Provided are a method and apparatus for transmitting data in a wireless communication system. The method comprises the steps of: setting up a frame including both a control domain for transmitting scheduling information to a first terminal and a data domain for transmitting first data to the first terminal; and transmitting, to a second terminal, second data in the control domain. The frame comprises a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a time domain. The control domain consists of a first number N (where N is any natural number equal to or less than 4) of OFDM symbols in the frame. The data domain consists of OFDM symbols other than a number N of OFDM symbols in the frame. The second data has a predetermined bit size.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transmitting data in a wireless communication system.
Related Art
A 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (hereinafter referred to as LTE) is a leading next-generation wireless communication system standard. In LTE, when a base station sends downlink data to a terminal, the base station first sends scheduling information about a downlink data channel through a control channel, assigns a downlink data channel based on the scheduling information, and sends the downlink data through the assigned downlink data channel. Even when a terminal sends uplink data to a base station, the base station first sends scheduling information about an uplink data channel to the terminal through a control channel, and the terminal sends uplink data through an uplink data channel assigned based on the scheduling information.
Meanwhile, 3GPP Long Term Evolution-Advanced (hereinafter referred to as LTE-A) is the next-generation wireless communication system standard improved from LTE. In LTE-A, low-priced/low-specification terminals which chiefly perform data communication, such as the metering of a meter, the measurement of a water level, the utilization of a surveillance camera, and a report on the inventory of a vending machine, can be supported. A low-priced/low-specification terminal which chiefly performs low-capacity data communication as described above is called a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device.
An MTC device may have a small amount of transmission data, and the number of devices that need to be supported by one base station within a cell may be many. For such characteristics, an existing data transmission method, that is, a method of transmitting scheduling information about each data channel through a control channel may have low efficiency in terms of the utilization of resources.

Method and apparatus for transmitting data in a wireless communication system


A hinge for connection of two furniture parts comprises a bowl-shaped element designed to be fastened to a first furniture part and a wing rotatably in engagement with said bowl-shaped element, the wing being adapted to be fastened to an intermediate element that, in turn, is fastened to a hinge base designed to be secured to a second furniture part, a shock absorber being present which comprises a body designed to be rigidly connected to said second furniture part and a shock absorbing member movably mounted on said body to restrain the closing movement of the hinge. The shock absorber body is mounted on the intermediate element of the hinge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an innovative cushioned hinge for furniture, which is for example adapted to prevent a furniture door from knocking against the frame with violence on closure.
2. State of the Prior Art
Manufacture of hinges provided with a shock absorber is known in the art, said shock absorber being designed to act between a hinge wing to be fastened to the furniture frame and a bowl-shaped element of the hinge, to be fastened to a suitable cavity in the furniture door.
There are several different shock absorbers, of the hydraulic or pneumatic type for example, and they are provided with a fixed body on which a movable shock absorbing member is mounted which is adapted to restrain the closing movement of the hinge.
According to one embodiment of the known art, the shock absorber body is fastened to the bowl-shaped element of the hinge and the shock absorbing member is such disposed as to come into contact with the wing during a closing step of the hinge to restrain a too quick and sudden movement of the door.
However, this solution has proved to be of reduced efficiency since the shock absorber, taking into account the arrangement and sizes of the common hinge pieces, is to be positioned and sized in a disadvantageous manner that does not allow a satisfactory cushioning or damping action to be developed between the hinge parts.
According to a further embodiment of the known art, as described in the European patent EP 1199433, the shock absorber body is directly mounted on the hinge wing so that it is parallel to the wing extension, the shock absorbing member being slideable in parallel to the wing.
While this arrangement of the shock absorber enables a better damping action to be achieved, it still has some non negligible disadvantages.
Actually, since the shock absorber is directly applied to the outside of the wing, it has a fitting point in the hinge that is easily accessible. In case of snap-fitting of the shock absorber in the wing, it may happen that the component unintentionally disengages from the hinge, during the furniture cleaning operations, for example.
In addition, when the hinge is of the adjustable type, the wing being fastened in an adjustable manner to an intermediate element snap-fitted into a hinge base to be fastened to the furniture frame, there is the risk of the intermediate element disengaging from the base giving rise to danger situations and possibly causing damages to the furniture structure. Actually, these adjustable hinges generally have an element for carrying out disengagement of the intermediate element that is easily accessible and can be unintentionally moved causing separation of the door from the frame and generating danger situations.
The present invention generally aims at eliminating the above mentioned drawbacks by providing a cushioned hinge capable of developing a satisfactory damping force on closure of the hinge and at the same time enabling a steady and safe mounting of the shock absorber to be obtained. It is a further aim of the invention to provide a cushioned hinge capable of being adjusted and enabling a high safety and reliability degree as regards mounting of its parts on the frame and the furniture door to be achieved.

Cushioned hinge having a shock absorber mounted on the intermediate element between the hinge wing and base to be fastened to the piece of furniture


There is provided a method at a user equipment, comprising:

Precoding may take place at the transmitter using multiple antennas. Precoding may be done to adjust the signal to-be-transmitted to variations the signal may be exposed to when going through a radio channel between the transmitter and a receiver. In order to perform appropriate precoding, precoding feedback may be used.

Abstract: receiving transmission on two different polarizations over a wireless channel from net-work; determining a plurality of coefficients associated with a precoding matrix based on channel measurements of the reception, wherein the coefficients at least partially define a combination matrix; selecting a coefficient among the coefficients of the weaker polarization, the selected coefficient being a reference coefficient for the weaker polarization;determining a first indicator and a second indicator for the reference coefficient, wherein the first indicator indicates a position of the reference coefficient in the combination matrix and the second indicator comprises an amplitude value associated with the reference coefficient;reporting the first and second indicators to the network.


A white LED includes a P-type layer, a tunneling structure, an N-type layer, an N-type electrode, and a P-type electrode. The tunneling structure is in contact with the P-type layer. The tunneling structure is a stack structure comprising a first barrier layer, a first active layer and a second barrier layer. At least one of the first barrier layer, the first active layer and the second barrier layer is a first metal nitride oxide layer. The N-type layer is in contact with the tunneling structure. The N-type electrode is in contact with the N-type layer. The P-type electrode is in contact with the P-type layer.

Recently, white light diodes (referred to as white LED) are introduced into the market. Since the white LED has the power-saving benefits, the white LED will gradually replace the conventional fluorescent tube.
Generally, the current white LED uses a phosphor to mix yellow light with blue light to produce white light. For example, when the blue light with a peak wavelength in the range between 450 and 470 nm is absorbed by a yellow phosphor YAG:Ce, a light with a peak wavelength in the range between 550 and 560 nm and a radiation wavelength in the range between 450 and 700 nm is generated. Consequently, the blue light and the yellow light are mixed to produce the white light.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the spectrum of a white LED that is produced by a conventional blue LED and a YAG phosphor. As shown in FIG. 1, the high-brightness blue LED with a peak wavelength in the range between 445 and 450 nm is used to excite the YAG phosphor. Since the blue color and the yellow color are two complementary colors, the blue light and the yellow light may be mixed to produce the white color. In other words, the conventional blue LED and the YAG phosphor may be combined as a white LED.
Besides, a UV LED with a peak wavelength in the range between 350 and 430 nm may be used to excite an RGB phosphor. Consequently, the UV light and the RGB light are mixed to produce the white color.
Moreover, another white LED is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,981,373. The white LED includes a tunneling structure that is formed by a stack structure of metal oxide layers.


Synergistic visbreaking composition of peroxide and a hydroxylamine ester for increasing the visbreaking efficiency for polypropylene polymers at melt extrusion temperatures below 250° C. and its use in visbreaking polypropylene. The present invention is furthermore related to the use of such visbroken polypropylene polymers for producing melt blown non-wovens with improved barrier properties.

