Ventilated footwear has in a sole thereof a pumping chamber formed in a heel portion of the sole and bounded by two parallel top and bottom walls and a peripheral wall which is resilient to bias the pumping chamber and has converging upper and lower wall portions extending from the top and bottom walls of the chamber. Air is supplied to the pumping chamber through an air inlet passage and is exhausted from the pumping chamber via an air outlet passage.

This invention relates to improvements to footwear.
This invention has particular application to sporting footwear such as sneakers and joggers and hereinafter generally referred to as sneakers but of course it is not limited thereto and can be used in boots, shoes and slippers and the like. However for illustrative purposes only, particular reference will be made hereinafter to its application to sneakers.
In recent years the construction of sneakers has become very complex with a view to making sneakers comfortable to wear and able to minimized shock loadings placed on the body during active use. In order to achieve the desired results many sophisticated construction techniques and synthetic materials have been utilized in their manufacture. However despite the sophisticated nature of such footwear there remains room for improvement both in relation to discomfort resulting from shock loadings applied to the user's feet and/or lower limbs, or in relation to discomfort resulting from the user's feet being confined without effective ventilation.
Furthermore a common problem remains with sneakers and other footwear, namely foot odour resulting from uncomfortably hot conditions. This problem is particularly noticeable in sneakers due to the interaction of foot perspiration with the synthetic materials of the sneakers. This condition is aggravated by the lack of air circulation about the foot and may encourage fungal growth and cause other adverse medical problems for the users.
While arrangements to positively ventilate footwear have been suggested in the past, such as is listed in the International Search Report issued in respect of International Application No. PCT/AU92/00554 from which the present application claims priority, it is considered that the teachings in all the previous art would not enable viable footwear to be provided which would positively ventilate and cool the feet of a user. For this purpose, it is considered that positive ventilation apparatus for footwear needs to be able to work efficiently cycle after cycle, it needs to positively displace air from the footwear and not simply move air around within the footwear, bearing in mind that in use, all footwear contains a relatively constricted free air space about a user's foot within footwear, and footwear utilized positive ventilation apparatus may be comfortable and supportive in use and able to be cleaned and serviced.
Footwear is also used for activities on cold surfaces and by persons with poor circulation to their extremities including their feet. At present the most common remedy for such conditions is to wear thick socks as insulation against ingress of the cold. This is only partially effective and may cause discomfort to the user.


A packed frozen sushi product comprising a vacuumed, frozen and hermetically sealed flexible plastic bag; an open-topped plastic box placed in the bag; and a frozen sushi product contained in the box; in the plastic bag, the box and the frozen sushi product being frozen together in a unified form, the packed frozen sushi product thereby being adapted for microwave cooking. Water vapor emanating from the sushi product in thawing is allowed to flow through a space formed around the sushi material to heat a shaped rice section and a material or materials, thereby diminishing unevenness in temperature distribution after thawing. By virtue thereof, a packed frozen sushi product suitable for mass production is provided.

For example, in the case of a rod-shaped sushi (bo-zushi), vinegared rice is shaped, and the shaped rice section is topped with a sushi material or materials such as boned and prepared red sea bream, sockeye salmon or tuna together with a thin slice of kombu kelp (shiroita kombu) cooked in a broth seasoned with vinegar, sugar and salt, and resultant is shaped into various shapes such as the rod-shape, and the shaped sushi product is wrapped with a bamboo sheath and placed in a packing bag made of a plastic film and vacuum-packed, the vacuum packed sushi product is frozen with a brine such as ethanol or the (vacuum-packed) shaped sushi product is frozen, and the frozen shaped sushi product is placed in a packing bag made of a plastic film and vacuum-packed to thereby prepare a packed frozen sushi product.
Such a packed frozen sushi product by means of brine freezing is prepared by placing a sushi product in a plastic packing bag, vacuum-packing the sushi product, and brine freezing the vacuum-packed sushi product. Accordingly, no attachment of bacteria to the sushi product or absorption of odor from the coolant gas in the sushi product in a freezing room is caused, and therefore, the packed frozen sushi product is hygienically superior to, for example, a packed frozen sushi product prepared by vacuum-packing a sushi product posterior to freezing of the sushi product by slow freezing such as air-blast freezing, nitrogen or carbon dioxide freezing. In particular, such a packed frozen sushi product frozen by brine freezing can be frozen-stored stably, for example, over a long period of 3 months or longer when stored at a storage temperature of −18° C., or can be stored for 6 months when stored at a storage temperature of −50° C.
However, a packed frozen sushi product which has been frozen-stored need to be thawed before being served at a meal. Methods for thawing a packed frozen sushi product include natural thawing, running water thawing, steam thawing, hot water thawing and microwave thawing. Of these, microwave thawing is quite suitable for thawing of a packed frozen sushi product or the like due to its extremely short thawing time and high thawing yield. For example, in the case of above mentioned rod-shaped sushi product, natural thawing at room temperature requires a thawing time of five hours, whereas microwave thawing enables thawing in a period of 2 to 5 minutes. Accordingly, microwave thawing is capable of instantly responding to demands and thus convenient as compared with natural thawing at room temperature.
However, in the case of microwave thawing, calorific values derived from microwave absorption are different between a sushi material or materials and a rice section, and these are also different in quantity. Further, because a surface portion is intensively heated as compared with a center portion, a portion of the sushi material or materials is likely to be heated to an undesirably high temperature as compared with the rice section. The sushi material or materials are thereby brought into the so-called cooked condition, and the tastes thereof are impaired. Therefore, microwave thawing has not been practically used. In a case of, for example, a boxed sushi product or a rod-shaped sushi product, in general, a rice section is preferably lukewarm, for example, the rice section preferably has temperatures of 15 to 25° C., more preferably 20 to 25° C. although this is dependent upon the type of the sushi product, whereas a sushi material or materials, for example, conger eel of eel is preferred to have roughly the same temperatures as the rice section, for example, temperature of 10 to 25° C., more preferably 10 to 20° C. although this is dependent upon the type of the sushi material or materials. However, when a packed frozen sushi product is thawed in a microwave oven, the material or materials are heated to relatively high temperatures to impair the taste of the sushi product. Accordingly, it is difficult to effect desired thawing by means of a microwave oven.
Under such circumstances, with a view to solving the problem that in thawing a packed frozen sushi product by means of microwave heating using a microwave oven or the like, a sushi material or materials of a sushi product are liable to be heated to relatively high temperatures to thereby impair taste of the sushi product, the present inventors made a proposal as follows. To wrap a sushi product topped with a sushi material or materials with a plastic wrapping film, place the wrapped sushi product in a plastic packing bag for frozen foods, vacuum the packing bag to vacuum-pack the sushi product, freeze the vacuum-packed sushi product en bloc by brine-freezing in a unified form to prepare a so-called packed frozen sushi product suitable for freeze-storage, and in thawing the thus prepared packed frozen sushi product by means of a microwave oven, terminate heating by the microwave oven in a relatively short time so as not to raise temperatures of the sushi product to undesirably high temperatures, and using water vapor emanating from a heated rice section and prevailing in the plastic wrapping film package during the microwave heating and after removal of the sushi product from the microwave oven, heat the sushi product by steaming with the water vapor generated in the plastic wrapping film package and the residual heat of the rice section to bring a temperature of a portion where the sushi material or materials and the rice section are in contact with each other to 15° C. or higher (see Japanese Patent publication No. 3172677, and the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,184).
For preparing such a packed frozen sushi product, however, it is necessary to tightly wrap a sushi product with a plastic wrapping film, place the wrapped sushi product in a plastic packing bag for frozen foods, and vacuum and hermetically seal the packing bag to vacuum-pack the sushi product. This procedure should be performed carefully, and such a packed frozen sushi product is difficult to prepare on a large scale. Accordingly, production of such a packed frozen sushi product to meet customers' demands involves many manual labors and much time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a packed sushi product which is capable of solving the problems inherent in such a conventional frozen sushi product wrapped with a plastic film and which is adapted for thawing by means of a microwave oven.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Packed frozen sushi product and methods for preparing and for cooking the same


Since an investigation apparatus is connected through a cable and is remotely operated, the cable may be caught by an obstacle, thereby limiting a movement range of the investigation apparatus. An investigation system 15 includes an investigation apparatus 50 which moves to a position where an investigation target is investigated, by using a traveling section 51 and a support apparatus 30 which moves to a position where letting-off and winding of a cable 14 for an investigation apparatus which is connected to the investigation apparatus 50 are performed, by using a traveling section 31. The investigation apparatus 50 outputs an image of the investigation target which is captured by a camera section 53, to an investigation apparatus controller 40 via the cable 14 for an investigation apparatus.

