A method in a user equipment for predicting an available throughput for uplink data to be sent from the user equipment to a base station over a radio link. The user equipment obtains (201) an information about a past scheduling of the user equipment. The user equipment obtains (202) a radio quality measure related to the radio link. The user equipment predicts (204) the available throughput based on a relationship between the information about a past scheduling of the user equipment and one or more previously obtained pieces of information about the past scheduling of the user equipment. The user equipment predicts the available throughput further based on a relationship between the radio quality measure and of one or more previously obtained radio quality measures. The user equipment predicts the available throughput further based on a previously obtained throughput. The previously obtained throughput is associated with the one or more previously obtained pieces of information about a past scheduling and the one or more previously obtained radio quality measures.

Communication devices such as User Equipments (UE) are also known as e.g. mobile terminals, wireless terminals and/or mobile stations. User equipments are enabled to communicate wirelessly in a wireless communications network, sometimes also referred to as a wireless communication system, a cellular communications network, a cellular radio system or a cellular network. The communication may be performed e.g. between two user equipments, between a user equipment and a regular telephone and/or between a user equipment and a server via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and possibly one or more core networks, comprised within the cellular communications network.
User equipments may further be referred to as mobile telephones, cellular telephones, laptops, or surf plates with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. The user equipments in the present context may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, enabled to communicate voice and/or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as another user equipment or a server.
The wireless communications network covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas, wherein each cell area is served by a base station, e.g. a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g. "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB" or "B node" depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different classes such as e.g. macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. A cell is the geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the base station at a base station site. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the user equipments within range of the base stations. In the context of this disclosure, the expression Downlink (DL) is used for the transmission path from the base station to the user equipment. The expression Uplink (UL) is used for the transmission path in the opposite direction i.e. from the user equipment to the base station.
3GPP LTE radio access standard has been written in order to support high bitrates and low latency both for uplink and downlink traffic. All data transmission is in LTE is controlled by the radio base station.
When a user equipment wants to initiate a data transmission in a wireless communications network, either by starting a new service session after input from a user, such as viewing a webpage, download a file, etc. or by a background process such as automatic software update, or user equipment data backup, no information about the available throughput for uplink data is provided by the network.
This may lead to network congestion as all user equipments regardless of the available throughput just starts data transmission, although congestion control is taken in upper layers such as Transmission Control Protocol. TCP. In addition, the initiated session may receive poor performance due to the offered low throughput, for example starting a video conference even though the available throughput is far less than satisfactory.

Method and user equipment for predicting available throughput for uplink data

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


The present invention relates to battery power peripheral devices such as MP3 players which are also periodically connected to another power source such as a mains wall socket or USB cable power bus. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to regulation of these voltage sources. In general terms the present invention provides a multiple supply rail for the load regulators of a power supply circuit for a battery powered device. One supply rail is coupled to the battery, and another is coupled to a non-battery source such as an external mains regulated source and/or a bus power wire from a USB cable or similar. The regulators have multiple inputs, each for taking their input voltage from one of these supply rails.

