A method and apparatus for transmitting and remotely displaying the audio and visual portion of a person speaking so that the audio and visual signals are synchronized. The audio signal is constantly transmitted to the receiver and is also used to create a predicted image of the lips of the talking head. The actual lip image is compared to the predicted lip image. Based upon this comparison, it is determined which of three signals is to be transmitted to the receiver: no signal corresponding to the video signal, a signal corresponding only to the differences between the actual lip image and a predicted lip image, or the actual lip image. The receiver reconstructs a lip image based upon the audio signal received and the signal received, if any, corresponding to the video image and inserts it into the previously received video frame or modifies the previous frame accordingly.

In video telephony, teleconferencing and multimedia applications, due to limited bandwidth or storage space, a video coder typically cannot encode all incoming video frames because the transmission of each video frame requires a very substantial number of bits to be transmitted. Instead, the video coder typically drops some frames by subsampling the video at a fraction of the normal rate and encodes only at the low frame rate, which can be as low as one to two frames per second for some applications. This subsampling technique, known as frame skipping, results in a jerky motion of the images in the video signal and a loss of synchronization between the video and audio signals. Additionally, because a typical speaking person can enunciate more than ten sounds per second, the positions of the lips, jaws, teeth and tongue change at high rates. Consequently, during human speech, at sampling rates of only one to two frames per second, most mouth movement is lost in the video signal when frame skipping is employed. Thus, during teleconferencing, for example, lip movements of a speaking person (a talking head) typically do not match the words actually spoken.
Studies of human speech perception have demonstrated that human perception of acoustic speech can be affected by the visual cues of lip movements. For example, if a video shows a speaker's mouth saying "ga" but the audio is dubbed with the sound "ba", a viewer/listener frequently understands "da", a completely different message. Similarly, a visual "ga" combined with an audio "pa" is often perceived as "ta", and a visual "da" combined with an audio "ma" is often perceived as "na". This confusion is known as the "McGurk Effect". Thus, it is clear that lip reading is used, to some extent, by most people, even those who are not hearing impaired, to clarify their audio perception, especially when background noise levels are high. Lip reading obviously cannot be used by a listener if the audio speech does not match with the video picture of the speaking person. It is thus clear that synchronization of bimodal speech, video and audio signals, is an important goal in human perception of speech.
Although various techniques, such as linear interpolation and motion-adaptive interpolation, have been used to smooth out the jerkiness of images that are generated in the frame skipping technique typically used in video conferencing, these techniques are unable to reproduce mouth movements. Consequently, these methods do not aid in the human perception of a teleconferencing signal.
Techniques have been developed to create an animated video representation of human lips on a face based upon an audio speech signal. See, for example, Lavagetto, "Converting Speech into Lip Movements: A Multimedia Telephone for Hard of Hearing People", IEEE Transactions On Rehabilitation Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1995, pp. 90-102; Morishima et al., "An Intelligent Facial Image Coding Driven by Speech and Phoneme", I.C.A.S.S.P. '89, pp. 1795-8; Chen, et al., "Speech-Assisted Video Processing: Interpolation and Low-Bitrate Coding", 28th Asilomar Conference, Pacific Grove, October 1994; and AT&T U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/210,529. Methods have also been developed to isolate a human face from a background video picture and then to locate the lips on the face. See, for example, Rao et al., "On Merging Hidden Markov Models With Deformable Templates", I.C.I.P. '95, October 1995. These references, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, do not disclose or suggest a method or apparatus for transmitting a video signal in real-time synchronization with an audio signal to display a human speaker's lips without any frame skipping in the video signal.

Method and apparatus for cross-modal predictive coding for talking head sequences


Semiconductor devices include a substrate having a target connection region; a conductive line having a first side wall spaced apart from the substrate by at least an insulating layer, and a conductive plug structure electrically connecting the conductive line to the target connection region, wherein the conductive plug includes a first conductive plug having a first side wall, a bottom surface contacting the target connection region of the substrate, and a second side wall facing the first side wall of the conductive line, and a second conductive plug between the conductive line and the first conductive plug. The second conductive plug contacts both the first side wall of the conductive line and the second side wall of the first conductive plug.

Field
Example embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including a conductive plug.
Description of Related Art
As the electronic industry has grown dramatically and demands of users have increased, electronic devices have become smaller and lighter. Accordingly, semiconductor devices used in electronic devices have higher degrees of integration, and thus design rules for elements of semiconductor devices are reduced. When a conductive plug (contact plug) for connecting a conductive line and a structure disposed under the conductive line is formed in a semiconductor device that is miniaturized to have a high degree of integration, it is difficult to ensure contact resistance, which is important in order for the semiconductor device to have sufficient reliability.

Semiconductor devices including conductive plug


There is provided a chain guide capable of improving rigidity and durability without enlarging its structure to the side opposite to a chain travel surface with a simple configuration, and reducing the size of a guide shoe without increasing the number of components to thereby lower manufacturing cost. The chain guide includes the guide shoe and a guide body that supports the guide shoe, and the guide body has support wall portions that are provided near at least one side of both sides of the guide shoe in a width direction thereof so as to extend to the side of a chain at least at one position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chain guide including a guide shoe that slidably guides a traveling chain and a guide body that supports the guide shoe along the direction of travel of the chain.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a chain guide including a guide shoe that slidably guides a traveling chain is commonly used in order to stabilize the chain traveling between sprockets and properly maintain tension.
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, there is known a timing system of an engine that causes a transmission chain CH such as a roller chain or the like endlessly wound between sprockets S1 and S2 provided at a crankshaft and a camshaft in an engine room E to travel in which the timing chain CH is endlessly wound between the driving sprocket S1 attached to the crankshaft in the engine room E and a pair of the driven sprockets S2 attached to the camshaft, and the timing chain CH is guided by a pivoting chain guide (pivoting guide) 500 and a chain guide (fixed guide) 600.
In this known timing system, the fixed guide 600 is fixed in the engine room E with two mounting shafts Q, while the pivoting guide 500 is mounted in the engine room E so as to be pivotable about a pivot P in the plane of winding of the timing chain CH.
A chain tensioner T presses the pivoting guide 500 to thereby properly maintain the tension of the timing chain CH and suppress vibrations.
As shown in FIGS. 2B, 6, and 7, the known chain guide (pivoting guide) 500 used in such a timing system includes a guide shoe 510 and a guide body 520, and the guide body 520 has a pivoting boss portion 523 pivotably supported via a support wall portion 521 that extends to the side opposite to a chain travel surface 511, and a pressed portion 524 that is pressed to the side of the chain by the tensioner T.
In addition, in the support wall portion 521, a reinforcing rib 522 in an appropriate shape is provided at an appropriate interval in an appropriate direction, and the rigidity of the guide body 520 is thereby enhanced.
At both sides of the chain travel surface 511 of the guide shoe 510, lips 512 that protrude to the side of the chain are provided in order to prevent the detachment of the chain in a width direction.
The chain travel surface of the guide shoe 510 slides relative to the chain and the temperature of the chain travel surface is increased to a high temperature, and hence it is necessary to have a predetermined distance between the guide shoe 510 and the pivoting boss portion 523 in order to prevent the deformation of the pivoting boss portion 523 by heat, the enlargement of a gap with the pivot P, and the generation of vibrations or the like.
In addition, a large force is applied to the pressed portion 524 that is pressed to the side of the chain by the chain tensioner T, and hence the pressed portion 524 is configured such that the rigidity thereof is enhanced by having a long distance to the guide shoe 510 (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-153199).
The known chain guide (fixed guide) 600 has the structure similar to that of the chain guide (pivoting guide) 500 except that two fixed boss portions to be fixed to the two mounting shafts Q are provided instead of the pivoting boss portion 523 and the pressed portion 524 of the above-described chain guide 500, and has almost all of its structure on the side opposite to the chain travel surface (in the example of FIG. 5, on the outer peripheral side of the timing chain CH in the engine room E).
In the known chain guide described above, in order to secure the rigidity and durability of the chain guide, although it is necessary to increase the size of the guide body to improve the rigidity and durability thereof, since the known chain guide has almost all of the structure on the side opposite to the chain travel surface, in a case where the timing chain CH is guided from the outer peripheral side of the timing chain CH in the engine room E as shown in the example of FIG. 5, there has been a problem that it is not possible to enlarge the guide body to the inner peripheral side and a space needs to be secured on the outer peripheral side, which makes it difficult to design the engine room E compactly.
In addition, since the lips protruding to the side of the chain are provided at both sides of the guide shoe in the width direction for preventing the detachment of the chain in the width direction, it is necessary to increase the size of the guide shoe. However, since it is necessary to use an expensive material optimum for sliding for the guide shoe, there has been a problem that its cost is increased.
With regard to this point, for example, like Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-85412, a technique that can reduce the size of the guide shoe by separately providing a guide wall on the outside of the guide shoe is known. However, there has been a problem that the number of components is increased and costs in assembly and maintenance are increased.


