A touch key assembly includes a light guiding film between a window and a display panel, a flexible printed circuit (FPC) film attached to the light guiding film, and an attaching member including an attaching portion interposed between the light guiding film and the window, and a blocking portion interposed between the window and the display panel.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a touch key assembly, a display device including the touch key assembly and a method of assembling the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting display (OLED) device may display desired information such as images, letters and/or characters using a light generated by combining holes provided from an anode with electrons provided from a cathode in an organic layer thereof. The OLED device may ensure a relatively wide viewing angle, rapid response speed, a small thickness, low power consumption, etc. Accordingly, the OLED device is expected to be one of the most widely used next-generation display devices.
The OLED device may include a display panel, a window and a touch key assembly. The touch key assembly may be attached to a non-display region of the window using a double-sided tape. In order to reduce (or prevent) light generated from the touch key assembly leaking through a display region of the window, a black ink may be coated on a portion of the touch key assembly oriented toward the display region. Further, in order to reduce a possibility of resin, which is located between the display panel and the window, infiltrating into the touch key assembly (or in order to prevent such infiltration by resin), a dam tape may be interposed between the display panel and the window.
A method of assembling the OLED device may include a process for coating the black ink, and a process for attaching the dam tape. Thus, the method may include complicated processes and may take a long time to complete. Particularly, a region of the touch key assembly where the black ink may be coated may result in restricting (or limiting) the size of the OLED device.

Touch key assembly and display device including the touch key assembly


A power transmission system includes: a power source; a speed change unit, where the speed change unit is suitable for being selectively power-coupled to the power source; a first motor generator unit; a system power output portion; a first mode conversion device, where at least one of the speed change unit and the first motor generator unit is power-coupled to or power-decoupled from the system power output portion through the first mode conversion device; and a second mode conversion device, where the speed change unit can be power-coupled to or power-decoupled from the first mode conversion device through the second mode conversion device, and the speed change unit can be power-coupled to the first mode conversion device through the second mode conversion device, so that power from the power source is decelerated sequentially through the speed change unit and the second mode conversion device and then output to the first mode conversion device.

With continuous consumption of energy sources, development and use of new energy vehicle models have gradually become a trend. A hybrid power automobile as one of new energy vehicle models is driven through an engine and/or a motor, has a plurality of modes, and may improve transmission efficiency and fuel economy.
However, in related technologies understood by the inventor, some hybrid power automobiles have a small quantity of driving modes and relatively low driving transmission efficiency, and therefore cannot satisfy a requirement of adaptability of vehicles to various road conditions. Particularly, after a hybrid power automobile is fed (when a power level of a battery is insufficient), the power performance and the passing-through capability of the entire vehicle are insufficient. Moreover, to implement a stationary power generation working condition, a transmission mechanism needs to be additionally added. As a result, the integration level is low, and the power generation efficiency is low.

Power transmission system and vehicle having same


Optical emitting head including a laser and an external optical modulator. The modulating signal is modulated by an electrical signal proportional to 1-e, e being the noise power superimposed onto the laser signal, before being applied to the optical modulator. The invention is suitable for fibre optical transmission applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fibre optic transmission of analog signals and more particularly to the combination of a laser with an optical modulator to transmit analog signals.
2. Description of the Background
This combination is generally preferred to the use of direct-modulation lasers. Indeed, regarding direct-modulation lasers, the variation in current generating the amplitude modulation influences the wavelength emitted by the laser, and this variation, even when slight, degrades transmission performance if it results in the chromatic dispersion of the optical fibre.
The combination of certain lasers with an external optical modulator may however have another drawback due to the low-frequency, relaxation noise. This relaxation noise is manifested as a fluctuation in power emitted on the order of a few percent and corresponds to a narrow low-band spectrum. Such is the case for Glass-Erbium type lasers for which the central frequency of this spectrum is around 200 kHz. This noise, represented in FIG. 1a, causes a disturbance as described below in greater detail.
The modulating input of the optical modulator receives a signal consisting of one or more carriers (e.g., amplitude-modulated carriers). An example of this signal, represented in FIG. 1b, consists of an audio and video carrier. The frequency spectrum of the video carrier corresponds to a vestigial sideband amplitude modulation (referred to as VSB-AM). These 2 modulated carriers represent a channel within the field of television signal transmissions, and the modulating signal transmitted to the optical modulator can consist of a set of adjacent channels so as to constitute a multichannel frequency multiplex of vestigial sideband amplitude-modulated television signals. Multiplication of the optical signal with this RF modulating signal transposes the noise of the laser over to around the carriers of the RF signal, as represented in FIG. 1c. This noise ends up in the frequency sidebands if the latter have a width greater than a few tens of kilohertz, this being the case for the video modulating signal. After demodulation, the baseband video signal encounters the presence of noise of double power since the two noise "lines" around the video carrier are correlated while the spectrum of the video signal has reduced sideband. This noise level then exceeds the threshold of visibility of the video signal on the screen by a value of up to 10 or 12 dB, thus creating a "scribbling" effect on the image.
A "Feed Forward" solution is known that involves inserting, between the laser and the external modulator, a device for regulating the emitted power. This device is represented in FIG. 2. A coupler 2 taps off a portion of the power at the output of the laser 1 and to transmits it to an optical receiver 3 (with a built-in amplifier) which converts this optical signal into an electrical signal. The electrical signals controls a first external optical modulator 4 which acts as regulator.
A suitable choice of the coupling and gain values of the optical receiver enables the noise of the laser to be reduced effectively before the beam is transmitted to the second external optical modulator 5 receiving the RF modulating signals.
A first drawback of this solution relates to the insertion losses of the coupler and of the optical regulating modulator which greatly reduce the usable optical power of the laser. This occurs because the optical modulator, by nature, halves the power. Moreover, even without taking those insertion losses into account, the output power available after regulation is at most equal to the minimum value of the fluctuating power delivered by the laser. Another drawback relates to the setup of the device. The gain of the regulating chain symbolized by the optical receiver 3 has to be accurately adjusted. Additionally, the correction signal has to be perfectly in phase with the noise to be corrected. Finally, the cost of the optical modulator necessary for the power regulation is a consideration cost.

