A plasma display panel includes a plurality of main electrodes laid out on one of a pair of substrates to have a stripe-shaped pattern, a plurality of sets of selection electrodes each set of which include a first electrode and a second electrode, laid out on the other of the pair of substrates to have a stripe-like pattern, and a plurality of ribs each of which is disposed extending from a cross point between an odd-numbered display line and the second selection electrode to a cross point between an even-numbered display line and the first selection electrode.

This application is related to Japanese patent application No. HEI 11(1999)-120087 filed on Apr. 27, 1999 whose priority is claimed under 35 USC xc2xa7119, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plasma display panel (xe2x80x9cPDPxe2x80x9d) and a driving method of the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a plasma display panel having multiple built-in discharge cells as formed at locations partitioned by barrier walls or ribs in a discharge space within a panel, and also to a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently available PDPs are thin flat-panel display devices with enhanced on-screen image visibility and high-speed displayability while offering large-screen attainability. One example of such devices is an active-matrix driven areal-dischargeable PDP unit, which is typically arranged so that display electrodes forming a pair upon application of a drive voltage are laid out on the same substrate. The active-matrix PDP of this type is preferably adaptable for use in displaying full-color images by means of fluorescent materials.
One typical known AC-driven color PDP of the areal discharge type is designed in a way which follows. Multiple pairs of main electrodes for use in producing an areal discharge are horizontally disposed in substantially parallel to one another on one of spatially laminated substrates making up a panel at a pre-specified interval or pitch of reverse slit (non-discharge region) while providing on the remaining substrate a plurality of address (signal) electrodes used for address discharge production and multiple stripe-shaped ribs for physically partitioning a discharge space, adjacent ones of which sandwiches a corresponding one of the address electrodes therebetween, in substantially parallel in the vertical direction (a direction transverse to the main electrodes), wherein fluorescent layers of the three primary colorsxe2x80x94here, red (R), green (G), and blue (B)xe2x80x94are formed in a narrow elongate groove between adjacent ones of the ribs.
Note here that the areal discharge is sometimes called a xe2x80x9cdisplay dischargexe2x80x9d in view of the fact that such discharge is a main discharge for image display and may also be called a xe2x80x9csustain dischargexe2x80x9d because of the fact that it is a turn-on retaining discharge after addressing. Additionally, the main electrodes for areal discharge production are called xe2x80x9cdisplay electrodesxe2x80x9d since these are display discharging electrodes, or alternatively are called xe2x80x9csustain electrodesxe2x80x9d as they are the electrodes for use in producing the sustain discharge.
An on-screen image displaying operation of the PDP of this type is as follows. One sustain electrode of a sustain electrode pair is used as a scanning electrode to sequentially apply a voltage while during such voltage application applying a voltage to a desired address electrode causing an address discharge to take place between the address electrode and the one sustain electrode to thereby select a discharge cell to be turned on (this is generally referred to as xe2x80x9caddressingxe2x80x9d). Thereafter, by utilizing wall charge as has been formed during addressing, let a sustain discharge occur between paired sustain electrodes for an appropriate number of times that adequately complies with the intended luminance and color shade levels (thereby causing the discharge cell to turn on). To be brief, in case where one pixel consists of three separate RGB discharge cells, any desired color shade is reproducible by suitably determining what color of discharge cell is selected from RGB and how many times such cell is to be turned on; in this respect, the related art PDP is designed to produce the sustain discharge for a specified number of times as required to attain such reproducibility.
This gradation-of-shading displayability (color reproducibility) based on the control of the discharging number of such sustain discharge is typically attained by a method as will be discussed below. Subdivide a single frame (or a single field if one frame consists of two fields) into eight separate subfields, which are then subjected to weighting processing so that a relative ratio of these subfields"" luminance intensities becomes 1:2:4:8:16:32:64:128 for setting up the number of sustain discharge occurrences of each subfield. This makes it possible to perform brightness setup of 256 different levels with respect to each of the RGB colors, which leads to on-screen displayability of 2563 kinds of possible colors.
Incidentally, currently available PDPs suffer from a physical limitation as to shrinking or xe2x80x9cdownsizingxe2x80x9d of electrodes and ribs; due to this, the existing PDPs are encountered with a problem as to image quality reduction (low resolution) when employed for small-size screen displays when compared to traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT) display units, although the PDPs are adaptable for use with large-screen displays. To avoid this problem, several technical approaches to maximizing the required number of pixels (discharge cells) while minimizing requisite electrodes in number are proposed in recent years. One typical approach to achieving such maximal-pixel/minimal-electrode configuration is to employ a specific technique called an xe2x80x9calternate lighting of surfaces (ALiS)xe2x80x9d scheme for use with AC-driven color PDPs of the areal discharge type.
This scheme is a technique which replaces the one as has been designed to use two separate sustain electrodes per display line to visually display an image and which realigns such sustain electrodes at the equal pitch to utilize those available spaces between all the sustain electrodes as display lines. With this scheme, as shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B and 10C, one frame is subdivided into two fields consisting of an odd-numbered field and an even-numbered field for causing in the odd-numbered field a sustain discharge to take place at an odd-numbered line between sustain electrodes Xn, Yn (where xe2x80x9cnxe2x80x9d is a given natural number) (see FIG. 10A) while producing in the even-numbered field a sustain discharge at an even-numbered line between sustain electrodes Yn, Xn+1 (see FIG. 10B), wherein the odd-numbered and even-numbered lines are combined or synthesized together for constitution of a single on-screen image (see FIG. 10C). In the drawings, a dot-matrix display pattern of an alphabetical letter xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d is shown by way of example. A reference character A is used in this drawing to designate the address electrodes. Accordingly, this scheme permits the above-noted reverse slit portion to be used as part of an effective displayable region, which doubly increases the display lines in number without having to increasing the requisite number of electrodes involved.
This ALiS scheme requires the use of a panel structure shown in FIG. 11. More specifically, parallel sustain electrodes Xn, Yn are disposed in the horizontal direction on a display plane while parallel address electrodes A are laid out at right angles thereto in the vertical direction on the display plane, wherein ribs 31 are arranged between the address electrodes A in a way parallel to the address electrodes A. The exact number of such sustain electrodes is determined so that it is equal to the number of those discharge cells aligned in the vertical direction (vertical cell number) plus onexe2x80x94that is, the number of the sustain electrodes disposed is the display line number (2i) plus 1 (where xe2x80x9cixe2x80x9d is the maximum electrode pair number whereas the number of the address electrodes is the same as the number of those discharge cells in the horizontal direction (horizontal cell number).
The display lines include a first display line L1 as defined between the sustain electrodes X1 and Y1, a second display line L2 between sustain electrodes Y1 and X2, a third display line L3 between sustain electrodes X2 and Y2, a (2nxe2x88x921)th display line L2nxe2x88x921 between sustain electrodes Xn and Yn, and an n-th display line L2n between sustain electrodes Yn and Xn+1.
As shown in a partially enlarged diagram of FIG. 12, each of the sustain electrodes X, Y consists of a transparent electrode 32 comprised of a transparent conductive film made typically of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and a bus electrode 33 formed of a metallic film made of Crxe2x80x94Cuxe2x80x94Cr or other similar suitable materials. In view of the fact that a sustain discharge is generated between the sustain electrodes X, Y between ribs 31, a discharge region between the sustain electrodes X, Y sandwiched between such ribs 31 becomes a discharge cell C.
With this scheme, when displaying an on-screen image, first use the sustain electrodes Y as scan electrodes to sequentially apply a voltage potential to the sustain electrodes Y1, Y2, Y3, . . . , Yn; during such voltage application, addressing is done in a way that applies a voltage to any desired address electrode A for production of an address discharge. Thereafter, utilize electrical charge formed during such addressing to produce a sustain discharge between sustain electrodes Xn, Yn (during an odd-numbered field) or alternatively between sustain electrodes Yn, Xn+1 (in an even-numbered field) for displaying any intended image on the screen.
In other words the ALiS scheme is inherently designed in such a way that scanning is done at the sustain electrodes Y in an odd-numbered field and, thereafter, let a sustain discharge take place between the sustain electrodes Xn, Yn (odd-numbered lines); after having again performed or re-performed scanning at the same sustain electrodes Y in an even-numbered field, produce a sustain discharge between the sustain electrodes Yn, Xn+1 (even-numbered lines).
With regard to displaying gradations of shading, the luminance-weighted sustain discharging. number setup scheme discussed previously is also employed therefor, which is the same as that used in the PDP of the type which makes use of two separate sustain electrodes relative to a single display line in the way stated supra.
The above-noted ALiS scheme is more excellent than that used for PDPs of the type using two sustain electrodes per display line in that the former is capable of displaying an increased number of display lines while using a less number of electrodes. Unfortunately, this advantage does not come as to a need to separately display odd-numbered display lines and even-numbered display lines in a way independent of each other during image displaying. From such a viewpoint, there has long been desired a PDP with a specific structure capable of efficiently displaying high-quality images with enhanced precision.
This invention has been made in view of the technical background, and its primary object is to provide a plasma display panel along with its driving method capable of displaying both the content being displayed at odd-numbered display lines and the content being displayed at even-numbered display lines at a time, by disposing the ribs diagonally while providing two different kinds of address electrodes including those for the odd-numbered display lines and the other for even-numbered display lines.
To attain the foregoing object, this invention provides a specific plasma display panel, which comprises a plurality of main electrodes laid out on an inside surface of one of a pair of substrates to have a stripe-shaped pattern with a distance defined between adjacent ones of the main electrodes, the distance corresponding to a display line for use as a discharge cell region; a plurality of sets of selection electrodes laid out on an inside surface of the other of the pair of substrates to have a stripe-like pattern in a direction transverse to the main electrodes, each set of the selection electrodes including a first electrode forming a first discharge cell at a cross point with a display line and a second electrode forming a second discharge cell at a cross point with the display line; and a plurality of ribs for partitioning a discharge space formed between the pair of substrates, each of rib being disposed extending from a cross point between an odd-numbered display line and the second selection electrode to a cross point between an even-numbered display line and the first selection electrode.
With the PDP structure of this invention, during discharge cell selection, it is possible by use of the first and second selection electrodes to simultaneously select both a discharge cell located on an odd-numbered display line and a discharge cell on an even-numbered display line at a time.
In addition, in discharge cell turn-on events, it is possible by using three main electrodes to simultaneously turn on both a discharge cell positioned on an odd-numbered display line and a discharge cell at an even-numbered display line at a time.
Use of the above inventive teachings permits occurrence of a surplus or xe2x80x9cidlexe2x80x9d time duration within the discharge cell turn-on time period, which in turn makes it possible to establish enhanced image displayability with an increased number of gradations of color shading, thereby enabling successful on-screen visualization of more crisp and vivid images high in precision and rich in shades of possible colors. In addition, lengthening turn-on time makes it possible to increase the luminance or brightness of displayed images, which in turn enables such images to increase in contrast on the screen.

