A magnetic head is configured of a core and a coil wound around the core and passing current through the coil in a variable direction allows the core to have an edge generating an alternating magnetic field Hex1 and another edge generating an alternating magnetic field Hex2. Alternating magnetic fields Hex1 and Hex2 are applied to the respective edges. Furthermore, a laser beam LB1 is directed such that its optical axis L01 matches the edge receiving the alternating magnetic field Hex1, and a laser beam LB2 is directed such that its optical axis L02 matches the edge receiving the alternating magnetic field Hex2. A first magneto-optical signal detected through the alternating magnetic field Hex1 and the laser beam LB1 and a second magneto-optical signal detected through the alternating magnetic field Hex2 and the laser beam LB2 are composited together. As such, an alternating magnetic field can be applied to a magneto-optical recording medium at a predetermined angle to an in-plane direction of the recording medium to accurately enlarge a magnetic domains for reproduction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magneto-optical disk apparatuses employing a magnetic field and a laser beam to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain formed therein to record a signal, and methods of reproducing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
A magneto-optical recording medium has been noted as a recording medium which is rewritable, has a large storage capacity and is highly reliable, and it has been put to practical use as computer memory or the like. Furthermore, in recent years a magneto-optical recording medium having a storage capacity of 6.0 Gbytes is standardized as the Advanced Storaged Magneto Optical (AS-MO) disk standard and it is about to be put to practical use.
Furthermore, there has also been proposed a magneto-optical recording medium having a recording capacity of 14 Gbytes allowing a magnetic domain to be transferred from a recording layer to a reproducing layer and enlarged in the reproducing layer to reproduce a signal. In this magnetic domain enlargement and reproduction system, a signal is reproduced by applying to a magneto-optical recording medium an alternating magnetic field having a predetermined angle to an in-plane direction of the recording medium. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 26A, the magneto-optical recording medium includes a recording layer 5 having a magnetic domain of a different length and in the magnetic domain enlargement and reproduction system an alternating magnetic field is applied and a laser beam is directed to transfer each magnetic domain from recording layer 5 via a non-magnetic layer 4 to a reproducing layer 3 and enlarge it therein. The enlarged magnetic domain is detected by a laser beam. Herein, the alternating magnetic field is applied to recording layer 5 at substantially the center of each magnetic domain. If a magnetic domain in recording layer 5 varies in length a magnetic field leaking from the magnetic domain of recording layer 5 via non-magnetic layer 4 to reproducing layer 3 also has a different intensity profile. A leaking magnetic field for a magnetic domain having a unit domain length has an intensity increasing in the direction from an end of the magnetic domain to the center thereof. A leaking magnetic field for a magnetic domain having a length more than twice the unit domain length, has a high intensity at an end of the magnetic field and a low intensity at the center thereof. As such, if an alternating magnetic field is applied to each magnetic domain at the center thereof, magnetic domains having different lengths cannot be accurately transferred to and enlarged in reproducing layer 3.
To overcome this disadvantage, there has been proposed applying to a magnetic domain at an end thereof (i.e., a boundary between magnetic domains) an alternating magnetic field Hex1 having a predetermined angle to an in-plane direction of a magneto-optical recording medium, to enlarge and reproduce the magnetic domain. Recording layer 5 has magnetic domains each having a boundary with a leaking magnetic field 190-194 and when the boundaries with leaking magnetic fields 190, 192, 194 receive alternating magnetic field Hex1 magnetic domains 195-197 have their respective ends readily, initially transferred to reproducing layer 3. This principle will now be described with reference to FIGS. 27A-27D. As shown in FIG. 27A, if a signal is reproduced, reproducing layer 3 is initialized, magnetized in a predetermined direction. Furthermore, recording layer 5 has magnetic domains 220-222 having a signal recorded therein. Herein, a leaking magnetic field of magnetic domain 221 in a vertical direction, i.e., a direction to reproducing layer 3 has an intensity profile as shown in FIG. 27B.
In contrast, a leaking magnetic field of magnetic domain 221 in an in-plane direction has an intensity profile as shown in FIG. 27C. More specifically, it is a leaking magnetic fields having opposite directions and a uniform intensity at opposite ends of magnetic domain 221 and if the leaking magnetic field at the boundary of magnetic domains 220 and 221 is directed in the direction from magnetic domains 221 to 220 then the leaking magnetic field at the boundary of magnetic domains 221 and 222 is directed in the direction from magnetic domains 221 to 222. As such, a leaking magnetic field in the in-plane direction that comes from magnetic domain 221 to affect reproducing layer 3 has opposite directions and a uniform intensity, and a magnetic force acting to invert the reproducing layer 3 magnetization in the direction of the magnetic domain 221 magnetization is balanced at the opposite ends of magnetic domain 221. As a result, magnetic domain 221 does not have one end thereof preferentially transferred to reproducing layer 3.
However, when magnetic domain 221 receives a magnetic field containing magnetic field component having the in-plane direction, a leaking magnetic field in the in-plane direction that comes from magnetic domain 221 has an intensity profile as shown in FIG. 27D, and when a magnetic field is applied in a direction from magnetic domains 221 to 220 a leaking magnetic field 225 at the boundary of magnetic domains 221 and 220 is intensified as compared to a leaking magnetic field 226 at the other boundary thereof. As such, a leaking magnetic field 224 acts on the reproducing layer""s magnetic domain 223 corresponding to an end of magnetic domain 221 closer to magnetic domain 220 to readily invert the magnetic domain 223 magnetization in the same direction as the magnetic domain 221 magnetization. As a result, if magnetic domain 221 is transferred to reproducing layer 3 it is transferred initially at an end thereof closer to magnetic domain 220 and in reproducing layer 3 at magnetic domain 223 there is created a species domain magnetized in the same direction as magnetic domain 221 is magnetized, and a magnetic field having a direction perpendicular to reproducing layer 3 that is the same direction as magnetic domain 221 is magnetized is applied to enlarge the species domain.
Thus, applying a magnetic field containing a magnetic field component having an in-plane direction facilitates transferring a magnetic domain to a reproducing layer.
Again with reference to FIGS. 26A and 26B, when alternating magnetic field Hex1 is applied to a magneto-optical recording medium at a predetermined angle to an in-plane direction of the recording medium and it is thus applied to each magnetic domain at a boundary thereof, and a laser beam LB is directed to enlarge and reproduce the magnetic domain, the following problem arise.
More specifically, when alternating magnetic field Hex1 is applied at a timing as shown in FIG. 26B at (a) and in the direction as indicated in FIG. 26A, only at a timing at which a positive (+) magnetic field 198 is applied to the boundaries of the magnetic domains having leaking magnetic fields 190, 192 and 194 recording layer 5 has magnetic domains 195-197 each transferred to and enlarged in reproducing layer 3 and a reproduced signal (b) is detected as shown in FIG. 26B. As such, if alternating magnetic field Hex1 is applied to the domains"" boundaries having leaking magnetic fields 191 and 193, the magnetic domains are not transferred from recording layer 5 to reproducing layer 3. As a result, the magnetic domain 195 length having a domain length larger than a unit domain length cannot be detected accurately nor can magnetic domain 201, a domain adjacent to domain 195, be detected. More specifically, in reproduced signal (b) a component 199 indicates a start point of magnetic domain 195 and the component detected subsequent to component 199 is a component 200. As such the end point of magnetic domain 195 is thus not clearly indicated nor is the start point of magnetic domain 201, a domain adjacent to domain 195.
As such, if a magnetic domain is enlarged and reproduced by applying only alternating magnetic field Hex1 having a predetermined angle to an in-plane direction having a direction of a track of a magneto-optical recording medium, the magnetic domain is transferred and enlarged only at a boundary thereof having a leaking magnetic field intensified and it is not transferred or enlarged at a boundary thereof failing to have a leaking magnetic field intensified. As such, accurate signal reproduction cannot be achieved.
The present invention therefore contemplates a magneto-optical disk apparatus capable of accurately enlarging and reproducing a magnetic domain, and a method of reproducing the same.
The present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a magnetic head applying a first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and applying a second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; and an optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge and a second laser beam to the other edge, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
The present magneto-optical disk apparatus allows a magneto-optical recording medium to have any magnetic domain formed therein with one edge thereof receiving a first alternating magnetic field containing a magnetic field component increasing a component of a leaking magnetic field created at one edge and having an in-plane direction of the recording medium, and with the other edge receiving a second alternating magnetic field containing a magnetic field component increasing a component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge and having an in-plane direction of the recording medium. As such, each magnetic domain has opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged in reproducing a signal.
As such in the present invention if a magneto-optical recording medium has a magnetic domain having a different domain length to record a signal therein a reproduced signal attributed to a domain length can be detected and it can thus be reproduced accurately.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a drive signal generation circuit generating a drive signal including a first timing at which a first alternating magnetic field is applied and a second timing at which a second alternating magnetic field is applied; a magnetic head operating based on the drive signal to apply the first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and operating based on the drive signal to apply the second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; and an optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge and a second laser beam to the other edge, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus there is generated a drive signal for generating for one edge of any magnetic domain in a magneto-optical recording medium a first alternating magnetic field containing a magnetic field component increasing a component of a leaking magnetic field created at one edge and having an in-plane direction of the recording medium, and for the other edge of the magnetic domain in the magneto-optical recording medium a second alternating magnetic field containing a magnetic field component increasing a component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge and having an in-plane direction of the recording medium. In response to the generated drive signal the first and second alternating magnetic fields are applied to the magneto-optical recording medium. Furthermore, one edge receives a first laser beam and the other edge receives a second laser beam. Consequently, the magneto-optical recording medium has each magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged in reproducing a signal.
As such in the present invention if a magneto-optical recording medium has a magnetic domain having a different domain length to record a signal therein a reproduced signal attributed to a domain length can be detected and it can thus be reproduced accurately.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a first magnetic head applying a first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second magnetic head applying a second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; a first optical head directing a first laser beam to the first edge; and a second optical head directing a second laser beam to the other edge, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus, a first magnetic head applies a first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge and a second magnetic head applies a second alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at the other edge. Furthermore, a first optical head directs a first laser beam to any magnetic domain at one edge and a second optical head applies a second laser beam to any magnetic domain at the other edge. As such, a magneto-optical recording medium has any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged in reproducing a signal.
Thus in the present invention if the first magnetic head applies the first alternating magnetic field having a center matching an optical axis of the first laser beam directed from the first optical head and the second magnetic head applies the second alternating magnetic field having a center matching an optical axis of the second laser beam directed by the second optical head, the first magnetic head is not required to be close to the second magnetic head (or the optical axis of the first laser beam is not required to be that of the second laser beam) to allow the magneto-optical recording medium to have any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged to accurately reproduce a signal.
Furthermore the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a drive signal generation circuit generating a first drive signal including a first timing at which a first alternating magnetic field is applied, and a second drive signal including a second timing at which a second alternating magnetic field is applied; a first magnetic head operating based on the first drive signal to apply the first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second magnetic head operating based on the second drive signal to apply the second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; a first optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge; and a second optical head directing a second laser beam to the other edge, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus a drive signal generation circuit generates a first drive signal provided to apply a first alternating magnetic field to a magnetic domain at one edge and a second drive signal provided to apply a second alternating magnetic field to a magnetic domain at the other edge. In response to the first drive signal a first magnetic head applies the first alternating magnetic field to a magneto-optical recording medium. In response to the second drive signal a second magnetic head applies the second alternating magnetic field to the magneto-optical recording medium. A first optical head directs a first laser beam to one edge of a magnetic domain created in the magneto-optical optical recording medium. A second optical head directs a second laser beam to the other edge of a magnetic domain created in the magneto-optical recording medium. Thus the magnetic domain has opposite ends initially enlarged in reproducing a signal.
