A viewer having a collapsed condition and a viewing condition. The viewer includes a front and rear wall formed of a flexible material and joined together at their top and bottom edges. The front wall includes a pair of images disposed on the interior surface of the front wall, while the exterior surface includes a reflection print. The rear wall includes a pair of viewing apertures having lenses in optical registration with the pair of images. A middle wall is disposed intermediate the front and rear walls and is joined together with the rear wall at their bottom edges. The middle wall includes at least one aperture in optical registration with the pair of images. The front and rear walls move between the viewing condition wherein the front and rear walls flex to define convex curves and the pair of images are viewable through the pair of viewing apertures, and the collapsed condition wherein the interior surfaces of the front and rear walls abut the middle wall.

Collapsible viewers are well known devices in the art that have been constructed in various shapes and sizes with varying complexity. Some inexpensive viewers are made from rigid or semi-rigid materials such as cardboard or paperboard. Such viewers usually include a pair of optical lenses aligned with and at the proper distance from a pair of stereoscopic images on transparent material (such as slides or film strips) or on opaque material (such as reflection prints). A user holds the viewer up to a light source to allow the light source to illuminate the image to enable seeing a stereo image. The stereoscopic images take on a three-dimensional appearance when the user views them through the optical lenses. Viewing the images through optical lenses provides a level of magnification that is greater than direct (i.e., unaided) viewing of standard-sized reflection prints at a standard viewing distance, thereby providing a more natural viewing perspective that adds realism to the image.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,732 relates to a viewer used for viewing several stereo pairs sequentially mounted in the viewer. However, the transparent images or miniature reflection prints utilized in such viewers are of such a small size that they do not allow acceptable direct viewing. Such a viewer does not provide for the viewing of standard-sized two-dimensional reflection prints of the image (for example, 31/2.times.5 inch prints or 4.times.6 inch prints) for the purpose of screening those the user decides to view in stereo. Accordingly, a need continues to exist for a viewer which provides a user with a reflection print of a size comparable to the size of the collapsed viewer for the purpose of easily previewing the image and deciding whether to view it with the viewer to improve its perspective.
Prior art viewers have been constructed as foldable, box-type enclosures that a user must first assemble from a blank. Several U.S. patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,734,596, 3,756,699, 4,357,073, 5,136,423, and 4,846,553, describe assembling collapsible stereo viewers from a precursor blank. When expanded, these box-type viewers provide for the surface of each image to be aligned flat and perpendicular to the optical axes of the lenses. There are problems, however, associated with these box-type viewers that have diminished their usefulness. Generally, box-type viewers are constructed from a single cardboard blank having numerous flaps and tabs that must be folded and placed in a proper sequence within appropriate slots that are also formed on the blank. Educating the user of how to properly assemble the viewer may require elaborate instructions. The design of most box-type viewers allows the viewer to be collapsed from the assembled or viewing position to a flattened position for storage. The procedure for collapsing the viewer usually requires performing the assembly steps in reverse. A viewer of complex design will require more elaborate assembly and disassembly steps than a viewer of simple design. Although the user of the viewer may accept this complexity and inconvenience of using the viewer in order to see many stereo images with the same viewer at one sitting, it is unlikely that the user would tolerate having to assemble a different viewer for each different image if the viewer only held one stereo image. Further, the thickness and number of walls or walls making up prior art viewers can also create a collapsed viewer with a thick profile that prevents the viewers from being used in certain applications. Also, although the viewers are collapsible after use, they may not lie perfectly flat but only flatten and remain flattened by a constant compressive force. If the compressive force is removed, the collapsible viewer tends to spring back to a less than truly flattened structure. For these reasons advertisers have refrained from using prior art viewers to advertise their products. Advertisers, greeting card manufacturers, and book publishers appear to be more willing to use collapsible viewers provided that the viewers are relatively inexpensive to manufacture, simple and convenient to use, collapsible to a truly flat profile, and still provide to the user a message or image while in collapsed form. Accordingly, a need continues to exist for a collapsible viewer which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, simple and convenient to use, collapsible to a truly flat profile, and still provides to the user a message or image while in collapsed form.

Collapsible viewer having an integral reflection print


A projection lens system that projects projection light from a light modulator onto a screen and which is telecentric on an input side is provided. The projection lens system comprises a first meniscus lens that is disposed closest to the screen, is convex on a screen side, and has negative refractive power; and a second meniscus lens that is disposed next closest to the screen, is convex on a screen side, and has negative refractive power. The first meniscus lens is made of plastic and at least one out of two curved surfaces thereof is aspherical, and a refractive power of the first meniscus lens is lower than a refractive power of the second meniscus lens. In the projection lens system, far superior aberration-correcting performance can be achieved and a drop in aberration-correcting performance due to thermal deformation can be prevented.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projection lens system of a projector that enlarges and projects an image displayed on a light valve, such as a liquid crystal panel or a DMD, onto a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-357769 discloses the use of a pair of plastic aspherical lenses in a projection lens device used in a projector. In this publication, the aspherical lens of the front side has a negative power and the aspherical lens of the rear side has a positive power, so that when these lenses made of plastic deform due to heat and the refractive powers thereof change, the effects of such deformation are cancelled out by one lens having a positive power and the other lens having a negative power, which suppresses the drop in aberration-correcting performance.
Aspherical lenses are often introduced into lens systems to correct aberration at a high level using a small number of lenses. Aspherical lenses can be realized by glass lenses, but due to cost and the ease of machining, plastic lenses are often used. However, since plastic lenses have a high coefficient of thermal expansion, changes in form due to heat conversely cause a drop in aberration performance. In particular, in a rear projector such as that shown in FIG. 1, a projection lens system is disposed in a completely closed environment and so is more susceptible to the effects of heat compared to a conventional projector system in which the screen and projector are separate and at least part of the lens system is exposed.
The rear projector 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes, inside a housing 2, a light source 3, a light modulator (light valve) 4 that modulates light from the light source 3 according to an image signal to form an image, a projection lens system 5 that projects projection light 8 from the light valve 4 onto a screen 9 from the rear surface side, and mirrors 6 and 7 that reflect and guide the projection light 8 to the screen 9. Although there are cases where a CRT, in which the light source 3 and the light valve 4 are integrated, is used, in recent years liquid crystal panels have often been utilized as the light valve 4, and there are also cases where a DMD panel, formed of micromirror elements, is utilized. In the case of a DMD panel, the light valve 4 is a reflective-type, so that the positional relationship with respect to the light source 3 differs to that shown in FIG. 1. However, the input (incident) side of the projection lens system 5 is telecentric regardless of whether a liquid crystal panel or a DMD panel is used as the light valve 4. Accordingly, a projection lens system 5 that enlarges and projects the modulated light (projection light) 8 and is telecentric on the input (incident) side is required.
In view of the precision of aspherical surfaces, it is easier to form a suitable surface for correcting aberration when the area to be aspherized is large. However, increasing the lens diameter of an aspherical lens has the demerits of a large increase in cost for a lens made of glass and of increased effects due to thermal deformation for a lens made of plastic. In a projection lens system, the lens closest to the screen has the largest diameter, but as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-357769, in many cases it is not the lens closest to the screen but the next lens or a lens located at an intermediate position that is aspherized.
In a lens system with an extremely simple construction where the lens system is constructed of only a few lenses, the number of surfaces at which an aspherical surface can be introduced is limited. Therefore, there are cases where one or both surfaces of the lens closest to the screen that has the largest diameter is/are aspherized. With a lens system of such a simple construction, for a conventional projector that is separated from the screen, the lens closest to the screen is subject to the weakest thermal effects and so hardly deforms due to heat. Also, since a simple system is not expected to achieve a particularly high aberration correcting performance, the aspherical lens is only provided with a corrective performance such that thermal deformation of the aspherical lens will not have an especially large effect on the aberration performance of the entire lens system.
However, in the rear projectors that are currently being introduced, due to conditions relating to the placement of the lens system, the effect of heat is much greater than in a conventional projector. Image quality that is at least equal to that achieved by current CRTs and liquid crystal TVs is also required. In addition, low cost remains a constant requirement. In a method, such as that described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-357769, that overcomes the effects of thermal deformation of aspherical lenses by increasing the number of aspherical lenses, the cost required to design and manufacture the aspherical lenses increases, and it is necessary to improve the design precision and raise the manufacturing yield so as to avoid a drop in the aberration performance due to thermal deformation of the additional aspherical lenses, which also results in high costs.
For this reason, it is an object of the present invention to provide a projection lens system that has high aberration-correcting performance, that can suppress deterioration in the aberration-correcting performance due to heat, and that can be supplied at low cost.


An optical information collection system includes a neuromorphic sensor to collect optical information from a scene in response to change in photon flux detected at a plurality of photoreceptors of the neuromorphic sensor. A sensor stimulator stimulates a subset of the plurality of photoreceptors according to an eye movement pattern in response to a control command. A controller generates the control command that includes instructions to execute the eye movement pattern.

