The present invention generally relates to ultrasound. In particular, the present invention relates to data dependent color wall filters (used in ultrasound imaging devices for example). Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to a color wall filter that provides flash reduction and clutter suppression. One embodiment of the color wall filter comprises an impulse response filter stage (either a finite or infinite impulse response filter) and a bi-quad filter stage that is data dependent. It is contemplated that the bi-quad filter stage may comprise a series of bi-quad filters, wherein the impulse response filter stage is cascaded into at least one bi-quad filter of the series of bi-quad filters.

The present invention generally relates to ultrasound. In particular, the present invention relates to data dependent color wall filters used in imaging devices or systems for performing diagnostic ultrasound imaging.
Known methods of performing diagnostic ultrasound imaging include B- and M-modes (used to image internal, physical structure), Doppler mode, and color flow mode. The color flow mode is primarily used to image flow characteristics, such as flow characteristics in blood vessels for example. Ultrasound color flow mode is typically used to detect the velocity of blood flow toward/away from an ultrasound transducer. Ultrasound color flow mode utilizes similar techniques used in Doppler mode. Whereas the Doppler mode displays velocity versus time for a single selected sample volume, ultrasound color flow mode displays hundreds of adjacent sample volumes simultaneously. The adjacent sample volumes are laid over a B-mode image and color-coded to represent each sample volume's velocity.
Using Doppler mode effects to measure blood flow in the heart and vessels is known. The amplitude of the reflected waves may be employed to produce black and white images of the tissues, while the frequency shift of backscattered waves may be used to measure the velocity of the backscatterer from tissue or blood. The change or shift in backscattered frequency increases when blood flows toward the ultrasound transducer and decreases when blood flows away from the ultrasound transducer. Color flow images may be produced by superimposing a color image of the velocity of the moving material, blood for example, over the black and white anatomical image. The measured velocity of flow at each pixel determines its color.
It is contemplated that the blood may contain at least one of blood, stationary or slow moving materials and moving materials. One limitation associated with taking Doppler effect measurements of reflected ultrasound waves from blood is that the received echo signal typically contains a large component produced by the stationary or slow moving tissues (alternatively referred to as "clutter" and "color flash artifacts" respectively), whereas the blood reflects ultrasound waves very weakly. The stationary tissues in the blood do not produce any frequency shift in the reflected waves. Therefore these components may be easily filtered out (alternatively referred to as "clutter suppression") without affecting the flow measurement. However, the reflections produced by moving tissue due to cardiac or respiratory motion are frequency shifted and may completely overwhelm signals from the slowly flowing blood.
In standard color flow processing, a high pass filter (alternatively referred to as a "wall filter") may be applied to the data before a color flow estimate is made. This filter is adapted to remove signal components produced by tissue surrounding the blood flow of interest. If these signal components are not removed, the resulting velocity estimate may include a combination of the velocities from the blood flow and the surrounding tissue. The backscatter component from tissue is many times greater than that produced by the blood component, so the velocity estimate will most likely be more representative of the tissue, rather than the blood flow. In order to get the flow velocity, the tissue signal must be filtered out.
When a high-flow-velocity area (a blood vessel for example) is imaged in color flow mode, the region of high amplitude centered around the zero frequency represents the presence of some fairly non-moving structure (a blood vessel wall for example), while the region of somewhat less amplitude centered around some relatively high frequency represents the presence of high flow velocity (blood flow for example). Because of the large difference in frequency between the non-moving structure and the fast-moving blood flow, a wall filter may be used to eliminate a portion of the frequency response corresponding to the non-moving wall has been eliminated. After such wall filtering, some scheme for determining the maximum remaining amplitude (i.e., the amplitude of the high-velocity blood flow) may be utilized so that the flow velocity for that particular sample volume may be displayed.
However, a problem may arise in applying wall filtering in low-flow-velocity imaging. Since the frequencies of the non-moving wall and the slow-moving flow are close together, it is difficult to effectively apply a wall filter to eliminate the "wall" response without resulting in a distorted slow-flow response portion (see FIG. 2B).
Known color flow processors assume that the large signal returning from the surrounding tissue is static (i.e., the tissue is not moving). If such assumption is true, the in-phase and quadrature I and Q data may be filtered separately using simple real filters which remove the DC component and the very low frequencies. The cutoff frequency of these high pass filters may be varied for a given application by changing the filter coefficients.
The assumption with respect to static tissue is generally valid for radiology applications, except in the abdomen, where residual respiratory and cardiac motion cause some amount of tissue motion. In addition, the motion of the handheld transducer approximates or looks like tissue motion. Since the velocity of this motion is usually slow compared to the velocity of the blood flow being imaged, the operator may set the wall filter cutoff frequency high enough to filter out the tissue signal component. Filtering in this way, however, may also remove signals from low-velocity blood flow, often the very signals that the operator wants to image.
Some prior art systems use a wall filter that is manually adjusted by the operator to filter out a narrow band of frequencies in the echo signal centered on the carrier frequency where static signals lie. The bandwidth is adjusted so that the reflected signals from the slow moving wall are eliminated without distorting the measurement of blood flow. If the filter bandwidth is set too wide, signals from slowly moving blood may be eliminated. It should be appreciated that this filter setting is static and is applied over the whole image. As a result, the filter may work adequately at some locations in the field of view of the image, but not at other locations.
One processing approach described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/001,998, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, uses adaptive wall filtering. Such adaptive wall filtering mixes the wall signal down to zero frequency, then removes the wall signal using a real time domain filter, to filter the I data and the Q data. This reduces the amplitude of the wall signal and enables the flow signal to be detected with greater accuracy, and at lower velocities than previous known processes that don't use this approach. The adaptive wall filter automatically adjusts its center frequency and bandwidth as a function of the received echo signal. A complex mixer receives the received echo signal and outputs a modified echo signal which is shifted in frequency by an amount equal and opposite to the mean frequency of the received echo signal. The wall filter receives the modified echo signal and filters out a band of frequencies that are determined by the variance of the received echo signal. By shifting the frequency of the received echo signal by an amount opposite to its measured mean frequency, the signal components therein due to slowly moving tissue are effectively shifted to the center of the filter. By automatically controlling the width of the stop band of the filter in dependence on the measured variance, the signal components produced by slowly moving tissue are filtered out. The filter output is then processed in a conventional manner to produce a color signal indicative of flow velocity.
Known processing approaches comprise separately reducing flash and suppressing clutter as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,629, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This approach uses a complex rotation of the input data, so that the motion is placed at DC (OHz). This approach assumes a high pass wall filter will filter out the slow motion tissue. It should be appreciated that the wall filters may have very low cutoff frequencies. Therefore, the complex rotations may not insure that the output of the first stage or module of the bi-quad filter is close to zero.


