A stabilizing device for a supercavitating vehicle that isolates re-entrant jet flows of liquid from its cavity. The device has a receiving means positioned on the supercavitating vehicle where the re-entrant jet flow impinges on the supercavitating vehicle. An exit means is joined to the receiving means for carrying the received re-entrant jet flow out of interference with the cavity. The exit means includes an exhaust nozzle joined to the aft of the supercavitating vehicle and a re-entrant jet nozzle positioned in communication between the receiving means and said exhaust nozzle transferring said received re-entrant jet flow into the exhaust nozzle. This stabilizes the cavity and improves controllability and maneuverability of the supercavitating vehicles while also reducing the gas ventilation required to maintain the cavity. Furthermore, this reduces self-generated noise allowing improved operation of acoustical sensors incorporated in the vehicle.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present-invention relates generally to high-speed underwater vehicles. More particularly, this invention relates to stabilization of cavitating flows past high speed underwater vehicles to improve performance.
(1) Description of the Prior Art
Currently, high-speed underwater vehicles can be used in offensive and defensive roles. Often they may be designed to reduce drag by generating enough gas to envelope them in a gas filled cavity. These vehicles have been referred to as supercavitating vehicles, and enveloping them in a gas-filled cavity improves speed and maneuverability, and provides other favorable capabilities. FIG. 1 schematically shows a representative rocket-propelled, supercavitating body, or vehicle 10 capable of operating in the re-entrant jet regime. Supercavitating vehicle 10 has a forebody 12 and midbody 14, and nose portion 16 of forebody 12 has a cavitator 18 that is associated with cavity 20. Cavity 20 starts at the low-pressure point. In the case shown, this is at the salient edges of cavitator 18. Cavitator 18 is sized to generate cavity 20 at the design speed, design depth and design cavity pressure of supercavitating vehicle 10. Consequently, cavity 20 almost completely envelops vehicle 10 to reduce the total drag of vehicle 10 by significant reduction of the drag component attributed to skin friction. For most practical cases of interest, maintenance of the designed cavity pressure of cavity 20 will require ventilation of the cavity by an internal gas source (not shown) that vents gas through ventilation ports 22 in forebody 12 at nearly the same hydrostatic pressure as the ambient fluid, or water 100, at the designed operating depth of vehicle 10.
The configuration of vehicle 10 incorporates nozzle extender, or blast tube 26 that locates exit plane 28 of propulsion nozzle 30 in some optimal location with respect to the aftermost point, or transom 14a of midbody 14. It is important that cavity 20 be maintained large enough to envelope fore and midbodies 12 and 14 of vehicle 10 for satisfactory operation of supercavitating vehicle 10. Entrainment of vented gases by propulsion plume 34 expelled through propulsion nozzle 30 tends to stabilize dimensions of cavity 20 over an expected range of operating conditions. Moreover, impingement of re-entrant jet 102 of ambient water 100 on aftward face, or transom 14a of midbody 14 can result in additional drag reduction beyond that already associated with operation in the supercavitation regime.
The configuration of supercavitating vehicle 10 may be subject to variation. These variations can be in the relative lengths of forebody 12, midbody 14, and nozzle extender 26. Variations can also be made in the transverse dimensions of cavitator disc 18, midbody 14, nozzle extender 26, and propulsion nozzle 30, and the profiles of forebody 12 and propulsion nozzle 30. In addition, nozzle extender 26 could be boat-tailed, and appropriate tailoring can be performed with respect to the configurations and arrangements of the cavitator 18, ventilation ports 22, the dimensions of cavity 20, the operational conditions, and other design dimensions and parameters, as part of the design of vehicle 10. Such variations of these parameters are not significant for the invention to be described below, nor are any variations associated with the shapes of control surfaces, appendages, sensors, and any geometrical features intended to account for gravitational effects on the shape or extent of cavity 20.
Closures of hydrodynamic cavities in flows of liquids for which the freestream velocity has a horizontal component fall generally into one of three categories: (1) oscillating re-entrant jets; (2) toroidal vortex shedding; and, (3) twin-vortex flow systems. The type of closure that is observed for a particular flow depends on the cavitation number (the flow parameter characterizing the tendency to maintain a cavity) and the Froude number (the flow parameter characterizing the relative importance of fluid inertia and gravitational acceleration). Vehicles, such as vehicle 10, that are designed to run in a supercavitating condition for reduced drag are often provided with a gas ventilation system to maintain a cavity of sufficient dimensions to envelope most of the body. The rate of ventilation required to maintain the cavity is dependent on the cavity closure type: high flow rates are required in the twin-vortex regime in which gas easily exits the cavity via the vortex system, moderate flow rates are required in the toroidal vortex shedding regime in which gas is entrained by the ambient liquid in a series of coherent vortices, and relatively low flow rates are required in the oscillating re-entrant jet regime in which gas entrainment by the main flow of liquid is impeded by the complicated interaction between the liquid flowing through the re-entrant jet and the liquid just outside the boundary of the cavity. Even in the oscillating re-entrant jet regime, the required ventilation rate can be significant since the re-entrainment of liquid is associated with a secondary re-entrainment of the ventilation gases.
For many applications, supercavitating vehicles are restricted to operations in the re-entrant regime due to constraints on the cavitation and Froude numbers. However, re-entrant jet flows of liquid are inherently unsteady, because liquid entering the gas cavity via the jet must disturb the cavity boundary to exit the system back into the main flow. Such unsteadiness can cause control problems, can limit the maneuverability of the vehicle, and can be associated with increased self-generated noise levels for any onboard acoustical sensors.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for a device to stabilize the cavitating flows past self-propelled high-speed supercavitating vehicles, such as torpedoes and other supercavitating high-speed bodies for improving controllability and maneuverability, reducing gas ventilation rates needed to maintain cavities, and reducing self-generated noise for incorporated acoustical sensors.

Device for stabilizing re-entrant cavity flows past high-speed underwater vehicles

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


An electronic musical apparatus is of a data processing type and is connectable to an external server via a communication network. The apparatus comprises a display screen, item selecting keys arranged around the display screen, and a communication device to connect with the server via the communication network. The apparatus transmits a connection request to a server, receives a list of available service items from the server, displays the list for selection on the display screen, permits the user to select from the list an intended service by operating the item selecting key, transmits a request of the selected service, and receives from the server the service corresponding to the transmitted request.

In order for a conventional electronic musical apparatuses to receive a service from a server apparatus on a communication network, the electronic musical apparatus should be connected by a cable to a personal computer, which in turn accesses the server apparatus via the communication network. Recently, however, there are desires among users that an electronic musical apparatus be able to make an access to a server apparatus on the communication network and receive services therefrom without the aid of a personal computer. In order to meet such desires, an electronic musical apparatus per se should be provided with functions of displaying screen images based on the screen image data as generated by and supplied from the server apparatus. For example, such functions may include a Web site browsing function to look into Web (World Wide Web) pages created using, for example, the Hypertext Markup Language. See unexamined Japanese patent publication No. 2003-255934.
However, the display screen of an electronic musical apparatus is usually of such a small area as compared with the display screen of a personal computer that a conventional Web page would be almost illegible on the display screen. In addition, a conventional electronic musical apparatus is not equipped with a mouse control so that the user should move the pointer on the screen using cursor keys. Thus, the operation on the screen of the apparatus to designate the URL (uniform resource locator) of the link destination would be accordingly hard in accessing the link destination to fetch the intended data to exhibit the Web page content on the display screen based on the fetched data.
On the other hand, some of the electronic musical apparatuses employ a GUI (graphical user interface) system for the user to control the apparatus by designating intended functions or operations of the apparatus. With such a GUI system, indication elements of graphical representations of options are displayed for selection on the display screen so that the user can select an intended one by visually recognizing the displayed indication elements and by operating the selecting control (e.g. a selecting key) located near (i.e. corresponding to) the intended indication element on the display screen.

Electronic musical apparatus displaying network service items for selection and computer program therefor


A light scattering photometer signal-enhancement systems includes an adaptive sample and subtract circuit controlled by a computer or microcontroller (MCU). The MCU controls the gain of a programmable-gain amplifier (PGA) cascade that is used to amplify the raw photometer signal. In order to maintain the DC accuracy, the DC offset contained in the raw signal from the photometer is estimated by an algorithmic within the MCU and then subtracted from the raw signal before allowing it to be amplified by the PGA cascade. In addition to DC estimation and adaptive cancellation, the MCU applies a digital filtering scheme to compensate irrelevant frequency bands in the amplified signal and offers user determined averaging functions for additional signal conditioning. Moreover, hardware filters are used to prevent signal aliasing by the analog to digital converters (ADC) and a 60 Hz notch filter suppresses general electrical noise.

