A method for hermetically sealing an organic thin-film light-emitting device between a substrate and a cover including the steps of bringing the substrate and cover into close proximity at a peripheral side edge of at least one of the substrate or cover, bringing an energy absorbing material into contact with the cover and substrate at the peripheral side edge of at least one of the substrate or cover, and applying energy directly to the energy absorbing material, causing the energy absorbing material to transfer heat to the substrate and the cover to fuse and form a hermetic seal along the peripheral side edge.

Organic thin-film light-emitting devices are known to be exquisitely sensitive to water vapor and oxygen. Exposure to either of these materials results in the rapid degradation and failure of the devices, reducing or destroying the utility of the flat panel display or flat panel illumination source utilizing these devices. A number of approaches have been developed to seal the organic thin-film devices to eliminate exposure to oxygen and water vapor. The most commonly used approach in commercial application is to apply an adhesive between the device substrate and an impermeable cover. A variety of means, such as UV exposure, may be used to accelerate the curing of the adhesive. A limitation of this approach is that all known commercially suitable curable adhesive materials provide an inadequate barrier to water vapor, which creates the need to introduce a desiccant between the cover and substrate, increasing costs and complexity. Kadowaki, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,111) propose to utilize a laser to create a bond between a substrate glass and cover glass of a display device. This approach suffers from the need to create special glass formulations that allow the laser to pass through one glass layer while being absorbed in the second layer. Furthermore, the cover and substrate glasses must have nearly identical coefficients of thermal expansion to prevent residual stresses from being created in the sealed envelope. The special glass formulations add cost and create problems selecting glasses that are compatible with the sealing process, the process for producing the thin-film organic light-emitting devices, and the optical functionality of the completed device. The method suffers also from the need to leave a margin between the seal and the edge of the cover and substrate glasses. Minimizing the distance from the edge of the active area to the edge of the cover and substrate glasses is often a design goal for the device being produced.
Cooper, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,435) discloses providing a means for allowing a small gap to exist between the two glass layers of a flat-panel device. This is useful, e.g., for thin-film organic light-emitting devices, where such a gap between the substrate and cover glass is frequently supplied to prevent degradation of the organic materials. However, this approach still suffers the same limitations relating to glass formulation, functional compatibility, and edge margin.
Tracy, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,321) introduce a radiation absorbing material between two adjacent glass plates and then subject the material to radiation that has penetrated one of the two glass plates prior to reaching the radiation absorbing material. While this approach probably creates fewer material compatibility problems, especially in terms of allowing both glass layers to be optically transparent, the method still suffers from limiting material choices. It also creates a new problem—producing the energy absorbing material in the right shape and thickness to match the spacing requirements of the completed device. Since the desired gap is typically on the order of 10-20 microns, producing a wire or other form of radiation absorbing material in this thickness or diameter is quite challenging. Furthermore, the bond width and the spacing between the glass plates can limit the volume of energy absorbing material, and potentially the ultimate bond strength.
Li, et al. (US2003/0066311A1) describe a method for sealing a glass substrate and a glass cap by employing a glass frit in a bonding region between the glass substrate and glass cap. This approach eliminates the need to make one of the glass cover or glass cap be produced from the energy absorbing material, but retains the short-coming that the radiation used to heat the frit bonding material still must pass through one of the glass substrate or glass cap. This method also introduces a new problem in that the frit is produced from glass and a binder. The binder must be baked out prior to assembling the device, introducing a new step. In addition, organic thin-film light-emitting devices are very sensitive to contamination, and even after bake-out, the frit will contain small amounts of binder that will be liberated from the frit and trapped in the sealed envelope, risking damage to the encapsulated device.
All of the processes described above are a form of welding, in which the substrate and cover are fused, either directly to one another, or each is fused to a third component, which is typically referred to as the "filler" in welding. Welding contrasts with soldering, in which a material (the solder) wets the surfaces of the cover and substrate and forms a mechanical junction through this wetting, without melting the cover or substrate. Soldering can be utilized in a style similar to that of the frit, in which the solder is placed in a bonding region between the substrate and cover and is heated by any of a variety of means including radiation and induction. Unlike the welding processes described, soldering can be applied from the edges of the glasses to be sealed and heated directly. The solder is then drawn into the gap by capillary action. The main drawback of soldering methods is the cost of solders compatible with glasses, which tends to be high, and the difficulty of controlling the wicking of the solder between the cover and substrate.
There is a need therefore for an improved sealing method which provides a high quality seal without unduly limiting the choice of materials for the cover and substrate.

Sealing of organic thin-film light-emitting devices


A stator coil assembly comprising a stator coil and a mounting platform for the stator coil. The coil has an earth wrap and is bonded to the mounting platform by a resiliently deformable bonding layer. The bonding layer is an electrical insulator formed from silicone rubber and has a thermal conductivity of at least 0.1 W/mK and an electrical resistivity which is at least equal to that of the earth wrap.

The stator coil of a conventional electrical motor typically comprises long straight sections joined by curved end windings. The coil is usually mounted to the motor by mechanically pressing the straight sections into slots. The coil is then held in place by an interference fit or by slot closure devices. The coil may be vacuum pressure impregnated.
In use, differential thermal expansion occurs between the coil and the coil mount, but the end windings of the coil confer some flexibility that allows a degree of movement between straight sections of the coil and the slots. This movement is usually sufficient to accommodate the differential thermal expansion.
Conventional coils also have semi-conductive wraps to achieve the necessary earthing. The slots are typically the means by which electrically conductive earthing paths for the wrap are provided.
However, in several applications there is a demand for accurately manufactured stator coils which have high mechanical and electrical integrity. This demand exists, for example, in transverse flux motors (TFMs), which are permanent magnet machines under development for ship propulsion.
In contrast to the geometrically complex electrical stator coil of conventional motors, a TFM has a simple solenoidal (i.e. substantially circular) coil. Although this shape is geometrically simple, its manufacture and operation at high voltages require advanced manufacturing and installation techniques.
For example, the operation of TFM stator coils at high voltages and high switching rates, such as those encountered when using inverter based drives, places significant demands on the motor. In particular, it has been found difficult to adapt the conventional method of mounting the coil to the motor such that the differential thermal expansions experienced in use are accommodated while simultaneously the requirements for controlled electrical grounding of the coil's semi-conductor wrap and conductive heat removal are met.
The problem is exacerbated by the limited space available for the coil and coil mounting in the overall TFM.


An apparatus convertible to a chair or table comprises a support structure; first and second pairs of wheels rotatably supporting the support structure; and a platform supported by the support structure. The platform includes a seat support and a back support. The platform is positionable between a chair configuration and a table configuration. The first pair of wheels have inboard and outboard positions. The first pair of wheels are in the inboard position when the platform is in the table configuration. The first pair of wheels are in the outboard position when the platform is in the chair configuration.

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus convertible to a chair or treatment table.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus convertible to a chair or treatment table that expands its footprint when in the chair configuration to account for shift in the center of gravity of the patient when seated up.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus convertible to a chair or treatment table that moves the patient to a rearward position when seated up to shift the center of gravity of the patient toward the center of the apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a split cushion that can be easily removed from underneath a patient lying on a treatment table to expose the underlying firm surface of the table for a medical procedure, such as a CPR.
In summary, the present invention provides an apparatus convertible to a chair or treatment table comprising a support structure; first and second pairs of wheels rotatably supporting the support structure; and a platform supported by the support structure. The platform includes a seat support and a back support. The platform is positionable between a chair configuration and a table configuration. The first pair of wheels have inboard and outboard positions. The first pair of wheels are in the inboard position when the platform is in the table configuration and are in the outboard position when the platform is in the chair configuration.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

Apparatus convertible to a chair or treatment table


The present invention relates to therapeutic devices to work in conjunction with a diseased or failing heart to satisfy the hemodynamic needs of a patient. More particularly, the invention relates to a fully implantable device for assisting a heart to pump blood by intermittently applying pressure to at least a portion of the ventricular surface of the heart (if not the entire surface), preferably both the atrial and ventricular surfaces, at predetermined or possibly pre-programmed intervals to assist the heart to provide adequate hemodynamic output by sensing demand of the human body. In short, the present invention assists the maintenance of, or reestablishes, the normal contraction sequence of a healthy heart.

