This invention discloses a clock generation circuit and a clock generation method for generating a clock. The clock generation circuit includes a reference clock generation circuit, which is installed in a chip for independently generating a reference clock; a temperature sensor for sensing an ambient temperature to generate temperature information; a temperature compensation module, coupled to the temperature sensor, for generating a temperature compensation coefficient according to the temperature information; and a clock adjusting circuit, coupled to the clock generation circuit, for generating the clock according to the reference clock and the temperature compensation coefficient. The temperature compensation module generates the temperature compensation coefficient dynamically such that the frequency of the clock approaches a target frequency and does not substantially vary with the temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clock generation circuit and the method thereof, especially to a clock generation circuit and the method thereof that utilize a reference clock inside a chip to generate an accurate clock.
2. Description of Related Art
Please refer to FIG. 1, illustrating a functional block diagram of a conventional image processing module. The image processing module comprises a circuit board 100. An image processing chip 110, which is mounted on the circuit board 100, comprises a clock adjusting circuit 112 and a micro controller 114. In addition to the image processing chip 110, the circuit board 100 further comprises a crystal oscillator 120, a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)/MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) port 130, a DVI (Digital Visual Interface)/DP (DisplayPort) port 140, a VGA (Video Graphics Array) port 150, an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) 160, a USB (universal serial bus) control chip 170, an LVDS (Low-voltage differential signaling) port 180, and an LED (light emitting diode) module port 190. The image processing chip 110 receives image data in digital or analog format through the HDMI/MHL port 130, the DVI/DP port 140, or the VGA port 150, performs format conversion or scaling on the image data, and then outputs the processed image data to a display panel through the LVDS port 180 and controls an LED backlight of the display panel through the LED module port 190. The image processing chip 110 also accesses the EEPROM 160 and communicates with external USB devices, such as flash memories, through the USB control chip 170.
In the above processes, the micro controller 114 of the image processing chip 110 has to refer to a stable working clock to perform the tasks. For example, after the image processing chip 110 receives image signal through the HDMI/MHL port 130, the DVI/DP port 140 or the VGA port 150, preliminary data will be obtained through processes in the front-end, such as data sampling and decoding, and then image data that are ready for display will be obtained by performing subsequent processes, such as image interpolation, color correction, contrast enhancement, on the preliminary data. Further, the image processing chip 110 stabilizes the image data by using a FIFO (first in first out) buffer when the image data is being outputted. Besides, if the image signal is an analog signal in VGA format, the micro controller 114 must further sample an Hsync (horizontal synchronization) signal and/or a Vsync (vertical synchronization) signal of the image signal to determine a mode of the image signal. Therefore, a reference clock is required for the image processing chip 110 to complete the above tasks. Conventionally, a crystal oscillator 120, which is not affected by a manufacturing process of the chip and an operating temperature, is installed on the circuit board 100 to provide a rather accurate reference clock. As shown in FIG. 1, the reference clock generated by the crystal oscillator 120 is inputted to the image processing chip 110; then the frequency and the phase of the reference clock are adjusted by the clock adjusting circuit 112 to form a working clock with a frequency required by the micro controller 114. In general, the clock adjusting circuit 112 can be implemented by an integer-N PLL (phase-locked loop) or a fractional-N PLL, depending on a ratio between the frequencies of the working clock and the reference clock.
However, the crystal oscillator 120 not only increases the area of the circuit board 100, but increases the winding length. The longer the winding length is, the easier the circuit board 100 and the components thereon are affected by electromagnetic interference. In addition, the crystal oscillator 120 also increase the overall cost of an image processing module. If the crystal oscillator 120 can be saved in each module, a great deal of cost can be saved when then quantity is huge. As a result, approaches of replacing the crystal oscillator outside the chip with a built-in reference clock generation circuit inside the chip are proposed. Please refer to FIG. 2, illustrating a functional block diagram of implementing a reference clock generation circuit inside a chip. The chip 200 in FIG. 2 comprises a reference clock generation circuit 210, a clock adjusting circuit 220, and a micro controller 230. Similar to the image processing chip 110, inside the chip 200 the phase and the frequency of the reference clock are adjusted by the clock adjusting circuit 220 to generate the working clock required by the micro controller 230; however, the chip 200 has the reference clock generation circuit 210 to provide the reference clock. In practical, the reference clock generation circuit 210 can be implemented by the LC tanks shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The LC tanks in FIGS. 3 and 4 comprise inductors 310 and 320, capacitors 330 and 340, and transistors 350 and 360, and the LC tank in FIG. 4 further comprises a transistor 370. The principles of the LC tank are well known to people having ordinary skill in the art. Unfortunately, the LC tanks are subject to frequency drift due to temperature variations. The LC tank experiences a rising temperature in its environment as the working time of the chip 200 increases, which causes the frequency of the reference clock to decrease. As a result, the frequency of the working clock decreases as well, which causes the system to encounter errors. For example, if the chip 200 is an image processing chip, the error may cause mistakes in output images or even result in blank images.

Clock generation circuit and method thereof


There is provided in back of the instrument panel the motion sensor that transmits the radio wave continuously or periodically and receive the radio wave reflected in the vehicle compartment. Also, there is provided the burglar horn that executes specified alarming when a specified change in the reflected radio wave received by the motion sensor occurs. Herein, the motion sensor transmits the radio wave toward the instrument panel. Thereby, the stable burglar alarm operation can be performed.

The present invention relates to a burglar alarm device for a vehicle, and in particular to the burglar alarm device that is suitable for a type of vehicle whose part of roof or entire roof are selectively opened and closed or detachable, or to a type of vehicle whose roof is fixed and whose part of roof or entire roof are made of a radio-wave transmittable material.
Conventionally, the burglar alarm device for a vehicle is known, which comprises the motion sensor (the sensor to detect an unauthorized person intruding into the vehicle compartment) to transmit ultrasonic waves or infrared rays continuously or periodically and receive such waves reflected in the vehicle compartment, and the warning means for executing alarming when a specified change in the reflected waves received by the motion sensor occurs in the alert state after the door lock or the like.
In the above-described burglar alarm device for a vehicle, it is also known that the motion sensor comprised of the ultrasonic-wave generator and the ultrasonic-wave receiver is provided at the center of the front header of the vehicle so as to detect the unauthorized person intruding into the vehicle compartment (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,385).
Meanwhile, recently the radio-wave type of motion sensor using the radio wave that a non-metal member transmits has been developed. Accordingly, the use of this type of motion sensor can improve the burglar alarm function, for example, by hiding the motion sensor in the front header of the vehicle that is covered with a trim of the non-metal member.
Herein, in the case where the radio-wave motion sensor is, for example, provided at the center of the front header of the so-called open car whose roof is selectively opened and closed, the radio wave that has been transmitted by the motion sensor in a rearward and downward direction of the vehicle and then reflects at metal members, such as a seat frame of a seat cushion or a floor panel, goes upward beyond a roof position of the vehicle when the roof is in the open state. Also, even when the roof of the open car is closed, if the roof is made of the non-metal member, i.e., the radio-wave transmittable material, the reflected radio wave may go upward passing through and beyond the closed roof of the vehicle. In this case, there is a concern that the motion sensor would mistakenly detect other objects, such as birds or person's hands existing above the roof, as the above-described authorized person intruding into the vehicle compartment. Namely, the above-described radio wave going upward beyond the roof of the vehicle would cause a detection error by the motion sensor. Accordingly, there may be a problem of deterioration of the detection of the motion sensor.
In the case where the motion sensor is provided inside the side door, meanwhile, there may be a problem that the motion sensor would receive damages from the impact of the door opening/closing or from the water intruding into the door.


Method for the preparation of a foamy or creamy instant drink, wherein at least two capsules are sequentially injected with cold water to produce an instant milk-based drink, the first capsule to be injected comprising milk powder, a creamer component and sugar, the second capsule comprising milk powder, a soluble main flavor component and sugar.

Many methods for preparation of a foamed hot drink from cartridges in a beverage dispenser are known.
In EP0272922, a package is used in a beverage dispenser to provide drinks. The package may contain any desired beverage ingredients, for example, roast and ground coffee, leaf tea, chocolate powder and, according to individual taste, powdered milk or creamer, sugar and/or an artificial sweetener. Alternatively, the package may contain liquid beverage ingredients for one preparation of hot or cold beverages, for example a syrup concentrate from the preparation of a carbonated cold beverage therefrom.
WO 02/087400 comprises providing a capsule with a foamable ingredient adapted for a. beverage production machine. A fluid is injected into the receptacle in a jet from a nozzle having a small diameter. This method requires, after dilution by injection of water in the capsule, a further step of injection of water in a jet into the receptacle to foam the beverage.
However, it does not exist a method for providing a truly cold coffee and/or cocoa-based beverage with an enhanced creamy head of foam.
It is thus the object of the present invention to provide a method which enables to produce a cold milk based drink with an improved creamy head of foam that resolves the disadvantages of the prior art.

