A method and computer-readable medium are provided for previewing and performing actions on attachments to electronic mail messages. A first window pane is displayed that includes a list of e-mail messages and information identifying any attachments to the e-mail messages. When an attachment is selected, a preview is generated for the attachment and displayed in a second window pane adjacent to the first window pane. Actions that may be performed on the attachment are also identified and made available. One provided action includes the ability to quickly generate a reply message to the e-mail that includes a changed version of the original attachment.

Users of electronic mail ("e-mail") client application programs are commonly frustrated by the number of steps that must be taken by a user to view the contents of a document that has been attached to an e-mail message. In many cases, a user only wants to see a preview of the attachment. A preview is a read-only rendering of a document that mimics what a user would have seen if the document was opened with an application program associated with the document. However, in the typical case, the user is required to select the attachment and then launch the application program associated with the attachment to view its contents.
When this traditional process for viewing the contents of an e-mail attachment is performed, the user is required to change application contexts between the e-mail client application and the application utilized to view the attachment. When the user has finished viewing the attachment, the user must again switch application contexts by closing the application program and returning to the e-mail client application. Switching application contexts in this manner to view a preview of an e-mail attachment can be both time consuming and frustrating for a user.
Users of e-mail client application programs may also be frustrated by the number of steps necessary to create a reply to an e-mail message with changes to an attached document. In the typical case, a user must select the attached document for editing to open an application program for editing the document. Once the document has been opened for editing, the user may make their changes. When the changes are completed, the changed document must be saved in a location on the computer, oftentimes on the user interface desktop. Then, the user must create an e-mail message in reply to the original message and attach the changed document to the reply message. Then, the changed document can be transmitted with the e-mail message. This extensive process for replying to an e-mail message with an attachment with changes to the attachment can also be time consuming and frustrating for a computer user.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.

Method and computer-readable medium for previewing and performing actions on attachments to electronic mail messages


A fuser assembly for an imaging device is shown and described. The fuser assembly includes a heat transfer member for generating heat and a backup roll coupled to the heat transfer member and rotatable therewith. The backup roll includes a central core and a rubber layer surrounding the central core. The fuser assembly further includes a plurality of end cap members, each end cap member being disposed at an end of the backup roll and dimensioned for substantially preventing outward expansion of the rubber layer in an axial direction of the backup roll.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to preventing or reducing treeing effects on media sheets imaged by electrophotographic imaging devices, and particularly to the use of end cap members associated with the backup roll of a fuser assembly for such imaging devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current belt fuser assemblies of electrophotographic imaging devices include a metal belt encasing a ceramic slab heater, and a backup roll having a silicone rubber layer and a smooth polyperfluoroalkoxy-tetrafluoroethylene (PFA) sleeve at least partly surrounding the rubber layer. In the fuser assembly, the backup roll and the belt with the heater are pressed together to form the fuser nip, which is the surface area that the media sheets contact and pass through in order to fuse a toner image on the sheet to the sheet itself. The metal belt may be a Teflon coated metal belt for monochrome imaging devices or a metal tube with a rubber layer and a PFA sleeve for color imaging devices.
"Treeing" is an effect that occurs when the sheet passes through the fuser nip and begins to corrugate and then eventually fold in on itself. Certain inconsistencies in the media sheet or printer design will cause the sheet to be compressed along its width such that wrinkles begin to form in the sheet. If these wrinkles become severe, treeing will occur. The result of treeing is that a crease is formed down the length of the media sheet that varies in length and depth.
Many known factors lead to treeing, the most common issues. For instance, treeing is more likely to occur when the media sheet is skewed as it enters the fuser nip, i.e., the leading edge of the sheet is not parallel with the fuser nip. Further, treeing is known to occur if the profile of the fuser nip is improperly designed or manufactured. Another factor that may cause treeing is the media sheet absorbed moisture from its environment, causing it to have a wavy edge and/or inconsistent width along the length of the sheet.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system for reducing or otherwise eliminating the occurrence of treeing in electrophotographic imaging devices.

Backup roll having axial constraints and fuser therefor


The sampling device of the invention includes a collection unit with a coction surface (24), a sampling unit (30) engaging said collection surface (24), means for moving said sampling unit (30) and said surface relative to each other, heating means associated with the sampling means (30) for vaporising contaminant materials, and a suction nozzle (28) which connects to the inlet of an analyzing apparatus (1) and is designed to draw in the contaminant material vapours produced by the heating means. The invention is suitable for analyzing in situ gaseous substances, liquids, aerosols, and even pulverulent materials.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for sampling gaseous substances, liquids, aerosols, or even powdered materials with a view to their analysis in situ in a device for analyzing gas composition.
It relates in particular, but not exclusively, to the detection of contamination by highly toxic substances, such as those used in chemical weapons, which can be spread in the form of gas, fine droplets, or even fine and widely spaced particles.
2. Description of Related Art
A portable gas-composition analyzer associated with a device for sampling and vaporizing the substance analyzed has already been proposed for such a detection purpose, notably by French patents 26 118 98 and 26 482 27 in the name of the Applicant.
According to French patent 2 648 227, the sampling device has a flexible tongue with an electrical heating resistor that vaporizes the substances collected by the tongue.
This device proves to require the intervention of an operator, who must collect the samples, then vaporize the liquids sampled so that the vapors produced are drawn into the analyzer as a gas whose composition is to be analyzed.

Device for sampling gaseous substances, liquids, aerosols or even powdered materials for in situ analysis

Etat Francais as represented by le Delegue General pour l'Armement


A hybrid electro-mechanical vehicular transmission is provided that may be selectively configured to accommodate a two-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive vehicular configuration. This is accomplished using a two-wheel drive adapter housing affixed with respect to the transmission end housing.

Conventional non-hybrid vehicular transmissions typically house much of the mechanical components, such as clutches and planetary gear sets, within a transmission main housing. The end housing of the conventional non-hybrid vehicular transmission is usually a simple part that houses a minimal number of mechanical elements. As such, manufacturers typically design a new end housing that will mount directly to the transmission main housing for each of a two-wheel drive and a four-wheel drive variation.
Hybrid electro-mechanical vehicular transmissions may employ a dual motor system. Manufacturing requirements of the dual motor arrangement may require the splitting of the transmission main housing and the end housing farther forward on the transmission main housing than was previously required for the conventional non-hybrid vehicular transmission. This requires the end housing to contain more functional components than was previously necessary. These components may include clutches, planetary gear sets, and a park pawl system. In turn, this added functionality increases the complexity of the end housing. This added complexity makes individual end housings, one for each of a two-wheel drive and a four-wheel drive variation, more expensive to design and manufacture.

Apparatus for selectively configuring a hybrid electro-mechanical vehicular transmission


A direct current motor having a stator that has a plurality of radially arranged stator pole bridges to each of which one phase is allocated, at least one stator pole group being formed by at least two adjoining stator poles which are associated with the same phase, no winding sections being provided between the stator poles of the at least one stator pole group and the respective stator pole bridges of this stator pole group being disposed with a smaller spacing between each other than two adjoining stator pole bridges that are associated with different phases.

