A computer controlled system, method, and corresponding computer data product for determining a range of image decimation values for use in processing of images within a machine vision system. The system and method generates a high resolution reference image, generates a set of decimated reference images from the high resolution reference image, generates a set of interpolated reference images having a spatial image resolution identical to the high resolution reference image from the set of decimated images, cross-correlates the set of interpolated reference images with the high resolution reference image to generate a set of cross-correlation values, and selects a subset of the set of decimated reference images corresponding to interpolated references images that generated a cross correlation value greater than a predetermined threshold value.

The use of machine based vision systems has always been a computationally intensive task as a large number of pixels need to be processed in order for the acquired image to be processed. This processing requirement arises from the need for high resolution images to be acquired to accurately represent the item represented in the image. The processing capabilities of embedded processing systems that are part of machine based vision systems have required the lowest possible image resolution images to be used.
Previous solutions have either used large and expensive processing systems if the vision systems are required to operate in near-real time or used an off-line processing approach that would not permit the determination of vision based decisions before the next item is examined by the vision system. Off-line systems are not useful in most applications as automating the visual inspection of items typically is desired for a large number of items, such as a sequence of items found on an assembly line.
Typically, an item being inspected will possess a range of image resolution values that may be successfully used in vision systems. The minimum resolution that may be used for the processing to be performed in the vision processing system will depend upon the information content found within a reference image that is compared with acquired images. In order for a vision system to minimize the processing requirements of the vision system, a range of acceptable resolution values needs to be determined. In prior systems, no such range of acceptable image resolution values have been determined. The present invention disclosed herein overcomes the above limitations of the prior art machine-based vision systems.

System and method for determining an image decimation range for use in a machine vision system


An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet storage portion having a sheet stacking portion, a sheet feed portion, a drive portion configured to be capable of switching a lifting speed when lifting the sheet stacking portion between a first lifting speed and a second lifting speed, a height detecting portion configured to be capable of detecting the fact that the sheet reaches a decelerating position for switching the lifting speed of the sheet stacking portion from the first lifting speed to the second lifting speed, a time counting portion, and a control unit. The control unit computes the sheet stacking amount of the sheet stacking portion by using a relationship among the lifting time from a start of the lifting operation of the sheet stacking portion until the sheet reaches a decelerating position, the first lifting speed, and a heightwise position of the decelerating position when the sheet stacked on the sheet stacking portion is lifted to the decelerating position at the first lifting speed by the drive portion and then is lifted to a feeding position at the second lifting speed.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus capable of computing a stacking amount of sheets stored in a sheet storage portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus of the related art such as printers, copying machines, and facsimiles is provided with a sheet feeding apparatus configured to send forth a sheet stored in a sheet storage portion demountably mounted on an image forming apparatus body by a sheet feed portion such as a pickup roller and feed the sheet to an image forming portion. Examples of the sheet feeding apparatus include a sheet stacking portion provided in the sheet storage portion so as to be movable upward and downward, and configured to, when feeding the sheet, lift the sheet stacking portion to press the sheet against the sheet feed portion and, in this state, rotate the sheet feed portion to feed the sheet.
In the sheet feeding apparatus, the height of a topmost sheet stacked in the sheet stacking portion needs to be maintained at a predetermined height allowing the sheet feed portion to feed the sheet. Therefore, an elevating portion configured to move the sheet stacking portion upward and downward is provided in the sheet storage portion, and the image forming apparatus body is provided with a drive portion and a drive transmitting mechanism configured to transmit drive of the drive portion to drive the elevating portion. When the height of the topmost sheet is lowered, the drive portion is driven, the drive of the drive portion is transmitted to the elevating portion by the drive transmitting mechanism to lift the sheet stacking portion, and the height of the topmost sheet is maintained at a predetermined height allowing the sheet feeding.
The sheet feeding apparatus of this configuration includes a sheet surface position detection sensor configured to detect the height of the topmost sheet. When the sheet storage portion is set to the image forming apparatus body, the sheet feeding apparatus inspects a state of the sheet surface position detection sensor first, and if the sheet surface position detection sensor is OFF (non-detecting state), lifts the sheet stacking portion until the sheet surface position detection sensor is turned ON.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-289861 discloses a configuration adapted to count time from the start of lifting of the sheet stacking portion until the sheet surface position detection sensor is turned ON, and compute a sheet stacking amount in the sheet stacking portion, that is, the remaining amount on the basis of a counted value and a lifting speed of the sheet stacking portion. When computing the sheet stacking amount from a lifting time corresponding to time until the sheet surface position detection sensor is turned ON and a lifting speed in this manner, a control unit computes the stacking amount in accordance with an arithmetic expression for computing the sheet stacking amount set in advance. The arithmetic expression is generally expressed by a linear function as H=−at+b, where t is lifting time, and H is a stacking amount.
However, in the case where the relationship between the lifting time and the lifting speed varies in the middle of the upward movement, if the stacking amount is computed by the linear function, there arises a difference between the computed sheet stacking amount and an actual stacking amount, and accurate detection of the stacking amount is not achieved.


A modular multiplication of integers of large digits can be calculated at high speed although the size of the circuit can be reduced. Furthermore, encryption/decryption for a communication by using cryptograph is performed by using it.. In order to achieve this, when the modular multiplication is executed by alternately repeating a partial sum of product calculation and the residue calculation, a portion of the result of the previous calculation larger than the maximum digit of a number which is the modulo of this residue calculation is subjected to the residue calculation in the intermediate stage. Furthermore, the residue is directly obtained from the result of the previous calculation and the partial sum of product calculation is performed in such a manner that an obtained residue is added in place of a portion of the result of the previous calculation larger than the maximum digit of the modulo of this residue calculation. Furthermore, the additions are performed by a plurality of adders in parallel and a carry generated in each adder is added at the next addition performed by each upper adder. This circuit is formed into a systolic array composed by the same processing elements to realize the aforesaid calculation by a pipeline process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a calculating apparatus for performing calculations in such a manner that two integers are multiplied and its result is divided by another integer to obtain the residue, that is integers A, B and N are subjected to a modular multiplication A.multidot.B mod N. More particularly, the present invention relates to a calculating apparatus for performing a modular multiplication of large digit integers suitable for use in a cryptographic scheme such as an RSA cryptosystem.
Also the present invention relates to a communication method which uses the aforesaid calculating apparatus for executing encryption of the contents transmitted and decryption of the cryptogram received and which is used in various communication services such as the home banking, farm banking, electronic mail and the electronic post services in a computer network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a cryptographic scheme for protecting the content of data has become important with a remarkable advance in an information communication system which uses a computer network. In particular, a high speed cryptographic scheme has become necessary with the tendency of increasing the speed in the network and enlarging its capacity.
Hitherto, it has been known that the encryption methods are classified into a public-key cryptosystem and a common-key cryptosystem. Among others, the public-key criptosystem has been attracting attention because of its advantages that the administration of its key can easily be performed and the digital signature can be performed as compared with the common-key cryptosystem.
An RSA cryptography is a typical cryptograph of the public-key cryptosystem and is considered to be the most advantageous public-key cryptograph.
The RSA cryptography is calculated by a modular exponentiation: C=M.sup.e mod N (where C, M, N and e are integers). The modular exponentiation can be performed by repeating modular multiplications: D=A.multidot.B mod N (where A, B and D are integers). However, since N and e must be 512 bits or more to secure the safety against unlawful cryptanalysis in the RSA cryptography, a problem of an excessively large computational complexity arises.
Hitherto, the types of the modular multiplication circuit for large digit integers that perform a calculation of R=A.multidot.B mod N by using integers A, B and N are basically classified into two methods. One of them is performed by dividing the modular multiplication into a multiplication: C=A.multidot.B and a residue calculation: D=C mod N. Another method is performed by, n times, subjecting a.sub.n-i (i=1, . . . , n) divided by A for each bit to a partial product and residue calculations in each of which R=2.multidot.R+a.sub.n-i .multidot.B mod N (i=1 . . . N) is performed.
The former method exhibits advantages in that the structure can be relatively simplified and the control can be easily performed because of its structure usually having a multiplying circuit and a residue calculation circuit formed into a pipeline. However, there arises a problem in that a desired apparatus cannot be realized with a small circuit because the aforesaid method must have a memory for temporarily storing multiplication result C and a multiplying circuit and a residue calculation circuit must be separated.
On the other hand, the latter method exhibits an advantage in that the size of the circuit can be considerably reduced because its process comprises the steps of the partial product calculation and the residue calculation of the result of the partial product calculation. However, problems arise in that a delay time generated due to the carry involved in the partial product and residue calculations cannot be eliminated, the size of the carrying bit register cannot be reduced, and a discrimination whether or not R>N must be made for a residue calculation with modulo N.
Another problem takes place in that the processing speed will be decreased due because it is necessary to provide clocks or more in each multiplication steps because the multiplication is usually performed by adding B to 2.multidot.R in only a case where a.sub.n-i =1.
In a case where the aforesaid problems are desired to be overcome by providing a large-digit multiplier and a divisor which must be used in a case where an assumption is made that the division a.sub.n-i of A is plural bits, there arises another problem in that there is no ROM and a cell-library with which the aforementioned large-digit multiplier and the divisor can be realized. If the large-digit multiplier and the divisor are designed, a problem arises in that the desired circuit is too complex in its structure in a case where the structure of the circuit for a small-digit multiplier and that of the divisor are simply expanded.
As described above, the conventional method suffers from a variety of problems, so that an efficient modular multiplication circuit has not been realized as yet.

