The present invention relates to a vertical handoff method. According to the present invention, a serving network of a mobile station is determined. Herein, the mobile station that can access a first network having relatively wide service coverage and a second network having relatively narrow service coverage in an area where service coverages of heterogeneous networks are overlapped. When accessing the serving network of the first network, it is determined whether a received signal strength received from the second network is greater than a first threshold value. In addition, a first vertical handoff is decided by using a result of prediction of a transition pattern of the received signal strength that is greater than the first threshold value. When the serving network is the second network, it is determined whether the received signal strength received from the second network is less than a second threshold value. By using a result of prediction of a transition pattern of the received signal strength that is less than the second threshold value, a second vertical handoff is decided. Herein, the first threshold value is greater than the second threshold value.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertical handoff method, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a vertical handoff method of a mobile station that can access a first network having relatively wide service coverage and a second network having relatively narrow service coverage in an area where service coverages of heterogeneous networks are overlapped.
(b) Description of the Related Art
It is expected that a next generation network will evolve into an Internet protocol (IP)-based wireless network with overlapped service areas. That is, heterogeneous wireless networks interact with each other, forming a hierarchically overlapped service environment. In such a heterogeneous wireless network environment, wireless networks having difference characteristics interact with each other and their services areas are hierarchically overlapped with each other so that a service subscriber can selectively and flexibly access an optimal network according to a location of the service subscriber, a propagation condition, service characteristics, and a user preference.
Particularly, among such heterogeneous wireless networks, interaction between a third generation cellular network and a wireless local area network (WLAN) hotspot network is currently occurring.
In general, the third generation cellular network provides global coverage but it has a low data rate with high cost. On the other hand, the WLAN hotspot network provides a limited coverage but it has a high data rate with low cost.
Therefore, seamless service can be guaranteed by informing switching in service connection paths for interaction between the third generation cellular network and the WLAN hotspot network, each having different characteristics, to the mobile station, and accordingly, an optimal service can be provided to a subscriber.
Herein, a handoff that occurs between heterogeneous wireless networks such as between the third generation cellular network and the WLAN hotspot network is called a vertical handoff or an inter-system handoff. The vertical handoff is different from a horizontal handoff that occurs between cells in homogeneous wireless networks.
The vertical handoff uses a signal strength value for a handoff decision, and the signal strength of the vertical handoff is different from that of the horizontal handoff. The horizontal handoff is decided by comparing the corresponding signal strength values of base stations. However, the vertical handoff cannot be decided by comparing signal strengths because there are no signal strengths that can be compared. Since the third generation cellular network has global service coverage, signal strength cannot be used as triggering information for handoff decision. Therefore, the vertical handoff is decided by using a signal strength of a network (e.g., WLAN hotspot network) having a limited service coverage.
In addition, the vertical handoff has a higher probability of occurrence of the ping-pong effect compared to the vertical handoff.
That is, the horizontal handoff can reduce the ping-pong effect by using a signal strength difference between neighboring base stations, a timer, and a hysterisis effect. However, since the vertical handoff has no triggering information that can be compared except for a signal strength of the WLAN hotspot network that provides the limited service coverage, the vertical handoff has the higher probability of occurrence of the ping-pong effect.
FIG. 1 shows the ping-pong effect that occurs in realization of a conventional vertical handoff method.
As shown in FIG. 1, one vertical handoff threshold value is set.
When there is set one vertical handoff threshold value Xthresh, a signal strength received at a mobile station located in a border area of the WLAN hotspot network is fluctuated in a small range that is close to the vertical threshold value Xthresh, causing occurrence of the ping-pong effect.
In addition, the mobile station in the middle of performing a vertical handoff to the WLAN hotspot network may be forced to perform a vertical handoff to the third generation cellular network due to the limited coverage of the WLAN hotspot network. Such a phenomenon may increase a failure probability of the vertical handoff.
However, the ping-pong effect in the vertical handoff may give a heavier load to a system compared to the horizontal handoff due to characteristics of the vertical handoff, and therefore it is highly required to minimize the ping-pong effect.
In addition, it is more beneficial for a subscriber to stay longer in the WLAN hotspot network providing the high data rate with low cost, and therefore, a method for supporting the subscriber to stay in the WLAN hotspot network for a longer time period is required.
In order to minimize the ping-pong effect, the following two prior arts have been proposed.
According to one of the two prior arts, a mobile station selects a network that provides optimal performance by using a cost function. In addition, the mobile station monitors whether the selected network provides consistent performance during a stability period Ts and evaluates the monitoring result, and then performs a vertical handoff to the selected network.
Herein, the stability period Ts equals Ihandoff+Tmakeup. In this case, Ihandoff denotes a vertical handoff delay time and Tmakeup denotes a time taken for compensating a loss due to the vertical handoff.
In addition, the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the selected network may vary depending on a variation of a valid bandwidth and a variation of a received signal strength (RSS) due to mobility of the mobile station.
Therefore, when the mobile station performs the vertical handoff when the mobile station can provide constant performance in a target wireless network during the stability period Ts, that is, when it is expected that the variation of the valid bandwidth due to the variation of the received signal strength is not reduced lower than a reference value, the vertical handoff is performed.
However, although the target wireless network guarantees the constant performance of the mobile station during the stability period Ts, irregular mobility of the mobile station may cause inconsistent performance.
Accordingly, this prior art cannot efficiently prevent the ping-pong effect.
According to another prior art, the mobile station monitors whether a received signal strength received from the WLAN hotspot network is greater or less than the vertical handoff threshold value Xthresh within a transition region t. After monitoring λn sequentially detected received signal strengths, the mobile station decides whether to perform the vertical handoff.
However, the received signal strength of the mobile station cannot be linear due to irregular characteristics of the wireless network environment. Therefore, although values of the λn received signal strengths exceed the vertical handoff threshold value Xthresh, there may exist a received signal strength that is lower than the vertical handoff threshold value Xthresh.
In this case, the mobile station does not perform the vertical handoff and repeats the monitoring of λn received signal strengths. That is, the mobile station repeats a vertical handoff from the third generation cellular network to the WLAN hotspot network and from the WLAN hotspot network to the third generation cellular network.
Due to such a ping-pong effect, the mobile station cannot find an appropriate time to perform the vertical handoff, and therefore the failure probability of the vertical handoff is increased, causing performance deterioration.
Moreover, conventionally, reduction of one received signal strength among received signal strengths received during a predetermined time period causes the mobile station to not perform a vertical handoff.
However, a received signal strength received from the WLAN hotspot can be temporarily significantly decreased depending on the wireless environment state. Thus, when handoff decision is made by one received signal strength, the vertical handoff decision may not be made even though a strong enough received signal strength is received from the WLAN hotspot network.
However, as described, a received signal strength received from the WLAN hotspot network can be temporarily significantly decreased. Thus, when the handoff decision is made by one received signal strength, the vertical handoff decision may not be made even though a weak received signal strength is received from the WLAN hotspot network. The above phenomenon occurs because a substantial received signal strength received at the mobile station is not in a linear form.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A radio controlled toy in which movement of the toy upon changing the travelling direction is natural and human-like. An upper body is mounted on a seat plate such that the upper body is twisted with respect to the seat plate. Two legs are mounted on the seat plate such that the direction thereof is changed with respect to the seat plate. The upper body and the two legs are interconnected by way of a link mechanism so that a twisting movement of the upper body and a direction changing movement of the two legs is performed in an interlocking relationship with each other. Further, a rotation controlling unit is provided for stopping rotation or reducing the speed of rotation of a wheel provided on an inner side of one of the two legs when a twisting movement of the upper body and a direction changing movement of the two legs are carried out. Since the upper body can be twisted when the travelling direction is changed to a direction to which the radio controlled toy is going to be turned with respect to the seat plate, the movement of the radio controlled toy becomes natural.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio controlled toy constructed so that it is capable of changing its travelling direction in a smooth and natural manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio controlled robot toys can be constructed so that they can change travelling direction. In such radio controlled robot toys, changing the travelling direction is normally performed by controlling the speed of rotation of wheels provided on lower sides of two legs. For example, reducing the speed of rotation of an inner side of one of the two wheels to zero or to a speed lower than that of an outer side wheel.
However, in such conventional toys, since the upper part and lower part of the robot are constructed as a unitary member, a twisting movement of the upper part with respect to the lower part cannot be performed upon changing the travelling direction. Rather, the travelling direction is changed such that the upper part remains directed substantially in the direction in which the toy was travelling while the lower part changes direction. This type of movement is unnatural.

Remote control robot toy with torso and leg twist and torso tilt


The present invention relates to a control apparatus and a control method which is capable of reliably preventing electric power not required to be returned to an electric power system from flowing out to the electric power system. A bidirectional DCAC converting unit converts DC power stored in a storage battery to AC power, and outputs the converted power to each load. Further, a current detecting unit is arranged on a wire from the electric power system which is connected to a wire between the bidirectional DCAC converting unit and each load, and the current detecting unit detects a current flowing between the connection point and the electric power system. A control unit increases/reduces an amount of AC power output of the bidirectional DCAC converting unit based on an amount of current detected by the current detecting unit, thereby to control a supply of electric power to each load.

