An electronics circuit designed for a matrix array of receivers configured to detect multiple external resistors of close values selected from the 100 ohm to 1 Mohm range, and to provide different responses according to the resistance of a resistor connected to a receiver.

Traditional portable interactive learning toy for children provides a sensor pad positioned beneath a printed game card. The circuit of the sensor pad detects the position of a pen or by a finger by means of pressure, resistive, optical, capacitive or inductive changes. For many designs, the pen is required to be connected to the game console with a wire for the unit to receive the selection signal. The game play is defined by the pictorial content of the card designed according to an internal program or an external program represented by a game cartridge. This type of learning toy depends of "two dimensional" pictures illustrated on the pictorial card. The player is also required to make use of a pen or pressing with a finger to indicate the selected answer when a question is asked. According to a research of this invention, it was found that younger child likes to play with toys that are free to move around, rather than a pen connected with a wire or having to press hard with their tiny fingers. Pen is a tool that can only be handled by an older child. Besides, it was discovered that younger child tends to remember real life article than abstract expressions. In addition, younger child is more ready to learn from three-dimensional toys than to interpret the meanings of a two dimensional picture. It is the objective of this invention to provide an electronics circuit that enable a portable learning toy to replace the pen or finger pointing with real life three dimensional accessory toys free to move around. An embodiment of this electronics circuit makes use of the high resolution resistor recognition circuit that is capable to resolve resistor tolerance lower than 10%, preferably 5% as disclosed in applicant's pending application Ser. No. 10/227,708 which is the formal application of provisional application 60/316,643. Another characteristics of the invention is that a multiple dimensional receiver array is provided to handle multiple external resistors to be received by the toy play set as disclosed in parent patent application Ser. Nos. 10/208,346 filed Jul. 30, 2002.

Receiver matrix configured to identify multiple external resistors


An outer cannula has a first port for orienting outside the neck of a wearer, a second port for orienting within the trachea of the wearer, a first passageway coupling the first port to the second port to permit the flow of gases from the first port to the second during inhalation by the wearer and from the second port during exhalation by the wearer, and a third port between the first and second ports. An inner cannula is configured for insertion into the first passageway via the first port when the wearer desires to be able to exhale through his or her pharynx. The inner cannula includes a fourth port for orienting adjacent the first port, a fifth port for orienting adjacent the second port and a second passageway coupling the fourth port to the fifth port to permit the flow of gases from the fourth port to  through the fifth during inhalation by the wearer and prevent the flow of gases from the fifth  fourth port during exhalation by the wearer. A valve controls flow through the third port. The valve assumes a first orientation to permit flow from the first  fourth port to the second  fifth port when the first  fourth port is at a higher pressure than the second  fifth port, and a second orientation to permit  prevent flow from the second  fourth port through the third port  when the second  fifth port is at a higher pressure than the first  fourth port.

This invention is directed toward the problem of being unable to produce audible laryngeal voice, and thus, the inability to speak, that confronts individuals whose breathing is provided mechanically by a respirator which is connected to a cuffed tracheotomy tube inserted into the trachea of a wearer below the level of the vocal cords. The cuff on the tracheotomy tube is inflated, for example, with air, so that the cuff seals substantially fluid tight against the wall of the trachea. The purposes of the inflated cuff include: to protect against leakage of saliva and other secretions around the tracheotomy tube and into the lungs; and, to prevent the air being delivered under pressure from the respirator through the tracheotomy tube to the lungs and exhalation from the lungs from escaping around the tracheotomy tube and out through the mouth and nose of the wearer. In other words, the inflated cuff provides a closed mechanical respiratory system that completely bypasses the upper airway above the level of the tracheotomy tube, including the vocal cords. The side effects of this include the elimination of exhaled airflow upward through the vocal cords. Of course, this eliminates voice production and audible speech.
Currently, there are only two available options for individuals being mechanically ventilated via a cuffed tracheotomy tube to produce audible voice and speech with their own vocal cords. The first of these options is described in O. Hessler, M. D., K. Rehder, M. D., and S. W. Karveth, MC, U. S. A., "Tracheostomy Cannula for Speaking During Artificial Respiration," Anesthesiology, vol. 25, no. 5, pp.719-721 (1964). There is no known commercially available device constructed as described in Hessler, et al.
The second option is a so-called "talking tracheotomy tube," which is a conventional cuffed tracheotomy tube manufactured with an 8-10 French conduit extending along its length. The distal end of this conduit terminates above the level of the inflated cuff. The proximal end of this conduit is connected to a source of, for example, compressed air. Examples of such a device are manufactured by Sims Portex, Inc., and Bivona Surgical Inc. The wearer of such a device is able to stop and start the flow of compressed air to the distal end of this conduit, thereby enabling the stopping and starting of the flow of air upward through his or her vocal cords, enabling the wearer to produce speech. This speech airflow is completely independent of the respiratory airflow through the tracheotomy tube. Such talking tracheotomy tubes have been available for several years, but are not in widespread use, perhaps owing to numerous mechanical limitations.
A ventilator-dependent patient breathing through cuffed tracheotomy tube is unable to produce audible voice with his or her vocal cords because the cuff of the tracheotomy tube he or she wears prevents exhalations from going around the lower end of the tube and upward through the vocal cords. This situation continues until the wearer's condition improves sufficiently that the cuff on the tracheotomy tube can be deflated so that exhaled air can pass around the tracheotomy tube and up through the wearer's vocal cords, mouth and nose, permitting audible vocal cord vibrations for speech.
The invention alleviates this situation. When coupled to a respirator with its cuff inflated, a valved, cuffed tracheotomy tube system according to the invention directs air on the inhalation cycle of the respirator to the lungs. Exhalations are directed by the valved, cuffed tracheotomy tube system according to the invention to the upper airway, permitting vocal cord vibration and audible laryngeal speech.

Valued fenestrated tracheotomy tube having outer and inner cannulae


An optical add-drop multiplexer including a first filter filtering a first band of wavelengths of a communication spectrum for a first communication segment and a second filter filtering a second band of wavelengths of the communication spectrum for a second communication segment. The second band of wavelengths overlaps the first band of wavelengths in an overlap band of wavelengths. The overlap band may have a variable size. The first band of wavelengths includes a first fraction of the overlap band of wavelengths for the first communication segment and the second band of wavelengths includes a remaining fraction the overlap band of wavelengths for the second communication segment.

Initially introduced to connect two points across the ocean, submarine cable networks became more flexible with the introduction of optical add-drop multiplexers (OADM). OADMs used in optical communication networks are capable of removing wavelength channels from multiple wavelength signals and adding channels to those signals. Conventional OADMs have typically been limited to use in a relatively few nodes within a network, because of their inherent performance characteristics. In other words, as the number of conventional OADMs increases within the network, the limitations associated with conventional OADMs substantially affects network performance. Moreover, conventional fixed OADMs have two limitations (i) loss of spectrum due to a guard band that needs to be allocated between bands and (ii) add/drop ratio has to be determined at the time of system deployment and that stays fixed for the life of the submarine cable (˜25-30 years) as it is not practical to extract the OADM from the submerge location on the ocean floor and change the add/drop ratio.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Overlapping spectrum in optical communication


An adaptive noise canceling system for extracting a desired signal, comprising an adaptive noise cancellation filtering circuit for suppressing noise from a first input signal using a second input signal as a reference signal, and generating an output filtered signal representing the desired signal; and an adaptive noise cancellation controller for receiving the first and second input signals and the output filtered signal, and generating an output control signal for controlling coefficients of at least one adaptive filter of the adaptive noise cancellation filtering circuit, comprising a silence detector unit for detecting whether an acoustical signal is present in the input signals and the output filtered signal, and generating a first output signal which indicates whether the acoustical signal is present; a signal detector unit for detecting whether the desired signal is present in the input signals and the output filtered signal, and generating a second output signal which indicates whether the desired signal is present; and an adaptive noise cancellation filter (ANCF) controller unit for receiving the first and second output signal to determine the characteristic of the input signals, and generating the output control signal which represents an updated coefficient parameter for updating the coefficients of the at least one adaptive filter of the adaptive noise cancellation filtering circuit.

