A machine is provided for making holes in the legs of a structural angle oriented lengthwise along the X-axis of a mutually orthogonal X, Y, and Z-axis coordinate system. The machine includes a first or main frame, a second frame moveable along the Y-axis relative to the first frame, and a carriage moveable along the Z-axis relative to the second frame. A punch is mounted on the second frame for punching a first hole in the first leg of the angle. A drill is mounted on the carriage for drilling a second hole in the second leg of the angle. The punch has a punch operating axis along which the punch moves longitudinally to punch the first hole and which is parallel to the Z-axis. The drill has a drill feed operation axis along which the drill moves longitudinally to drill the second hole and which is parallel to the Y-axis. The drill and the punch are oriented with the drill feed operation axis and the punch operation axis together defining a common plane.

Preparation of a structural angle for further use may require drilling, punching, and severing portions of the angle to create a configuration needed for the particular end use application (e.g., installation in a structural steel frame of a building or bridge, installation in a vehicle, installation on or in a machine or other assembly, etc.). Conventional machines exist for performing some or a number of these processing operations.
Structural angles may have to be provided in appropriate lengths for being erected in specific structures or used in other applications. Methods for creating one or more shorter segments from a length of angle stock include severing the shorter segments from a longer length of angle stock with a shearing apparatus. See, for example, the shearing apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,782.
When structural angles are used in a structural steel frame for a building, the angles are typically connected with bolts to other structural frame members (e.g., I-beams or wide flange beams). The bolts are received in holes provided in the legs of the angles and in the other structural members to which the angles are connected.
Conventional methods for providing the bolt holes in an angle include drilling the holes with one or more drill spindles, or punching the holes with one or more punch presses. For example, in one type of machine, a structural angle is supported lengthwise adjacent a drill carriage which supports a drill spindle so that a drill mounted thereto can be moved to desired locations along the length of the angle, along the heights of the angle legs, and toward or away from the angle.
Holes in the legs of an angle may also be made with punch presses. Such punch presses may have conventional designs well-known to those skilled in the art. Various punch press designs for structural members are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,631,996, 3,722,337, and 3,720,125. A machine for processing a structural angle might also move the angle through an assembly of tools (e.g., drills, punch presses, and a shear) which are at fixed locations along the length of the machine.
For some uses of structural angles, it is desirable to be able to efficiently provide holes in the legs of relatively short lengths of structural angles. One such type of short, structural angle is a standard "clip" angle or clip used to connect two larger structural beams (e.g., I-beams or wide flange beams). FIG. 1 shows two horizontally oriented I-beams 51 and 52 connected to a vertical I-beam 53 with such clip angles 56 and 58. FIG. 1A shows the clip angle 56 alone, prior to installation. The clip angle 56 has three bolt holes 57 in each leg of the clip angle.
In the connection illustrated in FIG. 1, the I-beam 53 includes a central web 60 and two parallel flanges 62 which are each perpendicular to the web 60. The I-beam 51 has a central web 64 which is connected at one end with the clip angle 56 to the web 60 of the I-beam 53. The I-beam 52 has a central web 66 which is connected at one end with the clip angle 58 to one of the flanges 62 of the I-beam 53. The clip angles 56 and 58 are attached to the I-beams with bolts 68 and nuts 69. The bolts 68 are received in the holes in the clip angles 56 and 58 and holes made in the I-beams.
Clip angles, such as the clip angles 56 and 58, are typically between about 5 and 15 inches in length and usually have 3 or more holes in each leg. The two legs typically define a right angle (i.e., 90 degree angle) configuration extending from the structural angle vertex or heel 59 (FIG. 1A). Each hole in one leg of a clip angle is typically "in line" with a corresponding hole in the other leg. That is, the longitudinal axis of the center of a round hole in one leg is perpendicular to, but co-planar with, the longitudinal axis of the center of a corresponding round hole in the other leg.
It would be beneficial to provide an improved machine that could efficiently make holes in the legs of structural angles, especially clip angles.
It would also be advantageous to provide an improved machine that could efficiently make holes in a structural angle, especially a clip angle, at or near the lateral side edge of the angle and at or near the longitudinal end edge of the angle.
Further, it would be desirable if such an improved machine for making holes in structural angles had a relatively short length and also had an improved design that could accommodate carriage feeding of a stock length of structural angle with reduced length requirements for the carriage travel.
It would also be beneficial to provide such an improved machine with the capability to very rapidly move the machine components into position adjacent the desired location of a hole to be made in the structural angle, and to move the machine components in a way that minimizes the amount of time required to move the machine components into the positions or locations for making the holes.
Also, it would be advantageous to provide such an improved machine with the capability for reducing the amount of motion required to position the machine components as necessary to make a hole, thus reducing the possibility for positioning errors.
It would also be desirable to provide an improved machine employing both a drill and a punch. This would allow the punch to be advantageously used instead of the drill to create some holes either more quickly and/or with non-circular configurations, but would allow the drill to be used in situations where there is not enough clearance near the angle vertex (i.e., heel) to accommodate a punch or where the hole can be made better by drilling (e.g., when the angle leg thickness is greater than the hole diameter).
It would also be desirable if such an improved machine could (1) be designed to be readily operated manually or by an appropriate automatic or semi-automatic control system, (2) accommodate a variety of different sizes of structural angles, and (3) produce accurate and repeatable results.
Further, it would be advantageous if the improved machine could be manufactured, installed, and operated without incurring excessive costs or expenses.

Punch and drill machine for a structural angle


A display driving circuit according to an example embodiment of the inventive concept is disclosed. A display driving circuit may include an interface configured to receive a synchronization packet and image data from the outside; a memory configured to receive the image data from the interface in the command mode; a synchronization controller configured to receive the synchronization packet and generate a flag control signal and an internal synchronization signal; a flag generator configured to generate a first flag signal and a second flag signal; and an image controller configured to receive the image data from the memory in the command mode, receive the image data from the interface in the video mode, wherein the synchronization controller is configured to calculate a delay time between a generation time of the first flag signal and a reception time of the synchronization packet, and is configured to adjust a generation time of the second flag signal.

At least one technical idea of the inventive concepts relates to a display driving circuit, and in particular, to a display driving circuit for driving a display panel so that an image is displayed on the display panel, and a method of operating the same.
A display device includes a display panel displaying an image and a display driving circuit driving the display panel. The display driving circuit may drive the display panel by receiving image data from a processor and applying an image signal corresponding to the received image data to the data line of the display panel. The display device may be implemented in various forms such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic LED (OLED) display, and an active matrix OLED (AMOLED) display.
The display device may operate in various operation modes through the control of a host, and seamless switching of the operation mode may be required to switch the operation mode.

Display driving circuit and operating method of the same


A door safety latch for air cleaner is provided. The door safety latch includes a latch arm including a latch projection, with the latch arm configured to pivot with respect to a door of the air cleaner, and a slider that traps a portion of the latch arm. The slider is configured to hold the latch arm in a first, latched position and further configured to pivot the latch arm to a second, unlatched position. The door safety latch further includes a release button that includes a stop shoulder. The release button is biased to a normally extended position with the stop shoulder blocking movement of the slider and the latch arm to the second, unlatched position.

Air cleaners are widely used for removing foreign substances from the air. The foreign substances can include pollen, dander, smoke, pollutants, dust, etc. In addition, an air cleaner can be used to circulate room air. An air cleaner can be used in many settings, including at home, in offices, workrooms, etc.
An air cleaner can include any type of mechanical filter element comprising a mesh, a weave, a foam, etc. An air cleaner can further include electrical air cleaning components, such as a collector cell that removes dirt and debris from the airflow of the air cleaner. A collector cell can include an ionizer and/or an electrostatic precipitator.
The electrostatic precipitator and the ionizer operate by creating high-voltage electrical fields, typically in excess of 5,000 volts. Dirt and debris in the air becomes ionized when it is brought into this high voltage electrical field by an airflow. Charge plates or electrodes in the electrostatic precipitator air cleaner, such as positive and negative plates or positive and ground plates, create the electrical field and one of the electrode polarities attracts the ionized dirt and debris. Because the electrostatic precipitator comprises electrodes or plates through which airflow can easily and quickly pass, only a low amount of energy is required to provide airflow through the electrostatic precipitator. As a result, foreign objects in the air can be efficiently and effectively removed.
The ionizer can comprise charge wires and ground plates, wherein the ionizer charges particles in the airflow before the airflow enters the electrostatic precipitator. The charging of the particles can neutralize or kill living organisms. The ionized particles of the airflow are subsequently attracted to ground potential surfaces. As a result, the electrically charged dirt and debris is more likely to be pulled out of the airflow when the airflow passes through the electrostatic precipitator.
Periodically, the electrostatic precipitator can be removed and cleaned. Therefore, the air cleaner must include some manner of access door that allows persons to access internal components. The door further allows removal of the electrostatic precipitator and other filter elements for cleaning, replacement, or other maintenance.
The high operational voltage level of a collector cell presents a safety concern in that it presents a significant danger of shock or electrocution. It is imperative that the air cleaner include sufficient safety features to prevent intentional and unintentional contact with any high voltage components. Specifically, the air cleaner must be designed so that small children, who cannot appreciate the danger and who cannot appreciate warning labels, cannot access the interior components.
The prior art has drawbacks. The prior art does not provide door latch that minimizes risk of contact with high voltage components. The prior art does not provide a door latch that is simple and compact, yet requires a relatively complex manipulation process that must be performed in sequence in order to open the door.


