A cap is provided for preventing clogging of a spray nozzle on a container. Structurally, the cap includes a hollow, truncated cone-shaped member with first and second ends. At its first end, the cap defines an orifice dimensioned to selectively receive the spray nozzle to create a fluid-tight seal with the container. At its second end, the cap defines a periphery. Further, the cap includes a panel that has a flat surface bounded by a perimeter that is interconnected to the periphery by an intermediate section. As a result, the cone-shaped member, intermediate section and panel form a fluid chamber. Fluid is positioned in the chamber for movement between a first location where the spray nozzle is submerged and a second location where the fluid is held at a distance from the spray nozzle for removal of the cap from the spray nozzle.

For convenience, many fluid products are held in containers and dispensed from spray nozzles. Spray nozzles are of particular utility for fluid products that are sticky or otherwise not optimal for handling, such as paint and hair spray. For these products, aerosol or pump-powered spray nozzles are typically used.
While nozzles are intended to facilitate the use of certain spray-applied fluid products, they often become clogged. Specifically, residue left on the nozzle from the fluid product may dry out or congeal on the spray nozzle. This residue can clog the nozzle to prevent proper dispensing of the fluid product. For instance, the clog may block the spray nozzle completely, or it may significantly alter the spray direction. In either case, continued use of the fluid product may be rendered impossible.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device and method for preventing clogging of a spray nozzle. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cap for a spray nozzle container that submerges the nozzle in a fluid to prevent the nozzle from becoming clogged. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cap to submerge a spray nozzle in fluid in a first orientation, while distancing the spray nozzle from the fluid in a second orientation. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a fluid chamber that is selectively connected to the container for submerging a spray nozzle. It is another object of the present invention to provide a spray nozzle clogging prevention device and method that is easy to implement, cost effective and simple to use.


If the recording medium and the thermal head stick together, a recording device, a control method for a recording device, and a control program enable avoiding media transportation problems caused by such adhesion. If the recording medium has a release coat layer or an overcoating layer and the recording medium is left in contact with the thermal head, an operating pattern is set according to the contact conditions for moving the surface of the recording medium a specific distance from the thermal head, and transportation is controlled according to the set operating pattern.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a recording device that has a thermal head, to a control method for a recording device, and to a control program, and relates more particularly to technology that prevents media transportation problems resulting from the thermal head and the recording medium sticking together.
2. Description of Related Art
Thermal printers (also called direct thermal printers) that record images of text and other content on thermal paper are known from the literature as one type of recording device for recording images on a recording medium. If a thermal printer of this type is left with the thermal paper held pressed between the thermal head and platen roller in the standby mode, the thermal paper can become stuck to the platen roller or the thermal head if the standby mode lasts for long or if the standby mode is short but the printer is used in a demanding high or low temperature environment.
To avoid this, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-AHII-320989 teaches turning the platen roller forward, reverse, and then forward when the standby mode lasts for a specified period of time in order to prevent the thermal paper from sticking completely. More specifically, JP-A-HII-320989 describes preventing adhesion by rotating the platen roller before the thermal paper and thermal head stick together as a result of pressure bonding between the thermal paper and thermal head caused by applying pressure therebetween for an extended time, fusion in a high temperature environment, or freezing in a low temperature environment.
Linerless label paper eliminates the liner that is commonly used to carry adhesive labels and becomes waste after the labels are removed, and thermal printers for recording on linerless label roll paper, which is linerless label paper wound into a roll, are conceivable.
Linerless label roll paper is coated with a release coating on the label side and with adhesive on the back side, and is wound into a roll with the adhesive side against the release coating layer. As a result, if the label paper is conveyed passed the thermal head with adhesive remaining on the release coating layer, the linerless label roll paper will quickly stick to the thermal head. The paper thus sticking to the thermal head can lead to paper transportation problems, resulting in the feed pitch being disrupted when paper feeding starts at the start of printing and other paper transportation errors.
If the method taught in JP-A-HII-320989 is applied to prevent such sticking, the platen roller must be frequently driven rotationally to prevent sticking because JP-A-HII-320989 is not intended for use with recording paper that has a sticky surface layer. As a result, operation becomes complicated or the interval between operations becomes too long and the paper cannot be separated.
The problem of the paper quickly sticking to the surface of the thermal head is not limited to linerless label paper, and may also occur when an overcoating has been applied to protect the surface.

Recording device, control method for a recording device, and a control program


One or more detection circuits are provided for determining the operation of a motherboard prior to placing a microprocessor upon that motherboard. The detection circuit determines a particular way in which the motherboard is configured by ascertaining, for example, a power supply voltage and a clocking frequency output from the motherboard. A probe is used, in combination with the detector circuits, to determine motherboard operation at a socket to which, for example, a microprocessor can be coupled. Jumpers or switches upon the motherboard can be readily found by activating a switch and looking for a response upon the detection circuit output. If a response is not found, the jumper or switch is returned, and another jumper or switch is activated. Once the jumper or switch used for changing system clock speed and/or processor voltage is located, then a display is read as to those parameters to ensure the parameters match the processor specification. Reading the motherboard configuration and/or reconfiguring the motherboard to a different operation parameter proves beneficial in ensuring its output compatibility to a microprocessor to be inserted upon the motherboard socket.

1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to a personal computer and, more particularly, to an apparatus for sensing system bus clock speed and processor power supply voltage within a personal computer motherboard to which a microprocessor is delegated for connection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A personal computer is generally know to comprise, at a minimum, an execution unit, memory and various input/output ports. The execution unit is often referred to as a microprocessor, and the microprocessor is typically linked to the memory via a system bus. The system bus, sometimes referred to as a local bus, links address and data information sent between the microprocessor and memory. The system bus can also link the microprocessor, or memory, to various other subsystems, some of which are arranged on a single printed circuit board. The singular printed circuit board is often referred to as a motherboard.
A typical motherboard housed within a personal computer comprises one or more layers of printed conductors extending at least partially across the motherboard. The printed conductors surface at localized regions of the motherboard. Those regions allow connection of integrated or discreet devices using various connection techniques, such as plug-and-socket, wire wrap, or solder.
A substantial percentage of motherboards manufactured today can be reconfigured. Specifically, modern motherboards come equipped with numerous switches or jumpers which can alter the operation of one or more subsystems arranged thereon. For example, the clocking speed of the system bus can be modified by connecting a jumper across two pins extending from the motherboard. The power supply voltage supplied to a microprocessor can also be changed, for example, by connecting a jumper or actuating a switch. It is therefore necessary when modifying signals within printed conductors of a motherboard that the operator know which jumper to connect or which switch to activate.
Typical motherboards have numerous switches and jumpers, wherein the particular switch and jumper of interest must be identified in order to reconfigure, e.g., the system bus frequency or the processor supply voltage. Generally speaking, a motherboard is manufactured so that it can accommodate dissimilar microprocessors, or microprocessors which respond to differing system bus frequencies or power supply voltages. When assembling a personal computer, it would be desirable to quickly identify the particular jumper or switch of interest so that operation of the motherboard can be made compatible with the desired microprocessor. Once the settings are located, the motherboard can readily be altered to match the specification of a microprocessor which will thereafter be coupled to the motherboard. A mechanism for quickly identifying the jumpers or switches of interest is therefore desired so as not to damage a microprocessor subsequently linked to the motherboard.

Processor local bus frequency detection circuit


The present disclosure relates to an electrified vehicle with a battery protection device and a corresponding method. An example electrified vehicle includes a battery protection device with a first housing portion and a second housing portion. The first and second housing portions are each made of a sandwich structure and exhibit U-shaped profiles. The U-shaped profiles of the first and second housing portions face one another to provide an internal cavity.

