A gaming machine produces truly random results using a noisy oscillator to randomly vary the frequency of a clock signal used to cycle a counter through its states. Multiple random numbers can be generated during the same game using the same circuitry, yet still achieve truly random results.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to gaming machines generally, and more particularly to gaming machines requiring generation of random numbers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gaming machines include games of chance such as slot machines. The traditional mechanical slot machine includes three or four symbol-bearing reels, which are rotatably mounted on a common axis. The symbols are located on the peripheries of the reels, and are typically pictures of bells, bars and fruit. There are also "blank" symbols, which are the portions of the reels' peripheries in between the picture symbols. A line (the "win line") is placed adjacent to the reels, so that when the reels are at rest, at least one symbol from each reel is visually associated with the win line.
To play the slot machine, the player spins the reels by pulling a lever which is mechanically linked to the reels. After a brief period of spinning, the reels come to rest, each reel displaying a symbol or blank space along the win line. The displayed combination of symbols is a random game outcome, and corresponds to a predetermined payout, which may be zero. The payout for a particular game outcome usually depends on the probability of that game outcome occurring.
Each reel's final resting position will be one of a plurality of possible predetermined and discrete "reel stop positions." At each reel stop position, a particular part of the reel's periphery (either a symbol or a blank space) is displayed at the win line. Thus, each reel stop position is associated with a particular symbol or blank. In a mechanical slot machine, the probability of a particular symbol being displayed at the win line is N.sub.S divided by N.sub.R, where N.sub.R is the total number of reel stop positions, and N.sub.S is the number of reel stop positions associated with the particular symbol. Where a symbol is associated with only a single reel stop position, its probability of being displayed is one in N.sub.R. Thus, the range or "spectrum" of probabilities that can be developed in each reel of a mechanical slot machine is 1:1 through 1:N.sub.R.
In the 1970's, manufacturers developed electronic versions of the traditional mechanical slot machine. In these electronic machines, the reels are computer controlled, and there is no mechanical linkage between the lever and the reels. Instead, when the user pulls the lever, the computer randomly selects reel stop positions for each of the reels, and then sets the reels into motion with a motor. The reels are allowed to spin for a short time, and then are stopped at the selected reel stop positions.
In effect, the game result for each reel is determined by the computer, with the spinning reels used only to display that result. Thus, in some machines, the reels are eliminated altogether, and the game outcome displayed on a video screen. The video display is often a representation of spinning reels, to preserve the charm and excitement of the traditional slot machine.
In determining a game outcome, the computer simulates the mechanical slot machines by randomly picking reel stop positions for each reel. A table in the computer's memory indicates which symbol (or blank space) is associated with each reel stop position, so the computer can determine the game outcome (that is, the ultimate combination of selected symbols).
In a mechanical reel slot machine, the spinning reel is equally likely to come to rest at one reel stop position as another. Thus, each reel stop position has an equal chance of being "selected." This is referred to as a "uniform probability distribution." For example, in a three-reel uniform probability machine with thirty-two reel stop positions on each reel, the lowest possible probability for a particular game outcome is one chance in 32.sup.3 (or 1:32,768). Assuming each play costs one dollar, the payout for this particular game outcome cannot exceed $32,768, without the game losing money over time to the players.
In an electronic slot machine, the computer also can pick reel stop positions in accordance with a uniform probability distribution. Alternatively, the computer can assign different probabilities to different reel stop positions. This is referred to as "nonuniform probability distribution." The advantage of nonuniform distributions is that they allow the spectrum of game result probabilities to be greatly expanded. Thus, in a nonuniform probability system, certain game outcomes can be assigned low probabilities, such as, for example, one in one million. The corresponding payout can be increased without making the machine unprofitable; in this example, the payout could be one million dollars (assuming a one dollar bet). These high payouts, although extremely rare, are attractive to many players, and therefore are a desirable feature to have on a gaming machine.
One way in which expanded probability spectrums have been implemented in slot machines is by using a "virtual" reel. A virtual reel is a model of a physical reel that exists only in the computer's memory. The virtual reel can have a large number of reel stop positions--far more than a physical reel. Each reel stop position in the virtual reel is associated with a particular symbol. Symbols corresponding to higher payouts are associated with only a few (or even one) virtual reel stop positions. Thus, the probability of a game outcome including such symbols is greatly reduced. Because the virtual reel has more reel stop positions than a physical reel, its probability spectrum is increased.
Another technique for generating random results, both uniform and nonuniform, in gaming machines is the "time-based" method. In the time-based method, game outcomes are represented by the contents of a digital counter or other suitable finite state machine. The counter has a range of zero to thirty-one, for example, and each of its thirty-two possible values corresponds to a game result. The counter rapidly and repetitively cycles through its range. At an arbitrary point in time, a player presses a button and interrupts the counter, leaving it suspended on a particular number. This number is random in the sense that it can not be predicted by the player, and the event corresponding to this number is selected as the game outcome.
It has been recognized that the odds of selecting a particular number (that is, game result) can be varied by adjusting the relative amount of time that the counter holds each number. Thus, if the counter holds one number longer than the others, it is more likely to be holding that number than the others when it is interrupted by the player. Likewise, if the counter spends less time holding a particular number, then it is less likely that the counter will be holding that number when it is interrupted by the player. To vary the time which the counter spends at each number, the counter can be driven by a variable frequency astable multivibrator. Each cycle of the multivibrator generates a pulse, which increments the counter. The duration of the period between pulses is controlled by a series of RC networks, each having a different resistance value. The networks are successively electronically coupled to the multivibrator each time the counter is incremented. Thus, the intervals between pulses (and, consequently, the amount of time the counter spends at each number) vary in accordance with the value of the resistor in the particular RC network which is coupled to the multivibrator.
Where a gaming machine requires more than one random number to be chosen, e.g., a slot machine having more than one reel, achieving truly random results is more difficult. One way to select a random reel stop position for each reel is to use a separate counter and related circuitry for each reel. Although such a system might yield truly random results for each of the reels, additional costs are introduced into the gaming machine due to the additional components. However, in conventional gaming machines, querying the same circuit once for each reel in a multireel machine in order to select a random reel stop position for each reel does not result in truly random results for any reel beyond the first.
For example, in the gaming machine described above, when a player initiates game play, the microprocessor interrupts the counter or other state machine in order to determine a first random number to be translated and displayed as a symbol on the first reel of the slot machine. Because the player's initiation of the game can occur at any point in time and with the counter in any one of its possible states, this first random number is truly random. However, the second and any subsequent "random" numbers generated during the same game by the same circuitry are not truly random. These subsequent "random" numbers are chosen at a predetermined, fixed amount of time after the first random number is chosen and each complete cycle of the counter through all of its states takes the same amount of time. Thus, given the first random number, the second random number is a foregone conclusion--i.e., it will be the value stored in the counter at the fixed amount of time after the first random number is chosen. Therefore, the second random number is not truly random because not all of the potential numbers can be selected as the second random number given the first random number. The same problem occurs for a third reel and any subsequent reels.
This problem is illustrated schematically in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, an arrow rotates with a constant angular velocity. The circle depicted in FIG. 1 includes 32 sectors of varying size. Each sector represents one number in the range of 0 . . . 31!. These numbers depict schematically the value held by a counter in a nonuniform probability distribution using a time-based method. Thus, the counter holds the different values for different lengths of time because the arrow rotates at a constant speed and the sectors are of different sizes. Thus, in FIG. 1, it can be seen that the counter holds the value "5" for a relatively short period of time and the value "8" for a relatively long period of time. The first random number chosen by the gaming machine is the value at which the arrow points at the randomly chosen starting point of the game--e.g., when the player initiates game play by pushing a button. Once this first random number is selected, the position of the arrow at a fixed amount of time later is predetermined because the arrow rotates at a constant angular velocity. This problem holds true for the second and any subsequently chosen random numbers in a game. Thus, the second and any subsequent random numbers are not truly random.
One way to obtain truly random numbers for the second and subsequent numbers is to incorporate an additional circuit for each subsequent reel for which a random number is chosen. However, this would increase the cost of the slot machine and multiply any maintenance difficulties.
Thus, there is a need for a gaming machine having the ability to produce truly random results on each reel when choosing more than one random number during a game without having the added expense of a dedicated circuit for each random number to be chosen.
Another problem arises due to the fact that current gaming machines do not provide truly random numbers but algorithmically derived pseudo-random numbers generated by a pseudo-random number generator (a "PRNG"). These pseudo-random numbers are often the apparently random and independent output of a finite state machine whose next state is a function only of its current state. By definition, such a machine only has a finite number of states ("Nstates"). Therefore, its output must eventually repeat.
For example, maximal length finite state machine PRNGs having state variables of 16, 32 and 64 bits have Nstates of 65,536; 4.2949.times.10.sup.9 ; and 1.844.times.10.sup.19, respectively. The number of distinct output sequences is at most equal to the PRNG's Nstates because the sequence of outputs from the PRNG is determined by its state prior to the first call to it. Traditionally, gaming machines have had outcomes the most rare of which has a probability of occurring that is much greater than 1/Nstates so that the conformity of the game performance can be ascertained by actually calling the PRNG enough times to verify the performance. However, new games are being proposed for which this is no longer true.
For example, it has been proposed to have a video poker gaming machine with a top prize being awarded for an in-line royal flush (i.e., Ace-King-Queen-Jack-Ten from left to right on the screen). One way to obtain poker hands on a gaming machine is to make ten calls to the random number generator and use the results to obtain the top ten cards of a shuffled deck. The number of cases that must be distinguished is about 5.74.times.10.sup.16 because the order in which the cards appear is important.
As a second example, a keno gaming machine can have an outcome that requires 20 calls to the random number generator to obtain the top 20 balls of a shuffled 80-ball "deck." The order of the draw plays no role so the number of distinguishable cases is about 3.5.times.10.sup.18.
As a third example, a 9-reel slot machine with 100 stops per reel has been proposed. Such a gaming machine would require calling the random number generator 9 times. The number of distinguishable outcomes is 100.sup.9 (or 10.sup.18).
In each of these three examples, it is clear that a 16 or 32 bit PRNG could not produce all possible outcomes. Moreover, it would be difficult to argue that a 64-bit PRNG could produce all outcomes uniformly. This leads to suspicion of any PRNG for use in a game where the number of distinguishable outcomes is such as to preclude testing of sufficient duration to verify that all outcomes occur with a desired prespecified probability. Such testing is not practical for the above-referenced examples. For example, a keno test, with a billion draws per second, would require 100 years to record the 3.5.times.10.sup.18 equally likely draws.
These issues are extremely important in the gaming industry because a proprietor must demonstrate to the satisfaction of gaming regulators that a gaming machine will produce outcomes in accordance with the stated probabilities. The actual physical drawing of balls in a real live keno draw poses no problem in satisfying gaming regulators because the drawing of each ball is a truly independent physical event and, as such, the probability of each of the possible outcomes can be determined from this single physical observation and application of the laws of probability.
Thus, there is a need for a mechanism to be employed in a gaming machine that produces truly independent random results based on an independent physical process so that similar arguments can be used to demonstrate the probabilities of the rare events in games such as the newly proposed games described above.