In these days, a house is being developed which not only purchases electric power from a commercial electric power system, but also utilizes electric power generated by a photovoltaic panel, a small-sized aerogenerator, a fuel cell or the like provided in the house.
In a conventional home electric power system provided with the photovoltaic panel, electric power generated in the photovoltaic panel is converted to AC power by a power conditioner, and thereafter supplied to each domestic load or returned to the commercial electric power system via a distribution board that branches electric power from the commercial electric power system.
The conventional home electric power system will be described with reference to FIG. 6, for example.
In a home electric power system 101 shown in FIG. 6, electric power is supplied from an electric power network (electric power system) as the commercial electric power system to a distribution board 113 via a meter 112. Electric power supplied from the electric power system to the distribution board 113 is branched into breakers 123-1 to 123-6 via a safety breaker (SB) 121 and an earth leakage circuit breaker (ELB) 122, and supplied to each load such as a home electric appliance via a wall outlet, not shown, or the like.
Further, electric power generated in a photovoltaic panel 114, which is supplied to a power conditioner 116, is inputted into a DCAC (DC-AC) converting unit 132 via a PV (PhotoVoltanic) control unit 131, and is converted to AC power in the DCAC converting unit 132. An output-side terminal of the DCAC converting unit 132 is connected to a wire between the safety breaker 121 and the earth leakage circuit breaker 122 of the distribution board 113, and the electric power outputted from the DCAC converting unit 132 is supplied to the distribution board 113.
In such a home electric power system 101, the distribution board 113 and a power conditioner 116 are connected by a set of wires, and the electric power generated in the photovoltaic panel 114 is supplied to each domestic load and consumed, or returned to the electric power system and sold, via the distribution board 113.
Incidentally, with the aim of diffusion of photovoltaic power generation, there has been considered in each country the introduction of a system to purchase photovoltaically generated electric power at a higher price as compared with electric power other than that. In such an electric power trading system, electric power generated in the photovoltaic panel is allowed to be returned to the electric power system, but some of electric power from power sources other than the electric power generated in the photovoltaic panel is not allowed to be returned to the electric power system.
For this reason, there is, for example, proposed a power-conditioner control apparatus having a function to sense electric power generated in a gas cogeneration system and prevent the electric power from flowing out to the electric power system (e.g., Patent Document 1).


In some examples, an electronic device comprises an image sensor and a processor. The processor is to detect a feature of a frame of a video received via the image sensor, determine whether the feature indicates an object of interest, and, responsive to a determination that the feature indicates the object of interest, limit a first field of view of the image sensor to the object of interest and overlay the first field of view with a second field of view. The second field of view is unlimited.

Electronic devices such as notebooks, laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones may include executable code that enables users to share livestreamed videos during virtual interactions (e.g., videoconferencing applications, social media applications). A virtual interaction, as used herein, may be any online event that allows a user of an electronic device to interact with users of other electronic devices via an image sensor, an audio device, or a combination thereof. A shared livestreamed video may include an object of interest that the user wants to exhibit to the audience by presenting the object of interest to the image sensor.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Provided are a spread spectrum clock generator and a spread spectrum clock generation method, a pulse pattern generator and a pulse pattern generation method, and an error rate measuring device and an error rate measuring method capable of improving usability when adjusting a waveform of a modulation signal during training. A setting screen 60 includes a 0-th frequency shift input unit 71 for arbitrarily setting a frequency shift of a waveform of a modulation signal in a plurality of time sections, a first frequency shift input unit 72, a second frequency shift input unit 73, a third frequency shift input unit 74, and a modulation selection unit 67 for switching a waveform pattern of the modulation signal from a first pattern to a second pattern.

In recent years, with the spread of IoT and cloud computing, communication systems have come to handle enormous amounts of data, and the interfaces of various types of communication equipment constituting the communication systems are becoming faster and serial transmission is progressing. For example, in the High Speed Serial Bus standards such as Universal Serial Bus (USB (registered trademark)) and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe (registered trademark)), the initialization of communication between devices and the adjustment of link speed are managed by Link Training and Status State Machine (LTSSM, hereinafter, referred to as "link state management mechanism"). Further, in the above standard, as an electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC) measure, SSC modulation by a spread-spectrum clocking (SSC) that spreads the spectrum of a reference signal is adopted.
Then, as one of the indexes for evaluating the quality of signals in communication equipment, a bit error rate (BER), which is defined as a comparison between the number of received data in which bit errors occur and the total number of received data, has been known. An error rate measuring device for measuring BER in the related art is provided with a function (sequence pattern function) of controlling the link state management mechanism included in a device under test (DUT) and transitioning to a specific state, by switching and outputting a specific pattern defined by the standard from a pulse pattern generator (PPG) at high speed. The pattern for state transitioning the DUT is defined by the standard, and the error rate measuring device combines the output order of these patterns by the sequence pattern function and outputs the pattern from the PPG.
FIG. 15 illustrates an example of the state transition of the link state management mechanism, and L0, L0s, L1, L2, Detect, Polling, Configuration, Disabled, Hot Reset, Loopback, and Recovery are defined as the states.
Here, in this type of error rate measuring device, when measuring the error rate of DUT, it is necessary to generate a desired pulse pattern signal and input the pulse pattern signal to the DUT, by using a spread spectrum clock signal of which spectrum is spread (hereinafter, also referred to as "SSC modulated signal") and a data signal. Therefore, there is a demand for an SSC generator and a pulse pattern generator capable of generating an SSC modulated signal by a desired spread method.
Then, inside the SSC generator or the pulse pattern generator in the related art, a triangular wave having a predetermined modulation frequency is generated in order to generate an SSC modulated signal, and a reference signal having a predetermined reference frequency is frequency-swept by the triangular wave and frequency-modulated (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Incidentally, in the USB4 standard, the operation requirement is different between a Steady-state such as the Loopback state illustrated in FIG. 15 and a state during training which is a transition state between the Steady-states.
FIG. 16 illustrates a waveform pattern of a modulation signal waveform (triangular wave) for generating a down spread SSC modulated signal in the Steady-state, and the vertical axis represents the frequency shift of the reference signal with respect to the reference frequency. Hereinafter, the waveform pattern will also be referred to as a "Steady-state mode" waveform pattern. In this example, a center frequency of the frequency shift with respect to the reference frequency is lower than the reference frequency by about 2500 ppm. Further, a slope of the frequency shift of the modulation signal waveform switches between positive and negative in ½ cycle of the triangular wave, but the absolute value is always constant.
FIG. 17A illustrates a waveform pattern of the modulation signal for generating the SSC modulated signal in a state during training of USB4, and a vertical axis represents the frequency shift of the reference signal with respect to the reference frequency. Hereinafter, the waveform pattern will also be referred to as a "periodic burst mode" waveform pattern. The slope of the frequency shift in the time section from a 0-th section (time width dt0) to a third section (time width dt3) of the waveform pattern in the periodic burst mode varies with time unlike the Steady-state. Due to the frequency shift from the 0-th section to the third section, the center frequency of the frequency shift with respect to the reference frequency is larger (the absolute value is smaller) than a case of the Steady-state of FIG. 16. From a fourth section (time width dt4) to an eighth section (time width dt8) of the waveform pattern in the periodic burst mode, the slope of the frequency shift is a triangular wave equal to the Steady-state. At an end of a ninth section (time width dt9) is a time section for returning from the final frequency shift of the eighth section to the frequency shift of the 0-th section. The waveform pattern in the periodic burst mode is repeated with the 0-th section to the ninth section as one frame.
FIG. 17B illustrates the waveform pattern of the modulation signal for transitioning from the periodic burst mode to the Steady-state mode, and a vertical axis represents the frequency shift of the reference signal with respect to the reference frequency. Hereinafter, the waveform pattern will also be referred to as a "continuous mode" waveform pattern. The slope of the frequency shift in the time section from the 0-th section to the third section of the waveform pattern in the continuous mode varies with time unlike the Steady-state. Due to the frequency shift from the 0-th section to the third section, the center frequency of the frequency shift with respect to the reference frequency is larger (the absolute value is smaller) than a case of the Steady-state of FIG. 16. From the fourth section to the ninth section of the waveform pattern in the continuous mode, the slope of the frequency shift is a triangular wave equal to the Steady-state. The waveform pattern in the continuous mode has one frame from the 0-th section to the ninth section, and the waveform pattern in the Steady-state mode is started continuously in the ninth section.
In recent years, many of the various types of communication equipment constituting the communication system do not transmit clock signals for synchronization, but transmit only data signals, and the communication equipment on the receiving side is equipped with a clock recovery circuit that recovers clock signals from the received data signal.
In the state before training, from a state in which a pulse pattern signal based on a reference signal without SSC modulation is input to the DUT, when a pulse pattern signal based on a reference signal with SSC modulation equivalent to the Steady-state is suddenly input to the DUT, the input frequency fluctuation of the clock recovery circuit in the DUT becomes large. Therefore, due to unlock in the clock recovery circuit, the recovered clock is not output, so that the link training cannot be performed correctly. Therefore, in the standards such as USB4, the reference signal without SSC modulation is first SSC-modulated with less frequency shift than the SSC modulation in the Steady-state as illustrated in FIGS. 17A and 17B, so that it is required to suppress the input frequency fluctuation of the clock recovery circuit in the DUT. After the training is completed and the transition to the Steady-state is completed, SSC modulation in the Steady-state can be applied to the reference signal.