A noise cancellation microphone system is gaining more importance nowadays, especially with the development of multimedia applications and wireless communication technologies. Although various solutions were proposed to enhance desired signal extraction, particularly desired speech, in noisy environments, there are still rooms for improvement in order to obtain a high Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio using very few microphones.
Various methods were commonly used to increase the SNR of desired speech signal. In a known speech enhancement method, a single microphone is used to pick up the desired speech signal with noise. The noise spectrum is estimated and subtracted from the speech signal (containing the noise) picked up by the microphone. In this way, the desired speech signal is separated from the noise. However this method is only effective with stationary noise, and also introduces high distortion to the desired speech signal.
Another known noise cancellation method uses two microphones, with one microphone located near the source of the desired signal, and another microphone located near the noise source. Thus, the signal picked up by the microphone arranged near the noise source can be used to adaptively cancel the noise signal contained in the signal picked up by the microphone located near the desired speech signal. However, this method is not practical in most applications as it is very difficult to arrange a microphone near the noise source.
A further known microphone array system uses more than two microphones. The system uses spatial and temporal filtering method to enhance the desired speech signal from a specific direction and over an interested frequency band, and suppress any other signals from other directions. It can enhance the desired signal with a high SNR improvement. However the use of more than two microphones results in a large size of the system, making many mobile applications unsuitable. In the system disclosed in [1], more than three microphones are used to form a uni-directional microphone system for noise cancellation. Since in this system, there are no adaptive signal processing method used, the spatial response of this microphone system is fixed. This makes the whole system inflexible and also results in the performance of noise/interference cancellation to be poor.
Accordingly to the system described in [2], two microphones are used to form a first-order microphone system for noise cancellation. However, this microphone system uses only the differential property of sound field to form a fixed beam pattern, the performance of the system is therefore poor, especially in environments with complicated noise signals.
In the system disclosed in [3], a cardioid-type directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone are combined in an acoustically coupled way. The two microphones, together with an adaptive control circuit, produces a very narrow 3-dimensional beam for acquiring the desired speech signal. However the adaptive filter in the adaptive control circuit uses a normal Least-Mean-Squared (LMS) algorithm with a fixed step size or an adaptive step size which is based on the signal correlation coefficient. Such a method gives rise to performance degradation due to wrong updating of the coefficients of the adaptive filter when speech and noise signal are present simultaneously. This results in low noise suppression and high desired signal cancellation.
Therefore, a noise cancellation microphone system with a high SNR improvement, but is compact in size is desired.

Adaptive control system for noise cancellation


Measurement of a distance change between a reference surface and a target is provided. A substrate has a first surface facing the target and including a grating. The grating and target combine to form an optical interferometer responsive to changes in distance between the grating and the target. A second surface of the substrate coincides with the reference surface and faces away from the target. Thickness information pertaining to the substrate is combined with results from the optical interferometer to provide a measurement of distance change between reference surface and target. The substrate is preferably a rigid material having picometer level dimensional stability.

Optical interferometry has been a basic technique of distance metrology for many years. Typically, an optical interferometer having a sensitive optical path including the entire distance to be measured is employed. Variations of this distance on the order of half an optical wavelength will cause the interferometer output to change from constructive interference to destructive interference, or vice versa. Such an interferometer fringe can easily be detected. With advanced measurement techniques, a small fraction of an interferometer fringe can be detected, thereby providing measurement precision on the order of a small fraction of the optical wavelength.
However, this general approach for distance measurement encounters severe difficulties in applications having extremely demanding performance requirements, such as space-based optical interferometry for gravitational wave detection. To appreciate these difficulties, it is helpful to consider a brief description of such a system. A space based interferometer includes several spacecraft, each spacecraft including at least one gravitational proof mass. Detection of gravitational waves is based on detecting corresponding changes in proof mass position. Ideally, the only forces acting on the proof masses are gravitational forces, and a key aspect of the system design is to approach this ideal as closely as possible.
Since the expected effect of gravitational waves on proof mass position is exceedingly small (e.g., the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) requires a measurement precision of ˜10 pm Hz−1/2 from 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz, and the Big Bang Observatory requires a measurement precision of ˜1 fm Hz−1/2 from 0.1 to 10 Hz), extreme measures are taken to protect the proof mass from external forces. For example, an enclosure around the proof mass can be employed to shield the proof mass from the external force due to the solar wind (or other ambient perturbations). In such situations, the spacecraft is controlled to maintain a certain separation between the enclosure and proof mass, so that the spacecraft is referenced relative to the proof mass (as opposed to the other way around).
In this context, the traditional optical interferometry approach of including the entire distance between the proof masses in a sensitive interferometer path encounters severe difficulties. In particular, such an approach entails passing interferometer light through a window in the enclosure to reach the proof mass. This window is a transmissive optical element in the sensitive interferometer path. Thus, optical path length changes of the window due to the temperature dependence of the refractive index (i.e., dn/dT) are a significant source of measurement error. Thermal expansion of the window is also a relevant source of error, but tends to be less significant than the dn/dT effect. Detailed system analysis including realistic limits on achievable temperature control shows that having transmissive optical elements in a high-precision interferometer is highly undesirable, and can degrade system-level performance.
Another difficulty is that the radiation pressure of the external interferometer light on the proof mass is an undesirable net external force on the proof mass.
Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to provide interferometric distance measurement that does not require transmissive optical elements in the interferometer to measure the distance to an enclosed object.

High precision interferometer apparatus employing a grating beamsplitter

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An elevator installation control method with zoning provides changes between zones at an interchange floor. Transportation to or from the interchange floor is by at least one feeder-elevator group and at least one connecting-elevator group. The feeder-elevator group has several feeder elevators that travel in a first zone below the interchange floor and the connecting-elevator group has several connecting elevators that travel in a second zone above it. Trip destinations are entered via destination-call input and the feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group are combined into a multigroup that is controlled by a multigroup control. To optimize the elevator installation operation and utilization, the multigroup control allocates a feeder elevator depending on the number of trip destinations in the first zone to be traveled to by this feeder elevator and/or on the number of trip destinations in the second zone.