Plasma display panel and driving method thereof


A fault or an exception is injected into a target thread. Instructions are processed and a target thread is recognized. As a result, an asynchronous procedure call is queued. The asynchronous procedure call is run on the target thread and the context of the target thread is modified. The target thread is executed in the modified context and an exception is raised in the target thread as a result of the modified context. The exception is handled and processing of the instruction continues.

Infinite loops and deadlocks are reasons that programs and operating systems (OSs) "get stuck" or "hang". It is an especially pervasive and difficult problem when an OS or application is using third party components. In this manner, when third party code is run and acts as part of a program or operating system, then infinite loops in the third party code can "hang" the program or operating system. Typically, when running the third party components, the host has little control or input over the source code of the component and therefore this third party component may be considered "untrusted". In this regard, these components perform intermittently, behaving normally in most circumstances and only occasionally causing a problem to the host.
Exceptions are errors or abnormal situations that occur during the processing of instructions. Typically, such exceptions cause a deviation from the sequence of execution. Once an exception is raised, typically, an exception handler processes the exception. An exception handler is a set of instructions or routines that is invoked when an exception of the appropriate type occurs.
Today it is possible for an exception to be raised in a process thread; however, exceptions can only be raised within the thread as a side effect of something that particular thread does. For example, a thread can try to access memory to which it does not have access and raise a memory management exception, or it can try to divide by zero and raise a division by zero exception. Currently, however, there is a need for systems and methods for raising an exception or injecting an exception in another thread.

Systems and methods for injecting an exception into a target thread


A filter bag assembly includes an outer bag having an open end, a closed end opposite the open end, and a longitudinal axis. The open end of the outer bag is sized and shaped for receiving liquid to be filtered. A filter member is loosely mounted in the outer bag and has a pair of opposed open ends and a plurality of longitudinally extending pleats. Each of the pleats projects generally outwardly in a radial direction.

Bag filters have been used in the past for filtering fluids (see, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,358,638, 5,417,855 and 5,755,962). Conventional bag filters, however, have a relatively limited area of flow and filtration and hence have a limited operating life.
Attempts have been made to provide filters with an enhanced operating life and efficiency. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,358,638 and 5,755,962 disclose filter bag subassemblies having a plurality of filtering layers, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,526 discloses a flexible filter bag having a strip of flexible filtering fabric wound itself in a large number of convolutions. Moreover, U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2002/0027100 relates to a filter element assembly having at least two cylindrically shaped and concentrically arranged filter media sleeves, while a pleated filter cartridge sold by Rosedale Products, Inc. has rigid pleating for filtering fluids (see, also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,036,321, 5,552,048, 5,762,792 and 5,988,400 for pleated filter cartridges). In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,826 discloses a filtration bag having an outer fabric sleeve and an inner fabric sleeve, which has a pleated configuration. It is, however, believed that the foregoing filter devices have various shortcomings and disadvantages (e.g., they do not provide a sufficiently large filtering surface and/or are relatively expensive to manufacture and/or use).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A control computer, an error calculator, a Bezier curve divider and an output device are provided for generating a character curve. Coordinates of end points and control points of a Bezier curve are input to the control computer. The error calculator determines squares of distances of the input control points from a straight line connecting the end points as errors. If these errors exceed a tolerable range, the curve divider divides the curve into two parts, and new coordinates of new end points and control points of a divided Bezier curve are input to the error calculator. The curve division and error calculation are repeatedly carried out until the calculated errors fall within the tolerable range. The end points of the respective divided curves are connected by straight lines to develop the original curve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a character in an Raster Image Processor (RIP) of an electronic printer or the like, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for dividing and developing a Bezier curve representing a character at a high speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional processing methods for developing a character curve are based on the following:
(1) A curve is divided and an error calculated in succession by software.
(2) As disclosed in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Specification No. 1-175085 (1989), an outline font is formed using parameters indicating coordinates of a curved section.
However, these conventional methods suffer the following respective drawbacks:
(1) Since it is necessary to successively process a large number of calculations for dividing the curve and calculating the error, a substantial amount of time is expended in the software processing of the character curve.
(2) In the case of indicating coordinates of a curved section with the aid of parameters, a tolerable error cannot be clearly defined.

Method and apparatus for generating a character curve by dividing and developing a bezier curve


The present invention provides a saponification product of a vinyl ester/ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer having superior tolerance of the aqueous thickening liquid against mechanical shear. More specifically, the present invention provides a saponification product of a vinyl ester/ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer having the superior tolerance, by polymerizing a mixture where the molar ratio of the vinyl ester/ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester is from 8/2 to 3/7, and saponifying the obtained copolymer in a mixed solvent where the mass composition ratio of an aqueous organic solvent/water mixture solvent is from 3/7 to 8/2.

A saponification product of a vinyl ester/ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer has been used as a superabsorbent material and applied in a wide range of applications, for example, sanitary products such as disposable diapers and hygiene products and agricultural or horticultural products, due to its high absorbability and water retentivity. On the other hand, it has been used also as a thickening agent or a dispersion stabilizer for various paints and coating agents, due to the function that resin absorbs water to swell.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a process for producing water-insoluble hydrogel having high absorbability, characterized in that a copolymer composed of 20 to 80 mol % of a vinyl ester component and 80 to 20 mol % of an acrylate ester or methacrylate ester component is saponified in the presence of an alkali catalyst and a solvent and under conditions that the copolymer does not dissolve.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a process for producing a superabsorbent resin having an average particle size of 3 to 30 μm, which comprises homogenizing an aqueous dispersion system comprising monomers composed mainly of a vinyl ester and an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester, a polymerization catalyst and additionally at least one selected from the group consisting of a dispersant agent and an anionic emulsifying agent, obtaining super fine polymer particles by polymerization, and saponifying them in the presence of an alkali and a dispersion medium.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a process for producing a liquidous absorbent resin by treating a saponification product of a copolymer of a vinyl ester and an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester with an oxidation agent such as hydrogen peroxide.

Saponification product of vinyl ester/ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid ester copolymer and process for producing the same


An autonomous stretcher intended for patients with reduced mobility, particularly quadriplegic and paraplegic, is adjustable in height and transformable between a horizontal position in the manner of a bed for housing the patient lying down and a staggered position in the manner of a chair. It incorporates transport litters destined for supporting the patient, endowed with movement in a transverse direction to the supports in both directions of movement: towards the exterior of the stretcher to remove the patient from the stretcher, for example towards a bed or a wheelchair and towards the interior of the stretcher to accommodate the patient therein. It makes it possible to modify its longitudinal or transverse orientation with respect to the frame and enables the patient to satisfy his or her physiological evacuation needs through the stretcher itself in a sitting position.

