Display systems, control systems for a display and a method for operating a display are provided in which people are detected a presentation space within which content presented by the display can be observed. Viewing areas are defined for each person with each viewing area comprising a less than all of the presentation space and including an area corresponding to each person. One channel of image content is obtained for presentation to each person and a combination image is presented on the display. The combination image is modulated so that each area of the combination image presented by the display is viewable only in selected areas of the presentation space. The combination image has image content from each channel of image content arranged in areas of said combination image so that, when modulated, the image content from each channel of image content is viewable only in a viewing area defined for the person for whom the content is obtained.

Large-scale video display systems such as rear and front projection television systems, plasma displays, and other types of displays are becoming increasingly popular and affordable. Often such large-scale video display systems are matched with surround sound and other advanced audio systems in order to present audio/visual content in a way that is more immediate and enjoyable for people. Many new homes and offices are even being built with media rooms or amphitheaters designed to accommodate such systems.
Increasingly, such large-scale video displays are also being usefully combined with personal computing systems and other information processing technologies such as internet appliances, digital cable programming, and interactive web based television systems that permit such display systems to be used as part of advanced imaging applications such as videoconferencing, simulations, games, interactive programming, immersive programming and general purpose computing. In many of these applications, the large-scale video display systems are used to present information of a confidential nature such as financial transactions, medical records, and personal communications.
One inherent problem in the use of such large-scale video display systems is that the cost of such a display system is high which means that the typical home or office can only afford one such display. Thus, people who wish to view content presented by such a display must typically agree on the content to be presented on the display. Where the people disagree about what is to be watched, conflicts can occur. Thus, some display devices have been developed that present more than one type of content on the same display. For example, so-called "picture and picture" televisions have existed for some time. These televisions present one channel of content on a first portion of the screen and images from a second channel of content on a second portion of the screen. Typically, the first portion of the screen occupies more than half of the display screen while the second portion occupies on inset portion within the first portion. It will be appreciated that such an arrangement, while useful, has drawbacks. The selection of which channel of content will be presented on the first portion of the display screen can occasion the same conflicts that arise with conventional televisions channel of content. Further, in a usual implementation the second portion appears as an overlay on the first portion blocking portions of the first image. This leads to dissatisfaction with the appearance of images that are presented in the first portion, while the comparatively small size of the second portion leads to dissatisfaction with the appearance of images presented in the second portion.
Thus, what is needed is a presentation system that is capable of presenting different channels of content to different people in a presentation space while also presenting each channel of content in a pleasing or restrictive manner. Preferably, such a presentation system will present such content so that each channel of presented content appears, to an observer, to occupy substantially all of the display without interference from other content. One way to accomplish this effect is to use a display screen and lenticular screen to divide images presented on the display screen so that the display can present content to different zones proximate to the screen. In one system used in a product known as the "SynthaGram™" monitor sold by StereoGraphics Corp. San Rafael, Calif., U.S.A. multiple images are presented to a system of rigidly established viewing zones each defined relative to the display. Within each zone, a viewer appears be able to view the displayed images in depth. The "SynthaGram™" presents the same content to each zone. U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,987, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING THREE-DIMENSIONAL TELEVISION OR OTHER MULTI-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES, filed Oct. 11, 1989 by Hoppenstein also describes a system of rigidly established viewing zones and suggests that different content can be presented in each zone.
It will be appreciated that the rigidly defined zones used in the "SynthaGram™" and described in the '987 patent requires that the users position themselves in predefined zones to observe the content. This can be inconvenient and impractical in many home viewing environments.
Thus, what is also needed is a system and a method for presenting multiple channels of content to different people in a presentation space that adapts to the actual positions of the people. What is also needed is a presentation system that is capable of presenting different content to different people in a presentation space in one mode of operation and yet is operable in another mode to present the same content throughout the presentation space.
Even if the need to present different image content to different presentation areas is solved, a solution is also needed for the problem of how to provide different audio signals associated with different content so that each person in the presentation space who hears audio content that is associated with the image content without interference from audio content associated with other image content presented in a presentation space.
It will also be appreciated that the location of people in the presentation space can change during presentation of content. Accordingly, what is needed is a system that detects changes in the location of people within the presentation space and adapts the presentation of content based upon the detected changes.

Display system and method with multi-person presentation function


A request broker receives a request from a client, including a description of a method and parameters to be used in executing the method. The parameters have one of multiple acceptable native formats. The request broker determines the native format and communicates the parameters in the native format to a selected one of multiple translators for translation to an internal format, where each translator is associated with a different native format. The request broker communicates the parameters in the internal format to an application server system to enable execution of the method, receives a return value from the application server system reflecting execution of the method, communicates the return value in the internal format to the selected translator for translation to the native format, generates a reply including the description of the method and the return value in the native format, and communicates the reply to the client.

As the commercial significance of the Internet has increased, business-to-consumer ("B2C"), business-to business ("B2B"), and other electronic marketplaces have become increasingly prevalent. Each marketplace typically uses a different set of software applications, with possibly different underlying technologies, to provide the communication capabilities that potential users of the marketplace expect. For example, a marketplace hub server at one enterprise may wish to communicate with another marketplace hub server at a different enterprise. Additionally, other types of servers may want to participate in marketplace transactions with a marketplace hub server. Such servers may be associated with legacy systems at remote enterprises, which may or may not be "Internet aware." Lack of a mechanism providing effective integration of these disparate systems can unduly restrain or even prohibit effective marketplace participation by such systems and associated users.

Network application program interface facilitating communication in a distributed network environment


Disclosed is a structure aimed to reduce the frequency of replacement of an insulating spacer arranged between grids of an ion beam irradiation device. More specifically, disclosed is a so-called insulating spacer arranged in order to maintain insulation between the grids, the insulating spacer having an annular groove in a portion composed of an annular, substantially plane portion opposed to a grid and a cylindrical portion being raised from the central portion of the annular, substantially plane portion and abutting the grid, with the annular groove being perpendicular to the plane and separating the peripheral portion of the annular portion from the cylindrical portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an iron beam irradiation device which draws out in a predetermined direction an ion beam from a plasma generated in a chamber through a grid to which a predetermined voltage is imparted, and applies the ion beam thus drawn out. More specifically, the present invention relates to a milling device which performs processing, for example, on the surface of a workpiece by using an ion beam drawn out, an ion implantation device which implants ions in a film, an ion beam film forming device which performs film formation, etc., and to an insulating member used as a spacer when fixing a grid in such devices.
2. Related Background Art
For example, a milling device using an ion beam uses a plasma generated in a chamber as an ion source, draws out ions from the ion source by using a plurality of grids to which a DC voltage is applied, and accelerates the ions in a predetermined direction, so as to perform milling by using the accelerated ions. Usually, the individual grids have holes for allowing passage of ions, and different DC voltages are applied thereto so as to optimize the ion energy drawn out and the distribution thereof. Here, the term milling refers to a process in which accelerated ions are caused to impinge upon the surface of a workpiece to generate a sputtering phenomenon to perform fine processing on the surface (see JP 2000-113849 A).
Between these grids, there is usually arranged an insulating spacer consisting of an insulator in order to prevent them from coming into contact with each other and to maintain a fixed distance between the grids. A specific example of the construction of a conventionally used insulating spacer will be described with reference to a drawing. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of an insulating spacer for fixing three grids. An insulating spacer 20 for fixing grids 15, 16, and 17 is composed of a first insulating member 21, a second insulating member 25, an insulating cap 27, a mounting screw 29, and a nut 31.
The first insulating member 21 has a cylindrical large diameter portion 21a with a threaded outer periphery, a grid fixing portion 21b which is connected with the large diameter portion 21a and which has a tapered surface constituting a part of a cone whose outer diameter increases as it extends away from the large diameter portion 21a, and a small diameter portion 21c which is connected with the grid fixing portion 21b and whose outer diameter is smaller than that of the large diameter portion 21a. Further, the large diameter portion 21a, the grid fixing portion 21b, and the small diameter portion 21c are coaxial and formed in continuation, with a through-hole 21d being formed at the axial center thereof. Further, at the large diameter portion 21a side opening of the through-hole 21d, there is formed an enlarged-diameter portion 21e with an increased inner diameter. At the end of the small diameter portion 21c, there is formed a plane substantially perpendicular to the axial center, with and abutting the grid 17.
Formed in the grid 17 is a hole 17a through which the mounting screw 29 can be passed. When the mounting screw 29 is inserted into the through-hole 21d, the head portion of the mounting screw 29 is engaged with a step portion existing between the enlarged-diameter portion 21e and the through-hole 21d. The end portion of the screw portion of the mounting screw 29 in the inserted state protrudes from the hole 17a, and this protruding portion is threadedly engaged with the nut 31. Through the threaded-engagement operation, the grid 17 is held between the nut 31 and the end surface of the small diameter portion 21c, thus determining the positional relationship between the first insulating member 21 and the grid 17.
Formed in the grid 16 is a hole 16a whose diameter varies in correspondence with the tapered surface of the grid fixing portion 21b. The tapered surface of the hole 16a abuts the tapered surface of the grid fixing portion 21b. As a result, the positional relationship between the grid 16 and the first insulating member 21 is determined. The distance between the grid 16 and the grid 17 is determined by the outer periphery of the first insulating member 21 and the second, annular insulating member 25 arranged between these grids. The insulating cap 27 has a cylindrical configuration with one end closed and has at the open end an outwardly protruding flange portion 27a. A thread is formed inside the cylinder, and through threaded engagement of the thread in the outer periphery of the large diameter portion 21a with the above-mentioned thread, the insulating cap 27 is fixed with respect to the first insulating member 21.
The grid 15 is held and fixed between the second insulating member 25 and the flange portion 27a of the insulating cap. That is, by threadedly engaging the insulating cap 27 with the first insulating member 21 for fixation, the grid 16, the second insulating member 25, and the grid 15 are held between the grid fixing portion 21b and the flange portion 27a. As a result, their positional relationship with the first insulating member 21 is determined.
Here, when, for example, ion milling is performed by using an ion beam drawn out, sputtering is effected on the surface of a workpiece with this ion beam. Further, when drawing ions out of the chamber through the grids, not all of the ions accelerated by the grids reach the exterior of the chamber; a part of them may hit the grids, etc. to effect sputtering thereon. The substance thus struck out from the workpiece surface or the grids, etc. by this sputtering will be redeposited in the interior of the device. Regarding the first insulating member 21 shown here, what matters most is the redeposition of a substance on a surface 21f opposed to the grid 17 existing between the grid fixing portion 21b and the small diameter portion 21c, and on the outer peripheral surface of the small diameter portion 21c. FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a region 22 where such redeposition occurs at high frequency.
When the redeposited substance is conductive, the insulation property of the above-mentioned insulating spacer, for example, deteriorates as the amount of redeposited substance increases, with the result that short-circuiting may finally occur between the grids. To prevent this, it is necessary to perform the operation of removing the redeposit film in a state in which the redeposition on the insulating spacer has progressed to some degree, or replace the insulating spacer by a new one. Thus, when, for example, processing is conducted on the metal film by milling operation, the insulation property abruptly deteriorates due to the redeposition of the metal, so that it is necessary to conduct the short-circuit preventing operation in a considerably short cycle. JP 2000-301353 A discloses a technology using an insulating spacer with a tapered sectional configuration.