The field of the invention is signal enhancement of photo detector outputs as seen, for example, in aerosol particle detection and measurement systems. In particular, the present invention is related to enhancement of electrical signals for the detection of light detected by a photodiode and more specifically by light detected by a photodiode as the result of light scattering from a concentration of aerosol particles.
Examples of systems in the background art that use photodetectors include, but are not limited to, optical character recognition systems, communication systems medical imaging sensors, laser range finders, radiation detectors, smoke detectors, position sensors and proximity sensors. In all of these background art systems, a photodetector is used to measure light or radiation in terms of an electrical signal that is processed in various ways to produce a useful information output. In a particular example from the background art, a beam of collimated light, which may or may not be coherent, is directed through a transparent cell in which particles suspended in fluid mixtures are made to pass. Photodetectors are then used to detect the relative amount of light that is scattered or blocked by the particles. The signals generated by the photodetector contain information about the concentration of particles, size of particles, and/or presence of particles.
The type of photodetector used depends on the sensitivity requirements of the device. A photo-multiplier tube is the most sensitive (and costly) method that is currently available. A photo-multiplier can detect the presence of a single photon with nanosecond resolution. However, photo-multiplier tubes are very costly to manufacture and are easily damaged. Additionally they have very high voltage requirements and therefore tend to be used in laboratories rather than in commercial applications.
One alternative to using a photo-multiplier tube is to use a photodiode and a transimpedance amplifier. In contrast to a photo-multiplier, photodiodes are inexpensive, rugged, small, and operate at low voltages.
Another background art device that is used to measure aerosol particle size and concentration is called a light scattering photometer or nephelometer. Applications that require particularly sensitive measurements require photo-multiplier-based photometers.
When the sensitivity requirements of the application do not justify the use of a photo-multiplier tube, a photodiode-based device is preferred due to the reduced cost. However, background art photodiodes are not as sensitive as photo-multiplier tubes and are prone to noise problems associated with electrical amplification.
The sensitivity of a photodiode device is in part a function of the gain of a transimpedance amplifier associated with the photodiode device. The amplified signals contain useful information pertaining to the amount of light reaching the photo detector. However, due to the inherent properties of the photo detector and amplifier circuits, the amplified signal also contains additional factors such as offset voltage potential, noise generated by ambient light and electromagnetic interference. These additional factors have the effect of limiting the possible gain of the amplifier stages before reaching saturation. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a low-cost photodiode-based detector with improved gain and sensitivity.

Signal-enhancement system for photodetector outputs


A brush for a pill handling apparatus and an associated pill handling apparatus and method are provided. The brush defines a non-circular profile and agitates the pills when rotated. For example, the brush can be rotatably mounted proximate a rotary slat of the pill handling apparatus so that the brush is configured to seat the pills into the receptacles of the apparatus, such as into receptacles defined by one or more rotary slats. Multiple brushes can be provided in a single pill handling apparatus, e.g., to define therebetween a reservoir for holding the pills.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pill handling machines and, more particularly, relates to an apparatus and an associated method for handling pills with one or more brushes for controlling the movement of the pills.
2) Description of Related Art
Pharmaceutical medicines and associated packaging apparatuses are typically subject to relatively strict consumer protection guidelines. For example, pills, capsules, and the like, must be produced and packaged in such a way as to at least meet the minimum sterility requirements mandated by federal regulations. In addition, the pills should be delivered into the packaging such that the contents accurately meet the claimed labeling "count", i.e., so that each package includes exactly a predetermined number of pills. Notwithstanding the above, it is also desired to package the product in an automated operation to offset costs and provide an economic product.
In the past, pill filling machines have been proposed that provide automated bottle counts by filling a hopper with pills and causing a plurality of the pills to be caught by a pill capturing device, such as an array of rotary slats. The rotary slats drop the captured pills into a plurality of bottles disposed in alignment with the dropping pills. The bottles are distributed along an endless conveyor belt that is timed to advance and stop the bottles according to the filling operation.
Conventional pill capturing devices more particularly include a series of rotary slats each configured to receive, hold, and move a plurality of capsules or pills along a closed path. Each rotary slat is typically a disc-like device that is fixed on a rotatable shaft and has a plurality of openings in the outer peripheral edge portion thereof for capturing individual pills. Accordingly, the closed path is arcuate and generally disposed between the pill hopper and a discharge area above the conveyor belt. By the rotary action of the slats, the pills move in a direction normal to the conveyor belt. The pill capturing device then generally discharges the pills by rotating the slats, which move corresponding to the closed path, such that the pills fall out of the respective openings at the filling station. The pills are often funneled through a chute that empties into a corresponding bottle.
The "count," or number of pills in the bottle, can be determined by positioning the bottles in the pill dropping zone for a predetermined time. The duration of the filling operation for each bottle corresponds to the number of openings in each slat that the machine is capable of delivering to the bottles per unit of time. The duration of the filling operation, speed of the rotary slats, and configuration of the pill capturing device are used to calculate the count.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,901 to Aylward, titled "Positive Count Rotary Slat Packaging Apparatus and Related Methods," provides an improved machine with independently driven rotary slats. The pills are allowed to fall from a reservoir into an exterior receptacle of a rotary slat and, a separate counting device is associated with each rotary slat for counting each pill as it falls from the slat into the container. A positive count is provided for each container, and improperly filled slats will not affect the total count for that container. That is, if a particular container has a low count, the respective slat can be further rotated to fill the container. Because the slats are independently driven, the other slats can remain stationary to prevent overfilling. Thus, the machine permits an accurate filling of each bottle.
Although the slats can be independently driven to achieve a desired count in each container, it is typically desirable to dispense pills from most or all of the receptacles to minimize the rotation necessary for filling the container and thereby minimize the time required for filling the container. In this regard, FIGS. 1 and 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,901 illustrate a cylindrical brush 24 that rotates in the same direction as the slats 15 so that the bottom surface of the brush rotates against the direction of the surface of the slats. This round brush works to help seat the captured pills 11 into the opening 18 and also to divert additional pills from the delivery path. This device has proven to operate very well; however, occasionally pills may fail to fall into the openings or may become jammed in or fall through the area 13 where the bottom of the reservoir 12 meets the rotating slats.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved pill handling device that facilitates the delivery of pills into receptacles. The handling device should reduce or minimize the occurrence of jamming of the pills and increase or maximize the placement of the pills in the receptacles to thereby increase the efficacy of the device.

Apparatus and methods for handling pills


A method is provided, which includes reading data from a data storage medium. Reading data from the medium causes the data to be erased. The method further includes determining a desired position to rewrite the data by computing a position error signal based on the data signal and compensating the position error signal for non-zero bias. The data is then rewritten non-synchronously. An apparatus is also provided, including a data storage medium with a data communication transducer configured to receive data from the medium. Data is erased after it is read. The data communication transducer is configured to rewrite the read data back onto the data storage medium in a non-synchronously. A non-zero bias compensator is provided to compensate data received by the data communication transducer to determine a desired position to rewrite the previously read data back onto the medium.

In data storage systems, digital data are written to and read from data storage media. One well-known type of data storage system is a disk drive, which reads and writes information along concentric tracks formed on disks. Read and write operations are performed through a transducer, which is typically carried on a slider body. To locate a particular track on a disk, disk drives typically use embedded servo fields on the disk. These embedded fields are utilized by a servo subsystem to position a transducer such as read/write head over a particular track. In a disk drive, the servo subsystem includes a controller that is attached to the transducer to control its spatial position by moving it according to its input position error signal (PES).
Another type of data storage system is known as a probe storage system, which reads and writes information using multiple transducers that read stored data from storage material. Like magnetic disk drives, probe storage devices use servo marks to locate data stored on the medium. In some instances, the data stored in these devices is rewritten after each read. Once the data stored on this type of material is read, that specific data will be erased, including the servo marks used to identify the position of the data. The write process is executed by the ordinary write transducer in a non-synchronous method. For example, multiple tracks of servo marks are written on the medium and they are written consecutively, instead of concurrently. Due to such non-synchronous writing, the data may not be rewritten back exactly at the expected position Examples of the type of factors that may influence the positioning of the data transducer when attempting to write data onto the medium include electrical or electronics noise and jitter noise.
Thus, there is a need for systems and methods for interfacing with a data storage medium to compensate for the effects of non-synchronous writing.

Compensating the effects of non-synchronous writing of erasable servo marks


A vibration damper includes a cylinder to which a clamp-shaped attachment part is fastened, wherein the attachment part has a tubular body which contacts an outer lateral surface of the cylinder and has at both ends thereof radial tabs which are spaced apart in circumferential direction and by which a pre-loading in circumferential direction is introduced in the tubular body by clamping devices, wherein the tubular body has an elongation portion oriented in circumferential direction of the lateral surface of the cylinder.