An audio teleconferencing apparatus and method provide an audio sound field among a plurality of teleconferencees creating a sense of a virtual conference table having a spatial location for each conferencee at the virtual table. Each conferencee has a speakerphone including a programmable Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for receiving a conference audio signal. In one form, the speakerphones are coupled to a conference bridge through individual ports, the bridge linking together all conferencees for purposes of the multiparty teleconference and transmitting port identifying signals denoting at discrete instants of time which remote port has a currently speaking conferences. The port identity signals are transmitted in-band or out-of-band to the speakerphones in conjunction with the conference audio signal. Each speakerphone uses the programmed DSP and the port identity signal/audio signals to cause sound reproduced at the speakerphone to appear to emanate from positions around the virtual conference table according to the port identity signals. In another form, a conference speakerphone exchanges its ID with other conference phones on the call and creates an "outgoing image" of participants at a speakerphone. Using the Id information, each DSP maps a virtual conference table for the conferencees and the relative spatial positions of the speakers within a group.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to teleconferencing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to audio teleconferencing systems which create a sound field effect of participants about a virtual conference table.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In today's environment, many businesses rely heavily on audio teleconferencing to conduct multi-party discussions from remote locations. These teleconferences are typically scheduled with the telephone company which reserves the required number of ports or incoming lines on an audio conference bridge located at a telephone company's switching office.
In the past few years, much attention has been paid to improving the conference speaker phones used in large conference rooms. These improvements have been built in to the conference room phones to help cancel room echoes, discriminate between several people speaking from different locations in the room, canceling feedback, and automatically enhancing the voice signal for optimal intelligibility. These improvements have been based on using a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) in the conference phone units or their supporting equipment. DSP's are, by design, software or firmware platforms for processing various analog signals such as voice and video waveforms. Thus, conference speaker phones have become software driven computer systems that specialize in encoding and decoding audio waveforms.
In order to create a more realistic sense of a virtual conference among the participants, a need exists to add a sound field effect to the conference phone capability to create a sense of spatial location among the participants, as if all the teleconference participants were seated around a virtual conference table.
Prior art related to teleconferencing with sound field effect is as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,425 issued Apr. 14, 1987, discloses a microphone and loudspeaker arrangement for use in a teleconference system wherein a plurality of microphones are held in a fixed relationship to a loudspeaker. The microphones are independently gated ON in response to (1) speech picked up by the microphone, (2) a loudspeaker signal driving the loudspeaker, and (3) an electrical signal related to the microphone signal of the other associated microphones. A noise adapting threshold circuit generates a voltage level representative of background noise which is compared with the microphone signal of a respective microphone for determining whether the microphone is receiving speech. A decisional circuitry monitors the microphone signal of the associated microphone with respect to a MAX bus which carries microphone signals representative of the level of the microphone signals at the other microphones. The decisional circuitry generates a signal indicating that the associated microphone is the first loudest microphone signal.
U.S. Pat. No 4,734,934, issued Mar. 29, 1988, discloses a teleconferencing bridge which simulates the auditory spatial ambience of a face-to-face conference. The bridge uses a binaural approach to simulate spatial ambience.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,098, issued May 28, 1991, discloses a high-fidelity audio telephone conferencing arrangement which provides talker position information. Digitized high-fidelity audio is combined with digitized phase information, derived from talker position detecting circuitry in a local telephone station. The digitized high-fidelity audio is transmitted over the telephone channel to one or more remote telephone stations. A receiver in each remote station decodes the digital information and provides the high-fidelity audio signal to multiple spatially separated acoustic output devices. The digitized pulse information controls "panning" of the audio signal among the acoustic output devices. By varying the level of audio signal flowing to each acoustic device, the position of the talker can be created in a specific position in the remote listener sound field and the talker's identity thereby more easily determined. In addition, talker location information may be shared among multiple telephone stations participating in a telephone conference. Information as to the location of the talker along with the position of the talker is provided to each remotely located telephone station. The location of the talker is represented by the audio signal occurring in a designated general area of the remote listener's sound field and the position of the talker is represented by the creation of the audio signal in a specific position in this general area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,011 issued Aug. 2, 1994, discloses a sound localization system for teleconferencing using self-steering microphone arrays. A microphone array covers a particular field which is divided into fixed, non-overlapping volume zones or sectors. Using the microphone array, when a sound is detected its source is located and a highly-directional beam is formed in the sector or zone containing the source of the sound. Only one beam is formed at any instant depending upon the location of the source of the sound. Thus, ambient noise, room reverberation, and acoustic coupling are greatly reduced. In addition to enhancing speech quality and reducing reverberation, noise and acoustic coupling the microphone array is capable of outputting a digital signal indicating which volume zone contains the source of the sound.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,555, issued Apr. 8, 1997, discloses an audio conferencing system in which conference participants interface with the system through a Graphical User Interface (GUI) computer program running on a remote computer or workstation. To join an audio conference in progress, a participant controls a GUI computer program to transmit a signal over a local area network to a central server. The central server, by examining database information, determines whether the participant is authorized to join the audio conference. If so, the central server controls a telephone system connected thereto and causes the telephone system to call the participant at a prelisted telephone number. The participant then joins the actual audio conference merely by answering the telephone.
None of the prior art discloses adding an audio imaging sound field to a conference phone to create a sound field effect of telephone conference participants using standard telephones and seated about a "virtual conference table" without the need for a telephone conference bridge to support the standard telephone on the conference.

Enhanced audio teleconferencing with sound field effect

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and apparatus provides for call recovery in a wireless communication system (10). When the communication link between a mobile station (38) and a base station (32) is in trouble, the mobile station and the infrastructure prearrange potential call recovery operations. A trigger often initiates a call recovery operation, wherein the trigger indicates when a parameter or metric passes a threshold. These thresholds may be dynamic, adapting to conditions of the system (10) and environment, and the thresholds may be adjusted based on a history or statistical record of operation of the system (10).

A wireless communication system typically includes a plurality of Base Stations (BSs), each associated with a cell and/or sector, communicating with multiple Mobile Stations (MSs). The base stations are controlled by a Base Station Controller (BSC). As a mobile station moves throughout the system the quality of signals received from the base stations fluctuates. When a communication link between a base station and a given mobile station deteriorates, it is possible to prevent losing the communication by establishing a link with at least one other base station. A handoff process provides for initiation of such alternate communication link(s). In a handoff situation, the infrastructure negotiates with the various base stations and the mobile station. However, often the signal quality deteriorates too quickly for negotiation to proceed.
There is a need, therefore, for a method and apparatus for call recovery in a variety of situations. Further, there is a need for a reliable method for adjusting rescue triggers to activate rescue operations when link quality deteriorates in a wireless communication system.

Method and apparatus for flexible call recovery in a wireless communication system


A light stick for providing chemiluminescent light to provide general illumination of an otherwise darkened area. The device is thrown into position causing the chemiluminescent components to mix upon impact with a rigid object thereby generating chemiluminescent light after a predetermined delay. The device will provide illumination to an area of possible criminal activity and can be used tactically by law enforcement officials to help avoid danger to themselves and possibly others.

The need for portable lighting devices is well known. However, the application of such a device can be for nearly any low level lighting condition. For instance, in the normal course of duty law enforcement officials may find the need to enter non-illuminated streets, alleys or buildings at night. Unfortunately, it is common practice for criminals to use the cover of darkness to hide their activities. Drug dealing is just one type of activity typically occurring during the night time hours. Another criminal activity is burglary wherein the thief or thieves break into a building with the intent to steal some or all of its contents.
Very often law enforcement officials' need to respond to alarm systems that either silently or openly announce the unauthorized entry of a building. Policemen routinely on patrol at night often enter unlighted areas to investigate suspicious looking activity. When entering these types of non illuminated areas the officers are subjecting themselves to high levels of vulnerability and potential danger. Their potential adversary having the upper hand being in a defensive position and having already familiarized themselves with the immediate surroundings.
It is also not unusual for violent criminals, drug users, terrorists, or other unsavory characters to resist capture by the use of deadly force. Likewise, it is not unusual for the common criminal to have automatic and/or high caliber weapons capable of extremely deadly force. The criminal's wanton disregard for human life, their drive to evade capture, their ability to obtain high powered weaponry and the cover of darkness makes law enforcement a very dangerous profession.
At present, it is common for law enforcement officials to use a hand held flashlight when they need to enter non-illuminated streets, alleys, or rooms at night. The use of a hand held flashlight often acts as a warning signal for the criminal and makes the law enforcement official an easy target by giving away his/her position. Under most circumstances there is a lag time between the officer's energization of their flashlight and their visual location of the person(s) within the field of illumination. As the officer surveys the scene there is an additional time lag as he or she investigates the area while holding a flashlight in one hand and preparing for use of their weapon with the other hand. These hesitations, which may only be a matter of seconds, or fractions of a second, leave the officer exposed to a potentially deadly ambush by the criminal or criminals lurking in the dark. Thus, what is needed in the art is a multifunction baton that can used by an officer and the like personnel for self protection, and can further be used to illuminate a darkened area without revealing the location of the officer.

Chemiluminescent tactical illumination baton


A skate primarily intended for speed skating. The skate is of the clap type wherein the blade is pivotally movable with respect to the boot. A coupling assembly includes top and bottom linkages pivotally attached to one another and is disposed to permit pivotal movement between the blade and the boot. The upper linkage is attached to the boot and the lower linkage is attached to the blade. A biasing arrangement moves the linkages into a closed position. The biasing arrangement includes a spring, a pulley, and a roller. The spring attached at its fore end to the bottom linkage. The cable is attached to the aft end of the spring, is guided around the pulley, and is attached to the top linkage. A significant portion of the biasing arrangement is shielded within the bottom linkage for protection and to provide a compact and effective design. The orientation and features of the biasing arrangement and guide surfaces of the linkages minimizes torsional forces on the coupling assembly, minimizes wear, and increases spring tension forces.