Spread spectrum clock generator and spread spectrum clock generation method, pulse pattern generator and pulse pattern generation method, and error rate measuring device and error rate measuring method


A dental implant having bands on the exterior surface that define grooves of a defined depth and width is described. Near a distal end of the implant, the grooves have a relatively shallow depth. Near a proximal end, the grooves may or may not have a depth about twice as deep as near the distal end.

The present invention is a dental implant device designed to minimize tissue loss. The device has a plurality of connective tissue grooves on a stem portion of an abutment section and a plurality of bone locking grooves on a neck section of an implant section, wherein the implant section is proximal to the abutment section.
Dental implants are embedded in the jaw bone and serve to anchor one or more artificial teeth or dentures. Typically, the implant is set in the bone and an abutment is mounted on the implant. As is known in the art, the abutment generally has a first segment that abuts the implant and that is preferably positioned so as to lie within the connective tissue layer, a second segment that abuts the first segment and is preferably positioned so as to lie within the attached epithelial layer, and a third segment that abuts the second segment and is preferably positioned so as to lie within the sulcular epithelial layer. Each of the tissues layers are generally believed to be about 1 mm in depth.
Important to the success of such devices is the rigid anchoring of the implant in the bone, and several journal articles and patents have proposed various methods for achieving rigid anchoring (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,457 and incorporated herein by reference). For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,003, issued to Symington et al. describes an implant that has a tapered external body, resulting in a better distribution of the stresses acting on the device in situ than is achieved with cylindrical body implants. U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,457, issued to Pilliar et al, describes an implant that has a body with a non-porous surface on the upper portion of the implant and a porous surface on the lower portion of the implant. The porous surface provides interstices into which bone is permitted to grow once the implant is accommodated within the bone.
As reported in U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,469, issued to Hollander et al, and incorporated herein by reference, it is known to provide a variety of surface effects to enhance osseo-stability of the implant within bone. In the '469 patent a device is taught that has a collar portion consisting of proximal and distal cylindrical sub-segments, one having a surface effect adapted for the promotion of growth of soft tissue and the other adapted for the promotion of bone or hard tissue growth. Specifically, the '469 patent teaches a dental implant having a distal segment with a surface that defines an ordered microgeometric repetitive surface pattern in the form of a multiplicity of alternating ridges and grooves, each having a fixed or established width in a range of about 2.0 to about 25 microns and a fixed or established depth in the range of about 2.0 to about 25 microns.
While the device of the '469 patent recognizes that bone and soft tissue react differently with implant surfaces, it fails to recognize that academic studies have demonstrated that pore sizes of 10 microns or less lead to little or no fibrous ingrowth, and that a pore size of greater than about 30 microns is needed to give right to good blood supply and blood vessel ingrowth. This ingrowth is believed to be a factor in impeding epithelial migration toward the boney region of the implant site, and the less epithelial migration into the site, the lower the probability of infection development.


A method for performing storage system de-duplication. The method includes accessing a plurality of initial partitions of files of a storage system and performing a de-duplication on each of the initial partitions. For each duplicate found, an indicator comprising the metadata that is similar across said each duplicate is determined. For each indicator, indicators are determined that infer a likelihood that data objects with said indicators contain duplicate data is high. Optimized partitions are generated in accordance with the chosen indicators. A de-duplication process is subsequently performed on each of the optimized partitions.

Data de-duplication (often called "intelligent compression" or "single-instance storage") is a method of reducing storage needs by eliminating redundant data. Only one unique instance of the data is actually retained on storage media, such as disk or tape. Redundant data is replaced with a pointer to the unique data copy. For example, a typical email system might contain 100 instances of the same one megabyte (MB) file attachment. If the email platform is backed up or archived, all 100 instances are saved, requiring 100 MB storage space. With data de-duplication, only one instance of the attachment is actually stored; each subsequent instance is just referenced back to the one saved copy. In this example, a 100 MB storage demand could be reduced to only one MB.
Data de-duplication offers other benefits. Lower storage space requirements will save money on disk expenditures. The more efficient use of disk space also allows for longer disk retention periods, which provides better recovery time objectives (RTO) for a longer time and reduces the need for tape backups. Data de-duplication also reduces the data that must be sent across a WAN for remote backups, replication, and disaster recovery.
Data de-duplication can generally operate at the file, block, and even the bit level. File de-duplication eliminates duplicate files (as in the example above), but this is not a very efficient means of de-duplication. Block and bit de-duplication looks within a file and saves unique iterations of each block or bit. Each chunk of data is processed using a hash algorithm such as MD5 or SHA-1. This process generates a unique number for each piece which is then stored in an index. If a file is updated, only the changed data is saved. That is, if only a few bytes of a document or presentation are changed, only the changed blocks or bytes are saved, the changes don't constitute an entirely new file. This behavior makes block and bit de-duplication far more efficient. However, block and bit de-duplication take more processing power and uses a much larger index to track the individual pieces.
However, there are significant performance problems with conventional de-duplication schemes as the amount of data being stored continues to grow. For example, as the amount of data being stored within a given data storage system continues to expand, the mechanisms supporting conventional de-duplication schemes (e.g., the indexes) cannot adequately scale to meet the additional needs. For example, when the indexes are too large to be cached entirely into memory/RAM, lookups on the indexes incur one or more disk accesses, and this slows down write and read access to the de-duplication store significantly. The indexes used by conventional de-duplication schemes are proving to be severe limits on the ability of such schemes to handle large data sets. The conventional de-duplication schemes cannot scale to handle the many petabytes of data being generated by today's enterprises.

Scalable de-duplication for storage systems


A software object display system using an adaptation layer to obtain information concerning a number of software objects is described. The adaptation layer communicates to a presentation layer which produces a display for the software objects. The adaptation layer isolates the presentation layer from the details of the structures of the software objects to be displayed. The adaptation layer provides a standard set of data to the presentation layer so that the presentation layer to provide for a display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software systems for providing the display and access to software objects in a computer system.
2. State of the Art
Typically, in a computer system, the files which are available for selection by different applications are displayed in a hierarchical manner. The display is part of a user interface on the file management system of the computer system. The user can select a file to be opened by clicking on a representation of the file, or performing a related operation which issues a command to open the file.
A difficulty occurs when different types of software objects are accessible. In the past, the user interface has been designed with certain, sometimes hidden, expectations of the software objects to be accessed. Most file access systems assume that the software objects are based on a single model. Typically, the local file system forms the basis for this model, since files are the most common types of software objects. When a new type of software object is introduced, it is often forced into this file system model. Some types of software objects, however, do not have a good conceptual fit with the file system model. For example, in file systems, small portions of the file can be independently accessed and modified. This type of access is not possible for some other types of software objects, such as database objects, or web pages on the Internet. For these objects, the entire software object is replaced when a change is to be made.
As another example of the differences between types of software objects, file systems are typically based upon containment relationships, where one object can have child, or dependent objects, as well as parent objects. This type of relationship may not apply to other types of objects, such as database records, or web pages, since they are not inherently hierarchical.
In the past, when a new type of software object is introduced, either the user interface software is modified to recognize and handle the new type of software object, or the new type of software object is forced into an existing model, such as the file system model. Because of hidden links between the file system model and the user interface software, modifying the, interface to add a new object type can be difficult.
It is desired to have an improved system of displaying and accessing software objects that avoid some of the problems of the prior art, and facilitate access to a variety of different types of software objects.
In accordance with the present invention, an adaptation layer is used to isolate a presentation layer of a user interface from the details of accessing the software objects. For each object to be displayed, a standard set of information is transferred to the presentation layer from the adaptation layer. This information, in one embodiment, includes the type of object (e.g. file, web page, etc.) the name and/or icon of the software object, and an indication of the presence of children objects of the software object. This data is provided by the adaptation layer which can call different access units for the different types of software objects. Thus, if there are three different types of software objects, there will be three different access software units called by the adaptation layer to get the appropriate information about the software object. Each of the access units can obtain a standard set of information from the respective types of software objects in vastly different manners. In a preferred embodiment, the amount of data required to be transferred from the adaptation layer to the presentation layer is relatively minimal. Optional information can also be transferred, including, but not limited to, the date and time of the last modification, and the object size.
An advantage of the present invention is that new types of software objects can be added without requiring modifications to the presentation layer. The presentation layer can display representations of software objects having vastly different software object types. For example, web pages, databases, file transfer protocol (FTP) objects, and regular file types can be displayed in the same hierarchical structure.
Another embodiment of the present invention concerns a hierarchical display which allows for the selection of software objects having different heterogeneous types. In one embodiment, such a system is made possible by the use of the adaptation layer. Representations of software objects of different types can be shown in the same display, and viewed and selected by the user. The selection of representations in the hierarchical display call access units to access the software objects. The presentation layer is not burdened with figuring out how to access the different software objets. The presentation layer merely sends an xe2x80x9copen software objectxe2x80x9d signal to the different access units which can access the software objects in their own manner.
The software objects can be from a variety of different sources and repositories. These different repositories can contain heterogeneous types of objects, which would previously have been considered to be incompatible. For A example, the software objects can include file objects, database objects, FTP objects, or internet web objects.

