A rider-propelled wheeled vehicle includes a support surface for supporting a user's feet, which defines a longitudinal axis, a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels associated with the support surface, a system for rotatably connecting the rear wheels to the support surface, and adapted to allow their oscillation about a first oscillation axis inclined with respect to the support surface. The rear wheels have respective first pivot axes independent of and transversally offset from each other for at least partial transfer of the propulsion exerted by the user on the support surface to such wheels and for generation of a reaction substantially parallel to the plane to thereby promote a forward motion of the structure.

Rider-propelled wheeled vehicles generally known as skateboards are known to comprise a footrest board associated with a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels.
Typically, the wheels are mounted to rotate about respective axes of rotation, that are stationary with respect to the footrest board, whereby the user is required to continuously thrust off the ground with one of his/her feet, with a given thrust frequency, to propel the vehicle forward.
As a result, this kind of vehicles is only designed for play or sports purposes, and cannot be considered as a light city vehicle proper, adapted for used also for relatively long times and distances.
Furthermore, the footrest board generally has a narrow and elongate shape, ensuring improved aerodynamic properties, but affecting comfort, because the user is required to place his/her feet transverse to the longitudinal direction of the board.
WO2010138227 discloses a skateboard that partially improves the above configurations, by allowing the vehicle to be used without pushing off of the ground, by synchronized action of the lower limbs of the user.
In order to achieve this effect, both front and rear wheels have their respective axes of rotation susceptible of oscillating about corresponding pivot axes inclined with respect to the support board.
Particularly, each pair of wheels has a common oscillation axis, whereby when one of the wheels of the pair moves forward, the other moves rearward.
Furthermore, the wheel support means are configured to allow each wheel to alternately move forward/away from the support surface, thereby allowing the vehicle to be propelled forward due to the pivotal motion imparted by the user and to the resulting alternate lateral inclination of the support board.
Nevertheless, the resulting forward motion is a serpentine motion with sharp curves, which limits use as a city vehicle, because it does not allow the user to assume a stable position, namely at increased speeds.
Furthermore, the forward motion also requires the user's feet to be placed in a longitudinally offset position which affects riding comfort.


When securing eyelashes to a user's eyelid the procedure is greatly simplified and facilitated if the beautician applying the eyelash has both hands free when applying adhesive glue to an eyelash and then placing the eyelash on the user's eyelid. Rather than having an eyelash holder platform of eyelashes standing free on a work table the task is greatly simplified and made much easier if the eyelash holder platform is kept handy and easily accessible to the beautician by temporarily attaching the eyelash holder platform to the back of the beauticians hand. Accordingly an apparatus for securing an eyelash holder platform to a back of a beautician's hand which has a finger ring, which is removably attachable to an eyelash holder platform, and is to be worn on a beautician's finger so as to maintain the location of the platform in the proximity of the back of the beautician's hand.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for facilitating and simplifying the process of applying false eyelashes to the eye lids of a person.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous innovations for facilitating the applying of various material for various processes have been provided in the prior art that will be described. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, accordingly they differ from the present invention.
A FIRST EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,953 to Marshall et al teaches a resilient, V-shaped clamp for support between a person's fingers; the clamp including a toothed pad to grip around a nail polish bottle, and including finger supporting tabs.
A SECOND EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,500 to Northway et at teaches a method and apparatus for holding bottles, especially fingernail polish bottles, in such manner that tipping and spillage is virtually impossible, featuring a padded strap-like apparatus which can be laid flat on a surface or draped over an object in such manner that an attached bottle holder featuring a pierced and serrated diaphragm in which a bottle is placed will remain in alignment with the bottle upright at all times.
A THIRD EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,163 to Young teaches a device for holding and selectively tipping a container of a liquid into which an implement, such as a brush, is periodically inserted, for removing a portion of the liquid contents, includes a base to be placed on a surface, a receptacle for holding the container, and a hinge joining the receptacle to the base substantially along a side of the receptacle adjacent the base when the receptacle is in upright position on the base. The receptacle can be rotated or tipped about the hinge means to tip the container held in the receptacle. The tension on the hinge is preferably adjustable to adjust the resistance to rotational movement of the hinge. The receptacle is preferably lined with a resilient and compressible material such as plastic foam so that containers of various shapes and sizes may be inserted into the receptacle and held by compressed material.

Apparatus for securing an eyelash holder platform to a back of a beautician's hand


A method of fabricating plastic products with an integrated Lenticular lens material that thermally protects the ink layer and outer lens surfaces of the Lenticular insert. A Lenticular lens material is provided with a Lenticular lens layer with an outer surface of optical ridges and an ink layer bonded to a transparent lens layer. A thermal protective substrate comprising opaque flexographic ink is applied to the ink layer. The application of the thermal protective substrate is completed using a coating unit of a lithographic press. A Lenticular insert is formed from the coated Lenticular lens material and the insert is positioned within a mold cavity. The object is formed by inserting a liquid plastic charge into the mold cavity. The thermal protective substrate insulates the ink layer. Concurrently, the portion of the mold adjacent the insert is cooled to a temperature below the deformation temperature of the optical ridges.

