A stand for a musical instrument, comprising first and second base members being hingedly connected to one another and being adjustable to move the stand base members between a closed position and an open position. Each base member includes an arm which is pivotably moveable between a retracted position, wherein the arm is flush with the base member, and an extended position, wherein the arm cooperates with an angled portion of each respective base member to support the musical instrument therein. A flexible strap connects lower ends of the base members to prevent the stand from opening beyond the open position thereof.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stands for musical instruments, such as, for example, guitars, violins or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a stand for a musical instrument, such as, for example, a guitar, violin or the like, wherein the stand is foldable to permit easy transportation and storage thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stands for musical instruments are known in the art and are typically provided to support a musical instrument, such as, for example, a guitar, violin or the like, in a substantially upright orientation. Musical instrument stands of the prior art are particularly useful, for example, when a musician plays the musical instrument several times during a single performance, but wherein the musician must otherwise temporarily set the instrument down, for example, to play another instrument or to take a break. Thus, it is desirable to provide a stand for a musical instrument, wherein the stand supports the instrument in a substantially upright orientation, and wherein the instrument may be quickly and easily removed therefrom and replaced therein.
However, many musical instrument stands typical of those of the prior art are bulky or otherwise difficult to transport and/or store. Thus, it is furthermore desirable to provide a stand for a musical instrument, wherein the stand is foldable to permit easy transportation and storage thereof.

Collapsible and portable stand for musical instruments


A portable electronic device (100) and method (400) is capable of editing processed data input. The portable electronic device (100) comprises a display area (224) and a processor (206) coupled to the display area. The device collects (404) data input and, then, removes (412) the data input from the display area in response to detecting (406) an input delay. Thereafter, the processor, in response to receiving (416) an undo command message, provides (426) the data input and/or a processed version of the data input to the display area.

Text information may be entered into an electronic device in various ways. For example, a user may hand write characters on a touch pad or touch screen of the device, make key selections at a keypad of the device, and speak characters or words into a microphone of the device. The device includes a display to provide the user with feedback regarding the received data input. Also, a recognition system of the device converts the handwritten characters, the key selections, and the spoken characters or words to a data format that is readily recognizable by other components of the device.
The recognition system may include a timeout feature when a user pauses during data entry. Such system processes the received data and removes the feedback information from the display, regardless of whether the user has actually completed data entry. If the timeout condition occurs before the user completes the data entry, which often occurs when the user ponders or hesitates, the user must explicitly delete the previous partial recognition result and enter the data again. In this manner, the recognition system processes data prematurely and requires the user to follow a multi-step correction process with a high cognitive burden, which frustrates the user. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for editing data input that minimizes the frustrations common with premature timeout features.

Device and method for editing processed data input


A wireless mobile phone is provided with an input-output interface and an output interface. The input-output interface may be employed singularly to facilitate removable attachment of a telephony headset to the phone to receive at least telephony audio signals from the phone, and to provide audio signals to the phone. Similarly, the output interface may be employed singularly to facilitate removable attachment of an audio output only headset to the phone to receive at least a selected one of telephony and non-telephony audio signals from the phone. However, the input-output interface and the output interface may also be used jointly to facilitate removable attachment of a two-plug headset to the phone to receive at least a selected one of telephony and non-telephony audio signals from the phone, and to provide audio signals to the phone.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wireless mobile phones, including headsets.
2. Background Information
Advances in computer and telecommunication technology have led to wide spread adoption of mobile client devices, in particular, wireless mobile phones. The term "wireless mobile phone" as used herein (in the specification and in the claims) refers to the class of telephone devices equipped to enable a user to make and receive calls wirelessly, notwithstanding the user's movement, as long as the user is within the communication reach of a service or base station of a wireless telephone service network. The term "wireless mobile phone" is to include the analog subclass as well as the digital subclass (of all signaling protocols).
A conventional wireless mobile phone typically includes an input-output interface, such as an input-output port, for removable attachment of a headset to the wireless mobile phone to facilitate receipt of telephony audio signals from the phone, and provision of telephony audio signals to the phone, for "hand-free" operation.
However, the next generation of wireless mobile phone is expected to be endowed with additional non-telephony functions, including functions such as radio and/or audio player, having non-telephony audio outputs.
Thus, an improved, in particular, a more user friendly input-output interface arrangement that efficiently supports the richer audio input/output environment is desired.

Wireless mobile phone including a headset


In a method for transmitting data from a first node to a second node through an interlinking network including data transmission equipments: the data is transmitted from the first node to one of the data transmission equipments together with a first request for storage of the data in the one of the data transmission equipments; the data is stored in a storage unit provided in the one of the data transmission equipments in response to the first request; a second request for the data is transmitted from the second node to the one of the data transmission equipments; the data is read out from the storage unit in response to the second request; and the data is transmitted from the one of the data transmission equipments to the second node.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting data from a first network node (e.g., an information server) to a second network node (e.g., a client) through an interlinking network which includes a plurality of transmission equipments. The present invention also relates to a data transmission system including a plurality of transmission equipments and transmitting data from a first network node to a second network node. The present invention further relates to a transmission equipment used in a data transmission system interconnecting first and second network nodes.
2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, the bandwidths of local networks have been increased, and the bandwidths of the access networks have also been increased by the development of the technologies of XDSL (X Digital Subscriber Line), FTTH (Fiber To The Home), and the like. With the increase in the bandwidths of the local and access networks, business opportunities are increasing, and various services are becoming available. In such a situation, increase in the bandwidths of backbone or interlinking networks (e.g., use of broadband networks) is also required.
In particular, attempts are currently made to transmit data requiring wide bandwidth (e.g., sound data or image data) by using the IP (Internet Protocol) platform. For example, in some applications such as delivery of radio programs or music, the attempted data transmission has become commercially practical. In addition, low-quality image delivery services have already become commercially practical.
Currently, in order to realize the above data transmission using the IP platform, many distributed systems have been constructed by arranging a number of cache servers in the Internet. In such distributed systems, data are delivered by network elements using the IP multicast technique.
In addition, in order to increase the overall throughput of the data transmission system and realize music or images delivery services to a wide area, attempts have been made to directly connect a LAN (Local Area Network) to a broadband, backbone or interlinking network such as a SONET (or SDH) network or a WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplex) network. It is considered that the direct connection of a LAN to a SONET (or SDH) network or a WDM network will be widely used in the future.
Next, the data transmission using the IP platform and the transmission through the SONET (or SDH) network are explained below.
(i) Data Transmission Using IP Platform
FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional image delivery or cable television system which uses the Internet. The example of FIG. 20 has a typical LAN-WAN (Wide Area Network)-LAN configuration.
In FIG. 20, reference numeral 10 denotes a camera, 11 denotes an image transfer equipment, 12 denotes an image server, 13 denotes an L2 (Layer 2) switch, 14 denotes an IIP (Internet Imaging Protocol) router, 15 denotes a WAN, 16 denotes an IIP router, 17 denotes an image server, 18 denotes an L2 switch, and 19-1 to 19-3 each denote a client.
The camera 10 captures an image of an object and sound, converts the image and sound into digital data, and outputs the digital data. The image transfer equipment 11 generates an IP packet containing the digital data output from the camera 10, and transmits the IP packet through the L2 switch 13. Each of the image servers 12 and 17 temporarily stores image data, and transmits the image data in response to a request from the clients 19-1 to 19-3. Each of the L2 switches 13 and 18 performs packet switching in the data link layer. Each of the IIP routers 14 and 16 transfers image data in accordance with a protocol for exchanging image data and related information.
For example, the WAN 15 is realized by an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network, a SONET (or SDH) network, an ISDN network, or the like, and uses the MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) technique.
Each of the clients 19-1 to 19-3 receives image data and displays an image.
The image data and the sound data output from the camera 10 are delivered to the clients 19-1 to 19-3 in different manners according to the services requested by the clients 19-1 to 19-3.
In a first type of service, the image data and the sound data output from the camera 10 are temporarily stored in the image server 17. Thereafter, when one of the clients 19-1 to 19-3 makes a request for the image data and the sound data, the image data and the sound data are transmitted to the one of the clients 19-1 to 19-3 through the L2 switch 18.
In a second type of service (real-time delivery service), the image data and the sound data output from the camera 10 are first contained in an IP packet by the image transfer equipment 11, and then multicast delivered to the clients 19-1 to 19-3 by using the IP multicast technique.
However, the volume of image data transmitted in the conventional image delivery or cable television system is basically great. In particular, television broadcasting constantly requires for each channel a bandwidth of 3 to 10 Mbit/s in the case of standard definition television data and 20 Mbit/s in the case of high definition television data. In the case of sound data, a bandwidth of 80 to 130 Kbit/s is required.
Therefore, the conventional system is sufficient to deliver the sound data. However, in order to deliver the image data, it is necessary to control the bandwidth and increase the transmission rate in the entire system including the LANs and WANs. For example, in the case where 10 channels of high definition television data are delivered, a bandwidth of 200 Mbps (=20 Mbps×10 ch) is constantly required.
Nevertheless, the constant flow of the above traffic impedes transmission of other information, and is not economical.
It is well known that bottlenecks in networks are typically caused by differences in the interface speed between LANs and WANs. For example, many WANs have ISDN (64/1,544 Kbps DS1), ATM (155 Mbps), or XDSL interfaces for connection to users. In addition, in an increasing number of cases of transmission, data transmitted from the users through the ISDN, ATM, or XDSL interfaces are multiplexed by using the SONET or SDH technology and transmitted through transmission lines of OC-3 (155 Mbps), OC-12 (622 Mbps), OC-48 (2.5 Gbps), OC-192 (10 Gbps), or the like. In order to realize the above operation, for example, a POS (Packet Over Sonet) unit is installed in IP routers. On the other hand, recently, many LANs uses the Ethernet having a transmission rate of 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps. That is, the bandwidths of the interfaces between the WANs and the LANs are much smaller than those of the LANs and WANs, and the transmission is delayed by the small bandwidths of the interfaces between the WANs and the LANs.
Further, in transmission of a great amount of images and sound data, images and sound received by clients (users' PCs) may be interrupted when packets are delayed, discarded, or disordered by the influence of the reduction of the bandwidth in the WAN and the best effort transmission of IP packets.
In order to solve the above problem, conventionally, cache servers are distributed in the Internet so that information is stored by the cache servers, and the delay, discard, and disorder of the packets are absorbed.
FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of cache servers in the Internet. In FIG. 21, the other network elements such as IP routers and hubs are not shown.
As illustrated in FIG. 21, the cache servers 30a to 30d are distributed in the WAN 30, the clients 31 and 32 are connected to the cache server 30d, the clients 33 and 34 are connected to the cache server 30c, and the client 35 is connected to the cache server 30b.
Since the cache servers 30a to 30d are arranged near the corresponding clients 31 to 35, it is possible to avoid inefficient access to original contents in response to each connection request, improve response, and reduce traffic.
(ii) Conventional SONET or SDH System
The SONET transmission equipments are high-speed transmission equipments mainly used in backbone networks of network providers, and various data such as data of telephones, leased lines, and IP packets, for which the network providers provide service, are transmitted through the SONET transmission equipments. The SONET transmission equipments multiplex such data into a high-speed transmission signal having a transmission rate of 2.5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, or the like, and transmit the high-speed transmission signal through a single optical fiber, by using the SONET or SDH technology. In SONET or SDH networks, each path has uniform traffic, and synchronism is maintained.
FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining the bandwidths of incoming lines and corresponding outgoing lines. In the path indicated by the double lines with arrows the example of FIG. 22, the transmission line incoming into the SONET transmission equipment 40 and the transmission line outgoing from the SONET transmission equipment 41 have an identical transmission rate 2.5 Gbps. On the other hand, in the path indicated by the single lines with arrows, the transmission line incoming into the SONET transmission equipment 43 has an transmission rate 2.5 Gbps, and the transmission line outgoing from the SONET transmission equipment 42 has an transmission rate 622 Mbps. This is impractical.
In the packet transmission of data, basically, more than one network terminal shares a transmission line (i.e., a bandwidth of a transmission line), and the synchronism is not secured. On the other hand, in the SONET networks, bandwidth allocation to each transmission line is predetermined, and the synchronism is maintained.
However, conventionally, in order to provide a broadband service in a wide area, cache servers and other network elements are required to be distributed over the wide area under various conditions. Therefore, sufficient bandwidths are not necessarily secured between a data source server and the cache servers. In this case, the amount of data output from the data source server is limited. Thus, even when the bandwidth is great in only a portion (e.g., in an interlinking network such as a SONET or SDH network) of a transmission path between the data source server and each cache server, the great bandwidth of the portion cannot be efficiently used.
Further, in a broadband service such as an image or sound delivery service, data sent to the respective cache servers are often identical. However, conventionally, the data source server is required to send the identical data to each cache server separately. FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration for transmitting data from a data source server to a plurality of cache servers in a conventional data delivery service system. In the example of FIG. 23, the contents server (data source server) 51 is required to send identical data to each of the cache servers 52 to 54, i.e., the contents server 51 is required to transmit the identical data three times. Therefore, utilization efficiency of the bandwidth of the WAN 50 is low.

