An orbiting multiple access transceiver communicates with terrestrial mobile stations which are also capable of communicating with terrestrial base stations. The multiple access transceiver is configured to sample a signal when a terrestrial mobile station of interest is not transmitting to produce a sample signal. The sample signal may be processed to produce an out-of-phase signal that may be applied to a signal when the terrestrial mobile station of interest is transmitting to produce a clearer signal from the terrestrial mobile station of interest.

Overview of Mobile Communications
Mobile communication involves signals being sent between a mobile station (MS) and a transceiver that can provide an interface for the MS to communicate to and from other network resources, such as telecommunication networks, the Internet, and the like, to carry voice and data communications, and possibly other features such as location-finding. Being mobile, a portion of the communication path will be wireless and wireless signals might combine when there are multiple transmitters using the same protocol, space, spectrum, and/or time. Because of that, the protocols used by the devices, such as mobile stations and base stations, should handle potential overlap of the use of a wireless space to accommodate multiple mobile stations as there are likely to be multiple mobile stations. One approach is to divide an allocated spectrum into channels, divide time periods into timeslots, and divide a service region into cells, setting power levels such that not all devices transmit significant energy in their signals to the entire service region occupied by receivers. For example, a cellular communications system might operate with protocols wherein a spectrum is divided into predefined channels, transmitters limit their transmissions to predefined timeslots, and power levels are such that a mobile device uses enough power to close a link (i.e., handshake and establish a link connection with sufficient reliability) with a base station and not much more, with a geographic range of the service region divided into cells so that a mobile device need only transmit enough to reach its nearest, or one of its nearest, base station.
A terrestrial cellular communications system comprises terrestrial base stations and mobile devices. The service region of a terrestrial cellular communications system might cover urban areas and other areas with sufficient infrastructure and users to make a service offering feasible. That service region might have gaps in coverage and might not extend to all areas where users with mobile devices might need or want coverage. An orbital communications system comprises orbital base stations and mobile devices. The service region of an orbital communications system might be able to cover more continuously some geographic area than the terrestrial cellular communications system, or even the entire surface of the Earth or other celestial body. A terrestrial cellular communications system and an orbital communications system might coexist in some overlapping regions by using separated and unrelated protocols and spectrum, with users of the terrestrial cellular communications system possibly using one type of mobile station for terrestrial cellular communications and users of the orbital communications system possibly using another type of mobile station for orbital communications.
Terrestrial Cellular Communications Systems
In a terrestrial cellular communications system, a mobile device will typically close a link with a base station that provides the strongest signal at the mobile device's location. A base station will typically close links with multiple mobile devices that are in range of the base station. Using time and frequency division, multiple mobile devices can communicate with a base station at the same time. With GSM, in one example, the spectrum band of 890-915 MHz is used uplink communications (from mobile device to base station) and the spectrum band of 935-960 MHz is used for downlink communications (from base station to mobile devices.
Each spectrum band is partitioned into channels. Each channel has a carrier frequency and the carrier frequencies are separated by about 200 kHz. In the general case, a channel might be defined by its carrier frequency and half of its channel separation on each side, so in this specific case, a channel has a carrier frequency considered to be centered within the channel's 200 kHz spectrum. This provides for 125 channels, and with about one channel on each side of a spectrum band as a guard separation, that leaves 123 channels for moving data. If, on each channel, data is transmitted in frames where a frame comprises eight timeslots that can be separately allocated to mobile devices, 123*8=984 mobile devices can communicate with one base station at a time. For a base station with multiple transceivers, perhaps using directional antennas, one base station might be able to support some multiple of 984 simultaneous links to mobile devices. In some instances, a base station is not ever allocated all 123 channels and in those instances, the base station's capacity is less.
Using some protocol mechanism, such as the use of RACH frames, a coordinated set of base stations in a terrestrial cellular communications system allocates out channels and timeslots to mobile devices that are trying to communicate with base stations. For example, a mobile device might signal its presence with a RACH request and a base station, hearing that request, might return a reply to indicate to the mobile device that it is to use timeslot t3 (of t0 through t7) and frequency f37 (of f0 through f122).
Transceivers and Mobile Stations
The transceiver may be a component in a base transceiver station (BTS) that handles traffic from multiple transceivers. The BTS might also include antennas and encryption/decryption elements. The antennas might be selective antennas, wherein different MSs at different locations might communicate to their respective transceivers via different antennas of the BTS. The BTS may have a wired, wireless, and/or optical channel to communicate with those other network resources. A BTS might support one or more transceivers and a given base station for supporting mobile communication might have a base station controller (BSC) that controls one or more BTS of that base station.
Examples of mobile stations include mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, and other devices equipped to communicate with a particular BTS. While herein the mobile stations are referred to by that name, it should be understood that an operation, function or characteristic of a mobile station might also be that of a station that is effectively or functionally a mobile station, but is not at present mobile. In some examples, the mobile station might be considered instead a portable station that can be moved from place to place but in operation is stationary, such as a laptop computer with several connected peripherals and having a cellular connection. The mobile station might also be stationary, such as a cellular device embedded in a mounted home security system. All that is required is that the mobile station be able to, or be configured to, communicate using a mobile communication infrastructure.
Each of these elements could be implemented using hardware and/or software and include network management and maintenance functionality, but a base station can be described as having one or more transceivers that communicate with mobile stations according to an agreed-upon protocol. This can be by having the BTS being configured, adapted, or programmed to operate according to the agreed-upon protocol for a BTS and having the MS being configured, adapted, or programmed to operate according to the agreed-upon protocol for a MS. The protocol might include details of how to send data between a transceiver and a MS, how to handle errors, how to handle encryption, and how to send control instructions and status data between the BTS and the MSs. For example, parts of the protocol might include interactions wherein an MS contacts a BTS and the BTS indicates to the MS what timing, carrier frequency, and other protocol options the MS is to use. This interaction might include carrying voice data, carrying text data, carrying other data, providing for intracell handover and other tasks.
Examples of BTSs include cellular telephone towers, macro-cell transceivers, femto-cell transceivers, picocells (which might have only one transceiver) and the like. BTSs will communicate with MSs wirelessly. Some BTSs have a backhaul (the interface between the BTS and the other network resources) that is wired, such as with a cellular telephone tower, while some might have a wireless backhaul, such as a microwave point-to-point bidirectional communications channel. Thus, a BTS might be any of several different types of electrically powered devices that receives data streams from MSs and processes those and/or forwards them to other network resources, as well as receiving data streams from the other network resources and processing those and/or forwarding them to MSs over the BTS-MS link(s). In this sense, a BTS acts as an access point for the MSs, to allow an MS to access network resources such as a telecommunications network, the Internet, private networks, etc. The access might be used to route voice calls, other calls, texting, data transfer, video, etc.
A telecommunications network behind a BTS might include a network and switching subsystem that determines how to route data to an appropriate BTS and how to route data received from a BTS. The telecommunications network might also have infrastructure to handle circuit connections and packet-based Internet connections, as well as network maintenance support. In any case, the BTS might be configured to use some protocols with MSs and other protocols with the backhaul.
Mobile Communications Protocols
In many examples herein, communications is described as being between a BTS and one MS for simplicity of explanation, but it should be understood that the interactions might be from a BTS to a transceiver, to a radio circuit, to an antenna, to a MS antenna, to an MS radio circuit, and to software/hardware in the MS. There is also a corresponding path in the other direction from the MS to the BTS. Thus, in some examples where a BTS is communicating with an MS, it is via a transceiver and the example ignores mention of the other transceivers that the BTS might be controlling or otherwise communicating with.
Examples of protocols that a BTS might use include GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications; trademarked by the GSM Association) 2G+ protocols with Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), EDGE protocols with GMSK and 8-PSK keying. A BTS might handle multiple transceivers that use multiple sets of carrier frequencies within a spectrum band of wireless spectrum that the protocol allows for. Thus, where a spectrum band is logically divided into carrier frequency spectra, a transceiver might use channels that use one (or more) of those carrier frequencies to communicate with an MS. The protocol might specify that for a given channel, there is an uplink subchannel and a downlink subchannel, in contiguous or noncontiguous spectra. In some cases, the uplink subchannel has a carrier frequency adjacent to that of the downlink subchannel. In some cases, all the uplink subchannels are in one spectrum band and all the downlink subchannels are in another spectrum band. For ease of explanation, sometimes a channel is described as having an uplink portion and a downlink portion as if it were one channel, even if the two subchannels of a channel are noncontiguous.
Some BTSs might provide for frequency hopping, where the transceivers and the mobile stations rapidly jump together from carrier frequency to carrier frequency to improve overall BTS performance. The protocol might specify the hopping sequences to use.
In the GSM protocol, transceiver-MS communication involves frames and each frame has up to eight timeslots. With eight timeslots, a transceiver sends out a frame that is directed at up to eight MSs, with each MS assigned a unique timeslot in the frame by the transceiver's BTS. The MSs can send their transmissions in their allotted timeslot and since each MS that is communicating with that transceiver knows which timeslot they are to use, similarly situated MSs can communicate back to the transceiver in their allotted timeslot. A transceiver might not use all eight timeslots.
A signaling channel, such as the GSM protocol's Common Control Channel (CCCH) might be used to convey to the MSs what their allocations are for timeslots and channels/carrier frequencies. For example, some Common Control Channels are used to make access requests (e.g., making RACH requests, which are from a MS to a BTS), for paging (e.g., making PCH requests, which are from a BTS to a MS), for access grant (e.g., an AGCH, which is from a BTS to a MS), and cell broadcast (e.g., CBCH, which is from a BTS to a MS). The AGCH (Access Grant Channel) is used for granting timeslot allocations/carrier allocations. Another channel, the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH), might or might not be used to send information to the MS, such as Location Area Identity (LAI), a list of neighboring cells that should be monitored by the MS, a list of frequencies used in the cell, cell identity, power control indicator, whether DTX is permitted, and access control (i.e., emergency calls, call barring, etc.).
The protocols for communication between MSs and BTSs might be such that they are standardized so that any standard MS can communicate with any BTS, assuming range requirements are met and membership requirements are met (e.g., that the MS has identified itself to the BTS in such a manner that the BTS, or a service that the BTS uses, determines that the MS is a member of an authorized group or otherwise authorized to use the services provided by the BTS. Some example protocols include the GSM protocols, sometimes referred to as 2G (i.e., second generation) network protocols. Other examples include GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, or EGPRS), 3G (third-generation 3G UMTS standards developed by the 3GPP body, or fourth-generation (4G) LTE Advanced protocols.
