A spectral image is corrected for optical aberrations. Tissue is exposed to a high-intensity, narrow band of light. The narrow band of light is scattered by at least one analyte in the tissue. Raman signals are optically collected from the scattered light. The Raman signals are directed to a wavelength-separating device. The Raman signals are detected as a function of intensity and wavelength to create the spectral image. The spectral image is corrected for optical aberrations using a software algorithm to spatially reassign intensity. The software may be adapted to use a reference image to make dynamic corrections. Fluorescence signals may also be collected.

The quantitative determination of analytes in body fluids is of great importance in the diagnoses and maintenance of certain physiological abnormalities. For example, lactate, cholesterol and bilirubin should be monitored in certain individuals. In particular, it is important that diabetic individuals frequently check the glucose level in their body fluids to regulate the glucose intake in their diets. The results of such tests can be used to determine what, if any, insulin or other medication needs to be administered.
In some existing techniques, a lancet may be used to draw fluid (e.g., blood) from a user. This fluid is then used with an instrument or meter to determine an analyte concentration. It would be desirable to eliminate the need to use a lancet, while still accurately determining the analyte concentration. Such applications are referred to as non-invasive techniques.
One non-invasive technique involves using Raman signals to determine the concentration of an analyte such as glucose. There, however, are disadvantages in existing non-invasive methods that use Raman or other types of signals. For example, the spectral image of an object that is imaged using a spectrometer contains optical aberrations. Optical aberrations such as curvature may result in overlapping spectral bands and/or poorly resolved peaks. This may lead to erroneous results when attempting to quantify an analyte in a complex matrix. These optical aberrations may make it difficult to distinguish or differentiate analytes (e.g., glucose) from other tissue and fluid components with similar characteristic spectra. Some existing techniques have proposed hardware solutions to correct the optical aberrations. These hardware solutions, however, do not have the flexibility to address selected optical aberrations. For example, existing hardware techniques are not adapted to address curvatures that are not fixed such as those associated with holographic or transmission grating.
It would be desirable to have a method that has flexibility in addressing a variety of optical aberrations in spectral images.

Method for correcting a spectral image for optical aberrations using software


A universal temperature compensation circuit for use with a temperature sensor operative to generate an analog temperature signal based on the temperature thereof. The universal temperature compensation circuit comprises an analog to digital converter in electrical communication with the temperature sensor. The analog to digital converter is operative to generate a digital temperature signal from the analog temperature signal. In electrical communication with the analog to digital converter is an electronic storage device containing digital data correlated to temperatures of the temperature sensor. The universal temperature compensation circuit further includes a digital to analog converter in electrical communication with the electronic storage device. The digital to analog converter is operative to generate an analog voltage level from the digital data contained within the electronic storage device. An amplifier is in electrical communication with the digital to analog converter and is operative to buffer and generate a final output voltage level from the analog voltage level. The final output voltage level being correlated to the temperature of the temperature sensor.

(Not Applicable)
(Not Applicable)
The present invention generally relates to temperature compensation circuitry and more specifically to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) temperature compensation circuit for use with voltage controlled attenuators or variable gain amplifiers for the purpose of compensating gain variations over temperature of radio frequency (RF) amplifiers.
Uncompensated RF amplifiers typically have inherent and somewhat predictable gain variations over operating temperatures due to changes in the transconductance of the active devices. The change in amplifier gain varies inversely with the operating temperature (i.e., as temperature increases, gain decreases) and can vary at a rate of between 0.012 to 0.02 dB/xc2x0C. for an amplifier with approximately 10 dB of RF gain. The variations in amplifier gain over temperature results in reduced sensitivity and dynamic range for many systems unless adequately compensated. Typically, voltage variable attenuation devices have been used to compensate for gain variations of amplifiers. Alternatively, another technique commonly used is to apply an adjustable bias, relative to operating temperature, to the amplifier itself, which results in the necessary gain compensation to maintain the overall amplifier gain at a relatively constant level.
Prior art temperature compensation circuitry used for the purpose of temperature compensating amplifiers consisted of thermistors and temperature references that generate non-linear drive characteristics for the voltage variable attenuation or amplifier device. These prior art temperature compensation circuits allow the gain variation of the amplifier caused by temperature to be compensated out of the system by appropriately varying the system attenuation via bias voltages. However, the prior art temperature compensation circuitry has been inadequate because it is costly, consumes large amounts of substrate area, and only approximates the desired response. Additionally, the prior art temperature compensation circuitry is inadequate because a new or modified circuit design is required for each application and for each variation in amplifier fabrication.
The present invention addresses the above-mentioned deficiencies in prior art temperature compensation circuitry by providing a circuit which accurately provides the required control voltage to precisely compensate for variations that result from temperature changes. The present invention addresses a technique for generating the required input bias control to a wide variety of voltage controlled gain or attenuator devices for the purpose of accurately adjusting and compensating for gain variations of amplifiers over temperature. This same circuit described herein can be used to temperature compensate other devices (i.e., oscillators, attenuators, phase shifters, etc.) that are subject to variations over temperature. The present invention provides for application specific temperature compensation responses by providing multiple (2 or more), independent precise voltage outputs. Many voltage variable attenuators require multiple voltage inputs that are non-linear and independent (i.e., can not be derived from each other). The present invention is not limited to only 2 outputs and can be expanded to accommodate 3 or more precise outputs that can be adjusted to provide unique voltage output versus temperature transfer curves for each output. Additionally, the present invention provides a temperature compensation circuit that can be fabricated on an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), thereby making the circuit less expensive and more compact in size than the prior art.
A universal temperature compensation circuit for use with a temperature sensor operative to generate an analog temperature voltage based on the temperature thereof. The universal temperature compensation circuit comprises an analog to digital converter in electrical communication with the temperature sensor. The analog to digital converter is operative to generate a digital temperature voltage from the analog temperature voltage. In electrical communication with the analog to digital converter is an electronic storage device containing digital values or data correlated to temperatures of the temperature sensor. The universal temperature compensation circuit further includes a digital to analog converter in electrical communication with the electronic storage device. The digital to analog converter is operative to generate an analog voltage level from the digital values or data contained within the electronic storage device. An amplifier is in electrical communication with the digital to analog converter and is operative to amplify and buffer an output voltage level from the analog voltage level. The output voltage level is correlated to the temperature of the temperature sensor by the digital data contained within the electronic storage device. It is contemplated that a demultiplexer be electrically connected between the electronic storage device and the digital to analog converter. In this instance, a second digital to analog converter may be in electrical communication with the demultiplexer and a second amplifier. Accordingly, the second amplifier will be operative to output a second output voltage level that is correlated to the temperature of the sensor but is different than the first output voltage level.
It will be recognized that the electronic storage device may be an EEPROM that is programmed with temperature specific data. The digital temperature signal is used as an address for the EEPROM and addresses the digital value or data stored in the EEPROM that corresponds to the temperature of the sensor.
In order to control the operation of the temperature compensation circuit, there is included a timing circuit. The timing circuit is operative to control the operation of the EEPROM, demultiplexer, and perform temperature sampling in order to output the correct digital data at the correct time. The timing circuit includes a comparator to control the operation of the temperature compensation circuit such that a clock is not required to operate 100% of the time. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the temperature compensation circuit is fabricated as an application specific integrated circuit on a single chip.
The temperature compensation circuit is primarily used to drive the control inputs for a voltage variable attenuator located in a RF amplifier chain. In this respect, the electronic storage device is programmed with temperature specific data used to control the attenuator. As will be recognized, the electronic storage device may-be programmed with other temperature specific data in order to control other types of devices.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method of correlating a temperature found with a temperature sensor to a prescribed voltage level using the universal temperature compensation circuit. The method comprises the step of generating an analog temperature voltage with the temperature sensor. Next, the analog temperature voltage is converted to a digital temperature signal with the analog to digital converter. Digital data corresponding to the temperature of the temperature sensor is generated by the electronic storage device from the digital temperature signal. Next, the digital data is converted to an analog voltage level with the digital to analog converter. Finally, the analog voltage level is buffered and amplified to generate an output voltage correlated to the temperature of the temperature sensor.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the digital value or data stored within the electronic storage device is generated by addressing the digital value or data with the digital temperature signal. Typically, the electronic storage device is an EEPROM and the digital temperature signal is used to address the EEPROM. If the digital compensation circuit includes a demultiplexer, a second digital to analog converter, and a second amplifier, then the demultiplexer will direct the digital data level to the second digital to analog converter. In this respect, a second final output voltage will be generated by the second amplifier. The second final output voltage may not be equal to the first final output voltage. In the same manner as the second voltage was generated, additional voltages can be generated to control other components that are subject to temperature fluctuations.