FIG. 1a shows a power supply system for a typical battery-powered peripheral device.
The system comprises connections 11 and 13 to external power supplies, as well as to a re-chargeable battery 10. The external supplies are typically regulated (12) and/or switched to a common external supply node (Vsup) which supplies charging current to the battery through a charging circuit or controller 14. The battery 10 is coupled to an internal power bus which supplies one or more load regulators 15 which provide regulated voltage outputs to one or more parts of the peripheral device. For example one load regulator 15a may supply the disk drive of an MP3 player, whilst another regulator 15b supplies its signal processing and amplifier circuitry.
The battery 10 can be recharged from the power wires 11 in a bus cable, such as a USB or IEEE 1394 connection. Supply current taken from the bus power wires 11 will generally first pass through a supply bus regulation block 12. In the case of USB, this is required to guarantee that the current taken from the bus be limited to 100 mA or 500 mA. For the case of 1394 the supply regulator 12 is required to attenuate a possible 48V to the 5V or so maximum that the power supply system circuitry can tolerate. Techniques for such regulators, generally involving sensing the output voltage and current and feeding these signals into one or more feedback loops are well known to those versed in the art.
In an alternate mode of operation, some or all of the required supply current can be sourced externally (13) via a transformer (not shown) attached to the mains, or perhaps from a 12V nominal source from a car battery. This supply voltage is again generally pre-regulated to 5V or so, for example by a linear or switching regulator (not shown). There may also be a means for selection between the bus (11) and the external (13) supplies, for example either diodes in series with one or more of these supplies or more intelligent control with comparators and controlled switches. For simplicity these are not shown in FIG. 1. These non-battery supplies (11, 13) are coupled to a common node or voltage rail Vsup, which is then supplied by one of these external supply sources (11 or 13).
Current supplied to the battery 10 must be regulated in current to limit the current when charging, and in voltage to prevent over-charging of the battery. This function is achieved using a charging control block or circuit 14. For example a Li-ion battery will typically be charged at constant current (typically 0.5 to 1.0 C amperes, where C is the battery capacity in ampere-hours, say 800 mAh) until its terminal voltage reaches 4.2V, then it will be charged at constant voltage of 4.2V until the current taken drops to near zero. Techniques for such charger regulators 14, generally involving sensing the output voltage and current and feeding these signals into one or more feedback loops, are well known to those versed in the art.
Depending on the state of charge of the battery 10, its output voltage Vbat can vary from say 4.2V when fully charged to as low as about 2.7V before the battery becomes so discharged as to cause irreversible degradation in its capacity. As high-current loads (e.g. motors) are switched on and off, this battery terminal voltage may also vary due to the output impedance of the battery (say 100 mΩ). Some circuitry may be able to accept this unregulated voltage direct from the battery. This may be attractive in terms of system cost. However most circuitry will require a cleaner, better regulated, supply, perhaps regulated at 1.8V or 3.3V for logic circuitry, and higher voltages for other applications, such as 7.2V for driving banks of white LEDs for example. There will thus generally be one or more voltage regulators 15a and 15b driven from the battery line Vbat.
Depending on the input and output voltage levels, the efficiency required, and the cleanliness required of the supply, these voltage regulators 15 may be capacitive charge pumps, or inductive buck or boost switching regulators, or linear regulators. These are shown in simplified from in FIG. 1a, and in more detail in FIG. 2. FIG. 2a shows a low-drop-out linear regulator; FIG. 2b shows a non-low-dropout linear regulator; FIG. 2c shows a buck switching regulator; FIG. 2d shows a buck-boost switching regulator; FIG. 2e shows a boost switching regulator, FIG. 2f shows a non-inverting boosting capacitor charge pump regulator, and FIG. 2g shows an inverting capacitor charge pump regulator. Many other well-known variants of regulator exist, including those where diodes are replaced by appropriately switched pass transistors.
Except for the simple boost regulator (FIG. 2e), all these circuits contain a switch-type input pass device Mp connected directly to the input supply, and to a regulator internal or output node Vx. The charge pump of FIG. 2f includes two such devices. The boost regulator of FIG. 2e includes an input inductor rather than a switch-type device and which is connected to a similar internal node Vx.
However boost regulators will typically incorporate a current sense resistor or MOS mirror arrangement to sense the input current to give better loop stability. A MOS mirror arrangement coupled to the input of a boost regulator is shown in FIG. 2h. This includes a pass device Mp inserted in series with the input supply Vdd, and a smaller MOS mirror device Mps connected in parallel, with common source and gate connections. This generates a scaled replica of the current through Mp, which can help stabilise the PWM control loop. The current monitoring function can also be useful in implementing a current limit function to protect the circuit. The pass device Mp can also be used to isolate the battery from the output to prevent leakage when the switcher is off; for example from a battery to an output load.
Note that the various pass devices are shown as MOSFETs but may be any suitable device including NMOS, PMOS, diodes, or bipolar transistors or even relays where suitable.
Generally, if the alternate supply (13) is available, it will be used in preference to the bus supply (11) or the battery (10). If no alternate supply is available, the bus supply will be used if possible. Only if neither the bus supply nor the alternate supply is available will the battery supply (10) be used. This operation can be realised for example by sensing the voltage on the various supplies and controlling various switches depending on which of these supplies exceed respective thresholds. Such control techniques are well known to those skilled in the art.
An example of a similar type of power supply is disclosed in Maxim Integrated Products' data sheet reference MAX1874. As shown in FIG. 1b, this merges transistors or pass devices Ma and Mb and their controls 12 and 14 from FIG. 1a, and couples the alternate supply to the battery via a parallel transistor Mb2 and control 14′. This chip does not include the downstream regulators, but they would typically be connected to the battery as shown, to allow the system to function powered from the battery in the absence of the supplies.
One problem with this type of scheme relates to the time which the system takes to become active when powered from the bus (11) or alternate (13) supply with a discharged battery 10. The load regulators 15 will have a minimum input voltage, perhaps 3.2V, (or maybe as high as 3.6V for a 3.3V linear low-dropout regulator—FIG. 2a), whereas the battery may initially be discharged below this voltage. Thus the system supplied by the load regulators 15 will not work properly until the battery 10 is charged up. Where the battery is heavily discharged, this might take several minutes or longer. If the battery is deeply discharged, below say 2.5V, the battery charging current is in fact typically reduced by a factor of ten in order to minimize battery capacity degradation effects and also as a safety mechanism due to the fact that in the absence of adequate power there may be no software control of the system. In this situation the wake-up time will clearly be even longer. This behaviour is undesirable to consumers who now desire "instant-on" behaviour.
A further problem is that the charger current control 14 or 14′ limits the current to the node Vbat, to avoid too rapid charging of the battery 10. However it cannot differentiate between current taken by the battery 10 and that taken by the other loads, for example the regulators 15. Thus if the battery charging current is limited to 100 mA, then the total taken by the loads is also limited to 100 mA. Thus if they take 99 mA, only 1 mA is available to charge the battery, further increasing the time required for the system to operate properly. Even if the error is less gross than this, and say there is only a 25% reduction in charger current actually reaching the battery, this may well confuse the analog or digital control of the battery charging process, affecting the effective Icharge-Vbat trajectory, and causing a charging time that is still sub-optimum, even allowing for the 25% reduction in battery charging current.
In this kind of scheme the system current is also limited to the maximum current allowed by the charger 14 or 14′, which means that whenever the overall system current (including regulator input current) requires a higher current than allowed by charger control, this current would be drained out of the battery 10. This is not just extending charging time it is also decreasing the battery life time.
The circuit could be improved by sensing current flowing only into the battery 10, while controlling all current into Vbat, but this still does not guarantee adequate current into the other loads 15, as the splitting of current will be defined by the respective V-I characteristics of all circuits connected to the Vbat node, including the battery, so a discharged battery would tend to steal current away from loads expecting a higher voltage. This means that this current would be taken by the battery 10 as a priority, rather than by the loads 15 as a priority
FIG. 3 illustrates one solution to this problem of the "instant-on" requirement. The load regulators 15 are now supplied from the bus supply and external supply common node Vsup, rather than directly from the battery 10. As the battery node Vbat can be isolated (switch Mc and charging control 14) from this common supply node Vsup, the system can wake up as soon as power is applied either from the bus (11) or the alternate (13) supply. Only when neither the alternate supply (13) nor the bus (11) can supply current, an additional battery switch Mc is turned on, and the load regulators 15 are then supplied from the battery 10.
Examples of similar arrangements are disclosed in Linear Technology Corporation's data sheet references LTC3455 and LTC4055.
In these cases the battery charger supplies only the battery, so the charging current can be accurately monitored to allow intelligent control of the charging current-voltage trajectory.
Also when driving the system from the bus or alternate supply, this arrangement avoids the power losses associated with passing current through the charger regulator prior to being input to following switching regulators. Efficiency per se may not be a major concern when driving from non-battery supplies, but reducing power dissipated may allow less heat-sinking and hence lower system cost.
The main problem with this solution is the extra voltage drop between Vbat and Vsup when the load regulators 15 are driven from the battery 10 compared to the system of FIG. 1. The battery voltage is at best 4.2V, and should work down to as low as possible to extend operating time between battery recharging (albeit avoiding deep discharge, below about 2.6V). The load regulators 15 require a minimum input voltage (regulated output voltage plus dropout voltage) in order to maintain regulation of their output voltage, so the regulators will continue to function correctly until the battery discharges to this minimum input voltage. However the voltage drop across this additional switch device (Mc) effectively increases the minimum voltage required from the battery, and hence reduces the time the battery can provide this. The voltage drops across switch devices (Ma, Mb, Mc) increases with their on-resistance.
Given the technologies available today, these switch devices will generally be implemented using MOS switches, rather than bipolar transistors or relays. Lower on-resistance discrete MOS switches are more expensive as they require larger silicon area or more complex and specialized wafer processing. More particularly, for systems where most of the circuitry of FIG. 1 or 3 is implemented on a single chip, the total area required for these switches has not only an impact on chip area and hence cost, but also may require so much area that the silicon die may not fit in the desired plastic package. This is especially critical for portable equipment such as MP3 players or mobile phones, where the size of the whole system is an important specification and requires the smallest possible package size.
To allow Vbat to reach 4.2V when fed from a 4.5V bus supply (11), Ma and Mb might be sized to drop 150 mV each at peak battery charging current. But the sizes of input transistors Mp in the switching or linear load regulators 15 will define a minimum input voltage to keep their respective outputs in regulation. So either a substantial reduction in operating battery life has to be tolerated, or the input switches Mp of the load regulators 15 have to be greatly enlarged and possibly even extra bond wires and package terminals added as the parasitic resistances involved in tracking the current from chip to the outside world are significant. For example if a minimum battery voltage of 3.6V has to supply a 3.3V output linear dropout regulator 15b, then battery switch Mc and the regulator's pass device Mp have to be designed for a 150 mV drop-out voltage each at peak load current.
There is also a possible issue of problems arising from modulation of the voltage on Vsup caused by load variations on the load regulators 15. As downstream peripherals are plugged in, or as a disc drive internal to the battery-powered peripheral starts up, there can be a rapid surge in supply demanded from one regulator 15a. This will appear as a current step on Vsup, giving a voltage step across the on-resistance of Mc, and this may be enough to transiently reduce Vsup below the minimum input voltage for another regulator 15b on Vsup, or at best give a transient on this regulator output due to its finite line regulation. Even when the line regulation is good at d.c., it falls off with frequency, so voltage steps on Vsup may still give transients on the regulator outputs.
If Mc is controlled in a local regulation loop, rather than just being turned on, this may reduce transients, but this loop will again have finite gain and bandwidth, so there will still be transients at some level. This would also increase the complexity and hence cost of the circuit arrangement. Also if Mc is regulated for example to deliver a Vsup at a fixed voltage difference below Vbat, this voltage difference will then have to be set to a worst-case voltage drop, which will make battery voltage headroom under non-maximum load conditions even worse.