Multi-repository display system using separate presentation, adaptation and access layers


Disclosed is an insulation-displacement-contact connector comprising a first frame, a second frame, and tabs. The first and second frames pinch electric wires tight between them when assembled together. The first frame has an opening so that the insulation-displacement-contact pins of a mating material can pass through and touch the wires. The tabs on the second frame extend outwardly at an angle and bend exposed portions of the wires along the outer surfaces of the first frame, making the wires gripped more securely against pushing force exerted by the insulation-displacement-contact pins.

The present invention relates to an insulation-displacement-contact connector.
The connector assembly as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-16109 comprises a female connector on the upper side of an electrical junction box and a separate male connector which can mate with the female connector. The female connector houses plug pins which are integral with a bus bar. The male connector houses socket pins. When the female and male connectors mate, their plug and socket pins also mate, ensuring electrical contact between them.
The connector as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,741 comprises a connector housing which can hold electric wires. The connector can be inserted into a mating material which has protruding insulation-displacement-contact pins. When the connector is inserted into the mating material, the insulation-displacement-contact pins cut through wire insulation to reach metal conductors inside, ensuring electrical contact between the pins and the wires.
The connector assembly according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-16109 uses pins on each of the female and male connectors, and thereby costs more than a connector assembly requiring pins only on its female connector. The connector according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,741 is not reliable enough to hold wires tight in its connector housing so that the wires will not get loose when pushed up by insulation-displacement-contact pins.


A computer system identifies a subset of internet content of interest to a future set of passengers for a particular flight. The computer system compiles the subset of the internet content in advance of the flight and delivers the subset of internet content to a corresponding airport gate. A routing table of individual pages and links in those individual pages is constructed. A computer system with a large data storage element in an aircraft receives the subset of internet content and delivers it to passengers on demand, in flight.

Satellite communication in aircraft generally requires twelve to thirty-six inch Ku and Ka band antennas. Satellite communication is necessary for high speed data communication in an aircraft. Smaller aircraft are limited in size and do not have adequately fuselages space to carry the antennas necessary for high speed Internet access. Thousands of existing single aisle aircraft are capable of hosting on-board wireless access, but are limited to on-board movies and games without any internet connectivity.
Consequently, it would be advantageous if an apparatus existed that is suitable for providing internet access in aircraft incapable of housing Ku and Ka band antennas.


An illumination device comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a method for controlling the illumination device while avoiding flicker in the LED output is provided herein. According to one embodiment, the method may include driving the plurality of LEDs substantially continuously with drive currents configured to produce illumination, periodically turning the plurality of LEDs off for short durations of time during a first period to take measurements or communicate optical data, and increasing the drive currents supplied to the plurality of LEDs by a small amount when the LEDs are on during the first period to compensate for lack of illumination when the LEDs are periodically turned off during the first period.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to illumination devices and, more particularly, to illumination devices comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and to methods for calibrating and compensating individual LEDs in an illumination device, so as to maintain a desired luminous flux and/or a desired color point of the device over variations in temperature and process while avoiding undesirable visual artifacts, such as brightness banding and flicker.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The following descriptions and examples are provided as background only and are intended to reveal information that is believed to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, or should be construed, that any of the following information constitutes prior art impacting the patentable character of the subjected mater claimed herein.
Lamps and displays using LEDs (light emitting diodes) for illumination are becoming increasingly popular in many different markets. LEDs provide a number of advantages over traditional light sources, such as incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs, including low power consumption, long lifetime, no hazardous materials, and additional specific advantages for different applications. When used for general illumination, LEDs provide the opportunity to adjust the color (e.g., from white, to blue, to green, etc.) or the color temperature (e.g., from "warm white" to "cool white") to produce different lighting effects. In addition, LEDs are rapidly replacing the Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) conventionally used in many display applications (such as LCD backlights), due to the smaller form factor and wider color gamut provided by LEDs. Organic LEDs (OLEDs), which use arrays of multi-colored organic LEDs to produce light for each display pixel, are also becoming popular for many types of display devices.
Although LEDs have many advantages over conventional light sources, a disadvantage of LEDs is that their output characteristics tend to vary over temperature, process and time. For example, it is generally well known that the luminous flux, or the perceived power of light emitted by an LED, is directly proportional to the drive current supplied thereto. In many cases, the luminous flux of an LED is controlled by increasing/decreasing the drive current supplied to the LED to correspondingly increase/decrease the luminous flux. However, the luminous flux generated by an LED for a given drive current does not remain constant over temperature and time, and gradually decreases with increasing temperature and as the LED ages over time. Furthermore, the luminous flux tends to vary from batch-to-batch, and even from one LED to another in the same batch, due to process variations.
LED manufacturers try to compensate for process variations by sorting or binning the LEDs based on factory measured characteristics, such as chromacity (or color), luminous flux and forward voltage. However, binning alone cannot compensate for changes in LED output characteristics due to aging and temperature fluctuations during use of the LED device. In order to maintain a constant (or desired) luminous flux, it is usually necessary to adjust the drive current supplied to the LED to account for temperature variations and aging effects.
Many LED manufacturers have recognized a need for temperature compensation, and there are several different ways in which temperature compensation is currently implemented in today's LED devices. However, most of these implementations follow the same, or roughly the same, temperature compensation method. For example, most temperature compensation methods begin by measuring the temperature of an LED or a string of LEDs. In some cases, one or more temperature sensors may be arranged near the LEDs to measure the ambient temperature surrounding the LEDs, or heat sinks may be coupled to the backside of the LEDs to measure the heat generated thereby. While heat sinks are generally needed for thermal dissipation, adding temperature sensors to the chip unnecessarily increases the cost of the LED device and consumes valuable chip real estate. More importantly, the temperature sensors and heat sinks added to the chip often cannot provide an accurate temperature measurement for all LEDs included with the LED device.
For example, many LED devices combine different colors of LEDs within the same package to produce a multi-colored LED device. An example of a multi-colored LED device is one in which two or more different colors of LEDs are combined to produce white or near-white light. There are many different types of white light lamps on the market, some of which combine red, green and blue (RGB) LEDs, red, green, blue and yellow (RGBY) LEDs, white and red (WR) LEDs, RGBW LEDs, etc. By combining different colors of LEDs within the same package, and driving the differently colored LEDs with different drive currents, these lamps may be configured to generate white light or near-white light within a wide gamut of color points or color temperatures ranging from "warm white" (e.g., roughly 2600K-3700K), to "neutral white" (e.g., 3700K-5000K) to "cool white" (e.g., 5000K-8300K).
However, the drive currents supplied to the differently colored LEDs in a multi-colored LED device can vary significantly from one another, depending on the desired color temperature. For instance, when an RGB lamp is configured for producing 2700K warm white light, the drive current supplied to the blue LEDs can be less than 10% of the drive current supplied to the red LEDs. Since an LED driven with a significantly higher drive current necessarily produces more thermal power, the junction temperature (i.e., the temperature of the active p-n region) of the red LEDs, in this instance, can be significantly greater than the junction temperatures of the blue and green LEDs. In some cases, the junction temperature of differently colored LEDs within the same package can differ by 5° C. or more, even with the same heat sink temperature. Therefore, it is usually more desirable to measure or estimate the LED junction temperatures, as opposed to the ambient or heat sink temperatures, and adjust the individual drive currents accordingly to maintain a precise color point produced by a multi-colored LED device.
It is generally well known that the forward voltage of an LED changes linearly with junction temperature when a fixed forward-biased drive current is supplied to the LED. FIG. 14 demonstrates the linear relationship between forward voltage and junction temperature with the forward voltages normalized to '1' at 25° C. (roughly room temperature). As shown in FIG. 14, the forward voltage developed across the LED junction decreases linearly as the junction temperature increases (and vice versa). As a consequence, LED forward voltages measured at a fixed drive current can be used to provide a fairly precise estimate of junction temperature for a particular LED.
However, most manufacturers of conventional LED devices fail to account for the fact that the magnitude and slope of the line correlating forward voltage to junction temperature (shown, e.g., in FIG. 14) can vary significantly between LED manufacturers, LED part numbers and even individual LEDs arranged side by side on the same chip. To illustrate this point, the dotted lines shown in FIG. 15 show a possible range of forward voltage versus temperature characteristics that may be seen from a particular manufacturer and part number, while the solid line indicates the forward voltage versus temperature line generated by an individual LED from that manufacturer and part number. As shown in FIG. 15, the magnitude of the forward voltage can vary significantly between individual LEDs at any given temperature. In addition, FIG. 15 shows that the slope of the line relating forward voltage to temperature can vary between individual LEDs. While the differences in slope are typically small, they can represent a few degrees C. measurement error over the operating temperature range of an LED. These measurement errors result in inaccurate temperature compensation if steps are not taken to account for these variations when calibrating conventional LED devices.
In addition to variations in forward voltage, most manufacturers fail to account for the non-linear relationship between luminous flux and junction temperature for certain colors of LEDs, and the non-linear relationship between luminous flux and drive current for all colors of LEDs. Without accounting for such non-linear behavior, conventional multi-color LED devices cannot be used to provide accurate temperature compensation for all LEDs included within the multi-color LED device.
For example, FIGS. 16 and 17 illustrate the relative change in luminous flux over junction temperature produced by differently colored LEDs supplied with fixed drive currents. As shown in FIG. 16, the luminous flux produced by green, blue and white LEDs changes relatively little and linearly with changes in junction temperature. However, FIG. 17 shows that the luminous flux produced by red, red-orange and, especially, yellow (amber) LEDs changes significantly and sometimes dramatically over temperature, and that these changes are substantially non-linear. In order to provide accurate temperature compensation, the drive currents supplied to each color of LED must be individually calibrated and adjusted during use of the device. Conventional multi-color LED devices fail to provide calibration and compensation for each color of LED used in the device, and thus, fail to provide accurate temperature compensation in a multi-color LED device.
FIGS. 18 and 19 illustrate typical relationships between luminous flux and LED drive current for different colors of LEDs (e.g., red, red-orange, white, blue and green LEDs). As shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, the relationship between luminous flux and LED drive current is non-linear for all colors of LEDs, and this non-linear relationship is substantially more pronounced for certain colors of LEDs (e.g., green LEDs). Without accounting for such non-linear behavior, conventional LED devices cannot be used to provide accurate temperature compensation for all LEDs included within the LED device.
In addition to failing to account for non-linear behavior and differences in output characteristics between individual LEDs, conventional LED devices typically use pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming to control the overall luminance of the LED device. In PWM dimming, the duty cycle of the drive current (i.e., the ratio of time the drive current is "on") is adjusted to control the overall luminance of the LED device. However, PWM dimming can be undesirable for a number of reasons. On a human level, pulse width modulation at certain frequencies has been shown to induce seizures and eye strain in some people. On a more technical level, PWM dimming causes issues for the power supply and the LEDs when switching large amounts of currents on and off. For example, in order to prevent the output voltage from varying too much, a larger output capacitor may need to be coupled across the power supply, which adds cost and consumes board space. However, this does not address the transients that occur in the drive currents supplied to the LEDs whenever the drive currents are turned on and off. In some cases, these transients can be visible in the form of flicker or color shift.
Another issue arises, not only when using PWM dimming, but whenever groups of LEDs are periodically turned on and off for any reason in an LED array. Whenever LEDs are periodically turned on and off, even at an imperceptibly high rate, an undesirable artifact called "brightness banding" occurs. This banding artifact is demonstrated in the photographs of FIGS. 20 and 21 as alternating bands of light and dark areas on a display screen backlit by an array of LEDs. The photograph shown in FIG. 20 was taken with a slow shutter speed to illustrate what the human eye sees, while the photograph shown in FIG. 21 was taken with a higher shutter speed to illustrate the bright and dark bands that develop across the display screen as a result of PWM dimming. This banding artifact also occurs when the light emitted by LEDs is modulated or turned on/off for other reasons, such as when modulating light output to communicate data optically in visible light communication (VLC) systems.
A need exists for improved illumination devices and methods for calibrating and compensating individual LEDs included within an illumination device, so as to maintain a desired luminous flux and/or color point of the device over variations in temperature and process. In order to overcome the disadvantages and inaccuracies associated with conventional methods, the calibration and compensation methods described herein take into account and adjust for variations in forward voltage magnitude and slope between individual LEDs, the non-linear relationship between luminous flux and junction temperature for certain colors of LEDs, and the non-linear relationship between luminous flux and drive current for all colors of LEDs. This enables the present invention to provide a more highly precise method of temperature compensation. Further, accurate temperature compensation is provided herein without producing undesirable visual artifacts, such as brightness banding, flicker and color shift.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Illumination device and method for avoiding flicker