Gaming machine having truly random results


Process for the preparation of alkyl 3-oxo-2-pentyl-1-cyclopentene acetates starting from an epoxy-ester of formula ##STR1## wherein R designates a lower linear or branched alkyl radical of C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 and wherein the wavy line stands for a C--C bond of cis or trans configuration via an isomerization process.

It is known that the catalytic hydrogenation of methyl 3-oxo-2-pentyl-1-cyclopentene acetate, for example, by means of Pd/C in the presence of aluminum methoxide [see DE-OS 2,162,820] gives cis-methyl dihydrojasmonate, the floral odor note of which is particularly appreciated by perfumers.
The prior art reports a variety of syntheses of methyl 3-oxo-2-pentyl-1-cyclopentene acetate. Among them, only one utilizes an acyclic derivative in its last step [see Jap. Pat. 58 118,536; Chem. Abstracts 1983, 99 175481 d], whereas the others have as key-intermediates cyclic compounds. According to the nature of these latters, the known processes can be classified in 4 different categories:
a. via a gamma-lactone by rearrangement in the presence of polyphosphoric acid [Dutch Pat. 69 18,228; Chem. Abstracts 1971, 75, 109953 d]; PA0 b. via methyl dihydrojasmonate by bromination and dehydrobromination [Dutch Pat. 70 02,279; Chem. Abstracts 1972, 76, 3462 g] or by anodic oxidation of its enol-acetate [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1975, 97, 6144]; PA0 c. via 2-pentyl-1,3-cyclopentanedione by reaction with dimethyl malonate [see e.g. DE-OS 2,008,833; Chem. Abstracts, 1970, 73, 109363 d]; PA0 d. via 2-pentyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one by radical addition of methyl dihydroxyacetate followed by dehydration [Parf. Cosm. Sav. France 1972, 2(8), 356]; by reaction with methyl diazoacetate [Perf. Essent. Oil Rec. 1969, 267; JP 70 00862], or by addition of methyl bromoacetate [J. Org. Chem. 1974, 39, 2637] or of methyl lithioacetate followed by oxidation with chromic acid.
None of the cited syntheses, mostly of academic interest, has found an industrial application for large scale production.


A laminate includes the following substantially coextensive layers in the following order: (a) a non-sealable, self-supporting, thermoformable copolyester film layer having a first surface and a second surface, the second surface constituting an outermost, exposed surface of the laminate; (b) a laminating adhesive layer on the first surface of the thermoformable copolyester film layer; and (c) a self-supporting, thermoformable structural film layer having a first surface and a second surface, the first surface contacting the laminating adhesive layer. Polyethylene terephthalate constitutes at least 80% by weight of the self-supporting thermoformable copolyester film layer; the thermoformable structural film layer includes a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyamides, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, ionomers, ethylene acrylic acid copolymers, ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, polystyrene, ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers and polyvinylidene chloride; the thermoformable copolyester film layer, the structural film layer and the laminate each shrink less than 5% in length and width upon exposure to boiling water for five seconds; and the laminate is thermoformable and its chloroform-soluble extractives meet the requirements of paragraph h(1) of 21 CFR § 177.1630 as defined herein.

Articles such as food items and more specifically meat, poultry and seafood products are often packaged in thermoplastic films or laminates to protect the product from exterior abuse and environmental contamination, and to provide a convenient and durable package for distribution of the product and display in a display case or other point of sale. Packages made from films that are formed, filled with product and sealed exist in many shapes and forms for many applications, and are commonly used for such packaging. When dealing with meat products in particular, it is usually desirable to provide a film having good oxygen barrier characteristics, in order to reduce the passage of oxygen through the film so that detrimental effects on freshness, color, and other properties of the meat product are minimized.
In many cases it is desirable to provide a package that can be used to cook the contained foodstuff without removing the packaging material (a "cook-in" package). It is also desirable that such packages be suitable for heating or cooking in conventional, convection or microwave ovens ("dual-ovenable") or for heating in boiling water. It is particularly convenient to be able to purchase a fresh, partially, or fully cooked or value-added foodstuff in a package at the retail level and merely insert the package directly into a conventional or microwave oven and cook and reheat the foodstuff.
Thermoforming methods such as vacuum forming or plug-assist vacuum forming are often used to produce suitable packages. In general terms, thermoforming involves heating a thermoplastic film or laminate and forming it into a shape suitable for containing the product, which is subsequently inserted. The film or laminate is sometimes referred to as a "forming web", and the package is closed with a "capping web" film that is adhered to the thermoformed package.
Coextruded films comprising polyolefins such as polyethylene are sometimes useful in producing thermoformed packages. Laminate films have also been employed. For example, US. Pat. No. 4,940,634 discloses biaxially oriented thermoplastic composite films comprising polyolefins, suitable for use as forming webs in thermoforming operations. It is common practice to join the capping web to the, thermoformed package by heat-sealing the two together. Each film accordingly has a heat-sealable layer on its surface, or consists entirely of a heat-sealable polymer. The two films are pressed together with heating to effect the bond.
However, films comprising polyolefins generally do not possess high temperature heat resistance, which limits their application to microwave cooking or reheating. On the other hand, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films have high heat resistance, making them suitable for cook-in uses, but PET itself is not heat-sealable except at exceptionally high temperatures. If a heat-seal layer is provided on both PET surfaces, an acceptable seal can be obtained, but this adds time and expense to the film manufacturing' process. However, if one attempts to heat-seal a PET film having a heat-seal adhesive layer to a typical polyester film having no heat-seal adhesive layer, the bond strength is unacceptably weak for most applications. The need to provide a heat-seal layer on both film surfaces adds time and expense to the film manufacturing process Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a thermoformabie polyester film that does not bear a separate heat-seal layer, but that is nonetheless capable of being effectively heat-sealed to a polyester capping web that does.

DUPONT TEIJIN FILMS U.S. LIMITED PARTNERSHIP


A video compression method and system including object-oriented compression plus error correction using decoder feedback.

