A process execution management system including a controller system designed to have a data center component and first and second user interface component instances is provided. The data center component includes data required to execute a process by a processing resource in communication with the controller system. The first and second user interface components enable a first user interface and a second under interface to provide interfaces to first and second copies of the data center component, respectively. The first and second user interfaces notify the data center component of changes to the first and second copies of the data center component, respectively. The data center component issues updates including the changes to each of the first and second copies of the data center component to each of the first and second user interfaces to maintain synchronized data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to software processing, and more particularly, to methods and systems for remotely managing the distribution and scheduling of computing operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the use of software in performing daily tasks is increasing rapidly, assessing software reliability through software testing has become an imperative stage in the software development cycle. As is well known, software testing is used to find and eliminate defects (i.e., bugs) in software, which if undetected, can cause the software to operate improperly. In general, software testing may be performed by implementing a stand-alone computer or a network of computer resources. The drawback of using a stand-alone computer system to perform software testing is that the stand-alone computer system must be specifically programmed to run the test selected by the software user. To submit a new test, modify or terminate an existing test, or obtain the status of the tests currently running, the user must physically access the computer lab and the stand-alone computer system. This is extremely inconvenient when the computer lab or the stand-alone computer system is remote or such access is impossible.
Comparatively, when a network of computer resources is used, the users are responsible for manually adding and deleting the computer resources to the network, programming the master computer system and the server, initiating the running of a user-selected test, and running the test on the group of dedicated computer systems coupled to the server. The shortcoming of this scenario is that to accomplish any of these tasks, the user must have physical access to the computer lab housing the master computer system running the network controller. Thus, unless the users can access the computer lab, the users are incapable of performing any of such tasks. Furthermore, at any given time, only a single user can access the controller. This is specifically inconvenient when multiple users, each located are in different remote buildings, attempt to access the controller.
Additionally, in either scenario, a heavy user interface is required for initiating the software testing on the master computer, scheduling the running of the specific test on the system resources, adding and deleting of the system resources, keeping track of the system resources and their respective hardware and software configuration, and maintaining the system resources. Moreover, in either case, the software testing is performed by dedicated system resources. That is, the system resources are designed to solely be used for software testing.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a flexible methodology and system to accommodate the remote distribution and scheduling of the processing of a computer software.

Remote system controller and data center and methods for implementing the same


The invention includes a method of treating a solid acid catalyst. After exposing the catalyst to a mixture containing a sugar alcohol, the catalyst is washed with an organic solvent and is then exposed to a second reaction mixture. The invention includes a process for production of anhydrosugar alcohol. A solid acid catalyst is provided to convert sugar alcohol in a first sample to an anhydrosugar alcohol. The catalyst is then washed with an organic solvent and is subsequently utilized to expose a second sample. The invention includes a method for selective production of an anhydrosugar. A solid acid catalyst is provided within a reactor and anhydrosugar alcohol is formed by flowing a starting sugar alcohol into the reactor. The acid catalyst is then exposed to an organic solvent which allows a greater amount of additional anhydrosugar to be produced than would occur without exposing the acid catalyst to the organic solvent.

Anhydrosugar, dianhydrosugars (also known as sugar alcohols) and their derivatives are commercially valuable for a variety of applications including therapeutic uses and use as copolymers to improve properties of polymer materials. Conventional dehydration of sugars to produce anhydrosugars and/or dianhydrosugar alcohols, typically utilizes batch processing with a mineral acid catalyst. However, such conventional production of dianhydrosugars and/or anhydrosugars can be expensive and inefficient. Additionally, conventional processes can be environmentally unfriendly.
It is desirable to develop alternative methods for producing anhydro- and dianhydrosugar alcohols.

Method of performing sugar dehydration and catalyst treatment


A method and an apparatus for rate control in a high data rate (HDR) communication system are disclosed. An exemplary HDR communication system defines a set of data rates, at which an access point (AP) may send data packets to an access terminal (AT). The data rate is selected to maintain targeted packet error rate (PER). The AT's open loop algorithm measures received signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) at regular intervals, and uses the information to predict an average SINR over the next packet duration. The AT's closed loop algorithm measures a packet error rate (PER) of the received signal, and uses the PER to calculate a closed loop correction factor. The loop correction factor is added to the SINR value predicted by the open loop, resulting in an adjusted SINR.

1. Field
The current invention relates to communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel method and apparatus for adaptive rate selection in a wireless communication system.
2. Background
A modern communications system is required to support a variety of applications. One such communications system is a code division multiple access (CDMA) system that conforms to the "TIA/EIA/IS-95 Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wide-Band Spread Spectrum Cellular System," hereinafter referred to as the IS-95 standard. The CDMA system supports voice and data communication between users over a terrestrial link. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
In a CDMA system, communications between users are conducted through one or more base stations. In wireless communication systems, forward link refers to the channel through which signals travel from a base station to a subscriber station, and reverse link refers to channel through which signals travel from a subscriber station to a base station. By transmitting data on a reverse link to a base station, a first user on one subscriber station may communicate with a second user on a second subscriber station. The base station receives the data from the first subscriber station and routes the data to a base station serving the second subscriber station. Depending on the location of the subscriber stations, both may be served by a single base station or multiple base stations. In any case, the base station serving the second subscriber station sends the data on the forward link. Instead of communicating with a second subscriber station, a subscriber station may also communicate with a wireline telephone through a public switched telephone network (PSTN) coupled to the base station, or a terrestrial Internet through a connection with a serving base station.
Given the growing demand for wireless data applications, the need for very efficient wireless data communication systems has become increasingly significant. The IS-95 standard specifies transmitting traffic data and voice data over the forward and reverse links. A method for transmitting traffic data in code channel frames of fixed size is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,773, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE FORMATTING OF DATA FOR TRANSMISSION," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. In accordance with the IS-95 standard, the traffic data or voice data is partitioned into code channel frames that are 20 milliseconds wide with data rates as high as 14.4 Kbps.
In mobile radio communication systems, there are significant differences between the requirements for providing voice and data services (i.e., non-voice services such as Internet or fax transmissions). Unlike data services, voice services require stringent and fixed delays between speech frames. Typically, the overall one-way delay of speech frames used for transmitting voice information must be less than 100 msec. By contrast, transmission delays that occur during data (i.e., non-voice information) services can vary and larger delays then those that can be tolerated for voice services can be utilized.
Another significant difference between voice and data services is that, in contrast to data services, voice services require a fixed and common grade of service. Typically, for digital systems providing voice services, this requirement is met by using a fixed and equal transmission rate for all users and a maximum tolerable error rate for speech frames. For data services, the grade of service can vary from user to user.
Yet another difference between voice services and data services is that voice services require a reliable communication link which, in the case of a CDMA communication system, is provided using a soft handoff. A soft handoff requires the redundant transmission of the same voice information from two or more base stations to improve reliability. A soft handoff method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501, entitled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING SOFT HANDOFF IN COMMUNICATIONS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM." This additional reliability is not required to support data services, because data packets received in error can be retransmitted.
As a mobile station moves in a mobile radio communication system, the quality of the forward link (and the capacity of the forward link to transmit data) will vary. Thus, at some moments a given forward link between a base station and a mobile station will be able to support a very high data transmission and, at other moments, the same forward link may only be able to support a much reduced data transmission rate. In order to maximize the throughput of information on the forward link, it would be desirable if the transmission of data on the forward link could be varied so as to increase the data rate during those intervals where the forward link can support a higher transmission rate.
When non-voice traffic is being sent from a base station to a mobile station on a forward link, it may be necessary to send control information from the mobile station to the base station. At times, however, even though the forward link signal may be strong, the reverse link signal may be weak, thereby resulting in a situation where the base station cannot receive control information from the mobile station. In such situations, where the forward link and the reverse link are unbalanced, it may be undesirable to increase the transmit power on the reverse link in order to improve the reception quality of the control information at the base station. For example, in CDMA systems, increasing the transmit power on the reverse link would be undesirable, as such a power increase could adversely affect the reverse link capacity seen by other mobile stations in the system. It would be desirable to have a data transmission system where the forward and reverse links associated with each mobile station were maintained in a balanced state without adversely impacting the reverse link capacity. It would be further desirable if such a system could maximize the throughput of non-voice data on individual forward links when such links are sufficiently strong to support higher data rates.
One approach to the aforementioned requirements in high data rate (HDR) systems is to keep the transmit power fixed and vary the data rate depending on the users' channel conditions. Consequently, in a modern HDR system, Access Point(s) (APs) always transmit at maximum power to only one Access Terminal (AT) in each time slot, and the AP uses rate control to adjust the maximum rate that the AT can reliably receive. An AP is a terminal allowing high data rate transmission to ATs.
As used in this document, a time slot is a time interval of finite length, e.g., 1.66 ms. A time slot can contain one or more packets. A packet is a structure, comprising a preamble, a payload, and a quality metric, e.g., a cyclical redundancy check (CRC). The preamble is used by an AT to determine whether a packet has been intended for the AT.
An exemplary HDR system defines a set of data rates, ranging from 38.4 kbps to 2.4 Mbps, at which an AP may send data packets to an AT. The data rate is selected to maintain a targeted packet error rate (PER). The AT measures the received signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) at regular intervals, and uses the information to predict an average SINR over the next packet duration. An exemplary prediction method is disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/394,980, filed Sep. 13, 1999, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCURATELY PREDICTING SIGNAL TO INTERFERENCE AND NOISE RATIO TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM PERFORMANCE," now U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,971, issued to Jul. 30, 2002 to Wu et al., assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional open loop rate control apparatus 100. A stream of past SINR values at instances [n−m], . . . [n−1], [n], each measured over a duration of a corresponding packet, is provided to a SINR predictor 102. The SINR predictor 102 predicts the average SINR over the next packet duration in accordance with the following equation:OL—SINRPredicted=OL—SINREstimated−K·σe  (1)
In Equation (1), OL_SINRPredicted is a SINR predicted by the open loop for the next packet, OL_SINREstimated is a SINR estimated by the open loop based on past SINR values, K is a back-off factor, and σe is a standard deviation of an error metric.
The estimated SINR may be obtained, for example, by selecting an output from a bank of low pass filters acting on past measurements of SINR. Selection of a particular filter from the filter bank may be based on an error metric, defined as a difference between the particular filter output and measured SINR over a packet duration immediately following the output. The predicted SINR is obtained by backing off from the filter output by an amount equal to the product of the back-off factor K and the standard deviation σe of the error metric. The value of the back-off factor K is determined by a back-off control loop, which ensures that a tail probability, i.e., probability that predicted SINR exceeds the measured SINR, is achieved for a certain percentage of time.
The SINRPredicted value is provided to a look up table 104 that maintains a set of SINR thresholds that represent the minimum SINR required to successfully decode a packet at each data rate. An AT (not shown) uses the look up table 104 to select the highest data rate whose SINR threshold is below the predicted SINR, and requests that an AP (not shown) send the next packet at this datarate.
The aforementioned method is an example of an open loop rate control method that determines the best rate at which to receive the next packet, based only on the measurement of the channel SINR, without any information about the decoder error rate (for packets of each data rate) at a given SINR under the prevailing channel conditions. Any open loop rate control algorithm suffers from several shortcomings, some of which are discussed below. First, a certain tail probability, e.g., 2%, does not imply a PER of 2%. This is because PER is a monotonically decreasing function of SINR, with a finite slope that depends on the coding scheme and channel conditions. However, Equation (1) assumes "brick wall" PER characteristics, i.e., a packet is guaranteed to be decoded whenever the SINR exceeds the threshold for the corresponding rate, and a packet is in error whenever the SINR falls below the threshold. Furthermore, the open loop rate control method uses a fixed set of SINR thresholds, which ensures packet error rates close to the target error rate under worst-case channel conditions. However, the performance of the decoder depends not only on the SINR, but also on channel conditions. In other words, a method that uses a fixed set of SINR thresholds for all channels achieves different packet error rates on different channels. Consequently, while the open loop method works optimally under the worst-case channel conditions, it is possible that under typical channel conditions, the method results in much lower error rates than is necessary, at the expense of diminished throughput. Additionally, a practical rate control method necessitates a small, finite set of data rates. The rate selection method always selects the nearest lower data rate in order to guarantee an acceptable PER. Thus, rate quantization results in loss of system throughput.
Therefore, there exists a need to address deficiencies of the existing method.