The human heart is a very complex organ that relies on both mechanical and electrical operation in order to perform properly. As with any complex mechanism, problems can and often do arise, with the heart. For example, over time the electrical pathways in the heart (which sequentially cause the atria and ventricles to contract) may fail, thereby causing the heart to lose its rhythm, which is known as arrhythmia. In that event, the ventricles will contract at improper times, and as a result the output of blood decreases. In addition, in some failing hearts the muscle of the heart no longer contracts the ventricles to a sufficient extent. Insufficient ventricular contraction can produce a dangerous reduction in the amount of blood flow.
Numerous attempts have been made to assist these diseased or failing hearts by applying external pressure directly to the heart. One such example is direct manual compression of the heart by a person's hand during open chest cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Often, however, the patient requires cardiac or circulatory support or assist for extended periods of time, such as hours, days, weeks, or for the rest of the patient's life. Thus, manual manipulation of the heart is not a solution to the problem in most cases.
Mechanical devices have been developed to apply external pressure directly to the heart. Some of these devices utilize an inflatable liner that surrounds the heart. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,804 Anstadt discloses a cup that is provided with an elastomeric liner. The heart is held in place within the liner, which is cyclically inflated and deflated to apply external pressure to the heart. While this device provides an improvement in hemodynamics for a diseased or failing heart, the device is not fully implantable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,905 Grooters and U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,334 Easterbrook, III et al. are further examples of external (as opposed to implantable) cardiac assist devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,655 Shahinpoor, at FIG. 6d and FIG. 7, illustrates an embodiment of the "Electrically-Controllable Multi-Fingered Resilient Heart Compression Device" disclosed therein. In the embodiment shown artificial muscles, specifically electro-active polymers, are used to create "soft fingers" that can be directly electrically powered and computer controlled by wires. See eg., U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,655 at column 8, lines 19–38, : The teachings of Shahinpoor are specifically incorporated by reference herein.
Another shortcoming inherent in the prior art devices results from the fact that relatively high pressures are applied almost exclusively to the central portion of the ventricles' outer surfaces. This causes the heart to deform into an unnatural, generally hourglass, shape and may even eventually cause trauma (e.g., bruises) to the heart, especially if one of the prior art devices is operated for an extended period of time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device which does not interfere with the normal contraction pattern or rhythm of the heart as long as the "normal" pattern provides sufficient cardiac output of blood (e.g., from about 1.5 to about 3 liters per minute) to sustain and support the activities in which the patient wishes to engage. However when normal cardiac output is insufficient to sustain day-to-day activities the present device provides cardiac assist by increasing blood flow by compressing the heart mechanically or hydraulically from the apex or tip of the heart to its base (or top) without abnormal compression of generally the middle portion of the heart.
It also is one aspect of the present invention to provide a generally cone-shaped, fully-implantable cardiac cuff, or cup, or incompressible or supporting envelope for efficiently assisting the mechanical compression of the heart. It is another aspect to operate such a cardiac cup without unduly deforming the natural shape of the heart during the mechanical or hydraulic compression of the heart.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fully implantable cardiac cup for assisting heart function, which applies substantially uniform fluid pressure against the exterior surface of at least a portion of the ventricular portion of the heart during the systolic phase.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a cardiac cup for assisting a heart function that can be installed in its operative position with minimal movement of the heart. Generally speaking the device will be sutured or otherwise attached to the heart so as to prevent device migration during use.
It is another object of this invention to provide a fully-implantable pressure vessel and pacing device.


Provided herein is a liquid crystal device having a plurality of pixel areas defined by cross arrangement of a plurality of gate lines and data lines, the liquid crystal device comprising a reference data line that is one of the plurality of data lines; a first pixel electrode formed at one side of the reference data line, and is driven by the reference data line; a second pixel electrode formed at the other side of the reference data line, and is driven by a data line next to the reference data line; and a black matrix configured to shield the reference data line and its adjacent areas, wherein the distance between the center of the reference data line and the first pixel electrode is shorter than the distance between the center of the reference data line and the second pixel electrode.

1. Field
The following description relates to a liquid crystal display device, for example, a liquid crystal display device comprising two pixel electrodes at both sides of one data line, each pixel electrode spaced from the data line by a different distance, more specifically, the distance from one data line to the pixel electrode that is driven by the data line being shorter than the distance from the data line to the other pixel electrode, thereby reducing the size of a black matrix and improving the aperture ratio.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display device comprises an upper substrate and a lower substrate disposed between a liquid crystal layer, wherein backlight may be illuminated from below or side of the lower substrate, so that a user may see images displayed in the device.
On the lower substrate, a plurality of gate lines and data lines are formed such that they cross one another, thus defining pixel areas. At one side of each pixel area, there is formed a thin film transistor for driving an electrode formed at each corresponding pixel area.
On the upper substrate, there is formed a color filter at a corresponding position of each pixel area, while at an area between each color filter and other area that needs light-shielding, there is formed a black matrix.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional liquid crystal display device. With reference to FIG. 1, on a lower substrate 110, a first pixel electrode 112 and a second pixel electrode 113 are formed at the right and left side of one data line 111 that defines a pixel area together with a gate line.
Herein, a first pixel electrode 112 is electrically connected to a reference data line 111 that is disposed between the first pixel electrode 112 and a second pixel electrode 113 and becomes a reference, while the second pixel electrode 113 is electrically connected to another data line that is next to the reference data line 111.
Herein, it is desirable that each pixel electrode is disposed as close to a reference data line 111 as possible to improve the aperture ratio, but this may generate a pixel-data-capacitor between the pixel electrode and the reference data line 111, thereby causing a problem such as flickers etc. Thus, each pixel electrode is disposed with a certain distal (a=b) from the reference data line 111.
On the upper substrate 120, there is formed a black matrix 121 for sufficiently preventing light from coming out from a reference data line 111 and its adjacent area, that is, the area between the reference data line 111 and a first pixel electrode 112 and between the reference data line 111 and a second pixel electrode 113.
Herein, the black matrix 121 is formed such that the center of a reference data line 111 accords with the center of the black matrix 121, and that the part the extends towards the first pixel electrode 112 side is the same length as the part that extends towards the second pixel electrode 113 side.
However, such a black matrix 121 is formed such that it may sufficiently prevent light from coming out from the area between a reference data line 111 and a first pixel electrode 112 and between the reference data line 111 and a second pixel electrode 113, thereby deteriorating the aperture ratio, which is a problem.

Liquid crystal display device having reduced-sized light leakage area


A toy racetrack has a variety of features allowing a user to control and effect the travel path of toy vehicles as they travel through the toy racetrack. One or more car feeders are provided as starting points for a toy vehicle that is to be introduced onto a continuous closed loop track. A manually adjustable handle is operatively connected to a toy vehicle release that extends into the path of the car feeder, which blocks a toy vehicle's path until a user deliberately lowers the release through movement of the handle. Movement of the handle in a first direction lowers the release while raising a trigger into the path of the car feeder, preventing additional cars from entering the closed loop track. Movement of the handle in a second direction lowers the release while keeping the trigger retracted, allowing all cars to enter the closed loop track.

Toy vehicle playsets and racetracks are popular among children of varied ages, and a variety of track configurations have previously been provided that include various features to add to the excitement a child experiences while playing with the toy. For instance, toy vehicle playsets and racetracks have been provided having portions of the track that are moveable and that may change position with respect to other portions of the track during play, and that may change the position of a toy vehicle at differing locations along the track. Other toy vehicle playsets and racetracks have been provided having portions where track paths overlap, creating a so-called "crash zone" in which cars travelling along the path may crash into one another.
While certain prior configurations have provided changeable configurations of various toy racetrack elements during play, there remains an ongoing need to provide toy racetrack features capable of maintaining the interest of a child and increasing the excitement and amusement they experience when playing with a toy racetrack. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a toy racetrack with unique toy vehicle paths and positioning mechanisms to further enhance the excitement and amusement offered to a child as they engage in such play.

Toy vehicle playset with manually operable car feeder


Adjustable drill guides and related methods are disclosed herein. An exemplary drill guide can include an adjustment mechanism that allows for precise incremental adjustment of the drill guide's depth setting while securely maintaining the device at a fixed setting between adjustments. The adjustment mechanism can improve the safety and security of the drill guide, for example by limiting adjustment only to those situations where it is specifically intended by the user, thereby reducing or eliminating the risk of inadvertent depth adjustment. In some embodiments, a drill guide can include high visibility, easy-to-read depth indications while maintaining a slender profile and without shifting the user's eye gaze, for example by employing a multi-surface moving scale having a text height that is at least twice the adjustment increment. Handles, protection sleeves, navigation adapters, and various other accessories that can be used with or without a drill guide are also disclosed herein.

There are a number of surgical procedures in which it is necessary or desirable to drill a hole. For example, holes are often drilled in bone using a rotary drill bit to prepare the bone to receive a screw or other bone anchor. A number of drill guides have been developed to guide the drill bit along the proper axis, and/or to set the depth to which the drill bit penetrates the bone. Conventional drill guides generally include a handle having an adjustable length sleeve attached thereto. When used in conjunction with a drill bit having a fixed stop, the length of the sleeve can control the depth to which the drill penetrates the bone (and the depth of the consequent hole).
Drill guides are often used in spinal surgery, such as when applying posterior cervical fixation. Drilling in and around the spine can be very risky due to the presence of nerves, vasculature, and other sensitive anatomical structures in close proximity to the drill bit. One must be extremely precise with the drill location, orientation, and depth so as not to harm the patient. In an exemplary procedure, a drill guide or sleeve is placed on a pedicle entry point and a drill is inserted through the proximal opening of the guide. The drill includes a stop that contacts the proximal end of the guide to limit penetration depth into the underlying bone.
Conventional drill guides often use a ratchet mechanism for setting the depth. While such mechanisms can provide fast depth adjustment and easy assembly, there may be a risk that the ratchet mechanism disengages during the procedure, resulting in inadvertent depth adjustment and possibly catastrophic over-insertion of the drill.
Conventional drill guides also have depth scale labels that can be too small and difficult for the user to read. Generally, the text height of the labels is limited to the associated depth increment or implant increment. The typical implant increment for drilled screw holes in spinal surgery is only 2 mm (0.079 inches). The American National Standard on Human factors engineering, ANSI/AAMI HE75:2009, however, recommends text of 0.125 inches or larger for effective transmission of information. The use of 2 mm text on conventional drill guides is a frequent surgeon complaint and may lead to incorrect depth settings if the label is read incorrectly. Attempts to increase the size of the label text have resulted in a corresponding increase in the size or diameter of the drill guide. Increased drill guide size or diameter can be a drawback in many situations. For example, when used in minimally invasive surgical wounds which have a limited opening size, increasing the instrument diameter can occlude the user's view of surrounding tissues or otherwise impede the procedure. Other attempts to increase the size of the label text incorporate techniques to move the user's eye gaze to another location that can accommodate oversized text. This technique also increases the size of the drill guide, and shifting the user's eye gaze can decrease the usability of the instrument.
In view of these and other challenges, there is a continual need for improved drill guides and related methods.