Some articulated stretchers are known which can adopt a horizontal configuration in the manner of a bed or a staggered configuration in the manner of a chair, which incorporate arms that form three bodies that constitute the backrest, seat and leg rest which, on the one hand, can move in height due to the action of hydraulic cylinders and, on the other, the backrest or leg rest can swing with respect to the seat, likewise by means of hydraulic mechanisms, to pass from the horizontal position to the staggered position and vice versa.
This type of stretchers allow a disabled patient to control the operation of the stretcher to adopt the desired position; however, when the patient must be transferred from the stretcher to a bed or to a wheelchair the help of a nurse will be required, since this type of stretchers lack means that facilitate this transfer.
This situation is more critical if the patient must be transferred from the operating table to a stretcher after an operation or directly to the bed, since the patient is drowsy from the anaesthesia and does not cooperate with this action. The nurse transfers the patient using his or her arms but, since there is no homogeneous understanding on sustaining, stretching or depositing the patient, and the patient's incision from the operation is not normally visible due to being covered by gauze or bandages, the nurse may involuntarily cause one or two of the patient's stitches to burst.
Furthermore and in general, one of the main concerns in disabled people is the need for specialised nurses to help them with all their physiological needs for evacuating physiological waste, in addition to grooming, cleaning, showering and even when the patient wishes to move to another place without moving from the bed, such as for example near a window for his or her visual entertainment and distraction. In these cases they also require the help of a nurse.

Stretcher for people with reduced mobility


An image sensor including a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a main scanning direction, a plurality of switching elements connected to respective ones of the photoelectric conversion elements, individually, and a controller for generating a clock signal to control the switching elements. The photoelectric conversion elements are divided into plural groups, each including a predetermined number (N) of the photoelectric conversion elements. The outputs from the photoelectric conversion elements in one group are read out simultaneously in response to the clock signal generated from the controller, thereby attaining a high speed reading of a document.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor. More specifically, the present invention relates to a MOS type image sensor that is used as a contact type image sensor (CIS) for reading an image such as a document, and an image reading apparatus such as a facsimile machine utilizing the image sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, two types of image sensors are used with an image reading apparatus such as a facsimile machine; a CCD type image sensor and a MOS type image sensor. Of those, a MOS type linear image sensor is often used as a contact type image sensor
FIG. 17 shows a conventional MOS type linear image sensor 100. This image sensor 100 includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements (phototransistors or photodiodes) 101 that convert light reflected by the surface of a document into an electric signal as an analog image signal, a plurality of switching elements (analog switches) 102 for reading out the analog image signal from the photoelectric conversion element 101, and a control unit (a shift register) 103 for controlling time-sequentially the switching elements 102. These elements 101, 102 and 103 are integrated into a single chip LSI.
However, the above-mentioned conventional image sensor, in which a lot of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged in a main scanning direction, has following problems to satisfy requirements for high resolution and for high speed reading.
Firstly, analog switches that are capable of high speed switching operation are required as the switching elements 102. In addition, an analog amplifier 104 that can amplify the read image signals from the photoelectric conversion elements at high speed is required.
Secondly, a shift register that includes as many flip-flop circuits as the switching element 102 is necessary as the control unit 103. Accordingly, a large area for arranging the flip-flop circuits is necessary, so that the chip size becomes large.
Thirdly, as a frequency of driving clock increases, it is difficult to eliminate high frequency components of the clock signal. As a result, a problem of electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise occurs.
Fourthly, the following case will be supposed in which an image sensor having a lot of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in the main scanning direction is required in order to read a high resolution image. If a reading condition is changed so as to satisfy low resolution reading requirement, it is required to thin-out the image signals or to average the levels of the image signals in order to convert the resolution after reading at high resolution. Therefore, in spite of low resolution reading, time period to read the image is long. Thus, it is difficult to support a request for placing a higher priority on reading speed than resolution.

Image sensor for reading image and image reading apparatus including the image sensor


When an index file includes reference information about a next index file, a printer continues to acquire the next index file until the index file is overwritten with reference information about a newly processed file.

Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an information processing system, a print system, a server apparatus, and a method for controlling the information processing system.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, as cloud services, business in which services are made available on the Internet have been developed. For example, a storage service for storing data in any format through the Internet, a database service for providing a database function, and the like are available. Such a trend has brought about a need for a print server to provide functions as a print service and a data conversion service on the Internet.
When the print service is provided as the cloud service, the print server is provided in a huge datacenter, so that hardware management is not required for each client. Furthermore, a resource can be added easily in accordance with, for example, a load on the server. Moreover, with the cloud service, data processing can be executed in a distributed manner with a large number of computing resources, and requests from a large number of client apparatuses can be simultaneously processed.
In conventional cases, a data conversion driver included in a client apparatus converts a data format into a suitable format for each printer. On the other hand, with the print service operating on the cloud, a cloud print system requiring no client apparatus can be achieved. In this context, the conversion service that converts a data format into a data format interpretable by a wide variety of printers is important. The cloud service can effectively implement functions through cooperation with other services. For example, the following mechanism can be conceived through cooperation between the conversion service that performs the data conversion and the storage service. More specifically, when converted data is provided to a client apparatus, the converted data is stored in the storage service, and is acquired by the client apparatus at a required timing.
In a mechanism in which a cloud print system and a storage service cooperate to provide converted data to a printer, conversion processing, executed by the conversion service, and converted data acquisition processing, executed by the printer, may be carried out in parallel. In such a mechanism, the conversion service may store in the storage service, a file list (URL list) of converted data that is downloadable as a file. Accordingly, the printer may acquire the file and thus acquire the converted data written in the file.
However, in the method described above, when a complete URL list of all the converted data is described at once and is provided to the printer, the printer might make an access to data for which the conversion processing has not been completed. In such a case, the converted data acquisition processing ends in an error due to the absence of the file. When only the URL of the data for which the conversion processing has been completed is described in the URL list, the URL list might be updated before the acquisition processing executed by the printer because the timing at which the URL is accessed is not synchronized between the conversion service and the printer. In such a case, the URL list is updated before the printer acquires the converted data, and thus the printer cannot acquire all the converted data.
In an example of receiving a list including a universal resource locator (URL), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-143567 discusses that a video camera receives a download list including a universal resource locator (URL) of an access destination to download image data from an image station for the video camera. Then, the video camera accesses the URL corresponding to the image to be downloaded.

Information processing system, print system, server apparatus, and method for controlling information processing system


A method of reshaping a cornea to meet the refractive needs of a patient is provided which includes: providing apparatus suitable for conducting keratomileusis in situ, the apparatus including a keratome means to cut across and remove a section of the cornea, and positioning means to maintain shaping means in register with respect to the cornea, the shaping means having a lower surface which can be brought into contact with the cornea, and engaged to downwardly depress the exposed surface of the cornea into a substantially flat configuration across a predefined optical zone; engaging the lower surface with the surface of the cornea, depressing the cornea and then causing the keratome to move across the cornea removing a predetermined section of the cornea thereby creating a revised exposed surface; retaining the section for later reattachment; providing a lenticular member having a predetermined thickness profile, and disposing the lenticular member between the lower surface and the revised surface of the cornea; engaging the lower surface to move downwardly depressing the lenticular member and thereby the revised surface of the cornea whereby the surface of the cornea is altered to a predetermined configuration converse to the configuration of the lenticular member, causing the keratome to move across the cornea a second time, removing a second predetermined section of the cornea; and, reattaching the first removed section.