Calculating apparatus and method of encrypting/decrypting communication data by using the same


A lighting device may include a reflector, which can be illuminated by means of at least one light source, in particular light emitting diode, and an aperture disposed downstream of the reflector and having a rear side facing the reflector and a front side facing away from the reflector. The lighting device may include at least one additional light source for illuminating the front side of the aperture, and the front side of the aperture is covered at least in regions with at least one phosphor which is sensitive to light emitted by the at least one additional light source.

In the case of headlights for automobiles and trucks, in order to generate a low beam, a diaphragm ("shutter") is introduced into a beam path between a reflector and a lens of the headlight. The diaphragm blocks a portion of the light rays passing from the reflector to the lens, with the result that a sharp bright-dark boundary arises in the light emission pattern generated behind the lens in the far field. For headlights having an additional function, e.g. that of a high beam, a movable diaphragm has been used hitherto, one or the other light function being provided by the headlight depending on the position of the diaphragm. However, this arrangement is comparatively complex and in addition susceptible to wear.
US 2007/058386 relates to a method for producing a headlight module for a motor vehicle which emits a beam having a cut-off edge for producing a bright-dark boundary, including a lens and a light source in a rear region of the lens, from which it is separated by air in its arrangement, wherein the light source is formed by means of at least one LED, according to which the exit surface of the lens is chosen such that it can be connected to the exit surfaces of similar, adjacent modules at a smooth continuous surface, and the entrance surface of the lens is shaped such that the cut-off edge of the light beam is generated without a shielding diaphragm.
US 2004/136202 A1 discloses a vehicle headlight which uses a light emitting element, such as an LED, and has a projected light pattern. A light emitting surface of the light emitting element has a horizontally elongated form when viewed in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the light emitting element, in order thus to form a light distribution pattern which is magnified by an optical system, to be precise principally in a horizontal direction. Since the projected pattern is obtained by a magnification of the horizontally elongated light source, in this case it is easier to adapt the light distribution of the lamp than for the case where the light intensity distribution of the light emitting element is rotationally symmetrical.

Lighting device having a reflector and an aperture


A semiconductor module is provided, which is capable of suppressing the deterioration of reliability and improving heat radiation. The semiconductor module includes: a semiconductor substrate in which electrodes of a circuit element are formed on its surface; a re-wiring pattern connected to the electrodes to ensure large pitch of the electrodes; an electrode integrally formed with the re-wiring pattern; an insulating layer formed on a rear surface of the semiconductor substrate; a radiator formed on the insulating layer; and projections integrally formed with the radiator and penetrating the insulating layer to connect to the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor module, and in particular, to a semiconductor module with a radiator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronics devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital video cameras (DVCs), and digital still cameras (DSCs) have become increasingly sophisticated. A further reduction in size and weight is, however, necessary for such devices to continue to succeed in the market, and as such, these devices now require highly integrated system LSI chips. User-friendliness and convenience is required for these devices as well, resulting in an increased need for highly functional high performance LSI chips. Although the highly integrated LSI chips require a large number of input/output ports, there is a strong desire to reduce their package size. To meet these conflicting requirements, the development of a semiconductor package suitable for high density board packaging of semiconductor parts is strongly desired. In response to such needs, a variety of packaging technologies, called chip size package (CSP) technologies, have been developed.
A CSP is formed in such a way that a semiconductor wafer (semiconductor substrate), in which LSI chips (circuit elements) and external connecting terminals connected to each LSI chip are formed on one principal surface thereof, is diced into individual chips. Accordingly, the CSP, which is substantially the same size as an LSI chip, is fixed on a mounting board, resulting in a reduction in the size of the mounting board on which the CSP is mounted. Therefore, the use of the CSP in a system allows the overall size of that system, such as an electronics device, to be reduced.
Moreover, power consumption of LSI chips is increasing every year with the associated increase in performance and functionality. This leads to an increase in the power consumption per unit volume (heat density) of a CSP (semiconductor module) with an LSI chip, resulting in a greater need for radiation of the extra heat away from the CSP. One proposed approach to this issue is a method for effectively radiating out heat generated in the CSP (semiconductor module) through a film which is formed on the rear surface of a semiconductor substrate, which is a component of the CSP (semiconductor module). Such a film is a heat radiative film with a high thermal emissivity, e.g., a film containing ceramic powder, or a heat conductive film with a high thermal conductivity, e.g., copper or aluminum.
In general, a radiator, and especially a heat conductive film, used in the CSP (semiconductor module) is subjected to internal stress in the extending direction of the radiator during the process of formation. The internal stress is retained in the radiator of each individual CSP after formation. This stress causes the radiator to be separated from the semiconductor substrate, resulting in reduced reliability of the CSP (semiconductor module). In particular, there is a high possibility of separation of the radiator from the semiconductor substrate when the CSP (semiconductor module) is heated.
If the development of a thinner semiconductor substrate progresses in the future facilitating a reduction in the thickness of the CSP (semiconductor module), the remaining internal stress in the radiator will have a significant relative impact on the thinned semiconductor substrate. Accordingly, for example, the remaining internal stress in the radiator greater than the stiffness of the semiconductor substrate may cause the CSP (semiconductor module) together with the semiconductor substrate to change shape and thus to warp, even if there is no separation of the radiator from the semiconductor substrate.

Semiconductor module, portable device and method for manufacturing semiconductor module


Disclosed in this description is a shrink wrap machine in which the majority of the machine's major components are modularly, and therefore detachably attached. The shrink wrap machine uses a counterweight on its sealing arm to bias the position and damp the motion of the arm.

Known in the art are sealing machines for sealing plastic wrap around products. These machines can be purchased in various models and are known in the trade as "shrink-wrap" machines or "L Sealers". The letter "L", is used to refer to the general configuration of a heating element in an arm that is pivotally attached to the machine. A product or item to be packaged is placed in a sheet of plastic that has been folded in half. The product therefore lies inside the folded plastic sheet such that it is between the two sheets of plastic formed by the folding of the one sheet of plastic against itself. The arm is then brought down around the product and onto the plastic sheets to melt the sheets together under the heating element and around the product. This places the product in an envelope of plastic. The envelope of plastic and product is then passed into a heating unit which causes the plastic to "shrink" around the product and thereby seal it in the plastic. The product has been in this fashion, "shrink-wrapped" in plastic.
Some L sealer machine models are largely mechanically operable, with the sealing arm being pivotally attached to the body and electrically hard-wired into the machine. The arm may be manually pivoted up and down with respect to the machine top surface. Manually lifting and lowering the arm can become quite strenuous if the machine is used for a long period of time to seal plastic around a number of items independently. Thus, if the user of the machine can afford a more costly and complex machine, a further model may be ordered in which the arm is pneumatically and/or electro-magnetically controlled to reduce the physical strain on the operator in continuously lifting and lowering the arm. In such a case, the pneumatic and/or magnetic means are hard-wired and permanently welded into the machine body. They are, therefore, considered to be integrally connected to the machine.
L Sealers may be ordered with any one of the foregoing features and with a permanently attached, integral, conveyor system which conveys articles which have been sealed in the plastic by the sealing arm away from the machine. The machine may be also ordered with an automatic arm control. Again, this feature is a permanent installation in the machine. The machine may be ordered as well, with an automatic plastic feeder unit for feeding the plastic through the machine for sealing around the item. This unit is again a permanent and integral portion of the machine and is hard-wired into the electrical system of the machine.
Since L Sealer machines are relatively expensive, a small company will usually first order a manually operable machine. As the company grows, it will usually then invest in a second machine that is equipped with the magnetic or pneumatic means and perhaps as well with the conveyor. Finally, it may purchase as a third machine, a fully automatic machine. Each additional feature adds to the price of the machine and the machine cannot be changed to later delete or add parts. Accordingly, the user cannot turn a manual machine into an automatic machine or vice versa.
The technology for providing the heating elements in the sealing arm with electric current so that the arm acts as a hot sealer frame, the technology for pneumatic and magnetic controls, and the technology for automated machines, feeders and conveyors, are all well established in the art and of a reliable and permanent nature in quality machines. Thus, the well-constructed L Sealer sealing machines of the prior art are usually durable with all parts firmly attached, as by welding and hard wiring, and not readily disconnected. These machines provide to the purchaser a machine with a long useful life requiring minimal reasonable upkeep. These features are all desirable if the model machine purchased is the model one wishes to use for the next 25 years. The features of integral manufacture of all parts, firm welded attachments and hard wiring are not entirely satisfactory if one wishes an upgraded or downgraded machine over the years due to a change in business. For that party, different machines must be purchased over the life of the business to accommodate the needs of the business. The end result is a significant outlay in monies for a stock of machines which is comprised of only a portion that meets the needs of the company at a given point in time.
The present invention attempts to resolve this problem by offering to the purchaser a modular machine. With the present invention, a base frame or machine may be purchased. As investment monies become available, the originally-purchased base machine may be readily upgraded rather than having to purchase a second upgraded machine. By way of example and not limitation, the base machine of the invention may be augmented by the addition of pneumatic, electromagnetic, and automatic arm and feed means as well as conveyors, stands, counterweights and any other parts available at the time for addition to the machine. Further, with the present machine, if a portion of the machine fails, it may be readily detached and replaced with a replacement portion. This enables repair or disposal of the failed part. The inventor is unaware of any prior art sealing machine in which the major parts may be modularly attached and detached and which parts are functioning useful units separate from the machine.
Another aspect of the present invention is to resolve in a new manner, the issue of operator and machine stress in having to bring upwardly and downwardly the sealing arm in serially sealing plastic around items. This is accomplished by employing a counterweight on the sealing arm to bias it to a desired position.


