An actuator (1) having at least one triggerable element (4,5) of variable lengths made of a multifunctional material (6) for large regulating distances is disclosed. The multifunctional material is arranged in layers on a deformable platform carrier structure 93), the carrier structure and the multifunctional material being disposed symmetrically about a longitudinal center plane (7) of the actuator. The carrier structure includes at least a pair of arcuate sections formed on both sides of the longitudinal center plane of the actuator, each such arcuate section describing an arc of at least 180.degree.. The triggerable elements of variable lengths may be actuated with heat supplied by a separate heat source, or by electricity provided from a separate source of electricity so that the triggerable elements either expand or contract, thus moving a stringer (26) formed as a part of the carrier for performing the desired actuation function.

Multifunctional materials are materials which undergo a deformation or exert deformation forces if the deformation is prevented as a reaction to a physical parameter which can be externally altered. Examples of multifunctional materials are piezoceramics, piezopolymers, electrostrictive ceramics and electrorheological liquids, where the required deformation is achieved through the application of an electric field, magnetostrictive alloys and magnetorheological liquids, where the required deformation is achieved through the application of a magnetic field, as well as shape memory alloys, shape memory polymers and hybrid material systems, where the desired deformation is achieved through a change in temperature.
The arbitrary deformation of multifunctional materials is exploited in the design of actuators. The most common example are those piezoceramics directly used as actuators. The disadvantage here is the short regulating distance of all actuators in which the deformation of the multifunctional material is directly exploited.
It is thus necessary to provide a displacement transmission for the deformation of the multifunctional material if large regulating distances have to be implemented. Known displacement transmissions include mechanical and hydraulic levers, though these contain a number of moving parts and thus display a high weight and great susceptibility to faults.

Actuator with a triggerable element of variable length made of a multifunctional element

Deutsche Forschungsanstaltfur Luft-Und Raumfahrt E.V.


A liquid crystal panel is mounted in a frame. A positioning component for supporting the liquid crystal panel in a positioned state is attached to the frame using a screw component. A positioning protrusion is provided in the frame. A positioning hole portion into which the positioning protrusion can be inserted is provided in the positioning component. The positioning hole portion has a size such that, in a state in which the positioning protrusion is inserted therein, the positioning component can be moved in a direction in which a support surface of the positioning component approaches or moves away from the liquid crystal panel. A bracket surface that is substantially parallel with a direction in which the support surface of the positioning component approaches or moves away from liquid crystal panel is provided in the positioning protrusion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positioning structure for a sheet-shaped component, and a display device that includes the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device that is one type of display device is broadly constructed by assembling a backlight device as an external light source on the rear side of a liquid crystal panel for displaying images. The liquid crystal panel is held in a state in which it is sandwiched between a frame-shaped bezel that surrounds the display region thereof and a frame that is one portion of the backlight device. When assembling the liquid crystal panel, after mounting the liquid crystal panel on the frame, the liquid crystal panel is placed into contact with the bezel from the front surface side and a screw is tightened.
In this assembly process, it is necessary to support the liquid crystal panel that is mounted on the frame in a positioned state with respect to the surface direction thereof. Consequently, positioning portions that are capable of supporting the outer peripheral end surface of the liquid crystal panel are provided in the frame. The positioning portions are disposed at locations corresponding to four sides of the outer peripheral end surface of the liquid crystal panel in the frame.
However, if all of the positioning portions are provided beforehand in the frame, a problem arises that the workability when placing the liquid crystal panel is unfavorable. Hence, a configuration could be considered in which a positioning portion corresponding to at least one side is provided as a separate member from the frame, and after mounting the liquid crystal panel by passing it through the place in the frame in which the positioning portion is not provided, a positioning component is attached as a separate member.
In this connection, the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2001-209327 is known as an example of a structure in which a positioning component is provided as a separate member from a frame.
The following structure can be considered as a structure for fixing a positioning component when the positioning component is provided as a separate member to a frame as described above. Namely, a structure in which a through hole that allows a screw component to pass therethrough is provided in the positioning component and a screw hole for tightening the screw component is provided in the frame.
On the other hand, variations in the size of a liquid crystal panel may arise for each individual product within a range of tolerances. Hence, a structure can be considered in which a positioning protrusion is provided in the frame, while a positioning recess into which the positioning protrusion can be inserted is provided in the positioning component, and by making the positioning recess so as to have a rectangular shape, the mounting position of the positioning component can be adjusted in accordance with the size of the liquid crystal panel.
However, when the positioning recess is made to have a rectangular shape as described above, the following problem arises. That is, although the work of tightening the screw component is performed using an electric tool, since a clearance is provided to allow movement as described above between the positioning recess and the positioning protrusion, there is a concern that the positioning component will be rotated by the tightening force applied to the screw component.

Positioning structure for sheet-shaped component and display device using same


A gin process control system including sensing stations for sensing the physical properties of cotton as it progresses through a gin. A moisture sensor determines, over a wide range of values, the amount of moisture in the cotton. A quality monitor determines the color of the cotton, color distribution, and the amount and type of trash or other impurities which may be entrained in the cotton. A micronaire unit determines both micronaire and cotton maturity. A fiber length tester provides information on the length distribution, breaking strength, and elongation of the cotton fibers. Cotton samples are gathered from the gin flow stream and presented to the sensing stations in a variety of manual, semi-automated, and automated fashions. In a fully automated unit, the sensing stations are connected directly to the gin. The sensing stations are also in communication with the gin process control system, which uses the data from the sensing stations to automatically control the operation of the gin. Alternately, the sensing stations are assembled into a stand-alone unit. In a semi-automatic version of the stand-alone unit, samples are manually gathered and presented to the unit in cassettes for automated subsampling and testing by the sensing stations. In this semi-automatic version, the sensing stations may be in a configuration identical to that of the fully automatic, on-line unit. In a manual version of the stand-alone unit, the samples are manually gathered and manually placed into contact with the various sensing stations. The information reported by the stand-alone units can be used to manually control the operation of the gin.