The present invention relates to a method for controlling an elevator installation operated with zoning in which changing between zones is made possible at an interchange floor and in which with at least one feeder-elevator group and at least one connecting-elevator group transportation to or from the interchange floor is realized. The at-least one feeder-elevator group comprises in each case several feeder elevators which travel to a first zone below an interchange floor and to the interchange floor. The at-least one connecting-elevator group comprises in each case several connecting elevators which travel to the interchange floor and to the floors of a second zone located above it. The trip destinations are input via a destination-call input. The feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group are combined into a multigroup, which is controlled by a multigroup control. The present invention also relates to an elevator installation with several elevator groups having a destination-call control in buildings.
For the increasing requirement for transportation in tall buildings, intelligent elevator controls are used. For this purpose, the building is divided vertically into two or more zones or floor ranges. In each of these zones one or more elevator groups can realize transportation, especially of passengers. When there are many floors, vertical transportation often requires changing from a first elevator into another elevator. In this case, the first elevator used is a feeder elevator of a feeder-elevator group that transports the passengers to floors of a first zone and to an interchange floor. The interchange floor between the zones is also referred to as a sky lobby. Adjoining the interchange floor is the second zone. At the interchange floor passengers with trip destinations in the second zone change to a connecting elevator of a connecting-elevator group. A trip that requires changing from the feeder-elevator group to the connecting-elevator group is referred to as an interchange trip. By contrast, a trip whose destination is reachable without an interchange is referred to as a direct trip. However, as soon as a high amount of traffic to the higher range of floors with an interchange is necessary, queues may form on the interchange floor. These are caused mainly by unequal transportation capacities between the feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group but also by uncontrolled direction of interchanging passengers in the feeder elevator.
In very high buildings, elevators occupy a significant part of the cross-section of the building. Since the available space on the interchange floors is usually limited, the space problem on the interchange floor cannot be solved without comparatively high constructional and financial outlay.
With conventional "two-button controls" there is usually no transportation-optimizing connection between the feeder-elevator group and the connecting-elevator group. Solutions are indeed known, for example to synchronize the arrival time of the feeder elevator and of the connecting elevator, but these have various disadvantages. Thus, the more realistic variant is delay of the feeder elevator because an earlier arrival time of the connecting elevator by dynamically changing the acceleration and/or speed or shortening the door-opening time is either technically impossible (electrical performance, traffic density, etc.) or contra-productive for traffic optimization (skipping stops).
Furthermore, the conventional control offers no means of early recognition of the need for an interchange trip, so that no effective measures for simplification of the interchange process are possible.
Described in the European patent EP 0 891 291 B1 is a control for several elevator groups in which several destination-call controls are combined into a multigroup control, the multigroup control selecting from all possible elevators of all elevator groups the lowest-cost elevator. This solution aims to allocate one elevator from several elevator groups, input of a destination-call being utilized to allocate the lowest-cost elevator for the desired trip in such a manner that the passenger is transported to his/her destination by the most direct route possible.
However, the disadvantage of the solutions with destination-call controls hitherto is that allocation of the interchanging passengers in the first feeder elevator used takes place irrespective of the final destinations of the individual passengers and the number of final destinations. For this reason it is possible for a feeder elevator to be transporting only passengers all of whose trip destinations are in a second zone but that each passenger wants to leave the elevator at a different floor in the second zone. This uncontrolled allocation requires elaborate and sometimes unclear signaling of the connecting elevators. Also with the solutions hitherto, it is not possible to direct the passengers to the feeder elevators in such manner that the passengers of a certain feeder elevator can change to the same connecting elevator which travels to only a limited number of trip destinations. With the methods of control known hitherto it is possible for passengers with mutually exclusive characteristics, for example opposite directions of travel of the connecting elevator, meaning distribution of the passengers from the interchange floor in upward and downward direction, to be allocated the same feeder elevator. The number of interchanging passengers with different trip destinations in the feeder elevator and in the connecting elevator could not hitherto be restricted to a reasonable number.

Method and apparatus for controlling an elevator installation with zoning and an interchange floor


Provided is a terminal apparatus that performs an uplink LBT procedure, wherein one or more than one subframes are allocated for transmission of a message 3 in an LAA cell, and an LBT procedure for transmission of a random access preamble is initiated in a case where it is determined that a channel is busy in all of the one or more than one subframes.

A radio access method and a radio network for cellular mobile communications (hereinafter, referred to as "Long Term Evolution (LTE: Registered Trademark)", or "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA)") have been studied in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In LTE, a base station apparatus is referred also to as an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), and a terminal apparatus is referred also to as a User Equipment (UE). LTE is a cellular communication system in which multiple areas are deployed in a cellular structure, with each of the multiple areas being covered by a base station apparatus. A single base station apparatus may manage a plurality of cells.
In LTE Release 13, carrier aggregation—a technology allowing a terminal apparatus to perform transmission and/or reception simultaneously in a plurality of serving cells (component carriers)—has been specified (NPLs 1, 2, and 3). In LTE Release 14, a certain type of carrier aggregation has been studied which uses Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) function enhancement and uplink component carrier in an unlicensed band (NPL 4). A random access using the uplink component carrier in an unlicensed band has also been studied. Particularly in the unlicensed band, the transmission of the message 3 may be performed inefficiently due to the influence of the LBT or the like.

Terminal apparatus, base station apparatus, communication method, and integrated circuit


The present invention provides substances having an efficacy against tumors and viruses on which the conventional anti-tumor agents and anti-virus agents exhibit only insufficient effects, and having carcinostatic effect and anti-virus effect on various resistant tumors as well as a reduced side effect such that normal human cells will not be impaired.

The present invention relates to new compounds from natural sources which are useful in the field of pharmaceuticals and inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells or viruses and exhibit antitumor or anti-viral effects, the process for preparing the compounds, their uses, and the cells for producing the compounds.
More particularly, the present invention relates to the culture products of the cell line derived from human placenta deciduae, typically CD57-positive, HLA.DR-strongly positive human natural suppressor (NS) cells xe2x80x9cCD57+HLA-DRbrightNS cell line (TTK-1)xe2x80x9d (referred to hereinafter as xe2x80x9cNS cellsxe2x80x9d) which have been further cloned from TTK-1 cells, the process for producing the culture products, their uses, and the NS cells.
In the field of chemical therapy of cancer, clinical applications of a number of metabolic products of microorganisms such as Bleomycin and Adriamycin have been tried, and these products have been practically used in clinical stages.
However, the effects of these products are not always satisfactory on a variety of tumors, and the clinical applicabilities have become complicated as the resistance phenomena of tumoral cells against these pharmaceuticals have been clinically revealed [see the abstracts of the 47th General Meeting of NIPPON GAN GAKKAI, pp. 12-15 (1988)].
On the other hand, it has been clarified that the maternal immune reaction to fetus is primarily controlled by decidua, and a large number of cellular groups belonging to large granular lymphocyte (LGL) with an NK cell marker have been accumulated at the decidual layer of mammals including human being of initial pregnancy [Mori, T. et Attachment A al., Immunomolecular mechanism in mammalian implantation. Endocrine. J., 41 (Suppl.): S17].
It has been recognized that the NS cell belonging to LGL is a cell group distinguished from immune T cell, B cell or macrophage, since it possesses a receptor to WGA lectin in mice and a sugar chain marker of CD57 in human beings.
It has been described that the NS cell also possesses a function for suppressing the division of cancer cells because of its function to potently suppressing the lymphocyte division reactions such as the division reaction of lymphocyte by mitogen MHC-non-restrictively or mixed lymphocyte reaction (Tilden et al., J. Immunol., 130, 1171).
However, a protein of the TGF-xcex2 family and a lipid-like material having a molecular weight of below 10,000 have been described as regards the causal factor managing the immunosuppressive effect on the cancer cell proliferation suppressive effect of the NS cell (Clark et al., J. Immunol., 144, 3008, and Mortari et al., J. Immunol., 144, 3037), but the exact structure or function of the NS cell remains ambiguous up to now and has been desired to be elucidated.
Conventional compounds having a chemical structure similar to the compound of the present invention and exerting anti-tumoral and/or anti-viral effects include fluorouracil (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,802,005 and 2,885,396, doxifluridine (U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,680, Tegafur (GB Patent No. 1,168,391), Zidovudine; AZT (German Patent No. 3,608,606), Didanosine; ddI) (EP Laid-Open Publication No. 206497), and the like.
However, these anti-tumor agents and anti-virus agents of nucleic acid type not only are effective on limited kinds of tumor cells or viruses, but also act on normal human cell, so that these agents have high toxicities and become an object of public concern.
The present invention has been conducted in view of such problems in prior art, and the object of the present invention consists in searching for a substance in human cell metabolites having an efficacy against cancers, viruses and the like on which conventional anti-tumor agents and anti-virus agents exhibit only-insufficient effects, and providing a material which has carcinostatic effect on various resistant cancers and anti-virus effect as well as a reduced side effect such that normal human cells will not be impaired.
The present inventors have conducted earnest researches in order to accomplish the object and, as a result, have found that NS cell line induces the cell death of K562, Molt4, U937, BeWo, GCIY human cancer cells due to apoptosis, suppress the cytokinesis of cancer cells, and also found the nucleic acid type substances (referred to as AIF) which is secreted by the cell line and induces the cancer cell death due to apoptosis, and have isolated and purified the substances to determine the structures thereof. The inventors have believed that these substances can be developed and applied as a natural type carcinostatic agent and anti-virus agent as well as a pharmaceutical based on the quite new idea and having fewer side-effects.
The present inventors have cultured the NS cell having the ability for producing the compound of the formula (1) and derived from human placental decidua, collected the compound of the formula (1) from the culture fluid (supernatant and cells, especially supernatant), converted it into a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, if necessary, to obtain the compound represented by the formula (1)
wherein
R1 represents the group
R2 represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy group or a methoxy group,
or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and found that the compound of the formula (1) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof induces the human cancer cell death due to apoptosis, suppresses the proliferation of cancer cells, and exhibits anti-tumor effect or anti-virus effect. The present invention has been thus accomplished.
That is to say, the present invention relates to the anti-tumor or anti-virus substance represented by the above described formula (1), wherein R1 and R2 have the same meanings. as defined above, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, the process for preparing the same, a pharmaceutical containing the anti-tumor or anti-virus substance represented by the above described formula (1) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof as an effective ingredient, the use of the above described compound to the preparation of a pharmaceutical and therapy, and the CD57 positive, HLA.DR strongly positive NS cell derived from human placental decidua.

