A large-torque chain-guide type constant ratio/continuously variable transmission is disclosed. The transmission comprises transmission rollers (A, B), an endless transmission chain or belt (C) and two chain guiders (D, E) respectively arranged beside the two transmission rollers. Each chain guider comprises n groups of grooved-pulleys, and each group comprises m grooved-pulleys. Each grooved-pulley rotates freely around a grooved-pulley axis, and an angle α is formed between the axis of at least one grooved-pulley in each group of grooved-pulleys and a roller axis of the transmission roller matched with the same grooved-pulley. The angle α enables the chain entering the chain guider and the chain leaving the chain guider to move a certain axial distance, i.e. a chain distance, on the transmission rollers, wherein the chain distance is required to be larger than the width of the chain or the belt. The endless transmission chain passes sequentially through the pulley groove of at least one grooved-pulley in one group and the driving roller under the guidance of the chain guider, and is guided to a driven roller after winding n circles around both the chain guider and the driving roller. Whereafter, the transmission chain passes sequentially through the pulley groove of at least one grooved-pulley in one group and the driven roller under the guidance of the chain guider, and returns to the driving roller to be closed after winding n circles around both the chain guider and the driven roller. The transmission has small size and compact structure, and can output a large torque.

The present invention belongs to the technical field of mechanical drive, which relates to a mechanical continuously variable transmission, specifically to a mechanical continuously variable transmission that can output a large torque and larger speed ratio, as well as provides a constant-ratio transmission that can output a large torque.
In the present technology, most mechanical devices which need to change speed, such as vehicle, vessels, engineering machine, factories and mines and harbors machine etc, continuously speed is superior to step speed change, firstly because it simplifies the manipulation, and secondly the speed variation is smooth, which is quite favorable to the vehicles, and especially it can realize the best match between transmission systems and engine operating modes, which is favorable to the working life of the engines and energy conservation.
Due to above advantages of the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), there are kinds of CVT developed, wherein the friction transmission of conical-plate is widely used. However, this transmission have intrinsic defects that is difficult to overcome, such as its output torque being small, most below 300 Nm, which can hardly apply to motor vehicles of great displacement, furthermore, it can more hardly be satisfied for larger requirement of output torque, such as trucks, diesel locomotives, tanks and watercrafts. Moreover, its speed regulation range, i.e., speed ratio is restricted, normally not more than 6:1. Therefore it needs to suit with transmission of fixed speed ratio. A more realistic problem is that this transmission requires higher quality and technical requirement for the drive chains or drive belts, resulting in the cost of making and using transmissions increase highly, which is disadvantageous for the popularity and generalization of this transmission.
The publicized patent application titled "a large-torque breaker-roller type constant ratio/continuously variable transmission" (hereafter referred to "breaker-roller type"), with application number of 200910136244.1, publicized a large-torque breaker-roller type continuously variable transmission and this transmission introduced the concept of breaker roller, which was consisted of two pairs of breaker-rollers of driving roller and driven roller. Each pair of breaker roller was two drive rollers operating synchronously. A drive chain rotated n cycles outside the driving breaker rollers and directed to the driven breaker rollers to rotate n cycles on them and returned to the driving breaker rollers to form a closed circle. Due to effective augment of wrap angles between the chain belt and the drive rollers, the skidding in driving was avoid, achieving a large power (torque) output. However, this breaker-roller type transmission needs two pairs of breaker-rollers that is four rollers, resulting in the structure being larger.

Large-torque chain-guide type constant ratio/continuously variable transmission


One aspect of the present invention includes a preformed gastric band comprising a flexible substrate and a plurality of band members. The flexible substrate comprises oppositely disposed first and second major surfaces defined by first and second minor side portions and first and second major side portions. The first major surface includes a lower collar section and an upper band section. The plurality of flexible band members is securely connected to the upper band section and extends between the first and second minor side portions of the substrate. Each of the band members includes first and second ends that comprise an attachment mechanism for connecting the first and second ends. Each of the band members is separated from one another by a spacing region.

Morbid obesity is a serious medical condition. Complications associated with morbid obesity include hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, multiple orthopedic problems, and pulmonary insufficiency with markedly decreased life expectancy. With this in mind, the monetary and physical costs associated with morbid obesity are substantial. In fact, it is estimated the costs relating to obesity are in excess of 100 billion dollars in the United States alone.
A variety of surgical procedures have been developed to treat obesity. The most common currently performed procedure is Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. This procedure is highly complex and is commonly utilized to treat people exhibiting morbid obesity. Other forms of bariatric surgery include Fobi pouch, biliopancreatic diversion, and gastroplastic or "stomach stapling". In addition, implantable devices are known that limit the passage of food through the stomach and affect satiety.
Despite the many advantages associated with these procedures, drawbacks still remain. For example, it has been found that the gastric pouch created by such procedures can dilate over time and thereby lead to weight regain. In such patients, a "banded bypass" operation is performed in which surgeons create and then apply a silastic band about the gastric pouch in an effort to prevent or mitigate pouch dilation. This process is cumbersome, however, as surgeons must create the bands in the operating room, which can take up to 30 minutes or more. Additionally, such bands, once implanted, require additional invasive surgery in the event of failure.

Preformed gastric band and method of use


A depth limiting device includes a stop collar having a an open end portion and an workpiece engaging portion extending along the open end portion thereof for contacting a workpiece; a spindle extending axially through the shell, the spindle including a first end extending from the exterior of the stop collar for attachment to a hole forming apparatus, and an second end interior to the stop collar for attachment to a hole forming bit, wherein the attached hole forming bit projects through the open end portion of the stop collar at a predetermined length corresponding to the desired depth of the hole in the workpiece; and a bearing assembly operatively associated with the stop collar and the spindle for isolating the rotation of the spindle from the stop collar whereby the stop collar ceases to rotate when contacting the workpiece without generating sufficient frictional contact to mar or otherwise damage the workpiece.

Drills are commonly used in woodworking. They are also used for cutting holes in such materials as composite materials (e.g. composites of wood and plastic), plastics such as polypropylene and polyvinyl acetate, woods, metals, especially softer metals such as iron and the like. The drill is a tool with a rotary drill bit used to drill holes through such materials. The twist drill is the most commonly used drill, and comprises a drill bit in the form of a cylindrical metal rod with two helical "flutes" or grooves spiraling along its length. The drill bit is typically held by the drill at one end, in the "chuck", with the other end (i.e. the working end) available for drilling the workpiece when the drill bit is rotated. The working tip of the drill bit cuts into the workpiece, slicing off debris in the form of thin shavings or small particles. The debris is carried up and away from the tip via the helical flutes or grooves once it has been lifted clear of the drilling hole.
It is often desirable to drill or bore holes in a workpiece to enable connecting or fastening devices such as screws, bolts and the like to be easily inserted in the workpiece. This predrilling process reduces the force necessary to properly seat the fastening device in the workpiece and at least substantially reduces breakage of the fastening device and/or damage to the workpiece. This is especially of concern when inserting countersink fastening devices into the workpiece where the force needed for the countersink head to enter the workpiece significantly exceeds the force needed to insert the body of the fastening device into the workpiece. This sudden, sharp increase in torque can result in damage or breakage of the fastening device. For example, fastening devices which are drilled directly into the work piece can cause splitting or splintering of the workpiece at the surface of the workpiece. Even when successfully inserted without predrilling, the fastening device may cause the workpiece to split, requiring the workpiece to be replaced. Another common problem without predrilling is splintering, which leaves an unsightly appearance that can only be remedied by sanding and the like. Also, if the workpiece is made out of either plastic or plastic/wood composite, predrilling can prevent the waste from gathering at the top of the waste piece in unsightly small mounds, commonly referred to as surface "volcanoes".
It is desirable to pre-drill the holes to a precise depth corresponding to the depth of the fastening device when precisely seated within the workpiece so that the top or head of the fastening device is even with the surface of the workpiece. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide devices that accurately limit the depth of the drilling hole to provide precise seating of the fastening device within the workpiece. Devices for limiting the depth of a drilling tool have been used to provide more precise drilling performance and typically include a body that is removably attached to the drilling tool, for example, by a set screw extending through the body. The device may be secured to the drilling tool at a select position, which defines the depth of the drilling hole by limiting the forward penetration of the drilling tool into the workpiece.
Once the depth limiting device comes into contact with the workpiece, the drilling tool is prevented from penetrating further into the workpiece because the depth limiting device acts as a barrier against further penetration. Because the depth limiting device is typically affixed to the drilling tool so that it cannot rotate independently with respect thereto, the depth limiting device continues to rotate with the drilling tool when it comes into contact with the workpiece. The driving frictional contact between the depth limiting device and the workpiece can cause marring or other damage to the workpiece.
Depth limiting devices for drilling tools having rotatable contact structures are also known in the art. The contact structures rotate with the drilling tool (i.e., drill bit) thereby generating frictional contact between the depth limiting device and the workpiece. During operation, as the rotatable contact structure comes into contact with the workpiece, marring of the workpiece results since the stoppage of rotation is not immediate and significant frictional contact is applied to the workpiece. The rotatable contact structure possesses rotational momentum which generates a level of frictional contact that cannot be immediately eliminated when the depth limiting device comes into contact with workpiece. This can result in some damage to the workpiece, and to the contact surface of the depth limiting device itself.
Depth limiting devices must also precisely limit the depth of the drilling hole. However, during drilling or boring, debris is generated from the workpiece, which can interface with the surface of the workpiece thereby increasing the possibility of an inaccurate drill hole. In particular, the presence of debris can prevent all or a portion of the contact surface of the depth limiting device from contacting the surface of the workpiece, thus causing the depth of the hole to be inaccurate. Moreover, the contact structures can adversely interact with the debris present at the interface of the depth limiting device and the workpiece in a manner that can mar or damage the surface of the workpiece.
Accordingly, there is a need for a depth limiting device for use with a hole forming apparatus such as a drilling or boring tool that is designed to drill or bore a hole to a desired precise depth, while effectively protecting the surface of the workpiece from marring or other damage. There is a further need for a depth limiting device that minimizes the presence of debris on the surface of the workpiece, thus facilitating precise drilling and easy clean up. Furthermore, there is a need for a depth limiting device that is simple and cost efficient to make and use.