Neuromorphic sensors are man-made sensors that attempt to imitate some of the working principles or structures of their biological counterparts. A neuromorphic vision sensor is thus, an artificial man-made vision sensor that emulates some of the working principles or structures found in living organisms' visual systems. Conventional video cameras are based capturing a sequence of still frames. Improving a camera means normally to increase the total number of pixels (resolution) and/or to increase the number of frames per second that can be captured, while reducing sensor area, power consumption, and possibly fabrication cost. These cameras just capture the light intensities of visual reality. If they are to be used in an artificial vision system (e.g., for robotics), then subsequent computing resources need to be allocated to analyze the sequence of captured frames and extract relevant information for decision making.
A neuromorphic sensor on the other hand only produces output optical data if a change at a given pixel location is detected. Thus, if the sensor is moved passed a given scene, image data can be collected based on the respective movement of the sensor. Alternatively, if the sensor is fixed in a given location, and a given scene changes (e.g., through motion or light fluctuation), image data can be similarly collected by the sensor. Current neuromorphic systems rely on scene motion or are based on macro-scale movements of the sensor to collect data. This may not be the most efficient manner in which to collect and interpret sensor data with respect to a given scene.


A servovalve has a sleeve having both a first metering aperture and a second metering aperture in fluid communication with a single port cavity defined by the servovalve. A spool oriented within the sleeve has a first land and a second land and defines a channel oriented between the first land and the second land. When the spool orients in a null position within the sleeve, the first land overlaps the first metering aperture and the second land overlaps the second metering aperture. As a low viscosity fluid within the servovalve assembly leaks across the first land and enters the channel, the overlap of the first and second lands with the first and second metering apertures minimizes flow of the fluid from the channel into the port cavity associated with the metering apertures. The configuration of the sleeve assembly, therefore, maintains a relatively large pressure gain within the servovalve assembly.

Conventional servovalves convert relatively low power electrical control input signals into a relatively large mechanical power output. Certain servovalves, such as fuel control servovalves utilized in aircraft, use aircraft engine fuel as the pressurized fluid that controls a corresponding fluid motor. For example, during operation pressurized aircraft fuel enters the fuel control servovalve and, based upon the control input signals, drives the fluid motor to operate nozzles and other variable-geometry elements associated with the aircraft.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a conventional fuel control servovalve 10, such as a jet pipe servovalve. The typical jet pipe servovalve 10, for example, includes a housing 12 having a sleeve 24, a spool 26 disposed within the sleeve 24, a motor 21 coupled to the spool 26 via a feedback spring 23, a fluid jet 25 associated with the motor 21, and a fluid receiver 27. When the motor 21 receives an input signal, the motor causes the spool 26 to meter fluid flow between a pressurized fluid source 20 and a hydraulic or fluid motor 33 coupled to the servovalve 10.
Servovalve spools 26 typically have lands 28 that meter fluid flow within the servovalve 10 between the fluid source 20 and the fluid motor 32. Each land 28 of the spool 26 has an outer diameter that is smaller than an inner diameter of the sleeve 24. The lands 28, therefore, form a gap or clearance with an inner surface of the sleeve 24 that allows the spool 26 to translate within the sleeve 24 and minimizes potential binding of the spool 26 within the sleeve 24 during actuation. Typically, spools 26 have several lands 28 arranged in pairs or sets. Each pair of lands 28 of a conventional spool 26 defines a control channel or control groove 32 oriented between adjacent lands 28-1, 28-2 of the pair. The control channel 32 helps to equalize pressure within the sleeve 24 and spool 26 allowing the spool 26 to actuate relatively smoothly within the sleeve 24.
Assume the servovalve 10 is configured in a pressurized state where a fluid flows from the fluid source 20, through a conduit 22, and into the sleeve 24. When the spool 26 positions in a null or closed position within the sleeve 26, as shown in FIG. 1, a pair of lands 28, along with the associated control channel 32, cover an associated, rectangularly shaped port 30 oriented between the fluid source 20 and the fluid motor 33. In the null position, the lands 28-1, 28-2 of the spool 26 (e.g., outer edges of the lands 28-1, 28-2) prevent or minimize fluid flow between the fluid source 20 and the fluid motor 33 via the port 30.
During operation, the motor receives a control signal from a control signal source and, in response, causes the spool 26 to actuate or move within the sleeve 24 to an open position such that the pair of lands 28 offsets from (e.g., uncovers) the rectangularly shaped port 30. For example, when the servovalve 10 orients the spool 26 in a null position, the jet 25 impinges receiver openings 29 defined by the fluid receiver 27. When the motor 21 receives an input signal, the motor 21 diverts the jet 25 such that the jet 25 substantially impinges one of the receiver openings 29, thereby increasing a pressure within a channel 31 (e.g., one of a pair of channels 31) associated with the impinged receiver opening 29. The pressure differential on the spool 26 causes the spool 26 to actuate in the sleeve 24 to an open position. In the open position, the set of lands 28 meters an amount of fluid flowing between the fluid source 20 and the fluid motor 33 to control positioning or movement of a load coupled to the fluid motor 33. As the spool 26 moves in response to the input signal, the spool generates an opposing torque on the feedback spring 23 that returns the fluid jet 25 to a substantially centered position and creates a force balance across the spool 26, thereby bringing the spool 26 to a position of positional equilibrium.

Methods and apparatus for maintaining pressure gain in a servovalve assembly


Disclosed is a reversible heat-sensitive recording material having a support and a reversible heat-sensitive recording layer provided at least one surface of the support and containing a colorless or slightly colored leuco dye and a reversible color developing agent capable of causing a reversible change in color density of the dye due to the difference in cooling rate after heating, which may further have a protective layer provided on the reversible heat-sensitive recording layer, and an anchor layer provided between the support and the reversible heat-sensitive recording layer, characterized in that at least one of the reversible heat-sensitive recording layer, the protective layer and the anchor layer contains a pigment subjected to a surface-modifying treatment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to reversible heat-sensitive recording materials in which formation of images and erasion of the images can be carried out by controlling the heat energy.
2. Prior Art
Heat-sensitive recording materials generally comprise a support and, provided thereon, a heat-sensitive recording layer mainly composed of a normally electron donating colorless or slightly colored dye precursor and an electron accepting color developer. The dye precursor and the color developer instantaneously react upon application of heat by thermal head, thermal pen, laser beams or the like to form an image. Such heat-sensitive recording materials are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokoku Nos. 43-4160, 45-14039 and the like.
In general, in the case of these heat-sensitive materials, when an image is once formed, it is impossible to erase the image to restore the portion to the original state.
Therefore, for further recording of information, it is only possible to make recording in the portions where no image is formed. Accordingly, the area for heat-sensitive recording is limited and the information to be recorded is restricted and not all of the necessary information can be recorded.
Recently, reversible heat-sensitive recording materials capable of repeating the formation of images and the erasion of the images have been proposed for solving the above problems. For example, Japanese Patent Application Kokai Nos. 54-119377, 63-39377, 63-41186 and the like, disclose heat-sensitive recording materials comprising a matrix resin and an organic low-molecular compound dispersed in the matrix resin. However, in these recording materials, the transparency of the recording materials is reversibly changed and so the contrast between the imaged portion and the unimaged portion is insufficient.
Furthermore, according to the methods described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai Nos. 50-81157 and 50-105555, since the images formed by these methods change depending on the environmental temperatures, the temperature at which the image-formed state is maintained differs from the temperature at which the image-erased state is maintained and so these two states cannot be maintained for a desired period at room temperature.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 59-120492 mentions a method for maintaining the image-formed state and the image-erased state by keeping the recording material in the region of the hysteresis temperature utilizing the hysteresis characteristics of color forming components. However, this method has the defects that a heating source are needed for formation and erasion of images and besides, the temperature region at which the image-formed state and the image-erased state can be maintained is limited to the region of the hysteresis temperature. Thus, this method is still not sufficient for using the materials in the temperature environment of daily life.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Kokai Nos. 2-188293 and 2-188294 and International Patent Publication No. WO90/11898 disclose reversible heat-sensitive recording media comprising a leuco dye and a color developing and decolorizing agent which causes color formation of the leuco dye upon heating and causes erasion of the color. The color developing and decolorizing agents are amphoteric compounds having an acidic group which causes color formation of the leuco dye and a basic group which causes decolorization of the leuco dye and they preferentially cause one of the color formation action of the acidic group and the decoloration action of the basic group by controlling the heat energy, thereby to perform the color formation and decolorization. However, according to this method, it is impossible to completely exchange the color forming reaction and the decolorizing reaction from each other only by control of heat energy and since both the reactions simultaneously take place at a certain ratio, sufficient color density cannot be obtained and besides the decolorization cannot completely performed. For this reason, a sufficiently high contrast of the image cannot be obtained. Moreover, since the decolorizing action of the basic group acts also on the color formed portion at room temperature, the density of the color formed portion inevitably decreases with time.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 5-124360, reversible heat-sensitive media which can form images and erase images by heating a leuco dye is described, and as an electron-receiving compound, there are exemplified an organic phosphoric acid compound, .alpha.-hydroxy-aliphatic carboxylic acid, aliphatic dicarboxylic acid and a specific phenol compound such as an alkylthiophenol, an alkyloxyphenol, an alkylcarbamoylphenol, alkyl gallate each having a carbon number of 12 or more, etc. However, in this recording media, coloring density is low or erasion of images becomes incomplete so that the two problems cannot be solved simultaneously and image stability with time is also not practically satisfied.
As explained above, according to the conventional technique, there have been no reversible heat-sensitive recording materials which can give good image contrast, can form images and erase the images and can maintain images having time stability under the daily environment.
The present inventor has found a novel reversible colorization agent which can give good image contrast, can form images and erase images and can maintain images having time stability under the daily environment and proposed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 6-210954. However, in the reversible heat-sensitive recording materials having a recording layer which forms images by heating, it is recognized that the properties such as color developing, decolorizing and repeated properties thereof, etc. are effected by a binder resin or a pigment other than the color developing components, and depending on the kinds of the resin or pigments, there sometimes causes practical problems. That is, there are problems that in the reversible heat-sensitive recording materials, if forming images and erasing images are repeated many times at the same portion, reversible color developing agent particles are liable to aggregate by heat and pressure when heat is applied and lowering in coloring density and deterioration of a recording layer occur by the repeated use.

