposed, wherein R and B of the three primary colors of RGB are disposed every third pixel in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction, and G is disposed between the R and B (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-23543).

Color imaging element and imaging device


A delivery slip 10 includes a first sheet 11 having a first sheet base 11A, both surfaces of which are provided with print letters P1; and a second sheet 12, which is provided separately from the first sheet 11, and, one surface of a second sheet base 12A is provided with an adhesive layer 12B, while the other surface is provided with print letters P2. The first sheet 11, being in a folded state, is temporarily stuck to the second sheet 12 through a releasable treatment layer 11B, and is to be held between the second sheet 12 and an adherend W by attaching the adhesive layer 12B, which is exposed outside of the first sheet 11, to the adherend W.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a delivery slip, and more particularly to a delivery slip capable of maintaining information necessary to be secret concerning a product via home-delivery in a concealed state, and also capable of responding to even when the information volume increases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the universal spread of Internet shopping, TV shopping, and the like, mail-order sales have become popular in addition to traditional over-the-counter sales, and a distribution system by delivery companies to deliver products to consumers on behalf of sellers has been increasingly common. Consequently, leaks of information about the products such as the product name and price may be caused through the delivery slips. These information identify the products bought by the consumers, therefore such information are confidential information greatly concerning privacy of the consumers. Also from the perspective of discouraging theft during the course of distribution, they should be confidential information because the product value can be figured out from the product price.
As a delivery slip described above, an example is disclosed in the patent document 1. The delivery slip includes a duplicate attachment label which is positioned on the front surface of an adherend when attaching thereto; a receipt and a delivered label portions which are provided side by side with the duplicate attachment label; and an original attachment label; being arranged that an adhesive layer provided to the original attachment label and adhesive layers provided to the outer sides of the duplicate attachment label are to be attached to the adherend in a state where the original attachment label is folded and positioned on the back surface side of the duplicate attachment label.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-67546


A protection device for the floor of a land vehicle against mines, said device comprising at least one caisson with a convex external surface oriented towards the ground wherein said caisson incorporates a median part arranged between two lateral walls and extending over the full length of said caisson, the median part of said caisson being of a thickness (E) greater than that (e) of said lateral walls and being designed so as to transmit the stress, when a mine detonates, towards said lateral walls.

1. Field of the Invention
The technical scope of the invention is that of devices to ensure the protection of the floor of a land vehicle against mines.
2. Description of the Related Art
To protect the floor of a land vehicle it is known to position armor under the floor so as to absorb and/or deviate the blast produced by the mine. Know armor comprises one or several metallic or composite layers and possibly deflector means.
Patent DE10144208 thus describes armor incorporating a convex caisson covering the vehicle floor. The shape of the caisson ensures the deviation of part of the mine's blast.
These known types of armor or protection devices are usually of constant thickness over the full width to be protected and are defined according to the maximal constraints generated by the mine. This results in a considerable mass for the armor which prejudices the vehicle's mobility. It also results in reduced ground clearance.
A device to protect a vehicle floor is known by patent WO03/102489 which comprises different elements fixed by bolts (two longitudinal beams, transversal beams, oblique lateral beams, and armor plates). In such a device there are several armor plates fastened to the beams and covering specific zones of reduced dimension. The architecture is not optimized with regard to the transmission of stresses.

Protection device for the floor of a land vehicle


A locking manhole insert to be placed under a conventional manhole cover to prevent unauthorized access to the manhole. The insert includes a plate-shaped disc with a plurality of locking radial arms mounted to its undersurface. The locking radial arms are securable in the extended position using a conventional padlock. The insert further includes apparatus for suspending equipment, such as pollution monitoring units, within the manhole opening.

