A hydrostatic transmission assembly includes a first gerotor motor, a pump housing, a first variable displacement pump, a second gerotor motor, and a second variable displacement pump. The first gerotor motor includes a first output shaft aligned along a first axis. The pump housing connects to and contacts the first gerotor motor. The first variable displacement pump includes a first driven shaft mounted to the pump housing and aligned along a second axis, the second axis being generally perpendicular to the first axis (the first output shaft axis). The first variable displacement pump is in fluid communication with the first gerotor motor via passages in the pump housing. The second gerotor motor includes a second output shaft generally aligned along or generally parallel to the first axis. The second gerotor motor is connected to the pump housing on an opposite side of the pump housing as the first gerotor motor. The second variable displacement pump includes a second driven shaft mounted to the pump housing and aligned generally parallel to the second axis. The variable displacement pump is in fluid communication with the second gerotor motor via passages in the pump housing.

Hydraulically controlled gear driven drive axels are an efficient way of controlling the speed and direction of land vehicles, such as walk behind and ride-on lawnmowers, ATV, and tractors. Some known hydraulically controlled drive units include high reduction mechanical gearing that can compromise the relative smoothness of the control of the vehicle. In addition, these drive units may be inherently limited in the amount of ground engaging power, and thus unable to put more than a limited amount of the engine's horsepower into ground engaging tasks. This affects control, accuracy and longevity of the transaxle as well as compromising the vehicle's performance and otherwise limiting the vehicles applications.
Other known ground engaging transaxles are substantial in design and weight. Piston powered pumped units, while adaptable, have their own requirements and restrictions including the need for separate motors or the need of an associated gear transmission to apply power to the ground. While these known drive systems are functional, their compromise in cost and performance of each design is apparent.

Hydraulic transaxle for garden care vehicle


The present invention provides a generalizable single-source sol-gel precursor capable of introducing a wide range of functionalities to metal oxides such as silica. The sol-gel precursor facilitates a one-molecule, one-step approach to the synthesis of metal-silica hybrids with combinations of biological, catalytic, magnetic, and optical functionalities. The single-source precursor also provides a flexible route for simultaneously incorporating functional species of many different types. The ligands employed for functionalizing the metal oxides are derived from a library of amino acids, hydroxy acids, or peptides and a silicon alkoxide, allowing many biological functionalities to be built into silica hybrids. The ligands can coordinate with a wide range of metals via a carboxylic acid, thereby allowing direct incorporation of inorganic functionalities from across the periodic table. Using the single-source precursor a wide range of functionalized nanostructures such as monolith structures, mesostructures, multiple metal gradient mesostructures and Stober-type nanoparticles can be synthesized.

Sol-gel chemistry provides a low temperature route for preparing metal and certain non-metal oxides that are the prevalent materials used in nanoscience and nanotechnology, as well as in biological systems. C. J. Brinker et al., Sol-gel science: the physics and chemistry of sol-gel processing, Academic Press, Boston, 1990. For example, low reactivity, high temperature stability, biocompatibility, tuneable architecture, and ease of synthesis have made silica (SiO2) a prevalent material for end applications, such as catalysis, photonics, and responsive materials. W. Stöber, et al., J. of Colloid and Interface Science 1968, 26, 62. Metal and non-metal oxides such as silica are relatively inert, however, and other types of functionalities must be combined with the silica for use of these hybrids in applications such as catalysis and sensing.
Since the advent of sol-gel chemistry, a primary goal has been to introduce functionality to these relatively inert substrates. To that end, numerous methods to combine substrates with metals, as well as organometallic, organic, and biological molecules have been developed. These functional particles can be added before, during, or after the sol-to-gel transition. However, if the functional species is added before the sol-to-gel transition, it must be compatible with the sol-gel process. Common routes involve the simultaneous hydrolysis and condensation of a multifunctional single-source precursor or several compatible precursors. K. W. Terry et al., J. of the Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 9745; P. T. Tanev et al., Nature 1994, 368, 321. Achieving similar rates of hydrolysis and condensation is difficult, however, and these routes have not been generalized. Adding the functional species during the sol-to-gel transition can achieve high loadings, but this method limits the architectures to monoliths. C. A. Morris et al., Science 1999, 284, 622. Moreover, although almost any type of species can be added after the sol-to-gel transition via surface functionalization, the loading of the functional species is limited and the process can impede access to micro or mesopores.
Using single-source precursors—that is, adding functionality before the sol-to-gel transition—is, in principle, the easiest way to incorporate functionality while maintaining access to numerous architectures. The simplest method involves adding water and possibly a solvent to the precursor and allowing the sol-gel process to take its course. Numerous precursors, especially those with lanthanides bound via a linker to a silicon alkoxide, have been developed for fluorescence studies C. Sanchez et al., Adv. Materials 2003, 15, 1969. Synthesizing these single source precursors require complex, multistep syntheses, however. P. Lenaerts, et al., Chemistry of Materials 2005, 17, 5194.
Moreover, while a given route may enable incorporation of a particular metal, the method may not be applicable or extendable to many other metals, or materials. Furthermore, existing methods have been unsuccessful in incorporating biological molecules such as amino acids, peptides and proteins, while claiming success in covalently binding only such biological compounds as saccharides to metal oxides (Brennan et al, Ultrasensitive ATP Detection Using Firefly Luciferase Entrapped in Sugar Modified Sol-gel-Derived Silica, JACS, 2004). Existing methods also prevent the simultaneous incorporation of metals and bioorganic molecules. Accordingly, there is a need for a single source, generalizable method to allow the direct incorporation of metals and other materials in the sol-gel process at higher loading levels, a need that the invention disclosed herein satisfies.


An arrangement with a torque-controlled gearbox, for which the torque present on the transmission driving shaft is measured with a non-contacting torque sensor and the torque sensor supplies a measuring signal, which is fed to the gear control unit as a variable for the correct shifting moment. With a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine, the drive output of the combustion engine is transmitted to the crankshaft, and the torque present at the crankshaft is transmitted via a clutch and an intermediate gear to the transmission drive shaft, from there to an output drive shaft, and finally via a differential gear to the drive wheels of the motor vehicle. The torque sensor detects the torque actually present at the transmission drive shaft and feeds the measuring signal proportional to this torque to a gear control unit. The arrangement advantageously permits a torque-free shifting of gears in the gearbox, which can thus be carried out comfortably.