In these protocols, there are rules for spectrum band use, timing, encoding and conflict resolution. As a BTS is likely to have to communicate with many MSs at the same time, the available wireless communication pathway is divided up according to the protocol. A given protocol might have the available wireless communication pathway divided up by frequency, time, code or more than one of those. This allows multiple users to share the same wireless communication pathway.
For example, with a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), the BTS and the multiple MSs agree on the division of time periods into timeslots (or "burst periods") and where a first MS might interfere with a second MS, the first MS is assigned a first timeslot and the second MS is assigned a different timeslot of the available timeslots. Since different MSs use different timeslots (and they all agree on timing sufficiently well), they can share a common carrier frequency and their respective transmissions do not interfere. An example would be where there are eight timeslots of 576.92 μs (microseconds) each for each frame and so an MS assigned the first timeslot will perhaps transmit a number of bits during the first timeslot, stop transmitting at or before the end of its timeslot, remain silent, then during the first timeslot of the next period, continue transmitting, if desired. Similar allocations occur for a MS to determine when it is to listen for something from a BTS (and for the BTS to determine when it is to start transmitting that data).
Thus, using a single carrier frequency, each transceiver of a BTS can communicate with up to eight MSs and communications to those MSs is grouped into a TDMA frame and transmitted on the downlink channels that use that carrier frequency channel. The timing is such that each of those MSs can communicate in their respective timeslots to the BTS on the uplink channels that use that carrier frequency channel. This is referred to as a "TDMA frame" and the data rate over all eight MSs using that carrier frequency is 270.833 kilobits/second (kbit/s), and the TDMA frame duration, in either direction, is 4.615 milliseconds (ms).
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) is another way to divide up and allocate the available wireless communication pathway. With FDMA, the spectrum bandwidth available or allocated for the wireless communication pathway is divided up into different channels by carrier frequency. A first MS might be assigned one carrier frequency and a second MS might be assigned another carrier frequency, so that both can send or receive to or from one BTS simultaneously.
In the above examples, a plurality of mobile stations communicate with a BTS perhaps simultaneously, wherein communication between the BTS and a specific MS comprises sending information in a signal from the specific MS or from the BTS such that collisions of wireless signals are avoided, by having the BTS and the specific MS agree on which timeslot of a plurality of timeslots is to be used (TDMA), and/or agree on which carrier frequency of a plurality of carrier frequencies is to be used (FDMA). These are examples of multiple-access communications.
In another type of multiple-access communication, called "Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access" (OFDMA), mobile devices are assigned subsets of subcarriers, where orthogonal narrow frequency subchannels are assigned to mobile devices for more efficient use of allotted spectrum compared to FDMA.
In some frequency allocations, the allocation is per channel block, where a channel block is a set, or group, of bidirectional channels, wherein each bidirectional channel uses an uplink carrier frequency for an uplink subchannel and a downlink carrier frequency for a downlink subchannel. The channels might be grouped together into sets of two or more channels based on some logic for classification such that each set shares a common identifier or attribute.
In some protocols, the spectrum is divided into subspectra for carrier frequencies and also the periods are divided into timeslots. Typically, the BTS includes logic to determine which channels to allocate to which MSs. In assigning a channel for use by a MS, the BTS might assign a particular transceiver to use a particular carrier frequency and indicating to an MS that it is to use that particular carrier frequency and also indicate which timeslot to use from a frame transmitted/received using that carrier frequency. The channel might comprise an uplink subchannel and a downlink subchannel. It may be that a given transceiver-MS communication uses more than one channel, e.g., more than one carrier frequency and/or more than one timeslot, but in many examples herein, the protocol is illustrated as being with respect to a MS that uses a channel comprising just one carrier frequency and just one timeslot.
In yet another example of multiple-access communications, called "Code Division Multiple Access" (CDMA), mobile devices might use the same timeslot and carrier frequency, but each mobile device is assigned a unique pseudorandom code to encode the signals to and from the BTS such that even when MSs simultaneously transmit using the same carrier frequency, or almost the same time, and/or the same timeslots, if those are used, applying the unique CMDA code allows for multiple transmitters to occupy the same time and frequency, as the receivers can separate out different receptions by decoding using the pseudorandom codes to decode each specific signal well enough for demodulation.
In effect, CDMA separates the channels not strictly by time or strictly by frequency. The use of CDMA results in a transmission of spread-spectrum signals, spread across a larger bandwidth than without encoding, by using a chipping rate that is faster than the signal bit rate. Thus, encoding signals with pseudorandom codes can replace the timing and frequency elements typically found in TDMA/FDMA protocols, as each code represents some element of articulation in both the time and frequency domain. In CDMA communications, signal propagation delay and timing between the MS and the BTS is understood and so the pseudo-random code is applied to a received signal across some number of bits/chips which, of course, occupy both some discretized span of the time domain and some discretized span of the frequency domain.
In some multiple-access protocols, more than one approach is used.
In GSM protocol digital mobile radiotelephone systems, MSs and BTSs leverage communications across both frequency and time division multiple access (FDMA/TDMA) channels such that MSs can share the same transmit and receive carriers via the assignment of distinct timeslots over each carrier frequency and each carrier frequency might be handled by a distinct transceiver or transceiver module or logic block.
In GSM, the BTS is responsible for assigning a timeslot to the mobile station (MS) when it requests access. In a GSM frame structure, there are eight timeslots within each TDMA frame. The number of carrier frequencies used can vary. In some regions, some carriers are licensed for a large number of carrier frequencies and MSs in those regions are configured to accept instructions to use one of as many as a thousand carrier frequencies (which a BTS would also support). For instance, in Europe the GSM 900 MHz spectrum band comprises 25 MHz of spectrum. If this is logically allocated into 200 kHz channels (e.g., each channel having a carrier frequency centered within the channel and the carrier frequencies each separated by 200 kHz so that a channel is associated with a 200 kHz subspectra band), and transceivers send signals on those channels, this provides for 125 channels. The use of guard bands (unused carrier frequencies) in the frequency domain might reduce this number, but might provide added reliability or ease of signal processing. Where a TDMA frame allows for eight timeslots, a BTS having sufficient numbers of logical or actual transceivers available, could support 8*125=1000 MSs channels simultaneously. With time division and frequency division, there can be guard slots and guard frequencies, respectively, so that one division has some separation from an adjacent division. With some protocols, more than one timeslot and/or more than one carrier frequency can be assigned to one MS, to provide greater bandwidth.
In some cases, there are multiple BTSs within range of supported MSs and so the support of the MSs can be spread among the BTSs and perhaps they coordinate so that adjacent BTSs avoid using the same carrier frequencies when possible. BTSs might be programmed to spread these frequencies across their towers with a specific reuse scheme. It might also be that a BTS is limited in the number of MSs it can support by the size of the pipe to the other network resources. In one example, a BTS uses from 1 to 15 carrier frequencies (i.e., its transceivers transmit using 1 to 15 carrier frequencies in sending/receiving frames, so it could support anywhere from 8 to 120 simultaneous users).
Each MS typically includes a processor, memory, radio circuitry, a power source, display, input elements and the like to perform its functions. The processor might read from program memory to perform desired functions. For example, the program memory might have instructions for how to form a data stream, how to pass that to the radio circuitry, how to read an internal clock to determine the value of a system clock to appropriately time listening and sending, and how to set appropriate frequencies for transmissions and reception.
Each BTS typically includes a processor, memory, radio circuitry, power source(s), interfaces to the telecommunications network, diagnostic interfaces and the like to perform its functions. The BTS processor might read from program memory to perform desired functions. For example, the program memory might have instructions for how to form a data stream, how to pass that to the radio circuitry, how to communicate with the telecommunications network, how to read an internal clock to determine the value of a system clock to appropriately time listening and sending, how to set appropriate frequencies for transmissions and reception, how to keep track of the various MSs and their state, location, allocation, etc. and perhaps store that into locally available memory.
In the manner described above, an MS will contact a BTS to get allocated some timeslots in frames in some carrier frequencies and the BTS will inform the MS of the MS's allocation. As both the BTS and the MS have the same system clock (or approximately so), they will communicate within their allotted timeslots and carrier frequencies. The assignment and communication of the assignments to the MSs might occur using a random access channel that is used by the MS to request an allocation. In the GSM protocol, this is referred to as a RACH process.
In the example of GSM, communication over the wireless communication pathway is parsed into TDMA frames of duration 4.61538 ms, with eight timeslots per TDMA frame. Each timeslot is long enough to hold 156.25 bits of data. In one application, the MS or BTS will transmit 148 bits of data in a timeslot, over 546.46 μs, with 8.25 bits (30.46 μs) of a guard time between timeslots. In the GSM900 Band, the wireless communication pathway has a bandwidth of 25 MHz in the uplink and downlink directions each, using the spectrum band of 890-915 MHz for uplink subchannels and the spectrum band of 935-960 MHz for downlink subchannels, providing for 125 carrier frequencies (125 carrier frequencies in each direction, spaced 200 kHz apart). With 200 kHz of guard separation on each side of each spectrum band, that leaves 24.6 MHz of spectrum, or 123 carrier frequencies, for moving data. The total capacity of such a wireless communication pathway (in both directions) would then be 156.25 bits per timeslot times eight timeslots per frame times 216.667 frames/second*123 carriers=33.312 Mbits/second.
Once a mobile device is assigned a channel and a timeslot, it can send bursts of data to the base station, perhaps by encoding around 156.25 bits of data by modulating its channel's carrier frequency signal using Gaussian Minimum Shift Key (GMSK) modulation. With GMSK, the modulated carrier frequency signal spreads out over 200 kHz, dropping in amplitude further away from the carrier frequency and having somewhat of a null 200 kHz away from the carrier frequency on either side.
The arrangement of terrestrial base stations are typically such that two mobile devices that are assigned the same channel and the same timeslot are separated enough that their communications with their respective base stations is separated by enough distance that the signal energy from one mobile device is greatly attenuated around the other mobile device's base station. The arrangement of "cells" allows for this. This might also provide separation for adjacent channels, so that mobile devices using the same timeslot and adjacent channels are separated geographically so that even as their energy is spread into the adjacent channel, it is attenuated.
It might be that not every base station allocates links on every channel. Since coverage areas of base stations would overlap to ensure continuous connections, adjacent base stations might coordinate so that they do not use the same channels. For example, if base stations are arranged geographically in a hexagonal pattern and the 123 channels are grouped into channel groups A, B, and C of 41 channels each, one base station could limit itself to assigning channels in channel group A, while its six closest neighbor base stations alternate among channel groups B, C, B, C, B, C. In that case, two adjacent base stations wouldn't use the same channels. In other arrangements, there are 7 or 9 channel groups and their reuse is coordinated among base stations. In the latter case, there is considerable separation between two base stations using the same channel group and so the signals from the base station and mobile devices having links to that base station are well separated from the other base station and the mobile devices it is supporting.
In the above approach, transmissions from mobile stations can be maintained with separation by timeslot, frequency, a geographical separation for terrestrial cellular communications, but if the same protocols are used for orbital mobile communications, it might be that the orbital base stations would have to contend with large numbers of signals from mobile stations that are communicating with nearby terrestrial cellular base stations, and due to an orbital base station's larger footprint, the orbital base station's transceiver picks up many more transmissions than a typical terrestrial cellular base station.