Disclosed is a data processing device capable of efficiently performing an arithmetic process on variable-length data and an arithmetic process on fixed-length data. The data processing device includes first PEs of SIMD type, SRAMs provided respectively for the first PEs, and second PEs. The first PEs each perform an arithmetic operation on data stored in a corresponding one of the SRAMs. The second PEs each perform an arithmetic operation on data stored in corresponding ones of the SRAMs. Therefore, the SRAMs can be shared so as to efficiently perform the arithmetic process on variable-length data and the arithmetic process on fixed-length data.

The present invention relates to a data processing device having multiple processors, and more particularly to a data processing device having a processor capable of computing variable-length bits and a processor adapted to mainly compute fixed-length bits and a data processing method thereof.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the importance of digital signal processing, which rapidly processes a large amount of audio, video, and other data. In such digital signal processing, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) is often used as a dedicated semiconductor device under normal conditions. However, when a signal processing application, or more specifically, an image processing application, is used, the processing capacity of the DSP is not sufficient because an extremely large amount of data needs to be processed.
Meanwhile, a parallel processor technology, which enables multiple arithmetic units to operate in a parallel manner to deliver high signal processing performance, has been increasingly developed. When a dedicated processor derived from the parallel processor technology is used as an accelerator attached to a CPU (Central Processing Unit), high signal processing performance can be delivered even in a situation where low power consumption and low cost are demanded as in the case of an LSI incorporated in an embedded device.
An SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data stream) processor, which performs computations in accordance with an SIMD method, can be cited as an example of the above-described parallel processor.
The SIMD processor includes a fine-grained arithmetic core and is suitable for integer arithmetic operations and fixed-point arithmetic operations. Here, it is assumed that the fine-grained arithmetic core is an arithmetic core capable of computing variable-length bits by performing an arithmetic operation multiple times.
A massively parallel processor, which is an SIMD processor incorporating 1024 fine-grained arithmetic units (hereinafter may be referred to as the PEs (Processor Elements)) that are tightly coupled with a memory and capable of performing computations in units of 1 to 2 bits, can perform a large number of integer arithmetic operations and fixed-point arithmetic operations within a short period of time. The massively parallel processor may be hereinafter referred to as the matrix-type massively parallel processor (MX).
Further, as the matrix-type massively parallel processor uses the fine-grained arithmetic units, it can perform necessary bit length computations only. Therefore, its power consumption can be reduced to let it deliver higher performance-to-power consumption ratio than general-purpose DSPs and the like.
Furthermore, as the matrix-type massively parallel processor can load and execute a prepared program, it can perform parallel computations simultaneously with a CPU that controls it. Moreover, the matrix-type massively parallel processor incorporates an entry communicator (ECM) to move data between the arithmetic units as described later so that data exchange can be made simultaneously with computations with the aid of a controller supporting a VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) instruction. Therefore, the matrix-type massively parallel processor can supply data with higher efficiency than a processor in which arithmetic units are simply arrayed in a parallel manner.
Meanwhile, a coarse-grained arithmetic core, such as a floating-point arithmetic unit (FPU), is an arithmetic unit specifically designed for fixed-length floating-point arithmetic operations and used while it is coupled to a CPU. Here, it is assumed that the coarse-grained arithmetic core is an arithmetic core capable of computing fixed-length bits by performing a single arithmetic operation.
The floating-point arithmetic unit includes a floating-point arithmetic register. The data to be subjected to an arithmetic operation is supplied from the CPU or a memory through this register. The CPU interprets an execution instruction and issues a computation request to the floating-point arithmetic unit. The floating-point arithmetic unit has a pipeline configuration. Even when a single arithmetic process is not completed in one cycle, the floating-point arithmetic unit substantially performs one arithmetic operation per cycle as far as data is continuously supplied. Relevant technologies are described in connection with inventions disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 2001-027945 and 2001-167058.
The invention disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-027945 aims to provide a floating-point unit that does not require dedicated hardware for each of different data type formats. A device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-027945 includes a floating-point unit having a standard multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit capable of performing a multiply-accumulate operation on the data type formats. The standard MAC unit is configured to compute a conventional data type format and a single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) type format. As this eliminates the need for a dedicated SIMD MAC unit, the area of a die is considerably reduced. When an SIMD instruction is computed by one MAC unit, data is given to high-order and low-order MAC units as a 64-bit word. The MAC units each receive one and more bits selecting the upper half or the lower half of the 64-bit word. The MAC units each compute their respective 32-bit word. The results of the computations are combined into a 64-bit word by bypass blocks of the floating-point unit.
The invention disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-167058 provides an information processing device capable of permitting a CPU or other similar microprocessor and an FPU (floating-point arithmetic unit) or other similar dedicated processor to perform processing operations in a parallel manner, and aims to provide an increased processing capacity by reducing the wait time of the microprocessor. The information processing device has a multi-FPU configuration. An FPU status register in an FPU coupling controller monitors the status of each of multiple FPUs. When any one of multiple CPUs issues a request concerning an assistance-requesting instruction to an FPU status decoder in the FPU coupling controller, an FPU selector is controlled so as to couple the requesting CPU to a nonoperating, unoccupied FPU in accordance with information stored in the FPU status register. Further, a temporary storage register selection controller controls a temporary storage register selector to prevent damage to data in an area used by a temporary storage register.

Data processing device and data processing method thereof


A conveniently stackable, storable, transportable and displayable food service device utilizing temperature maintaining refrigerant units to provide a relatively convenient and inexpensive method of refrigerating, transporting and serving food is provided. The temperature maintaining refrigerant units are disposed within a refrigerant cavity configured in a base of the device in interfitted puzzle-like fashion. The refrigerant units are interchangeable and may be easily stored and replaced after their temperature maintaining capacity has been exhausted. A food tray is designed to removably interfit with the base of the device such that the food surface of the tray is supported in spaced relationship above the refrigerant units when the food tray and base are in nested relationship. A cover is provided to fit in supporting relationship with the food tray. The cover includes a recess portion to nestingly accept the exterior of the base to elevate the base and food tray for display and service purposes. The cover also receives the base of another like container so that a stack of refrigerated devices may be easily transported and/or stored. The cover also includes a channel to prevent condensation from dripping onto and spoiling the food servings supported on the tray.

