An in-wall mounted electrical actuation device is covered by a surface mountable cover plate. The cover plate provides a planar surface having a linear groove in it preferably extensive over a full length of the cover plate. Within the linear groove is an aperture. An actuator strip is slidably engaged within the linear groove, The linear strip provides a strip planar surface contiguous with the plate planar surface for thereby presenting a common planar outwardly facing surface. Inwardly protruding from the actuator strip through the aperture is an actuator finger which receives a device control for linear motion with the actuator strip relative to the cover plate so as to control the electrical actuation device.

1. Cross Reference to Related Applications
This application is related to application Ser. No. 09/815,172, filed Mar. 21, 2001, entitled "Decorative Wall Plate Switch Mechanism For Operating A Toggle Switch," issued Mar. 18, 2003.
2. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wall mounted electrical devices such as switches and dimmers, and more particularly to a wall mounted cover plate with a flush movable central strip for actuation of a device.
3. Description of Related Art
Wall switches and their cover plates are available in a range of sizes, types and designs. Typically, these switches are mounted onto walls for easy access to those devices connected to an electrical source. Such mounting is achieved by running power lines to utility boxes mounted to wall structures adjacent to the wall surface. Such boxes are then available for receiving electric switches, typically of the toggle type, whereby the switches are mechanically mounted to the box and wired to the power lines. The switch and utility box with its wires are then covered by a wall mounted cover plate, generally ivory colored, with occasionally an optional dark brown or white in color, having two circular holes for locating two threaded screws and a centrally located rectangular slot to accommodate a toggle bat. A major drawback to these cover plates has been the lack of any pleasing aesthetics to the device. There have been many attempts in prior art to make the cover plate a more decorative device and retain its ease of manual manipulation, with some designs achieving success and some not. Inventions by Coles, U.S. Pat. No. 2,172,731 issued in 1939 and Coles, U.S. Pat. No. 2,571,837 issued in 1951 are good early examples of the effort directed to this quest. However, since this time many variations of the standard toggle bat cover plate have been introduced, with each design introducing a unique form of an external cover plate into the equation.
Replacement types of switches have come into the market with very good success. These may be of the ubiquitous dimmer type, actuated by either rotation or push—push of a circular knob, or sliding action of a control protruding outwardly from the cover plate, or by a "rocker" type actuator. One of the main drawbacks to all of the above switch types is that the cover plate, being under manual operation, is continually subject to dirt and grime and is particularly difficult to clean since the switch control protrudes from the cover plate so that a simple wipe with a cleanser is not effective. In close quarters such as a narrow hallway and in particular the rotary knob control of a dimmer is easily bumped and separated from its shaft and a replacement knob becomes necessary.
The prior art teaches the use of electric wall mounted controls but fails to teach a control that does not require a protruding control mechanism and that provides a planar outwardly facing surface that is easily manipulated and is easily cleaned by a simple wiping of a cleanser. The present invention fulfills these needs.
In general, this invention constitutes an improvement on the appearance, aesthetics, and manipulation of the above prior art wall mounted switching devices.
The following art defines the present state of this field and each disclosure is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Davis, U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,250, discloses a circuit board that provides a first elevation adapted for printing and bonding of conductor and resistor traces and monolithic ceramic capacitors, and provides through holes adapted for locating conductors. A second elevation is adapted for location and containment of a semiconductor quadrac. A third elevation is adapted for location and containment of a circuit board which is selectively adjustable through an R-C network coupled between the semiconductor quadrac and an input power source. An electric phase control uses mechanical movement for actuation. Provision is provided for mounting the phase control mechanism and the circuit so as to be manually accessed. A planar switch cover plate is adapted for sliding engagement, in parallel juxtaposition, with the mounting devices, the switch cover plate further adapted for engagement with the phase control mechanism for actuation through sliding engagement.
Davis, U.S. Pat. No. 6,534,734, discloses an electric switch requiring mechanical movement for actuation is mounted to a surface mountable switch mounting plate by standoffs so as to position a toggle bat in position for actuation by a planar switch cover plate adapted for sliding engagement, in parallel juxtaposition, with the switch mounting plate. The switch cover plate is adapted for engagement with the electric switch for actuation by sliding engagement.
Budd et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,686 discloses a switch operating slide member for concealing actuator arm wall mounted switches of the type generally known as toggle switches, and for imparting oscillatory or pivotal switch operating movement to the actuator arm when generally straight line movement is imparted to the slide member. The slide member is disposed in a substantially constant attitude in different positions in its sliding movement.
Damsky, U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,884 discloses a substitute toggle switch cover plate has an elongated opening within which is reciprocatively captured an actuating member having a recessed carrier portion at the inside adapted to loosely enclose the control lever of an electrical toggle switch, and a slide knob at the outside for moving the carrier member together with the toggle switch lever between "on" and "off" positions.
Oster, U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,864 discloses a functional and aesthetic switch plate providing an extension to a wall toggle switch. The switch plate not only provides a useful mechanical extension to a toggle switch, but has a sliding toggle switch lever extension member which covers its own wear marks and is of sturdy unibody construction. The sliding toggle switch lever extension member is connected to the reflecting rear surface to the base plate by sliding contact members positioned beyond the reflecting base edges to prevent chipping of the reflecting base edges.
Steinhilber et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,511 discloses a decorative wall plate and slider cap assembly is described for use with subsurface mounted, toggle-type electrical switches. The assembly provides an adapter wall plate for fastening to the switch strap. A decorative wall plate is fitted over the adapter plate to cover the fastening means and to impart a design feature to the wall plate. A rectangular opening through both plates receives the toggle switch. A slider member has two barbed spring clips which interact with rail members protruding from the face of the decorative wall plate. Upper and lower fingers, projecting rearwardly from the slider member face, act as cams to move the switch toggle in the vertical direction. A decorative slider cap fits over the slider member to give a basic geometric form to the switch toggle mechanism. Ramped projection members on the respected edges of the plates permit the member to be removably fastened for easy assembly, maintenance and change.
Boxer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,227 discloses a sliding switch assembly which comprises a switch plate on which a toggle actuator is mounted by two sets of vertically aligned pins extending from the switch plate, vertical slots in the actuator in alignment with the two sets of vertically aligned pins and a means to retain the slots on the pins for sliding movement of the actuator on the pins. The actuator can comprise a two-piece assembly pins. The actuator can comprise a two-piece assembly comprising an actuator back plate which contacts the pins on the switch plate and an actuator element which attaches to the actuator back plate.
Mongeau, U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,265 discloses a new cover assembly for electrical fixtures in buildings allow conventional outlets and (toggle) light switches to be cheaply converted into a variety of different color designs and/or colors without changing the electrical infrastructure of the fixture. The cover assemblies comprise a cover plate with an appropriate number of orifices, each orifice being covered by a slider so that the whole cover assembly shields the conventional parts of the fixtures normally visible in building interiors.
Graef et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4.835.343 A two-piece face plate for wall mounted devices having a rectangular escutcheon is disclosed. An adapter plate having the length and width of the wall box opening is connected to the yoke of a wall box mounted device at the screw openings in the yoke plate reserved for the connection of the wall plate. Snap receiving openings are contained in the adapter plate. A decorative wall plate, which is free of mounting screw openings, has projecting snaps which project into the snap openings in the adapter plate. An internal flange extending from the wall plate produces a shadow around the periphery of the wall plate relative to the wall in which the switch is mounted. A plural gang wall box is disclosed which receives respective devices and respective adaptor plates. A common wall plate is snapped into position relative to all adaptor plates,
Primeau, U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,045 discloses a structure for facilitating the gripping and operating of a control lever of an electrical switch plate mounted into an electrical box embedded into a wall. The structure comprises a movable plate having a large central projection. The projection defines a trough in which the control lever engages, and two large abutting surfaces opposite the trough and orthogonal to the wall, the plate being slidable within a plane parallel to the wall. A cover is fixedly secured to the electrical box by its square central section the plane of which is interiorly offset with respect to the main body of the cover. The central section is upwardly and downwardly open to enable sliding action of the movable plate parallel to the wall, within the plane of the cavity. Thus, the movable plate hides the control lever as well as the screws that secure the cover to the electrical box, and is retained by the guide walls of the cover. In accordance with the invention, a modular covers assembly is also provided for use with electrical plugs as well as electrical switches. These various modules are interconnected by dovetailed connectors.
Conner et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,602 discloses a switch extender for electrical switches having a front plate slidably coupled to a back plate which in turn is attached to a wall mounted switch plate. The back plate includes a knock-out portion which allows use of the invention with both toggle switches and rocker switches. A pair of cylindrical bars are positioned within an opening in the front plate. A toggle switch fits within a slot between the bars, and the corners of a rocker switch fit within the slots outside of the bars on the front plate. Sliding the front plate relative to the back plate actuates the switch.
Houssian, U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,665 discloses an arcuate switch plate assembly for a standard wall toggle switch comprising a convex base plate and a convex switch actuator wherein the convex actuator moves in an arc similar to the arc of the toggle switch.
Kelso et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,998,747 discloses a switch plate cover for an electrical toggle switch comprising three components. The first is a face plate which has an orifice and two standard screw holes for mounting the switch. The second is a shaped toggle actuator cover which fits over the toggle actuator of the switch and partially through the orifice. The third is a base plate with a rectangular orifice for passage of the toggle switch/dimmer actuator to the toggle actuator cover. The combined components of the switch plate cover are mounted onto the toggle actuator of an electrical switch by placing the orifice of the third component and the hollow vertical second component directly on top of the toggle actuator and then affixing the combined face plate assembly to the switch plate with screws. In operation, the second component is slid up or down, such that the above mentioned-rectilinear displacement causes the actuator to move from one of its positions to the other of its positions.
Bryde et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,308 discloses an electrical switch and dimmer device for controlling current applied to a load comprises a bezel assembly which includes a bezel housing, a switch actuator, and a dimmer actuator. The bezel housing supports both switch and dimmer actuators for respective movement between first and second positions, whereby the on/off state of an electrical switch adapted to apply power to an electrical load (e.g. an electric light or fan) is controllable, as is the level of power applied to the load by the switch. The bezel housing and the switch/dimmer actuators, which it supports comprise a self-contained assembly which can be releasably connected to a yoke member on which an electrical switch and dimmer circuitry are mounted. Preferably, the switch actuator comprises a paddle-type actuator which is pivotally mounted between a pair of opposing side walls of the bezel housing, and the dimmer actuator comprises a slidably mounted member which is guided by a rectilinear slot formed in one of the bezel walls adjacent an edge of the paddle actuator.
Rintz, U.S. Pat. No. 6,608,253 A light switch cover is disclosed for use with conventional "rocker" and "toggle" type switches. The cover generally includes a mounting bracket which is attached to the electrical box, along with the switch and a face plate which is attached to the mounting bracket. For "rocker" type switches, the face plate is preferably constructed from a soft material to allow the user to operate the covered "rocker" switch, but can be made of a combination of hard and soft materials. For "toggle" type switches an aperture is provided in the face plate to operate the toggle. Preferably, the outer surface of the face plate is provided with a decorated design or other indicia. The light switch can also be utilized where more than one switch is provided. For multiple "rocker" switches, a diverter bar is provided on the mounting bracket, to absorb pressure being asserted on one "rocker" switch from also transferring to an adjacent "rocker" switch and inadvertently turning "off" or "on" the adjacent "rocker" switch. An inner or sub-frame can be provided to allow for an outer frame of any shape with a standard shaped mounting bracket. This assembly includes an outer frame, a flexible decorative sheet, an inner/sub frame and a mounting bracket. The cover assembly completely covers a switch assembly, while allowing the switch assembly to be operated while covered.
Whetzel et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,710,274 discloses a switch actuator acts in combination with a conventional light switch having a toggle switch arm mounted in a base such that when the toggle switch pivots from a first position to a second position, electrical contacts in the base are moved from a contacting condition to a non-contacting condition or vice versa. The decorative switch actuator has a face plate, an actuating assembly, and a cap assembly. The actuating assembly is mounted on the face plate, and has a means for receiving the toggle switch arm such that a linear movement of the receiving means moves the toggle switch arm from the first to the second position or vice versa. The cap assembly is mounted on the faceplate, and is structurally independent of the actuator.
The prior art teaches the use of electric wall mounted controls such as: a decorative wall plate switch dimmer mechanism and a decorative wall plate mechanism for operating a toggle switch, slide actuators for toggle switches, toggle switch extenders, decorative wall plates and slider caps for toggle switches, sliding switch covers, face plates and cover plates for wall box devices, arcuate switch covers, switch plate assemblies, switch and dimmer control devices, switch actuators; but fails to teach a two-piece cover plate, one piece movable, with a planar outward facing surface that is as stable and permanently mounted as the prior movable flat cover plates.