Depth limiting device and hole forming apparatus containing the same


A receiver circuit for a mobile radio receiver has a controllable amplifier with a variable gain level, an analog-digital converter stage, a digital filter configuration for the purpose of channel selection and a signal strength estimator. The signal strength estimator is connected downstream of the filter configuration in the signal path and has the purpose of determining the signal strength in the selected user signal. The amplifier is controlled in dependence on the user-channel signal strength determined by the signal strength estimator.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a receiver circuit for a mobile radio receiver, in particular a cordless telephone, which is equipped with a controllable amplifier with a variable gain level. In addition, the invention relates to a method for processing a received signal in a mobile radio receiver.
As a result of the further development of mobile communications systems, new requirements are being made of the future terminals and their system components so that, inter alia, a more flexible range of services can be offered. In particular, a greater degree of flexibility, a lower level of power consumption, smaller dimensions and lower costs are required.
One possible way of fulfilling these requirements is for the analog signal processing means which are mainly used in contemporary mobile radio receivers to be largely replaced by digital signal processing means. For example, in recent years, the increase in the power of digital technology has made it possible to further process even relatively high frequency intermediate frequency signals in a digital fashion, enabling the proportion of the analog functions in the radio frequency section of the receiver to be significantly reduced. Generally, the increasing conversion of means for carrying out signal processing tasks into digital technology is leading to improved integration and flexibility of the system concept, improvement of the long-term stability and to a reduced number of tuning points when optimizing the receiver.
In this context, it is already known to dispense with a channel selection in the analog field and instead digitize the broadband intermediate frequency signal and perform the channel selection in the digital domain by way of digital filters.
However, the already mentioned system advantages of such a solution are also accompanied by disadvantages. When a broadband radio-frequency intermediate frequency signal is converted into the digital domain, a considerable degree of supplementary expenditure for the analog-digital converter is necessary. When digitizing a broadband intermediate-frequency signal, the converter must be capable of fulfilling high dynamic and bandwidth requirements.
In order to be able to fulfill the high bandwidth requirements, it has already become known to use analog-digital converters which operate according to the flash method. It is a disadvantage that that type of converter is very costly and expensive.
In order to reduce the dynamic requirements of the analog-digital converter (dynamic differences of up to 100 dB can occur in the reception signal), it has become known to implement an automatic gain control AGC in the analog section. The AGC ensures that the input signal of the analog-digital converter is always set to an optimum level. It is a disadvantage that the AGC also requires a considerable degree of implementation expenditure.
In an AGC, the signal strength estimation is carried out in the region of the analog signal processing means, i.e. in the signal path upstream of the analog-digital converter stage. A known modification of an AGC is the PGC (programmable gain control). In a PGC, the gain setting is derived from a digital control word which is output by a signal strength estimator which is arranged in the digital signal processing region.
A mobile radio converter module with the designation HSP50214B from HARRIS Semiconductor (Intersil) is known which has a PGC and which carries out channel selection in the region of the digital signal processing means (by means of digital filters). The PGC is constructed from a cascade composed of 36 individual amplifier stages, each with a gain level of 2 dB which can be individually connected into the circuit and disconnected from it. The estimation of the signal strength is carried out in the digital domain on the composite signal, i.e. before the channel selection.
A disadvantage with that module is especially the high implementation expenditure of the PGC. Further disadvantages are the likewise costly implementation of the external analog-digital converter stage and the digital filter arrangement.

Receiver circuit for mobile radio receivers with automatic gain control


The invention concerns a staining reagent for the determination of blood cells, in particular reticulocytes, which contains a stain capable of labelling cells after incubation, as well as an additive which is able to encourage penetration of the stain into the cells, this additive being chosen from an ionophoric compound, a detergent and mixtures thereof.

Very different staining reagents of the type of the present invention are already known which enable blood cells to be identified and characterized by a stain which enables the cells to be labelled or stained after incubation under chosen time and temperature conditions.
Such reagents generally make use of a fluorescent stain or a non-fluorescent stain which, after incubation, enables the stained cells to be counted. This counting may be carried out with manual staining under a microscope, with external staining or with staining using an automated apparatus.
Automated counting is generally carried out by a so-called flow cytometry technique which proves to be more reliable and more rapid than manual counting.
Various stains are already known which are used for the determination of blood cells, in particular reticulocytes, and which may be used for manual or automated counting.
these fluorescent or non-fluorescent stains include pyronine Y, acridine orange, thioflavine T, thiazole orange, new methylene blue, brilliant cresyl blue etc.
Examples of staining reagents are described in particular in the following patent publications: CA 2 024 166, U.S. Pat. No. 5 501 954, U.S. Pat. No. 4 325 706, U.S. Pat. No. 5 438 003, U.S. Pat. No. 5 075 556, U.S. Pat. No. 4 996 040, U.S. Pat. No. 4 883 867, EP 0 545 314, EP 0 545 315, EP 0 430 719, EP 0 215 461, EP 0 226 272 and EP 0 114 462.
In the particular case of the determination of reticulocytes, which are precursors of erythrocytes or mature red corpuscles, the stain serves to color or label the residual RNA contained in the cell.
One of the disadvantages of known staining reagents is that they require a long incubation time, which makes them difficult to use not only in manual techniques but especially in automated techniques.
In particular, thiazole orange requires an incubation time of the order of 30 minutes at room temperature when it is reacted with 5 microlitres of blood.
This incubation time is much too long to enable the process to be completely automated.

Staining reagent for the determination of blood cells


A process for producing a surfactant having two head groups and a single tail group per molecule, including steps of: producing a compound of Formula (1) from ethanol and carbon disulfide; producing a compound of Formula (2) from a carboxylic acid and bromine; producing a compound of Formula (3) from the compound of Formula (2) and methanol; producing a compound of Formula (4) from the compound of Formula (1) and the compound of Formula (3); and producing a compound of Formula (5) from the compound of Formula (4) by a direct oxidation process or by a peracid oxidation process. The surfactant produced by the process has lower critical micelle concentration and enables a lower surface tension of a liquid as compared with prior surfactants with two head groups per molecule, thereby enabling the amount of surfactant required and thus the cost to be substantially reduced.

Surfactants have found wide use in scientific research and industrial applications and have great significance due to their self-organized behavior and abilities to reduce surface tension of aqueous solutions, as a result of their asymmetrical molecular structure. Decreasing electrostatic repulsion between hydrophilic head groups of the surfactant molecules and repulsion between hydration layers has the effect of promoting a more dense arrangement of the surfactant molecules in their self-organized structure, causing the surfactants to exhibit an effectively improved surface activity. If the surfactant molecules are sparsely arranged at a liquid-air interface, a portion of methylene groups (not methyl terminal groups of the carbon chain) of the surfactant molecules may occupy a part of the area of the air side of the interface due to tilting of the carbon chain of the surfactant molecules at the interface; while if the surfactant molecules are densely arranged in an upright manner at a liquid-air interface, the air side of the interface may be composed mainly of methyl terminal groups of the carbon chain of the surfactant molecules. Practice shows that the latter may lower the surface tension of water to a greater extent.
Since the surfactants play a large role in industrial and agriculture productions and daily life, improvement of their surface activities has always been a major focus for the practical application. Conventionally, both electrostatic repulsion between hydrophilic head groups of the surfactant molecules and repulsion between hydration layers may be decreased by physical methods, for example, by addition of inorganic salts and by increasing the temperature of the aqueous solutions, respectively. Also, as another conventional physical method, the attraction between the head groups of surfactants is used to promote the interaction of them, for example, by using a composition of cationic and anionic surfactants. However, these physical methods suffer from certain limitations. As an example, the composition of cationic and anionic surfactants can improve the surface activity of the aqueous solution to some extent, but the stability of the aqueous solution may be deteriorated, easily causing precipitates to be produced, due to the fact that ion head groups of the cationic and anionic surfactant molecules with a ratio of 1:1 are electrically neutralized. So, generalized application of the physical methods is limited.
The applicant has already proposed a method for synthesizing a Gemini surfactant which exhibits good surface activity (see Chinese patent application publication No. CN 106588708 A). However, it has been found in practice that, due to limitations in a critical micelle concentration (CMC), the used amount of the surfactant is large, thereby leading to a high cost.