Method for preparation of a creamy milk based beverage from a capsule and kit for such preparation


A foldable exerciser includes an operating member connected pivotally to atop end portion of a rear support member, a driving unit provided with two pedals and mounted on a front support member connected pivotally to the rear support member, a saddle-supporting member connected pivotally to the rear support member and disposed under and movable on a saddle-mounting member mounted with a saddle and connected pivotally to the rear support member, a coupling member interconnecting removably and disposed between the operating member and the saddle-supporting member, and a foldable positioning unit interconnecting the front and rear support members. When the coupling member is removed from the saddle-supporting member, the saddle-mounting member and the saddle-supporting member can be folded on the rear support member.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an exerciser, more particularly to a foldable exerciser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional stationary exercise bicycles and horse-riding exercisers are generally designed to have a non-retractable structure with a relatively large size. It is desirable to design a foldable exerciser with a combined function of the conventional stationary exercise bicycle and horse-riding exerciser.


A gearbox system includes a gearbox having integrated therein a pump system, a plurality of fluid passages and a clutch control system. The pump system is in fluid communication with the clutch control system via the fluid passages to flow at least one pressurized stream. A first pressurized stream controls a first pressure-responsive device included in the clutch control system. The gearbox system further includes a hydro-mechanical control unit (HMCU) in fluid communication with the gearbox to receive a second pressurized stream and to generate at least one actuator control stream. The actuator control stream controls an actuator integrated in the gearbox.

A gearbox for an aircraft primarily functions to transmit rotational power through fixed engagements. A common gearbox lube system lubricates and removes heat, where lube oil is typically sourced from an external pumping system and is distributed within the gearbox. However, sometimes multiple functionalities are required that can be difficult to incorporate together and then package into the gearbox. These functionalities can include gearbox lubrication and cooling, a clutch to engage and disengage the gearbox, control of a propeller blade pitch system, and electrical systems with control and sensing capabilities.
Where higher capability and system functionality are necessary, a higher level of complexity and integration effort is required. In addition, a gearbox for an aircraft typically needs to operate at multiple altitudes. These altitudes usually require various aircraft angles and sometimes zero to negative G operation, especially for military aircraft. A typical gearbox is commonly designed with these multiple altitudes in mind. However, implementing multiple systems in a gearbox has been traditionally been challenging.

Integrated gearbox lube and control system


This invention relates to an arrangement for driving a high-frequency oscillating tool arrangement (1) which includes, inter alia, a device (1a) whose form changes with a change in voltage, utilizing an electric drive circuit (2) constructed to generate alternating voltage which can be connected to the device and the frequency of which is adapted, through a first control circuit (7), to a value (C1, L1) which momentarily corresponds to the resonance frequency of the reactive element which varies during a working operation. The first control circuit (7) is constructed to control momentary frequency in dependence on momentary phase difference between the current and voltage values of the alternating voltage. A second control circuit (4) is intended to control an inductive element (12) included in an oscillation circuit having a capacitive element (C2) corresponding, inter alia, to the form-changing device, such that the inductive element (C2) will obtain a value (1a) which corresponds to resonance for the prevailing alternating voltage frequency.

Each tool arrangement of the aforesaid kind intended for driving a high-frequency oscillating machine tool comprising one or more crystals which change their form when subjected to a change in voltage and which are incorporated in a tool holder and which utilize an electric drive circuit constructed to produce an alternating voltage which can be applied to the crystal, is fitted with a tool tip.
As a result of its construction, the material from which it is made, and its size and shape, each such tool tip, has a resonance frequency at which the energy losses are low. However, when pressure is brought to bear on the tool tip as it performs work, the resonance frequency will change momentarily and consequently there have been proposed various control circuits or regulating circuits (first control circuits) which strive to cause the high frequency oscillation or the alternating voltage applied to the crystal to lie in a momentary resonance frequency. In principle, the resonance frequency is determined electrically by two parallel-connected electrical oscillation circuits, where a first resonance circuit can be considered to constitute a capacitance and an inductance value which is dependent on the extent to which the tool tip is loaded, and therewith varies in time, and where a second resonance circuit can be considered to comprise a substantially fixed capacitance belonging to or related to the crystal and a substantially fixed inductance incorporated in the drive circuit.
It is also known that a given change in resonance frequency will occur as a result of operating conditions and when the tool tip is loaded. This change is normally of such small magnitude that the aforesaid second resonance circuit, with said fixed inductance, will still function very effectively provided that the tool tip is suitably adapted to a selected resonance frequency and provided that the operating conditions are suitably selected within narrow limits.
It has also been proposed to use a frequency controllable supply voltage whose frequency can be adapted to momentary resonance frequencies, by using a first control circuit.
Previously known constructions of this kind enable frequency to be controlled or regulated within narrow limits, say +/-2 kHz, since one control circuit, constructed to detect and regulate towards a fixed minimum impedence, can readily slide over resonance criteria (100 at FIG. 6B) and when detecting and regulating towards a prevailing phase position, between the current and voltage values, there is no positive impedence phase around the series resonance (200 and 200' at FIG. 6B and 6C).
It has been found, however, that when such a drive circuit construction is used at very high loads and/or at prevailing idling frequencies which lie adjacent the resonance frequency and at moderate load, there is risk that the resonance frequency will be changed to such an extent as to inactivate the drive circuit.
It is also known that the exchange of one tool tip for another will normally change the impedence value of the tool arrangement, such as resistance value, capacitance value and/or inductance value included in the first oscillation circuit, to such an extent that the resonance oscillation frequency will lie in the marginal range of said function or completely outside said range, resulting in a functional deficiency. By this is meant that the minimum impedence frequency is separate from the series resonance frequency, which makes it difficult to follow the changes in the series resonance frequency.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to regulate the frequency of the supply voltage with the aid of prior known techniques, such that said frequency will comply with a resonance frequency applicable to the changed resonance frequencies of the two parallel-connected oscillation circuits.
It is known that a drive circuit of the aforesaid kind, functioning to drive a tool arrangement which oscillates at resonance frequency, incorporating a fixed inductance, will permit a frequency change of about +/- 2 kHz around the resonance frequency before the requisite coaction between drive circuit and tool ceases to take place.
None of the earlier known constructions of this kind incorporate means for switching between a high-power-state, for operating the tool tip, and a low-power-state, for "stand-by" function or preparatory function.

Device for feeding a high frequency oscillating tool

by Elisabeth von Malmborg-Kjellander, legal representative


A test point on a printed circuit board includes at least one connection to the power plane having first and second interconnected pads disposed on opposing sides of the power plane, and at least one connection to the ground plane having third and fourth interconnected pads disposed on opposing sides of the ground plane. The first and second interconnected pads provide parallel paths to the power plane, thereby reducing the impedance presented to test equipment. Similarly, The third and fourth interconnected pads provide parallel paths to the ground plane. The test point may be implemented with multiple ground plane connections disposed symmetrically around a power plane connection. For example, first and second ground plane connections may be disposed on opposing sides of a power plane connection to provide shielding to the power plane connection, thereby reducing the inductive loop associated with probe parasitics.

There is a general trend in the field of electronics to produce devices with greater capability and reduced size. Greater performance capability is often associated with increases in processing power and clock frequencies. Electronic components are now capable of signal edge rates which exceed the capability of printed circuit boards. For example, increases in power plane impedance at particular frequencies may result in voltage drops which adversely effect voltage to the power supply of an integrated circuit chip. This problem is exacerbated by the reduction of the physical size of components and printed circuit boards which causes significant power consumption at discrete points of the power plane. It is common practice to test a printed circuit board design during development in order to identify limitations at the switching frequencies of integrated circuit chips in relation to their position on the printed circuit board and the impedance characteristics of the power plane. However, the levels of impedance capable of causing problems can now be so small that a standard 50Ω test probe is inadequate for testing purposes.


A system and method for automatically locating, identifying, and collecting electronic evidence data stored in a number of computers. In one embodiment, a method of the present invention collects electronic evidence data from a plurality of computers and stores the collected data on a server. The method first provides an agent software application to the plurality of computers. The agent software application is configured and arranged with predefined criteria that allows the agent software application to identify data that is characteristic of electronic evidence. The agent software application is also configured and arranged to transmit the identified data to the server. In response to receiving the identified data, the server stores the identified data on a memory device of the server.