Brushless DC motors include a rotatable rotor having a constant magnetic field, as well as a stator which can be used to generate a rotating magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field generates a torque that is not constant. In fact, fluctuations are produced in the torque that are a function of the construction of the rotor and the stator, and of their position with respect to each other. In the prior art, it is known to choose various combinations of the number of stator slots and the number of rotor poles depending on the desired motor parameters, such as the output of the motor, cogging torque and redundancy of the motor windings. This means, for example, that a motor having nine pole heads or slots in the stator and sixteen magnetic pole pairs in the rotor has the advantage that it generates very low cogging torque with 144 cogging torque cycles per rotation. Here, the rotor and stator are designed in such a way that the rotor poles have different angular offsets compared to the stator pole heads in order to thus compensate the transition of a rotor magnet from one pole head to the next by another pole head, which, in the same rotor position, lies opposite the center of another magnetic pole.
Such specifications for the structure of the rotor and the stator can produce a winding pattern for the winding of the stator in which for each phase, one slot or even several slots take on windings of the same phase with an opposed winding direction and thus opposed energization. The currents in the opposed winding sections of the same phase located in these slots offset each other and thus make no contribution at all to the build up of torque; the windings simply increase the winding resistance. The winding space in these kinds of motors is consequently not utilized effectively, which means that the motors need to have a comparatively large volume should a certain motor output be required. This results in low efficiency and relatively high costs in the manufacture of such a motor.
The object of the invention is to provide an improved brushless DC motor. The particular aim is to provide a DC motor which is not only compact and low-cost but also shows high efficiency. Moreover, the intention is to provide a DC motor that is light.


In a method for grapheme-phoneme conversion of a word which is not contained as a whole in a pronunciation lexicon, the word is firstly decomposed into subwords. The subwords are transcribed and chained. As a result, interfaces are formed between the transcriptions of the subwords. The phonemes at the interfaces must be changed frequently. Consequently, they are subjected to recalculation.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method, a computer program product, a data medium and a computer system for grapheme-phoneme conversion of a word which is not contained as a whole in a pronunciation lexicon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Speech processing methods in general are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,135, U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,388, DE 19636739 C1 and DE 19719381 C1. In a speech synthesis system, the script-to-speech conversion or grapheme-phoneme conversion of the words to be spoken is of decisive importance. Errors in sounds, syllable boundaries and word stress are directly audible, can lead to incomprehensibility and can, in the worst case, even distort the sense of a statement.
The best quality speech recognition is obtained when the word to be spoken is contained in a pronunciation lexicon. However, the use of such lexica causes problems. On the one hand, the number of entries increases the search outlay. On the other hand, it is precisely in the case of languages such as German that it is impossible to cover all words in a lexicon, since the possibilities of forming compound words are virtually unlimited.
A morphological decomposition can provide a remedy in this case. A word which is not found in the lexicon is decomposed into its morphological constituents such as prefixes, stems and suffixes and these constituents are searched for in the lexicon. However, a morphological decomposition is problematical precisely in the case of long words, because the number of possible decompositions rises with the word length. However, it requires an excellent knowledge of the word formation grammar of a language. Consequently, words which are not found in a pronunciation lexicon are transcribed with out-of-vocabulary methods (OOV methods), for example, with the aid of neural networks. Such OOV treatments are, however, relatively compute-intensive and generally lead to poorer results than the phonetic conversion of whole words with the aid of a pronunciation lexicon. In order to determine the pronunciation of a word which is not contained in a pronunciation lexicon, the word can also be decomposed into subwords. The subwords can be transcribed with the aid of a pronunciation lexicon or an OOV method. The partial transcriptions found can be appended to one another. However, this leads to errors at the break points between the partial transcriptions.

Grapheme-phoneme conversion of a word which is not contained as a whole in a pronunciation lexicon


The invention provides a radio frequency signal receiver with adequate gain control path to control the gain of a mixer and/or a channel selection filter, comprising a low noise amplifier for receiving and amplifying a radio frequency signal, a local oscillator (LO) for providing a LO signal, a mixer for down converting the radio frequency signal by the LO signal to an intermediate signal, a channel selection filter for receiving and filtering the intermediate signal to develop an output signal, and an automatic gain control unit for feedback adjusting the gain of the low noise amplifier and forward controlling the gain of the mixer and channel selection filter in accordance with the output signal of the low noise amplifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates, in general, to a radio frequency receiver and, in particular to a radio frequency signal receiver with adequate gain control for adjusting the gain of the mixer and/or the channel selection filter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In typical radio frequency receiver with IFAGC (Intermediate Frequency Automatic Gain Control), the AGC operation follows received signal strength after a filter to adjust front-end gain of the receiver. Unfortunately, the received strong adjacent—channel interference before a filter would distort the filter and subsequent stages if it is not properly attenuated at the front-end stage. Therefore, RFAGC (Radio Frequency Automatic Gain Control) is used to solve this problem. By following the strength of received signal and interference, the gain control operation of the RFAGC can adaptively track the magnitude variations of interference to avoid distortion. However, in general RFAGC gain control operation, only the gain of LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) is adjusted to attenuate interference, which would introduce a trade-off between noise figure and dynamic range. For example, if LNA gain decreases excessively, output noise floor will raise significantly, which results in noise figure degradation.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a conventional radio frequency signal receiver with IFAGC. A low noise amplifier (LNA) 11 receives and amplifies radio frequency (RF) signals. The mixer 13 down converts the amplified RF signals to in-phase (I) signals and quadrature-phase (Q) signals based on the output signal of the local oscillator (LO) 12. The channel selection filter 14 receives and filters the signals I and Q to develop the desired channel signals. The limiting amplifier 15 receives and amplifies the output signals from the channel selection filter 14. A received signal strength indicator (RSSI) module 17 further measures the signal quality of the amplified output signals and provides a RSSI value. The automatic gain control (AGC) unit 16 adjusts the gain of LNA 11 based on the RSSI value of the RSSI module 17 and feedbacks to the LNA 11. However, according to the operation of the blocks in FIG. 1, the received adjacent interference after the channel selection filter would be filtered out and would not affect the RSSI value. Thus, strong adjacent interference will distort the channel filter and generate non-linear spurs.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a conventional radio frequency signal receiver with RFAGC. Compared with the receiver in FIG. 1, the main difference is that the input signal of the AGC 16 is the output signal from LNA 11 instead of from the RSSI 17. By following the strength of received signal and interference, the gain control operation of the RFAGC can track the magnitude variations of interference at LNA output to avoid distortion in the following stage. This conventional architecture can reduce the non-linear spurs, but the unwanted impact would still occur. In FIG. 2, only the gain of LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) is adjusted to attenuate interference and to reduce the distortion, which would introduce a trade-off between the noise figure and dynamic range of the receiver. For example, if LNA gain degrades excessively, it would cause a significant rise in noise floor to deteriorate the noise figure. Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a spectrum diagram of wanted signals and adjacent channel interference after processing by LNA, mixer, channel selection filter, and AGC unit in FIG. 2. Signal represents a signal of a desired channel and Adj. represents an adjacent channel interference. In addition, S1 shows signals at the input of the LNA 11, S2 shows signals at the output of the mixer 13 and the input of the channel selection filter 14, and S3 shows signals at the output of channel selection filter 14 and the input of the limiting amplifier 15. In S1, the strength of Signal is −50 dBm, and the strength of Adj. is −30 dBm. In S2, i.e. signals Signal and Adj. have been processed by LNA 11 and mixer 13, the strength of Signal and Adj. respectively increases to −20 dBm and 0 dBm. Next, signals Signal and Adj. are processed by the channel selection filter 14 with a fixed gain 10 dB, which has insufficient dynamic range to process so strong interference well. Thus, non-linear spurs as labeled as 31 and 32 in FIG. 3 will occur. In the operation of the receiver in FIG. 2, one way to reduce the non-linear spurs is to decrease more gain of LNA 11; however, in that way, signal-to-noise ratio of the radio frequency signal receiver will deteriorate significantly.