This invention relates to the reprofiling of corneal surfaces and more particularly to a novel apparatus and method for facilitating the excising of a portion of the cornea having a particularly desired thickness profile.
Refractive surgery deals with those surgical procedures which change the focusing ability of the eye. The most basic of such techniques are quite old though efforts to modify and perfect them have been continuously underway. In general, the techniques developed to date have had increasing but not total success and consistency in the treatment of nearsightedness, but all of the techniques to date have had limited success in the surgical treatment of farsightedness, astigmatism, presbyopia and irregular astigmatism.
FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a front view of the cornea designating areas A and B. Also designated are meridia C and D and the optical center of the cornea, point E. Refractive surgery deals with the curvature of the cornea. Corneas that are too steep can be thought of as inducing nearsightedness and corneas that are too flat cause farsightedness. Corneas with unequal curvatures such as along path C versus path D, similar to a football, cause regular astigmatism.
In the case of nearsightedness, the cornea is too steep which is the same as saying the radius of curvature is too small. Surgery involves flattening the cornea. These surgical methods either operate in the central cornea, area A or in the peripheral cornea, area B. In farsightedness, the cornea is too flat which is the same as saying the radius of curvature is too large, and here again surgical methods exist to steepen the cornea.
Presbyopia is a problem that develops in middle age in which the eye cannot focus at near if it sees clearly at distance. Patients who are farsightedness become presbyopic earlier in life. This is not a corneal problem but one of the lens inside the eye, however, it is theoretically possible to reshape the cornea surgically to produce a bifocal shape for both distance and near vision. Irregular astigmatism is a situation where curvatures along the cornea, as for example along meridia C and D are irregular, like a football with the air out of it. To
date the most experience has been with nearsightedness correction as compared to farsightedness. Little data exists with respect to the treatment of presbyopia by making the cornea bifocal and no data exists, to our knowledge, to treat irregular astigmatism with corneal surgery.
Radial keratectomy is a relaxing procedure in which 90-95% depth radial cuts are made in the cornea in area B of FIG. 1, sparing a central optical zone of varying diameter. Drawbacks of this procedure include a limited range of correction, fluctuating vision, glare, and continued relaxation, leading to farsightedness, years after the procedure. Transverse incisions into the cornea in area B can be used to treat astigmatism.
Keratomileusis is also an old procedure which involves removing the anterior third of the cornea, freezing it, then placing it on a lathe. Layers of the cornea from the posterior surface of area A are then lathed away after which the reconfigured section is sutured back onto the cornea. This technique is useful for very high degrees of myopia and hyperopia.
Probably the most standard work on the subject of Keratomileusis is a Spanish language text "Queratomileusis-Querotofaquia"by Jose Barrequar who is considered one of the fathers of keratomileusis. Dr. Barrequar flatly states (pages 77-88) that attempts to depress the center of the cornea during keratomileusis will not work, and that the resulting excised section will merely be parallel to the original corneal section
A more recent technique is excimer laser sculpting of the cornea. Here the corneal epithelium is scraped off to expose Bowman's membrane which covers the stroma. The Excimer laser then removes layers of cornea, including Bowman's membrane, in such a manner as to leave the curvature of the surface of the stroma changed, such that when the epithelium covers the stroma, the front curvature is different, thus correcting vision. This procedure suffers from slow, unpredictable healing at the epithelial-stromal interface caused by the absence of Bowman's membrane.
Another approach in excimer laser techniques of this type involves the use of an erodible mask such as is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,513 to Muller. In these techniques, the erodible material is placed between the Excimer laser beam and Bowman's membrane. As the laser is applied, it erodes through the mask, so that the laser quickly penetrates the mask at that point where it is thinnest, and the cornea under the thinner parts of the mask receives more exposure to the laser beam than the thicker portions. This, in turn, results in a different energy distribution on the cornea which, in turn, results in different cutting in different places and thus the refractive change. These techniques with the excimer laser are limited to nearsightedness and astigmatism particularly because of healing of the epithelium. The treatment of hyperopia has not proven successful because the epithelium tends to thicken and fill in attempts to steepen the cornea by excising less tissue centrally and more peripherally.
The most recent development is the use of a modified keratomileusis procedure, which may generally be described as keratomileusis in situ. This technique involves removing the anterior third of the cornea, after which a second cut of varying thickness, in an exact optical zone in the range of from about 3.5 to about 5.0 millimeters, is produced in the corneal bed, after which the piece which was originally removed is replaced. The missing portion removed from the corneal bed by the second cut results in a flattening of the corneal curvature and, thus, a correction of nearsightedness.
Keratomileusis in situ is described by Dr. Luis Ruiz whose apparatus and techniques are more particularly described in European Patent Application No. 90201166.7 (which has been published as Publication No. WO/0442156A1). As used herein, the terms "Ruiz Method" and "Ruiz Apparatus" shall be understood to mean the method and apparatus disclosed by Dr. Ruiz's European Patent Application No. 90201166.7, the drawings and specification of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. Dr. Ruiz describes his apparatus as being made up of three main parts: a motor and transmission shaft assembly, a shaper head assembly, and a retaining ring assembly, the overall device being specifically designed to automatically perform corneal resections.
By causing the shaper head assembly to move automatically and smoothly at a constant speed across the retaining ring assembly which holds the eye in position for resection, precise uniform reproducible cuts are possible. In using the apparatus of Dr. Ruiz, the device is fitted over the cornea with the underside of the shaper head assembly depressing the surface of the cornea inwardly to an essentially flat configuration across a defined optical zone, and the keratome makes a first cut of about 160 microns. This cut is of essentially uniform thickness and is essentially parallel to the flattened corneal surface. The excised portion of the cornea is saved, the shaper head assembly is refitted over the eye, again in engagement with and flattening the surface of the cornea and a second smaller portion of exact diameter is removed from the corneal bed. The first excised section is then replaced over the cornea, and the second excised section is discarded.
The Ruiz Method is illustrated in FIG. 2a-i where a cornea, generally designated 1, has an anterior surface 2 comprised of layer of epithelium 21, upon Bowman's membrane 211. Numeral 3 designates what will be referred to as the corneal bed or `stroma` through which the plane of resection will be located. In FIG. 2a the cornea is shown with reference to the underside surface 8 of the Ruiz shaper assembly, prior to engagement of the apparatus over the eye. FIG. 2b illustrates the elements of FIG. 2a after engagement showing corneal surface 2 flattened by underside surface 8 and showing dotted line 9 which is the cutting path of the keratome. FIG. 2c shows the cornea after the first keratome cut and FIG. 2d shows the portion of the cornea, designated 4, which was excised. FIG. 2e shows surface 8 reengaged for a second cut by the keratome along dotted line 9a in corneal bed 3. In general, the second cut is not as deep nor as large in diameter as the first cut. FIG. 2f shows the corneal surface after the second excising and FIG. 2g shows cornea 1 after the second excising and subsequent reattachment of first excised portion 4. Dotted line 9b designates the cut made in stroma to produce flattening of surface 2 as indicated. It should be noted that the flattening produced is extremely dependent upon the depth and importantly, the diameter of the resected piece. If the resected piece is too large, little effect is achieved because most of the resection is parallel to the original surface 2 whereas at smaller zones of resection, the resection is more lenticular and this results in flattening of the cornea.
While Dr. Ruiz suggests the potential use of his techniques for the correction of farsightedness as well as nearsightedness, he suggests doing so in a manner radically different from that in which it is normally employed in the correction of nearsightedness. This is so because the method of Dr. Ruiz cannot selectively remove tissue located more peripherally than centrally to steepen the bed. FIG. 2h shows the hypothetical cut, 9c, that Dr. Ruiz cannot produce to steepen the bed and thus steepen the corneal surface 2 once 4 is reapplied.
In attempting to correct farsightedness, Dr Ruiz makes a very deep cut with the keratome (about 75%), remove and then reapplies the excised portion. FIG. 2i shows the cut as 9d with back surface of the cornea 10. The first cut causes the remaining 25% of the cornea to bow out, in turn resulting in a steepening, the amount of steepening being determined by the diameter of the cut and the amount of bowing out which actually takes place. This technique is potentially dangerous and depends upon uncontrolled stretching of the cornea to achieve the desired steepening.


A method for inhibiting cell infection by an enveloped virus, by administering to an infection site, a therapeutically effective amount of a macrocyclic compound composed of aryl ring subunits connected one to another by ring-attached bridge linkages, and containing sulfonic acid-derived substituents carried on non-bridge atoms of the subunits.