Since computers have become a common part of most office environments, the collection of electronic data stored on computer systems has become a primary focus in litigation, regulatory and/or law enforcement evidence discovery. As litigants and regulatory agencies have increased their focus of evidence discovery on data stored in computer systems, the amount of resources applied to electronic evidence data collection has exponentially increased. Accordingly, the discovery process of identifying, locating, collecting and reviewing voluminous amounts of potentially relevant data in both client and opposing party systems has become an increasingly difficult task.
Currently known methods of electronic evidence data discovery involve a process where one or more individuals manually collect electronic evidence data directly from the computing devices storing the data. The known methods are difficult because the operators collecting the evidence data (the data collectors) typically have to be physically located at a computing device or a computer network having a central server storing the electronic evidence data. While such existing practices are generally effective in collecting small quantities of electronic evidence data from a small-scale computer system, there are several disadvantages. In particular, the manual process of collecting evidence data from a large number of computing devices in a sizeable company requires a vast amount of resources that often results in an inefficient, time consuming process. More specifically, the manual process requires the data collectors to commute to the location of the computing devices and transport supporting equipment necessary to facilitate the evidence data collection. In addition, the manual process of data collection creates other resource problems as the data collectors typically disrupt the users of the computing devices during the data collection process.
The above-described difficulties are exasperated by the fact that the manual process of electronic evidence data collection also requires a large assortment of computer equipment to facilitate the data collection. In large computer network systems, there may be a many different types of computing devices that require different types of data retrieval equipment, such as specific types of parallel-port tape drives, floptical drives, etc. Having this need for a wide variety of data capture equipment creates the possibility of hardware compatibility issues, and in some situations, the hardware compatibility issues may prevent one from collecting data from some computing devices. In addition, manual data collectors, being human, may overlook or misidentify potentially relevant data and/or may apply differing data identification and/or data capture standards, thereby resulting in an inconsistent and/or incomplete set of potentially relevant data.
In addition to the resource and efficiency issues described above, the known methods of electronic evidence data collection present many other logistical and security issues. For instance, data collectors also have the difficult task of managing computer network login information to access the various computers storing the electronic evidence data. This task often creates many barriers for the data collectors as login and password information is often changed or miscommunicated. In addition, the communication of such security information such as a user's login and password often compromises the security of the computer system storing the electronic evidence data.
Accordingly, from the foregoing, there is a need for a system and method for automatically locating, identifying, and collecting relevant electronic evidence data stored in a plurality of remote computers. In addition, there is a need for a method and system for providing an electronic evidence data collection system that does not disrupt a user of the computing device storing the electronic evidence data.

System and method for collecting electronic evidence data


An animal enclosure includes a kennel body and a door assembly. The door assembly includes a door frame and a door pivotally attached to the door frame. The door frame is secured to the kennel body at an opening. The door is moveable between an open and a closed position. The door includes a first latch having a first latch bolt engaging the door frame at a first latch location. The door also includes a second latch having a second latch bolt engaging the door frame at a second latch location. The door also includes a third latch having a third latch bolt engaging the door frame at a third latch location. In some embodiments, the first latch bolt extends horizontally toward the door frame, and the second and third latch bolts extend substantially vertically from the door toward the door frame in opposite directions.

The present invention relates generally to structures for housing animals and more particularly to portable pet kennels and pet crates. In some embodiments, the present invention relates to portable pet crates for housing or transporting dogs.
Various types of structural enclosures for storing and transporting animals are known in the art. Conventional portable animal crates such as those used for housing and transporting dogs typically include a plastic or metal wire construction and include an interior enclosure with a selectively openable door. Conventional portable animal crates generally include a single-layer construction such as a single layer of plastic, metal or wire mesh. The single-layer material forms the structural support and also defines the enclosure space within the interior of the crate. Conventional single-layer animal crates of this type are generally sized to easily fit in the bed of a truck or the cargo area of a sport-utility vehicle, and such crates are often used by sportsmen, disabled persons, rescue, military and/or law enforcement personnel for storing and transporting dogs. Such conventional portable animal crates provide a benefit of being relatively lightweight and portable such that a single person can lift and move the crate. Additionally, these types of conventional animal crates are generally sized to accommodate only the animal or animals to be housed within, thereby enhancing the portable nature of the product.
One problem with conventional animal crates is the door. Traditional doors for portable animal crates often include a spring-loaded latch that includes one or more posts that extend through a corresponding hole in the crate. Conventional doors for animal crates are also hinged between opposing posts on the opposite side of the door from the latch directly to the crate wall. Such conventional animal crate doors are often difficult to open and close, are susceptible to breakage during use, and are insufficient to retain an animal in the crate during an accident or during transport.
What is needed, then, are improvements to animal enclosures and specifically door assemblies for animal enclosures to address these and other problems.


A system for providing autonomous discovery of field or navigation constraints is disclosed. The system may parse text extracted from an output of an application and text extracted from documents internal to the system, external to the system, or a combination thereof. The parsed text may be correlated by the system with a field of the application, an order of operations to be conducted within the application, a functional transition of the application, or a combination thereof. Based on the correlation, the system may generate a constraint for the field of the application, the order of operations to be conducted within the application, the functional transition of the application, or a combination thereof. The system may conduct hypothesis testing on the constraint to increase a confidence value of the constraint. Moreover, the system may validate the constraint with the application being evaluated by the system.

In today's technologically-driven society, users and businesses are increasingly relying on software application and computing systems for facilitating and providing various types of services. As the reliance and dependence on software applications and computing systems has increased, so has the need to provide rapid and accurate updates to software applications and computing systems that are tailored to users' and businesses' ever evolving needs. In order to ensure that rapid and accurate updates to software applications and computing systems are provided, efficient and effective testing of such software applications and computing systems should be performed to ensure that users and businesses experience minimal errors, minimal inaccuracies, and/or optimized functionality when interacting with such software applications and computing systems. To that end, in order to test, exercise, and/or navigate through a software application, it is often desirable to understand existing or desired constraints on fields of the software application, the order of operations to be conducted within the software application, and/or functional transitions between various states of the software application.
Constraints may be restrictions on the valid values which may be entered into a particular field. Typically, all constraints in some group may need to be satisfied to allow for some behavior, such as navigating to a next screen in a software application. Constraints may be derived or specified manually, or may be input via a template requirements entry process, such as an entry process facilitated by a computing system. The computing system may be capable of generating a model of the software application, including constraints, if given a highly detailed and complete set of computer system requirements developed using a rigid grammar. Unfortunately, such computing systems do not significantly eliminate the additional manual labor involved in generating the desired model. Instead, such systems shift the manual effort from that of model development to one of detailed requirements development. While such systems may automatically generate tests from the manually developed model, the models must continually be updated and changed to reflect a rapidly evolving software solution. Such continual maintenance efforts are not cost effective, and consequently, tests generated through such manually specified processes are considered brittle, i.e. the tests cannot accommodate minor changes to the software or system under evaluation and break easily. In certain scenarios, constraints may be generated naively by utilizing brute force algorithms that try many different values. For example, when performing boundary detection, one could input successive strategic values to identify the boundary. In certain scenarios, constraints may involve one or more parameters from one or more web pages, and may be written in relational logic, temporal logic, mathematical formulas, or many other types of grammars or languages.
While testing systems currently exist for semi-autonomously testing software applications and computing systems, such systems cannot effectively associate available textual information from sources, from which constraints may be determined or inferred, with the input field and/or navigation tasks that the constraints may restrict. Additionally, even when such associations are available, currently existing testing systems fail to intelligently process the textual information from various sources to extract constraints for input values, order of operations, and/or functional transitions for a software application being evaluated. As a result, currently existing testing systems attempt to discover constraints or appropriate values for such constraints through inefficient trial and error, through the parsing of models constructed using extensive manual input and labor, by examining the underlying software of the software application in detail, and/or through manual training of various aspects of the software application and/or computing systems supporting the software application. As an example, a software application may have an input field named "Price", which may have Minimum and Maximum subfields, currently existing testing systems are incapable of intuitively determining that the field is a dollar-denominated field. Such existing testing systems typically rely on trial and error to determine the correct data type and the constraints for the subfields. As another example, if an error message is outputted by a software application being tested, currently existing systems are unable to read and process the error message and to relate the error message to the constraints for the fields of the software application. As a further example, a document may exist that describes the field of the software application, however, currently existing systems are unable to associate the information in the document with the field and/or determine constraints from the documentation. Notably, if the software application has many fields and parameters, or even a few sufficiently complex parameters, it may be virtually impossible to satisfy all the constraints to allow for successful navigation through the software application using currently existing trial and error techniques because of combinatorial effects.
Based on the foregoing, for existing systems, substantial manual effort may be required to understand a software application and to build a model with states, transitions, and/or constraints. For large systems, such a manual effort is likely intractable, and, thus, businesses will continue with navigating, exercising, and testing of software applications by using solutions that are dependent on accessing software application source code, detailed software application models, and/or solutions requirement human written software scripts and/or tests. Furthermore, as the model is constructed using manual techniques, which are themselves prone to error, significant additional manual validation and verification must be performed on the manually generated model before it can be used for effectively evaluating a target application. Moreover, for such systems, businesses may rely on human directed training (i.e. recording steps taken by a human operator), or the direct human exercise of the software application being evaluated.
As a result, current testing technologies and processes may be modified and improved so as to provide enhanced functionality and features. Such enhancements and improvements may effectively decrease the effort required to determine constraints, while simultaneously improving the accuracy of the testing system. Additionally, such enhancements and improvements may provide for optimized constraint determination, increased application navigation capabilities, increased testing capabilities, increased learning capabilities, increased autonomy, improved interactions with users or devices, improved user satisfaction, increased efficiencies, increased access to meaningful data, substantially-improved decision-making abilities, and increased ease-of-use. Furthermore, such enhancements and improvements may reduce processor, memory, and network bandwidth usage. Moreover, such enhancements and improvements may increase a testing system's ability to test software applications more efficiently and effectively.

