A speaker system with an enclosure having a spiral pathway is presented. The speaker system includes an electro-acoustic transducer that generates sounds according to an audio input. The speaker system also includes an enclosure having an interior pathway defined by a wall that is curved substantially as a spiral. The speaker system is configured such that the sound generated by the electro-acoustic transducer travels along at least a portion of the curved pathway before leaving the enclosure.

The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
A speaker is an electro-acoustic transducer that transforms electrical audio signals into sound. A traditional speaker includes a diaphragm (e.g., cone, dome, membrane, diaphragm, etc) attached to a voice coil, which is suspended in a static magnetic field. An amplifier is electrically coupled to the voice coil and provides current (i.e., signal) to the voice coil producing a magnetic field. This magnetic field interacts with the static magnetic field causing the voice coil and the diaphragm to vibrate producing sound.
The efficiency of a speaker is determined through the analysis of the speaker's conversion of electrical power from the amplifier to the emitted sound power of the speaker. Conventional speakers typically are extremely inefficient at converting electrical energy to sound energy (less than 5% of electrical energy is converted into sound energy by conventional transducers). Efforts have been made to improve speaker system power efficiencies. The efficiency of a speaker can be affected by the enclosure in which it rests. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,686,129 to Delgado entitled "Acoustic Horn Having Internally Raised Geometric Shapes," filed Aug. 30, 2007 discloses a speaker that uses a particularly shaped horn to increase the overall efficiency of a speaker driver. However, horn shaped speaker enclosures still cause undesirable destructive interference in the sound waves projected from the driver of the speaker. Because of this behavior, this horn does not perform equally well across the entire range of frequencies that the speaker is capable of delivering.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,320 to Wiener et al. entitled "Directional Horn Speaker System," filed Feb. 26, 1998 discloses a directional speaker. In doing so, it describes several attempts to increase audio quality. For example, an in-line phase plug is mounted in front of the speaker driver for manipulating the wave front of sound waves produced by the speaker driver. However, the invention fails to provide improvements of efficiency relative to sensitivity and clarity. This is mainly due to the fact that as one improves the sensitivity and clarity of a speaker system, the power loss increases, and hence, the overall efficiency of the system is degraded.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,200 to Ferralli et al. entitled "Elliptically Shaped Transducer Enclosure," filed Dec. 16, 1981, provides for an enclosure incorporating an acoustically reflective shell. The elliptical shapes share one common focus and each has one distinct focus. Even though this does improve efficiency over prior absorber-type enclosures, there still remain inefficiencies in the shape with respect to output power as compared to input electrical signals.
However, the above-mentioned patents still fail to dramatically improve the power efficiency of speaker systems. Thus, there remains a need to further improve speaker efficiency.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of "a," "an," and "the" includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of "in" includes "in" and "on" unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. "such as") provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.

Colorado Energy Research Technologies, LLC


A protective footwear and lower leg covering protects the shoes and lower trousers or legs of a wearer while using a mower, string trimmer, chain saw, or other equipment which may discharge objects at high speed. The covering also serves to protect the user's shoes and clothing during painting operations, and the complete closure from the sole of the shoe upward along the lower leg, also serves to protect the wearer from insect bites and stings. The device comprises a molded plastic, rubber, or other elastomer shoe or boot cover, which is sewn to an upper legging, spat or puttee configured to cover bare or trousered legs. A plurality of fastening straps secure the protective cover to a wearer's foot and lower leg. The shoe or boot cover has no sole, thus providing for easier donning by a wearer. The shoe or boot cover is secured to the shoe or boot by a strap which passes beneath the sole, or alternatively by a toe pocket or hold formed in the forward end of the cover. The legging portion may include a knee pad extending upwardly therefrom, for greater utility and versatility for the device. At least the shoe or boot cover portion is symmetrically formed, to provide a universal fit to both the left and right shoes or boots of the wearer, without regard for specific fit to either the left or right shoe or boot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to protective apparel for the lower legs and feet, and more specifically to a protective cover which can be worn over shoes or boots, and which protects the wearer's footwear and lower legs. The cover is universal, in that it may be applied to either the left or right leg and foot without need for specifically formed shapes for the left or right foot.
2. Introduction and Description of the Prior Art
There are many occasions when a person's lower legs and footwear are exposed to conditions which may cause injury to the person and/or damage to expensive footwear and clothing. For example, when operating a lawn mower, grass clippings and other debris are hurled at the feet and lower legs, possibly staining the pant legs. Also, operating a string trimmer is especially hazardous because of the exposed rotating cutting string. Even with a guard, the exposed cutting string has been known to occasionally hit the lower leg of the operator of the string trimmer, thus causing injury to the operator's leg.
Operating a chain saw may also be hazardous, due to the saw dust and debris generated by the saw. Such debris can travel at high velocities and may impact the lower legs of the chain saw operator. Further, the chain saw blade itself may hit the lower legs or feet of the operator, with the potential for severe injury. When painting, paint may splatter on expensive shoes, boots, and clothing, thus ruining such items. Also the lower leg area is prone to insect bites during outdoor activities, even when long pants are worn. For these reasons, many leg protectors have been proposed in the prior art. A discussion of the related art of which the inventor is aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided immediately below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,313, issued to Buhei Mahide et al. on Nov. 25, 1975 and titled "Injection Molded Boots," describes a boot formed of a stretchable cloth base with a patterned or printed resin layer thereover, coated by a transparent resin layer. Mahide et al. do not show a puttee sewn to a molded footwear cover, and disclose a completely closed sole, unlike the open sole of the present footwear and lower leg covering. Also, Mahide et al. are silent regarding the provision of a laterally symmetrical footwear cover for fitting either the left or right foot equally well, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,558, issued to John G. Slusher on Mar. 8, 1977 and titled "Golf Rubber Overshoe," describes a golf overshoe with spikes on the sole. Slusher does not show a molded footwear cover with an open sole, nor a laterally symmetrical shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,853, issued to Larry A. McLane on Nov. 15, 1977 and titled "Snake Leggings," shows snake-proof leggings made of steel mesh. The leggings are of the same material for both the foot covering and legging portions, unlike the different materials used for those components of the present invention. McLane does not show a molded footwear cover, and is silent regarding any symmetrical or universal fit for left and right feet, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,812, issued to Wayne A. Harmsen on Jul. 15, 1986 and titled "Leggings," describes leggings made of a single piece of material. Harmsen does not show a molded footwear cover having an open sole, and notes that left and right foot and leg articles may be formed by reversing the blanks used in constructing the articles. The present covering and protector is symmetrical and universal for both left and right feet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,491, issued to Howard Plotkin on Nov. 6, 1990 and titled "Disposable, Collapsible Overshoe," describes a disposable overshoe. Plotkin does not show a molded footwear cover having an open sole, nor any symmetrical construction providing for a universal fit on both left and right feet using a single form, as provided by the present covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,503, issued to George H. Hightower, Jr. et al. on Dec. 15, 1992 and titled "Snake Protective Leggings," describes leggings formed of mesh or screen material. Hightower, Jr. et al. do not show a molded footwear cover having an open sole, or any component extending substantially below the ankle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,676, issued to Thomas S. Hughes et al. on May 17, 1994 and titled "Changeable Shoe Covering," describes a stretch cover for covering a woman's shoe. The device completely covers the sole of the shoe, unlike the open sole of the present covering. Hughes et al. do not show a molded footwear cover having a puttee sewn thereto, and are silent regarding provision of a symmetrical unit for universal fit of both left and right feet or shoes, as provided by the present covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,491, issued to Lawrence L. Mascotte on Aug. 16, 1994 and titled "Shoe Covering Members," describes a shoe cover having an upper part that attaches to a lower part. The lower part is sealingly engageable with the sole of the shoe. The Mascotte cover requires a specially adapted shoe therewith, to provide for sealing the cover to the edge of the shoe sole, unlike the present covering and protector. Since the Mascotte cover is adapted to seal to the edge of the shoe sole, and shoes are customarily constructed in pairs with each shoe being a mirror image of the opposite shoe, Mascotte obviously forms his covers asymmetrically to fit either a left or right shoe, unlike the symmetrical construction of the present covers and protectors. Also, Mascotte does not show a molded footwear cover having a puttee sewn thereto, as provided by the present covers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,637, issued to James R. Adam on Nov. 28, 1995 and titled "Rain Leggings," describes protective leggings that only cover the front of the lower leg and the top front of the foot. Adam does not show a molded footwear cover that covers the heel of the shoe. Also, Adam notes on column 3, lines 41 and 42, that his "Leggings . . . can be shaped to approximate left and right shoes", whereas the present foot cover and protector is symmetrical for fitting both left and right shoes.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 210,190, issued to Richard J. Garcia on Feb. 20, 1968 and titled "Sportsman's Leg Protector," illustrates a leg protector or legging. Garcia does not show a molded footwear cover.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 281,739, issued to Willie J. Hazley on Dec. 17, 1985 and titled "Shoe Protector," illustrates a shoe protector that does not cover the toe of the shoe. Hazley does not show a molded footwear cover that completely covers the shoe upper. However, the Hazley protector includes a portion which fits under the heel of the shoe, unlike the present protector. The Hazley design appears to be asymmetrical, requiring a mirror image for each foot.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 306,921, issued to Venico Pettinelli on Mar. 27, 1990 and titled "Combined Ankle And Shin Protector," shows a legging type device with a depending extension over the outer ankle bone. Pettinelli does not show a molded footwear cover, and his protector is asymmetrical, unlike the present symmetrical protector and cover.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 322,354, issued to Joseph M. Tully on Dec. 17, 1991 and titled "Protective Cover For An Athletic Shoe," illustrates a shoe protector that covers the bottom of the toe of the shoe. Tully does not show a molded footwear cover that completely covers the shoe upper, nor any form of puttee or legging extending upwardly therefrom, as provided by the present cover and protector.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 341,475, issued to Hiromi Ikezawa on Nov. 23, 1993 and titled "Shoe Cover," illustrates a shoe cover for a woman's shoe. Ikezawa does not show a molded footwear cover having a puttee sewn thereto, and includes a portion passing under the sole of the shoe at the instep portion, unlike the present invention.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 354,615, issued to Pamela A. Parker on Jan. 24, 1995 and titled "Half Chap Leg Covering," illustrates a lower leg covering in the form of a half chap, i. e., with each individual leg covering being separate from one another. Parker does not show a molded footwear cover that covers the footwear upper.
U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 365,667, issued to Thomas H. Hargrove et al. on Dec. 26, 1995 and titled "Leg Protector," shows protective leggings that only cover the front of the lower leg and the top front of the foot. Hargrove et al. do not show a molded footwear cover that covers the heel or toe of the shoe.
U.K. Patent Application Number 2,103,069 A by Peter James Smith, dated Feb. 16, 1983 and titled "Sporting Overshoes," describes a golf overshoe with spikes on the sole, somewhat like the overshoe of the U.S. '558 patent to Slusher discussed further above. Smith does not show a molded footwear cover with an open sole or a symmetrical cover, as provided by the present invention.
U.K. Patent Application Number 2,226,943 A by Ellis Frith et al., dated Jul. 18, 1990 and titled "Chain Saw Protective Leggings, Trousers And Jackets," describes protective leggings which prevent injury to a wearer's legs from a chain saw. Frith et al. do not show a molded footwear cover that covers the upper of the shoe, as provided by the present cover and protector.
U.K. Patent Application Number 2,245,477 A by Jung-Hui Ho, dated Jan. 8, 1992 and titled "A Protective Half Sleeve Or Legging," describes a protective legging. Ho does not show a molded footwear cover that covers a shoe upper, nor is his sleeve or legging openable along one side, as in the present invention.
European Patent Application Number 0,411,524 A2 by Costantino Ursella, dated Feb. 6, 1991 and titled "Overshoe For Footwear Particularly For Fishing," describes an overshoe with a non-slip sole. Ursella does not show a molded footwear cover having an open sole, as in the present cover and protector.
Finally, International Application Number WO 96/15691 by Clive Neal Taylor-Haasz, dated May 30, 1996 and titled "Overshoes," describes a protective overshoe that surrounds the sole of the shoe. Taylor-Haasz does not show a molded footwear cover having an open sole, as in the present cover and protector.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.