Method and system for transmitting data in two steps by using data storage provided in data transmission equipment in network


An apparatus and method for authenticating an item wherein a code is assigned to the item and includes a plurality of modules arranged in an ideal image. A barcode is encoded within the modules and a picture of the code is printed onto the item. A picture of the printed code is recorded with a low resolution camera at high speed during the production process from which the barcode content is decoded. Irregularities in the picture are analyzed and a numerical value describing an individual imperfection profile is calculated. The numerical value of the imperfection profile depends on at least one unique feature inherently related to the original printing device. The individual imperfection profile is printed onto the item and/or a database record is generated. To authenticate a suspect item, the imperfection profile of the suspect item is compared with the imperfection profile of the original item.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a method, an apparatus and a use of an apparatus for proving an authentication of an original item as well as to a hereto related method and apparatus for determining an authentication status of a suspect item. The disclosure further relates to a computer program for performing the mentioned methods as well as to a data carrier having a data structure stored thereon, which, after loading into a computer or a computer network, is capable of executing the methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
The proof of the authentication of an original item as well as the determination of the authentication status of a suspect item based on an evaluation of material structures and/or production tolerances is a well-known technology which has been largely developed during the last decades. The basic methods in this field have been triggered by the authentication proof and determination of bank notes, commercial papers and/or security documents. Within this regard, a number of authentication methods and devices have been described which mainly rely on a recognition of unique features emerging during a production process in order to be able to determine the authentication status of a suspect item. These kinds of technologies are usually based on the observation that a substrate, such as a paper or a cardboard, due to its organic and anisotropic material structure, generally absorbs inks locally in an individual manner, by which process non-reproducible patterns may evolve throughout the area wherein the ink is absorbed, particularly at the margins of such areas.
The first concepts for determining these kinds of structures, however, had to struggle with various barriers which mainly concerned the processing and storing of data related to the authentication status. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,415; U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,408, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,840; patterns determined from such unique structures were generally printed on the documents themselves in the form of a barcode and/or stored in a magnetic memory which forms part of the respective document. However, both the technological barriers concerning the reproducibility of the recognition of unique features as well as the insufficient storing capabilities led to a security problem which complicated the generation of authenticatable documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,984 discloses a method for determining an authentication status of a suspect item particularly applicable to objects of fine art, including limited edition prints, and which is based on the uniqueness of actions involved in the creation of such an object, e.g. a brush stroke exerted by an artist. Hereby, the authentication of the original item is determined by recording at a microscopic level a unique pattern of such a feature at a selected microsite of the original item which is subsequently stored in a central data storage from which it can be retrieved over a communication link upon request and compared with an actually recorded picture of the same microsite of the suspect item.
Particularly owing to the considerable developments in the fields of imaging and storing technologies, various advanced systems which are capable of the recognition of structures have been proposed. Within this regard, devices for the generation of hardly reproducible print images have been introduced, which make use of principle of lossy reproduction in order to enable a determination of the authentication status of a document (see, e.g. EP 1319291 B1, EP 1514227 B1, WO 2006/013037 A1, US 2010/0027851 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,041 B2). Herein, deviations within the print images are recognized on a micro-scale and stored for retrieving and comparing within a further authentication process. In general, the storing takes place in a database which comprises the various print images and/or information related to their specific uniqueness. As a result, this kind of procedure generates large databases which have to be searched completely during an authentication process. In order to achieve a high reliability of the authentication process, on one hand, an acquisition of print images with a high resolution is required and, on the other hand, large efforts are needed in order to allow a rapid browsing of the database. As an alternative, U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,685 B1 therefore proposes to extract unique features from the print image and print it separately in the form of a code onto the same item.
A further example may be found in WO 2013/130946 A1, wherein natural variations in marked features on an item, such as a barcode oriented onto the item, are assessed with respect to artifacts which are specific to the item. For this purpose, information associated with the artifacts is extracted, whereupon the information is ranked according to characteristics of the artifacts, in particular by calculating an autocorrelation series of the ranked information. Hereby, ranking includes treating artifacts with a characteristic below a threshold differently from artifacts above the threshold, such as not ranking artifacts smaller than the threshold, or grouping artifacts together with locations where no artifact is detected, or discounting artifacts. Thereafter, the ranked information or data representing the autocorrelation series are stored in a storage device separate from the original item.
Various devices and methods employ laser systems which are primarily used in order to record not the printed documents themselves but rather the irregularities within the substrate materials utilized to carry the printed information (see, e.g. DE 101 55 780 A1, DE 101 62 537 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,089,420 B1, WO 2007/072044 A1, WO 2008/059017 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,599,544 B2, WO 2010/070345 A1).
Other known methods make use of already existing print images or invisible marks on the object (see, e.g. EP 1319219 B1, EP 1 433 305 B1, EP 1 690 697 A1). Within this regard, irregularities which occur during a printing process on a micro-scale, particularly through a dispersion of inks, by vibrations of the printing equipment, or through other effects such as partially blocked nozzles, are employed in the authentication process. As an example, DE 10 2008 007731 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,062 B2 describe a method and a device for authenticating items by carefully recording the margins of printed areas from which an identifiable signature is determined which is used for further authentication of the suspect item.
O. Bulan and G. Sharma, High Capacity Color Barcodes: Per Channel Data Encoding via Orientation Modulation in Elliptical Dot Arrays, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 20, pp. 1337-1350, 2011, present a new high capacity color barcode. The barcode uses the cyan, magenta, and yellow (C, M, Y) colorant separations available in color printers and enables high capacity by independently encoding data in each of these separations. In each colorant channel, payload data is conveyed by using a periodic array of elliptically shaped dots whose individual orientations are modulated to encode the data. The orientation based data encoding provides beneficial robustness against printer and scanner tone variations. The overall color barcode is obtained when these color separations are printed in overlay as is common in color printing. A reader recovers the barcode data from a conventional color scan of the barcode, using red, green, and blue (R, G, B) channels complementary, respectively, to the print C, M, and Y channels. For each channel, first the periodic arrangement of dots is exploited at the reader to enable synchronization by compensating for both global rotation and scaling in scanning and local distortion in printing. To overcome the color interference resulting from colorant absorptions in non-complementary scanner channels, a novel interference minimizing data encoding approach and a statistical channel model (at the reader) that captures the characteristics of the interference are proposed, enabling more accurate data recovery. Further, an error correction methodology that effectively utilizes the channel model is employed.
O. Bulan, J. Mao, and G. Sharma, Geometric distortion signatures for printer identification, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, pp. 1401-1404, 2009, present a forensic technique for analyzing a printed image in order to trace the originating printer. This method, which is applicable for commonly used electro-photographic (EP) printers, operates by exploiting the geometric distortion that these devices inevitably introduced in the printing process. In the proposed method, first a geometric distortion signature is estimated for an EP printer. This estimate is obtained using only the images printed on the printer and without access to the internal printer controls. Once a database of printer signatures is available, the printer utilized to print a test image is identified by computing the geometric distortion signature from test image and correlating the computes signatures against the printer signatures in the database. Experiments conducted over a corpus of EP printers demonstrate that the geometric distortion signatures of test documents exhibit high correlation with the corresponding printer signatures and a low correlation with other printer signatures.
Although various methods and devices for determining the authentication status of a suspect item have been proposed, still, a number of problems and obstacles exist which particularly impede their industrial implementation on a larger scale. Within this regard, a major issue relates to the resolution of optical systems which are employed in the acquisition of print images such as one- or two-dimensional barcodes. In order to assess the irregularities at the margins of a print image, an optical system with a resolution and a magnification being at least comparable to the size of the print irregularities is required. As a result, however, an optical system comprising both a high resolution and a high magnification must be employed. As an example, the modules of a two-dimensional barcode, such as a data matrix barcode, are usually decoded in industrial facilities by employing an optical system which comprises a resolution of 5 pixels per dimension. However, in order to resolve the margins of the modules of the barcode with sufficient resolution, 40 pixels per dimension are needed. However, this requirement which increases the resolution of the optical system by a factor of 8 in each dimension leads to an increase of the data volume to be further processed by a factor of 64. Consequently, the requirements on the optical system as well as on the data storage system are multiplied in a system which is configured for assessing margins of a print image compared to a device being adapted for simply decoding a two-dimensional barcode. As a result, devices which are already installed for the decoding of barcodes do not exhibit a sufficient resolution which would allow employing such devices for the recognition of irregularities in the margins of a print image at the same time. In other words, existing optical systems have to be upgraded in order to be able to perform a margin analysis of print images within the determination of the authentication status of a suspect item.
In addition, such methods and devices for determining the authentication status of a suspect item require a high sharpness of the print image. Together with the high resolutions and, additionally, high processing speeds, which could be up to 2000 recordings per minute, very short exposure times are required in order to record pictures which exhibit only a slide motion blurring, particularly in a range below two pixels. Comparing these requirements with known decoding systems for barcodes which employ an exposure time of approximately 1:8 000 s, an exposure time of 1:80 000 s would be necessary. This would require a high illumination which is rather sophisticated and lead to a large heat generation which could heat up the object to intolerable values. Consequently, methods and devices for determining the authentication status of a suspect item which are based on margin recognition are currently not compatible with the requirements in industrial facilities.

Method and apparatus for proving an authentication of an original item and method and apparatus for determining an authentication status of a suspect item


A method is provided for controlling a multilevel converter to balance voltages of submodule energy stores. This balancing involves calculating predicted final voltages of energy stores at the end of a time interval to follow and selecting which submodule of a phase arm to insert or bypass during the time interval based on a comparison of the predicted final voltages of the energy stores. The predicted final voltages are updated in accordance with any selection made of which submodule to insert or bypass during the time interval. A control device and a computer program product are also disclosed. Voltage balancing according to a pre-programmed modulation scheme is possible by means of the disclosed method.

The Modular Multilevel Converter (M2C) is a voltage source converter topology which may be used for AC/DC and DC/AC conversion in high-voltage high-power applications. Each phase leg of the typical Modular Multilevel converter has a number of series connected converter cells and two inductors. The converter cells, termed submodules, are generally controlled half bridges equipped with DC capacitors. Each chain of series connected submodules is referred to as one arm. The arm connecting the AC terminal to the positive DC terminal is referred to as the upper arm. Similarly, the arm connecting the AC terminal to the negative DC pole is referred to as the lower arm. The converter is controlled in such a way that the stored energy in the capacitors remains constant over time. This means that the capacitors act as voltage sources that can be either inserted or bypassed in the arms. The voltages at the AC and DC terminals can then be controlled by varying the number of inserted submodules in each arm.
In order to ensure that the stored energy in each submodule remains essentially constant over time, a capacitor voltage balancing strategy may be used. One possible solution is to use a conventional multilevel pulsewidth modulation (PWM) method, such as phase shifted carriers, and then control the energy levels by means of a feedback controller for each submodule. An example of this method is presented in the article "Control and Experiment of Pulsewidth-Modulated Modular Multilevel Converters" by Makoto Hagiwara and Hirofumi Akagi, published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 24, No. 7, July 2009. The stored energy can also be kept constant over time by rotating the pulse pattern between the submodules as described in the article "A New Modulation Method for the Modular Multilevel Converter Allowing Fundamental Switching Frequency," by lives, K.; Antonopoulos, A.; Norrga, S.; Nee, H., published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 27, No. 8, August 2012. Yet another possible solution is to use a sorting algorithm that selects which submodule to insert or bypass based on the sign of the current as described in the paper "An Innovative Modular Multilevel Converter Topoology Suitable for a Wide Power Range" by A. Lesnicar and R. Marquardt, published in 2003 IEEE Bologna PowerTech Conference Proceedings, Jun. 23-26, 2003, Bologna, Italy. That is, if one submodule is to be inserted and the current is positive, the submodule with the lowest voltage is inserted. If the current is negative, the submodule with the highest voltage is inserted. Similarly, if one submodule is to be bypassed, the submodule with the highest voltage is bypassed if the current is positive. If the current is negative, the submodule with the lowest voltage is bypassed.
However simulations of the capacitor voltage ripple in a modular multilevel converter using the above mentioned sorting algorithm have shown that although the capacitor voltages remains constant over time, the maximum deviation of the voltage ripple can be considerable compared to the case when the charge is distributed evenly between the submodules. Alternative methods for capacitor voltage balancing which allows for reduced voltage ripple would therefore be of interest.