Thus in the present invention two drive signals can be used to apply an alternating magnetic field allowing any magnetic domain to have opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged. Thus a signal can be reproduced accurately.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a magnetic head applying a first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and applying a second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; and an optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge and a second laser beam to the other edge; and a composite circuit compositing together a first magneto-optical signal reproduced by applying the first alternating magnetic field and directing the first laser beam and a second magneto-optical signal reproduced by applying the second alternating magnetic field and directing the second laser beam, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus a first magneto-optical signal is detected at one edge of any magnetic domain created in a magneto-optical recording medium and a second magneto-optical signal is detected at the other edge of any magnetic domain created in the magneto-optical recording medium. The first and second magneto-optical signals detected are composited together.
Thus in the present invention a reproduced signal can be detected from opposite ends any magnetic domain and a signal can be reproduced accurately without depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a drive signal generation circuit generating a drive signal including a first timing at which a first alternating magnetic field is applied and a second timing at which a second alternating magnetic field is applied; a magnetic head operating based on the drive signal to apply the first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and operating based on the drive signal to apply the second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; and an optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge and a second laser beam to the other edge; and a composite circuit compositing together a first magneto-optical signal detected at the first timing and a second magneto-optical signal detected and the second timing, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus, a first alternating magnetic field is applied to any magnetic domain at one edge at a first timing included in a drive signal generated by a drive signal generation circuit and a second alternating magnetic field is applied to any magnetic domain at the other edge at a timing included in the drive signal generated by the drive signal generation circuit. Furthermore, a first laser beam is directed to any magnetic domain at one edge and a second laser beam is directed to any magnetic domain at the other edge. The two magneto-optical signals detected are composited together.
Thus in the present invention a drive signal can be used to apply alternating magnetic fields to any magnetic domain at opposite ends thereof to detect two magneto-optical signals from a magnetic domain at opposite ends. Since the detected two magneto-optical signals are composited together, a reproduced signal can be obtained depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain and a signal can thus be reproduced accurately.
Furthermore the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a first magnetic head applying a first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second magnetic head applying a second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; a first optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge; and a second optical head directing a second laser beam to the other edge; and a composite circuit compositing together a first magneto-optical signal reproduced by applying the first alternating magnetic field and directing the first laser beam and a second magneto-optical signal reproduced by applying the second alternating magnetic field and directing the second laser beam, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus, two magnetic heads are used to apply two alternating magnetic fields to any magnetic domain at opposite ends and two optical heads are used to direct two laser beams to any magnetic domain at opposite ends. Then, attributed to any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged, two magneto-optical signals are detected, and the detected two magneto-optical signals are composited together.
As such in the present invention if the first alternating magnetic field has a center matching an optical axis of the first laser beam and the second alternating magnetic field has a center matching an optical axis of the second laser beam then attributed to any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged there can be detected two magneto-optical signals which are in turn composited together to obtain a reproduced signal depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain. Furthermore, the first alternating magnetic field is not required to have its center close to the center of the second alternating magnetic field (or the first laser beam is not required to have its optical axis close to the optical axis of the second laser beam) and two magnetic heads or two optical heads can thus be readily arranged.
Furthermore the present invention provides a magneto-optical disk apparatus applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a drive signal generation circuit generating a first drive signal including a first timing at which a first alternating magnetic field is applied, and a second drive signal including a second timing at which a second alternating magnetic field is applied; a first magnetic head operating based on the first drive signal to apply the first alternating magnetic field to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second magnetic head operating based on the second drive signal to apply the second alternating magnetic field to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track; a first optical head directing a first laser beam to the one edge; and a second optical head directing a second laser beam to the other edge; and a composite circuit compositing together a first magneto-optical signal detected at the first timing and a second magneto-optical signal detected at the second timing, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present magneto-optical disk apparatus, a drive signal generation circuit generates first and second drive signals and in response to the first drive signal a first alternating magnetic field is applied to any magnetic domain at one edge and in response to the second drive signal a second alternating magnetic field is applied to any magnetic domain at the other edge. Furthermore, first and second laser beams are directed to one and the other edges, respectively, independently. Then, attributed to any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged two magneto-optical signals are detected and the detected two magneto-optical signals are composited together.
Thus in the present invention two drive signals can be used to apply two alternating magnetic fields to any magnetic domain at opposite ends and attributed to any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged there can be detected two magneto-optical signals to obtain a reproduced signal depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain.
Preferably the magneto-optical disk apparatus further includes a delay time calibration circuit determining an optimal phase difference between a first detection signal obtained by reproducing through the first alternating magnetic field and the first laser beam a recorded signal corresponding to an alternation of a magnetic domain representing a unit bit of 1 and a magnetic domain representing a unit bit of 0 and a second detection signal obtained by reproducing the recorded signal through the second alternating magnetic field and the second laser beam, the optimal phase difference corresponding to a clock count corresponding to a distance between an optical axis of the first laser beam and an optical axis of the second laser beam. Furthermore, the composite circuit composites the first magneto-optical signal and the second magneto-optical signal together based on the optimal phase difference.
An adjustment is made to provide an optimal phase difference between a first detection signal obtained through a first alternating magnetic field and a first laser beam and a second detection signal obtained through a second alternating magnetic field and a second laser beam. Then, first and second magneto-optical signals are detected and the first and second magneto-optical signals have their phase difference set to be the optimal phase difference and the two magneto-optical signals are thus composited together.
Thus, in the present invention, attributed to any magnetic domain having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged, there can be detected two magneto-optical signals which are in turn composited together to accurately obtain a reproduced signal depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain.
Furthermore, preferably when in the magneto-optical disk apparatus L represents a distance between the optical axis of the first laser beam and the optical axis of the second laser beam and d represents a length of a magnetic domain created in the magneto-optical recording medium and representing a unit bit, as seen in the direction of the track, L/d represents the clock count corresponding to the distance between the optical axis of the first laser beam and the optical axis of the second laser beam.
For a magnetic domain, first and second magneto-optical signals have therebetween an optimal phase difference determined as a clock count corresponding to a distance between the optical axes of two laser beams.
Thus in the present invention if two laser beams have their respective optical axes spaced by a unit domain length provided in a magneto-optical recording medium that is multiplied by an integer then two magneto-optical signals can be accurately composited together with an optimal phase difference.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a signal reproduction method applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a first step of applying a first alternating magnetic field and directing a first laser beam to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and applying a second alternating magnetic field and directing a second laser beam to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second step of detecting a first magneto-optical signal through the first alternating magnetic field and the first laser beam and a second magneto-optical signal through the second alternating magnetic field and the second laser beam; and a third step of compositing the first and second magneto-optical signals together, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present signal reproduction method, attributed to any magnetic domain created in a magneto-optical recording medium and having opposite ends initially transferred and enlarged two magneto-optical signals are detected which are in turn composited together to obtain a reproduced signal.
Thus in the present invention there can be obtained a reproduced signal depending on a domain length of each magnetic domain and hence accurately.
Furthermore the present invention provides a signal reproduction method applying a laser beam and a magnetic field to reproduce a signal from a magneto-optical recording medium having a magnetic domain created therein to record a signal therein, including: a first step of applying a first alternating magnetic field and directing a first laser beam to any magnetic domain at one edge existing in a direction of a track of the magneto-optical recording medium, and applying a second alternating magnetic field and directing a second laser beam to the magnetic domain at the other edge existing in the direction of the track of the magneto-optical recording medium; a second step of determining an optimal phase difference between a first detection signal obtained by reproducing through the first alternating magnetic field and the first laser beam a recorded signal corresponding to an alternation of a magnetic domain representing a unit bit of 1 and a magnetic domain representing a unit bit of 0 and a second detection signal obtained by reproducing the recorded signal through the second alternating magnetic field and the second laser beam, the optimal phase difference corresponding to a clock count corresponding to a distance between an optical axis of the first laser beam and an optical axis of the second laser beam; a third step of detecting a first magneto-optical signal through the first alternating magnetic field and the first laser beam and a second magneto-optical signal through the second alternating magnetic field and the second laser beam; and a fourth step of setting a phase difference between the first and second magneto-optical signals to be the optimal phase difference determined at the second step, and compositing the first and second magneto-optical signals together, wherein the first alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the one edge, and the second alternating magnetic field contains a magnetic field component having a predetermined angle to a plane of the direction of the track and increasing an in-plane component of a leaking magnetic field created at the other edge.
In the present signal reproduction method, a first detection signal obtained through a first alternating magnetic field and a first laser beam and a second detection signal obtained through a second alternating magnetic field and a second laser beam have therebetween a phase difference set to be an optimal phase difference. Then, first and second magneto-optical signals are detected and the detected two magneto-optical signals have their phase difference set to be the optimal phase difference and the two magneto-optical signals are thus composited together.
Thus in the present invention there can be obtained a reproduced signal corresponding to each domain length provided in a magneto-optical recording medium.
Preferably, when L represents a distance between the optical axis of the first laser beam and the optical axis of the second laser beam and d represents a length of a magnetic domain created in the magneto-optical recording medium and representing a unit bit, as seen in the direction of the track, L/d represents the clock count corresponding to the distance between the optical axis of the first laser beam and the optical axis of the second laser beam.
For a magnetic domain, first and second magneto-optical signals have therebetween an optimal phase difference determined as a clock count corresponding to a distance between the optical axes of two laser beams and the two magneto-optical signals are thus composited together.
Thus in the present invention if two laser beams have their respective optical axes spaced by a unit domain length provided in a magneto-optical recording medium that is multiplied by an integer then two magneto-optical signals can be composited together with an optimal phase difference. Thus a signal can be reproduced accurately.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Magneto-optical disk apparatus capable of accurately enlarging and reproducing a magnetic domain and method of reproducing the same


