Data for C, M, Y and K color nozzle arrays are stored in the same memory area in an image buffer 31'. The data groups, which are to be respectively transmitted to the C, M, Y and K color nozzle arrays at a specific print timing, are stored at continuous addresses in the image buffer 31', as is shown by the shaded portion. In a transfer process, a plurality of bytes for the C, M, Y and K color nozzle arrays, which are at continuous addresses 1 to 20, are read as a data set from the image buffer 31', and at the same time are transmitted to the print head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a serial printer that is employed in a computer system as a terminal printer or a facsimile terminal, and in particular to a serial printer that employs an improved method for storing data in an image buffer.
2. Related Art
A conventional serial printer generates an interrupt for each printing sequence, and in accordance with an interrupt process program, transmits required image data from a buffer (an image buffer), in which they are stored, to a print head. Provided in the print head are a plurality of dot formation elements (e.g., ink-jet nozzles or impact wires) that are arranged in the columnar direction (perpendicularly), and as the head is moved across a row (horizontally), the dot formation element array is activated each time it reaches the position of an individual pixel.
Therefore, for the transfer of image data to the print head, a set of data for each dot formation element array is transferred to the print head.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing how to handle data stored in the image buffer of the serial printer.
Source data for input to a serial printer are first stored to a memory area called a data buffer 61. The source data can include various types of image data; thus, in the example shown in FIG. 10, for easy understanding of what is defined as last image data 69 that is held in an image buffer 67, which will be described later, raster graphics image data 65, which correspond to the last image data 69, are stored that are supposed to be included in the source data. The individual blocks denoted by numerals 1, 2 and 3 in the source image data 65 represent the data for one byte (a set of eight sequential pixels on the same line). The numbers provided for the bytes indicate the order in which an image has been scanned using the raster method.
That is, rater scanning begins at the topmost line (horizontal line) in an image, and scans the pixels in this line horizontally from the left to the right (or in the reverse direction) (byte 1 to byte 10 in FIG. 10), and then scans the second line horizontally (byte 11 to byte 20) and moves to the line immediately below. This process is repeated until the scanning is completed for the bottom line.
In an imaging process 63, the source data 65 read from the data buffer 61 are employed to generate the last raster graphics image data 69, which are written in the image buffer 67. In the imaging process 63, the order in which the last image data 69 is generated corresponds to the above described raster scanning order (i.e., the order following the byte numbers in FIG. 10), while the order in which the image buffer 67 is accessed when the data is written corresponds simply to the address order. Therefore, the last image data 69 are so stored in the image buffer 67 that, as is shown in FIG. 10, when data in the image buffer 67 are accessed in the order of the addresses, the bytes are read in the raster order (in the ascending number order).
Then, in a transfer process 111, the bytes of the last image data 69 are read from the image buffer 67 and are transmitted to the print head. The order in which the bytes are read from the image buffer 67 corresponds to the order in which the dot formation elements are arranged in the sub-scanning direction of the print head, which does not match the raster scanning order. Specifically, the general print head for a serial printer has a plurality of dot formation elements (e.g., ink-jet nozzles or impact wires) that are arranged in the sub-scanning direction (the columnar direction), and while the head is moving in the main scanning direction (along a row), the dot formation element array must be activated each time it reaches the location of an individual pixel. For the transfer process 11, therefore, a set of a plurality of bytes that are to be given to the dot formation element array, i.e., a plurality of bytes that are arranged in the image buffer 67 in the columnar direction, must be read.
Assuming that there are four dot formation elements in one array, in FIG. 10, first, a set of four bytes, bytes 1, 11, 21 and 31, is read, then a set of bytes 2, 12, 22 and 32, is read, and finally a set of bytes 3, 13, 23 and 33 is read. However, the bytes that are to be read as a set are stored at addresses that are located separate from another in the image buffer 67.
A conventional method, employed by a serial color ink-jet printer, for storing data in an image buffer and for transferring data to a print head will now be described.
First, as an assumption, a color adjustment problem of the conventional serial printer will be described while referring to FIG. 11.
In FIG. 11(a) is shown the schematic arrangement for a print head, in a serial in-jet color printer, though which ink is ejected. For this explanation, it is presumed that in a print head 54 there are four nozzle arrays 71, 72, 73 and 74. A plurality of nozzles 71a, 72a, 73a and 74a are provided for each of the nozzle arrays 71, 72, 73 and 74. Further, the arrangement for the nozzle arrays 71, 72, 73 and 74 is so designed that the arrays are separated by a predetermined distance d.
When, for example, color printing is to be performed using the print head 54 in FIG. 11(a), differently colored inks, such as cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K), are allocated for the nozzle arrays 71, 72, 73 and 74, and C, M, Y and K dots are printed at the same location for mixing the colors.
Specifically, as is shown in FIG. 11(b), when the print head 54 is located at position (A), the ink is ejected through the nozzle array 71, and when the print head 54 is located at position (B), the ink is ejected through the nozzle array 72. Similarly, when the print head 54 is located at position (C), the ink is ejected through the nozzle array 73, and when the print head 54 is located at position (D), the ink is ejected through the nozzle array 74. As a result, differently colored inks are ejected through the nozzle arrays 71, 72, 73 and 74 at a print location 76 on a printing sheet 55, and the four colors of C, M, Y and K are blended in order to provide color printing.
As is described above, the print head of the color ink-jet printer is so designed that, for example, ink-jet nozzle arrays for four colors, cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K), each array including a plurality of nozzles (five nozzles in FIG. 11), are located at a predetermined interval d. During the transfer of data performed by the above program, data are transmitted for each nozzle array.
In FIG. 12 is shown a method, employed by a conventional serial color printer, for storing data in an image buffer.
In the imaging process 63 (see FIG. 10) performed by the conventional serial color printer, C, M, Y and K images are individually developed in the memory, as is shown in FIG. 12(a).
As is shown in FIG. 12, an image buffer 67' how separate for memory areas for the individual C, M, Y and K color nozzle arrays.
And as is shown in FIG. 12(b), data are stored for each of the C, M, Y and K nozzle arrays, with sets of data in the memory being provided for each nozzle array in a count equivalent to the number of nozzles. Thus, as is shown in FIG. 12(a), the above described data for eight horizontal bits (one byte) are stored discontinuously for each C, M, Y or K nozzle array.
Specifically, assume that data (one byte) corresponding to a set (8 bits) of pixel values (1 bit each), each of which indicates whether a dot is printed or not at the same printing location 76 on the printing sheet 55 shown in FIG. 11(b), is represented as a shaded portion, as is shown in FIG. 12(a). The shaded portions for C, M, Y and K colors are stored to be discontinuously located. The portions consisting of one byte, two bytes and three bytes, respectively denoted by d', 2d' and 3d' in FIG. 12(a), are dummy memory values of the image buffer 67'. That is, by the dummy image portions, the data are seemed to be present. When the process is performed in the direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. 12(a), the transfer of data to the print head is begun, and the transfer timings for the data are so shifted that the above described color printing can be provided.
In FIG. 12(a), portion d' corresponds to the memory value that corresponds to the predetermined distance d separating the nozzle arrays shown in FIG. 11, and the actual image (printing) area in the memory is as is shown in FIG. 12(a). In the transfer process 111, data are extracted, in order, from the C, M, Y and K memory areas in the image buffer 67' as is shown in FIG. 12(b), and are transmitted to the print head. In other words, a plurality of bytes, which are arranged in the direction of rows in the memory area for each color that corresponds to one nozzle array, are read as a set from the image buffer 67' and are transmitted to the print head. The data for one column are transmitted to the print head in consonance with at a specific print timing.
A method employed by the conventional serial color printer for accessing the image buffer 67' will now be described while referring to FIG. 13.
As is apparent from the above explanation, in the imaging process 63 the C, M, Y and K color images are developed individually, and C, M, Y and K color image data respectively are stored, in that order, in memory areas 67'C, 67'M, 67'Y and 67'K in the image buffer 67', as is shown in FIG. 13. In the transfer process 111, in consonance with a specific timing, data for five bytes, Ca, Ma, Ya and Ka, are transmitted to the print head from the C, M, Y and K color memory areas 67'C, 67'M, 67'Y and 67'K, as is shown in FIG. 13.
In consonance with the following print timing, data for five bytes, Cb, Mb, Yb and Kb, are transmitted to the print head, and at the third print timing, data for five bytes, Cc, Mc, Yc and Kc, are transmitted to the print head.
As is apparent from FIGS. 12(b) and 13, the location from which the data are extracted differs for each color because, as is described above, the C, M, Y and K ink-jet nozzle arrays of the print head are separated by the predetermined distance d (see FIG. 11).
In another conventional serial color printer, independent pointers and counters are required for the four colors, C, M, Y and K, while a program is used for managing the pointers for individual colors.
Recently, since the amount of image data has increased in consonance with an increase in printing densities, reducing the transfer periods, which have accordingly been extended, has become important.
In the conventional art explained while referring to FIG. 10, in the transfer process 11 a set of a plurality of bytes, which are arranged in the direction of rows and which correspond to the dot formation element array, is read from the image buffer 67. The bytes arranged in the direction of rows are stored in memory areas at addresses that are separated from each other in the image buffer 67. In the transfer process 111, therefore, calculation of the separated addresses must be performed for each data reading.
In the transfer process 111, the time at which a set of the bytes is transferred from the image buffer 67 to the print head must be determined in consonance with the time at which the dot formation element arrays arrive at individual pixel positions. Actually, the transfer process is performed as an interrupt process for which a periodical signal that is generated by a carriage moving system is used as a trigger. While the transfer process must be performed at a timing that is vigorously controlled, the performance of the above described complicated address calculation increases the load imposed on the CPU, and deteriorates throughput.
With the conventional method used for storing data in the image buffer and that has been explained for the color serial printer, the image buffer is separated into memory areas for four colors, C, M, Y and K, as is shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, and image data for four colors are discontinuously stored for individual C, M, Y and K nozzle arrays.
As is shown in FIGS. 12(b) and 13, therefore, when the data is to be transferred to the print head in the transfer process 111, the discontinuous addresses must be accessed a number of times that corresponds to the number of colors. In addition, in another conventional serial printer, the pointers for the colors C, M, Y and K must be managed independently. When the data are to be transmitted to the program, therefore, much labor is required for the management of the pointers for the extraction of data.
DMA may be employed for high-speed data transfer. However, the number of nozzle arrays in the serial printer is three, or may be as many as ten, and when, for example, the data are stored discontinuously for the C, M, Y and K nozzle arrays, at least four DMA transfer circuits (channels) are required to transfer data to the print head.
In this case, however, since only two DMA transfer circuits (channels) are incorporated in a comparatively inexpensive CPU, the DMA method is actually not fully employed for transferring data to the print head.

