In a wireless or mobile ad hoc network the routing interworks with the ordinary Internet routing using the Mobile IP. Mobile IP foreign agents are used as gateways between the ad hoc network and the Internet. The nodes in the ad hoc network use their home addresses for all communication and register with a foreign agent in the network. To send packets to hosts on the Internet either tunnelling or proxying is used. To receive packets from the Internet the packets are routed to the foreign agent using the Mobile IP. The foreign agent then routes the packets to the destination in the ad hoc network. Since the ordinary Mobile IP requires link-layer connectivity between the foreign agent and a visiting node which is not guaranteed on the ad hoc network, modifications are accordingly made to the procedures of the Mobile IP.

In areas having little or no infrastructure for telecommunication, and in areas where telecommunication using the infrastructure is too expensive, users of wireless mobile stations may still be able to communicate with each other through the formation of an ad hoc network. Generally, in such a network each mobile station operates not only as a host but also as a router, forwarding packets to other mobile stations in the ad hoc network that may not be within direct wireless transmission range of each other Each node uses an ad hoc routing protocol that allows it to discover "multi-hop" paths through the network formed to any other node. Mobile stations in these networks establish routing among themselves to form their own network "on the fly".
Possible uses for such networks, called Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), include e.g. business associates sharing information during a meeting, soldiers relaying information on the battlefield, and emergency relief personnel who must quickly set up a network to coordinate efforts after a hurricane or an earthquake. A particular application which will probably introduce ad hoc networking to the mass market involves the use of devices working according to the standard Bluetooth, a standard for allowing low-power short range radio communication and initially intended as a means to replace cables.
Such mobile ad hoc networks have been studied for some time, but most work has been concentrated on stand-alone ad hoc networks. Several proposed routing protocols use reactive routing, also known as on-demand routing as opposed to ordinary Internet Protocol ("IP") routing, which uses proactive routing. Proactive routing means that the routing protocol constantly tries to keep track of the routes in the network so that when a host needs to send a datagram a route to the recipient is known beforehand. Reactive routing means that the routing protocol only operates when there are datagrams to deliver in the network, otherwise it does nothing.
There are two basic problems with the mobile ad hoc networks:                How can someone connect an ad hoc network that uses on-demand routing to the Internet?        How can Mobile IP services be connected in such an ad hoc network?
Addressing in the Internet is hierarchical with IP addresses divided into a network ID and a host ID. All hosts connected to the same network use the same network ID. In this way, each IP address is mapped to a physical location that can be derived by looking at the network ID of the IP address. This also means that an Internet host does not have to keep track of routes to every other Internet host. Instead, routing information can be aggregated; one entry in the routing table can handle all hosts that share the same network ID. To make better use of the address space, yet another level of hierarchy is used: a network can be divided into subnetworks. The host ID is then divided into a subnet ID and a host ID.
The number of networks in the Internet is quite substantial and it is not always necessary to keep track of them all, since they only have limited interconnections. Because most networks are leaf networks, default routes are widely used. In short, IP routing works as follows:    1. Look for an entry in the routing table that matches the complete destination IP address. If found, use that route.    2. Look for an entry in the routing table that matches the network ID of the destination IP address. If found, use that route.    3. Look for a default entry in the routing table. If found use that route, otherwise consider the destination unreachable.
The capability of using one route to a network instead of having one route per host and using a default route is two powerful features of IP routing.
If someone wants an ad hoc network to be routable from the Internet like any other Internet network, someone must assign a network ID thereto and ensure that the nodes in the ad hoc network use it. If such a method is used, the IP multihop communication within the ad hoc network is what distinguishes it from regular Internet networks. Nodes in the ad hoc network cannot expect to have link-layer connectivity with all other nodes in the ad hoc network as in regular Internet networks. In order to reach the default gateway between the ad hoc network and the fixed Internet, nodes must use IP layer routing.
The traditional view of ad hoc networks is as autonomous systems of mobile nodes using IP. As such, the ad hoc network should be capable of operating without any centralized configuration. Also, from an ad hoc point of view, any set of nodes should be capable of forming an ad hoc network regardless of the addresses which they use and without having to use any particular network ID. This implies that one can no longer decide if a node belongs to that particular network simply by looking at the network ID.
In the following the focus will be on what happens when such an autonomous ad hoc network is connected to the Internet and the nodes within the ad hoc network wish to communicate with other Internet hosts.
Most work concerning routing in ad hoc networks has been concentrated on stand-alone ad hoc networks. The IP mobility that is provided in earlier ad hoc networks was limited to the ad hoc network as such. To allow roaming between different networks the Mobile IP protocol was developed, separately from ad hoc networking. In a stand-alone ad hoc network, without the hierarchy that the network ID creates, there is no meaning in having a default route since either the recipient is reachable within the ad hoc network or it is not reachable at all. As a result thereof, routing in ad hoc networks is typically performed using host routes only.
This is the case for both Ad Hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing ("AODV") and Dynamic Source Routing ("DSR") for example, which use neither network nor default routes. In AODV there are no periodic changes of the routing tables. Routes are only set up when two nodes want to communicate with each other, and only nodes that are connected in the path between the two end nodes keep information about the route. In the AODV method: (a) discovery packets are broadcast as sparingly as possible; (b) is distinguished between local connectivity management and general topology maintenance; and (c) information is propagated about changes in local connectivity to neighbouring nodes which are likely to need that information. One key aspect of AODV is that each node maintains a routing table containing one entry for each destination with which the node communicates itself or to or from which the node forwards data to on behalf of some other node.
Another type of known on-demand routing is DSR. The feature that makes DSR stand out from other routing protocols of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks is that DSR uses strict source routing. Strict source routing means that the source determines the complete sequence of hops that each packet should traverse. The list of hops is then included in the header of each packet. One obvious disadvantage thereof is the source routing overhead which every packet has to carry. Loose source routing is a method according to which a packet must be routed via some specific nodes, e.g. a foreign agent in this case, but otherwise can choose its own way to the destination.
In DSR two basic mechanisms are used, route discovery and route maintenance. Route maintenance is used for handling link breakages and is carried out whenever a route is used to send packets. Route discovery is used to find a route from the source to the destination. The network is flooded with route request messages. Each node in the network adds its address to a route request received in the node and then forwards it. If a route exists to the destination the route request will find its way to the destination. All that the destination node has to do is unicast a route reply back to the source using the route listed in the route request. Each node in the network maintains a route memory in which it stores the routes that it has learned. Route discovery is only used when an appropriate route cannot be found in the route memory.
In on-demand routing methods like DSR and AODV the routing tables are usually searched in the following manner:    1. Look for an entry in the routing table that matches the complete destination IP address. If found, use that route.    2. Try to find a host route within the ad hoc network by using the route discovery mechanisms. If found, use that route, otherwise consider the destination unreachable.
Host routing by nodes in an ad hoc network as described above should be feasible for destinations on the fixed Internet when an ad hoc network is connected to the fixed Internet since routing information is only kept for destinations with which an ad hoc node is currently communicating. What is lacking in these procedures is a mechanism for propagating routing information from the fixed Internet to the ad hoc network, i.e. how nodes in the ad hoc network should treat network and default routes.
To be reachable from the rest of the Internet, a node in an ad hoc network needs an IP address that allows the ad hoc node to be routable from the rest of the Internet. Since the ad hoc network is connected to the Internet there must be at least one node that resides on the border between the ad hoc network and the rest of the Internet. This node will be referred to as the Internet gateway. The Internet gateway must have at least one IP address that can be used for communication with the rest of the Internet. How can the nodes in the ad hoc network make use of that fact?
Mobile IP is a proposed standard protocol for location independent routing. It allows a mobile node to have seamless, untethered access to the Internet while roaming and is based on the Internet Protocol by making mobility transparent to applications and higher level protocols like TCP and UDP. The main technical obstacle that had to be overcome to support mobility was the way in which the IP addresses are used. Unicast Internet traffic is routed to the location specified by the destination address in the IP header. The address specifies a network address and hence traffic is sent to this network.
Unfortunately this does not work for mobile nodes since a mobile node wants to have the same address independently of its location without the sender having to keep track of the place where the mobile node is located. Mobile IP solved this problem by allowing the mobile node to use two IP addresses, one for identification by e.g. TCP, and one for routing to the current location of the node.
In order to maintain existing transport layer connections every mobile node is assigned a static home address. This home address allows the mobile node to always be capable of receiving data in the same way as it receives data in its home network. When the mobile node is attached to a network different from its home network, called a foreign network, it uses a care-of address. The care-of address is an IP address valid in the foreign network that the mobile node is visiting. Whenever a mobile node moves from one network to another it has to change to a new care-of address that is valid in the new network.
To be capable of receiving datagrams while visiting a foreign network the mobile node has to register its current care-of address with its home agent. To do this, the mobile node usually has to register through a foreign agent FA located in the foreign network. The process of detecting a foreign agent is quite similar to that used by Internet nodes to detect routers which support the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). Each mobility agent periodically broadcasts agent advertisements to its directly attached subnetworks to advertise its existence. The mobile node listens for these advertisements in order to select a mobility agent, i.e. a foreign agent, through which the node can register with its home agent.
When the node is successfully registered with the home agent, every datagram sent to the home address of the mobile node is received by the home agent and forwarded to the care-of address, e.g. the foreign agent, that then forwards it to the mobile node. The forwarding is performed using a method called tunnelling. When the home agent receives a datagram destined for the mobile node, it encapsulates the original datagram within a new IP packet that contains the care-of address of the mobile node as its destination address. This new IP packet is then routed to the care-of address where it is then decapsulated. The decapsulated packet is now said to have been tunnelled. If the care-of address is the care-of address of a foreign agent the foreign agent forwards the decapsulated datagram to the mobile node.
The procedure used by ordinary Mobile IP with foreign agent care-of addresses assumes link-layer connectivity between the foreign agent and the visiting node In summary, the communication between foreign agents and visiting nodes is as follows:    1. Foreign agents broadcast agent advertisements periodically, once per second. These advertisements are used by visiting nodes to            detect the presence of a foreign agent        discover the presence of new foreign agents,        decide when it has moved, and        detect when a foreign agent is no longer reachable.            2. Visiting nodes may broadcast agent solicitations to detect foreign agents. A foreign agent that receives an agent solicitation must respond by sending a unicast agent advertisement.    3. When a visiting node has received a valid agent advertisement from a foreign agent it may register with that foreign agent.
IP broadcast messages are used frequently for the operation of ordinary Mobile IP. In ad hoc networks, such broadcast messages are much more costly, since they have to traverse multiple hops and must be retransmitted by every node within the ad hoc network. Thus, it would be desirable to reduce the number of broadcast messages if possible.
Some methods already exist which attempt to apply Mobile IP to ad hoc networks. In "Ad Hoc Networking with Mobile IP", Proceedings of 2nd European Personal Mobile Communication Conference, September 1997, a solution for using Mobile IP on top of a proactive routing protocol is described. The routing protocol that is used is said to be "a modified RIP", and is very similar to Destination Sequenced Distance Vector Routing ("DSDV"). It seems fairly straightforward to use the proposed method for a proactive routing protocol like DSDV, but it is not viable for a reactive, on-demand, routing protocol since it relies on periodically transmitted control packets of the routing protocol for spreading Agent Advertisements. In an on-demand routing protocol, there is no such thing as periodically transmitted control packets.
One point made in the cited "Ad Hoc Networking" article is that both Mobile IP and the ad hoc routing protocol use routing tables. To coordinate the two routing tables, a route manager is introduced. Instead of modifying the routing table directly, both Mobile IP and the ad hoc routing protocol send their route manipulation requests to the route manager. It is then up to the route manager to determined those manipulations that should be carried out.
For combining Mobile IP with ad hoc networks using on-demand routing protocols, no detailed solution has been disclosed. In "Supporting Hierarchy and Heterogeneous Interfaces in Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Networks", Proceedings of the Workshop on Mobile Computing, IEEE, June 1999, an initial design of an addressing architecture is described which, among other things, could be used to provide Mobile IP support within an ad hoc network. The section that covers interworking between Mobile IP and ad hoc networking is, however, not very elaborate. Additionally, it assumes that DSR is used as the routing protocol in the ad hoc network.
However the procedure of "Supporting Hierarchy" according to the cited article only considers one foreign agent and one mobile node only. The idea comprises that the mobile node piggybacks a Mobile IP Agent Solicitation on a Route Request targeting the IP limited broadcast address (255.255.255.255). The limited broadcast is used to allow the Solicitation to propagate over multiple hops through the ad hoc network, but not be forwarded to the Internet by gateways. When the foreign agent receives the Solicitation, it will unicast an Agent Advertisement in reply. Once the Agent Advertisement reaches the mobile node, the mobile node can register with the foreign agent and the ordinary triangle routing of Mobile IP can begin.
A basic problem when using Mobile IP in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network is that link-layer connectivity between the foreign agent and the mobile node cannot be assumed. In the first solution disclosed in the cited "Ad Hoc Networking" on-demand routing is not used and is thus not applicable.
The shortcomings of the second solution described above in the cited article "Supporting Hierarchy" are:    1. It assumes that DSR is used.    2. There is no movement detection or handoff support.    3. It uses a special addressing scheme with interface index.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a mobile ad hoc network which can communicate with the Internet using Mobile IP foreign agents as gateways which uses on-demand routing but does not require a specific ad hoc routing protocol used in the ad hoc network, nor link-layer connectivity between foreign agent and visiting node, and allows movement detection and handoff support.