Universal temperature compensation application specific integrated circuit


An airbag 40 is partitioned into a shoulder protecting portion 57 and a lower region protecting portion 56 by a partition portion 45. The shoulder protecting portion 57 is inflated in a space that is beside the shoulder PS of an occupant P and beside and in the vicinity of the top 16 of a door trim 14, thereby protecting the shoulder PS. The lower region protecting portion 56 is inflated below the shoulder protecting portion 57, thereby protecting a part below the shoulder PS of the occupant P. The shoulder protecting portion 57 has a support portion 66 and a shoulder receiving portion 67. When the inflated shoulder protecting portion 57 falls outward of the vehicle while pivoting on the partition portion 45, the support portion 66 contacts a part that is inward of and below the top 16, thereby supporting the shoulder protecting portion 57. When the shoulder protecting portion 57 is supported by the door trim 14 at the support portion 66, at least a part of the shoulder receiving portion 67 is located above the top 16 and contacts the shoulder PS of the occupant P at a position inward of an end 45A of the partition portion 45 on the vehicle outer side. In this manner, the shoulder receiving portion 67 receives the shoulder PS.

The present invention relates to a side airbag apparatus that inflates and deploys an airbag in a space between a side door and an occupant seated in a vehicle seat when an impact is applied from a side of the vehicle due to a side collision, thereby reducing the impact using the airbag to protect at least a shoulder of the occupant.
A side airbag apparatus is effective as means for protecting an occupant seated in a vehicle seat when an impact is applied to the vehicle from a side due to a side collision. Such a side apparatus includes an inflator that discharges inflation gas in response to an impact to inflate and deploy an airbag in a narrow space between an occupant and a side door. One type of such airbag apparatuses includes an airbag with a shoulder protecting portion, which is inflated and deployed beside at least a shoulder of an occupant (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-261000).
The airbag of the side airbag apparatus disclosed in the above publication is formed by joining a fabric sheet on a vehicle inner side and a fabric sheet on a vehicle outer side at peripheries. Each fabric sheet has such a size that it can be inflated and deployed beside a region ranging from the shoulder to the lumbar region of an occupant. The fabric portions are joined to each other at a center portion in the vertical direction by a lateral U-shaped inner joint portion. The inner joint portion divides the airbag into a thorax protecting portion, a shoulder protecting portion, and a lumbar region protecting portion. The thorax protecting portion is surrounded by the inner joint portion and is inflated and deployed beside the thorax of the occupant. The shoulder protecting portion is located above the inner joint portion and is inflated and deployed beside the shoulder of the occupant. The lumbar region protecting portion is located below the inner joint portion and is inflated and deployed beside the lumbar region of the occupant. In the apparatus of the above described publication, the inner joint portion is referred to as a seam, the thorax protecting portion is referred to as an intermediate chamber, the shoulder protecting portion is referred to as an upper chamber, and the lumbar region protecting portion is referred to as a lower chamber.
The above described airbag is inflated and deployed such that the upper end of the inner joint portion, that is, the boundary between the shoulder protecting portion and the thorax protecting portion, is located beside and in the vicinity of the top of the door trim of the side door.
When the side door bulges into the passenger compartment due to a side collision, the airbag is pushed in the same direction. At this time, the shoulder protecting portion of the airbag is prevented from moving inward in the passenger compartment by the shoulder of the occupant. Therefore, the shoulder protecting portion falls toward the outside of the vehicle while pivoting on the boundary between the shoulder protecting portion and the thorax protecting portion (the upper end of the inner joint portion). The fallen shoulder protecting portion contacts the top of the door trim and moves toward the vehicle outside while contacting the top. That is, the shoulder protecting portion slides along the door trim. The shoulder protecting portion thus can hardly exercise the function for protecting the shoulder of the occupant from a side collision in a satisfactory manner.


A method and an electronic device for displaying images in a multi-dimensional mode based on personalized topics are provided. The method includes generating a plurality of personalized topics based on a plurality of images stored in the electronic device across a predetermined time period, and displaying the plurality of personalized topics along a timeline.

An electronic device, such as a smartphone, is capable of retrieving images from multiple electronic devices and through the internet. Images captured via a camera in the electronic device can also be stored in the electronic device. Over a period of time, the number of images stored in the electronic device, either retrieved from other sources or captured through the camera, may be relatively large. In existing electronic devices, when a relatively small number of images are stored in the electronic device, a user can easily retrieve intended images from the electronic device. However, if the user wishes to view a certain image along a timeline and a large number of images is stored in the electronic device, the user has to manually navigate the electronic device via an application which facilitates image viewing. This can be cumbersome and inconvenient to the user when a large number of images are stored in the electronic device.
Thus, a method is needed which can automatically classify images into categories, thereby enabling the user to easily access particular images stored in the electronic device.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method of displaying images in a multi-dimensional mode based on personalized topics


A spring connector, includes: an electrically conductive metal tube, having a bottomed hole; a plunger, which is provided in the bottomed hole so as to freely move in an axial direction and so as not to slip out from the bottomed hole, and an tip end portion of which is protruded from the bottomed hole; and a spring coil, provided in the bottomed hole, and elastically urging the plunger in a protruding direction. The electrically conductive metal tube includes a small diameter tube part having a smaller outer diameter at a distal end side thereof from which the plunger protrudes, and a soldering part being larger than the small diameter tube part in width in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction, at a backward side of the small diameter tube part in the axial direction, and a face of a distal end side of the small diameter tube part is separated from the soldering part in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction.

The present invention relates to a spring connector mounted on and soldered to a board, or a connector configured by mounting a spring connector onto a board by soldering, in which a distal end of an electrically conductive metal tube can be positioned at sufficiently low level on the surface of the board, e.g. the same height as a surface of the board.
Referring to FIG. 9, a structure of a connector in the related art in which a spring connector is mounted on a board will be described. FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view of the connector in the related art. In FIG. 9, an electrically conductive metal tube 10 is formed by providing a bottomed hole 10a in electrically conductive metal material. Moreover, a small diameter tube part 10c having a smaller outer diameter is formed at a distal end side of the conductive metal tube 10 near an opening 10b of the bottomed hole 10a, and a large diameter tube part 10d having a larger outer diameter is formed at a backward end side thereof. A spring coil 12 and further, a plunger 14 are inserted into the bottomed hole 10a. Then, the opening 10b of the bottomed hole 10a is narrowed by caulking, so that the plunger 14 can freely move in an axial direction but may not slip out, in a state where its tip end portion is protruded from the opening 10b. In this state, the spring coil 12 is contracted, and the plunger 14 is elastically urged in a protruding direction. In this manner, the spring connector 16 is constructed. Then, the spring connector 16 is mounted on a surface of a board 18, and a backward end face of the conductive metal tube 10 is soldered to the board 18 as a soldering part, whereby the connector is constructed. In this case, for enabling the conductive metal tube 10 to stand by itself on the surface of the board 18, the large diameter tube part 10d is formed so that an area of the backward end face of the tube 10 may be increased. An art employing the connector in this related art is disclosed in JP-A-2003-217726.
In the connector of the related art as shown in FIG. 9, a height h1 from the surface of the board 18 to the distal end of the conductive metal tube 10 is large. Therefore, a connector in the related art as shown in FIG. 10 has been proposed, as an art for making the height smaller. FIG. 10 is a vertical sectional view of the connector in the related art. In describing the connector in the related art referring to FIG. 10, the same or substantially the same members as the members as shown in FIG. 9 will be denoted with the same reference numerals, and overlapped description will be omitted. The connector in the related art as shown in FIG. 10 is different from the connector in the related art as shown in FIG. 9 in the following points. To begin with, a backward end part of the large diameter tube part 10d at the backward end side of the conductive metal tube 10 has a reduced outer diameter, and a flange-like portion 10e is formed at an intermediate position in the axial direction. The board 18 is provided with a through hole 18a which has such a diameter that the reduced outer diameter portion at the backward end side of the conductive metal tube 10 is allowed to be inserted, but the flange-like portion 10e is not allowed to pass. Moreover, an electrically conductive metal foil or the like is applied to an inner peripheral wall of the through hole 18a of the board 18, so that the solder in a molten state may easily enter into a gap between the through hole 18a and an outer peripheral face of the conductive metal tube 10 by capillary phenomenon. The backward end part of the conductive metal tube 10 having the reduced outer diameter is inserted into the through hole 18a of the board 18 from a front face side, and the flange-like portion 10e is fixed by soldering to the surface of the board 18, whereby the connector is constructed.
In the connector of the related art as shown in FIG. 10, a height h2 of the distal end of the conductive metal tube 10 projected from the surface of the board 18 is made smaller by an amount of the backward end part of the conductive metal tube 10 inserted into the through hole 18a of the board 18. As the results, the height h2 can be made considerably smaller than the height h1 of the distal end of the conductive metal tube 10 from the surface of the board 18 in the connector of the related art as shown in FIG. 9. However, since, in some cases, the related art as shown in FIG. 10 does not sufficiently satisfy a recent demand of further down sizing of electronic apparatuses, it has been required that the height of the distal end of the conductive metal tube 10 from the surface of the board is made further smaller.