The invention relates to electronic video methods and devices, and, more particularly, to digital communication and storage systems with compressed video.
Video communication (television, teleconferencing, and so forth) typically transmits a stream of video frames (images) along with audio over a transmission channel for real time viewing and listening by a receiver. However, transmission channels frequently add corrupting noise and have limited bandwidth (e.g., television channels limited to 6 MHz). Consequently, digital video transmission with compression enjoys widespread use. In particular, various standards for compression of digital video have emerged and include H.261, MPEG-1, and MPEG-2, with more to follow, including in development H.263 and MPEG-4. There are similar audio compression methods such as CELP and MELP.
Tekalp, Digital Video Processing (Prentice Hall 1995), Clarke, Digital Compression of Still Images and Video (Academic Press 1995), and Schafer et al, Digital Video Coding Standards and Their Role in Video Communications, 83 Proc. IEEE 907 (1995), include summaries of various compression methods, including descriptions of the H.261, MPEG-1, and MPEG-2 standards plus the H.263 recommendations and indications of the desired functionalities of MPEG-4. These references and all other references cited are hereby incorporated by reference.
H.261 compression uses interframe prediction to reduce temporal redundancy and discrete cosine transform (DCT) on a block level together with high spatial frequency cutoff to reduce spatial redundancy. H.261 is recommended for use with transmission rates in multiples of 64 Kbps (kilobits per second) to 2 Mbps (megabits per second).
The H.263 recommendation is analogous to H.261 but for bitrates of about 22 Kbps (twisted pair telephone wire compatible) and with motion estimation at half-pixel accuracy (which eliminates the need for loop filtering available in H.261) and overlapped motion compensation to obtain a denser motion field (set of motion vectors) at the expense of more computation and adaptive switching between motion compensation with 16 by 16 macroblock and 8 by 8 blocks.
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 also use temporal prediction followed by two dimensional DCT transformation on a block level as H261, but they make further use of various combinations of motion-compensated prediction, interpolation, and intraframe coding. MPEG-1 aims at video CDs and works well at rates about 1-1.5 Mbps for frames of about 360 pixels by 240 lines and 24-30 frames per second. MPEG-1 defines I, P, and B frames with I frames intraframe, P frames coded using motion-compensation prediction from previous I or P frames, and B frames using motion-compensated bidirectional prediction/interpolation from adjacent I and P frames.
MPEG-2 aims at digital television (720 pixels by 480 lines) and uses bitrates up to about 10 Mbps with MPEG-1 type motion compensation with I, P, and B frames plus adds scalability (a lower bitrate may be extracted to transmit a lower resolution image).
However, the foregoing MPEG compression methods result in a number of unacceptable artifacts such as blockiness and unnatural object motion when operated at very-low-bit-rates. Because these techniques use only the statistical dependencies in the signal at a block level and do not consider the semantic content of the video stream, artifacts are introduced at the block boundaries under very-low-bit-rates (high quantization factors). Usually these block boundaries do not correspond to physical boundaries of the moving objects and hence visually annoying artifacts result. Unnatural motion arises when the limited bandwidth forces the frame rate to fall below that required for smooth motion.
MPEG-4 is to apply to transmission bitrates of 10 Kbps to 1 Mbps and is to use a content-based coding approach with functionalities such as scalability, content-based manipulations, robustness in error prone environments, multimedia data access tools, improved coding efficiency, ability to encode both graphics and video, and improved random access. A video coding scheme is considered content scalable if the number and/or quality of simultaneous objects coded can be varied. Object scalability refers to controlling the number of simultaneous objects coded and quality scalability refers to controlling the spatial and/or temporal resolutions of the coded objects. Scalability is an important feature for video coding methods operating across transmission channels of limited bandwidth and also channels where the bandwidth is dynamic. For example, a content-scalable video coder has the ability to optimize the performance in the face of limited bandwidth by encoding and transmitting only the important objects in the scene at a high quality. It can then choose to either drop the remaining objects or code them at a much lower quality. When the bandwidth of the channel increases, the coder can then transmit additional bits to improve the quality of the poorly coded objects or restore the missing objects.
Musmann et al, Object-Oriented Analysis-Synthesis Coding of Moving Images, 1 Sig. Proc.: Image Comm. 117 (1989), illustrates hierarchical moving object detection using source models. Tekalp, chapters 23-24 also discusses object-based coding.
Medioni et al, Comer Detection and Curvature Representation Using Cubic B-Splines, 39 Comp.Vis.Grph.Image Processing, 267 (1987), shows encoding of curves with B-Splines. Similarly, Foley et al, Computer Graphics (Addison-Wesley 2d Ed.), pages 491-495 and 504-507, discusses cubic B-splines and Catmull-Rom splines (which are constrained to pass through the control points).
In order to achieve efficient transmission of video, a system must utilize compression schemes that are bandwidth efficient. The compressed video data is then transmitted over communication channels which are prone to errors. For video coding schemes which exploit temporal correlation in the video data, channel errors result in the decoder losing synchronization with the encoder. Unless suitably dealt with, this can result in noticeable degradation of the picture quality. To maintain satisfactory video quality or quality of service, it is desirable to use schemes to protect the data from these channel errors. However, error protection schemes come with the price of an increased bitrate. Moreover, it is not possible to correct all possible errors using a given error-control code. Hence, it becomes necessary to resort to some other techniques in addition to error control to effectively remove annoying and visually disturbing artifacts introduced by these channel induced errors.
In fact, a typical channel, such as a wireless channel, over which compressed video is transmitted is characterized by high random bit error rates (BER) and multiple burst errors. The random bit errors occur with a probability of around 0.001 and the burst errors have a duration that usually lasts up to 24 milliseconds (msec).
Error correcting codes such as the Reed-Solomon (RS) codes correct random errors up to a designed number per block of code symbols. Problems arise when codes are used over channels prone to burst errors because the errors tend to be clustered in a small number of received symbols. The commercial digital music compact disc (CD) uses interleaved codewords so that channel bursts may be spread out over multiple codewords upon decoding. In particular, the CD error control encoder uses two shortened RS codes with 8-bit symbols from the code alphabet GF(256). Thus 16-bit sound samples each take two information symbols. First, the samples are encoded twelve at a time (thus 24 symbols) by a (28,24) RS code, then the 28-symbol codewords pass a 28-branch interleaver with delay increments of 28 symbols between branches. Thus 28 successive 28-symbol codewords are interleaved symbol by symbol. After the interleaving, the 28-symbol blocks are encoded with a (32,28) RS coder to output 32-symbol codewords for transmission. The decoder is a mirror image: a (32,28) RS decoder, 28-branch deinterleaver with delay increment 4 symbols, and a (28,24) RS decoder. The (32,28) RS decoder can correct 1 error in an input 32-symbol codeword and can output 28 erased symbols for two or more errors in the 32-symbol input codeword. The deinterleaver then spreads these erased symbols over 28 codewords. The (28,24) RS decoder is set to detect up to and including 4 symbol errors which are then replaced with erased symbols in the 24-symbol output words; for 5 or more errors, all 24 symbols are erased. This corresponds to erased music samples. The decoder may interpolate the erased music samples with adjacent samples. Generally, see Wickes, Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage (Prentice Hall 1995).
There are several hardware and software implementations of the H.261, MPEG-1, and MPEG-2 compression and decompression. The hardware can be single or multichip integrated circuit implementations (see Tekalp pages 455-456) or general purpose processors such as the Ultrasparc or TMS320C80 running appropriate software. Public domain software is available from the Portable Video Research Group at Stanford University.


A technique for managing process state information involves pushing process state information from the kernel space to the user space in the event of an application crash and generating a core file at the user level instead of at the kernel level. Handling the process state information at the user level instead of at the kernel level provides more flexibility in the generation and management of a core file as compared to systems that use kernel code to generate and manage the core file. A core dump application at the user level can be programmed to forward the core file to another system that has permanent storage capacity available. Additionally, the core dump application can be programmed to compress the process state information and/or to extract only certain information from the process state information while generating the core file.

One of the features of UNIX-like operating systems is process address space protection. Basically, all applications (i.e., processes) run in their own address space and any attempt made by an application to access address space that does not belong to the application (i.e., a memory-address violation) results in abnormal termination of the application. Abnormal termination of an application may also result from an illegal instruction, a bus error, or a user-generated quit signal. Upon the abnormal termination of an application, a device within the kernel of the operating system causes process state information to be written or "dumped" to a local permanent storage device. The file that is written to the local permanent storage device is typically named "core" or "<programname>.core" and is generally referred to as the "core file" or just the "core." The process of saving the core file to a local permanent storage device is often referred to as a "core dump" or a "crash dump."
In prior art operating systems, the kernel of the operating system includes a core dump device that generates the core file and stores the core file in the local permanent storage device. The core dump device may store the core file in flash memory, a hard disk, or a removable storage device. Having the core file generated by the kernel and relying on the kernel to store the core file in a local permanent storage device works well in systems where there is plenty of local storage capacity available. However, in many computer systems such as networking equipment (e.g., routers and switches), embedded systems (e.g., bioelectronic devices, telephone voice switches, aircraft controllers), and appliances (e.g., robots, mobile communications devices), local permanent storage capacity is limited. In particular, many such systems do not have enough flash memory capacity or a large local storage device such as a hard disk or removable storage media that can be used to store the core file. Although the permanent storage capacity in these types of computer systems is limited, it is still desirable to be able to generate and save a core file so that application crashes can be debugged.
In view of this, what is needed is a technique for managing process state information that is flexible and that can be applied to computer systems with limited local storage capacity.