Protective footwear and lower leg covering


A book forming and pressing machine includes a pressing device that has a number of spaced-apart pressing plates, joint-burn-in rails and at least one station for accommodating a book block. A loading device has a loading table. A reshaping device includes a mechanism to shape a front cut of a book block. The mechanism includes a tool carrier having a shaping tool to shape the front cut. Tool carrier and/or the shaping tool executes a series of movements in one plane or in three-dimensional space, relative to the front cut to be shaped, while the book block is held in the pressing device.

The invention relates to a book forming and pressing machine that includes a reshaping device, a pressing device, and a loading device. The loading device basically is a loading table and the pressing device includes a number of spaced-apart pressing plates and joint-burn-in rails, wherein the reshaping device includes a mechanism that shapes a front cut of a book block. The invention furthermore relates to a method for operating a book forming and pressing machine of this type.
A book forming and pressing machine is known from German patent document DE 4422783 A1, which discloses a number of pressing devices with thereon arranged joint-burn-in devices that are arranged on a rotor, driven intermittently around a vertical axis of rotation. In a feed-in station, the book blocks are fed into a pressing device where they are accommodated completely and are formed or bound-in continuously with the aid of the joint-burn-in rail. The book blocks are held continuously in the same pressing jaw until they are discharged at the discharge station. Between the feeding of the book blocks encased in covers and the discharge of the fully formed and pressed books, the rotor executes some intermittent rotational movements, wherein this interval is utilized for the forming and/or the joint-burn-in.
If the joint-burn-in rails are closed only slightly and the pressing plates are closed with or without exerting pressure, a loading plunger functioning as joint-burn-in rail of a reshaping device is then lowered against the front cut and presses the book block toward the back. As a result, the two book cover sections are pulled via the back insert and the fly leaf in the joint against the joint-burn-in rails. The book block and the book cover can thus be oriented relative to each other while the book is reshaped at the same time. Separate inserts for the shaping inserts are used in this case for producing books with either rounded or flat backs.
An additional feature of this book forming machine, as well as nearly all book forming and pressing machines currently being marketed, is that the complete machine is provided with a cover for safety reasons and that only the intake belt and the discharge belt extend out of the housing, so that when replacing a forming insert, for example for the changeover from a flat back to a rounded back or when changing to an insert having different dimensions to achieve an improved rounding, the machine must be powered down, the cover must be opened and the machine must subsequently be restarted.


In a telecommunication system that employs asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and minicells to transport communication data, accurate minicell header information dramatically improves the ability to align the minicells at a receiving station. More accurate minicell header information can be achieved by deriving a single header integrity check code (e.g., a cyclic redundancy code) for each ATM cell based upon minicell headers that have been inserted into contiguous locations in the ATM cell. By inserting the headers in contiguous locations, the receiving station can extract each header without having to rely upon the length indicator codes in each header, which may contain one or more bit errors. This, in turn, allows the receiving station to recompute the header integrity check code with far fewer errors, thus substantially increasing the probability of detecting and correcting the aforementioned errors and, ultimately, the ability to align the minicells.