Serial printer, and image buffer access method for serial printer


A switched operation amplifier including a biased circuit, an amplifier circuit, and a buffer circuit is provided. The biased circuit is to provide a first, a second, and a third biased signals by means of an input signal and a reference current source. The amplifier circuit is driven by the biased signals through current mirrors, a sample-and-hold switch, a complementary sample-and-hold switch and a differential pair. The buffer circuit includes a capacitor and two transistors in series. An output signal is generated from a node in between the two transistors, and fed back to a negative terminal of the differential pair of the amplifier circuit. The amplifier circuit charges the capacitor and controls one of the transistors of the buffer circuit until the voltages of a positive and the negative terminal of the differential pair are equal. By means of the operation of the switched op amplifier, the output voltage can be kept being stable.

A sample/hold circuit is mainly utilized in the front stage of ADC (analog to digital converter) to increase data accuracy while sampling data. The sample-and-hold circuit is thus a critical factor on the whole circuit performance. It is widely applied in the electronic device. For instance, as the CD/DVD chip operated at burning mode, it is demanded that a sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit ensures the output voltage stable while sampling or holding data. Generally, the sample-and-hold circuit may have many forms to present. Following switched operation amplifier (SOP) is the common one.
Referring to FIG. 1, a SOP circuit according to prior art is shown. An operation amplifier (OP) having a positive terminal and a negative terminal is connected to a switch S/H. The switch S/H is coupled to a buffer and a capacitor Ch which is connected to ground. The buffer has an output voltage VOUT feedback to the negative terminal to form a voltage VN. As the switch S/H is on, it is a sampling mode having the voltage VOUT feedback into the negative terminal of the OP to make the voltage VOUT equal to an input voltage VP received from the positive terminal. In the meantime, the capacitor Ch is charged to follow the input voltage VP. As the switch S/H is off, it is the holding mode that the output voltage VOUT is provided only from the capacitor Ch so that the voltage VOUT is approximately equivalent to the input voltage VP.
FIG. 2 shows detailed circuit diagram of the SOP according to FIG. 1. The SOP includes an amplifier circuit 10, a biased circuit 12 and a buffer circuit 14. The amplifier circuit 10 composed of transistors M0 to M12 has a differential pair (M1, M2) to receive the input voltage VP and the voltage VN which is feedback from the output voltage VOUT respectively. The biased circuit 12 composed of transistors M15 to M24 generates biased voltages bp0, bpc, bnc, bn0 for the amplifier circuit 10 and the buffer circuit 14, which is composed of transistors M13, M14 and the capacitor Ch. The buffer circuit 14 generates the output voltage VOUT according to the voltage VNZ at the node NZ. The output voltage VOUT is feedback to the negative terminal of the differential pair (M1, M2) to form the voltage VN.
In the sampling mode (switch S switched on, switch H switched off), the transistors M7, M8, M9, M10 are in active region by either biased voltage bpc or bnc, and the capacitor Ch is charged to a predetermined voltage (VP) via the node NZ so that the output voltage VOUT equals to the predetermined voltage (VP). Worthwhile to note, the biased voltages bnc, bn0 are generated by two current sources i1, i2 through the transistors M15, M17, which are diode-connected transistor. The biased voltages bnc, bn0 then derives mirror currents through current mirror (transistors M18, M20, M19, M21), while biased voltages bpc, bp0 is arisen through PMOS transistors M22, M23, M24. Still, the biased voltage bn0 is fed into a gate of transistor M0 of the amplifier circuit 10 to generate a tail current it. The tail current it then branched into two current it1, and it2 on transistors M1, M2 of the differential pair, where it1=(½)it+Δi, and it2=(½)it−Δi.
Furthermore, the current it1 generates a mirror current it3 through current mirror (M3, M5). The current it3 flows through transistors M7, M9, M11 and next again generates mirror current it4 through transistor M12 by the current mirror relationship. A mirror current it5 of the current it2 flows through transistors M4, M6, M8. The mirror current it5 associated with the mirror current it4 determines the voltage VNZ of the node NZ by charging the capacitor Ch. The voltage VNZ turns on the transistor M13 such that the output voltage VOUT equals to the voltage VN, and equals to the input voltage VP.
In the holding mode (switch H switched on, switch S switched off), the transistors M7, M8, M9, M10 are in cut-off region due to the gates of the transistors M7 and M8 are connected to VDD (for PMOS) and the gates of the transistors M9 and M10 are connected to ground (for NMOS). The input voltage VP can not affect the output voltage VOUT. The output voltage VOUT is kept to a value determined by the capacitor Ch.
However, many problems are found in accordance with aforementioned prior art. For instance, ground voltage drifted due to turning on the transistors M7, M8, M9, M10 in the sampling mode, will generate about 400 mA, which depends on the size of the transistors, such as channel width/channel length (W/L). In the holding mode, all of the transistors M7, M8, M9, M10 are turned off, which results in current variation due to effect of stray resistors while upon switching. The current variation will affect the ground potential variation, further, affecting the output voltage, or even causing malfunctions.
In addition, two sets of current source i1, i2 in the biased circuit 12 are utilized to generate biased voltages bn0, bnc, bp0, bpc according to prior art. Thus, if it is desired to shift the bandwidth of the SOP, a direct method is to change the current of the current sources i1 and i2. However, owing to cascade structure of the transistors (M15 to M21 are coupled among another), any biased current change will shift the biased voltage, which results in the transistors cannot work at optimum working range. Consequently, bandwidth variability is restricted seriously.
Another disadvantage is the setting limitation. The biased voltages of the transistors M7, M8, M9, M10 are switched rapidly between the biased voltage bnc to ground or the biased voltage bpc to VDD. Therefore, the voltages on gates of M7, M8, M9 and M10 will be set individually in the sampling mode. If the setting speed of the biased voltage bnc to ground is different from the setting speed of the biased voltage bpc to VDD, it will result in the output voltage temporarily unstable, and the setting time is extended.
An object of the present invention is to propose a newly structure of SOP to solve above problems.


A method for measuring the three-dimensional position of an object to be captured. A laser measuring unit is provided having an image recognition camera confronting the object, first and second laser light emitting sources respectively irradiating from a slant direction a lateral slit light onto the object relative to a vertical axis of a vision coordinate system and irradiating a vertical slit light onto the object relative to a lateral axis of the vision coordinate system, one slit image on the vertical axis of the object and one slit image on the lateral axis of the object and one of the slit images on the vertical and lateral axes formed before and after the laser measuring unit is moved a predetermined amount in a direction of a camera optical axis relative to the object are taken into the camera, and the three-dimensional position is calculated from the relationship between the predetermined moving distance amount and the deviation of the slit images on the vision coordinates of the coordinate system. This method can be used to locate an electric adjustment position of an electronic component and to move the hand of an industrial robot carrying an electric adjustment member to the electronic component for adjusting the electronic component in the electric adjustment position.