The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for processing fibrous materials such as cotton. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cotton gin processing method and apparatus for optimizing the quality of cotton.
The term "cotton" may be used in reference to either "seed cotton" or "lint." Seed cotton is the raw, natural flower of the cotton plant having the plant seed in intimate presence with the fiber of the flower. Lint is the flower fiber in isolation from the seed.
Cotton ginning includes drying and trash removal from the seed cotton, separation of the plant seed from the lint, additional trash removal from the lint, lint consolidation and bale packaging. Depending on the mechanical capacities of the process equipment, a cotton gin may process as much as 150,000 pounds of seed cotton per hour into 12,000 pounds per hour of lint that is packaged into 500 pound bales. As implied, a cotton ginning system consists of several different types of processing machines or devices. Each machine is designed to influence one or more physical properties of the lint product.
Lint quality after ginning is a function of its initial, natural quality as well as the type and degree of cleaning, drying or moisturizing it receives during the gin process. Fiber color, length, strength and density are natural attributes of quality. The presence of moisture and trash, however, are externally imposed quality characteristics susceptible to modification by mechanical influences. Research has established that the apparent strength of cotton fibers is directly proportional to fiber moisture content and is therefore greater at higher moisture levels. Consequently, as fiber moisture content is lowered, as by drying, the apparent strength is reduced and the frequency of fiber breakage during ginning is increased.
Being a hygroscopic material, the natural moisture content of cotton varies in relation to the relative humidity of the surrounding air. Cotton harvested during periods of high humidity may arrive at gins with a moisture content as high as 12 percent or more whereas cotton harvested during periods of low humidity may contain fiber moisture of 4 percent or less. For these reasons, gins seeking to gin lint at a predetermined moisture content must be prepared to add as well as remove moisture from the cotton being processed. Nevertheless, most cotton in the United States is processed in a standardized sequence without regard to actual quantities of trash or moisture present in an immediate process batch. Consequently, some cotton may be over dried or processed through more cleaners than necessary for the level of trash originally present in the cotton. Such unnecessary or even harmful processing can result in decreased fiber quality and increased cost and/or processing time.
Since much of the American cotton crop is harvested during low-humidity periods and often arrives at the gin with fiber moisture from 4 to 5 percent, the average fiber length of such cotton may be improved by adding moisture before fiber-seed separation and lint cleaning by reducing the number of fibers that break in the gin stands and lint cleaners. However, restoration of moisture to ginned lint will not improve fiber length. On the other hand, cotton with fiber moisture of 9 percent or more may neither gin smoothly nor process properly through the lint cleaners. Thus, the recommended fiber moisture level of 6.5 to 8 percent has a gin production aspect as well as a product quality aspect.
Removal of trash is primarily associated with the economics of market grade and price. However, there exists a point of diminishing returns where the benefits of further trash removal are offset by fiber and cottonseed damage and excessive loss of weight. Most modem gins contain cleaning equipment to handle the most severe trash condition that is expected in their service areas. Actual use of that equipment preferably should be based upon the incoming trash content of the cotton, and cleaner cottons should not be processed through every cleaning machine in the gin just because it is available. Trash removal should be restricted to that which is necessary to produce the grade determined by the color of the cotton. Further cleaning reduces the weight without increasing the value of the bale.
One way to optimize the cotton processing sequence is to control the temperature of equipment such as driers and to bypass certain machines, such as seed cotton cleaners and lint cleaners that may not be necessary for the particular cotton being processed. Traditionally, physical properties of the cotton such as trash content, moisture content, color, fiber length, length variation, fiber strength, fiber elongation and fiber thickness were not monitored as the gin process progressed. Consequently, no system or method existed to determine a process sequence that would optimize the lint product quality, grade or value. Since there was no method for determining the optimum quality sequence, there were no means or apparatuses for carrying out an optimum quality sequence.
Changing the number of cleaners used in a conventional cotton ginning system requires downtime for the system as well as labor costs for manually changing the valve configurations. It has been estimated that at least five minutes are required to change the valves on a single gin stand lint cleaner device, for those gin systems that are equipped with flow sequence change valves. A gin typically has three or more sets of lint cleaners in series or parallel processing lines but not all are equipped with bypass valves.
To bypass a machine such as a lint cleaner in a conventional ginning system, the flow of cotton is stopped through the gin stand that immediately precedes the lint cleaner. If equipped, the valves in the material flow conduits to the machine that is to be bypassed are then closed, usually manually. The bypassed machine is then stopped. To put the bypassed machine back online, the process must be reversed. In order to bypass a machine such as a seed cotton cleaner or drier, all of the preceding machines must be stopped which consequently stops the flow of cotton throughout the entire gin system for a period of several minutes while the seed cotton cleaner valves are manually changed.
More recently, the United States Department Of Agriculture and others have sponsored the development of online sensors for measuring color, moisture and trash values. Such developments are partially represented by U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,444 to W. S. Anthony et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,120 to W. S. Anthony, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,955, also to W. S. Anthony. As relevant to the present invention, the entirety of these prior art patent disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.
Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/691,069, also incorporated entirely herein by reference, describes a cotton gin system having online sensors for the physical properties of color and moisture. Additionally, application Ser. No. 08/691,069 teaches an online measurement of the relative trash content in the system flow stream. Data corresponding to these measurements is transmitted to a central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is a central control computer having a computer program logic that receives and processes the online sensor data to generate a gin decisional matrix from which flow sequence decisions are made that optimize the economic value of the flow stream. With a specific flow sequence concluded, appropriate operating signals are issued to powered flow controllers such as motor operated valves in the seed cotton or lint transport conduits.
Although pending application Ser. No. 08/691,069 represents a significant stride toward online quality development, the variable data base contributed to the program logic still is only color, moisture and trash. Fiber length, fiber length variation, fiber strength, the elongation capacity of the fiber and the fiber perimeter and wall thickness related property of micronaire are not considered by the prior art program logic.
There is, therefore, need for an automatic gin control system that considers fiber strength, fiber length, fiber length variations, elongation capacity of the fiber and micronaire cotton properties along with color, moisture and trash in development of an optimum quality processing sequence. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gin control system having online sensors for measuring fiber strength, fiber length, length variation, elongation capacity and micronaire as well as color, moisture and trash.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a substantially unitized instrument assembly that may be positioned at many locations along the material flow path of a gin system.
A further object of the present invention is an apparatus that extracts a physical sample from an active gin processing stream without substantially interrupting the cotton flow stream continuity therein for an automatic manipulation of that physical sample to determine the average length of the fiber in transit, the variations in the fiber length, the elongation value of the fiber and the breaking strength of the fiber sample.
Also an object of the invention is to provide several new instruments for the measurement of micronaire.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for making a micronaire determination that avoids the necessity for weighing the sample.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a modified method and apparatus for determining the maturity of a cotton sample.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for obtaining a micronaire property measure from a live flow stream without manual invasion or substantial interruption of the flow stream.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a substantially unitized instrument assembly as a stand-alone piece of equipment, which is adapted to testing cotton fibers that are already removed from a source, such as a cotton gin, and manually presented as samples to the stand-alone instrument.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a substantially unitized instrument assembly as a stand-alone piece of equipment, which is adapted to testing cotton fibers that are already removed from a source, such as a cotton gin, and which can acquire and prepare the sample to be tested without manual assistance.


A thermoplastic elastomer composition includes: at least one elastomer component selected from the group consisting of elastomeric polymers each of which has a side chain containing a hydrogen-bond cross-linkable moiety having a carbonyl-containing group and/or a nitrogen-containing heterocycle and has a glass-transition point of 25° C. or below, and elastomeric polymers each of which contains a hydrogen-bond cross-linkable moiety and a covalent-bond cross-linking moiety in a side chain and has a glass-transition point of 25° C. or below; a clay, a content ratio of which is 20 parts by mass or less relative to 100 parts by mass of the elastomer component; and an α-olefin-based resin having no chemical-bond cross-linking moiety.

Thermoplastic elastomers are materials which are industrially very useful because they can be melted at molding temperature during a molding process and can be shaped by a known resin molding technique.
As an example of such thermoplastic elastomers, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-131663 (PTL 1) discloses a thermoplastic elastomer comprising an elastomeric polymer which has a side chain containing a hydrogen-bond cross-linkable moiety having a carbonyl-containing group and a nitrogen-containing heterocycle and has another side chain containing a covalent-bond cross-linking moiety, and which has a glass-transition point of 25° C. or below. Such thermoplastic elastomers as described in PTL 1, however, are not necessarily sufficient in terms of the heat resistance and the tensile strength at break.

Thermoplastic elastomer composition and method for producing the same


Articles including oscillating units and methods for producing the same are disclosed. An example article includes one or more oscillator units, where each oscillator unit comprises: a micro strip transmission line extending from a first end to a second end. A first termination impedance is coupled to the first end and a second termination impedance is coupled to the second end. A first transistor is coupled between the first end and the midpoint; and a second transistor is coupled between the midpoint and the second end. The micro strip transmission line has a midpoint between the first end and the second end; and each oscillator unit generates a standing wave having a predetermined wavelength in the micro strip transmission line.

Independent free running harmonic oscillator units have been implemented for specific applications that do not impose a coherency requirement between multiple oscillator units. Individual oscillators may be coupled together through active or passive coupling circuits to implement coherent radiator arrays.
Technologies for more efficiently coupling and synchronizing a coherent array of oscillator units are desired.

Scalable arrays of radiating oscillating units

The Regents of the University of California


A building-facility information storage stores data sizes of process data to be collected from building-side communicating devices. A schedule generating unit generates a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a first communication load representing a total data volume received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and second communication loads each representing a data volume transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods. A network communicating unit collects the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.

Various facilities such as lighting, air-conditioning, and disaster preventing facilities are installed in buildings. In order to realize controlling these facilities from the inside or outside of the buildings or monitoring if abnormalities have occurred or not, a device and a system that remotely collect working information (process data) of the building facilities over a network have been proposed. In such a system, the process data are transferred via a network between an information collecting device and building-side communicating devices, which are connected to the building facilities of interest to collect information from them. The process data are generally collected at a certain determined time cycle, because such data are easier to utilize than data collected irregularly.
When the building facilities the system collects information from are increased, the communication traffic between the building-side communicating devices and the information collecting device is increased. When the communication traffic is increased to the extent close to a communication bandwidth, problems such as loss of the data communicated over the network and increase in the delay generated in process data acquisition occur. Therefore, there has been proposed a method in which the cycle to acquire the process data is determined in accordance with the communication bandwidth or importance of the facility information. For example, a long acquisition cycle is set for a building-side communicating device having a small communication bandwidth.
According to this method, an average volume of the communication traffic can be limited to a predetermined value by adjusting the acquisition cycle. However, in this method, the time to acquire the process data is not controlled; therefore, large communication load may be momentarily generated on the information collecting device or the building-side communicating device. For example, even in the case in which the acquisition cycle of the process data is sufficiently large, if the information collecting device attempts to acquire data from many building facilities at the same time, communication load that exceeds the communication bandwidth or processing ability of the information collecting device can be momentarily generated.
In order to solve these problems, there has been proposed a method in which the time to carry out communication is determined in advance for each of building-side communicating devices. In this method, the acquisition cycle of the process data is divided into certain unit periods. A communication event between the building-side communicating devices and the information collecting device is assigned to one of these unit periods. When such a method is employed, an upper limit can be set for the number of the building-side communicating devices that communicate within the unit period; therefore, momentary traffic concentration at the information collecting device can be prevented.
However, in this method, the communication load applied to the building-side communicating devices is not controlled. Therefore, even though the concentration of the communication load on the information collecting device can be prevented, the possibility of the momentary occurrence of excessive communication load for the building-side communicating devices is still remaining.
As described above, when the process data are to be collected at a constant cycle, excessively large communication load may be concentrated on the information collecting device or the building-side communicating device. The concentration of the communication load applied only to the information collecting device can be prevented; however, a device or a system capable of preventing the communication load concentration both on the information collecting device and the building-side communicating device is not present.

