A fuel cell system (10) with a toggle switch (32) between an ON or OFF position is provided. In the OFF position, gas is purged from the fuel cell. The fuel cell (12) may surround the fuel source (14) with the cathode side of the fuel cell facing the fuel source. Additionally, both the fuel cell (12) and the fuel source (14) may have similar form factor to maximize the available space. Preferably the form factor is substantially an oval shape. The fuel cell system may also have a pressure regulator (26).

Fuel cells are devices that directly convert chemical energy of reactants, i.e., fuel and oxidant, into direct current (DC) electricity. For an increasing number of applications, fuel cells are more efficient than conventional power generation, such as combustion of fossil fuels, as well as portable power storage, such as lithium-ion batteries. In particular, one use of fuel cells is as a fuel supply for a charging device to replenish the electrical charge of consumer electrical devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, personal gaming devices, global positioning devices, rechargeable batteries, etc.
Known fuel cells include alkali fuel cells, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, phosphoric acid fuel cells, molten carbonate fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells and enzyme fuel cells. Fuel cells generally run on hydrogen (H2) fuel, and they can also consume non pure hydrogen fuel. Non pure hydrogen fuel cells include direct oxidation fuel cells, such as direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), which use methanol, or solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), which use hydrocarbon at high temperature. Hydrogen fuel can be stored in compressed form or within compounds such as alcohols or hydrocarbons or other hydrogen containing materials that can be reformed or converted into hydrogen fuel and byproducts. Hydrogen can also be stored in chemical hydrides, such as sodium borohydride (NaBH4), that react with water or an alcohol to produce hydrogen and byproducts. Hydrogen can also be adsorbed or absorbed in metal hydrides, such as lanthanum pentanickel (LaNi5) at a first pressure and temperature and released to fuel a fuel cell at a second pressure and temperature.
Most hydrogen fuel cells have a proton exchange membrane or polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), which allows the hydrogen's protons to pass through but forces the electrons to pass through an external circuit, which advantageously can be a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a computer, a power tool or any device that uses electron flow or electrical current. The fuel cell reaction can be represented as follows:                Half-reaction at the anode of the fuel cell:H2→2H++2e−        Half-reaction at the cathode of the fuel cell:2(2H++2e−)+O2→2H2O
Generally, the PEM is made from a polymer, such as Nafion available from DuPont, which is a perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymer having a thickness in the range of about 0.05 mm to about 0.50 mm, or other suitable membranes. The anode is typically made from a Teflonized carbon paper support with a thin layer of catalyst, such as platinum-ruthenium, deposited thereon. The cathode is typically a gas diffusion electrode in which platinum particles are bonded to one side of the membrane.
Generally, the hydrogen fuel source is located apart from the fuel cell, which typically comprises stacks of individual cells. This arrangement does not optimize the use of limited space, particularly for portable consumer electronic equipment. The patent literature includes disclosure of the fuel source being enclosed by the fuel cell. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,511, US 2009/0258266 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,442,462. However, these references do not maximize the spacing between the fuel source and the fuel cell. Hence, there remains a need for a compact fuel cell system that optimizes the use of available space.

The Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives (CEA)


The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a computer-implemented method for counting one or more unique search results within a plurality of search results includes creating hash values for information in each of the search results using a first hash function. The first hash function has a predetermined hash value range size. The method further includes identifying a predetermined number of smallest hash values within the created hash values. The method further includes estimating a first number of unique search results based on the predetermined hash value range size, the predetermined number, and a largest hash value in the smallest hash values.

Due to the large scale of data that Internet search engines process, it can be difficult to summarize all of the search results for a particular user's query. One example where search engines can have difficulty is in estimating the number of search results for a query. This can be affected by multiple factors, such as conserving time spent counting the search results by only processing a portion of the search results or filtering the search results before they are counted. For example, duplicate or nearly duplicate search results can be filtered out. Duplicate search results can skew the estimation of the number of search results.
Summarizing search results can occur, for example, when the search engines employ "faceted search." In the case of faceted search, the search engine presents to the user, alongside the search results, histograms summarizing the search results by different "facets." For example, product search engines frequently show histograms of the results by price, by brand, or by type. A histogram can include several "buckets" and the histogram presents the number of results that fall into each bucket. For example, in a price histogram, the buckets can correspond to price ranges (e.g., Up to $100, $100-$200, and $200-$300). Each price is labeled by the number of products that match the user's query and whose price falls within that price range bucket.


The present invention is directed to a method of preparing a carbonless paper by ink jet application of molten particles before or after application of capsules.

The present invention relates generally to a method for preparing carbonless paper in which particles of a hot melt composition are applied to the surface of pressure sensitive carbonless transfer sheets to prevent the microcapsules from being prematurely or inadvertently ruptured. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the particles are applied using an ink jet.
Hot melt inks have been used in ink jet printing applications where high quality color prints having sharply defined images of high resolution and superior edge definition are desired. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,860 to Lofbourow et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,446 to Lin et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,530 to Kamboyashi et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,514, 209 to Larson, Jr.; and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,029 to Ball. Brown et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,035 teaches the use of a transparent hot melt inks to make color reproductions on paper or overhead projection transparencies where highly transparent colored inks are necessary.
Hot melt materials also have been used in carbonless coating compositions as a vehicle or suspending medium for pigment particles and/or encapsulated chromogenic materials as discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,097,619; 4,139,392; 4,143,890; and 4,162,165.
Carbonless transfer sheets, to which the present invention is particularly directed, have been commercially available for many years. One type of carbonless transfer sheet is known as a CB (coated back) sheet. The backside of a CB sheet is coated with a layer of microcapsules. CB sheets are assembled with sheets known as CF sheets in which the front side of the sheet is coated with a composition containing one or more color developers. When a CF sheet and a CB sheet are assembled so that the CB coating faces the CF coating, and sufficient pressure is applied in a predetermined configuration, such as by writing, the capsules in the CB sheet rupture and release the color precursor which is then transferred to the CF sheet where it reacts with the color developer to form an image. Another sheet known as a CFB sheet is coated on one side with microcapsules and the other side with developer and can be interleaved between a CB and a CF sheet to provide a multipart form.
Another type of carbonless transfer sheet is a self-contained paper in which only one side of the paper is coated with both the color precursor, in encapsulated form, and the color developer in a single coating. Thus, when pressure is applied, the color precursor capsule is ruptured and color precursor is released where it reacts with the surrounding color developer to form an image on an adjacent imaging sheet. As can be appreciated, both of these forms of carbonless sheets are extremely sensitive to minute pressure and subject to premature random development during routing handling of the sheets.
In order to prevent premature and inadvertent rupture of the microcapsules during manufacture and handling, it is common practice to incorporate stilt particles such as starch granules into the capsule coating mixture prior to its application to the paper. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,920 to Asamo et al., in which stilt materials such as wheat starch, potato starch, cellulose starch and various synthetic resin particles are used to prevent microcapsules from being broken. The stilt particles, being larger than the capsules, protect the capsules from being prematurely ruptured by pressures associated with normal handling of the sheets and manufacturing operations.

Ink jet application of hot melt stilts to carbonless paper


The present invention includes a stabilized curcumin composition. The composition includes a curcumin composition and a phosphate composition, wherein the phosphate composition is non-buffering and is provided in an amount sufficient to stabilize and/or prevent the degradation of curcumin and/or a curcuminoid in a biological sample.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with methods of stabilizing curcumin and THC in plasma and bile against degradation occurring during analytical processes. Curcumin is the major yellow pigment of turmeric, derived from the rhizome of the herb Curcuma longa Linn, and has traditionally been used as a treatment for inflammation, skin wounds, and tumors. In addition, preclinical animal models, curcumin has shown cancer chemo preventive, antineoplastic and anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin [1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione] has the structure below:

Curcumin acts as a scavenger of hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion and singlet oxygen and other oxygen species. Curcumin plays a role in cellular signal induction pathways pertinent to growth, differentiation and malignant transformations, including inhibiting protein kinases, c-Jun/AP-1 activation, prostaglandin biosynthesis, and may play a role in the activation of the transcription factor NF-κB. However, it has been thought that the bioavailability of curcumin in animals remains low with a poor bioavailability which may be related to its inadequate absorption and fast metabolism. Indirect evidence suggests that curcumin is metabolized in the intestinal tract where curcumin undergoes metabolic O-conjugation to curcumin glucuronide and curcumin sulfate and bioreduction to THC, hexahydrocurcumin and hexahydrocurcuminol. Much of this is confirmed through examination and analysis of curcumin present in samples (e.g., tissue extracts) before and after treatment. In studies it has been shown that perorally administered curcumin has poor bioavailability and only low or non-measurable blood levels were observed. Others have administered piperine along with curcumin to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin; however, the level of enhancement was only modest and no curcumin could be detected after 3 hours even when supplemented with piperine.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,153,172, entitled "Composition to Enhance the Bioavailability of Curcumin," discloses a composition having a curcuminoid and an essential oil of turmeric. A composition having a curcuminoid and an essential oil of turmeric, wherein the essential oil is present in an amount sufficient to cause an enhancement of bioavailability of curcumin when the composition is administered to a human as compared to bioavailability of curcumin obtained upon administration of a composition prepared without adding essential oil to the curcuminoid. A method to prepare a composition having a curcuminoid and an essential oil of turmeric.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,067,159, entitled "Methods for Treating Prostate Cancer with Herbal Compositions," discloses methods for treating prostate cancer, comprising administration of a composition comprising therapeutically effective amounts of supercritical extracts of rosemary, turmeric, oregano and ginger; and therapeutically effective amounts of hydroalcoholic extracts of holy basil, ginger, turmeric, Scutellaria baicalensis, rosemary, green tea, huzhang, Chinese goldthread, and barberry.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,060,733, entitled "Methods for Treating Pancreatitis with Curcumin Compounds and Inhibitors of Reactive Oxygen Species," discloses methods of treating, preventing, modulating, attenuating, or inhibiting a disease or a disorder associated with inflammation related to NF-κB activation in a subject which comprises administering to the subject at least one curcumin compound. Also disclosed are combination therapies comprising the administration of at least one curcumin compound and at least one ROS inhibitor. Pharmaceutical compositions and kits are also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,864, entitled "Process for the Synthesis of Curcumin-Related Compounds," discloses a process for the synthesis of curcumin and curcumin-related compounds by reacting the enol form of a 2,4-diketone with a monocarbocyclic aldehyde in the presence of an organic amine catalyst. The reactants are dissolved in a highly polar, aprotic organic solvent. The curcumin-related product is recovered in crystalline form by precipitation from the reaction mass and solvent recrystallization.

Method and system for measuring the pharmacokinetics of liposomal curcumin and its metabolite tetrahydrocurcumin


A wood crusher has body frame; a crushing apparatus installed on the body frame and a crushing rotor rotated in a crushing chamber. A feed conveyor for conveying wood to be crushed is installed on one side of the body frame in the longitudinal direction thereof and includes a drive wheel, a driven wheel, and a running member looped between the drive wheel and the driven wheel. A bottom-equipped hopper having side walls on both sides of the feed conveyor in the transverse direction thereof, and a bottom wall disposed under the feed conveyor has a guide member disposed in continuation with the bottom wall of the hopper at a position near the drive wheel of the feed conveyor to prevent wood pieces from accumulating near the drive wheel. This arrangement prevents the wood pieces from being dropped onto the ground during the crushing work.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wood crusher for crushing cut limbs, timbers from thinning, branches, scrap woods, and so on. More particularly, the present invention relates to a wood crusher in which, for example, a crushing rotor is rotated to crush target woods, and also relates to a wood treating method.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, cut limbs and timbers from thinning, which are generated when cutting down trees in forests and trimming the trees, branches generated with land development, green tract maintenance, etc., and scrap woods having been used in broken-down wooden houses are usually finally discarded as industrial wastes. A wood crusher is employed in such a waste treating process to crush target woods into predetermined sizes for the purpose of, e.g., reducing the volume of the crushed woods as wastes, or breaking the crushed woods into wood chips and fermenting the chips for reuse as organic fertilizer.
In one typical example of that type of wood crusher, target woods to be crushed are loaded in a hopper having no bottom and are conveyed by a feed conveyor disposed inside the hopper and having a chain belt to feed the target woods. Then, the target woods are introduced to a crushing apparatus and subjected to a crushing process while they are gripped between the feed conveyor and a pressing roller unit cooperating with the feed conveyor at a position in front of the crushing apparatus. (See, e.g., JP,A 2002-1159)

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


Chimeric, humanized and other IL-5 mAbs, derived from high affinity neutralizing mAbs, pharmaceutical compositions containing same, methods of treatment and diagnostics are provided.

Eosinophils have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide variety of inflammatory disease states including allergic disorders associated with hypersensitivity reactions in the lung tissue (Butterfield et al., In: Immunopharmacology of Eosinophils, H. Smith and R. Cook, Eds., p. 151-192, Academic Press, London (1993)). A notable example is asthma, a disease characterized by reversible obstruction of the airways leading to non-specific bronchial hyperresponsiveness. This in turn is dependent upon the generation of a chronic inflammatory reaction at the level of the bronchial mucosa and a characteristic infiltration by macrophages, lymphocytes and eosinophils. The eosinophil appears to play a central role in initiating the mucosal damage typical of the disease (Corrigan et al., Immunol. Today, 13:501-507 (1992)). Increased numbers of activated eosinophils have been reported in the circulation, bronchial secretions and lung parenchyma of patients with chronic asthma, and the severity of the disease, as measured by a variety of lung function tests, correlates with blood eosinophil numbers (Griffen et al., J. Aller. Clin. Immunol., 67:548-557 (1991)). Increased numbers of eosinophils, often in the process of degranulation, have also been recovered in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids of patients undergoing late asthmatic reactions, and reducing eosinophil numbers, usually as a consequence of steroid therapy, is associated with improvements in clinical symptoms (Bousquet et al., N. Eng. J. Med., 323:1033-1039 (1990)).
Interleukin 5 (IL-5) is a homodimeric glycoprotein produced predominantly by activated CD4+T lymphocytes. In man, IL-5 is largely responsible for controlling the growth and differentiation of eosinophils. Elevated levels of IL-5 are detected in the bronchoalveolar lavage washings of asthmatics (Motojima et al., Allergy, 48:98 (1993)). Mice which are transgenic for IL-5 show a marked eosinophilia in peripheral blood and tissues in the absence of antigenic stimulation (Dent et al., J. Exp. Med., 172:1425 (1990)) and anti-murine IL-5 monoclonal antibodies have been shown to have an effect in reducing eosinophilia in the blood and tissues of mice (Hitoshi et al., Int. Immunol., 3:135 (1991)) as well as the eosinophilia associated with parasite infection and allergen challenge in experimental animals (Coffman et al., Science, 245:308-310 (1989), Sheret al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 83:61-65 (1990), Chand et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol., 211:121-123 (1992)).
Although corticosteroids are extremely effective in suppressing eosinophil numbers and other inflammatory components of asthma, there are concerns about their side effects in both severe asthmatics and more recently in mild to moderate asthmatics. The only other major anti-inflammatory drug therapies—cromoglycates (cromolyn sodium and nedocromil)—are considerably less effective than corticosteroids and their precise mechanism of action remains unknown.
More recent developments have focused on new inhaled steroids, longer acting bronchodilators and agents acting on novel biochemical or pharmacological targets (e.g., potassium channel activators, leukotriene antagonists, 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) inhibitors etc.). An ideal drug would be one that combines the efficacy of steroids with the safety associated with cromolyn sodium, yet has increased selectivity and more rapid onset of action. Neutralizing IL-5 antibodies may potentially be useful in relieving eosinophila-related symptoms in man.
Hence there is a need in the art for a high affinity IL-5 antagonist, such as a neutralizing monoclonal antibody to human interleukin 5, which would reduce eosinophil differentiation and proliferation (i.e., accumulation of eosinophils) and thus eosinophil inflammation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Recombinant IL-5 antagonists useful in treatment of IL-5 mediated disorders


A carrier tape and cover strip are provided for storing electronic components and for supplying those components seriatim to a machine. The carrier tape includes a strip portion having spaced longitudinal edge surfaces, and a plurality of pockets formed in the strip portion. The cover strip is applied over the pockets to contain electronic components therein, and is bonded along two outer bonding portions to the edge surfaces of the carrier tape. In one embodiment, the cover strip includes a tear strip attached to a medial portion of the cover strip overlying the pockets, which may be used to separate the medial portion from the bonding portions to expose the contents of the pockets.