The controlled preparation of polyolefin grades (polymer types having different molar masses, melt viscosities, densities, molar mass distributions, etc.) by customary compounding methods, for example by extrusion or injection moulding, is a routine process employed by polymer manufacturers and polymer processors/compounders.
The setting of the desired parameters, for example the melt viscosity, by means of this polymer process step is critically dependent on the controlled reactivity and mode of action of the additives employed.
The use of free-radical formers for modifying the melt viscosity (rheology) of polyolefins is a generally known method. Whether it results in a lowering of the molecular weight (degradation) or an increase in the molecular weight (cross linking) depends primarily on the chemical structure of the polyolefin.
The reaction of a polymer of the polypropylene type with a free-radical former during a polymer-processing process generally results in the degradation of the polymer, whereas polymers of the polyethylene type tend to crosslink.
The controlled degradation of polypropylene (PP) to give a product having a lower molecular weight and a narrower molecular weight distribution is a commercially important process for producing 'controlled rheology' polypropylene (CR-PP). While specific PP grades ("reactor grades") are obtainable by optimisation of the synthesis process or the catalyst systems (metallocene catalyst, Ziegler catalyst), standard PP grades are frequently modified in process technology by means of a processing step following the synthesis.
Known degradation processes proceed either thermally, in particular at temperatures above 280° C., or in the presence of free-radical generators. In process technology, the free-radical induced process is carried out in extruders or injection-moulding machines at temperatures above 180° C. Free-radical generators used are organic peroxides, which are added during the processing step in diluted form (PP Mastermix, diluted in oil, stabilized on inorganic supports) or directly as a liquid. Under the given processing conditions, the peroxide disintegrates into free radicals, which initiate the chain cleavage reactions and form polymers having the desired rheological properties (melt viscosities). The degradation of a PP to form a product having a lower molecular weight (higher melt flow rate (MFR)) and most importantly, a lower melt viscosity is generally referred to as a viscosity-breaking or visbreaking process.
CR-PP grades are mainly used for film, fibre applications and injection-moulding applications in which low melt viscosities are a prerequisite for economical processing. A wide range of melt viscosities or molecular weights is nowadays required in process technology.
A further parameter that influences the processing behaviour of the polymer, in addition to the molecular weight, is the molecular weight distribution (MWD). While polymer grades having broad MWDs display improved orientation behaviour of the polymer chains, at low pull-off speeds in a fibre spinning process, the reverse is the case for high putt off speeds and broad MWDs. For this reason, narrow MWDs are essential at high pull-off speeds in order to achieve improved continuity in the spinning process.
Apart from peroxides, other sources of free radicals are also known, e.g. C-radical generators based on cumyl systems, but these can be used only at temperatures above 280° C.
It is also known to use hydroxylamine esters as free radical source.
WO 97/49737 describes a process for reducing the molecular weight of polymers at temperatures above 280° C. using so-called NOR-HALS (HALS: Hindered Amino Light Stabilisers) compounds containing the group:
wherein G is hydrogen or methyl and G1 and G2 are each hydrogen, methyl or are together oxo. These known NOR-HALS compounds produce appreciable polymer degradation only at temperatures above 280° C.
WO 01/90113 discloses a process for reducing the molecular weight of polypropylene, propylene copolymers or polypropylene blends, wherein a hydroxylamine ester of the formula:
wherein among others Ra′ is a monoacyl radical and R1-R4 are alkyl-substituents; is added to the polypropylene polymers to be degraded, and the mixture is heated to temperatures below 280° C.
According to WO 2007/126994 any hydroxylamine ester known in the art for reducing the molecular weight of, or viscosity breaking, polyolefin compounds, particularly propylene polymers can be used. It is referred to WO 01/90113, where such suitable hydroxylamine esters are generally described. Furthermore it is stated that a preferable hydroxylamine ester is Irgatec® CR76, sold commercially by Ciba Speciality Chemicals Corporation (now by BASF). The degraded polypropylene is used for non-woven filter elements.
From the thesis from Alexandros Psarreas presented to the University of Waterloo in 2006, related to Nitroxide-Mediated Controlled Degradation of Polypropylene (e.g. on page 14) it is known that Irgatec® CR76 shows equivalent visbreaking performance as a peroxide at a melt extrusion temperature of 250° C. Only at higher temperatures, like from 270° C. on, especially from 280° C. on, the performance of Irgatec® CR76 becomes better than the performance of the peroxide.
EP 1 282 630 describes the use of hydroxylamine esters for the controlled degradation of polypropylene, wherein the hydroxylamine ester has the formula
whereinRa′ is a monoacyl or diacyl radical; R1-R4 are each C1-C6alkyl; andR5 and R6 are each, independently of one another, hydrogen, C1-C6alkyl or C6-C10aryl; orR5 and R6 are together oxygen. It is stated in EP 1 282 630 that in a specific embodiment, further sources of free radicals, e.g. a suitable bisazo compound, a peroxide or a hydroperoxide, in addition to the hydroxylamine esters (I) can be added to the polymers to be degraded. The use of two free radical sources is shown in the examples only for a sequential degradation of polypropylene (2 extrusion steps) using a hydroxylamine ester together with DTBPH (2,5-bis-tert-butylperoxy-2,5-dimethylhexane). EP 1 282 630 does not show any effect of the use of this combination.
EP 1 786 861 discloses that the use of hydroxylamine esters as described in WO 01/90113, especially a hydroxylamine ester of formula
together with a sulphur compound, like Thio-Compound 1 ("Thio-1") of formula
for degrading polypropylene polymers at lower melt extrusion temperatures, like 250° C. As Comparative Examples in the experimental part of the present invention show, there is no synergistic effect of such a combination.
Although many alternatives are already known for the degradation of a PP to form a product having a lower molecular weight (higher melt flow rate (MFR)) and most importantly, a lower melt viscosity, there is a constant need to improve this visbreaking process, i.e. to find solutions, which need less degradation agents (i.e free-radical generators) for achieving the same visbreaking efficiency especially at melt extrusion temperatures below 250° C. and yield CR-PP grades, which can be converted into melt blown non-wovens with improved barrier properties.
Surprisingly the inventors found, that the above objects can be reached with the use of a combination of peroxide and a hydroxylamine ester.


Compounds of formula (I), inhibit TNFα production and may therefore be useful in the treatment of inflammation, of auto-immune diseases, and of pathological conditions which involve excessive production of that cytokine. The compounds of formula (I) are also inhibitors of the histone deacetylase enzyme and may therefore be useful in tumorous diseases, alone or in association with other anti-tumor active ingredients

Derivatives of hydroxamic acid with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive activity are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,096. These compounds can inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, in particular of TNFα (tumour necrosis factor) and of interleukin-1-beta and can therefore be used in the treatment of conditions which involve excessive production of those substances, such as inflammatory and auto-immune diseases or tumorous forms.
The compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,096 are characterized in that they contain two cyclic structures which are linked by a carbamate or urea group and one of which is in turn linked to an N,hydroxy-carboxyamide (hydroxamic acid) group.

Hydroxamic acid derivatives having anti-inflammatory action


A mobile communication device (10) embedded within a public safety officer's belt (11) can include a transceiver (14) integrated within the public safety officer's belt and a buckle (18) coupled to a first end of the public safety officer's belt having at least a portion of circuitry therein to enable the transceiver upon the buckling of the buckle to a mating portion (16) on a second end of the public safety officer's belt.

Police Officers carry a great deal of gear on their belt. Anything that would free up space on their belt would be beneficial. In addition, the radio currently can be misplaced, stolen, or lost. Embedding the radio in the officer's belt prevents this loss and ensures that the radio is always with them.
Furthermore, a radio that is off the waist of a police officer will typically be turned off in practice. Current radios and other embedded electronic devices fail to have a mechanism to ensure that the device is turned off or in a battery saving mode when not being worn. Otherwise, a device that is left on when not worn will effectively provide less battery life to the user.

Embedded communication device within a belt


Disclosed are systems and methods which provide communication links optimized with respect to particular subscriber units. Preferred embodiments utilize multiple information components with respect to the arrival of signals associated with target subscriber units in providing optimized communication links. Most preferably, direction information and information with respect to the signal spread experienced in the communication channel is used. Moreover, preferred embodiments utilize subscriber unit speed information in providing optimized communication link determinations.