In some embodiments, equalizer circuits with controllably variable offsets at their outputs are provided.

With point to point links (e.g., in chip to chip communications), as data rates increase, inter symbol interference (ISI) can become more problematic due, for example, to channel bandwidth limitations. With ISI, timing uncertainties can increase resulting in higher bit error rates for recovered data. To reduce ISI, a high-pass filter (either in the transmitter or receiver) may be used to equalize the low-pass behavior of a channel for a given data rate. In some applications, high-pass filters may be used to insert a zero, for example, in a receiver side amplifier.
With active equalizers, the zero frequency can be adjusted in order, e.g., to adjust for different data rates. However, it may be desirable to be able to have more adjustment capability, e.g., to equalize for channel variations. Other issues with receiver side equalizers may also be considered. For example, with a differential equalizer, it may be desirable to be able to adjust the offset between the differential signals.


Provided is a program execution apparatus that appropriately determines an execution sequence of tasks each given a target completion time before which execution of the task is to be completed, and executes the tasks according to the determined execution sequence. For each task a plurality of types of priorities having a hierarchical relationship among them are set. The apparatus includes: a storing unit that stores an identifier of each task that is already in existence, at a memory position therein determined based upon a plurality of types of priorities set for each task; a receiving unit that receives an identifier of a new task, and a plurality of types of priorities set for the new task; and a writing unit that writes the received identifier at a memory position in the storing unit determined based upon the received plurality of types of priorities.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a task management function of an operating system, and in particular to a technique for determining an execution sequence of tasks.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Major functions of an operating system (OS) include hardware management, task management, data management, and input/output management. Among these, task management is a particularly important function of managing an execution sequence of tasks, for enabling efficient operations of a CPU, memory, input/output apparatus etc. A "task" is a unit of control for managing a processing flow of a program from its activation, execution, through termination etc. Programs that operate under management of the OS are treated as tasks, and execution, priority processing, parallel processing etc. of programs are all realized in units of tasks.
One of algorithms for determining an execution sequence of tasks is a "priority method". To put it simply, the priority method is a method of determining an execution sequence of tasks based upon priorities set for the tasks.
According to a conventional priority method, however, an execution sequence of a plurality of tasks for which the same priority is set is determined in the order of arrival of the tasks. The conventional priority method therefore fails to appropriately control an execution sequence of such tasks that are given the same priority.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


In the disclosed speech decoding device, activation of a postfilter process is halted during unvoiced sections. However, the updating process of the internal states of the postfilter continues even though the postfilter process is not activated during unvoiced sections. At changes between voiced and unvoiced sections, output signals outputted during voiced sections that have been subjected to a postfilter process and output signals outputted during unvoiced sections that have not been subjected to a postfilter process are interpolated and outputted. In one embodiment, a prefilter controller activates a prefilter state updater for unvoiced sections to update the internal state of the filter of a prefilter section based on excited signals to decrease any perception of noncontinuity in an output signal switching between activation and deactivation of the prefilter when changing between voiced and unvoiced sections.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech decoding device, and particularly to a speech decoding device that can reduce power consumption when generating background noise of unvoiced sections in which speech code is not present.
2. Description of the Related Art
In speech coding devices, the transmission of speech coded information is halted when speech signals to be encoded are not present as a means of reducing power consumption. In such cases, there occurs a conspicuous degree of noncontinuity between voiced and unvoiced portions in the decoded speech signals decoded in speech decoding devices on the receiving side, and in order to solve this problem, background noise signals are artificially generated and outputted.
The configuration and operation of a background noise generation method of a speech decoding device of the prior art is described in detail in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 122165/93.
In addition, details regarding encoding processes and decoding processes of speech signals in speech coding devices and speech decoding devices of the prior art are provided in, for example, Chapter 5.2.1 (Speech Coding Processing) and Chapter 5.2.4 (Speech Decoding Processing) of the Digital Automobile Telephone System Standards RCR STD-27C, Volume I (Research & Development Center for Radio Systems, Nov. 10, 1994).
Here, a brief explanation will be presented of the configuration of the background noise generation system of a prior-art speech decoding device with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a background noise generation system of the prior art. Referring to the figure, the prior-art background noise generation system is composed of input terminal 51 for inputting received information, received information memory 52 for storing received information, code generator 53 for generating code used in the decoding process, decode processor 54 for decoding code, and output terminal 55 for outputting output signals.
Sections, in which speech signals to be coded on the transmission side are present, are hereinbelow referred to as "voiced," and sections, in which speech signals to be coded are not present, are referred to as "unvoiced." In addition, code in which speech signals have been encoded on the encoding side is referred to simply as "code."
Received information memory 52 is provided with received code storage section 521 and voiced/unvoiced information storage section 522. Received code storage section 521 inputs received code from input terminal 51 and stores the code. Voiced/unvoiced information storage section 522 inputs information indicating whether the current section is voiced or unvoiced (hereinbelow referred to as "voiced/unvoiced information") and stores the information.
Code generator 53 is provided with background noise code generator 531, code controller c531, and code switch s531. Based on voiced/unvoiced information inputted from voiced/unvoiced information storage section 522, code controller c531 controls the operation of background noise code generator 531 and code switch s531 as follows:
During a voiced section, received code stored in received code storage section 521 is outputted, without change, to decoding processor 54. During an unvoiced section, background noise code generator 531 is activated, whereby code for background noise generation is generated from the code inputted from received code storage section 521, and is outputted to decoding processor 54.
Decoding processor 54 is provided with excited signal generator 541, synthesized signal generator 542, and postfilter section 543.
Code inputted from code generator 53 is transferred to excited signal generator 541, synthesized signal generator 542, and postfilter section 543.
Excited signal generator 541 generates and outputs excited signals from code inputted from code generator 53.
Synthesized signal generator 542 passes the inputted excited signals through a synthesizing filter to generate and output synthesized signals.
Postfilter section 543 passes synthesized signals generated at synthesized signal generator 542 through a postfilter to generate postfilter output signals, and outputs the signals from output terminal 55.
The postfilter section suppresses noise contained in the synthesized speech signals, and has the effect of improving the subjective quality of speech signals in voiced sections.
Next, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an explanation will be given regarding the operation of the background noise generation system of a prior-art speech decoding device.
Received code inputted from input terminal 51 is stored in received code storage section 521. In concrete terms, code is stored that indicates, for example, speech spectral envelope information, speech signal level, pitch information, and noise information. Voiced/unvoiced information inputted from input terminal 51 is stored in voiced/unvoiced information storage section 522.
Based on voiced/unvoiced information inputted from voiced/unvoiced information storage section 522, code controller c531 controls the operation of background noise code generator 531 and code switch s531 as follows (Step B1):
During a voiced section, received code stored in received code storage section 521 is outputted without alteration to decoding processor 54, and in addition, the received code is also outputted to background noise code generator 531. This process is executed because background noise code generator 531 generates code for background noise generation based on received code during voiced sections. The received code is actually code indicating, for example, speech spectral envelope information, speech signal level, pitch information, and noise information.
During an unvoiced section, code controller c531 activates background noise code generator 531. Background noise code generator 531 generates code for background noise generation from the most recently received code of the received code inputted from received code storage section 521, and outputs to decoding processor 54 (Step B2). The actual methods employed to generate code for background noise generation include, for example, level attenuation of speech signals and randomization of noise information.
Of the code inputted from code generator 53, excited signal generator 541 generates excited signals from code indicating, for example, pitch information and noise information, and outputs the result (Step B3).
One example of a method actually employed for the generation of excited signals can be described as follows: Excited signal generator 541 holds, in advance, pitch component signals and noise component signals as data bases for each of the codes indicating pitch information and noise information, and upon inputting code indicating pitch information and noise information from code generator 53, selects from each data base the pitch component signals and noise component signals that correspond to each code. The selected pitch component signals and noise component signals are added and excited signals are generated. For example, if the code indicating pitch information is L, the selected pitch component signal corresponding to code L is b.sub.L (n), the code representing noise information is I, and the selected noise component signal corresponding to code I is u.sub.I (n), the excited signal ex(n) can be calculated according to the following equation: EQU ex(n)=b.sub.L (n)+u.sub.I (n) (1)
Of the code inputted from code generator 53, synthesized signal generator 542 forms a synthesizing filter from code indicating spectral envelope information. Synthesized signals are generated and outputted by passing excited signals inputted from excited signal generator 541 through the synthesizing filter (Step B4). An actual example of a synthesizing filter generation method employed can be explained as follows. If linear predictive code indicating spectral envelope is represented by .alpha..sub.i, the transfer function A(z) of the synthesizing filter in synthesized signal generator 542 can be represented by the following equation: ##EQU1##
However, N.sub.P is a degree (for example, the tenth degree) of linear predictive code .alpha..sub.i.
Of the code inputted from code generator 53, postfilter section 543 forms a postfilter from code indicating spectral envelope information of speech signals and pitch information, and generates postfilter output signals by passing synthesized signals outputted from synthesized signals generator 542 through the postfilter, and outputs the signals from output terminal 55 (Step B5).
An actual example of a postfilter generation method can be described as follows. One proposed form of the construction of a postfilter for improving subjective quality of synthesized speech signals in a voiced section is a connection in series of a pitch enhancement filter that enhances the pitch component of synthesized speech signals, a high-frequency enhancement filter that enhances the high-frequency component, and a spectral shaping filter that enhances the spectral envelope.
As an example of the transfer function P(z) of a pitch enhancement filter that enhances the pitch component, the following equation can be proposed: ##EQU2##
Here, "lag" is the pitch cycle value of excited signals (for example, 20.about.146). Constant g.sub.c is a weighting coefficient (for example, 0.7).
As an example of the transfer function B(z) of a high-frequency enhancement filter that enhances the high-frequency component, the following equation can be proposed: EQU B(z)=1-g.sub.b .multidot.z.sup.-1 ( 4)
Here, constant g.sub.b is a weighting coefficient (for example 0.4).
The following equation gives one possible form for a transfer function H(z) of the spectral shaping filter that enhances the spectral envelope: ##EQU3##
Here, N.sub.P is a degree of linear predictive parameter .alpha. (for example, the tenth degree). In addition, constants g.sub.n.sup.i and g.sub.d.sup.i are weighting coefficients (for example, g.sub.n.sup.i =0.5 and g.sub.d.sup.i =0.8).
However, the above-described speech decoding device of the prior art has the following problems:
If postfilter processing is incorporated into the speech decoding process, the filtering process of the postfilter requires a massive number of sum-of-product calculations, and this results in increased power consumption.
If, on the other hand, the postfilter is not activated during unvoiced sections as a means of reducing power consumption, the internal state of the postfilter is not updated during intervals when operation of the postfilter is halted, with the consequent drawback of degradation of synthesized speech signals for a voiced section that immediately follows the change from an unvoiced to voiced section. Moreover, there is the additional problem that perception of noncontinuity occurs in reproduced signals between voiced and unvoiced sections due to switching between activation and deactivation of the postfilter upon changes between voiced and unvoiced sections.