A vibration damper to which a clamp-shaped attachment part is fastened is known from DE 10 2009 001 256 A1. The vibration damper comprises a cylinder with a circular cross section. The clamp-shaped attachment part is arranged on a lateral surface of the cylinder. In unclamped condition of the attachment part, two radial tabs form a gap with an acute angle. When a predetermined clamping force is applied by means of clamping screws, the two tabs move together so that the angle decreases. In a tubular body of the attachment part, a clamping is applied in circumferential direction of the tubular body by this clamping movement of the tabs. This clamping provides for a retaining force of the attachment part at the cylinder. An additional expansion of the diameter of the cylinder for axial support of the attachment part is unnecessary in this case.
A basic problem exists in that the uneven clamping distribution between tubular body and cylinder leads to clamping peaks which may exceed strength values of the cylinder in some cases.

Vibration damper with a clamp-shaped attachment part


Apparatus and methods for measuring activity of radioactivity at a source location within an environment provided. The method in particular includes measuring emissions using an instrument as a measurement location, which instrument includes a detector, the instrument considering a detector field of view of the environment, which field of view includes a source location and providing an indication of detected emissions for that field of view, correcting the detected emissions to give emitted emissions in respect of that field of view, the correction being achieved by using a correction factor specific for that field of view, the correction factor accounting for one or more field of view format and/or the attenuation between the source location and the detector and/or the distance between the source location and the detector, the emitted emissions being indicative of the activity.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with improvements in and relating to investigations of radioactivity, particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to measurement of activity and/or the quantity of radioactive material present at one or more locations.
2. The Relevant Technology
Techniques are known for investigating environments to map the locations of radioactive emitters and/or identify the radioactive emitters present within the environment. In basic terms the information provided to the operator indicates the emissions detected by the detection instrument. Whilst this is informative in many cases, it is desirable to be able to estimate the actual quantity of radioactive material present at locations within the environment. This may be expressed as a mass or more normally in terms of an activity at a location. To be able to achieve this, the emissions emitted must be determined rather than relying on a measurement of the emissions. Intervening effects on the emissions between emission and detection are not generally quantified in existing techniques, particularly in the widely varying environments and circumstances encountered by survey instruments.


An bit-plane coding pass generator is provided in which for SP-pass processing quantization coefficient of each code block divided into bit planes, “significant (S)” or “non-significant (N)” data in a predetermined area and those around the area and compared with an S/N matching pattern. The S/N matching pattern has been set when a jump can be made from an arbitrary sample point to a next sample point to be processed by SP pass. The jump is made to the next sample point to be processed by SP pass according to a jump address value obtained from a pattern coincident with a current S/N matching pattern. Thus, by reducing the time for the significant propagation (SP) pass defined in JPEG-2000, a code block can be coded at a higher speed by three coding passes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image coding apparatus and method for compressing an image by wavelet transform and entropy coding as in JPEG-2000 for example, a program for allowing a computer to perform image coding, and a recording medium having the program recorded therein.
This application claims the priority of the Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-236620 filed on Aug. 14, 2002, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the typical image compression standards is JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) standardized by the ISO (International Standards Organization). This is well known for assuring quality coding and decoding of an image and coded image, respectively, when comparatively many bits are assigned to the image using the discrete cosine transform (DCT). However, when the number of coding bits is reduced to more than a certain extent, the block skew peculiar to DCT will become noticeable and image degradation will also be noticeable subjectively.
Recently, there have actively been studied the techniques of dividing an image by a filter, called "filter bank", formed from a combination of a high-pass filter and low-pass filter into a plurality of frequency bands and coding the image with respect to each divided band. Of these techniques, the wavelet transform coding is regarded as a new most promising technique which can take the place of DCT because it is free from the noticeable block skew caused by DCT when an image is highly compressed.
For example, JPEG-2000 internationally standardized completely in January, 2001 adopts a combination of the wavelet transform and high-efficiency entropy coding (bit modeling in units of a bit plane and arithmetic coding) and has been considerably improved in efficiency of coding as compared with the conventional JPEG.
In an image encoder to compress an image by coding as in JPEG-2000, an input image is divided into a plurality of subbands by making wavelet transform of the image, and a wavelet transform coefficient is quantized for each of the subbands. Then, a quantization coefficient thus determined for each subband is divided into coding blocks, namely, units of entropy coding, each having a predetermined size of about 64×64, for example, and the quantization coefficient in units of a coding block is modeled by coefficient bit.
The coefficient bit modeling will be explained in detail below. It should be noted that the coefficient bit modeling will be described taking the entropy coding called "embedded coding with optimized truncation (EBCOT)" defined in JPEG-2000 as an example. The "EBCOT" is referred in detail to the publication "ISO/IEC 15444-1, Information Technology—JPEG 2000, Part 1: Core coding system" etc.
Prior to the explanation of EBCOT, the concept of a bit plane will first be explained with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1(A) shows a quantization coefficient assumed to include sixteen coefficients (four by four). As shown, one of the sixteen coefficients has a largest absolute value of 13 whose binary notation is "1101". Therefore, the bit plane defined by absolute values of the coefficients is a layer of four bit planes as shown in FIG. 1(B). It should be noted that all elements (sample points) in each bit plane take a value "0" or "1". On the other hand, all the quantization coefficients take a value "0" or a positive value except for one which takes a value "−6". Therefore, a code bit plane is as shown in FIG. 1(C).
EBCOT is a means for coding each block having a predetermined size while measuring the statistic amount of coefficient bit data in the block. By this means, the coefficient bit data is entropy-coded in code blocks. The code block is coded independently for each bit plane in a direction from the most significant bit (MSB) toward least significant bit (LSB). Also, the code block has a size which is a two's power from 4 to 256, normally, any of 32×32, 64×64, 128×32, etc. The quantization coefficient is represented by a signed binary number of n bits of which bit 0 to bit (n−2) indicate LSB to MSB, respectively. It should be noted that a remaining one bit indicates a sign. The code block is processed by three kinds of coding passes (a) to (c) as follows starting with an MSB-side bit plane.
(a) Significance Propagation pass
(b) Magnitude Refinement pass
(c) Cleanup pass
The three coding passes are used in an order shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, a bit plane (n−2) (MSB) is first processed by the "Cleanup pass" (will be referred to as "CU pass" wherever appropriate hereunder). Next, each bit plane is processed by the "Significance Propagation pass" (will be referred to as "SP pass" wherever appropriate hereunder) and "Magnitude Refinement pass" (will be referred to as "MR pass" wherever appropriate hereunder) and CU pass sequentially in this order toward LSB.
Actually, however, it is described in the header in which bit plane counted from MSB "1" appears first, not to code any bit plane of all "0". By coding a bit plane with repetition of the three kinds of coding passes in the above order and exiting the coding when up to an arbitrary coding pass of an arbitrary bit plane is completed, it is possible to make a tradeoff between the code amount and image quality, that is, it is possible to control the rate.
The coefficient bit data is scanned as will be described herebelow with reference to FIG. 3. The code block is divided into a stripe at every four sample points in height. The stripe width is equal to the width of the code block. The order of scanning is an order in which all sample points in one code block are scanned. In the code block, sample points are scanned from an upper stripe to a lower one. In each stripe, sample points are scanned from a left column to a right one. In each column, sample points are scanned from top to bottom. It should be noted that in each coding pass, all the sample points in the code block are processed in the order of scanning. The above-mentioned three coding passes will be described below.
(a) Significance Propagation (SP) Pass
In the SP pass to code a bit plane, coefficient bit data at "non-significant" sample points near "8" and of which at least one is "significant" are coded arithmetically. When the coded coefficient bit data is "1", the signs, plus and minus, of the code are successively coded arithmetically.
The term "significant" used herein refers to a state the coder has for each of sample points. The initial value of "significant" is "0" which means "non-significant", and when "1" is coded for the sample point, the initial value changes to "1" which means "significant" and it will always stay at "1". Therefore, the "significant" can be said to be a flag indicating whether effective-digit information has already been coded. When an SP pass takes place in a bit plane, no SP pass will take place in any subsequent bit planes.
(b) Magnitude Refinement (MR) Pass
In the MR pass to code a bit plane, coefficient bit data at a "significant" sample point, not processed by the SP pass which codes the bit plane, is coded arithmetically.
(c) Cleanup (CU) Pass
In the CU pass to code a bit plane, coefficient bit data at a "non-significant" sample point, not processed by the SP plane which codes the bit plane, is coded arithmetically. When the coded coefficient bit data is "1", the signs, plus and minus, of the code are successively coded arithmetically.
Note that in the arithmetic coding in the above three coding passes, the context at a sample point is selected by selectively using Zero Coding (ZC), Run-length Coding (RLC), Sign Coding (SC) or Magnitude Refinement (MR) as the case may be. Then, a context selected by arithmetic coding called "MQ coding" is coded. The MQ coding is a binary arithmetic coding of a learning type defined in JBIG2. The MQ coding is referred to the publication "ISO/IEC FDIS 14492, "Lossy/Lossless Coding of Bi-level Images", March 2000" and the like, for example. In JPEG-2000, there is defined a total of 19 kinds of contexts for all coding passes.
In the image coder to compress by coding according to JPEG-2000 as above, a quantization coefficient of each code block is decomposed into bit planes, each of the bit planes is decomposed into three coding passes, and coefficient bit data is generated for each of the coding passes. Then, the coefficient bit data for each coding pass is coded arithmetically.
The MR pass is intended for arithmetic coding of coefficient bit data which is made "significant" by the CU pass or SP pass in any other bit plane, and the CU pass is intended for arithmetic coding of "non-significant" coefficient bit data not processed by the SP pass. Therefore, it is believed that if the SP pass can be done at a higher speed, code blocks can be processed by the three cording passes at a higher speed.
In the SP pass, coefficient bit data at "non-significant" sample points near "8" and of which at least one is "significant" are coded arithmetically as above. When the coded coefficient bit data is "1", the state of the sample point changes from "non-significant" to "significant". Conventionally, since a sample point to be processed by the SP pass will take place due to the state change as the case may be, it is not possible to selectively code only sample points which have to be processed by the SP pass.
This problem will be described simply below with reference to FIG. 4. It should be noted that in FIG. 4, there is shown an assumed bit plane consisting of a total of sixteen (four by four) coefficient bit data, and an expediential number is appended at upper left in each sample point to indicate the position of the sample point. In FIG. 4, the thick-line frame indicates a "significant" sample point. As shown in FIG. 4(A), since only the tenth sample point is "significant" at a step of starting a bit plate coding, eight samples, that is, fifth to seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth to fifteenth, are to be processed by the SP pass. Since coefficient bit data at the seventh sample point is "1", however, this sample point will be changed by the SP pass to the state "significant" as shown in FIG. 4(B). Thus, the eighth and twelfth samples will be new sample to be processed by the SP pass.
On this account, a sample point is judged to be or not to be a one to be processed by the SP pass in the order of scanning. When the sample point is determined to be processed by the SP pass, it is processed by the SP pass. If the sample point is not any one to be processed so, a next sample point is judged. Such operations are repeatedly done. Thus, a number of operation cycles for sample points included in a bit plate and which are to be processed by the SP pass within a bit plane cannot complete the SP pass but a number of operation cycles for all the sample points is required.

