A candle-maintenance tool for carving a substantially arcuate path in candle wax of a surface of a candle. The candle-maintenance tool includes a shaft having a candle-contacting surface at one end thereof and a blade coupled to the shaft near the candle-contacting surface. When the candle-contacting surface is pressed into the surface of the candle, at least a portion of the blade contacts the surface of the candle. When the candle-maintenance tool is rotated in place with the candle-contacting surface pressed into the surface of the candle, the blade carves a substantially arcuate path into the surface of the candle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to candles, and, in particular, to the retrieval of candle wicks that have become embedded in solidified wax.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wax candles have long been used for both aesthetic and functional purposes. A typical wax candle has two components, wax and a wick. The wax serves as a fuel, while the wick, which usually consists of absorbent twine, absorbs liquid wax and moves the liquid wax upward while the candle is burning, to provide a continuous source of fuel.
Wax candles are often used inside glass, metal, ceramic, or other containers, which can make the candle difficult to reach and to light. After a period of burning, candles are often extinguished and then relit.
As shown in FIG. 1, frequent burning and relighting of a typical candle 100 can cause the ignitable end of a wick 101 to become fully immersed in liquid wax in a circular region 102 surrounding wick 101, after the candle is extinguished. Once the wax in region 102 cools, the wick is lost, i.e., fully embedded in solidified wax. Subsequent relighting of the candle requires retrieving or freeing the captive wick from its surrounding wax.
Losing the wick can sometimes be avoided by swirling, tilting, or agitating the candle after extinguishing the wick, to move the melted wax away from the wick, causing the melted wax to adhere to peripheral areas of the candle. Aside from the risk of burns and potential damage from wayward molten wax, this process also requires the foresight, upon extinguishing a candle, to realize that the wick is likely to become lost once the wax in region 102 hardens.
Once the wick is lost, one way to retrieve the wick prior to relighting the candle is to melt the surrounding wax with a match or lighter to expose the wick, which typically involves turning the candle on its side or upside down, so that the flame contacts the wax in region 102. This process can be difficult or impossible, particularly if the candle is located inside a container that hinders access to region 102, or if region 102 is relatively deep within candle 100, due to a resulting inability to apply sufficient force in the necessary directions to carve wax from region 102. The dripping hot wax and exposed flame make this process dangerous, as well. Moreover, heat, smoke, and soot from the burning wax in region 102 can result in discoloration, cracking, burning, and warping of the container or other holder being used.
An alternative heat-based method for wick retrieval permits keeping the candle upright. In this scenario, an open flame or other heat source is placed near region 102 to soften the wax, while a knife or other tool is used to dig out the wax surrounding the wick. While this reduces the chance of injury from dripping hot wax, the open flame or other heat source still presents a risk of burns. Also disadvantageously, after the wick has been retrieved in this manner, an unattractive and irregular area within region 102 typically results.
To reduce the problems associated with wick retrieval, certain specialized wick-retrieval tools have been developed.
One such wick-retrieval tool, as shown in FIG. 2, is a wax-cutting tool 200 having a handle 201, a shank 202, and a scoop-shaped end 203. The scoop-shaped end 203, which resembles a miniature melon baller, has sharp edges that can cut through unheated solid wax, eliminating the risks of using an adjacent heat source to melt the wax in region 102. To use tool 200, the user holds handle 201 and manually pushes or pulls scoop-shaped end 203 downward, in a generally circular path around wick 101 within region 102, so as to eventually carve a generally circular recess around wick 101. However, the sharp edges of scoop-shaped end 203 pose a risk of cutting both nearby fingers and the wick itself, if the user is not sufficiently careful. Also, just as with heat-based wick retrieval methods, an unattractive and irregular area within region 102 can easily result, depending on the manual dexterity of the user. Moreover, when the scooping process is finished, a pile of wax shavings remains in and near region 102, which requires removal prior to relighting, in addition to wax shavings ending up in the general vicinity of the candle as well. Another disadvantage of tool 200 is that, if region 102 is relatively deep within candle 100, or if candle 100 is located inside a container that hinders access to region 102, then tool 200 becomes difficult or impossible to use due to a resulting inability to apply sufficient force in the necessary directions to carve wax from region 102.
Other wick-retrieval tools are illustrated in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. D511,287 to Lake and D522,326 to Chance et al., both of which show handheld tools that appear to have ends adapted for digging in wax and grasping a candle wick. Each of these tools still appears to require that a heat source be placed near region 102 to soften the wax, while the tool is used to dig out the wax surrounding the wick and to grasp the wick.
Another wick-retrieval tool, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,037,104 to Azzinaro et al., is a large pistol-shaped tool resembling a hot-glue gun or soldering iron. The tool has an elongate hollow heated tube, which is heated by a heating source to a temperature sufficient to substantially soften or liquefy candle wax. A working end of the heated elongate hollow tube is inserted into the candle wax around the embedded ignitable end of a wick. The candle and the tool are then inverted, and the wax around the wick flows through the interior of the heated elongate hollow tube and out a draining end of the heated elongate hollow tube, thereby exposing the embedded wick. This tool uses house current and has a power cord that must be plugged into a nearby outlet to power the heating element, thereby limiting the tool's range of use. The user must also wait at least several minutes after plugging in the tool before the elongate hollow tube is sufficiently hot to melt candle wax, and the tool must be kept away from people, pets, and nearby objects during preheating to avoid burns. Additionally, because the user must invert the candle and the tool while using the tool, injury caused by dripping hot wax and the hot heating tube is possible. Moreover, this tool is relatively expensive to produce and is not practical for the average consumer.


An improved control for an automatically shiftable transmission upshift, wherein the engine output torque and on-coming clutch pressure are coordinated during the shift based on an inverse dynamic model of the transmission to achieve a desired output torque trajectory. At the initiation of an upshift, the engine torque is commanded to decrease in a ramp-like or sloping fashion to and engine output torque value calculated using the dynamic model. This ramp-like or sloping decrease provides smooth shifting, while reducing the likelihood of tie-up between on-coming and off-going clutches within the automatically shiftable transmission.

In general, an automatically shiftable transmission for a motor vehicle includes a number of gear elements and selectively engageable friction elements (referred to herein as clutches) that are controlled to establish one of several forward speed ratios between an input shaft and output shaft of the transmission. The input shaft is coupled to a power source, such as an internal combustion engine through a fluid coupling, such as a torque converter, and the output shaft is coupled to the vehicle drive wheels through a differential gearset. Shifting from a currently established speed ratio to new speed ratio involves, in most cases, disengaging a clutch (off-going clutch) associated with the current speed ratio and engaging a clutch (on-coming clutch) associated with the new speed ratio.
It is well known that transmission shifting can be controlled by manipulating the clutch pressures and the engine torque output during the shift for improved shift quality and transmission durability. Some control strategies use open-loop engine output torque controls to suppress engine flare during low torque upshifting, while others employ closed-loop engine torque and on-coming clutch pressure controls to maintain a desired constant output torque.
Ideally, these control strategies command a step-like reduction in engine torque at the instant that the on-coming clutch gains capacity. However, in practice, these two events rarely occur at the same time. If a step engine torque reduction occurs before the on-coming clutch gains capacity, a noticeable sag in engine torque would be felt by the operator of the vehicle. Calibration engineers have deemed this result unacceptable, therefore, typical transmission calibrations require the on-coming clutch to gain capacity prior to the step torque reduction.
As transmission calibrations have continued to be refined to produce smoother shifts, larger step torque reductions and lower initial on-coming clutch pressure commands have resulted. As this trend continued, it was determined that an initial on-coming clutch pressure could be calculated and commanded to not break free or release the off-going clutch until the step torque reduction had occurred. This method of operation also results in poor shift quality as a result of tie-up between the on-coming clutch and the off-going clutch prior to the engine torque reduction.

Control of engine torque reduction at upshift initiation


A constant current control circuit with PFC function and its PFC circuit are provided. The PFC circuit comprises a valley-filled PFC circuit and a harmonic compensation circuit, whose output signal is supplied to the current control circuit. By adding the harmonic compensation circuit to the PFC circuit, the distortion of input current is decreased and the power factor is enhanced. Moreover, the whole circuit is simplified and its cost is reduced.

FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram of a conventional constant-current control circuit. Referring to FIG. 1, the control principle of the constant-current control circuit includes: a current in a switching tube S1 is sampled by a first sampling resistor Rs, and then the sampled current is input to a Cs terminal of a control chip IC. In the chip IC, the sampled current signal input from the Cs terminal is compared with a reference signal, and a driving signal is output via Dr to a control terminal of the switching tube S1 according to the comparison result; therefore, by an adjusting of the control chip IC, a current peak in the switching tube may be equal to a current value configured by the reference signal and the first sampling resistor Rs, hence the current peak in the switching tube may be controlled. Due to the conversion of the main circuit, the peak of the current output from the main circuit may be controlled indirectly; hence a constant current control may be realized.
For the constant current control circuit in which the output current is kept constant by controlling the peak current of the main switching tube, the output of the constant current control circuit is not feedback, hence the circuit has the characteristics of fast dynamic response, simple structure and low cost and is widely applied in low-power constant current circuit.
However, in order to reduce the harm caused by harmonic an d reactive power, in certain application scenarios, a higher power factor (PF) is often required. In this case, the power factor correction circuit needs to be added in the constant current control circuit, where a valley-fill power factor correction (PFC) circuit is adopted most commonly.
FIG. 2 is a schematic structure diagram of a conventional valley-fill PFC circuit. The principle of the valley-fill PFC circuit may be summarized as: the peak portion of the input Sine voltage charges via D3 the capacitors C1 and C2 which are connected in series; in a case that the input Sine voltage is lower than the peak voltage, the capacitors C1 and C2 may be discharged in parallel via D1 and D2. This traditional valley-fill PFC circuit may correct the power factor to some extent, but the PF value is often low due to the distorted input current; hence in certain scenarios where a higher PF value is required, a simple valley-fill PFC circuit may not meet the requirement.
In summary, the conventional constant current control circuit and the conventional valley-fill PFC circuit thereof has the problem of low PF value due to the distorted input current. Therefore, an improved technical solution is desirable to solve this problem.

Constant current control circuit with PFC function and its PFC circuit


Disclosed herein are a maritime communication apparatus and method. The maritime communication apparatus includes a land-based network communication unit, a maritime network communication unit, and a communication control unit. The land-based network communication unit communicates with a land-based communication network. The maritime network communication unit communicates with a maritime communication network. The communication control unit links the communication of the land-based network communication unit with the communication of the maritime network communication unit in accordance with a destination address of data provided by any one of the land-based network communication unit and the maritime network communication unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to wireless communication technology, and, more particularly, to a maritime wireless communication method and apparatus that are capable of supporting commercial broadband communication service at sea.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maritime communication is a very old form of communication. Maritime communication is internationally protected because it is closely related to the safety of humans, and it has evolved slower than other communication technologies. However, with the recent rapid advance of communication technology, maritime communication is also in the process of being actively developed.
Maritime communication systems include medium frequency (MF), high frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) band communication equipment and satellite communication equipment in order to perform worldwide maritime communication, and provide voice-oriented communication services with the exception of a simple text transfer service.
A Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) based on a communication system in which pieces of communication equipment having a variety of purposes were integrated with each other was introduced at the end of 1990s. Recently, under the leadership of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), an E-navigation strategy that is intended to collect, integrate, exchange, represent and analyze ship and land-related maritime information using an electronic method, thereby ensuring safety and security at sea and protecting a maritime environment has been discussed with the aim of future enforcement.
Meanwhile, although many ships currently navigate coastal waters, it is difficult for the ships to receive various communication services from land because there is no provision for a maritime broadband digital communication network. Meanwhile, ships on long distance voyages are dependent upon expensive satellite communication.
Furthermore, although various communication means for a GMDSS are installed on a ship, most of them are used for voice communication in an analog form. Some communication devices are capable of digital transmission, but provide service at limited speeds and within very limited areas.
In some countries, maritime digital Very High Frequency (VHF) band communication has been deployed and is being operated on a test basis. However, this is used within very limited areas, and whether it will spread all over the world is not certain. Although ships navigating coastal waters utilize land-based communication networks, such as existing mobile phone networks, the use of the land-based communication networks cannot be fully utilized because the range of communication over the land-based communication networks is limited, and it is difficult for ships that navigate various waters to utilize and communicate over the land-based communication networks.
Meanwhile, the required bandwidth for each ship, exclusive of that for broadcast information, is estimated to be about 100 Kbytes/day based on 2009 estimated figures and to be 10 Mbytes/day based on 2011 estimated figures, and is expected to increase when the e-Navigation era is reached.
Furthermore, in light of the fact that the accidents involving ships mostly occur in coastal waters within 100 km of the coast, various ship safety navigation solutions capable of preventing accidents involving ships have been developed. Wireless communication between ships is required for the safe navigation of the ships. Currently available land-based wireless communications have the disadvantage of short coverage distances. In particular, satellite communication has the disadvantages of low data throughput and high cost.
Korean Patent Application Publication NO. 2011-43963 discloses a maritime communication apparatus and method that perform communication between a base station and a ship using a protocol that is appropriate for distance and signal intensity. However, the technology disclosed in this Korean patent application publication is very limited because it can be applied only to ships that are present within the distance over which radio waves can arrive from land.
Accordingly, there is a need for maritime wireless communication technology that can use a land-based mobile communication network, and can extend land-based wireless communication service to the sea and make the land-based wireless communication service available at sea.

Maritime wireless communication method and apparatus

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


There are provided a touch sensing device and a touchscreen device. The touch sensing device according to an embodiment of the invention may include: a buffer unit including a buffer capacitor charged and discharged by a first voltage and a second voltage input at a predetermined period; an integrating circuit unit integrating a charging voltage of the buffer capacitor; a signal conversion unit comparing a voltage output from the integrating circuit unit with a predetermined reference voltage to generate the second voltage; and a touch determination unit counting the second voltage with a predetermined reference clock to determine a touch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch sensing device and a touchscreen device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch sensing device, such as a touchscreen, a touch pad, and the like, an input device attached to a display device to provide an intuitive input method to a user, has been widely used in various electronic devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), navigation devices, and the like. In particular, as the demand for smartphones has recently increased, the use of a touchscreen capable of providing various data input methods in a limited form factor has increased.
A touchscreen used in portable devices may be mainly classified as a resistive type touchscreen or a capacitive type touchscreen depending on a method of sensing a touch utilized thereby. Here, the capacitive type touchscreen has advantages in that it has a relatively long lifespan and various data input methods and gestures are easily implementable therewith, such that the use thereof has correspondingly increased. In particular, a multi-touch interface may be more easily implemented with the capacitive type touchscreen as compared to the resistive type touchscreen, such that the capacitive type touchscreen is widely used in devices, such as smartphones, and the like.
The capacitive type touchscreen includes a plurality of electrodes having a predetermined pattern, in which the plurality of electrodes defines a plurality of nodes in which the changes in capacitance are generated by a touch. In the plurality of nodes distributed on a two-dimensional plane, a change in self-capacitance or a change in mutual-capacitance is generated by the touch. Coordinates of the touch may be calculated by applying a weighted average calculation method, and the like, to the changes in capacitance generated in the plurality of nodes. In this case, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to convert analog signals, such as the changes in capacitance, and the like, generated in the plurality of nodes, into digital signals. Here, as a resolution of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is increased, the sensitivity and performance of the touch sensing device are improved. However, when a high-specification analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to design a touch sensing device having improved sensitivity and performance, an area of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) may be increased and manufacturing costs may be increased.
Patent Document 1 relates to a readout circuit unit, having a difference between two sensing voltage values each stored in a sensing block applied thereto by using a sigma delta principle applied to a touchscreen device to generate a delta voltage and provide the delta voltage as an N-bit digital signal. However, Patent Document 1 does not disclose a feature of feeding back voltage depending on the changes in capacitance generated in the touchscreen.

Touch sensing device and touchscreen device


Sample collection assemblies and methods that use a collection wand having a working end and an operating end, a collection tube having a barrel portion, an assay chamber, and a partition member, with the working end of the collection wand having a scoop configured for collecting a predetermined sample volume, and with the partition member having an orifice with a boundary complementary to a cross-section of the scoop, whereby an excess of sample material can be excluded from entering the assay chamber.

Devices and systems are available for collection of biological samples for analysis by known methods including immunochemistry, PCR, biochemical analysis, microbial culture, mass spectrometry, and biosensor-based detection. However, often times a particular sample collection device may be difficult to use for collecting a particular type of sample or from a particular source or for a particular type of analysis. The present invention is directed to novel sample collection devices, assemblies and methods particularly suited for collection, storage and/or analysis of a biological sample, such as fecal material, from a human or animal.