Remote information collecting device and computer readable medium


An organic light emitting display includes a plurality of pixels formed at crossings of data lines and gate line parts and a main power supply line part supplying a cell driving voltage to the pixels. The main power supply line part includes a plurality of main power supply lines disposed along a first direction and main power supply line connection patterns for connecting the adjacent main power supply lines along a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. The main power supply line connection patterns are staggered along the second direction.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to an organic light emitting display and more particularly to a structure of power supply lines of an organic light emitting display.
Discussion of the Related Art
An active matrix organic light emitting display includes organic light emitting diodes (hereinafter, abbreviated to "OLEDs") capable of emitting light by itself and has advantages of a fast response time, a high light emitting efficiency, a high luminance, a wide viewing angle, etc.
The OLED serving as a self-emitting element includes an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, and an organic compound layer formed between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode. The organic compound layer includes a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, an electron transport layer, and an electron injection layer. When a driving voltage is applied to the anode electrode and the cathode electrode, holes passing through the hole transport layer and electrons passing through the electron transport layer move to the light emitting layer and form excitons. As a result, the light emitting layer generates visible light.
The organic light emitting display arranges pixels, each including the OLED in a matrix form, and represents a gray scale by controlling an amount of current flowing in the OLEDs. In the organic light emitting display, an amount of voltage change differs depending on an amount of current flowing in power supply lines of a display panel. The voltage change includes voltage drop and voltage rising. The power supply voltage is lower than an original input value by voltage drop, and is higher than the original input value by voltage rising.
The power supply lines include high potential cell driving voltage supply lines (hereinafter referred to as "ELVDD supply lines") for supplying a high potential cell driving voltage ELVDD to a driving thin film transistor (TFT) of each pixel. If desired, the power supply lines may further include auxiliary power supply lines, such as initialization voltage supply lines (hereinafter referred to as "Vint supply lines") for supplying an initialization voltage Vint to each pixel and reference voltage supply lines (hereinafter referred to as "Vref supply lines") for supplying a reference voltage Vref to each pixel.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ELVDD supply lines may be disposed on the display panel along a Y-axis direction in which data lines of the display panel extend. Two pixels, which are positioned adjacent to each other in an X-axis direction, may share one ELVDD supply line with each other, so as to improve an aperture ratio. An amount of voltage change varies depending on a pattern of an image displayed on the display panel. For example, an amount of voltage change in a bright image pattern is greater than an amount of voltage change in a dark image pattern. In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, when a motion picture is implemented and a bright image pattern (A) surrounded by a dark image pattern (B) moves to the right (or the left) at a rapid speed, characteristics of the voltage change vary depending on an image pattern variation of the display panel. Therefore, a moving vertical crosstalk is generated in the display panel.
FIG. 3 shows a boundary of the bright image pattern (A) in a measuring pattern of the vertical crosstalk in detail. A voltage distribution on the power supply lines at the boundary of the bright image pattern (A) shown in FIG. 3 is substantially the same as that shown in FIG. 4. As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, a degree of the voltage drop in the bright image pattern (A), i.e., patterns {circle around (c)} and {circle around (d)}, is greater than a degree of the voltage drop in the dark image pattern (B), i.e., patterns {circle around (a)} and {circle around (b)}. Further, even if both the patterns {circle around (c)} and {circle around (d)} belong to the same bright image pattern (A), degrees of the voltage drop in the patterns {circle around (c)} and {circle around (d)} may be different from each other depending on light emitting colors of pixels implementing each of the patterns {circle around (c)} and {circle around (d)}. A voltage difference between the power supply lines resulting from the voltage drop leads to undesirable luminance difference between the pixels, and thus the vertical crosstalk shown in FIG. 2 appears on the display panel.
As shown in FIG. 5, the ELVDD supply lines may be disposed in a mesh structure, so as to minimize an amount of the voltage change. In the mesh structure, the ELVDD supply lines are disposed on the display panel in the X-axis direction as well as the Y-axis direction. When the ELVDD supply lines are formed in the mesh structure, the display panel may be entirely burnt when a short is generated between the ELVDD supply lines and other lines at any position inside the display panel. Thus, the reliability of the organic light emitting display may be compromised. Further, when the mesh structure is used, a thermal transfer path in the X-axis direction greatly shortens. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, an ignition at any one crossing of the display panel may be easily transferred to another crossing adjacent to the one crossing.
The Vint supply lines and the Vref supply lines may be disposed as shown in FIG. 6, or may be disposed in the mesh structure as shown in FIG. 7 so as to improve an aperture ratio. When the Vint supply lines and the Vref supply lines are formed as shown in FIG. 6, the above-described problems resulting from the voltage change are generated. When the Vint supply lines and the Vref supply lines are formed in the mesh structure as shown in FIG. 7, a horizontal crosstalk is generated by capacitive coupling at crossings between the data lines and the auxiliary power supply lines.
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a level of a data voltage Vdatal sharply changes at a boundary between a background pattern and a box pattern, each of which has a different gray level. In this instance, a capacitive coupling is generated between the data lines and the auxiliary power supply lines and thus swings the reference voltage Vref. Because the auxiliary power supply lines having the mesh structure are connected to one another in the X-axis direction as well as the Y-axis direction, the swinging reference voltage Vref is spread in the X-axis direction. A ripple component of the reference voltage Vref affects operations of all of the pixels positioned around a boundary of the box pattern and thus leads to the horizontal crosstalk.
Further, when a short is generated between the auxiliary power supply lines and other lines at any position of the display panel, a high short current resulting from a voltage difference between the shorted lines and a low short resistance locally flows in the display panel. Hence, heat is generated in the short point of the display panel. As shown in FIG. 10, when the auxiliary power supply lines are disposed in a mesh structure, such a heat may be transferred to left and right and top and bottom. Hence, a temperature around the shorted position of the display panel sharply increases, and the display panel may be entirely burnt.


According to the process for coating metal substrates, a light-sensitive (or photo-sensitive) bonding material, such as an emulsion or a photopolymer film, is used to adhere metal directly to a substrate to provide various forms of metal coatings on the substrate. The light-sensitive bonding material is generally applied directly between the substrate and the metal layer. The light-sensitive bonding material is applied under conditions (e.g., lighting and temperature) that prevent premature curing of the light-sensitive bonding material. The light-sensitive bonding material applied between the substrate and metal is then dried and exposed to light to cure the light-sensitive bonding material in selected areas, causing the metal to adhere to the substrate in the selected areas.

Various techniques have been used for embellishing fabrics or other materials with precious metals and other types of metal. According to a sewing or couching technique, precious metal wires and platelets are sewn to cloth and animal skins. One disadvantage to this method is that the thread often breaks and pieces of precious metal fall off the substrate. Also, the metal edges can cut thread and tear cloth.
According to a weaving and embroidery technique, precious metal leaves are glued to both sides of paper sheets using plant and animal derived glues. The sheets are then cut into narrow strips and are woven into cloth. Alternatively, the metal-coated paper strips are wound around thread filament cores and woven into cloth. One disadvantage of this technique is that the paper becomes brittle and tears easily.
According to another technique, metal leaves and powders are glued directly to substrates, such as textiles, wood, metal, glass, and plastics. Traditionally, several different kinds of glue have been used to attach metal to substrates, and the strongest glue bond was made with animal derived, or egg white, glues. However, these adhesives are not lasting, attract bugs and molds, affect the coloration of the metal, and present problems of flaking and cracking. Moreover, there has been an incompatibility problem between the smooth metals and the textural qualities of cloth, which results in "tenting" and causes the metal surface to break. Other types of adhesive used to glue metal leaves directly to substrates include starch pastes comprised of wheat, rice or arrowroot flowers. These adhesives also attract bugs and present archiving problems. Lacquers have also been used for gilding wood and metal surfaces. All of these adhesives present compatibility problems between hard metals and flexible fibers. Because most of these adhesives are water-soluble and form a weak bond, the metal-coated product is not washable.
According to another technique, substrates can be painted with metal powder. Metal dust is mixed into an adhesive base and used to paint the substrate. Using this method on cloth, however, stiffens the affected areas and results in flaking and cracking.
Thus, the existing techniques discussed above all have similar drawbacks. These techniques typically require complicated multi-step processes. The metal-coated products produced using these techniques are also not durable and not washable. Furthermore, these techniques often cannot produce metal-coated products with the high resolution patterning and other aesthetic properties desired in the fashion, interior decorating, electronics, jewelry, and technology industries.
Accordingly, there is a need for a relatively simple method of coating a substrate with a metal layer, which is capable of producing a metal-coated product having the desired durability and aesthetic properties.

