A video recording and playback device (10) incorporates a processor (114) for processing the video signal to detect the presence of commercial messages. Video and audio event detectors (102, 104) detect the presence of events in the signal as it is recorded. The timing relationship of the detected events is analyzed to classify the video segments between events as program material or as commercial messages. After a program is recorded, control marks are generated (132) to indicate the beginning and end of commercial groups so that they will be skipped during subsequent replay of the recorded program.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of video recording and playback systems, and particularly to a method and apparatus for selectively omitting certain program content during playback of a recorded video signal.
2. Background Art
It is commonplace to record a commercially broadcast television program on a video tape recorder (VTR, also referred to as a video cassette recorder or VCR) for viewing at a later time. When later viewing the recorded program, many, if not most, viewers prefer to watch only the program material without also viewing commercials, promotional messages and the like that are typically broadcast at intervals during the program.
Even before the advent of popularly priced video tape recorders, there have been many attempts to provide home television viewers with a system to suppress commercial messages. Early efforts included systems that would mute the audio signal for a predetermined period of time when a commercial message was sensed. As VCRs became more popular and "time-shifting" became a convenient way to view television programs, more sophisticated methods for eliminating commercial messages have been proposed.
One prior art approach to commercial elimination has been to pause the VCR in the record mode when a commercial message is sensed. A system of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,286, which issued on Mar. 9, 1982 to Hanpachern. In this system, the absence of video modulation during a video frame (i.e., a blank frame) is detected and used to trigger a timing circuit. When triggered, the timing circuit causes a pause command to be sent to a video tape recorder. The pause command remains asserted for a predetermined period of time, or longer if the timing circuit is retriggered. For example, the timing circuit may be set for 32 seconds so that if blank frames are detected at 30 second intervals (a typical length for a commercial message) the VCR will remain in the pause mode until 32 seconds after the last such blank frame. Quite a few prior art references disclose variations on this type of system, wherein the VCR is paused for a fixed period of time following detection of a blank frame in the video signal. For example, PCT Application No. WO81/00945 by Johnston and Koombes discloses a system of this type. Such systems are claimed to be relatively effective for eliminating commercial messages, but suffer certain drawbacks. In this regard, program material immediately following a commercial break is irretrievably lost since the VCR is held in the "pause" mode for a predetermined period of time (30 to 60 seconds or more) following each break in the television signal. Furthermore, additional program material may be irretrievably lost if the timing circuit is falsely triggered, such as by a fade between scenes in the program.
Other prior art systems have sought to overcome these drawbacks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,788 to Blum discloses a system for eliminating commercials from a video signal that performs real time analysis of the video signal immediately following a blank frame. If there is a high level of "activity" in the signal immediately following a blank frame, a commercial message is presumed and the VCR is commanded to pause. On the other hand, if a low level of activity is detected, the preceding blank frame is presumed to be a fade and the VCR is commanded to resume recording. This approach solves the problem of losing a fixed amount of program material if a VCR pause if falsely triggered, but it is still susceptible to misclassification. If a program fade is immediately followed by an "active" scene, this will be misclassified as a commercial. On the other hand, a commercial with a low level of "activity" will be misclassified as program material.
A different approach to eliminating commercial messages is to automatically rewind a VCR to the beginning of a commercial message each time one is detected while recording a television program. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,052, which issued on Jun. 7, 1988 to Poppy and Samelson. A virtually identical system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,834, which issued on Jun. 21, 1988 to Koombes. In both of these systems, fades (i.e., blank frames) in the video signal are detected and the time interval between successive fades is determined in a timing circuit. If the timing criteria for a commercial message are met, the VCR is rewound to the position of the fade associated with the beginning of the commercial message and the VCR is returned to the record mode. This process repeats for each commercial message that is detected. These systems permit an editing decision to be made after an entire commercial has been aired; however, as with the other systems previously described, program material is still irretrievably lost if there is a false detection of a commercial. Furthermore, the frequent rewinding of the tape during long commercial breaks accelerates the wear of the VCR tape transport mechanism as well as the tape itself.
Yet a different approach is disclosed by Mizuki in Japanese patent document 58-146072, which was published on Aug. 31, 1983. A similar system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,192, which issued on Feb. 11, 1986 to Hori. In both of these systems, a video program is viewed by an operator as the program is recorded or is replayed. The operator places an electronic mark on the tape at the beginning and end of each commercial message or any other undesired recorded material. When the tape is subsequently replayed, either for viewing or transcription to another tape, the VCR is commanded to fast-forward through the portions of tape bounded by the applied marks. These systems rely entirely on human intelligence to classify the different portions of the video signal.
Still other systems are known that discriminate commercial messages based on characteristics of the transmitted video signal. A system of this type has been marketed in Japan by Mitsubishi under the name "Auto-Cut". In this system, the audio channel is monitored for the presence of a second audio program (SAP) and/or stereo modulation. Many of the programs that viewers wish to tape are broadcast in dual languages (e.g., Japanese and English) and/or with monaural sound. However, commercial messages in Japan are generally broadcast in stereo and in the Japanese language only. Thus, a VCR with the Auto-Cut system is able to record a monaural program or one with SAP and suspend recording during commercials. Other systems marketed in Japan operate on a similar principle, but record the entire program and then place the VCR in a fast scan mode during playback when stereo sound or the absence of SAP is detected.
All known prior art automatic commercial elimination systems rely on real-time signal analysis to classify the broadcast signal as program material or as a commercial message. This is true whether the classification is being performed during the recording or playback process. Prior art automatic systems do not examine detected events in the full context of surrounding events. Thus, misclassification is relatively common. When done during the recording process, such misclassification will cause portions of program material to be irretrievably lost.

Method and apparatus for eliminating television commercial messages


An apparatus for strengthening hand, wrist, forearm, and shoulder muscles, thereby increasing performance and reducing the risk of injury in sports that utilize a swinging motion, such as golf, tennis, or baseball. The apparatus is also used to rehabilitate injured muscles and connective tissue in the wrist, forearm, and shoulder.

Many athletes who participate in sports such as golf, tennis, or baseball wish to increase the power of their swing. The prior art has recognized the importance of muscle strengthening to achieve this goal, and there are a number of exercising devices known in the prior art that are devoted to strengthening the muscles used in a swinging motion. None of these devices, however, have become widely used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,013 to Wolf shows an "apparatus . . . directed towards improving the strength and endurance of the muscles of the axial skeleton and lower extremities while instilling proper swing dynamics." Col. 3, lines 26–29. "[T]he user stands on support base 10 with the extensible support attachment 8 across his/her shoulders, with his/her hands gripping the extensible support attachment, and with the axial extensible support 6 thus supported by his/her shoulders and arms. While positioned in this manner, the user simulates the body movements of a golf stroke. The attachment assembly 8 facilitates rotation about the first rotational axis 2 and the second rotational axis 4 of the hips and shoulders, respectively, of the exerciser/golfer." Col. 3, lines 33–41.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,184 B2 to Kim teaches a swing exerciser that has a handle 10, a slotted track 20, and a resistance cord 15 extending between the handle 10 and a pulley 35 that moves along the track 20 as the swing proceeds. "Pulley 35 starts at the top of track 20 . . . at the beginning of a swing exercise and moves to the bottom of track 20 as the swing approaches the hitting region . . . . This movement of pulley 35 down track 20 is resisted so that the exerciser has to apply force to handle 10 to overcome the resistance and thereby exercise and strengthen the muscles used in executing the swing." Col. 2, lines 52–59.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,925 to Kock and Schuster discloses two mechanisms, one for handgripping and one for forearm twisting and wrist casting. The mechanism for handgripping "utilizes an extension spring connected via cable to a pivoting arm with a gripping handle. Squeezing this movable handle against a parallel fixed handle causes the cable to stretch the extension spring which thereby provides the resistance force." Col. 3, lines 26–30. The tension on the cable and the gripping stroke length are adjustable. The mechanism for forearm twisting and wrist casting uses a "friction disk to provide torsional resistance. The fixed handle of the gripping mechanism serves as the handle for the twisting and casting motions. The entire handle system rotates about the axis of the gripping mechanism cable . . . . This arrangement permits the simultaneous operation of the gripping mechanism and the rotatable friction disk mechanism during certain exercises," Col. 3, lines 42–50, and "simulates a casting motion . . . [that is used] in tennis strokes, golf swings and the like." Col. 6, lines 1–3.
The present invention is an improvement over the prior art because it permits adjustment in three planes, and therefore adjusts to each user's particular height, arm length, and torso length, as well as each user's individual stance for a given sport. The ability to adjust the apparatus in three planes means that a user is able to focus on the development of sport-specific muscles by adjusting the apparatus to mimic the swing used for a particular sport. Specifically, the invention mimics the swinging motion involved in sports such as golf, tennis, or baseball by rotating the hands, wrists, forearms, and shoulders, thereby strengthening the muscles used in the swinging motion and increasing the power of the user's swing.