Power supply circuit for portable battery powered device


A method for preventing fuel theft at a gas station or a charging station for motor vehicles is provided. The method includes determining whether a refueling process or recharging process of a motor vehicle is taking place and activating an emergency operating mode of the motor vehicle until a payment for the refueling process or the recharging process has taken place, the emergency operating mode configured to limit vehicle speed.

With rising oil prices, gas stations are increasingly subjected to cases of fuel theft. The magnitude of the theft is many countries is quite large and accounts for sizeable monetary losses for the gas stations. In order to counter the problem of fuel theft, gas stations may be fitted with monitoring cameras that record the auto license plate of each vehicle being refueled in order to enable the detection of the respective offender in the event of a theft. This is, however, costly on the one hand and on the other hand (e.g. in cases of the use of false license plates or stolen vehicles) provides no guarantee that the gas station operator will actually be compensated. Specifically, it may be costly to track down the thief using the license plate as an identifier. Legal fees associated with criminal prosecution of the thieves may also be costly. It will be appreciated that theft has also been anticipated in vehicles using other types of fuel (e.g., diesel, ethanol, hydrogen, etc.) or forms of energy such as electricity.
To address at least some of the aforementioned problems a method for preventing fuel theft at a gas station or a charging station for motor vehicles is provided. The method includes determining whether a refueling process or recharging process of a motor vehicle is taking place and activating an emergency operating mode of the motor vehicle until a payment for the refueling process or the recharging process has taken place, the emergency operating mode configured to limit vehicle speed. In this way, the likelihood of fuel or electricity theft from refueling or recharging stations is reduced. As a result, monetary losses corresponding to fuel theft or energy theft at refueling or recharging stations is reduced. It will be appreciated that implementing this type of system in a vehicle may less costly than tracking down and prosecuting fuel thieves via security cameras mounted at the fuel stations.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following detailed description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure. Additionally, the above issues have been recognized by the inventors herein, and are not admitted to be known.
The invention is explained below in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.

Method and device for reducing the likelihood of theft at a gas station or a charging station for motor vehicles


A receiver may reduce phase noise in phase-encoded communications signals using symmetrical averaging to estimate phase shift correction. In one embodiment, a receiver, such as a quadrature amplitude modulation receiver may include a decision feedback equalizer and a filter of low complexity to receive a phase modulated incoming signal. Using a combination of phase shift difference estimates prior and subsequent to a decision point for the received symbols, the filter may derive another estimate of the phase shift relative to the estimated phase shift by the equalizer.

This invention relates generally to receivers, and more particularly to receivers that receive modulated signals in phase-encoded communications.
Decision Feedback Equalization (DFE) is a technique for quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) receivers. In DFE receivers, two sections are used to correct for intersymbol interference and gain/phase rotation variations: a feedforward equalizer section which does a linear weighted average of time samples (convolution) to adjust for intersymbol interference caused by following symbols and a feedback equalizer section which adjusts the output of the feedforward equalizer section to remove intersymbol interference from the present estimate caused by previously detected symbols. The feedback equalization section is nonlinear because it contains previously detected symbols.
Commonly a phase shift difference occurs between the phase of a received symbol and a true phase of the current symbol, causing phase noise in an incoming signal of symbols at a receiver. Often this phase shift difference results from instability in the transmitter and/or receiver oscillators and by the Doppler effect. The phase noise has a cumulative effect that shows up as an increasing difference between symbol rotations, if delays between symbols are increasing.
Phase noise may be corrected implicitly by phase-locked loop (PLL) demodulation. For every symbol, an estimation of the current phase shift is generated, based on an average of the phase difference between previously received symbols ("soft decisions") and corresponding hard decisions.
Thus, there is a continuing need for better ways to reduce phase noise in phase encoded communications signals.

Reducing phase noise in phase-encoded communications signals


A display structure is provided. The display structure includes a first substrate, a pixel array, a second substrate and an optical component. The pixel array is disposed on the first substrate. Each of pixels of the pixel array includes a light-transparent region and a non-light-transparent region. The second substrate is disposed on the pixel array. The optical component has a microlens structure. After the light passes through the microlens structure, the light passes directly through the plurality of the light-transparent regions without passing through the edge of the plurality of the non-light-transparent regions.

A traditional display structure may include a pixel array. The pixel array comprises a light-transparent region and a non-light-transparent region, e.g. the non-light-transparent region can be circuits arranged periodically or Thin-Film Transistors (TFTs). When light enters into the traditional display structure, diffraction occurs and causes image distortion. That is because light will pass through the edge of the non-light-transparent regions. Traditionally, the configuration of the pixel array is changed to reduce the diffraction. However, the effect of the above method is not significant.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The disclosed apparatus, systems, and methods provide a calibration technique for calibrating a set of microphones. The disclosed calibration technique is configured to calibrate the microphones with respect to a reference microphone and can be used in actual operation rather than a testing environment. The disclosed calibration technique can estimate both the magnitude calibration factor for compensating magnitude sensitivity variations and the relative phase error for compensating phase delay variations. In addition, the disclosed calibration technique can be used even when multiple acoustic sources are present. The disclosed technique is particularly well suited to calibrating a set of microphones that are omnidirectional and sufficiently close to one another.

1. Technical Field
Disclosed apparatus, systems, and methods relate to calibrating microphones in an electronic system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices often use multiple microphones to improve a quality of measured acoustic information and to extract information about acoustic sources and/or the surroundings. For example, an electronic device can use signals detected by multiple microphones to separate them based on their sources, which is often referred to as blind source separation. As another example, an electronic device can use signals detected by multiple microphones to suppress reverberations in the detected signals or to cancel acoustic echo from the detected signals.
When processing signals detected by multiple microphones, electronic devices often assume that the microphones have the same magnitude sensitivity and phase error. Unfortunately, microphones often do not have the same magnitude sensitivity and phase error, even when the microphones were created using the same process. Such a process variation is more pronounced in cheap microphones often used in consumer electronics such as smart phones. Because a moderate variance in the magnitude sensitivity and/or phase error can cause a significant error in the above-mentioned applications, there is a need in the art to provide apparatus, systems, and methods for calibrating microphones.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for calibration of microphones


A method of quickly creating a texture which shows a continuous pattern when mapped repeatedly is provided. A space having three-dimensional objects arranged therein is rendered into a two-dimensional plane, or a rendering area. The rendering area is virtually divided into a plurality of congruent areas. Corresponding pixels of the areas are overlapped with each other to obtain a desired texture. At the time of overlapping, Z values in Z buffers are compared to update color information and Z values of a target area so that the data on pixels closer to a viewpoint shows all the time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a three-dimensional computer graphics technology, and more particularly to a method of creating a texture.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of computer graphics (CG) or three-dimensional graphics in particular, a texture mapping technology is used to achieve graphics having higher resemblance to actual live images. In the texture mapping technology, images called textures, which imitate actual matters, are pasted onto the surfaces of objects rendered in simple polygons.
For example, when a game program with three-dimensional graphics display presents cave rocks or human skin, textures containing image data for imitating the physical texture of a rock or skin are mapped onto the surfaces of polygons to generate photorealistic images. Moreover, to express pits and projections on the surfaces of objects, a technique called bump mapping is also used. In this technique, matters are shown as if having uneven surfaces although the three-dimensional models have flat surfaces.
When a certain pattern or asperities need to be repeated on a wide range of the surface of a matter, a unit texture is mapped repeatedly. Here, the boundaries of the unit texture may appear inappropriately noticeable unless the unit texture is created so as to show a continuous pattern across adjoining unit textures.
If a game uses textures that are to be mapped repeatedly to show continuous patterns, the textures may be created in advance at the programming stage. Nevertheless, the textures created previously have a prescribed viewpoint and prescribed positions of light sources alone, and thus are sometimes inappropriate to express desired physical textures. Besides, prepared textures have only a limited capability to express the surfaces of matters when the matters vary in color or roughness with time.