Natural antitumor or antiviral substances and use of the same

Abstract: The present invention relates to an anti-tumor or anti-viral substance represented by the formula (1)

Abstract: wherein R1 represents a nucleic acid base represented by a specific formula, and R2 represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy group or a methoxy group, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

Abstract: The present invention also relates to a process for preparing the substance represented by the formula (1) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein NS cell which has the ability of producing the compound represented by the formula (1) is cultured, the compound represented by the formula (1) are harvested from the culture liquid, and if necessary the compound is converted into a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

Abstract: Furthermore, there are also disclosed a pharmaceutical comprising the above described compound as an effective ingredient, and CD57-positive, HLA.DR-strongly positive human type natural suppressor cell.


A robot apparatus includes a clamp mechanism; a transport mechanism; and a control unit. The clamp mechanism includes a first finger that has a first support surface and a housing portion and a second finger. The first support surface supports an aligned wire group that includes a plurality of wires, the housing portion includes a guide wall that is connected to the first support surface and regulates an amount of movement of the band member in a width direction. The second finger has a second support surface facing the first support surface and a facing portion being connected to the second support surface and facing the housing portion. The transport mechanism is capable of moving the clamp mechanism. The control unit controls a grip force of the clamp mechanism and a direction of movement of the clamp mechanism by the transport mechanism.

For example, industrial robots are widely used for the assembly of electronic parts in the production of electronic apparatuses. For example, there is known a technology for automatically performing a step of connecting a linear member such as a cable and a connector part (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).

Robot apparatus for producing electronic apparatus


The present invention relates to chemical and bioanalytical sensors and sensor systems, particularly to systems incorporating a calibration device for sensors where the calibration device is comprised of an array of micromachined MEMS structures and materials for trapping and retaining calibrant or interferant materials until they are needed and released quantitatively using structure operatively associated with the array.

Sensors and systems incorporating them generally put out voltages, frequency shifts or some other signals, rather than the amount of the physical, chemical or biological entity that is of interest to users. In order to recover the quantitative values of interest, for example, the concentration of a poisonous gas, it is necessary to employ a sensor calibration curve, which relates the signals that are not of direct utility to the amount (with proper units) of the entity being measured (the measurand). The measurement of a calibration curve requires producing and independently measuring the amount of the measurand, exposing the sensor or sensor system to that amount and reading the signal produced by the sensor or system. This is usually done at several values of the measurand in order to fit a mathematical curve to the data to produce the calibration curve.
For a variety of reasons, the performance of a sensor system can deviate from the calibration curve with age and the amount of use. It is necessary to be able to verify the performance of the sensor or system against the original calibration curve at various times during the lifetime of the sensor or system. This is especially true for instruments used by first responders, which may not be turned on for long intervals. However, it also applies to devices for screening of air passengers, which are used daily, and for process control, which requires continuous use for long periods. In all events, returning sensor systems to a laboratory for calibration checks is unacceptable because of cost reasons. It is highly desirable to be able to do performance or recalibrations in the field or factory.
In typical calibration, the first question is whether the instrument is working at all. This can be answered by turning on the device, and then seeing if the output has the correct value. The next question is whether or not the instrument responds reasonably to the chemical of interest. This can be answered by producing a vapor or mist of that chemical at the intake to the instrument to see if the output rises and falls with the appropriate time scale. The remaining question is whether or not the instrument is correct quantitatively. To answer this question, it is necessary to do a recalibration at a minimum of one point. As with any calibration, two numbers are needed, namely the value of the measurand and the amount of signal elicited by that amount. One way to obtain the amount of the measurand quantitatively is to produce and measure it independently, as noted above for obtaining the original calibration curve. This almost always requires returning the instrument to a calibration laboratory.

Self calibration devices for chemical and bio analytical trace detection systems

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


The air conditioner condenser includes a set of hollow parallel tubes disposed between a pair of header pipes. The header tubes provide fluid flow between the header pipes and are substantially flat, having parallel upper and lower side walls. The walls have inner and outer surface and are separated by longitudinally extending webs defining separate flow passages. A partition or baffle is formed by removing one of the upper or lower walls from a tube having a length greater than that of the other tubes. The header pipe has a series of slots, each having similar dimensions. The tubes are inserted into the slots and sealed, with the extended portion of the extended tube forming the partition or baffle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air conditioner condenser, in particular, to baffles or partitions that are located in header pipes of the condenser, the baffles being formed from an extended portion of tubes disposed between the header pipes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Parallel flow heat exchangers or condensers used in air conditioners usually consist of a set of header pipes which are joined by a set of parallel tubes. The tubes are joined to the header pipes so that fluid may flow from one header pipe to another. It is important that the tubes have a large surface area so that heat may be transferred through the tubes. As the fluid flows through the header pipes and tubes, the fluid is cooled. In order to provide more surface area over which cooling can take place, several tubes are provided which allow the fluid to pass from one header pipe to another.
Typically, the fluid flows into an inlet of one of the header pipes until it reaches a baffle. The baffle is inserted inside the header pipe to divert the fluid flow through the header pipe into a group of parallel tubes. The fluid then flows out of the tubes into another header pipe. This header pipe may also have a baffle that diverts the fluid flow into a second group of parallel tubes. By providing several sets of parallel tubes and baffles in the condenser, the fluid can be passed over a very large surface area of the tubes within a limited amount of space.
The prior art shows a variety of methods for positioning the partitions in the header pipes. One method is to insert the partitions through slots in the header pipe. Another proposed method shows a collar on each partition, the collar sliding over one of the parallel flow tubes.


An A/D converter has a first voltage generation circuit, a second voltage generation circuit, a comparator, first and second switch circuits connected in series between an input terminal of an analog input voltage and an output terminal of the first voltage generation circuit, a first capacitor inserted between a connection node between the first and second switch circuits and the first input terminal, a second capacitor inserted between an output terminal of the second voltage generation circuit and the second input terminal, a third switch circuit, a fourth switch circuit, an A/D converter which generates a digital signal in accordance with signal level of the first output terminal, and a voltage setting circuit which sets a voltage to be outputted from the first and second voltage generation circuits based on the digital signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a successive approximation register A/D converter.
2. Related Art
There has been known a successive approximation register A/D converter in which reference voltages generated by using a plurality of resistors connected in series are compared with an analog input voltage by a comparator to perform A/D conversion. By adjusting the number of resistors to be connected in series, it is possible to perform A/D conversion having a desired resolution. There has also been proposed an example in which the reference voltages are generated by using a current segment. The successive approximation register A/D converter has an advantage that an A/D converter having an optional resolution can be configured with a comparatively-simple circuit.
However, because a conventional successive approximation register A/D converter requires many resistors and switches in its inside, there is a problem that the whole circuit volume of the A/D converter increases. Moreover, in the case of the successive approximation register A/D converter, because a capacitor is connected to the input terminal of a comparator, the input voltage of the comparator may become out of the range of a power-supply voltage. In this case, because the comparator cannot correctly perform comparison operation, thereby exerting a harmful influence against accuracy of A/D conversion.
There has also been proposed an A/D converter improved so as to decrease the number of resistors to be connected in series (refer to Patent Document 1). The A/D converter disclosed in this official gazette divides a D/A converter having a plurality of resistors to be connected in series into two converters. An output of an upper side D/A converter is input to a comparator through a capacitor and an output of a lower side D/A converter is directly input to the comparator. An output signal of the upper side D/A converter is attenuated and input to the comparator due to parasitic capacitance of an input terminal of the comparator. However, an output signal of the lower side D/A converter is input to the comparator without being attenuated. Therefore, there is a problem that the accuracy of the upper side D/A converter is different from that of the lower side D/A converter.