Abstract: The apparatus consists of two cam assemblies connected to a extensible support that has an adjustable height. The cam assemblies are adjustable relative to the coronal plane of the player's body and each comprises a support, a rotatable cam, a handle, and a resistive band. Each handle is adjustable relative to the sagittal plane of the player's body. The ability to adjust the apparatus in three planes means that a player is able to focus on the development of sport-specific muscles by adjusting the apparatus to mimic the swing used for a particular sport.


Adjustment of correction data for the respective LEDs at the end of manufacture of a print head is performed by transferring provisional correction data from a manufacturing device to an LED driver, directly, i.e., without once being stored in a storage circuit 10c in the print head, and measuring the amounts of light from the LEDs and varying the correction data, and repeating such an operation until the correction data is optimized. The optimized correction data as well as the strobe time data determined from the measured average power are written in the storage circuit 10c. During use of the printer, the data stored in the storage circuit 10c is used for correction of the data and determination of the strobe time.

The present invention relates to a print head having an array of print elements each driven to print a dot at a time. More particularly, the invention relates to adjustment of the driving power with which each of the print elements is driven. A typical example of such a printer is an electrophotographic printer having an array of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) as the print elements, and the driving power is in the form of a current supplied to each LED.
Electrophotographic printers have been widely used as printers for printing texts and pictures prepared by computers or the like. FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a printing unit in such an electrophotographic printer. When texts or pictures are printed, negative charges are applied by a charging roller 1 to a rotating photosensitive drum 2 to negatively and uniformly charge the photosensitive drum 2. A print head 3 comprising a plurality of LEDs illuminate the photosensitive drum 2 to form an electrostatic latent image of the text or picture to be printed. A developer 5 causes negatively-charged toner 6 to be adhered to the electrostatic latent image to achieve development. A transfer roller 4 to which a positive voltage is applied from a transfer power supply 8 transfers the toner on the photosensitive drum 2 to a printing paper 7. The toner is thereafter fixed on the paper 7 by a fixing device, not shown.
The print head 3 forming the electrostatic latent image in this way is formed of an LED array, an LED driver and the like. The LED array comprises a plurality of LED array units each of which is in the form of a separate semiconductor chip, and the entire LED array is formed of several thousands LEDs aligned in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the paper transport in FIG. 8. The LED driver is formed of as many drive transistors as there are LEDs. The drive transistors are selectively turned on depending on the image data representing the text or picture to be printed. The period for which the transistors are turned on is determined by a common strobe signal supplied from a control unit controlling the entire printer. When the transistors are turned on, a current is flows to the LEDs connected with the transistors.
The LEDs in the LED array in the print head have certain variations in the relationship between the current supplied thereto, and the amount of light emitted therefrom, due to fluctuations or the like in the manufacturing conditions in the factory. The amount of light emitted with respect to the current supplied thereto is called light emitting efficiency. Such variations are more prominent between LED array units than between individual LEDs in each LED array unit.
There is also variations in the characteristics (due to the differences in the resistance of the semiconductor elements) between drive transistors in the LED driver. Some transistors permit a large current to flow while others permit a small current, under the same voltage. Such a variation is also more prominent between LED driver ICs than between the individual transistor elements in each LED driver IC. Because of the variations in the characteristics of the LEDs and the transistors, LED array units and LED driver ICs are classified into several ranks according to their characteristics, during the manufacture of the LED array units and the LED driver ICs, and LED array units and LED driver ICs of the same rank are used together to form a head. By such classification, one LED head is formed of LED array units having a high light emitting efficiency, while another LED head is formed of LED array units of a relatively low light emitting efficiency. The variation in the characteristics between the LED array units in each LED head can be reduced in this way. Similarly, one LED head is formed of driver ICs having transistors of a high resistance, and another LED head is formed of driver ICs having a low resistance.
With the prior art print heads, to reduce the difference in the amount of emitted light between LED elements, a non-volatile storage element is provided in the LED head, and correction (or compensation) data are set for use in correcting the current flowing through the LEDs. During the manufacture of the head, the correction data are determined in the following manner. First, provisional correction data are set, and written in the non-volatile storage circuit in the LED head, and transferred to the LED driver, and the amount of light emitted from each LED driven in accordance with the provisional correction data is measured, and second provisional correction data are set by modifying the first provisional correction data on the basis of the result of the measurement. Such a procedure is repeated, such that appropriate correction data is finally obtained.
The optimum amount of energy (total amount of emitted light) per dot used for exposure of the photosensitive drum is predetermined. The total amount of emitted light can be represented by the product of the light emission power and the length of time period of the emission, i.e., the time period for current flow (i.e., strobe time). Accordingly, the strobe time must be determined to an appropriate value based on the characteristics of the LEDs and transistors. For instance, a relatively short strobe time must be set for an LED head formed of LEDs having a high light emitting efficiency, while a relatively long strobe time must be set for an LED head formed of LEDs having a low light emitting efficiency.
In order to set the strobe time in this way, during the manufacture of the LED heads, the average light emitting power of the dots of the LED head is determined, and is written in a bar code label, which is then attached to the print head. During assembly of the printer, i.e., during assembly of the printing unit and control unit to complete a printer, the average light emitting power written in the bar code label is read, and used for calculating the strobe time, and the strobe time data representing the calculated strobe time is written in the non-volatile memory in the control unit. During use of the printer for printing, the control unit sends a strobe signal of a time length represented by the strobe time data read from the non-volatile memory, to the LED head, together with image data to be printed, received from a computer. In this way, the LEDs emit light only for the duration of the strobe time, in forming the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum.
In adjusting or optimizing the correction data for the conventional print head, writing and erasure of the non-volatile memory, whose operating speed is low, are repeated many times, so that a long time is needed, and as a result, the time required for the manufacture of the printer is long, with the result that the cost of manufacture of the printer becomes high.
Moreover, attaching a bar code label, and reading the information from the bar code label also lengthens the time for manufacturing the printer, and the cost of manufacture of the printer is further increased.
An object of the invention is to solve the problems described above.
Another object of the invention is to provide a print head which can be manufactured in a shorter period, and at a lower cost.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a print head of a printer comprising an array of print elements, including:
a plurality of print elements each selectively driven to print a dot;
a driver formed of a plurality of drive elements provided for the respective print elements, for driving the print elements in accordance with print data representing the image to be printed and correction data for adjusting the driving power for each print element;
a storage circuit into which the correction data input from the outside of the print head are written, and from which the correction data are sent to the driver; and
a sending means for sending the correction data supplied from the outside to the driver.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a print head of a printer comprising an array of print elements, including:
a plurality of print elements each selectively driven to print a dot;
a driver formed of a plurality of drive elements provided for the respective print elements, for driving the print elements in accordance with print data representing the image to be printed and correction data for adjusting the driving power for each print element;
a storage circuit into which the correction data input from the outside of the print head are written, and from which the correction data are sent to the driver; and
wherein the correction data stored in the storage circuit is read and sent to the outside of the print head via said sending means.

Print head having non-volatile memory and means for transmitting correction and inherent data


Belt core and belt core systems for winding a belt or other winding material are described. The belt core and belt core system described are lightweight and reusable. The belt core and belt core system includes at least one belt core unit. A plurality of units may be combined to form a belt core system, in which each unit has the same general size and is configured with means for interlocking each unit with another unit. This provides customization of the described system so that it may accommodate a winding material of any width.

Belt cores for winding and storing materials thereon, such as for example, conveyor belts, leather, or tire fabrics must be strong, durable and capable of withstanding high compressive forces. Current belt cores are typically wood-based or metallic. A longstanding problem with wood-based materials is their inability to withstand high pressure. Pressed wood cores often break and/or splinter with repetitive use and are generally more brittle. The pressed wood may also shed, leaving wood particles, sawdust or impressions in the belt or other material that is wound thereon, which oftentimes renders that region of the belt unusable. Furthermore, winding materials, when wound on wood-based cores, are nailed at one end to the wood-based core. Such nailing tends to break up the core or splinter the region, which oftentimes damages or otherwise renders the core from being reused.
Wood-based cores as well as metallic cores are generally heavy, making them cumbersome to handle and difficult to cut. Both wood-based cores and metallic cores often require many processing steps so that they are capable of withstanding the high pressures and compressive strains that will be exerted on them, which are costly and/or time consuming. For example, wood-based cores require numerous steps to fumigate and heat treat the wood before said cores can be shipped overseas.
Consequently, objects described herein are to provide new and improved belt cores that address the aforementioned deficiencies.


The invention concerns high performance adsorbents based on activated carbon of high microporosity which are present in the form of discrete grains of activated carbon, preferably in spherical form, and which are characterized by the following parameters:                a Gurvich total pore volume of at least 0.7 cm3/g, at least 70% of this total pore volume being formed by micropores having pore diameters of ≦20 Å,        a measure of central tendency pore diameter of not more than 30 Å, and        a BET surface area of at least 1500 m2/g.