A transparency conversion circuit 40 is provided between a matrix conversion circuit 4 and an intensity calculation circuit 5 in a geometry processing unit 20. The transparency conversion circuit 40 is provided with a converter 41 and a parameter register 42. The converter 41 converts the transparency at the vertex that is input by the matrix conversion circuit 4 in correspondence to the Z component of the unit normal vector at the vertex, and the results are output to the intensity calculation circuit 5. The parameter register 42 holds a parameter value that is used for the conversion performed by the converter 41. As a result, the transparency at a polygon can be corrected while taking into consideration the angle formed by the planar surface of the polygon and the direction of the line-of-sight and the environment in which the polygon is placed. Therefore, a method for and an apparatus for transparency conversion whereby a translucent polygon is rendered to produce an impression of solidity are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for and an apparatus for transparency conversion whereby the transparency at a polygon is changed based upon the Z components of the unit normal vectors at its vertices so that an impression of solidity can be rendered to a translucent polygon. In addition, the present invention relates to an image processing system equipped with the apparatus for transparency conversion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In various types of game machines and image processing systems that utilize computer graphics, combinations of polygons are widely employed in order to display solid bodies placed within a virtual three dimensional space. The forms of expression of these polygons include transparent and translucent polygons as well as opaque polygons to express the various materials and the like of the solid bodies to be displayed. In addition, in order to render the texture of a solid body to be displayed, processes such as coloring the polygon, pasting a texture onto its surface and the like are performed. Moreover, when a plurality of polygons are placed on a display screen, they are structured in such a manner that their mutual positional relationships (foreground/background relationships) can be recognized. In other words, when polygons are positioned so that they overlay each other, such measures as hiding the polygon positioned behind and imposing perspective are taken to create the impression of depth perception and a sense of solid masses. It is to be noted that with a transparent polygon, when another object is positioned behind it, that object can be seen through the polygon in front without detracting from the color and the intensity of the object behind in any way whatsoever and that with a translucent polygon, objects behind can be seen through the polygon in front in a state in which the color and intensity of the object behind are varied in correspondence to the degree of transparency at the front polygon.
In order to perform the processing described above for each polygon, attributes such as vertex coordinates (X, Y, Z), vertex color (red, green, blue), texture coordinates (Tx, Ty), vertex transparency and normal vector at the vertex are provided for each vertex of the polygon. When expressing a solid body through this polygon, the attributes of each point (pixel) on ridge lines connecting the individual vertices are determined by complementing the attributes of each vertex and then attributes of all the pixels constituting the planar surface of the polygon are determined by complementing the attributes of the pixels on each ridge line.
For instance, when displaying a plurality of polygons, the decision making as to whether or not a specific polygon is positioned to the front of the screen with another polygon positioned behind it is performed by making a decision as to whether or not the two polygons are at positions that overlap through comparison of the X, Y coordinate values of the polygons to be compared and then by making a decision in regard to their foreground/background relationship through comparison of Z coordinate values of the individual pixels. While the direction of the normal vector of each pixel constituting a planar surface of a polygon determines the direction of the planar surface of the polygon (in which direction it is inclined), the normal vector of each pixel is determined through the complementary method by using the normal vectors of individual vertices. The normal vector of a vertex is found by taking the average of each normal vector of the polygons adjoining to the vertex. The expression of solid bodies with polygons can be equal to the approximate expression of the surface of solid bodies, which is formed by a series of curved surfaces, with polygons. Therefore, the normal vector of a vertex can be found as one point on the curved surface, that is, the vertical vector to the tangential plane at the vertex.
Furthermore, the color and the transparency at the planar surface of the polygon are determined through the complementary method based upon the color and the transparency at each vertex. As a result, a polygon in which the transparency and color change from one vertex to another can be expressed. In addition, in order to show patterns on the surface of a solid body, various patterns which are called textures are stored in memory in a texture map, which is prepared separately, and these textures are pasted onto the surface of the polygon in conformance to the texture coordinates.

