A maintenance platform for suspension on support cables, in particular for maintaining rotor blades of wind turbines, wherein the maintenance platform is formed by at least two sub-platforms defining a working plane, wherein said sub-platforms are swivably connected to each other by a swivel joint with a swivel axis substantially perpendicular to the working plane.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, wind turbines are deemed by law to be building structures, the engineering design, erection and operation of which are supervised by the building permit offices of the separate states and by the locally competent building authorities.
The competent authorities require above all that wind turbines, and especially their rotor blades and mechanical engineering components, be monitored at periodic intervals to maintain their operational safety. Irrespective of such requirements, regular maintenance and repair are essential for maximum availability of wind turbines.
In the first years of wind power use, telescopic platforms or so-called aerial platforms, mounted on trucks, were used for inspecting, maintaining and repairing rotor blades.
Owing to the rapid increase in the hub heights of wind turbines, and based on many years of experience in cleaning building facades, intensifying use of wind energy in Germany led to modified and hoistable types of suspended access equipment (SAE) being developed. Examples of such suspended access equipment are described in some patents, patent applications and utility models. What is common to all these solutions is that inspection, maintenance and repair work is performed on a rotor blade pointing vertically downward. The rotor is successively rotated so that all the blades can be treated.
The increasing size of wind turbines, not only with respect to hub height, but also to the specific dimensions of the blades, combined with the desire for offshore wind power generation gives rise inevitably to requirements for suspended access equipment that cannot be met or fully met with the construction designs that have existed hitherto. To perform inspection, maintenance and repair work on all the blades of a wind turbine as efficiently as possible, it is necessary to select mountings for the suspended access equipment such that the rotor can still be rotated when the access equipment is suspended. The disadvantage of suspending the access equipment from the rotor blades themselves is that, in order to treat the next rotor blade, the suspended access equipment must be dismounted and remounted again after the rotor has been rotated to the next position. If repair work needs to be carried out in sections where the mounting for the suspended access equipment is located, this type of mounting is doubly unfavorable. Since maintenance and repair work on blades mainly involves lamination and painting work, dismounting and remounting suspended access equipment cannot be carried out until after full hardening, for example of the paint finish, in the area of the mounting.
Current suspended access equipment that is not suspended from the rotor blades themselves, but from the machine house instead have the disadvantage that, although the rotor can still be turned while the suspended access equipment is mounted, it is necessary to release the tension in guy lines to the ground. For offshore applications, such solutions are out of the question, of course.
What is common to all solutions hitherto is that the suspended access equipment lacks the flexibility to adapt to changes in the cross-sectional profile of the workpiece (in this case the blades) during operation.
The bigger rotor blades become, the greater the flange diameters and the greater the maximum blade depth become. The blade tips, etc., and above all their blade thickness, remain approximately the same, in contrast—irrespective of whether the blade is 20 meters or 40 meters in length. The consequence is that the rotor blades can be treated very well in the flange area or in the upper third next to the hub, whereas work becomes increasingly difficult to perform the closer one gets to the blade tip. The reason for this is the increasing gap between the rotor blade or workpiece surface and the closest front handrail (as defined in the DIN EN 1808 standard) of the suspended access equipment, which is limited to a major extent by the distance that personnel can reach.

Aeroconcept Ingenieurgesellschaft für Luftfahrt-technik und Faserverbundtechnologie mbH


The information delivery system of the invention is connected to one or more communication networks. It comprises an information delivery server comprising information receiving modules for receiving of messages from one or more networks and for converting of those to a form suitable for the information processing unit, an information processing unit, which handles the messages in accordance with their content, fetches the information requested, handles the data and constructs replies to those, information sending modules for sending of the replies to one or several networks and for converting of those to a form suitable for the receiver, a user interface, with which services can be created and maintained in the information delivery server from one or more terminals connected to the information delivery system. The invention also provides a method for delivering information to one or more communication networks and a service product to be used in the information delivery server of the invention. The service product of the invention can be used for creating a service to the information delivery server or for searching or delivering information.

Computer networks consist of two or more computers which are connected together. A Local Area Network (or internal network) can consist of computers within a company, whereas a Wide Area Network can cover larger areas, such as several cities or even countries. The networks can be interconnected with cables, fibres and/or radio links.
The internet is an example of an internetworked wide area network. This worldwide network can be used for communication and information delivery and information retrieval. The open and common internet has grown phenomenally during the last few years and a large number of services for large and small user groups have developed on the internet. Major reasons for the rapid growth of the internet is the openness of the network technology and the possibility for almost everybody to produce their own content and services on the network with small resources. Thus, the internet allows also services which have a relatively very small but globally large enough user base.
There are also more closed, specialised networks in the world, such as the networks based mostly on telephone technology that are used by wireless communications devices. An example of this kind of network is the GSM cellular telephone network. Typically, the use of the networks and services on it, such as the Short Message Service (SMS), is limited to the customers of a certain telecom operator.
These specialised networks are used mostly for communications between two people as it is technically cumbersome to build general services on them, and different solutions are needed for the networks of different telecom operators. Because of this, only services for large user groups have been built on these networks, and thus there is no large group of information service producers as that of the internet.
Building a service to a network currently requires writing a traditional service program. Traditional programming is difficult, requires programming skills from the creator, and representing of the program in a certain exact form.
Visual programming systems are also complex and hard to use and are not very well suited for information delivery between networks of very different types. In a visual programming system, the program is created by combining rigid operations in form of graphic elements on the screen. Traditional visual programming systems require e.g. large graphic display devices and are not usable on small limited devices. These systems are used mostly for industrial process modelling applications.
The WO publication 9915959 is an example of this kind of solution, where a user can create multimedia programs in real time with a visual programming system.
Different networks work with differing principles and deliver information in different formats and forms. Communication between computers takes place according to certain rules, which are called protocols and there are many different protocols.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is one such protocol and it is widely used on the internet. The IP protocol handles packets of data and determines where to send the packets so that they will reach the correct destination. TCP is a transport protocol which builds a virtual connection between the sender and the receiver. The internet also uses other protocols built on top of the TCP/IP protocol, such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for electronic mail, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) for transferring web pages and DNS (Domain Name Service) for name and address queries on the network.
In the telephone network, a continuous connection is created on the logical level between the terminals and information is sent as a coded sound signal at a constant rate. There are a few standards for representing data and services have been built on top of the basic network, such as voice call, data call (in the ISDN or GSM network). Typically, the use of the network is charged by connection time.
On the internet, information is transmitted in small packets and at a speed required at a certain moment. There are many ways to present information on top of the basic technology. Typically, the use of the network is charged according to connection time, or amount of information transmitted internationally.
In the GSM Short Message network, information is sent as separate 160-character short messages by using the SMS standard. There is no continuous connection. Typically, the use of the network is charged according to the number of messages sent and the price for a single message can be high.
In Finland, online credit card checks are done via the X.25 network, which is an old networking technology and complex to attach to a modern network. X.25 is a primitive packet network, where the packet layer is used to share resources between several logically continuous telephone-network-like virtual connections.
Delivering information across these different networks is hard because the networks operate in different ways and the information has to be converted into a form (standard) that is suitable for the communications devices on the target network.
Networks can be interconnected with a gateway that converts information into the format required by another network. Automatic conversion works only with similar networks and services.
Because connecting different networks is hard to do, the access to the services of e.g. a GSM network is closed except to some few non-customised services targeted at large user groups, which someone sees as financially profitable to build by using expensive traditional methods.
These problems create needs that are awaiting solutions. Among others, there is a need for a method for delivering and converting information between different networks in a flexible way.
There is also a need for a system for managing an information delivery system that has a large group of information producers and users, like on the internet.
This invention describes an information delivery system which is connected to one or more communications networks. It comprises an information delivery server, which has information receiving modules for receiving messages from one or several networks and for converting that information to a suitable format for an information processing unit, an information processing unit which processes the queries according to their content, fetches the information requested, processes the information and builds replies to the queries, and information sending modules which send the replies to one or more networks and convert them to a format suitable for the receiver. The system also includes a user interface, which allows the creating and maintaining of services on the information delivery server from one or more terminals connected to the information delivery system.
Preferably, a routing module sends the replies to a suitable information sending module connected to a suitable network.
The information processing unit, which processes the queries according to their content, fetches the information requested from one or more networks or databases connected to the server.
According to the method of this invention intended to deliver information to one or more communications networks, queries are received from one or more networks, the queries are converted to a suitable form for further processing, they are processed in accordance with their content, the information requested in them is fetched and processed, replies are build to the queries and the replies are sent to the correct network after they have been converted to a format suitable for that network.
The invention also provides a service product to be used in the information delivery server of the invention. The service product can be used to build services on the information delivery server or to fetch, process or store information.
The following text lists some preferable implementations for the invention.
The operation of a service product can be described as a binary program module which is stored on the server or on the network. The operation program of the service can be presented as a list of selected operations (in some database) or in text form. For service providers it can be presented in a form, where they can add command parameters. For service users it is presented in a ready-to-use form.
The queries are processed with a program, which has been created as a command list in the server, as a list of simple operations. The program is stored into a database on the server or at another location on a connected network.
The service description is stored in a database and its operation program is presented and processed by the system. The service can be modified and/or created for a private and/or public and/or restricted user group by using parameters which are typed into input fields in the service program. The operation of a service can also be described by a binary program module, which is transferred to the information delivery server. The service can also be described by a program stored elsewhere on the network.
An Information delivery service, which is created on the service program, can consist of fetching information from the internet, e.g. fetching of a home page or a news page, or fetching information using some other internet protocol. A service can also fetch information from a database which is on the server or on a network.
The server has a number or an address on the network through which requests can be sent to it when a user wishes to use the services.
Different networks have different ways of finding the information delivery servers address, name or identity and for sending a request. The request can be sent from the GSM network as an SMS message, from an iMode device, from a computer connected to the internet using a www page, of through e-mail.
A major benefit of this invention is that the configuring services on the information delivery server is open to all users. In addition, the invention offers a simple way to create services, e.g. with a programming list interface as described.
The reply can be delayed in some functions by a suitable time to make unauthorised use of borrowed communications devices harder.
In the following, the invention is described with figures which are not meant to restrict the invention.