This disclosure relates to techniques for synthesizing out of focus blurring effects in digital images. Cameras having wide aperture lenses typically capture images with a shallow depth of field (SDOF). SDOF cameras are often used in portrait photography, since they emphasize subjects, while deemphasizing the background via blurring. Simulating this kind of blurring using a large depth of field (LDOF) camera may require a large amount of computational resources, i.e., to simulate the physical effects of using a wide aperture lens, while constructing a synthetic SDOF image. Moreover, cameras having smaller lens apertures, such as those in mobile phones, may not have the ability to accurately estimate or recreate the true color of clipped background light sources. Described herein are techniques to synthesize out of focus background blurring effects that attempt to reproduce accurate light intensity and color values for clipped background light sources in images captured by LDOF cameras.

In camera imaging, multiple factors, such as the size of the lens aperture, may influence the depth of field of an image. Large digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and cameras having wide aperture lenses can be used to capture images with a relatively shallow depth of field (SDOF), meaning that the range of scene depths for which objects in the captured image will appear sharp (i.e., in focus) is very small compared to images captured under other conditions (e.g., a narrower aperture). While the limited range of in-focus regions of a SDOF image may seem to be a physical limitation, it has been turned into an aesthetic advantage by photographers for over a century. For example, so-called SDOF photography may be particularly fit for portrait photography, since it emphasizes the subject (who is typically brought into the camera's focus range), while deemphasizing the background (e.g., by making the background appear blurry and/or out of focus), which may otherwise be of little interest in the scene.
In imaging systems with larger image sensors and/or larger lens apertures (e.g., "true" SDOF cameras), background or point light sources captured by the image sensor are often quite defocused, i.e., due to the smaller field of view that results from the larger focal length and/or aperture size of the camera. This results in the light sources being spread over a much larger area on the image sensor, with the light received per pixel being significantly lower, resulting in a lower likelihood of the pixels clipping or losing all color information.
In other imaging systems, such as small form factor cameras typically used in mobile devices, it may be difficult to optically achieve a given level of SDOF. For example, a mobile phone camera may have a smaller aperture than the smallest aperture used by a DSLR or other true SDOF camera, and thus may have a relatively large depth of field compared to what may be achieved by a true SDOF camera. In these instances, to achieve an image having the appearance of a shallower depth of field, it may be necessary to artificially introduce/simulate an out-of-focus blur in the image after it is captured.
However, synthetically creating a natural-looking SDOF effect in an image captured by a non-SDOF camera, such as on a mobile device, may be difficult. In particular, when bright light sources (e.g., point light sources) are present in the background of images, especially images captured in low-light conditions, such light sources are often heavily clipped in the resulting image captured by the non-SDOF camera device's image sensor—meaning that the "true" light intensity and color for the pixels that the light source is projected onto will be unknown, i.e., they will be captured by the image sensor as pure white pixels.
This effect can be exacerbated by the aforementioned compact image sensor and optics that are typically found on mobile devices, which result in the device's camera having a comparatively large depth of field. These characteristics of typical mobile device cameras also cause background light sources to be spread over very few pixels on the image sensor, resulting in the light level arriving on each pixel being much higher than what can be measured by the image sensor. For very bright light sources, the color filters on the image sensor's pixels may also fail to provide sufficient attenuation of dissimilar colors, causing all recorded color channels (typically red, green, and blue) to be clipped, resulting in the aforementioned pure white pixel values being recorded for such pixels—as opposed to the actual color of the light source.
Additionally, attempting to synthetically simulate this kind of out-of-focus blurring may require a large amount of computational resources. For example, a naïve approach may attempt to simulate the SDOF effects by spreading every pixel in the image's light intensity onto every other pixel in the image that is within its blurring radius, adding all those values in an accumulator, and then repeating that spreading and accumulation process for every pixel in the image that needs to be blurred. Such approaches also may require meticulous user intervention and fine tuning to adjust the resulting image to have an acceptable synthetic SDOF effect, e.g., with minimal physically-inaccurate occlusions, mischaracterizations of foreground pixels as background pixels (or vice versa), etc.
The advent of mobile, multifunction devices, such as smartphones and tablet devices, has resulted in a desire for high-resolution, high dynamic range, and small form factor cameras, capable of generating high levels of image quality in real time or near-real time, for integration into such mobile, multifunction devices. Increasingly, as users rely on these multifunction devices as their primary cameras for day-to-day use, users demand features, e.g., portrait photography, which they have become accustomed to using in dedicated-purpose camera bodies.
Thus, what is needed are techniques to synthesize SDOF effects, e.g., out-of-focus background renderings, that attempt to more accurately synthesize regions of the SDOF image corresponding to clipped background highlights, and that do so in a computationally-efficient manner. Such techniques may be applied to images to create the effect of a shallower depth of field than would normally be seen in images naturally captured by a device's camera system.

Highlight recovery techniques for shallow depth of field rendering


An adjustable gate latch has a striker bar and a latch component including a base with a track. The latch assembly slides along the track when engaged by a striker that is out of line with the latch member. This automatically compensates for relative movement between the gate and the associated gate posts.

Conventional gate and door latches are generally of good design and adequate for their intended purpose until the gate or door panel and the associated post or frame become misaligned, for example through ground movements or building settling. Such movements can occur seasonally. The result is misaligned panels that cannot be closed properly. In the case of a gate, damaged, broken or bent latch components may result.
The present invention is intended to ameliorate this problem.


A body-powered prosthetic arm is mountable on a socket attached to the arm stump of a person. The prosthetic arm includes a base for attachment to the socket, a forearm section having a proximal end and a distal end, a terminal device such as a hook, anthropomorphic hand, etc. attached to the distal end of the forearm section for selectively opening or closing, and an elbow joint for joining the proximal end of the forearm section to the base, the elbow joint being pivotable to enable moving the forearm section upwardly or downwardly. Control straps and cables fitted on the person are responsive to body movements of the person for selectively locking the elbow joint to prevent it from pivoting while allowing the terminal device to open or close or locking the terminal device to prevent it from opening or closing while allowing the elbow joint to pivot.

This invention relates to a prosthetic arm and more particularly to a body-powered prosthetic arm having a bendable elbow and a terminal gripping device, each of which may be operated independently of the other, but with the same actuation mechanism.
Prosthetic arms generally fall into two categories, these being body-powered arms and motor-actuated arms. The body-powered type prosthetic arm is more widely used because it is less expensive, less complicated in design, does not require batteries, is lightweight, and is more reliable. The motor-actuated type prosthetic arm, however, does provide ease of use and some versatility in the operation of the gripping terminal device as to opening and closing of the gripping element and the pressure applied by the gripping element in grasping an object.
One of the most common body-powered prosthetic arm utilizes what is called a dual cable harnessing system, such as a figure eight harness, for attachment to a person's body and for actuating both the bending of the elbow portion of the arm and the opening and closing of the gripping element, typically a hook. One of the cables in this type system is for enabling one of the two possible movements to take place, i.e., either the bending of the elbow or opening or closing of the hook. The other cable is for causing the bending of the elbow or the opening or closing of the hook, whichever is enabled.
One of the problems with the above dual cable system is that with certain positions of the prosthetic arm, the two possible movements cannot be "decoupled", i.e., the bending of the elbow cannot be "decoupled" from the opening of the hook. Also, in certain other positions, there is insufficient length of actuation cable to effect an opening of the hook when desired. Such is the case, for example, when the hook is raised a certain distance toward the mouth and there is simply no more cable to enable opening the hook to release the object being held.


A multi-channel optical device and method of making the same are disclosed. The optical device includes a plurality of detectors on a detector mounting substrate, and a corresponding plurality of lenses on an interior surface of the optical device. Each detector detects light having a unique center wavelength. Each center wavelength corresponds to a channel of the optical device. Each lens focuses light towards a corresponding detector. Each detector has a location corresponding to a focal point of the light focused by a corresponding lens. The method of making the optical device includes placing lenses on a surface of the optical device housing, transmitting light having a plurality of center wavelengths through the lenses, determining locations on a detector mounting substrate where each light beam is focused by a lens, and placing a detector at each location.