This invention is a servo mounting system, which allows a servo with a rotating output shaft to directly power an aircraft control surface. A specially designed servo mount securely positions the servo with the central axis of its rotational output shaft on, and axially aligned with, the hinge line of the control surface it drives. The servo shaft and servo body are directly connected to the airframe and control surface, thereby conserving rotational motion while driving control movement. Electronic means are then used to control the neutral point and the limit of travel of the servo. The system eliminates lost motion without generating adverse linear loads within the drive assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
This servo mount design is related to the specific connection between the device or arrangement for controlling an aircraft and a controlled element.
2. Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
It is often necessary or desirable to power the motion of an aircraft control surface with an electro-mechanical servo. The most common use of servo powered flight controls is in the radio controlled aircraft hobby industry. There is also a rapidly growing market for commercial and military remotely piloted vehicles, which also employ the use of servos to power their flight controls. The latest trend in full scale aviation is all electric flight control actuation, or "fly by wire". It is conceivable that servo powered flight controls will replace the hydro-mechanical powered systems predominantly used in manned aircraft today, since they are very compatible with the fly by wire concept. There are a large variety of commercially available servos which provide an output via a rotating shaft. In all previous endeavors, the servo is mounted to the airframe in a location other than on the hinge line of the control surface it powers, and the servo shaft drives the control surface through a linkage in one or a combination of the following manners:                (a) The servo shaft is fitted with a lever arm (servo arm), which is connected to a lever arm on the control surface through a mechanical link. The link is rigid enough to transfer both push and pull forces between the two arms, thereby transferring the rotational motion of the servo shaft to the control surface.        (b) The servo shaft is fitted with two parallel and opposing lever arms, 180 degrees apart, which are connected to matching double lever arms on the control surface via two pull cables. In this way each cable transfers a pull force from the servo arm to which it is attached to the respective control surface arm, thereby transferring the rotational motion of the servo shaft to the control surface. Each cable transfers motion in only one direction.        (c) The servo shaft is fitted with a pulley, which is connected to a corresponding pulley on the control surface through pull cables. As in (2) above, the cables serve to transfer the rotational motion of the servo shaft to the control surface.
The above methods of driving a control surface involve a conversion of rotational motion at the servo shaft to linear motion, which is then reconverted back to rotational motion at the control. There are several inherent problems with these linkage drive systems:                (a) A linkage generates a linear load which must be absorbed by both the servo shaft bearings and the control surface hinges. The linear load is at its greatest when the control is fully deflected, which is also the point when the air loads on the control hinges are highest. Both these loads are additive on the hinges. This load accelerates wear on the servo bearings and control hinges, thereby increasing the need for periodic maintenance and part replacement.        (b) At large control surface deflections, the geometry of a link or cable becomes severe.                    (1 ) The effective lengths of the lever arms become shorter at high control deflections when the air loads are strongest. This results in an exponentially increasing load on the servo and the control hinge. To reduce compliance in the structure due to these loads, the control drive assembly must be strengthened significantly. The result is added weight, which has negative aircraft performance consequences.            (2) At the extremes of control travel, linkage angularity results in non-linear control deflection rates. That is, the control moves at a different angular rate than the angular rate of the servo output shaft. This requires complicated electronic or mechanical compensation to return control movement to a proportionally linear motion.                        (c) Friction is generated at the connection points of a link, the servo bearings, and the control hinge. Friction subtracts from the servo power that reaches the control surface. To compensate, a stronger servo is required, which again means more weight to the aircraft.        (d) A linkage must have some tolerance at the connecting points to ensure it is free to pivot. As the connections wear, the tolerance naturally increases. Additionally, when force is applied through any mechanical assembly, there is deflection due to stress. In a cable linkage, the cables stretch significantly under load. The end result of these factors is lost motion between the servo and the control surface. Lost motion is detrimental for two reasons:                    (1) Lost motion allows air loads to deflect the control surface from the commanded position. This reduces the precision control of the surface, thereby reducing effective control of the aircraft.            (2) Lost motion reduces the overall stiffness of the control assembly, which increases the risk of control surface flutter. Flutter is potentially catastrophic to the structural integrity of an aircraft.                        (e) By their nature, linkage elements located at the control surface introduce mass behind the hinge line. This increases the weight of the surface, thereby increasing the tendency of the surface to flutter. Larger counterweights must be used to compensate for the weight of the control drive component, thereby adding weight to the aircraft.
Even with the mentioned shortcomings, linkages were necessary in past endeavors because:                (a) Early generation servos were underpowered, which required a properly designed linkage to increase the mechanical advantage of the servo over the control surface.        (b) Early generation servos had limited adjustment capability and no ability to change the direction of shaft motion in relation to an input. An adjustable linkage was necessary to center the control surface at the neutral point and/or to reverse the direction of control motion in relation to servo shaft motion.        (c) A few years ago, it was accepted that control surface travel should be limited to less than 30 degrees from the center position for aerodynamic reasons. In the past, commercially available servos had a range of travel in excess of 45 degrees from center with no limit of travel adjustment, which made a motion reduction linkage necessary to reduce the range of travel to accepted limits at the control surface.
In recent years, however, there have been numerous advances in both servo and aircraft design, so we are no longer bound by the limitations of just a few years ago. It has been shown that there is performance to be gained from using control travel in excess of 45 degrees. Electronic servo controls now make it possible to adjust the travel limit, set the centering point, and change the direction of rotation of the servo shaft without the need for cumbersome and restrictive mechanical linkages to do the same. Improved motor technology has provided servos that are now strong enough to drive a control surface without the need for mechanical advantage. Linkage ratios on servo driven flight controls are frequently reduced to 1:1. The traditional reasons for using a linkage between a servo and the control it drives no longer apply. It is now possible to drive an aircraft control surface directly from the servo shaft, without intermediary mechanisms to modify the servo output.
This method of directly driving the control surface has still not been used since current servo case design impedes doing so. Commercially available servos share a common generic mounting method in which tabs are provided on each end of the case to mount the servo using two or more screws to a fixed position on the airframe. This tab system provides flexibility in mounting the servo in the greatest number of standard applications, all of which involve the use of linkages to transfer the servo motion to the control. Though providing flexibility, the resulting design of the modern commercial servo is not at all suited to being mounted on the hinge line of a control surface.
The output shaft is near the middle of the servo body, which is an undesirable location for hinge line mounting as it causes the servo case to protrude significantly into the area occupied by the control surface. The provided mounting tabs extend further into the control surface space, further obstructing control motion. Because a large portion of the servo body, including half of the mounting tabs, is located past the hinge line, there is no obvious way to secure the servo to the aircraft. The mounting tabs are placed in an inconvenient, normally inaccessible location, and are at an awkward angle when securing the servo at the hinge line. In short, the standard shape and design of commercially available servos has precluded them from even being considered for hinge line mounting. Therefore, direct servo drive of an aircraft control surface is not an obvious or inevitable evolution of prior art.

Servo mounting system for direct drive of an aircraft control surface


An angled coaxial cable connector, having a unitary generally cylindrical inner conductor coaxial within a bore extending between a primary side and a secondary side of an outer body. The inner conductor provided with a first end on a primary longitudinal axis having a transition to a second end on a secondary axis at an angle to the primary longitudinal axis. An outer side of the transition having a planar back angle surface, the planar back angle surface arranged at generally one half of the angle to the longitudinal axis and to the secondary axis, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to connectors for coaxial cable. More particularly the invention relates to a right angle coaxial connector with improved electrical performance and a cost effective method of precision manufacture.
2. Description of Related Art
Angled coaxial cable connectors, for example right angle connectors, are useful for connecting to an RF device when a cable to device connection with the cable extending normal to the device is undesirable, such as a cable connection to a rack mounted device and or a device located close to an interfering surface such as a wall.
The right angle transition of the inner conductor necessary to form a right angle coaxial connector introduces several problems. First, the right angle transition makes it difficult to insert the inner conductor within the surrounding body, unless the body is formed in multiple pieces, has access covers and or, for example, a soldered connection is made at the transition point once the inner conductor is inserted from one end, which greatly complicates assembly.
Second, the transition introduces an impedance discontinuity into the coaxial transmission line to which the connector is attached. Both smooth larger radius bends and block type sharp corner bends introduce a measurable impedance discontinuity.
Third, depending upon the diameter of the mating coaxial cable and or specific connection interface the connector is designed for, the inner conductor element may be small in size and relatively fragile, significantly complicating cost effective manufacture with high levels of precision.
Competition within the coaxial cable and connector industry has focused attention upon improving electrical performance as well as reducing manufacturing, materials and installation costs.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus that overcomes deficiencies in such prior art.

Angled coaxial connector with inner conductor transition and method of manufacture


An eyepiece lens system for endoscopes comprising a plurality of lens components and using at least one aspherical surface. This eyepiece lens system is composed of a small number of lens elements and has favorably corrected aberrations.

a) Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an eyepiece lens system which is to be used with endoscopes such as fiber scopes, non-flexible endoscopes and so on.
b) Description of the prior art
Eyepiece lens systems for endoscopes such as fiber scopes, which are to be used for observing and photographing end surfaces of image guides, must be designed so as to satisfy the requirements (a) through (c) mentioned below:
(a) Since an image guide has a numerical aperture of at least 0.3, eyepiece lens system must be, even when a light bundle converged by an objective lens system is incident on the image guide, compatible with a numerical aperture of at least 0.2 of an image guide.
(b) An image guide generally has a diameter of 3 mm or shorter and is equipped with 50 thousand or a smaller number of picture elements arranged thereon. Since picture elements are arranged in such a small number on the end surface of the image guide and a large field angle of an eyepiece lens system will undesirably make too remarkable the mesh pattern on the end surface of the image guide fiber bundle, a wide field angle is not required for an eyepiece lens system. However, an eyepiece lens system has a small field number not exceeding 3 and must have a magnification of at least 20.times. which is higher than that of an ordinary type eyepiece lens system.
(c) An eyepiece lens system must sufficiently resolve the mesh pattern on the end surface of an image guide or have resolution of 200 lines/mm on the end surface of an image guide.
In order to satisfy the requirements described above, it is necessary to design an eyepiece lens system for endoscopes such as fiber scopes so as to have a high magnification, a large numerical aperture and favorable optical performance.
As the conventional eyepiece lens systems for endoscopes which are designed so as to satisfy the above-mentioned requirements, there are known the lens system disclosed by Japanese Patent Kokoku Publication No. Sho 60-18966.
However, this conventional eyepiece lens system is composed of four lens components consisting of six lens elements, or comprises rather large a number of lens elements. Further, this lens system adopts a lens barrel which has complicated structure and requires tedious assembly works, and is therefore expensive.