System for providing autonomous discovery of field or navigation constraints


A method and apparatus for preventing false alarm activation is provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, a determination (410) is made as to whether an instruction from a controller is a commanded reset, and control of a Subscriber Line Interface Circuit is taken (416) from a voice processor circuit when the instruction is a commanded reset.

Some current alarm systems monitor the Tip and Ring signals of a phone circuit in order to detect if the phone line to a home or commercial building has been disconnected. Typically, a 48VDC voltage level between the Tip and Ring lines is monitored by the alarm system. When, however, this voltage is removed, the alarm system will activate. In legacy telephone systems, this voltage is provided by a Central Office. In many new systems, though, an Optical Network Terminal ("ONT") and/or a Multimedia Terminal Adapter ("MTA") that provides this voltage are generally mounted locally, such as on the side of a home or in the home itself. Unfortunately, whenever a reset is required during an upgrade for such a system, an alarm is falsely activated since the power to the Subscriber Line Interface Circuit is interrupted.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.

Prevention of an alarm activation and supporting methods and apparatus


A holder for digital products includes a first arm, a second arm, a screw rod, and a fixing assembly. Therein, the first arm has a first gripping end and a connecting end. The second arm is pivotally connected to the first arm and has a second gripping end. The screw rod is rotatably disposed between the second arm and the connecting end for enabling the first gripping end and the second gripping end to cooperatively grip on an object. The fixing assembly is disposed on the second arm for combining a digital product, whereby the digital product can be held on an appropriate position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to holders, and more particularly, to a holder for digital products to be combined thereon for stably holding at appropriate positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advancement of technology, 3C digital products are designed with slim, short, and small structures for meeting user's expectations and demands. Popular digital products are rich in variety, including digital cameras, smart phones, and tablet computers.
Digital cameras, with different functions, can generally be categorized into digital single lens reflex cameras, digital SLR-like cameras, digital electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens cameras, and general digital cameras. There are differences among not only their functions, but also their volumes and applicable assemblies. For photographing ideal pictures of scenes, character, photographers themselves, or groups of people, tripods are often used for positioning digital cameras and preventing the cameras from shaking or swaying during pictures shooting. However, traditional tripods have comparatively large volume, thus inconvenient for storage or being carried. Also, tripods can only stand on floors or planes without any fixing means, thereby easily toppled by external force, thus failing to meet user's demands for photographing.


An occupant restraining device (S1) is provided with: a shielding member (41) to be let off from the peripheral edge (DW/VW) of a vehicle window (WF) arranged in a door of a vehicle, so as to shield the window; and a let-off means (81, 86, 87) for letting off the housed shielding member (41) so as to shield the window (WF). The shielding member (41) and the let-off means (81, 86, 87) are arranged in the door (FD). A garnish (21) is arranged on the peripheral edge of the door (FD) for covering the housed shielding member (41) so that the shielding member (41) is let off. An airbag device (ABM) can be arranged in the vehicle without any problem even if the occupant restraining device (S1) is mounted together with the airbag device (ABM) on the vehicle.

In an occupant restraining device of the prior art, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 310098/1993, when a rollover (or a lateral turning) of a vehicle is predicted, the rollover of the vehicle is detected by a rollover sensor so that a belt- or sheet-shaped shielding member housed in the peripheral edge of a window on the inner side is let off the window peripheral edge to shield the window.
The shielding member of the prior art is housed on the body side of the vehicle. However, an airbag device for expanding and inflating an airbag between an occupant and the inner wall of the vehicle when an impact acts on the side face of the vehicle (as referred to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 26063/1996) is also likely to be arranged in the peripheral edge of the window. In this case, it is difficult to retain the space for arranging the airbag.


A method is provided for sharing and/or transporting data within a single node of a multi-node data processing. The method avoids the necessity of making more than one copy of the data to be shared or transported. The method is tunable based on the size of the data segment involved. A shared memory area between tasks running in different address spaces on the node is used to coordinate the process and for task to task communication. The increase in efficiency provided by the intranodal process described herein also provides advantages to the internodal communication process since more CPU cycles are available for that aspect of system operation.

The present invention is generally directed to memory sharing in distributed data processing systems including a plurality of processing nodes. More particularly the present invention is directed to the improvement of intra-nodal communications in a manner which avoids unnecessary data copying and which also provides address space extension, when and where needed, in a manner which is transparent to users in both 32 bit environments (where there are typically a very small number of segments available to users) and in 64 bit environments.
For parallel applications executing on a distributed memory machine like the RS/6000 SP (IBM pSeries machines), tasks running as part of a parallel or distributed application communicate using some form of reliable message transport such as the publicly defined Message Passing Interface (MPI) or the Low Level Application Programming Interface (LAPI). The tasks of an application can be distributed across various nodes (where a node is defined as a single operating system image) of the system. However, in certain cases some or all of the tasks may reside on the same node. The placement of the tasks of a parallel application is usually abstracted from (that is, specified through) the application communication transport interface (for e.g. on the IBM SP systems this is accomplished via the LL (Loadleveler) and POE (Parallel Operating Environment) products). The underlying reliable message transport (like LAPI or MPI) detects whether or not the task to which communication is requested is running on the same node, in which case it switches to an internal, shared memory transport modality called intra-node communications. In the case of LAPI, the original task (or the task initiating the communication operation) and the target task (the task which is the target of a communication issued by the origin task) are either on the same node or on a different node; in the latter case, messages are sent across the network. This is referred to as inter-node communication. This mechanism improves overall system performance in two fundamental ways: (1) it increases inter-node communication performance since network congestion related to intra-node communications is reduced; and (2) it increases intra-node communication performance by avoiding having to stage data through the network and it takes advantage of operating system hooks to avoid having to stage data incurring extra copies of the data. The present invention provides a mechanism for improving intra-node communications, particularly as implemented in the LAPI (but not limited to LAPI) environment (an efficient one-sided programming model) within the intra-node environment (which is a shared memory environment) The basic concepts of LAPI for inter-node communication are described more particularly in U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,604 and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,335.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Memory sharing in a distributed data processing system using modified address space to create extended address space for copying data

International Business Machines Corporation


Methods and apparatus are provided for identifying the presence of leaks in a fluorescent bulb or other lamp suitable for use as a backlight in an avionics or other liquid crystal display (LCD). The lamp is first placed in a bath of helium or another vaporous substance having relatively small molecular size. The vaporous material is allowed to permeate through any leaks that may exist in the lamp and to thereby intermix with the light-producing vaporous material contained within the channel of the lamp. The lamp is removed from the bath and subsequently operated (e.g. at a low intensity), and the output electrical or optical characteristics of the lamp under test are obtained. If the output characteristics of the lamp under test substantially correspond to characteristics obtained from a lamp that is known to be in proper working order, then the absence of leaks in the lamp under test can be presumed.

A fluorescent lamp is any light source in which a fluorescent material transforms ultraviolet or other shorter wavelength energy into visible light. Typically, a fluorescent lamp includes a glass tube that is filled with argon or other inert gas, along with mercury vapor or the like. When an electrical current is provided to the contents of the tube, the resulting arc causes the mercury gas within the tube to emit ultraviolet radiation, which in turn excites phosphors coating the inside lamp wall to produce visible light. Fluorescent lamps have provided lighting for numerous home, business and industrial settings for many years.
More recently, fluorescent lamps have been used as backlights in liquid crystal displays such as those used in computer displays, cockpit avionics, and the like. Such displays typically include any number of pixels arrayed in front of a relatively flat fluorescent light source. By controlling the light passing from the backlight through each pixel, color or monochrome images can be produced in a manner that is relatively efficient in terms of physical space and electrical power consumption. Despite the widespread adoption of displays and other products that incorporate fluorescent light sources, however, designers continually aspire to improve the amount of light produced by the light source, to extend the life of the light source, and/or to otherwise enhance the performance of the light source, as well as the overall performance of the display.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a fluorescent lamp and associated methods of building and/or operating the lamp that improve the performance and lifespan of the lamp. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

Methods and apparatus for detecting leaks in fluorescent lamps


An oscillator comprising a cascode configured device having first, second and third terminals, a plurality of resonators and first circuitry coupled between the plurality of resonators and the second terminal of the cascode configured device. The first circuitry is preferably operable as an evanescent mode buffer to compensate for changes in the capacitance of the oscillator during operation.