The present invention generally relates to the manufacture of plastic containers and objects, and more particularly, to a method of fabricating plastic objects having a lenticular lens sheet or insert. The fabrication method includes a process of bonding lenticular lens material to the constituent plastic of the container of object during molding processes without damaging the lenticular lens material.
It is a growing practice to utilize conventional plastic molded cups and containers to display promotional messages and to increase the market value of the cups and containers by adding images of sports figures, movie and television personalities and other graphics. While the printing processes for producing these messages, images and graphics have improved in recent years with advances in printing technologies, the messages, characters, and other graphics have generally remained two dimensional, static and non-moveable. The expectations of purchasers of these containers continues to rise, and the general public continues to demand ever increasing and enhanced visual effects in all media. Specifically, the entertainment industry routinely licenses its proprietary images for use on cups, packaging, and containers of all types from plastic soda cups to popcorn containers and their lids. The entertainment industry uses bright colors and molded shapes extensively to excite and interest customers and collectors of these containers. There continues to be pressure from movie makers, sports promoters and others in the entertainment industry to develop new products to better capture the public""s attention for their promotions and licensed products.
In addition to problems with creating more exciting imagery, there are design restraints faced by plastic cup and container manufacturers that must be addressed in creating any new product. For example, in the traditional plastic cup industry, the manufacturers are continuously struggling with the demands for a less expensive cup to make their use attractive as part of no-cost promotional campaigns (e.g., the cup is given away by a retailer with the purchase of soda, beer, or other beverage) and as a profitable standalone product. One method used to reduce cost is to reduce the amount or weight of plastic used in each cup by thinning the cup wall and other methods. Reducing the weight of plastic used reduces material costs and also makes the manufacturing (i.e., molding) of the cups faster and less expensive as the molds can be filled more rapidly and the plastic cools in a shorter time. However, the desire for less material weight and wall thickness must be balanced with the hoop strength of a cup to control the cup being squeezed shut or deformed. Hoop strength is typically measured by adding weights or pressure to a point near the top of the cup on the outer surface of the side wall and measuring the amount of deflection of the open end of the cup.
To further minimize the costs of containers, the inner and outer surfaces of the walls are typically kept smooth and their shape kept relatively simple to minimize mold costs. These smooth surfaces also have been required because the typical method of placing images and graphics on containers and other plastic objects is with standard printing processes, such as offset printing, that are most effective on smooth printing surfaces.
The inventors recognize the needs of the entertainment industry and understand the benefits of providing more visually appealing images and graphics as part of promotional containers and other plastic products. These plastic products are significantly improved by including a three dimensional (xe2x80x9c3Dxe2x80x9d), action image provided with the use of Lenticular lens materials or sheets (i.e., interlaced segments of images combined with Lenticular lenses to provide a variety of visual effects such as motion, zooming in and out, and 3D effects).
The use of Lenticular lens material is known in the printing industry for creating promotional material and typically involves producing a sheet of Lenticular lens material and adhesively attaching the Lenticular lens material to a separately produced object for display. The production of Lenticular lenses is well-known and described in detail in a number of U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,032 to Bravenec et al. In general, the production process includes selecting segments from visual images to create a desired visual effect and interlacing the segments (i.e., planning the layout of the numerous images). Lenticular lenses are then mapped to the interlaced or planned segments, and the Lenticular lenses are fabricated according to this mapping. The Lenticular lenses generally include a transparent web which has a flat side or layer and a side with optical ridges and grooves formed by Lenticules (i.e., convex lenses) arranged side-by-side with the Lenticules or optical ridges extending parallel to each other the length of the transparent web. To provide the unique visual effects, ink (e.g., four color ink) is applied to or printed directly on the flat side of the transparent web to form a thin ink layer, which is then viewable through the transparent web of optical ridges.
While these Lenticular lens materials provide excellent visual effects, the use of adhesives and other attachment methods has not proven effective in producing high quality, long-lasting, and inexpensive plastic products. Because attaching the Lenticular lens material after producing the plastic cup or container is inefficient and relatively expensive, the plastic manufacturing industry desires a method for attaching the Lenticular lens material to plastic cups or containers as part of the cup or container manufacturing process. Unfortunately, the plastic manufacturing industry has not been able to overcome the problems associated with using common Lenticular lens material as part of standard plastic fabrication processes. The problems arise because plastic fabrication generally includes processes such as injection molding that involve heating raw plastic materials to a relatively high temperature (e.g., 400 to 500xc2x0 F. or hotter) and then injecting the fluid plastic into a mold with the shape of the desired plastic object or by otherwise processing the molten plastic. The ink or ink layer has a chemistry that does not stay intact when the ink is heated to these high temperatures, and the image is destroyed or at least significantly altered.
To address this problem, the plastic manufacturing industry has made some attempts at protecting the ink layer from the high temperature molten plastics during injection molding processes. Typically, these attempts have involved applying a bonding and protective substrate of hot melt polyethylene to the ink or ink layer to provide protection from the molten plastics and to provide a bonding interface between the Lenticular lens and the plastic of the formed cup or container. The protective substrate material may be as thick as 2.5 mils or more to provide adequate thermal insulation for the ink layer.
While providing a generally effective bonding surface and providing some protection for the ink layer, the application and use of a protective substrate has not resolved all manufacturing problems facing the plastic manufacturing industry. For example, it has proven difficult and often expensive to apply the substrate to the ink layer at a thickness that adequately thermally protects the ink from the high temperature molten plastic during injection molding. Another ongoing challenge has been obtaining adequate opacity behind the lens and ink layer as needed to provide a sharp and colorful image. Typically, proper opacity has been achieved with the use of additional volumes (i.e., thicknesses) of material in the protective substrate which increases costs and adds to manufacturing difficulties of applying thick protective coats on the ink layer.
Another ongoing problem is the thermal protection of the Lenticular lens during the injection molding process. Although the Lenticular lens does not typically come in direct contact with the molten, injected plastic, the Lenticular lens is placed in the female portion of the mold and positioned against an outer wall of the mold. When the male portion of the mold is inserted and the hot plastic, i.e., at or near 500xc2x0 F. is injected into the sealed mold, the female or outer portion of the mold increases in temperatures to approach the hot plastic temperature, such as in the range of 250 to 400xc2x0 F. The serrated surface (i.e., the optical ridges and grooves formed by Lenticules) is a layer formed of APET, PETG, or other material that while having relatively good heat resistance may sometimes deform or flatten during the dwell time necessary to cool and form a cup or container. Of course, any flattening or deforming of these optical ridges can reduce the sharpness of the image or even ruin the focus of the Lenticular lens making the image appear fuzzy and out of focus.
Consequently, there is a need for an improved method of fabricating plastic containers and other objects that include Lenticular lens material mated to plastic. The method preferably addresses the need for a cost-effective method of applying a protective thermal substrate that also provides adequate opacity. Additionally, the fabricating method should be selected to provide improved protection for the Lenticular lens, and particularly, the optical ridges or serrated surface of the Lenticular lens, during injection molding processes to better maintain the focused effect of the lens and ink layer combination on the finished plastic product.
To address the above discussed design constraints and other needs of the plastic manufacturing and entertainment industries, the invention provides an efficient and economical method to produce plastic objects, such as containers, with Lenticular material included as an integral insert (i.e., a Lenticular insert). Significantly, the method provides techniques and features that enhance the achieved image by using an opaque ink for a thermal protective substrate and that reduce the cost of manufacturing the insert by utilizing the coating unit of a lithographic press (rather than a standard ink application unit). Further, the method is designed to provide thermal protection for both sides of the Lenticular insert, i.e., ink used for creating an image and optical ridges formed in an exterior surface of a lens layer. The method produces a plastic object with the features of 3D graphics and/or animated video clips showing a fraction of a second to up to several seconds when viewed through the Lenticular insert from the outer surface of the plastic object.
The Lenticular insert that provides the unique visual imagery includes Lenticular material having optical ridges and grooves on an outer surface and a layer or transparent web of lenses, which together create a relatively rigid material with air passages or voids. A layer of ink is attached to the flat side of the transparent lens layer (and in one embodiment, a bonding primer layer is first applied to the transparent lens layer to enhance bonding). The actual images are pre-printed in this ink layer on the back side or second surface of the pre-extruded or post-embossed plastic lens material, which may be made of a variety of plastic materials including APET, flexible or rigid PVC, styrene, and PETG. The images are interlaced corresponding to the frequency of the Lenticular lens material (i.e., the optical ridges and grooves and the transparent lens layer) and are then printed using offset lithography, web, letterpress, digital, screen, or any other printing process.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method of fabricating plastic products is provided that is effective at integrating Lenticular lens material into the produced plastic product in a cost effective and efficient manner that thermally protects the ink layer of the Lenticular insert. In this method, a Lenticular lens material is provided that is made up of a Lenticular lens layer with an outer surface of optical ridges and an ink layer bonded to a transparent lens layer. A thermal protective substrate comprising ink is applied to the ink layer. In a preferred embodiment, the protective ink is an opaque flexographic ink which enhances the achieved image by providing an opaque background for the ink layer.
Significantly, the use of flexographic ink allows the application of the thermal protective substrate to be achieved using the coating unit of a lithographic press (which enables the efficient application of a thick layer of ink which controls the number of applications required). A Lenticular insert is then formed from the coated Lenticular lens material and the insert is positioned within a mold cavity of a plastic molding assembly. The object is then formed by operating the molding assembly to insert a liquid plastic charge into the mold cavity. The liquid plastic may be in the range of 300 to 700xc2x0 F. and the thermal protective substrate is selected with a thickness ranging from 0.5 to 2 mils to thermally insulate the ink layer from the molten plastic. In one embodiment, a further bonding layer is applied to the thermal protective substrate (such as a UV-curable primer coating or orient polypropylene (OPP)) to increase thermal protection of the ink layer and to enhance bonding between the Lenticular insert and the liquid plastic.
According to another aspect of the invention a method of manufacturing a plastic product with a Lenticular insert is provided that provides thermal protection for both sides of the Lenticular insert during plastic molding operations. The method involves providing a Lenticular insert having a Lenticular lens layer with a first surface of optical ridges and a second surface and an ink layer bonded to the second surface of the Lenticular lens layer. To thermally protect the ink layer, the ink layer is encapsulated with a thermal protective substrate such as an opaque, white UV-curable ink or a hot melt polyester, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, or vinyl. The Lenticular insert is positioned within a mold cavity defined by an outer mold body and a center die. The combination of these components defines the dimensions of the plastic product by providing flow paths for liquid plastic. The Lenticular insert is positioned within the mold cavity with the optical ridges adjacent and in heat transfer contact with an insert contacting region of the mold body. Liquid plastic is filled into the mold cavity at a plastic processing temperature (e.g., 300 to 700xc2x0 F.) which causes the center die to be heated to a first operating temperature (e.g., 250 to 400xc2x0 F.).
The method continues with the unique feature of cooling the insert contacting region of the mold body to a second operating temperature which is less than the first operating temperature and also less than about a predetermined deformation temperature of the optical ridges. In one embodiment, the optical ridges are fabricated from APET and the deformation temperature is about 170xc2x0 F. and in another embodiment, the optical ridges are fabricated of PETG with the deformation temperature being about 160xc2x0 F. Thus, the second operating temperature is significantly lower than the first (inner) operating temperature which thermally protects the optical ridges during the dwell steps of forming a plastic object. The first insert contacting region can be thought of as all of the mold body adjacent the optical ridges or a slightly larger or smaller area depending upon the desired results of the Lenticular insert (i.e., whether it is preferable to have a sharply focused image even at edges or to have a very secure bond and plastic frame at edges with possibly blurred edges, respectively).
Other features and advantages of the invention, including a Lenticular insert with an ink thermal protective layer and an inner and/or outer bonding layer, will be seen as the following description of particular embodiments of the invention progresses in conjunction with references to the drawings.