Managing process state information in an operating system environment


A computer-implemented method, a cognitive intelligence system and computer program product adapt a relational database containing multiple data types. Non-text tokens in the relational database are converted to a textual form. Text is produced based on relations of tokens in the relational database. A set of pre-trained word vectors for the text is retrieved from an external database. The set of pre-trained word vectors is initialized for tokens common to both the relational database and an external database. The set of pre-trained vectors is used to create a cognitive intelligence query expressed as a structure query language (SQL) query. Content of the relational database is used for training while initializing the set of pre-trained word vectors for tokens common to both the relational database and the external database. The first set of word vectors may be immutable or mutable with updates controlled via parameters.

The present invention generally relates to search queries and more particularly relates to creating word vectors from multiple data corpuses to use in search queries of databases.
A large amount of information remains latent within a relational database. For example, database columns that contain different types of data, e.g., numerical values, images, dates, etc., possess significant latent information in the form of inter-column and intra-column relationships. Further, a relational data model neglects many inter-column or intra-column relationships. Further still, the traditional Structured Query Language (SQL) queries lack a holistic view of the underlying relations, and thus are unable to extract and exploit semantic relationships that are collectively generated by database relations.

Creating cognitive intelligence queries from multiple data corpuses

International Business Machines Corporation


A system for detecting misalignment of an aero surface relative to other aero surfaces during simultaneous deployment of the aero surfaces is disclosed. A generator configured to shine a laser through aligned apertures in a series of aero surfaces towards a reflector during deployment of the aero surfaces, a receptor to detect reflection of the laser from the reflector back through the apertures to the generator and, a controller operable to terminate further deployment of the aero surfaces in the event that no reflection is detected by the receptor, or if an actual time taken for the reflected beam of light to be detected by the receptor differs from a predetermined time.

Aircraft need to produce varying levels of lift for take-off, landing and cruise. A combination of wing leading and trailing edge devices are used to control the wing coefficient of lift. The leading edge device is known as a slat. On larger aircraft there may be several slats spaced along the wing edge. During normal flight the slats are retracted against the leading edge of the wing. However, during take-off and landing they are deployed forwardly of the wing so as to vary the airflow across and under the wing surfaces. The slats usually follow an arcuate or curved path between their stowed and deployed positions. By varying the extent to which the slat is deployed along said path, the lift provided by the wing can be controlled.
An assembly is required to support and guide movement of a slat between stowed and deployed positions and a typical arrangement showing a cross-section through part of a wing 1 and a slat 2 in its stowed position is illustrated in FIG. 1. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the slat 2 is provided with an arcuate support arm or slat track 3, one end 4 of which is attached to the rear of the slat 2 and extends into the wing 1. To allow for wing bending and manufacturing tolerances, the end 4 of the slat track 3 is attached to the slat using spherical bearings and linkages (not shown). The slat track 3 penetrates wing spar 6 forming the wing structure. The slat track 3 defines an arc having an axis and is mounted within the wing so that it can rotate about that axis (in the direction indicated by arrows "A" and "B" in FIG. 1) to deploy and retract the slat 2 attached to one end of the slat track 3.
To drive the slat track 3 so as to deploy or retract the slat 2, a toothed slat track rack 7 having an arcuate shape corresponding to the arcuate shape of the slat track 3 is mounted within a recess 3a on the slat track 3 and a correspondingly toothed drive pinion 8 is in engagement with the teeth 7a on the slat track rack 7 so that when the drive pinion 8 rotates, the teeth 8a on the drive pinion 8 and the teeth 7a on the rack 7 cooperate to pivot or drive the slat rack 7 and the slat attached thereto, into a deployed position, i.e. in the direction of arrow "A" in FIG. 1. Typically, the slat track 3 rotates through an angle of 27 degrees between its fully stowed and fully deployed positions. Rotation of the pinion 8 in the opposite direction also drives the slat track 3, in the direction of arrow "B", back into its stowed position, as shown in FIG. 1.
Although not shown in FIG. 1, each drive pinion 8 is geared to an outer shaft of a geared rotary actuator which extends concentrically over an inner input drive shaft that extends along the length of the wing within its leading edge, and which is driven by a slat deployment motor coupled to the inner input drive shaft at an inboard end of the wing. The inner input drive shaft is a common input drive shaft so that the slat deployment motor is operable to deploy all the slats of one wing together. The geared rotary actuator couples the inner input shaft to the outer output shaft so that the output shaft is driven by the inner input shaft. The rotary actuator also controls the speed of rotation of the output shaft relative to the input shaft so that the output shaft rotates approximately 200 to 300 times slower than the input shaft. A separate rotary actuator is associated with each drive pinion 8 and its accompanying slat track rack so there may be two or more geared rotary actuators per slat spaced along the length of the wing and extending concentrically over the input shaft.
The aforementioned assembly and method of deployment is described by way of example only and the detection system is applicable to the monitoring of the movement of any aero surfaces that are deployed together, irrespective of how that movement is achieved.
It is important to ensure that all the slats remain in alignment and deploy together and that, in the event of any misalignment such as skewing or asymmetry of one or more slats, continued operation of the actuation system is stopped and damage to the wing or the attachments between the wing and the moving surface is prevented. Skewing of a slat occurs when one of a number of slat deployment mechanisms associated with the same slat fails so that the slat deploys at an angle because it is still being driven away from the leading edge of the wing at an angle by the remaining slat deployment mechanism(s) associated with that slat. Asymmetry occurs when the slats on one wing are deployed at a different rate or extent to the slats on the other wing. Asymmetry or skewing of slats can be caused as a result of, for example, a defective rotary actuator, common drive shaft or coupling between the inner shaft and an outer shaft of a rotary actuator.
It is known to provide misalignment detection systems that rely on electo-mechanical technology and may include sensors and a lanyard passed through the aero bodies and connected to a switch at the end of the lanyard. However, such systems have to be able to accommodate misalignment caused by wing bending, thermal expansion and build tolerances and so must be inherently insensitive to ensure that false indications of misalignment are not given. This means that a significant misalignment may occur prior to it becoming detectable.
The present invention seeks to overcome or substantially alleviate the problems referred to above by providing a reliable and accurate system for detecting misalignment of a moving surface relative to other moving surfaces and for immediately stopping further deployment as soon as any misalignment is detected.

System for detecting misalignment of an aero surface


A multiplexing system is provided for a plurality of sensors disposed in a tank containing a potentially explosive environment and excited from a common excitation circuit outside of the tank through a corresponding plurality of signal lines that penetrate the tank. The multiplexing system comprises: a multiplexer switch for each sensor, each multiplexer switch disposed outside of the tank in series with the corresponding signal line between the common excitation circuit and the corresponding sensor in the tank. Each multiplexer switch comprises: at least one field effect transistor having a current channel connected in series with the corresponding signal line; an isolation circuit; and a drive circuit coupled to the at least one field effect transistor through the isolation circuit for operating the current channel thereof, the isolation circuit electrically isolating the drive circuit from the at least one field effect transistor to limit energy coupled to the corresponding signal line through the at least one field effect transistor to below levels that could initiate an ignition of the potentially explosive environment of the tank. A multiplexing method is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to intrinsically safe circuits and systems, in general, and more particularly to a multiplexing method and system for a plurality of sensors disposed in a tank containing a potentially explosive environment, and a multiplexer switch for use therein.
In systems which supply signals to and receive signals from a contained environment comprising combustible or explosive vapors, restrictions are imposed to limit the energy over the signal lines penetrating the container below levels that could initiate an ignition of such vapors. For example, in a fuel quantity measurement system, sensors are disposed within a fuel tank and when excited, provide response signals indicative of the fuel level in the tank. Accordingly, each sensor has an excitation signal line and response signal line that penetrate the fuel tank. In order to be intrinsically safe, the circuitry that provides the excitation signals and receives the response signals are specially designed to limit the energy over the signal lines penetrating the tank to within safe levels under normal operating and failure conditions.
Having dedicated intrinsically safe excitation and signal conditioning circuits for each sensor of the contained environment is very expensive and complex. Accordingly, system designers have proposed a multiplexing system in which a group of sensors may be excited from a common excitation circuit and the resulting response signals from the sensors received by a common signal conditioning circuit. Thus, the costs and complexity can be reduced by a factor dependent upon the number of sensors in the multiplexed group. Multiplexing systems conventionally include controlled switches in series with the signal lines.
These multiplexer switches pose certain conditions to the designer of an intrinsically safe system which must be considered. For example, any switch added to the system needs to preserve the intrinsically safe nature of the common excitation and signal conditioning circuits and associated signal lines. However, to operate conventional multiplexer switches, a voltage is generally applied directly to the switch from a power source. Thus, if a failure occurs within the switch, this drive voltage may become directly connected to the corresponding signal line, resulting in a defeat of the intrinsically safe design. Moreover, it would be beneficial to render this preservation of intrinsic safety by maintaining the circuitry of each multiplexer switch to a minimum.
Another consideration results from the line capacitance of the signal lines from the excitation circuit to the sensors and from the sensors to the signal conditioning circuit. This line capacitance acts as a load to ground via a cover shield, for example, and may draw a significant amount of current from the excitation signal. For example, at ten volts AC with a frequency of around eighteen thousand hertz, as much as eleven or twelve milliamps may be drawn through the line capacitance. Conventional multiplexer switches have significant "on" resistance such that the current drawn by the signal line capacitance cause an undesirable voltage drop across the switch, resulting in a measurement error which may be in the range of five percent or so.
Further, reactive loading of the excitation signal can often cause an amplifier driving the signal to become unstable. To enhance stability, circuitry is generally added to the amplifier design. However, the addition of significant switch resistance in series with the excitation signal may interfere with the sensitive stability design of the drive amplifier.
Yet another consideration results from the stray capacitance in the signal line from the sensor back to the signal conditioning circuit. As noted above, a conventional multiplexer switch adds significant in series "on" resistance to the response signal. The current of the response signal which flows through this switch "on" resistance results in a voltage drop across the stray line capacitance, that, in turn, diverts some of the sensor response current to ground through the line capacitance. This undesirable diversion of current may also result in a measurement error.
The present invention ensures preservation of an intrinsically safe design and overcomes the drawbacks of conventional multiplexer switches especially in regard to circuit stability, line capacitance and measurement error noted above.

