The invention provides for the evaluation of semantic closeness of a source data file relative to candidate data files. The system includes an artificial neural network and processing intelligence that derives a property vector from extractable measurable properties of a data file. The property vector is mapped to related semantic properties for that same data file and such that, during ANN training, pairwise similarity/dissimilarity in property is mapped, during towards corresponding pairwise semantic similarity/dissimilarity in semantic space to preserve semantic relationships. Based on comparisons between generated property vectors in continuous multi-dimensional property space, the system and method assess, rank, and then recommend and/or filter semantically close or semantically disparate candidate files from a query from a user that includes the data file. Applications apply to search and compilation tools and particularly to recommendation tools that provide a succession of logical progressive associations that link between disparate file content in source and destination files.

This invention relates, in general, to artificial intelligence and neural networks that generate a property-based file vector derived from extracted properties from a data file and where the property-based file vector both preserves and is representative of semantic properties of the data file. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for assessing, ranking and then recommending and/or filtering semantically close or semantically disparate candidate files in a database in response to a query from a user, especially but not exclusively to a query in an internet-based platform such as a social media platform or search engine. More especially, applications of the categorization and recommendation system and method apply to media in the form of music, video and/or images data files, although the application widely appliable and finds application in evaluation of speech and text data files, including personal reports.

Processing system for generating a playlist from candidate files and method for generating a playlist


Wafer demount apparatus automatically demounts and transports a polished semiconductor wafer to an inspection station. The apparatus includes a bridge located between a polishing block supporting wax-mounted wafers and an offload conveyor. The bridge fills the gap and provides a smooth transition surface for the wafers moving from the polishing block to the conveyor. The bridge is also capable of movement to achieve vertical and horizontal alignment with the polishing block.

This invention relates generally to wafer demount apparatus and more specifically to wafer demount apparatus having a bridge to protect demounted articles from damage.
Polishing an article to produce a surface which is highly reflective and damage free has application in many fields. A particularly good finish is required when processing an article such as a wafer of semiconductor material in preparation for printing circuits on the wafer by an electron beam-lithographic or photolithographic process. In one well known process for semiconductor wafers, multiple wafers are wax mounted onto a polishing block. The polishing block is placed face down onto a polishing pad so that polish faces of the wafers engage the polish pad. The pad and the polishing block are rotated as a large normal force is applied to the polishing block forcing it down into engagement with the pad. A polishing slurry, typically including chemical polishing agents and abrasive particles, is applied to the pad. Multiple polishing sequences may be carried out to reach the desired final finish of the wafers.
Once polishing is complete the wafers must be removed from the polishing block and inspected for faults. Presently, the polishing blocks are transported, face up, to a demount station where a wedge-shaped prying tool is activated to break the wax bond and detach the wafer from the polishing block. A conveyor is disposed adjacent to the polishing block at the demount station. The prying tool pushes the wafer after it is released from the polishing block onto the conveyor for transport to the inspection station.
It has been found that the wafers fly upward a short distance off of the polishing block and away from the prying tool upon their release from the wax. Thus, the wafer is not controlled for a brief period of time. There is a gap between the edge of the polishing block and the conveyor which is substantially smaller than the diameter of the wafer. Frequently, a leading edge of the wafer flies into the gap so that when the wafer falls back down against the polishing block, the back side of the wafer hits the edge of the block, leaving a mark on the back side of the wafer. It was also possible for the leading edge of the wafer to strike a pulley of the conveyor, causing damage.


Methods and apparatus for customizing content navigation. In one embodiment, a user navigates through pre-recorded or cached content in accordance with on one or more user preferences. Such user preferences may include one or more of content cache size, instant replay time, advance time, FF/REV speeds, slow motion speed and overshoot correction. In one embodiment, a DVR setup menu may be used to enter the user preferences via a remote control device. The user preferences may then be saved in non-volatile memory and used for navigation of subsequent content playback.

The Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) has changed the lives of television (TV) viewers by allowing viewers to time-shift TV programs to match their lifestyles. Using the VCR, the viewer stores programs onto magnetic tape; this can then be played back at the viewer's convenience. The VCR gives the viewer the ability to pause the program playback whenever he desires, fast-forward through unwanted program material or commercials, and to replay favorite scenes. However, a VCR cannot both capture and play back information at the same time.
The use of a digital computer system to solve this problem has been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,551 issued to Logan et al., on Dec. 6, 1994, teaches a method for concurrent video recording and playback. It presents a microprocessor-controlled broadcast and playback device. However, the approach requires that the microprocessor and hard disk must be very fast in order to keep up with high video rates found in television transmission.
The use of a multimedia time-warping system to solve this problem has been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,389 issued to Barton et al. on May 15, 2001 teaches such a system, which utilizes the approach that decouples the microprocessor from the high video data rates, thereby reducing the microprocessor and system requirements, which are at a premium. The common name employed in the art to describe such a multimedia time-warping system is Digital Video Recorder (DVR).
DVR systems typically provide the ability to navigate through content which has been stored or cached. Such navigation may include, for example, fast forwarding or reversing through a stored program. However, heretofore there has been no way for a user to customize with user defined settings the DVR navigation experience. For example, current DVR implementations allow uses to navigate through content at only factory-defined speeds and formats. Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus which enables users to customize the content presentation.

Method and apparatus for customizing content navigation


Thermoplastic elastomer compositions having a desirable soft touch feel to skin, and in particular grip, especially during wet, soapy and humid conditions. In one embodiment, the composition is part of a composite system, wherein the composition is connected, for example molded, overmolded or co-extruded to a substrate, such as a thermoplastic, glass or metal. The compositions and composites are suitable for use wherever desirable feel and grip are needed, such as handles or grips of household or industrial items.