Light-detecting devices such as photodiodes are useful for optical signal reception in optoelectronic networks. Optical signal reception may include reception of multiple channels (or wavelengths) of light (i.e., a multi-channel signal). One approach to receiving a multi-channel signal is the use of multiple cascaded detectors configured to detect light of different wavelengths.
A cascaded detector array in a receiver optical sub-assembly (ROSA) equipped with multiple lenses for focusing the light on individual detectors may receive one or more signals (e.g., light beams) having a focal point that is not perfectly on axis, or in alignment, with a center line of the light beam(s). Also, in such multi-channel systems, the focal points of different signals or light beams may not be equally spaced apart.
Newer generations of multi-channel optical receivers may require four or more detectors mounted within a small area of the ROSA package or substrate. However, small packaging typically does not allow for typical free space alignment. Also, small transceiver (e.g., ROSA) packaging may have narrow wavelength filtering requirements. Furthermore, in a cascaded wavelength drop design (e.g., where successive channels have center wavelengths that differ in a particular direction and/or by a predetermined amount), there is a need for an extra degree of freedom to allow for the use of individual filters with the lens array.
For example, referring to FIG. 1, a multi-channel receiver optical sub-assembly (ROSA) 100 can use passive elements with collimated beams 141, 143, 145 and 147 that emerge from a multiplexer/demultiplexer 120 and integrated lenses 132, 134, 136 and 138. This design is intended to achieve exact X-Y focal points 142, 144, 146 and 148 so that a detector array (not shown) can be placed at the focal points. In FIG. 1, this is represented by equal distances X between adjacent focal points 142 and 144, 144 and 146, and 146 and 148 along the X axis (i.e., the line parallel to and above a line bisecting the four lenses 132-138), with zero offset along the Y axis. A detector array can be placed on a substrate such as a printed circuit board with high precision die attach equipment. Then, the detector array and/or a fiber to be inserted into opening 113 in ROSA substrate/package 110 can be aligned to achieve maximum responsivity or sensitivity in the detectors. Unfortunately, any beam misalignment from the intended X-Y target 142, 144, 146 or 148 of one detector relative to the other detectors cannot be corrected with this method of alignment.
This "Discussion of the Background" section is provided for background information only. The statements in this "Discussion of the Background" are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this "Discussion of the Background" section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this "Discussion of the Background" section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this "Discussion of the Background" section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.

Actively aligned detectors for optical and optoelectronic arrays


A data transfer control system that can change the way of DMA transfers to meet the requirements of each application. The data transfer control system includes a DMA controller (DMAC) and a DMAC memory dedicated for DMA control purposes. The DMAC performs DMA transfers according to a DMA program stored in the DMAC memory. Each time a new DMA request is received, the DMAC saves its parameters in a DMA request parameter table, and each DMA request parameter table is registered with a DMA request management table. In this way, the received DMA requests are queued in the DMA request management table. They are executed in a first-in first-out fashion. The progress of ongoing DMA transfers are managed in a DMA channel status table disposed for each DMA channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transfer control system, a direct memory access (DMA) controller, and a DMA data transfer method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data transfer control system, a DMA controller, and a DMA data transfer method that can change the way of data transfers.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are computer systems that need to process a large amount of data objects while inputting and outputting them at very high speeds. To achieve the purpose, those systems often employ a special data transfer mechanism, other than the main processor for general data processing. This mechanism is known as a direct memory access (DMA) controller. The DMA controller, or DMAC, normally works independently of the main processor to transfer data between different memory areas according to specified source and destination addresses and data size.
The DMAC transfers data while the main processor is engaged in other data processing tasks. It is an advantage of using a DMAC that the main processor is free from the overhead of data transfers. Some DMA architectures include a dedicated memory for a DMAC, so that the DMAC can make access to its dedicated memory without causing contention with main memory access by the main processor. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-244632 (1995). This technique provides the main processor with an increased data processing efficiency.
Data objects that a DMAC is supposed to transfer may vary depending on the requirement of each system application. Some systems only require simple memory-to-memory transfers. Others may need to transfer more complex data objects such as data in rectangular areas, or require a sophisticated transfer sequence according to some prescribed rules. Also, the memory addresses are not necessarily fixed, but determined through calculations.
Conventional DMACs have I/O registers for receiving DMA parameters including source address, destination address, and data size. A host processor sets those parameters in the DMAC and then gives a start command to let the specified DMA transfer begin. Such DMACs are implemented as peripheral hardware circuits with fixed functions for use as an independent component or as an integral part of the system chip set. Since the functionality of conventional DMACs is mostly hard-wired, different circuit designs are required for different system applications. For example, some DMACs have a plurality of DMA channels to support parallel data transfers. Other DMACs contain a FIFO buffer to store a queue of DMA requests. Actually, a variety of application-specific DMACs are used in different computer systems.
DMACs with hardware-oriented design, however, are limited in terms of functional flexibility. Some of their functions may be superfluous in a certain class of applications, while they may fail to provide necessary features in other applications. Think of, for example, a system with a four-channel DMAC. While this four-channel design satisfies the system's requirements initially, it is possible that there arises later a need for an application which really uses, say, six DMA channels. Since only four DMA channels are available, and since that number is physically fixed in this case, system engineers have to manage to configure the application with the limited DMA resources. The penalty is an increased processing overhead, which is likely to result in a performance degradation.
Most DMACs are implemented as supplementary circuits that help the main processor in doing tasks. Cost requirements and power consumption requirements of a system impose a limit on DMAC designs. For these reasons, DMACs are only allowed to have relatively simple addressing capabilities, and it is therefore difficult for ordinary DMACs to realize DMA transfers with sophisticated addressing patterns. Some existing DMACs support special addressing, but most of them are designed for particular applications and often inappropriate for other applications.
As described above, existing hardware-implemented DMACs are so simple and limited in their flexibility that they are unable to provide the data transfer patterns required in actual applications. That is, conventional DMACs are designed primarily for use in simple applications. In the case where complex data transfers are required, the main processor executes them with its own data transfer instructions while calculating source and destination addresses. This method, however, consumes much of the computation time of the main processor, thus leading to degradation of system performance.
In view of the above, several researchers have proposed a multi-processor system to make a complex data transfer possible. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-13920 (1995). According to this approach, the system employs another microprocessor (sub-processor) other than its main processor. Instead of having a dedicated hardware circuit, the system uses this sub-processor as a DMAC. If its performance is sufficiently high in an intended application, the sub-processor can perform a sophisticated data transfer by generating memory addresses on the fly with its own arithmetic functions. This programmable sub-processor also brings flexibility to DMA functions.
It should be noted that the sub-processor described above is a general-purpose processor. A data transfer using a general-purpose processor takes more steps in calculating memory addresses than a hard-wired DMAC does. More specifically, the sub-processor executes load and store instructions back to back in order to emulate a memory-to-memory data transfer. This means that the source data is once read into a register in the processor and then written in the destination memory. In contrast, a typical hard-wired DMAC can transfer a burst of data directly between memories at a high speed, concentrating on memory address generation and read/write control. Although the sub-processor approach offers higher flexibility, it has an obvious disadvantage in transfer speeds. The cost is another problem of this approach, because a general-purpose processor requires a greater amount of circuit resources than an ordinary single-purpose DMAC does.
According to the multi-processor system disclosed in the second patent literature, all the main processor data, DMA parameters, and sub-processor programs are placed together in a single memory space. The proposed system uses a dual-port random access memory (DPRAM) for this purpose, which accepts simultaneous access from the main processor and sub-processor. The problem is, however, that the sub-processor has to fetch instructions as well as to read and write data through the same port of the DPRAM, thus slowing down the execution speed.
The primary purpose of using a DMAC is to execute data transfers transparently to the main processor's computation (i.e., to parallelize the two processes, ideally with no time wasted). If the sub-processor was slow, a consequent delay of DMA data transfers would hamper the main processor from proceeding to the next task. The speed of DMA transfers is therefore important for the performance of the system.