This application claims the priority of German Patent Application No. 100 20 643.3-14 filed Apr. 27, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to an arrangement for the torque-free shifting of a mechanical gearbox.
Until now, the number of engine revolutions, the countershaft revolutions and the output shaft revolutions, as well as the computed engine torque were used as control variables for shifting gears in partially or fully automatic gearboxes. In the case of transmissions where the clutch is not opened for shifting the gears, it is extremely important for reasons of comfort that the transmission is torque-free during the shifting from a gear to the neutral position. An unacceptable torque jolt may otherwise occur as a result of releasing the pre-stressing of a gear wheel and the transmission drive shaft. Detecting the zero passage of the torque with the aid of a computed engine torque curve is not precise enough for this. A sensing of the actually present torque is therefore required.
It is the object of the invention to provide a torque-controlled gearbox, for which the actually present torque at the transmission driving shaft is detected as an additional control variable for the shifting operation.
The above object generally is achieved according to the present invention by an arrangement for the torque-free shifting of gears in a drive assembly with a mechanical gearbox, which arrangement comprises: a mechanical gearbox having a plurality of gears for changing the transmission ratio for the number of revolutions at the input drive shaft of the gearbox and the output drive shaft of the gearbox; a controllable gearshift for actuating the gearbox and selectively engaging the different gears; a gear control unit, which is responsive to input variable control signals, for activating the gearshift; and at least one inductive torque sensor that is installed near the surface of a shaft for the drive assembly. The inductive source sensor includes at least one exciter coil for the induction of a magnetic alternating field in one of the shafts of the drive assembly, and at least two sensor coils. One of the sensor coils detects the magnetic field induced in the shaft in the compression stress direction and the other sensor coil detects the magnetic field induced in the shaft in tensile stress direction, and the two sensor coils are arranged in a difference circuit that provides a difference signal as an output measuring signal for the torque sensor, with the difference signal being fed to the gear control unit as an input variable control signal. Additional advantageous features and embodiments are disclosed and described.
The solution is obtained with a torque-controlled gearbox where the torque present at the transmission driving shaft is measured by a non-contacting torque sensor. The torque sensor delivers a measuring signal that is supplied to a gear control unit as a measure for the correct shifting moment. With a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine, the drive output of the combustion engine is transmitted to the crankshaft. A clutch transmits the torque present at the crankshaft to the transmission driving shaft, then transmits it from there via an intermediate gear to an output shaft and finally via a differential gear to the drive wheels of the motor vehicle. The torque sensor detects the torque actually present at the transmission driving shaft and feeds the measuring signal belonging to this torque to a gear control unit. The gear control unit is furthermore connected to a revolution sensor for detecting the engine revolutions, to a speed sensor for detecting the vehicle speed and to a gas-pedal sensor for detecting the gas-pedal position. The clutch and the gearbox are activated by driven final control elements actuated by the gear control unit. The gears in the transmission are preferably shifted at those moments where no torque is present at the transmission drive shaft. The zero passage of the torque curve at the transmission driving shaft, measured with the torque sensor, in this case is selected as a measure for the correct shifting moment.
The magneto-elastic effect on rotating shafts subjected to torque is used to measure the torque itself. If a shaft is twisted as a result of a torque, then areas of compressive stress and areas of tensile stress form on the surface of the shaft with torque. The directions for tension and pressure are perpendicular to each other. The magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials such as steel for producing tools change under the influence of mechanical tensile stresses and compression stresses. These changes in the magnetic properties are measured with the aid of a torque sensor, comprising at least one exciter coil and at least two sensor coils. For this, the sensor is attached near the shaft surface and a magnetic alternating field is generated with the exciter coil, for which the magnetic field lines penetrate the shaft. As a result of the magneto-elastic effect, the size and direction of the magnetic field generated with the exciter coil in the shaft subjected to torque will differ, both in compression stress direction and in a tensile stress direction. One of the sensor coils of the torque sensor detects the magnetic field induced in the compression stress direction, while the other torque sensor coil detects the magnetic field induced in the shaft in the tensile stress direction. The two sensor coils or their measuring signals for the compression stress direction and the tensile stress direction are components of a difference circuit. The torque sensor therefore supplies a difference signal for the compression stress direction and the tensile stress direction. A magneto-elastic effect is not present in the shaft if there is no torque, meaning if the shaft is not subjected to compression stresses and tensile stresses. In that case, the magnetic field shares are equal in compression stress direction and in the tensile stress direction, and the difference signal of the torque sensor indicates a zero passage. The zero passage of the difference signal from the sensor coils of the torque sensor thus indicates a torque-free condition of the shaft and functions as a measure for indicating the suitable shifting moment. The difference signal is used as a control variable for the gear control unit.
The following advantages are primarily achieved with the invention:
The torque controlled transmission according to the invention permits a non-jolting shifting of the gears for semi-automatic or fully automatic transmissions. The mechanical components are thus protected, wear and tear is reduced and the service life of transmission and clutch, in particular, is increased.
The torque detection or the detection of the torque-free condition of the transmission driving shaft for the first time offers the option of shifting gears without torque and thus comfortably, without having to open the clutch. As a result, the torque-controlled transmission according to the invention is particularly suitable for all gearboxes with automatic shifting, for which the clutch remains closed during the shifting of the gears.
However, the torque-controlled transmission according to the invention is also advantageous if the clutch is to be opened during the shifting of the gears. Detecting the torque-free condition is important for those gears as well because, on the one hand, the clutch is released without jolting if the torque present before the clutch release is near zero while, on the other hand, it permits a reliable detection of the clutch opening and whether the clutch has completely separated the crankshaft from the transmission driving shaft. In that case, the gearshift according to the invention also makes it possible to detect the correct shifting moment. In particular, it is possible to detect a clutch malfunction if no torque-free condition occurs despite the fact that the clutch on the transmission driving shaft is engaged. The clutch/transmission system can thus be diagnosed and a dragging clutch detected with the aid of the gear control unit. The clutch does not function properly if the torque sensor in the gear control unit does not show a zero passage of the differential signal as indication of the torque-free condition of the transmission driving shaft, even though the control elements for opening the clutch are activated. Excessive wear resulting from clutches that drag or are incorrectly adjusted can thus be detected and avoided.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the following and are explained in further detail.

Arrangement for a torque-free shifting of a transmission


In a display device including an device substrate arranged with a plurality of pixels arranged with a light emitting device, a color filter layer with different transmission bands corresponding to each of the pixels, and a color filter substrate arranged with an overcoat layer above the color filter layer, by arranging a first light shielding layer arranged corresponding to a matrix of pixels and a second light shielding layer wider than the first light shielding layer and separated from the first light shielding layer and on a side close to a pixel, light emitted in a diagonal direction leaking to an adjacent pixel enters the second light shielding layer and by increasing the length of a light path of the incident light, the light is absorbed and attenuated by the second light shielding layer and improvements in viewing angle characteristics are achieved without decreasing the aperture ratio of a pixel.

Display devices arranged with a thin film transistor in pixels which control emitted light of a light emitting device such as an organic electroluminescence device are being developed. When these display devices are looked at from the incidence direction of light in the pixels, there is a bottom emission type which emits light to the side of a substrate formed with a thin film transistor, and a top emission type which emits light to the upper direction of a pixel. Among these, the top emission type is advantageous in that it is easier to raise the aperture ratio of a pixel compared to the bottom emission type.
In the case where a light emitting device which emits white light is used as the structure of a pixel, a color filter corresponding to red (R), green (G) and blue (B) is arranged on the light emitting side and a color display is performed. In the top emission type, a color filter is not formed directly on the light emitting device but overlaps with a substrate arranged with the color filter in order to face the substrate formed with the light emitting device. A color filter includes a color filter layer which allows light from each color region red (R), green (G) and blue (B) to pass through and a light shielding layer which prevents mixed colors is arranged on the boundary of each color filter.
FIG. 10 (A) is an example of this type of display device and an en exploded view of a part enclosed by the dotted line is shown in FIG. 10 (B). In the display device 10, a light emitting device 24 is formed by stacking a pixel electrode 16 via an insulation layer 14 above a bottom substrate 12, an organic electroluminescence layer (referred to herein as "organic EL layer") 20, and an upper part electrode 22. A bank layer 18 is arranged to cover the periphery edge section of the pixel electrode 14. A light shielding layer 32 is formed corresponding to the boundary region of the pixel electrode 14 on the upper substrate 30 and above this a color filter layer 34 and overcoat layer 36 are arranged.
In the light emitting device 24, light emitting at the organic EL layer 20 spreads in all directions of 4π when expressed as a solid angle. Light which proceeds in a roughly perpendicular direction from the organic EL layer 20 passes through the color filter layer 34 and is emitted from the upper substrate 30 (path a). Light which proceeds in the direction of the light shielding layer 32 from the organic EL layer 20 is absorbed by the light shielding layer 32 and never emitted to the exterior (path b). On the other hand, light which is emitted in a diagonal direction from the organic EL layer 20 becomes leak light towards an adjacent pixel (path c). Light which leaks to an adjacent pixel can pass through a different color filter layer to the color of its own pixel and thereby mixed colors are generated which affects display properties. In order to shield light leaking to an adjacent pixel, when a width W of the light shielding layer 32 is enlarged, an area of an aperture part which can allow light to pass through is compressed which leads to a decrease in the utilization efficiency of light emitted in the light emitting device.
When a light shielding layer arranged so as to enclose the outline of a color filter is made smaller for effects such as diffraction grating to operate and in order to achieve high resolution of a pixel, a problem is produced whereby light which has passed through an adjacent color filter is refracted and colors become mixed. As a result, even in the case where the size of a pixel is compressed, a display device is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent 2012-209201 which is arranged with a wide translucent layer contacting a light shielding layer arranged on the side of the bottom layer of the color filters in order to suppress mixed colors due to refraction of light which has passed through an adjacent color filter.
The display device disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent 2012-209201 is formed in order to reduce light from leaking to an adjacent pixel using a structure of directly stacking a light shielding layer and a translucent layer having a wider width than the light shielding layer. However, since a color filter is present on the upper layer part of the light shielding layer and translucent layer, the distance from the light emitting device is large. As a result, if the width of the translucent layer is not significantly increased more than the light shielding layer, a problem is generated whereby light emitted in a diagonal direction can not be sufficiently absorbed. When the width of the translucent layer is increased, light emitted by a pixel in a perpendicular direction becomes absorbed by the translucent layer and thereby utilization efficiency of light is significantly decreased.


A display unit includes: a display panel; an illumination device illuminating the display panel; and a drive circuit driving the display panel and the illumination device. The illumination device includes a light modulation layer, and a first electrode and a second electrode sandwiching the light modulation layer therebetween, the first electrode and the second electrode each include a plurality of strip-like electrodes. The strip-like electrodes of the first electrode and the strip-like electrodes of the second electrode extend in directions intersecting with each other, and the drive circuit drives the respective strip-like electrodes to allow an in-plane distribution of a potential difference between the strip-like electrodes of the first electrode and the strip-like electrodes of the second electrode to be constant within one frame period, when a two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional image, or an image including a two-dimensional image and a three-dimensional image is displayed on the display panel.