Method for and apparatus for transparency conversion, image processing system


A connector for an inflatable garment that detects a valid connection with a pump.

In a clinical setting, it is advantageous that medical products, particularly systems formed from multiple separate connecting elements, automatically configure and operate together in a safe and effective manner. It is also beneficial that incorrect or non-approved combinations of system elements are prevented from operating. In addition, it is helpful if the user is provided with feedback on the status of the system configuration.
This is particularly the case in areas of patient care where medical staff are busy with other essential activities, focused on more critical aspects, such as surgical and intensive care activities or where staff have a limited understanding of the operation, and function of the specific medical equipment.
Further, there are many devices found in the healthcare environment that share similar types of fluidic connectors that can be easily mistaken by the user as being compatible. Many similar devices use standard commercially available connectors and tubes and these, therefore, can potentially be a source of confusion to the healthcare professional.
In contrast, it is advantageous to a medical device manufacturer to be able to use a standard size of connection hose on a variety of different garments. This ensures that there is a sufficiently large path provided for fluid flow to allow for a correct inflation. This is also the case when a connector is selected, wherein it is beneficial to have a standard connector type that has a capability to be configured in some manner for product specific use. In particular, being able to maintain the same connector barrel diameter across various products allows for advantages in equipment design and management. For example, in the field of compression garments, these devices often share a standard diameter air tube (e.g. 3/16 inch diameter) and an air connector.
Hence, at first inspection, many different devices appear to be readily compatible between the various different suppliers of garments and pumps. However these devices are often not readily functionally cross-compatible and, as a result, are specifically not licensed or regulatory approved for use in combination. It is also possible that there are patient hazards associated with this inappropriate use, so there is a patient safety benefit to achieve by avoiding the misuse of items in this manner.
Therefore, manufacturers typically try to find methods, often involving subtle design differences involved that can be used to prevent actual misuse or incorrect compatibility—such as mechanical keying, labelling or other more advanced automatic means. However the use of these design differences is not always fully advantageous as they are often not immediately apparent to the user as the connectable items sometime initially appear to partially connect together, but the resulting operation will not be correct.
The various connectors used on similar pumps, and the various mating connectors used on various garments, can all look very similar. So it is relatively easy to mistake which combination of pumps and garments are intended to operate in combination with each other.
It is often the case that equipment is physically set up ready for a patient, in advance of clinical need, wherein the user mistakenly believes the equipment is connected correctly and ready for use. As a result of this error, when the equipment is eventually put into use, possibly by different members of clinical staff, the required therapy will not be delivered and the resulting lack of functionality can result in alarms and warnings generated and, therefore, cause clinical delay and complications.
The automatic detection of the connected garment by a pump can provide a solution to this problem by detecting the presence of a valid connection. This approach is already well known in the prior art, indeed the applicants own patent (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,884,255) provides for such a mechanism using a component built into the fluid connector and this component is automatically detected and identified. This approach provides both positive and negative feedback in both a visible and audible manner regarding the suitability of the garment using the user interface of the pump. However, this approach does require the user to take note of the information being provided on the user interface and is only operational when the pump is powered.

