A display table used in exhibition sights, etc. including a table top and four foldable legs attached to the table top. The upper ends of the legs can slide along the side edges of the table and between the center and the corners of the table top. By sliding the legs and thus changing the angles between the legs and table top, the height of the table is changed. At a desired height, the legs are secured to the table top via bolts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a height adjustable display table.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, when exhibitions, shows, etc., are held, the place of exhibition is prepared in advance based upon arrangement plans, etc. which enhance the effectiveness of displays and special characteristics of the items displayed. In the preparation process, various utensils, equipment, materials and tools, etc. are brought into the exhibition place in large numbers, and "human wave" tactics are used to set up the exhibition place in a short period of time.
The display tables are no exception. A "terraced display" system having lower displays in front and higher displays in the back is employed in order to utilize the available space most efficiently and to attract the attention of exhibition-goers. Accordingly, various types of tables of different heights are brought in and set up and skilled personnel are called for assembling such tables.
However, the supervision of the loading, transportation, unloading, installation and removal etc., of a large number of tables of various types requires considerable labor and complicated record-keeping. The preparation of such display tables for the actual display items also requires considerable labor, with multi-level displays, etc., being used (from the standpoint of display style) in order to utilize the available space efficiently, and in order to attract the attention of exhibition-goers. Such multi-level displays may be set up by bringing in various types of tables of different heights. However, an excess or shortage of tables of specified heights often occur at exhibition locations. In such cases, the required tables are constructed on an emergency basis by skilled personnel, otherwise additional tables are brought in from the outside. This results in an excessive and wasteful expenditure of funds and labor.


A B-channel for use in a damper frame or sleeve is disclosed which is formed from a blank of sheet metal. The blank has a rectangular barrier wall, a pair of side walls formed along two opposing edges and end walls formed along opposing edges of the barrier wall. The side walls and end walls are folded perpendicularly to the barrier wall and tabs are formed on the end walls to be folded into the planes of the side walls. The B-channel is particularly useful in conjunction with a fire damper sleeve.

The field of the invention is duct work used in heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems ("HVAC") and particularly, channels for reducing the size of duct openings.
Fire damper assemblies are employed in duct work for HVAC systems at various locations. The damper assemblies include a sleeve which connects to the duct work, and the size of the sleeve is often larger than the duct work. A "B-channel" is attached to the damper sleeve to reduce its size to that of the duct work to be attached. Such B-channels are constructed from sheet metal which is bent to the desired channel shape and fastened to one wall of the sleeve. Caulking is used on the ends of the B-channel to completely seal off the interior and prevent air leakage.


A method of forming a graphitic carbon body employs compression and resistance heating of a stock blend of a carbon material and a binder material. During molding of the body, resistance heating is accompanied by application of mechanical pressure to increase the density and carbonization of the resulting preform body. The preform can then be subjected to a graphitization temperature to form a graphite article.

Graphite bodies have potential for use in a variety of applications, including uses in nuclear reactors, electrochemical fuel cells, the production of silicon and polysilicon, and other applications where a non-reactive material like graphite is needed. One characteristic missing from conventional graphites, however, is the combination of high porosity and ultra-low permeability which permits impregnation of materials into the graphite but which prevents leakage across the graphite article. It is this unusual combination of characteristics which permits the graphite of the present disclosure to be used in applications such as nuclear reactors, electrochemical fuel cells, the production of silicon and polysilicon, etc.
Graphite articles may be fabricated by combining calcined petroleum coke and coal-tar pitch binder into a stock blend. In this multi-step process, the calcined petroleum coke is first crushed, sized and milled into a finely defined powder. Generally, particles up to about 25 millimeters (mm) in average diameter are employed in the blend. The particulate fraction preferably includes coke powder filler having a small particle size. Other additives that may be incorporated into the small particle size filler include iron oxides to inhibit puffing (caused by release of sulfur from its bond with carbon inside the coke particles), coke powder and oils or other lubricants to facilitate extrusion of the blend.
The stock blend is heated to the softening temperature of the pitch and is form pressed to create a "green" stock body such as a plate. For green body production, a continuously operating extruding press may be used to form a plate known as a "green" body. For graphite article production, the green body is formed by die extrusion or by molding in a forming mold to form a "green body."
The green stock body is heated in a furnace to carbonize the pitch so as to give the body permanency of form and higher mechanical strength. Depending upon the size of the graphite body and upon the specific manufacturer's process, this "baking" step requires the green body to be heat treated at a temperature of between about 700° C. and about 1100° C. To avoid oxidation, the green stock body is baked in the relative absence of air. The temperature of the body is raised at a constant rate to the final baking temperature. In some embodiments, the green stock body is maintained at the final baking temperature for between 1 week and 2 weeks, depending upon the size of the body.
After cooling and cleaning, the baked body may be impregnated one or more times with coal tar or petroleum pitch, or other types of pitches known in the industry, to deposit additional pitch coke in any open pores of the body. Each impregnation is then followed by an additional baking step, including cooling and cleaning. The time and temperature for each re-baking step may vary, depending upon the particular manufacturer's process. Additives may be incorporated into the pitch to improve specific properties of the graphite body. Each such densification step (i.e. each additional impregnation and re-baking cycle) generally increases the density of the stock material and provides for a higher mechanical strength. Typically, forming each body includes at least one densification step. Many such articles require several separate densification steps before the desired density is achieved.
After densification, the body, referred to at this stage as a carbonized body, is then graphitized. Graphitization involves heat treatment at a final temperature of at least about 2600° C., and generally (but not necessarily) up to about 3400° C., for a time sufficient to cause the carbon atoms in the calcined coke and pitch coke binder to transform from a poorly ordered state into the crystalline structure of graphite. At these high temperatures, elements other than carbon are volatilized and escape as vapors.
After graphitization is completed, the body can be cut to size and then machined or otherwise formed into its final configuration. Given its nature, graphite permits machining to a high degree of tolerance, thus permitting a strong connection between graphite plates or the like.
The lengthy densification cycles greatly increase the expense and time of manufacture of graphite bodies. For example, it may take about six months to form certain graphite articles, depending on the number of densification steps. Other graphite articles may take about 35 days to manufacture, again depending on the number of densification steps. More to the point, the graphite articles produced by this conventional processing do not have the high porosity, low permeability characteristics sought for certain applications.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

High porosity/low permeability graphite bodies and process for the production thereof


Methods, apparatuses and systems for identifying a channel bandwidth and channel offset of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal. The OFDM signal is received by a receiver apparatus that may be tuned to RF bandwidth of 20 MHz, 40 MHz or 80 MHz. The method utilized by the apparatus includes identifying the location of the primary channel and subsequently determining a sequence of equalized frequency domain sub-symbols of the signal field in the lower and the upper frequency band. Further, a cross-correlation between the sequence of equalized frequency domain sub-symbols is computed along with the computing energy of the sequence of equalized frequency domain sub-symbols. Finally, the cross-correlation and the computed energy are compared for identifying the channel offset and the channel bandwidth.