Various types of pipes are provided inside structures such as nuclear power plants and industrial plants, which are too narrow for a worker to pass through. In order to investigate the insides of such structures, an investigation apparatus which can be remotely operated by a worker using a controller has been adopted. The investigation apparatus is connected to an externally installed controller through a cable, and performs necessary investigation in accordance with a control command received from the controller via the cable. Then, in order to allow the investigation apparatus to move efficiently inside the structure, for example, an investigation vehicle disclosed in PTL 1 has been proposed.
PTL 1 discloses the investigation vehicle in which a camera and a control substrate are mounted on an upper portion of a rectangular main body in a longitudinal direction and two sets of circular section crawlers that can rotate in two directions are attached to a lower portion of the main body.


A driving method with reducing image sticking effect is disclosed. The driving method includes applying a voltage on the data lines for trapping impurities crossing the data lines and lowering the degree of the image sticking effect, and applying different asymmetric waveforms to different data lines for trapping impurities crossing the data lines and lowering the degree of the image sticking effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving method for reducing image sticking effect of display images, and more specifically, to a driving method for reducing image sticking effect of images on a liquid crystal display (LCD).
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a cross-sectional view of a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the LCD 100 comprises two glass substrates, G1 and G2, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer L1 disposed between the glass substrates G1 and G2. A plurality of data lines (not shown) and a plurality of scan lines (not shown) are laid on the glass substrate G1 and are interwoven each other to form a plurality of the pixel areas. The liquid crystal layer L1 comprises liquid crystal molecules X, of which the rotation can be controlled by applying voltage. In ideal condition, the LC layer L1 only contains liquid crystal molecules X only. However, some other particles, namely impurities P, also exist in the liquid crystal layer L1. The impurities P, as shown in FIG. 1, can be ions with positive or negative charges, or neutral molecules with certain polarities.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the general driving method of the conventional LCD 100 to display an image. As mentioned above, the pixel areas are formed by interweaving data lined and scan lines and therefore, the pixel areas are indexed as Pmn where m and n indicate the number of the data line and scan line which are responsible for driving the pixel Pmn. The data voltages carried by the data lines correspond to the displayed image. However, only when the scan line Sn turns on, the data voltages on the data line Dm is input into the pixel area Pmn. For example, the data voltage on the fourth data line D4 will be input into pixel area P43 when the third scan line S3 turns on, and so forth. Therefore, the LC molecules in the pixel P43 will rotate according to the data voltages on the fourth data line D4 when the third scan line S3 turns on. Furthermore, when the scan line turns off, the data voltages on the data lines are not input into the pixels, and the liquid crystal molecules X in this pixel remain the state caused by the previous data voltages on the data lines. There are always data voltages on the data lines but the scan lines will sequentially turn on from G1 to Gn. As a result, an image is fully displayed on the screen while all data voltages on data lines are input into the pixels. The duration which this sequential process takes to display an image is called a "frame time". Subsequently, the next frame starts while turning on the first scan line S1 to the last scan line Sn to show the next image, and so forth. In general, between two frames, there is a moment when all of the scan line turns off, which is so-called "blanking time".
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the relation between the rotation of the liquid crystal molecules X and the data voltages Vd on the data lines in more detail. In reality, one end of the pixel areas is connected to the data line where a data voltage Vd is applied, and the other end of the pixel is connected to the other glass substrate G2 where a fixed common voltage Vcom is applied. Therefore, the actual voltage sensed by the liquid crystal molecules X in the pixel is the relative voltage difference between the data voltage Vd and the common voltage Vcom. This relative voltage difference is the real factor that determines the rotation of the liquid crystal molecules X.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the distribution of the impurities P after the conventional LCD 100 displays an image for a period of time. If the data voltages Vd on the data lines were perfectly symmetric AC (alternative current) waveform relative to the common voltage Vcom, the net movement of the impurities P would be zero and their distribution would remain as the initial condition. Nevertheless, the data voltages are slightly asymmetric AC waveforms unavoidably so that a net DC voltage is formed after displaying an image for a period of time. This DC voltage induces the positive-polarized impurities P moving and gradually accumulating at one side of the LC layer L1 while the negative-polarized impurities P accumulate at the other side of the LC layer L1. These accumulated impurities P generate an inner electric field E in the liquid crystal layer L1, which shields off the following data voltage to apply on the liquid crystal molecules X. Consequently, the liquid crystal molecules X cannot rotate to the correct direction and the image sticking problem occurs.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the distribution of impurities P after the conventional LCD 100 displays images for a period of time. Besides the net DC voltage, the movement of the impurities P are affected by the directions of the liquid crystal molecules X as well. As shown in FIG. 5, the liquid crystal molecules X points at a specific direction which is determined by the voltage difference V between data voltage Vd and common voltage Vcom. Such a direction causes the horizontal movements of the impurities P other than the vertical movements. The impurities P therefore accumulate to form a "boundary" in the LC layer L1 if the movements described above remain for a period of time. The impurities-formed boundaries in the LC layer L1 distort the input voltage so that an abnormal image appears near the boundary which is the so-called line-shape image sticking.

Driving method for reducing image sticking


The present invention belongs to microbial technology field and relates to a strain producing toluene o-xylene monooxygenase (Arthrobacter woluwensis) HW-1 and its application in preparation of 5-methylpyrazine-2-carboxylic acid by microbial fermentation. The present invention providing a new strain HW-1 which could produce toluene o-xylene monooxygenase, and the strain is identified as Arthrobacter woluwensis. The strain is firstly found to convert 2, 5-dimethylpyrazine by bio-fermentation to obtain the medicine intermediate 5-methylpyrazine-2-carboxylic acid. The concentration of accumulated product could reach 34.19 g/L and the yield rate is 81.4% by shake flask fermentation. Compared with 20.41 g/L reported in the literature, this method has a greater advantage and could be industrialized. The conditions to prepare 5-methylpyrazine-2-carboxylic acid provided in the present invention is mild, the reaction process is controllable and has good performance in environmental protection and energy saving. So this invention has great value in industry.

5-Methylpyrazine-2-carboxylic acid is a beige-white crystalline solid with CAS No. of 5521-55-1, molecular formula of C6H6N2O2, molecular weight of 138.12, and melting point of 166˜169° C., has an irritant smell, becomes slowly oxidized when exposed to air, with the appearance turning to a dark viscous solid from brown oil, and therefore needs vacuum preservation.