Optical emission head with laser and modulator


A method and apparatus are useful for determining the flowrate of fluid flowing within a passage. The method comprises the step of measuring the equilibrium temperature of a location of interest within or proximate to the passage within which fluid flows. The temperature of the location of interest is perturbed to a second temperature, and the temperature of the location of interest is then allowed to return to its equilibrium temperature. The temperature of the location of interest is monitored as it transitions between the second temperature and the equilibrium temperature. The monitored temperature transition is then used to determine the flowrate of the fluid flowing within the passage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fluid flowrate determination, and more particularly to the determination of flowrates for hydrocarbons flowing through one or more portions of a producing wellbore. The invention has particular application in horizontal wellbores and in wellbores having multiple producing zones.
2. Background of the Related Art
Flowrate determination, particularly mass flowrate determination, is an important function in the efficient management of hydrocarbon production from producing subsurface formations (also known as reservoirs). Real time or near-real time flowrate determination is particularly valuable in the diagnosis and remediation of production problems. The overall mass flowrate through conventional, producing wellbores can easily be determined at the wellhead using known methods. Obtaining a more detailed understanding of the flow from various downhole portions of a wellbore, however, is more difficult and requires making measurements within the wellbore itself. Prior methods for determining fluid flowrates downhole, particularly in multiple producing zones and in horizontal wellbore segments, have not been entirely satisfactory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,331, to Western Atlas, describes a method for determining a flow regime of fluids in a conduit. The method generates a temperature map of the conduit through the use of a plurality of distributed temperature sensors and a means for determining the position of each one of the sensors within the cross-section of the conduit. A flow regime is determined by comparing the temperature map with a map generated from laboratory experiments in a flow loop. The system of the '331 patent is limited by its requirement for a distributed temperature profile, including a plurality of temperature indications along a wellbore.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,677 to Sensor Highway describes a fiber optic sensor system for determining the mass flowrates of produced fluid within a conduit disposed in a wellbore. According to the specification, fluid produced through the wellbore conduit (production tubing) generally exhibits a relatively high temperature. The subsurface formation(s) that the wellbore extends through are generally at a lower temperature than the reservoir from which the produced fluid originated. As the produced fluid passes upwardly through the wellbore conduit past the cooler, surrounding subsurface formation(s), the fluid is said to cool. A fiber optic sensor system is employed to monitor this cooling over a length of the conduit and to generate a distributed temperature profile. The generated distributed temperature profile is compared with a previously-determined temperature-flowrate calibration to determine a mass flowrate of fluids within the wellbore conduit. The system of the '677 patent is therefore also limited by a need to acquire measurements at a plurality of locations along the length of the wellbore conduit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,805, also to Sensor Highway, describes a method of using a heater cable equipped with a fiber optic distributed temperature sensor to determine fluid flowrate within a wellbore. The cable is heated to a temperature above the temperature of the wellbore in which it is positioned, and then de-energized so as to cool under the flow of produced fluid through the wellbore. The fiber optic distributed temperature sensor is employed to generate a distributed temperature profile along the heater cable. The '805 patent suggests that the generated profile may be correlated to the fluid flowrate, within explaining how to achieve this. U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,395, also to Sensor Highway, is similar to the '805 patent except it employs a heat sink (rather than temporary, active heating) to induce cooling of a fiber optic distributed temperature sensor. The systems of the '395, '805, '677 and '331 patents are therefore all limited to flowrate correlations based upon distributed temperature profiles.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,854 to Schlumberger describes a system for obtaining downhole data from a subsurface formation penetrated by a wellbore bore, and is characterized by the use of a sensor plug positioned in the sidewall of a wellbore, and separate downhole tools for installing and communicating with the plug. The system of the '854 patent is limited by the permanent nature of the sensor plug and the complexity of installing and establishing communication with it, possibly across a casing wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,257 to Sensor Dynamics describes an apparatus and a method for remote measurement of physical parameters involving an optical fiber cable sensor and a cable installation mechanism for installing the optical fiber cable within a specially-configured conduit. The installation mechanism includes a means for propelling a fluid along the conduit so as to deploy the optical fiber cable sensor, and a seal assembly between the optical fiber cable and the conduit. The '257 patent mentions that its "sensor" can be a flow sensor "based on combining the outputs from more than one sensor and applying an algorithm to estimate flow" but does not explain how this may be achieved.
The flowrate-determining solutions mentioned above are therefore characterized by systems requiring the development of a distributed temperature profile over a length of the wellbore, and systems requiring permanent installation and potentially difficult communication with downhole sensors. A need therefore exists for a flowrate-determining solution that is adaptable to being used in a multitude of downhole locations, not restricted by the need for a distributed sensing length.
A need further exists for a flowrate-determining solution that facilitates easy installation—temporary or permanent—but is not encumbered by a need for permanent installation. Adaptability in the installation of a flowrate-determining solution will facilitate its application in wellbores having multiple producing zones as well as horizontal wellbore sections, including horizontal "legs" of so-called multilateral wellbores. Horizontal wellbore bore sections are typically fluidly-connected to a vertical wellbore section that extends to the surface. By way of example, it is of considerable interest to a drilling engineer (in the case of wellbore drilling) or a production/reservoir engineer (in the case of wellbore production) whether a portion of the horizontal wellbore section near the vertical section is producing at a much higher volumetric flowrate, at about the same rate, or at a much lower rate, than a portion of the horizontal wellbore section that is far from the vertical wellbore section.


A jewelry closure includes a magnetic closure and a mechanical closure which is a safety feature, preventing the magnetic closure from being opened inadvertently. The mechanical closure includes a wire member partially embedded in a groove in a first jewelry closure member and a groove for receiving the wire member in a second jewelry closure member. The magnetic and mechanical closures are closed substantially simultaneously.

Known magnetic closures include that shown in Mizuno, U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,477. Such a magnetic closure, without a safety feature may have a perceived lack of strength due to the absence of a mechanical closure.
In my previous patents, various mechanical clasps are shown in combination with a magnetic clasp. In particular, a further embodiment of the clasp described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,019, is described herein.

Jewelry closure having both magnetic and mechanical clasps


It has been discovered that globally indicating read-write conflicts and semi-transparent read sharing in a transactional memory space allows for a more expedient validation. Without being aware of particular transactions, a writing transaction can determine that a read-write conflict will occur with some transaction that has read one or more memory locations to be modified by the writing transaction. With semi-transparent reading, reading transactions can validate quickly. If a read-write conflict has not occurred since a reading transaction began (or since the last validation), then the previous reads are valid. Otherwise, the reading transaction investigates each memory location or ownership record to determine if a read-write conflict affected the investigating transaction.

The present invention relates to implementations of transactional memory. More specifically, the present invention relates to validating transactional operations in accordance with a global indication of read-write conflicts in a transactional memory space while supporting semi-transparent shared reading of the transactional memory space.
Current multi-processor architectures do not support synchronization primitives that can atomically access multiple memory locations. However, software transactional memory implementations have been proposed to provide atomic access to multiple memory locations in a multiple processor environment. Transactional memory may be implemented with software transactional memory or a hybrid of hardware and software transactional memory. Regardless of whether the transactional memory is implemented with software transactional memory or software transactional memory that uses hardware transactional memory support, current implementations do not allow concurrent transactions to read common memory locations without causing each other to abort if one of the transactions modifies one of the common memory locations.
Most software transactional memory algorithms utilize an ownership mechanism, which guarantees that a transaction "owns" a memory location in order to safely update it without conflicting with other transactions. While multiple transactions are typically prevented from accessing a memory location for write purposes to avoid corruption of data, multiple transactions are typically permitted to simultaneously read from the same location without aborting each other. Allowing multiple transactions to read a same location without aborting each other is referred to as read sharing. In addition to supporting read sharing, implementations should guarantee the atomicity of a transaction. Before a transaction can commit, it must determine that no other transaction has modified a location that it accesses; this is called "validation." In many cases, it is necessary to repeatedly validate a transactional read during execution of a transaction to avoid incorrect behavior as a result of observing inconsistent data.
There are two techniques typically employed that enable read sharing in current software transactional memory algorithms: 1) transparent reading and 2) non-transparent reading. These techniques typically employ structures, referred to as ownership records, to indicate ownership of memory locations represented with the ownership record. With "transparent reading," a transaction does not acquire ownership on a location before reading it but instead records identifiers of the ownership records that represent locations read by the transaction. In software transactional memory, implementations that use transparent reading (also known as "invisible reading"), a transaction which modifies a memory location is not aware of the currently executing transactions that have read or are reading this location. For a transaction to verify that previously read locations have not changed during execution of the transaction (i.e., validate the reading of the locations), the transaction rereads the ownership records. If the transaction has read locations represented by numerous ownership records, then the validation procedure of rereading all of the ownership records will be expensive. The validation procedure is utilized to avoid incorrect behavior like infinite loops and divide by zero, due to inconsistent read values.
With "non-transparent reading" (also known as "visible reading"), transactions that read locations do not iterate over the locations or representative ownership records to validate their read accesses. Instead, a transaction that modifies a location can determine the identity of each concurrent transaction that has read the location (e.g., with a linked list of references for the reader transactions) and explicitly aborts each of those transactions. Aborting all of the reader transactions is significantly expensive. In addition, maintaining and managing the list of reader transactions introduces complexity and is often expensive.

Read sharing using global conflict indication and semi-transparent reading in a transactional memory space


A cutting insert includes a cemented carbide body having two main cutting edges joined by a corner cutting edge. A primary land extends behind the corner and main cutting edges. A chip breaker in the form of a micro ridge projects upwardly from a section of the primary land located in the vicinity of the cutting corner. The primary land has a width in the range of 0.1 to 0.8 mm, and the micro ridge has a width which is between 25 and 80 percent of the width of the primary land.

The present invention relates to a cutting insert, preferably an indexable cutting insert for turning, which insert comprises a micro chip breaker. The cutting insert may be single- or double-sided.
It is previously known to provide turning cutting inserts with chip breakers formed in the rake surfaces of the insert, which breakers extend along the edges of the insert which form cutting edges. These chip breakers may be formed in one or several steps.
Thus, in Swedish Patent 349 759 and Lundgren U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,515 a turning cutting insert is disclosed with two chip breaking steps being located behind each other, both of which are substantially parallel with the cutting edge. At smaller chip thicknesses, the chip is broken by the first chip breaking step, located next to the cutting edge. At increasing chip thickness, the chip passes to a larger extent over the first step and goes downwardly into the second chip breaking step. For tough materials that obtain a small initial bending, the chip will in some cases get downwardly the whole way to the bottom of the second step and be broken against it. This construction with two chip breaking steps gives a smoother chip breaking at larger chip thicknesses compared to previously used embodiments. However, at small feeds no satisfactory chip breaking is effected. A rule of thumb is usually that the smallest possible feed generally corresponds to the width of the primary land surface. The commercial cutting inserts corresponding to Swedish Patent 349 759 have a smallest primary land surface width of about 0.3 mm. Thus, if one uses smaller feeds than 0.3 mm, no acceptable chip breaking is attained with these cutting inserts.
When requirements of a smooth surface on the workpiece are high, fine turning is applied. This implies feeds down to 0.1 mm, which is not feasible in combination with good chip breaking with the known inserts referred to above.
A further disadvantage at small feeds is that the wear on the primary land increases, due to the direct abutment of the chips against this surface. Further, the flaking tendency of the surface coating increases when the inserts are coated, which is the most common case. These coatings usually consist of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, titanium nitride and/or titanium carbide and are applied in a way known per se by so called PVD or CVD technique.
A primary object of the present invention is thus to provide a cutting insert which makes possible fine turning with an acceptable chip breaking.
A second object of the present invention is to increase the face wear resistance on the insert's primary land.
Still another object of the present invention is to improve the flaking resistance for surface coated inserts.
Yet another object of the present invention is to reduce the cutting forces.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a cutting insert which makes possible both normal and fine machining.

