In a repetitive control device used for processing a servo signal, a memory (7) is used as a delay element for a filter (6), and a filtering process by the filter (6) is carried out using a clock signal that is an integral multiple of an operation frequency of a driving signal. Therefore, the gain can be increased without generating phase rotation with respect to a compensated signal, and high followability can be achieved to fluctuations in the track position which are caused by the shape of a disc such as decentering or surface wobbling, during recording and playback in an optical disc device.

With advances in speedup and density growth of optical disc devices, an optical servo for maintaining a focal point of a laser beam on an information recording track is rapidly desired to improve its precision. Especially, with speedup of an optical disc device, fluctuation in the track position that is synchronized with disc rotation, such as decentering or surface wobbling of an optical disc, increase more and more, and therefore, development of an optical disc device that can follow the fluctuation is demanded.
However, since a servo signal has a characteristic that only its frequency increases with its amplitude being maintained as the rpm of the disc increases, a higher loop gain is required to maintain a servo residual error at a specified value or lower. On the other hand, increasing the loop gain has a limitation due to a restriction such as secondary resonance of a pickup, and consequently, followability is undesirably degraded.
So, as a technique for securing the followability, a repetitive control device as disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei. 9-50303 (Patent Document 1) has attracted attention.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram for explaining a servo signal processing of a conventional optical disc device.
In FIG. 8, a servo signal processing system of the conventional optical disc device comprises an adder 0, a servo filter 1, an adder 2, a DAC 3, a driver 4, a pickup 5, a filter 6, a memory 7, a memory controller 8, a rotation angle detector 9, and a gain 10. A repetitive control device 20 comprises the adder 2, the filter 6, the memory 7, and the gain 10 as shown in FIG. 8.
The adder 0 detects a positional error of a focal point of a light beam with respect to a track position, and outputs a detected signal as a servo error signal to the servo filter 1. The servo filter 1 performs PID control filtering or the like on the inputted servo error signal, and outputs a generated compensation signal S3 to the repetitive control device 20.
The adder 2 adds an output S2 from the gain 10 to the output S3 from the servo filter 1 to generate a driving signal S1. The DAC 3 is a DA converter which converts the driving signal S1 outputted from the adder 2 into an analog signal. The driver 4 receives the output of the DAC 3, and generates an actuator driving current. The pickup 5 is controlled on the basis of the actuator driving signal, and moves the position of a lens to move the position of the focal point of the light beam on the optical disc.
The filter 6 is a filter of the repetitive control device 20, and generates a signal of a predetermined frequency band, which performs repetitive control. The filter 6 comprises a low-pass filter for removing noises and signals that exceed the control bandwidth of the repetitive control device 20 from the signal outputted from the adder 2, and a high-pass filter for removing DC components.
The memory 7 has plural memory areas, and signal information for one rotation of the disc is divided to be stored in the respective memory areas. The memory controller 8 changes the address of the memory 7 on the basis of an operation timing signal outputted from the rotation angle detector 9, and sends the contents of the selected address to the adder 2 as well as stores the output of the filter 6 into the memory area indicated by the address.
The rotation angle detector 9 generates a clock signal having a frequency that is phase-synchronized with an inputted spindle FG signal and is equal to an integral multiple of the spindle FG signal, and outputs the clock signal as an operation timing signal for memory control.
The gain 10 is a gain element β which multiplies the output from the memory 7 by a value not larger than 1 and outputs the resultant to the adder 2, and the gain 10 always multiplies the output of the memory 7 by a value of β≦1 so as to prevent the degree of learning from becoming 100%, thereby to satisfy the stability condition of the repetitive control.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram for explaining the memory 7 of the repetitive control device 20 shown in FIG. 8.
In FIG. 9, an arrow shown beside an optical disc 100 indicates the rotation direction of the optical disc 100, and numerals 1˜16 on the optical disc 100 indicate areas obtained by dividing the optical disc 100 into 16 in the circumferential direction.
A pickup 5 traces the tracks on the rotating optical disc 100 in the circumference direction. This is identical to the pickup 5 shown in FIG. 8.
A memory 102 has sixteen memory areas corresponding to the areas 1˜16 on the optical disc 100, and corresponding addresses are determined for the respective memory areas. A selector 103 selects one address from among the addresses of the memory 102, and writes the data from the filter 6 into the address, and further, outputs the data read from the address to the adder 2 shown in FIG. 8. The memory 7 shown in FIG. 8 is obtained by combining the memory 102 and the selector 103.
A disc motor 104 rotates the optical disc 100, and outputs an FG pulse from an FG circuit that is provided therein.
A PLL 105 multiplies the FG pulse outputted from the disc motor 104 to generate a clock signal. In FIG. 9, since the optical disc is divided into 16 areas, 16 pulses of clocks are generated for one rotation. A counter 106 counts the clocks generated by the PLL 105 to output counts from 1 to 16. The rotation angle detector 9 shown in FIG. 8 is obtained by combining the PLL 105 and the counter 106.
A memory controller 8 discriminates an area on the optical disc 100 which is currently reproduced by the pickup 101, on the basis of the count output from the counter 106, and sends the corresponding address of the memory 102 to the selector 103. It is identical to the memory controller 8 shown in FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 is a waveform diagram for explaining the manner of data updation of the memory 7. The output of the memory 7 is changed according to the memory address outputted from the memory controller 8, and the output S2 from the memory 7 via the gain 10 and the output S3 from the servo filter 1 are added by the adder 2. Thereafter, the addition result S1 is sent to the DAC 3 and, simultaneously, inputted to the memory 7 via the filter 6.
Since, for simplification, FIG. 10 is drawn with the output S3 of the servo filter 1 being zero, the output S2 of the memory 7 via the gain 10 is equal to the input S1 of the filter 6.
Next, the operation of the conventional optical disc device will be described.
Initially, a description will be given of a servo loop processing to be performed by a servo loop comprising the adder 0, the servo filter 1, the adder 2, the DAC 3, the driver 4, and the pickup 5 shown in FIG. 8.
First of all, on the basis of the position of the focal point of the light beam outputted from the pickup 5 while the pickup 5 traces the track on the rotating optical disc, and the track position that is externally inputted, the adder 0 detects a positional error of the focal point of the light beam with respect to the track position, and inputs the positional error to the servo filter 1.
In the servo filter 1, the inputted positional error signal of the light beam focal point to the track position is subjected to processings such as phase compensation, low-pass compensation and the like. Thereafter, an actuator driving signal that follows track decentering, surface wobbling or the like is outputted from the driver 4 through the servo filter 1, the adder 2, and the DAC 3 to the pickup 5. The position of the pickup 5 is appropriately controlled on the basis of the actuator driving signal outputted from the driver 4, whereby the focal point of the optical beam is maintained on the track.
Next, a description will be given of the processing of the repetitive control device 20 that performs feedforward control for the above-mentioned servo loop processing.
The signal S1 outputted from the adder 2 is input to the filter 6, wherein noises and signals that exceed the control bandwidth of the repetitive control device 20 are removed by the low-pass filter, and simultaneously, the DC components are removed by the high-pass filter.
The signal outputted from the filter 6 is stored in a predetermined address area in the memory 7, under control of the memory controller 8 that operates on the basis of the operation timing signal outputted from the rotation angle detector 9. Simultaneously, the memory controller 8 outputs the data stored in the predetermined address area of the memory 7 to the gain 10, and the signal S2 that is multiplied by a value not larger than 1 by the gain 10 is outputted to the adder 2. In this construction, a signal corresponding to one rotation of the disc, which is restricted to a predetermined frequency band by the filter 6, is stored into the divided plural memory areas of the memory 7, and sequentially outputted from the memory 7.
Thereafter, the output signal S2 from the gain 10 is added to the compensated signal S3 outputted from the servo filter 1, by the adder 2.
During the operation of the repetitive control device 20, the low-pass filter of the filter 6 functions as an anti-alias filter when the driving signal S1 is stored in the memory 7 with the address switching frequency of the memory 7 being a sampling frequency.
As described above, according to the conventional optical disc device provided with the repetitive control device 20, the signal S2 synchronized with the rotation of the disc is supplied as a feedforward signal from the memory 7 through the gain 10, whereby the signal level of the frequency component of the compensated signal S3 outputted from the servo filter 1, which frequency component is synchronized with the disc rotation, can be reduced. This is nothing but a reduction in the level of the servo error signal to be inputted to the servo filter 1, and it means that the followability to the track is enhanced.
Further, with respect to the servo characteristics, as shown in a gain diagram of FIG. 11, the loop gain at a frequency that is an integral multiple of the frequency for one rotation of the disc is increased. As the result, it is possible to enhance the followability of the pickup 5 to the fluctuation in the track position that is caused by the disc shape such as decentering or surface wobbling. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the characteristics of the transfer function G of an element comprising the filter 6 and the memory 7. Among the gain characteristics, a dotted line (1) shows the characteristics of the transfer function G in the case where repetitive control is not carried out while a solid line (2) indicates the characteristics of the transfer function G in the case where repetitive control is carried out.