An apparatus and method for programmable field masking in content-addressable memory (CAM). The present invention provides a CAM with at least one group of memory cells interconnected by a word line and a match line. The group of memory cells includes data memory cells divided into a number of data memory cell fields for storing data bits of a data word. A mask memory cell is provided within the group of memory cells for storing at least one mask bit indicating a status of data stored in at least one of the data memory cell fields. The mask memory cell is operative to interrupt the match line in response to the stored mask bit. A match line detector detects a signal level on the match line to indicate if input data bits supplied on the data memory cell bit lines match data bits stored in at least one of the data fields. The data memory cell fields may be organized into a hierarchy, with mask memory cells connected between the data fields, to provide hierarchical masking. General programmable masking of any data field within the group is provided using multiplexed mask memory cells connected by bypass lines. The multiplexed mask memory cells may store one or more mask bits in order to allow a bypass line to be connected to portions of the match line, thereby masking a given data memory cell field.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in information storage, retrieval and processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to improvements in content-addressable memory (CAM) used to process data packets or other information in a digital telecommunication system.
2. Description of Prior Art
A content-addressable memory (CAM) is a digital electronic memory circuit capable of storing quantities of digital data which can be simultaneously addressed or searched in response to an input data word. A CAM typically includes an array of memory cells, each memory cell storing a single data bit. The array of cells is usually organized into a number of rows and columns, with each row representing a group of stored data bits, or data words, and each column including individual stored data bits at a particular position in each data word. A CAM may output the actual data values stored in its memory cells when addressed by an input word. In its memory cell organization and data storage aspects, a CAM is thus similar to a random access memory (RAM). However, unlike a RAM, the CAM may also output a match signal indicating whether or not a given input word matches any of the data words stored in the entire CAM cell array. The CAM can thus provide parallel searching of the stored data words in each row of the array. This parallel searching function facilitates data storage and retrieval in a variety of different applications.
One important application of CAM is data packet processing in a broadband integrated services digital network (BISDN) operating in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). BISDN is presently being developed to provide a high-capacity wide-area digital network suitable for multimedia communication. The variable high-speed data requirements of BISDN are efficiently handled using flexible packet processing techniques such as those provided by an ATM communication system. Such a system dynamically allocates data packet time slots to various users to obtain maximum network capacity for variable data traffic, rather than assigning fixed time slots to accommodate peak user data traffic as in synchronous transfer mode (STM) communication. The dynamic allocation of available bandwidth is accomplished, in part, by including a header in each data packet which identifies the packet by content rather than by a fixed time slot. The information in the header is checked against a look-up table to determine the appropriate processing steps for its corresponding packet. Portions of the look-up table may be implemented as a CAM to facilitate retrieval of stored packet processing information.
A significant problem with existing CAM systems is the effect of data fields which are not needed in a particular processing operation, commonly referred to as "don't care" data. In general, the don't care data stored in a CAM will slow down the process of matching an input word with the stored data words. In one currently used approach, the CAM includes a capability for masking particular columns of data bits within the CAM by setting a CAM mask register. However, this approach often uses an external pre-processing RAM to determine, for example, if a particular input packet header to be processed includes don't care values, as well as the bit positions of the don't care values. Additional hardware and processing steps are therefore usually required to provide such a data bit masking function within the CAM.
Another currently used technique for handling don't care data within a CAM is multi-step searching of the data words stored in the CAM. For example, if one or more fields of data bits may contain don't care values in a given application, the CAM may first be searched with one field of data bits masked off using a data bit masking capability and a CAM mask register, and then if no match is found, additional searches may be performed with other possible don't care fields masked off. Although this approach avoids the use of an additional external pre-processing RAM to determine which field of bits should be masked, the number of CAM searches which must be performed to check for matches for a given CAM input word is increased by a factor of 2.sup.j -1 for matching an input word divided into j fields, each of which may or may not contain don't care values.
An alternative to masking of don't care data fields in a CAM is to actually encode and store don't care bits as such. This approach is known as ternary encoding, and involves encoding three possible data states, logic 1, logic 0, and don't care, within the stored data words. Two data bits are therefore required to store each of these three data states. See S. Ramirez-Chavez, "Encoding Don't Cares in Static and Dynamic Content-Addressable Memories" IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. 39, No. 8, August 1992. Although this storage technique may result in a decrease in the number of memory cells required to store, for example, intervals of sequential integers, ternary encoding will approximately double the required memory storage capacity in many conventional CAM applications. The larger required memory size results in increased system cost, increased vulnerability to failure, and larger processing overhead. Ternary encoding is therefore generally not considered a suitable technique for implementing telecommunication systems such as BISDN.
As is apparent from the above, a need exists for an improved CAM which is capable of efficiently masking fields of don't care data bits without using a pre-processing RAM, without additional searching steps or without unduly increasing the required CAM memory capacity.

Content-addressable memory with programmable field masking


Techniques are provided for managing communications from an external computer system to a gateway device on a home network. Content is downloaded to the home network, stored on the home-networking gateway and then made available to a device on the home network that is capable of using the stored content. Additionally, a home-networking gateway manages communications between external computer systems and the home network to give priority to human interactive communications over the downloading of entertainment content for future use.

In a home network of computing devices, each of several networked devices may have particular components or capabilities for performing one or more functions. One of the devices in the home network may be connected to a communications pathway through which computer systems external to the home network are accessible. The external communications pathway may be used to provide entertainment content and other types of content to the home network. The process of providing content from an external system to a device on the home network may be referred to as downloading content. The use of the external communications pathway to download entertainment content to the home network may interfere with another activity for which the external communications pathway is required, such as exchanging electronic mail messages or browsing content.

Using a home-networking gateway to manage communications


A display panel is disclosed. The display panel can include: a first substrate; a second substrate, arranged opposite to the first substrate; a first pressure-sensitive detection electrode, arranged on the first substrate and positioned proximal to one side of the second substrate; a second pressure-sensitive detection electrode, arranged on the second substrate and positioned proximal to one side of the first substrate, and a third pressure-sensitive detection element, positioned at one side of the first substrate distant from the second substrate and arranged at intervals from the first substrate. A first capacitance is formed between the second pressure-sensitive detection electrode and the first pressure-sensitive detection electrode. A second capacitance is formed between the third pressure-sensitive detection element and the first pressure-sensitive detection electrode. When the display panel is pressed, a magnitude of pressure is determined by detecting a variation of the first capacitance and a variation of the second capacitance.

Display panels of integrated touch components are used in many electronic devices for users to input. When a user uses, for example a finger, to touch a display panel, the display panel sends signals to the device. In many display panels used in various devices, capacitive pressure sensing technologies are employed to detect a magnitude of touch pressure.
Specifically, in the prior art, a display panel generally is provided with a first pressure-sensitive detection electrode on an array substrate and with a second pressure-sensitive detection electrode on a color film substrate. Pressure variation when being pressed by fingers is detected through detecting a variation of a liquid crystal cell gap formed between the array substrate and the color film substrate (namely, a variation of a capacitance formed between the first pressure-sensitive detection electrode and the second pressure-sensitive detection electrode). In timing sequence, each display cycle of the display panel includes a display time period, a touch-sensing time period and a pressure-sensitive detection time period.
However, to the existing display panel adopting the integrated touch technology (namely, a magnitude of pressure is determined by detecting a capacitance variation caused by a variation in a liquid crystal cell gap), when being pressed, the variation in the liquid crystal cell gap is smaller, which causes a nonideal effect in pressure-sensitive detection. Therefore, it is necessary to seek for other methods to increase the capacitance variation when being pressed.

Display panel and drive method thereof as well as display apparatus

Xiamen Tianma Micro-Electronics Co., Ltd.


A certificate, calculated on the text of a document to be reproduced, is included in the document in a form which is machine-readable. Upon optical character recognition scanning, or other digitizing reproduction, the certificate is also scanned and stored for comparison. A new certificate is calculated on the contents of the reproduced document and compared to the scanned certificate. If the two certificates are different, it is known that at least one error exists in the reproduced document. More than one certificate can be provided for a document in order to facilitate error location on the document and error correction therein.