The need to reduce automotive fuel consumption and emissions is well known. Therefore, vehicles are being developed that reduce or completely eliminate reliance on internal combustion engines. Electrified vehicles are one type of vehicle currently being developed for this purpose. In general, electrified vehicles differ from conventional motor vehicles because they are selectively driven by one or more battery powered electric machines. Conventional motor vehicles, by contrast, rely exclusively on the internal combustion engine to drive the vehicle.
Electrified vehicles include rechargeable batteries, which are used as a main power source for the electric machine, such as the electric drive of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Due to the amount of energy storable in the rechargeable batteries, the rechargeable batteries must be sufficiently impact resistant. A number of protection devices for rechargeable batteries are known in the prior art.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,637,173 describes a battery pack with guide recesses which are arranged in a housing. The battery pack includes a battery core with a non-insulated cell and a protective circuit connected electrically to the non-insulated cell, a housing which receives the battery core and an upper cover which covers the battery core. The housing includes a base plate, reinforcement plates which extend vertically from the edges of the base plate and a synthetic resin part which surrounds the reinforcement plates. A guide recess is arranged inside the synthetic resin part. The reinforcement plates are bent at least once and can be realized such that at least two edges face one another (i.e., each reinforcement side wall can be folded back on itself).
CN 201111306 relates to a battery housing and to a battery pack. The housing has an upper housing and a lower housing, both of which are cylindrically-shaped. Specifically, the upper housing includes cylindrical tube and a through-hole. An upper plate is arranged fixedly on the top side of the upper cylindrical tube, and the through-hole is arranged on the wall of the upper cylindrical tube. The lower housing comprises a lower cylindrical tube, a shell and a blower. The shell comprises a plurality of air inlet holes and is also arranged fixedly inside the lower cylindrical tube of the lower part of the lower housing. The blower, which is arranged below the air inlet holes of the shell, is fixedly connected to the shell. The battery pack includes a battery pack holder, a cathode and an anode wire and an assembled battery core which is arranged in the battery pack container. A cathode and an anode of the assembled battery core are electrically connected to one end of the cathode wire or of the anode wire, and the other end of the cathode wire or of the anode wire extends through the upper plate in order to guide the wire into an outer space of the battery pack container.
Another known arrangement is described in CN 205542942. A battery impact protection housing comprises an energy absorption layer which is fixed on the battery housing by means of securing points. The housing may further include a reinforcement rib structure.
A corrugated sandwich protection structure for a housing of a battery of an electric vehicle is thus described, for instance, in CN 203674294. The corrugated sandwich protection structure of the housing of the battery of the electric vehicle includes a box body and a box cover. The box body is provided with an open top surface and consists of a base plate and a base wall plate, which is secured to the periphery of the base plate. The box body is used to receive a battery. The box cover includes a top plate and a top wall plate, which is secured to the periphery of the top plate. The box cover and the box body are buckled together to form an air-tight space.
In addition, U.S. 2012/0183828 describes an HEV with a battery which is arranged between two wheel housings. An elongated protection element is provided between the wheel housings in the region of the battery in case of a side impact. The elongated protection element can be a sandwich plate having two top plates with a core produced from rigid foam. The rigid foam, produced from a foamed plastics material, can be replaced by a metal foam, such as an aluminum foam. Alternatively, the sandwich plate can consist of two top plates which surround a core of corrugated sheet metal, the wavy line of the core extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of the sandwich plate. Such sandwich plates are commercially available, for example under the trade name of Metawell®.
A further proposal of a battery protection device is disclosed in an article entitled "Crash-safe Battery Protection for Electric Cars" by the Fraunhofer Society. The article describes a battery housing produced from fiber-reinforced composites, which are both lightweight and impact resistant. In particular, the battery housing ensures the intactness of the battery located therein at impact speeds of up to 60 kph (about 37 mph) while also protecting the battery from moisture. Further, a semi-permeable membrane arranged in the battery housing enables pressure equalization as a result of gas exchange.

Electrified vehicle with battery protection device and corresponding method


Natural language directions are received and a set of maneuver/context pairs are generated based upon the natural language directions. The set of maneuver/context pairs are provided to a routing engine to obtain route information based upon the set of maneuver/context pairs. The route information is provided to an output system for surfacing to a user.

Computer systems are currently in wide use. Some such computer systems include mapping systems. Mapping systems often allow a user to provide a start location and a destination, and the mapping system then calculates a route between those two geographic locations. The mapping system can also output a turn-by-turn list of maneuvers for traveling between the start location and the destination.
Sometimes, however, human beings convey directions or route information to one another using natural language. The directions or route information may be in colloquial terms which may be relatively imprecise. Therefore, a computing system may not be able to easily determine a route from the natural language directions or route information.
In addition, a human being may know a best route to take (e.g., one that is better than a route automatically generated by a mapping system). However, it can be difficult to convey that route to another human being. This is sometimes done, currently, by obtaining a default route from a mapping system and then providing user inputs to drag the default route provided by the mapping system so that it conforms to the best route known by the user. It can also be done by adding artificial waypoints to force the mapping system to output the route desired by the user.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Translation of verbal directions into a list of maneuvers


A terminal for a computer system includes a keyboard incorporating modules for performing two factor authentication (TFA) for log-on of a user. TFA preferably combines a fingerprint scan with the proximity of a previously enrolled Bluetooth device that typically accompanies the user, such as a wireless phone or headset. The keyboard also includes an ultrasonic proximity detector aimed to detect the presence of the user at the keyboard and to terminate log-on when the user leaves the keyboard. The keyboard processor may be used as an encryption engine to encode all keystroke data and authentication/log-on transactions with the computer system.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems having at least one terminal that requires user authentication and provides secure access to the system and includes an ultrasonic proximity sensor that logs out of the user's account on the terminal when the user leaves the vicinity of the terminal.
Description of Related Art
It has been recognized in the prior art that secure computer systems are often protected through the use of passwords, biometric identification, ID cards, and the like, to enable access to accounts or data that are stored in or linked to the computer system. These measures generally are effective in reducing break-ins to a computer system to a tolerable minimum.
Today the typical authentication is with what is called Two Factor Authentication (TFA). For the most part these two factors are a username and a password. There are several other TFA methods currently available in the market and these range from username and fingerprint to electronic identification cards (Xyloc et. al.) and to One Time Password (OTP) products such as Arcot and RSA tokens. Each of these authentication schemes has its advantages and disadvantages as described below.
Username and passwords have been the standard authentication scheme since (practically) the dawn of the computer age. Unfortunately, this scheme has two disadvantages. First, because usernames and passwords are so common, hackers have devised many techniques to attack them and gain access to secure systems. Secondly, because of the vulnerability of usernames and passwords many system administrators require passwords that are so random they are difficult to remember and because of that they are often forgotten. This requires the expense of changing them, or the user will write down the password, a record that can easily be stolen. One often sees usernames and passwords written on "Post-It" notes and adhered to the monitor of the user's computer. This is a severe security problem!
OTP tokens are very secure, but they are inconvenient. The user must, in the case of RSA, carry a token generating device or, as in the case of Arcot, have an application running on a device such as a cell phone. In both cases a cumbersome procedure is required by the user to log on. The RSA token device has the disadvantage of being stealable, allowing a nefarious user access to secure data, or it can be lost and a replacement cost incurred. A similar disadvantage exists for soft token providers: if the device is stolen or copied and the user's pin number is known, a hacker can impersonate that user and access the system. The user also has the inconvenience of having to remember their username.
Electronic cards are a good authentication method, but they are expensive and can be lost, stolen or cloned. These cards are usually used with a second factor such as a password or a fingerprint, but the replacement cost for these cards is high and there is the overhead of issuing and retrieving the cards as users come and go, which can also cause some expense and nuisance.
Usernames and fingerprint data are a good alternative to the above authentication schemes, but have the disadvantage that the username must be remembered. Fingerprint data is usually stored in an encrypted template file and not as an image, giving increased security. The fingerprint template generation requires the user to be physically present at log-on, as most modern fingerprint readers are resistant to attacks such as plastic casts of a fingerprint and non-living tissue as a result of physically dismembering the user's finger.
In addition, one common path for data to be stolen from a computer system involves the authorized user and his/her presence at the terminal at which authorized access has been granted. ("Terminal" is a general reference that includes desktop computers, workstations, or any similar system that employs a keyboard and requires user authentication.) It is not uncommon for individuals to temporarily leave the vicinity of the terminal for any one of a number of legitimate reasons, often without logging out of the authorized access state. As a result, the terminal is an open window into the secure system, and any nearby individual may glance at the screen, or may commandeer the terminal by using the keyboard to access data, enter data, or erase data. Thus it is clear that the log-out process is as important as the secure log-in process, but it is an aspect of computer security that in not given sufficient attention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,346,933 there is disclosed an ultrasonic proximity sensor that is connected to a secure computer system terminal so that the system may determine when an authorized computer user leaves the vicinity of the terminal. Upon detecting that the user has departed, the system immediately (or after a short time delay) logs out of the authorized state, so that casual snooping as well as determined hacking cannot take place. Although the patent describes an effective concept for preventing unauthorized computer access, it is notably lacking in describing any physical embodiment of the concept that may be practically useful. The only commercially available embodiment of the concept is a sensor module provided with a bracket for mounting on the upper edge surface of a computer monitor. This product is too large and too heavy to be realistic, and it does not protect the computer component that is most vital to data theft: the computer keyboard. Thus there is a deficiency in the prior art that deserves to be rectified.

Computer keyboard with ultrasonic user proximity sensor


A surgical retractor, particularly suitable for soft tissue surgery such as plastic surgical procedures. The retractor has an elongate planar portion with a proximal end and a distal end, a main body portion therebetween, an upper surface and a bottom surface. The distal end of the retractor has a generally semi-circular shape, and has teeth extending from the perimeter thereof which extend above the upper surface of the retractor. The plurality of teeth are generally triangular in shape with apexes extending upwardly from the plane of the upper surface of the retractor and the teeth are smooth along their edges and apexes. The retractor is formed of generally rigid, yet malleable material, such as metal or plastic.