In wireless communication systems in particular, communication quality and communication capacity often have an inverse relationship. For example, as communication capacity is increased, such as through more dense reuse of traffic channels, signal quality may be decreased, such as through each such traffic channel experiencing higher levels of interference energy. Accordingly, wireless communication service providers must often balance providing desired levels of communication capacity with service quality issues.
In code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, for example, a number of communication signals are allowed to operate over the same frequency band simultaneously. Each subscriber unit is assigned a distinct, pseudo-random, chip code which identifies signals associated with the subscriber unit. The subscriber units use this chip code to pseudo-randomly spread their transmitted signal over the allotted frequency band. Accordingly, signals may be communicated from each such unit over the same frequency band and a receiver may despread a desired signal associated with a particular subscriber unit. However, despreading of the desired subscriber unit's signal results in the receiver not only receiving the energy of this desired signal, but also a portion of the energies of other subscriber units operating over the same frequency band. Accordingly, CDMA networks are interference limited, i.e., the number of subscriber units using the same frequency band, while maintaining an acceptable signal quality, is determined by the total energy level within the frequency band at the receiver.
It is therefore desirable to control the amount of energy radiated within a particular service area to thereby reduce interfering energy experienced by subscriber units operating therein. For example, in the aforementioned CDMA networks, transmitted signals are often power controlled to reduce energy transmitted within the CDMA frequency band while maintaining sufficient power to provide an acceptable signal at a receiving unit. Through intelligent power control, excess energy within the service area may be limited and, therefore, signal quality improved and/or capacity increased.
Further capacity and/or signal quality improvement may be provided in communication systems through the use of directional antenna beams in the communication links, such as may be provided using "smart antenna" systems. Adaptive array antennas may be utilized to provide enhanced signal quality through advanced "beam forming" techniques as shown and described in the above referenced patent application entitled "Practical Space-Time Radio Method for CDMA Communication Capacity Enhancement." For example, angle of arrival (AOA) information determined from a received signal at an adaptive array antenna may be utilized in determining beam forming coefficients for use in providing narrow beams in the reverse link in order to provide improved capacity.
Additionally, direction estimation based on AOA information from the reverse link might be used in providing narrow beams in the forward link. However, the use of such directional antenna beams in the forward link often does not provide the desired containment of the radiated energy and/or does not provide a desired signal quality at a target remote subscriber unit. Generally, the signal of such a narrow antenna beam gets spread over an area different than that of the formed radiation pattern, such as due to the effects of scatters disposed within the radiation pattern area. Accordingly, if a forward link beam is used to simply direct the power in the estimated direction of a target subscriber unit, a significant portion of the transmitted power will not reach the target subscriber unit but will instead be spread across an area wider than that required to maintain the desired communication link. This both results in a waste of the transmitted power as well as increased interference energy experienced at other ones of the subscriber units.
Increased interference energy experienced at the subscriber units results in decreased capacity, whether the decreased capacity is a result of fewer subscriber units being accommodated, the subscriber units being accommodated being provided decreased throughput, or a combination thereof. This undesired result may be further aggravated as a result of the interference energy causing the interfered subscriber units to increase power associated with their communications and, thus, the system experiences a related increase in the associated interference energy.
Moreover, the use of such narrow beams in providing communications links may introduce unique problems associated with their implementation. For example, cellular or personal communication services (PCS) systems using CDMA communication techniques often utilize both a pilot signal and a traffic signal to establish communications. The pilot signal generally provides a known signal and is used by receiving devices in demodulating a traffic signal. In the forward link, i.e., the base station to subscriber unit link, a common pilot signal is often used for multiple subscriber units, such as all subscriber units in a cell or a sector. Accordingly, it is typically desirable to provide this pilot signal throughout an area in which multiple subscriber units are likely to be located.
The use of narrow beams for reducing radiated and/or accepted energy as discussed above can be problematic with respect to use of such a pilot signal. For example, if the pilot signal were to be transmitted in a narrow beam corresponding to the traffic signal of a particular subscriber unit, other ones of the plurality of subscriber units may not receive the pilot signal for use in demodulating their corresponding traffic signal. Accordingly, it is often desirable to provide the pilot signal in an area larger than that of the narrow beam associated with a particular subscriber unit. However, this often results in a phase mismatch problem at one or more of the subscriber units. Specifically, as the link channel associated with the pilot signal (e.g. wide beam) is not the same as that of the link channel associated with the traffic signal (e.g. narrow beam), the phase information extracted from the pilot signal may no longer accurately correlate with the traffic signal as received by a subscriber unit. Although perhaps providing phase matching to within acceptable limits for lower order modulation schemes, such as BPSK, such a phase mismatch is likely to result in unacceptable communication errors, such as an excessive bit error rate (BER), in higher order modulation schemes, such as QPSK, 8PSK, etcetera.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for systems and methods which provide for the use of optimized beams, such as beams having a minimized or otherwise reduced beam width, to thereby control the amount of interference energy radiated and/or accepted. Moreover, a need exists in the art for the use of such optimized beams to provide a desired and predictable signal phase relationship, such as with respect to a demodulation reference signal.

System and method for selecting optimized beam configuration


An oral appliance device and method are provided for suppressing the appetite for weight control. The oral appliance device includes a substantially U-shaped channel for receiving the upper teeth of the wearer and a roof portion that conforms to the roof of the wearer's mouth. The roof portion includes an upwardly protruding rear tab portion that contacts the roof of the mouth substantially at the juncture between the soft and hard palates. A lower surface of the roof portion contacts a top surface of the tongue at substantially a rear portion thereof. The method includes fitting the oral appliance device to the wearer's mouth by deforming the device by hot water or the like to conform to the wearer's mouth and then cooling it down, inserting the fitted device in the mouth such that the upper teeth are received in the channel and the upwardly protruding rear tab portion contacts the roof of the mouth and the roof portion lower surface contacts the tongue.

Weight control is a concern for many. If not sufficiently controlled, obesity may result. The cause of obesity is simple--consuming more calories than are expended as energy. There are arguably many ways to control weight and thus treat obesity, for example, diet, medications, physical activity, surgery, jaw wiring, behavior modification, and self-help organizations. None of these methods is entirely effective and some are dangerous. It is recognized that no simple or generally effective therapy exists. Obesity is a chronic condition resistant to treatment and prone to relapse.
There have been several prior oral appliances, which attempt to aid the wearer in controlling weight. Stubbs, U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,442 describes a combined weight repulsing and cigarette reneging oral appliance. The Stubbs appliance includes a pair of long oval relatively thin longitudinally and transversely curved members connected by an elastic band to which is hung a small button or tab. The appliance is inserted in front of and against the lower teeth inside the lips and cheeks. The small button or tab extends rearwardly between lower incisor teeth to the tongue for frivolous movement to stimulate the flow and swallowing of saliva to satisfy the desire for food or cigarettes. Brown et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,771 describes an oral appliance as an alternative to jaw wiring. The Brown et al. appliance is described in one embodiment as including a guard having meshed openings pivotally mounted to an upper support brace configured to fit against the roof of the user's mouth. The brace may be secured by looping the ends thereof around upper rear teeth. The guard functions as a sieve allowing liquids and finely ground materials to pass therethrough, yet blocking or preventing solid foods having a size larger than the openings from passing therethrough. The Brown et al. appliance is therefore not an appetite suppression device. Neither of these prior devices suppresses appetite by applying pressure to the roof of the mouth and the upper surface of the tongue.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a novel oral appliance device which effectively suppresses appetite. There is also a need for an appetite suppressing oral appliance device that can be worn without substantial discomfort and interference with speech. Additionally, a need exists for a weight control device and method that are safe and can decrease the appetite in a healthy manner. A need also exists for a device and method to help develop self control to modify eating habits without the use of medication, which leads to more likely permanent and healthy weight loss. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.