Reversible heat-sensitive recording material


A communication system includes: a plurality of communication nodes; and a control apparatus that controls packet processing of the plurality of communication nodes. The control apparatus further includes: a virtualization unit that configures a virtual node(s) from a plurality of communication nodes among the plurality of communication nodes; a control unit that sets a processing rule for a packet in at least one communication node of the plurality of communication nodes included in the virtual node(s), so that the at least one communication node executes packet processing corresponding to an operation of the virtual node(s); and a path calculation unit that calculates a forwarding path of a packet, based on a virtual network topology including the virtual node(s). The plurality of communication nodes process a packet corresponding to the forwarding path, in accordance with the processing rule.

Technology known as OpenFlow is disclosed in Non-Patent Literatures (NPLs) 1 and 2. In OpenFlow, communication is taken as end-to-end flow, and path control, recovery from failure, load balancing and optimization are performed in flow units. An OpenFlow switch functioning as a forwarding node is provided with a secure channel for communication with an OpenFlow controller and operates in accordance with a flow table for which appropriate addition or rewriting is prescribed by the OpenFlow controller. The flow table has definitions of sets of: rules (FlowKey, matching key) for matching with packet headers, actions (Action) defining processing content, and flow statistical information (Stats), for each flow.
FIG. 12 shows an example of action name(s) and action content(s) defined in Non-Patent Literature 2. OUTPUT is an action to output a packet to a designated port (interface), and SET_VLAN_VID to SET_TP_DST are actions to modify fields of a packet header.
For example, on receiving a first packet, the OpenFlow switch searches for an entry having a rule (FlowKey) that matches header information of the received packet, from the flow table. As a result of the search, in a case where an entry matching the received packet is found, the OpenFlow switch implements processing content described in an action field of the entry in question, with regard to the received packet. On the other hand, as a result of the search, in a case where an entry matching the received packet is not found, the OpenFlow switch forwards the received packet to the OpenFlow controller via the secure channel, requests determination of a packet path based on source and destination of the received packet, receives a flow entry realizing this, and updates the flow table.
Thus, in OpenFlow, fine grained path control for each flow is possible, but flow entry configuration load increases due to increase in the number of flows. Therefore, with technology disclosed in Non Patent Literatures 1 and 2, there is a risk that the load for setting of flow entries will become large, when application is made to a large scale network.
Non Patent Literature 3 discloses a solution strategy for this problem. Non Patent Literature 3 describes a list of processes to be performed in packet header parts by respective OpenFlow switches, instead of defining an entry for each flow, with regard to a flow table provided in a normal OpenFlow switch. In this way, the abovementioned problem is solved.
For example, as shown in FIG. 11, for each OpenFlow switch an action where the switch may be executed is defined, and an address is attached to each action. With regard to a packet, embedded in the packet header is a series of pointers indicating addresses of actions to be executed by the respective OpenFlow switches according to a series of OpenFlow switches passed through. The OpenFlow switches perform forwarding by reading the pointer series in the packet header and calling respective actions to be executed thereby. According to this method, it is possible to forward packets without setting flow entries when a packet is received, and it is possible to reduce delay upon forwarding.
On the other hand, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 describes technology related to packet forwarding in a large scale network. Patent Literature 1 describes a route calculation method of high calculation efficiency, in a large scale network formed by a plurality of domains. The method described in Patent Literature 1 defines the domains hierarchically, and deploys a PCE (Path Calculation Element) in the respective hierarchical domains Route calculation is performed for each layer; an upper level PCE determines input and output nodes for lower level domains; the route calculation is executed in parallel by requesting the lower level domains to perform calculation tasks; and the route calculation is provided in a network formed by a plurality of domains.    PTL 1:    Japanese Patent Kohyo Publication No. JP2009-539156A    NPL 1:    Nick McKeown, and seven others, "OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks," [online] [search conducted Feb. 7, 2011], Internet<URL:http://www.openflowswitch.oredocuments/openflow-wp-latest.pd.    NPL 2:    "OpenFlow Switch Specification" Version 1.0.0. (Wire Protocol 0x01) [search conducted Feb. 7, 2011], Internet<URL:http://www.openflowswitch.org/documents/openflow-spec-v1.0.0.pd.    NPL 3:    Chiba, Yasunobu, and two others, "A Proposal of Flow Entry Reduction Scheme for Flow-based Networks and Its Implementation on OpenFlow-based Network," The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Technical Report, Vol. 109, No. 448, NS2009-163, pp. 7-12.

Communication system, control apparatus, communication node, and communication method


Provided is a binder composition for a non-aqueous secondary battery electrode with which it is possible to form an electrode having excellent electrolyte solution injectability and process adhesiveness. The binder composition for a non-aqueous secondary battery electrode contains a particulate polymer formed by a polymer that includes a block region composed of an aromatic vinyl monomer unit and has a tetrahydrofuran-insoluble content of not less than 5 mass % and not more than 40 mass %. The binder composition for a non-aqueous secondary battery electrode preferably further contains a water-soluble polymer that includes a hydrophilic group and has a weight-average molecular weight of not less than 15,000 and not more than 500,000.

Non-aqueous secondary batteries (hereinafter, also referred to simply as "secondary batteries") such as lithium ion secondary batteries have characteristics such as compact size, light weight, high energy density, and the ability to be repeatedly charged and discharged, and are used in a wide variety of applications. Consequently, in recent years, studies have been made to improve electrodes and other battery components with the aim of achieving even higher non-aqueous secondary battery performance.
An electrode used in a secondary battery such as a lithium ion secondary battery normally includes a current collector and an electrode mixed material layer (positive electrode mixed material layer or negative electrode mixed material layer) formed on the current collector. This electrode mixed material layer is formed by, for example, applying a slurry composition containing an electrode active material, a binder-containing binder composition, and so forth onto the current collector, and then drying the applied slurry composition.
In order to further improve the performance of secondary batteries, attempts have been made in recent years to improve binder compositions used in electrode mixed material layer formation.
In one specific example, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 discloses that it is possible to provide an electrode for a non-aqueous secondary battery having excellent peel strength and a non-aqueous secondary battery having excellent cycle characteristics by using a binder composition for a non-aqueous secondary battery electrode that contains, in specific proportions: a particulate block copolymer that includes a block region composed of an aliphatic conjugated diene monomer unit and a block region composed of an aromatic vinyl monomer unit and that has a volume-average particle diameter of 0.6 μm to 2.5 μm; and a particulate random copolymer that includes an aliphatic conjugated diene monomer unit and an aromatic vinyl monomer unit and that has a volume-average particle diameter of 0.01 μm to 0.5 μm.

Binder composition for non-aqueous secondary battery electrode, slurry composition for non-aqueous secondary battery electrode, electrode for non-aqueous secondary battery, and non-aqueous secondary battery


A display unit for mounting to a storage unit having a storage space including a frame receivable of a display element and movable between a first position in which access to the storage space is prevented and a lockable second position enabling access to the storage space. The frame is pivotally mounted to the storage unit such that the frame is pivotable about a first pivot axis between the first and second positions. The display unit also includes locking members for locking the frame in the second position.