In surgery, the ability to gain access to, and maintain clear access in the surgical field is very important. Surgical retractors are commonly used to lift and move tissue to allow a variety of surgical activities, such as cutting, sewing, stemming blood flow, and other activities to take place in the surgical field. The problems in dealing with the retraction of soft tissue are two fold. First, since the tissue is soft, there is a tendency for the tissue to flop down around the retractor. Second, since most retractors are relative smooth, slippage of the tissue often thereon can take place, requiring the surgeon and assistants to interrupt what they are doing, and reposition the retractor. These problems interfere with gaining and maintaining a clear surgical field.
There are many types of surgical retractors, some of which are discussed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,243 to Ray discloses a malleable force-fulcrum retractor which has a claw-like spike or spikes at a distal end which is used to penetrate the surface of a bone within an incision. The retractor can be bent to a desired shape before use, and by contacting the distal spike or spikes with bone, the middle of the retractor can be used to pry up tissue adjacent to the bone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,633 to Vargas Garcia discloses a retractor for use in maxillofacial surgery. It has a palm engaging lesser blade portion and a greater active blade. Both blades extend from a central, straight handle section for manual grasping and manipulation. The greater blade extends at an adjustable angle from the handle section. Roughened surfaces are formed on its inside surfaces of the ends of both blades which are placed in contact with the tissue to be retracted. The distal ends of both blades, however, are straight and flat, and the overall shape of the device is not particularly well suited for use in lifting and retracting tissue during surgical procedures, where the ability to access various portions of tissue, and from different angles can be important.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,373 to Michelson discloses a spinal retractor having a pair of blades adjustably mounted on a frame. The blades have a saw-toothed pattern formed along the straight, outwardly flared distal ends of the blades, and are adapted to pry apart the muscle and other tissue adjacent the spine to clear a surgical field.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,619 to Sharpe discloses a retractor having an adhesive pad at a proximal end for attachment to a patient's skin, an arched middle portion, and a distal end having a pair of hooks facing the proximal end. Once positioned, the retractor is adapted not to be moved.
While the prior art discloses surgical refractors and other devices which include teeth or roughed surfaces at their distal ends, none teach or suggest a retractor particular well-suited for use in retraction of soft tissue during surgery, where the ability to access the tissue from a variety of angles, without the retracted tissue slipping off of the retractor, yet without causing any damage to the tissue is paramount. There accordingly remains a need for an improved surgical retractor particularly well suitable for use in soft tissue surgery.


A cell phone antenna switching circuit includes a plurality of built-in antennas which perform radio transmission/reception. This circuit includes reception level measuring sections and an antenna switching section. The reception level measuring sections measure the reception levels of the corresponding built-in antennas. The antenna switching section always automatically selects an antenna whose reception level is high during a standby period, and selects an antenna with good antenna characteristics depending on a function during speech communication. A cell phone antenna switching method is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a cell phone antenna switching circuit and antenna switching method and, more particularly, to a cell phone antenna switching circuit and switching method which use two built-in antennas in a cell phone which requires continuous transmission/reception as in the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) scheme or the like and selectively use the antennas depending on the function of the cell phone which is to be used.
In general, with increasing reductions in the size and thickness of a cell phone, it has excellent portability. The cell phone is placed near the user during speech communication, and hence the influence of the human body on an antenna is a factor that causes a deterioration in reception characteristics and the like.
Of the recent cell phones, cell phones capable of continuous transmission/reception as in the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) scheme or the like which realizes good communication quality have been widely used.
Cell phones using the 2-GHz band and frequencies higher than the 2-GHz band, such as cell phones based on the CDMA scheme, allow reductions in antenna length because of short wavelengths they use. For this reason, compact built-in antennas are often applied to such cell phones.
When a built-in antenna is applied to a cell phone, the antenna is mounted in a place where the human body has the smallest influence. In general, since the antenna is greatly influenced by the head of the human body during speech communication, the antenna is often mounted in a place free from the influence of the head during speech communication.
There is a recent trend toward a remarkable increase in the number of users of cell phones who connect to the Internet when executing the mail function using packet communication. That is, some users mainly perform key operation for mail communication with their hands independently of the influences of their heads. Conventional cell phones have been mainly so designed as to avoid the influences of the head of the human body. From now on, cell phones need to be designed in consideration of antenna characteristics (radiation efficiency) when they are mainly used with key operation. In order to realize this, two antennas and a conventional diversity function are used. In this case, the reception electric field levels of the two antennas which have received radio waves are measured, and one of them which has a higher reception electric field level is selected.
In a cell phone designed to perform continuous transmission/reception as in the CDMA scheme or the like, once a selected antenna is determined, the antenna in the use cannot be switched to another one by antenna diversity during continuous transmission/reception in speech communication or packet communication. If an antenna is placed at a portion where the movement of the hand exerts influences, an unfavorable antenna may be erroneously selected during key operation due to unstable reception electric field levels during the key operation. For this reason, demands have arisen for a cell phone having a built-in antenna switching function of automatically selecting an optimal antenna depending on the function.
A conventional cell phone antenna switching circuit is a portable radio apparatus which has two or more antennas capable of transmission/reception and selects a transmission antenna by comparing the reception electric field strengths of the antennas in the diversity reception mode (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-261665 (pp. 2-4; FIG. 2)).
Some cell phone is designed to obtain good reception characteristics even during speech communication by manually switching built-in antennas even if the cell phone is unfolded into upper and lower housings during speech communication, and the reception characteristics deteriorate when the ear of the user is brought into contact with the speaker in the upper housing and a built-in antenna is located close to the ear (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-177485 (pp. 2-3; FIG. 2)).
In a cell phone designed to perform continuous transmission/reception as in the CDMA scheme or the like, the conventional cell phone antenna switching circuit described above cannot switch an antenna in use to the other antenna by antenna diversity during continuous transmission/reception in speech communication or packet communication after the selected antenna is determined.
In addition, since the cell phone comes into contact with part of the human body during speech communication, the antenna characteristics deteriorate.
If an antenna is placed in a portion where the movement of the hand exerts influences, in particular, since the reception electric field levels become unstable during key operation, an unfavorable antenna may be erroneously selected during the key operation.

Cell phone antenna switching circuit and antenna switching method


A dual double-action can body maker characterized in that a can body maker of the opposite way double-action structure is formed by way of a structural design of using two identical ram drive mechanisms and a design scheme of sharing one crankshaft. Two ram drive mechanisms share one crankshaft, and are arranged symmetrically to balance the inertial force of such parts as a swing lever. A slide yoke and a ram in motion and the reaction force generated in the can body redrawing and ironing process to reduce the load of the support bearing of the crankshaft and extend the service life.

With the improvement of people's living standard, canned food and beverage are increasing, and the demand for the can is also growing.
The can is usually made of aluminum or steel, and composed of a can body and an easy-open end, where the can body is formed mostly by metal draw and iron. An existing can body maker is usually composed of a drawing die, a cup feed station, a can out conveyor, a cup hold down mechanism and a ram drive mechanism. The drawing die is used for drawing and ironing the can body, the cup feed station for transferring a can parison (a pre-drawn cup-shaped part) before it is drawn, the can out conveyor for discharging and outputting the can body after it is drawn, the cup hold down mechanism for tightly compressing the edge of the cup while drawing, and the ram drive mechanism for providing the ram stroke when the can body is drawn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,138 discloses an disclosure patent titled Can Bodymaker Having Improved Ram Support and Drive, which relates to a can body maker, whose ram drive mechanism, as shown in FIGS. 1-3, comprises a crankshaft 14, a primary connecting rod 13, a swing lever 12, a secondary connecting rod 11, a hydrostatic guide rail 9, a slide yoke 10 and a ram 15; the primary connecting rod 13 is rotatably connected at one end with the throw of crankshaft 14, and at the other end with the swing arm of the swing lever 12; the swing lever 12 is rotatably supported at one end, and rotatably connected at the other end with one end of the secondary connecting rod 11, which is rotatably connected at the other end with the slide yoke 10 installed on the hydrostatic guide rail 9; the ram 15 is fixedly connected at one end with the slide yoke 10, and provided at the other with a punch used for drawing the can body. In the working condition, the crankshaft 14 is radially supported by a hydrodynamic journal bearing (not shown in the figure); while the can body is drawn, a motor drives the crankshaft 14 to rotate, the throw of crankshaft 14 drives the primary connecting rod 13 to move, which pushes the swing lever 12 to swing; the swing lever 12 drives the slide yoke 10 to slide along the hydrostatic guide rail 9 through the secondary connecting rod 11, thus driving the punch of the ram 15 to produce a ram stroke. Each time the crankshaft 14 rotates one circle, the punch of the ram 15 produces one ram stroke relative to the drawing die to draw out a can body, the process thus being continuously circulated to draw out the can body.
In the structural design of the can body maker of the above US patent, because only one ram drive mechanism is adopted for the one-way double-action body maker, the inertial force in motion and the reaction force generated by such parts as the swing lever 12, the slide yoke 10 and the ram 15, after the amplification of various transmission mechanisms, are finally entirely exerted on the main bearings supporting the crankshaft 14. Particularly when the crankshaft 14 works at a rotational speed of 400 rpm, these forces form a very big impact load on the main bearing. Therefore, as can be seen from the force analysis, the main bearing supporting the crankshaft 14 in this mechanical structure is the key of force balance and the weakness of the entire mechanism. A rolling bearing is difficult to withstand a greater impact load for a long time, a hydrodynamic journal bearing adopting a high-pressure oil supply system is needed.
For resolving the above problem of supporting the crankshaft in the ram drive mechanism, U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,785 titled Crankshaft Mechanism for Can Body Maker Apparatus provides a solution, i.e. a counterbalance-mass slide yoke is connected at a position contrary to the throw of crankshaft, and used for balancing the load exerted on the bearing by the inertial force of the mechanism itself (see the counterbalance-mass slide yoke 308 in FIG. 3 and the counterbalance-mass slide yoke 230 in FIG. 4 of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,785 for details). However, this solution can only balance the inertial force load exerted on the bearing generated by such motion parts as the swing lever 12, the slide yoke 10 and the ram 15 in motion, while the reaction force generated during the can body redrawing and ironing process cannot be balanced by the counterbalance-mass slide yoke. Besides, the addition of the counterbalance-mass block in the ram drive mechanism virtually increases the load of the drive motor, directly causing increase of the power consumption, causing waste of energy.