Oral appliance device and method for use thereof for appetite suppression


A plurality of cassettes, each having a plurality of wafers respectively having a first defect information, is selected. Each of the cassettes is then assigned to a corresponding tool having at least one reaction chamber, and the wafers are substantially equally assigned to the reaction chambers. A first process is then performed on each of the wafers in the reaction chamber. Finally, a first defect inspection process is performed on each of the wafers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of defect inspection, and more specifically, to an in-line defect inspection method for daily check.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the semiconductor manufacturing, some tiny particles and defects, which frequently reduce the performance of integrated circuits, are sometimes formed during various processes unavoidably. Therefore, different inspections are performed on semiconductor devices during the production in order to adjust production parameters, ensuring the reliability and yield of manufacturing processes by preventing the appearances of defects.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which represents a flow chart of semiconductor manufacturing according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of cassettes, C1, C2 . . . to C10, is provided, and each of the cassettes C1 to C10 comprises a plurality of wafers. Then the data of cassettes C1 to C10 is recorded in a process control server (not shown) by a process engineer, and the process control server activates the production procedure in which cassettes C1 to C10 are involved afterward. Based on the production procedure installed in the process control server, a plurality of processes P1 to Pn are performed on cassettes C1 to C10 to form various devices on surfaces of the wafers. Either one of processes P1 to Pn is a semiconductor process, such as a thin film deposition process, an ion implantation process, an etching process or a lithography process. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, tools 10a and 10b are utilized to perform process P1, tools 20a, 20b and 20c are utilized to perform process P2, and tool 30a is utilized to perform process Pn.
Generally, each manufacturing tool has its inspection procedure, such as a daily check procedure, in order to maintain the reliability and stability of manufacturing processes it performs. Please refer to FIG. 2, which represents a flow chart of a daily check procedure. As shown in FIG. 2, the daily check procedure comprises the following steps of:
step 40: start;
step 42: provide a bare wafer W;
step 44: perform a defect inspection process on the bare wafer W to obtain a first defect inspection information with the locations and number of defects on the surface of the bare wafer W;
step 46: install the bare wafer W into a manufacturing tool needing to be inspected, such as tool 20a, and perform process P2 on the bare wafer W;
step 48: perform a defect inspection process on the bare wafer W to obtain a second defect inspection information with the locations and number of defects on the surface of the bare wafer W;
step 50: compare the first defect inspection information with the second defect inspection information to determine whether the tool 20a can be used to perform process P2, such as by determining whether the difference of the numbers of defects on the bare wafer W provided in the first and second defect inspection information is within an allowable specification, i.e. less or equal to 30; and
step 52: end.
However, the cost of bare wafer, especially a 12″ wafer, is so high that the production cost would be severely increased if we use it for daily check. In addition, many integrated defects occur only after a series of processes and therefore can not be found on a bare wafer. As a result, the daily check procedure turns out to be ineffective. Moreover, the production tool, such as tool 20a, cannot simultaneously be inspected by the daily check procedure in FIG. 2 and perform manufacturing processes on product wafers. Therefore, in order to maintain the utilization of tool capacity at a certain level, the daily check procedure is rarely daily performed, leading to a inefficient monitor of the tool.
In addition to the inspection towards the tool, some defect inspection processes, such as defect inspection processes D1 and D2 shown in FIG. 1, are optionally performed to inspect the manufacturing processes in FIG. 1, ensuring the stability of the semiconductor manufacturing as well as the reliability of the product. Moreover, some cassettes among the cassettes C1 to C10, such as cassettes C3, C5, C6 and C10 in FIG. 1 for instance, are selected by the process control server as sampling cassettes to form a sample lot prior to the performance of the manufacturing processes on the cassettes C1 to C10, wherein wafers comprised in each of the sample cassettes are utilized to perform the in-line defect inspection method. Please refer to FIG. 3, which represents the flow chart of an in-line defect inspection method towards a manufacturing process, such as the process P2 in FIG. 1, according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 3, the in-line defect inspection method according to the prior art comprises the following steps of:
step 60: start;
step 62: receive a sampling cassette (for example, sampling cassette C3);
step 64: randomly install sampling cassette C3 into either one of the tools 20a, 20b or 20c and performing the process P2 on each of the wafers in the sampling cassette C3;
step 66: perform the defect inspection processes D2 on portions of the wafers in the sampling cassette C3 and determine whether the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers, such as the number of defects, are within an allowable specification, less than 100 for instance, in order to subsequently proceed either step 68, if the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers are within the allowable specification, or step 70, if the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers are out of the allowable specification;
step 68: perform a subsequent manufacturing process;
step 70: inform process engineers responsible for process P2; and
step 72: end.
As shown in FIG. 3, the operators randomly install the sampling cassettes C3, C5, C6 and C10, one at a time, into one or more not-in-production tools among tools 20a, 20b and 20c at the time of the installation. As a result, some tools may not be installed with any sampling cassette and therefore are not inspected. For example, tools 20a and 20b may be excluded from the defect inspection process in case that all of the sampling cassettes C3, C5, C6 and C10 are installed into tool 20c as a result of a coincidence.
An alternative solution to eliminate the disadvantage of the in-line defect inspection method revealed in FIG. 3 frequently adopted by operators is to perform a daily check by using product wafers. Please refer to FIG. 4, which represents the flow chart of the daily check by using product wafers according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 4, the daily check comprises the following steps of:
step 80: start;
step 82: randomly select an in-line cassette, i.e., cassette C1;
step 84: install the cassette C1 into a tool waiting for inspection, for example, tool 20a, and performing process P2 on each of the wafers in the cassette C1;
step 86: perform a defect inspection process on portions of the wafers in the cassette C1 and determine whether the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers, such as the number of defects, are within an allowable specification, less than 100 for instance, in order to subsequently proceed either step 88, if the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers are within the allowable specification, or step 90, if the characteristics of defects found on the inspected wafers are out of the allowable specification;
step 88: perform a subsequent manufacturing process;
step 90: inform process engineers responsible for process P2; and
step 92: end.
Generally, operators randomly choose two cassettes everyday to perform the daily check revealed in FIG. 4 on each of the tools utilized in semiconductor manufacturing. However, the chosen cassettes sometimes do not contain the defect information about previous processes since they are not necessarily sampling cassettes. Therefore, operators need to use a detector, such as a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to analyze defects in order to determine whether the inspected tool is abnormal. The yield rate may be lowered due to inadequate judgment of operator towards the inspected tool caused by the improper operation of the SEM. Moreover, the methods in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are performed by utilizing product wafers, which frequently leads to redundant inspection efforts. As a result, the production lead-time and labor cost are both increased.


A method is provided for analyzing and/or optimizing a cellular mobile telecommunications network and to an operation and maintenance center for a cellular mobile telecommunications network. The method includes providing of first data being indicative of a first telecommunication traffic condition for at least one of the cells of the telecommunications network, providing of second data being indicative of location information of the at least one of the cells, for providing of third data being indicative of location information of mobile telecommunication devices within the at least one of the cells, and determining a distribution of a telecommunication traffic condition within the at least one of the cells based on the first, second and third data.

Network planning for a cellular mobile telecommunications network, such as the GSM or UMTS systems, is a complex task. "The GSM System for Mobile Communications" written and published by M. B. Pautet and M. Mouly, 1992 edition, provides an overview concerning the considerations for network planning.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,352 shows a multilayer cellular mobile radio network with optimized frequency re-use plan and a method of optimizing frequency use when adding any microcell base station defining a given microcell that is part of a coverage area of a given macrocell which includes the step of allocating to said microcell a control frequency identical to a traffic frequency used in a macrocell immediately adjacent said given macrocell.
From WO 92/21182 a method is known for optimizing a mobile radio network which is in service, together with a device intended for this. According to that method, it is determined whether an error exists in the network, by monitoring the mobile radio network with an operations and maintenance center. If an error occurs, actual data is retrieved from the mobile radio network in order to calculate nominal data for optimizing the parameter settings in the mobile radio network. The device for carrying out this method is the operations and maintenance center itself.
Australian patent AU-A-20078/97 shows a method for optimising a mobile radio network. In accordance with this proposal a control loop is constructed which contains the operations and maintenance center (OMC) and the processor-controlled device (NPT), which is basically intended for the planning of radio networks. According to this proposal the device, which is a so-called Network Planning Tool, is thereby used as a network optimisation tool.
From the prior art planning solutions for specific capacity, coverage and business needs of a cellular mobile telecommunications network are known. For example the A 956 RNO network optimisation tool chain which is commercially available from Alcatel can be utilized for such purposes. This tool has the ability to determine the geometric contours of cells by using polygons (referred to as "Voronoi" polygons). A variety of other radio network optimisation (RNO) tools is available from other companies.
A common disadvantage of prior art RNO tools is that such tools enable network planning or optimization only at the level of granularity provided by the segmentation of the network into cells (cf. The 2000 GSM World Congress, 2 to 4 Feb. 2000 Cannes, Executive Conference Summary, "Case 1—Planning for Quality when Increasing Network Capacity", Yves Bellego, France Telecom Mobiles and Phillipe Keryer, Alcatel, France.)

Method for analyzing and / or optimizing a cellular mobile telecommunication network


The inventive device object of the present application is a Snow Blanket or Snow Pad which will melts away this unwanted snow off cars and from around cars as well as from stairs and walkways around homes and businesses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application describes a Snow Blanket or Snow Pad which generally relates to snow melting devices, and more specifically to a snow blanket or pad which will melt away this unwanted snow off cars and from around cars as well as from stairs and walkways around homes and businesses.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Snow melting blankets are well known in the art. Various Patents and Published Patent applications are in fact directed to snow blankets and melting devices. While developing the invention of the instant application independently the Inventor researched extensively the public record as well as the current market and the most relevant examples found in the search are mentioned in the Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) attached from anything on today's market.


An anti-whirl rotary drag bit including one or more cutters, wear knots or other support structures disposed on the flank of a bit profile in a normally cutter-devoid region of the profile adjacent the gage of the bit in the circumferential segment of the gage used as a bearing zone for the bit to ride against the side of the bore hole. Such flank cutters or other structures reduce wear of the bearing zone but, due to their placement, do not come into play except under certain drilling situations such as reaming or high rates of penetration wherein whirl tendencies resulting from cutting forces are not as pronounced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fixed cutter rotary drag bits for earth boring, and more particularly to improvements in bit design for so-called "anti-whirl" bits.
2. State of the Art
Fixed cutter rotary drag bits for subterranean earth boring have been employed for decades. It has been found that increasing the rotational speed of such drill bit has, for a given weight on bit, increased the rate of penetration of the drill string. However, increased rotational speed also has tended to decrease the life of the drill bit due to premature damage to and destruction of cutting elements, commonly polycrystalline diamond compacts (PDC's).
It has recently been recognized that cutting element destruction, particularly at higher rotational speeds, is at least in part attributable to a phenomenon known as "whirl" or "bit whirl." Radially directed centrifugal imbalance forces exist to some extent in every rotating drill bit and drill string. Such forces are in part attributable to mass imbalance and in part to dynamic forces generated by contact of the drill bit with the formation. In the latter instance, aggressive cutter placement and orientation creates a high tangential cutting force relative to the normal force and aggravates the imbalance. In any event, these imbalance forces tend to cause the drill bit to rotate or roll about the bore hole in a direction counter to the normal direction of rotation imparted to the bit during drilling. This counter-rotation is termed "whirl," and is a self-propagating phenomenon, as the side forces on the bit cause its center of rotation to shift to one side, after which there is an immediate tendency to shift again. Since cutting elements are designed to cut and to resist impact received in the normal direction of bit rotation (clockwise, looking down), contact of the cutting elements with the bore hole wall in a counter-clockwise direction due to whirl places stresses on the cutting elements for which they were never designed.
One solution to the problems caused by bit whirl has been to focus or direct the imbalance forces as a resultant side force vector to a particular side of the bit via changes in cutting element placement and orientation and bit mass location, and to cause the bit to ride on a low-friction bearing zone or pad on the gage of that side of the bit, thus substantially reducing the drill bit/bore hole wall tangential forces which induces whirl. This solution is disclosed in numerous permutations and variations in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,802; 4,932,484; 5,010,789 and 5,042,596, all assigned to Amoco Corporation of Chicago, Ill.
The above-referenced patents generally require that the low friction bearing zone or pad on the gage and adjacent bit profile or flank be devoid of cutters, and indeed many alternative bearing zone configurations are disclosed, including wear coatings, diamond stud inserts, diamond pads, rollers, caged ball bearings, etc. It has been suggested that the bearing zone on the bit gage may include cutting elements of different sizes, configurations, depths of cut and/or rake angles than the cutters located in the cutting zone of the bit, which extends over the bit face from the center thereof outwardly to the gage, except in the flank area of the face adjacent the bearing zone. However, it is represented in the prior art that such bearing zone cutters should generate lesser cutting forces than the cutters in the cutting zone of the bit so that the bearing zone will have a relatively lower coefficient of friction. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,802, Col. 5, lines 29-36; U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,596, Col. 4, lines 18-25.
While anti-whirl bits have been built according to the aforementioned designs, the use of a cutter-devoid bearing zone and adjacent profile has resulted in excessive wear of the bearing zone as well as of the cutters on the flank of the bit, which shortens bit life even when cutting elements still have significant life remaining. This problem manifests itself most dramatically when the bit has to ream to reach the bottom of the hole.
Therefore, in order to take full advantage of the anti-whirl bit concept, it would be desirable to possess an anti-whirl drill bit having cutters placed on the bit profile adjacent the bearing zone of the bit in such a manner that the reaming capabilities and wear resistance of the bit to high side loads is enhanced without adversely affecting the anti-whirl tendencies of the bit.