Information delivery system, method for information delivery, service product and use of the service product


A motor controller calculates a motor torque command based on motor speed and causes a motor to generate a torque corresponding to the motor torque command, to drive a machine load coupled to the motor. The motor controller includes a speed compensator that makes, when a speed compensation torque is calculated based on the motor speed, frequency characteristics of the speed compensation torque for the motor speed exhibit a low frequency cutoff characteristic so that steady-state gain in frequency response is less than a maximum gain value. A torque adder generates a motor torque command by adding to the existing motor torque command an externally input feedforward torque signal and the speed compensation torque.

A plurality of consecutively arranged transport rolls are typically employed to transport strip-shaped carrier materials such as steel plates, paper sheets, or films, and each of the transport rolls is driven by a dedicated motor. A motor controller is used to control such motors. A typical conventional motor controller includes a speed controller that receives input of a deviation between a speed command and a motor speed, calculates a speed compensation torque that causes the speed command to match an actual speed based on calculation of a proportional control (P control) or a proportional integral control (PI control) based on the received deviation, and adds the speed compensation torque to a motor torque command.
In the above motor controller, the material to be carried is restrained and transported with the transport rolls. In this process, even if a slight difference constantly occurs between the speed command and the speed of a motor operating in conjunction with the carrier material, the speed controller provides control so that no large torque is constantly generated. To realize this, a droop control has been employed. In the droop control, for example, a speed command is subtracted from an amount of a speed droop obtained by proportionally multiplying the speed compensation torque. Moreover, to accurately follow a speed command during accelerating and decelerating a carrier material, such a control has also been performed in which, based on a speed command, an acceleration and deceleration compensation torque necessary for accelerating and decelerating a motor are calculated, and the acceleration and deceleration compensation torque is added to a motor torque command (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Other control has also been performed in which a feedforward compensation is added to a torque command. This feedforward compensation can be a torque necessary for applying tension to a carrier material, or a torque for compensating for machine loss due to friction or the like (for example, see Non-patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H4-121086 (FIG. 1)
[Non-Patent Document 1] "Technology for strip tension control in continuous annealing line", Proceedings of the Japan Industry Applications Society Conference 1991, pp. 800-801

Motor controller and motor control method

Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation


An ambulatory medical device that can communicate with a vehicle is described. An example of the ambulatory medical device includes one or more sensing electrodes configured to sense cardiopulmonary signals of a patient, a network interface, and one or more processors configured to receive signals from one or more vehicle occupancy sensors, detect usage of the ambulatory medical device in a vehicle based on the received signals from the one or more vehicle occupancy sensors, detect at least one of a medical event and a medical premonitory event of the patient based on the sensed cardiopulmonary signals, and provide driving control information to the vehicle, via the network interface, based at least in part on the detected usage of the ambulatory medical device in the vehicle and the detected medical event or medical premonitory event of the patient.

This disclosure relates to systems and techniques for changing an operating mode of a medical device.
There are a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices for monitoring and treating patients' medical conditions. In some examples, depending on the underlying medical condition being monitored and/or treated, medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers or defibrillators may be surgically implanted or connected externally to the patient. For example, the medical condition may be a cardiac arrhythmia. In some cases, physicians may use medical devices alone or in combination with drug therapies to treat patient medical conditions.
One example of a cardiac arrhythmia is ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation occurs when normal, regular electrical impulses are replaced by irregular and rapid impulses, causing the heart muscle to stop normal contractions and to begin to quiver. Normal blood flow ceases, and organ damage or death can result in minutes if normal heart contractions are not restored. Because the victim has no perceptible warning of the impending fibrillation, death often occurs before the necessary medical assistance can arrive. Other cardiac arrhythmias can include excessively slow heart rates known as bradycardia.
Implantable or external pacemakers and defibrillators, such as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), have significantly improved the ability to treat these potentially life-threatening conditions. Such devices operate by applying corrective electrical pulses directly to the patient's heart. For example, bradycardia can be corrected through the use of an implanted or external pacemaker device. Ventricular fibrillation can be treated by an implanted or external defibrillator.
An ambulatory defibrillator is an example of an external defibrillator. The ambulatory defibrillator may provide the capability of substantially continuously monitoring the patient's heart through one or more sensing electrodes for treatable arrhythmias. When a treatable arrhythmia occurs, the ambulatory defibrillator may apply corrective electrical pulses directly to the heart through one or more therapy electrodes.

Vehicle compatible ambulatory defibrillator


A power supply apparatus includes a charging mode information receiving unit configured to receive, from each of a plurality of power receiving apparatuses each including a secondary battery, charging mode information indicating whether each of the power receiving apparatuses requests normal charging of the secondary battery or fast charging of the secondary battery, wherein the fast charging charges faster than the normal charging, a power supply order determination unit configured to determine a power supply order of the power receiving apparatuses based on the charging mode information, and a power supply unit configured to wirelessly supply power to the power receiving apparatuses in the order determined by the power supply order determination unit.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a power supply method, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Power supply systems that charge a battery in a contactless manner (wirelessly) have conventionally been known. Such a wireless power supply system can charge a battery of a mobile terminal such as a cell-phone and a smartphone by supplying power to the battery.
Furthermore, contact power supply systems have been known that have two charging modes of normal charging and fast charging completed faster than the normal charging. For example, a system is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-186908 in which power is supplied to a power receiving apparatus including two batteries. One of the batteries is charged by the fast charging and the other one of the batteries is charged by the normal charging. The charging mode is switched between the normal charging and the fast charging in accordance with the remaining battery capacities of the batteries.
In the wireless charging system, power is supplied to a plurality of power receiving apparatuses in some cases. Here, the power receiving apparatuses as the power supply targets might request the normal charging mode or the fast charging mode independently from each other. Therefore, a technique of appropriately supplying power to the power receiving apparatuses in such a situation has been called for.