Many items, consumer, household and industrial, include grips or handles that are designed to be grasped by the user. Depending on the function of the items, the pressure exerted by the user may vary, but generally it is desirable that a sufficient grasp is maintained so that the handle does not fall out of the user's hand.
Various grips or handles comprise a polymer. Thermoplastic elastomers, especially those with hardness below 75 Shore A, have excellent dry grip and, therefore, are widely being used to overmold onto hard substrates to provide a soft touch surface with excellent grip. When a handle becomes wet during use, such as during the normal use of the item in the case of a cooking utensil or a personal care tool, by normal conditions of use such as rain or humidity, or even sweat from the user, the item's handle can become slippery and difficult to grip.
Moreover, many individuals desire handles that offer a soft feel that is pleasing to touch, as well as handles that have good grip when moist, wet or soapy.
Different attempts have been set forth in order to improve wet grip, including adding polar polymers, such as polyurethane, and adding abrasive filler to make the surface of the item rough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,799 relates to a thermoplastic polymer composition containing (a) a polyester or polyamide thermoplastic polymer and (b) a block graft copolymer which comprises (i) as the backbone portion, at least one of a block copolymer or a hydrogenated block copolymer containing blocks of a styrene-type polymer and blocks of a butadiene-type polymer, and (ii) as the graft portion, a radical disintegrative polymer, said block graft copolymer having been chemically modified with molecular units containing a functional group which will reportedly combine or interact with said thermoplastic polymer a).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,940 relates to reportedly high wet-friction, highly adherent, non-abrasive elastomeric compositions reportedly producing smooth, slip-resistant coatings on surfaces, containing as primary components, a thermoplastic rubber block copolymer and a petrolatum, and optionally, independently including a plasticizer such as a hydrogenated polybutene, a tackifier such as polyisobutylene or a hydrocarbon resin, an antioxidant or a UV light absorber, in a carrier organic solvent, and containing no abrasive filler or particulate additives.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,649 relates to a rubber composition reportedly suitable for use in grips of articles such as golf clubs, tennis rackets, bicycles and tools, comprising (1) a rubber component containing an ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM), and (2) 5 to 100 parts by weight of a polyisobutylene having a viscosity average molecular weight of 6,000 to 50,000, which reportedly provides grips having good feeling of touch, good non-slipping properties in both fine and rainy weather, and reportedly giving a small feeling of impact to mis-shot of golf balls as compared with conventional grips.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,552 relates to a rubber composition containing a diene rubber and a modified polyisobutylene rubber having a functional group capable of reacting with a silanol group present on a surface of silica, together with a precipitated silica or a silica-adhered carbon black, having a low tan δ (about 0.2) at 60° C., reportedly having an improved grip performance without substantially decreasing the abrasion resistance and the rolling resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,855 relates to a modified polybutene (polyisobutylene) containing isobutylene repeating units and having, in the main chain, at the ends, and/or at the side chains of the polymer chain thereof, free radicals stable at a room temperature and in the presence of oxygen, or having a half-ester structure, amide structure, onium salt structure, or imide structure or acid anhydride residual group, as well as a rubber composition containing the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,919 discloses a thermoplastic elastomer composition which is comprised of (a) a thermoplastic resin selected from the group consisting of polyolefin resin, polyphenylene ether, and polystyrene, wherein the thermoplastic resin is present at a level of up to 60 parts by weight, (b) 5 to 90 parts by weight of a rubbery elastomer, wherein the repeat units in the rubbery polymer are distributed through the rubbery polymer in an essentially random manner, wherein the rubbery polymer is a solution polymer, and is optionally, at least partially crosslinked, (c) 5 to 90 parts by weight of a highly saturated elastomer, and (d) 15 to 600 parts by weight of an oil.
U.S. Publication No. 2004/0059069 discloses that hotmelt adhesive compositions based on a mixture of at least one reactive binder and at least one non-reactive binder are reportedly useful as one- or two-part adhesives and/or sealants, particularly in the production of multiple glazing systems. The reactive binder may be a polyisobutylene, hydrogenated polybutadiene and/or poly-alpha-olefin which has been functionalized with silane groups. The non-reactive binder may be a butyl rubber, poly-.alpha.-olefin, polybutene, styrene block copolymer and/or a diene or homopolymer. The adhesive compositions reportedly act as both a spacer and as a matrix for the moisture-absorbing substances employed in multiple glazing applications, forming an elastic bond or seal at the edges of the glass layers.
U.S. Publication No. 2004/0171759 relates to a polymer composition comprising at least one polyisobutene-containing component based on a medium molecular weight, reactive polyisobutene and at least one further polymer which is different therefrom.
U.S. Publication No. 2006/0223945 relates to synthesis techniques to reportedly form emulsifiers of low color from maleic anhydride and polymers of isobutylene.
U.S. Publication No. 2007/0032320 discloses inflatable sports balls using a particular class of thermoplastic elastomers as an outer cover layer. The class of thermoplastic elastomers reportedly exhibits a particular combination of properties that result in the ball having excellent wet play characteristics.
U.S. Publication No. 2007/0037908 relates to compositions containing improved tackifiers as well as methods making and using the same.
U.S. Publication No. 2008/0005930 relates to a method of reportedly improving the performance of sports shoes, especially soccer boots, by improving the coefficient of friction of key areas of the shoe (such as the toe box and upper) in both wet and dry conditions. Described is the application of butylene type coatings, including polyisobutylene polymers, to maintain desirable existing characteristics of a shoe, such as feel and feedback, but which improve grip. Variations such as patches and areas of specific types of fabric or coating are also discussed.
U.S. Publication No. 2008/0271344 relates to the modification of goat and caprine leathers to render them suitable for use in the manufacture of sports shoes, and certain other items of footwear and apparel. Goatskin, while possessing some desirable properties, has poor wear and tear resistance. The present invention discusses the attachment of specific types of bonding layers to the non-grain face side to reportedly alter the overall performance of caprine leathers so that they may be used in durable footwear. Treatments to, and coatings on, the caprine leather are also discussed.
Japanese Publication No. 200-088219 relates to providing a gasket material which is excellent in properties required of a gasket material, such as low hardness and its compression set is small, and permeability, such as a low-molecular-weight siloxane.
Many tackifiers, such as polyisobutylene, improve grip under dry conditions, and only moderately improve the grip under wet conditions. The product, when containing too much tackifier, is usually sticky and not suitable for use as a grip or handle. In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide a composition suitable for use as a grip or handle or a portion of a grip or handle that has consumer-desirable properties, in particular good grip during wet conditions.

Thermoplastic elastomer with desirable grip especially during wet conditions


A belt fastener applicator tool and method are provided. The tool is very simple and provides a low cost tool for applying staple belt fasteners to belt ends. The applicator tool includes a plate body having both anvil and comb portions that are fixed thereto so as to be integrated therewith. In one form, the tool has a one-piece construction so that the plate body and anvil and comb portions are integrally formed together. Preferably, the comb portion includes upstanding comb locating members for receiving hinge loops, and the anvil portion includes both initial set anvil wells on one side of the locating members and a final set flat surface portion on the other side of the locating members. The same tool is used for both initial set and final set staple leg setting operations by turning the tool around with an operator using a hammer for staple setting operations.

Hinged belt fasteners having preset or prestaked staples require two distinct staple setting operations for providing the required low profile for the set staples of the fasteners when installed on the end of a conveyor belt. Applicant's assignee herein provides an Ready Set™ series of staple belt fasteners that have upper and lower plates interconnected by a pair of spaced arcuate hinge loops. The staples are prestaked in apertures of the upper plate member. The first setting operation creates an initial set of the legs of the staples by driving the staples through the apertures of the upper plate member in which they are held, through the belt, and through aligned apertures in the lower plate member of the fasteners, and then against a specially configured recessed anvil surface that starts to bend the staple legs. The final set operation involves applying the drive force to the staple to drive the bent, initial set staple legs against a flat anvil surface so they are further bent to be received in a pocket in the lower fastener member so as not to project out therefrom.
For these different staple setting operations, different anvil configurations are employed as described above. The RS staple belt fasteners are applied to the belt end via the use of two separate tools each having anvils that are specially configured for the operation they perform. The first tool has anvils fixed to a base channel with the anvils having recessed wells that are configured to provide an initial set for the staple legs while the other tool has anvils fixed to another base channel that are configured with flat, horizontally oriented anvil surfaces to provide the staple legs with their final set configuration. Both tools use comb members for aligning the staple legs with the anvils, and guide blocks for guiding a tool, such as either a drive rod or rods from a power staple driver tool or a manually held staple driver that is impacted by hammer blows. The staple driver tool is received in guide bores of the guide block to deliver a drive force to the staples. Both tools also use over-center clamp devices that are actuated to urge the guide blocks down against an upward spring bias to apply a downward clamping force on the upper plate of the belt fasteners so that the belt fasteners and belt end are clamped in the tool with the comb member captured between the guide blocks and the anvils thereunder. Depending on the size of the belt fasteners, the appropriately sized comb member is selected and mounted in the tool with the guide blocks and clamp device then mounted to the tool.
After all of the staple legs on each of the fasteners in a fastener strip are provided with their initial set, the clamp devices are released. The belt end can then be pulled out of the initial set tool and put into the final set tool with the initially set staples being aligned with the final set anvils via an appropriately sized comb member in a manner similar to the initial set tool. After the clamp devices are actuated to clamp the belt end with the fasteners thereon in the tool, the staples are driven via a drive member inserted in bores of the guide blocks to provide a final set to the staple legs. As with the initial set tool, the parts of the final set tool (the comb members, guide blocks and clamp devices) need to be assembled together based on the fastener size. Alternatively, it is known that, because of the time needed to load the belt with the initially set staples into another tool, installers may simply flip the belt over and, using a hammer, deliver hammer blows directly to the initially set staple legs to drive them into the pocket of the lower plates. Thus, in this instance the staples are provided with their final set without the use of an anvil for this purpose.
Another more recently developed applicator tool for staple belt fasteners by applicant's assignee herein employs a single applicator tool for applying the staple belt fasteners to belt ends. This applicator tool also includes guide blocks with clamp devices with the guide blocks having bores adapted to receive the nose end of a power staple driving tool therein. A comb plate is mounted to the tool under the guide blocks. In this tool, the belt does not have to be removed from the tool for performing both the initial and final set driving operations on the staple legs. Instead, the tool includes a handle actuator that is operable to lift the guide blocks and comb plate and to slide anvils that have both initial and final set portions formed thereon into proper alignment with the staple legs depending on the staple setting operation that is to be performed. Nonetheless, as is apparent, each of these tools requires a significant number of parts as well as moving parts increasing their complexity and expense.

Staple belt fastener applicator tool and method


This invention relates to a network architecture for data communication between data sources and data destinations via network nodes and at least one data concentrator. According to the invention the nodes (2, 4) are conceived to communicate with a data concentrator (1) in both directions either via a permanently operative network (8) in the multihop mode or via an occasionally operative network (5) in wireless connection with mobile user nodes (6) in the nomadic mode. Means for commutation are provided to detect faulty multihop nodes and to activate nomadic nodes instead until the fault disappears, in order to maintain the overall functionality of the network. Moreover the network according to the invention allows the data collected by mobile users to be shared with other mobile users, thus forming a peer-to-peer network.