A hand-held power tool includes a housing having a motor provided therein, a cutting accessory coupled to the motor and means for selectively directing a flow of air toward a point of cut of the cutting accessory. The flow of air acts to remove debris at the point of cut to improve visibility of the workpiece.

The invention relates generally to hand-held power tools. More specifically, the invention relates to hand-held power tools having a fan.
Hand-held power tools, such as hand-held power cutting tools, generally include a housing and an electric motor contained within the housing. The motor is configured to move a tool bit or other cutting accessory at high speeds to form cuts in a workpiece (e.g., a piece of wood, etc.). For example, a rotary cutting tool is a hand-held power tool that includes an electric motor that rotates a tool bit at high speeds. One type of tool bit that may be used with a rotary cutting tool is a helical or spiral cutting tool bit that includes a sharp cutting edge wrapped in a helix around the axis of the bit.
Hand-held power cutting tools are used to remove material from a workpiece, for example, by forming cuts in the workpiece. In the above example of a rotary cutting tool having a rotating helical cutting tool bit, the tool bit is moved through the workpiece in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the bit to remove material from the workpiece.
Precise control of a cut being made by a hand-held power cutting tool requires that the user of the tool have good visibility of the workpiece at the point of the cut. Such visibility can be reduced by a build-up of cutting debris (e.g., sawdust) and poor lighting at the point of the cut. Some power tools employ vacuum systems connected to the tool to remove cutting debris. However, the use of such a vacuum system often makes use of the tool more cumbersome. Proper lighting at the point of a cut can be a problem, both in generally poorly lighted construction environments and, more generally, in any environment where the operator of the tool and the tool itself cast a shadow over the workpiece.
There is a need for a hand-held power tool that allows increased visibility at the point of a cut made in a workpiece. There is also a need for a hand-held power tool that includes a way to remove debris from at least a portion of the workpiece. There is also a need to provide a hand-held power tool that includes the ability to selectively remove debris from the workpiece.
It would be desirable to provide a hand-held power tool that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.


A CPU calculates integrating values of image-capturing signals in a band 1 obtained by removing through a band pass filter a low frequency component of image-capturing signal output from an image-capturing device and integrating values of the image-capturing signals in a band 3 retaining the low frequency component intact, each calculated in correspondence to one of a plurality of lens positions. The CPU then obtains focal point evaluation values based upon these integrating values in correspondence to the individual bands. In addition, when it is judged that the image-capturing signals are saturated, the CPU calculates a new evaluation value parameter 1 history record=(focal point evaluation value history record in band 3−focal point evaluation value history record in band 1). The CPU then determines a new evaluation value parameter 1 history record extremal value through a 3-point interpolation operation and calculates a lens position corresponding to the extremal value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autofocus camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are focal point detection methods known in the related art adopted in cameras to detect the state of focal point position adjustment of a photographic lens based upon image-capturing signals output from an image-capturing element such as a CCD that captures a subject image. In the so-called hill-climbing method among those camera focal point detectionmethods, while the focus lens moves forward/backward along the optical axis, a position at which the data corresponding to the high frequency component of the image-capturing signal, i.e., the focal point evaluation value, indicate the maximal value is detected as the focused position.
When the subject contains a light source with a high brightness level or the like, image-capturing signals corresponding to the light source become saturated. The saturated image-capturing signals indicate a uniform saturation-level value. Generally speaking, such image-capturing signals indicating a uniform level do not contain a significant high frequency component, and for this reason, it is difficult to accurately detect the focused position with saturated image-capturing signals.
Accordingly, Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H 6-205268 discloses a camera that switches the low range cutoff frequency of a filter that allows the high-frequency component of image-capturing signals to pass through when capturing an image with a very bright subject. This camera counts the number of scanning lines in which the brightness signals indicate values greater than a predetermined value and judges that the brightness level of the subject is high when the scanning line count exceeds a predetermined number. If the brightness level of the subject is judged to be high, the camera switches to a high pass filter that cuts off the low frequency component of the brightness signals to a greater extent than the extent to which the low frequency component is cut off when the brightness level of the subject is not judged to be high. After making this switch, the camera detects the focused position by extracting the high-frequency component of the brightness signals having passed through the high pass filter.
However, under certain circumstances, the focal point evaluation value may still peak at the-focused position even when the brightness of the subject is high. In such a case, if the low range cutoff frequency of the filter which allows the high-frequency component of image-capturing signals to pass through is switched, the focused position cannot be accurately detected.

Autofocus camera adjusting focus lens position based on illumination characteristics


A level converter includes a cross-coupled section for holding data and a first switching section connected in series with the cross-coupled section and supplied with a differential input signal. The level converter has a second switching section, a current mirror connection section, a third switching section, and an input/output matching evaluation section. The second switching section is connected in parallel with the cross-coupled section, and the current mirror connection section is connected in a current-mirror configuration with a transistor in the second switching section. The third switching section is connected in series with the current mirror connection section, and the input/output matching evaluation section is used to control a transistor in the third switching section by receiving the input signal and an output node signal.