Radio frequency signal receiver with adequate automatic gain control


The method of making a hardened steel part or component includes making a semi-finished article of air-hardened steel; cold-forming the semi-finished article into a finished-shape part or component with a desired or predetermined finished shape and then hardening the finished-shape part or component with the finished shape by a heat treating process. The air-hardened steel particularly preferably contains about 0.67% by weight carbon, about 1.50 % by weight silicon, about 1.50% by weight manganese, about 1.00% by weight chromium, about 0.10% by weight nickel, about 0.25% by weight molybdenum, and a balance or remaining portion of iron with standard impurities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of making a hardened, especially a roll load-bearing, prefabricated steel part and, more particularly, to a method of making a nut for a roll barrel screw drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally a semi-finished product from roller bearing steel, for example 100 Cr 6, is pre-shaped in a softened condition during this sort of manufacturing process. Subsequently either the entire structural component or at least its functional surfaces are heat-treated, in order to obtain a surface hardness of greater than or equal to 58 HRC and the hardness depth required for operating under load. Usually a martensitic structure is produced during the heat-treatment, which suffices for the above-mentioned conditions. Dimension and shape changes of the structural component (hardened lagging) result from thermal stresses produced by the heat treatment due to temperature gradients and phase change-related transformation stresses, based on the complex non-single-cause interactions between the internal stresses of the structural components. These dimension and shape changes are for the most part largely stochastic in nature and can only be insufficiently taken into account in the optimization of the starting materials, the softening processing and the heat treatment. The highly accurate geometric shape required for operation of the roll load-bearing structural part, for example the nut of a roll barrel screw drive, can be obtained only by the following procedure. First the part with suitable dimensions is pre-shaped in a softened state. Then in the hardened state it is after-worked with defined or undefined milling or cutting tools in connection with the heat treatment to form the required geometric shape.
Already alternative manufacturing methods have been proposed, which are designed to eliminate the working step in the hardened state. U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,370 B1 should be mentioned for this reason. This starting point however leads to production of structural parts either with insufficient accuracy or to roll load-bearing parts which do not fulfill the general specifications after heat treatment.
A method of making hardened steel parts is disclosed in DE 198 21 797 C1, in which a material characterized as air-hardened steel is used. In this reference, and also in the case of the present invention, the term "air-hardened steel" means a class of materials, whose temperature-time transformation behavior after an austenitization provides cooling speeds, which are sufficient to initiate a martensitic phase transformation, assuming air heat transfer coefficients. In the known method the steel part is heated to over 1100° C. Thermal transformation of the structural part is performed at this temperature and the structural part is subsequently cooled in air and simultaneously subjected to a thermo-mechanical treatment. This method has the disadvantage that the tools used during the thermal transformation and the thermo-mechanical treatment must withstand temperatures of up to 1100° C. Thus the use of special tools is required. Furthermore the working of the component or part must be performed under temperature-controlled conditions, i.e. under spatially and/or engineering limited conditions.

Method of making a hardened steel part, especially a roll load-bearing steel part


A method includes shrink fitting a ring member about a railroad wheel body and metallurically bonding the ring member to the railroad wheel body. A wheel assembly includes an inner portion obtained from a worn railroad wheel, a ring member disposed about the inner portion, and suitable electroplating material disposed on at least one of the faying surfaces. The wheel assembly may be heated under suitable conditions to provide diffusion bonding across interfacing faying surfaces to produce an integral wheel structure. Appropriate quenching, tempering, and finishing processes may be utilized to obtain desired properties. An article formed thereby includes an inner body portion obtained from a worn railroad wheel and a metallurically bonded outer circumferential portion. The outer portion may comprise a composition selected for desired wear characteristics.

This invention relates generally to a railroad wheels, and more specifically to a method to repair worn railroad wheels to enable them to be returned to service.
During service, railroad wheels wear away, as they are designed to be sacrificial relative to the railroad tracks. Additionally, wheels can be removed for other defects such as spalling, shelling, and out-of-roundness.
When a wheel is removed from service for tread defects, it may be re-machined to adjust its profile relative to the rail geometry, provided that there is sufficient rim metal remaining. Presently, the most common reason that wheels are discarded is because of wearing to a minimum dimension.
Weld build-up or fusion welding of a new ring to the wheel hub is prohibitive because of tight quality standards imposed on rail wheels by the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Currently there are no good repair techniques for rail wheels due to restrictions on inclusions or cracks that would generally result from traditional welding techniques.
One non-welding approach taken to address the wear problem has been to shrink fit a new steel ring onto the wheel hub using thermal expansion techniques. However, a disadvantage to this approach is that the ring or "tire" is under tension in service, and as it wears thinner it becomes highly vulnerable to cracking.
Wheels are a high-cost item for rail operators. Accordingly it would be desirable to have a repair method for extending the service life of worn railroad wheels that also meets stringent safety requirements.