Method and device for controlling a multilevel converter


A luminescent device (for example an autoluminescent flat display and particularly an organic electroluminescent device or display using an organic thin film as an electroluminescent layer) having a plurality of luminescing units (pixels PX) each selectively made to luminesce by a current is provided with a control part (current control circuit part 40) for accurately controlling the brightness of the luminescing units by controlling the current flowing through each luminescing unit on the basis of a brightness signal from outside, which is preferably supplied as pre-programmed memory information. As a result, it is possible to realize distinct luminescing (image display) at all times even with a passive matrix type pixel structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a luminescent device (for example an autoluminescent flat display and particularly an organic electroluminescent device or display using an organic thin film as an electroluminescent layer) and a driving method thereof.
2. Prior Art
An organic electroluminescent device (hereinafter also referred to as an organic EL device) is of 1 .mu.m or less in film thickness and can convert electrical energy into light and form a luminescing surface when a current is passed through it and therefore has ideal characteristics as an autoluminescent display device, and in recent years vigorous research and development of these devices has been being carried out.
FIG. 1 shows an organic EL device 10 as an example of a conventional luminescent device. This organic EL device 10 is made by sequentially forming an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) transparent electrode 5, a hole transfer layer 4, a luminescent layer 3, an electron transfer layer 2 and a cathode (for example an aluminum electrode) 1 on a transparent substrate (for example a glass substrate) 6 by for example vacuum vapor deposition.
When a d.c. voltage 7 is selectively impressed across the cathode 1 and the transparent electrode 5, which is an anode, holes supplied through the transparent electrode 5 pass through the hole transfer layer 4, electrons supplied through the cathode 1 pass through the electron transfer layer 2, the holes and the electrons arrive at the luminescent layer 3 and electron-hole recombination takes place and luminescing 8 of a predetermined wavelength occurs in this luminescent layer 3 and can be observed from the transparent substrate 6 side.
The luminescent layer 3 can be made to contain for example a zinc complex, and may be a layer essentially consisting of zinc complex only (a plurality of different zinc complexes can be used together) or may be a layer comprising a fluorescent substance added to a zinc complex. Also, zinc complex and other luminescent substances such as anthracene, naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene, chrysene, perylene, butadiene, coumarin, acridine and stilbene can be used together. This kind of zinc complex or mixture of zinc complex and fluorescent substance can be included in the electron transfer layer 2.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional example, an organic EL device 20 wherein the luminescent layer 3 is dispensed with, zinc complex or a mixture of zinc complex and fluorescent substance is included in the electron transfer layer 2 and luminescing 18 of a predetermined wavelength occurs at the interface of the electron transfer layer 2 and the hole transfer layer 4.
FIG. 3 shows a specific example of a case wherein the organic EL device described above is used as a passive matrix (or simple matrix) display. That is, stacks of organic layers (hole transfer layers 4, luminescent layers 3 and electron transfer layers 2) are disposed between cathodes 1 and anodes 5, these electrodes are disposed in the form of stripes intersecting with each other in the form of a matrix, signal voltages are impressed in time series by a brightness signal circuit 30 and a control circuit 31 comprising a shift register and areas where the electrodes intersect are thereby selectively made to luminesce as pixels. Accordingly, by means of this kind of construction, an organic EL device can be used not only of course as a display but also as an image reproducing device. Also, the above-mentioned pattern of stripes can be provided for each of the colors red (R), green (G) and blue (B) to make a full-color or multicolor display.
It is known that the luminescing brightness of an organic EL device, in the practical brightness area, is roughly proportional to the current (hereinafter also referred to as the device current or the pixel current) flowing through the device (specifically, the pixel).
However, in a passive matrix, when brightness data is supplied to columns as voltages, even if the current-voltage characteristics of the devices are fixed, depending on how many columns pixels of which are to be illuminated in a line and at what brightness, the current flowing through the line changes, and the further a device is along the line electrode (for example one of the above-mentioned electrodes 5) from an electrode connecting to outside, the more greatly the potential of the line electrode side is liable to fluctuate.
Consequently, because the voltage across each pixel is not just the voltage applied to the column electrode (for example, one of the above-mentioned electrodes 1), and fluctuates, there has been the problem that it is not possible to control brightness and it is difficult to display an image. Furthermore, there is a tendency for the devices to increase in resistance with age deterioration, and this makes controlling the brightnesses of pixels by means of voltage even more difficult.
The difficulty of controlling the brightnesses of pixels by means of voltage will now be explained specifically with reference to FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 is an equivalent circuit of a line of a passive matrix. Pixels PX can be regarded as light emitting diodes D connected in a forward direction. The number of columns is n, the resistance of each pixel in the forward direction is R' the resistance of the line electrode 5 between pixels is R' and the resistance of the lead part of the line electrode 5 is R".
Now, considering a case wherein all the pixels are to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness, the current flowing through each device (each pixel) at this time will be written i. At this time, due to voltage drop the potential of the line electrode 5 at the device PX.sub.1 nearest to a power supply connected to one end (the upstream end as seen from the flow of current) of the line electrode 5 falls by the amount niR" from the power supply voltage, i.e. becomes -niR". The potential of the line electrode 5 at the device PX.sub.n furthest from the power supply falls due to voltage drop by the amount {niR"+(n-1)iR'+(n-2)iR'+ . . . iR'} from the power supply voltage, i.e. becomes {-niR"-(n.sup.2 -n)iR'/2}. On the other hand, when just the furthest device PX.sub.n is to be illuminated at that brightness, the potential of the line electrode at that device falls due to voltage drop by the amount {iR"+(n-1)iR'} from the power supply voltage, i.e. becomes -{iR"+(n-1)iR'}.
Summarizing this yields the following:
1! When all the pixels are to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness:
The potential of the line electrode at the nearest device PX.sub.1 to the power supply is -niR".
The potential of the line electrode at the furthest device PX.sub.n from the power supply is -niR"-(n.sup.2 -n)iR'/2.
2! When just the furthest device PX.sub.n from the power supply is to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness:
The potential of the line electrode at the device PX.sub.n is -iR"-(n-1)iR'.
When illuminating a simple matrix of this kind, because the lines are illuminated one by one, each pixel is not continuously illuminated but rather is illuminated for a period of 1/m (where m=the number of lines), and to obtain a brightness of 100 cd/m.sup.2 is it necessary to illuminate the pixels at a peak brightness of 100 m.multidot.cd/m.sup.2.
If m is assumed to be 500 and the current density at this time during luminescing is 100 mA/cm.sup.2 and the pixel size is 0.3.times.0.3 mm in a general EL device, the current is 900 .mu.A. Also, the resistance R' of the line electrode between devices is about 20 .OMEGA. in the case of ITO and about 0.2 .OMEGA. in the case of an interconnection made of a metal such as aluminum. Supposing that the lead length is 5 mm, R" is about 300 .OMEGA. in the case of an ITO electrode and about 3 .OMEGA. in the case of a metal electrode. Also, the number of columns n will be assumed to be 1000.
Here, substituting specific numerical values into the above equations to compare the potentials of the line electrode at the furthest device PX.sub.n from the power supply in the above-mentioned cases 1! and 2! yields the following:
(a) When the line electrode consists of a metal interconnection: PA1 (b) When the line electrode consists of ITO:
1! When all the pixels are to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness: ##EQU1## 2! When just the pixel PX.sub.n is to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness: ##EQU2## PA2 1! When all the pixels are to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness: ##EQU3## 2! When just the pixel PX.sub.n is to be illuminated at a certain fixed brightness: ##EQU4##
Therefore, the potential of the line electrode at the pixel PX.sub.n fluctuates by as much as 92.43 V depending on the display state of the screen.
Therefore, the potential of the line electrode at the pixel PX.sub.n fluctuates by as much as 9243 V depending on the display state of the screen. In this case, it is impossible to make a practical circuit.
From the above results it can be seen that even using metal line electrodes having very low resistance, voltage fluctuations of a level close to 90 V occur, and when ITO line electrodes are used, because the voltage fluctuations become much larger, it is extremely difficult to control brightness by means of voltages applied to the pixels. Indeed, in the case of ITO line electrodes, the voltage fluctuations are so great that it is not even possible to construct a practical circuit.

Luminescent device having drive-current controlled pixels and method therefor


System and method for monitoring a working status of a swimming pool cover assembly. The system comprises a pool cover assembly operably connected to an alarm apparatus; both may be operably connected to a plurality of sensors capable of detecting a working status of the pool cover assembly and sending a signal to the alarm apparatus. The alarm apparatus continually produces at least one humanly perceptible indication corresponding to a working status of the pool cover assembly. The alarm apparatus includes at least one alarm-producing device, such as an audio or visual device, or combination of the two, a receiver operably connected to the plurality of sensors for receiving the signals, a processor operably coupled with the receiver for processing and recognizing the received signals, and software operably coupled with the processor enabling the alarm-producing device to produce the humanly perceptible indication corresponding to the recognized signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates to swimming pools and more particularly alarm systems for swimming pool covers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Swimming pool covers are used to prevent debris from entering the pool, and to maintain water temperature of a heated pool. An automatic pool cover system allows the pool cover to be easily extended over the pool when the pool is closed, or retracted when the pool is open. A typical automatic pool cover system usually includes a pool cover made of a synthetic material such as a durable plastic, a drive mechanism such as a reel positioned at one end of the pool for winding the pool cover, a drive control for driving the drive mechanism, and a power source for supplying power to the drive control. Further included in the automatic pool cover system may be a pair of tracks extending along each sidewall of the pool and coping, which is a formed material disposed along the periphery of the pool and above the water level. The tracks may be top-mounted to the surface deck or under-mounted to the coping.
A drawback of a typical automatic pool cover system is that when the system is activated for closing or opening, the cover continues to move until the operation is terminated either by an automatic shut off or by a pool operator turning off a control switch. Problems may arise under a circumstance in which the operator of the pool cover is unaware of the presence of pool users in the pool when he operates to close the pool. The pool users may be trapped under the pool cover. In addition, the pool cover system may fail or break if the cover is retracted while carrying an extra weight due to accumulated water or debris on the cover.
One known automatic pool cover with a warning and safety system alerts pool users when the cover is activated. This particular safety system has at least one sensor for detecting the presence of a heat generating body in the pool. The sensor then generates and sends a signal in response to the presence of the heat generating body to a controller. The controller receives the signal and activates a safety protocol in response to the signal. The safety protocol includes terminating the pool cover closing, preventing users or animals to be trapped under the cover.
A disadvantage of this system is that an alarm will be set off only when the system is working. However, in a circumstance in which the sensor is malfunctioned, the alarm may not work. In addition, if the power failure occurs, the safety system may not operate. The pool cover operator or the pool users cannot be readily aware of any failure of either the components of the pool cover system, or the alarm system. The consequence may be irreparable damages.