The challenge in developing an effective therapy and prophylaxis for viral disease is to achieve inhibition of viral processes without producing extreme side effects and preferably without inducing viral resistance. Since viral replication requires use of the cellular apparatus of the host, treating virus infection by inhibiting viral replication can be lethal to the infected host cells as well. Ideally, the virus should be destroyed or inactivated in the host prior to its invasion of host cells. This is normally accomplished, with varying degrees of success, by the host's immune system, but this mechanism requires an earlier immune response, either by a prior infection or by vaccination. Further, many viruses, such as Herpes Simplex viruses (HSV) are able to effectively elude a host's immune systems, and at least one virus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is known to cripple the host's immune system (Gottlieb).
Currently, the most widely used anti-viral agents are nucleoside analogs. This class of drugs acts by disrupting viral replication, either by inhibiting enzymes required for nucleic acid processing, or by producing defective viral genomes, such as by premature termination of replication. As an example, acyclovir, a purine analog used in treating a variety of viral diseases, including herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) inhibits viral replication at several key points, including inhibition of viral thymidine kinase and DNA polymerase, and DNA strand elongation (Elion). Ribavirin, another purine analog, is the drug of choice in treating respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) infection. This compound appears to act by reducing cellular GTP levels, blocking the action of several GTP-dependent viral processes (Smith). To date, the most common drug treatment of HIV infection is with zidovudine (Azidothymidine; AZT), a thymidine analog which is particularly effective against human retroviruses. AZT acts with high affinity to block viral RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (reverse transcriptase), but does also block human DNA- polymerase and causes chain termination (Mitsuya).
Other nucleic acid analogs include ganciclovir, vidarabine, idoxuridine, trif luridine and foscarnet (an inorganic phosphate analog). As indicated above, all of these drugs, by blocking viral replication, also have the capacity to disrupt and normal host replication and/or DNA transcription processes as well.
Understanding of the mechanisms of infection and replication of viruses has lead to alternate drug therapies, including attempts to block viral entry into cells, alter protein synthesis at the host ribosomes, complexation of viral DNA/RNA, and immunomodulation. Interferons are glycoproteins which have complex actions including enhancement of certain immune responses as well as direct antiviral action. They are more competent in preventing infection, rather than treating established viral infection, and their use leads to undesirable problems including acute, serious discomfort, bone marrow suppression, viral resistance, and development of host immune response to the interferon.
Treatment with "anti-sense" polymers of nucleic acids is a method in which the particular viral genome is the select target. The treatment provides a highly discriminating approach which would be expected to have minimal side-effects; its use as a therapeutic is hampered by problems of targeting, introduction into cells, and the quantity of material that would be required to block each strand produced. Agents which bind to and interfere with host ribosomal protein synthesis will block viral replication. These include the toxin ricin, various plant proteins such as pokeweed anti-viral protein, alpha sarcin, and other low molecular weight compounds. The weakness with the use of these materials is their lack of selectivity. In the treatment of HIV, additional therapy has been developed by specifically targeting the unique retroviral enzyme, reverse transcriptase. Non-retroviral systems do not produce or use this enzyme, but the virus cannot replicate without it.
In some instances, understanding of structural aspects of the mechanisms of replication of viruses has provided additional drug therapies. Certain viruses, including orthomyxoviruses and paramyxovirus, herpes viruses, togaviruses and retroviruses, contain a viral envelope which surrounds the viral capsid and nucleic acid. During cell infection by an enveloped virus, the plasma membrane of the host cell is altered to include some viral-coded proteins and, as the viral nucleoprotein core exits the host cell in which it was assembled, it becomes enveloped with the modified membrane, thus forming the viral envelop. Because this structure is unique to host cells when they are virally infectious and distinct from normal cells, it can serve as an additional target for therapeutic assault.

Method of treating viral infections with aryl macrocyclic compounds


A communication system for emergency communication comprises a communication server to establish an IP based voice communication between an endpoint and a monitoring center. In one implementation, the system establishes an emergency call using an emergency communication system comprising a communication endpoint, a communication interface and a monitoring center comprising an automation system and a communication server to establish an IP based voice communication. The system initiates the emergency call at the endpoint location using the communication interface, establishes an IP based voice communication between the endpoint and the monitoring center via the communication server, and automatically sends a message from the communication server to the automation system when the call is initiated.

Referring to FIG. 1, current Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) codes require multiple story buildings 100 to have a dedicated phone line 104 installed for communication from the elevator cab(s) 103 in case of emergency. The elevator cab must be equipped with an auto dialer unit 101 and elevator cab phone 102 to establish the call on the phone line 104.
The cost for the phone lines can be anywhere from 40 to 65 dollars per month. However the phone lines 104 are not actively monitored and can be accidentally disconnected without notice. The phone lines 104 must be tested on a monthly basis to insure the auto dialer 101 functionality is still working
With the current technology, the monitoring center operators 107 rely solely on caller ID from the PBX 106 to identify the caller's location and account information. When an incoming emergency call is received, the operator 107 must enter the caller ID information (if available) into their automation system workstation 108 in order to retrieve the account information and more importantly the building address. In some instances newer installations would have a playback device installed that will allow the operator in the monitoring center to press a digit to hear a pre-recorded message (detailing the sites information). Approximately 90 percent of existing elevator installations are active with traditional Auto Dialer 101 technology—no recorded message functionality. This call flow topology is very inefficient and is susceptible to human error when troubleshooting where the call is actually being generated.
What is needed is an emergency communication solution that is more efficient and less susceptible to human error than current solutions in the art. What is also needed is an emergency communication solution that improves the communication between the operator and the caller.


A revolving door system includes outer walls (2) disposed in parallel with a doorway in a building. A hollow center core (3) having a racetrack-shaped cross-section is disposed between the outer walls, whereby passageways are defined by the lower surface (4a) of a ceiling (4), the floor, the center core and the outer walls. Upper and lower rails (10) and (11) are secured within the center core, and with which plural sets of upper and lower suspension devices (13) and (14) are movable engaged. A plurality of doors (12) are supported by the upper and lower suspension devices. A pulling bar (56) is linked to the upper suspension device for each door. The pulling bars are connected to a driving chain (75) driven to move by a door driving arrangement. A carrier bar (15) is connected to each upper suspension device, for rotatably supporting the upper portion of each door at a location near the center core. The lower portion of each door is rotatably supported by one of the lower suspension devices. An electromagnetic locking arrangement (51) detachably holds the upper portion of each door with respect to the carrier bar at a location remote from the center core.

A conventional revolving door system including four doors radially extending from a vertically extending center supporting shaft has a disadvantageously narrow space defined between adjacent doors. Jacob Robert Alfred Hoover et al. filed a Japanese patent application, laid open for public inspection as Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. SHO 56-481 A on Jan. 6, 1981, claiming a priority from Dutch Patent Application No. 7902203 filed on Mar. 21, 1979. In this patent publication, they proposed a revolving door system free of the above-described disadvantage of conventional revolving doors. The doors of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. SHO 56-481 A do not revolve along a circular path, but they move along a racetrack-shaped path defined by two parallel straight lines and two arcs each connecting the ends of the two straight lines on the same side. Each door is supported by a frame. Although the details of the structure of the revolving door system is not clearly shown in the patent publication, it seems that each door frame of the system, as best understood, includes a vertically extending member and horizontal members extending from the top and bottom ends of the vertical member. One of the longer sides of the door is connected to the vertical member with hinges. The door is supported in such a manner that free rotation of the door about the hinges is prevented by some restraining means operating from spring force.
The door system of the Japanese patent publication has a disadvantage that it cannot withstand against a large external force exerted to the doors. When, for example, some large wind pressure is exerted to the door, it may rotate open about the hinges since the rotation restraining means acts on the side of the door where the hinges are attached. Therefore it is desirable that the doors can withstand such external force exerted to them.
In addition, it is desired that revolving door systems have many other functions, but it is important that provision of such functions should not deface the door system since it may be installed in the doorway of a building which is exposed to public.
An object of the present invention is to provide a revolving door system which can withstand wind pressure of some magnitude, and which is provided with many functions and still has an esthetically good appearance.
According the present invention, a revolving door system is provided. The revolving door system includes outer walls disposed in parallel with a doorway in a building wall and connected to the building wall. A hollow center core is disposed between the outer walls, and it includes parallel straight portions which have a length substantially equal to the length of the outer walls and are in parallel with the outer walls. The center core further includes two arcuate end portions each connecting respective two adjacent ends of the straight portions. A ceiling member is disposed to extend above the center core and the outer walls across the doorway. The ceiling member, the floor of the doorway, the center core and the outer walls defining two passageways. Parallel, spaced upper and lower rails are disposed within the center core. The rails extend horizontally in parallel with the outer surface of the center core. Plural sets of upper and lower suspension devices are disposed one for each door. The upper and lower suspension devices movably engage with the upper and lower rails, respectively, so as to move along them. A plurality of doors are supported by the respective sets of upper and lower suspension devices so as to be movable through the passageways. A plurality of pulling bars are secured to the respective upper suspension devices. A door driving chain driven by a door driving arrangement is connected to the respective pulling bars.
A door supporting structure for supporting each of the doors includes a carrier bar. The carrier bar is coupled to each of the upper suspension devices. Each carrier bar extends in parallel with the ceiling member and has a length substantially equal to the width of the door. The upper portion of each door is rotatably carried by the carrier bar at a location near the center core. The lower portion of each door is rotatably supported by the lower suspension device at a location near the center core.
The upper portion of each door is detachably held by the associated carrier bar at a location remote from the location where the door is carried by the carrier bar.
Since each door is supported at two points along its upper portion and at one point along the lower portion, it can have an improved resistance to external force, such as wind pressure.
According to a second feature of the present invention, the revolving door system includes vertical supports, one for each door. Each vertical support extends in parallel with the outer surface of the center core. The upper end of the vertical support is secured to the center-core side of the carrier bar for that door, while its lower end is connected to the lower suspension device for that door. Each door is disposed with its longer sides extending along the vertical support. The upper portion of the door is rotatably supported at a location near to the vertical support by the carrier bar, while the lower portion of the door is rotatably supported by the lower suspension device. The upper side of each door is detachably held by the carrier bar at a location remote from the location where the door is rotatably supported by the carrier bar.
According to the second feature, by virtue of the use of the vertical supports, the respective carrier bars are firmly held by the associated vertical supports and the associated upper and lower suspension devices, and, therefore, the resistance of each door against external force is further improved.
The detachable holding of the upper portion of each door by the carrier bar may be provided by means of an electromagnetic locking arrangement. When the electromagnetic locking arrangement is energized, the door is held at three points so as to exhibit an improved resistance to external force, and when the electromagnetic locking arrangement is deenergized, the door can be swung open about an axis located near the center core.
According to a third feature, each of the carrier bars is formed of a hollow member. The hollow carrier bar may house therein a bearing for rotatably supporting the associated door, an arrangement for detachably holding the door, a sensor for sensing an object immediately before the door, and other accessories. The placing of such components in the hollow carrier bars makes the revolving door system look tidy in appearance. A number of sensors required for forming a desired number or size of sensing regions may be disposed in the carrier bars. The sensors may be reflection-type optical sensors.
According to a fourth feature of the present invention, each of the carrier, bars is formed of a hollow member for housing therein a bearing for rotatably holding the upper portion of an associated door at a location near the center core. An automatic door closing arrangement is disposed for each door within and in parallel with the ceiling member. Each pulling bar has a linking member secured, together with the associated carrier bar, to the associated upper suspension device. The automatic door closing arrangement is disposed along the pulling bar, and is linked to the rotation shaft of the door through the linking member of the pulling bar. Since the automatic door closing arrangements are disposed above the ceiling and linked with the doors through the spaces within the carrier bars by the linking members, they are hidden from eyes of people using the revolving door system. Thus, the appearance of the system is kept neat and tidy.
According to a fifth feature of the invention, an error absorber is disposed between the door supporting structure and the upper or lower suspension device. The error absorber absorbs error which could occur in parallelism between the door supporting structure and the suspension devices during the door movement.
Due to variations in distance between the upper and lower suspension devices of the respective sets and variations in parallelism between the upper and lower rails, the engagement between the respective upper suspension devices and the upper rail and/or the engagement between the respective lower suspension devices and the lower rail may vary depending on the locations of the doors. For example, if the distance between the upper and lower rails increases at a certain point, the upper and lower suspension devices reaching that point leave away from each other, which results in undue force exerted to the door supporting structure. Without the error absorbers, such undue force may increase resistance against movement of the doors, resulting in local abrasion of the rails and the suspension devices or in damage in the door supporting structure and the suspension device. The error absorbers can absorb such error in parallelism.


