The invention concerns a device produced in the form of an assembly which can be integrated in any installation (13) for radioscopy of the product and comprising means for driving the product (5) in rotation about an axis (5a) perpendicular to the tomographic section plane to be obtained, a unit controlling (15, 16) the means (14) driving the product (5) in rotation, to drive the product (5) in rotation about the axis (5a) and an image acquisition and processing unit (16) including means for automatically acquiring and storing radioscopy images of the product (5) while the product (5) is rotating, in digital form, and calculating means for processing the digital images and constructing tomographic sections using a calculating algorithm. The device enables fault controls or geometrical and dimensional controls in mechanical parts for the automotive industry such as cylinder heads.

In certain mechanical industries, and in particular in the automobile industry, new parts and new casting methods are being developed which necessitate the provision of non-destructive inspection means in order to evaluate the parts produced to new designs or obtained by new methods. In particular, it is necessary to carry out qualitative and quantitative inspections as to the material of the part in order to determined whether any defects are present as well as dimensional and geometric inspections in zones of the parts which may be inaccessible by conventional means, for example in cavities or channels inside the part.
In particular, in the case of castings of aluminium alloy or of cast iron which are used for the construction of automobiles, such as cylinder heads, crankcases, crankshafts or steering column housings, it may be necessary to carry out non-destructive inspections or dimensional inspections on batches of parts which have been obtained using new designs or by new casting methods.
In so far as castings are concerned, the defects present in the parts can be detected by X-ray radioscopy, by gamma radiography or by ultrasonic inspection. These inspection means give indications as to the presence or absence of defects in the part, but the judgement of the conformity of the part and the soundness of its material is above all qualitative.
The geometric and dimensional inspections must be carried out in a destructive manner when it is a question of checking the shapes and dimensions of internal portions of the parts. In this case parts taken from manufacture are cut in such a way as to reveal the elements to be inspected and conventional dimensional measurement tools such as callipers or micrometers are used.
In order to obtain virtual images of sections of a mechanical part, it is known to use industrial tomography devices. Such devices including a radioscopy installation, for example using X-rays, means for relative displacement of the mechanical part in rotation with respect to the radioscopy installation and means for utilising the images in order to obtain tomographic sections are very expensive and are difficult to integrate into a castings production environment.
All the industrial tomographic methods are based on the principle of acquisition and processing of images of the part which are obtained by radioscopy.
The radioscopy installation essentially comprises a source of radiation, for example X-rays, with sufficient power to pass through the mechanical part and a luminescent screen such as an image intensifier. The part is interposed between the radiation source and the screen in such a way that the radiation can pass through it, the intensity of the radiation being attenuated and modulated as it passes through the part as a function of the opacity or the density of the materials through which it passes. The radiation having passed through the part produces an image on the screen which is representative of the material through which the radiation has passed. Generally an analogue or digital camera makes it possible to acquire the radioscopic images formed on the screen.
In order to obtain virtual tomographic sections of the part along sectional planes which are parallel to one another, acquisition of radioscopic images of the part is effected according to a very large number of successive orientations which are obtained by making the part turn about an axis perpendicular to the tomographic sectional planes.
The radioscopic images in digitised form are processed in a calculator using algorithms which are all based on the same principle, consisting of carrying out a Radon transform with filtered back-projection of the images of the part, on the basis of which a reconstruction of the images is carried out in order to obtain the tomographic section.
At least one image is produced for each of the relative elementary rotations between the part and the radioscopy installation, followed by processing of the images in order to obtain a synogram, this intermediate image then being reconstructed in order to obtain the virtual image which constitutes the tomographic section.
The synogram is obtained by juxtaposing the lines of the images corresponding to the sectional plane in which the tomographic view is produced.
Several tomographic views may be produced corresponding to successive sections of a portion of the part in the direction perpendicular to the sectional plane in such a way as to reconstitute the shape of the part in three dimensions.
The method of scanned radioscopy which enables sections to be obtained through a body or object is used both in the industrial field and in the medical field.
In the case of the scanner for medical use, the whole of the radioscopy device is made to turn around the patient in order to produce the successive images which are utilised in order to reconstruct the tomographic sections.
In the case of inspection of industrial parts, the part is generally fixed on a manipulator for adjustment of its position and for its displacement in rotation.
In all cases, it is necessary to use expensive and cumbersome installations which are generally fixed permanently in a building reserved for inspection.
In the case where it is desired to carry out inspections of castings on samples coming from manufacture, such devices which are cumbersome, expensive and permanently installed are not suitable.
On the other hand, conventional radioscopy installations are generally available in workshops for production of parts in order to check for defects in samples of parts from manufacture.
Such installations have limited performance and in particular do not permit inspection of the soundness of the material from which the part is made in sectional planes passing through the part.
Equally, the conventional methods of radioscopy do not permit non-destructive dimensional or geometric inspections to be carried out inside the parts.
More generally, on the production lines for industrial products which may be for example parts or any other product, practical means are not usually available which enable tomographic sections of the products to be carried out.

Device for manipulating a product and for processing radioscopy images of the product to obtain tomographic sections and uses


The present invention relates to a pyrazole amide derivative, pharmaceutical compositions containing this compound and to its use in therapy.

Calcium release activated calcium (CRAC) channels are a subset of store operated channels (SOC) which are opened in response to depletion of intracellular calcium stores and represent the critical point of calcium entry into certain cells such as mast cells and T-cells.
Two proteins have been identified as the essential components for CRAC channel function namely STIM1 (stromal interaction molecule 1), a calcium sensor localised in the endoplasmic reticulum, and ORAI1, a pore subunit of the CRAC channel that is gated by STIM1.
Small molecule inhibitors of the CRAC channel current (hereafter ICRAC inhibitors) are known in the art, their identification and therapeutic potential are described by Derler et al (Expert Opin. Drug Discovery; 2008; Vol. 3(7) pp. 787-800). U.S. Pat. No. 6,958,339 discloses a series of pyrazole derivatives that are said to possess calcium release-activated calcium channel inhibitory activity which are believed to be useful in the treatment of allergic, inflammatory or autoimmune diseases.
PCT patent application PCT/EP2010/055318 discloses a series of pyrazole amide compounds which are calcium release activated calcium channel (ICRAC) inhibitors.

Pyrazole compounds acting against allergic, immune and inflammatory conditions


A system for communication between browser windows includes a first web page configured to enable a first browser window into which the first web page is loaded to write a first message into a cookie; a second web page configured to enable a second browser window into which the second web page is loaded to retrieve the first message from the cookie; wherein the second web page is configured to enable the second browser window into which the second web page is loaded to write a second message into a the cookie; and wherein the first web page is configured to enable the first browser window into which the first web page is loaded to retrieve the second message from the cookie.

Network-based applications that run within web-page browser windows (thin clients) often have inferior user interfaces as compared to native applications that interface directly with the computer operating system (fat clients). In general, native applications have much richer and more responsive user interfaces than do applications that run within browser windows. This is mainly due to limitations that browsers impose on browser-based applications. One of the most significant of these limitations is the lack of a simple and reliable method for communicating between browser windows. To avoid this problem, browser-based applications often operate within the confines of a single window, whereas native applications often provide users with multiple views in multiple windows. As a result, users of browser-based applications often have to navigate between different web pages in order to switch views, which is a time-consuming action.
One method that may be used to provide for communication between browser windows employs JavaScript™ window handles. In this method, when a window B is opened by another window A using a JavaScript command, JavaScript code in both windows A and B can get a handle to the other window and use the handle for direct function calls between the two windows. However, this type of communication is only possible where window B is opened by a JavaScript call or by a HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) link that is configured to open a new browser window when selected. Thus, if window B is opened from the browser menu, JavaScript cannot be used in either window to get the other window's handle. This type of communication is also limited to communication between browser windows displaying web pages from the same host. Thus, a network-based application having multiple browser windows, each displaying a web page from a different host in the same domain, cannot use this technique to allow its browser windows to communicate with one another.
Another method that may be used to provide for communication between browser windows employs Java™ applets. In this method, multiple instances of a Java applet that reside in different browser windows can communicate with each other using static data members and static methods. Thus, web pages residing in different browser windows that each include an instance of the same Java applet can communicate with each other via inter-applet communication (e.g., Window A JavaScript to Window A applet→Window A applet to Window B applet→Window B applet to Window B JavaScript). However, this method requires that the browser have a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), whereas recent versions of popular browsers do not include a JVM by default.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed is a convertible sofa bed including a seat frame, a back frame, a support structure, a first and second linkage assembly pivotally coupling the seat frame to the back frame pivotally coupling the seat frame to the support structure and pivotally coupling the back frame to the support structure, and an electrical drive assembly coupled to the first and second linkage assemblies. The electrical drive assembly includes a motor mounted to the support structure, a first and second cable drive rotatably coupled to and extending from the motor, first and second threaded drive screws having an external thread, and first and second right angle gear boxes mounted to first and second aft portions of the support structure. The electrical drive assembly also includes first and second drive nut assemblies mounted to respective first and second linkage assemblies and respective threaded drive screws.