Power supply apparatus, image forming apparatus, power supply method, and storage medium


Service path protection is provided for packet-based data services (e.g. GbE or FC) by making available to a protected service, as and when needed, preemptable (i.e. sharable) transport bandwidth (e.g. STS-1s for a SONET network) used, under normal conditions, to transport other data services. Each client-based service path is defined by a selectable working path when service protection has not been initiated for that service path and each working path comprises a selectable bandwidth, selectable portions of which are designated as unpreemptable and/or preemptable, whereby the preemptable bandwidth portions are made available for protection preemption by different service paths. A protection path is assigned to each protected service path, whereby each protection path comprises a selectable bandwidth having preemptable bandwidth portion(s) of working path(s) defining different service path(s) and/or unused network bandwidth. In response to a protection switch request the protected service path is switched so that it is defined by the protection path assigned to it, thereby preempting the preemptable bandwidth portion of the protection path for use by the protected service path. The working path bandwidths are selected on a dynamic basis in response to available network bandwidth so as to maximize the use of network bandwidth by the working paths.

Currently, wide area networks (WANs) are primarily structured for a point-to-point delivery of bandwidth in the form of static 'pipes' using TDM e.g. SONET (synchronous optical network)/SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) and WDM based optical technologies. A SONET signal (i.e. such as STS-48, meaning 48 synchronous transport streams) is typically composed of multiple STS-1's which are assigned to various resources or clients, with the greater the number of STS-1's representing increased bandwidth. Networks based on these technologies enable services, such as traditional private line services, which have the following characteristics:                Point-to-point connectivity with ubiquity of access;        Determinism, whereby bandwidth is 100% dedicated to the connection at all times using time domain multiplexing;        Isolation, whereby individual services have fully dedicated and separated resources;        Static, whereby connections are made on a medium to long time frame basis;        Symmetric, whereby both the outbound and inbound paths have the same bandwidth quanta; and,        Non-dynamic, whereby the bandwidth quanta are constant over the life of the connection.
Protection mechanisms, for providing alternate transport paths in the event of a failure of a working transport path, are normally achieved within a WAN transport network by providing redundancy for services of fixed bandwidth. These known protection mechanisms include, for SONET, UPSR (a path switched mechanism), BLSR (a line switched mechanism), Linear 1+1, Linear 1:1 and Linear 1:N and, for wavelengths, O-BLSR, O-UPSR, 1+1 wavelength switching and 1+1 line switching. Disadvantageously, however, these known protection mechanisms utilize substantial redundancy. For the BLSR and 1+1 APS line protection mechanisms and the UPSR path protection mechanism twice the network bandwidth is reserved for all service traffic (i.e. to provide the active path and the restoral path). Thus, on using these existing protection mechanisms, service providers are limited to providing either network survivability, at the cost of wasting half of the network bandwidth for protection, or full usage of the network bandwidth at the cost of no protection. The "extra traffic" 1:1 line protection mechanism differs from 1+1 line protection in that the protection bandwidth is made available for use on a "best efforts" basis such that when a network failure occurs, the best effort traffic is dropped to allow the protected traffic access to the available resources. For 1:N line protection a single network path is used as the restoration path for N active channels. Thus, this protection mechanism also uses less than twice the operating bandwidth but the bandwidth needed to provide protection remains undesirably high and, moreover, multiple failures occurring simultaneously may not result in enough bandwidth to allow protection to occur.
More recently, a new class of data service has emerged which relies upon an on-going reallocation of bandwidth (i.e. STS-1's) amongst the clients by means of WAN networking devices within the link layer, examples of such services being high speed GbE, Fibre Channel and HDTV services. This reallocation of bandwidth can be accomplished on an in-service basis, with no perceived interruption in the data communications service by the clients. Although this new service class, which is essentially packet-based, holds some of the same characteristics as the foregoing traditional services and remains well served by 100% deterministic TDM or WDM networks, it has characteristics which are the opposite of traditional services, in particular, flexible bandwidth. This new class of data services is point-to-point in nature, deterministic and isolated, like the foregoing traditional services, but is different in that: (i) it is non-symmetric (ingress and egress traffic are generally unequal); (ii) it is dynamic (connection bandwidth varies over the life of the connection in response to non-static service loads); and, (iii) it is packet-based, such that the application can, in principle, make use of semi-arbitrary transport bandwidths by using flow control mechanisms which guarantee packet delivery or by using higher level protocols which resend any lost packets.
For this new class of data service, there is a need for means to provide different levels of protection for different service paths. In addition, there is a need for a protection switching mechanism that allows full network resource usage during normal operation while at the same time allowing for all services to be protected under failure conditions.

Service protection method and apparatus for TDM or WDM communications networks


Methods and devices employing mura prevention circuitry, are provided. In one example, a method may include supplying a first voltage pathway between a common electrode driver and a common electrode of an electronic display device and supplying a second voltage pathway between the common electrode driver and ground. Mura prevention circuitry may be supplied that activates the first voltage pathway when the electronic display device is turned on and an activation gate signal is provided from a gate corresponding to the common electrode driver. Further, the mura prevention circuitry may activate the second voltage pathway when the electronic display device is turned off or no activation gate signal is provided from the gate corresponding to the common electrode driver.

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic displays (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display) and, more particularly, to electronic displays that can be turned off in a manner that reduces non-uniformity in a display output when the display is subsequently turned back on.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Electronic displays, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), are commonly used in electronic devices such as televisions, computers, and phones. LCDs portray images by modulating the amount of light that passes through a liquid crystal layer within pixels of varying color. For example, by varying a voltage difference between a pixel electrode and a common electrode in a pixel, an electric field may result. The electric field may cause the liquid crystal layer to vary its alignment, which may ultimately result in more or less light being emitted through the pixel where it may be seen. By changing the voltage difference (often referred to as a data signal) supplied to each pixel, images may be produced on the LCD.
To store data representing a particular amount of light that is to be passed through pixels, gates of thin-film transistors (TFTs) in the pixels may be activated while the data signal is supplied to the pixels. Conventionally, when an LCD is turned off, the pixel electrodes of all pixels of the LCD may be supplied a minimal voltage. However, when triboelectric charging occurs, such as by friction, (e.g., friction caused by inserting or removing a cable from a cable connector) electro-static discharge (ESD) may enter the display. As the ESD enters the display, a charge may be left in the display, causing retained charges to the common electrodes of the display. It is believed that these retained charges, caused by the incorporation of ESD in the display, may result in mura or image artifacts, such as undesirable checkerboard patterns that could appear after the display is turned on again.

Devices and methods for common electrode mura prevention


An apparatus and method for valve cartridge extraction from a valve assembly, wherein the assembly includes a valve member body, a cartridge, and a valve cartridge extraction (VCE) tool comprising at least one pin disposed on the upper surface of the VCE tool. During cartridge removal, the VCE tool is uncoupled from the valve member body and is coupled to the cartridge with the at least one pin. The cartridge is rotated with the coupled VCE tool to assist in cartridge removal. The valve assembly may also include a hood covering the VCE tool.

Backflow prevention valves are used to protect against back-siphonage into a potable water supply in a wide variety of applications such as in industrial plants, laboratories, laundries, swimming pools, lawn sprinkler systems and the like. During servicing, inspection or testing, internal components, such as a check valve cartridge, of the valve may need to be replaced. However, the internal components may be difficult to remove by hand. There is, therefore, a need for a solution to easily remove internal components from an installed valve.