A moveable displayed user interface element can be used to select an item displayed on a user interface. Once the proper item or items are selected, an area of the moveable displayed user interface element can be activated to perform an operation on the selected item or items. The moveable displayed user interface element can additionally display information about a selected item, and, in some cases, the displayed information can be edited to modify the selected item. A versatile lightweight system can be used to determine when a moveable object is over any of a number of regions associated with specified targets. The lightweight system can be used to implement moveable displayed user interface elements.

Since the development of the first computer systems, a variety of techniques have been set forth to help human users interface with machines. The science of user interfaces is sometimes called human-computer interaction ("HCI"). Many early systems were based on the exchange of text, such as ASCII characters typed at a keyboard. However, such text-based systems were hampered by a variety of limitations. With the advent of more powerful desktop computers, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) emerged as a superior user interface paradigm and have become more prevalent.
One familiar user interface paradigm presented by many contemporary desktop computers includes windows, icons, menus, and a pointer; it is therefore sometimes called the "WIMP" user interface. Such an interface can be used in a variety of systems for a variety of purposes and is familiar to most contemporary computer users. A typical aspect of the conventional WIMP user interface is the presentation of icons, which can be selected via a pointer. The pointer is manipulated with a pointer manipulation device, such as a mouse or trackball.
However, the conventional WIMP user interface is also hampered by various limitations, and it is not always readily understood by new users. Therefore, there exists a need for better techniques for users to interact with computers.

Selection paradigm for displayed user interface


An electrical connector equipped with a guiding column comprises a housing (21); at least one guiding column (23) extending forwardly from the housing (21) to be inserted into a guiding aperture (14B) of a mating connector (10); at least one ground terminal (24) having a contact section (24A) for contact with a ground member (12) of the mating connector (12); and a side recess (23B) provided in the guiding column (23) to receive the ground terminal (24) such that the contact section (24A) of the ground terminal (24) projects from the side recess (23B) for making sliding contact with the ground member (12) of the mating connector (10).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, particularly, to an electrical connector equipped with a ground terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese patent application Kokai No. 10-255906 discloses an electrical connector of this type. This connector is shown in FIG. 14 for facilitating understanding.
In FIG. 14, a connector 60 has a ground pin terminal 61. The pin terminal 61 is made by machining a metallic material so as to provide a threaded section 62. A housing 63 has a receiving section 64 for receiving the threaded section 62. A ground terminal 65 is provided in the receiving section 64 and having a fixing flange 65A, a threaded tube 65B, and a connecting section 65C extending from the fixing flange 65A in an L-shaped form. Such a connector 60 is attached to a circuit board P1 and the connecting section 65C is connected to a corresponding section with a solder 66.
A mating connector 70 comprises a housing 71 having a ground terminal 72 that has a fixing flange 72A secured to the housing 71, a threaded tube 72B, and a connecting section 72C extending from the fixing flange 72A in an L-shaped form. A bush 73 has a threaded section 73A screwed into the threaded tube 72B, an intermediate section with a window 73B provided above the threaded section 73A, and an enlarged head section 73C above the intermediate section. The connector 70 is attached to a panel 74 by screwing the bush 73 into the ground terminal 72 so that the panel 74 is held between the housing 71 and the head section 73C. A hollow section is provided in the intermediate section and the head section 73C of the bush 73 for receiving the pin terminal 61. A U-shaped contact member 75 is provided on the bush 73 and has a contact section 75A slightly projecting from the window 73B into the hollow portion.
Similarly to the above connector 60, the connector 70 is attached to a circuit board P2 and the connecting section 72 is soldered to a corresponding section with a solder 76.
When the connector 60 is plugged into the connector 70, the pin terminal 61 enters the hollow portion of the bush 73 and makes contact with the contact section 75 and the threaded section 73A so that it is grounded through the ground terminal 72.
However, the above connector has several disadvantages about grounding.
First of all, the number of parts or components is very large. The connector 60 requires both the ground terminal 65 and the pin terminal 61 for grounding while the connector 70 needs the bush 73, the contact piece 75, and the ground terminal 72. The structures of these components are very complicated. The ground terminals 65 and 72 for the connectors 60 and 70 require threaded tubes 65B and 72B, respectively. The bush 73 for the connector 70 has the three stepped sections, the window section 73B, and the threaded section 73A below the head section 73C. The contact piece 75 requires complex press working so as to adapt for the pin terminal 61 of the connector 60.
Consequently, not only the manufacturing cost is high but also the connector becomes large. Also, the assembling becomes complex, and the electrical resistance can be high and the contact can be unstable. The pin terminal for contact with the ground terminal must be made of a metal material, which requires machining for providing the required shape and size, resulting in the increased cost.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a compact electrical connector having simpler shape and structure and lower cost than ever before.
According to the invention there is provided an electrical connector equipped with a guiding column, which comprises a housing; at least one guiding column extending forwardly from the housing to be inserted into a guiding aperture of a mating connector; at least one ground terminal having a contact section for contact with a ground member of the mating connector; and a side recess provided in the guiding column to receive the ground terminal such that the contact section of the ground terminal projects from the side recess for making sliding contact with the ground member of the mating connector.
Since the ground terminal is provided within the guiding column, a compact connector is obtained. The ground terminal is made of a metal strip so that it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost.
The guiding column may be made integrally with the housing as a unit and the ground terminal may have a connection section at the rear end so that the terminals are provided close to the guiding column, making the structure simpler and the connector smaller than before. The guiding column may be made of a metallic material and supported by the housing so as to make contact with the ground terminal and have a connection section at the rear end.
Where the shield case is attached to the housing, it is preferred that the ground terminal be made integrally with the shield case as a unit. Also, it is preferred that the guiding column be made of a metallic material so as to make contact with the shield case.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an electrical connector to be plugged with a connector equipped with a guiding column, which comprises a housing having an attaching face to be attached to a circuit board and a guiding aperture for receiving said guiding column; a ground member provided in said guiding aperture for sliding contact with a ground terminal of said guiding column-equipped connector; and an extended section extending from said ground member by a distance no greater than a thickness of said circuit board.
The guiding column is guided by the guiding aperture longer than before by a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the circuit board so that the contact between the ground member and the ground terminal of the mating connector is made more stable than before and the connector can be made compact by the presence of the extended section, which extends into the circuit board.