This disclosure relates to sofa beds, and more particularly to a convertible sofa bed configured to be either manually operated or electrically actuated to move the sofa bed between its sofa position and its bed position.
Couch/bed combinations frequently referred to as convertible sofa beds, generally include moveable seat and back portions which can be folded to a seating configuration and unfolded to a horizontal, generally planar reclined configuration for use as a bed. Suitable linkage is provided for pivotally coupling the seat and back portions. In some sofa beds, the seat portion of the sofa unfolds outward from the back portion which remains fixed in position, with the distal end of the thus unfolded seat portion supported by unfolding legs. In others, the back portion of the sofa reclines to provide, with the seat portion, a pair of generally flat, aligned support surfaces. Other approaches make use of extendable/retractable frame extensions at either the head or foot portion of the unfolded configuration to provide additional support surface area.
To date, manually operated convertible sofa beds have suffered from various shortcomings. For example, the absence of means for locking the unfolded assembly in the bed configuration allows the flat support surface to be easily rendered non-planar when weight is concentrated on a relatively small surface area, particularly along a median axis of the bed such as between the unfolded seat and back portions thereof. In addition, convertible sofa beds which require unfolding of the seat portion by pulling up on an aft, inner portion of the seat require considerable strength for unfolding. This precludes use of this type of folding sofa bed by the handicapped, feeble or those of advancing age. Further, some available pivoting linkage for convertible sofa beds is generally complicated and makes use of a large number of components which increases its cost and reduces its reliability and limits its usable lifetime.
Similarly, electrically actuated convertible sofa beds, requiring the use of a motorized device, have suffered from various shortcomings. Besides some of the shortcomings described above, poor placement of the motorized device in some prior art electrically actuated convertible sofa beds can make repair and replacement of the motorized device difficult. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,716 to Shrock et al. discloses an electrically actuated convertible sofa bed for use in a vehicle where a drive motor is located between the seat frame and the inner wall of the vehicle in order to maximize storage space under the sofa bed. Unfortunately, such a disposition makes repair and replacement of the drive motor difficult.


A system and method for converting a codec of image data is provided. The system includes a syntax converter for selectively converting first image data having a first syntax into second image data having a second syntax in response to a comparison of the first image data and the second image data, and a decoder for decoding a bit stream outputted from the syntax converter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for converting a codec of image data and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for converting a codec of image data using a decoder of a different video. codec.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video codecs are widely used by movie producers and internet providers. A standard video codec utilized by an image service provider for a wired/wireless network is H.263 and an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)-4.
H.263 is a requisite video codec for terminals. Other standards include H.320 integrated services digital network (ISDN), H.323 internet image terminal standard (IITS), H.324 public switched telephone network (PSTN), or the like. Others, such as European mobile communication providers, provide image services such as video on demand (VOD) using H.263.
MPEG-4 is a video standard based on core techniques of H.263. MPEG-4 compresses and/or restores data to transmit video at a low transfer rate for multimedia communication.
The image data of H.263 has a layer structure made up of a picture layer, a group of blocks (GOB) layer, a macroblock layer, and a block layer.
Referring to FIG. 1, the syntax information of a conventional profile is shown for a picture layer of an image file. The image file has multiple fields. Each of the multiple fields provides directions for moving image data from one location to another location. Referring to FIG. 2, the syntax of the conventional GOB layer illustrating the connections between each of the multiple fields. The GOB layer, like the picture layer, defines locations for moving image data. Both FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate base line profiles for functionality in the H.263.
Referring to FIG. 3, a visual object sequence and a visual object header are generated of a conventional MPEG-4 bit stream. A visual object layer pages a general video object plane (VOP) mode or a short header mode. When the short header mode is paged from the video object layer, a short header mode syntax is created.
Referring to FIG. 4, a comparison is performed between the short header mode syntax of the MPEG-4 and the syntax of the H.263 baseline profile. The MPEG-4 bit stream is similar to the H.263 bit stream in its performance and structure. Because the header part and/or the syntax of MPEG-4 bit stream are not identical to that of the H.263 bit stream, formatting compatibility issues exist between MPEG-4 and an H.263 decoder. To maintain processing compatibility converting image data between the MPEG-4 and H.263 standards, codecs of each of the standards are required at the mobile terminal. This compatibility problem results in undesirably increasing fabrication costs and volume of a mobile terminal.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that overcomes the above problems and provides advantages over other image data processing systems.

Apparatus and method for converting a codec of image data


An electric cable cutter is provided which can shorten the working time period, which allows the cutting work to be performed with a rotational torque corresponding to the kind of a work piece, and which has a clutch mechanism that, when a torque repulsion force of a predetermined level or higher is exerted, can cut off a power transmission mechanism.. In a configuration wherein the rotational torque of an electric motor is transmitted to a cutter unit via a planetary gear reduction mechanism, the torque is transmitted via a plurality of gears (a constrained-gear train) which are rotatably disposed on a stationary portion and function as means for transmitting the rotational torque from a driving gear disposed in the final stage of the planetary gear reduction mechanism to a rotary blade. In the planetary gear reduction mechanism, projections are disposed on a side face of an internal gear constituting the planetary gear reduction mechanism, and a clutch mechanism is disposed in which a ball urged by a spring is abutted against a position between the projections. The cutter unit is configured by a stationary blade, and the rotary blade in which a sector gear is formed on the outer periphery.

The invention relates to an electric cable cutter for cutting a wire such as an electric wire, and more particularly to a portable electric cable cutter in which a wire or the like is cut via a gear reduction (speed change) mechanism by means of an electric motor which is powered by a battery.
When a cable is cut or wires of various diameters are cut in an electric facility work, or when a steel bar is cut in an ironworks, a construction work, or the like, a cable cutter is used. Cable cutters of the prior art include a hydraulic cable cutter, and a manual tool which uses a toggle mechanism. The assignee of the present patent application proposed an electric cable cutter of the battery type which is shown in FIG. 8 (Japanese patent application No. HEI5-146935). Specifically, the electric cable cutter comprise: a case 61 which houses a planetary gear speed change mechanism; a battery cartridge 62 which is detachably mounted in the lower portion of a handle 61a of the case 61; a stationary blade 66 which is fixed to the case 61; and a rotary blade 67 which is rotatably attached to a bolt 65 at an end portion of the stationary blade 66 and which has a sector gear 67b in the outer side.
The electric cable cutter is used in the following manner. The worker grasps the handle 61a by one hand so as to set the rotary blade 67 free. A wire to be cut (hereinafter, such an object to be cut or worked is referred to as a work piece) is placed inside the stationary blade 66. The rotary blade 67 is rotated by hand so that an end portion of the gear 67b engages with a driving gear 63 of the final stage of the planetary gear reduction mechanism housed in the case 61. When a switch lever (not shown) is then pressed, the work piece is cut by a high rotational torque. The electric cable cutter is convenient to use because it can be operated by one hand and it does not require a force to be exerted by an arm.
The above-mentioned electric cable cutter is configured so that the driving gear 63 of the final stage of the planetary gear reduction mechanism housed in the case 61 meshes with the gear 67b of the rotary blade 67. Since the sector gear 67b is a large gear, the length L1 or the central angle 1 of the arc of the sector gear 67b of the rotary blade 67 which arc elongates from the start of the meshing state with the driving gear 63 to the end of the state are inevitably made large. Therefore, the time period of the cutting work tends to be prolonged. Although a large driving force is required at the initial period of the cutting work, a smaller driving force is required as the cutting work advances. In the cutter of the prior art, the same meshing state is maintained from the start of the cutting work to the end and hence a slightly unstable state is produced.
Furthermore, work pieces which are to be cut by an electric cable cutter include those of various kinds ranging from a thin wire member to a thick and hard piece. If the cutting work is performed with a rotational torque corresponding to the kind of the work piece, the work can be efficiently done. In the case where a work piece is so hard that it is hardly cut, there are fears that an excessive torque repulsion force is exerted and the electric motor is overheated, and that the battery is over-discharged and the life of the battery is shortened.


A label wrapper assembly for wrapping a label on an elongated object. The assembly includes a support frame having a first wall spaced from a second wall. A wrapper frame is interposed between the first and second walls, and has a first end and a second end. The wrapper frame includes an opening for receiving the elongated object extending through the wrapper frame between the first and second ends, wherein the wrapper frame revolves around the elongated object to wrap a label thereon. In one embodiment, the first end is rotatably mounted to only one of the first and second walls, and the second end is adjacent to the other of the first and second walls. In another embodiment, a clamp mechanism is mounted to each of the walls, wherein each of the clamp mechanisms clamp onto the elongated object extending through the wrapper frame to hold the elongated object as the wrapper frame revolves around the elongated object. In yet another embodiment, a block assembly is supported by the wrapper frame for urging a label against the elongated object.