The present invention relates to the transportation of telecommunication data from a sending station to a receiving station via small data packets referred to as minicells using the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for detecting and correcting bit errors that may occur in the header portion of each minicell during transmission and for maintaining the alignment of the minicells.
The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a standard protocol for transmitting telecommunication data within a telecommunication system (e.g., a cellular telephone system). Data is transmitted in fixed-size packets called ATM cells. Each ATM cell contains a 48 octet payload and a 5 octet header. ATM is well known in the art and is commonly used for high bit rate applications (e.g., multimedia communication); however, ATM can be used to significantly improve the efficiency of low bit rate applications as well.
When ATM is used for transporting low bit rate data, such as cellular voice data, it is generally advantageous to compress the low bit rate data into small data packets, which are multiplexed into the payload of ATM cells as illustrated by process 100 in FIG. 1. By multiplexing the data packets into the ATM stream, bandwidth utilization is dramatically improved. These small data packets are referred to hereinbelow as minicells.
Minicells are similar to ATM cells because they too contain a header portion, usually 2 octets in length, and a payload portion that can vary in length. Of course, to maximize bandwidth efficiency, it is necessary to pack as many minicells as possible into each ATM cell. Since the length of each minicell payload can vary, it is sometimes necessary to divide the minicell and insert a first part into the payload of one ATM cell and a second part into the payload of the next ATM cell.
A telecommunication system that transports communication data using minicells in the manner described above must address two basic concerns. First, the receiving station must be capable of maintaining minicell alignment. Minicell alignment refers to the process of determining where each minicell starts and ends within an ATM cell so that the receiving station can properly extract the data from each ATM cell. However, the ability to maintain proper minicell alignment is highly dependent upon the accuracy of the data contained in each minicell header. The ability to maintain proper minicell alignment is especially dependent upon the accuracy of the length indicator code (LIC) in each minicell header, where the LIC defines the number of octets that make up the corresponding minicell payload. The second concern, therefore, is to effectively detect and, whenever possible, correct bit errors that occur in the minicell headers, during the transmission of the data from the sending station to the receiving station, particularly those that occur in the LICs.
In the past, detecting and correcting errors in minicell headers was accomplished by employing a minicell header integrity check (HIC) code for each and every minicell header, as is well known in the art. For example, Goran Eneroth et al., "Minicell Protocol (AALm) for Low Bit Rate Applications," (February 1996), employs a two octet minicell header 201 in each and every minicell, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The minicell header 201 includes a two bit HIC code 202. The two bit HIC code maintains the integrity of the header information with a two bit interleaved parity check. In another example, illustrated in FIG. 3, Tomohiro Ishihara, "Proposal of Short Cell Format for Low Bit Rate Voice," (December 1995), employs a two octet minicell header 301 in each and every minicell, where each header includes an HIC error detection/error correction code 302. In this example, the HIC code is a five bit cyclic redundancy code (CRC) that is capable of three bit error correction and two bit error detection. Unfortunately, these techniques are not bandwidth efficient because each minicell header must dedicate several bits to perform the header integrity check. The inefficiency becomes more pronounced as the number of minicells per ATM cell increases and the size of the minicell payloads decreases.
Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/626,000, entitled "Combined Minicell Alignment and Header Protection" discloses a minicell header error detection and correction technique that overcomes the inefficient bandwidth utilization techniques described above. It accomplishes this by replacing the HIC codes in each minicell header with a single header integrity check code, (e.g., a cyclic redundancy code), located in the last octet of the corresponding ATM cell. At the receiving station, each minicell header is extracted and then used to recompute the CRC. In order to extract each minicell header, the receiving station must rely on the LICs in each minicell header, so that the receiving station can jump one minicell header location to the next, by counting the number of payload octets in between. The receiving station hardware will continue this process until all of the minicell headers in the ATM cell have been extracted. If, however, there is but one bit error in any of the LICs, the receiving station hardware will begin subsequently jumping to incorrect locations to find the minicell headers. This sequence of compound errors drastically reduces the probability of performing error detection and error correction since CRCs work much better when there are but a limited number of bit errors to detect and correct. As the number of bit errors increases, the probability of detecting and correcting those errors decreases significantly. Moreover, the ability to maintain minicell alignment is severely impaired since that process is, as previously stated, highly dependent upon accurate minicell header information, especially accurate minicell length information.


A video processing system, method and computer program storage device cooperate to provide a resource and performance efficient sub-pixel motion search operation. Using on the fly calculations it is possible to provide approximations of sub-pixel positions on one image with respect to another image in an image sequence. A sub-pixel position used to set a motion vector for an encoding process may then be identified with reduced processing and memory resources relative to conventional techniques. Also, by later performing a full encoding cost analysis on the earlier identified sub-pixel position, and keeping track of differences, an interpolation accuracy may be dynamically improved by applying the differences to subsequent image frames.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to advances in areas including video systems, computer program product, and methods, and in particular to video compression/decompression in digital video systems, software-enabled devices and methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
The "background" description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Insight provided by the present inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art.
Transmission of moving pictures in real-time is employed in numerous applications such as video conferencing, "net meetings", television (TV) broadcasting and video telephony.
However, representing moving pictures involves bulk information, in digital form, and is described by representing each picture element (pixel) in a picture (or image frame) with 8 bits (1 Byte). Aggregation of uncompressed video data results in very large bit quantities, and as a consequence demands large bandwidth allocation for transmission over conventional communication networks in real time due to limited bandwidth.
Due to significant reduncancy in images between successive frames, data compression is freely applied in real time video transmission applications. Data compression may, however, compromise picture quality and so persistent efforts continue to be made to develop data compression techniques allowing real time transmission of high quality video over bandwidth limited resources.
In video compression systems, an objective is to represent the video information with as little "capacity" as possible, where capacity is usually measured in bits, either as a constant value or as bits/time unit. By minimizing bits, the amount of bits that need to be transmitted is reduced, and therefore, the amount of communication resources needed to support the real time transmission of video data is also reduced.
The most common video coding methods are described in the MPEG* (e.g., MPEG 2 and MPEG 3) and H.26* (e.g., H.263 and H.264) standards. According to these standards, the video data is exposed to four main processes before transmission, namely prediction, transformation, quantization and entropy coding.
The prediction process significantly reduces the number of bits required for each frame in a video sequence to be transferred. It takes advantage of the similarity of parts of the sequence with other parts of the sequence. A decoder that decodes the bit stream has side information to assist in the decoding process. This side information is known to both encoder and decoder and so only the difference has to be transferred. This difference typically requires much less capacity for its representation than the full image. The motion estimation aspect of the prediction is mainly based on picture content from previously reconstructed pictures where the location of the content is defined by motion vectors. The prediction process is typically performed on square block sizes (e.g. 16×16 pixels), although the size of the blocks may vary.
In a typical video sequence, the content of a present block "M" would be similar to a corresponding block in a previously decoded picture. If no changes have occurred since the previously decoded picture (i.e., an image in a new frame is the same as the image in the past frame), the content of M would be equal to a block of the same location in the previously decoded picture. In other cases, an object in the picture may have been moved between frames so that the content of M is more similar to a block of a different location in the previously decoded picture. Such movements are represented by a motion vector (V). As an example, a motion vector of (3;4) means that the content of M has moved 3 pixels to the left and 4 pixels upwards since the previously decoded picture. For improved accuracy, the vector may also include decimals, requiring interpolation between the pixels.
In H.262, H.263, MPEG1, MPEG2 the same concept is extended so that motion vectors also can take ½ pixel values. A vector component of 5.5 then implies that the motion is relative to the midway point between 5 and 6 pixels. More specifically the prediction is obtained by taking the average between the pixel representing a motion of 5 and the pixel representing a motion of 6. This prediction is conventionally performed with a 2-tap filter due to the operation on 2 pixels to obtain prediction of a pixel between the two. Since filter operations can be defined by an impulse response, the operation of averaging 2 pixels can be expressed with an impulse response of (¼, ½). Similarly, averaging over 4 pixels implies an impulse response of (¼,¼,¼,¼).
The purpose of the averaging is to define a motion of the picture content with an accuracy of ½ pixel, which provides improved coding efficiency as compared with encoders that only operate on integer pixels.
In the MPEG4 and H.264/AVC, coding methods have improved both in terms of motion resolution and number of pixels for each interpolation. The methods use motion compensated prediction with ¼ pixel accuracy. Even ⅛ pixel accuracy is defined, but not included in any profile.
The integer- and fractional pixel positions are indicated in FIG. 1 (for simplicity, interpolations are only shown between pixels A and E). The positions A E U Y indicate integer pixel positions, and A″, E′, A′ and E″ indicate additional integer positions on the A-E line. c k m o w indicate half pixel positions. The interpolated values in these positions are obtained by using a 6-tap filter with impulse response ( 1/32, − 5/32, 20/32, 20/32, −5/32, 1/32) operating on integer pixel values. As an example, c is calculated by the following expression, which represents a filter:c= 1/32·A″− 5/32·E′+ 20/32·A+ 20/32·E− 5/32·A′+ 1/32·E″
The filter is operated horizontally or vertically as appropriate. Further, to obtain the value for m, the filter is not operated on integer values, but on already interpolated values in the other direction. The remaining positions are obtained by averaging respective integer- and half neighbor pixel positions:b=(A+c)/2, d=(c+E)/2, f=(A+k)/2, g=(c+k)/2, h=(c+m)/2, i=(c+o)/2, j=(E+o)/2l=(k+m)/2, n=(m+o)/2, p=(U+k)/2, q=(k+w)/2, r=(m+w)/2, s=(w+o)/2, t=(Y+o)/2.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a conventional motion estimation process involving sub-pixel interpolation. The process begins at step S1 where a multi-tap filter is used to perform half-pixel interpolation with two pixels. The interpolated half-pixels are stored in a buffer memory in step S2. The process then proceeds to step S3 where quarter pixel interpolation is performed by averaging respective integer- and half pixel positions. Subsequently the interpolated quarter pixels are stored in step S4. Then in step S5 a query is made regarding whether all the pixels have been analyzed. If the response to the query in step S5 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S6 where a best pixel or sub-pixel is selected. In this context a "best pixel or sub-pixel" is one that yields a lowest cost (measured in bits). If the response to the query in step S5 is negative, the process returns to step S1 where other pixels in a candidate block are analyzed and steps S1 through S4 are performed. Once the best pixel or partial pixel is selected in step S6 as being the best pixel or sub-pixel identifying the motion vector from one frame to the next, the process proceeds to step S7 where the calculated and stored interpolated half and quarter pixel values are over written by the next frame. Subsequently the process stops.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for image motion prediction


In an imaging system utilizing a through-the-lens phase-correlation type of autofocus system, architecture for determining absolute distance to one or more subjects to be imaged. In a preferred embodiment, the distance information is provided to means for effecting focal length adjustment so as to accomplish autocomposition of one or more of the subjects.