The identification of products using computer readable bar codes, wherein digital data is recorded directly on paper, provides for item identification given a fixed set of values using simple numeric encoding and scanning technologies. Identification of computer generated and stored documents is another technology which has been developed using binary encoding to identify and provide for retrieval of stored documents. Most document-generating software programs provide not only identification and/or retrieval information for the document, but also include encoded information for provision to an associated printer specifying, for example, such details as spacing, margins and related layout information. Once the document has been printed on paper, however, that information no longer accompanies the document, other than as discerned by the user. If it is desired to reproduce the document using an optical character recognition (OCR) system, there is no automatic means by which to communicate the layout information through the scanner and to the receiving computer. A desirable extension of the identification technology would be, therefore, the provision of a means for generating a paper version of a document which can be recognized, reproduced and proof-read by a computer by optically scanning a marker incorporated in or on the paper document in conjunction with the OCR text scanning of the document.
Document or product identification systems which have been employed in the past include bar code markers and scanners which have found use in a wide range of arenas. With respect to paper documents, special marks or patterns in the paper have been used to provide information to a related piece of equipment, for example the job control sheet for image processing as taught by Hikawa in U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,779. Similarly, identifying marks have been incorporated into forms as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,980 of Johnson, et al. The Johnson, et al system provides for the editing of forms which are already resident in the computer. A paper copy of the form is edited by the user and then scanned to provide insertions to the fields of the duplicate form that is stored electronically in the computer. Still another recently patented system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,966 of Bloomberg, et al, which teaches the decoding of glyph shape codes, which codes are digitally encoded data on paper. The identifying codes can be read by the computer and thereby facilitate computer handling of the document, such as identifying, retrieving and transmitting the document. The systems described in the art do not incorporate text error detection or correction schemes. Further, the systems require that the associated computer have a copy of the document of interest in its memory prior to the input of information via the scanning. The systems cannot be applied to documents which are being created in the scanning computer by OCR.
Optical character recognition systems, as illustrated schematically in FIG. 1, generally include a digitizing scanner, 16, and associated "scanning" computer, 18, for scanning a printed page, 14, which was generated by an originating computer, 12, and output by a printer, 13. The scanner, 16, extracts the text to be saved, as electronic document 15, in a standard electronic format, such as ASCII. What is desirable is to additionally incorporate information about the text for error detection and about the layout thereof, which information can be optically scanned or otherwise automatically input.
Due to the inherent limitations in both the scanning process and the ability of an optical character recognition system to effect accurate character recognition, errors are introduced into the output, including not only character misinterpretation errors but also layout-dependent errors. Post-processing, specifically error detection, must then be performed, primarily by human proof-reading of the reproduced document. Errors in layout are ordinarily not automatically rectifiable by the computer; but, rather, require extensive, user-intensive editing or possibly re-creation of the document. The human post-processing is expensive not only in terms of actual costs but also in the time needed to complete the processed document. Optimally, solutions will provide not only a means for detecting errors but also a means for correcting the errors. Further, an ideal solution should facilitate identification of the document and define the appropriate layout structure for the document.
Error detection systems which have been employed in the computer document creation technology (e.g., word processing) include techniques based on dictionary lookup and/or attempts to use semantic, or context, information extracted from the document in order to identify and correct errors. Many of these systems require that entries in the document which do not correlate to an entry in the lexicon will be reviewed by a "human post-processor". The automated error correction version of a dictionary-based system will, upon identification, spontaneously correct entries which do not correlate to dictionary entries. One can readily envision a circumstance wherein automatic correction is not desirable, such as in the case of a proper name, an intentional misspelling or a newly coined term. The presumption in the use of dictionary-comparison versions of such systems is that each entry in the entire document be compared to a data-base dictionary of terms. The cost of comparison of each entry of a document to a given lexicon is quite high. Streamlined error detection and correction, without the need for entry-by-entry comparison, is desirable.
The use of semantic information extracted from the document is further proposed in the art in order to facilitate the identification and automatic correction of errors that have been detected but which cannot be readily identified as misspellings of available dictionary terms or which "resemble" more than one available dictionary entry. Such a system will recognize and correct the term "ofthe" to "of the" when a dictionary lookup would simply reject the term. Similarly, a bank of commonly-occurring errors for the hardware or software being used, and for the font or fonts being scanned, has been proposed for use with the context, or semantic, information in order to identify and automatically correct common errors, such as "rn" being incorrectly identified as "m", or the letter "o" being incorrectly identified as the number "0".
To detect errors without requiring an entry-by-entry lookup, particularly for documents which are transmitted over extended networks, systems have made use of parity bits transmitted with the data. Once the transmission has been effected, a bit count is done on the "new" document. If the calculated bit matches the transmitted parity bit, then an error-free transmission is assumed. Such systems, and extensions of the parity and check bit concept, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,854 of Chandran, et al, are useful for detecting errors in digitally encoded information. Further extensions of the parity bit concept, such as balanced weight error correcting codes, to detect and provide correction of more than a one-bit error are also found in the art, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,883 of Kirby. Parity and check bit systems developed for use with binary coded information are capable of ascertaining the presence of errors with reasonable accuracy given the low probability of the error bit of an erroneously-received quantity of data matching the check bit of the transmitted material. Since the bits are calculated on binary-encoded data, they are most effective for detecting one-bit errors; except as modified in the weighted balancing and random checking instances. Generally speaking, however, the check and parity bit systems tend to be data-independent methods for assuring error-free transmission of computer-to-computer transfers. The check and parity bit systems are not, therefore, considered thorough checking systems but merely first screening techniques which are limited to digital-to-digital communications and not applicable to analog-to-digital conversions such as optical character recognition.
A further prior art system, providing a 16-bit check sequence which is data-dependent and calculated on the contents of the data field, is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,127 of Calvignac, et al. Once again, the system is applied to data which is transmitted along a data path, presumably in digital format.
In the field of optical character recognition (OCR), there is a similar need to provide the means for detecting and correcting errors in data which has been reproduced from optical scanning, bit mapping and computer encoding. Both dictionary lookup and common-error reference have been proposed for use in the OCR context. However, as with the document creation needs of the past, the entry-by-entry checking is both costly and inefficient. Moreover, in addition to the printed words, the document layout is a critical feature in OCR. The use of current parity bit check systems in an optically-scanned, bit-mapped system is only nominally effective for error detection, relatively ineffective for error location and totally ineffective for detection and correction of improper layout.
Apparatus for identifying and correcting "unrecognizable" characters in OCR machines is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,260 of Rudak. In that system, the characters which are not recognized, in the electronic dictionary lookup operation, are selectively displayed for an operator to effect interpretation and correction. More fully automated OCR error detection and correction is desirable, but not currently available.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a means and method for automatically incorporating information markers on a paper document, which information is encoded to provide a variety of detail about the document to an associated computer.
It is another objective of the invention to establish the absense or presence of errors on a page reproduced using OCR technology without requiring an entry-by-entry comparison.
It is another objective of the invention to provide an error detection system and method for precisely locating errors on a page reproduced using OCR technology.
It is still another objective of the invention to provide an error detection system which can be used in conjunction with existing error correction systems to screen a document for errors prior to effecting error correction procedures.
Another objective of the invention is to provide an automatic error correction means and method for documents reproduced using OCR technology.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide an error detection system which can overlook intentional misspellings, abbreviations, etc.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide an error detection system which can be used with any document format, fonts, and related hardware.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide a means for providing documents with unique markers which can be used to impart various information to computers.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a means and method for supplying documents with computer-readable markers which contain information about the document including document structure, error identification, location and correction information, and document identification and retrieval information.

Certifiable optical character recognition

Matsushita Information Technology Laboratory


A temperature detection device includes first and second temperature detection units configured to detect first and second temperatures, respectively, of a first roller at first and second positions in an axis direction, heated by a central heating unit and an end part heating unit; third and fourth temperature detection units configured to detect third and fourth temperatures, respectively, of a second roller which can be in pressure-contact with the first roller, at the first and second positions; and a control unit configured to control the heating units. The control unit determines a state of at least one of the first, second, third and fourth temperature detection units based on a comparison between first and third rise rates of the first and third temperatures, respectively, or on a comparison between second and fourth rise rates of the second and fourth temperatures, respectively.

In image forming apparatuses, such as printers, toner images formed on paper are fixed on the paper by fixing devices. In order to fix toner images on paper by heat and pressure at the fixing devices, the image forming apparatuses detect temperatures of heating rollers by temperature detection elements and control heaters in the heating rollers at optimum temperatures (target temperatures).
Accordingly, it becomes difficult to control the temperature due to an abnormality in the temperature detection element. Patent Document 1 discloses detecting abnormality in a temperature detection element. Patent Document 1 discloses an abnormality detection method for detecting an abnormality in a temperature detection element by, in the case where although the temperature detection element itself remains normal a temperature becomes impossible to be detected normally, monitoring outputs from plural temperature detection elements arranged on an outer periphery of a heating roller at intervals, and comparing temperature rise rates of the temperature detection elements with each other.

Temperature detection device and image forming apparatus


A serial rate conversion circuit converts the serial rate of a stream of signals, for example, from a SONET overhead data link (ODL) rate of 6.48 Mb/s to and from a data communications channel (DCC) rate of 4.096 Mb/s. The circuit includes a low data flow memory and address select circuit for communicating the stream of serial formatted signals at a low data flowrate and a high data flow memory and address select circuit for communicating the stream of serial formatted signals at a high data flowrate. Clock rate conversion circuitry associates between the low data flow memory and address circuit and the high data flow memory and address select circuit to convert the high data flow serial formatted signals back and forth between the low data flowrate and the high data flowrate while maintaining said stream in a serial format. To provide jitter tolerance during the serial rate conversion process, the high data flowrate frame associates with the low data flowrate frame so that the low data flowrate frame elements are cushioned or buffered by leading and following high data flowrate frame elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The synchronous optical network (SONET) is a new ANSI standard for advanced fiber optic transmission. SONET defines a standard optical interface that allows mid-span meets between equipment produced by different manufacturers. Therefore, the rate conversion of SONET clock rate-derived data to a clock rate suitable for data communication integrated circuits is and for some time to come will be a common operation in telecommunication systems. To accomplish this, it is necessary to rate convert serial streams containing multiple 8-bit time slots from one clock rate to another in dual directions with a minimal amount of circuitry. A principal focus of such an approach would be to provide an implementation that is tolerate of long- or short-term variation in the clock signals. An example is the ability to convert numerous data communication channels that are embedded in a SONET overhead data link (ODL) from a higher data flowrate of 6.48 Mb/s to a lower data communications channel (DCC) integrated circuit data flowrate of 4.096 Mb/s with tolerance for jitter that may arise from the conversion process.
2. Description of Related Art
Many serial rate conversion circuits use dual port RAMs or FIFOs. These circuits convert the data from serial to parallel and back to serial in the rate conversion process. The payload traffic in these solutions is usually not tolerate of jitter or wander in the clock signals. Consequently, traffic often will be lost if any short- or long-term variation arises from the rate conversion.
Conventional approaches that convert the serial data to parallel store the data as 8-bit parallel data in a first set of RAMs and RAM buffers. Then, the 8-bit parallel data is read into a different set of RAMs and RAM buffers to be read out serially. The 8-bit parallel data is converted to a serial format having the desired rate. A significant problem with the conventional way of converting from one serial data flowrate to another is the significant amount of circuitry necessary to convert the serial data to parallel data and the resulting parallel data into serial data. This requires external RAM and the use of at least two field programmable gate arrays.