Repetitive control device and optical disc device


An optical fiber amplifier is proposed comprising at least one pump light source (3), at least one amplifying fiber section (10), and at least one coupler (8) which establishes a connection between the input fiber (1) of the fiber type I, the pump light source (3), the amplifying fiber section (10), and the output fiber (12) of the fiber type I. The amplifying fiber section (10) consists of a fiber type II, and the the splices (2, 11) between the fiber type I and the fiber type II are arranged relative to the amplifying fiber section (10) such that light propagated in the direction opposite to the signal direction and light propagated in the signal direction passes through means absorbent of short wavelengths before it reaches the splices.

The invention is based on an optical fibre amplifier comprising at least one pump light source (3), at least one amplifying fibre section (10), and at least one coupler (8) which establishes a connection between the input fibre (1) of the fibre type I, the pump light source (3), the amplifying fibre section (10) and the output fibre (12) of the fibre type I.
Different fibre amplifiers employing many different types of amplifying fibres are known from the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,824 is known, which describes the production and use of an amplifying fibre composed of a glass composition of germanium, arsenic, selenium and sulphur. It is also known to use other non-oxidic types of glass as material for amplifying fibres. In particular, the use of materials consisting of halides and sulphides doped with rare earths as amplifying fibres seems promising. Compared to silica glass, halide- and in particular fluoride glass has transparent properties which extend spectrally substantially further into the long-wave range. This is due to the spectral shift of the multi-phonon absorption edge as a result of the incorporation of substantially heavier ions. However, these types of glass present technological difficulties in respect of material production and fibre preparation. Their unfavourable mechanical properties and unfavourable behaviour in humid atmospheres have so far prevented their large-scale use. Recently it has been possible to produce fibre amplifiers operating with fibres composed of ZBLAN (Zrxe2x80x94Baxe2x80x94Laxe2x80x94AILxe2x80x94Na) fluoride glass. Due to its relatively high refractive index and the flexibility of its composition, sulphide glass can be considered as a promising candidate for use as amplifying material. Therefore great efforts are being undertaken world-wide to produce many different types of halide glass with low phonon energies. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,824, the special fibres, which in the following description will be referred to as xe2x80x9cfibre type IIxe2x80x9d, are glued-in by means of glue splices between the standard, silica-based glass fibres, referred to in the following as xe2x80x9cfibre type Ixe2x80x9d. Because of the different thermal coefficients of silica fibres (fibre type I) and halide fibres (fibre type II), the fused splices normally employed in telecommunications technology cannot be used. It is therefore only possible to use mechanical splices or glue splices. As mechanical splices have disadvantages in terms of the precision and permanence of their positioning, the fibres of fibre type I and fibre type II are joined using glue splices. The refractive index adaptation and mechanical stabilization of a glue splice are achieved by the use of a special glue. The behaviour of this index-adaptable special glue is critical with regard to aging and premature embrittlement due to loading with UV-light.
The optical fibre amplifier according to the invention comprising at least one pump light source 3, at least one amplifying fibre section 10, and at least one coupler 8 which establishes a connection between the input fibre of the fibre type I, the pump light source 3, the amplifying fibre section 10 and the output fibre 12 of the fibre type I, has the advantage that all the splice connections between the fibre type I and the fibre type II are located at a distance from the amplifying fibre section such that short wavelength light is already noticeably attenuated. The optical fibre amplifier is constructed such that the critical glue splices are exposed to a reduced proportion of UV light as the critical short-wave light of the blue- and UV-wavelength is attenuated by a suitable absorbent means.
Advantageous further developments and improvements of the optical fibre amplifier described in the main claim are possible as a result of the measures described in the sub-claims.

Optical fibre amplifier with UV light absorption


A vehicle air conditioning system includes a pressure reducing device that is operatively coupled to a condenser downstream therefrom. An evaporator is operatively coupled to the pressure reducing device downstream therefrom. A refrigerant flow booster is operatively coupled to the evaporator downstream therefrom and a compressor is operatively coupled to the refrigerant flow booster downstream therefrom, the compressor also being operatively coupled to the condenser upstream therefrom. The refrigerant flow booster increases the flow of gaseous refrigerant to the compressor, in particular, when the compressor is operating at slower speeds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a vehicle air conditioning system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioning system that includes a refrigerant flow booster for increasing the flow of refrigerant to an air conditioning compressor.
2. Background Information
A typical automobile air conditioner includes a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve or orifice tube, and an evaporator. The compressor compresses a cool vapor-phase refrigerant (e.g., Freon, R134a) to heat the same, resulting in a hot, high-pressure vapor-phase refrigerant. This hot vapor-phase refrigerant runs through a condenser, typically a coil that dissipates heat. The condenser condenses the hot vapor-phase refrigerant into liquid refrigerant. The liquid refrigerant is throttled through an expansion valve, which evaporates the refrigerant to a cold, low-pressure saturated liquid-vapor-phase refrigerant. This cold saturated liquid-vapor-phase refrigerant runs through the evaporator, typically a coil that absorbs heat from the air fed to the passenger compartment.
The compressor is typically configured to operate at variable speeds, corresponding to the varying speeds of the power source within the vehicle. Often, the compressor is driven by the vehicle's engine. In stop and go traffic, a vehicle engine is often operating for extended periods of time at idling speed or close to idling speeds. Thus, sometimes the compressor operates at low speeds that correspond to the engine speed. At low speeds the compressor may not generate sufficient suction power at its inlet to draw in necessary amounts of gaseous refrigerant. As a result, the air conditioning system may not operate optimally.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need in a vehicle air conditioning system for improved gaseous refrigerant flow into the inlet of the compressor under certain operating conditions. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Nissan Technical Center North America, Inc.


Sulfated bis-cyclic compounds that are potent anticoagulants and methods for their manufacture are provided. The sulfated compounds are bis-cyclic moieties comprised of an isoquinoline ring joined to a phenyl ring with the general chemical structure formula (I) where R2 is hydrogen or a sulfate moiety, R3 is either hydrogen or carboxylate moiety; R4 is a hydrogen or oxygen; and R5 is a hydrogen if R4 is a hydrogen, and is absent if R4 is oxygen. Counterions such as sodium may also be coordinated to the sulfate and carboxylate moieties.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to anticoagulants. More particularly, the invention provides sulfated bis-cyclic compounds that mimic the anticoagulant function of heparin.
2. Background Description
Heparin is widely used as an anticoagulant in the treatment of conditions requiring such an agent, e.g. as a "blood thinner" prior to invasive cardiac surgical procedures. Heparin is a linear co-polymer composed of alternating glucosamine and uronic acid residues. A heparin chain may contain anywhere from ˜10 to ˜80 of these saccharide residues, thus making a typical heparin preparation polydisperse. Further, these saccharide residues may be sulfated at various positions, thus making a typical heparin chain heterogeneous.
Commercially available heparin is a natural product obtained from either bovine or porcine sources (1). A commercial heparin preparation is thus a mixture of numerous polysaccharide species of different chain lengths and sulfate group distributions. Low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWH) have been prepared from the natural product through both enzymatic and chemical means. These heparins are preparations in which the average molecular weight of the parent polysaccharide has been selectively reduced from ˜14,000 to ˜5,000. However, LMWHs are still heterogenous and polydisperse. Further, while LMWH are in general structurally similar to parent heparin, they may contain chemical changes introduced by the method of preparation.
Thus, one drawback in the use of heparin or LMWH for clinical purposes is that, due to their inherent polydisperse and heterogeneous nature, commercial preparations for clinical administration are relatively ill-defined. As a result, attempts have been made to design and produce heparin replacements with defined compositions. For example, a specific pentasaccharide that mimics the action of heparin and LMWH is available. This pentasaccharide is a linear molecule consisting of 1→4 linked glucoamine and uronic acid residues that are sulfated at specific points. The pentasaccharide is obtained through chemical synthesis (2). Unfortunately, the synthesis of the pentasaccharide is a multi-step, intricate and low-yielding procedure. Similarly, small, non-sugar molecules that partially mimic the anticoagulant action of heparin have been described in the literature. These molecules belong to either the flavan or the flavone series of structures, and are sulfated flavan or flavone derivatives (3). However, these products also fail to exhibit the highly efficient anticoagulant properties of heparin (4).
The prior art has heretofore failed to provide an anticoagulant of defined composition that is as effective as heparin and conveniently obtained. There is thus an ongoing need to develop such alternative anticoagulant agents.