Method of protecting ink and providing enhanced bonding during molding of lenticular lens sheets in plastic objects


A pressure sensor module and method for pre-installation without a converter module. The pressure sensor module is hermetically sealed and can remain undamaged in an installation environment without a converter module. The pressure sensor module can be assembled later with a converter module in the installation environment. The pressure sensor module includes an isolator, a pressure sensor and a circuit that provides a bus for energization, control and a digital pressure output. The bus is connected to contacts in an insulating feedthrough. An integrally formed hermetic external support structure surrounds the pressure sensor and circuit. The hermetic external support structure has a threaded process fluid inlet around the isolator, and a threaded support sleeve supporting the feedthrough.

The present invention relates to industrial processing plants. More particularly, the present invention relates to pressure transmitters used to measure pressure in such plants.
Pressure transmitters are typically assembled in a clean, controlled factory or workbench environment by fitting a pressure sensor module and a converter module together. Each of the two modules includes a housing with a threaded joint where electronic circuitry is exposed and accessible for connection to the other module. The two threaded joints are threaded together, and each module is sealed off by its connection to the other module to form the finished pressure transmitter and protect the internal electronic circuits.
Before the modules are joined, however, exposed electronic parts in the sensor modules can be damaged by handling, spilled or airborne corrosive chemicals, or weather conditions. These damaging conditions are often present in an installation location such as a chemical processing plant. Pressure transmitters are thus usually pre-assembled before they are brought into a process plant environment. This also means that the converter modules have to be completed before the sensor module is installed on the process piping. It has been found that in many instances it is desirable to install the pressure sensor module onto the process piping and pressurize the system before the plant is completed, and before the converter design is selected. Thus, a pressure sensor module that protects the electronic parts before a converter module is installed is desired.
A pressure sensor module comprises a hermetically sealed housing or external support structure that is integrally formed and surrounds and encloses a pressure sensor and a circuit for the sensor. The housing has a threaded process fluid inlet and a threaded sleeve adapted to support a converter module. The sleeve also supports a feedthrough that is adapted to couple electrical contacts to the converter module.
The isolator is adapted to receive process fluid and couples to the pressure sensor, forming a transducer in the pressure converter. The circuit in the pressure sensor module couples to the pressure sensor and provides a bus for energization, control, and a digital representation of pressure. The feedthrough has contacts or pins that couple to the lines of the bus, and has an insulator barrier wall surrounding the contacts.
The housing is preferably sealed to both the isolator and the feedthrough in a manner that prevents access to the pressure sensor and circuit using ordinary tools. The pressure sensor module can be safely handled, installed and remain in a process plant installation environment where it is subject to rough handling, chemical spills and vapors without having a converter installed thereon and without exposing electronic parts of the sensor module to the environment.

Preinstallation of a pressure sensor module


A battery fastening assembly for fastening a battery to a housing, includes a receiving portion formed on the housing and a fastening subassembly. The receiving portion defines a receiving slot and a first engaging portion. The battery defines a second engaging portion. At least part of the fastening subassembly is slidable between the battery and the housing to engage with the receiving slot and the second engaging portion or the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to battery fastening assemblies and, particularly, to a battery fastening assembly for fastening a battery to a housing of an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many portable electronic devices, such as notebook computers and portable disk players, usually have batteries to drive the electronic devices. The batteries are mounted to the electronic devices by battery fastening assemblies.
A typical battery fastening assembly usually includes an elastic latching portion formed on a housing of an electronic device and a slot defined in a battery. When assembling the battery to or disassembling the battery from the housing, the elastic latching portion is forced to deform, thus engaging with or disengaging from the slot of the battery. However, the elastic latching portion can be easily damaged.
Therefore, a new battery fastening assembly is desired to overcome the above-described shortcomings.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


An outside handle apparatus for a vehicle may include a handle grip including a first locking part, a handle base, a handle lever having a second locking part and rotatably supported by an axis of the handle lever at one side of the handle base and moving in linkage with the handle grip while the second locking part formed at an lower end of the handle lever is locked with the first locking part of the handle grip, and an interference lever pivotally coupled to the handle base at one side of the handle base, wherein the interference lever rotates in linkage with a rotation of the handle lever at ordinary times, and is interlocked with the handle lever due to a rotation of the handle lever upon crash to control the rotation of the handle lever.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an outside handle for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to an outside handle for a vehicle, which is equipped with a handle interference structure that prevents a door from being opened by an inertial force upon side crash of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, an outside handle serves as an interface for a user to open and close the door of a vehicle from the outside of the vehicle. The outside handle includes an assembly of an outside handle grip and an outside handle base, and is installed at the outer side and the inner side of a door outer panel.
That is, the outside handle basically includes a handle grip that is exposed to the outside of the door outer panel to be actually manipulated by a user, and a handle base that is located inside the door outer panel so that the handle grip can be pulled from the handle base.
On the other hand, upon side crash of a vehicle, the vehicle is affected by an inertial force, which allows the door to open because the outside handle is pulled.
Accordingly, a balance weight is disposed in a vehicle to offset the inertial force of the outside handle. The balance weight prevents the door from being opened by the inertial force acting on the balance weight.
For example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the outside handle includes a handle grip 100 and a handle base. A balance weight 120 is provided at one side of the handle base. Also, a handle lever 130 is rotatably provided so as to operate in linkage with the handle grip 100.
Here, the handle lever 130 formed integrally with the balance weight 120 is connected to the handle grip using a lockable structure. At ordinary times, the handle lever rotates together. However, when a forward inertial force is generated upon side crash of a vehicle, the balance weight 120 prevents the door from being opened.
In this outside handle structure, the handle grip 100 is pulled by a force directing to the outside of a vehicle, i.e., inertial force of a vehicle immediately after the side-crash.
When the handle grip 100 is pulled, a latch connected to the handle grip 100 is released to open the door.
In order to prevent this, the balance weight 120 is mounted on the handle lever 130 to offset the inertial force.
However, the balance weight needs to have the equivalent weight to the handle grip to compensate for the inertial force of the handle grip, and thus limitations such as weight increase, opening by the counter inertial force, and deficiency of layout are incurred.
In consideration of these limitations, convention arts disclose outside handles with various types of door opening preventing devices, which can replace the balance weight.
However, typical door opening preventing devices have limitations in terms of structure and layout deficiency. Also, since the typical door opening preventing devices operate through many linkage steps, they have structural and functional limitations such as a difficulty in securing the reliability of operation.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.


A method of recording holograms for use in optical scanners comprises the steps of generating a reference beam by means of a reference source, generating an object beam by means of an object source, and illuminating a photosensitive surface with both said object beam and said reference beam, wherein said object beam is divergent in a first direction and non-divergent in a second direction.

The invention relates to a method of recording holograms for use in optical scanners, comprising the steps of generating a reference beam by means of a reference source, generating an object beam by means of an object source, and illuminating a photosensitive surface with both the object beam and the reference beam. The invention further relates to an apparatus for implementing such a method, as well as to an optical scanner, more particularly a bar code scanner, comprising one or more holograms recorded according to such a method.
Holograms are widely used in active optical scanners as laser beam deflectors. The laser beam of the scanner is made to impinge upon a hologram and is subsequently deflected by the hologram towards a scanning plane, in which the symbol to be scanned will be located. As the laser beam is made to move relative to the hologram, the point of incidence of the laser beam travels across the surface of the hologram, producing a locus or path of the incident laser beam across this surface. This path of the point of incidence across the surface of the hologram causes the deflected beam to describe a certain path or scanning pattern across the scanning plane. As the beam deflection may depend on the particular point of incidence on the hologram, the scanning line or pattern generated by the laser beam on the scanning plane is influenced by the shape of the path of the beam across the hologram surface. That is, the locus of the laser beam determines, in conjunction with the deflection properties of the hologram, the scanning pattern across the scanning plane.
Many scanners in which holograms are used comprise a holographic disc, i.e. a disc containing several holographic facets and/or on which one or more holograms are mounted. Such a disc can e.g. be stationary, while the laser beam is rotating relative to the disc. The moving laser beam traverses each hologram of the disc in turn. As each hologram or holographic facet may produce a different scanning pattern, such as a single scanning line, each turn of the disc results in a number of scanning lines being produced. In order to obtain a multiple-directional scanning pattern, the holographic facets are in most scanners arranged in a circle, the laser beam sweeping the disc along a circular locus. This implies that the path of the beam across each hologram is curved, this path being an arc of a circle.
Conventionally, holograms are recorded using two sources, producing two beams: a reference beam and an object beam. A laser beam having the same wavelength as the reference beam and issuing from the same point will be deflected by the hologram in such a way, that the object beam is reconstructed. As the laser beam impinging upon a hologram during operation of an optical scanner, i.e. the reconstruction beam, generally issues from a single point, the reference beam employed for recording holograms for use in a scanner is preferably spherical. The object beam, however, is conventionally spherical or collimated. A collimated object beam will result in parallel deflected beams, each deflected beam originating from a point of incidence of the laser beam upon the hologram. Consequently, the arc-shaped path of the laser beam on the surface of the hologram normally results in a curved scanning line on the scanning plane and thus across the symbol to be scanned.
However, for many applications, e.g. for reading bar codes, it is desired to have substantially straight scanning lines. Curvature of the scanning pattern may result in the scanner being virtually unable to decode the scanned symbol. In the case of bar codes, a curved scanning line may not intersect all bars and consequently the code cannot be read.