The present invention concerns the adsorption arts. More particularly, the present invention concerns high performance adsorbents based on activated carbon of high microporosity and also its use, in particular for adsorptive filtering materials, for the adsorption of toxins, noxiants and odors, in particular from gas or to be more precise air streams, for purifying or cleaning gases, such as in particular air, for application in medicine or to be more precise pharmacy, as sorptive storage media for gases, in particular hydrogen, and the like.
Activated carbon has fairly unspecific adsorptive properties and therefore is the most widely used adsorbent. Legislative strictures as well as the rising sense of responsibility for the environment lead to a rising demand for activated carbon.
Activated carbon is generally obtained by carbonization (also referred to by the synonyms of smoldering, pyrolysis, burn-out, etc) and subsequent activation of carbonaceous compounds, preferably such compounds as lead to economically reasonable yields. This is because the weight losses through detachment of volatile constituents in the course of carbonization and through the burn-out in the course of activation are appreciable. For further details concerning the production of activated carbon, see for example H.v. Kienle and E. Bäder, Aktivkohle und ihre industrielle Anwendung, Enke Verlag Stuttgart, 1980.
The constitution of the activated carbon produced—finely or coarsely porous, firm or brittle, etc—depends on the starting material. Customary starting materials are coconut shells, wood wastes, peat, bituminous coal, pitches, but also particular plastics which play a certain part in the production of woven activated carbon fabrics for example.
Activated carbon is used in various forms: pulverized carbon, splint coal carbon, granulocarbon, molded carbon and also, since the end of the 1970s, spherical activated carbon ("spherocarbon"). Spherical activated carbon has a number of advantages over other forms of activated carbon such as pulverized carbon, splint coal carbon, granulocarbon and the like that make it useful or even indispensable for certain applications: it is free flowing, abrasion resistant or to be more precise dustless, and hard. Spherocarbon is in great demand for particular applications, for example, because of its specific form, but also because of its high abrasion resistance.
Spherocarbon is mostly still being produced today by multistage and very costly and inconvenient processes. The best known process consists in producing spherules from bituminous coal tar pitch and suitable asphaltic residues from the petrochemical industry, which are oxidized to render them unmeltable and then smoldered and activated. For example, spherocarbon can also be produced in a multistage process proceeding from bitumen. These multistage processes are very cost intensive and the associated high cost of this spherocarbon prevents many applications wherein spherocarbon ought to be preferable by virtue of its properties.
WO 98/07655 A1 describes a process for producing activated carbon spherules wherein a mixture comprising a diisocyanate production distillation residue, a carbonaceous processing aid and if appropriate one or more further additives is processed into free-flowing spherules and subsequently the spherules obtained in this way are carbonized and then activated.
It is further prior art to produce spherocarbon by smoldering and subsequent activation of new or used ion exchangers comprising sulfonic acid groups, or by smoldering ion exchanger precursors in the presence of sulfuric acid and subsequent activation, the sulfonic acid groups and the sulfuric acid respectively having the function of a crosslinker. Such processes are described for example in DE 43 28 219 A1 and DE 43 04 026 A1 and also in DE 196 00 237 A1 including the German patent-of-addition application DE 196 25 069 A1.
However, there are a number of specific applications where it is not only the geometry or to be more precise the external shape of the activated carbon which is of decisive importance, but also its porosity, in particular the total pore volume and the adsorption capacity on the one hand and the distribution of the pores, i.e., the fraction of micro-, meso- and macropores in relation to the total pore volume, on the other.
There are a number of applications requiring a particularly high microporosity of the activated carbon, i.e., a high micropore volume fraction, coupled with an altogether high total pore volume, for example in relation to the applications mentioned at the beginning, for example for the adsorption of toxins, noxiants and odors, in particular from gas or to be more precise air streams, for purifying or cleaning gases, such as in particular air, for application in medicine or to be more precise pharmacy, in the sorptive storage of gases, in particular hydrogen, in the manufacture of adsorptive filtering materials (for example for NBC protective apparel) and the like.
True, the activated carbon known for this purpose from the prior art does have a certain microporosity, but that level of microporosity is not always sufficient. In addition, increasing porosity is often observed to be accompanied by an unwelcome, occasionally unacceptable decrease in mechanical stability or to be more precise abrasion resistance. Nor are the fraction of the total pore volume which is accounted for by micropores and the absolute micropore volume always sufficient to ensure adequate performance capability for all applications.
It is an object of the present invention to provide, on the basis of activated carbon, a high performance adsorbent which is suitable for the aforementioned fields of application in particular and which at least substantially avoids or else at least ameliorates the above-described disadvantages of the prior art. More particularly, the adsorbent to be provided according to the present invention should have a high microporosity, i.e., a high microporous fraction in relation to the total pore volume and also a high micropore volume, yet at the same time also a good mechanical stability, in particular a high stability to abrasion and bursting.
By way of a solution to the problem described above, the present invention proposes—according to a first aspect of the present invention—high performance adsorbents based on activated carbon in the form of discrete grains of activated carbon, preferably in spherical form, according to claim 1. Further, in particular advantageous embodiments of the high performance adsorbents of the present invention form subject matter of the corresponding subclaims.
The present invention further provides—according to a second aspect of the present invention—the present invention's use of the high performance adsorbents according to the present invention as it is more particularly defined in the corresponding use claims.

High performance adsorbents based on activated carbon of high microporosity

Abstract: These high performance adsorbents are particularly useful for the adsorption of toxins, noxiants and odors, in particular from gas or to be more precise air streams, for purifying or cleaning gases, such as in particular air, for application in medicine or to be more precise pharmacy and as sorptive storage media for gases, in particular hydrogen.


A method and system for steering network traffic towards a service device. Specifically, the disclosed method and system entail the installation of multiple service devices around a network. Service policies are cloned across the multiple service devices, and further, each service device is assigned common virtual routing and bridging addresses. Using at least these common virtual routing and bridging addresses, intercept virtual tunnel end points (VTEPs) redirect or bridge network traffic to a service device.

In a typical data center topology, there is a layer of edge switches, which are representative of entry points of the data center. There is also a layer of leaf switches, which connect to hosts in the data center; and subsequently, there is a layer of spine switches, which connect the edge and leaf layers.

Method and system for network traffic steering towards a service device


A system for point-by-point measurement of spatial coordinates comprising: one or more opto-electronic cameras (7, 8) arranged for measuring spatial direction to point-shaped light sources; one or more rangefinders (11) for measuring distance and optionally direction to light-reflecting targets (19, 28); a touch tool (18) having a minimum of three point-shaped light giving means (21-25) in known local coordinates relative to a local tool-fixed coordinate system, one or more light-reflecting points or targets (28) for the laser rangefinder, and having a contact point (30) in known position relative to said local coordinate system; and data processor (2) designed to compute the spatial position and orientation of said touch tool (18) relative to said camera (7, 8) and rangefinder (11) on the basis of knowledge of the position of said light giving means (21-25) relative to the tool's contact point (30), the measured directions from the cameras (7, 8) to the individual light giving means (21-25), and measured distance from the laser rangefinder (11) to the light-reflecting point/target (28), so that the position of the tool (18) is referred to said contact point (30).