Printers, such as thermal transfer label printers, are well known in the art for printing labels. In a typical thermal transfer label printer, a label and a thermal transfer printer ribbon are compressed between a print head and a roller and fed together past the print head. The print head produces sufficient heat in the appropriate locations to transfer the ink from the ribbon to the label to print a label.
The labels produced by the printer can then applied to the wires being labeled by hand. Applying a label to a wire by hand has many drawbacks. Namely, attempting to apply labels to wires, especially small diameter wires, is time consuming, is inaccurate in that it is difficult to place the labels in such a way that the labels are square and aligned on the wire, and is inefficient in that it is difficult to properly and evenly secure the entire label to the surface of the wire.
Label application mechanisms are available that automatically apply tape and preprinted labels to cylindrical objects, such as bottles, cans, and the like. These systems typically require the object being labeled to be conveyed past the applicator mechanism in order for the mechanism to apply a preprinted label. A finishing device can then press the label to the object. However, these systems are designed to be used with large diameter cylindrical objects such as cans or bottles and none of these systems can be used or be easily adapted to be used with elongated, flexible objects of small diameter such as wires, wire bundles, and non-cylindrical objects. In addition, these systems also have other inherent drawbacks and problems.
Application of a label onto a cylindrical object having a relatively small diameter, such as a wire, presents a host of problems. For example, if the label is skewed as it is dispensed toward the wire, or the leading edge of the label is loose from the wire prior to wrapping, the wrapping mechanism can adhere to the adhesive on the label which can jam the wrapping mechanism. The jammed wrapping mechanism must be cleared before wire labeling can continue.
Known mechanisms that apply labels onto wires have problems keeping the initial adhesion of the label to the wire during the wrap cycle. Most labels used for wire application are of a self-laminating type, meaning that the label has a fairly small printable area followed by a clear tail that wraps around the printed portion of the label to help secure the label and to protect the printed area from the elements. Moreover, these known wire label applicators cannot apply a label proximal an electrical connector because of the diameter difference between the wire and the electrical connector crimped onto the wire end and have difficulty wrapping a label on a flexible, elongated object.
It would be advantageous if a wire applicator mechanism could be designed that urges the label against the object being wrapped to avoid the need for a tail. It would also be advantageous if a wire applicator mechanism can wrap a label proximal an end of the object, such as near an electrical connector fixed to the end of a wire, and/or wrap a label onto a flexible, elongated object.


A sliding-type mobile communication terminal having a first housing and a second housing adapted to allow the first housing to be opened or closed by means of a sliding movement on the first housing in a longitudinal direction of the first housing. The terminal includes a spring module adapted to provide a sliding force, along the longitudinal direction of the first housing, for allowing closing of the second housing within a predetermined range of distance, and for providing the sliding force in an opposite direction for allowing opening of the second housing beyond the predetermined range of distance. The spring module includes link bars rotatably coupled in one end onto the first housing, coil springs supported by one end of the link bar and coupled to enclose the link bar, and a slider slidably coupled to the link bar to be acted upon by an elastic force from the coil spring. The terminal uses the elasticity in coil springs to implement a semi-automatic sliding opening/closure of the second housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication terminal, and in particular, to a sliding-type or slidable mobile communication terminal with two or more housings configured so that the one housing is allowed to slide in a longitudinal direction of the other housing to open or close a keypad section on the first housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile telephone terminal is a portable mobile station that provides wireless communication services to its subscriber while wirelessly communicating with its base station. Rapid development in the field of information and telecommunication business has made it possible for mobile users to use a variety of functions and types of mobile phones available on the market. These mobile telephone terminals are generally classified into three or more types of terminals, such as, e.g., a bar-type terminal, a flip-type terminal with a flip cover, and a foldable terminal with a folder adapted to be open and closed about a main body at a given angle.
The bar-type terminal is generally formed with a single body housing configured so that various data input/output means and a receiver and transmitter set are arranged on the housing, and a keypad assembly utilized as a data input/output means is fully exposed. Thus, a bar-type terminal is often apt to operate in error due to careless manipulation by its user, and its design requires a relatively long distance between the receiver set and the transmitter set which may lead to serious limitations in making the terminal smaller.
The flip-type terminal generally consists of a main body, a flip member and a hinge module for coupling the main body and the flip member, in which the main body is provided with a data input/output means, that is, a keypad, and a receiver and transmitter set. This type of terminal can prevent any undesired operation error or malfunction since the flip member is adapted to fully cover the keypad when the flip member is closed, but the design of this type of terminal also requires a relatively long distance between the receiver set and the transmitter set, which results in serious limitations in making smaller terminal.
The folder-type or foldable terminal generally consists of a main body, a folder and a hinge module for coupling the main body and the folder, so that rotation of the folder allows opening or closure of the folder with respect to the main body. The main body is provided with a data input/output means, that is, a keypad and a receiver set. Thus, when the folder is in the closed state on the main body in a standby mode, the terminal can prevent any undesired operation error or malfunction since the folder is adapted to fully cover the keypad. However, in a telephone mode, since the folder is usually rotated away from the main body of the mobile phone to ensure enough distance between the receiver and the transmitter of the phone, the design of this type of terminal may be made much smaller. As such, mobile users recently have preferred foldable terminals to any other type of mobile communication terminals.
When using flip-type or foldable terminals, the hinge module for rotatably coupling the flip member or the folder with the main body operates in such a manner that when the flip or folder of the mobile terminal is opened to rotate up to a specified threshold angle about the main body, a continuous acting force is generated by the hinge module and is applied in the direction of opening without application of additional external force by a user, while when the flip or folder of the mobile terminal is rotated during closing below a specified threshold angle about the main body, a continuous acting force is generated by the hinge module and is applied in the direction of closure without application of more force by the user.
In the meantime, as more diverse design concepts are introduced in the design of mobile communication terminals, a sliding type of mobile terminal has recently been in wide use and consists of two housings in which one housing is slidably opened or closed with respect to the other housing. However, these sliding type mobile terminals have not yet been proposed with a variety of different designs in structure, and for this reason, its users may feel some inconvenience in that they have to manually slide one housing with respect to the other housing to open or close it.

Sliding-type mobile communication terminal


A steering wheel for motor vehicles which is composed of a steering wheel base covered with a skin material of: (I) 10-50 parts by weight of a polyethylene resin (A); and (II) 90-50 parts by weight of a block copolymer (B) including a polymer block (a) of styrene or a derivative thereof and an isoprene polymer block or an isoprene-butadiene copolymer block (b), the polymer or copolymer block containing 40% or higher of isoprene units bonded at 3,4- position relative to the total isoprene units and 97% or more of the double bonds having been hydrogenated, (the total amount of the components (A) and (B) is 100 parts by weight). The skin material for the steering wheel is a soft, injection-moldable thermoplastic olefin elastomer composition having a low specific gravity and good wear resistance, which is capable of recycling and gives excellent feel of touch.

Soft vinyl chloride resin materials and RIM urethane materials, both of which are injection moldable, have widely been used in recent years as a soft skin material of a steering wheel for motor vehicles. In particular, the RIM urethane materials predominate in the skin material for steering wheels because of their good wear resistance and imparting soft touch.
However, the RIM urethane materials have such problems that a cycle for molding is long, it takes a long time for a post-treatment processing, and have problems in view of recycling the scrap molded articles thereof such that RIM urethane materials cannot be melt again because they are thermoset resins.
Furthermore, the soft vinyl chloride resin materials have problems of a high specific gravity and generation of chlorine gases when heated for recycling the scrap molded articles thereof.
Therefore, a soft, recyclable injection molding material having a low specific gravity has been desired as a skin material of a steering wheel for motor vehicles. For the materials as described above, thermoplastic olefin elastomers are suitable.
However, conventional thermoplastic olefin elastomer materials have not been used as the skin material of the steering wheel for the motor vehicles because they are low in wear resistance that is an essential requirement for the skin material of the steering wheel for the motor vehicles.
With this respect, the present inventors have earnestly studied to obtain an injection-moldable soft thermoplastic olefin elastomer material having a low specific gravity and good wear resistance, which is capable of recycling and gives good feel of touch, and have found that a thermoplastic elastomer composition containing a polyethylene resin and a styrene block copolymer at a particular proportion has the above mentioned properties or effects. The present invention was thus completed.
The present invention was made to solve the problems associated with the conventional arts as described above, and an object thereof is to develop an injection-moldable soft thermoplastic olefin elastomer composition having a low specific gravity and excellent wear resistance, which is capable of recyling and gives good feel of touch, and to provide a steering wheel for motor vehicles of which skin material is made of that composition.