The present disclosure relates to a display unit capable of performing two-dimensional display (planar display) and three-dimensional display (stereoscopic display).
Display units capable of performing three-dimensional display include display units in need of wearing special glasses for three-dimensional display and display units without need of the special glasses. In the latter display units, for example, a lenticular lens or a parallax barrier is used to allow a viewer to perceive a stereoscopic image with naked eyes. When image information is distributed into right and left eyes by the lenticular lens or the parallax barrier, the respective right and left eyes see different images, and as a result, three-dimensional display is achievable.
In the display units capable of performing three-dimensional display, as in the case of display units performing only two-dimensional display in related art, higher image quality and a reduction in thickness are desired. Therefore, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-142065 proposes a method of partially modulating light intensity of a backlight in an edge-light method.
The backlight described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-142065 includes a light guide plate, a light source disposed on a side surface of the light guide plate, a light modulation device adhered to the light guide plate, and a drive circuit driving the light modulation device. The light modulation device is configured of a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the PDLC therebetween. The electrodes each are configured of a plurality of strip-like electrodes, and strip-like electrodes above the PDLC and strip-like electrodes below the PDLC are disposed to be orthogonal to each other. For example, the drive circuit drives each of strip-like electrodes by a simple-matrix driving method to switch a part of the PDLC into a scattering state or a transparent state, thereby allowing a scattering region of the PDLC to emit illumination light.


To provide a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor with excellent electric characteristics and high reliability and a display device including the thin film transistor. A gate insulating film is formed over a gate electrode, crystal nuclei is formed over the gate insulating film using fluorosilane and silane, and crystal growth is generated using the crystal nuclei as nuclei to form a microcrystalline semiconductor film, so that crystallinity at an interface between the gate insulating film and the microcrystalline semiconductor film is improved. Next, a thin film transistor is manufactured using the microcrystalline semiconductor film having crystallinity improved at the interface between the gate insulating film and the microcrystalline semiconductor film as a channel formation region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor and a method for manufacturing a display device including the thin film transistor at least in a pixel portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, techniques to form thin film transistors using, for a channel formation region, a semiconductor thin film (with a thickness of approximately several tens to several hundreds of nanometers) which is formed over a substrate having an insulating surface have attracted attention. The thin film transistor is widely applied to electronic devices such as ICs and an electro-optical device. Rapid development of a thin film transistor particularly as a switching element of an image display device is required.
As a switching element in an image display device, a thin film transistor in which an amorphous semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region, a thin film transistor in which a polycrystalline semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region, or the like is used. As a method of forming a polycrystalline semiconductor film, there is known a technique in which a pulsed excimer laser beam is shaped into a linear laser beam by an optical system and an amorphous silicon film is crystallized by being irradiated while being scanned with the linear laser beam.
As a switching element in an image display device, further, a thin film transistor in which a microcrystalline semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region is used (see Reference 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H4-242724; and Reference 2 : Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2005-49832).
A thin film transistor in which a polycrystalline semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region has an advantage that the mobility is higher than that of a thin film transistor in which an amorphous semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region by two or more digits, and a pixel portion and a peripheral driver circuit of a semiconductor display device can be formed over the same substrate. However, the thin film transistor in which a polycrystalline semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region requires a more complicated process than the thin film transistor in which an amorphous semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region because of crystallization of the semiconductor film. Thus, there are problems such as a reduction in yield and an increase in cost.
Further, an inversely-staggered thin film transistor in which a microcrystalline semiconductor film is used for a channel formation region has problems in that the crystallinity of an interface region between a gate insulating film and the microcrystalline semiconductor film is low and electric characteristics of the thin film transistor are poor.
In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor with excellent electric characteristics and high reliability and a display device including the thin film transistor with high yield.

Method for manufacturing thin film transistor and display device including the thin film transistor

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A connection arrangement for a micro lead frame plastic (MLP) package is provided that includes a paddle configured to be connected to a circuit board and a first ground pad and a second ground pad each connected to the paddle. The first and second ground pads together with the paddle are configured to provide continuity of ground between the circuit board and a chip mounted to the paddle.

This invention relates generally to micro lead frame plastic (MLP) packages, and more particularly, to a connection arrangement for MLP packages.
At RF, microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, plastic packages are preferred because of the low cost and ease of manufacturing. For example, lead frames are much lower in cost compared to substrates used in Ball Grid Array packages. However, as the operating frequency increases, the effect of the package on the component/circuit overall RF performance becomes increasingly important. In addition to good electrical characteristics, when designing a package, it is also important to consider thermal dissipation path, space requirements or limitations, environmental protection and component reliability.
The use of plastic packages is currently limited to low frequency applications, for example, applications with a maximum frequency of about 5 GHz. This is due mainly to the parasitics (e.g., large inductance) associated with bond wire discontinuity of the chip-package-motherboard transition. These parasitics are particularly severe at higher frequencies, such as, for example, at 24 GHz. The parasitics are also caused by the use of a paddle and ground pads that are not connected and thereby fail to provide a continuity of ground, particularly at the higher frequencies. These parasitics result in high insertion loss, poor impedance matching and a large response over the required frequency band. The RF behavior of the chip-package-motherboard transition also results in a large power drop off with frequency.
The parasitic effects are sometimes overcome by including additional matching stubs on, for example, the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) chip itself. However, as the space on the chip is often very limited, this on-chip matching can be complex and can be very expensive to implement. Moreover, using the matching stubs, the frequency bandwidth is very limited, making these configurations unacceptable for ultra broadband systems such as High Resolution Radar (HRR). Other solutions are also known and include using the parasitics for matching the amplifiers on the chip. However, these solutions also can be difficult to implement.
Flip-chip versions of MLP packages are also known for addressing the operating frequency problems. In these packages, a bumped die is flipped onto a lead frame paddle and then molded using a standard plastic package assembly process. Flip chip designs reduce signal inductance because the interconnect is much shorter when compared to a bond wire (e.g., 0.1 mm versus 1 mm). However, the manufacturing processes for such flip chip processes may not be satisfactory for mass production in large quantities.
Thus, known MLP packages either do not operate satisfactorily at higher frequencies or are complex and expensive to implement.