In recent semiconductor devices, to reduce power consumption the internal circuitry is designed to handle signals whose voltage level is lower than the signal level used outside the semiconductor device. That is, the supply voltage on which the internal circuitry is designed to operate is set lower than the signal level used outside the semiconductor device.
To achieve this, the input and output circuits of the semiconductor device are provided with a level converter for converting the signal level of the internal circuitry to the external signal level.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating one example of a prior art level converter.
The prior art level converter illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a pair of cross-coupled p-channel MOS transistors (pMOS transistors) Tp1 and Tp2 and a pair of n-channel MOS transistors (nMOS transistors) Tn1 and Tn2 whose gates are supplied with complementary input signals.
The sources of the pMOS transistors Tp1 and Tp2 are connected to a high power supply line (AVD), and the drains of the pMOS transistors Tp1 and Tp2 are connected to the drains of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2 via nodes N1 and N2, respectively, while the sources of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2 are connected to a low power supply line (DVS).
Then, when the input signal, in or /in, supplied to the gate of either one of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2 goes to a high level "H", for example, when the input signal, in, supplied to the gate of the nMOS transistor Tn1 goes to a high level "H", and the input signal, /in, supplied to the gate of the nMOS transistor Tn2 goes to a low level "L", the node N1 is held at the low level "L", while on the other hand, the node N2 is held at the high level "H".
The voltages at which the respective nodes are held are determined by the bias voltages AVD and DVS of the circuit, but need not be the same as the input gate voltages (in and /in) of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2, and these node voltages make signal level conversion possible. Here, the voltages held at the nodes N1 and N2 produce an output voltage which is usually higher than the input voltage.
While the pMOS transistors Tp1 and Tp2 and nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2 used in the level converter illustrated in FIG. 1 are all slow transistors having breakdown voltages matched to the output voltage side, the input voltages to the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2 are held low.
Next, consider the case where the input signal, in, supplied to the gate of the nMOS transistor Tn1 makes a transition from the low level "L" to the high level "H" (the input signal, /in, supplied to the gate of the nMOS transistor Tn2 makes a transition from the high level "H" to the low level "L").
In the initial state, the node N1 is at the high level "H", and the node N2 is at the low level "L". Therefore, the pMOS transistor Tp1 is ON.
Subsequently, when the input signal, in, makes a transition from the low level "L" to the high level "H", the nMOS transistor Tn1 also turns ON, but since the nMOS transistor Tn2 and the pMOS transistor Tp2 are both OFF, the initial change of the circuit's internal state begins by gradually lowering the voltage at the node N1 as the nMOS transistor Tn1 overcomes the pMOS transistor Tp1.
When the voltage of the node N1 drops to a certain level (approximately equal to the threshold voltage of the pMOS transistors), the pMOS transistor Tp2 begins to turn ON, so that the potential at the node N2 gradually rises, causing the force of the pMOS transistor Tp1 to decrease, and thereafter, the state changes at an increasingly rapid pace.
Here, if the driving capabilities of the nMOS transistors are made smaller than those of the pMOS transistors, the initial change is slow, but the pace of changing state thereafter is rapid. Conversely, if the driving capabilities of the nMOS transistors are made larger than those of the pMOS transistors, the initial change is rapid, but the pace of changing state thereafter is slow. Therefore, the level converter of FIG. 1 cannot have a high speed operation characteristic. Furthermore, since the nMOS transistors are driven at a lower voltage, a further delay may be caused.
In view of the above, various improvements to the level converter illustrated in FIG. 1 have been proposed in the prior art.
Specifically, in one proposed level converter, to reduce the voltages applied to the drains of the nMOS differential transistor pair, nMOS transistors are connected in a cascode configuration between the cross-coupled pMOS transistor pair and the nMOS differential transistor pair so that the level converter can operate at a low supply voltage despite the presence of the high supply voltage (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 2816124: FIG. 2).
There is also proposed in the prior art a level converter featuring a low current consumption and fast response; this level converter comprises a basic level shift circuit having the characteristic of being quick in falling but slow in rising, two additional transistors connected in parallel for accelerating the rising of the level shift circuit, and a signal change detection pulse generating circuit for generating a pulse by capturing the falling of a signal, wherein the acceleration transistors are operated by detecting the falling of one output signal and generating a pulse so as to accelerate the rising of the other output signal (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 05-343980: FIG. 1).
The prior art further proposes a level converter that uses a current mirror circuit to achieve high speed operation while reducing the input signal voltages (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-033718: FIG. 3).
As earlier described, it has been difficult to achieve high speed operation with the prior art level converter described, for example, with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram illustrating another example of a prior art level converter, which is described in the above-cited patent document 1.
In the prior art level converter illustrated in FIG. 2, to reduce the voltages applied to the drains (nodes N1 and N2) of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2, nMOS cascode transistors Tn31 and Tn32 are connected between the nodes N1, N2 and the drains of the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2, and core transistors capable of high speed operation with a low driving voltage are used as the nMOS transistors Tn1 and Tn2.
In FIG. 2, a resistor Rv and an nMOS transistor Tn33 are for generating a bias voltage Vb to be applied to the gates of the nMOS cascode transistors Tn31 and Tn32.
The prior art level converter illustrated in FIG. 2 is capable of high speed operation but has the problem that the power consumption increases because a steady-state current flows.
FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are circuit diagrams illustrating a further example of a prior art level converter.
In the prior art level converter illustrated in FIG. 3A, the cross-coupled pMOS transistors Tp1 and Tp2 are formed from small (narrow gate width) transistors, and large (wide gate width) pMOS transistors Tp3 and Tp4 are provided in parallel with them.
Here, as illustrated in FIG. 3C, for example, the gate of the pMOS transistor Tp3 is supplied with a control signal CS1 having a prescribed delay and pulse width, created through inverters I21 to I24 and a NAND gate 2 by taking the signal of the node N2 as an input, and control is performed so that when the pMOS transistor Tp1 is turned ON, the pMOS transistor Tp3 is forcefully turned ON for the duration corresponding to the prescribed pulse width.
Similarly, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, for example, the gate of the pMOS transistor Tp4 is supplied with a control signal CS2 having a prescribed delay and pulse width, created through inverters I11 to I14 and a NAND gate 1 by taking the signal of the node N1 as an input, and control is performed so that when the pMOS transistor Tp2 is turned ON, the pMOS transistor Tp4 is forcefully turned ON for the duration corresponding to the prescribed pulse width.
That is, the pMOS transistors Tp3 and Tp4 provided in parallel with the cross-coupled pMOS transistors Tp1 and Tp2 are normally OFF, but are turned ON only when the respective input signals, in and /in, change state.
More specifically, when the input signal, in, changes from the low level "L" to the high level "H", the nMOS transistor Tn1 is turned ON, but since the pMOS transistor Tp1 is small (the driving capability is small), and the pMOS transistor Tp3 is OFF, the node N1 rapidly falls from the high level "H" to the low level "L".
Then, as the voltage at the node N1 changes, the control signal CS2 created through the inverters I11 to I14 and NAND gate 1 changes from H to L and then to H (held at the low level "L" for a prescribed length of time), and the large (large driving capability) pMOS transistor Tp4 is turned ON for the prescribed length of time, forcing the potential at the node N2 to change from the low level "L" to the high level "H".
In this way, the prior art level converter illustrated in FIG. 3A is capable of achieving high speed operation without causing an increase in power consumption. Here, the pulse width of each of the signals CS1 and CS2 for controlling the pMOS transistors Tp3 and Tp4 is determined, for example, by the delay introduced through the multi-stage inverter circuit. Accordingly, in actual use, the number of inverter stages for introducing the delay has to be increased, resulting in the problem that the amount of circuitry increases.


A connection between a pivotable pedal plate of a foot pedal for operating a drum, cymbal, or the like instrument and a relatively stationary heel plate. The pivot connection includes an axle that extends through flanges projecting rearwardly from the pedal plate and through a projection forwardly of the heel plate that extends into the recess between the flanges of the pedal plate. Screws hold the axle firmly to either the pedal plate or the heel plate and bearings in the other of the heel plate and the pedal plate receive the axle and permit relative motion between the other plate and the axle without any gap between the axle and either of the plates as would be usual in the prior art.

The present invention relates to the connection between the pedal plate and the heel plate of a foot pedal for operating a drum, a cymbal, or the like instrument.
A conventional foot pedal for a musical instrument rotates a beater 121 to beat a drum, as shown in FIG. 11, or to raise or lower an operating rod for a high hat cymbal 130, as shown in FIG. 12.
A conventional pedal F shown in FIG. 10 comprises a pedal plate which operates the action part, i.e., the beater 121 or the operating rod 131, and a heel plate 110 that is connected to the rear of the plate 100. A link 101 connects the pedal plate to the action part.
The pedal plate 100 is movable while the heel plate 110 is stationary. They are connected at a pivot in a rotatable fashion at axle 105. This connection in the prior art includes a cut out concave 102 region formed at the rear of the pedal plate 100, a rotation axle 105 extending across the concave 102 and a convex part 111 extending forward from the heel plate and extending into the concave 102. A through hole 112 is provided across the convex part 111 at the axle 105 at the front of the heel plate 110. It is aligned with the holes at the sides of the concave 102 on axle 105. Nylon bushes 115 are provided between the axis 105 and the through hole 112, making the pedal plate freely pivotable.
In this conventional structure, the axle 105 is fixed to the pedal plate 100 but rotates inside the inner hole of the nylon bush 115 that has been installed on the heel plate 110 as the pedal plate 100 pivots. To reduce the friction resistance with the axle 105 during rotation, a gap S1 is formed in the inner hole of the nylon bush 115. In addition, a gap S2 for reducing friction resistance is required between the nylon bush 115 that has been installed on the heel plate 110 and the concave 102 of the pedal plate 100.
However, either gap S1 or S2 creates looseness or play in the pedal plate 100 during operation of the foot pedal, possibly causing noise or beating power loss during a performance. Some performers dislike this kind of looseness or play.

Connection between the pedal and heel plates of a foot pedal


A method that simulates a three dimensional scene by producing reflections in a two dimensional scene. In some embodiments, the two dimensional scene includes a display area for displaying a set of images, and at least one object that is displayed near the display area. The method generates reflections of the set of images on the object and superimposes the generated reflections on the display of the object. In some embodiments, the method generates and displays the reflections in real-time as it displays the set of images in order to cause the display of the set of images to appear to be part of a 3D environment. In some embodiments, the set of images are part of a video that a device displays in real-time. The device generates reflections off one or more neighboring objects from the content displayed in each video frame.

To date, there have been a number of approaches to make two-dimensional animations that are displayed on a device appear three-dimensional. These approaches typically involve performing perspective transformations to provide the appearance of depth (i.e., the perception of a third dimension) in a two-dimensional scene. At times, these approaches also include performing lighting operations that generate reflections in a two-dimensional scene from a virtual light source in the scene. However, these approaches limit their operations to displayed or animated objects that are defined in the scene. As such, the presentation on the device is not tied to the environment in which the device operates.

Generating a simulated three dimensional scene by producing reflections in a two dimensional scene


Methods for making a tribological bearing wear surface for a compressor component are provided. Such methods involve semi-solid metal casting, where an admixture of solid lubricant particles and a metal alloy material is heated to melt the metal alloy material, while the lubricant particles remain in a solid phase. The alloy material and solid lubricant have substantially different densities. The metal alloy material may be a copper, iron, or aluminum alloy, for example. The method further comprises mixing and cooling the admixture to form a semi-solid slurry admixture. Next, the method comprises introducing the semi-solid slurry admixture into a die. Finally, the semi-solid slurry admixture in the die is solidified to form a solid component having the solid lubricant particles homogenously distributed within a metal alloy material matrix, thus forming a metal matrix composite. Compressor components made from such methods are also provided.