A cardiac device in which heart rate variability is computed in order to detect changes indicative of cardiac ischemia. In the case where the device is a pacemaker, the device may alter its pacing mode to limit the rate at which paces are delivered when ischemia is detected. Examples of such pacing mode alterations include discontinuing of rate-adaptive pacing, modification of the responsiveness of the rate-adaptive algorithm, or the decreasing of the maximum allowable pacing rate.

Implantable cardiac devices are devices that monitor cardiac function and may also provide electrical stimulation to selected chambers of the heart in order to treat disorders of cardiac rhythm. Such cardiac devices include pacemakers, implantable cardioverter/defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization devices, and implantable cardiac monitoring devices. A pacemaker is a cardiac rhythm management device that paces the heart with timed pacing pulses. The term "pacemaker" as used herein, however, should be taken to mean both pacemakers and any device with a pacing functionality, such as an implantable cardioverter/defibrillator with a pacemaker incorporated therein.
The most common condition for which pacemakers are used is the treatment of bradycardia where the intrinsic heart rate is too slow. The two most common causes of ventricular bradycardia are AV block and sick sinus syndrome. Permanent pacing for bradycardia is indicated in patients with symptomatic bradycardia of any type as long as it is likely to be permanent or recurrent and is not associated with a transient condition from which the patient may recover. In chronotropically competent patients (i.e., those patients whose atrial rhythm is responsive to metabolic demand) in need of ventricular pacing, atrial triggered modes such as DDD or VDD are desirable because they allow the pacing to track the physiologically normal atrial rhythm, which causes cardiac output to be responsive to the metabolic needs of the body.
In pacemaker patients who are chronotropically incompetent (e.g., sinus node dysfunction) or in whom atrial tracking modes such as DDD and VDD are contraindicated due to atrial arrhythmias, the heart rate is dictated solely by the pacemaker in the absence of faster intrinsic cardiac activity. That pacing rate is determined by the programmed escape intervals of the pacemaker and is referred to as the lower rate limit or LRL. Pacing the heart at a fixed rate as determined by the LRL setting of the pacemaker, however, does not allow the heart rate to increase with increased metabolic demand. Cardiac output is determined by two factors, the stroke volume and heart rate, with the latter being the primary determinant. Although stroke volume can be increased during exercise (e.g., due to increased venous return and increased myocardial contractility), the resulting increase in cardiac output is usually not sufficient to meet the body's metabolic needs unless the heart rate is also increased. If the heart is paced at a constant rate, severe limitations are imposed upon the patient with respect to lifestyle and activities. It is to overcome these limitations and improve the quality of life of such patients that rate-adaptive pacemakers have been developed. In a rate-adaptive pacemaker, the patient's metabolic demand is estimated with an exertion level sensor such as an accelerometer or minute-ventilation sensor. The sensed exertion level is then mapped to a sensor-indicated rate that becomes the lower rate limit for the pacemaker.
Rate-adaptive pacing is generally considered to be contraindicated for patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD) since the increase in heart rate brought about by rate-adaptive pacing also increases the oxygen demand of the heart. If the heart becomes ischemic due to insufficient blood flow in the face of increased oxygen demand, chest pain (angina pectoris) or triggering of an arrhythmia may result. For the same reasons, atrial tracking ventricular pacing modes may also be contraindicated in certain patients where cardiac ischemia results from atrial tracking pacing at high rates. Some pacemaker patients, however, may have undetected CAD with asymptomatic silent ischemia or may develop CAD subsequent to pacemaker implantation. It would be beneficial if the pacemaker could detect episodes of cardiac ischemia in those patients in order to provide that information to a clinician and/or automatically adjust the operation of the pacemaker.
Patients may also benefit from implantable devices that monitor cardiac function, but do not deliver therapy. These devices monitor cardiac rhythm or other parameters relating to cardiac function such as blood pressure or activity. The information gathered by the implantable device may then be communicated to a clinician for use in evaluating, and when appropriate treating, the patient.

Method for ischemia detection by implantable cardiac device


An information processing apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect a gesture made by a user, a recognition unit configured to recognize a type of the gesture detected by the detection unit, a control unit configured to control operation of a first application and a second application, and an output unit configured to output information of the first application or the second application. If the gesture is recognized by the recognition unit while the control unit is controlling the operation of the first application in the foreground, the control unit controls the operation of the second application operating in the background of the first application on the basis of the type of the gesture recognized by the recognition unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a program, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and method, and a program that are configured to operate an application executed in the background on the basis of gestures.
2. Description of the Related Art
For personal computers and mobile phones incorporating cameras, a technology for controlling an application by recognizing gestures made by a user is proposed.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a personal computer 221 according to the related art that operates an application on the basis of gestures.
In the personal computer 221 illustrated in FIG. 1, a controller 241 is displayed on a display 222 along with a mirror image 242 captured by a camera 223.
A hand 261 of the user is recognized by the camera 223, and each button on the controller 241 is selected on the basis of the position and the shape of the user's hand 261. Through this selection, an application that is displaying an image 243 on the display 222 is controlled.
In addition, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-282092, there is proposed an information processing apparatus that displays a gesture input list for a pen device or a mouse device when there has been no input for a certain period of time since operation start or when a gesture input has failed, so as to allow a user to learn gesture commands.

Information processing apparatus, method, and program for gesture recognition and control


A method of monitoring an electronics system comprises providing information regarding at least one parameter of at least one component of the electronics system, and communicating the information from the at least one component to a manager of the electronics system via a wireless communication pathway independent of the electronics system.

Design, manufacture, and assembly of an electronics system, such as a computer system, includes many steps. Because of the very small sizes of electronic components, and their connection via miniature conductive traces on circuit boards, it is becoming more difficult to verify proper design and/or assembly of an electronics system.
Physical inspection of the inclusion of proper components of a fully assembled electronics system is time consuming and awkward because of the small size of each component and the compact arrangement of those components together in the electronics system. Moreover, introducing external measurement equipment for electrical, optical or mechanical testing of electronic components is equally difficult due to the same space limitations.
Attempts to incorporate testing circuitry, verification circuitry, or management circuitry into electronic components tend to frustrate primary design goals of the components of the electronics system to maximize function while minimizing size. In particular, adding such circuitry into a component occupies scarce space within the component, as well as occupying pins and traces used to communicate to and from the component. Accordingly, adding additional circuitry for testing, verification, or for monitoring communication requires eliminating some functions of the component, or require increasing the size of the component.
Accordingly, techniques for monitoring components of an electronics system, such as computer systems, for proper design, manufacture, assembly, and/or repair and maintenance have struggled to keep pace with the miniaturization of those components and electronics systems, as well as with the speed of assembly of in today's high volume production environment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Wireless monitoring for an electronics system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


In a system and method for processing data, a user interface enables a user to enter mapping data to enable incoming data to be converted to a common data format. A database stores the mapping data and data quality rules, and a receiver receives data from a data source. The processor applies the data quality rules to the common format data to identify any potential errors in the common format data and notifies the user of any potential errors found in the common format data. The data rules may include data structure rules and/or data trending requirements based upon data trends or norms. The data source may be an employer, insurance company or other entity. The data may include insurance claim data, medical data and/or prescription data and/or eligibility and/or occupational and non-occupational data.

In the insurance industry, it is desirable for entities such as health plan administrators or carriers that administer benefit-related insurance claims, such as medical claims, dental claims, vision claims, prescription drug claims, occupational and non-occupational claims and enrollment information to periodically evaluate the data that have already been processed and/or paid under each policy to assess the cost and utilization associated with the policy and/or for a variety of other reasons. However, data collection and processing prior to substantive analysis of the data may be a time consuming and expensive process. First, the data from each data source is submitted in one or more non-standardized data formats, requiring reformatting of the data prior to data analysis. Thus, the individuals working with the data from multiple sources must have computer programming skills in addition to business analysis skills. Then, once the data have been formatted, it must be quality checked for formatting and data accuracy as well as for compliance with industry or carrier norms or trends. These quality checking processes may be time-consuming, tedious and labor-intensive processes that require individuals to manually review thousands of data items. As a result, human error in the quality checking processes is not uncommon. Thus, there is a need for a system that addresses the drawbacks of the existing approach to formatting and quality checking of data to prepare the data for analysis, for example, by employers, health plan administrators or other entities.

Processing health insurance data utilizing data quality rules


A shaped trim part configured to cover an airbag for a motor vehicle, and which includes at least one support which is weakened along an opening line which delimits an opening cover, and a decorative layer composed of leather and arranged on and/or over the support.