Methods for coating surfaces with metal and products made thereby


The present invention discloses a bus pumping compensation for a pulse modulation circuit such as class D modulators. The compensation according to the present invention provides a compensation current controlled by the output voltage, with the compensation characteristics matching the reverse current for improving circuit efficiency. Embodiments of the present invention also disclose a designable compensation circuit, comprising a linear compensation current, offering a good trade-off between circuit efficiency and ease of design. The present invention compensation circuit is preferably employed in a class D amplifier with substantial reverse current, and most preferably added into a LDO power supply in a class D amplifier circuit to prevent reverse current problem. The disclosed class D amplifier circuit is preferably used in an audio media player.

Amplifiers traditionally have been linear, including various variations of class A, class B and class AB, with power output transistors acting as linear regulators to modulate the output voltage. A recent development in high efficiency amplifier design is the class D amplifier, which is basically a switching amplifier with the switches either fully on or off, thus significantly reducing the power losses in the power output devices.
For analog inputs, a class D amplifier operates by first converting the input into a modulated digital signal, which then is amplified, and then is filtered to recover an analog output signal. In the class D amplifier, only the digital signal is amplified by on/off digital signal processing, thus, class D amplifiers can have very high power efficiency since they provide substantially full output power, while minimizing internal power consumption.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art typical class D amplifier, comprising a comparator 13, a sawtooth waveform generator 12, a class D switching stage 15, a filter 17 and a load 19. An input Vi 10 is first compared (in the comparator 13) with a sawtooth comparator signal 11 (generated by the sawtooth generator 12) to generate a digital modulated signal 14. The modulated signal 14 is composed of a series of pulses, with the width of each pulse being proportional to the amplitude of the input voltage Vi. The modulated signal 14 is then used to drive a class D switching stage 15, generating a modulated digital signal 16. After passing through the low-pass filter 17, the digital signal 16 is converter back to an analog signal Vo 18, with amplified magnitude, to drive a load 19. A class D amplifier typically includes the class D switching stage 15 and the filter 17.
One important component of class D amplifiers is the modulation circuitry. A popular class D modulator, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), provides a constant frequency pulse signal whose pulse width varies proportionally to the input signal. Other class D modulation techniques can also be used, such as pulse density modulation (PDM), or pulse frequency modulation (PFM). An indispensable component of class D amplifiers is the low-pass filter, typically an LC-type low-pass filter.
There are basically two class D topologies, a half-bridge with 2 output devices and a full-bridge with 4 output devices. The half-bridge design is simpler and more flexible, but can exhibit a "bus pumping" phenomenon where supply current sinks back to the power supply from the amplifier. Such changes in current direction are problematic for Low Dropout (LDO) voltage regulators, which can source current but are usually incapable of sinking current. Any standard LDO that is presented with a reverse (sink) current rather than a source current will respond by shutting off, and its output voltage will rise dramatically, usually above the LDO's input voltage. LDO "regulation" is then lost, resulting in the complete loss of the class D amplifier's output voltage regulation.
Various prior art conventional solutions exist to eliminate the problems associated with class D reverse current. However, these solutions are not universally accepted since no solution is suitable for all design limitations. An obvious prior art solution is the use of a battery to power the class D amplifier where the reverse current operates to charge the battery. The design limitation of this solution is that not all class D amplifier topologies are intended to operate from the unregulated battery voltage, relying instead on a well-controlled voltage (LDO) source. Another solution is the incorporation of a large capacitor capable of recovering the energy going back into the power supply. The major drawback of this solution is the extra space needed since a large capacitor takes up a significant real estate in a system floor plan. Another solution is to take advantage of any other power requirements in the overall system by supplying the class D amplifier power from the same power source. For example, if the rest of the system consumes 20 mA, and if the maximum reverse current is only 10 mA, then a power supply supplying the total power will always see a net drain of current, and thus will be stable. A drawback of this solution is the vagaries of system load currents. One more solution is to simply add a resistor between the output of the power supply and ground, whose value sinks a current larger than the anticipated reverse current from the class D amplifier. The main disadvantage of this approach is that the LDO must then continually source this current, wasting system power.
Still another solution is the use of differential loading. FIG. 2 shows a schematic of this solution, where one of the paths is always providing a forward current, and if the forward current always exceeds the reverse current, then the net current is always forward. The problem with this solution is that it is not an available option if the load is inherently single ended as in the case of conventional headphone. Another solution is a push-pull voltage source, shown in FIG. 3, which is a regulated voltage source (Vs) that is capable of both sourcing and sinking current. The reverse current in this voltage source is designed to be shunted to ground instead of capturing in a storage element or using for other useful purpose. The efficiency of the overall circuit is reduced somewhat due to the disposal of the reverse current. Beside the loss of efficiency, another drawback of this design is the special design of the power supply to allow the sinking of reverse current.

Circuits and methods for amplifying signals


There is provided a technique of, in a communication apparatus capable of executing facsimile communication by a deemed voice scheme, enabling generation of a communication error to be prevented regardless of a voice encoding scheme used to encode a facsimile signal. To achieve this, a communication apparatus (first FAX apparatus) establishes a voice signal transmission session with the second FAX apparatus serving as a partner apparatus in FAX communication for FAX communication by the deemed voice scheme. The first FAX apparatus determines a voice encoding scheme which is used in the established session to encode a FAX signal into a voice signal. In accordance with the determination result, the first FAX apparatus limits modulation schemes usable in generation of the FAX signal when performing FAX communication by the deemed voice scheme.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus which performs facsimile communication on an IP network by using a VoIP (Voice over IP) technique, a control method thereof, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a technique for performing facsimile (FAX) communication on an IP network is being standardized. An example of such a standardized scheme is the T.38 scheme in which a G3 FAX (T.30) signal is converted into an IP packet by using a protocol called IFP (Internet Facsimile Protocol), and the IP packet is transmitted in real time on an IP network. There is also a deemed voice scheme in which a G3 FAX (T.30) signal is digitized by using the VoIP (Voice over IP) technique, and the digital signal is transmitted in real time as a voice signal on an IP network.
The VoIP technique used in FAX communication by the deemed voice scheme is a technique of sampling an analog voice signal, converting it into a digital voice signal, compressing the digital voice signal by voice encoding, further converting the compressed signal into an IP packet, and transmitting the IP packet to an IP network. Generally, the VoIP technique often adopts a lossy compression voice encoding scheme to increase the compression ratio. This is premised on that, when a loss of data occurs in a voice signal on a transmission path, the voice can be recognized by the human auditory sense as long as degradation of the voice quality is limited to a certain degree, unlike a data signal. For example, in an IP-PBX environment, voice encoding schemes such as G.729 (CELP, 8 kbps), G.726 (ADPCM, 32 kbps), and G.711 (PCM, 64 kbps) having different communication rates (transmission bandwidths) depending on the compression ratio are employed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-228219 has proposed a technique in which the above-described voice encoding scheme is used in control of facsimile communication. A data communication terminal described in this reference decides a communication rate in T.38 facsimile communication based on the voice encoding scheme. More specifically, the data communication terminal performs a voice call connection to execute voice communication with a partner terminal connected via an IP network, and then performs a T.38 call connection to execute facsimile communication. At this time, the data communication terminal performs T.38 facsimile communication at a communication rate decided based on the type of voice encoding scheme (voice codec) used in voice communication.
When transmitting a G3 FAX signal by the deemed voice scheme, the G3 FAX signal is deemed as a voice signal, voice-encoded, and converted into an IP packet, as described above. In this deemed voice scheme, when a scheme other than the G.711 non-compression scheme is used as the voice encoding scheme, a communication terminal on the receiving side cannot accurately reproduce a G3 FAX signal used before voice encoding (compression). For this reason, the communication terminal on the receiving side cannot accurately reproduce a control signal and image signal for G3 FAX communication, and a communication error may be generated. For example, in a high-communication-rate modulation scheme such as V.34 out of modem modulation schemes supported by G3 FAX, a communication error may be generated depending on the compression ratio of the voice encoding scheme.
Conventionally, a communication terminal which performs FAX communication by the deemed voice scheme includes only an analog line interface for a public telephone network, and utilizes a dedicated gateway or adaptor to use the VoIP function. That is, the communication terminal itself does not have an interface corresponding to an IP network, and cannot recognize a voice encoding scheme used in VoIP. Hence, such a communication terminal cannot perform communication control in accordance with a voice encoding scheme to be used, in order to cope with degradation of the quality of a voice signal corresponding to a G3 FAX signal.