Iron beam irradiation device and insulating spacer for the device


A method and apparatus for inserting a low frequency watermark into a compressed data stream carrying compressed content is disclosed. A portion of the compressed data stream is decoded to generate decoded content. The decoded content is analyzed to generate watermark insertion information. The compressed content is embedded with a low frequency watermark using the watermark insertion information.

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to digital watermarking. Digital watermarks can be applied to image content, moving (video) or stationary (still pictures). These watermarks can serve a variety of purposes, including the tracking of unauthorized copies back to the party who licensed the use of the content and who was responsible for preventing its further distribution.
There are several watermarking techniques for images/video, covering a wide range of properties. These techniques are generally applicable in the pixel domain, i.e., they can insert watermarks in the raw (uncompressed) images.
In practice, video is usually compressed before being distributed on a physical medium (e.g., DVD) or over a network (e.g., soft copy downloadable over the Internet). If the watermark payload is different for every copy and the watermark is applied in the pixel domain, then each individual copy needs to be compressed, since it is different from every other copy. This concept is illustrated in FIG. 1. Compression can be a very expensive operation both from a computing resource standpoint (it requires a lot of computational power) as well as from a human resource standpoint (it is very common to have a human inspect the results of the compression algorithm and adjust parameters to improve the visual result). The cost of the per-copy operations renders the watermark insertion in the pixel domain untenable for these applications.
For watermarking of material already in the compressed domain (e.g., DVDs, Internet downloads), it is important that the watermark embedding process does not result in extensive changes in the bitstream, because this could undermine compression choices made at the time of the initial encoding both to optimize the perceived quality of the encoding, and to maintain rate control, bit-rate, and other profile constraints of the intended application.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for watermarking content in the compressed domain. There is also a need in the art for inserting a watermark in the compressed domain with minimal change to the bitstream.

Method and apparatus for compressed-domain watermarking


A horizontal retrace time adjustment pulse generating circuit includes a microcomputer for outputting a horizontal flyback signal and an analog voltage based on an input horizontal synchronizing frequency; oscillation duty adjusting circuit for outputting a duty-cycle adjusting signal based on the analog voltage of the microcomputer; a monostable multivibrator for outputting a rectangular wave based on the horizontal flyback signal of the microcomputer and the duty-cycle adjusting signal of the oscillation duty adjusting circuit; feedback signal detecting circuit for detecting a horizontal flyback pulse from a horizontal deflection circuit and outputting the detected signal; and signal coupling circuit for coupling the rectangular wave of the monostable multivibrator and the detected signal from the feedback signal detecting circuit and outputting a result of the coupling as a time control pulse for horizontal retrace.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and, more particularly, to a horizontal retrace time adjustment pulse generating circuit for a display device, in which the retrace time of the horizontal deflection circuit is properly adjusted with respect to the flyback pulse.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An exemplary display device comprises a video preamplifier which amplifies a video input by means of a low-voltage amplifier and maintains the amplified signal at a predetermined level; a video main amplifier which amplifies the output from the video preamplifier and supplies the amplified signal energy for each pixel of a cathode-ray tube (CRT); a microcomputer which receives horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals to produce screen control signals; vertical and horizontal deflection circuits which receive the screen control signals and generate vertical and horizontal deflection signals for output to a deflection yoke mounted on the CRT; and a high voltage circuit which supplies the anode voltage for the CRT, using a flyback pulse generated by the horizontal deflection circuit.
The vertical and horizontal deflection signals control the deflection of an electron beam generated from an electron gun within the CRT, to thus form a displayed image on the screen or the display device. The horizontal scanning in which the electron beam is deflected horizontally and vertical scanning in which the electron beam is deflected vertically are performed concurrently.
In horizontal scanning, after completing the scanning of a horizontal line in the display area, the next line is scanned from a point just below that previously scanned. The time duration from the completion of the previous line to the beginning of the next is commonly called retrace time, or horizontal flyback time. To display a clear image void of retrace lines, the video signal is blanked during the retrace time. Thus, the display device is provided with a retrace time signal blanking circuit for generating a blanking signal to remove the retrace line caused by the horizontal flyback of the electron beam for scanning the next line. If the retrace line signal is not properly blanked, video noise appears on the display.
General design specifications set the retrace time to approximately 17-20% of one horizontal period and the blanking time to approximately 20-25% of one horizontal period. These percentages are not appropriate, however, for high-resolution monitors which use a high horizontal scanning frequency, due to a characteristic limitation of the output transistor of the horizontal deflection circuit.
It is therefore important to determine and maintain the proper blanking time with respect to retrace time, which is dependent on the horizontal frequency employed. For example, should the retrace time be reduced for a higher horizontal frequency or should the blanking time be increased for a lower horizontal frequency, the horizontal deflecting current increases which increases power consumption and tends to overheat the output transistor. Also, shorter retrace times result in high voltage peaks in the output of the horizontal deflection circuit, which also is harmful to the output transistor. Meanwhile, the retrace time should be set with regard to the highest horizontal frequency used in a given display device, such that the deflection current, which is increased in a relatively low frequency mode to achieve full video deflection, may be too high for the output transistor.
One prior horizontal deflection circuit for providing a horizontal retrace time adjustment is contemplated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,993 to Shigeru Kashiwagi and entitled Horizontal Deflection Circuit Having A Variable Retrace Period utilizes a switching device which has a drawback of requiring user intervention by necessarily requiring the user to manipulate a switch for intermittently coupling a second capacitor to a first capacitor in a resonant circuit to vary the retrace period.

Horizontal retrace time adjustment pulse generating circuit for a display device


A method according to which neuroprotection is conferred upon ocular nerve cells by administration of a drug of formula I to the optic nerve and/or retina of a mammal within a period prior to or following an insult to ocular nerve cells but prior to cell death ##STR1## wherein the 2-imidazolin-2-ylamino group may be in either the 5- or 6-position of the quinoxaline nucleus; x, y and z may be in any of the remaining 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-positions and are selected from hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy or trifluoromethyl; and R is an optional substitutent in either the 2- or 3-position of the quinoxaline nucleus and may be hydrogen, lower alkyl or lower alkoxy is disclosed.