Multiplexer method and system for intrinsically safe applications and a multiplexer switch for use therein


A floating dispenser having an external float or an internal float for supporting a cartridge or cartridges for floatingly delivering a dispersant or dispersants to a body of water with the floating dispenser having cartridges rotationally positionable with respect to one another to control the rate of dispensing while the dispenser floats in an upright condition with the floating dispenser changing its flotation orientation in response to consumption of the dispersant or dispersants in the a cartridge to thereby provide a visual alert to replace a spent cartridge with a fresh cartridge. In addition, the inventions described herein permit changing the dispensing nature of the system from a multiple dispensing system to a single dispensing system without changing the floating characteristics of the floating dispensers through replacement of a dispersant in one of the cartridges with an inert or ballast material that has no effect on the water characteristics.

The concept of floating dispensers for delivering a dispersant or dispersants to a body of water is known in the art. In one type of floating dispensers the dispensers contain a halogen and float upright in a body of water until the halogen is consumed whereupon the dispenser flops on its side. In another type of dispenser the dispenser sinks to the bottom of the pool and remains there until the dispersant has been consumed at which time the dispenser floats to the top of the pool to alert the operator to replace the dispenser. In another type of a floating dispenser a nondissolvable weight, such as a marble, is included in the dispenser with the dispenser floating on its side when the dispersant is consumed. As the dispenser floats on its side the marble rolls along the interior of the dispenser and transfers the weigh to the end of the dispenser causing to dispenser to invert after the dispersant is consumed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for facilitating a rapid return of a article to an article dispensing machine is provided. The article dispensing machine comprises a first user interface portion having the first user interface, a second user interface portion having a second user interface, and an article transfer portion for vending and returning articles. The method includes receiving from a first user interface a first request to return the article, determining whether the article transfer portion is available to enable the return of the article, and based on the availability determination, displaying through a first user interface screen associated with the first user interface portion information indicating whether to proceed with the return of the article or to wait for a notification to proceed with the return.

While the present invention is often described herein with reference to a digital video disc distribution system, an application to which the present invention is advantageously suited, it will be readily apparent that the present invention is not limited to that application and can be employed in article dispensing systems used to distribute a wide variety of dispensable articles.
Conventional stand-alone vending machines are configured to support the dispensing and return of articles by a user or customer without a need for employee assistance or intervention during the rental and return processes. Such dispensing machines typically store such vendible or rentable articles in discrete, identifiable locations. A selection process enables the user to select among a vend mode, a rent mode, and a return mode, and an article selection enables the user to select a desired videocassette to be vended or rented. These conventional dispensing machines include a user-friendly control interface resembling the interface conventionally used in association with an automated teller machine. The dispensing machines also preferably have a main graphical user interface with touch screen interface control capability and an article return slot for returning rented articles. In the return mode, typical article return routines through the article return slot are initiated through the main graphical user interface and/or through the swiping of a credit card used for the initial rental process of the media article being returned.
Some dispensing machines do incorporate additional user interface portions having additional or even identical user interface components. For example, these user interface components could be incorporated on other panels of the housing of machine so that the machines can be used simultaneously by multiple consumers.
However, to simultaneously accommodate multiple consumers the additional user interface portions require duplicated interface screens, duplicated credit card readers as well as duplicated article distributing openings or slots, which raises production cost of these machines to prohibitive levels. Full additional article dispensing machines utilized for higher traffic locations are clearly more costly and take up additional floor space where article dispending machine are located. As such, the DVD rental industry is in need of less costly article dispensing machines that accommodate multiple customers without duplicating all components of user interface portions while providing a more efficient return process of rented articles in high traffic areas.

Secondary media return system and method


The invention refers to a lighting device comprising at least one light emitting diode (LED). The object to provide a lighting device that is capable of providing a light pattern for illuminating an object in 3D imaging, wherein the lighting device is simple and cost-effective to manufacture, while the lighting device may in addition have a very small form factor, is solved in with a lighting device comprising: at least one LED for emitting light towards a light-emitting side; a first grating with a regular pitch having light-blocking sections and light-permeable sections; wherein the first grating is arranged on the light-emitting side to block the passage of light at the light-blocking sections, such that the light passing the light-permeable sections is capable to illuminate an object with a line pattern. The invention further corresponds to a method for producing a lighting device and the use of a lighting device.

Applications involving 3D imaging have become increasingly important. Such applications are also provided in consumer electronics such as mobile devices, creating the need of 3D imaging devices with very small form factors. In particular the available height for installation in emitting direction is limited.
A basic method of acquiring a 3D representation of an object in 3D imaging is based on an active illumination of the object, wherein the object is illuminated with a specifically structured light pattern. An optical sensor such as a camera is used to obtain a 2D image of the object illuminated by the light pattern. The shape of the object distorts the observed light pattern, such that a 3D representation of the object can be derived from the 2D image.
A typical light pattern used for illumination of objects in 3D imaging is a dot pattern, which can be for instance a regular, pseudo-random or random dot pattern. Such patterns can be produced by lasers, e.g. by edge emitters or vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL arrays). While such lighting devices for illumination in 3D imaging can in principle have small form factors and can be included in mobile devices, these lighting devices are usually complex and difficult to manufacture, therefore increasing production costs.
Further types of light patterns that may be used for illumination in 3D imaging include crosses, grids, and lines. However, such light patterns are also usually obtained by means of laser devices and the corresponding lighting devices can therefore be cost-intensive.

Lighting device comprising LED and grating


A system and method is provided for navigating a manifold in a high-dimensional space and to interface sound to movement. According to the system of the invention, an input movement sensor operates to capture movement of an object in relation to the manifold. The captured movement is then communicated to generate a control signal in a higher dimensional phase space. A window space translates information from the phase space to render a representation of the relation between the location of the object and the manifold. Sound quality changes are related to movement. Sound output is via a sound synthesizer which generates sound relating to input movement. In a preferred embodiment, movement of an object in relation to a manifold is captured in a three-dimensional virtual reality environment. In a preferred embodiment the manifold is sound generated. The captured movement is then communicated in order to generate a higher dimensional phase space. A window space is also generated for mapping information from the phase space to render a representation of the relationship between the location of the object and the manifold. The representation can then be displayed.