Cover plate with flush slide actuator for electrical devices


A flexible display device includes a flexible display panel including a display unit; and a deformation member located on the flexible display panel. The deformation member is deformed due to external light that is incident on the flexible display device, and thus the flexible display device is deformed, thereby allowing the external light to be blocked.

1. Field of the Invention
An embodiment of the present invention relates to a flexible display device, and more particularly, to a flexible display device that blocks external light to reduce reflection by the external light thereby improving visibility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display devices refer to devices that display an image signal. Such display devices include all devices that display an image signal input from the exterior, for example, a television, a computer monitor, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart device that has recently been increasingly demanded, and the like.
High-definition flat plate type display modules, such as an organic light-emitting display panel, a liquid crystal display panel, a plasma display panel, or an electro-phoretic display panel are used as the display devices.
Recently, there have been developed flexible display devices which are capable of achieving a reduction in weight and thickness, having higher portability, and being able to be bent or folded. Flexible display devices can be implemented using a flexible substrate such as plastic, instead of a glass substrate.


A transmitter subsystem is disclosed whereby the output frequency spectrum of a DDS device, for use in the transmitter subsystem, is frequency multiplied to achieve greater frequency coverage at the RF bands. In one embodiment of the present invention, a DDS device is structured in such a way that the DDS output signal spectra can be multiplied directly for direct conversion to RF or IF bands. As such, the requirements placed on the DACs in the DDS device are lessened, because the DACs require much lower sampling frequencies than those used in the existing technology. Also, the requirements placed on the implemented bandpass filters used for image rejection in the applied upconverters are lessened, because of the larger frequency difference created between the desired output and the image frequency band. In a second embodiment of the present invention, a DDS device is also structured in such a way that multiplication of the baseband spectra can be accomplished at the IF. Consequently, in accordance with the present invention, less complex or costly DACs can be used for generating wideband signals at higher frequencies, but relatively high linearity signals can still be attained.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the radio transmitter field and, in particular, to a method and system for upconverting Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) signals to a radio frequency (RF) band.
2. Description of Related Art
One aim in developing new radio transmitters is to make them smaller and cheaper to produce, while providing at least the same or better performance than prior transmitters. One way to achieve this goal is to move the digital domain closer to the transmitter's output and thereby eliminate a number of analog components. Transmitters that employ DDS to generate signals have been developed to achieve this goal.
Today's DDS technology has begun to mature and is now commonly used for generating communications signals. For example, DDS-driven Phase Locked Loops (PLLs) are being used in the process of upconverting Intermediate Frequency (IF) signals to the RF transmit band. Also, DDS baseband signals are being directly converted to signals in the RF transmit band. The primary advantage of using DDS-driven upconversion processes is that frequency adjustments can be made instantaneously, which is especially advantageous for multi-carrier transmitter applications. In DDS-driven PLL applications, the frequency adjustment rates are limited by the PLLs' response times. Consequently, frequency adjustments for the DDS-driven PLL upconversion approaches being used are not as instantaneous as the DDS direct upconversion approaches being used.
DDS technology can be used for just about any type of conventional modulation or access technique, such as, for example, amplitude modulation (AM), phase angle modulation (PM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), etc. However, a drawback of the existing DDS technology is that the currently available digital-to-analog converter (DAC) clock frequencies limit DDS applications to the utilization of very small parts of the RF bands. In order to realize fairly good image filtering, the ratio of the IF band, df.sub.IF, to the mean IF, f.sub.IF, selected should be very low. Consequently, the DDS frequency generator used should have a very high clock frequency in order to be able to utilize it for the higher frequencies. As such, if a conventional DDS frequency generator is used to generate frequencies which are higher than up to 33% of the DDS clock frequency, signal generation problems are encountered due to the aliasing bands that are folded in from multiples of the DDS clock frequency, f.sub.clock. Furthermore, the use of conventional DACs for converting DDS signals produces relatively low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), Spurious Free Dynamic Ranges (SFDRs), and Effective Number of Bits (ENOBS) at the higher sampling rates, because the conventional DACs lose sufficient linearity at high sampling rates. However, as described below, the present invention successfully solves these problems.

Signal generation in a communications transmitter


The present invention is a pyrazine derivative which has glutamate receptor antagonizing activity, represented by formula: ##STR1## wherein Z represents C or N, provided that two Zs are not N atoms at the same time; R.sup.1 represents: ##STR2## wherein ##STR3## represents ##STR4## R.sup.6 represents H or alkyl, and R.sup.7 and R.sup.8 represent each H, alkyl, nitro or phenyl, or alternatively R.sup.7 and R.sup.8 are combined together to represent butadienylene or 1,4-butylene; R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 represent each H, F, cyano, acyl, nitro, alkyl, morpholino or one of said species of R.sup.1 ; R.sup.4 and R.sup.5 represent each H, hydroxyl, alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocycle, phenyl, or Y-substituted alkyl; Y represents hydroxyl, acyloxy, F-substituted methyl, cycloalkyl, tetrahydrofuryl, carboxyl, alkoxycarbonyl or ##STR5## R.sup.9 and R.sup.10 represent each H or alkyl, or alternatively R.sup.9 and R.sup.10 are combined together to represent a 5- or 6-membered cyclic group which may contain oxygen atom(s).