One common construction for stocking objects such as toys in a retail store is a multi-shelf sales and storage unit wherein the objects to be immediately sold are placed on lower shelves of the unit easily accessible to the purchasing consumers (the sales portion of the unit) and a quantity of the same objects are placed for storage on an upper shelf or shelves immediately above the lower shelves and accessible, e.g., only by means of a ladder or step-stool (the storage portion of the unit). In this manner, the sales staff in the store, upon an indication that the objects on the lower shelves of the unit are depleted or at a reduced level can position the ladder or step-stool to enable access to the upper shelf and transfer the objects from the storage portion maintained on the upper shelf or shelves to the sales portion of the unit. Thereafter, upon receipt of bulk shipments of the objects, it will only be necessary to restock the upper shelf or shelves.
The upper shelf on which the objects are stored is typically not covered, e.g., to enable the sales staff to readily ascertain that the quantity of the objects in storage is at a depleted or reduced level. However, in light of the fact that the upper shelf is uncovered and thus the objects in storage are viewable, a consumer faced with a lack of objects in the sales portion of the unit, i.e., on the lower shelves, will undoubtedly attempt to obtain the object from the storage portion of the unit, i.e., the upper shelf, in the absence of available sales staff to obtain the object for him or her. This may result in the consumer climbing on the unit and possibly damaging the same or causing injury to himself or herself.

Display unit having a display element and a storage unit incorporating the same


A layered nonwoven fabric with excellent feel on the skin and liquid permeability, and a method for producing the layered nonwoven fabric. The layered nonwoven fabric includes an upper layer consisting of a first nonwoven fabric and a lower layer consisting of a second nonwoven fabric. The layered nonwoven fabric has a first surface on the first nonwoven fabric side with a plurality of protrusions and recesses and a second surface on the second nonwoven fabric side. The protrusions on the first surface have a higher basis weight than the recesses on the first surface, and the protrusions on the first surface have a lower fiber density than the recesses on the first surface.

Nonwoven fabrics are used in absorbent articles, such as sanitary products and disposable diapers, cleaning products, such as wipes and wipers, and medical goods, such as masks, and such products employ nonwoven fabrics with a performance suitable for the purpose of the products and their intended location of use.
With absorbent articles, for example, it is necessary to employ nonwoven fabrics that are capable of expanding and contracting in response to bodily movement during wear or use, without creating an uncomfortable feeling for the user. Disposable diapers require nonwoven fabrics with high elasticity and strength sufficient to prevent tearing during extension, as well as excellent feel on the skin and liquid permeability.
Nonwoven fabrics exhibiting the desired performance in such absorbent articles are usually designed for each individual product and produced from a net or the like. From the viewpoint of production cost and environmental protection, therefore, it is preferred for a nonwoven fabric having the desired performance to be one that can be easily produced by modification of a commercially available nonwoven fabric, for example.
As an example of a nonwoven fabric with excellent resistance to liquid leakage, that can be produced from a commercially available nonwoven fabric, PTL 1 describes a method for producing a surface sheet for an absorbent article, wherein an upper layer is incorporated into the mesh section between a first roll with an irregular peripheral surface and a second roll with an irregular peripheral surface which has a shape that meshes with the irregular shape of the first roll, to form the upper layer into an irregular shape, and the upper layer is held by aspiration on the peripheral surface of the first roll while in the irregularly formed state while being laminated with a lower layer, the lower layer being bonded to the upper layer on the protrusions of the first roll. It also describes a surface sheet produced by the method.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Layered nonwoven fabric, and method for producing layered nonwoven fabric


A system, a method, and a computer readable article of manufacture for metadata searching. The system includes: a receiving module for receiving a search query with respect to a plurality of metadata resources; a query module for parsing the search query and searching related metadata resources and the structural information among the related metadata resources according to the parsing of the search query; and an output module for outputting the search results so as to realize a fuzzy structural search with respect to the plurality of metadata resources. The method includes the steps of: receiving a search query that does not designate complete structural information of the metadata resources; parsing the search query and searching related metadata resources to form search results that include the complete structural information; and outputting the search results.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data handling in a data processing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for metadata searching.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of data warehouse applications, service-oriented architecture (SOA), etc., metadata in an information system, namely, data about the data, is becoming more and more important. Especially in an enterprise scenario, various metadata are stored and managed in different repositories. For example, WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR) is a place for storing metadata information on services; WebSphere Business Glossary (WBG) manages general glossaries and classification information with respect to enterprises and IT users; and WebSphere DataStage is for developing and storing metadata of ETL jobs. The Metadata administrator and users may be overwhelmed by the large amount of metadata in the enterprise without an effective metadata search method; and it may be difficult to find the important metadata information and the users may create redundant metadata. Therefore, a metadata search engine and a metadata search method are indispensable for successful metadata management.
There are various types of metadata resources, for example, ComplexTypeDefinition in an XSD document, Service descriptions in a WSDL document, BusinessTerm definitions, BusinessCategroy definitions, and the like. Each metadata resource has some attributes, e.g., its label, and an annotation for describing it. Different metadata resources may be associated with each other. For example, a BusinessTerm may classify a Service, a BusinessCategory may contain a BusinessTerm, etc. Such association information may be considered as the structural information of the metadata.
If each metadata resource is considered as a node and the relationships among the metadata resources are considered as edges among the nodes, then the metadata resources may be linked to generate a metadata graph. In this way, the problem of the metadata search lies in finding out the relevant metadata resources in such a metadata graph. Since the number and the types of metadata are usually huge, it is very difficult for the metadata administrator and users to find the desired metadata information in the graph. FIG. 1 schematically shows various metadata resources and their complex relationships in an exemplary enterprise scenario including a design and development phase and a runtime phase.
Several tools for performing metadata search exist in the prior art. The metadata search methods adopted by these tools can be classified into the following two categories. The first category is a search engine based on keywords. The description of metadata resources can be published as HTML pages, and in this way, a current Web search engine based on keywords in the contents of HTML pages can be used to perform the metadata search. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary HTML page for a metadata resource BusinessTerm AddressNumber. IBM OmiFind Yahoo! Edition provides a crawler and a simple search engine for Web sites. The OmniFind can be configured to acquire all the HTML pages for the metadata resources, and then its search engine can be used to search the metadata.
For example, using the keywords "street address" contained in the page of FIG. 2 to perform search, the metadata resource BusinessTerm AddressNumber may be returned. Such a conventional keyword search method does not require the user to know the structure of the metadata, and hence has an advantage of simple operation. However, since it only uses small text segments in the metadata, without using the structural information within a metadata resource and the structural and semantic information among different metadata resources, it is usually insufficient to search out useful or relevant metadata information.
The second category is a search engine based on query. If the user knows the structure of the metadata, it is possible to find the target metadata resources by issuing a structure based query. For example, if the Resource Description Frame (RDF) format is used to represent a metadata graph, then a SPARQL query may be used to obtain the metadata resources. FIG. 3 shows an exemplary metadata graph. With respect to the metadata graph, if a Service that uses the ComplexTypeDefinition D and is classified by the BusinessTerm T is to be found, then the following SPARQL query may be constructed and issued:
Select ?x where {?x implement ?y. ?y interfaceOperation ?z. ?z interfaceMessageReference ?w. ?w use ?v. ?v name D. ?u classify ?x. ?u name T}
Such query-based search method has the disadvantage that the user needs to know and designate an accurate path from one metadata resource to another. Since users of the search engines generally have no clear idea of the structure of the data they intend to find, it is difficult for them to construct such a query.

International Business Machines Corporation


A micro-electromechanical resonator includes an electrically-trimmed resonator body having at least one stiffness-enhanced semiconductor region therein containing metal-semiconductor lattice bonds. These metal-semiconductor lattice bonds may be gold-silicon lattice bonds and/or aluminum-silicon lattice bonds. A surface of the resonator body is mass-loaded with the metal, which may be provided by a plurality of spaced-apart metal islands. These metal islands may be aligned along a longitudinal axis of the resonator body. A size of the at least one stiffness-enhanced polycrystalline semiconductor region may be sufficient to yield an increase in resonant frequency of the resonator body relative to an otherwise equivalent resonator having a single crystal resonator body that is free of mass-loading by the metal.

Micro-electromechanical (MEMs) resonators can provide small form factor, ease of integration with conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques and high f·Q products. High frequency and high-Q width-extensional mode silicon bulk acoustic resonators (SiBARs) and film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs) have demonstrated atmospheric Q factors in excess of 10,000 at or above 100 MHz, with moderate motional resistances. Such resonators are disclosed in an article by S. Pourkamali et al., entitled "Low-impedance VHF and UHF Capacitive Silicon Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators—Part I: Concept and Fabrication," IEEE Trans. On Electron Devices, Vol. 54, No. 8, pp. 2017-2023, August (2007), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The resonant frequency of silicon micro-electromechanical resonators is dependent on the physical dimensions of the resonating structure. This causes the resonant frequency of those resonators to deviate from a designed target value in response to variations in photolithography, etching and film thickness. For example, as described in an article by G. Casinovi et al., entitled "Analytical Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Capacitive Silicon Bulk Acoustic Resonators," IEEE Intl. Conf. on Micromechanical Systems (2009), a 2 μm variation in thickness of a 100 MHz width-extensional mode SiBAR can cause a 0.5% variation in its center frequency, while lithographic variations of ±0.1 μm in the width of the resonator can cause an additional 0.5% variation in frequency.
To address these variations in resonant frequency, techniques have been developed to tune the resonant frequency of a MEMs resonator. One such technique to reduce a resonant frequency of a resonator is to deposit a mass loading layer (e.g., metal layer) on a surface of a resonating structure. This technique is disclosed in an article by C. Courcimault et al., entitled "High-Q Mechanical Tuning of MEMS Resonators Using a Metal Deposition—Annealing Technique," Transducers, pp. 875-878 (2005).