Serial rate conversion circuit with jitter tolerant payload


A semiconductor device comprises a printed circuit board with circuit pattern formed thereon, and a semiconductor wafer having terminals installed on its peripheral portion. Semiconductor chips are mounted on one surface or both surfaces of the semiconductor wafer. A connector is installed on the printed circuit board for electrical connection with the terminals. When the terminals are connected to the circuit pattern, the semiconductor wafer is installed substantially vertically on the printed circuit board. Or a semiconductor wafer member is constituted by two semiconductor wafers, and a closed space is internally formed between the two wafers and heat pipes for heat radiation are inserted in the closed space.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a semiconductor wafer and method for mounting a semiconductor wafer.
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor wafer with a circuit pattern formed thereon which is mounted on a printed circuit board. Such a semiconductor device in the prior art is shown in FIG. 13. A semiconductor wafer 1301 is mounted horizontally on a printed circuit board 1302, and respective terminals of the wafer and board are connected to each other by a bonding wires 1303. A device using such a mounting,method is also disclosed in Nikkei micro device (December 1989) pp. 99-105.
In a semiconductor device of the prior art, however, a problem exists in that since a semiconductor wafer is mounted horizontally on a printed circuit board, the mounting area is extremely large. Also, since the terminal connection between the semiconductor wafer and the printed circuit board are carried out by bonding wires, time is required for bonding and execution of the bonding itself is difficult for a large-size semiconductor wafer.
Further, in a device mounting such semiconductor wafer on a printed circuit board, power consumption becomes excessive and radiation becomes a problem. Since the semiconductor wafer is mounted horizontally on the printed circuit board in the prior art, the radiation property is poor and there is the possibility of adversely affecting the electric property.

Semiconductor device and method for mounting semiconductor wafer


A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a signal by moving a record bearing medium and a reproducing head relative to each other is provided with a time base corrector for correcting the time base of the signal reproduced. The time base corrector is characterized in that the operating state thereof is changed from one state over to another according to whether or not the controlled movement of the medium and the head relative to each other is in a steady state.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a signal reproducing apparatus and more particularly to a signal reproducing apparatus which is provided with a circuit for correcting the time base of a reproduced signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional signal reproducing apparatus of the above stated kind, such as a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as VTR) of the known low band converting type, a time base correction circuit (or a time base corrector, hereinafter referred to as TBC) has been arranged to give a time base corrected carrier chrominance signal by stepping up a horizontal synchronizing signal which is extracted from a reproduced video signal by means of a PLL circuit to a low-band converted carrier chrominance signal frequency; and by frequency converting a low-band converted carrier chrominance signal with a signal obtained by frequency converting a signal produced from a voltage controlled oscillator (hereinafter referred to as VCO) which is controlled on the basis of the stepped up horizontal synchronizing signal and a phase difference between the output of a reference oscillator and a reproduced color burst signal.
In addition to correcting the time base of the carrier chrominance signal, there has been contrived a method for correcting, at the same time, the time base of a luminance signal. In accordance with this method, the reproduced video signal is supplied to a variable delay line consisting of a CCD delay line; time base variations are extracted by using the above stated horizontal synchronizing signal; and the delay time obtainable by the variable delay line is controlled for correcting the time base of the luminance signal.
The above stated TBC of the conventional VTR has presented the following problem. In shifting from one to another the so-called normal reproduction mode and a special reproduction mode such as a high speed search mode or a slow reproduction mode, the synchronizing signal extracted from the reproduced video signal is apt to be disturbed by the dislocated servo lock of frequency and phase of the rotation of a drum and a capstan. The TBC malfunctions when the frequency and phase deviations come to exceed the correctable range of the TBC. The malfunction has disturbed a picture thus reproduced. To prevent such disturbance of the reproduced picture, varied methods have been developed including among others. A method of not allowing the TBC to operate in the special reproduction modes. Another method wherein a signal indicative of each special reproduction mode is produced; and after change-over to a special reproduction mode, the TBC is kept inoperative during a period of time set for the mode indicated by the signal.
The former method, however, prohibits the use of the TBC for special reproduction. Meanwhile, the latter makes the arrangement of the apparatus more complex accordingly as the number of special reproduction modes increases. Besides, it is difficult to set the periods of time during which the TBC must be kept inoperative.
Further, there are occurrences of some time base variations that are hardly pursuable by the TBC due to some reason other than the special reproduction. In such a case, the conventional time base correction circuit rather has brought about some adverse effect on reproduced signals.

Reproducing apparatus with time base corrector


A helmet making process includes the steps of opening the upper die with flash gates; heating the upper and lower dies in a oven with the use of an endless conveying device; inserting shape-molded plastic upper and lower shells respectively into the lower and upper and lower dies; filling a polyurethane mixture into the upper shell; shaking the upper and lower dies; heating the upper and lower dies to allow the polyurethane mixture to be foamed completely; piercing the foamed polyurethane through the air holes in the upper die; removing the semi-finished helmet; cooling the semi-finished helmet in air; cutting off the flashes and projected portions and recessed portions of the upper and lower shells; trimming and surface-treating the semi-finished helmet to form a finished helmet.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for making a helmet, and more particularly to a process for making a helmet for a motorcyclists, cyclists, skaters, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,318 disclosed a process for making a helmet with a plurality of ventilation holes for cyclists. Such a process suffers from the following disadvantages:
1. Each of the molds must have a heater and suction device mounted thereto in order to pre-heat the upper and lower dies of the mold and to deform the plastic film. Therefore, a number of heater and suction devices are required in the process, resulting in a high manufacturing cost. In addition, the formation of the bottom through holes in the lower dies increases the manufacturing cost.
2. The printing ink cannot be coated uniformly on the plastic film. The plastic film can only be printed with one color and cannot be printed with regular patterns.
3. Since the liquefied polyurethane mixture is not shaken sufficiently when being filled into the lower die, well foaming of the polyurethane cannot be achieved. The density of the foamed polyurethane is not uniform and gas bubbles are formed in the surface of the foamed polyurethane. In addition, because there is no flash gate in the upper die, the air holes in the upper die is liable to be blocked by the foamed polyurethane.
4. Since the cavity of the lower die is covered with the plastic film which has no air holes and there is no hole-making steps after the polyurethane mixture is foamed, gas bubbles is liable to formed between the contact faces of the plastic film and the foamed polyurethane. Therefore, the density of the helmet thus obtained is not uniform.
5. The printing ink cannot be coated uniformly to the shape-molded plastic shell because of configuration of the cavity of the lower die. Therefore, the color formed on the external surface of the helmet is not uniform. In addition, because the shape-molded plastic shell has not air holes, gas bubbles are liable to form between the contact faces of the foamed polyurethane and the shell.


A device for operating flexible elements includes a rotating drum around which flexible elements are wound to be advanced, a container of the drum equipped with a series of rubber rollers which hold the flexible elements in adherence with the outer surface of the drum and which has a longitudinal slot which permits passage of the flexible elements from the inside to the outside of the container, and a moving guide for the flexible elements positioned across the drum and which moves with reciprocating movement and facilitates winding or unwinding of the flexible elements on or from the drum.

It is known that one of the main problems encountered in advancing a flexible element inside a very long cavity consists of the poor ability of the flexible element to absorb resistance to advancement without distortion in the part not yet inserted in the cavity. Said undesirable distortion of the flexible element, in addition to being a factor of rapid wear of said element, makes the advancing motion of the flexible element irregular with resulting reduction of the quality of the work performed and increase of costs due to a greater number of passes to obtain the same results than there would be if motion were controlled in a uniform manner. Finally where the flexible element is a hose containing a liquid under very high pressure, e.g. up to 3,000 bar, as in the case of cleaning the internal surfaces of the tubes of a tube nest, irregular advancement of the hose can be very dangerous for the operator who has to handle said hose. The operations which require the use of a hose to be inserted in a very long longitudinal cavity are normally performed in a nonautomatic manner and manually. The operator inserts the end of the hose into the longitudinal cavity in which said hose must run and pushes the hose until it reaches the other end of the cavity. If the flexible element must remain in the same place, (e.g. if it is a cable), the operation is terminated. If the hose was used for inspection or cleaning the motion is reversed and the hose is drawn back until it goes out of the end of the cavity in which it had been inserted.
In the case of cleaning or internal treatment of tube bundles with pressurized liquids, the insertion and withdrawal of the hose are performed tube by tube with a single hose and interrupting the flow of liquid which passes through the hose before withdrawing it from each tube and turning on flow again after insertion in the next tube.
It is just these insertion and withdrawal operations which represent the greatest danger for safety of the operator in case he does not turn off in a timely manner the liquid in the hose before its withdrawal from each tube. The liquid jet under very high pressure which comes out of the operating end of the hose, no longer contained by the walls of the tube being treated, can very seriously injure the operator or persons in the vicinity of the tube nest being treated.
It is thus clear why tube nests are not cleaned directly on the plant where they are installed but are disassembled and placed on supports which make their treatment easier and safer. A second defect of these manual operations consists of the fact that the operator tends to stop the flow of liquid inside the hose well before withdrawing it from the tube being worked on to increase his own safety and this circumstance reduces the effectiveness of the cleaning because a considerable part of the tube undergoes a single cleaning pass and not both passes of the advancing and withdrawal phases.