Suzhou Slac Precision Equipment Co., Ltd.


An apparatus and method for performing real time color gamut compressions for a source image. The method is performed in a data processing system having a memory, and includes the steps, performed by the data processing system, of storing, in the memory of the data processing system, a multi-pixel image to be output by an image output device, the multi-pixel image having colors of a first color gamut and the image output device being capable of outputting colors of a second color gamut, reading the multi-pixel image from the memory for receipt by the image output device, and converting colors of the multi-pixel image that are not in the second color gamut, after start of the reading step and before completion of the reading step, into colors of the second color gamut.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the performance of color gamut compressions in an apparatus such as a color printer device. More particularly, the present Invention relates to a color printer device wherein a color Image to be printed is analyzed at the same time it is being stored, and the color gamut of the image is compressed at the same time it is being removed from storage for printing, so that the color image can be analyzed and compressed in real time.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Color printers that can be used for producing color reproductions of original and color images are known. Methods and apparatus relating to color image reproduction are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,670,780, 4,707,727, 4,731,662, and 4,873,570, all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. The following articles, which relate to color image reproductions, are also expressly incorporated herein by reference: Stone et al., "Color Gamut Mapping and the Printing of Digital Color Images," ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 249-292 (October 1988); Stone et al., "Color Gamut Mapping and the Printing of Digital Color Images," Xerox Report EDL-88-1 [P88-00021], pp. 1-52 (April 1988); and Gordon et al., "On the Rendition of Unprintable Colors," Proceedings of the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts, pp. 186-195 (1987).
A color printer is limited in the range of colors it can reproduce. Thus, a source image (i.e., an original image) to be printed by the color printer may include colors that the printer is not able to reproduce. This in particularly true of color images created for a CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitor because the color gamut available to a CRT is typically much larger than the color gamut of a color printer. Consequently, it is often the case that the colors of the source image gamut must be mapped into the colors of the printer gamut (i.e., the colors which the printer is capable of producing) before any printing can be carried out. This process is called "gamut compression," because it involves compressing the color gamut of the source image until it fits within the color gamut of the printer.
A method of mapping the colors of a source image into the producible colors of a printer gamut (i.e., a method of compressing the source image gamut) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No, 4,758,885, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. In the '885 patent, the source image gamut of a monitor is shrunk so that it will fit within the printer gamut. However, in the '885 patent, the gamut of every source image is shrunk or compressed in the same way. Even if the source image only contains colors that the printer is capable of printing, the colors in the source image gamut are still mapped (i.e., the source image gamut is still compressed) before the source image is reproduced. Thus, in the '895 patent, unnecessary distortions and changes are introduced to the source image in situations where the original source image gamut does not need to be compressed in order to fit within the printer gamut.
Rather than compressing each source image in the same way, it is preferable to determine a different mapping or compression scheme for each source image so that unnecessary distortion of the source image can be kept to a minimum. For example, if all of the colors of a source image gamut are within the printer gamut, then the source image should not be mapped (i.e., the color gamut of the source image should not be compressed). This approach is suggested in the Stone et al. articles incorporated by reference above. Nevertheless, the methods described in the Stone et al. articles require sophisticated human analysis of the source image and printer gamuts.
The need for sophisticated human analysis can be eliminated by carrying out the gamut compression automatically, as described in the following articles by P. Laihanen, both of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference: "Optimization of Digital Color Reproduction on the Basis of Visual Assessment of Reproduced Images," Proceedings of the SID, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 183-190 (1969), and "Colour Reproduction Theory Based on the Principles of Colour Science," Advances in Printing Science and Technology, June 1987 Conference, Pantech Press, London (1988). While the Laihanen articles contemplate the automatic compression of color gamuts, they do not address techniques for performing gamut compressions in real time. The '885 patent, which was discussed above, suffers from the came drawback. That is, the colors described in the '885 patent are not intended for use in perfoming real time adjustments to, or compressions of, the color gamuts of a variety of source images.
Adjusting the gamut of a source image to fit within the printer gamut is generally a two-stage process. A conventional device for performing such gamut adjustment or compression is shown in FIG. 1.
With reference to FIG. 1, an image buffer 13 generally receives a source image (e.g., a color image) from an image input device 11 and then stores the image until it is operated on by gamut compression circuitry 17. The image input device 11 may be an input for a color monitor, while the image buffer 13 may be a RAM (random access memory) having memory locations corresponding to the pixels of the source image input by the image input device 11. At each memory location in the image buffer 13, color information for a given pixel of the source image is stored.
In FIG. 1, the gamut compression circuitry 17 performs a two-stage gamut compression process. The first stage of the gamut compression process entails an examination of the color of each pixel of the source image stored in the image buffer 13 for the purpose of determining the boundary of the source image gamut. The second stage of the process, performed after the source image gamut has been compared with the printer gamut, involves altering the color value of each pixel stored in the image buffer 13 so as to bring the colors of the source image stored in the image buffer within the printer gamut.
In the gamut compression process performed by the system shown in FIG. 1, the color of each image pixel stored in the image buffer 13 must be considered twice: a first time for analyzing the boundary of the source image gamut, and a second time for mapping or altering the color of each pixel of the source image in order to compress the source image gamut. After the colors of the source image stored in the image buffer 13 have been mapped in this fashion (i.e., after the source image gamut has been compressed to fit within the printer gamut), the image is output from the Image buffer 13 to an image output device 15 (e.g., a color printer),
FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1 in that it shows a conventional color printing system in which colors of a image are considered twice. However, in the system shown in FIG. 2( gamut compressions are not performed, because source image colors which cannot be printed by the printer system are never input into the system. Unprintable source image colors are never input to the printer system of FIG. 2 because this type of printer system does not allow an operator (e.g., a human operator) using the printer system to input colors which the image output device 25 is not capable of printing.
A color image having a sophisticated image description can be described by using existing page description languages such as those discussed in the following publications, all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference: S. Harrington et al., "Interpress: The Source Book," Simon & Schuster, New York (1988); "Interpress Electronic Printing Standard," XNSS 049601, Xerox Corporation (1986), and "Postscript Language Reference Manual," Adobe Systems, Inc., Mass, (1990). These languages can be used in a system such as the printer system shown in FIG. 2.
In the system shown in FIG. 2, a color image is constructed or built within an image buffer 23 from a number of simple image Primitives (also called picture elements) such as lines and/or characters. The construction of the source image in the image buffer 23 is carried out by an image primitive generator 21. The image primitive generator 21 assembles or constructs the color image by collecting various primitives within the image buffer 23. Once the construction of the color image within the image buffer 23 is completed, the contents of tho image buffer 23 are forwarded to an image output device 25 so that the constructed color image can be printed. The colors of the source image are considered twice: a first time when the primitives are entered into the image buffer and a second time when the contents of the image buffer are printed.
The printer system shown in FIG. 2 is limited in that an operator using the image primitive generator 21 may only generate primitives for storage in the image buffer 23 that have colors which the image output device 25 is capable of producing. Thus, the printer system of FIG. 2 does not require gamut compression circuitry because the source image gamut stored in the image buffer 13 is always within the printer gamut (i.e., the gamut of image output device 25). Further, because the image printer system shown in FIG. 2 uses only input primitives having colors within the color gamut of the image output device 25, the storage capacity of the image buffer 23 is such that the image buffer 23 only represents or stores those colors included within the printer gamut.
A drawback associated with the conventional printer system shown in FIG. 1 is that the source image gamut cannot be determined in real time (i.e., at the same time the source image is being input into the image buffer 13) or compressed in real time (i.e., at the same time the source image in being read from the image buffer 13). Instead, the source image gamut is determined by the gamut compression circuitry 17 only after the source image has been stored in the image buffer 13. Similarly, the source image is read out from the image buffer 13 only after the gamut of the source image has been compressed.
The printer system of FIG. 2 also has a drawback. In the printer system of FIG. 2, the selection of source image colors available to the operator as the operator is constructing the source image is limited by the characteristics of the image output device 25 and the image buffer 23. In other words, the source image constructed by the operator in the image buffer 23 may only be composed of colors which can be represented in the image buffer 23 and reproduced by the image output device 25.

