A method for connection roaming a Mobile Node (MN) to a Network GateWay (NGW) for providing secure data path using Internet Protocol (IP) security procedure. Also Mobile IP (MIP) is required for providing mobility to the user, when the MN moves from one sub-network to another. However, when the Home Address of the network is not known, a cyclic interdependency is observed between the IP Security (Ipsec) procedures and IP procedures. If the home address of the MN is not known initially during the procedure, IPsec Security Associations (SA's) are formed between the MN and NGW such that only IP packets are passed through. After the IP Registration is completed, the Home Address of the MN is known from the MIP registration Reply. MN now forms a data path tunnel with the NGW by exchanging Create_Child_SA messages.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of mobile communication, and in particular, to providing mobility services and Internet Protocol related security services simultaneously to a mobile node, which is roaming outside the Home Network. More specifically, this invention provides a system and method to break the cyclic interdependency between Internet Protocol (IP) security messages and Mobile IP messages when the Home Address of the Mobile Node is not known.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a scenario where the Mobile Node roams into a foreign network that does not provide adequate over the air security, it is to be noted that the NGW is a trusted entity, either in the foreign network or in the home network, and hence provides secure path to any node in the home network. Thus, to provide a secure communication channel between the Mobile Node and the home network, it is possible to form an IP security tunnel between the Mobile Node and the NGW. The present invention makes the Mobile Node capable of roaming, while keeping the sessions alive, and also provides security to Mobile IP messages even when the Home Address of the Mobile Node is not known.
Currently in the above scenario, it is not possible to provide Internet Protocol Security (IPse) and mobility related scenarios if the Home Address of the Mobile Node is unknown. This is because the IP security tunnel formation requires the Remote IP Address (Home Address), which is obtained in successful Mobile IP Registration Reply from the Home Agent. There is a cyclic interdependency which prevents the network from providing the Mobile Node with Security and Mobility related services simultaneously. However, for Mobile IP (MIP) Registration Signaling, formation of the tunnel is necessary.
In the light of the foregoing, there is a need for a method and system for breaking the cyclic interdependency between Mobile IP and IP security.
The present invention is related to a system that needs to form an IP security tunnel with the foreign entity Network GateWay (NGW). The system for the invention present (as shown in FIG. 1) includes a Mobile Node (MN) capable of roaming in foreign networks, an NGW, a Foreign Agent (FA) in the foreign network, and a Home Agent (HA) in home network. In present invention, if is assumed that the NGW and the FA are collocated. The Mobile Node also requires performing the Mobile IP registration for mobility services with Foreign Agent and Home Agent. The present invention provides a mechanism for the case where a Home Address of the Mobile Node is not known when it is in the foreign network.
When the Mobile Node (MN) roams in a foreign network, the Mobile Node forms a tunnel with the Network GateWay (NGW) to obtain Packet Services provided by the network. This can be done for example, to provide secure access over an untrusted interface (e.g. an air interface with inadequate security). The local network can provide an IP address to the Mobile Node (Local IP Address routable only up to NGW) while the remote IP address, through which the Mobile Node is accessible to outside world, is to be provided by the external network to which the MN is trying to reach for the service (in this case we assume home network obtains the IP address from the external network and sends it to the Mobile Node). The scenario is depicted in FIG. 1.
Mobile IP is used for providing mobility services when a Mobile Node roams from one (sub) network to another (sub) network. Mobile IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) requires a node in the foreign network acting as a foreign agent, and a node in home agent acting as a Home Agent. When a mobile node roams into a foreign network, it sends a registration request through the Foreign Agent to the Home Agent, indicating that it is available at the given IP address.
When the Mobile Node requires a new service, the following procedure is carried out for the establishment of the tunnel between the MN and the Packet Data Gateway (PDG), as shown in the FIG. 3                1. The IP address of the NGW, which provides the service, is obtained. Then Internet Key Exchange Protocol version 2 (IKEv2) messaging is carried out between the Mobile Node and the NGW (with optional authentication). At the end of the IKEv2 signaling a tunnel is formed between the Mobile Node and the NGW that acts as a data path.        2. Once the tunnel is formed, a Mobile IP Registration request is sent to the Home Agent through FA (Foreign Agent). Then HA sends the Registration reply. If successful, the MN can now securely receive packets sent to it, even when the MN roams in different foreign networks. The message flow/sequence is shown in FIG. 3.
The method of the present invention includes mechanisms for forming a dummy Security Association (SA) when the Home Address of the MN is not known such that only Mobile IP messages are allowed to pass through, making the MIP registration with the Home Agent, and creating the final SA with the NGW when the Home Address is obtained from the MIP Registration Reply, if successful, by creating a child SA.

System and method for providing secure mobility and internet protocol security related services to a mobile node roaming in a foreign network


A method of and device for immobilising a motor vehicle having a foot actuated brake pedal affixed at the end of a pedal arm. A pedal clasping portion of the immobilisation device is hooked around the brake pedal and a rigid strut portion slides from an elongate body portion where it is locked in such extended position to prevent depression of the brake pedal to its actuating position. The pedal clasping portion has the form of a deep channel firmly affixed to the elongate body portion of the device and may have a cutout in one of the flanges through which the pedal arm passes.

The primary security means for protecting motor vehicles from theft or other unauthorised removal are door locks, steering locks and ignition locks. Many modern vehicles are also fitted with electronic immobilisers which prevent a computerised ignition and/or fuel injection system from working if a correctly coded key is used with the vehicle. However thieves have found ways to circumvent such devices by appropriate breakage of components of the vehicle and/or electrical interlinking, sometimes with sophisticated electronic devices carried to the vehicle by the thief.
Many types of mechanical immobilising devices are used as an adjunct to such primary vehicle security. These include bars clamped to steering wheels or gear change levers and clamps on road wheels. But clamps attached to the rims of steering wheels may be easily removed by using a bolt cutter to cut through the steering wheel rim, then bending open the rim, removing the lock, and bending the rim back into position for use in driving the vehicle away.
Many forms of lockable clamps have been developed which prevent rotation and removal of the road wheels. These tend to be more secure than steering wheel clamps but are larger, heavier and more awkward to transport and fit. For many people they are difficult to fit, and are inconvenient in the rain. They are also forcibly removable by a determined thief, particularly if they are not concerned about damaging the tires.


The invention relates to an optoelectronic arrangement having at least one optoelectronic emission component and a monitor component operatively coupled to the emission component to detect at least some radiation radiated by the emission component. A driver circuit of the arrangement is electrically connected to the emission component and the monitor component and a carrier substrate. In this case, the driver circuit is formed as a circuit integrated into the carrier substrate. The monitor component is likewise integrated into the carrier substrate and the emission component is formed as a separate structural part and is arranged on the carrier substrate.

It is known, in optoelectronic arrangements having an emission component, to detect part of the radiation radiated by the emission component by means of a monitor component. The detected signal serves for monitoring the emission power of the emission component. Furthermore, driver circuits are known to which a logical data signal is applied and which generate an analog driver signal for an emission component.
WO 02/084 358 discloses an emission module for an optical signal transmission in which an emission device is arranged on an emission device substrate and a detection device is arranged on a detection device substrate and the emission device substrate and the detection device substrate are arranged one above the other with respect to the direction of the emitted or received light. In this case, the emission device substrate and/or the detection device substrate are transparent to the wavelength emitted by the emission device.


The invention relates to a fluid filter including a filter socket with a mounting flange that can, in a sealing manner, be connected to a companion flange on an associated apparatus, wherein at least one fluid duct for supplying fluid to be filtered and one fluid duct for discharging filtered fluid extends through the flange connection, wherein, in the filter socket, at least one section of at least one fluid duct can be closed off against the companion flange by means of a sealing plate designed with at least one through opening that is sealed against the companion flange and is arranged flush with an apparatus-side fluid duct. Therein, it is provided that the surface area of the sealing plate, as seen on the plane of the flange connection, is smaller than the surface area of the mounting flange and that the sealing plate is inserted in the filter socket in a sealing manner and forms a part of the filter socket.