Accordingly embodiments herein achieve signaling method and system (2000) for provisioning signalling in an Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) network (1000). The method includes providing a set of modifications in uplink and downlink signaling for an IAB node (100). The modifications either help to reduce the control channel payload or enable more flexible signaling of resources, improve efficient control channel scheduling and also avoid conflicts that might arise due to discrepancies between semi static and dynamic resource allocation.

The fascination of the modern society towards high data rate applications in a high mobility scenario is continuously pushing the borders of wireless communication systems. The fifth-generation (5G) and beyond communication is expected to address these data rate demands by improving the spectral efficiency of the existing spectrum, and by exploring new spectrum in millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency bands. Multiple antenna techniques and frequency reuse along with other transmitter and receiver mechanisms are the major developments in improving the efficiency of spectrum, whereas mmWave communication is a significant development in exploring a new spectrum. In mmWave communication higher frequencies above 6 GHz are used. Since a large amount of bandwidth is available in the mmWave range, can be utilized in supporting a very high data rate to users.
Further, mmWave is characterized by high directivity and it accounts for improving the spatial reuse with significantly reduced co-channel interference (CCI). Moreover, mmWave is subject to high attenuation, and this along with its directivity results in smaller and sparse cell coverage, at least in urban and semi-urban scenarios. This necessitates network densification to cover the entire coverage area using many transmission points. However, backhauling these densified networks is a major challenge. Deployment and maintenance of optical fiber to many small cells may not be an economically viable option, and self-backhauling is a possible alternative. Self-backhauling is defined as when the access and the backhaul share the same wireless channel Here, access denotes the link from a base station (BS) also known as (a.k.a) gNB in 5G and eNB in 4G or a relay to a user equipment (UE) (200), whereas, backhaul accounts for the link between BS to another BS or BS to a core network or BS to relay. The sharing of wireless channel resource for access and backhaul can be done using one of time, frequency, code, and space, and this type of network is called integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network (1000).
The IAB network (1000) can be used for extending the coverage of an existing cell, known as coverage extension, or for improving the capacity by reusing the same frequency by overlaying small cells over the regular macro cell coverage area. This is a.k.a heterogeneous network. The coverage extension IAB node (100) is placed in a region where the coverage of original gNB is weaker for UE (200) to detect the data or there is no coverage due to blockages, e.g., inside a building. The IAB node (100), generally expected to be a line of sight (LoS) with the gNB can communicate efficiently in those scenarios. Now, the UE (200) can get associated with the IAB node (100) and get services, thereby extending the coverage area. On the other hand, in a capacity enhancement scenario, when a gNB is heavily loaded, an IAB node (100) can act as an alternate gNB and provide service to a set of UEs (200) associated with it, thereby improving the capacity and/or can act as an alternate gNB for balancing the load. FIG. 1 illustrates the basic IAB deployment and its use cases.
FIG. 2 illustrates the basic block diagram of a multi-hop IAB network (1000). The node which has a wired connection to the core network is called a donor node (100d), and the other nodes are called IAB nodes (100). The IAB nodes (100) are connected to the donor node (100d) wirelessly. Similarly, an IAB node (100) can be further connected to other child IAB nodes (100c), leading to a multi-hop scenario. The donor node (100d) and IAB nodes (100) can have UEs attached to them. Hence, an IAB node (100) has dual functionality: the unit that acts like BS to the UEs (200) and IAB nodes (100) connected to it, called a distributed unit (DU), and the unit that acts as a mobile terminal (MT) for a parent IAB node (100b) to which it is connected. In FIG. 2, if IAB node 2 is considered as reference node (100a), then IAB node 1 is the parent IAB node (100b) and IAB node 3 is the child IAB node (100c). Again, an access UE (200) is connected to IAB node 2. Therefore, there are three links associated with an IAB node (100): backhaul link for communicating with the parent IAB node (100b), child link for communicating to the child IAB nodes (100c), and access link for serving the UEs.
The available time-frequency resources in the IAB network (1000) need to be efficiently shared among access and backhaul links one of semi-statically and dynamically. Proper resource allocation strategies between the MT and DU portion of the IAB node (100) is necessary to avoid interference between transmissions. The resources can be multiplexed between parent and child links in one of time, frequency, space, and code and are called time-division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), space division multiplexing (SDM), and code division multiplexing (CDM), respectively, or a combination of the above. For illustration, TDM case is considered in which either parent or child link is active at a time. The MT of an IAB node (100) can be configured with downlink (DL), uplink (UL), and flexible (F) resources. The flexible resources are configured with a combination of DL and UL resources, based on the available traffic in DL and UL directions. It is also used to handle the necessary guard period in half-duplex schemes. However, the DU of an IAB node (100) has UL, DL, F, and not available (NA) types of resources. The NA time resource implies that it should not be used for communication on the DU child links. Further, each of the UL, DL, and F time resources of the DU can be configured as hard (H) and soft (S) resources. The resource configured as hard is always made available for the child IAB node (100c)'s DU link, while the availability of resource configured as soft for the child IAB node (100c)'s DU link is controlled by the parent link. If the parent IAB node (100b) is not using the resource, it is indicated implicitly or explicitly to its child IAB node (100c), enabling the child IAB node (100c) to use the resource. Hence, the soft resource ensures efficient use of the spectrum.
There are a host of signaling mechanisms happening between the CU of the donor node (100d) and DU of the child IAB node (100c) and also between the DU of the parent IAB node (100b) and MT of the child IAB node (100c). The central unit (CU) of the donor node (100d) assign resources to DU of all the IAB nodes (100) through F1-AP (F1 Application Protocol) signaling and DU of the parent IAB node (100b) allocates resources to MT of the child IAB node (100c) through RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling. Here, F1-AP interface provides means for interconnecting a CU and a DU of a gNB or an IAB node (100), whereas RRC is the control mechanism between DU of the parent IAB node (100b) and MT of the child IAB node (100c). In the case of soft resource, the signaling for indicating availability, i.e., IA is provided to the IAB child link from the parent IAB node (100b) when the parent link is not using the resource. The UL/DL control channel elements originally exchanged between the gNB and the UE (200) are also exchanged between the DU of the parent IAB node (100b) and MT of the child IAB node (100c). However, the signaling aspects for MT of the child IAB node (100c) should be reformed compared to the UE (200) because of reasons including:                IAB MT has higher capabilities compared to UE.        Resource partitioning between access and backhaul sets limitations on some control channel elements.
Therefore, the UL and DL control channel elements transmitted to the MT of the child IAB node (100c) from the parent IAB node (100b) should be modified accordingly. This is the major motivation for this invention.