A wireless communication system comprises of at least a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus. The transmitting apparatus contains one or more antennas for transmitting one or more signals after modulating one or more baseband sub-symbols. The sub-symbols may be modulated by using modulation schemes such as PSK, QAM, and the like. The transmitting apparatus scans the available spectrum and then transmits the signal with a particular channel bandwidth for efficiently utilizing the available spectrum. A multiplexing technique such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing also known as OFDM may be utilized to achieve higher data rate and to mitigate defects such as inter-symbol interference and fading caused due to multi-path delay spread. The receiving apparatus on the other side receives the OFDM modulated signal and thereupon identifies the channel bandwidth of the transmitted signal and demodulates the received signal into a plurality of individual PSK/QAM sub-symbol. The transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus communicate with each other based on various protocols and specifications including IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code division multiple access (CDMA), Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS), and the like.
In recent past, the IEEE 802.11 and its various versions commonly known as Wi-Fi have emerged as one of the most prominent wireless technologies for creating a wireless local area network (WLAN). The IEEE 802. 11 standards also play an important role in the future fourth-generation wireless and mobile communication systems. The development of 802.11a standard introduced orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to 802.11 standards, with data rates up to 54 Mbps in 20 MHz channel bandwidth. Subsequently, the 802.11g amendment incorporated the 802.11a OFDM PHY in the 2.4 GHz band. With the adoption of each new PHY, 802.11 standards have experienced a five-fold increase in data rate. This rate of increase continues with High Throughput (HT) IEEE 802.11n with a data rate of 300 Mbps and 600 Mbps in 20 MHz and 40 MHz channel bandwidth respectively.
To meet the increasing demand for higher throughput, the IEEE 802.11ac standard has been developed for facilitating Very High Throughput (VHT) wireless LAN. IEEE 802.11ac enhances the data rate beyond 1 Gbps in 5 GHz band and supports 80 MHz channel bandwidth option. IEEE 802.11ac supports 80 MHz channel bandwidth option in addition to 40 MHz and 20 MHz channel bandwidth options of IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.11a. Moreover, IEEE802.11n/ac introduces a channel bonding technique for efficient utilization of the spectrum. In channel bonding technique, available channel bandwidth i.e. 20 MHz or 40 MHz or 80 MHz is efficiently utilized either by using full channel bandwidth or partial bandwidth of the total channel bandwidth depending upon the availability of the spectrum. For instance, in case of 40 MHz channel bandwidth, two 20 MHz channels are bonded together. One of the 20 MHz channel is called a primary channel and the other 20 MHz channel is called a secondary channel. IEEE 802.11n/ac recommends different modes of channel offset to transmit PHY Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) independently in primary channel or by combination of primary and secondary channel by channel bonding technique. The 20 MHz channel bandwidth has only one mode of channel offset called CH_OFF_20. The 40 MHz channel bandwidth has five modes of channel offsets namely CH_OFF_20, CH_OFF_40, CH_OFF_40_NON_HT_DUP, CH_OFF_20U and CH_OFF_20L. Further, for 80 MHz channel bandwidth there exist seven possible modes of channels offset namely CH_OFF_20, CH_OFF_40, CH_OFF_40_NON_HT_DUP, CH_OFF_20U, CH_OFF_20L, CH_OFF_80 and CH_OFF_80_NON_HT_DUP.
At the receiver end, IEEE 802.11 ac compliant receiver apparatus is tuned to operate in one of the three RF bandwidths i.e. 20 MHz, 40 MHz or 80 MHz. While the receiving apparatus receives a radio signal, identifying the proper channel bandwidth and channel offset used by transmitted orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal is crucial for successfully decoding a data packet. Thus, it is necessary to determine the channel bandwidth and channel offset of the received radio signal and perform demodulation according to the relevant channel bandwidth and channel offset. The traditional methods of channel bandwidth and channel offset identification used by receiver apparatuses are based on estimating frequency and timing offsets in each of the primary channel and secondary channel. The estimation algorithms provided by the present state of art are performed before channel equalization, due to which performance of these identification/estimation algorithms are highly vulnerable to frequency selectivity of the channel.

Method and apparatus for identifying channel bandwidth and channel offset of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal


Fine particles of vanadium oxide or lithiated vanadium oxide are less than 100 microns in size and on the order of 30 microns in size. Such fine particles are prepared by spray-drying a precursor mixture. Such oxide particles are also intermingled with fine particles of carbon by including carbon particles in the precursor mixture.

Current batteries contain high surface area transition metal oxide active material such as vanadium oxide powders. These oxide powders are obtained, for example, by milling of vanadium oxide material. Current methods for the manufacture of powders involve mechanical grinding of vanadium oxide material prepared, for example, by rapid quench of molten material or by precipitation from an aqueous solution. As a result, the vanadium oxide is in the form of lumps or large particles. By standard milling techniques it is difficult to reduce the lumps to a size less than 100 micrometers (microns) and extremely difficult to achieve a particle size closer to 10 microns. Smaller vanadium oxide particle sizes are desirable because the larger the surface area, the higher is the current drawn from a battery while the current density on the surface of the vanadium oxide active material remains low which allows high utilization of the active material. A typical coarse V.sub.2 O.sub.5 powder of 95% purity available from Fisher Scientific Company, has a median particle size of about 110 microns and a surface area of about 5 meters.sup.2 /gram. Such a powder would need extensive milling.
Another problem posed by transition metal oxide active material is that it is necessary to add carbon to the composite cathode. The requirement for carbon and the amount thereof depends, to some extent, on the specific oxide. The electronic conductivity of vanadium oxides decreases substantially (2-4 orders of magnitude) during lithium insertion upon discharge of a battery. This increases the need for even greater amounts of added carbon. Methods which allow reduction of the carbon content are important in order to increase the specific energies of the battery.

Method of making lithium battery electrode compositions


Provided herein is a method and apparatus for realizing a frequency-spatial filter with variable bandwidth, the method including generating M number of FFT channel blocks having N number of channels by performing an N point FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing using M number of array antenna inputs; combining some of the N number of channels of each FFT channel block according to a frequency bandwidth variable parameter value; combining some of spatial response vector channels in a combined channel of each FFT channel block according to a spatial bandwidth variable parameter value; and combining all the channels and outputting the same.

Field of Invention
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for designing a frequency-spatial filter with variable bandwidth.
Description of Related Art
Generally, a receiver used in a wireless communication system may perform base bandwidth signal processing on a certain broadband signal having a high sampling rate. Herein, the broadband signal is a combination of signals coming from all directions, and thus compared to a signal of a certain direction and frequency, interference and noise will increase, which is a problem.
In order to improve such a problem, it is necessary to perform base bandwidth signal processing on signals received from a plurality of antenna into a plurality of frequency related narrowbands, but the number of array antenna, selected frequency and FFT resolution limit the available space and frequency bandwidth and the like. Especially, the recent spatial filters using digital beam formation are unable to easily form a beam bandwidth due to limitations of the number of antenna and the like. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a high performance spatial-frequency bandwidth filter that has a simple structure, consistency, and ability to adjust a bandwidth and selectively remove spatial interference.