Certain amino acids such as L-glutamic acid and L-aspartic acid are known to be central neurotransmitters. It is said that accumulation of these excitatory amino acids results in a persistent overstimulation of the nerves which, in turn, causes neuronal degeneration and mental and motor dysfunctions as are observed in Huntington's chorea, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and senile dementia, or after cerebral ischemia, oxygen deficiency or hypoglycemia.
Therefore, it is by now considered that drugs which may modulate abnormal actions of these excitatory amino acids are useful for the treatment of neuronal degeneration and mental disease.
Excitatory amino acids exert their effects via the specific receptors present in the post- or presynaptic regions. These receptors have been classified into the following five groups based on electrophysiological and neurochemical evidence.
1) NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor
2) AMPA [2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole)-propionic acid] receptor
3) Kainate receptor
4) Metabotropic glutamate receptor
5) AP-4 (2-amino-4-phosphobutanoic acid) receptor
L-Glutamic acid and L-aspartic acid activate the above-mentioned receptors to transmit stimuli. Permitting an excessive amount of NMDA, AMPA or kainate to act on nerves causes neuropathy. It is reported that 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerianic acid and 2-amino-7-phosphonoheptanoic acid, both of which are selective antagonists of NMDA receptor, were effective in NMDA-induced neuropathy and in animal models of epilepsy or brain ischemia (JPET, 250, 100 (1989); JPET, 240, 737 (1987); Science, 226, 850 (1984)).
While NMDA receptor is reported to be allosterically functioning by glycine receptor (EJP, 126, 303 (1986)), HA-966 which is a glycine receptor antagonist is reported to be effective in an animal model of brain ischemia (1989 Congress of American Society of Neuroscientists).
NBQX (6-nitro-7-sulfamoylbenzo[f]quinoxaline), a selective antagonist of AMPA receptor, is also reported to be effective in an animal model of brain ischemia (Science, 247, 571 (1990)). On the other hand, there is no report with respect to selective antagonists of kainate, metabotropic glutamate and AP-4 receptors.


Methods of facilitating fabrication of defect-free semiconductor structures are provided which include, for instance: providing a dielectric layer, the dielectric layer comprising at least one consumable material; selectively removing a portion of the dielectric layer, wherein the selectively removing consumes, in part, a remaining portion of the at least one consumable material, leaving, within the remaining portion of the dielectric layer, a depleted region; and subjecting the depleted region of the dielectric layer to a treatment process, to restore the depleted region with at least one replacement consumable material, thereby facilitating fabrication of a defect-free semiconductor structure.

A semiconductor device fabrication, such as transistor fabrication, typically involves deposition of dielectric layers within high aspect ratio openings, associated with various circuit features, for instance, intermetal dielectric (IMD) features, pre-metal dielectric (PMD) features or isolation features, including shallow trench isolation regions. As the size of technology nodes continues to decrease, significant challenges continues to arise due, in part, to limitations of available fabrication techniques, including issues related to planarity and defects within the dielectric layers.

Methods of fabricating defect-free semiconductor structures


A sealed shaft bearing assembly employs a lubricant seal having a rigid seal case supporting a resilient dust seal in rubbing contact with a cylindrical surface on the shaft, and a labyrinth type primary seal between the dust seal and the interior of the seal case, with the labyrinth being defined by a stator mounted on the seal case and a rotor mounted for rotation with the shaft, and with the stator including a cylindrical tubular portion defining an elongated thin annular gap with the shaft cylindrical surface and the rotor defining an elongated thin annular gap with the outer surface of the rotor. The radial thickness and axial lengths of the thin annular gaps are such as to preclude the passage of grease type lubricant therethrough upon operation of the bearing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lubricant seals for rotary shafts, more particularly to an improved seal suitable for use in applications such as railway car journal bearings for retaining the lubrication in the bearing and for excluding dust and other contaminants from the bearing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Roller bearing assemblies incorporating two rows of tapered roller bearings supported between opposed concentric races in a self-contained, pre-lubricated, sealed package for mounting onto journals at the ends of axles or shafts are well known and widely used, for example, as rail car bearings, and the present invention will be described with reference to such rail car bearings, and to seal assemblies for use in connection with such bearings, it being understood that the improved seals according to the present invention may be employed in sealed lubricated bearing assemblies of various configurations and for various uses.
Lubricant seals employed between a shaft and a cylindrical housing within which the shaft is supported for rotation by antifriction bearings frequently consist of a rigid support ring adapted to fit in fluid-tight relation within a cylindrical bore in the housing and to support a resilient elastomeric or rubber-like sealing element in fluid-tight contact with the outer cylindrical surface of the relatively rotating shaft, or with a cylindrical surface on a wear ring, bearing cone or other member supported on the shaft. When seals of this type are operated in an environment such as on a railway car axle where foreign matter such as dust, mud or water may tend to enter the bearing cavity, it is common practice to employ a secondary seal, generally referred to as a dust seal, to prevent ingress of such material (dust) into the bearing. Seal assemblies of this type are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,186,548 and 5,551,886.
As pointed out in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,548, continuous contact between an elastomeric seal and a rotating rail car axle can produce friction which in heavy contact seals has been known to contribute to overheating of the seal and breakdown of the lubricant. Further, seal friction may result in rolling resistance, particularly when starting a car from the rest position and when operating at low speeds. Recent improvements in railroad sealing and lubricating technology have lessened the rolling resistance and temperature effects of seals, but the industry continues to devote substantial research, effort and resources to produce a more effective and efficient seal.
It is also known to provide labyrinth-type seals for bearings supporting a shaft in a housing and examples of such seals may be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,014,859; 3,198,318; 3,679,277 and 5,259,628. Such seals frequently are employed in connection with stationary equipment such as pillow blocks for motors or for conveyor rollers where access is readily available for frequent lubrication so that loss of some lubricant is not critical, or where the bearing is not subjected to extremely heavy dynamic loads which may subject the shaft to bending and consequent misalignment of the intermeshing labyrinth elements. Note, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,014,859 wherein helical grooves are formed on the labyrinth elements to intentionally product a pumping action deliberately pumping some lubricant from the sealed bearing to expel dust particles which may tend to migrate into the sealed area. Labyrinth seals are also frequently employed as secondary, or dust seals in combination with a resilient primary seal, but such seals generally have not been considered for application to rail car journal bearings.
The term "labyrinth" has also been employed to describe rail car bearing seals in which one or more resilient lips are spaced closely to a relatively rotating smooth surface such as a cylindrical shaft or wear ring surface on a radially extending rigid support ring element. Such seals have not provided a tortuous path for the lubricant as is generally required for a true labyrinth seal, however, and are not believed to be properly termed labyrinth seals. Examples of such seals are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,819,949; 4,770,548; 4,770,424; and 3,628,837.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved bearing shaft seal assembly.
Another object is to provide a shaft seal suitable for use in connection with a railway car journal bearing or other dynamically loaded heavy duty bearing, and which employs a primary seal in the form of a labyrinth comprising a plurality of closely spaced concentric cylindrical surfaces and a secondary or dust seal spaced outboard relative to the bearing from the primary labyrinth seal.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved rail car journal bearing seal including a labyrinth-type primary seal in combination with a resilient dust seal in contact with a cylindrical surface on the rotating axle.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved wheel bearing seal assembly for heavy duty vehicles having improved sealing qualities and longer service life.
Another object is to provide such an improved rail car journal bearing seal assembly which produces lower rolling resistance and which operates at a cooler temperature than conventional seal assemblies.

Labyrinth-type seal for railway car journal bearing


It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink set which has a superior effect in suppressing gloss unevenness of printed images, and which thus makes it possible to obtain images that have a uniform gloss. The present invention achieves this object by providing an ink set comprising one or more color ink compositions containing a pigment as a coloring agent and a dispersing resin that is used to disperse this pigment, and one or more clear ink compositions which contain an aqueous polymer but which contain no coloring agent, wherein the dispersing resin and the aqueous polymer belong to a common category so that the 60° specular gloss (according to JIS Z 8741) of the printed images that are formed by the abovementioned color ink compositions and/or the abovementioned clear ink composition is substantially uniform.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink set, ink jet recording method, recording material set, recording medium and recorded matter which have a superior effect in suppressing gloss unevenness of printed images, and which thus make it possible to obtain images that have a uniform gloss.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various types of ink jet recording methods using ink compositions that contain pigments as coloring agents have been proposed as a means of obtaining high-quality images, and especially superior light resistance and a high degree of image fastness. Furthermore, techniques have also been developed which are devised so that the generation of large variations in the gloss of the printed images obtained according to the ink duty is suppressed by using an ink set employing a clear ink composition which contains no coloring agents such as pigments or the like, and which contain a polymer or the like, together with an ink composition containing such pigments.
However, even in conventional ink sets comprising of a color ink composition and a clear ink composition, gloss unevenness is sometimes generated in the printed images that are formed, and there have been cases in which such ink sets are inadequate for obtaining a uniform gloss.