Method of recording holograms for use in optical scanners


A method and apparatus for displaying characters on a TV screen in an electronic appliance such as a DVD player is disclosed. Vertically compressed character fonts are stored. When it is requested to display a character, the stored character font is read and displayed in a video field and then the character font is displayed again in the next video field, whereby flickering can be effectively eliminated with a reduced-size memory for storing fonts data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for displaying characters on a screen and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method and apparatus for outputting OSD (on-screen display) characters on a TV screen in an electronic appliance such as a DVD player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital electronic appliances such as DVD players need fonts data to provide OSD (on-screen display) menus or additional services such as an electronic dictionary. The fonts data are commonly stored in a non-volatile memory included in the electronic appliances.
When it is requested to display some characters on a TV screen, the font data corresponding to the characters are read from the non-volatile memory and converted into video signals, whereby the characters are displayed on the screen.
A user may execute a desired function by selecting an item from the displayed OSD menu screen or requests a dictionary meaning of a word by selecting a character string displayed on the OSD screen.
To implement a function of an electronic dictionary as well as a simple OSD menu in an electronic appliance, fonts data for the characters to be displayed should be prepared. Fonts data are usually stored in a non-volatile memory device of a large size, which increases the manufacturing cost.

Method and apparatus for displaying characters on a screen


Training device to improve tennis skills. The training device includes an umbilical having a first end and a second end. The first end is attached to a wristband for encircling the wrist of a user and the second end is attached to a tennis racquet. The umbilical is under constant tension during use to encourage the movement of a user's hands in unison in carrying out the tennis stroke.

In providing instruction to tennis players for improving a player's skills, it is emphasized that not only should the hand holding the racquet move to a position prepatory for stroking the ball but that the user's other hand move in the same direction thus causing a user's body to turn appropriately. This properly aligns the shoulders and increasing the effectiveness of the stroke, improving ball velocity and placement while minimizing injury. Conversely, many players, particularly novice players, move only the hand holding the racquet allowing the other hand to remain idly by and giving little or no consideration to body positioning in preparing for the return of an oncoming tennis ball. In doing so, ball velocity, accuracy, consistency and pace are reduced and, perhaps more importantly, ball direction on the return stroke can be haphazard and unpredictable.
The present invention is not the first teaching of an aid to improve tennis skills by coordinating wrist movement of a user. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,833 teaches a device for joining a player's wrists together so as to engender movement of both arms and shoulders together in executing a tennis stroke. This patent further suggests extending, from a wristband and onto a user's middle finger a loop to prevent or reduce palmar flexion.
Although the invention described and claimed in the '833 patent is of interest in recognizing the benefits of joining a player's wrists together in executing a tennis stroke, it has been found that the components suggested for implementing this function are inadequate and do not, in the final analysis, provide the intended function. Specifically, the '833 patent suggests employing straps for joining first and second wristbands together. The buckled straps of the prior art can be changed in length through the use of buckles but once fixed, the straps represent nothing more than rigid extenders providing no tension between a user's wrists when the straps have not been pulled to their full extended length and, of equal importance, do not enable the wrists of a user to extend beyond the fixed strap length.
The straps suggested in carrying out the invention disclosed in the '833 patent are deficient for a number of reasons Firstly, unless the straps are pulled to their full fixed length, neither wrist of the user is encouraged to move in the direction of the other. As such, when the dominant or racquet hand of a user moves, there is nothing to encourage the subservient hand to move in the same direction unless in moving the dominant hand, full strap length is established between wrists causing the subservient hand to be yanked or abruptly pulled in the direction of the racqueted hand. This is hardly a way to encourage unison wrist movement. Secondly, there are times in which the distance between the wrists of a user are to be greater than the intended spacing between wrists during tennis strokes. For example, if the training device is to be employed for all purposes both during training and in participating in an actual match, ball service, requiring an overhead stroke would undoubtedly require wrist spacing far greater than if a forehand or backhand was to be conducted using this training aid under normal circumstances. The fixed strap of the '833 patent would prevent overhead or service strokes if the strap was to be fixed at a normal spacing for forehand and backhand play.
The present application is highly related to U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,140 belonging to Applicant. In that application, a training device was taught comprising wristbands for encircling each wrist of a user, a tension device and an umbilical attached thereto and to the wristbands, the umbilical being under constant tension during use of the training device to encourage movement of a users hand in unison in carrying out a tennis stroke Although this device has great practicality, in employing two wristbands which are unrelated to the tennis racquet it was found that misplacing the wristbands was of a common occurrence and that the invention could be made more practical if the umbilical under constant tension was attached to the subservient hand at its wrist employing a wristband similar to that taught in '140 patent but that instead attaching the umbilical to the dominant wrist of a user, it is instead attached to the racquet itself. Ideally, the device could be embedded within the racquet during manufacture resulting in a practical training tool readily available to a user without having to attach separate stand alone devices to a users wrist in order to accomplish the goals presented herein.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a teaching aid for improving tennis skills which is devoid of the limitations of the prior art.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a tennis aid tensioning and thus encouraging unison of movement between the wrists of a player to improve tennis skills
These and further objects will be more readily apparent when considering the following disclosure and appended claims.


Apparatuses and methods for adjusting coefficients for use in video encoding are described. An example apparatus may include an encoder that may be configured to receive transform coefficients and adjust selected ones of the transform coefficients (e.g. reset the selected ones to zero) based on a comparison with a threshold. The adjusted coefficients may then be quantized, which may result in effectively increasing a QP range of the encoder.

Video or other media signals may be used by a variety of devices, including televisions, broadcast systems, mobile devices, and both laptop and desktop computers. Typically, devices may display video in response to receipt of video or other media signals, often after decoding the signal from an encoded form. Video signals provided between devices are often encoded using one or more of a variety of encoding and/or compression techniques, and video signals are typically encoded in a manner to be decoded in accordance with a particular standard, such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10. By encoding video or other media signals, then decoding the received signals, the amount of data provided between devices may be significantly reduced.
Video encoding typically proceeds by sequentially encoding macroblocks, or other coding units, of video data. Prediction coding may be used to generate predictive blocks and residual blocks, where the residual blocks represent a difference between a predictive block and the block being coded. Prediction coding may include spatial and/or temporal predictions to remove redundant data in video signals, thereby further improving data compression. Intracoding for example, is directed to spatial prediction and reducing the amount of spatial redundancy between blocks in a frame or slice. Intercoding, on the other hand, is directed toward temporal prediction and reducing the amount of temporal redundancy between blocks in successive frames or slices. Intercoding may make use of motion prediction to track movement between corresponding blocks of successive frames or slices.
Typically, in encoder implementations, including intracoding and intercoding based implementations, residual blocks (e.g., difference between actual and predicted blocks) may be transformed and/or quantized, and entropy encoded to generate a coded bitstream. The coded bitstream may be transmitted between the encoding device and the decoding device. Quantization may determine the amount of loss that may occur during the encoding of a video signal. That is, the amount of data that is removed from a video signal during an encoding process may depend on a quantization parameter.
Standard encoding methodologies (e.g. H.264, MPEG, etc.) may specify an available range of QP, a parameter used to determine quantization. This range may limit the available amount of quantization achievable with a video encoder. In general, a higher QP value may result in a greater degree of quantization, and therefore fewer bits in the quantized bitstream. Providing a maximum QP in an encoding standard, however, may limit the amount of bit reduction available, even if further bit reduction may be acceptable from a quality perspective.