Micro-electromechanical resonators having electrically-trimmed resonator bodies therein and methods of fabricating same using joule heating


A magnitude and direction of at least one of a reset current and a second stabilization current (that produces a reset field and a second stabilization field, respectively) is determined that, when applied to an array of magnetic sense elements, minimizes the total required stabilization field and reset field during the operation of the magnetic sensor and the measurement of the external field. Therefore, the low field sensor operates optimally (with the highest sensitivity and the lowest power consumption) around the fixed external field operating point. The fixed external field is created by other components in the sensor device housing (such as speaker magnets) which have a high but static field with respect to the low (earth's) magnetic field that describes orientation information.

Sensors are widely used in modern systems to measure or detect physical parameters, such as position, motion, force, acceleration, temperature, pressure, etc. While a variety of different sensor types exist for measuring these and other parameters, they all suffer from various limitations. For example, inexpensive low field sensors, such as those used in an electronic compass and other similar magnetic sensing applications, generally are Hall effect devices with flux concentrators or anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) based devices. In order to arrive at the required sensitivity and reasonable resistances that mesh well with CMOS, the sensing units of AMR sensors are generally on the order of square millimeters in size, while the auxiliary CMOS associated with hall effect sensors can similarly become large and expensive. For mobile applications, such AMR sensor configurations are too costly in terms of expense, circuit area, and power consumption.
Other types of sensors, such as magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensors and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors, have been used to provide smaller profile sensors, but such sensors have their own concerns, such as inadequate sensitivity and being effected by temperature changes. To address these concerns, MTJ, GMR, and AMR sensors have been employed in a Wheatstone bridge structure to increase sensitivity and to eliminate temperature dependent resistance changes. For minimal sensor size and cost, MTJ or GMR elements are preferred. Typically, a Wheatstone bridge structure uses magnetic shields to suppress the response of reference elements within the bridge so that only the sense elements (and hence the bridge) respond in a predetermined manner. However, the magnetic shields are thick and their fabrication requires carefully tuned NiFe seed and plating steps. Another drawback associated with magnetic shields arises when the shield retains a remnant field when exposed to a strong (−5 kOe) magnetic field, since this remnant field can impair the low field measuring capabilities of the bridge structure. To prevent the use of magnetic shields, a Wheatstone bridge structure may include two opposite anti-ferromagnetic pinning directions for each sense axis, resulting in four different pinning directions which must be individually set for each wafer, very often requiring complex and unwieldy magnetization techniques.
A large external field, for example, the field to be measured, that is similar or greater in magnitude and opposite to the applied stabilization field can reduce, cancel, or reverse the stabilization field, resulting in increase in sensor noise and reset reliability problems, preventing an accurate measurement. Furthermore, a large external field opposite to the magnetic device reset direction effectively reverses the reset field and therefore the effectiveness of the reset operation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a magnetoelectronic sensor fabrication method and layout having a high signal to noise ratio for measuring various physical parameters. There is also a need for a simple, rugged and reliable sensor that can be efficiently and inexpensively constructed as an integrated circuit structure for use in mobile applications. There is also a need for an improved magnetic field sensor and method to overcome the problems in the art, such as outlined above. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Apparatus and method for reset and stabilization control of a magnetic sensor


Despite a recent revision, IEEE 1588™-2008 does not provide a complete implementation for PTP (precision time protocol) that accounts for variable delays introduced by network components. According to a broad aspect, the present disclosure provides implementations that account for variable delays introduced by network components. Therefore, the amount of time that a packet spends in transit through a transparent clock can be accounted for. According to another broad aspect, there is provided a master-slave mode that allows a transparent clock to function as a master or a slave to another clock.

There are several different technologies that may rely on accurate synchronisation of clocks for proper operation. For example, TDD (time division duplex) in a cellular network is a radio technology that may rely on alignment between clocks of adjacent base stations in the cellular network. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is an example of such radio technology.
There are existing approaches to synchronising clocks over a network. One approach is NTP (Network Time Protocol), which is a protocol for synchronising clocks of computer systems over packet-switched networks. However, in some applications the accuracy achieved using NTP is inadequate.
An alternative approach that offers greater accuracy than NTP is GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. By using GPS technology, each clock can receive timing information based on signals received from satellites orbiting the Earth. Thus, GPS technology can enable accurate synchronisation of clocks in a manner that bypasses any need for signalling through a network.
Unfortunately, in order to use GPS technology for synchronising clocks, a GPS receiver may be implemented with each clock. The cost involved in having the GPS receivers can be significant, especially if there are several clocks to be synchronised. Moreover, if any clocks are located where there is no line of sight to receive the signals from the satellites, then the GPS technology may not even be a workable solution.
Another approach is PTP (Precision Time Protocol) as recently revised in IEEE 1588™-20081. By using this revision of PTP, it may be possible to synchronise distributed clocks with an accuracy of less than one microsecond via Ethernet networks. 1 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society. IEEE Standard for a Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems. New York: IEEE, 2008

System and method for accounting for time that a packet spends in transit through a transparent clock


A quadrant-partitioned array architecture and measurement sequence supporting mutual-coupling based calibration. The architecture includes an array of radiating elements grouped into quadrants, with a quadrant feed network and an intra-quadrant feed network connected between a transmitter/receiver and the radiating elements. The architecture includes test signal switches which provide access for quadrant testing functions, allowing a test signal to be injected into one quadrant while making measurements of the received signal in an adjacent quadrant. Mutual coupling based module-to-module RF measurements are performed to phase up the array.

One of the most time and resource consuming steps in the making of an electronically scanned array antenna is the calibration of its elements with respect to each other. All of the elements across the array must be calibrated to a known amplitude and phase to form a beam. This process is referred to as array phase-up.
Conventional phase-up techniques typically require the use of external measurement facilities such as a nearfield range to provide a reference signal to each element in receive and to measure the output of each element in transmit. As all the elements must be operated at full power to provide the full transmit plane wave spectrum to sample, a great deal of energy is radiated during this testing. This dictates some implementation of high RF power containment, and carries with it a number of safety concerns.
Known array mutual coupling phase up techniques have been dependent on two dimensional symmetric lattice arrangements (equilateral triangular) and equal element mutual coupling responses in all lattice orientations. These are serious limitations since equilateral triangular lattice arrangements are not always used. Similarly, the element mutual coupling response is most often not equal in all lattice orientations.
Previous discussions of array self-calibration have noted the need for separate transmit and receive feeds to support the simultaneous transmit/receive operation required for calibration.

Simplified quadrant-partitioned array architecture and measure sequence to support mutual-coupling based calibration


The invention relates to a microfluidic micromechanical system having integrated active elements (7) and a method for microfluidic process control in a microfluidic micromechanical system. According to the invention, the microfluidic system comprises integrated active elements (7), which can be activated without auxiliary energy by means of ambient variables that can be influenced and which are designed to bring about active functions as a result of the change of the swelling state thereof or the mechanical properties thereof. The microfluidic micromechanical system further comprises at least one structural support (2) having at least one first (3) and one second (4) channel, wherein a reaction chamber (6) bounded by active elements (7) is formed in an overlapping region (5) of the first and second channels.

The invention relates to a microfluidic, micro-chemomechanical system with integrated active elements and a method for microfluidic process control in a microfluidic, micro-chemomechanical system.
Microfluidic processors are primarily used today in biological, biochemical and chemical processes; above all their use as "labs on chips" (LOC), "chip laboratories" or "micro-total-analysis systems" (μTAS) is at the focus of scientific developments.
The LOC concept offers diverse advantages. The reduction of fluid volumes makes the analysis of very small sample quantities possible and thrifty use of reagents and samples that are frequently valuable, rare, harmful or dangerous. Higher throughputs are also achievable in that way, because shorter provision, mixing and reaction times are required with minimized energy consumption due to the smaller quantities. The process control can also be relieved of some of its burden because of shorter system response times.
Overall, LOC structures make significant process streamlining possible by considerably reducing the processing time and therefore increasing the possible throughput, as well as reducing the quantities of required resources (test subjects, analytes, reagents and auxiliary resources).