The present invention relates to a locking manhole insert and more specifically to a locking manhole insert designed to be placed under an existing manhole cover for the security of any equipment which might be placed thereunder.
To monitor for unauthorized effluent pollutants, environmental monitoring equipment often is installed through manholes into sanitary sewer and stormsewer pipes. The monitoring equipment is typically left in a single location for an extended period of time (e.g. one week) and then removed for data extraction. Such equipment is generally well known in the environmental testing art.
Unfortunately such equipment sometimes is tampered with since it is left unattended by authorized personnel for many days. Tampering may be for the purpose of intentionally affecting (e.g. improving) the acquired data. Tampering may also occur by curious people who want to see what was placed in the hole. Obviously, any tampering is undesirable.
Applicant is not aware of any commercially available device for securing the testing equipment within the manhole. However, Applicant is aware that locking manhole covers are shown in the patent literature.
One such locking manhole cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,392, issued Jan. 21, 1992, to Marchese. The Marchese cover has radial locking arms mounted on the underside of an otherwise generally conventional manhole cover. These radial arms are retracted and extended by rotating an actuating disc that is accessible through a vent hole in the cover. A key is provided that extends through the vent hole and is used to rotate the disc.
A second locking manhole cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,755, issued on Oct. 23, 1990, to Lewis et al. The Lewis cover also has radial locking arms attached to an actuating disc that is mounted on the underside of an otherwise generally conventional manhole cover. The actuating disc is spring-biased upwardly toward the cover and has a series of locking pins that engage holes in the cover. The actuating disc is accessed through a vent in the cover using a special key. To turn the actuating disc, one must use the special key to force the plate downward, so as to disengage the locking pins from the cover, and rotate the disc.
Marchese and Lewis suffer from a series of shortcomings. First, both inventions are designed to be used in place of an existing manhole cover. Therefore, they must meet the structural requirements of a conventional manhole cover. This makes them expensive to fabricate and, as a result of their weight, burdensome to use. Second, both locking manhole covers require a special key to actuate the locking mechanism. This means that an individual who gains access to a single key can unlock and remove all covers. In this sense, the covers are not truly secure. Third, if the locking mechanism malfunctions, or the key is misplaced, it may be necessary to damage or destroy the locking cover in order to remove it from the manhole frame.


A portable bridge device and methods for transmitting application data from the portable bridge device to one or more local devices of varying types, platforms and operating systems are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises establishing communication channels between the portable bridge device and first and second local devices, determining a platform or operating system of the local devices, and formatting, based on the determined platform or operating system, application data and transmitting the formatted application data to a portable bridge device interface module of the local devices via the communication channels. The portable bridge device may also establish a long-range communication channel to a remote computing device, and may operate as a gateway to a remote source of applications or resources. Operation of locally connected devices with the portable bridge device is not impacted by a temporary loss of connectivity between the portable bridge device and remote sources.

In order to provide access to up-to-date data (e.g. e-mail, databases, files such as word processing documents and presentations, etc.) across a number of devices, some known systems provide access to services and applications used by mobile devices and local computers using a "cloud". Cloud computing typically refers to the consumption of computing resources that are made available over a network such as the Internet. Cloud-based applications may be accessed by client devices through a web browser or a local module, for example, with the applications being hosted and application data being stored primarily on remote servers. For example, common applications (e.g., e-mail, calendar, tasks, and contacts) may be serviced from a cloud, and data used by the application may be periodically synchronized between local devices and the cloud.
To control access to sensitive data, for example corporate data, one approach is to provide users with "secure" endpoint devices from which they can access the sensitive data. For example, a user may be provided with a laptop or other mobile communication device that provides a sufficient level of security features (e.g. device access control, encrypted communications and/or file storage, remote wipe capabilities) so that a corporate IT department may be reasonably assured that data transferred to or from, or stored on such a device is secure.


There is provided an antitumor medicine comprising 1,5-D-anhydrofructose and/or ascopyrone. The antitumor medicine has effects of ascopyrone in inhibiting the growth and metastasis of tumors, is expected to inhibit inflammation and exerts an excellent effect on prognosis.