In the field of electronic circuit assembly, electronic components are often carried from a supply of such components to a specific location on a circuit board for attachment thereto. The components may be of several different types, including surface mount components and through-hole components. Specifically, these components may include, but are not limited to such things as memory chips, resistors, connectors, dual in-line processors (DIPS), capacitors and gate arrays. These and other components are typically affixed to a circuit board that may later be incorporated into an electronic device.
Rather than manually affixing each individual electronic component to a circuit board, the electronics industry makes extensive use of robotic placement machines, sometimes known as "pick-and-place" machines, which grasp a component at a specific location (the supply) and place it at another specific location (the circuit board). To ensure the sustained operation of such robotic placement machines, a continuous supply of electronic components must be furnished to the machine at a predetermined location in order that the robotic placement machine may be programmed to repeat a precise sequence of movements during every cycle. It is therefore important that each such component be located in the same position (i.e. the point at which the robotic placement machine grasps the component) as each preceding and succeeding component.
One way to provide a continuous supply of electronic components to a desired location is to load a series of such components into pockets that are spaced along a carrier tape. The loaded carrier tape, which is usually provided in roll form, may then be advanced toward the pick-up location at a predetermined rate as each succeeding component is removed from the tape by the robotic placement machine. Conventional carrier tapes generally comprise a self-supporting lower portion that carries the component, and a flexible cover strip that aids in preventing foreign matter from deleteriously affecting the component. The cover strip is typically bonded to the lower portion, and is progressively peeled away from the lower portion just before the robotic placement machine removes the component from the carrier tape. Alternately, a rigid reusable cover strip may be used, such as that described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,733,778, 4,842,135, 4,844,258, 4,958,053, and 5,005,275.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional carrier tape 10 in combination with a robotic placement machine 12. A supply roll 14 provides carrier tape 10 having an aligned plurality of regularly spaced pockets 16, each of which is loaded with an electronic component. A stripper assembly 18 peels the cover strip 20 from carrier tape 10 around a stripper block 22, which assists in preventing stripper assembly 18 from pulling carrier tape 10 away from its designated path. Carrier tape 10 is advanced by a sprocket 24, which engages advancement holes along at least one outer edge surface of carrier tape 10 to advance carrier tape toward robotic placement machine 12. As each successive component reaches the desired pick-up point, the robotic placement machine grasps the component (either manually or by suction) and places it on a circuit board in the appropriate location.
Electronic components may be formed by encapsulating an integrated circuit within a plastic compound. However, if the component contains entrained moisture, cracking can occur when the component is later heated for soldering to a circuit board. It is therefore desirable to remove as much entrained moisture as possible from the component in order to minimize the possibility of cracking. Moisture removal is usually done by baking or drying the components in an oven to evaporate the entrained moisture prior to soldering the components to a circuit board. Baking and drying are synonymous as used herein. The baking conditions vary with the application, and are generally divided into low temperature baking and high temperature baking. See R. Prasad, Surface Mount Technology: Principles and Practice pp. 190-92 (1989), the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Low temperature baking typically occurs at a temperature of approximately 40.degree. C. (.+-.5.degree.) at less than 5% relative humidity for a minimum period of 192 hours (8 days). Because of the extended time period required for effective low temperature baking, high temperature baking is generally preferred. High temperature baking typically occurs at a temperature of 125.degree. C. (.+-.5.degree.) at less than 50% The duration and temperature may vary from the illustrative ranges described above depending on the construction of the components, the amount of moisture present, and other operating conditions.
Components are presently baked in temperature resistant trays or tubes to remove excess moisture and then loaded into carrier tapes for storage and delivery. It would be desirable to dry the components within the carrier tape, to eliminate the intermediate processing step of loading and unloading the components from the baking trays or tubes for baking in the oven. However, carrier tapes constructed of conventional materials are generally not suitable for high temperature baking because the carrier tape and cover strip may begin to degrade at elevated temperatures. Degradation of the carrier tape may cause warping, shrinkage, or other undesirable effects that could prevent the carrier tape from being used effectively. For example, if the floor or walls of the pocket deform due to high baking temperatures, an electronic component may shift within the pocket and prevent the placement machine from grasping the component. Alternately, the cover strip could become pliable or change shape when it is heated, and could perhaps become adhered to the components within the pockets. The components may become damaged in an attempt to remove them from the cover strip, thereby rendering the components and carrier tape useless and resulting in a substantial loss for the packager.
Even if a heat-resistant carrier tape and cover strip are provided, another difficulty has been shown to render in situ baking undesirable. The adhesive that bonds the cover strip to the carrier tape tends to form a strong bond between the cover strip and the carrier tape when it is exposed to high temperatures. That is, the adhesive bonds the cover strip to the carrier tape so effectively that facile removal of the cover strip becomes difficult or impossible. For example, the cover strip may release only after the application of high peel forces, which can dislodge components that are in uncovered pockets. Alternatively, the high peel forces may cause the cover strip to tear, which could require the production line to halt in order to reattach the cover strip to the stripper assembly. Although the temperature of the baking step could be reduced in an attempt to prevent the overbonding problem, the time necessary to evaporate extant moisture correspondingly increases as described above, which slows the production process.
In view of the disadvantages of conventional carrier tapes, it is therefore desirable to provide a carrier tape and cover strip for electronic components that can withstand the temperatures encountered during the drying process and yet allow for facile removal of the cover strip to provide access to the contents of the pockets.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


A 3D image display has a display unit which is driven so as to emit light in a line-sequential or a block-sequential manner; a storage unit which stores characteristics information relating to temporal change in transmittance of a liquid crystal shutter glasses with respect to light of respective primary colors in the display unit; and a correction unit which corrects an input image signal of the respective primary colors using the characteristics information, so as to reduce color fluctuation between lines or between blocks in the observed image caused by differences in the temporal change of the transmittance of the liquid crystal shutter glasses in respect of each of the primary colors, wherein the display unit displays a corrected image based on a corrected image signal generated by the correction unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a 3D image display apparatus for viewing images through shutter glasses and a control method for such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A 3D image display apparatus based on a frame-sequential method is known, in which a three-dimensional image (a 3D image) is composed by alternately displaying a right eye image and a left eye image having parallax, and causing different images to be viewed by the right eye and the left eye through shutter glasses (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-275575). Shutter glasses mainly use a liquid crystal type of shutter, in which liquid crystal shutters each comprising a mutually superimposed liquid crystal element plate and polarizing plate that perform a shutter opening and closing operation, are provided for the left eye and the right eye.
An ideal relationship between the transmission response characteristics of the shutter glasses and the display timing of an image in a 3D image display apparatus based on a frame-sequential method is described here with reference to FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B and FIG. 9C. FIG. 9A shows the transmission response characteristics (the temporal change in transmittance (transmissivity)) of ideal shutter glasses; the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the transmittance of the shutter glasses. The solid line 12 indicates the transmission response characteristics of the left-eye shutter and the dotted line 13 indicates the transmission response characteristics of the right-eye shutter. It is known that there exists a delay caused by the response speed of the liquid crystals, in the opening and closing of the shutter. The diagonal portions from "open" to "close" and "close" to "open" in the solid line 12 and the dotted line 13 indicate this delay. FIG. 9B shows a schematic view of a left eye image and a right eye image, in which the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the display brightness. The solid line 14 shows the light emission characteristics for the left eye, and the diagonally hatched portion is a schematic view of the brightness of the left eye image. The dotted line 15 shows the light emission characteristics for the right eye, and the diagonally hatched portion is a schematic view of the brightness of the right eye image. In order to simplify this description, FIG. 9B shows an example in which an image of uniform brightness is displayed.
FIG. 9C shows the brightness in a case where an observer observes an image having the characteristics shown in FIG. 9B, through shutter glasses having the characteristics in FIG. 9A. The vertical axis in FIG. 9C shows the observed brightness. In the light emission time (t2 to t3) of the left eye image 14, the left eye shutter assumes an open state, the right eye shutter assumes a closed state, and therefore the light 16 of the left eye image is transmitted by the left eye shutter only. Conversely, in the light emission period of the right eye image, the light 17 of the right eye image is transmitted only by the right eye shutter. Therefore, the observer observes only the left eye image with the left eye, and observes only the right eye image with the right eye.
If the shutter glasses have the ideal transmission response characteristics shown in FIG. 9A, then as shown in FIG. 9C, the display image is observed correctly by the observer. However, the actual transmission response characteristics of a liquid crystal shutter based on a TN method or an STM method which is generally used in shutter glasses do not conform to the ideal characteristics shown in FIG. 9A. Moreover, based on experimentation by the present inventors, it was found that the transmission response characteristics of a liquid crystal shutter vary with the wavelength (color) of the transmitted light, as described below.
FIG. 10A shows the results obtained when respective monochromatic images of R, G and B are displayed using an image display apparatus based on three primary light emission colors of R (red), G (green) and B (blue), and measuring change in the light transmittance of the liquid crystal shutter in respect of each color. FIG. 10A shows the transmission response characteristics in relation to R light, G light and B light, sequentially from the top part of the diagram, in which the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the transmittance. The time t1 indicates the timing at which the shutter opens, time t3 indicates the timing at which the shutter closes, and t2 to t3 indicates one field period.
It is known in relation to the transmission response characteristics 20 with respect to R light that the transmittance in the first half is low, and that transmittance of only approximately 50% of the maximum transmittance is obtained at the start time t2 of one field period. In the transmission response characteristics 21 with respect to G light, the transmittance in the first half is low, and although the transmittance is slightly higher than the transmittance of R light, transmittance of only approximately 60% of the maximum transmittance is obtained at the time t2. Furthermore, the transmission response characteristics 22 in relation to B light are the reverse of R light and G light, in that the transmittance rises quickly, but then falls in the second half and at time t3, becomes approximately 70% of the maximum transmittance. These differences in transmittance depending on the color are thought to be caused by wavelength dispersion.
FIG. 10B shows the brightness in a case where an observer observes an image 14 having the characteristics shown in FIG. 9B, through shutter glasses having the characteristics in FIG. 10A. Even if image display is carried out at a uniform brightness throughout one field period, the R image and the G image appear dark in the first half of the period and the B image appears dark in the second half of the period. Therefore, if a white image (an image in which the RGB brightness ratios are the same) is displayed on a hold-driven liquid display monitor, for example, a phenomenon occurs in which the RGB brightness ratio changes over time within one field period. More specifically, at the start of the one field period, a slightly cyan bluish white image is observed, the image gradually becomes pure white, and finally, changes to a slightly yellowish white. However, since temporal change in color within an extremely short period of time such as one field period is practically impossible to observe with the naked eye, this phenomenon has not presented a problem in conventional 3D display apparatuses using a hold-driven liquid crystal display.
However, in the case of a 3D image display apparatus using a display monitor based on a drive method which emits light in a line-sequential or block-sequential manner, variations in the transmission response characteristics of the liquid crystal shutter glasses depending on the wavelength can have a great effect on the quality of the displayed image. The problems which occur in a display using line-sequential light emission are now described with reference to FIG. 9D. In the case of 1080p HDTV, 1080 scanning lines emit light sequentially from the top to the bottom of the screen in one field period. Consequently, when the display image in FIG. 9D is observed through shutter glasses having the characteristics in FIG. 10A, the line 18 at the upper end of the screen which emits light first appears to be slightly cyan compared with the central portion of the screen, and the line 19 at the lower end of the screen which emits light last appears to be slightly yellow compared with the central portion of the screen. In this way, in the case of a display based on line-sequential light emission, variations in the transmission response characteristics depending on the wavelength are observed as spatial fluctuations in color and brightness, and therefore are liable to be recognized as decline in the display quality. A similar problem occurs in the case of a display based on a method which divides a screen into a plurality of blocks and causes the blocks to emit light sequentially (block-sequential light emission).
One example of a display using line-sequential emission is a field emission display (FED), or the like. Furthermore, examples of a display using block-sequential emission are a field emission display, a backlight scanning liquid crystal display, an organic electroluminescence display, and the like.