The present invention refers to data communication networks adapted to interconnect multiple data sources and data receivers.
The opportunistic exploitation of mobile users moving in a certain area and being equipped with wireless digital devices of high performance in terms of computing and memory, and able to collect, to process and to share environmental data collected via a large amount of low-cost sensors located in outdoor environments is currently of high interest in the research field of Situated Autonomic Communications. It has been recognized that such nomadic approach has the potentiality to pave the way to the induction of large-scale deployment of location/context aware applications and services for the benefit of both private and public users. Furthermore such communication paradigm solves the well known scalability and cost problem inherent with multi-hop routing-based architectures.
The European patent applications EP 05001930.6 and EP 05008909.3 of the present applicant aim at a novel approach able to address these challenges. Nature and society exhibit many instances of systems in which large populations are able to reach efficient equilibria and to develop effective collaboration and survival strategies, able to work in the absence of central control and to exploit local interactions. The present invention intends to provide a fully integrated network and service environment that scales to large amounts of heterogeneous devices, and that is able to adapt and evolve in an autonomic way.
The subjects of the European patents cited above overcome device heterogeneity and achieve scalability via an autonomic and localized peer-to-peer communication paradigm. They evolve to adapt to the surrounding environment, just like living organisms evolve by natural selection. Network operations are driven by the services, providing an ad hoc support when and where needed to fulfill user requests. Security issues are considered as a fundamental part of the services themselves, representing a key ingredient for achieving a purposeful autonomic system. The network becomes just an appendix of the services which, in turn, become a mirror image of the social networks of users they serve. This people-centric paradigm breaks the barrier between service providers and users, and sets up the opportunity for "mush-rooming" of spontaneous services, therefore paving the way to a service and user-centric Information and Community Technology revolution.
The present invention intends to resolve the problems due to the emerging trend towards pervasive computing and communication environments, i.e. the large number of networked embedded devices. Such device possesses sensing/identifying capabilities, making it possible for user-situated services to interface directly with the surrounding environment, entailing the possibility of introducing radically novel service, able to enhance the five senses, and the communication and tool manipulation capabilities of human beings.
The embedded devices must possess computing and (basic) communication capabilities, having the potential to form a massively larger networked system, orders of magnitude larger than the current internet. The complexity of such environments will not be far from that of biological organisms, ecosystems and socio-economic communities.
Traditional communication approaches are ineffective in the context, since they fail to address several new features: a wide heterogeneity in node capabilities and service requirements, a huge number of nodes with consequent scalability issues, the possibly high node mobility and the management complexity.
The network architecture according to the present invention resolves the problems cited above and provides a structure which is based on a trade-off between the known state of the art concerning multihop routing and the content of the earlier EP applications cited above of the present applicant, called here-after nomadic approach.
According to the invention, the network architecture for data communication between data sources and data destinations via network nodes and at least one data concentrator is characterized in that the nodes are conceived to communicate with a data concentrator in both directions either via a permanently operative network in the multihop mode or via an occasionally operative network in wireless connection with mobile user nodes in the nomadic mode, and that means for commutation are provided to detect faulty multihop nodes and to activate nomadic nodes instead until the fault disappears, in order to maintain the overall functionality of the network.
For details and variants of the networks according to the invention reference is made to the dependent claims.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Network architecture for data communication


An adaptive data stream filter removes narrowband interference from the CATV return path prior to these paths being combined in the network. A method for removing narrowband interference from the CATV return path detects potential narrowband interference in real-time and adapts a filter to remove this potential narrowband interference. An exemplary embodiment of the above method uses previously created filters that are combined based on detected interference in an adaptive manner to continually adapt to new interference sources. Another exemplary embodiment of the above method calculates new filter coefficients for the data stream filter based on detected interference. In another embodiment, two filters are operated in a ping-pong manner for each band of interference identified as above threshold. This enables updating of one filter while another filter is performing the data stream filter operation.

Cable Television (CATV) Networks have been undergoing rapid upgrading, particularly in North America, to provide advanced services, such as digital video, telephony and Internet services. A major part of the upgrade cycle has been the development of the return path network—the path from residential subscribers to the CATV Headend. Previously, this portion of the network was used very little, and only for minor maintenance and billing operations. As interactivity needs grew and CATV technology advanced, this portion of the network became more significant. Now, the CATV return path forms a critical portion of the system for two-way interactivity, such as telephony and data traffic.
One key issued in determining the performance of the CATV return path is the quality of the return cable channel. Within this path, one of the most significant impairments to quality signal transmission arises from external interference, typically caused by narrowband interference of radio waves or in-home sources that generate narrowband frequency domain noise that falls within the return band of 5-42 Megahertz (MHz) (North America). Additionally, it is commonly the case that return path networks, when terminated at a CATV Headend, are combined with other return path networks. Thus, interference from one return leg of one network not only degrades or ruins the channel within which such interference falls, but also ruins channels on other legs that otherwise are clean until they reach the combining point at the CATV Headend.
In many two-way HFC communication networks, return path systems are limited in performance by interference generated from multiple reverse path sources in the plant and in homes. Additionally, the return path is band limited, so the spectrum obscured by interference is very valuable.
Today, field personnel perform extensive testing and troubleshooting throughout the network to identify potential narrowband interference sources. This is a costly and ongoing, time-consuming process. Moreover, many of the problems exist inside homes and therefore cannot be addressed by such troubleshooting.
The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a method and apparatus for improving the performance of return paths in two-way HFC communication networks.

Narrowband interference and identification and digital processing for cable television return path performance enhancement


An educational collector's series floating toy fish having a hollow interior chamber. The mouth of the toy fish communicates with the interior chamber to define an opening through which the inside of the toy fish may be viewed. Located within the interior chamber is a figurine displaying one or more characters in a thought-inspiring pose or situation. A story booklet receivable within the packaging proposing at least one explanation as to how or why the figurine ended up inside the toy fish is also included.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to educational toys, more particularly, to a collector's series of floating toy fish which include an imagination-inspiring figurine located inside of each toy fish. The fish is accompanied by a story booklet setting forth several versions of how or why the figurine came to be located inside of the toy fish.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There are numerous prior art aquatic toys, such as those to Ganine (D 153,426), Leaf (D 153,707) and Saitoh (D 251,315), however, these toys fail to show an aquatic toy like the present invention. The patents to Ganine and Leaf merely display floating toys in the shape of a fish, while the patent to Saitoh shows a toy fish chasing a smaller fish.
Another patent of interest is that to Damiani (D 188,958), which shows a bottle in the shape of a fish having a screw cap at its mouth.
Although numerous other examples of simulated toy fish exist, none provide the thought inspiring feature of the present invention.


A transmitted light signal, such as laser light, is modulated by a data signal and by a tracking signal. The tracking signal has a modulation depth that is substantially smaller than a peak-to-peak amplitude of the light signal. At reception, the tracking signal is recovered from the modulated light signal and is used to determine an orientation of a receiver with respect to the transmitted light signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems, and in particular, relates to tone tracking in wireless optical communication systems.
2. Background Information
With the increasing popularity of wide area networks, such as the Internet and/or World Wide Web, network growth and traffic have exploded in recent years. Network users continue to demand faster networks, and as network demands continue to increase, existing network infrastructures and technologies are reaching their limits.
An alternative to existing hardwire or fiber network solutions is the use of wireless optical telecommunications technology. Wireless optical telecommunications utilize beams of light, such as lasers, as optical communications signals, and therefore do not require the routing of cables or fibers between locations. Data or information is encoded into a beam of light, and then transmitted through free space from a transmitter to a receiver.
For point-to-point free space laser communications, the use of narrow optical beams provides several advantages, including data security, high customer density, and high directivity. High directivity makes the achievement of high data rates and high link availability easier, due to higher signal levels at a receiver. In order to take full advantage of this directivity, some form of tracking is often necessary to keep the antennas of a transmitter and of the receiver properly pointed at each other. For example, a transmitted optical beam with a 1-mrad divergence has a spot diameter at the receiver of about 1 meter at 1 km range. Thus, movement of the transmitter or receiver by even a small fraction of the divergence (or field-of-view) could compromise the link unless active tracking is employed. Since high-speed communication channels utilize extremely sensitive detectors, such systems require equally sensitive tracking systems.
Charge coupled device (CCD) arrays or quadrant cell optical detectors (sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cquad cellsxe2x80x9d) may be used as tracking detectors in a tracking system. In either case, an electrically controllable steering mirror, gimbal, or other steering device may be used to maximize an optical signal (e.g., light) directed at a high speed communication detector, based on information provided by the tracking detector. This is possible since optical paths for tracking and communication are pre-aligned, and the nature of a tracking signal for a perfectly aligned system is known. CCD tracking is very sensitive, offers potentially more immunity to solar glint because of the ability to ignore glint xe2x80x9cfeaturesxe2x80x9d on the CCD array, and is in general a well-proven tracking method. However, at certain wavelengths, a separate lower wavelength tracking signal is often necessary due to limitations of CCD detection systems.
For an aligned optical system, an equal signal in all four quadrants of quad cells will normally indicate that the steering mirror has optimally directed the optical communication signal onto the high-speed communication detectorxe2x80x94if there is any deviation from this, the steering mirror will direct the optical signal back to this optimum equilibrium.
The signal on the quad cells may be a direct current (DC) signal. DC tracking may use the average signal content of the tracking signal from each quad cell. A problem with DC is that quad cell electronics cannot distinguish between an actual optical signal and a signal that may have come from solar background radiation or from imperfect transmit/receive isolation. Thus, the tracking system may misalign the transmitter and receiver in the presence of background light. Collectively, existing tracking systems have the disadvantages of being complex, bulky, expensive, and sometimes unreliable.
Accordingly, improvements are needed for tracking in wireless optical communication systems.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method includes modulating a light signal with a data signal and with a tracking signal having a modulation depth substantially smaller than a peak-to-peak amplitude of the light signal. The light signal modulated by the data signal and by the tracking signal is transmitted and received. The method further includes recovering the tracking signal from the received modulated light signal and using the tracking signal to determine an orientation of a receiver with respect to the received modulated light signal.