A body fluid absorbing article, which is improved in the spot absorptivity and in the diffusivity in an absorbent, and which is improved in the characteristics of a body fluid migration to the absorbent. The body fluid absorbing article comprises an absorbent sandwiched between a body fluid permeable surface member and a body fluid impermeable back member. Said absorbent includes an upper layer and a lower layer sequentially from the side of said body fluid permeable surface member, and said lower layer has a higher density than that of said upper layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body fluid absorbing article such as a sanitary napkin or a paper diaper for absorbing and holding a body fluid and, more particularly, to a body fluid absorbing article having a laminated absorbing structure, which is improved in the spot absorptivity and in the diffusivity in an absorbent, and which is improved in the characteristics of a body fluid migration to the absorbent.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this body fluid absorbing article having the laminated absorbing structure, there is known in the prior art a two-layered structure, as disclosed in JP-A-2001-170111, or a three-layered structure, as disclosed in JP-T-8-503397. The former is cubically bulged by forming an upper layer smaller than a lower layer in the portion of the sanitary napkin to be brought into abutment against the discharge portion of a human body. The latter is provided with three-layer absorbent whose each layer is dense over substantially whole area and is enabled to hold the satisfactory characteristics of the material for sucking the fluid even if the discharge quantity increases.
Generally, the absorbent used in the body fluid absorbing article of this kind is characterized by causing the body fluid to permeate the more quickly for the lower density and the more slowly for the higher density but by holding the body fluid the more easily. The present invention has been conceived by making skillful use of those characteristics. On the contrary, the aforementioned body fluid absorbing article of the prior art has disclosed the laminar structure for the absorbent but has failed to make the layers different in density. Without this view point, moreover, the existing body fluid absorbing article is not excellent in both the spot absorptivity and the body fluid diffusivity.
In the prior art, moreover, it has been disclosed in JP-A-57-205503 or JP-A-64-45801, for example, that the body fluid treating characteristics in the absorbent, that is, the absorptivity and the diffusivity are adjusted to block the flow of the body fluid thereby to prevent the leakage by embossing the absorbent of the body fluid absorbing article.
With the absorbent being thus embossed, the indented portions take a high density, and the remaining portions take a low density. These indented portions (or the higher density portions) and the remaining portions (or the lower density portions) are not in the laminated relation in the thickness direction of the absorbent. No matter how the density might be adjusted, therefore, the absorbing mode can neither absorb the body fluid quickly nor then diffuse it. As a result, the body fluid hardly permeates, and the higher density portions of a high body fluid absorbing and retaining properties come into contact with the surface layer to contact with the skin. Thus, there arise problems that the body fluid flows back (as called the "wet back"), and that the wearer feels a sticky feel. Especially when the indented portions are formed by the embossing treatment or the like on the surface layer side of the absorbent, there arises a problem that the migration of the body fluid to the absorbent is insufficient.
As a countermeasure for preventing a sideway leakage in the body fluid absorbing article, moreover, there is also known a method of increasing the liquid distribution in the longitudinal direction by indenting the absorbing structure from the surface to the back and by forming longitudinally extending indented lines in the two side portions of the body fluid absorbing article. Much body fluid is held in the high density portions to abut against the skin so that the problem of the back flow or the sticky feel becomes more serious than the of the case of JP-A-57-205503 or JP-A-64-45801. Moreover, these methods still have problems that the absorbent structure becomes hard to give an uncomfortable feel to the wearer, and that the cushioning properties are lost to establish a clearance between the absorbing structure and the body of the wearer.
In the body fluid absorbing article of the prior art, as described hereinbefore, the spot absorptivity, i.e., the ability to receive the body fluid quickly in the absorbent, and the diffusivity, i.e., the ability to diffuse the body fluid throughout the inside of the absorbent cannot be said sufficient in the least, although they are extremely important factors from the viewpoints of the using feel and the leakage prevention.

Absorbing article having honeycomb recesses on lower absorbent layer and varying layer densities


An apparatus for towing geophysical sources includes a housing; a first geophysical source disposed in the housing so that the first geophysical source is partially exposed to a surrounding environment; and a plurality of ballast tanks coupled to the housing and configured to at least one of: change a buoyancy of the source towing system; and shift a center of mass of the source towing system. A method of towing a geophysical source includes towing a source towing system through a body of water at a towing depth; and operating a plurality of ballast tanks of the source towing system to at least one of: change a buoyancy of the source towing system; and shift a center of mass of the source towing system.