The present invention relates to methods for the protection of the optic nerve and the retina of mammalian eyes from noxious provocations including damage by compressive (mechanical) effects of elevated intraocular pressure caused by glaucoma or other etiologic factors and impaired blood flow to these nerves.
Glaucoma is a disease of the eye characterized by increased intraocular pressure. On the basis of its etiology, glaucoma has been classified as primary or secondary. Further, primary glaucoma in adults may be either chronic open-angle or chronic angle-closure. Secondary glaucoma results from pre-existing ocular diseases such as uveitis, intraocular tumor or enlarged cataract.
The underlying causes of primary glaucoma are not yet well known. Increased intraocular pressure is due to obstruction or aqueous humor outflow. In chronic open-angle glaucoma, the anterior chamber and its anatomic structures appear normal, but drainage of the aqueous humor is impeded. In acute and chronic angle-closure glaucoma, the anterior chamber is shallow, the filtration angle is narrowed and the iris may obstruct the trabecular meshwork at the entrance to the canal of Schlemm. Dilation of the pupil may push the root of the iris forward against the angle or may produce pupillary block and thus precipitate an acute attack of elevated intraocular pressure. Eyes with narrow anterior chamber angles are predisposed to acute angle-closure glaucoma attacks of varying degrees of severity.
Secondary glaucoma is caused by any interference with the flow of aqueous humor from the posterior chamber into the anterior chamber and, subsequently, into the canal of Schlemm. Inflammatory disease of the anterior segment may prevent aqueous escape by causing complete posterior synechia in iris bombe, and may plug the drainage channel with exudates. Other common causes are intraocular tumors, enlarged cataracts, ventral retinal vein occlusion, trauma to the eye, operative procedures and intraocular hemorrhage.
Considering all types together, glaucoma occurs in about 2% of all persons over the age of 40 and may be asymptomatic for years before progressing to rapid loss of vision. In cases where surgery is not indicated, topical beta-adrenoceptor antagonists have been the drugs of choice for treating glaucoma. However, alpha adrenergic agonists are awaiting approval for use in the treatment of elevated intraocular pressure and will probably become mainstays in the treatment of this disease once they become available.
Various quinoxaline derivatives having alpha.sub.2 agonist activity have been suggested as therapeutic agents by, for example, Danielewicz, et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,890,319 and 4,029,792. They disclose compounds as regulators of the cardiovascular system which have the following formula: ##STR2## where the 2-imidazolin-2-ylamino group may be in any of the 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-position of the quinoxaline nucleus; x, y and z may be in any of the remaining 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-positions and may be selected from hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy or trifluoromethyl; and R is an optional substituent in either the 2- or 3-position of the quinoxaline nucleus and may be hydrogen, lower alkyl or lower alkoxy. The presently useful compounds may be prepared in accordance with the procedures outlined by Danielewicz, et al. The contents of both U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,890,319 and 4,029,792 are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
In "Ocular Effects of a Relatively Selective Alpha-2 Agonist (UK-14,304-18) in Cats, Rabbits and Monkeys" J. A. Burke, et al., Current Eye Rsrch., 5, (9), pp. 665-676 (1986)! the quinoxaline derivative was shown to be effective in reducing intraocular pressure in rabbits, cats and monkeys. Compounds in this study were administered topically to the eye of the study animals. ##STR3## It has long been known that one of the sequelae of glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve head. This damage, referred to as "cupping", results in depressions in areas of the nerve fiber of the optic disk. Loss of sight from this cupping is progressive and can lead to blindness if the condition is not treated effectively.
Unfortunately lowering intraocular pressure by administration of drugs or by surgery to facilitate outflow of the aqueous humor is not always effective in obviating damage to the nerves in glaucomatous conditions. This apparent contradiction is addressed by Cioffi and Van Buskirk Surv. of Ophthalmol., 38, Suppl. p. S107-16, discussion S116-17, May 1994! in the article, "Microvasculature of the Anterior Optic Nerve". The abstract states:
The traditional definition of glaucoma as a disorder of increased intraocular pressure (IOP) oversimplifies the clinical situation. Some glaucoma patients never have higher than normal IOP and others continue to develop optic nerve damage despite maximal lowering of IOP. Another possible factor in the etiology of glaucoma may be regulation of the regional microvasculature of the anterior optic nerve. One reason to believe that microvascular factors are important is that many microvascular diseases are associated with glaucomatous optic neuropathy. PA1 Ocular findings of systemic vasculitis, such as polyarteritis nodosa, giant cell angitis and aortitis syndrome were reviewed. Systemic lupus erythematosus is not categorized as systemic vasculitis, however its ocular findings are microangiopathic. Therefore, review of its ocular findings was included in this paper. The most common fundus finding in these diseases is ischemic optic neuropathy or retinal vascular occlusions. Therefore several points in diagnosis or pathogenesis of optic neuropathy and retinal and choroidal vaso-occlusion were discussed. Choroidal ischemia has come to be able to be diagnosed clinically, since fluorescein angiography was applied in these lesions. When choroidal arteries are occluded, overlying retinal pigment epithelium is damaged. This causes disruption of barrier function of the epithelium and allows fluid from choroidal vasculatures to pass into subsensory retinal spaces. This is a pathogenesis of serous detachment of the retina. The retinal arterial occlusion formed non-perfused retina. Such hypoxic retina released angiogenesis factors which stimulate retinal and iris neovascularizations and iris neovascularizations may cause neovascular glaucoma. PA1 Fluorescein defects are significantly correlated with visual field loss and retinal nerve fiber layer loss. The second circulatory defect is a decrease of flow of fluorescein in the retinal vessels, especially the retinal veins, so that the greater the age, diastolic blood pressure, ocular pressure and visual field loss, the less the flow. Both the optic disk and retinal circulation defects occur in untreated ocular hypertensive eyes. These observations indicate that circulatory defects in the optic disk and retina occur in ocular hypertension and open-angle glaucoma and increase with the progression of the disease.
Subsequent to Cioffi, et al., Matusi published a paper on the "Ophthalmologic aspects of Systemic Vasculitis" Nippon Rinsho, 52 (8), p. 2158-63, August 1994! and added further support to the assertion that many microvascular diseases are associated with glaucomatous optic neuropathy. The summary states:
B. Schwartz, in "Circulatory Defects of the Optic Disk and Retina in Ocular Hypertension and High Pressure Open-Angle Glaucoma" Surv. Ophthalmol., 38, Suppl. pp. S23-24, May 1994! discusses the measurement of progressive defects in the optic nerve and retina associated with the progression of glaucoma. He states:
Thus it is evident that there is an unmet need for agents that have neuroprotective effects in the eye that can stop or retard the progressive damage that occurs to the nerves as a result of glaucoma or other ocular afflictions.

Method of using (2-imidazolin-2-ylamino) quinoxalines in treating ocular neural injury


A physiological monitoring apparatus comprising a cellular phone handset connected to a cellular phone network is disclosed. The handset includes a removable battery container (12) having a physiological monitoring device (14) contained therein as well as a battery power source (13). The battery power source (13) provides power for the operation of the handset (11) as well as providing power for the physiological monitoring device (14). The battery container (12) has detectors (15) located on its outer surface, communicating with the physiological monitoring device (14) through apertres in the battery container (12). Acoustic coupling means (18) are adapted to couple tones produced by the physiological monitoring device (14) with a sound microphone of the cellular phone handset. The physiological monitoring device (14) is activated by placing it against the chest of a patient and the cellular phone handset is used to connect to a remote monitoring station via the cellular phone network. The cellular phone handset sends an electromagnetic signal corresponding to the acoustically coupled tonal signal produced by the physiological monitoring device (14).