Device for the operation of hoses containing a liquid under very high pressure


In a method for detecting an object in an input image, an input image vector representing the input image is generated by performing a regional maximum activations of convolutions (R-MAC) using a convolutional neural network (CNN) applied to the input image and using regions for the R-MAC defined by applying a region proposal network (RPN) to the output of the CNN applied to the input image. Likewise, a reference image vector representing a reference image depicting the object is generated by performing the R-MAC using the CNN applied to the reference image and using regions for the R MAC defined by applying the RPN to the output of the CNN applied to the reference image. A similarity metric between the input image vector and the reference image vector is computed, and the object is detected as present in the input image if the similarity metric satisfies a detection criterion.

The following relates to the instance retrieval arts, video identification arts, object tagging arts, and related arts.
Instance-level image retrieval refers to the process of detecting images that contain an instance of an object (for example, a person, a vehicle, or so forth) pictured in a reference image. As used herein, the object may in general be a visual depiction of a physical object, a person (or a person's face in a facial recognition context), a building, or other visualized entity of interest. In a computer-generated imagery (CGI) context, the object may be a computer-generated object. These are merely illustrative examples.
Instance retrieval finds application in numerous image processing devices and methods. For example, instance retrieval may be used in a security camera device to implement facial recognition, e.g. to locate images captured by the security camera that show a suspect pictured in a reference image. In a video surveillance camera device, instance-level retrieval may be used to identify image frames of a video stream that capture instances of a person, vehicle, or the like shown in a reference image, so as to determine when the person, vehicle, or so forth was seen by the video surveillance camera.

Instance-level image retrieval with a region proposal network


A neuron and synapse implementation is disclosed which incorporates a circuit element that includes first and second nanomagnets and first and second fixed magnets. The first nanomagnet is inductively coupled to a first current carrying element, and is configured to change polarity responsive to current in the first current carrying element. In one example, the first current carrying element includes a spin Hall effect substrate. The second nanomagnet is magnetically coupled to the first nanomagnet, and is inductively coupled to a second current carrying element. The first fixed magnet is disposed on the second nanomagnet and has a first fixed polarity, and second fixed magnet disposed on the second nanomagnet and has a second fixed polarity.

The term "neural network" often refers to models employed in statistics, cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. Neural network models emulate, to some degree, the central nervous system. Neural networks can be characterized by principles of non-linear, distributed, parallel and local processing and adaptation. Neural networks can be implemented in software and digital logic. Modern software implementations of artificial neural networks are based on statistics and signal processing. In some of these systems, neural networks or parts of neural networks (like artificial neurons) form components in larger systems that combine both adaptive and non-adaptive elements.
A neural network can be described as a type of statistical model that consists of a set of inputs that can produce a set of outputs using sets of adaptive weights. The weights affect how the inputs are combined to produce logical outputs. A classic model of a neural network has a set of input nodes, a set of output nodes, and a set in intermediate or hidden nodes. Sets of inputs are connected to sets of intermediate nodes, and intermediate nodes are connected to sets of output nodes. Adaptive weights are used to determine how the value of each input node influences the output of the intermediate node. The combination of values from the intermediate nodes at each output influences that output. Many variants of this type of model have been implemented in circuitry and software.
Implementing neural networks in digital circuits can have space consumption issues due to the need for granularity of the weighting values and the binary nature of digital circuits. Since the advent of electronic circuits, the miniaturization of transistors and logic devices has been a universal goal to advance the capabilities and applicability of electronic devices. Neural networks implemented in circuitry are no exception.
There is a need therefore, for an implementation of neural networks that increasingly miniaturizes circuit implementation of at least some forms of neural networks.

Compact implementation of neuron and synapse with spin switches


A hydraulic control unit of an electronically-controlled vehicular brake system includes a housing having a bore. The bore is in fluid communication with a first fluid passage leading to an outlet of a pump. The bore is also in fluid communication with a second fluid passage leading to a master cylinder. A retainer cap is mounted in the bore. A piston is slidably received in the retainer cap. The piston includes a fluid channel providing fluid communication between the first and second fluid passages. A spring is positioned between the retainer cap and the piston to urge the piston from the retainer cap. A check valve assembly is mounted in the fluid channel of the piston that permits only one-way fluid flow from the first fluid passage to the second fluid passage. The compensator assembly provides a controlled amount of additional displacement of a master cylinder piston when the brake system is operating in an electronically activated mode only.

This invention relates in general to electronically-controlled vehicular brake systems, and in particular is concerned with a compensator assembly mounted in a hydraulic control unit to accommodate travel of a master cylinder piston.
Electronically-controlled hydraulic brake systems for vehicles are well known. Such systems typically include a hydraulic control unit (HCU) hydraulically connected between a master cylinder and wheel brakes. The master cylinder generates hydraulic forces in the brake circuit by pressurizing brake fluid when the driver steps on the brake pedal. A piston in the master cylinder travels in response to the brake pedal. The pressurized fluid travels through the fluid conduit in the circuit to actuate brake cylinders at the wheel brakes and slow the vehicle.
The hydraulic control unit contains control valves and other components such as a pump. Through an electronic controller, the control valves and other components selectively control pressure to the wheel brake assemblies to provide a desired braking response of the vehicle, such as anti-lock braking, traction control, and vehicle stability control.
The master cylinder includes a piston having at least one annular seal. Preferably, this seal is formed as a one-way seal commonly known as a lip seal. During a braking event, this seal can rest adjacent a comp port of the master cylinder. Fluid from the comp port tends to flap the seal back and forth, which can result in deterioration of the seal and premature failure. Known braking systems can provide additional displacement of the master cylinder piston to move the seal away from the comp port, but such systems add extra pedal stroke to every braking event, i.e., normal (base) braking as well as anti-lock braking. Additional pedal stroke is generally not desired in many braking systems.

Compensator assembly in a hydraulic control unit for vehicular brake systems


A silver halide photographic photosensitive material comprises a compound represented by the following formula (I): ##STR1## The variables in this formula are defined in the specification. Also disclosed is a method for processing this photosensitive material with a developer which has a pH 9.0 to 11.0 and which contains 0.15 to 1.5 mol/liter or more of sulfite ion.

The addition of hydrazine compounds to silver halide photographic emulsions and developers has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,727 (developer in which ascorbic acid and hydrazine are combined), in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,552 (hydrazine is used as an auxiliary developing agent for obtaining direct positive color images), in U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,831 (.beta.-monophenylhydrazides of aliphatic carboxylic acids are included as stabilizers for silver halide sensitive materials), in U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,975, and by Mees in The Theory of Photographic Process, third edition, (1966), page 281.
From among these literature references, the fact that ultra-high contrast negative images can be obtained by adding hydrazine compounds has been disclosed in particular in U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,975.
In the same patent specification it is disclosed that photographic characteristics which have a very high contrast with a gamma (.gamma.) value exceeding 10 can be obtained if hydrazine compounds are added to a silver chlorobromide emulsion and the material is developed in a high pH developer at a pH value of 12.8. However, a strongly alkaline solution at a pH approaching 13 is susceptible to aerial oxidation and is unstable, and it will not stand up to long term storage or use.
Attempts have been made to form high contrast images by developing silver halide photosensitive materials which contain hydrazine compounds in developers of a lower pH.
Methods of processing in which development is carried out in a developer of a pH not more than 11.0 using sensitive materials which contain nucleation development accelerators which have groups which are adsorbed onto silver halide emulsion grains and nucleating agents which have similar adsorption groups have been disclosed in JP-A-1-179939 and JP-A-1-179940. (The term "JP-A" as used herein signifies an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".) However, when compounds which have adsorbing groups are added to a silver halide emulsion there may be a loss of photosensitivity if a certain critical amount is exceeded, development may be inhibited, or the action of other useful additives which are adsorbed may be impeded, and so the amount which is used is limited and satisfactory high contrast properties cannot be realized.
Hydrazine compounds which have ethylene oxide repeating units and hydrazine compounds which have pyridinium groups have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,604 and 4,994,365. However, as is clear from the illustrative examples provided, the high contrast properties are inadequate and it is difficult to obtain the D.sub.max which is required and high contrast under practical development processing conditions.
Furthermore, with nucleation high contrast sensitive materials in which hydrazine derivatives are used the variation in photographic speed and gradation due to developer fatigue is considerable and attempts have been made to improve the processing stability. With the existing technology it has not been possible to obtain sensitive materials which retain a satisfactory high contrast and which exhibit good processing stability even when processed in a developer of a pH less than 11.