Cutting insert having a micro ridge chip breaker


The present invention provides a steel which simultaneously satisfies a plurality of characteristics, specifically, a steel for tubes with excellent sulfide stress cracking resistance, including, C: 0.2 to 0.7%; Si: 0.01 to 0.8%; Mn: 0.1 to 1.5%; S: not more than 0.005%; P: not more than 0.03%; Al: 0.0005 to 0.1%; Ti: 0.005 to 0.05%; Ca: 0.0004 to 0.005%; N: not more than 0.007%; Cr: 0.1 to 1.5%; and Mo: 0.2 to 1.0%; the balance being Fe, Mg and impurities, being characterized in that: the content of Mg is not less than 1.0 ppm and not more than 5.0 ppm; and inclusions of not less than 50% of the total number of those in steel have such a morphology that Mg—Al—O-based oxides exist at the central part of the inclusion, Ca—Al-based oxides enclose the Mg—Al—O-based oxides, and Ti-containing-carbonitrides further exist on a periphery of the Ca—Al-based oxides.

Non-metallic inclusions in steel (hereinafter referred simply to as "inclusions") lead to, as well as causing defective or flaws of steel product, the deterioration of weldability or strength/ductility and further the deterioration of corrosion resistance and, particularly, the larger the size thereof, the more serious such adverse effects. Therefore, a number of methods are developed for reducing the number of or reforming the inclusions, and particularly large-size inclusions.
At the threshold of the development, techniques such as reforming of an oxygen contamination source such as slag, optimization of deoxidation conditions or the like, and moreover removal of inclusions by a secondary refining apparatus such as RH were rigorously developed, and these techniques are being used even now. However, since these techniques cannot meet the required performance of steel product that has been escalated, a control technique of inclusions morphology such as Ca treatment has been developed to respond to such a demand in combination with the existing techniques.
In recent years, the required performance of steel product is further escalated, and a number of new techniques have been proposed to respond to this demand.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for improving bore expandability by use of MgO or MgO-containing inclusions, and Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique for dispersing harmful oxygen as fine MgO by controlling the content of Mg in steel in a specific range.
The present applicant also proposes, in Patent Literature 3, a technique for reducing harmful coarse carbonitride inclusion constituents by generating carbonitrides using a Ca—Al-based oxysulfide inclusion constituent as nuclei.
In this way, the latest techniques utilize the inclusions rather than simple removal or reduction of inclusions that has been performed in the related prior art.
On the other hand, there are various types of inclusions which primarily have constituents such as sulfides, oxysulfides or carbonitrides other than oxides, singly or otherwise in combination. In the past, it was at most one or two of these types of inclusions that hinder efforts to obtain the characteristics required for steel product. For example, surface defects in a cold-rolled steel sheet are principally caused by the coarse oxide type, and the deterioration of the weldability in a structural material such as a steel beam is caused by the sulfide type, so that a desired effect could be attained by taking specific measures against specific inclusion types as described above.
In recent years, however, it has been demanded also to simultaneously satisfy a plurality of characteristics, in addition to the escalated required performance of steel product. For example, a combination of high strength and high corrosion resistance, a combination of high strength and high workability or the like is sought after.
When two kinds of characteristics, let's say, characteristic A and characteristic B, are simultaneously required, for example, two measures against the relevant inclusions such as a measure "a" for satisfying the characteristic A and a measure "b" for satisfying the characteristic B must be taken at the same time according to the conventional point of view.
However, taking a plurality of measures simultaneously may create problems in performance, besides cost and productivity.
For example, although the sulfides can be reduced by reducing the content of S in steel, the decrease in content of S can lead to increase in the number of the oxide type inclusions since the interfacial tension between molten iron and inclusions reduces according to the decrease in content of S to thereby deteriorate the floatation separability of inclusions. Further, the reduction in content of S in steel leads to a change in content of N in steel which results from an increased rate of denitrification or nitride absorption of molten iron, and as a result, the number of nitrides can likely vary.
Namely, the decrease of a specific type of inclusions can create problems such as the increase of other types of inclusions and the deterioration of inclusions controllability.
Further, when a plurality of characteristics are simultaneously required with particularly high performance, what matters is not the number of specific types of inclusions such as oxides or sulfides that affects other characteristics, but the total number of two or more types of inclusions such as oxides, sulfides, oxysulfides and carbonitrides. For example, even if MnS is reformed with Ca or the like to be made harmless for the purpose of improving the corrosion resistance of steel product, Ca-based inclusions after the reformation may degrade the surface quality of the steel product. In such a case, it is necessary to reduce the total number of inclusions after the reformation, in addition to render MnS harmless, and the necessary measures therefor are further complicated.
In this way, when a plurality of different characteristics are to be satisfied at a high level, the measures against inclusions are complicated to end up in deteriorating the stability of quality, while causing the productivity and costs of product to be deteriorated. Since this deterioration of stability causes the reduction of product yield, further efforts for commercial industrial production are needed while the supply of the product is possible.

Steel for steel tube with excellent sulfide stress cracking resistance

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION


A watercraft has an engine that is controlled to provide a slower operational watercraft speed during a reverse operation of the watercraft. The engine is controlled by detecting a reverse operation and an operator engine torque request. An operational characteristic of the engine (e.g., engine speed) is adjusted to decrease the engine output by a predetermined amount after it is determined that the watercraft is in reverse operation.

1. Field of the Inventions
The present application generally relates to an engine control arrangement for controlling a watercraft, and more particularly relates to an engine management system that limits engine performance in a reverse operational mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Watercraft, including personal watercraft and jet boats, are often powered by an internal combustion engine having an output shaft arranged to drive a water propulsion device. Occasionally, reverse operation is performed where the watercraft is maneuvered differently and has a different feeling than when the watercraft is operated in the forward direction. In a reverse operating condition, a rider can accelerate in reverse at a rate higher than what may be comfortable for the rider or passengers on the watercraft.
Some watercraft today come equipped with two modes of operation: a learning mode and a normal mode. The learning mode limits the top speed of the watercraft to a relatively low top speed, whereas in normal mode the watercraft is capable of traveling at a higher top speed.

Reverse operation control for watercraft


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for assisting a driver of a towing vehicle to reverse the vehicle into alignment and proximity with a trailer, so that the towing vehicle and the trailer can be easily hitched together. The invention includes a detachable alignment system with a signal device to show a stop point via side mirrors to the driver while he is reversing the vehicle toward the trailer. The invention includes two complementary units respectively releasably attached to the vehicle and trailer, each unit having equal-length transverse support beams that respectively extend beyond the sides of the vehicle and trailer and that have visible markers depending from their distal ends, whereby the markers are visible to the driver via the side view mirrors. Being of equal length, the distal ends of support beams on either side of the vehicle and trailer permit the end markers to visually line up or come together as viewed by the driver through the side view mirrors when a tow ball on the vehicle and a trailer hitch on the trailer are accurately lined up for a positive connection. The markers permit the driver to align the vehicle unit to the trailer unit while reversing the vehicle, and therefore align the tow ball to the trailer hitch as those units are mounted to these parts specifically and respectively. A trigger switch on the trailer unit may be deployed to activate a signal device, for example a light, when in contact with the tow ball.