Communication apparatus, control method thereof and storage medium


A video signal fault detection system includes a front-end device and a back-end device. The back-end device includes: a quality evaluation unit generating a quality evaluation result associated with successive image frames captured by an image capturing device of the front-end device and transmitted through a transmission channel; a recognition unit generating, based on the quality evaluation result, a recognition output indicating a non-corruption condition or a corruption type of each transmitted image frame; and an inference unit inferring, based on a predetermined lookup table and a determination output generated based on the recognition output, whether each of the transmission channel and the image capturing device is normal or not.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to video signal fault detection, and more particularly to a video signal fault detection system capable of inferring whether each of a transmission channel and a plurality of components of an image capturing device is normal or not.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a video signal fault detection method disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0198234, a specific type of fault in a video signal, i.e., signal loss, is detected and notified to a user by comparing each image frame of the video signal with a fixed image frame, incrementing a count of a counter when a difference between the image frames is below a threshold, indicating a possible occurrence of a fault, and generating an alarm signal when the count of the counter exceeds a predetermined count. In other words, loss of the video signal is detected by incrementing the count of the counter whenever the difference exceeds the threshold.
However, the aforesaid method can neither identify different types of faults other than signal loss, nor infer causes resulting in the faults. Therefore, there is still room for improvement.

Video signal fault detection system capable of inference of abnormal components


An electrolytic water purification system and method use provides a water filtration device with a plurality of electrolytic cells having anodes and cathodes specifically selected to remove contaminants from water. The device is capable of efficiently removing nearly all contaminants from water and is also capable of purifying the water by destroying micro-organisms which are in the water. Many minerals are removed from the purified water, and it is not necessary to add chemicals to the water during or after the purification process.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrochemical water purifier. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for the purification of impure water using a conjugated system of electrolytic currents and electrostatic fields.
2. The State of the Art
This invention relates, in general, to a method and apparatus for electrochemically altering contaminants found in aqueous solutions, so as to facilitate their simplified extraction, and thereby provide purified potable water.
The chemical compound H2O is a very unusual substance with many unique properties that contribute to its life supporting role in nature. Like the air we breathe, water is central to life, and is required in relatively large quantities. Nothing is more familiar to each of us, and yet, most people living in developed countries usually take water and its quality for granted. Generally speaking, unless there is an emergency or shortage wrought by drought or contamination, most people seldom think about where it comes from, what it contains, how pure it is, or how long our supply of it will last. We simply turn on a faucet, and expect a sufficient quantity of clean pure water to come flowing out.
To put things in better perspective, of the total water found on earth, very little is found in a pure enough condition to even be considered as a source for drinking purposes. Our oceans contain 97.4% of all of the water found on earth. Fresh water sources are limited to the polar ice caps, glaciers, above ground bodies of water, and underground aquifers, which together contain only 2.59%. Surprisingly, all of our lakes, rivers, streams, soil, and atmosphere combined only contain a mere 0.014%!
Until a decade or two ago, the term "Bottled Water" was practically unheard. Today, however, as people become more aware of the harmful substances that may be found in municipal or private water supplies, bottled water is big business with annual revenues in the United States towering over four billion dollars. Presently, more than three billion gallons of bottled water are sold each year in the United States and in Europe. Bottled water is now the largest selling "soft drink" in these regions. However, bottled water is very expensive relative to tap water, typically, selling anywhere from $0.50 to $1.00 a quart. This is thousands of times more expensive than tap water. Concern for personal safety, and the possible long term health risks associated with drinking contaminated or polluted water, continues to drive this market in spite of the high cost.
All groundwater, including that fit for drinking, contains dissolved chemical substances. The exact composition of groundwater depends on the original composition of the precipitation before it enters the ground, the nature of the soil that first makes contact with the precipitation, the minerals that make up the rocks in the saturated zone, the Water temperature, and the presence of industrial or other human contaminants. Total dissolved substances in groundwater range from about 20 to more than 300,000 milligrams per liter.
Almost all human activity alters water quality somewhat, but not necessarily as a result of pollution by human materials. For instance, in some areas, reduction of water levels in the subsurface by pumping may allow saline water to flow toward the wells; this occurs most often in coastal areas. Domestic waste (sewage and solid trash), however, is the most serious source of groundwater contamination. Solid trash, if accumulated in large amounts in humid regions, can become a major source of concentrated pollution. Water moving through the decaying trash can dissolve thousands of milligrams per liter of noxious material, including poisonous metals and flammable methane.
Human activity has increasingly polluted our precious sources of fresh water. Today, many of our long held and heavily relied on sources of fresh water have become so polluted that they can no longer be used without considerable health risks or concern. Even though some of the contamination is a result of naturally occurring events, human beings are still the primary perpetrators. For example, pollution from factories, heavy mining operations, industrialized farming practices, concentrated animal rearing and feeding operations, as well as misuse of solvents and other chemically formulated "fix all" products have contaminated the air we breathe and the water we drink. Pollutants include such things as cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, radionuclides, arsenic, nitrates, phosphates, benzene, trihalomethanes, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), pathogenic microorganisms, insecticides, and herbicides to name just a few.
Addressing water pollution has become a formidable challenge, and water pollution presents a continued health risk to people all over the earth. Thousands of people each year are being poisoned as a result of drinking contaminated water. Consequently, keeping public water supplies safe has long been recognized as an important public health issue by all developed countries.
In 1974, the U.S. Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in response to public concern about findings of harmful substances in drinking water supplies. Contaminants that may pose health risks are regulated by the EPA, as required by the SDWA, as amended in 1996. For example, the EPA recently lowered its standard for arsenic from 50 μg/L to 10 μg/L. Higher concentrations have proven to have a profound effect on the risk of developing cancer. There are now more than 80 EPA regulated contaminants for water quality. Prudence dictates that we continue to take all of the necessary steps to protect the earth's life sustaining waters from contamination, and provide a means whereby people throughout the world may have access to an abundance of clean, pure, economically derived water.
In addition to removing pollutants, an important consideration regarding the art of purifying contaminated water is that of removing excessive amounts of calcium, magnesium, and iron as these minerals can lead to a condition known as hardness. Hard water interferes with almost every cleaning task from laundering and dishwashing to bathing and personal grooming. Clothes laundered in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. Dishes and glasses may be spotted when dry. Hard water may cause a film on glass shower doors, shower walls, bathtubs, sinks, faucets, windows etc. Hair washed in hard water may feel sticky and look dull. Hard water deposits in pipes may also reduce water flow.
The amount of hard minerals in water affects the amount of soap and detergent necessary for cleaning. Soap used in hard water combines with the minerals in water to form a sticky soap curd. Some synthetic detergents are less effective in hard water because the active ingredients are partially inactivated by hardness, even though they remain dissolved. Bathing with soap in hard water leaves a film of sticky soap curd on the skin. The film may prevent removal of soil and bacteria. Soap curd interferes with the return of skin to its normal, slightly acidic condition, and may lead to irritation. Soap curd on hair may make it dull, lifeless and difficult to manage. When doing laundry in hard water, soap curds lodge in fabric during washing to make the fabric stiff and rough. In addition, concentrations of iron in the water greater than 0.3 mg/L can also cause staining of laundered clothes, dishes etc. Incomplete soil removal from laundry causes graying of white fabric and the loss of brightness in colors. A sour odor can also develop in clothes due to incomplete removal of contaminants. Continuous laundering in hard water can shorten the life of clothes.
Hard water also contributes to inefficient and costly operation of water using appliances. Heated hard water forms a scale of calcium and magnesium minerals that can contribute to the inefficient operation or failure of water using appliances. Pipes can become clogged with scale that reduces water flow and ultimately requires replacement. Hard water and the subsequent requirement of additional body, laundry and dish soaps, the use of chemical additives and softening agents also adds to the increased treatment and eventual pollution of our underground aquifers and fresh water sources.
Present water purifying and conditioning systems, however, are very lacking in their ability to effectively and efficiently remedy many of the afore mentioned contaminations. Distillation, for example, is simply too costly to even be considered as a mainstay solution.
Reverse osmosis systems not only waste a lot of water in the process of keeping the RO membrane clean and operable, but changes in water temperature passing through the membrane influences the membrane's ability to filter out certain, unwanted, contaminants such as arsenic. The RO process is also expensive to operate and maintain due to the high pressure required for its operation, and the frequently required replacement of costly filters and membranes
Ozonation is effective in the removal of some of the heavy metals, as well as fractions that are of organic origin, but it is also very expensive to operate, and it will not remove many of the hazardous contaminants mentioned earlier such as arsenic and phosphorous.
Granulated, activated charcoal (GAC) systems will only remove narrow portions of the typical aqueous contaminations such as certain odor causing fractions, fractions of organic origin, and some of the chlorine and chemical contaminants. However, its removal efficiency rapidly diminishes over time requiring frequent replacement, and it will not remove many of the toxic or hazardous contaminants.
Ion exchange resin systems remove only a fraction of the contaminants mentioned above. They are used primarily to "soften" the water by removing calcium and magnesium ions, which pose absolutely no health risks, in exchange for sodium at the rate of about 8 mg/liter for each grain of hardness removed per gallon of water. Scientific research has shown that water treated in this fashion releases enough sodium to aggravate, or lead to, cardiovascular disorders. The state of California recently passed legislation outlawing any new installations of such due to the high levels of salt discharge into the sewerage systems which are required to regenerate their effectiveness. Furthermore, the removal of many contaminants, such as iron, via ion exchange technology requires the use of very harsh chemicals such as potassium permanganate in order to regenerate. Such chemicals only exacerbate the escalating problem of ground water contamination, as they may be discharged, unaffected, from present art wastewater treatment facilities.
Electro coagulation systems are somewhat effective in the removal of many of the EPA regulated contaminants; however, they do not meet all of the necessary drinking water standards. Moreover, electro coagulation systems do not provide a means to electrochemically recover virtually all of the excess anodally liberated ions, metallic oxides or colloids. Failure to remove these adscititious elements may introduce serious environmental concerns and health hazards. For example, high concentrations of aluminum in aqueous solutions will kill or injure a wide variety of plant and animal life, including fish. Consequently, all prior art systems require additional filtration through zeolites and/or secondary ion exchange systems to achieve potability. These ancillary filtration devices must be either replaced or regenerated using chemical additives so the use of such may be considered irresponsible.
Some prior art devices claim pathogenic reductions following the treatment of contaminated sources, but the mechanisms employed to accomplish this objective, namely, fragmentary ozonation at the anode surface as stated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,959, direct electric current as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,152, or areas of high temperature as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,814, do not comprise an efficient, universal, or a certifiably complete means to achieve axenic sterilization.