Method of creating texture capable of continuous mapping


An inspection apparatus and method are provided, wherein even when an image that cannot be processed by a current image processing algorithm is input to an image processing unit while a working line is in operation, the inspection can be continued by newly generating an image processing algorithm optimized in keeping with a particular image. The apparatus includes an erroneous recognition detector, a teacher data generator and a switching unit for switching the current image processing algorithm to a new image processing algorithm generated based on an updated teacher data group. As a result, the inspection can be continued without extremely decreasing the accuracy even when an unexpected image is input to the working line.

This invention relates to an inspection apparatus for making an inspection by image processing such as a semiconductor inspection apparatus and a foreign matter inspection apparatus for foods or the like.
The conventional inspection apparatus using the image processing is available which can make a highly accurate inspection by optimizing the image processing algorithm.
In the conventional inspection apparatus, for example, the foreign matter contained in a package of frozen foods is detected by the image processing of an X-ray image and an image processing algorithm optimized in accordance with the user situation is automatically generated by use of GA (Genetic Algorithms).
The image processing using GA is explained in detail in Japanese book, in Chapter 5 of "Phylogenetic Image Processing" by Tomoharu Nagao, published by Shokodo. In this image processing, a filter tree with a one-input one-output filter and a two-input one-output filter (constituting a gene) combined into a tree structure is regarded as a chromosome. The chromosome of the next-generation population (mass of chromosomes) is generated by selection, crossing-over and mutation of the current-generation population. In this way, the population makes an evolution in each generation. The direction of evolution is defined by a set of a predetermined original image and a target image (which may include a weighted image, as required), and image processing algorithms (chromosomes) more and more evolved with the original image approaching a target image come to appear in greater numbers through generations.
In this invention, a set of an original image and a target image (and a weighted image in some cases) is referred to as a teacher data set. Although one teacher data set serves the purpose, a plurality of teacher data sets generally exist, and the target image and the weighted image, as compared with the original image, are required to be generated manually. A particular desired image processing algorithm formed by the target image and the weighted image is taught to a system by the human being.
FIGS. 12A to 12D show the manner in which the image processing algorithm for detecting foreign matter in a frozen food is generated by the phylogenetic image processing. FIG. 12A shows the positions of the foreign matter contained in the package of the frozen pilaf constituting a frozen food. The outer peripheral portion where nothing is contained is high in X-ray transmittance and white in color. Inside the package, rice grains and other ingredients appear as an white-flecked image. FIG. 2B shows the original image (not the original image in the teacher data set) as it is. FIG. 12C shows an original image processed by the image processing algorithm (chromosome) formed by the learning (optimization) using the teacher data set and obtained at about the 10th generation. The pixel value at the coordinate having the foreign matter is seen to have become higher than that of rice grains. FIG. 12D, on the other hand, shows an original image processed by the image processing algorithm obtained at about the 100th generation. Once the stage as far as this is reached, the presence or absence can be stably detected with the pixel value of about 6 or 7 as a threshold. In the case under consideration, the last process for detecting the presence or absence of foreign matter using a threshold is not included in the image processing algorithm to be optimized. As described above, all the processes before determining the detection result are not necessarily optimized.
FIGS. 13A to 13D show an example of the target image and the weighted image obtained in this case. FIG. 13A shows an example of the target image involved, in which the pixel values at the positions of foreign matter contained are shown high. The system optimizes the image processing algorithm to obtain this image of the processing result. Specifically, the chromosomes of each generation are evaluated as to the degree to which the result of processing is different from a target image, and if low in evaluation (with the processing result considerably different from the target image), selected and cannot survive to the next generation. In the process, what is important is the degree to which the processing result is different from the target image. In the case where the greater part of the target image is black and only a small part thereof is white as shown in FIG. 13B, a chromosome by which a deep black image is output as the processing result would also gain a high evaluation. Such a chromosome (image processing), however, has no actual significance. In such a case, the condition that the position where foreign matter is contained is as white as in the target image is given priority (weighted) in evaluation, and therefore, the weighted image as shown in FIG. 13C is effectively used. In the weighted image, the coordinate higher in pixel value is weighted more to evaluate the difference from the target image.
On the other hand, JP-A-7-121494 discloses a neural network (perceptron) in which the desired output signal can be easily obtained also for the non-learning input signal by simple learning using the learning input signal and the corresponding teacher signal. It is well known that the pattern can be recognized from the image also using this neural network. Also in this case, a set of the learning input signal and the teacher signal is required to be prepared in advance. The set of the learning input signal and the teacher signal is also called a teacher data set according to this invention. In the pattern recognition using the neural network, the preprocessing such as the noise elimination may be carried out on the input image. According to this invention, however, such a preprocessing is not included in the learning (optimization).


A cable 1 is configured of connecting portions 12 on both ends for connecting to external connecting terminals and an intermediate portion 13. Each connecting portion 12 has electroconductive portions 14 for connecting with external connecting terminals. The cable 1 is formed by layering multiple elastomer sheets 1H. Each elastomer sheet 1H is formed with an elastomer raw material having no electroconductivity as a base, with rectangular elastomer regions 1T having electroconductivity on both ends and transmission paths for connecting the rectangular elastomer regions 1T on both ends.

As reduction in size and thickness of electronic devices has advanced recently, there is increased need to connect minute circuits with one another, and to connect minute parts and minute circuits, etc. For example, there is a method in which an anisotropic electroconductive elastomer sheet is introduced between electronic parts and printed wiring boards to realize conduction.
Anisotropic electroconductive elastomer sheets are sheets of elastomer having electroconductivity only in a particular direction, and ensure electroconductivity only in the direction intended from the anisotropy thereof. Elastomer sheets generally include those with electroconductivity only in the thickness direction, those which exhibit electroconductivity in the thickness direction when pressure is applied in the thickness direction.
Conventionally, such anisotropic electroconductive elastomer sheets are formed by first forming an anisotropic electroconductive block by integrating arrayed metal fine wires with an insulator such as rubber or the like, and then finely cutting in the direction orthogonal to the direction in which the fine metal wires extend (e.g., Patent Document 1).
Also, as for a method for connecting signal lines of printed wiring boards disposed away from each other with a flexible connecting member, a method using flexible printed wiring boards is known. For example, connecting rigid printed wiring boards with a flexible printed wiring board enables signal lines between the rigid printed boards to be connected while keeping the signal transmission path flexible. With this method, rigid printed wiring boards are formed in multiple layers to reduce the size of the printed wiring boards and to realize increased installation density of electronic circuits, so multi-layer flexible printed boards are also used for the flexible printed wiring boards serving as the connecting member.
Patent Document 1 Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-340037