1,5-D-anhydrofructose (hereinafter may be abbreviated as "1,5-AF") can be produced by using α-1,4-glucan lyase which is an enzyme contained in a certain kind of ascomycete or red alga and using starch or decomposed starch as a substrate. 1,5-D-anhydrofructose has an interesting, peculiar structure, dehydrated form of glucose. It has already been reported that 1,5-AF has antioxidative activity (refer to JP-A 9-505988 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")) and antimicrobial activity (refer to JP-A 2001-89377). Further, it has been reported in recent studies that 1,5-AF also has an antihyperglycemic effect (refer to JP-A 2003-519660). It has been receiving attention as novel sugar having bioactivity.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that ascopyrone can be prepared from an enzyme reaction of 1,5-D-anhydrofructose (refer to WO03/38084, WO03/38085and WO03/38107). It has been known that ascopyrone is biosynthesized by a certain kind of ascomycete (refer to M. A. Baute., phytochemistry, 33, (1991) 41-45). It has been reported that ascopyrone can also be prepared by causing a fungi extract of Pezizales orders such as Picaria leiocarpa and Anthracobia melaloma and Tuberales orders such as Tuber melanosporum to act on 1,5-D-anhydrofructose.
Ascopyrone P
(2-hydroxymethyl-5-hydroxy-2,3-dihydro-4H-pyran-4-one) was prepared by a group of U.S. scientists in 1978 and 1981 by thermally decomposing amylopectin, amylose and cellulose for the purpose of using ascopyrone P as a staring material for organic synthesis (refer to Shafizadeh, F., et al., Carbohydr. Res., 67, (1978) 433to 447and Stevenson, F., et al., Carbohydr. Res., 90, (1981) 319 to 325).
It has been reported that as in the case of 1,5-D-anhydrofructose, ascopyrone P (hereinafter may be abbreviated as "APP") also has antioxidative activity and antimicrobial activity (refer to WO02/26060, WO02/26061 and WO00/56838).
Most of antitumor medicines used in clinics at present have a pro-oxidant effect according to their chemical nature and have a high possibility of causing a side effect such as hepatopathy, nephropathy, bone marrow suppression or pneumonopathy. In contrast, 1,5-D-anhydrofructose and ascopyrone have antioxidative activity and also inhibit activation of inflammatory cells. It is assumed that they thereby attenuate such inflammatory tissue damage as seen in antitumor medicines such as bleomycin and cisplatin. Accordingly, by use of the antitumor medicine of the present invention in combination with other antitumor medicines, not only enhancement of antitumor effect but also application to a chemotherapy aid which alleviates side effects can be expected.


A programmable calculator includes: a display unit; a calculation processing section configured to perform calculation processing; a calculation screen display control section configured to control the display unit to display a calculation screen; a base state setting section configured to set, as a base state, a calculation state; a base state storing section configured to store the base state that is set together with the calculation screen corresponding to the base state; an operation pattern storing section configured to store an operation pattern of a series of user operations that are input after the base state was set by the base state setting section; and a guide display control section configured to control the display unit to display a calculation screen corresponding to the arbitrary base state stored in the base state storing section, and to display, as guide indications, the stored operation pattern.

Conventionally, electronic calculators called graphing calculators (graphical scientific calculators) are in wide practical use, which are capable of calculating various function formulae input thereto and display calculation results numerically or graphically.
The graphing calculators are used in classrooms for learning calculation methods of various function formulae and graphical output of a locus of each function formulae.
For example, each student inputs operations for solving an exercise problem given by a teacher, causes its calculation or graphical display, and checks a result. More specifically, each student inputs operations following a manner of calculator operation that is performed actually by the teacher or shown on a distributed printouts of an operation manual and checks a displayed calculation result and a graph locus.
Whereas such graphing calculators have a wide variety of functions and capable of performing various kinds of calculation/display processing, each student is required to remember operation procedures corresponding to respective functions in order to fully utilize those wide variety of functions. There is a problem that even if students are taught to learn the operation procedures of prescribed functions in such a manner that a teacher demonstrates the operation procedures or distributes printouts of an operation manual, it is difficult for the student to learn them.
In view of the above, an electronic apparatus and its program have been proposed which allow students to easily learn operation procedures of a scientific calculator in the following manner. Pieces of information of key input operations performed by a teacher to solve exercise problems by using an emulator of a scientific calculator installed in a personal programmable calculator (PC), for example, are registered in advance as a learning assist program. The registered learning assist program is transmitted to scientific calculators of respective students over a communication network. Each student himself or herself manipulates necessary keys according to key input operation information while running, on his or her scientific calculator, the learning assist program transmitted from the PC of the teacher and causing related displays. An example of such system is disclosed in JP-A-2003-186383.
The above described conventional electronic apparatus and program allow each student to manipulate appropriate keys easily by themselves according to key input operation information which is displayed as guide indications according to the learning assist program transmitted to his or her scientific calculator.
On the other hand, key input operation information of each exercise problem or the like that is registered as part of the learning assist program can only be registered as a series of pieces of key input operation information (from its start to end) As a result, where, for example, an exercise problem is registered that requests students to draw and display a graph of a certain function formula and then to integrate it, determine an intersection, change a parameter value, or do a like operation, all pieces of key input operation information are set as a series and can only be displayed as guide indications in the registered order.
In addition, if three exercises of "integrating a graph of the function formula," "determining an intersection," and "changing a parameter value" should be registered independently, in the work of registering the individual exercises the same operation procedure needs to be executed repeatedly from the input of the function formula to the drawing and display of a graph.