This disclosure is related generally to the field of marine surveying. Marine surveying can include, for example, seismic and/or electromagnetic surveying, among others. For example, this disclosure may have applications in marine surveying in which one or more geophysical sources are used to generate energy (e.g., wavefields, pulses, signals), and geophysical sensors—either towed or ocean bottom—receive energy generated by the sources and possibly affected by interaction with subsurface formations. Geophysical sensors may be towed on cables referred to as streamers. Some marine surveys locate geophysical sensors on ocean bottom cables or nodes in addition to, or instead of, streamers. The geophysical sensors thereby collect survey data which can be useful in the discovery and/or extraction of hydrocarbons from subsurface formations.
Historically, geophysical sources have been towed at or near the water surface. Flotation and towing systems have positioned the sources vertically (i.e., water depth), laterally (i.e., in the cross-line direction; horizontal and perpendicular to the local towing direction), and axially (i.e., in the in-line direction; horizontal and parallel to the local towing direction). Near-surface towing has provided easy access for power and data transfer. Also air gun signals (e.g., bubbles) may be attenuated by higher water pressures at greater depths. However, deep towing of sources may provide better data quality in many instances. For example, deep towing of sources may reduce source ghosting concerns. As is commonly known, acoustic energy that is reflected downwardly from the water surface is commonly known as a "ghost" signal. This causes a sequence of notches in the acquired data spectrum, including a notch at zero frequency (0 Hz). The frequencies of these notches in the detected acoustic signal are related to the depth at which the geophysical source is towed. Low-frequency data acquisition may be improved by towing the sources at a greater depth. However, this causes the ghost notches in the spectrum to occur at lower frequencies, and hence limits the high frequency parts of the spectrum needed for high resolution imaging of shallower targets. Also, when using air gun(s) as a seismic energy source, the fundamental frequency of the gun(s) increases with increasing depth. Hence, the increase in energy in the low frequency end when towing the air-guns deeper due to the source ghost, is counteracted by the increase in fundamental frequency of the air-gun(s).
In some instances, surface obstructions impede shallow towing of sources. At times, data may be desired from sources at more than one depth and/or horizontal position. Towing systems may sometimes suffer from vibration or other sources of noise. It would be beneficial to steer sources and/or source arrays in conjunction with and/or independently of existing flotation and towing systems.


A method and apparatus are disclosed for wrapping a load conforming generally to a rectangular solid, such as a cotton bale. Lengths of wrapping film from two rolls are welded to form a predraped wall of such film, into which the load is conveyed to cover its front face and its lateral faces, whereupon the welded lengths are welded again behind the bale and are severed from such rolls. As the load is conveyed, a length of wrapping film from a third roll is wrapped in a spiral pattern so as to cover the upper, lower, and lateral faces of the load. Moreover, generally V-shaped perforations pointing toward the front face are formed in the lateral faces, by means of perforating mechanisms. Each mechanism comprises a pivotal arm biased toward the load, a wheel rotatable on the arm, and perforating cutters extending radially from the wheel, in two circumferential arrays.

In cotton baling, common practices are to wet a cotton bale before compressing it so that cotton fibers in the wetted bale are limp, to compress the wetted bale, to tie the compressed bale with steel strapping or wire ties, and to wrap the tied bale for storage and shipment. It is known for other fibers to be similarly baled with or without a wetting step.
Commonly, water vapor-pervious bags of nonwoven polypropylene are used to wrap the tied bales. Water vapor-pervious bags are used to permit humidity within such bags to equilibrate with humidity outside such bags in the storage and shipment environments.
Usage of such bags is problematic, however, since it is difficult to dispose of such bags, which are bulky and occupy large spaces in landfills. Recycling of such bags may not be economically feasible.
There has been a need, to which this invention is addressed, for a better way to wrap such a bale.

Method for wrapping elongate load with wrapping film, apparatus therefor, and film-perforating mechanism


The invention relates to a device for storing a liquid, particularly a dilutable concentrate such as a detergent concentrate or the like, the device being co-operable with a spray dispenser bottle and a spray dispenser head which which together from a spray dispenser, the device comprising:. a top wall and PA1 a bottom wall, the top wall and bottom wall being separated by one or more side walls, the top and bottom wall each having an opening continuous with a channel running through the device from the top wall opening to the bottom wall opening, whereby the top, bottom and sidewalls together with the channel, define at least one reservoir area of the device wherein liquid is storable, the device further comprising an exit in the device by relative displacement of parts thereof, whereby liquid is releasable from the reservoir area.

The use of manually operable spray containers, especially spray bottles, for dispensing reagents such as water, detergent cleaners, de-icers, insecticides and the like, as an alternative to environmentally harmful aerosols, are well known.
The most spray dispenser bottles currently on the market, are pre-filled with a chemical reagent and sold ready to use.
Once the contents of these spray dispenser bottles have been used up, these spray dispenser bottles are often thrown away despite the fact that they mostly remain fully functional.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,216 discloses a chemical reservoir mountable in the neck of a spray bottle dispenser for replenishing the active chemical reagent solution to be sprayed from the spray bottle dispenser. Accordingly, once the initial solution has been used up, the consumer need only refill the spray bottle with water, whereafter the chemical concentrate carried within the chemical reservoir is opened mixed with the water to provide a use solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,216 teaches a reservoir cartridge having a pierceable, metal foil upper wall and pierceable plastic lower wall. The concentrate contained herein, is released into a spray container bottle, by means of a needle member associated with a spray head, which is pushed through the upper metal foil wall and lower plastic wall of the reservoir cartridge to rupture these, on assembling the spray dispenser, whereby concentrate held therein is released into the spray bottle container through the ruptured lower wall of the cartridge. A disadvantage with this cartridge is that on piercing the lower wall, concentrate is not released at a sufficiently acceptable rate to provide quickly a use solution.
This needle member doubles as a down-tube for the spray head for transmitting liquid from the spray bottle to the spray head.
EP-A-0 606 672 discloses a system for diluting and dispensing liquid material including a rigid cartridge containing concentrated liquid, which cartridge is placed in the interior of the upper mouth of a bottle containing water. Said cartridge is opened at the bottom side thereof by screwing an atomizer onto a threaded mouth piece of the bottle, so that the concentrated liquid present in the rigid cartridge is released into the water. Further cartridge-like devices for use in recharging a chemical reagent solution in spray dispenser bottles, are known from the U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,096 and the German patent document DE 3535986.
A further system for introducing concentrate into a spray dispenser bottle is known from the German patent document DE 19621774.
Another system for introducing concentrate into a spray dispenser bottle is known from the Italian patent document no. 1188018.
Although the devices and systems known from the prior art are functional, they are difficult to make and/or awkward to fill with concentrate, and very often need to be thoroughly cleaned, once filled, in order to be ready for sale.
Furthermore, these types of cartridges often require relatively speaking, a lot of raw material, making them difficult to manufacture. Accordingly, these cartridges are often both with respect to man hours and raw materials expensive to make and fill, making them economically unattractive.
Another problem with known devices and systems is that standard spray containers and/or spray dispenser heads very often need to be modified and/or require extra working features, in order to co-operate therewith. Furthermore such known devices and systems often suffer from leakage.
Under standard spray containers is understood typically containers having a volume of 0.5-1.0 L with a single standard screw neck.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device which substantially overcomes all of these problems.

Device for storing a liquid co-operable with a spray dispenser, and spray dispenser comprising said device


The present invention relates to an onboard information processing apparatus suitable for processing carried out by information handling equipment mounted on a movable body such as an automobile and relates to an automobile on which the information processing apparatus is mounted. The onboard information processing apparatus comprises a plurality of pieces of onboard information handling equipment installed in a vehicle. Each of the pieces of onboard information handling equipment has a connection unit for connection with a bus line of a predetermined format. The connection units of the pieces of onboard information handling equipment are connected to each other by the bus line. When a piece of onboard information handling equipment is not used, said connection unit of the piece of onboard information handling equipment is put in a sleep mode, providing electric power only to a minimum number of components requiring electric power.