A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) or oscillator is a component that can be used to translate DC voltage into a radio frequency (RF) voltage or signal. The magnitude of the output signal is dependent on the design of the VCO circuit and the frequency of operation is determined, in part, by a resonator that provides an input signal. In general, VCOs are designed to produce an oscillating signal at a particular frequency 'f' that corresponds to a given tuning voltage. In particular, the frequency of the oscillating signal is dependent upon the magnitude of a tuning voltage Vtune applied to a tuning diode network across a resonator circuit. The frequency 'f' may be varied from fmin to fmax and these limits are referred as the tuning range or bandwidth of the VCO. The tuning sensitivity of the VCO is defined as the change in frequency over the tuning voltage and it is desirable to tune the VCO over a wide frequency range within a small tuning voltage range.
Clock generation and clock recovery circuits typically use VCOs within a phase locked loop (PLL) to either generate a clock from an external reference or from an incoming data stream. VCOs affect the performance of PLLs. In addition, PLLs are typically considered essential components in communication networking as the generated clock signal is typically used to either transmit or recover the underlying service information so that the information can be used for its intended purpose. PLLs are also important in wireless networks as they enable the communications equipment to quickly lock onto the carrier frequency on which communications are transmitted.
The popularity of mobile telephones has renewed interest in and generated more attention in wireless architectures. This popularity has further spawned renewed interest in the design of low noise wideband oscillators. In that regard, most mobile communication systems include a tunable VCO as a component in a frequency synthesizer, which selectively provides a choice of the desired channel. The recent explosive growth in the new families of cellular telephones and base stations using universal mobile telephone systems (UMTS) has stirred a need for developing an ultra-low noise oscillator with a fairly wide tuning range. The demands of wideband sources have generally increased telescopically because of the explosive growth of wireless communications. In particular, modern communication systems are typically multi-band and multi-mode, therefore requiring a wideband low noise source that preferably allows simultaneous access to DCS 1800, PCS 1900 and WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) networks. The commercial handsets employed by these and other next generation networks are typically required to be capable of handling not only voice data, but also image and video data. Therefore, the radio link typically has to deal with signals that are more digitally complex.
The dynamic operating range and noise performance of a VCO may limit or affect the performance of the PLL itself, which in turn may affect the performance of the device in which the PLL is employed, e.g., RF transceivers, a cell phone, a modem card, etc. Broadband tunability of VCOs represents one of the more fundamental tradeoffs in the design of a VCO, impacting both the technology and the topology used. The dynamic time average quality factor (i.e., Q-factor) of the resonator as well as the tuning diode noise contribution affect the noise performance of a VCO. Furthermore, the dynamic loaded Q is, in general, inversely proportional to the operating frequency range of the VCO.
Despite the continuous improvement in VCO technology, low phase noise typically remains a bottleneck and poses a challenge to RF transceiver (transmitter—receivers) design. In addition, oscillator/VCO design typically poses a challenge to the RF trans-receiver system. This is typically considered due to the more demanding parameters of the VCO design: low phase noise, low power consumption and wide frequency tuning range. For example, in a receiver, the phase noise of the local oscillator limits the ability to detect a weak signal in the presence of a strong signal in an adjacent channel. In a transmitter, phase noise results in energy being transmitted outside the desired channel or band.
Improvements in oscillator/VCO technology have continued with time, yielding ever-smaller sources with enhanced phase noise and tuning linearity but the phenomena of the thermal drift over the temperature range (−40° C. to +85° C.) has not been properly addressed. The wide operating temperature range of the oscillator/VCOs coupled with a general lack of information on the thermal drift-profile creates a need for the development of a uniform and user-definable thermal drift profile oscillator with a relatively low thermal drift over the wide operating temperature range and operating frequency band.
Usually, high-stability oscillators are built with a quartz crystal up to frequencies of several hundred megahertz. However, in order to achieve better overall performance, the SAW (surface acoustic wave) resonator based oscillator is generally considered a better choice for an ultra low phase noise low thermal drift oscillator. In that regard, SAW resonator based oscillators are widely used in wireless applications, since that technology generally features relatively low phase noise at fixed frequencies, low microphone noise (tolerance to vibration), high Q and low jitter.
On the other hand, SAW resonators are typically used in oscillators as a two-port resonator and have a relatively small pull-in range that usually does not support a wide enough tuning range to compensate for tolerances due to the circuit components. This typically limits the amount of correction that can be made to compensate for the tolerances of the circuit components and thermal drift over the operating temperature range (−40° C. to +85° C.). In addition, SAW devices are comparatively expensive compared to CROs (ceramic resonator based oscillator) and their availability and performance are limited to a select frequency and a relatively narrow operating temperature range (−20° C. to +70° C.). This generally makes them unsuitable for operating in stringent temperature environments and/or low cost applications.
Thus, there is a need for a low noise, low thermal drift oscillator that is operable over a wide temperature range and which offers a cost-effective solution to the demand for a low noise tunable oscillator.

Low thermal drift, tunable frequency voltage controlled oscillator


A natural-language processing system includes a registration-candidate storage section that stores therein registration-candidate dictionary data, a judgment means that compares input data against the registration-candidate dictionary data to thereby judge whether or not the input data includes a word corresponding to the registration-candidate dictionary data, an inquiry means that inquires to a user whether or not corresponding dictionary data is to be registered in a dictionary storage section to accept a user's instruction if it is judged that a corresponding word exists, a dictionary registration means that registers the corresponding dictionary data in the dictionary storage section based on the input instruction, and a natural-language processing means that executes a natural-language processing onto the input data by using the dictionary data registered in the dictionary storage section.

Natural-language processing systems, such as kana-kanji conversion, machine translation, speech recognition and voice synthesis systems, operate a processing fundamentally based on the words stored in a dictionary and the linguistic information provided therein. Thus, it is difficult to appropriately process a word not stored in the dictionary, i.e., an unknown word. On the other hand, since the natural language changes day by day, there occur a new word and a new usage even in a known word, whereby it is generally difficult to store in advance all these words in the dictionary. Thus, this problem has been coped with heretofore by providing a user dictionary function by which each user can individually register a word needed by the each user.
Registration operation for a dictionary is a work that burdens a lot on the user. For this reason, methods of sharing the dictionary data which each user registered among the users have been proposed for the purpose of cost saving for the dictionary registration.
For example, Non-Patent Document-1 describes a method of releasing to the public on a dedicated Web page an updated dictionary or user dictionaries that the individual users prepared, thereby allowing the individual users to utilize the same. However, there is a problem in this technique that the individual users cannot directly know whether or not the dictionary that is useful to the users is released to open unless the users monitor the homepage at any time.
Patent Publication-1 describes a technique wherein individual users inspect in a cross-sectional manner the dictionary data registered by other users, to extract dictionary data that are registered in common in the user dictionaries of a plurality of users, and to reflect the extracted dictionary data, as the dictionary data to be shared, in the user dictionaries of all the users.
Patent Publication-2 describes a technique of providing a mechanism for managing individual user dictionaries in association with a specific technical terminology dictionary, wherein individual users inspect in a cross-sectional manner the dictionary data registered in the individual user dictionaries by the users, to extract the dictionary data registered in a plurality of user dictionaries in association with the same technical terminology dictionary, and to reflect the dictionary data in the technical terminology dictionary as the dictionary data to be shared, thereby allowing the dictionary data to be shared among a plurality of users.
In the above techniques, if the dictionary data that is automatically extracted is registered in the dictionary, it may rather incur degradation of the accuracy in the natural-language processing for a specific user. This is because, even if the extracted data may be useful to a majority of users, the extracted data is not always useful to another user. This is also because registration of the dictionary data including needless words increases the probability of leading the natural-language processing to a misjudging. Thus, Patent Publication-2 and Patent Publication-3 describe techniques of immediately informing to individual users that new dictionary data is registered in a common dictionary and inquiring whether or not the users use the dictionary data. These techniques are intended to prevent mixing of inappropriate data into the individual user dictionaries, by immediately informing the users that the new dictionary data is available and allowing the user to finally judge whether or not the dictionary data is to be used.
Non-Patent Document-1: NEC Corp., "TRANSLATION ADAPTER-II CROSSROAD Ver. 3 HANDBOOK", 1999, P. 134-135
Patent Publication-1: JP-3464881B
Patent Publication-2: JP-2003-157257A
The first problem in the conventional techniques is that it is difficult for the individual users to judge the dictionary data to be useful or needless. This is because the users cannot judge whether or not the dictionary data of a word that the users do not use at that present may be useful in the future including the possibility.
The second problem is that, although the conventional techniques notify the user of the dictionary data as needed and inquire whether or not the dictionary data is to be registered, this fact itself hampers the user's action. This is because the notification and inquiry in the conventional techniques is performed without consideration of the schedule of the users that receive the notification and inquiry.