Method and device for targeted process control in a microfluidic processor having integrated active elements


The present invention provides a human body security inspection method and system. The method comprises: retrieving in real-time scanning row or column image data of a personal to be inspected; transmitting in real-time the image data to an algorithm processing module and processing these image data by the module; automatically recognizing a suspicious matter by a suspicious matter automatic target recognition technique, after retrieving an image data of an entire scanning image of the personal; any of the following three inspection modes is selected, so as to perform a further processing on basis of the recognition result of the suspicious matter, (1) in a manner of automatic target recognition technique, (2) in a combination manner of the automatic target recognition technique and a privacy protection image; and (3) a combination manner of the automatic target recognition technique, a privacy protection image and human intervention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a technical field of human body security inspection, in particular to a human body security inspection method and the relevant system thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automatic target recognition technique (ATR) is applied for the human body security inspection, so as to meet requirements of having a quick inspecting speed, a high efficiency and protecting individual privacy or the like, thereby improving competence of the products using this ATR technique. However, the ATR technique has the problem that the rate of false alarm is conflicted with the rate of missing alarm. Therefore, in the current human body security inspection, some locations with highest security levels demand an extremely low rate of missing alarm, however, it causes a high rate of false alarm which will result in a degraded inspection efficiency or the like.
In view of this, there indeed is a need to provide a relatively high efficient, safe and flexible human body security inspection method having the individual privacy protection function, and the corresponding human body security inspection system.

Human body security inspection method and system


A method of a geometry merge mode for point cloud coding (PCC), is performed by at least one processor, and includes obtaining a candidate node of an octree partition of a point cloud, for a current node of the octree partition, the current node being currently-coded, and the candidate node being previously-coded. The method further includes obtaining an occupancy code of the obtained candidate node, constructing a candidate list including the obtained occupancy code of the candidate node, obtaining an occupancy code of the current node, based on the constructed candidate list, and performing the PCC, based on the obtained occupancy code of the current node.

Point cloud has been widely used in recent years. For example, it is used in autonomous driving vehicles for object detection and localization, in geographic information systems (GIS) for mapping, and in cultural heritage to visualize and archive cultural heritage objects and collections.
Point clouds contain a set of high dimensional points, for example, three dimensional (3D) points, each including 3D position information and additional attributes such as color, reflectance, etc. The high dimensional points can be captured using multiple cameras and depth sensors, or Lidar in various setups, and may be made up of thousands up to billions of points to realistically represent original scenes.
Compression technologies are used to reduce an amount of data used to represent a point cloud for faster transmission or reduction of storage. ISO (International Organization for Standardization)/IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) (JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11) has created an ad-hoc group MPEG-PCC (Point Cloud Coding) to standardize the compression techniques for static or dynamic clouds.
Point-Cloud Compression in Test Model 13 (TMC13) in MPEG
In the TMC13 model, geometry information and associated attributes, such as color and reflectance, are separately compressed. The geometry information, which includes 3D coordinates of point clouds, is coded by octree partition with its occupancy information. The attributes are then compressed based on reconstructed geometry, using prediction, lifting and region adaptive hierarchical transform techniques. The octree partition and occupancy encoding processes are elaborated below.
Octree Partition
FIG. 1A is a diagram of octree partition in a 3D space.
Referring to FIG. 1A, in TMC13, if an octree geometry codec is used, geometry encoding proceeds as follows. First, a cubical axis-aligned bounding box B is defined by two points (0,0,0) and (2d, 2d, 2d), where 2d defines a size of B and d is encoded in a bitstream.
An octree structure is then built by recursively subdividing B. At each stage, a cube is subdivided into 8 sub-cubes. An 8-bit code, namely an occupancy code, is then generated by associating a 1-bit value with each sub-cube to indicate whether it contains points (i.e., is full and has value 1) or not (i.e., is empty and has value 0). Only full sub-cubes with a size greater than 1 (i.e., non-voxels) are further subdivided.
FIG. 1B is a diagram of an octree partition and its tree structure.
Referring to FIG. 1B, an example of a two-level octree partition and corresponding occupancy codes are shown. Cubes and nodes that are shaded indicate they are occupied by points.
Encoding of Occupancy Code
An occupancy code is then compressed for each node by an arithmetic encoder. The occupancy code can be denoted as S, which is an 8-bit integer, and each bit in S indicates an occupancy status of each child node. Two encoding methods for the occupancy code exist in TMC13, i.e., bit-wise encoding and byte-wise encoding, and the bit-wise encoding is enabled by default.
For bit-wise encoding, eight bins in S are encoded in an order in which each bin is encoded by referring to occupancy statuses of neighboring nodes and child nodes of neighboring nodes, in which the neighboring nodes are in the same level of a current node.
For byte-wise encoding, S is encoded by referring to: an adaptive look up table (A-LUT), which keeps track of N (e.g., 32) most frequent occupancy codes; and a cache that keeps track of last different observed M (e.g., 16) occupancy codes.
Binary information indicating whether S is in the A-LUT or not is encoded. If S is in the A-LUT, an index in the A-LUT is encoded using a binary arithmetic encoder. If S is not in the A-LUT, then binary information indicating whether S is in the cache or not is encoded. If S is in the cache, then binary representation of its index is encoded using a binary arithmetic encoder. Otherwise, if S is not in the cache, then the binary representation of S is encoded using a binary arithmetic encoder.
A decoding process starts by parsing dimensions of a bounding box B from a bitstream. The same octree structure is then built by subdividing B according to decoded occupancy codes.
In current TMC13 design, an occupancy code S is encoded by bit-wise encoding by default, in which each bin of S is encoded separately. Though occupancy statuses of neighboring coded nodes is used for context modeling when encoding each bin of S, structure information of the neighboring coded nodes is not fully utilized.
FIG. 1C is a diagram of repeating line structures creating repeating patterns of occupancy codes in two dimensions (2D).
Referring to FIG. 1C, three diagonal dashed lines are observed in a 2D space, in which representing points are located along the lines. As a result, occupancy statuses of nodes shows explicit structures, in which occupancy codes are repeating across space. However, current TMC13 does not fully utilize this structural similarity in the occupancy codes.

Method and apparatus for geometry merge mode for point cloud coding


An information processing apparatus includes an imaging unit, a control unit, and an output unit. The control unit is configured to detect at least one candidate area for overlaid display of a content, from an image imaged by the imaging unit. The control unit is further configured to detect as an overlaid display area, out of the at least one candidate area, an area where a change in undulation of luminance distribution is equal to or less than a first threshold value. The control unit is further configured to generate the content to be arranged virtually in a visually recognizable manner on the overlaid display area, to be recognized by a user. The output unit is configured to output the generated content overlaid on the overlaid display area.

The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus capable of displaying a content that is overlaid on an input image, and an information processing method and a program for the information processing apparatus.
Recently, MR (Mixed Reality), which is an environment where real and virtual worlds are fused together, has been studied actively. Among such studies, AR (Augmented Reality), which displays a virtual-world content overlaid on the real world to enhance one's perception of reality, has attracted a lot of attention.
The AR has already been realized by, for example, smartphones, and wearable devices such as HMD (Head Mount Display) type or see-through eyeglasses type devices. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-252879 discloses the technology of a mobile terminal apparatus which may be held by a visitor walking around an archaeological site. The mobile terminal apparatus may display information of the items exhibited in the site, by overlaying such information upon the images of the site being photographed by a camera.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program


A tandem pump equipped with a pair of pump units that are assembled together each having a water inlet and a water outlet. Each water outlet duct is associated with a control chamber which is equipped with a volume control disc which can be operated with click sound. Each water outlet duct is provided an air intake tube with which flexible pipe can be engaged so that air or different kinds of gas can be introduced into water of a fish globe along with the projected water. The pump umits of the tandem pump are in communication with each other so that water can be controllably dispensed via a single water outlet or both water outlets at variable speed or volume. Different kinds of accessories for fish raising can be selectively mounted to both or either of the pump units so as to make the tandem pump to be more effectively employed.

The present invention relates to an underwater pump and particularly to a tandem pump which is provided with two symmetrically disposed pump units. To each pump unit can be attached a different or similar water processing accessory; and each pump unit is provided with a volume adjusting device having a plurality of engagement protrusions disposed on the underside periphery thereof and selectively engaged with a plurality of corresponding retaining recesses disposed on the top periphery of a control device so as to produce click sound as the adjusting device is actuated to vary the volume of the flow.
There are a plurality of first communication ports disposed on the control disc and defined in conformance to a plurality of second communication ports disposed on an adjusting board. By turning the control disc against the adjusting board, the first and second communication ports can come into full alignment with or go fully out of alignment with each other or at positions in between, resulting in the variation of volume of the inlet water.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional water pump has only one pump unit which is made up of a motor 1A, a propeller 3A having a plurality of blades 31A, a top adjusting means 32A, a control chamber 33A having a control slide door 35A and a bottom adjusting disc 34A , and a filter accessory 36A which is associated with the pump. It can be clearly seen that the prior art pump has only one water inlet 341 and outlet 332 and the volume control means uses merely one port and the water volume can be controlled by turning the bottom disc 34A against the control chamber so as to vary the degree of the alignment of the port 341 and one of the ports 331 of the control chamber 33A.
The prior art pump can be engaged with only one water processing accessory, and it becomes inconvenient as more than one accessory is required in one aspect, and the volume adjusting means is designed in such a manner that it is not effectively operated in another aspect.