In the sport of ice speed skating, the overwhelming majority of skaters for many years have used a type of skate where the foot retaining portion (i.e., the boot) is fixedly mounted to an elongated blade by forward and rearward pedestals. To use these conventional skates effectively, a skater must learn to maintain his ankle in a rigid position while placing pressure on his heel and pointing his toes skyward to keep the blade parallel to the ice during stride and obtain relatively long strides. However, skating in this fashion restricts the ankle's role in propulsion, virtually omits the power of the ankle and the calf muscles from the stride, and causes the blade to leave the ice before full leg extension is complete. Further, this conventional method of skating causes the leg muscles to be tense through most of the stride, creating a stiff, robotic effect that inhibits optimum performance.
A "clap skate" differs from a conventional skate in that skater's boot is pivotable forwardly with respect to its blade about a pivot axis transverse to the length of the blade. Examples of existing clap skates are shown in FIGS. 1-2, FIG. 3, and in European Patent Application No. 192,312. In clap skates, the forward portion of the boot is pivotally attached to the blade while a rearward portion of the boot can be tilted forwardly as it moves about an established front pivot axis. A pivot and biasing arrangement allows the heel of a skater's boot to rise and fall and biases the blade with respect to the boot, which keeps the blade in contact with the ice for the length of the skater's stride. These pivot and biasing arrangements allow the skater to take longer and more fluid strides, and allows all the leg muscles to work in a fluid, more efficient manner, resulting in an economy of motion and faster skating times.
The separating heel design of the clap skates also allows the skater to add the power of his calf muscles to his stride, while keeping the blade on the ice. In essence, it provides an extra set of muscles for the skater to use. The skater's legs can therefore act more like that of a jumper, who flexes the ankle, pushing off the heel, then the ball of the foot and then the toes. This makes the strides longer and much more powerful.
There are two ways to use clap skates, either of which achieves benefits over the conventional skates. One way is for the skater to sit just as deep as he ordinarily would, but get a longer push. The other alternative is for the skater to sit higher, but get the same push. Sitting higher is advantageous because it almost always results in better endurance.
One prior art clap skate design is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Skate 10 includes a boot 12 and a blade 14 which is held in an elongated tubular blade holder 15. The bottom of the boot 12 includes fore and aft mounts 16, 18, respectively. Boot 12 is coupled to an upper frame member 20 by attaching the bottom of mounts 16, 18 to upper frame member 20.
A pair of laterally spaced parallel brackets 22 are attached to blade holder 15. A pin 24 extends through parallel holes in the brackets 22 and a hole in the forward portion of the upper frame member 20. The rearward portion of the upper frame member 20 is not attached to the blade 14 so that the upper frame member 20 and the boot 12 can pivotally move with respect to the blade 14 about the axis of the pin 24. The upper frame member 20 is laterally guided with respect to the blade 14 and blade holder 15 only at its fore end by opposing inner wall surfaces of laterally spaced parallel brackets 22.
On both the lateral and medial sides of the blade 14, a spring 26 is connected at its ends to projections 28, 30 on the parallel brackets 22 and the upper frame member 20 respectively. Springs 26 are pretensioned so that the blade 14 and blade holder 15 are biased towards a closed position as shown in FIG. 1. As the skater flexes his ankle during stride, the boot 12 and upper frame member 20 pivots with respect to the blade 14 and blade holder 15 to move from the closed position, as shown in FIG. 1, to an open position, as shown in FIG. 2. The springs 26 return the blade 14 and blade holder 15 to the closed position when the blade 14 is lifted off the ice. A stop 32 is located on the top of an aft pedestal mount 33 which is attached to the blade holder 15 aft of brackets 22 so that the upper frame member 20 stops in a predetermined position.
Another prior art clap skate design is shown in FIG. 3 and is designated by reference numeral 40. The primary difference between skate 40 of FIG. 3 and skate 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2 is that the coil springs 26 of skate 10 have been eliminated, and a torsional spring 42 has been added adjacent the front pivot axis 44. In addition, in lieu of stop 32, a hollow cone 46 is mounted on the rearward portion of the boot 47 and interfaces with a cone shaped projection 48 mounted to the blade holder 49.
While providing advantages over conventional fixed skates, these and other prior art clap skate designs include a number of drawbacks. Problems and drawbacks exhibited by prior art clap skates are related to the spring biasing systems used and other aspects of the skates. With respect to the spring biasing systems, drawbacks may reside in low return spring rates and/or erratically controlled spring forces. Other problems and drawbacks include poor lateral stability between the boot and blade which can result in excessive and undesirable torques on the hinge and blade, especially during cross-over strides when the skater is going around turns. Further, none of the prior art skate designs provide structure permitting simple adjustment of the biasing force. Moreover, the structural arrangements in the prior art skates that are used to stop the members as the blade moves to the closed position create a single point shock force which is felt by the skater. A few examples of the drawbacks are described below with respect to skates 10 and 40 of FIGS. 1 and 2 and FIG. 3, respectively.
In skate 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2, two springs 26 are used to apply the biasing force to the blade and blade holder to move them to the closed position. However, this design has drawbacks associated with the spring design and interaction with other elements of the skate. As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, the spring forces are directly applied to the upper frame member 20 at projections 30--a point located slightly less than halfway from the pivot axis 24 to the aft end of the upper frame member 20 and also slightly less than halfway from the pivot axis 24 to the connection point between aft boot mount 18 and the upper frame member 20. This feature, in combination with the feature that the upper frame member 20 is laterally guided with respect to the blade 14 and blade holder 15 at its fore end by opposing inner wall surfaces of laterally spaced parallel brackets 22 and at its rear end only during the very end of its pivotal motion towards its closed position by opposing side surfaces of stop 32, causes high lateral torsional forces to be applied at the hinge, i.e., pin 16 and laterally spaced parallel brackets 22, whenever the force applied to the upper frame member 20 by the skater is not exactly coincident with blade 14. These lateral forces are undesirable because they cause the aft end of the upper frame member 20 to be laterally displaced from the longitudinal axis of the blade 14 causing inefficient transfer of the skater's thrusting force to the blade and poor lateral stability. It may also lead to damage of the laterally spaced parallel brackets 22 or the pin 24. Moreover, these undesirable forces are the highest at the most critical times of race, when the skater is going around turns and crossing-over--where the races are most often won and lost.
Another drawback in this design is that the connection points between the ends of the springs 26 do not take full advantage of the length that the spring could theoretically extend. This results in a low spring return rate and/or the use of unnecessarily large springs. Further, there is no way for the skater to adjust the spring return rate without having to replace the spring. This is undesirable because skaters would have to carry a collection of springs if they wanted to gain a competitive advantage by adjusting the spring return rate due to conditions of the ice surface.
Yet another drawback of this design is that two springs are required to produce a balanced biasing force along the longitudinal axis of the blade. Further, as the springs are medially and laterally spaced from the central longitudinal axis of the blade, their inherent positioning exposes the springs and makes them especially susceptible to physical damage in use and in transportation.
In the design as shown in FIG. 1, when the blade 14 is in the closed position, the skater's thrust force is transferred to the blade 14 and blade holder 15 in only two small areas--at the hinge and at the stop 32. This results in the skater's thrust force being transferred at high and possibly uneven concentrations. Moreover, because stop 32 includes only a small surface to apply the stopping force, this stopping force is highly concentrated. This can lead to repetitive shock forces being absorbed by the skater on his heel and a louder distracting clapping force generated each time the blade 14 and blade holder 15 moves to their closed position.
Skate 40 of FIG. 3 includes many of the same or similar drawbacks and exhibits many of the same or similar undesirable qualities as skate 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Spring 42 of skate 40 applies the biasing force to the blade and blade holder to move them to the closed position. However, the spring force is applied immediately adjacent the pivot pin by torsion spring 42. This results in undesirable lateral torsional forces which are even greater that those of skate 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2 because the biasing force is applied at or immediately adjacent the hinge pin.44. As described above, this can cause inefficient transfer of the skater's thrusting force to the blade and poor lateral stability, and it may also lead to damage of the laterally spaced parallel brackets 22 or the pin 24. Further, the torsional spring 42 does not take full advantage of the length that the spring could theoretically extend. There is also apparently no way for the skater to adjust the spring return rate without having to replace the spring. Skate 40 is also similar to skate 10, in that the skater's thrust force is transferred to the blade 14 and blade holder 15 in only two small areas resulting in the skater's thrust force being transferred at high and possibly uneven concentrations, and a highly concentrated stopping force.

Clap skate with spring and cable biasing system


A large diameter gas gun has a triggering mechanism for quickly and effecely releasing a large bore projectile which is accelerated under gas pressure to impact upon a target area to produce a substantial shock field.

This invention relates to fluid activated, (i.e., gas) guns and in particular the invention relates to a large diameter gas gun having a quick release mechanism for a heavy projectile.
Reliable, repeatable and non-explosive procedures for validating transducers used for monitoring simulated high energy environments are desired. A validated transducer is one which produces an output signal which is not only calibrated but is validated, that is, it makes a correct measurement of the applied parameter of interest. One method for measuring and testing the transducers is to produce a simulate high energy environment by means of a gas gun.
The ability of a gas gun to produce controlled and repeatable shock inputs is an attractive alternative to high explosive techniques which are typically used to test ground shock transducers. Typically, gas guns accelerate projectiles which are small (on the order of 6 inches in diameter or less) and which achieve high velocities. Small bores, however, limit the ability of known gas guns to test transducers in soils, because they are unable to produce large shock fields which are desirable for such tests.