Programmable calculator having guided calculation mode


An exercise bicycle includes a frame and a driven wheel. The frame has a base, a driven member which has an end pivotably connected to the base, and a contacting portion disposed on the driven member. The driven wheel, which is rotatably connected to the base, includes a rolling face contacted with the contacting portion. When the driven wheel is driven to rotate, the driven member will pivot reciprocatingly on a point where the driven member is connected with the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to exercise apparatuses, and more particularly, to an exercise bicycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional indoor exercise bicycle is composed of a main frame 1, a handrail 2, a saddle 3, a transmission set 4, and a resistance device 5. The transmission set 4 includes a pedal 4a, a crank 4b, a driving wheel (not shown), a driven wheel 4c, and a belt (not shown) running on the driving wheel and driven wheel 4c. The user keeps pedaling the pedal 4a to drive the driving wheel to rotate, and then the driven wheel 4c is driven to rotate by the driving wheel via the belt. The resistance device 5 offers an appropriate resistance against the rotation of the driven wheel 4c.
Although the user can do lots of pedaling exercise stationarily on the indoor exercise bicycle to strengthen the muscle of the legs by the simulation of riding a bicycle, the exercise bicycle only enables the user to exercise the muscle of the legs.


Method for the treatment of inflammation and pain associated with inflammatory dermatoses, gingivitis and acute injury with a composition of finely divided powder of safflower seed or its extract contained in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to treatment of mammals by reducing inflammation that triggers the onset of rheumatic diseases, eczema, urticaria, psoriasis, erythema multiforme and lichen planus; inflammation of the gums, and chronic locaized bodily pain derived from acute injury. The present invention is also directed to the treatment of delaying menopause.
2. Reported Developments
Rheumatoid arthritis (hereinafter sometimes referred to as RA) is a common type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the lining of the joints and sometimes other internal organs. RA tends to persist for many years, typically affects many different joints throughout the body, and ultimately can cause damage to cartilage, bones, tendons and ligaments. RA is a chronic, inflammatory, connective-tissue disorder affecting more than five million individuals in the U.S., and accounting for considerable disability in terms of missed work, lost wages, and reduced productivity. The disease can occur at any age, but it most commonly begins in the third to fifth decades of life.
The American College of Rheumotology has established criteria of the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis which include:
1. Morning stiffness lasting at least one hour;
2. Swelling of three or more joints;
3. Swelling of the wrist, metacarpophalangeal or proximal interphangeal joints;
4. Symmetric joint swelling;
5. Rheumatoid nodules;
6. Positive rheumatoid factor; and
7. Changes on hand radiographs typical of rheumatoid arthritis that must include erosions or unequivocal bony decalcification.
The correct diagnosis of RA is essential for the clinician and involves certain clinical, laboratory and radiological findings. The diagnosis is influenced by the age and sex of the patient, the pattern of joint involvement, the onset and course of the disease and extrarticular manifestations.
In contrast to rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis (hereinafter sometimes referred to as OA), the illness most often contemplated in the differential diagnosis, usually begins after the age of 50 and affects men and women equally. The joints involved in OA are different from those in RA and are not necessarily symmetrically affected. In OA, joint pathology is primarily mechanical, and synovial membrane inflammation is minimal.
As pertaining to the present invention certain other inflammatory arthritis is differentiated from RA as listed in Table I.
TABLE I ______________________________________ Differential Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis* ______________________________________ Seronegative spondyloarthropathy (ankylosing spondylitis, reiters syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, enteropathic arthritis) Crystal-induced arthropathy (gout, pseudogout) Diffuse connective tissue disease (systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyosiis, fibromyalgia) Infectious arthritis Osteoarthritis Polymyalgia rheumatica Reactive arthritis Hemoglobinopathies Hemachromatosis Lyme disease Malignancy Thyroid disease Hemophilic arthropathy Hypertrophic osteoarthritis ______________________________________ *Adapted from Textbook of Rheumatology. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Co., 1989, pp 943-981
With varying clinical significance, RA can at times affect other areas of the body. The most characteristic of these so-called extra-articular manifestations are rheumatoid nodules. They can be found subcutaneously in up to 25% of rheumatoid patients, especially over extensor surfaces and in pressure areas. Common sites include the olecranon regions, fingers, Achilles tendons, the sacrum and the occiput. The presence of subcutaneous nodules is helpful diagnostically, because they are uncommon in the other forms of inflammatory arthritis. Nodules can also occur in visceral organs, including the lungs and the heart.
As discussed above, the primary cause of RA is unknown. It is thought to be triggered by the presence of an as yet unidentified antigen(s) in an immunogenetically susceptible host, and the nature of the antigen responsible for the arthritic reactions in RA has yet to be clearly established.
Heretofore medical management of RA involved three general approaches.
The first is the use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics, and low-dose glucocorticoids to control the symptoms and signs of the local inflammatory process. These agents are rapidly effective at mitigating symptoms and signs, but they appear to exert little effect on the progression of the disease.