connection arrangement for micro lead frame plastic packages


A linear pulse motor includes a primary side unit and a secondary side unit. The primary side unit includes a permanent magnet and at least two electromagnets, each formed with at least one projecting magnetic pole portion. One of the electromagnets is fixedly mounted on a table while the other electromagnet is slidably mounted on the table. The primary side unit also includes a spacing adjusting element, such as a piezoelectric element, interposed between the two electromagnets so as to adjust the spacing between the two electromagnets. The secondary side unit includes a plurality of inductor teeth arranged in a row at a predetermined pitch.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a magnetic positioning device for use in positioning an object in various machines such as machine tools and industrial robots, and, in particular, to a linear pulse motor for positioning an object at high accuracy. This invention also relates to a linear motion unit including such a linear pulse motor and a guide mechanism associated therewith.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A linear pulse motor or linear motion unit for use in positioning an object along a straight line is well known in the art and a typical prior art linear pulse motor is illustrated in FIG. 11. The motor shown in FIG. 11 is of the two phase excitation type and it includes a primary side unit 41 for supplying a displacing pulse signal and a secondary side unit 42 for generating a thrust in cooperation with the primary side unit 41. The primary side unit 41 includes a permanent magnet 43 formed in the shape of a rectangular plate and a pair of electromagnets 44 and 45 coupled to the bottom surface of permanent magnet 43 at opposite ends thereof. The electromagnets 44 and 45 include iron cores whose pole portions 44a, 44b and 45a, 45b extend downwardly, whereby the bottom end portions of these pole portions serve as inductor teeth. Coils 44c and 45c are wound around the respective iron cores. A back plate 47 of a material having a high permeability is fixedly attached to the top surface of the permanent magnet 44. A plurality of threaded holes 48 are provided extending through the back plate 47 and the permanent magnet 43, and bolts (not shown) may be threaded into these holes 48 to have the primary side unit 41 fixedly mounted on a table 50.
Regarding the secondary side unit 42, it is generally in the shape of an elongated, rectangular plate having a high permeability and provided with a number of inductor teeth 42a arranged at a predetermined pitch .tau..sub.2, each extending in the transverse direction with respect to the longitudinal axis of the secondary side unit 42. The secondary side unit 42 is typically fixedly mounted on a bed 51 of a machine tool or the like, for example, by means of bolts (not shown).
The primary and secondary side units 41 and 42 are arranged such that their respective inductor teeth are in an opposed and spaced-apart relationship. Although not shown specifically in the drawings, there is typically provided a guide means for guiding the primary side unit 41 relative to the secondary side unit 42 with a predetermined gap therebetween (indicated by e.sub.2 in FIG. 11) such that a relative linear motion may be produced between the primary and secondary side units 41 and 42. A linear motion unit may be created by combining such a guide means with the above-described linear pulse motor.
In the above-described example, a single linear pulse motor is mounted on the bed 51 with its primary side unit 41 carrying the table 50. With this structure, an object (not shown) may be carried on the table 50 as fixedly attached thereto for positioning at a desired location since the table 50 may move back and forth in either direction as indicated by the double arrow F. Alternatively, two or more such linear pulse motors may be provided in a line or in a side-by-side relationship, if desired.
Now, also referring to FIGS. 12 through 15, a description will be had with respect to the operation of a linear motion unit including a linear pulse motor having the above-described structure. Since the principle of operation of the linear pulse motor itself is well known in the art, its detailed description will not be repeated here. It is to be noted that reference characters 52 through 59 have been used in FIGS. 12 through 15 just for the sake of convenience and they are all part of the inductor teeth 42a of the secondary side unit 42. In addition, in FIGS. 12 through 15, reference characters S and N indicated above and below the permanent magnet 43, respectively, indicate the magnetic polarities of the permanent magnet 43.
As a brief summary of the principle of operation of a linear pulse motor of the above-described permanent magnet type (or PM type), the magnetic interactive force between the opposed teeth is determined by a combination of a magnetic field produced by the permanent magnet and another magnetic field produced by the electromagnets and the table 50 takes a position where these magnetic interactive forces are balanced. When the energization state of the electromagnets is varied, the magnetic field produced by the electromagnet changes, which, in turn, changes the magnetic interactive forces to thereby apply a thrust to the table 50.
That is, assuming that FIG. 12 illustrates the initial balanced condition with current flowing through coils 44c and 45c of the electromagnets 44 and 45 of the primary side unit 41 as indicated by the arrows, respectively, a strong magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2, which is a combination between a magnetic flux due to the permanent magnet 43 and another magnetic flux due to each of the coils 44c and 45c, is present between each of the magnetic pole portions 44a and 45b and a corresponding one of the inductor teeth 52 and 57 of the secondary side unit 42. On the other hand, a weak magnetic flux is present between each of the remaining magnetic pole portions 44b and 45a of these electromagnets 44 and 45 and an adjacent inductor tooth of the secondary side unit 42 since a subtractive relationship is present between the magnetic flux due to the permanent magnet 43 and the magnetic fluxes due to the coils 44c and 45c there. It may be so set that the magnetic flux due to the permanent magnet 43 and each of the magnetic fluxes due to the coils 44c and 45c cancel each other.
Now, let us assume that the current flowing through the coil 44c of electromagnet 44 has been reversed and thus the magnetic polarities of electromagnet 44 have been reversed as shown in FIG. 13. Then, a strong magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2 is now present between the magnetic pole portion 44b of electromagnet 44 and an adjacent inductor tooth 54 of secondary side unit 42 while the magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2 which existed between the magnetic pole portion 44a and the inductor tooth 54 in the initial condition has disappeared. As a result, an attractive force between the magnetic pole portion 44b, together with an attractive force due to the strong magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2 present between the magnetic pole portion 45b of electromagnet 45 and the inductor tooth 57, causes the primary side unit 41, and thus table 50, to move over a distance corresponding to 1/4 of pitch .tau..sub.2 of inductor teeth.
Then, as shown in FIG. 14, the current flowing in the coil 45c of electromagnet 45 has been reversed in direction so that the magnetic polarities of electromagnet 45 has been reversed. Thus, a strong magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2 is now present between the magnetic pole portion 45a of electromagnet 45 and its adjacent inductor tooth 56 of secondary side unit 42 and the magnetic flux which was present between the other magnetic pole portion 45b and the inductor tooth 57 disappears. Therefore, an attractive force is produced between each of the magnetic pole portions 44b and 45a and a corresponding one of the inductor teeth 54 and 56 so that the table 50 is again caused to move over a distance corresponding to 1/4 of pitch .tau..sub.2.
Then, as shown in FIG. 15, the direction of the current flowing in the coil 44c of electromagnet 44 is again reversed so that a strong magnetic flux .PHI..sub.2 is now present between the magnetic pole portion 44a of electromagnet 44 and its adjacent inductor tooth 53 of secondary side unit 42; on the other hand, the strong magnetic flux which existed between the other magnetic pole portion 44b and its adjacent inductor tooth 54 disappears. As a result, an attractive force is now effective between each of the magnetic pole portions 44a and 45a and a corresponding one of inductor teeth 53 and 56 so that the table 50 is caused to move over a distance corresponding to 1/4 of the pitch. Thereafter, the current flowing each of the coils 44c and 45c of the respective electromagnets 44 and 45 is set in the condition shown in FIG. 12, and, therefore, the table 50 is again caused to move over a distance corresponding to 1/4 of the pitch. As a result, the table 50 comes to be shifted in position over a distance corresponding to a single pitch .tau..sub.2.
In this manner, the above-described operation is repeated over a desired number of times so that the table 50 comes to be positioned at a desired location. Although the table 50 has been shifted to the right in the above-described example, the table 50, of course, may move to the left. Besides, although the primary and secondary side units 41 and 42 have been set as moving and stationary sides, respectively, in the above-described example, the primary side unit 41 may be set as a stationary side with the secondary side unit 42 as the moving side.
The resolution of the above-described linear pulse motor, i.e., the pulse pitch traversed by the primary side unit 41 per single pulse signal applied, is determined by dividing the pitch .tau..sub.2 of the inductor teeth 42a of secondary side unit 42 by the number of excitation modes of the coil. Thus, the following three approaches are conveniently and mainly adopted so as to obtain an increased resolution.
(1) Reducing pitch .tau..sub.2 by increasing the manufacturing accuracy at the primary and secondary side units; PA1 (2) Increasing the number of excitation modes of the coil by adopting a multi-phase excitation method; and PA1 (3) Adopting the so-called microstep scheme wherein the excitation electromagnetic current of the coil is subdivided to adjust the magnetic force finely, thereby finely varying the position of magnetic balanced location.
However, there is a limit in the improvement of resolution even in any of the above-described schemes were adopted, and there still remains a need to provide an improved resolution on the order of 1 micron or submicrons.

Linear pulse motor having a high resolution


A portable document scanner (PDS) is provided that need not be in communication with a local computer. The PDS includes an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image, a processor, a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services, and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor to locally process the scan image. Such processing includes, for example, extracting identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids. The extracted semaphore data is communicated to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port. The processing operations may be managed by the user through an integrated display interface.

Portable document scanners for capturing images of documents such as receipts and forwarding such images to a computer processor for processing are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,240 assigned to the present assignee discloses a system including an image capture device, such as a portable scanner or digital camera, that is connected to a computer processor that captures and stores the images, analyzes the images, converts the images to text, analyzes the data, and, in the event of expense data, puts the data into an expense report. The images may be uploaded via the Internet or an intranet to another network such as the cloud for remote data storage. Such a system has been shown to profoundly improve the processing of receipts and to expedite the generation of expense reports and the like.
In the case of remote storage of the scanned data, as in the cloud, for example, it is desired to provide some processing of the scanned data locally at the portable scanner in order to minimize the communication delays inherent in remote communications. For example, it is desired to process the image content locally to facilitate the classification and storage of the imaged data either locally or remotely. The present invention addresses these and other needs in the art.

Portable document scanner having user interface and integrated communication means


Wireless portable electronic devices such as laptop computers are provided with antennas and radio-frequency transceiver circuitry. Antenna structures and transceiver circuitry may be provided within a clutch barrel in a laptop computer. The clutch barrel may have a dielectric cover. Antenna elements may be mounted within the clutch barrel cover on an antenna support structure. The antenna support structure may be mounted to a metal housing frame. The metal housing frame may have a tab-shaped extension that serves as a heat sink. The heat sink may draw heat away from the transceiver circuitry. The transceiver circuitry may be coupled to the antenna using a radio-frequency transmission line path that contains microstrip transmission lines or coaxial cable transmission lines. The transceiver circuitry may be coupled to logic circuitry on a laptop computer motherboard using a digital data communications path.

This invention relates to wireless electronic devices, and more particularly, to wireless electronic devices with transceiver circuitry for handling antenna signals.
Antennas are used in conjunction with a variety of electronic devices. For example, computers use antennas to support wireless local area network communications. Antennas are also used for long-range wireless communications in cellular telephone networks.
It can be difficult to design antennas for modern electronic devices, particularly in electronic devices in which compact size and pleasing aesthetics are important. If an antenna is too small or is not designed properly, antenna performance may suffer. At the same time, an overly-bulky antenna or an antenna with an awkward shape may detract from the appearance of an electronic device or may make the device larger than desired.
Radio-frequency antenna signals are generally handled with transceiver circuitry. For example, a radio-frequency transmitter may be used in transmitting radio-frequency signals through an antenna. Radio-frequency receiver circuitry may receive antenna signals.
Transceiver circuitry and antennas generally have different mounting requirements. In laptop computers, for example, transceiver circuitry is typically mounted on a motherboard in the laptop base, whereas antennas are mounted in more exposed locations where signal reception is not blocked by conductive materials. In situations such as these, coaxial cables may be used to convey radio-frequency signals between the transceiver and the antenna.
Arrangements in which coaxial cables are used to convey radio-frequency signals between a remote antenna and a transceiver circuit may be subject to nonnegligible cable losses. This can adversely affect radio-frequency performance. For example, in a typical laptop computer arrangement about 1.5 dB of signal losses may be introduced by a coaxial cable as the signals are passed to a radio-frequency input amplifier from the antenna. Because these signal losses are imposed on the antenna signal before the signal reaches the amplifier, the signal-to-noise ratio of the system is adversely affected.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved ways in which to provide electronic devices with antennas and transceivers.