In recent years, various kinds of information handling equipment are mounted on a movable body such as an automobile, allowing various kinds of information processing to be carried out. An example of information handling equipment becoming popular is a radio receiver that is capable of reproducing audio information from a broadcast wave received from a radio broadcasting station and displaying literal data such as information on traffic included in the broadcast wave. In addition, an apparatus for playing back information from a variety of audio recording media such as a compact disc (CD) is also becoming popular as the so-called car audio apparatus.
Furthermore, there are some movable bodies each having an onboard navigation apparatus for processing information included in a position measurement signal received from a source such as an artificial satellite to determine the position and the running state of the movable body.
On the top of that, there are also some movable bodies each provided with a radio telephone apparatus called a car telephone or a portable telephone allowing the movable body to establish a telephone conversation and to transmit or receive data. As such, the information handling equipment mounted on a movable body such as an automobile has been exhibiting an increasing trend in volume in recent years.
By the way, these kinds of onboard information handling equipment are installed in a vehicle with almost no relation to other information handling equipment. As an apparatus having a plurality of functions, the equipment is no more than a car audio apparatus with a radio receiver incorporated therein. Thus, each time a new piece of information handling equipment is added, it is traditionally necessary to provide wiring for installing the new equipment in the vehicle. As a result, it is necessary to provide an extremely large amount of wiring for information handling equipment installed in the automobile.
Accompanying the increasing amount of wiring, there has been developed an onboard information bus line for integrating and controlling pieces of information handling equipment by connecting the pieces of equipment to each other. Each piece of information handling equipment has a connection unit for connecting the piece of equipment to the onboard information bus line. The onboard information bus line has a configuration wherein the connection unit of each piece of information handling equipment is connected to the onboard information bus line.
However, such onboard information bus line requires electric power for operating the connection unit of each piece of information handling equipment. Thus, as the number of pieces of onboard information handling equipment increases, the required electric power may exceed the capacity of a battery which serves as a power source. For this reason, the need to save electric power further rises.
On the other hand, while it is desirable to turn off the power supply of each of information handling equipment to save electric power, the pieces of equipment can not be activated individually and independently of each other since they are connected to each other through the onboard information bus line. As a result, there arises a problem of poor operatability.

Onboard information processing apparatus and automobile


A ghost elimination device equipped in a television receiver extracts a reference signal from the television signal, the reference signal being inserted in the television signal in a certain sequence or at random with the intention of ghost elimination, implements the sequence decoding process and noise elimination process for the reference signal, and controls the characteristics of the ghost eliminating transversal filter which suppresses the transmission distortion. The device includes a sequence decoding circuit for decoding the transmission sequence of the reference signal, a transversal filter for suppressing the distortion of transmission path disposed in a rear stage of sequence decoding circuit, and a controller which introduces the reference signal provided by the filter to control the characteristics of the filter or apply the output of the sequence decoding circuit to the transversal filter through a noise elimination filter. The transversal filter has a tapped delay line formed of registers with an initialization terminal and an input terminal for controlling the initialization terminal.

This invention relates to a ghost elimination device for removing, from a television signal, a ghost component created by the distortion of the transmission path of the television signal.
In receiving a television signal broadcasted by a television station, the distortion of transmission path caused by reflection waves, which are created by such obstacles as tall buildings and mountains, superimposed on the direct wave is called "ghost", and it is a major cause of deteriorated picture quality in the ground television broadcasting system.
In order to regain the picture quality which has been spoiled by the ghost, there have been developed methods and devices for eliminating the ghost, in which a reference signal for ghost elimination is transmitted from the broadcasting station and the signal is used by receivers to detect and remove the ghost, as described in the Technical Report of the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan, Vol. 13, No. 32, pp. 1-36, published in June 1986.
In general, a television signal received by a receiver is presumed to include a great deal of noise, and accordingly ghost information detected based on the reference signal very likely includes errors, and therefore the performance of ghost elimination will be degraded.
A means of overcoming this problem is known, as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-22307. This technique is based on the provision of a noise elimination circuit connected to the output of a distortion elimination filter which suppresses the transmission path distortion (ghost) and a control circuit which receives the output of the noise elimination circuit to control the filter thereby to suppress the noise included in the reference signal for the achievement of error prevention in the ghost information.
With regard to the reference signal for ghost elimination, the above-mentioned technical report describes, in its paragraph on page 31 for the principle of ghost elimination, that ghost up to about 4 .mu.m can be detected through the computational process for the GCR (Ghost Cancel Reference) signal.
The ghost elimination device using the GCR signal employs a control circuit connected to the output of a distortion elimination filter (transversal filter) which suppresses the transmission path distortion (ghost), and the control circuit processes the GCR signal to detect the distortion information of the transmission path and manipulates the tap factor of the distortion elimination filter thereby to remove the ghost.
However, the foregoing prior art involves a problem of increased time needed for the removal of distortion (removal of ghost). The above-mentioned noise elimination circuit bases its noise suppression on synchronous addition which utilizes the randomness of noise generation among fields in contrast to the significant signal that has a correlation among fields, and its n-time synchronous addition fields an s/n improvement factor of .sqroot.n, i.e., an s/n improvement of about 20 dB requires synchronous addition 100 times.
The above-mentioned control circuit calculates the tap factor of the transversal filter, which constitutes the distortion elimination filter, from the reference signal with its noise being suppressed, and revises the tap factor accordingly. This operation takes place many times iteratively, and in consequence the distortion of the transmission path is eliminated.
The filter has different characteristics before and after the revision of tap factor and the correlation is lost for distortions impressed on the reference signal, and therefore the noise elimination circuit cannot use the results of synchronous addition obtained up to the previous factor revision. This situation requires n-time synchronous addition at each revision of tap factor, resulting in an extended noise elimination time.
The GCR signal is formed in a sequence of patterns which cycles in eight fields, as shown in FIG. 1 on page 31 of the above-mentioned Technical Report of the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan, Vol. 13, No. 32, and also will be explained later in this specification, in order to avoid erroneous detection due to the mixing of a distortion component of the previous line. A signal inserted to the previous line is the VIT (Vertical Interval Test) signal, which has a fixed pattern at least among even fields and among odd fields each.
For the detection of the transmission path distortion from the GCR signal by being free from the influence of the distortion of the previous line, it is necessary to decode the transmission sequence of the GCR signal by using signals of eight fields through such computation as (S1-S5)+(S6-S2)+(S3-S7)+(S8-S4), as will be explained in detail later.
For the suppression of distortion on the transmission path, the above-mentioned control circuit calculates the tap factor of the distortion elimination filter based on the signal produced by the above computation process, and updates the tap factor. This operation takes place many times iteratively, and in consequence the distortion of the transmission path is eliminated.
The filter has different characteristics before and after the revision of tap coefficient factor and the correlation of distortions impressed on the GCR signal is lost. On this account, the use of signals before and after the tap factor revision for the above computation process will result in a faulty detection of the distortion information. Otherwise, it takes a wait time of eight fields for the decoding operation at each revision of tap factor, resulting in a long distortion elimination time.

Ghost reduction device for removing ghost components of a television signal


A heat regenerating material for very low temperature use consisting of a magnetic heat regenerating material particle aggregate, wherein, among magnetic heat regenerating material particles constituting the magnetic heat regenerating material particle aggregate, a ratio of the particles being destroyed when a simple harmonic oscillation of the maximum acceleration of 300 m/s.sup.2 is added 1.times.10.sup.6 times on the magnetic heat regenerating material particle aggregate is 1% by weight or less. Such a heat regenerating material for very low temperature use has an excellent mechanical characteristics against mechanical vibration and acceleration. A refrigerator comprises a heat regenerator constituted by packing the above described heat regenerating material for very low temperature use into a heat regenerator container. Such a refrigerator can exhibit an excellent refrigeration performance over a long term.

Recent years, progress of the superconductive technology is remarkable, and, as its applicable field is expanded, development of a refrigerator of small size and high performance becomes inevitable issue. For such a refrigerator, light weight/small size and high thermal efficiency are required.
For example, in a superconductive MRI device and a cryopump, a refrigerator operating based on a refrigeration cycle such as a Gifford MacMahon system (GM system) or a Stirling system is used. Further, a high performance refrigerator is indispensable for a magnetic levitation train too, still further, for some single crystal growth devices, a refrigerator of high performance is being used. In such a refrigerator, inside a heat regenerator filled with a heat regenerating material, an operating medium such as a compressed He gas and the like flows in one direction to supply its heat energy to the heat regenerating material, and there expanded operating medium flows in the reverse direction to receive a heat energy from the heat regenerating material. As an recuperating effect becomes good through such a process, the thermal efficiency of the operating medium cycle can be improved, thereby, a further lower temperature can be realized.
As a heat regenerating material to be used for the above described refrigerator, conventionally, there has been mainly used Cu or Pb. However, since these heat regenerating materials become remarkably small in their specific heat at very low temperature of 20 K or less, the above described recuperating effect does not work sufficiently, resulting in difficulty in realization of a very low temperature.
Then, recently, in order to realize a temperature more close to the absolute zero degree, application of magnetic heat regenerating materials such as an Er--Ni based intermetallic compounds such as Er.sub.3 Ni, ErNi, ErNi.sub.2 (ref. Japanese Patent Laid Open No. HEI-1-310269) and RRh based intermetallic compounds (R: Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb) such as ErRh (ref. Japanese Patent Laid Open No. Sho-51-52378), all of which display a large specific heat at very low temperature, are under investigation.
Now, in an operating state of a refrigerator such as described above, an operating medium such as a He gas and the like passes through space between the heat regenerating material filled in the heat regenerator in such a manner that changes frequently its flowing direction under high pressure and with high speed. Therefore, a various kinds of forces including mechanical vibration are added on the heat regenerating material. Further, when a magnetic levitation train or an artificial satellite is equipped with a refrigerator, there operates a large acceleration on the heat regenerating material.
Thus, though various forces act on the heat regenerating material, since the above described magnetic heat regenerating materials consisting of the intermetallic compounds such as Er.sub.3 Ni and ErRh are brittle materials in general, due to the cause such as the above described mechanical vibration or acceleration during operation, there was a problem that they were prone to be pulverized. The pulverized fine particles hinder the gas sealing to adversely affect on the performance of the heat regenerator, thus, resulting in deterioration of the capacity of the refrigerator.
An object of the present invention is to provide a heat regenerating material which can be used at a very low temperature and is excellent in their mechanical performance against the mechanical vibration or the acceleration, and a refrigerator which enabled to exhibit an excellent refrigeration performance over a long term by using such a heat regenerating material. Further, the other object is to provide an MRI device, a cryopump, a magnetic levitation train, and a magnetic field application type single crystal growth device all of which are made possible to exhibit excellent performance over a long term by using such a refrigerator.