Industrial geometric measuring is carried out today using a number of different methods. The most used optical methods are:
use of theodolites; PA1 photogrammetry, i.e., camera-based measuring where the cameras conventionally are based on photographic film, or more recently, are based on electronic sensors; PA1 use of laser rangefinders, where these may be based on the modulation of light and the detection of the phase of the returned beam, or on laser interferometry. PA1 It is difficult to steer the laser beam so that it always strikes the reflector unit. It is particularly difficult to find the beam again if it is "lost". PA1 Laser trackers based on interferometry are in general relative, i.e., they measure difference in distance to a reference point by counting interference rings. If the beam is broken, control of the number of interference rings is lost, and the process must be started again from the reference point. PA1 It is only the position of the reflector unit that is determined. The orientation of the reflector unit remains unknown. In order to be able to measure a selected point on an object directly, the reflector unit must be provided with a contact point at a known distance from the centre thereof. The point must be measured repeatedly whilst the reflector unit is moved around the contact point when this is held still. PA1 Accurate determination of direction requires complex and very precise mechanical solutions, and also compensation for variations in temperature and mechanical operation. PA1 There is dependence upon clear line-of-sight between laser tracker and measuring point. PA1 high accuracy through the combination of accurate direction information from the camera and accurate distance information from the laser rangefinder; PA1 access to hidden points, and also geometric entities such as holes or cylinders so that these can be measured; PA1 simplified design of the laser, in that the camera registers the direction to the reflector unit.
Modern photogrammetry systems, also known as videogrammetry systems, are based on video camera techniques. These register the position of points in the form of active light sources, reflecting points or characteristics of the object to be measured (e.g., holes). The points may be registered simultaneously by two or more cameras, or they can be imaged sequentially from a number of different camera positions. The spatial position of the points is calculated using mathematical methods which include the automatic determination of the position and orientation of the cameras for each individual image, and also correction for the cameras' lens errors and other factors which produce a non-ideal image. The cameras may also be pre-calibrated, i.e., correction of the image points is based on a calibration table or other mathematical correction.
Modern photogrammetry systems are marketed by the Norwegian company Metronor AS, the Swiss company Imetric SA and the US company GSI (Geodetic Services Inc.) Metronor's system is described in Norwegian Patents Nos. 164 946, 165 046, 169 799, 174 025, and also Norwegian Patent Application No. 931873.
Metronor's system is based on pre-calibrated cameras. The system is optimized in order to determine the position of active light sources. A measuring tool known as a light pen is used to mark the points that are to be measured. The light pen has a minimum of three light sources in known positions relative to its contact point. The coordinates of the contact point can be determined by simultaneously taking the image of the light sources.
Imetric and GSI offer systems where the cameras are not pre-calibrated, but are calibrated for each individual measuring operation. The cameras register the position of retroreflector targets. These are illuminated by flash lamps mounted on the cameras. The companies have also developed touch tools similar to Metronor's light pen, where the active light sources are replaced by retroreflector targets.
The photogrammetry systems determine directions in space through imaging (projection). The accuracy depends on the quality of the camera, the nature of the points to be measured, and in particular on the geometrical factors. Geometrical factors which influence accuracy are position, density and distribution of measuring points, the number of cameras or images, and position and orientation of the cameras, and also whether the cameras' lens errors are pre-determined.
The chief disadvantage of photogrammetry systems is that a measuring point must be registrable by two cameras simultaneously or in sequence by locating a camera in at least two different positions.
Laser rangefinders based on interferometry are internationally known under the product name "Laser tracker". A laser tracker consists of a laser, a mirror system for controlling the laser, a reflector unit, distance and direction sensors, and a computer. The reflector unit, also known as a "corner cube" or prism reflector, reflects light back parallel to the emitted beam. The laser beam is steered so that it always strikes the reflector unit. This is accomplished in that the laser tracker contains a sensor which detects the striking point on the reflector unit. In general, a laser tracker registers both direction and distance, and hence three-dimensional coordinates of the measuring point. The distance is determined by interferometry. The direction is determined by registering the orientation of the mirrors. The distance measurement exhibits high accuracy, whereas the direction is often determined with less precision.
Laser trackers have major disadvantages:
Leica and Chesapeake Lasers are among the companies producing laser trackers.
Other laser rangefinders are based on the modulation of emitted laser light, and the detection of the phase of the detected light. Fine resolution requires a high modulation frequency to be used. In order to avoid ambiguity when the reflecting point is moved more than one modulation period, several modulation frequencies are used, and the total phase gives the absolute distance. Thus, an absolute rangefinder is obtained.
Since a pure rangefinder only provides information related to the one-dimensional distance to the measuring point, several rangefinders must be combined in order to compute spatial position. Three distances are necessary in order to determine three-dimensional coordinates for one point. Examples of such systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,091.
Routine inspection of mechanical structures is often based on measuring a number of fixed control points. This applies, for example, to production fixtures in the aviation industry. The control points may be made in the form of holes of a fixed diameter. Targets for photogrammetry, theodolite measuring or laser trackers are produced for these holes. Routine inspection of the structures involves the regular measurement of these points.
In the present invention it is proposed to combine photogrammetry technology with laser distance and angle measuring, so that the advantages of both methods are used to the full, whilst their disadvantages are avoided. The following is thus achieved:

System for point-by-point measuring of spatial coordinates


There is provided a circuit design supporting device, a circuit board design supporting system, a circuit board design supporting server, a circuit board design supporting client, a circuit design supporting method, and a program for realizing the device for designing a layout of main components such as LSI, etc. on a circuit board such as a printed circuit board wherein unnecessary electromagnetic radiation is suppressed. The circuit design supporting device comprises a noise generating level adding means and a component locating means. The noise generating level adding means adds noise generating level information to a component to be located on a printed circuit board. The component locating means includes a component position detecting section, a voltage distribution detecting section, a noise generating level comparing section, and an error informing section. The component position detecting section detects a position of the component moved on the printed circuit board. The voltage distribution detecting section detects a voltage level on the printed circuit board in the detected position of the component. The noise generating level comparing section compares the detected voltage level with the noise generating level added to the component. The error informing section informs a user of an error when the voltage level on the printed circuit board is equal to or larger than the noise generating level as a result of the comparison.

The present invention relates to a device, a system, a server, a client, and a method for supporting the layout design of components on a circuit board, and a program for implementing the device, and in particular, to a device, a system, a server, a client, and a method for supporting the layout design of components on a circuit board such as a multilayer printed circuit board so as to suppress unnecessary electromagnetic radiation (interference), and a program for implementing the device.

Device, system, server, client, and method for supporting component layout design on circuit board, and program for implementing the device


The present invention includes a spindle motor with a dampened spindle motor flange, which includes a shallow groove on the disk face. The shallow groove includes a first rim, a trough, and a second rim. In use, the trough fills with a visco-elastic material compressed by a metallic ring. A disk pack assembly uses the spindle motor coupling through the dampened spindle motor flange to at least one clamped disk. The invention includes a disk pack using the spindle motor, visco-elastic material, and metallic ring, as well as hard disk drives built with these disk packs. The invention includes the method of disk pack assembly, as well as making a hard disk drive using disk pack. The manufactured disk pack and the hard disk drive are products of the invention's processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to spindle motor flanges used in disk packs for a hard disk drive.
2. Background Information
Modern disk drives include a servo controller driving a voice coil actuator to position a read-write head near a track on a rotating disk surface. The read-write head communicates with the servo controller, providing feedback, which is used in controlling the read-write head's positioning near the track. The read-write head is embedded in a slider, which floats on a thin air bearing a very short distance above the rotating disk surface.
Hard disk drives use a quality measure known as the Positional Error Signal (PES), which increases as the data being accessed becomes less reliable. One contribution to the PES comes from instabilities in the rotation of the disk pack driven by the spindle motor. The spindle motor is under the command of the servo controller. A mechanism automatically dampening mechanical vibration for spindle motors is needed.

Damped spindle motor flange for the disk pack in a hard disk drive


The method comprises using a transmitting unit and at least two receiving units (8,10) arranged in two different places along well equipment (2). Each receiving unit forms an image or signature of wall portions which pass it. The signatures of wall portions formed by the lower receiving unit (8) when the well equipment is being lowered into the well are stored and the upper receiving unit (10) stores signatures coming from the wall portions which were previously stored by the lower receiving unit. A comparison (for example a correlation) of the signatures respectively coming from the two receiving units allows a common wall portion which has produced two substantially identical compared signatures to be identified. The time interval between the formation of the two substantially identical signatures is measured and the rate of penetration is calculated. As application of the invention is for the measurement of the true rate of penetration of a well tool or of a measuring sonde.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for measuring the true rate of penetration of an equipment progressing in a well. The invention can be applied in the petroleum field for determining the true rate of penetration of any well equipment, be it a drill bit or a measuring sonde for example. Knowing the true rate of penetration is of great importance for drillers, but also for geologists who need to know with precision the strata of the subsoil crossed through by a well.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Examples of the prior art in the field of determination of the measurement of the rate of penetration of a tool in a well are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,688,871, 3,746,102 and 4,567,759, in European patent application EP-289,068 and in French patents 2,038,700 and 2,593,606, etc.
The rate of penetration of a tool in a well is often obtained indirectly through measurements performed at the surface. In the case of a drill bit, a standard method consists in measuring at the surface the rate of penetration into the ground of the string which supports the drill bit, as well as another parameter such as stress in the string or else, at the well bottom, the weight applied to the drill bit.
The results obtained with these type of methods are generally not very accurate. In fact, the string consists of more or less flexible drillpipes or tubes. It is therefore relatively elastic and the tension varies as a function of the length thereof. Consequently, corrections have to be introduced so as to take into account the length variations thereof, which are all the more considerable since the well is deep. The large friction between the string and the walls, as well as the influence of the different thrust loads exerted on the the equipment as a whole penetrating into the well should also be taken into account. Determining the rate of penetration therefore becomes very complex if all the factors which are likely to alter the values of the parameters introduced in the calculation are taken into account, insofar as they are known with precision.
Another method used with drilling operations consists of including in the equipment at the bottom of the hole several accelerometers for measuring the components of the acceleration of the equipment. The accelerations are integrated to obtain the rate of penetration according to the direction of the well. This method actually allows a direct measurement of the rate of penetration to be obtained. However, the implementing thereof is made difficult by the very large vibrations of the bit at the bottom of the hole, and also by the fact that the the signals provided by the accelerometers are subject to drift which if not compensated distorts the results.

Method for measuring the rate of penetration of an equipment progressing in a well


An LED (light emitting diode) illumination device that can generate a uniform light output illumination pattern. The illumination device includes an array of LEDs, each having a LED central axis. The LED central axis of the array of LEDs is angled approximately toward a central point. The illumination source includes a reflector with a conic or conic-like shape. The reflector wraps around the front of the LED to redirect the light emitted along a LED central axis.

Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an LED (light emitting diode) and reflector illumination device that creates a highly uniform illumination/intensity pattern.
Description of the Related Art
In many applications it is desirable to create a uniform illumination pattern used for general illumination applications such as high-bay, low-bay, parking area, warehouses, street lighting, parking garage lighting, and walkway lighting. In these applications the light fixture must direct the majority of the light outward at high angles and have only a small percentage of the light directed downward.
Generally, light sources emit light in a spherical pattern. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are unique in that they emit light into a hemispherical pattern from about −90° to 90° as shown in FIG. 10A. Therefore, to utilize an LED as a light source in a conventional manner reflectors are placed around an LED.
When a light source illuminates a planar target surface area directly in front of it, as is the case when the LED optical axis is aligned to the light fixture optical axis, the illuminance in footcandles (fc) decreases as a function of the Cos3θ. This is known as the Cos3θ effect. The LED distribution shown in FIG. 10a approximately follows a Cosθ distribution. A Cos4θ illumination profile results when a light source with a Cosθ intensity distribution illuminates a surface due to the combination of the Cosθ and the Cos3θ effect. The Cos4θ illumination distribution would result in front of the LED if no optic is used with a typical LED source. FIG. 10B illustrates this by showing the high illuminance level at a value of 0 for the ratio of distance to mounting height (directly below the fixture) for the background LED illumination device with no optic. The illuminance values drop off rapidly and reach almost 0 at a value of 2.5 for the ratio of distance to mounting height.
FIG. 11 shows a background LED illumination device 10 including an LED 1 and a reflector 11. The reflector 11 can revolve around the LED 1. In the background LED illumination device in FIG. 11 the LED 1 and reflector 11 are oriented along the same axis 12, i.e. along a central optical axis 12 of the reflector 11, and the LED 1 points directly out of the reflector 11 along the axis 12.
With the LED illumination device 10 in FIG. 11, wide-angle light is redirected off of the reflector 11 and narrow angle light directly escapes. The result is that the output of the LED illumination device 10 is a narrower and more collimated beam of light. Thereby, with such an LED illumination device 10, a circular-based illumination pattern is created. Since most LEDs have a Cosine-like intensity pattern as shown in FIG. 10a, this results in a hot spot directly in front of the LEDs when illuminating a target surface. The reflector 11 can increase the illuminance at various areas of the target surface but the reflector 11 cannot reduce the hot spot directly in front of the LED 1.
Therefore, orienting the LED 1 and the reflector 11 along the same axis 12 as in FIG. 11 while pointing the LED 1 directly toward a target area, such as downward toward the ground, results in a hot spot directly in front of the light fixture.

LED illumination device with a highly uniform illumination pattern


Embodiments of the disclosure include a method for reserving large pages in a large frame area (LFAREA) of a main memory. The method includes pre-scanning a plurality of storage increments and counting a number of available large pages that are online and issuing a message that indicates the number of available large pages. The method also includes receiving and parsing an LFAREA request including a target number of large pages to be reserved. The method further includes calculating an optimal number of large pages to be reserved, based upon the target number of available pages and a system limit. The method includes determining if the LFAREA request is valid and if the LFAREA request can be satisfied and scanning the plurality of the storage increments and reserving the optimal number of pages in the LFAREA.

The present disclosure relates to the management of real storage, and more specifically, to reserving fixed page areas in real storage increments using target request amounts.
Many computer systems utilize a large frame area (LFAREA) to support the storage of large pages, such as pages equal to or larger than 1 megabyte (MB). The LFAREA includes one or more online real storage address increments. Currently, the real storage increments range from 64 MB to 2 gigabytes (GB) depending on the processor machine model. The number of pages to be reserved is requested via an LFAREA system parameter (e.g., LFAREA=24M is a request to reserve 24 1 MB pages in the LFAREA). Reserving a desired number of pages can be accomplished by scanning the real storage increments and selecting the real storage increments that are online and available until the requested amount is achieved. In many current systems the amount of storage that can be reserved in the LFAREA is limited to 80 percent of the online storage minus 2 GB.
As the page size of large pages used by computer systems increases, the page size may become larger than the real storage increments used by the computer system. As a result, the selection process becomes more complex since it must find enough contiguous online and available real storage increments for each page area that is to be reserved. In addition, the selection process can be further complicated by gaps in storage increments caused by offline storage increments.

Reserving fixed page areas in real storage increments

International Business Machines Corporation


A single stranded nucleic acid probe having a base sequence complementary to the gene to be detected is immobilized onto the surface of an electrode or the tip of an optical fiber, and the nucleic probe is reacted with the gene sample denatured to a single stranded form, and then the nucleic acid probe hybridized with the gene is detected. In this procedure, to the reaction system consisting of the nucleic acid probe and the gene sample, a double stranded nucleic acid recognizing substance capable of binding specifically to the double stranded nucleic acid and being active electrochemically or optically is added. The detection of the nucleic acid probe is conducted by electrochemical or optical determination utilizing the electrode or optical fiber mentioned above. By this method, safer and more convenient detection of the gene is possible at a higher sensitivity even in a reduced time period.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel gene detection method to detect a certain gene specifically and a device for such detection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A genetic information stored in DNA is expressed as a protein or an enzyme through mRNA. By the effects of such protein or enzyme, various compounds necessary to maintain the vital actions are biosynthesized and metabolized. Thus a life is present as a dynamic equilibrium system of various substances controlled by genes.
There are 50 to 100 thousands of human genes. When some of them involve abnormality or change, such as defect or duplication, the characteristics, types and amounts of the proteins synthesized are changed, resulting in the poorly balanced biosystem, which may cause diseases. Thus, by detecting known pathogenic genes, the diseases may be identified or prevented. Such diagnosis based on the genes themselves has been developed as a results of the recently advancing technology of gene engineering, and is called as gene diagnosis.
When compared with conventional diagnostic methods, the gene diagnosis has characteristics as mentioned below.
Considering the mechanisms of gene expression, it can be presumed that changes in genes occur prior to almost all biochemical changes. Therefore, gene diagnosis by means of detecting the genetic change enables the diagnosis or prognosis prior to development of a disease which is one of phenotypes. Accordingly, the diagnosis and prognosis can be conducted before the development, in the latent period or at the earliest stage of the disease. This is the primary characteristic. As the secondary characteristic, gene diagnosis relating to the genetic diseases is independent from the organs or tissues to be analyzed since all genes in a living body are the same. This is particularly important in the diagnosis in fetus. Thus, this secondary characteristic enables the diagnosis simply by sampling amniotic fluid from a pregnant woman and analyzing the fetal cells suspending in the amniotic fluid.
Procedure of gene diagnosis conventionally employed is summarized as follows.
Genes are extracted from a samples and cleaved, if necessary, by appropriate restriction enzymes, and then subjected to electrophoresis and southern blotting. Then a nucleic acid probe (usually radiolabelled) having the base sequence complementary to the gene to be detected is hybridized to the blotted gene. Subsequently, the hybridized nucleic acid probe is detected by exposing an X-ray film to the radiation emitted from the labeled probe at lower temperature to confirm the presence of the gene.
The conventional detection method mentioned above involves the limitation of the place of diagnosis due to the use of radioisotopes and should be conducted with sufficient care of handling reagents. For the purpose of reducing such inconvenience, safe labeling agents substituting the radioisotopes are being developed and several detection methods, in which probes are utilized, such as avidin-biotin bond method or enzymatic or fluorescent method and the like have already been suggested. However, these methods can not achieve the sensitivity superior to that of the method using radioisotopes. They also involve the problems of the time period required to detecting the gene as long as 2 or 3 days as well as complicated procedure of determination.
On the other hand, quantification of a certain antigen or antibody present in a sample generally employs radioimmunoassay (RIA). However, RIA requires special instruments and authorized operators therefor capable of handling radioisotopes since this method also employs radioisotopes similarly as in the gene diagnosis methods mentioned above. In addition, waste disposal in this method should be done with particular care. As one of the other analytic methods, immunoelectrophoresis, which requires a long period for determination and has a poor sensitivity, can be suggested, although this method is not applicable in case of the samples containing only trace amount of test substance.


A flow impedance device is provided for an obstruction flowmeter for determining the flow rate of a compressible or incompressible fluid in a conduit. The flowmeter has means for measuring the temperature and pressure of the fluid as well as the pressure differential across the flow impedance device, and further means for computing a flow rate from the measured pressures. The flow impedance device includes a plate having a plurality of elongated openings arranged in a predetermined pattern. The plate is installed generally transversely in the conduit to force the fluid to flow through the plurality of elongated openings.