System and method for controlling DMA data transfer


A differential register slave structure is presented. In one embodiment, a differential register includes a storage node (218, 318). The storage node (218, 318) stores and holds the differential values generated by the differential register. In one embodiment of the present invention, on power-up, when the state of various clocks (i.e., master, slave) in the differential register may be indeterminate, the storage node (218, 318) will discharge the differential values and the differential register will produce a differential output.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronics systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to electronic circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of digital devices are implemented in electronic systems. The digital devices include inputs, logic devices, storage devices, clocks, outputs, etc. Many digital devices are implemented with a master-slave architecture. In a master-slave architecture, the operation of the slave component(s) are often based on the operation of at least one master component.
One conventional type of master-slave architecture is a master-slave latch. A master-slave latch (i.e., differential master-slave latch) includes at least one input port and at least two output ports. The output ports typically produce complimentary outputs. For example if a first output Q produces a logical 1 the second output Qn will produce a logical 0.
FIG. 1 displays a differential architecture. An input node is shown as 100. A pass gate 102 is positioned in series with the input node 100. The pass gate 102 is controlled by a master clock 103. A storage node 104 is positioned in series with the pass gate 102. An inverter 114 is coupled to the storage node 104. A pass gate 108, a storage node 106 and an inverter 115 are each positioned in series. The pass gate 108 is controlled by a slave clock 109. An output node Q shown as 116 is in series with the inverter 115.
A pass gate 112 is positioned on the output of the storage node 104. A storage node 110 and an inverter 118 are in series with the pass gate 112. A slave clock 111 controls the pass gate 112. A complimentary output node Qn is shown as 120. In this embodiment, the slave clocks 109 and 111 are the same clock.
During operation the master clock 103 operates pass device 102 and the slave clock (109 and 111) operates pass devices 108 and 112 respectively. As input is applied to node 100. The pass device 102 operates under control of the master clock 103. When the master clock 103 goes high, the data applied to input node 100 propagates to the storage node 104.
When the master clock 103 goes low that data is held by the master storage node 104. When the slave clock (109, 111) goes high, pass devices 108 and 112 allow data to pass. The data stored in storage node 104 propagates through inverter 114, through pass device 108 to storage node 106 and through pass device 112 to storage node 110. As a result of inverter 114 each individual storage nodes 106 and 110 will store an opposite value.
When the slave clock (109, 111) goes low, the two values stored in the storage nodes 106 and 110 are held independently of each other and propagated to the output Q 116 and the compliment of the output Qn 120. The data is then inverted using inverters 115 and 118, respectively and output at output node Q 116 and the compliment of output node Qn 120.
The problem with the foregoing structure is that on power-up the slave clock (109, 111) may remain at low voltage after the power is applied and it is possible and even likely that the storage nodes (106, 110) may initially power-up in the same state. The same values stored in storage node 106 and storage node 110 will drive either a pair of logical ones or a pair of logical zeros out of the output node Q 116 and the compliment of the output node Qn 120. Given that this circuit is a differential circuit this will cause a problem for any downstream circuits that may be sensitive to non-complimentary inputs, since the differential circuit is initially not producing a differential output.
Thus, there is a need for a differential circuit that is designed to assure a differential output on power-up. There is a need for a differential circuit that is designed to assure a differential output during all phases of operation.

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A memory card adaptor includes a cartridge of a same size as a memory card. A slot of a profile equivalent to a size of a mini memory card is formed at one end inside the cartridge, whereas conduction terminals are pre-embedded at the other end thereof. Contact sections are extended toward an interior of the slot from the conduction terminals, for providing a linking of electric signals upon inserting the mini SD card therein. Lead slopes are formed in the slot and are protruded toward an interior from an exterior of the slot, so as to insert the mini SD card in a slant angle, thereby preventing malfunction caused by the mini SD card from being directly pushed against the contact sections in a front of the conduction terminals in the slot, providing a sufficient flexible offsetting to the contact sections.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved device for a memory card adaptor, and more particularly to a memory adapter for accessing data.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Memory cards are used as a storage media for peripheral digital products. As there are so many kinds of models and brands of digital products in the existing market, the memory cards used will also be different (e.g., a Smart Media Card, a Secure Digital Card, a Multi Media Card, a Memory Stick Card, a CF card, and an XD Card, etc.).
As the prosperity of all kinds of memory cards, all kinds of electronic products and digital equipment are becoming light-weight, thin, short, and tiny. Therefore, associated circuit elements and storage devices are also becoming mini, such as a mini SD card and an MS duo card, whose sizes are only less than a half of a Secure Digital Card (or SD card in short) and a Memory Stick Card (or MS card in short). Accordingly, the corresponding connectors also required to be light-weight and tiny. Therefore, memory cards with a larger size (e.g., a Smart Media Card) are gradually not suitable for the market. However, for re-using a memory card with a smaller size and thickness in an original circuit layout and a connector of an original size, the suitability between the memory card and the connector is imperative. Accordingly, the following positive benefits can be reached providing the availability of a suitable and practical connector:                It can save a process of assembling and can also reduce a manufacturing cost.        It can reduce a space to be occupied, therefore facilitating a compact design for electronic products.
Accordingly, vendors have re-modeled a connector with a specification of size of an SD card into a connector which can be connected with a mini SD card and can be used for an SD memory card. This structure consists of a slot 300 at one end of a cartridge 100 for inserting a mini SD card, and terminals 200 at the other end of the cartridge 100 for conducting a circuit. Through holes 1001 (as shown in FIG. 5) are located at locations corresponding to those of contact sections 2001 of the conduction terminals 200 in the cartridge 300, thereby providing an extended space to the contact sections 2001 of the conduction terminals 200 upon inserting and using the mini SD card. Although this kind of structure can achieve a basic function of adapting a memory card, it is inevitable that alien objects or dust will intrude due to the through holes located at a side of the cartridge 300. In addition, as the slant and raised contact sections 2001 in a front of the conduction terminals 200 are directly and reversely touched and pressed by the corresponding mini SD card upon inserting the card, it is possible to cause deformations to the contact sections 2001, thereby severely affecting the accuracy, stability and quality in inserting and connecting a memory card.
Accordingly, other vendors have put the contact sections 2001 in a front of the conduction terminals 200 to be against inner walls of the cartridge 200, as shown in FIG. 6, with only small parts of the contact sections 2001 being protruded. Although this structure can avoid damage to the conduction terminals 200, an ill contact will occur.


Several embodiments of a collapsible screen employing novel folding structures have many possible uses: window shade, room divider, decorative backdrop, wall hanging, and others. A disclosed method allows its user to design many embodiments of the screen. The method incorporates three modifiable sets or databases: a set (220) of patterns, a set (221) of criteria by which a possible embodiment is evaluated for practicability, and a set (222) of transformations which can be applied to the possible embodiment to improve it with respect to the criteria (221). The sets can change to reflect new assumptions, design characteristics, and hardware.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to window shades, collapsible partitions, folding screens, and the like.
2. Prior Art
Among the product categories within the window coverings industry are various types of curtains; Roman shades or blinds; Venetian blinds; pleated shades; roll-up or roller shades; vertical blinds; and others. In terms of functional typology, this list can account for almost all the products on the market at present and at any time in the past. This list of categories has remained unchanged for 50 years or more. The most recent category is vertical blinds, which were invented in the 1890s, but were not commercially popular until the 1940s. The rest of the categories have existed for hundreds of years.
Based on a review of prior art, the vast majority of improvements to window coverings have been detail-oriented rather than aesthetically based. Toti et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,567,256) disclose a Venetian blind with parallel undulating slats to provide a drapery like appearance. Toti recognizes that "the great objection to the use of Venetian blinds in artistic homes and buildings is that they contribute a barred window effect which is jail-like in its mechanical precision" which is overcome by Toti's undulating, rather than rigid, slats. Recent improvements in Venetian blinds have changed their overall visual effect very little. The same is true of the pleated shade and its most recent incarnation called the "cellular shade", which is essentially a pair of parallel-pleated webs of material glued together at every second pleat as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,469 and by U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,998, both by Colson, disclosing an expandable window covering in which a non-pleated fabric is attached to a pleated panel.
In addition, some other categories of window coverings have their own disadvantages. Curtains and Roman-type shades made of textiles are generally labor-intensive and thus costly to produce. Roll-up shades usually add little aesthetic effect to their surrounding environment, except for that contributed by the textile from which it is made. Vertical blinds, Venetian blinds, and pleated shades cannot be better described than by Toti as cited above.
Origami
Origami, the art of paper folding, has been practiced perhaps for as many centuries as paper has existed. Its basic tenets are that a square piece of paper is folded (typically not cut, glued, or otherwise transformed) into abstract representations of animals, objects, or geometrical shapes. Origami makes use of a large body of standard "base" fold-patterns and various styles of folding such as box pleating, modular origami, pictorial origami, and others. Origami has been practiced almost exclusively without lucrative or utilitarian ends.
Models exist for such things as slippers, dishes, cups, lampshades (traditional Chinese lanterns and Scandinavian designs of the 1960s), and folded maps (as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,711, "Sheet folding method and product", Muth, 1985, which is an improvement on an origami map fold). Patents have been issued for purely decorative objects that exhibit origami folds: U.S. Pat. No. 2,164,966 (Tutein, 1939) discloses a "pleated material and method" that is essentially a tessellation of folds, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,239 ("Decorative ornament", Glynn, 1960) is an improvement on an origami model called a flexagon which was first folded by Arthur Stone in the UK in 1939 (Kenneway, E., Complete Origami, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 57).
Origami-type folds have been used in materials other than paper and for uses other than decorative. An example is Nojima's published application No. WO 01/081821 of 2001 entitled "Structure with folding lines, folding line forming mold, and folding line forming method", which suggests the formation of collapsible objects in flexible plastic, such as PET bottles, making use of patterns of folds known to the field of origami.
Furthermore, structures based on origami folds, or based on models folded in paper to simulate large-scale structures, take advantage of the fact that the rigidity or stiffness of a sheet material can be increased by the addition of folds. Examples include GB Patent 1,170,785 (Quarmby, 1966) titled "Foldable building units", GB Patent 2,119,825 (Singh et al., 1982) titled "Erecting folded-plate structure", and U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,615 (Sorkin, 1976) titled "Foldable roof construction element". The rarity of such structures in commerce today might show that they rely on material strength characteristics that go beyond what is possible in a sufficiently large dimension, or that problems associated with cost remain unsolved. Also, such models gain rigidity through folding, but they do not gain stability; their stability is largely dependent on their anchor points on the ground.
Origami Mathematics and Computational Origami
Mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists have interested themselves in origami in recent years. One interest is to represent the folding of paper mathematically, in order to analyze and predict the folding of paper (or other sheet materials) for applications in engineering, chemistry and medicine on a molecular scale, and other sciences. Exemplary articles include:    Cipra, Barry A., "In the Fold: Origami Meets Mathematics", SIAM News, Vol. 34, No. 8, ff. 1-4.    Hull, Thomas, "Counting Mountain-Valley Assignments for Flat Folds", Ars Combinatoria, 2002.    Hull, Thomas, "The Combinatorics of Flat Folds: a Survey", The Proceedings of the Third International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education, A. K. Peters, 2002.
There has been recent interest in a relatively new type of origami called the tessellation, a geometric pattern of concave and convex fold lines, imparted and repeated ad infinitum into a planar sheet. Examples include US Patent application 2005/0113235 by B. Basily and E. Elsayed entitled "Technology for continuous folding of sheet materials" and US Patent application 2002/0094926 by D. Kling titled "Patterning technology for folded sheet structures", both of which apply to the manufacture of tessellated webs or continuous sheets of material intended for use in structural hollow-core building materials, and US Patent application 2004/0098101 by Z. You and K. Kuribayashi entitled "Deployable Stent" is an origami-based medical implant that unfolds inside the human body. Tessellations of folds or hinges have also been used to design a deployable Fresnel lens for use in a space telescope.
No Prior Combination of Origami and Window Coverings
With reference to all the above cited examples of concentrated study and practical application of origami, as well as countless other examples not referenced herein, a thorough search of relevant prior art has revealed no examples of origami folds being applied to a functional window covering.
In Japan, although paper has long been used to cover shoji screens and sliding doors, it has always been used passively, glued to the rigid frame, despite the Japanese invention of the art of origami. US and foreign Patents for window shades have been observed wherein paper was once a commonly used material, yet the shades were always folded with parallel folds. The very common "pleated window shade" always makes use of parallel pleats, even when its inventor seeks to create some different aesthetic effect on the window. For example, Park's U.S. Pat. No. 451,068 of 1891 entitled "Window Shade" discloses a way in which a typical pleated window shade can be raised on one side, creating an arc across the window so that it is "draped artistically as by a lace curtain or lambrequin". Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,245 (Shen, 2002), disclosing a hinged bottom stave which causes the pleated material to form a semicircular bottom edge when raised, once again using the standard parallel pleats.
Still other Patents for pleated window shades reflect alterations of shape imposed by the architectural opening in which they are to be installed: Schnebly's U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,436 (1990) discloses pleated shades and their mechanisms for semicircular and other nonrectangular windows, every example showing parallel pleats. Zimmer's US Patent Application 2006/0289130 is entitled "Window Origami Panels and the Like", but focuses mainly on fastening the fabric panels to a plurality of fasteners by a number of holes near the edges of the panels; the relevance of origami is only in the visual effect of how the panels are hung.