Apparatus and method for valve cartridge extraction


A method for choosing the sequence of bursts of an access pattern in the primary network of a cognitive wireless network comprising a primary and a secondary network, wherein this access pattern comprises an alternation of listen periods and signaling transmission periods, these periods having various lengths; comprises the steps of computing a random integer X, and then generating a sequence of bursts corresponding to the computed random integer X. In a peculiar embodiment, the random integer X has a geometric distribution with a given probability p.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to cognitive wireless telecommunication networks.
A cognitive network is a network with a cognitive process that can perceive current network conditions; and plan, decide, act on those conditions, learn from the consequences of its actions, all while following end-to-end goals. A cognition loop senses the environment, plans actions according to input from sensors and network policies, decides which scenario fits best its end-to-end goals using a reasoning engine, and finally acts on the chosen scenario. The system learns from the past (situations, plans, decisions, actions) and uses this knowledge to improve the decisions in the future.
A cognitive wireless networks is a radio network where each band of frequency is occupied by two groups of users: the primary users that form a primary network and the secondary users that form a secondary network. The primary users are supposed to have priority over the secondary users: i.e. the performance of the primary network should be protected against the traffic of the secondary network, i. e. the performance of the primary network should be guaranteed independently of the demand from the secondary network. Furthermore, the throughput and occupancy of the secondary network should vanish when the traffic load of the primary network increases. In other words the secondary users are only allowed to take the blank periods left by the primary users.
Economically, the existence of cognitive wireless networks is justified by the fact that many spectra are not fully used by their dedicated users, and therefore allowing secondary user access will give the opportunity to fully use the bandwidths and provide more spectrum to users. This is particularly true when part of the bandwidth is reserved for applications that have not yet been developed. The time necessary for such applications to come on to market may be long or may simply never occur (due to reasons other than technological), and precious bandwidth may simply be wasted for a substantially long period. Therefore the Federal Communication Commission has decided that any bandwidth dedicated to a new usage should also accept secondary users in the context of cognitive networks.
The problem is that the protocol used by the primary users, hereafter called the primary protocol, has in general a design that does not take into account the secondary users. In consequence the secondary protocol is sometimes harder and more costly to design than the primary protocol. Indeed the secondary users would need to be aware of the main elements of the protocol of the primary users in order to knowledgeably give priority to the later. The technological burden is thus on the secondary users while the market domination is guaranteed to the primary protocols. The result is that the spectrum may not be efficiently used and the initial goal of cognitive regulation will not be fulfilled in economic terms.
An alternative approach consists in identifying an already standardized protocol for the secondary users, for example the IEEE 802.11 standards, and then giving the burden of designing a primary protocol that naturally preempt the secondary protocol. Pre-empting the IEEE 802.11 standard is not difficult: it suffices to define a primary protocol with smaller distributed inter-frame spaces (DIFS). With this strategy the advantages are:
1) The success to market of the secondary protocol is guaranteed, since the secondary protocol is already available; therefore the spectrum is immediately fully used.
2) The technological investment for the primary protocol is guaranteed by its enforced priority over the secondary protocol.
We will consider a strategy where the sharing rules are mostly implemented in the primary network. Usually the secondary network encompasses mechanisms which allow this network to resume its transmission if the primary network is not using the channel.
We will consider a secondary network that uses the IEEE 802.11 decentralized MAC scheme. The key is a preemptive access implemented in the primary network. When both networks coexist, the secondary network captures the bandwidth when there is no activity in the primary network and in a given area (or if there is even no network nodes at all). The secondary network can use the bandwidth without any modification to its normal mode of operation.
In such a cognitive radio network, we can distinguish two different issues:
1) The first issue is sensing, which is a key feature in cognitive radio networks since it allows the secondary network to be aware of the existence of primary nodes within a given area.
2) The other issue is medium access, which is also a central issue since smart access techniques can be used by cognitive radio networks to efficiently share the medium.
Description of the Prior Art
For instance the article "Priority and Collision Detection with Active Signaling—The Channel Access Mechanism of HIPERLAN" by Philippe Jacquet, Pascale Minet, Paul Mühlethaler and Nicolas Rivierre, in Wireless personal communication 1997, http://www.springerlink.com/content/n34103q456885g51/ describes a known method for priority and collision detection with active signaling in a HIPERLAN network. In this known method, the active signaling consists, for each node wanting to access the medium, to transmit an access pattern of non-data signals in preamble to each data packet transmission attempt. This access pattern basically consists into an alternation of two listen periods separated by one signal period, these periods having various lengths. The signal transmitted in pattern signal period contains no data at all.
The procedure of collision detection and conflict resolution is performed during the access pattern preamble. The rule is that when a node, in one of its pattern listen periods, detects some energy from another node, then it immediately aborts its own access pattern preamble, and defers its packet transmission for a next attempt. Otherwise the node transmits its packet at the end of the access pattern transmission.
When a transmission attempt starts, each node in competition selects a new access pattern with the objective of having it different of the other ones. The access patterns are also functions of access priority assigned to the packet by upper level MAC data transfer services. Clearly if two nodes have two different access patterns, then the listen and signal periods, and the eventual packet transmission periods will not coincide. Therefore, providing all the nodes start access pattern preambles at the same time, one of the nodes in listen period will necessarily be the first to detect energy from another node and will defer in order to let the latter transmit its packet safely.
This is collision detection, but since it is performed before the packet, packet transmission is safe. One says that the nodes have been separated by their patterns.
The node that has priority to transmit its packet is the one holding the pattern which presents the largest digital number expanded in binary, if a pattern time slot is coded with a "1" when it is in a transmit time slot, and a "0" when it is in a listen time slot. Synchronization of pattern preambles is obtained by forcing each pattern to start after the end of frame of the last transmitted packet on the channel.
The pattern selection is such that patterns applied for high priority packets is always greater than patterns applied to lower priority packets.
As mentioned above, an interesting option for a cognitive wireless network is a secondary network according to IEEE 802.11 (WiFi).
FIG. 1 represents an exemplary burst of data packets in a classical secondary network based on the IEEE 802.11 decentralized medium access scheme. It performs the carrier sense during a random time interval. It uses a backoff i. e. a time interval used to space out repeated retransmissions of a same packet of data: The end of the transmission of a packet A by a first node of the secondary network is followed by a short interframe space SIFS and then an acknowledgement packet ack, for point-to-point packets.
After the acknowledgement packet ack, the other nodes which are waiting to transmit a packet must wait for a distributed interframe space DISF to start decrementing their backoff. This mechanism requires that the duration of a SIFS is smaller than the duration of a DISF. With this condition, the backoff is not decremented between a packet and its acknowledgement. The timing of the backoff procedure follows a time unit called "slot", same duration as a DIFS. Any node which has pending data packets waits during the distributed inter-frame space DIFS. After the end of the distributed inter-frame space DIFS, the first node keeps waiting for a random number of slots (it decrements its backoff time). In this example it waits during four slots. After this time interval elapses, the first node sends a second packet B.
If a second node starts sending a packet before the first node has finished decrementing its backoff, the first node resumes decrementing its backoff after the end of the current transmission made by the second node.
We have an example of this situation in FIG. 1. The first node transmits a packet A. A second node has a backoff of four slots before it transmits a packet B.
Thus the second node sends its packet B after the end of the packet A transmitted by the first node (including the acknowledgement for point-to-point packets) and after waiting for four slots.
A third node transmits its packet C after an initial backoff of six slots. Thus the third node waits for the end of the second station's transmission and waits for its two remaining slots before sending its packet C.
A fourth node had an initial backoff of nine slots. Thus the fourth node waits for the end of the third station's transmission and then waits for its three remaining slots before sending its packet D.
FIG. 2 represents an exemplary burst of data packets in a classical secondary network using a generalized carrier sense multiple access technique with active signaling, which is the original basis of the known protocol HiPERLAN type 1. Rather than performing the carrier sense during a random time interval, it consists in allowing the protocol to switch between periods of signaling transmission and periods of sensing, during the signaling period. The fundamental rule of carrier sense medium access remains the same: as soon as the sensed energy is above a given threshold, then the node quits the selection process and waits for the end of the current transmission of a data packet to start competing again.
A simple way to describe the node's activity during the signaling period is to code the signaling period with "1" or "0": 1 represents a transmission interval and "0" a sensing interval. Thus the signaling burst "101" is composed of a transmission period, a sensing period and another signaling period.
The interframe between a packet and its acknowledgement ack is still a short interframe space SISF but the time interval between the end of the acknowledgement ack and the beginning of the active signaling part is called a burst interframe space BIFS. We assume that every node always uses the same binary sequence during its signaling period, to govern its access, and we call this sequence the node access sequence.
On FIG. 2, the transmission of a packet E is followed by a short interframe space SIFS, then an acknowledgement ack, and then a burst interframe space BIFS. Then an active signaling burst is sent before sending a packet F. This active signaling burst can be represented by the binary sequence "111001110000110" in this example. The transmission of the packet F is followed by a short interframe space SIFS, and then an acknowledgement ack.
The sensing rule is such that the node with the highest binary sequence is selected for transmission. Then the second highest binary sequence is selected and so on. Of course the nodes with larger access sequences would have more access opportunities than nodes with smaller access sequence. To cope with this fairness issue, we can add the following rule: the same node must observe an idle interval of at least one large burst interframe space LBIFS, to be allowed to start its signaling phase.
In order to preserve the priority of the primary network over the secondary network, the duration of the large burst interframe space LBIFS must be chosen smaller than the duration of the distributed interframe space DIFS. The duration of the large burst interframe space LBIFS should also be larger than the duration of burst interframe space BIFS. This implies that nodes even with smaller access sequence than the access sequence used by node currently transmitting a data packet will have opportunities to send their packets. This mechanism creates "epochs", two successive epochs being separated by an idle period with duration of at least one burst interframe space BIFS.