Method and apparatus for tone tracking in wireless optical communication systems


According to the present invention, there is disclosed a thermal detection device and method of using the device for characterizing and monitoring the dependence of pattern density on thermal absorption of a semiconductor. One or more of the devices can be disposed on a die of a test wafer. The thermal detection device comprises a silicon substrate having a test structure located substantially in the center of the silicon substrate. Frame shaped structures of polysilicon, silicon and oxide, in various configurations, form a collocated arrangement on the silicon substrate. The test wafer is subjected to a rapid thermal process and the resistance of the at least one testing structure is measured and the measured resistance of the at least one test structure is tabulated to a thermal absorption value of the at least one die.

Semiconductor devices or "ICs" (integrated circuits) have evolved from a handful of interconnected devices fabricated on a single chip of silicon to millions of devices. Current ICs provide performance and complexity far beyond what was originally imagined. In order to achieve improvements in complexity and circuit density (i.e., the number of devices capable of being packed onto a given chip area), the size of the smallest device feature, also known as the device "geometry", has become smaller with each generation of ICs. Semiconductor devices are now being fabricated with features less than a quarter of a micron across.
Increasing circuit density has not only improved the complexity and performance of ICs but has also provided lower cost parts to the consumer. An IC fabrication facility can cost hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. Each fabrication facility will have a certain throughput of semiconductor wafers, and each wafer will have a certain number of ICs on it. Therefore, by making the individual devices of an IC smaller, more devices may be fabricated on each wafer, thus increasing the output of the fabrication facility. Making devices smaller is very challenging, as each process used in IC fabrication has a limit. That is to say, a given process typically only works down to a certain feature size, and then either the process or the device layout needs to be changed.
An example of such a limit is the ability to accurately monitor temperatures in an efficient manner for rapid thermal anneal processes (RTP). RTP is important for any type of semiconductor wafer processing which requires precise temperature control and fast ramp up rate of the temperature. Consequently, RTP must be carried out in a specially-designed rapid thermal annealing (RTA) chamber, rather than in a conventional semiconductor wafer furnace having walls and other components characterized by high thermal conductivity that would hinder rapid thermal cycling. RTA chambers that use radiant heating are designed to thermally isolate a semiconductor wafer such that radiant, rather than conductive, heat is used in semiconductor wafer processing. As a result, all portions of the wafer are more uniformly heated, thereby eliminating or at least reducing thermal gradients which would otherwise cause wafer slip and warping. However, in order for the RTP to provide a high manufacturing yield, the temperature of the wafer must be accurately monitored, or the semiconductor device will not have the expected characteristics. Various design challenges make accurate temperature measurement difficult. In particular, the temperature is a result of the thermal absorption properties of the semiconductor device. However, the semiconductor device does not heat uniformly. Different exposed material on the semiconductor wafer has different reflectivity and hence absorbs different amounts of radiative heat. For example, in a typical semiconductor device, there is a silicon substrate with portions covered by oxide, typically corresponding to the isolation area between transistors on the silicon substrate. Also, there are portions where the crystalline silicon is the exposed surface, and there are portions where the poly-crystalline silicon constitute the exposed surface. Hence the pattern density (that is, the ratio of silicon covered with oxide or poly-crystalline silicon to exposed silicon over a given area) affects the thermal absorption, which is in turn affected by the temperature that the semiconductor reaches during the RTP. This temperature depends on the application, but can be beyond 1,000 degrees Centigrade.
What is needed is a relatively inexpensive structure, method and system for monitoring and characterizing the dependence thermal absorption on these various pattern densities of a various rapid thermal process.

Structure and method for monitoring and characterizing pattern density dependence on thermal absorption in a semiconductor manufacturing process

International Buriness Machines Corporation


An elastic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate and an interdigital transducer electrode. The piezoelectric substrate includes a principal surface with a groove tapered in lateral cross section. The interdigital transducer electrode is arranged on the principal surface such that at least one portion thereof is located in the groove. The interdigital transducer electrode is a laminate including a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, and a diffusion-preventing layer located between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer and made of an oxide or nitride of Ti or Cr.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to elastic wave devices. In particular, the present invention relates to an elastic wave device in which at least one portion of an interdigital transducer electrode is embedded in a groove located in a piezoelectric substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, elastic wave devices using elastic waves such as surface acoustic waves and boundary acoustic waves have been widely used as resonators or filter devices. For example, International Publication No. WO 2006/011417 A1 proposes a surface acoustic wave device in which an interdigital transducer electrode including a laminate of a plurality of conductive films is entirely embedded in a groove formed in a piezoelectric substrate. Since the interdigital transducer electrode is entirely embedded in the groove as described in International Publication No. WO 2006/011417 A1, a surface of an insulating layer covering the interdigital transducer electrode can be planarized. As a result, the insertion loss can be reduced. International Publication No. WO 2006/011417 A1 further describes that the groove, in which the interdigital transducer electrode is embedded, has a trapezoidal shape, in lateral cross section, tapered toward the piezoelectric substrate side.
However, in the case where at least one portion of an interdigital transducer electrode is located in a tapered groove formed in a piezoelectric substrate and the interdigital transducer electrode is composed of a laminate of a plurality of conductive films, there is a problem in that it is difficult to sufficiently improve the electrical resistance of electrode fingers or characteristics, such as frequency characteristics and electric power handling capability, of an elastic wave device because an electrode formed on a sloped portion of a groove has reduced crystallinity.