The present invention relates to the field of monitoring physiological parameters and, in particular, a cardiac patient""s electrical cardiac activity at a central location by means of an apparatus associated with a cellular mobile phone handset and transmitting the information over the cellular phone/ telephone network. The present invention can also be used to measure and control other physiological parameters such as in blood pressure monitoring, asthma control, pregnancy monitoring, oxygen saturation monitoring, diabetes measurement, heart sound monitoring and other like measurements.
Although the following description refers generally to remote cardiac monitoring equipment, the equipment can also find utility in any situation in monitoring of other physiological parameters or any other possible use. Therefore, reference to cardiac monitoring is also meant to encompass any monitoring of other physiological parameters where, by suitable modification if necessary, the invention can also be utilised.
Throughout the world, cardiac disease, including heart attack and angina, is the leading. cause of death, It is responsible for more deaths than any other diseases.
It is estimated that 2-4% of the general population suffer from heart disease and 10-12% of the general population are considered to have two or more heart disease risk factors which would ideally require periodic diagnostics or preventive medical treatments.
The activity of the heart is regulated by electrical impulses which can be measured and presented for diagnostic or preventive purposes, in the form of an electrocardiogram (ECG).
To acquire an ECG, electrodes are physically attached to a designated position on the patient""s chest to pick up electrical impulses. Traditionally ECG diagnostic tests were carried out in hospitals or clinics where the patient would be attached to an ECG recorder.
Most people experience some form of arrhythmia (abnormal rythym disturbance of the heart). Rarer forms of arrhythmia, such as ventricular fibrillation, often result in the heart stopping and death. According to cardiologists, just under 20% of all people who experience some form of heart attack will die in the first hour due to the severity of the attack.
The most striking fact about survival after heart attacks is the predominance of deaths within the first 24 hours after the attack begins and the significant proportion of these deaths which are within the first few hours. In fact, 60% or more of heart attack deaths occur before the victims reach a hospital. Once victims arrive at hospitals and survive the first day, overall chances of survival are much improved.
Denial time is the time interval between symptom onset and a request for medical care. This so-called denial time contributes greatly to the 3 hour average time lapse between symptom onset and medical intervention. This 3 hour interval is of major significance. It is estimated that each year about 25% of all myocardial infarct patients die before reaching a hospital and that 66% of all sudden deaths occur outside the hospital in the first 2-3 hours after onset of symptoms.
Early therapy, ie within 3 hours of the onset of symptoms, for heart attack victims using anti-clotting agents has shown to significantly increase patient survival rates.
With the development of advanced microprocessors computing and data transmission technologies, the remote transmission and acquisition of ECG is possible presenting new possibilities in home care, preventive diagnosis and emergency systems.
Existing systems for the remote monitoring of a patient""s electrical cardiac activity use known ECG equipment which generate tone signals or the like to be sent via a telephone network to a central location which is used to record and monitor the tone signals. The tone signals ire generally acoustically coupled to the telephone handset which transduces the tone signals into electrical signals to be sent over the telephone network.
Existing ECG equipment uses electrodes and wires to provide the electrical signals produced when detected from the patient""s cardiac activity. These electrical signals travel over the wires to a transducer device which produces tone signals which are then acoustically coupled to the telephone network,
The use of these existing systems is awkward and relatively user unfriendly as the patient is not always in a position or situation where its use is satisfactory or convenient such as when the patient is in public places. The use of the existing ECG equipment including the electrodes and wires also introduces the possibility of errors in the readings due to noise pickup from the wires and electrodes.
It would be advantageous to provide a monitoring apparatus which includes the ECG equipment and telephone handset in the one device so that the apparatus is simple and convenient to use by the cardiac patient in all circumstances as well as dispensing with the need to have the electrodes connected to the equipment by leads or wires which can introduce errors in the readings. It would also be advantageous to have the mobile telephone handset device connected to a cellular mobile telephone network so that the apparatus can be used at public locations which are not accessible by the normal telephone network
It would also be advantageous for the mobile cellular phone handset to be used in its normal way as a means for verbal or other communication over the cellular phone network when it is not being used for the remote monitoring of the cardiac activity of the patient.
It would also be advantageous for a monitoring apparatus which includes the other forms of physiological measurement and telephone handset in the one device so that the apparatus is simple and convenient to use by the patient in all circumstances as well as dispensing with the need to have the electrodes or other such detectors connected to the equipment by leads or wires which can introduce errors in the readings.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a physiological monitoring apparatus which substantially overcomes or ameliorates the above mentioned disadvantages. At the very least, the object of the invention is to provide an alternative to known physiological monitoring apparatus.
According to one aspect of the present invention there i s disclose d a physiological monitoring apparatus comprising a cellular phone handset connected to a cellular phone network, said handset including a removable modified battery power source pack container having a physiological monitoring means contained therein as well as a battery power source means, said battery power source means providing power for the operation of the Handset as well as providing power for the physiological monitoring means, said modified battery power source pack container having located on its outer surface detector means are in communication with the physiological monitoring means through apertures in the modified battery power source pack container whereby the detector means are attached to the modified battery power source pack container, acoustic coupling means adapted to couple tones produced by said physiological monitoring means with a sound microphone of the cellular phone handset wherein said physiological monitoring means is activated by placing it against the chest of a patient and said cellular phone handset is used to connect to a remote monitoring station via the cellular phone network, said cellular phone handset sending an electromagnetic signal corresponding to the acoustically coupled tonal signal produced by the physiological monitoring means,
Preferably, the physiological monitoring means monitors cardiac activity by means of an electrocardiogram ECG apparatus. The present invention can also be used to measure and control other physiological parameters such as in blood pressure monitoring, asthma and respiratory function control, pregnancy and foetal condition monitoring, oxygen saturation monitoring, diabetes and blood chemistry measurement, heart sound monitoring and other like measurements.
In one preferred form of the invention, the cellular phone connection between the handset and the network is activated by the production of the tonal signal by the ECG monitoring means.
In a preferred form of the invention, the physiological monitoring means monitors signals received from a device implanted in the patient, such as a pacemaker or the like, such that the signals indicate correct functioning thereof.

Remote monitoring apparatus for medical conditions


Disclosed herein is a new type of fully-connected, hybrid beamforming transceiver architecture. The transceiver described herein is bi-directional and can be configured as a transmit beamformer or a receive beamformer. A method and apparatus are described that allows the beamformer to operate in “carrier aggregated” mode, where communication channels in multiple disparate frequency bands can be simultaneously accessed.

Next generation wireless communication systems will depend on directional transmission and reception at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies to achieve higher data rates and network capacity. Electronically controlled multi-element antenna arrays are the most attractive way to implement such directional communication due to their size, weight, power and cost advantages.
When combined with advanced electronics implementing sophisticated spatial signal processing algorithms, antenna arrays can be exploited in new ways in future wireless networks. These techniques include point-to-point multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), multiuser MIMO and polarization-based MIMO, spatial equalization, spatial diversity and spatial interference cancellation or nulling.
The underlying hardware is referred to as beamforming transceivers or simply beamformers. Digital beamformers (DBF) are the most flexible type of beamformers and can, in principle, support advanced multi-antenna techniques, including those identified above. While DBF is feasible for low-element count antenna arrays below 6 GHz, it is often not feasible for mm-wave massive (i.e., high antenna count) MIMO due to its prohibitively large die area and power consumption. DBFs will not be feasible for the foreseeable future due to size, weight, power consumption and cost constraints especially for antenna arrays with large numbers of elements.
Therefore, current mm-wave beamformers are implemented using RF circuits (referred to as RF-domain beamformers) which perform complex-valued weighting (a simple form of spatial signal processing involving phase-shifting and amplitude-scaling the signal) of the incoming signals at each antenna element to steer the main lobe of the antenna pattern. However, these RF-domain beamformers are limited in their ability to support advanced multi-antenna techniques.
A hybrid beamforming architecture enables energy-efficient multi-stream operation by performing RF-spatial-processing using RF-domain gain and phase control, while also having multiple up-/down-conversion chains (each connected to an independent RF-beamforming module) that facilitate simultaneous communication of multiple data streams (i.e., multi-stream MIMO) using multiple beams. Hybrid beamforming is by default assumed to be of the partially-connected (PC-HBF) (or sub-array) type, as shown in View (a) of FIG. 1, where each data stream accesses only a fraction of the antenna elements available in the array.
Therefore, there is high current interest in multi-antenna communication using hybrid beamformers wherein the requisite spatial signal processing is partitioned between the RF domain and the digital domain. At the time of this filing, hybrid beamformers of the "partially-connected" type were being developed by various companies and academic research groups.

Reconfigurable fully-connected bidirectional hybrid beamforming transceiver


There is provided an acidic zirconia sol having compatibility of particle properties and binding properties, and a production method of the same. The acidic zirconia sol includes zirconia particles (a) having a particle diameter ranging from 20 to 300 nm in a content of 90 to 50% by mass, based on the mass of all zirconia particles, and zirconia particles (b) having a particle diameter of less than 20 nm in a content of 10 to 50% by mass, based on the mass of all zirconia particles.

Conventional methods for obtaining a zirconia sol include: a method for heat-hydrolyzing a zirconium salt aqueous solution, a method for adding hydrogen peroxide to a zirconium salt aqueous solution and heating the resultant solution, and a method for heating zirconium hydroxide in a basic region.
There is disclosed a method for hydrolyzing a reaction product between zirconium ammonium carbonate and a chelating agent (for example, oxyphenols, amino alcohols, oxyacids, polycarboxylic acids, oxyaldehydes, amino acids, and 62-diketones) (see, Patent Document 1).
There is disclosed a production method of a basic zirconia sol including: maintaining an aqueous suspension containing zirconium hydroxide in a heated state at 80° C. or more until the crystallinity of produced zirconia becomes 80% or more to obtain an aqueous suspension containing crystallized zirconia; and adding to the obtained aqueous suspension, a basic compound containing nitrogen (primary amine, secondary amine, or quaternary ammonium hydroxide), a hydroxide of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal (see, Patent Document 2).
There is disclosed a production method of a zirconia sol including: causing a precipitate by adding a base to a zirconium salt aqueous solution; adding thereto, a hydroxide of an alkaline earth metal or an aqueous solution thereof to obtain a suspension; and heat-aging the obtained suspension at a temperature of 90 to 200° C. (see, Patent Document 3).
There is disclosed a production method of a zirconia sol including: heating a zirconium salt aqueous solution having a molar ratio of anion/metal of 0.5/1 to 4/1 to 120 to 300° C. and cooling the heated solution to room temperature; and adjusting the pH value of the solution to 2 to 6 (see, Patent Document 4).
There is disclosed a production method of a zirconia sol including: adding hydrogen peroxide to a zirconium salt aqueous solution having a concentration of 0.05 to 2.0 mol/L in an amount which is about half the amount of zirconium in the aqueous solution or more in the molar ratio; heating the resultant solution to 80 to 300° C.; and adding to the solution further a base, such as ammonia, or treating the solution with an ion-exchange resin or the like (see, Patent Document 5).
There is disclosed a production method of zirconia-based fine particles including: heating to 80 to 250° C. and hydrolyzing a zirconium salt aqueous solution to form crystalline zirconia fine particles; separating by precipitation method a part of the thus-formed crystalline zirconia fine particles having a secondary aggregated particle diameter of approximately 1000 Å or more on average from another part of the thus-formed crystalline zirconia fine particles to produce a zirconia sol; and subjecting the produced zirconia sol individually or in combination with another metal compound to a thermal treatment at a temperature of 1000° C. or less (see, Patent Document 6).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-3-174325    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-64-083519    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-60-176920    Patent Document 4: U.S. Pat. No. 2,984,628 Specifications    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-58-079818    Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-58-217430

Acidic zirconia sol and production method of the same


The invention provides stabilized hydroxylamine solutions. In particular, stabilized hydroxylamine solutions and processes for their preparation are provided in which the stabilizing compound is cyclohexanediaminetetraacetic acid, hydrochloride salts of thiamine, or mixtures thereof.