3D image display apparatus and control method for same


A signal generator consistent with certain embodiments of the invention has a reference clock (34) producing a periodic sequence of reference clock output pulses. A window generator (38) generates a plurality of time windows through which a selected plurality of the reference clock output pulses are selectively passed as windowed pulses so that the windowed pulses form a selected pattern of pulses. A programmable delay (46) has resolution of delay that has finer time granularity in delay than the period of the clock output pulses. The programmable delay (46) delays each of the windowed pulses by a programmed delay time to thereby provide a timing correction to the windowed pulses to produce an output pattern of pulses.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,191 "Direct Digital Synthesizer Based on Delay Line with Sorted Taps," to Bockelman, and assigned to Motorola, the assignee of the present application, relates to a method of providing a time resolution increase in a clock generation circuit by use of a delay line having a number of delay taps. In this circuit, the series connected delay line elements form a part of the path of the output signal being synthesized. As a result, all of the delay line imperfections such as accumulated mismatch, delay lock loop offset error, and summed thermal noise can impact the output signal quality. Some or all of this error can be removed using calibration techniques in certain circumstances.

Digital-to-time converter using cycle selection windowing


The first and second check valve mechanisms, which are applicable to a small-size double-layered container, are created while maintaining high productivity. The discharge container provided with these check valve mechanisms comprises an outer container, which has the flexibility to make this outer container squeezable and recoverable to its original shape and which is provided with a cylindrical outer neck on top thereof. This discharge container also comprises an inner container, which is deformable with the decrease in the content and is disposed inside the outer container under the condition that cylindrical inner neck has been directly engaged with, and tightly fitted to, the outer neck. The first check valve mechanism is engaged with, and tightly fitted to, the inside of the inner neck and is used to open or close the opening of the inner neck while preventing outside air from creeping in the inner container. The second check valve mechanism is engaged with, and tightly fitted to, either one of the outer neck or the inner neck, with the lower end of this mechanism being in tight contact circumferentially with the other one of the outer neck or the inner neck, and is used to open or close airflow paths, which extends from the upper air intakes near the outer neck in a manner that allows outside air to enter the void between the outer and inner containers but does not allow air in the void to escape outside. There is thus provided a highly sanitary discharge container having high productivity and affording no entry of outside air into the inner container.

Various small-size containers are in use to contain liquid medicines, such as eye drops, and to discharge medicines therefrom, drop by drop, by squeezing the body of the container with fingers. The body resiliently restores its original shape as soon as the pressure is released after the discharge. At that time, the container faces a problem as outside air creeps in the container along with airborne foreign matters and bacteria, which may contaminate the liquid content.
As the means of solving this problem, Japanese patent applications P1992-297264 and P1994-14972 describe a method of adding a filter inside the content discharge path. Utility model laid open No. 1988-183047 describes a method of putting restraints on the entry of outside air by giving a flat shape to the end of the container or by making the body flat and foldable so that the volume of the container will be decreased with the decrease in the content.
As another method of preventing outside air from coming in the inside of the container, utility model laid open No. 1995-22951 describes a double-layered container. A discharge cap is put to cover the opening of the container (outer container) in which to place the inner container. This cap is provided with a content discharge valve, which is able to discharge the content but does not take in outside air, and with an air suction valve, which is able to take in outside air but does not discharge air outside. Because of the action of these valves, air is introduced into the void between the inner and outer containers with the decrease in the content.
However, the method of adding a filter inside the content discharge path has problems of filter clogging or bacterial growth in the filter. The method of flattening the end of the container according to utility model laid open No. 1988-183047 is mainly an application of toothpaste tubes, and had a problem of inconvenience in use and a problem of outer appearance.
The double-layered container according to utility model laid open No. 1995-22951 has a complicated configuration. Especially, the discharge cap not only connects and fixes the outer and inner containers to each other, but also is provided with the function of an air intake valve, which is able to take in outside air and would not allow air to escape outside. In the case of small-size discharge containers such as eyedroppers, it is difficult, and not feasible in reality, for the container to have such a function while maintaining high productivity.
This invention has been made to solve the technical problems found in conventional art. The technical problem of this invention is to create feasible check valve mechanisms for use in small-size double-layered containers, while maintaining high productivity. The object of this invention is to provide a highly sanitary discharge container of a double-layered structure having high productivity and no entry of outside air into the inner container.


One embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-chip package including a logic device providing a clock signal having a frequency and a memory device. The memory device receives the clock signal and operates at the clock signal frequency. The memory device includes a temperature sensor providing a temperature signal indicative of a temperature of the memory device, wherein the logic device adjusts the clock signal frequency based on the temperature signal.

Multi-chip package (MCP) or multi-chip module (MCM) technology refers to the practice of mounting multiple, unpackaged integrated circuits (IC's) (sometimes referred to as "bare dies"), along with required support circuitry, on a single base material, such as ceramic. The multiple bare dies are "packaged" within an overall encapsulation material, the encapsulation material generally comprising some type of polymide or other polymer.
MCP's often comprise some type memory IC, such as a double-data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM) stacked over some type of logic IC, such as a microprocessor. By combining the microprocessor with the memory IC in this fashion, the MCP provides a high density module that requires less space in an electrical system, such as on the motherboard of a computer, than if the microprocessor and memory IC were individually packaged and mounted. Additionally, by consolidating multiple circuit functions in a single MCP, the electrical system in which the MCP is installed requires fewer system assemblies, thereby reducing system costs and further reducing system size. The MCP also provides the benefit of integrated functional testing.
While combining a logic IC's with a memory IC to form an MCP can reduce system space requirements and the number of system assemblies, logic IC's are generally high power devices and generate a large amount of heat relative to memory IC's. The heat generated by the logic IC can heat the entire MCP and can negatively impact the performance of the memory IC, which is often designed with a lower maximum operating temperature than the logic IC. If the maximum operating temperature of the memory IC is exceeded, propagation delay within the memory IC may increase and the memory IC may not be able to operate at certain clock frequencies, potentially resulting in data errors and system failure.

Multichip package with clock frequency adjustment


A system for managing a distributed MetaHop that is administered, managed, and monitored as a single entity. If a new gateway is added to a MetaHop, the gateway can be provisioned with membership credentials by an administrator who indicates relatively basic information for the new gateway to join the MetaHop. Once provisioned with relatively basic information, the new gateway can be shipped to a relatively remote site where it automatically seeks out an entry point to the MetaHop. After connecting to an entry point (or entry points), the new gateway is automatically provisioned with any other information used to join the MetaHop. In one embodiment, the joined gateway is automatically enabled to forward traffic. In another embodiment, a new gateway is disabled for traffic forwarding until the administrator enables it for such forwarding on the MetaHop.