Cryogenic refrigerant and refrigerator using the same


A silver halide photographic emulsion containing the compound represented by the formula (I): EQU R.sub.1 --(X--R.sub.3).sub.m --X--R.sub.2 (I). wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 each represents an alkyl group containing 1 to 5 carbon atoms substituted with two or more substituents selected from --OH, --NHR.sub.4, --COOR.sub.4, --CONH.sub.2, --SO.sub.3 H, --COOM, or --SO.sub.3 M, R.sub.3 represents an alkylene group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms which may be substituted by --OH, R.sub.4 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group containing 1 to 5 carbon atoms, X represents a sulfur or oxygen atom, provided at least one X is a sulfur atom, m represents 0 or an integer of 1 to 4, and M represents an alkali metal atom.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic emulsion and, more particularly, to a silver halide photographic emulsion containing an organic thioether compound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the production of silver halide photographic emulsions, it has long been known to use organic thioether compounds as solvents for silver halide or as chemically sensitizing agents.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,271,157, 3,531,289, 3,574,628, 4,057,429, etc., describe the techniques of producing a so-called monodisperse emulsion containing silver halide grains of a uniform size, by allowing an organic thioether compound to coexist in the silver halide (AgX) formation step or upon physical ripening for producing silver halide photographic emulsions (hereinafter merely referred to as emulsion).
Also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,521,926, 3,021,215, 3,038,805, 3,506,443, 3,057,724, 3,062,646, 3,574,709, 3,622,329, 3,625,697, etc., describe the techniques for raising photographic sensitivity of the emulsion by allowing an organic thioether compound to exist upon chemical ripening for producing the emulsion or immediately before coating.
However, existence of an organic thioether compound upon preparation of the emulsion tends to increase fog.
Although it is known that addition of conventionally known thioether compounds serves to enhance photographic sensitivity, the degree of increase in photographic sensitivity in the case of exposing with a comparatively high illuminance for a short time (for example, 1/100 to 1/1,000 second) is about the same as that in the case of exposing with a low illuminance for a long time (for example, 5 to 10 seconds) and, as opposed to the present invention, the reciprocity law failure in low illuminance region has never been improved. (The term "reciprocity law failure" as used in the photographic science refers to the fact that photographic sensitivity changes with exposure time, and improvement in reciprocity law failure indicates that the change in photographic sensitivity with exposure time is reduced.)
In order to prevent the fog caused by the organic thioether compounds, it has been known, for example, to conduct Agx formation at a pH of not more than 4, or to super-purify the organic thioether compounds. However, these techniques have such defects that sufficient effects cannot be attained and they cannot be practically conducted on an industrial scale.

Silver halide photographic emulsion with thioether sensitizer


The objective of the invention is to provide an image reproduction device that can take digital data that has been subjected to analog conversion and reproduce digital data therefrom that is substantially the same as the original digital data, without using over-sampling or special hardware.

This invention relates to an image reproduction device, an image reproduction method, and an information storage medium that enable the reproduction of digital dynamic image data from analog dynamic image data (a signal) that was generated as digital dynamic image data then was converted into an analog signal.
Ordinarily, digital dynamic image data that was generated as digital data by an image generation device such as a TV game machine is subjected to analog conversion to produce analog dynamic image data that can be displayed on a TV screen or CRT monitor or the like.
However, it is often convenient to work on image data, such as dynamic image data, as digital data when subjecting such image data to processing. Examples include superimposing captions on the image data or transmitting the image data over a network.
In such a case, it is necessary to subject that analog dynamic image data to analog-digital conversion such that it ends up as close to the original digital dynamic image data as possible, and reproduce it as digital dynamic image data.
During the reproduction of this digital dynamic image data that was fetched as analog dynamic image data, if the analog-digital conversion is done with no connection to the timing at which the original digital dynamic image data was generated, the phase and frequency of the sampling clock will differ from those of the sampling clock for the original digital dynamic image data and the thus-obtained digital dynamic image data could be vastly different from the original digital dynamic image data.
A method called over-sampling is used to ensure there is no such difference, but this doubles the amount of digital data that is handled, making it necessary to increase the operating frequency of the circuitry and thus making it necessary to use more precise and more expensive hardware.
There is another method of reproducing the digital dynamic image data by fetching it during the original digital dynamic image generation, before it is subjected to digital-analog conversion, but this necessitates special hardware and software, and is thus not practicable.
This invention was devised in the light of the above described technical problem and has as an objective thereof the provision of an image reproduction device, image reproduction method, and information storage medium that can take digital dynamic image data that has been subjected to analog conversion and reproduce digital dynamic image data therefrom that is substantially the same as the original digital dynamic image data.
(1) According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reproduction device for taking analog dynamic image data (a signal) obtained by performing an analog conversion of digital dynamic image data that was generated on the basis of a predetermined dot clock, and reproducing the digital dynamic image data therefrom, the image reproduction device comprising:
synchronization signal input means for inputting a synchronization signal for the digital dynamic image data;
clock generation means for generating a sampling clock which has the same frequency as that of the dot clock and which is also at a phase that is adjusted on the basis of the synchronization signal; and
analog-digital conversion means for digitizing the analog dynamic image data, based on the sampling clock, to reproduce the digital dynamic image data.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reproduction method for taking analog dynamic image data (a signal) obtained by performing an analog conversion of digital dynamic image data that was generated on the basis of a predetermined dot clock, and reproducing the digital dynamic image data therefrom, the image reproduction method comprising the steps of:
inputting a synchronization signal for the digital dynamic image data;
generating a sampling clock which has the same frequency as that of the dot clock and which is also at a phase that is adjusted on the basis of the synchronization signal; and
reproducing the digital dynamic image data by digitizing the analog dynamic image data, based on the thus generated sampling clock.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided computer-usable information embodied on an information storage medium for implementing (executing) the above described means or steps. As an example of the information, there is a computer-usable program for implementing (executing) the above described means or steps. This program could be embodied in a carrier wave.
If the type of image generation device that generates and outputs the analog dynamic image data is known, the dot clock frequency for the digital dynamic image data that forms the source of the analog dynamic image data is identified thereby. If, for example, the image generation device is a game machine, the frequency of the dot clock used by that game machine can be identified from the type of the game machine.
Thus the image reproduction device of this invention receives the analog dynamic image data and also the synchronization signal that was used during the generation of the digital dynamic image data that is the source of this analog dynamic image data.
A sampling clock is then generated, based on a frequency corresponding to the dot clock for the pre-analog-conversion digital dynamic image data, which has been previously identified, and the input synchronization signal, so that this sampling clock has the same frequency as the dot clock and also has a phase that is adjusted to be suitable for sampling.
The thus-generated sampling clock is then used for sampling the input analog dynamic image data and thus reproduce the digital dynamic image data.
In this manner, during the regeneration of the digital dynamic image data from the input analog dynamic image data (signal), the digital data for each dot that configures this reproduced digital dynamic image data has substantially the same value as the digital data for each dot that configures the original digital dynamic image data as it was before the analog conversion. As a result, the image reproduction device can obtain digital dynamic image data that is faithful to the source image, without using the over-sampling method.
Note that RGB luminance signals or the like can be included in this analog dynamic image data, for example.
The synchronization signal used in this case could be both of the vertical synchronization signal and the horizontal synchronization signal, but the horizontal synchronization signal alone could be used, by way of example.
(2) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reproduction device for taking analog dynamic image data obtained by performing an analog conversion of digital dynamic image data that was generated by an image generation device, based on a predetermined dot clock, and reproducing the digital dynamic image data therefrom, the image reproduction device comprising:
synchronization signal input means for inputting a synchronization signal for the digital dynamic image data;
storage means for storing frequency data corresponding to the dot clock;
selection means for selecting frequency data for generating a sampling clock, from the frequency data stored in the storage means;
clock generation means for generating a clock at the same frequency as that of the dot clock, based on the selected frequency data, then generating the sampling clock from the clock, with a phase that is adjusted on the basis of the synchronization signal; and
analog-digital conversion means for digitizing the analog dynamic image data, based on the thus generated sampling clock, to reproduce the digital dynamic image data.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided computer-usable information embodied on an information storage medium for implementing the above described means. As an example of the information, there is a computer-usable program for implementing the above described means. This program could be embodied in a carrier wave.
A sampling clock corresponding to a dot clock can be easily generated by previously storing frequency data corresponding to that dot clock, thus making it possible to improve the efficiency with which digital dynamic image data is reproduced.
In this aspect of the invention, a plurality of sets of frequency data corresponding to different devices is stored, to suit a plurality of image generation devices having different digital dynamic image data generation means. This makes it possible to easily generate a sampling clock corresponding to each type of device, even when digital dynamic image data is input from a plurality of image generation devices.
Note that the selection means could be configured in such a manner that the frequency data could be selected automatically or manually.
In addition, it is preferable that the frequency of the dot clock of each of these image generation devices is previously checked, and data is stored in a frequency data storage means of each device, based on the results of the check.
(3) The storage means may store phase data corresponding to the dot clock; the selection means may select phase data for generating a sampling clock, from the phase data stored in the storage means; and the clock generation means may generate a clock at the same frequency as that of the dot clock, based on the frequency data and the phase data, then generate the sampling clock from the clock, with a phase that is adjusted on the basis of the synchronization signal.
This makes it possible to generate any desired sampling clock to correspond to the dot clock, then adjust the phase of the sampling clock on the basis of the synchronization signal, by using a configuration whereby phase data is previously stored in addition to the frequency data.
The above described configuration also makes it possible to reduce special processing during the reproduction of the digital dynamic image data to only adjustment of the phase of the sampling clock, thus lightening the load on the CPU or the like and improving the efficiency with which digital dynamic image data is reproduced.
Note that phase data in this case is data for adjusting any discrepancy in phase between the generated sampling clock and the desired sampling clock, and any suitable data can be used therefor, such as data expressing a time difference of several nanoseconds.
In addition it is preferable that the frequency and phase of the dot clock of each of these image generation devices is previously checked, and data is stored in a storage means for frequency data and phase data of each device, based on the results of the check.
(4) The synchronization signal may be a horizontal synchronization signal; and the clock generation means may adjust the phase of the sampling clock, based on at least one of the rise and fall of the horizontal synchronization signal together with the phase data.
This makes it possible to generate a suitable sampling clock by adjusting the phase of the sampling clock when there are variations in the horizontal synchronization signal. It is therefore possible to reproduce the digital dynamic image data more faithfully from the original digital dynamic image data, by sampling with a sampling clock with a thus-adjusted phase.
(5) The analog-digital conversion means may convert the analog dynamic image data into digital dynamic image data at the timing of at least one of the rise and fall of the sampling clock.
For example, there is a stable portion where there is no variation in the analog dynamic image data (signal) at the rise of the sampling clock, so it is possible to reproduce digital dynamic image data that is faithful to the source image by subjecting the analog dynamic image data (signal) to analog-digital conversion at that timing.
(6) The image reproduction device of this invention may further comprise transmission means for transmitting the reproduced digital dynamic image data via a transmission path to a digital animation processing device.
The computer-usable information embodied on an information storage medium may further comprise information for implementing (executing) the above described means. As an example of the information, there is a computer-usable program for implementing (executing) the above described means. This program could be embodied in a carrier wave.
In this way, the digital animation processing device that is the transmission goal can process digital dynamic image data that is faithful to the original digital dynamic image data.
In this case, transmission path is not limited to a wired communications line such as a cable; it could also include wireless means such as satellite communications. In addition, transmission is not just to an external device by cable; it could also be over a system bus within a device, for example.
If, for example, digital dynamic image data is transmitted over a cable from the image reproduction device to the other processing device, the image reproduction device can transmit digital dynamic image data that is faithful to the original digital dynamic image data.
This makes it possible for the other processing device to process data that is substantially the same as the original data.
(7) The digital animation processing device may be a digital animation display device.
A general-purpose image generation device is assumed to output to a TV or CRT monitor, so it outputs an analog dynamic image signal.
Since it is not assumed that this analog signal will be re-digitized, it does not comprise a dot clock signal.
However, in a digital animation display device that uses liquid crystal or the like for a liquid crystal means, the input analog dynamic image signal is re-digitized for display. During this digitization, signal disturbances can easily occur.
It is therefore necessary to provide adjustment (correction) means for manual operation on the digital animation display device side, to manually correct such disturbances in the signal.
This invention makes it possible to reproduce digital dynamic image data from analog dynamic image data, so that a digital animation display device can display a clear image that is faithful to the source image, without necessitating such correction.
(8) The digital dynamic image data may be dynamic image data for a game.
In this case, the image generation device that generates digital dynamic image data is limited to a game machine. This makes it easy to distinguish between different image generation devices. As a result, players can obtain good image quality, even when different game machines are connected for monitor output.
(9) This invention can also be applied to the processing of static image data, in addition to dynamic image data.