Orbital base station filtering of interference from terrestrial-terrestrial communications of devices that use protocols in common with orbital-terrestrial communications


A hatch cover (10) is engageable with a hatch (11) on a railroad car (13). The hatch cover comprises a first rib (30) and a second rib (32) running annularly about the under side of the hatch cover and has an associated first coefficient of expansion. A gasket (70) having an annular shape and a U-shaped cross-section is coupled to the first and second ribs. The gasket forms a seal between the hatch and the hatch cover. The gasket has a second coefficient of expansion which is greater than the first coefficient of expansion. As the railroad car moves through different external temperature environments, the second coefficient of expansion being greater than the first coefficient of expansion allows the gasket to remain coupled to the hatch cover and maintain the seal between the hatch cover and the hatch throughout the various temperatures experienced.

This invention relates in general to railroad cars and, more particularly, to an apparatus for a hatch cover gasket.
Railroad cars are used to transport goods from one location to another. Railroad cars are often loaded with goods through a hatch in the top of the railroad car. A hatch cover is used to cover the hatch. A seal is formed between the hatch cover and the hatch using a hatch cover gasket. Traditional hatch cover gaskets have been coupled to the hatch cover using small tabs or glue to retain the gasket within a channel in the hatch cover.
As railroad cars transport goods from one location to another, the railroad cars often experience numerous temperature changes during the journey. The temperature changes cause the hatch cover gasket to expand and contract. The expansion and contraction of the hatch cover gasket often decouples the hatch cover gasket from the associated hatch cover. Hatch cover gaskets also have a tendency to freeze onto the hatch.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for a hatch cover gasket capable of remaining coupled to the associated hatch cover when exposed to various temperatures. According to the present invention, a system and apparatus are provided to address the shortcomings of prior hatch cover gaskets.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a hatch cover apparatus comprises a body formed with a first rib and a second rib, the body having a first coefficient of expansion, and a sealing element being annularly shaped and formed with a sealing element body, a first leg, and a second leg. The sealing element is engageable with the body and has a second coefficient of expansion greater than the first coefficient of expansion.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a system comprises a railroad car and a hatch coupled to the railroad car. The system further comprises a hatch cover engage able with the hatch and having a body, a first rib and a second rib coupled thereto, the first and second ribs having a first coefficient of expansion, and a sealing element having an annular shape and having a body, a first leg, and a second leg, the sealing element being engageable with the hatch cover and having a second coefficient of expansion greater than the first coefficient of expansion.


The invention provides a data network, systems and methods for checking nodes of a data network that are used for detecting whether a privacy policy concerning an information is maintained. The information comprises a mark corresponding to the privacy policy. The mark defines the storage place or the accessing paths or the transferring paths of the information. The mark is automatically searchable. The mark is searched, analyzed and checked as to whether the privacy policy is maintained. The advantage of the system is that vulnerabilities of systems for protecting confidential information may be detected a long time before an attack on the confidential information occurs.

Data networks have become increasingly complex and it is a tremendous task to maintain and to monitor a policy that determines the authorizations for accessing private information. In the state of the art it is well known to use firewalls, for example to limit the access to a private network that is connected to the Internet only to users having the allowance and the key to access the private network. It is known from the article "The design of grids: a graph-based intrusion detection system" by Stephen Chung et al., Department of Computer Science, University of California at Davis, Jan. 26, 1999, to use computer-graphs for detecting an attack from outside to a private network. In that system, unauthorized accesses from outside were detected as graphs and compared to given graphs designed according to a given network policy. If an access from outside results in a graph that does not fit with the given graph, then an attack is detected. Intrusions which are small, slow, or both might not be detected by that system. Hence, it is still possible for intruders to intrude into the system.
The known systems have the disadvantage that a failure in protecting confidential information in a network is detected after the attack. This means that in most cases the confidential information may be transferred to the attacker before the unauthorized access has been detected.

Data network and method for checking nodes of a data network

International Business Machines Corporation


A three-dimensional image display apparatus includes an image display configured to output image light which arrays a plurality of pixels and has polarization, a lens array arranged in front of the image display, configured to function as lens at light which has a 1st polarization direction, and not to function as lens at light which has a 2nd polarization direction differed from the 1st polarization direction, and a birefringent phase modulator placed between the image display and the lens array and configured to rotate a polarization plane of the image light.

A technique of synthetically displaying images from a plurality of directions using an image display surface, and making the image appear three-dimensional according to a viewpoint of an observer is proposed as a three-dimensional display system using a two-dimensional plane display.
As the three-dimensional display system, existing techniques may use a binocular stereoscopic system which displays two images observed in viewpoints of right and left eyes, and a multi-view system which displays many images observed in a plurality of viewpoints. Moreover, there exists an Integral Photography method (IP method) which synthetically displays images in an image display surface to many directions, without respect to a particular viewpoint.
As a method to select the image, a method using a pinhole array or a slit array having masked parts and aperture parts, and a method arranging a lens array or a lenticular array on the image display surface, and making an image-formation position of a lens a pixel position, are known. It is more desirable to use the lens array since display brightness is reduced using techniques relying on masked parts.
In order to display the two-dimensional image and the three-dimensional image alternatively on a same display, various proposals of techniques for have been made. One method using a lens array utilizes a selection display technique switching an existence of a lens effect by making the lens into a refractive index variable layer, has been previously disclosed, for example, in Japan Patent Application KOKAI No. 2000-102038. Here, it is said that a liquid crystal lens which is controlled by an alignment of liquid crystal by voltage, as a refractive index control means. By switching the existence of a lens effect, in case the two-dimensional image is displayed, it becomes possible to display an image in the original resolution of the two-dimensional display.
Moreover, as a realization method of a liquid crystal lens, a method of enclosing liquid crystal material between a convex or a concave lens and a substrate has been disclosed in S. Sato, J. J. App. Phys. Vol. 18, NO. 9, (1979) p. 1679–1684. A method of using a Fresnel-lens has been disclosed in S. Sato et al., J. J. App. Phys. Vol. 24, NO. 8, (1985) p. L626–L628. A method of using a diffractive lens which gives modulation of refractive index to an inside of a plane of incidence has been disclosed in S. T. Kowel et al., App. Optics Vol. 23, NO. 2, (1984) p. 278–289. A method of using a refractive index profile lens which gives modulation of refractive index to an inside of a plane of incidence and a propagation direction of light has been disclosed in T. Nose et al., Liquid Crystals Vol. 5, NO. 5, (1989) p. 1425–1433.