Method and apparatus for a rate control in a high data rate communication system


The invention provides a method for separating fuel from water in a marine propulsion system and a reusable device for separating water from fuel in marine and diesel engines thereby preventing or limiting water from entering the combustion process of the engine. The device includes two generally thin-walled housings which secure and contain a plurality of petroleum sorbent filter elements therein. The filter elements are constructed from multiple adjacent microfibers layers bonded to each other by entanglement of said microfibers between adjacent layers, each element allowing passage of fuel therethrough but being substantially impervious to the passage of water. At least some of the filter elements are treated such that the surface of the element which faces the incoming fuel is heated until at least some of the microfibers coalesce and bond together.

There are numerous sources of water contamination in hydrocarbon liquid fuels. Trace amounts of water exist in fuel due to the refining and purification processes performed at the petroleum refineries. Next, water may seep into gasolene storage tanks or may form as condensation in storage tanks or delivery trucks. Additionally, when gasolene or other liquid fuels are placed in the fuel tanks of vehicles or boats, water may form through condensation, or may be inadvertently introduced into the tank, particularly in marine environments. As a result, virtually all liquid fuel used to power automotive, diesel or marine engines contain a fractional amount of water when it is introduced into the engine for combustion.
The practical necessity for conditioning fuel drawn from a fuel tank prior to introduction into an internal combustion engine is well known, particularly in marine engines and diesel engines. Most automotive gasoline-fueled engines can accommodate relatively large amounts of water before problems such as poor drivability and stalling occur. However, diesel-type engines which are powered by fuel oil are much less tolerant of water mixed with fuel. Normally, these engines utilize pumps and fuel injection devices for introducing pressurized fuel to the engine. As compared to carburetors, the pump and injectors are expensive devices and are sensitive to water which has an undesirable corrosive effect on this equipment. Corrosive reactions within the working components of internal combustion engines can cause such problems as rust, clogged fuel components, fuel pumps that freeze up, and damaged fuel injectors. From a performance standpoint, water mixed with fuel can cause roughness in engine operation, loss of power, and poor starting ability, particularly when an engine is started cold. Water which settles to the bottom of the fuel tank is drawn into the fuel stream first when an engine is started so the water/fuel ratio is higher and the adverse effects are greater. Therefore it is desirable to prevent the passage of any substantial amount of water to fuel injection equipment.
Similarly, marine engines are subject to a high probability of water contamination in fuel due to the environment in which they operate. Two-cycle outboard engines in particular can suffer from severe performance degradation when fuel is contaminated by water.
Since water can be introduced into the fuel at any point in the distribution and storage process, as discussed above, the most effective way to keep water from the engine components is to separate it from the fuel just prior to fuel combustion. This is best accomplished by a filter system located in-line between the fuel tank and the fuel system components. A number of devices have been proposed for this purpose, generally using the principles of gravity separation, centrifugal separation, hygroscopic material, filter elements, or a combination thereof. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,713 to Hodgkins discloses a fuel filter which passes the fuel through a polyester fiber cylinder and into a water separator chamber where the water coalesces to the bottom of the chamber due to its higher density. Similarly, the fuel-water separator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,989 to Hall uses fluid impervious material enclosed within a chamber to diffuse the flow of fuel through the supply line so that any water mixed with the fuel tends to descend to the bottom of the chamber due to its greater specific gravity. The fuel-water separator of U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,890 to Hurner directs incoming fuel into an inlet chamber located inside a fine stainless steel conical mesh screen, where the heavier water migrates towards the bottom of the chamber and the fuel passes through the screen. In another approach disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,556 to Brotea, fuel is passed through a housing containing tightly packed granules of hygroscopic material such as calcium sulfate hydrate or calcium chloride which retain water but allow fuel to pass through. In yet another approach disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,962 to Harris, centrifugal force is used to separate water from the relatively lighter fuel. Each of the referenced devices has several drawbacks. Gravity and centrifugal separators are generally large, expensive and inefficient, and generally require mounting the separator vertically such that the water collects at the bottom of the device. Filter elements such as paper attract water, but are inefficient, will only remove a small percentage of their weight in water, and clog easily, allowing the water to form a film which impedes fuel flow through the element. The hygroscopic material separators are similarly large, expensive and require frequent replacement of the hygroscopic drying agent.
Other materials such as petroleum sorbents which have been developed in the last few years offer unique qualities often used in oil spill containment applications. Sorbents recover petroleum products by either adsorption in which the petroleum is attracted to the sorbent surface and then adhered to it, or absorption in which the petroleum penetrates the pores of the sorbent material. In either case, water is repelled by the sorbent material. While sorbent material may consist of natural products, recent sorbent material has consisted of synthetic products such as polyethylene or polypropylene. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,821 to Fischer discloses an oil-sorbing boom which uses a spirally wound sheet of polymeric, oleophilic, hydrophobic polypropylene microfibers. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,129 to Bair discloses an article for absorbing liquids which includes fine, fibrous particles of flash-spun polyethylene. U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,956 to Smith discloses an oil sorbent mat constructed of an absorbent sheet of fibrous olefin heat bonded to a nonporous sheet. U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,575 to Vinsonhaler teaches an oil spill cleanup pad comprised of polyethylene or polypropylene fibers which functions by adsorption and capillary action to transfer oil to a core of polyurethane foam; that is, the outer surface attracts and the inner core adsorbs the oil while repelling water.
Similar materials used to contain and recover leaking lubricants include oil sorbent polypropylene blown microfiber pads marketed by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company under the product numbers HP-156, HP-157, HP-255, HP-256, HP-556, HP-557 and T-151. These pads, described in 3M product bulletin "Petroleum Sorbents" N. 70-0705-1759-7 (573) JR, present enormous fiber surface area which attracts petroleum while repelling water.