The invention relates to an apparatus and method for coating a pipe or a section of a pipe with a polymer layer. The apparatus comprises an applicator for applying polymer melt on the surface of a pipe or pipe section, a roller for pressing the polymer applied by the applicator towards the pipe or pipe section, and means for circumferentially moving the applicator and the roller around the periphery of the pipe or pipe section. According to the invention the apparatus further comprises a drive for rotating the roller as the roller is moving around the periphery of a pipe or pipe section. By means of the invention, higher quality coatings can be applied to field joints of steel pipes, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an apparatus for coating a pipe or a pipe section. The apparatus of the present kind comprises means for applying a layer of at least one polymer material on the surface of the pipe or pipe section at least along a part of the periphery thereof.
The invention also concerns a corresponding method for coating a pipe or pipe section.
2. Description of Related Art
Steel pipes coated with layers of polymers, such as polyethylene or polypropylene, have been used in oil and gas pipelines for a long time. These kinds of pipes are mechanically strong and have good corrosion resistance along the coated part of the pipe. They are generally welded together using the SAW technique (Submerged Arc Welding) to form a pipeline. To facilitate weld-joining of the pipes at the construction site, end portions of the pipe are usually left without coating at the factory. In practice, the pipes are often coated entirely and in a later stage the polymers are stripped or brushed off at the ends of the pipe. This is called cut-back area and the length is defined through the project specification, normally 150 mm on both pipe ends.
Field-welded pipe joints, i.e. girth welds formed at the construction sites, are sensitive to corrosion. For this reason, a coating layer has to be spread upon the girth weld and on the adjacent, uncoated portions of the pipes so as to completely cover the welded joint and to shield it from moisture and water in the ambience. Thus, the applied polymer layer overlaps with a factory coatings of the pipes joined.
Field-joints coatings are conventionally most typically produced by injection moulding or surface fused tape techniques. Also a number of other techniques such as epoxy-coating, PUR-coating, and coating by vulcanized tapes or shrinkable sleeves have been utilized.
WO 2008/132279, which discloses the features of the preambles of the independent claims, discloses another method and apparatus for coating field-welded joints by applying polymer material in the form of a melt film or sheet on the surface of the pipe or pipe section from a moving die or nozzle. The melt polymer film or sheet is applied on the pipe from a die which is mounted on a carriage, which can be moved along the periphery of the pipe or pipe section. For smoothening and flattening of the polymer layer deposited on the surface and for improving the adherence of the layer to the pipe or pipe section there are provided levelling means such as a roller. The roller applies a force generally perpendicular to the polymer material layer. The surface of the roller is adjustable in the direction of the central axis to fit the surface profile of the pipe or pipe section at the part which is to be coated. The roller may also be mounted on the same movable carriage as the polymer deposition means of the apparatus, e.g. an extrusion nozzle or flat die.
WO 01/32316 discloses another pipe coating apparatus for coating girth welds of pipelines, which is equipped with spray coating means.
A perfectly coated and installed pipeline should be protected all over its length with equal quality coatings, including factory coating and field-joint coatings. Using most of the commercial coating solutions today this cannot be achieved. Some systems (e.g. injection moulding and machine taping) give relatively good protection but due to their technical solutions they are not suitable to be used afield and/or cannot be used for a wide register of different sizes of pipes.
When coating field-joints using the abovementioned melt-film technique, it is essential to apply a sufficient amount of polymer and to carefully follow the rules of welding plastic pipes, i.e. time, temperature and pressure. To avoid sagging of the polymer film, heavy pressure is applied thereon by the roller. However, this easily reduces the thickness of the film on the weld-seam area in an undesired way. Another problem is that the roller stats to glide against the pipe and pushes away the polymer coating, thus reducing the quality of the coating. These effects are illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A shows a coating arrangement according to WO 2008/132279. The pipe is denoted with numeral 10. Polymer is applied onto the pipe from application die 12 and levelled using a roller 13. Thus, a polymer layer 16 is formed. However, the molten polymer builds up in front of the roller, see build-up 16′, resulting in uneven and inconsistent polymer layer. Another problem associated with prior art is the sagging of polymer between 4 o'clock and 8 o'click directions, i.e. a thicker polymer layer at the lower part of the pipe, see sagging 16″ in FIG. 1B.
Thus, conventional methods and apparatuses are not optimal at least for applying relatively thick layers of polymer, in particular polyolefin (PO) or modified polyolefin.

Apparatus and method for coating pipes or pipe sections


The present invention is an improved golf shoe which incorporates a spike socket spine frame system that extends throughout the shoe sole for receiving all of the spike receptacles and is embedded in the outsole. The spine frame provides improved shoe performance and spike location and is made of a material that is stiffer than the outsole material. More particularly, the shoe sole is comprised of a spike socket spine having seventeen spike socket locations: three spike sockets in the toe section, six spike sockets in the metatarsal section, four spike sockets in the shank section and four spike sockets in the heel section, for receiving the posts of the golf spikes.

