Exemplary embodiments described in this disclosure are generally directed to systems and methods for assigning parking spots to autonomous vehicles based on data transfer throughput and other considerations. In one exemplary method, a server computer receives from a first autonomous vehicle, information regarding a size of a first dataset available for uploading from the first autonomous vehicle into the server computer. The server computer may further receive from a second autonomous vehicle, information regarding a size of a second dataset that the second autonomous vehicle has available for uploading into the server computer. The server computer may then assign parking spots to the two autonomous vehicles based on evaluating various factors such as the size of one or both datasets, characteristics of wireless links for carrying out data transfer in the parking area, characteristics of various access points in the parking area, and priorities associated with the data transfer.

Autonomous vehicles, which are often referred to by various other names such as robotic vehicles and unmanned vehicles, have of late become the focus of numerous developmental efforts. The developmental efforts have been directed to using autonomous vehicles for not only transporting passengers but also for delivering various types of articles in various types of environments. An autonomous vehicle may incorporate navigation and sensing equipment that enables the autonomous vehicles to negotiate obstacles that may be encountered on a road and perform some other actions associated with transporting people and/or delivering articles. In some cases, the navigation and sensing equipment may be programmed to operate using a set of rules and guidelines based on some predictable scenarios and conditions.
However, an autonomous vehicle may encounter situations that are not addressed by such a set of rules and guidelines. Consequently, an autonomous vehicle may be programmed to collect data related to such situations and the collected data archived for various purposes such as for modifying the operations of various autonomous vehicles.
In some applications, such as in the case of a ride services operation, a fleet of autonomous vehicles may be parked overnight in a garage and data collected by each of the autonomous vehicles may be wirelessly uploaded into a server computer. The amount of data to be uploaded can be quite large due to the number of autonomous vehicles participating in the uploading operation and can lead to certain problems in some cases. The problems can increase when data has to be not only uploaded from the autonomous vehicles to the server computer but downloaded from the server computer to the autonomous vehicles as well. Uploading and/or downloading problems may be caused by various factors such as wireless bandwidth limitations, parking spot availability, and parking time limitations. It is therefore desirable to find solutions for efficiently transferring data between a number of autonomous vehicles and one or more server computers.

Systems and methods for assigning parking spots to autonomous vehicles based on factors such as data transfer throughput


To enable determination of if there is an influence of foreign-body reactions on the result of quantitative determination conducted with a scattered light measurement method. Proposed is an automatic analysis device including a light source configured to irradiate a reaction solution with light, a plurality of light receivers configured to receive scattered light generated from the reaction solution at different light-receiving angles, a first data processing unit configured to process reaction process data measured by one of the light receivers to quantitatively determine a concentration of a substance in the reaction solution, and a second data processing unit configured to determine if the quantitative determination of the concentration of the substance has been performed normally on the basis of a ratio of a plurality of computed values, the plurality of computed values having been calculated from a plurality of pieces of reaction process data measured by the respective light receivers.

An automatic analysis device, which irradiates a reaction solution obtained by reaction of a sample with a reagent with light, and calculates absorbance from the amount of transmitted light that has passed through the reaction solution in accordance with the Lambert-Beer's law, and then quantitatively determines the concentration of a substance in the sample from the amount of change of absorbance that occurred in a given period of time, is widely used (e.g., see Patent Literature 1). In such a device, a number of cells each holding a reaction solution are circumferentially arranged on a reaction disc. An absorbance measuring unit is arranged around the reaction disc that is rotationally driven, so that time-series data on the amount of light that has passed through the reaction solution (the amount of transmitted light) is acquired for about 10 minutes at intervals of once every 15 seconds. The time-series data herein is referred to as reaction process data. Absorbance is calculated from the amount of transmitted light, and the concentration of a substance is quantitatively determined from the amount of change of absorbance that occurred in a given period of time.
Reactions that are measured by an automatic analysis device include two types: a color reaction that uses a substrate and an enzyme, and immune agglutination that uses an antigen and an antibody. A method for quantitatively determining the concentration through a color reaction is referred to as a biochemical analysis. Examples of test items of the biochemical analysis include LDH (lactate dehydrogenase), ALP (alkaline phosphatase), and AST (aspartate-oxoglutarate aminotransferase). A method for quantitatively determining the concentration of a substance through immune agglutination is referred to as an immune assay. Examples of test items of the immune assay include CRP (C-reactive protein), IgG (immunoglobulin), and RF (rheumatoid factor). The concentration of a substance, which is measured through immune agglutination, in the blood is relatively low. Therefore, a reagent used is required to be highly sensitive. Thus, latex particles, which are obtained by sensitizing antibodies as a sensitizer on the surface of a reagent, are often used as a reagent. The latex particles with sensitized antibodies on the surface will aggregate via a substance to be measured, thereby forming an aggregate. The aggregate will grow with time. The higher the concentration of the substance, the larger the aggregate that is obtained after a given period of time has elapsed. According to the measurement methods so far, a reaction solution in which an agglutination reaction has progressed is irradiated with light, and the amount of transmitted light that has passed through the reaction solution is measured to quantitatively determine the concentration of the substance to be measured.
However, in recent years, a further increase in sensitivity is desired for the latex immunoassay, and attempts have been made to measure not transmitted light but scattered light. For example, a system (Patent Literature 2) is disclosed that measures absorbance and scattered light at the same time by separating the transmitted light from the scattered light using a diaphragm, for example.

Automatic analysis device, and automatic analysis method


A two-step rocker arm assembly is provided having an arm member and a first roller assembly rotatably mounted with respect to the arm member and defining a generally C-shaped opening. A shaft member rotatably supports a second and a third roller assembly. The shaft member extends through the generally C-shaped opening and is selectively translatable therein to guide the second and third roller assemblies with respect to the arm member. A coupling lever is mounted with respect to the shaft member and is operable to selectively retain the shaft member with respect to the arm member for unitary movement therewith.

Some prior art engine valvetrains are selectively adjustable to vary the amount of valve travel during opening. Typically, such valvetrains are selectively adjustable between a low-lift mode, in which the valvetrain causes an engine poppet valve to open a first predetermined maximum amount (with lost motion), and a high-lift mode, in which the valvetrain causes the poppet valve to open a second predetermined maximum amount that is greater than the first predetermined maximum amount. This adjustability is accomplished with the use of a two-step rocker arm assembly. Prior art two-step rocker arm assemblies typically include an inner and an outer rocker arm assembly operating in contact with a camshaft having two distinct cam profiles, a low-lift cam and a high-lift cam.


A system and method of notifying a first communication network of a fault related to a second communication network is provided. The first communication network is connected to the second communication network. The first communication network has a first OAM protocol adapted to monitor integrity of the first communication network and the second communication network has a second OAM protocol adapted to monitor integrity of the second communication network. The method includes detecting the fault related to the second communication network and generating a first OAM cell of the first OAM protocol indicating detection of the fault. The method further includes transmitting the first OAM cell to the first communication network to indicate the fault to the first communication network.

MPLS is quickly gaining support in the communication industry as a high-speed core of many communication networks. Networks are being developed and deployed which interface ATM networks with MPLS networks. New network systems are being deployed which incorporate both MPLS and ATM network topologies.
For each topology, there is a separate, operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) protocol for generating and transmitting OAM messages whether in cells, packets, frames or another format.
There is a need for a system and method for transmission of information relating to OAM packets between ATM and switching networks, such as MPLS networks, as they are generated and transmitted.

System and method for transmission of operations, administration and maintenance packets between ATM and switching networks upon failures


Disclosed is a microwave oven provided with: a heating chamber (2) for housing the object to be cooked therein; a magnetron (7) that oscillates by having a voltage applied thereto, and generates a microwave to be supplied to the heating chamber (2); a radio wave sensor (11) for detecting the microwave generated by the magnetron (7); a timer (15) for measuring an oscillation starting time that is a period of time from when the voltage is applied to the magnetron (7) to when the microwave is detected by the radio wave sensor (11) due to the oscillation; and a notification unit (6) for sending a notice about the timing at which the magnetron (7) should be exchanged. When the oscillation starting time becomes longer than a prescribed period of time, a notice about that fact is sent by the notification unit (6).