A pen-based computer text input system capable of interpreting a special pre-defined set of single stroke glyphs. Each input stroke is identified with one of three categories: (1) pre-character modifier strokes, (2) character or symbol strokes, or (3) post-character modifier strokes. Pre-character modifier strokes precede character strokes and inform the present recognition system that a subsequently entered character stroke is to be modified by the pre-character modifier stroke in a pre-defined manner. Character strokes cause a character or symbol to be displayed on the display device the moment it is input on the writing tablet, interpreted in accordance with any pre-character modifier stroke. A post-character modifier stroke causes the recognition system to modify, in a pre-defined manner, a character or symbol which was previously entered and displayed. An important advantage of the present invention is its ability to provide immediate recognition of multiple stroke characters without using boxed input.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer input systems in general, and more specifically to an apparatus and handwriting alphabet for use in a handwritten input and recognition system used in personal computing systems such as xe2x80x9cpalm-topxe2x80x9d computers.
2. Description of Related Art
As computers have become increasingly popular for various applications, portable computers have been developed for a wide variety of uses. While many such portable computers use a traditional keyboard for input, for smaller computers, particularly including hand-held computers, the use of xe2x80x9cpensxe2x80x9d as an interface has been introduced as a way of making a small computer easier to use. With a pen interface, a user can place a pen or stylus directly on a touch-sensitive screen of the computer to control the software running on the computer and to input information: For many people, controlling a computer and entering text with a pen is more natural than using a keyboard.
An example of a prior art pen-based hand-held computer is shown in FIG. 1A. The illustrated hand-held computer 1 is typically about 4 inches by 6.5 inches, with the majority of one surface comprising a touch-sensitive display screen 2. The display screen 2 is typically a liquid crystal display (LCD) having a resolution of 256xc3x97320 pixels (although larger or smaller pixel arrays could be used). Various technologies can be used to sense the location of a pen or stylus 3 touched against the surface of the LCD screen 2 to indicate to the computer""s operating system the X-Y coordinates of the touch. Various hardware buttons 4 may be provided to control different functions, and/or to turn power on or off to the unit. In addition, a variety of software buttons or icons 5 may be provided, in known fashion, to indicate such functions as, for example, word processing or a delete function. Computer-generated information is typically shown on the display screen 2 as ASCII characters 6. One such hand-held computer is available as the xe2x80x9cZoomerxe2x80x9d from Casio Corporation.
A common characteristic of such pen-based computers is the use of electronic xe2x80x9cinkxe2x80x9d. xe2x80x9cInkxe2x80x9d comprises a series or trail of pixels changed (e.g., darkened or lightened) as a pen 3 is moved across the display screen 2 by a user, thus mimicking the application of real ink to paper.
Some prior art system designers suggest the use of unrecognized handwritten ink input. Although this approach works well for recording notes for personal use, it is not always suitable for data entry into a file which needs to be searched at a later date. In addition, ink requires considerably more storage space than ASCII characters. Accordingly, practical pen-based computers need a method of inputing text which usually includes some form of recognition system.
Various methods of recognizing handwriting are well known. One prior art approach is to provide a series of boxes in the input area (which is usually the display area) for entering character information. These systems use boxes for entry of text in an attempt to improve accuracy of recognition and to separate one character from the next. In these systems, an array of boxes is displayed and the user writes one character in each box. Although the boxes aid in improving the accuracy of recognition, most people find it awkward to write in boxes. Additionally, due to the number of boxes necessary to capture. even a short sentence, these systems are not very practical in a palm-top computer having a reduced data input area.
Another character recognition system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,039, entitled xe2x80x9cObject Recognition Systemxe2x80x9d, by the inventor of the present invention. In such a system, the user writes text without boxes in a free form manner. After a user inputs several ink characters, the computer applies special algorithms to separate the ink strokes into characters and then recognize each ink character as an ASCII character. It then replaces the ink representation of the characters drawn by the user with the standardized ASCII representation of those characters. Although these systems require less input area than boxed input systems, they are still difficult to implement on a palmtop computer having a small display. In addition, the computer has the additional burden of figuring out where one character ends and the next begins. This leads to recognition errors.
One additional major difficulty presented by prior art handwriting recognition systems is the delay time between text input and text recognition. The prior art systems typically require between 2 to 5 seconds after the user writes the ink character on the input tablet to recognize and display the ASCII character on a display device. In typical use, the prior art systems require the user to write a few words and then wait several seconds for the computer to start the recognition process. Alternatively, some systems (e.g., the xe2x80x9cNewtonxe2x80x9d from Apple Computer) perform recognition without the user stopping and waiting. But in these systems, the words are still recognized several seconds after they are written. In all cases, the user cannot immediately realize when a recognition mistake has occurred. This type of handwritten text recognition system makes error correction difficult because the user must constantly look at the display for words which the user input several seconds before in order to be sure that text was correctly entered and correctly interpreted. Moreover, once a user detects an error, error correction is difficult because the user has to first select the word or characters which need to be corrected.
In summary, three of the major problems with current handwriting recognition systems are the delay from writing to recognition, the limited writing area of palmtop computers, and the difficulty of accurately recognizing separate characters in non-boxed entry systems.
Therefore, an improved pen data entry solution is needed which can accurately and efficiently recognize text on a small display. It has become evident that one crucial characteristic of such an improved solution is the ability to instantaneously (i.e., with little or no perceptible delay) recognize and display input text, similar to the response of currently available personal computers using keyboard input devices. Palm-top computers having the ability to instantly recognize and display text offer the user the opportunity to quickly recognize and correct mistakes. Instant recognition also permits the use of smaller input areas because the input area can be reused for writing subsequent characters.
One of the major impediments facing xe2x80x9cinstantxe2x80x9d handwritten text recognition systems is presented by the multiple stroke (multi-stroke) characteristic of many English text characters. That is, many characters comprise more than one pen stroke. In this context, a single pen stroke is defined as a continuous movement of a pen while maintaining contact with a writing tablet. For example, the letters xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cH,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d typically comprise multiple pen strokes, while the letters xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cOxe2x80x9d typically comprise a single pen stroke. Prior art recognition systems have had difficulty in achieving essentially xe2x80x9cinstantaneousxe2x80x9d recognition due to the fact that characters may comprise more than one pen stroke.
For example, due to the possibility that any given input character might be a multi-stroke character, it has been difficult to determine when a user has completed writing a one stroke (unistroke) character, or when the user is continuing to write a multi-stroke character. For example, a vertical line might represent the letter xe2x80x9cIxe2x80x9d or it could represent the first stroke in the multi-stroke letters xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d. In the past, recognition systems have solved this ambiguity by waiting until the user stopped writing, or by having a fixed delay. period after which characters were recognized, or by detecting the start of a next stroke sufficiently far from prior strokes as to indicate a new character. Each of these approaches are deficient due to the recognition time delays introduced.
Recently, two approaches have been attempted for immediate recognition of handwritten text. Neither of these two approaches has proven wholly satisfactory. The first approach is offered by Sharp Electronics of Japan in their PVF1 handheld computer system, which provides xe2x80x9cimmediatexe2x80x9d recognition of both English and Japanese characters. The Sharp system uses a modified boxed input method. It displays several adjacent boxes on a screen for text input. Every text character is written into one of the boxes. Recognition timing delays are reduced because the system knows to begin recognizing a character previously written into a first entry box as soon as the user begins writing into another entry box. The recognized character is subsequently displayed upon the screen (not in the box) as soon as the recognition process completes. Expert users can quickly enter multiple characters by alternating between two adjacent boxes. This is different from previous boxed input systems where the user wrote characters in a left to right fashion in a multitude of boxes. The Sharp approach achieves faster recognition response on a reduced display area than previous systems. However, it suffers from several disadvantages.
Although the Sharp system uses fewer boxes (as little as two will suffice), the boxes still occupy a significant amount of screen area. In addition, as with all boxed input systems, the user has to be careful to always write within the box. If one stroke of a multi-stroke character falls outside the box, the character will be recognized incorrectly. This requires the user to carefully look at the screen at all times while writing. Another, and more serious drawback, is that the recognition of characters is not completely xe2x80x9cinstantxe2x80x9d. In this system, recognition of one character does not commence until the user starts writing a subsequent character. Although this system represents an improvement over the prior art systems where recognition delays were longer, recognition is still delayed. So, when the user writes just one character, or when the user writes the last character in a sequence, that character is not recognized until after a pre-determined time-out delay. This delay after writing a single character makes it frustrating and therefore impractical to make quick editing changes such as writing a xe2x80x9cbackspacexe2x80x9d character, or to insert a single character.
A second approach at immediate recognition of handwritten text was recently described by Xerox Corporation of Palo Alto, Calif. Xerox teaches a method whereby every character that a user wishes to write is represented by a single stroke glyph. Because every character is represented using a single stroke, recognition commences as soon as the user, lifts the pen from the writing tablet. The system provides improved recognition speeds over the Sharp approach and avoids the problems associated with the writing boxes used in the Sharp system.
However, the Xerox method suffers from two major disadvantages. First, the Xerox approach is difficult to learn because it requires the user to memorize an entirely new alphabet for entering text. The alphabet is specially designed to maximize the recognition abilities of the computer, not to maximize ease of learning. The Xerox disclosure recognizes this difficulty yet submits that the inefficiency of learning the alphabet is compensated by the improved recognition speeds once the user becomes an expert.
Second, the Xerox approach is difficult to implement with a full set of characters. The user must learn a single stroke representation for every possible character. Although this task may be feasible when representing only the 26 letters of the English alphabet in one case (upper or lower), there are many more characters requiring representation and recognition. For example, both upper and lower case English characters must be recognized. European languages have multiple accented characters as well as many other unique characters. In addition, a myriad of punctuation marks and mathematical symbols require representation. Assigning each of these characters to a unique single stroke glyph requires inventing many strange and novel glyphs that are non-intuitive and therefore difficult to learn by the average user. Compounding this difficulty is the problem of similarly looking accented characters (for example, A, xc3x81, À, xc3x84, and Â). Assigning unique glyphs for these characters would make the extended alphabet especially non-intuitive and difficult to learn.
The limitations of a unistroke alphabet as taught by Xerox are magnified when trying to create an immediate recognition system for Asian languages. For example, it is nearly impossible to define single stroke alphabets for Asian symbols, such as Japanese katakana or hiragana, Chinese kanji, or Korean hangul, due to the large number of symbols that need to be represented.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved handwritten text recognition system capable of instantaneously and accurately recognizing handwritten text entries. There is also a need for an improved handwritten text entry and recognition system which is user-friendly, easy to learn, and easy to implement.
The present invention provides such a handwritten text recognition system.
The present invention uses a pen or stylus as an input device to a pen-based computer handwriting recognition system capable of interpreting a special pre-defined set of character strokes or glyphs. The invention teaches a system which provides true immediate character recognition, yet allows characters to be written with any number of strokes, thus making it natural to use and easy to learn. The present invention defines three different categories of pen strokes: (1) pre-character modifier strokes, (2) character or symbol strokes, and (3) post-character modifier strokes.
Pre-character modifier strokes precede character strokes and inform the present recognition system that subsequently entered character strokes are to be modified by the pre-character modifier stroke in a defined manner. They function primarily to control the interpretation of a subsequently entered character stroke. For example, a pre-modifier control stroke may indicate that the next character stroke is to be interpreted as a punctuation character. Pre-character modifier strokes may or may not cause an immediate visible display change. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, pre-character modifier strokes do result in a display change (by either changing a status indicator or by displaying a temporary character), so the user knows the pre-character modifier stroke was successfully entered.
Character strokes always cause a letter or other symbol to be displayed the moment the stroke is input on the writing tablet, interpreted in accordance with any pre-character modifier strokes previously entered. Any status indicators or temporary characters displayed due to earlier pre-character modifier strokes are removed upon recognizing a character stroke.
Post-character modifier strokes cause the recognition system to modify, in a defined manner, a character or symbol which was previously entered and displayed. For example, a post-character modifier may be used to add a diacritical mark to a character.
An important advantage of the present invention is its ability to recognize characters consisting of multiple pen strokes yet still provide instantaneous recognition and display of the recognized character. By combining mutually exclusive pre-character modifier strokes, character strokes, and post-character modifier strokes, a myriad of alpha, numeric, punctuation, and accented characters may be entered with natural and easy to learn styles.
The use of the three different types of strokes guarantees that the system always knows whether the user is starting a new character, has completed a character, or is modifying a previously recognized character. This enables the system to provide the immediate response that is desired.
It will be shown that the present invention is flexible and can be used to enter not only English and other Roman character-based languages, but other written alphabets, such as Japanese hiragana and katakana.
The details of the preferred embodiment of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Once the details of the invention are known, numerous additional innovations and changes will become obvious to one skilled in the art.