Wireless electronic devices with clutch barrel transceivers


An image capturing apparatus includes: an imaging element; a main lens that condenses light from a subject toward the imaging element; a micro lens array that is configured by a plurality kinds of micro lenses with different focal lengths that is disposed between the imaging element and the main lens and causes light transmitted through the main lens to form an image on the imaging element; and a CPU that, in response to receiving a designation of a distance to a side of a subject that is photographed, performs weighting for each image that is imaged by the plurality kinds of micro lenses of the imaging element based on the distance so as to constitute one captured image.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium.
Related Art
In recent years, an image capturing apparatus that introduces information for direction distribution of incident light rays, i.e. an image capturing apparatus called a "plenoptic camera", has been developed (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Translation of PCT Publication), Publication No. 2009-532993.
In a plenoptic camera, a microscopic lens array is arranged which is configured by arranging a plurality of micro lenses (hereinafter referred to as "micro-lens") in a grid pattern between a main lens, which is a conventional imaging lens, and the imaging element.
The individual micro-lenses constituting the micro-lens array condense light condensed by the main lens onto a plurality of pixels in the imaging element, depending on the angle at the light ray arrives. The plenoptic camera generates a captured image (hereinafter, referred to as a "light field image") by combining an image condensed onto each of the pixels in the imaging element by the individual micro-lenses (hereinafter, referred to as "sub-image").
The light field image is generated by light irradiated through the conventional main lens, as well as the micro-lenses array in this way. In other words, the light field image not only has spatial information of two-dimensions that is included in a conventional captured image, but as information not included in conventionally captured images, also has directional information of two-dimensions indicating what direction the arriving light rays are from when viewing from the imaging element.
After capturing a light field image by employing such two-dimensional directional information, the plenoptic camera, using the data of this light field image, can reconstruct the figure on a plane separated in front by an arbitrary distance during image capture. In other words, even in a case of having captured a light field image without the plenoptic camera focusing at a predetermined distance, after image capturing, the plenoptic camera can freely produce data of an image (hereinafter referred to as a "reconstructed image") equivalent to an image captured by focusing at this predetermined distance using the data of this light field image.
More specifically, the plenoptic camera sets one point on a plane separated by an arbitrary distance to an attention point, and calculates on which pixels in the imaging element the light from this attention point is distributed via the main lens and the micro-lens array.
In this regard, if each pixel of the imaging element corresponds to each pixel constituting the light field image, for example, then the plenoptic camera integrates the pixel value of at least one pixel on which light from the attention point is distributed, among each of the pixels constituting the light field image. This value thus calculated becomes the pixel value of the pixel corresponding to the attention point in the reconstructed image. The pixel corresponding to the attention point in the reconstructed image is thereby reconstructed.
The plenoptic camera sequentially sets each pixel corresponding to each point on a plane separated by an arbitrary distance from the plenoptic camera (each pixel constituting the reconstructed image) to the attention point, respectively, and repeats the aforementioned sequence of processing, thereby reconstructing data of the reconstructed image (aggregate of pixel values of each pixel of the reconstructed image).
Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 14, a conventional plenoptic camera constitutes a micro lens array with one kind of the micro lens and covers the entire focusing area by the one kind of the micro lens. Therefore, blurring through the micro lens (micro lens blurring) may develop depending on a distance to a subject and a value of a focusing distance of the micro lens, which becomes a hindrance upon generating a reconstructed image of high definition using a light field image captured.
Furthermore, in a case of reducing the thickness of a plenoptic camera, it is necessary to reduce the distance between the main lens and the micro lens array. However, in a case of reducing the distance between the main lens and the micro lens array, the change of magnitude of the micro lens blurring corresponding to the change of the distance to a subject becomes greater. For example, in a case of the distance between the main lens and a subject being infinity, although the micro lens blurring is minimum, the magnitude of the blurring through the micro lens becomes greater as the distance therebetween approaches from infinity.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium


The number of vertical scanning in one field of a video signal is detected, and the number of scanning lines pulses at each row electrode of a liquid crystal display is determined in accordance with the difference between the determined number of vertical scanning lines number and the number of the row electrodes. The determined number of scanning pulses is stored in a retrace line interval. Scanning pulses are applied to the corresponding row electrode in a scanning interval. The number of row electrodes to which the scanning pulses are applied is the stored number of scanning pulses.

The present invention relates to a system for driving a flat type display device, and more particularly to a drive system available for various video signals which are different in the number of the scanning lines per picture, namely for multiple scanning.
Conventionally, in order to drive a flat-type display device of a matrix for displaying an image on a flat display panel, thereby providing a line-at-a-time scanning system.
FIG. 6 shows a conventional drive system for driving a liquid crystal display panel 10 of an active matrix. In the drive system, a control circuit 30, a column electrode drive circuit 20, and a row electrode drive circuit 40 are provided for line sequential scanning of the liquid crystal display panel 10.
The liquid crystal display panel 10 includes a plurality of pixels disposed in matrix of m rows x n columns. Corresponding to the pixels, gate lines Sl to Sm on m rows and data lines Dl to Dn on n columns are provided. Between the gate line and the data line, a MOS transistor 10a is connected as a switching element in each pixel.
The control circuit 30 includes a synchronous separation circuit 31 to which a video signal C is applied for separating a horizontal synchronizing signal H and a vertical synchronizing signal V of the video signal C.
The horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals H and V are applied to a vertical address generator 32. The vertical address generator 32 is initialized by the vertical synchronizing signal V and operated to count the horizontal synchronizing signal H for generating a vertical address A.
The horizontal synchronizing signal H is further applied to a dot clock generator 33 for generating a dot clock DCLK in synchronism with the horizontal synchronizing signal H in phase.
The dot clock DCLK is inputted into a horizontal address generator 34 which also receives the horizontal synchronizing signal H. The horizontal address generator 34 is initialized by the horizontal synchronizing signal H and operated to count the dot clock DCLK for generating a horizontal address A.
The horizontal address A is applied to a gate pulse generator 35 in which a gate pulse G is generated based on the horizontal address A.
The vertical address A and the gate pulse G are applied to the row electrode drive circuit 40 for producing scanning pulses. The dot clock DCLK is further applied to the column electrode drive circuit 20 for standardizing shift timing.
The column electrode drive circuit 20 comprises shifters of n-stage for converting display data in a series into parallelly arranged display data and has a holding circuit 21 for holding the video data so as to apply display data of one scanning line to the display panel 10 in parallel.
Although it is not shown, the column electrode drive circuit 20 also includes a holding circuit other than the holding circuit 21 to alternately or sequentially input and output the display data with the holding circuit 21. A data driver provides for amplifying the data held in the holding circuit 1 for applying the data to the data lines Dl to Dn.
The row electrode drive circuit 40 is provided for applying the scanning pulses to the gate lines Sl to Sm by the line sequential scanning based on the video signal. The row electrode drive circuit 40 includes a decoder 41 having a plurality of decode lines Bl to Bm, and a gate circuit 42 comprising a plurality of gates 42a provided corresponding to the decode lines Bl to Bm. Each of the decode lines Bl to Bm is connected to one of the input terminals of the corresponding gates 42a of the gate circuit 42. The other input terminal of each gate 42a is applied with the gate pulse G from the gate pulse generator 35 of the control circuit 30. An output terminal of the gate 42a is connected to each of the respective gate lines Sl to Sm.
The decoder 41 is supplied with the vertical address A from the vertical address generator 32 of the control circuit 30 for activating the decode lines Bl to Bm in order in accordance with the value of the vertical address A. A decoded signal is applied to the corresponding gate 42a in which a logical product is obtained in accordance with the gate pulse G. The gate 42a produces a scanning pulse which is applied to the display panel 10 through the corresponding gate line of Sl to Sm.
Although it is not shown, level shifters and gate drivers for amplifying the power are disposed between the gate circuit 42 and the gate lines Sl to Sm
The operation of the system now will now be described. FIG. 7 shows waveforms of the respective signals. The digital signals are unified by positive logic.
When the video signal C shown in FIG. 7a, is applied to the drive system, the control circuit 30 operates to separate the vertical synchronizing signal V and the horizontal synchronizing signal H, as shown in FIG. 7b, from the video signal C. Based on the vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals V and H, the vertical address A, gate pulse G and dot clock DCLK are generated.
The vertical address A is initialized to "0" by the vertical synchronizing signal V, and proceeds sequentially "1", "2", . . . "m " as shown in FIG. 7c, in synchronism with the horizontal synchronizing signal H.
The gate pulse G produced, based on the horizontal address A', has a pulse width corresponding to a predetermined range of the horizontal address A'. The predetermined range is a period in which data held in the holding circuit 21 is stable and determined in accordance with a period in which the scanning pulse is ready to feed. As shown in FIG. 7d, the gate pulse G represents a first interval wherein the sending of the scanning pulse is suppressed from being applied for line sequential scanning between the pulses, and a second interval where the sending of the scanning pulse is allowed to be applied by the pulse. Generally, the first interval coincides with the retrace line interval, and the second interval coincides with the horizontal scanning period. Thus, the gate pulse G is produced corresponding to the horizontal scanning period.
In the column electrode drive circuit 20, the video signal C is applied in series in synchronism with the dot clock DCLK and the display data for one horizontal scanning period is held in the holding circuit 21. The held display data is applied to the data lines Dl to Dn, which are in parallel, at a new period delayed one horizontal scanning period. At the time, a display data of a next one scanning is applied to the net holding circuit in series and held therein. At a period after the next period, the display data held in the other holding circuit is applied to the data lines Dl to Dn in parallel. Thus, the display data of the video signal C is applied to the data lines Dl to Dn by a delay of one horizontal scanning period.
In the row electrode drive circuit 40, the vertical address A is decoded by the decoder 41 to activate the decode lines B1, B2, B3, . . . in order in synchronism with the horizontal synchronizing signal H as shown in FIGS. 7e, 7f and 7g. The decoded signals of the decode lines pass the gate 42a in sequential order in accordance with the gate pulse G. Thus, the vertical scanning pulse having a pulse width corresponding to the pulse width of the gate pulse G is applied to the gate lines S1, S2, S3, . . . in sequential order, as shown in FIGS. 7h, 7i and 7j.
In the liquid crystal display panel 10, the MOS transistor 10a is connected to the gate line of Sl to Sm is turned on. Signal voltage of data lines of Dl to Dn is applied to the corresponding n electrodes. Thus, a content for displaying the picture for one field corresponding to the gate line is changed.
As the gate line applied with the scanning pulse is transferred in order, the content for displaying the picture is changed in order per unit of the row.
Recently, a high definition display having a high definition driving system has been developed. It is requested that the high definition driving system for the high definition display can be used for the standard definition display. Therefore, a driving system is developed so that the vertical scanning frequency of the video signal can be selectively changed by a computer system. In such a system, the number of vertical scanning lines in a field dependent on the video signal is changeable any time.
If a video signal for the high definition display is applied to the drive system for the high definition display device, the number of vertical scanning lines in one field of the video signal coincides with the number of entire rows of the display device (number of row electrodes). Thus, the image can be normally displayed on the display. However, if the number of vertical scanning in the field is smaller than the number of entire rows of the display device, the image is displayed on a part of the display in the vertical direction. For example, if the video signal having 480 scanning lines in the field is applied to the display device having 1000 rows and driven by the conventional drive system, the image is displayed on an upper half of the display.
Consequently, it is desirable to develop the drive system for realizing a multiple scanning which is available for video signals having a different number of scanning lines per frame. However, in view of common use of parts of circuits and miniaturization of circuits, the conventional system can be changed without largely changing the structure.