Speech decoding device to update the synthesis postfilter and prefilter during unvoiced speech or noise


Disclosed is a stepping motor including a rotor, a plurality of coils and a switching mechanism. The stepping motor simultaneously or sequentially applies driving pulses to the coils to rotate the rotor by a predetermined step angle, and while the driving pulses are being applied to part of the coils, the switching mechanism switches the rest of the coils other than the part of the coils driven by the driving pulses into a high impedance state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stepping motor and a timepiece provided with the stepping motor.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical conventional stepping motor includes two coils and can rotate in both the normal and reverse directions under appropriate driving pulses applied to the coils.
For example, JP Hei05-006440 discloses a stepping motor including a bipolarly-magnetized round rotor magnet and a stator having two primary poles and a single secondary pole.
Unfortunately, the two coils of the conventional stepping motor are connected to a circuit all the time, resulting in a constant electrical loop between the coils.
When driving pulses are applied to one of the coils, the inductance occurs in the other coil in response to the rotation of the rotor. Such inductance obstructs the rotation of the rotor.
In other words, if driving pulses are applied to one of the coils alone, the reactance occurring in the other coil in response to the rotation of the rotor driven by the one coil obstructs the rotation of the rotor.
The reactance consumes the power supplied for rotating the rotor, so that the rotation of the rotor requires an additional amount of energy.

Stepping motor and timepiece provided with stepping motor


Embodiments of the present invention may involve identifying a user of a touchscreen device. A touchscreen device may receive a user input. One or more features of the user input on the touchscreen device may be identified. The one or more features of the user input may include, for example, geometric patterns, swiping motifs, a pressure, a spatial orientation, or any combination thereof. A user profile comprising the one or more features of the user input may be generated. The touchscreen device may receive a second input from an unknown user. A statistical evaluation may be performed comparing one or more features of the second input with one or more features of the user input in the user profile. A probability that the unknown user is the user may be determined. If a low probability is determined, the unknown user may be locked out of the touchscreen device.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to user identity verification by typing patterns and shapes on a touch-screen device.
A security system may prevent unauthorized access to sensitive and/or private information. Conventional security systems, however, may hinder usability of a device. For example, a conventional security system may require a long passcode that must be changed periodically. Inputting a long passcode before every use may be impractical and tedious for a user. Thus, there is a need to provide security to a device without hindering usability of the device.

User identification on a touchscreen device

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


In a multi user communication system, subcarriers are allocated to subchannels using a quality measurement for each subchannel. An initial sub carrier is allocated to each subchannel, and a quality metric measured. Subsequent subcarriers are allocated in dependence upon the quality measurement for each subchannel. The subchannel with the lowest quality measurement receives the first allocation, and the subchannel with the highest quality measurement receives the last allocation. The subsequent allocation is repeated, following a re-sort of the subchannel quality measurements, until all of the subcarriers are allocated.

In a frequency selective fading channel, different subcarriers will experience different channel gains. In traditional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) time division multiple access (TDMA) systems each user transmits on all sub-carriers simultaneously and users share the channel in time. If the channel is perfectly known to the transmitter, the so-called "water-filling" policy (that is, more power when the channel gain is high and less power when the channel gain is low) is known to be optimal in maximising the data rate. The increase of data rate, by using transmit power allocation in a single user OFDM system is due to spectral diversity effects.
In Orthogonal Frequencv Division Multiplex Access (OFDMA) systems, users do not share the channel in time but in frequency by transmitting on a (typically mutually exclusive) sub-set of the available sub-carriers. A set of sub-carriers may be grouped into a sub-channel with sub-channels allocated to users. Although the water filling principle still applies, the sharing of sub-carriers introduces an additional degree of freedom to the allocation of system resources for multiple access. Accordingly, it is necessary to consider different solutions for the problem of subcarrier and power allocation in an OFDMA, or multi-user OFDM system. It is likely that signals from different users will undergo independent fading because the users are likely not to be in the same location. Therefore, the probability of all the users' signals on the same subcarrier being subject to significant fading is very low. In a multi-user OFDM system, the data rate can be increased by exploiting multi-user diversity.
In OFDMA, allocating one subcarrier to one user typically prevents other users from using that subcarrier, since it is desirable to avoid the interference that arises when users share the same subcarrier. Hence, the optimal solution is not necessarily to assign the best subcarriers seen by a single chosen user (as in a single user system). This may be the case because, for example, it may happen that the best subcarrier of one user is also the best subcarrier for another user who happens to have no other good subcarriers. Hence, a different approach should be considered.
As stated above, an OFDMA system provides an extra degree of freedom since there are multiple sub-carriers available to be allocated, and it is this property that can be exploited. OFDMA matches well to the multi-user scenario; a subcarrier which is of low quality to one user can be of high quality to another user and can be allocated accordingly. By adaptively assigning sub-carriers, it is possible to take advantage of channel diversity among users in different locations. This "multi-user diversity" stems from channel diversity including independent path loss and fading of users. Previously considered solutions suggested possible subcarrier and power allocation algorithms for OFDMA systems. For example, see W. Rhee, J. M. Cioffi, "Increase in capacity of multi-user OFDM system using dynamic subchannel allocation", Vehicular Technology Conference Proceedings, 2000, IEEE 51st, Volume: 2, 15-18 May 2000, Page(s): 1085-1089; and J. Jang, K. Bok Lee, "Transmit Power Adaptation for Multi-user OFDM Systems", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, February 2003, Page(s): 171-178.
FIG. 1 illustrates channel diversity in a radio frequency telecommunications system. A base station 1 operates to transmit signals to mobile receivers 21 and 22. Obstacles, such as buildings 3, can cause the transmissions between the base station 1 and the mobile users 21 and 22 to take multiple paths 41 and 42. This phenomenon is well known and is known as multipath diversity. The signals arriving at the mobile receivers will vary in gain as a function of frequency, due to the varying lengths of the paths and reflections occurring on those paths. This means that different users receive different gain values for different subcarriers.
FIG. 2 illustrates a base station suitable for use in an OFDM or OFDMA system. The base station 10 receives data inputs U1, U2 . . . UK from a plurality of users at an encoder 102. The encoder 102 encodes these user data signals U1 to UK onto subcarriers C1, C2 . . . CN. A controller 108 allocates the subcarriers C1 to CN to the users U1 to UK. A transmitter transformation unit 104 takes the subcarrier signals and applies an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) and a parallel-to-serial conversion to produce a serial output data stream. This data stream is supplied to an output unit 106, which adds a cyclic prefix and converts the digital signal to analogue for transmission from an antenna 20, in known manner.
The controller 108 receives feedback signals F1 to FK indicative of the channel subcarrier performance for each user. The controller 108 supplies control signals 110 on a control channel to the mobile receivers.
FIG. 3 illustrates a receiver for use in an OFDM system. Each user has a receiving antenna 30 connected to a user receiver 40. The user receiver 40 includes an input unit 402 which performs analogue-to-digital conversion of the incoming signal and removes the cyclic prefix which was added by the base station transmitter. The digital signal is then processed by a receiver transformation unit which applies a fast Fourier transform (FFT) and serial-to-parallel conversion to produce subcarrier signals C1 to CN. The subcarrier signals are received by a subcarrier selector 406 which, in dependence on received controlled signals 410, selects the subcarriers for the user K. These subcarriers are supplied to a decoder 408 which decodes the data signal relating to user K, to produce an output signal DK.
Operation of the base station of FIG. 2 and the receiver of FIG. 3 will now be explained.
The controller 108 at the base station 10, having determined channel information from all users, allocates subcarriers to each user according to a subcarrier allocation algorithm. When the CSI (Channel State Information) is available at the transmitter, the transmitter can assign subcarriers to users and also adapt the transmit power in a symbol by symbol (or packet by packet) manner to increase data rate, assuming that the fading characteristics of the channel are constant for the symbol (or packet) duration.
In one previous solution mentioned, Rhee and Cioffi showed that since each subcarrier is assigned to a user whose channel gain is good for that subcarrier, there is no need for different power allocation among the subcarriers. Hence, the algorithm only needs to find the most appropriate subcarriers for all users and allocate equal power; this results in lower implementation complexity.
In the other previous solution mentioned, Jang and Bok Lee propose a transmit power allocation scheme and subcarrier allocation algorithm in the general case where users are allowed to share a subcarrier. In that case, if the transmit power for a specific users' signal is increased, the interference to other users' signals on the same subcarrier is also increased. However, after a mathematical analysis, it was found that the capacity is maximised if a subcarrier is assigned to only one user and hence no interference occurs (something that has become a fundamental assumption for all previous and future work). As with Rhee and Cioffi, it was found that equal power allocation is the best approach since water-filling over the allocated subcarriers will not give any significant gain and will increase computational complexity. In the final proposed scheme, only one user who has the best channel gain for that subcarrier transmits data at that subcarrier (for each subcarrier check which user has the best gain). It was also found that data rate is increased for increased number of users since it provides more multi-user diversity.
Although in the scheme proposed by Jang and Bok Lee the received average SNR for each subcarrier is increased and the average data rate is increased, this algorithm is not fair for the users. The number of subcarriers assigned to each user is not fixed, hence each user can have different data rates. Additionally, if it happens that one user does not have the best channel gain of the multiple users being considered for any of the subcarriers (for example, due to its location) then no subcarriers at all will be allocated to that user.