Three-dimensional image display apparatus


A method for processing a silver halide photographic light sensitive material, using an automatic processor, the method comprising the steps of developing an exposed silver halide photographic light sensitive material with developer containing a compound represented by the following formula (1); and then fixing the developed material with fixer, formula (1) ##STR1## wherein the average flow velocity of the developer is 20 cm/second or more.

Currently, in processing an X-ray photographic light sensitive material for medical use, rapid processing, reduction of replenishing amount of photographic processing solutions and reduction of waste are sought. Much study has been made on photographic light sensitive materials, photographic processing solutions, and an automatic processors.
However, in rapidly processing the light sensitive materials with reduced replenishment of the processing solutions, there occur residual color and CP lowering in the processed materials. In order to minimize activity lowering of the processing solutions resulting from the reduced replenishment in the rapid processing, there is known a method of increasing the activity due to circulation and stirring of the solutions in an automatic processor. Regarding such a technique, a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 4-191737 and 5-66541 in which the photographic processing solutions are directly jetted on the emulsion layer surface of light sensitive material so that the solutions jetted on the emulsion layer surface are effectively substituted with fresh ones and the solutions easily permeate into the emulsion layer. However, these techniques have problems that satisfactory results are not obtained in minimizing residual color and increasing CP.

Processing method of silver halide photographic light sensitive material


A semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor substrate, a basic module having a memory cell unit composed of first nonvolatile memory cells or a processor unit on a part of the substrate, an authentication module which has second nonvolatile memory cells in an area different from that of the basic module on the substrate, and stores an authentication code, and a lifetime control module which has aging devices configured by third nonvolatile memory cells in an area different from those of the basic module and the authentication module on the substrate, and which is turned on for a fixed period by storage of charges and permits reading of the authentication module only during an on-period of the aging devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which limits use of a memory cell unit, a processor unit or the like by a password. In addition, it relates to a BIOS authentication system which limits authentication of a basic input-output system (BIOS) by a password.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, services through the internet are combined with mobile technology to be used anywhere and anytime, and thus a theft incident of a business mobile (notebook PC or the like) is recognized as a serious threat to network security. For example, access to an in-company network through the stolen mobile is far more serious than that to information recorded in an HDD.
To solve such a problem, there is available a BIOS password technology which applies a password on a BIOS during booting. However, it relies on individual management by a mobile user, and a danger may be increased depending on user's understanding of security. The password of the stolen mobile can be decoded with sufficient time to release locking. This is because the password or its information exists in the HDD.
Against such a background, Intel Corporation has proposed direct mounting of preboot type security in a BIOS in a PC security technology system called a trusted platform module (TPM: http://developer.intel.com/design/mobile/platform/downloads/Trusted Platform Module White Paper.pdf). This trend is similarly observed in US Phoenix Corporation's "cME FistBIOS" which causes a BIOS to recognize a PC on a network (see: http://www.phoenix.com/en/Products/Core+System+Software/Phoenic+cME+FirstBIOS/default.htm).
Conventionally, therefore, there is an urgent social need to establish firm security between a mobile device such as a notebook PC and an infrastructure such as a network, and expectation is now placed on a security technology which incorporates authentication codes in the BIOS. Permission of use by authentication may be applicable not only to BIOS authentication but also to limited use of a processor unit such as a CPU.
Thus, there has been a demand for a semiconductor device which can limit use of a memory cell unit or a processor unit by a password, thereby improving security, or a BIOS authentication system which can limit authentication of BIOS use by a password, thereby improving security.

Semiconductor device and BIOS authentication system


A system and method for recording writing performed on a surface includes a stylus and a detector assembly having a base appliance and a personality module removably attachable to the base appliance. The detector assembly includes a storage medium which allows the system of the present invention to track and record writing while not connected to a processing device such as a computer, printer, wireless device or hand-held device.

Existing technologies for capturing and storing handwritten notes include digitized writing surfaces such as electronic whiteboards or SmartBoards™. Such electronic whiteboards typically either photocopy the entire writing surface or serve as the actual input device, such as an electronic template, for capturing the handwritten data. The whiteboards may be active or passive electronic devices in which the user writes on the surface with a specialized stylus. The active devices may be touch sensitive or responsive to a light or laser pen such that the whiteboard is the detector that detects the active signal. Passive electronic boards may use large, expensive, board-sized photocopying mechanisms. Previous whiteboard systems tend to be large, cumbersome, expensive, and immobile.

System and method for recording writing performed on a surface


A back light unit (lighting device) 12 includes an LED (light source) 17, a light guide plate 16 including a light entrance surface 16b and a light exit surface 16a, LED boards 18 each including a plate surface facing the light entrance surface 16b and board relay terminals 22 configured to relay power to the LED 17, and a relay wiring member (relay member) 28 electrically connecting between the board relay terminals 22 and a power source board (power) PWB. The light entrance surface 16b faces the LED 17. The light from the LED 17 enters the light guide plate 16 through the light entrance surface 16b and exits through the light exit surface 16a. The LED 17 is mounted on the plate surface of the LED board 18. The board relay terminals 22 are arranged such that the relay wiring member 28 that is orientated to either one of sides in the thickness direction of the light guide plate 18 is allowed to be connected to the board relay terminals 22.

In recent years, a display element of an image display device such as a television device is shifting from a conventional CRT display device to a thin display device using a thin display element such as a liquid crystal panel and a plasma display panel. This enables the image display device to have a reduced thickness. A liquid crystal panel used for a liquid crystal display device does not emit light, and thus a backlight unit is required as a separate lighting device. Backlight units can be broadly categorized into two types, i.e. a direct-type backlight unit and an edge-type backlight unit, according to its structure. It is preferable to use the edge-type backlight unit to further reduce the thickness of the liquid crystal display device. Patent Document 1 describes a known edge-type backlight unit. The edge-type backlight unit described in Patent Document 1 includes LEDs as light sources and an LED board on which the LEDs are mounted. The LED board faces a light entrance surface of the light guide plate.

Lighting device, display device, and television device


A self-routing, modular, switching arrangement for distributing and concentrating input data packets that is comprised of a distribution section and a concentration section comprising N priority concentration sorters each having N inputs and L outputs, L being less than N. The sorters comprise means for ordering data packets according to priority information and for transferring only the L data packets from N inputs which have the highest relative priorities. A multiplicity of the switching arrangements can be interconnected to provide an expanded switching arrangement. The distribution network may be of a radix-r tree configuration in which multicast elements reference an extra cell header which identifies the output links of a multicast elements to which a data packet is to be transferred. The length of the extra cell header may be variable and determined by the output links of the multicast elements to which the data packet is to be transferred, wherein the extra cell header excludes data identifying descendent output links to which the data packet is not transferred. Also provided is an output port controller for multiplexing sets of L data packets input to said controller at successive time slots according to their relative priority levels and for producing as an output one data packet having a higher relative priority.