1. Field
The present invention generally relates to tow vehicles and drawn trailers and, more particularly, to removable visual devices used to assist a tow vehicle operator to align the vehicle's tow hitch assembly to the trailer's hitch receiver assembly, in most cases a tow ball and trailer hitch respectively, however embodiments can be fashioned to work with pintle hitches or other tow vehicle to trailer hitching mechanisms.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many methods and apparatuses devised to assist a vehicle operator when reversing a vehicle to align the vehicle's ball to a trailer hitch assembly for the purpose of coupling. Prior devices have been either costly, complex, time consuming for assembly or disassembly, or for single purpose, and most rely on an unobstructed view from the interior of the tow vehicle's rear view mirror.
Relying on the rear view mirror of the operator's vehicle seriously limits the effectiveness of such devices, since a direct line of sight from the mirror through the back window to the alignment indicators of these devices can be compromised by the presence of people or goods in the back seat, or obstacles within or at the back of the truck bed, or by vehicles that have no such rear window at all. This compromised line of sight prevents such devices from working effectively or even at all.
Such shortcomings can be seen in CA23007405 (THORNTON) (related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,847), U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,603 (ALGER), U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,483 (NATHAN), U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,378 (AUSTIN), U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,091 (GRASSO), U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,290 (TURNER), U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,582 (GLASS), U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,126 (GILLEN, Jr.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,940 (BEAVINGTON), U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,423 (BECK), U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,116 (OSBORN), U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,927 (HALE), U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,555 (WILCOX), U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,706 (TALCOTT), U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,621 (LOCKWOOD), U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,352 (MILLS), U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,310 (STAGGS), U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,101 (ROBERSON), U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,289 (JOHNSON), U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,593 (COLLIER), U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,441 (MURRAY), U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,200 (EMERICK), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,138 (BERRY).
A solution that utilizes the side view mirrors, so that vision of alignment indicators cannot be compromised by objects in the vehicle, or for a lack of a sightline through the vehicle to the indicators, would be a more effective method. In addition, the built-in redundancy in having two, rather than one line of sight for alignment can be seen as a positive improvement on the performance of the task.
CA2100375 (KNISLEY) (related to U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,047) describes a direction-orientable wheeled-body device having a socket to receive the lower end of a trailer's vertical tongue jack, configured such that movement of the wheel aligns the trailer's hitch socket with the hitch ball of a towing vehicle. Wheel movement is achieved by rotation of a gear in engagement with the wheel. Unfortunately, this device would require physical exertion by the user to move the trailer into alignment with the tow vehicle, such exertion varying with grade and load of the trailer. This process could possibly be a detriment to a person with little physical ability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,270 (BURRUS) describes a removable alignment device using an operator's side mirror to align crosshair elements of the tow vehicle to the trailer. The device lacks consistent positioning between elements on the vehicle to elements on the trailer for accurate setup, lacks an identifier for a stop point while reversing toward a target at the point where the ball and hitch meet for coupling, and lacks means for accurate alignment as the crosshair element mounted to the rear view mirror prevents the user from having the accurate depth perception required to anticipate where the ball of the vehicle would meet the hitch of the trailer, especially at angles of attack wherein the general axes of the vehicle and trailer are not in line with each other. A better solution would be to allow the operator to see markers for both the ball and hitch at their respective distance as seen through the rear view mirror for accurate depth perception and corresponding ability of the operator to anticipate the proper stop point.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,572 (HARBISON) describes an adjustable alignment device using cross members supported by the ground that are adjustable for alignment purposes. Alignment is achieved when the driver's side rear wheel is channeled along a forward member, and touches a cross member of the device. This device would require time-consuming adjustment for different types of vehicles and wheel sizes and does not show a definite stop point because of the difficulty to judge when the distal end of the rear tire touches a cross member while reversing without colliding the cross member or forward member that could cause damage to either the vehicle, its tires, or the invention. The product is cumbersome and complicated, is vulnerable to human error as there are no fixed references to either the tow ball or hitch, and can be knocked out of place or alignment or knocked down by the vehicle. There are no visual clues for the stop point, only the feeling the driver may experience when the rear tire or tires of the vehicle impacts the forward cross member of the invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,588 (WALSTON) describes an alignment device that may be used with the interior rear view mirror or a single side mirror. The invention uses two sighting elements fastened by magnets to respectively the rear of the towing vehicle and tongue of the towed vehicle, upon which are mounted rings that when brought together form a toroid to indicate alignment; the differences of height between the rear of the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle tongue would require height adjustment susceptible to human error between male and female sighting elements as while setting up the operator must align the two elements at a specific height based on the operator's prediction as to where the elements will meet in a manner that they are substantially overlaid when the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle are brought together.
Positions that must be viewed from the rear view mirror can be compromised by obstacles in the rear view mirror or by vehicles with no rear view mirror at all. In positions where the sighting elements are positioned to any degree horizontally the accuracy of the length adjustment is particularly subject to human error as the device must be extended beyond the width of the vehicle, and as such must be retractable from a closed position if stored in the trunk of a vehicle, and the extensible arms of both the vehicle and trailer extension rods must be supported by a single pivoting socket point without other means of support or counterweight to ensure that the targets are in proper and anticipated position despite the influence of gravity causing the ends to sag or causing the entire device from torquing from a moment at the pivoting socket.
This method of alignment doesn't take into consideration the unevenness of the terrain which may make aligning the sighting elements difficult. Nor does it provide an accurate guide to bring the operator to the point that the elements are substantially overlaid, especially when viewed through the side view mirrors where the elements are relatively at an angle from a vertical center line of the vehicle as seen from the rear view mirror where the operator is approaching the sighting element on the trailer from angle of attack wherein a plane aligned with a centerline drawn through the vehicle perpendicular to the ground is not coincident to a plane aligned with a centerline drawn through the trailer perpendicular to the ground, because approaching the sighting element on the trailer with the sighting on the vehicle does not ensure that the ball and hitch are following a parallel path to the path between the sighting elements and the direction of the vehicle so guiding them together so that the ball and hitch meet at a stop point where they can be joined. The ultimate goal is to join the ball and hitch, not bring the sighting elements together, which this invention does not achieve accurately. Another downside is the magnetic fastening means for this unit since there are many new composite and plastic materials in styles of bumpers on present or future vehicles which will not adhere to a magnet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,220 (DANIELSON) describes a detachable signaling device with telescoping members that signals when it contacts a trailer, whose intention it is to visually indicate the alignment of the hitch elements; however, the device projects longitudinally and only functions properly when the longitudinal axes of the tow vehicle and trailer are perfectly lined up, and only then provides a signal that the hitch elements are at the proper distance to one another longitudinally and makes no reference to lateral alignment to center the tow vehicle to the trailer so that the hitch elements actually meet.
A complicated system of suction cups and brackets are available to fasten the system to the tow vehicle in order to allow the device to be positioned in a manner so as to hit the trailer on a surface when reversing, but doesn't account for potential unavailability of tow vehicle surfaces to mount to that will allow the device to touch a trailer, such as a trailer that is lower and narrower than mountable surfaces of the tow vehicle. The suction cups are seen as inferior mounting means as the likely presence of dirt, silt, water, rain, snow, ice, frost, paint irregularities, rust, dents, or irregularities in the form of the car surface will cause the suction cups to fail.
The tail end of the invention intended to touch an impact strip on the trailer moves toward the trailer like a lance and could pierce the impact strip if the driver reverses too quickly, damaging either the invention or the trailer, and likely knocking the invention off of its suction cup mounts. Different styles of trailers would consistently create new adjustment points to the operator. Given a situation where the invention was not previously calibrated to a trailer already hitched to a tow vehicle, assembly and accuracy of the device would be highly prone to human error.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,035 (PHILLIPS, Jr.) describes an alignment system using a photoelectric sensor and alerting device. This device shows modification to the ball assembly which may be costly and take away from the integrity and strength of the ball unit of the tow vehicle. The device shows no other means for alignment except when the ball unit is already aligned to the hitch assembly of the trailer and therefore does not function as a guide to bring the two vehicles to this alignment. The device is intended only for ball and socket type hitch assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,104 (WALL) describes the use of a number of ultrasonic transducers being transmitted to a control unit. This device is time consuming and complicated to set up, limits use, requires proper surfaces for mounting, and the transducers could be subject to damage from the environment, road debris, or accident, or to loss or theft if left mounted.
Wireless transducers, as in the preferred embodiment, require a power source that might not always be available, as in the case of failed batteries, and as such batteries are disposable will create waste hazardous to the environment. When the power source is derived from a hook-up, the user must remember to do so, make the effort to do so, and deal with cumbersome lengths of wire that the user will have to remember where they were stored, or that could be damaged if left in place, such as on the rear of the vehicle. Wires that access the transducers in a concealed manner generally must pass through user drilled holes in the car body, potentially damaging the integrity of the car body.
Learning to use the device and making a mental picture of the events appearing on the display of the handheld device and correlating them to events and movement of the vehicle happening in real time in the real world behind the user may be difficult for users, compared to actually seeing visual references of alignment on the vehicle and trailer themselves. Relying on the display and not visual references through the rear view mirrors could lead to an accident when reversing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,432 (PARENT) describes an alignment monitoring system using side markers on the vehicle and trailer for observing alignment of a towed vehicle while traveling where the driver cannot see the towed vehicle through the side view mirrors. The markers are fixed to the vehicle and trailer for observation in transit only, and are not intended to facilitate aligning a vehicle and trailer for purposes of coupling the ball and hitch of those vehicles respectively. The device has lights and reflective surfaces to allow it to be seen at night, but these function as visual references and not signals that turn on and off to show whether the coupling elements are at a stop point. This device does not have any indicator of when the tow vehicle ball is aligned to the trailer hitch socket at a stop point as this is not the intention of the invention.
Accordingly, a better solution not encumbered by the foregoing limitations would be desirable.