Process for producing surfactant having two head groups and a single tail group per molecule


Addressable optical logic elements contain an optical memory substance, wherein, under the influence of an impressed magnetic, electromagnetic or electrical field or supplied energy, the memory substance can transfer from one physical or chemical state to a second physical or chemical state, wherein a physical or chemical state is assigned a specific logic value, and wherein a change in the logic element's physical or chemical state causes a change in the logic value and is implemented by the logic element being accessed and addressed magnetically, electromagnetically, electrically or optically for writing, reading, storing, erasing and switching of an assigned logic value.. The optical logic device is especially usable for storing data or performing logic and arithmetic operations, wherein the device includes a plurality of optical logic elements, wherein the optical logic elements particularly are multistate, multistable optical logic elements, and even more particularly proximity-addressable optical logic elements, including an optical memory substance, wherein, under the influence of an impressed magnetic, electromagnetic or electrical field or supplied energy, the memory substance can transfer from one physical or chemical state to a second physical or chemical state, wherein a physical or chemical state is assigned a specific logic value, and wherein a change in the logic element's physical or chemical state causes a change in the logic value and is implemented by the logic element being accessed and addressed magnetically, electromagnetically, electrically or optically for writing, reading, storing, erasing and switching of an assigned logic value.

In general the invention concerns a new class of optoelectronic devices which can store information and/or perform logic functions by means of an optical memory substance which is contained in individually addressable cells or elements. Each element is an independent unit and can be combined with similar elements to form larger assemblies, typically in the form of planar sheets or layers. The latter may be configured in tertiary structures, for example by stacking in order to form optical data memories and optical logic devices with a high performance-to-volume ratio.
Present-day digital optical data storage technologies has been developed in response to an ever-expanding need for data storage capacity in a compact format and they have been remarkably successful in providing solutions which combine a high areal data density with replaceability and/or portability.
The crucial step has been the use of small, efficient semiconductor lasers emitting coherent light which can be focused to near-diffraction-limited spots, thus providing a correspondingly accurate definition and dense arrangement of the information bits in the data carrying medium. In practical systems, cost and space limitations have logically resulted in a design in which the laser beam is scanned across the surface of a rotating disc, picking up a serial bit stream as it follows an optical guidance track under servo control.
Systems based on this generic design have now been refined to a point where the data density is close to the theoretical limit, and further improvements in order to match future demands cannot be met by incremental improvements as in the past.
One obvious limitation is the use of two-dimensional data storage format. Even though the area data density is high, physical bit positions are restricted to a planar surface on a rigid, self-supporting, surface of high mechanical quality, leading to a relatively unimpressive volumetric data density. Technical solutions have recently been published wherein data are stored in several planes at different depths below the surface of the disk. Discrimination between different layers is possible due to the very short depth of field associated with a precise focus and this principle is expected to be developed to encompass up to ten planes or layers (see e.g. E. K.(signature), "Stacking the decks for optical data storage", Optics and Photonics News, August 1994, p. 39). It appears, however, that the benefits reaped from multiple layers or levels are partially neutralized by cost issues as well as technical trade-offs between the number of layers on the one hand and the achievable areal data density in each layer on the other hand. Even when implemented according to the claims set forth, such technological solutions lack the potential for sustained long-term development and improvement.
In many instances limitations in access time and data transfer rates represent a much more serious drawback for rotating disk systems than do the above-mentioned limitations on data densities and capacities.
In applications where files on a disk have to be accessed quickly in random sequence, the laser focusing servo must rapidly move an optical assembly radially from one position on the disk to another. At the correct radial position, tracking must be resumed quickly, involving alignment in two dimensions, adjustment of the spinning speed, establishment of synchronization and finding and identifying the file header. These electromechanical procedures involve access times which are long, typically 200 ms or more. Efforts have been made to reduce the access time, e.g. by increasing the disk rotation speed in order to reduce the time taken for rotational alignment, and reduce the weight of the servo-controlled focusing and tracking components. Improvement in one area, however, carries penalties in another. Increasing the spinning speed aggravates the so-called "whipsaw effect", i.e. the rapid acceleration and deceleration of rotation speed which is required in order to maintain a constant beam scanning speed over the surface of the disk when alternating between tracks at different radii. This is a dominant cause of latency in optical disc-based data retrieval systems. Attempts to eliminate the whipsaw effect by running at constant rotation speed irrespective of radial position lead to a reduction in the area data density or increased technical complexity. It is not surprising that such precision electromechanical optical systems will be slow on timescales which are typical in the purely electronic realm (microseconds or shorter), thus barring optical disk devices from use as direct rapid access memories in a wide range of applications, including as direct random access memories (DRAMs) for computers etc. Considerable efforts have been made to eliminate the Achilles heel of such devices, namely the need for focusing and tracking without mechanical inertia. Solutions which have been investigated include optoelectronic deflectors, waveguides and diffractive optical elements. So far no technical and financially viable systems of this nature have been demonstrated in practice and appear to lie many years in the future. In addition, the latency problem associated with disk rotation is not solved by such measures.
In rotating disksystems the data bits are read consecutively as the laser beam scans along the track, and the data transfer speed is explicitly dependent upon the rotation speed and the linear data density along the track. In a number of applications, such as interactive multimedia, the transfer speed is a significant bottleneck in present-day optical disk systems. Given the near- optimal encoding and focusing of data typical of present-day developments in disktechnology, there seem to be few options available for increasing the data transfer speed. One possibility is to increase the rotation speed. This has been done in several commercial systems to a point where cost and power consumption now lead to a rapidly diminishing return on further speed increases. Another strategy is to employ several laser beams addressing separate, but parallel tracks on the disk. As the number of parallel tracks increases, however, the complexity and cost increase very rapidly, and such schemes seem at best to be destined to provide speed improvements which fall far short of projected future needs.
The above shortcomings have been clearly recognized for a long time, and other schemes have been proposed and experimentally investigated, most notably page-oriented memory and logic systems, based on holographic technology. In addition to promising high density volumetric data storage in three dimensions, holographic systems can be addressed in a page-mode version, thereby offering the advantages which are inherent in parallelism, such as a high transfer speed. Rapid random accessing of data by means of inertia-free optoelectronic means is under investigation. Furthermore, logic operations have been investigated such as high speed parallel processing for object recognition. It has been predicted that holographic memories can be erased and rewritten repeatedly, a data volume at giga- to terabyte level can be stored in a volume comparable to a sugar cube, giving random access times in the micro- to nanosecond range and data transfer speeds of hundreds of Mbyte/s (see e.g. D. Psaltis and F. Mok, "Holographic memories", Scientific American, November 1995, pp. 52-58). Similar potential performances have been mentioned for other systems based on confocal and multilaser (non-linear) addressing principles (see e.g. "The optical sugar cube", Photonics Spectra, September 1994, p. 50).
A further example of a page-based optical data storage system which may be mentioned is internationally published patent application no. W096/2 1228 (Birge) entitled "Branched photocycle optical memory device", which discloses a volumetric optical memory which stores information at high density in three dimensions by selectively activating a photochemical branch reaction from a transitory thermal intermediate state in the primary photocycle in a light-sensitive protein-based storage medium. In this case a so-called "paging" laser is used to activate a planar layer or a page of the data storage medium on one wavelength and data lasers which transmit on another wavelength selected data beams which are orthogonal to the selected layer or page. However, this technology is not easy to implement in practical data storage devices and has some significant weaknesses. In order to obtain high volumetric data density the paging light must be extremely intense and uniform within a very narrowly defined spatial range with a sharp intensity limit. This entails the use of a laser beam and relatively complicated optics in order to form the beam. Secondly, a very precisely controlled illumination sequence is required, involving the use of three separate wavelengths. The optimal time control of the sequences is temperature-dependent. Thirdly, the write and read speeds are limited by the photocycle's time constants, resulting in access times in the ms range. Fourthly, reading of the stored data will reduce the contrast thereof on optical memory media, thus necessitating refreshing after a certain number, for example, 1000 read operations.
In SE patent no. 501 106 (Toth), entitled "Optical memory", there is disclosed an optical memory of the type Write-Once-Read-Many-Times (WORM type) which contains a storage element with stable optical states. The storage element is divided into a number of memory positions, the optical state in a given memory position being capable of being both changed and read out by means of a light beam directed towards the memory position. The memory can be realized entirely without movable mechanical parts and has a very short addressing time, permitting a particularly high storage capacity. This memory also permits parallel writing and reading of multibit words. The actual storage medium may be provided in several layers or levels. The light beam is then focused on a given memory position, and with the use of eight levels it becomes possible to store one byte in each memory position or x,y position. In a design with 7.7 storage cells of each 1 cm.sup.2, 9.8 Gbyte can be stored on eight levels and the write speed will then be 40 Mbyte/s. Read-out is performed in absorption mode, which means that the individual levels must have fixed, different thicknesses in order to make it possible to distinguish between the individual levels in the code sequence. This results, however, in a reduction in the volumetric storage density as the number of levels increases, and the necessity of focusing the light beam on a memory position as well as manoeuvring the light beam in the x,y directions entails cost-related and technical complications.
Even though the hitherto proposed technical solutions may appear impressive, in a future commercial environment such performances must be assessed with a view to hardware cost, system complexity and overall device form factor. Based on the current state of the art as revealed in the open literature, it seems correct to conclude that holographic and other page-oriented systems or multilayer systems will not achieve a breakthrough within the foreseeable future in markets where the demand for compactness and low cost is at a premium. Even if components and materials were to become available at acceptable costs, in reality the proposed architectures seem to preclude truly compact solutions.