A method for storing video frame data in a memory includes the steps of: sequentially receiving the video frame data; dividing the video frame data into a first part and a second part; storing the first part in the memory; storing the second part in the memory while the stored first part is read from the memory for a certain purpose; and reading the second part stored in the memory for the certain purpose.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for storing video frame data in a memory of a video apparatus and, more particularly, to a video frame data storing method which can reduce the amount of memory required in a video apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, video frame data is composed and displayed on a screen in units of pixels. For effective transmission and storage of the video frame data, it is initially encoded. Since the video frame data contains an enormous amount of information, a video compression technique is used during encoding. The video compression technique is implemented by eliminating video information that is repeated between spatial and temporal domains or by coding the video information to a constant form. As one of the most widely known video compression techniques, there is the MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) specification.
The MPEG specification initially encodes the video frame data by a unit of a macro block and decodes the encoded video frame data by a unit of the macro block for the purpose of storage and display. Each macro block consists of 16xc3x9716 pixels, i.e., 16 scanning lines. The MPEG specification has recently been adopted for the high quality of an image in systems such as digital TV, direct broadcasting satellite (DBS), DVD, and high definition television (HDTV).
In an NTSC broadcasting system, one frame of data includes 480 scanning lines each having 720 pixels, as shown in FIG. 1a. A moving picture is achieved by displaying about 30 frames of data per second.
In a PAL broadcasting system, one frame of data consists of 576 scanning lines each having 720 pixels, as shown in FIG. 1b. The moving picture is formed by displaying about 25 frames of data per second.
Typically, one frame of video data is divided into an odd field (or a top field) and an even field (or a bottom field), and displayed on the screen in the order of the odd field and then the even field. In the following description, the odd and even fields may be referred to as first and second fields without distinguishing them. Moreover, one video frame of data is divided into an upper part and a lower part. In the NTSC system, the upper part and the lower part each have 240 scanning lines, respectively. Since the NTSC system uses an interlaced scanning method, one scanning line of the odd field and one scanning line of the even field are alternatively displayed on the screen, as indicated in FIG. 2. Therefore, in the frame data of the NTSC system, the upper part and the lower part, respectively, have 120 scanning lines of the odd field and 120 scanning lines of the even field.
FIG. 3a is a schematic block diagram showing a typical decoding part of a video apparatus, such as a television receiver and a video cassette recorder. A conventional method for storing the video frame data in a memory will now be described with reference to FIG. 3a.
A decoder 20 sequentially decodes encoded video frame data in response to a control signal CS1 of a controller 10. A memory 30 sequentially stores the video frame data generated from the decoder 20 by a unit of the frame data in response to another control signal CS2 of the controller 10 and then supplies the stored frame data to another storage device 50 or a display unit 40, for example, a television receiver or a monitor. That is, each video frame data is supplied to the display unit 40 or the storage device 50 after it is completely stored in the memory 20.
In more detail, each video frame of data consists of an odd field and an even field. As shown in FIG. 3b, the odd field data of the video frame data generated from the decoder 20 is stored in a first region 30a of the memory 30, and the even field data thereof is stored in a second region 30b of the memory 30, as shown in FIG. 3b. In this case, each field data is sequentially stored in each region by a unit of a constant number of scanning lines (8 or 16 scanning lines, for example). Thus, if one frame of data is divided into the odd field data and the even field data, and if these field data are stored in the first and second regions 30a and 30b, the memory 30 supplies the odd field data stored in the first region 30a to the storage device 50 or the display unit 40 in response to the control signal CS2 of the controller 10 in a stored order of 1a, 2a, 3a , . . . (nxe2x88x921)a, na. Thereafter, the memory 30 supplies the even field data stored in the second region 30b to the display unit 40 or the storage device 50 in a stored order of 1b, 2b, 3b , . . . (nxe2x88x921)b, nb. The next video frame of data generated from the decoder 20 is then stored in the memory 30 in the same way as the above-described processes and then applied to the display unit 40 or the storage device 50.
It should be noted that each video frame of data is supplied to the display unit to be displayed or to another storage device to be stored after it is completely stored in the memory. Therefore, the memory 30 must have a capacity which is capable of storing a full frame of video data. However, there are disadvantages which will hereinafter be described. The memory is typically fabricated by a manufacturing company to a multiple of 2, that is, 1, 2, 4, or 8 megabytes (MB), etc. Hence, the maximum capacity of the video frame data to be stored does not accurately coincide with the capacity of commercially available memories. For example, in order to store the video frame data of the MPEG specification according to the PAL system, a memory capacity of a maximum of 1,866,240 bytes is needed. Further, in order to store each video bit stream before decoding, a memory capacity of 229,376 bytes is required. It is necessary to have an additional memory capacity of about 500,000 bytes in order to store on-screen display (OSD) data, audio data, and system data. Consequently, a memory capacity of about 2.6 MB is needed to store the video frame of data of the MPEG specification according to the PAL system during decoding.
However, as previously noted, since a memory having a memory capacity of 2.6 MB is not typically commercially fabricated, the next largest commercially available memory, which typically has a capacity of 4 MB, must be selected. Therefore, when designing the decoding part of the video apparatus, there occurs an unnecessary increase in manufacturing cost. Moreover, since the capacity of the video frame data for the PAL system is larger than that for the NTSC system, the video frame data for the PAL system cannot be stored in the memory corresponding to the NTSC system. In other words, the video apparatus of the PAL system is not compatible with that of the NTSC system.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for storing video frame data in a memory that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for storing video frame data in a memory which can reduce the capacity of a memory used in a decoding part of a video apparatus.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the method for storing video frame data in a memory includes the steps of: sequentially receiving the video frame data; dividing the video frame data into a first part and a second part; storing the first part in the memory; and storing the second part in the memory while the stored first part is read from the memory for a certain purpose; and reading the second part stored in the memory for the certain purpose.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Method for storing video frame data in a memory


A memory device has refresh cycles to refresh memory cells of the memory device. The time interval between one refresh cycle to the next refresh cycle is a refresh interval. The refresh interval depends on a frequency of an oscillating signal. A refresh timer adjusts the frequency of the oscillating signal based on changes in the temperature to adjust the refresh interval.

Semiconductors devices such as memory devices reside in many computers and electronic products. A typical memory device has many memory cells to store data.
The data in a memory cell is represented by a charge. The charge loses its value over time due to leakage and other factors, causing the data to become invalid. To retain the validity of the data, a typical memory device frequently performs a refresh operation at a specific refresh interval to restore (or refresh) the charges to their original values.
In some cases, a change in the temperature causes a conventional memory device to perform the refresh operation more frequently than necessary. For example, when the temperature deceases, a conventional memory device may perform more refresh operation than that at a higher temperature. Thus, power is wasted.

Circuits and methods of temperature compensation for refresh oscillator


The invention provides a method for forming a bottle-shaped trench. A semiconductor substrate having a trench and a pad stack layer formed thereon is provided. A masking layer is then formed in the lower portion of the trench. Plasma nitridation is then performed to form a nitride layer covering the sidewalls of the trench, followed by removing the masking layer to expose the sidewalls of the trench. The lower portion of the trench is then expanded by etching to form a bottle-shaped trench.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a bottle-shaped trench fabrication method, and more particularly to a fabrication method for forming a bottle-shaped trench by plasma nitridation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking, capacitors widely used in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are formed by two conductive layers (electrode plates) having an insulation layer therebetween. The ability to store the electric charge of a capacitor depends on the thickness and electrical characteristics of the insulation layer, and the surface area of the electrode plate. Recent developments to reduce the size of semiconductor elements to enhance integration density require the memory cell area to be continuously reduced to hold a large number of memory cells, and thereby increase density. The electrode plates of a capacitor in a memory cell however must provide sufficient surface area to store sufficient electric charge.
Nevertheless, when element size is continuously reduced, the trench storage node capacitance of DRAM is also reduced. As a result, storage capacitance must be increased to maintain excellent memory operating performance.
Currently, the method for increasing DRAM storage capacitance increases the width of the bottom of a trench, thereby increasing surface area by forming bottle-shaped trench capacitors.
FIGS. 1A to 1K are cross-sections showing the conventional method for forming a bottle-shaped trench. In FIG. 1A, a substrate 100 with a trench therein is provided, a pad layer is formed on the substrate 100, and the pad layer comprises an oxide layer 102 and a nitride layer 104. A sidewall oxide layer 106 is formed on the trench sidewall by thermal oxidation. A protective nitride layer 108 and a polysilicon layer 110 are formed thereon by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In FIG. 1B, the polysilicon layer 110 is oxidized forming a protective oxide layer 120. In FIG. 1C, a mask layer 122 is formed to cover the lower portion of the trench, the mask layer 122 comprises, for example, a photoresist material. In FIG. 1C, the protective oxide layer 120 not protected by the mask layer 122, is removed to form a protective oxide layer 120′. Then the mask layer 122 is removed as in FIG. 1E. In FIG. 1F, a sidewall nitride layer 124 is formed on the upper portion of the trench by nitridation. The protective oxide layer 120′ is then removed as shown in FIG. 1G. In FIG. 1H, the protective nitride layer 108 is then removed to form a protective oxide layer 108′. The sidewall nitride layer 124 is removed as shown in FIG. 1I. In FIG. 1J, the lower portion of sidewall oxide layer 106 is removed to form a sidewall oxide layer 106′. In FIG. 1K, the lower portion of the trench is etched to form a bottle-shaped trench by wet etching.
The above-mentioned bottle-shaped trench fabrication method is complicated, and due to the continuous reduction in semiconductor scaling, this fabrication method is progressively more complicated. Therefore, a simple fabrication method for forming the bottle-shaped trench is necessary.