A conventional microwave oven is disclosed in Patent Literature 1. This microwave oven is provided with a heating chamber in which a cooking object is placed, and the microwave oven incorporates a magnetron which oscillates in response to application of voltage, to thereby generate a microwave. The microwave generated by the magnetron is supplied into a heating chamber, where a cooking operation is performed with respect to the cooking object.
In addition, the microwave oven is provided with a timer which counts driving time of the magnetron. The driving time of the magnetron counted by the timer is stored in an accumulated manner as cumulative driving time. When the cumulative driving time of the magnetron exceeds a predetermined length of replacement time, it is judged that the life of the magnetron is close to its end, and a notice is given to the effect that it is time to replace the magnetron through a display portion or the like.
This notice enables a user to replace the magnetron before its life expires and the magnetron stops working. Thus, it is possible to prevent failure of cooking caused by the magnetron stopping in the middle of a cooking operation. Furthermore, in the case of a business-use microwave oven, the magnetron can be replaced out of business hours, and this helps avoid downtime of the microwave oven, to thereby prevent reduction of the operating ratio of the microwave oven.


A radio terminal device has an antenna element, a coil, a switch, an RF circuit section and a conductive substrate. The switch is used to switch between a case where current distribution exists only in the antenna element and its vicinities and a case where the current distribution exists not only in the antenna element and its vicinities but also in other places. Additionally, the switch is switched in accordance with the usage pattern in which the user uses the radio terminal device (e.g., telephone call and data communication). This allows the transmission/reception to be performed with the antenna polarization and directivity suitable for the usage pattern. Thus, there can be provided a radio terminal device that exhibits a reception characteristic suitable for a respective situation.

In case of the PDC system, as for a conventional antenna for a radio terminal device, a diversity antenna in combination of a whip antenna 102 and a planar inverted F antenna 103, as shown in FIG. 20, has been used well for dealing with a fading problem. However, all of these antennas have the polarization in which the z-axis directional component is big. Therefore, in a radio communications system transmission/reception in the vertical polarization at the base station, when a portable phone is used for telephone call and data communications as shown in FIG. 21, the polarization loss becomes small at the time of data communications as the polarization is the same vertical polarization, while the polarization loss becomes great depending on the slope of a plane of polarization at the time of telephone conversation.
Accordingly, in any states such as telephone call or data communications, there was described an antenna from which good polarization characteristics can be obtained, for example, in JP-A-2001-326514. FIG. 22 illustrates a conventional radio terminal device as described in the aforementioned patent publication.
In FIG. 22, a radio terminal device has one or a plurality of conversion switches 2202 for switching electrical connection state on an antenna element 2201 in which the electrical length is approximately 1 wavelength for a frequency in use. By switching the conversion switches 2202, the main polarization characteristic of an antenna can be switched to the horizontal polarization and vertical polarization. Meanwhile, a conversion control circuit section 2203 is provided with a discriminating means of a communication media such as voice communications/data communications or a discriminating means to decide whether any external device is connected to the radio terminal device. By switching the conversion switch 2202 based on the discrimination results from such discriminating means, the user is able to have a good plane of polarization automatically without awareness.
Meanwhile, there was mentioned a technique to switch the polarization and the directivity of an antenna by switching an antenna to the balanced characteristic and unbalanced characteristic in JP-A-2002-43826. FIG. 23 illustrates a conventional radio terminal device as described in the aforementioned patent publication.
In FIG. 23, the radio terminal device is provided with a rectangular loop antenna element 2303 of 1 wavelength arranged in the proximity of a radio substrate 2301 and both ends of the loop antenna element 2303 are bent so as to face toward a feeding section, thus configuring the current distribution that a current in the most front end portion becomes zero. Also, by concentrating the current on the loop antenna element 2303, the current component flowing on the radio substrate 2301 is reduced and the influence when a human being holds the radio terminal device in the hand is suppressed, and the directive characteristic is formed according to the arrival wave at the same time. Furthermore, by adjusting a phase circuit 2304, it is possible to switch the balanced characteristic and the unbalanced characteristic or to have a state therebetween and to form a plurality of radiation directional patterns in one antenna system depending on the environment of use or an arrival radio wave.
Meanwhile, other than the above JP-A-2002-43826, there was mentioned about controlling the directivity of an antenna by changing the current distribution in JP-A-2001-223514. FIG. 24A and FIG. 24B show a configuration of a case current distribution control section of the conventional radio terminal device as described in this patent publication.
In FIG. 24A, in the case current distribution control section, metal plates 2401 such as an case in a plurality of shapes of strips having a predetermined width are arranged at predetermined intervals, and connected by means of devices such as a plurality of diodes 2402 or the like therebetween. Then, by turning ON/OFF the switch 2404 of a bias control circuit 2403, voltages applied to diodes 2402 are controlled and the current distribution is switched.
However, in the conventional method as described in JP-A-2001-326514, there were problems in that an antenna element of approximately 1 wavelength was needed, which could not be installed at the case in view of a configuration of an antenna so that it was difficult to produce a small-sized terminal. Meanwhile, the conversion switch 2202 served as a means to switch an impedance matching circuit and switching at the same frequency band was not considered.
Meanwhile, according to the conventional method as described in JP-A-2002-43826, a small-sized antenna could be produced by using a folded loop antenna, but there was a problem in that the balanced characteristic and unbalanced characteristic could not be switched at the same frequency band as they were switched at the phase circuit.
Also, as for the conventional method as described in JP-A-2001-223514, there was a problem in that many devices such as diodes and the like were needed for the control of the current distribution.

Radio terminal device antenna and radio terminal device

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A packaging system for roast and ground coffee is disclosed. The packaging system can comprise a container, an overcap, and a visual indicator. The visual indicator can indicate a pressure difference between the inside of the packaging system and the outside of the packaging system by moving from a concave outwardly position to a concave inwardly position. The visual indicator can comprise a bubble.

Consumers generally want the appearance that food products, in particular roast and ground coffee, are fresh upon consuming. Packaging systems such as coffee containers, and in more particular plastic coffee containers such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,169,418, assigned to The Procter & Gamble Company, are being used more and more to deliver coffee to consumers. With the increase of coffee sold to consumers in plastic containers, a consumer demand exists for indications that the coffee inside the container is fresh. Indicators of freshness, including visual indicators, provide the consumer with confidence that the coffee that they are about to consume will satisfy their desire for a pleasant cup of coffee. Consumers are aware that external environmental factors, such as air, including oxygen, affect the freshness and thus the taste of the roast and ground coffee. Current containers do not present these visual indicators to consumers to communicate to them that the container is providing not only a way to transport the roast and ground coffee but an indication that the roast and ground coffee is indeed fresh.
Further, it is known from consumer research that freshness is a critical consumer need in the coffee marketplace. In other words, fresh coffee equates to a great tasting cup of coffee. Currently, methods are used to process and pack coffee to ensure that the coffee is still fresh by the time the consumer buys it at a store. Once the coffee is purchased and taken to the place of storage and consumption, typically a consumer's home, the consumer still desires for the coffee to stay fresh in the container over the length of time that it takes to consume the entire amount of coffee. Unfortunately, the fit between the overcap and the container has not been tight enough to effectively "seal in" freshness by way of an airtight seal or even to "burp" the package, i.e. to push on the top of the overcap to force air out of the container and then sealing the overcap to the container so that a slight vacuum is maintained over time, indicating that no air is coming into the container. Even if the fit had been tight enough, it would have been difficult for the consumer to see the depressed overcap (due to the pressure differential, i.e. vacuum) because the pressure differential was small, and the surface area of the cap was large, thus resulting in a small deflection of the overcap.
Therefore, a need exists for a packaging system for roast and ground coffee that includes a visual indicator for indication of an airtight container as well as the presence of a vacuum inside the container. Thus, freshness of the roast and ground coffee is communicated to the consumer.


A sharpener for creating cross-grind knife edges includes a nominally flat annular abrasive sharpening member which could be a ring or a disk and is rotated about its center and held against a moving knife edge facet to simultaneously and sequentially abrade the knife edge at multiple locations on the abrasive member. The disk may be slidably mounted on a shaft in opposition to a spring restraining force. The disk is nominally disposed in a vertical orientation. The sharpener may include multiple stages including a manual stage having a pair of off axis conical shaped rotatable abrasive coated disks which have abrading lines on opposing facets which are not parallel but cross and intersect in a crossing pattern at the blade edge.

This disclosure describes unique powered and manual sharpening means using abrasives to rapidly create a highly effective cutting edge on knives and similar cutting blades. Much has been written about means to create extraordinarily sharp edges on knives by creating geometrically perfect facets on each side of a knife edge that meet with high precision to create edges only a few microns in width. Further advances have been made in the old art of steeling an edge using modern technology to create highly reproducible micro-serrated edges along an already sharpened edge. This disclosure is about a unique and highly effective knife edge structure and more specifically about novel sharpening means to create such structure.
In spite of the technical advances of the past 20 years, there remains a lot of art involved in creating a perfect cutting edge. Indeed the perfect edge for cutting one particular food or material can be judged to be very different from the ideal edge geometry for cutting another food or material. Further the optimum edge for cutting is dependent on whether the user is moving the blade with a cutting stroke or shearing stroke. A geometrically perfect edge is better for a shearing action as with an axe while a less perfect edge populated with unique edge irregularities has been shown by the inventors to perform better with a slicing stroke. The nature of those irregularities, their size, and population has been found to effect importantly the ease of cutting a wide variety of materials especially those of a fibrous or semi-fibrous nature.