Food service operations typically employ a number of food service devices to provide for the service of food at weddings or parties, and in institutional environments such as hospitals. In many instances, the food servings are prepared in a kitchen or elsewhere, and transported to a dining location. The servings are stored upon food service trays which can be readily heated or cooled as dictated by the dish to be served.
In food service operations, it is necessary to refrigerate many of the food items which are to be served. Ice has been placed in and around the food servings or the containers holding the food servings to be chilled. Portable ice tables which would include food trays, handles, ice recess storage compartments, and drainage ports to drain off water resulting from the melted ice have been proposed. However, the need to continuously replace the melted ice and drain the accumulated water would be cumbersome and non-aesthetic. Such tables may also include covers which would promote the refrigeration of the food servings placed upon the food trays.
Another proposed apparatus for displaying refrigerated food servings comprises a nesting bowl assembly. The proposed assembly would include a first and second bowl, the first bowl sized to nest within the second bowl. A volume of water or other such material would be deposited in the second bowl. The first bowl would then be nested within the second bowl to displace the water about the first bowl exterior surface. The bowls could then be placed in a cooler to freeze the water. Once the water is frozen, the food servings to be chilled would be placed within the first bowl. The servings would then displayed as required. As the ice melted, it would recede into the second bowl thereby reducing the total refrigerated surface area of the first bowl so that once the refrigerating capacity of the ice was exhausted, it would need to be replaced. Alternatively, the food servings could be transferred to a similar device where the water refrigerant was frozen. The inconvenience associated with renewing the ice and/or the substitution of a number of similar bowl assemblies required to refrigerate and display food servings over an extended period of time would be costly and cumbersome.
Another proposed serving device comprises a portable open-topped receptacle having a double bottom and a hinged cover. The double bottom would define a space to accommodate a temperature-maintaining fluid such as a bath of water. The device would include two concave shelves rigidly interconnected along their peripheries. The shelves' bodies would be separated to define the space which may accommodate the bath of water. The proposed food receptacle would constitute a pan with a peripheral ledge having one or more trays, dishes or other similar containers suspended from the ledge. The temperature maintaining fluid would be disposed within the space between the shelves about the suspended pan to cool the food. However, once the refrigerating capacity of the water is exhausted, the food servings would have to be transferred to additional devices having a refrigerated water bath. water bath.
Another proposed tray of rectangular configuration is said to be adapted for patient feeding in institutional settings. The tray would include a body having an upper and lower plate which define a recess portion surrounded by a chamber. The chamber purportedly would contain a heat-generating mixture which is repeatedly changeable from a solid to liquid state or from a liquid to crystalline state to produce heat. The proposed chamber would be very shallow and intended to have a relatively uniform depth. The upper and lower plates would be hermetically sealed to prevent leakage of the mixture from the chamber. Once assembled, the mixture purportedly radiates heat. When used in a hospital, the tray would be made ready for use by immersing it in a hot water bath having a temperature between 200.degree.-212.degree. F. for at least 30 minutes. During immersion, the mixture would absorb substantial amounts of heat. Thereafter, food would be stored upon the tray. As the tray cools, the mixture would emit heat during a transition temperature phase (approximately 193.degree.). Once the temperature maintaining ability of the tray would be exhausted, the food would have to be food transferred to another fresh tray to maintain its temperature, a costly and time-consuming procedure.
Another proposed thermal enclosure purportedly comprises a container having a removable cover to provide access to an interior cavity. The cover would include a frame in the inner and outer ends, and a passage extending through the frame. The frame also purportedly would include a peripheral wall and a ledge which would extend radially inwardly from the wall. An inner end wall would be positioned in the passage, supported on the ledge. An outer end wall would be affixed to the peripheral wall. Material for adding or removing heat would be provided in the passage between the end walls.
None of these proposed devices disclose an apparatus for conveniently storing, transporting, displaying and serving refrigerated foods for extended periods of time wherein the trays may be nested and a temperature maintaining refrigerant media conveniently replaced with additional like units which are cleanly and easily disposed within the device. Moreover, none of these devices disclose an apparatus which is cleanly and easily assembled for use or disassembled so that each component of the device may be stackably stored with other like components separately from the remainder of the food service device. Moreover, replenishing the temperature maintaining refrigerant media in many cases would require transfer of the food from a used storage device to a fresh storage device. Lastly, no method or mechanism is disclosed whereby the temperature maintaining refrigerant media may be interfitted in a puzzle-like fashion within a particular food service device to maximize the refrigerated surface area of the device while minimizing the space required for storing the temperature maintaining media apart from the device.


A system and method for a communication terminal to manage memory and maintain a current application version for multiple applications are provided. The system and method provide for managing memory in a communication terminal coupled to a server device enabling the communication terminal to provide memory capacity for storing in a memory and executing on the communication terminal a plurality of applications downloaded from the server device. Prior to downloading an application, the communication terminal determines an amount of memory capacity required by an application client to be downloaded from the server device. The communication terminal then attempts to allocate the memory capacity. If memory cannot be allocated from the system heap, the communication terminal purges data contained in the memory according to a dynamic list of priorities to create memory capacity in the memory for the application client. Once sufficient memory capacity has been created, it is allocated to the application client, and the application client is downloaded to the communication terminal.

Historically, television services have been comprised of analog broadcast audio and video signals. Cable television systems now receive broadcasts and retransmit them with other programming to subscribers over land-line networks, typically comprising fiber optic cable and/or coaxial cable. With the recent advent of digital transmission technology, cable television systems are now capable of providing much more than the traditional analog broadcast video. In addition, two-way and advanced one-way communications between a subscriber and a cable system headend are now possible.
In implementing enhanced programming, the home communications terminal ("HCT"), otherwise known as the settop box, has become an important computing device for accessing video services and navigating a subscriber through a maze of services available. In addition to supporting traditional analog broadcast video functionality, digital HCTs (or "DHCTs") now also support an increasing number of services that are not analog, but rather digital; are not basic broadcast, but rather two-way communication such as video-on-demand; and are not basic video, such as e-mail or web browsers. These are all in addition to the host of other television services that are increasingly being demanded by consumers, examples of which include audio and audio/visual programming, advance navigation controls, impulse pay-per-view technology, and on-line commerce. In addition to the interactive services, the increased bandwidth available through a digital television system has made it possible for a subscriber to have access to hundreds, or even thousands, of channels and/or services. Thus, in order to provide these more powerful and complex features, the simple conventional channel abstractions need to be extended beyond those that have traditionally been provided.
Each HCT and DHCT (collectively hereinafter "DHCT") is typically connected to a cable or satellite television network. The DHCTs generally include hardware and software necessary to provide the functionality of the digital television system at the subscriber's site. Preferably, some of the software executed by a DHCT is downloaded and/or updated via the cable television network. Each DHCT typically includes a processor, a communication component and memory, and is connected to a television or other display device, such as a personal computer. While many conventional DHCTs are stand-alone devices that are externally connected to a television, a DHCT and/or its functionality may be integrated into a television or personal computer, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art.
As more and more services and applications are made available, it becomes increasingly important to properly manage limited client resources. Because the memory contained in the DHCT is typically finite, only a limited number of services and applications may be downloaded to and stored on the DHCT at any given time. Once the memory of the DHCT becomes full with applications and other data, a DHCT may be unable to download additional files or applications for the user due to the memory incapacity. For the user, this scenario can result in a denial of a particular service, or worse, a complete failure of the DHCT due to a memory error. As the number of applications available to a user continues to grow, a conventional DHCT may be unable to implement many of these applications once the memory becomes full for the first time. The cost of additional DHCT memory may be prohibitive for the system operator or subscriber; in any case memory is always finite and out of memory conditions will occur.
Additionally, as services and applications are updated by system operators of the cable television systems, the versions already contained on the DHCTs can become outdated and unsupported. While the cable systems may support old versions of applications for a short period of time, eventually these applications may fail when activated by the DHCT because of their incompatibility with the cable television system headend. As a result, once the memory capacity of a conventional DHCT has become full, then not only is that DHCT typically limited to those applications contained in memory, but also those applications may have limited lifespan as updated versions are released over the network by the cable television system.

System and method for maintaining applications with their current versions


The present invention comprises compositions and methods for enhancing biological processes, such as plant growth or bioremediation. For example, the present invention comprises compositions and methods for effectively remediating chemical and organic wastes and reducing the environmental risk from manure, septic, sewage, oil pollution, and other contaminants.

Contaminants, such as hazardous, polluting, or toxic materials or wastes, are a health and safety problem for the United States and for countries world-wide. Governmental agencies, commercial companies, the military, and consumers are searching for more cost-effective technologies that can be used to remove these hazardous and polluting materials. Moreover, environmental regulations are mandating a change to sustainable management of soil and water contamination.
Contaminants are continuously produced by activities of humans on the planet. In addition, natural causes can release or create contaminants in the environment. Oil and radioactive elements are naturally released into the environment and natural disasters, such as floods, create polluted areas in their wake. In addition to the on-going production of waste materials, there is a large amount of contamination from human and natural activities in the past.
The costs of cleaning up the environment are staggering. These costs are a drain on the economies of thriving countries and are an almost insurmountable problem for poorer countries. Many of the current technologies for removing hazardous or contaminating wastes from the environment require transportation over long distances and involve sophisticated machinery or personnel, all of which add to the costs, environmental contamination, and do not support local communities.
Current methods of waste treatment are generally not adequate for remediating the contaminated air, soil or water. Chemical treatment can be used on some wastes, but there may be hazardous by-products, leachate or sludge produced by treatment. Wastes may be isolated or altered through methods such as stabilization, solidification or encapsulation. But, in these approaches the waste is merely contained, not destroyed or converted. Additionally, the problem of storage of the contained waste is created.
What is needed are compositions and methods that can perform bioremediation, such as at a contaminated or polluted site, or to remediate materials such as soil or water that have an excess of unwanted biological material or other contaminating or polluting compounds, or to enhance the health and sustainability of the local natural environment, that can be applied to a wide variety of environments. Even more ideally, would be a bioremediation system that would not only remove or stabilize the contaminated wastes, but would also be capable of converting some of the wastes into usable products. What is also needed are methods and compositions for enhancing biological processes, such as enhancing plant growth.