Hydroxylamine solutions are used for a variety of purposes. For example, such solutions may be used in syntheses, in propellant preparation, in photographic processing, and in solvents. It is well known that the use of such solutions is problematic because the solutions are inherently unstable.
A number of stabilizing compounds have been used in attempting to stabilize hydroxylamine solutions, including di- and tetrasodium salts of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,647,449 and 3,145,082, respectively. However, as further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,449, the disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid salt is unacceptable as a stabilizing agent because it results in a substantial increase in gas evolution due to decomposition of hydroxylamine free base. See Col. 3, lines 10-22; col. 4, lines 19-22. The tetrasodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid salt also has proven to be an unsatisfactory stabilizing agent. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,318, Col. 1, lines 17-20. Therefore, a need exists for an effective hydroxylamine stabilizing agent.


Techniques for increased finger demodulation capability in a hardware efficient manner are disclosed. In one aspect, I and Q samples are shifted into a parallel-accessible shift register. A plurality of chip samples are accessed from the shift register and operated on in parallel to produce a multi-chip result for a channel each cycle. These multi-chip results can be accumulated and output to a symbol-rate processor on symbol boundaries. The scheduling of shift register access, computation, and accumulation can be scheduled such that the hardware is time-shared to support a large number of channels. In another aspect, time-tracking of a large number of channels can be accommodated through channel-specific indexing of the contents of the shift register file. These aspects, along with various others also presented, provide for hardware efficient chip rate processing capability for a large number of channels, with a high degree of flexibility in deployment of those channels.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communications, and more specifically to a novel and improved method and apparatus for chip rate processing.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be based on code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), or some other modulation techniques. A CDMA system provides certain advantages over other types of systems, including increased system capacity.
A CDMA system may be designed to support one or more CDMA standards such as (1) the "TIA/EIA-95-B Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular System" (the IS-95 standard), (2) the "TIA/EIA-98-C Recommended Minimum Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular Mobile Station" (the IS-98 standard), (3) the standard offered by a consortium named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP) and embodied in a set of documents including Document Nos. 3G TS 25.211, 3G TS 25.212, 3G TS 25.213, and 3G TS 25.214 (the W-CDMA standard), (4) the standard offered by a consortium named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2) and embodied in a set of documents including "TR-45.5 Physical Layer Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems," the "C.S0005-A Upper Layer (Layer 3) Signaling Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems," and the "C.S0024 cdma2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification" (the cdma2000 standard), and (5) some other standards. These standards are incorporated herein by reference. A system that implements the High Rate Packet Data specification of the cdma2000 standard is referred to herein as a high data rate (HDR) system. Proposed wireless systems also provide a combination of HDR and low data rate services (such as voice and fax services) using a single air interface.
Pseudorandom noise (PN) sequences are commonly used in CDMA systems for modulation of transmitted data, including transmitted pilot signals. CDMA receivers commonly employ RAKE receivers. A rake receiver is typically made up of one or more searchers for locating direct and multipath pilots from neighboring base stations, and two or more fingers for receiving and combining information signals from those base stations.
In general, the performance of any CDMA system is enhanced as more fingers are added to receivers in order to process a greater number of multipath signals from one or many base stations. This is particularly true as the chip rate used to spread incoming signals increases, as more components of the multipath signal are then distinguishable at the receiver. The W-CDMA standard describes such a system where the ability to demodulate a high number of signal components is desirable.
CDMA demodulators often include dedicated hardware, known as finger front ends, to process the relatively higher chip rate data that is received. Often a DSP or other processor is deployed to receive symbol rate data from the finger front end to further demodulate the symbols. One way to enhance the performance of any CDMA system, or to meet specifications for a higher chip rate system, is to replicate the hardware of one finger for as many fingers as are required. While this technique has been used with success in the past, as finger requirements grow, the resultant hardware requirements can become prohibitively expensive. An alternate technique is to provide a general purpose DSP capable of performing chip rate processing, although this too can be expensive in hardware and may require impractical clock rates and associated power drain to implement in a high speed system with a large number of channels to demodulate.
There is therefore a need in the art for a finger front end capable of processing a large number of channels delivered at high chip rate in a high throughput, hardware efficient manner.

Method and apparatus for chip-rate processing in a CDMA system


A solenoid actuated valve assembly includes a valve body having a slidable main valve member and a pilot valve body mechanically connected to the valve body including a slidable pilot valve member. A first solenoid operated valve connected to the pilot valve body when energized directs pressurized fluid to move the pilot valve member between pilot valve open and closed positions. A second solenoid operated valve connected to the valve body when simultaneously energized with the first valve directs the fluid to move the main valve member between valve closed and open positions. A third solenoid operated valve connected to the pilot valve body when energized and when both the first and second solenoid operated valves are de-energized directs the fluid to move the pilot valve to the pilot valve open position and the main valve member to the valve closed position.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Solenoid actuated valves are known which rely on a solenoid connected by a driving device to reposition a fluid valve member. An electrical current flow to the solenoid creates a magnetic field which displaces the driving device to reposition the valve member from a first to a second position. Removal of the electrical current can cause the driving device to stop in place. A biasing element such as a spring is therefore commonly provided with the valve member which biases the valve member and the driving device opposite to the magnetic field driving direction to automatically return the valve member and the driving device to the non-energized position. Solenoid actuated valves can be used for both normally open and normally closed valves defined when the solenoid is de-energized.
In place of a biasing element, valve assemblies using two oppositely positioned solenoid pilot valves which are individually energized to alternately position the main valve member in each of an open and a closed position are also known. One application of this type of valve is a directional control valve used in bulk material (such as coal) carrying railway cars. The pilot valves are separately energized to each of isolate and permit flow of a pneumatic fluid to control a main pneumatic valve which controls the dump door(s) of the railway car. In arrangements when air pressure can be always present at the main valve, acceleration forces due to car movement, coupling/de-coupling, etc. could cause a main valve to displace when the pilot valves are de-energized, resulting in an unintentional release of the bulk material. A magnet is therefore known in certain applications of these valves which holds the valve member of the main valve closed when the pilot valves are de-energized to prevent unintentional displacement. The magnet, however, is also susceptible to release under certain anticipated acceleration forces. A modified solenoid actuated valve is therefore desirable which eliminates the magnet and provides a positive force in place of the magnet to retain the valve in the closed position.

Valve assembly with dual actuation solenoids


Wake-on-touch display screen devices and related methods are disclosed herein An example computing device includes a display screen, a first sensor to detect a presence of a user in an environment, a second sensor to detect a presence of an appendage of the user, and at least one processor to control a power state of the computing device based on first data generated by the first sensor and second data generated by the second sensor.

A user device, such as a laptop or a tablet, can enter a low power state or standby mode when the device is powered on but has not received a user input for an extended period of time. An action by the user such as pressing a key on a keyboard, moving an input device such as a mouse or touch pad, or touching a touch-enabled display screen of the device can prompt the device to wake and move from the low power state to a working operational state.
The figures are not to scale. In general, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.
Descriptors "first," "second," "third," etc. are used herein when identifying multiple elements or components which may be referred to separately. Unless otherwise specified or understood based on their context of use, such descriptors are not intended to impute any meaning of priority, physical order or arrangement in a list, or ordering in time but are merely used as labels for referring to multiple elements or components separately for ease of understanding the disclosed examples. In some examples, the descriptor "first" may be used to refer to an element in the detailed description, while the same element may be referred to in a claim with a different descriptor such as "second" or "third." In such instances, it should be understood that such descriptors are used merely for ease of referencing multiple elements or components.


A device and method is provided for use in connection with electrically grounding an automated guided vehicle. A grounding strap is suspended from the automated vehicle for contacting an electrical conductive ground device mounted to a floor along a travel path of the automated guided vehicle. In operation, the grounding strap contacts the electrically conductive ground device to electrically ground electronics used in connection with the guided vehicle.

The present invention relates to a grounding device for automated guided vehicles adapted to traverse a path on a floor surface coated with a non-conductive material to thereby deliver items in an automated fashion to a set location and a method therefore. More specifically, the invention is concerned with electrically grounding an automated vehicle to a ground in order to prevent an electric charge from building up in said automated guided vehicle including, for example, static electricity, thereby damaging electronic devices or persons associated with said guided vehicle. The invention involves the use of a grounding strap extending from said guided vehicle and adapted for contacting a ground device electrically grounded to the earth.
Automated guided vehicles have become common in many industrial applications. These vehicles are used to transport material along a predetermined guide path established at an industrial facility. These automated guided vehicles utilize various methods to guide the vehicle in an automated manner. Most all of these various guidance methods include the use of electronics positioned on the guided vehicle. In addition, in some cases, the guided vehicles also include electric motors to both power the vehicle and perform functions at various locations in the facility.
Electrostatic build-up of an electrical charge is well known in the facility management and material handling industries. If not managed appropriately, electrostatic build-up can harm electronics used in a facility as well as personnel working in such facility. Prior art grounding devices including metal chains, flexible conductive strips and conductive surface coatings. Metal chains are known to be mounted to the frame of vehicles for contact with the surface having no coatings such as a cement surface with no coatings. Such chains are known to be subject to breaking, bouncing and creating hazardous sparks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,653 shows a flexible conductive strip mounted to a frame of an automobile for contacting the ground. These prior art devices were designed for use with a conductive surface, most commonly the ground, and not for use on a surface coated with a non-conductive material.
Conductive coatings are relatively newer in the industry and are known to assist in grounding facility equipment to protect workers and equipment. In applications where the use a guided vehicle is planned, most facility floor surfaces are coated with such conductive coatings thereby permitting the guided vehicle to be electrically grounded through the vehicle tires to the conductive coating. However, due to the increasing use of automated guided vehicles, many facilities are installing such guided vehicles without having a conductive coating on the facility floor surface, and in most cases, a non-conductive coating remains. Under such circumstances where the facility floor does not have a conductive coating, this can affect the ability to ground facility machinery and equipment thereby causing a serious electrostatic build-up hazard.

Grounding device for automated guided vehicles


A process for the hydrogenation of 3-aminopentanenitrile to produce 1,3 diaminopentane using a Raney.RTM. cobalt catalyst promoted with chromium, nickel, molybdenum, iron, manganese or mixtures thereof. Performing the reaction in the presence of aqueous caustic (e.g., alkali metal hydroxide) enhances the selectivity to 1,3 diaminopentane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a process for the preparation of 1,3-diaminopentane by hydrogenation of 3-aminopentanenitrile in the presence of a Raney.RTM. cobalt catalyst. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to the selective production of 1,3 diaminopentane by use of a Raney.RTM. cobalt catalyst in the presence of an aqueous caustic solution.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,725 discloses in example 7, the use of Raney.RTM. nickel for the reduction of 3-aminopentanenitrile to 1,3-diaminopentane in 76% yield.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,391 discloses the use of Raney.RTM. cobalt which is promoted with chromium as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of C.sub.4 to C.sub.12 nitrites. In this patent, catalyst activity is maintained by the addition of water.
The known process for hydrogenation of 3-aminopentanenitrile with Raney.RTM. nickel has a problem in that it produces by-products 1-methyl and 1-ethyl-3-ethylhexahydropyrimidines and 1,3-diaminopentane dimer high boilers.

Production of 1,3-diaminopentane by hydrogenation of 3-aminopentanenitrile


In a flexible bellows used to implement some change of volume, material is added inside of the convolution walls to reduce the clearance volume associated with the fully compressed mode. For gas compression applications, this combination of bellows walls and independently-added filling material not only improves the volume and compression ratios available but also provides an opportunity to design for lower stress and longer life.

This invention relates to refrigeration systems, heat engines and other thermodynamic apparatus which usually utilize a piston in a cylinder for compression of a gas. Sometimes, bellows are used in place of pistons because they avoid the life-limiting wear between piston and cylinder, they eliminate the contamination of any oil required for piston lubrication and they operate without the usual type of friction and leakage. It could be argued that only bellows seals offer an opportunity of achieving theoretically infinite life in such apparatus. But bellows have disadvantages.
In terms of disadvantages, there are two types of bellows, the formed bellows and the welded bellows. This invention applies to the formed type. Formed type metal bellows are usually made from either a welded or a seamless thin-walled tube, preferably the latter. Neglecting electroforming, the forming process usually involves a combination of rolling, squeezing and the use of hydraulic pressure. Their convolutions are characterized by smooth sections such as those of torroids; such cross sections are often identified as "U-shaped", "S-shaped", etc. See ASME Publication PVP-Vol. 83, page 24 which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The main disadvantage found in formed types of bellows is their inability to be safely compressed to a mode shape characterized by small dead volume. Dead volume is the clearance volume which remains inside of a bellows when the bellows is fully compressed. Some applications require that the dead volume be less than one tenth of the total displacement volume. Most formed type bellows can not meet this requirement.
The second of the two major types of bellows is the welded bellows. This refers to various welded disk types wherein an extensive amount of welding is required in fabrication. It does not refer to a formed bellows made from a welded tube. The main disadvantage of welded bellows is a tendency toward high stresses and toward greater uncertainty when calculating such stresses. To reduce these disadvantages, various methods of obtaining tight control of the welding process have been tried. However, so far, the results have quite often been disappointing when compared to the reliability of welds in other types of structures. The reasons include the coincidence of the weld and the maximum stress location resulting from this geometry, problems with double welding, the sharp notch effect, an inability to clean and inspect welds from inside, the exposure to stress concentration over a large total length of welds, etc. For these reasons, welded bellows are not suited to meet very long life applications.
In this type application, what is needed is a bellows that can not only improve system efficiency by having less dead volume but also improve reliability by offering the designer a chance to lower stresses as if dead volume could be ignored. Page 98 of the EJMA Standards shows the reliability benefit from reduced stresses. To reduce both stresses and dead volume simultaneously, a variety of rather simple design changes have been tried with limited success. Examples are the shape shown in FIG. 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,502, reinforcing rings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,323,985 and 3,135,295, etc. What is needed now is an approach to the design of bellows that promises far larger reductions in stress and dead volume than these simple changes can provide.


A method for merging graphics and high dynamic range video data is disclosed. In a video receiver, a display management process uses metadata to map input video data from a first dynamic range into the dynamic range of available graphics data. The remapped video signal is blended with the graphics data to generate a video composite signal. An inverse display management process uses the metadata to map the video composite signal to an output video signal with the first dynamic range. To alleviate perceptual tone-mapping jumps during video scene changes, a metadata transformer transforms the metadata to transformed so that on a television (TV) receiver metadata values transition smoothly between consecutive scenes. The TV receiver receives the output video signal and the transformed metadata to generate video data mapped to the dynamic range of the TV's display.

As used herein, the term 'dynamic range' (DR) may relate to a capability of the human psychovisual system (HVS) to perceive a range of intensity (e.g., luminance, luma) in an image, e.g., from darkest darks (blacks) to brightest brights (whites). In this sense, DR relates to a 'scene-referred' intensity. DR may also relate to the ability of a display device to adequately or approximately render an intensity range of a particular breadth. In this sense, DR relates to a 'display-referred' intensity. Unless a particular sense is explicitly specified to have particular significance at any point in the description herein, it should be inferred that the term may be used in either sense, e.g. interchangeably.
As used herein, the term high dynamic range (HDR) relates to a DR breadth that spans the some 14-15 orders of magnitude of the human visual system (HVS). For example, well adapted humans with essentially normal vision (e.g., in one or more of a statistical, biometric or ophthalmological sense) have an intensity range that spans about 15 orders of magnitude. Adapted humans may perceive dim light sources of as few as a mere handful of photons. Yet, these same humans may perceive the near painfully brilliant intensity of the noonday sun in desert, sea or snow (or even glance into the sun, however briefly to prevent damage). This span though is available to 'adapted' humans, e.g., those whose HVS has a time period in which to reset and adjust.
In contrast, the DR over which a human may simultaneously perceive an extensive breadth in intensity range may be somewhat truncated, in relation to HDR. As used herein, the terms enhanced dynamic range (EDR) or visual dynamic range (VDR) may individually or interchangeably relate to the DR that is perceivable by short-term adaptation though a HVS. As used herein, EDR may relate to a DR that spans 5 to 6 orders of magnitude. Thus while perhaps somewhat narrower in relation to true scene referred HDR, EDR nonetheless represents a wide DR breadth.
In practice, images comprise one or more color components (e.g., luma Y and chroma Cb and Cr) wherein each color component is represented by a precision of n-bits per pixel (e.g., n=8). Using linear luminance coding, images where n<8 (e.g., color 24-bit JPEG images) are considered images of standard dynamic range, while images where n>8 may be considered images of enhanced dynamic range. EDR and HDR images may also be stored and distributed using low bit-depth, non-linear luminance coding (e.g., 10-bits and logarithmic luminance coding), or high-precision (e.g., 16-bit) floating-point formats, such as the OpenEXR file format developed by Industrial Light and Magic.
Most consumer desktop displays support luminance of 200 to 300 cd/m2 or nits. Most consumer HDTVs range from 300 to 1000 cd/m2. Such conventional displays thus typify a low dynamic range (LDR), also referred to as a standard dynamic range (SDR), in relation to HDR or EDR. As the availability of EDR content grows due to advances in both capture equipment (e.g., cameras) and EDR displays (e.g., the PRM-4200 professional reference monitor from Dolby Laboratories), EDR content may be color graded and displayed on EDR displays that support higher dynamic ranges (e.g., from 1,000 nits to 5,000 nits or more). In general, the methods of the present disclosure relate to any dynamic range higher than SDR.
As used herein, the term "display management" denotes the processing (e.g., tone and gamut mapping) required to map an input video signal of a first dynamic range (e.g., 1000 nits) to a display of a second dynamic range (e.g., 500 nits). Examples of display management processes are described in PCT Application Ser. No. PCT/US2014/016304 (the '304 application), filed on Feb. 13, 2014, "Display management for high dynamic range video," by R. Atkins el at., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Display management may be assisted or controlled by input metadata generated by the source of the incoming content and multiplexed into the coded bitstream.
In some use cases, incoming EDR video may also be blended by graphics of a third dynamic range (e.g., 100 nits) before being sent to the target display. As used herein, the term 'graphics' denotes any kind of imagery (e.g., menus, still pictures, vector graphics, video, and the like) that may be blended with a video signal. As appreciated by the inventors here, improved techniques for blending graphics with high dynamic range video are desirable.
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. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.

Graphics blending for high dynamic range video

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation


A locking device applies to a casing having a cover and a seat for opening and closing of the casing. The locking device has a recess formed on an edge of the seat, a buckle downwards protruding from the cover and matching the recess, and a roller parallel-disposed in the recess and pivoted to the seat. The buckle has an arcuate face smoothly against an upper slot of the roller for closing and opening the casing. A direction of lifting of the cover corresponds to a rotation of the roller so that a direction of applied force can be continuously unchanged to achieve an ergonomic effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking device of a casing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a locking device of a casing applied to an information product such as a notebook, a PDA, a cell phone and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a first prior art-locking device includes buckling matching portions 20a protruding from edges on the same side of a cover 31a and a seat 32a of a casing, respectively, and two movable buckles 10a located relative to the buckling matching portions 20a for the closing and opening the casing.
The first prior art-locking device is operated by first moving the two movable buckles 10a, respectively, in opposite directions and then to lift vertically the cover 31a, such that the case is opened. The direction of the lifting of the cover 31a doesn't correspond to the motion of the movable buckles 10a, and is not ergonomically pleasing. Furthermore, the alignment between the movable buckle 10a and the buckling matching portion 20a often doesn't add to easy use of the prior art-locking device because of slides between the buckling matching portions 20a.
As shown the FIG. 2 and FIG. 2A, a second prior art-locking device includes an upper buckling mechanism 20b disposed on a cover 31b of a casing and a lower buckling mechanism 10b disposed on a seat 32b of the casing and matching the upper buckling mechanism 20b for buckling and locking to each other.
The upper buckling mechanism 20b has an upper hook 21b, while the lower buckling mechanism 10b has a release button 11b and a slot 12b relative to the upper hook 21b. However, complex components and assembly steps are expensive to manufacture. Further, operation of the second prior art-locking device is ergonomically displeasing, involving first inwardly pushing the release button 11b and then vertically lifting the cover 31b to open the casing, such that the direction of the lifting of the cover 31b doesn't correspond to the motion of the release button 11b.
Hence, the examples of prior art mentioned above obviously have disadvantages and an improved locking device is needed.


A horn based loudspeaker system provides control over peak to peak pressure of an acoustic signal across its frequency spectrum. Frequency spectrum matched acoustic energy added to the acoustic signal at diverse points distributed along the horn.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to an electro-acoustical device and, more particularly, to a horn loudspeaker particularly suited for reproducing low frequency audible sound at high output levels.
2. Description of the Problem
The reproduction of sound in a compressible medium, such as air, particularly at high intensity levels, poses a number of challenges. One problem is the low efficiency exhibited by compression drivers in transferring energy to air. Conceptually this lack of efficiency is modeled as an impedance problem. Air exhibits an impedance which is low and highly non-resistive in character. The problem of the impedance mismatch has been addressed by use of structures to increase the resistive component of the impedance seen by a compression driver transducer for a given volume of air. A baffle supporting a line array of compression drivers is one such structure. An alternative structure is the horn. A horn is, in effect, an acoustic transformer, and provides an output performance equivalence to a driving unit having a large area diaphragm using a transducer with a relatively small area diaphragm while minimizing cone/diaphragm resonance issues that exist with direct radiator devices. The horn renders radiation impedance seen at the diaphragm increasingly resistive for a given volume velocity of air with the result that increasing power is radiated at a given input power. A horn achieves these results by restricting movement of the air, in other words, movement of the compression driver produces greater local pressure changes than would otherwise occur.
Increasing the acoustic power output from most horn designs has required increasing diaphragm piston travel in order to achieve the required volume velocity of air. Piston travel has been an important limiting factor relating to the amount of power that could be delivered to the horn. This had been seen as limiting the energy that could be introduced to a horn in a given frequency range.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/649,040, filed 27 Aug. 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,454,030, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference, the present inventor proposed a horn incorporating a plurality of transducers operating in the same frequency range. The transducers were ported to the horn with the ports being distributed along a portion of the propagation axis of the horn. The same drive signal, differentiated only by a phase delay, is supplied each transducer. This allowed the sound wave propagating along the horn to be reinforced in a cascade. By folding the horn, a high volume, low frequency, sound-source was built into a relatively small, energy efficient, package. This package was portable enough to be moved and suitable for open air use resulted from this arrangement. The problem of limited piston travel was addressed in part by dividing the work among a plurality of transducers and adding energy progressively, that is, in a cascade fashion lengthwise along a section of the horn. However, the patent gave no particular guidance relating to spacing between ports from transducer pre-load chambers into the horn or to calibrating the intensity of the output from each transducer. It was sufficient that operation of the transducers produce an output which matched the phase of the wave as it propagated past each port and, implicitly, operated at their power limits without incurring excessive distortion effects in order to maximize the power transferred to the acoustic output.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/362,933, filed 27 Feb. 2006, and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,760,899, is also expressly incorporated herein by reference. In the '933 application the present inventor proposed a modification to the development of the '040 application in which the spacing between output ports was progressively increased along a horn. This arrangement improved Q (directivity).
Other horn designs are known which position transducers at locations spaced from the throat or apex of the horn including horns in which transducers are differentially spaced from a horn "apex" toward the mouth. Such horns have been referred to variously as "multiple entry" horns, "coentrant" horns and "unity summation aperture" horns. These horns position compression drivers at stepped distances from a horn apex. However, all of the compression drivers for a particular frequency range are grouped at a particular spacing from the apex with the highest frequency device(s) being located at the apex and devices suited for lower bandwidths located progressively closer to the horn mouth. U.S. Pat. No. 6,411,718 to Danley et al. exemplifies such devices, showing application to a conical, or more particularly, a pyramid shaped horn.

Cascaded transducer array arrangement for control over an acoustic pressure gradient through a horn


A container for creating a multi-dimensional visual display or illusion. The container includes sidewall and a visual display assembly mounted on an exterior surface of the sidewall. The display assembly may be provided in one or more labels attached to the exterior surface and includes a reflective surface attached to a rear portion of the sidewall. A primary image is positioned between the reflective surface and exterior surface of the sidewall. The sidewall is curved and the reflective surface and primary image are mounted to conform to this curved shape. A framing element is provided on a front portion of the sidewall with background images on an inward facing surface. The framing element includes a view port providing a line of sight through the container onto the primary image and reflective surface, which reflects the background images to the viewer so as to appear behind the primary image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general to packaging and labeling techniques that produce objects such as containers with imagery that is appealing to consumers, and, more particularly, to containers, and methods for manufacturing such containers, that are labeled in a manner that for a viewer produces an image that appears displaced from the container's surfaces or a composite image that has multi-dimensions or layers such as a foreground image, a primary or central image, and a background image.
2. Relevant Background
Companies marketing their products are continuously searching for better ways to differentiate their product from competitors' products on crowded retail shelves. This is particularly true for products that may be similar in taste, appearance, or other characteristics such as water, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and many other consumer products including shampoo, liquid soap, and the like. To differentiate their products, these companies have turned to packaging to try to create increased shelf appeal and cause a consumer to select their product over a competitor's product at the point of sale or point of purchase. For example, shrink sleeve labels, wrap-around labels, or other labels may be used to package a consumer product container and include colorful images or eye-catching graphics that are intended to attract a consumer and cause them to purchase the product. A product's packaging is particularly important for products that may be selected based on price or for other factors other than brand loyalty and for products that are new to a market. In these cases, consumers often will select one product over another simply due to the way it is packaged.
Products are often packaged in bottles, cans, jars, cups, and/or containers that have an unusual shape such as placing syrup in a bottle having the shape of a person or of a log cabin. Alcoholic beverages such as vodka may also come in unique shapes to attract a consumer's attention. More commonly, a container or bottle with a standard shape is used but labels that are colorful or include colorful or graphic images are applied to attract consumers. For example, recent packaging innovations include labels for clear liquid containers that are adapted to allow a consumer to view an image through the container walls and the liquid in the container with the image appearing affixed on the container wall. With these containers, an image may be printed on a label that is attached to the back of the container or an image may be printed directly onto the back side of the container. In some containers, wraparound labels are applied that include text on the interior surfaces that is visible through a clear liquid in the container or is visible after a more opaque liquid is removed (e.g., to provide contest results or other information after a beverage is consumed). Packaging for containers may even include labels with lens materials to magnify an image, to create a three dimensional image, and/or to create a moving image. An ongoing challenge is to develop packaging innovations that achieve new effects or imagery with little or no increase in the cost of the packaging.
There continues to be a demand for innovative packaging designs and techniques that increase the shelf appeal of consumer products. Such packaging designs and techniques will provide differentiating imagery or graphics for a product container while controlling added packaging costs. In some cases, it may be desirable that the packaging designs and techniques in accordance with the present invention be integrated with existing packaging and/or labeling processes to control tooling or manufacturing costs.

Container with reflective surface for creating a multi-effect visual display


Cells can include variable volumes defined between a flexible structure, such as a polymer layer, and a support surface, with the flexible structure and support surface being attached in a first region that surrounds a second region in which they are unattached. Various adhesion structures can attach the flexible structure and the support surface. When unstretched, the flexible structure can lie in a flat position on the support surface. In response to a stretching force away from the support surface, the flexible structure can move out of the flat position, providing the variable volume. Electrodes, such as on the flexible structure, on the support surface, and over the flexible structure, can have charge levels that couple with each other and with the variable volume. A support structure can include a device layer with signal circuitry that provides a signal path between an electrode and external circuitry. One or more ducts can provide fluid communication with each cell's variable volume. Arrays of such cells can be implemented for various applications, such as optical modulators, displays, printheads, and microphones.

The present invention relates generally to techniques in which a flexible structure is attached to a support surface. More particularly, the invention relates to techniques in which a variable volume is defined between a flexible structure and a support surface.
Techniques have been previously proposed in which a flexible material such as polymer is deposited on a substrate. For example, Doany, F. E., and Narayan, C., "Laser release process to obtain freestanding multilayer metal-polyimide circuits," IBM J. Res. Develop., Volume 41, No. 1-2, January/March 1997, pp. 151-157, describe deposition of polymer films with metal wiring features, after which the structure is removed from the substrate by a laser separation process that ablates a polymeric layer, forming a freestanding structure. Bakir, M. S., Reed, H. A., Mulé, A. V., Jayachandran, J. P., Kohl, P. A., Martin, K. P., Gaylord, T. K., and Meindl, J. D., "Chip-to-Module Interconnections Using 'Sea of Leads' Technology," MRS Bulletin, January 2003, pp. 61-63 and 66-67, describe application and patterning of a sacrificial polymer on a wafer, followed by deposition of an overcoat polymer; the sacrificial polymer is then thermally decomposed to form an air gap embedded within the overcoat polymer, after which vias are fabricated to expose die pads and allow electrical connection of leads on the overcoat polymer to a chip in the wafer.
Previous techniques, however, are limited in the variety of articles that can be produced with a flexible structure attached to a support surface. It would be advantageous to have additional techniques for flexible structures attached to support surfaces.

Variable volume between flexible structure and support surface


A system for and method of converting successive bits of digital data into BPSK symbols using one or more BPSK symbol constellations such that orthogonal BPSK constellations are referenced to successive bits of the digital data. The system and method may toggle between referencing first and second orthogonal constellations as successive bits of the digital data are encountered. Alternatively, the system and method may successively rotate by 90° the constellation to be referenced as successive bits of the digital data are encountered. The reversal of the systems and methods described can be used to decode a transmission made by the methods described or specifically to reference a succession of orthogonal BPSK constellations to convert a succession of BPSK symbols to a succession of bits of digital data. Furthermore, a standard quadrature receiver can be used to perform the conversion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to binary phase shift keying (BPSK) symbols, and, more specifically, to procedures for BPSK modulation and mapping digital data into BPSK symbols.
2. Related Art
BPSK modulation is a robust modulation scheme that is often used in adaptive coding and modulation systems. It is frequently used for communicating with receivers on the edge of coverage. In BPSK modulation, a BPSK symbol mapper maps digital data into BPSK symbols using a BPSK symbol constellation (also simply referred to as a BPSK constellation). The BPSK symbol constellation is typically represented on a Cartesian coordinate plane in which one of the coordinates represents the in-phase (I) component of the BPSK symbol, and the other of the coordinates represents the quadrature (Q) component of the BPSK symbol.
A quadrature modulator then modulates a carrier signal with the I and Q components of the BPSK symbol. In a quadrature modulator, each component is passed through a pulse-shaping filter, and then up-converted to the transmission frequency using local oscillator signals which are 90° out of phase with one another. The up-converted components are summed, and the ensuing signal is then passed through a power amplifier and transmitted over a wireless interface.
The pulse-shaping filter in a quadrature modulator is typically implemented as a (square) root-raised cosine pulse-shaping filter. For BPSK symbols, the root-raised cosine pulse-shaping filter increases the peak amplitude of the envelope of the signal that is input to the power amplifier. This in turn requires a reduction in the average power of the signal that can be transmitted at the same distortion level, which in turn limits the range of the signal. Alternatively, or in addition, it increases the quiescent power that must be consumed by the power amplifier in order to avoid an increase in the distortion introduced by the power amplifier.
FIG. 1 compares the envelope peaking that is introduced into BPSK, quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), and 8 phase shift keying (8-PSK) symbol modulation by a root-raised cosine filter having a roll-off factor of 0.25. Curve 102 represents the probability distribution of the envelope peak of a BPSK-modulated signal referenced to average power (expressed in dBc). Curve 104 does so for QPSK-modulated signals, and curve 106 does so for an 8-PSK modulated signals.
These curves illustrate that the envelope peaking that is introduced by the filter into BPSK-modulated symbols substantially exceeds that of the other two modulation schemes. Curve 102, for example, indicates there is about a 1% probability that the envelope peak to average ratio for a BPSK-modulated signal will exceed 4.3 dB, and curve 104 indicates that there is about a 1% probability the envelope peak to average ratio for a QPSK-modulated signal will exceed 3.4 dB. That means that, compared with QPSK symbols, BPSK symbols must be transmitted at 0.9 dB less average power when the fidelity criterion which is applicable is not to clip any more than 1% of the envelope peaks for either modulation scheme. Expressed another way, the average transmit power for BPSK symbols has a relative back-off of 0.9 dB compared to QPSK symbols. That in turn limits the range of BPSK symbols relative to QPSK symbols when transmitted over a wireless interface.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Procedure for BPSK demodulation corresponding to BPSK modulation with reduced envelope peaking


An electrical connector may have a housing which has one or more printed circuit board assemblies. Each printed circuit board assembly has a plurality of signal traces and ground traces. Attached to the printed circuit board assemblies is a base. Disposed within one side of the base are a plurality of slots for receiving the printed circuit board assemblies. The opposing side of the base may have a plurality of pockets for receiving a plurality of fusible elements, which are preferably solder balls. Holes in the base provide a passage from the slots to the pockets. The solder balls are connected to the signal trace ends which extend into the base slots by metallic elements, such as contacts or solder paste.

Ball grid array connectors are generally known in the art and a general discussion of such connectors can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,606, which is hereby incorporated by reference. These types of connectors generally include fusible elements, preferably spherical solder balls, that are positioned on electrical contact pads of a circuit substrate or disposed within a ball pocket. The plurality of solder balls is generally referred to as a ball grid array. An integrated circuit may be mounted to a plastic or ceramic substrate PCB Materials (FR-4) and electrically connected to the ball grid array. Among the advantages of ball grid array connectors are smaller package sizes, good electrical performance and lower profiles.
Ball grid arrays have been used in connection with printed circuit boards. For example, FCI Electronics, Inc.'s U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,183,301 B1 and 6,083,047 disclose printed circuit boards having a ball grid array connection and are hereby incorporated by reference. Broadly, this invention relates to an improved electrical connector having an improved BGA connection. In an embodiment, this invention relates to improved printed circuit board assemblies that have an improved connection between the traces of the printed circuit board and the fusible elements or solder balls.

Printed circuit board assembly having a BGA connection