Inflation pressure garments and connectors


A suction catheter device usable with a respiratory support system which includes a catheter enveloped in a sleeve having a proximal end connector for connection to a suction source through a suction control device such as a suction control valve, and a distal end connector for attachment to a manifold of the respiratory support system. The proximal end connector includes a normally closed valve therein which prevents air flow through the catheter until a suction control device is attached thereto. The proximal end connector may also be adapted for use on a dual lumen catheter and thereby include a fluid injection passage having a one-way check valve therein. The distal end connector of the suction catheter device includes a magnifying window through which a portion of the catheter within the connector can be viewed. The catheter includes one or more markings thereon which indicate the relative position of the catheter and the connector, and which can be viewed through the magnifying window of the connector to indicate to the medical worker how far the catheter has been inserted into the patient's trachea or lungs. The invention also includes the method of assembly of the suction catheter device and the method of use thereof in conjunction with the respiratory support system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus used in conjunction with a respiratory support system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for using a suction catheter device as part of a respiratory support system. Even more specifically, the present invention relates to the attachment and detachment of a suction catheter device from a suction control valve and a ventilator manifold of a respiratory support system without interruption or loss of continuous respiratory support of a patient.
2. Prior Art
Respiratory support systems used for the ventilation of critically ill patients are now commonly used in medical facilities. Typically, a prior art respiratory support system includes a tracheal tube, positioned either directly or through the nose or mouth into the trachea of a patient, a manifold connected to the tracheal tube at one port position thereof, and a source of breathable gas connected at a second port thereof. The purpose of the respiratory support system is to assist the patient in maintaining adequate blood oxygenation levels without overtaxing the patient's heart and lungs.
While a patient is attached to the respiratory support system, it is periodically necessary to aspirate fluid from the patient's trachea or lungs. In the past, in order to accomplish aspiration, it has been necessary to disassemble part of the respiratory support system, either by removing the ventilator manifold or by opening a port thereof and inserting a small diameter suction tube down the tracheal tube and into the patient's trachea and lungs. The fluid was then suctioned from the patient and the suction catheter was removed and the respiratory support system reassembled. However, due to the interruption of respiratory support s during this procedure, a patient's blood oxygen often dropped to an unacceptably low level, even when other previously known breathing assistance efforts were simultaneously provided.
One solution to the above problem, which is generally exemplary of the prior art, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,164 to Hollister et al., which includes a ventilator manifold having an access port therethrough which is adapted to receive a connector of the suction catheter device. The suction catheter device positions a catheter within the ventilator manifold without substantial manifold pressure loss. The suction catheter device includes an envelope which is positioned around the catheter portion thereof in order to prevent contamination of catheter surfaces intended to be inserted into the patient's trachea and lungs.
Although this type of ventilator manifold and suction catheter device connection allows continuous respiratory support of the patient during suctioning of fluid from the patient's trachea and lungs, it nevertheless has several drawbacks associated with its use. For example, removal of the suction catheter device from the manifold, such as for the purpose of replacing the suction catheter device, or for attaching another accessory to the manifold (e.g., a manual resuscitation bag or a metered dose inhaler) cannot be accomplished without loss of internal manifold pressure and thereby a compromise of the integrity of the respiratory system. Further, separation of the Hollister et al. suction catheter device from their suction control valve cannot be accomplished without opening the manifold to atmospheric pressure through the catheter. Therefore, replacement of either the suction catheter device or the suction control valve is not possible without loss of internal manifold pressure. Instead, respiratory support of the patient is compromised whenever the suction catheter device or the suction control valve is removed from the system for any reason. Since the suction catheter device tends to become contaminated relatively quickly with respect to the suction control valve and the ventilator manifold, it must be changed out of the system and replaced on a relatively frequent basis. However, because of the problems caused by loss of respiratory support during replacement, the ventilator manifold and/or the suction control valve are often prematurely discarded along with the suction catheter device in order to limit replacement time and the number of replacement procedures required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,328 to Bodai attempts to solve one of the above problems by forming an opening in the ventilator manifold which is blocked by a pre-punctured resilient seal through which a catheter can be passed without substantially affecting the integrity of the system, i.e., without substantial gas exchange or pressure loss between the interior of the manifold and the atmosphere. The Bodai device, although allowing entry and removal of a suction catheter through the ventilator manifold during continuous respiratory support of a patient, nevertheless fails to completely resolve the existing problems in the prior art. Specifically, the pre-punctured resilient material in Bodails manifold opening allows only for the insertion of a catheter therethrough, and fails to accommodate a suction catheter device which includes a collapsible envelope which surrounds and seals the catheter against exterior surface contamination. Further, there is no design consideration for the attachment of other accessory devices to the manifold, such as a manual resuscitation bag or a metered dose inhaler, which are often necessary for use in the care of a patient.
Also, the system described by Bodai tends to cause mucus and other fluids from the patient's lungs and trachea to collect in the manifold as the catheter is pulled past the pre-punctured resilient seal when being withdrawn. Because of this contamination problem, it is often necessary to replace the manifold on a more frequent basis than would otherwise be necessary, which necessitates a pressure breach in the support system.
There therefore exists a need in the art for a respiratory support system which includes a ventilator manifold which allows simple attachment and detachment of a suction catheter device therefrom during continuous patient respiratory support, without substantial pressure loss from the manifold and without substantial collection of body fluids in the manifold. There also exists a need in the art for a suction catheter device and a suction control valve which can be disassembled and reassembled, individually or collectively, from the respiratory support system during use thereof, and reassembled or replaced thereafter, without causing interior pressure loss from the ventilator manifold.

Respiratory support system and suction catheter device therefor


Surfaces of the structural components of a nuclear power plant exposed to reactor water are wetted with an electroless plating solution containing an electrical insulating substance. The electrical insulating substance has a high resistivity about 105 (100000) times those of the structural components of the nuclear power plant or above. A metal film containing the electrical insulating substance is formed on the surfaces of the structural components exposed to the reactor water by wetting the surfaces of the structural components with the electroless plating solution. Thus, the electrochemical corrosion potential of the structural components is reduced regardless of whether hydrogen is injected into the reactor water.

The present invention relates to a method of surface-treating internal components of a nuclear reactor, and a nuclear power plant and, more particularly, to techniques for inhibiting the corrosion of internal components of a nuclear reactor exposed to reactor water.
Injection of hydrogen into reactor water is used prevalently as one of many methods to cope with mitigate IGSCC (intergranular stress-corrosion cracking) in the internal components of a reactor or pipes in a nuclear power plant. A large amount of hydrogen needs to be injected into reactor water to reduce the IGSCC potential below a critical potential. The critical potential of a stainless steel forming most of the structural components of a reactor, such as a reactor pressure vessel, is in the range of xe2x88x92230 to xe2x88x92300 mVvsSHE. Increase in the amount of hydrogen injected into reactor water involves increase in the amount of radioactive nitrogen that enters a main steam system and increases main steam dose rate. Hereinafter, structural components of a nuclear reactor will be referred to as reactor internal components.
This problem can be solved by noble metal injection, i.e., injection of a solution containing a noble metal into reactor water, mentioned in Japanese Pat. No. 2818943 and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-198893. The noble metal injected into reactor water deposits on the surfaces of the nuclear internal components including the components of the reactor pressure vessel and the reactor. An anodic reaction causing the oxidation of hydrogen is promoted by the catalytic effect of the noble metal, such as Pt, Rh or Pd. In a state where the noble metal is injected into reactor water, as compared with a state where any noble metal is not injected into reactor water, the electrochemical corrosion potential of the nuclear internal components can be reduced below the. critical potential by injecting a less amount of hydrogen into reactor water. However, noble metal injection needs at least hydrogen injection while the nuclear power plant is in normal operation. Although a method that injects an organometallic compound into reactor water does not need additional hydrogen injection while reactor water contains organic substances, the methods needs the reduction of electrochemical corrosion potential by hydrogen injection to keep the electrochemical corrosion potential on a low level.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of surface-treating internal structural components of a nuclear power plant and a nuclear power plant, capable of reducing the electrochemical corrosion potential (ECP) of the internal structural components of the nuclear power plant regardless of whether hydrogen is injected into reactor water.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method of surface-treating a reactor internal component of a nuclear power plant wets the surfaces of the reactor internal components to be exposed to reactor water with an electroless plating solution containing an electrical insulating substance. In other words, this method brings the surface of the reactor internal components into contact with the reactor water with the electroless plating solution. The electrical insulating substance has a resistivity about 105 (100000) times that of the reactor internal components or above. When the surfaces of the reactor internal components are wetted with the electroless plating solution, a metal film containing the electrical insulating substance is formed on the surfaces of the reactor internal components exposed to reactor water. Consequently, the electrochemical corrosion potential of the reactor internal components can be reduced regardless of whether hydrogen is injected into reactor water. The metal film containing the electrical insulating substance suppresses the growth of an oxide film on the surfaces of the reactor internal components exposed to reactor water by wet corrosion. Thus, the metal film suppresses increase in the surface dose rate of the reactor internal components due to increase in the inclusion of radioactive ions contained in reactor water in the oxide film as the oxide film grows due to wet corrosion.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, wets the surfaces of reactor internal components exposed to reactor water with an electroless plating solution containing an oxide having a lattice oxygen anion diffusing property. When the surfaces of the reactor internal components are wetted with the electroless plating solution, a metal film containing the oxide having a lattice anion diffusing property is formed on the surfaces of the reactor internal components. Since oxygen is supplied to the metal in contact with the oxide by the agency of the lattice anion diffusing property of the oxide, the metal not exposed to reactor water is oxidized by dry corrosion. Consequently, the electrochemical corrosion potential of the reactor internal components can be kept on a low level for a long period of time regardless of whether hydrogen is injected into reactor water. Since the oxide film formed by dry oxidation suppresses the growth of an oxide film on the surfaces of the reactor internal components exposed to reactor water due to wet oxidation, increase in the surface dose of the-reactor internal components can be suppressed.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the surfaces of reactor internal components exposed to reactor water are wetted with an electroless plating solution containing at least either an electrical insulating substance or an oxide having a lattice oxygen anion diffusing property (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9celectrical insulating substance or the likexe2x80x9d) after the chemical decontamination of the reactor internal component. Since a metal film containing an electrical insulating substance or the like is formed on the surfaces of the reactor internal components exposed to reactor water, the electrochemical corrosion potential of the reactor internal components can be reduced regardless of whether hydrogen is injected into reactor water, and increase in the surface dose rate of the reactor internal components can be suppressed. Since corrosion products deposited on the surfaces of the reactor internal components can be removed by chemical decontamination, the metal film containing the electrical insulating substance or the like can be more uniformly formed.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an electroless plating solution supply system having an injection nozzle for injecting an electroless plating solution containing at least an electrical insulating substance or the like is disposed between a reactor vessel and a reactor vessel flange, and the electroless plating solution supply system injects the electroless plating solution into the reactor pressure vessel.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a metal film containing an electrical insulating substance or the like is formed on at least either a surface of a reactor vessel exposed to reactor water or surfaces of reactor internal components exposed to reactor water.