Emerging multimedia and high-speed data applications are generating a demand for networks that are able to multiplex and switch a wide spectrum of data rates simultaneously. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) systems are widely recognized as the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) networking paradigm that will allow flexibility and efficiency in high-speed, multi-service, multimedia networks.
ATM is based on a fixed size connection-oriented cell switching methodology. An ATM cell is comprised of a well-defined and size-limited header area and user information area. The length of an ATM cell is 53 bytes, with a 5 byte header field and a 48 byte information field. The small fixed cell size and limited header functionality has an important influence on the design of an optimal ATM switching architecture. Many researchers have investigated the design of the core ATM switching fabric and a wide range of different switching architectures have been proposed in the last decade.
An ideal switch should provide fibre-like performance, meaning that it should provide low transmission delay and low bit error rate, and it should also be transparent to all users. Therefore, the principal function of an ATM switch is to transmit incoming cells to their destination addresses without incurring extra delays and excessive cell losses.
To date, only a few researchers have investigated the problems in constructing large scale switch architectures. As discussed in K.Y.Eng, M. J. Karol, Y. S. Yeh, "A Growable Packet (ATM) Switch Architecture: Design Principles and Applications", IEEE Trans. Commun., Vol.40, No.2, pp.423-430, Feb. 1992, various switches can be theoretically designed to large dimensions, but the technological and physical constraints (e.g. chip sizes, board sizes and speed of interconnects) often impose a practical limit on their maximum size. In order to build larger switching systems, two or more smaller switches have to be interconnected; however, the resulting complete architecture may no longer be the same as that of the individual switches because simple interconnection of the smaller switches creates several levels of queuing delay and results in severe performance degradation if congestion occurs at intermediate modules.
The major difficulty in implementing large scale switching networks is the cell synchronization within the network, which is mainly due to the complexity of interstage wiring. The drawback is that the length of interconnection wires between stages grows geometrically with respect to the size of the network, although the complexity of the hardware logic of each switching element remains the same. When the wires connected to the same switching element are not identical in length, there is a discrepancy in the cell arrival delay. As the switch network grows, the differences in wire lengths increases, thus compounding the problem of signal synchronization. As a result, cell synchronization due to differences in the length of interconnection wires represents a major difficulty in implementing high-speed networks.
The realization of large scale ATM switches has problems such as heat dissipation, power consumption and wire routing. Additionally, the speed of the output multiplexer and the speed of the switching elements represent other constraints. Moreover, the enormous number of required overlapping wires has precluded the implementation of the network on a single chip. This has caused researchers to find other ways of building a large network, such as the three-dimensional structure disclosed in D. Wilson, "A New Architecture for Packaging Wideband Communication Equipment Using a 3-D, Orthogonal Edge-to-Edge Topology", Proc. IEEE GLOBECOM '88, pp.430-434, 1988. Even though many space switch designs, such as those discussed in F. A. Tobagi, "Fast Packet Switch Architectures for Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks", Proc. IEEE, Vol.78, No.1, pp.133-167, Jan., 1990, have a reasonable hardware complexity in terms of the number of 2.times.2 switching elements, many of the above-stated difficulties have been found in implementing high-speed multi-stage interconnection networks. Despite advances in ATM switch architectural designs, practical switch dimensions continue to be severely limited by both the technological and physical constraints of packaging.
Multipoint communication services are considered a basic functionality in ATM switches to meet future multimedia applications. A common method to achieve multicast services is to add a point-to-point switch at the back of a copy network. However, overflow problems in the copy network may result in problems; for example, head-of-the-line blocking exists even when an output queuing switch is used, and unfair services are provided to different output port.
In a multimedia environment, many different traffic types are statistically multiplexed and ATM cells can have different priority levels. To achieve priority sorting functionality, an additional sorting network can be used in input queuing or shared queuing switches. However, the priority requirement may conflict with the basic architectural designs in output queuing switches. For example, in the Knockout switch described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,570 issued Jul. 26, 1988 to Acampora et al. the N-input/L-output concentrator cannot let some cells with higher priority go to their output cells.
It is thus advantageous to provide a core switch fabric and an output controller for a fast packet switching system that permits the integration of multicast services and priority control into the switch design while at the same time providing a design that can readily be expanded with a minimum level of complexity.
It is also advantageous to provide a core switch fabric and output port controller which utilize a self-routing architecture so as to eliminate any need for central controlling means.
Further, it is advantageous to provide a core switch fabric and output port controller which can process any number of cell priority levels up to the limitation imposed by the size of the cell priority fields.
These advantages are included amongst those provided by the subject invention.

Asynchronous transfer mode switching system


A method of reducing mercury levels in a mercury contaminated material using microwave energy. The method comprises the steps of (a) placing the mercury contaminated material in a microwave reactor; (b) providing a stream of gas in the microwave reactor, the stream causing agitation of the mercury contaminated material; and (c) exposing the mercury contaminated material to microwave radiation so as to raise the temperature to at least 357° C., producing a vapour phase which contains mercury and a treated material. The method also allows for a simultaneous reduction of mercury and carbon levels in the material to be treated as well as the use of a carbon-free material in the reactor.

Mercury is a known contaminant present in the combustion gas stream from industrial incinerators and boilers such as those used in the burning of coal for stream/electricity generation or those used in the municipal solid waste treatment for steam generation or waste removal. The high environmental toxicity of mercury is well established, therefore, mercury scrubbing has become a necessary (albeit expensive) component of flue gas treatment.
Mercury scrubbing from flue gas streams may be accomplished by several methods which vary in complexity, cost and effectiveness. These methods include sorbent (carbon or alkaline) filtering, oxidation, chloridation and others.
Carbon sorbent filtering is well known in the art and utilizes the known sorbent characteristics of fine carbon, particularly activated carbon. Several carbon sorbent techniques have been disclosed and practiced. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,454 to Chang et al. teaches the injection of raw carbonaceous material into a mercury contaminated gas stream at a temperature sufficient to activate the carbonaceous material into an effective adsorbant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,021 to Pennline et al. discloses a method of recirculating semi-combusted coal which has been converted to a stream of thermally activated carbon sorbent and which is then reintroduced into the primary combustion chamber. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,103,205 and 6,322,613 both to Wojtowicz et al. disclose a method of producing a carbon sorbent through the pyrolysis of a carbonaceous feedstock such as scrap tires, including a means of regenerating the sorbent through hot-gas vaporization and the production of a highly concentrated mercury rich gas stream which must be subsequently treated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,823 to Knowles teaches the use of fly ash, which is an automatic byproduct of coal combustion, as a sorbent material owing to its natural filtration properties, namely, small particle size and large surface to mass ratio. Knowles does not discuss the possible effects of carbon (unburned fuel) in the fly ash nor does he discuss the separate roles played by the sorbing fly ash particles and the sorbing carbon particles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,323 to Bhat et al. teaches the injection of activated carbon as a flue gas treatment for mercury removal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,187 to Madden et al. discloses the use of alkaline sorbents, such as limestone, followed by particulate filtration, as a means of removing mercury from flue gas streams.
All sorbent techniques result in a mercury rich particulate which is captured in some form of baghouse or other similar means for separating particulate from the flue gas stream prior to release to atmosphere. Inevitably, this mercury rich particulate complex will include mercury, sorbent material and some residual fly ash which may have escaped earlier stages of fly ash removal. Ultimately, this particulate complex must be disposed either in whole as for example by cementation, burial, etc. or by further processing the material either to reduce its volume or to regenerate the sorbent. In the case of sorbent regeneration, the high cost of sorbent replacement may be avoided or partially offset, and in the case of volume reduction, the mercury is further concentrated to yield a mercury-sorbent volume which is substantially reduced, thus allowing for a more efficient containment or disposal. From an environmental viewpoint, ideally all the mercury originally present in the coal fuel should end up being collected in molecular or elemental form which should be easily manageable.
Considering the mercury-sorbent mixture to be a separate material requiring treatment leads one to consider means for removing mercury from the mixture. One such means is through pyrolysis of the mercury by heating the material to the mercury vaporization point, followed by a more efficient mercury removal technique than that which produced the mercury-sorbent material in the first instance. This is similar, in many aspects, to the problem of removing mercury from mercury contaminated soils and industrial materials.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,590 to Gale et al. discloses a method for retorting mercury from dry, granular materials using an electrically heated kiln through which the material is screw transported. A condenser is used to remove the mercury vapor from the exhaust gas stream. Gale claims an advantage over earlier methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,154 to Navetta and in U.S. Pat. No. 1,599,372 to Reed, in that his process is continuous and of practical size and complexity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,931 to Hanulik discloses a rotary tubular kiln in which the material passes countercurrent to a combustion flame. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,891,216 and 5,989,486 both to Washburn et al. teach a batch retorting method including the use of a stirring mechanism to assist in liberating the evaporated mercury vapor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,188 to Evans et al. discloses a rotary kiln which is operated as a pyrolytic incinerator in the absence of air, from which the combustible gas stream is condensed into the various product streams. U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,863 to Meador discloses a pyrolysis method by which used batteries may then be processed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,223 to Lindgren et al. describes a process whereby mercury contaminated material is heated within a furnace in the presence of selenium to form mercury selenide in a hot gas stream, thus leaving the decontaminated material for further use.
While each of these methods satisfies the functional need of providing a process for reducing the content of mercury in mercury contaminated materials, there remains a need for more efficient and economic methods. In addition, in certain cases such as in the treatment of fly ash for example, it is often desired to also reduce the level of carbon in the material. Thus, there is a need for a method that can allow for the simultaneous reduction of both mercury and carbon contents of a mercury contaminated material.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved method of reducing mercury from mercury contaminated materials. The method uses microwave energy.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a method allowing for a simultaneous reduction of mercury and carbon contents in mercury contaminated materials using microwave energy.
It is still an object of the invention to provide the use of a bubbling fluidized bed reactor vessel in the process according to the invention.
It is still an object of the invention to provide the use of a host bed material in the process according to the invention.

Method of removing mercury from mercury contaminated materials


The present invention relates to methods of determining the concentration of an analyte in a sample or improving the performance of a concentration determination. The electrochemical sensor strips may include at most 8 μg/mm2 of a mediator. The strips, the strip reagent layer, or the methods may provide for the determination of a concentration value having at least one of a stability bias of less than ±10% after storage at 50° C. for 4 weeks when compared to a comparison strip stored at −20° C. for 4 weeks, a hematocrit bias of less than ±10% for whole blood samples including from 20 to 60% hematocrit, and an intercept to slope ratio of at most 20 mg/dL.