The present invention relates to a method for measuring a three-dimensional position of an object to be captured which automatically effects, by a robot, the white balance adjustment and cut-off adjustment of primarily industrial displays (hereinafter referred to as display) and a method for capturing the object located at the three-dimensional position.
In the production process of display devices, the positioning thereof is difficult because of the rotary structure of the display device and the unique shape of the cathode-ray tube, and the positioning of a printed circuit board installed behind the cathode-ray tube is also difficult, and is mostly manually effected.
In order to automatically effect the white balance adjustment and cut-off adjustment of the display device, there have been tried a method of fastening the printed circuit board installed behind the cathode-ray tube with a jig so as to electrically adjust it by an automatic apparatus, and an electrical adjustment method arranged to contact a probe with the printed circuit board with a force controllable robot so as to read the current position, and to obtain the three-dimensional position of the printed circuit board by repeating the operation at six points in total.
However, there have been recently provided many kinds of displays, and therefore, according to the method of fastening the printed circuit board installed behind the cathode-ray tube with a jig by electrically adjusting with an automatic apparatus, the position of the jig has to be changed in accordance with the kinds of displays, and in the case of a display having a rotary structure, it is almost impossible to fix the position of the jig.
Furthermore, in the method of using the force controllable robot, since the force control accuracy of the robot is poor and the printed circuit board is deflected by the contact of a probe, it is difficult to obtain a correct value. Furthermore, because of six points measurement, there is a disadvantage of a long measuring time.
In view of the foregoing, an essential object of the present invention is to provide a practical method for measuring without contact the three-dimensional position of an object such as a printed circuit board by using visual recognition.

Method for measuring three-dimensional position of object to be captured and method for capturing the object

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


In a vibrator intending to be at least partially submerged in concrete or semi-fluid or viscous material for vibration thereof, the vibrator having a housing open at one end and enclosing a rotating eccentric weight assembly, and a motor attached to the housing open end driving the rotating eccentric weight, a vibration speed sensor includes a magnetic pick-up disposed in a port in an end wall of the motor and adjacent an end of a gear/gear shaft of magnetic material in said motor, wherein the gear/gear shaft has a discontinuity adjacent the magnetic pick-up, whereby rotation of the gear/gear shaft is sensed by the magnetic pick-up. The motor includes hydraulic inlet and outlet ports in the motor end wall with the magnetic pickup port disposed adjacent thereto. An output cable is connected to the magnetic pick-up and extends in parallel with hydraulic hoses attached to the hydraulic inlet and outlet ports. The hydraulic hoses and output cable are surrounded and protected by a generally tubular shield attached to one of the a) housing and b) motor. Processing means is connected to the output cable for receiving signals generated by the magnetic pick-up and in response therefor producing a signal representative of vibration speed. Display means is provided and is responsive to the signal for providing a visual indication of vibration speed.

The use of rotary immersion vibrators to compact unset material, such as concrete, is well-known in the art. Typically, such vibrators are at least partially immersed into concrete which has been poured into forms to build sidewalks, patios, roads, ramps, bridges, etc., so that the concrete can be vibrated to eliminate air pockets and avoid the formation of undesirable pockets or honeycombs which would decrease the structural strength of the concrete. Normally, a plurality of vibrators are provided, as on a concrete paving machine, with the vibrators, various controls and sensors, paving machine, etc., generally defining a vibration system.
Generally, rotary vibrators include an elongated tubular shaped housing enclosing a rotating eccentric weight which is driven by a motor, normally hydraulic, to generate vibrations. The rotating eccentric weight is normally straddle-mounted by rolling element bearings located at either end of the eccentric weight to transfer the oscillating radial loads from the eccentric weight to the tubular housing.
It is desirable to measure the vibration speed of these rotary vibrators. Optimal vibration speeds can then be determined for achieving maximum structural strength of the concrete which is being vibrated.
Further, the industry is moving toward using drier mixes of concrete to achieve higher structural strength. These drier mixes of concrete require higher vibratory forces in order to be adequately compacted. It is therefore important to monitor the vibration speed of the vibrators to ensure that these high vibratory forces, necessary for the material to be compacted, are being achieved.
Still further, by monitoring vibration speed, the life of a vibrator can be more accurately determined. This would allow a user to take precautionary measures, such as replacing a vibrator that is at or near the end of its "life span", in order to avoid shutdown of a paving machine due to vibrator failure, for example.
Due to the harsh environment in which the vibrator is normally used, it is difficult to design a device for sensing vibration speed which can withstand the normal working conditions of the vibrator. Any external sensing device would have to be capable of withstanding the high vibration speeds which are achieved by the vibrator without becoming detached or disabled. It is generally not feasible to attach a sensing device to the vibrator at an angle generally perpendicular to the axis of the tubular housing, since the sensing device would be prone to breakage. The forces from the concrete or other semi-fluid material would be acting generally transverse to the length of the attached sensing device as the vibrator is being pulled through the concrete, etc., increasing the likelihood of the sensing device breaking off from the vibrator. Also, the external forces acting on the sensing device from the concrete, etc., may affect the operation of the vibration sensing device causing false readings and/or disablement of the sensing device. Further, the sensing device could easily be broken off during transportation of the vibrator.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a vibration speed sensor for a rotary vibrator capable of withstanding high vibration speeds normally associated with the vibrator, and also being protected against the harsh environment in which the vibrator normally operates as by being physically incorporated in the vibrator.