Treatment method of nuclear reactor internal component


The present system and apparatus uses image processing to recognize object size within a scene. The system includes novel image processing apparatus and methods to segment one or more object images from a background image of the scene. A processed image (that can be used to characterize size features) of the object(s) is then compared to stored reference images. The object size is recognized when a match occurs. The system can recognize object sizes independent of number of objects present and the objects may be touching each other and overlapping. The system can be trained to recognize object sizes that it was not originally programmed to recognize.

Image processing systems exist in the prior art for estimating the size of objects. Often these systems use binary images to perform this computation. One common method is the use of the zero-th order moment of the binary picture function, or simply put, the number of picture elements that lie within the binary segment.
If the size and orientation of the object in the image is known in advance, which is the case in inspection problems, for example, binary matched filters are commonly used. This method allows for determining with great precision whether a specific object of certain size and shape is present in the image at a certain location.
The prior art often performs these methods to verify that the target object in the image is indeed the object that is expected, and, possibly, to grade/classify the object according to the quality of its appearance relative to its zero order moment or matched filter. An alternative purpose could be to identify the target object by matching the target image object with a number of reference matched filters.
In this description, identifying or measuring the size of one or more objects is defined as determining, given a set of reference sizes, the reference size of the target object. Classifying or grading the size is defined as determining that the target object is of a certain class representing a range of sizes and/or that the size of the object is satisfactory. Here, one of the classes can be a "reject" class, meaning that the size of the target object is not one of the expected values. Verifying, on the other hand, is defined as determining that the target is known to be a certain size and simply verifying this to be true or false. Recognizing is defined as identifying, measuring, classifying, grading, and/or verifying.
A round object, in this description, is an object having every part of the surface or circumference equidistant from the center. Bulk items include any item that is sold in bulk in supermarkets, grocery stores, retail stores or hardware stores. Examples include produce (fruits and vegetables), sugar, coffee beans, candy, nails, nuts, bolts, general hardware, parts, and package goods.
In image processing, a digital image is an analog image from a camera that is converted to a discrete representation by dividing the picture into a fixed number of locations called picture elements and quantizing the value of the image at those picture elements into a fixed number of values. The resulting digital image can be processed by a computer algorithm to develop other images or characteristics of these images. These images or characteristics can be stored in memory and/or used to determine information about the imaged object. A pixel is a picture element of a digital image.
Image processing and computer vision is the processing by a computer of a digital image to modify the image or to obtain from the image properties of the imaged objects such as object identity, location, size, etc.
A scene contains one or more objects that are of interest and the surroundings which also get imaged along with the objects. These surroundings are called the background. The background is usually further away from the camera than the object(s) of interest.
Segmenting (also called figure, ground separation) is separating a scene image into separate object and background images. Segmenting refers to identifying those image pixels that are contained in the image of the object versus those that belong to the image of the background. The segmented object image is then the collection of pixels that comprises the object in the original image of the complete scene. The area of a segmented object image is the number of pixels in the object image.
Illumination is the light that illuminates the scene and objects in it. Illumination of the whole scene directly determines the illumination of individual objects in the scene and therefore the reflected light of the objects received by imaging apparatus such as video camera.
Ambient illumination is illumination from any light source except the special lights used specifically for imaging an object. For example, ambient illumination is the illumination due to light sources occurring in the environment such as the sun outdoors and room lights indoors.
Glare or specular reflection is the high amount of light reflected off a shiny (specular, exhibiting mirror-like properties--possibly locally) object. The color of the glare is mostly that of the illuminating light (as opposed to the natural color of the object).
A feature of an image is defined as any property of the image which can be computationally extracted. Features typically have numerical values that can lie in a certain range, say, R0-R1. In prior art, histograms are computed over a whole image or windows (sub-images) in an image. A histogram of a feature of an image is a numerical representation of the distribution of feature values over the image or window. A histogram of a feature is developed by dividing the feature range, R0-R1, into M intervals (bins) and computing the feature for each image pixel. Simply counting how many image or window pixels fall in each bin gives the feature histogram.
Image features include, but are not limited to, features that are related to the size of the objects in the image. The simplest features related to size of an object are the object pixels. The boundary pixels, subsets of boundary pixels, and characteristics determined from subsets of boundary pixels are also image features related to object size.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,275 to Mills and Richert discloses an apparatus and method for processing fruit and the like, particularly for sorting as a function of variables including color, blemish, size and shape. The fruit is moving on a conveyer belt while being rotated and imaged by a line scanning diode array. The line scanning diode array is sufficiently long such that the scanning line is longer than the fruit item and gives information about the length of the fruit. The number of individual detector signals which reflect presence of the fruit contains information to determine the width of the fruit. These numbers are squared and summed, the result being a representation of fruit volume, a characteristic related to fruit size.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,675 to Cowlin et al. discloses an apparatus for sorting conveyed articles. Sorting of food products such as vegetables or fruit, is achieved in accordance with their size, weight and color, or the presence of defects on them. Size is determined by the combination of examining the leading and following trailing edge of a trace and the color count of each article on the conveyer. To this information, weight information from load cells can be added.
The use of a zero order moment of a binary thresholded image of an object is an effective method for identifying the size of an object in an image. Similarly, the use of matched binary filters is effective for verifying the size of a target object in the image. The use of multiple matched binary filters allows for classifying the size of an object. The reason is that under well controlled imaging conditions, good segmentations can be obtained which, in turn, allow for precise measurements with the above methods.
Both for moment and matching techniques to work for object size recognition, very precise segmentations of the object from the background are needed. Furthermore, for matched filtering techniques, the exact orientation of the object in the image has to be known a priori.