Optical logic element and optical logic device


The present invention is a feed-forward automatic-gain control amplifier (FFAGCA) for biomedical applications and associated method, the FFAGCA comprises a detector, a controller, a variable gain amplifier (VGA), an input and an output. The associated method to process various kinds of biomedical signals with the FFAGCA comprises acts of adjusting gain setting with control path and simultaneously a signal amplification with signal path.

With the dramatic development of semiconductor technology in recent years, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) bio-sensors have been integrated with CMOS circuit, which make the realization of CMOS biomedical system on chip (SOC) possible, leading to miniature and low cost biomedical systems.
In general, biomedical or physiological signals have characteristics of ultra low-level signals with wide dynamic range. U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,602 published on Apr. 27, 1993, titled "Biomedical amplifier circuit" disclosed an electronic differential amplifier circuit comprising: a first stage amplifier means, a second stage amplifier means, second stage common mode feedback means, and gain feedback means is a mixed analog and digital integrated circuit (ADC) with features which are especially useful for application as a front end for physiological signal instrumentation such as electrocardiography (EGC), electroencephalography (EEG), electrogastrography (EGG), electromyography (EMG), electroneurography (ENG), electro-iconography (EOG), electroetinography (ERG).
Furthermore, with reference to FIG. 1, an CMOS circuit is a conventional programmable-gain amplifier (PGA) 1, and the PGA (1) comprises an instrumentation amplifier (IA) (11), an amplifier (12) coupled to the back of IA (11), a multiplexer (13) and a digital control interface (14), wherein the amplifier (12) is controlled manually through the multiplexer (13) and the digital interface (14), to amplify the biomedical signal be proceeded within a range of back end circuit. It is necessary for the PGA (1) to seize more space to encompass such as the multiplexer (13), the digital control interface (14) and etc; therefore the architecture of the PGA (1) has a defect of chip area requirement. Consequently, the PGA (1) can neither conform to the trend of miniaturization nor make realization of biomedical system on chip (SOC). Moreover, the gain of the PGA (1) is required to control by people externally.
The above-mentioned circuits are belonged to a type of feedback circuits, utilize to proceed the biomedical signal, nevertheless, generating the noise signal and caused the bigger measurement error value when the circuits output the signal, consequently, the signal is not effective to be applied in bio field, which required precise signal for user to interpret.

Feed-forward automatic-gain control amplifier (FFAGCA) for biomedical applications and an associated method


A steering angle sensing system 1, 26 for measuring the angle position of a vehicle steering wheel is disclosed which uses at least one position magnet 7, 8, G1, G2, G3 coupled to the rotary movement of the steering wheel 2xe2x80x2 as a transducer, and a magnetostrictive transducer 4, 35 as a measuring device and a second measuring device 70, 90 for measuring the angular movement of the vehicle wheels. Magnetostrictive transducer 4, 35 includes an elongated, magnetostrictive waveguide 9, 33 extending over a defined arc section, with mode converter 10, 35 for detecting magnetostrictively generated voltage pulses at one end. The waveguide 9, 33 is stationary related to the rotary movement of at least one position magnet 7, 8, G1, G2, G3 so that, when turning the steering wheel 2xe2x80x2, the magnet field of one position magnet 7, 8, G1, G2, G3 is applied to waveguide 9, 33 in different positions dependent of the position of the steering wheel 2xe2x80x2. The second measuring device 70, 90 may measure gross changes to distinguish 360xc2x0 or less, for example 270xc2x0, rotation whereas the steering wheel measuring device 1, 26 measures fine changes of the vehicle steering wheel 2xe2x80x2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor to measure the angular position of a steering system. More particularly, the present invention relates to magnetostrictive linear displacement and other transducers for use with a steering wheel to measure the angular position of the steering wheel.
2. Background Art
Various devices have been advanced to measure the distance traveled by a device in a vehicle. One common application is determining the movement of the piston in a hydraulic, pneumatic, or hydro-pneumatic component of the vehicle, such as a strut suspension, where the piston moves axially in a cylinder filled with at least one damping medium. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,502,006; 4,638,670; and 5,233,293, each of which discloses a displacement sensor to perform this function.
Measuring the angle position of a car steering wheel is required for many purposes, such as traveling dynamic system, or for automatic electronic reset of a driving direction indicator after traveling through curves. An opto-electronically operating position sensing system for this steering angle determination is described in DE 40 22 837 A1. The steering angle sensing system described in DE 40 22 837 A1 consists of two elements arranged in parallel separated by a distancexe2x80x94a light source and a sensor linexe2x80x94as well as a code disk built as a transducer arranged between the light source and the sensor line, and coupled to the movement of the steering shaft. The light source and sensor line are stationary related to the transducer disk. The transducer disk is a light-slot disk and has, as a scanning track, a spiral with increasing diameter from the center towards the outer periphery. Dependent on steering angle movement, different pixels of the sensor line are lit by different areas of the scanning track. Dependent of which pixels or pixel clusters are lit in a defined steering wheel position, the steering angle is determined within a circle of 360xc2x0 or less, for example 270xc2x0, and requires counting revolutions beyond such amount.
The measuring accuracy of such an opto-electronic steering angle sensing system is determined by accuracy and fineness of the scanning tracks of the transducer disk and by projection sharpness of the light tracks on the photo-sensitive surface of the sensor line. If high accuracies are required, light-slot disks of very complicated structure must be provided. With this type of opto-electronic steering angle sensing system, there is also a risk of contamination of the very fine light slots and of the photo-sensitive surface of the sensor line so that steering angle measurement could be affected negatively.
An object of the present invention is to have a contactlessly operating steering angle sensing system for measuring the angle position of a car steering wheel, which is insensitive to contamination and does not require counting of the wheel revolutions to determine the absolute wheel position avoiding the problem in the prior art of regaining a lost count.
A vehicle steering angle sensing system is disclosed for detecting the angle position of an automotive steering wheel. It comprises a transducer coupled to the rotary movement of the steering wheel and a measuring device. The measuring device is stationary referred to the transducer rotary movement, for measurement of transducer signals. Thus, the measuring device and transducer are arranged so that the transducer signals detected by the measuring device represent the relative position between steering wheel and measuring device.
In the invention, the contactless operating steering angle sensing system couples at least one position magnet as a sensor of the rotary movement of the steering wheel, and by providing an elongated magnetostrictive waveguide extending over a defined arc sector with a mode converter mounted at one end of the waveguide forms a magnetostrictive transducer. The magnet field of the position magnet acts on different positions of the waveguide dependent upon the steering wheel position.
The signals generated from the position magnet in response to a pulse on the waveguide act on the waveguide when using such a device as a measure device. Steering angle measurement is obtained this way even in the presence of contamination of the detecting or measuring device.
Beside the primary rotary sensor which is capable of measuring an angle of 360xc2x0 or less, for example 270xc2x0, and is mounted to measure the steering wheel position, a secondary position sensor is used to measure the actual vehicle wheel steered position to provide an absolute multiple revolution sensing system that does not require counting of the revolutions of the steering wheel. The accuracy of the primary sensor is sufficient to provide the desired accuracy of data needed for steering function requirement, while the secondary sensor accuracy is only sufficient to indicate which revolution of the primary sensor is being measured.