Moreover, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,293,400, 4,378,276 and 4,872,959, integral obstructions fixed between an anode/cathode pair, such as a helical wrap, may be somewhat effective as a spacing member, or even as a means to manipulate the retention time of the solution being treated. However, because a significant percentage of the effective surface area of both the anode and cathode is occluded, an electrolytic cell of this design must be increased in length proportionate to the total square area of the obstruction in order to retain relative efficiencies resulting in higher manufacturing costs and maintenance expenses. This problem is exacerbated anytime the effective surface area of an anode/cathode pair is rendered inefficacious by use of an anode having a greater effective surface area than its corresponding cathode, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,293,400, 4,378,276 and 4,872,959, or whenever abrupt, non uniform, current densities exist along any electrode surface as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,043,050, 5,271,814, and 5,423,962.
Furthermore, the absolute majority of electrolytic prior art systems and technologies emphasize a means for routinely operating a described apparatus in a reverse polarized condition to facilitate a cleansing of the anode/cathode surfaces employed. While there are some short term benefits derived from this technique, reversing polarity over extended periods of time will eventually pacify both electrodes, rendering them non conductive and ineffective. Additional complications arise if the anode and cathode of an electrolytic device are composed of dissimilar materials. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,959 describes an apparatus, which principally utilizes iron and aluminum as anodes and cathodes. Therefore, while operating this device in one direction of polarity, high concentrations of ionic or colloidal aluminum will be discharged with the treated solution, and while operating in a reverse polarized condition the adscititious contaminant will be high concentrations of ionic or colloidal iron. The oscillating nature of the excess anodally liberated metal oxides introduced by such prior art electrolytic devices pose complicated environmental and human health considerations.
No prior art electro coagulation system or technology is capable of electrochemically extracting both non electrolytes and electrolytes from solution. Non electrolytes are, by definition, non ionic, non conductive compounds that remain unaffected by electrolytic influences and/or processes. These contaminating fractions can only be electrochemically influenced following adequate exposure to high voltage, ionizing, electrostatic fields of sufficient intensity to transform these compounds into ionic, conductive, species that may then be extracted from solution by means of precipitating electrochemical reactions, or via electrostatic filtration systems or technologies. Although some prior art systems and technologies utilize electrostatic fields, while others employ electrolytic currents, no prior art system or technology provides a means for the incorporation of both of these complementary electromotive forces within a conjugated treatment cell. Consequently, these apparatus may remove only a portion of the full spectrum of contaminants.
With the foregoing background of the invention in mind, and as the following description of the invention proceeds, it is desirable to provide an improved system for the concerted electrostatic and electrolytic, and/or uncompounded electrolytic, treatment of aqueous solutions which is free of the aforementioned and other such disadvantages of the prior art configurations. The system should provide clean, safe, softened, pathogen free, inexpensive, pH balanced, potable water without the use or necessity of secondary purification systems or technologies such as absorption filters, ion exchange systems, or zeolites, etc. It should be understood, however, that conjunctive use of such secondary filtration technologies might not in every instance be proscribed and is within the scope of the present invention.
It is further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective extraction, or safe level reduction, of all EPA regulated or non regulated, metal or non metal, contaminants encountered within aqueous fractions with very few possible exceptions by means of concerted electrostatic ionic separations and precipitating electrochemical reactions, and/or fundamental precipitating electrochemical reactions, without the use of salt brine solutions or the addition of harsh chemicals.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective softening of aqueous solutions by means of concerted electrostatic ionic separations and precipitating electrochemical reactions, and/or fundamental precipitating electrochemical reactions, without the use of salt brine solutions or the addition of harsh chemicals.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective extraction of virtually all autochthonous contaminants, as well as excess anodally liberated adscititious metal ions. These may be either electroplated or precipitated out of solution by means of sequentially complementary anode/cathode pairs (treatment cells) having maximized efficiencies, efficacies, concentrically uniform field/current densities, particularized redox potentials, and specific solution pH altering capacities, inherent in the structure and composition of the invention.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective maximization of solution retentivity and homogeneity. Optimally, aqueous solutions traversing a treatment cell shall be constrained to move as an upward vortical flow by means of one or more low profile, disk shaped, non conductive, electrode spacing members further engineered to induce a directionally specific vortical acceleration upon fractions passing through its plurality of equidistant, homocentrically arrayed, and biased orifices.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective maximization of solution retentivity and homogeneity, wherein, electrode surfaces shall be smooth, or gently undulated and helically oriented, so as to respectively facilitate an unimpeded or augmented vortical flow within a treatment cell; thereby, rectifying undesirable upward convective currents induced upon the solution by electrode off gassing.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective maximization of anode/cathode efficiency and efficacy by using treatment cells which are unimpeded by lengthy integral obstructions fixed between an anode/cathode pair, such as a helical wrap. The use of relatively unobstructed anode/cathode pairs facilitates net reductions in cell length and diameter as well as inherent reductions in manufacturing and maintenance expenses.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective maximization of anode/cathode efficiency and efficacy, wherein, the effective surface area of any given cathode shall be greater than or equal to the effective surface area of its corresponding anode. Having a cathode with greater surface area than the corresponding anode helps offset any pacification resulting from accumulating non conductive gasses and/or oxides on either electrode surface as well as changes in electrode diameter due to sacrificial consumption, or enlargement due to electroplating.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient and effective maximization of anode/cathode efficiency and efficacy, wherein, electrolytic and concerted electrostatic current/field densities are made concentrically uniform. This has been determined to be an exceedingly important factor during the purification process as well as increasing longevity, and maintaining continued successful operation.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for the efficient, effective, and universal sterilization of pathogenic microorganisms by means of synergistic anode/cathode (treatment cell) arrangements, embedded within a treatment cell array, and which possess inherent germicidal properties such as with a copper/aluminum anode/cathode pair.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for offsetting the operational cost of the apparatus by providing a means to efficiently and effectively claim, and/or recycle, all such elements as may have electroplated out of solution on cathode surfaces.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for offsetting the operational cost of the apparatus by providing a means to harvest the chemically diverse precipitates, and/or soluble ionic compounds.
It is yet further desirable to provide an improved system for offsetting the operational cost of the apparatus by providing a means to efficiently and effectively collect, purify, and store the hydrogen gas which is liberated during treatment and which may then be used as a recoverable source of energy. For example, purified hydrogen could be ported from a storage system or technology to a fuel cell, combustion generator, etc., where it would be spent to produce electric power. This reclaimed energy could then be subsequently cached in a battery, super capacitor, etc., or immediately applied to subsidize the operational energy requirements of the present invention, or for use in other devices or purposes. Alternatively, the purified hydrogen gas could be harvested for later use.
It is yet further desirable to yield a variety of embodiments, adaptable and suited to the constituents of the aqueous solution to be purified, so as to accommodate a diversity of two or more sequentially complementary anode/cathode pairs (forming a treatment array), and which are comprised of any combination or species of conductive, efficacious, metal and/or non metal material.
It is yet further desirable to accommodate the automatic application of DC bias voltages sufficient to neutralize the redox potentials of any given anode/cathode pair comprising a natural electrolytic cell, of either direction, after operating voltages are disengaged. These retaining voltages shall, accordingly, be discontinued when normal operation of the apparatus resumes.
It is yet further desirable to facilitate a means for periodic, short term, reverse polarization of electrodes which may be at times requisite to revitalize the efficiency and efficacy of certain anode/cathode pairs that may be employed within an array.
It is yet further desirable to accommodate the automatic evacuation of the aqueous solution contained within predetermined treatment cells to a sewer or wastewater treatment system after operating voltages are disengaged.
It is yet further desirable to accommodate the automatic evacuation of the solution contained within predetermined treatment cells to a sewer or wastewater treatment system following a reverse polarization of electrodes which may be periodically requisite to revitalize the efficiency and efficacy of certain anode/cathode pairs that may be employed within an array. It should also be noted that normal operation of the apparatus during such a cleaning cycle may be electively suspended. It will be further appreciated, however, that implementation of these procedures shall not be required in all cases, and should be employed sparingly.
It is yet further desirable to provide a means whereby the aforesaid evacuated solution may be electively replaced with CO2, or any other efficacious, non hazardous, environmentally safe compound, which may serve to prevent or remove non conductive film accumulation upon electrode surfaces. Aforesaid revitalizing compounds would, in turn, be harmlessly discharged to a sewer, wastewater treatment system, or holding tank before normal operation of the apparatus resumed.
It is yet further desirable to yield a variety of embodiments, adaptable and suited to the constituents of the aqueous solution to be purified, so as to accommodate the conjunctive use of pH altering systems and technologies, preceding and/or following the usage of any given treatment cell, including, but not limited to, CO2 infusion systems designed to produce carbonic acid, subsequently lower the pH of the processed solution, and further induce some dissolved contaminants to form precipitates that may then be easily extracted.
It is yet further desirable to yield a variety of embodiments, adaptable and suited to the constituents of the aqueous solution to be purified, so as to accommodate individual treatment cells, within the array, being energized by either concerted high voltage DC electrostatic fields and low voltage DC electrolytic currents, or uncompounded DC electrolytic currents, in order to efficiently and effectively extract non electrolytic, electrolytic, and colloidal contaminants from solution by means of specifically tailored electrochemical reactions.
It is yet further desirable to yield a variety of embodiments, adaptable and suited to the constituents of the aqueous solution to be purified, so as to facilitate an assortment of collection points, or means, in order to efficiently and effectively harvest the chemically diverse precipitates, and/or soluble ionic species such as nitrates, nitrites, salts, etc.
It is yet further desirable to provide a filtration system with a relatively long life span.
It is yet further desirable to consume a minimal amount of energy while operating the invention described herein.
It is, yet further desirable to provide filtration system which may be constructed in a variety of sizes that may satisfy the need of a single individual, a small home or dwelling, or a large scale municipal water treatment facility.
It is yet further desirable to provide a variety of embodiments, adaptable and suited to the volumetric amount of aqueous solution to be treated, so as to efficiently and effectively dispense purified water by means of a reservoir tank, a pressure tank, or on demand, etc., as circumstance may prescribe.
It is yet further desirable to provide a relatively compact sized water treatment system. The water treatment system is thus more useful as it may be used in residential and smaller commercial applications.
It is yet further desirable to facilitate the optional use of automatic controls to reduce the necessity of human intercession in the operation of the invention.
It is yet further desirable to provide a filtration system which has reduced maintenance requirements, operational expenses, and manufacturing costs. The filtration is thus less expensive to purchase and operate, making the filtration system more available to individuals in need of such a filtration system.