Sharpeners to create cross-grind knife edges


Systems and methods for compressing data in a network system communicated across a network are discussed. The network system may determine a data link characteristic for a data link between a source and a destination. A compression algorithm may be selected from among a plurality of compression algorithms based on the data link characteristic. A chunk of data may be compressed, using the selected compression algorithm, to be communicated over the data link. A compression ratio of the compressed chunk and the chunk uncompressed may be compared to a compression threshold. The compressed chunk may be provided, using the control circuitry, if the compression ratio is greater or equal to the compression threshold. The chunk uncompressed may be provided if the first compression ratio is less than to the first compression threshold.

As the global demand for accessing online content increases, multiple datacenters are needed to provide the content. The datacenters send and replicate data between each other in order to deliver the same data globally. The amount of data transferred between datacenters is usually large, which can take a considerable amount of time to transfer and be costly in terms of bandwidth. In many cases, the total network bandwidth of the datacenter becomes a bottleneck limiting the amount of data which can be sent at a time and affecting other services running in the datacenter. Other resources in the datacenters, such as processor, memory, and storage utilization, may be underutilized since the network bandwidth is being saturated and which other services also require to progress.
Network bandwidth is an important commodity that needs to be optimized. With the amount of data sent over networks increasing, techniques described herein may be used to reduce the amount of network bandwidth used while taking into consideration other services in the datacenter.

System and methods for compressing data based on data link characteristics


An imaging device driver for transmitting a signal onto a signal line for controlling transistors of a pixel row. The device includes a controller and associated circuitry for reducing shoot-through current within and between row driver circuits for driving the signal line. The controller reduces shoot-through current by preventing concurrent transmission of high and low signal outputs to the signal line by respective high and low voltage sources of the same or different row driver circuits.

As explained with reference to FIGS. 1-3C, signal line drivers are susceptible to unwanted transmissions of shoot-through current. The problem occurs in, among other circuits, CMOS imaging devices, because resulting current spikes can produce noise within captured images. Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention are disclosed with reference to, but are not limited to, use in a CMOS imaging device.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating a non-limiting example of a conventional four transistor pixel cell 150, which may be used in a CMOS imaging device. During an integration period, light strikes the photosensor 101 and generates charges stored in an accumulation region of the photosensor. After the integration period and in response to a charge transfer signal TX, a charge transfer transistor 106 gates the photogenerated charges from the accumulation region to a storage node 102, which may be constructed as a floating diffusion region. The transferred charges bias the gate of a source follower transistor 108, which has a first terminal connected to a voltage source VDD and a second terminal that consequently transmits an image signal Vsig indicating the amount of charge stored in the storage node 102. In response to a row select signal ROW, a row select transistor 109 gates the image signal Vsig to a column line 160 for subsequent sampling and processing. The pixel cell actually generates two output voltage signals, one is a reset signal Vrst, which is produced by transistor 108 when the storage node 102 is reset to a predetermined charge level by an "on" state of reset transistor 107, and the other is the image signal Vsig.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a non-limiting example of a conventional CMOS imaging device 200 for reading out a captured image, as digital data, to an image processor 280. The imaging device 200 includes a pixel array 260 having a plurality of pixel cells 150 arranged in rows and columns, and row 170 and column 120 drivers for accessing the pixel cells to control their operation during signal readout. In CMOS images with larger pixel arrays, the pixel rows may be accessed by devices provided to drive control signal lines on both the left and right sides of the array, as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, in response to row address signals ADD (not shown) from left and right row address decoders 110L, 110R (hereinafter also collectively referred to as row address decoders 110), respective left and right row drivers 170L, 170R (hereinafter also collectively referred to as row drivers 170) selectively transmit charge transfer TX, reset RST, and row select ROW signals to the charge transfer 106, reset 107, and row select 109 transistors of the pixel cell 150 of an addressed pixel row. The transistors 106-109 within the each pixel row are thereby controlled to generate the output signals Vrst, Vsig of the pixel cells 150 within the addressed pixel row, and to provide the output signals to respective column lines 160 connected to the pixel cells 150. In response to a column address signal COL (not shown) from a column address decoder 270, a column driver 120 gates each of the output signals Vrst, Vsig from their respective column lines 160 to a sample and hold (S/H) circuit 265, which samples and holds the Vrst, Vsig signals. A timing and control circuit 250 controls the row and column address decoders 110, 270 to coordinate the generation and readout of the output signals by the pixel cells 150.
At respective times, the reset Vrst and image Vsig signals of the pixel cell 150 are provided by the row select transistor 109 to the respective column line 160, and then provided by the column driver 120 to respective capacitors of the S/H circuit 265. The held reset Vrst and image Vsig signals are converted to a differential signal (Vrst−Vsig) by a differential amplifier 267. The differential signal (Vrst−Vsig) is converted to digital data by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 275, and the digital data is provided to the image processor 280 for processing with the digital data of other pixel cells 150 of the pixel array 200.
FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a non-limiting example of a dual row driver architecture 300, which may be employed by the imaging device 200 of FIG. 2. For convenience, only two pixel rows and two pixel cells 150 (of each row) are illustrated. As shown, the left and right row drivers 170L, 170R collectively provide three pairs of row driver buffers to each pixel row: left and right reset signal buffers 340L(RST), 340R(RST) for driving a shared reset signal line 130(RST); left and right row select signal buffers 340L(ROW), 340R(ROW) for driving a shared row select signal line 130(ROW); and left and right charge transfer signal buffers 340L(TX), 340R(TX) for driving a shared charge transfer signal line 130(TX) (hereinafter also collectively referred to as buffers 340(RST), 340(ROW), 340(TX), 340L, 340R, and 340). Each set of left and right buffers 340L, 340R drives either the reset 107, row select 109, or charge transfer 106 transistors of a pixel row by selectively transmitting "high" and "low" signal outputs to a respective signal line 130; e.g., the left and right reset signal buffers 340L(RST), 340R(RST) control the reset transistors 107 of the illustrated pixel row by concurrently transmitting a high or low signal output to the reset signal line 130(RST).
By using left and right buffers 340L, 340R to drive opposing ends of a shared signal line 130, the dual row driver architecture 300 reduces signal propagation delay. In a single row driver architecture having only one signal line driver per signal line 130, a transmitted signal has a maximum propagation delay Tmax of approximately:Tmax=½RC  (1)where R and C are the total resistance and capacitance, respectively, of the signal line 130 from the start point to the end point of transmission. In the dual row driver architecture 300, a signal has a maximum propagation delay Tmax of approximately:Tmax=⅛RC  (2)because the total resistance R and total capacitance C are each reduced by about one-half.
The dual row driver architecture 300 is susceptible to "inter" shoot-through current when the left and right buffers 340L, 340R are not operated in perfect synchronism and thus transmit different signal outputs at the same time. Even if the buffers 340L, 340R are designed to simultaneously switch between their high and low signal outputs, that may not always be the case. When one of the opposing buffers 340L, 340R lags behind the other in switching from a high to a low signal output, or vice-versa, inter shoot-through current can short across the signal line 130 from the high voltage source (e.g., a VDD output terminal) of the buffer 340 driving the signal line 130 high to the low voltage source (e.g., a VSS or GND output terminal) of the buffer 340 concurrently driving the signal line 130 low.
Each of the buffers 340L, 340R is also susceptible to "intra" shoot-through current. Intra shoot-through current occurs when an individual buffer 340 transmits both a high and low signal output to the signal line 130 at the same time. As will be further explained below, each of the buffers 340 selectively drives the signal line "high" and "low" by gating a high voltage signal from a high voltage source (e.g., a VDD output terminal) to the signal line 130; and by gating a low voltage signal from a low voltage source (e.g., a VSS or GND) to the signal line 130. If a buffer 340 concurrently provides the high and low voltage sources access to the signal line 130 (or to a common output node), the high and low voltage sources are temporarily connected and intra shoot-through current can transmit between them within the buffer 340. Because intra shoot-through current occurs within a single buffer 340, it can occur in single and dual row driver architectures alike.