A second group of drugs includes a variety of agents that have been classified as the disease-modifying drugs. These agents appear to have the capacity to decrease elevated levels of acute phase reactants in treated patients, and therefore, are thought to modify the destructive capacity of the disease.
The third class of agents includes the immunosuppressive and cytotoxic drugs that have bee shown to ameliorate the disease process in some patients. These last two classes of agents, however, often cause serious side effects including the development of heart and liver diseases, increase in blood pressure, blindness and malignant neoplasms.
The prior art treatment of RA is based on the following two principles: first, RA is a systemic connective-tissue disorder that is not remediable solely through local measures. Second, RA is a progressive disease that can potentially lead to severe cartilage and bone destruction, organ damage, and decreased life expectancy. Current regimens are predicated on controlling the immune system disturbance to reduce joint discomfort and destruction and this to maintain the patient's activities of daily living.
Available drug preparations for the treatment of RA include the following.
(1) NSAIDS: Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
Pharmacologic treatment of RA has advanced steadily in the past several decades, but none of the agents used so far can cure RA. Aspirin remains an important part of the treatment program for many people with RA. To be effective, it must be given in doses much higher than commonly used as an over-the-counter remedy for minor aches and pains. Compared to other similar NSAIDS, aspirin is less expensive and its blood level can be precisely measured. However, it can cause stomach problems in many people. Many physicians recommend the use of enteric (coated) forms of aspirin.
NSAIDS are a large group of drugs that have mechanisms of action similar to aspirin. Like aspirin, these medications can relieve some of the pain associated with RA temporarily. The NSAIDS are the most frequently recommended antirheumatic medications, and the first line of therapy in RA. As a result of the capacity of these agents to block the activity of the enzyme cyclooxygenase and therefore the production of prostaglandins, prostacyclin and thromboxames, they have analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties. Table II lists the most commonly prescribed NSAIDS.
TABLE II ______________________________________ Commonly Prescribed NSAIDS Grouped According To Their Elimination Half-Lives Short Acting Intermediate Acting Long Acting (6 hours) (7 to 14 hours) (15 hours) ______________________________________ Aspirin Diflunisal Azapropazone Diclofenac Naproxen Nabumetone Etodolac Salsalate Oxaprozin Fenoprofen Sulindac Piroxicam Flufenamic acid Flurbiprofen Ibuprofen Indomethacin Ketoprofen Meclofenamic acid Tolmetin ______________________________________
Table III lists the commonly prescribed NSAIDs by classification, half-life and dosage range.
TABLE III ______________________________________ Commonly Prescribed NSAIDS Classification Half Life, hr Dosage Range, mg/day ______________________________________ Proprionic Acid Ibuprofen 2 1200-3200 Naproxen 13 250-1500 Fenoprofen 2 1200-3200 Ketoprofen 1.5 100-300 Oxaprozin 40 600-1800 Phenylacetic Acid Diclofenac 1.5 100-150 Indoleacetic Acid Indomethacin 3-11 50-200 Sulindac 16 300-400 Tolmetin 1-2 600-2000 Fenamate Meclofenamate 2-3 200-400 Oxicam Piroxicam 30-86 20 ______________________________________
These agents are all associated with a wide spectrum of toxic side effects. A common side effect of these drugs is bleeding from the stomach. Overall dose is limited by such gastrointestinal erosions, as well as azotemia, platelet dysfunction, exacerbation of allergic rhinitis and asthma, liver function abnormalities, some renal and cardiovascular irritation, and CNS toxicity like tinnitus, although patients occasionally differ unpredictably in their response to an individual NSAID.
An individual's response to the various NSAIDS is quite variable. Gastrointestinal ulcerations develop in 0 to 30% of NSAID-treated patients. Duodenal lesions are less common than gastric ulcers. The nephrotoxic effects of NSAIDS are well documented. Several mechanisms leading to renal prostaglandin synthesis may adversely affect renal blood flow and in certain situations, lead to acute insufficiency. At high risk are patients with minor or major pre-existing changes in renal function, such as those with changes related to aging, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, congestive heart failure, use of diuretics or low salt diet, cirrhosis, and chronic renal failure of any other cause.
Once the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis has been firmly established as an insufficient response to local measures and NSAIDS determined, the addition of DMARDs (disease modifying antirheumatic drugs) to the regimen is normally considered. These drugs include gold compounds, penicillamine, hydroxychloroquine, methotrexate and azathioprine. Estimated rates of efficacy and toxicity of these remittive agents is shown in Table IV.
TABLE IV ______________________________________ Estimated Rates of Efficacy and Toxicity of Remittive Agents EFFICACY EFFICACY TOXICITY High Intermediate ______________________________________ High Cyclophosphamide Azathioprine Parenteral gold Penicillamine Intermediate Methotrexate Auranofin Corticosteroids Sulfasalazine Low Hydroxychloroquine ______________________________________
The ability of these drugs to really modify the disease process is controversial. Unlike NSAIDS or Corticosteroids, their onset of action is gradual over weeks to months. In addition, well-defined toxicity's can occur with these drugs, and clinical laboratory monitoring must be judicious. The response rate to the DMARDs is also variable, and patients may gradually lose their positive benefits over time. They exert minimal direct nonspecific anti-inflammatory or analgesic effects, and therefore, NSAIDS must be continued during their administration, except in a few rare cases when true remissions are induced with them. Remittive agents have a wide spectrum of biological effects, but their exact mechanism of action in PA is unknown. Each is associated with considerable toxicity and there is minimal evidence that disease-modifying drugs actually retard the development of bone erosions or facilitate their healing. A brief description of each drug follows.