Image reproduction device and method of image reproduction, together with information storage medium

Abstract: An analog signal that was generated as a digital signal by an image generation device (200), but then subjected to analog conversion, and a synchronization signal from the image generation device (200) are input to an image reproduction device (100). A clock generation section (30) generates a sampling clock which has the same frequency as the dot clock used during the digital data generation, and with a suitably-adjusted phase, based on an input horizontal synchronization signal (12) together with frequency data (82) and phase data (84) as selected by a selection section (80). Digital data is reproduced from the input analog signal by an analog-digital converter (40), based on the thus generated sampling clock.


A control device for an engine of an automobile comprising:. a power supply switch which is switched to ON or OFF by a driver; and OR circuit which calculates a logical sum of an ON/OFF signal of the power supply switch and a signal corresponding to a pulse signal outputted from a central processing unit; a power supply relay which is activated to supply power to the control device for an engine of an automobile by the OR circuit when the power supply switch is switched to ON, and which is deactivated to cut power to the control device for an engine of an automobile when the power supply switch is switched to OFF and the signal corresponding to the pulse signal outputted from the central processing unit goes off; and a detecting means for detecting that outputting of the pulse signal is stopped when an initializing operation of an actuator by the central processing unit is finished and for outputting an output of the signal corresponding to the pulse signal to the OR circuit and to an actuator driving circuit for driving the actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control device for an engine of an automobile for controlling the engine of an automobile wherein, when a power source relay for supplying power to the device per se, is switched to OFF, in compliance with an outside switch, a delay control is performed through a program for performing initializing operations of actuators.
2. Discussion of Backgroud
Among various functions of the control device for an engine of an automobile, there are initializing operations of actuators installed in various positions of an engine. Generally, this initializing operation is performed for the purpose of detecting a reference position of an actuator or checking the operation thereof. The operation is performed during non-operation of an engine instantly after power supply is ON, or instantly before power supply is OFF, so that it does not interfere with a normal control operation.
As an example of the initializing operation, a device is known wherein an idling revolution speed of an engine is controlled by controlling air quantity bypassing a throttle valve as shown in FIG. 3. This is called an ISC device, and the construction thereof is as shown in FIG. 3.
In FIG. 3, a reference numeral 11 designates an engine, 15, a throttle valve which moves cooperating with an accelerator and controls an intake quantity of air to the engine 11, 12, an idling switch showing that the throttle valve 15 is fully closed when a driver steps off the accelerator, and the engine 11 is in an idling state, and 16, a sensor for detecting an engine speed.
A numeral 14 designates an ISC device which receives signals from the idling switch 12 and the engine speed sensor 16, and controls an air quantity in a throttle valve bypass passage by operating an ISC (idling speed control) actuator 13, for controlling the engine speed to a predetermined value when the engine 11 is in the idling state.
As shown in FIG. 4, the air quantity passing through the bypass passage, is obtained by detecting an operational position of the ISC actuator 13 (position of an end portion 17 of the ISC actuator). In FIG. 4, the bold line shows a fully open position of an actuator, and the broken line, a fully closed position thereof.
On the other hand, the operational position of the ISC actuator 13 is detected as a relative position from the fully closed or the fully open position of the ISC actuator 13. Accordingly, it is necessary to always recognize the reference position (the fully closed position or the fully open position) of the ISC actuator 13. This is performed by operating the ISC actuator 13 until it reaches a maximum movable position (the fully closed position or the fully open position) as an initializing operation.
In this way, the ISC device 14 always detects the operational position of the ISC actuator 13, is capable of detecting the air quantity flowing in the bypass passage, and capable of controlling the ISC actuator 13 at a predetermined position (an ISC actuator position for flowing air in the bypass passage which corresponds to a required air quantity on the engine side) during off-idling operation, thereby enabling a smooth switching of the engine to the idling operation, thereafter.
When the initializing operation is performed instantly after the power is ON, in case that the engine is started up instantly after the power is ON, it may be necessary to start a principal control during the initializing operation.
Furthermore, when the initializing operation is performed instantly before the power is OFF, and when the initializing operation is performed at a timing when the power supply is switched to OFF, the actuator stops operating at that time point. Accordingly, since the detection of the actuator position can not be performed when the power supply is ON in the next operation, the control behavior thereafter may be malfunctioned.
Therefore, to prevent this, it becomes necessary to switch the power supply to OFF with certainty after the initializing operation is finished.
To realize this, a construction may be considered wherein the power supply source is controlled by the device per se which controls the actuator installed in the engine, based on an order signal of power supply of ON/OFF from the automobile driver, and is switched to OFF with certainty after the initializing operation is finished.
FIG. 5 shows construction of a conventional control device for an engine of an automobile. Explanation will be given to the operation of the conventional control device for an engine of an antomobile referring to FIG. 5. A reference numeral 1 designates a power supply switch, which is switched to ON/OFF by an antomobile driver. This ON/OFF signal is inputted to a power supply relay control circuit 35 in an engine control unit (hereinafter, ECU) 100 for an automobile, and a central processing unit (hereinafter, CPU) 32.
When the power supply relay control circuit 35 receives the ON signal, by outputting the ON signal to the base of a transistor Trl, the transistor Trl is switched to ON and an exciting current is flown in a coil 2a of a power supply relay 2 from a power source VB, a terminal 2b is closed, and power VB is supplied to a power supply circuit 31 in the ECU 100 through the terminal 2b.
When power is supplied to the ECU 100, the CPU 32 starts operating, and outputs a watchdog signal "a" to a watchdog detecting circuit 33. This watchdog detecting circuit outputs a reset signal "b" to the CPU 32, in case that the watchdog signal "a" is not inputted when an operational malfunction is generated in the CPU 32, or the like, restarts the CPU 32, outputs a load driving prohibiting signal to an actuator driving circuit 34, prohibits an output of a load driving signal "d" from the actuator driving circuit 34, and separates a load control from the CPU 32.
FIGS. 6A through 6E are timing charts for showing the operation of the conventional control device for an engine of an automobile. Simultaneously with when the power switch 1 is switched to ON, as shown in FIG. 6A, the power is switched to ON, as shown in FIG. 6E, the CPU 32 is operated, the watchdog signal "a" is outputted as shown in FIG. 6B, and a load driving allowing signal "c" is outputted from the watchdog detecting circuit 33 to the actuator driving circuit 34, the load driving signal "d" is outputted from the actuator driving circuit 34, as shown in FIG. 6D, and the driving of the actuator (load) is performed in the period of t.sub.NORM as shown in FIG. 6D.
Next, explanation will be given to the operation of the control device when the power is OFF, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6A through 6E. When the power switch 1 is switched to OFF by the driver of the automobile, as shown in FIG. 6A, the CPU 32 stops the normal control of the actuator (load), and starts the initializing operation. At the same time, the power supply relay control circuit 35, after receiving the OFF signal of the power switch 1, outputs the OFF signal to the transistor Trl after a predetermined time period of t.sub.1, demagnetizes the coil 2a of the power supply relay 2, and switches the terminal 2b to OFF.
Furthermore, when the watchdog signal "a" is not inputted from the CPU 32 to the watchdog detecting circuit 33, the reset signal "b" is outputted from the watchdog detecting circuit 33 to the CPU 32 as shown in FIG. 6C.
Since the conventional control device for an engine of an automobile is constructed as above, the initializing operation of the actuator requires at least time for the actuator to move to the reference position. The initializing operation may require several seconds, depending on where the actuator position is instantly before the initializing operation. As shown in FIGS. 6A through 6E, the delay time for making the power supply OFF of t.sub.1 is necessary to be longer than an initializing time t.sub.INI. There are two problems in the conventional device to achieve this with certainty.
(1) To realize a timer of several seconds or more in a circuit (t.sub.INI .ltoreq.t.sub.DMIN is satisfied in FIG. 6E), a condenser having a considerably large capacity is necessitated, which enlarges the scale of the ECU 100.
(2) Since the initializing control of the actuator is performed by the CPU 32, the initializing time t.sub.INI can accurately be controlled. However, the delay time for POWER OFF, t.sub.1 constructed by a circuit should be set to a large value having a considerable allowance with respect to a maximum value of t.sub.INI, considering age deterioration or the like of electronic components which constitute the circuit. As a result, current may be flown during a period of more than necessary after the driver switches off the power supply.