Ink set, ink jet recording method, recording material set, recording medium and recording matter


Disclosed is a new class of conjugated virus-like particles (VLPs). These conjugated VLPs bind a wide variety of tumors and comprise epitopes recognized by a prior T cell immune response already existing in a host. These epitopes are derived from pathogens or previous vaccinations (such as early childhood vaccines). This provokes the body's pre-existing cytotoxic immunity obtained through previous infection or previous childhood vaccination to be redirected to the tumor cells for the elimination of cancer, and form long-term anti-tumor immunity. The described conjugated VLPs are useful for tailoring a broad range of tumors towards a response from existing immunity circumventing the need to identify tumor antigens or generate tumor-specific immune responses. Importantly, the compositions and methods described herein broadens opportunities for treatment for all cancer types in subjects who previously had un-targetable cancers due to various technological and biological limitations of currently available immuno-therapeutic drugs.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the overall rate of cancer deaths continue to decrease: the overall cancer incidence rates have declined in men and have stabilized in women. The five-year survival has also improved for most but not all common cancers. And yet it is estimated that in 2017 there will be an additional 1,688,780 new cancer cases diagnosed and 600,920 cancer deaths in the US alone. Typical cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. However, surgery is highly invasive and often fails-especially after metastasis. Chemotherapy and radiation can be effective, but result in harsh side-effects that drastically reduce quality of life. Despite these treatments, many cancers remain refractory to treatment and the treatments can be ineffective in combating metastatic cancers even when successful in reducing or eliminating the primary tumor. Targeted delivery has become one of the most promising, but also most challenging, opportunities for improving the treatment of these diseases. The first attempts at developing delivery vehicles were antibody-drug conjugates. In almost all cases, the goal is to deliver cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) to the site of cancer cells to achieve selective killing of cancer cells. More recently, attempts have been made to use such immunotherapy to stimulate the immune system and specifically target proteins preferentially present on the surface of the cancer cell, resulting in targeted elimination of the cancer cells. Such therapies are attractive in that they are target specific, and potentially less toxic without nonspecific autoimmunity. They are also considered less invasive or traumatic compared to surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. However, cancer vaccines based on cancer-associated antigens can have limited success due to poor clinical immunogenicity, immune tolerance, and off target effects, for example. Moreover, such methods typically require identifying a cancer-associated antigen specific to a given patient's cancer to achieve effective targeting of the cancer.
Hence, this approach has failed on multiple occasions because most cancer-associated antigens are self-antigens that are tolerated by the immune system, resulting in poor immune responses. Importantly, successes demonstrated by these specific cancer antigen-specific immunotherapeutics in gold standard animal models have not been always translatable to humans. Last but not least, not all the patients suffering from cancer will express the same antigens on tumors, thus there is a limitation with respect to broad applicability. Recently, this field has now switched to focusing on individual tumor mutations within a patient which might result in a cancer-specific neoepitopes. Using these neoepitopes as antigens, termed "neo-antigens" has revived the cancer vaccine space. However, this is a highly personalized therapy that involves a lengthy development time that is both costly and difficult for widespread implementation. Similar limitations are also seen in conjugated antigen receptor T cell-based (CAR-T cell) strategies although curative
One class of therapeutics, which has been gaining favor is the immune checkpoint blockade therapies. This mode of treatment is based on the premise that tumor growth and progression is driven by the its ability to prevent specific targeting and destruction by the immune system. In light of this, checkpoint inhibition therapies act to reverse such "immune-suppression", thereby reinitiating proper and effective antitumor function of the immune system. Indeed, these therapies have shown significant benefit for a variety of cancers (melanoma, colorectal cancer) that previously had very poor prognosis. However, it is well established that the tumor microenvironment dampens the ability of endogenous anti-tumor immune cells to eradicate cancers. As such, drugs that target the checkpoint pathway members programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) or programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) work to block immunosuppressive pathways, and have been shown to assist the body's immune system in fighting cancer. Unfortunately, checkpoint inhibitor drugs do not work in the majority of patients, with a dismal 70% non-responder rate. This is primarily due to the lack of a pre-existing anti-tumor CD8+ T cell immune response that can infiltrate the tumor. Hence, checkpoint inhibitors are generally considered ineffective in treating cancers that frequently lack a significant anti-tumor immune infiltrate (also sometimes known as "cold tumors" or "non-immunogenic"), especially during early phases of development when the tumor develops at the site of origin.
As a result of this, current treatments retain the same recognized limitations of toxicity, limited responder population (not applicable to a broad variety of cancers) and most importantly, they also possess a cost-prohibitive development pathway resulting in higher medical costs for the patient. It is therefore important to consider an alternative immunotherapeutic strategy that can circumvent the issues of immune tolerance as well as lack of immune infiltrates and thus there remains a need for compositions and methods that produce strong, durable, cancer-specific T cell responses to inhibit tumor growth, progression, and metastasis without undue characterization of individual patient cancer types.

Conjugated virus-like particles and uses thereof as anti-tumor immune redirectors


An external surface of a spindle is formed with tapering grooves which become narrower in a direction towards the forward end of the spindle. A slider sleeve is provided with splines which also taper in a forward direction. In this way, the slider sleeve is prevented from rotating relative to the spindle, but can slide axially. A rearward end of the slider sleeve includes a recess containing an elastomeric O-ring. When the drive torque exceeds a predetermined threshold, inclined surfaces of the mutually engaging teeth on the spindle drive gear and slider sleeve slide over each other, as a result of which the drive gear slides forwardly along the slider sleeve against the action of a spring. The spindle drive gear can then rotate relative to the slider sleeve and the cooperating sets of teeth ratchet over each other, preventing spindle drive gear being from rotating the spindle.

Rotary hammers are known which have a housing and a hollow cylindrical spindle mounted in the housing. The spindle allows insertion of the shank of a tool or bit, for example a drill bit or a chisel bit, into the front end thereof so that it is retained in the front end of the spindle with a degree of axial movement. The spindle may be a single cylindrical part or may be made of two or more cylindrical parts, which together form the hammer spindle. For example, a front part of the spindle may be formed as a separate tool holder body for retaining the tool or bit. Such hammers are generally provided with an impact mechanism which converts the rotational drive from an electric motor to a reciprocating drive causing a piston, which may be a hollow piston, to reciprocate within the spindle. The piston reciprocatingly drives a ram by means of a closed air cushion located between the piston and the ram. The impacts from the ram are then transmitted to the tool or bit of the hammer, optionally via a beatpiece.
Some hammers can be employed in combination impact and drilling mode or in a drilling only mode in which the spindle, or a forwardmost part of the spindle, and hence the bit inserted therein will be caused to rotate. In the combination impact and drilling mode the bit will be caused to rotate at the same time as the bit receives repeated impact. Such hammers generally also have a hammer only mode in which the spindle is locked against rotation.
Rotary hammers are known to have overload clutches in the drive train which transmits rotary drive from the motor to the spindle, or forwardmost part of the spindle. Such overload clutches are designed to transmit rotary drive when the transmitted drive torque is below a predetermined threshold and to slip when the transmitted drive torque exceeds the threshold. During rotary hammering or drilling, when working on materials of non-uniform hardness, for example aggregate or steel reinforced concrete, the bit can become stuck, which causes the torque transmitted via the rotary drive train to increase and causes the hammer housing to tend to rotate against the grip of the user. An overload clutch can slip and interrupt rotary drive to the bit at a torque threshold below that where a user may experience difficulty in controlling the hammer. Accordingly, the clutch must slip reliably at a predetermined torque throughout the lifetime of the hammer, even after sustained use of the hammer.
An overload clutch of this type is disclosed in EP 0552328, in which a pair of cooperating ratchet plates are urged into engagement with each other by a compression spring. When a predetermined threshold torque is exceeded, for example as a result of the drill bit becoming stuck in a workpiece, the ratchet plates can slip relative to each other against the action of the spring. However, known overload clutches of this type suffer from the drawback that at very high torque levels, the ratchet plates can be moved rapidly out of engagement with each other to the extremities of their permitted relative movement and then move rapidly back into engagement with each other, causing problems in controlling the tool.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention seek to overcome the above disadvantages of the prior art.

Clutch for rotary power tool and rotary power tool incorporating such clutch


An improved bowling lane, which is convertible from a form suitable for conventional bowling to a form suitable for bumper (carom) bowling, includes a series of lane cross-supports, a bowling bed having an approach and foul line at one end and a pin deck at the other end thereof; an elongated concave gutter abutting each side of the bed; an elongated channel within each said gutter disposed parallel to and a distance of less than one-half the diameter of a bowling ball from the edge of said bed; rigid elongated members slidably disposed within each channel; and, means to raise and lower said rigid elongated members.. In the preferred embodiment the improved bowling lane has elongated channels disposed within each gutter, abutting the lateral edges of the bowling bed. Slidably disposed in said channels are rigid elongated members having an upper surface of a matching color and contour of the gutter. In said preferred embodiment, the lower surface of said elements are notched at intersecting cross-supports, on which said elements rest. At least one side of each notch is sloped so that longitudinal movement of said elements, within the elongated channel, causes the elements to slide upward on said cross-supports, into a position suitable for bumper bowling.