Gas gun and quick release mechanism for large loads

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A process is described for manufacturing an ophthalmic lens containing a Fresnel microstructured surface inside the lens. The Fresnel lens is injection molded with a mold insert having a heat conductivity lower than the thermoplastic material used to form the Fresnel lens. A second thermoplastic material is overmolded to the Fresnel lens to cover and protect the microstructured surface. The mold insert is made from nickel or a thermoplastic material. The resulting lens includes two layers having different refractive indices. The Fresnel lens may be made from polycarbonate while the overmold may be made from a poly(methyl methacrylate) or a thermoplastic polyurethane.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an ophthalmic lens containing a Fresnel surface and a method for manufacturing same.
2. The Prior Art
Lenses and other articles manufactured at optical quality, have exacting demands for mold replication, high optical transmission and impact resistance. Injection molding of lenses requires edge gating so that the runner ends up remote from the lens surfaces. The paths from the gate to the edge points of the mold cavity are not symmetrical and therefore make it difficult to control the thermodynamics of the cooling melt flow. As lens cavities become thinner, straight injection molding techniques are unable to fill the mold without premature freeze-off. Accordingly, injection molding machines have been modified to enlarge the cavity during some phase of the injection cycle, in a so-called injection/compression process.
For ophthalmic lenses, plastic materials represent a safer, thinner and lightweight alternative. As the demand for thinner and lighter lenses increases, there is a greater need for materials and optical designs that have a higher index of refraction and better performance.
Microstructured surfaces can impart certain functionality to an ophthalmic lens. For example, an ophthalmic lens containing a Fresnel microstructure can be made thinner and lighter, than a non-structured lens with same power.
As described above, thin lenses cannot be made with conventional injection molding, because of issues relating to mold replication. Similarly, microstructured surfaces which are more challenging, cannot be replicated completely and precisely using a structured metal insert in an injection molding process.
One proposal to make a microstructured surface described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,306 uses thin sheets of plastic material such as cellulose acetate, Tenite, Vinylite, polystryrene or methyl methacrylate. The ridges which form the microstructured surface are made by engraving concentric grooves or by making a matrix, or mold, in the desired shape. Where the parts are molded separately, they can then be either cohesively or adhesively bound together by the application of a suitable translucent adhesive, or cement, as is known in the optical art. Another method of manufacture would be to mold the first layer with the ridges and then to place such layer in another mold and pour the molten material into the mold cavity. The proposed methods are costly in that they involve multiple steps such as forming the films, engraving complementary ridges and grooves in two or more different films, and then adhering the various films together.
Injection molding, which has a fixed mold temperature below a material's glass transition temperature (Tg), can't replicate surface microstructure with high fidelity. FIG. 1A shows a rounded ridge of a Fresnel microstructure. In other words, the molten resin freezes off thereby forming a rounded tip before it reaches the corner of the ridge. The microstructure mold has increased surface area compared to a smooth mold surface. Since the mold temperature is lower than the Tg, the resin is subject to solidification as it rolls along the mold microstructure surface. In the corner of the ridge, the resin is rolling along two surfaces that are converging at the corner of the ridge. The rolling action causes the resin to cool to a rounded shape before it reaches the sharp corner, as can be seen in FIG. 1A. Because of process limitation, thermodynamic considerations and polymer overheating, the resin cannot be heated sufficiently to reach the corner and still produce a lens with acceptable optical qualities.
Injection-Embossing molding, which inject melt into mold at the temperature above material's Tg, and eject the part at the temperature below the Tg, can replicate microstructure with high fidelity. FIG. 1B shows a well replicated Fresnel microstructure.
The Injection-Embossing molding technique has successfully molded polycarbonate Fresnel lens with high structure replication quality. However, compared to injection molding, it has a longer cycle time (15 minutes for current processing condition). Also, it needs a specific thermolator, with both heating and cooling functions, to change mold temperature. More particularly, some molds are equipped with thermal control channels that circulate fluid through the mold near the mold inserts. A thermolator is a device which can quickly alternate between heated fluid and cooling fluid. During the injection molding cycle, heated fluid is circulated to raise the temperature of the mold inserts, e.g. above the Tg, to allow the resin to flow longer and completely fill the mold. Then the cooling fluid is circulated to solidify the resin by bringing it below its Tg.
Furthermore, the Injection-Embossing molding technique has been successfully applied to polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). However, it does not address problem associated with molding materials having a Tg below room temperature, such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and ethylene/methacrylic acid (E/MAA) copolymer.
Additional methods have been proposed to incorporate functional layers in lenses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,930 discloses a multi-ply approach where a photochromic layer is inserted in to a mold in a so-called film insert molding method. In an alternate embodiment, polycarbonate is injected in to a mold, followed by a photochromic TPU in a so-called over-mold process. The patent does not mention the incorporation of a Fresnel lens in to a lens.
Accordingly, there is a need for an ophthalmic lens containing a Fresnel lens, with all of its intrinsic properties and additionally a surface layer containing a microstructure with high fidelity.

Ophthalmic lens containing a fresnel surface and method for manufacturing same


The embodiments of the present disclosure disclose an augmented reality system that supports customized multi-channel interaction. One embodiment of the augmented reality system comprises: a head-mounted sensor assembly, a computing device, and a display module; the head-mounted sensor assembly is used to capture the user's multi-channel interactive input information and transmit the interactive input information to the computing device; the computing device is used to generate or modify the display content of the augmented reality according to the interactive input information; the display module is used to overlay display the background content with the display content of the augmented reality. The augmented reality system, by arranging the display module to the far end of the head-mounted sensor assembly, can simplify the structure of the head-mounted sensor assembly, and reduce the weight of the head-mounted sensor assembly, providing convenience for installing other sensors.