Embodiments provide methods and systems for transmitting an emergency (SOS) message from a user (UE) to a cellular network in a highly robust and energy efficient manner. Specifically, embodiments enable the SOS message to be sent in a synchronous manner despite the asynchronous nature of the network, which significantly enhances the probability of successful reception of the SOS message by at least one base station (eNodeB) of the network. Embodiments further provide highly robust SOS message transmission and reception schemes configured to enhance the successful detection and decoding of the SOS message by at least one base station of the cellular network. In addition, embodiments enable the synchronous transmission of the SOS message to the network without requiring network attachment by the UE. This makes embodiments highly suited for emergency situations in which network coverage is affected and can enable significant and precious power savings at the UE.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to emergency (SOS) messaging in wireless access communication networks.
2. Background Art
Emergency situations commonly occur around the globe, putting a large number of lives at risk. A cellular network offers a unique and important opportunity to protect people during times of crisis and emergency. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) offers an Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS), which enables delivery of critical information to User Equipments (UEs) within the cellular coverage zone, drastically reducing the amount of time required to warn users of an impending disaster.
While the ETWS system is able to distribute emergency and early warning information before a disaster, it does not enable delivering emergency information in the reverse direction, from a UE to the network, which would allow a user to identify itself as in need of emergency assistance. One design challenge is that network coverage is commonly poor in the location where the emergency event occurs (e.g., due to infrastructure being damaged due to the emergency event, or if the emergency event occurs at the radio cell edge or outside of the coverage area).
The present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Generally, the drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.

Synchronous SOS messaging in a cellular network


The present invention relates to a sealing device for a container having an opening and an outer projection, including: a septum for closing said opening, a cap having a retainer capable of switching from a first position, in which the retainer does not limit the axial movement of said cap with respect to said container, to a second position, in which the retainer limits the axial movement of the cap, and a sleeve receiving said cap and movable axially with respect to said cap between a distal position, in which said sleeve does not exert a radial inward force on said retainer, and a proximal position, in which said sleeve exerts a radial inward force on said retainer. The sleeve includes a guiding element capable of cooperating directly or indirectly with said outer projection, so as to limit rotation of said sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sealing device for a prefillable container and to an assembly comprising such a sealing device and container in order to obtain a secure prefillable container to be filled with a medicine, for use for example in combination with an infusion pump in treatments where a controlled delivery of a medicine to a patient is needed.
2. Description of Related Art
Infusion pumps devices and systems are well known in the medical art, for use in delivering or dispensing a prescribed medicine such as insulin to a patient. For example, such devices may comprise a compact pump housing adapted to receive a container prefilled with a prescribed medicine for automated administration to a patient through infusion tubing and an associated catheter. The infusion pump is often designed to be extremely compact and may thus be adapted to be carried by the patient, for example, by means of a belt clip. The medicine may then be administered in an automated manner, without significant restriction on the patient's mobility or life-style. In addition, the patient may manage his own treatment by replacing himself an empty container by a new prefilled container in the system he is carrying.
In such a case, it is very important that the prefilled container the patient is provided with be securely sealed until it is needed for use by the patient. In particular, the sealing device of the container may not be removable. Moreover, the sealing device or the sealing step of the container before use must not be at the origin of a contamination of the medicine contained in the container. In addition, the prefilled container must be able to be secured and locked in place in the infusion pump system by the patient in a simple while reliable manner. Indeed, inadvertent displacement of the prefilled container in the infusion pump system, before or during delivery of the medicine, may result in inadequate administration of the prescribed medicine and constitute a danger for the patient. In particular, it would be desirable that the sealing device does not move with respect to the collar of the container, neither axially nor rotationally, during the delivery step of the medicine.
Sealing devices of containers exist which use an aluminum foil which is crimped over the collar of the container. Nevertheless, such sealing devices are not satisfying because the crimping of the aluminum foil over the collar may generate particles capable of contaminating the medicine present in the container.
Moreover, the filling of the empty containers and their sealing usually take place within the premises of the pharmaceutical companies producing the prescribed medicine. These companies must fill in and seal millions of containers and these steps usually take place on assembly lines and are as much as possible completed by automated machines: these steps are therefore reproducible and reliable.
Anyway, the automated sealing of a container filled with a medicine implies that the sealing device may be installed on the collar of a container regardless of the orientation of the sealing device with respect to the collar at the time the sealing step starts, i.e. at the time the sealing device is approached to the collar by a machine.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a sealing device for a container allowing an optimized sealing step of the container once filled.
An aspect of the invention is a sealing device for a container having a proximal end and a distal end, said distal end being provided with a collar defining an opening aligned on an axis A and provided with an outer flange, said container being provided on its outer wall with at least one outer projection, the sealing device comprising:
a septum sealingly engageable with said opening when said sealing device is mounted on said container,
a cap receiving said septum and capable of receiving at least part of said collar when said sealing device is mounted on said container, said cap comprising retaining means capable of switching from a first position, in which they do not limit the axial movement of said cap with respect to said collar when said sealing device is mounted on said container, to a second position, in which they limit said axial movement under the action of a radial inward force exerted thereon,
a sleeve receiving said cap and movable axially with respect to said cap between a distal position, in which said sleeve does not exert a radial inward force on said retaining means, and a proximal position, in which said sleeve exerts radial inward force on said retaining means,
wherein said sleeve further comprises guiding means capable of cooperating directly or indirectly with said at least one outer projection of said container, so as to limit the rotation of said sleeve with respect to said container when said sleeve is in its proximal position, regardless from the orientation with which the sealing device is mounted on said container.


A device may receive a message from a client device and determine whether the message includes particular data. The device may identify an address within a particular address group when the message includes the particular data. The traffic associated with addresses within the particular address group are assigned priority over traffic associated with addresses outside the particular address group. The device may provide the identified address to the client device so that traffic associated with the client device receives priority over other traffic

Some home users of the Internet share their Internet data connection with audio services (e.g., telephone services) and video services (e.g., television or video-on-demand services). As a result, these audio/video services often have to compete for bandwidth at the customer premises with standard Internet traffic. This can lead to suboptimal quality of the audio/video services.

Assigning priority to network traffic at customer premises


A damper arrangement for a glove box of an automotive vehicle is mounted separately from the glove box compartment in a space between other components mounted in an instrument panel of the vehicle. A pulley is mounted separate from both the glove box damper and the glove box compartment. A wire connects the glove box damper to a movable member associating the glove box compartment with a glove box lid via the pulley.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a damper arrangement for a glove box of an automotive vehicle. Particularly, the present invention relates to a glove box damper arrangement which can be operatively mounted behind a vehicle instrument panel without interfering with other vehicle components and without need for reducing the size of a glove box.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional damper for a vehicle glove box, the glove box is included in an instrument panel of a vehicle, the instrument panel may further accommodate an air bag module mounted in proximity thereto and may further include a cooler unit for example. A lid of the glove box is connected by a wire to the glove box damper such that the lid of the glove box will open slowly. The glove box damper is normally installed on an outer surface of the glove box, such as on a rear surface thereof or on a side surface.
Such a conventional glove box damper is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model application No. 63-196752. According to this disclosure, a lid for a glove box is rotatable hinged at a lower portion thereof to open in a downward direction. According to such arrangement the glove box damper is provided at a side or rear portion thereof.
However, given the increasing number of components mounted in vehicle instrument panels and the need for safety devices such as air bag modules, it has been required to provide a glove box damper arrangement which does not reduce a glove box capacity as with a rear mounted glove box damper, and yet assures a necessary stroke length for effective damping and full opening of the glove box which is often not achieved by side mounted glove box damper arrangements.