An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member on which a toner image is formed and a blade retained so as to be capable of coming into contact with and separating from the image bearing member and adapted, when in contact with the image bearing member, to remove residual toner remaining on the image bearing member after image transfer, the blade being brought into contact with or separated from the image bearing member during movement of the image bearing member, wherein the blade includes an edge portion to be brought into contact with the image bearing member and a support portion causing the edge portion to come into contact with the image bearing member, and wherein the hardness of the edge portion is higher than the hardness of the support portion, the hardness of the edge portion being not less than 75 degrees but not more than 100 degrees (JIS-A), the hardness of the support portion being not less than 60 degrees but not more than 85 degrees (JIS-A).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier or printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with a member for cleaning toner remaining on an image bearing member after transferring a toner image to a transfer incurring material.
2. Related Background Art
Heretofore, for example, in an image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic process, an electrostatic latent image in accordance with image information is formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter, referred to as a "photosensitive member") as an image bearing member, developing means supplies toner (a developer) to the photosensitive member in accordance with this electrostatic latent image, and thus a toner image (a developer image) is formed. Then, this toner image is finally transferred to a transferring material, for example, to a recording sheet, an OHP sheet, or the like, followed by fixing, and thus a permanent image is obtained.
Among color image forming apparatuses using the electrophotographic process, there is one in which toner images of different colors are sequentially formed on a single photosensitive member and these toner images are transferred to a transferring material, or the toner images are transferred to an intermediate transfer member sequentially in an overlapping manner and then collectively transferred to the transferring material, followed by fixing, thus obtaining a color image. Moreover, there is one, in which toner images of colors different from one another are formed on a plurality of photosensitive members and these toner images are transferred to the transferring material, or the toner images are transferred to the intermediate transfer member sequentially in an overlapping manner and collectively transferred to the transferring material, followed by fixing, thus obtaining a color image.
In these days, as such an image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic process, a multiple function machine combining all output terminals such as a copier, a printer, and a fax machine have come to be widely accepted in the market. As such a network-capable output terminal, the electrophotographic process has been widely accepted; however, a duty cycle of a main body of the apparatus has come to be cited as one problem. The duty cycle means the limit number of image recording sheets up to which the main body of the apparatus continues to operate normally without any maintenance by a service person. The life of the photosensitive member is cited as the greatest rate-determining factor of the duty cycle.
Moreover, from the viewpoint of ecology, it is required that waste be eliminated, that is, it is required that consumables be reduced, that the life of the consumables be extended, and that the reliability be enhanced.
Furthermore, digitization of the image forming apparatus has progressed from a conventional analog apparatus, and it is required that the main body of the apparatus be equivalent or less in cost to the analog apparatus. Heretofore, in the copier and the printer, monochrome machines have been the mainstream; however, in recent years, the demand for full color image formation of originals or output files has increased dramatically even in offices. Accordingly, there is a demand for a full-color image forming apparatus which, in addition to being a digital apparatus equivalent to the analog machine in cost, is equivalent to monochrome machines in terms of the cost of the main body thereof and running cost. For this purpose, a technology capable of remarkably lowering TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is desired.
Under such circumstances, an amorphous silicon photosensitive member as the image bearing member has come to be used often because hardness thereof is high (1000 Kg/m2 or more in Vickers hardness according to a JIS standard), and because this amorphous silicon photosensitive member is excellent also in durability, heat resistance, and environmental stability. Particularly, in a monochrome high-speed machine for which high reliability is required, the amorphous silicon photosensitive member has come to be essential. Usually, the life of the amorphous silicon photosensitive member as represented by the number of prints necessitating replacement of the photosensitive member is more than one digit higher than that of an OPC photosensitive member. Specifically, the life of the amorphous silicon photosensitive member is equivalent to that of the main body of the apparatus, which also brings an effect of waste reduction. Furthermore, unlike a process cartridge using the OPC photosensitive member, manpower for collection and recovery thereof is not required.
If such a technology using the amorphous silicon photosensitive member mounted on the high-speed machine can be implemented on the full-color image forming apparatus, preferably, it is possible to realize an image forming apparatus which cannot only achieve the duty cycle and low running cost of the high-speed machine for a monochrome print but also carry out a color print. Particularly, for a user frequently making the monochrome print, in order to achieve the duty cycle and the low running cost which are equivalent to those of the monochrome high-speed machine, it is considered to be the most preferable to mount the amorphous silicon photosensitive member on a so-called full-color image forming apparatus of a one-drum system, which uses a rotary developing device having a plurality of developing means mounted on a rotator, and performs development on a single photosensitive member while sequentially switching among the developing means (for example, a drum-type photosensitive member).
In the image forming apparatus repeating the step of transferring a transferable toner image formed on a surface of the photosensitive member to the transferring material mainly made of paper or the intermediate transfer member, it is essential to sufficiently remove adhesion matter such as toner remaining on the photosensitive member without being transferred to a transfer incurring member during the transfer (transfer residual toner) whenever such adhesion matter is generated.
For this reason, many proposals have been made concerning cleaning means for the photosensitive member (for example, in Japanese Patent Application laid-Open Nos. S56-55979 and H9-2 18625). Among them, one which scrapes off the adhesion matter by a blade-shaped cleaning member made of an elastic material such as urethane rubber, that is, a cleaning blade, has been widely put into practical use for its simple configuration, compactness, and low cost and also for its excellent adhesion matter removing function. As a rubber material of the cleaning blade, the urethane rubber is generally used, which is high in hardness, rich in elasticity, and excellent in abrasion resistance, mechanical strength, oil resistance, and ozone resistance.
In order to extend the life of the photosensitive member and to enhance the reliability thereof from the viewpoint of achieving the duty cycle, the low running cost, and the reduction of the waste which are equivalent to those of the monochrome high-speed machine, the removal of the adhesion matters from the surface of the photosensitive member becomes a problem. It is not oniy the toner that adheres onto the surface of the photosensitive member and affects image quality. Adhesion matter (foreign matter) adhered onto the surface of the photosensitive member because of fine paper powder generated from paper used as the transferring material in almost all cases, an organic component precipitated therefrom, generation of corona occurring due to the presence of a high-pressure member in the apparatus, and the like, may cause a reduction in resistance particularly under a high-humidity environment to prevent a clear electrostatic latent image from being formed. This is considered to be the factor causing a deterioration of the image quality.
It is known that such an image deterioration phenomenon as described above is prone to occur in the case of an amorphous silicon photosensitive member which is configured to form a film by glow discharge decomposition of silanes.
In order to avoid such a defect, particularly in the case of using a one-component magnetic developer as the toner, there has been proposed one in which a magnet roller is disposed, in the cleaning device, on an upstream side of the cleaning blade as viewed in a running direction of the photosensitive member, a magnetic brush is formed by a part of toner collected by the cleaning device, the magnetic brush is brought into contact with the surface of the photosensitive member to resupply the magnetic toner thereto, and the above-mentioned variety of adhesion matter (foreign matter) are removed in a rubbing manner by means of a polishing action of toner particles in an abutting region of the cleaning blade.
As compared with a method of rubbing the surface of the image bearing member by a separately prepared polishing member such as a web and a rubber roller, the cleaning means using such a magnetic brush as described above involves less localization of the polishing action on the surface of the photosensitive member, and therefore less deformation of the surface of the photosensitive member.
Together with the polishing method using the above-described magnetic brush, there may be used auxiliary means of, for example, disposing a heater for the photosensitive member to lower humidity in a periphery thereof also at night and during standby, thereby preventing the resistance of the surface of the photosensitive member from being lowered. In such a way, a certain effect is obtained for hindering the image deterioration caused by the variety of adhesion matter as described above.
Moreover, for example, in the case of employing an intermediate transfer member in a color image forming apparatus such as a full-color image forming apparatus of the one-drum system, in order to realize the above-described duty cycle and low running cost which are equivalent to those of the monochrome high-speed machine, it is necessary to enhance the reliability of the intermediate transfer member. Here, as in the case of the above-described photosensitive member, removal of adhesion matter from a surface of the intermediate transfer member becomes a problem.
For cleaning means for removing the adhesion matter, such as the toner, which remain on the intermediate transfer member after transferring the toner image to the transferring material, many proposals have been made heretofore. Among them, as in the case of the above-described photosensitive member, one which scrapes off the adhesion matter by a blade-shaped cleaning member made of an elastic material such as the urethane rubber, that is, a cleaning blade, has been widely put into practical use for its simple configuration, compactness, and low cost and also for its excellent adhesion matter removing function. As a rubber material of the cleaning blade, the urethane rubber is generally used, which is high in hardness, rich in elasticity, and excellent in abrasion resistance, mechanical strength, oil resistance, and ozone resistance.
However, some problems are pointed out in the conventional method for cleaning the members to be cleaned in the image forming apparatus, such as the photosensitive member and the intermediate transfer member.
A problem caused by separating/abutting of the cleaning blade is posed. In the case where the degrees of adhesion and affinities between the cleaning blade and the surface of the image bearing member and between the adhesion matter on the image bearing member and the surface of the image bearing member are increased, when the cleaning blade is attached and/or detached, that is, when the cleaning blade is made to abut on the image bearing member or is separated therefrom, the speed of the intermediate transfer member becomes uneven, causing misregister of colors. Furthermore, vibrations may be applied to the image bearing member due to the wear of the blade caused by an impact given thereto when the blade is made to abut on the image bearing member or by the frictional force with the image bearing member, and the like, or due to the impact applied when the blade is made to abut thereon, causing an image failure.

Cleaning blade for an image forming apparatus featuring a supporting portion and a cleaning portion having specified hardness and friction properties for the portions


A surgical fastener comprising a generally flat, circular body and a generally cylindrical post fixedly coupled to a center of the body extending perpendicular to the body. Both of the body and the post include through holes configured for passage of a suture. A length of the post is selected to extend through both of a bone graft and at least a portion of bone for providing shear and/or anti-rotational support to the surgical fastener across a fracture line in the bone.

The shoulder joint, also referred to as the glenohumeral joint, is the joint between the glenoid cavity (a part of the scapula) and the head of the humerus (upper arm bone). The glenoid cavity is shallow, covering only about a third of the head humeral head. As a result, the glenoid cavity provides relatively little bony constraint upon motion of the humerus and the glenohumeral joint exhibits the widest range of motion of all joints in the human body. While the glenohumeral joint is also constrained by soft tissue (e.g., cartilage attached to the rim of the glenoid cavity, tendons, etc.), soft tissue in general cannot provide the same degree of constraint as bone. Accordingly, it is relatively easy to force the humerus from its normal anatomical position with respect to the glenoid socket, that is, to dislocate the shoulder. While not life threatening, a dislocated shoulder can cause pain and immobilization of the joint, impacting a patient's lifestyle.
In the case of severe bone loss caused by shoulder instability and/or dislocation, a surgeon may perform a "Latarjet procedure" to make the repair. In a Latarjet procedure, a surgeon attempts to restore bone mass to the glenoid cavity by securing a bone graft to the surface of the glenoid suffering bone loss. The bone graft may or may not be attached to soft tissue. When successful, the bone graft acts as a scaffold, allowing the glenoid bone to grow into the bone graft and restore the lost glenoid bone mass.
During the Latarjet procedure, fixation devices, such as solid screws, may be used to provide compression when securing the graft to the bone. Alternatively, if suspension fixation is desired, the fixation devices may be in the form of a flat button that is positioned on a surface of the bone graft and/or bone and is tensioned in place by a suture. However, with suspension fixation, such flat button fixation devices provide very little shear stability across the fracture line compared to solid screws.

Devices and methods for tissue graft fixation in glenohumeral instability repair


Aspects of the disclosure relate to fluorescence imaging, and more particularly to the use of temperature modulation in a tissue site with a modulator such as high intensity focused ultrasound to modulate the emission signal emitted by temperature-sensitive optical fluorescence reporters.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects disclosed herein relate to fluorescence based reporter imaging, and more particularly to the use of temperature modulation in a scattering medium with high intensity focused ultrasound or any other form of radiation to modulate the optical signal emitted by temperature-sensitive optical reporters.
2. Description of the Related Art
High scattering in biological tissues does not permit optical imaging of fluorescence in thick tissue with high resolution. As one of the optical imaging techniques, fluorescence tomography (FT) utilizes laser light to excite the fluorescence sources located deep in a medium. Once excited, these sources relax to their ground state in nanoseconds by emitting lower energy photons. While propagating towards the surface of the medium, these photons are subject to a vast amount of scattering events along the way. This makes the FT inverse problem exceptionally difficult, and the FT inverse problem is defined as the problem of recovering the fluorescence source distribution from the measured light intensities on the tissue surface. Accordingly, the resolution and quantitative accuracy of the reconstructed images are very low2.
In the past, there has been extensive effort to improve the resolution of fluorescence tomography (FT). One approach is to integrate FT with other anatomic imaging modalities such as x-ray, MRI and ultrasound11-16. However, the weakness of this approach is that it does not perform well if the fluorescent target cannot be localized in the anatomical image. The low modulation efficiency and extremely low signal to noise ratio make the implementation of ultrasound modulation of fluorescence signals difficult3,4.
Meanwhile, an intriguing combination of optical and ultrasound techniques has led to the development of photo-acoustic tomography (PAT) that can provide the optical absorption maps with much higher resolution (˜1 mm) and a depth penetration of three to five centimeters1,17,18. PAT has been successfully applied to recover spatially resolved tissue intrinsic contrast maps with very high resolution. Although it can also provide distribution of exogenous contrast agents using multiple-wavelength measurements, PAT is inherently sensitive to absorption and detects differential increase in absorption due to molecular probes compared to background absorption19-21.
One proposed solution to this problem is to induce periodic displacement of scattering particles and variation of the refractive index in the medium using a focused ultrasound field. Using this approach and scanning the focused ultrasound field over the probed medium, ultrasound modulated fluorescence tomography (UMFT) can enhance the resolution3,4. However, only a small fraction of the photons that travels through the focused ultrasound column can be modulated at a time. The low modulation efficiency and extremely low signal to noise ratio (SNR) are the two main factors that make its implementation difficult.
Another proposed solution is to use micro-bubbles surface-loaded with self quenching fluorophores to enhance the contrast of UMFT5,6. However, some disadvantages of such microbubbles are their instability, low circulation residence times, low binding efficiency to the area of interest especially in the fast-flow conditions and possible side effects of their destruction during the imaging session7,8.