Flowmeters are presently dominated by designs using the orifice as the flow impedance device. Obstruction flowmeters of this type typically use a baffle plate having a circular opening installed transversely in the conduit. The fluid is forced to flow through the orifice, creating a pressure drop across the plate. The differential pressure is then measured across the orifice, which, along with stream pressure and temperature, are used to compute the flow rate with formulas as known in the art. Alternatively, the flow rate may be computed more accurately by also measuring the temperature differential across the orifice. One such flow rate measuring device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,744, issued to Hall et al., incorporated herein by reference.
Although the design and construction of a single orifice is simple, its accuracy is highly sensitive to upstream and downstream flow conditions. Consequently, devices commonly called flow conditioners or straighteners are required to eliminate any swirling or other flow field disturbances in the fluid flow upstream of the orifice. In addition, long straight meter runs are required upstream of the flowmeter to reduce unfavorable flow conditions which may affect the accuracy of the flowmeter as well as straight runs downstream.
Another drawback in introducing the normal orifice in the path of fluid flow is that the progression of the fluid is significantly disrupted. While it is desirable to minimize the area of the orifice, the unrecoverable pressure drop across the orifice becomes great. Also a significant distance is required downstream for pressure recovery.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a flow impedance device for a flowmeter which overcomes the disadvantages associated with the standard single orifice design. More specifically, it is desirable to eliminate the requirement of flow conditioning or to provide the effect of flow conditioning without using conventional flow conditioners or straighteners. Additionally, it is advantageous to provide a reduced unrecoverable pressure drop across the flow impedance device without sacrificing the accuracy of the resulting flow rate measurement. It is also desirable to provide apparatus adaptable to measure the flow rate of both homogeneous and non-homogeneous fluids.


The conduit assembly includes two mateable generally cylindrical conduit connector bodies with a longitudinal internal bore extending therethrough. The connector bodies include a locking surface for joining and retaining the bodies together at a desired angle. One connector body is externally threaded and the other provides an external snap-on attachment mechanism. Moreover, a gland nut is provided with an internally threaded surface and a snap-on attachment mechanism. The gland nut is slidably positioned over and attached to the connector bodies via snap-on attachment or screw attachment. The gland nut secures and retains the connector halves together at the desired position.

In electrical wiring, conduit fittings are used for connecting electrical conduits or various other cables to outlets, fixture boxes, junction boxes, and the like. In many applications, it is often desirable to have a conduit fitting that includes a bend or an angle.
Various conduit fittings have been developed that can be rotated for use as both a straight conduit fitting and an angled conduit fitting. U.S. Pat. No. 954,504 to W. F. Drew describes a pipe coupling device with a threaded nut having a flange that cooperates with the flange of a fitting with a bend. However, such coupling device does not prevent loosening or rotational movement of one fitting against another fitting.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 1,880,098 to J. E. Mair, U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,825 to Blakely, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,631 to Gretz, all disclose a connector fitting for conduits with a variation of a nut member holding two conduits. However, none of these references provide for a connector which will facilitate a tight clasp of two conduits to prevent their inter-rotation during installation or at a time thereafter, as well as maintain the conduits in place should the nut member be slightly loosened.
Further, many of the prior conduit fittings are difficult to install due to their complexity. In terms of steps for installing prior conduit fittings, the installer must hold the conduit fitting in one hand at the desired angle, and with the other hand manipulate the securing mechanism for locking the conduit fitting at a desired angle. Additionally, as the prior art references mentioned above indicate, those fittings provide a nut to secure the fitting at the desired angle. However, over time, the nut loosens allowing the fitting to inter-rotate or change positions.
Other prior art fittings include a snap-on feature to snap the two sections of the fitting together at the desired angle as shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,226 to Klas. However, the snap-on feature also results in a loose connection between the fitting pieces allowing the fitting pieces to change positions relative to each other.
Further, prior art fittings mentioned above and other fittings in the industry include a variety of separate pieces which must be assembled on-site. As there are several small separate pieces in the prior art fittings, which are easy to lose and hard to handle, the fitting itself is difficult to put together and, often, certain pieces such as the nut may become lost while trying to assemble the fitting.
Some of the fittings also fail to provide a water resistance feature as a tradeoff of their feature for making various rotational angle positions possible during assembly. Moreover, these prior conduit fittings are often complex and/or difficult to manufacture.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a conduit fitting which can be installed at any desired angle and retained at that angle until purposefully moved. Further, it is desirable to have a fitting assembly including a means of securing the fitting so that it will not come off during shipment and loosen after installation. In addition, it is desirable to have a fitting assembly that is pre-assembled at the manufacturing site to prevent loss of important pieces, yet allow disassembly if required. Finally, it is desirable to provide a conduit fitting assembly that can be easily and readily assembled, while preventing water from entering there through.

Rotatable liquid-tight conduit connector assembly


A facsimile apparatus having a page memory includes a memory having a capacity of at least one line data that is printed by a printer. The reception signal of the facsimile apparatus received and compressed is expanded for printing, and written into the memory. The printer prints the message received according to the written expanded data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus having a page printer such as a laser printer that prints in succession one page of image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional facsimile apparatus has been provided that has a page printer such as of the electrophotographic type. Such a facsimile apparatus includes a bit map memory having a capacity for storing dot data of one page. At the time of reception, the reception data from a code memory is expanded, whereby one page of reception data is stored in the bit map memory. This data is transferred to the printer to be printed out.
A conventional facsimile apparatus having a page printer is provided with a bit map memory of the output paper size to print out an image with the printer. In order to store data of one page with a printer of A4 size, for example, a memory capacity of 6M bytes is necessary. This large memory capacity is responsible for the high memory cost, resulting in a problem that the cost of a facsimile apparatus including a conventional page printer is expensive.

Facsimile apparatus with a page printer having reduced memory capacity requirements