A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for performing multi casting. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving routing, association, relaying, and/or topology information associated with a plurality of nodes in a multi-hop wireless network, the plurality of nodes communicably coupled in a tree or mesh arrangement via a plurality of broadcast channels; and determining a subset of the plurality of nodes over each broadcast channel on the multi-hop wireless network that is responsible for sending acknowledgment information, in response to receipt or lack of receipt of transmissions, back to senders of transmissions.

Multicast routing is used to avoid duplicate transmission of the same packet over the same network link. Unlike unicast routing, where an incoming packet at a router is copied onto exactly one outgoing link that has a unique end point (i.e., node), in multicast routing a packet can be copied onto more than one link that each having a distinct end point or it can be copied on a broadcast interface (e.g., radio frequency (RF) wireless interface, Ethernet, etc.) with a multicast or broadcast address (e.g., MAC address) so that more than one end point can receive it. This process repeats itself at each node designated as multicast router or relay.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network. Referring to FIG. 1, network 100 has four wireless routers, labeled as A, B, C, and D, and eight wireless client nodes 101-108 which are subscribed to the same multicast session (e.g., they listen to the same IP multicast address to receive the packets of the same session). Each of routers A-D and its downstream nodes (i.e., the nodes that receive multicast packets from this router) are connected through a broadcast medium and whenever a router sends a packet for a given multicast session, it utilizes a common broadcast channel listened to by all the downstream nodes and a session multicast address (e.g., IP multicast address assigned to the multicast session, connection ID assigned at the link layer, etc.). For purposes herein, the term "channel" can be physical such as time-slot, frequency band, spreading code, etc., it can be logical such as MAC broadcast/multicast address, or it can be a combination of both. Under ideal circumstances, the packet is transmitted once by the router and all the receivers correctly receive it. When routers B and C receive a multicast packet, they re-transmit the same packet to their downstream nodes in their corresponding broadcast channels (e.g., channels 2 and 3, respectively, in FIG. 1). When router D receives the packet sent by router B, it resends the same packet over the broadcast channel 4.
Unfortunately, this ideal mode of operation where each downstream node receives the information at the first time it is transmitted by the upstream router is not a realistic assessment especially when the broadcast medium is a wireless RF channel. Indeed, the successful reception of a packet becomes a probabilistic event that varies from one receiver to another. Therefore, while some of the downstream nodes can successfully receive a particular multicast packet, the remaining downstream nodes in fact may not receive it successfully. Since there may be a large number of receivers, it is not desirable to have each receiver notify the sender about successful transmissions by sending an acknowledgement (ACK) message. An ACK-based approach can significantly drain the bandwidth resources considering the fact that under good channel conditions, most of the receivers will receive and send back an ACK message. With this consideration, a negative ACK (NACK) based system can be utilized. However, there is ambiguity in terms of which receivers are going to send a NACK message in case more than one receiver have not received the packet correctly. One way is to allocate a slot (or sub-channel, sub-carrier, etc.) for each receiver, which may result in many unused bandwidth resources. Many systems utilize a random back-off procedure to resolve any conflicts, which makes NACK based approaches more efficient than ACK based approaches when fewer nodes have unsuccessful reception. One problem with NACK-based solutions is that the receiver node must be able to decode the MAC header correctly. To avoid such complications, many broadband wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11 or IEEE 802.16 do not impose a reliable multicast or broadcast transmission and no link layer (LL) retransmission mechanism (neither with ACK nor NACK) is supported in those modes of operation.
Broadband wireless standards such as 802.11 and 802.16 provide reliable link/MAC layer operations only for unicast transmissions, e.g., only one receiver is targeted to send the packet and each successful packet reception is acknowledged (ACKed) by that receiver. On the other hand, broadcast or multicast transmissions where more than one receiver is expecting the packet are executed in an unreliable fashion with no receipt acknowledgements.
Link layer reliability issue for multicast/broadcast flows has been investigated heavily for satellite links which mainly suffer from the high round trip time delay. Due to the high order of magnitude of the number of receivers in a satellite footprint, reliable multicasting and collecting feedback from each receiver pose a formidable task. The state of the art in the area is to use coding (fixed rate codes with incremental redundancy or rateless codes) and selection of feedback nodes in conjunction with one another. The selection of feedback nodes is generally done via tracking the subset of receivers with the worst case channel conditions. The tracking criterion can be as simple as the number of encoding packets required to be able to decode the multicast content or signal to noise ratio at the receivers. However, in satellite multicasting, the feedback is typically collected from receivers that have bad reception quality. Also, in satellite multicasting, a reliable link layer for all the receivers is targeted.
Many reliable multicast proposals exist for the transport layer. On such proposal is referred to as a reliable multicast transport protocol (RMTP) and achieves reliability by using a packet based selective repeat retransmission scheme. In particular, each ACK packet carries a sequence number and a bitmap, the receivers are grouped into a hierarchy of local regions, and a tree-topology is generated, where receivers in each local region periodically send ACKs to their parents. The ACK messages are transmitted to the parent nodes in the higher layer only, and the ACK-implosion problem is effectively reduced.
Another example of a multicast proposal involves the selectively reliable multicast protocol (SRMP) that has three modes of operation. The first mode is the best-effort transmission of the data which does not require reliable transport; the second mode requires reliable reception of the data by all nodes in the network; and the third mode requires that the data is received reliably by a single dynamically-selected node of the multicast group.
In another example, an application-level reliable multicasting system uses the Overcast technique in which an overlay network is used to provide scalable and reliable multicast by building efficient distribution trees that adapt to changing network conditions. The scalability and reliability is achieved using multiple multicast groups.
In another example, a scalable reliable multicast transmission is maintained by combining FEC with ARQ. In such a case, the FEC and ARQ are used for the retransmission of parity data to recover from the loss of original data packets.