The present invention relates to a fluid filter, in particular an oil or fuel filter for an internal combustion engine, comprising a filter socket designed with a mounting flange that can, in a sealing manner, be connected to a companion flange on an associated apparatus, in particular on an internal combustion engine, wherein at least one fluid duct for supplying fluid to be filtered from the apparatus to the fluid filter and one fluid duct for discharging filtered fluid from the filter to the apparatus extends through the flange connection, wherein, in the filter socket, at least one section of at least one fluid duct can be closed off against the companion flange by means of a sealing plate designed with at least one through opening that is sealed against the companion flange and is arranged flush with an apparatus-side fluid duct.
A fluid filter of the aforementioned type has already been disclosed in DE 42 42 997 C1. In this fluid filter, which is serving as an oil filter, a sealing plate in the form of an essentially continuous plate is arranged between the mounting flange of an internal combustion engine and the mounting flange of the filter socket of the fluid filter, the sealing plate being provided with two breakthroughs for passing the fluid through the plate. Herein, the outer contour of the sealing plate corresponds with the outer contours of the mounting flanges of the internal combustion engine and the filter socket. In this known fluid filter, it is furthermore preferably provided that the sealing plate, on its side facing the mounting flange of the internal combustion engine, carries sealing webs which correspond with the sealing webs of the mounting flange of the internal combustion engine and that the sealing plate, on its side facing the fluid filter socket, carries sealing webs which correspond with the sealing webs of the fluid filter socket. The sealing plate serves to render a connection diagram of the mounting flange on the side of the internal combustion engine suitable for connection of the fluid filter, the connection diagram being predetermined by the manufacturer of the internal combustion engine and, as a rule, failing to correspond with the ideal connection diagram for the fluid filter.
In this known fluid filter, it is considered to be a disadvantage that the sealing plate requires additional free space, because the fluid filter, caused by the intermediately installed sealing plate, moves away from the internal combustion engine by a measure corresponding to the thickness of the sealing plate. In some applications, this might cause problems in connection with the space available, in particular in the engine compartment of modern motor vehicles. Furthermore, the sealing plate is a component which requires variably extending sealing webs to be installed on either of its sides, thus making its manufacture rather difficult. In addition, the sealing plate must be supplied and mounted as a separate component, causing additional efforts and additional costs. If made of metal, as has, to date, been the case for reasons of stability, the sealing plate also contributes noticeably to a high total weight of the fluid filter including the sealing plate, this being inconsistent with the aim of saving as much weight as possible.

Fluid filter for an internal combustion engine


A storage apparatus and method involves a wheel storage assembly having adjustable pockets for storage therein of an article. The wheel storage assembly generally includes a pocket assembly and opposite wheel assemblies. The pocket assembly may include a core, at least two dividers installed in an offset relationship on the core, the dividers being configured to project substantially radially outwardly from the core to form a free end of each divider, and a clip mounted at the free end of each divider. A base assembly may be employed to rotatably support the wheel storage assembly. A hub of each wheel assembly may be formed with an outer, substantially rounded surface and with a tension belt installed on a base connector of the base assembly and looped around the rounded surface to control the rotational speed of the wheel storage assembly as mounted on the base assembly.

In the art, a number of different racks, bins, pockets, and the like have been proposed in a variety of contexts for storing various kinds of articles, whether stand-alone or configured to be mounted on a wall, piece of furniture, or as part of a closet storage system.
The prior art described above teaches such racks, bin, pockets, and the like, but does not teach a storage apparatus and method involving a wheel storage assembly having adjustable pockets for storage therein of an article. Aspects of the present invention fulfill this need and provide further related advantages as described in the following disclosure.


A make-up cosmetic product, which enhances the appearance of complexion, is evaluated by irradiating lights having a wavelength range of visible light onto a surface on which the make-up cosmetic product is applied, from at least two directions with different incident angles, measuring a plurality of spectra of reflected lights obtained from the irradiated lights, respectively, and comparing the spectrum patterns with each other. This clarifies the optical theory by which the skin looks beautiful and provides a method for evaluating a make-up cosmetic product making the skin look beautiful.

Every people, not limited to women, desire to look beautiful by others. In order to satisfy such a desire, various cosmetic products have been developed. Among them, basic cosmetic products which enhance the functions of the skin and make-up cosmetic products for decoration by means of optical effects can be exemplified. Among these cosmetic products, make-up cosmetic products are thought to be most contributing to making people look beautiful. Consumers mention this point as one of the largest motivations to use make-up cosmetic products.
However, methods of using make-up cosmetic products often depend on the experience and favor of each person. Thus, although scientific guidelines for a method for using a cosmetic product have recently been improved remarkably, it cannot be considered satisfactory at present.
Foundation, in particular, has been known to bear factors to make the skin look beautiful in addition to color and physical properties such as covering ability. For example, technique to make the skin look beautiful has been developed making use of optical effects such as defocusing make-up. We should say, however, that the optical effects and the mechanism to make people look beautiful have not been fully clarified.
That is to say, clarification of the theory to make people look beautiful and a development of a method for evaluating a make-up cosmetic product represented by foundation using the theory have been sought.
At the same time, it has been already known that color and design of costumes, etc., give different impression of beauty, etc., according to the shape and quality of the object to be decorated. For example, for this reason, when women with ordinary appearance wear a dress which looked beautiful when worn by a first-ranked model, the dress is not attractive as such. Also for this reason, color feeling or merits or demerits of the dress cannot be recognized by only watching the dress worn by a mannequin for a costume exhibition. Since even mannequins with a three-dimensional structure provides such a situation, two-dimensional photographs are so much the worse. It is natural that a lot of complaints stating that products shown in catalogues are quite different from real products are made.
As described above, as a significant factor of the cause giving different impression of beauty according to the objects to be decorated, the fact that the texture of human skin, the object, on mannequins and in two-dimensional photos is remarkably different from that of human. Although it is therefore required to reproduce the texture of actual human skin, it is not easy to create decoration (make-up) with the actual texture of human skin artificially.
Various efforts have been made so far to reproduce the texture of human skin. For example, three-dimensional images that utilize polarization to make people to see offset images, respectively, by the right eye and the left eye, and hologram have been attempted. However, they are only an attempt from viewpoints of two-dimension. At present, technique to make decoration with three-dimensional texture of the skin has not yet been accomplished, though it is required.
On the other hand, in the field of cosmetic products, although make-up to paint whole the face thickly, such as Kumadori for Kabuki, has been a main stream, beauty of sensitive feeling has recently taken a favorable turn. As make-up technique to realize such texture, defocusing make-up as mentioned above, etc., have been developed. With respect to these techniques, however, although the texture has been remarkably improved, problems in covering ability, etc., remain. That is, we await the development of make-up cosmetic products with excellent covering ability while possessing the ability to provide the texture of the skin.

Method for evaluating make-up cosmetic product and powder composition


The present invention is a system that provides the user with an downloadable, browser based interface that allows the user, based on his own preferences, to place fungible goods, such as stocks, in a basket as a list and trade all of the goods in the basket as a unit. The interface allows the user to execute trades in/of the basket in a single user action (i.e. one mouse click). A list region is provided where the goods are listed and an execute control initiates trading of the goods in the basket. The user can also specify an amount to be invested, goods weights, a measurement index and how the trades are to be limited. The interface presents, allows changes in (open, close, balance, etc.), summarizes and records the goods transactions as/within the unit basket.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system allowing a user to trade a multi-issue basket of securities using an interface at the users computer and, more particularly, to a system which downloads an interface to the user which allows the user to specify basket contents and initiate trading of the basket as a unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Online trading of stocks and other goods allows a trader/user to select stocks to trade and initiate orders for trading using a single issue trading interface. However, it has become of interest to the financial community to trade a group of stocks. To do so, the trader must create and initiate orders individually for each stock that the user may want to place in the group.
What is needed is a system having an interface that allows the user to trade a basket of stocks and other fungible goods as a unit.
Once a user has obtained a group of stocks, when the user wishes to change the group, such as by selling the group, balancing the group against a target, etc., the user must perform individual transactions for the changes using the single issue interface.
What is needed is an interface that treats a basket of stocks as a unit allowing the user to trade all of the stocks of the basket together.

Basket trading system having an interface for user specification of goods to be traded as a unit


A pool cleaner (1) has a suction head (2) with a flow interrupter having a ball (12) movable to interrupt a primary liquid flow through the suction head and a release means (16) is located downstream of the ball (12) and has a flow passage allowing an auxiliary liquid flow into the tube when the ball interrupts the primary liquid flow. The auxiliary flow abruptly dislodges the ball and allows primary liquid flow.

Such submerged surfaces are typically the underwater surfaces of a swimming pool, and automatic swimming pool cleaners are well known. Most automatic pool cleaners operate by interrupting the flow of water in a tube flowing through a hose to the pool filter pump. The flow is interrupted at a relatively high frequency in order to induce movement in the suction head of the pool cleaner by the abrupt cutting off of the flow of water being sucked up the tube and hose.
The suction head is thus moved over the surface of the pool to clean it. The mechanism used for interrupting the flow, varies from cleaner to cleaner, and it is this mechanism which can be crucial to the success of the cleaner. There must be a sufficient opening time, and size of opening, to allow debris such as leaves and the like to flow through, and the interruption must be of a sufficient frequency and speed to provide suitable movement.

Cleaning apparatus for submerged surfaces


A device determines a communication failure associated with a first network, and selects, based on the communication failure, a failover device from a list of failover devices. The device and the failover devices communicate via short-range communications, and the selected failover device connects to a second network. The device provides, to the selected failover device, a request to receive a service from the first network, and determines whether the selected failover device accepts the request. When the selected failover device accepts the request, the device establishes a communication channel with the selected failover device, and receives the service from the first network via the selected failover device, the communication channel, and the second network.