Method for the treatment of topical inflammatory diseases


The present invention relates a mammalian polypeptide designated Inhibitory PAS Domain Protein (IPAS) which polypeptide is useful for the inhibition of angiogenesis and/or tumor progression. The invention also relates to screening methods for compounds potentially useful as medicaments for the treatment of medical conditions related to angiogenesis or tumor progression.

Oxygen plays a critical biological role as the terminal electron acceptor in the mitochondria of vertebrate cells. During evolution, these cells have developed ways to sense alterations in oxygen levels and, during this process, acquired the ability to conditionally modulate the expression of genes involved in adaptive physiological responses to hypoxia including angiogenesis, erythropoiesis, and glycolysis. These genes include vascular endothelial growth factor, eryhtropoietin, several glycolytic enzymes and inducible nitric oxide synthase, and have all been shown to contain hypoxia responsive elements (HREs) (for reviews, see Guillemin and Krasnow (1997) Cell 89, 9–12; Wenger and Gassmann (1997) Biol. Chem. 378, 609–616). Under hypoxic conditions these response elements are recognized by a heterodimeric complex consisting of the hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and Arnt (Wang et al. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 5510–5514; Gradin et al. (1996) Mol. Cell. Biol. 16, 5221–5231). Both these transcription factors belong to the rapidly growing family of basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-PAS (Per, Arnt, Sim) proteins.
A family of helix-loop-helix proteins designated Id18 has been identified as antagonists of bHLH transcriptional regulators. bHLH proteins typically bind regulatory sequences in a heterodimeric configuration and function to activate differentiation-linked gene expression. The heterodimer usually comprises a class A bHLH protein together with a class B bHLH protein. In the presence of excess Id protein, the class A bHLH partner is typically titrated out through heterodimerization with Id protein.
Dysregulation or overfunction of HIF-1α might cause a variety of pathological conditions including tumor progression15 16 7 and inflammatory angiogenesis17. Consequently, there is a need for identification of compounds acting as negative regulators of HIF-1α, said compounds being potentially useful against medical conditions related to angiogenesis and tumor progression.