Autofocusing systems useable in an image acquisition system (hereinafter, an imaging system) can be categorized according to the arrangement of their optical assemblies. That is, a system is known according to whether it focuses through an image-taking optical system or through an independent optical system. Hence, one type of focus-detecting device is known in the art as a through-the-lens (TTL) phase-correlation autofocus (AF) system.
One exemplary construction of the optical system used in a TTL autofocus system is shown in FIG. 1. First and second object images are passed through an objective lens 12 at respective first and second portions distant from the optical axis 13. At a position equivalent to a predetermined focal plane 14 of the objective lens 12, there is disposed an autofocus module which may include a condenser lens 16, a pair of image-forming lenses 18 and 20, and a linear array of photoelectric conversion devices, in the form of line sensor 21 having sections 22 and 24, disposed on the image-forming planes of image-forming lenses 18 and 20. Linear array sections 22 and 24 are respectively composed, for example, of first and second pluralities of photo diode cells a.sub.1 -a.sub.10 . . . , and b.sub.1 -b.sub.16 . . . The output of each cell in array section 22 is provided to a correlation system 28 to be sequentially converted to a digital signal D(X)(X=1,2,3,4,5, . . . ). This image signal data D(X) may then be provided to suitable means (not shown) for performing known AF calculations.
As shown in FIG. 2, in a front-focus condition, an object image of the subject of the focus detection will be formed in a front-focus plane 14A in front of the predetermined focal plane 14B) of the objective lens 12. Two separation images in such a front-focus condition are thereby formed by image-forming lenses 18 and 20 onto the sensor plane 25. Line sensor sections 12 and 14 thus register separation images at positions A, B that are respectively near the optical axis 13. In a rear-focus condition (wherein the object image is formed at plane 14C behind the predetermined focal plane 14B), the two separation images are formed at respective positions E, F at positions remote from the optical axis. In an in-focus condition (wherein the object image is formed on the predetermined focal plane 14B), the two separation images are formed at respective positions C, D on sensor plane 25. (The positions A, B, C, D, E, and F are merely illustrative of their relative locations on the sensor plane and are not meant to be limited to a certain cell.)
Accordingly, as the image patterns of the light distributions on line sensor sections 22 and 24 are converted into respective electrical signals, the relative focus condition can be discovered by AF computing means which process these electrical signals to detect the image position separations AB, CD, EF. Concurrently, the position of the objective lens 12 may be adjusted, until the desired in-focus condition (i.e., image separation CD) is detected.
Conventional through-the-lens correlation autofocus systems are therefore directed to detecting "defocus", which is an indication of the relative absence of focus with respect to a subject. The actual or "absolute" distance of one or more subjects from the autofocus system is not determined. Accordingly, this type of autofocus system has heretofore been unsuitable for supporting camera operations that require such a determination of the absolute distance(s) between the imaging system and the subject(s).
The conventional method for absolute distance determination is based on the triangulation of infared signals that are gathered passively or are produced by an emitter and reflected from the subject to be focussed. In conventional practice, the camera designer is therefore forced to substitute (or add) an active or passive infrared rangefinding autofocus system if the absolute camera-to-subject distance(s) are to be determined. Unfortunately, this sort of design compromise can be undesireable for several reasons, such as increases in camera cost, complexity, and weight.
Furthermore, most passive and all active infrared rangefinding systems cannot successfully measure very long camera-to-subject distances. If such systems are used, the hyperfocal distance of the camera lens must be limited to approximately twice the maximum range of the focussing system, and the focal length and aperture of the camera lens must be limited. In contrast, a through-the-lens correlation autofocus system has no limit on focussing range and therefore frees the designer from this hyperfocal distance requirement.
One very useful camera operation that requires information on absolute subject distance is known as autocomposition, wherein the focal-length of the taking lens (e.g., a zoom lens) is automatically adjusted so as to properly frame the subject(s) in an image frame. This operation typically requires that the subject(s) be determined according to their relative sizes with respect to a predefined categorization of sizes (e.g., landscape vs. portrait modes, etc.) Typically, absolute distance is measured by use of a rangefinding system and the subject category is predetermined by the camera design (e.g., by a camera having a fixed focal length lens), or is acquired upon operator input (e.g., by manipulation of switch means).
Accordingly, there is a need for a through-the-lens autofocus system that is capable of determining absolute distance measurements of the subject-to-camera distance(s), so that related operations such as autocomposition may be effected more simply and easily, and without resort to conventional distance-measuring systems.

Method and apparatus for through-the-lens distance determination


In one embodiment of the present invention, a method includes storing system management mode data in a cache of a system during a system management mode; and preventing the system from leaving the system management mode until the system management mode data is evicted from the cache.

The present invention relates generally to operating a processor-based system outside of an operating system and, more particularly, to operations occurring in a system management mode of the system.
In modern computer systems, system management activities such as those associated with temperature, voltage, and front panel button monitoring may be performed by routines that operate transparently to the operating system. One example of such a mode is termed System Management Mode (SMM) and may be entered through activation of an external system interrupt pin which generates a System Management Interrupt (SMI). In response to an SMI, the SMM may handle the event with system management functions such as reduced power consumption, debugging, or hardware emulation.
System management functions may be performed independently of the operating system. Before handling a system management event, the processor's internal state may be saved to a separate, protected and dedicated memory space, referred to as SMM random access memory (SMRAM). Then, firmware may control product-specific hardware features.
Chipsets such as memory controller hubs (MCHs) and I/O Controller Hubs (ICHs) compatible with a so-called Intel Architecture (IA), such as an IA-32 processor available from Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, Calif.) support SMM and SMI. SMM provides an essential context for BIOS to implement system features and chipset workarounds. SMM also serves as the security context for features such as protected flash access.
Recent chipsets provide the capability to alias SMM memory to high address space (HSEG) above 1 megabytes (MB), and/or reserve additional SMM memory from the top of system memory (TSEG). While this capability allows basic input/output system (BIOS) to cache SMM memory for improved SMI performance, when write-back (WB) cache is used for SMM address space, the processor does not explicitly preserve its SMM context when that data is written to cache. Instead, the SMM context is sampled when cached data is written back to system memory. Thus memory writes that occur within SMM may appear to be outside SMM when the cache line is evicted. This presents a significant challenge for the MCH to determine whether the cached data should be written to SMM memory. While the MCH allows cache-line writes to SMM memory regardless of processor context or SMM memory configuration, several drawbacks exist including requiring extra logic in the MCH to handle cache-line writes differently than other SMM memory writes and reduced system reliability and security. Thus, a need exists to improve consistency and security of SMM memory.

Writing cached data to system management memory


An image processing apparatus includes a brightness fluctuation extraction section, a color difference fluctuation extraction section, a conversion section, and an addition section. The brightness extraction section extracts a local fluctuation component from brightness information (hereinafter, a brightness fluctuation) in the image data. The color difference fluctuation extraction section extracts a local fluctuation component from color difference information (hereinafter, a color difference fluctuation) in the image data. The conversion section weightedly adds the color difference fluctuation and the brightness fluctuation to generate a pseudo texture component. The addition section adds the generated texture component to the brightness information. In the above-described structure, the conversion section adjusts and changes a weighting ratio of the weighted addition so as to make ratios of noises of color components included in the texture component substantially equal.

1. Field
The present application relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing program, an image processing method, and an electronic camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional arts, if an electronic camera is set to high sensitivity (for example, an output gain of an imaging device is raised), noises of a shot image increases, so that the image becomes noisy and noises such as color speckles appear in the image. Such noises can be reduced by smoothing the image. However, excessive smoothing would damage a fine image structure of a subject, resulting in an image with poor texture.
As an apparatus correcting such poor texture, an apparatus of the following patent document 1 has been known.
In the patent document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No 2001-118064 (FIG. 5, for instance)), a minute amplitude component is extracted from image data by using an ε filter or the like, and the minute amplitude component is added to the image data. This prior art enables texture correction such as so-called "wrinkle emphasis".
In the prior art of the patent document 1, even a minute amplitude component that should be removed as a noise is also directly added to the image data. This has posed a problem that a surface of a subject appears noisy due to the noise.