A vehicular display system shows a view image including a blind area with superior visibility. Embodiments include an imaging unit that captures an image of a surrounding area of a vehicle; an image processing unit that converts the image into a view image of the surrounding area of the vehicle seen from inside a cabin; and a display unit. The image processing unit generates a rear-view image acquired when an area behind the vehicle is seen from a first virtual viewpoint located in the cabin, and a front-view image acquired when an area in front of the vehicle is seen from a second virtual viewpoint located behind the first virtual viewpoint in the cabin. The display unit shows the rear-view image when the vehicle travels backward, the front-view image when the vehicle travels forward, and shows both of the view images at substantially the same angle of view.

An example of the above vehicular display system has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Document JP-A-2014-197818. The vehicular display system in JP-A-2014-197818 includes: plural cameras, each of which captures an image of a surrounding area of a vehicle; an image processor that generates a composite image generated by combining and processing images included in a particular viewing angle from the images captured by the plural cameras; and a display device that shows the composite image generated by the image processor. The image processor generates, as the composite image, an image that is generated by superimposing a surrounding area image and a cabin image, and causes the display device to show the generated composite image. The surrounding area image shows a surrounding area of the vehicle that is seen from a specified virtual viewpoint, and the cabin image shows various components (for example, a dashboard, a pillar, and the like) in a cabin in a transmissive state.
The vehicular display system in JP-A-2014-197818 as described above can recognize information relating to an obstacle and the like around the vehicle in which it is installed while comprehending a positional relationship with the vehicle.
In JP-A-2014-197818, one of a composite image where a viewing direction is set to a vehicle front direction (hereinafter referred to as a front-view image) and a composite image where the viewing direction is set to a vehicle rear direction (hereinafter referred to as a rear-view image) is selectively shown according to a driver's operation. The virtual viewpoint at the time of generating the front-view image and the virtual viewpoint at the time of generating the rear-view image are set at a position of the driver's seat.
However, where each of the front-view image and the rear-view image is generated with the virtual viewpoint fixedly set at the position of the driver's seat, as described above, being a reference, there is a possibility that an area (a blind area) near left and right sides of the front portion of the vehicle or the rear portion of the vehicle cannot sufficiently be shown in at least one of the view images, and such an area is possibly a blind spot for the driver. In this case, it is possible to appropriately expand an angle of view of each of the front-view image and the rear-view image, to sufficiently show the blind area. However, in the case where the angles of view of the two view images consequently differ from each other, the driver feels a sense of discomfort at the time when the view image is switched from the rear-view image to the front-view image (or vice versa), for example. Thus, there is a possibility of degraded visibility of the image after it is switched.


A system for converting a page description file to a composite representation thereof for fast web viewing, the system includes a conversion engine configured to convert a page of graphics into an aggregate file, a rendering utility for rendering the aggregate file, a comparison engine for comparing the image-only bitmap and the aggregate bitmap to create a foreground bitmap file which is displayed on a Web browser and a delivery engine for delivering the foreground bitmap file and the background raster file to a Web browser by creating HTML code which superimposes the foreground bitmap file and the background raster file, thereby providing a small sized, high quality image and text composite representation of the page description file.

Electronic, page-based documents displayed on the Internet may contain both text and images, e.g., catalogs, brochures, magazines, books, financial reports, and the like. Prior systems and methods for displaying these documents require providing these documents in their native file format, e.g., MICROSOFT WORD®, QUARK®, PAGEMAKER®, and the like require the user to install and run specific application programs in order to view these documents. Alternatively, these documents may be converted to one or more page description files, such as postscript, or the ADOBE® PDF file format, which requires a PDF viewing program or plug-in, such as the ADOBE® Reader to be installed on the user's computer before the PDF file can be viewed. After the plug-in is installed, the desired PDF document is downloaded and viewed via any standard Web browser, such as the INTERNET EXPLORER® or NETSCAPE® programs.
One prior technique to overcome the need for users to install a PDF application program or plug-in is to convert the PDF file with images therein to an image file in a format such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), PNG (Portable Network Graphics) or GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) which are typically supported by all standard Web browsers. PNG files can be optimized to provide a compact, high-quality representation of vector line drawings (e.g., text) in the page description file. However, incorporation of images from the page description file significantly increases the size of the PNG file, which leads to increased download time and storage requirements. GIF files are limiting because they can only support images with a maximum of 256 colors. The JPEG format allows a relatively compact file with high image quality representation of the images in the page description file to be produced by using a lossy compression method, but this results in poor quality vector line drawings and text. The JPEG format allows both high-quality line drawings (text) and images when lossy compression is not utilized, but files produced in this way are very large.

System and method for converting a page description file to a composite representation thereof for fast Web viewing


Disclosed is a chip-on-glass type liquid crystal display (LCD). The LCD is directed to provide a construction in a way that, while each wiring for supplying driver circuits with a driving voltage is directly formed on an LCD panel through application of COG (Chip-On-Glass) technology for producing TFT-LCD, even though the wirings are connected in series between the driver circuits, the driving voltage capable of normally operating the driver circuits is supplied to all driver circuits. To this end, in consideration of a voltage drop at the panel wiring, by increasing and outputting a driving voltage, the driving voltage inputted into an nth driver circuit is made to be equal to the driving voltage inputted into an (n+1)th driver circuit. To accomplish this object, a driving voltage generating section is provided to each driver IC, and comprises a charge pumping circuit for increasing the leading gate driving voltage to a predetermined level, and a buffer circuit for stabilizing an output voltage of the charge pumping circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly to a chip-on-glass type liquid crystal display in which each wiring for driver circuits is directly formed on an LCD panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An active matrix type LCD includes a plurality of thin film transistors (hereinafter, referred to as "TFTs"), which are located around intersectional points between a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of signal lines, and by which a plurality of liquid crystal pixels are driven. The scan lines are each connected to an external gate driver IC, which provides scan signals. The signal lines are each connected to an external source driver IC, which provides image signals. When the image signals inputted from the source driver IC are applied to liquid crystals through the TFTs turned on by the scan signals, a designated image is displayed.
There are various methods of connecting the scan lines to the gate driver IC and of connecting the signal lines to the source driver IC, for example, TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) using a printed circuit board, and chip-on-glass (hereinafter, referred to as "COG"). In the COG method, both a gate driver IC and a source driver IC are directly attached onto an LCD panel by soldering or a metallic paste, and similarly each wiring for the gate driver IC and the source driver IC is directly performed on the LCD panel. In general, the wiring formed directly on the panel by application of this COG technology is referred to as "panel wiring". Herein, the gate driver IC and the source driver IC are together generically referred to as a "driver circuit". Further, a voltage applied to each driver circuit in order to drive the driver circuit is called a "driving voltage".
FIG. 1 shows how a driving voltage is applied to respective driver circuits 102, 104 and 106 through each panel wiring between the driver circuits. Each panel wiring can be modeled into resistors Rn−1 and Rn. As shown in FIG. 1, when the panel wirings Rn−1 and Rn for supplying the driving voltage to the driver circuits 102, 104 and 106 are connected in series between the driver circuits 102, 104 and 106, a voltage drop is generated by internal resistance components of the driver circuits 102, 104 and 106 and by resistance components of the panel wirings Rn−1 and Rn. Owing to this voltage drop, a relationship as the following Formula 1 is established:Vo(n−1)>Vi(n)>Vo(n)>Vi(n+1)  Formula 1
where Vi(n) is the input driving voltage applied to the driver circuit 104 in reality, and Vo(n) is the output driving voltage outputted from the driver circuit 104 in order to drive next circuit.
For this reason, when several driver circuits are connected with each other, an input driving voltage applied actually to a driver circuit after a certain step drops less than the minimum voltage (referred to as an "operation voltage") necessary to operate the driver circuit, so that the circuit may not perform normal operation.

Chip-on-glass type liquid crystal display


A vacuum ionization gauge (30) includes a cathode (31), an anode ring (33), a shield electrode (32), an ion educed electrode (34), a reflector (35) and a collector (36). The cathode is positioned corresponding to a first opening of the shield electrode, and the ion educed electrode is positioned corresponding to an opposite second opening of the shield electrode. An ion educed hole (341) is defined in a middle of the ion educed electrode. The reflector has a curving surface generally surrounding the second opening of the shield electrode. The collector is positioned at a center of the curving surface of the reflector and points toward the ion educed hole. The anode ring is positioned in the middle of the shield electrode. The vacuum ionization gauge is small volume and has low power consumption and improved sensitivity.