Fuel-water separator for marine and diesel engines


A user can selectively engage some part or all of the haptic display of a haptic interface device to produce an enhanced interaction with an environment with which the user interacts using the haptic interface device. Further, the haptic interface device can be implemented so that the part of the haptic display that is engaged can be engaged to varying degree. The degree of engagement with the haptic display (together with whether part or all of the haptic display is engaged) determines the manner in which the haptic display is experienced by the user. The selective engagement with the haptic display is enabled by adding a haptic clutch model to the underlying haptic model used to produce the haptic display, the haptic clutch model engaging some part or all of the haptic model in response to user input. The addition of a haptic clutch model to the haptic model used to produce a haptic display provides a richer user interaction than is provided by a haptic display produced by the haptic model alone.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to haptic interfaces and, in particular, to enabling a user to selectively engage at least part of the haptic display of a haptic interface device to produce an enhanced interaction with an environment with which the user interacts using the haptic interface device.
2. Related Art
A "haptic interface device" provides a haptic sensation (haptic display) to a user of the haptic interface device in response to the user's interaction with an environment with which the haptic interface device is associated. "Haptic" refers to the sense of touch: haptic interface display devices thus produce sensations associated with the sense of touch, such as texture, force (e.g., frictional force, magnetic repulsion or attraction), vibration, mass, density, viscosity, temperature, moisture, or some combination of such sensations. Haptic interface devices can be embodied in a variety of different apparatus, such as, for example, apparatus for conveying force and/or vibrotactile sensation (e.g., a stylus, a movable arm, a wheel, a dial, a roller, a slider or a vibratory surface), apparatus for conveying thermal sensation (e.g., a thermally-controlled surface or air volume), and apparatus for conveying the sensation of moisture (e.g., a moisture-controlled surface or air volume). Haptic interface devices can be used in a wide variety of applications. For example, some joysticks and mice used with computers incorporate force feedback to provide a haptic display to a user of the joystick or mouse. Some paging devices are adapted to vibrate when a paging signal is received. Some toys produce vibrations as part of the interaction with the toy. These examples give an indication of the range of applications for which a haptic interface device can be used.
In a conventional haptic interface device, the character of the haptic display experienced by a user is determined by a haptic model that links the state of one or more aspects of the environment to the haptic sensation provided to the user. This is illustrated in FIG. 1A. A user 101 uses an environment interaction control apparatus 103 to interact with an environment 102 via an environment interaction model 104 (either directly or via a haptic model 106, as indicated in FIG. 1A by the dashed lines between the environment interaction model 104 and the environment 102, and the environment interaction model 104 and the haptic model 106). The haptic model 106 "interprets" the user interaction with the environment 102 (based on information concerning the user interaction obtained either from the environment interaction model 104 or the environment 102, as indicated in FIG. 1A by the dashed line between the environment interaction model 104 and the haptic model 106 and the dashed arrow head entering the haptic model 106 from the environment 102) to cause a haptic display apparatus 105 to produce a corresponding haptic display. The environment interaction model 104 can also cause a non-haptic display apparatus 107 to produce a non-haptic display (e.g., a visual display and/or an audio display). However, there need not necessarily be a non-haptic display (as indicated by the dashed lines between the non-haptic display apparatus 107 and the environment interaction model 104 and user 101).
For example, in a previous haptic interface device used for video browsing and/or editing, a knob can be rotated to advance through the frames of a video recording, a force being applied in opposition to rotation of the knob, to simulate a detent, as transition is made from one video frame to the next. The haptic model in that haptic interface device is a relationship between applied force and position of the knob (which position corresponds to a "position" within the video recording, i.e., whether a transition between video frames is occurring or not). The same haptic display is always provided to the user for any particular user interaction, e.g., a given amount of rotation of the knob always advances the video recording a corresponding number of frames and simulates passing through the corresponding number of detents.
The foregoing is true of many previous haptic interface devices, i.e., the same haptic display is always provided to the user for a particular user interaction (herein, for convenience, such a haptic interface device is said to exhibit "constant" haptic behavior). Such haptic interface devices have not been as versatile as may be desirable.
FIG. 1B is a block diagram of the functional components of a system including a reconfigurable haptic interface device. (The dashed lines and arrow heads in FIG. 1B indicate interactions between components of the system which can, but need not necessarily, occur, depending on the implementation and/or configuration of the system.) In FIG. 1B, a haptic model selection 108 results in the selection of one of two haptic models 106a or 106b for use in producing a haptic display with the haptic display apparatus 105 (i.e., the haptic model selection 108 can be used to reconfigure the haptic interface device). (More than two haptic models can be used; two are shown in FIG. 1B for simplicity.) The haptic model selection 108 may occur, for example, by specifying, before the user 101 begins using the haptic interface device, which haptic model 106a or 106b is to be used in producing the haptic display (e.g., by selecting for execution an appropriate computer program or programs used to implement the haptic model 106a or 106b). The haptic model selection 108 may or may not be made by the user 101 (as indicated by the dashed line between the user 101 and the haptic model selection 108). The haptic models 106a and 106b model different haptic behavior. Thus, unlike the haptic interface device shown in FIG. 1A, in the system shown in FIG. 1B, a particular user interaction can result in different haptic displays, depending on which of the haptic models 106a or 106b is being used to produce the haptic display (i.e., the haptic interface device does not exhibit constant haptic behavior).
In the system shown in FIG. 1B, a haptic interface device that is not constrained by constant haptic behavior (a reconfigurable haptic interface device) is enabled by providing multiple haptic models. There are limitations to such an approach. It may be expensive to develop, construct and/or maintain multiple haptic models. It may be difficult to establish compatibility between each of multiple haptic models and other components of the haptic interface device. It may be difficult or impossible to select a new haptic model during use of the haptic interface device by the user. Even if it is possible for the user to select a new haptic model during use of the haptic interface device, switching from one haptic model to another will result in a discontinuity in the haptic display that may be disconcerting to the user.
It is desirable to provide a haptic interface that is not constrained by constant haptic behavior and that eliminates or ameliorates one or more of the above-indicated limitations.