The invention relates to structure of bowling lanes, on which the very popular game of bowling is played. Such lanes typically have cross-member supports, an upper surface which includes an approach and foul line at one end, a bowling bed, a pin zone, and gutters abutting each lateral edge of the bed. The object of the game is to roll a ball from the approach, along the elongated bed, into the pin zone, and knock down as many pins as possible.
In conventional bowling balls laterally misdirected fall into the gutter and cannot knock down any pins. While such "gutter balls" are merely a test of skill to seasoned bowlers, they can be very discouraging to very young persons, elderly persons, novices and disabled persons. Such persons may bowl entire games without knocking down a single pin, become highly discouraged and give up bowling. As these persons may have substantial amounts of leisure time, and may benefit from the exercise of bowling, discouragement of such customers is undesirable. Accordingly, the game of bumper bowling (sometimes called carom bowling, has evolved).
A game of bumper bowling is played similar to conventional bowling (the object remains to knock down pins) except that balls are prevented from entering the gutter, typically by large inflatable cylinders disposed in the gutters or various other complex mechanical apparatus. Such apparatus not only deflects misdirected balls back to the pin zone, but may be intentionally used to redirect the angle at which the ball approaches the pin zone to accomplish "trick shots". Accordingly, bumper bowling is preferred by some persons who have no incapacity to engage in conventional bowling.
The capital cost of bowling lanes being substantial it is highly impractical to build differing sets of lanes, one set exclusively for conventional bowling and another set exclusively for bumper bowling. Rather it is highly desirable to build one set of lanes which is easily convertible at will for either conventional, or for bumper bowling.
Many previous apparatus and/or method to provide such convertible bowling lanes are indurable, complex, expensive, labor intensive, create storage problems and/or esthetically displeasing.

Convertible, conventional or bumper, bowling lane


An adjustable vehicle seat assembly has an adjustable seat cushion and a foldable seat back. The adjustable vehicle seat assembly is pivotally mounted on the vehicle for rotation from an extended passenger carrying position to a storage position behind the passenger carrying position. The seat cushion is slidably mounted on a rail assembly having a pivotal connection to the vehicle at a position behind the passenger carrying position and a latch located at the forward portion of the seat cushion whereby the seat adjusting assembly is rotated with the folded seat cushion and seat back into the storage position after release of the latch.

A. Field of Invention
This invention relates to seating and storage of adjustable seats in motor vehicles. More particularly, this invention is directed to SUV and minivan type vehicles having two or three rows of seating where it is desirable to adjust the seats in the forward and rearward directions and to fold the seats and store them in a recess or compartment behind the seating rows.
B. Description of the Related Art
SUV vehicles and minivan vehicles are well known to provide three rows of seats where the second and third rows (from the front of the vehicle) may be removed entirely or folded and stored in compartments behind the passenger carrying positions so as to provide more cargo area. Such known seats, however, are directly hinged to the vehicle floor and therefore are not adjustable in the forward or rearward directions. This has resulted in limited leg room for the passengers. Also, when one row of known seats are folded and stored, the row of seats that remained can not be moved forward to expand cargo room or rearward to expand leg room because no such adjustment of the seats is provided.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,581, there is provided a collapsible seat pivotally mounted on the vehicle at the floor level whereby the seat back can be folded against the seat cushion and the folded seat assembly can then be angularly moved into a recess behind the seat position. Because the seat cushion is hinged to the floor it is not possible to provide for forward or backward adjustment of the seat.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,398, there is provided a seating arrangement in which a rear seat cushion is foldable into a recess behind the front seat and the rear seat back is foldable over the rear seat cushion in the recess to provide cargo space behind the front seat. However, there is no teaching or showing of folding the seat back and seat cushion into the recess as a unit. There is also no teaching or showing of forward or backward adjustment of the seat.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,721, individual seats for passengers are provided. Each seat is mounted on a linkage arrangement for lowering and raising the seat so that it can be reduced in height and can be placed into a stowed position. There is no provision for adjusting the seat forward or rearward in the passenger carrying position.


Printing light beams from a printing head that is driven based on image data are used for recording a latent image in a predetermined exposure area on an instant film. The instant film is exposed through an exposure opening formed through a case of a film pack. The printing head projects the printing light beams linearly along a main scan direction while moving in a sub scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction. An illumination range of the printing light beams is determined to be wider than the exposure area in the main and sub scan directions, in consideration of clearances between the case and the instant film. So the entire exposure area is exposed even where the instant film deviates inside the case. A light-shielding housing for covering up a moving range of the printing head in a light-tight fashion is formed integrally with a pack loading chamber for loading the film pack.

Portable electronic still cameras are widely used, which convert an optical image of a subject to an electric image signal through a CCD image sensor or the like, convert the image signal to digital image data, and write the image data frame by frame as still images in a memory. Also an instant printer that uses instant film for printing hard copies of still images based on their image data, and an electronic still camera incorporated with such an instant printer have been known.
In the above mentioned instant printers, so-called mono-sheet type instant films are widely used. The mono-sheet type instant film is mainly constituted of a protective sheet for an image receiving photosensitive layer, the image receiving photosensitive layer, an image transferred layer and a protective sheet for the image transferred layer, which are laminated in this order from a photosensitive surface. A pod containing processing fluid is provided along a leading end of the instant film. While the instant film after exposed is being ejected through a pair of spread rollers, the pod is ruptured and the processing fluid is spread between the image receiving photosensitive layer and the image transferred layer. Thereby, an image formed on the image receiving photosensitive layer is transferred to the image transferred layer, so a positive image is developed in a few minutes. The mono-sheet type instant film is further classified into a transparent type where the image appears on the opposite side from the photosensitive surface, and a reflective type where the image appears on the photosensitive surface. Beside the mono-sheet type, another kind of instant film, called peel-apart type, may be used in the instant printer. In the peel-apart type instant film, a negative sheet (an image receiving photosensitive layer) is exposed and then put on a positive sheet (an image transferred layer). Then, an image is transferred to the positive sheet by pressing these sheets to each other while spreading the processing fluid between these sheets. Thereafter, the positive sheet is peeled apart from the negative sheet. The instant film is usually provided as a film pack, wherein a plurality of sheets of instant films are packaged in a case, and the case and all are loaded in an instant camera or the like. The film pack is designed such that when a light-shielding sheet is advanced out the case after the film pack is loaded, a predetermined exposure area on the photosensitive side is exposed through an exposure opening that is formed through the case.
The instant printer and the electronic still camera incorporated with the printer comprise a pack loading chamber for loading the film pack, an exposure unit for exposing the photosensitive surface of the instant film, a film developing ejecting mechanism including the spread rollers that spread the processing fluid while feeding the exposed instant film to the outside, many kinds of operating members, a display section for displaying an image to print, many kinds of circuit sections, mechanical frames for placing and securing these elements, and an outer cover members.
Among the above mechanisms, the film developing ejecting mechanism fundamentally has the same constructions and the same functions as that used in conventional instant cameras, such as disclosed in JPA No. 4-194832. Exemplary of the exposure unit is disclosed in JPA Nos. 6-83243 and 8-271995, wherein a color image is printed by a printing head with a light emitting element array that moves relative to the instant film while projecting red, green and blue printing light beams. The light emitting element array consists of a plurality of light emitting elements that are arranged in a line and emit light beams responsive to processed image data.
In the above mentioned film pack of the instant films, the instant films are a little smaller than an internal size of the case, to provide clearances between the instant films and the casing, for allowing the exposed instant film to be sent out or drawn out smoothly. Because there are clearances, the instant films may deviate inside the case if a shock or another factor is applied. Therefore, the exposure area is not always placed in a predetermined position behind the exposure opening of the case.
If the instant film deviates, some part of the exposure area would not be exposed to printing light. Since the unexposed part of the exposure area will be colored black when the image is developed to be positive, it damages the image. Also in a printer where the instant film is individually loaded, the same problem may be caused by the deviation inside a film loading chamber.
Meanwhile, the photosensitive surfaces of the instant films loaded in the instant printer or in the printer-incorporated electronic still camera should be completely shielded from ambient light. However, there are so many kinds of light that might reach the photosensitive surfaces of the instant films, such as light leaking through gaps between the cover members and the various operation members, light leaking through joints between the cover members, and light leaking from a illumination device that illuminates an LCD panel from the back. Therefore, it has been difficult to shield the photosensitive surfaces completely from light.
The present invention is made to solve the above problems, and has an object to provide an instant printer and a printing method for use in the instant printer, wherein the exposure area would be entirely exposed even if the instant film deviates inside the case or the printer when the instant film is exposed by the printing head.
The present invention also has an object to provide an instant printer that effectively shield ambient light that might reach the photosensitive surfaces of the instant films.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer-incorporated electronic still camera, which is capable of writing and reading photographed image data on external memories.

Instant printer, printing method for using the same, combination printer/electronic still camera system


A de-warp map is generated by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to vectors describing aspects of identified features of an object in an image. PCA provides vectors and coefficients describing curvature or image warping at selected points in the image. Estimates of the warping of the image generally are generated by interpolation and/or extrapolation from the vectors and coefficients provided by PCA. In some applications only two features need be identified. For example, the complicated curvature of the facing pages of an open book can be characterized by two vectors describing positions of top and bottom edges of the book. In such applications PCA can reduce to vector subtraction to determine a basis vector, vector addition and scaling to determine an average vector and simple assignment of known coefficient values. The de-warping map can be used to generate a de-warped version of the image.