Methods and apparatus for performing real time color gamut compressions


Methods, software, and apparatus for application transparent, high available GPU computing with VM checkpointing. The guest access of certain GPU resources, such as MMIO resources, are trapped to keep a copy of guest context per semantics, and/or emulate the guest access of the resources prior to submission to the GPU, while other commands relating to certain graphics memory address regions are trapped before being passed through to the GPU. The trapped commands are scanned before submission to predict: a) potential to-be-dirtied graphics memory pages, and b) the execution time of intercepted commands, so the next checkpointing can be aligned to a predicted execution time. The GPU internal states are drained by flushing internal context/tlb/cache, at the completion of submitted commands, and then a snapshot of the vGPU state is taken, based on tracked GPU state, GPU context (through GPU-specific commands), detected dirty graphics memory pages and predicted to-be dirtied graphics memory pages.

Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) are specialized electronic components originally designed for performing very high-speed operations pertaining to generating graphic images on computer displays. For example, modern computers include either a GPU on a motherboard or employ a graphics cards including a GPU (or in some cases multiple GPUs). Moreover, some GPUs are so complex and powerful that graphics cards designed for gaming applications may exceed both the cost and power consumption of the host computers they are used in. GPUs are also used to generate graphics for other types of devices, such as smartphones, and support such features as animation, hardware-based zooming, texture mapping, and screen rotation.
While modern GPUs are very efficient at manipulating computer graphics, their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for performing algorithms that process large blocks of data in parallel. Thus, in addition to use for GPU rendering, the use of GPUs in general purpose computing on GPU (GPGPU) computing is becoming more and more popular in many areas, such as the high-performance computing (HPC), image processing, packet filtering, weather broadcast, web technology and computer aided design (CAD). Some of these usages require fault-tolerance and high availability capability, such as for the real-time image processing and packet filtering.
Virtualization is commonly used in cloud-based environments, such as data centers. Under virtualization, compute resources in the data center can be used more efficiently and more flexibly. While software architectures to support virtualization of most computing resources (CPU, memory, storage I/O, network I/O, etc.), such as hypervisors or virtual machine managers (VMMs) is mature, virtualization of GPU resources presents additional challenges that are not well-addressed by existing hypervisors and VMMs, especially when talking about some complex virtualization features, such as VM replication.
Virtualization provides a means for addressing fault-tolerance and high availability requirements, which are traditionally implemented with hardware redundancy and/or software complexity. VM replication allows application-agnostic fail-over at the time of hardware failures, by replicating the state of a Primary VM (PVM) running on a primary node, to a Secondary VM (SVM) running on a secondary node.
Lock-stepping replicates VM state at the instruction level, i.e. PVM/SVM runs in parallel for deterministic instructions, while lock-step is used for non-deterministic instructions, with input events replicated into both VMs. However lock-stepping faces a big challenge for MP (multi-processor) guest situations, where memory accesses may be non-deterministic, thus lock-stepping becomes a performance bottleneck.
Checkpointing generates PVM snapshots to SVM periodically, with all output packets buffered until a successful checkpoint is completed in current epoch, such as Xen Remus (See, e.g., Cully, B., Lefebvre, G., Meyer, D., Feeley, M., Hutchinson, N., Warfield, A.: Remus: high availability via asynchronous virtual machine replication. In: Proceedings of the 5th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, NSDI 2008, pp. 161-174. USENIX Association, Berkeley (2008)). Such a design allows failover to the last snapshot against hardware failures, overcoming the issue of non-deterministic memory access in MP-guests. VM checkpointing works well for MP guest cases. However, the checkpointing solution works for software abstracted devices only, such as paravirtualized devices. Existing techniques in VM checkpointing can't be used to checkpoint dedicated pass-through devices (the device exclusively owned by one VM) and/or shared pass-through devices (the device shared by multiple VMs), where all or some of the resources are passed through to hardware directly without VMM intervention, and thus the device state is difficult to snapshot.
Fault-tolerance and high availability requirements are even more challenging for GPUs. Currently, there are no solutions that address these challenges.

Support for application transparent, high available GPU computing with VM checkpointing


An apparatus for inspecting a thickness or deteriorating situation of a coating layer formed on a surface of a container, which includes an inspecting light irradiating unit to irradiate an inspecting light to a container with a coating layer formed thereon, an image pickup unit to receive a reflected light or a transmission light of the inspecting light irradiated by the inspecting light irradiating unit and reflected from the container or passing through the container, and to convert the reflected light or the transmission light into an image pickup signal and to output same, and an determining unit to determine a thickness or a deteriorating situation of the coating layer formed on the container by inputting the image pickup signal outputted from the image pickup unit and comparing an image pickup data indicated by the image pickup signal with a prememorized standard data.

As a container used for filling beverages, for example, a container such as a bottle made of glass has been widely used.
Recently, the bottle mentioned above is to be lightened in weight in order to benefit convenience in transportation thereof. A means of forming a coating layer on the surface of the bottle is applied in order to prevent the bottle from weakening in strength due to the introduction of lightening the bottle in weight. Metal oxide coating layer such as SnO2 or TiO2 is formed by means of a so-called hot end coating process on the surface of the bottle for this purpose.
The hot end coating process is a technique in which a reaction gas is sprayed on the surface of the bottle, during the time when the surface thereof still has a relatively higher temperature prior to the application of a slow cooling thereto upon manufacturing the bottle, to form an oxide coating layer of SnO2 or TiO2 on the surface of the bottle.
The thickness of the coating layer should fall within a prescribed scope to maintain a mechanical strength (i.e., durability) of the bottle. With a thin coating layer outside the scope, bottles contact with each other upon transporting thereof to result in causing a scratch on the surface of the bottle so that it becomes difficult to maintain the desired strength of the bottle, thus cracking the bottle.
On the other hand, with a thick coating layer outside the scope, a rainbow-like pattern is produced on the surface of the bottle due to the interference of the light (especially, in a visible light range), which pattern looks like a oil film adhering on the surface of the bottle, to result in deteriorating a fine view, lowering the value of the commodity and wasting the reaction gas.
Accordingly, it is desirable to severely inspect the thickness of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle.
Conventionally, the inspection of the thickness of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle has been carried out by an apparatus for measuring the thickness thereof by means of contacting the bottle to be inspected (hereinafter referred to as a "contact-type measuring apparatus"), for example, a hot end coating meter manufactured by American Glass Research, Inc. Thereby the thickness of the coating layer is detected and measured by contacting a light emitting/sensoring device with the surface of the bottle.
However, in the contact-type measuring apparatus, it is necessary to adjust an angle of the light emitting/sensoring device so as to receive the maximum amount of the light. There is therefore a problem that it requires a well trained skill to measure the thickness of the coating layer, and furthermore, even a man of well trained skill has to take time to do the same.
Furthermore, in the contact-type measuring apparatus, silicone oil as an optical coupling fluid has to be immersed on the surface of the bottle when the light emitting/sensoring device is contacted with the bottle. It is therefore necessary to wipe out the immersion fluid after the thickness is measured. Because it takes time to wipe out the painted oil, the bottles used for measuring the thickness of the coating layer are discarded in general.
In general, the bottles are sampled to detect and measure the thickness of the coating layer in the manufacturing process of the bottles. It is therefore necessary to increase the number of the inspections in order to obtain the overall information about the situation of the coating layer of the manufactured bottles, thus increasing the number of bottles to be discarded, and lowering efficiency of the inspection.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 131,547/91 discloses a bottle to be recycled and repeatedly used with a coating layer formed on the surface thereof (which has a SnO2 coating layer of about 100 nm thickness)(hereinafter referred to as a "returnable bottle") so as to lighten the weight of the bottle for beverages like beer and increase the number of repetitive use.
However, the above-mentioned conventional contact-type measuring apparatus has a problem that it can measure only the thickness of the coating layer up to about 60 nm, it is impossible to detect and measure the thickness of the coating layer of about 100 nm mentioned above.
In addition, a bottle with a prescribed thickness of a coating layer formed on the surface thereof can be recycled and used, thus increasing the number of the repetitive use of the bottle. However, since the returnable bottle collected from the market is in general repetitively washed in a washing machine with the use of a heated alkaline solution (for example, 4% of a caustic soda aqueous solution at the temperature of 80.degree. C.), the coating layer on the surface of the bottle may be deteriorated by the heated alkaline solution.
Due to the deterioration of the coating layer, the surface of the bottle looks like a whitish, thus deteriorating a fine external view of the bottle to lower the value of the commodity as a bottled product, even if the bottle has a sufficient strength to be recycled and used.
More specifically, the coating layer, for example, the SnO2 coating layer has pinholes from 2 to 3 .mu.m in diameter therein from the beginning, as illustrated in FIG. 13(a). Then, the coating layer is repeatedly washed in the heated alkaline solution so that the pinholes gradually grow deeper and larger up to about 10 .mu.m in diameter, as illustrated in FIG. 13(b).
When the pinholes grow so large as mentioned above, a light passing through the bottle is scattered by the pinholes in the coating layer. Furthermore, when the number of the pinholes increase, the color of the coating layer turns gradually from an original pale gold to silver, thus lowering its transparency.
When the number of the pinholes increase more, the surface of the bottle becomes like a ground glass so that the overall or part of the surface of the bottle lose a shine, resulting in looking like a whitish. The bottles with remarkably deteriorated coating layer on the surface thereof have to be discarded even if they have a sufficient strength to be recycled.
The separation of the bottles with a deteriorated coating layer from those with a good coating layer has been carried out by an inspector by means of the observation with his eyes.
However, there is a problem in the detection of the deteriorated coating layer by means of the observation with the eyes that it is difficult to establish an objective index to identify the extent of the deterioration. Thus, the accuracy of the inspection has to be left to the subjective judgement of the respective inspectors themselves to cause a different result in the respective judgements. In addition, there is a problem that the observation with the eyes by the inspector inclines to causing an oversight or limits the inspecting speed.
The present invention is made to solve the above mentioned problems in the inspection of the thickness or deteriorating situation of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle.
More specifically, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for inspecting a coating layer, in which a thickness of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle can be measured without contacting the bottle, the inspection of the bottles can be carried out not to the selected sampling bottles but to all the bottles, and even a coating layer having a thick thickness can be measured.
Another purpose of the invention is to provide an apparatus and method for inspecting a coating layer, in which the deteriorating situation of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle can be automatically operated and differentiated on the basis of an objective standard, and a high inspecting speed is possible.