Silver halide photographic photosensitive materials


Disclosed are an electronic device case for providing tactile feedback and an operation method thereof. The electronic device case for providing tactile feedback, includes: a communication interface unit receiving a control signal from an electronic device according to an operation of the electronic device; an actuator driver generating an electric signal corresponding to preset tactile pattern data according to the received control signal; and one or more film type actuators provided to contact the actuator driver and varying physical properties according to the control signal.

In recent years, touch input type electronic devices allowing a user to touch a surface of a screen for inputting information have been developed and produced in various forms. As a representative example of the touch input type electronic devices, a touch screen is a device that allows a user to touch a finger or a pen on a screen on which image information is displayed without using an input device such as a key board or a mouse.
Such electronic devices provide various interfaces to provide a user with a feedback. Among them, tactile feedback has widely been used.
The tactile feedback is a touch sensation felt by a finger tip of a man or a stylus pen when touching an object, and a sensation felt by a skin of body when reaching an object surface.
A device capable of playing dynamic characteristics (vibration, touch sense, operation sound, etc., transferred to a finger when a user pushes a button) as a response to when a man touches an actual object (actual button) by touching a virtual object (e.g., button display of a window screen) among devices using tactile feedback is the most ideal. To improve the performance of the tactile feedback device, a conventional mechatronic device or the like using a motor and a link mechanism has been used up to now.
However, a conventional mechatronic device has disadvantages that volume and energy consumption are large, and a small fault frequently occurs because of many components. Because a response speed of the conventional mechatronic device is low, tactile feedback may not be instantly provided. Due to this, the user can not be provided with a sufficiently actual feeling or has inconvenience of use.

Electronic device case for providing tactile feedback and operating method thereof

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A cooling system controller controls the capacity of a variable capacity compressor based upon the temperature of a housing being cooled, the suction pressure of the compressor or both of these criteria. The cooling system controller is capable of controlling either single-evaporator or multiple-evaporator refrigeration systems. The multiple-evaporator systems can have evaporators of similar temperatures or of mixed temperatures. The controller also allows the use of one or more condenser fans that are operated in a lead/lag fashion to control the cooling capability of the system.

The present invention relates generally to a controller for a condensing unit for a refrigeration system or for other cooling systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a condensing unit employing a variable capacity compressor which is controlled by pulse width modulation using a variable duty cycle signal derived from one or more system sensors. The condensing unit controller is capable of controlling a single evaporator or multiple evaporators of similar or mixed temperatures.
The present invention is being described associated with a refrigeration system. It is to be understood that the condensing unit of the present invention could be utilized for any other cooling system if desired.
Conventionally, refrigeration systems for refrigeration cases have employed air-cooled or water-cooled condensers fed by a rack of compressors. The compressors are coupled in parallel so that they may be switched on and off in stages to adjust the system cooling capacity to the demands of the load. Typically, the compressors and condensers are located outside of the building on the roof or in a machine room adjacent the area where the refrigeration cases are located.
Within each refrigeration case is an evaporator fed by refrigerant lines from the condensers through which the expanded refrigerant circulates to cool the case. Typically, a closed-loop control system regulates refrigerant flow through the evaporators to maintain the desired case temperatures. Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) closed loop control systems are popular for this purpose, with temperature and/or pressure sensors providing the sensed condition inputs.
It is common practice with retail outlets to use separate systems to supply different individual cooling temperature ranges; low temperature (for frozen foods, ice cream, nominally xe2x88x9225 F.); medium temperature (for meat, dairy products, nominally +20 F.); and high temperature (for floral, produce, nominally +35 to +40 F.). The separate low, medium and high temperature systems are each optimized to their respective temperature ranges. Normally, each will employ its own rack of compressors and its own set of refrigerant conduits to and from the compressors, condensers and evaporators.
The conventional arrangement, described above, is very costly to construct and maintain. Much of the cost is associated with the long refrigerant conduit runs. Not only are long conduit runs expensive in terms of hardware and installation costs, but the quantity of refrigerant required to fill the conduits is also a significant cost factor. The longer the conduit run, the more refrigerant required. Adding to these added costs are environmental factors. Eventually fittings leak, allowing the refrigerant to escape to the atmosphere. Invariably, long conduit runs involve more conduit joints that may potentially leak. When a leak does occur, the longer the conduit run, the more refrigerant lost.
One solution to the above described problems is disclosed in Assignee""s U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,557, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The solution presented in the above patent is a distributed refrigeration system in which the condenser is disposed on the refrigeration case and serviced by a special pulse-width modulated compressor that may be also disposed within the case. If desired, the condenser and compressor can be coupled to service a group of adjacent refrigerant cases, each case having its own evaporator. Further, multiple compressors with at least one pulse-width modulated compressor can be used to handle large evaporator load line-up. Also, the condenser can be disposed in a housing with the evaporator to provide a self-contained package, or can be disposed remotely, as in a split system. The pulse-width modulated compressor is driven by a control system that supplies a variable duty cycle control signal based on measured system load.
While the above described pulse-width modulated compressor and refrigeration system have performed satisfactorily, the continued development of these systems has been directed toward controlling the capacity of the compressor, the condenser and other components within the condensing unit.
Other advantages and objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the subsequent detailed description, appended claims and drawings.

Digital scroll condensing unit controller


Natural and synthetic textile materials and blends thereof are disclosed containing at least one water-soluble, neutral alkanolamine, ammonium or mixed alkanolamine and ammonium salt of a phosphoric acid wherein said acid is selected from the group consisting of orthophosphoric acid and polyphosphoric acid. Polyester-cotton fabrics are rendered antistatic by treatment with these ionic bonded salts in the proportion of about 0.5 to about 10 percent by weight based on the weight of the textile fabric.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to antistatic textile materials and processes therefore wherein textile fabrics can be rendered effectively antistatic easily and economically.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Certain of the applicants' water-soluble anti-static agents are disclosed in copending commonly-assigned application, Ser. No. 656,116, filed Feb. 9, 1976 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,263, for use in the preparation of non-durable, flame-repellent synthetic fabrics but the applicants' use of these materials is never disclosed or suggested.
Diethanolamine reaction products of orthophosphates and higher phosphates are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,481 as antistatic agents for textile fibers. The orthophosphate and higher phosphate esters are disclosed as reaction products of straight-chained, saturated primary aliphatic alcohols having 8 to 18 carbon atoms and about 1.1 to about 1.6 alkyl group per phosphorus atom.
Ammonium phosphates as antistatic agents for incorporation into polymeric resins are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,192. The antistatic agents are tertiary amine salts of phosphoric and diphenyl phosphoric esters. Polyethylene is disclosed as a suitable polymeric resin into which the antistatic agents can be incorporated.
The use of an alkanolamine ionically-bonded salt of an inorganic acid such as phosphoric acid is known for use in fireproofing textile materials as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,605. Coatings on yarns and filaments of from 20 percent to 50 percent based upon the weight of the yarn of the alkanolamine salt of phosphoric acid provides fireproofing and lubricity of the yarn.
In no one of the references above are the inventive ionically-bonded antistatic agents disclosed for use or suggested for use as antistatic agents for textile materials.