AR (Augmented Reality) technology is a novel human-computer interaction technology that can add virtual information to the real world, thereby skillfully fusing virtual information with the real world, i.e., "augmenting" the real world.
Existing AR display technology devices mainly include an AR head-mounted device. The AR head-mounted device integrates the display unit into a head-mounted device, using a near-eye display technology. Although the above device achieves the integration of components, it increases the weight of the head-mounted device. Therefore, when the user experiences the device, it is often too heavy that dampens the user's experience.
In addition, the use of the near-eye display technology usually limits the viewing angle of the lens, which will also dampen the user's experience.
Accordingly, this field needs a new augmented reality system to solve the above problem.
Summary Contents
The content of the present disclosure is used to introduce concepts in a brief form, and these concepts will be described in detail in the following embodiments. The content portion of the present disclosure is not intended to identify the key features or essential features of the claimed technical solution, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the claimed technical solution.
To solve the above problem, some embodiments of the present disclosure propose an augmented reality system that supports customized multi-channel interaction, including: a head-mounted sensor assembly, a computing device, and a display module; the head-mounted sensor assembly is used to capture the user's multi-channel interactive input information and transmit the interactive input information to the computing device; the computing device is used to generate or modify the display content of the augmented reality according to the interactive input information; the display module is used to overlay display or superposition display the background content with the display content of the augmented reality, wherein the display module is set to the far end relative to the head-mounted sensor assembly.
In some embodiments, the system further comprises an augmented reality window displayed to the display module, the augmented reality window is used to display the display content of the augmented reality, and the position of the augmented reality window is determined through the posture of the user's head relative to the display module, thereby simulating the real effect of the display content of augmented reality; the shape and size of the augmented reality window are determined by setting the shape of a virtual window, wherein the virtual window is a near-eye window formed by back projection of the augmented reality window.
In some embodiments, the position where the augmented reality window is displayed onto the display module is determined through the following steps: establishing a coordinate system according to the display range of the display module; determining, based on the following formula, the point coordinates of the point on the boundary line where the virtual window is projected to the display module: PAi=λiPPi; wherein P represents the coordinates of the center point of the two eyes; Pi represents the coordinates of the ith point on the edge of the virtual window; Ai represents the point coordinates of the point where the straight line formed by starting from point P as the origin and passing through point Pi intersects the display module; PAi represents the distance from point P to Ai; PP1 represents the distance from point P to Pi; λi represents the quotient of PAi and PPi, and λi is determined by the Z-axis coordinates of the three points P, Ai, and Pi.
In some embodiments, the computing device determines by the following formula the object in the display content that the eyeball focuses on: λ1*λ2*λ3>0; wherein λ1 is determined by the following formula:
      λ    1    =      {                                                      1              ,                                                                                (                                              x                        -                                                  x                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                    +                                                            (                                              y                        -                                                  y                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                    +                                                            (                                              z                        -                                                  z                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                                  ≤                                  r                  2                                                                                0              ,                                                                                (                                              x                        -                                                  x                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                    +                                                            (                                              y                        -                                                  y                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                    +                                                            (                                              z                        -                                                  z                          r                                                                    )                                        2                                                  ≥                                  r                  2                                                                        ;
Wherein (x, y, z) are the coordinates of the object in the display content; (xr, yr, zr) are the three-dimensional focus point coordinates of the left and right eye sight direction; r represents the attention radius; wherein the spherical range formed by the attention radius represents the preset range of the focus point; in response to λ1=1, it indicates that the object is in the preset range of the focus point; and in response to λ1=0, it indicates that the object is out of the preset range of the focus point; wherein λ2 is determined through the following formula:
      λ    2    =      {                                                      1              ,                                                                                t                ≥                                  t                  d                                                                                0              ,                                                                                t                <                                  t                  d                                                                        ;
Wherein t represents the time that the focus point continuously selects the object within the preset time period, and td is the preset threshold of the time; in response to λ2=1, it indicates that the time the object has been focused on exceeds the preset threshold; in response to λ2=0, it indicates that the time the object has been focused on is less than the preset threshold; wherein the specific formula of λ3 is as follows:
      λ    3    =      {                                                      1              ,                                                                                x                  min                                ≤                x                ≤                                                      x                    max                                                                                and                                                                                y                    min                                                  ≤                y                ≤                                  y                  max                                                                                0              ,                                                                                x                  min                                >                                  x                                                                                or                                                                                x                                >                                                      x                    max                                                                                or                                                                                y                    min                                                  >                                  y                                                                                or                                                                                y                                >                                  y                  max                                                                        ;
Wherein (xmin, xmax) represents the minimum and maximum values of the augmented reality display window in the x-axis direction, (ymin, ymax) represents the minimum and maximum values of the augmented reality display window in the y-axis direction; λ3=1 means that the object is inside the augmented reality display window; λ3=0 means that the object is outside the augmented reality display window.
In some embodiments, when the number of objects in the display content that the eyeballs have focused on is multiple, the computing device determines through the following steps the order in which the multiple objects are displayed: for the determined objects that the eyeballs have focused on, the probability of each object being displayed is determined through the following formula:
            P      i        =          1      -              min                          (                      1            ,                                          d                i                            r                                )                      ;
Wherein Pi represents the probability of the ith object being displayed; di represents the distance between the ith object and the gaze point; r represents the radius of the spherical area; based on the probability of each of the objects being displayed, determine the object to be displayed first.
In some embodiments, in response to the display module displaying multiple augmented reality windows, and the object of the display content being within the range of the multiple augmented reality windows or the object being selected by multiple interactive operations, the computing device displays one by one the objects modified by each of the interactive operations.
In some embodiments, the background content comprises acquired images or videos, and generated virtual dynamic or static scenes.
In some embodiments, the augmented reality display content comprises images or videos, generated virtual dynamic or static scenes or objects, as well as visualization effects of interactive operations. The augmented reality display content can be modified in real time by interactive operations, and only the part of it within the range of the augmented reality window is displayed.
In some embodiments, the head-mounted sensor assembly comprises at least one of the following: a camera, a microphone, a gesture sensor, and an eye movement tracking sensor, and the interactive operation characterized by the interactive input information comprises at least one of the following: a gesture interactive operation, a voice interactive operation and an eye movement interactive operation.
In some embodiments, the display mode of the display module comprises a two-dimensional plane display and a three-dimensional space display. When the display module performs the two-dimensional plane display, the display module comprises at least one of the following: a computer monitor, a tablet computer, and a screen projection; when the display module performs the three-dimensional space display, the display module comprises at least one of the following: a 3D projector and a 3D display.
One of the above embodiments of the present disclosure has the following beneficial effects: by arranging the display module to the far end of the head-mounted sensor assembly, the structure of the head-mounted sensor assembly can be simplified, and the weight of the head-mounted sensor assembly can be reduced, providing convenience for installing other sensors. Furthermore, by setting different sensors, the interaction between the system and the user is enriched, and the user experience is improved. In addition, compared with near-eye display, the display module can reduce the limitation of the lens viewing angle and improve the user's experience.

Augmented reality system supporting customized multi-channel interaction


A receiver for use in a system implementing antenna diversity uses a switch to allow multiple filters to share a low noise amplifier (LNA).

Antenna diversity receivers utilize two or more receive antennas to overcome reception problems caused by, for example, multipath fading. Each of the antennas typically requires a dedicated receiver chain to properly process a corresponding receive signal. The outputs of the receiver chains are then processed to generate the overall receiver output. Many modern receiver systems are required to operate within multiple different frequency bands. It may be desired, for example, that a cellular telephone be capable of operating in accordance with multiple different cellular standards that each have a different operational frequency range. Techniques and structures are therefore needed for efficiently implementing antenna diversity receivers, and other types of receivers, that are operative within multiple frequency ranges.

Method and apparatus to provide an area efficient antenna diversity receiver


A household appliance for treating at least one item according to at least one cycle of operation, includes a treating chamber for receiving the at least one item for treatment according to the at least one cycle of operation, a treating chemistry dispenser receiving a unit dose container having an optically sensible element, a physical alteration element located proximate to the treating chemistry dispenser and operable to physically alter at least a portion of the optically sensible element, and a sensor to sense the physical alteration.

Household appliances, such as clothes washers, dispensing dryers, and dishwashers, may include a treating chamber in which items are placed for treating and a dispensing system for dispensing treating chemistries to achieve better cleaning. Single dose cartridges may be used within the dispensing system to provide treating chemistry to the treating chamber for use in the household appliance. A reduced cleaning effect or damage to the appliance or items to be treated may be caused if the unit dose present in the dispensing system is not a new, full unit dose package.