A memory system that includes a memory controller and memory modules that provide address and control signals to groups of memory components through multiple busses. In one embodiment, each memory module is coupled to an address/control buss. The use of multiple address/control busses provides the necessary bandwidth so as to allow for fast access and control of memory components. Memory components are grouped into banks of memory components with each bank including three memory components. Memory modules are configured with one, two, four, or more banks of memory components on a given memory module. In one embodiment, the memory system includes six 48-bit memory modules that use SDRAM memory components. The six memory modules are used in a set to form a 288-bit memory word. When 16 Mbit or 64 Mbit memory components are used, this configuration gives a range of memory configurations from 32 megabytes to 2 gigabytes.

Prior art systems that include Single Inline Memory Module (SIMM) and Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) memory devices have two-bus structures. That is, one bus is used for data transfer (hereinafter the "data bus") and a second bus (hereinafter the "address/control bus") is used for address and control of individual memory components. Typically, Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) semiconductor devices and Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) devices are used as memory components.
Recent computer systems require more graphics capabilities and faster graphics performance. These computer systems which require advanced graphics capabilities have greatly increased the demand on the address/control bus. This is particularly true in systems that have unified graphics and system memory. Memory systems that have unified graphics and system memory require high performance address/control bandwidth, and low address/control latency. In addition, system memory applications require a broad range of memory component counts so as to allow a wide range of application configurations. Thus, high memory component capacity is required.
In order to meet the demands of unified graphics and system memory and 3D graphics requirements, some prior art memory systems use a buffer (hereinafter "address/control buffer"). These prior art memory modules typically include from four to eighteen memory components on each memory module. Though the use of an address/control buffer increases the apparent address/control bandwidth, it also gives high address/control signal latency.
Recent attempts to meet the demands of unified graphics and system memory and 3D graphics requirements include architectures that provide one-to-one correspondence of address versus data between the memory controller and each memory component. That is, the memory controller can address each memory component through a separate address/control connection. However, this type of memory system requires advanced electrical signaling levels. In addition, the number of memory components is limited by the capacity of the memory controller. That is, the direct one to one correspondence of address/control signals with data signals gives a signal count requirement that is too great for the memory controller to handle in high-end applications.
New graphics rendering engines require a new generation of addresses to memory components every memory clock period in order to achieve high 3D graphics performance. In addition, for 3D graphics applications it is desirable to address different parts of a memory word with unique addresses. This allows for access to unaligned data in a single memory clock period. This cannot be done using prior art memory systems and prior art memory modules. In addition, the large electrical length and loading of driving a prior art memory modules with a width of nine or more memory components gives a significant disruption to the electrical characteristics of the memory address/control signals supplied from the memory controller. This prevents transmission of address/control signals at the same rate as data signals.
Using prior art architectures, it is possible to achieve the needed address/control performance by limiting the memory components. However, by limiting the number of memory components, it is not possible to achieve the high count of memory components required for large system memory configurations. When intermediate address/control buffering is used between the memory controller and the memory components, the large capacity of memory components required for system memory is achievable. However the address/control buffering increases the latency to address and control the memory components, resulting in reduced graphics performance.
What is needed is a memory system and memory module that provides for high bandwidth addressing and control of memory components. In addition, a memory system and memory module that has low latency is required. Moreover, a memory system and memory module that does not require advanced electrical signaling is required. Furthermore, a memory system and memory module that has a high memory component capacity is required. Also, a memory system and memory module which may be addressed such that different parts of a memory word may be separately addressed with unique addresses is required so that unaligned data may be accessed in a single memory clock period. In addition, a memory system and memory module which allows for the transmission of address/control signals at the same rate as data signals is required. The present invention provides a simple, elegant solution to the above needs.

Memory system with multiple addressing and control busses


The dryer comprises a plurality of extendible air conducting tubes each of which is independently pivotally connected to the hot air supply, in order to dry footwear while the footwear is resting on the floor and being partly supported by the tube, and the tubes may be directed upwardly to support handwear. The tubes are provided with air flow controlling nozzles which adjust the flow of air by rotating a cap member. The cap member has air outlet slits on diametrically opposed sides with more slits blowing air towards a toe of the footwear than towards a heel. Turning the cap to block the air flow is done when any given tube is not required for footwear or handwear drying.

The prior art in the area of devices for drying shoes and boots is extensive. These devices comprise a supply of hot air for drying the footwear and at least one air conducting tube for guiding the air into the shoe, and more importantly distributing the air toward the toe of the footwear where drying is usually more difficult.
Examples of such devices are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,417,482, 3,793,744, 4,136,464 and 4,768,293. In particular, U.S. patent 4,136,464 discloses a boot drying apparatus having a plurality of upright extending tubes having a snout-like portion pointed in one direction to blow air into the toe of the boot. When a boot is inverted and placed on a given tube, it depresses a rod which opens the connection between the tube and the hot air source. In this way, hot air is supplied only to those tubes where boots are being dried. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,744, a device for drying shoes is disclosed in which an L-shaped perforate nozzle tube is inserted into each shoe which is to be dried. Several nozzle tubes may be connected to a single hot air supply, and it is additionally possible to make the placing of the shoe on a nozzle tube open a flap valve connecting the tube to the air supply. The shoes are placed upright onto the nozzle tubes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,293 discloses a footwear drying apparatus which plugs into an open or ankle portion of the footwear while the footwear is resting on the floor. A telescopic tube extends from the ankle portion to the sole and air is blown mostly towards the toe with some air being blown towards the heel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,153 discloses a shoe or slipper dryer which has two air conducting tubes to be inserted into the toes of the shoes with the shoes pointing vertically. The tubes are rotatably mounted together to the base and may be rotated down to be flush with the base for compact storage. A convenient timer for timing the drying process is also provided.
In the prior art footwear dryers, individual adjustment of the position of the air conducting tubes and of the air flow through each nozzle was not provided in any convenient manner. Dryers having several air conducting tubes have not been able to adjust to the specific dimensions and drying air flow requirements of various types of footwear. It is also common in the prior art that the footwear is to be placed upside down over the air conducting tube such that the air conducting tube fully supports the footwear in the upside down position. In this arrangement ice or snow which has stuck to the footwear sole will melt and run down the sides of the footwear and onto the dryer.

Tubular drying apparatus for footwear or handwear


Disclosed are ophthalmic device materials having improved light transmission characteristics. The materials contain a combination of certain UV absorbers and blue-light absorbing chromophores.

In the past, benzotriazole UV absorbers, like oMTP (compound 1), have been added to intraocular lens (IOL) materials to provide protection from UV radiation in the environment. Typically, UV absorbers possess a polymerizable moiety, such as vinyl, acrylate or methacrylate functionality in their chemical structure, for covalent incorporation into the IOL material during polymerization. Most of these benzotriazole UV absorbers will provide a UV transmission cut-off of between 1 and 10% in the 390-410 nm range depending on concentration.

More recently, polymerizable yellow dyes have also been added to IOLs to absorb harmful blue light radiation. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,470,932 and 5,543,504. Most yellow dyes absorb blue light over a wide wavelength range and bring about a gradual attenuation of blue light, usually from 500 to 400 nm depending on the concentration of yellow dye used. If a sharper cut-off of the transmission spectrum in the blue-violet region is desired, conventional yellow dyes could not provide a sharp cut-off in that region. See, also, US 2005/0243272, which discloses ophthalmic devices having a highly selective violet light transmissive filter that selectively filters wavelengths between approximately 400 nm to about 450 nm with little or no absorption of wavelengths above 450 nm.

Intraocular lenses with unique blue-violet cutoff and blue light transmission characteristics


A portable air freshener device that inhibits the release of fragrance when the fan is not being operated, and that controls operation of the fan based at least in part on ambient temperature in some embodiments.

A problem with putting an air freshener in a confined space, such as the inside of a car, truck, boat, recreational vehicle, or other confined area, is that the fragrance can be released too quickly. This results in the aroma being stronger than desired, and in the fragrance source being dissipated too quickly. The present disclosure concerns better control of the release of the fragrance from the fragrance source, maximizing the usefulness of the air freshener device. A fan is controlled with intelligent programming which also results in power saving benefits, and a fragrance release shutter is disposed between the fan and the fragrance source. As used in the present application, fragrance release shutter is defined as a physical barrier, disposed between the fan and the fragrance source, that inhibits air flow to and from the fragrance source less when the fan is operating than when it is not operating.