Glove box damper arrangement for vehicle


A computer/software tool for electronic design automation (EDA) uses parasitic elements from a post-layout netlist (PLN) file for a given IC design to assess routing-imposed RC-based signal degeneration. The computer/software tool facilitates selection of, and insertion location for, one or more “virtual repeaters,” based on modification to the PLN file. The tool generates a visual display based on the calculated design characteristics, facilitating adjustment and optimization of repeater cell and location by the designer. The repeater insertion is “virtual,” because modeling and adjustment can be based on abstractions (e.g., load capacitance presented by a repeater) and the already-extracted netlist file, and because an actual circuit design need not be created until after a designer has fine-tuned repeater insertion parameters.

In the field of integrated circuit ("IC") design, it is typically desired to simulate new integration designs in order to assess whether those layouts will perform to expectations (an "integration design," as used herein refers to a design for an IC or any layout of any circuitry is intended to be part of an IC design). Design features such as path length, components traversed or encountered, material structures (and discontinuities in those structures) and nearby circuitry elements and signal paths, and their associated resistances and capacitances, can all affect the extent to which a propagating signal is delayed and/or deteriorates in route to an intended destination. The mentioned design features and their associated parasitics can create many different types of effects including time delays, unintended signal attenuation, low slew rate in rising and/or falling edges (or other undesired changes in pulse shape), near-end or far end crosstalk, signal reflections, and other types of effects; sometimes, these effects can be severe enough that the circuit design experiences errors, either all the time or for "worst case" patterns or conditions. Simulation protocols can examine the behavior of one or more test signals as they travel on each pathway of an IC design (e.g., by modeling how a signal such as a rising or falling waveform, a "unit pulse" or a more complex signal, travels down that pathway, and whether it is sufficiently recognizable and/or timely at the intended destination to perform the signal's intended function).
When problems are discovered, designers sometimes insert repeaters to repeat (e.g., reconstitute a transmitted signal) at interim points along the transmitted signal's path. A "repeater" as used herein is any circuit element that retransmits, corrects or boosts a signal; it can include without limitation digital buffers, transceivers, inverters, drivers, flip-flops, amplifiers and other types of circuit elements. For example, for a uniform transmission pathway, the delay along half of the length of the length of the pathway typically only accounts for one quarter of the overall delay/deterioration, since capacitance and resistance are in theory each reduced by half; as this example demonstrates, one or more repeaters, inserted at suitable locations, can therefore substantially ameliorate characteristics that cause delays/deterioration. However, repeaters can also themselves add capacitance, resistance and some intrinsic delay to a given pathway and therefore repeaters do not necessarily improve signal characteristics unless inserted judiciously.
To effectuate repeater insertion, designers typically estimate a location where a repeater should be placed and generate a new circuit design; this design is then laid out and is subjected to design rule checking ("DRC") and layout versus schematic ("LVS") software tools; each design is then extracted, with the post-layout netlist being provided to software-based circuit simulators. This process must typically be reperformed many times, i.e., estimated locations are frequently inaccurate, because the design features in question (and their associated parasitics) can in practice be highly complex and non-uniform, and optimum repeater design and positioning is not necessarily intuitive. Each design iteration, including layout and associated simulation, is typically very time-consuming, and adjustments must often be reperformed iteratively using trial and error until a suitable solution is found. When it is considered that some transmission paths do not require repeater insertion, while others might require one, two or a greater number of repeaters, and that a complex circuit design can potentially require that thousands of pathways be examined, it can be appreciated that repeater insertion is a daunting task.
What are needed are techniques for addressing these difficulties, that is, for improvements in circuit design tools (e.g., circuit simulators and/or layout editors) and related methods which facilitate optimal repeater insertion, and which generally provide for a more efficient design generation. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides further, related advantages.
The subject matter defined by the enumerated claims may be better understood by referring to the following detailed description, which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. This description of one or more particular embodiments, set out below to enable one to build and use various implementations of the technology set forth by the claims, is not intended to limit the enumerated claims, but to exemplify their application. Without limiting the foregoing, this disclosure provides several different examples of techniques that can be used to improve the functioning of electronic design automation, analysis and/or layout tools, and to speed up the development of an integrated circuit design. The various techniques can be embodied as software, in the form of a computer, device, service, cloud service, system or other device or apparatus, in the form of a circuit design or integrated circuit layout or a netlist file produced or modified as a result of these techniques, or in another manner. While specific examples are presented, the principles described herein may also be applied to other methods, devices and systems as well.


A pulse-induction type metal detector that reliably identifies ferrous and non-ferrous targets in soils with varying mineral content. The influence of the background signals from the soil is removed continuously, without the need for manual adjustment of controls by the operator, when the soil mineralization changes. The background signals are removed without affecting the sensitivity of the detector to metallic targets and the background signal removal process does not make the detector insensitive to targets whose time constant coincides with that of the soil.