Drive system for a flat type display device


The present invention provides heat exchange devices for heating and/or cooling parts of the body for therapeutic treatment of injury. The heat exchange devices include a cooling module with a housing enclosing a cooling chamber. A thermoelectric Peltier unit has a cooled surface sealed against an opening in the housing and a pump is provided for pumping heat exchange fluid through the cooling chamber directly into contact with the cooled surface and through conduits to a patient blanket. A reservoir containing refrigerant is in flow communication with the chamber in the cooling module housing and refrigerant only flows into the housing when depleted from the recirculation flow path between the cooling module and the blanket. Another device uses a thermoelectric unit disposed between two water pumps each of which pumps water to different sections of a flexible water bag which is strapped to the affected area of the user. Water pumped over one side of the thermoelectric unit is heated and water pumped over the other side is cooled.

Pain abatement research is a major area of study which goes hand-in-hand with pain research itself. In many cases pain is a symptom of an underlying malady or trauma so the presence and nature of the pain in these cases is sometimes essential in aiding awareness and the diagnosis of the underlying illness. The abatement of pain has traditionally been effected using various external and internal treatments. Examples of external treatment include acupuncture, electro-shock treatment using transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), use of temperature such as application of hot or cold packs or topical application of cooling or heating formulations. Examples of internal, invasive treatments include drug treatments by oral administration or injection of freezing agents. Where feasible, the external physical methods of alleviating pain are preferable over the invasive, internal techniques for obvious reasons.
The application of hot or cold to localized pain such as muscle or tendon pain to reduce swelling has a long history. There are many devices for heating or cooling parts of the body. Hot water bottles and ice or cold packs are among the oldest and simplest devices for applying heat and cooling respectively. Another type of device is the heating blanket that uses electrical resistive heaters for heating. U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,357 discloses a heat transfer blanket which uses heat pipes coupled to heating/cooling systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,369 teaches a body suit which utilizes a system of heat pipes to redistribute body heat for heating or cooling the person wearing the suit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,468 issued to Bailey discloses a temperature control fluid circulating system provided with a thermal blanket and a large refrigerant reservoir using thermoelectric units inserted directly into the reservoir to heat and cool the refrigerant in the reservoir. U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,926 issued to Hirschhorn teaches a cooling blanket with a coolant reservoir with substantially all of one side of the reservoir in contact with thermoelectric Peltier units to cool the liquid in the reservoir. U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,594 issued to Kuznetz discloses a heat exchange jacket that can be used in an open loop mode or a closed loop mode. In the open loop mode the jacket is connected to a hot or cold water faucet in a hospital or home while in the closed loop mode a thermoelectric device is used to heat/cool water in the reservoir which is in series with a pump. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,627 issued to Brown is directed to a hot/cold applicator system utilizing a peristaltic pump in series with a patient blanket, a fluid reservoir and a heat exchanger for heating/cooling the fluid. A drawback to these types of devices is poor efficiency of cooling the refrigerant since essentially the entire volume of coolant contained in the reservoir must be cooled.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,962,761 to Golden and 5,174,285 to Fontenot disclose fluid circulation systems for use with thermal bandages, pads or blankets. These devices provide a thermal blanket with closed loop fluid circulation systems with fluid module housings which are in thermal contact with heating/cooling devices. A drawback to these types of devices is poor cooling efficiency for cooling the refrigerant since the latter contacts the cooling devices indirectly through the walls of the fluid modules.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,259 issued to Miley discloses hypothermia device for therapeutic applications. The device includes a fluid pump located between a heat exchanger and a reservoir and a double impeller pump with an upper impeller connected in series with the reservoir and the hot side of a thermoelectric unit and a lower impeller pump connected in series with the cold side of the thermoelectric unit and the patient blanket. Once water fills the system during operation of the pumps a quasi closed-loop is set up for the cooling water circulated between the blanket, the second set of impellers and the cooled side of the thermoelectric unit. A drawback to this system is the need for two pumps to sustain the pumping action in the two circulation systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,998 to Sauder is directed to a portable cooling apparatus for cooling a limb of a patient which includes a compressor and evaporator for condensing and evaporating the refrigerant. A drawback to this type of system and others like it is that they are quite bulky and awkward since they use large fluid pumps between the heat exchanger and the blanket or pad being heated or cooled. Some of the systems employ condensers, refrigerants and evaporator coils which are also bulky, awkward and of limited mobility.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide compact and economical devices for thermal treatment of maladies or trauma of the body provided with an efficient method of rapidly cooling/heating the refrigerant.


A toilet, wherein: the toilet has an aperture (110), which, in use, would be located in an upper part of the toilet; the toilet comprising or adapted to receive a dispensing means arranged beneath the aperture for dispensing a tube (12) of collection bag material in a downward direction; wherein the toilet is adapted such that, in operation, while the tube is moved downward, the toilet creates a divide in the tube by pressing the sides of the tube together.

Conventional toilets typically have a water-flushing system which, when operated, can flush waste down a drainage pipe. However, water flushing systems are not always convenient, for example if water in a particular area is scarce or if it is difficult to connect a toilet to a drainage system. Water-flushing systems are also inappropriate in portable toilet systems.
Various alternatives to water-flushing toilets have been proposed in the prior art. An example of such a toilet is given in US 2009/0255045. This document relates to a portable toilet apparatus having a flexible bag-like container in the form of a tube that can accept waste. The bag is of a continuous sort, such that the open end of the bag is folded and stored in a concertina fashion in an annular shape, the annular shape corresponding to an open aperture in the top of the toilet. The continuous bag can be fed downwards through the toilet housing via feed rolls that pinch the edge of the bag. The toilet in this document hermetically seals the waste in the bag using a heat sealer.
A further example of a toilet is given in US 2009/0165196. The toilet apparatus is similar to that described in US 2009/0255045 in having a continuous bag that can be fed by rollers downwards through a housing and heat-sealed when required. This toilet further includes a processing material that can be added to the waste. The processing material absorbs liquid in order to semi-solidify excrement, such that it can be used, for example, as combustible fuel.
While the above-described toilets of may provide an alternative to water-flushing toilets, they have certain disadvantages. It is an aim of the present invention to provide at least an alternative to, and ideally an improvement on, such toilets.