A handbag is disclosed having an enclosure which defines a major compartment for receiving and retaining articles, a credit card holder for holding at least one credit card, a minor compartment defined within the major compartment for reception of the credit card holder, and a connecting member for attaching the credit card holder with respect to the minor compartment in a manner which permits insertion of the credit card holder into the minor compartment and withdrawal of the credit card holder upwardly with respect to the minor compartment up to a predetermined distance as limited by the connecting member. When the credit card holder is moved upwardly, such movement provides user access to the credit cards, while preventing outward movement of the credit card holder from the minor compartment a distance greater than said predetermined distance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to handbags and other portable personal carrying containers, and more particularly, to a handbag having a separate compartment for reception and retention of a credit card holder, the credit card holder being permanently attached to the handbag to prevent separation movement relative to the separate compartment in excess of a predetermined distance.
2. Background of Related Art
The structure and usage of handbags, pocketbooks and other portable carrying containers is well known. Handbags and luggage are commonly constructed of one or more interior compartments configured to retain cosmetics, toiletries and other items for ready access by the user. In such known structures, handbags often contain inner distinct compartments for reception of articles or other items.
In handbags, a separate compartment for containing a bill fold, a coin purse, or the like has often been incorporated by structuring the compartment in either a permanently open condition or with a latching mechanism which permits closure of the compartment. Some examples of these types of structures can also be found in the patent literature.
With increasing use of credit cards, consumers have found the need to carry an increasing number of credit cards on a regular basis. In order to facilitate carrying such credit cards, wallet and handbag manufacturers have provided a number of vehicles for the consumers use whereby credit cards can be inserted into pocket-like compartments or the like for storage and ready access.
The increasing use of such credit cards has also given rise to an increasing loss of the credit cards either by accidental cause or theft. Thus, in the case of a handbag, although an individually separable container for carrying credit cards may be provided by the manufacturer, the credit card holder may become separated and be lost either through inadvertence or by theft when the consumer removes it from the carrying container for use of a credit card. Accordingly, there is a need for a carrying container having provisions for storage and retention of credit cards with means to prevent permanent physical separation of the credit cards from the container more than a predetermined distance.
The prior art includes a number of examples of handbags and the like having separate storage containers or devices for containing articles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,538,518 to Marymount relates to a pocketbook or handbag having an identification card holder and mirror attached to the handbag by a suitable band 29. Marymount also discloses a secret pocket 16 attached to a flexible band 17. U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,967 to Kulick discloses a handbag having a bill folder 17 connected within a compartment by a connecting strip 22. U.S. Pat. No. 1,863,270 to Goldsmith discloses a handbag having a safety pocket 23 formed in the central portion. U.S. Pat. No. 1,998,798 to Welch discloses a handbag having a coin purse 19 connected with the handbag by a rigid connecting member 24. U.S. Pat. No. 2,061,293 to Stember relates to a ladies' handbag having a billfold 17 connected to the handbag by a connecting member 21.
Although the portable personal carrying containers disclosed in the prior art relate generally to handbags having items such as identification card holders, mirrors, coin purses, bill folders or the like associated with the handbag in some fashion, there is no disclosure of a handbag adapted for permanent reception of a device capable of holding at least one credit card, wherein a safe and secure place is provided within the handbag for storage of credit cards in a manner where they are readily accessed by the user, and which also facilitates such storage in a manner which prevents loss by theft or otherwise of the credit cards from the handbag and the user. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a handbag which avoids the problems prevalent with known handbags.

Handbag having credit card holder insert


The hand extension with universal clamp extends the reach of a hand tool. It features a universal clamp to work with virtually any tool. It reduces the need to bend over or work on hands and knees. Further, it decreases the strain and injury often caused by crouching or hunching to work. The device protects clothing from being stained by dirty floors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of tools and more specifically relates to a hand extension with universal clamp device of a tool extension system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tools are used by individuals in modern society to perform many processes and tasks. Tools are often relatively short in length so they can be stored between uses. When using hand tools, people often have to hunch over or work on their hands and knees. Regularly doing either of these things can result in knee or back problems and general pain and discomfort. Working on hands and knees can also lead to stained and ruined clothing. This is not desirable. A means for using tools over an extended distance is desirable.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,792,581; 3,357,035; D263,677; 3,984,892; 3,413,043; and 6,119,311. This art is representative of tools. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a hand extension with universal clamp device should provide ease of use and, yet would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable tool extension system to avoid the above-mentioned problems.

Hand extension with universal clamp systems


A floor table (1) of a concrete mould for producing a concrete floor (2), comprising at least one front (18, 19) and one rear holder (23) for fixing at least one front (11) and at least one rear ligament (12) of a crane harness (9), characterized in that when the floor table (1) is in a disengaged and retracted state underneath a recently hardened concrete floor (2), it is possible to have access to the holders (18, 18 23) which are used to fix the ligaments (11, 12). The inventive floor table can be drawn out from the floor and displaced with less danger to the workers and requiring less effort in comparison with conventional floor tables.

The invention concerns a floor table of a concrete formwork for producing a concrete floor, comprising at least one front and one rear holder for mounting at least one front and at least one rear ligament of a crane harness.
Floor tables of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,020. The displacement of such floor tables is disclosed in the company document "Flying Procedure" of FORM-EZE Systems Inc.
Concrete formworks are used to build concrete buildings. The formwork thereby defines a space for liquid concrete and can be removed when the concrete has hardened.
So-called floor tables are conventionally used to produce concrete floors. Floor tables have a relatively large, flat formwork surface, e.g. of a format of 6×24 m. Assembly and disassembly of a floor formwork using floor tables requires only a few, but complex assembly steps, and, in particular, a crane for displacing the floor tables.
The conventional construction of a storey of a building using floor tables is described below.
A floor table comprising i.a. an upwardly facing formwork surface is positioned onto a floor surface. The floor table is initially roughly positioned, generally by means of a crane. Further horizontal positioning is realized by roller means, such as assembly trolleys, articulated rollers, rigid rollers, tank rollers etc. The upper edge of the formwork surface is then disposed at a distance from the upper edge of the floor in correspondence with the room height to be produced, wherein spindles or hydraulically actuated lifting means are conventionally used to vertically adjust the floor table. Further floor tables and/or vertically oriented formwork elements are disposed at the edges of the floor table and corresponding reinforcing materials are disposed on the floor tables. Liquid concrete is subsequently poured into and distributed on the formwork surface of the floor table and is left until the concrete, i.e. the concrete floor to be produced, has hardened.
After hardening, the formwork is at first removed from the floor table and the floor table is lowered relative to the hardened concrete floor, e.g. by using the above-mentioned spindles. The stroke of the lowering motion should be minimum to save assembly time. The floor table is disposed on roller means. The floor table without formwork is then manually displaced in a horizontal direction by technicians, such that the floor table projects beyond the hardened concrete floor. Holders for the ligaments of a crane harness are provided on the upper side of the floor table on both sides of the center of gravity. As soon as the floor table has been pushed out to a sufficient degree, such that at least a first part of these holders projects outward from below the hardened concrete floor, a technician climbs onto the upper side of the floor table and fastens the ligaments of a crane harness to the exposed holders, optionally with the technician standing on the formwork surface and opening flaps therein. If necessary, the floor table is pushed further out until the remaining holders also project from below the hardened concrete floor, and a technician, standing on the formwork surface, fastens the other ligaments to the holders.
According to FORM-EZE Systems Inc., the floor table is extracted directly from underneath the hardened concrete floor to such an extent that all holders on the upper side of the floor table are exposed to allow the technician to fasten all ligaments of the crane harness. Usually, the floor table is as wide as the hardened concrete floor and the center of gravity of the floor table must be displaced beyond the edge of the floor. As a result, the floor table tilts and its inner, upper edge must be supported on the lower side of the hardened concrete floor.
When the crane harness has been completely fastened, the ligaments can be tightened and further conventional handling of the floor table using a crane is possible. The floor table is then completely extracted or pivoted out of the region between the floor and the hardened floor and is lifted and disposed on the hardened floor. The hardened floor may then serve as floor for adding on a further storey.
When displacing a floor table as recommended by FORM-EZE Systems Inc., the crane harness can be mounted directly above the center of gravity of the floor table immediately after assembly.
One disadvantage of this prior art is that the technician may have to walk on an inclined formwork surface of a floor table in order to fasten the ligaments. The section of the floor table on which the technician moves, projects past the hardened concrete floor and typically also beyond the floor, such that the worker must be specially secured for this work. The surface of the floor table may be moist and slippery after removal of the formwork, in particular, due to formwork oil and condensed water. Another disadvantage is the fact that it requires considerable effort to horizontally displace the floor table, i.e. the manual labor of several technicians.
In contrast thereto, it is the object of the present invention to provide a floor table which can be moved out from beneath a floor and displaced with less expense and increased safety for the technicians.