Sounds as an auditory percept are little understood in terms of their potential to play a significant role for research and creative projects particularly involving high-dimensional systems. The applications of sound in interface design include voice recognition, teleconferencing, audio archiving, sound localization, audio alarms, audio cues, carcons, and data sonifications. Many of these applications serve the purpose of enhancing visualization or compensating for visual overload. For example, audio cues are sounds for location identification guiding visual search for a point of interest. Among these applications data sonification comes close to utilizing auditory percepts for enhancing an understanding of data.
To bring auditory percepts into research projects involves (1) designing sounds for an optimal representation of systems' behaviors, and (2) incorporating sounds in interactivity. For exploring systems, observers often encounter cumbersome tasks such as entering control data by typing or creating input files. Output data are also observed often in the form of numbers or graphic representations. When exploring high-dimensional systems a need exists for alternative ways of interacting with the systems. An efficient method for entering control data with real-time observation of the consequences are keys to an intuitive exploration. The use of sounds has been observed to offer efficient and perceptive learning in massive parameter space. As a system output, sound functions as an auditory feedback, linking full circle in an exploration process for observers to monitor their own interaction as well as the behavioral changes of systems under study.
The unique characteristics of sound lie in the omnidirectional characteristic of acoustic signals. This characteristic can be understood in two ways. First, the obvious meaning of "omnidirectional" refers to the way sounds propagate in space. This accounts for the physics of sounds such as diffusion, reflection, and diffraction as well as our perceptual ability to process the spatial distribution of sounds. Secondly, the term "omnidirectional" can be understood from a compositional point of view focusing on acoustic materials or elements, their pitch and rhythmic relationships, their sizes in units and groups. In other words, we can also apply "omnidirectional" to refer to classes of sounds within a material differentiation space. By listening to the way classes of materials are derived from an original set and developed through or without transitional states, one achieves a dynamical observation. An example can be found where the acoustic material differentiation is based upon the content area of an "information space."
The prior art lacks the advantage of a system and method for representing the omnidimensional sound characteristics in a comprehensible manner. Such a system and method would translate multi-dimensional sound representations or "manifolds" into two or three dimensions that can be understood and manipulated more readily by the observer. A "manifold interface" provides such a translation or mapping, which can further be applied to other multi-dimensional control systems in addition to sound signal generation and sound analysis. The benefit of this mapping is that humans understand movement in 2D and 3D, whereas it may be difficult to intuitively grasp high-dimensional spaces. The manifold interface technology translates movements performed in the intuitive space into movements in a space that is otherwise difficult to grasp intuitively.

System and method for interfacing a 2D or 3D movement space to a high dimensional sound synthesis control space

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A storage unit and a static random access memory (SRAM), where storage unit includes a latch, and the latch provides a first storage bit. The storage unit further includes a first metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor. A gate of the first MOS transistor is coupled to the first storage bit, a source of the first MOS transistor is coupled to a first read line, and a drain of the first MOS transistor is coupled to a second read line. In a first state, the first read line is a read word line, and the second read line is a read bit line, or in a second state, the second read line is a read word line, and the first read line is a read bit line. The storage unit according to embodiments of the present invention can implement an exchange between a read word line and a read bit line.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a storage unit of a conventional SRAM. The storage unit is a common six-transistor unit, and includes six metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistors. The MOS field-effect transistor is referred to as a MOS transistor for short. Referring to FIG. 1, the storage unit includes two inverting gates and two MOS transistors. The two inverting gates include four MOS transistors. The two inverting gates in the figure form a latch configured to store data. The two MOS transistors in the figure are configured for gating access. The latch formed by circularly connecting the two inverting gates that has two stable states 0 and 1. A and B are two storage bits in opposite states. For example, when the storage bit A is a logical 0, the storage bit B is a logical 1, or when the storage bit A is a logical 1, the storage bit B is a logical 0. A word line (WL) is used to control gating access to the storage unit, and a bit line (BL) is used to perform reading/writing in the storage unit. Reading is pulling up the WL and reading bits from the BL, while writing is pulling up the WL and pulling up or pulling down the BL. Because a drive capability of the BL is stronger than that of the storage unit, an original state is forcibly overwritten. In FIG. 1, both bit and nbit represent bit lines. The bit line bit is used to read data of the storage bit A, and the bit line nbit is used to read data of the storage bit B. The data read from the storage unit using the two bit lines has opposite states.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a storage array of the conventional SRAM. The storage array includes the 3×3 storage unit shown in FIG. 1. When data is read from the conventional SRAM, only data of a specific address can be read usually. If data of an address that is symmetric to the address about a matrix diagonal needs to be obtained, the data needs to be processed by writing an algorithm into code of a peripheral digital circuit of the SRAM for processing. This manner has a low speed and comparatively high power consumption and workload.

Storage unit and static random access memory


A control unit of an uninterruptible power supply device includes a PWM circuit generating a plurality of PWM signals controlling a plurality of IGBT elements of a power conversion unit; a plurality of output terminals for supplying the plurality of PWM signals to the plurality of IGBTs; and a switching circuit arranging the plurality of PWM signals in order in accordance with the type of the uninterruptible power supply device and supplying the PWM signals to the plurality of output terminals. Accordingly, the control unit can be shared among a plurality of types of uninterruptible power supply devices.

Conventionally, an uninterruptible power supply device is widely used as a power supply device for stably supplying alternating-current (AC) power to an essential load such as a computer system. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 07-298516 (Patent Literature 1), the uninterruptible power supply device generally includes a converter converting commercial AC power into direct-current (DC) power, an inverter converting the DC power into AC power and supplying the AC power to a load, a chopper supplying the DC power generated by the converter to a battery at the time of receiving the commercial AC power and supplying the DC power of the battery to the inverter at the time of interruption of the commercial AC power, and a control unit controlling the entire device.

TOSHIBA MITSUBISHI-ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION


The proposed ATM comprises a microcontroller for controlling a banknote dispenser and a computer for managing the ATM, which are arranged inside and outside, respectively, a safe. The computer is provided with one or more ports for interfacing with it; all the ports are occupied by corresponding connectors. A motion sensor is associated with each single connector for detecting any tampering or movements indicative of its removal from the corresponding port; in this case, the dispensing of the banknotes is inhibited, for example, by interrupting an electrical power supply of the microcontroller and/or of the banknote dispenser. A corresponding operation method of the ATM is proposed. A program product for controlling the ATM are also proposed.

The background of the present disclosure is hereinafter introduced with the discussion of techniques relating to its context. However, even when this discussion refers to documents, acts, artefacts and the like, it does not suggest or represent that the discussed techniques are part of the prior art or are common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present disclosure.
The automatic banknote dispensers, also known as bancomats or Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), are used to withdraw and/or deposit cash in the form of banknotes without the aid of human staff; a typical example in Italy are the automatic dispensers belonging to the "Bancomat" (trademark) circuit, commonly known as "Bancomats". The automatic dispensers are very convenient (for example, outside the opening hours of banks or in places far from them) and fast (since they avoid queues at physical counters).
Each automatic dispenser is provided with a safe, inside which a banknote dispenser is arranged being capable of dispensing the amount of banknotes that is requested by users (in the course of withdrawal operations). A management system for example, a computer manages operation of the automatic dispenser locally. For this purpose, the computer interacts with a number of peripherals of the automatic dispenser; particularly, the computer controls a microcontroller of the banknote dispenser (arranged inside the safe as well). Moreover, the computer communicates with a central processing system, for example, a server of the bank to which the automatic dispenser is connected. For these reasons (as well as for reasons of space), the computer is generally placed outside the safe in a dedicated cabinet.
The computer is provided with a number of ports that are used for connecting the computer (physically) to the peripherals of the automatic dispenser and to the server. Particularly, these connections are used for exchanging management signals between the computer and the microcontroller of the banknote dispenser. For example, a transmission line, such as a cable extends from the computer (to which it is connected through a corresponding connector inserted into a port of the computer, for example, of USB type) to the microcontroller (inside the safe). For security reasons, the communications between the computer and the microcontroller are usually encrypted.
The automatic dispensers may be subject to various types of attacks by criminals.
Particularly, a thief might physically access the cable that connects the computer to the microcontroller of the banknote dispenser (in a relatively simple way in its portion arranged outside the safe). The thief might then connect to the microcontroller (for example, via a computer thereof) to try to force the microcontroller to execute banknote dispensing commands in a fraudulent manner.
In addition, it is habit of the manufacturers to leave one or more ports of the computer free to allow connecting a maintenance device (for example, a USB key) provided to staff assigned to the maintenance of the automatic dispenser.
A thief, once accessed the computer physically, might then connect a device thereof to these (free) ports of the computer to try to force it in this case as well to command the microcontroller of the banknote dispenser to execute banknote dispensing commands in a fraudulent manner.