Systems, methods, and devices for preventing shoot-through current within and between signal line drivers of semiconductor devices


The invention discloses a transgenic method for producing parthenocarpic fruits or fruits with reduced seed number. It involves the temporal expression of a plant hormone or precursor or other such gene so that gibberellin or other similar hormonal activity involved in initiating fruit set activity is potentiated. The gene is operably linked to a regulatory promoter so that expression is timed prior to pollen development or fertilization. Expression of the hormone causes fruit development in the absence of fertilization. The method also results in a fruit that has diminished or very little seed. The invention also includes transgenic constructs, vectors, and methods for production of the parthenocarpic plants.

In angiosperm plants, fruit develops from the pericarp which surrounds the developing seed. The development of fruit occurs after pollination and fertilization, which results in production of an embryo. Upon male gamete fusion with other cells in the ovule the endosperm is initiated, and develops concomitant with proliferation of the protoplast embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds the ovary swells into fruit. Ordinarily fruit development in non apomicytic species is triggered by fertilization of the ovules, and if pollination or fertilization does not occur then flower abscission occurs and no fruit is set.
Fruit set is also hindered by external factors such as temperature fluctuation, water availability, and light conditions, For example, peppers are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations. A temperature of less than 50.degree. F. at night or greater than 80.degree. during the day will cause fruit not to set after pollination. Smaller variations will lead to uneven fruit set resulting in abnormally shaped fruit. The ability to control the initiation of fruit set in plants could avoid these problems as fruit set could be controlled internally regardless of external factors, thereby improving yield as well as potential growing areas. Such control could also provide for initiation of fruit set without fertilization i.e. the production of a parthenocarpic phenotype. This can allow for development of fruit by a plant species regardless of external factors and can provide for fruit development regardless of even fertilization. Often the parthenocarpic phenotype not only allows for fruit set without fertilization, but without fertilization, seed development is minimized or is inhibited completely, providing a second benefit of parthenocarpy.
Seedless fruits and vegetables have long been a goal of those in the field of produce. Benefits of such plants include the obvious appeal to consumers for ease in preparing and consuming such produce. Other benefits include a sweeter, fleshier fruit or vegetable, and an increase in edible portion as the seed cavity is absent or greatly reduced. Several advances have been made in this field, usually with topical application of hormones or with highly complex breeding procedures resulting in a triploid genotype.
Topical applications of gibberellin has long been used to induce a seedless (parthenocarpic) phenotype in grapes. This method usually requires a spraying procedure which is cumbersome, weather dependent, and must be timed correctly to occur immediately after pollination.
Another method requires a complex breeding procedure for production of seedless watermelons. The seedless condition in watermelon is almost always the result of the presence of three homologous complements per cell rather than the usual two, known as triploid. These watermelons have problems in developing normally into an embryo and causes absence of seeds in the triploid plants. The abnormal embryo formation causes the cessation of normal ovular development into a seed at an early stage. Typically seedless watermelons contain small edible white ovules similar to those in immature cucumbers.
A transgenic method of creating seedless fruit is disclosed in World Patent WO91/09957. It involves a highly complex recombination excision system termed, "CRE-LOX". Generally the gene product of CRE produces a protein recombinase which acts at the specific LOX DNA sequence. Several recombination functions are disclosed with the most consistent being excision of the LOX DNA sequence. Seedless watermelons are hypothesized in the application to occur under the conditions involving transformation with the barnase gene derived from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Generally the female has a seed coat specific promoter (SC):CRE:terminator the male has a SC promoter:barnase gene::lox::barnase gene:terminator. There are no phenotype changes in the two parents when propagated and in the seed production field the female seed parent has normal seed set because both genes are not functioning at the same time (seed coat is only maternal tissue). However in the F1 generation the maternal tissue will contain both genes. In this configuration, the constitution of the seed coat (F1 plant, F2 seeds) is SC promoter:barnase gene::-::barnase gene:terminator where ::-:: represents the point where the lox gene is excised making a functional toxin gene specific to the seed coat. In theory if the seed coat breaks down the development of the seed will be arrested because of lack of nutrient flow to the embryo.
No experimental data is disclosed and the success of the proposed protocol in development of actual seedless watermelon is nowhere shown.
Thus it can be seen from the foregoing that a need exists in the art for production protocols for parthenocarpic fruits and vegetables which are simple, straightforward and easily repeatable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide expression constructs which when expressed in a transgenic plant result in fruit set without fertilization and also results in production of seedless fruits and vegetables.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide inbred parental lines which can be crossbred resulting in an F1 plant which will be parthenocarpic and will produce no seeds or a significant reduction in the amount of seeds present.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide plants, plant cells and plant tissues containing the expression constructs of the invention.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide vehicles for transformation of plant cells including viral or plasmid vectors and expression cassettes incorporating the genes and promoters of the invention.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide bacterial cells comprising such vectors for maintenance replication and plant transformation.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the description of the invention which follows.

Transgenic methods and compositions for producing parthenocarpic fruits and vegetables


A continuously variable transmission (CVT) has an increased speed of convergence on a neutral point by combining the rotation from the CVT and a constant velocity mechanism. At the neutral point the output member has zero rotation due to torque circulation. When a neutral state is determined to be needed based on the signals indicating the pulley ratio is within a predetermined range, with the throttle pedal being off or not depressed, and the brake pedal being on, the neutral control starts an operation to control the shaft force of both the primary and the secondary pulleys for the CVT. At the same time, the engine output is controlled by controlling the throttle opening degree and a predetermined torque is transmitted to the input shaft. As a result, the CVT converges on the gear neutral point (GN) at high speed due to an increase in the input torque of the CVT based on an increase in engine torque.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an infinitely variable transmission that generates torque circulation by combining a continuously variable transmission apparatus with planetary gears. In particular, the invention relates to an infinitely variable transmission that uses a belt type continuously variable transmission apparatus well suited for being mounting on a vehicle and that creates a neutral state with an output member having no rotation by means of the torque circulation.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatic transmissions integrating a belt type continuously variable transmission apparatus (CVT) have been receiving attention as vehicle transmissions due to demand for improved fuel consumption rates and improved driving performance
As disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 6-331000, an infinitely variable transmission comprises a continuously variable transmission mechanism, a constant speed mechanism and a planetary gear system wherein torques from said continuously variable transmission mechanism and from said constant speed mechanism are combined in said planetary gear system and a torque circulation is generated in the continuously variable transmission mechanism in order to increase the range of transmission ratios. The infinitely variable transmission transmits engine output to a carrier through the constant speed mechanism as well as transmitting to a sun gear through the continuously variable transmission mechanism and a first (low) clutch. In this state, a torque circulation is generated in the continuously variable transmission mechanism and the transmission ratio of the infinitely variable transmission as measured by the ratio of the rotation of the output shaft over input shaft rotation changes from reverse to a large forward ratio (U/D) to a small forward ratio (O/D) with the transmission ratio of the continuously variable transmission mechanism changing from small (O/D) to large (U/D). By releasing said first clutch or a one-way clutch and by engaging a second (high) clutch, the rotations of the continuously variable transmission mechanism are directly transmitted to the output shaft, and the transmission ratio of the infinitely variable transmission changes from large (U/D) to small (O/D) with the transmission ratio of said continuously variable transmission mechanism changing from large (U/D) to small (O/D).
With an infinitely variable transmission that executes the above mentioned torque circulation, a gear neutral position where the number of rotations of the output shaft becomes 0, can be calculated in theory by assigning a predetermined value, which is determined from the gear ratio of the planetary gear mechanism, to the transmission ratio of the continuously variable transmission mechanism. Hence, in theory, the mechanism works without a starting apparatus such as a starter.
However, with the infinitely variable transmission discussed above, although in theory a gear neutral point may exist, the output torque diverges rapidly towards infinity in the vicinity of the neutral point, causing the output torque to fluctuate greatly with a slight deviation from the predetermined transmission ratio which makes the continuously variable transmission mechanism approach the above-mentioned neutral point. Hence, in reality, it is very difficult to establish and maintain the pulley ratio of the continuously variable transmission at a target transmission ratio to achieve the above-mentioned neutral point by controlling oil pressure and the like, to regulate the shaft force being applied to both pulleys of the belt type continuously variable transmission apparatus.


A method and apparatus for performing switching by multistage interconnection of switching elements with improved performance and low layout complexity is disclosed. The techniques of line grouping, concentrators, self-route control through sorting are applied to relieve the output contention problem and uneven incoming traffic. Further a new class of interconnection networks called the divide-and-conquer networks is disclosed, the networks have very modular structure and the optimal layout complexity amongst all multistage interconnection networks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data communication systems and more particularly relates to method and systems for self-route switching by multistage interconnection of switching elements.
2. Background of the Invention
In telecommunications, a switch is a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a unit of data to its next destination. A switch may also include the function of the router, a device or program that can determine the route and specifically what adjacent network point the data should be sent to. On larger networks, the trip from one switch point to another in the network is called a hop. The time a switch takes to figure out where to forward a data unit is called its latency. Generally, the price paid for having the flexibility that switches provide in a network is this latency.
Switches are found at the backbone and gateway levels of a network where one network connects with another and at the subnetwork level where data is being forwarded close to its destination or origin. Therefore the needs for great flexibility as well as speed performance of the switches are always demanded.