A hard coating formed on a substrate material and having a first layer and a second layer of which, the first layer is a compound composed of one or more types of metallic elements selected to include at least aluminum or titanium from a group comprising aluminum, titanium and silicon; and also selected from one or more types of non-metallic elements from a group comprising boron, carbon and nitrogen, and the second layer is a lamination of AlBN on the surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hard coating as a surface coating material for cutting tools used in machining methods such as milling, cutting and drilling, or as a surface coating for wear resistant material in parts requiring high hardness such as molds, bearings, dies, and rollers, or as a surface coating material for heat resistant and corrosion resistant members used in molding machines such as screws and cylinders. This invention further relates to a hard coating coated member having excellent wear resistance due to the hard coating thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cutting tools such as high speed and carbide cutting tools which require high wear resistance, hard coatings consisting of TiN and TiC are formed on the surface of cutting tools in order to improve the wear resistance.
In comparing the wear resistance of the above TiN and TiC, TiN has an oxidation resistance superior to TiC at high temperature and demonstrates good wear resistance to crater abrasion occurring on the cutting tool surface from cutting or frictional heat generated during cutting. The TiN also demonstrates superior adhesive properties to the substrate material. The TiC on the other hand, has higher hardness than the TiN and demonstrates high durability with respect to flank wear where the tool flank surface contacts the work piece.
However even in TiN which has superior oxidation resistance, the temperature at which oxidation starts is at most about 600.degree. C. and even in high hardness TiC, the Vickers hardness is at most about 2,000, therefore, in either case further improvement is needed.
At which point, for example in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2-194159, in an effort to improve the oxidation resistance and hardness of the TiN and TiC, nitrogen compounds of Al and Ti and carbon-nitrogen compounds with aluminum replacing a portion of the Ti (titanium) was used {hereafter shown by (Al, Ti) (C,N)}. This improved the oxidation temperature to approximately 800.degree. C. and the Vickers hardness to about 2500.
The inventors of this patent completed patent application for a hard coating demonstrating excellent wear resistance, good resistance to oxidation and high hardness, by means of replacing a portion of the elements with other elements and utilizing an aluminum-titanium-nitride compound as a base. For instance the (Al, Ti) (B,N) in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 4-26756 had an oxidation temperature of approximately 800.degree. C. and a Vickers hardness of 3400. Also the (Al, Ti, Si) (C,N) film (Japanese Patent Application No. 6-100154) had an oxidation temperature of approximately 1000.degree. C. and a Vickers hardness of 3100.
However it is necessary to develop a hard coating having even better wear resistance for applications in fields requiring an even higher performance such as in cutting tools.

Hard coating of excellent wear resistance and hard coating coated member thereof


A laser driver circuit with signal transition enhancement is disclosed. The laser driver circuit comprises a pair of laser driver input terminals, a current modulator circuit, a transition boost circuit, and a nonlinear integrator circuit. The pair of laser driver input terminals are configured to receive a pair of differential input signals. The current modulator circuit generates a pair of current modulator output signals in accordance with the pair of differential input signals. The transition boost circuit generates a pair of transition boost signals for enhancing signal transitions of the pair of current modulator output signals. The nonlinear integrator circuit integrates the pair of transition boost signals to generate a pair of differential current output signals.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of high-speed data communication. In particular, the present invention relates to a circuit and method for reducing electromagnetic interference in a data communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In high speed optical communication systems, laser signals can be used to transmit information. For example, a laser driver circuit is used to drive and modulate the amount of electric current to be received by a laser diode. The laser diode emits a laser signal in response to the magnitude of the electric current received.
A conventional laser driver circuit may be implemented with a plurality of differential amplifiers consisting of pairs of transistors for driving a pair of differential current output signals. A problem with the conventional laser driver circuit is that it generates undesirable common mode glitches as the transistors of differential amplifiers switch states from on to off or vice versa. The common mode glitches may reverberate within the laser driver circuit, causing the circuit to radiate electromagnetic noise. These common mode glitches are difficult to terminate within an integrated circuit. One potential solution is to use inductors external to the laser driver integrated circuit to terminate the output signals. However, external inductors increase the cost of the system and occupy valuable circuit board space. Hence, there is a need for a laser driver circuit that can minimize common mode glitches when the differential amplifiers of the laser driver circuit transition between states.
A conventional laser driver circuit is slow in draining the electric charges accumulated in the differential amplifier circuits and therefore results in a slow laser turn off performance. One of the design goals of the laser driver circuit is to ensure a fast signal transition for the pair of differential current output signals, especially for the high to low transition for turning off the laser diode. This design goal may be accomplished using differential amplifiers having high amplification gains in order to ensure a fast signal transition. However, having high amplification gains creates signal overshoots when the output signals transition from low to high, and the overshoots cause undesirable electromagnetic noise.
Another design goal of the amplification circuit is to minimize the electromagnetic interference created by the laser driver circuit. This design goal may be accomplished by using differential amplifiers having low amplification gains to drive the output laser signal. As a result, a design tradeoff has to be made to choose between having high or low amplification gains in the differential amplifiers, and the design is compromised because it has to choose between the adverse effect of electromagnetic interference or a slower signal transition. The adverse effect of electromagnetic interference may lead to additional system costs employed to reduce the interference problem. The adverse effect of slower signal transition may-lead to lower system performance. Therefore, there is a need for a laser driver circuit having a high amplification gain for signal transition performance and at the same time reduces the adverse side effect of electromagnetic interference.

Laser driver circuit with signal transition enhancement


In a laser module, a laser beam which is emitted from a laser element is focused by a condensing optical system and caused to enter an incidence end of an optical fiber. A laser device is provided with a plurality of these laser modules. Emission end portions of the optical fibers are bundled to form a laser emission portion. A thickness of cladding h of each optical fiber is set to a value calculated in accordance with the following equation:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-intensity laser device which is suitable for use as a laser light source of an exposure apparatus for exposing an exposure surface at a photosensitive material or the like with a laser beam which is spatially modulated by a spatial light modulation device in accordance with image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, an exposure apparatus which employs a spatial light modulation device such as a digital micromirror device (DMD) or the like for carrying out image exposure with light beams modulated in accordance with image data has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-149888, which is a prior application which has not yet been published.
A DMD thereof is structured as, for example, a mirror device in which numerous micromirrors, which alter angles of reflection surfaces thereof in accordance with control signals, are arranged two-dimensionally on a semiconductor support of silicon or the like.
An exposure apparatus which utilizes such a DMD is structured such that, for example, a laser beam emitted from a laser beam-emitting laser light source is collimated at a lens system, is reflected at the DMD, which is disposed substantially at a focusing position of the lens system, passes through an aperture, and is focused onto an exposure surface by another lens system.
In such an exposure apparatus, control signals are generated in accordance with image data or the like. Each of the micromirrors of the DMD is controlled to 'on' or 'off' by an unillustrated control device, on the basis of the control signals, to modulate (deflect) the laser beam. A portion of (light flux of) the laser beam is blocked by passing the modulated laser beam through apertures, and spot diameters of the laser beam are controlled to have a predetermined size at the exposure surface. In addition, the beam spots are formed with a shape of the beam spots (a spot shape) being a predetermined shape, and the beam spots are irradiated onto the exposure surface for exposing the same.
In this exposure apparatus, a photosensitive material (a photoresist or the like) is provided at a recording surface. The beam spots which are formed and projected by the apertures are irradiated onto the photosensitive material from an exposure head of the exposure apparatus. While positions of these beam spots are relatively moved with respect to the photosensitive material, the DMD is adjusted in accordance with the data. Thus, a process of pattern-exposure on the photosensitive material can be implemented.
For laser light which is emitted from laser devices which are employed at light sources of such exposure apparatuses, higher output is sought. Accordingly, as a laser device which is capable of emitting high-power laser light, a multiplex laser light source with a plurality of semiconductor laser elements and one multi-mode optical fiber, in which laser beams emitted from the plurality of semiconductor laser devices ate multiplexed at the multi-mode optical fiber, has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2002-202442).
To provide a laser output that is required in an exposure apparatus, it is necessary to bundle a plurality of these multiplex laser light sources for use, Further, in order to perform high-precision imaging, it is required that a light source portion has high intensity. However, when these multiplex laser light sources, which conventionally have employed commonly-used fibers with a cladding diameter of 125 μm, are bundled, intensity is reduced by an amount corresponding to cladding regions, which do not contribute to light propagation, and the intensity is inadequate for the required intensity.
In order to structure a high-precision exposure system in which resolution is improved, with a conventional exposure apparatus as described above, a laser device which emits high-intensity laser light with a high power that is necessary for functionality as a high-precision exposure apparatus is called for.

Laser device and exposure device using the same

Abstract: cladding                                      thickness                                                              h                      ≤            (                                                                                emission                                                                                light                                                                                amount                                                                                of                                                                                one                                                                                laser                                                                                module                                                                                W                                                                                required                                                                                intensity                                                                                C                                                                                ×                                                                    packing                                                                                ratio                                                                                P                                                                                -                                            core                                                                          diameter                                                                                t                                                        )        ÷    2  As a result, it is possible to emit a laser-beam with a high intensity that is required for functionality as a laser light source, for the purpose of raising resolution of an exposure apparatus.