A support is, for example, a shaped plastic part which may be produced, for example, as an injection-moulded part or the like. The intermediate layer which is fastened, for example, adhesively bonded, on and/or over the support may be, in particular, a knitted fabric, namely a knitted spacer fabric.
Weakening in this context means, for example, a weakening of the thickness or a local thickness reduction in the sense of a notch, or else a perforation or the like. A decorative layer, which is made from leather, is as a rule adhesively bonded to the knitted spacer fabric. A shaped trim part which is formed in this way is used, for example, as an interior cover in a vehicle, for example, as a dashboard cover, door interior trim or the like.
In order that an airbag, which is arranged in a firing channel behind the shaped trim part, namely behind the opening cover of the shaped trim part, may trigger reliably, the support is weakened along the opening line with the formation of the opening cover. The opening cover is of substantially rectangular configuration, the weakening as a rule breaking open on three sides during triggering of the airbag, with the result that the opening cover folds open in a hinge-like manner. Here, the opening cover may also include a plurality of covers or cover sections which individually fold open in a hinge-like manner. During the opening, the intermediate layer, for example, the knitted spacer fabric, likewise tears open along the tear line.
In order to avoid the opening cover or airbag cover being visible from the vehicle interior, the entire shaped trim part is as a rule provided with a decorative layer which, for example, is made from leather, without seams or the like being provided in the region of the opening cover. In order to ensure defined tearing open of the airbag cover during the airbag triggering, the leather is split to a maximum thickness of 0.7 mm and used without weakening such as, for example in WO2011038856.
The leather hide may be weakened, with methods of laser weakening being current at the moment. Rear-side weakenings of the leather layer, however, are disadvantageous, since the rear-side weakening lines of the leather layer may stand out on and/or over the surface and may then become visible from the vehicle interior.
German Patent Publication No. DE 10 2006 027 082 A1 discloses a shaped trim part of the type described at the outset, in which the decorative layer is non-weakened in the region of the opening line of the support part or the intermediate layer.
German Patent Publication No. DE 19910141 A1 discloses an airbag covering having a tear line, the covering leather layer having a residual thickness of from 0.3 to 1.5 mm. The weakening is produced by way of a knife, which permits only simple, linear weakening structures. The described region where the residual layer is preserved with a value which begins at 0.3 mm is not suitable for reducing the visibility of the introduction of weakening.
German Patent Publication No. DE 102005013477 discloses a weakening of the covering layer in a curved shape, perpendicularly with respect to the plane of the cover. Here, the residual thickness to be preserved of the cover is considered to be advantageous at from 0.2 to 0.8 mm. This small residual layer may be sufficient in this embodiment, since the different planes of the weakening from the support via the spacer layer and an additional layer are not aligned with the weakening in the actual decorative layer. The production in accordance with this method, however, is very complicated.
German Patent Publication No. DE 19937373A1 discloses a tear edge on a film, no support being provided below the film in this form of interior trim for vehicles. The tear edge is of zigzag-shaped configuration and may be produced via microperforations.


A transmitter for controlling a target to be controlled having a motor, the transmitter includes: a start-up manipulation member to control starting and stopping of the motor; a rotational speed control manipulation member to control a rotational speed of the motor according to an operation amount; a control unit to generate the steering signal such that the motor is rotated according to the operation amount of the rotational speed control manipulation member when the operation amount of the rotational speed control manipulation member is equal to or greater than a preset start position while the start-up manipulation member is in a start-up state; and a transmitting unit to transmit the steering signal.

A radio control system uses radio waves to remotely control a target to be controlled (Hereinafter, referred to as a control target) at a remote location. In this radio control system, an operator controls, with a transmitter, the control target such as a model airplane, a model helicopter, a model car, or the like. The system has been used in hobby applications to compete in the field of control technology in regards to speed and acrobatics, or in applications of industrial equipment to control a control target such as a lawn mower or a crane.
The transmitter of the radio control system is a device for controlling a control target, and includes a transmitting unit which transmits a steering signal corresponding to the operation of the operator.
The control target includes a receiving unit which receives the steering signal, and the receiving unit sends a control signal based on the steering signal. The control signal controls a power unit such as a motor or an engine, and a drive control device such as a servo device which performs a drive control of each key or throttle of the engine, and a gyro device which maintains the stability of an aircraft.
Regarding the control of the servo device, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-024334 discloses a technology in which an adjustment value is changed at a switching point that has been arbitrarily set, the adjustment value for determining a relationship between the operation amount of a manipulation member provided in the transmitter and the operation amount of the servo device.
Further, regarding the control of the engine that has been conventionally used in the power unit, for example, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3079600 discloses a technology in which the rotational speed of the engine is controlled using a manipulation lever, a switch and the like provided in the transmitter. Particularly, in this technology, the rotational speed of the engine promptly returns to an idling value that has been initially set when the switch is turned to ON after the engine has been stopped.
Recently, in the field of the radio control system for hobby applications, a motor is often used as a power unit in a control target such as a model airplane or a model glider. The model airplane of the conventional radio control system usually uses an engine as a power unit, and the control method thereof is different from that of the motor.
For example, in a conventional control target of using an engine as a power unit, since restarting of the engine causes loss of fuel or troublesome operations after the engine is stopped, it is set to be in an idling state where the engine performs a minimum rotation when a lever for controlling the engine makes contact with one end of a movable range.
Alternatively, in the airplane or glider using a motor as a power unit, one arbitrary manipulation member set by the operator is used to control the motor. When using a lever as the manipulation member, it is set such that the rotation of the motor is stopped when the lever makes contact with one end of its movable range, and the rotation of the motor is maximized when the lever is brought into contact with the other end thereof.
As described above, when the lever is operated to be in contact with one end of the movable range, the rotation of the motor serving as a power unit is stopped. Accordingly, the rotation of a propeller, which is provided in the control target, is stopped to change a load associated with the control target. Thus, the operation feels different from that of a control target using the engine as the power unit.
Further, in order to maintain the motor at a low rotational speed as in the idling state of the engine, the operator needs to maintain the manipulation member at an operation amount at which the rotational speed of the motor is suitable, which is difficult to require a very delicate operation.
Even in the case of using the motor as the power unit, there has been a demand for a control that can be achieved by the same operation (e.g., the control of the low rotational speed) as the control target using the engine as the power unit.


The current invention relates to an adjustable mandibular advancement device with a unique combination of resilient hinging, dentition engagement and adjustability, to prevent or reduce Snoring and/or Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. The adjustability is described by means of two concepts of adjustability for the relative enlargement or diminution of the members of the device, incremental and successive advancement mechanisms, in either combination or separately. By use of thermoplastic materials the device can be used in the outmost variability of the human dentition.

Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea are generally known today as the same disease on a continuum of the sleep disorder severity scale. Starting at the modest degree of snoring ending in the fulminate obstructive sleep apnea condition, is known as a fact.
As the disease is closely related to a large variety of physical and mental conditions, treatment is of outmost importance as soon as possible.
Whereas the snoring condition is characterized by the sounds developed by vibrating tissues in the most dorsal area of the pharynx, either the nasopharynx, or the oropharynx or the laryngopharynx, the obstructive sleep apnea is characterized by actual respiration arrest caused by occlusion of the pharyngeal airways.
Apnea appears when the upper airway passages are being sucked close to the rear part of the throat when the person is trying to breathe during sleep. The occlusion can be the result of suction or by the lapse of tonus in the oral soft tissues during the relaxed sleep condition.
When the occlusion is there, no air is passing through the pharynx and down to the lungs this is the situation called OSAS (Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome).
The obstruction can happen as often as 1000 times during the night time sleep in which the body is depraved from oxygen uptake from the air into the blood stream, which eventually leads to the aggravated symptoms.
The severity of OSAS has been described in the medical literature numerous times giving cause to a number of symptoms and diseases:    General headache    High blood pressure    Diabetes    Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction    Cardiomyopathy    Pulmonary hypertonia with cor pulmonale (increased pressure in the heart-lung circuits)    Heart failure, heart arrhythmia, heart attack    Day time melancholy or depression    Intelligence alterations    Acid Reflux (GERD—Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease)    Potency disturbances    Worsening of ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), in addition to a large number of problems of a more social character, like, e.g., divorce, decreased labour activity, difficulties in keeping conversations in the track due to tiredness, etc.
Thus, compared to a normal control group without diseases, patients suffering from snoring and/or OSAS appear to have three times as many cases of coronary heart diseases, four times as many cerebral illnesses, such as clots, twelve times as many incidents of car accidents and twice as many labour accidents due to day time sleepiness as a result of lack of sleep and/or impaired sleep quality.
Due to these conditions the life time expectancy is severely limited for these patients, and their quality of life is compromised.
The continuum of snoring diseases gives the following frequency figures;                40% of adults over 40 snore (approx. 87 million Americans)        9% of men and 4% of women suffer from some form of OSAS                    (approx. 30 million Americans)                        Less than 10% of OSA sufferers have been diagnosed (Approx 3 million Americans)        Of those, less than 25% have been successfully treated.
For the above reasons, it is important to provide devices to eliminate and prevent apnea and the incipient stages thereof.
In the prior an, a number of surgical techniques for removal of the tissue involved in the obstruction have been developed, but all of these techniques seem to incur a certain invalidation of the patient and, at the same time, do not have a fully predictable effect.
Furthermore, a number of medical treatments have been tried out with predominantly deficient or sometimes even damaging effect.
Finally, the scientific literature and the patent literature disclose numerous devices for alarming the snoring patient during sleep; devices for tongue thrust, devices for forward movement of the soft palate; devices for obstructing the oral cavity (delimited by the lips), thereby engaging the sound from the snoring; furthermore, mandibular advancement splints or appliances, mouth guard-like devices for provocation of either tongue, hyoid bone or jaw position changes, thereby eliminating snoring;—all of these requiring active participation from competent professionals, such as medical doctors, dentists, etc. Among such prior art devices for or attempts to inhibit snoring, the following are of particular interest in the present context.
EP 0 794 749 B1 discloses a jaw position-regulating oral device for preventing snoring and obstructive sleep apnea during sleep. The device consist of two members, a first member to engage with the maxillary dentition and a second member to engage with the mandibular dentition, both connected by a resilient hinge. The mechanism is embedded in the mandibular advancement relative to the maxilla.
WO 2013/032 884 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device with an upper and lower member to engage the maxillary and mandibulary dentition respectively. The lower tray assembly is mated to and slidably adjustable by the patient relative to the upper tray assembly.
WO 2009/062 541 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement orthosis in which the device the comprises a unitary flexible member that can be folded on itself for interaction with the teeth of the upper and lower arches, and an interchangeable flexible strip for surrounding the teeth of the upper arch, having a length that can be modified in order to obtain the desired level of mandibular advancement.
US 2009/0014 013 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement splint made of two thermoformable trays designed to envelop the upper and lower arch. The advancement splint includes an articulated frame having rigid and flexible elements immersed in the thermoformable flexible material or molded around it.
EP 1 719 481 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device with a lateral link incorporated into a mandibular protrusion device comprising an upper dental tray and a lower dental tray so as to advance or retract the lower dental arch during a vertical movement between the two. The link is adapted to be detachably accommodated in an opening of a ball pivot.
EP 2 529 710 A1 discloses a device for mandibular advancement in which an upper member and a lower member are interconnected by means of pivotable connection in which at least one is formed as a stud.
CA 223 650 3 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device which uses elastic bands to pull the jaw forward. The upper part having a set of retention hooks and the lower part having a set of interchangeable slide-in posterior occlusal bite planes.
WO 2008/130 413 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device for pulling the lower jaw forward composed of an upper and a lower member to engage the dentition, where a ball type of hook support is located on both sides of the upper tray at a forward position and a ball type of hook supports are located at a rearward position of both sides of the lower jaw. A tension coil is attached to each of the upper and lower ball type of hook supports.
WO 2011/115 962 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement splint made of two trays designed to envelop the upper and lower arch. The upper appliance has a pair of adjustable wings attached to the body, and the lower has a pair of fixed wings attached to the body. The upper wings are slidable adjustable.
US 2010/004 380 5 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device with an upper and lower member to engage with the dentition of the human. The lower dental plate having two pairs of spaced apart pillars and two removable attachable horizontal displacements inserts on the upper part.
GB 2 264 868 discloses an anti-snoring device for oral use, comprising members having upper and lower surfaces which engage the user's maxillary and mandibular dental arches respectively. The upper and lower surfaces are spaced so that the mandible is placed in a forwardly offset position relative to its normal position. The spacing also tensions the masticatory muscles to maintain the device in place.
US 2011/001 722 0 A1 discloses a self-titratable mandibular repositioning device that allows for adjusting the maintained forward position by simply biting-down to preserve the desired degree of mandibular advancement, made of a lower and an upper member to engage the dentition.
US 2008/011 579 1 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device with an intraocclusal removable device in the form of a "U" that is placed covering the all of the upper jaw teeth, wherein two steps, one in each extreme of the lower part of the element, which impede the mandible be closed completely on its normal occlusion, forcing it to produce a forward displacement of the lower jaw.
US 2005/023 600 3 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device as a single piece of molded plastic with said unit modeled from four theoretical positions including a shield like anterior portion fitted and anchored between anterior teeth-gums and behind the lips.
US 2010/030 045 8 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device with an upper and lower member to engage with the dentition of the human. The members are including a cam associated with one of the jaws and a follower associated with the other jaw.
US 2008/009 902 9 A1 discloses a mandibular advancement device composed of a maxillary main body for removable attachment to the maxillary teeth with a protrusive element extending from the central portion of the body and a mandibular removable appliance attached to the mandibular anterior teeth.
EP 2 491 901 A1 discloses regulatable intraoral mandibular advancement device for preventing snoring and sleep apnea in which a screw system is located in the central part of the connection between the upper and lower members for the engagement of the dentition.
AU 1999 476 15 B2 discloses a mandibular advancement device in which the upper jaw is firmly fitted into an upper plate and the lower jaw is firmly fitted into a lower plate, these two parts are connected by means of opposing flange components located to be lying in an area and close to the posterior teeth.
US 2013/001 476 5 A1 discloses a tongue and mandibular advancement device in which an upper member has hook supports anteriorly and a lower member has a plurality of hook support at the rearward position.
EP 0 337 201 discloses an orthodontic appliance comprising a first member to engage with the mandibular dentition and a second member to engage with the maxillary dentition. The two members are resiliently hinged together to keep the upper and lower jaw in a normal position.
WO 92/11827 discloses an anti-snoring device for oral use consisting of a horseshoe-like upper jaw member for engaging the maxillary dentition, with the downward extending flange intended to extend into the lingual vestibule in order to maintain a forward posture of the lower jaw.
EP 0 312 368 discloses an anti-snoring device for oral use which resembles the above-mentioned device, the main difference being, the design of the airway passage.
WO 92/05752 discloses an anti-snoring device for oral use consisting of a spatial member congruent with the palate and a lower member adapted to the lingual aspects of the surfaces of the dentition in the lower jaw, hooks being attached to the occlusive plane of the device for fixing the two jaws in a predetermined relation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,960 discloses an anti-snoring device for oral use consisting of two horseshoe-like individually shaped mouthpiece portions which are connected and fixed in a predetermined position in which the lower jaw protrudes in relation to the upper jaw.
While the above devices represent attempts to solve the snoring and apnea problems, they are all rather complicated in their design and most of these require the interaction of a professional team in their individual design. Furthermore, they are rather discomfortable for the wearer, and they do not appear convincing with respect to their capability of achieving an effective and long-tasting anti-snoring effect.
Thus, there is a demand for a relatively comfortable device which provides a high degree of inhibitory effect on snoring during even long sleeping periods, such as overnight, without adverse effects on the structures involved, and which at the same time is easy and simple to use and wear for normal non-skilled persons. The present invention provides such a device.

Incremental and/or successive adjustable mandibular advancement device for preventing and treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea


A fixed-frequency switching regulator having a noise injection circuit. Noise is injected into the feedback loop of the switching regulator to modify the switching waveform to reduce individual frequency harmonics of the resultant Fourier Series. The reduced frequency harmonics allow the switching regulator to achieve reduced conducted emissions.

Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed limits on conducted and radiated emissions from unintentional radiators to update the references to Publication 22 of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR). It is difficult for electronic devices, such as devices that include fixed-frequency, switching power supplies to meet CISPR 22, as it requires diligence in component selection and printed circuit board layout.
The operation of a conventional fixed-frequency switching regulator will now be described with FIG. 1. The switching regulator 100 utilizes a LinkSwitch integrated circuit from Power Integrations, Inc., and includes an internal MOSFET switching element. During power up, as VIN is first applied, the CONTROL pin (C) capacitor C1 is charged through a switched high voltage current source connected internally between the DRAIN and CONTROL pins (D and C, respectively). When the CONTROL pin C voltage reaches approximately 5.6 V relative to the SOURCE pin S, the high voltage current source is turned off, the internal control circuitry is activated and the high voltage internal MOSFET begins to switch. At this point, the charge stored on C1 is used to supply the internal consumption of the chip.
As the output voltage, and therefore the reflected voltage across the primary transformer winding ramps up, the feedback CONTROL current IC increases. When IC exceeds IDCS, typically 2 mA, the maximum duty cycle is reduced. R1 is initially selected to conduct a value of IC approximately equal to IDCT when VOUT is at the desired value at the minimum power supply input voltage. When the duty cycle drops below approximately 4%, the frequency is reduced, which reduces energy consumption under light load conditions.
When a fault condition, such as an output short circuit or open loop, prevents flow of an external current into the CONTROL pin (C), the capacitor C1 discharges towards 4.7 V. At 4.7 V, an autorestart is activated, which turns the MOSFET off and puts the control circuitry in a low current standby mode. In auto-restart, the LinkSwitch device periodically restarts the power supply so that normal power supply operation can be restored when the fault is removed.
An optical isolator feedback is used to improve output voltage regulation. To implement the optical isolator regulation, resistor R3, capacitor C3 and optical isolator (transistor) U1 are included on the primary side, where resistor R3 forms a potential divider with resistor R1 to limit the transistor U1 collector emitter voltage. On the secondary side, voltage sense circuit components resistor R5, Zener diode VR1 and LED D2 provide a voltage feedback signal. In the exemplary circuit shown, the Zener diode VR1 reference is used to provide output voltage tolerancing and cable drop compensation, if required. Resistor R4 provides biasing for the Zener diode VR1. The regulated output voltage is equal to the sum of the Zener diode (VR1) voltage plus the forward voltage drop of the LED D2. Resistor R5 is an optional low value resistor to limit LED D2 peak current due to output ripple.
The feedback configuration is a resistive divider made up of resistor R1 and resistor R3 with diode D1, resistor R2, capacitor C1 and capacitor C2 rectifying, filtering and smoothing the primary winding voltage signal. The optical isolator therefore adjusts the resistor divider ratio to control the DC voltage across resistor R1 and therefore, the feedback current received by the LinkSwitch CONTROL pin (C). When the power supply operates in the constant current (CC) region, for example when charging a battery, the output voltage is below the voltage feedback threshold defined by LED D2 and Zener diode VR1 and the optical isolator is fully off.
When the output reaches the voltage feedback threshold set by LED D2 and Zener diode VR1, the optical isolator turns on. Any further increase in the power supply output voltage results in the transistor U1 current increasing, which increases the percentage of the reflected voltage appearing across resistor R1. The resulting increase in the LinkSwitch CONTROL current reduces the duty cycle according and therefore, maintains the output voltage regulation.
Typically, resistors R1 and R3 are equal in value. However, increasing resistor R3 (while reducing R1 to keep R1+R3 constant) increases loop gain in the constant voltage (CV) region, improving load regulation. The extent to which resistor R3 can be increased is limited by optical isolator transistor voltage and dissipation ratings and should be fully tested before finalizing a design.
With a constant load, the tightly controlled feedback loop of the switching regulator 100 keeps the output voltage VOUT of the switcher very stable. This closed loop system maintains a constant switching waveform that results in repetitive, Fourier Series frequency components as shown in FIG. 2.
Many older electronic devices, such as electronic meters, that include wide range power supply modules, use a switching regulator such as that shown in FIG. 1. Typically, these switching supplies were required to meet FCC part 15 emissions requirements for class B computing devices. Achieving a significant margin below the CISPR 22 requirement is very difficult using a fixed-frequency converter because of the sharp, narrow bandwidth harmonics of the switcher. In addition, many electronic devices must minimize hardware cost while maximizing functionality to be competitive. One of the major hardware elements within, e.g., an electronic meter, that has these constraints is the power supply. Typically, an electronic meter supply must work over an extended input AC voltage range, develop sufficient output power to supply a variety of communication options and meet the latest levels of conducted EMI per CISPR 22 rules. These requirements are not easily accomplished while minimizing cost.
Thus, there is significant probability that option boards, component changes and different meter configurations will add frequency elements or conduction paths that will not meet CISPR 22. As such, there is a need for a switching regulator that is both cost effective and that has a reduced emissions to more easily enable electronic devices to meet CISPR 22 requirements. The present invention provides such a solution.

Switching regulator with reduced conducted emissions


A process that disallows any bridging onto the signal to be broadcast from any switch of the input stage of the Clos switching network and that further disallows any requests for point-to-multipoint broadcast connections in excess of the number of switches in the center stage of the network avoids the perceived problems with maintaining point-to-multipoint broadcast connections in a Clos switching network. Such a process causes rearranging to occur only when the broadcast connection is established or added to. It also guarantees that paths for point-to-point connections can always be found, when they are requested, without spending time to rearrange any other connection.

As is well known in the art, a Clos switching network is a network of switches that is architected in a multi-stage configuration so that fewer switching points are necessary to implement connections between its inputs and outputs than would be required by a single stage switch architecture having the same input and output structure. In the prior art, three-stage Clos switching networks have been typically prevented from providing point-to-multipoint broadcasting. This is because it was known that to allow such broadcasting would tend to introduce the blocking of attempts to later establish point-to-point connections, unless the network were continually rearranged. However, the effort and time required to continually rearrange such a network, in order to maintain its nonblocking characteristics, when providing point-to-multipoint broadcasting, were perceived to be prohibitive.
And indeed, the maintenance of such nonblocking characteristics is often regarded as very important. For example, it is especially important for Clos switching networks that are to assist in providing alternate paths for use in the rerouting of signals which are carried over transport paths that become disturbed. Such alternate paths are carried through the Clos switching network via point-to-point connections and it must be ensured, for well known reasons in the switching art, that only a short time be taken to establish these alternate paths. To ensure that the time taken to establish the alternate paths is short, it is necessary that each one of the point-to-point connections, which must be established through the Clos switching network to support the alternate paths, be immediately available. Such immediate availability can only be achieved if the point-to-point nonblocking characteristics of the Clos switching network are maintained. However, as noted above, the maintenance of such nonblocking characteristics was perceived to limit the ability of the Clos switching network to be reconfigured, and hence, to limit its ability to support point-to-multipoint broadcasting.

Method for broadcasting in Clos switching networks by limiting the number of point-to-multipoint connections


A detector device for detection of unauthorised objects or substances. A support base receives at least one foot covered by its shoe, of an individual to be controlled. The device is adapted to detect stratification by vertical stacking, in the sole, by detection of successive echoes following emission of waves towards the sole. The device is also adapted to define a signal representative of the estimated height of the sole. Furthermore the device is for operating a standardisation of the detected vertical stratification signal on the basis of the signal representative of the estimated height of the sole. By dividing the detected vertical stratification signal by the signal representative of the estimated height of the sole so as to obtain a signal of vertical stratification for a standard height unit.

Today it seems necessary to reliably control attempts at introducing or removing some products, for example but not exclusively explosive substances, to or outside of a sensitive zone.
The pertinent problem covers a very wide range of situations which especially encompass and not limitedly attempts to introduce products to a protected zone, such as a shop, a school, a train station, a public or private institution, or the attempt to remove products to outside a defined perimeter, for example in the event of theft from a company or on a protected site.
It eventuates these days that individuals who try to fraudulently remove a product from a protected zone or who try to introduce such a product, often use shoes to conceal the product in question.
This phenomenon seems due essentially to the fact that this zone is not easy to control visually or by manual handling.


A map-editing method is provided for an electronic device. The method includes obtaining a panorama image and a corresponding acquisition position; selecting an image region containing a road element from the panorama image; and projecting the selected image region to a top-view image containing the road element. The method also include obtaining an extracted road element that is automatically extracted and matching the acquisition position; comparatively displaying the extracted road element and the top-view image on a map according to the acquisition position; and obtaining an editing instruction of the extracted road element displayed on the map, and responding to the editing instruction.

High-precision maps have higher precision and richer elements than existing navigation maps and are used for assisted driving, semi-autonomous driving or autonomous driving.
Usually, a lane line on a high-precision map is extracted from a laser point cloud street view. A laser point cloud street view is a three-dimensional (3D) laser point cloud street view generated by acquiring, by using a laser point cloud technology, 3D information about a road and surrounding buildings through laser scanning during street view acquisition, and processing the information through processing operation. However, when a road element (for example, a lane line) is extracted from the laser point cloud street view, usually, because of factors such as blocking or unclear index line, the extracted road element can be incorrect (for example, there are excessively many lane lines, or a lane line is missed or is erroneous). In this case, the extracted road element needs to be edited to generate a high-precision map.
In a conventional method, a point needs to be manually selected and drawn on the laser point cloud street view, to edit a road element. However, because the laser point cloud street view is a 3D space and a computer screen is a two-dimensional (2D) plane, it is time-consuming to select a point in the 3D space on the 2D computer screen. Therefore, the conventional method of selecting and drawing a point on a 3D laser point cloud street view to edit a road element is low in efficiency.

Method and apparatus for editing road element on map, electronic device, and storage medium

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


An assembly for sensing and/or monitoring the level of a material in a vessel includes a level sensor mounted in the vessel so that it comes into contact with the material when the material has attained a predetermined level. The level sensor contains a low-frequency sensing system and a high-frequency sensing system. The low-frequency sensing system is formed by a mechanical vibrator system induced to vibrate at its natural resonant frequency, and establishing whether the mechanical vibrator system is in contact with the material or not is achieved by evaluating the frequency and/or amplitude of the mechanical vibrations. For forming the high-frequency sensing system high-frequency elastic vibration is induced in a component of the level sensor, and establishing whether this component is in contact with the material or not is achieved by evaluating an electric signal generated as a function of the high-frequency elastic vibration.