Apparatus and method for inspecting coating layer


Methods and apparatuses for predicting set of multi-dimensional dependent data and non-measurable data from a set of multi-dimensional historical dependent and causal data are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving input data that comprises multi-dimensional historical dependent data and causal data and anticipated activity data, determining a set of multi-dimensional predicted dependent data using a predictive model and the input data, creating non-measurable data based on the set of multi-dimensional predicted dependent data and the input data.

On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is a category of software technology that enables insight into enterprise data through access to a wide variety of views of the enterprise data. Enterprise data is a large collection of business data, such as historical sales data of commercial items based on such attributes as location, market, product, weather, etc. With the large amount of data available, an analyst typically seeks to discern trends or relationships in the business data, for example, how many units of a product sold over the summer in three Midwestern states. Typically, such a query in enterprise data is a laborious task. OLAP seeks to reduce the amount of time involved by pre-calculating common types of queries. The analyst uses the OLAP results to rapidly evaluate the desired historical relationships in data at a more meaningful level. OLAP reduces the enterprise data granularity by aggregating the enterprise data into larger aggregations. For example, if the enterprise data breaks down products sales at the store level for a particular chain, an OLAP pre-calculated query may only return the product sales for the chain.
OLAP has been used to analyze dependent data, such as, but not limited to, sales volume of product(s), revenue, profits, etc. The data for OLAP is typically organized into a volume cube representing sales volume of a product for different locations (or markets, depending on the granularity of the resulting aggregated volume data). OLAP operates across two large, general classes of data: dependent and causal. Dependent data is data that is determined by the values of the causal data. For example, sales volume of a product is a market at a point in time that may be the result of causal data (e.g. price, weather, advertising, etc.). Furthermore, OLAP uses causal data to develop insights into the factor affecting dependent data, such as product volume. OLAP simultaneously aggregates or determines dependent and causal data. For example, if OLAP aggregated volume in three Midwestern states, OLAP should also calculate an aggregate, or average price in those states. Causal data is a collection of data (e.g. price, advertising, weather, etc.) that affects the dependent data (e.g., sales, revenue, profits, etc.). OLAP is useful to an analyst because it provides the base data from which analysts may make their own predictions of future data by understanding past trends or relationships and drawing conclusions about the future through inference.
However, OLAP typically analyzes past trends and not future trends, because OLAP assumes the existence of historical data in the form of dependent and causal data in order to perform its analyses. In addition, OLAP reduces dependent data granularity by aggregating the dependent data with pre-calculated queries.

Creation and aggregation of predicted data


A power amplifying apparatus which is of a switching type and capable of efficiently amplifying a power of an input AC signal such as an acoustic signal, includes a first switch circuit (11) and a second switch circuit (12) to which a power supply voltage Vc is applied, an inductor (13) and a load (14) which are connected between the switch circuits, and a control circuit (15) which receives an input AC signal Vi, sets a predetermined ratio of ON/OFF periods, and drives the switch circuits. The control circuit (15) includes an arithmetic circuit (20) which multiplies a modulation sensitivity (for example, an amplitude of a triangular wave voltage used for generation of a pulse signal for driving a switch circuit) by a ratio (Vc/Ec) of the power supply voltage Vc and a DC component Ec thereof. This configuration can compensate for distortion caused by a ripple variation of the power supply voltage due to regenerated power or the like, and enable a gain control by the power supply voltage.