A method for managing the computer systems of a private network from a remote physical location in a manner that does not require the installation of agents on the computer systems of the private network, or the reconfiguration of the firewall of the private network to permit access into the private network.

Many organizations have several computer systems connected to a private network. These computer systems could be geographically co-located (for example, a private network connecting several computers located within one office) or geographically separated (for example, a private network connecting several computers located at different, remote offices).
Managing the computer systems of a private network from a remote physical location has been achieved. However, achieving greater security and overall efficiencies in managing these computer systems from a remote site is a continuing challenge.
Existing methods for managing computer systems from remote physical locations have various inefficiencies associated with them. Two main sources of inefficiency are:                1. Existing methods for managing computer systems from a remote site are agent-based methods: on each computer system that is to be controlled, a software component (an "agent") needs to be installed to enable remote access. Deploying or installing agents on all of the computer systems of the private network translates directly into significant monetary consequences, both in software costs and labor. Dispatching a technical person to install and configure these agents may even be involved, which would compound the inefficiency of agent-based methods.        2. In order to protect the computer systems of private networks, firewalls are usually used to allow only certain access to the private networks. Since the methods of the prior art require that the remote control session be initiated from outside the firewall of the private network, the firewalls should be reconfigured to allow the remote management packets through certain ports into the private network. This reconfiguration represents another source of inefficiency.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a method for managing the computer systems of a private network from a remote physical location in a manner that does not require the installation of agents on the computer systems of the private network, or the reconfiguration of the firewalls of the private networks to permit access into the private networks.
The present invention responds to the aforementioned desires.

Method for providing remote management of computer systems


Systems and methods for switching a computing device from a low-power state to a high-power state are provided. In some aspects, a method, implemented on a power management processing unit of the computing device, includes receiving, while the computing device is in the low-power state, a first audio signal. The method also includes verifying the first audio signal based on an audio signal key. The method also includes providing, in response to verifying the first audio signal, instructions for switching the computing device from the low-power state to the high-power state.

Many computing devices include multiple power states. In an off state, the computing device is completely powered off; in a low-power state a display a display and/or audio output of the device may be disabled, but may be configured to be enabled quickly if an input (e.g., a button press) is received; and in a high power state the display and/or audio output of the device may be active. To switch from a low-power state to a high-power state, a user of the device may need to press a button.

Switching a computing device from a low-power state to a high-power state


In printing of a bonding material in which a board is supported from a component mounting-side surface on which a plurality of components are mounted, and a bonding material is printed on a working-side surface which is a surface opposed to the component mounting-side surface of the board, an edge portion region of the board supported by a board transporting unit is included in a support region of the board during the printing so as to enlarge the support region of the board having the components mounted thereon in high density and to achieve reliable and high precision printing of the bonding material.

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and method for a bonding material, in which a board is supported from its component mounting-side surface on which a plurality of components are mounted while a bonding material of components is printed on its working surface that is a surface opposed to the component mounting-side surface of the board.
Higher integration is required from electronic circuits, which are formed by mounting a plurality of components or electronic components on a board, as electronic equipment incorporating such electronic circuits has higher performance and smaller size. Accordingly, in recent years, in order to make efficient use of the surface area of the board, the electronic components are mounted on both sides of the board, i.e., double-sided mounting is performed (see, e.g., Japanese unexamined patent publication No. H04-97587 or No. 2003-258419).
Moreover, such mounting of the electronic components is generally achieved by a hot-air reflow method which is composed of the steps of: printing a solder paste, which is a bonding material, at component mounting positions on a board (printed circuit board); then disposing electronic components on the component mounting positions; and melting the solder paste by such means as blowing hot air to the entire board so as to conduct soldering.
Moreover, in the case where the double-sided mounting is performed, one side of the board has respective electronic components mounted thereon through the steps of: printing a solder paste on the side of the board by means of screen printing and the like; disposing respective electronic components through the solder paste; and reflowing, after which the other side has respective electronic components mounted thereon through the same procedures.
A description is herein given of the procedures of a conventional method for feeding a solder paste to the other side when such double-sided mounting is performed, i.e., the procedures of a conventional screen printing method, with reference to schematic explanatory views in FIGS. 22A, 22B and 22C.
First, FIG. 22A shows a board 502 with electronic components 501 mounted on its one surface in the state of being transported to a printing position while the one surface faces down and opposite end portions on the one surface are supported by belt conveyer transportation rails 503a and 503b.
After that, as shown in FIG. 22B, at the printing position A, a support block 504 for supporting the lower surface of the board 502 so as to support the board 502 is on standby, while above the support block 504, a screen 506 whose periphery is supported by a screen frame 505 is also on standby. In this state, at the printing position A, the board 502 supported by the respective transportation rails 503a and 503b are transported in between the screen 506 and the support block 504.
Upon this transportation, as shown in FIG. 22C, the support block 504 is elevated so that the support block 504 supports the lower surface of the board 502 and the supported board 502 is lifted. The lifted board 502 is brought into the state that its upper surface is in contact with a plate surface portion of the screen 506, after which elevation of the support block 504 is stopped and the contact state is retained. It is to be noted that although the lower surface of the board 502 has a plurality of the electronic components 501 mounted thereon, a recess portion 550 is formed on the upper surface of the support block 504 depending on the mounting position and shape of the respective electronic components 501, thereby allowing reliable support of the board 502 by the support block 504.
After that, as show in FIG. 22C, the upper surface of the screen 506 which is in contact with the upper surface of the board 502 is scrabbled by a squeegee unit 507 so that a solder paste 508 is fed to the board 502 through the screen 506, by which printing of the solder paste is conducted.
Herein, a schematic plane view of the one surface (i.e., the lower surface) of the board 502 is shown in FIG. 23. As shown in FIG. 23, the board 502 is in an almost square shape, and along the inner outline of the almost square shape, slit-like-hole portions 509 are formed. The slit-like-hole portions 509 are formed so that after completion of mounting of the electronic components 501, a plurality of slim connecting portions 512 which connect an internal component portion 510 and an outline portion 511 (generally referred to as an edge portion) are formed to make it easy for the product portion 510 (electronic circuit) to be cut off and separated from the outline portion 511. It is to be noted that the region surrounded with the respective slit-like-hole portions 509 is a component mounting region (product portion 510), on which a plurality of the electronic components 501 are mounted.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 23, respective edge portion regions 513a, 513b in the vertical direction in the drawing are the regions supported by the belt conveyer transportation rails 503a and 503b shown in FIG. 22A. The support block 504 can support the board 502 in the regions other than these edge portion regions 513a, 513b, and a width dimension W1 of the support block 504 is a dimension obtained by subtracting width dimensions of the respective edge portion regions 513a, 513b from a width dimension W2 of the board 502.
In recent years, high-density mounting of the electronic components 501 on the board 502 is more and more progressing, along with which the number of the electronic components 501 mounted on the board 502 increases and the shape and size of the respective electronic components 501 to be mounted becomes of great variety. Further, the support block 504 having the above-described structure is required to have the recess portion 550 depending on the shape and size of the respective electronic components 501, which increases the forming places of support faces 551 for supporting respective non-mounting regions 514a, 514b, 514c in the board 502. However, in the case where operations such as the screen printing are reliably performed, while it is necessary to maintain the board 502 to a near-horizontal position, forming the recess portion 550 and a plurality of the support faces 551 having the size and shape in such variety on the support block 504 makes it more difficult to maintain the board 502 to a near-horizontal position in terms of its processing precision and the like.
Further, there is a support block in which, for reliable retention of the board 502, suction holes are formed on the respective (or any) support faces 551 of the support block 504 and the supported board 502 is sucked through the suction holes so that the board 502 is sucked and held by the support faces 551. Further, in response to demands for high-density mounting which exhibits more and more progress in recent years, the number of the respective electronic components 501 to be mounted on the board 502 or its mounting density are increasing, so that the area of the non-mounting regions 514a, 514b and 514c, which are the regions for supporting the board 502 in the state of being in contact with the board 502, is on the considerable decrease. Under these circumstances, it becomes difficult to form the suction holes on the respective support faces 551, which in turn makes it difficult to reliably suck and retain the supported board 502.
Moreover, in order to respond to retention of the board 502 having a variety of electronic components 501 mounted thereon, there has been devised a method for supporting the board 502 with the support block, in which a soft layer is formed on the upper face (support face) of the support block, and the electronic components 501 in contact with the soft layer are supported by deforming the soft layer. However, such a method is effective when all the electronic components 501 to be mounted are relatively small in thickness to the extent that the soft layer can be sufficiently deformed. Therefore, in the case where the respective electronic components 501 are varied in thickness, i.e., in the case where some electronic components 501 are larger in thickness than other electronic components 501, the soft layer cannot be sufficiently deformed, thereby causing a problem in that reliable support of the board 502 cannot be achieved.
Further, in the board 502 whose one side already has components mounted thereon, thermal hysteresis caused by the loading of the components often generate warpage on the board 502 as shown in a virtual line in FIG. 22A, and further in the case where a fewer number of the suction points are left on the product portion 510, there is a problem in that warpage straightening and retaining effects on the board 502, which are obtained by sucking and holding the board 502 so as to bring the board 502 in close contact with the support faces 551 on the support block 504, cannot be expected.
Moreover, even in the case where the warpage straightening and retention effects by the support block 504 can be obtained, if an adhesion force between the screen 506 and the upper surface of the board 502 is too large to achieve sufficient screen release when the support block 504 is lowered and the board 502 is separated (released) from the screen 506 after printing, the screen 506 is gradually separated from the board 502 while partially being stretched downward as shown in FIG. 24. In such a case, at the time when a portion which sticks to the screen 506 till the last is separated from the board 502, the screen 506 vibrates in the vertical direction due to the action of the separation, which may cause printing results to have bleeding and dropout failures, thereby hindering high-precision printing.