Biosensors provide an analysis of a biological fluid, such as whole blood, urine, or saliva. Typically, a biosensor analyzes a sample of the biological fluid to determine the concentration of one or more analytes, such as glucose, uric acid, lactate, cholesterol, or bilirubin, in the biological fluid. The analysis is useful in the diagnosis and treatment of physiological abnormalities. For example, a diabetic individual may use a biosensor to determine the glucose level in whole blood for adjustments to diet and/or medication.
Biosensors may be implemented using bench-top, portable, and like devices. The portable devices may be hand-held. Biosensors may be designed to analyze one or more analytes and may use different volumes of biological fluids. Some biosensors may analyze a single drop of whole blood, such as from 0.25-15 microliters (μL) in volume. Examples of portable measurement devices include the Ascensia Breeze® and Elite® meters of Bayer Corporation; the Precision® biosensors available from Abbott in Abbott Park, Ill.; Accucheck® biosensors available from Roche in Indianapolis, Ind.; and OneTouch Ultra® biosensors available from Lifescan in Milpitas, Calif. Examples of bench-top measurement devices include the BAS 100B Analyzer available from BAS Instruments in West Lafayette, Ind.; the CH Instruments' Electrochemical Workstation available from CH Instruments in Austin, Tex.; the Cypress Electrochemical Workstation available from Cypress Systems in Lawrence, Kans.; and the EG&G Electrochemical Instrument available from Princeton Research Instruments in Princeton, N.J.
Biosensors usually measure an electrical signal to determine the analyte concentration in a sample of the biological fluid. The analyte typically undergoes an oxidation/reduction or redox reaction when an input signal is applied to the sample. An enzyme or similar species may be added to the sample to enhance the redox reaction. The input signal usually is an electrical signal, such as a current or potential. The redox reaction generates an output signal in response to the input signal. The output signal usually is an electrical signal, such as a current or potential, which may be measured and correlated with the concentration of the analyte in the biological fluid.
Many biosensors have a measurement device and a sensor strip. A sample of the biological fluid is introduced into a sample chamber in the sensor strip. The sensor strip is placed in the measurement device for analysis. The measurement device usually has electrical contacts that connect with electrical conductors in the sensor strip. The electrical conductors typically connect to working, counter, and/or other electrodes that extend into a sample chamber. The measurement device applies the input signal through the electrical contacts to the electrical conductors in the sensor strip. The electrical conductors convey the input signal through the electrodes into a sample deposited in the sample chamber. The redox reaction of the analyte generates an output signal in response to the input signal. The measurement device determines the analyte concentration in response to the output signal.
The sensor strip may include reagents that react with the analyte in the sample of biological fluid. The reagents may include an ionizing agent for facilitating the redox reaction of the analyte, as well as mediators or other substances that assist in transferring electrons between the analyte and the conductor. The ionizing agent may be an oxidoreductase, such as an analyte specific enzyme, which catalyzes the oxidation of glucose in a whole blood sample. The reagents may include a binder that holds the enzyme and mediator together.
One disadvantage of the reagent compositions used in conventional biosensors is the change in measurement performance, either accuracy or precision, that occurs when the sensor strip is stored. The electronics and analysis methods used by the measurement device to determine the analyte concentration of the sample are generally selected in view of the reagent composition on the sensor strip performing as initially manufactured. However, after transportation and storage on store shelves, the reagent composition degrades with time and temperature. This change in the chemistry of the reagent composition may result in a reduction of measurement performance.
To increase the long-term stability of biosensor reagent compositions, conventional biosensors generally rely on a substantial excess of enzyme and mediator in relation to the amount of these reagents required to analyze the sample. Expecting these reagents to degrade over time, conventional reagent compositions include substantially greater amounts of enzyme and/or mediator than required to stoichiometrically react with the analyte. In addition to increasing the cost of the biosensor through the use of sacrificial reagents, the unnecessary reagents may require a larger sample volume, longer analysis time, and decrease the measurement performance of the biosensor due to many factors.
For example, PCT publication WO 88/03270 discloses an overall deposition density of 3 mg/cm2 (30 μg/mm2) with a screen printing method. The relative amount of K3Fe(CN)6 was 57.7%, phosphate buffer at 28.8%, and glucose oxidase (GO) at 3.6%. Translating these percentages into deposition densities on the sensor strip results in a K3Fe(CN)6 density of 17.31 μg/mm2, a phosphate buffer density of 8.64 μg/mm2, and a GO density of 1.08 μg/mm2. In another example, column 17, lines 25-35 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,245 discloses the deposition of 15 μL of a 0.1 M solution of 1,1′-dimethylferrocene in toluene onto a disk electrode having a diameter of 4 mm. With a molecular weight of 214 M.U., the 1,1′-dimethylferrocene mediator was applied at a deposition density of 25.5 μg/mm2 [(15 μL*0.1M*214 g/mol)/22*3.14 mm2=25.5 μg/mm2]. In a further example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,199 discloses the deposition onto the sensor electrode of 4 μL of a solution including 40 mg of GO, 16 mg of K3Fe(CN)6, and 20 mg of CMC in 1 mL of water. In this instance, the deposition densities were 6.67 μg/mm2 for GO, 10.67 μg/mm2 for K3Fe(CN)6, and 13.33 μg/mm2 for CMC with an estimated electrode area (deposition area) of 6 mm2. In a further example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,817 describes a reagent formulation including 59 g of K3Fe(CN)6 dissolved in approximately 900 mL water with other ingredients. Approximately 4.5 μL of this reagent was deposited onto a 21.4 mm2 (3.2×6.7) opening to give a mediator deposition density of 13.96 μg/mm2 (4.5×10−3 mL*59 g/900 mL).
In each of these examples, the reagent compositions had mediator deposition densities in the 10-25 μg/mm2 range, while the enzyme deposition density was in the 1-6 μg/mm2 range. This large mediator loading in relation to the enzyme may be attributable to the single application of the composition to both the working and counter electrodes. Depending on sensor design, mediator may function at the counter electrode to support the electrochemical activity at the working electrode. Thus, a single reagent composition deposition covering both electrodes may result in substantially overloading the working electrode with mediator.
The examples show that excesses of enzyme and mediator are used to ensure that enough active ingredients are present for accurate glucose measurement. Using sensor strips manufactured with increased sacrificial amounts of reagents after long-term storage may result in the disadvantage of a drift in measurement performance. This drift may be observed in at least two ways: (1) a background current increase over time (affecting the calibration intercept) and (2) a shift in sensor sensitivity (affecting the calibration slope).
During storage, reduced mediator may be produced from interactions between the oxidized mediator and the enzyme system and polymer. This is a natural process believed to be governed by thermodynamics. The larger the amount of mediator or enzyme, the larger the amount of reduced mediator that is produced. As the concentration of reduced mediator increases over time, the background current will increase toward the end of the shelf-life of the sensor strips.
Multiple methods have been proposed to reduce the effect of drift on sensor performance before use of a stored sensor strip. For example, Genshaw et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,863 disclosed a method of using a relatively long initial pulse before the analysis to oxidize mediator that was reduced during transport and storage. While effective, this method lengthened the time required to complete the analysis.
Thus, it would be desirable to increase the long-term stability of the reagent composition to improve the measurement performance of the biosensor after transportation and storage. Such a long-term stability increase of the reagent composition may increase the measurement performance of the biosensor and provide a longer shelf-life for the sensor strips. It also would be desirable to reduce the amount of sacrificial enzyme and/or mediator included in the reagent composition and to decrease the time required to complete the analysis.
Another drawback of conventional biosensors used to measure the glucose concentration in whole blood (WB) samples is referred to as the "hematocrit effect." In addition to water and glucose, WB samples contain red blood cells (RBC). Hematocrit is the volume of a WB sample occupied by RBC in relation to the total volume of the WB sample and is often expressed as a percentage. The hematocrit effect occurs when red blood cells block the diffusion of the analyte and/or mediator to one or more electrodes of the biosensor. Since the output signal measured by the biosensor corresponds to the rate of diffusion of the analyte and/or mediator, the RBC may introduce error to the analysis by interfering with this diffusion process. Thus, the greater the hematocrit percent (volume of red blood cells) deviates from the %-hematocrit system calibration for a WB sample, the greater the hematocrit bias (error) in the glucose readings obtained from the biosensor.
WB samples generally have hematocrit percentages ranging from 20 to 60%, with ˜40% being the average. If WB samples containing identical glucose levels, but having hematocrits of 20, 40, and 60%, are tested, three different glucose readings will be reported by a system based on one set of calibration constants (slope and intercept of the 40% hematocrit containing WB sample, for instance). Even though the glucose concentrations are the same, the system will report that the 20% hematocrit WB sample contains more glucose than the 40% hematocrit WB sample, and that the 60% hematocrit WB sample contains less glucose than the 40% hematocrit WB sample due to the RBC interfering with diffusion of the analyte and/or mediator to the electrode surface. Thus, conventional biosensors may not be able to distinguish between a lower analyte concentration and a higher analyte concentration where the RBC interfere with diffusion.
Conventional biosensors are generally configured to report glucose concentrations assuming a 40% hematocrit content for the WB sample, regardless of the actual hematocrit content. For these systems, any glucose measurement performed on a blood sample containing less or more than 40% hematocrit will include some hematocrit bias attributable to the hematocrit effect.
Various methods and techniques have been proposed to reduce the bias of the hematocrit effect on glucose measurements. For example, Ohara et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,475,372 disclosed a method of using the ratio of currents from a forward and a reverse potential pulse to compensate for the hematocrit effect. McAleer et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,708,247 and 5,951,836 disclosed a reagent formulation using silica particles to filter the RBC from the electrode surface for reducing the hematocrit effect. Carter et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,890 disclosed a method of using wide electrode spacing in combination with mesh layers to distribute the blood sample to reduce the hematocrit effect.
These conventional techniques for reducing the bias attributable to the hematocrit effect included (a) co-deposition of a polymer to minimize the hematocrit effect, (b) addition of various kinds of fused silica to enhance the filtration effect for the polymer layer, (c) compensation coefficients based on the ratio of currents from a forward and a reverse potential pulse, and (d) self-compensation by utilizing the existing solution resistance of the whole blood samples. Although these methods may be useful, conventional glucose sensors continue to exhibit significant analytical bias attributable to the hematocrit effect, generally from about 15 to 30%. Thus, it would be desirable to provide systems for quantifying analytes in biological fluids, in particular the glucose content of whole blood, which reduces bias from the hematocrit effect.