Method and apparatus for aligning a trailer hitch


A computerized printer utilizes a color separation and printing process that adds brightness, saturation and ink density to traditional CMYK printing processes and optionally eliminates the need for Black (K) color separation data and Black ink in the printer. The process includes the creation of Red, Green, and Blue (R′G′B′) color separation data channels for use by a computer processor to complement the dynamic range of traditional Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow (CMY) color separation data channels. Accordingly, the process gives printers the capacity to utilize a six-color separation process with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue (CMYR′G′B′) color separation data channels. The standard Black (K) separation data can be combined within the R′G′B′ separation data to optically simulate Black ink in print. The process can be applied to printing processes including: digital, flexography, inkjet, lithography, rotary gravure, rotary letterpress and screen-printing.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,326, (Bernasconi), issued to the present applicant, describes a method of color separation for a printing process wherein an image source is scanned one or more times to produce a plurality of data channels each of which provides a representation of one color separation of the image source, the data provided by each channel being restricted to represent a printable tone density range, and the channels being separated into two groups, a first providing separation data representing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) separations, the second providing Red, Green and Blue (R′G′B′) separation data representing a saturation image.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,326 describes a method of scanning an image to produce CMYK data and then adjusting the datum while scanning an image again to generate a second R′G′B′ data set. This R′G′B′ color separation data was derived directly from the original image.
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,326, the CMYK printing process can only reproduce a limited tonal range, commonly referred to at the CMYK "color gamut". Saturated Red, Green and Blue hues reproduced with Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMY) inks alone will often lack saturation and high ink density due to the limitations of the printable dynamic range. Halftone screening technologies can only reproduce 100 gray levels per primary color. Tone compression from the CMY ink densities also restricts the printable color gamut.
In recent years conventional drum or flatbed scanners that can color separate photographic originals, namely panchromatic emulsions, utilizing Red, Green and Blue (RGB) filters, have become virtually redundant in the graphic arts industry. Conventional drum or flatbed scanners have rapidly been replaced by digital cameras, where no panchromatic emulsion exists in the immediate creation of a color image. The data captured by a digital camera has already been digitally separated into three (3) gray scale images commonly known in the graphic arts and printing industries as a Red, Green and Blue (RGB) digital image.
A number of different color models have been developed to define color spaces, such as RGB, CIELAB (L*a*b*), L*C*h°, CMYK, etc. The International Color Consortium (ICC) has developed a specification defining "profiles" relating to the characteristics of the various groups. ICC profiles are used to describe the color attributes of a particular device or viewing requirement by defining a mapping between the source or target color space and a Profile Connection Space (PCS). This PCS can be either L*a*b* or CIE XYZ color space. Mappings may be done using tables, to which interpolation is applied, or through a series of algorithms or parameters for transformations. To convert from RGB to CMYK, the first step is to obtain the two ICC profiles concerned. To perform the conversion, each RGB triplet R, G, B is first converted to the PCS using the RGB profile. If necessary, the PCS is converted between L*a*b* and CIE XYZ, a well-defined transformation. Then the PCS is converted to the four values of C, M, Y, K required.
Every device that captures or displays color will have its own ICC profile. Some manufacturers provide profiles for their products, and there are also several software products available that enable end users to generate their own ICC profiles, typically through the use of a colorimeter or spectrodensitometer.
In CMYK process printing, each primary Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMY) ink absorbs Red, Green and Blue light respectively. In theory, a region having 300% (C+M+Y) ink coverage should reproduce an achromatic (Black) appearance, subject to the print density of each primary ink. In practice however, overprinting CMY alone results in a dark brown hue. The CMY density attained typically does not exceed 1.50.
This is because the combined (trapped) CMY inks fail to absorb all the complementary (RGB) light transmitted. Black (K) ink is traditionally used to overprint CMY, thereby absorbing the residual RGB light. The trapped C+M+Y+K result reproduces and denser, more neutralized Black appearance. The CMYK density attained typically exceeds 1.80.
In converting RGB data to printable CMYK data, the RGB data must first be converted to L*a*b* data, and then the L*a*b* data must be converted to CMYK data using appropriate conversion methods such as ICC profiles. Color information on the display monitor may "appear" to be lost during this color conversion procedure. The industry term used for this apparent loss of color information is called "gamut compression". For example, digital color images must first be converted from RGB (256 gray levels per primary color) to CMYK (100 gray levels per primary color) in order to reproduce them using CMYK inks and halftone screens. This is because no known print process can print continuous shades of gray. This RGB to CMYK color conversion can also be referred to as the "halftone preparation" step.
It is important to note that even after the CMYK data had been assigned 100 gray levels per primary color (to ultimately produce a halftone separation), the actual "background" digital data residing in the CPU is still 256 gray levels per primary color (8-bit data). The physical halftone compression step to 100 gray levels per primary color has yet to occur. The CMYK data has simply been "prepared" in readiness to produce a printable halftone range for each color separation: C, M, Y and K. This final compression step is only applied when the CMYK data is processed through a software Raster Imager Processor (R.I.P.) to create a 1-bit TIFF file. A 1-bit TIFF file can only record 100 gray (halftone) levels per primary color. Therefore, every 2.56 CMYK gray levels must be assigned only one (1) output halftone value to record the dynamic range of 2.00 (log10100=2.00). The compression ratio is 2.56:1.
Attempts to find the optimum formula for conversion between RGB and CMYK values and L*a*b* often founder because RGB and CMYK are not absolute color spaces and so have no precise relation to L*a*b*. To convert between RGB and L*a*b*, for example, it is necessary to determine or assume an absolute color space for the RGB data, such as sRGB or Adobe RGB (1998). For each of these absolute spaces, there are standard techniques for converting to and from the XYZ absolute color space (see for example sRGB color space specification of the transformation) which can be combined with the following transformations to convert them to L*a*b*.
The following formulae is commonly known and used by the ICC for transforming XYZ to CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB).
The forward transformation:—L*=116f(Y/Yn)−16a*=500[f(X/Xn)−f(Y/Yn)]b*=200[f(Y/Yn)f(Z/Zn)]                where f(t)=t1/3 for t>0.008865,                    f(t)=7.787t+16/116 otherwise.
Here Xn, Yn and Zn are the CIE XYZ tristimulus values of the reference white point.
The division of the f(t) function into two domains was done to prevent an infinite slope at t=0. f(t) was assumed to be linear below some t=t0, and was assumed to match the t1/3 part of the function at t0 in both value and slope. In other words:t01/3=at0+b(match in value)1/(3t02/3)=a(match in slope)
The value of b was chosen to be 16/116. The above two equations can be solved for a and t0.
a=1/(3δ2)=7.787037 . . .
t0=δ3=0.008856 . . .
where δ=6/29. Note that 16/116=2δ/3.
The International Color Consortium defines the format precisely but do not define algorithms or processing details. This means there is room for variation between different applications and systems that work with ICC profiles.

Color separation and reproduction method to control a printing process


A vacuum collet for handling semiconductor piece parts is formed to include a plurality of separate vacuum ports, disposed in proximity to one another. By selectively turning the vacuum ports "on" and "off", with only one vacuum port turned "on" at a time, a semiconductor chip may be articulated through various 90.degree. rotations to provide the orientation required for placement of the semiconductor chip on a final assembly.

In the assembly of semiconductor-based arrangements it is necessary that relatively small parts (on the order of 0.4".times.0.012".times.0.004" in dimensions) be picked up and accurately placed within the package. In the assembly of optoelectronic systems, the necessity to accurately orient and align optical components, such as semiconductor lasers, is critical. At the present time, the "picking and placing" of semiconductor parts requires an individual (referred to as an operator) to manually pick up the small semiconductor using a narrow, vacuum-tipped wand. Once the part is picked up, the operator must manually articulate the part to place it in its proper location. Due to the small size and fragility of the semiconductor piece parts, breakage occurs on a regular basis.
Thus, a need remains for a method of picking and placing small semiconductor devices that allows for relatively easy articulation of the piece part, while avoiding damage to the semiconductor device.

Vacuum-controlled collet for manipulation of semiconductor parts


A light-emitting-element mount substrate formed by relatively simple manufacturing steps, having a good heat release property, and having a high mechanical strength; and an LED device including the light-emitting-element mount substrate are provided. A substrate body of a light-emitting-element mount substrate is made of a low-resistance semiconductor (e.g., n-type silicon) substrate, and is divided into a first and second individual substrate bodies by an insulating layer. A first front-surface mounting electrode and a first external-connection electrode are formed on respective first and second major surfaces (e.g., front and back surfaces) of the first individual substrate body. A second front-surface mounting electrode and a second external-connection electrode are formed respective first and second major surfaces (e.g., front and back surfaces) of the second individual substrate body. The insulating layer has a shape different from a straight-line shape in plan view.