The invention relates generally to vacuum gauges, and more particularly to a vacuum ionization gauge having improved sensitivity.
Nowadays, high vacuum conditions are employed in many technological fields of endeavor, such as in simulation technology in aerospace, superconductor technology, nuclear fusion technology, ultra-low temperature technology, and huge particle accelerator technology. Vacuum gauges for measuring pressure in ultra-high and extremely high vacuum conditions are needed.
When a standard vacuum gauge is used in ultra-high and extremely high vacuum conditions, X-ray and ions produced by means of Electron Stimulated Desorption (ESD) restrict a lowest measuring limit of the vacuum gauge to a relatively low vacuum pressure. In order to extend the lowest measuring limit of the vacuum gauge to a higher vacuum pressure, a vacuum ionization gauge is generally used. As shown in FIG. 3, a typical vacuum ionization gauge 10 includes a grid 12, a modulator 11, a filament 13, a shield 14, an ion reflector 15 and a collector 16. The top of the grid 12 is closed, and the bottom of the grid 12 is open. The modulator 11 is a short wire projecting into a center of the grid 12 from the top of the grid 12. The shield 14 is positioned at the bottom of the grid 12, and has an aperture defined in a center thereof. The ion reflector 15 is generally hemispherical, and is positioned below the shield 14. The collector 16 is a short wire projecting through a small hole in the center of the ion reflector 15.
In use, a zero voltage is applied to the grid 12 by controlling the modulator 11, a negative voltage is applied to the shield 14, and a positive voltage is applied to the ion reflector 15. The filament 13 emits electrons into the grid 12, and the electrons vibrate and collide with gas molecules. Therefore, the gas molecules are ionized to form an ion current. The ions are attracted toward the negative potential shield 14. Most of the ions pass through the aperture of the shield 14, and are focused by the positive potential on the ion reflector 15 onto the collector 16. The vacuum ionization gauge 10 utilizes the shield 14 to turn back most X-rays and ions produced by means of Electron Stimulated Desorption (ESD). Thus a lowest limit of the vacuum ionization gauge 10 can be as little as 10−13 Torr. However, the vacuum ionization gauge 10 has a complex structure, and cannot be advantageously applied in ultra-low temperature technology and huge particle accelerator technology.
Another typical vacuum ionization gauge is shown in FIG. 4. The vacuum ionization gauge 20 includes a metal shield 21, a ceramic column 27, a collector 26, an anode ring 22, and an electron emitting assembly 24. The ceramic column 27 is positioned at one end of the metal shield 21. The electron emitting assembly 24, the anode ring 22 and the collector 26 are positioned on the ceramic column 27 in turn. The electron emitting assembly 24 includes a tungsten filament 241 and a reflector 242. The vacuum ionization gauge 20 is relatively small and simple in structure, and has low power consumption. However, the vacuum ionization gauge 20 cannot turn back most X-rays and ions produced by means of Electron Stimulated Desorption (ESD). This restricts a lowest measuring limit of the vacuum ionization gauge 20 to a relatively low vacuum pressure.
What is needed, therefore, is a vacuum ionization gauge which solves the above-described disadvantages and has improved sensitivity.

Vacuum ionization gauge with high sensitivity


A printed circuit board (PCB) assembly for use with first and second cables terminated with first and second cable lugs, respectively, wherein each of the first and second cable lugs includes two lug holes defined therein, the includes a PCB and a terminal block. The terminal block includes an electrically insulating base mounted on the PCB, and at least one electrically conductive conductor member mounted on the base and electrically connected to the PCB. The at least one conductor member is configured to engage each of the first and second cable lugs through the four lug holes thereof to electrically in-line terminate the first and second cables at the terminal block.

In a split Radio Base Station (RBS) architecture, the typical RBS consists of a Base Band Unit (BBU) and Remote Radio Heads (RRH) connected by cabling. DC power to the RRH is provided through copper cables traveling from the base station to the top of the tower or roof top. This creates a conductive path, making the active equipment at the top and the base of the site vulnerable to damage by direct lightning strikes. Lightning surge protection systems installed in front of both the BBU and the RRH must be able to withstand repeated direct lightning currents in order to protect the sensitive equipment both on the tower and in the shelter. Surge protection systems are provided to protect critical network assets from direct lightning currents, offer remote radio head surge protection and help cellular carriers maintain continuous uptime while lowering their operational expenditures. In particular, surge protection solutions may be provided to protect mobile networks using Remote Radio Head (RRH) architectures against damage from lightning strikes and provide cable management solutions for the network.

Terminal block assemblies and printed circuit board assemblies including same


In the present invention, a planar distribution of pixel values in a picked-up substrate image is decomposed into a plurality of pixel value distribution components through use of a Zernike polynomial for each of substrate images; Zernike coefficients of the pixel value distribution components decomposed through use of the Zernike polynomial are calculated; a median value and values deviated from the median value by a predetermined value or more are extracted for every Zernike coefficients having a same couple of degrees from the calculated Zernike coefficients; substrate images having the extracted values are specified; and a substrate image being a defect inspection reference is created by combining the specified substrate images.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of creating a substrate image being a reference in defect inspection on the basis of a plurality of picked-up substrate images, a method of performing defect inspection of a substrate on the basis of the created substrate reference image, an apparatus for creating a substrate reference image, a substrate defect inspection unit, and a non-transitory computer storage medium.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-268203, filed in Japan on Dec. 7, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photolithography process in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, for example, a series of treatments such as a resist coating treatment of applying a resist solution onto a wafer to form a resist film, exposure processing of exposing the resist film to a predetermined pattern, a developing treatment of developing the exposed resist film and so on are performed in sequence to form a predetermined resist pattern on the wafer. The series of treatments are performed in a coating and developing treatment system being a substrate treatment system including various treatment units that treat the wafer, transfer mechanisms that transfer the wafer and so on.
The wafer for which a series of photolithography processing has been performed in the coating and developing treatment system is subjected to a so-called macro defect inspection of performing inspection whether or not a predetermined resist film has been formed on the front surface of the wafer, or whether or not there is a scratch or adherence of foreign substance.
In such a macro defect inspection, while a mounting table on which the wafer is mounted is being moved illumination is applied to the wafer on the mounting table and, for example, an image pickup apparatus of a CCD line sensor picks up an image of the front surface of the wafer. Then, the picked-up image is subjected to image processing and the presence or absence of defects on the front surface of the wafer is determined (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-216515). In the conventional defect inspection, the presence or absence of defects is determined by comparing the image of a wafer being a reference (reference wafer) and the image of a wafer to be inspected.
Incidentally, a so-called false defect that is not an actual defect but is determined as a defect because color unevenness occurs on the picked-up image of a substrate (substrate image) may occur in the defect inspection of the wafer. Therefore, the image of the wafer being the reference (reference image) is created by combining a substrate mage having color unevenness that may be determined as a false defect with the standard substrate image of a wafer having no defect. This makes it possible to take an element of the substrate image having the color unevenness into the reference image so as to prevent the color unevenness from being determined as a defect in defect inspection. In other words, the color unevenness is subjected to filtering to avoid the false defect.
A plurality of substrate images used for synthesis of the reference image are selected by an operator on the basis of the empirical rule from among images of a plurality of wafers which have been processed beforehand. In this case, the reference image to be created may differ depending on the level of skill of the operator. Therefore, a difference may occur in the result of defect inspection depending on the level of skill of the operator creating the reference image.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points and its object is to create an appropriate substrate reference image so as to appropriately perform defect inspection of a substrate.

Substrate reference image creation method, substrate defect inspection method, substrate reference image creation apparatus, substrate defect inspection unit and non-transitory computer storage medium


In a vehicle equipped with a distance measuring unit capable of measuring a distance between the subject vehicle and an objective obstacle, the objective obstacle is detected along a widthwise direction of the vehicle by the distance measuring unit. Detection data detected by the distance measuring unit are developed on X and Y coordinates in which the widthwise direction of the subject vehicle is represented by an X axis; the longitudinal direction of the subject vehicle is represented by a Y axis, and the position of the subject vehicle is defined as an origin. Each of obstacle data is labeled in such a manner that the same labels are affixed to obstacle data which are in proximity to one another on the coordinates. The amount and direction of movement are calculated for every label on the basis of the last data and the current data, and a relative speed for every label relative to the subject vehicle is calculated by dividing the amount of movement by a sampling time. The position of the objective obstacle after a lapse of a predetermined time is estimated on the basis of a relative speed vector determined from the relative speed and the direction of movement. Thus, the accuracy of estimating of the position of the objective obstacle is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for correctly estimating a position of an objective obstacle, in a vehicle equipped with a distance measuring unit which comprises a transmitting and receiving section capable of transmitting a signal toward the objective obstacle and receiving a reflected signal from the objection obstacle, and a calculating section for calculating a distance between the subject vehicle and the objective obstacle on the basis of a time between the transmission and the reception of the signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A collision preventing system for a vehicle is conventionally known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 4700/86, in which a distance between a subject vehicle and an objective obstacle is measured by the distance measuring unit, and a brake device is operated in accordance with the distance between the subject vehicle and the objective obstacle.
In estimating the position of the objective obstacle, it is necessary to correctly grasp the number of distribution of objective obstacles which lie ahead of the subject vehicle. However, such a method for correctly estimating the position of the objective obstacle is not know heretofore.