Bundled media services, such as combination packages of television, telephone, and broadband Internet services, have been successfully offered to customer premises with connections to wide area networks (WANs), such as service provider networks. A customer network device (also referred to as a home router, a residential gateway, a home gateway, etc.) provides an interface from the customer premises (e.g., a local area network (LAN)) to the service provider networks. Several user devices may be utilized by users in the customer premises, and may connect to the service provider networks via the customer network device. For example, personal computers, telephones, monitoring systems, laptop computers, smart phones, tablet computers, etc. may connect to the service provider network via the customer network device. Some user devices may also directly connect to wireless networks, telephone networks, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), etc., without utilizing the customer network device.


The ink set of the invention includes a first ink composition and a second ink composition. The first ink composition contains a first pigment and an alkanediol having 6 or less carbon atoms and having a normal boiling point of 245° C. or more. The content of the first pigment is 1.5% by mass or more, and the content of the alkanediol is 3% by mass or more and 20% by mass or less. The second ink composition contains a second pigment and a penetrant other than the alkanediol. The content of the second pigment is less than 1.5% by mass. The penetrant contained in the second ink composition has an osmotic force higher than that of the alkanediol contained in the first ink composition.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink set and a recording method.
2. Related Art
A recording method using an ink jet recording system is performed by discharging droplets of an ink and allowing the ink droplets to fly and adhere to (land on) a recording medium such as paper. Because of recent innovative progress in the ink jet recording technology, the recording method using the ink jet recording system has been also employed in the field of highly fine image recording (image printing), which was ever achieved by photograph or offset printing.
In order to perform recording with higher fineness by the ink jet recording system, the volume of ink droplets to be discharged must be significantly small, such as several picoliters, and the diameter and the spacing of nozzles for discharging an ink are further reduced. For example, JP-A-2009-287003 discloses an ink jet recording ink containing a specific alkanediol, such as 1,2-hexanediol, that can be applied to a recording head corresponding to high image quality (a recording head composed of first nozzles having a relatively short passage and second nozzles having a relatively long passage alternately arranged at intervals of less than 30 μm).
Unfortunately, since the ink jet recording ink described in JP-A-2009-287003 contains a penetrant having a low boiling point, the volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the organic solvent from a recorded image disadvantageously increase. Accordingly, a reduction in the volume of VOC by using a penetrant having a high normal boiling point may be effective. However, in an ink jet recording ink containing a penetrant having a high normal boiling point, after landing of the ink droplets on a recording medium, water preferentially evaporates to give a penetrant rich state, and the dispersibility of a pigment is destroyed to cause aggregation. Consequently, the graininess of the recorded image is deteriorated. The present inventors have revealed through their studies that this problem significantly occurs in recording on a recording medium having low affinity to ink compositions or in using a thin ink composition having a low pigment concentration.


A user may be exposed to multiple token instances representing stimuli that may influence the affective state of the user. Described herein are embodiments of systems, method, and computer programs for estimating affective response to a token instance of interest, selected from among the token instances. The token instance of interest is selected based on attention levels received from an external source such as, information received from other users, information received from analysis of communications of the users, and/or information received from an external site such as an online retailer or a social network. In one example embodiment, the token instance of interest is a token instance for which attention level of the user is higher than at least one other token instance.

People these days have a seemingly endless number of options when it comes to interacting with the digital world. There is a virtually infinite number of digital media objects and activities at their fingertips such as videos, music, games, websites, and virtual worlds. In addition, the advances in computing make it possible to personalize digital content for users, not only by bringing users specific content of their liking (such as streaming music, videos, loading games, or virtual worlds), but also generating content especially tailored to their taste (e.g., by rendering specific images in videos or games). Such personalization makes it possible for each user to get the most suitable, enjoyable and effective content on demand. However, in order to optimize and tune an experience to an individual user's liking, it is important to be able to discern the user's specific reaction to various objects and/or changes in specific details.
One of the main problems limiting widespread adoption of advanced personalization of digital experiences is the inadequacy of current user preference modeling. While models of a user's implicit preferences can be created by analysis of the user's digital footprint (e.g., visit to websites, online purchases, or semantic analysis of user correspondences), they can typically only answer broad questions regarding the user's preferences toward the entire content or experience. For example, such models are able to provide answers to broad questions like: Does the user like action videos or romantic comedies? Does the user like cars? Similarly, analysis of the user's explicit preference indications (e.g., Facebook's "Like" or Google's "+1" buttons) only provides information on the user's feeling towards content items in their entirety (e.g., a website, a video clip, or a book purchased on Amazon).
One area in computer science, which has been showing tremendous progress in recent years, is affective computing. Advances in the area of affective computing are making it possible to continuously monitor a user's emotional state (also called affective response), using a wide array of sensors that measure physiological signals and/or behavioral ques. As the technology advances and the systems used to measure affective response are becoming cheaper, much smaller and more comfortable to wear, affective computing is moving from laboratories to day-to-day applications. However, even measuring a user's affective response, usually only provides indications of the user's attitude to the content in its entirety, such as revealing the user's response to a whole viewed scene, or the last minute of game play.
The aforementioned methods fall short when it comes to understanding the user's attitude towards specific details, which may be valuable for effective personalization. These methods also fall short of answering simple questions such as, how does the user feel towards a specific character in a game? Which villain elicits a stronger reaction in a battle scene? Would a user prefer that a presenter in an insurance advertisement be a man or a woman? Should that presenter be dressed in casual or formal attire? Should the sofa in the background be blue or beige? Knowing such details can help make personalized content that suits a user's specific taste, which makes the content more engaging and likeable.
Thus, there is a need to be able to discern specific details regarding a user's preferences in order to make more accurate user models and improve content personalization for users.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Estimating affective response to a token instance of interest utilizing attention levels received from an external source


Device for detecting patterns on a travelling substrate, namely on a substrate being deposited on a sheet or on web matter, wherein the substrate is a metallized foil travelling in a travelling direction. The device comprises a housing for a first incidental beam issued from a first source of light, a second incidental beam issued from a second source of light, an optical measuring system, a photosensitive sensor respectively delivering beams reflected from the substrate and an electronic unit connected to a communication port. The optical measuring system is telecentric, the first incidental beam crosses a telecentric lighting system and the second incidental beam crosses an oblique lighting system.