Natural-language processing system and dictionary registration system


A method comprises determining in a first network element how much of a received uplink transmission is to be transmitted to a second network element, said first and second network elements both receiving said uplink transmission; and causing at least part of said received uplink transmission to be transmitted to said second network element.

This section is intended to provide a background or context to some embodiments. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. Enhancements to mobile communication system are currently being investigated to improve the experience of mobile users who use those systems. In particular, the investigation has focused on enhancing the enjoyment by providing consistent performance and quality when mobile users access and share videos, photos and other high-bandwidth services, whether they are close to the center of an long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) cell or at its outer edges. Currently, the emphasis has been placed on enhancing downlink (DL) transmissions while ignoring enhancements to uplink (UL) reception in such edge transmission/reception improving solutions. Moreover, solutions to date involving coordination among UL reception points have required an additional backhaul infrastructure needed to transfer data among the different reception points and which may require significant bandwidth.
The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the Figures are defined as follows:
3GPP third generation partnership project
AFC Automatic frequency control
BS base station
BW bandwidth
CM cubic metric
CoMP coordinated multi-point
CQI channel quality indication
CP Cyclic Prefix
CRS common reference signal
CS cyclic shift
CSI channel state information
DCI downlink control information
DL downlink (eNB towards UE)
DMRS demodulation reference signal
eNB E-UTRAN Node B (evolved Node B)
EPC evolved packet core
E-UTRAN evolved UTRAN (LTE)
FDMA frequency division multiple access
FFT Fast Fourier Transformation
HSPA high speed packet access
IFDM interleaved frequency-division multiplexing
IMT-A international mobile telephony-advanced
ITU international telecommunication union
ITU-R ITU radio communication sector
LLR Log-Likelihood Ratio
LTE long term evolution of UTRAN (E-UTRAN)
LTE-A LTE advanced
MAC medium access control (layer 2, L2)
MIMO multiple input multiple output
MM/MME mobility management/mobility management entity
MU-MIMO multi-user multiple input multiple output
Node B base station
OCC orthogonal cover code
OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access
O&M operations and maintenance
PDCCH packet downlink control channel
PDCP packet data convergence protocol
PHY physical (layer 1, L1)
PMI precoding matrix indication
PRB physical resource block
PUCCH physical uplink control channel
PUSCH physical uplink shared channel
RAN1 technical specification group radio access network working group 1
Rel release
RLC radio link control
RRC radio resource control
RRH remote radio head
RRM radio resource management
S-GW serving gateway
SC-FDMA single carrier, frequency division multiple access
TPMI transmit precoding matrix index
UE user equipment, such as a mobile station, mobile node or mobile terminal
UL uplink (UE towards eNB)
UTRAN universal terrestrial radio access network

Method and apparatus for receiving uplink signals


Movable section of a cut and clinch unit includes exchange section in which is formed second insertion hole for cutting and bending a lead, and main body section to which exchange section is removably attached. An opening position of the second insertion hole is calculated as an attachment position of the exchange section on the main body section based on image data. It is determined whether a difference between the calculated opening position and a standard position of the second insertion hole that is set in advance exceeds a threshold value. If the difference between the calculated opening position and the standard position exceeds the threshold value, calibration is performed based on the assumption that the exchange section has been exchanged.

There are substrate working machines that mount a leaded component onto a board by inserting a lead of a leaded component into a through-hole formed in a board and using a specified member to bend the lead. An example of this type of substrate working machine is disclosed in the patent literature below.    Patent literature 1: JP-A-H1-109000


The present invention describes a system and method for general parameter estimation using adaptive processing that provides a performance that significantly exceeds existing reduced-rank schemes using reduced computational resources with greater flexibility. The adaptive processing is accomplished by calculating a reduced-rank approximation of an observation data vector using an adaptive decimation and interpolation scheme. The new scheme employs a time-varying interpolator finite impulse response (FIR) filter at the front-end followed by a decimation structure that processes the data according to the decimation pattern that minimizes the squared norm of the error signal and by a reduced-rank FIR filter. According to the present invention, the number of elements for estimation is substantially reduced, resulting in considerable computational savings and very fast convergence performance for tracking dynamic signals. The current invention is aimed at communications and signal processing applications such as equalization, interference suppression of CDMA systems, echo cancellation and beamforming with antenna arrays. Amongst other promising areas for the deployment of the present technique, we also envisage biomedical engineering, control systems, radar and sonar, seismology, remote sensing and instrumentation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for improving the performance of estimation techniques and for reducing the number of elements required for this estimation task when dealing with general purpose signals that are embedded in interference.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Several signals processing techniques have been developed to process signals and estimate parameters of interest based on the knowledge of a reference signal. Efforts are generally made to reduce or suppress the interference received with the signal and this interference can be of various types such as noise, jamming and other users. When these signals possess a large bandwidth and require a large number of elements for estimation, the signal processing task becomes rather challenging.
Adaptive signal processing is particular technique designed to model, extract and track signals by weighting a set of discrete-time signals from a source, which can be an antenna or a general electronic equipment, in order to perform a desired task.
To compute the adaptive weights, these techniques typically combine several samples over a period of time. Generally, adaptive weights are calculated through the relationship Rw=p, where p is the steering vector with M coefficients, R is M×M the covariance matrix, and w is the weight vector with M elements. In order to identify the adaptive weights this relationship is simply manipulated to the following: w=R−1p. This equation requires a number of arithmetic operations that is proportional to M3, which is too complex for practical use.
In this context, existing adaptive signal processing techniques such as transversal linear filters with the least-mean square (LMS) algorithm are simple, have low complexity but usually have poor convergence performance. In contrast, adaptive filters with recursive least-squares (RLS) algorithms have fast convergence but require a significantly higher complexity than LMS recursions. Several attempts to provide cost-effective parameter estimators with fast convergence performance have been made in the last few decades through variable step size algorithms, data-reusing, averaging methods, sub-band and frequency-domain adaptive filters and RLS types algorithms with linear complexity such as lattice-based implementations, fast RLS algorithms, QR-decomposition-based RLS techniques and the more recent and promising reduced-rank adaptive filters.
The advantages of reduced-rank adaptive filters are their faster convergence speed and better tracking performance over existing techniques when dealing with large number of weights. Various reduced-rank methods and systems were based on principal components analysis, in which a computationally expensive singular value decomposition (SVD) to extract the signal subspace is required. Other recent techniques such as the multistage Wiener filter (MWF) of Goldstein et al. in "A multistage representation of the Wiener filter based on orthogonal projections", IEEE Transactions of Information Theory, vol. 44, November, 1998—perform orthogonal decompositions in order to compute its parameters, leading to very good performance and a complexity inferior to those systems that require poor performance in systems with moderate to heavy loads.
In most applications, the process of calculating and altering the weights must be done in real-time. Because modern applications involve a large number of adaptive parameters and operate in non-stationary environments, the system requires a large amount of data to compute the estimates. However, in most practical situations the amount of data available is simply insufficient to provide accurate estimates. In addition, when a parameter estimator with a large number of weights is required to track a dynamic signal embedded in interference, it encounters difficulties in following the signal of interest and may fall or show unsatisfactory performance.
These and other deficiencies exist in current adaptive processing systems in the open literature and amongst the patented techniques so far. Therefore, a solution to these problems is needed providing a reduced rank adaptive processing system and method specifically designed to more accurately estimate and track signals that involve a large number of processing elements with low complexity and great flexibility.