To adjust the amplitude of the swing of a drum beater, the beater is supported on a clamp which is clampable at a selected rotary position around a clampable part on a rotary shaft. That clampable part is connected with a sprocket wheel. A pedal is connected by a chain with the sprocket wheel to rotate the wheel to rotate the shaft to beat the drum head. Adjustment of the clamp and the beater around the clampable part sets the beater amplitude.

The present invention relates to a beater amplitude adjustment mechanism for a drum beater pedal. A pedal operated drum beater includes a beater with a beater head that is swung from a rest position to bang a drum head. The amplitude of that swing is determined by the distance of the beater head from the drum head before the beater head swings. The invention concerns setting the starting point of the swing of the beater head.
FIGS. 5 through 7 show a conventional beater mechanism for beating the head of bass drum. A drum pedal device 90 has a base 91. Supports 92 are erected on both sides of the base 91. A horizontal beater rotary shaft 94 is freely rotatable in ball bearings 93 provided toward the tops of the supports 92.
Approximately at the center of the rotary shaft 94, there are a beater installation member 110 and next to it a wheel 120 which both rotate integrally with each other. The beater 115 is comprised of a shaft with a beater head at its end, and that shaft is fixed to the beater installation member 110 by an attachment screw.
The wheel 120 comprises a sprocket or at least a partial sprocket on its outer periphery. One end of the chain is fixed to the wheel 120 and trained on the sprocket teeth. The other end of the chain 121 is connected to the tip of a foot pedal 95. As the foot pedal 92 is stepped on by a performer, as indicated by arrow A in FIG. 5, the chain 121 is pulled down. This rotates the wheel 120 in turn rotates the beater installation member 110 which causes the head of the beater 115 to strike the drum surface D.
A cam 100 is fixed at the end of the rotary shaft 94 by a screw 101. As shown in FIG. 5, the cam 100 has approximately the shape of a fan. In FIG. 7, a bearing hole 102 formed at the pivot of the fan shaped cam receives the rotary shaft 94. A plurality of roller installation holes 103 are provided at spaced intervals around the periphery of the cam. A roller installation bolt 104 is screwed into one of the roller installation holes 103. The hole 103 selected to receive the bolt 104 determines the initial rotary orientation of the cam and the start of the swing of the beater 115, as described below. A roller 105 is inserted into the roller installation bolt 104. The roller 105 supports a hanging ring 106.
The top of a tension spring 107 is supported on the tip of the hanging ring 106. The lower end of the spring 107 is supported to a lower bracket 109 which is outside the support 92. The force of the spring 107 pulls down on the ring 106 and the bolt 104 and automatically returns the beater 115 to its original position away from the drum head. The hole 103 selected determines the rotative orientation of the cam 100, the shaft 94 and the beater 115 at the start position. An adjusting bolt 108 adjusts the tension of the spring 107. A known clamp 130 holds the base on the drum hoop.
The amplitude of the swing of the beater 115 is established by tilting the incline of the beater installation member 110, thereby changing the distance between the head of the beater 115 and the drum surface D. This is done by selecting one of the positions defined by the plurality of installation holes 103 in the cam 100 for changing the incline of the cam.
The conventional mechanism determines the amplitude of swing of the beater stepwise by the position based on the separated roller installation holes 103. This makes difficult a delicate amplitude adjustment according to the desire or performance style of the performer. In addition, adjustment of the beater amplitude position has been troublesome, since it has been necessary to remove the roller installation bolt 104 each time the spring 107 is replaced.
In view of the above-described situation, the present inventor proposed, in Japanese Utility Model Application Hei 3-38099, a beater amplitude adjusting mechanism for a drum pedal, wherein a cam is fixed at the end of a beater rotary shaft which is freely rotatably supported on a support. The spring is adjusted through the roller on the cam through an arc-shaped roller installation groove in the cam having the beater rotary shaft as the center, which adjustably fixes the roller.
The above design enables creation of delicate sound expressions, because the amplitude of the beater swing can be adjusted over a continuous range and without the presence of a step by changing the rotary position of the beater rotary shaft as compared with the spring by employing a cam.
With either of the aforementioned beater amplitude adjust mechanism because both of the beater installation member and the wheel are fixed to the beater rotary shaft, the wheel on which the chain is trained rotates as the rotary position of the beater rotary shaft is changed for adjusting beater amplitude. The rotation of the wheel causes the height position of the pedal plate to also change, thereby creating inconvenience to the performer.

Beater amplitude adjustment mechanism for a drum pedal


A light source includes a light source unit which supplies first wavelength light, a wavelength converting unit which converts the first wavelength light into second wavelength light different from the first wavelength light, and a leakage preventing unit which prevents leakage of the first wavelength light out of the light source. The area where the light source unit and the wavelength converting unit are disposed is optically separated from the area where the leakage preventing unit is disposed.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light source, a lighting device, a monitoring device, and a projector.
2. Related Art
Currently, a light source which uses laser beam source and supplies fundamental laser beam after converting its wavelength is known. This light source uses second-harmonic generation (SHG) element as a wavelength conversion element for converting wavelength of fundamental laser beam, for example. By the function of the SHG element, laser beam having desired wavelength can be supplied from a general-purpose laser beam source. Moreover, a structure which supplies a sufficient amount of laser beam can be provided by using the SHG element. As an example of the light source including the SHG element, JP-A-5-235441 discloses a light source which contains the SHG element within a resonator structure for resonating laser beam. In the resonator structure, fundamental laser beam is resonated to convert its wavelength into a desired wavelength, and the laser beam having the desired wavelength is extracted and supplied with high wavelength conversion efficiency.
According to the light source having the structure disclosed in JP-A-5-235441, a mirror having wavelength selectivity is provided within the resonator structure to reflect fundamental laser beam. However, even when the mirror having wavelength selectivity is provided, it is difficult to reflect all of the fundamental laser beam. Thus, there is a possibility that a part of the fundamental laser beam passes through the mirror and leaks out of the light source. For example, when an image display apparatus includes this light source and uses infrared light as the fundamental laser beam, the infrared light having great light energy has adverse effect on peripheral equipment such as a screen on which images are displayed. In case of a system which returns the infrared light toward the light source contained in an LD light source package, the infrared light has adverse effect on a temperature controller of the SHG element. In this case, appropriate temperature control is difficult. When a light output monitor is equipped, monitoring cannot be achieved in a normal condition due to the effect of the returned infrared light.