A/D converter with voltage generation circuits


Apparatus for presenting a stereoscopic image to a viewer, the apparatus including an endoscope; and a stereoscopic video camera optically connected to the endoscope, wherein the stereoscopic video camera includes first and second optical channels for acquiring, respectively, first and second images of a scene from the endoscope; first and second image sensors for acquiring, respectively, the first and second images from the first and second optical channels, the first and second image sensors being positioned along an axis; and parallax adjusting means for adjusting the parallax of a stereoscopic image acquired by the first and second image sensors and presented on a display.

One of the main problems associated with stereoscopic television is the disruption of the normal correlation between human eye accommodation and vergence between the two eyes of the viewer. Specifically, in normal visual experience, the human eyes are accommodated (i.e., focused) to the object of observation and, at the same time, the two eyes are converged on the same object. Therefore the object of observation is projected on corresponding areas of the two retinas with no disparity. All of the objects in front of the object of observation will have crossed disparity and will be sensed as "closer", whereas all of the objects behind the object of observation will have uncrossed disparity and will be sensed as "farther away".
However, this correlation between the focusing of the eyes and their convergence is usually disrupted in stereoscopic video applications. In this case, the left and right representations of objects are physically located on the surface of the monitor as opposed to arbitrary places in space for regular visual experiences. So, in order to obtain the best focus, the eyes need to optically focus at the monitor. However, the vergence of the two eyes is dictated by the parallax generated between the left and right images on the monitor and generally does not correspond to the eye accommodation for the best focus in the monitor plane. See FIG. 1, which illustrates a typical stereoscopic scenario in which there is a deviation in the normal correspondence between focal distance and vergence distance. This break in the linkage between eye focus and convergence causes eye strain and fatigue for the viewer. See also FIG. 2, which illustrates how the relationship between focal distance and the vergence distance should remain within certain bounds in order for the viewer to remain in their "zone of comfort" (i.e., the so-called "Percival's zone of comfort").
The problem described above becomes particularly important in medical (e.g., endoscopic) applications where the stereoscopic video system may be used for precision viewing for prolonged periods of time. By way of example but not limitation, it is not uncommon for surgical cases to last over 2 hours, and typically a surgeon performs at least several cases a day. Due to the critical nature of such medical applications, it is important to minimize user fatigue and provide for comfortable visualization while retaining all of the benefits of depth perception.
FIG. 3 shows a first-order optical layout of a typical dual-channel stereo camera 5. Dual-channel stereo camera 5 generally comprises a left image sensor 10L and a right image sensor 10R (e.g., CCD or CMOS sensors), and an optical system 15 comprising a left channel optical system 20L and a right channel optical system 20R (shown schematically in FIG. 3 as two single lenses for each optical channel for clarity of illustration purposes only). As is well known in the art, and looking now at FIG. 4, dual-channel stereo camera 5 is intended to be coupled to an endoscope 21, the signals generated by image sensors 10L, 10R are forwarded to an appropriate electronic system 22 for processing (the electronic system 22 may be included within stereo camera 5), and then the processed signals are forwarded to an appropriate stereo display 23 or recording device configured to display or record the left and right images captured by the left and right image sensors 10L, 10R. This display device 23 may be a 3D monitor of the sort well known in the art, or a head-mounted display, or any other display device capable of presenting the left and right images to the appropriate eye of the viewer.
In FIG. 3:
P1 and P2 are the first and second principal planes of the left and right channel optical systems 20L, 20R—in the first-order approximation, the left and right channel optical systems 20L, 20R are considered identical and their corresponding principal planes coincident;
O is the median axis of the dual-channel stereo camera 5;
OL and OR are the optical axes of the left and right channel optical systems 20L, 20R, respectively;
f is the effective focal length of the dual-channel stereo camera 5;
s and s′ are the distances from an object and its image to the corresponding principal planes—by the sign convention generally accepted in the optical field, distances measured to the left from a principal plane are considered negative and distances measured to the right from a principal plane are considered positive—thus, in FIG. 3, distance s is considered to be negative whereas distance s′ is considered to be positive;
F is the back focal point of the dual-channel stereo camera 5;
x′ is the distance from the focal point F to the image plane;
C is the point of convergence (see below);
h is the distance between the median axis O and the optical axis of the right channel optical system 20R—by the sign convention, the heights measured below the optical axis are considered negative while the heights measured above the optical axis are considered positive; and
h′ is the image height for the point of convergence.
Typically, a dual channel stereo camera is aligned for a certain point of convergence in the object space. The alignment is achieved by offsetting image sensors 10L, 10R in the "horizontal plane" of the eyes, i.e., the "horizontal plane" represented by the line 25 in FIG. 3. It can be seen from FIG. 3 that the centers of sensors 10L, 10R are offset horizontally from the optical axes OL, OR of the left and right optical systems 20L, 20R so that the point of convergence is imaged at the centers of each corresponding sensor. Owing to such an arrangement, the point of convergence is displayed with zero parallax on the display device, so for this particular point, the link between the eye accommodation and the eye convergence will be preserved, and for this particular point of convergence, the dual-channel stereo camera will provide the viewer with a "normal" visual experience.
Typically the point of convergence is selected so as to be within the usable range of the object distances which are expected to be encountered in a particular application. For instance, point C may be chosen to be at a distance of 5 m from the optical system for a typical camcorder application, or at a distance of 50 mm from the distal tip of an endoscope for a general surgery laparoscopic application. Similarly, the distance between the optical axes OL, OR of the left and right channel optical systems 20L, 20R, the focal lengths of the left and right optical systems 20L, 20R, and the types/sizes of image sensors 10L, 10R are typically selected in accordance with the application for which the stereo camera is to be used.
The drawback of a conventional stereo camera is that when the camera is focused to any other point which is at a distance different from the point of convergence, then the point in the center of the display device will have non-zero parallax, thereby breaking the normal link between eye accommodation and convergence. This break in the normal link between eye accommodation and convergence causes eye strain and fatigue for the viewer.
In some situations, e.g., where the conventional stereo camera only needs to be used for brief periods of time, and/or where it is not necessary to view an image with significant precision, and/or where the parallax is relatively nominal, this break in the normal link between eye accommodation and convergence may cause only modest levels of eye strain and fatigue for the viewer and a conventional stereo camera may be acceptable. However, in medical (e.g., endoscopic) applications where the stereo camera must be used for long periods of time, with great precision and where the parallax is frequently substantial, the break in the link between eye accommodation and convergence may cause significant levels of eye strain and fatigue for the viewer, and a conventional stereo camera may be unsatisfactory.
Thus there is a need for a new and improved stereoscopic visualization system which can address the foregoing issues of convergence in medical (e.g., endoscopic) and related applications.