Household appliance having a physical alteration element


A field equipment includes: a signal processing section; a first calculation control section for generating a first control signal which controls a start of a signal processing of the signal processing section; first and second insulating sections coupled to the first calculation control section; and a second calculation control section coupled to the first and second insulating sections and the signal processing section, the second calculation control section receiving the first control signal and then transmitting a second control signal corresponding to the first control signal to the signal processing section. The signal processing section generates a processed signal based on the second control signal. The second calculation control section receives the processed signal, then transmits data related to the first signal to the first calculation control section via the second insulating section, and then shifts to a low power consumption mode.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a field equipment of two-wire and, more particularly, to a field equipment of two-wire capable of achieving a size reduction, a low cost, and low power consumption.
2. Background Art
The field equipment of two-wire constitutes a part of the plant facilities for use in process control, and measures a flow rate, a pressure, a temperature as a process quantity (measured object) and outputs this process quantity to a controller. Then, the controller executes the process control such as control of the flow rate, the pressure, the temperature, or the like. The field equipment of two-wire is supplied with an electric power from an external power source. Then, an electromagnetic flowmeter 18 of two-wire system as one of the field equipment will be described with reference to FIG. 6 hereunder.
The electromagnetic flowmeter 18 is constructed by a detecting section 4 for detecting a signal related to process quantity, a signal processing section 7, insulating sections 8 to 12, a calculation control section 13, a DC-DC converter 14, an exciting section 15, a current output section 16, etc.
The electromagnetic flowmeter 18 applies a magnetic field to a measured fluid that flows through a pipe of the detecting section 4, then detects an electric signal generated in the measured fluid based on the magnetic field, and then calculates a flow rate of the measured fluid based on the electric signal to output the flow rate.
One output terminal T1 of a pair of output terminals of the electromagnetic flowmeter 18 is coupled to a positive terminal (+) of an external DC power supply 20, and the other output terminal T2 is coupled to a negative terminal (−) of the external DC power supply 20 via a resistor 19.
The electromagnetic flowmeter 18 takes in a current corresponding to a flow rate value to be calculated (e.g., in a range from 4 mA to 20 mA) from the positive terminal (+) of the DC power supply 20 to said one output terminal T1, and outputs the current from the other output terminal T2 to the negative terminal (−) of the DC power supply 20 via the resistor 19. Accordingly, the electromagnetic flowmeter 18 is supplied with the electric power given by the DC voltage and the current of the DC power supply 20.
A controller 21 is coupled across the resistor 19 and measures the current being output from the electromagnetic flowmeter 18 as the voltage across the resistor 19, and then converts this measured voltage to a flow rate value, and thus executes flow rate control.
Said one output terminal T1 coupled to the positive terminal (+) of the DC power supply 20 is coupled to a first power supply line L1. The power supply terminals of the calculation control section 13, the input side (SW control circuit) of the DC-DC converter 14, the exciting section 15, the current output section 16, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are coupled to the first power supply line L1.
A connection point of the current output section 16 and the output current detection resistor 17 is coupled to a first common potential L2. The reference potential terminals of the calculation control section 13, the input side (SW control circuit) of the DC-DC converter 14, the exciting section 15, the current output section 16, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are coupled to the first common potential L2. Then, the calculation control section 13, the DC-DC converter 14, the exciting section 15, the current output section 16, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are supplied with an electric power from the first power supply line L1.
A power supply terminal on the output side of the DC-DC converter 14 is coupled to a second power supply line L3. The power supply terminals of an amplifier 5, an AD converter 6, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are coupled to the second power supply line L3.
A reference potential terminal on the output side of the DC-DC converter 14 is coupled to a second common potential L4. The reference potential terminals of the amplifier 5, the AD converter 6, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are coupled to the second common potential L4. Then, the amplifier 5, the AD converter 6, and the insulating sections 8 to 12 are supplied with an electric power from the output (the second power supply line L3) of the DC-DC converter 14.
The detecting section 4 is constructed by an exciting coil 1, electrodes 2 and 3, a pipe (not shown) that flows through the measured fluid, and the like. Also, the exciting section 15 is coupled to the calculation control section 13 and the exciting coil 1, and feeds an excitation current to the exciting coil 1 based on a control signal L8 from the calculation control section 13.
The exciting coil 1 generates a magnetic field in the pipe of the detecting section 4 and applies the magnetic field to the measured fluid in the pipe. Thus, an electric signal (an induced voltage) that is proportional to a magnetic flux density of the magnetic field and a flow rate of the measured fluid is generated in the measured fluid flowing through the pipe. Then, this electric signal is detected by the electrodes 2 and 3 arranged in the pipe.
The signal processing section 7 is constructed by the amplifier 5 and the AD converter 6. The amplifier 5 is constructed by a differential amplifier, a noise removal filter, an empty sensing section (not shown) for sensing whether or not the measured fluid is present in the pipe.
The differential amplifier of the amplifier 5 receives signals L6, L7 related to process quantity and detected by the electrodes 2, 3, and outputs a signal being obtained by amplifying differentially the signals to the AD converter 6. This differentially amplified signal is in proportion to a flow rate of the measured fluid.
The AD converter 6 receives the control signal output from the calculation control section 13 via the insulating section 8, and performs AD-conversion (Analog-Digital signal conversion) on the differentially amplified signal based on this control signal. The AD converter 6 outputs the AD-converted signal to the calculation control section 13 via the insulating section 9 after the AD conversion is completed.
Also, when the output of the differential amplifier of the amplifier 5 is saturated, the amplifier 5 receives the control signal output from the calculation control section 13 via the insulating section 10, and changes (reduces) an amplification factor of the differential amplifier based on this control signal.
Also, the amplifier 5 receives the control signal output from the calculation control section 13 via the insulating section 11, and causes the noise removal filter consisting of a resistor and a capacitor to discharge a charge accumulated in the capacitor based on the control signal. Also, the amplifier 5 receives the control signal output from the calculation control section 13 via the insulating section 12, and causes the empty sensing section to perform an empty sensing function based on the control signal.
The insulating sections 8 to 12 have an interface function of electrically insulating the circuits whose reference potentials are different (the first reference potential L2 and the second reference potential L4) mutually and converting the signals such that these circuits can transmit/receive the signal mutually.
Here, the electrodes 2 and 3 might be grounded via the measured fluid having an electric conductivity in the pipe and the piping (not shown) coupled to the detecting section 4. Also, the negative terminal (−) of the DC power supply 20 might be grounded.
Unless the insulating sections 8 to 12 are provided, a loop current flows through the electromagnetic flowmeter 18, the measured fluid, the piping, and the DC power supply 20 when the electrodes 2 and 3 and the negative terminal (−) of the DC power supply 20 are grounded. Then, a common mode voltage is generated by this loop current, and an error arises in the output of the electromagnetic flowmeter 18. The insulating sections 8 to 12 are provided to prevent this loop current.
The DC-DC converter 14 might be an insulation-type DC voltage converting circuit of the inverter system. The DC-DC converter 14 converts the DC voltage on the first power supply line L1 into the AC voltage by the SW control circuit, then upconverts or downconverts the AC voltage by a transformer, and then rectifies the resultant AC voltage by a diode and a capacitor. Thus, the DC voltage on the first power supply line L1 is converted into the DC voltage on the second power supply line L3.
A circuit group coupled to the first power supply line L1 and the first common potential L2 and a circuit group coupled to the second power supply line L3 and the second common potential L4 are electrically insulated mutually by the DC-DC converter 14.
The calculation control section 13 calculates a flow rate value of the measured fluid by multiplying the AD-converted signal by an inner diameter of the pipe of the detecting section 4.
The calculation control section 13 outputs a PWM signal (pulse-width modulated signal) L9 with a duty factor, which is in proportion to a calculated value of the flow rate, to the current output section 16.
An output current detection resistor 17 detects an output current to the resistor 19 as a voltage L5. The current output section 16 outputs a current, which is in proportion to a calculated value of the flow rate, by comparing the voltage that is obtained by smoothing the PWM signal L9 with the voltage L5 (see e.g., JP-A-2002-340638).
Often a large number of the field equipments of two-wire such as the electromagnetic flowmeter 18 of two-wire system are installed in the field site where the pipe through which the measured fluid flows are provided. Therefore, it is preferable that such a field equipment of two-wire should be small in size including an installing space and low in cost. Also, it is demanded in some cases that the field equipment of two-wire has a low power consumption (e.g., a current consumption of the equipment is 3.8 mA or less) to satisfy the intrinsically safe explosion-proof standards such as IEC60079-11.
However, as described in FIG. 6, the field equipment of two-wire needs many insulating sections. This insulating section is constructed by a transformer, a photocoupler that needs an emitting signal driving transistor and a receiving light signal detecting transistor, or the like. In this manner, because the number of circuit components is increased in the insulating section, it is difficult to manufacture the field equipment of two-wire in a small size, at a low cost, and at low power consumption.


A method of dataset replica migration is described. An application session may start on a first compute node. A first replica of the dataset to be accessed by the application session may be located on a second compute node. A second replica of the dataset is created to be co-located with the first compute node. A first data block of the dataset may be requested by the application session. The first data block of the first replica of the dataset may be read from the second compute node, when the second replica does not have a copy of the first data block stored in the second replica. The retrieved first data block may be copied to the second replica. The first data block may be read from the second replica, when the first data block is requested by the application session and is contained in the second replica.

The present disclosure relates to storage services, and more specifically, to replica migration of data in a distributed file system.
Cloud computing is an established trend in enterprise and consumer computing, making it easier to perform computational tasks in cloud datacenters. The cloud datacenters are accessed by clients through an existing network. Some cloud based solutions keep all data in the cloud. Storage in cloud environments may be distributed on a range of dedicated storage devices such as network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area network (SAN) products or storage may be distributed across different compute nodes via the help of a distributed storage layer, which combines the local disks of all participating nodes into one consistent pool.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


A display apparatus configured to move a drag object on a screen in accordance with an operation of a pointer. The display apparatus can include a detection unit configured to detect a target object on the screen, the target object being a destination of the drag object, and a display control unit configured to display the drag object in a position closer to the target object than a display position of the pointer moved in accordance with an operation performed by a user.

The present invention relates to a display apparatus, a program, and a display method for moving an object in accordance with an operation of a pointer performed by a user.
Among methods for executing a type of file (file A) using an application (application B) is a method of dragging and dropping an icon indicating the existence of the onto a start icon of the application B. By adopting such a method, the file A is executed using the application B, even if the file A is not associated with the application B in the operating system.
However, if the application B cannot accept the A, the file A is not executed, even if the icon of the file A is dropped onto the start icon of the application B. Or, when the icon of the file A is moved onto the start icon of the application B, not-allowed sign or the like appears, preventing the user from dropping the icon.
Therefore, the user recognizes that the application B cannot execute the file A only after dragging the icon of the file A to the application B. That is, in order to check if a type of file can be executed using any application file, the user must drag an icon of the file to a start icon of the application.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No 09-138732 discloses a related-art example in which when a pointer is moved within a certain range from an object, the pointer is dragged to the object. However, as for the related-art example, the user cannot know whether the object can accept a selected icon unless the user drags the icon at least into the range where the pointer will be dragged.
Also, if the user drags the icon of the file A over a long distance and then drops the icon onto the start icon of the application B so as to execute the file, it takes time before the execution of the file A starts. Since screens are upsized in recent years, an operation burden imposed on a user, that is, a movement of an icon is increased as well.