A virtual private network (VPN) enables secure communication over an external/untrusted IP network such as the Internet. A VPN provides a relatively secure way to connect nodes on internal trusted networks that are remote from each other, such as clients, servers, and host computers. Encryption and other security mechanisms are typically employed to create secure point to point "tunnels" for plain text messages/packets between authorized users over an untrusted external network. Typically, "plain text" packets are encrypted and inserted into an outer packet. The inner "plain text" packet is subsequently "tunneled" (forwarded) over the untrusted external IP network from one VPN gateway to another VPN gateway where the outer packet is decrypted and the inner "plain text" packet is forwarded towards its destination on the internal network. The other packet serves as a protective shell or encapsulation for the "plain text" packet as it is tunneled from one node to another node over the external untrusted network.
Typically, a gateway in a VPN also operates as a router for IP traffic on their internal networks. For example, upon receiving a "plain text" packet from a node on a trusted internal network, the VPN gateway looks up the destination in a selector list to see whether or not the packet was directed to a destination outside the locally attached internal network and if it should be encrypted for tunneling to the destination. If true, the VPN gateway securely tunnels the "plain text" packet to a particular VPN gateway peer associated with the destination over an external untrusted network. The particular VPN gateway peer determines if the destination of this tunneled packet is on their own selector list. And if so, decrypts the encrypted packet and forwards it to a node on its locally attached internal network. Additionally, if the destination of the "plain text" packet had not been on the selector list but had been an entry in a routing table, the VPN gateway would have forwarded the unencrypted plain text packet to the destination.
As more and more gateways are added to a VPN, a mesh topology may be developed where all of the gateways were aware of every other gateway in the VPN. Also, tunnels may be established between each gateway in the VPN. However, since each tunnel can be associated with a selector in a list kept at each gateway, an administrator has to update this list at each gateway whenever a new gateway was added to the VPN. Thus, as the number of gateways in a VPN grows, the effort required to update each list of selectors on each gateway can become burdensome.
Some gateways such as routers and firewalls have hardware platforms that allow for the "hot swap" addition (or removal) of interfaces. Typically, such a gateway employs an operating system such as Nokia's IPSO operating system to automatically discover the insertion of a new interface and present the new interface to the administrator. This type of gateway can continue to operate normally during the insertion/presentation process. Also, the administrator can at times provide rules or routing configuration information for the "hot swap" interfaces that are added to the gateway.

System for geographically distributed virtual routing


A heads-up display device for a vehicle includes: a display component; a controller; and an execution component; wherein: the display component is configured to output a heads-up display image; the controller is configured to acquire a real-time vehicle speed of the vehicle, and generate an image distance control signal associated with the real-time vehicle speed of the vehicle; and the execution component is connected to the display component, and the execution component is configured to adjust a focal point of the display component according to the image distance control signal, and control an image distance of the heads-up display image displayed by the display component thus adjusting the focal point of the display component according to the change of the real-time vehicle speed.

Heads-Up or Head-Up Displays (HUD) have gradually gained wide application in gaming applications and have recently been transitioning into the real-world automotive field. A heads-up display typically refers to a transparent or miniaturized display technology which can be displayed in the user's natural frame of view and which does not require users to shift their gaze from where they are naturally looking wherein the information can be semi-transparent, or miniature yet displayed in the easy peripheral viewing area.

Heads-up display device, driving method, vehicle and electronic apparatus


A flux and solder tool includes a housing configured to store both flux and solder. A nozzle extends from the housing. A pump feeds solder from the housing through the nozzle. A wire drive feeds solder from the housing through the nozzle.

There is no better material for a plumber to do a good lasting job in drinkable water lines than copper. There are several materials available in the market to work with water lines, but copper is stronger, relatively cheap, reliable, long lasting, easy to work and safe for your health. I am a plumber by trade and I have worked with a wide variety of materials. In my humble opinion, copper is the best.
To use copper you must solder all joints between connecting pipes. Not long ago the soldering part was the most difficult and time-consuming part. In any copper job to make a good solder, the pipe and the fittings (used to join the connecting pipes) must be clean. You must flux them, heat the fitting and when it is hot enough, feed the solder around the joint.
In the past in order to do all this, you had to bring with you:
1. Sandpaper (to clean fitting and pipe ends);
2. Gas tank with its torch (used to be very heavy);
3. Striker or matches, lighter, or whatever was available to ignite the torch;
4. Flux, and
5. Solder.
Nowadays there are a wide variety of products in the market that will make a brother plumber""s work a lot easier, which I call 21st century tools. To start soldering a new job, you must clean both fittings and pipe ends. Sandpaper was not the easiest way, because it had some inconveniences like:
1. It wouldn""t work when wet (and you cannot ask us plumbers to keep our tools dry when water is primarily what we work with);
2. It was very difficult for a grown man""s finger to fit into a xc2xd inch diameter fitting with sandpaper to clean it; and
3. It was also very difficult to clean a pipe of fitting when hot.
Today there are stiff wire brushes that can be used to clean the inside and outside of pipes and fittings. These brushes avoid the problems associated with sandpaper.
Then we had the problem of the tank torch and striker;
1. The tank was too big and heavy.
2. The torch had no striker.
Today there are some patented torches supplied Benz-O-Matic that have a built-in striker that will fit into a 1 lb. propane tank. This will make it much more portable and comfortable. These torches are marked with U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,526,532; 4,666,398, and 4,954,076, which I would like to include as part of my detailed description below.
Also, there is a tool from Ridgid that works with electricity. This tool is a torch that will heat the fitting in 16 seconds. They claim it will solder with water in the line something that it couldn""t be done with conventional torches, though I have not yet tried it myself.
All these gadgets are very good ideas and they really are 21st century tools. Still, there are some details that we have overlooked. The wire brush and the torch is a great combination, but we still have to do something with the solder and the flux. The inconvenience of fluxing and feeding the solder was that it had to be done manually. The flux is an acid and it is not a pleasant sensation on your hand, body or clothes. If you ask a brother plumber which part he does not like about soldering, many of them will tell you fluxing fittings and pipes.
As far as the solder is concerned, the same thing will happen. To unroll the solder you must put down the torch and use both hands to unroll it. Some times you forget it is hot and might get burned. Some other times just when the fitting is hot, you can find neither flux nor solder, and then you realize that you left them at the previous working spot.
Thinking of all this, I came up with an idea that will solve these hazards. The concept basically involves fitting the flux and solder in a container that by means of different mechanisms, will feed the flux, solder, or both at the same time and also could be refilled. I believe this idea will benefit many people by making the task easy and safe.