Gate lines including a lower Al—Nd layer and an upper MoW layer, data lines including a MoW layer, and pixel electrodes including an IZO layer are patterned using a single etchant. The etchant contains a phosphoric acid of about 50-60%, a nitric acid of about 6-10%, an acetic acid of about 15-25%, a stabilizer of about 2-5% stabilizer, and deionized water. The stabilizer includes oxy-hydride inorganic acid represented by M(OH)XLY, where M includes at least one of Zn, Sn, Cr, Al, Ba, Fe, Ti, Si and B, L includes at least one of H2O, NH3, CN and NH2R (where R is alkyl group), X is 2 or 3, and Y is 0, 1, 2 or 3.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an etchant for a signal wire and a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor array panel using an etchant.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used flat panel displays. An LCD includes two panels provided with field-generating electrodes and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which determines orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust polarization of incident light.
Among LCDs including field-generating electrodes on respective panels, a kind of LCDs provides a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged in a matrix at one panel and a common electrode covering an entire surface of the other panel. The image display of the LCD is accomplished by applying individual voltages to the respective pixel electrodes. For the application of the individual voltages, a plurality of three-terminal thin film transistors (TFTs) are connected to the respective pixel electrodes, and a plurality of gate lines transmitting signals for controlling the TFTs and a plurality of data lines transmitting voltages to be applied to the pixel electrodes are provided on the panel.
The panel for an LCD has a layered structure including several conductive layers and several insulating layers. The gate lines, the data lines, and the pixel electrodes are made from different conductive layers (referred to as "gate conductor," "data conductor," and "pixel conductor" hereinafter) preferably deposited in sequence and separated by insulating layers. A TFT includes three electrodes: a gate electrode made from the gate conductor and source and drain electrodes made from the data conductor. The source electrode and the drain electrode are connected by a semiconductor usually located thereunder, and the drain electrode is connected to the pixel electrode through a hole in an insulating layer.
The gate conductor and the data conductor are preferably made of Al containing metal such as Al and Al alloy having low resistivity for reducing the signal delay in the gate lines and the data lines. The data conductor also includes a refractory metal for good contact with the semiconductor. The pixel electrodes are usually made of transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide (ITO) for both the field generation upon voltage application and the light transmission.
In the meantime, the conductors are patterned by dry etching or wet etching with an etchant. An etchant for patterning dual layers of Al (or Al—Nd alloy) and Mo is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2001-75932, an etchant for patterning triple layers of Mo, Al (or Al—Nd alloy), and Mo is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication Ser. No. 2001-91799, and an etchant for patterning a layer of ITO is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication Ser. No. 2002-33025.
Since different layers are etched using different etching conditions, the manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacturing cost is expensive.

Etchant for signal wire and method of manufacturing thin film transistor array panel using etchant


Contact-less remote-sensing crack detection and/quantification methodologies are described, which are based on three-dimensional (3D) scene reconstruction, image processing, and pattern recognition. The systems and methodologies can utilize depth perception for detecting and/or quantifying cracks. These methodologies can provide the ability to analyze images captured from any distance and using any focal length or resolution. This adaptive feature may be especially useful for incorporation into mobile systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or mobile autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic systems such as wheel-based or track-based radio controlled robots, as utilizing such structural inspection methods onto those mobile platforms may allow inaccessible regions to be properly inspected for cracks.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to image processing and pattern cognition in general, and in particular to image-based crack detection and quantification.
2. Description Of Related Art
Visual inspection of structures is a highly qualitative method in which inspectors visually assess a structure's condition. If a region is inaccessible, typically, optical devices such as binoculars must be used to detect and characterize defects. Although several Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods have been proposed for inspection purposes, they are nonadaptive and cannot quantify crack thickness reliably.


A cable management system includes an equipment system, and at least one patch panel having a connectivity interface. The connectivity interface is configured to connect with at least one cable extending from the equipment system. The cable management system also includes a manifold configured to be located between the equipment system and the patch panel. The manifold includes an inlet and an outlet, and the manifold is configured to direct the at least one cable from the equipment system to the connectivity interface.

The present invention generally relates to a cable management system for interconnecting electronics or fiber optic cables and more specifically to a cable management system for connecting an equipment system to multiple patch panels.
Numerous cable management systems exist today and are used in various electronics equipment applications, such as telecommunications, data transmission, networking, video and the like. Typically, to install a cable management system, a frame is securely mounted to the floor within the room in which the system is to be maintained. Multiple patch panels or boxes are then secured to the frame in a stacked arrangement. Each patch panel includes multiple connector ports (e.g. RJ45 connector ports) along the front face thereof. Each connector port is adapted to receive a plug on a mating cable that conveys a single data stream, such as for an individual user and the like, or multiple data streams.
Additionally, each patch panel includes connector modules electrically coupled to the connector ports and configured to receive a mating cable from an equipment panels by a trunk cable. At the switching network, the trunk cables are connected to switch blades located within a switching network housing. In known cable management systems, the trunk cables extend to either side of the switching network housing and are then brought up either side of the frame before being connected to the corresponding patch panels. In doing so, the trunk cables do not interfere with the front face of the patch panels where the mating cables interface with the connector ports of the patch panels, but the trunk cables do increase the overall footprint of the system. Additionally, as the number of cables increases, heretofore, wire managers have been widened laterally relative to the patch panels or constructed deeper (i.e. in the direction transverse to the front face of the patch panels) thereby increasing the overall footprint of the system.
One problem associated with these known systems is that cable management systems are reaching the size limits afforded by certain standards and/or by physical constraints of rooms and environments in which they are mounted. Specifically, as the capacity of the cable management system increases, the number of individual cables similarly increases, and the cable mass is becoming prohibitive.
In at least some other known cable management systems, the trunk cables extend over the top of the frame prior to being connected to the corresponding patch panel. A problem associated with these known systems is that the routing of the trunk cables around the sides, and over the top of the frame leads to a larger cable mass. A larger cable mass causes additional heat and limits the amount of open space for the movement of air, thus decreasing the efficiency of the cable management system. Yet another problem associated with these known systems is that the trunk cables tend to interfere with the fans provided to cool the switching network. As such, the switching network may be subject to overheating.
A need remains for an improved cable management system having a more space efficient geometry.


The present invention relates to a pulse Doppler radar wherein the phase position of the reflected signals is evaluated as the most important component in addition to the amplitude. Thus a very good resolution results in the range direction and in the velocity direction for the detection of multiple target situations. The invention can be employed particularly for a so-called HPRF radar.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a method for distinguishing between at least two targets with the aid of a pulse Doppler radar, with the radar signals reflected from at least one target being evaluated with respect to their distance direction and/or their velocity direction whereupon a conclusion is drawn as to the existence of one or a plurality of targets.
2. Background Information
The term pulse Doppler radar employed in this application also includes the terms pulse Doppler radar system and pulse Doppler radar device.
A pulse Doppler radar can be constructed in a space-saving, compact manner. It is therefore usable in many ways as a socalled on-board radar in land vehicles and aircraft. For such uses it is desirable to have a transmit/receive antenna which has the smallest possible surface area (aperture). However, such a system is able only to accurately determine either the distance or the velocity of a target, for example a land vehicle or an aircraft. If distance and velocity of a target are to be determined simultaneously, this is possible only at the expense of the otherwise attainable maximum accuracies. These facts correspond to the determination that, if the distance and velocity of a target are determined simultaneously with the aid of a pulse Doppler radar, the resolution of the latter in the distance direction and in the velocity direction is reduced with respect to corresponding individual measurements. Therefore, resolution limits exist in the distance direction and in the velocity direction below which multiple targets cannot be discovered. The resolution limit in the distance direction or in the velocity direction is characterized in that, with a certain probability, two targets at the same Doppler velocity can be distinguished separately in the distance direction or, at the same distance, in the velocity direction.
The most important values for the resolution limits of a pulse Doppler radar are, among others, the pulse repetition frequency PRF, the length of the Fast Fourier transform N.sub.FFT employed, the sampling time T.sub.a and the length of the transmitted pulse T.sub.rx. With presently customary methods, for example, the so-called "valley sensing" method, in which a relative minimum between two maxima is located in the signal characteristic as the resolution criterion, resolution values are obtained with a probability of 50% which correspond approximately to 1.5 to 2 times the quantization steps in the measurement scale. In these methods, only the amplitude of the signal characteristic is employed to resolve two targets.

Method for distinguishing between at least two targets


An embodiment may include an apparatus comprising a controller for a display system, a first look up table containing data for the controller to operate the display system, and a second look up table with data that is offset from the first look up table data to preserve memory space in the controller. An embodiment may be a method comprising storing color data in a first look up table, storing color data in at least one offset look up table, the at least one offset look up table using offset values from the first look up table, and controlling a display with the first look up table and the at least one offset look up table.