Switching by multistage interconnection of concentrators

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A modular hydraulic spinal intervertebral prosthetic device offering individualized optimization of an implantable disc prosthesis by having selectable crown plates modules with differing lordosis angles and differing cross-sectional profiles, and selectable bellows cartridges having differing load-bearing capabilities. The device offers substantially full physiological degrees of motion, and by the incorporation of both a dashpot mechanism and a biasing element within reversibly displaceable and tiltable bellows provides hydraulic load bearing capability. The bellows assembly is advantageously pre-loaded to sub-atmospheric pressure. The dashpot further increases resistance to lateral sheer loading beyond the bellows convolutions acting alone. Rotational coupling of the upper crown plate and center bearings plate permits normal twisting movements, and spinal flexural freedom is provided by the bellows interposed between the center bearings plate and the lower end plate. The bellows also provides a hermetic seal which prevents any wear debris from migrating to the surrounding body tissue.

Implantable spinal prosthetic devices are well known in the art. Presently, the primary method used to remediate severe disc disease, spinal instability, discogenic pain, and/or spinal stenosis, is by surgical spinal fusion. In the spinal fusion procedure, two or more adjacent vertebrae are displaced, the spinal discs in between the vertebrae are removed by dissection, and crushed bone material is inserted between the two vertebrae; the bony material promotes the growth of new bone in the intervertebral space. The bony fusion material may be harvested intra-operatively from the patient's iliac crest or, alternatively, banked bone may be used. Since the fusion depends upon the ingrowth of new bone which takes months, mechanical means are necessarily incorporated at the time of surgery to maintain the stability and proper spacing between the vertebrae so as to permit the patient to carry normal loads imposed on the patient's spine during normal activities. Once the affected vertebrae are fused, that spinal segment will no longer take part in normal flexing, extending and twisting movements; higher stress loads will subsequently be imposed on discs and vertebra above and below the fused vertebral segment, often leading to the patient developing transition syndrome.
An important goal of spinal disc prosthesis implantations is to obviate the loss of normal biomechanics and range of motion associated with surgical fusion of a diseased spinal segment. Lordosis is an important element of the biomechanics of the spine, especially in the lumbar spine. While the lumbar vertebrae could be articulated in such a way that they form a straight vertebral column, this is not the shape assumed by the normal lumbar spine when a person is in the upright posture. This is because the sacrum, on which the lumbar spine rests, tilts forward so that its upper surface is inclined downwards and forwards. The size of this angle, with respect to a horizontal plane of the body, has a value in the range of about 40-45 degrees and increases by about 8 degrees upon standing. A straight lumbar spine would have to be inclined forward to articulate with the sacrum. In order to restore a normal upward orientation and to compensate for the normal inclination of the sacrum, the intact lumbar spine must assume a curve that is known as the lumbar lordosis. The shape of lumbar lordosis is achieved as a result of several factors. One of the main factors is the shape of the lumbar discs, and particularly the L5-S1 lumbosacral intervertebral disc. The L5-S1 lumbosacral disc, more than other lumbar intervertebral discs, is substantially wedge-shaped. Typically, the posterior disc height is about 6 or 7 mm less than its anterior height. The angle formed between the bottom of the L5 vertebrae and the top of the sacrum (S1) is found to vary from person to person in a range of roughly 5 to 30 degrees, with an average value of about 16 degrees.
One important advantage that derives from the lumbar lordosis is resilience to compressive forces and shocks. In a straight lumbar spine, axial compressive forces would be transmitted through the vertebral bodies and intervertebral discs and the only mechanism to protect the lumbar vertebra would be the shock-absorbing capacity of the intervertebral discs.
In a normally curved lumbar spine, compressive forces are transmitted through the posterior ends of the intervertebral discs while the anterior ends of the vertebral bodies tend to separate. Compression tends to accentuate the lumbar lordosis, which tendency tenses the anterior ligaments, which in turn resists the accentuation. Thus some of the energy of the axial compressive force is diverted into the stretching of the associated ligaments instead of being transmitted directly to the next vertebral body. In order to restore relatively normal biomechanical relationships to the vertebral column having structural derangements severe enough to require prosthetic spinal disc implantation, the prosthesis ought to provide for and replicate—as much as possible—the normal lordosis found in the healthy spine.
Axial compression is the movement that occurs during weight-bearing in the upright posture, or as a result of contraction of the longitudinal back muscles. During compression, intervertebral discs undergo an initial period of rapid creep, deforming about 1.5 mm in the first 2 to 10 minutes depending on the size of the applied axial load. Subsequently, a much slower but definite creep continues at about 1 mm/hour. Depending on age, a plateau is attained by about 90 minutes beyond which no further creep occurs. It is therefore important to incorporate this gradual accommodating compression—this cushioning—of the intervertebral disc to axial loads as part of the effort to restore and replicate normal vertebral biomechanics as much as possible.
During the axial rotation of an intervertebral joint inherent in twisting movements, the normal intervertebral disc resists torsion more than bending. Normally, the stress-strain curves for torsion rise steeply in the range of 0 to 3 degrees of rotation; beyond 3 degrees very large forces have to be applied to rotate the disc further. The risk of disc element failure increases substantially as the amount of rotation approaches 12 degrees, suggesting that 12 degrees is normally the maximal range of rotation. Thus, in order to replicate normal spine movements, an implanted prosthetic spinal disc ought to permit at least 3 degrees of rotation and preferably between 8 and 12 degrees of maximal rotation. None of the currently available disc prostheses provide for anything close to this amount of rotation.
Commonly used implantable spinal prosthetic devices include semi-rigid elastomeric filler materials that are sandwiched between two layers of some bio-compatible metal. The upper and lower plate surfaces typically have multiple spikes for their fixation to the vertebral end plates. Other similar devices offer means to screw the upper and lower plates to the co-joining vertebrae and some also include plates treated to promote bone growth into them. A few of the newer devices permit a small amount of articulation between the vertebrae but the extent of flexing and twisting is quite limited; furthermore, the elastomeric materials and their bonding agents in these devices have a disappointingly limited longevity. Ideally, a spinal disc prosthesis should last 30 to 40 years and be able to withstand approximately two million compression cycles per year.
It is a purpose of this subject invention to provide an implantable spinal disc prosthesis assembly comprising a combination of selectable modular components that has a long life expectancy, a negligible rate of failure and/or complications, and provides for maximal articulation in all normal physiological planes of movement within the spine. More particularly, the subject spinal disc prosthesis allows for tilting from side-to-side, rotation such as with twisting movements, and compression along a primary axial direction to absorb and transmit axial loads typical for normal activities.

Collapsible, rotatable, and tiltable hydraulic spinal disc prosthesis system with selectable modular components


A machine vision process monitors and controls safe working practice in a production area by capturing and processing image data relative to personal protective equipment (PPE) worn by individuals, movement of various articles, and movement-related conformations of individuals and other objects in the production area. The data is analyzed to determine whether there is a violation of a predetermined minimum threshold image, movement, or conformation value for a predetermined threshold period of time. The determination of a safety violation triggers computer activation of a safety control device. The process is carried out using a system including an image data capturing device, a computer and computer-readable program code, and a safety control device.

In 2007, worker compensation claims tallied a total of over 80 billion dollars in the United States. Accidents associated with back injuries accounted for one in every five claims and liability associated with damaged eyes totaled over $100 million dollars. There were four million non-fatal workplace injuries in 2007 and over 5000 workplace deaths. Many of these accidents can be attributable to safety violations and non-safe work practices.
Although there are numerous vendors supplying the market with personal protective equipment (hereinafter, "PPE") such as safety glasses and safety shoes, and although employers require employees to conduct periodic safety meetings, the cost of injury to persons and property in the workplace remains high. Manual monitoring of employees, vendors, and visitors through close circuit camera or direct supervision is both expensive and subjective. The overall reporting of violations can be inaccurate and unverifiable.
There is a need for a system that accurately monitors individuals as they use machinery, tools, and vehicles, to assure that proper safety protocol is followed to avoid injury to themselves and others in the vicinity, as well as avoiding damage to products and production equipment.