The present invention relates to a parallel processor containing a number of processor elements of the same type which are integrated on one and the same semiconductor chip. The processor is of the type that allows image and signal processing of the information stored in the processor element. The device contains a unit block (3) for each processor element and is characterized in that each unit block comprises at least two incrementing units (1a, 1b) which are designed to add a signal supplied to the unit block and a signal which originates from an incrementing unit corresponding to the respective unit in the closest preceding unit block in every direction of the processor element matrix. Every unit block (3) further contains at least one logical unit (2) which is designed to perform Boolean logic operations on the signals received from the incrementing units of the unit block.

In data-type image processing, high demands are made on a very fast performance of the image-associated operations. A way of achieving a high processing speed is to use units with an integrated unit solution comprising both a camera in the form of a photodiode matrix and an image processor. Such an arrangement is known from, e.g., SE, B, 431 145 which presents an image processor which contains a device able to indicate the image dots belonging to a connected object, and produces a binary signal corresponding to the object when the relevant image dot, on the one hand, meets a condition specific to the object, and, on the other hand, is indicated as entering the object, or when the closest adjacent image dots are distinguished. By means of this known technique the need is reduced for a serial output of image data, and a substantially reduced amount of information is obtained which, with less time consumption than for the known image processing systems, can be output for further image processing.
Another example of corresponding parallel signal processing is described in Swedish Patent No. 9001556-1. The intention here is to be able to carry out computations on radar signals in addition to image processing.
A drawback with the known technique is that the known processors cannot perform so-called arithmetic global operations with the same efficiency, for example determine the centre of median for every object in a read-in vector. In the known device, there takes place with this type of operation a serial outputting of image data which, in per se time terms, reduces the advantages of the fast image processors.


A heat spreader is disclosed. The heat spreader includes a body member, a first fin connected to the body member, a second fin connected to the body member, a third fin connected to the body member, and a fourth fin connected to the body member. The first and second fins define a first spacing therebetween. The second and third fins define a second spacing therebetween. The third and fourth fins define a third spacing therebetween. The second spacing is greater than the first spacing and the third spacing.

This application is related, generally and in various embodiments, to a heat spreader. To meet the requirements for higher and higher device densities, the physical size of many transformers continues to be reduced. As the physical size of a transformer is reduced, the ability to effectively dissipate heat from the transformer becomes increasingly difficult.
In general, depending on the design of the transformer, the coil typically dissipates approximately 30% to 70% of the heat generated by the transformer and the magnetic core dissipates the remainder through a heat sink. Thus, a significant portion of the generated heat is typically sunk through the magnetic core to the heat sink. To date, the design of heat sinks used to dissipate heat from transformers has tended to focus on maximizing the area of contact between the heat sink and the magnetic core, with little or no regard given to maximizing the area of contact between the heat sink and the coil, if any. Because the thermal conductivity of common heat sink material can be approximately fifty times greater than the thermal conductivity of common magnetic core material, the heat sinking capacity of known heat sinks is not adequate for many new transformer applications.


A pair of devices for lifting boxes is disclosed. Each device comprises a handle, lifting surface, lifting plate and a plurality of lifting members in the form of angled teeth. During use, the teeth of each device are inserted into opposite sides of a corrugated box. A user is then able to lift the box using the temporary handles. The teeth are angled relative to a bottom edge of the lifting plates allowing a user's wrist to maintain a proper position to lift boxes over the user's head. During non-use the pair of devices they are connected with magnets such that the teeth of each lifting plate are received by corresponding openings in the other lifting plate. Each tooth may also include an extension portion for accommodating portions of a box thereby increasing the surface area of contact between the teeth and the box.

Lifting boxes has long been a tedious and unpleasant endeavor. In particular, large boxes can be cumbersome and difficult to grip and lift. Accordingly, lifting boxes in an improper manner may cause severe back injuries. While there have been attempts to develop means and devices for improving the ease with which one can lift boxes, each of the attempts has suffered drawbacks.
For example, corrugated boxes have incorporated perforated sections which, when necessary, are punched out to act as handles. Unfortunately, the handles tend to fail and can injury unprotected hands. Dollies and straps are also popular in the moving business. However, not everyone has a dolly available. Moreover, dollies can damage flooring and similar surfaces.
Thus, there continues to be the need for a simple device for lifting boxes.


A technique for controlling local events in two-phase asynchronous handshake circuits.