According to the present invention, a method for switching programs in a digital broadcasting is provided. In this method, on a transmission side, a physical channel number for transmitting a program having a program number therethrough is assigned to a part of the program number. On a receiving side, in changing program numbers from a first program number to a second program number, a second physical channel number, for transmitting a second program having the second program number therethrough, is identified based on the second program number; wherein it is determined whether or not the identified second physical channel number is the same as a first physical channel number which is now being received; and wherein if it is determined that the first and the second physical channel numbers are not the same, switching is performed for receiving the physical channel having the identified second physical channel number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus and a method for switching programs in digital broadcasting.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various activities for standardizing digital broadcasting are being vigorously carried on in many countries. Broadcasting systems called "ATV" (advanced television) and DVB (digital video broadcasting) have seen suggested in the Unites States and in Europe, respectively, and are under research and development for being put into practical use within a couple of years. In Japan, the activities for standardizing digital satellite broadcasting using a communication satellite have also been proceeding. All of these broadcasting systems are being developed based on the MPEG2 standard, which became an international standard in November 1994.
In digital broadcasting, the number of channels is greatly increased as compared with that of current broadcasting. However, the larger the number of channels becomes, the more sophisticated the procedure for selecting a channel or a program is required to be. More specifically, since transport streams corresponding to multiple programs include a large number of individual video and audio streams to be transmitted, information indicating which program should be selected from a plurality of programs or information indicating which packets should be retrieved from the large number of streams is required. Thus, in the MPEG2 standard, various kinds of transmission control information required for receiving a desired program is supposed to be transmitted in the form of a plurality of additional information tables called "PSI (program specific information)" tables. There are the following three kids of PSI tables complying with the MPEG2 standard: a PAT (program association table); a PMT (program map table); and a CAT (conditional access table).
A PAT is a table showing a relationship between a program.sub.-- number and a packet ID (PID) specifying a PMT (such a PID is called a "PMT.sub.-- PID"). A PMT is a table showing a relationship between a program.sub.-- number and the PIDs of the elements, such as video elements, audio elements and clock references, composing the program (such PIDs are called "elementary PIDs"). In this case, a PID is a number for identifying a packet and is also called a "packet identifier". The PIDs assigned to video packets and audio packets are called "elementary PIDs".
In this way, the necessary information is indirectly described while distributing the information between a PAT and a PMT. This is because if all the information is described in only one table, the size of the table becomes too large so that the capacity of the memory for storing such a large table therein is also disadvantageously increased and it takes a lot of time to access the desired information.
A CAT is used in a chargeable broadcasting system or the like, and is an additional table used by a permitted user for decoding and reproducing scrambled streams or a table showing a relationship between the PIDs and EMM (entitled management message) streams.
Furthermore, though it is not defined in the MPEG2 standard, an NIT (network information table) is defined as a table required for receiving programs in the DVB standard in Europe. The names of networks and various transmission parameters are included in an NIT. An NIT is a table showing a relationship between a program number and transport stream IDs individually corresponding to a plurality of physical channels and like relationships. Based on this table, it is possible to know a correspondence between a program number and the physical channel number through which the program is transmitted (or a transport stream ID).
On the other hand, according to the MPEG2 standard, data, the contents of which are not defined and are to be defined by a user himself, is called "private data". Private data of a section type is specifically called a "private section".
It is noted that there is a detailed description of the terms cited above in ISO/IEC 13818-1, November 1994.
Next, the processing flow executed in a receiving apparatus (currently under development) for changing program numbers will be described with reference to FIG. 17. Note that FIG. 17 shows a case where the propagation path is a satellite.
Assume that a program.sub.-- number=x is now being received and that signals, transmitted from a transponder (or a radio wave repeater) having a transponder number n0 selected from a plurality of transponders provided for a satellite, are now being received (Step n1). During the receiving, various tables including the above-described NITs, PATs and PMTs are received and then stored into a memory.
In this case, it should be noted that a "program number" complying with the MPEG2 standard corresponds to a channel number in conventional analog broadcasting and does not correspond to an individual program such as a news telecast, a sport on-the-spot telecast and the like.
Next, if a viewer changes the program number to select a program.sub.-- number=y (at Step n2), a search is performed to determine whether or not the program.sub.-- number=y is included in the PAT of the transponder n0 which is now used for receiving, or whether or not a program having the program.sub.-- number=y is transmitted from the transponder n0 (at Step n3). In satellite delivering, the number of a transponder individually corresponds to a transport stream ID.
In the case where the program.sub.-- number=y is included in the PAT of the transponder n0, a packet ID of a PMT (or a PMT.sub.-- PID) corresponding to the program.sub.-- number=y is found (at Step n4); elementary PIDs (EL.sub.-- PIDS) corresponding to the program.sub.-- number=y are found on the PMT having the PID (at Step n5); and then video packets, audio packets and program clock references (PCRs) having the EL.sub.-- PIDs are extracted, thereby performing video decoding and audio decoding and reproducing the clocks (at Step n6).
On the other hand, in the case where the program.sub.-- number=y is not included in the PAT of the transponder n0 which is now used for receiving, it is searched for on an NIT with which transponder number (or transport stream ID) the program.sub.-- number=y is transmitted. Assuming that the program.sub.-- number=y is transmitted from a transponder having a transponder number n (at Step n7), the receiving frequency is switched to the frequency of the transponder n for receiving PATs, PMTs and the like (at Step n8) so as to return to Step n4. That is to say, a packet ID of a PMT (or a PMT.sub.-- PID) corresponding to the program.sub.-- number=y is found on the PAT of the transponder n (at Step n4); elementary PIDs (EL.sub.-- PIDs) corresponding to the program.sub.-- number=y are found on the PMT having the PID (at Step n5); and then video packets, audio packets and program clock references (PCRs) having the EL.sub.-- PIDs are extracted, thereby performing video decoding and audio decoding and reproducing the clocks (at Step n6).
The processing flow currently under development for changing program numbers is generally executed in such a manner as described above.
However, in such a conventional method for changing program numbers, the time required for obtaining a packet ID of a PMT (a PMT.sub.-- PID) greatly differs depending upon whether or not the program number to be selected is included in the PAT before the switching or whether or not the above-described process steps n7 and n8 are required to be performed. Accordingly, such a method adversely gives some restlessness to a viewer.

Method for switching programs in digital broadcasting and digital broadcast receiving apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection during a channel change process. The method and apparatus include detection of High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection capability on a receiver during an interface event. High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection authentication is delayed for a predetermined time period to allow the channel change process to stabilize. The invention reduces a performance penalty associated with the channel change process.

High-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) is a specified method developed by Digital Content Protection, LLC, for protecting copyrighted digital content that uses an interface such as Digital Video Interface (DVI). FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate basic examples of HDCP systems. In FIG. 2, the HDCP system 200 encrypts the digital content transmission between a video source 204 (set-top box, computer, DVD, etc.) and a receiver or display 206 (Liquid Crystal Display, television, etc.) via DVI 202.
FIG. 1 illustrates an HDCP System 100 wherein two or more HDCP Devices are interconnected through an HDCP-protected Interface 113. The Audiovisual Content protected by HDCP, HDCP Content 102, flows from an Upstream Content Control Function 110 into the HDCP System 100 at the most upstream Transmitter 112. From there, the HDCP Content 102, encrypted by the HDCP System 100, flows through a tree-shaped topology of HDCP Receivers 114 over HDCP-protected Interfaces 113. HDCP Receivers may be HDCP Repeaters 116 that serve as downstream HDCP Transmitters emitting the HDCP Content 102 further downstream to one or more additional HDCP Receivers 118.
HDCP is sometimes required to be enabled if a DVI display is used. However, that requirement degrades the performance of the digital content 102, particularly during a rapid channel change process (surfing). HDCP authentication is dependent on video attributes such as resolution and aspect ratio. Since channel changes result in new video attributes and potentially new resolutions such as the ATSC resolution standards 480p, 720p and 1080i, and aspect ratios, such as 4×3 (full-screen) or 16×9 (wide-screen), among others, there is a need for HDCP re-authentication for each channel change.
HDCP is designed to protect the transmission of Audiovisual Content 102 between an HDCP Transmitter 112 and an HDCP Receiver 114. The system also allows for HDCP Repeaters 116 that support Downstream HDCP-protected Interface Ports 120. There are three facets of the content protection system. First, there is the authentication protocol, through which the HDCP Transmitter verifies that a given HDCP Receiver is licensed to receive HDCP Content. With the legitimacy of the HDCP Receiver determined, encrypted HDCP Content is transmitted between the two devices based on shared secrets established during the authentication protocol. The use of such shared secrets prevents eavesdropping devices from utilizing the content. Finally, in the event that legitimate devices are compromised to permit unauthorized use of HDCP Content, renewability allows a HDCP Transmitter to identify such compromised devices and prevent the transmission of HDCP Content.
The HDCP Authentication protocol is an exchange between an HDCP Transmitter and an HDCP Receiver that affirms to the HDCP Transmitter that the HDCP Receiver is authorized to receive HDCP Content. That affirmation is in the form of the HDCP Receiver demonstrating knowledge of a set of secret device keys 208. Each HDCP Device is provided with a unique set of secret device keys, referred to as the Device Private Keys, from Digital Content Protection, LLC. The communication exchange, which allows for the receiver to demonstrate knowledge of such secret device keys 208, also provides for both HDCP Devices to generate a shared secret value that cannot be determined by eavesdropping on that exchange. By having that shared secret information embedded into the demonstration of authorization, the shared secret can then be used as a symmetric key to encrypt HDCP Content intended only for the Authorized Device. Thus, a communication path is established between the HDCP Transmitter and HDCP Receiver that only Authorized Devices can access.
Thus, a heretofore, un-addressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned HDCP re-authentication process for each channel change.

High-bandwidth digital content protection during rapid channel changing


A measuring device for measuring a power of a measurement signal comprises an analog-processing unit (1) and a calibration unit (5) for the implementation of a calibration procedure. The analog-processing unit (1) provides two detector diodes (14, 15) connected in an antiparallel manner relative to a signal input (10) and an amplifier (50) for the amplification of signals which are derived from output signals of the detector diodes (14, 15). The analog-processing unit (1) further provides a chopper unit (28) which is connected at two terminals in series between the detector diodes (14, 15) and the amplifier (50). In this context, the calibration unit (5) comprises at least one current source, wherein the current sources (46, 47) is connected to at least one input terminal of the amplifier (50).

Field of the Invention
The invention, according to the various embodiments described herein, relates to a power measuring device which uses diode detectors.
Discussion of the Background
Sensor heads for high-frequency (HF) power measurement operate either thermally or use diode detectors, for example, on the basis of Zero-Bias Schottky diodes or diodes using 'Planar Doped Barrier Technology'. Diodes for high-frequency power rectification are optimised for a favourable HF behaviour, for example, a low barrier-junction capacitance. However, this is achieved at the cost of robustness. These highly sensitive components can be irreversibly damaged even by very brief overshooting of the maximal power or by electrostatic discharges. This is not always evident. A total breakdown need not always be present. In many cases, a plausible measurement result can still be displayed, even if the permitted measurement deviations have already been exceeded.
For this reason, it is conventional to test or to calibrate HF power-sensor heads regularly with reference to an external calibration source. However, this method is disadvantageous, because the sensor head must be connected manually to the calibration source. In particular, in the case of a test setup in the factory, the sensor head would have to be removed from this setup. This is not desirable for a smooth manufacturing procedure. Added to this, with the use of USB power-sensor heads, such external calibration sources are not reliably available. For implementation of the measurement with such a sensor head, only a conventional PC is required.
Accordingly, a power-measuring device with internal calibration is available. In this context, a current-voltage characteristic of the detector diodes is measured. For this purpose, a known reference voltage of variable level is applied to the detector diode by means of a measurement amplifier, and the resulting current is measured. However, this testing of the functionality of the detector diode functions only if the measurement amplifier is operated in an inverted configuration, that is, if it provides a low-ohmic input. This is frequently the case with broadband sensor heads, where the open-output voltage is not measured, but instead, the short-output current of the diode detector in order to realise the short decay times in the range of a few nanoseconds required by the application. Broadband sensor heads are preferably used in a manner comparable with an oscilloscope to measure the envelope curve, that is, the time-variable amplitude of pulsed and/or modulated high-frequency measurement signals. However, in the case of sensor heads for the measurement of mean power which drive the detector in the quadratic range of the rectifier diodes, the measurement amplifier has a non-inverting configuration. This is necessary in order to measure the transformed measurement signal, the open-output voltage of the diode detector, as far as possible without falsification. The calibration cannot therefore be used with sensor heads of this kind. Furthermore, with the calibration shown in this context, the rectification effect of the detector in the quadratic range cannot be judged with a sufficiently high level of accuracy.

Power measuring device with internal calibration of diode detectors


A system and method is disclosed for processing viewer profiles and program metadata from a number of sources to provide viewing suggestions and recommendations to one or more viewers.

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for providing program recommendations and more particularly to systems and methods for providing program recording recommendations from multimedia searching based on viewer profiles.
Recently, Digital Video Recorders, also known as Personal Video Recorders have begun to gain in popularity with consumers. Much like the impact that video cassette recorders (VCR) made when first introduced, these devices provide an even easier and more powerful way for consumers to record programs and watch them at a later time.
Digital video recorders are desirable because they are more robust and feature laden than conventional VCRs. For example, digital video recorders have the capability of concurrently recording incoming streaming video data using storage drive technology and playing back previously recorded video data. As currently available, a digital video recorder receives incoming streaming video data from the output interface of a standard set-top box configured to receive the broadcast signals from a multiple-service operator (MSO), such as a cable provider. These digital video recording devices are also a potentially valuable source of user programming information since they can be uniquely identified in a network and have two-way communication capabilities.
As powerful as these digital video recording devices are, the burden still lies with the consumer to keep track of current programs and to record the programs of interest to them. For example, the consumer typically has to navigate any printed or electronic guides to determine which programs to record and then the consumer has to program the recording device to record the desired programs. Furthermore, these conventional programming guides are also difficult to navigate and given the ever increasing variety of programming available, it has become quite cumbersome to actually find programming which is of interest to the viewer.
Accordingly it would be desirable to have a more robust recommendation system and method which efficiently and effectively collects viewer preference information and can provide viewers program recommendations by multimedia searching programming content.

System and method for providing program recommendations through multimedia searching based on established viewer preferences


A multi-sheet feed detection system comprises a photosensor configured to receive light emitted in a non-visible spectrum by a transmitter through at least one sheet, and a detection module configured to detect a multi-sheet feed condition based on an amount of non-visible light received by the photosensor.

Automatic document feeders (ADFs) are used to sequentially feed or move documents from a stack of documents to another location (e.g., to a platen or other type of imaging or non-imaging surface/location). However, ADFs can sometimes inadvertently feed multiple sheets simultaneously. Some ADFs, or devices associated with an ADF (e.g., copiers, scanners, etc.), are equipped with systems to detect simultaneously feeding of multiple sheets. However, such detection systems require expensive sensors, amplifiers, digital logic circuitry and other components that increase the cost and complexity of the ADF and/or ADF-associated device.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A steering device of the present invention has a steered shaft rotation stopper (100) having a contact member (101) and a forcing member (102). The forcing member (102) forces at least either one of a steered shaft (6) or the contact member (101) in a direction in which the steered shaft (6) and the contact member (101) push against each other. In a state in which the contact member (101) contacts a contact portion (6D) of the steered shaft (6), the contact member (101) stops a rotation of the steered shaft (6).

As a background art in this technical field, there is known a steering device disclosed in JP2012-066788 (Patent Document 1). In Patent Document 1, a steered shaft supporting structure of the steering device has a versatile cylindrical bush press-fitted into an inner peripheral surface of a housing and a single-piece unit (par. 0027). The single-piece unit is formed such that a D-shaped cross section member having a cylindrical surface and a flat surface and a ring-shaped member are fixedly connected together (par. 0029). The D-shaped cross section member is inserted into the cylindrical bush, and supports a steered shaft slidably in an axial direction and also stops rotation of the steered shaft in combination with the cylindrical bush (par. 0031).


A semiconductor device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes a substrate, an n− type layer, a plurality of trenches, a p type region, a p+ type region, an n+ type region, a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode. The semiconductor device may include a plurality of unit cells. A unit cell among the plurality of unit cells may include a contact portion with which the source electrode and the n+ type region are in contact, a first branch part disposed above the contact portion on a plane, and a second branch part disposed below the contact portion on a plane, the plurality of trenches are separated from each other and disposed with a stripe shape on a plane.

A semiconductor device for electric power needs to have low on-resistance or a low saturation voltage in order to allow a very large current to flow and in order to reduce a power loss in a conduction state. Further, a characteristic of enduring an inverse direction high voltage of a PN conjunction, which is applied to both ends of the semiconductor device for electric power in an off state or at a time at which a switch is turned off, that is, a high breakdown voltage characteristic, is basically required.
A concentration and a thickness of an epitaxial layer or a drift region of a row material to form the power semiconductor device are determined depending on a rated voltage required by a power system. According to Poisson's equation, as the high breakdown voltage of the power semiconductor device is required, the epitaxial layer or the drift region of a low concentration and a thick thickness are needed, however they act as a reason for increasing on resistance and reducing a forward direction current density.
Studies continue to increase the forward current density without adjusting the concentration and thickness of the epitaxial layer or the drift region of the power semiconductor device.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


Disclosed is a display device that (i) converts an input image formed of R, G, and B into a converted image formed of R, G, B, and W to display the converted image and that (ii) compresses the luminance of an input image for the subsequent frame on the basis of an adjustment value C which is corrected in correspondence with the number of, among all pixels in a converted image for the current frame, pixels in a state of luminance saturation and that then converts the input image into a converted image, the display device including a luminance oscillation detecting section (10) for detecting, while input images identical to each other are being inputted each as the above input image, whether converted images corresponding to the respective input images have an oscillating luminance, the display device, in the case where the luminance oscillation detecting section (10) has detected that the converted images have an oscillating luminance, stopping correction of the adjustment value C to fix the adjustment value C to a certain value, thereby preventing the converted images from having an oscillating luminance as a result of oscillation of the adjustment value C.

A color liquid crystal display has conventionally included normally three pixels (picture elements) of R, G, and B in one (1) dot (pixel). Recent years have witnessed, however, a proposal of a color liquid crystal display that additionally includes a white (W) picture element for improved luminance, the color liquid crystal display thus including a total of four picture elements of R, G, B, and W in one (1) dot. This RGBW color liquid crystal display is advantageous in terms of luminance improvement, but tends to have chroma decrease. An RGBW color liquid crystal display thus requires careful selection of a method for determining, for example, the structure and output gray-scale level of a W picture element.
Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses information on the structure of a W picture element. Specifically, it proposes reducing the size of a W picture element so that it is smaller than the size of any of R, G, and B picture elements. This intends to prevent chroma decrease resulting from a display signal for a W picture element.
Patent Literature 1 further discusses converting input RGB data into RGBW data and then converting the RGBW data into optimized data R′G′B′W′. After so converting RGB data into RGBW data (by a method of which no detailed description is provided), the technique of Patent Literature 1 further converts the resulting RGBW data as above in order to both improve luminance and maintain chroma.
A W picture element being smaller in size than R, G, and B picture elements, however, leads to the luminance improvement effect being lessened accordingly. Patent Literature 1 discloses in an Example a calculation result of a 50% luminance increase. This calculation result is, however, for the case in which R, G, B, and W picture elements all have an equal size. The technique of Patent Literature 1 merely produces a luminance increase of approximately 42% in the case where, for instance, R=G=B=1.05 and W=0.85 with the index of 1 being for the original size of a picture element of each color. This indicates that the technique of Patent Literature 1 can maintain chroma, but cannot improve luminance sufficiently.
In addition, converting R, G, and B input signals into R, G, B, and W signals and then further converting the R, G, B, and W signals into signals of R′, G′, B′, and W′ forces a driving circuit to internally carry out arithmetic processing in an even larger amount, resulting in (i) the circuit being overly large and (ii) a cost increase.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a most convenient technique (method) for calculating R, G, B, and W signals from R, G, and B signals. This technique is characterized to involve (i) means (min detecting section 1) for extracting a white-color signal from a plurality of color component signals inputted and (ii) means for outputting, on the basis of the extracted white-color signal and the plurality of color component signals, display signals for four respective colors including at least white. This technique is also characterized to involve means for nonlinearly processing the extracted white-color signal and outputting display signals on the basis of the plurality of color component signals and the nonlinearly converted white-color signal.
The above method extracts a minimum value among the respective values of R, G, and B signals as a white signal W, and nonlinearly converts W into W′ as necessary. The above method thus carries out the following calculation:OUT(R,G,B)=IN(R,G,B)−OUT(W), andOUT(W)=W or W′
The above method inevitably causes at least one of R, G, and B outputs to be 0 if W is not nonlinearly processed. During a white or gray display in particular, Rout=Gout=Bout=0 and W=min(Rin, Gin, Bin), which leads to no luminance improvement and to significant chroma decrease. Nonlinearly processing W into W′ may alleviate the problem of chroma decrease, but still fails to improve luminance because carrying out nonlinear processing does not mean carrying out luminance expansion with respect to input signals.
Patent Literature 3, for example, discloses a more complex technique for calculating R, G, B, and W signals from R, G, and B signals. Patent Literature 3 proposes a method for determining a white-color signal component, the method including (i) a step of determining the amount of luminance increase separately for each of the reference color components included in predetermined color signals, (ii) a step of extracting data on the amount of luminance increase for a white-color signal component from the respective amounts of luminance increase for the reference color components, and (iii) a step of setting the amount of luminance increase for a white-color signal component as a white-color signal component for the predetermined color signals.
The description below deals in detail with the technique of Patent Literature 3 with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 illustrates only a case of a system involving two signals of R and G for simplification. In the case where, for instance, R is a minimum luminance signal Lmin and G is a maximum luminance signal Lmax, the technique of Patent Literature 3 carries out luminance expansion for (i) color A to produce a maximum luminance A′ on a O-A extension and also for (ii) color C, which has an R-G luminance ratio equal to that of color A, at S=OA′/OA. This technique employs the expansion rate of S=OB′/OB for color D similarly. Thus, the luminance expansion rate S and t (=Lmin/Lmax) have a relation illustrated in FIG. 10.
The conventional technique disclosed in Patent Literature 3, however, problematically decreases the quality of a display image. Specifically, the above conventional technique poses the following problems: First, the conventional technique carries out no luminance expansion with respect to primary colors. Thus, in the case where a primary color and white are adjacent to each other, the primary color is seen as having chroma decrease, thereby decreasing the quality of a display image. Second, the conventional technique involves a luminance expansion rate S that is, as illustrated in FIG. 10, saturated at t=0.5 and that has a curve which is bent abruptly. This leads to the presence of a pattern at which a video image is seen unnaturally, thereby decreasing the quality of a display image.
As described above, the respective techniques of Patent Literatures 1 to 3 are each problematic in that it cannot improve luminance while maintaining the hues of a video image and decreases the quality of a display image when determining color signals of R, G, B, and W from color signals of R, G, and B.
Patent Literature 4 discloses a technique that solves the above problem. This technique of Patent Literature 4 determines color signals of R, G, B, and W from color signals of R, G, and B as follows: The technique carries out luminance compression with respect to color signals of R, G, and B for the current frame at a predetermined luminance compression ratio selected in correspondence with the respective luminances of color signals of R, G, B, and W for the last frame to determine post-compression color signals of R, G, and B. The technique next determines a luminance expansion rate on the basis of the ratio between the value of a minimum luminance and that of a maximum luminance of the post-compression color signals, and carries out luminance expansion with respect to the post-compression color signals at the luminance expansion rate to determine luminance-expanded color signals of R, G, and B. The technique then multiplies the minimum luminance value by a coefficient k to determine a corrected minimum luminance value, and subtracts the corrected minimum luminance value from each of the luminance-expanded color signals to determine luminance-expanded converted color signals of R, G, and B. The technique also sets a white-color (W) signal to have the minimum luminance value. The technique thus uses the luminance-expanded converted color signals of R, G, and B and the white-color signal as color signals of R, G, B, and W.
Patent Literature 4 solves the above problem by determining color signals of R, G, B, and W from color signals of R, G, and B as described above.
The technique of Patent Literature 4 controls the predetermined luminance compression ratio through feedback processing to an optimum value in order to prevent a predetermined number or more of luminance-saturated dots from being present in an image represented by color signals of R, G, B, and W (hereinafter referred to as "converted image").
In other words, the technique of Patent Literature 4, (i) in the case where there are present a predetermined number or more of luminance-saturated dots in a converted image for the current frame, decreases the value of the predetermined luminance compression ratio for use in determining a converted image for the subsequent frame, and (ii) otherwise increases the value of the predetermined luminance compression ratio for use in determining a converted image for the subsequent frame.

Display device and control method for display device


A method and system for parallel encoding of frames in a video are described, exploiting parallel processing at both frame and slice levels. One or more slices are processed in a preceding frame by one or more cores in a multi-core processor, and a slice is processed in a succeeding frame provided at least one of said one or more cores in the multi-core processor is available for processing; and the processing of a slice from said one or more slices at same physical location in the preceding input frame has been completed, the processing of frames and slices in the preceding and succeeding frames being performed at least partially in parallel. A significant speedup in comparison to the sequential encoding approach is achieved while maintaining high visual quality for the output video. A corresponding system for parallel encoding of a video is also provided.

The continuous increase in the speed of available networks and the use of effective wireless technology is making it possible to provide rich content including both audio and video to a different variety of end devices that include mobile terminals, cell phones, computers and other electronic devices. In order to maintain its competitive advantage, a service provider needs to maintain video quality and reliability as well as be able to process high volume of traffic in a timely manner. Video encoding, an important step in the process, is notoriously CPU time consuming. Effective techniques for high speed encoding of video is thus necessary for meeting the objectives of the service provider.
Video compression is an important step in the encoding of video images. H.264 is the most recent and efficient standard for video compression described in "Advanced Video Coding (AVC) for generic audiovisual services", ed, March 2009, and ITU-T Rec, H.264. The new tools introduced by this standard improve on the compression ratio of its predecessors by a factor of two, but at the cost of higher complexity. H.264 is also one of most commonly used formats in processing high definition (HD) videos. However, this standard is so complex that some video encoders face difficulties encoding HD video sequences in real-time, even on current state of the art processors.
To reduce the encoding time, most H.264 video encoders developed for general processors exploit parallel approaches. For example, as part of Intel. 2010, Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives 6.1—code Samples available from http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-integrated-performance-primitives-code-samples/, Intel's IPP H.264 video encoder is based on a multi-slice parallel approach, where the slices of a frame are encoded in parallel. The multi-core era does offer the promise of a great future for well-designed parallel approaches. A parallel approach must achieve speedups close to the number of cores used, support a variable number of cores with high scalability, reduce processing latency, preserve visual quality video without giving rise to significant degradation in the quality of the encoded video, and should not change or force encoding parameters.
Existing prior art addressing the parallelization of H.264 encoders is briefly described below. An H.264 encoder can be parallelized into multiple threads by using either functional decomposition or data domain decomposition. Functional decomposition divides an encoder into multiple tasks (motion estimation, transformation, entropy coding, etc.). Tasks are grouped in balanced processing groups, and each group is associated with a thread. As discussed by S. Chien, et al., in "Hardware architecture design of video compression for multimedia communication systems", IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 43, p. 123, 2005, this type of decomposition can deliver good speedup, but rarely allows good scalability and flexibility to change.
Data domain decomposition exploits the H.264 hierarchical structure to parallelize an encoder. This hierarchical structure has six levels: sequence, groups of pictures (GOPs), pictures, slices, macroblocks (MBs) and blocks. Each GOP starts with an instantaneous decoder refresh (IDR) frame. Frames following an IDR frame may not refer to frames preceding the IDR frame, meaning that GOPs are independent of each other, and can be encoded in parallel. Each frame belongs to one of the following types: intra (I) frames, predicted (P) frames or bidirectional (B) frames. I frames are coded without reference to any other frame, while P frames are coded with reference to a past frame, and B frames are commonly coded with reference to a past and a future frame. Although a B frame may be used as reference, this is rarely the case in practice. Therefore, it is safe to assume that no frame depends on a B frame. A slice represents a spatial region of a coded frame. A slice represents all or part of a coded video frame and includes a number of coded macroblocks (MB), each containing compressed data corresponding to a 16×16 block of displayed pixels in a video frame. In general, the macroblocks are situated at predetermined positions in the frame. On many systems each slice comprises one or more MB lines, wherein each MB line comprises consecutive MBs in the entire row of a frame. Similar to frames, there are three types of slices: I slices, P slices and B Slices. Slices belonging to the same frame are also independent of one another, and can therefore be encoded in parallel. Slices comprise macroblocks. A macroblock covers an area of 16×16 luminance pixels (top-left, top and top-right) and the one on its left (left neighbor). Processing of a P or B macroblock is dependent on its top neighbor, top-right neighbor and left neighbor.
Changying et al. describe a parallel algorithm at the GOP level for the H.264 in "The Research of H.264/AVC Video Encoding Parallel Algorithm", Intelligent Information Technology Application, 2008. IITA '08. Second International Symposium, 2008, pp. 201-205. The authors use a Master-Worker model and a dynamic scheduling algorithm to distribute the next GOP unit to process to an unused node, and obtain good scalability and speedup. However, this pure GOP-level parallel approach exhibits high latency, and is therefore not applicable to real-time encoding. Rodriguez et al., propose an approach based on GOP and slice level parallelism in Hierarchical Parallelization of an H.264/AVC Video Encoder, Parallel Computing in Electrical Engineering, 2006, PAR ELEC 2006, International Symposium, 2006, pp. 363-368. In this approach, the system is composed of homogeneous clusters of workstations. Each cluster receives a GOP unit to process dynamically. A master workstation divides each frame into slices and distributes their processing among workstations. While this approach provides a good trade-off between speedup and latency, this type of encoding can however only be used when the system has access to all the frames of the video sequence to compress, making it unacceptable for real-time telecommunications.
Chen et al. present a parallel approach at the macroblock level in "Implementation of H.264 encoder and decoder on personal computers", Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, vol. 17, pp. 509-532, 2006. This algorithm exploits dependencies between macroblocks in a wave front manner. This kind of approach produce's a good, but not excellent, speedup. Ge et al., describe a more efficient approach based on a frame-level and slice-level parallelism in "Efficient multithreading Implementation of H.264 encoder on Intel hyper-threading architectures", Information, Communications and Signal Processing and the Fourth Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, Proceedings of the 2003, Vol. 1, pp. 469-473. This approach uses five threads on a system with four processors. One thread is used to load the input file (or stream), to save the output file (or stream) and to fill two lists of slices: a priority list of I and P slices and a secondary list of B slices. The other four threads are used to encode slices in parallel. Each thread retrieves and processes the next free slice in the priority list. If this list is empty, the thread retrieves the next free slice in the secondary list. This approach provides excellent speedup, but forces the use of B frames, which is not always possible (for example, the H.264 baseline profile does not allow B frames) and also increases latency. Low latency is required however, in real-time video applications such as videoconferencing.
Therefore, there is a strong requirement for developing a method and system for parallel encoding of video that would be able to handle commonly used video compression standards and profiles and produce high speedup leading to a low latency which is important for many real time applications.

Method and system for parallel encoding of a video


An embodiment of the present invention relates to an integrated memory system comprising at least a non-volatile memory and an automatic storage error corrector, and wherein the memory is connected to a controller by means of an interface bus. Advantageously, the system comprises in the memory circuit means, functionally independent, each being responsible for the correction of a predetermined storage error; at least one of said means generating a signal to ask a correction being external to the memory.

In this specific technical field, it is well known that in an information storage unit (FIG. 2) the controller functions to provide an interface for the user, according to a predetermined convention, by using an interface and some services made available by the memory.
This is the typical condition of storage systems like disk-on-chip, memory card or smart card, as schematized in the here-attached FIG. 2.
In a general control unit (FIG. 3) a predetermined software level attends to providing interface functions to overhanging software levels by using said interface and services made available by the memory.
In an ideal system, without errors, the memory receives/sends the data sent/required by the controller without error possibility.
In a real system, however, it is almost impossible to send and store data without errors.
Data-storage flash memories use the most developed technologies to integrate the most information per area unit. For these applications NAND, Multilevel NAND and Multilevel NOR memories are commonly used. Error probability of these memories increases as the memory ages because of well-known physical phenomena.
For example, in a floating gate memory cell, the information storage capacity is influenced by several mechanisms, such as: the ability to maintain charge, the "read disturb" mechanism, the "program disturb" mechanism, the SILC phenomenon, each having a different influence as the memory ages.
In substance, the error tolerance which must be offered by the memory system is determined by the kind of application required by the user and it is usually lower than the error tolerance offered by flash memories during their life span.
A convenient memory system must provide some devices and functions to show externally, or at overhanging levels, an error tolerance being lower or equal to the one required by the application. This is commonly achieved by using error correction techniques.
These error correction techniques provide that the information is split in words of K bits and that these words are conveniently coded with N bits, where R redundancy bits are added to the K information bits. Only at this point are words written in the memory.
During the information reading, the K original information bits are decoded from the N bits read by the memory.
The presence of R redundancy bits allows the original information to be recovered if the error number is lower than W. Different codings for the K information bit protection from W errors by coding on N bits are known in the prior art.
For convenience of illustration, a practical case of a linear and systematic coding (144, 128) for correcting two errors (N=144 bits, K=128 bits, W=2 bits) will be considered hereinafter.
With reference to FIG. 6, the coding and decoding of such a code can be summarised as follows:
The vector "c" to be stored, composed of 144 bits, is obtained as a vector product of "i", a 128-bit data vector, with the binary generating matrix "G" composed of 128 rows by 144 columns. In the particular linear and systematic coding case G is composed of an identity matrix I and a parity matrix P. The vector "c" being obtained thus comprises the repetition of the data vector "i" and the parity vector is obtained as vector product iP. Formally expressed:c=i·G=i·[I,P]=[i, iP]
The matrix P is a binary matrix of size 128×16 being conveniently chosen (a method for obtaining this matrix is known in the art).
For the decoding step a so-called syndrome "s" must be calculated:s=r·HT=p⊕+d·PwhereG·HT=0
The syndrome "s", a 16-bit vector, is obtained as a vector product between the vector "r", a data vector of 144 bits read by the memory and composed of a 128-bit data part "d" and a 16-bit parity part "p", and the transpose of the matrix H. It can be shown that the syndrome is equivalent to the sum in GF(2) of the parity vector "p" with the vector product of the vector d with the parity matrix P.
The syndrome s is void if the data vector "r" is correct; while, according to the way the matrix P is defined, "s" has a sole value for each possible configuration of one or two errors affecting "r".
To achieve this coding and decoding scheme some solutions are known, which are schematically shown in FIGS. 4a and b.
In the first solution of FIG. 4a a general memory is used. This memory stores data "i" and parity bits "iP", calculated by the controller. The coding and decoding task for correcting errors is entrusted to the controller.
The disadvantages of this solution are:                high latency time between the data request and the availability thereof.
In fact standard flash memories use a limited-size interface bus to communicate with the controller. Although the memory internal reading is commonly performed for pages having several bits (for example 144 bits), the communication towards the controller is bound to a word sequence on the data bus. Since for calculating the syndrome, and thus for detecting and correcting the error, all the page bits are necessary, data are available for the user only after transferring all K bits of the page (data+parity) in the controller and after calculating the parity.                a memory overhead in the controller.In fact the K bits of the page (data+parity) must be loaded in the controller memory with subsequent occupation of a controller memory area.        an overhead in the controller processing resources.
In fact the controller must, for each data page, read all K bits of the page (data+parity). For each page it must therefore calculate the parity and, if the latter indicates an error, activate the correction.
For performing these operations the controller requires a calculation power overhead so as not to influence the memory system overall performances; moreover a part of the transmission band between the memory and the controller is used for transmitting parity bits being not strictly necessary for the user application.
In this second prior art solution, shown in FIG. 4b, the coding and decoding task is entrusted to the memory. The syndrome decoding for correcting two errors is generally too onerous in terms of area to be advantageously implemented in the memory.
The technical problem underlying an embodiment of the present invention is to provide an integrated memory system, having such structural and functional characteristics as to ensure an automatic error correction in data storage overcoming the drawbacks mentioned with reference to the prior art.


The invention provides a Stokes parameter measurement device and Stokes parameter measurement method that enable high-precision measurement. The Stokes parameter measurement device comprises a polarization splitting device which comprises an optical element formed of a birefringent crystal material and which, by means of the optical element, splits signal light to be measured into a plurality of polarized light beams and adjusts the polarization state of one or more among the plurality of polarized light beams, and a light-receiving portion for performing photoelectric conversion of an optical component of the signal light split by and emitted from the polarization splitting device.

Stokes parameters are parameters that represent a state of polarization. When measuring Stokes parameters, incident signal light is split into four rays using splitting means such as a beam splitter, a half-mirror, or a filter; herein, each of the signal light rays is given a different polarization and phase by means of a phase element, a polarizing element or the like, then the optical components of each of the split signal light rays are subjected to photoelectric conversion by a light-receiving element, and operations are performed on the electrical components obtained by photoelectric conversion, to obtain the Stokes parameters (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-18332). There are also methods in which, instead of a splitting means comprising a beam splitter or the like, there is used a quadrangular pyramidal prism or the like for concurrent four-beam splitting (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-93549).

Stokes parameter measurement device and method