The invention relates to an assembly for sensing and/or monitoring the level of a material in a vessel with the aid of a level sensor comprising a mechanical vibrator system and an electromechanical transducer system, the level sensor being applied to the vessel so that the mechanical vibrator system comes into contact with the material when the material has attained a predetermined level, and wherein the transducer system is connected to a low-frequency emitter circuit configured so that it induces low-frequency vibration in the mechanical vibrator system, the assembly further comprising a low-frequency detector circuit furnishing from evaluation of the frequency and/or amplitude of an electrical signal furnished by the transducer system an output signal indicating whether the mechanical vibrator system has come into contact with the material or not.
An assembly of this kind is known, for example, from DE 33 36 991 A1. In this known assembly the mechanical vibrator system consists of two vibrating rods secured juxtaposed spaced away from each other to a diaphragm, the rim of which is connected to a grommet. The electromechanical transducer system comprises an exciting transducer and a receiving transducer. When an alternating voltage is applied to the exciting transducer it acts on the side of the diaphragm facing away from the vibrating rods so that the vibrating rods are caused to vibrate opposingly transversely to their longitudinal direction, and the receiving transducer converts the vibrations of the mechanical vibrator system into an electrical alternating voltage. The two transducers are connected to an amplifier in a self-exciting circuit so that vibration of the mechanical vibrator system is excited at its natural resonance frequency. The natural resonance frequency of the mechanical vibrator system depends on whether the vibrating rods are vibrating in air or are immersed in the material in the vessel; the natural resonance frequency in the immersed condition being lower than when vibrating in air, but in any case is below 1000 Hz in the low-frequency range. The low-frequency detector circuit compares the frequency of the electrical alternating voltage existing in the self-exciting circuit--this frequency being the same as the natural resonance frequency of the mechanical vibrator system--to a threshold value, and outputs an output signal indicating whether this frequency is above or below the threshold value.
An assembly known from DE 32 15 040 C2 for sensing and/or monitoring a predetermined level of a material in a vessel includes a mechanical vibrator system formed by a tubular hollow body in the cavity of which a transverse member is arranged secured by two opposing fastener points to the inner wall of the cavity. The transducer system, containing an exciting transducer and a receiving transducer, cooperates with the transverse member which can be caused to vibrate radially which is transmitted to the wall of the tubular hollow body. The natural resonance frequency of this mechanical vibrator system is in the range 20 to 30 kHz. The vibration of the outer wall of the cylindrical hollow body is damped by coming into contact with the material, the amplitude of the alternating voltage output by the exciting transducer changing accordingly. The exciting circuit compares the amplitude of this alternating voltage to a threshold value to indicate whether the tubular hollow body has come into contact with the material or not.
Known on the other hand are assemblies for sensing and/or monitoring the level of a material in a vessel which contain no mechanical vibrator system vibrating at its natural resonance frequency, they instead sensing the presence of a material at a predetermined level with the aid of elastic waves, the frequency of which is in the ultrasonic frequency range. Thus, EP 0 409 732 B1 or the corresponding DE 690 08 955 T2 describes a detector for indicating a liquid with a vertically arranged waveguide for elastic waves, the lower end of which is located level with the material level to be monitored. The waveguide has two cylindrical portions of which the upper portion is fully cylindrical and the lower portion may be fully cylindrical or tubular. A transducer mounted on the upper end of the waveguide emits pulsed elastic waves which run through the waveguide to the lower end. The frequency of the elastic waves is of the order of 75 to 125 kHz. When the lower end of the waveguide is not in contact with the liquid the emitted wave train is reflected at the end of the waveguide so that it is returned as an echo of larger amplitude to the transducer by which it is converted into an electrical detector signal of correspondingly high amplitude, whereas when the lower end of the waveguide is immersed in the liquid the wave train emitted by the transducer is absorbed by the liquid, resulting in a considerable attenuation of the reflected echo. By comparing the amplitude of the electrical detection signal to various threshold values it can thus be likewise established where the level is located within a specific section of the lower portion of the waveguide.
Available on the market are thus low-frequency and high-frequency systems for sensing and/or monitoring the level in a vessel by means of mechanical vibrations. Typical frequencies of the low-frequency sensing systems are in the audible sound range below 1000 Hz whilst typical frequencies of the high-frequency sensing systems are in the ultrasonic range above 15 kHz.
Each of these principles has its pros and cons depending on the material to be sensed and the prevailing ambient conditions. For instance, high-frequency sensing systems cause problems where gassy materials, such as carbonated beverages, are concerned since bubbles a t the mechanical vibrator system result in heavy smearage of the sensing signal. This problem can only be resolved by a complicated analysis of multiple reflections, whereas low-frequency sensing systems have no trouble working with gassy materials. The way in which the systems react to deposits having formed is also different. Where a soft deposit is concerned low-frequency sensing systems work unreliably, whereas high-frequency sensing systems are reliable, their response being the opposite in the case of hard deposits.
In conclusion, low-frequency sensing systems are ruined by low-frequency alien vibrations and high-frequency sensing systems by the high-frequency alien vibrations, whilst the one type of sensing system is not detrimented by the alien vibrations of the other frequency range in each case.

Assembly for sensing and/or monitoring a predetermined level in a vessel


Disclosed herein is a refrigerator having a storage box by which the humidity in a storage compartment is controllable. The refrigerator includes a body having a storage compartment, a storage box installed to be drawable in the storage compartment, a cover located above the storage box and provided to be rotatable, a cover frame configured to support the cover, and a knob configured to rotate the cover to adjust humidity inside the storage box.

A refrigerator is a household appliance capable of maintaining freshness of the food by including a storage compartment capable of storing food and a cool air supply device configured to supply cool air to the storage compartment.
A temperature of the storage compartment is maintained at a temperature within a certain range required to keep the food fresh. A storage compartment of such a refrigerator is provided with an open front surface, and the open front surface is normally closed by a door to maintain a temperature of the storage compartment.
A plurality of shelves for partitioning the storage compartment into a plurality of storage compartments and a plurality of storage boxes capable of storing items, such as food, therein are provided inside the storage compartment.
An upper portion of a storage box is in an open shape, and a cover is provided on an upper side of the storage box to close the open shape.
A gap between the storage box and the cover may be large, and thus air inside the storage box may flow into the storage compartment or cool air in the storage compartment may be excessively introduced into the storage box, thereby affecting humidity inside the storage box.
Thus, a cover is generally provided so as not to move so that a small gap may be maintained between the storage box and the cover so that the storage box is substantially sealed by the cover.
However, although the humidity inside the storage box may be maintained by such a cover and high humidity may be maintained by closing the storage box, there is a case in which a sealing function is not required, that is, in which it is necessary to maintain the humidity inside the storage box at a low level to maintain a low humidity state inside the storage box. Thus, it may be necessary to adjust the humidity inside the storage box depending on the nature of items stored in the storage box.


An infrared-absorptive compound represented by the following Formula (I) or (II). ##STR1## to be contained with an organic coloring matter in the recording layer for providing durable optical recording mediums.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an infrared-absorptive compound and an optical recording medium comprising a recording layer containing this infrared-absorptive compound.
2. Related Background Art
In general, optical disks and optical cards comprise a substrate and a thin recording layer provided thereon and can record high-density information in the recording layer in which optically detectable small pits (with size of, for example, about 1 .mu.m) are formed along a spiral, circular or linear track(s). To write information in such optical disks or optical cards, the surface of a laser light-sensitive layer is scanned with a converged laser beam so that pits are formed at the points irradiated with this laser beam, along a spiral, circular or linear track(s).
The laser light-sensitive layer is capable of absorbing laser light energy to form optically detectable pits. For example, in a heat mode recording system, the laser light-sensitive layer absorbs heat energy, so that small cavities (pits) can be formed by evaporation or melt at the energy-absorbed area. In another heat mode recording system, absorption of energy of emitted laser light causes the changes in optical density at the energy-absorbed area to form a pit.
A thin film of an organic coloring matter may be used as a recording layer of an optical recording medium so that the optical contrast of recording pits can be set higher. For example, a polymethine type, azulene type, cyanine type or pyrylium type coloring matter having a high absorptivity for the laser light may be used for the thin film, whereby a light-absorptive reflecting film showing a metallic gloss (reflectance: 10 to 50%) can be obtained to give an optical recording medium that enables the recording with laser beam and reading out by reflection. In particular, when a semiconductor laser with an oscillation wavelength of from 600 to 900 nm is used as a laser light source, the apparatus can be made smaller in size and cost. The thin film of organic coloring matter, however, is liable to change with heat and light causing the lowering of recording-reproducing performance and storage stability problems.
In order to prevent the lowering of recording-reproducing performance and storage stability, an optical recording medium has been proposed, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,121, comprising an organic coloring matter thin film in which an infrared-absorptive compound such as an aminium salt or diimonium salt compound is added. Such a conventional aminium salt or diimonium salt compound can prevent the lowering of recording-reproducing performance and storage stability, but there is a problem that the amount of the aminium salt or diimonium salt compound in the thin film of the organic matter is so large that reflectance is lowered resulting in the lowering of the recording sensitivity of the optical recording medium.
The present applicants have already made some proposals in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,923,390, 5,009,987 and 5,024,917, to solve the above problems in the prior art.

Infrared-absorptive compound containing optical recording medium