Control device for an engine of an automobile


The present invention relates to a system and a method for determining the earing of an object located at a distance from a reference point. A plurality of sensors are mounted to a body to detect signals emanating from the object and to convert those signals into electrical signals. The electrical signals are then processed to determine the bearing of the object from the body. The system can include a float with the body suspended from said float immersed in a fluid medium. A method for processing the electrical signals and generating the bearing information is also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for providing personnel in a vehicle with information about the being of an acoustic object relative to a reference point and to a method for providing said information.
2. Prior Art
There are a large number of systems that have been developed for determining the relative positions of objects in three dimensional space. These systems utilize radio waves, electromagnetic waves, acoustic signals, and the like in different fashions to provide an operator with information about the relative positions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,702 to Kaplan illustrates one such system.
The Kaplan patent describes a method and apparatus for passive ranging from a moving platform to a stationary, non-cooperative emitter. The Kaplan apparatus uses a Long Baseline Interferometer to provide a very precise, but highly ambiguous, measurement of the change in phase occurring between two points along the moving platform's path and a Short Baseline Interferometer to provide a measurement of the emitter's angular position relative to the platform's path at the two points and to resolve the ambiguities in the phase change measurements of the Long Baseline Interferometer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,679 to Cusdin et al. illustrates another type of system for determining the direction of incidence of electromagnetic wave signals from a distant source. The Cusdin et al. system and method measure the time of arrival of the leading edge of signals from a distant source at two relatively closed spaced receiving elements. In order to give a good degree of immunity to multipath, the times at which the instantaneous detected amplitudes of the received signals first exceed a minimal threshold value such that received signals can be satisfactorily distinguished from noise is measured in such a manner that the measured time is not affected by multipath which involves more than a few meters additional path length for the indirect, delayed signal. By making time of arrival measurements on three coplanar, non-collinear receivers, directions of incidence in three dimensions can be determined.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,910,526 and 5,075,694 both to Donnangelo at al. describe an airborne surveillance method and system which allows an observer aircraft to determine the position and change of position of a multiplicity of target aircraft and thus allows analysis of collision threats from these aircraft. The system uses a phase comparison direction finding antenna to determine the direction of nearby ground based SSRs and all target aircraft of interest. The system further makes use of all other available data include Mode C transponder generated altitude information of the target aircraft, the altitude of the observer aircraft, the received signal strength of both the SSR beam and the received transponder signal, the time difference of arrival between the SSR interrogation signal and the response from the target aircraft, and a variety of other factors to determine the position of the target aircraft. The system compensates for the attitude of the observer aircraft and performs optimal Kalman filtering on the input data set to produce an estimate on target position based upon prior estimates and upon information contained in the data set while making estimates of the error magnitude of each measurement and compensating for these errors. The covariance matrix Q of the Kalman filter is adaptively varied so as to optimize the estimate of the degree of correlation between various input values.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,679 to Effland et al relates to a method of locating an unknown radio-frequency transmitter. The method includes: (a) receipt of signals radiated from the transmitter by a plurality of receivers; (b) retransmission of the received signals to a plurality of antennas; (c) performing a time difference of arrival calculation which compensates for a relative delay value, which is a function of the distances from the transmitter to each of the receivers, the distances from each of the receivers to the antennas, and the speed of light; (d) performing a frequency difference of arrival calculation which compensates for a relative frequency value, which is a function of the relative velocity of each receiver with respect to the velocity of the Earth; (e) repeating the foregoing steps a number of times; and (f) determining the location of the unknown transmitter based on the plurality of TDOA and FDOA calculations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,148 to Gardner et al. describes a process and a method for extracting or estimating directions of arrival of signals from a received data vector which has been corrupted by interfering signals and noise. The processor extracts signals by forming the scalar product of the data vector and a weight vector which is chosen such that the spectral self-coherence or conjugate spectral self-coherence of the processor output is maximized. The processor estimates the directions of arrival of signals by spectral self-coherence-selective performance surfaces for maxima.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,957 to Franzen describes a passive distance measuring system. The passive system operates by measuring the time interval between arrival of a precision sweep scanned signal such as a radio frequency signal at two widely dispersed different signal receptor locations on the aircraft. By knowing the angular sweep velocity of the received signals and the receptor or antenna separation distance on the aircraft, the distance of the aircraft from the scanning source of radio frequency signals may be computed with appreciable precision. The Franzen disclosure includes analog-to-digital signal conversion and modifications of the invention including optical or laser signals in lieu of the preferred microwave radio frequency signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,456 to Wells describes a passive surveillance system which provides ranging and location capability of a signal source. A single acoustic receiver in a multipath environment or, alternatively, a plurality of acoustic receivers receive the signal from the source having different propagation delays along different paths. Selection of corresponding frequency components from different paths and mixing of the correspond selected frequency components from each of the paths generates complex pseudo-noise signals that are suitable for correlation processing. Correlation processing of the mixed signals yields the time difference between the multiple paths. The maximum time difference parameters for each path are used to generate a locus line, either implicitly or explicitly. Range and location processing of the locus information identifies range and location of the signal source.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,323 to Kennedy et al. relates to a system for accurately locating a mobile cellular radio. The system includes plural radio receivers whose position is known, a satellite-based time source for providing the actual time of arrival of a radio signal at the plural radio receivers, and a device for removing multipath and co-channel interference from the received signals so that actual time of arrival of the radio signal may be determined accurately. The Global Positioning System may be used to provide the time signal and to provide the precise location of the plural radio receivers. The system may be used to passively determine the location of the mobile radio and may be used with a computer generated map system.
Classes of passive acoustic localization systems include those which utilize relative long towed arrays or streamers and those which utilize detached arrays or sonobuoys. The detached systems are usually deployed from low flying aircraft. The acoustic signals detected by the sensors are then transmitted to a separate computer via an RF transmitter in the sonobuoy.