A system and method for adjusting loop bandwidth in a synchronization loop of a radio receiver uses a noncoherent peak detector to determine the maximum magnitude and timing of incoming data at various code phase offsets. The maximum magnitude and timing are used in subsequent processing with the maximum magnitude value used to determine an adjustment factor. The timing information associated with the maximum signal value is used to despread the incoming signal. The despread incoming signal is subsequently scaled in accordance with the determined adjustment factor such that the input to the synchronization loop is scaled to produce the desired loop bandwidth.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is related generally to radio frequency (RF) reception and, more specifically, to an apparatus and method for RF acquisition and tracking.
2. Description of Related Art
Radio frequency (RF) receivers must be designed to acquire and track an incoming RF signal. In an ideal environment, the RF signal travels from a transmitter in a direct line to the receiver. However, in a more realistic setting, the RF signal from the transmitter is reflected or diffracted by various objects and arrives at the RF receiver along multiple pathways. In such a multipath environment, the signal power level fluctuates. In RF receivers synchronization loops, such as phase-locked loops, have a loop bandwidth designed for operation at a desired operating point. However, in a multipath environment, the loop bandwidth of the synchronization loop varies as the signal power level fluctuates. In certain channel conditions, the variation can deviate significantly from the designed operating point, resulting in a performance loss, such as increased acquisition time, smaller pull-in/lock-in ranges, and the like. Conventional solutions to this problem are increased loop bandwidth design or the use of a hard limiter or coherent automatic gain control (AGC) preceding the synchronization loop. However, each of these approaches has design limitations that, under realistic operating conditions, result in degraded performance of the RF receiver.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for an apparatus and method that can optimize acquisition time and pull-in/lock-in ranges even in a multipath environment. The present invention provides this and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.

Apparatus and method for radio frequency tracking and acquisition


An apparatus and method for forming a plug in a passageway, comprises a carrier which in use is lowered into the passageway, the carrier comprising an elongate body of material resistant to creep which supports first and second spaced apart portions and a body of material supported on the carrier, the material having a melting point which is higher than the temperature within the passageway and which expands as it solidifies. The carrier may comprise a skirt that extends axially from a lower end of the carrier, the skirt being dimensioned to define a clearance between the skirt and the passageway; and a heater for melting the body of material such that melted material fills a space defined between the first and second portions, and flows into the clearance defined between the skirt and the passageway. The heater may be a removable heater.

The known plugs tend to leak for a variety of reasons. Firstly, as the well wall is typically not particularly clean and is also covered with a hydrocarbon film, it is difficult to produce a reliable contiguous seal. Often a contiguous seal of only a meter or so in length is formed with a plug fifty times that length. Furthermore, as cement and resin based plugs solidify they contract which tends to open up a gap between the plug and the well wall. Although when a plug is initially inserted there may be little dynamic pressure in the well, after the plug is in situ substantial pressures can build up and as a result a plug which appears initially to be working satisfactory may subsequently be found to leak. If hydrocarbons leak past the plug contamination of the surface environment or for example a sub-surface aquifer can result. It is well known in the industry that a significant proportion of abandoned wells leak. As a result leaking abandoned wells often have to be re-plugged which is an expensive and time consuming operation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improvement to existing methods and apparatus for sealing such structures.


A non-aerating fluid dispensing nozzle for dispensing fluid into a receiving tank has a vapor control and containment mechanism for vapors formed in the receiving tank. The mechanism has a chamber disposed within the housing of the nozzle and a gas passage that has a first end connected to the chamber and a second end connected to an intake aperture disposed near the distal end of the discharge nozzle. A pump is disposed in fluid flow communication with the chamber for pumping gases from the fluid receiving tank into the chamber through the gas passage during fluid flow through the nozzle.

Concern over environmental pollution has been growing over the recent decades. One pollution source attracting the attention of the environmental movement is the service station that dispenses motor vehicle fuels. These stations contribute to the pollution of the environment in several ways, including spilling of fuel during the filling of a motor vehicle fuel tank and escaping fuel vapors.
To combat the overfilling problem, the fuel dispensing nozzles normally incorporate an automatic shutoff mechanism to terminate the flow of fuel through the nozzle. This mechanism is responsive to the filling of a receiving tank to a point near its top so as to trip a valve operating lever and thereby discontinue fuel flow. The automatic shutoff mechanisms now in use commonly utilize a pressure-sensitive diaphragm that is shifted by the creation of a suction effect on one side thereof. The suction is created by the flow of fuel past an aspirating passage after an air pickup tube near the outlet end of the dispensing nozzle has been covered with liquid as it rises near the top of the receiving tank. The shifting of the diaphragm trips the automatic shutoff mechanism to close a main flow control valve in the nozzle. Such an automatic shutoff arrangement for a fuel dispensing nozzle is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,528,747.
Fuel dispensing nozzles normally have an elongated discharge nozzle that extends downwardly into the fuel tank of a vehicle and that has an air intake port located near the outer end of the nozzle. Since the discharge nozzle extends into a fuel tank a considerable distance, the flow of fuel into the gasoline tank will be automatically terminated by pressure-actuated shutoff mechanisms of the aforesaid type when the fuel level approaches the top of the tank and covers the air inlet on the nozzle.
This type of nozzle creates a venturi effect in the air pick-up tube and syphons the gases in the tank through the tube and back into the fluid flow within the nozzle through the previously mentioned aspirating passage. Consequently, the fluid is being continuously aerated during the tank filling. When the fluid exiting the nozzle strikes the fluid in the tank, foaming occurs, and the gases in the fuel are released. The result in the release of additional vapors and an increase in the gas pressure within the tank. While some of the pressure is relieved by the syphoning effect of the breather tube, a large volume of gas is vented through the filler neck of the tank into the atmosphere, resulting in harmful pollution of the atmosphere initially, and ultimately of the ground and water. The automatic shut-off mechanism of the present day fluid dispensing nozzles thus solve one pollution problem but contribute to another one by aerating the fuel prior to its delivery into the tank thereby increasing the amount of fuel vapor vented to the atmosphere.
Another problem with modern nozzles and the aerated fuel they deliver is that the foaming of the fuel in the tank of a motor vehicle can itself trigger the automatic shut-off, resulting in the tank not being filled to capacity. This problem is exacerbated when the fuel being dispensed is diesel fuel rather than gasoline since diesel fuel foams much more readily than gasoline and thus will likely trigger the automatic shut-off mechanism even more prematurely than a gasoline dispensing nozzle would. The nozzle operator must then wait for the foam to subside to continue to fill the tank or must continuously manually operate the main operating lever of the nozzle to obtain the additional fuel flow required to fill the tank since the operating lever will be tripped to a closed position shortly after it is actuated. This results in additional wear and tear on the nozzle and fluid pumps in addition to wasting the time of the nozzle operator.
It would be desirable, therefore, to have a fluid dispensing nozzle that had an automatic shut-off mechanism but that did not aerate the fluid prior to tank delivery, thereby minimizing environmental pollution and economic losses otherwise due to aeration of the dispensed fluid.

Non-aerating tank filling nozzle with automatic shutoff


A hierarchical resource management system for a building includes one or more processors. The processors implement a plurality of agents that each monitor sensed values, and generate operating scenarios based on the sensed values for corresponding resources. The processors also implement a coordinator that filters the operating scenarios to remove the operating scenarios that violate internal laws of the agents to form an aggregate validated set of operating scenarios. The processors further implement a supervisor that, responsive to receipt of target conditions for the zones and the aggregate validated set of operating scenarios from the coordinator, selects a combination of the operating scenarios from the aggregate validated set of operating scenarios that achieves target conditions and minimizes overall energy consumption by the resources such that some of the operating scenarios of the combination do not minimize energy consumption of the resources corresponding to the some of the operating scenarios.

A building management system (BMS), otherwise known as a building automation system (BAS), is a computer-based control system installed in a building that controls and monitors the building's electrical and mechanical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems. As such, a BMS may also include a variety of devices (e.g., HVAC devices, controllers, chillers, fans, sensors, lighting controllers, lighting fixtures etc.) configured to facilitate monitoring and controlling the building space. Throughout this disclosure, such devices are referred to as BMS devices or building equipment.
Typically, even though the building controllers, input-output devices, and various switching equipment communicate via open source networks such as BACnet, LONworks, Modbus etc. the programming language for each such device is proprietary to the specific manufacturer. The sequences of operation for each system are manually programmed into each controller and then "released" to automatically control their related systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Sound source pulses are output to a sound drive circuit based on first to fourth sound source data of a ringer melody. Thus, the sound drive circuit drives a speaker based on the sound source pulses. As a result, the ringer melody including first to fourth melodic lines is output from the speaker. One melodic line is selected from the first to fourth melodic lines, and a melodic line pulse is outputted to a vibration drive circuit based on the sound source data of the selected melodic line. As a result, the vibration drive circuit drives a vibrator based on the melodic line pulse, so that the vibrator vibrates based on the selected melodic line.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-191333, for example, discloses a cellular phone having a vibrator that vibrates synchronously with monotone ringer sound generated in response to an incoming call. This notifies the incoming call to a user even if irrelevant vibrations are transmitted from its surroundings.
Recently, a ringer melody including a plurality of melodic lines has been used to improve quality of the ringer melody in such a cellular phone. When the vibrator of the cellular phone is vibrated synchronously with such a ringer melody, especially a melody having a complex composition, the vibrator vibrates continuously instead of with a recognizable pulse. Thus, it is difficult to distinguish the vibrations of the vibrator from the irrelevant vibrations transmitted from its surroundings.