Methods of determining analyte concentration having enhanced stability and hematocrit performance


The present invention is directed to a modular roll-up partition assembly, such as a rolling protective shutter, implementing an improved mechanism for raising the partition in an emergency by disengaging a motor from a rolling shutter. The mechanism includes a cable that passes through an axial passage in a spring shaft to which a torsion spring is mounted. When the cable is pulled, the coupling mechanism is separated from the motor drive shaft, thereby disengaging the spring shaft from the motor drive shaft and permitting the torsion spring to quickly raise the rolling shutter.

The present invention is directed to a roll-up partition system assembly which has a protective partition for covering a window or door opening that may be rolled up into a housing when not in use. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a modular assembly implementing an improved emergency opening mechanism for roll-up partition systems. The embodiments disclosed herein illustrated the various aspects of the present invention applied to one particular type of roll-up partition system: rolling protective shutters formed from a plurality of interconnected slats. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention has application in other systems wherein a partition member is coupled to and rolls up onto a support member within a housing, such as roll-up doors, roll-up grills, roll-up gates and the like. The application of the present invention to the various types of roll-up partition systems is contemplated by the inventor.
One type of roll-up partition system is a rolling protective shutter. Rolling protective shutters are conventional and are used to provide protection against extreme weather conditions and to deter theft, for example. One such rolling protective shutter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,635 to Solomon. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of that patent, the Solomon shutter is composed of a plurality of elongate slats, each of which has a pair of circular ribs attached to its sides. The slats are interconnected by a plurality of elongate hinges, each of which has a pair of circular apertures in which the circular ribs of the slats are disposed. When the Solomon shutter is unrolled to its protective position, each of the slats in the shutter is disposed vertically with the ends of the slats disposed within guide channels or side tracks on either side of the opening. When not in use, the Solomon shutter may be rolled up into a housing disposed at the upper end of the protective shutter.
Another type of rolling protective shutter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,322 to Miller. As shown, the shutter assembly includes a shutter support member mounted for rotation in a shutter housing. A rolling shutter composed of a plurality of individual slats is coupled to the shutter support member so that the shutter can be rolled up onto the shutter support member. A pair of shutter tracks extend downwardly from either end of the shutter housing. When the shutter is in its unrolled position, the ends of the slats are disposed within the tracks.
Roll-up partitions in general, and rolling protective shutters in particular, typically incorporate one or more torsion spring assemblies to assist in rolling and unrolling the shutters manually or by a powered opening device. In one arrangement, the assembly is a self-contained modular unit having a spring shaft surrounded by a coiled torsion spring. One end of the spring shaft includes a spring shaft support that is rotatable about the spring shaft, and a spring plate rigidly fixed to the spring shaft and to the proximate end of the torsion spring to prevent rotation of the end of the torsion spring relative to the spring shaft. The other end of the spring shaft includes a spring drive that is rotatable about the spring shaft and rigidly fixed to the other end of the torsion spring. The assembly is inserted into the shutter support member with one end of the spring rigidly fixed to the shutter housing. The spring shaft support and spring drive engage the interior of and rotate with the shutter support member. When the shutter is unrolled, the torsion spring is wound tighter, thereby providing additional torque to assist in lifting and rolling the shutter onto the shutter support member. During normal operation of the rolling protective shutters, the torsion spring exerts a minimum torque when the shutter is in the rolled position and a maximum torque when the shutter is in the unrolled position.
The torsion spring therefore assists in lifting the shutter to an open position, whether motor driven or manually operated. In many municipalities, it is required that a person could easily pull a lever and have any type of security door or gate open ("pop up") for easy and fast egress in case of an emergency, such as, for example, a fire, inside the building on which the security door or gate is installed. This "pop up" operation must be done mechanically rather than by electrical power, in the event that electrical power is interrupted due to the fire or other emergency in the building.
Accordingly, it is necessary to have a system that enables a torsion spring to raise the door or gate by a manual operation. Typically, motor driven security doors or gates use a braking system of some type to maintain the position of the door or gate when the motor is stopped. This braking system must be disengaged when the door or gate needs to be raised.
A typical type of overhead door uses a large motor mounted outside of a housing that contains the door or gate when it is rolled up. The motor can be hidden in the ceiling of the building in which the door or gate is installed. Through the use of gears and/or chains, it has been fairly easy to provide a mechanism to disengage the braking system and permit the torsion spring to raise the shutter. However, this type of external motor system is extremely costly, very large, difficult to install, and can be unsightly if it cannot be hidden in a ceiling.
One primary alternative to such external motor systems is the use of tubular motors to raise and lower doors and gates. Tubular motors can be encased inside of a roller tube around which the door or gate is wound when the door or gate is opened. As the motor system is always hidden within the roller tube, it is never visible and thereby gives the door or gate a very clean look. The use of a tubular motor also makes installation of the door or gate much simpler.
Present designs for rolling doors or gates having tubular motors do not have satisfactory mechanisms for utilizing a torsion spring to raise the door in an emergency. Typically, a cable mechanism is used to manually release a brake inside the tubular motor. Such cable mechanisms do not work well in practice because the required travel of the cable is so small in order to effectively release the brake that the cable mechanisms either simply do not work or are extremely difficult to install properly. Accordingly, presently there are no known commercial manufacturers of tubular motors that offer a system for rolling up a door or gate in an emergency.
In view of the foregoing problems and disadvantages, there is a need for a system that can be used with a tubular motor that enables the use of a torsion spring to open a door or gate in case of an emergency.

Pop up safety device for rolling shutters


An exercise belt for use while seated in a normal position in a motor vehicle and preferably while using the installed safety harness in which the exercise belt incorporates a resilient resistance member extending diagonally across the chest of the user and held in position by oppositely extending tie straps tied to brackets secured to the vehicle. The tie straps are adjustable in length to adjust the position of the resistance member and one of the tie straps is provided with a quick release buckle to facilitate removal of the exercise belt when not is use.

The present invention relates to exercise equipment and more particularly to exercise equipment which can be used in a motor vehicle by both drivers and passengers.
A large number of people spend a great deal of time seated in motor vehicles in pursuit of their employment. For example, truck drivers spend all of their work day seated in a tractor of a tractor-trailer combination. Also, most people commute to their place of employment by using passenger automobiles.
In view of the large amount of time that people spend operating and traveling in vehicles it would be useful to provide equipment that would allow such travelers the ability to exercise during the time that the vehicle is being operated. It also would be useful for that exercise equipment to allow the vehicle operator to control the vehicle in an otherwise normal manner while still providing a reasonable level of beneficial exercise.
Almost all present day vehicles are equipped with safety belts to restrain movement of operators and passengers in the event of an impact such as that experienced in collisions and accidents. Such belts are usually in the form of lap belts which restrain movement and shoulder belts which permit limited movement until there is rapid deceleration of the vehicle upon impact in a collision.
Although operators and passengers of vehicles are restricted in their movement, it is highly desirable to afford some form of physical exercise without impairing the operation of the safety equipment such as the safety belts and harness.
The present invention is an exercise device that provides resistance to the operator""s normal physical motions without impairing operating safety and thus allows the operator to receive physical exercise while operating the vehicle.
It is an object of the invention to provide exercise equipment for use by a person seated in a motor vehicle using the safety belt or harness equipment with which the vehicle is typically equipped without impairing the operation and effectiveness of such safety equipment.
Another object of the invention is to provide exercise equipment which can be used in conjunction with the use of the safety belt and safety harness equipment in a motor vehicle which offer""s resilient resistance to the limited movement that the safety belt equipment affords without impairing the use of the safety equipment.
Another object of the invention is to provide exercise equipment in the form of a belt assembly which can be used simultaneously with the wearing of safety harness and seat belts in motor vehicles.
These and other objects of the invention are attained by exercise equipment to be used by persons seated in the motor vehicle equipped with a safety belt harness in which the exercise equipment incorporates an elongated resistance member which resiliently resists elongation. The opposite ends of the resistance member is provided with support or link elements which are connected to opposite ends of the resistance member and also to a pair of tie straps or belts. The pair of tie straps are adjustable in length and have their opposite ends connected to the link elements on the resistance member and to the anchor points which secure the safety belt or harness to the vehicle. The pair of tie straps act to support the resistance member in a diagonal position across the chest of the driver or passenger so that a person seated in a vehicle and wearing safety harness can move against the resistance of the resistance member. The resistance to the operator""s normal physical movement, thus allows the operator and passengers of vehicles to achieve physical exercise without impairing the person""s normal range of movement.