In driving an acoustic speaker, a linear power amplifying apparatus such as an A-class, B-class, or AB-class amplifying apparatus having a simple configuration is used popularly. In such a linear power amplifying apparatus, a power loss of the power amplifying apparatus itself is large in an operational principle, and heat generated by a power consumption of the power amplifying apparatus itself increases according to an increase in output power. For this reason, a large heat sink to diffuse the heat is disadvantageously necessary. Therefore, as a power amplifying apparatus having a large output power, a switching power amplifying apparatus called a D-class power amplifying apparatus has been used.
A power amplifying apparatus having a D-class amplification function turns on or off an output power switch which supplies a power to switch a positive power supply voltage, a zero voltage, or a negative power supply voltage and to generate the switched voltage between output terminals. An inaudible high-frequency band power is removed by a power low-pass filter (LPF) arranged between the output terminals and a load to supply only an audible band power to the load. In a switch-on state, although a current flows, and an inter-terminal voltage is very small. In an off state, although a voltage is applied, a passing current is almost zero. For this reason, all power consumptions, which are products of the voltages and the currents, of the switches themselves are small.
In such a power amplifying apparatus, an output AC (alternate current) signal Vo varies due to a variation in power supply voltage. As a method of solving the problem, for example, there is a technique (for example, see Patent Document 1) that proportionates an amplitude Et of a triangular wave voltage Vt for pulse width modulation of a drive pulse for turning on or off a power switch to a supply voltage Vc. In addition, as conventional arts, there are patent documents 2, 3 and 4.
As a technique related to a power amplifying apparatus having a D-class amplification function, as shown in FIG. 6A, a power amplifying apparatus for driving loads in four switch circuits having an H-shaped bridge configuration, so-called a bridge-tied load (to be referred to as a "BTL" hereinafter) is generally known. The configuration and the operation of the power amplifying apparatus shown in FIG. 6A will be briefly described below.
A first switch circuit 11 to which a DC power supply 10 supplies a voltage Vc is composed of a first high-side switch 111 and a first low-side switch 112 which are n-channel MOSFETs. Similarly, a second switch circuit 12 is composed of a second high-side switch 121 and a second low-side switch 122 which are N-channel MOSFETs. An output terminal of the first switch circuit 11, i.e., a connection point between the first high-side switch 111 and the first low-side switch 112 is defined as a terminal X, and an output terminal of the second switch circuit 12, i.e., a connection point between the second high-side switch 121 and the second low-side switch 122 is defined as a terminal Y. A series circuit of an inductor 13 and a load 14 is connected between the terminal X and the terminal Y.
A control circuit 150 controls the first switch circuit 11 and the second switch circuit 12, and includes a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit 40, a first drive circuit 51, and a second drive circuit 52. A signal source 16 outputs an input AC signal Vi.
The PWM circuit 40 converts the amplitude of an input AC signal Vi into a pulse width. An comparator 41 compares a triangular wave voltage Vt generated by a triangular wave generation circuit 300 with the input AC signal Vi to output the result as a signal M1. An inverter 42A inverts the signal M1 to output a signal M2.
The first drive circuit 51 includes an amplifier 511 which receives the signal M1 to drive the first high-side switch 111 and an inversion amplifier 512 which receives the signal M1 to drive the first low-side switch 112. The second drive circuit 52 includes an amplifier 521 which receives the signal M2 to drive the second high-side switch 121 and an inversion amplifier 522 which receives the signal M2 to drive the second low-side switch 122.
FIG. 6B is a timing chart of a conventional power amplifying apparatus constituted as described above.
As shown in FIG. 6B, a triangular wave voltage Vt increases and decreases between voltages ±Et having an amplitude Et in a cycle T. The cycle T is set to be sufficiently shorter than the change of the input DC signal Vi. The triangular wave voltage Vt and the input AC signal Vi are compared with each other by the comparator 41. An inverter 42 inverts the output signal M1 from the comparator 41 to generate a signal M2. The signal M1 goes to a high (H) level when the instantaneous value of the triangular wave voltage Vt is smaller than the instantaneous value of the input AC signal Vi, i.e., Vt(t)<Vi(t). A ratio δ (duty ratio) of the period in which the signal M1 is set at the H level to the cycle T is expressed by the following equation.δ=(1+Vi/Et)/2  (1)
The first high-side switch 111 is turned on or off depending on the signal M1, and the first low-side switch 112 is turned on or off depending on the inverted signal of the signal M1. More specifically, the first high-side switch 111 and the first low-side switch 112 in the first switch circuit 11 are alternately turned on or off. On the other hand, the second high-side switch 121 is turned on or off depending on the signal M2, and the second low-side switch 122 is turned on or off depending on the inverted signal of the signal M2. More specifically, the second high-side switch 121 and the second low-side switch 122 in the second switch circuit 12 perform on/off operations opposite to those in the first switch circuit 11, respectively.
Therefore, in a period in which the signal M1 is set at H level, the terminal X has a voltage Vc which is a voltage at one end of the DC power supply 10, and the terminal Y has a voltage 0, i.e. zero potential, which is a voltage at the other terminal of the DC power supply 10. In a period in which the signal M1 is at a low (L) level, the terminal X has zero potential, and the terminal Y has the power supply voltage Vc. The above switching operation is repeated in the cycle T of the triangular wave voltage Vt. The cycle T is set to be so short that a variation of the input AC signal Vi can be neglected. Thus, an average potential Vx of a pulse voltage generated at the terminal X and an average potential Vy at the other terminal Y are expressed by using the duty ratio δ of the signal M1, the following equations can be obtained:Vx=δVcVy=(1δ)Vc.
A smoothing function achieved by the inductor 13 generates a differential voltage between the average voltage Vx and the average voltage Vy across the terminals of the load 14. A voltage across the terminals, i.e., the output AC signal Vo is expressed by the following equation.Vo=Vx−Vy=(2δ−1)Vc  (2)
Equation (1) is assigned to equation (2) to obtainVo=(Vc/Et)δVi  (3).More specifically, the output AC signal Vo is equal to a voltage obtained by amplifying the input AC signal Vi, (Vc/Et) times.
In this manner, in the conventional technique shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the input AC signal Vi is modulated in pulse width by the PWM circuit 40 and amplified by an output section of the BTL, resulting in an overall gain of (Vc/Et). The value Et in equation (3) is a modulation sensitivity of a pulse modulation unit related to a part of the PWM circuit 40, and the value Vc is a gain element of the BTL output section.
A ripple variation caused by an output internal resistance when a large current is supplied to the load 14 or a ripple component remaining when a commercial power supply voltage is rectified is superposed on the voltage Vc of the DC power supply 10. In order to reduce the ripple variation or the ripple component, a circuit scale or a loss power has to be increased. In the configuration of the power amplifying apparatus in FIG. 6A, an amplification factor (Vc/Et) varies according to variation in Vc to increase level variation or distortion of the output AC signal Vo.
For improvement of the variation of the output AC signal Vo caused by the variation of the power supply voltage, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a technique that proportionates the amplitude Et of the triangular wave voltage Vt to the power supply voltage Vc is known. FIG. 7A shows a circuit diagram of a triangular wave generation circuit described in Patent Document 1 and an operation waveform chart of the circuit diagrams.
The configuration and the operation of the triangular wave generation circuit in FIG. 7A will be described below. In FIG. 7A, a terminal A1 is a terminal which receives a DC power supply voltage Vc, and is connected to a resistor R1. Alphabetical symbol "ADD" denotes an operational amplifier to which a resistor R2 and a resistor R3 are connected for providing an operation of an inverting amplifier. Alphabetical symbols "Cx" and "Cy" denote comparators. Alphabetical symbol "FF" denotes a flipflop. Alphabetical symbol "INT" denotes an operational amplifier to which a resistor R0 and a capacitor C0 are connected for providing an operation of an analog integrator. An output from the analog integrator INT is the triangular wave voltage Vt.
The gain of the operational amplifier ADD is sufficiently large and negative feedback is performed by the resistor R3, and thus the operational amplifier ADD operates such that a potential difference is rarely generated between the positive and negative input terminals. Hence the potential at a connection point G between the resistor R2 and the resistor R3 is a zero potential. Therefore, a potential Va2 at a connection point A2 between the resistor R1 and the resistor R2 is equal to a potential obtained by dividing the DC power supply voltage Vc by the resistor R1 and the resistor R2, and is expressed by the following equation.Va2=Vc·R2/(R1+R2)  (4)
If resistances of the resistor R2 and the resistor R3 are equal to each other, a potential Va3 at an output terminal A3 of the operational amplifier ADD is a potential obtained by inverting the potential at the connection point A2 as expressed by the following equation.Va3=−Va2=−Vc·R2/(R1+R2)  (5)
On the other hand, in the operational amplifier INT, the flipflop FF is set. As shown by the broken line in FIG. 7B, when an output Q (voltage at a connection point A4) is a positive predetermined voltage (Vf), the voltage Vf is integrated. As a result, an output Vt linearly decreases. On the other hand, when the flipflop FF is reset and the connection point A4 is a negative predetermined voltage (−Vf), the output Vt linearly increases. It is noted that in this case, when the output Vt is equal to the voltage (Va2) at the connection point A2, the flipflop FF is set by the comparator Cx. When the output Vt is equal to the voltage (−Va2) at a connection point A3, the flipflop FF is reset by the comparator Cy. Therefore, the output Vt is a triangular voltage which varies between voltages ±Va2. As described in equations (4) and (5), the amplitude of the triangular wave voltage is proportional to the power supply voltage Vc.
The voltage Et of equation (3) is equal to the voltage Va2 expressed by equations (4) and (5). Thus, the voltages Va2 of the equation (4) and equation (5) is assigned to the voltage Et of equation (3) to obtain the following equation.Vo=(Vc/Va2)·Vi=(1+R1/R2)·Vi  (6)
In this manner, when the amplitude of the triangular wave voltage Vt is made proportional to the power supply voltage Vc, the amplification factor of the D-class power amplifying apparatus can be made constant without being affected by the power supply voltage Vc.
<Patent Documents>
    Patent Document 1: JP,54-80657,A (see FIG. 4)    Patent Document 2: JP,60-190010,A    Patent Document 3: JP,2002-64983,A    Patent Document 4: JP,61-39708,A    Patent Document 5: JP,3-159409,A

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A mass localization device includes a catheter and a needle. In one embodiment, the catheter includes inner and outer walls spaced from each other and creating a gap between the walls extending along substantially the entire length of the catheter. The distal portion of the outer wall includes an inflatable balloon. In use, the balloon is positioned proximate the mass and inflated to make the mass palpable. An incision to the mass can be achieved by the shortest possible distance since the mass is made palpable.

Locating masses or tumors in human tissue is necessary for a biopsy of the suspicious mass and subsequent removal. Sometimes it is possible to locate a mass merely by touching the skin above and around the suspicious area. However, often the mass is too small to be noticed by hand or is located in fatty tissue that interferes with determining the precise location of the mass. A specific example of the latter case is the location of small breast masses or calcifications.
Typically, the precise location of these types of masses can only be determined by x-ray analysis, using specialized instrumentation prior to a surgical operation to locate the mass to be removed. Typically, a very thin needle is inserted into the breast down to the mass under x-ray control (mammography). Once it is determined by x-ray control that the tip of the needle is located at the mass site, the patient is transported to an operating room, where the surgeon creates an incision in the breast by following along the path of the inserted needle with a scalpel until reaching the mass. This method often involves a very long incision and increases the risk of post-operative infection.
An alternate method of creating an incision to gain access to or remove a breast mass is to study x-rays of the breast mass taken from various angles. Based upon experience and notional extrapolation of the views from different angles of the breast mass, an incision is made in an attempt to cut along the most direct path to the mass.
Several devices exist for localizing masses in human tissue. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,682,606 to DeCaprio, 3,890,970 to Gullen, and 3,598,119 to White.
The DeCaprio patent discloses a surgical needle which is inserted into a located mass and encircled by a cork screw device. The cork screw device is twisted around the mass until the tip of the worm of the screw is just beyond the furthest side of the mass. Thereafter, the handle of the cork screw device is withdrawn and a guiding extension rod is replaced to direct the surgeon to the depth of the mass in the patient's tissue. Then, a cutting instrument is inserted over the extension rod for removing the mass from the tissue.
The Gullen patent discloses a surgical cannula for delivery of paracervical anaesthesia. The cannula includes a catheter having a closed distal end with a perforated membrane. The distal end is firm and sharp enough to be inserted into body tissue to a predetermined depth, as limited by a stop member. A thin membranous ballooning portion is provided proximate the distal end of the catheter for expansion upon application of a fluid pressure within the catheter to lock the cannula in place in the tissue. The device is left in the tissue of the patient by the ballooning portion to provide periodic supply of fluid anaesthesia during a surgical procedure.
Similar to the patent to Gullen, the White patent discloses a medical instrument for use in gynecological procedures to allow the administration of a paracervical block, continuously or intermittently, with only a single placement. The device comprises an elongated hollow tube having an open distal end and receiving a needle for guiding the device into tissue. An inflatable bladder is provided near the distal end of the hollow tube for retaining the device in the tissue and minimizing trauma associated with the procedure.
The prior art devices discussed above provide a procedure for retaining a catheter type instrument in the tissue of a patient, but fail to provide a procedure for precisely identifying a mass within the tissue. Moreover, the prior art devices are of an insufficient size to accurately locate a mass within breast tissue prior to surgery.