Image processing apparatus, image processing program, image processing method, and electronic camera for correcting texture of image


A circuit breaker includes a test circuit having one or two indicators, an arc fault signal generator, and first and second test switches. A first indicator is electrically connected in series with the first test switch. This series combination provides a first alternating current signal to the arc fault signal generator, which provides an arc fault signal to an arc fault trip circuit, in order to trip open separable contacts in response to closure of the first test switch. The series combination of the second test switch and the second indicator provides a second alternating current signal to a ground fault trip circuit, in order to trip in response to closure of the second test switch. The indicators provide a visual indication of failure of the arc fault or ground fault trip circuits to trip in response to closure of the first or second test switches, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to circuit interrupters and, more particularly, to arc fault and/or ground fault circuit interrupters including test circuitry.
2. Background Information
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) is looking for a clear indication of when a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) reaches the end of its life and is not capable of providing ground fault protection. An opportunity exists when a user employs a test button on a GFCI. Since testing is a relatively infrequent event, an uneducated user may not remember what to expect and, if nothing happens (e.g., the GFCI fails to trip in response to the test button being depressed), the user may accept that result, in error, as being acceptable. Loss of ground fault protection may result in equipment damage, serious bodily injury or death in the event of an unprotected ground fault.
It is known to provide a GFCI receptacle with a visual indicator, such as a light-emitting diode (LED), to indicate that the circuit to which the receptacle is connected is operating normally. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,412,193; 4,568,997; and 5,202,662. The lit LED provides a visual indication that the circuit in which the GFCI is installed is operating normally without any ground fault. Upon occurrence of a ground fault, the LED is cut off and the light is extinguished. An extinguished LED provides a visual indication that a fault exists in the circuit. The LED can also be used to test for reverse installation of the GFCI. Should the load terminals be inadvertently connected to the power line and the line leads mistaken for the load leads, the LED will remain lit at all times, even after a test button is actuated, since power will be continuously applied to the terminals across the LED circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,013 discloses a circuit interrupter in which a trip unit initiates a tripping operation responsive to a ground fault condition. When tripping occurs, the ground fault condition is indicated by energization of an LED.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0056664 discloses turning a transistor on to activate a fault lamp, thereby indicating a failure of a GFCI circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,697,238 discloses a GFCI including a green LED and a red LED purports to provide a visual indication of the status of the GFCI. When a test switch is pressed and closes primary test switch contacts and an imbalance is created, relays open and cause the green LED to be extinguished. Since the relays are open, subsequent closing of secondary test switch contacts by the test switch has no affect on the GFCI. In contrast, if the closing of primary test switch contacts fail to trip the GFCI, then the secondary test switch contacts cause a short circuit blowing a fuse and extinguishing the green LED. However, a red LED is illuminated to indicate that the GFCI is operating as an unprotected receptacle and not as a GFCI.
There is room for improvement in circuit interrupters including ground fault test circuitry.
There is also room for improvement in circuit interrupters including arc fault test circuitry.

Circuit interrupter including arc fault test and/or ground fault test failure indicator


A manually movable transporting apparatus that is nestable with like transporting apparatuses has a chassis equipped with longitudinal members, which carries a loading device which is mounted on the chassis so as to be movable about respective horizontal axes and rests on at least one support. A supporting element is provided at the front end of the loading device and at least one inclined deflector surface is arranged in the rear region of the apparatus, which drops obliquely towards the rear and being designed to receive the supporting element of a further identical transporting apparatus driven onto the surface. At least one clearance is formed next to each support, and wherein each deflector surface is located in a clearance. When two transporting apparatuses are nested, each deflector surface of one transporting apparatus takes up the clearance assigned to the deflector surface of the other transporting apparatus.

The invention relates to a mobile transportation apparatus which is nestable in a space-saving manner with like transportation apparatuses and has a chassis with longitudinal beams, which carries at least one storage installation for storing items, wherein each storage installation is mounted on the chassis so as to be movable in each case about a horizontal axis and bears on at least one support which is located on the chassis, and wherein at the front end of the storage installation at least one support element is provided and in the rear region of the transportation apparatus at least one inclined impact face which is downwardly inclined toward the rear and is specified for the at least one support element of a further like transportation apparatus, which may be pushed into a transportation apparatus located in front, to be run thereonto is disposed.
A transportation apparatus of this type is already known by way of a transportation cart which is described in document DE 82 14 932 U1. In order for transportation apparatuses of this type, equipped with a storage installation, to be able to be pushed into one another in a space-saving manner, that is to say to be nested, the chassis of said transportation apparatuses when viewed from above have a trapezoidal plan view, the longer parallel chassis frame side thereof missing. The storage installation which is designed as a load-carrying platform at the front has at least one support element. An impact face which is downwardly inclined toward the rear is disposed at the rear end of the transportation apparatus, so as to facilitate nesting. It cannot be derived from the document how the storage installation is supported on the chassis at the front. In the case of known transportation carts which have neither support elements nor impact faces, support elements which are configured so as to be comparatively high and which support the storage installation on the chassis are located on the lower side of the storage installation. High support elements cause a large nesting spacing between two nested transportation apparatuses, which for reasons of space is not desirable.
A transportation apparatus in the preferred form of a shopping cart is described in document DE 20 2011 003 780 U1. This transportation apparatus also has a trapezoidal chassis, but this chassis is designed such that transportation apparatuses which are equipped with such chassis may be nested in a far tighter manner than has been previously possible. However, this transportation apparatus has neither a support element nor an impact face of the type described at the outset.
The same similarly applies to a transportation container according to document EP 1 775 193 A3. Also in the case of this transportation container neither impact faces nor support elements are provided for each storage installation.
Proceeding from the mentioned prior art, the object of the invention lies in refining a transportation apparatus of the type mentioned at the outset such that this transportation apparatus may be nested with a further like transportation apparatus in an extremely tight manner. Nesting spacings such as are possible in the case of transportation apparatuses according to DE 20 2011 003 70 U1 are targeted.
The achievement of the object lies in that at least one free space is formed beside each support, and in that in the horizontal view of the transportation apparatus and when viewed along the longitudinal direction of the latter each impact face is visualized so as to be plunged into a free space, and in that during nesting of two transportation apparatuses each impact face of the one transportation apparatus utilizes or claims the free space of the other transportation apparatus assigned to said impact face of the one transportation apparatus.
The decisive advantage of the invention is evident, for example, when a transportation apparatus which is equipped with two supports is pushed into a like transportation apparatus which is located in front, so as to be able to store both transportation apparatuses in a nested and space-saving manner. When being pushed into one another, the two supports of the transportation apparatus to be pushed in pass to the right and the left of the impact face of the transportation apparatus located in front. The clear spacing between the supports is larger than the width of the impact face, such that the impact faces and supports of the transportation apparatuses do not impede one another when being pushed into one another. The impact face of the transportation apparatus located in front here utilizes the free space of the transportation apparatus to be pushed thereinto and thus permits that like transportation apparatuses may be nested in a space-saving manner in an even tighter manner than has been previously possible and without any mutual obstruction. The same advantages are gained when the at least one support and the impact faces and the support elements are disposed in a different manner to what has just been described but in consideration of the proposed concept of the invention, as will be described hereunder.


A device uses magnetic force generated by a magnet to intensify compaction pressure applied to a composite laminate.

1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to the fabrication of composite parts, and deals more particularly with a method and device for compacting composite plies against a tool.
2. Background
Composite parts comprising fiber reinforced polymer resins may be fabricated using any of several techniques. In one technique, a multi-ply, fiber pre-preg charge is laid up and drape formed over a tool, following which the formed charge is compacted and cured. In another technique, a dry fiber pre-form is placed in a mold, vacuum bagged and then infused with resin to produce the desired part shape. The resin infused pre-form is then cured using autoclave or out-of-autoclave processes.
Depending on the fabrication technique used and the geometry of the part, achieving adequate compaction of the formed composite charge may present challenges. For example, bridging of the vacuum bag over some areas of the charge may prevent full compaction pressure from being applied to these areas. Similarly, where the forming tool has features, such as relatively sharp inside corners, it may be difficult to fully form a multi-ply charge into these the corners. When the resin infusion technique is used, compaction pressure applied to the fiber pre-form may be lost as the resin is being introduced. Regardless of the fabrication technique, the application of inadequate compaction pressure may result in the finished part exhibiting resin rich zones that have less than a desired fiber fraction, potentially affecting part performance.
Pressure intensifiers had been developed to intensify the amount of compaction pressure that is applied to local areas of a composite charge, but each has limitations. For example, threaded clamp-type intensifiers lose force as the charge moves (compacts) during the compaction process. Similarly, pressure intensifiers that rely on spring forces move only in two directions as the charge is moves. In some applications, tool or part geometries may prohibit the use of known pressure intensifiers.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device and a method of locally intensifying compaction pressure applied to a formed composite charge. There is also a need for a device and method of the type mentioned above that is simple, easy to use and is adapted to move along with the part charge during compaction in order to maintain a desired, constant compaction pressure.