Bearings for use in air conditioning and refrigeration compressors used in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) industry are unique with regard to required design life as compared to other applications, like automotive air conditioner compressors. Bearings generally serve the purpose of reducing friction at interfacing wear surfaces, while supporting radial and axial loads. Typical compressor life for a residential HVAC&R application is greater than 50,000 hours and in excess of 100,000 hours for HVAC&R commercial applications. By contrast, the typical automotive air conditioner compressor life is about 3,000 hours. Thus, bearings for use in compressors used in HVAC&R applications must be designed for significantly longer lifespans than in other compressor applications. Furthermore, HVAC&R compressors are partially or fully hermetically sealed to prevent refrigerant leakage and assure long, reliable, uninterrupted operation without requiring service. Therefore, oil or bearings are not changed during the entire life of a compressor. Consequently, the durability requirements for such bearings are high. Only carefully designed bearings are capable of such a long life with continuous compressor operation without maintenance or replacement.
In addition, there are potentially inherent lubrication problems with refrigeration and air conditioning compressor bearings. To a large extent, the lubricant oil is chemically and physically miscible with the refrigerant being compressed and circulated through the closed system to provide oil return to the compressor within the refrigeration circuit. This miscibility characteristic, in turn, means that the refrigerant will have a high degree of solvency for the lubricant oil. This may lead to repeated "dry" start-up conditions, after the system has been turned off for some time, because during such off-time the refrigerant may act as a degreasing agent that removes oil from critical bearing surfaces.
Moreover, it is not uncommon during the life of a compressor for repetitive refrigerant flooding situations to happen, particularly during start-up or during system defrosting, thus reducing the effective viscosity of the oil-refrigerant mixture to the point that the bearings become severely stressed. This refrigerant flooding event removes vital lubrication necessary for proper bearing performance. Other phenomena are also typically associated with HVAC&R compressors, such as condensing and boiling repeatedly occurring on various internal surfaces of the compressor due to temperature equilibration between the indoors and outdoors part of such system.
The lubricating properties of a bearing are thus quite important and directly related to the high durability and reliability requirements of refrigeration and air conditioning compressors. These properties are achieved in most bearings in the HVAC&R industry due to the presence of solid lubricious particles that help reduce friction and prevent scuffing and are of particular interest for compressor bearings. In compressors, as well as in other equipment, a cylindrical sleeve-type bearing is commonly used and may include an outer metal sleeve or backer (e.g., formed of steel) having a porous metal layer adjacent to the sleeve with a polymer disposed therein to form the wear surface. For example, a common bearing used as a journal bearing in compressors has a steel sleeve/backer with a porous bronze layer having a well-dispersed PTFE resin, and also having lead particles dispersed in the resin (e.g., through use of a solvent based slurry) throughout the porous bronze layer. In other variations, the sleeve bearing may be cast with lubricant particles, such as lead, dispersed in the metal alloy matrix or may have a bearing layer formed by such a technique.
For cast HVAC&R bearings, ideally the solid lubricious particles should be located at predetermined sites within the solid bearing. Introducing solid lubricious particles into a liquid metallic alloy matrix is not difficult, so long as the densities of the molten metallic alloy matrix and of the solid lubricious particles are relatively comparable. Traditionally, processes of making bearings introduce solid lubricious particles into a 100% liquid phase. For example, lead (Pb) is a particularly efficacious lubricant for bearings and Pb particles have a similar density to many of the alloys that are used as metal alloy matrices. Tightening environmental regulations have restricted use of Pb, further compounding the lubrication issues attendant with compressors in HVAC&R applications. Thus, global mandates to provide lead-free bearings have necessitated development of alternative lead-free designs that provide equivalent and/or improved efficiency to conventional bearings, like sleeve-type bearings.
However, many alternative lead-free solid lubricious particles have a large density difference between them and the base metallic alloy matrix. Such a difference in density poses significant difficulties when forming a bearing material, because the solid lubricious particles will tend to either float or sink in the liquid matrix alloy (depending upon their relative density) in an uncontrolled manner. Therefore, differences in density can produce a non-uniform distribution of the solid lubricious particles within the metallic alloy matrix after solidification, which is highly undesirable for bearings in HVAC&R compressors. It would be desirable to be able to form robust high-performance bearings for use in compressors in HVAC&R, which enables solid lubricious lead-free particles to be uniformly distributed within the metallic alloy matrix in a predetermined and controlled manner.

Controlled-dispersion of solid lubricious particles in a metallic alloy matrix


An electrically conductive polyurethane elastomer obtained by the reaction of a polytetramethylene ether glycol having the formula HO[(CH.sub.2).sub.4 O].sub.x H where x is from 8 to 41 and from about 20 to about 95 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of said glycol of at least one diisocyanate, a sufficient amount of chain extender and cross linking agents to provide a crosslinked elastomer and an amount of an asymmetric ionic quarternary ammonium salt having the formula: ##STR1## where R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 are C.sub.n H.sub.2n+1 and 1.ltoreq.n.ltoreq.25 sufficient to provide a D.C. volume resistivity of from about 10.sup.7 to about 10.sup.11 ohm cm. In a preferred embodiment the asymmetric ionic quarternary ammonium salt is hexadecyl ethyl dimethyl ammonium ethyl sulfate.

The present invention relates to an electrically conductive polyurethane elastomer and in particular to asymmetric ionic quarternary ammonium salts to extend the electrical life of polyurethane elastomers. It has particular application in electrostatographic printing apparatus and in particular as a biased transfer member in transferring toner from an electrostatographic imaging surface to a receiving surface such as a sheet of paper.
In the process of electrophotographic printing, a photoconductive surface is charged to a substantially uniform potential. The photoconductive surface is image wise exposed to record an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the informational areas of an original document being reproduced. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface corresponding to the informational areas contained within the original document. Thereafter, a developer material is transported into contact with the electrostatic latent image. Toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules of the developer material onto the latent image. The resultant toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive surface to a sheet of support material and permanently affixed thereto.
This process is well known and useful for light lens copying from an original and in printing applications from electronically generated or stored originals.
In a reproduction process of the type as described above, it is common practice today to use a biased transfer member to transfer the developed image from the photoconductor to the final support material such as a sheet of paper. Typically, these biased transfer members take the form of a roll and are comprised of a polyester based polyurethane with an additive to control resistivity such as tetraheptyl ammonium bromide. While capable of performing satisfactorily as a bias transfer member, in a transfer system wherein only about 25 microamps are applied to the transfer member difficulties are experienced in other systems, particularly, in multicolor imaging systems where more than one toner and a greater pile height of toner on the photoconductor must be transferred to the copy sheet. These systems require additional current up to 75 microamps. While the polyester based polyurethanes containing a tetraheptyl ammonium bromide operate satisfactorily at low current loads (25 microamps) having an electrical life of up to 1,500,000 prints at these increased current loads (75 microamps) we have found that the electrical life is shortened to approximately 500,000 prints. This is believed to be due to the depletion of the conductive additive in the polyurethane, in that the ionic components want to separate and over time the conductive additive is depleted, the resistance of the transfer member increases and under constant current the voltage on the power supply maximizes leading to a transfer system failure. This is believed to be due to the fact that the present systems are very low crosslinked systems and therefore the additives have high mobility and are very easily transported through the elastomer network, resulting in the diffusion of the charged components and accordingly reduction in conductivity of the transfer member. These prior art systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,574 to Seanor et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,573 to Eddy et al.
Furthermore, attempts to use a new polyether based polyurethane exhibiting high wear resistance and low compression set as described in commonly assigned copending application Ser. No. 07/767,442 entitled "High Wear Resistance Low Compression Set Polyurethane" filed Sep. 30, 1991, in the name of Schlueter et al. as a biasable member with the tetraheptyl ammonium bromide additive met with failure in that the tetraheptyl ammonium bromide poisoned the catalyst so that the degree of cross linking was inadequate.


The present invention provides a powder coating composition comprising a resin powder comprising a film-forming resin and a crosslinking agent capable of giving rise to a crosslinking reaction with the resin, wherein the resin powder has a volume-average particle diameter of 3-17 .mu.m and a shape factor (SF) of 100.5-160. This powder coating composition can form a coating film having luster and smoothness and can be applied in a thin film.