A combinational weighing or counting apparatus designed to increase the probability of selection of combinations. This combinational weighing or counting apparatus includes a plurality of weighing hoppers (6.sub.i), and a plurality of driving feeders (3.sub.i) for supplying articles (M) from an upstream side towards the corresponding weighing hoppers (6.sub.i) when the driving feeders (3.sub.i) are driven. In this combinational weighing or counting apparatus, the value at which the probability of occurrence of the combinational calculated weight or count, attains a maximum value is chosen to be greater than the target combined weight T.sub.M, but falling within an allowance of an lower limit T.sub.MIN to an upper limit T.sub.MAX of the target combined weight T.sub.M.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combinational weighing or counting method and an apparatus therefor which utilizes a plurality of weighing devices for weighing or counting a plurality of articles of varying weight such as, for example, snacks, candies, fruits or vegetables or small machine parts, and then to select an appropriate combination of the articles based on results of weight measurements or counts.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The combinational weighing apparatus is a machine so designed that the articles of varying weight such as snacks, candies, fruits or vegetables can be averaged or substantially matched in weight to a target combined weight. An example of this combinational weighing apparatus is well known and is disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 63-30725 published in 1988, and will now be discussed with reference to FIG. 6.
Referring to FIG. 6, articles M to be weighed which have been transported by means of a transport conveyor 1 are dispensed through a dispensing feeder 2 into a plurality of vibratory feeders or driving feeders 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.n which subsequently loads fractions of the articles into respective weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n. A combination control means (not shown) selects some of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n to thereby select an appropriate combination of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n. In other words, based on the weights given by the respective weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n, the combination control means selects the appropriate combination of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n which would eventually provides a measured combined weight equal or generally equal to a target combined weight. The respective fractions of the articles M accommodated within the selected appropriate combination of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n are then discharged into a collecting and discharging chute 9.
According to the prior art, in order to accomplish the selection of the appropriate combination as precisely and as efficiently as possible, arrangement has hitherto been made that the amount of the articles M to be supplied into each of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n is equal or approximately equal to a target supply weight T (for example, the quotient of the target combined weight T.sub.M divided by the number m of the weighing hoppers selected for the combination) to which the articles are supplied into the respective weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n. For this purpose, parameters for controlling a supply ability of each of the driving feeders 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.n (such as representative of the amplitude of vibration to which each driving feeder is vibrated and the vibrating time over which such driving feeder is vibrated) are controlled in the following manner.
A parameter setting means (not shown) determines, for each of the driving feeders 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.n, parameters for the current weighing cycle on the basis of the parameters for the previous weighing cycle and the amounts of the articles actually supplied into the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n during the previous weighing cycle. The driving feeders 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.n are vibrated according to the parameter so determined for the current weighing cycle that the amounts of the articles M corresponding to the target supply weight T can be supplied into the respective weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n.
The target supply weight T referred to above is determined in the following manner. Assuming that the number of the weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n is 10 (i.e., n=10), arbitrarily chosen number m of the ten weighing hoppers will give the maximum number of calculated weights (combinational calculated weights) when the number m of the weighing hoppers is 5. Accordingly, the value of the target combined weight T.sub.M divided by the arbitrarily chosen number, that is, 5, of the weighing hoppers is chosen as the target supply weight T. In this way, the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M given by summing one or a number n of measured weights W.sub.1 together gives rise to a distribution shown by the phantom line in FIG. 1(b), showing the highest probability at a weight corresponding to the target combined weight T.sub.M.
On the other hand, the weight of articles packed in, for example, a bag, that is, the combination selected weight W.sub.S, is selected out from the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M in the following manner. The combinational calculated weight W.sub.M has an allowance ranging between a predetermined lower limit T.sub.MIN and a predetermined upper limit T.sub.MAX and, accordingly, the value within the allowance between the lower limit T.sub.MIN and the upper limit T.sub.MAX of the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M is selected for the combination selected weight W.sub.S. In other words, an area S2 hatched by the phantom lines in FIG. 1(b) is selected for the combination selected weight W.sub.S.
As discussed hereinabove, since the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M is so determined as to occur at the target combined weight T.sub.M with the highest probability, the probability with which the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M takes a value slightly smaller than the target combined weight T.sub.M is comparable to the probability with which the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M is slightly greater than the target combined weight T.sub.M. However, since the target combined weight T.sub.M is generally equal to the lower limit T.sub.MIN, the combinational calculated weight W.sub.M which is of a value slightly smaller than the target combined weight T.sub.M which occurs with a high probability is not selected for the combination. Accordingly, the prior art method has a problem in that, even though weight measurement is carried out, cases often occur in which no combinational selection is carried out.
Where no combinational selection occurs even though the weight measurement has been carried out, it requires, for example, that all of the articles M within the respective weighing hoppers 6.sub.1 to 6.sub.n must be discharged to the outside through the collecting and discharging chute 9 and, therefore, it brings about an additional problem in that the time required to complete each cycle of packing of the articles tends to be prolonged. It is to be noted that similar problems occur with the combinational counting apparatus.

Combinational weighing or counting method and apparatus therefor with enhanced occupance of combinational selection


A film having a recess provided in a surface of the film is provided. The recess included a first portion and a second portion connected with the first portion. The second portion is deeper than the first portion. The recess in the film is filled with a conductive paste so as to fill the first portion and the second portion of the recess with a first portion and a second portion of the conductive paste, respectively. Then, the surface of the film is attached onto a surface of a substrate. The conductive paste is transferred to the surface of the substrate by removing the film from the substrate so as to transfer the first portion and the second portion of the conductive paste to the surface of the substrate. The transferred first portion and the transferred second portion of the conductive paste are baked to provide a first portion and the second portion of a conductor pattern, respectively. An insulating layer is provided on the conductor pattern. Then, the substrate, the insulating layer, and the conductor pattern are cut along a first border extending across the second portion of the conductor pattern, thus providing an electronic device. In this method, the side electrode is formed simultaneously to the cutting of the substrate.

A surface-mount electronic device may be manufactured by the following processes. FIG. 22 illustrates the processes. A wiring pattern is provided on a substrate 1 having a sheet shape to provide chip substrates 2 arranged like a grid. The substrate 1 is divided along borders 3 into the chip substrates 2. Then, a side electrode is provided on a separated side, i.e., a side surface of the chip substrate 2, providing a surface-mount electronic device.
FIG. 23 illustrates a method of manufacturing the conventional surface-mount electronic device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.2002-252534. A Recess is formed in a polyimide film with laser beam to provide an intaglio (Step 4). The recess in the film is filled with electrically-conductive paste by a squeegee (Step 5). The conductive paste filled at Step 5 is dried (Step 6). The film having the recess filled with the conductive paste is placed over a substrate 1 to transfer the conductive paste onto the substrate 1 (Step 7). The film is then removed from the substrate 1 (Step 8). The substrate 1 having the conductive paste transferred thereon is heated (Step 9) and baked at about 850° C. (Step 10). The baking at Step 10 has the conductive paste serve as a conductor pattern. An insulating layer is provided on the conductor pattern and the substrate 1 (Step 11). The substrate 1 having the insulating layer thereon is divided along borders 3 into chip substrates 2 (Step 12). A silver material is applied on a side of the chip substrate 2, providing a side electrode.
FIG. 24 is a perspective view of the conventional surface-mount electronic device 18 manufactured by the method shown in FIG. 23. Conductor pattern 16 is provided on substrate 15 corresponding to the chip substrate 2. An insulating layer 17 is provided on conductor pattern 16 and substrate 15. Conductor pattern 16 is connected to side electrode 14 provided on side 18A of electronic device 18.

Electronic device having side electrode, method of manufacturing the same, and apparatus using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a three-dimensional reconstruction method and apparatus for a material pile, an electronic device, and a computer-readable medium. The method may include: acquiring, in response to an instruction for controlling an excavator body of an excavator to rotate to transport materials being detected, a sequence of depth images of an excavated material pile collected by a binocular camera provided on a side of the excavator; and performing three-dimensional reconstruction based on the sequence of depth images of the material pile, to generate a three-dimensional model of the material pile.

Unmanned excavator is an intelligent excavating device that perceives an object of the excavating operation through various sensors, plans operation behaviors, and executes operation instructions. During excavation, the unmanned excavator needs to acquire relevant information of the excavated object (such as a pile of soil), for example, to acquire information such as location, volume, or form of the excavated object. A laser radar maybe provided on the unmanned excavator to scan three-dimensional information of the excavated object such as a pile of soil, or a monocular camera is suspended above the excavated object, and the information of the excavated object such as a pile of soil is extracted from the acquired image.

Three-dimensional reconstruction method and apparatus for material pile, electronic device, and computer-readable medium

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An interlock assembly for use with two or more vertically arranged drawers mounted on telescopic slides in a housing such as a cabinet so as to prevent the extension of a drawer once another drawer is opened. The interlocking system interfaces with the stationary members of vertically arranged slides attached to the cabinet. A pair of opposing upper and lower actuator followers are slidably and transversely fitted near the front of the stationary members so that movement of one actuator follower toward the other, displaces the other. A rod connects the upper actuator follower of one slide with the lower actuator follower of a slide directly above it. An actuator is connected to the front ends of the telescopic members of the slides. As a telescopic member is extended, the actuator of that slide makes contact and displaces the upper actuator follower of the slide which results in the upper displacement of the lower actuator followers of the slides directly above the extended slide. The extended slide also prevents the upward displacement of the upper actuator followers of all the slides directly below it. Consequently, all actuator followers block the path of their respective telescopic members precluding their extension.

The present invention relates to an interlock assembly for use with multiple vertically arranged drawers or storage units mounted via a telescopic slide assembly in a unit such as a lateral drawer file cabinet. Specifically, the present invention relates to an interlock assembly which prevents the extension of any drawer once another drawer has been opened and which can interface with a locking system for locking all the drawers in a closed position.
Cabinets with multiple vertically arranged drawers may tilt over when more than one drawer is open at the same time, creating a hazard. The tilting of the cabinet is caused by the shifting of the cabinet center of gravity when two or more drawers are opened. Tilting of a cabinet is especially likely to occur when the open drawers contain relatively heavy materials.
To prevent such tilting, many cabinets with vertically arranged drawers incorporate interlock systems which prevent a drawer from being opened if another drawer is open. Some interlock systems in use today interface with the rear portion of the file drawers as is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,883. Their location makes their installation and repair difficult. Moreover, the position of such interlock mechanisms make it difficult to interface these systems with locking systems which are typically located at the front of the cabinet on either side of the top portion of the file housing.
Current interlock systems require that their components be installed or removed in a sequential order. For example, interlock components positioned between the lowermost slides must be installed prior to component located between the uppermost slides. An example of this design is an interlock mechanism utilizing a stack of latch bars as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,667. Furthermore, components located proximate to the lowermost slides cannot be removed without first removing the components located proximate to the uppermost slides. This makes for a complex, time consuming, and costly interlock assembly installation and removal process.
In addition, most interlock assemblies in use today are designed for use with drawers of a specific height and cannot be easily altered for use with drawers of different heights.
Most interlock assemblies in use today also require that their components be built to precise tolerances. A shift in these tolerances may result in interlock assembly malfunction.
Rotational cam interlock systems are also currently in use such as are shown in PCT Application Serial No. PCT/CA93/00359 (International Publication No. WO94/07989) rely on instantaneous actuation upon drawer openings and may not always maintain a constant displacement while the drawer is open. They do not provide for a positive and maintained actuation so as to prevent system malfunction. This could result in inadvertent unlocking of the drawers. Accordingly, there is a need for an interlock assembly which can interface with the front of the slides used to couple the drawers to a cabinet or other housing and which can interface with the cabinet locking system. Moreover, an interlock assembly is needed that is easy to install, that does not require precise tolerances, and that can be easily altered for use with drawer arrangements comprising drawers of different heights.