In the design of digital logic, it is a fundamental task to be able to sequence behavior in time where required. For example, an operation X must not be activated without its proper data operands A and B ready and available, and any other operations Y and Z which use the result of X must both be finished and ready to accept a new result from X. The former requirement is known as a dependency, and the latter known as an antidependency.
Synchronous logic solves the problem of sequencing behavior in digital designs by activating all operations on the occurrence of a single, global event. This global event is the rising or falling edge of a periodic clock signal.
Contrarily, asynchronous logic solves the problem of sequencing behavior by activating operations based on the occurrence of many distributed, largely unrelated, and highly localized events. These events are the rising or falling edges of potentially any logic gate within the design.
Unlike the synchronous design style with a global clock signal, asynchronous logic design is extremely variegated. A wide variety of styles exist as known art. Each of these styles of asynchronous logic may be classified according to several distinguishing features as here described.
Firstly, each of these styles is distinguished by the size of the operation activated by a local event. In some styles, a local event activates the processing of an entire datapath of logic. For example, the multiplication of two 32-bit operands to form a 64-bit result might be controlled by a single local event. Such would be said to be very coarse-grained asynchronous event control. In other styles of asynchronous logic, local events are identifiable as a signal to activate the logical NAND of two bits in only a single gate. Such would be said to be very fine-grained event control.
Styles of asynchronous logic which share the same granularity of event control are further distinguished by a multitude of logical communication protocols used to generate the local events based on the occurrence of other events in the asynchronous logic. In some cases simply the change in state of a signal, any edge or level change, may generate an event. This is known in the language of asynchronous logic as a two-phase signaling protocol. In other cases, both a rise and fall of a signal in series are required to generate a local event. This is known as a four-phase signaling protocol.
The safe design of any logic, whether synchronous or asynchronous, depends on assumptions made about timing. All logic in synchronous designs, for example, must take less time than the period of the global clock for proper safety. Asynchronous logic is no different in that timing assumptions put constraints on design.
Because a local event present in asynchronous logic represents a designer's intentional sequencing of overall behavior, it inevitably requires information from its dependencies and antidependencies in order to activate. Thus, each local event is generated based on a collection of occurrences of other events. All events related to dependencies for the operation must be collected to ensure the operation is guaranteed to have the correct data values available. This is known in the jargon of computer science as a join. More, all events related to antidependencies must be collected to ensure that the operation may activate safely without adversely affecting another. This is known in the jargon of computer science as a fork.
A fork or join may also have arbitration involved with event control. Operation X, which uses operands A and B, might hypothetically take A from more than one source. Operation X would be activated when A, and either B1 or B2, were available. Similarly, once X is activated and its result is ready, this result might be delivered to Y and either Z1 or Z2, but not both. Selection of the source of B, and the selection of Z, may be either explicitly directed by another signal, or left to chance as a "first-come-first served" policy. Arbitration is involved in event control wherever an EITHER-OR of events is required before the activation of an operation. It is not necessary wherever a simple AND of events is required to activate an operation.
Before an operation is activated, its joins must complete and its forks must be free to accept the operation's output. This requirement is universally true in asynchronous logic design of any style, for any safe and correctly behaving design. However, asynchronous logic styles distinguish how this timing guarantee is made and at what cost. There is a direct relationship between making a universal guarantee and the resulting circuit size or cost. There is also a direct relationship associated with satisfying the constraints that result from a partial timing correctness guarantee and the implementation complexity of such logic. Implementation complexity negatively impacts a CAD tool or human designer of the physical circuit.
Delay insensitive asynchronous logic ensures that under all circuit conditions, the guarantee of timing correctness is inherently met, no matter the implementation. Building completely delay-insensitive asynchronous logic inevitably involves more safety which must be satisfied by more gates. In some cases this absolute guarantee deteriorates performance because of the more robust event signaling protocol which must be used. Both leakage and switching power in a CMOS transistor implementation are necessarily higher. Nevertheless, delay insensitive asynchronous logic is extremely robust and expedient for numerous applications, and therefore a common style.
Other styles of asynchronous logic make the guarantee of timing correctness while ignoring the delay of wires. During physical implementation of the design, each wire attached to a gate contains a hard and fast time delay constraint, beyond which the entire logic design no longer operates safely. For a design of modern proportions, containing hundreds of thousands or millions of such wires, this assumption is usually unmanageable.
The bundled-delay constraint is the most common trade-off between circuit cost and implementation complexity. A group of logic paths, such as those within a multiplier producing a product from two operands, are grouped. The worst-case delay of this bundled datapath is given a timing constraint, and with this timing constraint the guarantee of timing correctness of the overall asynchronous logic design is made. Clearly, reducing the number of timing constraints by orders of magnitude ameliorates a great burden on implementation complexity. At the same time, avoiding the absolute guarantee of timing correctness that delay insensitive logic makes allows for far less bulky and expensive circuitry.
In all physically implemented asynchronous logic circuits, 100% of the timing constraints derived from the correctness assumptions are met in order to guarantee correct behavior. However, variations in the timing of individual logic paths do exist between different physical circuit embodiments of the same asynchronous logic design, each of which meet all of these timing constraints, operate safely and correctly. These logic path variations appear as symptoms of many perturbations including minute variances in manufacturing, differences in the voltage or temperature at which the circuits operate, and most importantly, different circuit implementations.
When event control involves arbitration due to an EITHER-OR condition, the logic will have correct but non-deterministic behavior because of these timing variations. Operation X involves a join which waits for either B1 or B2 to arrive, and activates based on whichever event arrives first. The race condition between B1 and B2 will see-saw back and forth because of timing variations, and therefore the order of processing in the asynchronous design may change. This nondeterminism is not a fatal flaw, as the overall behavior is correct. However, nondeterminism makes testing of asynchronous logic designs extremely difficult, as the same input applied repetitively to the same physical circuit yields results in different order each time.
For describing any logic design textually, a hardware description language or HDL is used. Since the advent of logic synthesis in the late 1980s, the HDL has become not only a description of the design for purposes of simulation or documentation, but also the way designs are entered and captured. For synchronous design, the HDLs Verilog and VHDL are standardized design entry languages well known in the world community of engineers. HDLs for asynchronous design entry have struggled for standardization and acceptance due to the complexities of describing the asynchronous event control. "Micropipelines" constitute a style of asynchronous logic characterized by coarse-grain event control of a stage of bundled-delay datapath, bounded by locally clocked registers at the start and end. The structure is similar to a synchronous pipeline stage. A set of discrete building blocks for event control, well-known to those skilled in the art, is associated with this style. These building blocks allow for AND, EITHER-OR and signal-controlled OR of events, for both forking and joining. Between the set of locally clocked registers under event control, the datapath has a known worst-case bundled delay. A handshake protocol with request and acknowledge signals is set up between the controllers of all local clocks in the design.
For a single Micropipeline stage, a request signal is sent forward from the start register of the pipe stage in the direction of the datapath to the end register when new operands A and B are both ready to be clocked and enter the combinatorial stage. This request is derived from a join event of A and B. An acknowledge signal is sent backward from the end register opposite of the direction of the datapath to the start, when the output of the stage has been safely latched. When request and acknowledge correspond, registers at the start of the stage are clocked, activating the operation of the datapath with the new A and B operands.
In order to satisfy the bundled-delay timing constraint and guarantee timing correctness of a Micropipeline stage, a delay is intentionally added to the forward request signal, which causes the request to arrive at the end in the same amount of time as the worst-case delay through the datapath within the stage. This matched delay element is among the basic building blocks which characterize Micropipelines.
What is needed is a micropipeline stage controller and control scheme that implements two-phase asynchronous handshakes.

Micropipeline stage controller and control scheme


A buckle pretensioner for a seat belt system includes a support member on which a buckle is mounted for movement generally downwardly from a normal upper position to a pretensioning lower position in which pretension is applied to the seat belt. A rotary actuator mounted on the support member and supplied with gas from a gas generator provides a driving force for moving the buckle downwardly along the support member. A connecting mechanism, which includes a force-transmitting mechanism that transduces a tangential force produced by rotation of the rotor of the rotary actuator to a translational force, connects the rotary actuator to the buckle for transmitting the driving force from the rotary actuator to the buckle. A locking device locks the buckle in the lower position to which it is driven by the driving force.

The present invention relates to vehicle seat belt systems and, in particular, to a pretensioner that tightens a vehicle seat belt by pulling a buckle to which the belt is attached generally downwardly from a normal upper position to a pretensioning lower position.
The seat belt systems of vehicles, such as automobiles, are often equipped with pretensioners for applying pretension to the belts when an acceleration greater than a predetermined threshold level is applied to the vehicle, such as may occur in a collision. The pretension applied to the belt tightens the belt against the occupant before he or she is thrown forward by inertial force and provides enhanced restraint of the occupant by the belt. Various types of pretensioners are well known and in common use. One general type, which is known in several specific forms, is a buckle pretensioner, which provides pretension by pulling generally downwardly on a buckle to which the belt is attached. Such belt pretensioners, when they are provided, are almost always located on the side of a seat and operate to pull down a buckle that receives a buckle tongue at the juncture between the shoulder and lap portions of a belt in a three-point belt system. In such an arrangement, pretension is applied generally equally to both the lap and shoulder portions of the belt.
Among the specific types of previously known buckle pretensioners are those that have as the drive device a piston/cylinder operated by gas pressure (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 1-119455), or a compression coil spring mechanism (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2-256550). In those types, the piston/cylinder or the spring mechanism, as the case may be, is connected to the buckle by a flexible drive cable, which passes over a guide roller or surface. The drive device has an operating axis that is at a sharp angle to the path of movement of the buckle, because it is necessary to have the drive device extend generally horizontally along the side of the seat. The size and position of the drive device place restrictions on the layout of the vehicle, such as the size and location of the housing of a gear shift mechanism between the seats.
Another type of previously known buckle pretensioner has as the drive device a spiral spring (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 1-164651). One end of the spiral spring is attached to the buckle support, and the other end engages and operates a clamp lever mechanism through a force-transmitting mechanism. The rotational force of the spring is converted from a rotational force to a linear or nearly linear force. An arrangement of this type places less restriction on the vehicle design than do the types that use piston/cylinders or compression springs, but the force-transmission mechanism is more complicated and has higher transmission losses.

Buckle pretensioner for seat belt systems


A chair with a folding book holder includes a generally horizontal seat portion with an upper surface for supporting an occupant and an opposed lower surface. The folding book holder has a bottom portion and two support portions. Each support portion has a lower edge flexibly interconnected with the bottom portion and an upper edge flexibly interconnected with the chair. The bottom portion and support portions are foldable between a use position and a storage position, wherein in the use position the support portions extend generally downwardly from the seat portion and the bottom portion is spaced from the seat portion, and in the storage position the support portions and bottom portion are folded up against the seat portion.

It is often desirable to provide a storage area for use by an occupant of a chair. This is especially true where chairs are being used in a conference center or auditorium and the chair occupants have notebooks or other items. Chair occupants are often forced to place such materials on the floor or on adjacent chairs. As such, it is desirable to provide a book holder that provides a location to place such materials when not being used. It is also desirable that such a book holder be foldable to a storage position when not needed. Typically, chairs that are used in conference centers and auditoriums are stacked when not in use. A plurality of chairs are placed in a generally vertical stack with each chair resting on top of a like chair in the stack. For such stacking chairs, it is desirable that a book holder fold into a compact storage position so as not to interfere with the stacking or substantially increase the stack height of the chairs.

Michigan Tube Swagers & Fabricators, Inc.


A fiber-optic based communication system for facilitating communication between a client device, such as a hand-held computing device, and a host device, such as a desktop computer, a lap-top computer, a tablet device or any other computing device. The communication system includes a cable comprising electronic devices positioned at terminal ends of an optical fiber that provides for communication between the client device and the host device, and the communication occurs via electromagnetic coupling in the near field at at least one end of the cable.