Organic solvent type coatings, which are obtained by dissolving main components such as resin and the like in an organic solvent and adding thereto auxiliary components such as coloring agent, curing agent and the like, have heretofore been used widely in coating applications. As there were seriously taken up recently the problems of these organic solvent type coatings, such as fire hazard, adverse effect on safety and hydigene, environmental pollution and the like, attention is being paid to coatings which vaporize no organic solvent, particularly aqueous emulsion type coatings and powder coatings.
Aqueous emulsion type coatings, however, have drawbacks. For example, since, in producing such a coating, resin particles and a pigment must be dispersed stably in an aqueous medium and therefore a hydrophilic substance such as emulsifier or the like is used, the film formed with the coating is inevitably inferior in properties such as water resistance, alkali resistance and the like; moreover, the film has low adhesivity to a material to be coated; further, it takes a time to obtain a dried film, as compared with the case of an organic solvent type coating and, in order to complete film drying in a short time, special equipment and a high cost are required.
Meanwhile, powder coatings, which contain no organic solvent, have various excellent advantages. For example, they are free from fire hazard, adverse effect on safety and hygiene, environmental pollution, or the like; they can be stored in an ordinary storehouse; the air amount of ventillation in spray booth can be minimum and the ventiallation air can be recirculated, resulting in high energy efficiency; and the coating film obtained has no foams which are generated by the vaporization of solvent during film drying. Powder coatings have further advantages. For example, they can be used as. they are without the necessity of adjusting the viscosity, solid content, etc.; and they can be easily recovered without staining the operation site and producing any waste. Furthermore, powder coatings can be applied by automated coating and, in view of the total cost including cost of coating materials, pretreatment cost, cost of coating operation, equipment cost, etc., are very economical as compared with organic solvent type coatings and aqueous emulsion type coatings.
In spite of the above-mentioned various advantages, powder coatings are not used popularly. One reason therefor is that when a conventional powder coating is applied and baked, it is difficult to obtain a coating film having luster and smoothness and, when applied in a thin film, the film cannot hide the substrate thereof sufficiently. In applying an organic solvent type coating or an aqueous coating on a material to be coated, the resulting film can flow during the vaporization of solvent and a smooth and continuous film can be obtained easily; meanwhile, in applying a powder coating, it is difficult to obtain a film having luster and smoothness because the powder (which is a solid) causes fusion bonding and thereby a film is formed. In order to obtain a film having luster and smoothness with a powder coating, it was proposed to make smaller the particle diameters of powder coating. However, this approach is not practical because the smaller particle diameters of powder coating result in lower fluidity of particles (i.e. powder coating) and inferior coatability.
In addition, powder coatings essentially have a serious drawback. Generally, coatings are required to not only have a role of protecting a material to be coated, from outside circumstances but also give a fine appearance on the material to be coated and, therefore, are required to be prepared as a series of many coatings each having a different color. Meanwhile, powder coatings are not suitable for production of many coatings of different colors, owing to the particular production process.
Production of a powder coating is ordinarily conducted by appropriately blending a resin, a curing agent, a fluidity-controlling agent, a coloring agent, a charge control agent, etc., subjecting the resulting blend to heating, melting and kneading by the use of an extruder or the like, and subjecting the kneaded product to cooling, grinding and classification; thus, many steps are required. In order to obtain various powder coatings of different colors, these many steps must be conducted for each of the coatings of different colors. Therefore, in producing many powder coatings of different colors, a large number of steps and a big expense are required, and, moreover, control of various raw materials and control of steps are very complicated.
In powder coatings, when a powder coating of certain color is produced and then a powder coating of different color is produced using the same apparatuses, the latter coating is contaminated with the former coating unless all the apparatuses used in production of the former coating are cleaned sufficiently. Therefore, when sufficient cleaning is difficult, another series of production apparatuses are required for production of the latter coating and, when a number of coatings of different colors are produced, a number of series of production apparatuses are required. This is very disadvantageous as compared with when other types of coatings are produced.
The color of the film formed with a powder coating obtained as above is determined by the kind and amount of coloring agent used in the first production step, the conditions of each step, etc. However, the exact color of such a film can be confirmed only by trial application of a powder coating produced. This requires a number of steps and much time for color matching.
As one method for overcoming the above-mentioned drawbacks of powder coating, it was proposed to mix at least two colored powders each having a different fundamental color and having the maximum particle size of 10 .mu.m or smaller and applying the resulting powder coating to form a film having a desired color (National Publication of International Patent Application No. 504431/1992=WO 60/06345). Meanwhile, a powder coating having particle sizes of smaller than 15 .mu.m is not easily fluidized with, in particular, a commercial electrostatic coating machine. Such a powder which cannot be applied with a commercial electrostatic coating machine, cannot be called a powder coating and is merely a raw material for powder coating. In fact, in the above proposal, a mixture of at least two powder coatings each having a different fundamental color is subjected to particle agglomeration and then is applied as particles of 15-75 .mu.m. In the above proposal, not only an extra step of particle agglomeration is needed, but also cleaning of the agglomeration apparatus is necessary and the above-mentioned problem is still not solved. The above proposal further has a serious drawback in that agglomeration of particles incurs reduction in surface smoothness of applied powder coating layer as well as in thermal conductivity of the layer and, as a result, the coating film after baking is low in smoothness and luster.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a novel powder coating which is free from the above-mentioned problems of conventional powder coatings.
One object of the present invention is to provide a powder coating capable of forming a coating film having smoothness and luster.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a powder coating capable of forming a coating fiIm which is uniform and has a hiding power even when formed in a small thickness.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a powder coating which can be produced at a high efficiency and is economical.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a powder coating which makes easy the color matching of different colors and has good coatability.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.


There is provided a tungsten film-forming method, including: forming a silicon film on a substrate in a reduced pressure atmosphere by disposing the substrate having a protective film formed on a surface of the substrate in a processing container; forming an initial tungsten film by supplying a tungsten chloride gas to the substrate having the silicon film formed thereon; and forming a main tungsten film by supplying a tungsten-containing gas to the substrate having the initial tungsten film formed thereon.

In LSI, tungsten is widely used for parts requiring a heat resistance, such as a MOSFET gate electrode, a contact with a source/drain, a word line of a memory and the like. In recent years, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method with good step coverage is used for a deposition process of tungsten.
In the related art, when forming a tungsten film by the CVD method, from the viewpoint of adhesion to a silicon layer and suppression of a reaction, there has been used a method in which a TiN film is formed as a barrier layer on a silicon layer and a tungsten film is formed on the TiN film. Furthermore, in the related art, a nucleation process for facilitating uniform tungsten film formation is performed prior to main film formation of the tungsten film by the above reaction.

Tungsten film-forming method, film-forming system and storage medium


A component mounting device adapted to mount components such IC or the like on a printed circuit board that includes replaceable pick up nozzles to accommodate different types of components to be picked up. A sensing station is provided that permits the pick up nozzle to be verified as the correct one. The same sensing station is employed to sense both the orientation of a component that is picked up and also whether the component is correctly oriented for deposit. This is done by measuring projected lengths in a plane with a photo sensitive device and by making calculations in accordance with trigonometric relationships.

This invention related to a method for mounting components and an apparatus therefor and more particularly to an improved arrangement that permits the accurate picking up and mounting of components and a method for performing such operations.
There are a wide variety of applications wherein components are picked up from a feed section where they are delivered and moved to and placed at an accurate location. A wide variety of devices are employed for actually picking up the components. Frequently such pick up devices employ vacuum nozzles for picking up the components.
A specific application for this type of apparatus and method is in the making of printed circuit boards. With such printed circuit boards, it is common to employ a device called a "chip mounter" that picks up small components such as integrated circuits, resistors or capacitors at a feed section and places them on a printed circuit board. Vacuum nozzles are frequently employed as the pick up devices.
In order to render such devices more versatile, it has been proposed to provide an arrangement wherein the form and type of pick up nozzle employed may be readily changed so as to suit particular components. This nozzle changing may be done either manually or automatically.
The criticality for accurately mounting such components is readily apparent. However, in the process of mounting the nozzle, mistakes may be made even if the apparatus functions automatically and these mistakes can result in inaccurate mounting of the components and other problems.
It is, therefor, a principle object of this invention to provide and improved apparatus and method for mounting components employing interchangeable pick up devices.
It is further object of this invention to provide: a method and apparatus that employs such types of pick up devices and which is operative to sense certain characteristics of the pick up device.
One way in which the method and apparatus functions to sense the pick up nozzle before the component is picked up so as to determine if the correct pick up nozzle is installed.
One of the operations that may be performed on the component once it is picked up by the pick up device is a sensing operation that will sense the orientation of the component relative to the pick up device so as to make a corresponding correction in the movement of the component to the mounting position so that it will correctly mounted. One type of device for such sensing involves rotation of the component in front of an optical sensor.
In addition to the problems of pick up misorientation, frequently it is possible that the pick up device will pick up the component not only at an orientation other than desired but the component actually incorrectly picked up. For example, the component normally has a lower surface that is intended to positioned on the device in which it is to be mounted such as a printed circuit board or the like. However, if the component is picked up off center it may actually rotate from the normal orientation so that the surface that is to be mounted will not be facing downwardly. If an attempt is made to mount the component in this orientation, damage can result. If, however, separate measures need be taken both to determine the orientation of the article as picked up and also whether the article has been picked up properly, the speed of the machine can be slowed considerably.
Therefor, it is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for performing a single operation that is effective both to sense the orientation in which the component has been picked up and also to determine whether the component has been correctly picked up.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved and simplified method and apparatus by which the correct picking up of a component by a pick up device may be determined.