International Business Machines Corporation


According to one aspect, a computing system having a plurality of enclosure management controllers (EMCs) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the EMCs are communicatively coupled to each other and each EMC is operatively connected to a corresponding plurality of drive slots and at least one of a plurality of drive slot status indicators. Each EMC is operative to receive enclosure management data, detect an operational status of the drive slots, and generate drive slot status data. One of the EMCs is configured to function at least partly as a master EMC to receive drive slot status data and, based on received enclosure management data and received drive slot status data, generate mapped data for each one of the EMCs for selectively activating at least one of the drive slot status indicators to indicate corresponding operational status.

An enclosure management controller (EMC), also commonly referred to as a backplane controller, can be used with a storage backplane to decode protocol information in management information coming from a host bus adapter (HBA)/RAID controller. The EMC can manage drive slots on the storage backplane based on the protocol information. For example, the EMC can manage status indicator LEDs corresponding to the drive slots. An EMC may control 4-8 drive slots using side-band communication carrying SGPIO, SES, SAF-TE, or custom user-defined protocol. Serial interfaces can be used to carry management information associated with drive slots that connect mass storage devices to the storage backplane. Multiple motherboards may be required in order to provide for control of a large number of drive slots, for example in the context of cloud computing. Among other existing needs, there exists a need for a flexible architecture allowing multiple connected EMCs to each control multiple drive slots, without requiring all of the EMCs to be connected to motherboards in order to receive enclosure management data.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need still exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

Drive mapping using a plurality of connected enclosure management controllers


This disclosure describes a technique including operating a redundant disk drive device, wherein the redundant disk drive device includes a primary disk drive and at least one mirror disk drive. At least one of the disk drives is reconfigured within the redundant disk drive system in such a manner that during the reconfiguring, the disk drive is maintained on-line.

It is important that computer data storage systems can reliably maintain data stored in a disk drive in case of a particular memory failure or error. One commercially available technique for increasing disk drive reliability relies upon redundant data storage on disks such as "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks" (RAID) systems. Raid systems are currently used in many computer systems that demand improved reliability for data storage while utilizing relatively inexpensive memory disks. For example, banking and secure transactions over the Internet often rely upon RAID systems.
Certain levels of RAID involve the use of mirror disks, in which data is copied from among different disks. Today, changing such mirror-related configurations of RAID arrays has the disk volume go off-line. It would therefore be desirable to provide a mechanism to improve the reliability and reduce the down-time of RAID systems that result from reconfiguring of the disk drives.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The active layer (active region) of the thin-film transistor making up the driver circuit is obtained by reformation implemented by scanning the continuous-wave laser light, condensed into a linear form or a rectangle form extremely longer in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction, along a given direction crossing the longitudinal direction. This is made up of a poly silicon film containing crystal grains having no grain boundaries crossing the direction of current flow, that is, a band-like polycrystalline silicon film. As a result, it is possible to implement a display device having stable and high quality active elements outside the display region on the insulating substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and in particular, to a display device using an insulating substrate with active elements formed in a band-like polycrystalline semiconductor film, obtained by reforming an amorphous or granular polycrystalline semiconductor film formed on the top surface of the insulating substrate so as to expand crystal grains into a substantially band-like shape by use of annealing with laser light (also referred to merely as laser hereinafter) irradiated thereto to, a process of fabricating the same, and an apparatus for fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
This type of display device comprises a multitude of data lines (drain lines for thin-film transistors) juxtaposed so as to be extended in a direction of the display region of an insulating substrate on one side (hereinafter referred to also as an active matrix substrate, and as a thin-film transistor substrate in the case where thin-film transistors are used as the active elements), with active elements such as thin-film transistors, thin-film diodes, and so forth, formed thereon, a multitude of scanning lines (gate lines for thin-film transistors) juxtaposed so as to be extended in another direction crossing the direction described as above, active elements formed of a granular polycrystalline silicon film (polysilicon film) as a semiconductor film formed on the active matrix substrate and disposed at cross-over points of the data lines and the scanning lines, and pixels arranged in a matrix form, made up of pixel circuits having pixel electrodes driven by the active elements, respectively. There will be described hereinafter mainly of a display device using a silicon film as the semiconductor film and thin-film transistors, which are typical active elements, as the active elements.
With a flat panel display device of the present day, pixel circuits comprising thin-film transistors, respectively, are made up of a non-crystalline silicon film (hereinafter referred to also as amorphous silicon film) and a granular polycrystalline silicon film (hereinafter referred to also as polysilicon film) as a semiconductor film on top of an insulating substrate, made of glass, fused glass, etc., serving as an active matrix substrate, and pixels are selected by switching of the respective thin-film transistors of the pixel circuits, thereby forming images.
The thin-film transistor constituting each of the pixel circuits is driven by a driving circuit (hereinafter referred to also as driver circuit or driver) mounted on the periphery of the active matrix substrate. The granular polycrystalline silicon film described above is a silicon film which crystal grains are small in diameter as will be described later. Herein, "crystal grains are small in diameter" means a size so small that, for example, there exist a multitude of grain boundaries of silicon crystals in an active layer (or active region) of the thin-film transistor, that is, within a so-called channel width, thereby causing current passing through the active layer to cut across the multitude of the grain boundaries of the silicon crystals without fail.
If it becomes possible to form the driver circuit for driving the thin-film transistors of the pixel circuits concurrently with the thin-film transistors of the pixel circuits, drastic reduction in production cost and enhancement in reliability can be expected. However, because the conventional polysilicon film, which is a semiconductor layer for forming the active layer of the thin-film transistor, has poor crystallinity (crystal grains are small in grain size), operation performance (operation characteristic) represented by mobility of electrons or holes is low, so that it is difficult to fabricate a circuit of which high-speed and high function are required. In order to fabricate the circuit having high-speed and high function, high-mobility thin-film transistors are required, but to implement this, there is the need for improving the crystallinity of the polysilicon film. Improvement on the crystallinity means primarily expansion of the grain size of the crystal grains or rendering a dimension in one direction of the crystal grains to be greater than a dimension thereof, in other directions, so as to be turned into a band-like or stripe like shape, thereby increasing the dimensions thereof. Herein, to differentiate from the conventional polysilicon film, the silicon film as reformed is referred to a band-like polysilicon film.
As a method for improving the crystallinity of a polysilicon film, there has since been known annealing with laser light such as excimer laser, and so forth. With this method, by irradiating, for example, excimer laser to an amorphous silicon film formed on top of an insulating substrate (also referred to merely as a substrate hereinafter), made of glass, fused glass, etc., the amorphous silicon film is turned into a polysilicon film, thereby improving the mobility. However, the polysilicon film obtained by irradiation with the excimer laser is on the order of several 100 nm in grain size, and the mobility thereof is on the order of 100 cm2/Vs, so that the performance thereof is insufficient for use in the driver circuit for driving a liquid crystal panel.
As a method of overcoming the problem, annealing techniques with the use of continuous-wave laser as described in Non-patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 has description to the effect that by maintaining the pulse width of pulse laser light in a range of 1 μs to 100 ms, it is possible to reduce fluctuation in threshold value of transistor fabricated. Further, description concerning reformation of a silicon film by irradiation of laser light is given in Patent Document 2.
[Non-patent Document 1]
    F. Takeuchi et al "Performance of poly-Si TFTs fabricated by a Stable Scanning CW Laser Crystallization" AM-LCD '01 (TFT4-3)[Patent Document 1]    JP-A No. 335547/1995[Patent Document 2]    JP-A No. 283356/1993

Display device, process of fabricating same, and apparatus for fabricating same


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, can include establishing communications with one or more peers in a communication group via one or more unicast communication channels; sending a participation information request on a multicast communication channel of a local network to discover peers that participate in the communication group; receiving one or more responses to the participation information request on the multicast channel of the local network from one or more peers that participate in the communication group; selecting one or more of the peers from which the one or more responses were received based on a network topology condition to reduce communication latency in at least a portion of the communication group; and communicating with the one or more selected peers to distribute information within the communication group.