Apparatuses and methods for adjusting coefficients using dead zones


The present invention provides a system, apparatus, and method for managing a data storage system in n-way active controller configuration, such that a controller can detect the failure of and reset more than just a single other controller. To accomplish this, a controller sends a ping message to at least a subset of the other controllers, and waits for any of the other controllers to respond to the ping message within a first predetermined amount of time. If any of the other controllers do not respond to the ping message within the first predetermined amount of time, it is determined that the non-responding controller has failed. The controller will reset any failed controller.

This invention relates generally to data storage systems. More particularly, the invention relates to the management of a data storage system by multiple disk array controllers in an n-way active configuration, such that a disk array controller can detect the failure of and reset one or more other disk array controllers in the data storage system.
Disk drives in all computer systems are susceptible to failures caused, for example, by temperature variations, head crashes, motor failure, controller failure, and changing supply voltage conditions. Modem computer systems typically require, or at least benefit from, a fault-tolerant data storage system, for protecting data in the data storage system against any instances of data storage system component failure. One approach to meeting this need is to provide a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) operated by a disk array controller (controller).
A RAID system typically includes a single standalone controller, or multiple independent controllers, wherein each controller operates independently with respect to the other controllers. A controller is generally coupled across one or more input/output (I/O) buses both to a rack of disk drives and also to one or more host computers. The controller processes I/O requests from the one or more host computers to the rack of disk drives. Such I/O requests include, for example, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) I/O requests, which are known in the art.
Such a RAID system provides fault tolerance to the one or more host computers, at a disk drive level. In other words, if one or more disk drives fail, the controller can typically rebuild any data from the one or more failed disk drives onto any surviving disk drives. In this manner, the RAID system handles most disk drive failures without interrupting any host computer I/O requests.
Consider what would happen if a controller in a single controller system failedxe2x80x94the entire data storage system would become inoperable. And, although failure of a single controller in a data storage system that is being managed by multiple independent controllers will not typically render the entire RAID system inoperable, such a failure will render the tasks that were being performed by the failed controller, and/or those tasks scheduled to be performed by the failed controller, inoperable. In light of the above, it can be appreciated that it is not only desirable for a data storage system to reliably function in the instance that a disk drive failure occurs, but it is also desirable for the data storage system to reliably function with any type of failed component, including a failed controller.
To provide fault tolerance to a data storage system at a controller level, data storage systems managed by two controllers in dual active configuration were implemented. Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown data storage system 100 being managed by two controllers 102 and 104 in dual active configuration, according to the state-of-the-art. Controllers 102 and 104 are coupled across first peripheral bus 106, for example, an optical fiber, copper coax cable, or twisted pair (wire) bus, to a plurality of storage devices, for example, disk drives 108-112, in peripheral 114. Controllers 102 and 104 are also coupled across a second peripheral bus 116, for example, an optical fiber, copper coax cable, or twisted pair (wire) bus, to one or more host computers, for example, host computer 118.
From the viewpoint of controller 102, controller 104 is its partner controller, and from the viewpoint of controller 104, controller 102 is its partner controller. To determine when a partner controller has failed, controllers 102 and 104 are connected across ping cable 120. Each respective controller 102 and 104 is responsible for sending ping messages to the other controller 102 or 104 across ping cable 120.
Receipt of a ping message by a controller 102 or 104 from a partner controller 102 or 104, informs the receiving controller 102 or 104 that the partner controller 102 or 104 is alive, and not malfunctioning from a hardware problem or another problem. For example, when a particular controller 102 or 104 stops receiving ping messages from its partner controller 102 or 104 for a predetermined amount of time, the particular controller 102 or 104 determines that the partner controller 102 or 104, in some manner, has failed.
In the event that a controller 102 or 104 fails, the surviving controller 102 or 104 will take over the tasks that were being performed by the failed controller 102 or 104. Additionally, the surviving controller 102 or 104 will perform those tasks that were scheduled to be performed by the failed controller 102 or 104. Additionally, if the failure is of a type for which reset is an adequate solution, the surviving controller 102 or 104 will typically attempt to reset the failed controller 102 or 104 by sending it a reset signal across a reset line 122. Such reset signals are known. (It can be appreciated that, in some instances, the failed controller 102 or 104 may require replacement or repair so that a reset by a surviving controller 102 or 104 may be inadequate.)
Consider that the failure of both controllers 102 and 104 would destroy the fault tolerance and functionality of data storage system 100. It would be advantageous and desirable to manage a data storage system with more than two controllers (as in the above described dual active controller configuration), such that at least two controllers could fail before such fault tolerance and functionality of a data storage system is destroyed.
A significant problem with the state of the art, is that it does not provide any system, structure or method for a controller 102 or 104 to detect the failure of, or reset any controller 102 or 104 other than a single partner controller 102 or 104. To illustrate this, consider that ping cable 120 and reset line 122 are hardwired between controllers 102 and 104, such that respective controllers 102 and 104 can only detect the failure of and reset a partner controller 102 or 104.
For more than two controllers to manage a data storage system in active controller configuration, each respective controller would require an ability to detect and reset more than just a single other controller. According to state of the art methodologies for detecting the failure of a partner controller 102 or 104, such a controller 102 or 104 would need to be implemented to accommodate more than just one respective ping cable and reset line to detect any failures and reset more than just a single other controller in the data storage system. The design and implementation of such a backplane would typically add additional expense to the cost of a controller and a data storage system. Additionally, significant manual intervention, by a human system administrator, may be required to add and connect such ping cables and reset lines between the controllers, possibly even necessitating the system to be shut-down during such intervention.
Therefore, there is a need for a data storage system that is managed by more than just two controllers in active controller configuration. There is a need for each controller in such a data storage system to be able to detect the failure of and reset more than just a single other partner controller in the data storage system. To accomplish this, it is desirable that such a controller will not require a redesign of the controller""s backplane to accommodate an arbitrary number of ping cables and reset lines.

System, apparatus, and method for managing a data storage system in an n-way active controller configuration

International Business Machines Corporation


A customizable environment is disclosed including an interactive presentation having a plurality of object placeholders, each for holding a presentable object or a presentable reference to an object. Each placeholder has a selector for selecting the presentable object or reference held therein and a selector for selecting the placeholder. The customizable interface further includes a data store for storing the presentable objects. The presentable objects are linked to indicate the relationship between the objects whereby the arrangement of the presentable objects, references, or both within the placeholders corresponds at least in part to the manner in which the presented objects and references are linked.

The manner in which content or information is presented to a user has a considerable effect on the user's ability to efficiently process the outputted or presented content and/or interact with the presented user interface. In particular, the arrangement of the presented content or user interface affects the usability and/or processing of the presented data or content. Moreover, it is also advantageous to provide for customization of the presented content by the user so that the user can modify the placement of the presented content.
To better aid in the understanding of the inventive concept, the example of a customizable HTML-based photo album display page is given below.
Today, most web pages and web based applications are relatively static as compared to computer-based applications. In other words, a user is not typically able to alter web page content in any straightforward or easy manner. In fact, most web pages are intentionally unalterable. The only customization that is typically provided to an end user is the ability to add and delete visual items from a page. For example, many web-based photo album web pages exist today. However, users are typically only permitted to add new digital photos to the page, whereupon the photos are displayed in the order in which they were added. Typically, the user is also able to delete selected photos from the photo album web page, in which case the remaining photos are merely shifted to fill in the blanks created by the deleted photos.
Prior systems, such as DHTML and Javascript, allow a user to rearrange items on a page; however, none of the prior are systems store a persistent state of arrangement of the items or objects on the back end.
Thus, there exists a need for providing the user with a user-friendly and flexible way to modify the arrangement of presented content, such as digital photographs, in an interactive presentation, such as an HTML based web page.