Display technologies are rapidly evolving. Improvements in integrated circuit manufacturing, higher levels of transistor integration, general display device improvements, interface advances, etc., place considerable demands on video display control circuitry. Liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturers conventionally use look-up-tables (LUT) to link index numbers to output values and replace runtime computation with simpler lookup operations. For example, LUTs may quickly provide information to compensate for delays caused in changing liquid crystal (LC) modes. Unfortunately, many factors may change and necessitate additional LUTs. Changes in temperature, in each color, in frame frequency, in display size, and in resolution may all require different LUTs and therefore use a considerable amount of memory.
For instance, temperature variations may affect LC driving response time. A typical LCD operating range is 0 to 55 degrees Celsius. Different LUT values can be used to compensate for these variations, for example, different LUT values at 5 degree increments. In the present example, 12 different LUTs spaced at 5 degree intervals will cover a 55 degree temperature range. Other variations may require different LUTs. As examples, LUTs may differ for each red, green, and blue (RGB) color and for different frame frequencies such as 50 Hz, 60 Hz, 75 Hz, etc.
Active matrix LCDs present additional challenges for LUTs use since optical characteristics are determined by various factors including: the LC material, different LC modes, thin film transistor (TFT) requirements, and manufacturing and driving methods. These variations complicate LUT use and increase LUT requirements.
Furthermore, LUTs may be differentiated by color depth. For example, an 8 bit color depth for RGB data equates to 256 levels of gray scale. Therefore an LUT with 8 bit data can implement 256 levels of gray scale. Color may be compensated with expanded color coordinates, dithering and frame rate control (FRC) to allow 8 bit data to perform like 9 bit data.
To properly implement LUTs with the above constraints, that is, 12 temperature variations, 3 independent color components such as RGB, and 4 frame frequencies, requires 144 independent LUTs. Additionally, a typical LUT may comprise many values, for example 256 source grays, 256 compensated grays, and 8 bits.
For these reasons, LCD manufacturers reduce basic LUT dimensions. An example LUT size reduction uses 16 source grays, 16 compensated grays, and is in 8 bit format, resulting in 2048 bits. Even after LUT size reduction, many LUTs are needed. LCD manufacturers may reduce the number of LUTs by optimizing LCD characteristics. Accordingly, a need remains for improve LUT efficiency.

Boost look up table compression system and method


In a similarity vector detecting apparatus (2), vector transform units (20), (21) implement transform by sequential matrix, Discrete Cosine Transform, Discrete Fourier Transform, Walsh-Hadamard Transform, or Karhunen-Lueve Transform to registered vector g and input vector f. A hierarchical distance calculating unit (23) performs, in a hierarchical manner, distance calculation between two vectors in order from vector component having high significance, i.e., component having large dispersion or eigen value in the above-described transform operations, or from low frequency component. Further, in the case where it is judged at a threshold value judgment unit (24) that integrated value of distances calculated up to a certain hierarchy is above threshold value S of distance, only output indicating that the integrated value is above the threshold value S is provided to truncate distance calculation.

Hitherto, in order to detect a pattern which is substantially the same as an already known pattern from an unknown input signal, or to evaluate similarity between two signals, judgment of similarity or coincidence of data is conducted in all technical fields to which signal processing is related, such as acoustic processing technology, image processing technology, communication technology, and/or radar technology, etc. In general, in order to detect analogous data, a known technique features data as vectors to judge similarity by magnitude of the distance or angle (correlation) thereof.
Particularly, the so-called full search in which similarities between input value and all respective candidates are determined thereafter to determine data where the distance is the shortest is a technology which is simple and has no detection leakage, and is frequently used in the case where data quantity is small. However, e.g., in the case where the portion similar to input image or input voice (sound) is retrieved from a large quantity of accumulated images or voices (sounds), since the dimension of the feature vector per second is large and retrieval with respect to those feature vectors which have been accumulated by ten to several hundred hours is conducted, there is the problem that retrieval time becomes vast when such a simple full search is performed.
On the other hand, in order to retrieve a large quantity of data, in such cases that complete simultaneous retrieval of coded data, e.g., document retrieval is conducted, high speed operation technology such as binary tree search or Hash method is used. In accordance with this technology, data are stored in advance in the state where they are put in order, to omit comparison of branch or table different from input data at the time of retrieval to thereby realize high speed operation. However, in the case where physical signal, e.g., image or sound, etc. is taken as subject, since distortion and/or noise essentially exist in data, it is rare that coded data completely coincide with each other. As a result, in the case where high speed operation technology is used, a large number of detection leakages would take place. In addition, since data is essentially multi-dimensional, there is the problem that it is difficult to implement in advance univocal sequencing to data.
In view of the above, there is proposed, in the Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. H08-123460, a technology in which a process for grouping plural vectors close in distance to represent the grouped vectors by one representative vector is performed at the time of data registration to first calculate distance between input vector and representative vector at the time of retrieval to conduct comparison with all vectors within group only with respect to vectors of the group close in distance to thereby permit similar (analogous) vector retrieval to be performed at high speed, and to have ability to reflect distortion of vector at multi-dimension.
Further, there is proposed, in the Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. 2001-134573, a technology in which vectors are encoded to index them by short code to thereby suppress increase in the number of times of distance calculations to permit high speed similar (analogous) data retrieval.
However, in the technology described in the above-described Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. H08-123460, there was the problem that suitable grouping and selection of representative vector are required at the time of registration so that the registration operation becomes troublesome. Moreover, there was also the problem that since it is not limited at the time of retrieval that, e.g., registered vector which is least distant with respect to input vector belongs to group in which representative vector which is least distant with respect to input vector represents, operation for determining group to be retrieved becomes troublesome.
Further, in the technology described in the above-described Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. 2001-134573, there was the problem that distance relationship between vectors is lost when encoding is performed, or the results in complicated distance relationship in non-additive or non-monotonous manner so that mechanism of registration and/or retrieval becomes troublesome.
Here, since image and/or sound are essentially time-series, it is desirable that registration is conducted on the real time basis, and it is desirable that time order can be reflected at the time of retrieval. In other words, there are instances where such techniques which require registration operation to exchange time-series, and/or which require redistribution (reshuffle) with respect to data or index of already registered data at the time of registration as in the case of the technology described in the above-described Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. H08-123460 and Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open No. 2001-134573 are not suitable for retrieval of time-series data.
That is, there is desired such a mechanism that retrieval is performed in a time extremely shorter than that at full search while satisfying the conditions where                (a) structural simplicity and robustness with respect to distortion of full search are not lost,        (b) registration and/or deletion are conducted within real time, and        (c) operation with respect to other already registered data is not required by registration or deletion.

Similarity calculation method and device


A system for providing information for a process, and a method to utilize such system are provided. In particular, a controller is communicatively coupled to at least one smart field device using an open smart communications protocol, and a server is communicatively coupled to the controller. The server is adapted to receive data associated with the smart field device from the controller. The server may transmit the data in a HTML format, or an at least one image which was generated based on the data. For example, the system further may include a computer system, and the server may transmit the data or the image of the data to such computer system. The computer system may also display the data in the HTML format, and/or the image of the data.

Conventional process control systems may include a plurality of smart field devices positioned at various locations on a network. The smart field devices may include a processor, and can be temperature sensors, pressure sensors, flow rate sensors, valves, switches, etc., or combinations thereof. The smart field devices may be communicatively coupled to each other using an open smart communications protocol. Such open smart communications protocols may include HART®, PROFIBUS®, FOUNDATION® Fieldbus, etc. These open smart communications protocols may enable the smart field devices that are manufactured by different manufactures to be used together in the same system. These conventional systems also may include a controller communicatively coupled to each of the smart field devices using the open smart communications protocol, and a server communicatively coupled to the controller using, for example, an Ethernet connection. Moreover the controller may include a processor, and can receive data from each of the smart field devices.
In operation, each smart field device may perform a function within the control process. For example, a temperature sensor may measure a temperature of a liquid, a pressure sensor may measure pressure within a container, a flow rate sensor may measure a flow rate of the liquid, etc. Similarly, valves and switches may open to provide or increase the flow rate of the liquid, or can close to stop the flow of the liquid or to decrease the flow rate of the liquid. After the smart field devices obtain measurements of various process parameters, or after the smart field devices open or close the valves or switches, the smart field devices may communicate with the controller. For example, the smart field devices may forward the data to the controller, and the controller can implement a control procedure based on the received data.
Moreover, the controller may forward the data to a server, which may store the data in a database in a particular format, e.g., a JAVA format, an Active X format, etc. Subsequently, a computer system may access the database to retrieve the data, and also downloads an appropriate software program, e.g., JAVA applet, Active X applet, etc., to allow the user of the computer system to view the data. After the computer system receives the data and downloads the appropriate software program, the computer system may display such data in the particular format, e.g., JAVA format, Active X format, etc.
However, when the computer system downloads the software program, the computer system may be exposed to computer executable viruses which can be activated or obtained during such software downloads. Moreover, when the computer system is a slower or older computer system, downloading such software may take more than a desired or acceptable amount of time. Further, because the computer system accesses the database, the computer system may have access to proprietary information, which can be obtained by an unauthorized user.