Display apparatus, program, and display method

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A strap tenser includes a frame, a pin, a handle and an automatic reeling device. The pin is installed on the frame. The handle is pivotally installed on the pin. The handle includes a crossbar around which a first strap is wound after it is wound around the pin. The automatic reeling device includes a pin, a wheel, a cap, a crossbar and a spiral spring. The pin is installed on the frame and connected with an end of the second strap. The wheel is rotationally installed on the pin of automatic reeling device. The cap is rotationally installed on the pin thereof. The crossbar extends between the wheel and the cap eccentrically for reeling in the second strap. The spiral spring includes a first end secured to the frame and a second end secured to the cap.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a strap tenser and, more particularly, to a strap tenser with an automatic reeling device.
2. Related Prior Art
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,275, a strap-tightening apparatus includes an auto-pulling device 10 connected with a U-shaped seat 60. The auto-pulling device 10 includes a housing 11 and a reversing device 12. The reversing device 12 is put rotationally in the housing 11. The reversing device 12 includes a reel 121 and a spiral power spring 122. The reel 121 is put rotationally in the housing 11. An end of a strap 30 is attached to the reel 121 so that the strap 30 can be wound about the reel 121. The spiral power spring 122 is put in the housing 11. The spiral power spring 122 includes a first end secured to the housing and a second end secured to an internal periphery of the reel 121. Thus, the strap 30 can automatically be wound around the reel 121. The auto-pulling device 10 is however bulky because the diameter thereof is big since the spiral power spring 122 is located in the reel 121.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.


An object locating system (100), the system (100) comprising at least first and second mobile devices (120, 130) associated by a relationship defined at least in part by a threshold. The at least first and second mobile devices are operable to be monitored by a communication network as one mobile device (120) or as separate mobile devices (120, 130) as a function of the relationship relative to the threshold.

Tracking the location or position of a body that can move in unknown directions over a considerable range of territory has been a concern for a number of years. The term "body" is defined broadly, meaning any organic or inorganic object whose movement or position may suitably be evaluated relative to its environment in accordance with the principles hereof. The term "environment" is defined broadly as conditions and influences that define, at least in part, the physical system in which the body is located.
In the past, locating systems were proposed that employed conventional wireless technology, but which tended to be cumbersome, bulky, expensive, and lack robustness, or all of the above. With the deployment of the global positioning system (GPS), it is now possible to provide relatively inexpensive location systems for determining body location. Such systems have been utilized, for example, on trucks to provide location information for companies having large fleets of trucks in use at any one particular time. The position of each individual truck may therefore be tracked.
Conventional GPS devices have disadvantages, including relative slowness in acquiring location data, being strongly dependent upon the target body being in an open area where it is in a line-of-sight position to the GPS satellites, and consuming a relatively large amount of electrical power during the period in which the location information is being acquired from the GPS satellites.
The inventor hereof disclosed various methodologies for an improved object locator system in the following U.S. patents:                1) No. 6,518,919, entitled "Mobile Object Locator";        2) No. 6,480,147, entitled. "Portable Position Determining Device";        3) No. 6,441,778, entitled "Pet Locator";        4) No. 6,421,001, entitled "Object Locator";        5) No. 6,236,358, entitled "Mobile Object Locator" and        6) No. 6,172,640, entitled "Pet Locator".
These patents disclose an object locator system that requests and obtains information about the location of a mobile object, having attached thereon a lightweight object locator that is operable in a region served by a two-way paging system and a global positioning system. The object locator may be activated selectively to conserve power or enabled to respond only when beyond or within a defined boundary. These patents also teach that the object locator system provides the location information in several forms.
However, the methodologies disclosed in these patents fail to include the robustness necessary to track groups of bodies/objects that are related, permanently or temporarily, within one or more environments. Further, these methodologies fail to understand the complex relationships between related bodies/objects, whether such relationships are hierarchical or otherwise. Further yet, these methodologies fail to adequately address continued (though reduced) line-of-sight and power management issues.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved system for gathering the location information of one or more tracked objects.

System and method for tracking the location of multiple mobile radio transceiver units


A seal assembly for sealing a space between a housing and a rotary shaft includes a generally annular sealing member having a central axis and inner and outer circumferential surfaces extending about the axis, at least a portion of the inner surface providing a sealing surface engageable with the shaft outer surface so as to define a seal interface with opposing axial ends. The sealing surface is configured to direct substances entering the interface toward at least one of the axial ends. Further, an annular biasing member is disposed about the sealing member outer surface and configured to exert a radially-inwardly directed force on the sealing member so as to generate contact pressure within the seal interface. The biasing member is arranged on the sealing member such that at least a portion of the biasing member extends axially in general alignment with at least a portion of the sealing surface.

The present invention relates to seals, and more particularly to radial seals for sealing a space about a rotatable shaft.
Radial shaft seals are generally known and typically include a seal member with an inner circumferential "sealing surface", which may be provided by an annular lip or a cylindrical portion of the seal member, that is engageable with the exterior surface of a shaft. As the shaft rotates within the seal, the sealing surface remains in sliding contact with the shaft outer surface to prevent the migration of substances (e.g., oil, debris particles) through a sealed space. Typically, to provide sufficient sealing pressure and to account for variations in the shaft and seal dimensions and/or misalignments, such seal assemblies are often provided with a biasing member (e.g., a garter spring) to "force" the seal member into engagement with the shaft.
Further, some seal assemblies are provided with a seal member having a formed surface (e.g., sine wave-shaped) that creates a "pumping effect" to remove any substances that become disposed between the sealing surface and the shaft surface. Typically, such pumping seal assemblies are more costly to manufacture than a conventional "non-pumping" seal assembly due to the additional fabrication necessary to create the pumping effect.


A method of forming a floating gate electrode in a flash memory device. The method includes forming an isolation film in an inactive region so that a step with a predetermined thickness can be generated between an active region and the inactive region, which are defined in a semiconductor substrate, sequentially forming a tunnel oxide film, a polysilicon film for floating gate electrode and an anti-reflection film on the entire surface in which the isolation film is formed, and then forming photoresist patterns in predetermined regions of the anti-reflection film. The method further includes patterning the anti-reflection film using the photoresist patterns as an etch mask to form a patterned anti-reflection film in which a bottom surface is wider than a top surface and a slope is formed on sidewalls, and pattering the polysilicon film for the floating gate electrode, the tunnel oxide film and a predetermined thickness of the isolation film using the patterned anti-reflection film as an etch mask, thus forming the floating gate electrode having a slope on sidewalls.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a flash memory device. Mmore specifically, the present invention relates to a method of forming a floating gate electrode in a flash memory device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a floating gate formation process in a flash memory device is an important process since the design of the device gets smaller. That is, a floating gate electrode formation process is one of the critical processes that decide the dimension and characteristics of devices because a short phenomenon has to be taken into consideration, active attack of an active region due to the shortage of overlay margin has to be taken into consideration, and an effort has to be made to secure a minimum coupling ratio necessary for element driving.
Therefore, in order to decide the dimension and characteristics of devices, there is a need for a floating gate electrode formation process in which problems, such as a short phenomenon, active attach of an active region and a coupling ratio, are obviated.