The present invention refers to a method and a device for detecting patterns on a travelling substrate, in particular on a substrate being deposited on a foil or sheet matter.
Such substrates usually consisting of stamping foils. The substrates are intended for being deposited on sheet or foil matter, which are, for example, used in the packaging industry for applying metallic foils on blanks or on any other sheet or foil material. That operation can typically be carried out either in a platen press, or a rotary press or any other processing machine, by means of a stamping foil and printing plates that are, together with the processable sheet or foil matter, pressed against one another between upper and lower tools of the press or of the processing machine. Under the pressure generated in the presses or processing machines, a stamping foil portion is thus diecut and deposited by heat-sealing on the sheet or foil matter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,254 describes in more detail one of the presses and namely a device enabling registering pre-printed patterns on a foil with patterns of a stamping press.
There are plenty of types of stamping foils, among which are the reflective plain specular foils, the holographic diffraction foils and the reflective structured foils. The latter are of iridescent and variable effect offering patterns more or less visible depending on the angle at which one observes them.
The regular plain foils are usually uniform from one end to the other and do not comprise any specific pattern. They can thus be processed into the press without worrying about a specific printing mark location. Only an optimal use of the matter aiming to reduce the waste will be the main feature taken into account for defining the foil travel.
For hologram foils, the machine operator must be able to ensure that the foil travel is perfectly controlled so that the patterns, i.e. holograms, are at any time in perfect register with the printing plates applying them on plate elements. Even a slight shift is not allowed because the pattern would thus be altered or it would cause an eccentric application of the hologram.
when using so called structured foils, it is advisable to ensure that foil portions are contrarily not applied by the patterns. Such foils effectively comprise connections regularly distributed each 50 or 60 cm, for example. The connections depend on the foil manufacturing embodiment itself. They are issued from the decorative metallic layer printing on the supporting foil. Since printing is processed in a rotary press equipped with a cylindrical printing plate supporting the geometrical structure to print, this produces a fine transverse line of the order of one or a few tens of mm. width to appear on the foil at each revolution of the printing cylinder. That connection is directly issued from the cylindrical printing plate which has a pattern that can obviously not cover the entire 360° of the cylinder.
Such foil connections can also appear on holographic foils. When the space between two connections is not related to a pitch multiple of the foil holograms, it is quite obvious that one holographic pattern will unfortunately step over a connection. When manufacturing high quality packaging, it is not admissible that a holographic pattern crossed by a connection is deposited on a packaging box blank. In such a case, one will have to switch the holographic pattern and deposit the next one.
Using the word pattern, one understands here and in the whole following specification, that it can either be a hologram pre-printed on the foil, or a foil connection or a transition between two substrates of different structure, as well as a register mark or even the imprint left by the pattern on the plate-like element. From time to time, one ensures that the pattern, i.e. a holographic pattern, is in perfect register with the printing plates, although in other cases, one will on the contrary ensure that the pattern, i.e. a foil connection, is effectively never stamped by the patterns on plate-like elements.
It is known to use foil scanning devices enabling detecting, before stamping, the threading of such a pattern and then consequently modifying the stamping foil travel. Such scanning devices comprise at least one foil lighting unit, an objective and a photoelectric sensor which translates the intensity of the light reflected by the foil into an answer signal.
The goals of the devices are conventionally simple and have each foil portion pitch to be examined under a different angle varying also according to the measure spacing, i.e. according to the distance between the objective related to the foil plan. The scanning devices are also equipped with one or two symmetrical lights, external to the measuring optical and bent with respect to the optical axis of measure. If such devices are well adapted for scanning diffusing foils wherein the light is precisely diffused into the entire solid angle formed by the two lights, they become on the other hand inappropriate for scanning specular foils wherein the light is reflected apart the opening of the measuring optical.
In other cases, the lighting device external to the measuring optical comprises a semi-transparent mirror arranged at 45° in front of the objective, as well as a source of light located perpendicularly to the measuring axis. The source of light, partially reflected by the blade, lights the foil according to the same axis than the optical measuring system. If the substrate is metallized, the reflected light travels back in the direction of the objective, one part reflected by the semi-transparent blade is lost, and the second part enters the objective and enables measuring. When using diffusing substrates, a large part of the incident light is diffused in all directions after reflection and only a very tiny part is sent back towards the objective. That returning part is not or only very little depending on the light incidence angle. It is thus not necessary for the light to be in the same axis than the axis of the measuring optical. One will rather try to get a light of a maximum intensity which is often easier to obtain with an indirect light.
With matrix systems, there are lighting devices associating at the same time a direct light, perpendicular to the foil plane, and an indirect light, arranged crosswise according to that plane. However, as those lighting devices are very large in dimensions, the sensors including at the same time a measuring unit as well as a lighting unit comprise a simple measuring objective, as previously described, as well as a less performing lighting system, either of indistinct type or direct type. The photoelectric sensors connected to these cameras are intended to deliver images of a foil portion with a surface usually equivalent to several thousands of pixels. Such sensors generate thus a huge quantity of images data which are hard to process because of short times.
Among the various sensors known to date, one notices that the ones having the best signal-to-noise ratio with structured foils, become unreliable when using other foil types with specular effect. No sensor today enables treating efficiently and reliably all foil types, either metallized or not, diffusing, structured, refracting or diffracting. The preferred solution today aims to provide at least two sensors in the platen press, one dedicated, for example, to structured foils and the other more specifically to all other foil types. It is then necessary to manually switch over to one or the other sensor according to the type of foil used. Because the average cost for such a sensor is already almost high, such a solution is thus economically not very convenient.
Another drawback of the known devices consists in that the choice of a preferred light in accordance with the substrate used will often depend on the know-how of the machine operator as well as on results of multiple tests. Moreover, the answer quality delivered by the sensor will also vary with respect to the angular positioning of the lighting devices and the scanning device according to the foil plan. A bad setting will not enable reaching a sufficiently contrasted signal-to-noise ratio ensuring detecting the threading of a requested pattern, all the more when the foil bottom is structured and comprises for example a plurality of false interconnected pattern.
With the recent use of structured foils, it is particularly difficult for the current sensors to differentiate the foil connection from an edge of a geometrical shape constituting the structured foil bottom. When the latter is checkered, for example, it becomes particularly difficult to detect a pattern, like a foil connection, since the signal-to-noise ratio delivered by the sensor is not sufficiently well-marked.

Method and device for detecting patterns on a substrate


A package, wireless sensor module, wireless sensor node and wireline sensor node are disclosed including a radar configured to embed beneath vehicles in pavements, walkways, parking lot floors and runways referred to herein as in ground usage. An access point interfacing to at least one of the sensors is disclosed to provide traffic reports, parking reports, landing counts, takeoff counts, aircraft traffic reports and/or accident reports based upon the sensor's messages regarding the radar and possibly magnetic sensor readings. A runway sensor network is disclosed of radar sensors embedded in lanes of at least one runway for estimating the landing count and/or takeoff count effect of aircraft.

Previous art for radar detectors typically use a single radar mounted above the vehicle (on the side of the roadway or directly above it) to detect the motion of vehicles. As such, these are motion detectors and not presence detectors. Also, previous radar detectors consume large amounts of energy because they are far from the vehicles they are trying to detect.

Apparatus and method using radar in the ground to detect and/or count bicycles


There is provided a curable composition for forming an anti-reflective film. The composition includes: (a) hollow silica nanoparticles; (b) a siloxane binder having reactive groups; (c) at least one additional material having reactive groups; (d) an initiator; and (e) solvent. The siloxane binder is present in an amount that is at least 50% by weight of the total weight of (siloxane binder+additional materials having reactive groups). The weight ratio of hollow silica nanoparticles to the total of (siloxane binder+additional materials having reactive groups) is no greater than 1.75 to 1.

Anti-reflective (AR) coatings on the topmost surfaces of display devices have become increasingly important in the display industry. This is particularly true in order to achieve an enhanced viewing experience, especially in a strong ambient light environment. Besides functioning as an antireflective coating, this layer of film is also expected to behave as an anti-scratch coating with anti-fingerprint properties. Essentially, this is an ultrathin hardcoat on mobile device surfaces. The film thickness (FT) is selected to ensure that the reflected light rays from the top and the bottom surfaces of the AR film are opposite in phase, i.e. the phase difference is 180°, so that the rays reflected from the top and the bottom surfaces interfere destructively to cancel each other. If the magnitude of the reflected light from the top and the bottom surfaces is the same, there is no reflected light to the target wavelength. The AR coating needs to have a low refractive index in order to achieve this.
There is a continuing need for AR coatings which have improved properties.