A method of quantizing pixels in an image formed by a plurality of pixels, each pixel representing an optical density of the image at a location therewith, and having an original optical density value selected from one of a set of `c` original optical density values that has a number of members larger than a desired output set of `d` optical density values, through a process of error diffusion. In this process, `c` and `d` are integer values representing pixel depth. For an input image so comprised, initially, an image signal is initially modified in accordance with previously determined error. Thereafter, during the quantization step of the process, the threshold of an error diffusion process is dynamically adjusted in accordance with the original image to selectively control an amount of edge enhancement introduced into the image. The threshold level is selectively modified on a pixel by pixel basis and may be used to increase or decrease the edge enhancement of the output digital image, thus, more closely representing the original detail and edge sharpness of the continuous tone input image. The threshold of the error diffusion process is also varied responsive to the image that is output, by providing a feedback response to the thresholding process, to vary the threshold level to favor a determination of an output pixel having the same state as an adjacent pixel. Based on the dynamically varying threshold, an output pixel is determined, and the error or difference between the output and the modified image signal is determined. This error is added on a weighted basis to a predetermined group of neighboring image signals, in accordance with the image signal modification initially described.

Image information, be it color, black or white, is commonly generated in a bitmap format where the bitmap comprises a plurality of gray level pixels, i.e. pixels that are defined by digital values, each value representing a gray level among a number of gray levels. Thus, in an 8 bit system, 256 levels of gray are present, where each level represents an increment of gray between black and white. In the case of color bitmaps, where three defining colors or separations each include 256 levels of information, there may be more than 16 million colors defined by a gray bitmap.
Usually, bitmaps in such a gray level format are unprintable by standard printers. Standard printers print in a limited number of levels, either a spot or a no spot in the binary case, or a limited number of levels associated with the spot, for example, four in the quaternary case. Accordingly, it is necessary to reduce the gray level image data to a limited number of levels so that it is printed. Besides gray level information derived by scanning, certain processing techniques such as those described, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/600,542 entitled "Method for Image Conversions With Error Diffusion", by R. Eschbach, produce gray level pixel values which require conversion to a limited set of "legal" or output values.
One standard method of converting gray level pixel values to binary level pixel values is through the use of dithering or halftoning processes. In such arrangements, over a given area having a number of gray pixels therein, each pixel value of an array of gray level pixels within the area is compared to one of a set of preselected thresholds (the thresholds are stored as a dither matrix and the repetitive pattern generated by this matrix is considered a halftone cell) as taught, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,194 to Holladay. The effect of such an arrangement is that, for an area where the image is gray, some of the thresholds within the dither matrix will be exceeded, i.e. the image value at that specific location is larger than the value stored in the dither matrix for that same location, while others are not. In the binary case, the pixels or cell elements for which the thresholds are exceeded might be printed as black, while the remaining elements are allowed to remain white, dependent on the actual physical quantity described by the data. The effect of the distribution of black and white over the halftone cell is integrated by the human eye as gray. Dithering or halftoning presents problems, however, in that the amount of gray within an original image is not maintained exactly over an area, because the finite number of elements inside each dither matrix--and therefore halftone cell--only allows the reproduction of a finite number of gray levels, i.e. number of elements in the cell plus one, or less. The error arising from the difference between the output pixel value and the actual gray level pixel value at any particular cell is simply thrown away. This results in a loss of image information. In particular, dithering introduces coarse quantization artifacts which are visible in the image areas where the scene has little variation. This is also known as "banding", and is caused by the limited number of output gray levels available. The "banding" artifacts generally increase with decreasing cell size, which is identical to a decrease in the number of levels that can be represented by the halftone cell.
In the ARIES (Alias Reduction and Image Enhancement System) method of halftone reproduction, described by P. Roetling in "Halftone Method With Edge Enhancement and Moire' Suppression," J. Opt. Soc. Amer. Vol. 66, No. 10, pp. 985-989, October, 1976, image information initially has a set of halftone screen values for a cell added to the information. A uniform threshold value is applied to the screened information, to produce an output value. The average gray value over the cell area of the input image is compared to the average gray value over the cell area of the output image. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,536 to Roetling and U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,327 to Roetling. In this way, the error between original and output is minimized over each halftone cell. The banding artifact, however, is not reduced.
Algorithms that convert gray images to binary or other number of level images attempting to preserve the local density exist, and include among them error diffusion, as taught, for example, in "An Adaptive Algorithm for Spatial Greyscale" by Floyd and Steinberg, Proceedings of the SID 17/2, 75-77 (1976) (hereinafter, "Floyd and Steinberg"). Another, more elaborate method would be the error diffusion techniques of U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,952 to Eschbach, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention; which serves to provide image dependent edge enhancement. Additional modifications to the error diffusion algorithm taught by Floyd and Steinberg have been proposed, e.g.: a different weighting matrix, as taught, for example, in "A Survey of Techniques for the Display of Continuous Tone Pictures on Bilevel Displays" by Jarvis et al., Computer Graphics and Image Processing, Vol. 5., pp. 13-40 (1976) (hereinafter, Jarvis), and in "MECCA--A Multiple-Error Correction Computation Algorithm for Bi-Level Image Hardcopy Reproduction" by Stucki, IBM Res. Rep. RZ1060 (1981) (hereinafter, Stucki). Modifications of the error calculation and weight allocation have been taught, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/672,987, entitled "Method for Image Conversion with Application of Multiple Error Diffusion Matrices", by Eschbach, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,322 to Kurosawa et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,774 to Temple, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,065, to Ulichney.
Error diffusion attempts to maintain image density by making the conversion from gray pixels to binary or other level pixels on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The procedure examines each pixel with respect to a threshold, and the difference between the gray level pixel value and the output value is forwarded to a selected group or set of neighboring pixels, in accordance with a weighting scheme. A problem noted with the use of the standard error diffusion algorithms for printing applications is the production of large numbers of isolated black and/or white pixels which are difficult to reproduce with many types of printers, including electrophotographic printers. An error diffusion method on halftone cell basis to overcome the printability problem is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,721 to Goertzel, where a method is shown to convert a continuous tone image to a bilevel pixel image. The total error generated in one halftone cell is distributed to a predetermined number of adjacent halftone cells. In this way, printable images are generated, while the banding artifact is reduced, by alternating between fixed output cell patterns. Because of an inherent lack of partial dots in this process, evidenced as a loss in sharpness, edge detection and sharpening was included. See, also, "Digital Halftoning in the IBM 4250 Printer" by Goertzel et al. (Goertzel), IBM J. Res. Develop., Vol 31, No. 1, January, 1987. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/583,337 to Shiau, and Ser. No. 07/775,201 to Fan, teach the use of similar methods to reduce a continuous tone image to a multilevel pixel image with diffusion of error between adjacent halftone cells. These methods, however, do not determine a best fit halftone dot as done in the ARIES method.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/800,811 by Eschbach describes an error diffusion method that operates on a pixel basis where the threshold of the error diffusion process is modified in order to obtain printable patterns that resemble halftone cells by generating regular dot placements.
"MECCA--A Multiple-Error Correction Computation Algorithm for Bi-Level Image Hardcopy Reproduction" by Stucki, IBM Res. Rep. RZ1060 (1981), also describes an error diffusion algorithm incorporating actual printer dot overlaps in the error calculation, thereby generating a better printable result.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,943 to Levien suggests another pixel based error diffusion scheme where the tendency of the individual dots to form clusters in a screened image can be varied by applying a hysteresis constant and recursion techniques known from adaptive screening, to allow adjustment of image coarseness by adjustment of the hysteresis constant. This method produces better images, particularly for electrophotographic printing than the original error diffusion algorithm, but the images tend to have reduced sharpness or detail resolution, as compared to Floyd and Steinberg. In implementation, the Levien method uses an error diffusion process, providing a feedback response based on the output image, and particularly, dot size. The resulting irregular placement of dots improves the number of gray shades which can be reproduced. However, the hysteresis function implemented to control the feedback response tends to dampen the response at edges.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,222 to Bassetti et al. discloses a print enhancement control system for an electrostatic copying machine wherein control logic circuitry processes a set of image altering parameters to improve image production quality. These parameters, whose values are either predetermined, fixed or have been received from an exterior source, improve image quality (i.e., resolution) by modifying modulated gray signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,229 to Herrmann et al. discloses an image enhancement circuit which converts a low quality image signal into a high quality image signal by modifying the binary representation of a picture. Image enhancement is accomplished by multiplying a series of error difference signals by a series of weighting factors k(i) which produce a clearer image by improving picture resolution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,463 to Tomohisa et al. discloses a method to improve image quality within an electrostatic reproduction machine wherein the sharpness of an image is improved based on the value of an image sharpness control parameter that has been calculated examining the copy quality of an original.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,250 to Takeuchi discloses an image forming apparatus which improves the halftone image quality of an original. The pulse width of a reference control signal controls and improves image quality in response to a detected image density signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,461 to Rushing discloses an image improving process control for an electrostatic copying machine which maintains high image quality by adjusting a set of process control parameters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,401 to Fujimura et al. discloses an image density adjustment method wherein a predetermined image density level within an electrostatic copying machine is maintained at a standard density by varying a set of input control parameters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,593 to Gerger discloses a method of improving the image quality by controlling a single process parameter in response to changes in sensitometric characteristics.
All of the references cited herein are incorporated by reference for their teachings.