To localize an acoustic source in three dimensions using sonobuoy technology requires at least two sonobuoys, each supporting a submerged sensor or vertical array. One vertical array, by itself, can only provide range and depth information. When this information is coupled with the information from a second vertical array, the source can be localized to two possible positions. To completely localize a source, a third vertical array is required.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A method and apparatus for designing a multilayer feed forward neural network that produces a design having a minimum number of connecting weights is based on a novel iterative procedure for inverting the full Hessian matrix of the neural network. The inversion of the full Hessian matrix results in a practical strategy for pruning weights of a trained neural network. The error caused by pruning is minimized by a correction that is applied to remaining (un-pruned) weights thus reducing the need for retraining. However, retraining may be applied to the network possibly leading to further the simplification of the network design.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are typically designed and constructed as a multilayer structure having one or more hidden layers of artificial neurons (ANs) and an output layer of ANs as shown in FIG. 1. Most commonly, each layer consists of a number of ANs and each AN comprises a node and a group of weighted input receptors or synapses. The weighted receptors couple the output of lower level ANs to the nodes of the next higher layer through a weighting element that modifies the amplitude of the input signal to the receptor. The node sums the weighted receptor inputs and applies the sum to a monotonically increasing nonlinear element that produces the output signal of the node. Thus, the number of weighted receptors in any given layer may be equal to the product of the number of ANs (or nodes) and the number of nodes in the next lower layer. The total number of weighting elements may be as large as KN.sup.2, where K is the number of layers and N is the average number of nodes per layer. A modest ANN that accommodates an input vector with 100 component signals could have as many as 10,000 weighting elements per layer. This would not be an excessively large network compared to networks reported to have 6.5.times.10.sup.6 weights with 2600 input parameters. A central problem in the design of neural networks is minimizing the complexity of the network so that the resulting ANN complexity is consistent with the training data available. Complexity management translates into minimizing the number of weights. It is well-known that without such network "pruning" a mismatch between the number weights used in the network and the "degrees of freedom" (complexity) will result in sub-optimal performance. Having too many weights (high complexity) leads to overfitting and hence poor generalization. Conversely, if too few weights are used (insufficient complexity), the network's ability to learn will be impaired. Generalization is optimized by trading off network complexity and training error. Unfortunately, no simple method for determining the required degree of complexity, prior to a trial training session, is available.
Consequently, even when an ANN is trained and found to function adequately on the available training data, it is not apparent that the complexity of the ANN is commensurate with the objective. Elimination of weights and/or ANs and retraining suggests itself. However, it is not clear how such pruning is to be done. In other words an efficient rational pruning method is needed as a guide to reducing the complexity of a trained ANN.
Hertz et al. have proposed a pruning method based on removing weights having the smallest magnitude (Hertz, J. Krogh, A., and Palmer, R. G. "Introduction to the theory of Neural Computation," Addison Wesley 1991). This idea unfortunately often leads to the elimination of the wrong weights in high order ANNs because the combined affect of low magnitude weights may be essential for low error.
A method for reducing ANN size by selectively deleting weights that is applicable to large scale networks has been described by LeCun et al. (LeCun, Y., Decker, J. S., and Solla, S. A., (1990) "Optimal Brain Damage", Neural Information Processing Systems, Vol. 2, Touretzky, D. S. (ed.) pp. 598-605, Morgan-Kaufmann). The method is based on a theoretical measure using the second derivative of the objective function with respect to the weighting parameters for computing the saliencies. Saliency is defined to be the change in objective function caused by deleting that parameter. Because it is prohibitively laborious to evaluate the saliency directly by deleting each parameter and evaluating the objective function, an analytical prediction of saliency is used based on a Taylor series expansion of the objective error function. A perturbation of the weight vector w by .delta.w causes a perturbation in value of the error objective function or metric, E, corresponding to E+.delta.E where ##EQU1## and .delta.w.sub.k, an element of .delta.w, the perturbation introduced into the weight w.sub.k of vector w.
By assuming that only the diagonal terms (i=j) are significant, LeCun et al. arrive at the simplified saliency measure ##EQU2## Thus, by analytically determining the values of h.sub.ij =.differential.E/.differential..sup.2 w.sub.i, the effect of any change in weights, .delta.w.sub.i, on the objective, .delta.E, may be estimated from the known activation function characteristics of the ANs used, and from the topology of the ANN.
The simplifying assumption made by LeCun et al. may lead to sub-optimal results if the off-diagonal terms (h.sub.i,j ; j.intg.i) are significant.
Another approach requires that statistical tests be performed on weights during training. If a weight is not "statistically significant from zero," then that weight is to be eliminated or reduced in value (decayed) (Hertz et al., op. cit.). Unfortunately, the statistical tests are performed during training, and it is unclear how the statistics of the weight during training relates to the final trained network.
For example, a set of benchmark problems were used in a recent competition in machine learning (Thrun, S. B., and 23 co-authors (1991), "The MONK's Problems--A Performance Comparison of Different Learning Algorithms", CMU-CS-91-197 Carnegie-Mellon Univ. Dept. of Comp. Science Tech, Repo.), the most successful method was back propagation using weight decay, which yielded a network with 58 weights for one MONK's problem. The method of the present invention requires only 14 weights for the same performance and on two other MONK's problems, resulted in a 62% and 90% reduction in the number of weights.

Method for operating an optimal weight pruning apparatus for designing artificial neural networks


In one embodiment, a vertical ratcheting anti-rotation device includes a ratchet mechanism pivotally coupled at a proximal end to a first tubular member in a first recessed area located on a shoulder of the first tubular member. A distal end of the ratchet mechanism includes a first plurality of angled teeth and a spring allowing the ratchet mechanism to pivot in a vertical direction within the first recessed area. The anti-rotation device may also include a toothed insert mechanically coupled to a second tubular member in a second recessed area located on a shoulder of the second tubular member. The toothed insert may include a second plurality of angled teeth positioned to engage the first plurality of angled teeth of the ratchet mechanism. The spring is compressible during coupling of the tubular members to allow the ratchet mechanism to move vertically over the second plurality of angled teeth.

Offshore oil and gas drilling operations typically include the make-up of strings of pipe or casing members, frequently of relatively large diameter. The string of tubular members may be driven into the ground or submerged in water. In some situations, the string of tubular members may be used as conduits through which a well may be initiated. The joint between members of such tubular strings must provide both structural strength and fluid pressure integrity. Such features of a joint might be provided, for example, by welding. However, because welding is a time-consuming operation, and drilling rig rates are high, particularly offshore, mechanical connectors are generally preferred. Typical mechanical connectors available include threaded type connectors in which tubular members are mutually rotated to thread a pin and box connector assembly, breach block connectors, and snap lock connectors.
In threaded mechanical connector assemblies, an externally threaded end, known as the pin, mates with an internally threaded section, known as the box. The pin and the box on a threaded connector assembly are designed to be engaged with each other and rotated to a specific torque value for connecting the ends. After the connection is made, anti-rotation devices can be installed to secure the pin and the box together at the desired make-up torque. The anti-rotation devices are designed to ensure that the threaded portions of the connector assembly do not become tightened over the desired make-up torque or loosened from each other in response to forces applied to the pipe or casing members in the string.
Existing anti-rotation devices often feature a mechanical key that can be selectively positioned in a recess between the pin and the box of the connector assembly to prevent rotation of the pin and the box relative to each other in a certain direction once the make-up torque is reached. Unfortunately, these keys typically do not go into action to engage with the connector assembly until after the connection is loosened slightly. That is, the keys are generally first positioned in the recesses of the connector assembly, and then the pin and box are rotated slightly relative to each other to energize the key. As a result, the connection may be secured at a different torque than the initial desired make-up torque.
In addition, some existing anti-rotation keys arc designed to interface very closely with the connector assembly to fill a recess therein. As such, these keys can be difficult to position in the corresponding recess and often must be hammered into engagement with the connector assembly using a large amount of force. This hammering process takes an undesirable amount of time and energy to ensure that the keys are lodged into their respective recesses in the connector assembly. Often, the applied force causes the key to "bite" into the box connector, resulting in damage to the connector.

Vertical ratcheting anti-rotation device