Multiple pen stroke character set and handwriting recognition system with immediate response


In a mobile communication system, a mobile station receives intermittently a channel transmitted by a first or second base station through a relay station. Herein, the relay station, before execution of a handover for switching a connection destination of its own station from the first base station to the second base station, transmits information on the second base station. The mobile station, based on the information on the second base station received from the relay station before the handover, controls a timing for receiving the channel from the relay station after the handover.

Currently, a mobile communication system such as a mobile phone system is used widely. In addition, in order to achieve further speed improvement and capacity enlargement of radio communication, active discussion is carried out continuously with respect to a next-generation mobile communication technology. For example, in international standardization organization 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a standard referred to as LTE (Long Term Evolution) is proposed (See, for example, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation", 3GPP TS 36.211 V9.1.0, 2010-03, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer procedures", 3GPP TS 36.213 V9.1.0, 2010-03. and 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification", 3GPP TS 36.331 V9.2.0, 2010-03). In addition, a standard referred to as LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced) with LTE extended is also proposed (See, for example, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Feasibility study for Further Advancements for E-UTRA", 3GPP TR 36.912 V9.0.0, 2009-09).
In a mobile communication system, a relay station which relays communication between a base station and a mobile station may be provided. By providing a relay station, expansion of a cell coverage and enhancing of a throughput or the like may be achieved. However, in the relay station, interference (self-interference) may arise between a reception signal and a transmission signal of its own station. For example, when a frequency band used between the base station and the relay station and a frequency band used between the relay station and the mobile station are overlapped, there is a possibility that a radio signal transmitted to the mobile station sneaks into a reception circuit of its own station, and the radio signal may not be received normally from the base station. Then, it is proposed that the relay station adjusts a timing for performing communication with the base station and a timing for performing communication with the mobile station, and suppresses the self-interference (See, for example, Section 9 of 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Feasibility study for Further Advancements for E-UTRA", 3GPP TR 36.912 V9.0.0, 2009-09).
In addition, in a mobile communication system, when a mobile station is in a standby state, there is a method for achieving power-saving of a mobile station by limiting the timing for receiving a radio signal from a base station. For example, the mobile station receives periodically a paging channel which the base station transmits at a timing agreed between the base station and the mobile station in advance, and at the other timings, stops the reception processing. The base station, when performing calling with respect to the mobile station, transmits paging information indicating a mobile station of calling destination by the paging channel. The mobile station, when receiving the paging channel and detecting a call for its own station, resumes data communication (See, for example, Section 5.3.2 of 3rd Generation Partnership Project, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification", 3GPP TS 36.331 V9.2.0, 2010-03).
Meanwhile, in a mobile communication system where a base station and a mobile station perform communication through a relay station, a case where the relay station performs a handover for switching a base station of connection destination may be considered. For example, when the relay station is mounted on a vehicle such as a train or a car, and the mobile station is carried by a passenger of the vehicle and performs communication through the relay station, a situation where although a handover for switching a connection destination of the mobile station does not arise, a handover for switching a connection destination of the relay station arises may be considered.
However, in that case, an influence which the handover of the relay station exerts on the mobile station which is in a state of performing a reception processing intermittently becomes a problem. For example, a transmission timing of a paging channel to be received by the mobile station may be different depending on the base station. Consequently, when the relay station performs the handover, the timing for transferring the paging channel to the mobile station may also be changed. The mobile station which is in an intermittent receiving state, after the occurrence of handover in the relay station, even when trying to receive the paging channel at the same timing as that before the handover, may fail in the reception. It may be considered that the mobile station which has failed in reception of the paging channel, determining that the mobile station has moved outside a serving area of the relay station, repeats processing of cell searching or the like, for example. Consequently, there is a problem that time is needed until the mobile station returns to the state of receiving the paging channel intermittently, and an electric power consumption increases.