Field
The present disclosure relates to a near field communication system for connecting a client electronic device to a host electronic device, and more particularly wherein the near field communication system includes a fiber-optic based cable comprising at least one active electronic device positioned at a terminal end of the cable configured for near field communication with the client device.
Technical Background
Conventional communication between client devices such as cell phones and a host device such as a personal computer have utilized direct electrical contact between the devices. For example, a universal serial bus (USB) cable is plugged at one terminal end into the client device and at the other terminal end into the host unit. That is, electrical contacts in the cable connect directly with electrical contacts in the client device, while similar connections are made between the other end of the cable and the host device and current flows between the client and host device through the cable. The client device is directly electrically tethered to the host, and in most cases, the devices are locked together by way of latches on the cable or the devices.
In some instances it may be desirable to eliminate the direct physical or electrical connection, or the tethering between the client and the host. Connections via copper cables are common, but may not support high-bandwidth (>1 Gbps) applications such as HD video. In addition, electrical contacts can corrode and electrical conduction can become unreliable. Mating receptacles are also susceptible to contamination and damage and provide an opening into the portable device package for possible ingress of contaminants and moisture. On the other hand, optical data communications technologies can achieve high data rates, but the optical connections can be easily impaired by contamination.
More recently, technology has been developed that facilitates radio wave communication between client and host devices. Antennas linked to the host are positioned at predetermined locations, such as within an enclosed area such as a room, wherein the antennas broadcast a signal to form a microcell operating in the far field with an effective range measured in meters or tens of meters. For example, an antenna might be placed in a conference room that broadcasts a signal that does not extend, for practical purposes, beyond the walls of the conference room. Such distributed systems utilize electromagnetic waves in the far field, or radiation zone.
High capacity millimeter wave wireless technologies can support high-bandwidth applications such as high definition video, but require high power, high-gain antenna arrays, beam steering and other advanced techniques.


A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides a reusable object oriented (OO) framework for use with object oriented programming systems that provides an information retrieval (IR) shell that permits a framework user to define an index class that includes word index objects and provides an extensible information retrieval system that evaluates a user query by comparing information contained in the user query with information contained in the word index objects that relates to stored documents. The information in word index objects is produced by preprocessing operations on documents such that the documents relevant to the user query will be identified, thereby providing a query result. The information retrieval system user can load documents into the computer system storage, index documents so their information can be subject to a query search, and request query evaluation to identify and retrieve documents most closely related to the subject matter of a user query.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing and, more specifically, to object-oriented programming systems and processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information retrieval (IR) system typically receives a text-based query that defines subject matter of interest to a user. The system then compares the query to text stored in system memory, such as disk storage, and locates the documents that most closely match the subject matter of interest, which are then presented to the user. Such systems, however, are frequently inflexible. That is, they cannot be easily modified to provide components that accommodate changing user needs.
In addition, the document types that are supported by IR systems typically are fixed and inflexible. An IR system might efficiently support different types of text documents created, for example, using different word processing formats, but could not be easily adapted to accommodate newly developed formats.
Adapting an IR system to new text representation formats would be difficult because new lines of code for parsing and editing of the new text format, to name just two changes, would have to be carefully developed and woven into the programming steps of the IR system. Virtually every text operation of the IR system would have to be supplemented with a corresponding new operation to accommodate the new format. In addition, the presence of the new format would have to be detected. Incorporating the new code with the old code so the changes are seamless and the IR system works properly, without "hidden" problems or bugs, can be extremely difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Moreover, IR system maintenance as the new code is added can become quite problematic.
Information retrieval systems can support query processing on documents of different information types, but again can be quite difficult to modify so as to support new types of documents. For example, an IR system might support information retrieval operations on text documents and image documents that contain digital representations of images that can be processed by applications programs that create corresponding text descriptions of the images. The user of such an IR system could thereby perform information retrieval on text documents and images, but again would face extreme difficulty in modifying the IR system to perform IR operations on a HyperText Mark-Up Language (HTML) type of document.
As new forms of data are used to store and represent information, such as HTML, it will become more challenging for information retrieval systems to provide efficient, simple operation and also have the flexibility to be easily adapted to new forms of information containing documents.
From the discussion above, it should be apparent that there is a need for an information retrieval system development mechanism tool that provides a basis for more rapid, less expensive, and simpler development of information retrieval systems with greater user flexibility. The present invention satisfies this need.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Object oriented information retrieval framework mechanism

International Business Machines Corporation


A memory device according to an aspect may include a memory cell array including a first bank region and a second bank region each including a plurality of banks; an operation logic including one or more first processing elements (PEs) corresponding to the first bank region and one or more second PEs corresponding to the second bank region; a control logic configured to control modes of the first bank region and the second bank region based on externally sourced setting information; first and second mode signal generators configured to control enabling the first PEs, wherein the first mode signal generator is configured to output the first mode signal to enable the first PEs and the second mode signal generator is configured to output the second mode signal to disable the second PEs responsive to the first bank region being set to an operation mode and the second bank region being set to a normal mode.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to memory devices, and more particularly, to memory devices that perform configurable mode setting and methods of operating the same.
Semiconductor memory devices widely used in high-performance electronic systems are increasing in capacity and speed. In addition to storing data, a method of performing various types of operation processing, such as neural network operations, within a memory device has been proposed. As an example, a memory device may include a plurality of banks and a plurality of processing elements (PEs) that perform operation processing corresponding thereto.
According to the above-described configuration, a memory device may be required to perform a vast amount of arithmetic processing together with normal memory operations, such as data writing and reading. However, such operations may require efficient allocation of resources to process a vast amount of computations, which may result in a decrease in normal memory operation speed.

Memory device performing configurable mode setting and method of operating the same


This invention relates to a tire curing system having a plurality of molds disposed in side by side relation, transporting means for transporting green tires to the tire curing system, loading means for loading a green tire into a bottom mold half of one of the molds, mold closing means for closing a top mold half over the bottom mold half, self-locking means for locking the top mold half to the bottom mold half, curing means for curing the green tires, mold opening means for opening the top mold half from the bottom mold half, unloading means for unloading the cured tire from the bottom mold half and take-away means for carrying the cured tires away from the curing system. The loading means and the unloading means include a movable robot and the mold closing means and the mold opening means include a movable manipulator. The robot and the manipulator move in straight lines.

It is well known in the art to cure, i.e., vulcanize, green tires using a tire press. Typically tire presses use molds comprising top and bottom mold halves, within which the green tire is cured. The tire press includes devices for opening the mold, that is, lifting the top mold half from the bottom mold half, loading the green tire into the bottom mold half, and closing the top mold half upon the bottom mold half, thereby encasing the green tire within the tire mold. Heat mediums, such as steam, are then transferred to the mold from the outside of the mold as well as from the inside. A tire bladder is inserted inside the mold and the green tire and is used both to cure and to shape the green tire. Once the green tire is cured, the tire press then opens, that is, lifts the top mold from the bottom mold, revealing a cured tire which is then unloaded from the tire press. This cycle can be repeated as often as required.
One of the problems with this conventional type of tire press is that many devices are underutilized. The mold closing device, for example, closes the mold then sits idle while the green tire is cured. Only after the green tire is cured and unloaded and another green tire is loaded can the mold closing device be used again. The mold opening device, the green tire loading device and the cured tire unloading device are similarly underutilized. This means that the capital resources necessary for such tire presses are not being economically used.
Many attempts have been made to reduce these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,079 to Legostave et al., discloses a tire vulcanizing apparatus that includes a series of vulcanizing presses arranged in a row. In short, Legostave et al. disclose an attempt at using a conventional tire press and moving it along rails over a line of tire molds. One of the problems associated with this apparatus are that the molds cannot be treated individually, but only in couplets of two. Another problem is that there is no provision for an independent loading device or a take-away conveyor. What is needed is a more flexible tire curing system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,274 to Siegenthaler discloses a tire curing apparatus in which a number of mobile curing units are selectively moved along a loop circuit. This leads to a complex transport system for the mobile curing units.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,669 to Dailliez et al. discloses a tire vulcanization apparatus in which tire molds are transferred from a loading/unloading device into a chamber that receives several tire molds. The loading/unloading device is stationary. This apparatus makes it difficult to cure tires having different cure cycle times.
European Patent Application EP 0 510 332 A2 describes a mold changing apparatus including a row of mold stations, a moveable manipulator, and a mold preparing station provided within the row of mold stations. To use this apparatus, each mold must be carried by forklift or crane to each mold station. The manipulator combines the functions of opening/closing molds and loading/unloading tires. This combined use leads to operational inefficiencies.
The present invention provides methods and apparatuses for curing tires using a self-locking mold cure system with shared mold open, unload, load and close devices. The difficulties inherent in the art are therefore overcome in a way that is simple and efficient, while providing better and more advantageous results.


A linear cavity design to produce a traveling wave operation as in a ring laser without the ring cavity design. All fiber configurations may be used to implement fiber lasers based on the linear cavity design.