Error diffusion with output and input based feedback


The present invention provides a method of predicting a food-drug interaction in vivo, in the case of an orally administered drug interactive with digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, by measuring the activity of the drug to the digestive enzymes in vitro, which is based on the fact that the ingestion of foods causes the absorption of drug in vivo to decrease due to the above interaction between a drug and digestive enzymes. The present invention further provides methods of minimizing the change of absorption in vivo caused by the ingestion of foods by reducing the action of digestive enzymes, for example, introduction of prodrugs, modification of the chemical structure of drug, design of drug formulation, etc.

The most convenient method of administering medications to patients is generally to administer the drugs orally. The extent of bioavailability in the same medication may vary from one individual to another, and such difference in the bioavailability is caused by differences in the extent of absorption, metabolism and excretion in human subjects. Changes in bioavailability of the same medication may occur even with the same patient; for example, when the medication is taken together with another medication or foods.
Drug-drug interaction, i.e., when a medication is concurrently administered with another medication, and the in vivo absorption rate of a certain medication changes, has been well known, and the mechanism thereof varies depending on the kind of medications. For example, there are the case that a medication accelerates or inhibits a gastric empting rate, thereby changing the absorption of another medication; the case that a medication has an effect on the medication metabolism in the liver, thereby changing the bioavailability of another medication; and the case that a patent's metabolism exhibits varying rates of the excretion of another medication from the kidney, thereby changing the bioavailability of another medication. (Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Concepts and Applications, M. Rowland and T. N. Tozer, Chapter 17. Drug Interactions., 1980, Lea & Febiger). There are various examples, especially, where the change of medication absorption in human subjects is caused by the change of medication metabolism; therefore, in the preparation procedure of a novel medication, it is required to identify the types of medications which should not be concurrently administered with this medication, according to the drug-drug interaction studies.
As another factor affecting bioavailability, the ingestion of foods has been reported, and the representative example thereof is the change of bioavailability of medications, such as cyclosporine, Ketoconazole and the like, caused by ingestion of a grapefruit juice. From this study, it was found that the medication metabolism is reduced by ingestion of grapefruit juice, whereby the bioavailability of the medication increases. The medication metabolism enzymes involved in such phenomenon in a liver were also identified (G. C. Kane and J. J. Lipsky 2000. Mayo Clin. Proc. 75(9) 933–42).
Generally, food-drug interaction means the change of the bioavailability of medications or drugs caused by intake of foods, and can unintentionally reduce or increase the effect of drug, resulting in therapeutic failure or increased toxicity. This may adversely affect patient care, contribute to morbidity and long treatment time or hospitalization. (L. E. Schmidt and K. Dalhoff, Drugs 2002. 62(10). 1481–1502). For this reason, FDA recommends to test bioequivalency of drug products either under fasted or fed conditions, and for the latter case the meal itself is standardized (Guidance for industry. Food-Effect Bioavailability and Bioequivalence studies).
The mechanism of the food-drug interaction depends on, in addition to the metabolism as mentioned above, physicochemical factors, physiological factors, compositions of foods, compositions of drugs, and combinative factors thereof (D. Fleisher et al., Clin. Pharmacokinetics 1999. Mar. 36(3). 233–254; W. Charman et al., J. Pharm. Sci. 1997. 86(3). 269–282).
The dissolution rate of a medication, being one of innate physicochemical properties of the medication, is an important factor having an effect on the food-drug interaction. When the solubility of a medication significantly depends on a pH of a solution, the dissolution rate varies with the change of pH in a gastrointestinal tract caused by ingestion of foods, whereby the absorption rate of the medication can change.
Indinavir ([1(1S,2R), 5(S)]-2,3,5-trideoxy-N-(2,3-dihydro-2-hydroxy-1H-inden-1-yl)-5-[2-[[(1,1-dimethylethylaminocarbonyl)-4-(3-pyridinylmethyl)-1-piperazinyl]-2-(phenylmethyl)-D-erytho-pentonamide sulfate (1:1) salt], a drug for treatment of AIDS, is a well known example of a case where the absorption rate of a medication changes in accordance with the change of dissolution rate thereof, and it has been reported that the absorption rate decreases when the drug is administered together with foods. For this reason, this medication should be administered one hour prior to meals or two hours after meals. As a mechanism illustrating how the absorption rate of this medication decreases upon ingestion of foods, it has been known that the dissolution rate of a weakly acidic medication decreases as the pH of gastric fluids rises (P. L. Carver et al., 1999, Pharm. Res. 16(5) 718-).
For tetracycline and fluoroquinoline-based antibiotics, it has been known that the absorption thereof is diminished upon binding with metallic ions contained in foods (M. Garty and A. Hurwitz, 1980 Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 28. 203–207; G. Hoffken et al. 1988. Rev. Infect. Dis., 10, 138–139). For some of liposoluble medications with very low solubility, the dissolution time increases due to the delay of a stomach emptying time following ingestion of foods, or its solubility in bile upon secretion of the bile increases, whereby the absorption rate of the medication increases (L. E. Schmidt and K. Dalhoff, Drugs 2002. 62(10). 1481–1502).
If the mechanism of the food-drug interaction of a certain medication is found, it may be possible to change the bioavailability thereof by designing its drug formulation to minimize the interaction. For example, in the case that the solubility of medication is a key factor affecting the food-drug interaction, the effect of foods can be minimized by designing the drug formulation which increases the solubility of medication. For example, the crystalline structure of medication may have an effect on the dissolution rate, so that a method has been known of reducing the absorption change caused by foods, by changing the crystalline structure (U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,615).
However, among medications which have a high solubility but are absorbed only at a specific site, especially, in the proximal region of the small intestine, or have a low membrane penetration rate, many medications show a decreased absorption rate upon food ingestion. U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,857 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,628 claimed a novel sustained release composition free of food effect. However, these patents do not suggest any mechanism to prevent food effect. Also, in the case of medications which have little room to be improved by the design of novel drug formulation, it has been known that the membrane penetration rate can be improved by altering the molecular structure of the medication itself (Pao et al., Pharm. Res. 1998: 15(2) 221–227).
As mentioned above, even though a plurality of complicated physicochemical, physiological factors have been known regarding the mechanisms of food-drug interaction, it has not been possible to predict the food-drug interaction from the chemical structure or type of a certain medication (B. N. Singh, Clinical Pharmacokinetics 1999. 37:3, 213–255). However, the present inventors first found an interaction between drugs and digestive enzymes, being a novel mechanism of the food-drug interaction, which has never been known in this art.

Method of predicting drug-food interaction


A web (W) of sheet material intended to form individual tagged packets has surplus portions of a thread (S) extending along its length removed while the web is being advanced. After severing one end of each unwanted thread portion with a rotary cutter (2), the severed end is lifted by a wiper (10), and the lifted end is held away from the web by suction means (20) while it is detached by shearing means (22). The suction means (20) then remove the detached thread portion.

This invention relates to the removal of portions of thread from a length of thread which is attached to a web of sheet material to extend along the length of the web. It is particularly concerned, although not necessarily exclusively so, with such a process as one stage in the production of infusion packets to which tags are attached by a thread.
The use of such tagged packets is well known. European Patent Application EP 448325A, describes a process for producing the packets during which a series of spaced tags are attached to a length of thread and the thread and tags are attached to a web along its length. The procedure by which the tags and thread are assembled with the web is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,419 to which reference can be made for further details.
What is particularly significant in that assembly procedure in the present context is that it results in a continuous length of thread extending along the web in which only those portions that connect the tags to the web serve a useful purpose. The remaining portions can complicate subsequent stages in the process of producing the packets and can present an awkward appearance in the finished product.

Thread removal apparatus for use in the manufacture of infusion packets

Thomas J. Lipton Co., Division of Conopco, Inc.


The present invention describes the use of spray dried glucose as sweetening agent in chocolate compositions. The spay dried glucose is used to replace between 5 and 100% of the normal sweetening agent which is sucrose. The spray dried glucose is used in dark, milk and white chocolate. This replacement leads to product having lower viscosity and which is therefore easier to handle.