Radio communication method, relay station and mobile station


A drainage system is provided including a hollow housing and a flexible hose having a first end connected to a bottom of the housing and a second end with a oil port couple for being releasably connected to an oil port of a vehicle. Situated on the housing is a valve for selectively allowing a fluid within the housing to flow through the hose. Next provided is a hanging assembly mounted on the housing for hanging the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drainage system and more particularly pertains to draining fluids from a plurality of containers into an oil port of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of funnels is known in the prior art. More specifically, funnels heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of draining single containers of fluid within various ports of a vehicle are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
In this respect, the drainage system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of draining fluids from a plurality of containers into an oil port of a vehicle.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved drainage system which can be used for draining fluids from a plurality of containers into an oil port of a vehicle. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A network recycle bin is used to store deleted files in a managed directory that is available across a network connection. Files stored in a shared directory or other network-accessible file storage system are moved to the managed directory upon deletion. Because the managed folder is part of the network-accessible file system, any permissions, authorizations, or settings for files may be unaltered after movement into the managed folder. In some embodiments, a local recycle bin may be merged with a network recycle bin from a user experience.

Computer data storage systems often allow users to create data files and then copy, change, move, and delete those files. Some graphical user interfaces have a 'recycle bin', 'trash bin', or other device that enables a user to delete a file but later recover the file if deleted in error. The user merely drags and drops a file over in the recycle bin to delete the file. If the user wants to recover the file, the user may click on the recycle bin to open the recycle bin and select a file to recover.


A foam roof of the present disclosure includes a roof having a roof portion with one of an edge, termination, or penetration having a generally upright edge. A foam is received over a region of the roof portion adjacent to and along the generally upright edge. A flexible edge member is received over the generally upright edge and an adjacent region of the foam. The edge member preferably has first and second legs disposed in substantially perpendicular relation, and each leg has a variable or tapering cross-sectional conformation.

The present disclosure relates to the roof industry, and particularly plastic foam applied to a roofing deck or other surface to provide an essentially seamless roof.
It is well-known to apply a plastic foam, such as a polyurethane foam, to a roofing deck. The foam typically includes two components which, when mixed together, react to create exothermic heat. By adding a blowing agent, the exothermic reaction causes the mixture of the components to expand and thereby trap a blowing agent in cells to produce a plastic foam having excellent insulating and other desirable properties for use as a roofing material. The chemicals are typically a liquid form that is heated and pumped under pressure where the chemicals are mixed in a spray gun, the gun or nozzle directing the materials against the roof surface where the material cures in a short period of time.
In another manner of application, the plastic foam chemicals are mixed and dispensed onto a roof deck ahead of a moving wall. The wall is spaced above the deck and cooperates with a side containment structure or foam block to define the vertical thickness and lateral width of a strip of plastic foam applied to the roof deck. This application method reduces overspray issues and optimizes the utilization of the foam material. Further details of various methods and apparatus for applying such foam plastic material to a roof deck are shown and described in commonly owned patents U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,178; U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,123; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,657, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A common problem in the foam roofing industry results from an edge of the roof metal pulling away from the foam, or cracks developing due to movement in the structure. The gaps or cracks create a potential leak path that is unsightly and unfortunately a potential path of moisture ingress can develop beneath the foam. Gaps or cracks can also occur not only at the roof edge, but at other termination locations or other areas of the roof such as where structures including drains, stacks, penetrations, protrude from the roof, or expansion joints and other elevation changes in the roof. These regions are most prone to leaks.
One common way to correct the gap or crack is to form a "V-groove" that is subsequently filled with a sealant. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, this is a labor-intensive process, and likewise costly. Moreover, these remedial efforts are not always effective. Still further, the resulting effort is still not very attractive.
Consequently, a need exists for a low-cost, easy to install solution that addresses these various issues in roof areas that are most prone to leaking. The solution relates to an accessory and method of forming a foam roof that incorporates the accessory.

Silicone roof edge accessory for foam roof and associated method


A computer processor of the mobile device may overlay a shape graphic on a fixed area of a screen of the mobile device. A camera of the mobile device may search the fixed area for a ball with a marking. The computer processor may recognize the marking on the ball. The computer processor may calibrate the movement of the ball in the overlayed shape graphic in view of the recognized marking of the ball. The camera may track and may record data pertaining to the movement of the ball. The computer processor may calculate one or more metrics relating to ball controlling abilities from the data. The computer processor may display the one or more metrics on the screen.

In the field of athletics, especially in soccer and basketball, a player's control of the ball is essential to the player becoming a proficient athlete. In basketball, one main aspect of ball control is the player's ability to dribble the ball with maximum control and speed. In soccer, there are a variety of drills to increase ball control, such as ball juggling, which involves keeping the ball in the air by repeatedly kicking it up.
As both soccer and basketball have evolved with new technological advances, there has been an increasing demand for the quantification of a player's skills with respect to handling of the ball. However, the existing means for the average person to measure this skill is very limited, as well as costly.
The related art that provides quantified feedback to basketball users is limited to basketballs containing motion sensors, which measure the player's ball control abilities. These basketballs send users their data via Bluetooth to a mobile smart phone, which displays feedback such as the player's average number of dribbles per second. However, these sensor-enabled basketballs are required to be periodically charged, thereby limiting the portability of the product. Moreover, these expensive sensor embodied basketballs are limited only to data which can be derived from the sensors inside the ball. For example, average dribble height, relative location of the ball, crossover width and other analytical measurements cannot be determined by these basketballs, thus providing the user with very limited feedback regarding his or her dribbling abilities. Other than these expensive sensor-embodied basketballs, there is no other system for the average person to evaluate his ball control abilities.
The related art pertaining to soccer is similar, which is limited to sensor-embodied balls that provide feedback. However, these sensor-embodied balls are overly expensive and inconvenient because they must be periodically charged. Moreover, just as in the case of sensor basketballs, the analytic feedback provided to a user is limited only to the information that the inner sensors can provide.

Computer vision system for tracking ball movement and analyzing user skill


An endoscope includes: an insertion portion to be inserted into a subject; an operation section provided at a proximal end of the insertion portion; a first light source section provided inside the operation section, the first light source section generating first light as broadband light having a broadband wavelength characteristic; a light guiding section that guides the first light emitted from the first light source section; a second light source section provided on a distal end side of the insertion portion, the second light source section generating second light; and an optical element provided on the distal end side of the insertion portion, the optical element combining the first light and the second light and emitting the resulting light from an illuminating window.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope that uses broadband light and narrow band light for illuminating light.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, endoscopes have been widely used for endoscopy by inserting an insertion portion into a subject.
An inside of the subject is illuminated with broadband illuminating light covering a visible wavelength band, enabling acquisition of an observed image almost equivalent to observation with bare eyes.
Meanwhile, there are proposed endoscopes that illuminate a site to be observed using narrow band illuminating light covering a certain wavelength band only, in addition to broadband illuminating light covering a visible wavelength band, to acquire an observed image (observed image of flow in vessels near a superficial layer) using narrow band light, which is different from a normal observed image, in order to enhance an imaging function of the endoscopes.
For example, a first related art endoscope disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-079571 includes a first light-emitting device in a distal end portion of an insertion portion, and light emitted from the first light-emitting device is emitted to the inside of a living body via a first light distribution lens.
Furthermore, it is disclosed that a second light-emitting device is provided in an operation section, and light emitted from the second light-emitting device is guided by a light guide and emitted from a distal end face of the light guide to the inside of a living body via a second light distribution lens.
Furthermore, an endoscope according to a second related art example disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-164417 includes a prism, and the prism guides white color light from a white color light source apparatus or ultraviolet light from an excitation light source to a rear end of a light guide provided through an almost entire length of the inside of the endoscope by, e.g., switching between the white color light and the ultraviolet light, and the guided light is emitted from a distal end face of the light guide via a light distribution lens.