A power control device of multi base powers is provided for an optical read/write module of an optical disk drive. The optical read/write module generates a power feedback signal and a temperature signal. The power control device includes a base power selecting module, a current compensating module, a current computing module and a current integrating module. The base power selecting module selects one of a first base power signal and a second base power signal to output a base power signal. The current compensating module generates an operating current compensating signal and a threshold compensating signal according to the power feedback signal, the temperature signal, the base power signal and a function relationship between the temperature signal and the threshold current of the optical read/write module. The current computing module receives the operating current compensating signal to compute a first operating current signal, a second operating current signal and a third operating current signal based on the operating current compensating signal according to the base power signal and a reference power signal. The current integrating module receives the threshold current compensating signal, the first operating current signal, the second operating current signal and the third operating current signal to generate a power control signal to drive the optical read/write module.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a power control device and a method thereof and, in particular, to a power control device and a method thereof of multi base powers for an optical disk drive.
2. Related Art
An optical read/write module of an optical disk drive is easily affected by heat thus the performance and accurate of the electric device may be influenced. In order to control the electric device at different temperatures, a proper control module must be designed to modify the affection resulted from the thermal factor.
Referring to FIG. 1, an optical disk drive 1 includes an optical pickup module 11 and a power control module 12. The optical pickup module 11 includes a light-emitting unit 111, a light-sensing module 112, and a plurality of current control units 113, 114, 115 and 116. The light-sensing module 112 detects the output power of the light-emitting module 111 and generates a power feedback signal 112A. The power control module 12 determines whether the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 reaches a target value according to the power feedback signal 112A, and generates a power control signal 121 according to the determination. In addition, the current control units 113 to 116 modulate the currents 113A to 116A according to the power control signal 121, respectively. Therefore, after being driven by the currents 113A to 116A, the light-emitting unit 111 generates the output power reaching the target value.
Referring to FIG. 2, when the light-emitting unit 111 is at a temperature T1, the output power and the operating current of the light-emitting unit 111 are related in a line L1. In other words, when the operating temperature of the light-emitting unit 111 is at the temperature T1 and the operating current is at currents Ic, Ib, Iw, or Is, the light-emitting unit 111 generates the output power at powers Pb, Pe or Pw.
In order to control the operating currents generated by the light-emitting unit 111 exactly at the different powers, the conventional power control module 112 controls the currents 113A, 114A, 115A and 116A respectively to be equal to the current Ic, the current Ib minus the current Ic, the current Iw minus the current Ib, and the current Is minus the current Iw. Besides, the light-emitting unit 111 can be driven by the different combinations of the currents 113A to 116A.
For example, if the power control module 12 controls the light-emitting unit 111 to generate the output power at the power Pb, the current control units 113 and 114 are enabled by the power control module 12. Therefore, the light-emitting unit 111 is driven only by the currents 114A (current Ic) and 115A (current Ib minus current Ic) to generate the output power at the power Pb.
On the other hand, if the temperature of the light-emitting unit 111 rises to a temperature T2, the power control module 12 increases the operating current of the light-emitting unit 111 (as dotted line A) with a closed feedback control method based on the power Pw according to the power feedback signal 112A until the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 reaches the power Pw. Besides, for accurately controlling the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 at temperature T2, the power control module 12 increases the operating current of the light-emitting unit 111 (as dotted line A) with a closed feedback control method based on the power Pb until the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 reaches the power Pb. Herein, the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 is controlled by a double-base power controlling method.
Take the power Pw as the base power for an example, the operating current of the light-emitting unit 111 is still equal to the current Iw, such that the light-emitting unit 111 generates the output power at the power Pw′. In order to adjust the output power of the light-emitting unit 111 to the power Ps, the power control module 12 computes the current Is′ resulting in the power Ps according to the current Iw and the relationship between the power Pw and the power Ps, as shown in formula 1.
                              I          w          ′                =                                                            P                w                                            P                c                                                                (                                                I                  c                  ′                                -                                  I                  c                                            )                                +                      I            w                                              (        1        )
In addition, A current Ic′ and Ib′ resulting in the power Pc and Pb is computed in the same computing method. Therefore, the power control module 12 can control the currents 113A, 114A, 115A and 116A respectively be equal to the current Ic′, the current Ib′ minus the Ic′, the current Iw minus the Ib and the current Is′ minus the Iw′. Accordingly, the light-emitting unit 111 is able to generate the output power at different powers (Pc, Pb, Pw and Ps) at the temperature T2. In brief, the conventional technology is to compute the operating-currents of the light-emitting unit 111 to generate the output power at different powers at the temperature T2 according to the line L2.
However, when the light-emitting unit 111 actually reaches the temperature T2, the output power and the operating current of the light-emitting unit 111 are not related in the line L2 but a line L3. Therefore, the operating current computed according to the conventional technology is the current Is′, so that the light-emitting unit 111 generates the output power at power Ps′ (as dotted line B), which is not correctly controlled at power Ps. In the same manner, the light-emitting unit 111 does not generate the output power at power Pc correctly. More particularly, the power Pw and Pb of the light-emitting unit 111 can be accurately controlled by the above-mentioned feedback method. The errors in the above cases are caused by that the conventional technology ignores the threshold-current It and It′ (intersection points of line L1 and line L3 with the current axis, respectively). As shown in FIG. 3, the temperature of the light-emitting unit 111 is in exponential relation to the threshold-current. If the threshold-current is insufficient, the operating-current computed by the conventional technology for obtaining the output power at different temperature would not have an obvious error. However, if the threshold-current is sufficient or the output power is to be precisely controlled, the error of the operating-current computed by the conventional technology is inevitable.
Referring to FIG. 4, the light-emitting unit 111 of the conventional optical pickup module 11 generates the output power Pout to access an optical disk by a repeat writing controlling way. If the temperature of the light-emitting unit 111 changes (for example, increasing the temperature), the output power Pout is well controlled at the writing power Pw and bias power Pb but not the writing power Pw and cooling power Pc due to the regardless of the threshold-current. Further, according to the increase of the temperature, the output power Pout lapses from the writing power Pw and cooling Pc (the dotted line in FIG. 4). And, the optical pickup module 11 can not access the optical disk. Therefore, the optical pickup module 11 does not correctly access the optical disk, and, even more, the lifetime of the optical pickup module 11 and the endurance of the optical disk drive 1 are reduced.
It is therefore a subject of the invention to provide an optical disk drive with multi-power-baseline control, which considers an effect of the threshold current of the optical read/write module in the optical disk drive at different temperature, and computes the operating current for driving the optical read/write module to generate the distinct output power according to a single power-baseline. Thus, the output power of the optical read/write module can be precisely controlled.

Power control device and method of multi base powers for optical disk drive


A data signal which is output from a latch circuit (12) having five stages of latch circuits each storing one-line data signal to a drive circuit (16) for lighting each light emission unit is selected by a selection circuit (15) according to a 9-bit correction data signal for each of the light emission units stored in a Y-position correction data storage circuit (13). Thus, lighting timing of each light emission unit is adjusted, thereby performing printing having a preferable linearity.

In a conventionally used optical print head, as shown in FIG. 17, there are provided a plurality of light-emitting devices and a plurality of driving ICs. The light-emitting devices are each composed of a plurality of light-emitting sections (it is to be understood that what is called a "light-emitting section" in the present specification corresponds to what is called a "light-emitting element" in the appended claims). The driving ICs each include, as shown in FIG. 18, a shift register 101 that takes in data signals, a latch circuit 102 that parallelly takes in the data signals taken in by the shifter register 101, a drive circuit 103 that drives the light emitting device, a current supply circuit 104 that supplies electric current to the drive circuit 103, and a timing control circuit 105 that supplies predetermined timing signals to various portions of the driving IC. Now, the conventional optical print head will be described assuming that, as shown in FIG. 17, it includes 26 driving ICs "b1" to "b26" that are connected in series and 4,992 light-emitting sections #1 to #4992 that are driven by those 26 driving ICs "b1" to "b26."
In the optical print head configured as described above, first, the driving IC "b" takes in four-bit data signals fed thereto via data input terminals SI0 to SI3 and moves them to the shift register 101 in synchronism with a clock pulse CLK. The shift register 101 then outputs the thus received four-bit data signals via data output terminals SO0 to SO3 to the data input terminals SI0 to SI3 of the next driving IC in synchronism with a clock pulse CLK.
Simultaneously, the clock pulse fed in via a clock input terminal CI is fed out through a buffer via a clock output terminal CO so as to be fed to the clock input terminal CI of the next driving IC. Thus, as shown in FIG. 19, when the 1,248th clock pulse CLK is fed in, the shift registers 101 of the 26 driving ICs "b1" to "b26" take in 4,992 data signals, each taking in 4×48 (192) data signals.
When 4,992 data signals have been taken in in this way, next, a load signal LOAD is fed to a load signal input terminal LI of the driving IC. When a timing signal produced from this load signal LOAD is fed to the latch circuit 102, which is of the 192-bit type, the 192 data signals taken in by the shift register 101 are stored therein.
Simultaneously, the load signal LOAD fed in via the load signal input terminal LI is fed out through a buffer via a load signal output terminal LO so as to be fed to the load signal input terminal LI of the next driving IC. Thus, when, as shown in FIG. 19, the load signal LOAD is fed in, the data signals taken in by the shift registers 101 of the 26 driving ICs "b1" to "b26" are stored in the respective latch circuits 102.
On the basis of 4,992 data signals stored in this way in the latch circuits 102 of the driving ICs "b1" to "b26," with 192 data signals stored in the latch circuit 102 of each driving IC, the drive circuit 103 supplies electric current to terminals DO1 to DO192 during the period in which a strobe signal STB is low and thereby drives the light-emitting sections #1 to #4992 to achieve printing of one line. While the drive circuit 103 is operating in this way, the load signal LOAD is turned low, and a clock pulse CLK is fed in again to take in the data signals of the next line.
The optical print head also has, as shown in a top view thereof in FIG. 1, an SLA (self-focusing lens array) 2 for covering the light-emitting device array 1 composed of a plurality of light-emitting sections and arranged in the middle, a lens holder 3 for keeping the SLA 2 in a fixed position, and positioning pins 4a and 4b for positioning the plurality of light-emitting sections constituting the light-emitting devices arranged in the light-emitting device array 1. The light-emitting sections constituting the light-emitting device array 1 are so positioned as to be located on the straight line connecting between the positioning pins 4a and 4b.
Conventionally, an optical print head like that described above is incorporated in a printer or the like to achieve printing on paper. Here, a bend in the LED array in which light-emitting devices mounted on a circuit board are arranged, or a bend in the optical axes of the lenses provided in the optical print head, or a bend in those lenses themselves results in a bend in the imaging positions. Suppose now that light-emitting devices are arranged in a direction called the X direction and the direction perpendicular thereto is called the Y direction. Then, a bend as described above occurs in the Y direction. Hereinafter, such a bend in the Y direction is called as a "Y bend."
A Y bend is observed, for example, as deviations of the imaging positions of light-emitting sections in the Y direction as shown in graphs in FIGS. 20 and 21. Such deviations of the imaging positions occur also as a result of the line connecting between the positioning pins 4a and 4b deviating obliquely in the Y direction.
A Y bend greatly degrades print quality in a tandem-type printer or the like that is provided with a plurality of optical print heads to achieve color printing. Moreover, to alleviate such lowering of print quality, it is necessary to sort out acceptable optical print heads from unusable ones, adjust lenses or sort out acceptable ones from unusable ones, or otherwise perform extra operation. This increases the costs of optical print heads and printers provided with such optical print heads.
An object of the present invention is to provide a driving IC that corrects deviations in imaging positions resulting from a mechanical or optical bend in an optical print head, and to provide an optical print head provided with such a driving IC.