System and method for providing information in a particular format


MIDI settings indicating a musical part of a show are used to control a lighting effect associated with the show. Events within the music, such as a specified chord, can be used to trigger a certain MIDI effect. The collection of MIDI settings can also be used to determine the current song being played.

Many modern musical instruments include the facility to communicate using music production messages. MIDI is a commonly used music production message. However, other protocols including serial format, Firewire (.TM.) and others may be used for transmission of such messages.
Many musical instruments produce MIDI messages which are communicated on a MIDI cable. These MIDI messages include information indicative of the musical production: including, but not limited to, pitch, length of time of the note, fermata, tone, and the like.
This MIDI information has been produced by the devices producing the music. MIDI has been used as a control for synthesizers and other electronically-controllable musical instruments. One common use of MIDI signals is to control a synthesizer based on musical information output by a musical instrument, e.g. guitar, for example. MIDI has also been used to produce music, e.g computer-generated music where the musical instrument is a computer.
The lighting effect in a musical performance is often an important part of the effect of the performance. The performer choreographs and presents the performance. However, the performer is often too busy to interact with the lighting effect during the performance. It is believed by the inventors that many performers would be interested in controlling and/or synchronizing certain aspects of the performance.
The present invention allows operations from the stage, which operations are part of the performer's usual performance sequence, to control some aspects of the non-musical part of the show, e.g., the lighting operation.
The non-musical production of the show has traditionally been non-MIDI based. One common controlling format is DMX-512 ("DMX"), which time division-multiplexes a number of signals on a common cable. DMX-controlled accessories, such as light shows, curtain raise and drop, and other stage accompaniments to the musical program, have often been manually controlled by an operator. The control is based on events that transpire on the stage.
The inventors of the present invention have recognized that the MIDI information that is produced by the sound part of the show can also be used to control other parts of the show. The production information from the stage can be used as a basis and synchronization cue to make complex decisions about the progression of the parts of the show that have traditionally been non-MIDI based: e.g., manual controls of the time when a lighting effect is started.
In recognition of this capability, it is an object of the present invention to use the MIDI data which has been traditionally used to control some musical aspect of the show, to control certain actions related to the non-musical progression of the show. The preferred embodiment uses instrument monitoring information, e.g., MIDI information, to control aspects of stage lighting for the show. These decisions can include, but are not limited to, synchronization of certain aspects of the lighting effect from the show with MIDI events.
In a preferred embodiment, a show is formed randomly--e.g., a number of songs form the show; but there is no predefined order to the songs. The performers on the stage decide the order of the show.
Each song has its own unique accompaniment which is carried out by the stage lighting operation. The operator controls this accompaniment with a complicated sequence of lighting effects. However, the operator has no idea in advance what song will be played. This has caused practical problems for an operator, e.g., an operator of a light show.
One aspect of this invention uses the computer to investigate MIDI settings to determine a pattern of MIDI settings which suggests which song is going to be played. Various aspects of this operation are used herein. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the group of MIDI settings are compared against a table listing all possible MIDI settings for all songs. When the lists are in agreement by a certain percentage, a decision is made that the entry in the list corresponds to the current song being played. This allows automated detection of the song being played.
The inventor also recognized that it was important to allow some leeway for discrepancies, since it is desirable to recognize the song as quickly as possible. Also, the operators may themselves make mistakes in their MIDI settings. Therefore, another aspect of this system is to allow a fuzzy logic-like determination.
Another desirable feature is to allow some aspect of the light show to be synchronized with some aspect of the musical program. This could be done by manually synchronizing light operation with the musical operation. However, manual synchronization is imprecise, and also requires that the operator very carefully pay attention to the musical program. This interferes with the operator's attention to other duties that may require the operator's attention.
In view of the above, the present invention provides an automated computer system which can carry out this automatic synchronization. According to this aspect of the present invention, a data stream that includes information indicative of the musical program is investigated to determine musical events. Those musical events are used to synchronize some aspect of the non-musical events with the musical events. In a preferred embodiment, notes produced by the instrument produce corresponding MIDI values indicative thereof. Detection of instances in the MIDI stream enables detection of an item in a sequence. In a particularly preferred embodiment, for example, a MIDI value is used to increment the operation to the next cue in a chase.
Another improvement was based on the inventor's recognition that only a part of the MIDI note stream represents the desired synchronization part. Another aspect uses a special filter to determine parts of the MIDI stream to which the operations should be synchronized. This filter looks for a predetermined pattern of MIDI information indicating a predetermined part of the show, and does not initiate an operation until that pattern is received.