A portable unit assists a visually impaired user within a store by providing an output, using speech synthesis, of his location based on reading various barcode labels. The location of each barcode label is determined from data stored within the portable unit. The portable unit also determines a path between the user""s location and an item he selects to find, describing the path using speech synthesis. The user can select, by speech or by depressing a button, items for a target list. Preferably, some barcode labels identify an end of an aisle, which cause the portable unit to describe, using speech synthesis, items on the aisle and items in the target list on the aisle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device and method for assisting a visually impaired person to determine his location within a site, such as a store, and, more particularly, to a device and method for locating his position and for locating various products offered for sale by reading and interpreting barcode information.
2. Background Art
Large retail stores, such as supermarkets and discount stores of various types often place signs above the various aisles listing the types of products that are displayed on the particular aisles. While signs of this kind are often very helpful to people having normal vision, such signs are often of little or no advantage of people having impaired vision. What is needed is a convenient system providing similar advantages for people with impaired vision.
Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code labels are pervasive in the retail marketplace. Such labels are generally printed on product containers in a conspicuous manner to provide a simple interface between the product and a computer terminal. While bar codes are used for many purposes, the most pervasive purpose is to provide a rapid manner of identifying a particular product being purchased at the cash register. The bar code is decoded, using a bar-code scanner near the cash register, into a single multi-digit UPC number, unique to the type of product. However, additional information is needed to make a meaningful determination of the type of product. This information is typically stored in the retail establishment in the form of a database, which is accessed by a computer system communicating with the cash register terminal and with the bar-code scanner. For each UPC number corresponding to a product in the inventory of the store, the database provides detailed information describing the manufacturer, the size of the product, etc. This kind of information is the same, since it identifies the product itself, regardless of the store or organization selling the product. Typically, the database also includes information, accessed using the same UPC number, which, while being determined for the particular type of product, is unique for the store or organization selling the product. Such information defines, for example, the price for which the product is to be sold.
A number of U.S. Patents describe portable devices for reading bar codes, including the UPC barcodes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,389, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a wand for reading such codes, including a light emitting diode, a silicon photodetector, and a fiber optic structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,185, the disclosure of which is also incorporated herein by reference, describes a bar code reader having a sensor unit to be mounted on the user""s finger and a decoder unit to be mounted on his wrist, with the sensor and decoder units being connected by an electrical cable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,972, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a bar code scanner unit mounted on the back of the hand or wrist of a user, freeing the hands and arms of the user to perform normal manual tasks. U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,140, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a miniature optical scanner mounted on a finger-sized ring, allowing the user to wear the scanner on a finger, with a separate unit housing other components of the scanning system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,800, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a bar code reading speech synthesis device, which includes means for reading a bar code and accessing internal or external memory to supply speech data to a speech synthesizer based on the bar code numerical value.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,015, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a system, including infrared transmission capabilities, for communicating between a store computer and locations in the aisles of a retail facility. A hard-wired grid connects the store computer to a plurality of transceivers located in zones throughout the facility and the transceivers establish a wireless link to the locations.
The use of a bar code reading wand attached to a small processor and a voice chip, allowing a person to xe2x80x9creadxe2x80x9d UPC bar codes, determining the type and size of a product, is described in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 4, September 1987, p. 151. The device would ideally have a small speaker, a headphone jack, and a connector through which information could be fed into the memory of the device. The information, which could be downloaded from a personal computer, could be new product information, price when available, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,174 describes a device and method for assisting visually-impaired persons to obtain verbal information from consumer product bar codes. The device includes a scanner unit, a processing unit, a power unit, and a voice synthesizer. The method involves the person scanning the bar code of the product with the scanner unit to provide a first signal which is communicated to the processing unit for locating, retrieving, and outputting product information corresponding to the bar code in a form for the voice synthesizer to generate a verbal output to convey the information to the person.
While the devices of the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 4, September 1987, p. 151, and of U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,174 provide a visually impaired person with a level of information regarding products available for purchase which cannot be normally obtained without the assistance of another person, what is needed is a system additionally providing information relative to the movement of the user within a retail environment, with assistance in determining how to reach the location of various specific products for sale in the environment.
The prior art describes a number of navigation systems using radio frequency (RF) transponders placed at various locations within an environment to be traversed and a hand-held RF transmitter or transceiver. For example, a navigation system for the visually impaired, consisting of a handheld device which may be in the form of a cane containing a radio frequency (RF) identification reader or base station, is described in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 10, October 1995, p. 103. Provision is made for audio feedback from the reader to the person using the system. RF identification transponders or tags are placed at key locations to mark a route to be followed. The tags may be coded in such a way to indicate their coordinates. For example, tags may be placed at intervals along a corridor, with a coded message being related to the user indicating the distance traversed along the corridor. The tags may also be placed on objects, such as furniture or appliances, to aid in their location or avoidance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,294, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes an RF message apparatus for aiding ambulatory travel by handicapped users, such as blind individuals. The apparatus generally comprises a portable RF transceiver carried by the user and a stationary base RF transceiver unit. The portable RF transmitter transmits a message request signal in response to manual activation of a transmit button by the user. When this signal is received by the base unit, the base unit transmits an audio message through a modulated RF signal to the portable transceiver. A tape cassette within the base unit is used to generate the audio message. The audio message provides location information, such as the streets of an intersection at which the base unit is located.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,305 describes a dialogic style RF guidance system comprising multiple stationary base-sets established at the destination and a hand-held apparatus carried by a visually handicapped person, who reaches his destination by communicating with the base-set and by receiving messages from the base-set through microphones or external speakers. The base set produces guidance information in response to a requesting signal made from the hand-held apparatus. The apparatus is preferably located in buildings, bus stops, railway stations, and crossings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,017 describes an autorouting navigation system for directing one or more visually impaired persons to a physical location. A portable navigation unit includes an input device for selecting a target location corresponding to a physical location of a plurality off location beacons, a receiver configured to receive signals from the location beacons, a memory storing information correlating the locations of the location beacons, and an output device for communicating with the user.
While such systems, using RF transponders assist a visually impaired person in navigating a space equipped with the necessary transponders, what is needed is a system making such assistance widely available by not requiring the use of such transponders. Also, what is needed is a system providing for the identification of various products available in stores. Furthermore, in comparison to the system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,305, what is needed is a system for use in crowded interior areas, such as retail stores, in which audio feedback is provided through individual, hand-held devices which may be equipped with earphones, instead of through loudspeakers within stationary base units.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,699 describes a locator device for the visually impaired including a transmitter and a dual sensing system having a receiver with earphones which are attached to opposite sides of a unit worn on the user""s head. The transmitter can be attached to a variety of objects to be found, such as a bathroom door, traffic signal, or radio. The sensing system is capable of determining a direction and distance of the signal, and capable of producing first and second audible notifiers in each of the earphones. The notifier produced in each earphone is different and is associated with the direction and distance of the transmitted signal. When the notifier produced in each earphone is the same, the user is directly in front of the object to be located. While this system facilitates the location of a single object to which the transmitter is attached, what is needed is a system having a capability of finding a large number of different objects, such as items within a store that the user decides to purchase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,658, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes systems, methods, and apparatus provided for conducting local wireless audio signal transmissions from a local audio signal source to a person within a local signal transmission area, with the transmissions being conducted, for example, over the 900 MHz local transmission band to a portable receiver unit. This patent is illustrative of apparatus for transmitting information for a relatively short distance within a building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,757 describes a portable shopping system provided with an improved data presentation system for presenting a customer with desired data on a portable terminal. The portable terminal includes audio as well as video presentation means which are used to provide customer-specific marketing files to promote the sale of identified items and a scanner for reading bar codes. In a preferred embodiment, a portable terminal having an integrated machine code (barcode) reader and a radio is provided with a graphical user interface such as a xe2x80x9cweb browserxe2x80x9d and a display for illustrating help and instructional files associated with a selected item identified with the machine code reader. For example, a consumer using a hand-held terminal receives marketing, pricing, and additional information from a central host for products scanned with the terminal. What is needed is a means providing information helping a visually impaired individual to navigate the aisles of a site, such as a store and information helping such an individual find particular items within the site without having to find and scan them first.
It is a first objective of the invention to provide a visually impaired person with an ability to determine his location within a site, such as a retail store, by reading barcode labels within the site.
It is another objective of the invention to provide a visually impaired person with a way to determine an optimum path within a site from his present position to a location of a specified product.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide a visually impaired person with an ability to form a target list of products to be purchased, and thereafter to indicate a proximity of products on the target list as he moves through a store.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a system for providing location information within a site allows a visually impaired person to determine his location within the site by causing the system to read a barcode label and to compare a coded value generated from the barcode pattern with values stored in the first data structure. When a stored value equal to the coded value is found, a corresponding set of location coordinates describes the location, which is described to the user by means of synthetic speech. The system includes a number of barcode labels placed at a number of locations within the site and a portable device. Each barcode label within the number of barcode labels includes a pattern of parallel markings representing a coded value. The portable device includes a barcode reader producing electrical signals in response to patterns of the parallel markings, an audio amplifier, an audio speaker driven by the audio amplifier, data storage, and a processor. The data storage includes a first data structure having a first field containing data representing a plurality of coded values and a second field containing data representing a plurality of sets of location coordinates. Each coded value in the number of coded values is represented by a pattern of parallel markings on a barcode label within the number of barcode labels. Each set of location coordinates within the number of sets of location coordinates represents a location of a label having a coded value in the first field associated in the first data structure with the set of location coordinates in the second field. The processor is programmed to generate a coded value represented by a pattern of parallel markings read by the barcode reader in response to the electrical signals produced by the barcode reader, to find a set of location coordinates within the second field of the first data structure corresponding to the coded value, to generate a pattern of synthetic speech describing a location represented by the set of location coordinates, and to cause the audio amplifier to drive the speaker in response to a generated pattern of synthetic speech.
Preferably, the system also provides a capability to find the location of an item within a number of items placed at a number of locations within the site, with the first data structure additionally having a third field containing a number of descriptions representing the items. Each description in the number of descriptions is associated with a set of location coordinates in the second field, with the set of location coordinates describing a location of an item described by the description. The processor is additionally programmed to accept an input describing an item in the number of items and to determine a location of the item by finding a set of location coordinates associated with a description of the item in the first data structure.
Preferably, the system also has a capability to determine a path between the user""s position, determined from the most recently read barcode label, and the location of a particular item he has chosen to find. Therefore, the processor is additionally programmed to determine a path between a location represented by the set of location coordinates corresponding to the coded value in the data structure and the location of the item, and to generate a pattern of synthetic speech describing the coordinates.
Preferably, the system can also provide the user with a list of items near the user""s location, with the processor being additionally programmed to form a list of descriptions of items at a location represented by the set of location coordinates corresponding to the coded value in the data structure, and to generate a pattern of synthetic speech describing the list of descriptions of the items.

Providing a location and item identification data to visually impaired shoppers in a site having barcode labels

International Business Machines Corporation


The preferred embodiment the invention proposes pertains to a three-phase induction motor, and operates on the premises of having the extension cords on two ends of the motor embedded with several balancing eccentric washers and a balancing eccentric block added, of which the eccentric block contains a sleeve bearing, and one end of the eccentric block is fitted with a bolt, with the bolt head covered with rubber; o-ring is fitted between the balancing eccentric washer and balancing eccentric block, whereby using the invention's frequency changer for controlling an AC 3-phase induction motor serves to generate multiple frequencies for generating different amplitudes, which can be use to control the speed and load emitted between the eccentric block and balancing eccentric washer.