Electrical connectors equipped with guiding column and guiding aperture, respectively


Disclosed are a system and a method of displaying a guidance symbol. The guidance symbol displaying system may include a distance difference calculator to calculate a distance difference between a user location and a guidance symbol location, and a symbol display controller to control display of the guidance symbol by calculating a size of the guidance symbol based on the distance difference.

When guidance information is expressed using a symbol image, a method for displaying a symbol may include a method of displaying the symbol image in screen coordinates by reflecting a location to a two-dimensional (2D) screen, a method of reflecting the location of the symbol in a real three-dimensional (3D) map, and the like. In a first method, since the symbol is displayed in the same size on the screen regardless of a distance, the symbol may be hard to be expressed as a structure in a map and may be expressed as a simple symbol image. In a second method, since the guidance information is inserted to the map, the symbol may be expressed in 3D that looks like a real structure and may provide more realistic guidance. However, since the symbol looks like the real structure, it may be displayed in a significantly small size when it is located a long distance away where the symbol is not seen.
Accordingly, a symbol displaying method that changes a size of a symbol according to a distance, and at the same time, displays the symbol in a regular size to provide visibility when the symbol is a long distance away, is required.

System and method for displaying guidance symbol


The present disclosure provides a crosstalk compensation method and a display apparatus using the same. The method includes: configuring a compensation range with the compensation range set between the maximum gray level and the minimum gray level; establishing a look-up table to record compensation values for each gray level in the compensation range; determining whether the gray level of a first color sub-pixel on the display panel is set within the compensating range. When it is determined that the gray level of the first color sub-pixel is set within the compensation range selects a compensating value for configuring an initial gray level of an adjacent second color sub-pixel to a correction gray level. When it is determined that the gray level of the first color sub-pixel is set outside the compensation range, maintains the gray level of the second color sub-pixel at the initial gray level.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a compensation method of a display panel and a display apparatus thereof, in particular, to a crosstalk compensation method of a display panel and a display apparatus using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
As display panels have advantages such as light weight, compact, low power consumption, and small battery, display panels have been widely used in all kinds of communication and consumer electronic products e.g., television, laptop, mobile phone and personal digital assistant (PDA).
Exiting methods such as reducing spacing between the adjacent pixels or overlapping electrode of one sub-pixel with the data line of the adjacent sub-pixel has been commonly adopted to increase the aperture ratio associated with pixels on the display panel to enhance the characteristics of higher transmittance or low power consumption. However, the exiting methods described in practice would increase the capacitance coupling and generating crosstalk effecting display quality. Currently, a polymer film on array with thickness of 2˜4 um on the electrode of sub-pixel may reduce the coupling effect.
However, even with the disposition of polymer film on array, certain level of capacitance coupling still exists under specific operating mode. In particular, when driving the display panel with N line inversion to display a monochromatic image, large potential difference would arises between the neighboring sub-pixels and causes severe color crosstalk. Color crosstalk herein describes the phenomenon when the computed brightness and the chroma of blended red, green, and blue color sub-pixels at a specific gray level (e.g., monochromatic red, monochromatic green, and monochromatic blue) does not equal to the brightness and the chroma of white. In which, white represents the brightness and the chroma measured when all of the color sub-pixels are at the specific gray level. Moreover, the crosstalk can be computed using equation (1) shown below,Color crosstalk=[(brightness of white−brightness of monochromatic red−brightness of monochromatic green−brightness of monochromatic blue−2*brightness of black)/brightness of white]*100  (1)wherein, the brightness of black represents when the brightness when all the color sub-pixels are at zero gray level i.e., the brightness of the background.
If the maximum crosstalk of the display panel exceeds a customer specification (e.g., the maximum color crosstalk is mostly set to be 20%) indicating that the display quality (e.g., the gray level brightness discrepancy become prominent) of the display panel under the customer specification may be relatively poor compare to the other display panels and would not be acceptable by the customer.

Crosstalk compensation method and display apparatus using the same


A continuous media file server has a controller connected to multiple data servers. Each data server supports at least one storage disk. Data files are distributed across the data servers so that data blocks of the data files are stored on each of the storage disks according to a present striping layout. The file server employs declustered mirroring techniques in which data is redundantly copied and stored on other disks and servers to guard against component failure. In the event that the storage capacity of the media file server is changed (i.e., by adding or removing one or more storage disks), the continuous media file server is restriped in a three-phase process. During the first phase, the controller determines a new striping layout of the data files across the storage disks which accounts for the capacity change. The controller then creates an ordered work list describing the data block moves that a corresponding data server needs to make to convert from the present striping layout to the new striping layout. The controller distributes the list to the data servers. The order of the latter two phases depends on whether disks are being added or removed. In one of the two final phases, the data servers reorganize the redundancy data for the new disk configuration. In the other of the two final phases, the data servers execute their respective work lists and communicate with one another to move the data blocks to the appropriate disks in conformance with the new striping layout.

A continuous media file server is designed to serve continuous data streams, such as audio and video data streams, at a constant rate to multiple clients. As an example, a file server might supply digital data streams in the 1-10 megabits-per-second range to thousands of clients simultaneously.
A continuous media file server developed by Microsoft Corporation is based on a distributed architecture in which the data files are distributed across numerous data servers and storage disks. More particularly, the data files are striped across all of the storage disks and all of the data servers on the system. This striping arrangement helps avoid disproportionate use of storage disks and data servers in the likely event that some content is more popular than others. For example, the top ten percent of movies ordered by popularity might garner 70% of the load, while the remaining 90% of the content attracts only 30% of the viewers. Without striping across all disks and servers, the system might overburden the disks and data servers holding popular content while leaving other disks and data servers underutilized.
Because all of the data files are stored on all of the disks, the pattern in which the data files are striped depends on the number of disks and the number of data servers in the file server. As a result, adding or removing storage disks or data servers is not a simple task. In general, changing the number of disks in the file server can result in having to move nearly all of the file data from one disk to another or from one data server to another. For example, consider a file server having ten data servers, each with one storage disk, which holds one data file having a length of 1000 blocks. The first block of the file is on disk 0, the next block is on disk 1, and so forth until the 10.sup.th block is stored on disk 9. The 11.sup.th block is then stored on disk 0, the 12.sup.th block on disk 1, and so forth.
Now, suppose the operator adds a new data server with another disk to the file server. This increases the capacity of the file server by one disk to a total of 11 disks. Assuming that the data file still has its first block on disk 0, the file will need to be reconfigured so that the 11.sup.th block is now stored on the new eleventh disk rather than wrapping to the old first disk 0, where it formerly resided. Similarly, the 12.sup.th block will have to move from disk 1 to disk 0, and so forth throughout the length of the file. Removing data servers or disks presents a similar set of problems.
The inventors have developed a way to reconfigure the file server in an efficient manner following a change in system capacity.

Continuous media file server for cold restriping following capacity change by repositioning data blocks in the multiple data servers


A tissue anchor includes a generally flexible elongate continuous anchor member capable of being inserted through tissue and moving between an elongate configuration and a shortened configuration suitable for anchoring against at least one side of the tissue. The anchor member has a first set of openings and a second set of openings formed therein at spaced locations along a length of the anchor member. The tissue anchor also includes a tensioning member operatively connected to the anchor member and the tensioning member extends through the proximal end portion to the distal end portion by passing through the first set of openings and then back to the proximal end portion by passing through the second set of openings. The anchor member is configured to form a plurality of folded panels upon pulling the tensioning member. The plurality of folded panels comprises a set of first panels that are oriented in a first direction and at least one second panel that is oriented in a second direction that is perpendicular to the folded set of first panels.

Many different surgical procedures require that an anchor be used to either establish a strong point of connection for other securing elements or devices relative to a tissue location in a patient, and/or to secure two or more tissue layers (i.e., portions together. In this regard, the term "anchor", as used herein, is not to be limited to any particular type of tissue fastening or securement application but, rather, encompasses any hard and/or soft tissue-to-tissue securement, tissue-to-device securement, or any other tissue securement application.
One particular area that has received attention in recent years is that of catheter-based surgical procedures. Various tissue anchors have been developed for purposes of deployment and securement with catheter-based technology. However, there are still limitations in current technology. For example, insertion size versus deployment size must be strictly controlled due to the need for catheter diameters to be maintained relatively small. Many catheter-based tissue anchor systems have very specialized uses and are not versatile for use in many different tissue fastening or securement operations.
There is generally a need for a simpler, more versatile tissue anchor which may be deployed and securely fastened to tissue in a catheter-based operation or a non-catheter-based operation.