A range image generating apparatus capable of preventing or reducing generation of range images with interference, which contain e.g., pixels with erroneous distance values is provided. The range image generating apparatus includes: a light source radiating a light; an image pickup element; a range image generating unit; a frequency changing unit that changes a modulation frequency for each frame rate or charge storage time; and a control unit that controls the light source and the image pickup element in synchronization with the modulation frequency changed by the frequency changing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a range image generating apparatus, and specifically relates to a range image generating apparatus capable of preventing or reducing generation of range images with interference, which include, e.g., pixels with erroneous distance values.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a range image generating apparatus that generates a range image whose pixel values are distance values, by radiating modulated light from a light source, receiving light reflected by an object and converting the light into charges by means of photoelectric conversion elements, distributing the charges converted by the photoelectric conversion elements into a plurality of charge storage units in synchronization with modulation of the light source, and performing a predetermined calculation based on the charges stored in the plurality of charge storage units (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-32682).
However, in this type of range image generating apparatus, the distances are measured by radiating modulated light and obtaining the phase difference between the modulated light and the reflected light. Accordingly, if there is another range image generating apparatus in an imaging range, the range image generating apparatus will directly receive modulated light radiated from that other range image generating apparatus. At that time, if the modulation frequency of the modulated light radiated from the own range image generating apparatus and the modulation frequency of the modulated light radiated from the other range image generating apparatus are the same, the own range image generating apparatus may erroneously detect a phase difference of an incident light containing the modulated light radiated from the light source of the other range image generating apparatus and a reflected light components of the modulated light radiated from the light source of the other range image generating apparatus, resulting in generation of a range image including pixels with erroneous distance values (hereinafter, also referred to as a "range image with interference").


An engine start system for use with a ground engaging vehicle, the system including an input device, a processing circuit, a display and an engine controller unit. The input device produces a signal when depressed, the signal initiates the application of electrical power to the engine start system. The processing circuit is activated by the application of electrical power thereto. The display is communicatively coupled with the processing circuit. The input device produces another signal when depressed. The other signal is detected by the processing circuit and the processing circuit, in response to the other signal, sends either a PIN request notice to the display or a start signal to the engine controller unit.

Starting systems for internal combustion engines have existed for over one hundred years. Some internal combustion engines are started by simply hand rotation of the rotating component. Early automobiles had a mechanical starting system including a starting crank that was rotated by the operator of the car in order to start the engine. Electrical starting systems have included a physical engaging lever or pedal in which the act of engaging the starting gear also activated an electrical circuit to supply power to rotate the electrical motor thereby rotating the engine at sufficient speed to start the internal combustion engine.
In order to improve the security of the vehicle and prevent theft a key system was developed requiring the operator to have a key that would match the lock prior to the use of the system that would start the internal combustion engine.
In a typical starting system the key is placed into an ignition position, which causes battery voltage to be supplied to an ignition relay coil from the key switch, which energizes the coil to provide battery voltage to the ignition system. As the key is turned to the start position, battery voltage is supplied to the starter relay coil, which energizes the coil and provides battery voltage to the engine starter. The key switch is a single point failure for turning on ignition power, cranking over the engine and for continued supply of ignition power to the machine. The circuit provides no system diagnostics or feedback when it fails, which can create excessive downtime for the machine. If the machine is running and the key switch fails, ignition power is removed and the machine will be shut down.
What is needed in the art is a starting system that reduces down time and is more efficient and less expensive to manufacture.


A read only memory for eliminating the unpredictable logic states of bit lines in order to prevent the generation of false logic states while avoiding increase in power dissipation. The memory comprises bit lines, sense amplifiers, bit data holding device and reset device. The logic state of a given bit line is output by the applicable sense amplifier as bit data. In either the High or the Low state, that bit line enters a floating state that can vary with precharged electric charge. The potentially destabilizing state is circumvented by the bit data holding device which prevents the logic state of the bit line from becoming unpredictable. During precharging, the reset device resets the bit line state held by the bit data holding device. This prevents a through current from flowing even if the logic state of the applicable bit line changes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a read only memory for storing bit data in accordance with the presence or absence of a transistor at the intersection of a bit line and a word line corresponding to each of the addresses of bit data to be stored. More particularly, the invention relates to a read only memory capable of preventing logic state malfunction by eliminating the unpredictable logic states of bit lines.
2. Prior Art
While random access memories (RAM's) are generally volatile when it comes to retaining their contents, read only memories (ROM's) are non-volatile in terms of data retention. The so-called mask ROM is one of such ROM's. The memory contents of this ROM are permanently built into the device during its integrated circuit manufacture. For example, a suitable mask is used during the manufacturing stage to fix the state of a transistor presence or absence (on- or off-state) at the intersection of a bit line and a word line representing each of the addresses of bit data to be stored. The bit data thus written permanently are highly reliable in data status constancy compared with the programmable ROM (PROM), another type in the ROM category.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a first prior art example of the conventional CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) mask ROM. FIG. 3 emphasizes that portion of the CMOS mask ROM which stores bit data.
In FIG. 3, reference characters WL0 through WL3 stand for word lines and BL0 and BL1 for bit lines. Reference characters PCHG designate a precharge line. This line goes Low for a predetermined period for precharging before any one of the word lines WL0 through WL3 is brought High for the applicable bit data to be read out.
The mask ROM is designed to minimize the number of transistors so as to increase the degree of integration. For that purpose, bit data are generally written by simply establishing the presence or absence of a transistor (also called a memory cell transistor hereinafter) at the intersection of a bit line and a word line representing each of the addresses of the bit data to be stored. In other words, bit data are not written by selecting either a transistor connected to the power supply or a transistor connected to ground.
In the mask ROM of the above construction, precharging is performed prior to the access stage for data read operations. The precharging action involves charging the bit lines beforehand up to the power supply level. During read access, the bit line with its memory cell transistor intersecting an enabled word line is discharged to reach ground level. At this point, the bit lines with no memory cell transistor intersecting the enabled word line remain at their power supply level.
In FIG. 3, the leftmost positions of the bit lines BL0 and BL1 are connected respectively to the sources of P-channel MOS transistors TP0 and TP1 with their drains connected to the power supply VCC. The bit data are written by establishing the presence or absence of N-channel MOS transistors TN1 and TN2 which are the memory cell transistors.
When any one of the word lines WL0 through WL3 is brought High, the states of the bit lines BL0 and BL1 are read out as bit data respectively to bit data lines BD0 and BD1 by inverters G1 and G2 acting as sense amplifiers.
There are three representative methods for establishing the presence or absence of memory cell transistors at the intersections between bit lines and word lines and for permanently fixing the bit data states thus determined. One such method is a diffusion layer code mask method that involves determining the presence or absence of a diffusion layer region that corresponds to the source and drain of each memory cell transistor. Another method is an ion implantation code mask method that varies the threshold value of a given memory cell transistor by means of ion implantation, thereby switching the on- and off-states of that transistor. The other method is a contact code mask method that uses a contact mask to switch the presence and absence of connection contacts between memory cell transistors on the one hand, and bit or word lines on the other.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing some bit data written in the first prior art example of the mask ROM. In FIG. 4, each of word addresses "0" through "3" corresponds to the High state of any one of the word lines WL0 through WL3 in the first prior art example. Bit addresses "0", "1" . . . in FIG. 4 correspond to the bit lines BL0 and BL1 in FIG. 3.
The word line WL0 and the bit line BL0, connected to the N-channel MOS transistor TN1 (memory cell transistor) in the first prior art example, correspond respectively to word address "0" and bit address "0" of FIG. 4. Bit date of the two addresses represent "1" (High state). The word line WL3 and the bit line BL0, connected to the N-channel MOS transistor TN2 (memory cell transistor) in the first prior art example, correspond respectively to word address "3" and bit address "0" of the FIG. 4. Bit data of the two addresses also represent "1" (High state). All other bit data in the diagram shown in FIG. 4 are "0" (Low states).
FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a second prior art example of the prior art CMOS mask ROM. In FIG. 5, reference characters TP0, TP1, TN1, TN2, G0, G1, WL0 through WL3, BL0, BL1, BD0, BD1, PCHG, VCC and GND designate the same parts as those in FIG. 3. The bit data written in the second prior art example are also the same as those shown in FIG. 4.
In the second prior art example, bringing the outputs of the inverters G0 and G1 Low turns on the P-channel MOS transistors TP10 and TP11 that correspond respectively to the inverters. The inputs to the inverters G0 and G1 are held High. The data states established in the second prior art example are the same as those in FIG. 4.
One disadvantage of the first prior art example is that, while "0" (Low state) is being read out, the logic state of the applicable bit line tends to float, i.e., connected neither to the power supply VCC nor to ground GND. the unstable floating state can cause the bit data "0" being read out to turn itself into "1" (High state). This is because the logic state of the bit line corresponding to the Low state under reading relies solely on the electric charge from the precharging operation.
FIG. 6 is a timing chart in effect when bit data are read from the first prior art example. In FIG. 6, reference characters PCHG indicate the timing of the logic state of the precharge line represented by the same reference characters (PCHG) in FIG. 3. Reference characters WL of FIG. 6 indicate the timing of the logic state of any one of the word lines WL0 through WL3 in FIG. 3. Reference characters BL(L) stand for the timing of the logic state in effect when the Low state of the bit line BL0 or BL1 in FIG. 3 is read out. Reference characters BL(H) represent the logic state in effect when the High state of the bit line BL0 or BL1 in FIG. 3 is read out.
In FIG. 6, a time t.sub.1 is preceded by a precharge period wherein the logic state PCHG takes the Low state. The time t.sub.1 is followed by an access state period wherein the logic state PCHG is the High state. At a time t.sub.2, the logic state WL is the High state.
When a bit line is brought Low and a High-state bit data is read out therefrom, the logic state BL(L) becomes Low at a time t.sub.3 in response to the logic state WL being High. When a bit line is brought High and a Low-state bit data is read out therefrom, the logic state BL(H) remains High thanks to the electric charge from the precharge period even as the logic state WL goes High after the access state period has started. However, because the High state of BL(H) relies on the amount of electric charge, the voltage drops following the discharge.
As shown in FIG. 6, the voltage level of BL(H) drops below a threshold value Vsw at a time t.sub.4. This causes the logic state of the applicable bit line to go Low. That is, the Low-state output of the inverter G0 or G1 in FIG. 3 can become High. This is one or the disadvantage of the first prior art example.
One disadvantage of the second prior art example is as follows: After a given bit line is brought High by a precharge operation, while "1" (High state) is being read out the bit line goes Low and a High-state bit data is read out therefrom. In this case, a through current flows across the P-channel MOS transistor for holding the logic state of bit line to the memory cell transistor (N-channel MOS transistor) that is turned on upon read-out. As a result, power dissipation is promoted.
For example, in FIG. 5, a precharging operation brings the outputs of the inverters G0 and G1 Low, followed by P-channel MOS transistors TP10 and TP11 being turned on. Thereafter, the bit data corresponding to the word line WL0 and the bit line BL0 are read out. This turns on both the P-channel MOS transistor TP10 and the N-channel MOS transistor TN1 and keeps them on until the output of the inverter G0 becomes High. A through current flows across these two transistors from the power supply VCC to the ground GND. Power consumption is increased in this manner.