Currently, various illumination devices using light emitting diodes (hereinafter, called LEDs) are being in practical use. In particular, LED devices that are mainly practically used today typically have the following structures. A configuration has a structure, in which three-color light emitting elements that emit light of colors being close to the three primary colors of light are installed on a single light-emitting-element mount substrate, and a front surface is covered with protection light-transmissive sealing resin. Also, another configuration has a structure, in which a blue or near-ultraviolet light emitting element is installed on a light-emitting-element mount substrate, and the light emitting element is covered with sealing resin containing a fluorescent substance or a phosphorescent substance.
With each of the structures, the light emitting element being an LED element is mounted on the light-emitting-element mount substrate and the light emitting element is covered with the resin. A configuration generally has one of structures shown in FIG. 1. FIGS. 1(A), 1(B), and 1(C) are side sectional views showing representative structure examples of conventional LED devices.
An LED device 10PA in FIG. 1(A) includes a light emitting element 900 and a light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PA. The light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PA includes a box-shaped substrate body 101PA having a recess formed of a bottom plate and side walls extending along the outer circumference of the bottom plate. The substrate body 101PA is made of insulating ceramic. Mounting electrodes 102P for mounting the light emitting element 900 are formed on a surface at a recess side of the bottom plate of the substrate body 101PA. External-connection electrodes 103P are formed on a surface at a side opposite to the recess side of the bottom plate of the substrate body 101PA. Via electrodes 104P are formed in the bottom plate of the substrate body 101PA. The via electrodes 104P electrically connect the mounting electrodes 102P with the external-connection electrodes 103P. The substrate body 101PA, the mounting electrodes 102P, the external-connection electrodes 103P, and the via electrodes 104P form the light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PA. The light emitting element 900 is arranged inside the recess of the substrate body 101PA and is mounted on the mounting electrodes 102P. The recess is filled with sealing resin 901. Hence, the light emitting element 900 is covered with the sealing resin 901.
An LED device 10PB in FIG. 1(B) includes a light emitting element 900 and a light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PB. The light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PB includes a flat-plate-shaped substrate body 101PB. Mounting electrodes 102P for mounting the light emitting element 900 are formed on a front surface of the substrate body 101PB. External-connection electrodes 103P are formed on a back surface of the substrate body 101PB. Via electrodes 104P are formed in the substrate body 101PB. The via electrodes 104P electrically connect the mounting electrodes 102P with the external-connection electrodes 103P. The substrate body 101PB, the mounting electrodes 102P, the external-connection electrodes 103P, and the via electrodes 104P form the light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PB. The light emitting element 900 is arranged on the front surface of the substrate body 101PB and is mounted on the mounting electrodes 102P. Sealing resin 901 is provided on a front surface of the light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PB so that the light emitting element 900 is covered with the sealing resin 901.
An LED device 10PC in FIG. 1(C) includes a light emitting element 900 and a light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PC. The light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PC includes a box-shaped substrate body 101PC having a recess formed of a bottom plate and side walls extending along the outer circumference of the bottom plate. The substrate body 101PC is made of heat-resisting resin. Mounting electrodes 102PC for mounting the light emitting element 900 are arranged on the bottom plate of the substrate body 101PC. The mounting electrodes 102PC are exposed from a surface at a recess side and a surface at a side opposite to the recess side. The substrate body 101PC and the mounting electrodes 102PC form the light-emitting-element mount substrate 100PC. The light emitting element 900 is arranged inside the recess of the substrate body 101PC and is mounted on the mounting electrodes 102PC. The recess is filled with sealing resin 901. Hence, the light emitting element 900 is covered with the sealing resin 901.
With each of the LED devices, heat generated by the light emitting element has to be efficiently released to an external circuit board. To attain this, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-197972 (Patent Document 1), a silicon semiconductor substrate or a metal substrate having a good heat release property is used for a substrate body of a light-emitting-diode mount substrate.
Also, to prevent electrostatic destruction of a light emitting element, there is an LED device including an ESD protection element. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-15815 (Patent Document 2), a substrate body of a light-emitting-element mount substrate is formed of a semiconductor substrate, and an ESD protection element is formed in the semiconductor substrate. In the LED device descried in Patent Document 1, if a low-resistance silicon substrate is used for the substrate body of the light-emitting-element mount substrate, mounting electrodes, with which two terminals of a light emitting element are connected, have to be insulated. Hence, the low-resistance silicon substrate has to be electrically isolated in two regions. Hence, in Patent Document 1, an insulating layer for insulating and isolation is formed in a straight-line shape near a center portion of the low-resistance silicon substrate. To be more specific, for example, an insulating layer made of a silicon oxide layer is formed at the low-resistance silicon substrate.

Light-emitting-element mount substrate and LED device


A scanner is provided with a small and low-priced lighting member. The scanner scans an object having undulations on a surface thereof with good quality. The object is placed on a scanning platform. A CCD line sensor incorporated in a camera is positioned facing the scanning platform and scans the object line by line, while moving along an image plane on a lens of an optical scanning system for a specified distance. The lighting member irradiates a scanned position with light from above in a slanting direction under the same condition. The lighting member is moved in synch with the scanned position shifted when the CCD line sensor scans one line, so that the irradiation angle is constant entirely on the object to be scanned. Therefore, shadows of the undulations on the surface of the object are formed under the same conditions as those observed under the natural light without loss of stereoscopic effect of the object.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a scanner for scanning an object having undulations on a surface thereof, a lighting apparatus, and a scanning method.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional scanner is known that scans an object having undulations on a surface thereof, for example, a double-page spread of a book. The scanner includes a scanning platform, a camera fixedly disposed opposed to the scanning platform, and a lighting apparatus that illuminates the scanning platform with light. The camera has a charged-couple device (CCD) line sensor, an optical system that forms an image of an object on a light receptive surface of the CCD line sensor by a scale-down of the image, and a reading mechanism that moves the CCD line sensor along an image plane.
When a page of a book is scanned, for example, as an object having undulations on a surface thereof, the book is opened to a desired page and placed on the scanning platform, and an image of the double-page spread is scanned by the camera. The camera scans an image through the CCD line sensor that is moved from a scanning start position at one end of a scanning area to a scanning end position at the other end to read in one line of the image. One line of the image data outputted from the CCD line sensor is stored in the memory of the camera, the CCD line sensor is moved for a specified pitch, and a next adjacent line of the image data outputted from the CCD line sensor is stored in memory. In this way, bitmapped image data is stored in memory of the camera, and transferred to an image storage medium of the scanner. If the camera is not provided with memory, the image data is directly stored in the image storage medium.
However, in the above-described scanner, the object to be scanned needs to be entirely illuminated with light of sufficient quantity under the same conditions from outside the scanning area of the camera, so as not to interfere with the scanning of the camera between the camera and the object. As a result, a plurality of lighting apparatuses are installed around the camera. If the camera is far away from the object to be scanned, lighting apparatuses producing a great amount of light are used. When a large-size object, for example, a relief that is a 2 meter square, is scanned, it is difficult to illuminate the entire surface of the object to be scanned with light under the same conditions. The same lighting conditions can be made with a plurality of lighting apparatuses in point of light quantity. However, when a plurality of lighting apparatuses are used, the illuminating direction can not be fixed with respect to every point of the surface of the object. This is because the light irradiating the surface of the object comes from not only a single lighting apparatuse but also other lighting apparatus having equal light quantity at one or more different locations. Therefore, shadows are not produced on the surface of the object in the same direction, and undulations on the surface of the object do not appropriately appear on the image obtained by scanning.
In particular, when the object to be scanned has uniform undulations in height on the surface like the above-described relief, the resultant scanned image of the object may not appear exactly life like to viewers. For example, when the object to be scanned is a relief or a cloth product made by covering a sponge or cotton pad having a fixed thickness with a cloth and stitching it thereon, a pattern with undulations of substantially the same height is formed on a surface thereof. If the lighting conditions are different at each point of the surface of the object to be scanned, shadows of the undulations do not favorably appear on the scanned image. Accurate relief images of a cloth product and relief are required for design quality as viewers tend to evaluate the quality of the image of the pattern showing the undulations on the surface as the quality of the relief or cloth product. As a result, if the quality of the image of the pattern is poor because of the difference in lighting conditions, viewers can not view the pattern correctly.
As described above, the larger an object to be scanned becomes, the worse the undulations of the object are reflected (portrayed) on the image. On the other hand, there is a method to produce an image without shadows of the undulation pattern by using a plurality of lighting apparatuses to increase the amount of light. However, the image without shadows of the undulation pattern appears different from the object scanned when observed in the natural light.