This invention relates to metal detectors, and specifically to detectors that discriminate between ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Discriminating metal detectors are well known. More than 80 patents claim to have solved the problems inherent in such detectors, but the improvements in the art have been introduced in such small increments that a level of performance that satisfies the demands of the market place has not yet been attained.
Discrimination is said to be functional "if ground permits" or "if the signal is not too weak". Graphical representations of the discrimination capability show that it is operative to a target depth that amounts to less than a quarter of the maximal detection depth.
The difficulties encountered by the state-of-the-art detectors stem from the fact that the resistive and reactive components of the signal intercepted by the receiver coil are intermingled and the various methods used to separate them are very complex and the results obtained are not good enough to achieve reliable discrimination against ferrous metals.
Instead of attempting to analyze the complex target signals, the present invention separates them into their components at their very source, by using a unique coil-current wave form.
A partial separation of the received signals into in-phase and quadrature signals, has been achieved in prior art.
Karbowski, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,973 describes such a system. However, his system fails to differentiate between signals of different origins, the effect of which will be discussed below in further detail.
The above-cited patent senses the reactive component only when a target is present, as determined by the presence of a resistive signal—a feature in common with the present patent. The purpose for doing that is materially different in the present patent, however. Karbowski's purpose is to differentiate between a human body and a metallic object; in the present patent, the object is to differentiate between ferrous and nonferrous targets.
The purpose for initiating the reactive-component sensing when the resistive component is present, is that the reactive components originating in the background must be nulled out immediately prior to the sensing of reactive signals caused by the target. This must be accomplished dynamically, as the environment and the coil assembly alignment change. Such a dynamic alignment requires an electronic feedback loop. Karbowski describes only mechanical means for nulling the detector.
Other means for nulling or "balancing" a detector are also used in prior-art hand-held detectors. For example, a synchronous demodulator, with the signal gating pulse straddling the zero crossing point, as shown in FIG. 1, yields one output signal polarity for ferrous targets and the opposite polarity for non-ferrous targets. This is true, when the coil system has been balanced for a signal that contains both resistive and reactive components. In the balanced condition, discrimination between ferrous and non-ferrous targets is possible, however, presence of magnetic minerals in the ground often causes misidentification of a target. A change in the reactive component of the signal causes a phase shift, as shown in FIG. 2. The detector can not determine whether this is caused by a target, or a change in the soil.
Attempts to separate the target signal from the background signal have resulted in the design of detectors which use multiple operating frequencies and process the resulting signals with extremely complicated circuits. The drawbacks of such methods are obvious when one considers the problems of alignment, power consumption and drift of complex systems, under the temperature and humidity conditions that metal detectors are expected to endure.
The objective has been to make use of the fact that the ratios between the resistive and reactive components of the target signal vary with the nature of the target and the frequency used. Thus, it is theoretically possible to identify a target by comparing the received signal to memorized "signatures" of desirable and undesirable targets.
Owing to the fact that some undesirable objects like "hot rocks" present an infinite variety of signatures, this type of system represents only a partial solution to the problem. The fact that many signatures of desirable and undesirable targets overlap is another shortcoming of such a system.
To overcome the limitations of sine-wave systems, pulse-induction systems have been developed. In such systems, the target signal is sampled at a time when the primary field is absent, thus eliminating signals owing to mutual inductance between the receiver and transmitter coils. This expedient greatly reduces a detector's sensitivity to magnetic minerals in the soil, but it also eliminates the detector's ability to discriminate between ferrous and non-ferrous targets. Such "all-metal" detectors are used mostly in industrial applications, where any metal contamination must be detected and removed from a product.
A certain level of in-phase signal is present at nearly all times, owing to soil conductivity or the presence of minerals that exhibit magnetic viscosity or energy absorption and release effects.
This background signal must be eliminated so that it does not affect the threshold at which a target is detected.
The simplest method of prior art uses capacitive coupling between the demodulator and the level sensor, to eliminate the DC component of the signal.
Such detectors are known as "motion detectors". Capacitive coupling of the signal eliminates one problem but introduces a new one.
A transient, negative-going excursion of the signal, caused by a void or an inert rock in the ground produces a rebound, which results in a positive signal. A human ear may be able to learn to recognize the characteristic sound produced by this phenomenon, but a level sensor can not. An industrially usable detector must issue a non-ambiguous signal such as a logic pulse, to stop a conveyor belt or to operate automatic target processing machinery.
More sophisticated detectors use what is known as a "self-adjusting threshold", which periodically restores the background signal to zero. In some instruments, the rate at which this occurs is variable, to make it possible to strike a reasonable balance between instability and loss of sensitivity.
Owing to the possibility of cancelling out a target, this method is not usable in detectors monitoring a conveyor belt, or in other sensitive applications.
In the present invention, the background signal is eliminated by a method which is not subject to the above limitations.
The degree of mineralization of the ground may change during the very time the target signal is being acquired, thereby affecting the target identification process. This problem is not addressed in prior-art-detectors.
In the present invention, the background change is assessed by evaluating the background immediately before and after the target signal is acquired. By this means, the effect of the changing background is eliminated.
A similar problem arises when several targets are located in close proximity and one of them exhibits undesirable characteristics. In prior-art detectors, signals from the undesirable target cause all the targets to be misidentified.
The present invention comprises a means to detect the presence of multiple targets, lessening the probability of a good target being masked by an undesirable one.
Owing to the above-described problems with state-of-the-art metal detectors, there is a need for an improved detector, particularly for use in gold mines, recycling facilities, security applications, food processing and for land mine detection.
Even detectors used by hobbyists benefit from the ability to discriminate between worthless and valuable targets, without the need to interpret ambiguous visual and auditory cues.
The failure of prior-art technology to solve the problems associated with target identification can be largely attributed to the use of techniques which do not identify and counteract the various signals that are elicited when a magnetic flux pulse penetrates the ground and the signals generated owing to mutual inductance between the transmitter and receiver coils.
In contrast, the present invention detects the various signals engendered by the coil pulse and provides the means to nullify the ones that impair detector performance.
Theory
To facilitate the understanding of the operation of the present invention, the underlying physical principles are outlined below.
FIG. 3-A shows the shape of the coil current. In accordance with Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction, a changing magnetic field produces a voltage which is proportional to the time-derivative of the magnetic field.
In the case of a linearly changing field, the induced voltage is a steady DC level, as shown by trace 312, in FIG. 3-B.
When such a voltage is generated in a conductive object, a current results. The magnitude of the current is initially zero, and it gradually attains a maximal value which is determined by the induced voltage and the resistance in the current path. This current is generally know as a Foucault current, or more popularly, as an eddy current.
The speed with which the current attains its maximal value depends on the ratio between the inductance and the resistance of the current path. This quantity has been given a the name "time constant", according to the formula:T=L/R where T is the time constant, L is the inductance and R is the resistance.
During the build-up phase, the eddy current follows an exponential path, which is defined by the equation:I=I.sub.max×(1−e.sup.(−t/T))where I is the current at time t, I.sub.max is the steady-state current after the build-up period, e is the base of the natural logarithm and T is the time constant of the target.