A possible solution to obtain a fair access is to draw the binary sequences, used in the primary network, as predetermined fixed sequences. In this case the user must not attempt to access the network before all the other contending nodes have sent their packets. So there will be timing constraints to insure that the secondary network nodes only get access to the channel when the primary network nodes have no traffic to send. The first constraint is that the BIFS is smaller than the distributed interframe space DIFS. This gives a prioritized access to the primary network nodes.
Moreover, to insure that a burst interframe space BIFS followed by listening bursts can not be interpreted as a distributed interframe space DIFS, it is sufficient that the duration of the burst interframe space BIFS plus the duration of the beginning of listening bursts at the head of the binary sequence is smaller than the duration of the DIFS. If we satisfy this constraint, the generalized carrier sense multiple access technique used for the primary network will preempt the access of a secondary user using the decentralized IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol.
However another constraint is necessary to ensure that the secondary network cannot insert transmissions in the signaling period of the primary network: The binary sequence used in the primary network must not contain too many successive zeros. The duration of a sequence of listening coded by successive zeros should be shorter than a burst interframe space BIFS. In this case, the nodes using the IEEE 802.11 access scheme do not start decrementing their backoff during the sensing intervals of the signaling bursts of the primary network, and no packet of the secondary network can be inserted. The following table presents exemplary values used in the IEEE 802.11 for the SIFS, BIFS, LBIFS, and DIFS.
DurationOne signaling burst 9 μsSIFS10 μsBIFS30 μsLBIFS40 μsDIFS50 μsMini slot 5 μs
For a primary network of size N, it consists in generating each of the N access patterns as a (d, k) binary sequence. A (d, k) binary sequences contains a string of '0' where 0 appears at least d times and at most k times between two successive '1'. For instance, d=0 and the maximum value of k can be easily computed with the duration dDIFS of the distributed interframe space of the IEEE 802.11 MAC scheme, and the duration dRX of the receive to transmit turnout time, also called mini slot:k=dDIFS/dRX, for example 5 μs
If the primary network uses the carrier sense multiple access technique with active signaling and (0; k1) binary sequence, then we are sure that during the signaling period of a primary network node there is no listening period (i.e. idle period) of length greater than dDIFS. In other words, the IEEE 802.11 access scheme cannot start decrementing its backoff in the signaling period of the primary network, and thus no transmission can be inserted in the active signaling period of the primary network. So the primary users should transmit preamble patterns comprising a sequence of signaling burst chosen so that:                1. The signaling bursts are separated by less than the WiFi distributed inter-frame space (DIFS) time interval, in order to predate WiFi access. Indeed DIFS is the minimal time interval a WiFi node must sense the channel idle before initiating a transmission.        2. The sequence of signaling bursts identifies the primary user in order to prevent collisions.
The terminal that transmits the lexicographically highest sequence is the winner of the contention.
Assuming that a primary user can detect an idle period of length equal to the distributed Interframe space DIFS divided by some integer k, that we will call micro-slot. For instance we suppose k=10. Therefore there are k different possible positions for the first signaling burst. The signaling burst with no micro-slot before it is lexicographically the highest. Assuming n contenders, the average number of users actually transmitting their first signaling burst is equal to:
      1    +                  (                  n          -          1                )            /      2        kwhen the two above mentioned conditions are satisfied.
The number of users transmitting their second signaling burst is equal to:
            1      +                        (                      n            -            1                    )                /        2                    k              2                                                      etc    .
A computation shows that the theoretical minimal length of the (d, k) sequence needed to encode N distinct access sequences (i. e. uniqueness of each preamble sequence), according to this second possible solution, is equal to log N in order to guarantee a collision free access for a primary network of size N.
FIG. 3 represents graphs of the average number of users simultaneously transmitting their ith signaling burst, for i=1 to 6, from left to right, versus the number of users (10x), on logarithmic scales, when each of the patterns is chosen as a (d, k) binary sequence, and so that all the patterns satisfy the two above mentioned conditions.
These graphs show that, according to this possible solution, the average number of users simultaneously transmitting their ith signaling burst is growing rapidly with the number of transmitters. According to this prior art solution, sorting users in a primary network of size N would require sequences with log N signaling bursts which is good as long as N is not huge.
The drawback of this prior art solution is the number of users that will simultaneously transmit their signaling bursts along with the winner. Indeed when the network is congested, this number is of order N. It means that the burst transmission per packet would require a cumulated quantity of extra energy N times larger than the transmission of the packet itself. In other words, a user must expect to transmit N sequences in average before being the winner of the contention. If N is large (e.g. 1,000,000) this is unacceptable in terms of energy (up to an extra 60 dB margin).
Another drawback of this possible solution is that, by broadcasting bursts which are, by accumulation, N times more energetic than a packet transmission itself, it would create an interference radius far much larger than the typical range of the network. With a one million user network, this would increase the interference radius by a factor 1000 and create inacceptable long range disruptions.
Furthermore the uniqueness of the preamble sequence requires the need of a central management which can be complex.
The article by PHILIPPE JACQUET ET AL: "Cognitive networks: A new access scheme which introduces a Darwinian approach", WIRELESS DAYS (WD), 2012 IFIP, IEEE, 21 Nov. 2012 (2012-11-21), pages 1-6, XP032298475 describes a method for choosing the sequence of bursts of an access pattern, comprising the steps of computing a random integer X, and then generating a sequence of bursts corresponding to the computed random integer X.
Thanks to the steps of computing a random integer X, and then generating a sequence of bursts corresponding to the computed random integer X, the number of distinct sequences is much reduced. There may be a few identical sequences, but it is better to allow a few collisions to occur and to resolve them by retransmitting, rather than using N distinct sequences which lead to a large overhead, if a large number of sequences is needed.
The objective of the present invention is to provide an improved method to determine the random number X, so that the average energy cost E of a successful data packet transmission is below a targeted threshold.
Let us consider a given ratio k between the distributed interframe space DISF and the minislot. So k is the base for encoding X: 0, 1, . . . , k−1 to get a (0, k−1) sequence.
And let us consider a given number L of bursts in an access preamble pattern.
Without loss of generality, we can consider that the parameter X is generated by a given distribution of integers between 0 and kL−1, or by large from 0 to infinity and then truncated up to kL−1; and that the preamble key is the description in base k of the number X, so that the access preamble will contain L bursts and any larger X will always give a preamble that wins over a preamble made from a smaller value of integer X.
The average number of transmitters of the last burst is smaller than or equal to:
      r              (              n        ,        L        ,        P            )        =            n                              ∑                      i            =            0                                i            =                                          k                L                            -              1                                                                                P                                      (                              X                =                i                            )                                                                    (                              P                                                  (                                      X                    ≤                    i                                    )                                            )                                      n              -              1                                            +          nP                    (                  X          ≥                      k            L                          )            where:n is the number of actual primary users in access contention;P is the access pattern probability distribution.
Notice that r(n,L,P)−1 is larger than the probability of collision on a packet and therefore 2−r(n,L,P) is a lower bound of the probability of successful transmission.
The average number of actually transmitted bursts dedicated to transmission, per packet preamble, includes all burst transmission, in particular the burst transmitted by losers among the n contenders. This average number of actually transmitted bursts is smaller than:
      C              (              n        ,        L        ,        P            )        =            nk                              ∑                      i            =            1                    L                                                                                ∑                          j              =              1                                      j              =                              k                i                                                                                P                                            (                                                                            (                                              j                        -                        1                                            )                                                                                k                                              L                        -                        i                                                                              <                  X                  ≤                                      jk                                          L                      -                      i                                                                      )                                                                                (                                  P                                                        (                                          X                      ≤                                              jk                                                  L                          -                          i                                                                                )                                                  )                                            n                -                1                                                          +          nLP                    (                  X          ≥                      k            L                          )
The term nLP(X≧kL) expresses the fact that the contenders with X≧kL have a preamble key equal to BS(u) that is the binary k-sequence which encodes the number u, u being an integer between 0 and k−1.
Thus, if B is the energetic cost of one transmitted burst, and U is the energy cost of one single data packet transmission, then the average energy cost E(n,L,P) of a successful data packet transmission satisfies the inequality:
      E              (              n        ,        L        ,        P            )        ≤                              C                                (                          n              ,              L              ,              P                        )                                  B            +      U              2      -              r                          (                      n            ,            L            ,            P                    )