The present invention relates to the field of golf shoes. A golfer's performance depends on the ability of the golfer's golf shoes' to provide a solid base of support. The interaction between the shoe and the ground enables the golfer to perform the body movements necessary to culminate into an ideal contact between the club head and the ball. At the same time, golf shoes should provide comfort and relief from strain to the golfer's feet.
It has been found that, during the golf swing, each foot acts in a unique manner. Therefore, it has been suggested that the left and right shoes should be constructed differently. For instance, cleat placement should be designed to optimize the shear-forces during the golf swing and the center of pressure for each foot in order to enhance the production of forces. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the traditional raised heel should be replaced by a continuous sole and heel wedge to provide a greater contact area with the ground.
It has been determined that the rear shoe should be able to rock without generating much force and provide support by having an appropriately flexible sole, while the front shoe should be most effective in the critical contact region of the swing. At contact, the front foot supports an insecure stance and a mechanical shifting of force from the medial section to the lateral edge of the shoe.
The weight transfer pattern of a golfer during the golf swing, also termed "weight shift" or "mechanics of the feet," has been looked at by a number of investigators. The weight transfer pattern is generally measured at the ground/shoe interface. The importance of the interaction has been termed as the "vital link that allows a golfer to perform the series of body movements during the swing that lead to impact with the ball.".sup.1 FNT See Williams, K. R. and Cavanagh, P. R., The Mechanics of Foot Action During the Golf Swing and Implications for Shoe Design, Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., 15(3): 247-255, 1983.
Generally, golfers shift weight to the back foot during the back swing, then shift back to the front foot during the downswing. Through the hitting area, weight is primarily on the front foot and the back heel is raised off the ground. Following impact, the weight remains on the front foot.
The present invention relates to the design of golf shoes. Golf shoes have been in existence for many years now and are characterized by the golf spikes that protrude from the shoe sole to provide stability for the golfer.
The golf shoe has traditionally been comprised of a shoe upper and a shoe sole. The shoe upper is generally constructed of leather or simulated leather that is attached to a lasting board. The shoe sole has traditionally been constructed of leather for the more expensive shoes and of a synthetic leather material or polyurethane for the lower cost shoes. The shoe sole generally includes a number of spike sockets for the golf spikes.
The golf spike has generally been characterized as a sharp cone-shaped protrusion made of metal that inserts into the ground. However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,129 disclose a different type of spike that can replace the traditional spike. This spike is characterized as a plastic spike with a plurality of traction ribs. Small pyramid shaped protrusions are integral with the shoe sole in U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,851. These spikes are used with the traditional spikes and allegedly provide additional support for the golfer.
The golf spikes are traditionally placed into a spike socket that is built into the shoe sole. Traditionally, this socket has threads to mate with the threads on the spike posts. However, as stated above, other spikes that are integral with the shoe sole have been contemplated. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,396 discloses a plurality of differing cleats being secured to the shoe sole with the use of a shaft that penetrates the cleat bases.
Spike sockets in prior spiked shoes are traditionally metal receptacles that are positioned in a spaced-apart relation about the sole. Alternatively, sockets have been integrated into a front plate and a heel plate which plates are positioned between the various sole layers. Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,863 discloses a PVC member for receiving spike receptacles. The PVC members can be interconnected such that all of the spike receptacles for the forepart of the sole are interconnected.
Traditionally, the shoe spikes are located such that there are approximately six to eight spike locations in the fore foot area and four spike locations in the heel section. However, U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,851 discloses supplemental ground-engaging elements located along the inner side of the right foot and along the outer side of the left foot for a right handed golfer.

Golf shoe having spike socket spine system


Disclosed is a liquid crystal display device which includes a pair of substrates interposing a display medium including a polymer and liquid crystal therebetween and transparent-electrode portions formed on at least one of the pair of substrates, the transparent-electrode portions not easily transmitting light within a certain wavelength range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a method for fabricating the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to an LCD device including liquid crystal droplets isolated from one another by polymer walls, operated in a twisted nematic (TN) mode, a super-twisted nematic (STN) mode, an electrically controlled birefringence (ECB) mode, a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) mode, a light scattering mode, and the like, and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various display modes have been employed for LCD devices presently available. For LCD devices utilizing electro-optical effects, for example, the TN mode and the STN mode using nematic liquid crystal have been realized. In recent years, LCD devices using FLC have reached the level of practical use.
A new mode of LCD device where the birefringence of liquid crystal is used to electrically control the transparent or white opaque state of liquid crystal has been proposed. In this mode, the ordinary refractive index of liquid crystal (LC) molecules and the refractive index of a polymer as a display medium are matched to each other, in principle. The transparent state is displayed when a voltage is applied to liquid crystal, aligning the liquid crystal in the direction of the electric field. The white opaque state, i.e., a light scattering state, is displayed when a voltage is not applied to liquid crystal, causing disorderly orientation of the liquid crystal. The following five fabrication methods have been proposed for this mode of LCD devices:
(1) A method where liquid crystal is encapsulated in a polymer capsule to provide a display medium (Japanese National Publication No. 58-501631) PA1 (2) A method where photocurable or thermosetting resin and liquid crystal are mixed together. The liquid crystal is separated from the resin by curing the resin to form a liquid crystal region in the resin (Japanese National Publication No. 61-502128) PA1 (3) A method where the diameter of a droplet-like liquid crystal region is controlled (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-72317) PA1 (4) A method where liquid crystal is put in holes of a porous polymer film (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-59515) PA1 (5) A method where polymer beads as a light scattering source are floated in liquid crystal confined between two transparent-electrodes facing each other. (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-46621) PA1 forming strip-shaped transparent-electrodes on two substrates at least one of which is transparent, the transparent-electrodes not easily transmitting light within a certain wavelength range; PA1 attaching the two substrates to face each other such that the transparent-electrodes on the two substrates intersect each other; PA1 injecting a mixture of at least liquid crystal material and photocurable resin into a space between the attached two substrates; and PA1 irradiating the mixture with light from at least one side of the attached two substrates. PA1 forming first transparent-electrodes constituting pixel electrodes in a matrix on a first substrate of two substrates at least a second substrate of which is transparent, and forming second transparent-electrodes not easily transmitting light within a certain wavelength range, the second transparent-electrodes including thickened portions of a pattern corresponding to and facing the pixel electrodes and thinned portions; PA1 attaching the two substrates to face each other such that the first transparent-electrodes and the thickened portions intersect each other; PA1 injecting a mixture of at least liquid crystal material and photocurable resin into a space between the attached two substrates; and PA1 irradiating the mixture with light from the side of the second substrate.
However, the above methods have respective disadvantages as follows.
In method (1), the encapsulated liquid crystal constitutes an independent liquid crystal (LC) droplet. Accordingly, a driving voltage for changing the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is required for each LC droplet, resulting in increasing the driving voltage required for operating all such LC droplets simultaneously as a whole. This limits the applications of the resultant LCD device.
Methods (2) and (3) utilize phase separation. Accordingly, it is difficult to locate the LC droplets at precise two-dimensional positions in method (2), and it is difficult to control the diameter of the LC droplets precisely in method (3).
Since method (4) does not utilize phase separation at the formation of LC droplets, it is advantageous in that the range of applicable resin materials and liquid crystal materials is significantly large, and that the porous polymer film can be sufficiently purified. At present, however, this method has disadvantages as follows: The diameter of the LC droplets can not be satisfactorily controlled; and the positions of the LC droplets along a substrate surface cannot be precisely controlled.
Method (5) provides great light scattering capability. However, this method has a disadvantage as follows: It is difficult to uniformly disperse beads and thus obtain the same degree of scattering for all pixels, resulting in a nonuniform display.
As described above, in the LCD devices using polymer dispersed liquid crystals where LC droplets are dispersed in a polymer matrix, the shape of the LC droplets is not uniform, and the precise arrangement of the LC droplets along the substrate surface is difficult to achieve due to the limitation in the fabrication methods. Because of this failure to precisely arrange the LC droplets, different driving voltages are required for the respective LC droplets. This results in losing sharpness at the threshold in the electro-optic characteristic and relatively increasing the driving voltage. Further, since a number of LC droplets which scatter less light are present, the contrast of the resultant LCD device is relatively low. Moreover, since the shape of the LC droplets is not uniform and the precise arrangement of the LC droplets along the substrate surface is difficult to obtain, as described above, a large screen with high precision is not possible. In the case where the LCD device is driven by a duty driving method using an average value obtained by turning on and off a signal, increasing the duty ratio is not possible.
In order to overcome the above problems, Japanese Patent Application No. 5-30996 assigned to the assignee of this application proposed an LCD device 400 as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. Referring to FIG. 12, a mixture 113 of liquid crystal material, photocurable resin, and a photopolymerization initiator is injected into a space between a pair of substrates 101a and 101b facing each other. A photomask 114 having light shading portions 110 and light transmitting portions 111 is put over the substrate 101a so that the light shading portions 110 cover pixel portions. Then, ultraviolet (UV) light 108 is emitted from the side of the photomask 114 to irradiate the mixture 113. By this irradiation, as shown in FIG. 13, the LC molecules aggregate in the pixel portions corresponding to weak light irradiation regions to form liquid crystal (LC) regions 106 in a display medium layer, while the polymers aggregates in the portions other than the pixel portions corresponding to strong light irradiation regions to form polymer walls 107 in the display medium layer. In this proposed LCD device 400, since the pixel portions are shaded from light by the photomask, it is possible to form the LC regions 106 in the pixel portions.
However, the LCD device 400 having the LC regions in the pixel portions still has the following problem: At the time of light irradiation, an optical pass difference arises between the photomask and the polymer wall formation portions by the thickness of the substrate 101a. In other words, unless the light incident to the substrate 101a is parallel, the resultant polymer walls may differ from the intended shape thereof. The polymer walls may be wider than the pattern of the photomask by light scattering, or the polymer and the liquid crystal may not be distinctly phase-separated. This lowers the display quality of the resultant LCD device.