The present application is directed towards systems and methods for providing connection surge protection to one or more servers by an intermediary multi-core system. A packet processing engine of a multi-core device deployed as an intermediary between a plurality of clients and one or more servers determines an estimated number of total pending requests received by all packet processing engines based on a value of a local counter of received requests, the total number of pending requests received by all other packet processing engines at a last predetermined interval, and a rate of change of the total number of pending requests received by all other packet processing engines multiplied by the time since the last predetermined interval. The packet processing engine applies a surge protection policy to received pending requests responsive to the determined estimated number of total pending requests.

In many cases, a surge of requests for data from a large number of clients may overload a content server or servers, resulting in unacceptable server response time, and leading users to seek content elsewhere. This may be detrimental to electronic commerce. In some instances, the most resource-intensive part of responding to a request for data is establishing a connection. For example, in addition to handshaking procedures, such as the 3-way handshake of TCP, a server may need to allocate memory, transmission buffers, packet control buffers, establish cryptographic keys, or perform other computationally-intensive tasks. Accordingly, rather than denying requests during a surge, it may be possible for an intermediary device deployed between the requesting clients and a server to delay some requests slightly to reduce the amount of connections being established at one time by the server while maintaining a higher throughput for a longer period.

Systems and methods for server surge protection in a multi-core system


A method for visualizing the quality of an ablation process with a processing and display unit is provided. A 3D dataset of an anatomical object and a 3D image model of an ablation instrument are provided, wherein the 3D image model models at least the surface of the ablation instrument. A position and an alignment of the 3D image model of the ablation instrument within the anatomical object is specified, wherein the 3D image model of the ablation instrument is incorporated into the 3D dataset of the anatomical object. At least a part of the incorporated 3D image model of the ablation instrument and of the 3D dataset of the anatomical object is presented and at least one characteristic quality value is determined as a function of the location of the 3D image model of the ablation instrument in relation to the anatomical object.

A condition that is becoming increasingly significant in medicine and epidemiologically and is affecting an ever greater proportion of the population, currently some 4%, is atrial fibrillation. In patients suffering from atrial fibrillation, disruptive pulses originating from the lung veins (pulmonary veins) pass into the cardiac conduction system of the heart, causing the patient's heart to beat only irregularly or very rapidly. A usual method of interventional therapy of atrial fibrillation is the electrical isolation of the lung veins. Catheters are introduced into the left atrium and the tissue in the area of the pulmonary veins, from which the disruptive signals originate, is ablated. This ablation is on the one hand attempted with conventional radio-frequency catheters (RF catheters). RF catheters make small punctilinear lesions (appr. 4 mm×4 mm). Isolating pulmonary veins with this technique over a large-surface area necessitates many working steps and a large amount of time. A new development in the area of catheter technology is so-called single-shot devices which are able, because of their larger size to ablate large areas of tissue in a single application. A preferred case involves what is known as a cryoballoon, as is offered for example under the name Arctic Front Cryoballoon®, by Medtronic CryoCath, PointeClaire, Quebec, Canada, which is placed in the area of the lung veins to be ablated and then cooled to a temperature of around −40° to −50° Celsius. Further examples for single-shot devices are the laser balloon, e.g. from CardioFocus, Marlborough, Mass., USA, or the PVAC multi-electrode catheter from Medtronic Ablation Frontiers, Carlsbad, Calif., USA. The now withdrawn "High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)" catheter of ProRhythm, Inc., Ronkonkoma, N.Y., USA also falls into the category of single-shot devices.
A prerequisite for successful use of single-shot devices, such as the cryoballoon for example, is generally good contact between catheter surface and heart tissue, since only in this way may energy, e.g. in the form of heat or cold, be transmitted in a sufficient quantity and the tissue ablated thereby, i.e. explicitly permanently destroyed. Devices must additionally often be placed in a precisely defined anatomical area to make effective and safe ablation possible. The cryoballoon must for example be placed in the antrum of the left atrium. Energy emissions in the incorrect areas are not effective and even dangerous, e.g. when they occur within a pulmonary vein. The anatomical configuration of the lung veins and of the left atrium is complex to an especially great extent and inter-individually very variable, so that single-shot devices such as cryoballoons for example cannot be used for each patient with a sufficiently accurate fit. If single-shot devices can be used with an accurate fit this as a rule brings about a very much faster and safer isolation of the lung veins by comparison with use of an RF catheter.
A decisive question before beginning the procedure is whether a single-shot device, e.g. a cryoballoon, can be used or whether there must be recourse to a conventional RF catheter. Clinical practice shows for example that a cryoballoon can achieve a very good ablation with non-selective patient quality in 25% of cases; in 75% of cases a supplementary ablation with RF catheters must take place after the cryoprocedure.
A widely-used method is to be presented here by way of example for use of a cryoballoon as a single-shot device for pulmonary vein isolation in the left atrium. In other single-shot devices the method is generally similar. With device-dependent details there can however be deviations. Currently for use of a cryoballoon a decision is made before the beginning of the procedure about the possibility of using it based on 3D imaging acquired beforehand. The suitable balloon diameter is determined with available 3D data by means of dimensioning in the slice images of these preoperative datasets. Under some circumstances this is also undertaken in a 3D view of a segmented left atrium. If only a two-dimensional measurement is to be able to be undertaken, there is the danger of inaccuracies. The measurement of all conceivable balloon positions in the antrum area of all four lung veins would be associated with a disproportionately high time outlay.
Whether the choice of balloon size was correct and whether it could be correctly placed can be checked in fluoroscopy by means of contrast means injection or Doppler ultrasound. Laser balloons which are equipped with an endoscope allow an optical check as to whether they are in good contact or not. These examples show that the check can however as a rule not take place until during the interventional procedure. If the choice of ablation instrument was not optimal however or if the ablation instrument could not be correctly placed, further measures which can impose strain on the patient and mean additional outlay in terms of time and money are necessary.

Method for visualizing the quality of an ablation process


An image display device and method of changing extended display identification data (EDID) information includes a first storage unit which stores extended display identification data (EDID) information to be provided to the source providing device, a second storage unit which stores at least one version of the EDID information which is different from the EDID information stored in the first storage unit, and a control unit which replaces the EDID information stored in the first storage unit with the different version of the EDID information stored in the second storage unit if an EDID information change request signal is input. Accordingly, compatibility of the EDID information between the source providing device and the image display device can be maintained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image display device and a method of changing extended display identification data (EDID) information thereof. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an image display device which is capable of changing EDID information to make a version of the EDID information of a source providing device consistent with a version of the EDID information of the image display device, and a method of changing EDID information thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image display devices, such as televisions or computer monitors, which output image and sound signals can be connected to diverse source providing devices, such as set-top boxes, or digital versatile disc (DVD) players. If the image display device is connected to the source providing device, the source providing device provides image and sound signals to the image display device, and the image display device outputs the image and sound signals.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional image display system having a source providing device 10 and an image display device 20.
In order for the conventional image display system to output sources, that is, image and sound signals, a source providing unit 12 of the source providing device 10 reproduces and transmits the sources to the image display device 20 through an interface unit 14. The image display device 20 receives and outputs the sources through an interface unit 21, a source processing unit 22 and an output unit 23 under the control of a control unit 25.
If the source providing device 10 and the image display device 20 are connected via a cable, a control unit 16 of the source providing unit 10 determines output signals optimized to the image display device 20 based on extended display identification data (EDID) information stored in a nonvolatile memory 24 of the image display device 20. The EDID information indicates monitor data information, including identification of a seller and a manufacturer, and a variable and properties for basic display.
For example, if a television is connected to a computer, the computer senses the EDID information of the television according to a plug-and-play feature and outputs image signals and sound signals suitable for the television.
In order for the source providing device 10 to sense the EDID information of the image display device 20, the image display device 20 stores the EDID information standardized to the feature of the image display device 20 in the nonvolatile memory 24 when being manufactured. The nonvolatile memory 24 stores EDID information of a single format only regardless of a size of a memory thereof.
As the technology of the image display device 20 and the source providing device 10 has developed and image signals and sound signals have become increasingly utilized, the configuration format of the EDID information has been complicated and sophisticated. Accordingly, the version of the EDID information has been frequently upgraded, so if the version of the EDID information supported in each device is different, there may be incompatibility between the devices.
For example, when a user wishes to connect a television to a DVD player, if the version of the EDID information in the two devices is different, the device having the earlier version may not be able to recognize the signal scheme or format of a device having the later version, or may malfunction.
Since the EDID information is stored in the nonvolatile memory 24 of the image display device 20 during the manufacturing process, users cannot change it. Therefore, if there is incompatibility between the EDID information in the image display device 20 and in the source providing device 10, the image display device 20 or the source providing device 10 needs to be replaced.
In particular, as general users cannot easily recognize the EDID information suitable for the image display device 20, it is difficult to select a suitable source providing device 10.

Image display device and method of changing first information with second EDID information wherein each EDID information is stored on different storage units