Active signaling in a cognitive wireless telecommunication network


Aspects of the invention include methods to produce jet fuel from biological oil sources. The method may be comprised of two steps: hydrocracking and reforming. The process may be self-sufficient in heat and hydrogen.

Kerosene-type jet fuels comprise primarily hydrocarbons containing between about eight and 16 carbon atoms in their molecules. The hydrocarbons that boil near the middle of the kerosene-type jet fuel boiling range may be C10 aromatics, C11 naphthenes, and C12 paraffins. According to previous studies, neither thermal nor catalytic cracking of vegetable oils appears to produce high levels of hydrocarbon fractions that would meet jet fuel specifications, such as those for JP-8.

Conversion of crop seed oils to jet fuel and associated methods


A cladding mode stripper for stripping cladding modes from an optical fiber is disclosed. The cladding mode stripper includes a reflective base and a block of a transparent material disposed on the reflective base. The block of the transparent material has a groove in its bottom surface for the fiber. The fiber is thermally coupled to the base and optically coupled to the groove in the block, for example using an index matching gel. The cladding mode light is reflected from the reflective base and is absorbed in a cover enclosing the block. An additional thin block of transparent heat-conductive material can be placed between the fiber and the reflective base, to prevent the index matching gel from contacting the reflective surface of the base.

Fiber lasers have significant advantages over traditional lasers, including stability of alignment, scalability, and high optical power of a nearly diffraction limited output beam. In a fiber laser, the gain medium is a length of an optical fiber, the core of which is doped with an active lasing material, typically ions of a rare earth element, such as erbium or ytterbium or both. The lasing material is usually pumped using an emission of a diode laser, or an array of diode lasers. The advent of double clad active optical fibers having inner and outer claddings, in which the pump light is coupled to the inner cladding to be absorbed at the doped fiber core along the fiber length, allowed a considerable increase in overall output power of a fiber laser, while preserving the brightness and directivity of a singlemode output laser beam. Power levels of the order of several kilowatts or even tens of kilowatts in an almost singlemode output laser beam are now achievable, opening a great variety of industrial applications, such as concrete drilling or sheet metal cutting for a car industry or shipbuilding.
At high optical power levels of fiber lasers, the task of managing stray light becomes crucial. A doped fused silica core and a fused silica inner cladding or claddings of the fiber lasers are surrounded by an external coating made of a polymer. Having an external polymer coating is essential because without it, the optical fiber becomes very brittle; furthermore, for some fibers called "polymer-clad fibers", the polymer layer functions as an outer optical cladding. At high pump power levels, even a small fraction of stray light can heat the polymer to a temperature at which it can be damaged, causing catastrophic failure of the active fiber of the laser. For instance, in fiber laser arrangements where the fiber is pumped at one end, and a catastrophic thermal failure occurs at the other end, the fiber can actually start burning towards the pump end, causing the entire length of expensive active double-clad fiber to be eliminated.
In fiber lasers, the stray light and associated heating is caused by so called cladding modes, that is, modes of light propagation in the cladding. In double clad fibers, the cladding modes of the inner cladding are used to deliver the pump light to the fiber core. When the light of the cladding modes escapes the inner cladding, it can cause a localized heating of the fiber polymer coating, resulting in a catastrophic failure of the active fiber. Because of this, the cladding modes need to be removed (stripped) from the fiber where they are no longer required, or where they should not be normally present, such as in outer cladding of a double clad fiber. For example, when an active optical fiber is pumped at one end, the residual inner cladding light can be removed at the other end of the fiber to prevent its further propagation. Furthermore, the cladding modes present in the outermost cladding can be removed at the pump end of the active fiber. The cladding light can include the residual (unabsorbed) pump light, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of the active fiber core, and the laser light at the wavelength of lasing that escaped the fiber core.
Cladding modes are removed using so called cladding mode stripper devices, or cladding mode strippers. A cladding mode stripper of the prior art has a layer of a high-index material disposed next to and optically coupled to the cladding of the optical fiber. The cladding light present in the cladding is coupled to the high-index material and is absorbed in the high-index material or in an opaque solid shield disposed around the high-index material. An index-matching gel or a coating of a high-index polymer is typically used in a cladding mode stripper. By way of example, Wilhelmson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,273, which is incorporated herein by reference, disclose a mode stripper having a radiation-resistant high-index material surrounding the optical fiber.
To facilitate a more uniform distribution of cladding mode light stripped along a length of an optical fiber, the refractive index of the high-index polymer can be made to vary along the fiber. For example, Wetter et al. in an article entitled "High power cladding light strippers", Photonics West 2008, Fiber Lasers V: Technology, Systems, and Applications, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6873, 687327, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a high-power cladding mode stripper having the refractive index varying along the fiber length. Anderegg et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,349,596, which is incorporated herein by reference, disclose a cladding mode stripper device in which a polymer with negative temperature dependence of the refractive index is deposited along the fiber. The negative temperature dependence of the polymer limits the local cladding mode stripping effect when the polymer is locally heated to a high enough temperature. The cladding modes can be stripped off by the cooler part of the coating disposed downstream of the optical fiber; as a result, the "hot spots" in the cladding mode stripper device are avoided and the temperature distribution evens out.
Jürgensen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,999,481, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a cladding mode stripper device in which the sheath (the outer coating) is gradually thinned along the fiber so that the cladding modes can escape gradually, thus lowering the peak temperatures. Hu et al. in US Patent Application Publication 2008/0131060 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference, disclose a cladding mode stripper, in which a light-scattering material is deposited on the fiber to scatter the cladding mode light. Furthermore, Frith in US Patent Application Publication 2009/0080835 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a "gradual" cladding mode stripper for a multi-cladding fiber, in which the claddings of the fiber are removed one by one in a step-like fashion, the high-index material being placed at the steps where the claddings are removed, to couple the cladding modes out. Disadvantageously, the prior-art approaches are not scalable to very high optical power levels, being specific to particular fiber types and particular optical power ranges.
The prior art lacks a cladding mode stripper device that would be simple yet scalable to high optical power levels. Accordingly, the present invention provides such a device.