Scanner, lighting apparatus, and scanning method


A landscape dolly (200) includes an upper frame (201, 203) and a lower frame (207, 209) attached to the upper frame for supporting the upper frame against a lower surface. The invention utilizes one or more collapsible legs (221, 223) that are positioned on the side of the lower frame for allowing the landscape dolly to move into a tilted position while being transported on a vehicle or with a handle mechanism (500). The handle mechanism (500) is used with removable wheels (300) which allow the dolly to be moved and/or steered into a desired location.

Carts and dollies used for transporting heavy objects are well known in the art. Dollies are particularly used in the landscaping trade in view of the heavy weight of trees, plants and shrubs that are often transported from place to place on a job site. Prior art FIG. 1 illustrates a landscaping dolly 100 that is currently used in the art. The dolly 100 includes base 101 and upright frame 103 supported by braces 105. Handles 107 are used by the operator to position the base 101 under the tree where it is then tilted using wheels 109 such that the tree or other objects are lifted from the ground. The operator then pushes the object to a desired location where the load is removed.
The problem associated with the prior art dolly 100 is that it is difficult to use during the tree transplantation process. Moving trees either on the ground or to a transportation trailer can require multiple laborers using this device. Those skilled in the art will recognize that once a tree is positioned on the base 101, it is cumbersome to move to another location. Since it is tilted in a backward direction, the prior art dolly 100 requires the operator to support some of the weight of the tree. With regard to tree transplantation, not only is it difficult to push great amounts of weight but the tree and root ball must be balanced in the within the dolly in order to prevent it from tipping side to side. When it is used in connection with a vehicular trailer, the prior art dolly 100 also has no means allowing it to be lifted into position and must be pushed and pulled using a gate or ramp up onto the trailer. Accordingly, the need exists to provide a landscape dolly that is easy to use allowing heavy trees, shrubs and other plants to be moved, lifted and transplanted with minimal effort.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Landscape dolly having collapsible legs for facilitating movement of trees for transportation


An optical signal demodulator includes: an obtaining unit configured to obtain a spectrum of an optical signal generated by a second signal being superimposed on a first signal using frequency modulation; an identifying unit configured to identify a peak wavelength which is a wavelength corresponding to a peak position of the spectrum; and a demodulating unit configured to demodulate the second signal from the optical signal using a wavelength-variable filter to which a transmitted wavelength band has been set based on the peak wavelength.

With an optical network employing optical branching/insertion or optical cross connection or the like, a great number of optical paths are set between multiple transmission nodes and multiple reception nodes. Therefore, multiple optical signals having mutually different combinations of transmission node and reception node may be transmitted using the same wavelength. Accordingly, it is difficult for a reception node to determine, just by detecting the wavelength of a received optical signal, whether or not the optical signal thereof has been transmitted from a desired transmission node, that is, whether or not the received optical signal is a desired optical signal.
Therefore, in order to enable a reception node to confirm a transmission source of the received optical signal, a node ID that indicates which transmission node a principal signal has been transmitted from may be superimposed on a principal signal thereof as an auxiliary signal. Also, in order to enable a relay node to identify which path is an optical path where the optical signal is transmitted from, the path ID of the optical path may be superimposed on the principal signal as the auxiliary signal.
As a technique to superimpose an auxiliary signal on a principal signal, there is a technique to superimpose an auxiliary signal on a principal signal using frequency modulation, that is, to subject a principal signal to frequency modulation using an auxiliary signal. More specifically, with this technique, a center frequency of the principal signal is slightly changed by "−Δf" or "+Δf" in response to "0" or "1" of digital information of the auxiliary signal. For example, in the event that a transmission frequency band width of the principal signal is several tens of GHz, the magnitude of Δf is around 0.1 to 0.5 GHz. At a reception node or relay node, a received optical signal is subjected to filtering using a wavelength filter, transmitted light after filtering is received at a photodiode to convert this into an electric signal, thereby converting the auxiliary signal superimposed on the principal signal into an intensity modulated signal. Specifically, the auxiliary signal superimposed on the principal signal by frequency modulation of ±Δf is detected by the filtering at the wavelength filter as a signal of which the intensity is changed by the worth according to ±Δf. In this manner, at a reception node or relay node, of the principal signal and auxiliary signal included in the optical signal, even without demodulating the principal signal, the auxiliary signal alone is demodulated.
The following non-patent literatures are examples of the related art of the present disclosure.
Tanimura, Takahito; Hoshida, Takeshi; Nakashima, Hisao; Akiyama, Yuichi; Yan, Meng; Tao, Zhenning; Rasmussen, Jens C., "In-Band FSK Supervisory Signaling Between Adaptive Optical Transceivers Employing Digital Signal Processing", in Proceeding of ECOC 2011, We.7.A, September 2011.
Tanimura, Takahito; Hoshida, Takeshi; Oda, Shoichiro; Akiyama, Yuichi; Nakashima, Hisao; Aoki, Yasuhiko; Cao, Yinwen; Yan, Meng; Tao, Zhenning; Rasmussen, Jens C., "Superimposition and Detection of Frequency Modulated Tone for Light Path Tracing Employing Digital Signal Processing and Optical Filter", in Proceeding of OFC 2012, OW4G.4, March 2012.
In order to demodulate the auxiliary signal superimposed on the principal signal by frequency modulation using a wavelength filter as described above, it is desirable to set near the center frequency of the principal signal, that is, near the center wavelength of the principal signal as the center wavelength of the wavelength filter.
However, in the event that precision of a light-emitting element that a transmission node includes to generate the principal signal is inferior, or the like, the center wavelength of the principal signal may be inaccurate by involuntarily deviating from a nominal wavelength. Also, the center wavelength of a laser diode to be sometimes used as a light-emitting element included in a transmission node is shifted to a long wavelength side as operation temperature thereof increases. Therefore, along with increase in operation temperature of the laser diode, the center wavelength of the principal signal involuntarily deviates from a nominal wavelength.
According to the center wavelength of the principal signal involuntarily deviating from a nominal wavelength, it becomes difficult to fixedly set the optimal position on the wavelength axis of the wavelength filter as to the principal signal. Therefore, heretofore, demodulation precision of the auxiliary signal superimposed on the principal signal by frequency modulation has sometimes deteriorated.

Optical signal demodulator, optical signal demodulating method, and optical add-drop multiplexer


A database query by using a user-defined function (UDF) is provided. A computer-implemented method for performing the database query by using the UDF includes detecting whether a command for invoking the UDF to transmit a parameter value has been received. Based on detecting that the command for invoking the UDF to transmit the parameter value has been received: a first interface of the UDF is started; the parameter value is received through the first interface; and the received parameter value is transmitted to an external data source. The method further includes returning to detecting whether the command for invoking the UDF to transmit the parameter value has been received.

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to database systems, more particularly, to performing a database query by using a user-defined function (UDF).
With the increase of data amounts and constant changing of users' needs, various "not only structured query language" (NoSQL) systems that are different from traditional relational database management systems (RDBMS) continuously emerge. Different from a traditional relational database that provides SQL structuralized query and guarantee of atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability (ACID), a NoSQL system does not use SQL as the query language. Its common features are non-relational data storage, simple application programming interface (API), final consistency guarantee and good horizontal scalability, which makes a NoSQL system become an ideal platform for resolving large data storage, large data query, and analysis in a cloud computing platform.
Current NoSQL systems can support a simple query to a large-scale data sheet, for example, a query based on a primary key. However, for an associated query containing one or more large-scale data sheets, NoSQL systems cannot effectively provide support. Usually applications can only realize NoSQL-based complex association support through a large amount of targeted development. This method is not flexible, has high development costs, and performance cannot be guaranteed. Based on the respective advantages of RDBMS and NoSQL, the two can be combined. Key data required for an associated query is stored in a relational database, and large scale and complete data are stored in a NoSQL system, so as to improve the associated query performance on a large scale data sheet by a mix and match approach. In currently existing possible mix and match approaches, the data interaction between RDBMS and NoSQL data sources has a performance bottleneck.