This document relates to peer discovery.
A communication network can forward data to one or more endpoints such as networked computers. A network can support one or more different native communication channels such as unicast and multicast. A unicast data packet can be delivered to a specific endpoint over a unicast channel. A multicast data packet can be delivered to multiple endpoints, each belonging to a multicast group, over a native multicast channel.
Multicasting is the ability of one or more endpoints to send a stream of information to multiple recipients, and often, a large number of recipients. Multicasting on an Internet Protocol (IP) based network such as the Internet can include using native network multicast that utilizes an address range reserved for multicasting. If packets are transmitted into a multicast enabled network with a multicast address as the destination, then endpoints subscribed to the multicast regardless of their location may receive the packets. Unfortunately, however, such native network multicasting may be disabled between some networks that constitute the Internet. For instance, native network multicasting may work inside an office's local area network but may not work between different local area networks connected by a larger network.
A different type of multicasting can form a virtual multicast channel using unicast channels between different endpoints to effect multicasting. For example, application level multicasting can use an overlay on top of a network, such as the Internet, to effect multicasting between endpoints associated with a communication group, e.g., peers in a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network or mesh network. An endpoint that is participating in a communication group can be referred to as a peer. Application level multicasting can include forwarding traffic from one endpoint to a different endpoint which, in turn, forwards the traffic to additional endpoints participating in the peer-to-peer overlay network using different unicast channels. An overlay topology can feature endpoints arranged in trees, meshes, rings, arbitrary random topologies, and other distributed structures.

Network multicast peer discovery methods


A connection system between terminal blocks whereby one block has an extension and one block has a mating pocket. Upon connection, the various surfaces of the extension and pocket cause a frictional relationship between the blocks and maintain a uniform distance between the termination points around the connection.

The present invention relates to terminal blocks for use with electrical equipment; more particularly, the invention relates to a means of connection between two or more terminal blocks in order to produce a larger capacity block without increased costs associated with manufacturing a one-piece block.
Terminal blocks provide a point of termination for wires coming from one piece of electrical equipment and extending on to another piece of equipment. Typically, the blocks include a number of studs with an attachment means like a nut at each end of the stud. The studs are spaced apart at a uniform distance to prevent "creeping" of electrical voltage.
A typical use for a terminal block is between a programmable controller and the equipment to be controlled. Another use is with ground fault equipment. The number of studs required in the block vary widely depending upon the application. For example, some applications require a terminal block with as many as twenty separate termination points. Because the terminal blocks are often injection molded and the studs must be separated from each other, economics limits the number of studs in a single block. For example, a block housing twenty studs would require all new tooling in an injection mold machine set up to produce terminal blocks having an eighteen hole maximum. Connecting two separate terminal blocks together can provide a block with the required number of termination points while avoiding problems associated with making one block. However, any such connection must not only connect the blocks but must also maintain the desired distance between the termination points on either side of the connection.
There is a need therefore, for terminal blocks that can be mated together thereby providing any number of terminals and eliminating the costs associated with manufacturing separate blocks of various lengths.
There is a further need therefore, for terminal blocks that can be mated together whereby the desired distance between all termination points on the mated blocks is maintained.

Connection arrangement between terminal blocks


A connector position assurance device includes a base panel member and a latch assembly connected to and extending generally perpendicularly from the base panel member. The latch assembly has a tongue part and a pair of rails disposed apart from and extending parallel to one another. The tongue part is positioned between and disposed apart from the pair of rails to define a pair of open-ended stop-receiving channels. The tongue part is formed with a slot and a follower projection is connected to the tongue part forward of the slot. The tongue part is movable, in an upward direction, to and between a relaxed normal position and an upward flexed position and, in a downward direction, to and between the relaxed normal position and a downward flexed position. The tongue part is resiliently biased to the relaxed normal position. A connector assembly incorporates the connector position assurance device.

Many different types of connector position assurance devices used with electrical connectors are well known in the art. One such connector position assurance device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,116 to Ceru. This connector position assurance element includes a horizontal base portion, a stem, a finger-graspable crossbar, deflectable side arms and a shoulder. The horizontal base portion has an insertion end and a withdrawal end. The stem extends vertically from the withdrawal end of the base portion. The finger-graspable crossbar is positioned on an end of the stem distal from the base portion. The deflectable side arms extend from the withdrawal end of the base portion at an upward acute angle and terminate in a free end adjacent and above the insertion end. The shoulder is located between the stem and the deflectable side arms with the shoulder defining a horizontal seat above the base portion and below the crossbar.
A drawback regarding the connector assurance device of Ceru is that permanent stress is applied to the side arms when the connector position assurance device is engaged.
Another connector position assurance device known in the art is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,895 to Fink et al. This connector position assurance device is provided with a connector position assurance channel into which a connector position assurance slide is located. The connector position assurance slide interacts with the connector position assurance channel snappingly at two sliding positions of the connector position assurance slide assurance slide interacts with the connector position assurance channel snappingly at two sliding positions of the connector position assurance slide relative to the channel, namely a pre-staged position and a staged position. A connector position assurance actuation lock is provided. The connector position assurance channel includes a pair of channel abutments and the connector position assurance slide has a pair of resilient arms, the ends of which abut, respectively, the channel abutments when the connector position assurance slide is at the pre-staged position. The abutting interaction of the channel abutments with respect to the resilient arms prevents the connector position assurance slide from being snappingly slid to the staged position.
A drawback associated with the connector position assurance device of Fink et al. is that there is no guide channel on the connector housing to assure stable position of the connector position assurance device when it is engaged with the connector housing.
It would be beneficial to provide a connector position assurance device that is not permanently stressed when it is engaged with a connector housing. It would also be beneficial to provide a connector position assurance device that can be stably positioned within the connector housing when connector position assurance device is engaged therewith. The present invention provides these benefits.

Connector position assurance device and connector assembly incorporating the same


A ceiling formwork system having a formwork panel which may be placed on at least one vertical support via a mounting head. The mounting head has an anchoring cross-member which in the mounted state on the vertical support is oriented transverse thereto, the length of the anchoring cross-member corresponding to at least one side length of the ceiling formwork panel to be supported, whereby the anchoring cross-member is respectively affixable at its ends to lateral edges of the ceiling formwork panel.

Ceiling formwork systems are generally used in the construction of concrete ceilings for buildings with which a holding area for fluid concrete is created. This is to form the desired ceiling structure after curing. At this point with ceiling formwork systems having formwork elements or panels mounted on vertical supports, it is problematic that forces directed horizontally on the vertical supports or the formwork elements can have an effect which may result in a tilting of the entire ceiling formwork system, and in the worst case scenario result in it tipping over.
In order to counteract this problem, it is known to provide clamping connections for the ceiling formwork panel between the ceiling formwork panel and the existing structure. As a rule, these horizontal loads in the formwork plane are diverted via tensile members running at an angle and anchored, for example, to the ground. At its opposite end, they are affixed to the vertical support or to the mounting head on which the ceiling formwork panel is supported. An anchoring system for ceiling formwork panels according to this model is demonstrated and explained in reference to DE 10 2007 008 209 A.
However, this design also necessarily results in stress at points on the formwork panel, specifically where the vertical support engages the panel, which stress must be taken into account in the dimensioning of the formwork. Also, the previously known anchoring options allow only relatively small forces.

Mounting head with anchoring cross-member and ceiling formwork system connected thereto