This application relates to lasers, and in particular, to single-mode lasers and fiber lasers.
Various applications may require the laser wavelength of a laser to be stabilized at a specific wavelength. In optical wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) systems, for example, the signal wavelengths of different optical WDM channels need to be maintained at designated WDM standard wavelengths according to a wavelength standard such as the WDM wavelengths established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Other applications such as spectroscopic measurements may also use stabilized lasers to excite selected atomic or molecular transitions.


A charging voltage Vosc applied to a main capacitor C0 disposed in an oscillating high-voltage pulse generator 12 of an oscillating laser 100 is subject to constant control such that a pulse energy Posc of the oscillating laser 100 becomes a lower limit energy Es0 or more of an amplification saturation region. And, a charging voltage Vamp applied to a main capacitor C0 disposed in an amplifying high-voltage pulse generator 32 of an amplifying laser 300 is controlled, and pulse energy Pamp of the amplifying laser 300 is determined as target energy Patgt. Thus, the pulse energy of a two-stage laser is controlled to stabilize the pulse energy.

In recent years, an excimer laser apparatus and a molecular fluorine laser apparatus are taken into consideration and adopted as a lithography light source. In such a case, the following two points are required in order to improve the throughput of an exposure device and to conduct ultrafine fabrication uniformly.
A first point is to provide a high power laser beam. To provide high power, there is a method of increasing a pulse energy per pulse of a laser pulse which is output from a laser apparatus. And, if the pulse energy per pulse is low, a shortage of energy can be compensated by a method of increasing a repetition frequency.
A second point is to provide a very narrow-band spectrum. To provide a very narrow-band spectrum, there are, for example, a method of providing a high resolution line narrow module (hereinafter referred to as the "LNM") which is configured of a prism and a grating, and a method of providing a long pulsed laser as described in the following Patent Literature 1 given below.
But, the provision of the LNM with the high resolution ability and the long pulse degrades the pulse energy because an optical loss is generally increased. In other words, the very narrow banding of the spectrum and the increase of the pulse energy are incompatible with each other. When it is assumed that the cost is to be reduced, the increase of a repetition frequency, for example, a repetition frequency of exceeding 4 kHz is hard to achieve technically. Therefore, the realization of an excimer laser apparatus or a molecular fluorine laser apparatus having only one chamber provided with high power by increasing a repetition frequency while keeping a very narrow-band spectrum has limitations.
To satisfy both the above-described two points, a two stage laser having an optical oscillation stage and an optical amplification stage is proposed by, for example, the following Patent Literature 2 and the like. Both the optical oscillation stage and the optical amplification stage have a chamber in which laser gas is sealed and a pair of opposed electrodes are disposed. When a discharge occurs between the electrodes in the oscillating chamber, the laser gas is excited to transit to an excited state, and light is produced at the time of transition from the excited state to a ground state. When a light energy is amplified to some extent, a laser beam (seed light) is output from the oscillating laser. The output seed light is injected into the amplifying chamber. When a discharge is generated between the electrodes in the amplifying chamber, the energy of the injected seed light is amplified and output.
The two stage laser is roughly divided into two types. One of them is a type in that an oscillating laser apparatus is disposed in an optical oscillation stage, and an amplifier not having a light resonator is disposed in an optical amplification stage and called as an MOPA system (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier). The other is a type in that an oscillating laser apparatus is disposed in an optical oscillation stage and an amplifying laser apparatus having a light resonator is disposed in an optical amplification stage and called as an MOPO system (Master Oscillator Power Oscillator).
The optical oscillation stage is provided with an LNM to realize a very narrow-band spectrum. Meanwhile, in the optical amplification stage, only the energy is amplified while keeping a very narrow-band spectrum of the seed light which is output from the optical oscillation stage and injected into the amplifying chamber. According to this two-stage laser, the optical amplification stage does not include an element which becomes an optical loss of the LNM and the like, so that laser oscillation efficiency is very high. Therefore, it becomes possible to obtain a desired very narrow-band spectrum and laser output. The desired laser output is the product of a pulse energy per pulse and repetition frequency. For example, performance required for a next-generation ArF excimer laser includes a spectral FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) of 0.25 pm or less and laser output of 40 W or more when operating at a repetition frequency of 4 kHz.
To reduce damage to the optical system provided for the exposure device, it is desirable that a light pulse waveform is low peak power. Accordingly, long pulsization is demanded. And, high repetition is demanded because high power is required.
Where a laser apparatus has a single chamber only, it is controlled to obtain a prescribed energy by predictive determination (feedback) of a charging voltage HV for a next pulse in view of a relationship between a supply voltage (charging voltage) HV of a pulse earlier by one to several pulses or one to several bursts and a pulse energy. Besides, it is controlled to raise the charging voltage HV in order to compensate a medium-term output drop, and to increase a laser gas pressure in order to compensate the long-term output drop. To control the pulse energy integrated value into a target range, a charging voltage HV of the next pulse is determined according to a difference between the cumulative energy up to the previous pulse and the target cumulative energy so that a prescribed integrated value can be obtained.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-156367
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-24265 (FIG. 1)

Two-stage laser pulse energy control device and two-stage laser system


A communication terminal comprising a video reproduction device configured to carry out a video reproduction, a communication device configured to carry out a communication; and a reproduction-end-time acquisition device configured to acquire an end time of the video reproduction carried out by said video reproduction device. When an incoming communication arrives from a communication partner terminal in the course of the video reproduction carried out by said video reproduction device, the communication partner terminal is informed of the end time of said video reproduction. The communication partner terminal is external to the communication terminal.

The present invention relates to a communication terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cellular phone capable of receiving a TV program.
The conventional TV system connectable to a network adopts a technique whereby, in order to prevent the seeing and hearing of a TV program from being obstructed, the TV system displays an email-arrival-displaying screen showing detected arrivals of emails, which have been received while the user of the TV system is watching the TV program, after a program scene has been replaced by a commercial screen. This technique is disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-288084 serving as patent reference 1.
In accordance with the technique disclosed in patent reference 1, however, arrivals of phone calls and emails, which are received while the user is watching a TV program, are reported later without considering factors such as the priorities of the phone-call maker, the email sender and the TV program. That is to say, even though an incoming phone call or an incoming email is received while the user is watching the TV program, it is desirable to let the incoming phone call or the incoming email take precedence of a TV program being watched if the incoming phone call is made by an important caller or the incoming email has been sent by an important email sender and/or TV the program is not of much importance. Thus, although the TV program is not so significant as the incoming phone call or the incoming email, the user is not immediately informed of the arrival of the phone call or the email. In other words, if a TV program is not of importance to the user in comparison with an incoming phone call or an incoming email, it is desirable to inform the user of the arrival of the phone call or the email in accordance with the priority of the phone call or the priority of the email even if the phone call or the email is received while the user is watching the TV program.
In addition, the disclosed technique does not consider a feature of informing the phone-call maker of the end time of the TV program. Thus, the phone-call maker does not know when the TV program will end, allowing a received phone call to be accepted. As a result, in some cases, the phone-call maker needs to make a phone call again and again several times till the TV program watched by the user serving as the phone-call target is ended, giving rise to a trouble. If the phone-call maker is informed of the end time of the TV program in such a case, the trouble can be avoided, providing the phone-call maker and the phone-call target with convenience.
It is thus an object of the present invention addressing the problems described above to provide a communication terminal offering much convenience to the phone-call maker and the phone-call target.


In one embodiment, a device for the hand and forearm of a user may include a glove portion and a sleeve. The sleeve is integrally attached to the glove portion and includes an elastic portion and a flexible support portion. The elastic portion is configured to contact a substantial portion of a forearm of a user and the flexible support portion is configured to minimize impact to the forearm. In another embodiment, a device for the forearm of a user may include a sleeve. The sleeve includes an elastic portion and a flexible support portion. The elastic portion is configured to contact a substantial portion of a forearm of a user and the flexible support portion is configured to minimize impact to the forearm and enhance catching of a ball. The elastic portion being configured to interact with a glove of the user.