Reverse peptides and mimetics of a mammalian serum amyloid A isoform 2.1 (SAA2.1) domain or a portion thereof and compositions and pharmaceutical compositions thereof are provided that enhance the effect on macrophage cholesterol ester hydrolase activity. Methods of using these reverse peptides, mimetics thereof and compositions in the treatment and/or prevention of atherosclerosis as well as coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease are also provided.

Multiple studies have been conducted with reverse sequences of D amino acid peptides, sometimes referred to as retro-inversal (also known as retro-inverso, retro-enantio, retro-all) D amino acid peptides, with varying results.
For example, a reverse L amino acid and a retro-inversal D amino acid peptide having similar activity to its native forward L amino acid or D amino acid peptide are disclosed by Guo et al. (J. Pept. Res. 1997 50(3):210-221 and J. Immunol 2002 169:2180-2188) and Shafiee et al. (Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2000 41: 2378-2388). Specifically, Guo et al. (J. Pept. Res. 1997 50:210-221) showed that a retro-inverso peptide had similar anti-tumor activity to the native forward peptide. Shafiee et al. (Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2000, 41: 2378-2388) showed that certain D amino acid peptides were approximately two times more potent than their corresponding forward L amino acid peptides at inhibiting retinal angiogenesis in a retinal explant assay.
However, reverse peptides do not always exhibit similar efficacy to their corresponding forward peptide. Nor do they necessarily bind to the same catalytic or receptor site within or on an enzyme or protein as their corresponding forward peptide. For example, Zhou et al. (JBC 2002 277:17476-17485) showed that a retro-inversal D amino acid peptide, which corresponds to a protein located on the HIV virus, binds to the CXCR4 chemokine receptor, but acts as an antagonist to the natural HIV protein ligand. Buchet et al. (Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1996 1315:40-46) showed that the retro-inversal peptide of Aβ[35-25] altered the aggregation properties of the natural Aβ[25-35] peptide (i.e. random coil structure vs. β-sheet structure). Hwang et al. (Biochem. J. 2006 395:165-172) showed that the reverse L amino acid peptide of NSA9, a peptide derived from human prothrombin kringle-2, and NSA7, a truncated form of NSA9, did not have the same anti-proliferative effects as the natural L amino acid peptides.