Haptic interface including clutch control


A pre-passivated electrode for use in an electrochemical cell comprising an uncharged current collecting substrate, an active material layer associated with the substrate, and a solid electrolyte interface layer associated with the active material layer. The pre-passivated electrode fabricated in accordance with the present invention exhibits, among other things, increased coulombic efficiency and capacity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to electrochemical cells, and more particularly, to an electrochemical cell having a pre-passivated electrode. The present invention further relates to a process for fabricating the same.
2. Background Art
Lithium based electrochemical cells, such as lithium ion secondary batteries, have been known in the art for several years. Furthermore, passivated electrodes or electrodes having a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) for use in lithium based batteries have been recently explored. In accordance with conventional technology, passivation of the electrode occurs during the initial charge/discharge cycle by sacrificing a portion of the cell""s capacity to form the SEI, which, in turn, results in a battery having lowered capacity and coulombic efficiency.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a lithium ion electrochemical cell that utilizes pre-passivated electrodes to remedy, among other things, the aforementioned detriments and/or complications.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a process for fabricating a pre-passivated electrochemical cell that remedies the aforementioned detriments and/or complications.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent in light of the present Specification, Claims and Drawings.
The present invention is directed to a pre-passivated electrode for use in an electrochemical cell comprising: a) an uncharged current collecting substrate; b) an active material layer associated with the substrate; and c) a solid electrolyte interface layer associated with the active material layer.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrode further includes means for increasing the coulombic efficiency of an associated electrochemical cell relative to an electrochemical cell without the solid electrolyte interface layer. In this embodiment the coulombic efficiency increasing means comprises the solid electrolyte interface layer.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrode further includes means for increasing the capacity of an associated electrochemical cell relative to an electrochemical cell without the solid electrolyte interface layer. In this embodiment the capacity increasing means comprises the solid electrolyte interface layer.
Preferably the current collecting substrate comprises a metallic mesh and the active material layer preferably includes at least one carbonaceous particle.
The present invention is further directed to an electrochemical cell having a pre-passivated electrode comprising a first electrode and a second electrode wherein at least one of the first and second electrodes includes: a) an uncharged current collecting substrate; b) an active material layer associated with the substrate; and c) a solid electrolyte interface layer associated with the active material layer and an electrolyte associated with the first and second electrodes.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrochemical cell further includes means for increasing the coulombic efficiency of the electrochemical cell relative to an electrochemical cell without the solid electrolyte interface layer. In this embodiment the coulombic efficiency increasing means comprises the solid electrolyte interface layer.
In yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrochemical cell further includes means for increasing the capacity of the electrochemical cell relative to an electrochemical cell without the solid electrolyte interface layer. In this embodiment the capacity increasing means comprises the solid electrolyte interface layer.
Preferably the current collecting substrate of at least one of the first and second electrodes comprises a metallic mesh and the active material layer preferably includes at least one carbonaceous particle.
The present invention is also directed to a process for manufacturing a pre-passivated electrode for use in an electrochemical cell comprising the steps of: a) dissolving a metal with at least one solvent; b) associating an active material with the at least one solvent having the dissolved metal; c) associating an additive with the active material, and, in turn, forming a solid electrolyte interface onto the active material; and d) associating the active material with a current collecting substrate.
In a preferred embodiment of the process, the step of dissolving the metal includes the step of dissolving lithium metal.
In another preferred embodiment of the process, the step of associating the active material with the at least one solvent includes the step of associating an active material having at least one carbonaceous particle.
In yet another preferred embodiment of the process, the step of associating the active material with the current collecting substrate includes the step of associating the active material with a metallic mesh.
Preferably the process further comprises the step of applying a primer to the current collecting substrate.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the process further comprises the steps of associating a second electrode and an electrolyte with the pre-passivated electrode.
The present invention is further directed to a process for manufacturing a pre-passivated electrode for use in an electrochemical cell comprising the steps of: a) dissolving a metal with at least one solvent; b) associating an active material with an additive; c) associating the active material associated with the additive with the metal dissolved in the at least one solvent, and, in turn, forming a solid electrolyte interface onto the active material; and d) associating the active material with a current collecting substrate.

Electrochemical cell having a pre-passivated electrode and associated fabrication process


To schedule uplink transmission time slots for a collection of mobile. communication devices, a set of base station target interference patterns is associated with base stations. A time slot target interference pattern is assigned for each time slot and it repeats after several time slots. The time slot target interference pattern in a given time slot specifies the interference allowed by each time slot to a given base station by any single mobile. A priority index may be determined for each time slot for each mobile associated with the particular base station. The priority index may be based, in part, on a determined correlation between the time-slot target interference patterns and a potential interference profile of a mobile to which a time slot is to be allocated. A mobile's throughput requirement, the throughput already received over a specified past duration, the system fairness requirement, as well as the amount of data available for transmission are also used for evaluating the priority index.

For mobile wireless communication devices, many technologies have been developed to obtain and maintain a reliable link with a base station serving the wireless device.
Often, such technologies involve Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC). That is, the modulation method and/or data coding method used by mobile wireless communication devices (hereinafter "mobiles") to transmit (uplink) to a base station may be based on indications from the base station of the properties (fading, interference, etc.) of the wireless channel being used for the uplink.
It is known that some of the interference experienced on the channel between the mobile and the base station may be caused by other mobiles communicating with the same base station. As such, scheduling schemes have been developed such that the mobiles in a given sector (i.e., a geographically defined area containing mobiles served by a given base station) transmit data in staggered time slots, as dictated by the base station. Such staggering of transmission times (known as time division multiplexing) allows the mobiles to use more power (and, therefore, a coding level and a modulation level that provide for a higher data rate) when transmitting in a designated time slot without concern for interference with the transmissions of other mobiles in the sector and thereby allows all of the mobiles in the sector to maintain a more robust uplink to the base station. Some systems may allow simultaneous multiple uplink transmissions from a number of mobiles and some of these mobiles may be allowed to use higher power levels, which allow for higher data rates.
In all such cases, higher power uplink transmissions have been seen to excessively interfere with the transmissions of mobiles in adjacent sectors to corresponding base stations depending on the mobile location. Such interference is seen to decrease the overall throughput of the mobile communications system. Although it may seem clear that all that is required to avoid such inter-sector interference is to coordinate scheduling between sectors, such coordination requires a complexity of design that is not favored for future mobile communications system architectures.
In another means of controlling this interference, a given base station provides feedback to each mobile on the total interference measured by the given base station over the noise power (sometimes called "Rise Over Thermal", or "ROT"). Given an ROT target, the interference may be controlled, by instructing mobiles to decrease transmission power level, when the ROT target is exceeded. However, in general, the ROT target is fixed for all the time and it is equal for all the base stations. Unfortunately, some mobiles cannot increase transmission power level beyond a certain level and, as a consequence, these mobiles cannot increase power levels high enough to transmit using certain high data rates.
A large variation in inter-sector interference resulting from variations in time slot use by mobiles in different locations, makes estimation of carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I) in an uplink channel for a given mobile unreliable. In such a case, AMC is usually designed to provide for a large interference margin to avoid channel errors. However, a large interference margin generally lowers the capacity of both the uplink and the downlink.
Since the inter-sector interference cannot be predicted without complex inter-sector coordination, it may be considered difficult to control the fairness of the uplink transmissions. If an equal number of time slots are allocated to each mobile, the throughput of the higher C/I mobiles will be higher than those of lower C/I mobiles. This higher throughput is based on a higher data rate being available to the higher C/I mobiles for transmissions. For example, the known proportionate fair (PF) scheme requires that both "available rate" and the throughput received during the past n number of time slots be used to prioritize mobiles. However, in the PF scheme, those mobiles with a higher available rate are provided with a higher throughput than those mobiles with lower available rates. In addition, large errors in the prioritization mechanism resulting from the errors in C/I estimation used in such a scheme could lead to a fairness different than expected from the PF scheme.
Clearly, improvements are required in power management and scheduling for the uplink portion of mobile communication systems such that both intra-sector and inter-sector interference is controlled, while maintaining fairness.

Power management and distributed scheduling for uplink transmissions in wireless systems


The present disclosure provides an optical unit with shake correction function capable of preventing a thrust receiving member, which fixes a sphere, from falling off from the movable body in an optical axis direction. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a thrust receiving member to which a first sphere is fixed is held by a holding portion formed of the cutout recess provided in a fixed body. A bottom wall surface of the holding portion makes contact with a bent plate portion of the thrust receiving member from −Z direction side. Further, locked surface parts provided on a pair of side wall surfaces of a holding portion make contact, from +Z direction side, with a pair of locking plate portions protruding from a bent plate portion in circumferential direction in the thrust receiving member.

A certain optical unit mounted on a mobile terminal or a mobile body includes a mechanism that corrects a shake by rotating a movable body mounted with a camera module around a predetermined axis in order to suppress disturbance of a captured image during movement of the mobile terminal or the mobile body. Patent Document 1 discloses this kind of optical unit with a shake correction function.
The optical unit with the shake correction function of Patent Document 1 includes a movable body, a fixed body, and a gimbal mechanism that connects the movable body and the fixed body. The gimbal mechanism supports the movable body so as to be rotatable around a predetermined axis. The gimbal mechanism includes a metal-made rectangular frame-shaped gimbal frame and a connection mechanism that connects the gimbal frame and the movable body so as to be rotatable around the axis. The connection mechanism includes a metal-made sphere, sphere fixing portions to which the sphere is fixed, and sphere support portions having hemispherical recesses with which the sphere makes contact. The sphere fixing portions are the inner surfaces of a pair of corner portions facing each other in a predetermined axial direction in the gimbal frame. The sphere is fixed to the inner surfaces of the corner portions by welding. The sphere support portions having the hemispherical recesses are provided at two locations facing the respective sphere fixing portions in a predetermined axial direction in the movable body.