Laminate compaction using magnetic force


In an electronic circuit device including a substrate including a front surface on which an electronic circuit element is mounted and a reverse surface opposite to the front surface in a thickness direction of the substrate, an electrically conductive terminal member electrically connected to the electronic circuit element, a lead frame extending perpendicular to the thickness direction to face the reverse surface in the thickness direction, and a sealing resin covering at least partially the electronic circuit element, substrate and lead frame while at least a part of the electrically conductive terminal member is prevented from being covered by the sealing resin, the substrate extends to project outward from an end of the lead frame in a transverse direction perpendicular to the thickness direction while the end of the lead frame is covered by the sealing resin.

The present invention relates to an electronic circuit device having an electronic circuit element, a substrate including a front surface on which the electronic circuit element is mounted and a reverse surface opposite to the front surface in a thickness direction of the substrate, an electrically conductive terminal member electrically connected to the electronic circuit element, a lead frame extending perpendicular to the thickness direction to face the reverse surface in the thickness direction, and a sealing resin covering at least partially the electronic circuit element, substrate and lead frame while at least a part of the electrically conductive terminal member is prevented from being covered by the sealing resin.
In a prior art electronic circuit device as disclosed by "Effect of Lead Frame Material on Plastic-Encapsulated IC Package Cracking Under Temperature Cycling" (writers: Asao Nishimura, Sueo Kawai and Gen Murakami, included by IEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, HYBRIDS, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 12, NO. 4, pp 639-645 published in December 1989), JP-A-9-232341 and JP-A-2000-183241, an electronic circuit element and a metallic lead frame are joined with each other and encapsulated monolithically with a resin, for example, epoxy resin.

Electronic circuit device with reduced breaking and cracking


The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion device sensitized by supporting a methine based dye represented by the following formula (1):

As an energy resource replaceable to fossil fuels such as oil, coal, etc., solar battery utilizing the solar light has been attracting attention. Currently, concerning silicon solar battery using crystalline or amorphous silicon, or compound semiconductor solar battery or the like, using gallium, arsenic, etc., development and study such as high-efficiency improvement are actively promoted. However, there is a problem that versatile use of these batteries is difficult due to too high energy and cost required for manufacturing. In addition, photoelectric conversion device using dye-sensitized semiconductor particles or solar battery using the same has been known, and materials and manufacturing technology to produce this has been disclosed (see Patent Literature 1, Non-Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 2). This photoelectric conversion device is manufactured using an oxide semiconductor such as titanium oxide, etc., which is comparatively low in cost, as a raw material, and attracts attention because of a possibility that a photoelectric conversion device having lower cost compared with that of conventional solar battery using silicon, etc. can be obtained, and also that a colorful solar battery can be obtained, and the like. However, since a ruthenium based complex is used as a sensitizing dye to obtain a device having high conversion efficiency, cost of the dye itself is high and its supply problems remain. In addition, use of an organic dye as a sensitizing dye has been already tried, but its practical use has not been realized at present due to low conversion efficiency, stability and endurance, etc., and further improvement in conversion efficiency is desired (see Patent Literature 2). In addition, until now, a case of manufacturing photoelectric conversion device using a methine based dye has been disclosed, and comparatively large number of study cases on coumarin based dyes (see Patent Literature 3) and merocyanine based dyes have been disclosed (see Patent Literatures 4, 5, 6 and 7), but further cost reduction and improvements in stability and conversion efficiency were desired.
Patent Literature 1: JP No. 2664194;
Patent Literature 2: WO No. 2002011213;
Patent Literature 3: JP-A-2002-164089;
Patent Literature 4: JP-A-08-81222;
Patent Literature 5: JP-A-11-214731;
Patent Literature 6: JP-A-2001-52766;
Patent Literature 7: JP-A-2003-59547;
Non-Patent Literature 1: B. O'Regan and M. Graetzel, Nature, V 353, 737 (1991);
Non-Patent Literature 2: M. K. Nazeeruddin, A. Kay, I. Rodicio, R. Humphry-Baker, E. Muller, P. Liska, N. Vlachopoulos, M. Graetzel, J. Am. Chem. Soc., V 115, 6382 (1993);
Non-Patent Literature 3: W. Kubo, K. Murakoshi, T. Kitamura, K. Hanabusa, H. Shirai, and S. Yanagida, Chem. Lett., 1241 (1998);

Dye-sensitized photoelectric conversion device

Abstract: (in the above formula, n represents an integer of 0 to 7; X and Y each represent a hydrogen atom, an optionally substituted aromatic residue, an optionally substituted aliphatic hydrocarbon residue and the like. In addition, X and Y may combine together to form an optionally substituted ring. A1, A2 and A3 represent each independently an optionally substituted aromatic residue, an optionally substituted aliphatic hydrocarbon residue and the like. In addition, when n is other than 0, a plural number of A1 and/or A2 and/or A3 may form an optionally substituted ring. The benzene ring “a” may have substituent selected from a halogen atom, an amide group, a hydroxyl group, a cyano group and the like);on a thin film of oxide semiconductor fine particles provided on a substrate, and has features that the device can be manufactured at low cost and has high conversion efficiency.


Method and apparatus for vacuum cooling field harvested produce such as lettuce includes a vacuum chamber, a partial vacuum-forming mechanism in the chamber, a water discharging mechanism in the chamber for spraying water onto the produce to cool the produce, and a mechanism in the chamber for detecting and adjusting the temperature and pressure, dynamically, to minimize undesired removal of water from the surface and interstitial tissues of the produce.