Antistatic natural and synthetic textile materials which have been treated with salts of orthophosphoric or polyphosphoric acid


A system for detecting and eliminating viruses on a computer network includes a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) proxy server, for controlling the transfer of files and a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) proxy server for controlling the transfer of mail messages through the system. The FTP proxy server and SMTP proxy server run concurrently with the normal operation of the system and operate in a manner such that viruses transmitted to or from the network in files and messages are detected before transfer into or from the system. The FTP proxy server and SMTP proxy server scan all incoming and outgoing files and messages, respectively before transfer for viruses and then transfer the files and messages, only if they do not contain any viruses. A method for processing a file before transmission into or from the network includes the steps of: receiving the data transfer command and file name; transferring the file to a system node; performing virus detection on the file; determining whether the file contains any viruses; transferring the file from the system to a recipient node if the file does not contain a virus; and deleting the file if the file contains a virus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems and computer networks. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for detecting and removing computer viruses. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a System and method for detecting and removing computer viruses from file and message transfers between computer networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the recent past, the use of computers has become widespread. Moreover, the interconnection of computers into networks has also become prevalent. Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a portion of a prior art information system 20 is shown. The portion of the information system 20 shown comprises a first network 22, a second network 24 and third network 26. This information system 20 is provided only by way of example, and those skilled in the art will realize that the information system 20 may include any number of networks, each of the networks being its own protected domain and having any number of nodes. As shown in FIG. 1, each of the networks 22, 24, 26 is formed from a plurality of nodes 30, 32. Each of the nodes 30, 32 is preferably a microcomputer. The nodes 30, 32 are coupled together to form a network by a plurality of network connections 36. For example, the nodes 30, 32 may be connected together using a token ring format, ethernet format or any of the various other formats known in the art. Each of the networks 22, 24, 26 includes a node 32 that acts as a gateway to link the respective network 22, 24, 26 to other networks 22, 24, 26. Each of the gateway nodes 32 is preferably coupled by a standard telephone line connection 34 such as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) or a T-1 link to the other gateway nodes 32 through a telephone switching network 28. All communication between the networks 22, 24, 26 is preferably performed through one of the gateway nodes 32.
One particular problem that has plagued computers, in particular microcomputers, have been computer viruses and worms. A computer virus is a section of code that is buried or hidden in another program. Once the program is executed, the code is activated and attaches itself to other programs in the system. Infected programs in turn copy the code to other programs. The effect of such viruses can be simple pranks that cause a message to be displayed on the screen or more serious effects such as the destruction of programs and data. Another problem in the prior art is worms. Worms are destructive programs that replicate themselves throughout disk and memory using up all available computer resources eventually causing the computer system to crash. Obviously, because of the destructive nature of worms and viruses, there is a need for eliminating them from computers and networks.
The prior art has attempted to reduce the effects of viruses and prevent their proliferation by using various virus detection programs. One such virus detection method, commonly referred to as behavior interception, monitors the computer or system for important operating system functions such as write, erase, format disk, etc. When such operations occur, the program prompts the user for input as to whether such an operation is expected. If such an operation is not expected (e.g., the user was not operating any program that employed such a function), the user can abort the operation knowing it was being prompted by a virus program. Another virus detection method, known as signature scanning, scans program code that is being copied onto the system. The system searches for known patterns of program code used for viruses. Currently, signature scanning only operates on the floppy disk drives, hard drives or optical drives. Yet another prior art approach to virus detection performs a checksum on all host programs stored on a system and known to be free from viruses. Thus, if a virus later attaches itself to a host program, the checksum value will be different and the presence of a virus can be detected.
Nonetheless, these approaches of the prior art suffer from a number of shortcomings. First, behavior interception is not successful at detecting all viruses because critical operations that may be part of the code for a virus can be placed at locations where such critical operations are likely to occur for the normal operation of programs. Second, most signature scanning is only performed on new inputs from disk drives. With the advent of the Internet and its increased popularity, there are no prior art methods that have been able to successfully scan connections 36 such as those utilized by a gateway node in communicating with other networks. Third, many of the above methods require a significant amount of computing resources, which in turn degrades the overall performance of system. Thus, operating the virus detection programs on every computer becomes impractical. Therefore, the operation of many such virus detection programs is disabled for improved performance of individual machines.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for effectively detecting and eliminating viruses without significantly effecting the performance of the computer. Moreover, there is a need for a system and method that can detect and eliminate viruses in networks attached to other information systems by way of gateways or the Internet.

Virus detection and removal apparatus for computer networks


An operational lever for a bush cutter includes a handle housed in a handle case, a throttle lever pivotally mounted to the handle, and a lock lever pivotally mounted to the handle. The operational lever further includes a torsional coil spring which exerts a resilient force on the lock lever. The lock lever is pivoted from an initial position to a pivoted position by an operator""s palm. The throttle lever is then pivoted to a half-pivoted position by operator""s fingers. When the palm is moved a small distance away from the handle case with the throttle lever held in the half-pivoted position, the lock lever is pivoted back towards the initial position by a resilient force of the spring. This causes a curved surface of a side protrusion portion of the lock lever to engage or abut on a side of a protrusion portion of the throttle lever. This arrangement is advantageous in that even when the operator takes her or his fingers off the throttle lever, the throttle lever is locked by a friction force produced between the curved surface and the side.

The present invention relates to an improved operational lever for a bush cutter, which is locked not only when an engine of the bush cutter is idled but also when a throttle valve of a carburetor provided on the engine is half-opened, such that a human operator comfortably operates the lever.
Known operational levers for bush cutters having prime movers include throttle levers for controlling amounts by which throttle valves are opened, and lock levers for limiting movements of the throttle levers. One example of such operational levers is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 2-163427 entitled xe2x80x9cTHROTTLE APPARATUS FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINExe2x80x9d.
The disclosed apparatus suitable for use on a bush cutter includes a first lever connected via a wire to a throttle valve of a carburetor of an internal combustion engine of the cutter, a second lever pivotable together with the first lever, and a safety lock lever for locking the second lever in place when the throttle valve is opened to such an extent as to idle the engine. The second lever has an adjustment screw abutting on the first lever.
As discussed above, the safety lock lever locks the second lever in place when the throttle valve is opened to idle the engine, such that a human operator can not operate the second lever. When cutting bush, the operator moves the first and second levers to respective intermediate positions in which the throttle valve is half-opened to operate the engine at a given engine speed. To perform the cutting operation maintaining the given engine speed, the operator should hold the second lever in the intermediate position by her or his fingers. While holding the second lever in the intermediate position, during the cutting operation, the operator should also orient the bush cutter in various directions to cut bushes. What has been needed is an operational lever including first and second levers both designed to be held in the respective intermediate positions, such that the operator can comfortably perform the cutting operation.
An object of the present invention is to provide an operational lever for a bush cutter including a throttle lever for opening and closing a throttle valve of a carburetor provided on an engine of the bush cutter, and a lock lever for holding the throttle lever in place not only when the engine is idled but also when the throttle valve is half-opened, thereby imposing a reduced burden of operating the lever on a human operator.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an operational lever for a bush cutter including an operational rod, a prime mover mounted at a rear end of the operational rod, a cutting blade mounted at a front end of the operational rod, the cutting blade being driven by the prime mover, the operational lever comprising: (A) a handle extending from the operational rod substantially at right angles thereto; (B) a pivotable throttle lever for adjusting an amount by which a throttle valve of the prime mover is opened, the throttle lever having a first handle mounting portion attached to the handle; (C) a first spring for urging the throttle lever in a first direction to close the throttle valve; (D) a pivotable lock lever having a second handle mounting portion attached to the handle; and (E) a second spring for urging the lock lever in a second direction opposite to the first direction; the throttle lever including: (a) a cable connection arm extending from the handle mounting portion and being connected to the prime mover through a throttle cable; (b) a throttle lever operational portion extending from the first handle mounting portion in a direction substantially perpendicular to the cable connection arm; and (c) a protrusion portion extending from the throttle lever operational portion in substantially parallel to the cable connection arm; the lock lever including: (axe2x80x2) a lock lever operational portion extending from the second handle mounting portion; and (b) a lock arm portion extending from the second handle mounting portion in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lock lever operational portion, the lock arm portion being opposed to the protrusion portion of the throttle lever; the lock arm portion having a side protrusion portion formed at an end thereof, the side protrusion portion projecting sideways of the lock arm portion; the protrusion portion moving in a first line as the throttle lever pivots, the side protrusion portion moving in a second line as the lock lever pivots, the first line and the second line intersecting, such that when the lock lever remains urged in the second direction, the throttle lever is prevented from pivoting in the second direction, when the lock lever pivots in the first direction, the throttle lever is allowed to pivot in the second direction, and when the lock lever pivots back in the second direction after the throttle lever pivots in the second direction, the side protrusion portion engages the protrusion portion to prevent the throttle lever from pivoting back in the first direction.
The protrusion portion and the lock arm portion are disposed such that the first line and the second line intersect. If an operator attempts to turn the throttle lever when the lock lever does not pivot but remain urged by the second spring in the second direction, the end of the protrusion portion comes into abutment on the end of the lock arm portion. The throttle lever is therefore prevented from pivoting in the second direction. When the lock lever pivots in the first direction, the throttle lever is allowed to pivot in the second direction. When the lock lever pivots back in the second direction after the throttle lever pivots in the first direction, the protrusion portion of the throttle lever and the lock arm portion of the lock lever are pressed against each other under resilient forces of the first and second springs to thereby prevent the throttle lever from pivoting back in the first direction.