A coin-operated, time-controlled table game apparatus includes a plurality of movable rods which support respective playing pieces; and a locking device including at least one locking beam which can be moved up and down, and which supports at least one pin, wherein at least one of the plurality of movable rods, after the expiration of playing time, is fixed in place by the locking device, wherein each rod to be fixed in place has defined therein at least one groove extending in the axial direction into which an associated pin of the locking device is inserted after the expiration of playing time, and wherein a pin is provided for each rod to be fixed in place, the pin projecting relative to the longitudinal axis of the locking beam and being positioned in alignment with an associated rod such that it plunges into the groove of the associated rod when the locking beam is engaged after the expiration of playing time. Alternatively, a coin-operated, time-controlled table game apparatus includes a plurality of movable rods which support respective playing pieces; and a braking device comprised of a locking beam which can be moved up and down, wherein, after the expiration of the playing time, at least one of the plurality of movable rods is rendered stiff by the braking device, and wherein the locking beam has at least one braking element associated with each rod which is to be rendered stiff such that the at least one braking element renders stiff the associated rod when the locking beam is engaged after the expiration of the playing time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a coin-operated, time-controlled table soccer apparatus, table hockey apparatus or similar table game apparatus having movable rods which support playing pieces, of which rods, after the expiration of the playing time, at least one can be fixed in place by a locking device, with the rod to be fixed in place having at least one groove into which a pin of the locking device can be inserted.
2. Description of the Related Art
With table game apparatuses, in particular, coin-operated apparatuses, either a specific number of balls are provided for a game or a game sequence or the game can be played for a specific time duration and, after its expiration, the game can be continued with the ball which is on the playing field at that time until this ball disappears in a goal.
In order to be able to play without paying money, the players have devised different manipulation measures. Thus, it occurs again and again that foreign objects, hats, scarfs, sponges, etc. are stuffed into the goal area. This means that the ball cannot get lost by scoring a goal, i.e., a hit, and the game can be played with a ball for any desired amount of time. Instead of using a foreign object, some players have started to cover the goal area or the opening of the goal with metal plates or wooden plates which are true to size.
One alternative for these manipulation measures might be for the players to bring their own balls. But this would entail the drawback that, in the event of a goal, the balls would be lost. Then, the only question would be what is more expensive, the ball or purchasing additional playing time.
The operators of such table game apparatuses suffer sometimes considerable losses in sales as a result of such manipulations, which has already led to the consideration of countermeasures. Thus, from DE-A-26 57 834, an arrangement for ensuring a proper game operation on a coin-operated table soccer apparatus is known which operates with a plugging barrier in the form of a finger associated with the goal area, which finger is connected with the playing rod supporting the goalkeeper and which can be moved back and forth. The finger is connected via a telescope arrangement to a catch which is fastened to the playing rod.
Furthermore, time-controlled, coin-operated table game apparatuses are known which limit the playing time through combinations of a defined number of playing balls, the switching off of the point counting devices and/or the blocking of the goals. However, these measures also do not represent an effective protection against the above-mentioned manipulation measures since these can be circumvented by simple means such as playing with player-owned balls or a different manner of counting points.
From FR-A-746 550, a table game apparatus is known wherein, after the expiration of the playing time, at least one of the rods is fixed in place by a locking device. The rod to be fixed in place is provided with at least one groove into which a leg of the lever of the locking device is inserted so that the respective rod remains in its momentary position of fixation.
It is the object of the invention to improve certain game characteristics at the end of the playing time and to ensure in this process that the playing time is limited effectively for a coin-operated, time-controlled table soccer apparatus, table hockey apparatus or similar table game apparatus of the type mentioned at the outset without necessitating a connection to the mains supply.

Coin-operated, time-controlled table game apparatus


Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to detecting, and in some implementations, responding to, asymmetric routing in network deployments. In a particular embodiment, a first process detects asymmetric routing at connection initiation, while the second process can detect asymmetric routing that may after connection initiation.

In various enterprise network deployments that involve proxies or other intermediate network devices, such as secure web gateways and Wide Area Network (WAN) optimization devices, one or more proxies can perform client Internet Protocol (IP) address spoofing (also known as reflect client-IP or RCIP). For example, a proxy can terminate a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) connection with a client and, masquerading as the client, open a TCP connection with a server.
A known problem in such deployments is asymmetric routing, according to which the routed path for packets destined to the server may not be the same as the routed path for packets destined for the client or proxy. This condition can be relatively stable or dynamic and intermittent. Because RCIP proxies spoof the client (i.e., the proxy uses the client IP address), the packets transmitted by the server (such as a TCP SYN/ACK packet) may reach the client directly if the routed return path is not the same. In this instance, the client, having no state information for the connection, attempts to terminate the TCP connection between the proxy and the server by transmitting connection-terminating packets. For TCP connections, the client may transmit a TCP RESET packet. The proxy can detect the asymmetric routing condition when it receives the connection-terminating message (e.g., a TCP RESET) from the client.
Network firewalls, a commonly deployed device in many network architectures, can prevent the detection of asymmetric routing. For example, many firewalls tend to filter or block packets—such as TCP SYN/ACK packets transmitted from the server, and the like—for which no connection state information exists and/or the connection state information indicates that a given packet is not expected. The operation of the firewall, therefore, may prevent the proxy from detecting asymmetric routing because the packets transmitted by the server are blocked, preventing the client from transmitting a TCP RESET. Additionally, many firewalls tend to filter or block packets—such as TCP RST packets transmitted from the client, and the like—for which no connection state information exists and/or the connection state information indicates that a given packet is not expected. The operation of the firewall, therefore, may prevent the proxy from detecting asymmetric routing because the packets transmitted by the client are blocked.


A system, method and computer readable instructions for controlling streaming audio in real time in a thin client terminal server environment that can be used, for example, to provide support for a digital dictation system. A server runs client software, and at least one terminal runs a driver which communicates with the client software to create a virtual channel over which at least one digital dictation file is transmitted in packetized format between the terminal and the server, such that the client software controls operations performed at the terminal pertaining to the digital dictation file.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for efficiently providing content over a thin client network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for streaming audio in real time in a thin client terminal server environment that can be used, for example, to provide support for a digital dictation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thin client computing, as understood in the art, is a system or network in which terminal services and applications, such as typical desktop applications, are installed and run on a terminal server. Therefore, terminals communicating with the server can provide a desktop environment that gives the appearance that the desktop applications are being run on the individual local terminals, even though those application are installed and run on the terminal server.
That is, when an application is being run on the terminal server and accessed by a user via a local terminal, the information generated by the application is sent to the local terminal and thus displayed on the screen of the local terminal. Furthermore, information pertaining to keyboard input and mouse movements made at the local terminal are sent to the terminal server and acted upon by the application being run at the terminal server. A terminal server typically will allow multiple users and applications to be run at the same time, which is a type of IT infrastructure commonly referred to as "server based computing."
The exchange of information between the local terminal and terminal server should be efficient enough to give the appearance to a user that the application is being run at the local terminal. However, as can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, networks can experience various degrees of latency, which is the amount of time (typically measured in milliseconds) that is required for data to cross the network between two computers. High degrees of latency can adversely impact application performance, because the user may experience a perceived delay between the time that the keys are struck or the mouse is moved and the time that the text appears or the cursor moves on the screen. Networks can also experience packet loss which refers to the data packets that are sent from the sending computer and fail to arrive at the intended receiving computer. Also, because data is typically divided into many different packets at the sending computer, it is possible that those data packets can arrive in a different order than that in which they were sent or, in other words, arrive "out of sequence," which can result in errors in the application, the display of information, or both.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for exchanging information between remote terminals and a terminal server in a thin client network that can eliminate or reduce latency, packet loss and out of sequence packet arrivals.

System and method for efficiently providing content over a thin client network


Devices, methods and products are described that provide file transfer applications. One aspect provides a method including opening a file transfer application on an information handling device having an internal storage device; providing a source display area indicating a source storage device; providing a destination display area indicating a destination storage device; responsive to movement of one or more file icons a predetermined threshold amount beyond a boundary separating said source display area and said destination display area, change one or more indications to indicate to a user a destination storage device to which one or more files is to be transferred, said changing further comprising modifying screen brightness of the source display area; and responsive to movement of said one or more file icons a predetermined threshold amount beyond said boundary, transferring said one or more files to said destination storage device. Other embodiments are described.