It is necessary to remove field heat and to otherwise cool produce to preserve the produce for shipment to market. Some methods of cooling produce appear in U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,431, entitled Produce Cooler and Method of Cooling Produce, issued Dec. 27, 1994; in U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,703, entitled Apparatus and Methods for Vacuum Cooling Fresh Produce, issued Feb. 7, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,014, entitled Produce Vacuum Cooler With Improved Venting, issued Mar. 18, 1986, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,132 entitled Produce Cooler and Method of Cooling Product, issued Oct. 29, 1974. The text and drawings of these four patents are incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth here. Some of these patents describe apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber for receiving produce, a vacuum pump, a refrigeration system for collecting evaporated water and a pump for spraying water onto the produce. The vacuum pump reduces pressure within the chamber to sub atmospheric level, causing evaporation of moisture from the produce. This evaporation removes heat from the produce, reducing its temperature. Water vapor formed by such evaporation condenses on cooling coils positioned above the produce. These refrigerated coils preferably condense and collect as much water as is feasible to prevent the water from reaching the vacuum pump. This water is collected and directed to a reservoir below the produce. The collected water, in preferred embodiments, is at a temperature in the range of about 33 to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, a water recirculating system can utilize water from the reservoir at the bottom of the vacuum chamber and spray it over the produce for further cooling effect. This reservoir water may be passed through a filtration device utilizing non-residual free radical chemical methods of filtration or ultraviolet light to reduce the micro biotic load and insure freshness.
The advent and increased popularity of processed lettuce, i.e, chopped or shredded lettuce enclosed in bags with special atmospheres, has generated a need for improved handling, pre-cooling and processing, and a need to minimize abused, desiccated or decaying lettuce.
At present, Iceberg lettuce is cooled without spraying water on to it. Romaine, Red Leaf, Green Leaf and other thinner leaf lettuces need sprayed water for adequate cooling. The water weight percentage range for Iceberg Lettuce is between 95.72 and 94.76 percent while the range for Romaine and the Leaf Lettuces is between 95.07 and 93.67 percent with most of this water stored in the stalk of the leaf. It has been determined that there is a one percent (1%) by weight moisture loss from produce tissue when vacuum cooling without water for every 10 degree F temperature reduction (Page 5 of Exhibit 1, USDA Market Research Report No. 469, 1961). This water loss through vaporization is pulled from the produce tissue. This water loss through evaporation amounts to 28.75 gallons of water evaporated for every 10 degree F temperature reduction for a typical twelve ton, 24,000-pound produce load.
______________________________________ 480 boxes/load .times. 50 pounds/box 24,000 pounds/load .times. .01 moisture loss 240 pounds water .times. .1198 pounds/gallons of water 28.75 gallons/10.degree. F. change ______________________________________
Introducing a water spray to the vacuum cooling process, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,132, adequately cooled leafy lettuces such as Romaine, Red Leaf and Green Leaf that lacked enough water in their tissues to enable proper cooling. When a water recirculating spray system is used, the produce weight loss is reduced because water evaporates from the surface of the produce rather than being drawn from its tissues. When water is drawn from the tissues of produce, resulting desiccated leaves are unappealing to buyers and useless to lettuce processors. Originally (Exhibit 1, page 7), moisture loss was assumed to be uniform throughout a lettuce head because of the nature of vacuum pressure. However, moisture loss has been found to be concentrated in the outer leaves of the lettuce head. The moisture loss concentration is due to two factors: first, the inner leaves of Iceberg lettuce are coated with naturally occurring water; second, the outer leaves are almost always warmer (having absorbed sunlight and the rising ambient air temperature) and need more evaporation to achieve the desired cooling. The typical 3-4 percent moisture loss (change in temperature is about 30 to about 40 degrees) results in a 25-35 percent tissue loss (excluding core which is 5-11% additional loss) by weight to the package lettuce processors. However, even a one percent moisture loss concentrated in the outer, more desired green leaves of a head of Iceberg Lettuce results in a substantial loss of marketable tissue.
Flowing a large amount of cold water over produce and cooling it by simple heat transfer was thought to be beneficial. However, at 970.3 Btu's/pound of water evaporated, (1072 Btu at 4.6 mm pressure) the change of phase of water has proved to be a more efficient method of cooling. Also, leaving water on produce tissue has proved to accelerate produce decay. Water that condenses on the refrigerated coils may have a temperature in the range of about 33 to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. At these temperatures, it is difficult to reduce and control the sub atmospheric pressure at a level sufficient to evaporate such water without the evaporation freezing the produce. Produce picked early in the morning with low (33-40.degree. F. ) tissue temperatures is especially vulnerable to vacuum infiltration and/or freezing damage because only a portion of the sprayed water is evaporated before the produce tissue temperature reaches 32 degrees F. Initial attempts at reducing the tissue loss in Iceberg Lettuce by using water during the vacuum cooling process failed because the low temperature of the reservoir spray water and the porosity of Iceberg tissue resulted in water being left in and on the tissue, leading to accelerated decay. This failure is highlighted by the fact that the bagged lettuce processing industry now primarily uses two separate procedures to dry (the centrifuge) and cool (forced air cooling) its processed lettuce. This combination of procedures is utilized despite the fact that there are a number of product quality and operational problems. The centrifuge baskets need to be limited in size to effectively dry the tissue and they cut the tissue of the produce being dried, especially the thin leaf and baby lettuces, resulting in a further reduction of usable processed tissue. Also, with the cooling of the lettuce done by transporting the tissue through a stream of cold air all of the employees in the processing area need to use winter clothing in order to protect themselves from the chill created by the cool air.
Therefore, a major problem facing produce processors using vacuum cooling with water today, is how much water to spray at what water temperature, and when to spray it to minimize tissue desiccation without leaving free water on the tissue. In making this determination, it is important to know the field temperature of the produce to be cooled, and the desired water temperature, so that the water on the surface of the produce can be evaporated entirely to achieve the desired cooling and desired moisture content. Lettuce, celery and the like that are picked in the morning may have less heat to be removed than that which is picked in the warm afternoon. Finished cooling temperature of produce should always be below 40.degree. F.; the ideal temperature range is between 33-38.degree. F.
Determining the average temperature of a number of boxes of produce to adjust the cooling process accordingly has been too cumbersome and time consuming a procedure. At this time, an operator of a vacuum chamber with or without water may insert a temperature reading probe into selected produce to determine its temperature and use this data to estimate the total heat to be removed. The operator can thereafter adjust a timer to start the flow of cooling water onto the produce after a predetermined sub atmospheric pressure is reached within the chamber. Another timer is set to terminate the process after an appropriate sub atmospheric pressure has been reached. The operator may lengthen the cooling time under sub atmospheric pressure if ambient air and produce temperatures rise.
An accurate method for assessing total heat within a vacuum chamber during a cooling process is to observe the sub atmospheric pressures at which evaporations (flashes) occur. The accuracy of this method rests in the thermodynamic properties of steam as set forth in the reference book with the same title by Joseph H. Keenan and Frederick C. Keyes, Exhibit 2. This text with its data for the liquid and solid phases section is the foundation for the physical properties of water. Disclosed in this text is that while water evaporates at 212.degree. F. at atmospheric pressure of 14.7 lbs/in.sup.2 if the pressure is reduced to 0.08854 lbs/in.sup.2 (4.6 mm) liquid water will change to vapor at 32.0.degree. F. Thus, a pound of water at atmospheric pressure occupies 27 cubic feet while at 0.08854 lbs/in.sup.2 a pound of water occupies 3306 cubic feet. (Exhibit 2, Table 1; Exhibit 1, Page 12, FIG. 5). These evaporations (flashes) take place when the sub atmospheric pressure within the chamber reaches the flash point of the water in and on the produce tissue (Exhibit 2, Table 1). After measuring the pressure at which evaporations/flashes that occur, an operator can determine the aggregate heat load in the chamber and can adjust the amount of water to be sprayed and amount of time needed for cooling.
It is an object of this invention to provide processes and apparatus to chill produce by removing surface water and a desired amount of interstitial water from the produce while minimizing desiccation in which the heat of a load of produce can be measured accurately, and the controls of the vacuum cooling equipment, water spray and water temperature adjusted accordingly.

Apparatus and methods for vacuum cooling produce


An instant messaging user may use a buddy list that includes a user-selected list of potential instant messaging recipients (“buddies”) to identify another instant messaging user with whom instant messages are to be exchanged. An instant messaging user also may use a buddy list for other purposes, such as to initiate playing of an on-line game or to invite participants to play an on-line game. Techniques are provided to transform a buddy list from one messaging-mode to another messaging-mode. The transformation may include, for example, substitution or re-ordering of groups of buddies, substitution of buddy icons associated with buddies, substitution of information displayed about buddies, and substitution of controls for directing operation of the buddy list.

On-line services may provide users with the ability to send and receive instant messages. Instant messages may be exchanged in a private on-line conversation between two or more people who have access to an instant messaging service and who have installed communications software necessary to access and use the instant messaging service. A participant list that includes the communications identities with which a user exchanges instant messages may be displayed for the user.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device capable of maintaining a favorable voltage holding ratio and reducing occurrence of image sticking and stain and a decrease in contrast ratio in a high-temperature environment for a long time while including a photo-alignment film, and a method for manufacturing such a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes paired substrates, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates, a photo-alignment film disposed between at least one of the substrates and the liquid crystal layer, and a polymer layer disposed between the liquid crystal layer and the photo-alignment film. The photo-alignment film contains a polymer that contains a photo-reactive functional group. The polymer layer contains a polymer that has a structure derived from a specific polymerization initiator and a structure derived from a specific monomer.

Liquid crystal display devices are display devices utilizing a liquid crystal composition for display. The typical display mode thereof is irradiating a liquid crystal panel containing a liquid crystal composition sealed between paired substrates with backlight illumination and applying voltage to the liquid crystal composition to change the alignment of liquid crystal molecules, thereby controlling the amount of light passing through the liquid crystal panel. Such liquid crystal display devices have features including a thin profile, light weight, and low power consumption, and have therefore been used for electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and car navigation systems. The pixel resolution has been increased for uses such as smartphones, which has led to a tendency of an increase in the number of conductive lines and the area of the black matrix disposed in the liquid crystal panel.
In a liquid crystal display device, the alignment of liquid crystal molecules with no voltage applied is typically controlled by alignment films on which an alignment treatment has been performed. The alignment treatment has conventionally been performed by the rubbing method of rubbing the surface of an alignment film with a tool such as a roller. However, since the number of the conductive lines and the area of the black matrix disposed in the liquid crystal panel have been increased, irregularities are now more likely to occur on the substrate surfaces in the liquid crystal panel. With irregularities on the substrate surfaces, the portions near the irregularities may not be properly rubbed by the rubbing method. Such a non-uniform alignment treatment may cause a decrease in the contrast ratio in the liquid crystal display device.
In order to deal with this problem, studies and development have been made on a photo-alignment method which is an alternative alignment treatment method to the rubbing method and irradiates the surface of an alignment film with light. With the photo-alignment method, an alignment treatment can be performed without contact with the surface of the alignment film. The photo-alignment method therefore has an advantage that an alignment treatment is less likely to be non-uniform even with irregularities on the substrate surfaces, so that a favorable liquid crystal alignment can be achieved on the entire substrates.
However, conventional liquid crystal display devices may suffer display defects such as image sticking and stain, and there is a need for reduction of such defects. For example, Patent Literature 1 aims to prevent a decrease in the voltage holding ratio (VHR) of a liquid crystal layer and an increase in the ion density (ID), which enables elimination of problematic defective display such as voids, uneven alignment, and screen burn-in, and thus discloses the use of a specific liquid crystal composition and a sealant containing a cured product of a specific curable resin composition.