A liquid crystal display (LCD) device having a side backlight unit that minimizes or eliminates extraneous bright lines on the LCD panel. The side backlight unit includes a lamp reflector and lamp disposed on a light incident side surface of a light guide plate. A light reflection layer is formed on the inner surface of the lamp reflector, and a transparent protective layer is formed on the reflection layer. The transparent protective layer has a thickness less than 5 micrometers. The lamp reflector has arm portions that sandwich the light guide plate on the front and back surfaces at the lamp side of the light guide plate. A light transmission region between the arm portions of the lamp reflector and the front and back surfaces of the light guide plate has a thickness less than 5 micrometers.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device has become remarkably widespread for use as an image display device for a personal computer and other various monitors. Generally, a liquid crystal display device is configured in such a manner that a backlight unit is provided as a planar light source for illumination, disposed on a backside of a liquid crystal display panel, and so that a liquid crystal surface having a specified area is irradiated on the whole with even brightness, thus enabling visualization of an image formed on the liquid crystal surface.
The backlight unit employs a hot-cathode or cold-cathode fluorescent lamp as a light source. Since light from the fluorescent lamp is linear light, this linear light must be converted into planar light for irradiating the entire surface of a liquid crystal display panel. For this purpose, heretofore, two systems of backlight units have been employed: a direct backlight unit; and a side (edge-light type) backlight unit. A direct backlight unit is configured in such a manner that a fluorescent lamp is placed immediately under a liquid crystal display panel, and a dimmer plate and a diffusion plate are disposed thereon. By contrast, a side backlight unit is configured in such a manner that one or two fluorescent lamps are disposed on one or two sides of a light guide plate made of transparent resin. Light made incident onto the light guide plate is then directed towards the liquid crystal display panel by a reflection structure provided on a front, back or both back and front of the light guide plate, thus even planar light is given thereto by use of light diffusion. Since a side backlight unit can be made thinner than the direct backlight unit, it is suitable for use as a display device in a portable device such as a notebook computer.
The following is a description of the principle of light emission of a side backlight unit. Light incident onto the light guide plate from the lamp travels through the light guide plate while making total internal reflection resulting from a difference in refractive indices (dielectric constants) between the material constituting the light guide plate and air. On at least one surface of the light guide plate, which is the back thereof in general, a reflection structure is provided for promoting the emission of light from the light guide plate. The total reflection with the air interface is disordered when the light traveling through the light guide plate strikes the reflection structure, and when the light is emitted from the front of the light guide plate. Note that, with reference to the light guide plate, the front signifies the surface of the light guide plate facing towards the liquid crystal display panel, and the back signifies the surface of the light guide plate opposite the front. Moreover, the surface from which the light is emitted is referred to as an emitting surface. Accordingly, the front includes the emitting surface. Usually the reflection structure is formed on the back of the light guide plate, and the light incident onto the light guide plate from the light source is emitted from the emitting surface of the light guide plate by the reflection structure. In order to allow an even luminance distribution at the emitting surface, a diffusion pattern is provided on the reflection structure that is less dense on the lamp side and grades to a higher density away from the lamp.
However, although the luminance distribution is made even, in prior art LCD devices using side backlight units, a problem occurs in that bright lines are generated at periodic positions from the lamp. Moreover, as the size of screens has increased, the distance from the screen to the lamp has decreased, and the bright lines have become increasingly conspicuous.
FIG. 8 is a drawing illustrating the generation of the bright lines. As shown in FIG. 8, particularly in the vicinity of a lamp R, bright lines K are generated on the screen. The bright lines K are portions having luminance higher than a periphery thereof lying parallel to the lamp R in the shape of a line.
The cause of the generation of the bright lines K has been pursued by those skilled in the art. As a result, a plurality of generation mechanisms for the bright lines K, particularly due to structural factors in the vicinity of the lamp R, have been clarified, and countermeasures for individual causes have been taken. However, the current situation is that the generation of the bright lines K has not yet been completely eliminated, and this problem remains to be solved.

Liquid crystal display device, side backlight unit, lamp reflector and reflection member

International Business Machines Corporation


Flow control signals in half-duplex and full-duplex networks are initiated and maintained based on the detected number of data bytes stored in a receive buffer from payload data of received data packets. If the number of stored data bytes exceeds a predetermined threshold, the network interface initiates flow control. Alternatively, the decision to initiate flow control may be based upon the rate at which the receive buffer is emptied compared to the number of stored data bytes in the receive buffer, or the rate the data bytes are stored into the receive buffer. The duration of the flow control is calculated as a wait time interval selected in response to the number of stored data bytes. The wait time may be selectively set as an integer multiple of slot times, or as a time interval based on the number of stored data bytes relative to the removal rate. Hence, the precise control and the initiation of the flow control for a specific wait time prevents loss of transmitted data while maintaining network throughput.

Local area networks use a network cable or other media to link stations on the network. Each local area network architecture uses a media access control (MAC) enabling network interface cards at each station to share access to the media.
The Ethernet protocol ISO/IEC 8802-3 (ANSI/IEEE Std. 802.3, 1993 edition) defines a half-duplex media access mechanism that permits all stations to access the network channel with equality. Traffic is not distinguished or prioritized over the medium. Each station includes an Ethernet interface card that uses carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) to listen for traffic on the media. The absence of network traffic is detected by sensing a deassertion of a receive carrier on the media.
Any station having data to send will attempt to access the channel by waiting a predetermined time after the deassertion of a receive carrier on the media, known as the interpacket gap (IPG) interval. If a plurality of stations have data to send on the network, each of the stations will attempt to transmit in response to the sensed deassertion of the receive carrier on the media and after the IPG interval, resulting in a collision. Hence, a transmitting station will monitor the media to determine if there has been a collision due to another station sending data at the same time. If a collision is detected, both stations stop, wait a random amount of time, and retry transmission.
Network stations generally do not have knowledge of the status of other stations on the network. If there is no collision, a transmitting station will transmit the data packet regardless of the state of the receiving station. If the receiving station is in a state of congestion, for example due to a lack of buffer space, the receiving station will discard the transmitted packet, resulting in a loss of data. If upper layer protocol requires the data to be resent, the sending station will resend the data packet, reducing the network throughput.
A full duplex environment has been proposed for Ethernet networks, referred to as IEEE 802.3x, Full Duplex with Flow Control-Working Draft (0.3). The full duplex environment provides a two-way, point-to-point communication link between two network elements, for example a network station and a switched hub. Hence, two or more stations can simultaneously transmit and receive Ethernet data packets between each other via a switched hub without collisions.
Network congestion occurs if a receiving network element is unable to receive data at a rate greater than or equal to the transmission rate of the transmitting element. For example, traffic in a client-server environment is dominated by client requests followed by a burst of frames from the server to the requesting client. Although the full duplex environment enables the server to transmit packets while receiving requests from other clients, only a limited number of client requests can be output to the server from the switched hub at the assigned switching port. If the number of client requests exceeds the capacity of the server's port, some of the data packets will be lost. Alternatively, a client having limited buffer space may be unable to keep up with the transmission rate of the server, resulting in lost packets.
Flow control has been proposed to reduce network congestion, where a sending station temporarily suspends transmission of data packets. A proposed flow control arrangement for a full duplex environment, referred to as IEEE 802.3x2!, specifies generation of a flow control message, for example a PAUSE frame. A transmitting station that receives the PAUSE frame enters a pause state in which no frames are sent on the network for a time interval specified in the PAUSE frame.
Another proposed flow control arrangement for a half duplex environment, referred to as "backpressure", causes a receiving station to force a collision with the transmitting station when the receive buffer of the receiving station reaches a "receive buffer unavailable" state.
The disclosed flow control proposals, however, assume that flow control should be initiated when a receive buffer is full, which still results in a loss of data. Moreover, the existing proposals do not describe how to determine the duration of the flow control. If the flow control duration is too short, a receiving station may still lose portions of the transmitted data. If the duration is too long, the transmitting station remains idle, reducing network throughput.

Arrangement for initiating and maintaining flow control in shared-medium, full-duplex, and switched networks


A method for continuous condition monitoring of an electric motor having a rotor and a stator and at least two motor phases, wherein, a first energy loss is associated with the first motor phase and a second energy loss is associated with the second motor phase. The temperature during operation of the electric motor is determined by firstly carrying out a first temperature calculation in order to estimate a temperature of the first motor phase, the first temperature calculation incorporating an energy loss estimation, and a temperature estimation in which a temperature of the first motor phase depends on the estimated energy loss. A second temperature calculation in order to estimate a temperature of the second motor phase utilizes the first temperature value and an energy loss difference between the first and the second energy loss.