ATM with sensorized connectors for detecting removal thereof from the PC of the ATM with blocking of the delivery functions


In a hydraulic servo for a clutch, a cancel plate is disposed on a second clutch drum that undergoes the same rotation as a second clutch drum provided with a cylinder portion, in such a fashion that the cancel plate is restricted from moving to a side opposite from a return spring in an axial direction. The first clutch drum is disposed, as a separate member, on the second clutch drum. A step portion of the second clutch drum prevents the first clutch drum from moving to a side opposite from the cancel plate. Due to the spring force of the return spring, the oil pressure in the cancel oil chamber and the oil pressure in the operating oil chamber, the force that presses the first clutch drum to the step portion is always greater than the force that presses the first clutch drum to the cancel plate side.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a hydraulic servo of a clutch for performing and discontinuing power transfer which is for use in, for example, vehicular automatic transmissions and the like. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a clutch-purpose hydraulic servo in which a drum member is disposed as a separate member on a shaft member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a hydraulic servo of a clutch for use in, for example, a vehicular automatic transmission or the like, an operating oil chamber is formed between a piston and a cylinder portion, and is equipped with a cancel plate and a return spring for pushing the piston back toward the cylinder portion when the clutch is released. It is necessary that the relative position of the cancel plate be fixed with respect to the cylinder portion. Therefore, for example, the cancel plate is restricted with respect to a clutch drum having the cylinder portion by a snap ring or the like so that the cancel plate does not move to a side opposite from the return spring.
When a clutch is disposed in an automatic transmission or the like, there often exists another member that undergoes substantially the same rotation, such as an input shaft, or a clutch drum of another clutch, etc. If, in such a case, a hub-shaped (sleeve-shaped) member is provided so as to extend at an inner peripheral side of the cylinder portion and a cancel plate is provided on an outer peripheral side of the hub-shaped member, the double structure formed by the hub-shaped member and the member that undergoes the same rotation becomes an impediment to a compact design. This is avoided by the arrangement as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-247612 (specifically, the members represented by reference numerals 12, 32 in FIG. 3 of the laid-open application). That is, the cancel plate and a member (e.g., a clutch drum) having the cylinder portion are disposed immediately on the outer peripheral side of a member (e.g., an input shaft) that undergoes the same rotation as mentioned above, and the member having the cylinder portion is fixed to the member that undergoes the same rotation by, for example, welding or the like. Therefore, the member having the cylinder portion and the member that undergoes the same rotation are structured integrally as a unit.
However, the integration of the member having a cylinder portion with the member that undergoes the same rotation through fixation thereof by, for example, welding or the like, requires a welding process (integrally forming process) or the like in the assembly of a clutch (automatic transmission), and therefore has the problem of impeding improvement in the ease of assembly and reduction of the production process and the production cost.


A method for selectively monitoring one or more vehicle systems is disclosed. The method includes recognizing, at the vehicle, an activation device that is configured to trigger predetermined setting(s) for the one or more vehicle systems. The telematics unit transmits to a secure server a signal indicative of the fact that the activation device is in use. Access to the secure server for monitoring the one or more vehicle systems via an Internet-enabled program is selectively enabled. A system for monitoring one or more vehicle systems is also disclosed. Further, a method for controlling vehicle system parameters is disclosed herein.

Vehicle telematics units include components that enable hands free calling, vehicle tracking, transmission of navigational instructions, and other like features. Telematics units may also be configured to activate vehicle settings that are personal to the vehicle user. A user may select such settings and configure the telematics unit from within the vehicle or remotely from the vehicle (e.g., via an Internet-enabled program).

Method and system for selectively monitoring vehicle systems and for controlling vehicle system parameters


A steel machine component, such as a bearing race, has a critical surface of generally circular configuration. Here the steel of the machine component exists in a state of compression to improve the physical characteristics of the surface. To this end, high speed steel is melted along the full circumference of the surface. Upon cooling to room temperature some of the austenite in the steel transforms into martensite. Tempering converts much of the remaining austenite into martensite, so that the machine component at the surface is almost entirely martensite. Martensite normally occupies a greater volume than austenite, but since the layer of martensite so formed is confined by the underlying core of the machine component, the layer exists in a state of compression. The high speed steel is melted with a laser beam that makes a trace over the full surface of the machine component. Where the underlying core is formed from high speed steel, the steel that is melted derives from the core itself, thus producing a glaze over the core. Where the underlying core is another type of steel, the high speed steel which is melted is supplied from an external source as a filler metal and becomes a cladding that lies over, yet is bonded to, the core.

The present invention relates in general to imparting residual stresses to steel machine components and more particularly to a process for imparting such stresses by momentarily melting a high speed steel along a surface of the machine component.
It is well known that the stress state on or below a bearing race subjected to alternating or cyclic contact loads can have a major influence on the service life of the race. Many tapered roller bearings are made from carburizing grades of steels. When components made from these grades are carburized and heat treated, certain advantages are realized that make the components superior to through hardened components, namely more reliable, lower warranty costs, fewer quench cracks in heat treating, decreased sensitivity to grinding injury, and improved toughness or resistance to catastrophic failure.
For carburized components, compressive residual stresses develop during heat treating, and the advantages are to a large measure attributable to these residual stresses. In this regard, the absorption of carbon into a component during carburizing creates a carbon gradient. The carbon level is high near the surface and decreases as the distance away from the surface increases. When steel components are quenched from the austenitizing temperature, martensite is formed. The transformation of austenite to martensite is accompanied by an expansion in volume. The volumetric expansion is directly proportional to the carbon content of the alloy. When quenched, the surface of a component cools more rapidly than the inner portion of a component. In addition, the Ms temperature (temperature at which austenite transforms to martensite) decreases with increasing carbon content. Thus, for a carburized component, the case transforms to martensite at a lower temperature than would occur for a component corresponding in composition to the core. These two effects, operating in unison, cause a relatively high compressive residual stress to be formed at the surface layer. This effect does not occur in components having a uniform composition.
Another instance where compressive residual surface stresses are beneficial involves the press fitting of bearing components onto shafts. It is well known that this can create a tensile stress in the press-fitted component. It has been demonstrated that the press fitting of through hardened AISI 52100 steel definitely has an adverse effect on fatigue life. However, similarly press-fit bearings fabricated from carburized AISI 8620 were found to perform satisfactorily. It was concluded that under press-fitting conditions, carburized 8620 had superior fatigue characteristics compared to 52100.
For comparative purposes, typical residual stress patterns in a carburized LM 12749 cone and a through hardened LM 12749 cone manufactured from a 46100 Powered Metal steel preform are listed below:
Carburized LM 12749 Cone
A group of cones (inner races for tapered roller bearings) were rough machined from 8119 alloy steel, which is available from The Timken Company of Canton, Ohio. The steel has the following composition by weight:
______________________________________ Carbon 0.19% Molybdenum 0.10% Manganese 0.80% Nickel 0.30% Silicon 0.20% Chromium 0.40% Iron remainder ______________________________________
Each cone was carburized and then oil quenched. The cones were then rehardened by austenitizing at 1525.degree. F. for 60 minutes and then quenched into oil. The cones were then tempered at 350.degree. F. and afterwards ground to final dimensions by standard practice. They met the dimensional specifications for LM 12749 cones sold by The Timken Company of Canton, Ohio.
Residual stress measurements were made on and below the surface of the standard carburized cones by x-ray diffraction. The results were as follows:
______________________________________ Carburized 8119 LM 12749 Cones Depth Below the Surface (in.). Residual Stress (ksi) ______________________________________ 0.000 -48.1 0.005 -32.1 0.010 -28.1 0.015 -31.1 0.020 -26.6 0.025 -34.3 0.030 -22.6 0.040 -7.4 ______________________________________ Note: negative stress is compression
1% Carbon LM 12749 Cone
Cone preforms were formed using oil atomized 4600 metal powder which has the following composition after blending with carbon,
______________________________________ Carbon 1.00% Molybdenum 0.50% Manganese 0.020% Nickel 1.80% Iron remainder ______________________________________
After the preforms were compacted, sintered and hot forged, they were rough machined into green LM12749 cones. The cones were hardened by austenitizing at 1525.degree. F. for 60 minutes and then quenched into oil. The cones were then tempered at 350.degree. F. for two hours. The cones were ground to final dimensions by standard practices and met the dimensional specifications for LM12749 cones sold by The Timken Company of Canton, Ohio.
Residual stress measurements were made on and below the surface of the cones by x-ray diffraction. The results were as follows:
______________________________________ Hardened 46100 LM 12749 Cone Depth Below the Surface (in.). Residual Stress (ksi) ______________________________________ 0.000 -3.6 0.005 -2.8 0.010 -0.5 0.015 2.8 0.020 -1.2 0.025 -3.8 0.030 -3.1 0.040 0.1 ______________________________________ Note: negative stress is compression
During the welding of steel volume changes in the deposited weld metal and the base metal can occur. These volume changes can lead to distortion, very high residual stresses and often cracking in or adjacent to the weldment. They are attributable to thermal expansion on heating and thermal contraction on cooling, and phase transformations that occur in the weld metal and the heat affected zone.
When welding steel where the heated metal is attached to surrounding cold metal, the cold metal produces a resistance to dimensional change. Since the steel has a low tensile stress at elevated temperatures, most dimensional changes have to occur within the weld metal. This leads to plastic flow in the weld. If the component being welded is relatively large or rigid, residual stress is often tensile and can be as high as the yield stress of the steel. This can often lead to cracking of the weld or base material. Hence, in most steel welding operations, preheating and post welding heating is required to reduce or minimize the detrimental residual stresses that are created. Thus, conventional wisdom strongly suggests relieving residual stresses.
The present invention in contrast to conventional wisdom seeks to impart residual compressive stresses to steel machine components. This is achieved by subjecting the machine component to high energy radiation, such as a laser beam, of sufficient intensity to momentarily melt the steel. Either the steel of the original component is melted to provide a glaze or a filler metal is melted over the original component to provide a cladding. This invention is unique in that stress relief and/or full annealing of the laser processed steel is not performed. In fact the thermal cycles were chosen so as to make the residual stresses that are created during the laser processing and after the thermal treatment to be beneficial to performance. This effect is opposite to almost all welding or cladding procedures where residual stresses that are created are detrimental to performance.