A weapons training range provides a simulated weapons use scenario including return fire. A microprocessor selects branches from a multi-branch program and causes an image projector to project subscenarios on a display screen visible to a participant. In response to the subscenarios, the participant fires at projected threats. Return fire simulators positioned behind the display screen return fire toward the participant. Obstructions are placed in the weapons range to provide cover for the participant. A video camera and X-Y position sensor identify the X-Y location of the participant and try to detect exposed portions of the participant. Based upon the identified X-Y location and any detected exposed portions, the microprocessor aims the return fire simulators to provide simulated return fire. To simulate real world aiming, the microprocessor induces time-based and response-based aiming errors. Additionally, the microprocessor may aim the return fire simulators at objects in the participation zone to produce deflected fire that may also strike the participant.

Weapons ranges provide environments in which users can be trained in the use of weapons or can refine weapons use skills. At such weapons ranges, users may train with conventional firearms, such as pistols and rifles, or may use a variety of alternative weapons, such as bows and arrows. Also, users may wish to train in more exotic or more primitive weapons, such as spears or slingshots.
Regardless of the type of weapon used, weapons ranges typically include a participation zone in which the participant is positioned. The participant then projects some form of projectile from the participation zone toward a target. For example, a participant may fire a pistol from a shooting location toward a bull's-eye paper target. Similarly, a participant may fire arrows from a shooting location toward a pin cushion-type target.
To improve the realism of the weapons familiarization process and to provide a more "lifelike" experience, a variety of approaches have been suggested to make the weapons range more realistic. For example, some weapons ranges provide paper targets with threatening images, rather than bull's-eye targets.
In attempts to present a more realistic scenario to the participant to provide an interactive and immersive experience, some weapons ranges have replaced such fixed targets with animated video images, typically projected onto a display screen. The animated images present moving targets and/or simulated return threats toward which the participant fires.
In one such environment, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,910, to Greenly, a participant fires at a display screen upon which an image is projected. A position detector then identifies the "hit" location of bullets and compares the hit location to a target area to evaluate the response of the participant.
In an attempt to provide an even more realistic simulation to the participant, U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,256, to Eichweber, incorporates a calculated projectile flight time, target distance, and target velocity to determine the hit position. Similarly, United Kingdom Patent No. 1,246,271, to Foges et al., teaches freezing a projected image at an anticipated hit time to provide a visual representation of the hit.
While such approaches may provide improve visual approximations of actual situations as compared to paper targets, these approaches lack any threat of retaliation. A participant is thus less likely to react in a realistic fashion.
Rather than limiting themselves to such unrealistic experiences, some participants engage in simulated combat or similar experiences, through combat games such as laser tag or paint ball. In such games, each participant is armed with a simulated fire-producing weapon in a variety of scenarios. Such combat games have limited effectiveness in training and evaluation, because the scenarios experienced by the participants cannot be tightly controlled. Moreover, combat games typically require multiple participants and a relatively large area for participation.

Electronically controlled weapons range with return fire


A vehicle early warning system and a vehicle early warning method are provided. The vehicle early warning system comprises an inter-vehicle communication device, a processor and a notice device. The inter-vehicle communication device receives an other-vehicle message package having an other-vehicle identification code and an other-vehicle sense message. The processor determines whether the other-vehicle identification code is valid. The processor determines whether the other-vehicle sense message is valid when the other-vehicle identification code is valid. The processor determines whether a driving location is on a predicated collision path according to the other-vehicle sense message when the other-vehicle sense message is valid. The notice device outputs a notice signal when the driving location is on a predicated collision path.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an electronic device, and more particularly to a vehicle early warning system and a vehicle early warning method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many countries are dedicated to the development of vehicle collision avoidance system for improving transport safety. Of the technologies widely used in the driving system, the technology fields such as collision avoidance radar, laser and video recorder have gained great popularity. The function of collision avoidance radar, laser and video recorder mainly cover the driver's blind spot region and assist the driver to take necessary measures to avoid the occurrence of collision. In a traffic environment with large traffic flow, when the vehicle ahead brakes, the vehicle behind tends to over-react to the brake, and may easily result in collision regardless the speed of traffic being low or high. Vehicles collide partly due to the following distance being too short but largely due to the driver's response being too late.
However, the vehicle collision avoidance system using collision avoidance radar, laser and video recorder can only detect the approach of adjacent vehicles, but can do nothing with the vehicles in the blind spot region. For instance, when the second vehicle ahead collides with the third vehicle ahead, the vehicle collision avoidance system cannot provide any warning whether the vehicle is equipped with collision avoidance radar, laser or video recorder.