A playback apparatus for precisely reflecting attribute information such as copyright information even in a special playback mode, such as reverse slow playback, fast playback and reverse playback. Encoded presentation data such as a video and audio is separated by a stream analysis section, is decoded by a decoder and is outputted by an output control section. Attribute information such as copyright information and a presentation time which corresponds to this attribute information are extracted by a copyright-information acquisition section, and a table in which these are recorded is created by a copyright-information management section. Then, at a specific time which is indicated by the presentation time that is recorded in the table, the attribute information which corresponds to the presentation time is reflected in an output of the presentation data by a playback-mode control section and the output control section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a playback apparatus which is suitably used for a usage form in which contents, including video, audio or the like, are read from a record medium where those contents are recorded, and then, the original video, audio (such as music) or data is restored or transmitted to another piece of equipment or a network. It also relates to a playback method and a program product wherein a playback processing program is held by a signal holding medium, which are suitably used for the same usage form.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a playback art has been known which has the function of regenerating contents as well as copyright information and restricting the use of the contents. As such a playback art, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-112210 specification describes an additional-information embedding apparatus. In that conventional apparatus, additional information is embedded in a video signal. As a more general art, an apparatus or a method has been known in which additional information is embedded in a data part except a video signal. As an example of such an art, there is a hard-disk drive playback apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as the "HDD playback apparatus") whose main configuration is shown in FIG. 16.
An HDD playback apparatus 900 plays contents which includes a stream and management information. The stream includes a packet group which is obtained by multiplexing a video, audio, or attribute information. The management information is copyright information on the entire stream or information on its configuration. The packet includes a packet header, and a payload which carries a video, audio, data, a caption, or attribute information. The packet header includes information on multiplexing, or the like. It often includes copyright information. In the video, there is included, for example, MPEG2-video, MPEG4-video, or the like. MPEG2-AAC or the like is included in the audio. In the attribute information, there is included, for example, information such as copyright information which is included in a PMT (or program map table) that is defined in a MPEG2-TS, a PAT (or program association table), a SIT (or selection information table), or the like.
The copyright information is information which decides whether or not a permission to make a copy, such as stream recording, should be given. In short, it is information which defines restrictions on copying. For example, there are CopyFree, CopyOnce, and the like. The CopyFree indicates that stream recording can be freely made, and the CopyOnce indicates that stream recording can be made only once. Except for such information, there are also known CopyNoMore which indicates that no more stream recording can be made, CopyNever which indicates that stream recording can never be made, or the like.
The HDD playback apparatus 900 shown in FIG. 16 includes: a playback-mode control section 912; a reading control section 914; a management-information control section 916; a transfer control section 918; a decoder control section 920; a record medium 922; a temporary-storage memory 924; a stream analysis section 926; a decoder 928; and an output control section 930. The record medium 922 is used to record contents. When contents are recorded in the record medium 922, or when they are read from the record medium 922 and played, both a stream and management information are recorded and played. In further detail, when contents are recorded in the record medium 922, the management-information control section 916 generates management information, based on various kinds of information which are included in a stream. Then, it records the management information in the record medium 922. On the other hand, when contents are read from the record medium 922, a stream is read out to the temporary-storage memory 924 by the reading control section 914, and management information is read out to the management-information control section 916 by the reading control section 914.
The HDD playback apparatus 900 plays, in various modes, contents which are recorded in the record medium 922. The playback mode is controlled by the playback-mode control section 912. As the playback mode, there is, for example, a normal playback, a double-speed playback, a quadruple-speed playback, a half-speed playback, a reverse playback, a double-speed reverse playback, a quadruple-speed reverse playback, a half-speed reverse playback, a normal playback or a reverse playback at another speed, or the like.
According to the control by the playback-mode control section 912, the reading control section 914 reads the stream which is recorded in the record medium 922. Then, it stores the stream in the temporary-storage memory 924. For example, at the time of the quadruple-speed playback, the reading control section 914 needs to read the stream at quarter the cycle of the normal playback from the record medium 922 and store it in the reading control section 914. In contrast, for example, at the time of the half-speed playback, the reading control section 914 reads the stream at double the interval of the normal playback from the record medium 922 and stores it in the reading control section 914. According to the control by the playback-mode control section 912, the transfer control section 918 reads the stream which is stored in the temporary-storage memory 924. Then, it sends the stream to the stream analysis section 926.
According to the control by the transfer control section 918, the stream analysis section 926 analyzes the contents of the stream which has been sent from the temporary-storage memory 924. At the lower part of FIG. 16, an example is shown of a part of the stream which is analyzed by this stream analysis section 926. This example shows only a video stream which is included in the stream. Besides, it shows only the fourth and the fifth of a GOP (or group of picture) which is compressed and encoded in an MPEG2 format.
In order to make this description simpler, let's assume that an I-picture, a B-picture and a P-picture are included in each GOP, as shown in the figure. In the stream, copyright information is encoded, simultaneously with the video stream shown in the figure. In the figure, such information is shown under each GOP of the video stream. In the example of the figure, the copyright information from the I-picture of the fourth GOP up to the fifth picture (i.e., the third B-picture) is "A". On the other hand, the copyright information on the sixth picture and the following picture and all the pictures of the fifth GOP is "B". Herein, for example, the copyright information "A" represents the "CopyOnce", while the copyright information "B" represents the "CopyNoMore". According to the control by the transfer control section 918, the stream analysis section 926 reads, from the temporary-storage memory 924, such a stream which includes the video stream and the copyright information as shown in FIG. 16. Then, it analyzes its contents.
The copyright information which has been analyzed by the stream analysis section 926 is sent to the transfer control section 918. The transfer control section 918 refers to the copyright information which has been analyzed and extracted by the stream analysis section 926. It also refers to the management information which is stored in the management-information control section 916 or copyright information on all the contents which are recorded and managed separately from a video stream, another piece of control information, or the like. Thereby, it creates output control information on this stream.
For example, let's assume that the copyright information which has been encoded at the same time with the video stream is "A" and this "A" represents the "CopyOnce", and that the present playback mode which is controlled by the playback-mode control section 912 is a normal playback mode. In that case, this stream needs to be overlaid with the copyright information of "CopyNoMore" and outputted from the output control section 930. On the other hand, for example, let's assume that the copyright information which has been encoded at the same time with the video stream is "B" and this "B" represents the "CopyNoMore". Then, for example, if the present playback mode which is controlled by the playback-mode control section 912 is the normal playback mode, this stream needs to be overlaid with the copyright information of "CopyNever" and outputted from the output control section 930.
For example, let's assume that the copyright information which has been encoded at the same time with the video stream is "A" and this "A" represents the "CopyOnce", and that the present playback mode which is controlled by the playback-mode control section 912 is the normal playback mode. Even in such a case, if the copyright information on all the contents which are recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916 represents, for example, the "CopyNoMore", then this stream needs to be overlaid with the copyright information of "CopyNever" and outputted from the output control section 930.
Therefore, if there are both the copyright information which has been encoded at the same time with the video stream and the copyright information on all the contents which are recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916, the transfer control section 918 compares both. Then, it extracts stricter copyright information, and as information for output control (hereinafter, referred to as the "output-control information"), sends it to the playback-mode control section 912. On the other hand, if there is only either of the copyright information which is encoded in the video stream and the copyright information on all the contents which are recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916, there is no need to refer to both. Thus, the transfer control section 918 sends either of the two pieces of copyright information as the output-control information to the playback-mode control section 912. Furthermore, if there is neither of the copyright information which is encoded in the video stream and the copyright information on all the contents which are recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916, the transfer control section 918 makes an output free and sends information to that effect to the playback-mode control section 912.
In addition to the copyright information, if some attribute information which may restrict the use of the contents is encoded and included in the video stream, or recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916, the transfer control section 918 refers to all these pieces of information. Then, it compares and considers them, extracts the strictest condition as the output-control information, and sends it to the playback-mode control section 912. In contrast, depending upon the setting of the transfer control section 918, the transfer control section 918 can extract, for example, the most lenient condition as the output-control information and send it to the playback-mode control section 912. Besides, it is also possible to set some reference, extract the output-control information and send it to the playback-mode control section 912.
Then, the playback-mode control section 912 accepts the output-control information from the transfer control section 918. Sequentially, it compares and considers its contents and the present playback state (e.g., which playback mode is in operation, and a copy or a move). Thereby, it executes output control of this stream in the output control section 930. The operation of the playback-mode control section 912 will be described later in connection with the operation of the output control section 930.
Then, the transfer control section 918 sends the video stream from the temporary-storage memory 924 to the stream analysis section 926. It is sent in the sending timing which corresponds to each playback mode, for example, the double-speed playback, the quadruple-speed playback, the half-speed playback, or the like, or in the sending order of a GOP which corresponds to the reverse playback. For example, at the time of the reverse playback, the transfer control section 918 sends the GOP in reverse numerical order. Then, the stream analysis section 926 executes a stream analysis. According to the order which is applied to each playback mode, it sends each GOP to the decoder 928. Among the streams which have been read out to the temporary-storage memory 924, attribute information is to be analyzed in the stream analysis section 926. On the other hand, presentation data such as a video and an audio is sent to the decoder 928, and then, it is to be decoded.
The playback-mode control section 912 executes control so that the decoder control section 920 controls decoding by the decoder 928. According to the control by the decoder control section 920, the decoder 928 decodes the video stream which has been sent from the stream analysis section 926. The decoding by the decoder 928 differs in each encoding format, for example, an MPEG2, an MPEG4 or another format. In the example of FIG. 16, an MPEG2 is assumed. The stream which has been decoded by the decoder 928 is sent to the output control section 930, and then, it is to undergo output control.
As described already, for example, the final output-control information is created by the transfer control section 918 from: (a) copyright information which is encoded in a video stream, (b) copyright information on all contents which are recorded and stored in the management-information control section 916, or (c) information for controlling an output of some stream other than copyright information. Then, that information is sent to the playback-mode control section 912. Next, the playback-mode control section 912 compares and considers the information which has been sent from the transfer control section 918 and the present playback state which is managed by the playback-mode control section 912 itself. As a result, it overlays a stream to be outputted with each piece of copyright information, for example, "CopyNever", "CopyOnce", "CopyNoMore", or the like. and outputted from the output control section 930. Then, it allows the output control section 930 to output the stream.
As described above, based on copyright information on contents which are recorded in the record medium 922, the conventional HDD playback apparatus 900 plays a stream in the contents and executes output control for using the stream.
However, in the conventional HDD playback apparatus 900, it is the stream analysis section 926 that analyzes copyright information which is encoded in a video stream. In the transfer control section 918, the copyright information which has been analyzed and extracted by this stream analysis section 926 is collated with another piece of copyright information, or each of various pieces of information which relate to output control. Then, the final output-control information is created. Sequentially, that information is sent to the playback-mode control section 912. In the playback-mode control section 912, it is compared with the present playback state (e.g., a copy, or not a copy but a move). As a result of the comparison, the playback-mode control section 912 allows the output control section 930 to execute output control. This can easily cause temporal mismatching. Therefore, it will be difficult to reflect each picture or frame unit of copyright information which has been analyzed by the stream analysis section 926, precisely in a frame or picture unit, in output control by the output control section 930. This disadvantage is conspicuous in the case where the playback mode is a reverse playback (e.g., a playback which is referred to as a "reverse slow playback", and the like), or a normal or reverse fast playback which is executed by using only an I-picture.
For example, at the time of the reverse slow playback, a video stream which includes far more pictures than those of a video stream that is outputted from the output control section 930 is analyzed by the stream analysis section 926. Then, copyright information is extracted. Consequently, it is difficult to accurately decide which piece of copyright information is copyright information that corresponds to each picture of a video stream which is outputted from the output control section 930. In other words, it is more difficult to precisely extract output control which corresponds to each picture of a video stream which is outputted from the output control section 930 from copyright information on each picture, and executes the output control synchronously.
FIG. 17 shows a simplified example of the flow of the video stream and the copyright information at this time. FIG. 17 illustrates a case in which the reverse slow playback is executed at half the normal speed. In this example, first, the fourth GOP is requested by the transfer control section 918. Then, it is read from the temporary-storage memory 924 and sent to the stream analysis section 926. The stream analysis section 926 analyzes the sent stream and picks up copyright information. In addition, it sends video-stream data to the decoder 928.
Next, after double the processing cycle at the time of the normal playback elapses, the third GOP is sent from the temporary-storage memory 924 to the stream analysis section 926. However, in some cases, during a vacant period of time which is equivalent to one processing cycle of the normal playback, the following fifth GOP may be sent from the temporary-storage memory 924 to the stream analysis section 926. This fifth GOP is a GOP which does not require the reverse slow playback, and thus, it is not supposed to be outputted from the decoder 928. But the stream analysis section 926 often picks up copyright information and sends it the transfer control section 918.
Therefore, as shown in the right-hand end of FIG. 17, the flow of the detected copyright information is A-B-C-D-A-B-E-D-A. However, the video to be actually played is a video which is obtained by arranging each picture of each GOP from the fourth to the second in their reverse order. Hence, the copyright information on the stream to be played needs to be B-A-D-E. Nevertheless, the flow of the detected copyright information makes it extremely difficult to choose the necessary copyright information.
In contrast, for example, in the case where the fast playback is executed using only the I-picture, not the entire stream but only a part if the stream is frequently transferred from the temporary-storage memory 924 to the stream analysis section 926. This presents another disadvantage in that copyright information which is included in attribute information in a stream may not be transferred, so that the necessary copyright information cannot be detected.
In addition, since the decoder 928 has a limited storage capacity, in some cases, the whole GOP cannot be stored in the decoder 928, depending upon the data size of a GOP. In such a case, at the time of a general reverse playback including the reverse slow playback, in order for the decoder 928 to complete the decoding of the whole GOP, it has to repeatedly send the same GOP to the decoder 928. If there is a GOP to be sent in the temporary-storage memory 924, it may also be reused. On the other hand, unless there is such a GOP, it may also be read into the temporary-storage memory 924 and sent out. This causes the same copyright information to be repeatedly extracted from the same GOP. As a result, there is disadvantage in that the necessary copyright information cannot be properly selected.