As conventional vibrators often have the speed controlled through the PCB of a DC motor, which when adopted in vibrator only serves to generate an up-down vibration that not only offers limited strength but also falls short of satisfying the consumer's diverse demands, where a DC motor not only needs to put through a commutator for current regulation, but the process is also deemed inconvenient and cost ineffective.


Screen printing is performed by using a pressure squeegee, a main squeegee, and a scraper squeegee. Since a screen is pressed by the pressure squeegee in advance, an angle between the main squeegee and the screen is kept constant. After printing is finished by the main squeegee, the scraper squeegee scrapes a remaining ink.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a screen printer and its screen printing method. Particularly, this invention relates to the screen printer using a plurality of squeegees. This invention also relates to the screen printer using a pressure unit for pressing a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 12 illustrates a perspective view of the screen printer. FIG. 13 illustrates a schematic side view of the screen printer. FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic top view of the screen printer.
In FIG. 12, a screen printer 101, a base of the screen printer 102, a table 103 which is attached for allowing movement, a guide rail 104 for guiding the movement of the table, an operation box 105 of the screen printer, an operation switch 107 attached to the operation box, and a printing unit 109 for performing screen printing on a work placed on the table 103 are illustrated. In FIGS. 13 and 14, a work 110 placed on the table 103, a screen plate 200, a screen frame 1 of the screen plate 200, and a screen 201 affixed to the screen plate 200 are illustrated. A slider 106 for holding a squeegee 111 and a scraper (not illustrated) slides in directions of arrow A and arrow D, and a slide base 108 slides the slider 106.
The table 103 is attached for allowing left and right sliding along the guide rail 104 provided on the base 102. When the table 103 moves under the printing unit 109, the table 103 is stopped by a stopper (not illustrated), and the printing unit 109 performs screen printing on the work 110.
FIG. 15 illustrate an example of the screen plate 200.
The screen plate 200 for a combination screen is illustrated in FIG. 15.
In FIG. 15, the screen frame 1, a support screen 2, a print screen 3, and a joint part 4 of the support screen and the print screen are illustrated. The screen 201 includes the support screen 2, the print screen 3, and the joint part 4.
FIG. 16 illustrates a front surface of the print screen 3.
FIG. 17 illustrates a back surface of the print screen 3.
In FIGS. 16 and 17, a screen-mesh 30, and an emulsion 31 provided on a back of the screen-mesh 30 are illustrated. An opening 32 is provided in the emulsion 31. The opening 32 is provided for generating a print image. When an ink (paste) passes through the opening and sticks to the work 110, screen printing is performed on the work.
FIGS. 18 and 19 show cross-sectional views at Xxe2x80x94X part of the screen printer illustrated in FIG. 14. A squeegee holder 120 and a scraper holder 320 are attached to the slider 106 for allowing up and down movement by a mechanism which is not illustrated. In FIG. 18, the slider 106 is moving in the direction of arrow A, and the squeegee 111, secured for example, against squeegee bracket 111a, is pushed down in the direction of arrow B. Printing is performed on the work 110 by using an ink 51. The scraper holder 320 holds a scraper 311, and the scraper holder is moved up in a direction of arrow C during a printing operation by the squeegee. When printing is performed by using the squeegee 111, printing is performed with a high pressure. As illustrated in FIG. 18, the screen is pressed by a pressure applied to the squeegee at a point R in which the squeegee and the screen contact each other. When the squeegee moves, the point R moves on the surface of the screen.
In case of FIG. 19, the slider moves in a direction of arrow D. When the slider moves in the direction of arrow D, the squeegee holder 120 is pulled up in a direction of arrow E. At the same time, the scraper holder 320 is pushed down in a direction of arrow F, and the scraper 311 moves on the surface of the screen in contact with the screen 201. The scraper 311 has a function for pushing the ink 51, which has been moved to a right side of FIG. 19 by the squeegee 111, back to a left side of FIG. 19. The scraper 311 also has a function for re-coating the surface of the screen evenly with the ink after printing is performed by the squeegee 111.
The screen printer performs screen printing by moving the squeegee 111 in the direction of arrow A as illustrated in FIG. 18. As illustrated in FIG. 19, when the slider is moved in the direction of arrow D, the ink is returned, and the surface of the screen is evenly re-coated with the ink.
FIG. 20 illustrates a sectional view of the screen in case that the squeegee 111 in FIG. 18 has performed printing on the work 110. The ink 51 passes through the opening 32 of the emulsion provided on the back side of the screen-mesh, and sticks to the work 110. Since the squeegee 111 is made of an elastic material, e.g., urethane rubber, etc., when the squeegee 111 has passed, the ink 51 on the surface of the screen is evenly scraped.
In FIG. 21, the scraper 311 returns the ink. The scraper 311 is made of a metal, e.g., stainless, etc. The scraper includes a taper part 312 at an end, and contacts with the surface of the screen at point Q. Since the scraper 311 is made of the metal, e.g., stainless, etc., when the scraper 311 has passed, the surface of the screen is evenly coated with the ink 51. In this way, an evenly coated condition is generated. Therefore, next printing can be performed evenly by the squeegee 111.
FIG. 22 illustrates the printing unit 109 in a printing state. The screen 201 is evenly coated with the ink 51.
(a) of FIG. 22 illustrates a state before starting printing. In (b) of FIG. 22, a pressure P is applied to the squeegee 111, and printing is started. In (c) of FIG. 22, patterns 52, 53 and 54 have been printed on the work 110 from patterns which are generated on the screen 201 in advance. In (d) of FIG. 22 illustrates a time of completing printing is illustrated further including patterns 55 and 56. During printing in (b)-(d) of FIG. 22, the pressure P applied to the squeegee 111 is constant as shown in (e) of FIG. 22.
When printing is performed as illustrated in FIG. 22, a height H1 of the pattern 52 and a height H2 of the pattern 54 illustrated in (d) of FIG. 22 may differ. Even though the screen 201 is tightly stretched over the screen frame 1, angles vary in positions on the screen 201. Therefore, even if the constant pressure P is applied downward during printing, there is a possibility that a printed pattern may be spread forward in some printing position. Hence, such problems like uneven thickness of the ink on the work 110 and uneven printing have to be solved.
As shown in FIG. 22, angles xcex1, xcex2, and xcex3 between the screen 201 and the work 110 change during printing (xcex1 less than xcex2 less than xcex3). Since the angles between the screen 201 and the work 110 vary in printing positions, there are solving problems such as uneven thickness of the ink on the work 110 and uneven printing.
FIG. 23 illustrates a method for solving the above-stated uneven thickness of the ink.
In FIG. 23, during printing, the screen plate 200 is lifted up in a direction of arrow X by using a detaching apparatus (plate detaching apparatus) which is not illustrated. By detaching the screen plate 200 from a side in which printing is finished, changes in a tension in the positions on the screen 201 are intended to be ignored. Consequently, the height H1 of the pattern 52 and, for example, pattern 56 printed at an edge area of the work 110 and the height H2 of the pattern 54 printed at a center of the work 110 can become almost equal with the height patters 53 and 55 also being almost equal to edge patterns 52 and 56 and center pattern 54.
However, according to the method of lifting one side of the screen plate 200 as illustrated in FIG. 23, an excessive pressure is applied to the screen plate 200. As a result, printing patterns provided on the screen 201 might be shifted, and a durability of the screen plate 200 might be reduced.
FIG. 24 illustrates a screen printer with two squeegees according to the related art.
In (a) of FIG. 24, printing is performed by using the squeegee 111. In (b) of FIG. 24, printing is performed by using a squeegee 112.
The screen printer in FIG. 24 can print in both directions of arrows A and D. After printing is performed in (a) of FIG. 24, the work 110 is taken out, and another work 110 is put in. Then, printing is performed in (b) of FIG. 24. By repeating operations in (a) and (b) of FIGS. 24, printing can be performed in a higher speed.
FIG. 25 also illustrates screen printing by using two squeegees.
Squeegees 113 and 114 are arranged in a straight line. The screen printer as illustrated in FIG. 25 is used in case that an area between the squeegees 113 and 114 should not be printed or can not be printed due to roughness on the work.
FIGS. 24 and 25 illustrate the screen printer using two squeegees. However, as stated, no consideration is made for printing evenly on the work.
It is an object of a preferred embodiment of this invention to provide a screen printer for printing evenly on a work. Particularly, it is an object of a preferred embodiment of this invention to provide a screen printer for printing in higher quality by using a plurality of squeegees.
According to one aspect of this invention, a screen printer for performing screen printing on a work by using a squeegee includes a main squeegee for performing screen printing and a supplementary squeegee for supplementing screen printing by the main squeegee during screen printing by the main squeegee.
According to another aspect of this invention, a screen printer includes two squeegees, and the two squeegees are used together successively to print a determined area on a screen for one stroke.
According to another aspect of this invention, a screen printing method for a screen printer which has a main squeegee and a supplementary squeegee includes a step of performing screen printing by moving of the main squeegee in a printing direction with pressing a screen and a step of moving of the supplementary squeegee in the printing direction with pressing the screen by keeping a determined distance from the main squeegee in the printing direction during screen printing by the main squeegee.
According to another aspect of this invention, a screen printer for performing screen printing on a work by using a squeegee includes a main squeegee for performing screen printing and a pressure unit provided ahead in a printing direction during screen printing by the main squeegee for pressing a screen against the work.
According to another aspect of this invention, a screen printing method for a screen printer which has a main squeegee and a pressure unit includes a step of performing screen printing by moving the main squeegee in a printing direction with pressing a screen and a step of moving the pressure unit in the printing direction with pressing the screen by keeping a determined distance in the printing direction from the main squeegee during screen printing by the main squeegee.
According to another aspect of this invention, a screen printer for performing screen printing includes a first squeegee and a second squeegee for moving forward and backward. The first squeegee is a pressure squeegee for pressing the screen and the second squeegee is a main squeegee for performing screen printing in the forward movement, and the second squeegee is the pressure squeegee for pressing the screen and the first squeegee is the main squeegee for performing screen printing in the backward movement.
Further features and applications of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
Other objects features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings.