Automated monitoring and control of safety in a production area


A screwdriver fast connector is comprised of a shank including an insertion channel, an accommodation hole with a coil, an accommodation channel, and an elastic member penetrating the shank in radius; a locking member including a steel bead; and a slide member including a sleeve, an elastic member and a C-clamp, a first accommodation and a second accommodation spaces being provided to the sleeve; and the steel bead holding against a retaining part between both accommodation spaces so to fast mounting and removal of the tip by moving the steel bead.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a screwdriver fast connector, and more particularly, to one adapted with a locking member and a slide member to allow easy mounting, faster removal, and to be reliably locked when mounted to a tip of the screwdriver.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
As illustrated in FIGS. 6, and 8, a fast removal device of a screwdriver connector is essentially comprised of a flute 71 provided to a body 7 of the device to accommodate a coil 72 and a straight part 721 is left to be restricted in the flute 71 while being exposed out of an accommodation channel 73 to engage with a slot 81 from a tip 8.
Accordingly, once the tip 8 is pushed into the accommodation channel 73, the straight part 721 is pushed towards the outer edge of the body 7. When the pressure disappears, the straight part 721 is inserted into the slot 81 of the tip 8 to secure the tip 8 in position. When a slide sleeve 74 is moved, it pushes the straight part 721 to retreat into the flute 71, and the tip 8 is ejected out by an elastic member 75 disposed at the bottom of the body 7.
However, the process to provide the flute 71 is complicate and prevents easy control of precision resulting in the absence of a consistent positioning for the straight part 721. If the straight part 721 sticks out too much from the accommodation channel 73, the coil 72 can easily get stuck to the wall of the accommodation channel 73 so to prevent easy placement of the tip 8. Upon removing the bit 8, the coil 72 is also vulnerable to get stuck to the wall of the accommodation channel 73 to prevent easy retreat of the bit 8. Furthermore, if the straight part 721 is short of sticking out from the accommodation channel 73, it fails to secure the slot 81 of the bit 8; and the bit 8 can be easily slip out of the accommodation channel 73 while driving.


Techniques disclosed herein utilize a vision sensor that integrates a special-purpose camera with dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware and a dedicated low-power microprocessor for the purposes of detecting, tracking, recognizing, and/or analyzing subjects, objects, and scenes in the view of the camera. The vision sensor processes the information retrieved from the camera using the included low-power microprocessor and sends “events” (or indications that one or more reference occurrences have occurred, and, possibly, associated data) for the main processor only when needed or as defined and configured by the application. This allows the general-purpose microprocessor (which is typically relatively high-speed and high-power to support a variety of applications) to stay in a low-power (e.g., sleep mode) most of the time as conventional, while becoming active only when events are received from the vision sensor.

Human-computer interaction uses many modalities including language (typing, voice recognition, on-screen text display, speech synthesis, and the like) and vision (still and video cameras, graphic displays, and the like). Face detection, recognition, expressions, and so forth forms an important part of human-to-human communication and thereby is important for human-machine interaction as well. There are many methods and applications available for detection, tracking, recognition of face(s) in still images and videos, including emotion detection, gender classification, lip reading, eye/gaze tracking, etc.
Traditional systems for face or general object detection and tracking use computing-intensive algorithms requiring high-speed, power-hungry microprocessors, high-consumption of data path bandwidth for moving large numbers of operands, and heavy usage of memory. These systems typically use a still/video camera capturing and delivering intensity-based images to a general-purpose microprocessor, which analyzes the images, displays the images gleaned on a screen, or otherwise acts based on the scene-information thus retrieved. Given the high power consumption of the existing systems, use-cases and applications for face or general object detection have become fairly limited. For example, the camera and the processor sub-system cannot be kept turned on for most of the time for portable, battery-powered devices.

Low-power always-on face detection, tracking, recognition and/or analysis using events-based vision sensor


Technologies are described for generating and validating encrypted coupons. For example, an encrypted coupon can be received. The encrypted coupon can be decrypted using a public key. The decrypted coupon can be decoded (e.g., using a pre-defined data format) to extract coupon data comprising a unique coupon identifier and a unique user identifier. The decrypted coupon can be validated based at least in part upon the unique coupon identifier and the unique user identifier. The process of receiving the encrypted coupon, decrypting the encrypted coupon, decoding the decrypted coupon, and validating the decrypted coupon can be performed offline (e.g., without access to external networks or the internet) and without accessing information indicating associations between unique coupon identifiers and unique user identifiers.

It is important for businesses to be able to offer promotions for products. For example, a business may offer a coupon that provides a discount on the purchase price of a particular product. It is also important for businesses to be able to offer specific promotions to specific customers. For example, a business may offer a coupon to a specific customer that provides a purchase discount that only the specific customer can redeem.
However, it can be difficult for businesses to manage and enforce coupons, such as customer-specific coupons. Businesses can find coupon management more difficult in situations where the business does not have, or does not utilize, a live internet connection (e.g., for reliability or security reasons). For example, in some solutions a business must distribute lists of specific coupons, and the associated customers that are authorized to redeem the specific coupons, to each of the business locations (e.g., to each retail store). Even if live internet connections are utilized, retailers may still need to maintain such lists (e.g., at a central location).
It can also be difficult for a business to validate the coupons it receives. For example, a customer could create coupon that the business did not authorize. As another example, a customer could use single use coupon more than once.
Therefore, there exists ample opportunity for improvement in technologies related to managing coupons.


An access point generates a data packet such that the data packet has a same packet length as a data packet from at least one other access point. The access point reserves a channel for a time interval, and initiates transmission of the data packet over the channel at a same time as transmission of the data packet from the at least one other access point. As a result, the access point synchronizes its transmission interval with a transmission interval of the at least one other access point which reduces inter-access point interference.

Current Wi-Fi systems have unaligned time division duplexed (TDD) transmissions where one access point's (AP) downlink transmission may interfere with another access point's uplink transmission. This inter-AP interference is particularly a problem in high density networks where wireless channels between APs are stronger than wireless channels between APs and terminals. If the APs are not aligned in terms of the downlink and uplink transmission intervals, then transmission by one or more APs will strongly interfere and possibly block reception at other listening APs. This causes poor area capacity (bps/km2), packet loss, and over all lower data rates.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example problem of unaligned transmissions from TDD Wi-Fi access points. FIG. 1 depicts a street canyon, where there is a direct Line of Sight (LOS) between the AP1 and AP2, and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) between the APs and terminals (user equipment UE1 and UE2). Thus, the coverage of AP2 is smaller than the interference range from AP1. If AP1 is transmitting a downlink signal DL at high power to UE1, AP2 will find it hard to hear a weak uplink signal UL from UE2.

Synchronization of transmission intervals in Wi-Fi


A hinge assembly for coupling a sliding door of a vehicle to a drive unit for sliding the sliding door from an open position to a closed position, the drive unit causing the hinge assembly to slide within a guide track as the door moves between the open position and the closed position, the hinge assembly comprising: a first hinge portion; a second hinge portion, the first hinge portion being pivotally secured to the second hinge portion; a cable attachment being secured to the second hinge portion; and a guide surface disposed on a surface of the first hinge portion, the guide surface being configured to make contact with a portion of a cable having an end secured to the cable attachment when the second hinge portion is in a first orientation with respect to the position of the first hinge portion and the cable no longer makes contact with the guide surface as the second hinge portion moves from the first orientation to a second orientation with respect to the first hinge portion.

A typical vehicle is manufactured with a plurality of openable doors. Each door is typically mounted on hinges within a door opening. Some larger vehicles have sliding doors that slide from an open position to closed position thus, egress and ingress of the vehicle is possible without requiring a large open area beside the vehicle to allow for pivoting of the door. This is particularly useful in parking lots where the area between the vehicles is typically not large enough to allow for full pivoting of the opening doors. Moreover, such sliding doors also allow the vehicles to have larger door openings.
Accordingly, sliding doors provide access to large door openings without requiring a large area adjacent to the vehicle which would be required for a door that pivots on its hinge. In one configuration, a power sliding door is supported and guided by an upper track, a center track and a lower track. An upper roller is attached to the power sliding door and travels in the upper track. A lower roller is attached to a lower portion of the sliding door and runs or travels in the lower track. A hinge and roller assembly is pivotally attached to a rear portion (e.g., towards the rear of the vehicle) of the door between the upper and lower portions of the door. The hinge and roller assembly is also received in the track to allow for sliding or movement of the door.
In addition to the usage of sliding doors in vehicles, power drive systems have been implemented wherein automatic opening, closing, locking and unlocking of the sliding door is facilitated through a drive system coupled to the sliding door. Presently, some sliding doors are driven through cables attached to the forward and aft sides of the center roller hinge (e.g., a hinge mounted towards the center of the door with respect to the upper and lower edges of the same). During installation on the vehicle, the cables are separately routed into the interior of the vehicle housing (e.g., between the inner and outer surfaces of the vehicle body) through holes in the sheet metal and are wrapped around pulleys of the power sliding door drive unit within the vehicle. These systems are complex, non-modular, cumbersome to install, and require the cables to be routed through the vehicle, the system, tensioned and then secured to the hinge during assembly of the system on the vehicle (e.g., on the assembly line).
The drive unit output force necessary to seal the door with the front cable attached to the center roller hinge is larger than the door seal force (e.g., the necessary seal force applied normal to the surface of the door or inwardly towards the vehicle from the exterior of the door). The aforementioned seal force refers to the force necessary to close the door when it is positioned over or about the door opening into which the door is received. The previously mentioned difference in required seal force is typically due to the inefficiency of transferring the force from the cable to the door via the center roller hinge/roller track/door interface.
In addition, non-modular power drive systems include many components that must be installed together on the assembly line. Accordingly, many power sliding doors and their associated non-modular drive systems require significant work to install on the assembly line as multiple separate components must be installed and tested during the vehicle assembly process. Moreover, the configuration of these systems effect the efficiency of the motor drive unit thereby requiring additional power to close the vehicle door as it slides in the guide tracks.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a power drive system for a vehicle sliding door that is efficient in transferring force to the sliding door and is easy to install. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a system that does not take up a large amount of space within the vehicle.