The conventional chocolate composition contains sucrose as a sweetener. The essential components of chocolate are cocoa nib, i.e. the roasted cocoa bean with shell and germ removed, sugar and cocoa butter. Cocoa nib is approximately 55% cocoa butter, the balance being proteins, carbohydrates, tannins, acids etc. The cocoa butter content of the chocolate controls its setting characteristics and largely governs its cost. Different types of chocolate are obtained by varying the ratio of cocoa nib to sugar. The amount of cocoa butter varies according to its application; bitter sweet chocolate has a ratio of nib to sugar of 2:1 while sweet chocolate has a ratio of 1:2.
Nowadays there is a strong interest in reducing the amount of calories contained in chocolate. Two approaches are taken, a reduction of the amount of butter (fat) and/or a reduction of the amount of sugar. The amount of sugar calories is reduced by replacing sucrose with polyols such as maltitol, lactitol, sorbitol, xylitol and erythritol. This replacement often has a double advantage in that not only there is a calorie reduction but also some of the polyols are non-cariogenic.
Finally sucrose is perceived as being too sweet resulting in the masking of the typical chocolate taste replacement of sucrose with a less sweet product such as polyols enhances the chocolate taste. Erythritol is further used for its cooling effect.
British Patent GB 1,274,356 discloses a process for producing a partially solidified sugar syrup which comprises the addition of a fine particulate reducing sugar to a syrup saturated or supersaturated with reducing sugar and allowing the syrup to set. Spray dried dextrose is mentioned as one of the possible seeding crystals. The sugar syrup obtained is suitable for general domestic use in much the same way as a jam or honey.
United States Patent U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,105 relates to the finding that the incorporation of minor amounts of hydroxylated lecithin within a chocolate product used for the coating of edible confectionery or bakery products largely reduces moisture loss.
European patent application EP 0 511 761 relates to a new sweetening composition comprising erythritol, sorbitol and a glucose oligomer of DE 10 to 30 and which is suitable as an instant pie filling or a bakery cream. The glucose oligomer may be in spray dried form.
British Patent GB 1,341,963 relates to edible compositions comprising a dry, powdery mixture which can be mixed with water, milk or another liquid, to give an "instant" dessert of the sorbet or ice cream type. Spray dried dextrose is mentioned as one of the components of the composition.
Investigations have also been performed to replace (part of the) sucrose in certain applications with dextrose. It was found that dextrose monohydrate could not be used in the chocolate production process due to the vapour development at high conching temperatures German Patent application DE 1,083,636 discloses the addition of dextrosehydrate after the conching step. Anhydrous dextrose, that is dried dextrose, is much to expensive for application in chocolate.

Chocolate containing spray dried glucose


A power saving method is provided. The power saving method is applicable to an electronic device including a display unit. The method comprises the steps of determining a start point on the display unit, determining whether the start point is located in a bright area of the display unit, receiving a signal corresponding to an end point on the display unit, generating a trigger signal according to the start point and the end point, and darkening the brightness of an area between the start point and the end point on the display unit according to the trigger signal.

Portable electronic devices in the market, such as handheld electronic devices, usually adopt batteries as the power source. Usage time (i.e. the time your battery will run before it must be recharged) and standby time are the important considerations when buying a portable electronic device. Thus, all the manufacturers have considered extension of usage time and standby time as an important issue for the development of portable electronic devices.
Attending with the development and wide spreading of telecommunication technologies, social distance between people is dramatically reduced. In the fast-paced modern society, for the purposed of catching the instant information against time, the handheld electronic devices with multi-function, such as personal digital assistant (PDA), module phone, and etc., came out in the market to execute various information, e.g. voice, text message, video and word processing, in a limited time period simultaneously. It is noted that other than the trend of slimmer, smaller, and lighter to make the handheld electronic device easy to carry and improved the overall performance, it is also an important topic to extend the usage time and standby time of the handheld portable device without connecting to a power source.
Generally, the most power-consuming condition for the handheld electronic device, other than the specific function such as talking on the phone, should be the usage of the display to show the information. In order to reduce the unnecessary power-consumption, how to control the power supply for the display, especially when the handheld electronic device is standby, is an important topic. However, on/off of the display in the traditional handheld electronic device is controlled by a specific switching button or by setting a timing module with a predetermined time period. The switching button, which occupies some of the already limited space within the handheld electronic device, may enhance the cost of mechanical design and elements. In addition, it is troublesome for the user to remember touching the switching button every time when he wants to enable the power-saving function. On the other hand, when the timing module is used, the user cannot freely control the on/off condition of the display, which makes the operation less convenient.

INVENTEC APPLIANCES (PUDONG) CORPORATION


A heat transfer system for use with a conventional fireplace for radiating heat at a remote location from the fireplace. The heat transfer system includes a network of interconnecting conduit sections charged with an internal fluid medium and consists of a plurality of coils located within the fireplace so that the fluid medium is subjected to heat generated within the fireplace. The conduit network further includes a radiant convection device for convecting the heat generated within the fluid medium to the surrounding area and an expansion tank located on a cool side of the convection device for storing a volume of the medium for subsequent redelivery to the fireplace coils. A series of first, second and third valves are located along the conduit network and separate the fireplace coils and radiant convection device, the convection device and the expansion tank, and the expansion tank and the fireplace coils, respectively. A steam inversion tube is also arrayed in communicating fashion between the inlet and outlet of the fireplace coils and functions in a first step to entrap superheated steam generated within the coils by the fluid medium and in a second step to both pre-heat return cool water from the expansion tank and to saturate the steam back to the fluid medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fireplace or wood stove generated conduit heating systems and, more particularly, to a substantially enclosed fireplace heat transfer system with internally driven heat transfer flow and return fluid flow mechanisms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fireplace based conduit heating systems are well documented in the art, of which are included both the water flow and air flow heating systems for the specific purpose of transferring heat generated within the fireplace to a remote location for radiant convection of a surrounding area. The purpose behind such systems generally is to recycle a significant portion of the heat which is otherwise wasted through the fireplace vent or chimney.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,199, issued to Ellmer, discloses a fireplace heating system capable of being installed in a conventional fireplace and including a log supporting water conduit grate. The water in the grate is heated by the logs and is then pumped to a suitable heat exchanger disposed within an air duct of a forced air heating system to heat the air passing therethrough. Heated water may also bypass the heat exchanger and is used to preheat a cold water supply that feeds a hot water heater.
A further example of such a heating system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,542, issued to Person, which teaches an auxiliary heating system which also utilizes conduit for transferring heated air or water from an auxiliary heater, again either a fireplace or wood burning stove, and by means of a pump which provides the heated fluid to a forced air system, hydronic boiler system or hot water heater. A similar example of a pump-driven fireplace heating system is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,043, issued to Cleer, Jr. in which heated water within a fireplace jacket is pumped to a separate water heater and/or radiant heater.
Finally, an additional example of a home heating system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,083, issued to Di Fiore, which teaches a home heating system in which the heated water is supplied to a water heater or clothes dryer. An arrangement of control valves are utilized for to supply heat energy selectively or concurrently to home appliances in a desired combination. At least one expansion tank is located on the heated water outlets from the fireplace and a boiler to accommodate expansion and contraction of the volume of water in the heating system.

Fireplace heat transfer system with internally driven fluid flow mechanism


A fiber optics cable raceway is formed of main channel members and telescope members. The main channel members have a generally U-shaped cross-section with a base, sides, and, at the top, inwardly extending lips. The telescope members have the same cross-section, but are slightly larger so they can fit about the main channel members for a longitudinally sliding fit. By alternately, interfitting main members and telescope members and adjusting the length by telescopic sliding, a raceway of the desired length can quickly be assembled. Small locking clips can then be fitted about the respective overlapping lips of two members to prevent further sliding. The raceway can be installed below the floor by the use of brackets hanging on pre-existing floor-supporting pedestals. It can be installed above a dropped ceiling by the use of hangers clamped to the grid struts of the ceiling. The locking clips serve to electrically interconnect the channel members and the telescope members.

Fiber optics cables, often carrying two fibers each, do not have the intrinsic strength found in electrical cables and, so, must be carried in raceways or other channel members rather than being strung using standard wire hangers. These raceways are sometimes installed beneath raised flooring. In order to install them in different locations, the installer either has to carry a wide variety of lengths or cut them to the desired length on location. My invention obviates this difficulty and yet provides a strong and stable raceway structure.