Method for estimating position of objective obstacle for vehicle


To improve reliability of a liquid crystal display apparatus using an upper substrate, the upper substrate to be combined with a lower substrate includes a transparent electrode and a first spacer. The lower substrate includes a display region and a driving region surrounding the display region to provide a drive signal to the display region. A liquid crystal layer is interposed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. The first spacer is formed on the transparent electrode corresponding to the driving region to protect the driving region. The first spacer is disposed such that a rubbing having a rubbing direction of the upper substrate does not end at the first spacer. Thus, a corner white phenomenon that is caused by impurities stacked at a side portion of the first spacer may be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an upper substrate and a liquid crystal display apparatus having the upper substrate. More particularly, the present invention relates to an upper substrate with improved reliability and a liquid crystal display apparatus having the upper substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, liquid crystal display apparatuses are classified into a transmissive type liquid crystal display apparatus, a reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus and a transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus according to light sources used for the apparatuses. The transmissive type liquid crystal display apparatus displays an image using a backlight disposed in a rear face of a liquid crystal cell. The reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus uses natural light as the light source. The transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus is operated either by a transmissive display mode or by a reflective display mode. An image is displayed using a light source built in the liquid crystal display apparatus in the transmissive display mode under indoor or dark conditions where no external light source exists. When illumination is sufficient, external light is reflected on a reflective electrode in the liquid crystal display apparatus to display the image in the reflective display mode.
A liquid crystal display apparatus usually controls an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules in accordance with a voltage applied to a liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal display apparatus is generally classified into a passive matrix type liquid crystal display apparatus and an active matrix type liquid crystal display apparatus according to a method of operation. In the passive matrix type liquid crystal display apparatus, pixels are operated using a root-mean-square value of a voltage difference between a signal line and a scanning line while applying a signal voltage to all the pixels connected to the scanning line. In the active matrix type liquid crystal display apparatus, each pixel is operated by a switching device such as a thin film transistor or a metal-insulator-metal device.
A process for manufacturing an active matrix type and a transmissive type liquid crystal display apparatus using the thin film transistor includes forming a lower substrate having the thin film transistor and a pixel electrode arranged thereon, forming an upper substrate including a color filter and a common electrode, and forming a liquid crystal layer between the lower and upper substrates.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a conventional transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, the transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus operates in a twisted nematic mode in which a first rubbing direction of an upper substrate (or a color filter substrate) 10 is substantially perpendicular to a second rubbing direction of a lower substrate (or a thin film transistor substrate) 20. Conducting a high temperature reliability test at a temperature of about 50 to 60° C. causes inferiority such as a corner white phenomenon. The corner white phenomenon refers to a gray scale changing from medium or black to partially white at a tip of corner of display region DA of the lower substrate 20 along the second rubbing direction.
In a conventional liquid crystal display apparatus, an aperture ratio is increased by superposing a pixel electrode on the data line and on the gate line using an organic insulation layer having a low dielectric constant. The corner white phenomenon may be generated due to impurities caused by the organic insulation layer formed on the lower substrate 20 during rubbing the lower substrate 20. The corner white phenomenon shown at the tip of the lower substrate 20 along the rubbing direction may be prevented by forming a dummy pixel region near the display region DA, thereby shifting a position of a corner white CW toward the black matrix 30.
A conventional transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus usually has constant cell gaps in the transmissive mode and in the reflective mode. Since the cell gap is determined based on either the transmissive mode or the reflective mode, a significant difference in image characteristics such as color reproduction may be generated due to an optical path difference between the transmitting light and the reflecting light when the apparatus is used. Thus, a liquid crystal display apparatus having a double cell gap has been developed. A thickness of liquid crystal layer in the transmissive mode is thicker than that of liquid crystal layer in the reflective mode to compensate a transmissivity difference between the reflective mode and the transmissive mode.
Furthermore, technologies of integrating a gate driver circuit and/or a data driver circuit on the lower substrate of the liquid crystal display apparatus have been developed to simplify assembly processes and to reduce size and volume of the liquid crystal display apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a liquid crystal display apparatus having a double cell gap with driver circuits integrated thereon. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line I-I′ of FIG. 2.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, a lower substrate 60 has a display region DA and a driving region DR. Thin film transistors are formed in the display region DA, and a gate driver circuit 68 and/or a data driver circuit (not shown) that operates the thin film transistors is/are formed in the driving region DR. In FIGS. 2 and 3, the thin film transistors, the pixel electrode and other elements formed in the display region of the lower substrate 60 are represented by a reference numeral 64 and positions thereof are omitted.
A spacer (not shown) that separates the upper substrate 50 from the lower substrate 60 by a specific distance to maintain a cell gap is formed on a common electrode 55 corresponding to the display region DA of the upper substrate 50. A capping spacer 90 is formed on the common electrode 55 corresponding to the driving region DR of the upper substrate 50 to improve the reliability of the gate driver circuit 68.
Molecules of liquid crystal is homogeneously arranged in the transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus having a double cell gap to set a twist angle of the liquid crystal to be zero. To set the twist angle of the liquid crystal to be zero, the upper substrate 50 is rubbed along a first rubbing direction and the lower substrate 60 is preferably rubbed along a second rubbing direction that is anti-parallel to the first rubbing direction.
A high temperature reliability test conducted at a temperature of about 50 to 60° C. on the transmissive and reflective type liquid crystal display apparatus corresponding to an electrically controlled birefringence mode, in which the first rubbing direction of the upper substrate 50 is anti-parallel with the second rubbing direction of the lower substrate 60, induces a corner white phenomenon CW1 at the tip of corner of the display region DA along the second rubbing direction as well as a corner white phenomenon CW2 at the tip of corner of the upper substrate 250 along the first rubbing direction.
The corner white phenomenon CW2 at the tip of corner of the upper substrate 50 along the first rubbing direction is caused by the capping spacer 90 formed on the upper substrate 50. Impurities 'B' caused by rubbing are stacked at side portion of the capping spacer 90 while the capping spacer 90 that improves the reliability of the gate driver circuit 68 formed on the lower substrate 60 makes contact with the upper substrate 50 along the first rubbing direction. The impurities 'B' cause the corner white phenomenon CW2 to deteriorate the reliability of the liquid crystal display apparatus.

Spacer positioning to improve display quality in a liquid crystal display apparatus


Circuitry for providing improved pulse-type enhancement of the voltage supplied to a power amplifier (101) that is fed by a power supply that is connected to the power amplifier (101) at a feeding point through a main supply path that is connected via an inductor (L1). A second feeding point is used for enhancement by a capacitor that is discharged. A transformer L2, L3, M) is formed by mutually coupling an additional inductor (L3), through which an additional supply path is connected. Enhancement power is provided partially through the transformer L2, L3, M) and the remaining part thorough the capacitor (C1). This way, the total level of possible enhancement is increased, while minimizing distortion of the envelope of the amplified RF signal.

Several RF systems containing power amplifiers are characterized in recurrent periods of signals having large peak excursions, which should be handled, in order to improve the efficiency of these systems. One way to handle signals with large peak-to-average ratios is to control the DC power supply to a power amplifier. One voltage level is supplied to such a power amplifier whenever the instantaneous amplitude is below a given level (normal operating condition), and an enhanced (and higher) voltage level whenever the instantaneous amplitude is above said level. This solution is described for example, in WO 01/67598, which discloses circuitry for dynamically enhancing the operating voltage of an RF amplifier. However, efficiency of the voltage enhancement circuit disclosed therein may be further increased by controlling the impedance values at the connection point between the power amplifier and the power supply, during normal operation and during voltage enhancement time periods.
It is therefore desired to allow a power amplifier to work under different operating power supply voltages, in response to different input signals or conditions under which the power amplifier, or a component contained within it, operates. For example, in order to optimize the operation of a power amplifier, it has been found beneficial to provide it with a DC power through a first supply path whenever the signal at its input is below a predetermined level, and add a second and a third supplemental power supply paths at instants wherein the signal at its input is above that level, thus enhancing the effective voltage supplied to said power amplifier. This type of solution allows operating a power amplifier in a relatively large dynamic range with high efficiency, as the enhanced operating voltage source is coupled to the circuit only when required by the large instantaneous amplitude.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,519B2 discloses circuitry that allows efficient enhancement of the voltage supplied to a power amplifier during required time periods. This circuitry controls the level of the voltage supplied to a power amplifier, via a supplementary supply path that is connected to the feeding point, during both the enhancement period, and periods of normal operation (also called "normal period"). However, the level of enhancement provided by the circuitry of has not been sufficient for more high power applications. In addition, in the circuit of U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,519 the enhancement current is provided by a coupling capacitor, which has a limited capability to pass low frequency components of the enhancement pulse.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved circuitry that allows efficient enhancement of the voltage supplied to a power amplifier during enhancement periods, while minimizing envelop distortion of the amplified RF signals.
It is another object of the present invention to provide improved circuitry for efficiently controlling the level of the voltage supplied to a power amplifier, via two supplementary supply paths that are connected to the feeding point, during both the enhancement period, and periods of normal operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide improved circuitry for efficiently controlling the impedance at that feeding point in the direction of the power amplifier and of the supplementary supply path, during both the enhancement period, and the normal period.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Transformer-capacitor enhancement circuitry for power amplifiers


A method and apparatus for delivering predetermined amounts of material, the apparatus comprising a chute; a metering wheel in cooperative relation to the chute to repetitively draw discrete amount of material onto the metering wheel; an arrangement for establishing a procession of spaced apart articles along a path, a transfer wheel for repetitively transferring discrete amount of material from said metering wheel to spaces defined between adjacent pairs of articles in the procession and a cleaning wheel for removing extraneous material from the articles.