Controller for an electric power steering system, which is adapted to predict a drop in power supply voltage for a motor and to perform an idling-up operation when the drop in the power supply voltage is predicted. Namely, this controller for the electric power steering system is adapted to control the motor for giving a steering assist force to a steering mechanism according to a current control value calculated from a steering assist command value, which is computed according to steering torque generated in a steering shaft, and from a motor current value. Further, this controller is provided with a predicting unit for predicting an occurrence of the drop in power supply voltage to be applied to the motor. Moreover, an idling-up operation is performed when the drop in power supply voltage is predicted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a controller for an electric power steering system adapted to give a steering system of an automobile or a vehicle a steering assist force which is generated by a motor. More specifically, the present invention relates to a controller for an electric power steering system adapted to enhance the responsiveness thereof to an emergency steerage (or steering operation) by predicting an occurrence of a drop in power supply voltage and by performing an idling-up operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional motor-driven power steering system for performing the auxiliary load pressing of a steering unit by utilizing the turning (or rotating) force of a motor is adapted so that the auxiliary load pressing is performed on a steering shaft or a rack shaft by means of a transmitting mechanism, such as a gear or a belt, for transmitting the driving force of the motor through a reduction gear. Such a conventional motor-driven power steering system performs feedback control of the motor current so as to generate steering assist torque accurately.
The feedback control is to regulate a voltage applied or impressed to the motor in such a manner that the difference between a current control value and a motor current detection value decreases. Generally, the regulation of the voltage applied to the motor is performed by regulating a duty ratio to be used in PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) control operation.
Hereinafter, the common or ordinary configuration of such a motor-driven power steering system will be described by illustrating thereof in FIG. 1. A shaft 2 of a steering handle 1 is connected with tie-rods 6 respectively corresponding to wheels through a reduction gear 3, universal joints 4a and 4b and a pinion/rack mechanism 5. A torque sensor 10 for detecting the steering torque of the steering handle 1 is attached to the shaft 2. A motor 20 for assisting the steering force of the steering handle 1 is connected to the shaft 2 through a clutch 21 and the reduction gear 3. Electric power is supplied through a battery 14 and an ignition key 11 to a control unit 30 for controlling the power steering system. Then, the control unit 30 computes a steering assist command value I, which is obtained by performing an assist command, on the basis of steering torque T, which is detected by the torque sensor 10, and of a vehicle velocity or speed V, which is detected by a vehicle speed sensor 12. Further, on the basis of the computed steering assist command value I, the control unit 30 controls an electric current to be supplied to the motor 20. On/off control of the clutch 21 is controlled by the control unit 30 and is turned ON (namely, is engaged) under ordinary operating conditions. Moreover, when the control unit 30 judges that the power steering system is out of order, and when power from the battery 14 is turned OFF by the ignition key 11, the clutch 21 is turned OFF (namely, is disengaged).
The control unit 30 is constituted mainly by a CPU. FIG.2 illustrates the common functions to be performed by executing programs in the CPU. For example, a block, in which a word "phase compensator 31" is written, does not represent a phase compensator serving as independent hardware. Instead, this block represents a phase compensation function to be performed by the CPU. Functions and operations of the control unit 30 will be described hereinbelow. First, in the phase compensator 31, a phase compensation is performed on the steering torque T, which is detected and inputted by the torque sensor 10, so as to enhance the stability of the steering system. Subsequently, the phase-compensated steering torque TA is inputted to a steering assist command value computing unit 32. Further, a vehicle speed V detected by the vehicle speed sensor 12 is inputted to the steering assist command value computing unit 32. Then, the steering assist command value computing unit 32 determines a steering assist command value I, which is a control target value of a current to be supplied to the motor 20, according to the steering torque TA and the vehicle speed V inputted thereto. Additionally, a memory 33 is attached to the steering assist command value computing unit 32. Further, the memory 33 stores the steering assist command value I corresponding to the steering torque therein by using the vehicle speed V as a parameter, and is used for computing the steering assist command value I by means of the steering assist command value computing unit 32. Moreover, the steering assist command value I is inputted to a subtracter 30A and is also inputted to a differential compensator 34 of the feed forward system, which is used for increasing a response speed. Deviation (I-i) obtained by the subtracter 30A is inputted to a proportional computation unit 35. Proportional output of the proportional computation unit 35 is inputted to an adder 30B and is also inputted to an integral compensator 36 for improving characteristics of the feedback system. Outputs of the differential compensator 34 and the integral compensator 36 are inputted to the adder 30B, and an addition of the outputs of the proportional computation unit 35 and the compensators 34 and 35 is performed therein. Signal representing a current control value E, which is a result of an addition performed in the adder 30B, is inputted to a motor driving circuit as a motor driving signal. Motor current value i for the motor 20 is detected by a motor current detecting circuit 38 and is further inputted and feedbacked to the subtracter 30A.
Example of the configuration of the motor driving circuit will be described hereinbelow by illustrating thereof in FIG.3. This motor driving circuit 37 consists of: FET gate driving circuit 371 for driving each of field effect transistors (FETs) FET1 to FET4; an H bridge circuit composed of the field effect transistors FET1 to FET4; and a voltage boosting (or booster) power supply 372 for driving high sides of the field effect transistors FET1 and FET2. Field effect transistors FET1 and FET2 are turned ON or OFF in response to PWM signal having a duty ratio D1. Further, in a region in which the duty ratio D1 is small, the field effect transistors FET3 and FET4 are driven in response to PWM signal having a duty ratio D2 defined by a predetermined linear function (D2=a.multidot.D1+b, where a and b are constants). In contrast, in a region in which the duty ratio D1 is large, the field effect transistors FET3 and FET4 are turned ON or OFF in accordance with the direction of rotation of the motor, which is determined according to the sign of PWM signal. For instance, when the field effect transistor FET3 is in a conductive state, electric current flows through the field effect transistor FET1, the motor 20, the transistor FET3 and a resistor R1. Thus, electric current flows through the motor 20 in a positive direction. Further, when the field effect transistor FET4 is in a conductive state, electric current flows through the field effect transistor FET2, the motor 20, the transistor FET4 and a resistor R2. Thus, electric current flows through the motor 20 in a negative direction. Therefore, a signal representing the current control value E is outputted from the adder 30B as PWM output signal. Moreover, the motor current detecting circuit 38 detects the magnitude of a positive direction current on the basis of a drop in voltage developed across the resistor R1. Furthermore, the motor current detecting circuit 38 detects the magnitude of a negative direction current on the basis of a drop in voltage developed across the resistor R2. Motor current value i detected by the motor current detecting circuit 38 is inputted and feedbacked to the subtracter 30A. One of important specifications for the steering performance obtained under the control of the aforementioned control unit concerns the responsiveness of a (power) steering assist unit. Namely, in the case of assuming the emergency steering operation, it is very important how quick a driver or operator can achieve the steering without any sense of incongruity. In the case of the power steering system, the performance of the motor is a dominant factor for the responsiveness. The power supply voltage for the motor is usually limited to a range of voltages (14.5 to 12.0 Volt) supplied from an alternator or a battery. In addition, a restriction is imposed on the size of the motor in conformity with mechanical specifications. Consequently, from the viewpoint of the design of the motor, there is caused a limit to the responsiveness which can be realized by the power steering system.
On the other hand, if the responsiveness becomes a problem, an assist (current) becomes necessary. In the case that the power steering system employs an ordinary power supply which uses both of the alternator and the battery, in accordance with the relation between the ability of the alternator and the current to be supplied to a load, when the current increases, the power supply voltage shifts from a voltage generated by the alternator to a voltage generated by the battery and thus lowers. Consequently, the responsiveness of the motor shifts from a line or segment A to another line B as illustrated in FIG. 4. Therefore, the conventional power steering system has encountered the problem that the necessary responsiveness cannot be obtained.
Further, when performing a quick steering operation so as to avoid danger, steering torque is increased. Thus, it is necessary to generate the assist torque. When driving the motor in such a manner as to surmount the limitations to the ability of the motor, a rapid change in motor current value occurs and consequently, a pulse-like change in the steering torque is caused, as illustrated in FIGS. 5A to 5C. Namely, in the case that a quick steering operation is performed at a time point t1, a motor angular speed or velocity increases as shown in FIG. 5A. In contrast, a motor current i decreases abrupt1y owing to a counter (or back) electromotive force, as illustrated in FIG. 5B. In addition to this, as shown in FIG. 5C, the steering torque T increases rapidly after the time point t1. Further, the natural oscillation of the system is excited. Thus, a phenomenon indicated by reference character A causes a driver to feel a sense of incongruity.

Controller for electric power steering system


An autonomous vehicle includes: a first sensor which obtains environmental information on surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle; and a control unit which controls a drive unit based on a self position. The control unit includes: a first estimation unit which calculates a first estimate value indicating an estimated self position, by estimation using a probabilistic method based on the environmental information; and a second estimation unit which calculates a second estimate value indicating an estimated self position, by estimation using a matching method based on the environmental information, and the control unit changes, according to the first estimate value, a second estimate range for the calculating of the second estimate value by the second estimation unit, and controls the drive unit using the second estimate value as the self position.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an autonomous vehicle which autonomously moves to a destination, and also relates to a method of estimating self positions of an autonomous vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional autonomous vehicle includes an environmental information obtainment sensor and a control unit. The environmental information obtainment sensor obtains information on surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle. The control unit controls a drive unit which allows the autonomous vehicle to travel. The control unit includes a self position estimation unit. The self position estimation unit calculates an error of an estimated self position and corrects the estimated self position by comparison of map information stored in a memory unit and environmental information obtained by the environmental information obtainment sensor. The conventional self position estimation unit expands a range of an estimable self position when the self conventional position estimation unit cannot obtain environmental information for use in correction of an error of an estimated self position. The error of an estimated self position is a discrepancy between an actual self position and an estimated self position (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-5593, for example).

Autonomous vehicle and method of estimating self position of autonomous vehicle

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A knocking judgement method for an internal combustion engine, in which an engine ECU executes a program judging whether or not such ones of integrated values calculated by integrating the output of a knock sensor at every five degrees of a crank angle are larger than a tentative knock judgement value, in vibrations of a fourth frequency band containing the resonance frequency of the engine, tentatively judging that a knocking has occurred, in case the integrated value larger than the tentative knock judgement value is a predetermined number or more, and judging that no knocking has occurred, in case the integrated value larger than the tentative knock judgement value is not more than the predetermined number.

Conventionally, there have been proposed various methods for determining occurrence of knocking (a knock). For example, a magnitude of a vibration generated in an internal combustion engine is detected, and then is compared with a threshold value in order to determine occurrence of knocking. In the internal combustion engine, however, a vibration may be generated due to seating of an intake valve or an exhaust valve, in addition to the vibration generated due to the knocking. Moreover, a vibration may also be generated due to an operation of an injector (particularly, a direct injection-type injector that directly injects fuel into a cylinder) or a high-pressure pump that supplies fuel to the injector. In a case where these vibrations are detected as noise, it is impossible to distinguish a vibration generated due to knocking from a vibration generated due to noise from the magnitude of the vibration in some instances. In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a technique of determining occurrence of knocking in consideration of a waveform shape of a vibration.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-353531 discloses a knock control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, and this apparatus determines occurrence of knocking through use of a waveform shape. The knock control apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-353531 includes a signal detecting part that detects a vibration waveform signal generated in the internal combustion engine, a frequency separating part that separates the vibration waveform signal detected by the signal detecting part into a plurality of frequency components, a waveform shape setting part that sets a knock waveform shape based on a value obtained by integrating magnitudes of the plurality of frequency components separated by the frequency separating part for every predetermined interval corresponding to a predetermined crank angle, a knock determining part that determines occurrence of a knock at the internal combustion engine based on the knock waveform shape set by the waveform shape setting part, and a knock controlling part that controls an operation state of the internal combustion engine in accordance with a result of the determination by the knock determining part.
The knock control apparatus described in this patent publication separates the vibration waveform signal generated in the internal combustion engine into the plurality of frequency components. The knock control apparatus sets the knock waveform shape based on the value obtained by integrating the magnitudes of the plurality of separated frequency components for every predetermined interval corresponding to the predetermined crank angle. Thus, the knock waveform shape can be represented as a sum in respective vibration modes. The knock control apparatus can accurately determine occurrence of a knock at the internal combustion engine through use of this knock waveform shape.
Typically, a magnitude of a vibration generated due to noise attenuates rapidly as its characteristic. On the other hand, a magnitude of a vibration generated due to knocking attenuates gently as its characteristic. With the characteristics described above, normally, it is possible to distinguish the vibration generated due to the noise from the vibration generated due to the knocking from a waveform. However, in a case of a vibration which is generated due to noise and is small in magnitude, a shape of the vibration is similar to that of a vibration which is generated due to knocking in some instances. Consequently, even in a case where a vibration waveform signal is separated into a plurality of frequency components and a knock waveform shape is set by a value obtained by integrating magnitudes of the plurality of separated frequency components for every predetermined interval corresponding to a predetermined crank angle as in the knock control apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-353531, it is difficult to distinguish the vibration generated due to noise from the vibration generated due to the knocking in some instances. In this case, there is a possibility that the occurrence of the knocking is determined erroneously.