A printing system includes a printer and computers connected by an network. A mail server is provided for transmitting notification data from the printer to the computers in the form of an email message. Print data stored in the printer is erased once the print data has been used for reprint operations a certain amount of times. If the amount of print data stored in the printer exceeds a reference size, then print data sets are selected for erasure based on predetermined conditions. Data stored in the printer can be retrieved from the printer and amended at the computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system including a server and a plurality of clients connected by a network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a printing system with one or more client devices connected to a shared printer by a network. The printing system has a spooling function, wherein the client devices transmit print data and print management information data for print jobs to the printer, and the printer stores the print data and associated print management information data in job units in a hard disk.
The print management information data includes data representing time and date that the print data can be deleted, data representing the name of the person who transmitted the print data, data representing the time and date that the print data was transmitted, and data representing the time that the print data was printed out. Based on this print management information data, the printer prints starting with print data that was transmitted first, that is, with the oldest transmission time and date. Also, the printer can delete print data from the hard disk when the deletion time and date arrives or the printer can notify the user that the printing operations have been completed when they are completed.
Sometimes a user of one of client devices wishes to know the condition of print processes that the user of another client device is attempting to execute. The print management information describes the condition of printing processes for each print job. Therefore, the user merely needs to access the printer through the client device in order to confirm the condition of printing processes by referring to the print management information.
However, the condition of printing processes may change directly after the user accesses the printer and confirms the condition of printing processes. That is, printing processes may be executed with respect to certain print data or the print data itself may be deleted. In such cases, any printing processes that the user attempts to execute may be influenced by such changes in the printing process status. Further, in order for the user to accurately grasp the present condition of printing processes, the user must frequently access the printer, which is very troublesome for the user.
In one known printing system, the shared printer maintains the sets of data stored in a hard disk after printing is completed. When the printer receives a reprint command from one of the user device, the printer again prints out based on the print data. This configuration is highly convenient for the user, because the user can print out the same text or images using the same print data, without having to resend the print data.
However, with this type of printing system, the data remains stored in the hard disk unless the user specifically erases it. However, it is troublesome to monitor the contents stored in the hard disk and delete unnecessary print data. Therefore, print data tends to remain in the hard disk of the printer for long periods of time.
Since the region in the hard disk for storing such print data is limited, the capacity of the region can easily be filled up when the user does not diligently delete such print data. If the capacity of the region is exceeded, the it becomes impossible to store any further new print data.
Also, if a number of client devices connected to the network increases, the number of printer data sets sent to the printer and stored in the hard disk of the printer will increase by a proportional amount.
Also, once the computer transmits the print management information data with the print data, there is no way to amend the data even if it includes errors. Accordingly, if print management information data indicates an incorrect deletion time and date, then the printer will erroneously delete the print data at a timing different from when it should be deleted. As a result, the user must retransmits the same print data.
Such printer systems often include a mail server with an electronic mail function. The mall server transmits and receives e-mail messages between the various client devices.

Printing system for selectively erasing print data set in spool region when total data size of print data sets exceeds preset reference data size


Methods and systems according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure are provided for using augmented reality to determine information. In an embodiment, an augmented reality (AR) system comprises one or more processors, and one or more memories in communication with the one or more processors and adapted to store a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to: capture an image view via a viewer; deconstruct the image view into one or more objects; identify at least one object of interest based on specific relevancy information; determine real time information about the object(s) of interest; and present the real time information on a user interface.

Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to information systems, and more particularly, to methods and systems for using augmented reality to determine information.
Related Art
Users may regularly use mobile devices to look for information of all types, including, for example, to search for information on locations or descriptions of businesses, products, services, private or public facilities such as bus stations, and many other types of information. However, current information found, for example, via searches on mobile devices, may be very broad, outdated, and, in many cases, not relevant to a user's needs or situation.
Like element numbers in different figures represent the same or similar elements.

Using augmented reality to determine information


A method for communication includes inputting from a host processor to a network interface device a sequence of work requests indicative of operations to be carried out by the network interface device with respect to a plurality of the connections. The device looks ahead through the sequence in order to identify at least first and second operations that are to be carried out with respect to one of the connections in response to first and second work requests, respectively, wherein the second work request does not immediately follow the first work request in the sequence. The device loads the context data for the one of the connections from a host memory into a context cache, and performs at least the first and second operations sequentially while the context data are held in the cache.

In recent years, the speed of networking hardware has increased by two or three orders of magnitude, enabling packet networks such as Gigabit Ethernet™ and InfiniBand™ to operate at speeds in excess of about 1 Gbps. Network interface adapters for these high-speed networks typically provide dedicated hardware for physical layer and medium access control (MAC) layer processing (Layers 1 and 2 in the Open Systems Interconnect model). Some newer network interface devices are also capable of offloading upper-layer protocols from the host CPU, including network layer (Layer 3) protocols, such as the Internet Protocol (IP), and transport layer (Layer 4) protocols, such as the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP), as well as protocols in Layers 5 and above.
Chips having LAN on motherboard (LOM) and network interface card capabilities are already on the market. One such chip comprises an integrated Ethernet transceiver (up to 1000BASE-T) and a PCI, PCI Express or PCI-X bus interface to the host computer and offers the following exemplary upper-layer facilities: TCP offload engine (TOE), remote direct memory access (RDMA), and Internet small computer system interface (iSCSI). A TOE offloads much of the computationally-intensive TCP/IP tasks from a host processor onto the NIC, thereby freeing up host processor resources. TCP offload additionally reduces the host or CPU memory bandwidth that is required. TCP is described in Request for Comments (RFC) 793, published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The Microsoft® Windows® operating system provides an Application Programming Interface (API) known as "TCP Chimney," which is defined in the Microsoft Network Design Interface Specification (NDIS), versions 5.2 and 6.0.
A RDMA controller (RNIC) works with applications on the host to move data directly into and out of application memory without CPU intervention. RDMA runs over TCP/IP in accordance with the iWARP protocol stack. RDMA uses remote direct data placement (rddp) capabilities with IP transport protocols, in particular with SCTP, to place data directly from the NIC into application buffers, without intensive host processor intervention. The RDMA protocol utilizes high speed buffer to buffer transfer to avoid the penalty associated with multiple data copying. The Internet engineering task force (IETF) is the governing body that provides up-to-date information on the RDMA protocol. Features of RDMA are described in the following IETF drafts: draft-ieft-rddp-applicability, draft-ietf-rddp-arch, draft-ietf-rddp-ddp, draft-ietf-rddp-mpa, draft-ietf-rdd p-problem-statement, draft-ietf-rddp-rdma-concerns, draft-ietf-rddp-rd map, draft-ietf-rddp-security, and draft-hilland-rddp-verbs.
An iSCSI controller emulates SCSI block storage protocols over an IP network. Implementations of the iSCSI protocol may run over either TCP/IP or over RDMA, the latter of which may be referred to as iSCSI extensions over RDMA (iSER). The iSCSI protocol is described in IETF RFC 3720. The RDMA consortium is the governing body that provides up-to-date information on the iSER protocol. Information for iSER is described in IETF draft-ko-iwarp-iser-v1. The above-mentioned IETF documents are incorporated herein by reference. They are available at www.ietf.org.
These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

Efficient handling of work requests in a network interface device


A gas compression spring comprises a gas-filled cylinder in which a piston carrying a hollow piston rod is slidable and divides the interior of the cylinder into first and second chambers. Over part of the length of the cylinder, a groove is provided in the cylinder wall. Gas pressure within the cylinder causes the piston to drive the piston rod outwards of the cylinder, this being permitted by the groove which allows transfer of gas pressure between the two chambers. When the piston reaches the end of the groove, such gas pressure transfer ceases and movement of the piston rod stops. External manual force applied to a control rod, extending through the hollow interior of the piston rod, unseals an opening at the end of the piston rod which brings the two chambers into communication again. Gas pressure transfer can now take place between the two chambers via the interior of the piston rod. Movement of the piston rod outwardly of the cylinder under the pressure exerted by the gas now re-commences, but can be halted at any desired position by release of the force manually exerted on the control rod.