Printing apparatus and method for bonding material


A hard disk drive which has a housing that can attenuate noise. The housing may include a first layer that is attached to a second layer and a third layer located between the first and second layers. The layers may be designed to create a transfer function that attenuates, or rolls off, acoustic noise within a range of frequencies.

The present invention relates to a hard disk drive that has a laminated housing which attenuates noise generated by the drive.
Hard disk drives contain a plurality of transducers that are coupled to magnetic disks. The transducers can read and write information by magnetizing and sensing the magnetic fields of the disks, respectively. The disks are rotated by a spindle motor that is mounted to a base plate.
The transducers are typically integrated into heads that are mounted to corresponding flexure arms. The flexure arms are attached to an actuator arm that is mounted to the base plate. The actuator arm includes a voice coil motor that can move the transducers across the surfaces of the disks. The voice coil motor allows the transducers to access information located within different radial tracks of the disks. The disks, spindle motor and actuator arm are all enclosed by a cover that is attached to the base plate.
The spindle motor and voice coil motor generate acoustic noise that is transmitted into the environment through the cover and the base plate of the drive. The spindle motor may also create vibration that is converted into acoustic noise and emitted by the disk drive. Additionally, the rotating disks create a flow of air that may generate fluid perturbations and resultant acoustic noise.
Acoustic noise is undesirable particularly when the disk drive is assembled into a consumer product such as a computer or a digital video recorder. It would therefore be desirable to provide a hard disk drive that attenuates the noise generated by the drive. It would be desirable to attenuate the noise without significantly increasing the size of the hard disk drive or the cost of producing the drive.
One embodiment of the present invention is a hard disk drive which has a housing that can attenuate noise. The housing may include a first layer that is attached to a second layer and a third layer located between the first and second layers.

Acoustic insulator for controlling noise generated in a mass storage device


The present invention is directed to an improved system and methodology for generating ink/media transforms. A preferred methodology comprises one or more of the following steps: selecting the ink type; selecting the color set; selecting the media type; selecting the ink saturation level; generating a set of “linearization” color samples, or “ramps”; measuring the linearization ramps; generating a set of “target” color samples, or “patches”; measuring the target patches; screening the target patches and generating the boundary surface of a printer's gamut; implementing an under-color removal (UCR) and black generation (BG); and building the Printer Profile, Transforms and ICC Color Profiles.

The basic problem of color management lies in translating a color as described by one device (source) for use by another device (target) that will reproduce it. The target device may or may not describe color in the same way as the source device.
For example, say an end user selects a certain color for an object within a graphics application. When the graphic image is produced on a printer, the selected color should match, as closely as possible, the original color. The source color is described by the graphics application as a set of values: for example, in L*a*b color space the selected color might be L=50, a=60, b=80, a shade of red. If the target device, the printer, described color in the same way, and had available that particular shade of red in its ink set, all would be well. A color correspondence, or match, between the source and target devices has been effected perfectly. The problem, of course, is that the printer is very unlikely to actually have the color of ink requested. Color printers generally rely on a very limited set of ink colors to reproduce images, most often four color inks (CMYK) but sometimes as many as twelve (C3M3YKROGB) or more color inks. Since the target device doesn't have ink that matches the specified color, it must attempt to reproduce the color using one or another combination of inks from the limited set of colors it has available.
Therein lies the problem of color management: How does the printer determine how much of each of the available colors of ink to use in reproducing the specific source color? This problem can be subdivided into two smaller, more manageable problems:
1) When known quantities of ink from the available ink set are printed together, what colors result? Characterizing the range of colors that are reproducible can solve this problem by the target device. The device characterization entails printing and measuring a large number of sample colors for each set of ink colors and type of media used. The large data set thus generated must be post-processed to reduce the data set overall and to improve the quality of the data in best representing the gamut; and
2) By knowing the colors that result from mixing the inks in various combinations, how can solve the reverse problem of determining how much of each ink to use for a specified source color? Developing a computational model that translates, or transforms, the description of the color can solve this problem by the source device into a description of the color for the target device, or printer.
To solve these problems, a color management system requires three components: a reference color space, device profiles, and a color-matching engine.
The reference color space is one of the CIE-defined models (CIEXYZ, CIELAB, etc.). The reference color space (FIG. 1) is a family of mathematical models that describe color in terms of the three primary constituents that describe normal human color vision.
A device profile is a representation of how the color produced by a particular device, be it a scanner (input device), monitor (display device), or printer (output device), deviates from a color norm. For example, to profile a scanner, we scan a printed target containing known CIE color values, then compare the RGB values produced by the scanner. The deviation between target values and actual values are then noted and saved in the device profile. The deviation values are then used to make adjustments.
The color-matching engine does the work of adjusting colors for specific devices so that the color produced is consistent with the color requested. The engine needs both a source profile and a target profile. The source profile is typically the profile of the monitor on which an image is created, or the scanner on which an image is captured. The target profile is that of the printer. The color-matching engine evaluates the device-specific colors generated by a source device (e.g., monitor or scanner), usually RGB values, to determine the reference color space values (e.g., CIElab), then converts those reference color values into the device-specific process colors (e.g., CMYK, C2M2YK, CMYKROGB) of the target device, or printer.
A chief obstacle in successful color conversion is the difference in device color gamut. A device color gamut is the range of colors that the device is able to produce (FIG. 2). To specify the process of translation of an image to the color gamut of a destination device one uses the concept of rendering intent. This concept specifies the color gamut-matching strategy. According to the ICC specifications there are four rendering intents: relative calorimetric matching, perceptual matching and saturation matching and absolute colorimetric matching. In relative calorimetric matching, colors that are common to both devices (i.e., an input device and an output device are rendered exactly, while colors that fall outside the gamut of the target device are adjusted (or mapped) to the next-closest equivalent. Relative Colorimetric rendering intent is suitable for precise color matching. In perceptual rendering intent, every color may be adjusted, while overall color relationships are preserved. This method is successful because the human eye is sensitive to detecting color relationships but is less sensitive to detecting absolute colors. In the case of Saturation rendering intent the colors are pushed towards the gamut boundary such that the maximum saturation has been achieved. This type of color matching is suitable for graphics presentation. In the case of the Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent the native white point of the source image is been preserved instead of mapping to D50 relative. The product of mapping from a device-independent color space (Profile Connection Space, i.e. CIELab, RGB) to a device-dependent color representation of a printer or scanner is called a transform. A transform is basically a look-up table (LUT) that contains a large data set, or matrix, of color values (FIG. 3) representing the gamut of the target device (i.e., its range of reproducible colors) as applied to the reference color space (e.g., CIElab) for a particular ink/media combination. The LUT includes a data set that represents the reference color space and the matrix of color values representing the target device gamut is organized in relation to it. FIG. 4 illustrates a 6×6×6 3D matrix of color values represented as an exploded color cube. Matrix color data that must be interpolated from measured target patch data is shown as gray faces on the mini-cubes.
In operation, a source color is specified by an input device (e.g., a graphics application) and transmitted to an output device (e.g. a server/printer) for rendering an image. The source color (e.g., RGB=100,0,0) is first converted to the reference color space and then applied to the transform LUT to convert it to the applicable output color value. If an exact match is found in the matrix of color values contained in the LUT, that value is used to render the color in the target device's color space. Specifically, this involves the selection of the percentages of ink available in the color set (e.g., CMYK) needed to most accurately reproduce the specified source color. If an exact match is not found in the transform LUT, a transform value is created for the requested source color. This is done by the target device's operating software, which performs an interpolation from the closest set of color values in the LUT to the specified source color to render the output color.
An ICC profile is a description of the color rendering abilities of a particular target device, or printer. The ICC profile defines the gamut, or color range, of a target device, as well as how the device distorts color. ICC profiles make it possible to describe the color reproduction capabilities of devices manufactured by countless different vendors in a standard, portable format.
When an ICC workflow is used, a graphics application (e.g., Adobe PhotoShop) sends color data to the target device (e.g., server/printer) in the form of color separations: one separation for each process color used. Since the ICC profiles of the various devices have ensured that all necessary color correction has been applied, the target device, such as a printer sold under Assignee's trademark ColorMark, and in particular, Assignee's 8-color or 12-color printers, does not make any changes to the color data as it is processed to render a printed image.
Assignee's current state of the art printers create ICC profiles in the same manner as creating a transform. Both the transforms and ICC profiles may be created simultaneously, regardless of which type of color management the user prefers. An ICC profile may have a file extension of *.ICM, while another custom creatable transform may have an extension of *.CX. The end user incorporates generated ICC profiles into their ICC workflow by uploading the ICC files via an FTP link between the print server and their workstation.
Applicant has found that the state of the art has certain deficiencies, such as the fact that only a few graphics applications could use the ICC profiles created by the present assignee's state of the art system, sold under the trademark ColorMark+, especially with regard to extended process colors. This is because the ICC standard calls for the application to generate the color separations used by the target device (i.e., one separation for each process color used) and few graphics applications recognize more than four-color (CMYK) or six-color (CMYKRO) printers. In these cases, the user may be constrained to create images for printing using RGB color space and the transforms created by the present assignee's state of the art system, although the user could configure the desired printer, such as the present assignee's ColorMark+ printer, to use only 4-color or 6-color ink sets. Also, the ICC standard does not accommodate the use of spot colors: any spot color chosen in the application must be given its own color separation, which will not be understood by the system server.
Because ICC profiles are platform-independent (not to be confused with device-independent), some vendors have produced third-party software for creating ICC profiles of a given target device. The profile-creation process usually consists of printing a set of color samples for the target device, measuring the samples colormetrically, and then comparing the device's actual values with the desired values for the color samples. This approach for creating ICC profiles is less than desirable for two reasons. First, in order for profiling to work correctly, the device must produce its output without any additional color correction applied. However, for example, the print server marketed and sold under the trademark ColorSpan always applies color correction to printed output, except when ICC profiles have been selected. Second, even when using an ICC workflow, a corresponding custom transform must be selected on the server.
Therefore a new system and methodology for creating improved custom transforms is desired.