Certain articles of manufacture such as charcoal cigarette filters, individual-sized packets of granular food products or condiments, capsuled pharmaceuticals, ammunition and the like require repetitive placement of precisely metered charges of particulate matter at some location along the production-line procession of the articles. Achieving sufficient speed in the mass production of such articles without sacrificing consistency, damaging the material and/or exacerbating spillage is challenging, particularly at elevated manufacturing speeds where ricochet and vibration may impair process control and consistency.
With machines of the prior art, process control usually suffers at high machine speeds from inconsistent metering and pulverization of the material, particularly in those prior machines where fast moving machine components are allowed to impinge stationary or relatively slow moving particulate material. For example, certain prior charcoal metering devices contain a supply of charcoal in a hopper and allow the rim of a rotating metering wheel to rotate through the relatively stationary collection of charcoal. Such an arrangement creates a pulverizing action upon the charcoal which generally increases with machine speed.
Excessive pulverization of the particulate material may alter the qualities of the final product unacceptably. Ricochet and escape of particulate matter during manufacturing operations with prior machines often create unacceptable deficiencies in the final product (such as smears or incomplete fillings) and precipitate undesirable machine "down-times" to effect clean-up of the machine and the surrounding work environment.
Accordingly an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus capable of precisely metering discrete amounts of particular material at high machine speeds.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which executes high speed delivery of metered amounts of particulate material without pulverization of the material even at high operational speeds.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for delivering particulate material, which minimizes shearing action upon the particulate material.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which minimizes shear upon the particulate material by maintaining low relative velocities between the particulate material and portions of the machine coming into contact with the particulate material.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which transfers particulate material with the assistance of vacuum so as to minimize scatter and promote consistency even at high machine speeds.
Yet another object of the present application is to provide a method and apparatus which applies vacuum to remove scattered material from sites intended to be free of material so as to enhance cleanliness of operation.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for high speed delivery of particulate material with minimal escape of the material.

Method and apparatus for high speed delivery of particulate material


The method of the invention for continuously producing 2,5-dihydrofuran includes subjecting cis-2-butene-1,4-diol to liquid-phase dehydration-cyclization reaction in the presence of alumina, characterized in that the sum of the concentration of carbonyl compounds present in the reaction system and the concentration of acetal compounds present in the reaction system is controlled to fall within a range of 0.1 to 2 mol/L, provided that the concentration of the acetal compounds is calculated in terms of acetal groups, the concentrations being determined on the basis of the total amount of the reaction mixture. According to the method, 2,5-dihydrofuran, which is useful as a raw material or intermediate for producing pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, raw materials of polymers, etc., can be continuously produced. The method can prevent inactivation of γ-alumina and is advantageous for long-term production on an industrial scale.

There have been known methods for producing cyclic ethers; for example, a method of producing 2,5-dihydrofuran through dehydration-cyclization of cis-2-butene-1,4-diol in the presence of a hydrogensulfate salt or in the presence of sulfuric acid and a base (see Patent Document 1); a method of producing 2,5-dihydrofuran including causing vaporized cis-2-butene-1,4-diol to pass through an alumina-catalyst-containing tube with helium and hydrogen (see Non-Patent Document 1); a method of continuously producing 2,5-dihydrofuran through feeding cis-2-butene-1,4-diol to a reactor in the presence of an aluminum oxide catalyst for subjecting the diol to dehydration-cyclization reaction at ambient pressure and 170 to 220° C. (see Patent Document 2); and a method of producing a cyclic ether including subjecting a saturated α,ω-diol to dehydration-cyclization reaction in the presence of an aluminum oxide which has received a specific treatment (see Patent Document 3).    Non-Patent Document 1:Industrial Eng. Chem. Product Res.& Dev., 1973, Vol. 12, No. 3, p. 184-189    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 1997-110850    Patent Document 2: German Patent No. 1,211,219    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 1981-73080

Method for continuously producing 2,5-dihydrofuran


A method for reducing out-of-band and spurious emissions of AM transmitters in digital operation includes providing an amplitude signal and an RF-P signal from a digital modulation signal. The RF-P signal is tapped in the RF branch and the tapped signal is passed through a Gaussian filter in a separate branch, the Gaussian filter having a linear phase. The filtered RF-P signal is fed to an envelope detector to detect amplitude variations. The detected amplitude variations are combined as a correction signal with the amplitude signal in a multiplier in the A branch to produce a corrected amplitude signal. The corrected amplitude signal is fed to the linear input of the transmitter output stage and multiplied by the RF-P signal.

The usual transmitter types are non-linear AM transmitters featuring a radio frequency (RF) branch and an amplitude (A) branch. For reasons of higher efficiency, the RF branch and the amplitude branch operate in switched mode. In the output stage of the transmitter, the RF signal and the amplitude signal are multiplied by each other, which is also carried out in switched mode for reasons of efficiency. The switched mode is controlled by the RF signal. In contrast, for the amplitude signal, the input of the multiplier is linear.
FIG. 2 illustrates a modulated digital signal generated by two partial signals (the in phase (I) signal and the quadrature (Q) signal, which are orthogonal to each other. The I signal is modulated onto a cosine oscillation having the frequency Ft (carrier frequency). The Q signal is modulated onto a sine oscillation having the same frequency Ft. The sum of both modulated oscillations produces the complex modulated data signal (cosine 0–180degrees, sine −90–+90degrees). The modulated I/Q signal is shaped by filters in such a manner that it has exactly the prescribed curve shape with the desired bandwidth.
For digital broadcasting, the modulated I/Q signal is converted in such a manner that the two signals, amplitude (A) signal and phase-modulated carrier signal (RF-P signal), result therefrom which are suitable for proper control of the AM transmitter. Then, at the output of the AM transmitter, the modulated I/Q signal is generated again with higher power.
To minimize out-of-band and spurious emissions, it is required for the A signal and the signal to be present in the transmitter output stage at the same time. As a result of this, the delay between the two signals has to be compensated for and the remaining difference must not be greater than 0.3 microseconds, given a channel bandwidth of 9–10 KHz, since the permissible delay difference is reciprocally proportional to the channel bandwidth.
Since both the A-signal and the RF-P signal have a considerably larger bandwidth than the I/Q signal, the increased bandwidth should be available within the transmitter, which, however, cannot be achieved to a sufficient degree due to technical and economic reasons. The insufficient bandwidths result in unwanted out-of-band and spurious emissions which have to be minimized.
From German patent document DE 10112025.7, it is known that the bandwidth of the A-signal and RF-P signal can be reduced if the vector diagram of the I/Q signal is provided with a hole around the 0/0 point. The larger the hole in the vector diagram of the I/Q signal, the lower are the gradients of the out-of-band and spurious emissions in the spectrum. This connection is given by the fact that, spectrally, the gradients of the out-of-band and spurious emissions due to the delay differences correspond to the gradient of the RF-P signal, and are able to be partially corrected by the hole in the vector diagram. The hole in the vector diagram cannot be made as large as desired, because otherwise the modification of the signal appears as a disturbance.
It is also known that the shoulder distance of the out-of-band and spurious emissions depends both on the magnitude of the delay difference and on the available bandwidth in the amplitude branch and also in the RF branch of the transmitter. It follows therefrom that the delay difference should go toward zero, and that the bandwidth in the branches should be as large as possible.
Therefore, it is desirable to implement as large a bandwidth as possible for both branches in order to further reduce the out-of-band and spurious emissions of the AM transmitter. For the amplitude branch, it is possible to achieve a linear phase response and, thus, a constant delay up to the frequency limit by equalization in terms of delay.
The phase-modulated RF-P signal, just as a frequency-modulated signal, has an infinite number of lateral spectral lines so that the bandwidth required for transmission would theoretically have to be infinitely large as well. Since the weighting of the spectral lines decreases rapidly, it can be achieved by using a suitable filter that only a minimum of distortions occurs because of the limited bandwidth. It is known that this condition is satisfied by a filter having a Gaussian transfer function.

Method for reducing out-of-band and spurious emissions of AM transmitters in digital operation