Device and method for displacing a floor table mold


A robust, compact optical pulse train source is described, with the capability of generating sub-picosecond micro-pulse sequences, which can be periodic as well as non-periodic, and at repetition rates tunable over decades of baseline frequencies, from MHz to multi-GHz regimes. The micro-pulses can be precisely controlled and formatted to be in the range of many ps in duration to as short as several fs in duration. The system output can be comprised of a continuous wave train of optical micro-pulses or can be programmed to provide gated bursts of macro-pulses, with each macro-pulse consisting of a specific number of micro-pulses or a single pulse picked from the higher frequency train at a repetition rate lower than the baseline frequency. These pulses could then be amplified in energy anywhere from the nJ to MJ range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to short pulse laser systems, and more specifically, it relates to the production of short-pulse, high repetition-rate, high energy output pulses.
2. Description of Related Art
Very-short-pulse laser sources (in the range of picoseconds to femtoseconds), with high repetition rates (MHz to GHz) are required for many applications, including materials processing, 3-D lithography, high-data-rate laser communication, remote sensor systems, as pump sources for the realization of short-wavelength high-energy photon sources via higher-order nonlinear optical parametric interactions, and as photo-cathode illumination laser pulses for creation of photo-electrons in high frequency particle accelerators.
For certain applications there is a long felt, unmet need for a reliable and robust source of picosecond pulses at repetition rates of 10 GHz or greater driven at the exact frequency of a desired clock. A need exists for the ability to feed bursts of electrons into every cycle of an electron accelerator and thus increase brightness. It has also been desirable for the ability to feed an etalon to create super-pulses by stacking many micro-pulses. In the latter example, a 10 GHz repetition rate would enable the use of a 15 mm etalon, which is much more convenient and inherently more stable and robust than the 1.5 m etalon required for a 100 MHz source.
Continuous wave (CW) lasers have been converted to sub-ps, high frequency pulse trains, through the use of "time-lens" techniques to generate ps-level bandwidths, followed by soliton compression at 1550 nm in specially optimized fibers to generate further bandwidth while simultaneously compressing the pulse. As is known in the art, this technical approach is limited to systems at operating wavelengths whose fiber dispersion characteristic is compatible with the requirements of soliton compression, which is satisfied at 1550 nm for available fiber materials. However, at other useful operating wavelengths, say in the range of 1050 nm, the soliton compression scheme is not feasible because the dispersion in standard fibers has the opposite sign from the dispersion at 1550 nm.
The prior art also includes controllable fs pulse-train generation techniques at 1552 nm. This approach involves optical comb signal generation using overdriven RF modulation of a cw laser diode (using a Mach-Zehnder modulator), resulting in highly chirped output pulses, followed by fiber-based frequency-chirp compensation (resulting in a picosecond pulse train), which, in turn, is followed by fiber-based dispersion-flattening that compresses the ps pulse train into fs pulses. The spectral spacing is determined by the RF modulation drive frequency, while the modulation drive power determines the bandwidth of the spectrum. Under the proper modulation conditions, a parabolic dependence of each comb mode in the ensemble can be realized, which is amenable to standard single-mode fiber compensation techniques.
The prior art also includes many examples of optical fiber-based mode-locked oscillators. See, e.g., M. Fermann, M. Andrejco, Y. Silberberg, and M. Stock, "Passive mode locking by using nonlinear polarization evolution in a polarization-maintaining erbium-doped fiber," Opt. Lett. 18, 894-896 (1993). Such oscillators can produce pulses that, after passing through a following fiber-based or grating-based compressor, can have sub-picosecond durations. The pulse repetition rate of such oscillators is generally limited however to less than 100 Mhz, since higher repetition rates would require lengths of optical fiber that are impractically short. Moreover, such oscillators are inherently sensitive to vibration, and cannot be made as reliable and robust as can the pulse source described here.
The prior art also includes examples where the frequency of sources of sub-picosecond pulses having modest repetition rates are locked to a sub-multiple of some desired higher frequency clock; for example, a 100 MHz source might be locked to the 100th sub-multiple of a 10 GHz clock. Such sub-multiple locking schemes are difficult to implement, however, and are prone to drift and noise-related imperfections.
The ability to programmably modify the temporal pulse shape and its amplitude, in real time, would offer the possibility of controlling various complex photochemical processes and quantum control of interactions on molecular time scales. It is desirable to use self phase modulation of a seed beam to produce a train of bandwidth-limited short-duration output pulses and further, to produce a train of short-pulse, high repetition-rate, high energy output pulses.

Directly driven source of multi-gigahertz, sub-picosecond optical pulses

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


A system, method and computer program product for authorship determination, and alias resolution, including a document collection; a Jaro-Winkler similarity module configured for performing authorship determination and alias resolution based on at least one of email addresses, user identification numbers (IDs) on social networks, names written in text, and proper names, including countries and cities in the document collection; an authorship Support Vector Machine (SVM) module configured for performing authorship determination and alias resolution based on content of documents in the document collection, including at least one of emails, and social networks information; and a Jaccard similarity module configured for performing authorship determination and alias resolution based on link networks in the document collection. One or more of the Jaro-Winkler similarity module, the authorship Support Vector Machine (SVM) module, and the Jaccard similarity module are employed for performing the authorship determination and the alias resolution in the document collection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for processing large amounts of data, and more particularly to systems and methods for authorship determination, alias resolution, and the like.
2. Discussion of the Background
In recent years, systems and methods for processing large amounts of data have been developed. However, such systems lack robustness with respect to authorship determination, alias resolution, and the like.