Vehicle early warning system and vehicle early warning method


An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photoreceptor drums, a plurality of developing devices, a plurality of polishing members, an endless intermediate transfer component, a primary transfer unit, a secondary transfer unit, a secondary transfer unit, a development refresh unit, and a photoreceptor refresh unit. The photoreceptor refresh unit is configured such that, in executing the photoreceptor-refresh control process, if the development refresh unit detects a toner-deteriorated developing device, the circumferential surface of the deteriorated photoreceptor drum is polished, by the polishing member provided for the deteriorated photoreceptor drum, using the polishing-agent contained in the toner discharged from the toner-deteriorated developing device by the development refresh unit executing the development-refresh control process.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
There is known a full-color image forming apparatus of a tandem engine with a plurality of photoreceptor drums. A plurality of the photoreceptor drums are arranged along an intermediate transfer belt. Each photoreceptor drum is provided with a charger, a developing apparatus, a transfer apparatus, a cleaning apparatus with a rubbing roller, and a similar apparatus at a peripheral area. The charger causes a circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum to be charged by a discharge operation. Irradiating light from an exposure apparatus forms an electrostatic latent image at the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum charged by the charger. The developing apparatus develops the electrostatic latent image formed at the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum as a toner image. The transfer apparatus transfers the toner on the developed photoreceptor drum to a target transfer member. A blade or a similar tool of the cleaning apparatus scrapes off toner remaining on the photoreceptor drum that has not been transferred. By rotation of the rubbing roller in contact with the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum, the toner that has not been transferred polishes the circumference surfaces of the respective photoreceptor drums. Thus, the rubbing roller shaves off a foreign object such as corona products adhered to the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum.
The developing apparatus supplies (transfers) toner to the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum requiring polishing by the rubbing roller among the plurality of photoreceptor drums. The toner contains a polishing-agent. Interaction of the polishing-agent and the rubbing roller polishes the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum. The developing apparatus arranged at the peripheral area of the photoreceptor drum usually supplies toner to the circumference surface of the photoreceptor drum. Besides, for example, the developing apparatus located at an uppermost stream in a conveyance direction of an intermediate transfer belt among a plurality of developing apparatuses may supply toner to the photoreceptor drum requiring polishing. In this case, the intermediate transfer belt is used as a toner supply unit.
The image forming apparatus of tandem engine includes respective developing apparatuses accumulating toners with respective different colors. Among them, since the developing apparatus accumulates a toner with color of low usage frequency (printing rate) over a long period of time, deterioration of such toner proceeds faster than other toners by stirring in the developing apparatus or a similar operation. The deteriorated toner will be one cause of image quality deterioration of a printed image. Accordingly, a typical image forming apparatus performs a development refresh control to forcibly discharge deteriorated toner in the developing apparatus when an image is not formed.

Image forming apparatus having a photoreceptor refresh unit to detect a deteriorated photoreceptor drum and perform a photoreceptor-refresh control process


When an inkjet printer ejects ink onto a recording medium on a go path and on a return path of a carriage, if ink cannot be ejected onto the same position on the go path and on the return path, image quality becomes poor. Test patterns with shifted ejection timing are hitherto recorded on the recording medium, and appropriate timing is input as a correction value. There is also an inkjet printer which automatically reads a test pattern, but the test pattern is recorded without consideration of a state of a head, and thus, accuracy is low. Therefore, a test pattern having a long period and a test pattern having a short period are recorded, and densities of the test patterns are read by a sensor. An extremum candidate is determined from the test pattern having a long period, and rough adjustment is made first. Then, in a region around the extremum, an extremum is determined from the test pattern having a short period. An extremum corresponding to a period to which the extrema of the two test patterns belong is set as a correction value. By determining ejection timing of the recording head using the correction value, an image in which dot deviation between the go path and the return path is inhibited can be recorded.

An inkjet recording apparatus is widespread, which is configured to supply ink from an ink cartridge to an inkjet recording head and eject an ink droplet from the recording head onto a recording medium, to thereby produce a record of, for example, an image or a character.
Such an inkjet recording head is widely adopted not only for a small-format recording head used in a home, a small office, or the like, but also for a large-format recording head that can perform printing onto a large recording medium having a width of more than 1 m.
In such an inkjet recording apparatus, an inkjet recording head is mounted on a carriage configured to reciprocate over a recording medium in a width direction thereof, and ink is ejected onto the recording medium on a go path and on a return path. A position of the carriage is obtained by reading a linear scale arranged along a direction of movement of the carriage by a sensor mounted on the carriage. In general, a device referred to as a linear encoder is used.
Ink is ejected on a go path and on a return path based on the position of the carriage, but the positions of the carriage and the recording head mounted on the carriage subtly deviate from target positions due to an error at the time of installation, a difference in thickness of the recording medium used, or the like. Therefore, it is necessary to correct the deviation. A test pattern is printed on a recording medium, an amount of deviation is determined from the test pattern, and a correction value corresponding to the amount of deviation is input to the recording apparatus. Based on the input correction, the position at which ink is to be ejected is changed to eliminate the deviation.
Further, for example, in Patent Application Publication NO. JP 2012-153021 A, there is disclosed a technology of recording such a test pattern to automatically read the test pattern, thereby obtaining an optimum amount of correction.


An example system to represent data with multi-dimensional cyclic symbols is provided. The system includes a representation engine, a symbol engine, and a translation engine. The representation engine is to provide a plurality of display symbols. Display symbols are selected from a set of multi-dimensional cyclic symbols. The symbol engine is to receive a plurality of received symbols. The translation engine is to convert the plurality of received symbols into a plurality of display symbols.

Circular coding embeds information by repeating the symbols in the code in a structured, defined and consistent way across the entire targeted surface. As with the methods designed for binary symbols, circular coding allows a complete payload to be recovered by capturing only a portion of a larger encoded surface.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A camera of the kind having a built-in flash device, which is movable to a usable position by popping up the flash device from its stowed position in using the flash device, is arranged such that the lens panel of the flash device is formed with split panels, and the flash device can be stowed in a compact state by causing the split panels to overlap each other when the flash device is in the stowed position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a camera having a pop-up type flash device which is arranged to move from a stowed position to a usable position.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is desirous to have a flash device of a high guide number for high-quality flash photography. To meet this requirement, flash devices of varied types having high guide numbers have been proposed. For forming a flash device of a high guide number, it is known to increase the capacity of a capacitor, to use a larger xenon discharge lamp, to increase the size of the lens panel disposed in front of the xenon discharge lamp and so on. Further, for making the guide number larger, it has been practiced to do zooming by moving back and forth a unit consisting of the xenon discharge lamp and a reflection shade in such a way as to use the unit in a position most efficient for a photo-taking lens in use.
However, the conventional method of forming the high-guide-number flash device by increasing the size of the capacitor, that of the xenon discharge lamp or that of the lens panel hinders a reduction in size of a camera of the kind having a built-in flash device or even a camera arranged to use an external flash device.
In the case of the camera having a built-in flash device, in particular, an increase in capacity of the capacitor causes an increase in size of the camera as a whole. In addition to the increase in size, the increased capacity requires a longer period of time in charging the capacitor and is thus very disadvantageous for quick flashing.
Further, an increase in size of the xenon discharge lamp results in an increase in the size of a part located above a pentagonal prism only in the film feeding direction. It is thus impossible to efficiently increase the guide number. Besides, the larger xenon discharge lamp makes designing work difficult.
The guide number can be increased by widening the lens panel disposed in front of the xenon discharge lamp. However, the larger lens panel presents a problem with respect to stowing arrangement for stowing the lens panel when the flash photography is not required. The use of a larger lens panel, therefore, has not been proposed for the pop-up type flash device.
Further, the conventional flash device which is of the kind having a variable illuminating angle and is shiftable between a usable (or service) position and a stowed position is arranged, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 63-195638, etc., to move to the stowed position or the usable position and to change the illuminating angle by means of a continuously extended cam arrangement. Further, the series of these actions are arranged to be carried out by using a special motor as a drive source.
In the case of the example of the conventional arrangement described above, a flash-device stowing cam is arranged as an extension of an illuminating-angle varying cam. This arrangement increases a cam operating stroke and thus necessitates a stowing space to include room for the increased cam stroke. It is thus a drawback of the arrangement that the size of the flash device increases even in its stowed state. Another drawback lies in that the variable degree of the illuminating angle is insufficient as compared with the length of the cam operating stroke since the whole cam operating stroke cannot be fully used as an illuminating-angle varying stroke.
The flash device might be broken when it is touched by the user while the device is in the usable position. This problem is solvable by arranging a cover in such dimensions that can cover the flash device in the usable position. That arrangement, however, results in an increase in size of the camera. It is natural in the sense of the user that the user might wish to push the flash device by hand back to the stowed position after the flash device has moved to the usable position. Since the camera is to be taken up by hand and operated by a human being, it is important for the camera to be a tool which is user friendly.