The apparatus comprises a microcontroller (7) which receives codes representing vocabulary elements, a speech synthesizer (20) which generates, in analog form, phonemes for a loudspeaker (5) which correspond to the vocabulary elements represented by said codes, and a vocabulary memory (8, 23) which can be addressed by means of codes.. In accordance with the invention the memory contains, in correspondence with a given code, the ASCII characters of the word or the groups of words designated by this code, to be displayed on a display screen (10), as well as a sequence of digital data which defines the pronunciation thereof. The apparatus comprises means (22, 7, 21) for applying said sequence of digital data to the speech synthesizer (20) when the latter is to supply the loudspeaker (5) with the vocabulary element represented by the code. Moreover, a memory containing proper names and controlled in accordance with the invention is accommodated on a removable card (23).

The invention relates to a traffic information apparatus, comprising a vocabulary memory in which each vocabulary element can be addressed by means of a code number designating a vocabulary element, the memory containing, for each vocabulary element, digital data describing the relevant vocabulary element, and also comprising a speech synthesizer for generating the phonemes corresponding to the representation of said vocabulary elements in the form of speech.
An apparatus of this kind is, for example a car radio receiver, intended to receive and utilize so-called RDSITMC signals, or a road guidance apparatus which is also referred to as a navigation apparatus. It is capable of supplying traffic information messages, or messages for guiding a vehicle, by displaying the messages on a screen and/or by outputting the messages by speech synthesis.
A speech synthesizer is known from the document EP-A-0 059 880. According to this document, the definition of a word is given in the form of ASCII characters which are sequentially entered and a microcontroller interrogates a ROM memory containing pronunciation rules in order to establish how a given set of characters is to be pronounced. A problem is encountered in that in given languages several different pronunciation rules are applicable, depending on the words. For example, in English the characters "gh" in "rough" and "ghost" are not pronounced in the same way. In order to solve this problem, the speech synthesizer in the cited document utilizes a complex set of rules which must take into account a large number of different situations and which differs for different languages (English, German, French, etc.).
It is an object of the invention to simplify the generation of phonemes and to reduce the required memory.

Traffic information apparatus comprising a message memory and a speech synthesizer


An interface cable for providing a connection between an AC power source and a DC sensor. The interface cable includes a shroud portion containing a power convertor for converting power from an AC power source to a DC power output for powering a DC sensor. The shroud portion additionally includes a sensor interface for converting an output from the DC sensor to an output comparable to an output provided by an AC sensor for connection to controller configured for an AC sensor. The shroud portion is formed as a compact cylindrical structure integral with first and second cable portions whereby the interface cable provides a readily installed interface for connecting a DC sensor to a machine configured for operation with an AC sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a cable for use in providing connections to sensors. More particularly, the invention provides an interface cable for connecting a sensor to a power source and for conveying an output from the sensor to a control device.
2. Description of Related Prior Art
Sensors are used for a variety of applications including sensing the presence or absence of articles and sensing a distance or proximity of an article to the sensor, such as may be required for a process control application. In particular, ultrasonic sensors are widely used for numerous sensing applications for process control of production and packaging operations. Such sensing applications include container presence/absence detection, container size detection, product level detection, container orientation detection, container counting operations, material web control, tamper/safety seal detection, surface coating detection, as well as many others. Typically, specification of sensors at particular locations on a production or process machine is an integral part of the control system design to enable the machine to operate as intended.
Ultrasonic sensors require a power source and include a pair of power input connections for powering the sensor, and additionally include a pair of sensor output connections for providing an output to a controller for detecting the signal from the sensor. Further, the sensors are either configured to operate with an AC power source or a DC power source with a corresponding sensor output connection, where the output connection for the AC sensor is a switching output which is either normally open or normally closed, and the output connection for the DC sensor is either a current sourcing output on one of the output lines or a current sinking output on the other of the output lines.
Production or process machines incorporating sensors are often designed with wiring for the sensors built into the structure of the machine to facilitate power connection to the sensor and to provide sensor output connections to a process controller. However, when an application requires the use of DC sensors on a machine wired for AC sensors, or the provision of DC power from an AC source, it is necessary to convert the power supply and the sensor output to be compatible with the existing wiring. In the past, this has typically required installation of equipment, such as separately mounted equipment boxes, for providing conversion from AC power to DC power and for providing a conversion of the DC sensor output to make the output compatible with the AC sensor leads to be operative with the process controller wired to the sensor leads.


The present invention features a ergonomically designed and structured golf bag top and club separator. The golf bag top and club separator comprises a perimeter support member having integrally formed tiered sections both along its longitudinal and lateral axes, a wood complex, an iron complex located opposite from and offset below the wood complex, and a plurality of strategically placed dividers therein to provide vertical disposition and segregation of wood-type golf clubs. Through its unique design, the present invention provides vertical segregation of the wood complex, thus providing optimal positioning, travel, access, and retrieval of golf clubs inserted and housed therein, as well as providing added protection of the clubs from one another. The wood complex is vertically segregated and positioned proximate or distal the body of the user.

Many golf bags include a top member or club separating device, which includes one or more partitions to both separate clubs and provide organization so that clubs can be more easily located when needed. A plurality of golf clubs is typically inserted into each partitioned area shaft first, with the heads of the golf clubs protruding from the top of the golf bag. The partitioned compartments holding these shafts are simple designs that allow the heads of the clubs in each compartment to shift about as the bag is carried, dropped, or lifted by a golfer or a caddie. The club heads thereby become disorganized, and contact between the heads and shafts can cause the heads to become scratched or the shafts to be dented. In addition, many of the club separating devices are not ergonomically friendly to the golfer or other user in that their design configuration and layout make the task of accessing and retrieving the golf clubs difficult. It is not uncommon for golf clubs to come in contact with and interfere with one another, making it difficult to remove the club from the golf bag.
Some efforts have been made to incorporate devices for retaining individual club heads in a fixed position so that the club heads remain organized and do not contact each other. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,207 describes a club retainer which is molded from resilient material and which includes wedge-shaped notches. The club heads are releasably clamped within the notches.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,131 describes a first embodiment that includes a flat top surface and a plurality of inclined surfaces that extend upwardly from the top surface for supporting the faces of the club heads. Each inclined surface extends at an angle corresponding to the loft angle of a particular number of clubs, so each club must be inserted into the proper place. A second embodiment is provided with indentations. The shape of each indentation is designed to accommodate a club having a particular loft angle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,566 provides a golf bag top and club separator that includes two rows of staggered slots for retaining the heads of golf clubs. Each slot includes a flat bottom surface for supporting the top edge of a club head, an inclined side surface for guiding the club head to the bottom surface, and an upwardly extending side surface that provides a stop for retaining the club head on the bottom surface. Although each slot is advantageously associated with a particular club, the slots do not provide a wedging action, and each slot has substantially the same shape. It is therefore not necessary to insert a particular club head into a particular slot, and the club separator can be used with clubs from different manufacturers. The two rows of staggered slots distribute the weight of the clubs to provide good balance. This design suffers in that it is difficult for a golfer to reach between the several clubs and retrieve the desired club, thus decreasing the ergonomics of the golf bag.

Ergonomic golf bag top and club separator


An elliptical steam sterilizer includes an elliptically shaped inner shell (12) and an elliptically shaped outer jacket (14). The inner shell (12) and outer jacket (14) are supported on opposite ends by an end plate (16) and a back head (20). The elliptical shape of the sterilizer distributes the forces caused by pressurization and evacuation of the inner shell (12) in a beneficial manner which eliminates the need for expensive reinforcement of the inner shell and outer jacket (14). The elliptical shape, which is oriented with its major axis (Y) positioned vertically and its minor axis (X) positioned horizontally, provides greater capacity than a cylindrical sterilizer with the same size footprint.