Method and system for provisioning signalling in integrated access backhaul (IAB) network

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY


Cells are genetically modified to express a luminophore, e.g., a modified (F64L, S65T, Y66H) Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP, EGFP) coupled to a component of an intracellular signalling pathway such as a transcription factor, a cGMP- or cAMP-dependent protein kinase, a cyclin-, calmodulin- or phospholipid-dependent or mitogen-activated serine/threonin protein kinase, a tyrosine protein kinase, or a protein phosphatase (e.g. PKA, PKC, Erk, Smad, VASP, actin, p38, Jnk1, PKG, IkappaB, CDK2, Grk5, Zap70, p85, protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1C, Stat5, NFAT, NFkappaB, RhoA, PKB). An influence modulates the intracellular signalling pathway in such a way that the luminophore is being redistributed or translocated with the component in living cells in a manner experimentally determined to be correlated to the degree of the influence. Measurement of redistribution is performed by recording of light intensity, fluorescence lifetime, polarization, wavelength shift, resonance energy transfer, or other properties by an apparatus consisting of e.g. a fluorescence microscope and a CCD camera. Data stored as digital images are processed to numbers representing the degree of redistribution. The method can be used as a screening program for identifying a compound that modulates a component and is capable of treating a disease related to the function of the component.

Intracellular pathways are tightly regulated by a cascade of components that undergoes modulation in a temporally and spatially characteristic manner. Several disease states can be attributed to altered activity of individual signalling components (i.e. protein kinases, protein phosphatases, transcription factors). These components, therefore, render themselves as attractive targets for therapeutic intervention.
Protein kinases and phosphatases are well described components of several intracellular signalling pathways. The catalytic activity of protein kinases and phosphatases are assumed to play a role in virtually all regulatable cellular processes. Although the involvement of protein kinases in cellular signalling and regulation have been subjected to extensive studies, detailed knowledge on e.g. the exact timing and spatial characteristics of signalling events is often difficult to obtain due to lack of a convenient technology.
Novel ways of monitoring specific modulation of intracellular pathways in intact, living cells are assumed to provide new opportunities in drug discovery, functional genomics, toxicology, patient monitoring, etc.
The spatial orchestration of protein kinase activity is likely to be essential for the high degree of specificity of individual protein kinases. The phosphorylation mediated by protein kinases is balanced by phosphatase activity. Also within the family of phosphatases translocation has been observed, e.g. translocation of PTP2C to membrane ruffles [(Cossette et al. 1996)], and likewise is likely to be indicative of phosphatase activity.
Protein kinases often show a specific intracellular distribution before, during and after activation. Monitoring the translocation processes and/or redistribution of individual protein kinases or subunits thereof is thus likely to be indicative of their functional activity. A connection between translocation and catalytic activation has been shown for protein kinases like the diacyl glycerol (DAG)-dependent protein kinase C (PKC), the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) [(DeBernardi et al. 1996)] and the mitogen-activated-protein kinase Erk-1 [(Sano et al. 1995)].
Commonly used methods of detection of intracellular localisation/activity of protein kinases and phosphatases are immunoprecipitation, Western blotting and immunocytochemical detection.
Taking the family of diacyl glycerol (DAG)-dependent protein kinase Cs (PKCS) as an example, it has been shown that individual PKC isoforms that are distributed among different tissues and cells have different activator requirements and undergo differential translocation in response to activation. Catalytically inactive DAG-dependent PKCs are generally distributed throughout the cytoplasm, whereas they upon activation translocate to become associated with different cellular components, e.g. plasma membrane [(Farese, 1992), (Fulop Jr. et al. 1995)] nucleus [(Khalil et al. 1992)], cytoskeleton [(Blobe et al. 1996)]. The translocation phenomenon being indicative of PKC activation has been monitored using different approaches: a) immunocytochemistry where the localisation of individual isoforms can be detected after permeabilisation and fixation of the cells [(Khalil et al. 1992)]; and b) tagging all DAG-dependent PKC isoforms with a fluorescently labelled phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) [(Godson et al. 1996)]; and c) chemical tagging PKC b1 with the fluorophore Cy3 [(Bastiaens & Jovin 1996)] and d) genetic tagging of PKCα ([Schmidt et al. 1997]) and of PKCγ and PKCε ([Sakai et al. 1996]). The first method does not provide dynamic information whereas the latter methods will. Tagging PKC with fluorescently labelled phorbol myristate acetate cannot distinguish between different DAG-dependent isoforms of PKC but will label and show movement of all isoforms. Chemical and genetic labelling of specific DAG-dependent PKCs confirmed that they in an isoform specific manner upon activation move to cell periphery or nucleus.
In an alternative method, protein kinase A activity has been measured in living cells by chemical labelling one of the kinase's subunits (Adams et al. 1991). The basis of this methodology is that the regulatory and catalytic subunit of the purified protein kinase A is labelled with fluorescein and rhodamine, respectively. At low cAMP levels, protein kinase A is assembled in a heterotetrameric form which enables fluorescence resonance energy transfer between the two fluorescent dyes. Activation of protein kinase A leads to dissociation of the complex, thereby eliminating the energy transfer. A disadvantage of this technology is that the labelled protein kinase A has to be microinjected into the cells of interest. This highly invasive technique is cumbersome and not applicable to large scale screening of biologically active substances. A further disadvantage of this technique, as compared to the presented invention, is that the labelled protein kinase A cannot be inserted into organisms/animals as a transgene.
Recently it was discovered that Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) expressed in many different cell types, including mammalian cells, became highly fluorescent [(Chalfie et al. 1994)]. WO95/07463 describes a cell capable of expressing GFP and a method for detecting a protein of interest in a cell based on introducing into a cell a DNA molecule having DNA sequence encoding the protein of interest linked to DNA sequence encoding a GFP such that the protein produced by the DNA molecule will have the protein of interest fused to the GFP, then culturing the cells in conditions permitting expression of the fused protein and detecting the location of the fluorescence in the cell, thereby localizing the protein of interest in the cell. However, examples of such fused proteins are not provided, and the use of fusion proteins with GFP for detection or quantitation of translocation or redistribution of biologically active polypeptides affecting intracellular processes upon activation, such as proteins involved in signalling pathways, e.g. protein kinases or phosphatases, has not been suggested. WO 95/07463 further describes cells useful for the detection of molecules, such as hormones or heavy metals, in a biological sample, by operatively linking a regulatory element of the gene which is affected by the molecule of interest to a GFP, the presence of the molecules will affect the regulatory element which in turn will affect the expression of the GFP. In this way the gene encoding GFP is used as a reporter gene in a cell which is constructed for monitoring the presence of a specific molecular identity.
Green Fluorescent Protein has been used in an assay for the detection of translocation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) [Carey, K L et al., The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 133, No. 5, p. 985-996 (1996)]. A GR-S65TGFP fusion has been used to study the mechanisms involved in translocation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in response to the agonist dexamethasone from the cytosol, where it is present in the absence of a ligand, through the nuclear pore to the nucleus where it remains after ligand binding. The use of a GR-GFP fusion enables real-time imaging and quantitation of nuclear/cytoplasmic ratios of the fluorescence signal.
Many currently used screening programmes designed to find compounds that affect protein kinase activity are based on measurements of kinase phosphorylation of artificial or natural substrates, receptor binding and/or reporter gene expression.