Various files, such as pictures, videos, electronic documents, et cetera, for use with information handling devices, such as tablet/slate computing devices, laptop computers, smart phones, and the like, are stored on storage media. Information handling devices typically have internal (or integrated) storage device(s), and may also be connected to external storage device(s). In some cases, users of such information handling devices wish to transfer (copy, cut and paste, or in some way move) file(s) between storage devices. For example, a user may want to copy one or more files from an internal storage device, such as an internal secure digital card, "SD card", to an external storage device, such as a connected USB device or removable/external SD card, vice versa, or the like.


The present invention provides an electronic apparatus, such as a lighting device comprised of light emitting diodes (LEDs) or a power generating apparatus comprising photovoltaic diodes, which may be created through a printing process, using a semiconductor or other substrate particle ink or suspension and using a lens particle ink or suspension. An exemplary apparatus comprises a base; at least one first conductor; a plurality of diodes coupled to the at least one first conductor; at least one second conductor coupled to the plurality of diodes; and a plurality of lenses suspended in a polymer deposited or attached over the diodes. The lenses and the suspending polymer have different indices of refraction. In some embodiments, the lenses and diodes are substantially spherical, and have a ratio of mean diameters or lengths between about 10:1 and 2:1. The diodes may be LEDs or photovoltaic diodes, and in some embodiments, have a junction formed at least partially as a hemispherical shell or cap.

Lighting devices having light emitting diodes ("LEDs") have typically required creating the LEDs on a semiconductor wafer using integrated circuit process steps. The wafer is then divided, individual LEDs are placed in a reflective casing, and bonding wires are individually attached to each LED. This is a time consuming, labor intensive and expensive process, resulting in LED-based lighting devices which are generally too expensive for many consumer applications.
Similarly, energy generating devices such as photovoltaic panels have also typically required creating the photovoltaic diodes on a semiconductor wafer or other substrates using integrated circuit process steps. The resulting wafers or other substrates are then packaged and assembled to create the photovoltaic panels. This is also a time consuming, labor intensive and expensive process, resulting in photovoltaic devices which are also too expensive for widespread use without being subsidized or without other governmental incentives.
Other methods of manufacturing photovoltaic devices are also being developed. For example, Hammerbacher et al. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0289688, published Nov. 27, 2008, entitled "Photovoltaic Apparatus Including Spherical Semiconducting Particles", and Hamakawa et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,959, issued Mar. 16, 2004 and entitled "Photovoltaic Apparatus and Mass Producing Apparatus for Mass Producing Spherical Semiconducting Particles" disclose a method which initially uses spherical diodes having a pn junction formed about the entire sphere, but then introduce manufacturing problems by requiring corresponding micromachining of each individual diode to remove a substantial section of the sphere and its pn junction, to form a recess into an inner, core portion. What was initially a spherical diode is micromachined to become significantly or appreciably aspherical, to create a substantially flat, recessed side having an exposed inner, core portion, in order to access either an n-type (or equivalently, N-type) or p-type (or equivalently, P-type) interior substrate portion of the diode for bonding to an electrode. Once micromachined, the individual aspherical diodes must be properly oriented, individually placed, and bonded to conductors at both the exterior and the recessed interior parts of the diode to produce a resulting device. Again, this is also a time consuming, labor intensive and expensive process, with corresponding difficulties for generating widespread use.
Another method of manufacturing photovoltaic devices, disclosed in Ebert U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,110, issued Jan. 20, 1987, entitled "Methods and Apparatus Relating to Photovoltaic Semiconductor Devices", utilizes a clear, solid sheet having an array of curvatures on a first side of the clear solid sheet, to form an integrally formed array of abutting solar concentrating lenses with a single index of refraction. The lens panel further has a flat, second side coupled and fixed to a prefabricated panel, with the prefabricated panel having solid conducting layers separated by an insulating layer. In this method, a laser is stepped along each individual lens of the sheet, which focuses the laser beam to micromachine and bore a corresponding hole into the prefabricated panel through the solid, preformed conductive and insulating layers. The resulting array has a large number of very small bore holes which are then filled with either a semiconductor material or prefabricated diodes to create a photovoltaic cell, with each concentrating lens designed to be fifty to 100 times larger than the resulting photovoltaic cell. Due to the focusing of the lens array, separate solar tracking assemblies are required, to move the entire device to track solar positions, because light is focused on the solar cells from only a small range of angles, with light incident from other angles being focused on other, non-solar cell portions of the prefabricated panel. This micromachining method did not gain wide acceptance, possibly due to many difficulties which were not addressed, such as problems of orienting, aligning and placing prefabricated diodes into each bore hole; difficulty creating a semiconductor in the bore holes having a crystalline structure of sufficient quality for efficient functioning; difficulty forming a pn junction in the region of the bore hole covered by the lens panel (for exposure to the focused light); fabrication problems due to the small sizes of the bore holes; difficulty with consistent filling of the bore holes; difficulty bonding the applied semiconductor materials or prefabricated diodes to create fully functioning and reliable ohmic contacts with the remaining (non-ablated), solid conductive layers preformed in the panel; the creation of short circuits between conductive layers from the laser machining debris, etc., for example and without limitation. In addition, this method and resulting apparatus is not useable for creating addressable or dynamic LED displays.
With regard to light emitting devices, various other light emitting apparatus and methods have been oriented toward increasing the amount of light actually emitted from the light emitting device. For example, Lu U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0108459, published May 17, 2007, entitled "Methods of Manufacturing Light Emitting Devices", discloses various lens and light extraction structures and geometries have been developed in attempting to minimize internal reflection, such that light emitted from LEDs is actually output from the device.
Due to such complexities, among other reasons, material and manufacturing costs for photovoltaic devices and LED-based devices has remained too high for widespread adoption. As a consequence, a need remains for light emitting and/or photovoltaic apparatuses which are designed to be less expensive, in terms of incorporated components and in terms of ease of manufacture. A need also remains for methods to manufacture such light emitting or photovoltaic devices using less expensive and more robust processes, to thereby produce LED-based lighting devices and photovoltaic panels which therefore may be available for widespread use and adoption by consumers and businesses.

Light emitting, photovoltaic or other electronic apparatus and system


The present invention relates to a method and device for communicating with remote units over at least one data network and with at least one dedicated CPU. The message processing device according to the present invention includes a first execution unit for receiving a message to be processed and determining the kind of treatment to be performed with the received message, a second execution unit for performing the determined treatment, and a third execution unit for presenting the result of the message processing to be forwarded to a destination unit.

Computer systems of all different sizes, from embedded systems over personal computer and workstations to even large scale computer systems, are typically connected to one or more networks. Through the networks the computer systems are able to collect information from different mostly remote systems for further computation. The information might contain parameters describing the state of operation of the remote systems which are meant to be controlled or monitored by the computer system receiving the information.
An Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in a modem automobile is an example for such an arrangement. The ECU may be connected to a plurality of real-time networks, e.g., several individual CAN (Controller Area Network) busses or other multiple purpose networks, like multimedia-networks, such as MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport), i.e., an optical bus system used in automobiles, or IEEE1394 (Firewire).
During operation, the ECU executes an application program for controlling the remote systems. At the same time, it has to monitor the various busses and networks in order to select and retrieve such information from the data being transmitted which contains parameters required for the application programs in progress. Commonly, multiple busses are directly attached to a Central Processing Unit (CPU) included in the ECU. Monitoring the busses, selecting and retrieving the information of interest causes a processing load of momentous significance for the overall performance of the ECU.
The processing load is particularly generated by routing, gateway, bus bridge and filtering functions which have to be performed by the ECU concurrently to the execution of the application program.
Typically, in smaller computers and embedded systems the processing load generated by routing, gateway, bus bridge and filtering functions should be minor, leaving the majority of computing performance to the target application that has been assigned to the specific CPU in the first place.
As opposed to local area networks (LAN), such as Ethernet, real-time bus systems, like the CAN bus system, are transporting a comparable small amount of data per data packet. This feature is significant to ensure the real-time capability of the bus system, i.e., the capability of a system to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time, typically milliseconds or microseconds. However, real-time bus systems allow to transmit a comparable high amount of data packets within a given period of time. Thus, real time bus systems generate a very high interrupt rate for a CPU connected to it, which needs to select and retrieve relevant data packets. As an example, four independent CAN bus systems attached to a processing system using a PowerPC 403 CPU running at 50 MHz, may cause a interrupt rate inducing a CPU load well above 50% utilization in average, that is only caused by interrupts triggered by the CAN bus systems.
In state of the art devices, standard computing systems, such as single or multiple (parallel) processors, implemented following the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) or CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture, are used to perform intercommunication applications and tasks.
Although state of the art computing systems might be used for the intercommunication applications and tasks, providing sufficient processing performance becomes a serious issue, in case multiple bus adapters are connected via the computing system. Calculating the worst-case interrupt rate produced by, e.g., four 1 Mbps (megabits per second) bus-adapters may reach a interrupt rate per second far beyond the computing capabilities a present standard processor can provide.
The fact that a comparable high amount of data packets has to be dealt with influences significantly the demand on performance for processing systems in the area of intercommunication applications. Put into practice, the aforementioned circumstance is leading to an increasing demand on processing capabilities in contrast to the requirements defined by the other applications which are executed on the computing system.
To overcome the shortage of computing capabilities the system clock frequency could be doubled. As a result of that, the power dissipation typically doubles as well, causing problems, e.g., with respect of cooling the system. Another solution could be found by adding more processors to the system. All performance demanding bus related tasks could be executed on an additional processor within the system. This, however, results in higher manufacturing costs, since an additional processor has to be provided.
Another method used by real-time bus controllers is to implement so-called "filter registers." Filter registers are complemented by hardware comparators to bring some "relief" for the CPU(s) by reducing the interrupt rate and reducing time consuming message address compare operations. The message IDs to be filtered are stored in specific registers, e.g. 16 identifiers, and are compared with the message approaching on the bus. Only messages having matching identifiers are forwarded to the CPU.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,397 an integrated communications apparatus is known for use in a vehicle control system for monitoring and controlling operational status of a plurality of vehicle systems, each vehicle system having a local control unit for controlling operation thereof, said local control units being accessible by means of a data communication line, said integrated communications apparatus comprising: at least one memory unit, a central processing unit for receiving and processing signals transmitted from said local control units, which signals are indicative of operational status of said plurality of vehicle systems, according to control programs stored in one of said at least one memory unit, and for generating control signals for transmission to said plurality of vehicle systems by means of said data communication line, and a programmable subprocessor for controlling communications between said central processing unit and said local control units by means of said data communication line, according to at least one of said control programs stored in one of said at least one memory unit.