Screen printer and a screen printing method


For reducing the complexity of adaptive systems such as equalizers, echo cancellers and clock recovery systems, errors are often determined only once per n samples, where n is an integer. If the input signal of such an adaptive system comprises cyclostationary components, it may occur that the adaptive system does not converge to a desired value. By selecting n in such a way that the greatest common divisor of n and the cyclostationary period m of the input signal is equal to 1, convergence of the adaptive system is ensured.

The invention relates to a data receiver comprising an adaptive system for estimating at least one measure of a characteristic quantity of an input signal applied to an input of the data receiver, which adaptive system includes:
error determining means for determining an error in the estimate of the measure of the characteristic quantity of the input signal; PA1 adapting means for adapting at discrete instants the estimate of the measure of the characteristic quantity of the input signal; PA1 the input of the data receiver is coupled to a first input of the error determining means; PA1 for providing the error an error output of the error determining means is coupled to an input of the adapting means for periodically conveying the error with a period nT, where n is an integer and T a rational fraction (.ltoreq.1) of an interval between received symbols; PA1 at least one output of the adapting means, the output having an output signal which forms a measure of the characteristic quantity of the input signal, is coupled to a second input of the error determining means; PA1 the adapting means adapt their output signal at discrete instants in order to minimize the error.
in which
An adaptive system of this type is known from European Patent Specification 0 065 796.
When signals are transmitted by way of a transmission medium, for example, a subscriber line of the public telephone network, or stored on a recording medium, for example, a magnetic tape or disc, it is generally necessary when these signals are received or reproduced respectively, to process the received signals before the desired output signals are present.
The necessary signal processing is usually determined by the properties of the transmission or recording medium respectively, such as, for example, the frequency characteristic, by the properties of the signal itself, such as, for example, the spectral power density, or by the properties of any occurring interfering signals, such as, noise or cross talk.
If said properties of the medium, of the signal or of the interfering signals are known in advance, and do not change with time, the signal processing necessary for obtaining the desired output signal may be performed in a standard manner.
Usually, however, these properties will not be known in advance or will change with time. The use of a system that performs the necessary signal processing in a standard manner, will generally not lead to an optimum recovery of the desired output signal.
In order to avoid this, adaptive systems are often used which are capable of adapting the signal processing to the properties of the transmission channel, to the properties of the transmitted signals or to the interfering signals.
Examples of suchlike systems are adaptive equalizers, adaptive echo cancellers and clock recovery systems. These systems comprise an error determining unit which derives an error from both the input signal and the estimate of a characteristic quantity of the input signal, which error is a measure for the deviation of the estimated characteristic quantity of the input signal relative to the real characteristic quantity of the input signal. A characteristic quantity may be, for example, the intersymbol interference, cross talk or echoes present in the input signal.
If the characteristic quantity of the input signal relates to properties of an interfering signal present in that input signal (for example, echoes or intersymbol interference), this interfering signal may be cancelled with the aid of a signal processing unit controllable by means of the estimate of the characteristic quantity, so that an output signal may be obtained which is substantially free from that interfering signal.
In the receiver according to the state of the art as shown in FIG. 1, the characteristic quantity to be estimated of the input signal is an echo of the signal transmitted by the station concerned and present in this input signal. This echo signal is caused by cross talk of the hybrid circuit B and reflection of the transmitted signal in the remote-end hybrid circuit. This echo signal is represented by the parameter values of the filter E in the adaptive system which values are necessary for obtaining a replica of this echo signal. C indicates a transmission path, and arrows along this path denote a unidirectional send and receive path respectively.
In the data receiver comprising the echo canceller according to the state of the art as shown in FIG. 1, the error determining unit comprises the digital filter E, the D/A converter F, the filter G, the subtractor circuit H, the sample-and-hold circuit S and the section of the circuit Q in which the error is determined on the basis of the input signals of the circuit Q. On the basis of the error r(t) the estimate of the characteristic quantity of the input signal may now be adapted for error minimization. In the known data receiver this adaptation is performed by the adapting means Q adapting the parameters of the filter E on the basis of the signal r(i) derived from the error r(t) by means of the A/D converter N and switch P.
Generally, the error is determined periodically with a period T, and a desired adaptation of parameters of the signal processing unit is made. Thus, every T seconds an adaptation of these parameters is made.
The receiver according to the state of the art further comprises a multiplier XM with a multiplying factor M, and a low-pass filter D. Symbols and signals are indicated by a(k) and b(k), and e(t), r(t) and s(t) respectively. A clock signal is indicated by 1/T.sub.s.
The block 10 represents a data signal source producing data symbols a(k), wherein k represents the number of the data signal, which data symbols occur at a rate of 1/Ts symbols/sec., wherein Ts represents the interval in sec. between data symbols.
In order to restrict the complexity of suchlike adaptive systems, the estimate of the characteristic quantity is not adapted periodically with the period T in the receiver known from afore-mentioned Patent Specification, but this is effected with a period nT on the basis of the error periodically determined with a period nT. This is often permissible because the characteristic quantity of the input signal often shows only slow changes with time. In the data receiver according to the state of the art the sample-and-hold circuit S takes a sample of the difference signal not more than once per nT seconds. At lower transmission rates this value of n may be, for example, 10, but at extremely high transmission rates n may, for example, exceed 1000.
Experiments have shown that convergence to a minimum difference between the estimated characteristic quantity of the input signal and the real characteristic quantity of the input signal fails to occur in several adaptive systems according to the preamble.

Data receiver comprising a control loop with reduced sampling frequency


A system and an associated method selectively process log files for enhancing performance of tablespace recovery by processing only those log files required, and for selecting which log file to process during recovery for both redo and rollback phases of recovery. The system and method skip the processing of log files that do not contain records of interest for the tablespace being recovered and determines whether a log file contains anything that needs to be played, in particular for the recovery of a subsystem in the database, such as a tablespace. Pre processing of the log files is not done, rather including tablespace ID correlated with log file ID information is collected while the log files are created. The cross-correlated information is used during tablespace recovery to selectively determine which of the log files to process. Some log files may be skipped in cases where not all of the database system is being recovered. A sub set of the database can be recovered, such as a tablespace, and which log files to process is determined based on a lock instruction.