Method and apparatus for designing frequency-spatial filter with variable bandwidth

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A sheet feed table has a plurality of ribs formed on a surface thereof. The ribs extend in a sheet feeding direction and are disposed at a predetermined interval in a direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction. An air duct is provided between the adjacent ribs. An ink passage opening is formed in an image forming region where a print head moves to form an image. Disposed below the ink passage opening is an ink receiving chamber in which an ink absorber is disposed. A suction opening that communicates with the air duct is disposed upstream and downstream of the image forming region in the sheet feeding direction. A suction device is connected such that the air is sucked through the suction openings into a negative pressure chamber provided on an underside of the sheet feed table. The negative pressure chamber and the ink receiving chamber are separated from each other.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an images forming apparatus including an image forming device that ejects ink onto a sheet and a suction-type sheet feed table.
2. Description of Related Art
There exists a serial image forming apparatus that includes an inkjet print head that ejects ink from nozzles thereof onto a sheet in order to form an image on the sheet. The image forming apparatus includes a sheet feed table, such as a platen, that is disposed to face a nozzle surface of the print head. A pair of sheet feeding rollers are disposed upstream and downstream of the sheet feed table in a sheet feeding direction, across the sheet feed table. By driving the upstream and downstream sheet feeding rollers intermittently, the sheet held between the upstream and downstream sheet feeding rollers are fed intermittently little by little or stepwise in the sheet feeding direction (sub scanning direction). This feeding manner is referred to as "step feeding". Although the sheet is not fed in the sub scanning direction during the intermittent sheet feeding, the print head mounted on a carriage ejects ink, while the carriage is moved in a main scanning direction, onto a sheet supported by the sheet feed table in order to form an image on the sheet by a predetermined area or zone at a time.
As the ink ejected from the print head is attached to the sheet held between the downstream and upstream sheet feeding rollers, the sheet absorbs the moisture, resulting in cockling or an uneven, wavy surface. The uneven, wavy surface of the sheet due to the cockling may cause the surface of the sheet to contact the nozzle surface, leading to a smudged image on the sheet and resulting in a deteriorated image quality. In addition, if the sheet is curled up, especially at a leading end of the sheet before being held by the downstream sheet feeding rollers or at a trailing end of the sheet that has passed through the upstream sheet feeding rollers, the curled leading end or the trailing end of the sheet may contact and slide over the nozzle surface, causing the smudges on the sheet or damage on the print head.
To prevent such situations, an inkjet recording apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2-286340, includes an air suctioning device and a sheet feed table that communicates with the air suctioning device and is provided on a surface thereof with a plurality of small air intake holes.

Image forming apparatus and sheet feed table for use in the apparatus


A self-focussing spectacle as well as a method for self-focussing a spectacle are proposed. The spectacle comprises at least one spectacle lens of adjustable refracting power, and means for adjusting the refracting power of the spectacle lens as a function of a measured parameter representing a state of accommodation of a corresponding eye of a user of the spectacle. The means measure the refracting power of the eye directly.