A guide cutting tool for use in cutting metal studs used in wall construction includes a plate having generally opposite notches. Each notch has a straight notch guide wall extending generally inwardly towards the corresponding straight notch guide wall of the opposite notch at a generally perpendicular orientation from a corresponding side of the plate, with the two straight notch guide walls being generally collinear with one another. A spacer, for use in cutting metal studs, is formed with a guide cutting tool located at each longitudinal end of a connector member.

Use of U-shaped metal studs, such as those discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,056, for forming walls and frames for doorways in such walls are well known in the art. As is known in the art, such studs usually consist of a rear stud wall with first and second side stud walls extending substantially perpendicularly in a common direction from the rear stud wall along the length thereof with first and second stud flanges extending substantially perpendicularly inwardly from, respectively, the first and second side stud walls towards one another along the length of the side stud walls.
Typically, when using metal studs to connect other support structures, for example side support studs, at a predetermined distance from one another, an intermediate stud, generally defining the distance between the other support structures is connected therebetween. For example, to form a doorway frame with metal studs an intermediate stud, having the desired top width of the doorway frame is connected to first and second side metal studs, which define the vertical sides of the doorway frame. Specifically, a first crease or hinge is formed in the rear stud wall proximal a first longitudinal stud end of the intermediate stud by cutting inwardly through the first and second side stud walls and flanges to the rear stud wall, thus forming respective creases ends for a first crease extending perpendicular to the opposed lateral rear stud wall ends of the rear stud wall, i.e. the intersection between the side stud walls and the rear stud wall. A second crease or hinge is formed, at a predefined distance from the first crease, in the rear stud wall proximal a second longitudinal stud end of the intermediate stud in similar fashion. Thus an intermediate portion of the intermediate stud is formed between the creases, with first and second end portions extending from the creases to, respectively, the first and second stud ends. The predefined distance or length between the creases for the intermediate portion corresponds to the desired top width of the door frame extending between the side support studs. The end portions are then folded downwards and connected to the ends of the first and second side studs, for example by wedged insertion therein, to form the door frame.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon, when cutting the intermediate stud to form the creases, to cut one or the other creases at an incorrect position. In such cases, the length of the intermediate portion defining the top width of the door frame between the vertical side support studs is incorrect. Further, it is quite common that, in cutting one or the other of the creases, when the first and second side stud walls and flanges are cut to form the creases, that the crease is not formed perpendicular to the rear wall ends. In such case, the crease is crooked which makes attachment to the side support studs cumbersome. Typically, when such errors occur, it is necessary to discard the intermediate stud and to cut the creases again in a new stud, which wastes time, money, and material.
Accordingly, there is a need for a guide cutting tool for a spacer for use in cutting metal studs.

Guide cutting tool and spacer for use in cutting metal studs


A piezographic imaging process includes the use of a composite photoreceptor structure that includes a piezoactive layer that enables Xerographic imaging without corona charge/transfer subsystems. Flexure of the photoreceptor structure creates electric fields sufficient for the creation of developable latent electrostatic image patterns. Flexure of the photoreceptor structure following development generates an electric field for transfer of toner images onto paper.

The present invention relates generally to an imaging process for placing images onto copy sheets, and more particularly, to an imaging process that employs the piezoelectric effect to achieve charging and transfer.
Generally, the process of electrostatographic copying is initiated by exposing a light image of an original document onto a substantially uniformly charged photoreceptive member. Exposing the charged photoreceptive member to a light image discharges a photoconductive surface thereon in areas corresponding to non-image areas in the original document while maintaining the charge in image areas, thereby creating an electrostatic latent image of the original document on the photoreceptive member. This latent image is subsequently developed into a visible image by depositing charged developing material onto the photoreceptive member such that the developing material is attracted to the charged image areas on the photoconductive surface. Thereafter, the developing material is transferred from the photoreceptive member to a copy sheet or to some other image support substrate, to create an image which may be permanently affixed to the image support substrate, thereby providing an electrophotographic reproduction of the original document. In a final step in the process, the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptive member is cleaned to remove any residual developing material which may be remaining on the surface thereof in preparation for successive imaging cycles.
The electrostatographic copying process described hereinabove is well known and is commonly used for light lens copying of an original document. Analogous processes also exist in other electrostatographic printing applications such as, for example, digital laser printing where a latent image is formed on the photoconductive surface via a modulated laser beam, or ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images.
The generation of ozone by corona charging and transfer units in these systems is of increasing concern as emphasis on environment impacts grow. Also, the elimination of high voltage power supplies contributes significantly to reduction of system unit manufacturing costs.


A toy assembly that includes a bat structure and balls. The bat structure can be used to bat a ball like a traditional baseball bat. The bat structure can also be loaded with a ball, wherein the bat structure can launch the ball pneumatically. The bat structure has a cylindrical section. A piston head is disposed within the cylindrical section. A ball retention ring is coupled to the end of the cylindrical section. A tapered section of the bat structure is coupled to the opposite end of the cylindrical section. A handle is attached to the tapered section using a mechanical connector. A piston rod is coupled to both the handle and the piston head. A ball is set into the ball retaining ring. The piston head can then be advanced within the bat structure. This creates high pressure that eventually launches the ball.

1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to toy projectile launching devices that utilize pneumatic force to propel a projectile into the air. More particularly, the present invention relates to elongated pneumatic launchers that can also be used as a bat for batting balls when not used as a launcher.
2. Prior Art Description
In the toy industry, there have been many toy launching devices that are used to launch a toy ball into the air. Likewise, there have been a large number of specialized toy bats used to strike balls. In fact, in the toy industry, it is not uncommon for both types of toys to be combined.
In the prior art, baseball bats have been invented with hollow interiors that are designed to hold and toss various balls. Such toy bats toss a ball out of an opening at the top of the bat as the bat is swung. Prior art toy baseball bats of this type are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,372 to Gerstikov, entitled Ball Throwing Device.
In addition to toy bats that are designed to toss balls long distances, many toy bats have been designed to toss a ball only a short distance into the air. In this manner, the bat can be used to strike the ball that just exited the bat. Typically, such prior art bats contain trigger devices that control the release of the ball. In this manner, balls stored inside the bat do not fall out as the bat is swung. Such prior art toy bats are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,342 to Webster, entitled Combined Bat And Ball Magazine; U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,015 to Carafeno, entitled Toy Baseball Bat Device; U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,314 to Topper, entitled Toy Fungo Bat; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,179 to Ambler, entitled Ball Bat.
The present invention is a toy assembly that has a physical structure that enables it to be selectively configured either as a bat for batting balls or as a ball launcher that launches balls using pneumatic force. The toy can be quickly converted by a child using a simple mechanical manipulation of the toy's handle. The details of the present invention are described and claimed below.


A method and system for the diagnosis of 3D images are disclosed, which significantly cuts the time required for the diagnosis. The 3D images are for example an image volume dataset of a magnetic resonance tomography system which is saved in an RIS or PACS system. In at least one embodiment, the diagnostic finding are partially automatically generated, and details of the position, size and change in pathological structures are compared to previous diagnostic findings are generated automatically. As a result of this automation the diagnostic work of radiologists is significantly reduced.

The main area of application lies in the field of radiology, in which computer-aided RIS (Radiology Information System) and PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) systems are customarily used. The evaluation is here based on an imaging medical examination at different modalities, e.g. a computed tomography system, a magnetic resonance tomography system, a positron emission tomography system, an x-ray device or an ultrasound device. The radiological examination devices mentioned supply the image dataset. The image dataset is generally an image volume dataset containing a volume image, or an image series dataset containing a series of images.
Using modern imaging procedures in medical engineering, image datasets are created, the contents of which are so complex that a full and error-free evaluation by a radiologist is possible only with difficulty. The evaluation of large image datasets is firstly taxing and hence prone to error, and secondly requires great care to be taken during the evaluation, since the evaluation may have consequences for the further treatment of a patient.
Image datasets are nowadays wherever possible evaluated with the aid of computers at diagnostic stations which make it possible to view and navigate through the image dataset and to write up a report (for example as text or dictation). To this end the image dataset is split into series of medical images which a radiologist views essentially sequentially, whereby he dictates the report. The report focuses in particular on describing the appearance, position and changes in pathological structures. The pathological structures may for example be tumors, as well as vessels, bones, etc. which exhibit a pathological deviation compared to a normal healthy state. The diagnostic station here permits navigation through the image dataset, manipulation of the display such as enlarging, measuring and changing the "windowing" (to characterize the structure, and to carry out measurements) as well as a simultaneous display of multiple image datasets in order to determine changes.
For particular examinations there are additionally, besides the form of report described above, what are known as structured diagnostic findings. In this case radiologists fill out a ready-made form. However, in practice this procedure is always very slow, since the radiologists regard it as a limitation and have to avert their eyes from the image datasets in order to fill out the ready-made form. In the type of report described in the introduction this is not the case, since the radiologists can at all times keep the representation of the image datasets in view while they navigate through the image datasets by manually operating a mouse and simultaneously dictate the report.