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


Embodiments provide methods and systems for generating domain-specific text summary. Method performed by processor includes receiving request to generate text summary of textual content from user device of user and applying pre-trained language generation model over textual content for encoding textual content into word embedding vectors. Method includes predicting current word of the text summary, by iteratively performing: generating first probability distribution of first set of words using first decoder based on word embedding vectors, generating second probability distribution of second set of words using second decoder based on word embedding vectors, and ensembling first and second probability distributions using configurable weight parameter for determining current word. First probability distribution indicates selection probability of each word being selected as current word. Method includes providing custom reward score as feedback to second decoder based on custom reward model and modifying second probability distribution of words for text summary based on feedback.

Automatic text summarization is a field of natural language generation task that is increasingly used in industry today. The goal of the text summarization process is to create a summary of a textual content that will retain the sense and the most important aspects while reducing the length substantially to a size that may be user-defined.
Conventional extractive text summarization techniques extract out key phrases from input textual content, and then select a subset of these phrases to place in the text summary. Text summaries generated by these conventional summarization techniques, however, are often not human like. Additionally, abstractive models generate a summary based on actual "abstracted" content. An abstraction-based summary can compress, fuse or paraphrase sections of the source document, using words that were not in the original input, generating new phrases and possibly rephrasing them. This gives a lot more potential to produce fluent and coherent summaries but it is also a much harder problem, as the model must be able to generate coherent phrases and connectors.
However, such conventional text summarization techniques generate a very standard summary and are not able to offer flexibility for changing the text summary output according to demographic preferences or application domains (such as, advertisement, stories, marketing, etc.). This may occur due to non-availability of sufficient datasets with natural language models that may be useful for generating customized text summary depending on the demographic preferences or the application domains.
Even if dataset for each demographic preference is available, there is a need for deploying different machine learning models for each demographic preference that is highly inefficient and cumbersome for natural language generation task. Particularly, these different machine learning models require to be trained on a larger dataset for generating accurate demographic or application domains based text summaries, thereby increasing resource utilization.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution for generating domain-specific text summaries via electronic means to an unprecedented manner/degree, through use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Methods and systems for generating domain-specific text summarizations


A pollutant removing stack device includes a stack body having a lower reactor section which is divided by a partition into an upper chamber and a lower chamber. A first set of spraying units is disposed in the lower chamber. A second set of spraying units is disposed the upper chamber. A stack gas inlet is connected to the lower chamber of the lower reactor section for entrance of a stack gas. An oxidant supplying unit is connected to the first set of spraying units in order to produce an oxidant mist in the lower chamber for oxidizing a nitrogen compound contained in the stack gas into nitrogen dioxide. An alkaline solution supplying unit is connected to the second set of spraying units in order to produce an alkaline mist in the upper chamber for removing nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide from the stack gas.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a stack device, more particularly to a stack device capable of removing dust particles, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides from a stack gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, a conventional stack device includes an apparatus for removing dust and sulfur oxides of a stack gas, and a stack gas passage through which the stack gas passes. The apparatus has a plurality of first spraying units with first nozzles which spray an aqueous alkaline solution toward the central axis of the stack device in order to produce an alkaline mist. The first spraying units are mounted at the intermediate section of the passage of the stack device. A mist extractor is provided in the passage near the top of the stack device. A second spraying unit is mounted below the mist extractor. The second spraying unit has a plurality of second spray nozzles which spray the aqueous alkaline solution downward in order to produce an alkaline mist below the mist extractor. Dust and sulfur oxides contained in the stack gas adhere to the condensed drops of the alkaline mist and are removed from the stack gas. Waste, consisting essentially of alkaline solution, dust and sulfur oxides, is collected in a settling tank. However, it is noted that the alkaline mist in the stack device cannot remove nitrogen oxides contained in the stack gas. In addition, water in the waste collected in the settling tank is not reused.

Stack device capable of removing dust particles, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides


A method and device for transmitting information are provided, where the method includes that: according to a predetermined mode and/or eNB configuration mode, at least one of the following is determined: a Precoding Resource Block Group (PRG), a reference signal, and a frequency-domain resource allocation granularity; and information is transmitted in a Transmission Time Interval (TTI).

The rapid development of mobile Internet and Internet of Things causes explosive growth of data traffic and extensive rise of diversified and differentiated services. The 5G, as a new generation mobile communication technology, will support a higher rate (Gbps), high amounts of links (1M/Km2), an ultra-low delay (1 ms), higher reliability, and a hundredfold increase in energy efficiency compared to the 4G, so as to support a new requirement change. The ultra-low delay directly, as a key index of the 5G technology, directly influences the development of delay-constrained services, such as Internet of Vehicles, industrial automation, remote control, and smart grids. At present, a series of researches on standards of reducing a delay of the 5G are being advanced.
Reducing a Transmission Time Interval (TTI), as an important research direction of reducing a delay at present, is intended to reduce the existing TTI whose length is 1 ms to 0.5 ms or oven the length of 1-2 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, so that the minimum scheduling time is reduced exponentially, and a delay of single transmission may also be reduced exponentially without changing a frame structure. The 3GPP has also set up a project to discuss a technology of reducing a short TTI. In a short TTI technology, it is needed to reconsider both a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) and a resource allocation granularity.
There is no effective solution yet aiming at a problem of unreasonable data transmission in the short TTI technology.

Method and device for transmitting information


In a method and a device for the detection of at least one structure-borne acoustic vibration in a component of an agricultural harvesting machine, a timer is used to determine a transit-time difference of a structure-borne acoustic vibration that is received by at least a first structure-borne sound sensor and at least a second structure-borne sound sensor and, based on the transit-time difference, a source of the structure-borne acoustic vibration is determined, thereby enabling the location of the pulses triggering the structure-borne acoustic vibration to be identified.

The present invention relates to a method and a device for the detection of structure-borne acoustic vibrations in a component of an agricultural harvesting machine.
Publication DE 197 25 028 makes known a sensor for determining structure-borne acoustic vibrations produced when grains strike a pulse detector. The sensor is composed of a plate-shaped pulse detector that extends across nearly the entire width of the separating or threshing part, on the underside of which a vibration sensor is located that is directly connected with an evaluation unit. The vibrations produced when the grains strike the pulse detector are introduced directly into the vibration sensor and cause it to produce voltage that is proportionally dependent on the vibrations, the voltage being transmitted to evaluation electronics, where it is evaluated. The vibrations produced by the grains are dependent on the number of grains that strike the pulse detector. It is therefore possible to use the pulse detector to determine the quantity of grain that strikes the pulse detector at a certain point in time or over a period of time.
The disadvantage of this sensor is the fact that the impact sites of the grains cannot be located.

Device and a method for the detection of structure-borne acoustic vibrations

CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH


A method for controlling a heater of a carburetor and an apparatus therefor. The method includes the steps of: setting a heater pre-heating temperature condition so as for the fuel to be vaporized at the optimum state; setting a heater temperature variation rate properly in accordance with the variation of the intra-room temperature; setting a heater temperature variation rate in relation with the latent heat of the material of the heater; controlling the phase angle of an ac power in accordance with the instructions of a microcomputer; and driving the heater with the variable ac power. Thus a proper vaporizing atmosphere is formed in relation with the variations of the surrounding conditions, thereby contributing to the full combustion of the fuel. The apparatus for controlling the heater is constituted such that a heater temperature sensing section and an intra-room temperature sensing section are connected to the input side of the microcomputer, while the output side of the microcomputer is connected to a phase angle control section.