Method for extracting quantitative information relating to an influence on a cellular response


A wearable type mobile terminal is provided which may be mounted on a user's head. The wearable type mobile terminal may include a prism disposed in front of a user, and positioned longitudinally, an optical source device that irradiates light to the prism in a direction that is inclined by a prescribed angle with respect to the longitudinal direction, and an asymmetric lens disposed between the prism and the optical source device such that light irradiated from the optical source device is collected toward the prism, and the asymmetric lens is formed such that an optical axis of an incident surface and an optical axis of an exit surface extend in different directions.

1. Field
This relates to a mobile terminal, and particularly, to a wearable mobile terminal.
2. Background
Terminals may be generally classified as mobile/portable terminals or stationary terminals based on a degree of mobility. Mobile terminals may be further classified as handheld terminals, vehicle mounted terminals and the like, based on whether or not the terminal may be directly carried.
Mobile terminals may include functions such as data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files via a speaker system, displaying images and video on a display, and other such functions. Some mobile terminals may also support game playing, and some terminals may be configured as multimedia players. Other such mobile terminals may be configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of content such as videos and television programs.


A method and a system for processing an image and transform it into a high resolution and high-definition image using a computationally efficient image transformation procedure is provided. The transformation of the image comprises receiving, at a first input interface, a layered distance field (DF) image including an ordered sequence of multiple layers. Each layer of the layered DF image includes a DF procedure defining DF values at all locations of the received intensity image and rules for mapping these DF values into intensity values of the layer. The transformation of the image further comprises, receiving, at a second input interface, a transformation instruction and transforming the layered DF image based on the transformation instruction.

The field of image processing and computer graphics has become all pervasive with billions of uses in daily lives. From navigation to shopping, from trains to cars, from infotainment/entertainment systems to medical equipment, image processing has found widespread use and application across various sectors. Specifically in the field of navigation technologies, high quality and high-definition map images have become need of the hour to show high resolution, clarity, and finer details in the map image, even after zooming, for efficient and safe navigation. Despite such prolific use, representation of images remains flawed with several disadvantages. Traditional approaches have tried to address this problem, but more competent approaches are required.
Another problem with processing of images is that even though images provide rich texture and detail, but they also require considerable space for storage. Also, when an image is transformed, such as zoomed and rotated, they exhibit various visual artifacts such as pixelization, excessive blurring, Moire patterns, jaggies. Further, images cannot provide suitable level of abstraction to convey various forms of information or when trying to edit a particular element.
To overcome this problem, one solution for reducing storage requirements for an image is representing images in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. SVG format is compact and can be scaled to any size without loss of quality but lacks the texture and richness of images. Thus, what is needed is a solution for representation of images can provides the richness of pixels in a full intensity image and the scalability and size of SVG format. Thus, even after having SVG format availability, a superior solution for image representation and processing is needed, which can offer richness of pixels with the artifact free transformations (i.e., resolution independence) and size of SVG format.
Another requirement in image processing is to provide a high quality in images, which can provide as much detail of images as possible, without consuming too much processing power and storage. Some existing graphics processing applications are based on calculation of distance fields for 2-Dimensional (2D) images/shapes. A distance field of an object represents, for any point in space, a distance from the point to a boundary of the object. The distance chosen in many applications is often a minimum distance from the point to the boundary of the object. The 2D distance field of a shape represents, for any point P in space, the signed minimum distance from P to the boundary (i.e., outline) of the shape. A signed distance can be used to distinguish between an inside and outside of the object (e.g., a negative distance would indicate the point is outside the object while a positive distance would indicate the point is inside the object). Metrics used to measure distance can take on many forms, but Euclidean distance is frequently favored because of its utility in a number of applications such as collision detection and rendering. 2D distance fields are used to represent many details of the 2D shape, such as exterior of the shape, interior of the shape, an outline of the shape, and a number of offset surfaces.
Such distance fields-based representations of 2D shapes and objects have several advantages over more traditional geometric methods for representing objects and have been used successfully in many domains including computer aided design, medical imaging, surgical simulation, font rendering, games, movie production, deformation modeling, fluid simulation, and robotics.
Distance fields also offer gains in efficiency and quality because distance fields vary smoothly (C0 continuous) and throughout space. In terms of computational efficiency, distance fields are operated with simple and fast Boolean operations including, but not limited to, union, difference, and intersection. Moreover, distance fields also offer fast and simple offsetting, easier to compute blends, smooth reconstruction of edges in shapes, easier collision detection, and fast geometric queries. However, distance fields are represented using analytic representations, which can sometimes be complex to determine for complex shapes.
Another representation associated with 2D distance fields is a distance map, which is a regularly sampled map of distance fields for various points in the plane representing a 2D shape. Distance maps are obtained by sampling the shape at remarkably high rates in order to capture all minute details of the shapes, such as corners and Voronoi region boundaries.
According to yet another representation, Adaptively Sampled Distance Fields (ADFs) may be used for performing detail-directed sampling of distance fields in a shape, and then reconstructing distance fields from these adaptively sampled points. Such ADFs may include such as a bilinear cell ADF representation, a barycentric cell ADF representation, a biquadratic cell ADF representation, and the like. Along with rendering of the image using ADF, anti-aliasing is used to estimate intensity at every pixel of the shape. However, thus far, performance of ADFs has been limited to primitives rendering, such as rendering of fonts and glyphs. Procedural ADF is primarily based on the technology of distance fields, which is used for transformation from a set of curves representing a shape, such as a character in a font, to an equivalent set of distance fields that helps to provide improved performance and quality in processing tasks related to such set of curves and/or fonts, where the processing tasks include such as collision detection, selection, animation, blending, tuning, and editing. Using ADFs in this manner, shapes and fonts may be rendered suitably, but their use for rendering of high-definition images is not known.
In some approaches, distance based anti-aliasing is used for rendering the shape or font. Distance-based antialiasing offers better performance than traditional anti-aliasing because in this case distance field varies smoothly. Also, distance field of a moving shape, such as a font or glyph, does not change much from frame to frame, so distance field based anti-aliasing provides superior quality from frame to frame on rendering, even for moving fonts or glyphs. Another feature of distance based anti-aliasing approach is that is offers continuous stroke modulation (CSM) by providing a continuous range of stroke weights and edge sharpness settings. However, this approach also suffers from a disadvantage, that CSM becomes overly complex to implement if the underlying shape as a complex topology change.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient system for rendering of high intensity and meticulous images, with higher processing efficiency and lower storage requirements, which can overcome the shortcomings of the approaches discussed above.

Systems and methods for image transformation based on transformation instructions

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


In a base station, a DCI generation unit selects one pattern (mode) for use when data is allocated from among a plurality of patterns (modes) of a resource area where data (PDSCH) is allocated, and a transmission unit provides notification about setting information regarding the plurality of patterns (modes) by signaling of a higher layer and provides notification about the one pattern (mode) selected from the plurality of patterns by a downlink control signal (DCI).

A communication system called a fifth-generation mobile communication system (5G) has been studied. In 5G, it has been studied that functions are flexibly provided for each use case where an increase in communication traffic, an increase in the number of connecting terminals, high reliability, and low latency are each required. As typical use cases, there are three cases, that is, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), large-scale communications/many connections (mMTC: massive machine type communications), and ultra reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). In 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) as an international standardization organization, sophistication of the communication system has been studied from both of sophistication of LTE systems and New RAT (Radio Access Technology) (for example, refer to NPL 1).