The presently disclosed embodiments are directed toward correcting positional distortion in an image of an object. Embodiments will be described with references to images of pages of bound books that are generated photographically or through the use of an image scanner. However, embodiments will find use in other image distortion and image manipulation applications.
With reference to FIG. 1, often, when a curved surface is imaged, a spatial or positional distortion of information in that image can occur. For example, in an image 104 of an opened book 108, the transformation from three-dimensional object space to two-dimensional image space causes a distortion. For example, portions of the object that were horizontal can appear to be curved upward or downward. For instance, a top edge 112 of a first page of the book 108 can appear to be curved downward in terms of the two-dimensional image 104. A bottom edge 114 can appear to curve upward. Similar distortions can be seen in other features of the book object. For example, lines of text in an upper portion 118 of the page also exhibit a downward curvature. Lines of text in a lower portion 122 of the page exhibit an upward curvature.
Such distortions can be inconvenient. In some instances, they make information on the object difficult to perceive. For example, text distorted in this way can be difficult for a human observer to read. Moreover, the accuracy and speed of optical character recognition software can be adversely affected by such distortions.
Accordingly, efforts have been made to develop mechanisms for correcting or compensating for such distortions.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,236 by Wolff et al. discusses a method and apparatus for correcting for splay. According to Wolff, a document distorted by the curvature of a page of text away from a platen is converted to a digital image. The digital image is manipulated to remove the distortion by fitting lines of text in an unsplayed portion to a skew line, which represents the deviation of lines of text in the digital image from horizontal. Then the splay is determined for each line of text. Wolff then searches for a break point, which is that point in the image corresponding to the point on paper where the page begins to separate from the scanning platen. In embodiments of Wolff, a break point is found by independently evaluating each line and finding the point where an edge line separates from a skew line. This break point is used to identify the splayed portion of each edge line. The splayed portion of each edge line is fit to an exponential curve.
The processing of Wolf includes a number of additional procedures. The individual curve fitting of exponentials to each splayed portion is relatively time consuming. The situation is further aggravated with each additional splayed region (e.g., from a facing page or outer edge of a curled or curved document).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,644 B2 to Loce et al., entitled "Method and System for Reducing Distortion in Scanned Images," discloses methods and systems for de-warping images that include image processing using an optics model and an illumination model which works well when the image is relatively uniform, such as a page of text at a constant point size and color.
The need remains for systems and methods to compensate for object curvature that are fast and are applicable to a broad class of images.


A method for controlling a vapour compression system (1) is disclosed, the vapour compression system (1) comprising at least one compressor (2, 16), a heat rejecting heat exchanger (3), a high pressure expansion device (4, 15, 17), a receiver (5), an evaporator expansion device (6), an evaporator (7) and a gas bypass valve (8), arranged in a refrigerant path. It is registered that the gas bypass valve (8) is malfunctioning or saturated, and a pressure value for a pressure prevailing inside the receiver (5) is obtained. Finally, the vapour compression system (1) is controlled in order to control a gaseous refrigerant supply to the receiver (5) to adjust the pressure prevailing inside the receiver (5) to reach a target pressure level.

Vapour compression systems, such as refrigeration systems, heat pumps or air condition systems, are normally controlled in order to provide a required cooling or heating capacity in an as energy efficient manner as possible. Some vapour compression systems are provided with a receiver arranged in the refrigerant path downstream relative to an outlet of a heat rejecting heat exchanger and upstream relative to an expansion device arranged to supply refrigerant to an evaporator. In the receiver, refrigerant is separated into liquid refrigerant and gaseous refrigerant. The liquid part of the refrigerant is supplied to the expansion device, via a liquid outlet of the receiver. At least some of the gaseous part of the refrigerant may be supplied directly to an inlet of a compressor, via a gaseous outlet of the receiver and a gas bypass valve. The mass flow of gaseous refrigerant from the gaseous outlet of the receiver towards the inlet of the compressor can be controlled by controlling an opening degree of the gas bypass valve.
In the case that the gas bypass valve malfunctions, it may be stuck in a certain position defining a certain opening degree of the valve. In this case it is no longer possible to control the mass flow of gaseous refrigerant from the gaseous outlet of the receiver towards the inlet of the compressor. During normal operation of a vapour compression system, the opening degree of the gas bypass valve may vary to a great extent, in order to meet system requirements, adapt to ambient conditions, and allow the vapour compression system to provide a required cooling or heating capacity. Therefore, the opening degree defined by the malfunctioning gas bypass valve will most likely not match a desired opening degree most of the time. This may lead to situations in which the vapour compression system becomes unstable or is not capable of providing a required cooling or heating capacity, if the vapour compression system continues operating without controlling the opening degree of the gas bypass valve. Accordingly, it may be necessary to shut down the vapour compression system and to request immediate service on the system. This is very undesirable and may be very costly.
Furthermore, in the case that the vapour compression system is of a kind which comprises one or more receiver compressors, the gaseous part of the refrigerant in the receiver will mainly be supplied directly to the receiver compressor(s) without being mixed with refrigerant entering the suction line from the outlet of the evaporator. In this case the gas bypass valve interconnects the gaseous outlet of the receiver and the suction line, and it will normally only need to handle a smaller part of the gaseous refrigerant in the receiver. Therefore, a gas bypass valve with a relatively small capacity may be selected in this case. If the receiver compressor(s) go into alarm, all of the gaseous refrigerant in the receiver must be routed to the gas bypass valve, which will most likely be too small to handle this refrigerant flow. This has the consequence that the gas bypass valve saturates at its fully open position. This may also lead to situations in which the vapour compression system becomes unstable or is not capable of providing a required cooling or heating capacity.

Method for controlling a vapour compression system during gas bypass valve malfunction


A structure of a holding mechanism with a rotatable bidirectional knob suitable for securing a radiator is disclosed. The holding mechanism comprises a pressure-bearing unit, a buckling element and an operation assembly. The buckling element and the pressure-bearing unit have a positioning opening respectively. The pressure-bearing unit provides a slot for being penetrated with the buckling element. The operation assembly is pivotally positioned on the buckling element and comprises a bidirectional knob and a protrusion member. The protrusion member presses against the pressure-bearing unit while the bidirectional knob being turned. The buckling element is movably disposed at and of the pressure-bearing unit to effectively secure the radiator in place.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, a mechanism for holding a radiator comprises a pressure-bearing unit 11 having a positioning portion (not shown) and an opening 112, and a buckling element 12 having a positioning portion 121 and an axial hole 121a. The axial hole 121a may receive an axle 132 of a handle 13.
To assemble the above components, the buckling element 12 is penetrated through the opening 112 of the pressure-bearing unit 11 to movably connect the buckling element 12 on the buckling element 11, and the axle 132 of the handle 13 engaged into the axial hole 121a of the buckling element 12.
Next, the handle 13 is rotated towards the left until the protrusion 131 of the handle 13 is supported against the pressure-bearing unit 11 and the buckling element 12 is moved upwards, and buckles the positioning portion of the pressure-bearing unit 11 and the positioning opening 121 of the buckling element 12 to the buckling block 141 of the seat 14, as well as support the pressing portion 113 of the pressure-bearing unit 11 against the radiator 15.
However, the handle 13 of the above conventional holding mechanism may be easily damaged due to different operation habit or handling, or even applying excessive force.
Accordingly, in the view of the foregoing, how to resolve the above defect is a very important issue the manufacturers have to face.

Structure of holding mechanism with rotatable knob for radiator


The connection arrangement (100, 200, 300, 400) comprises at least one electric and/or electronic component (1). The at least one electric and/or electronic component (10) has at least one connection face (11), which is connected in a bonded manner to a join partner (40) by means of a connection layer (20). The connection layer (20) can for example be an adhesive, soldered, welded, sintered connection or another known connection that connects joining partners while forming a material connection. Furthermore, a reinforcement layer (30′) is arranged adjacent to the connection layer (20) in a bonded manner. The reinforcement layer (30′) has a higher modulus of elasticity than the connection layer (20). A particularly good protective effect is achieved if the reinforcement layer (30′) is formed in a frame-like manner by an outer and an inner boundary (36, 35) and, at least with the outer boundary (36) thereof, encloses the connection face (11) of the at least one electric and/or electronic component (10).

The invention relates to a connection arrangement of at least one electric and/or electronic component comprising a join partner, composite element and a method for configuring the connection arrangement.
In many areas of technology, electronic components, such as, e.g., integrated circuits (IC), transistors or diodes are used within electrical circuit arrangements. A variety of electronic components are hereby fixed to a base part, e.g. substrate or something similar. The electronic components are fixed, for example, to the base part by means of a connection layer, such as, e.g., an adhesive, solder or sintered layer. Due to the difference between ambient, joining and operating temperature, the rigidity of the connection layer and the distinctly different expansion coefficients of, for example, IC and substrate, very high mechanical or thermomechanical stresses can however occur in the electronic components. As a result, thermal stresses can lead to a so-called "clam-shell marked fracture" on the electronic component, wherein partial regions of the surface of the electronic component have broken away. This can lead to a very short service life of such electronic assemblies.
In order to reduce the occurrence of mechanical stresses within the electronic component, it is known to introduce round depressions, so-called dimples, into the substrate surface around the region of the fixed electronic component. The substrate is now more elastic in this region on account of the round depressions; thus enabling mechanical stresses resulting from differing expansion coefficients of the substrate, the connection layer and the electronic component to already be broken down in the region of the substrate enclosed by the round depressions.
The introduction of the dimples entails an additional manufacturing step in providing the substrate.
An arrangement of a semiconductor chip on a metal substrate is known from the first publication of the American patent application US 2010/0187678 A1. The semiconductor chip is thereby attached to the metal substrate at low pressure by means of sintering a silver paste. In addition, the semiconductor chip has bonded connections which connect said semiconductor chip to contacting points. The arrangement previously described together with the bonded connections is completely coated from the outside with a metal oxide coating (SnO, AlO). The arrangement coated in this manner is furthermore encapsulated by a polymer material. The metal oxide coating achieves a stress reduction for the semiconductor chip. Such a coating is expensive because it must be applied to the entire arrangement. Furthermore, the application of the coating to the arrangement as a spatial entity is difficult and entails effort and expense. In addition, only methods can be used in which regions adjacent to the arrangement can be omitted from such a coating.