Image coding apparatus and method, and program and recording medium


A display device includes: a panel portion, on which a plurality of sub-pixels with a discrete bus line form each individual pixel, the plurality of sub-pixels that form the individual pixel being sequentially arranged in a horizontal and a vertical direction, the panel portion displaying a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image by application of a signal via the bus line; and a filter portion, provided on a front surface of the panel portion, that alternately changes, for each of predetermined horizontal regions, a polarization state of light passing through the panel portion. A boundary of each of the horizontal regions of the filter portion is positioned within a range of a first sub-pixel of each of the plurality of sub-pixels. The first sub-pixel displays a different image when the two-dimensional image is displayed on the panel portion to when the three-dimensional image is displayed on the panel portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display devices exist in which an image displayed on a screen is perceived by a viewer as a stereoscopic three-dimensional image. In order to cause the viewer to perceive the image as a stereoscopic three-dimensional image, it is necessary to display the image on the screen using a different display method than a normal display method. One example of such a display method is a technique in which the viewer is caused to perceive an image as a stereoscopic image by changing a polarization state of an image for the right eye and of an image for the left eye (refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-10-63199, for example). By changing the polarization state of the image for the right eye and the image for the left eye, and by the viewer wearing glasses with the polarization state changed on the left and right (which thus enable the viewer to view the image for the right eye using his or her right eye and to view the image for the left eye using his or her left eye), an image displayed on the screen can be perceived as a stereoscopic three-dimensional image.
As one technique in which the polarization state is changed for the image for the right eye and the image for the left eye, there is a technique in which a polarization control filter is used to change the polarization state of the image for the right eye and the image for the left eye (refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-10-63199). However, in display devices using known polarization control filters, light is insufficiently split on a boundary along which the polarization state of the filter changes. When the light is insufficiently split, a phenomenon occurs in which a part of the image for the right eye enters into the left eye and a part of the image for the left eye enters into the right eye (this phenomenon is known as "crosstalk").
In known art, therefore, in order to suppress the occurrence of crosstalk, a method is used in which a black matrix is arranged on the boundary section along which the polarization state of the filter changes. By inhibiting mixing of light by arranging the black matrix on the boundary section in which the polarization state of the filter changes, the occurrence of crosstalk can be suppressed.


Provided herein are systems and methods that use a video content analysis algorithm to measure and quantify repetitive motion activity of a designated body part, including velocity, acceleration, frequency, and duty cycle, without applying sensors or other instrumentation to the body, for the purpose of preventing repetitive motion injuries. In some embodiments, the video-based direct exposure assessment system uses marker-less video and a video content analysis algorithm. The video content analysis algorithm is able to recognize and identify the pattern of repetitive motion, through a process known as cyclic motion analysis. Determination of the cycle pattern provides parameters for determining a body part's activity level, and thereby allows determination of the body part's activity level.

Musculoskeletal injuries account for about 3 million occupational injuries annually in the United States. Shane Shapiro, Worker's Compensation Claims Related to Musculoskeletal Injuries, 57 NORTHEAST FLORIDA MEDICINE 41, 43 (2006). Musculoskeletal injuries are common in repetitive physically intensive work. Repetitive motion injuries (e.g. sprains, strains, tendinitis, tendosynovitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome) are a major concern today. Sprains, strains, tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome accounted for 41 percent of the injuries and illnesses resulting in days away from work in 2010. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Labor (2011). Over 30,000 work-related repetitive motion injuries are reported annually in private industry in the United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Labor (2008). Repetitive motion injuries have the highest median recovery time of all workplace reported injuries and illnesses, with a median twenty-four work days lost for recovery. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Labor (2011). One of the top ten causes of disabling workplace injuries and illness, repetitive motion injuries account for over $1.8 billion in annual workers compensation costs. Liberty Mutual 2010 Annual Workplace Safety Index. Upper extremity injuries are prevalent in repetitive hand intensive work. See Z. J. Fan et al., Quantitative Exposure-response Relations between Physical Workload and Prevalence of Lateral Epicondylitis in a Working Population, 52 AM. J. INDUS. MED. 479-90 (2009); B. Silverstein et al., The Natural Course of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in a Working Population, 36 SCAND. J. WORK ENVTL. HEALTH. 384-93 (2010).
Yet there is currently no practical way to objectively and efficiently measure repetitive motion exposure. See Z. J. Fan et al., supra; A. Garg & J. Kapellusch, Consortium Pooled Data Job Physical Exposure Assessment, 17TH WORLD CONGRESS IN ERGONOMICS, Beijing, China, (2009); K. T. Hegmann et al., Prospective Cohort Study of Upper Extremity MSDs Among 17 Diverse Employers, 17TH WORLD CONGRESS IN ERGONOMICS, Beijing, China (2009); and B. Silverstein et al., supra. For example, for measurements of upper limb kinematics, current methods involve either direct measurements using instruments attached to a worker's hands or arms, or indirect observations. A commonly employed observational method for quantifying the degree of repetition in upper extremities is the Hand Activity Level (HAL) scale, which is based on the ten point visual-analog scale. W. A. Latko et al., Development and evaluation of an observational method for assessing repetition in hand tasks, 58 AM. INDUS. HYGIENE ASS'N J. 278-85 (1997). HAL is a factor used to ascertain the threshold limit value for repetitive manual tasks. AM. CONF. OF GOVERNMENTAL INDUS. HYGIENISTS, HAND ACTIVITY LEVEL TLVS® AND BEIS® BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION OF THE THRESHOLD LIMIT VALUES FOR CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES AND PHYSICAL AGENTS & BIOLOGICAL EXPOSURE INDICES, 196-98 (2009). The HAL scale ranges from 0 to 10, and quantifies repetitive motion ranging from idle hand activity (0) to rapid steady motion with difficulty keeping up (10). Under current methods, a trained observer calculates HAL using either subjective estimation or objective measurements of frequency and duty cycle from a stopwatch time study or a manual frame-by-frame video analysis.
HAL is based on duty cycle and exertion frequency. For many tasks, these are associated with hand and arm movements and static or dynamic exertions. The frequency is the rate of repetition in cycles per second or Hz. The duty cycle is the percent ratio of hand exertion time to the total cycle time of the activity (i.e. exertion time/cycle time). Consequently a 100 percent duty cycle refers to repetitive work where force is exerted for the entire time and a 50 percent duty cycle occurs when force is exerted half of the time.
Current methods of measuring and calculating limb kinematics have been mostly limited to research studies and are highly impractical for routine occupational health and safety practice. The conventional approaches for rating repetitive limb activity based on observable characteristics of manual work are inaccurate, cumbersome or impractical for routine work evaluation and have been limited primarily to research laboratories. Compared to instruments, observation is non-invasive but lacks precision and accuracy, is not suitable for long observation periods, and requires considerable analyst time. B. D. Lowe, Accuracy and Validity of Observational Estimates of Shoulder and Elbow Posture, 35 APPLIED ERGONOMICS 159-71 (2004). Alternatively, attaching sensors on working limbs is time consuming, and sensors may interfere with normal working operations. Thomas Y. Yen & Robert G. Radwin, Comparison Between Using Spectral Analysis of Electrogoniometer Data and Observational Analysis to Quantify Repetitive Motion and Ergonomic Changes in Cyclical Industrial Work. 43 ERGONOMICS 106-32 (2000). Not only is existing instrumentation use resource intensive, but the required technical knowledge often makes this approach inaccessible to general industry.