Method for generating customized ink/media transforms


Disclosed are a scheduling method and a related apparatus. A computing apparatus in a server can be chosen to implement a computation request, thereby improving the running efficiency of the server.

At present, neural networks are the basis of many artificial intelligence applications. With further expansion of the application scope of neural networks, a variety of neural network models are stored by using servers or cloud computing services, and operations are performed according to operating requests submitted by users. Faced with numerous neural network models and large batches of requests, a technical problem of how to improve operating efficiency of servers is to be solved by those skilled in the art.

CAMBRICON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION LIMITED


An air cooler assembly includes an air cooler having an air inlet manifold, an air outlet manifold, and a heat exchanger core connected at a first end thereof to the air inlet manifold and at a second end thereof to the air outlet manifold. A water separator includes a chamber having a first end and an opposed second end, an air inlet proximate the first end and connected to the air outlet manifold, and an air outlet proximate the second end. A water outlet is formed in a bottom surface of the chamber, and a channel is positioned beneath the water outlet. A condensate outlet is positioned on a bottom surface of the channel. A helical blade has a first end and a second end, and is positioned within the chamber between the air inlet and the air outlet.

An air cooler, for example a charge air cooler, which may also be referred to as an intercooler or an aftercooler, may be used on engines, such as diesel engines, to cool engine air that has passed through the compressor (e.g., turbocharger or supercharger) before it enters the intake manifold and cylinders of the engine.
Turbo chargers compress air to increase power and efficiency. To further increase power and meet emission standards, that air needs to be cooled. This hot air may contain large quantities of moisture vapor which, as it condenses, contributes to corrosion, scale build-up, washing out of lubricant and possible freezing issues.
It would be desirable to provide an air cooler that reduces or overcomes some or all of the difficulties inherent in prior known devices. Particular advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, those who are knowledgeable or experienced in this field of technology, in view of the following disclosure of the invention and detailed description of certain embodiments.
Particular objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, those who are knowledgeable or experienced in this field of technology, in view of the following disclosure of the invention and detailed description of certain preferred embodiments.


The present invention provides an image display method for quickly displaying animation sequences corresponding to a keyword. The image display method displays a keyword and a still picture of one screen of an animation sequence representing the keyword on a screen, and when one of the keywords is designated, the animation sequences corresponding to the designated keyword are quickly displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of displaying animation.
2. Description of the Related Art
When different animation sequences are displayed in multiple windows on a display screen, an object can be viewed from various angles simultaneously, or a desired animation sequence can be retrieved quickly, and various other advantages can be obtained. Means for displaying a plurality of animation sequences on the same screen according to the prior art displays each animation sequence in a separate window as shown in FIG. 12 of the accompanying drawings, and a method of controlling such a display disposes control buttons on a 1:1 basis for each animation sequence.
However, these multiple animation sequences have no link between them as far as user operation is concerned, and the user must designate a desired animation sequence and view each one individually. In other words, it has not been possible for the user to simultaneously view a plurality of animation sequences with a certain synchronous relationship between them, or to view associated animation sequences by designating a keyword associated with a certain document or data. When a plurality of animation sequences represent a condition of driving a car, for example, these animation sequences need to show views from outside the car or from a driver's point of view so as to clearly show the operation of the car, its performance and appearance, and so forth.
According to the prior art, only one reproduction button is provided for controlling the animation, and the user must fast-forward the animation to reproduce the desired portion from a series of animation sequences. The method shown in FIG. 12 has a feature that the user can freely set the portions which he wants to view. Considering future applications where animated information will be supplied great amounts, however, it will be necessary for suppliers of animated information to also provide a method of quickly accessing a desired animation sequence in the sense of an information filter.
Though the prior art technology shown in FIG. 12 can certainly display a plurality of animation sequences, control keys are merely provided for each animation sequence, and these animation sequences are displayed quite independently of each other. Further, each set of control keys merely controls the reproduction, stop, fast-forward and rewind of the respective animation sequence regardless of its content. In other words, it has not been possible for the user to retrieve the contents of these animation sequences in advance.
In the future, with the advent of B-ISDN (Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network), development of workstations having a high processing capacity, etc., which will ensure easy handling of multi-media systems, is expected. Therefore so the display of a plurality of animation sequences with mutual linkage will become possible. Accordingly, a method of accomplishing such a display will become necessary, and a method which enables the user to quickly watch a desired portion or portions from among large quantities of animated information will be desired.

Image display method for displaying a scene in an animation sequence


A stereo camera device detecting a distance to a subject includes two cameras and a calculation unit that calculates a distance to the subject based on the images acquired by the two cameras. The calculation unit includes an image processing unit that searches for corresponding points of the images acquired by the two cameras and calculates two parallaxes based on differences in positional coordinates of the corresponding points on the images, an offset value calculation unit that calculates parallax offset values across the images based on the two parallaxes calculated by the image processing unit at least at two time points, and a statistical processing unit that performs a statistical analysis on a distribution of the parallax offset values and determines an optimum value of the parallax offset values, the optimum value being used as a correction parameter.