Method for mounting components and apparatus therefor


A control valve for a water treatment system which includes a turbine (110) rotatably mounted within a water receiving chamber. A nozzle assembly (122) defines first and second fluid paths, one of the flow paths may include a fluid pressure response valve element (320) for controlling fluid flow along the one path. The system also comprises a nozzle assembly (122′) defining a throat (302′) extending from an inlet and terminating in a arcuate outlet conforming to the periphery of the turbine. A plurality of spaced apart and angled vanes (404) are disposed in the throat.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,025, which is owned by the present assignee, discloses a control valve for use in water softeners having two resin tanks. One of the resin tanks is normally on-line while the other tank is regenerated and placed in a standby condition until the first tank requires regeneration. The disclosed control valve controls which of the tanks is on-line and controls the regeneration sequence of an exhausted tank.
The quantity of water treated by a given tank, is monitored by a mechanism that includes a water usage turbine driven by water entering the on-line resin tank. When a predetermined quantity of water is treated, which produces to a predetermined number of revolutions in the turbine, a regeneration sequence is initiated which places the standby tank on-line and isolates the exhausted tank.
A second turbine, operatively connected to a regeneration sequence control element (in the form of a disk) is rotated by a stream of water that is activated at the beginning of the regeneration cycle. The stream of water physically drives the regeneration control disk (via the turbine and associated drive train) through its sequence. With the disclosed arrangement, the frequency of regeneration of the water softener system is determined by the usage turbine which directly measures the quantity of fluid treated by a given tank.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,549 which is also owned by the present assignee, a deionization method and apparatus is disclosed. The disclosed apparatus includes a control valve similar to the control valve disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,025 in that it includes a usage turbine for monitoring the amount of source water treated by a given tank and a regeneration control turbine for driving a control element through a regeneration sequence.
The control valves disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,298,025 and 4,427,549 channel all water to be treated past the water usage turbine. For the valves disclosed in these patents, the flow rate is sustainable through the valve is in large measure determined by the flow rate that is sustainable through the passages conveying the water to the water usage turbine. Attempts have been made to improve the flow rate of the types of control valves disclosed in the above-identified patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,932, which is also owned by the present assignee and is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a dual nozzle arrangement which increases the maximum flow rate through the valve of the water to be treated. In the control valve disclosed in the patent, two nozzles simultaneously feed water to the usage turbine.
It has been found that in some water treatment applications, the flow rate of water through the valve can vary substantially. It has been found, for example, that in some systems the flow rate can vary between 0.05 gallons per minute to 30 gallons per minute. It has been found that in water treatment applications where water flow rates vary between extremely wide limits, the accuracy of the monitoring mechanism may be adversely affected. For example, at very low flow rates of fluid, as might occur due to leaks in the plumbing system, little or no rotation in the water usage turbine is produced. Hence, this leakage water, although treated by the treatment apparatus, i.e., water softener, would not produce proportional movement in the monitoring mechanism and, as a result, the online resin tank could be used beyond exhaustion before it is regenerated.
The monitoring inaccuracy caused by low water flow rates was also found to be present in plumbing systems that utilize storage tanks from which the treated water was called for as needed. In these types of systems, water delivered from the storage tank to a shower or washing machine was delivered at a relatively high flow rate. However, as the storage tank was refilled or replenished, the flow rate of the water refilling the tank gradually decreased as the tank level control valve neared closure. In some systems, the level control valve would allow water to "dribble" into the tank for a considerable amount of time before complete closure occurred. The water treatment apparatus, i.e., water softener, is usually located upstream of the storage tank. The relatively low water flow rate of the replenishment water passing through the water softener in some instances was not sufficient to produce proportional movement in the water monitoring mechanism, resulting in a treatment tank being left online beyond exhaustion.


Provided is an input apparatus, including: an infrared camera; an image capture unit configured to sequentially capture a plurality of temperature distribution images photographed at predetermined time intervals by the infrared camera; and an input recognition unit configured to detect, from among the plurality of temperature distribution images captured by the image capture unit, pairs of skin temperature image portions each corresponding to a temperature of skin of a person, recognize, from among the pairs of skin temperature image portions thus detected, pairs of skin temperature image portions as pairs of detection target images, from among which motions are observed, and recognize an operation input based on states of the motions of the pairs of detection target images.

The present disclosure relates to an input apparatus and an input recognition method. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus configured to detect, for example, gesture operations of a user, and a technology of recognition of inputs of the gesture operations.
As a technology of providing a desktop man-machine interface, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-282456 discloses a method of operating an apparatus by calculating a coordinate pair of a fingertip position specified by performing pattern matching utilizing features of a shape of the fingertip based on images of a hand on a desk, which are photographed by an infrared camera.

Input apparatus having an input recognition unit and input recognition method by using the same


In a communication system a transmission-end input data flow with serially successive data is transmitted via a time-variant transmission channel. The transmission-end input data flow is divided into individual words. An a-priori reliability value is determined for each position of a transmittal data block by transmission-end modulation methods and coding methods, and the words of the input data flow are associated with corresponding positions of the transmittal data block according to the a-priori reliability values, and transmitted. An a-posteriori reliability value is formed on the receiving end for each word of the transmittal data block. The words having an a-posteriori reliability value falling below a pre-determined minimum value are re-requested and re-transmitted by acknowledgement of the corresponding positions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for the transmission of data in a communication system, in which a transmittal data stream with serially successive data is transmitted via a time-variant transmission channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
If on the basis of the receiving-end checking data information, an errored data block was detected, the corresponding data block will be rejected in the case of the ARQ method and requested again at the transmission end.
With a hybrid ARQ method, the errored data block that was first transmitted is buffered and re-requested at the transmission end. The re-requested data block and the buffered data block are combined with one another in the receiver. The resulting data block is then checked again for errors using the checking procedure.
With the hybrid ARQ method the data block is re-transmitted in accordance with the pure ARQ method: The data block is re-transmitted unchanged and coded in the same way. A method known as "chase combining" is used as the combination method.
As an alternative, the block can be transmitted in accordance with the "incremental redundancy" method. Here the coding of the data block to be re-transmitted is changed. As a result, an additional redundancy method for error correction is made available at the receiver. The buffered data block and the re-transmitted data block are combined by a so-called "code combining" method.
In the case of radio communication systems, it is necessary to adapt a data transmission rate with a high data throughput optimally and dynamically to the properties of a radio transmission channel which, in general, change over time (time-variant) through statistical fluctuations and interferences within the radio transmission channel. However, in the case of an increased data transmission rate, the susceptibility of data transmission to errors also increases because the capacity limit of the radio transmission channel is being approached.
The problems resulting from time-variant radio transmission channels are, for example, well-known from the mobile radio standards GSM, UMTS, HiperLAN, etc. and are particularly marked for strong power fluctuations in a receive signal as well as by the noise that overlaps and interferes with this received signal caused by a receiving amplifier arranged at the receiving end.
The power fluctuations in this case depend on the location and movement of a mobile user.
Telephone lines for ADSL connections, cables for cable television and optical fiber cables can also be seen as time-variant transmission channels.
Data blocks to be transmitted are protected against transmission errors by redundancy methods, forwards error correction methods or by a special error detection coding method. As a result, in each case a proportion of useful data is reduced accordingly within a data block to be transmitted.
Therefore, while in the case of a transmission channel with poor transmission properties a large amount of redundancy data is required in a data block, it is known that for transmission channels with good transmission properties (with a typical bit error rate BER <10-5), a checksum for error detection is already sufficient, in which case a maximum proportion of useful data is obtained in this instance.
In the case of the hybrid ARQ method, by using the combination method, a receiving-end signal-to-noise ratio SNR is improved to such an extent that an error free reception is made possible. However, a disadvantage of the hybrid ARQ method can be seen in the fact that, by repeatedly transmitting entire data blocks, only a rough grading of the data rate and, as a result, only a rough adaptation to the properties of the radio transmission channel is made possible. large memory capacities must be provided at the receiving end to buffer errored data blocks. Re-requesting and transmitting errored data blocks leads to delays in the data stream or an effective useful data throughput is reduced.
For data transmissions in a communication system, especially in a radio communication system, so-called automatic repeat request transmission methods (ARQ transmission methods) or hybrid ARQ transmission methods are known in which an input data stream with serially successive data is transmitted by radio and divided into data blocks. In this case, each individual data block to be transmitted has a test data sequence added as a prefix which at the receiving end allows information to be provided about whether or not a data block was transmitted without errors. This test data sequence can be embodied, for example, as a checksum covering the data block or as a CRC data sequence for a cyclic redundancy check.

ARQ method with adaptive transmittal data block positions


Described herein are systems and methods for a general, scalable, end-to-end framework that uses a generative adversarial network (GAN) objective to enable robust speech recognition. Encoders trained with the proposed approach enjoy improved invariance by learning to map noisy audio to the same embedding space as that of clean audio. Embodiments of a Wasserstein GAN framework increase the robustness of seq-to-seq models in a scalable, end-to-end fashion. In one or more embodiments, an encoder component is treated as the generator of GAN and is trained to produce indistinguishable embeddings between labeled and unlabeled audio samples. This new robust training approach can learn to induce robustness without alignment or complicated inference pipeline and even where augmentation of audio data is not possible.