System and method for authorship disambiguation and alias resolution in electronic data


A system and method are disclosed for dynamically reserving resources within a cluster environment. The method embodiment of the invention comprises receiving a request for resources in the cluster environment, monitoring events after receiving the request for resources and based on the monitored events, dynamically modifying at least one of the request for resources and the cluster environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reservations in a compute environment and more specifically to a system and method of providing advanced reservations to resources within a compute environment such as a cluster.
2. Introduction
There are challenges in the complex process of managing the consumption of resources within a compute environment such as a grid, compute farm or cluster of computers. Grid computing may be defined as coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional collaborations. Many computing projects require much more computational power and resources than a single computer may provide. Networked computers with peripheral resources such as printers, scanners, I/O devices, storage disks, scientific devices and instruments, etc. may need to be coordinated and utilized to complete a task. The term compute resource generally refers to computer processors, network bandwidth, and any of these peripheral resources as well. A compute farm may comprise a plurality of computers coordinated for such purposes of handling Internet traffic. The web search website Google® had a compute farm used to process its network traffic and Internet searches.
Grid/cluster resource management generally describes the process of identifying requirements, matching resources to applications, allocating those resources, and scheduling and monitoring grid resources over time in order to run grid applications or jobs submitted to the compute environment as efficiently as possible. Each project or job will utilize a different set of resources and thus is typically unique. For example, a job may utilize computer processors and disk space, while another job may require a large amount of network bandwidth and a particular operating system. In addition to the challenge of allocating resources for a particular job or a request for resources, administrators also have difficulty obtaining a clear understanding of the resources available, the current status of the compute environment and available resources, and real-time competing needs of various users. One aspect of this process is the ability to reserve resources for a job. A cluster manager will seek to reserve a set of resources to enable the cluster to process a job at a promised quality of service.
General background information on clusters and grids may be found in several publications. See, e.g., Grid Resource Management, State of the Art and Future Trends, Jarek Nabrzyski, Jennifer M. Schopf, and Jan Weglarz, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004; and Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux, edited by William Gropp, Ewing Lusk, and Thomas Sterling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003.
It is generally understood herein that the terms grid and cluster are interchangeable, although they have different connotations. For example, when a grid is referred to as receiving a request for resources and the request is processed in a particular way, the same method may also apply to other compute environments such as a cluster or a compute farm. A cluster is generally defined as a collection of compute nodes organized for accomplishing a task or a set of tasks. In general, a grid will comprise a plurality of clusters as will be shown in FIG. 1A. Several general challenges exist when attempting to maximize resources in a grid. First, there are typically multiple layers of grid and cluster schedulers. A grid 100 generally comprises a group of clusters or a group of networked computers. The definition of a grid is very flexible and may mean a number of different configurations of computers. The introduction here is meant to be general given the variety of configurations that are possible. A grid scheduler 102 communicates with a plurality of cluster schedulers 104A, 104B and 104C. Each of these cluster schedulers communicates with a respective resource manager 106A, 106B or 106C. Each resource manager communicates with a respective series of compute resources shown as nodes 108A, 108B, 108C in cluster 110, nodes 108D, 108E, 108F in cluster 112 and nodes 108G, 108H, 108I in cluster 114.
Local schedulers (which may refer to either the cluster schedulers 104 or the resource managers 106) are closer to the specific resources 108 and may not allow grid schedulers 102 direct access to the resources. The grid level scheduler 102 typically does not own or control the actual resources. Therefore, jobs are submitted from the high level grid-scheduler 102 to a local set of resources with no more permissions that then user would have. This reduces efficiencies and can render the reservation process more difficult.
The heterogeneous nature of the shared compute resources also causes a reduction in efficiency. Without dedicated access to a resource, the grid level scheduler 102 is challenged with the high degree of variance and unpredictability in the capacity of the resources available for use. Most resources are shared among users and projects and each project varies from the other. The performance goals for projects differ. Grid resources are used to improve performance of an application but the resource owners and users have different performance goals: from optimizing the performance for a single application to getting the best system throughput or minimizing response time. Local policies may also play a role in performance.
Within a given cluster, there is only a concept of resource management in space. An administrator can partition a cluster and identify a set of resources to be dedicated to a particular purpose and another set of resources can be dedicated to another purpose. In this regard, the resources are reserved in advance to process the job. There is currently no ability to identify a set of resources over a time frame for a purpose. By being constrained in space, the nodes 108A, 108B, 108C, if they need maintenance or for administrators to perform work or provisioning on the nodes, have to be taken out of the system, fragmented permanently or partitioned permanently for special purposes or policies. If the administrator wants to dedicate them to particular users, organizations or groups, the prior art method of resource management in space causes too much management overhead requiring a constant adjustment the configuration of the cluster environment and also losses in efficiency with the fragmentation associated with meeting particular policies.
To manage the jobs submissions or requests for resources within a cluster, a cluster scheduler will employ reservations to insure that jobs will have the resources necessary for processing. FIG. 1B illustrates a cluster/node diagram for a cluster 124 with nodes 120. Time is along the X axis. An access control list 114 (ACL) to the cluster is static, meaning that the ACL is based on the credentials of the person, group, account, class or quality of service making the request or job submission to the cluster. The ACL 114 determines what jobs get assigned to the cluster 110 via a reservation 112 shown as spanning into two nodes of the cluster. Either the job can be allocated to the cluster or it can't and the decision is determined based on who submits the job at submission time. The deficiency with this approach is that there are situations in which organizations would like to make resources available but only in such a way as to balance or meet certain performance goals. Particularly, groups may want to establish a constant expansion factor and make that available to all users or they may want to make a certain subset of users that are key people in an organization and want to give them special services but only when their response time drops below a certain threshold. Given the prior art model, companies are unable to have the flexibility over their cluster resources.
To improve the management of compute resources, what is needed in the art is a method for a scheduler, such as a grid scheduler, a cluster scheduler or cluster workload management system to manage resources more efficiently. Furthermore, given the complexity of the cluster environment, what is needed is more power and flexibility in the reservations process.

System and method for providing advanced reservations in a compute environment


A device for the creating and displaying an object image. A plurality of object images is created on the basis of a combination of part patterns on the respective parts of an object. A different object image related to the respective object images is synthesized from the plurality of created object images and displayed. An object image is created and displayed automatically which has a different shape imagined when the weight, height and intake calory of the created object image is increased/decreased. When a front object image is created, parts patterns for an object image on a different view corresponding to the front object image are designated and combined to create an object image on a different view.

The present invention relates to object image displaying devices which create and display an object image such as an animal or building.
Conventionally, a so-called object image creating device is known which creates an image of an object such as a face in a manner similar to creation of a montage photograph. This device is provided with a part pattern memory which stores a plurality of data items on part patterns of respective parts of a face such as a "contour", "hair style", "eyes", "nose", "mouth", and "brows". It also provided with a switch which is operated to designate the respective parts of an image and a switch which is operated to designate desired ones of kinds of part patterns related to the parts designated by the part designating switch when the object image is created.
In this case, in order to create any object image, first, the part designating switch is operated to designate parts of the object image. Desired part patterns are selected from among kinds of part patterns stored in the part pattern memory for the respective parts designated by the operation of the part designating switch, and an image of a desired object is created by combining the selected part patterns.
As described above, the conventional object image creating device only creates an object image of composed of a plurality of part patterns and displays that object image created. It, however, cannot rapidly and easily create a different image related to the created object image, for example, a child's face image related to a created husband's face image and a created wife's face image, a person's possible face or whole body image imagined when his current created weight is increased/decreased, or whole body image obtained when his current created weight is increased/decreased, or another side face image related to a created front face image.