It is known that many athletes, particularly goalies in soccer and wide-receivers in football, prefer to utilize gloves. Indeed, gloves allow such athletes to optimize catching of the ball and prevent injury to the hand by dampening the ball's impact. In particular, with regard to goalies in soccer, the use of a foam-like and/or other material on the face of goalie gloves has been known for years to increase the ability of goalkeepers to catch and control the ball. In fact, goalie gloves have developed over the years to increase the surface area of the foam-like material while maintaining the flexibility and feel needed for a goalkeeper to control and distribute the ball while in his possession.
In catching certain types of low shots, short hops and ground balls, the technique employed by many goalkeepers is to scoop the ball with their hands and the underside of their forearms. When a hard shot is taken, or when the ball or goalkeepers forearms are wet or moist, balls may get by the goalkeeper by going through his forearms. The material used in most long sleeve goalkeeper jerseys is generally slick and also allows the ball to slide through a goalkeepers forearms. A few jerseys do use a small amount of foam-like material on the sleeve, but the position of the material and the amount used is generally not effective to provide a material benefit to keep balls from going through a goalkeepers forearms.
In addition, during break-away and one v. one situations, many goalkeepers use the technique of coming off of their goal line toward the oncoming player in order to cut down his angle on goal. In attempting to gain possession of the ball and/or to stop shots in these situations, many goalkeepers will extend their body horizontally across the ground toward the oncoming player, creating as much area to stop a shot as possible. In many situations, the shot taken by the offensive player will strike the goalkeeper on the underside of the forearms with great force. In other situations the offensive player will attempt to power the ball through the goalkeeper, striking the underside of the goalkeepers forearms with the ball and his foot. Again, in many cases the ball will slide through the goalkeepers arms due, in some cases, to the buildup of sweat and moisture on the goalkeeper's arms.
Additionally, it is also known that in many types of competitive sports, such as soccer and football, the forearm area is at risk to injury, particularly from impact forces caused by contact with an opponent, ground, and/or ball. As such, to prevent bodily injury to the user, it is often desirable to utilize a forearm protector, whether added directly to the forearm or to the jersey sleeve, to minimize the magnitude of force from any impact to the forearm. Unfortunately, however, in addition to providing the desired impact protection, known forearm protectors are also often bulky, frequently slide down the user's forearm and restrict the athletes' range of motion.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a device for a user and, particularly, an athlete, that increasing the ability of a goalkeeper to catch low shots, short hops and ground balls and provide increased catching and blocking ability for goalkeepers in break-away and one v. one situations by inhibiting balls from slipping through the athlete's arms. Additionally, there also remains a need for a device that facilitates the combination of gloves and forearm protectors, is less bulky, is better secured to the user's forearm and minimizes restriction upon the athletes' range of motion.

Device for the hand and forearm of the user


A sealing system has a gasket (25) which in the undeformed state can be placed against a component (1) to be sealed. In the deformed state, the gasket engages the component (1) such that the gasket (25) is captively held on the component (1).

In industrial production processes, with respect to achieving a high-speed and efficient operating sequence, it is prior art to use prefabricated components for assembly or installation activities. Thus, for example, in the production of systems that enclose or relay flowable media and in which seals on components are necessary, components on which the pertinent gasket has already been placed are often made available for final installation processes. A component premounted in this way promotes simple, high-speed and efficient execution of a subsequent, final installation process, but complication of the working step of transfer between the premounted component and final assembly station must be tolerated. In this connection the premounted component must be handled such that the danger of the gasket falling off the component or being lost in the transfer phase is avoided.


A base station that monitors for radar signals may reassign the monitoring operation to one or more wireless mobile devices whenever channel load exceeds a first value. The one or more wireless mobile devices may then report to the base station when a radar signal is detected so that the base station may switch communications to a different channel that does not interfere with the radar. In some embodiments the monitoring function may be assigned back to the base station if the channel load decreases below a second value.

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) products may operate at various frequencies, such as 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) or 5 GHz. Those operating at 5 GHz must share the band with government/military radar systems, and may therefore interfere with those radar systems. Because reliable operation of the radar is considered a higher priority use than the consumer or commercial use of WLAN, WLAN systems may be required to monitor for radar signals. When a radar signal is detected that is above a certain strength, the WLAN system may be required to switch to a non-interfering frequency.
In conventional systems the base station, or access point (AP), may be responsible for monitoring for radar signals, and may further be required to redirect all communications to a new frequency within a defined time when a radar signal is detected. However, because the AP generally handles all communications within the WLAN, when the WLAN is in a heavy traffic condition the overworked AP may have to choose between monitoring for radar signals and keeping the flow of communications going. The choice that is made may affect whether network performance suffers, or the AP misses a radar signal and possibly interferes with the radar.


A sensing device includes a sensor, a control unit, an input/output (I/O) interface, and a non-volatile magnetic memory device having one or more memory cells, each of the memory cells, wherein each memory cell of the non-volatile magnetic memory device includes a magnetic switch including a magnetic component and a write coil located proximate the magnetic component, the write coil coupled to receive a current sufficient to create a remnant magnetic polarity in the magnetic component, and a Hall sensor, positioned proximate the magnetic component, to detect the remnant magnetic polarity indicative of a stored data bit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device, and more particularly, to a memory device using magnetic memory elements.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The rapid growth in the portable consumer product market (including the products for portable computing and communications) is driving the need for low power consumption non-volatile memory devices, with their inherent ability to retain stored information without power.
The principal technology currently available in the marketplace for these applications is EEPROM (Electrically Eraseable Programmable Read-Only Memory) technology, relying on charging (writing) or discharging (erasing) the floating-gate of a Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (N-type) type transistor using so-called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling through the ultra-thin oxide layer of these structures. The charging of the gate creates results in an electron inversion channel in the device rendering it conductive (constituting a memory state 1). Discharging the floating gate (i.e., applying a negative bias) removes the electron from the channel and returns the device to its initial non-conductive state (i.e., memory state 0). One serious limitation to this technology is related to tunneling that limits the erase/write cycle endurance and can induce catastrophic breakdown (after a maximum of about 106 cycles). Moreover, the required charging time—which is of the order of 1 ms—is relatively long.
In order to improve performance, so-called FeRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) technology has been developed. The FeRAM memory cell consists of a bi-stable capacitor, and is comprised of a ferroelectric thin film that contains polarizable electric dipoles. These dipoles, analogous to the magnetic moments in a ferroemagnetic material, respond to an applied electric field to create a net polarization in the direction of the applied field. A hysteresis loop for sweeping the applied field from positive to negative field defines the characteristics of the material. On removing the applied field, the ferroelectric material can retain a polarization known as the remnant polarization, serving as the basis for storing information in a non-volatile fashion. FeRAM would appear to be a promising technology with good future potential since relatively low voltages (typically about 5V) are required for switching as compared with about 12 to 15V for EEPROM. Moreover, FeRAM devices show 108 to 1010 cycle write endurance compared with about 106 for EEPROM, and the switching of the electrical polarization requires as little as about 100 ns compared with about 1 ms for charging an EEPROM. However, the need for an additional cycle to return a given bit to its original state for reading purposes aggravates the problems of dielectric fatigue. This, in turn, is characterized by degradation in the ability to polarize the material. In addition, owing to the behavior of these materials about their Curie temperature, as well as compositional stability (and associated changes in Curie temperature), even moderate thermal cycling promotes accelerated fatigue. Finally, fabrication process uniformity and control still remains a challenge.
Today, MRAM (Magnetoresistance Random Access Memory)—whose development began some 20 years ago—appears to hold the greatest promise for existing technologies in terms of read/write endurance cycle and speed. The technology relies on a writing process that uses the hysteresis loop of a ferromagnetic strip, while the reading process involves the anisotropic magnetoresistance effect. Basically, this effect (based on spin-orbit interaction) relates to the variation of the resistance of a magnetic conductor, dependent on an external applied magnetic field. The bit consists of a strip of two ferromagnetic films (e.g., NiFe) sandwiching a poor conductor (e.g., TaN), placed underneath an orthogonal conductive strip line (i.e., known as the word line). For writing, a current passes through the sandwich strip and when aided by a current in the orthogonal strip-line, the uppermost ferromagnetic layer of the sandwich strip is magnetized either clockwise, or counterclockwise. Reading is performed by measuring the magneto-resistance of the sandwich structure (i.e., by passing a current). Magneto-resistance ratios of only about 0.5% are typical, but have allowed the fabrication of a 16 Kb MRAM chip operating with write times of 100 ns (and read times of 250 ns). A 250 Kb chip was also later produced by Honeywell.
The discovery of so-called Giant Magneto-resistance (GMR) in 1989, implemented by sandwiching a copper layer with a magnetic thin film permitted further improvement in memory device performance. The GMR structures showed a magneto-resistance of about 6%, but the exchange between the magnetic layers limited how quickly the magnetization could change direction. Moreover magnetization curling from the edge of the strip imposed a limitation on the reduction in the cell size, or scaling.
Promising results were then obtained with the so called Pseudo-Spin Valve (PSV) cell made of a sandwich structure with two magnetic layers mismatched so that one layer tends to switch magnetization at a lower field than the other. The soft film is used to sense (by the magnetoresistance effect) the magnetization of the hard film—this latter film constitutes the storage media, having magnetization of either up or down (i.e., states 0 or 1). PSV structures are amenable to scaling but the reported fields required to switch the hard magnetic layer are still too high for high density integrated circuits. These devices appear to potentially represent a replacement for EEPROMs.
Further improvements in magnetoresistance (i.e., up to 40%) are obtained with spin-dependent tunneling devices (SDT). These devices are made of an insulating layer (i.e., the tunneling barrier) sandwiched between two magnetic layers. Device operation relies on the fact that the tunneling resistance, in the direction perpendicular to the stack, depends on the magnetization of the magnetic layers. The highest resistance is obtained when the magnetization of the layers is anti-parallel, and the parallel case provides the lowest resistance. The variation of spin (i.e., up or down) state density between the two magnetic layers explains this behavior. One of the layers is pinned while the second magnetic layer is free and used as the information storage media. SDT show promise for high performance non-volatile applications. Indeed there have been some reported values for write times as small as 14 ns with this approach. However, controlling the resistance uniformity (i.e., the tunneling barrier thickness and quality), and hence controlling the switching behavior from bit to bit remains a real challenge that has yet to be overcome in practical implementation. What is needed is a non-volatile memory device that is fast, reliable, relatively simple in design, inexpensive, and robust.