Apparatus, method and system for measuring repetitive motion activity


A simpler configuration of a mechanism for stopping intake/exhaust valves opened/closed by a valve opening/closing mechanism of a rocker arm. An engine E includes an exhaust valve for opening/closing an exhaust port of an exhaust path with a first exhaust valve spring for energizing the exhaust valve in a valve closing direction. An exhaust valve drive cam is rotated in correspondence with the rotation of an engine crankshaft. A rocker arm is swingably provided between the exhaust valve and the exhaust valve drive cam with one end that abuts on the exhaust valve drive cam being pressed according to rotation of the exhaust valve drive cam and swinging to press the exhaust valve by a press member at the other end to move to the open side. An exhaust valve stopping mechanism is provided between the press member of the rocker arm and the exhaust valve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine having a valve operating mechanism for an opening/closing operation, by a rocker arm, of intake/exhaust valves for opening/closing a communication path between an engine cylinder chamber and an intake or exhaust path. More particularly, to an engine having a valve stopping mechanism capable of stopping the operation of the intake/exhaust valves.
2. Description of Background Art
A valve operating mechanism for intake/exhaust of an engine having a configuration for performing an opening/closing operation by a rocker arm which is made swing by a valve drive cam (called a valve opening/closing mechanism of a rocker arm driving type) is well known. See, for example, JP-A No. S61-201808. Further, it is also known wherein a valve stopping mechanism is provided for stopping the operation of a part or all of intake/exhaust valves in a state where the valve drive cam rotates.
In the case of providing a valve stopping mechanism, in the valve opening/closing mechanism of the rocker arm driving type, as disclosed in JP-A No. S61-201808, a complicated mechanism is necessary in which the swing spindle of the rocker arm is provided with an auxiliary arm and a movable rod and the operation of the rocker arm is interrupted by the movable rod to thereby generate a stopped state. It is therefore expected that the valve stopping mechanism is complicated and expensive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A process is provided for the hydrogenation or asymmetric hydrogenation of dialkyl, alkylalkenyl and dialkenyl imines of formula (II) to provide amines of formula (III), wherein, (i) R1 and R2 are optionally substituted cyclic, linear or branched alkyl or alkenyl; R3 is a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy radical, optionally substituted C1 to C8 cyclic, linear or branched alkyl or alkenyl, optionally substituted aryl; or (ii) R1 is alkyl or alkenyl, R2 is alkyl or alkenyl and the two are linked together or with R3 to form one or more rings; using a catalytic system comprising a base and a ruthenium complex containing (1) a diamine and (2) a diphosphine ligand or monodentate phosphine ligands in hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation processes

Although many highly enantioselective chiral catalysts and catalytic processes are available for the asymmetric hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation of C═C and C═O bonds, relatively few exist for effective reduction of the analogous C═N function. The production of chiral amines via this methodology still represents a major challenge. Over the past decade, there has been significant and steady progress in this field with the preparation of catalysts based on complexes of rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and titanium.
In 1997 B. R. James reviewed the preparation of chiral amines by homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation reactions involving metal complexes (James, Catalysis Today 1997, 37, 209-221). The review by James names several other systems based on rhodium for the asymmetric hydrogenation of imines but they suffer from drawbacks. Either the enantioselectivity is low or the conditions are severe. In a recent U.S. patent, X. Zhang et al. describe the use of BICP, a chiral diphosphine ligand, on rhodium and iridium in the asymmetric hydrogenation of internal C═N bonds at 1000 psi H2 at room temperature to produce amines with enantiomeric excesses (e.e.) ranging from 65 to 94%. (X. Zhang, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,500, 2000). Spindler and co-workers demonstrated the use of in situ generated iridium JOSIPHOS complexes for the enantioselective hydrogenation of imines (Spindler et al., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed Engl., 1990, 29, 558; Blaser and Spindler, Topics in Catalysis, 1997, 4, 275). This process was subsequently modified and applied to the industrial production of the imine precursor to (S)-Metolachlor, a valuable agrichemical product, then for Ciba-Giegy, now for Novartis. The production of S-Metolachlor is an example of a large-scale industrial process that depends on the homogenous hydrogenation of a prochiral imine.
Noyori and coworkers have described an efficient catalyst system generated from the complex Ru(η6-arene)(tosyldiamine)Cl for the asymmetric hydrogenation of imines by transferring hydrogen from triethylammonium formate (Noyori et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 1997, 30, 97-102). This is the first really effective imine reduction system based on ruthenium although other straight hydrogenation systems with much lower activity and selectivity have been reported as reviewed by James (supra).
Buchwald and co-workers prepared and effectively employed various chiral ansa-titanocene complexes for both hydrogenation and hydrosilylation of imines (Willoughby and Buchwald, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1992, 114, 7562; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1994, 116, 8952 and 11703). The need to activate the catalyst by the addition of butyl-lithium and phenyl silane limits the scope and applicability of this process. This system also suffers from the drawback of being very oxygen and water sensitive.
A recent article by Kobayashi and Ishitani on catalytic enantioselective addition to imines also provides a comprehensive review on other advances in enantioselective hydrogenation of imines (Kobayashi and Ishitani, Chem. Rev., 1999, 99, 1069). These include the use of chiral iridium diphosphine complexes of the type [Ir(P—P)HI2]2 (where P—P represents a chiral diphosphine ligand) reported by Osborn and co-workers (Chan et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1990, 112, 9400; Sablong et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 1996, 37, 4937). These systems were reasonably active, however, the enantioselectivities were only moderate. Zhang and co-workers reported the synthesis of a new class of chiral iridium binaphane complexes (Xiao and Zhang, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 2001, 40, 3425) and their use for the asymmetric hydrogenation of imines. More recently Rautenstrauch et al. (WO 02/22526) reported the use of metal complexes with P—N bidentate ligands in the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon-heteroatom double bonds, including C═N double bonds.
Despite the successes of some of these catalytic hydrogenation processes, there are certain significant drawbacks. These include high operating pressures (typically >50 bar H2), high catalyst loading and the use of expensive iridiun- and rhodium-based systems. Most of these processes are specific for only certain types of substrates or a group of closely related substrates. In addition, activity and enantioselectivity also tends to be highly substrate dependent, which in some cases necessitates the development of an entire catalytic system and process for only one substrate or a very closely related group of substrates.
Hence, there remains the need to identify a general class of structurally related catalysts that are chemically robust and give high activity and enantioselectivity in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a broad range of imine substrates. It is particularly desirable to have a class of modular catalysts whereby one can readily vary individual parts of the catalyst, especially the chiral ligand, so that the best match of substrate and catalyst can be identified by rapid through-put combinatorial screening.
Noyori and co-workers have pioneered the use of ruthenium complexes bearing a chelating diphosphine ligand (or two monodentate phosphines) and a chelating diamine ligand for the catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones. At least one and usually both of the chelating ligands are chiral. The various papers and patents of Noyori et al. have demonstrated the highly efficient reduction of various functionalised and unfunctionalised ketones using this class of catalysts. It was also demonstrated by Noyori and co-workers (Ohkuma et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1995, 107, 2675 and 10417) that a fully isolated and characterised ruthenium(II)diphosphinediamine complex could be used as catalyst. High activity and high selectivity were generally associated with the use of chiral biaryl-phosphines (eg. Tol-BINAP and Xyl-BINAP) and diamines (eg. DPEN and DAIPEN).
It was demonstrated for the first time by Abdur-Rashid et al. that similar classes of Noyori-type ruthenium(II)(phosphine)2(diamine) complexes (Abdur-Rashid et al., Organometallics, 2000, 20, 1655) or ruthenium(II)diphosphinediamine complexes (Abdur-Rashid et al., Oral and Poster Presentations at the Canadian Society for Chemistry 83rd Conference and Exhibition (Calgary, Alberta), May 2000) could catalyse the hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation of activated (aromatic) imines. Since these publications, Chirotech Technology Limited filed a patent (WO 02/08169 A1) for an imine hydrogenation process, based on a similar class of complexes for the hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation of activated (aromatic) imines. The work presented by Abdur-Rashid et al. at the May 2000 CSC meeting in Calgary was subsequently published in 2001 (Organometallics, 2001, 20, 1047).
The imine hydrogenation work of Abdur-Rashid et al. and the patent of Chirotech Technology Limited relates to the use of Noyori-type ruthenium(II)-(phosphine)2(diamine) and ruthenium(II)diphosphinediamine complexes as catalysts for the reduction of activated imines in which the imine functional group is adjacent to an aromatic aryl ring as illustrated in (I) below.