Liquid crystal display device and method for manufacturing liquid crystal display device


A binding system is provided that is effective for use on recreational device, such as a snowboard, and that is adapted to mate to, or that includes, a boot or other footwear worn by the user. In general, the binding system includes a base plate for support a rider's foot, and a connecting element for mating the base plate to an elongate board, e.g., a snowboard. The connecting element is effective to mate the base plate to a snowboard about a fixed central axis and to allow pivotal movement of the base plate about the central axis with respect to the snowboard. The binding system can also include at least one compression member mated to the base plate and/or to a snowboard. The compression member(s) are effective to compress between the base plate and the snowboard in response to a force applied to at least one of the base plate and the snowboard. The binding system is particularly advantageous in that the compression members provide enhanced biomechanical operation, absorbing chatter and shock, and increasing mobility. Moreover, there is no relative motion between the base plate and the boot, so the rider's ability to control the snowboard is not adversely affected.

Snowboarding has become increasingly popular in recent years and generally involves descending a slope by standing sideways on a lightweight board that is attached to the user's feet. Unlike skiing, which requires the user to shift their weight from one ski to the other, snowboarders shift their weight from heels (heelside) to toes as well as from one end of the board to the other. Shifting weight toward the nose (front) of the board will allow the rider to head downhill, while shifting weight toward the tail (back) of the board will allow the rider to head uphill or slow down. Quick turns can be achieved by pushing the back foot forward or pulling it backward to change direction, and stops can be achieved by pushing heels or toes down hard to dig the edge of the snowboard into the snow.
In order to maneuver the board, the rider's foot must be firmly attached to the board. Currently, snowboarding equipment requires a board, typically around five feet long, bindings attached to the board, and boots. The bindings, which are used to hold the boots to the board, are available in a variety of configurations, including metal fasteners, plastic straps, and step-in versions. Some bindings have high backs behind the heels to provide support and added leverage on turns. Regardless of the type of binding, the bindings typically remain within a fixed orientation during use. Thus, while the snowboard itself can be designed to provide some flexibility, most of the mechanical stress caused by use is placed on the rider. Such stress on the rider's legs can reduce performance, and can cause shearing between the boot and the rider's foot internal to the boot. Moreover, the lack of impact absorption can increase edge chatter and reducer rider control.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved binding system that reduces stress on the rider's legs, while improving the rider's ability to control the board.

Recreational binding with adjustable suspension interface


In a method of and apparatus for controlling probe tip sanding in semiconductor device testing equipment, resistance values of pads of a probed chip are measured and stored. If a maximum resistance value among the stored resistance values is greater than a contact resistance reference value, a consecutive fail counting value and an accumulated fail counting value are increased. An automatic sanding command is generated to activate automatic sanding of a probe tip, when at least one of the consecutive fail counting value and the accumulated fail counting value is greater than a respective counting reference value. In this manner, false negative readings in the testing of semiconductor devices as the result of increased contact resistance between a probe tip and a pad in an EDS test are reduced and therefore device yield is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to test equipment for a semiconductor device; and more particularly, to a probe tip sanding control method and apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrical die sorting (EDS) test for the testing of semiconductor devices is well-known in the art, and is performed at the wafer level, as opposed to the package level. At the wafer level, the semiconductor device has not yet been placed in a package, and therefore does not include leads. Thus, the EDS test employs a probe card having probe tips that access device circuitry. When a probe card tip is in contact with a pad of the semiconductor device, alumina oxide Al2O3, a primary component of the pad, becomes attached to the tip, and therefore contact resistance is increased. This augmented contact resistance disturbs normal contact in an open/short(O/S) test as one of basic DC measurements, affects the linearity of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) utilized in an analog block test, and affects certain measuring procedures, such as a gain error etc. This, in turn, can lead to erroneous readings as to whether a device under test meets the criteria for proper operation. Therefore, a normal semiconductor device can be dismissed as a bad part as a result of the test procedure, which, in turn, can have an adverse effect on yield, and therefore leads to a rise in manufacturing costs.
If the yield is reduced below a minimum threshold yield set as an initial parameter of the test, the test equipment automatically stops the testing operation. Such a yield reduction caused by an augment of the tip contact resistance drops can therefore affect even the operating rate of the equipment.
To solve such yield reduction and operating rate decrease, conventionally, probe tip sanding is uniformly executed, for example periodically, or following a test, through a sanding command issued by a operator. Since the pad material can be different from one pad to the next as a result of fabrication processes, the resulting yield is therefore subject to the discretion of the test operator.
In the meantime, frequent sanding of the probe tip slows down the test procedure, owing to increased time required for tip sanding, and, in addition, the useful life span of the probe tip is shortened.

Method of controlling probe tip sanding in semiconductor device testing equipment


A device is provided which passes light of preselected wavelengths through a fluid or vapor to be tested. The light is detected after it has passed through the fluid or vapor. Upon detection, a voltage is created which is proportional in amplitude to the detected light strength for each wavelength of light. These voltages are compared to produce a ratio which represents the condition of the fluid or vapor which is tested. When the ratio is outside of preselected boundaries, control signals are generated which may trigger alarms or otherwise respond to the condition.

It has been found that when many fluids are exposed to a variety of environmental conditions, their physical properties change. These changes occur primarily in two areas. The chemical composition of the fluid itself may be changed through the application of heat, pressure, chemical reactions with other fluids, or air-oxidation. In addition, the fluid may be contaminated by other fluids, contaminants or particulate matter from other sources, which, although not chemically combining with the fluid, affects the fluid's ability to function as it was intended, which function is best accomplished by a pure fluid.
Exemplary of such a fluid susceptible to both of these changes is lubricating motor oil used in an internal combustion engine. A pure motor oil is ideally suited for providing lubrication within the internal combustion engine. However, due to the high temperature necessarily present in such engines, breakdown of the molecular structure of the motor oil takes place with resulting loss of lubricating ability. The remnants of the broken down motor oil molecules remain in the motor oil as contaminants. In addition, other contaminants such as carbon deposits and fine metal particles which result from the operation of the engine are also introduced into the motor oil thereby contaminating it. Other contaminants are introduced into the motor oil such as water or anti-freeze from the engine cooling system. Dust particles, introduced into the engine with the air through the carburization system, are blown past compression and oil rings into the engine crank case from the combustion chamber during the compression stroke of the pistons.
Given time, the breakdown of pure motor oil and the introduction of contaminants into the motor oil renders the motor oil unable to effectively perform its job of lubricating the engine parts. When this occurs, the used motor oil should be replaced with new motor oil. The amount of time it takes for motor oil to reach this condition depends on a variety of factors including the strain put on the engine, the adequacy of cooling measures related to the engine, and external environment of the engine during operation.
Many fluids have additives added to them to enhance their inherent capabilities. These additives result in variant chemical and light absorbing properties. Examples of such chemicals are the various types of fuel enhancers used in the automotive fuel industry. For example, the introduction of ethanol, a common additive in many fuels, radically changes in a predictable way the overall light absorption properties of the resultant ethanol gasoline mixture.
The instant invention was designed to detect both when a fluid, either by breakdown or by contamination, has moved outside of an acceptable range of operating parameters, and also when the presence of certain additives are present in the tested fluid.
In researching these two problems, it was discovered that the light absorbing properties of a fluid is altered by the breakdown of the fluid itself, or by the introduction of contaminants or additives into the fluid. It was also discovered that breakdown or contamination of the fluid affects the light absorbing characteristics of the fluid by different amounts for different wavelengths of light. In particular, it was found that a ratio established by passing light of various wavelengths through the fluid to be tested and then detecting and comparing the strength of the light after passing through the fluid indicates the condition of the fluid related to the above mentioned detrimental characteristics. In particular, it was found that when the ratio for the preselected wavelengths reaches a certain ratio, the fluid is no longer within acceptable standards set for the fluid. With this in mind, the instant invention was motivated.
Because the change in fluid takes place within the environment where the fluid is found and because change in the fluid is a continuous process, the fluid should be tested continuously while it is being used in order to immediately detect detrimental changes. In this context, it is preferable to non-destructively, continuously test the fluid so that the testing process itself does not contribute to the breakdown and contamination problems of the fluid. Therefore, the light of various wavelengths should be introduced to the fluid in such a way that it can continuously and non-destructively interact with the fluid while helping to determine the condition of the fluid.