There has been known a so-called stereo camera device that measures a distance between a formed image and a subject by disposing plural imaging devices such as cameras for forming an image of a subject. A parallel stereo camera includes two cameras fixed at different positions. A parallel stereo camera device includes two fixed cameras separated from each other by a predetermined distance which is referred to as a base line length. Those two cameras are fixed in a manner such that the optical axes of the cameras are parallel to each other. The stereo camera device is provided to determine the distance to the subject by converting the parallax between a subject image acquired by the first camera and a subject image acquired by the second camera into the distance using a specific parameter in an optical system.
FIG. 7 illustrates an optical system of a conventional stereo camera device. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the stereo camera device 700 includes two cameras 1R and 1L. Those two cameras 1R and 1L are disposed so as to be separated from each other by a predetermined base line length B. Those cameras 1R and 1L include respective image sensors (imaging devices) and imaging lenses (imaging optical systems). The image sensors (imaging devices) are made of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor or the like. The imaging lenses (imaging optical systems) are provided for forming an image of the subject in an imaging field on an imaging surface of the image sensors (imaging devices).
A method of measuring the distance using two cameras disposed in parallel is described with reference to FIG. 7. In the stereo camera device 700 of FIG. 7, it is assumed that the camera 1R having a focal point distance f, an optical center OR, and an imaging surface SR is disposed in a manner such that the optical axis of the camera 1R extends in the direction parallel to the vertical direction of the sheet of FIG. 7, and that the camera 1L having the same focal point distance f, an optical center OL, and an imaging surface SL is disposed in a manner such that the camera 1L is in parallel to the camera 1R and is separated from the camera 1R by a distance B. By having this configuration, an image of a subject X which is separated from the optical center OR of the camera 1R by a distance d in the optical axis direction is formed at a position PR on the imaging surface SR of the camera 1R, the position PR being the cross point between the straight line passing through the X and optical center OR (hereinafter referred to as a straight line X-OR).
On the other hand, in the camera 1L, the image of the subject X is formed at a position PL on the imaging surface SL of the camera 1L. Further, a straight line passing through the optical center OL of the camera 1L and being parallel to the straight line X-OR is expressed in a dotted line as illustrated in FIG. 7. Further, the cross point between the dotted line and the imaging surface SL is expressed as a position PR′ and the distance between the position PL and the position PR′ is expressed as a distance p. In this case, the position PR′ in the camera 1L corresponds to the position PR in the camera 1R, and the distance p denotes a positional shifted amount of the same subject X on the imaging surfaces of the two cameras. When the distance p is defined as the parallax, since the triangle: X-OR-OL is similar to the triangle: OL-PR′-PL, the distance d from the optical center to the subject X is obtained based on the distance p by using a formula: d=B×f/p provided that the base line length B and the focal point distance f are known.
In many cases, the stereo camera devices are installed in a moving body such as a vehicle and used for measuring a distance. Due to this usage, the stereo camera devices are subjected to continuous vibrations and temperature changes. As described with reference to FIG. 7, in order to correctly measure (calculate) the distance, it is assumed that the optical axes of the two cameras in the parallel stereo camera device are parallel to each other. Therefore, when the parallelism of the optical axes is out of alignment (i.e., the optical axis of one camera rotates relative to the optical axis of the other camera, so that the optical axes are not parallel to each other), a positional misalignment of the imaging sensor in the lateral direction relative to the optical centers may displace (shift) the position where the image of the subject is to be formed in the parallax direction. Such misalignment of the optical system may cause a serious error in the distance measurement. This error is known as a "parallax offset". As described with reference to FIG. 7, the parallax offset directly influences the parallax and degrades the accuracy of the distance measurement.
To prevent the degradation of the accuracy of the distance measurement, it is necessary to accurately adjust a parameter in the manufacturing process. However, due to vibrations during moving of the vehicle and time-dependent changes in the distortion of the vehicle body, temperature change and the like, the misalignment may occur. To overcome the misalignment, namely in order to maintain the accuracy of the positional relationship between the two cameras in the stereo camera device, there may be one method of adjusting (correcting) the device by using a test chart which is an image having a known distance from the device after the shipment (sales) of the stereo camera device. However, during the adjustment (correction) using the test chart, the stereo camera device may not be used. Namely, when this method is used, availability of the stereo camera device may be greatly reduced.
To overcome the inconvenience of the method, there have been proposed several methods in which the adjustment (correction) is made by using a subject in a scene while moving without using the test chart, the subject having a known feature (e.g., a white lane having a known distance, a traffic signal, and a utility pole). For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-341458 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique in which, to detect the misalignment of the stereo camera device in the installation direction, the figures of static subjects are memorized first and a static subject is recognized by comparing the memorized data. Then, the parallax offset is calculated based on the moved distance measured by a velocity sensor or the like and the distance to the recognized static subject. Further, Japanese Patent No. 3436074 (Patent Document 2) discloses an in-vehicle stereo camera device that performs a correction process based on images of the same static subjects disposed at plural positions and distances between the plural positions. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-176090 (Patent Document 3) describes an environment recognition device that detects a subject based on an imaged image and determines a surrounding environment. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-288233 (Patent Document 4) describes a technique of correcting the tilt of an image imaged by a camera.

Stereo camera device, correction method, and program


A system, method, and device for tracking motion across a surface by creating an interference pattern by reflecting light from the surface. There is produced, as a result of sensor moving across the surface, at least one signal pattern corresponding to a detection of a dimension of the interference pattern. This detected dimension is associated with an assumed dimensional value to determine a distance traveled by the sensor.

The traditional computer navigational device uses an interior rolling ball to track its motion across a surface. The optical mouse was developed in response to problems with the common roller-ball mouse. An optical mouse does not have moving parts, but instead contains a sensor array arranged to take successive images of the surface supporting the mouse. Each image of the surface is compared to the proceeding image, and from this comparison a system can determine how far the mouse has moved. This system may not always operate effectively if the imaged surface is smooth.
Such devices use the constructive and destructive interference of the electromagnetic waves to form patterns of high and low intensity areas called speckle patterns. The contrast and size of these patterns may take various forms dependent upon, among other things, the coherency or lack of coherency of the electromagnetic waves as well as the arrangement of the device.

Tracking motion using an interference pattern

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


When the trailing edge of a recording sheet is released from a nip of a first pair of rollers which hold and convey the recording sheet, on the upstream side in the conveyance path, a variance of electric power for driving the first pair of rollers is detected, and image data to be outputted to the print head is shifted to the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the recording sheet, so that the print head is driven. As a result, it is possible to prevent the positional shift of image due to the conveyance error of the recording sheet caused when the recording sheet is released from the nip.

Conventionally, in recording apparatuses, such as printers, copying machines and facsimiles, there are provided as conveyance means for conveying a recording sheet as a recording medium, a conveyance roller, a pinch roller which generates a conveying force by pressing the recording sheet against the conveyance roller, and means for generating a pressing force required by the pinch roller, and the like. Such conveyance means conveys the recording sheet supplied from a paper supplier to a recording area where recording is performed by a print head. The conveyance means generally includes two roller pairs at the front and back of the recording area, so that the recording sheet is held by each of the roller pairs and conveyed. Thereby, it is possible to precisely convey the recording sheet in the recording area, and to assure a predetermined tension to the recording sheet during conveyance so that a wide range of the recording sheet can be maintained in a flat state in the recording area.
FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B depict views for showing a positional relationship between the conveyance roller 36 and the pinch roller 37 that convey the recording sheet. As shown in FIG. 12B, the conveyance roller 36 has a length corresponding to the width of the recording sheet which is conveyed. On the other hand, the pinch roller 37 is provided with a plurality of rollers of short length, which are freely rotatable with respect to a shaft 371.
In this configuration, when the trailing edge of the recording sheet is released from its holding position by the conveyance roller 36 and the pinch roller 37, the pinch roller 37 is moved to the side of the conveyance roller 36 by a distance equivalent to the thickness of the recording sheet held by the pinch roller 37 at that time. The recording sheet is pushed by the urging force of the pinch roller 37, so as to be excessively conveyed. In this way, when the recording sheet is released from its holding position by the pinch roller 37, it is always conveyed by an amount which is larger than a predetermined amount. In accordance with this excessive conveyance, the conveyance roller 36 is forced to also be rotated by an amount corresponding to the excessive conveyance. This causes a conveyance error of the recording sheet consequently and shifting the dot positions in a recorded image. This results in image quality deterioration.
In order to cope with the above described conveyance error, one could envision, for example, that a brake could suppress the excessive conveyance rotation of the conveyance roller 36 when the recording sheet is released from the nip. However, this configuration causes a raise in the driving motor grade to compensate for the effect that load increase in torque load to drive the actual conveyance roller.
In order to solve the above described problems, there is disclosed a technique in which the nip position, when the trailing edge of the recording sheet passes the roller pair, is obtained on the basis of a change in the rotation state of rollers before and after the trailing edge of the recording sheet passes the roller pair, and in which the image is corrected on the basis of the nip position information (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-254736).
However, in the above described prior art, it may be difficult to accurately detect the nip position, in the case where the rotation of the conveyance roller is not kept constant. Hence, it becomes necessary to accurately detect the nip position in order to steadily provide a high quality image. Further, a simple method could make it possible to accurately detect the passage of the trailing edge of the recording sheet through the nip position and to thereby eliminate the conveyance error of the recording sheet, as a result of which the image quality could remain high.

Recording apparatus and control method thereof