Knocking determination apparatus and knocking determination method for internal combustion engine


A method and system for recovering a global history vector. In the event of a non-branch flush, a tag may be received by a queue configured to store information about branch instructions. The queue may read a copy of the global history vector from an entry indexed by the tag. This copy may be inserted in a global history vector mechanism (“GHV mechanism”) configured to manage the global history vector. If the flush operation is a flush to a group of instructions that contains no branch instructions and the tag does not equal the next-to-write pointer in the queue, then the queue may transmit a command to the GHV mechanism to enter a mode where the GHV mechanism does not update the global history vector until the next branch instruction is fetched.

Microprocessors may achieve efficient execution of instructions by implementing a mechanism, commonly referred to as a branch prediction mechanism. A branch prediction mechanism indicates a predicted direction (taken or not taken) for a branch instruction, allowing subsequent instruction fetching to continue along the predicted instruction stream indicated by the branch prediction. A branch instruction is an instruction which causes subsequent instructions to be fetched from one of at least two addresses a sequential address identifying an instruction stream beginning with instructions which directly follow the branch instruction; and a target address identifying an instruction stream beginning at an arbitrary location in memory. A branch instruction, referred to as an "unconditional branch instruction", always branches to the target address, while a branch instruction, referred to as a "conditional branch instruction", may select either the sequential or the target address based on the outcome of a prior instruction. Instructions from the predicted instruction stream may be speculatively executed prior to execution of the branch instruction, and in any case are placed into the instruction processing pipeline prior to execution of the branch instruction. If the predicted instruction stream is correct, then the number of instructions executed per clock cycle is advantageously increased. However, if the predicted instruction stream is incorrect, i.e., one or more branch instructions are predicted incorrectly, then the instructions from the incorrectly predicted instruction stream are discarded from the instruction processing pipeline and the number of instructions executed per clock cycle is decreased.
In order to be effective, the branch prediction mechanism must be highly accurate such that the predicted instruction stream is correct as often as possible. Typically, increasing the accuracy of the branch prediction mechanism is achieved by increasing the complexity of the branch prediction mechanism. Among the methods used to predict branches are local branch prediction and global branch prediction. Local branch prediction involves making a prediction based on the behavior of a particular branch the past few times it was executed. Local branch prediction is most effective for branches exhibiting a strong tendency towards a particular outcome. On the other hand, global branch prediction involves making a branch prediction based on the path of execution, i.e., the history of the last few branches to have been executed. Global branch prediction is useful when the behavior of a branch is related to the behavior of the prior executed branches.
Global branch prediction may implement a special shift-register storing a bit-vector, referred to as a "global history vector", that represents the recent path of execution. For example, the global history vector may store n bits of data. Each bit of data may be associated with a group of instructions, e.g., eight instructions, that had been fetched such as from an instruction cache. The position of a bit in the global history vector corresponds to how recently the associated group of instructions was fetched. For example, the least significant bit in the global history vector may represent the most recent fetch and the nth most significant bit may represent n fetches ago. If the group of instructions fetched contained a branch instruction whose branch was taken, then a "1" may be indicated in the global history vector corresponding to that group of instructions. Otherwise, a "0" may be indicated in the global history vector. That is, a "0" may be indicated in the global history vector if the corresponding group of instructions did not contain a branch instruction or if the group of instructions did contain one or more conditional branch instructions and each of these branches were not taken. Upon each successive fetch of a group of instructions, the global history vector is updated by shifting in an appropriate "1" or "0" and discarding the oldest bit.
If the group of instructions fetched contains a branch instruction, then a copy of the global history vector along with other information may be stored in a queue, referred to as a "branch information queue". The global history vector may be stored in the branch information queue in order to recover the global history vector in the event of a branch mispredict. As stated above, in the event of a branch mispredict, i.e., in the event the predicted instruction stream is incorrect, the instructions from the incorrectly prediction instruction are discarded. Further, in the event of a branch mispredict, certain registers and mechanisms within the processor, including the global history vector and the branch information queue, must be restored to the same state that existed immediately before the discarded instructions were fetched. The discarding of instructions in the event of a branch mispredict may be referred to as a "branch flush."
In the event of a "non-branch" flush operation, the global history vector may be discarded. A non-branch flush may refer to a flush operation (discarding of all instructions between the most recently fetched instructions and some instructions fetched earlier ) not resulting from a branch misprediction, i.e., not resulting from an incorrectly predicted instruction stream. For example, a non-branch flush operation may be enacted to handle a "livelock" situation such as when a thread in a multi-thread system cannot make forward progress because of a resource being locked. In another example, a non-branch flush operation may be enacted when a system call instruction is fetched and later identified after a number of instructions had been fetched. The instructions fetched after the system call was fetched may have to be flushed.
The global history vector may be recoverable in a non-branch flush if the flush is to a fetch group (group of instructions fetched) that contains a branch instruction. The global history vector may be recoverable as a copy of the global history vector may have been stored in the branch issue queue for that branch instruction. However, the global history vector is not recoverable in a non-branch flush if the flush is to a fetch group that does not contain a branch instruction. The branch information queue may only contain a copy of the global history vector for a branch instruction and not for a non-branch instruction. Consequently, the global history vector must be reconstructed. If the global history vector is n bits long, then it will require n correctly predicted fetches to be reconstructed. If a correct prediction as to whether a conditional branch instruction should be taken or not taken depends on the global history vector, then branch mispredictions may occur until the global history vector has finished being reconstructed which may retard the process of reconstructing the global history vector. If non-branch flushes are frequent, then frequent branch mispredictions may occur thereby adversely affecting performance.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to recover a global history vector in the event of a non-branch flush to a fetch group of instructions that contains no branch instructions.

Recovery of global history vector in the event of a non-branch flush


An instrument for measuring dimensions of a can seam portion including a criterion measuring pin, a linear gauge provided with a measuring spindle which is so supported as to be movable along a straight line L in the direction of approaching said criterion measuring pin and in the direction of leaving said criterion measuring pin, a can cap supporting block, and a can body supporting block. The can cap supporting block holds the can such that the direction of measuring can seaming thickness T coincides with the straight line L so that the inner face of the can seam portion contacts the criterion measuring pin. The can body supporting block holds the can such that the direction for measuring the can seaming width W is identical with the straight line L and the lower face so that the can seam portion contacts the criterion measuring pin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instrument for measuring dimensions of a seam portion between the body and the cap of a can which is used as a canning container of foodstuffs, etc.
2. Background Art
A can which is used as a canning container of foodstuffs, etc. is seamed after filling the can with the contents and seaming the cap to the body. A dimensional control of this seam operation is an important measure for judging the can seamability. A process control is necessary to ensure that cans difficult to seam do not occur by regularly inspecting the seam portion of the cans after completion of the seaming process.
FIG. 4(a) is a view showing a seamed can body and cap. FIG. 4(b) is a view showing the section of a seam portion formed by seaming. This seam portion is formed by overlapping a body hook BH formed with edge 1b of the neck portion of the can body rolled in and a cover hook CH formed with edge portion 2a of the can cap rolled in and pressing the overlap strongly. Usually, the seam portion slants outwardly at a microangle of .theta. from an extension line of the can body according to the dismantling of a seaming tool, quality of the can, inner pressure of the can, etc.
An inspection is made from many aspects in order to judge the quality of the seam portion. Usually, respective dimensions are measured for the seaming thickness T, seaming width W, counter sink C, body hook BH, cover hook CH, overlap OL (as shown in FIG. 4(b) and can height H (as shown in FIG. 4(a) the seaming thickness T and seaming width W exceed any defined value among these measured values, poor seaming is likely to occur. Thus, the seaming thickness T and seaming width W are the most important areas to be measured.
The present invention is directed to an instrument for measuring exactly these seaming thickness T and seaming width W.
Conventional methods for measuring seaming thickness T and seaming width W involve a method in which one measures a can using a micrometer for and then enters the measured value on a recording paper. However, this method has inherent problems in the skill required to measure the seaming thickness T and seaming width W by maintaining an accurate measuring angle since the seamed portion is circular and slant; an indicator scale of the micrometer is small and difficult to read; and much time is required to record the measured values.
Equipment has been developed for automatically measuring seamed portions using a device for measuring can seam dimensions as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publn. No. 63-108935. A method for inspecting cans is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publn. No. 64-2744. While these devices are useful for labor-saving, they have the following disadvantages because of their complex structure. For example, much time is spent in exchanging a mold in accordance with the kind of can being measured in confirming the measuring accuracy after exchange of a mold. Further, the device used is large and requires a wide area for installation.

Instrument for measuring dimensions of a can seam portion