To date, there are no reports in the mainstream or patent literature of the use of such Noyori-type ruthenium(II) complexes for the hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation of unactivated dialkyl, alkylalkenyl or dialkenyl imines as illustrated in (II), where R1 and R2 represents alkyl, alkylalkenyl or dialkenyl substituents. These imines are inherently more difficult to reduce than their activated (aromatic) analogues, and there are only a few reported attempts in the published and patent literature for the catalytic hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation of such compounds.

The industrial production of the chiral amine precursor to the potent herbicide S-Metolachor using an iridium-JOSIPHOS catalyst is an example of a successful process that relies on the asymmetric hydrogenation of a dialkyl imine (Togni, Angew. Chem, Int. Ed Engl., 1996, 35, 1475).
There remains a need for efficient catalysts for the hydrogenation and asymmetric hydrogenation of unactivated imines.

Process for hydrogenating unactivated imines using ruthenium complexes as catalysts


A moisture monitoring system with internes of things devices. The system includes at least one irrigating device having a moisture sensor, a temperature sensor, a valve connected to a water source, a wireless transmitter that sends sensor information to a cloud server via a first internet-of-things establishing a first channel of communication, and a wireless receiver configured to receive valve actuation signals from the cloud server via a second internet-of-things device establishing a second channel of communication. A valve actuator opens the valve upon receiving an actuation signal via the second internet-of-things device. The duration of the valve remaining open and other parameters are adjustable by a user utilizing a user interface of the second internet-of-things device. The moisture monitoring system can be customized and applied to various use cases depending on the irrigation needs of the user.

The present invention relates to a moisture monitoring system. More specifically, the present invention provides a moisture monitoring system that can be utilized to remotely control the watering of plants via the wireless control of independent internet of things devices operating on independent communications channels. Many people water their plants; however, it can be difficult to determine moisture content of the soil on a daily basis. This leads to plants being watered when the moisture content is already sufficient. This can lead to overwatering, which can cause damage to the plants. Overwatering plants results in a considerable time investment for the user and wastes water. Further, water is a limited resource in certain areas, as well as during a drought, and in these situations, overwatering plants potentially causing expense to the user, or possible fines.
Some existing irrigation systems include wirelessly controllable valves that can be selectively opened to water plants. Such systems can include moisture sensors that control the timing of the valves. However, such systems are static in that they are usually incapable of being applied in other situations or use cases. For example, a wirelessly controlled irrigation system for a farm or other large area is a dedicated system that cannot be applied to other irrigation needs such as home watering for indoor plants, for example. Additionally, such systems are often only controllable via outdated communication protocols and can only operate via a single independent communications channel, thereby limiting their application and flexibility. More modern valve control systems may include "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices, which are devices that are independently connected to a network via the internet. IoT devices often have different communication channels over which they operate, for example, independent cellular networks, Wi-Fi networks, or the like. Typical wireless irrigation systems lacy this flexibility and can only operate over one channel of communication, thereby limiting their effectiveness and their ease of use for the ordinary consumer.
Therefore, a system capable of monitoring the moisture content of soil and notifying a user when it reaches a pre-set level is needed. It is desirable to provide such a system that can be utilized with IoT devices over multiple channels of communications, such that the system can be applied to a large number of use cases depending on the needs of the user.

Moisture monitoring system with internet of things devices


An encoder includes a scale member provided on one of two bodies which are relatively rotated and have gratings arranged in a relative rotating direction and a light irradiator for irradiating a first region with beams. A diffracted image of the first region is projected on a second region of the scale member. The encoder further includes a detector for detecting the beams from the second region. The relative rotation of the other body is detected based on a detected result thereof. A scale whose relative rotation to a rotation detecting device is detected by being irradiated with the beams from the encoder. The scale includes a base member formed with a grating having surfaces inclined to incident beams. In addition, a driving system causes relative rotation between the two bodies. This system includes a device for relatively rotationally driving the two bodies and a controller for controlling a driving condition of the driving device. A motor unit includes a motor module having rotation of its body detected by a result of a light irradiator and rotary shaft provided with a scale member. This unit further includes a supporting device for integrally supporting the body, the light irradiator and the detector.

The present invention relates generally to a rotary encoder, and more particularly, to a rotary encoder for electrically detecting a signal corresponding to a rotation quantity of a cylindrical or hollow rotary body.
A rotary encoder proposed by the present applicant in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 63-81212 is typical of a measuring device for measuring a rotation quantity of a cylindrical rotary body.
The rotary encoder is a simply constructed excellent measuring device capable of measuring the rotation quantity of the cylindrical rotary body with a relatively high resolving power.
This advantage is attainable by the following arrangement. An interior (hollow portion) of the rotary body incorporates an image forming optical system. A grating image in a first region on a side surface of the rotary body is projected on a grating in a second region on a side surface opposite to the first region with respect to a rotary axis of the rotary body.

Rotary encoder with scale member and interference of zero and first order diffraction beam


Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for extending a knowledge base, implementations including receiving an enterprise service signature (ESS) associated with an enterprise service (ES), the ESS being stored in a computer-readable repository, segmenting the ESS to provide a segmented ESS, identifying one or more unknown terms from the segmented ESS, determining that at least one unknown term of the one or more unknown terms comprises at least one of a specialization and a new entity, and extending the knowledge base in view of the at least one of the specialization and the new entity.

Enterprise services (ES) provide programmatic access to an immense, and already existing, pool of business data and functionality provided by large enterprise applications. Example enterprise applications include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. The reuse of ES enables rapid, agile and cost-effective development of composite applications. ES can represent highly-integrated web services that access defined business data and logic of existing business processes. As such, they differ significantly in quantity and complexity from regular Web Services (e.g. advertising application program interfaces (APIs)) due to applied governance and sustainability constraints.
Searching a repository of ES can be difficult due to the syntactical nature of service definitions and missing meaning that is required to successfully find ES. In some cases, ES are more intricate as a result of the complexity of business process and application functionality that they represent. Consequently, traditional ES discovery targets developers that have the required technical skills to understand service definitions. In contrast, business users have detailed knowledge of business processes, but no or little technical background. Given that ESs are defined at a business level based on existing business requirements, business users naturally qualify as users that would search for ESs.

Enhancing enterprise service design knowledge using ontology-based clustering


The invention concerns a (stereoscopic) surgical microscope having a system for reflecting in illumination in which the illumination beam path (5) is switched into the microscope's main beam path via a deflection element (1) whose diameter exceeds the spacing of the observation beam paths (3). Different illumination angles for the specimen (10) can be generated by means of a stop (8) that is shiftable radially about the axis (5a) of the illumination beam path (5).

Reflected-in beam paths for illumination of a specimen field are used in a wide variety of applications, and in particular in the medical field. Usually the illumination beam path is reflected into the main beam path of the microscope via a deflecting mirror or deflecting prism, which as a rule is mounted on the axis of the microscope's main beam path. This results in illumination of the specimen surface directly on the axis of a microscope's main beam path. If the illumination is applied laterally from the axis of the main beam path, this usually results in more or less undesirable shadowing.
For a number of applications, however, an illumination deviating from the observation axis is desirable. The Zeiss company achieves this, as is known from DE-A-40 28 605 and DE-A-197 28 035, by way of a second mirror. For ophthalmic surgery in particular, a so-called "zero-degree" illumination ("zero-degree" indicating illumination on the axis of the main beam path) is inclined at a small angle of e.g. 6 degrees in order to improve the visibility of the surgical field.
In a particular embodiment of the system for reflecting in illumination (cf. DE-A-196 50 773), the Möller company asserted the idea of introducing light directly into the observation beam paths.
In order to achieve partial darkening of the specimen field, stops are used as necessary in the illumination beam path (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,714 in this context). These are located, however, in the illumination location conjugated with the specimen field. Stops of this kind can be used, for example, to reduce the so-called "red reflection," once again in ophthalmic surgery. In order deliberately to reduce tissue stress, other stops serve to exclude the light directed via the respective mirror.
The inventor has recognized that the known systems are disadvantageous in the following respects:                a) At present, continuous adaptation of the illumination angle in the radial and axial directions with respect to the microscope's main beam path is not possible.        b) Oblique illumination via two mirrors makes possible only predefined illumination angles in the radial direction with respect to the microscope's main beam path, thereby resulting in a limitation in contrast selection.        c) Reflection into the observation beam paths is suitable for illumination in narrow channels, but results on the one hand in poor contrast and on the other hand in solutions that are difficult to design.        d) Because the illumination is reflected into the convergent beam path, the arrangement as defined in DE-A-36 23 613 results in light loss and double images.

Microscope having a system for reflecting in illumination


An apparatus and methods for measuring the clamping force applied to a substrate by clamping elements of a substrate holder. The apparatus include a pneumatic cylinder, a two position, three way valve and a pressure gauge. In a first position of the valve, the gauge and a bore of the cylinder are vented or pre-pressurized. In a second position of the valve, the bore and gauge are isolated. The methods include placing the apparatus with the valve in the first position between clamping elements set to a non-clamping position, moving the valve to the second position, setting the clamping elements to a clamping position and reading a pressure on the gauge.