Process for imparting residual compressive stresses to steel machine components


A system uses range and Doppler velocity measurements from a lidar system and images from a video system to estimate a six degree-of-freedom trajectory of a target. The system may determine a skin area or face contour based on the 3D measurements from a lidar subsystem and information regarding the location of various facial features from the 2D video images of a video subsystem.

Conventional mechanisms and algorithms to determine a face contour from 2D video images exists. Also, many skin detection algorithms for processing 2D images exist; however, most of these algorithms are not robust to different skin colors, lighting, and/or exposure conditions.
What is needed is an improved system and method for detecting a face contour using a three-dimensional measurement system.

System and method for detecting a face contour using a three-dimensional measurement system


There is provided an apparatus and methodology for providing selective wired and/or wireless transmission of communications signals to and/or within a subscriber premises. A network interface device includes a wireless router within the housing of the network interface device to selectively provide one or more of wireless and wired communications services to a subscriber. The network interface device may be mounted externally of a subscriber premises. The provision of a wireless router within a network interface device offers a service provider the ability to provide wireless service to a subscriber as well as to new subscribers in close proximity to a subscriber.

As telephone companies migrate to higher bandwidth services including data and video offerings, the desire to add convenience or utilize technical advances in new and unique ways increases. VoIP is a term that has become well recognized recently and relates to methodologies for converting analog audio signals into digital data that may be transmitted over the Internet or other digital data transmission networks including, for example, enterprise intranet networks.
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) has been in use for some time and, because of its relatively low operating frequencies, operates very compatibly with more recently introduced, concurrently provided, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) services. DSL service may be provided in a number of configurations that collectively have been designated as "xDSL" to denote all of the various forms. A more common type generally deployed to residential subscriber's premises carries the designation of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service.
More recently, DSL service has been proposed to be provided exclusively over the communications lines previously shared with POTS. This data without POTS (also sometimes referred to as "naked DSL") continues to work well using the same communications lines previously shared with POTS.
In addition to the above, coaxial cable has been used for many years to bring media signals in the form of television programming to various premises both residential and commercial. More recently such coaxial cables have been employed to provide data services along with the previously supplied media programming.
Most recently, optical fiber has been deployed to these same residential and commercial locations with the promise of providing some or all of the services previously and currently provided by both copper lines and coaxial cables and providing such services while at the same time providing vastly increased bandwidth capabilities.
In view of the above mentioned issues involving the provision of various services at a subscriber premises, it would be desirable to have an electronics package that provides the subscriber with the option of continuing to use her premises wiring including copper and cable and to provide additional capabilities without having to install any additional in premises transmission medium. While various adapter configurations have been developed, no design has yet emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics, as hereafter presented in accordance with the present invention.


An information handling system, such as a magnetic disk drive, includes a data channel which has a method and apparatus for detecting binary symbols from a received signal occurring at high data rates. The data channel includes a detector that has two inputs. The detector has a first portion which determines a first estimate of a binary input. The second portion, operating in parallel with the first portion, determines two conditional estimates for a second binary input. The estimate for the second binary input is selected after the first estimate is determined. The first and second estimates for the first and second binary inputs are then output from the detector. Each of the first and second portions of the detector uses a three dimensional observation space with orthogonal coordinate axes. Each of three consecutive synchronous observation samples of the received signal corresponding unambiguously to an axis in the observation space. A decision feedback equalizer removes intersymbol interference terms associated with prior detector outputs. Each detector portion uses a plurality of linear classifiers to partition the observation space. The second and/or third sample of the equivalent channel response is constrained relative to the first for the purpose of simplifying the linear classifiers. Boolean logic functions to decide into which decision region of the observation space a sample maps into. Advantageously, the detector runs at a frequency that is half the frequency of the remaining portions of the read channel.

Computers often include information storage systems having media on which data can be written and from which data can be read for later use. One form of information storage system is a disk drive. Disk drives use various types of media. One more common form is a drive unit incorporating one or more disks having a magnetic coating on the surface of the disk. Data is recorded in tracks which are subsections of the magnetic coating on the surface of the disk. Transducers are used to magnetize portions of the magnetic surface in a write operation. In digital magnetic recording systems, data are stored by writing a sequence of magnets with alternating polarity onto a medium using a write head (transducer). The binary ones and zeros of the stored data are represented either as the two possible magnetic polarities or the change or absence of change. Information is retrieved using a read head (transducer).
The read head and the write head are part of what is known as a data channel. The data channel handles data from a source, such as the computer, and writes it to a disk on a disk drive where it is stored for later retrieval. The data channel also handles reading individual magnetic transitions from the disk to retrieve that data previously stored. The data channel manipulates the readback signal produced by the read head (transducer) to produce a representation of the data previously stored. It should be noted that the read head and write head may be two separate transducers or may be a single transducer used for both reading and writing data.
The read head is configured such that a change in the polarity of the magnetization pattern results in a non-zero amplitude value in the transducer output. Because the read heads used in storage devices have a limited bandwidth, the response of the read transducer to a change in magnetization is a pulse with a non-zero width. Linear density is the number of bits of data that can be stored in a unit length of a track on the media. At linear densities of interest in present and future storage devices, the transition response pulse is sufficiently wide to add non-zero amplitude components to the signal in adjacent bit periods. This mechanism is known as intersymbol interference (ISI).
For reasons of convenience and practicality, the channel noise is assumed to be additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Gaussian or normal distributions are well known statistical models that accurately describe the thermal and electronics noise produced by the resistive component of the read transducer and the electronics of the preamplifier required to amplify the transducer output to usable levels. In terms of random variables, the term white indicates that observations of the random variable are uncorrelated; observations of a correlated random variable are said to be colored. Additive noise indicates that summing the noiseless signal s(t) and noise n(t) produces the received signal r(t)=s(t)+n(t), which implies that the signal and noise are uncorrelated.
A detector is also part of the data channel. The detector is the portion of the read channel that determines if a particular bit has a value of "1", which indicates a magnetic polarity in a first direction, or a "0", which indicates a magnetic polarity in a second direction. In earlier recording systems, data bits were detected by making a sample-by-sample decisions with a peak detection circuit, which made necessary the use of runlength limited (RLL) codes. This type of detector is called a peak detector. In terms of ISI, the function of the ISI code was to guarantee a minimum spacing between transitions so that the ISI components from adjacent transitions did not reduce the amplitude of the present transition below the detection threshold. Unfortunately, this technique is inefficient because it ignores the information content in the adjacent samples.
A second general type of detector is known as a sequence detector. Sequence detectors take advantage of the ISI terms by examining adjacent samples before making a decision. The Viterbi algorithm (VA) is an efficient means for implementing the maximum likelihood sequence detector (MLSD) which chooses the sequence that most likely produced the received or read signal. The complexity of the VA detector increases exponentially as the number of ISI terms increases. One type of magnetic storage device in use today overcomes this limitation by shaping the channel to produce partial response signals that have a predetermined and limited number of ISI terms. After shaping the channel response, a Viterbi algorithm is used to perform a maximum likelihood sequence detection. This type of sequence detector is known as a Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) detector. PRML detectors are commonly used in current information storage systems, such as disk drives.
Another sequence detector is fixed delay tree search with decision feedback (FDTS/DF). The FDTS/DF sequence detector performs sequence detection over a finite number of samples, generally less than the number of ISI terms. The unused ISI terms are subtracted by means of a nonlinear filter structure known as a decision feedback equalizer, which matches the shape of the unused tail of the channel response. Although FDTS/DF does not perform as well as the VA detector, it can outperform PRML schemes at high linear densities because the channel does not need to be shaped into a partial response form. An additional benefit of FDTS/DF is that the delay between the detector input and the decision is fixed and equal to the number of additional samples used in the decision process, i.e., if a total of three observation samples are used, the detector delay is .tau.=2.
Current channel detectors have shortcomings. One of the shortcomings is the ability to handle higher data rates which are demanded by computer manufacturers. In response to demand to increase data rate, there have been attempts to provide for higher data rate detectors. For example, one attempt for a higher data rate detector is the use of a PRML detector with multiple inputs. The problem with the resulting higher data rate channel is that its performance suffers when compared to an optimum detector. a complex detector with limited ability to perform at higher data rates.
There is a need for a high data rate detector for use in the read portion of the data channel. In addition, there is a need for a detector that can handle high data rates.

Method and apparatus for high data rate detection for three dimensional 110 channels