Computer-aided evaluation of an image dataset


A cradle includes: a telephone supporting section supporting a mobile telephone; a connecting section electrically connecting to the mobile telephone; a sensor communications section receiving a report from a sensor sensing a state of a monitored area; and a transmission instructing section providing an instruction signal to the mobile telephone via the connecting section to cause the mobile telephone to transmit a content of the report from the sensor to a management center.

Mobile telephones have dramatically improved their capability as they quickly move into widespread use. Many new models are being introduced to the market, equipped with a variety of new functions on top of inherent voice communications function: for example, a communications function to connect to a communications network such as the Internet, an imaging function for a camera; and a positioning function to obtain current position and related map information.
The mobile telephone is usually mounted to a support called a cradle for storage purposes when it is not in use, for example, when the user is at home. Apart from providing safe storage for the mobile telephone, the function of the conventional mobile telephone cradle is limited to charging the mobile telephone.
In this manner, the conventional cradle only keeps the mobile telephone in good working order and never actively makes full use of the functions of the mobile telephone. PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) cradles are known to act to transfer stored data from a PDA to a personal computer or other external device. As mentioned previously, recent mobile telephones are equipped with better functions even in comparison to PDAs, but no cradle is proposed to exploit them.
For example, the communications and imaging functions are indispensable in various security and home control systems. If the system is capable of effectively making use of the functions of the mobile telephone, the system is made simple and inexpensive and becomes equipped with a capability to provide sophisticated, information-related collaboration service.
The present invention is conceived to address these issues and has an objective to provide a simple, but highly capable cradle which only requires the user to replace a mobile or other telephone on it; a security system including the cradle and a managing device; a telephone; and a monitoring method.

Cradle, security system, telephone, and monitoring method


A position and orientation measurement apparatus for measuring the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus, which captures an image of a measurement object, relative to the measurement object, extracts configuration planes of the measurement object based on three-dimensional model data of the measurement object, and extracts measurement line segments to be used in detection of edges of a captured image from line segments which form the configuration planes. The position and orientation measurement apparatus projects the extracted measurement line segments onto the captured image based on an estimated position and orientation of the image capturing apparatus, selects visible measurement line segments which are not hidden by the extracted configuration planes, and calculates the position and orientation of the image capturing apparatus relative to the measurement object based on the visible measurement line segments and corresponding edges of the captured image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a position and orientation measurement technique for measuring the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus based on the distance between a position where a model of a measurement object is projected onto a captured image, and the position of the measurement object observed from the captured image.
2. Description of the Related Art
The position and orientation measurement of an image capturing apparatus (to be also referred to as "camera" hereinafter as needed) such as a camera that captures an image of a physical space and the like is required in, for example, a mixed reality system which blends and displays the physical space and a virtual space.
In general, as a method of measuring the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus, a method of attaching indices, whose three-dimensional (3D) positions are given, to a measurement object is disclosed. In the position and orientation measurement method of this type, the position and orientation are estimated to minimize the differences between the projected positions obtained by projecting 3D positions of the indices onto an image capturing frame according to the estimated position and orientation, and the image positions of the indices detected from a captured image. In this case, as the indices serving as targets, those which have geometric features or those having specific colors or luminance values are used since it is desired to allow easy detection of such indices by image processing.
However, upon assuming the use over a broad range, the indices used to detect the position and orientation cannot always be attached to a measurement object. For example, when a measurement object is an architectural structure such as a building or the like, it is difficult to attach giant indices onto its wall surface.
As a method of solving this problem, many methods of estimating the position and orientation of a physical camera using the ridge lines of planes that configure an object have been proposed. With these methods, edges of a measurement object are extracted from a captured image, and the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus are calculated based on correlation between the extracted edges and an edge image obtained by rendering a CAD model by CG.
If a measurement object is designed by CAD, it is easy to create a reference image by CG. However, even in this case, since it is required to exhaustively calculate possible positions and orientations, preparation processes are required.
As one of these methods, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-326314 (to be referred to as reference 1 hereinafter) discloses a method using a CAD model. According to reference 1, edges are detected from 3D model projected images observed from a plurality of viewpoints, line segments of the edges are approximated using parameters and held, and correlations between an actually observed captured image and the line segments reconstructed based on the parameters are calculated. The position and orientation of a virtual camera of a 3D model projected image having a highest correlation are acquired as those of the image capturing apparatus.
With this method, reference images observed from a plurality of viewpoints are generated in advance, and image correlations with edges observed on a captured image are calculated. For this reason, huge amounts of time are required with increasing number of reference images. In order to precisely calculate the position and orientation, sufficient reference images need to be prepared. Hence, the method of reference 1 can only be applied to a case in which processing can be done for a long period of time after image capturing.
On the other hand, in mixed reality or object recognition of a robot, the position and orientation estimation processing of an image capturing apparatus is required to be executed at an update interval of captured images. The update interval of captured images in this case is 33 msec in case of an NTSC video signal. For this reason, it is difficult to apply the method that calculates the image correlations between the edges of many reference images and those of a captured image like in reference 1.
As another problem, when a measurement object is configured by a plurality of structural objects, and some of these structural objects are free to move, since the motion of each movable object is unknown, reference images cannot be acquired in advance. As another method of solving this problem, Tom Drummond and Roberto Cipolla, "Real-time visual tracking of complex structures," IEEE Transaction of Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 24, No. 7, pp. 932-946, 2002 (to be referred to as reference 2 hereinafter) discloses a method of estimating the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus online based on the edges in a captured image captured by the image capturing apparatus. Unlike in reference 1, this method does not require pre-acquisition of reference images, and can be applied to the estimation of position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus in real time. Since this method does not require any correlation calculations between the reference images and a captured image, the processing time is short.
In the method disclosed in reference 2, the position and orientation of a camera are estimated based on a technique for projecting a 3D model onto a captured image upon updating the position and orientation, and searching only an image around a search point for edges. Furthermore, as will be described later, this method is designed to shorten the processing time associated with image processing. As for movement of the measurement object, since the position and orientation can be individually estimated, the method is not limited in terms of motions.
An outline of the processing sequence of this method is as follows.
[1] Measurement line segments of a measurement object are projected onto an image capturing frame using a rough estimating position and orientation.
[2] The positions of edge regions where the density changes locally are acquired by searching pixels around the projected measurement line segments.
[3] The position and orientation are optimized to minimize the distances between the positions of the edge regions and the projected measurement line segments.
[4] The values of the estimating position and orientation are updated by the optimized position and orientation.
Since a 3D model of the measurement line segments to be projected uses only line segments that allow easy detection of edges, the position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus can be calculated with higher precision and at higher speed. In practice, since it takes much time to search all pixels around the projected measurement line segments, points obtained by further sampling the projected measurement line segments at appropriate intervals are used as search points.
With this method, a vertical, finite search in a one-dimensional direction is conducted at each search point in the direction of each projected measurement line segment. Assume that the edge to be searched is a region having a local density change in a captured image, and a region in which the density gradient is locally large is detected using an edge detection image filter such as a Laplacian filter or the like.
As the estimated position and orientation are closer to the actual position and orientation, the distances between the found edge positions of the captured image, and the measurement line segments projected onto the image become smaller. However, an actual captured image includes many noise components. Factors that influence the estimation precision include erroneous detection and non-detection of edges. For this reason, the measurement line segments had better be determined considering correspondence with edges observed on the captured image.
In this method, processing for excluding a line segment on a region hidden by another object, a line segment located at a position opposite to a line of sight, and the like from search points of an edge is executed. With this processing, the estimation of position and orientation can be applied to a case in which a plurality of measurement objects overlap in the line of sight direction or to a non-flat, complicated shape.
On the other hand, in a computer graphics technique, a hidden-line removal technique for selectively rendering a line hidden by a plane and a visible line is known. By applying this technique, a line hidden by a plane is removed, a line segment which is not observed on the measurement line segment captured image can be excluded from a search target of an edge. Transformation of a 3D model onto a captured image uses the estimating position and orientation of an image capturing apparatus. The positions of configuration planes and line segments of the 3D model undergo coordinate transformation to those observed from the line of sight direction corresponding to the estimating position and orientation, and a distance in the depth direction at that time is calculated. The distance in the depth direction is held as a range image corresponding to the captured image. The calculated distance in the depth direction is compared with the value of the range image, and when the calculated distance assumes a smaller value, the value of the range image is updated.
In reference 2, a range image is generated from a plurality of planes which configure a measurement object. Next, measurement line segments undergo coordinate transformation to have a rough position and orientation of the image capturing apparatus as a viewpoint. Of edge search point candidates of the measurement line segments, the values in the depth direction are compared with the value of the range image based on the configuration plane. If the value of the edge search point candidate is equal to or smaller than the value of the range image, edge search processing is then executed using that candidate as an edge search point.
Furthermore, in this method, in order to improve processing efficiency, rendering of the configuration planes of the measurement object is sped up using a rendering function of graphics rendering hardware. Information of the configuration planes of the measurement object is important upon determining whether or not line segments to be measured on an image are hidden by another measurement object. A line segment which is not observed on a captured image is selected as a measurement object unless it is checked whether or not that line segment is hidden by another plane, and the position and orientation estimation precision cannot be improved. For example, when measurement line segments located on the back side of a measurement object are used, they are not actually observed on the captured image in some cases. However, since other edges are erroneously detected as corresponding edges, such line segments are handled as points having large errors.
Upon application of the aforementioned method, data of measurement line segments, and data of the configuration planes of a measurement object used to test whether or not that line segment is actually observed need to be prepared. If the measurement object is designed using CAD or the like, the configuration planes and line segments can use that design.
In case of a 3D model configured by combining simple planes, since such 3D model has a configuration of edges to be observed similar to the configuration planes, the configuration plane data can be the same as data of the measurement line segments used in registration. However, in this case, since the measurement object needs to be a 3D model such as a simple rectangular parallelepiped or rectangle, such object has a narrow application range to an actual scene. In general, upon handling a measurement object having a complicated shape, it is difficult to set information of the configuration and that of the measurement line segments to be the same.
Even in a measurement object having a complicated shape, a complicated curved surface or object shape can be described using polygons such as simple triangles or rectangles. However, such polygons have a problem in the use as measurement line segments.
The condition required for line segments to be observed as edges on a captured image includes discontinuity of the boundaries of configuration planes from adjacent configuration planes, and discontinuity of the physical properties of configuration planes with respect to light from adjacent configuration planes. For this reason, a complicated plane is normally configured by polygons of a plurality of triangles or rectangles having an identical normal. Not all line segments of the polygons which configure such complicated plane are observed as edges on an actual captured image. In case of planes which configure a curved surface, even when the planes are continuous, they have different overall reflection angles in terms of an illumination position depending on the observation position, and they may be consequently observed as edges upon observation from far.
In this manner, when the configuration planes are used as measurement line segments, even for line segments located on the front side in the line of sight direction, if one plane is configured by a plurality of polygons, a line segment sandwiched between planes of a 3D model does not normally correspond to an edge observed on the image capturing frame. Therefore, the configuration planes of a 3D model cannot be used as information of measurement line segments for registration intact.
Therefore, the measurement line segments and line segments used to form the configuration planes of a 3D model may be held as independent data. However, such configuration suffers the following problem. For example, it is difficult to maintain consistency between information of the configuration planes of the measurement object, and actual measurement line segments, and a flexible change of the measurement object cannot be coped with. In other words, no means for using a list of a huge number of vertices and line segments that express shapes, and data sets of measurement line segments as a partial set of such list while maintaining consistency has been proposed. For example, in the studies of reference 2 or the like, a measurement object for verification is given, and information of the configuration planes and information of the measurement line segments, which are adjusted in advance, are independently held, thus implementing the position and orientation registration of the given measurement object.
A technique for estimating the position and orientation by reducing differences between line segments obtained by projecting a 3D model of a measurement object onto a captured image, and the corresponding edge positions on the captured image is known. In this technique, in order to handle a complicated measurement object, line segments of a model to be measured are associated with actually observed edges, thus improving the precision. Since there are no procedures using the aforementioned method of estimation of position and orientation while maintaining consistency between data sets of the configuration planes of objects used there and those used in measurement, such position and orientation estimation apparatus has poor convenience.