The invention relates to an anti-jamming device in the field of motor vehicles, which is used for preventing an object from getting caught. Said anti-jamming device comprises an actuating means (1) which can be coupled to a body part (3) of a vehicle and can be moved relative to said body part (3) by resting the same against the object, and an apparatus for detecting a relative movement between the actuating means (1) and the body part (3).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-trap device in the field of motor vehicles for preventing trapping of an object.
2. Description of Related Art
Although applicable to any desired movable components, the present invention and the problem on which it is based are explained in more detail on the basis of a body part in the field of motor vehicles, and in particular with regard to a rear flap of a vehicle.

Anti-jamming device in the field of motor vehicles


In a machine including structure for printing an indicia on a sheet at a predetermined printing speed, wherein the machine includes structure for feeding the sheet in a path of travel to the printing structure, apparatus for detecting a malfunction of the machine, the apparatus comprising, structure for controlling the machine, the controlling structure including a microprocessor, structure for sensing the sheet in the path of travel, the sensing structure including a first sensor connected to the microprocessor for providing a first sensing signal thereto in response to sensing the sheet, the sensing structure including a second sensor connected to the microprocessor for providing a second sensing signal thereto in response to sensing the sheet, and the microprocessor programmed for causing the sheet feeding structure to feed the sheet to the sensing structure at a first predetermined sheet feeding speed less than the printing speed, causing the printing structure to commence a printing cycle after a first predetermined time delay from the microprocessor receiving the first sensing signal, preventing the printing structure from commencing the printing cycle after a second predetermined time delay from the microprocessor receiving the first sensing signal if the second sensing signal is not previously received thereby, and causing the sheet feeding structure to feed the sheet at the printing speed if the second sensing signal is received by the microprocessor before the second predetermined time delay is ended.

This invention is generally concerned with a mailing machine including jam detection structure, and more particularly with a mailing machine including low speed envelope feeding and jam detection structure.
As shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/783,594 for a Mailing Machine Including a Process For Selectively Moistening Envelopes Fed thereto, filed Oct. 28, 1991 by John R. Nobile, et. al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, there is disclosed a mailing machine including a microprocessor which is programmed for controlling separate motors for driving sheet feeding and postage printing structures, and which is programmed for controlling a solenoid, in response to operator input, for moving a baffle from a flap moistening position, wherein the baffle guides respective envelopes fed to the machine into engagement with flap deflecting structure for diverting an envelope flap toward flap moistening structure, to a non-flap moistening position, wherein the baffle guides such envelopes out of engagement with the flap deflecting structure. In order to compensate for the forgetfulness of an operator who uses the machine for moistening envelope flaps and does not return the baffle to the non-flap moistening position, with the result that sealed envelopes fed to the machine are torn by the flap deflecting structure, the '585 application provides structure for automatically returning the baffle, after a lapsed time interval, to the non-flap moistening position for guiding flaps out of engagement with the flap deflecting structure. As thus constructed and arranged, an operator need not be concerned with returning the machine to the non-flap moistening mode of operation after using the machine for moistening the flaps of a batch of envelopes. However, from time to tune an operator, in the course of feeding a batch of unsealed envelopes to the machine, inadvertently feeds a sealed envelope as well. And, since the baffle is positioned for guiding envelope flaps into engagement with the flap deflecting structure, the sealed envelope is torn, or if not torn, slowed down sufficiently to prevent the envelope from being properly located beneath the printing structure when printing occurs, with the result that postage is wasted. Accordingly:
an object of the invention is to provide a mailing machine which includes structure for detecting an envelope jam condition prior to printing an indicia thereon and aborting such printing in response to jam detection;
another object is to provide a mailing machine which includes structure for detecting sealed envelopes fed to the machine, when the machine is in an envelope flap moistening mode of operation, and aborting machine operation in response thereto;
another object is to provide a mailing machine including sheet feeding structure operable for feeding envelopes at a first speed for jam detection purposes and a second speed for postage indicia printing purposes; and
another object is to provide a mailing machine including structure for feeding a sheet in a path of travel and printing indicia thereon, with structure for discontinuing sheet feeding and printing if the sheet does not timely arrive at a predetermined position in the path of the travel.

Mailing machine including low speed sheet feeding and jam detection structure


Audio loudspeaker and headphone virtualizers and methods use room impulse responses with modified individual head-related transfer functions prior to superposition including middle truncation; and perform convolutions in the frequency domain with zero-padded sections to avoid circular convolution overlap.