A lock controller has main apparatus provided to a lockable door and a detector for detecting an approaching or retreating target object. The detector includes an oscillator device for generating a transmission wave, a branching device for branching the transmission wave, a transmission device for transmitting the transmission wave into space as electromagnetic waves, a reception device for receiving the transmission wave reflected by the target object, a mixer for mixing a reception signal received by the reception device and a branched signal branched by the branching device to output a mixed signal, and a judging device for switching on a detection output indicating the target object approaching and retreating based on an increase and a decrease of the mixed signal outputted from the mixer. A detection distance is set within ¼ wavelength of frequency effective for the detection. The main apparatus sends by wireless transmission a specified request signal to a portable device carried by the user, and if an answer signal is received from the portable device in response, causes the lockable part to be unlocked after ascertaining that the received answer signal is a correct signal.

This invention relates to a detector for detecting the user's hand as it approaches the door handle of an automobile and generating a trigger signal for initiating the automatic unlocking operation of a passive entry system for the automobile. The invention also relates to lock controllers using such a detector.
In recent years, there have been proposals for vehicle entry system apparatus for automatically operating an equipment on a vehicle by carrying out two-way communications between a device carried by the user and a vehicle-mounted main device and thereby carrying out a required comparison, and some of such apparatus are actually coming to be used. With such an apparatus adapted to carry out two-way communications, an answer signal containing a necessary code can be automatically transmitted from the device carried by the user to the main device in response to a request signal (such as a startup signal for starting up the device being carried) transmitted from the main device and hence an equipment on a vehicle can be caused to carry out a specified operation without the user carrying out any operation at all. With a vehicle entry system, for example, the user carrying a portable device may have only to approach the door of a specified vehicle to which a corresponding main device is mounted for establishing a two-way communication between them such that a lock-opening command is automatically outputted to the locked door and the locked door becomes automatically unlocked. Such highly convenient entry systems capable of locking and unlocking a vehicle door basically without requiring any conscious effort on the part of the user are sometimes referred to as a passive entry system (or a smart entry system) as an improved version of general keyless entry systems, and needs for such systems are becoming higher as they are capable of increasing the market values of the vehicles.
If it is attempted with such a passive entry system to save the power of the vehicle battery by transmitting request signals from the main device only when they are necessary, a detector may be required for detecting the user approaching or contacting the vehicle (such as to its door handle).
Optical sensors, capacitance sensors and mechanical switches (so-called micro-switches) have recently been used for such a purpose. Optical sensors are adapted, for example, to detect the user's hand approaching the door handle on the basis of a change in the output from a light-receiving element as light outputted from a light-emitting element is screened or reflected by the user's hand. Capacitance sensors are so-called touch sensors and adapted, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 2002-295064, to detect the user's hand approaching the door handle based on a change in the capacitance of a capacitor within the sensor by the contact of the user's hand. Examples of a sensor of a non-contact type include Doppler radars used for a startup switch device for an automatic door, as disclosed in Japanese Patent 2785893.
Prior art technologies characterized as using a detector as explained above have problems as explained below.
(A) Optical sensors may function incorrectly in the presence of unwanted objects such as rain drops and dead leaves or due to the incidence of light from a lamp or sunlight, while capacitance sensors are weak against noise as a matter of principle and tend to function incorrectly in the presence of dielectric matters such as rain drops.
(B) Response characteristics of optical, capacitance and mechanical sensors are not sufficient because their detection areas are small (or their detection distance is short) and the system depending on such a sensor may function incorrectly. If such a sensor is set to the door handle of a vehicle for providing a trigger for the transmission of a request signal in a passive entry system of the vehicle, for example, the user's hand may not be detected and hence the request signal may not be outputted until the hand nearly touches the sensor. Thus, the user may be already starting to pull the handle in order to open the door but the door may not be unlocked yet. In other words, the user may try to open the locked door quickly by using a passive entry system but its automatic unlocking operation may be delayed and the door may refuse to open immediately. In the case of a capacitance sensor or a mechanical switch, in particular, detection is not made until the user's hand makes a firm contact with the sensor. If the detector is of a kind having such a sensor simply attached to the door, the communication to the portable unit is completed and the door is unlocked only after the user begins to pull the handle in order to open it. Thus, this problem does not fail to appear.
(C) Since sensor elements which are relatively large and hence are difficult to be contained must be provided to a vehicle component such as a door handle intended to detect the approaching target object of detection, the shape and the size of such a component may have to be modified significantly to accommodate such sensor elements and hence the freedom in its design is severely restricted. In particular, when it is desired to detect the user's hand approaching the door handle of a vehicle with a response characteristic as high as possible by using an optical sensor or a mechanical switch, a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element must be placed near the door handle or a contact probe of a mechanical switch must be placed at a position protruding from the door handle. Thus, the design of the door handle or the body parts of the vehicle in the vicinity is severely affected, In the case of a capacitance sensor, a relatively bulky electrode must be buried inside the handle and this also limits the freedom in the design.
As explained above, Doppler radars used for automatic doors are known examples of sensors of a non-contact type capable of providing a large detection area and not affected by dirt or the like. Thus, it may be considered to use such a Doppler radar as the detector for a passive entry system, but prior art Doppler radars are for detecting the speed and direction of the motion of a target object of detection on the basis of changes in the frequency of received waves and cannot be used directly for detecting a target object approaching within a short distance by means of a simple structure. The device according to aforementioned Japanese Patent 2785893, for example, is adapted to carry out complicated judging processes with its signal processor comprising a microcomputer, its power consumption rate is high and the signal processor becomes big, requiring a large space for its setting. Thus, it is not feasible to be used as the detector for a vehicle which uses battery cells as its power source and is strongly required to be energy-saving and compact.
It is therefore an object of this invention to make use of the technology of Doppler radars to provide an improved detector superior in operational reliability, response characteristics, and capability of being mounted to a vehicle (from the points of view of size, freedom in design and power consumption).
It is another object of this invention to provide a lock controller using such a detector.