The present invention relates to the field of integrated circuit manufacture; more specifically, it relates to an apparatus and method for directly measuring the clamping force on the edge of a substrate on a tool that applies clamping force pneumatically using a remote pressure regulator.
Many fabrication tools handle the substrate being processed by clamping the edges of the substrate. Generally the clamping force is applied pneumatically using a pressure regulator and gauges that are remotely located from the actual point where the substrate is contacted. Being remote the pressure set by a pressure regulator and indicated on the gauges is not the same as the pressure actually applied to the substrate edge because of friction in the shafts and bearings of the tool and pressure drops in the pneumatic system of the tool making it difficult to accurately calculate the actual force applied by the clamping mechanism. In certain tools, the clamping force can affect the quality and repeatability of the process or result in substrate damage.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to mitigate the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.

International Business Machines Corporation


An instrument panel has a base member and a cover member, which is adhered to the top surface of the base member. A first cleavage groove serving as a start point of rupture of the base member caused by inflation pressure of an airbag is formed in the back surface of the base member. The cover member is configured by a ground fabric layer, a cover layer adhered to the top surface of the ground fabric layer, and a cushion layer adhered to the back surface of the ground fabric layer. The cushion layer is formed of a knitted original fabric. A second cleavage groove is formed only in the back surface of the cushion layer out of the layers configuring the cover member in correspondence with the first cleavage groove of the base member.

The present invention relates to a vehicle interior panel and a vehicle airbag apparatus.
Conventionally, an automobile includes an airbag apparatus for a front passenger seat (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-71926). The airbag apparatus includes an instrument panel and an airbag module, which is arranged at the backside of the instrument panel. The airbag module has an inflator for generating inflation gas and an airbag, which is inflated and deployed by the gas supplied from the inflator. The instrument panel includes a base member and a cover member, which is adhered to the top surface of the base member. The cover member is configured by a ground fabric layer, a cover layer adhered to the top surface of the ground fabric layer, and a cushion layer adhered to the back surface of the ground fabric layer. The back surface of the base member has a cleavage groove, which is the start point of rupture of the base member caused by inflation pressure of the airbag.
For example, a conventional instrument panel 310 shown in FIG. 9 has a cushion layer 323, which is formed, for example, of a double-raschel knitted original fabric to provide luxurious tactile sensation. In the instrument panel 310 configured in this manner, a cover member 320 resists rupture when an airbag inflates. Accordingly, a cleavage groove is formed in the back surface of the cover member 320 at the position corresponding to a cleavage groove 331 of the aforementioned base member 330. In other words, a cleavage groove 323a, which is located in correspondence with the cleavage groove 331 of the base member 330, is formed in the cushion layer 323. The ground fabric layer 322 and the cover layer 321 are adhered to each other in advance. The ground fabric layer 322 and the cover layer 321 each have a predetermined thickness and thus exhibit improved strength. This makes the ground fabric layer 322 and the cover layer 321 resistant to rupture when the airbag inflates. Accordingly, to ensure desired rupture of the ground fabric layer 322 and the cover layer 321, a cleavage groove 322a is formed also in the ground fabric layer 322 in a manner extending through the ground fabric layer 322. Further, the cover layer 321 has a cleavage groove 321a, which is formed only in the back surface of the cover layer 321 not to spoil the appearance of the instrument panel 310.
In the instrument panel 310 configured in the above-described manner, the cushion layer 323, the ground fabric layer 322, and the cover layer 321, which configure the cover member 320, have the cleavage grooves 323a, 322a, 321a, respectively. This configuration necessitates a step of forming the cleavage groove 323a in the cushion layer 323 and a step of forming the cleavage grooves 322a, 321a in advance in a layered body formed by adhering the cover layer 321 to the top surface of the ground fabric layer 322. Additionally, when the layered body is adhered to the top surface of the cushion layer 323 in advance, the cleavage grooves 323a, 322a, 321a must be positioned to coincide with one another. This complicates the steps of manufacturing the instrument panel 310.
To solve this problem, the inventors of the present invention considered reducing the thicknesses of the ground fabric layer 222 and the cover layer 221, which configured the cover member 220. By reducing the thicknesses of the ground fabric layer 222 and the cover layer 221 to lower the strength of these layers, the layers would rupture in a desired manner even without employing the cleavage grooves in the ground fabric layer 222 and the cover layer 221. However, in this case, when the layered body, which is formed by adhering the cover layer 221 to the top surface of the ground fabric layer 222, is adhered to the top surface of the cushion layer 223, the ground fabric layer 222 and the cover layer 221 would sink into the cleavage groove 223a, which is formed in the top surface of the cushion layer 223. This would cause a dent 225 in the top surface of the cover layer 221, thus damaging the outer appearance of the instrument panel 210.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a vehicle interior panel and a vehicle airbag apparatus that decrease the total thickness of a ground fabric layer and a cover layer compared to a conventional case and suppress the formation of a dent in an ornamental surface due to a cleavage groove.

Vehicle interior panel and vehicle airbag apparatus


In one aspect of the invention a method includes, at a tunneling server, receiving from first client a point-to-point protocol signal encapsulated within a network address request header, the point-to-point protocol signal comprising an identifier identifying a destination client. The method further comprises encapsulating the point-to-point signal within a network address response header and communicating the network address response encapsulated signal toward the destination client.

Various tunneling protocols exist for facilitating secure connections between network elements. For example, the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), Layer 2 Forwarding (L2F) Protocol, Point-to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) all provide secure connections between network elements implementing those protocols. Used alone, however, these protocols have limitations.
For example, if network firewalls are not specifically configured to accept these tunneling protocols, the tunneling signals will not be permitted beyond the firewall. Configuring a network firewall to accept one or more of these protocol signals can be complex and time consuming. As a result, network firewalls are frequently not configured to accept these protocols. One method of dealing with this limitation is to encapsulate the tunneling signals within a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header to essentially fool the firewall into accepting the entire packet. This technique leverages the fact that most firewalls are configured to accept HTTP headers. By embedding the tunneling signal after an HTTP header, the entire signal can pass any firewall that is configured to accept HTTP traffic.
Another problem with using conventional tunneling protocols without modification, which is not solved by the HTTP encapsulation technique, is that network elements without data channel addresses are ineligible to participate in tunneling. Throughout this document, the term "data channel address" is used to describe a network address that is used to index routing tables accessible to routers coupling various network elements. These addresses may include, for example, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Network elements that do not have data channel addresses recognized by the routers are generally unable to communicate point-to-point protocol signals to other network elements using the routers. As a result, conventional tunneling protocol signals generally cannot be communicated by or to network elements that do not have a data channel address. HTTP encapsulation does not address this problem.

Method and apparatus for managing tunneled communications in an enterprise network


A lens position definition apparatus is provided in, for example, a camera. The apparatus includes a base member, a cam mechanism for controlling a position of the lens relative to the base member along a direction of an optical axis thereof in accordance with a rotational position thereof about the optical axis, and at least one spring for urging the lens in a direction inclined to the direction of the optical axis and the rotation thereof, in order to enable the cam mechanism to operate.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for defining a position of a lens, more specifically, to an improvement of an apparatus for defining a position of a lens along the direction of an optical axis and a rotation thereof in order to control a position of a lens relative to a camera body in the direction of the optical axis.
A camera having an auto-focusing device is known in which a lens actuating member to which a lens is attached is rotatably supported on a cylindrical member for movement about an optical axis thereof, and the lens actuating member and cylindrical member are interconnected through a cam mechanism. The cam mechanism is provided with a cam which is formed on the cylindrical member and a protrusion which is provided on the lens actuating member and engaging with the cam. When the lens actuating member rotates about the optical axis of the lens in accordance with the result of measuring the distance between the camera and the object to be photographed, the position thereof in the direction of the optical axis is changed in accordance with a profile of the cam, thereby adjusting the focal length of the lens. In order to cause the protrusion of the lens actuating member to always contact the profile surface of the cam, a first spring for urging the lens actuating member in the direction of the optical axis and a second spring for urging it in the rotating direction are provided between the lens actuating member and camera body.
The first spring, however, is provided in front of the lens actuating member to urge it toward the cam which is provided behind thereof. Accordingly, the total length of a lens part incorporated with the cylindrical member and lens actuating member in the direction of the optical axis is enlarged. Furthermore, it should be necessary to employ the first and second springs to accomplish the auto-focusing operation. It should noted that the camera includes a camera body which has a main body in which film is loaded and a lens cover which is integrally attached to the front surface of the main body and in which the lens enclosed in the cylindrical member is contained.
As a result, in the conventional camera with the first and second springs, a protruding amount of the lens cover from the front surface of the main body is relatively large, so that it is difficult to make the conventional camera compact.