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho-62-41521 discloses an apparatus for controlling a carburetor heater as shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, an electro-magnetic pump 21 supplies kerosene from a fuel tank 22 through a fuel pipe 23 to a vaporizing chamber 25 of a carburetor 24. A heater 26 heats the carburetor 24, and a control means 27 controls the electric current flowing through the heater in accordance with the temperature level detected by a temperature sensor 28.
Further, a needle 29 opens and closes a nozzle hole 30, and a burner 31 is installed opposingly facing the nozzle hole 30, while there are installed an igniting plug 32 and a flame detector 35 on the top of the burner 31, the igniting plug 32 being for igniting the vaporized fuel, and the flame detector 35 being for detecting the ion current of the flames.
A judging means 33 which is connected to the temperature sensor 28 judges whether the pre-heated temperature as detected by the sensor 28 is higher than a pre-set igniting temperature. If the pre-set temperature of a power level setting means 34 is lower than the pre-heated temperature, the electric power setting means 34 lowers the power level supplied to the heater 26.
The above described conventional heater control apparatus can also be applied to a carburetor having the following burner structure.
As; shown in FIG. 2, the burner has a vaporizing chamber 41 for vaporizing the fuel, and has a mixing chamber 42 for mixing the vaporized fuel with air. These two chambers are separated by a mixing plate 44 having a communicating hole 43.
Further, an air supply tube 47 which is connected to a blowing fan 46 is installed at a lower side portion of a vaporizing wall 45 of the vaporizing chamber 41, while a fuel supply nozzle 48 is installed within the air supply tube 47.
Further, a flame hole 49 for forming flames is formed at an upper portion of the vaporizing chamber 41, while a heater 50 is embedded in the vaporizing wall 45 which separates the vaporizing chamber 41. Temperature sensors (not shown) are installed around the heater 50 to maintain the insulated state of the heater 50 and to detect the heat release of the heater 50, and these temperature sensors are embedded in the vaporizing wall 45 together with the heater 50.
The conventional carburetors described as above are controlled in the following manner.
In order to vaporize the fuel, the atmosphere within the vaporizing chamber has to be suitable for vaporizing, and this is achieved by pre-heating the heater.
That is, if an activating switch (not shown in FIG. 1) is turned on, the heater 26 is completely energized, thereby heating up the carburetor 24.
The temperature of the carburetor 24 is detected by the temperature sensor 28, while the control means 27 judges whether the data detected by the temperature sensor 28 indicates an ignitable temperature of the pre-determined level.
If it is found that the detected temperature has not reached an ignitable temperature, the control means 27 further completely energizes the heater 26, thereby heating the heater 26 further.
If the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 28 has reached an ignitable level, an ignition is carried out, and the electro-magnetic pump 21 is activated to supply the kerosene from the fuel tank 22 through the pipe 23 to the carburetor 24. The supplied fuel is heated and vaporized to be spurted through the nozzle hole 30.
Then the vaporized fuel sucks in ambiet primary air in order to use it for combustion, and this mixed gas is introduced into the burner 31. After the pre-heating, the igniting plug 32 which is installed on the burner 31 produces sparks to ignite the mixed gas.
After the ignition, the flame detector 35 detects the ion current of the flames, and, if the magnitude of the ion current reaches a pre-determined level, the control means 27 stops the spark discharge operation of the igniting plug 32.
Meanwhile, the temperature data detected by the temperature sensor 28 is inputted into a microcomputer (not shown) which is installed within the judging means 33. The microcomputer compares pre-stored temperature data (set at slightly lower than the igniting temperature) with the inputted data, and judges whether the temperature data from the temperature sensor 28 is higher than the pre-stored temperature data.
If the detected temperature is lower than the pre-set temperature, the judging means 33 supplies a control signal to the output level setting means 34, so that the output level setting means 34 should control the input power to fully energize the heater 26.
Thereafter, if it is found that the detected temperature is higher than the pre-set temperature, the power level setting means 34 curtails the amount of the input power for the heater 26 for example by 50 so that the temperature within the carburetor 24 should be maintained at a constant level. Then after the carrying out the igniting operation, the AC power supplied to the heater 26 is withheld.
That is, as shown in FIG. 1 in the conventional carburetor 24 26, when driving the heater, the temperature sensor 28 which is installed adjacent to the heater 26 simply detects the temperature of the heater 26, and, when the judging means 33 finds that the detected temperature has reached the pre-set temperature, the judging means 33 controls the AC power source to stop driving the heater 26.
Thereafter, when the temperature of the heater 26 reaches a lower limit of the pre-stored temperature data, the microcomputer turns the heater power section on again to resume the pre-heating operation of the carburetor 24.
Thus conventionally, the temperature of the heater 26 is varied between lower and upper limits, and therefore, the atmosphere within the burner 31 cannot be maintained in a perfect manner.
Further, even when the input electric power is withheld from the heater 26 during the heat release of the heater 26, the heater 26 raises the temperature above the temperature at the power disconnection, because of the latent heat in the material of the heater 26. On the other hand, when the heater 26 is disconnected from the power source for a certain period of time, even if the ac power supply is resumed, the heater 26 is cooled down to below the lower limit. Consequently, the atmosphere within the vaporizing chamber 25 becomes unstable, and therefore, the combustion becomes imperfect. In such a case, white smoke with the odor of kerosene is produced within the burner 31, thereby polluting the interior atmosphere of a room.

Method for controlling carburetor heater and apparatus therefor


A wireless communications network includes a mobile station and wireless access equipment. In communications between the wireless access equipment and the mobile station (such as in the forward link), a data rate is specified. However, the effective data rate can be reduced (with respect to the specified data rate) if it is determined that the specified data rate is not needed. In one arrangement, the effective data rate is reduced by waiting to fill a physical layer packet before transmission.

Generally, mobile communications systems are made up of a plurality of cells. Each cell provides a radio communications center through which a mobile station establishes a call or other communications session with another mobile station or a terminal connected to either a circuit-switched network (e.g., public-switched telephone network or PSTN) or a packet-switched data network. Typically, each cell includes a radio base station, with each base station coupled to a switching center that controls processing of calls or other communications sessions between or among mobile stations or between mobile stations and terminals connected to a circuit-switched or a packet-switched network.
Various wireless protocols exist for defining communications in a wireless network. One type of protocol is based on the time-division multiple access (TDMA) technology, such as the TIA/EIA-136 standard or the Global System for Mobile (GSM) standard. Another type of protocol for wireless communications is based on the code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology. CDMA is a spread spectrum wireless communications protocol in which transmission is based on the spread spectrum modulation technique to allow many users to have access to the same band of carriers.
Traditionally, wireless networks were designed for carrying circuit-switched voice traffic. However, with the wide availability of the Internet and intranets, packet-switched communications (e.g., web browsing, electronic mail, instant messaging, electronic gaming, and so forth) have become common. As a result, third generation (3G) and beyond wireless technologies are being developed to provide higher bandwidth and more efficient packet-switched communications (of data as well as voice and other forms of real-time data) over wireless networks.
Packet-switched wireless communications protocols have been developed for both TDMA and CDMA. For example, in the CDMA context, a CDMA 2000 family of standards has been developed that is capable of supporting both traditional circuit-switched traffic as well as packet-switched traffic.
The first phase of CDMA 2000 is referred to as 1xRTT (also referred to as 3G1X or 1X), which is designed to increase voice capacity as well as to support data transmission speeds that are faster than typically available. In addition, for even higher data rates in packet-switched communications, a High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) wireless technology has been developed. HRPD is defined as TIA/EIA/IS-856, "CDMA 2000, High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification," which is adopted by the TIA. The HRPD technology is also referred to as the 1×EV-DO or 1×EV technology. 1×EV-DO provides relatively high data transfer rates over the air interface between mobile stations and base stations (usually faster than 1xRTT rates).
In a 1×EV-DO system, a mobile station can specify the rate of data to be communicated in the forward wireless link (which is the wireless link from the base station to the mobile station). This is specified by the mobile station in a defined indication, referred to as the data rate control (DRC) channel, and can be a function of a specific quality of service to which the mobile station user has subscribed. Given the data rate specified by the mobile station, the 1×EV-DO wireless access equipment (sometimes referred to as an access network) specifies a size of a physical layer packet to be communicated between the wireless access equipment and the mobile station. A physical layer packet is a packet defined by the physical layer of the air interface for carrying certain control information and traffic data over the air interface. Depending upon the size of the physical layer packet, the IS-856 standard specifies that one to four higher level packets, such as medium access control (MAC) packets, can be carried in the physical layer packet. Thus, if a low data rate is specified, then the physical layer packet has a smaller size and can carry fewer packets. On the other hand, if a high data rate is specified, then the physical layer packet has a larger size and can carry a larger number of packets.
However, the data rate that is specified by the mobile station may not be the data rate that is actually needed by, or supplied to, application software in the wireless access equipment. If the mobile station specifies a high data rate, which means that the physical layer packet is larger, then any unused space in the physical layer packet is filled with filler information. The physical layer packet containing useful information and the filler information is then sent to the mobile station over the forward wireless link. Filling the physical layer packet with filler information wastes resources of the forward wireless link.