Message preprocessing method and device for computer network communications


In a corrugated fin which is formed and bent into a wave-form, a plurality of both-side-cut-louvers 8, which are laminated on each other and formed into a group, and one-side-cut-louvers 7, which are arranged at end portions of the group of both-side-cut-louvers 8, are formed being raised, and a cross-section in the louver laminating direction of at least one of the one-side-cut-louvers 7 is formed into a substantial V-shape. An inclined face 70 of the one-side-cut-louver 7 adjoining the both-side-cut-louver 8 is made to cross a centerline in the fin thickness direction and a length of the inclined face 70 is made to be the same as that of the inclined face of the adjoining both-side-cut-louver 8.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a corrugated fin fixed onto an outer surface of a tube of a heat exchanger. More particularly, the present invention relates to a corrugated fin, on the surface of which a large number of louvers are formed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to increase a heat transfer area of a heat exchanger, the top and bottom portions of a corrugated fin are joined onto an outer surface of a flat tube in which a heat transfer medium flows. This corrugated fin is composed in such a manner that a thin metallic strip made of aluminum is bent into a wave-shape and a large number of louvers (sloping slats) are formed on the surface of the wave-shaped metallic strip.
The above corrugated fin is continuously formed when a metallic strip is supplied to a pair of forming-rollers. In the pair of forming-rollers, as a cutting edge for raising a large number of louvers, a large number of disk-shaped edges, on both sides of which edges are provided, are laminated together, and edges, on the one side of which an edge is provided, are arranged on both sides. Both-side-edges of a pair of forming-rollers form both-side-cut-louvers, and one-side-edges form one-side-cut-louvers.
However, although an inclination angle of the one-side-edge for forming the one-side-cut-louver J7 is the same as an inclination angle of the inclined face of both-side-edge, as shown in FIG. 13, the inclination angle of the one-side-cut-louver J7 after forming is smaller than the inclination angle of the both-side-cut-louver J8. The reason is that an amount of spring-back after forming of the corrugated fin of the both-side-cut-louver J8 and an amount of spring-back after the forming of the corrugated fin of the one-side-cut-louver J7 are different.
Due to the foregoing, a volume of air flowing in the opening portion of the one-side-cut-louver J7 becomes smaller than a volume of air flowing in the other both-side-cut-louver J8. Further, the air flowing angles are different from each other. Accordingly, the air current loses balance. Therefore, the heat exchange performance is deteriorated in the neighborhood of the one-side-cut-louver J7.
In order to solve the above problems, the following corrugated fin is proposed in the official gazette of JP-A-2002-205122. When a shape of the one-side-edge is changed, the spring-back of the one-side-cut louver is seldom caused, and the inclination angle of one-side-cut-louver and the inclination angle of the both-side-cut-louver are made to be the same.
However, in the corrugated fin described in the official gazette of JP-A-2002-205122, the shape of the one-side-edge is made to be a special shape different from the shape of the other edge. Therefore the manufacturing cost of the rollers for forming the corrugated fin is increased. Further, the forming property for forming the corrugated fin is deteriorated.

Corrugated fin and heat exchanger using the same


A double action punch assembly for a hydroforming die includes a first punch segment having an aperture extending therethrough. The double action punch assembly also includes a movable mounting block disposed in the aperture of the first punch segment. The double action punch assembly further includes a plurality of second punch segments connected to the mounting block. The first punch segment is moved in a first action to pierce a tubular member in a first direction and the second punch segments are moved in a second action to pierce the tubular member in a second direction to produce an opening in the tubular member.

It is known to form a cross-sectional profile of a tubular member by a hydro-forming process in which a fluid filled tubular blank is placed within a cavity of a die and then the die is closed so that the tubular blank is captured within the die. Fluid pressure is then increased inside the tubular member to expand the blank outwardly against the cavity of the die to provide a tubular product having a die formed cross-sectional profile.
During tube hydroforming, punches of various shapes are used to create necessary holes in the tube. The single body punches currently used, are adequate enough for creating holes, but, with some limitations. During piercing the only back support of the tube wall is the forming pressure. As an example, the low forming pressure of 7000 psi, used to form the majority of the tubular side rails, of the automotive frame, is not enough to hold the wall around the periphery of the hole from collapsing inward during piercing. A hole with such configuration makes it difficult to attach reinforcing parts, or any other parts, on the inside and/or in the immediate vicinity of the hole.
Methods of piercing holes using a double action punch have been designed, built, and proven. The first segment of the punch pierces the center part of the hole first, forming a rectangular hole. At the same time, it splits the slug in the center and folds it to the sides. The second segment of the punch starts to activate forward at the moment when the first segment reaches half stroke. The second segment of the punch is designed to shear two sides of the hole on a desired angle, preferably between 30 or 45 degrees, therefore applying more side force during cutting and minimizing the collapse of the hole edges. From this position on, both segments of the punch will travel together until the end of the predetermined stroke.
As the number of hydroformed tube applications grows, the need for complex piercing also increases. Tubes are not only designed with more holes, but also with larger, more sophisticated shapes, which in turn need more elaborate punch designs for piercing. The need to reduce secondary operations as well as improve quality is becoming more important. However, the methods currently used are not designed to pierce large holes in parts formed with low pressure. In order to reduce cost, the hydroforming industry is constantly searching for ways to reduce the need for laser or plasma cutting holes as a secondary operation and more ways for piercing all the necessary holes in the parts, during the hydroforming process.
The method currently used in piercing is conventional. Upon completion of hydroforming, the part is in intimate contact with the wall of the die. The hydroforming fluid is at the forming pressure, approximately 7,000 psi. A punch is attached to a hydraulic actuated cylinder. When the hydraulic cylinder is extended, the fluid pressure will support the tube around the circumference of the punch, allowing the metal to shear. The punch will shear a slug, which will fall as a loose piece and lay inside the formed tube, or in other situations, the tip of the punch will be provided with a 45 degree chamfer, allowing the slug to be retained on the edge of the hole.
As a result, it is desirable to provide a double action punch assembly to pierce holes in a tube during the hydroforming process. It is also desirable to provide a double action punch that can withstand extremely high forces. It is further desirable to provide a punch assembly that is more compact than a hydraulic cylinder of equal power. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a new double action punch assembly for a hydroforming die that meets these desires.

Double action punch assembly for hydroforming die


An elevator is provided with floor arrival correction control which monitors the elapsed time following completion of the previous floor arrival correction. If the time elapsed is less than a fixed time (102), the elevator car is controlled with a standard floor arrival control speed pattern (103, 52), if it is greater than the fixed time, the next floor arrival-corrected operation is compared with the direction of operation for the previous correction (104). If the same, the car has not yet arrived in the door zone (e.g., because the car is heavily loaded) and the car is controlled with an increased speed pattern (105, 51). If not the same, the car has overrun the door zone and it is controlled with a reduced speed pattern (106, 53).