Playback apparatus, playback method, and program product with playback processing program

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A stand-alone computer-camera system capable of extracting car-plate information. This is achieved by using an on-board computer in order to analyze the video stream recorded by the camera sensor, and can be used with any type of camera sensor. The system features specific characteristics making it extremely fast and able to catch plates of cars moving at high-speed. The special algorithms incorporated in this system, are specially implemented, in order to be able to be ported on an embedded computer system, which has usually lower capabilities in terms of processing power and memory than a general-purpose computer.

1. Field
An exemplary embodiment of this invention relates to the field of the detection of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems. More specifically an exemplary embodiment of the invention relates to a method and a system capable of extracting the location of the car number-plate from a series of 2-D images, using a device equipped with a camera of any kind.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many known devices that are able to detect the location of the number plate of a car and then recognize the plate-number producing at the output an alphanumeric text corresponding to the characters of the plate number.
There are many approaches for performing car-plate detection and recognition. Most of these systems are based on a Personal Computer to carry out the required processing tasks. In such systems a video digitizer samples the camera sensor and a PC, which runs the car-plate detection and recognition software, then processes the data. However these implementations are not easily portable, are bulky in size, require special power-supply and are difficult to install on site.
When ANPR systems are used for recognizing plates of moving cars in highway roads, another important characteristic is the recognition speed. In order to be able to catch fast-moving cars, the plate detector must be able to analyze very fast every frame in the video sequence. The detection speed depends on the algorithm and the processor speed. Today's common processors or even dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) devices are not able to deliver the required performance.

System and a method for the detection of multiple number-plates of moving cars in a series of 2-D images


An autoignition composition for the gas generator of a vehicle occupant restraint system that is thermally stable at temperatures up to 110.degree. C., autoignites between 150.degree. C. and 175.degree. C., produces minimal toxic gases upon combustion, provides for a reduced gas inflator size, and can be safely produced using simple processing methods. By mixing an alkali metal nitrite with a nitrogen-based fuel, the resulting gas generants autoignite at or below 175.degree. C. The addition of an alkaline earth metal nitrite or nitrate provides the stability needed to additionally function as a booster and/or a gas generant.

The present invention relates to autoignition compositions used in inflator bags of automobile passenger-restraint devices.
In the event of a fire during shipment of a passenger-restraint device, the potential rupture of the pressure vessel is a serious safety concern that has been addressed through utilization of an autoignition compound. When the gas inflator is exposed to fire, the autoignition compound is used to ignite the gas generant of the inflator, thereby preventing rupture and scattered fragmentation of the metallic pressure vessel. Several problems have become apparent when designing an autoignition compound. Although the prior art individually addresses the problems, no autoignition composition has yet provided a combined solution to the various design considerations.
Steel canisters are commonly used as the inflator pressure vessel in a passenger-restraint system because of the relatively high strength of steel at elevated temperatures. Given the emphasis on vehicle weight reduction, it is desirable that metals such as aluminum, and smaller or lighter steel vessels be utilized in the pressure vessel.
Engineering considerations require that vehicle operator restraint systems pass a "bonfire" test, wherein the inflator system is evaluated during exposure to fire. In the past, this has only been a concern for inflator canisters made of aluminum as the current steel pressure vessels routinely pass this test. Aluminum loses strength rapidly with increasing temperature, and may not be able to withstand the combination of increased ambient temperatures and excessive internal temperature and pressure generated upon combustion of the gas generant. An autoignition temperature of 175.degree. C. or less is considered autoignition temperature of 175.degree. C. or less is considered sufficient for the safe use of aluminum canisters.
Although steel pressure vessels do not lose strength as rapidly as aluminum vessels at temperatures above ambient, it is still necessary to ignite and burn the gas generant at a similar temperature due to the high internal pressures created by ignition of the gas generant at high temperatures. At temperatures above 110.degree. C., the possible melting of the fuel component(s) of a mixture as well as the rapid ignition of common gas generants will occur due to high temperatures. The inflator must be designed to maintain its structural integrity despite the high pressures produced by a rapidly burning gas generant. If the gas generant of the inflator can be made to autoignite at relatively low temperatures, for example, 150.degree. C. to 175.degree. C., then the pressure vessel can be made of a lightweight metal.
Another concern is that many nonazide gas generant compositions do not meet the gaseous effluent requirements met by current azide based inflators. The autoignition material, a fraction of the total gas generant, has been found to create excessive levels of undesirable gaseous effluents, particularly carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. If an autoignition composition can be developed that produces little or no noxious gases, then the nonazide autoignition compositions will conform more closely to the effluent levels currently achieved by azide fuels.
A further concern involves the industry drive to reduce the size of the inflator by eliminating or reducing the volume of its components. Most inflator systems are deployed by the combustion of a gas generant composition comprising a booster, an autoigniter, and a main gas generant charge. In the event of a collision, electrical initiation of a squib ignites the booster that in turn supplies sufficient energy to ignite the main gas generant charge thereby deploying the gas inflator.
Alternatively, in the absence of an accident, but in the event of a fire during shipment, a separate autoignition composition is placed in close proximity to the booster so that booster and deploying the gas inflator. The booster and autoigniter are separate auxiliary components to the main gas generant, and as such, prior compositions have not significantly contributed to the overall gas generated.
The use of separate booster and autoignition components is problematic for several reasons. Not only does this complicate the manufacturing process by including an additional sub-process and step, but the installation of a separate autoignition cup sub-assembly is also required. Furthermore, using separate autoignition and booster chemical compositions inhibits design flexibility and increases the gas inflator volume.
The hazardous and complicated nature of processing the generant compositions due to their inherent sensitivity to impact and shock presents yet another concern. Often, a component of the mixture is highly explosive leading to further processing precautions. If an autoignition composition were provided without these disadvantages, simplified processing methods such as dry grinding and pelletizing could be used.