Controlling the rate of data transfer over a wireless link


A bottle pack container for carrying bottles with contents, preferably made of cardboard or pasteboard, formed from two symmetrical carrying parts with central walls superimposed so as to form the central portion of the container, the central walls having openings superimposed and fastened by a lock to form a grip. Each of the carrying parts comprises at least one partly cut ring with an internal cut-out opening and with lateral wings and frontal wing, wherein said ring is attached to the inner surface of the external wall with glue. During assembling of the container the girded polypropylene strap is inserted into the appropriate holes provided in the external walls of each of the carrying parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject of the invention is a bottle pack container, especially for bottles with contents, preferably made of cardboard or pasteboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known from the disclosure of Polish Patent Application P. 307 276 by the same applicant is the container for carrying bottles with contents, preferably made of cardboard or pasteboard, formed from a belt comprising two carrying parts symmetrical about the transverse axis, along which a fold runs, each of the carrying parts with the central wall fitted with a grip opening and a lock hole, said central wall being separated by a fold from the bottom wall which is in turn separated by the fold from the face wall fastened to the central wall by means of clamping arms, whereas the clamping arms are formed by bending the arms of the face wall along two folds, then by bending these arms around the container edges, finally threading ends of said arms through the lock hole and, finally, by bending the belt of the carrying parts along the fold on the symmetry axis to form the container.
The solution according to that invention has a disadvantage that the belt comprising two carrying parts is too long with regard to the width, thereby posing technological problems. Moreover, the container must be delivered to the work station where bottles are packed, in a completely assembled shape and thus in a stiff three-dimensional state. Still another drawback of this solution is the lack of partitions between bottles causing them to bang against each other during transport. Also, the inability of stable holding of more than four bottles only in the container is another serious disadvantage.
Known from the disclosure in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,298,191 the bottle carrier, made from one single paperboard blank, is formed from a pair of panels, each one with central wall superimposed to form the container hanger, the top wall provided with perforations to form sockets to accommodate the bottles therein, and side wall connected with the bottom wall that is common for both panels. The hanger is fastened with a lock to form a grip, and the central walls comprise tongues cut therein, each provided with an internal cut-out opening which, when set up, retain the neck of each bottle in position.
A disadvantage of this known solution is that, to hold the bottle in position, it is necessary to engage the cut-out openings made in two different walls: one in the top wall with the bottle body, and the other in the tongue of the central wall with the bottle neck.
Another disadvantage is that the openings in the top walls to accommodate bottles therein are spaced at a distance that is necessary to keep said top walls rigid, yet the bottles are too much apart so that the whole container becomes too long.
Still another disadvantage is that two rows of bottles are supported on a single bottom wall, which makes an excessive load weight acting on the container bottom.


A voice signal interpolation apparatus is provided which can restore original human voices from human voices in a compressed state while maintaining a high sound quality. When a voice signal representative of a voice to be interpolated is acquired by a voice data input unit 1, a pitch deriving unit 2 filters this voice signal to identify a pitch length from the filtering result. A pitch length fixing unit 3 makes the voice signal have a constant time length of a section corresponding to a unit pitch, and generates pitch waveform data. A sub-band dividing unit 4 converts the pitch waveform data into sub-band data representative of a spectrum. A plurality of sub-band data pieces are averaged by an averaging unit 5 and thereafter a sub-band synthesizing unit 6 converts the sub-band data pieces into a signal representative of a waveform of the voice by a sub-band synthesizing unit 6. The time length of this signal in each section is restored by a pitch restoring unit 7 and a sound output unit 8 reproduces the sound represented by the signal.

Music programs and the like are distributed remarkably nowadays by means of wired or radio broadcast or communication. For the distribution of music programs and the like, it is important to prevent a music data amount from becoming large and an occupied band width from broadening, if the band width is made too broad. To avoid this, music data is distributed after it is compressed by a voice compression format incorporating a frequency masking method, such as an MP3 (MPEG1 audio layer 3) format and an AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format.
The frequency masking method is a method of compressing voices by utilizing the phenomenon that a human being is hard to hear the spectrum components of a low level sound signal whose frequency is near the spectrum components of a high level sound signal.
FIG. 4(b) is a graph showing the results of compressing an original sound spectrum shown in FIG. 4(a) by using the frequency masking method (FIG. 4(a) shows an example of the spectrum obtained by compressing voices produced by a human being by the MP3 format).
As shown, as the voices are compressed by the frequency masking method, generally the components having a frequency of 2 kHz or higher are lost considerably, and the components even lower than 2 kHz near the components providing a spectrum peak (spectrum of a fundamental frequency components and harmonic components of voices) are also lost considerably.
A method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-356788 interpolates a compressed voice spectrum to obtain an original voice spectrum. According to this method, an interpolation band is derived from the spectrum left after the compression and the spectrum components indicating the same distribution as that in the interpolation band are inserted into the band whose spectrum components were lost by the compression, so as to match the envelope line of the whole spectrum.
If the spectrum shown in FIG. 4(b) is interpolated by the method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-356788, the spectrum shown in FIG. 4(c) is obtained which is quite different from the spectrum of the original voices. Even if the voices having this spectrum are reproduced, only very unnatural voices are obtained. This problem is generally associated with voices produced by a human being and compressed by this method.
The present invention has been made under the above-described circumstances and it is an object of the invention to provide a frequency interpolation apparatus and method for recovering voices of a human being from the compressed voices while maintaining a high sound quality.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus, method and program for voice signal interpolation


The invention is a utility trailer incorporating a flatbed trailer combined with a detachable stock trailer shell, a removable center divider and a removable fabric roof cover, allowing use of the trailer as an open flat bed, an open stock trailer with one or two stalls, or a covered stock trailer.

None
1. Field of Invention
The invention is a utility trailer incorporating a flatbed trailer combined with a detachable stock trailer shell, a removable center divider and a removable fabric roof cover, allowing use of the trailer as an open flat bed, an open stock trailer with one or two stalls, or a covered stock trailer.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to trailers, some even having conversion features. In U.S. Pat. No 3,473,679 to Weichel, a multi-purpose agricultural vehicle is disclosed having several variations on a basic trailer frame. However, none of the variations disclose a stock trailer conversion unit with a removable fabric roof segment, nor do they include a removable divider within the stock trailer unit. A portable stock corral is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,836 to Smith. A convertible livestock trailer and grain trailer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,044 to Hoffman having a plurality of movable ramps with a second purpose of defining a grain hopper, the device including a removable tarp during use as a grain hauling trailer.
A convertible horse-drawn wagon convertible to a two wheeled towing trailer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,046 to Rutherford. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,418 to Chumley, a cattle car which is also suited for grain transport especially suited for poor weather transport, the invention including a climate control system for maintaining a suitable environment within the invention. A truck trailer with a removable rack for loading and unloading livestock.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a singular trailer which may be used as a flatbed trailer or a stock trailer, the invention having a basic flat bed trailer with side rails and a floor, but also including a streamlined stock trailer shell which is attached to the floor of the flatbed trailer by a plurality of shell clip, attached to the stock trailer shell inserted and locked into an equal plurality of shell clip receivers embedded within the floor of the flatbed trailer. Additionally, the stock trailer shell contains a multiplicity of fastening devices which engage an equal multiplicity of fasteners affixed to a removable fabric cloth allowing for the covered and dry transport of the livestock in in climate weather conditions. At least two removable arched stays attach to the stock trailer shell to provide support to the removable fabric cloth when engaged upon the stock trailer shell.
The stock trailer shell includes a pair of hinged doors at the rear of the stock trailer shell and also includes a removable central divided panel to separate the stock trailer shell into separate compartments within the stock trailer shell for hauling more than one animal.

Convertible flatbed utility stock trailer


A strobe unit includes a light source and a reflector. The reflector incorporates a plurality of reflecting regions arranged symmetrically about the source. Each of the reflecting regions incorporates a partial parabolic section which extends arcuately in a plane perpendicular to an axis of the light source on the order of forty-five degrees. Such arcuately extending surfaces are displaced from one another on the order of forty-five degrees.

A variety of reflector and strobe light structures are known and used as warning devices in connection with fire detection systems. Representative of these are reflectors and strobe units disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,569 to Anderson entitled "Reflector with Strobe Light Extending Therefrom", U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,375 to Anderson entitled "Reflector with Complex Paraboloid Surface with Elongated Light Source" and U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,143 B2 to Anderson entitled "Ceiling Reflectors". The above noted patents are assigned to the assignee hereof and incorporated herein by reference.
The '143 patent discloses a reflector particularly suited for ceiling mounting. The reflector of the '143 patent is symmetrical about a central axis. A disclosed embodiment incorporates four identical reflector modules arranged around the line of symmetry.
While the above noted reflectors have been found to be effective in carrying out their intended purposes, there continues to be a need for versatile reflector structures which can with a single unit fulfill agency requirements for both ceiling mounted and wall mounted units at various candela outputs. Preferably the agency requirements can be met with less input power per unit so as to be able to increase the number of units present on a given notification device loop.


A method and an apparatus from such method for designing an integrated circuit (IC) that mitigates the effects of process, voltage, and temperature dependent characteristics on the fabrication of advanced IC's but provides high die yields, lower power usage, and faster circuits. Conventional design process takes into account power supply voltage Vdd as a variable that must be considered in a skewed corner analysis. The disclosure teaches that the IC design process can be substantially simplified by essentially factoring out voltage based variations in corner lot analysis for IC designs that include dynamic voltage scaling circuitry, because each fabricated IC die of an IC design having dynamic voltage scaling can individually adjust the applied supply voltage Vdd within a range to offset local process-induced variations in the performance of that specific IC die.