Base station, terminal, and communication method

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America


System and method of controlling a trajectory of a wellbore comprises conveying a drilling assembly in the wellbore by a rotatable tubular member. The drilling assembly includes a drill bit at an end thereof that is rotatable by a drilling motor carried by the drilling assembly. The drilling assembly has a first adjustable stabilizer and an second stabilizer spaced apart from the first adjustable stabilizer. The first adjustable stabilizer having set of ribs spaced around the stabilizer, with each rib being independently radially extendable. The position of a first center of the first adjustable stabilizer is adjusted in the wellbore relative to a second center of the second stabilizer in the wellbore for controlling the trajectory of the wellbore.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to drill strings for drilling directional wellbores and more particularly to a self-adjusting steerable drilling system and method for drilling directional wellbores.
2. Description of the Related Art
Steerable motors comprising a drilling or mud motor with a fixed bend in a housing thereof that creates a side force on the drill bit and one or more stabilizers to position and guide the drill bit in the borehole are generally considered to be the first systems to allow predicable directional drilling. However, the compound drilling path is sometimes not smooth enough to avoid problems with the completion of the well. Also, rotating the bent assembly produces an undulated well with changing diameter, which can lead to a rough well profile and hole spiraling which subsequently might require time consuming reaming operations. Another limitation with the steerable motors is the need to stop rotation for the directional drilling section of the wellbore, which can result in poor hole cleaning and a higher equivalent circulating density at the wellbore bottom. Also, this increases the frictional forces which makes it more difficult to move the drill bit forward or downhole. It also makes the control of the tool face orientation of the motor more difficult.
The above-noted problems with the steerable drilling motor assemblies lead to the development of so called "self-controlled" or drilling systems. Such systems generally have some capability to follow a planned or predetermined drilling path and to correct for deviations from the planned path. Such self-controlled system are briefly described below. Such systems, however, enable faster, and to varying degree, a more direct and tailored response to potential deviation for directional drilling. Such systems can change the directional behavior downhole, which reduces the dog leg severity.
The so called "straight hole drilling device" ("SDD") is often used in drilling vertical holes. An SDD typically includes a straight drilling motor with a plurality of steering ribs, usually two opposite ribs each in orthogonal planes on a bearing assembly near the drill bit. Deviations from the vertical are measured by two orthogonally mounted inclination sensors. Either one or two ribs are actuated to direct the drill bit back onto the vertical course. Valves and electronics to control the actuation of the ribs are usually mounted above the drilling motor. Mud pulse or other telemetry systems are used to transmit inclination signals to the surface. The lateral deviation of boreholes from the planned course (radial displacement) achieved with such SDD systems has been nearly two orders of magnitude smaller than with the conventional assemblies. SDD systems have been used to form narrow cluster boreholes and because less tortuous boreholes are drilled by such a system, it reduces or eliminates the reaming requirements.
In the SDD systems, the drill string is not rotated, which significantly reduces the hole breakout. The advantage of drilling vertical holes with SDD systems include: (a) a less tortuous well profile; (b) less torque and drag; (c) a higher rate of penetration; (d) less material (such as fluid) consumption; (e) less environmental impact; (f) a reduced risk of stuck pipe; (g) less casing wear, and (h) less wear and damage to drilling tubulars.
An automated drilling system developed by Baker Hughes Incorporated, the assignee of this application, includes three hydraulically-operated stabilizer ribs mounted on a non-rotating sleeve close to the drill bit. The forces applied to the individual ribs are individually controlled creating a force vector. The amount and direction of the side force are kept constant independent of a potential undesired rotation of the carrier sleeve. The force vector can be pre-programmed before running into the borehole or changed during the drilling process with commands from the surface.
This system has two basic modes of operation: (i) steer mode and (ii) hold mode. In the steer mode the steering force vector is preprogrammed or reset from the surface, thus allowing to navigate the well path. In the "hold mode" values for inclination and/or azimuth are preset or adjusted via surface-to-downhole communications, thus allowing changes to the borehole direction until the target values are achieved and then keeping the well on the target course. As the amount of side force is preset, the turn radius or the equivalent build-up rate (BUR) can be smoothly adjusted to the requirements from 0 to the maximum value of 8°/100 feet for such a system.
An automated directional drilling bottomhole assembly developed by Baker Hughes Incorporated and marketed under the brand name AUTOTRAK™ has integrated formation evaluation sensors to not only allow steering to solely directional parameters, but to also take reservoir changes into account and to guide the drill bit accordingly. The automated directional drilling bottomhole assembly may be used with or without a drilling motor. Using a motor to drive the entire assembly allows a broader selection of bits and maximizes the power to the bit. With a motor application, the string rpm becomes an independent parameter. It can be optimized for sufficient hole cleaning, the least casing wear and to minimize dynamics and vibrations of the BHA, which heavily depend on the rotational string frequency.
One of the more recent development of an automated drilling system is an assembly for directional drilling on coiled tubing. This system combines several features of the SDD and the automated directional drilling bottomhole assembly, such as the AUTOTRAK™ brand system, for coiled tubing applications. This coiled tubing system allows drilling of a well path in three dimensions with the capability of a downhole adjustable BUR. The steering ribs are integrated into the bearing assembly of the drilling motor. Other steering features have been adopted from the automated directional drilling bottomhole assembly, such as AUTOTRAK™ brand, with the exception that the steering control loop is closed via the surface rather than downhole. The fast bi-directional communication via the cable inside the coil provides new opportunities for the execution of well path corrections. With the high computing power available at the surface, formation evaluation measurements can be faster processed and converted into a geosteering information and imported into the software for the optimization of directional drilling.
A coiled tubing automated drilling system is disclosed in the U.S. Ser. No. 09/015,848, assigned to the assignee of this application, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The steering-while-rotating drilling systems can be further enhanced through a closed loop geosteering by using the formation evaluation measurements to directly correct the deviations of the course from the planned path. A true navigation can become possible with the integration of gyro systems that withstand drilling conditions and provide the required accuracy. With further automation, the manual intervention can be reduced or totally eliminated, leaving the need to only supervise the drilling process. Both supervision and any necessary intervention can then be done from remote locations via telephone lines or satellite communication.
The trend in the oil and gas industry is to drill extended reach wells having complex well profiles. Such boreholes may have an upper vertical section extending from the surface to a predetermined depth and one or more portions thereafter which may include combinations of curved and straight sections. For efficient and proper hole forming, it is important to utilize a drill string that has full 3-D steering capability for curved sections and is also able to drill straight sections fast which are not rough or spiraled.
The present invention addresses the above-noted problems and provides a drilling system that is more effective than the currently available or known systems for drilling a variety of directional wellbores.

Self-controlled directional drilling systems and methods


An anti-acne cosmetic composition in the form of a multiple phase water-in-oil emulsion and process for preparing thereof, wherein the composition comprises two or more aqueous phases and a coalescence inhibitor for preventing coalescence of the aqueous phases and wherein at least a first aqueous phase comprises the anti-acne active in the form of an aqueous/alcoholic solution. The composition exhibits moisturisation, anti-acne activityand skin anti-ageing benefits, together with product and colour stability.

Skin is made up of several layers of cells which coat and protect the keratin and collagen fibrous proteins that form the skeleton of its structure. The outermost of these layers, referred to as the stratum corneum, is known to be composed of 250 .ANG. protein bundles surrounded by 80 .ANG. thick layers. Anionic surfactants and organic solvents typically penetrate the stratum corneum membrane and, by delipidization (i.e. removal of the lipids from the stratum corneum), destroy its integrity. This destruction of the skin surface topography leads to a rough feel and may eventually permit the surfactant or solvent to interact with the keratin, creating irritation.
It is now recognised that maintaining the proper water gradient across the statum corneum is important to its functionality. Most of this water, which is sometimes considered to be the stratum corneum's plasticizer, comes from inside the body. If the humidity is too low, such as in a cold climate, insufficient water remains in the outer layers of the stratum corneum to properly plasticize the tissue; and the skin begins to scale and becomes itchy. Skin permeability is also decreased somewhat when there is inadequate water across the stratum corneum. On the other hand, too much water on the outside of the skin causes the stratum corneum to ultimately sorb three to five times its own weight of bound water. This swells and puckers the skin and results in approximately a two to three fold increase in the permeability of the skin to water and other polar molecules.
Thus, a need exists for compositions which will assist the stratum corneum in maintaining its barrier and water retention functions at optimum performance in spite of deleterious interactions which the skin may encounter in washing, work, and recreation.
Conventional cosmetic cream and lotion compositions as described, for example, in Sagarin, Cosmetics Science and Technology, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1, Wiley Interscience (1972) and Encyclopaedia of Chemical Technology, Third Edition, Volume 7 are known to provide varying degrees of emolliency, barrier and water-retention (moisturising) benefits. However, they can also suffer serious negatives in terms of skin feel (i.e. they often feel very greasy on the skin) as well as having poor rub-in, absorption and residue characteristics.
It would also be desirable to provide a cosmetic composition which delivered pigments to the skin of the user at the same time as providing excellent moisturisation. A pigmented cosmetic composition can serve to even skin tone and texture and to hide pores, imperfections, fine lines and the like.
At the same time, it would be desirable to provide a moisturising composition having topical anti-acne activity. There are many compounds which are known to exhibit anti-acne properties when applied topically to the skin. A commonly used keratolytic agent having anti-acne activity is salicylic acid. As salicylic acid is virtually insoluble in water however, it is difficult to incorporate into the aqueous phase of an emulsion composition. Delivery of salicylic acid from the pigment-containing oil phase of an emulsion composition can, on the other hand, lead to discolouration of the composition due to interaction between the salicylic acid and pigments, especially of the iron oxide type. Furthermore, in compositions requiring high water levels, such as skin moisturising compositions, salicylic acid tends to precipitate out of solution. It would therefore be desirable to deliver salicylic acid in soluble form from the aqueous phase but without the salicylic acid precipitating out of solution.
It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide a cosmetic composition which exhibits anti-acne activity together with moisturisation benefits.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a cosmetic composition in the form of a multiple phase emulsion having improved product and colour stability.