Radio communication device capable of generating melody patterns via sound, tactical and visual notifications


A computer-based system for automating administrative procedures in an office is described. According to an embodiment, the system may include a control module in communication with a management tracker module, a provider tracker module and an administrative tracker module, as well as a database accessible by the management tracker module, a provider tracker module and an administrative tracker module.

The present invention is directed generally to the field of office automation, and in particular to a computer-based system for automating administrative procedures in a medical office. In accordance with particular embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, various administrative procedures that would otherwise require substantial manpower to complete are instead performed by an integrated computer system that performs those administrative procedures in an efficient, cost-effective manner. As a result, substantially less manpower is required to run a medical office, thereby reducing overhead costs.
It is well-recognized that the single largest expense in a medical office is personnel, and that the processing of documents generates the majority of the labor in a medical office. As service providers, however, physicians and medical office staff should ideally be spending their time on patient care, and not on document management. Time lost to administrative duties is all the more critical in view of the trend towards managed health care, leading to reduced medical fees but increased overhead costs.
There are literally hundreds of medical software applications available today. The majority of these applications deal with billing, scheduling, medical records, and most recently, outcome management. In addition, there are report generators, online services, and efforts to move towards a so-called "paperless office." While such tools can be helpful, none of them directly address the most costly component of medical office overhead—labor hours.
There is therefore a need to reduce the manpower required to complete office administration tasks typically required in a medical office, such as tape transcription, chart preparation, report generation, and forms generation. Embodiments of the present invention meet that need.

Computer-based system for automating administrative procedures in an office


A closing system having an item to be closed and opened, a clasp, and a receiver. The clasp has an anchoring end and a lace end, where the lace end is adapted to hold a part of the item and the anchoring end includes a first part and a second part that are movable away from and toward one another. The receiver includes a first receptacle and a second receptacle for engaging the first and second parts, respectively, where the receiver is a removably attachable mechanism. The clasp is removably joinable to the receiver when the first and second parts are engaged with the first and second receptacles and, when the first and second parts are disengaged with the first and second receptacles, the clasp is separable from the receiver. The first and second parts are movable away from one another and the receiver is removably attached to the item.

Luggage, back packs, garment bags, brief cases, and other items that are typically opened and closed often employ closing mechanisms such as zippers, buttons, clasps, ties, or other similar closing devices.
In an item that typically employs laces or ties, opening and closing the item would usually involve tying and untying the laces or ties each time the item was opened or closed. This repetition is often exacerbated should the item to be closed be tied or laced too tightly or too loosely, which often results in untying and retying the laces or ties to the proper fit. Moreover, tying and retying an item each time it was to be opened or closed generally involved a lengthy period of time.
For other items to be opened and closed, buttons may be used instead of laces or ties. Although buttons may reduce or eliminate the occurrence of the item being closed too tightly or too loosely, the time spent to button and unbutton the item was often as lengthy or more lengthy than the time spent to lace and unlace an item. In some situations, buttoning the item took longer than tying it because there may be multiple buttons where a single lace or tie may be used in its place. Moreover, buttons may be accidentally broken or lost and difficult to replace as it usually entails sewing the buttons on one at a time. On the other hand, laces or ties are often less prone to breakage and replacing a lace is generally easier than sewing multiple buttons in place.
Zippers are another type of closing mechanism that may be used in place of buttons or laces. Zippers tend to allow easier and quicker closing and/or opening of an item over laces, ties, or buttons. Although zippers are generally sturdy, once broken, zippers tend to be difficult to replace as sewing is generally needed. Moreover, based on the toughness and thickness of a zipper together with the item, sewing a zipper may also entail use of a sewing machine, which may present a problem if a sewing machine is not available. In some cases, an industrial grade sewing machine is typically used to sew the zipper to the item. Such industrial sewing machines may be similar to those used to sew riding saddles for horses.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,995,243 to Clarke, U.S. Pat. No. 991,443 to Heath, U.S. Pat. No. 462,162 to Peng, and U.S. Pat. No. 887,942 to Houghland typically involve the use of laces or ties. Opening and closing the items appear to require the laces or ties to be tied and untied each time the shoe is to be worn or removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,878 to Semouha patent also appears to use laces or ties to open and close a shoe. Although the laces do not appear to be tied or untied each time the shoe is to be worn or removed, the laces seem to be slid downward toward the ankle area of the shoe. In this position, a user's foot may be slipped in and out of the shoe, which may prove uncomfortable since the foot is squeezed each time it passes through the ankle area of the shoe. This problem may be even more troublesome should a user's foot be large or should the user have difficulty maneuvering his/her foot through what is believed to be a generally tight channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,695 to Lopez Saiz patent seems to relate to a device that facilitates repeated opening and closing of a shoe. However, the device appears to be easily dislodged from the shoe and, therefore, may permit the shoe to be accidentally untied or opened.
What is desired, therefore, is a closing mechanism that permits repetitive opening and closing of an item. Another desire is a closing mechanism that permits faster opening and closing of an item over conventional closing mechanisms. A further desire is a closing mechanism that resists breakage and, if breakage should occur, is easy to replace onto the item.


To provide a two cycle combustion engine utilizing a connecting structure of a shape that can be formed inexpensively with a simple process to enable the efficiency of cooling of the cylinder block to be maintained at a high level and, also, that can firmly connect the cylinder block with the crankcase with fastening forces exerted by the fastening bolts, the two cycle combustion engine includes a crankcase 2 including first and second crank casings 2A and 2B that are split in a direction conforming to a crank axis C for operatively supporting a crankshaft 11, and a cylinder block 1 having a cylinder bore 1a defined therein and fixedly mounted atop the crankcase 2 by means of a plurality of fastening members 38 and 39 fitted in a direction upwardly from a crankcase-side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a small-size two cycle combustion engine of a kind used as a drive source for a work machine or equipment such as, for example, a brush cutter. More specifically, the present invention relates to the two cycle combustion engine of a structure, in which a cylinder block is connectedly mounted on a crankcase that is divided into two crank casings in a direction axially of a crankshaft accommodated in the crankcase.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the small-size combustion engine of a type utilizing the crankcase that is divided into two crank casings in a direction axially of the crankshaft, a connecting structure has been hitherto generally employed, in which fastening bolts inserted from above into corresponding insertion holes defined in a cylinder block flange at a lower portion of the cylinder block are threadingly engaged in associated internally threaded holes defined in the crankcase. Since in this known connecting structure, the fastening bolts are threaded successively into the respective internally threaded holes, from above in a direction axially of the cylinder, by the use of a bolt fastening tool, cooling fins integral with the cylinder block are required to be formed with a plurality of coaxially aligned series of cuts or throughholes (hereinafter referred to as series-aligned tool insertion holes), one series defined for each fastening bolt, for the passage of the bolt fastening tool therethrough. For this reason, the use of this known connecting structure has been found involving a problem associated with reduction in cooling performance of the cylinder block as the total surface area of the cooling fins is reduced in the presence of the series-aligned tool insertion holes in the cylinder block. Also, the presence of those tool insertion holes necessarily causes the cooling fins to represent rugged shapes particularly in a direction circumferentially of the cylinder block and also causes the thermal transmission to be uneven, eventually resulting in lowering of the cooling efficiency with which the cylinder block is cooled.
On the other hand, the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-227405, published Aug. 15, 2003, for example, discloses another type of connecting structure, which does not require the use of the series-aligned tool insertion holes so that a relatively high efficiency of cooling the cylinder block can be maintained. According to this known connecting structure, a plurality of fastening bolts arranged circumferentially of that lower portion of the cylinder block are threaded to the crankcase in a fashion inclined relative to the cylinder axis to avoid interference with the cooling fins. With this known connecting structure, the cooling fins integral with the cylinder block do in no way interfere the passage of the bolt fastening tool and, hence, the fastening work performed with the bolt fastening tool and, therefore, the use of the series-aligned tool insertion holes is effectively eliminated. Accordingly, the total surface area of the cooling fins need not be sacrificed and, consequently, the efficiency of cooling of the cylinder block can be advantageously maintained at a high level.
However, the connecting structure disclosed in the above mentioned patent publication still has a problem. Specifically, while respective mating surfaces of the cylinder block and the crankcase lie perpendicular to the cylinder axis, bolt bearing surfaces for receiving the respective fastening bolts must be defined inclined relative to the plane of interface between the mating surfaces of the cylinder block and the crankcase. For this reason, not only is threading of the crankcase complicated and difficult to perform, but the fastening force, with which the crankcase and the cylinder block are bolted together, is lowered by a quantity corresponding to the extent of inclination of the bolt bearing surfaces.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention is intended to provide a two cycle combustion engine utilizing a connecting structure of a shape that can be formed inexpensively with a simple process while enabling the efficiency of cooling of the cylinder block to be maintained at a high level and, also, that can firmly connect the cylinder block with the crankcase with fastening forces exerted by the fastening bolts.