Position and orientation measurement apparatus and control method thereof


A plasma generating apparatus includes a plurality of discharge cells in which a gas is excited by a high frequency excitation signal produced at an inverter. Each of a plurality of transformers couples the excitation signal from the inverter to one of the discharge cells, thereby forming a separate resonant circuit that has a resonant frequency. A gap in the transformer core creates a stray magnetic field outside the transformer. The plurality of transformers are in close proximity to each other so that the stray magnetic field from one transformer is coupled to at least one other transformer. Coupling the stray magnetic fields between transformers results in each resonant circuit resonating at the same frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to plasma discharge devices, such as for generating ozone, for example; and more particularly to the high voltage power supply for such plasma discharge devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
High energy plasmas are used for a variety of purposes, such as ionizing gas for the generation of ozone or to reduce undesirable nitrogen oxide automobile emissions. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional apparatus for generating ozone and is typical of most equipment for generating a plasma with different types of gases. The high volume plasma generator 10 comprises a plurality of plasma discharge cells 12, 13, and 14 each having the schematic design shown for the first cell 12. The plasma discharge cell includes a chamber 16 containing the gas that is to be excited to produce the plasma. The chamber may be closed or, as is the case for an ozone generator, may have a passageway into which oxygen enters and the generated ozone exits. A pair of electrodes 17 and 18 are spaced apart on opposite sides of the chamber 16. When a high voltage is applied across the electrodes, the gas within the chamber 16 is excited, thereby producing the plasma that coverts the incoming oxygen (O2) into ozone (O3). Each plasma discharge cell exhibits a large capacitance load.
The plasma discharge cells 12-14 are driven by a power supply which receives alternating electric current at an input to an inverter 20. The inverter 20 converts the line frequency of the input electric current to a higher frequency suitable for exciting the gas of interest. The output of the inverter 20 is coupled by an inductor/choke 22 to a set of high voltage transformers 24, 25, and 26 connected in parallel. Each transformer 24, 25, and is associated with a different one of the plasma discharge cells 12, 13, and 14, respectively.
The capacitive load of each plasma discharge cell 12-14 is reflected through the respective high voltage transformer 24-26 and the choke 22 to the electronics of the inverter 20. That capacitive load can vary dynamically due to manufacturing tolerances of the plasma generator, as well as variation of the pressure, temperature, and flow rate of the gas being excited. The combination of that capacitive load along with the inductance and resistance of the associated power supply branch form a separate series resonant circuit for each plasma discharge cell. Although those resonant circuits have identical designs to theoretically resonant at the same frequency, the manufacturing tolerances and dynamic gas parameter variations cause each circuit branch to have a different resonant frequency. Nevertheless a single inverter 20 is employed to simplify tuning of the resonance and to eliminate beat frequencies that would exist if multiple inverters were employed in the same plasma generator.
A disadvantage with such conventional power supplies for multiple plasma discharge cells is the relatively large size of the magnetic components, i.e. the choke 22 and transformers 24-26, which significantly add to the cost and weight of the apparatus.
Furthermore, conventional design practice dictates that each transformer for a multiple cell plasma generator be constructed so that its primary and secondary coils are tightly coupled magnetically to reduce stray magnetic fields by minimizing the internal flux leakage. The sum of the transformer leakage inductance and the external choke inductance creates an aggregate inductance that ultimately balances the capacitance of the associated plasma discharge cell. In other words, each transformer has a core that maximizes the conductance of magnetic flux between the primary and secondary coils.
Furthermore, standard engineering practice is to physically separate the transformers 24-26 and the choke 22 by an amount that minimizes the stray magnetic field coupling between those components and to the enclosure of the power supply. Metal objects within such stray magnetic fields become heated to undesirable temperatures. However, separating the magnetic components from each other and from other metal objects within the apparatus has the drawback of requiring a significant amount of empty space within the device. Therefore, conventional design practice dictates that it is desirable to tightly couple the primary and secondary coils of each transformer so as to minimize the stray fields originating from the component.