Compositions and methods for treating atherosclerosis


A system, apparatus, and method directed to impedance matching an antenna with a transmitter for non-directional radio beacons. The apparatus includes an L-type impedance network comprising non-capacitive elements and at least one variable inductor on each branch of the impedance network. Also, system, apparatus, and method directed to providing a low power signal for tuning the antenna. The apparatus includes an impedance matching network and a signal generator. Also, a system, apparatus, and method directed to providing an estimate of near-field strength of a signal from an antenna. The apparatus includes an impedance matching network, a near-field signal strength detector, and microcontroller configured to estimate the near-field signal strength. Corresponding systems includes using the respective apparatuses between an antenna and a transmitter. Corresponding methods are directed to the use of the apparatuses and systems.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure generally relates to the field of radio communication and, in particular, nondirectional radio beacons.
2. Description of the Art
Radio beacons are used to transmit radio signals as aids to navigation. The signal from a radio beacon is detected by a receiver to allow a location relative to the radio beacon to be determined. Typically, radio beacons transmit on a set frequency and use stationary antennas at a known location. Radio beacons may be directional or non-directional in character. Directional beacons transmit a signal that is stronger in one lateral direction (perpendicular to the length of the antenna) than in another lateral direction. Non-directional beacons transmit a signal that is substantially equal in strength in all lateral directions from the beacon. Non-directional beacons are more commonly used for navigation than directional beacons.
Non-directional beacons transmit a signal equally in all lateral directions, so a receiver placed in any lateral direction from the non-directional beacon will receive approximately the identical signal at the identical strength when positioned at an identical lateral distance from the non-directional beacon. In practice, terrain and other environmental conditions may result in variable signal strength when lateral distances of receivers from the non-directional beacon are identical, even though the antenna of the non-directional beacon is transmitting uniformly in all lateral directions.
The antenna portion of a radio beacon is used to convert electrical signals from a transmitter into electromagnetic radiation, often for the purpose of communication. The transmitter is configured to drive the antenna with an electrical signal within a band of radio frequencies. The design of a specific antenna defines the range of frequencies over which the antenna will operate effectively. The radio frequency spectrum is apportioned by governmental agencies (i.e. Federal Communication Commission) into designated radio frequency bands that may be dedicated for specific uses. Navigational radio beacons in the United States commonly operate in a frequency range of 190 kilohertz to 435 kilohertz, which overlaps with the higher portion of the low-frequency band (30 kilohertz to 300 kilohertz) and the lower portion of the medium frequency band (300 kilohertz to 3 megahertz). The navigation radio beacon frequency range includes frequencies for the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) of 283.5 kilohertz to 325.0 kilohertz, and the Global Maritime Distress Network ("NavTex") of 490 kilohertz to 525 kilohertz. Navigational beacons outside the United States may use frequency ranges that have upper ends that extend higher in the medium frequency band, including about 1800 kilohertz in Brazil. Depending on the construction of the antenna, it may be configured for operation at or around one specific frequency, or the antenna may be designed to operate at several different frequencies.
Generally, the effective operating frequency of a radio antenna is related to the signal wavelength. Since the wavelength is the speed of light divided by the frequency, it can be observed that low frequency antennas may be required to handle very large wavelengths. For example, a radio antenna that is designed to be full signal wavelength and operate at 300 kilohertz, would need to be 1000 meters long (300,000,000 meters/second divided by 300,000 cycles/second). As such large antenna lengths present structural and technical difficulties, most antennas are constructed at only a fraction of the signal wavelength. These smaller length antennas may overcome some structural and engineering problems related to size, but they introduce additional tuning difficulties since the antenna length is different from the wavelength. When an antenna is substantially shorter than the signal wavelength, the antenna is referred to as being "electrically short" or "electrically small." An electrically short antenna has a longest dimension that is about or less than one-tenth of the signal wavelength. Typical navigational beacon antennas are about 15 to 60 meters in length.
Antenna Tuning
In most antenna systems, the output impedance of the transmitter and the input impedance of the antenna do not match. Transmitters are often installed for antennas without the antennas' parameters being known prior to installation. An antenna tuning unit is used to match the output impedance of the transmitter (as seen by the antenna) with the input impedance of the antenna. By matching the impedances between the transmitter and the antenna, the amount of input energy converted the radio signal is optimized, and the amount of input energy reflected by the interface with the antenna is minimized (VSWR˜1:1). The process of matching of the impedances is called antenna tuning. Maximum power is transferred from the transmitter to the antenna load when the output impedance of the transmitter is the complex conjugate of the input impedance of the antenna.
In order to tune the antenna, an electrical signal is provided from the transmitter. Normal operating power for the transmitter for an antenna, such as a navigational beacon antenna, is substantial enough to result in injury to a radio technician performing the tuning if a fault or failure in the performance of the tuning procedure occurs. To reduce the risk of injury, radio tuning procedures require the radio technicians to reduce the power of the transmitter to a low level for performing the antenna tuning operation. However, injuries may still occur when these procedures are not followed or a malfunction occurs. Once tuned, the antenna will transmit an output signal that is the maximum available based on the frequency and output of the transmitter.
If the transmitter output impedance and the antenna input impedance remain constant, the antenna will not require retuning and configuration of the antenna tuning unit will remain unchanged; however, this is often not the case. Periodic changes in impedances due to environmental changes or relocation of the antenna may require that retuning be performed. While the output impedance of the transmitter is reasonably known due to manufacturing and operating controls, the input impedance of the antenna may vary due to both antenna properties and environmental factors. Antenna properties that may affect input impedance include, but are not limited to, antenna materials and the structural length and shape of the antenna. Environmental factors that may affect input impedance include, but are not limited to, ground resistance, salinity, ground water content, and proximity to standing water.
Matching Networks
The heart of the antenna tuning unit is an impedance matching network. Both tuning and retuning of the antenna involve configuring the impedance matching network between the transmitter and the antenna. The matching network is a circuit that includes impedance elements in series and parallel between the transmitter and the antenna. The impedance elements may comprise circuit components (inductors and capacitors) so that the combination of the output impedance of the transmitter and the impedance of the impedance elements to the matching network is the complex conjugate of the input impedance of the antenna. The impedance elements may be arranged in a variety of configurations, including T-type, Pi-type, and L-type. The configurations are named for the general shape formed by the "legs" or "branches" of the circuit, with each leg representing an impedance element as is known by persons of ordinary skill in the art.
A typical T-type configuration of a matching network includes two inductors in a series branch this divided by a capacitor in a parallel branch. A typical Pi-type configuration of an impedance matching network includes two capacitors in parallel branches on either side of a series branch that includes an inductor. A typical L-type configuration of an impedance matching network includes a series branch with an inductive element (inductor) and a parallel branch with a capacitive element (capacitor), and the parallel branch may be on either side of the series branch.
The impedance elements may be configured to be fixed or variable. Looking more closely at the L-type configuration, for example, the combination of the series inductor and the parallel capacitor will have a resonance frequency, thus the combination will act as a signal filter with the lowest attenuation at the resonance frequency. The inductor and the capacitor may have fixed values, variable values, or there may be one fixed and one variable. In the case of L-type configurations with one or more variable impedance elements, the inductance and/or capacitance can be adjusted. When the inductance/capacitance is adjusted, the resonance frequency will change as well, as will any filtering produced by the impedance matching network. When the input impedance of the antenna load varies, it may be necessary to make adjustments to the impedance matching network in order to maintain maximum signal output.
Maintaining Constant Signal Strength
Another objective of operating a radio beacon is to maintain constant signal strength to the receivers. Even if an impedance matching network is configured to maintain a maximum signal output, the maximum signal output will vary due to changes in the antenna input impedance. In order to maintain constant output signal strength, some radio beacons monitor the amount of electric current delivered to the antenna. By maintaining the amount of electrical current delivered to the antenna at a constant value, generally constant signal strength is provided by the antenna, and it is assumed that a constant electric current delivered to the antenna will result in a consistent signal strength at a specific receiver location. It should be noted that even when the maximum signal output is maintained, the signal strength at the receiver may vary due to atmospheric factors, such as humidity, rain, cloud cover, and solar radiation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,009, a system is proposed that provides a transmitter-antenna matching network using two variable impedance elements. The system is proposed with L-type, T-type, and Pi-type circuit configurations. At least one of the impedance elements includes a magnetically saturable reactor, such as a tuned transformer with primary and secondary windings wound on a non-linear ferromagnetic core. Both legs of the L-type impedance matching network are shown with inductive and capacitive elements as parts of each of the impedance elements.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,607, a system is proposed that provides a transmitter-antenna matching network using two impedance elements in an L-type circuit configuration. The impedance matching network includes an input series variable inductor and an output parallel variable capacitor.
In U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0151662, a system is proposed that provides a rescue transceiver that uses received signal strength indication (RSSI) to determine the location of a person buried by an avalanche. The RSSIs of corresponding orthogonal antennas may be compared in order to determine a direction to the signal source, which is located with or near the buried person. The transmitter and the receivers operate independently.
In U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2013/0033996, a system is proposed that provides a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) receiver that uses RSSI feedback. The RSSIs of receiving antennas may be compared to determine which of the antennas is exhibiting superior performance. The system is configured to switch communication from the existing antenna to a superior antenna if it is determined that a superior antenna exists based on the RSSIs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,068,798, a system is proposed that provides an auto tuner for antenna matching for an electrically long antenna in a wireless device. The auto tuner uses receiver feedback, transmitter feedback, and current and/or temperature to control a control tuner core. The auto tuner is cycled through predetermined core setups in order to seek out an optimal on-the-air potential regions (coarse), and then a gradient search is performed to fine tune the potentially optimal regions.
In U.S. Pat. Pub. 2007/068512, a system is proposed that provides an integrated spectrum analyzer and vector network analyzer for cellular telephone base stations. The system is configured to transmit signals for testing cellular base stations. The cellular base stations use electrically long antennas and operate in the cellular frequency bands (824 megahertz to about 892 megahertz and 1850 megahertz to about 1990 megahertz).
The above discussed U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,951,009; 4,965,607; and 8,068,798 and U.S. Pub. Nos. 2005/0151662 and 2013/0033996 are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes in their entirety.
A shortcoming of the systems described above is that none of the prior art proposes a system that uses dual variable inductances without a capacitor in an L-type impedance matching network. Another shortcoming of the systems described above is that none of them use an actual measure of signal strength for controlling antenna output power. Another shortcoming of the systems described above is that none of them incorporate a signal generator into the antenna tuning unit. Another shortcoming of the systems described above is that none of them provide a means of sweeping a frequency range for determining optimal transmission frequency ("sweet spot") for the antenna. Another shortcoming of the systems described above is that none of them provide a means for testing the antenna tuning unit in the factory or in the field without an operational transmitter.
There is a need for an antenna tuning unit that is configured to match impedances between an output from a transmitter and an input to an antenna that does not require a capacitive element in an L-type impedance matching network. Further, there is a need for an antenna tuning unit that is configured to provide feedback control to a transmitter for regulating output power to maintain constant signal strength at a fixed receiver, where the feedback is based on an actual measurement of signal strength, not delivered power to the antenna. Further, there is a need for an antenna tuning system that provides a signal generator for tuning without the presence of an active transmitter. Further, there is a need for an antenna tuning unit configured to sweep the frequency range to determine a "sweet spot" for transmitting. Further, there is a need for an antenna tuning unity configured for built-in-testing in the factory or the field without an operational transmitter.


A non-linear modification to telecentric object space together with alteration of working distance provides a distortion adjustment feature. The modification to telecentric object space can be manifest as a spherical aberration in an entrance pupil. The change in working distance can be made by relatively translating the imaged object through the modified telecentric object space. The distortion adjustment can be made to compensate for distortions accompanying changes in ambient or operating conditions. Distortions accompanying magnification corrections can also be corrected.

Environmental factors such as temperature and pressure, as well as other factors such as component heating during use, can affect the refractive indices or spacing of optical components within lenses, and these changes can result in changes in magnification and image distortion. Such dynamic changes are apparent in many types of lenses including doubly-telecentric lenses.
Magnification adjustments have been made by axially translating certain optical elements of projection lenses. However, other optical aberrations including image distortions can accompany such magnification adjustments.

Distortion tuning of quasi-telecentric lens