Light source having wavelength converter and wavelength separating member for reflecting converted light


A method for thermally cracking a hydrocarbonaceous feed wherein the feed is first processed in an atmospheric thermal distillation step to form a light gasoline and atmospheric residuum mixture. The light gasoline/residuum combination is gasified at least in part in a vaporization step, and the gasified product of the vaporization step is thermally cracked.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the thermal cracking of hydrocarbons using an atmospheric thermal distillation tower in combination with a vaporization unit that feeds at least one thermal cracking furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermal cracking (pyrolysis) of hydrocarbons is a petrochemical process that is widely used to produce olefins such as ethylene, propylene, butenes, butadiene, and aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes.
Basically, a hydrocarbon containing feedstock is mixed with steam which serves as a diluent to keep the hydrocarbon molecules separated. The steam/hydrocarbon mixture is preheated in the convection zone of the furnace to from about 900 to about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (F), and then enters the reaction (radiant) zone where it is very quickly heated to a severe hydrocarbon thermal cracking temperature in the range of from about 1,400 to about 1,550 F. Thermal cracking is accomplished without the aid of any catalyst.
This process is carried out in a pyrolysis furnace (steam cracker) at pressures in the reaction zone ranging from about 10 to about 30 psig. Pyrolysis furnaces have internally thereof a convection section (zone) and a separate radiant section (zone). Preheating functions are primarily accomplished in the convection section, while severe cracking mostly occurs in the radiant section.
After thermal cracking, depending on the nature of the primary feed to the pyrolysis furnace, the effluent from that furnace can contain gaseous hydrocarbons of great variety, e.g., from one to thirty-five carbon atoms per molecule. These gaseous hydrocarbons can be saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, and can be aliphatic, alicyclics, and/or aromatic. The cracked gas can also contain significant amounts of molecular hydrogen (hydrogen).
The cracked product is then further processed in the olefin production plant to produce, as products of the plant, various separate individual streams of high purity such as hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, mixed hydrocarbons having four carbon atoms per molecule, fuel oil, and pyrolysis gasoline. Each separate individual stream aforesaid is a valuable commercial product in its own right. Thus, an olefin production plant currently takes a part (fraction) of a whole crude stream or condensate, and generates there from a plurality of separate, valuable products.
Thermal cracking came into use in 1913, and was first applied to gaseous ethane as the primary feed to the cracking furnace for the purpose of making ethylene. Since that time the industry has evolved to using heavier and more complex hydrocarbonaceous gaseous and/or liquid feeds as the primary feed for the cracking furnace. Such feeds can now employ a fraction of whole crude or condensate which is essentially totally vaporized while thermally cracking same. The cracked product can contain, for example, about 1 weight percent (wt. %) hydrogen, about 10 wt. % methane, about 25 wt. % ethylene, and about 17 wt. % propylene, all wt. % being based on the total weight of that product, with the remainder consisting mostly of other hydrocarbon molecules having from 4 to 35 carbon atoms per molecule.
Natural gas and whole crude oil(s) were formed naturally in a number of subterranean geologic formations (formations) of widely varying porosities. Many of these formations were capped by impervious layers of rock. Natural gas and whole crude oil (crude oil) also accumulated in various stratigraphic traps below the earth's surface. Vast amounts of both natural gas and/or crude oil were thus collected to form hydrocarbon bearing formations at varying depths below the earth's surface. Much of this natural gas was in close physical contact with crude oil, and, therefore, absorbed a number of lighter molecules from the crude oil.
When a well bore is drilled into the earth and pierces one or more of such hydrocarbon bearing formations, natural gas and/or crude oil can be recovered through that well bore to the earth's surface.
The terms "whole crude oil" and "crude oil" as used herein means liquid (at normally prevailing conditions of temperature and pressure at the earth's surface) crude oil as it issues from a wellhead separate from any natural gas that may be present, and excepting any treatment such crude oil may receive to render it acceptable for transport to a crude oil refinery and/or conventional distillation in such a refinery. This treatment would include such steps as desalting. Thus, it is crude oil that is suitable for distillation or other fractionation in a refinery, but which has not undergone any such distillation or fractionation. It could include, but does not necessarily always include, non-boiling entities such as asphaltenes or tar. As such, it is difficult if not impossible to provide a boiling range for whole crude oil. Accordingly, whole crude oil could be one or more crude oils straight from an oil field pipeline and/or conventional crude oil storage facility, as availability dictates, without any prior fractionation thereof.
Natural gas, like crude oil, can vary widely in its composition as produced to the earth's surface, but generally contains a significant amount, most often a major amount, i.e., greater than about 50 weight percent (wt. %), methane. Natural gas often also carries minor amounts (less than about 50 wt. %), often less than about 20 wt. %, of one or more of ethane, propane, butane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and the like. Many, but not all, natural gas streams as produced from the earth can contain minor amounts (less than about 50 wt. %), often less than about 20 wt. %, of hydrocarbons having from 5 to 12, inclusive, carbon atoms per molecule (C5 to C12) that are not normally gaseous at generally prevailing ambient atmospheric conditions of temperature and pressure at the earth's surface, and that can condense out of the natural gas once it is produced to the earth's surface. All wt. % are based on the total weight of the natural gas stream in question.
When various natural gas streams are produced to the earth's surface, a hydrocarbon composition often naturally condenses out of the thus produced natural gas stream under the then prevailing conditions of temperature and pressure at the earth's surface where that stream is collected. There is thus produced a normally liquid hydrocarbonaceous condensate separate from the normally gaseous natural gas under the same prevailing conditions. The normally gaseous natural gas can contain methane, ethane, propane, and butane. The normally liquid hydrocarbon fraction that condenses from the produced natural gas stream is generally referred to as "condensate," and generally contains molecules heavier than butane (C5 to about C20 or slightly higher). After separation from the produced natural gas, this liquid condensate fraction is processed separately from the remaining gaseous fraction that is normally referred to as natural gas.
Thus, condensate recovered from a natural gas stream as first produced to the earth's surface is not the exact same material, composition wise, as natural gas (primarily methane). Neither is it the same material, composition wise, as crude oil. Condensate occupies a niche between normally gaseous natural gas and normally liquid whole crude oil. Condensate contains hydrocarbons heavier than normally gaseous natural gas, and a range of hydrocarbons that are at the lightest end of whole crude oil.
Condensate, unlike crude oil, can be characterized by way of its boiling point range. Condensates normally boil in the range of from about 100 to about 650 F. With this boiling range, condensates contain a wide variety of hydrocarbonaceous materials. These materials can include compounds that make up fractions that are commonly referred to as naphtha, kerosene, diesel fuel(s), and gas oil (fuel oil, furnace oil, heating oil, and the like).
Naphtha and associated lighter boiling materials (naphtha) are in the C5 to C10, inclusive, range, and are the lightest boiling range fractions in condensate, boiling in the range of from about 100 to about 400 F.
Petroleum middle distillates (kerosene, diesel, atmospheric gas oil) are generally in the C10 to about C20 or slightly higher range, and generally boil, in their majority, in the range of from about 350 to about 650 F. They are, individually and collectively, referred to herein as "distillate," "distillates," or "middle distillates." Distillate compositions can have a boiling point lower than 350 F and/or higher than 650 F, and such distillates are included in the 350-650 F range aforesaid, and in this invention. Atmospheric residuum (resid or residua) typically boils at a temperature of from about 650 F up to its end boiling point where only non-boiling entities such as asphaltenes and tar are left. Atmospheric resid is formed by processing crude oil/condensate in an atmospheric thermal distillation tower. Atmospheric resid is not the same as vacuum residuum which is formed in a vacuum assisted thermal distillation tower, and has a boiling range of from about 1,000 F up to its end boiling point where only non-boiling entities remain.
The olefin production industry is now progressing beyond the use of fractions of crude oil or condensate (gaseous and/or liquid) as the primary feed for a cracking furnace to the use of whole crude oil and/or condensate itself.
Recently, U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,961 (hereafter "USP'961") issued to Donald H. Powers. This patent relates to cracking whole crude oil by employing a vaporization/mild cracking zone that contains packing. This zone is operated in a manner such that the liquid phase of the whole crude that has not already been vaporized is held in that zone until cracking/vaporization of the more tenacious hydrocarbon liquid components is maximized. This allows only a minimum of solid residue formation which residue remains behind as a deposit on the packing. This residue is later burned off the packing by conventional steam air decoking, ideally during the normal furnace decoking cycle, see column 7, lines 50-58 of that patent. Thus, the second zone 9 of that patent serves as a trap for components, including hydrocarbonaceous materials, of the crude oil feed that cannot be cracked or vaporized under the conditions employed in the process, see column 8, lines 60-64 of that patent.
Still more recently, U.S. Pat. No. 7,019,187 issued to Donald H. Powers. This patent is directed to the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. '961, but employs a mildly acidic cracking catalyst to drive the overall function of the vaporization/mild cracking unit more toward the mild cracking end of the vaporization (without prior mild cracking)-mild cracking (followed by vaporization) spectrum.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,979,757 to Donald H. Powers is directed to the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. '961, but that invention removes at least part of the liquid hydrocarbons remaining in the vaporization/mild cracking unit that are not yet vaporized or mildly cracked. These liquid hydrocarbon components of the crude oil feed are drawn from near the bottom of that unit and passed to a separate controlled cavitation device to provide additional cracking energy for those tenacious hydrocarbon components that have previously resisted vaporization and mild cracking. Thus, that invention also seeks to drive the overall process in the vaporization/mild cracking unit more toward the mild cracking end of the vaporization-mild cracking spectrum aforesaid.
The disclosures of the foregoing patents, in their entirety, are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/219,166, filed Sep. 2, 2005, having common inventorship and assignee with U.S. Pat. No. '961, is directed to the process of using whole crude oil as the feedstock for an olefin plant to produce a mixture of hydrocarbon vapor and liquid. The vaporous hydrocarbon is separated from the remaining liquid and the vapor passed to a severe cracking operation. The remaining liquid is vaporized using a quench oil to minimize coke forming reactions.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/365,212, filed Mar. 1, 2006, having common inventorship and assignee with U.S. Pat. No. '961, is directed to the use of condensate as the dominant liquid hydrocarbonaceous feed for the vaporization unit and furnace.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/584,722, filed Oct. 20, 2006, having common inventorship and assignee with U.S. Pat. No. '961, is directed to the integration of the vaporization unit/furnace combination with a crude oil refinery.
During periods of increased gasoline demand, the gasoline supply (pool) can be increased by subjecting various crude oil fractions, including distillates, to various refinery catalytic cracking processes such as fluid catalytic cracking. Thus, the quantity of gasoline/naptha produced from a barrel of crude oil can be increased if desired. This is not so with distillates as defined above. The amount of distillate recovered from a barrel of crude oil is fixed and cannot be increased as it can with gasoline. The only way to increase distillate production to increase the distillate supply for the distillate pool is by refining additional barrels of crude oil.
By this invention valuable distillates that are in short supply are saved for the distillate pool, and not consumed in the cracking process.