The present invention relates to the field of pressure vessels. It finds particular application to sterilizers or autoclaves for steam sterilization of medical and laboratory instruments and other equipment. It is to be appreciated, however, that the present invention may also find application in conjunction with other types of sterilizing, disinfecting, and sanitizing apparatus.
Steam sterilizers are currently used in hospitals, doctors offices, dentists offices, and laboratories to sterilize medical and dental instruments, laboratory equipment, production equipment, manufactured products, and other equipment. Sterilizers are made in different sizes for different applications from 6-10 liter small size sterilizers which fit a few trays of instruments and can be used in a small doctor's or dentist's office to large sterilizers which are the size of a small room. In between these two extremes are sterilizer sizes typically used in hospitals to sterilize everything used with patients, including linens, bedding, bed pans, as well as medical instruments.
Steam sterilizers generally include an inner shell which defines a sterilization chamber into which the articles to be sterilized are placed. The sterilizers may also include an outer jacket surrounding the inner shell and providing a space between the inner shell and outer jacket for injection of steam. The sterilizers are operated by placing the articles to be sterilized inside the chamber and preheating the chamber by pumping saturated steam into the jacket space between the outer jacket and the inner shell. Once the jacket is charged with steam, saturated steam is injected into the sterilization chamber. Commonly, in hospital applications, steam is piped from inside the jacket space into the sterilization chamber for sterilizing the chamber contents.
At the end of the sterilization cycle, the steam is pumped out of the chamber and the chamber evacuated to a pressure below atmospheric pressure to remove any moisture remaining in the chamber or on the sterilized articles.
Small and medium size sterilizers are generally either cylindrical or rectangular in shape. There is a trade off between usable space and manufacturing cost between cylindrical and rectangular sterilizers. The cylindrical sterilizers are less expensive to manufacture due to their shape which meets stress/strain requirements for pressurization without additional reinforcing structures surrounding the cylinder. However, cylindrical sterilizers include some amount of unusable space because the items placed in the sterilizer are generally rectangular. In contrast, rectangular sterilizers provide more usable space than cylindrical sterilizers for the same size of foot print. The cost of rectangular sterilizers is generally greater than that of cylindrical sterilizers of the same size due to reinforcement which is needed particularly at the corners of the rectangular sterilizer shell to provide sufficient shell strength.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved sterilizer for addressing the capacity versus cost tradeoff of known sterilizers.

Sterilizer with elliptical pressure vessel


Easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle, including a fixing casing fixed around the bicycle handle and having an annular inner cavity. A rotary member is rotatably disposed in the inner cavity for pulling and releasing a steel cord. A cord-guiding link is disposed between the fixing casing and the rotary member. When the cord-guiding link is positioned in a maximum cord-loosening position, two ends of the cord-guiding link are respectively right aimed at the steel cord inlet and outlet of the fixing casing. Therefore, the steel cord can be nearly linearly smoothly passed from the steel cord inlet through the cord-guiding passage to the steel cord outlet and conducted out of the fixing casing.

The present invention is related to an improved shift handle of a bicycle, and more particularly to an improved cord-pulling and releasing structure of the shift handle of the bicycle. By means of the easy cord-passing structure, the cord-passing operation becomes very easy, convenient and time-saving.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,019 discloses a shift handle of bicycle ( as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof ). One end of the steel cord 66 for driving a chain-shifting mechanism is conducted into the casing 16 of the shift handle and wound and fixed on outer circumference 72 of a rotary member 60. By means of rotating the rotary member 60, the steel cord 66 is wound or unwound for driving the chain-shifting mechanism and changing the sprocket.
According to the above arrangement, when assembling the shift handle, the steel cord 66 must be first conducted into the outer circumference 72 of the rotary member 60 and then conducted into the conduit 30 of the casing 16. Then, the steel cord 66 is conducted out of the other end of the conduit 30. Then, the steel cord 66 is conducted into a flexible tube 36 with the first end 76 of the steel cord 66 fixed on the rotary member 60. The steel cord 66 has a certain resilience so that it can be hardly snugly wound on the rotary member 60. It is necessary for an operator to pull and tension the steel cord 66 with one hand and install the locating catapult 44 into the arched catapult locating slot 42 of the casing 16 with the other hand. Then, the shift handle 18 is aimed at the assembling face of the casing 16 and mounted therein. The sealing cover 84 is then locked and the second end of the steel cord is fixed at the chain-shifting mechanism. During the entire assembling procedure, the steel cord 66 will always bound away to obstruct the assembling operation. Therefore, it is laborious and time-consuming to assemble the shift handle. This greatly affects the production efficiency.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle, in which the cord-guiding link is connected between the steel cord inlet and outlet of the fixing casing, whereby the steel cord can be nearly linearly passed from the steel cord inlet through the cord-guiding passage to the steel cord outlet and out of the fixing casing. Therefore, it is unnecessary to wind the steel cord around the outer circumference of the rotary member and the cord-passing operation becomes very easy, convenient and time-saving.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above easy cord-passing structure in which the cord-guiding link has a straight cord-guiding passage for the steel cord to pass therethrough. One end of the cord-guiding link has a cord head locating hole in which the cord head of the steel cord is engaged. After the steel cord is passed through the cord-guiding passage, the steel cord is firmly fixed in the cord-guiding link. Accordingly, the steel cord and the cord-guiding link are prevented from freely bounding to interfere with the cord-passing operation and the cord-passing operation is facilitated.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above easy cord-passing structure in which the cord-guiding link not only permits the steel cord to pass therethrough, but also is able to pull the steel cord. In addition, the cord-guiding link has a hook section providing locating effect. The cord-guiding link has both functions of cord-pulling of the conventional rotary member and location of the conventional locating catapult. Therefore, the cord-passing structure of the present invention is simplified and the assembly is facilitated.
According to the above objects, the Easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle of the present invention includes: a fixing casing formed with a central through hole for the handle of the bicycle to pass therethrough, the fixing casing being fixed around the bicycle handle and having: an annular inner cavity formed around the through hole, a locating rack having multiple waved locating teeth, the locating rack having a first end and a second end, the locating rack integrally extending from the annular inner cavity with the second end suspending in the inner cavity, a steel cord inlet being formed through the fixing casing and adjacent to the second end of the locating rack, a steel cord outlet being also formed through the fixing casing and adjacent to the first end of the locating rack; a rotary member rotatably disposed on the bicycle handle and connected with the shift handle, the rotary member being positioned in the annular inner cavity of the fixing casing and rotatable along with the shift handle; and a cord-guiding link having a first end and a second end, the first end being pivotally connected with the rotary member, the second end having a hook section snugly latched with one of the locating teeth, the hook section being slidable into the tooth trough of any other locating tooth and latch therewith, the cord-guiding link having a cord-guiding passage passing from the first end to the second end of the cord-guiding link, the cord-guiding passage being positioned between the steel cord inlet and the steel cord outlet, whereby the steel cord can be conducted from the inlet through the cord-guiding passage to the outlet and out of the fixing casing.
The easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle further includes a retardant driving mechanism which includes a slide slot and a pivot section slidably disposed in the slide slot, one of the slide slot and the pivot section being disposed at the first end of the cord-guiding link, while the other being disposed on the rotary member, whereby the shift of the cord-guiding link is retarded after the rotation of the rotary member.
The easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle further includes a cam fixed on the rotary member and rotatable along with the rotary member, the cam pushing the cord-guiding link and making the same pivotally rotate about the first end thereof, whereby the hook section of the cord-guiding link is disengaged from the locating tooth.
In the easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle, the first end of the cord-guiding link further has a cord head locating hole in which the cord head of the steel cord is engaged.
The easy cord-passing structure of shift handle of a bicycle further includes a cord-guiding tube disposed in the annular inner cavity of the fixing casing, one end of the cord-guiding tube being connected at the steel cord outlet of the fixing casing, while the other end thereof being formed with a trumpet opening and adjacent to the first end of the locating rack, whereby when the rotary member is turned to a maximum cord-loosening position, the first end of the cord-guiding link is right aimed at the steel cord inlet of the fixing casing, while the second end of the cord-guiding link is right aimed at the trumpet opening of the cord-guiding tube and the steel cord inlet, the cord-guiding passage, the cord-guiding tube and the steel cord outlet are connected to form a continuous straight passage, the steel cord being smoothly conducted from the steel cord inlet into the fixing casing and through the cord-guiding passage and the cord-guiding tube and conducted out of the fixing casing from the steel cord outlet.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:

1th Floor, No. 47-1, Sec. 2, Chih Cheng Road