The invention relates to gas springs.
Gas springs embodying the invention and to be described below by way of example can be used in motor vehicles for easing the opening of closure members such as luggage and engine compartment lids and hatchbacks. However, they can be used for other purposes.
A known form of gas spring comprises a gas compression spring for moving a member pivotted on a body from a first position corresponding to compression of the spring to a second position, comprising: an arrangement of a piston movable within cylinder means having first and second ends, the piston carrying a piston rod slidingly and sealingly extending outwardly of the first end of the cylinder means; means on the second end of the cylinder means and at a point on the piston rod where it extends from the cylinder means for connection between the body and the said member; the cylinder means being filled with gas under pressure and the piston dividing the interior of the cylinder means into a first chamber defined at least in part by the head of the piston and a second chamber through which the piston rod extends; the first and second chambers being interconnected by first gas flow means providing a first restricted gas flow path between points which are respectively situated in the first and second chambers and which are separated by respective predetermined parts, only, of the stroke of the piston, the restricted gas flow path permitting limited flow of gas from the second chamber to the first chamber as the gas pressure moves the piston over the said predetermined parts of the stroke and correspondingly moves the piston rod from an inner piston rod position towards an outer piston rod position more outwardly of the cylinder means, whereby to move the member towards the second position, the said limited flow of gas not being permitted when the piston is outside the said predetermined parts of its stroke so that further movement of the piston rod towards the outer piston rod position is stopped; and reverse flow means permitting gas pressure transfer between the first and second chambers when the piston rod is moved towards the inner piston rod position by an externally applied force.
Such a gas spring is known from United Kingdom patent specification No. 1,528,820. In this gas spring, the first gas flow means comprises two grooves in the interior wall of the cylinder means which extends longitudinally along the cylinder means and are separated by an ungrooved portion. As the piston rod travels towards the outer piston rod position, the piston travels over the first groove permitting limited flow of gas from the second chamber to the first chamber. When the piston reaches the ungrooved portion, piston rod movement stops. The piston rod can only be moved beyond this position, so that the piston then reaches the second groove which again permits restricted gas transfer, by the application of an externally applied force which has to be sufficient to overcome the gas pressure within the cylinder means. Th e invention aims to deal with this problem.


A method and system of compensating wave reflections in transmission lines is provided. The system includes a compensator that transforms a transmission line (which connects an actuator and a motor) into a delay transfer to remove wave reflections, by exploiting a scattering variables representation of the transmission line. The compensator can be a filter with delays that transforms the transmission line into a delay transfer through appropriate linear combinations of delayed or un-delayed voltages and currents. The filter may admit a discrete-time finite-dimensional realization that preserves the wave reflection removal properties for signals. A back-to-back rectifier-inverter or hybrid filter implementation may realize the filter.

In several applications, high-speed switching drive mechanisms are connected to motors through long cables. For example, high power transistors have been used in variable speed drives to achieve high switching speeds and high frequency excitation of wiring connecting to motors. Because the cables have a defined physical length, electrical signals require a finite time to traverse the cables. If this time becomes appreciable relative to the time of one cycle of the exciting voltage, transmission line effects begin to appear on the cables. Even a small length of motor wiring in conduit can exhibit transient overvoltages at the motor due to wave reflections when it is driven by a PWM inverter, for example. The same kind of problems can arise in offshore pump motors supplied through several kilometers of undersea cable, even though the switching speeds may not be especially high.
As a more specific example, actuators may be interconnected to a control plant through long cables (e.g., transmission lines). If the actuator operates at a fast sampling rate (with respect to a propagation delay of the cable) and the actuator's impedance cannot be neglected, electromagnetic wave reflections will occur and transmitted pulses from the actuators will be deformed, degrading control quality. To overcome this problem, two techniques are often used. First, passive linear filters are often introduced to slow a rise time of the transmitted pulse. Unfortunately, this technique generally reduces the achievable bandwidth resulting in a below par performance.
A second solution is to match a load impedance of the control plant to an impedance of the long cables. Traveling waves can reflect back and forth along the line until they are ultimately damped out by transmission line losses. Using this solution, when the line is terminated in its characteristic impedance, there is no reflected wave and voltages and currents are generally uniform along the length of the line. Unfortunately, this approach can be difficult to realize since the choice of the filter parameters to match impedances is not obvious if the plant has nonlinear or uncertain characteristics.
The wave reflection phenomenon is well documented in power distribution and digital communications and is now coming to the forefront in several control applications. Notably, in high-performance drives it is known as a voltage overshoot problem, where the occurrence of high voltage spikes at motor terminals can produce potentially destructive stress on motor insulation, constituting a serious practical problem still asking for a satisfactory solution. (See, e.g., S. C. Lee and K. H. Nam, "An Overvoltage Suppression Scheme for AC Motor Drives Using a Half DC-Link Voltage Level at each PWM Transition", IEEE Trans. Ind. Elec., Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 549–557, June, 2002; and E. Persson, "Transient Effects in Application of PWM Inverters to Induction Motors", IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicant., Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 1095–1101, September/October, 1992).
Voltage overshoot occurs at the motor terminal if the motor is fed by a drive signal through a long feeding cable due to the transmission line behavior on the motor feeding cable. The driver is regarded as a short circuit because its impedance is low compared with the transmission line characteristic impedance. However, the motor impedance presents an effective open circuit. These impedance mismatches cause a voltage reflection that results in a voltage spike at the motor, and thereby constitutes a factor in the voltage overshoot phenomenon. Further, a signal propagation delay occurs in feeding cable transmission lines. If a signal rise time is short compared to the propagation delay, voltage overshoot takes place at the motor terminal, since reflection coefficients at both ends of the cable are normally high.

Method and system of compensating wave reflections in transmission lines

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


A method for automatically selecting a print job parameter including the steps of ascertaining a first print job parameter and automatically selecting a second print job parameter based upon the first print job parameter. In one embodiment the method includes the steps of automatically ascertaining a pre-selected toner density setting and automatically selecting a print media based upon the pre-selected toner density setting. Alternately, the method for automatically selecting a print job parameter may include the steps of ascertaining a pre-selected print media and automatically selecting a toner density setting based upon the pre-selected print media.

Imaging devices, including printers, copiers and various multi-function imaging devices, select and feed print media from an input source, commonly a media tray. The selection of a media source is commonly based upon a pre-selected default. For instance, a single print media tray printing device may be configured to select and feed print media from the single print media tray if and only if there is no media present in a manual feed port. A primary default for print media, in this situation, is for manual feed. In the case of a multiple print media tray printing device the primary default for print media may be for manual feed with a secondary default being for selection and feed of print media from the first print media tray and a tertiary default from a second print media tray and so on. In the event the first print media tray is empty, the imaging device controller will automatically choose the second print media tray regardless of the type of media loaded in the tray.
It may be undesirable for an imaging device to select, by default, a relatively high cost media in the event that a draft document is being printed for draft purposes.
It has previously been recognized that in situations in which a draft document is desired, it may be relatively more economical to print such documents employing a "draft toner mode". In a draft toner mode, the toner density of printed documents may be varied by adjusting toner density level in order to obtain a desired draft toner density. Methods and apparatus for adjusting the density of digital imagery are known in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,625 to Robertson et al., is directed to methods and apparatus for the economical use of toner or ink in high resolution printers which includes adjusting the density of digital imagery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,351 to Helterline, et al., is directed to a method and apparatus for regulating ink-jet printer print density to optimize resolution.
It would be desirable to provide a method for automatically selecting, or automatically changing, the default selection for a print media dependant upon a pre-selection of a toner mode setting. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a method for automatically selecting, or automatically changing the default selection to a draft media dependant upon the pre-selection of a draft toner mode setting. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a method for automatically selecting, a toner density setting dependant upon a pre-selection of a print media default setting. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a method for automatically selecting, or automatically changing the default selection to a draft toner density setting dependant upon the pre-selection of a draft print media default setting.

Print toner density mode/print media default link

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.