Apparatus for defining a position of a lens


A system transmits a target data file as a set of mathematical functions and data values representative of the target data file to a receiver, the system comprising at least one hardware processor and memory storing computer instructions, the computer instructions when executed by the at least one hardware processor configured to cause the system to identify a target bit pattern of a target data file; generate a set of mathematical functions and data values operative to generate the target bit pattern; and transmit the set of mathematical functions and data values to a receiver, which can use the set of mathematical functions and data values to generate the target data file.

Large data stores are expensive to store and take substantial time to transport across communication lines. It would be helpful to have systems and methods that can substantially reduce the size of a large data store to a smaller representation and return the smaller representation back to the original large data store.

Systems and methods for transforming large data into a smaller representation and for re-transforming the smaller representation back to the original large data


A water-absorbent resin dispersion comprising a water-absorbent resin (B) or a hydrous gel thereof dispersed in a liquid or heat-meltable organic active-hydrogen compound (A), wherein said resin (B) is formed by the polymerization of a water-soluble monomer or its precursor and a cross-linker and/or a polysaccharide in the compound (A); and a process for producing a polyurethane resin by the reaction of the dispersion with an organic polyisocyanate compound. As the polyurethane resin is excellent in the capacity and rate of absorption, it is useful as absorbent articles such as paper diaper and sanitary goods, humidity modifiers, cutoff material, and so forth.

It is known to use a polymeric polyol as part of the polyol component for the production of a polyurethane resin. Japanese Kokai Publication Sho-54-133599, for instance, discloses the use of a hydrophilic vinyl monomer in the production of such a polymeric polyol. Though polymeric polyols obtainable by using an non-hydrophilic vinyl monomer such as styrene and acrylonitrile have been demonstrated to give stable dispersions, no comparable information is available about polymeric polyols obtainable with a hydrophilic vinyl monomer. Meanwhile, a dispersion obtainable by mixing a high-molecular-weight polyol with a water-absorbent resin is known.
However, when a hydrophilic vinyl monomer is used in the production process disclosed in Japanese Kokai Publication Sho-54-133599, a stable dispersion can hardly be obtained. Moreover, the mere admixture of a high-molecular-weight polyol and a water-absorbent resin has the drawback that the water-absorbent resin is liable to undergo cohesion and precipitation.

Water-absorbent resin dispersion and polyurethane composition


Various embodiments herein include systems, methods, and software for interactive video projection system content generation. Such content is content consumed by a system that projects a scene view on a surface, such as a wall, screen, or floor, and is interactive with user motion. User motion is captured as input via a camera or other imaging device and processed on a computing device to determine where in a projected scene a user is moving. The scene is then modified based on the detected motion. A user generates content for consumption in such embodiments by providing image and variable input to populate a graphical rendering template when rendered for presentation to a user.

Interactive display surfaces are used in various forms for entertainment, promotion, education, and the like. A typical interactive display surface generally comprises a graphical display such as a video screen to display a graphical image or a surface onto which the graphical image may be projected for display to users within an adjacent environment, together with a system for detecting motion of the users within the adjacent environment. The motion detecting system typically relies on a camera directed towards the adjacent environment and a motion-detecting algorithm. The motion-detecting algorithm analyzes the data captured by the camera to determine what type of motion has occurred. The graphical image can then be varied according to various characteristics of the detected motion. For example, an object displayed in the graphical image may be displaced or varied in size, color, or configuration, etc. according to the location or amount of motion detected. The configuration of a graphical display, motion detecting system, and computing device running the motion-detecting algorithm can be quite complex, requiring custom configuration and installation by skilled individuals. Additionally, content consumed within such systems can be quite complex requiring custom programming by specially skilled individuals.

Content generation for interactive video projection systems


A fluid dynamic bearing design is provided featuring a rotating shaft with at least one conical bearing formed integrally thereon. The shaft is disposed through a stationary sleeve, and a fluid separates the shaft and sleeve surfaces.

Disk drives are capable of storing large amounts of digital data in a relatively small area. Disk drives store information on one or more recording media, which conventionally take the form of circular storage disks (e.g. media) having a plurality of concentric circular recording tracks. A typical disk drive has one or more disks for storing information. This information is written to and read from the disks using read/write heads mounted on actuator arms that are moved from track to track across the surfaces of the disks by an actuator mechanism.
Generally, the disks are mounted on a spindle that is turned by a spindle motor to pass the surfaces of the disks under the read/write heads. The spindle motor generally includes a shaft mounted on a base plate and a hub, to which the spindle is attached, having a sleeve into which the shaft is inserted. Permanent magnets attached to the hub interact with a stator winding on the base plate to rotate the hub relative to the shaft. In order to facilitate rotation, one or more bearings are usually disposed between the hub and the shaft.
Over the years, storage density has tended to increase, and the size of the storage system has tended to decrease. This trend has lead to greater precision and lower tolerance in the manufacturing and operating of magnetic storage disks. The bearing assembly that supports the storage disk is of critical importance. One bearing design is a fluid dynamic bearing. In a fluid dynamic bearing, a lubricating fluid such as air or liquid provides a bearing surface between a fixed member of the housing and a rotating member of the disk hub. In addition to air, typical lubricants include gas, oil, or other fluids. Fluid dynamic bearings spread the bearing surface over a large surface area, as opposed to a ball bearing assembly, which comprises a series of point interfaces. This is desirable because the increased bearing surface reduces wobble or run-out between the rotating and fixed members. Further, the use of fluid in the interface area imparts damping effects to the bearing, which helps to reduce non-repeat run-out. Thus, fluid dynamic bearings are an advantageous bearing system.
However, as the size, height, and power consumption of fluid dynamic bearing motors is decreased, several problems become more prominent. For one, reducing the size of the motor features, which is a preferred approach to reducing power consumption, tends to alter the geometry of the features in such a way that comprises their structural integrity. A reduction in the diameter of the shaft forces a reduction in the size of the disc clamping screw, or a reduction in wall thickness in the shaft surrounding the screw. This can result in compromises in structural integrity. For another, as the motors themselves become shorter in height, the spacing between bearing components decreases, minimizing the angular or rocking stiffness of the bearings. Also, the power consumed by the bearings, especially at low temperatures, limits the power available to other motor components. As rotational speed increases, this problem worsens.
Therefore, a need exists for a fluid dynamic bearing design that accommodates current size, height, and power consumption demands without compromising the structural integrity or functionality of the bearings and other motor components.

Rotating shaft conical fluid dynamic bearing


Techniques are disclosed for seamless integration between a multicasting Virtual Private Network and an edge replicated multicast network. For example, a controller (e.g., software defined networking (SDN) controller) may facilitate the integration between a multicasting VPN network and an edge replicated multicast network through the selection of a multicast bridge node from virtual routers specified in the multicast replication tree, and sending information identifying the multicast bridge node to a provider edge (PE) device for the source VPN such that the PE device may use the information to steer multicast traffic from the source VPN site across the Layer 3 VPN network to the multicast bridge node of the receiver VPN site. When the multicast bridge node receives the multicast traffic, the multicast bridge node determines from the information that it is to receive the multicast traffic and to perform the edge replicated multicast using the edge replicated multicast tree.

A computer network is a collection of interconnected computing devices that exchange data and share resources. In a packet-based network the computing devices communicate data by dividing the data into small blocks called packets. Certain devices within the network, such as routers, maintain routing information that describes routes through the network. In this way, the packets may be individually routed across the network from a source device to a destination device. The destination device extracts the data from the packets and assembles the data into its original form.
Customer devices may connect to services provided by data centers. A typical data center comprises, for example, a facility that hosts applications and services for customers of the data center. The data center for example, hosts all the infrastructure equipment, such as networking and storage systems, redundant power supplies, and environmental controls. In a typical data center, clusters of storage systems and application servers are interconnected via high-speed switch fabric provided by one or more tiers of physical network switches and routers. More sophisticated data centers provide infrastructure spread throughout the world with subscriber support equipment located in various physical hosting facilities.
Software Defined Network (SDN) platforms may be used in data centers, and in some cases, may use a logically centralized and physically distributed SDN controller, and a distributed forwarding plane in virtual routers that extend the network from physical routers and switches in the data center into a virtual overlay network hosted in virtualized servers. The SDN controller provides management, control, and analytics functions of the virtualized network and orchestrates the virtual routers by communicating with the virtual routers.
Using multicasting, a network distributes multicast packets to a set of interested receivers that can be on different subnetworks and that are configured as members of a multicast group. In some examples, the network that distributes multicast packets may include a virtual private network (VPN), which may be used to extend two or more remote layer two (L2) customer networks (e.g., a source VPN site and a receiver VPN site) through an intermediate layer three (L3) network (usually referred to as a provider network), such as the Internet, in a transparent manner, i.e., as if the network does not exist. In particular, the VPN transports L2 communications, such as "frames," between customer networks via the network.

Multicast VPN support in data centers using edge replication tree