Plasma generator having a power supply with multiple leakage flux coupled transformers


A method of forming a field effect transistor includes forming a punchthrough region having a first conductivity type in a substrate, forming an epitaxial layer having the first conductivity type on the substrate, patterning the epitaxial layer to form a fin that protrudes from the substrate, forming a dummy gate and gate sidewall spacers on the fin defining preliminary source and drain regions of the fin on opposite sides of the dummy gate, removing the preliminary source and drain regions of the fin, implanting second conductivity type dopant atoms into exposed portions of the substrate and the punchthrough region, and forming source and drain regions having the second conductivity type on opposite sides of the dummy gate and the gate sidewall spacers.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to field effect transistors and methods of manufacturing the same. In particular, the present disclosure relates to fin field effect transistor (FinFET) devices and methods of manufacturing FinFET devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to provide semiconductor devices with greater operational speed and increased integration level, the channel length of MOS field effect transistors (MOSFETs) has been gradually reduced. However, in a planar MOSFET, this may cause a short channel effect that may reduce the channel drive capacity of the device. To control the threshold voltage of a planar MOSFET, it may be desirable to increase the impurity concentration in the channel. However, this may reduce the mobility of carriers in the channel, which may reduce the ON state current of the device. Therefore, in the planar MOSFET, it may be difficult to suppress the short channel effect while maintaining a more rapid operational speed and an increased integration level.
A fin field effect transistor (FinFET) device has a structure that may be capable of reducing the short channel effect. The FinFET device includes an active region having a three-dimensional fin shape that includes source and drain regions on opposite sides of a channel region. The channel region is surrounded by a gate electrode. Thus, a three-dimensional channel may be formed along a surface of the fin. Because the channel is formed on an upper surface and sidewalls of the fin, the FinFET device may have a larger effective channel width in a relatively small horizontal area compared to a conventional planar MOSFET. Thus, a FinFET semiconductor device may have a relatively small size and a more rapid operational speed than a similarly sized conventional planar MOSFET device.
Undesirably, a FinFET device may experience a gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) current that may be higher than that of the planar MOSFET. To decrease the GIDL current, it may be desirable to minimize or reduce the area of overlap between the source/drain regions and the gate electrode. However, a process for forming the source/drain regions may include doping impurities and activating the impurities by a thermal treatment. The thermal treatment may cause horizontal and/or vertical diffusion of the impurities, which may increase the area of overlap between highly doped source/drain regions and the gate electrode. As a result, the GIDL current may not be sufficiently reduced.

Fin-FET transistor with punchthrough barrier and leakage protection regions


The present invention provides a wiring material for forming wiring on a substrate by causing coalescence of conductive particles through heating, and including a binder layer and a wiring layer. The binder layer contains metal particles and having a binder function to be adhered to the substrate; and the wiring layer contains metal particles and laminated on the binder layer. The metal particles of the binder layer and the metal particles of the wiring layer are in contact with each other. With this arrangement, it is possible to provide a wiring material allowing use of a larger variety of materials, while also ensuring low resistance of wiring and improvement of adhesion between the wiring and the substrate.

To form a wiring substrate with metal particles, generally used is a method of applying metal paste, which is an adhesive or paste containing metal particles, to a substrate through coating or printing.
Among various kinds of metal paste, the most common example is one containing silver (Ag) particles, which is used for electrical connection between terminals, or mending of disconnection. Such a metal paste normally contains metal fine particles in size of several microns to several ten microns, and it causes electrical coupling by using contact force between the respective particles (intermolecular force). As well as the metal particles, general metal paste contains a corrosion-resistant material, an adhesive material such as an epoxy, or solvents of this material etc.
Further, in recent years, finer metal particles with diameters of several nanometers to several tens nanometers (hereinafter referred to as ultrafine particles) has been attracting much attention. With the small diameters, the ultrafine particles offer such advantages that they are in touch with an object with more contact points between themselves and the object; they can constitute a thinner film; and they ensure superior flatness of the surface of substrate, etc.
Further, for the ultrafine particles around 100 nanometers or smaller, their characteristics, such as a decrease of melting point or an increase of reactivity (which are called size effect) becomes more considerable. Accordingly, a decrease of size causes a significant increase of surface energy with respect to internal energy.
When such ultrafine particles with high surface energy are in contact with each other, they are easily coalesced together, and the coalescing state is maintained until the size effect wears off. Thus, a metal thin film made up of ultrafine particles coalesced to each other offer a low resistance value, more closer to a bulk, compared to a material in which metal particles are not coalesced but aligned, and electrical conduction was made only by contact force between the particles.
The ultrafine metal particles with the described characteristics have already been used as a wiring material. One example is a conductive paste containing both large metal particles (with a diameter of μms) and ultrafine metal particles (with a diameter of nms). In this conductive paste, the ultrafine particles fill the respective gaps between the large metal particles, thus offering a low resistance.
Further, another example of a wiring material made of ultrafine metal particles is a colloid material in which the ultrafine particles coated with an organic material are dispersed in a solvent. The colloid material allows easy formation of a metal thin film by being applied to the object and then by being subjected to baking. In this manner, the organic material coating the ultrafine particles are evaporated through baking, and therefore the ultrafine metal particles are easily coalesced, thus easily forming a metal thin film with a resistance close to a bulk.
Incidentally, because of their small diameters, the ultrafine metal particles are energetically active, and their reactivity relies on the activity. Therefore, when the ultrafine metal particles are applied to the object having a metal surface so as to form a film, the metal surface and the ultrafine metal particles are coupled with each other. Thus, the created film will not remove from the metal surface.
However, when the object to which a film is formed by being coated with ultra fine particles is an insulative material such as an oxide, the ultrafine metal particles are only placed on the insulative material unlike the case of sputtering or vapor deposition in which the particles are injected into the object by some energy. Therefore, particularly for the ultrafine metal particles having low reactivity with respect to other materials such as a noble metal, the applied particles are more easily removed from the surface, thus immediately failing "a peel test" using a tape.
In view of this problem, Document 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Tokukaihei 03-263391/1991 (published on Nov. 22, 1991) discloses a method (first method) using a wiring material in which ultrafine metal particles contain several % by weight of glass frit. Also Document 2 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Tokukaihei 03-179794/1991 (published on Aug. 5, 1991) discloses a method (second method) of applying an epoxy adhesive, which is either cured or half-cured, on a surface coated with an insulative material, and applying ultrafine metal particles on the surface, which is then pressed and heated. Further, FIG. 8 shows still another method disclosed in Document 3 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Tokukaihei 11-80618/1999 (published-on Mar. 26, 1999), in which a substrate 101 coated with ultrafine metal particles 103 is baked, and then further coated with silica material 102, which is cured after application.
Incidentally, the wiring material containing glass frit, such as the one used in the first method, ensures adhesion between the wiring and the insulative material. However, since the glass frit operates as a resistance component in the wiring, the wiring should contain as small amount of glass frit as possible, so as to obtain a low resistance close to the wiring formed by a metal (such as Al) through sputtering, vapor deposition or the like.
However, when the wiring contains less amount of glass frit, there arise a problem of removal of the wiring from the substrate.
Therefore, the first method cannot ensure both of the adhesion between the wiring and the substrate, and the low resistance of the substrate.
Further, in the second method of applying a cured or half-cured epoxy adhesive on a surface coated with an insulative material, and applying ultrafine metal particles on the surface, which is then pressed and heated; the pressing may cause deformation of the wiring material in case of forming a thin film, thus arising a risk of breakage of wires.
Further, in the second method, the adhesive is used to ensure adhesion with the substrate, and therefore some kinds of metal particles can remove from the adhesive. Accordingly, the second method requires ultrafine metal particles with superior adhesion with respect to the adhesive. To meet this requirement, the material for wiring has to be selected from a smaller range.
Further, in the third method of applying and curing a silica material on ultrafine metal particles applied on a substrate; the silica material only fixes the wiring to the insulative material to prevent the wiring from being removed from the insulative material, but it does nothing to improve adhesion between the wiring and the insulative material. Thus, there is still a risk of removal of the wiring depending on the occupied area of the film of ultrafine metal particles formed on the substrate, if the adherence between the metal ultrafine particles and the silica material are not ensured.
Further, in the third method, adhesion between the wiring and the substrate is ensured with permeation of the silica material through the gaps between the ultrafine metal particles. Thus, the adherence can be ensured when the film is thin enough to provide sufficient gaps between the ultrafine particles; however, when the ultrafine metal particles are coalesced with each other to become a continuous film, and the silica material can no longer permeated through the gaps between the particles. Thus, the third method cannot ensure improvement of adhesion between the wiring and the insulative material either. Further, through such a processing, the silica covers the surface of the film, thus causing some difficulties for making electrical contact from the surface.

Wiring material, wiring substrate and manufacturing method thereof, display panel, fine particle thin film material, substrate including thin film layer and manufacturing method thereof