Device for creating a new object image relating to plural object images


An assembly of a container (1) for drink and a drink dispensing device (11), each of which is provided with positioning elements (13,13′; 16, 16′) for orientation of the air connector (20, 48) and the dispensing opening (4) of the container (1) with an air channel (22) and a dispensing line (5) in the lid (25) of the dispensing device (11).

The invention relates to an assembly of a drink dispensing device having a chill chamber with a chamber wall and, at a top, an opening for accommodating a container containing a drink, as well as a container that is provided at a top section with a dispensing element for dispensing the drink and with a peripheral wall, as well as a drink dispensing device and container for use in such a device.
A container of this type is disclosed in International Patent Application no. WO 99/11563. In the case of the known container the flexible line is accommodated inside a cap that is fitted over an upper end face of the container. The container can have a plastic outer jacket with an internal flexible bag, containing a carbonated drink, such as beer. The container is placed in a closable chill chamber of a drink dispensing device and connected to a pressure line which feeds a pressure medium into the space between the flexible bag and the outer jacket. The flexible dispensing line is fed through a dispensing tap at the top of the chill chamber, which dispensing tap is in clamping engagement on the tube in order to close this off and releases the dispensing line by operation of a tap handle. On placing the container in the chill chamber a break seal at the top of the cap can be removed and the dispensing line can be removed from the cap in order to connect the outlet to the dispensing tap.
One disadvantage of the known container is that access to the dispenser tube via the opening in the cap is relatively difficult for the user. Furthermore, positioning of the end of the tube in the dispensing tap of the dispensing device is relatively difficult.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Drink dispensing device and container for drink provided with positioning means


A robot includes a power source of the robot, and a switch section adapted to block electrical power supply to the power source. The switch section is disposed on a front side of the robot arranged to face to a workbench when at work. The switch section blocks the electrical power supply to the power source in a case in which it is detected that a distance between the robot and the workbench is longer than a predetermined distance.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a robot, an emergency stop method of a robot, and so on.
2. Related Art
Industrial robots play an active role in a lot of production sites. In such production sites, according to the principle of separation, robots and humans are physically separated from each other with a guard fence or the like to secure the safety.
However, it is unachievable to separate robots and humans from each other in, for example, a teaching operation to the robots, and there is a possibility that the safety is diminished by, for example, a contact of an arm and so on of the robot with people. Alternatively, there is a case in which the safety is diminished due to an unwanted action (e.g., uncontrollable error) of a robot. Further, there is a demand for prevention of a damage of the robot itself due to the uncontrollable error. In order to cope with such cases as described above, robots are provided with a so-called emergency stop switch. As related art of such an emergency stop switch, there can be cited technologies disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2011-62794 (Document 1) and JP-A-2008-49462 (Document 2). Further, as the related art for resolving a failure due to an unexpected action of a mobile robot in a charging process, there can be cited a technology disclosed in JP-A-2009-142080 (Document 3).
Most of the past industrial robots are based on an assumption that the robots do not move from a workplace after once being installed in the workplace. On the other hand, in recent years, mobile industrial robots coexisting with humans to perform operations are also attracting lots of attention. In the case in which such a robot performs an operation on, for example, a workbench, the robot might be shifted from a work position due to an unexpected cause. In such a case, it is unachievable to normally perform the emergency stop of the robot with the emergency stop switch provided to, for example, the robot main body, which is undesirable in terms of safety.

Robot and emergency stop method of robot


An Automated Teller Machine has a housing having an aperture through which documents may pass between the interior and the exterior of the housing. At least one escrow area is defined in the housing. A document transport system extends within the housing for the transport of documents between the aperture and the escrow area.

This relates in general to Automated Teller Machines (ATM) also known as Automated Banking Machines.
One category of ATM includes machines capable of conducting a wide variety of traditional banking transactions including acceptance of cash and/or checks for deposit, check cashing, and withdrawals/dispensing of cash, also referred to herein as currency or notes. In certain locations globally and especially in certain countries, the daily transaction volume of an ATM can be substantial and may even exceed the physical capacity of the machine to receive documents and/or exhaust the available supply of currency notes available to dispense for withdrawals.
Currency/notes, checks and other sheet materials, generally referred to as documents, that are accepted and/or dispensed by an ATM, are typically housed in containers, such as bins or removeable cassettes, while the documents are stored in the machine. Typically, documents are dispensed from the cassettes and presented by the ATM through an aperture or opening in a user interface, typically in the front facing or top of a housing of the ATM. In some ATM, documents may be accepted through the user interface for deposit and the like and then placed into a cassette. Thus, as cassettes become full or empty, periodically they must be either reloaded or unloaded or removed and replaced with loaded or empty cassettes.
In general, the reload, unload or removal of one or more cassettes in an ATM requires that the normal operation of the ATM be suspended. Also, reload, unload, or removal/replacement of a cassette typically requires personnel to access the ATM through a secured safe portion (chest) of the ATM. For example, personnel may need to access the chest through a locked rear or forward access door(s) to facilitate reload, unload, or removal/replacement of a cassette in the chest. Once the cassettes have been reloaded or unloaded or the cassettes have been removed and replaced, it may then be necessary to reboot or activate the ATM in order to place the ATM back into service.
The reload, or unload, or removal/replacement of cassettes requires documents to be transported to and/or from the ATM. For replenishment, such documents may be preloaded in to cassettes to be taken to the machine or taken to the machine separately and feed into the cassettes at the ATM. For depletion, loaded cassettes may be removed from machine or documents may be dispensed from the machine and taken away separately from the cassettes. While efforts have been made in the design of ATMs, including the cassettes, to minimize opportunities for misuse, fraud, or pilferage, and other precautions have been taken to safeguard the transport of documents, there is always some risk of such events occurring during the handling and transport of such documents. Additionally, it is often the case that during such operations the secured or safe portion may be open or exposed. Therefore, such activities are normally carried out by or in the presence of armed couriers. Often, more than one person is assigned to any task where there is access to documents going to or coming from an ATM. Because numerous individuals may be involved in the reload, or unload, or removal/replacement of cassettes, this is often a time consuming and expensive process. The need to reload, or unload, or remove/replace cassettes periodically is a cost and/or loss to the ATM owner/operator because of the process described above and because the ATM must be either powered down completely or at minimum temporarily disabled from transaction processing.


A content recommendation system includes: a client terminal operated by a user; and a content recommendation server that recommends content to the terminal through a network and includes a preference discrimination information storage section accumulating and storing preference discrimination information in which information related to evaluation of content input to the terminal by a user and identification information of the user are associated with each other, a content feature information storage section storing content feature information in which data indicating features of content are associated with identification information of content, a preference information creation section creating preference information of each user by integrating evaluation for content with the feature of the content for each user based on the preference discrimination information and the content feature information, and a recommended content list providing section transmitting a list of recommended content, extracted by evaluating the degree of similarity of features with the preference information based on the content feature information, to the terminal.

In recent years, using communication networks such as the Internet desired content has been enjoyed from an enormous amount of content. Since available content amounts to an enormous quantity, various types of recommendation techniques have also been proposed. For example, there is a technique for retrieving user's favorite types of content, and presenting the content to a user (see, for example, JP-A-2006-58947). On the other hand, a technique of content-based filtering has also been proposed for detecting content having feature information with a high similarity to feature information of a user's favorite content.

Content recommendation system, content recommendation device, and content recommendation method