Such a changing current generates a magnetic field, referred to as a secondary magnetic field, in metal detector terminology.
The secondary magnetic field induces a voltage in the receiver coil of a metal detector, and owing to the fact that the time derivative of an exponential function is an exponential function, the resultant voltage has the same time constant as the eddy current, as shown by trace 324, in FIG. 3-C. Owing to its origin, this voltage is referred to as the "eddy-current voltage".
The eddy-current voltage changes according to the formula:E=E.sub.0×e.sup.(−t/T)where E is the voltage at time t and E sub.0 is the initial voltage.
It is important to note here, that the eddy-current voltage approaches zero, asymptotically. Thus, if the current ramp in FIG. 3-A is long enough, the eddy-current voltage is substantially zero at the end of the ramp.
While the steady-state eddy current does not induce a voltage in the receiver coil, it continues to have an effect on the mutual inductance of the coil system.
In prior-art detectors, a gross reduction of the inductive coupling between the transmitter and receiver coils is usually accomplished by mechanical means, and any residual signal is removed by adding a compensating signal of the appropriate magnitude and polarity to the preamplifier input.
When an object having a higher magnetic permeability than air is brought into the vicinity of such a balanced coil system, the balance is upset, and a voltage is generated in the receiver coil. Such a voltage is termed "mutual-inductance voltage".
A steady current flowing in a conductive object near the coil system produces an analogous mutual-inductance voltage, but of the opposite polarity.
When a target having both magnetic and conductive properties is brought into the vicinity of the coil system, the signals produced are antagonistic, and the difference between them will be manifested.
During the build-up phase of the eddy current, the eddy-current signals and the mutual-inductance signals are subtracted algebraically. As the eddy-current signal decays, the mutual-inductance signal becomes predominant, as show by traces 408 or 410, in FIG. 4-C.
When a steady state is attained near the end of the current ramp, the residual signal represents the difference between the magnetic imbalance and the effect caused by a steady-state eddy current in the target.
It has been observed that in most targets that are both magnetic and conductive, the magnetic effect predominates, making it possible to determine the magnetic property of the target simply by noting the polarity of the mutual-inductance signal.
This condition is illustrated by trace 410, in FIG. 4-C.
In contrast, a non ferrous target generates signals that are additive during the eddy-current build-up period, as shown by trace 408, in FIG. 4-C
After the build-up effects have subsided, the residual mutual-inductance signal has the opposite polarity of that caused by a ferrous target.
In ferrous targets that sustain large eddy currents, owing to a shape that represents a large area perpendicular to the magnetic flux from the transmitter coil, the sum of the mutual inductance signals may be of indeterminate polarity.
It is therefore advantageous to remove the signal component that represents the steady-state eddy current.
The signal present during the constant-current interval 304, in FIG. 3-A, is a measure of the steady-state current, and it can be sampled there, while the mutual-inductance signal is absent. Sampling this signal at interval 315, shown in FIG. 3-C, and subtracting the value from the sample at interval 328, will make the magnetic imbalance signal more prominent.
This technique will also eliminate another artifact which is termed the "dynamic imbalance signal".
While the coil system is in motion, relative to magnetic material in the vicinity, the changing mutual inductance between the transmitter and receiver coils will generate a transitory magnetic imbalance signal. Additionally, the realignment of the domains will generate a transitory resistive signal, owing to absorption or release of energy. These signals have essentially the same magnitude at the end of the current ramp and during the constant-current interval, and they can thus be substantially eliminated by the above-mentioned sampling and subtraction.
The signals caused by energy absorption and release can be significantly reduced in amplitude if the coil current is made unipolar, in contrast to the current practice of using bipolar coil excitation. Using a biphasic coil current, as shown in FIG. 4-D, has the advantage of using less energy for a given length of the current ramp, but at the cost of more interference by ground signals.
The choice between the unipolar and biphasic options depends on the application of the detector.
When energy consumption of the detector is of importance, as in battery-powered detectors, extending the current ramp long enough to allow transitory signals to decay to substantially zero, may be impractical.
There is an alternate method of determining the polarity of the of the mutual-inductance signal, however.
In FIG. 4-C, the eddy-current signals 408 and 340 should have the same time constant when calculated from the samples taken at intervals 326, 328 and 342 and 344, respectively. When the signal amplitudes are assigned the designations V1, V2, V3 and V4, in sequence, the time constants can be calculated according to the equation:T1=t/log(V1/V2) and T2=t/(log(V3/V4)where T1 is the time constant during the ramp and T2 is the time constant after the coil pulse. The time difference between the sampling pulses=t, and log is the natural logarithm.
Assuming that there is no significant eddy-current carry-over from the ramp interval to the after-pulse interval, by making the constant-current interval 304 appropriately long, the two time constants should be essentially the same.
It will be found however, that the two time constants may differ significantly, and this can be attributed to the influence of the mutual-inductance signal.
The means to compute and compare the time constants of the signals intercepted by the receiver coil involves the following steps:
Microcontroller 811 directs gating circuit 808 in FIG. 8 to sample the received signals at gating intervals 326 and 328, shown in FIG. 4-C. An algorithm in the program of the microcontroller computes a first time constant T1 from the acquired values per the equation shown in paragraph
The result is stored in the memory of the microcontroller. A second time constant T2 is derived in an analogous fashion from samples 342 and 344, in FIG. 4-C. T2 is then subtracted from T1. If the result of the subtraction is negative, the target is ferrous and if the result is positive, the target is non-ferrous. The actual polarity of the subtraction result depends on how the coils are wired, however, ferrous and non-ferrous targets always yield opposite polarities as a result of the above subtraction.
This determination of the ferrous or non-ferrous nature in unambiguous and it does not depend on stored signatures of targets nor does the method fail, when the time constant of the target signal is similar to the time constant of the background signal owing to mineralization of the soil.
Magnetite, or "black sand", in the parlance of prospectors, is often found in areas where gold is found. Having a higher specific gravity than the country rock, magnetite is concentrated in the same gravity traps that catch gold nuggets. This circumstance constitutes a major problem for state-of-the-art detectors, since it affects the balance of the coil system.
When only one target is present in the vicinity of the coil system, the demodulated envelopes of the signals of eddy-current origin and those of mutual-inductance origin are essentially synchronous, as shown by traces 508, 604 and 606, in FIGS. 6-A and 6-D. Trace 606 is the response to a ferrous target and trace 604, to a non-ferrous target.
Occasionally, more than one target is detected at the same time, causing state-of-the-art detectors to misidentify a non-ferrous target, when a ferrous target is also present.
This problem is eliminated when the signal envelopes of the eddy-current and mutual-inductance signals are compared with respect to shape and the point in time at which the signals peak.
As shown in FIG. 5-F, the zero-crossing points of the differentiated signals will differ, when two targets with differing magnetic characteristics are present. The rising edges of traces 514 and 520 define the points in time when the two signals reach their peak amplitudes. The difference in the times is used to define the length of "misalignment pulse" 522. When a preset limit of the length of pulse 522 is exceeded, that is taken as an indication of the presence of more than one target, and a ferrous indication, which might normally be issued, is disabled.
The above criterion for multiple-target detection is shown by way of example only. Other criteria may also be used to measure the tracking between the eddy-current and mutual-inductance signals by programming the appropriate algorithm into the microcontroller.
In light of what has been discussed hereinabove, and from what can be seen in FIGS. 3-A, B and C, it can be concluded that by using the appropriate coil energizing current waveform, the various signals intercepted by the receiver coil can be temporally separated. The amplitudes of the various signal components can be ascertained by sampling the signals at appropriate times.
Thus, the use of complicated and ineffective signal-processing means are obviated.