It is well known that an elevator system, such as that shown in FIG. 1, comprises a controller (10) which drives an induction motor IM which drives a sheave (33). An elevator car (35) and a counterweight (36), are connected on opposite ends of a rope (34) engaged on the drive sheave (33). Usually, the weight of the counterweight (36) is selected appropriately so that it can balance a load of 40-60% of the nominal weight in the car. It is capable of reducing the maximum torque generated by the induction motor over the entire range from zero to maximum of the internal load of the car.
Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic block diagram of the elevator controller (10) without a speed detector, is shown. In particular, a known inverter circuit (2) drives the induction motor IM. AC input voltage is provided from an AC source (11) to an AC-to-DC converter 1 which converts the AC input voltage to a DC voltage which is provided across the inverter (2). A DC voltage detector (3) detects the DC voltage across the inverter circuit (2) and provides a signal indicative of the DC voltage to an A/D converter (4) and a voltage comparator.(7). The AID converter (4) converts the DC voltage to a digital signal, which is input to a control circuit or CPU (15) (which may be part of a larger control circuit or computer) for controlling the output voltage Vs to the inverter (2), as is known (details not shown and not critical to the present invention).
Also, a known regenerative power consumption circuit (8) is connected across the inverter (2). When the DC voltage across the inverter rises due to the feedback power from motor IM as the inverter enters the regenerative mode, this voltage rise is compared against a standard voltage Vd and is detected by the comparator (7) and, through drive circuit (9), the switching element of the power consumption circuit (8) is controlled and the regenerative power is consumed by resistor R1, as is known.
A frequency operation circuit (12) receives a speed command SP from a control logic 22 (discussed hereinafter) and performs a frequency calculation and provides a frequency command Fs which is provided to a frequency/voltage converter (13). The converter (13) provides an output voltage command Vs in the form of a PWM waveform indicative of the frequency command Fs. The voltage-command Vs is provided to a drive circuit (6) which drives the inverter circuit (2). The inverter circuit (2) drives the motor IM, and the elevator is operated according to the speed command (SP).
A floor arrival correction (or "re-arrival") controller (21) comprises an edge detector (23) which detects the edge of up/down door zone signals DZU, DZD (discussed hereinafter with FIG. 3) and provides detected results DZU1, DZD1 to a door zone/floor arrival control operation unit (22). The control unit (22) may contain a CPU (5) for performing some of all of the functions of the unit (22) described herein. The CPU (5) may be part of or the same as the CPU (15) described hereinbefore. The control unit (22) provides the speed command signal SP to the frequency operation circuit (12).
Referring to FIG. 3, an example of a three-floor building with door-zone sensors is shown. On each floor, a door zone sensor for upward movement (DZU) and a door zone sensor for downward movement (DZD) are arranged and provide the aforementioned DZU,DZD signals, respectively. The door zone sensors DZU,DZD are arranged offset vertically with respect to the floor position, and they also have an overlapped portion. Consequently, when the both outputs DZU, DZD are "on" (at the overlap region or "door zone"), the arrival of the car is within the prescribed error with respect to the floor position.
When, due to variation in the load in the car, e.g., due to jumping of passengers or due to entering/exiting of passengers, etc., the outputs of the two door zone sensors DZU, DZD may fail to arrive at the overlapping site at the time when the-elevator completes deceleration. In that case, the floor arrival correction (or "re-arrival") operation profile (or pattern) which is preset in the door zone/floor arrival control unit (22) is begun to perform operation for floor arrival correction.
In conventional door zone/floor arrival control operation, the direction of movement of the car is determined by the output states of the DZU and DZD door zone sensors, and the aforementioned preset floor arrival operation pattern is begun to perform floor arrival correction control. A conventional speed pattern of floor arrival is controlled as shown in FIG. 7. In particular, the direction of elevator movement, up or down, is determined from the output states of the two sensors DZU and DZD. At the point in time when both outputs of DZU and DZD sensors are on, deceleration is begun, and control is executed such that the stop position is at the central position in the door zone. In the case shown in FIG. 3, control is executed so that the car runs 15 mm after the point in time when both DZU and DZD sensors are on.
However, as the system has no speed sensor (and the system is thus in open loop operation), even when the operation pattern is started, the car may be not driven to move when the load is heavy. In this case, the frequency of the speed pattern shown in FIG. 7 may be preset to a high speed such that operation can be made even under the heaviest load. However, in that case, if the load becomes light, even when both outputs of DZU and DZD sensors are on and deceleration is begun, the car may still overrun the door zone (due to the high speed). When it is in this mode, if the position is to be corrected again, movement has to be performed in the opposite direction, and the floor arrival correction is performed repeatedly.
This problem may be solved by performing car speed detection and speed control according to whether it is a light load or heavy load, respectively. However, such a solution requires a speed detector which increases the cost of the elevator.

Elevator floor arrival correction control


Attributes of a digital image are conveyed using the case of letters in an extension of a file name associated with the digital image. The technique is applicable to a wide variety of image attributes, including orientation.

Computer programs that display digital images often display them incorrectly because the programs do not take into account important attributes of the digital images. For example, such programs often display digital images in the wrong orientation. A rotated image results when the user of a digital imaging device rotates the device 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise from the standard landscape orientation during image capture. Displaying a rotated image in the correct orientation using image display software requires manual intervention by the user. Manual compensation becomes particularly burdensome for large numbers of images.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method and system for conveying image attributes.

Method and apparatus for conveying image attributes

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method for forming a barrier metal of a semiconductor device wherein a TiSiN layer having an atomic layer thickness is deposited by performing deposition of an Si layer inside a contact hole of a semiconductor device using an atomic layer deposition process and by performing deposition of a precursor layer on the Si layer. By repetition of this ALD process, the TiSiN layer is thickly formed at a desired thickness. Then, the TiSiN layer is plasma processed under the atmosphere of a nitrogen gas and a hydrogen gas, or an ammonia gas, and thus impurities are removed from the TiSiN layer. Therefore, it is easy to thickly form the TiSiN layer for the barrier metal. It is possible to reduce resistivity of the TiSiN layer to a relatively low level. Thereby, it is possible to decrease a contact resistance of the TiSiN layer and, further, to enhance an electrical characteristic of the semiconductor device.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a barrier metal of a semiconductor device, particularly for forming a thick layer of TiSiN for a barrier metal having a low resistivity, using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, with high integration of semiconductor devices, a design rule also becomes elaborated, and thus a size of a source/drain and a line width of a gate electrode of a MOS transistor and a line width of metallization become diminished. In particular, when the line width of the metallization is diminished, a size of a contact hole is also diminished, in which the contact hole is either for contacting the, gate electrode and the metallization or for contacting the source/drain and the metallization. If so, since contact resistances of the gate electrode and the metallization are increased, a resistance of the metallization is increased. Consequently, an operation speed of the semiconductor device is delayed. Nevertheless, it is true that a demand for speedup of the semiconductor device is more enhanced together with its high integration.
As one scheme for satisfying this demand, a layer of a high fusion metal, e.g. tungsten (W) has been recently used to reduce the contact resistance. Further, in order to reduce contact resistances of the tungsten layer and the contact region, a barrier metal is formed between the tungsten layer and the contact region. Among the barrier metals, it is a TiSiN layer that is considered as one having an excellent characteristic. However, the TiSiN layer is generally layered by a sputtering process, thus having a very high resistivity. As a result, the TiSiN layer has no choice but to have limited application as the barrier metal. Recently, in order to solve this problem, a method for forming a new layer of TiSiN has been proposed.
According to a conventional method for forming a layer of TiSiN, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, an insulating layer 11 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 10. Here, even though not shown in the drawings, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that, in order to define an active region of the substrate 10, a field oxide layer may be formed on a field region of the substrate 10, while a source/drain, a gate electrode, etc. of a transistor may be previously formed on the active region of the substrate 10. Subsequently, in order to expose a contact part (not shown) of the semiconductor substrate 10 using a photolithography process, the insulating layer 11 on the contact part of the semiconductor substrate 10 is etched to form a contact hole 12. Next, a precursor layer 13, for example a tetrakis dimethyl amido titanium ("TDMAT") layer is layered inside the contact hole 12 and on the insulating layer 11 at a desired thickness. Then, the precursor layer 13 is plasma processed and transformed into a TiN layer 15. Finally, the surface of the TiN layer 15 is brought into a repetitive contact with a SiH4 gas using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, so that the TiN layer 15 is transformed into a TiSiN layer 17.
However, it is difficult to perform thick deposition of the TiSiN layer 17. Further, because resistivity of the TiSiN layer 17 is rather high, the TiSiN layer 17 can be only used as the barrier metal within a limited range.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,136, titled "MULTI-STEP PLASMA PROCESS FOR FORMING TiSiN BARRIER" and issued to TSMC Company of Tiwan, discloses a method for improving a TiSiN layer as a copper barrier metal by means of Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and multi-step plasma process. However, the disclosed document does not offer a solution to form a TiSiN layer for a barrier metal having a low specific resistance and a thick thickness.

Method for forming barrier metal of semiconductor device