A database management system (DBMS) is a software system that facilitates the creation, maintenance, and use of an electronic database. The software system is a suite of programs that typically manage large structured sets of persistent data, offering ad hoc query facilities to many users. The DBMS controls the organization, storage and retrieval of data (fields, records and files) in the database. The DBMS also controls the security and integrity of the database. The DBMS accepts requests for data from an application program and instructs the operating system to transfer appropriate data as requested.
When the DBMS is used, information systems can be changed much more easily as the organization's information requirements change. New categories of data can be added to the database without disruption to the existing system. Data security can prevent unauthorized users from viewing or updating the database. Using passwords, users are allowed access to the entire database or a series of database subsets, called sub-schemas or tablespaces. For example, an employee database can contain all the data about an individual employee, but one group of users may be authorized to view only payroll data, while others are allowed access to only work history and medical data of the employee database. The DBMS can maintain the integrity of the database through locks by not allowing more than one user to update the same record at the same time. The DBMS can keep duplicate records out of the database; for example, no two customers with the same customer numbers (key fields) can be entered into the database.
Query languages and report writers allow users to interactively interrogate the database and analyze its data. If the DBMS provides a way to interactively enter and update the database as well as interrogate it, this capability allows for managing personal databases. However, the DBMS may not leave an audit trail of actions or provide the kinds of controls necessary in a multi-user organization. These controls may only be available when a set of the application programs are customized for each data entry and updating function. For example, a business information system can be made up of subjects (customers, employees, vendors, etc.) and activities (orders, payments, purchases, etc.). Database design is the process of deciding how to organize this data into record types and how the record types will relate to each other.
The DBMS should mirror the organization's data structure and process transactions efficiently. Organizations may use one kind of DBMS for daily transaction processing and then move the detail onto another computer that uses another DBMS better suited for random inquiries and analysis. Overall system design decisions can be performed by data administrators and systems analysts. Detailed database design can be performed by database administrators. Three common organizations are hierarchical databases, network databases, and relational databases. A database management system may provide one, two or all three methods. Inverted lists and other methods can also be used. The most suitable database structure can depend on the application, on the transaction rate, and the number of inquiries made.
Known DBMSs may organize multiple tablespaces and store tables of the database. To recover selected tablespaces in the event of a system crash, a backup image of the database or the tablespace is restored followed by rolling forward through the log files that were created since the backup was taken. Log files contain log records that describe the changes made to the data currently stored in the database. Each log file contains one or more log records that apply to one or more tablespaces. Current recovery protocols either process or preprocess each log file during an operation for recovering the tablespace. However, one disadvantage of these protocols is that only those log records that apply to the tablespace being recovered need be processed. Therefore, processing all potential log files can result in inefficiencies concerning log file access and use. For example, if there was only one transaction that affected the tablespace being recovered, and that transaction existed in the life span of only one log file, all the log files will still be processed. Consequently, much time can be wasted in the current recovery protocols. Regardless of whether the log file contains transactions that are relevant for the tablespace being recovered, that log file will be processed as part of the recovery if was created between the start of the backup being recovered and the point in time to which the recovery is made.
For example, referring to European Patent Application No. 2002/0007363 A1, it describes a system and a method for processing through all log files but filtering the ones it actually plays. This system is required to review all the log files in order to select specific objects to recover. This system can be inefficient and inconvenient; processing time can be wasted when the system cannot skip the processing of log files that do not contain records of interest for the tablespace being recovered.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,577, it describes a system and a method for determining whether a rollback record has already been played. However, this system does not determine if the record needs to be played but assumes that it does. A function is described for storing multiple actions to be played within a single log record. Disadvantageously, this system cannot selectively process log files, which can result in wasting processing time on correlation operations. Furthermore, the system cannot ascertain whether the log file contains anything that needs to be played.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,241, it describes a method for recovering a system that terminated unexpectedly. The recovery operation includes partial processing and postponing the full processing of some non-terminated transactions to a later stage. One disadvantage is that all non-terminated transactions and therefore log records have to be processed eventually. Inconveniently, there is no way to skip processing of any log files or log records of non-terminated transactions. This system can also be inconvenient because it does not recover the subsystems in the database (i.e. tablespaces).
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,427, it describes a system and a method for dealing with mirroring log files and then extracting relevant log records from the log files so that only the tablespaces being recovered are processed. However, the log files require processing prior to actual recovery in order to make it possible to skip log records by determining those specific files that may not be needed. This system can be inconvenient because it requires preprocessing of the log file.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,695, it describes a recovery mechanism for a distributed system. All the log files that contain transactions after the failure must be processed. This arrangement can be inconvenient because irrelevant files are not skipped, causing additional processing time.
Thus, there is need for a system and associated method that identify and selectively replay only those log files needed for database recovery. The need for such a system and method has heretofore remained unsatisfied.

System and method for discriminatory replaying of log files during tablespace recovery in a database management system

International Business Machines Corporation


Transposomes and oligonucleotide replacement methods to make DNA libraries that have distinct 5′ and 3′ tags, and to make directional libraries that are enriched for a desired strand.

Sample preparation for next-generation sequencing can involve fragmentation of genomic DNA or double-stranded cDNA (prepared from RNA) into smaller fragments, followed by addition of functional tag sequences ("tags") to the strands of the fragments. Where a single-stranded sequence is tagged at both ends, the term "di-tagged" can be used. Such tags include priming sites for DNA polymerases for sequencing reactions, restriction sites, and domains for capture, amplification, detection, address, and transcription promoters. Previous methods for generating DNA fragment libraries required fragmenting the target DNA mechanically using a sonicator, nebulizer, or by a nuclease, and then joining (e.g., by ligation) the oligonucleotides containing the tags to the ends of the fragments.
A novel method for using transposons to rapidly achieve these steps was disclosed in US 2010/0120098 by Grunenwald, which is incorporated herein by reference, to generate fragments from any double-stranded DNA (e.g. genomic, amplicon, viral, phage, cDNA derived from RNA, etc.). Particularly useful transposon systems include the hyperactive Tn5 transposon system described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,965,443 and 6,437,109 by Reznikoff, and the Mu transposon system in U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,113 by Tenkanen, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Reznikoff in particular described a 19-base transposase end sequence (SEQ ID NO:3) that is frequently referred to as "ME". In some embodiments of the transposon method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used as a downstream step for DNA amplification. This can raise concerns because of PCR's potential to over- or underrepresent the relative amounts of a given sequence, depending on its G+C composition, especially in regions of extreme G+C content where PCR bias can confound the annotation and analysis of the data.

Oligonucleotide replacement for di-tagged and directional libraries


A screen that reflects light from a projection apparatus to present a projected image includes: a screen substrate; and a plurality of spherical microlenses disposed on the front side of the screen substrate, wherein the microlenses are arranged along a predetermined first direction on the screen substrate to form lens rows, and adjacent microlenses in each of the lens rows have different radii of curvature.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates a screen that reflects light from a projector or any other projection apparatus disposed in front of the screen to present a projected image.
2. Related Art
There is a reflective screen known to reflect a projected image produced by upward oblique projection to allow a viewer to observe the projected image. For example, JP-A-2006-215162 describes a screen of this type in which a large number of microlenses having the same convex shape (unit shape portions) are regularly disposed on a screen substrate to form reflection surfaces only on lower portions of the microlenses so that external light from the above is blocked and high contrast is achieved.
As another known example of the screen of this type, there is a screen having a similar function in which a large number of microlenses having the same concave shape are regularly disposed on a screen substrate.
A screen in which a large number of microlenses having the same shape are regularly disposed as described above, however, has the following problems to be solved.
In a microlens-based screen of related art, the spacing between the lenses is reduced to provide brightness equivalent to that of a matted screen, which is called a white mat. However, when the spacing between the lenses is reduced to, for example, a value smaller than 0.2 mm, glaring interference fringes, which appear above the screen and are called scintillation (or speckle), are disadvantageously produced.
On the other hand, to eliminate the scintillation, it is effective to increase the spacing between the lenses. For example, when the spacing between the lenses is increased to 0.2 mm or greater, the scintillation is hardly visible to the eyes of the viewer, and hence the viewer unlikely visually recognizes the scintillation. However, the scintillation and the brightness are in a trade-off relationship; when the spacing between the lenses is increased to 0.2 mm or greater to eliminate the scintillation, a projected image will not be sufficiently bright and the screen becomes dim.
It is alternatively conceivable to increase the diameter of each of the microlenses and hence the spacing between the lenses. In this case, however, since the number of microlenses that can be incorporated in a unit area is less than the number required, the resolution decreases and a moire pattern appears. The approach described above has therefore a limitation, and the diameter of each of the lenses is at present forced to be, for example, 0.5 mm or smaller.


Frame memories store captured images supplied from a plurality of imaging units, respectively. A motion detection portion detects the motion of a captured image of at least one of the imaging units. A mode determination portion sets, in accordance with at least either the amount of the motion detected by the motion detection portion or a power consumption limit of the image generation device, one of two modes, one for operating the plurality of imaging units simultaneously and the other for operating the plurality of imaging units intermittently. A control signal generation portion supplies, to the plurality of frame memories, a control signal adapted to control reading of the captured images from the plurality of frame memories in accordance with the mode set by the mode determination portion.

With digital still cameras and digital video cameras widespread, there are more occasions when captured still images and movies are stored in computers for viewing and editing or displayed on screens of game consoles and television (TV) sets. Further, it is also popular to upload captured movies to posting websites on the Internet for sharing with other users.
Some digital cameras are capable of capturing a panoramic image, making it possible to capture a panoramic image with a wide view angle in a handy manner. Software tools are in common use which generate a panoramic image by stitching together a plurality of images, shot in different shooting directions by digital cameras.
Further, a panoramic shooting mode or panoramic image synthesis application is available in some mobile devices such as camera-equipped mobile phones so that images, shot by tilting the mobile device at different angles, are automatically synthesized into a panoramic image.

Image generation device and image generation method for multiplexing captured images to generate an image stream