System and method for adaptive reduced-rank parameter estimation using an adaptive decimation and interpolation scheme


Technologies are generally described for transmitting electric power using electromagnetic waves. An example device may include a transmitting unit, a dielectric waveguide, and a receiving unit. The transmitting unit can be configured to transmit the electromagnetic wave through a first waveguide. The dielectric waveguide can be configured to direct the electromagnetic wave from the first waveguide to a second waveguide. Further, the receiving unit can be configured to receive the electromagnetic wave from the dielectric waveguide through the second waveguide. An example borehole radar system may generate an electromagnetic wave from a DC power supply and provide the electromagnetic wave to a power transmitting unit. The power transmitting unit can be configured to transmit the electromagnetic wave through a dielectric waveguide. The electromagnetic wave can be rectified to generate a DC voltage signal, by which a transmitting antenna may be powered to generate a radar signal.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A borehole radar device is a subsurface detection tool that can be used for imaging geological targets in resistive formations, e.g., the delineation of orebody geometry, ideally using routinely drilled cover and exploration boreholes. Such radar device may be used in performing radar measurements of fractures or faults in geological targets under the ground, using electromagnetic waves having certain frequency bandwidth, e.g., frequencies of 10 MHz to several hundred MHz. This type of measurement typically requires supplying electric power to antennas in boreholes for transmitting and detecting radar signals and for transmitting the detected radar signals to an analysis device installed on the ground.
In one example, a borehole radar device can be equipped with a battery that is operable as a power supply, where the battery can be recharged at certain intervals. Recharging the battery may require pulling the radar device out of a borehole under the ground in order to access the battery for recharging, and reinstalling the radar device into the borehole after completing the recharging of the battery. Also, due to the limited charge duration of the battery, it may be difficult for the radar device to perform continuous radar measurement operation.
In another example, electric power may be supplied from an external power source to a borehole radar device through a power supply cable, e.g., made of a metallic cylindrical conductor. In this case, electromagnetic waves generated by a transmitting antenna of the radar device may be used to induce a current flowing through the power supply cable, which causes scattering of the electromagnetic waves. This scattering causes electrical coupling between the power supply cable and the antenna. Also, the scattered electromagnetic waves generated by the power supply cable may be received by a receiving antenna, which can be installed in another borehole for detecting radar measurement signals, and interfere with the detection of radar measurement signals by the receiving antenna.

Transmitting electric power using electromagnetic waves


A lighting fixture with a controllable light block. The fixture includes a reflector and high intensity discharge lamp that requires a re-strike or warm-up period to come to full brightness or intensity. A cover member is mounted to the reflector and is moveable between an unblocked position and a blocked position. Movement of the cover member is immediate so that blockage of light from the fixture is immediately effectuated. The apparatus is configured so that cover member can be in the blocked position for indefinite periods of time even though the arc lamp continues to be operated at full power, without heat buildup which is detrimental to any part of the apparatus. The cover member also allows light control and special effects lighting options. Another aspect of the invention utilizes an aperture in the cover member that is alignable with the light source when the cover member is in the blocked position. Different inserts can be placed in the aperture, or it can be opened and closed independently to create special or theatrical effects including changes in color.

A. Field of the Invention
It is well known in the art that most conventional high intensity discharge (HID) lamps cannot be instantly turned on to full brightness and intensity. Likewise, such lamps cannot be turned off and then quickly turned on again to full intensity. They generally require a re-strike or warm-up period of time.
Incandescent lamps do not have the re-strike problem. Special types of arc lamps, called instant re-strike arc lamps, are available but they are very expensive. Additionally, instant re-strike arc lamps do turn on quickly after they have been turned off, however, if shut off for more than a few minutes, they may re-light at a different temperature or color than what is preferred or needed.
HID lamps are desirable for many uses because the type (color, intensity) of output and the economy of such lamps. This is specially true for lighting of large areas where the light must be controlled and concentrated for projection over substantial distances.
The re-strike problem, as previously stated, is widely recognized in the art. Attempts have been made to deal with that situation and allow relatively quick on/off control. One such attempt utilizes a dimming circuitry to reduce the current to the arc lamp. This reduces the brightness or intensity but does not extinguish the light so complete darkness cannot be achieved.
Attempts have also been made to leave the light at full power but to block the light. Primary problems with this approach include the heat buildup that occurs when blocking such high intensity lights, and difficulty in sealing off the light to achieve total blockage of light.
Symmetrical reflectors (hereafter also sometimes called bowl-shaped or spherical reflectors) produced from surfaces of revolution are an economical, effective choice for high efficiency, controlled concentrated beams over long distances. Trough reflectors or other non-symmetrical shapes are sometimes used for these purposes, but most times they utilize housings, and several support or enclosure pieces for structural support. Their make-up is therefore more complex and expensive than symmetrical reflectors, which can both perform reflecting functions and support such things as a lens without additional framework or housings.
Substantial difficulties face one who wishes to attempt to simply block light from such a fixture. No method or structure is known to adequately do so.
Some of the problems are:
1. Strength problems--symmetrical reflectors are generally made of relatively thin metal such as aluminum and cannot bear too much weight or stress.
2. Light sealing--it is difficult to place a block that can be moved in front of the lamp and effectively seal all light emanating from the lamp when on full power.
3. Heat--once closed or even partially closed, the heat buildup is a concern for the structural integrity of the reflector and mounting components, as well as the structure blocking the lamp and the lamp itself. Any significant rise in temperature at or near the lamp may affect performance or even the ability for operation of the lamp.
4. Weight--along with the strength problem, the additional weight of structure to block the lamp is a concern.
5. Complexity--because most lighting applications use numerous fixtures, cost is a high concern as well as the complexity of the structure for reliability of operation and longevity.
Other concerns facing one who desires to achieve an on/off fixture include the flexibility to have some sort of light control in the form of spill or glare control and the ability to produce special effects, for example, different color outputs, strobe affect, and other theatrical type lighting effects.
There is therefore a real need in the art for a lighting fixture that uses a spherical reflector and an HID lamp that has the re-strike problem, but which can quickly have its light output completely blocked or unblocked.
It is therefore a principle object of the present invention to provide a lighting fixture with a controllable light block that solves or improves over the problems and deficiencies in the art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus as above described which can completely block light output from the fixture on command.
Another object of the present invention is to allow block off of light from the fixture immediately on command.
Another object of the present invention is to allow light from the fixture to be blocked for indefinite continuous periods of time without danger of detrimental heat buildup.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus having a minimum number of moving parts and which is not complex in structure.
Another object of the present invention is to have the flexibility for special light control and special lighting effects.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.

Light fixture with controllable light block


A flexible disk apparatus is provided, which comprises a carriage including a read/write head at the tip end thereof and a coil bobbin disposed at the other end thereof, the coil bobbin permitting a voice coil to be connected integrally therewith. The side of the voice coil is located in a magnetic circuit formed of a magnet. The carriage is slidably mounted on a moving guide fixed on a base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible disk device for use in an external memory device, etc., of an electronic computer, and more specifically to a driving mechanism for driving a carriage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a conventional flexible disk device in a perspective view which includes a read/write head positioning mechanism with use of a lead screw and a pulse motor, as disclosed in "Magnetic Recording Current Technology, and Apparatuses and Instruments therefor" published by Sogo Gijutsu Shuppan, 1984. In the same figure, designated at 1 is a carriage, 2 is a pulse motor, 3 is a lead screw, 4a is a guide rod, 5 is a read/write head, 6 is a flexible disk cartridge, 7 is a base, 8 is an electric circuit board, 9 is a spindle motor, 11 is a rotary/straight movement conversion mechanism, 51 is a head arm, and 61 is a magnetic disk. Additionally, FIG. 8 is a sectional view illustrating a prior 5.25 inch flexible disk device using a linear pulse motor for a read/write head positioning mechanism, as disclosed in Nikkei Mechanical No. 1986. 9. 22. In the same figure, designated at 2a is a linear pulse motor, 4a is a guide rod, (6a) is a 5.25 inch diskette, and (61a) is a magnetic disk. The like or equivalent portions as those shown in FIG. 7 are designated by like symbols.
Operation of the conventional device is as follows.
In order to move the read/write head which is to move in contact with the upper and lower surfaces of the magnetic disk 61 mounted on the spindle motor 9, in an example illustrated in FIG. 7, for example, a general rotative pulse motor 2 is used to turn the lead screw 3 coupled to a rotor thereof and convert the rotation of the lead screw 3 through the rotary/straight movement conversion mechanism 11, whereby the carriage 1 is moved. Additionally in an example illustrated in FIG. 8, the carriage 1 directly coupled to a rotor of a linear pulse motor 2a undergoes step movement corresponding to applied pulse voltage to position the read/write head coupled to the carriage 1 through the arm 51.
The conventional flexible disk device is constructed as described above. Accordingly, when it is intended to perform information access with larger capacity and at a higher speed compared with the present situation, a pulse motor has a structural limitation due to the restriction of a mechanical machining size to the amount of a minimum step fed by one pulse to prevent the density of a recorded track from being increased. Additionally, such a pulse motor suffers from detuning as the rotor is speeded up and hence fails to track a high speed head movement.