The present invention relates to digital audio signal processing, and more particularly to artificial room impulse responses for virtualization devices and methods.
Multi-channel audio is an important feature of DVD players and home entertainment systems. It provides a more realistic sound experience than is possible with conventional stereophonic systems by roughly approximating the speaker configuration found in movie theaters. FIG. 2b illustrates an example of 5-channel audio processing known as "virtual surround" which consists of creating the illusion of a 5-channel speaker system using a conventional pair of loudspeakers. This technique makes use of the impulse responses (time domain) or transfer functions (frequency domain) from each virtual loudspeaker to a listener's ears; these are the head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) or head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and depend upon the angles and distance between the speaker and the facing direction of the listener.
By including HRIRs/HRTFs of paths with reflections and attenuations in addition to the direct path from a (virtual) speaker to a listener's ear, the virtual listening environment can be controlled. Such a combination of HRIRs/HRTFs gives a room impulse response or transfer function. A room impulse response is largely unknown, but the direct path HRTFs can be approximated by use of a library of measured HRTFs. For example, Gardner, Transaural 3-D Audio, MIT Media Laboratory Perceptual Computing Section Technical Report No. 342, Jul. 20, 1995, provides HRTFs for every 5 degrees (azimuthal). Then an artificial room impulse response/transfer function can be generated by the superposition of HRIRs/HRTFs corresponding to multiple reflection paths of the sound wave in a virtual room environment together with factors for absorption and phase change upon virtual wall reflections. A widely accepted method for simulating room acoustics called the "image method" can be used to determine a set of angles and distances of virtual speakers corresponding to wall reflections. Each virtual speaker (described by its angle and distance) can be associated with an HRIR (or its corresponding HRTF) attenuated by an amount that depends on the distance and number of reflections along its path. Therefore, the room impulse response corresponding to a speaker and its wall reflections can be obtained by summing the HRIR corresponding to the location of the original speaker with respect to the listener and the HRIRs corresponding to locations imaged by wall reflections. As the distance and number of reflections increase, the corresponding HRIR suffers a stronger attenuation that causes the room impulse response to decay slowly towards the end. An example of a room impulse response generated using this method is shown in FIG. 2h.
The signal processing can be more explicitly described as follows. FIG. 2e shows functional blocks of the 2-speaker implementation for the 5-channel arrangement of FIG. 2b; this implementation requires cross-talk cancellation for the real speakers which appears in the lower right block in FIG. 2e. Here cross-talk denotes the signal from the right speaker that is heard at the left ear and vice-versa. The basic solution to eliminate cross-talk was proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,949 and is explained as follows. Consider a listener facing two loudspeakers as shown in FIG. 2a. Let X1(ejω) and X2(ejω) denote the (short-term) Fourier transforms of the analog signals which drive the left and right loudspeakers, respectively, and let Y1(ejω) and Y2(ejω) denote the Fourier transforms of the analog signals actually heard at the listener's left and right ears, respectively. Presuming a symmetrical speaker arrangement, the system can then be characterized by two HRTFs, H1(ejω) and H2(ejω), which respectively relate to the short and long paths from speaker to ear; that is, H1(ejω) is the transfer function from left speaker to left ear or right speaker to right ear, and H2(ejω) is the transfer function from left speaker to right ear and from right speaker to left ear. This situation can be described as a linear transformation from X1, X2 to Y1, Y2 with a 2×2 matrix having elements H1 and H2:
      [                                        Y            1                                                            Y            2                                ]    =            [                                                  H              1                                                          H              2                                                                          H              2                                                          H              1                                          ]                  [                                                  X              1                                                                          X              2                                          ]      Note that the dependence of H1 and H2 on the angle that the speakers are offset from the facing direction of the listener has been omitted.
FIG. 3 shows a cross-talk cancellation system in which the input electrical signals (short-term Fourier transformed) E1(ejω), E2(ejω) are modified to give the signals X1, X2 which drive the loudspeakers. (Note that the input signals E1 E2 are the recorded signals, typically recorded using either a pair of moderately-spaced omni-directional microphones or a pair of adjacent uni-directional microphones with an approximately 60 degree angle between the two microphone directions.) This conversion from E1, E2 into X1, X2 is also a linear transformation and can be represented by a 2×2 matrix. If the target is to reproduce signals E1, E2 at the listener's ears (so Y1=E1 and Y2=E2) and thereby cancel the effect of the cross-talk (due to H2 not being 0), then the 2×2 matrix should be the inverse of the 2×2 matrix having elements H1 and H2. That is, taking
      [                                        X            1                                                            X            2                                ]    =                              [                                                                      H                  1                                                                              H                  2                                                                                H                  2                                                                              H                  1                                                              ]                          -          1                                  [                                                            E                1                                                                                E                2                                                    ]              =                            1                                    H              1              2                        -                          H              2              2                                                        [                                                                      H                  1                                                                              -                                      H                    2                                                                                -                                      H                    2                                                                                H                  1                                                              ]                                  [                                                            E                1                                                                                E                2                                                    ]            yields Y1=E1 and Y2=E2.
Of course, the implementation of such filters would require considerable dynamic range reduction in order to avoid saturation about frequencies with response peaks. For example, with two real speakers each 30 degrees offset as in FIG. 2a, the log magnitude of
  1            H      1      2        -          H      2      2      has the form illustrated by FIG. 2g. The range is from 0 Hz to 24000 Hz sampled every 93.75 Hz (using an FFT length of 512). The gain has been scaled so that the minimum gain is 1.0 (0 dB on the log scale). Note the large peak near 8000 Hz (near bin 90). This large peak in turn limits the available dynamic range.
For example, the left surround sound virtual speaker could be at an azimuthal angle of about 225 degrees. Thus with cross-talk cancellation, the corresponding two real speaker inputs to create the virtual left surround sound speaker would be:
      [                                        X            1                                                            X            2                                ]    =                    1                              H            1            2                    -                      H            2            2                                            [                                                            H                1                                                                    -                                  H                  2                                                                                -                                  H                  2                                                                                H                1                                                    ]                        [                                                  TF                                                                                3                  left                                ·                LSS                                                                                TF                                                                                3                  right                                ·                LSS                                                        ]      where H1, H2 are for the left and right real speaker angles (e.g., 30 and 330 degrees), LSS is the (short-term Fourier transform of the) left surround sound signal, and TF3left=H1(225), TF3right=H2(225) are the HRTFs for the left surround sound speaker angle (225 degrees).
Again, FIG. 2e shows functional blocks for a virtualizer with the cross-talk canceller to implement 5-channel audio with two real speakers as in FIG. 2b; each channel signal is filtered by the corresponding pair of HRTFs for the corresponding (virtual) speaker's offset angle and distance, and the filtered signals summed and input into the cross-talk canceller and the two cross-talk-cancelled outputs then drive the two real speakers.
In the case of headphones, the cross-talk problem disappears, and the filtered channel signals can directly drive the headphones as shown in FIGS. 2c and 2f. Also, FIG. 2d illustrates an approximate symmetry between forward and rear speaker locations.
Generally in multi-channel audio processing, the filtering with HRIRs or HRTFs and/or room impulse responses takes the form of many convolutions of input audio signals with long filters. Typically, a room impulse response from each (virtual) sound source to each ear is used. Since an artificial room impulse response can be several seconds long, this poses a challenging computational problem even for fast digital signal processors. Further, artificial room impulse responses need to be corrected in terms of spectral characteristics due to coloration effects introduced by HRIR filters. And external equalizers would involve additional computational overhead and possibly disrupt phase relations that are important in 3D virtualization systems.
One approach to lowering computational complexity of the filtering convolutions first transforms the input signal and the filter impulse response into the frequency domain (as by FFT) where the convolution transforms into a pointwise multiplication and then inverse transforms the product back into the time domain (as by IFFT) to recover the convolution result. The overlap-add method uses this approach with 0 padding prior to FFT to avoid circular convolution feedback. Further, for filtering with a long impulse response, the impulse response can be sectioned into shorter filters and the filtering (convolution) by each filter section separately computed and the results added to give the overall filtering output.


This invention has the potential to generate very good return on investments from stocks that are conservative in movement. This invention will greatly benefit investors that do not have the time to constantly trade stock yet want to take advantage of normal price fluctuations. The Limit Order Coupled LinK (LOCK) invention, for example, will take a buy order, complete the transaction at the specified price, then automatically resubmits a new order to sell at a specified higher price. If specified, the process can automatically cycle through the buy-sell process a set number of time allowing the investor to take advantage of intra-day market moves and normal stock price fluctuations with no personal investor evolvement. The LOCK order, with set profit margins, allows on-line traders and brokers to place one order, which will automatically generate logical, sequenced additional orders returning a profit on each transaction. LOCK will benefit both the investor and the stock trading company.

This invention applies to buying and selling stocks, options, commodities, bonds, and most forms of equities and securities. This invention has useful application for the individual investor, the securities broker and others who trade securities.
One of the strategies for buying and selling stock is to buy stock at one price forming a 'long' position then selling the stock at another price, closing out that position. Other strategies include forming a 'short' position by borrowing stocks then closing out the position by buying back the securities at another price.
On-line securities trading allow the common investor the ability to buy and sell stocks and securities over the Internet at minimal transaction costs. Numerous electronic trading companies have been established and tens of thousands of individual traders have made tens of millions of securities transactions every week. Many individual traders continue to dedicate hours to buying and selling securities in hopes of benefiting on minor stock price moves. Many must take time out of their regular busy day to watch the market and trade stock. This extra time required detracts from a person's regular job and also leads to less-than-optimal stock trading results.
The current Internet investment approach requires investors to access their accounts to submit a buy order, then re-access their accounts to receive a list of the daily transactions. If an investor submits a limit order, the stock price must reach the limit order price before the transaction takes place; often the order is not filled the same day. If the investor submits a market order, the transaction occurs quickly, but the investor must wait to find out the cost of the transaction that was determined by the market.
In either case, the investor must submit an order, wait for the transaction to occur then develop and submit a second order to close out the position in hopes of making a profit. This current state of the art process is time consuming and may require investors to check their accounts several times a day. The result is loss of time or interference with the investors' regular job, and in a fast-moving market, investors may miss the opportunity to close out their position.
To take advantage of market volatility, investors must continually monitor the market. First they need to decide when to buy, then, once the buy transaction has occurred, they must immediately submit a second order, usually a limit order, to take a sell position and close out the position at a predetermined price.
Of course investors can still use traditional stockbrokers to execute a buy-sell or sell-buy strategy. However using a broker adds to higher transaction cost and the broker must also watch the stock and execute two sequenced orders.
My invention will replace the current methods and processes, allowing investors to lower transaction costs. With my invention, investors can place one order that will buy the security at a preset price and sell the security at a gain price, without requiring additional investor actions.

Stock trading limit order coupled link (Lock)


A speech recognition unit (114) and a processor unit (116) of a foreign language learning device (100) receive sentence speech information corresponding to a sentence pronounced by a learner (2) to separate the information into word speech information on the basis of words included in the sentence. The processor unit (116) evaluates the degree of matching (likelihood) of each word speech information with a model speech, and a resultant evaluation is indicated on a display unit (120) on the basis of each word.

In recent years, considerable attempts have been made to apply speech recognition systems to learning of foreign languages. Specifically, a learner uses a foreign language learning device to read out one or a plurality of sentences in a foreign language so that the pronounced sentence(s) is input to a personal computer (computing machine) through its voice input function. A speech recognition system incorporated in the personal computer adapted to that foreign language evaluates to what degree the sentence(s) read out by the learner can accurately be recognized and then a resultant rating is displayed as a feedback to the learner.
However, the speech recognition system used by the conventional foreign language learning device is originally devised with the objective of replacing keyboard input to the personal computer with voice input. Accordingly, sentences pronounced by the learner are recognized on the basis of one sentence and the recognized sentence and an original sentence are compared to output the result of comparison. Therefore, the learner can merely know a rating for the sentence evaluated as a whole.
In actual, it rarely occurs that the rating is the same for the entire sentence. Generally, a higher rating is achieved for a specific part of the sentence while a lower rating is given for another part.
Then, the learner cannot know, from the rating of the whole sentence, which part of the sentence is low in terms of the rating for pronunciation by the learner, particularly when the learner receives a low rating. Consequently, the learner repeatedly pronounces the entire sentence again and again until the rating rises, resulting in a problem that the learning efficiency is impaired.

Foreign language learning apparatus, foreign language learning method, and medium

Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International