An electronic apparatus performs a method of recovering a complete and dense point cloud from a partial point cloud. The method includes: constructing a sparse but complete point cloud from the partial point cloud through a contrastive teacher-student neural network; and transforming the sparse but complete point cloud to the complete and dense point cloud. In some embodiments, the contrastive teacher-student neural network has a dual network structure comprising a teacher network and a student network both sharing the same architecture. The teacher network is a point cloud self-reconstruction network, and the student network is a point cloud completion network.

A partial raw point cloud is usually incomplete, sparse and noisy due to occlusion and limitations of the acquisition sensors. Therefore, 3D point cloud completion becomes a critical step for the success of point cloud data to be used in real-word applications. The challenge of tackling this problem comes from recovering an accurate complete shape with geometry details, and producing a point cloud with high density.
Current point cloud completion methods either produce a dense complete but over smooth point cloud lacking details, or produce a low resolution sparse point cloud.
Some global shape representation based point cloud completion methods learn a global shape representation by shared multilayer perceptron (MLP) to directly regress 3D coordinates of reconstructed points in an end-to-end manner, which usually lead to the generated point cloud being over smooth and with missing details.
Some low-resolution point cloud completion methods generate low-resolution but not dense complete point cloud due to the large memory consumption limitation. Similarly, voxel or implicit field representation based shape completion methods have resolution and memory limitations as well due to 3D convolution.

Systems and methods of contrastive point completion with fine-to-coarse refinement


A motor vehicle body is provided with at least one rear-end side member, on the lower side of which a reinforcing element for the connection of a rear axle arrangement is arranged. The reinforcing element includes, but is not limited to a connecting portion spaced from the side member with at least one through-opening for mounting an axle fastening element. The connecting portion supports itself on the side member via at least one support element penetrating the intermediate space between side member and connecting portion.

Popular rear axles, such as for example twist beam axles or multi-link axles of motor vehicles comprise at least one control arm, which is to be arranged on the rear side member or on a rear frame structure of a motor vehicle body via an axle bearing. The connecting region provided for the fastening of the control arm, for example a side member, typically is to be structurally reinforced so that the mechanical forces that occur during the operation of the motor vehicle and can be transferred into the support structure of the motor vehicle via the control arm can be absorbed without problems and discharged into the support structure of the motor vehicle, i.e., into the self-supporting motor vehicle body.
The axle connection furthermore takes place in the region of a wheel housing provided for the respective rear wheel. In this region, a side member structure of the motor vehicle body is usually subject to an offset in height with respect to the vehicle vertical axis (z). A rear region of the side member facing the vehicle rear in this case is typically located slightly higher than a side member portion located in travelling direction in front of the rear axle. Furthermore, there is the requirement for example in passenger cars, to guide a tank filler pipe for example below the side member from a vehicle outer side to a vehicle inner side. If the tank filler pipe is to be installed for example in the region of the control arm, it must be ensured that a moveably mounted control arm does not collide with the tank filler pipe even in a maximally bumped end state.
Thus, a vehicle body with side members is known for example from DE 10 2009 043 913 A1, which comprise means for mounting a fastener of a twist beam axle and a multi-link axle. For the multi-link axle, means for mounting the multi-link axle are provided on the side members in the form of a bracket in this case.
In view of the foregoing, at least one object is to provide a motor vehicle body with a structurally reinforced rear axle connection that is improved with respect to its stability and optimized with respect to the motor vehicle installation space distribution. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.

Motor vehicle body with an external reinforcing element for the rear axle connection


A rotational balance adjustment structure for an engine includes; a damper pulley having an elastic member provided on the outer periphery of a hub and a damper mass provided on the outer periphery of the elastic member; and an engine assembly having an engine body and a plurality of parts mounted on the engine body, the plurality of parts including the damper pulley. The engine assembly is assembled by mounting a plurality of parts to the engine body, the plurality of parts including the damper pulley, and the rotational balance of the engine assembly is adjusted by attaching a balance piece to the damper mass.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a structure and a method for adjusting the rotational balance of a rotational-part assembly consisting of a plurality of parts including a crankshaft and a damper pulley in an engine having an engine body on which the damper pulley is mounted together with other parts.
2. Description of the Related Art
An engine body mounted in a motor vehicle, or the like, includes pistons that are disposed in cylinders formed in the cylinder body such that the pistons can reciprocate therein. The pistons are connected to the crankshaft, which is the output shaft of the engine, via connecting rods. The cylinder head is provided on the upper end of the cylinder block, and combustion chambers are defined between the cylinder head and the respective pistons. The pistons reciprocate as air-fuel mixtures are combusted in the combustion chambers, and the reciprocation of the pistons turns the crankshaft via the connecting rods.
Various parts are mounted on the engine body, such as a damper pulley attached to the front end of the crankshaft and a flywheel attached to the rear end of the crankshaft. In this specification, an assembly obtained by mounting such parts including the damper pulley and the flywheel to the engine body will be referred to as "engine assembly".
Among the parts mounted on the engine body, the damper pulley is a pulley that has a damping function, as well as the function for transmitting the rotational force from the crankshaft to auxiliaries, such as those in a motor vehicle (e.g., compressor for air-conditioner, power steering pump). For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 63-246564 (JP-A-63-246564) describes the aforementioned technology.
An example of a damper pulley is shown in FIG. 13. The damper pulley 402 of this example has a cylindrical hub 421 that is connected to a crankshaft 150 via arms 425 and a boss 424, a damper rubber 423 provided on the outer periphery of the hub 421, a cylindrical damper mass 422 provided on the outer periphery of the damper rubber 423. According to this structure, when the crankshaft 150 is rotating, the hub 421 and the damper mass 422 resonate with the damper rubber 423 interposed therebetween and this resonation cancels the torsional vibration of the crankshaft 150, so that the vibration of the crankshaft 150 is damped. Also, in this damper pulley 402, V-grooves 422a are formed in the outer surface of the damper mass 422 and the belt for driving the auxiliaries, such as the air conditioner compressor and the power steering pump, is wound around the damper pulley 402 by being fit on the V-grooves 422a.
Typically, the rotational balance of a rotational-part assembly consisting of a plurality of parts that are mounted on the engine body (e.g., damper pulley, flywheel, crankshaft) is adjusted by adjusting the rotational balance of each part. Therefore, to obtain a desired rotational balance of the engine assembly, the rotational balance of each part needs to be finely adjusted. Also, even if a desired rotational balance of each part constituting the rotational-part assembly can be obtained, the rotation of the rotational-part assembly mounted on the engine assembly may be out of balance due to, for example, the tolerances for attaching the respective parts to the crankshaft.

Rotational balance adjusting structure and method for engine


The present invention discloses a method for smoothing a surface of an optical element with a laser. Firstly, an optical element having a rough surface is provided. Next, the rough surface of the optical element is illuminated with a laser. The rough surface absorbs laser energy and melts into a liquid. The liquid is stretched and planarized by the surface tension of the rough surface and then solidifies into a smooth surface. The present invention can smooth the surface of an optical element and promote the resonant or waveguide performance of the optical element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabrication method, particularly to a method for smoothing a surface of an optical element with a laser.
2. Description of the Related Art
In optoelectronics, the optical resonator is a very important element, which enhances the intensity of light having a specified wavelength and has been widely used in various optoelectronic devices, such as micro-laser devices, optical filters, optical switches, ultra-fine sensors, high-resolution spectrometers and so on.
Based on the advanced semiconductor technologies, many researches are devoted to tiny and low-cost integrated optical elements. However, the surface roughness of a tiny optical resonator results in too high a scattering loss and impairs the realization of a tiny and high-density optical integrated circuit.
J. S. Xia et al. fabricated a disc-type optical microcavity and observed therefrom a silicon emission spectrum intensified by 30 times at a room temperature and a whispering gallery mode. The optical resonator has a Q value (quality factor) of 500-700, and they believe that the Q value can be greatly increased by smoothing the roughness of the lateral surface. Satoshi Iwamoto et al. fabricated a photonic-crystal submicron optical resonator and observed a photoluminescence enhanced by 310 times therefrom. This opticalresonator has a Q value of about 5000. However, the observed Q value is much smaller than the theoretical Q value 21000, and they suppose that the fact results from the lateral surface roughness generated in fabrication.
Many methods have been used to improve surface roughness and decrease scattering loss, including the hydrogen annealing method, the dry oxidation method, and the wet chemical etching method. In the hydrogen annealing method, a sample is placed in a hydrogen-filled furnace at a temperature of 1100° C. for 3 minutes, whereby the RMS (Root-Mean-Square) roughness is reduced to 0.11 nm. In the dry oxidation method, a sample is placed in a furnace at a temperature of 1100° C. for 50 minutes to form an autogenous oxide layer, whereby the RMS roughness is reduced to 0.5 nm. In the wet chemical etching method, the surface of a sample is oxidized with a chemical solution, whereby the RMS roughness is reduced to 0.7 nm.
The abovementioned methods respectively have their advantages and disadvantages. In the hydrogen annealing method and the dry oxidation method, the sample has to suffer a high temperature. In general, such a high temperature will seriously damage the crystalline quality of the electronic circuit. The dry oxidation method and the wet chemical etching method can only improve surface roughness to a limited extent. The wet chemical etching method not only consumes the material but also varies the topography of the material.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a method for smoothing a surface of an optical element with a laser to solve the abovementioned problems and improve the resonator and waveguide performance of an optical element.

Method for smoothing a surface of an optical element with laser