Liquid crystal display device and a method of fabricating the device using transparent-electrodes as a photomask


The invention relates to a method of in place cleaning of an automated food product dispenser comprising an interface connection configured to establish a supply of a milk-based fluid from a reservoir (for example, a container or a bag), a mixing device configured to receive the milk-based fluid and prepare a milk based product, a nozzle in fluid association with the mixing device for dispensing the milk based product, a product flowpath configured for directing the milk based product to flow from the interface connection through the mixing device to the nozzle, and a clean-in-place flowpath assembly located in the dispenser and comprising a supply of cleaning or sanitizing fluid and a flowpath which is configured to deliver the cleaning or sanitizing fluid to or through the product flowpath. The invention also relates to a machine readable program for controlling the automated food product dispenser of the invention and for cleaning the same in place.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food product dispensing equipment and, more particularly, to the cleaning in place of areas of a food dispensing device that uses microbiologically sensitive starting material in the reconstitution and dispensing of food to the consumer. More particularly, but not exclusively, the invention relates to the automatic cleaning of beverage dispensers that use microbiologically sensitive starting components such as milk or milk liquid based concentrate.
2. Background of the Invention
In the food service area, post-mix beverage dispensers are well known which mix a concentrate or syrup with several measures of water and then dispense the mixture on demand to reconstitute a hot or cold beverage such as juice, carbonated sodas, coffee or tea. Serious sanitary problems may occur with microbiologically sensitive products such as low acid starting components that can enter into the composition of an on-demand prepared beverage. Other food dispenser may easily be subjected to bacterial contamination and growth such as soft ice cream serving machines.
For instance, milk is naturally a low acid fluid comprising a relatively balanced proportion of proteins, lipids and fluids with a pH of about 6.7. This formulation provides a favorable ground for critical bacterial growth. Milk can rapidly spoil when it comes into contact with contaminated moisture, dust, fluid, etc., and thus proper handling and dispensing of such a product can be challenging.
Therefore, a food dispenser handling liquid milk based components requires regular and thorough cleaning with appropriate cleaning solutions to remove food residues in the tubing and mechanical parts that are in contact with the food product, such that they are sanitized and rinsed properly. If done manually, this process is very laborious, time consuming and expensive in manpower. The cleaning process requires disassembly and re-assembly of the main functional parts of the machines. For instance, employee labor required to properly clean a cappuccino delivering machine or a visual bowl dispenser requires an average of 30 minutes a day. Furthermore, neglect or error in the cleaning process may not only affect the quality of the beverage but also lead to serious hygienic hazards.
Therefore, there is a need for conveniently, reliably and automatically cleaning the areas of a food dispenser that come into contact with a milk based component on a regular basis.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,515 to Koosman et al. relates to a cleaning and sanitizing assembly for clean in place food and beverage automatic dispensing machines. The assembly includes at least one water line and at least one sanitizer line to introduce at least one sanitizer to condition water from the at least one water line. The at least one sanitizer may be ozone generated by an ozone generator from air filtered and dried in an air filter/dryer and then added to the water in an air flow apparatus. Typically, the sanitized water is introduced into the dispensing machine through a tank which normally contains the food product mix. The sanitized water is dispersed into the tank through a rinse tube or a spray nozzle extending across the top of each reservoir. Both the rinse tube and spray nozzle may be moved away from the tank should access to the tank become necessary. A cover over the rinse tube and spray nozzle prevents splashing of the sanitized water. From the tank, the sanitized water proceeds throughout the dispensing machine to self-clean food and beverage contact surfaces. However, using an ozone generator with this system has a number of disadvantages. Ozone generators tend to be expensive and bulky. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has placed also strict limits on ozone concentrations in the air. Ozone can damage the lungs when inhaled. Thus, ozone devices used for purifying water need to provide protection against the ozone being released from the water and creating high local ozone concentrations in the air surrounding the dispenser. Ozone generators also require high voltage generation since they normally rely on using a corona discharge to create ozone from oxygen. As a result, safety considerations arise due to the use of high voltage, and relatively high electrical power consumption occurs. Sometimes a purified oxygen source is also required. Moreover, since ozone is very reactive, it cannot be stored in water, and must be generated on demand by the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,952 to Schroeder relates to an aseptic product dispensing system that includes a sanitary connection assembly interposed in fluid communication with a substantially conventional aseptic product source and a substantially conventional product dispenser. The sanitary connection is provided with an automated cleaning system whereby a combination of pressurized gas, flushing fluid and/or sanitizing solution may be injected into, and thereafter evacuated from, the sanitary connection assembly. A controller is connected to each source for selectively delivering the selected fluid to sanitary connection and through out the dispenser. The selected fluid is then evacuated through the terminal valve of the dispenser. The cleaning protocol is such that water is circulated first, then a sanitized fluid is circulated and maintained for a certain time in a soak cycle. Finally, a pressurized gas is circulated to displace water and/or sanitized solution remaining in the system up to the dispensing valve. This clean-in-place system is cumbersome and complicated due to the number of sanitizing/rinsing lines and the same number of sanitizing/rinsing sources corresponding to those lines. Therefore, this system is more adapted for being installed outside and in connection with a traditional dispenser. Furthermore, the system is very much sanitizer consuming in the sense that the sanitizer flows through the dispenser and is evacuated through the dispensing valve. For reducing the volume of sanitizer flowing through the dispenser, the cleaning protocols provides a soaking cycle in which the sanitizer remains for a certain time within the system. However, in order to be effective, soaking must be maintained during several hours which means that a full cleaning protocol can only be carried out overnight.
Therefore, there is a need for a clean-in-place system that is more simple, less cumbersome, less product and time consuming and less expensive than in the known existing systems. The present invention now satisfies these needs.

Clean-in-place automated food or beverage dispenser


One or more plywood base plate members and at least one decorative plate are stuck together on top of each other, to thereby make a decorative plywood board of a given size. A joined decorative plywood board unit of a desired size is made of a plurality of the decorative plywood boards joined by a scarf joint. Then, the joined decorative plywood board unit and one or more base plates, each having a size of the size of the decorative plywood board unit, are attached together on top of each other, to thereby provide a board pile to be used as a component part for a musical instrument.

The present invention relates to a component part for a musical instrument, such as a side board for forming a body of a grand piano. The component part comprises a plurality of plate-shaped members including a decorated (or fancy) plywood board, and a method for manufacturing such an instrument's component part.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. SHO-63-224902 (hereinafter "Patent Document 1") discloses a plywood structure and more particularly, a technique for improving the quality of sounds generated from a given sound generating body using the plywood board structure, by adjusting the resonant characteristics of the plywood board through a combination of respective fiber (or grain) directions, materials, etc. of individual plates stuck on top of each other.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. HEI-9-207103 (hereinafter "Patent Document 2") discloses a method for manufacturing an ordinary type of decorative plywood board. Here, as a step of making a base (plywood) using an upper-layer plate and lower-layer plate with their respective fibers running in their longitudinal directions, the disclosed method includes: severing the upper-layer plate across the width of the plate; positioning and sticking the severed upper-layer plate pieces onto the lower-layer plate in an orientation where the fibers of the plate pieces run in the widthwise direction of the lower-layer plate, to thereby make the base plywood board; and then sticking a decorative veneer sheet (decorative plate) to the top surface of the base plywood board.
Generally, side boards forming the outer peripheral wall surfaces of bodies of grand pianos each comprise a decorative plywood board, which includes a base made of a plurality of plate-shaped wood members joined together end to end in accordance with a necessary length, and a decorative plate stuck on the top surface of the base. Briefly explaining an example of a conventionally-known side board manufacturing method, a first step joins together a plurality of wood plates (veneer sheets) end to end by means of a conventional joint means, such as finger (or combed) joints-,-to-thereby-provide a joined-wood plate unit having an elongated configuration as a whole. The second step adhesively joins, end to end, a plurality of decorative plates having a total length corresponding to the length of the joined wood plate unit, to thereby provide a joined decorative plate unit that has the same length as the joined wood plate unit. Then, a third step sticks a plural number of the wood plate units on top of each other to thereby provide a base plywood board; here, the plural number corresponds to a thickness of a side board to be made. In the third step, it is necessary to position the joined wood plate units, provided by the first step, on top of each other in such a manner that the respective joints (i.e., joined portions between the constituent wood plates) are positionally shifted, in the longitudinal direction, between the individual wood plate units. Namely, because an adhesive is applied to each of the joined portions and the thickness of the joined portion inevitably increases as compared to the remaining portion, the disclosed method attempts to not only deconcentrate or disperse the thickness increases as much as possible and but also minimize a mechanical strength shortage at the joined portions, by positionally shifting the joined portions between the joined wood plate units as noted above.
The fourth step sticks the joined decorative plate unit, provided by the second step, to the base plywood board provided by the third step. The decorative plywood board made in this way is bonded via an adhesive or otherwise after being molded in a mold of a predetermined shape.
Namely, according to the conventional side board manufacturing method, the first step joins together the plurality of wood plates to provide the elongated joined wood plate unit, the second step joins together the plurality of decorative plates to provide the elongated joined decorative plate unit, and then one or more joined wood plate units and the joined decorative plate unit are stuck together. Thus, the conventional manufacturing method requires two joining operations in order to secure the necessary length, which would therefore increase the necessary time and labor. Further, in the conventional manufacturing method, the decorative plates are joined together with their respective end surfaces adhesively bonded with each other merely in an abutting relation in order to make the joints less noticeable. This presents inconveniences in that the joined portions between the decorative plates have a weak joining strength and tend to cause undesired displacement in the thickness direction of the decorative plywood board between the joined decorative plates. Furthermore, for the manufacture of the decorative plywood board, the method requires extra time and labor for positionally shifting the joined portions between the joined wood plate units in the first step.
The method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is basically similar to the above-discussed conventional side board manufacturing method in that a joined decorative plate unit is stuck to the base plywood board, and it does not at all address the problem regarding the number of the joining operations for securing the necessary length and the inconvenience involved in joining the decorative plates together. Patent Document 1 does not particularly discuss a method for manufacturing plywood.