DE 10 2010 041 944 A1 describes an electric motor with sensorless temperature measurement. An estimation module receives a temperature value and the three phase current values of the three-phase electric motor and processes this information into an estimated motor temperature.
WO 2015/110107 A2 describes a method for determining a motor temperature of an electric motor, in which the motor temperature is estimated using a motor temperature model dependent on a temperature of the power electronics controlling the electric motor.
DE 10 2010 038 560 A1 describes a temperature estimation method in order to estimate the stator winding temperature via a thermal impedance model, the engine speed and a measured engine cooling temperature. The total power loss is determined for each phase of the motor. The stator winding temperatures for each motor phase are estimated based on the total power loss in that phase and a combined thermal impedance for that phase. The combined thermal impedance includes a first thermal impedance between the stator winding and the stator core and a second thermal impedance between the stator core and the engine coolant.

Method for continuous condition monitoring of an electric motor


A system and method are provided that use context awareness with device-dependent training to improve precision while reducing classification latency and the need for additional computing, such as by relying on cloud-based processing. Moreover, the following can leverage signal analysis with multiple sensors and secondary validation in a multi-modal approach to track passive events that would otherwise be difficult to identify using classical methods. In at least one implementation, the system and method described herein can leverage low power sensors and integrate already available human behavior in modular algorithms isolating specific context to reduce user interact time and training to a minimum.

Human-device interactions, also known as human-computer interactions (HCIs), are typically considered important to providing a positive user experience. Various solutions have been proposed to improve these interactions, e.g., by focusing on triggers to identify discrete changes in state, then classifying these changes against a large database of statistical behaviors to predict how or for what the user is intending to interact with the device. Other solutions focus on activity tracking with direct measurements of physical parameters, or menus and additional user interfaces to create interactions with the end user.
While these solutions have arguably improved some human-device interactions, there can be issues with classification latency, the need for additional (e.g. cloud-based) processing, and limits to the accuracy of the predictions made by the device. Moreover, these solutions have been found to rely on power hungry hardware such as tactile screens/cameras and require time consuming navigation to access specific information or have a learning curve for the end user.
It is also found that current solutions typically leverage past technology that either rely on screen-only data such as "what fraction of the content was in the field of view?" or "how long was is in the field of view?"; or past behaviours such as "what was browsed previously?" or "age, gender, location". These solutions therefore do not have a way of measuring engagement or context on mobile devices in the same way that they could on desktop computers, with mouse movements. Also, these solutions tend to struggle with adverse contexts that were previously impossible as users were comfortably seated at home. In this context, knowing when is the best moment to reach a user is currently considered to be very difficult if possible at all.
It has also been found that fraudulent mobile traffic is more and more prevalent. Some statistics suggest that up to 40% of mobile traffic is fraudulent. Current technologies are found to be struggling to identify the sources of this fraudulent traffic, for example, click-farms and bots, leading to potential waste of resources on the fraudulent traffic. There exist ways of finding fraud in the desktop domain, based on mouse behaviour, but mobile devices currently do not expose passive user behaviour that would enable similar tracking. Because of this, it is found that there lacks an efficient way of identifying fraud in the mobile domain.
Users are also becoming more aware of privacy issues, and are reluctant to share private data on the internet or in mobile networks. As a result, browsers are known to be dropping cookies, restricting location data, and forcing advertisers, publishers and marketers to request consent from users. There is a need for an anonymous and ubiquitous way of understanding the contextual parameters of users in order to communicate efficiently with them.
Users are also being served content seamlessly on platforms and expect their devices to anticipate their needs pre-emptively. However, without contextual information, providers (e.g., OEMs, marketplaces, apps, websites, etc.) are found to be struggling to be truly ubiquitous. To provide goods, services, suggestions and user experiences these providers are leveraging psycho/socio/geo data points, but it is considered to not be fully leveraging available modalities and data in order to obtain contextual information.
It is an object of the following to address at least one of the above-noted issues or disadvantages.

System and method for classifying passive human-device interactions through ongoing device context awareness


There is provided an interactive device capable of providing input data to a computer program in response to user interactions, the interface device comprising a first position sensor reading a sensed location of the interface device having a free roaming movement in a three-dimensional space, a direction vector determination device determining a direction vector indicating an aiming direction, and a transmission system communicating aim information to an external device implementing the computer program. The transmission system may include a transmitter for the direction vector and/or a transmitter for the sensed location. The computer program can use the aim information and input data to support a projected 3D game environment or other application providing sensory feedback in response to the user interactions. Multiple interactive devices having unique identifiers may also be supported. The interactive device enables significant freedom to roam relative to implementing equipment, as compared to existing interactive devices having only a limited range of movement relative to implementing equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to game systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to interactive game systems.
2. Background Art
Gaming systems integrating physical movement to supplement or replace traditional gaming paradigms have attracted increasing interest from both users and developers. By implementing motion control and other technologies, these gaming systems can free users from the constraints of traditional gaming systems. Users are no longer restricted to merely a traditional game-pad or joystick and a video screen, but can now physically gesture or touch objects to interact with game worlds. These new and immersive gaming experiences are quickly gaining popularity and appeal to new and wider audiences.
However, many of these new gaming systems still rely on traditional constructs, such as a two dimensional video screen. These traditional constructs constantly remind users that they are still merely people playing video games, and not swashbuckling pirates, heroic gladiators, or expert marksmen. In the end, without increased immersion, users cannot suspend their notions of disbelief and still recognize that they are just manipulating a fancy controller affecting a video display.
One effective method of increasing user immersion is to provide a convincing interactive environment, rather than a flat two-dimensional display. With recent advances in display technologies, providing immersive three-dimensional projected environments in large-scale environments is possible. For directional applications involving target aiming such as gun shooting, laser pointers, or other devices, providing convincing environmental responses is key to maintaining a sense of immersion. However, many existing interactive gaming systems providing directional targeting are still fairly restrictive in terms of freedom of physical movement. Often, there is a very limited range of detection such as a single two-dimensional display, or a directional targeting device is fixed in a relatively stationary position, such as a mounted gun with encoder position feedback.
Without providing large or free roaming environments that can react convincingly to user interactions, it will remain difficult to achieve a suspension of disbelief for providing a fully immersive gaming experience. Although physical motion has seen adoption in many new gaming systems, they are often still used within the context of a limited environment and tied to a single two-dimensional video display. Thus, these new gaming systems have largely failed to achieve a full and convincing immersion due to restrictive positioning or a limited environment for interactivity.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a way for a user to naturally interact with an immersive gaming environment in a manner that provides a convincing suspension of disbelief.

System and method for providing user interaction with projected three-dimensional environments


A closure is used for selectively closing an opening of a container, the container including a tubular collar defining an opening and surrounded at the opening by an annular collar flange. An embossment includes a tubular collar retainer having an outer diameter slightly less than an inner diameter of the container collar and defining a through passage. A cap is threaded into the through passage to close the same. An annular retainer flange extends outwardly from an outer wall of the collar retainer and is seated on the collar flange incident to the retainer being inserted in the container collar. The retainer flange is secured to the collar flange by vibration welding so that the cap closes the container opening.

In one form of a typical shipping and storage container, a cylindrical drum is used. Particularly, the drum has a cylindrical sidewall closed by a bottom wall. The top is closed by a removable top wall or a fixed wall having a through opening. A typical such container has the sidewall and the bottom wall formed of a fiber material connected by a rolled metal rim. The top may be of metal or plastic and is connected to the sidewall using a locking band. In applications where the drum is ultimately incinerated the use of metal is undesirable. Further, such containers may be less than desirable for containing liquids.
More recently, drums have been formed entirely of plastic. These drums are blow molded of high load melt index resin. The drum has an integral sidewall, top wall and bottom wall. A pair of threaded openings are provided in the top wall, each being selectively closed by a threaded closure. Inherent in the blow molding process is the existence of a parting line where the two mold halves separate. Often, the separation is located across the threaded opening. As a result, tolerances are difficult to maintain. This can lead to leakage problems if the closure does not thread properly in the opening.
Under specified safety regulations a safety seal may be required to further prevent leakage at the closure. A typical seal is a crimped metal safety cap. This again results in a container having some metal content.
The present invention is intended to solve one or more of the problems discussed above in a novel and simple manner.