A spectacle and a method of the type specified before are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,818.
If a person wishes to fixedly look at objects at different distances with his or her naked eye, it is necessary that the eye accommodates corresponding to the respective distance. The same holds true when the person wears a spectacle having lenses with only one fixed refractive power. However, for persons having only limited accommodation ability, this might present problems because for these persons a sharp vision is only possible over a limited range of distances.
If, however, the person wears spectacles with so-called progressive power lenses having areas of different refractive powers, the person may aim at the respective object with a specific area of the progressive power lens having a refractive power that just matches the distance to that object, and he or she may do so by altering the direction of sight or the head orientation, respectively. The eye must then not accommodate because there is already provided for it a matching spectacle lens area for each distance.
Moreover, one has also already suggested so-called self-focussing or adaptive spectacles having lenses, the refractive power of which may be adjusted as a whole by remote control. A user may then aim at objects at different distances without the need of selecting a matching spectacle lens area. No accommodation takes place, either.
Such spectacles require lenses that may be adjusted in their refractive power by means of electrical signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,605 discloses such a spectacle, the lenses of which being configured as liquid crystal devices (LCD). By means of a potentiometer located at the spectacle bridge the refractive power of the right and of the left spectacle lens of this prior art spectacle may be adjusted manually and individually.
The drawback of this prior art spectacle is that the refractive power of both spectacle lenses must be adjusted separately and manually in a cumbersome manner. If the direction of sight is altered, the focussing of the spectacle lenses may be effected only with a certain delay.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,444 discloses a self-focussing spectacle avoiding the afore-discussed drawbacks. This prior art spectacle is provided with two infrared range finders at its frame measuring the distance to the aimed object. The refractive power of the two spectacle lenses is then automatically adjusted as a function of that distance.
Although this prior art spectacle avoids the problem of manual adjustment, this approach in practice still has significant disadvantages, in particular when the range finder is unable to exactly determine which object within the field of view shall be aimed at. This is the case, for example, when someone looks outside through a nearby window and the range finder cannot discern whether the plane defined by the window frame or, for example, a landscape shall be aimed at that is in view through the window. The same applies when someone looks by an edge of a house or attempts to aim at a movable object in front of a stationary background.
Another self-focussing spectacle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,818 mentioned at the outset. This prior art spectacle, for adjusting the refractive power of the spectacle lenses, makes a measurement on the user's eyes for measuring a parameter representing the state of accommodation of the eye. In this prior art spectacle, the so-called angle of convergence is measured, i.e. the angle enclosed between the axes of the two eyes. For that purpose, two light beams are directed on the user's eyeballs, and one detects whether the corresponding point of reflection is located on the bright sclera or on the dark cornea of the eye. The refractive power of the spectacle lenses is then adjusted as a function of the angle of convergence so determined.
Although this prior art self-focussing spectacle takes into account where the user wants to look at, it still has practical disadvantages.
In this prior art self-focussing spectacle the determination of the angle of convergence namely makes it mandatory to measure both eyes of the user. Therefore, it is not possible to individually take into account the refractive power of each eye.
Moreover, this prior art spectacle assumes that there exists a constant relation between the accommodation of the eye and the angle of convergence, which must not at all be always the case in practice. Moreover, the measurement is not unequivocal when the user moves his or her eyes in a vertical direction. Moreover, instabilities within the closed loop control may come up, i.e. oscillations may occur when the setting of the refractive power of the spectacle lens and the adjustment of the optical axes of the user's eyes counteract with each other.
A substantial disadvantage of the prior art self-focussing spectacles, however, is that with such spectacles the adjustment of the refractive power of the spectacle lenses is effected to an extent that the user himself or herself does not need to accommodate any more at all. As a consequence, for persons having a reduced, but still to a certain extent existing ability of accommodating, such ability to accommodate with one's own eyes grows weary and becomes unlearned within a very short period of time.
It is, therefore, an object underlying the invention to provide a spectacle and a method of the type specified at the outset such that the afore-explained disadvantages are avoided.
In particular a spectacle and a method, respectively, shall be provided that are safe in operation and insusceptible to failures. Moreover the still existing ability of a user to accommodate his or her eyes shall be trained continuously and, therefore shall not go lost.
In a spectacle of the type specified at the outset, this object is achieved in that the means measure the refracting power of the eye directly.
In a method of the type specified at the outset, this object is achieved in that the refractive power of at least one eye is measured by the means directly.
The object underlying the invention is, thus, entirely solved.
If, namely, the refractive power of the user's eye is measured directly, one has a direct measure for the required compensating refractive power of the corresponding spectacle lens. Unlike in the case of a measurement of the angle of convergence one has not the need to fall back to an auxiliary interrelation of two ophthalmological quantities, because the only interesting quantity, namely the refractive power, is measured and compared directly.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a least one light emitter directed towards the eye, and a light receiver associated to the light emitter and adapted to receive a light signal reflected by the eye are provided, and the means adjust the refracting power of the spectacle lens as a function of the reflected light signal.
This measure has the advantage that the refractive power of the eye may be measured directly with the help of proven methods. Preferably, this was effected with non-visible light, in particular with infrared light.
In a preferred improvement of this embodiment of the invention the means measure the refractive power of the at least one eye by directing a light beam into the eye. This is preferably done such that the distance between a cornea and a front surface of a lens of the eye are measured.
This measure has the advantage that the refractive power of the eye may be determined in a particularly simple manner. However, other methods may likewise be used within the context of the present invention.
In a further preferred embodiment of the inventive spectacle, the means measure the refractive power for each eye individually, and individually adjust the refractive power of the spectacle lens corresponding to the respective eye.
This measure, in contrast to the above-referred prior art has the advantage that an individual adjustment of the refractive power of the corresponding spectacle lens is possible for each eye.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of a spectacle according to the present invention the means adjust the refractive power of the at least one spectacle lens only after a predetermined threshold value of the refractive power of the corresponding eye has been exceeded.
This measure has the advantage that the natural ability of accommodation is continued to be trained, i.e. within its limits that may be restricted. This is because as long as the user's eye is urged to just accommodate within those limits as can still be effected naturally, the spectacle according to the invention does not interfere. Only when the predetermined threshold value of the eye is reached, from where on a natural accommodation is impossible for the respective user, the control of the spectacle according to the present invention is activated.
The same holds true, mutatis mutandis, for the embodiments of the methods according to the present invention.
For the last mentioned embodiment it is particularly preferred when the limit of the refractive power range of the at least one eye that can be naturally adjusted by the user, is measured first and the threshold value is set as a predetermined fraction of the limit, preferably as between 80 and 98% of the limit.
This measure has the advantage that an activation threshold for the control according to the present invention may be preset in a predetermined manner without the need of constantly measuring the natural limit of the user's ability to accommodate.
Further advantages will become apparent from the description and the enclosed drawings.
It goes without saying that the features mentioned before and those that will be mentioned hereinafter may not only be used in the particularly given combination but also in other combinations or alone without leaving the scope of the present invention.
In FIG. 1 reference numeral 10 as a whole indicates an embodiment of a self-focussing spectacle according to the present invention. Spectacle 10 is provided with spectacle lenses 12a, 12b which are adapted to be adjusted in their refractive power by remote control. Such spectacle lenses are conventionally configured as liquid crystal elements (LCD), as, e.g., is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,919,520, 5,066,301 and 4,601,545.
Spectacle 10, further, on its lateral sides has side pieces 14a, 14b as well as a bridge 16 bridging spectacle lenses 12a, 12b .
Eyes of a user of spectacle 10 are indicated in FIG. 1 at 20a, 20b. Within eyes 20a, 20b, eye lenses 22a, 22b and retinas 24a, 24b are shown each.
Light emitters 30a, 30b, emitting, preferably, non-visible light, in particular infrared light, are arranged on side pieces 14a, 14b. Moreover, light receivers 32a, 32b, preferably cameras, are likewise arranged on side pieces 14a, 14b.
Light emitters 30a, 30b emit light beams 34a, 34b. Light beams 34a, 34b are reflected at rear surfaces 36a, 36b of spectacle lenses 12a, 12b and are directed to eye lenses 22a, 22b onto retinas 24a, 24b of eyes 20a, 20b. The reflected light beams 38a, 38b are received by light receivers 32a, 32b. Signals, derived therefrom are fed to a control unit 40 via control lines 42a, 42b. Control unit 40 generates control signals from these input signals and feeds the control signals to spectacle lenses 12a, 12b via further control lines 44a, 44b.
The operation of spectacle 10 of FIG. 1 shall now be further explained with the help of the flow chart shown in FIG. 2.
In a block 50 it is indicated that the method according to the present invention shall be started first.
In a block 52 a measurement M of its refractive power is now executed individually for each eye 20a, 20b, by accordingly evaluating the above-mentioned light beams 34a, 34b and 38a, 38b, respectively.
Such methods of evaluating and measuring the refractive power of an eye lens are known in the prior art. It is, for example, possible to measure the distance between the cornea and a front surface of eye lens 22a, 22b. Moreover, refraction measurements may be executed as are, for example, described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,834,528 as well as in German disclosure document DE 197 19 694 A1.
The signal measured in block 52 and corresponding to the actual refractive power of eye 20a and 20b, respectively, may now be directly used for adjusting the refractive power of the respective corresponding spectacle lens 12a and 12b, respectively.
However, the invention prefers another approach in which one examines first whether a maximum value of accommodation Amax and a minimum value Amin of the respective eye 20a, 20b, respectively, has been reached.
In the flow chart of FIG. 2 it is first examined in a block 54 whether the maximum value Amax or a certain fraction thereof, e.g. within the range of between 80 and 98% of the maximum value Amax, has been reached. Only if that is the case, the refractive power of the corresponding spectacle lens 12a and 12b, respectively, is increased in a block 56.
If the maximum value Amax was not reached, it is examined within a block 58 whether a minimum value Amin was reached. If that is the case, the refractive power of the corresponding spectacle lens 12 and 12b, respectively, is decreased in a block 60. If the minimum value Amin was not reached either, this is a measure indicating that the refractive power of the eye 20a and 20b, respectively, is still within the range which the user may adjust naturally. In that case the control according to the present invention remains inactive so that the user may further use and train the ability of his or her eyes 20a and 20b, respectively, to accommodate naturally. The method in such a situation at a point 62 returns to the start position for then again make a measurement M in block 52 because the user in the meantime might have changed the direction of sight and, simultaneously, the aiming at a specific object.
The flow chart shown in FIG. 2 may be executed in a fast repetition rate in order to be able to quickly follow changes in requirements.

Auto-focussing glasses and method for auto-focussing a pair of glasses


A communication apparatus which prevents problems caused by the increase of internal resistance in a battery. The apparatus obtains the internal resistance (.DELTA.V) of a battery, and if the internal resistance obtained is over a reference value, a message to change the battery is displayed to the user. The user exchanges the battery directed by the display, so that the problems due to the increase of the internal resistance can be prevented. Further, the battery voltage during transmission is predicted from the internal resistance, and if the predicted value is lower than a predetermined reference voltage, a message that no residual battery exists is displayed to the user, thereby avoiding the situation where the battery voltage becomes lower than the reference voltage because of the internal resistance at the moment of transmission, resulting in the apparatus being suddenly reset and the conversation cut off without any warning.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication apparatus and, more particularly, is applicable to a digital cellular telephone apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a digital cellular telephone apparatus, an apparatus for communicating by a time division multiple access (TDMA) system in which a communication channel is multiplexed by dividing the same radio channels has been used. In such a digital cellular telephone apparatus, communication with a base station is performed by using a time-divided communication channel, and so transmission and reception must be performed alternately in time.
For instance, in the standard of digital cellular telephone apparatus in Japan, as shown in FIG. 1, one slot has been set to about 20 mS, and in that 6.7 mS is set as transmission (T), 6.7 mS is set as reception (R), 1 mS is set as a level measurement term (LM) of antenna city reception, and 5.7 mS is set as an idling term (I) for measurement of a receiving level from neighboring base stations.
In such a digital cellular telephone apparatus, a battery is used as a source of power. A consumption current of this battery varies in time because transmitting operation and receiving operation are performed alternately as described above. For instance, a consumption current about 1.2 A flows in transmission, and a consumption current about 0.3 A flows in reception.
Generally, voltage drop arises corresponding to a consumption current because a battery has internal resistance, as a result, a battery voltage output from the battery varies. For instance, in the case where a consumption current varies as described above, a battery voltage in transmission become smaller than that in reception.
Internal resistance of a battery tends to become higher by repeating charge and discharge. Thus in using of such a battery that has sequentially repeated charge and discharge, it is feared that a battery voltage becomes lower than a reset voltage at the moment of transmission started and the apparatus is reset because the internal resistance is extremely high; conversation is suddenly cut off.
To avoid this, heretofore, a method has been provided: a battery voltage in reception is measured to uniformly predict a battery voltage in transmission based on the measured value, and as a result, if thus predicted value is lower than a reset voltage, an alert is sounded to inform battery dead to a user and conversation is ended.
However, a power amplifier operating in transmission requires a large consumption current, and besides, one which fluctuates. In the method described above, there is a possibility that in some apparatuses even if a predictive value is higher than a reset voltage, a battery voltage become lower than a reset voltage owing to the fluctuation of a power amplifier on a practical transmitting operation; suddenly the apparatus is reset and conversation is cut off without sounding an alert. Further, in the above method, if the internal resistance increases by repeated charges and discharges of a battery, the above problem will arise.

Communication apparatus, electronic apparatus, and battery management method


Three plant support discs supported by a housing and are rotated so that the intermediate disc is rotated in one direction and the other two discs on either side thereof are rotated in opposite directions so that portions of plants on adjacent discs which overlap one another move in the same direction to cause such portions to gently mesh with one another and avoid damage. A solar cell array provides electrical power for driving an electric motor which in turn drives the discs through a drive train. The discs have projections which pass through slots in gears of the drive train to provide a slidable drive connection between the discs and the gears, while the lower ends of the projections support the discs on a support surface of the housing, thereby minimizing the loading on the gears.

The present invention relates to a solar powered rotating plant supports device which is adapted to rotate potted plants so that the plants are equally exposed on all sides to sunlight thereby ensuring that the plants will grow straighter, taller and more lush than if the plants were not rotated. It is therefore desirable to provide a device which automatically turns plants whenever the sun is shining.
It is further desirable to utilize solar power to operate the device, thereby providing very energy efficient operation. The device should be capable of providing sufficient power to operate the device in both direct sunlight and bright indirect sunlight. Prior art devices have been developed for similar purposes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,290 and 4,873,790 disclose solar powered devices for rotating potted plants. U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,235 discloses apparatus for rotating potted trees to promote generation of exhaled organic compounds from the trees.
A particular feature of all of these patented structures is that adjacent plants are rotated in the same direction. As a result, any overlapping portions of the plants which may engage one another are moving in opposite directions which will cause the overlapping portions to push on one another and create damage by bending portions of the plants. In fact, U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,235 specifically teaches that adjacent trees are rotated in the same direction so that the trees will interfere with one another in order to promote the generation of exhaled organic compounds. This is an undesirable feature when potted plants are rotated near one another for the purposes of the present invention.

Solar powered rotating plant supports device


A plastic sheet having a groove as a ruled line in at least one surface of a plastic sheet. The groove is composed of a cut portion or a deep recess portion and a shallow recess portion in the longitudinal direction of the groove, and chamfered portions having a radius of curvature of 0.05-1 mm are formed at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the bottom of the shallow recess portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plastic sheet with a ruled line for bending. More particularly the present invention relates to the structure of a ruled line which forms a bent portion when a plastic sheet is bent.
2. Discussion of Background
In bending a plastic sheet to form a container for packaging, it is a usual way to form a ruled line for bending in the sheet and to bend the plastic sheet along the ruled line. Usually, a plastic sheet with a ruled line in its one surface has been used.
In the conventional plastic sheet with a ruled line for bending in its one surface, there was a problem that it was difficult to bend the sheet because corner portions in the width direction of the ruled line come to contact with the surface of the plastic sheet when it was bent. In order to solve the problem, it is considered that the width of the ruled line is broadened. However, the formation of a wide and deep ruled line in the plastic sheet requires that a press mold for forming a ruled line has to be pressed under a high pressure to the plastic sheet, which may break the sheet depending on the physical properties of the sheet. Further, when a wide ruled line is formed, the plastic sheet is stretched in the lateral direction. Accordingly, when a small-sized box is manufactured from such plastic sheet, there may result a wrinkle and waviness at a portion where ruled lines are crossed.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, there is a proposal of a plastic sheet with a ruled line as shown in FIG. 6. Namely, the plastic sheet has a groove as a ruled line for bending in which shallow recess portions 2 and deep recess portions 3 are alternately formed in the longitudinal direction of the bottom portion of the groove by providing convex and recess portions or discontinuous holes (Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication No. 9345/1992).
Although the plastic sheet having the above-mentioned construction can provide easy bending characteristic, there was a problem as follows. When the plastic sheet is bent along a ruled line 1, both end portions 2a, 2a of the bottom of the shallow recess portions 2 are exposed with sharp ridges as shown in a perspective view in FIG. 7. Accordingly, a touch feel to these portions is no good and if cloth or the like is put in the container fabricated with a plastic sheet, there is a danger of damaging the cloth because a string of the cloth cross is caught by a sharp ridge in the ruled line.

Plastic sheet with a ruled line for bending


An underfed burner has an elongated cylindrical body closed at both ends and a feed tube connected between the ends for feeding an air and gas fuel mixture into the burner through an entry portal. A pressure dispersing baffle is formed within the entry portal integral with the body of the burner and deflected downwardly into the interior of the burner. The baffle is in the form of two flaps supported by a rib integral with the body of the burner and extending across the entry portal. The baffle is formed by a die and a punch carried by the die. The die forms a depression about the opening created by the deflected baffles to define the portals and extends gradually longitudinally away from the flaps while the punch cuts the material to form the portal, the rib and the baffle flaps. A pair of mandrels enter the body of the burner from respective ends to provide support for the die and punch. One of the mandrels carries a pivotable support member which is pivoted into operative position by a cam carried by the other mandrel.

This invention relates to a gas burner of the type used extensively in gas fired fireplaces, in decorative gas logs used in fireplaces and in certain commercial dryers, and more particularly to a burner of this type having a unitary inlet baffle and a method for constructing a burner with such baffle.
An underfed burner comprises a feed tube which provides a venturi to draw in air along with gas fuel, the feed tube being connected in communication with an elongated burner body intermediate closed ends of the body. The gas and air mix within the body and produce a flame which burns at outlet ports along the length of the body. A burner of this construction permits entrainment and mixing of the gas and air to occur totally within the burner body itself. Additional mixing space at either side of the burner is not required. The problem encountered with the conventional underfed burner design is that dynamic pressure is seen at the outlet of the feed tube, such pressure causing local disturbances and instability in the flame. The instability of the flame at the outlet of the feed tube can result in excessive carbon monoxide which is undesirable and, in the case of unvented gas fireplace logs, is particularly dangerous and undesirable. The prior art thus incorporated a baffle member positioned and welded within the burner body to disperse the pressure surge and reduce the carbon monoxide to acceptable levels.
The baffles used in the prior art generally comprise a plate with apertures, the plate being positioned within the burner body at the location where the feed tube opens into the burner body and a small distance within the body in both directions from the opening. The baffle permits the gas and air entering into the burner to be dispersed to permit mixing in a controlled manner along the length of the baffle plate and beyond toward the ends of the burner and exit the burner body at the exit ports. The pressure surge at the outlet of the feed tube thereby is substantially reduced with a corresponding reduction in local flame disturbances. However, the process of locating and welding the baffle within the burner body is difficult, labor intensive, time consuming and costly. This may be readily understood from the fact that the baffle must be held within the body of a burner which has a substantially cylindrical configuration with a diameter in the order of approximately 1.25 inch and the baffle plate must extend across the body in the area of the entry into the body by a feed tube having a diameter also in the order of approximately 1.25 inches. Not only must the baffle be held but it also must be welded in position. Accordingly, this adds to the cost of the burner and also to performance inconsistencies from burner to burner. Additionally, welding of the feed tube to the burner body is also a difficult process and requires a special drilling operation to raise an edge to aid in locating the two tubes and an upstanding surface about which a 360 degree weld is made.


In one embodiment, a method includes using a first computing device to access digital data representing a contract set of contract documents and digital contract metadata, weight differences between data field values, use the weighted differences to calculate distance scores, use the distance scores and a temporal ordering of the contract documents to generate and cause displaying a time curve graph comprising a geometric shape that comprises time curves and a spatial proximity at a second computing device, a measure of each time curve calculated to indicate an amount of time between a creation of two contract documents, the spatial proximity calculated to indicate a metric of similarity between the contract documents, in response to determining that the geometric shape indicates a lack of convergence over a threshold amount of time, generate and cause displaying a notification indicating that the contract set is at risk at the second computing device.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Business enterprises enter contractual agreements in all stages of business. Contractual agreements can provide individuals and businesses with a legal document stating the expectations of both parties and how negative situations will be resolved and may exist between different business enterprises or may exist internally within a business organization.
The formation of a contractual agreement typically involves a negotiation process between the parties involved in forming the agreement. In doing so, business enterprises will begin contract negotiations with a contract template that includes basic contractual clauses and provisions that provide a starting point for negotiations to begin.
As the contract negotiation process progresses, each party of the negotiation may provide edits to the contract documents that result in different versions of the original contract template. For example, one party may delete an entire contractual clause, where another party may change a price amount specified in the contractual agreement. The back and forth negotiation sequence between contractual parties normally continues until an agreement is reached between all parties involved or no agreement can be reached.
At any point during the negotiation process, a business enterprise may have hundreds of pending contracts to monitor and manage. Keeping track of differences between contract versions is typically a manual process where an employee or third party will go through each contract version and document the modifications made to each version so that the contract manager is able to understand the current state of the contract. This manual process results in exorbitant amounts of time and computing resources that are devoted to helping an employee manually accomplish this feat.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need to understand the state of many contracts in a small amount of time.

Automatically identifying risk in contract negotiations using graphical time curves of contract history and divergence


Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein may relate to generating signals and/or states representative of a template for a web page. One or more areas of a template may be associated with a respective one or more entities of a web page publisher, and content for the one or more areas associated with the one or more entities may be selected.

Field
Subject matter disclosed herein may relate to laying out a web page for display on a user computing platform.
Information
With networks such as the Internet gaining tremendous popularity, and with the vast multitude of pages and/or content, such as documents, digital media, and/or applications, for example, becoming available to users via the World Wide Web (web), it may be desirable to provide efficient and streamlined approaches to gather and/or display content that may be desired by and/or useful to a user. Internet-based business entities, such as Yahoo!, for example, may provide a wide range of content that may be available to users via the Web. In some circumstances, challenges may be faced in determining which content to display to a user via a web page.
Reference is made in the following detailed description to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, wherein like numerals may designate like parts throughout to indicate corresponding and/or analogous elements. It will be appreciated that elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale, such as for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration. For example, dimensions of some elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized. Furthermore, structural and/or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of claimed subject matter. It should also be noted that directions and/or references, for example, up, down, top, bottom, and so on, may be used to facilitate discussion of drawings and/or are not intended to restrict application of claimed subject matter. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken to limit the scope of claimed subject matter and/or equivalents.

Generating an individualized web page template with entities of a web page publisher organization associated with areas of the template


The present disclosure relates generally to the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, and more particularly to an improved connection structure for semiconductor devices. A connection structure for a semiconductor device includes: a peanut-shaped opening comprising a narrow area and one or more wide areas, wherein the narrow area is between two of the one or more wide areas; and a conductive plug for filling at least partially the peanut-shaped opening.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller feature sizes and more complex circuits than those from the previous generation. Among the feature sizes which are reduced in size are the width and spacing of interconnecting metal lines and the contact openings through which the metallization makes electrical contact to device regions.
One solution for some of these problems is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,684, incorporated herein by reference. This patent provides an integrated butt contact having a protective spacer. Butted contacts, such as those discussed in the presently incorporated patent, have been adopted in semiconductor memory devices to increase device density by reducing the necessary size of the area for contact purposes. However, since butted contacts are frequently used in combination with square contacts, such a combination causes challenges to lithograph and etch steps. For example, lithograph and etch steps have to accommodate different contact sizes, shapes and loading effects, resulting in frequent defects, such as photo bridge, contact hole blind and/or high junction leakage.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved connection structure for semiconductor devices.

Connection structure for semiconductor devices

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The direction in which an information disk apparatus (for example, a DVD-ROM player) is installed is judged without employing a sensor. A controller measures a number of track crossings when a reading unit is moved by a driving unit in a direction corresponding to the radius of an optical disk for a predetermined period of time, and judges a direction in which the DVD-ROM player is installed on the basis of the measured number of track crossings.

In recent years, there is a demand that computer devices such as a personal computer and a game machine have a variety of designs and, accordingly, it is supposed that information disk apparatuses mounted on these computer devices are installed in various directions.
It is known that the information disk apparatus is required to detect an installing direction thereof and change various kinds of control parameters according to the installing direction, thereby to perform high-speed recording/reproduction, enhance the accuracy of the recording/reproduction, increase a speed for seeking a target information track or the like.
Accordingly, there is generally adopted a method of preparing firmware in which an optimum control parameter is previously set for each installing direction, or a method of setting information according to the installing direction through an external jumper setting, switching means or the like, to set an optimum parameter.
Further, according to a method as described in Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei.10-255287, an object lens, a pickup device which supports the object lens so that it is movable at least in the tracking direction, a pickup carrier member for carrying the pickup device, a tracking control circuit for driving the object lens in the direction perpendicular to tracks, a traverse control circuit for driving the pickup carrier member in the direction perpendicular to the tracks, a position detector for detecting the initial posture of the object lens with respect to the pickup, and a compensation circuit which supplies a compensation signal according to the output from the position detector to the tracking control circuit and the traverse control circuit are included, whereby tracking control and traverse control can be performed in an optimum state at all times, independently of an installed state of a device.
Further, there a method is also known in which a sensor means that detects the direction in which a disk drive is set is provided in a device, thereby to detect the direction in which the device is installed.
However, in the method of preparing firmware in which an optimum control parameter is previously set for each installing direction, and the method of setting an installing direction through the external jumper setting, switching means or the like, a user is required to change the setting of the installing direction every time the user changes the direction in which a computer device is installed. Accordingly, when an erroneous setting is performed, the information disk apparatus fails to achieve its original performance.
Also, in the method disclosed in the Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei.10-255287, since a positional relationship between the object lens and the pickup is detected, an error is easily generated due to variations in traverse loads, and in a device having a mechanism with the object lens whose weight is significantly reduced, an amount of displacement of the object lens, which is caused by gravity, is small and, thus, an accurate installing direction is not always detected. Moreover, in the method employing an installing direction detection means, the sensor means increases the cost of the device and a space needed for installing the sensor means in the device becomes a problem.
The present invention is made to solve the above-described conventional problems and has for its object to provide an information disk apparatus and an information disk apparatus installing direction detection method, which enable accurate detection of the installing direction at all times without employing a sensor means and with no increase in the costs.

Information disk device and method for detecting direction of installed information disk device

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A flip chip semiconductor device has a substrate with a plurality of active devices formed thereon. A contact pad is formed on the substrate in electrical contact with the plurality of active devices. A passivation layer is formed over the substrate and intermediate conduction layer. An adhesive layer is formed over the passivation layer. A barrier layer is formed over the adhesive layer. A wetting layer is formed over the barrier layer. The barrier layer and wetting layer in a first region are removed, while the barrier layer, wetting layer, and adhesive layer in a second region are maintained. The adhesive layer over the passivation layer in the first region are maintained until the solder bumps are formed. By keeping the adhesive layer over the passivation layer until after formation of the solder bumps, less cracking occurs in the passivation layer.

Semiconductor devices are found in many products used in modern society. Semiconductors find applications in consumer items such as entertainment, communications, networks, computers, and household items markets. In the industrial or commercial market, semiconductors are found in military, aviation, automotive, industrial controllers, and office equipment.
The manufacture of semiconductor devices involves formation of a wafer having a plurality of die. Each die contains hundreds or thousands of transistors and other active and passive devices performing a variety of electrical functions. For a given wafer, each die from the wafer typically performs the same electrical function. Front-end manufacturing generally refers to formation of the semiconductor devices on the wafer. The finished wafer has an active side containing the transistors and other active and passive components. Back-end manufacturing refers to cutting or singulating the finished wafer into the individual die and then packaging the die for structural support and/or environmental isolation.
One goal of semiconductor manufacturing is to produce a package suitable for faster, reliable, smaller, and higher-density integrated circuits (IC) at lower cost. Flip chip packages or wafer level packages (WLP) are ideally suited for ICs demanding high speed, high density, and greater pin count. Flip chip style packaging involves mounting the active side of the die facedown toward a chip carrier substrate or printed circuit board (PCB). The electrical and mechanical interconnect between the active devices on the die and conduction tracks on the carrier substrate is achieved through a solder bump structure comprising a large number of conductive solder bumps or balls. The solder bumps are formed by a reflow process applied to solder material deposited on contact pads which are disposed on the semiconductor substrate. The solder bumps are then soldered to the carrier substrate. The flip chip semiconductor package provides a short electrical conduction path from the active devices on the die to the carrier substrate in order to reduce signal propagation, lower capacitance, and achieve overall better circuit performance.
The reliability and integrity of the interconnect structure is important to testing, manufacturing yield, and longevity of the product while in service. In some devices, a problem of cracking has been detected in the passivation layer surrounding the solder bump after solder reflow. The cracking has been attributed to degradation of the passivation layer caused by the chemical processes used during formation of the solder bumps. The cracking problem is especially noted during formation and removal of dry film used to create the solder bumps.
A need exists for a solder bump structure with enhanced strength and reliability.

Semiconductor device and method of protecting passivation layer in a solder bump process


Systems and methods provide for a visual history of state changes for content of a document that is being modified within a content editing application. When modifications are made to the content within the content editing application, the modifications are recorded as state changes, and a graphical representation is generated for the modified content at each state change. The graphical representations with associated state changes are presented in a visual history area allowing the user to visually identify the state of the content corresponding to each graphical representation. The user can select a particular graphical representation from the visual history area and the content is transformed to the state corresponding to the selected graphical representation.

As content is increasingly created and consumed in digital formats, content authors need to rely heavily on content editing applications that have robust capabilities for creating and modifying content efficiently. Some content editing applications record modifications that content authors make to content of documents and allow the content authors to undo and/or redo those modifications to get back to various states of the content. The recorded modifications made to content are typically presented to a content author within a content editing application as a textual description of the modifications. There are, however, inherent inefficiencies in presenting a content author with textual descriptions of modifications. Having to read a list of textual descriptions causes inefficiencies in the content authoring process as content authors have to read multiple textual descriptions and understand the state of the content corresponding to each textual description in order to navigate correctly to a desired state of the content. By relying on textual descriptions, current content editing applications hinder a content author's ability to quickly create and modify content, particularly for image type content. This generally time consuming approach to creating or modifying content can therefore be inefficient.

Visual history for content state changes


In one embodiment, there are provided: a substrate; a data area disposed on the substrate and having a plurality of first magnetic dots arrayed in lines in mutually different first, second, and third directions; and a boundary magnetic part having a plurality of first magnetic portions arrayed in a line in the third direction and each having a length longer than that of the first magnetic dot in the third direction, and a second magnetic dot disposed between the first magnetic portions and disposed on extensions in the first and second directions of the first magnetic dots, and disposed along with the data area on the substrate.

A magnetic recording medium used in a hard disk drive (HDD) is a recording medium for recording and reproducing information magnetically, and an improvement in its recording density is in progress. As a technique to improve the recording density of the magnetic recording medium, a patterned medium (bit patterned medium: BPM, for example) has been studied. The patterned medium is obtained by processing a continuous magnetic film to form a pattern (dot, for example). The patterned medium is being actively studied because it can reduce the thermal instability in a current magnetic recording medium made of a granular thin film.
A data area of the magnetic recording medium is usually divided into a plurality of zones in a radial direction for the purpose of efficient data handling. A marker is usually disposed at the boundary of these zones. By using a magnetic material as the marker, a signal from the marker is obtained when a magnetic head crosses the zones. This signal can be utilized as a trigger to know the change in the zones.
However, the information obtained from the marker when the magnetic head crosses the marker is not always sufficient.

Magnetic recording medium and method of fabricating the same


A multi-plate clutch, particularly for a dual clutch transmission, has at least one clutch housing alternately holds externally and internally toothed plate disks, a hub arranged at the end face on the clutch housing. The hub has a central opening for receiving a gear shaft and openings disposed to reduce weight. Additional openings are provided in the lateral surface of the clutch basket, with at least a portion of the openings distributed over at least a section of the configured as triangular recesses.

The invention relates to a multi-plate clutch, particularly for a dual clutch transmission.
From German Publication DE 199 04 134 A1 it is known to provide the hub of a clutch housing with recesses to save weight. From German Publication DE 198 27 340 C1 it is known to introduce openings or recesses in the lateral surface of a multi-plate clutch housing, again to save weight.
The object of the invention is to provide additional weight saving measures in a clutch housing with a hub for a multi-plate clutch so as to reduce the mass moments of inertia occurring during operation and at the same time ensure the dimensional stability of the clutch housing.
This object is attained by a multiplate clutch having at least one clutch housing alternately holding externally toothed and internally toothed plate disks, and having a hub arranged at an end face of the clutch housing in which a central opening is provided to received a gear shaft, and having openings arranged in the hub to reduce weight, wherein the openings are made in both the hub and a lateral surface of the clutch housing such that at least one row of the openings are distributed over an entire circumference of at least a first section of the lateral surface in the form of triangular recesses.
By combining recesses formed in the hub and on the lateral surface of the clutch housing, such that the openings distributed over the entire lateral surface are configured as triangular recesses, it is possible to reduce the weight and nevertheless preserve the necessary dimensional stability. With this weight reduction, the mass moments of inertia can be reduced by up to 30% compared to a clutch housing structure without recesses.
Other advantageous embodiments and refinements of the multi-plate clutch include the following.
The triangular recesses formed in the clutch housing are aligned such that a strip of substantially constant width is obtained between at least two adjacent recesses. This achieves a truss-type bracing, which ensures the dimensional stability of the clutch housing despite the substantial weight reduction, even at high engine speeds.
Investigations have shown that if the corners for the recesses in the lateral surface of the clutch housing are rounded, the rigidity of the clutch housing can be further enhanced.
The clutch housing has a first lateral surface section, which is provided with the triangular recesses. A second lateral surface section of the clutch housing is provided with interior teeth for a non-rotatable engagement with the externally toothed disk plates. The exterior of the second lateral surface also has openings for weight reduction, which extend over the entire lateral surface.
The clutch housing forms part of a dual clutch transmission, in which an additional clutch housing is arranged concentrically to the outer clutch housing. The inner clutch housing has substantially the same axial width as the first lateral surface section of the outer clutch housing. This ensures that the added masses or radii of the two clutch housings in this area do not result in unacceptably high centrifugal forces or mass moments of inertia.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings for example.
The multi-plate clutch 2 schematically shown in FIG. 1 forms part of a dual clutch arrangement, which on the input side is connected to an engine (not depicted) via a torque converter 4 and on the output side to two input shafts 6 and 8. The input shafts are rotationally fixed, respectively, to an inner clutch housing 2a and an outer clutch housing 2b, which are arranged concentrically to one another, as are the input shafts 6 and 8. In the two clutch housings 2a, 2b, externally toothed plate disks 3 and internally toothed plate disks 5 are arranged. The externally toothed plate disks 3 are rotationally fixed to the clutch housing 2a or 2b, while the internally toothed plate disks 5 are rotationally fixed to a disk carrier 7.
The structure of the outer clutch housing 2b illustrated in greater detail in FIG. 2 will now be described in more detail. The outer clutch housing 2b consists of a sheet metal body shaped without stock removal and having a cylindrical lateral surface 10, on the side of which a hub 14 is arranged, which has a central opening 12. The inner input shaft 6 engages with this central opening 12 in a positive locking manner by means of gear teeth (not depicted). In the hub 14, openings or recesses 16 are uniformly distributed around the central opening 12, such that the resulting spoke shape of the hub 14 helps reduce the weight of the clutch housing 2b. The lateral surface 10 of the clutch housing 2b has a first lateral surface section 10a in which triangular recesses 18 are uniformly distributed around its entire circumference. The recesses 18 are mutually aligned so as to form strips 20 having a substantially constant width b, such that two adjacent strips 20 are aligned at an angle α in relation to one another. This results in a truss-type bracing to ensure the rigidity of the clutch housing 2b required for high engine speeds despite the recesses 18 provided in the first lateral surface section 10a. The recesses 18, which are essentially configured as equilateral triangles, have a radius R in their corner regions. The second lateral surface section 10b adjoining the first lateral surface section is provided with internal teeth 22, with which the externally toothed plate disks 5 of the outer clutch housing 2b engage. Between the internal teeth 22, strips 24 are formed, which are likewise provided with oblong holes 26 to save weight. As a compromise between weight reduction and maintaining adequate dimensional stability, the strips 24 are alternately provided with one or two oblong holes 26.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings for example, the above-described clutch housing structure of a multi-plate clutch is not limited to the described application in a dual clutch transmission, but can likewise be used in single manual or automatic transmissions.
The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Multi-plate clutch, particularly for a double clutch transmission

Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft


A method according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, controlling a transmission system of a vehicle by positioning a disconnect clutch at its stroke point in response to a commanded engine shutdown.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV's) employ both an internal combustion engine and an electric machine that can be used either individually or in combination to propel the vehicle. A variety of different powertrains may be utilized by HEV's. One type of powertrain is referred to as a modular hybrid transmission (MHT). MHT's include a parallel configuration in which the engine is connected to the electric machine by a disconnect clutch and the electric machine drives a torque converter input of a transmission. The transmission has an output connected to a differential that is coupled to the drive wheels of the vehicle.
The engine may be started independently of the electric machine in a MHT. Once the engine is up to speed, the disconnect clutch may be commanded to engage to allow the engine to deliver torque to the transmission. Timing the engagement of the disconnect clutch is important for start performance of the engine.

Clutch stroke adaptation on engine shutdown


A fluid injection and exhaust needle for use in gas injection moulding comprising a needle with two separate flow channels; a fluid inlet channel and a fluid outlet channel; wherein gas is injected into the melt via the fluid inlet channel to form a gas cavity in the melt, and gas is simultaneously exhausted from the cavity via the fluid outlet channel.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a needle assembly that allows simultaneous injection and exhaust of fluid for injection moulding, and in particular the injection and exhaust of a gas.
2. Background Art
In conventional gas assisted gas injection moulding methods, a pre-filling of melt material is first introduced into a mould. A gas is then injected within the melt so creating a hollow or void within the melt that exerts pressure throughout the cooling of the melt to compensate for volumetric shrinkage. Typically, a first needle assembly is used to inject gas and when injection is complete gas injection is ceased and gas is exhausted through a second needle assembly; this exhaust occurring after the melt has solidified. Hence, the injection and exhaust steps do not overlap.

Needle assembly for gas-assisted injection moulding