Component part for musical instrument, such as side board for piano body, and method for manufacturing the same


A reaction apparatus for a semiconductor fabrication apparatus, wherein the reaction apparatus includes at least two adjustable outlet ports for withdrawing reactant gases from the reaction chamber. Adjustment of the flow rate through each of the outlet ports selectively modifies the flow pattern of the reactant gases within the reaction chamber to maintain a desired flow pattern therewithin, such as a substantially uniform flow over the surface of a substrate being processed, and/or minimization of turbulence within the reactor.

In the processing of semiconductor devices, such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits, a plurality of such devices are typically fabricated simultaneously on a thin slice of semiconductor material, termed a substrate, wafer, or workpiece. In one example of a semiconductor processing step during manufacture of such semiconductor devices, the wafer or other workpiece is typically transported into a reaction chamber in which a thin film, or layer, of a material is deposited on an exposed surface of the wafer. Once the desired thickness of the layer of semiconductor material has been deposited the surface of the wafer, the wafer may be further processed within the reaction chamber, transported out of the reaction chamber for packaging, or transported out of the reaction chamber for further processing.
Known methods of depositing a film of a semiconductor material onto a surface of a wafer include, but are not limited to: (atmospheric and low-pressure) vapor deposition, sputtering, spray-and-anneal, and atomic layer deposition. Chemical Vapor Deposition ("CVD"), one process for fabricating semiconductor devices, is the formation of a stable compound on a heated wafer, or substrate, by the thermal reaction or decomposition of certain gaseous compounds within a reaction chamber. Epitaxial growth is a highly specific type of CVD that requires that the crystal structure of the substrate or wafer be continued through the deposited layer. The reaction chamber provides a controlled environment for safe deposition of stable compounds onto the substrate.
A reaction chamber may be formed of quartz, stainless steel, aluminum, or any other material sufficient to be substantially non-reactive with respect to the reactant gases introduced therein. One commercial epitaxial deposition reaction chamber includes a horizontal flow system in which wafers are placed horizontally on a susceptor and reactant gases flow horizontally in one end of the reaction chamber, across the wafer(s), and out the other end of the chamber. Two types of reaction chambers typically used in CVD processes are cold-wall reaction chambers and hot-wall reaction chambers. Cold-wall reaction chambers are formed of materials in which the walls of the reaction chamber are maintained at a reduced temperature relative to the substrate being processed, for example by actively cooling the reaction chamber walls. Heating the wafer in a cold-wall CVD system is typically accomplished through the use of radiant heat of wavelengths absorbed by the substrate or substrate holder, but the walls of the reaction chamber are largely transparent to the radiant energy wavelengths. Other heating mechanisms can also be used. Hot-wall reaction chambers are formed of materials in which the walls of the chamber are heated while the wafer being processed is simultaneously heated. The walls of the hot-wall reaction chamber are typically closer to the temperature of the substrate being processed relative to the temperature difference in cold-wall reaction chambers.
The reaction chamber used in horizontal CVD systems generally includes at least one inlet port that introduces reactant gases into the reaction chamber and a single outlet port for removal of the reactant gases and by-products that result from chemical reactions between the reactant gases and the exposed surface of the wafer being processed. The reactant gases typically contain chemicals or compounds for providing a material deposition on the wafer in the form of a thin film layer. The reactant gases may also include chemicals or compounds for removing, or etching, a portion of the surface of the bare wafer or a portion of the surface of a deposited thin film, such as in selective deposition processes.
During deposition of a thin film layer on the surface of the wafer, the exhaust, or by-products, from the chemical reaction and any excess reactant gases that were previously introduced into the reaction chamber are continually removed therefrom. The exhaust and excess reactant gases are typically withdrawn from the reaction chamber by way of the outlet port. The excess reactant gases and the exhaust from the chemical reaction can be removed from the reaction chamber as a result of a pressure differential caused by the reactant gases being input into the reaction temperature at a pressure greater than the pressure downstream from the reaction chamber. In the alternative, a vacuum can be operatively connected to the outlet port, whereby the exhaust and excess reactant gases are withdrawn from the reaction chamber by a suction force.
With conventional reaction chambers, the flow pattern within the reaction chamber may develop turbulence along the walls or corners of the reaction chamber. The flow turbulence can reduce or eliminate the amount of reactant gases at localized areas within the reaction chamber, which is particularly problematic in the areas adjacent to, or above, the exposed surface of the workpiece being processed. The turbulence of the reactant gases may cause a reduced amount of reactant gases flowing across portions of the wafer within the reaction chamber. Non-laminar flow and laminar flow may both create areas or regions of a reduced amount of reactant gases flowing across portions of the wafer within the reaction chamber. Any type of flow of reactant gases within the reaction chamber that would cause reduced or lack of reactant gases flowing across areas of a wafer reduce the likelihood of an even deposition across the entire surface of the wafer. Recirculation caused by turbulence can affect not only the uniformity of the deposition but can also create contamination problems.

Reaction apparatus having multiple adjustable exhaust ports


Improved approaches to update computer program code residing within a computing device are disclosed. By maintaining a former version of the computer program code, the computing device remains operable even if the update to the computer program code fails. Hence, the invention permits reliable updates to computer program code, which is particularly useful for firmware (e.g., boot-up code) of computing devices. For control and security, each version of computer program code can include authentication information. Before the computer program code is used, the computer program code can be required to be authenticated using the authentication information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing devices and, more particularly, to updating firmware data in portable computing devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices typically perform a boot-up procedure to initiate hardware and to acquire program code to be executed. The program code being acquired can include software and/or firmware. Often, at least an initial portion of program code, known as initial boot-up code, is stored in non-volatile memory. The boot-up procedure retrieves the initial boot-up code and uses such to partially boot the computing device. Once partially booted, other portions of the boot-up code can be obtained from volatile or non-volatile memory.
Since the initial boot-up code is stored in non-volatile memory, its storage is relatively permanent. However, certain types of non-volatile memory can be altered, such as re-written to store new data. Examples of these types of non-volatile memories, which are known as programmable non-volatile memories, include EEPROM and FLASH.
Accordingly, when a computing device is shipped to a customer, the initial boot code is fixed in non-volatile memory. However, the manufacturer of the computing device may want to subsequently change the initial boot code on the computing device. In many cases this requires the computing device to be returned to a service center. In the case of personal computers, a knowledgeable consumer can download via the Internet or read from disk a replacement BIOS program and then "flash" the non-volatile memory in the personal computer to thereby update the BIOS program. Personal computers are able to boot-up in alternate ways, such as from a disk drive. However, for computing devices without alternative ways to boot-up, a failure of the storage of the new boot code to the non-volatile memory renders the computing device inoperative. For example, a failure can occur if the computing device "hangs" or "locks-up" during the storage of the new boot code, or if a loss of power occurs during the storage of the new boot code. Hence, updating software in computing devices other than personal computers is conventionally either impossible or, if possible, burdensome.
Thus, there is a need to facilitate updates to program code within a computing device.

Method and system for updating firmware stored in non-volatile memory