Systems and methods directed to the art of connectors and assembling structures, such as securing rail members together to form an assembled structure. A connector system capable of inducing a clamping stress in a connector and thereby securing at least one rail within the connector. The connector has a plurality of channel openings and a plurality of brace members extending outward from the connector and between the plurality of channel openings, each brace member has at least one brace aperture therethrough, and each brace member faces one other brace member with the respective brace member apertures aligned.

The present invention relates to connectors for paneling, fences, buildings and more particularly to connectors for quickly erecting and building permanent/non-permanent fences and structures.
Prior art joints and connectors have been well known and have been used in construction projects. Examples of such structures include fences, barriers, and frames for buildings, such as barns or storage sheds. Generally, the connectors are designed for quickly and easily building such structures. However, the prior art connectors have shortcomings, such as being overly cumbersome, having a complicated connection system, or lacking sufficient strength required for permanent structures.
For example, FIG. 1 shows a prior art connector used for connecting temporary fencings structures. While this type of connector can be used to quickly erect a temporary fence, it does not provide a solid connection for a permanent fencing structure. In general, prior art connectors tend not to be able to sufficiently provide resistance against forces, including moment resistance, linear/translational, and friction forces, that act on the joint or connector when the fence or structure is erected. That is, when a fence or building is erected, the forces act on the connector in opposing manners such that the connector does not adequately provide a stable structure.
Ideal joints or connectors to overcome these issues are metal joints that are welded joints, e.g. metal welded joints. However, welded joints are not quickly and simply capable of erecting a structure, as they do, in fact, require welding for proper fastening.


An electronically servo-assisted gearshift actuates a multiple gear-shifting that moves a chain from a current toothed wheel to a target toothed wheel not immediately adjacent to the current toothed wheel in a gearshift group having at least three toothed wheels. Actuating the multiple gear-shifting takes several steps (i) actuating a single gear-shifting to move the chain to a toothed wheel immediately adjacent to the current toothed wheel in the gear-shifting direction, and (ii) repeating step (i) until the immediately adjacent toothed wheel is the target toothed wheel.

A bicycle gearshift comprises 1) a chain and toothed wheel system that transmits motion from the axle of the pedal cranks to a bicycle driving-wheel; and 2) means for selecting the toothed wheels with which the chain is engaged to change the motion transmission ratio.
A rear gearshift group is usually associated with the rear wheel hub of the bicycle. The group comprises at least two toothed wheels (also known as sprockets), a guide element for the chain (specifically, a rear derailleur or simply gearshift), and a control mechanism that displaces the guide element for the chain in the axial direction of the gearshift group so that the chain engages a predetermined toothed wheel in response to a manual manipulation of levers attached to the bicycle handlebars. A displacement from a toothed wheel with a smaller diameter to a toothed wheel with a larger diameter is indicated as "upward gear-shifting," whereas a displacement from a toothed wheel with a larger diameter to a toothed wheel with a smaller diameter is indicated as "downward gear-shifting." These terms are not the same and should not be confused with "up-shifting" and "down-shifting."
Similarly, a front gearshift group is usually associated with the axle of the pedal cranks of the bicycle, and comprises 1) at least two toothed wheels also known as crowns or gears; 2) a guide element for the chain also known as front derailleur or derailleur, and 3) an actuator to displace the guide element for the chain.
Either the front gearshift group or the rear gearshift group can be replaced by a single toothed wheel, although this is less common in the rear gearshift group.
The mechanical gearshift's command mechanism comprises a steel cable slidably extending in a sheath ("Bowden cable") between a manually actuated lever and the guide element for the chain. The actuation of the lever in a first direction exerts a traction on the guide element for the chain through the steel cable, whereas the actuation of the lever in a second, opposite direction exerts a thrust on the guide element for the chain through the steel cable, or rather it leaves the cable and the guide element for the chain free to be drawn by a return spring. The size of the displacement of the steel cable is set so that the stroke of the guide element for the chain is essentially equal to the distance or pitch between two adjacent toothed wheels of the gearshift group.
In an electronically servo-assisted gearshift, the command mechanism of the guide element for the chain comprises an actuator generally having an electric motor, and a lever system. An electronic control unit is also provided. The electronic control unit drives the actuators in order to carry out the gear-shiftings in a manual, automatic or semi-automatic mode. In the manually operated travel mode, the transmission ratio is input to the electronic control unit by the user through manual input means. In the automatically operated travel mode, the electronic control unit establishes the transmission ratio based upon an evaluation logic of the travel conditions. In the semi-automatically operated travel mode, the operation is a compromise between the manual and fully automatic.
The electronic control unit controls the actuators using logic positions ("logic values") representing the physical positions of the various toothed wheels. These logic values are stored in suitable memory means.
In the rear and/or front gearshift group there can also be a transducer to detect the position of the actuator (and therefore of the guide element for the chain) and transmit the position to the electronic control unit.
Electronically servo-assisted bicycle gearshifts of the aforementioned type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,480,356, 5,470,277 and 5,865,454, and in European Patent Application EP 1 103 456, all assigned to or in the name of Campagnolo S.r.l.; and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,230 to Spencer et al. and German Patent Application No. DE 39 38 454 A1 to Ellsässer.
EP 1 103 456 describes a gearshift in which absolute type position transducers provide an electric signal indicating the absolute position of the derailleurs, so that after being switched (back) on, such transducers take into account the actual position of the derailleurs. This position could have slightly moved when the transducer was switched off because of vibrations caused during transportation.
Sometimes a rider needs to make a multiple gear-shifting, that is, move the chain from the toothed wheel (of the rear or front gearshift group) with which it is engaged—or current toothed wheel—to a toothed wheel not immediately adjacent to it. If this multiple gear-shifting moves the chain to a toothed wheel with a larger diameter, the process is called multiple upward gear-shifting; if it moves the chain to a toothed wheel with a smaller diameter, it is called multiple downward gear-shifting. Multiple gear-shifting using a mechanical command gearshift requires a single actuation of the lever (often for a longer time than for a single gear-shifting), or many actuations in quick succession. In either case, the actuation(s) impose(s) a displacement of the Bowden cable that moves the guide element for the chain equal to twice or three times the pitch between two adjacent toothed wheels (and thus moves the chain). In practice, displacing the chain guide element over greater than two or three times the pitch between two adjacent toothed wheels is difficult. Thus, the multiple gear-shifting is limited to a double or triple gear-shifting.
A solution that might be suitable for electronically commanded gearshifts is using an electronic control unit that, to carry out multiple gear-shifting, drives the actuator in a single step based upon the logic position representing the physical position of the target toothed wheel.
FIGS. 3 and 4 show the prior art for this. FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the prior art where the main elements of the motion transmission system are shown. These are the toothed wheels of the rear gearshift group, indicated by reference numerals 11a-11i, the rear guide element or gearshift 14, the toothed wheels of the front gearshift group, of which only the outermost toothed wheel with the largest diameter is visible, the front guide element or derailleur 15, and the chain 13. The position of the gearshift 14 and of the chain 13 at the moment of a multiple gear-shifting from the toothed wheel 11c to the toothed wheel 11f is illustrated (i.e. a triple upwards gear-shifting, in this example), as carried out according to the prior art.
FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a view from the back side of the bicycle 1. Therefore, only the toothed wheels 11a-11i of the rear gearshift group 9, the rear guide element or gearshift 14 and the chain 13 can be seen. More specifically, the initial positions (to the right) and the end positions (to the left) of the gearshift 14 and of the chain 13, as well as the intermediate position of the chain 13 at the moment of a multiple gear-shifting from the toothed wheel 11c to the toothed wheel 11f carried out according to the prior art are illustrated.
The chain 13, drawn to move in the way X of the direction of axis A, is arranged at a large angle ALFA (formed between the plane of extension of the chain 13 and the planes of the toothed wheels 11), and is askew with respect to the intermediate toothed wheels 11d, 11e. This severe angle can cause the chain 13 to lose traction and/or get caught in the intermediate toothed wheels 11d, 11e, with the result that the rider can lose balance and fall. Moreover, the gearshift can be subject to mechanical damage. These problems are exacerbated during upward multiple gear-shifting.

Method for carrying out a multiple gear-shifting in an electronically servo-assisted bicycle gearshift and related gearshift