Hydrocarbon thermal cracking using atmospheric distillation


A plasma processing apparatus is provided which includes a processing chamber disposed in a vacuum container, in a decompressed inside of which plasma is formed, a sample stage disposed in a lower part of the processing chamber, on a top surface of which a sample is mounted, a dielectric film made of a dielectric that forms a mounting surface on which the sample is mounted, and electrodes arranged inside the dielectric film and supplied with power for chucking and holding the sample onto the dielectric film, and when the sample is mounted on the sample stage, the sample is kept mounted on the sample stage until a sample temperature becomes a predetermined temperature or until a predetermined time elapses, and power is then supplied to the electrodes to chuck the sample to the sample stage and then start processing on the sample using the plasma.

The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus or a plasma processing method that processes a substrate-shaped sample such as a semiconductor wafer in a processing chamber in a vacuum container using plasma formed therein.
A plasma processing apparatus processes a sample such as a semiconductor wafer mounted on a sample stage using plasma generated above the sample and removes a target film from the surface of the sample through chemical reaction between the plasma and the sample or causes a film to be deposited onto the surface of the sample. The former is called "etching processing" and the latter is called "CVD (chemical vapor deposition)."
In such plasma processing, processing proceeds through chemical reaction between ions or active gas species and the sample using chemically active plasma. Whether a chemical reaction occurs or not, or whether a byproduct generated by a chemical reaction becomes a gas and is desorbed/released (etched) from the surface of the sample or a byproduct is solidified and deposited onto the surface of the sample (CVD) is greatly influenced by a temperature of the sample.
For example, when a sample of a material whose byproduct has a low vapor pressure is etched, it is necessary to reduce a pressure in a plasma processing chamber or increase a sample temperature so that the byproduct becomes a gas and is desorbed/released from the surface of the sample. Stably maintaining a plasma atmosphere requires the plasma processing chamber to actually have a certain degree of pressure (≧ on the order of 0.1 Pa) and also requires the sample temperature to be sufficiently high.
In this way, it is necessary to control the sample temperature in accordance with a target process. Thus, a method is adopted which controls the sample temperature to a desired temperature by controlling the sample stage temperature. As such a configuration of adjusting the sample stage temperature, conventionally, a temperature-controlled heat exchange liquid is made to flow through the sample stage or a heater is incorporated in the sample stage for heating.
On the other hand, the sample temperature is adjusted through a heat transfer to/from the sample stage. For an efficient heat transfer between the sample and a top surface of the sample stage on which the sample is mounted, it is a general practice that the sample is chucked to the mounting surface by an electrostatic chuck force or the like and a heat transfer gas such as a He gas is supplied to a clearance space between the sample and the mounting surface. Furthermore, since such temperature adjustment of the sample is greatly influenced by heat transfer efficiency, electrostatic chuck conditions for holding the sample onto the mounting surface and a region to be chucked to improve a heat transfer have been conventionally taken into consideration.
As such a prior art, one described in JP-A-09-167794 is known. This prior art discloses a technique which supplies a heat transfer gas to a wafer held on a sample stage by a plurality of dipolar chuck electrodes to adjust a wafer temperature, then keeps the wafer chucked onto the sample stage while causing the plurality of chuck electrodes to operate as monopolar electrodes, and thereby processes the wafer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method


A comparator circuit that operates over a wide range of input voltage from Vss to Vdd is offered. This comparator circuit includes a first comparator receiving a pair of differential input signals from input terminals, a second comparator to which a pair of differential outputs of the first comparator is inputted, a current source that provides the pair of differential outputs of the first comparator with a very low current that flows to a ground and a third comparator that receives the pair of differential input signals from the input terminals. A differential output of the second comparator and a differential output of the third comparator are combined to make an output signal. The output signal is received by to an inverter. The first comparator is a P-type comparator while the second and the third comparators are N-type comparators.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a comparator circuit that compares a pair of differential input signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is a common practice in recent years to transmit high frequency signals in a form of differential signals in order to suppress an influence of noise or the like. A comparator is generally used as an interface when an LSI receives such differential signals. When a USB cable is connected to a microcomputer, for example, the microcomputer is provided with an interface having a comparator as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-149626.
FIGS. 4A and 4B are circuit diagrams showing a comparator according to a prior art. The comparator is composed of a pair of N-channel type differential MOS transistors MN1 and MN2, a pair of P-channel type MOS transistors MP1 and MP2 connected in a form of a current mirror and a constant current source 1, as shown in FIG. 4A. A gate of the differential MOS transistor MN1 makes a positive input terminal 2, a gate of the differential MOS transistor MN2 makes a negative input terminal 3, a connecting node between MP2 and MN2 makes a positive output terminal 4, and a connecting node between MP1 and MN1 makes a negative output terminal 5. The circuit expressed in a circuit symbol is shown in FIG. 4B. The comparator described above is hereafter referred to as "an N-type comparator" for the sake of convenience.
Since this circuit uses the pair of N-channel type differential MOS transistors MN1 and MN2 as differential transistors, when a differential input voltage Vin is close to Vss, more specifically when Vin<Vtn+α, a source-drain impedance of each of the differential MOS transistors MN1 and MN2 becomes so high that the circuit operates only at reduced rate or halts the operation. Here, Vtn is a threshold voltage of each of the pair of N-channel type differential MOS transistors MN1 and MN2 and α stands for a change in the threshold voltage Vtn due to a back-gate bias effect. Therefore, the input voltage to the comparator is limited within a range from Vtn+α to Vdd.
FIGS. 5A and 5B are circuit diagrams showing another comparator according to a prior art.
This comparator is composed of a pair of P-channel type differential MOS transistors MP11 and MP12, a pair of N-channel type MOS transistors MN11 and MN12 connected in a form of a current mirror and a constant current source 10, as shown in FIG. 5A. A gate of the differential MOS transistor MP11 makes a positive input terminal 12, a gate of the differential MOS transistor MP12 makes a negative input terminal 13, a connecting node between MP12 and MN12 makes a positive output terminal 14, and a connecting node between MP11 and MN11 makes a negative output terminal 15. The circuit expressed in a circuit symbol is shown in FIG. 5B. The comparator described above is hereafter referred to as "a P-type comparator" for the sake of convenience.
Since this circuit uses the pair of P-channel type differential MOS transistors MP11 and MP12 as differential transistors, when a differential input voltage Vin is close to Vdd, more specifically when Vin>Vdd−Vtp−β, a source-drain impedance of each of the differential MOS transistors MP11 and MP12 becomes so high that the circuit operates only at reduced rate or halts the operation. Here, Vtp is a threshold voltage of each of the pair of P-channel type differential MOS transistors MP11 and MP12 and β stands for a change in the threshold voltage Vtp due to a back-gate bias effect. Therefore, the input voltage to the comparator is limited within a range from Vss to Vtp+β.
Normal operation of the comparator described above is guaranteed only for the input voltage within the range from Vtn+α to Vdd or the range from Vss to Vdd−Vtp−β. Therefore, the comparators do not meet a device design requiring a wide input voltage ranging from Vss to Vdd.