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is becoming increasingly more integral in people's day-to-day lives, enabling virtual assistants and smart speakers like Siri, Google Now, Cortana, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, Microsoft Invoke, Baidu Duer, and many more. While ASR performance has improved tremendously in recent, these models still suffer considerable degradation from reasonable variations in reverberations, ambient noise, accents and Lombard reflexes that humans have little or no issue recognizing.
Most of these problems can be mitigated by training the models on a large volume of data that exemplify these effects. However, in the case of non-stationary processes, such as accents, accurate data augmentation is most likely infeasible, and in general, collecting high quality datasets can be expensive and time-consuming. Hand-engineered front-ends and data-driven approaches have been considered in an attempt to increase the value of relatively parsimonious data with desired effects. While these techniques are quite effective in their respective operating regimes, they do not generalize well to other modalities in practice due to the aforementioned reasons. Namely, it is difficult to model anything beyond reverberation and background noise from the first principles. Existing techniques do not directly induce invariance for ASR or are not scalable. And, due to the sequential nature of speech, alignments are needed to compare two different utterances of the same text.
Accordingly, what is needed are systems and methods that can overcome these deficiencies.

Systems and methods for robust speech recognition using generative adversarial networks


A system and process for providing passwords from a client computer to different servers, databases and applications and other services accessed on and inter- or intra-net. A program storage device has a reference table having a listing of a plurality of services accessible on an inter- or intra-net, a real password associated with each of the services, a variable name for the real password used by each of the services to enter the real password associated therewith, and a virtual password corresponding to a desired group of the services and associated real passwords. A desired service listed on the desired group of services in the reference table is selected for access and the virtual password corresponding to the desired group of services is entered to begin access. The variable name for the real password associated with the desired service is found on the reference table, and the variable name for the real password is used to enter the real password for the desired service to gain access to the desired service. There is further provided a first virtual password corresponding to a first group of the services and associated real passwords and a second virtual password corresponding to a second group of the services and associated real passwords. The desired group of services may then be selected using the first or second virtual password.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer programs and in particular to software for providing passwords from a client computer to different servers, databases and applications and other services accessed on and inter- or intra-net.
2. Description of Related Art
As computer users operate in a more "network centric" environment, they will be logging on to more and more servers, accessing more and more data bases and applications all through a web interface on our personal computers or network computers. This presents two problems with using passwords.
A first problem is that there may be different passwords on each server, data base or application. The user's intention may be to have all of the passwords be the same password of each server, data base or application but this is not always possible because each server, data base or application may have different naming conventions for their passwords. This means that the user is faced with the problem of having to deal with multiple passwords to access servers, data bases and applications.
A second problem is that there are different expiration times for passwords issued for different servers, data bases and applications. Thus, maintaining all of these passwords become cumbersome.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 36, No. 3 (March 1993) entitled "Temporary Global Passwords" discloses the use of a temporary global password which is utilized after a user logs on to a terminal with an authenticated one-time password token. There is no disclosure of discrimination of service access among different users, and the users never see the assigned temporary global password.
Accordingly, there is a need for a universal password system which can differentiate among different user groups to supply the real passwords for access to the network services for which the user groups are authorized.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process and system for providing passwords from a client computer to different servers, databases and applications and other services accessed on and inter- or intra-net.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a process and system wherein a universal or virtual password can be assigned which would activate the real password for the authorized network system being accessed.
A further object of the invention is to provide a universal password system which can differentiate among different user groups with regard to authorized access to the various network services which may be accessed by a single client computer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a process and system accessible by the client computer to change the real passwords associated with each of the network services.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems, methods, and devices for selecting modes of operation include, in at least one aspect, a method including: selecting a first mode associated with digital-analog conversion; determining whether a second mode associated with digital-analog conversion is available; if the second mode is available, evaluating one or more switching parameters associated with the second mode; switching from the first mode to the second mode if the one or more evaluated switching parameters satisfy one or more predetermined criteria; analyzing one or more performance parameters after switching from the first mode to the second mode; and setting the second mode as a default mode of operation if the one or more analyzed performance parameters are satisfactory.

A digital data storage system can include a hard disk drive (HDD) that stores data on a storage media such as magnetic or optical data storage disks. In magnetic disk storage systems, the hard disk drive includes at least one hard disk in the form of a rigid platter, a head assembly for reading and writing data on the platter, and a controller for controlling the head assembly.
During a "read" or "write" operation, the head assembly scans the hard disk platter surface. The read/write head inside the head assembly is conventionally driven by a voice coil motor (VCM) and generally supported by an actuator arm for reading data from or writing data to a desired track on the platter. When current is fed to the VCM, the VCM develops force or torque which is substantially proportional to the applied current. The arm acceleration is therefore substantially proportional to the magnitude of the current. When the read/write head is near the desired track, a reverse polarity signal can be applied to the actuator arm, causing the read/write head to stop directly over the desired track.
Modern HDD throughout and storage capacity have been substantially enhanced by improvement in actuator design which has resulted in increased precision and speed in head placement. The more precisely and quickly the actuator arm can place the read/write head, the greater the amount of data that can be packed onto a given area of disk surface and the quicker such data can be accessed. The demand for increased speed and storage capacity has resulted in ever faster and more compact hard disk drive assemblies. Because speed is one of the dominant factors in determining the overall hard drive performance, conventional technologies have focused heavily on maximizing speed. However, the increase in speed frequently comes at the expense of head precision, producing undesirable errors and causing unrecoverable data.

Minimization of VCM-resolution switching induced position error transients


According to an aspect of the invention, an NFC device for communicating with an NFC reader is conceived, the NFC device comprising an NFC integrated circuit, an antenna unit connected to said NFC integrated circuit, and a detuning circuit, wherein the detuning circuit is arranged to cause a periodic detuning of the antenna unit to a detuned state, such that data transmission between the NFC device and the NFC reader may take place periodically while the NFC device and the NFC reader remain within communication range of each other.

NFC-enabled mobile phones have become increasingly popular. Also, phone sleeves or covers for such mobile phones have entered the market. These covers can be equipped with integrated sensors which are able to measure physical phenomena, such as temperature, humidity and pressure. The sensors produce measurement results that are sent from the cover to the mobile device, which is typically done via electrical connections between the cover and the mobile phone. For example, this can be done via a docking plug of the mobile phone. Subsequently, the measurement results can be processed by the mobile phone. However, creating electrical connections between the cover and the mobile phone is cumbersome and expensive.


Chimeric proteins comprising soluble Tissue Factor (sTF) and another subunit (e.g., annexin V) are described. The proteins promote blood clotting and/or inhibit cancer by targeting sTF to specific receptors such as phosphatidyl serine (PS) on activated cells. These chimeric proteins are useful in treating patients with excessive bleeding due to inborn problems, drug therapy, trauma or surgery and/or as an anti-cancer therapy, for example by causing blood vessels feeding cancers to become clotted, thereby preventing adequate flow of blood to a tumor, which in turn will lead to tumor inhibition and death or may be used in a therapy to cause clotting within blood vessels that pose a threat in the subject in non-cancerous conditions.

Hemostasis (the process of initiating blood coagulation in order to stop bleeding) may be abnormal and possibly life-threatening under a number of circumstances, yet there is a need for improved methods of inducing hemostasis under special conditions. Hemostasis is initiated by platelets, which are blood cells that cause occlusion of holes in blood vessels. In the course of doing so, platelets become "activated". One aspect of their activation is the translocation of phosphatidyl serine (PS) from the inner half of their plasma membrane to the outer half. Once this occurs, certain blood coagulation proteins bind to the surface of the platelet and interact in the process known as "blood coagulation". The end result of that process is the formation of the enzyme thrombin (also called Factor IIa). Thrombin has several important roles. First, it converts the blood protein fibrinogen into fibrin. Each fibrin binds to several other fibrin molecules, forming a fibrin clot, which supports the platelets that are attempting to stop bleeding. Second, thrombin also activates platelets, increasing the number involved in the hemostatic process. And third, thrombin affects other plasma proteins, such as Factor XI, in a manner that accelerates the biochemistry of blood coagulation. The first proteins that interact on the surface of platelets (or other cells with exposed PS) are Tissue Factor (TF), the activated form of Factor VII (called Factor VIIa), and Factor X.
Thrombin generation is initiated by the interaction of the plasma serine protease, Factor VIIa, with its protein cofactor, TF. TF is a membrane-bound protein not expressed on the surface of cells in contact with the bloodstream until they become activated. Upon its expression, TF binds either Factor VII (promoting its activation to Factor VIIa), or Factor VIIa, increasing its catalytic efficiency in converting Factor X to Factor Xa. Expression of the extracellular domain of TF (amino acids 1-219, or a 3-219 residue portion of the entire protein) in E. coli generates a polypeptide of about 26 kDa that retains the ability to bind to Factor VIIa and to allosterically activate it. This truncated TF (called soluble TF or sTF) does not bind to cellular membranes and is therefore generally much less efficient than native TF in promoting Factor VII autoactivation or activation of Factor X by Factor VIIa. Engineering of the cDNA encoding sTF so that it was expressed on the surface of mammalian cells as a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein resulted in a protein with the same specific procoagulant activity as native TF, underscoring the importance of membrane attachment for this protein.
It has long been recognized that congenital Factor VIII deficiency is characterized by abnormal thrombin generation when blood coagulation is triggered by low concentrations of TF. More recently recognized is the fact that disorders of platelet function are also associated with decreased thrombin generation. The vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation proteins, which are required for thrombin generation, assemble on the surface of activated platelets, endothelial cells, and/or monocytes by binding to anionic phospholipids, especially PS. Thrombin, a potent platelet agonist, amplifies the activation of platelets initiated by contact with sub-endothelial collagen exposure. Delayed thrombin generation may therefore underlie or amplify the bleeding tendency accompanying disorders of plasma coagulation factors, or blood platelets.
Others have reported that the intravenous injection of thromboplastin (membrane-bound TF) into animals results in generalized activation of the coagulation, as does injection of both sTF and Factor VIIa, resulting in beneficial effects upon bleeding in experimental animals, suggesting that sTF might serve as the basis of a therapy designed to reduce bleeding.
A therapeutic protein effective in enhancing hemostasis and coagulation in a subject in need thereof would be desirable.