Method of forming floating gate electrode in flash memory device


In a switching control circuit, a length of a soft start period is set in accordance with a time constant of an external circuit connected to a soft start terminal of a switching control IC. A current flowing through a switching element is detected at a current detection terminal. When the value of the current exceeds a first predetermined current value, a second overcurrent protection function is performed, so that a switching operation is stopped. When the value of the current exceeds a second predetermined current value, a second overcurrent protection function is performed, so that the switching element is quickly turned off and a current peak value is limited. On the basis of a voltage at the soft start terminal after the soft start period has elapsed, one of the setting and non-setting of the first overcurrent protection function is selected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switching control circuit preferably in the form of an IC and preferably for use in a switching power supply apparatus, and a switching power supply apparatus including the switching control circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In switching power supply apparatuses, a switching control IC includes a circuit for providing various functions such as an output control operation, a startup operation, an overcurrent protection operation, an overvoltage protection operation, a standby operation, and a power factor improvement operation. With the increase in the number of functions, the functionality of the switching control IC is increased.
In order to set the functions of a switching control IC so that they meet application operational specifications, a plurality of terminals used to interface with external circuits are needed for the respective functions. Accordingly, the increase in the number of functions increases the number of terminals. The increase in the number of terminals results in an increase in the package size of the switching control IC. This leads to an increase in the unit cost of the IC.
In a case where the number of terminals of a switching control IC is limited, the number of available functions is also limited. It is therefore necessary to prepare various ICs corresponding to specific functions and selectively use the ICs in accordance with specifications and application. In this case, the variety of ICs is increased. Not only an IC manufacturing process but also IC management becomes complicated. As a result, the unit cost of ICs is increased.
In general, ICs inevitably increase in size to meet the increasing demand for multifunctionality. However, the number of functions required for small-sized switching control circuits have recently been increased. Under the present conditions, the mass production of a small variety of ICs is an effective way to reduce the unit cost of semiconductors such as ICs. In addition, the reduction in the number of terminals of an IC, which leads to the reduction in the size of an IC package, can reduce the unit cost of the IC.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-73954 discloses a technology for reducing the number of terminals of a switching control IC.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a switching power supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-73954. Referring to FIG. 1, a switching power supply apparatus 101 includes a transformer 105 having a primary winding 127 and a secondary winding 129, a rectifying and smoothing circuit including a diode 117 and a capacitor 119, a feedback circuit including a Zener diode 121, a photocoupler 113, and a resistor 123, and an integrated circuit 103.
The integrated circuit 103 is connected to the primary winding 127. The integrated circuit 103 is a switching regulator IC including an internal switch coupled between a drain (D) terminal and a source (S) terminal of the integrated circuit 103.
During operation, the internal switch in the integrated circuit 103 adjusts energy transmission from an input 107 to an output 109 through the transformer 105. A feedback signal is input from the feedback circuit to the integrated circuit 103.
A multifunctional capacitor 111 is connected to a bypass terminal BP of the integrated circuit 103. The multifunctional capacitor 111 is used to provide a power supply decoupling function for the integrated circuit 103 during normal operation. The internal circuit in the integrated circuit 103 receives power or a bias current from the multifunctional capacitor 111 and operates during normal operation while adjusting the output 109.
The multifunctional capacitor 111 is used to select a parameter and/or a mode of the integrated circuit 103 during an initialization period of the integrated circuit 103. During the initialization period, the parameter and/or the mode of the integrated circuit 103 is selected.
As described previously, the functions of a switching power supply apparatus include an overcurrent protection function. Methods of implementing the overcurrent protection function include a method of limiting the maximum ON pulse width of a switching element and a method of limiting a peak current. In these methods, a unit for setting a limit value is needed.
However, in a case where switching control ICs for the overcurrent protection methods are independently designed and manufactured, the variety of switching control ICs is increased. Not only an IC manufacturing process but also an IC management becomes complicated. As a result, the unit cost of ICs is increased. In a case where switching control ICs individually have the overcurrent protection function, a terminal for the selection of the overcurrent protection function is needed in each of the switching control ICs. The number of terminals of the switching control IC is increased. This inhibits the miniaturization of the switching control IC and increases the cost of the switching control IC. That is, the size and unit cost of the switching control IC are increased.

Switching control circuit and switching power supply apparatus


A method and a device for storing a computer program in a program memory of a control unit. The computer program is stored according to predefinable rules in specific memory areas of the program memory. To recognize an erroneous jump into an unused memory area of the program memory, in which the computer program is not stored, as rapidly as possible and to prevent the control unit from being in an irregular state, selectable information, through which the control unit is transferred into a defined state, is stored in the unused memory areas of the program memory, in which the computer program is not stored.

In motor vehicle control units, for example, locating the program code of a computer program for a computing unit, in particular for a microprocessor or for a CPU (central processing unit), and for any existing coprocessors, in accordance with an address mapping valid for the particular control unit and storing the code in a program memory of the control unit is available. Locating is understood as the assignment of specific parts of the computer program, referred to as program segments, to specific memory areas of the program memory.
The program code is located and stored in the program memory according to predefinable rules, which take the following facts into consideration, in particular:
Program segments which are frequently called are located in memory areas which allow rapid program execution, i.e., rapid execution of the program segments on the microprocessor or the CPU. These program segments (for example, the program code of rapid time grids) may be stored in an internal flash memory of the control unit.
The access possibilities to the program memory in the event of specific system states as a function of the hardware. Thus, for example, the internal flash memory may not be accessible in the event of undervoltage. In order to allow for this system state, the program segments which are to be reliably accessed in spite of undervoltage are located in an external flash memory and stored there.
The flash area which is located inside the CPU housing is referred to as an internal flash memory. In contrast, a separate IC (integrated circuit) component which may be accessed by the CPU via an external bus is referred to as an external flash memory.
Locating is performed after assembling, compiling, and linking the program code and before the computer program is stored in the program memory of the control unit. Overall, the method of storing a computer program in a program memory of a control unit results in program segments being distributed to different, non-contiguous address areas of the program memory.
During execution of the computer program stored in the program memory on a computing unit, in particular on a microprocessor or a CPU, it may occur for various reasons that the computer program jumps into unused memory areas of the program memory, in which no program code is stored. No defined program code is stored in the unused memory areas. After a jump into the unused memory area of the program memory, this undefined program code is therefore executed. In this way, the control unit may reach an undefined and therefore irregular state.
Causes for a jump of the computer program into the unused memory area of the program memory may be internal and external influences, for example, bit inversion in the flash memory or in a RAM (random access memory), the effects of excess EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) radiation, or latent programming errors.
Furthermore, various mechanisms may be used for recognizing an irregular state of the control unit and first transferring the system into a safe state and second ensuring the functionality of the control unit again. These available mechanisms may include, for example:                an internal controller watchdog;        monitoring of time grids;        a two-computer concept;        monitoring of the program execution for plausibility;        a check sum test.
Through the exemplary mechanisms listed, the attempt is made to recognize, directly or indirectly, bit inversions in the flash memory or in the RAM, influences by electromagnetic radiation (EMC), or implausible states such as latent programming errors (e.g., jumps via miscalculated pointers), to transfer the control unit into a safe state, and to restore the functionality of the control unit. The robustness of the system is to be enhanced through the early recognition of irregular or undefined states of the control unit. The availability of the system is to be improved by rapidly restoring the functionality of the control unit.
Not transferring a monitoring system for a measurement and control device into a safe state immediately upon the occurrence of a malfunction of the measurement and control device, but only after multiple occurrences of a malfunction, is referred to in German Patent Application No. 100 18 859. Upon each occurrence of a malfunction, the count of a counter is increased. If the count exceeds a predefinable limit value, the monitoring system enters the safe state.

Method and device for storing a computer program in a program memory of a control unit


A remote control key that may easily be disassembled while preventing theft of its transponder. The remote control key includes a transmitter for transmitting a signal to remotely control locking and unlocking of a door. The transponder transmits a predetermined ID code. A housing retains the transmitter and the transponder. A pad is formed on the housing to operate the transmitter. A seal seals the transponder that is retained in the housing. The seal and the pad are formed from the same material.

The present invention relates to a remote control key for remotely controlling locking and unlocking of a door, and more particularly, to a remote control key that prevents theft of a transponder incorporated in the remote control key.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-213124 describes a prior art example of a vehicle lock that facilitates the locking and unlocking of a vehicle door. The vehicle lock is provided with a remote control key (door key), which includes a transmitter and a transponder. When a lock/unlock button (operation button) of the remote control key is operated, the transmitter transmits a stored ID code. The transponder receives a transponder drive signal from the vehicle and transmits a transponder signal for starting the engine. When receiving the ID code from the remote control key, the vehicle compares the ID code with a stored ID code. If the two ID codes match, the vehicle locks or unlocks the doors. Further, when an ID code included in the transponder signal transmitted from the transponder matches the ID code of the vehicle, the vehicle starts the engine.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-105255 describes an example of such a remote control key (ignition key) that separately incorporates a transmitter and a transponder. The remote control key uses electromagnetic energy, which is supplied from the vehicle, to transmit an ID code. Another proposed type of remote control key incorporates a battery to drive a transmitter. The battery generates power and reduces power consumption in the vehicle.
A further proposed type of a remote control key incorporates a transmitter and a transponder, which are formed integrally with each other to reduce the manufacturing steps and manufacturing cost of the remote control key.
It is preferable that the remote control key be easily disassembled to facilitate maintenance, such as replacement of a battery or a transponder. However, when the disassembly of a remote control key is easy, a third person may disassemble the remote control key and remove the transponder. In addition, even if the transponder is removed, the removal of the transponder is not readily noticeable since it is light. Thus, when the remote control key may easily be disassembled, this may lower the security level of the vehicle.
To prevent removal of the transponder, an adhesive agent or the like may be used to make disassembly of the remote control key difficult. However, this would cause difficulties in maintenance for the transmitter of the remote control key.

Remote control key for preventing theft of transponder and method for manufacturing the same

Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho