A method for use with a data management system (DMS) enabling a directory service such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Microsoft""s Active Directory to interact with centralized DMS employs a single access application at a user API interface at one or more application layers of the data management system to map transactions for access appropriate to a heterogeneous physical implementation of data storage managed by a virtual control repository used in the DMS. Data objects are classified according to a PFVL Paradigm according to Package, Filetype, Variance and Level as a model for storage of data object in separate DMS storage and directory service storage. Objects in the directory service storage are managed to direct a request in a manner appropriate to the request to a directory service server or if not appropriate to the directory service, to one or more DMS processing managers.

This invention is related to the management of objects residing in one or more directory services. These services utilize a common access method which permits the data in the directory services to be managed using a single virtual Data Management System (DMS) based on a modular, scalable architecture. The directory services disclosed herein are those found in typical corporate, enterprise and e-business environments where elements of the Data Management System may exist on a homogenous computer platform or they may be dispersed among a plurality of platforms in a distributed computing environment. The interaction between said directory services and the Data Management System is accomplished through a plurality of commonly available communication protocols which permit a uniform data access and distribution across a heterogeneous network.
As the complexity of networks grow, it becomes increasingly more difficult to exchange and manage data, especially in networks comprising a plurality of heterogenous components. Directory services in particular have become such an integral part of corporate networks and the Internet, that methods for expanding their scaleability, improving performance and accessing data are critical to the success of the core business. Compounding the problem is the fact that directory services were initially designed to house information about the network infrastructure such as login access, passwords, network resources, etc. With the inception of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), corporations began using directory services to maintain organizational data such as names, job responsibilities, telephone numbers, etc. Eventually, e-business and e-commerce matured to the point where directory services are now used to manage many of the elements required to support corporate intranets and web sites. However, directory services tend to be deficient in the area of data and application management, usually lacking fundamental aspects such as revision control, configuration management, release control, lock management, etc.
Our invention seeks to improve upon the present art which addresses these areas by providing a uniform means for managing any type of data across a large global enterprise. The methods disclosed herein can be directly applied to data residing in a directory service, a simple file system or a traditional database. The improvements over the present art can best be illustrated by way of comparison.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,227 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,006, issued to Polnerow, et al., disclosed an on-line directory service with a plurality of databases and processors. While these inventions propose a method for accessing and registering data from and to one or more databases through the use of a directory service, they""re primarily focused on using a plurality of processors to route requests through the directory service in an efficient manner. They also employs a means for applications to reconfigure themselves in accordance with any changes to the processors and/or databases.
Uniform data access among multiple directory services is the main aspect of U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,107, issued to Chan, et al. This invention provides a directory service system for accessing a plurality of directory services. In this class-based directory service system, there exists a means for defining classes and properties to manage the objects contained within the directory services, even if the directory services are from different vendors. It also comprises a schema and methods for retrieving property names and types of the object classes, resolving name conflicts that can arise from accessing objects residing in different directory services and bridging dissimilar APIs associated with heterogengeous directory services.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,700, issued to Miller, et al., teaches a method wherein a common logical structure is used to store both the files residing in a file system as well as the directory entries comprising a directory service. This approach permits directory service entries across multiple domains to be managed in a centralized fashion. Also, since the directory service entries are objects, standardized operations such as replication, querying and storing additional information is possible.
An apparatus and method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,343, issued to Vigil, et al., which provides a means for implementing a highly scaleable X.500 directory service. A first directory service agent receives requests from a user agent and manages all information pertaining to the root of the X.500 directory tree. In addition, this first directory service agent further distributes requests to a plurality of delegate directory service agents, each of which manages a subset of the overall directory service. Since directory services typically have a limit to the number of entries they can maintain under a single process, this invention permits each delegate directory service agent to run as a separate process, potentially executing on separate processors, thus multiplying the number of allowable directory entries by the number of installed delegate directory service agents to overcome traditional limits.
Replication is an important aspect of distributing data efficiently in a large data processing system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,994, issued to Shaheen, et al., teaches a method for maintaining data coherency in a system in which data is replicated across a multitude of servers. Each server permits its local replica to be updated and a method is disclosed to reconcile these updates. Another invention related to replicating and partitioning data is U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,831, issued to Marsh, et al. This invention discloses an architecture to support partitioning of data among multiple file systems on a computer.
While all the aforementioned aspects of the prior art are certainly beneficial in a large heterogeneous network, our invention extends beyond the scope of most of them to solve additional problems they fail to confront. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,689,700, 5,893,107 and 5,918,227 discuss various means for integrating directory service entries into a file system, accessing database information through a directory service, and providing uniform access method across multiple directory services. However these inventions, when examined independently or cumulatively, fail to propose a common system-independent paradigm that can be applied to any type of data ranging from a simple file residing in a file system, to an object under the control of a directory service, all the way to information residing in a traditional database. Our invention proposes a method by which data is not only classified using a common means, but doesn""t mandate any relationship between the directory service, file system and database. The paradigm encompassed in the present invention permits a single access method to manipulate a file in a simple file system, locate a web page residing in an LDAP directory service, and query inventory data. For example, the file may exist in a Windows NT environment, while the LDAP directory service may be running in a Unix environment and while the inventory may be managed by a DB/2 database running on an S/390 platform. The prior art fails to address the architectural issues required to support management of data across disparate platforms.
In addition, our invention imparts a modular scaleable architecture upon a directory service, which enables features typically found in document management systems, such as version control, configuration management, locking, and release control, to be employed on objects residing in a directory service. Although the aforementioned inventions present an opportunity to offer a limited form of some of these features, the present invention architecturally binds these features to a common access protocol to permit the same features to span a virtual data management system comprising a plurality of components in which a directory service constitutes one, but not the only, component.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,758,343, 5,434,994, and 5,930,831 focus on methods that are beneficial to supporting directory services and file systems, such as efficiently distributing requests, permitting the directory service entries to grow in a scaleable manner, maintaining data coherency in a system requiring data to be replicated across multiple servers, and partitioning and replicating data across storage devices of disparate file systems. Our invention doesn""t presume any knowledge of the underlying storage management infrastructure or low-level file management techniques being employed. As long as the data exists somewhere in the enterprise, and some means is provided for an end user or application program to classify, access and modify it, our invention can be employed. One skilled in the art can appreciate how the techniques disclosed in these and similar inventions could be used in conjunction with the present invention to further enhance its capabilities.
During our development process we have viewed the development of others. Even the best of the EDA (electronic design automation) design houses do not have an integrated approach like the one we have developed. For the purposes of this background, we will discuss some of the various approaches already used specifically viewing them in light of our own separate developments which we will further elaborate in our detailed description of our invention which follows later in this specification.
In the field of EDA, there are today several leading edge providers of Data Management technology. Among them are Cadence Design Systems, Inc., ViewLogic Inc., and Synchronicity Inc. Of course there are others, but these the companies that have the capability to provide complete data management solutions that encompass all facets of the business process including design, manufacturing, quality control, defect tracking, project management and the like. However, review of their most recent technology still affords the opportunity to make improvements in the area of scalability, modularity and adaptation of disparate environments into a seamless Data Management enterprise.
Historically many attempts have been made to manage and share data across groups of users or teams. This has typically resulted in systems that assume a particular use model and expect the users to mold their process or methodology around it. Furthermore, these systems tend to be a closed architecture which is difficult to enhance or customize. In addition these systems can be large and complex, and lacking the ability to scale from a small team of xe2x80x9clow-endxe2x80x9d users to a large group of sophisticated xe2x80x9chigh-endxe2x80x9d users. U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,130, entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System and Method for Concurrent Engineeringxe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,265 entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System Having Shared Librariesxe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,875 entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System for Problems, Releases and Partsxe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,408 entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System and Processxe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,867 entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System Having Data Management Configurationxe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,873 entitled xe2x80x9cData Management Control System for File and Databasexe2x80x9d, U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,201 entitled xe2x80x9cComputerized Design Automation Method Using a Single Logical PFVL Paradigmxe2x80x9d, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,707 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Managing a Plurality of Data Processes Residing in Heterogeneous Data Repositoriesxe2x80x9d all issued to Van Huben et al. as well as the following patent applications U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/847,393 (Attorney Docket No.: PO9-96-007) entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System for Concurrent Engineeringxe2x80x9d, filed Dec. 6, 1996.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/760,913 (Attorney Docket No.: PO9-96-107A) entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System for File and Database Managementxe2x80x9d, filed Dec. 6, 1997.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/103,771 (Attorney Docket No.: PO9-96-107B) entitled xe2x80x9cData Management System for File and Database Managementxe2x80x9d, filed Jun. 24, 1998.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/240,732 (Attorney Docket No.: PO9-99-008) entitled xe2x80x9cMethods for Shared Data Management in a Pervasive Computing Environmentxe2x80x9d, filed Jan. 29, 1999.
all teach various methods employing a modular scalable data management system which is also envisioned as part of the present invention. However, these inventions and applications assume a traditional data or document management environment wherein all objects under control of the data management system reside in a traditional file system and/or database. They fall short of demonstrating how the underlying principles can be expanded to encompass objects and information stored in a directory service system such as Microsoft""s Active Directory or the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
Our invention provides a data management system enabling a plurality of heterogeneous systems to exchange information. These systems may be comprised of one or more networks, containing simple or complex file systems, relational or object-oriented databases, directory services such as, but not limited to, Microsoft""s Active Directory and the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or any combination therein.
The system we employ uses a data management control program tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a supporting machine environment for performing method steps by a data management system having a library organization which receives a request of a user initiated from said displayed client screen and fulfills the request by a providing result via our data management system. This data management system has a plurality of data managers and is provided with a plurality of data managers in one or more layers of a layered architecture. The system performs with a data manager and with a user input via an API a plurality of processes on data residing in heterogeneous data repositories of said computer system including promotion, check-in, check-out, locking, library searching, setting and viewing process results, tracking aggregations, and managing parts, releases and problem fix data under management control of a virtual control repository having one or more physical heterogeneous repositories. The system provides for storing, accessing, tracking data residing in said one or more data repositories managed by the virtual control repository.
Our invention provides user interfaces for a combination of command line, scripts, GUI, Menu, WebBrowser, etc. which maps the user""s view to a PFVL paradigm. We have created a new data management architecture which is capable of being adapted to any structure based on attributes, such as the X.500 directory service. It presumes no use model thereby enabling a multitude of departments to share data without the need to follow the same use model. Furthermore, data access is provided through traditional computer systems employing a keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc. as well as nontraditional pervasive computing devices such as hand held personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, pagers, robotics, etc. Our invention is also highly modular and scalable which permits different features to be installed or configured, and allows the same system to function as either a low-end or a high-end DMS.
These and other improvements are set forth in the following detailed description. For a better understanding of the invention with advantages and features, refer to the description and to the drawings.

Data management interoperability methods for heterogeneous directory structures

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to a cap equipped with a light emitting device, the cap comprises a body part 10 having a space portion 101 formed therein to receive a wearer's head through an opening of the space portion formed downward; a brim part 20 formed to be protruded frontward at a bottom of the body part 10; a light penetrating member 30, 31 attached to a front side of the body part 10 and made of material that light penetrates through, and a light emitting module 40 installed at one side of the body part to emit light through the light penetrating member 30, 31.

Generally, a hat refers to a headgear which is worn on a wearer's head.
The hat can be divided into one without a brim and the other with a brim. The hat without the brim is usually used for protecting a wearer's head from cold or heat, and the hat with the brim is mostly used for preventing UV of the strong sunlight from illuminating to eyes.
In the past, hats were mainly used for the functional purpose as described above; however, these days, they are utilized for various purposes such as fashion accessories or representing one's social position.
Meanwhile, hats may be incorporated with diverse decorations, such as embroidery or wappen patches, for enhancing merchantability of the hats. However, there were limits to increase merchantabilities of the hats because these traditional ornaments did not have certain functions, and they could not be recognized at night.
Accordingly, it had been suggested to attach luminescent sticky tape or stickers on the hats, but these can be attached to hats with hard and smooth surface such as plastic or metal strongly while loosely attached to hats made of clothing or non-woven fabric.
In addition, because materials of luminescent sticky tape or stickers was able to enhance visibility only by reflecting light, it did not have the excellent visibility effects in a place where there is little light.
Recently, a hat equipped light emitting device using LED have been developed.
However, this LED hat has drawbacks to hurt people's eyes around the wearer because strong light from this LED hat is emitted forward due to its straightness characteristic.
Furthermore, the light emitting part of this traditional LED hat is exposed to outside the hat, which disrupts exterior design of the hat itself.
Also, this hat needs to include multiple light emitting means which can emit various kinds of colored lights, which lead to an increase of manufacturing costs.

Abstract: According to the present invention, the cap equipped with the light emitting device improves merchantability of the cap as a fashion accessory by enhancing the cap's recognition at night and an aesthetic impression by light emitting.


A seating installation, which is concealable under the floor. The seats are mounted in articulated manner, with the possibility of swiveling between a lowered, cleared-away position and a raised position of use, on pillars which are fixed to the base floor. A number of flaps are mounted in articulated manner on the same pillars forming a raised access floor under which the seats may be concealed in the lowered position.

In enclosed spaces which include seating installations which it would be useful to be able to arrange in a position of use or to remove so that the enclosed space is partially or totally clear, solutions are already known in which the seats are stowed away under a raised access floor.
The existing solutions of this type are nonetheless of very complex configuration and require a cavity or pit of considerable height underneath the raised access floor, which makes it necessary to reduce the useful height of the enclosed space. In addition, to support the raised access floor structures are required which increase costs considerably.

Seating installation concealable under the floor


A transmitter device is provided. The transmitter device includes first to m-th memory cells (m is an integer of 2 or more), first to m-th word lines, a first bit line, and an analog circuit. The i-th word line (i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to m) is electrically connected to the i-th memory cell. The first to m-th memory cells are electrically connected to the analog circuit through the first bit line. The first to m-th memory cells are capable of retaining a potential corresponding to first data. The first to m-th word lines are supplied with a potential corresponding to second data. The analog circuit is capable of performing a multiply-accumulate operation on the first data and the second data, and the first data or the second data includes image data.

1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a transmitter device, a receiver device, or a broadcast system.
The present invention relates to an object, a method, or a manufacturing method. In addition, the present invention relates to a process, a machine, manufacture, or a composition of matter. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a display device, a light-emitting device, a power storage device, a memory device, a driving method thereof, or a manufacturing method thereof. In particular, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a display device, or a light-emitting device each including an oxide semiconductor.
In this specification and the like, a semiconductor device generally means a device that can function by utilizing semiconductor characteristics. In some cases, a display device, an electro-optical device, a semiconductor circuit, or an electronic device includes a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increases in the resolution and the number of pixels of a display device have been demanded; for example, an 8K ultra high definition television (UHD TV) with 7680 horizontal pixels by 4320 vertical pixels has been suggested. As the number of pixels of a display device increases, the amount of display image data increases; this requires a significant increase in data transmission speed for broadcast communication.
A technique by which a transistor is formed using a semiconductor thin film formed over a substrate having an insulating surface has been attracting attention. The transistor is used in a wide range of electronic devices such as an integrated circuit (IC) or a display device. A silicon-based semiconductor is widely known as a semiconductor material that can be applied to the transistor, but an oxide semiconductor (OS) has been attracting attention as an alternative material.
For example, a technique for manufacturing a transistor using zinc oxide or an In—Ga—Zn-based oxide semiconductor as an oxide semiconductor is disclosed (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
It is known that a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film (such a transistor is hereinafter referred to as an OS transistor) has an extremely low off-state current. Patent Document 3 discloses a technique in which a memory device is formed by using such off-state current characteristics.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


In a radio communication station having N antennas an antenna diversity system and a gain controllable amplifier the gain of the gain controllable amplifier is set by using a first antenna, the signal levels of signals received at the antennas is measured, a group of antennas is determined having a signal level which exceeds the signal level of the first antenna by no more than a predetermined value (X), and out of said group of antennas the antenna with the highest signal level is selected out or the first antenna is selected out if said group is empty.

The key idea when using switched antenna diversity is to have more than one antenna in the receiver. For each received frame the signal level of the received signal, in particular the received signal strength (RSS) is measured for all or a selection of the antennas in the receive path. These RSS measurements are made during the initial preamble part of the frame that is used for receiver training. Before the data part of the frame is entering the receiver, the antenna with the strongest RSS is selected for reception of the rest of the frame. In this way an increased receiver performance will be gained compared to using only one antenna.
During the preamble different tasks have to be performed in the receiver. The most important task is to adjust the signal level to be within the dynamic range of the receiver by setting the gain of the amplifier. This is done by measuring the RSS of the amplified signal and adjusting the gain of the amplifier repeatedly until the signal level is in accordance with the dynamic range of the receiver. This procedure is done using one (i) of the N antennas of the station.
After the gain of the amplifier has been set, the antenna diversity measurements are performed. The last RSS measurement done during the gain setting can be used as RSS estimate for antenna i. For the remaining antennas separate RSS measurements must be performed.
For simplicity it can be assumed that the station comprises two antennas where antenna 1 is used for the gain calculations. There are two situations which can arise after the RSS measurements have been made for both antennas:                1. RSS for antenna 1 is higher than for antenna 2 (RSS1>RSS2)        2. RSS for antenna 1 is higher than for antenna 1 (RSS2>RSS1)
In case 1 above the gain setting is already as good as it can be since the best antenna is the same antenna as that has been used for gain calculations. In case 2 the antenna not used for gain calculations is found to be the best one and if the difference between the two antennas is large we will need to recalculate the gain again otherwise we might experience a reduced performance compared to always use antenna 1.
The problem is that gain recalculations take time and time is a very limited resource during the preamble.
A further problem of antenna diversity lies in the following. When using more than one antenna in the receiver it is possible that the noise level on all antennas is not equal. The cause of this can be a bad placement of the antennas or that one antenna experiences stronger adjacent channel disturbance. With weak signal levels the received noise level will be so high that it heavily affects the antenna selection. We will choose the antenna with the highest noise level instead of the one with the strongest signal level which would be the correct choice.
The best solution would be if it was possible to estimate the noise level for each received frame and take this into account when selecting antenna. This is however both difficult and expensive in terms of hardware costs.

Antenna diversity method with fallback and weighting


A method of high-speed reading in a text-to-speech conversion system including a text analysis module (101) for generating a phoneme and prosody character string from an input text; a prosody generation module (102) for generating a synthesis parameter of at least a voice segment, a phoneme duration, and a fundamental frequency for the phoneme and prosody character string; and a speech generation module (103) for generating a synthetic waveform by waveform superimposition by referring to a voice segment dictionary (105). The prosody generation module is provided with both a duration rule table containing empirically found phoneme durations and a duration prediction table containing phoneme durations predicted by statistical analysis and, when the user-designated utterance speed exceeds a threshold, uses the duration rule table and, when the threshold is not exceeded, uses the duration prediction table to determined the phoneme duration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to text-to-speech conversion technologies for outputting a speech for a text that is composed of Japanese Kanji and Kana characters and, particularly, to a prosody control in high-speed reading.
2. Description of the Related Art
A text-to-speech conversion system, which receives a text composed of Japanese Kanji and Kana characters and converts it to a speech for outputting, is limitless in the output vocabularies and is expected to replace the record/playback speech synthesis technology in a variety of application fields.
FIG. 15 shows a typical text-to-speech conversion system. When a text of sentences composed of Japanese Kanji and Kana characters (hereinafter "text") is inputted, a text analysis module 101 generates a phoneme and prosody character string or sequence from the character information. The "phoneme and prosody character string or sequence" herein used means a sequence of characters representing the reading of an input sentence and the prosodic information such as accent and intonation (hereinafter "intermediate language"). A word dictionary 104 is a pronunciation dictionary in which the reading, accent, etc. of each word are registered. The text analysis module 101 performs a linguistic process, such as morphemic analysis and syntax analysis, by referring to the pronunciation dictionary to generate an intermediate language.
Based on the intermediate language generated by the text analysis module 101, a prosody generation module 102 determines a composite or synthesis parameter composed of a voice segment (kind of a sound), a sound quality conversion coefficient (tone of a sound), a phoneme duration (length of a sound), a phoneme power (intensity of a sound), and a fundamental frequency (loudness of a sound, hereinafter "pitch") and transmits it to a speech generation module 103.
The "voice segments" herein used mean units of voice connected to produce a composite or synthetic waveform (speech) and vary with the kind of sound. Generally, the voice segment is composed of a string of phonemes such as CV, VV, VCV, or CVC wherein C and V represent a consonant and a vowel, respectively.
Based on the respective parameters generated by the prosody generation module 102, the speech generation module 103 generates a composite or synthetic waveform (speech) by referring to a voice segment dictionary 105 that is composed of a read-only memory (ROM), etc., in which voice segments are stored, and outputs the synthetic speech through a speaker. The synthetic speech can be made by, for example, putting a pitch mark (as a reference point) on the voice waveform and, upon synthesis, superimposing it by shifting the position of the pitch mark according to the synthesis pitch cycle. The foregoing is a brief description of the text-to-speech conversion process.
FIG. 16 shows the conventional prosody generation module 102. The intermediate language inputted to the prosody generation module 102 is a phoneme character sequence containing prosodic information such as an accent position and a pause position. Based on this information, the module 102 determines a parameter for generating waveforms (hereinafter "synthesis parameter") such as temporal changes of the pitch (hereinafter "pitch contour"), the voice power, the phoneme duration, and the voice segment addresses stored in a voice segment dictionary. In addition, the user may input a control parameter for designating at least one utterance property such as a utterance speed, pitch, intonation, intensity, speaker, and sound quality.
An intermediate language analysis unit 201 analyzes a character sequence for the input intermediate language to determine a word boundary from the breath group and word end symbols put on the intermediate language and the mora (syllable) position of an accent nuclear from the accent symbol. The "breath group" means a unit of utterance made in a breath. The "accent nuclear" means the position at which the accent falls. A word with the accent nuclear at the first mora is called "accent type one word", a word with the accent nuclear at the n-th mora is called "accent type n word" and, generally, it is called "accent type uneven word". Conversely, a word with no accent nuclear, such as "shinbun" or "pasocon", is called "accent type 0" or "accent type flat" word. The information about such prosody is transmitted to a pitch contour determination unit 202, a phoneme duration determination unit 203, a phoneme power determination unit 204, a voice segment determination unit 205, and a sound quality coefficient determination unit 206, respectively.
The pitch contour determination unit 202 calculates pitch frequency changes in an accent or phrase unit from the prosody information on the intermediate language. The pitch control mechanism model specified by critically damped second-order linear systems, which is called "Fujisaki model", has been used. According to the pitch control mechanism model, the fundamental frequency, which determines the pitch, is generated as follows. The frequency of a glottal oscillation or fundamental frequency is controlled by an impulse command issued every time a phrase is switched and a step command issued whenever the accent goes up or down. The impulse command becomes a gently falling curve from the head to the tail of a sentence (phrase component) because of a delay in the physiological mechanism. The step command becomes a locally very uneven curve (accent component). These components are made models as responses to the critically damped second-order linear systems. The logarithmic fundamental frequency changes are expressed as the sum of these components (hereinafter "intonation component").
FIG. 17 shows the pitch control mechanism model. The log-fundamental frequency, lnFo(t), wherein t is the time, is formulated as follows.
                              ln                                                                                F              o                                                  (              t              )                                      =                              ln                                                                                F              min                                +                                    ∑                              i                =                1                            I                                                                  A                pi                                                                            G                  pi                                                                  (                                      t                    -                                          T                      oi                                                        )                                                              +                                    ∑                              j                =                1                            J                                                                  A                aj                                                          {                                                                            G                      aj                                                                                (                                              t                        -                                                  T                          ij                                                                    )                                                        -                                                            G                      aj                                                                                (                                              t                        -                                                  T                                                      2                                                        j                                                                                )                                                                      }                                                                        (        1        )            wherein Fmin is the minimum frequency (hereinafter "base pitch"), I is the number of phrase commands in the sentence, Api is the amplitude of the i-th phrase command, Toi is the start time of the i-th phrase command, J is the number of accent commands in the sentence, Aaj is the amplitude of the j-th accent command, and T1j and T2j are the start and end times of the j-th accent command, respectively. Gpi(t) and Gaj(t) are the impulse response function of the phrase control mechanism and the step response function of the accent control mechanism, respectively, and given by the following equations.Gpi(t)=αi2texp(−αit)  (2)Gaj(t)=min[1−(1+βjt)exp(−βjt),θ]  (3)The above equations are the response functions at t≧0. If t<0, then Gpi(t)=Gaj(t).
In Equation (3), the symbol min[x, y] means that the smaller of x and y is taken, which corresponds to the fact that the accent component of a voice reaches the upper limit in a finite time. αi is the natural angular frequency of the phrase control mechanism for the i-th phrase command and, for example, set at 3.0. βj is the natural angular frequency of the accent control mechanism for the j-th accent command and, for example, set at 20.0. θ is the upper limit of the accent component and, for example, set at 0.9.
The units of the fundamental frequency and pitch control parameters, Api, Aaj, Toi, T1j, T2j, αi, βj, and Fmin, are defined as follows. The unit of Fo(t) and Fmin is Hz, the unit of Toi, T1j, and T2j is sec, and the unit of αi and βj is rad/sec. The unit of Api and Aaj is derived from the above units of the fundamental frequency and pitch control parameters.
The pitch contour determination unit 202 determines the pitch control parameter from the intermediate language. For example, the start time of a phrase command, Toi, is set at the position of a punctuation on the intermediate language, the start time of an accent command, T1j, is set immediately after the word boundary symbol, and the end time of the accent command, T2j, is set at either the position of the accent symbol or immediately before the word boundary symbol for an accent type flat word with no accent symbol. The amplitudes of phrase and accent commands, Api and Aaj, are determined in most cases by statistical analysis such as Quantification theory (type one), which is well known and its description will be omitted.
FIG. 18 shows the pitch contour generation process. The analysis result generated by the intermediate language analysis unit 201 is sent to a control factor setting section 501, where control factors required to predict the amplitudes of phrase and accent components are set. The information necessary for phrase component prediction, such as the number of moras in the phrase, the position within the sentence, and the accent type of the leading word, is sent to a phrase component estimation section 503. The information necessary for accent component prediction, such as the accent type of the accented phrase, the number of moras, the part of speech, and the position in the phrase, is sent to an accent component estimation section 502. The prediction of respective component values uses a prediction table 506 that has been trained by using statistical analysis, such as Quantification theory (type one), based on the natural utterance data.
The predicted results are sent to a pitch contour correction section 504, in which the estimated values Api and Aaj are corrected when the user designates the intonation. This control function is used to emphasize or suppress the word in the sentence. Usually, the intonation is controlled at three to five levels by multiplying each level with a predetermined constant. Where there is no intonation designation, no correction is made.
After both the phrase and accent component values are corrected, they are sent to a base pitch addition section 505 to generate a sequence of data according to Equation (1). Based on user's pitch designation, data for the designated level is retrieved as a base pitch from a base pitch table 507 for making addition. The logarithmic base pitch, lnFmin, represents the minimum pitch of a synthetic voice and is used to control the pitch of a voice. Usually, lnFmin is quantized at five to 10 levels and stored in the table. It is increased where the user desires overall loud voices. Conversely, it is lowered when soft voices are desired.
The base pitch table 507 is divided into two sections; one for men's voice and the other for women's voice. Based on user's speaker designation, the base pitch is selected for retrieval. Usually, men's voice is quantized at pitch levels between 3.0 and 4.0 while women's voice is at pitch levels between 4.0 and 5.0.
The phoneme duration control will be described. The phoneme duration determination unit 203 determines the phoneme length and the pause length from the phoneme character string and the prosodic symbol. The "pause length" means the length between phrases or sentences. The phoneme length determines the length of consonant and/or vowel which constitute a syllable and the silent length between closed sections that occurs immediately before a plosive phoneme such as p, t, or k. The phoneme duration and pause lengths are called generally "duration length". The phoneme duration is determined by statistical analysis, such as Quantification theory (type one), based on the kind of phonemes adjacent to the target phoneme or the syllable position in the word or breath group. The pause length is determined by statistical analysis, such as Quantification theory (type one), based on the number of moras in adjacent phrases. Where the user designates the utterance speed, the phoneme duration is adjusted accordingly. Usually, the utterance speed is controlled at five to 10 levels by multiplying each level by a predetermined constant. When slow utterance is desired, the phoneme duration is lengthened while the phoneme duration is shortened for high utterance speed. The phoneme duration control is the subject matter of this application and will be described later.
The phoneme power determination unit 204 calculates the waveform amplitudes of individual phonemes from a phoneme character string. The waveform amplitudes are determined empirically from the kind of a phoneme, such as a, i, u, e, or o, and the syllable position in the breath group. The power transition within the syllable is also determined from the rising period when the amplitude gradually increases to the falling period when the amplitude decreases through the stationary-state period. The power control is made by using the coefficient table. When the user designates the intensity, the amplitude is adjusted accordingly. The intensity is controlled usually at 10 levels by multiplying each level by a predetermined constant.
The voice segment determination unit 205 determines the addresses, within the voice segment dictionary 105, of voice segments required to express a phoneme character string. The voice dictionary 105 contains voice segments of a plurality of speakers including both men and women and determines the address of a voice segment according to user's speaker designation. The voice segment data in the dictionary 105 is composed of various units corresponding to the adjacent phoneme environment, such as CV or VCV, so that the optimum synthesis unit is selected from the phoneme character string of an input text.
The sound quality determination unit 206 determines the conversion parameter when the user makes a sound quality conversion designation. The "sound quality conversion" means the process of signals for the voice segment data stored in the dictionary 105 so that the voice segment data is treated as the voice segment data of another speaker. Generally, it is achieved by linearly expanding or compressing the voice segment data. The expansion process is made by oversampling the voice segment data, resulting in the deep voice. Conversely, the compression process is made by downsampling the voice segment data, resulting in the thin voice. The sound quality conversion is controlled usually at five to 10 levels, each of which has been assigned with a re-sampling rate.
The pitch contour, phoneme power, phoneme duration, voice segment address, and expansion/compression parameters are sent to the synthesis parameter generation unit 207 to provide a synthesis parameter. The synthesis parameter is used to generate a waveform in a frame unit of 8 ms, for example, and sent to the waveform (speech) generation module 103.
FIG. 19 shows the speech generation process. A voice segment decoder 301 loads voice segment data from the voice segment dictionary 105 with a voice segment address of the synthesis parameter as a reference pointer and, if necessary, processes the signal. If a compression process has been applied to the dictionary 105, which contains voice segment data for voice synthesis, a decoding process is applied to the dictionary 105. The decoded voice segment data is multiplied by an amplitude coefficient in an amplitude controller 302 for making power control. The expansion/compression process of a voice segment is made in a voice segment processor 303 for making voice conversion. When a deep voice is desired, the voice segment is expanded and, when a thin voice is desired, the voice segment is compressed. In a superimposition controller 304, superimposition of the segment data is controlled according to the information such as the pitch contour and phoneme duration to generate a synthetic waveform. The superimposed data is written sequentially into a digital/analog (D/A) ring buffer 305 and transferred to a D/A converter with an output sampling cycle for output from a speaker.
FIG. 20 shows the phoneme duration determination process. The intermediate language analysis unit 201 feeds the analysis result into a control factor setting section 601, where the control factors required to predict the duration length of each phoneme or word are set. The prediction uses pieces of information such as the phoneme, the kind of adjacent phonemes, the number of moras in the phrase, and the position in the sentence, which are sent to a duration estimation section 602. The prediction of each of the accent and phrase component values uses a duration prediction table 604 that has been trained by using statistical analysis, such as Quantification theory (type one), based on the natural utterance data. The predicted result is sent to a duration correcting section 603 to correct the predicted value where the user designates the utterance speed. The utterance speed designation is controlled at five to 10 levels by multiplying each level by a predetermined constant. When a low utterance speed is desired, the phoneme duration is increased and, when a high utterance speed is desired, the phoneme duration is decreased. Suppose that there are five utterance speed levels and that Level 0 to Level 4 may be designated. A constant Tn for Level n is set as follows:To=2.0, T1=1.5, T2=1.0, T3=0.75, and T4=0.5Among the predicted phoneme durations, the vowel and pause lengths are multiplied by the constant Tn for the level n that is designated by the user. For Level 0, they are multiplied by 2.0 so that the generated waveform is lengthened while the utterance speed is shortened. For Level 4, they are multiplied by 0.5 so that the generated waveform is shortened and the utterance speed is raised. In the above example, Level 2 is made the normal utterance speed (default).
FIG. 21 shows synthetic waveforms to which the utterance speed control has been applied. The utterance speed control of a phoneme duration is made only for the vowel. The length between closed sections or of a consonant is considered almost constant regardless of the utterance speed. In Graph (a) at a high utterance speed, only the vowel is multiplied by 0.5 and the number of superimposed voice segments is subtracted to make the waveform. Conversely, in Graph (c) at a low utterance speed, only the vowel is multiplied by 1.5 and the number of superimposed voice segment is repeated for making the waveform. Regarding the pause length, the constant for the designated level is multiplied so that the lower the utterance speed, the longer the pause length while the higher the utterance speed, the shorter the pause length.
Let consider the case of a high utterance speed, which corresponds to Level 4 in the above example. In the text-to-speech conversion system, the maximum utterance speed means "Fast Reading Function (FRF)". In the text, there are both important and not-so important portions for the user so that the not-so important portion is read at a high utterance speed and the important portion is read at the normal utterance speed for synthetic speech. Most of all latest model has such an FRF button. When this button is held down, the utterance speed is set at the maximum level for synthesizing a speech at the highest utterance speed and, when the button is released, the utterance speed is returned to the previous level.
The above technology, however, has the following disadvantages.
(A) When FRF is turned on, merely the phoneme duration is decreased. In other words, the length of a generated waveform is reduced so that an additional load is applied to the speech generation module. In the speech generation module, the speech data generated upon waveform superimposition is written sequentially into the D/A ring buffer. Consequently, if the waveform length is small, the time for waveform generation becomes short. When the waveform data length becomes a half, the process time must be made a half. If the phoneme duration length becomes a half, the calculation amount does not necessarily becomes a half so that the "voice interruption" phenomenon, in which the synthetic voice stops before completion, can take place where the waveform generation cannot keep up with the transfer to the D/A converter.
(B) Also, the pitch contour is compressed linearly. That is, the intonation changes at shorter cycles and the synthetic voice is so unnatural that it is hard to understand. FRF is used not to skip the text but read it fast so that it is not suitable for the synthetic voice that has a very uneven intonation. The intonation of a speech synthesized with FRF changes so violently that the speech is difficult to understand.
(C) In addition, the pause between sentences is compressed with the same rate as the rate for the phoneme duration so that the boundary between sentences becomes too vague to distinguish. Synthetic speeches are outputted rapidly one after another so that the speeches synthesized with FRF are not suitable for understanding the text contents.
(D) Moreover, the utterance speed becomes high over the entire text so that it is difficult to time releasing FRF. The ordinary FRF reads the not-so important portion at high speeds and synthesizes a speech at the normal speed for the important portion of a text. When the user releases the FRF button, a considerable part of the desired portion has been read already. This makes it necessary to reset the reading section before starting speech synthesis at the normal utterance speed. In order to turn on or off FRF, the user must make great efforts in sorting out the necessary portion from the unnecessary one by listening to the unclear speech.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method of controlling the fast reading function (FRF) in a text-to-speech conversion system capable of solving the above problems (A) through (D).
In order to solve the problem (A), according to an aspect of the invention, when the utterance speed is designated at the maximum speed or FRF is turned on, the phoneme duration and the pitch contour are determined in the phoneme duration and pitch contour determination units, respectively, of the prosody generation module by replacing the duration prediction table predicted by statistical analysis with the duration rule table that has been found from experience and such a sound quality conversion coefficient as to keep the sound quality is selected in the sound quality determination unit.
In order to solve the problem (B), according to another aspect of the invention, when the utterance speed is designated at the maximum speed, neither calculation of the accent and phrase components nor change of the base pitch are made.
In order to solve the problem (C), according to still another aspect of the invention, when the utterance speed is designated at the maximum speed, a signal sound is inserted between sentences.
In order to solve the problem (D), according to yet another aspect of the invention, when the utterance speed is designated at the maximum speed, at least the leading word of a sentence is read at the normal utterance speed.

Method of controlling high-speed reading in a text-to-speech conversion system


One aspect is directed to a method for performing data migration from a first volume to a second volume while allowing a write operation to be performed on the first volume during the act of migrating. Another aspect is a method and apparatus that stores, in a persistent manner, state information indicating a portion of the first volume successfully copied to the second volume. Another aspect is a method and apparatus for migrating data from a first volume to a second volume, and resuming, after an interruption of the migration, copying data from the first volume to the second volume without starting from the beginning of the data. Another aspect is a method and apparatus for migrating to data from a first to a second volume, receiving an access request directed to the first volume from an application that stores data on the first volume, and redirecting the access request to the second volume without having to reconfigure the application that accesses data on the first volume.

With the growth of networked computer systems, shared data storage systems have become commonplace. In a networked computer system, multiple hosts are generally coupled by a network to a shared data storage system for the purpose of storing applications and their data. Fibre channel is an example of a network that can be used to form such a configuration. Fibre channel is a network standard that allows multiple initiators to communicate with multiple targets over the network, where the initiator and target may be any device coupled to the network.
Storage systems generally have a finite amount of storage capacity (used to store applications, application data, user data (e.g., databases) and the like) and finite performance bandwidth. Server applications, users, and their data have different growth rates, so it often is difficult to predict and design a storage configuration that is suitable for a long period of time. When capacity of a resource or its performance is at or approaching its limit, the storage configuration typically is adjusted to reallocate resources.
Because storage capacity and performance of the storage server is finite due to performance limitations of devices, processors, memory, etc., there is occasionally a need to migrate (or move) data to another location in the networked computer system. With this migration of data comes an associated migration or reallocation of storage and performance load. Data migration, or movement of data from one location to another, is generally a complicated and time consuming task, requiring many hours of planning and testing.
For example, in the case where the performance of the storage system is approaching its capacity, data may be migrated to another storage system having available capacity.
A conventional way in which people migrate data is to stop execution of the application that access the data, move the application and its data to a new storage location, reconfigure the application to point to the new location, and restart the application. It is a drawback of current migration techniques to require data movement to occur only after the data and their associated applications are offline. Depending on the size of the data, a migration process may take a long time (e.g., days), and the data being to migrated is unavailable for the period of time during the migration. Further, if at any point during the migration there is a failure of one or more elements involved in the migration, the user may have to restart the migration from the beginning. For large migrations, there is much lost time, effort, and money associated with restarting the migration process.


A computer-implemented method for generating a machine-learned model to generate facial position data based on audio data comprising training a conditional variational autoencoder having an encoder and decoder. The training comprises receiving a set of training data items, each training data item comprising a facial position descriptor and an audio descriptor; processing one or more of the training data items using the encoder to obtain distribution parameters; sampling a latent vector from a latent space distribution based on the distribution parameters; processing the latent vector and the audio descriptor using the decoder to obtain a facial position output; calculating a loss value based at least in part on a comparison of the facial position output and the facial position descriptor of at least one of the one or more training data items; and updating parameters of the conditional variational autoencoder based at least in part on the calculated loss value.

Animation tools for computer facial animation are used in video game development to animate images or models of a character's face, for example to animate a character's facial movements during speech. Techniques have been developed to animate speech based on audio data, for example based on visemes, the visual counterpart of phonemes. One difficulty with viseme-based techniques is that the co-articulation rules on which they are based are typically quite complicated.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Generating facial position data based on audio data


Test logic supports the testing of an electronic circuit, where the number of ports of the electronic circuit exceeds the number of available tester IO channels. In some examples, the test logic utilizes observe logic in order to analyze the output ports that are masked so that the number of tester IO channels need not be expanded. Digital data from an electronic circuit is compacted by processing the data with a signature compactor to determine a signature corresponding to the output data. A comparator may compare the determined signature with the correct signature to provide a “go/no-go” indication to a process through a processor channel. Providing test coverage using a signature averts the necessity of having additional tester IO channels to cover the associated section of the electronic circuit. Additionally, a pattern generator may be supported by the test logic to provide digital activity for the electronic circuit.

Electronic circuitry, such as integrated circuits (ICs), is becoming increasingly complex. For example, an integrated circuit is typically assuming more functionality while executing the associated functionality at greater speeds. In order to support the functionality, which necessitates control of circuitry external to the integrated circuit (often referred as a "chip"), more input/output (IO) pins are needed to interconnect with the external circuitry. When testing a chip, the operation of a section of the chip that is associated with an IO pin typically requires observability of the IO pin. More complex chips may require more IO pins, which may require observability for verifying the operation of the chip. Apparatuses for testing chips typically are expensive, and adding additional testing channels (a testing channel being associated with an IO pin) further increases the cost of these apparatuses. A manufacturer of the chip would want to invest in testing apparatus that adequately tests the chip at the lowest amount of investment. Thus, the manufacturer would desire to adequately test a chip only with the necessary number of available testing channels in order to avert an additional investment.
FIG. 1 illustrates test logic 100 for testing electronic circuitry with the number of available input/output (IO) channels in accordance with prior art. Test logic 100 comprises a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) module 103 and a trace circuit 101.  FPGA module 103 is typically utilized to emulate (prototype) an integrated circuit design before committing the design to hardwired chips. Trace circuit 101 supports the emulation of the prototyped circuit.
Input ports IP1 105–IP6 115 provide digital stimulation (activity) of trace circuit 101, and output ports (OP1 167–OP6 177) allow access to the output from the trace circuit.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, only two tester input/output (IO) channels 151 and 153 are shown, although test logic typically supports larger numbers of tester IO channels (typically, on the order of a few hundred). Tester IO channels 151 and 153 connect to output port 1 (OP1) 167 and output port 2 (OP2) 167, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. However, the number of available tester IO channels is typically limited because of architectural and budgetary constraints. In the example shown in FIG. 1, trace circuit 101 has more output ports than can be accommodated by the available number of tester IO channels (i.e., OP3 171, OP4 173, OP5 175, and OP6 177 are not accommodated by tester IO channels in the illustrated example). With the prior art, when there are not enough tester IO channels to cover all the output ports (corresponding to output signals), the user typically masks the output ports (where the masked output ports are not connected to any tester IO channels) that are not deemed as important as other output ports. Because test logic 100 does not have more available tester IO channels, output ports OP3 171–OP6 177 are not observable, and thus the associated circuitry of trace circuitry 101 may not be verified for proper operation. In other words, an undetectable fault in trace circuit 101 may exist.
Thus, it would be an advancement in the field of testing electronic circuitry to provide apparatuses and methods that reduce the number of required testing channels while still adequately testing the electronic circuitry. It also would be an advancement in the field of testing electronic circuitry to allow more complete visibility of an electric circuit under test using an existing number of testing channels.

Tester channel count reduction using observe logic and pattern generator


The electrically-powered hand-held device for bundling elongated objects by wrapping the elongated objects with a one-side adhesive band includes a handle, a rotatable bundling head connected to the handle and including a device for pressing the band against the elongated objects and for pulling it tightly around the elongated objects and a device for rotating the band together with the bundling head around the elongated objects. The device for pressing and pulling includes a spring-loaded displaceable central jaw located in the bundling head and first and second spring-loaded turning jaws opposite one another with the central jaw between them in the bundling head. The central jaw is displaceable by insertion of the elongated objects into the bundling head and the spring-loaded turning jaws are formed and positioned in the bundling head so that the spring-loaded turning jaws engage the band on opposite sides of the band and slid over controlling slid surfaces provided on the displaceable central jaw to wrap and tighten the band around the objects.

The present invention relates to a bundling device for bundling elongated objects and, more particularly, to a hand-held device for bundling elongated objects.
Bundling devices of the above-mentioned general type are known in the art. One of such bundling devices is disclosed for example in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,737. The bundling head of this bundling device disclosed in this reference has the disadvantage that a tight wrapping with an adhesive band around elongated objects is not possible since pressure forces act on the band. It is believed to be clear that it is therefore advisable to improve the existing bundling heads.

Hand-held device for bundling elongated objects


The present invention relates to electrophoretic displays and methods of addressing such displays. The displays and methods are especially suitable for large size electronic boards or signs.

The electrophoretic display (EPD) is a non-emissive device based on the electrophoresis phenomenon influencing the migration of charged pigment particles in a solvent, preferably a colored dielectric solvent. This type of display was first proposed in 1969. An electrophoretic display typically comprises a pair of opposed, spaced-apart plate-like electrodes, with spacers predetermining a certain distance between them. At least one of the electrodes, typically on the viewing side, is transparent. For the passive type of electrophoretic displays, row and column electrodes on the top and bottom plates, respectively, are needed to drive the displays. In contrast, an array of thin film transistors (TFTs) on the bottom substrate and a common, non-patterned transparent conductor plate on the top viewing substrate may be used for the active type electrophoretic displays.
An electrophoretic dispersion composed of a dielectric solvent and charged pigment particles dispersed therein is enclosed between the two electrode plates. When a voltage difference is imposed between the two electrode plates, the charged pigment particles migrate by attraction to the plate of polarity opposite that of the charged pigment particles. Thus, the color showing at the transparent plate, determined by selectively charging the electrode plates, may be either the color of the solvent or the color of the charged pigment particles. Reversal of plate polarity will cause the particles to migrate back to the opposite plate, thereby reversing the color. Intermediate color density (or shades of gray) due to intermediate pigment density at the transparent plate may be obtained by controlling the plate charge through a range of voltages or pulsing times.
Electrophoretic displays of different pixels or cell structures have been reported previously, for example, the partition-type EPD [M.A. Hopper and V. Novotny, IEEE Trans. Electr. Dev., Vol. ED 26, No. 8, pp. 1148-1152 (1979)], the microencapsulated electrophoretic display (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,961,804 and 5,930,026 and U.S. applications, Ser. No. 60/443,893, filed Jan. 30, 2003 and Ser. No. 10/766,757, filed on Jan. 27, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,184,197) and the total internal reflection (TIR) type of electrophoretic display using microprisms or microgrooves as disclosed in M.A. Mossman, et al, SID 01 Digest pp. 1054 (2001); SID IDRC proceedings, pp. 311(2001); and SID'02 Digest, pp. 522 (2002).
An improved electrophoretic display technology was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,818 (corresponding to WO01/67170), U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,921 (corresponding to WO02/01281) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,933,098 (corresponding to WO02/02/65215), the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The improved electrophoretic display comprises isolated cells formed from microcups and filled with charged pigment particles dispersed in a dielectric solvent or solvent mixture. To confine and isolate the electrophoretic dispersion in the cells, the filled microcups are top-sealed with a polymeric sealing layer, preferably formed from a composition comprising a material selected from the group consisting of thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, thermosets and precursors thereof. Most significantly, the microcup technology has made roll-to-roll manufacturing of electrophoretic displays, even large size electrophoretic displays, possible.
However, currently there are no commercially available low cost high resolution backplanes for driving large size electrophoretic displays. In addition, both direct drive with a dot matrix patterned electrode and active matrix drive with a TFT backplane need driving electronics that are too expensive for large size displays.
Mechanically movable electrode is considered one of the possible cost effective ways for the large size displays. Addressing an electrophoretic display with the combination of a stationary common electrode and a movable electrode to generate a local electric field was proposed by Chiang et al (see "A Stylus Writable Electrophoretic Display Device", SID 1979 Digest, page 44). The mechanism worked well in theory, but ran into difficulty in practical applications. The main obstacle is the poor electrical contact between the movable electrode and the surface of the electrophoretic display panel. When the movable electrode is in contact with the surface of the electrophoretic display panel, due to rigidity and surface roughness of both the movable electrode tip and the electrophoretic display panel, the interface is dominated by air pockets and as a result, there is very limited true contact area. The poor contact results in a significant loss of electric field intensity at the contact interface and diminishes the electric field intensity across the electrophoretic display panel. Typically, when-two stationary electrodes are used, an electrophoretic display panel can be driven at a field intensity of less than 1 V/um. However, when a movable electrode is used to replace one of the stationary electrodes, a much higher overall electric field intensity, over 20 V/um, may be needed to achieve any reasonable image change in the same electrophoretic display set-up.
One way to avoid this poor electric contact is to change the movable contact surface from conductive/dielectric to conductive/conductive. For example, in the latter scenario, a printed circuit board (PCB) can be used. The printed circuit board, with dot matrix conductive pattern on both sides that are connected through via holes, is laminated onto the electrophoretic display panel. The lamination secures the contact of one conductive surface of the printed circuit board with the dielectric surface of the electrophoretic display panel. The movable electrode, in this case, is in contact with the conductive pads on the other conductive surface of the printed circuit board. Since both of the contact surfaces are conductive, the contact resistance is negligible. Alternatively, conductive pads may be directly pre-deposited onto the electrophoretic display panel to form a secured bond between the pads and the display panel. The movable electrode is then in contact with the conductive pads to generate an electric field. However, in these methods, the resolution of the image is inevitably limited by the resolution of either the printed circuit board or the pre-deposited conductive pads.

Electrophoretic display and methods of addressing such display


Systems and methods are provide herein for enabling a computing system to search and interact with service records containing natural language text to aid in the analysis of those records by: clustering terms in natural language service records of a corpus of natural language service records related to a complex system based on term definitions in a knowledgebase; associating, based on a definition for the complex system that includes a coordinate system that describes the complex system, the clustered terms with the coordinate system for the complex system; generating an issue map for a given natural language service record of the corpus, wherein the issue map identifies the clustered terms in the given natural language service record and associated locations for the clustered terms according to the coordinate system for the complex system; and associating the issue map to the given natural language service record of the corpus.

The present disclosure relates to natural language text documents, and more specifically, to service records including natural language text. Service records include requests for service, resolutions to the requests for service, and intermediate communications related to the service. For example, an end-user may send a request for service to a technician, who may converse with the end-user to diagnose and address the root cause for the service request before providing a resolution to the service request.
In some embodiments, these communications are handled in structured forms, with various fields holding various data (e.g., a part number field holds values identifying parts by part numbers), which can be unwieldy for the end-users, can require specific applications to be used to submit communications, can cause confusion and errors when data are mislabeled, and are only partly effective, as many forms include a "comments" field that includes natural language text. In other embodiments, natural language text documents, such as email messages, are used for the service records without (or with minimal) formatting for data fields. As will be appreciated, although freeform text is often simpler for human users to deal with than structured data, the freeform nature of natural language text poses difficulties for computing systems in analyzing the data.


In-situ steam generation (ISSG) is used to reduce the nitrogen concentration in silicon and silicon oxide areas.

The present invention relates to fabrication of integrated circuits, and more particularly to use of in-situ steam generation (ISSG) to form silicon oxide on regions containing silicon and/or silicon oxide and also containing nitrogen.
Nitrogen has been introduced into MOS transistors' gate dielectrics formed of silicon dioxide because nitrogen impedes boron and phosphorus diffusing between the transistor's gate and the channel and source/drain regions. See e.g. U.S. patent application published as No. 2001/0003381 on Jun. 14, 2001, filed by Orlowski et al., incorporated herein by reference. The nitrogen presence is not always desirable, however, because nitrogen can cause degradation of the transistor's performance (due to an increased oxide charge for example). U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,608, issued Nov. 7, 2000 to He et al. describes flash memory fabrication processes in which the gate oxide for the memory cell transistors is formed before the gate oxide for the peripheral transistors. The gate oxide for the memory cell transistors is nitrided, and the nitrogen contaminates the silicon substrate in the peripheral areas. When the peripheral areas are later oxidized to form the gate oxide for the peripheral transistors, the nitrogen slows down the oxidation process and also makes the peripheral gate oxide thickness unpredictable. In addition, the nitrogen undesirably reduces the peripheral transistors' breakdown voltages. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,608 therefore proposes to mask the peripheral areas with silicon nitride during the nitridation of the gate oxide of the memory cell transistors. Another solution is to etch away the nitrogen-contaminated silicon region in the periphery before growing the gate oxide for the peripheral transistors.

Reducing nitrogen concentration with in-situ steam generation


An image formation apparatus for transporting a transfer material P and forming an image on the transfer material P is provided with an operation mode dedicated to transfer materials of a multilayer structure In the operation mode, setting of at least one operation condition of an attraction condition of the transfer material P on a transfer material support 8, a transfer condition of a toner image to the transfer material P, a peeling condition of the transfer material P from the transfer material support 8, a fixing condition of a toner image onto the transfer material P, and a static electricity elimination condition of an image support 1 or the transfer material support 8 is changed in response to the characteristics of a resistance value, etc., of the transfer material P.

This invention relates to an image formation apparatus such as a copier or a printer and more particularly to an improvement to enable an image to be formed appropriately on not only a transfer material of a single composition such as paper or an OHP sheet, but also a transfer material of a multilayer structure such as a tack film, cloth paper, or a transfer material formed with a bonding layer.
For example, available as a conventional image formation apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material is an electrophotographic color image formation apparatus having an image support on which toner images of primary colors are formed in sequence in response to image information, transfer charge means being placed facing the image support, to which a predetermined transfer voltage is applied, a transfer material support being disposed rotatably so as to pass through a transfer position between the transfer charge means and the image support, a transfer tray for storing transfer materials, attraction charge means for electrostatically attracting a transfer material discharged from the transfer tray on the transfer material support, static elimination charge means for weakening the attraction force between the transfer support and the transfer material by static elimination, a peeling claw for peeling the transfer material subjected to the static elimination from the transfer material support, and a heating roll and a pressurization roll for heating and pressurizing the peeled transfer material.
The image formation apparatus thus configured charges the transfer material support and the transfer material by the attraction charge means, thereby attracting the transfer material on the transfer material support, then forms toner images of different colors on the image support in sequence and transfers the toner images to the transfer material by a transfer electric field in sequence for forming a multicolor toner image, then peels off the transfer material from the transfer material support by the static elimination charge means and the peeling claw and heats and pressurizes the peeled transfer material by fixing means for fixing the image on the transfer material, thereby forming the image on the transfer material.
By the way, the image formation apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material in such a manner, as seen from the fact that it is recognized as an office automation machine, has been developed as an apparatus for preparing general documents in offices. That is, such an image formation apparatus generally forms images on plain paper and OHP sheets; even a high-performance model brought to the commercial stage in recent years is only improved so that it can form an image at most on a standardized card such as a postcard.
Then, in response to an improvement in the image quality of image formation apparatuses or passable accomplishment of color image formation apparatuses in recent years, the inventors et al. tried forming an image on various transfer materials not intended formerly as transfer materials by image formation apparatuses, for example, transfer materials of a multilayer structure, such as tack films, cloth paper, and transfer materials formed with a thermally melted bonding layer. However, the result was poor; an image of proper quality can be formed on the transfer materials or the transfer materials cannot be transported from a paper tray to a discharge tray. The following problems are problems not arising when images are formed on plain paper, etc.,:
As a first general problem, in some cases, a transfer electric field produced at a transfer position or a transfer current flowing at a transfer position changes with transfer materials of a multilayer structure and toner on an image support cannot be appropriately transferred to the transfer material. Particularly, in the second or later transfer, no toner is transferred in some cases; an image degradation problem in color images is marked.
As a general problem at a fixing position, a transfer material of a multilayer structure and whole toner cannot be sufficiently heated because of the thickness of the transfer material of a multilayer structure and the color development property worsens in color images, etc.,; in an extreme case, only toner on the surface of multicolor toner image is melted and no image is fixed. Particularly, when only toner on the surface of multicolor toner image is melted on a highly insulated transfer material such as a tack film, the melted toner is deposited electrostatically on the surface of a heating roll and an image can be made dirty to such a degree that it cannot be distinguished with eyes at the next fixing time (this problem will be hereinafter referred to as "nonvisual offset").
As a general problem related to transport of transfer materials, in some cases, the attraction position of a transfer material on a transfer material support shifts, a transfer material cannot appropriately be attracted on a transfer material support, or a transfer material cannot appropriately be peeled off from a transfer material support.
Although the following problems do not generally occur in transfer materials of a multilayer structure, as a hindrance to image formation, first if an image is formed on a lowly insulated transfer material of a multilayer structure, the transfer material is attracted on an image support, etc., at a transfer position or an attraction position at a considerable probability and further if a transfer material is luckily peeled off from an image support at a transfer position, the image support is charged up by peel discharge associated with the peeling and a toner band is formed on the next image.
If an image is formed on a transfer material formed on a surface with a coating under a damp condition, toner or moisture absorbed on the transfer material at a fixing position becomes water vapor at the fixing time and cannot escape, thus a missing image occurs as the water vapor is broken, which will be hereinafter referred to as toner blister, or a part of the coating is peeled off from the base material of the transfer material, which will be hereinafter referred to as paper blister.
When the electrophotographic color image formation apparatus is used to form an image on a transfer material, if the transfer material to which a toner image has been transferred is made to take a round with the transfer material held on the transfer material support, which will be hereinafter referred to as dummy cycle, and meanwhile the transport speed of the transfer material is slowed down for improving the fixing property, a part of toner is retransferred from the transfer material to the image support during the dummy cycle and image quality defects such as tone change occur.

Image formation apparatus for changing operation conditions based on characteristics of the transfer material


It is possible to measure a 3-dimensional shape by using a projector and an imaging device without requiring calibration in advance. A pattern light is applied from a projector to an object and this is imaged by an imaging device to capture an image as an input. An in-camera parameter, an in-projector parameter, a parameter of positional relationship between the camera and the projector are estimated. By using the estimation results, a 3-dimensional shape of the object is measured. When a laser pointer is attached to the projector and a laser is applied to the object for capturing an image as an input, scaling of the object shape can also be estimated. Moreover, when measuring a plurality of objects or measuring the same objects a plurality of times, the accuracy of the 3-dimensional shape respectively obtained can be increased by simultaneously processing the inputs. Moreover, when one of projector and the camera is fixed and the other is moved while measuring the same object a plurality of times, the accuracy of the 3-dimensional shape obtained as a result can be increased by performing bundle adjustment.

The present invention relates to a measuring apparatus for capturing the structured light, which is emitted to a target object by a pattern projector, by an image capturing device and estimating a 3D shape from the captured image by the principle of triangulation, and more particularly to a 3D shape measuring apparatus which does not have the need for previously measuring the positional relationship between the pattern projector and the image capturing device.
3D acquisition stereo systems can be categorized into two basic types: a passive stereo system and an active stereo system. The former can recover 3D shapes only from multiple images. Therefore, no special devices are necessary, and the systems are usually easy to use and convenient. However, in order to recover 3D shapes from images by passive stereo, eliminating errors for searching correspondences between images is generally difficult. Furthermore, candidates for correspondence points are usually limited to feature points on the images. Thus, interpolation is necessary to recover dense 3D points and the accuracy of the data except feature points may be unreliable.
Active stereo systems, on the other hand, utilize light projectors or laser projectors for scanning, and thus can measure 3D shapes with high precision, having no need to solve correspondence problems. In addition, dense 3D points can easily be captured in those systems by scanning lasers or by using structured light methods. Therefore, in many cases, active 3D measurement systems are adopted for scanning shapes of objects with complicated shapes.
One of the disadvantages of the active stereo systems is that these systems usually require special devices. For example, there are high precision and efficient active 3D scanners, which are equipped with servo actuators for controlling a laser projecting device. However, there is a problem in that the equipment usually becomes complex and expensive because of the necessity for accurate control of motors and so on. Also, a structured light projecting system using special light projectors are utilized, which are usually expensive.
Recently, low-cost video projectors for computers are commonly available, and it is possible to construct a practical scanning system easily based on active vision technique using those devices. Among those systems, a structured light projection method (coded structured light method) is widely used because of several advantages. For example, it can retrieve dense 3D points in a short period of time because of relatively short scanning time, and a commercially available video projector can be used, thus, there is no need for special devices such as servo motors for scanning process. Documents 1 to 5 describe examples of the researches for a structured light projection method.
Another disadvantage of active stereo systems is that calibration is required between the camera and the projector each time the conditions of the system are changed. Especially for the system based on a structured light projection method, with which a light projector and a image sensor are apart, a precalibration is required each time the system is moved, and this significantly compromises the convenience of the system. If the extrinsic calibration process can be eliminated from an active stereo system, the system can be specified and the biggest problem for active 3D scanners would be solved, thus, the system would be more practical.
Much research has been conducted based on applying self-calibration methods for passive stereo to active stereo systems by substituting a projector for one camera of the stereo paired cameras, e.g., the projector described in Document 6. However, these method are for 3D shape reconstruction in a projective space, and it is not a practical system, because many impractical assumptions are required for Euclidean reconstruction in those systems, such as an affine camera model or a plane in the scene which should be captured by the camera.
Document 1: J. Batlle, E. Mouaddib and J. Salvi "Recent progress in coded structured light as a technique to solve the correspondence problem: a survey", Pattern Recognition, 31, 7, pp. 963-982, 1998
Document 2: D. Caspi, N. Kiryati and J. Shamir "Range imaging with adaptive color structured light", IEEE Trans. on Patt. Anal. Machine Intell. 20, 5, pp. 470-480, 1998
Document 3: K. L. Boyer and A. C. Kak "Color-encoded structured light for rapid active ranging", IEEE Trans. on Patt. Anal. Machine Intell., 9, 1, pp. 14-28, 1987
Document 4: S. Inokuchi, K. Sato and F. Matsuda "Range imaging system for 3-D object recognition", ICPR, pp. 806-808, 1984
Document 5: O. Hall-Holt and S. Rusinkiewicz "Stripe boundary codes for real-time structured-light range scanning of moving objects", In. Conf. Computer Vision, Vol. 2, pp. 359-366, 2001
Document 6: D. Fofi, J. Salvi and E. M. Mouaddib "Uncalibrated vision based on structured light", ICRA, pp. 3548-3553, 2001

3-Dimensional shape measuring method and device thereof


A tamper detection system is disclosed. The tamper detection system may include an electronic control module (ECM) of a machine and a tamper detection module. The tamper detection module may detect, while the machine is powered off, an opening of a switch that is associated with a component of the machine. The opening of the switch may indicate tampering with the component of the machine. The tamper detection module may set, while the machine is powered off, a state of a latch based on detecting the opening of the switch. The state, while set, may indicate that the switch was opened. The tamper detection module may cause, when the machine is powered on, the ECM to provide an indication that tampering with the component of the machine has occurred based on the state.

A machine may include an array of sensors that collect and report data to one or more electronic control modules (ECMs) of the machine. For example, the sensors may monitor various components of the machine in order to collect data that the ECMs may use for determining a remaining useful life of a component, an operation of a component, a presence of a component, a safety of a component, and/or the like. However, while the machine is powered off, the sensors and the ECMs are typically unable to monitor the machine's components. Furthermore, even if the sensors and the ECMs were to receive power from a battery of the machine while the machine is powered off, disconnection or removal of the battery would prevent monitoring by the sensors and the ECMs.
One attempt to prevent an in-vehicle device from being disassembled is disclosed in Chinese Patent No. 104691443 that issued to Xiamen Yaxon Networks Co. Ltd. on Jan. 2, 2018 ("the '443 patent"). In particular, the '443 patent discloses a device that can detect whether an in-vehicle device is removed. Furthermore, the '443 patent indicates that when the in-vehicle device is disassembled, the vehicle may be locked to prevent the in-vehicle device from being removed.
While the '443 patent may address detecting whether an in-vehicle device is removed, the '443 patent does not suggest a passive tamper detection system that can detect and record a tamper event while a machine is powered off, and provide an indication of the tamper event when the machine is powered on. Furthermore, the '443 patent does not suggest a tamper detection system that can detect and record a tamper event associated with a non-powered component of a machine (e.g., a plug for a fluid of the machine, a filter of a machine, an access panel of a machine, and/or the like).
The tamper detection system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.


Embodiments of methods and means for calibrating a linearization characteristic within an RF transceiver system are provided. Such embodiments generally include extracting a portion of an output signal and frequency shifting or translating that signal by a predetermined value. The frequency shifted signal is then summed or otherwise introduced into a receiver signal pathway where it is analyzed by digital signal processing or other means to determine if linearization distortion is present. Linearization calibration of a power amplifier, a low-noise amplifier and/or other functionality within the system can then be performed in an automatic, reliable and ongoing manner.

A power amplifier tends to dissipate significant amounts of power. This is particularly true for linear power amplifiers such as those used to process orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signals including both phase and amplitude information. Linearization techniques can be used to improve the linearity and efficiency of a power amplifier. As one example, a popular linearization technique uses digital predistortion to correct the amplitude and phase distortion that occurs in the power amplifier.
A common problem with known linearization techniques is determining how to make them track (i.e., adjust, or account for) variations in fabrication, temperature, environmental influences, aging, and other factors. To overcome this problem, a calibration scheme has been employed that adjusts the linearization settings to the current state of the power amplifier. In one exemplary scheme, the output signal of the power amplifier is "looped-back" through the receiver section of the overall circuitry and analyzed using digital signal processing techniques, so that calibration of the power amplifier might be performed.
However, this approach often suffers from being too sensitive to incidental and/or unintentional coupling between the input and/or output of power amplifier signals, and the signals of the receiver input circuitry. In another case, non-linearities of a functional block or blocks other than the power amplifier can disrupt or alter the looped-back signal content. As a result of any or all of these disturbances, the digital signal processing and/or other calibration means can exert an erroneous calibration effect on the power amplifier linearization adjustment.


An antenna is provided comprising a first group of part-spherical dielectric lenses supported on a first portion of a conducting ground place arranged to reflect signals emerging from the lens, each of the lenses having a number of associated switchably selectable antenna feed elements arranged around the periphery of at least one sector of the lens for injecting signals into and/or receiving signals propagated by the lens, wherein each lens and the associated feed elements of the first group has a different orientation and may be operated to provide coverage in respect of a different region. The antenna also comprises a second group of one or more spherical or part-spherical dielectric lenses and associated switchably selectable antenna feed elements, oriented and operable to provide coverage to a region other than that covered by lenses of the first group. The first portion of the ground plane may be substantially annular and arranged to surround a well-like region of the antenna in which the second group of one or more lenses may be accommodated.

Lens-based multiple beam antennae are known to offer a viable and lower cost alternative to phased array antennae for use in a range of applications, both military and non-military. In particular, multiple beam antennae with electronically switched beams and spherical dielectric lenses are known which are able to produce a wide field of coverage while avoiding some of the engineering issues that can arise with phased array antennae.
In US 2003/0006941, a multiple beam antenna comprises a hemispherical dielectric lens with multiple associated switchably selectable antenna feed elements, the lens being mounted adjacent to a reflector and being operable to provide directional coverage.
Multiple beam antennae may use spherical or partially spherical dielectric lenses, e.g. hemispherical lenses, in particular lenses known as "Luneburg" lenses having a continuously varying or step-graded index profile. In a known arrangement, a so-called "virtual source" antenna comprises a half (hemispherical) Luneburg lenses mounted adjacent to a conducting ground plane. When signals are injected into the lens at a certain angle by one of a number of switchable radiating elements disposed around a portion of the lens, radiation emerges from the lens, is reflected off the ground plane, and re-enters the lens at a different angle, so simulating the effect of a virtual source of radiation as if a full spherical Luneburg lens were being used.
Several methods of fabricating Luneburg lenses, capable of operating at microwave frequencies, have been developed. The most common method uses a hemispherical shell construction yielding an approximate stepped or graded index profile.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,163 describes an antenna arrangement based upon hemispherical dielectric lenses arranged as a collinear array of half Luneburg lenses mounted on a common ground plane, providing a low profile, low radar cross section, high-gain antenna. Each hemispherical lens is fed by a single radiating feed element mounted on a feed arm. Beam pointing is achieved by rotating the ground plane and moving all radiating feed elements simultaneously along their feed arms.
In one particular type of large array of full or half Luneburg lenses, it has been proposed to build a radiometer with exceptionally high gain. The antenna in that case was designed to operate at low microwave frequencies, typically less than around 5 GHz. Although low radar cross section is not an issue at these frequencies, half Luneburg lenses may be preferred because the ground plane offers a way of mechanically supporting the weight of the lenses. Each lens may be fed by a single radiating element or clusters of elements that are mounted on feed arms and are mechanically steered.
In known arrangements above, in order to provide at least hemispherical coverage, a certain amount of mechanical steering is required to the antenna.

Antenna with partially spherical dielectric lenses