A very compact and ergonomical hand-held electronic gaming device is provided having a body including a front housing portion for containing the game's electronic circuitry and to which input keys for the game are mounted, and a rear extension portion extending rearwardly from the front housing portion for securing of a printed game book thereto. The gaming device is designed so that playing the game takes place with the book opened by the player while still secured to the rear extension so that the game body and open book can be held with one hand while using the other free hand to key in input to the game based on printed matter read from the open book. Thus, the game book need not be separated from the game to play the game. Preferably, the game has multiple-choice questions with associated answer choices to be selected by the player. A NEXT key is provided so that the questions can be answered sequentially without having to key in each question number. The book is easy to open as the fold lines for the book sheets and cover are spaced slightly rearwardly of the extension rear edge. When the book is folded closed, the game is very compact as the book only projects slightly beyond the rear edge and otherwise is substantially contained with the housing dimensions.

Hand-held electronic gaming devices are known which utilize input keys for entering input into the game in response to material read from a booklet--see U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,078 to Goldfarb one of the Applicants and U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,398 to Yoseloff. Applicants' wherein also developed a hand-held electronic game which is a predecessor to the game which is the subject of the present application and which utilizes a keyboard for entering input information based on questions provided in a game book.
In hand-held electronic games, compactness of design is typically an important consideration as the more bulky the game, the more difficult it can be to handle and play. This is particularly true where separate sheets of text or game books are also provided for use with the hand-held game. Applicants' prior game, includes a hinged cover for closing over the keypad when the game is not in use with the closed game book contained within the cover. When the game is to be used, the hinged cover is pivoted open and the game book is removed from the hinged cover and opened for being read by a player. The use of the hinged cover makes the above game device less compact than is desirable when the cover is pivoted open for playing of the game. In addition, having to take out and separate the game book from the game for playing of the game is undesirable in that the potential for losing the book is increased. Accordingly, there is a need for a hand-held electronic game utilizing a game book which has a compact, ergonomic design for ease in playing and avoids the potential problem of losing game books associated with the electronic game.
To play Applicants' prior game, the sheets of the game book included number coded questions with multiple letter coded answers, i.e., multiple-choice questions with associated answer choices, with the player entering the number code of the question and then choosing the letter code of the answer they feel correctly responds to the selected question. To go to another question after answering of a selected question, the player has to push a CLEAR key and then select and enter the code of another question. Typically, the question books contain hundreds of such questions so that entering their number codes requires punching multiple keys, in addition to the CLEAR key before entering the question number and the ENTER key after. The procedure of having to press a CLEAR button and then punch in the number code on the keys for each question, and then press the ENTER key, can become quite tedious and burdensome, particularly if the player is going through a substantial number of questions in the book. Accordingly, there is a need for a game which does not require the user to each time a question is being selected to press in the code for that question.


A control part provides a first region in which an image is formed on an image carrier using only a dark-color toner. The control part provides a second region, which is adjacent to the first region, in which an image is formed using a dark-color toner and a light-color toner. The control part provides a third region in which an image is formed using only a light-color toner at the boundary of the first and second regions. The control part controls a latent-image forming unit, a light-color developing unit and a dark-color developing unit so as to form an image in which these regions are provided. The control part may provide a third region in which neither a light-color toner nor a dark-color toner is used at the boundary of the first and second regions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, which uses dark-color and light-color developer materials, and to a method of controlling this apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is growing demand for further improvements in image quality in recent models of electrophotographic-type image forming apparatus. In particular, there is demand for the ability to faithfully reproduce photographs and security-patterns (which prevent unauthorized copying), etc., in addition to the usual text and graphs, on a printing medium. Although text requires a high resolution and photographs and security-patterns require rich tonality, it is difficult to satisfy both requirements simultaneously in the prior art.
In order to satisfy these requirements, inventions that make joint use of light-color toner and dark-color toner have been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 5-35038, 2000-231279, 2000-347476 and 2001-290319).
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus is not only capable of forming patterns on plain paper but can also form security-patterns and other images (text, lines and photographs, etc.) on plain paper.
When an image that has a mixture of a text/line region or equal-density large-area region, a photographic region and a security-pattern region is formed, a problem in image quality arises in an adjacent region, namely a region in which these different types of regions are adjacent to each other. It should be noted that an equal-density large-area region refers to a region in which the same pixel continues for at least a prescribed number of pixels in the laser scanning direction and for at least a prescribed number of pixels in the direction perpendicular to the laser scanning direction. For example, in case of a resolution of 600 dpi, a region (2.15 mm×2.15 mm) in which the same pixel continues for 50 or more pixels in the laser scanning direction and 50 or more pixels in the direction perpendicular to the laser scanning direction is an equal-density large-area region.
In order to develop a security-pattern, which must not be conspicuous, using a dark-color toner, it is necessary to reduce the size of one dot. In view of the characteristics of electrophotography, however, the reproducibility of one dot declines in this case and the size of a single dot tends to fluctuate. This results in the occurrence of unevenness in the security-pattern region.
On the other hand, it has also been considered to form one dot of a security-pattern in the maximum size and with a light-color toner. If the security-pattern and text/line region or equal-density large-area region are adjacent in this case, it is difficult to distinguish between the two (see FIG. 4). Further, it has been considered to form part of a photographic region using a light-color toner. If the photographic region and a text/line region or equal-density large-area region are adjacent in this case, it is difficult to distinguish between the two (see FIG. 5).
The specification of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-198137 proposes a method in which when a high-contrast image and a low-contrast image are formed adjacent to each other using a single developer, a white streak that occurs on the low-contrast side of the boundary is prevented. Specifically, an unexposed region is provided at a boundary that exists between a solid portion and a halftone portion. Since the unexposed region functions as a potential wall, white streaks can be prevented.
The specification of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-089238 proposes a method of correcting image data, which corresponds to the edge portions of images, in order to prevent white streaks. It should be noted that the inventions described in the specifications of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 10-198137 and 2003-089238 are directed to problems relating to a single developer and are not directed to problems relating to developers of different densities belonging to the same hue.

Toner usage control between differing image regions


An exemplary CELP coder where gain adaptation is performed using previous gain values in conjunction with an entry in a table comprising the logarithms of the root-mean-squared values of the codebook vectors, to predict the next gain value. Not only is this method less complex because the table entries are determined off-line, but in addition the use of a table at both the encoder and the decoder allows fixed-point/floating-point interoperability requirements to be met.

Low bit rate voice coding can provide very efficient communications capability for such applications as voice mail, secure telephony, integrated voice and data transmission over packet networks, and narrow band cellular radio. Code excited linear prediction (CELP) is a coding method that offers robust, intelligible, good quality speech at low bit rates, e.g., 4.8 to 16 kilobits per second. Although based on the principles of linear predictive coding (LPC), CELP uses analysis-by-synthesis vector quantization to match the input speech, rather than imposing any strict excitation model. As a result, CELP sounds less mechanical than traditional CELP coders, and it is more robust to non-speech sounds and environmental noise. CELP has been shown to provide a high degree of speaker identifiability as well.
Because the excitation is determined through an exhaustive analysis-by-synthesis vector quantization approach, the CELP method is computationally complex. A backward gain adaptation is typically performed in CELP coders to scale the amplitude of the codebook vectors (codevectors) to the input speech based on previous gain values. Such adaptation is carried out at both ends of the communication. However, the accuracy of the adaptation process has not been sufficient to meet requirements specified for the interoperability of fixed-point CELP encoders with floating-point CELP decoders and vice versa.
In view of the foregoing, improvements are needed in both the accuracy and computational complexity of CELP coders.

Backward gain adaptation method in code excited linear prediction coders


A vacuum cleaner capable of recording an abnormality immediately upon occurrence of the abnormality. The vacuum cleaner has a main casing. The vacuum cleaner has driving wheels for enabling the main casing to travel. The vacuum cleaner has a control unit for controlling drive of the driving wheels to make the main casing autonomously travel. The control unit has a function as an abnormality sensor for detecting an abnormality. The vacuum cleaner has a camera for picking up an image. The control unit has a cleaning mode for cleaning a cleaning-object surface, an image pickup mode for performing image pickup with the camera, and a standby mode applied during a standby state. Upon detection of an abnormality during the cleaning mode, the control unit is switched over to the image pickup mode to perform image pickup with the camera.

Conventionally, there is known a so-called autonomous-traveling type vacuum cleaner (cleaning robot) which cleans a floor surface as a cleaning-object surface while autonomously traveling on the floor surface and while detecting obstacles or the like by using a sensor or the like as an example.
In recent years, a system has been developed in which such a vacuum cleaner as described above is used to make it possible to monitor and check an aspect of a user's home for occurrence of any abnormality while the user is out, where the vacuum cleaner is enabled to pick up images of in-room aspects with a camera upon an instruction from a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone.
With such a system, however, because the user himself/herself is required to issue an instruction for image pickup, it is impossible to record an abnormality in real time upon occurrence of the abnormality.

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