Metal detector with reliable identification of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in soils with varying mineral content


Coatings including pigments comprising substrate particles with ultrafine metal oxide particles deposited on the surfaces thereof and made by a plasma process are disclosed. The substrate particles may comprise an oxide such as SiO2, Al2O3, Bi2O3 and the like. The ultrafine metal oxide particles may be partially oxidized such as Cu2O, Ti3O4 and the like. The pigments may be used in coating compositions in which the substrate particles substantially match the refractive index of the coating composition base, and the ultrafine metal oxide particles provide the desired reflectance characteristics for the coating.

Many types of pigments are used for various coating applications. For example, inorganic pigments such as TiO2, Fe2O3, Al2O3, MgO, CaO, ZnO, carbon black and aluminum silicate are often used in paints and other coatings. Such inorganic pigments typically have particle sizes ranging from about 0.5 to about 30 microns, and are made by processes such as flame processes, plasma processes, solution processes and sol-gel processes. For example, most commercial TiO2 is made using TiCl4 as a starting material. Pure TiCl4 is reacted with oxygen in an exothermic reaction to form titanium dioxide and to liberate chlorine, which is recycled to the chlorination stage. The high temperature ensures that only the rutile crystal form is produced. After cooling, the gas stream passes through a separator to collect the pigment particles, which are treated to remove adsorbed chlorine from the pigment.

Coatings including pigments comprising substrate particles with ultrafine metal oxide particles deposited thereon


This invention is a filtration structure characterized by radial fluid flow through the wall of a cylindrical configuration that is established by a stack of serrated annular wafers which are constrained for slight axial movement with respect to each other, for the establishment of two conditions. In one condition, the wafers are axially compressed into snug contact under spring bias to establish a labyrinth of radial passages for fluid flow at a selected pressure. In the other condition, the axial compression of the disks is relieved and the disks are slightly separated by back flushing under an elevated pressure in such a way that cleansing is freely effected by reverse fluid flow.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the filtration of contaminated water and industrial waste fluids, and to systems for filtration of finely dispersed contaminants and waste products.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07/588,572, filed Sep. 21, 1990 in the name of Sohail Zaite, now abandoned.
2. Background of the Invention
There have been proposed a variety of filtration structures characterized by fluid flow radially through the porous wall of a cylindrical configuration that is established by a stack of annular wafers. These wafers generally are characterized by opposed reticulated faces that establish a radial labyrinth of passages through which the fluid can pass between the interior and exterior surfaces of the cylindrical configuration. Such prior structures typically have been constituted by disposable packaging or have been prone to clogging problems, particularly when very fine particles have been involved.

Filtration structure for fluid flow radially through cylindrical configuration defined by stack of serrated wafers


A stabilized platform system for isolating a payload from angular motion and translational and angular vibration of a supporting structure, has an inner gimbal for carrying the payload, a sprung shell containing and carrying the inner gimbal in a manner permitting the inner gimbal a limited amount of angular movement relative thereto about pitch, roll and yaw axes, and an outer gimbal containing the sprung shell and inner gimbal. A passive vibration isolator is connected between the sprung shell and the outer gimbal and has two symmetrical arrays of dampened coil springs located on opposite sides of the sprung shell.

When it is desired to operate imaging devices such as cameras or infra-red imaging systems on moving vehicles such as aircraft, automobiles or boats, it is usually necessary for the imaging device itself to be stabilized in some manner. For example, U.S. Pat No. 3,638,502 (Leavitt et al) issued Feb. 1972 describes a stabilized camera mount in which the camera is supported from a universal joint centrally located in a spherical protective fairing, the universal joint in turn being supported by a compliant vibration isolator. A set of three orthogonal gyroscopes is attached to the camera platform, and the reaction forces from the gyroscopes tend to stabilize the platform directly. Additionally, angle transducers on the precession axes of the gyroscopes are used to sense angular rates and to automatically apply correcting moments to the platform using a combination of moving weight servos and magnetic torque motors as in the above-mentioned patent, or by means of three magnetic torque motors driving the three axes of the universal joint as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,466 (Goodman) issued Feb. 5, 1991. In each case, the various axes of the universal joint are used to constrain motion, so that conventional magnetic torque motors can be used. These must be mounted on the structures of the universal joint and occupy a substantial volume at the centre of the assembly which could be better used to house the payload, i.e. the imaging device.
In such prior art, the structure of the stabilized platform must be relieved in areas where it can otherwise interfere with the structure supporting the compliant vibration isolator and universal joint, thus resulting in loss of further possible payload space. Even with this loss of space, the manoeuvrability of the supporting vehicle is invariably restricted when carrying such prior art assembly.
Another problem arises with such prior art. If it is necessary, for example with an aircraft installation, to fly over an object on the ground and at the same time to track the object with a camera, the elevation over azimuth steering geometry of such prior art may prevent the operator from achieving this due to a phenomenon known as gimbal lock.


A connector for engaging an electrical conductor that includes a wire surrounded by insulation includes a housing formed with a first slot engageable with the wire and including first and second laterally-spaced surfaces having between them a first width that is less than a width of an outer surface of the insulation and greater than a width of the wire. A cover having a second slot engageable with the wire includes third and fourth laterally-spaced surfaces spaced along a length of the conductor from the first and second surfaces, and offset laterally from the first and second surfaces, the third and fourth surfaces having between them a second width that is less than a width of an outer surface of the insulation and greater than a width of the wire.

The present invention relates generally to a connector that engages an insulated conductor, secures it against displacement, and produces an electrical connection. More particularly, the invention pertains to a connector such as is used in the electrical system of a motor vehicle.
Insulation displacement connection (IDC) is a technique employing a connector that engages the insulation surrounding an electrical conductor in order to secure the position conductor against unwanted movement and to produce an electric connection. Conductor strain relief restrains the conductor in the IDC and holds the conductor in place to prevent its movement relative to the IDC interface and potential damage to the interface. It also improves conductor pull force performance by cutting into the insulation when the conductor is pulled vertically or longitudinally.
Conventional conductor connectors in the prior art usually include strain relief and position definition features integrated into a mating part. These features often are in the form of bumps on a plastic connector cover, housing or another part of the connector, which bumps are used to form and IDC interface by pushing the conductor into the IDC. Such connectors rely on tolerances between the mating parts and positive mechanical locks to secure the parts mutually. Reliance on dimensional tolerances and mechanical locking permits variability in the position of the conductor relative to the IDC interface and affects the quality of the IDC interface.
The magnitude of the contact force varies in conventional IDCs with the diameter of the conductor and insulation. Furthermore, there is no provision in conventional IDCs for outside pressure on the conductor in two perpendicular directions, which would ensure sufficient contact force to accommodate variations in the size of the conductor. By adjusting the offset of the adjacent slots this contact force can be adjusted. A larger offset is be used for smaller conductor sizes; a smaller offset is used for larger conductor sizes. The magnitude of the contact force between the connector and conductor is preferably adjustable by changing the magnitude of the offset between adjacent slots of the connector.
It is preferred that a connector rely on mechanical engagement with the conductor insulation to provide repeatable positioning of the conductor relative to the connector and to prevent displacement of the conductor relative to the connector, especially displacement resulting from conductor pulling forces, which is an important requirement of the performance of the IDC.