Connection arrangement of an electric and/or electronic component


An improved practice golf tee construction comprising an integrally formed base and a hollow stem portion vertically extending above said base and having an open top end forming a seat to receive a golf ball in a teed position. The side wall of the stem portion includes a pair of spaced openings or slots having outer edges extending downwardly from the open top of the stem and define a resilient strip portion of the side wall between the outer edges which is resiliently movable between a vertical position and an inwardly deflected position. This construction permits a golf ball to be manipulated into engagement with the resilient strip to deflect it inwardly and move the ball into engagement with the outer edges of the spaced slots which form an inclined ramp to guide the ball upwardly onto the seat of the stem portion whereupon the strip springs back to its normal vertical position to aid in stabilizing the ball in a teed position.

The popularity of the sport of golf has increased substantially over the last several years and accompanying this increase is an increased number of golf practice facilities. Such facilities include indoor and outdoor golf driving ranges and the use of golf practice mats providing a resilient surface and a golf practice tee extending upwardly through the practice mat.
The conventional golf practice tee comprises a one-piece, integrally molded unit of a resilient material having a disc-like base provided with a vertically extending hollow stem. The upper end of the hollow stem has an opening with beveled inner edges to form a seat to hold the golf ball in a teed position.
The tee is held in place by extending the stem through a suitable hole provided in the driving mat from the bottom surface of the mat so that the mat overlies the disc-like base to hold the stem in position raised above the upper surface of the mat.
The resilient material used for the tee is typically a synthetic rubber composition or a similar synthetic material which is resilient and yet strong enough to absorb abuse when repeatedly struck by a golf club.
While this form of practice tee has performed very well for many decades and is relatively inexpensive, the user is required to bend over and place a golf ball upon the tee for every practice shot struck. I am not aware of any golf practice tee which is also simple and inexpensive to manufacture and yet permits a user to conveniently tee a golf ball without bending over to tee the ball by hand and which further requires no change in the construction of the presently used type of practice golf mats.


A portable seating apparatus includes a storage box having upwardly extending sidewalls, a seat cushion pivotally mounted in the storage box, and a framework for providing portable seating and protection from weather elements. A covering is connected to the framework. The framework is completely stored within the storage box and the seat cushion may be hingedly attached to the storage box. The framework may be adjustable. The apparatus may also provide a plurality of legs and sidewalls. The apparatus may further provide a storage pocket in the storage box.

This invention relates generally to portable covered seating apparatuses, and, more specifically, to a portable covered seating apparatus that may be self contained, and self standing.
Outdoor events, like concerts and sporting contests, require spectators to sit for extended periods of time. These extended periods of time sometimes include undesirable weather conditions, like snow, rain, sleet, and sometimes too much sun. When the weather conditions are undesirable, they often ruin the event for many spectators.
Further, the provided seating is often less than desirable to spend extended periods of time sitting on. After a long period sitting on uncomfortable seating, spectators may become sore, irritable, and generally uncomfortable. Stadiums and arenas often provide seat cushions; however, the seat cushions currently available in the prior art offer no protection from the weather conditions.
Often, spectators attempt to use hand held umbrellas to alleviate the discomfort caused by the weather conditions. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, hand held umbrellas can be too flimsy. Additionally, the spectator must hold the hand held umbrella. Therefore, the umbrella cannot effectively and efficiently protect the spectator from the severe weather conditions. Finally, the umbrella can block the views of other spectators. In sum, hand held umbrellas can add to the discomfort and inconvenience rather than alleviate the same.
The present invention overcomes both of these problems, as well as other problems associated with outdoor event seating. The present invention provides a comfortable seating cushion, to alleviate the discomfort caused by the long periods spent sitting on uncomfortable stadium seating. The present invention also contains a free standing cover, to provide for protection from the elements, without adding to the discomfort of the spectator and may be collapsed into a self-contained storage that may easily be carried by the spectator.


An upper portion region and a lower portion region at a front side surface of a projector lens are constituted as up and down direction diverging portions provided with a plurality of lens elements extended substantially in a horizontal direction by a vertical sectional shape formed in a recessed and projected shape relative to a reference face of the front side surface. After diverging light emitted from the upper portion region and the lower portion region to a front side in an up and down direction, a diverging degree thereof is made to be able to be controlled accurately to thereby pertinently shade off the cutoff line. A spectroscopic color appearing at an upper vicinity of the cutoff line owing to a spectroscopic light phenomenon brought about when light reflected from a reflector transmits through the projector lens is made to be inconspicuous.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamp unit of a vehicle headlamp, particularly relates to a lamp unit of a projector type constituted to form a light distribution pattern having a cutoff line.
2. Related Art
In a background art, a lamp unit of a projector type is known as a lamp unit of a vehicle headlamp. The lamp unit of the projector type is constructed by a constitution including a projector lens arranged on an optical axis extended in a front and rear direction of a vehicle, a light source arranged on a rear side of a rear side focal point of the projector lens, and a reflector for reflecting light from the light source to a front side to be proximate to the optical axis. When a light distribution pattern having a cutoff line as in a light distribution pattern for low beam is formed by light irradiated from the projector type lamp unit, there is constructed a constitution of arranging a shade for shielding a portion of reflected light from the reflector at a position of the rear side focal point of the projector lens and a cutoff line is formed as an inverted projected image of an upper end edge thereof.
At that occasion, JP-A-03-122902 discloses a lamp unit of a projector type in which a surface of a projector lens is constituted by a small recessed and projected face. JP-A-2005-302718 discloses a lamp unit of a projector type in which a plurality of recessed and projected portions are formed on a surface of a projector lens thereof in a shape of concentric circles. JP-A-01-186701 discloses a lamp unit of a projector type in which an upper portion region and a lower portion region remote from an optical axis in an up and down direction are constituted to deflect light emitted from a projector lens in a lower direction at a surface of the projector lens.
When the light distribution pattern having the cutoff line is formed by light irradiated from the lamp unit of the projector type, the cutoff line is formed extremely clearly as the inverted projected image of an upper end edge of the shade. Therefore, light is hardly irradiated to an upper side of the cutoff line, and optical recognizability of a remote region of a vehicle front side road face is liable to be insufficient. In such a case, there is a concern of giving a useless strange feeling to a driver of a vehicle running on an opposed lane, since a spectroscopic color appears at a vicinity of an upper side of the cutoff lien by a spectroscopic phenomenon brought about when light from a light source reflected by the reflector transmits through the projector lens.
In contrast thereto, when the constitutions described in JP-A-03-122902 and JP-A-2005-302718 are adopted, the cutoff line can be shaded off by diverging light emitted from the projector lens, thereby, the spectroscopic color at an upper vicinity of the cutoff line can be made inconspicuous.
However, according to the projector lens described in JP-A-03-122902, since the surface is constituted by the small recessed and projected face, it is not easy to control a degree of diverging light emitted from the projector lens, the diverging is liable to be insufficient or excessive. There poses a problem that when the diverging is insufficient, the cutoff line is sufficiently shaded off or a countermeasure against the spectroscopic color at an upper vicinity thereof becomes insufficient. On the other hand, when the diverging is excessive, by diverging light by which a lower vicinity region of the cutoff line is to be formed, a brightness thereof is reduced, glare is liable to be cast to a driver running on an opposed lane since light diverged to an upper side of the cutoff line becomes excessively large.
According to the projector lens described in JP-A-2005-302718, since the surface is formed with a plurality of recessed and projected portions in the shape of concentric circles, a degree of diverging light emitted from the projector lens can accurately be controlled. However, the emitted light is diverged in a diameter direction relative to the optical axis of the projector lens. Therefore, there poses a problem that there is brought about variations in shading off the cutoff line or an effect of the counter measure against the spectroscopic color at the upper vicinity are brought about depending on a position from which light from the projector lens is emitted.
According to the projector lens described in JP-A-01-186701, the upper region and the lower region of the surface remote from the optical axis in the up and down direction are constituted to deflect light emitted from the projector lens in the lower direction. Therefore, light emitted from the region of increasing a spectroscopic degree can be concealed to a position on the lower side of the cutoff line. Thereby, the effect of the countermeasure against the spectroscopic color can be promoted. However, when constituted in this way, a clearness of the cutoff line is further promoted. Therefore, there poses a problem that with regard to the effect of shading off the cutoff line, an inverse effect is rather brought about.


A sequential color display system (10) suited to receive data (20) at different rates without discarding or filtering video data. The mismatch of bandwidths between the input source video data and the output sequential color display is accommodated by retaining a modified synchronous operation. A color wheel (50) having a plurality of segments is utilized whereby the input frame rate in reference to the color wheel rate is always a ratio of integers. Using a digital micromirror device (44) spatial light modulator, no mixing of frame-to-frame bit planes is required during a colored segment. In the preferred embodiment, the ratio of integers is 7-to-6 for a 50 hertz input, such as a PAL system, or a 5-to-6 ratio for a 72 hertz input. The color wheel is maintained at about a 60 hertz rate.

Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) are widely used in the industry for video monitors, graphic displays, projectors, and hard copy printers. SLMs are devices that modulate incident light in a spatial pattern corresponding to an electrical or optical input. The incident light may be modulated in its phase, intensity, polarization, or direction. This light image is directed and focused to a screen in the case of a projector, video monitor or display, or is ultimately focused on a light sensitive material, such as a photoreceptor drum, in the case of a xerographic printer.
The light modulation may be achieved by a variety of materials exhibiting various electro-optic or magneto-optic effects, and by materials that modulate light by surface deformation. Other spatial light modulators may include tiny micro-mechanical devices comprising an array of positionable picture elements (pixels). The light image can be colored if it is to be displayed on a screen of a projector, monitor, or a television and the like. This coloring is typically done in one of two ways, either using non-sequential color systems, or using sequential color systems. A non-sequential color system simultaneously generates multiple colors of light, such as red, green and blue light. An example of a non-sequential color system is discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,024, issued Sep. 19, 1995, entitled "DMD Display System", the teachings included herein by reference. In sequential color systems, color images are generated by sequentially projecting colored light, i.e. red, green and blue light, in a single image frame, which typically lasts 1/60 of a second for a 60 Hertz system. Sequential color systems typically utilize a color wheel that is partitioned into a plurality of colored segments, such as a red, green, and blue segment, or multiples/combinations thereof. An example of a sequential color system is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,314, issued Sep. 5, 1995, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Sequential color Imaging", the teachings included herein by reference.
A recent innovation of Texas Instruments Inc. of Dallas, Tex. is an imaging system using an SLM having an array of individual micro-mechanical elements, known as a digital micromirror device (DMD), also referred to as a deformable mirror device. The DMD is a spatial light modulator suitable for use in displays, projectors and hard copy printers. The DMD is a monolithic single-chip integrated circuit, comprised of a high density array of 16 micron square deflectable micromirrors on 17 micron centers. These mirrors are fabricated over address circuitry including an array of SRAM cells and address electrodes. Each mirror forms one pixel of the DMD array and is bi-stable, that is to say, stable in one of two positions. A source of light directed upon the mirror array will be reflected in one of two directions by each mirror. In one stable "on" mirror position, incident light to that mirror will be reflected to a projector lens and focused on a display screen or a photosensitive element of a printer, and forms an image of the mirror/pixel. In the other "off" mirror position, light directed on the mirror will be deflected to a light absorber. Each mirror of the array is individually controlled to either direct incident light into the projector lens, or to the light absorber. In the case of a display, a projector lens and a light prism ultimately focus and magnify the modulated light image from the pixel mirrors onto a display screen and produce a viewable image. If each pixel mirror of the DMD array is in the "on" position, the displayed image will be an array of bright pixels.
For a more detailed discussion of the DMD device, cross reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,049 to Hornbeck, entitled "Spatial Light Modulator and Method"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,544 to DeMond, et al, entitled "Standard Independent Digitized Video System"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,369 to Nelson, entitled "Printing System exposure Module Alignment Method and Apparatus of Manufacture", each patent being assigned to the same assignee of the present invention and the teachings of each are incorporated herein by reference. Gray scale of the pixels forming the image can be achieved by pulse width modulation techniques of the mirrors, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,652, entitled "DMD Architecture and Timing for Use in a Pulse-Width Modulated Display System", assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, and the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In non-sequential color systems, three (3) DMD arrays can be used to modulate colored light, one each for red, green, and blue light, as disclosed in the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,024, issued Sep. 19, 1995, titled "DMD Display System", the teachings of which are included herein by reference. In contrast, a sequential color system requires only one such DMD device, with the red, green, and blue light being sequentially modulated and reflected by the single DMD array to a screen. The need for three such arrays in the non-sequential color system triples the requirement for the DMD arrays, and attendant hardware over the sequential color system, but offers increased display brightness. Thus, there is a trade off between the complexity, cost and performance of a non-sequential color system when viewed against a sequential color system.
In the case of a sequential color system, a single light source is typically used, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,236 to Nelson, et al, entitled "Light Energy Control System and Method of Operation", assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and the teachings of which are included herein by reference. These lamps may typically be comprised of a xenon or metal halide arc lamp, or lasers. This arc lamp may be powered by an AC or DC power source.
In conventional display systems, the video frame rate or refresh rate of the display is typically 60 hertz (Hz), or 60 frames a second. However, the incoming (source) data frame rate may vary from 60 frames a second. For instance, while a typical NTSC signal provides video frame data at 60 hertz, the video source frame rate for a PAL system is 50 hertz. Video or computer graphics data, meanwhile, is received at many other frame rates other than 60 hertz, typically being 72 hertz.
Typically, when the input frame rate deviates from 60 hertz in a 60 hertz sequential color display system, data must be discarded or filtered (e.g. averaged) before video is displayed due to the mismatch of bandwidths between the input source video and the output color sequential display rate. Rather than display video at 72 hertz for a 72 hertz input, the incoming data is discarded or filtered to maintain a 60 hertz video display frame rate. Discarding data will generate motion artifacts. Filtering data adds components and system cost. If incoming video data is received at a slow rate, operating in synchronism at a slower display rate, like 50 hertz, would generate a noticeable flicker in the display to the observer provided the screen is bright enough. Therefore, the data is averaged to maintain a 60 hertz display rate. Thus, retaining synchronous operation may not be sufficient for high quality video.
Additional problems arise in a DMD display system since data is displayed in a bit-plane format. One solution to the input/output frame rate mismatch, when doing color sequential displaying of data, is to asynchronously read the data from frame buffers. However, since the data displayed during any color segment may be from two different frames, a mixing of bit-plane information from these two frames occurs. This mixing of bit-plane can result in significant degradation of signal-to-noise ratio especially near MSB transition codes when using pulse width modulation techniques to determine the "on" time of the mirrors during one video frame. To see this, referring to FIG. 1, consider a DMD with 8-bits of color code, without bit-splitting, where the MSB is displayed during the entire first half of each color segment. If a pixel code 80 hex (midscale) from the source has a slight amount of noise, then 7 Fhex may be displayed during the first half of a color segment and 80 hex during the second half if two different frames are displayed during this color segment. A code of 00 hex would be displayed resulting in a half-scale error on the display as shown in FIG. 1. This is an extreme example, but even with bit-splitting during the color segments, the noise generation is significant when using an asynchronous frame buffer approach for frame rate conversion.
It is desirable to maintain the output color sequencing display frame rate of 60 hertz, even when the input source video frame rate is not at 60 hertz, without discarding, filtering or averaging video data. In addition, for DMD applications, it is desirable to eliminate the signal-to-noise degradation due to frame-to-frame bit-plane mixing during color segments without resorting to forcing the color sequencing rate to match the source video frame rate.

Sequential color display system with spoke synchronous frame rate conversion


A communications system and method of operating a vehicle multi-tainment unit (VMU) within that communications system is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: (a) establishing a connection between the VMU and a mobile device; (b) retrieving from a cache associated with the VMU user data previously provided by the mobile device; (c) prior to receiving current user data from the mobile device, receiving via the connection recently-used user data from the mobile device; (d) comparing the previously-provided user data and the received recently-used data; and (e) updating the previously-provided user data based on the comparison.

Vehicle occupants increasingly desire greater access to entertainment data and applications while in their vehicles. Vehicles are capable of storing some of this data or applications. At other times, it may be desirable to acquire this data from a remote source.
For a number of years, entertainment data was received by a vehicle head unit via analog radio waves enabling vehicle occupants to listen to a variety of AM and FM radio stations. More recently, improvements to vehicle head units have enabled more modern head units to receive digital data including cloud server data and/or satellite radio.

Updating a vehicle head unit with content from a wireless device


There are provided systems and methods for a modular mobile point of sale device having separable units for configurable data processing. A modular device may include a main unit that includes data processing features to allow for a mobile point of sale, including a data entry unit for payment data, a communication component to secure communicate that data to a centralized transaction processor, and a processing unit to receive the data and instruct the centralized to process the data with an online service provider. The module device may also be physically and communicatively coupled to additional modules that may increase the on-device functionality of the main unit, include a module to allow user input and additional modules to accept other types of transaction input. On detection of a connected unit, the main unit may secure connect to and authenticate each attached module.

With the increasing use of payment cards, such as debit and credit cards having a magnetic stripe or embedded chip with stored data, merchants have increased use of mobile payment processing terminals acting as the point-of-sale device. For example, mobile magnetic stripe and/or EMV card readers are capable of providing mobile payment processing at a merchant location or with a mobile merchant through a small device capable of being carried by the merchant or merchant's employees. These payment terminal devices often include a reader type component, as well as hardware that may read payment data encoded on the cards memory (e.g., the magnetic stripe and/or EMV chip). However, these devices do not provide additional functionality, and are not customizable to each merchant's specific needs, as well as changing needs to particular merchants depending on location or time. This requires that the payment terminal devices connect to another computing device, such as a mobile phone or tablet computer.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.

Modular mobile point of sale device having separable units for configurable data processing