Read/write head positioning mechanism for flexible disk drive device


A garment has a piece of clothing with at least one pad of conformable, energy dissipating media. The pad is positioned at a location on the clothing of the wearer to dissipate the energy resulting from a sudden impact at that location. The pad may be retained against the garment by a connector attached to the surface of the clothing or may be secured within a pocket on the garment. Additionally, the pad may be used in conjunction with hard shell padding.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to padded garments and particularly relates to a garment having padding made up of energy dissipating conformable padding attached thereto.
2. Description of Related Art
In many activities padding worn by a user acts to absorb energy from a sudden impact. Such a sudden impact occurs in activities ranging from sporting activities where frequent contact is likely to vocational activities where contact is less likely, but nevertheless a very real possibility. As examples, sporting activities, to name a few, may include football, soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby and basketball while one such vocational activity may be, for example, that of a tradesman. An additional sporting activity includes race car driving, whereby the driver experiences impact transmitted from the car frame.
However, even when such padding is employed, depending upon the manner and degree to which the padding conforms to the user's body and the energy dissipating characteristics of the conformal padding material, the force from a sudden impact, which may be vibrational, may not be distributed over the area of the padding. For example, if the padding is made of a hard shell and contacts only a protriding bone, all of the force of impact may be transmitted to that bone. Even when the padding is not associated with a hard shell, if it nevertheless does not conform to the user's body and exhibit desired energy dissipation characteristics, then once again it is possible the energy from a sudden impact may not be distributed over the area of the padding but concentrated in a smaller area.
For providing a clearer explanation of the effect in response to sudden impact when hard shell padding is used, football shoulder pads will hereinafter be discussed with the understanding that the scope of this application should in no way be limited to such shoulder pads, or hard shell padding in general, but may be extended to padding used for body protection in a wide range of activities.
Directing attention to football shoulder pads, a set of shoulder pads may protect a football player from the force of a sudden impact upon the shoulder pads by distributing that force across a wider area on the body of the football player. Although many shoulder pads have a high level of adjustability, nevertheless due to the variation in shape inherent in the bodies of individuals, the contact areas and the degree of contact between the shoulder pads and the football player's body are irregular, thereby resulting in an uneven distribution of forces through the shoulder pad to the body of the player. In a worse case scenario, the shoulder pads are supported primarily by the clavicle bone and any downward force upon the shoulder pads is transmitted to the player entirely by a concentrated force upon the clavicle bone. Some shoulder pads include a protective ring around the clavicle such that forces are transmitted through this protective ring. However, even under these circumstances, there is an imperfect mating between the shoulder pads and the body of the football player such that transmission of forces produced by sudden impact upon the shoulder pads is transmitted to the player in an irregular pattern depending, first of all, on the existence of contact between the shoulder pads and the player and, second of all, on the degree to which such contact provides support. It is possible that with this irregular contact certain contact areas will absorb a greater amount of the force from sudden impact than others.
Athletic trainers frequently customize the fit and impact protection of shoulder pads by securing resilient padding to the interior of the shoulder pads in an attempt to provide a more uniform contact between the shoulder pads and the player. However, securing such padding to the inside surface of the shoulder pads may be difficult.
Furthermore, such padding ideally will follow the contour of the player's body. However, even with such padding, the force exerted upon the shoulder of the player may be uneven.
A conformal, energy dissipating padding design is needed to provide relatively uniform contact between hard shell padding and its wearer such that forces produced by sudden impact may be more effectively dissipated.
Again, while this scenario has been directed to football shoulder pads, this same problem exists with protective equipment used in many other sports including soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby and basketball.
In a separate scenario, the uniforms in many sporting activities are not intended to accommodate any padding and, furthermore, over time, a distaste on behalf of the fans and the players has developed toward the use of padding with such uniforms. However, in contact sports, such as, for example, rugby and soccer, it is believed that padding may be embraced by the players but only to the extent that such padding does not substantially change the appearance of the uniform and to the extent that such padding does not inhibit their movement.
Therefore, a need exists for padding that is conformal to the body surface it contacts and dissipates the energy of a sudden impact to participants in sports activities.

Garment with energy dissipating conformable padding


A water pressure regenerated type water softener including: a timer control valve having a valve control unit rotated by a timer spring and into which raw water is supplied; a plurality of conduits into which the raw water selectively flows under the control of the timer control valve; a regeneration tank communicating with a regeneration tank inlet conduit of the conduits; and a resin tank unit receiving regeneration water flowing from the regeneration tank and containing an ion exchange resin therein. The water softener can be operated in one of stop mode, soft water mode, raw water mode and regeneration mode under the control of the valve control unit. When regeneration mode is selected, the valve control unit rotates to stop mode by the timer spring after a preset amount of time has elapsed.

Generally, tap water (hard water) contains a large amount of chlorine used for water purification. In addition, due to factors, such as overage pipes or water pollution, tap water may contain various kinds of heavy metals (ions), such as iron, zinc, lead, mercury, etc. that have a negative influence on the human body. Although such tap water is not fatal to humans, when tap water directly contacts the skin of users, metal ions contained in water bond to fatty acids in soap and form metallic impurities. When such metallic impurities make contact with the skin of users they induce skin diseases, such as allergies, or promote skin aging.
To prevent these problems, various water softeners which change hard water into soft water using a method in which the calcium ions (Ca2+) and magnesium ions (Mg2+) of hard water are substituted for by sodium ions (Na+), have been developed and used mainly for washing.
To realize such an ion exchange process, the water softener is provided with a resin tank containing ion exchange resins made of high molecular compounds containing sodium ions (Na+), and a regeneration tank which contains ion exchange resin regeneration materials or regeneration agents, such as salt (NaCl) capable of producing sodium ions (Na+) when dissolved in water.
Hard water passes through the resin tanks during the ion exchange process of the water softener. A large amount of ball-shaped ion exchange resins are stored in the resin tanks, and water comes into contact with these ion exchange resins in the resin tank and soft water is produced. As the ion exchange process is repeated, sodium ingredients (Na+) are continuously removed from the ion exchange resins by continuous contact between the hard water and the ion exchange resins. Therefore, to regenerate sodium ingredients (Na+) of the ion exchange resins, regeneration water having NaCl components is supplied from the regeneration tank to the resin tank.
Typically, when a user is aware through a variety of methods that the amount of sodium ingredients (Na+) of the ion exchange resins has become reduced, the user makes the water softener start a regeneration process that supplies regeneration water. If the sodium ingredients of the ion exchange resins are successfully regenerated, the regeneration process can be terminated; however, it is difficult to clearly determine the appropriate regeneration process time.
To allow a user to determine the regeneration process time, in the related art, a gravity regenerated type water softener having a mechanical timer has been proposed. However, the water softener having the mechanical timer is problematic in that a user may not clearly know whether the current operation mode is regeneration mode or not. Further, even when the user knows that the current mode is regeneration mode, the user may not be aware of the remaining time for which regeneration should be executed.
In an effort to solve the problems, an electric timer or an electric signal controller may be provided in the water softener. However, the water softener is typically used in moist spaces, so that the electric timer or the electric signal controller may form a short circuit in the water softener and remarkably increase the production expenses of the water softener.
Further, the regeneration tank is typically provided with an openable cap for charging a regeneration agent into the tank. In the related art, raw water under pressure is contained in the regeneration tank, so that the interior of the regeneration tank is pressurized and it is difficult to open the cap because it is under pressure. Further, when the cap is opened, the cap may suddenly explode off due to the pressure and may injure a user.
To solve these problems, the conventional water pressure regenerated type water softener may be provided with a drain valve, which is opened to drain water from the regeneration tank and reduces the pressure inside the regeneration tank prior to opening the regeneration tank cap. However, the drain valve is typically located at a position that a user's hand cannot easily reach, thus being difficult to manipulate. Further, when a user carelessly opens the regeneration tank cap without opening the drain valve, the user may be injured by the exploding cap.
Further, the conventional water softener uses one resin tank, so that the water softener has a small size and may be easily installed in a desired place. However, when water at a temperature that was previously set by a user is supplied from a water tap to the water softener having one resin tank, the flow path of ion-exchanged soft water through which the soft water must pass prior to being distributed to the user is too long and an excessive amount of water stagnates in the flow path and does not move, so that an excessive amount of time is required to distribute the soft water at the temperature selected by the user.
In an effort to solve the problems, using two or more resin tanks in the water softener is possible. Although two or more resin tanks may realize easy control of the water temperature, they undesirably increase the size of the water softener, thus making installation of the water softener unfavorable.
Further, the conventional water softener does not allow a user to be aware of the total amount of distributed soft water, so that the user may not clearly determine the appropriate regeneration timing. To solve this problem, a flow sensor may be used in the water softener. However, the flow sensor may form an electric short circuit.
Further, in the related art, a water softener using an electric timer capable of producing an electric timer signal instead of a mechanical timer signal has been proposed. However, the water softener using the electric timer instead of the mechanical timer is problematic in that an electric short circuit may occur in the water softener because the water softener is typically used in moist environments as described above, and, further, the electric timer excessively increases the production cost of the water softener.

Water softener having timer control valve