(1) Technical Field
This disclosure relates to electronic circuits, and more particularly to integrated circuit designs and methods of design.
(2) Background
The translation of integrated circuit designs from circuit diagrams or hardware programming code to working integrated circuits (IC's) implemented in modern transistor technologies remains as much art as engineering. A significant challenge in fabricating IC's is to control circuit parameters (such as delay, transistor threshold voltage, and transistor transconductance parameters) in view of variations in the semiconductor fabrication process, IC supply voltage, and IC operating temperature (often abbreviated as "PVT", for "Process", "Voltage", and "Temperature" parameters).
Process variations during IC manufacture can cause unpredictable and undesired variations of circuit parameters, which can adversely affect circuit performance. Process variation is the naturally occurring variation of the attributes of transistors (e.g., length and width dimensions, film and oxide thickness, doping concentrations, etc.) when integrated circuits are fabricated. In addition, the parameters of individual transistors vary from wafer-to-wafer (interprocess variation) and die-to-die (intraprocess variation). Process variation becomes particularly important at smaller process nodes (<65 nm) as the variation becomes a larger percentage of the full length or width of the devices and as feature sizes approach fundamental dimensions, such as the size of atoms and the wavelength of usable light for patterning lithography masks.
All of the above parameters and variables generally exhibit complex relationships among each other. For example, attaining homogeneous transistor operating parameters, such as threshold voltage and transconductance, within an integrated circuit is one of the most important, yet most difficult, objectives for precision analog circuits. As another example, transistor threshold voltage is very critical in determining propagation speed for high speed, low voltage digital circuits.
In other words, circuit parameters tend to be process dependent. Thus, it is useful for a manufacturer to be able to quantify or determine process variations applicable to a particular IC design, taking into account a range of supply voltages and operating temperatures, in order to meet a design specification and maximize IC die yields for that design.
An important aspect of determining PVT parameters for an IC design is to determine "process corners" before commencing large scale production. A process corner refers to measured and categorized variations of various parameters used in applying an integrated circuit design to a semiconductor wafer. Process corners represent the extremes of these parameter variations within which a circuit that has been etched onto a wafer must function correctly. A circuit running on devices fabricated at these process corners may run slower or faster than specified and at lower or higher temperatures and voltages, but the current design standard is that if the circuit does not function at all at any of these process extremes, the design is considered to have inadequate design margin (i.e., acceptable ranges of circuit parameters that result in fully functional IC's that meet all design specifications at specified PVT extremes) and must be redesigned. Indeed, in order to make sure that an IC design can be successfully fabricated in a selected implementation technology, a manufacturer may choose a very conservative design margin that results in a higher die yields of IC's but with less than optimum performance levels or power consumption.
In order to verify the robustness of an integrated circuit design, semiconductor manufacturers fabricate "corner lots", which are groups of wafers that have had process parameters adjusted to various extremes, and will then test the devices made from these special wafers at varying increments of environmental conditions, such as voltage, clock frequency, and temperature, applied in combination (two or sometimes all three together) in a process called characterization. The results of these tests are analyzed in various known ways to determine the boundary limits beyond which a device begins to functionally fail or fails to meet the design specification for one or more particular combinations of environmental conditions.
One naming convention for process corners for field-effect transistor (FET) based IC's is to use two-letter designators, where the first letter refers to the N-channel MOSFET (NMOS) corner and the second letter refers to the P-channel (PMOS) corner. In this naming convention, three types of corners exist: "typical", "fast", and "slow". Fast and slow corners exhibit carrier mobilities that are higher and lower than normal, respectively. There are therefore five possible corners: typical-typical (TT) (not really a corner of an N versus P mobility graph, but called a corner, anyway; the "TT" corner is the center "corner" where wafers are normally produced using typical process parameters), fast-fast (FF), slow-slow (SS), fast-slow (FS), and slow-fast (SF). For example, a corner designated as "FS" denotes fast NMOS FETs and slow PMOS FETs.
The first three corners (TT, FF, SS) are called even corners, because both types of devices are affected evenly, and generally do not adversely affect the logical correctness of the circuit. The resulting devices can function at slower or faster clock frequencies, and are often grouped or "binned" as such. The last two corners (FS, SF) are called "skewed" corners, and are cause for concern. This is because one type of FET will switch much faster than the other, and this form of imbalanced switching can cause one edge of the output to have much less slew than the other edge. Latching devices may then record incorrect values in a logic chain. In conventional IC design, design margins must be set so that an IC functions properly even within the skewed corners.
In addition to the transistors themselves, there are other on-chip variation (OCV) effects that manifest themselves at smaller technology nodes. These include PVT variation effects on on-chip interconnects as well as via structures. In addition, there are wafer-to-wafer and intra-wafer variations within the bulk material of wafers, both in initial form and post-doping.
Another problem in the translation of IC design to IC die is that in modern advanced transistor technologies, the power supply voltage is much lower compared to older technologies. For example, in 180 nm fabrication technology the recommended power supply voltage is 1.8V, while for 130 nm fabrication technology the recommended voltage is 1.2V, and for 28 nm fabrication technology the recommended voltage is 0.9V. In order to allow the implementation of fast transistors in these advanced technologies while the overdrive voltage is getting smaller and smaller due to reduced power supply voltages, the threshold voltage of the transistors is getting smaller and smaller in order to at least maintain or even increase the speed of the transistors. While decreasing the threshold voltage of the transistors in advanced technologies is mandatory and has a major speed impact on the technology behavior, it is also negatively impacts the current leakage performance of the technology: a smaller threshold voltage results in faster the devices, but faster devices have higher current leakage.
A number of approaches have been taken to compensate for the problems engendered by PVT dependent characteristics of advanced IC's. For example, one approach to dealing with performance differences caused by unique die-to-die response to an applied power supply voltage (i.e., where the same power supply voltage is provided to nominally identical but differently performing IC dies) is to provide for dynamic voltage scaling on an IC. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a dynamic voltage scaling circuit 100 in accordance with the prior art. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) essentially includes the following:
Measurement of Local Voltage Dependent Die Characteristics: Each IC is provided with means to measure the speed of the implementation technology as a function of applied voltage. Such a means may be a voltage dependent test circuit 102, such as a ring oscillator based on standard cell digital gates (even for an analog IC). As is known in the art, the frequency (i.e., speed) of such ring oscillators is dependent on the applied voltage and the implementation characteristics of the individual devices comprising the ring oscillator structure. The ring oscillators should be based on the standard cells sizes used in the design (e.g., 7-track, 10-track, 12-track, 14-track, etc.). Each ring oscillator also should be implemented using transistor types similar to the ones used on the IC in the region of the ring oscillator, such as ultra-high Vt (UHVT), high Vt (HVT), standard Vt (SVT), low Vt (LVT), and ultra-low Vt (ULVT) transistors.
Comparison of the Measured Characteristics to a Standard: The output of the speed measuring means is compared to a reference value. For example, the output of the ring oscillators comprising the voltage dependent test circuit 102 may be compared against the output of a reference frequency source 104 (e.g., a crystal oscillator), using, for example, a comparator 106 comprising a delay-locked loop (DLL) to compare the reference frequency and the measured frequencies. The DLL output is a signal (generally a digital signal) that reflects the difference in frequency between the voltage dependent test circuit 102 and the reference frequency source 104.
Feedback Control of the Power Supply Voltage: The output of the comparison of the reference frequency and the measured frequency from the comparator 106 is applied to a means for controlling an external power supply to the IC, such as a variable voltage regulator 108, adjusting the applied power supply higher or lower depending on the result of the frequency comparison. For example, the output of the comparison may be a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM duty cycle can be used in known fashion to increase or decrease the power supply voltage in order to match the speed of the ring oscillators to the reference frequency. If the ring oscillators are operating too slow, the applied power supply voltage is increased; conversely, if the ring oscillators are operating too fast, the applied power supply voltage is decreased. A typical adjustment range for a power supply using this approach is about ±10% (e.g., for a normalized voltage value of 1.0, the range is from about 0.9 to 1.1).
An IC design normally would have multiple DVS cells 110 distributed judicially across the IC die such that the voltage dependent test circuits 102 (e.g., ring oscillators) rather thoroughly reflect the transistor speed variations that occur across the dimensions of the die. When using multiple DVS cells 110, some economies of scale will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, such as having only one reference frequency source 104 coupled to all DVS cells 110, and time sharing (multiplexing) a single comparator 104 with all DVS cells 110.
Despite such attempts to mitigate the effects of PVT dependent characteristics on the fabrication of advanced IC's, IC designers and manufacturers have still been conservative in their approach to setting margins for IC designs. While a conservative approach seemingly improves die yields, the result generally is larger dies, more power usage (and thus more heat), and slower circuits on average.
Accordingly, there is a need for an IC design approach that mitigates the effects of PVT dependent characteristics on the fabrication of advanced IC's but provides high die yields, lower power usage, and faster circuits in comparison to the prior art. The present disclosure addresses this need.

Integrated circuit design using dynamic voltage scaling