A color conversion apparatus receives first image data including first red-green-blue color data in which the possible values of the red, green, and blue components extend beyond the range from 0% to 100%. The first color data are analyzed into first hue region data, the magnitudes of which are adjusted according to the brightness and/or saturation of the first color data to obtain second and third hue region data. The gamut of colors of the first image data is detected, and matrix coefficients are generated according to the detected gamut. The matrix coefficients are used to perform a matrix operation on the second and third hue region data to obtain second color data, thereby converting the first image data to second image data with conversion characteristics appropriate for the gamut of colors of the first image data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing used in image output equipment such as printers, video printers, and displays, more particularly to a color conversion apparatus and method for use in image output equipment in which image data having a wide gamut of colors are input and a corresponding image is output.
2. Description of the Related Art
An exemplary conventional color conversion apparatus and method are described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-184117. The conventional color conversion apparatus includes means for calculating characteristic information about degrees of brightness and saturation of first color data, means for calculating first hue region data values valid in respective hue components by using the first color data, means for using the characteristic information to adjust magnitudes of the first hue region data values to obtain second hue region data values, means for using the difference between the first hue region data values and the second hue region data values to obtain third hue region data values, means for performing a matrix operation using the second and third hue region data values as terms to obtain correction amounts, and color correction means for using the correction amounts to obtain second color data.
This conventional color conversion method enables either the brightness or the saturation of a particular hue component to be modified according to the brightness or saturation of the first color data. If, for example, the image output equipment is a display with a certain gamut of reproducible colors, and the gamut of colors in the image signal formed by the first color data is known, optimal conversion coefficients can be derived from the relation between these two gamuts to obtain a well-displayed image. The gamut of colors of the image signal is defined in terms of a color space, such as the international standard sRGB color space specified in standard 61966-2-1 of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For broadcast image (video) signals, there is also the BT.709 standard, 'Parameter values for the HDTV standards for production and international programme exchange' established by the Radiotelecommunication sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R). Both the sRGB and BT.709 standards define gamuts based on the characteristics of ordinary cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, and have the same red, green, and blue hues.
Recently, however, various types of displays with wider gamuts of colors than the traditional CRT have been developed and marketed. Furthermore, the gamut defined by the sRGB standard is not necessarily adequate for representing the color distributions of actual objects. For these reasons, color spaces with wider gamuts have been internationally standardized. One example is the xvYCC standard (IEC 61966-2-4), which allows red, green, and blue values greater than 100% or less than 0% (negative values). This standard expands the gamut of the BT.709 standard without changing the red, green, and blue hue values located within the BT.709 gamut.
In the conventional method described above, if images with different gamuts of colors are input as the first image data, to display the images well, the conversion characteristics must be set on the basis of information about the gamut of the first color data. Although such information could conceivably be received with the first color data, in most cases the gamut of the first color data is unknown, making it impossible to produce well-displayed images from all types of first color data.
If scenes are considered individually instead of collectively their gamuts vary greatly, and the very wide xvYCC gamut is unlikely to be fully exploited in most scenes. Since the gamut of colors offered by typical display devices is not wide enough to include the entire xvYCC gamut, images that lie within the gamut of the display tend to be intermixed with images that exceed the gamut of the display, and images that slightly exceed the gamut of the display may be intermixed with images that greatly exceed the gamut of the display. The color conversion characteristics that produce the best displayed image vary for all of these cases.


A skimmer assembly for connection to a fiberglass swimming pool via a circular fluidic access port formed therethrough, and having a conduit for fluidic connection to the fluidic access port, wherein the conduit defines a circular end for connection to the fluid access port and an oppositely disposed rectangular end with a contoured body portion extending therebetween defining a flow path. The assembly further includes a skimmer defining a rectangular fluid inlet, a cylindrical skimmer body portion, a generally rectangular channel connecting the rectangular inlet and the cylindrical body portion in fluidic communication, and a fluid outlet connected in fluidic communication with the cylindrical body portion.

Preformed fiberglass swimming pools offer many advantages over in-situ formed shotcrete or concrete walled swimming pools. Fiberglass pool bodies may be quickly and inexpensively formed and require considerably less effort to put into the ground. Fiberglass pool bodies are typically connected to a skimmer assembly to filter, sanitize, strain and return water into the pool body (recirculation), typically via return wall fittings positioned opposite the skimmer or strategically throughout the pool. Typical skimmer assemblies have a rectangular pool interface port, necessitating the cutting of a rectangular aperture through the fiberglass swimming pool wall. Such apertures are typically saw-cut, and include four right angle corners, which can act as stress concentrators and crack propagation sites.
Thus, there remains a need for a method and apparatus that would allow the skimming of water from a fiberglass swimming pool that would likewise allow connection to standard skimmer assemblies, simplify the 'cut out' process, reduce time and labor, and avoid having to introduce stress concentrating rectangular cut apertures. The present novel technology addresses this need.

Skimmer system for a fiberglass swimming pool body


An operating system is provided. The system includes an agent component to monitor computer activities between one or more single-item access components and one or more set-based access components. A protocol component is employed by the agent component to mitigate data access conflicts between the single-item access components and the set-based access components.

Operating systems and the applications that run on them have many tasks to perform which are sometimes difficult to achieve without having conflicts between one type of application and another. At the simplest level, an operating system is responsible for two basic aspects, whereby the system manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources include such components as the processor, memory, disk space, and so forth, whereas on a cell phone, the resources include the keypad, the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection, for example. The operating system should provide a stable, consistent way for applications to interact with computer hardware without having to be concerned with all the details of the respective hardware.
The first task of the operating system, managing hardware and software resources, is very important, as various programs and input methods compete for the attention of the central processing unit (CPU) and demand memory, storage and input/output (I/O) bandwidth for differing purposes. In this capacity, the operating system plays the role of the system manager, making sure that each application receives the necessary resources while properly interacting with all the other applications, as well as monitoring the limited capacity of the system to the greatest benefit possible of all the users and applications. This often requires balancing needs between competing applications.
The second task of the operating system, providing a consistent application interface, is especially important if there is to be more than one of a particular type of computer using the operating system, or if the hardware making up the computer is open to change. Thus, a consistent application program interface (API) allows a software developer to write an application on one computer and have a high level of confidence that it will run on another computer of the same type, even if the amount of memory or the quantity of storage is different on the two machines, for example. Even if a particular computer is unique, the operating system can ensure that applications continue to run when hardware upgrades and updates occur. This is by design since the operating system and not the application is charged with managing the hardware and the distribution of its resources.
Within the broad family of operating systems, there are generally four types, categorized based on the types of computers they control and the sort of applications they support. These categories can include:
Real-time operating system (RTOS)—Real-time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific instruments and industrial control systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and generally no end-user utilities, since the system will be considered an embedded system when delivered for use. An important part of the RTOS is managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in about the same amount of time every time it occurs. For example, in a complex machine/controller scenario, having a part move more quickly because system resources are available may be just as catastrophic as having it not move at all due to the system being busy.
Another type of operating system includes single-user, single task. As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is but one example of a modern single-user, single-task operating system.
Similarly, a single-user, multi-tasking system may be provided. This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. The most popular of these are Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms that are both examples of operating systems that allow a single user to have several programs in operation at the same time. For example, it's common for a user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing the text of an e-mail message.
Multi-user is till yet another type of operating system. A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computer's resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are balanced, and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient and separate resources so that a problem with one user doesn't affect the entire community of users. Some examples include Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such as MVS.
With respect to single-user, multi-tasking systems, conflicts can exist for applications that were created under previous designs of the operating systems and in view of newer designs. Thus, these applications often follow the rules of the previous designs from an operational standpoint yet still need to operate with newer systems, applications, and contexts. In one example, current or legacy "File Systems" generally only support a single-item access API to create/modify/read file/directory data. However, newer, richer storage platforms may employ multi-item access rules and expose additional API sets which can be used to create/modify/read manipulate file/directory data as well. Given this requirement between older and newer applications running on the same system, there is a need to facilitate cooperation between such applications.

Multi-protocol access to files and directories