Autoignition compositions for inflator gas generators


A water tank filter having a double structure including an inner filter having a small pore size for trapping fine particles of filth from tank water and situated within a hollow outer filter having a large pore size for trapping coarse particles of filth. The inner filter is situated in roughly the upper half of the internal space of the outer filter. Disclosed also is a water tank purifier including the water tank filter. The water tank filter and purifier can effectively remove both coarse and fine particles of filth from a water tank. The filter does not quickly get clogged, and is easy to handle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water tank purifier for circulating and filtering water in a water tank for goldfishes, tropical fishes, etc. to clean up filth, such as the feces of fishes, the remainder of their food and various germs. This invention relates also to a water tank filter used in a water tank purifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of water tank purifiers have hitherto been manufactured for removing filth from tank water by circulating it continuously through a filter casing containing a filter. One type of purifier has its filter casing installed in a water tank. This type of purifier relies upon a rising water stream produced by bubbles rising from a bubble generator in the tank, or upon a motor pump for causing water in the tank to flow into the filter casing. Another type of purifier has its filter casing installed outside (for example, above) the water tank. This type of purifier relies upon a water drawing pipe having a motor pump for drawing up tank water into the filter casing.
Japanese Patent Office Official Gazette JP-A-2003-96 describes a water tank filtering apparatus having a filter casing installed in a water tank and relying upon a rising water stream produced by bubbles rising from a separately installed bubble generator to cause water in the tank to flow into the filter casing.
Referring in further detail to the water tank filtering apparatus mentioned above, it has a water suction and guide passage (19) opening in the lower portion of the filter casing and an upper water suction hole (16) opening in the upper portion of the filter casing as suction ports for introducing tank water into the filter casing. Coarse pieces of filth settling at or near the bottom of the water tank, such as feces and remaining food, are drawn in through the water suction and guide passage (19). Fine pieces of filth not settling, but floating in the tank water, such as various germs and small fragments of filth (small fragments of feces and food), are drawn in through the upper water suction hole (16). The filter casing contains two layers of filter material, i.e. an upper layer (4a) and a lower layer (4b) of filter material, the upper layer (4a) being packed with such material as fine particles of activated carbon, while the lower layer (4b) is packed with such material as coarse particles of gravel. A rising water stream is produced by bubbles rising in an extension pipe (11) situated in the center of the filter casing, so that tank water is drawn in through the upper water suction hole (16) and the water suction and guide passage (19), is purified by passing through the upper and lower layers (4a) and (4b) of filter material successively, and is discharged through a pipe hole (11a).
The filth occurring in a water tank is generally a mixture of readily settling coarse pieces, such as the feces of fishes and remaining food, and readily floating fine pieces, such as various germs and small fragments of filth. It is necessary to remove both coarse and fine pieces of filth thoroughly in order to ensure both the beauty of a water tank and the health of the fishes kept therein.
The filter used in a common water tank purifier has a single pore size, as it uses only one kind of filter material. Therefore, it has been unsatisfactory in that (a) it allows fine particles of filth to pass through if the filter material has a large pore size, while (b) it is clogged with coarse pieces of filth in a short time and has to be changed frequently if the filter material has a small pore size.
The water tank filtering apparatus described in Official Gazette JP-A-2003-96 has two layers of filter material, i.e. a lower layer (4a) of filter material for removing coarse pieces of filth and an upper layer (4b) of filter material for removing fine particles of filth in order to overcome the inconveniences as pointed out at (a) and (b) above. Thus, it claims to be capable of removing both coarse and fine particles of filth satisfactorily. It has, however, a serious problem as pointed out below.
When filth is introduced into the filter casing, it is divided into easily settling coarse pieces of filth drawn through the water suction and guide passage (19) at the bottom of the water tank, and easily floating fine particles drawn through the upper water suction hole (16) in the upper portion of the water tank. Both coarse and fine particles of filth in the tank water introduced into the filter casing, however, reach the upper and lower layers (4a) and (4b) of filter material. In other words, filth is not divided into coarse pieces guided to the lower layer (4b) of filter material having a large pore size and fine particles guided to the upper layer (4a) having a small pore size. Furthermore, both coarse and fine particles of filth first reach the upper layer (4a) of filter material having a small pore size. As a result, the upper layer (4a) is clogged with coarse pieces of filth in a very short time and has to be changed or cleaned frequently.
Even if a change in design may be made to allow the tank water introduced into the filter casing to pass first through the lower layer (4b) of filter material and then through the upper layer (4a), both coarse and fine particles of filth reach all the layers of filter material. Therefore, such design change still does not make the filter as a whole less likely to be clogged with coarse pieces of filth.


This disclosure provides an instruction transmitting unit, an instruction execution unit, and a related apparatus and method. The instruction transmitting unit includes: an instruction splitter adapted to split a to-be-executed vector instruction into microinstructions; a microinstruction index fetcher adapted to acquire a number-of-effective-elements index of the microinstructions resulting from the splitting based on an element range involved in the microinstructions; an index comparison subunit adapted to compare the acquired number-of-effective-elements index with a first index, where the first index is a number-of-effective-elements index of a fault-only-first microinstruction whose processing has not been completed; and a microinstruction transmission controller adapted to transmit the microinstructions resulting from the splitting to a vector execution unit for execution when the number-of-effective-elements index is less than the first index. This disclosure improves operating efficiency of subsequent vector instructions when a fault-only-first vector loading instruction is involved in chaining.

Chaining (chaining) is an acceleration mechanism for vector execution. In chaining, when a subsequent vector instruction needs to perform an operation by using a result written by a previous vector instruction into a vector register as an operand, execution is not performed after execution of the entire previous vector instruction is completed; instead, the instruction is split into a plurality of microinstructions, and an execution result of a microinstruction whose execution is completed is output to the subsequent instruction in advance. In this way, the subsequent instruction can run if it gets results of some of the microinstructions of the previous instruction, without waiting for an execution result of the entire previous instruction, thereby reducing a waiting time and improving vector operation efficiency.
Number of effective elements (vl) is a control register parameter in a vector extension instruction set of a free and open reduced instruction set architecture, used to indicate the number of elements that need to be processed and updated in one vector instruction. One vector instruction may not process or occupy all elements of an entire control register. An occupied element is referred to as an effective element, and an idle and unoccupied element is referred to as an ineffective element. Generally, when a vector instruction is executed, on the one hand, an execution result of a previous vector instruction may be required, and on the other hand, an operation and writeback need to be performed with reference to the number of effective elements. A difference between a fault-only-first (FOF) instruction and a common vector loading instruction lies in that the common loading instruction responds to an exception when an access error occurs while any effective element is being loaded, but the fault-only-first instruction responds to an exception only when an access error occurs while element 0 (an element with the smallest sequence number) is being loaded, and if an element other than element 0 encounters an access error, only the number of effective elements is updated to a total number of elements processed without access errors. The fault-only-first instruction is the only instruction, in the vector extension instruction set of the free and open reduced instruction set architecture, that is capable of modifying the number of effective elements, except the setvl/setvli instruction specially used for setting the number of effective elements.
Usually, a vector instruction only needs to refer to the number of effective elements that is set by the setvl/setvli instruction. This parameter setting instruction is simple to execute and has a relatively short delay, and therefore causes no performance bottleneck. However, as an instruction that may change the number of effective elements, the fault-only-first vector loading instruction has an uncertain execution delay. A subsequent vector instruction needs to wait for the fault-only-first vector loading instruction to return whether the number of effective elements is updated and an updated value of the number of effective elements before the subsequent vector instruction can be executed correctly. If all subsequent vector instructions are executed by simply waiting for the fault-only-first vector loading instruction to confirm an update status of the number of effective elements, effects of chaining are greatly degraded.

Splitting vector instructions into microinstructions for parallel execution based on index comparisons of completed microinstructions

T-Head (Shanghai) Semiconductor Co., Ltd.


A robotic arm comprising a plurality of segments, each comprising articulated links, and means for causing each segment to bend so the arm can follow a serpentine path. A helical spring is provided coaxially with the arm to urge the links to an initial datum position, and to distribute the bending over the links of each segment.

Our co-pending application WO02/016995, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes and claims such an arm. The arm has a work head adapted to carry a tool or examination element for work or examination at a site, and operating means for operational control of the work head. The arm is adapted to be able to reach the site in a 'tip following' manner to position the work head in a desired operating position. This is achieved with control means controlling the position and/or attitude of each arm segment relative to a datum thereby enabling the arm to follow and adapt to a predetermined path.
Robotic arms of this type may be referred to as "snake arms", since they have the ability to advance longitudinally along their own length thus enabling them to follow a serpentine path. This has the advantage that arms of this type may be used in circumstances where access to a work site is severely restricted.
For example, in some such snake arms, the articulation of the links in each segment may be controlled with precision to enable the arm to follow a convoluted path to guide a work tool into, for example, a restricted access pathway within a machine or a lumen of the human body.
Such a construction, however, requires precision engineering of each component to minimise frictional losses at the point of articulation between each pair of links. In a multi-link segment arm, these friction losses build up and the overall friction losses to be overcome during manipulation of the arm can be considerable. There is a need, therefore, for a device in which the manufacture of the components is relatively straightforward and in which the friction losses are significantly reduced.
In the arm forming the subject of WO02/016995, each segment is controlled by driven control cables terminating at the distal end of the segment. Springs are provided to bias each of the links against the compressive force exerted by the control cables in order to reduce friction. While successful in achieving its object, this further adds to the complexity of the system and hence to the complexity and cost of manufacture.
An alternative approach is set out in our co-pending application WO02/100608, the disclosure of which is also incorporated herein by reference, which dispenses with the springs and interposes instead a layer of rubber or elastomeric material either bonded or keyed to the two members constituting the articulation between adjacent links within a segment, the rubber providing the resilient shear capacity necessary to produce "stiffness" of the joint. While this arrangement is eminently satisfactory, it does again add to the complexity of construction. The present applicants have found that by using at least one spring which is interconnected to the series of individual links within a segment, significant advantages accrue in terms of manufacturability, increased axial loading and torsional stiffness, and indeed increased options in the properties of the resultant arm.

Robotic arms with coaxially mounted helical spring means