Database query using a user-defined function

International Business Machines Corporation


An antenna module includes a first coil conductor, a second coil conductor and a magnetic layer. The first coil conductor and the second coil conductor are arranged with a magnetic layer interposed therebetween so that a coil aperture of the first coil conductor and a coil aperture of the second coil conductor are opposed to each other in alignment. An inner end portion of the first coil conductor and an inner end portion of the second coil conductor are electrically connected. The first coil conductor and the second coil conductor are connected to each other so that directions of magnetic fluxes generated in coil-wound axis directions of the first coil conductor and the second conductor are mutually opposite to each other. A magnetic flux φ entering a metal body in a perpendicular direction thereto flows in a lateral direction of the magnetic layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna module and a radio communication device for use in an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system or a near field communication (NFC) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The RFID system is in widespread use as a billing and charge collection system. In the RFID system, a reader and writer and an RFID tag communicate with each other in a non-contact fashion, and communications are performed between these two devices. Each of the reader and writer and the RFID tag includes a RFID chip to process a signal and an antenna to exchange a radio signal. For example, in an HF-band RFID system, a signal is transmitted and received via an induction field between a coil antenna of the reader and writer and a coil antenna of the tag. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-166175, Japanese Patent No. 3933191, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-284476 disclose antennas for use in such an HF band RFID system.
Like Felica (registered trademark) introduced during recent years, an HF-band RFID system has been introduced in an information communication terminal, such as a portable telephone, and the terminal itself has been used as a reader and writer or an RFID tag. In such a case, a metal body such as a ground electrode of a printed wiring board or a battery pack may be placed in the vicinity of a coil antenna. However, if a metal body is located close to a coil aperture of the coil antenna, an eddy current is generated to cancel a change in a magnetic field of the coil antenna, and it is thus difficult to achieve sufficient communication distance. For this reason, a coil antenna that remains operative even when it is close to the metal body is needed. Such an antenna as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-166175 has a structure in which a magnetic body such as one made of ferrite is sandwiched between the coil antenna and an object on which the coil antenna is to be glued. In such a structure, it is still difficult to sufficiently prevent a magnetic field from entering the metal body, depending on an operation frequency band, thickness and magnetic permeability of the magnetic body, and the like. In other words, the magnetic body needs to be thickened in order to sufficiently control the effect of the magnetic body, and as a result, the size of the antenna increases.
Japanese Patent No. 3933191 discloses an antenna including a magnetic core in a rectangular shape, a first coil arranged at one end of the magnetic core, and a second coil arranged at the other end of the magnetic core. In the antenna, the first coil and the second coil are mutually different in coil-wound directions, and magnetic fields entering between the coils are guided in respective coil directions. The antenna can thus be located close to the metal body. In this antenna, however, communication distances in the top surface direction and end portion direction of the magnetic core are long, but it is difficult to achieve a long communication distance in a direction vertical to the axis of the magnetic core. In other words, there is a direction suffering from low gain.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-284476 discloses as an antenna excellent in multi-directional directivity an antenna including a magnetic core having a radially extending end portion. A coil is wound around the radially extending magnetic core so that a polarity remains the same. Since the antenna has directivity in a direction in which the magnetic core extends, the communication distance in this direction can be increased. However, the antenna of this structure is complex in the shape of the magnetic core, and it is not easy to wind the coil around the magnetic core.

Antenna module and radio communication device


A method, computer system, and a computer program product for data optimization is provided. The present invention may include performing a reading at a determined frequency, wherein the reading at the determined frequency is within a bracket parameter. The present invention may include determining a bracket value based on the bracket parameter. The present invention may include posting the bracket value to a subledger.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to distributed ledger technology.
Monitoring conditions of an environment (e.g., temperature, pressure, humidity, soil, or air composition, including other conditions), through the collection and storage of data, has been optimized by both Internet of Things (IoT) devices and distributed ledger technologies. IoT devices, equipped with sensors, may be capable of collecting large amounts of useful data and broadcasting the collected data so that the data may be shared and stored. A distributed ledger may allow for highly secure, transparent, immutable and tamper proof storage of the collected data. As a result, IoT devices may post large data packages to the ledger which may result in higher monetary costs to manage the constant inflow of data from these devices.
IoT devices and the data they collect have become critical to improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing worker safety.

Optimizing distributed ledger storage and battery usage in iot devices


A discharge amount measurement method is configured to measure a discharge amount of a liquid discharged from at least one nozzle of a droplet discharge head. The discharge amount measurement method includes discharging the liquid as a droplet from the at least one nozzle of the droplet discharge head by a number of discharges that is set to obtain a measurable quantity by driving the droplet discharge head based on measurement discharge data that is substantially identical to data used when a drawing pattern is formed by discharging the liquid from the at least one nozzle of the droplet discharge head, measuring the discharge amount of the liquid discharged from the at least one nozzle of the droplet discharge head, and calculating an average discharge amount based on the discharge amount and the number of discharges.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a discharge amount measurement method, to a pattern formation method, to a device, to an electro-optical device, and to an electronic instrument in a droplet discharge method.
2. Background Information
A method has been proposed for forming a color filter in a liquid crystal display device or a light-emitting layer in an organic EL display device, for example, by utilizing an inkjet system (droplet discharge method) that is used in an inkjet printer.
In this type of droplet discharge method, the quantity of droplets discharged from the droplet discharge head must be adjusted to the proper value. For example, when the quantity of discharged droplets that include a colorant material is inappropriate in a method for forming a color filter, the light that passes through the color filter is excessively or inadequately colored, and a color filter is obtained that has inconsistent quality and significant variation in color.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-209429 describes a method for obtaining the proper discharge amount of droplets. More specifically, this reference describes correcting the actual discharge amount of droplets by making the environment in which the discharge amount of droplets is measured the same as the environment when droplets are discharged onto a workpiece in order to reduce the effects of temperature or humidity.
However, the above mentioned reference does not describe the pattern and discharge timing at which droplets are discharged onto the workpiece. The discharge amount or discharge rate is usually measured during continuous discharge of droplets from a plurality of nozzles of a droplet discharge head. The discharge amount of droplets measured by this method sometimes differs from the rate at which droplets are discharged when a plurality of nozzles are selected for droplet discharge in order to actually form a drawing pattern. Specifically, it is difficult to minimize fluctuations in the droplet discharge amount that are caused by the drawing pattern in which droplets are discharged onto the workpiece.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved discharge amount measurement method. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Discharge amount measurement method, pattern formation method, device, electro-optical device, and electronic instrument


A thermal spray mixed with a substrate using a non-consumable cylindrical rotating tool. The process may be repeated to create a composite-like coating or material. The coating or material may be machine to improve surface quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for processing materials, and more particularly to a system and method for densification of a thermal spray coating deposited on a substrate material.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a welding technique invented by The Welding Institute (TWI) in 1991. FSW is a solid-state joining process that is a combination of extruding and forging. FSW works at a temperature below the melting point of the work piece material.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, FSW uses a cylindrical, shouldered tool 101 that is rotated and plunged into a joint line 102 between two pieces of sheet or plate material 103–104, which are butted together. The tool 101 comprises a nib 105 and is constructed from a suitable material, e.g., having suitable thermochemical stability, hot hardness, and abrasion resistance. Frictional heat is generated between the tool 101 and the pieces of work material 103–104. This heat causes the work piece material to soften and allows the tool 101 to traverse the joint line 102, wherein the plasticized work material is transferred from a leading edge 106 of the tool 101 to the trailing edge 107 of the tool shoulder and nib. The tool 101 creates a solid phase bond 108 between the two pieces of work material 103–104.
During welding, three flow fields may exist: a primary rotational flow field due to the rotating sliver of material surrounding the nib; a secondary translational flow field created as a sliver of metal entrained in the threaded nib traverses the substrate; and a tertiary vortex field forming smoke rings adjacent to the sliver of entrained metal as a result of the primary and secondary flow fields. This model helps to explain the intercalated, lamellar, or onion-like structures of a friction stir weld. The normal force (Forceplunge=6ΠRτ(T); where R is the radius of the shoulder and τ is the temperature dependent shear flow stress) and the moment (Power=2ΠR2tτ(T)ω; where R is the shoulder radius, t is the plate thickness, τ is the temperature dependent shear flow stress, and ω is the angular velocity of the weld tool=2Π(rpm)/60) needed for welding and translational forces (ForceTranslational=12Rtτ(T), where R is the shoulder radius, t is the plate thickness, and τ is the temperature dependent shear flow stress) produced during welding can be estimated.
Since its invention, FSW has emerged as an important solid state joining process for applications in industries including aerospace, shipping, railway, as well as military.
Thermal spray is a directed spray process in which material in molten form, semi-molten, or solid form, is accelerated to high velocities, and impinged upon a substrate, where a dense and strongly adhered deposit is built. Material may be injected in the form of a powder, wire or rod into a high velocity combustion or thermal plasma flame, which imparts thermal and momentum transfer to the particles. By carefully controlling the plume characteristics and material state, it is possible to deposit a vast range of materials (e.g., metals, ceramics, polymers and combinations thereof) onto virtually any substrate in various conformal shapes. For metals, the particles can be deposited in solid or semi-solid state. For ceramic deposits, the particles may need to be well above the melting point, which is achieved by either a combustion flame or a thermal plasma arc. The deposit is built-up by successive impingement of droplets, which yield flattened, solidified platelets, referred to as 'splats'. The deposited microstructure and, thus, properties, aside from being dependent on the spray material, depend on the processing parameters, which can be numerous and complex.
However, no know system or method exists for processing a thermal spray coating using friction stir welding. Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for processing a thermal spray coating and a substrate by friction stir welding.

Research Foundation of the State of New York