A cover member for a vehicle seat component in which the opening the cover member is closed by the use of a cable tie having integral fastening features. The cable tie and a portion of the cover member material is gathered around a protruding frame member of the seat component, providing a secure, yet neat appearing closure for the cover member.

The present invention relates generally to vehicle seat assemblies and in particular to a cover member for a seat assembly component in which the open end of the cover member is closed using a conventional cable tie having integral closure means.
In the production of seat assemblies, particularly with respect to the seat back and headrest pad, it is necessary for the cover member to be secured around a mounting post or frame member that extends from the seat cushion or headrest. This presents a difficulty in providing the finished appearance to the cover member. It is necessary that the opening in the cover member be sufficiently large for the foam pad and necessary component structure to be inserted into the cover member. After the foam pad has been inserted into the cover member, the opening must be closed in a fashion providing a secure attachment of the cover member and to completely enclose the foam pad. At the same time, the cover member must have an attractive appearance. To provide a large enough opening for assembly, there is often additional material that must be dealt with to provide a tight fit for the cover member.
Possible ways of accommodating this additional material include elastic, snap fasteners or hook and loop fasteners such as VELCRO. However, each of these methods have their own drawbacks. With elastic, durability of the elastic attachment is a concern as well as the inability to control how the fabric material is gathered by the elastic. With snap fasteners, extensive labor is required to attach the fastener elements to the trim cover and, once assembled, it is relatively easy for the snap fasteners to be unfastened. With VELCRO, the attachment can be easily unfastened as well.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, yet reliable, means for securing the cover member of a seat component.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a closure for the cover member around an extending frame or mounting member.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize a conventional cable tie to draw the cover member around a protruding mounting structure. The self locking features of the cable tie enables a loop to be formed of any desired circumference. Closing of the cover member around a protruding mounting structure is made easy, quick and reliable. Furthermore, the cover member is left tight and neat in its appearance.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Seat cover member with cable tie closure