Chimeric proteins with phosphatidylserine binding domains

The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma


According to the present invention, there is provided an air-frying cooker (1) comprising: a cooking chamber (20); a food receiving container (5) in the cooking chamber (20) having a permeable bottom wall (9); a heater (19) for heating air in the cooking chamber (20); a fan (18) for circulating a flow of hot air in the cooking chamber (20) to cook the food; and a system (13) to maintain a predetermined level (LI) of water in the cooking chamber (20) during cooking. The predetermined level (LI) is disposed between a base (11) of the cooking chamber (20) and the bottom wall (9) of the food container (5).

An air frying cooker uses heated air accelerated to a high velocity to cook food. The high velocity air causes a high rate of heat transfer from the air to the food relative to a typical fan oven. A particular feature of an air-frying cooker is that it circulates air around the food to evenly heat it from all sides. This produces results not dissimilar to pan frying or deep frying but with substantially less fat content in the food as little or no oil is required.
The cooking process can be improved further by adding water to the air frying cooker so that the water evaporates to create steam. Steam is much more effective at transferring heat than air and so a steam environment in the air frying cooker results in faster cooking times and higher surface temperatures of the food which provides an improved crispy texture and, when cooking meat, greater fat reduction.
A steam environment introduces the problem of ensuring that a continuous supply of water for evaporation is maintained.


A motorcycle lift strapping system for securing a motorcycle to a motorcycle lift assembly having a pair of elongated members includes a pair of elongated supports each of which is attached to and extends along one of elongated members. A first rod and a second rod each have first and second ends. Each of the first and second ends has a threaded aperture extending therein. A plurality of threaded securing members each has an end having a loop attached thereto. Each of the securing members is extended into one of the apertures. A plurality of couplers couples each of the first and second rods to one of the supports. The couplers are rotatable around a respective one of the rods. Straps are attached to the loops and wrapped around the motorcycle to. Rotating the rods so that the securing members extend outwardly of the rods tightens the straps.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lift fastening devices and more particularly pertains to a new lift fastening device for securing a motorcycle to a motorcycle lift assembly so that the motorcycle is not easily tipped off of the lift assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of lift fastening devices is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,396 describes a generally conventional motorcycle lift assembly adapted for being positioned under a motorcycle and for lifting the motorcycle off of a ground surface when actuated. A similar device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,603 which shows a lift which is used for vehicle. A stabilizer for lifting jacks is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,487 and shows plates that are selectively extendable over a motorcycle frame so that the frame is positioned between a lift and the plates. The plates aid to stabilize the motorcycle positioned on the lift.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that allows for more effective stabilization of a motorcycle on a motorcycle lift. In particular, the device should be readily adjustable to allow for variously sized motorcycles and to reduce the need for the repositioning of the motorcycle on the lift assembly in order to ensure proper usage of the device.


A signaling torque driver that includes a casing assembly with a grip portion, a click arm with a fastener-engaging portion that projects from said casing assembly at one end and operably coupled to a torque-limiting means housed within said casing assembly at the other, torque-adjusting means within said casing assembly and coupled to said torque-limiting means for adjusting the torque-limiting means to a desired torque value, audible signaling means operably coupled with said torque-limiting means and/or visual signaling means operably coupled with said torque-limiting means such that an audible and visual indicator is activated to signal that the desired torque has been reached.

This application relates generally to driving tools such as screwdrivers, nut drivers, bolt drivers, wrenches and the like wherein the amount of torque that the tool can apply to a given fastener is limited to a settable value and the user is given a signal or indication that the desired torque level has been obtained. More specifically, this application relates to torque signaling mechanisms, both visual and audible, usable in said tools that identifies when the desired torque is reached, thereby preventing the user from overtorquing a given fastening device.
This application relates to drivers that are able to give a user an improved signal that a desired torque level has been reached and is designed for uses where torque tolerances are critical. The need for a torque driver that can drive a given fastener at a desired torque value is useful in a variety of fields including sporting goods, electronics and computer assembly, and any other use where specific tolerances are required. However, it would be desirable if there were a tool that would allow a user an improved indication that the desired torque level has been obtained such that each time a fastener was torqued, the user was confident that the desired torque was properly obtained. It would also be desirable for such a tool to be low-cost and suitable for mass production without sacrificing precision.


An improved method for operating a engine, a transmission, and an associated electronic control module for the engine includes setting maximum torque levels for the engine by the electronic control module. The electronic control module determines the speed ratio of the transmission and sets a first relatively high torque load when it is determined that the transmission is in direct drive. If the electronic control module determines that the transmission is in non-direct drive then it sets a lower maximum torque load. The present invention has recognized that when in direct drive, the transmission may transmit higher torque loads than it would be able to do when it is in a gear reduction mode. In this way, the present invention increases the maximum torque rating for the transmission at its highest speed ratio.

This invention relates to a method of allowing increased engine torque at certain transmission ratios.
In the prior art, transmissions and engines are becoming increasingly complex. In particular, transmissions for heavy vehicles such as trucks include a number of speed ratios. The speed ratios are provided by shifting gears into and out of engagement to selectively apply gear reduction to a rotational speed supplied by the engine to the transmission.
Transmissions can be one of two general types. Some transmissions have an overdrive capability such that the speed out of the transmission may actually be higher than the speed from the engine. However, it has been found that such overdrive transmissions are less energy efficient at the higher speed ratios than a second type, known as a direct drive transmission.
In a direct drive transmission, the highest speed ratio is a direct drive from the transmission input shaft to the transmission output shaft. The transmission input shaft is connected to the crankshaft of the engine. In one well-known type of direct drive transmission, ten speed ratios are available. By selectively connecting the input shaft to a transmission main shaft, and the transmission main shaft directly to the transmission output shaft, a one-to-one direct drive is provided. This supplies the highest speed ratio from the transmission.
The transmission also allows nine lower speed ratios by selectively engaging other gears. Essentially, the direct connection between the transmission input shaft and the transmission main shaft is broken. Instead, rotation is transmitted through counter shafts and associated gears that, in combination, result in a speed reduction to the transmission main shaft. This type of transmission is well-known and very successful.
Transmissions are rated for a maximum torque that can be transmitted through the transmission and to the transmission output shaft. Typically, a control module for the engine is provided with information on a maximum torque level. The transmission that is associated with the engine must be rated for transmitting that maximum torque level. The engine control module thus limits the torque from the engine that is transmitted to the transmission. Recently, engine manufacturers and vehicle designers have begun to request higher torque loads be transmitted through the transmission under certain conditions. It has been difficult for the transmission designer to accommodate these higher torque loads.

Engine control with higher torque at direct drive transmission ratios


In a first aspect, a first mainframe is provided for use during semiconductor device manufacturing. The first mainframe includes (1) a sidewall that defines a central transfer region adapted to house a robot; (2) a plurality of facets formed on the sidewall, each adapted to couple to a process chamber; and (3) an extended facet formed on the sidewall that allows the mainframe to be coupled to at least four full-sized process chambers while providing service access to the mainframe. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Semiconductor device manufacturing processes often are performed with tools having mainframes in which multiple processing chambers and/or load lock chambers are coupled around a central transfer chamber. The processing chambers may each perform unique processes, or in many instances, may perform redundant and/or related processes.
To ensure proper operation of a semiconductor device manufacturing tool, processing, load lock and other chambers of the tool must be maintained. Sufficient access to maintain the chambers is required. However, in some cases, providing such access may limit system throughput.

Extended mainframe designs for semiconductor device manufacturing equipment