Method and apparatus for reliable multicasting in wireless relay networks


A circuit arrangement for brief mute switching of the reproduction of an LF signal in a radio receiver for performing additional control operations is described, in which the mute switching is effected by varying the current flow through the control path of an interrupter by means of a reversing switch, as a consequence of the change in charge of a capacitor acted upon by a blanking signal.

One such circuit arrangement is known from the earlier German Patent Application P 43 26 097 of the same inventor. This known circuit arrangement attains the object of making extremely brief, hardly perceptible interruptions, free of clicking noises, in the LF signal of the radio receiver in order to carry out additional control operations.

Switching device for short time mute switching of reproduction of NF-signal in radio receiver


A novel product is disclosed comprising a single layer of thermoplastic chips having electrically conductive material coated on the vertical edges of the chips disposed on a continuous electrically conductive support, bonded thereto and to each other and consolidated to form a continuous, electrically conductive sheet.

In today's high tech environment, static electricity is more than just the annoyance of a little shock on a dry winter's day. Sensitive electronic components can be damaged or degraded by electrostatic discharges. Besides causing equipment to malfunction, static can ignite flammable gases. And the static discharge doesn't require a dry winter's day.
Low humidity, air conditioned rooms provide the "dry winter's day" atmosphere all year round. Thus, computer terminals, data-processing equipment, coronary care units, radiological facilities, and the like, all housed in such rooms are all candidates for destruction by electrostatic discharges.
In a paper presented at the 1984 Nepcon West Conference "Choosing a Floor Management Program for Effective Static Control", Michael T. Brandt points out:
"One of the prime generators of static in any populated environment is the movement of personnel or equipment across a floor surface. The interaction between shoe or caster and floor surface can generate significant static voltages as shown in Table I.
TABLE I ______________________________________ Typical Electrostatic Voltages Electrostatic Voltages Means of Static Generation 10-20% R.H. 65-90% R.H. ______________________________________ Walking across carpet 35,000 1,500 Walking over vinyl floor 12,000 250 Worker at bench 6,000 100 Mobile storage carts on Up to 5,000 Volts vinyl floors ______________________________________
Static would be less of a problem if personnel were stationary, if they didn't move about. If they remained at their work stations. If they didn't move products from one area to another. But the fact is, movement exists and static is generated throughout the entire work environment."


A water-soluble ink for ink jet type recording is disclosed, which comprises water, a water-soluble dye, a wetting agent and a surfactant, wherein said surfactant is a mixture comprising a compound represented by the following formula (A): ##STR1## wherein R represents a halogen atom or an alkyl group; and n represents a positive integer, and a compound represented by the following formula (B): ##STR2## The water-soluble ink for ink jet type recording may provide a high quality printed image having a large printed dot diameter on various kinds of papers such as ordinary paper and poor quality paper with a reduced amount of ink.

Examples of a water-soluble ink for use in a printer of an ink jet recording type that ejects ink droplets through fine nozzles in response to an image signal while controlling the flying route of the ink droplets which are then attached to the surface of paper such as ordinary paper to provide recording include those disclosed-in JP-A-2-255774 (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") and JP-A-6-25573 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,434).
The water-soluble ink for ink jet type recording as disclosed in JP-A-2-255774 comprises water, a water-soluble dye, a drying inhibitor and a penetrant, wherein the penetrant comprises a compound represented by the following formula: ##STR3## wherein R.sup.1 represents hydrogen atom, methyl group, methoxy group, chlorine atom or bromine atom; and n.sup.1 represents an integer 1 to 5 (hereinafter referred to as compound (1))
and a butyl alcohol-ethylene oxide adduct having an ethylene oxide addition mole number of 1 to 5 (hereinafter referred to as "compound (2)"), and optionally a butyl alcohol-propylene oxide adduct having an ethylene oxide addition mole number of 1 to 5 (hereinafter referred to as "compound (3)"), whereby the surface tension of the water-soluble ink is controlled within a range of from 30 to 40 dyne.
Ink obtained by mixing the foregoing various compounds may be continuously and stably ejected against a commercial copying paper in a drop-on-demand type jet printer for a prolonged period of time. She ink also can thoroughly penetrate into an ordinary paper, whereby a good print image quality can be provided.
The ink for ink jet type recording as disclosed in JP-A-6-25573 comprises a dye, water, 0.1 to 20% by weight of a compound represented by the following formula: ##STR4## wherein R.sup.2 represents an alkyl group, and n.sup.2 represents an integer (hereinafter referred to as "compound (4)"), (hereinafter referred to as "compound (5)"), and urea or its derivative (hereinafter referred to as "compound (6)"), whereby a uniform image free of color deviation can be provided without causing bleeding (i.e., mixing of different colors caused by unfixed ink dots when they are brought into contact with each other) even when a high speed printing is made on an ordinary paper.
The foregoing conventional aqueous ink for ink jet type recording comprises compound (1), and compound (2), and optionally compound (3) as a penetrant. The aqueous ink causes no clogging in the printer nozzle and thus can be stably ejected to provide a high printing quality. Further, the aqueous ink comprising compounds (4), (5) and (6) are said to exhibit an improved wettability with respect to paper and thus causes less bleeding. However, these conventional aqueous inks are disadvantageous in that they cause feathering (i.e., oozing out of ink along paper fibers) and thus cannot provide a printed image with clear out-line when used with poor quality paper having a low fiber density than ordinary paper (e.g., regenerated papers, paper for use in a register printer).
Further, since the fibers (chief material mainly composed of cellulose) and a sizing agent (agent for smoothening the paper surface, mainly composed of starch or rosin) constituting the paper are oily materials, the foregoing aqueous inks, which have a low lipophilicity, are disadvantageous in that ink I attached to paper P hardly penetrate into paper P and thus gives a small diameter of printed dot d1 as shown in FIG. 1A, making it impossible to provide a sharp printed image. When the lipophilicity of the ink is increased to solve these difficulties, the penetrant and other components are rendered insoluble in water or, if soluble, the resulting ink becomes foamable, whereby it is impossible to provide stable ejection (continuous ejection of ink droplets in a constant amount at a constant rate).
On the other hand, a relatively small-sized wire dot printer, for example, is equipped with a printing head weighing about 60 g. Therefore, it is possible to apply inexpensive and small-sized printer driving devices into an ink jet type printer as it is if the weight of the ink unit (excluding the weight of the recording head and the cartridge) is not more than about 50 g, as one possibility. Further, in view of the life of the ink ribbon in the existing wire dot printer, it is desirable that 10 million letters can be printed with an ink unit weighing 50 g or less to make the ink jet type printer applicable to various applications of use. However, since the conventional aqueous ink must be consumed in a large amount to make printed letters visible, the ink unit tends to enlarge to a weight of 50 g or more, which renders an ink jet type printer to be large. On the other hand, if the amount of the ink is reduced to a weight of 50 g or less, it causes frequent replacement of the ink jet cartridge, whereby its facility in use deteriorates.

Water-soluble ink for ink jet type recording and ink jet type recording apparatus using same