Magnetic memory composition and method of manufacture

Governing Council of the University of Toronto


Methods and apparatus are provided for processing an information signal containing content presented in accordance with at least one modality. In one aspect of the present invention, a method of processing an information signal containing content presented in accordance with at least one modality, comprises the steps of: (i) obtaining the information signal; (ii) performing content detection on the information signal to detect whether the information signal includes particular content presented in accordance with the at least one modality; and (iii) generating a control signal, when the particular content is detected, for use in controlling a rendering property of the particular content and/or implementation of a specific action relating to the particular content. Various illustrative embodiments in the context of speech signal processing for use in voicemail and/or cellular phone applications are provided, as well as illustrative embodiments associated with the processing of multi-modal or multimedia information signals. Also, the present invention provides for storing selectively marked information, even in the absence of content detection, such that the information may be rendered and/or used at a later time. The invention also extends to processing of text-based and markup language-based signals, e.g., XML documents.

Users of existing voice mail/telephone answering machines and other equipment with voice messaging capabilities, e.g., cellular phones, are all too familiar with a classical user interface (UI) problem. The classical UI problem is associated with the fact that it is often difficult for a user to effectively extract key information, e.g., phone numbers, addresses, names, etc., from a voice message during playback. This may be due to a variety of reasons.
By way of one example, the provider or author of the message may have a tendency to rush through the portions of the message which he is very familiar with and which are repetitive for him, e.g., his name and phone number. Thus, the person listening to the message is not given enough time to write down the name and phone number of the caller during normal speed playback. One solution is to replay the entire message, which is time consuming and provides no guarantee that the listener will extract all the relevant information the second time or, for that matter, any number of subsequent times. Of course, the user could possibly slow down a subsequent playback of the message if the playback equipment has the capability to do so. However, in existing systems with equipment that is only able to slow down the entire message, subsequent playback is even more time consuming, not to mention quite frustrating. It also requires the user to perform several active physical steps to achieve such a slowed playback. Even if a portion of the played back message can be slowed down, the user must still manually search the message record, by starting and stopping the playback, until he gets to the point that he wishes to slow down.
By way of another example, the person playing back a message may not be free to write down the key information in a message because he may be occupied performing some concurrent operations, e.g., driving his vehicle, holding objects, etc.
Furthermore, it is to be understood that this classical UI problem is not limited to playback of voice messages. That is, such a UI problem exists during a real-time (live) phone conversation. In such a case, the listener still has difficulty remembering and/or transcribing important information from an on-going phone conversation, e.g., when participating in a cellular phone conversation while driving his car. In fact, the problem is made worse since the user does not have a recording of the conversation to which he may later refer to try to obtain any missed information.
It is also to be appreciated that this classical UI problem extends beyond voice or speech signals. That is, the same difficulties exist when trying to extract key information from playback or rendering of multi-modal or multimedia type information signals, e.g., signals including both audio and video information portions, or text document-based or markup language-based signals, e.g., XML documents.
Thus, there is a need for information signal processing methods and apparatus that substantially reduce and/or eliminate this classical UI problem.

Method and apparatus for processing information signals based on content


A system for treating a vascular condition comprises a catheter having at least one lumen, a stem received within a distal portion of the lumen, a sealing member positioned on the stem, and a balloon operably attached to a distal portion of the catheter. The stem includes a proximal body portion, a sealing portion, and a shoulder portion. The sealing member is movable with hydrodynamic force from an initial air-release position on the proximal body portion of the stem to a sealed position on the sealing portion of the stem. A method for purging a balloon catheter prior to use comprises injecting a liquid into a proximal end of a balloon catheter lumen. The injected liquid forces air through a gap between the lumen wall and a sealing member. The liquid then contacts the sealing member and repositions it to a sealed position.

Balloon catheters are conventionally used in a wide variety of medical procedures. For example, a balloon is inflated during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) to dilate a stenotic blood vessel and may also be used to deliver a stent to support the vessel lumen in an open position. In addition, the distal end of a guidewire is sometimes equipped with at least one inflatable balloon to provide temporary occlusion of a vessel or to anchor the guidewire within a vessel. An occlusion guidewire can be used to prevent debris generated during vessel treatment from moving with the flowing blood to embolize distally. Anchoring the guidewire helps to prevent the guidewire from being displaced from its position while treatment catheters are advanced or withdrawn over the placed guidewire.
Typically, balloon inflation is accomplished by injecting a liquid under pressure into an inflation lumen of a balloon catheter. However, before the catheter is used, air must be purged from the inflation lumen and the balloon itself to eliminate the risk of an air embolism entering a vessel if the system were to leak or the balloon were to rupture. The air also must be evacuated from the balloon to accomplish a desired inflation of the balloon using a specific volume of liquid without the need to account for compression of an unknown volume of air within the balloon.
A common method of purging a balloon catheter prior to use involves connecting a syringe to the proximal end of the inflation lumen and drawing out as much air as possible. Liquid is then injected into the catheter while the balloon is held vertically to allow the remaining air within the catheter to rise through the inflation liquid towards an inflation port. Liquid and some air bubbles are withdrawn from the catheter, and liquid is again injected. These steps may have to be repeated multiple times to adequately purge the catheter, requiring a substantial amount of preparation time. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a balloon catheter that overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages.

Balloon catheter with self-actuating purging valve


A fiber-reinforced resin composite material has a longitudinal direction, and includes a first stack, a second stack, a ridge, a flat surface, and a connection. The ridge extends in the longitudinal direction. The flat surface is continuous to the ridge. The connection is where the first and second stacks are coupled. The first and second stacks are joined to each other in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction. Fibers of at least one of first fiber-reinforced resin sheets included in the first stack, fibers of at least one of second fiber-reinforced resin sheets included in the second stack, or both intersect the ridge. The connection includes the first and second fiber-reinforced resin sheets that are overlapped alternately, and includes ends of the first fiber-reinforced resin sheets, ends of the second fiber-reinforced resin sheets, or both that are shifted from each other to allow the connection to have a gradually-varied thickness.

The technology relates to a fiber-reinforced resin composite material that uses a fiber-reinforced resin, and to a method of manufacturing the fiber-reinforced resin composite material.
Manufacturing a structural member of a body of a vehicle, such as a center pillar, with use of a fiber-reinforced resin has been under consideration in recent years for purpose of reducing a weight of the vehicle such as an automobile. The fiber-reinforced resin contains reinforcing fibers such as carbon fibers. A member made of the fiber-reinforced resin is high in rigidity and exhibits high strength for a stress, especially for a tensile stress that acts in a direction in which the fibers are oriented.
One example of application of a fiber-reinforced resin composite material is an automotive shock-absorbing member. The automotive shock-absorbing member includes CFRP (carbon-fiber reinforced plastic) members that have different strength properties from each other and that are provided for respective flat surfaces or curved surfaces structuring the fiber-reinforced resin composite material. A fiber-reinforced resin sheet involves variation in strength property depending on a direction in which continuous fibers are oriented. Accordingly, making different the directions of orientation of the continuous fibers in the fiber-reinforced resin sheets, provided on respective surfaces structuring the fiber-reinforced resin composite material, makes it possible to achieve different strength properties for the respective surfaces. For example, reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-225364.

Fiber-reinforced resin composite material and method of manufacturing fiber-reinforced resin composite material