A method and system for cost effectively converting a feedstock using thermal plasma, or other styles of gassifiers, into to a feedwater energy transfer system. The feedstock can be any organic material, or fossil fuel. The energy transferred in the feedwater is converted into steam which is then injected into the low turbine of a combined cycle power plant. Heat is extracted from gas product issued by a gassifier and delivered to a power plant via its feedwater system. The gassifier is a plasma gassifier and the gas product is syngas. In a further embodiment, prior to performing the step of extracting heat energy, there is provided the further step of combusting the syngas in an afterburner. An air flow, and/or EGR flow is provided to the afterburner at a rate that is varied in response to an operating characteristic of the afterburner. The air flow to the afterburner is heated.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to processes and systems for generating electrical power, and more particularly, to a process and system that extracts heat energy from the output gas of a gassifier and provides the extracted heat energy to the system for generating electrical power via its associated combined cycle low turbine system. Many of the attributes of this invention can be applied to any heat transfer process including simple steam generation.
Description of the Related Art
There is significant interest in renewable energy projects. Thermal plasma has consistently distinguished itself as a high efficiency, low emissions gasification process for just about any feedstock, and has been identified as one of the most desirable processes for use in producing energy from renewable fuels.
If an analysis of plasma municipal solid waste (MSW) or other renewable fuels relative to other energy facilities is conducted, it becomes apparent that the lack of existing plasma projects is not exclusively the result of technological problems, but also results from the relatively poor economics associated with this technology. Plasma technology is not inexpensive when compared to disposition of waste using landfill, incineration, or conventional gasification.
Many plasma projects fail at the onset, notwithstanding extensive initial marketing efforts, usually as a result of inadequate financing and low or nonexistent profitability. Recently some states have allocated bonuses for development and use of renewable energy, and such efforts have stimulated the use of plasma systems in the production of energy. Unfortunately, it is expected that this modest boon to plasma usage will be short lived, as it represents an artificial market that is a poor model on which to build a business. This is particularly problematical when one considers that these facilities are expected to produce power cost effectively for at least fifty years.
Many plasma projects in the past have pinned false hopes on high tipping fees for hazardous waste without fully understanding the complications that are associated with such materials. The handling of these materials is not only complex and expensive, but also potentially dangerous if not properly engineered. The entire process and the facility itself thus become unduly expensive.
Most counties emphatically state that they do not desire that large quantities of hazardous waste be transported through their communities. However, large quantities of such waste must be generated if the facility is to achieve profitability. The production and delivery of the hazardous waste have to be carefully coordinated since it is dangerous to store biological and other hazardous waste feedstock.
The process and system of the present invention overcomes the economic hurdles noted above for a plasma system. It is to be understood, however, that the invention herein described is not limited to the use of a plasma gassifier. In some embodiments of the invention, conventional gassifiers can be employed, or inductively heated gassifiers, or inductively heated and plasma assisted gassifiers. The use of a plasma gassifier in the practice of the present invention, however, increases overall system effectiveness.
The system of the present invention is simple, flexible, and very energy efficient. In short, it produces a large amount of renewable power from a feedstock such as Municipal Solid Waste ("MSW"), for a very small capital investment. Any feedstock can be used, including, for example, biomass or algae. MSW is an example of a common renewable feedstock.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a simple and cost-effective renewable energy system.
It is another object of this invention to provide a renewable energy system that can consume virtually any feedstock.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a simple and cost-effective renewable energy system that can use a conventional gassifier.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a simple and cost-effective renewable energy system that can use a plasma gassifier.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a renewable energy system that can use an inductively heated gassifier or an inductively heated gassifier that is plasma assisted.
It is additionally an object of this invention to provide a process and system for enhancing the thermal efficiency of a Rankine or other steam process, or any process that requires heat.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a process and system for enhancing the thermal efficiency of a combined cycle power plant.
It is also another object of this invention to provide a process and system for extracting heat energy from a renewable energy system that can consume virtually any feedstock and providing the heat energy to a Rankine or other steam process, or any process that requires heat.
It is yet an additional object of this invention to provide a process and system for extracting heat energy from a plasma gassifier and providing the heat energy to any process that requires heat, including a combined cycle power plant.

Renewable combined cycle low turbine boost


A piezoelectric substrate is fixed to the movable plate or the support substrate directly or through a drive electrode of the piezoelectric substrate. When a pressure on an input operation surface is detected, a drive voltage is impressed on the drive electrodes of the piezoelectric substrate. In response, the piezoelectric substrate vibrates the movable plate or the support substrate, thereby providing tactile feedback to an operator. Because the movable plate or the support substrate directly vibrates without an independent vibrating source, there is no energy loss or transmission delay caused by transmitting the vibration, and finely control of the contraction and expansion of the piezoelectric substrate allows fine control of the vibration. In one embodiment, the drive voltage is modulated with signals dependent on the location of the pressure. In another embodiment, the drive voltage is modulated with audio frequencies to create a speaker.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel input device for vibrating a movable plate which is pressed, or a support substrate for supporting the movable plate, and generating an input operation feeling for an operator when the operator presses the movable plate. More specifically, the present invention relates to a touch panel input device for using a piezoelectric substrate to vibrate the movable plate or the support substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch panel input device includes a movable plate and a support substrate which are laminated with a slight gap between them to separate conductor layers on the opposing surfaces of the movable plate and the support substrate. The input device electrically detects a contact between the conductor layers at a pressed position when the movable plate is pressed, and provides information to a processing device such as a personal computer about the pressed position.
When the movable plate, the support substrate, the conductor layers, and the like are formed of a transparent material, and the touch panel input device is overlaid on a display screen such as a liquid crystal panel or a CRT, a user can press an input operation surface of the touch panel input device while seeing the display through the touch panel input device. The touch panel input device detects the pressed position and provides a processing device such as a personal computer with data on the location of the pressed part corresponding to the display.
Because the movable plate and the support substrate are laminated with a very small insulation gap between them in this type of a touch panel input device as described above, the stroke for pressing the movable plate is 0.1 to 0.5 mm, which is extremely small. An operator who presses the movable plate has difficulty knowing whether or not an input operation is completed.
A force feedback type touch panel is known to solve this problem. Such a force feedback type touch panel vibrates the movable plate or the support substrate to generate a tactile feedback to the finger of the operator when the input operation on the touch panel input device is successful.
Referring to FIG. 8, a conventional touch panel input device 100 includes a movable plate 101 and a support substrate 103. The movable plate 101 is a flexible transparent plastic sheet. The support substrate 103 is made of glass, with a transparent plastic sheet 102 attached on a surface opposing to the movable plate 101. A large number of insulating protrusions 104 hold the movable plate 101 separated from the plastic sheet 102. Together, these elements constitute the touch panel 100A.
Conductor layers (not shown), made of a uniform resistive coating, cover opposing surfaces of the movable plate 101 and the plastic sheet 102. The conductor layers come in contact with each other, and conduct at a pressed position when a conductive sheet on the movable plate 101 is pressed into contact with the conductive sheet on the support substrate 103. The contact is position is detected based on voltages between leader electrodes (not shown) electrically connected to peripheral edges of the conductor layers. The voltages provide information about the x and y position of the position that is pressed.
The support substrate 103 is supported on a plurality of cylindrical cushion pillars 106 affixed to a bottom surface of a housing 105. The cushion pillars 106 are a rubber material on which the entire touch panel 100A is supported. A rubber with a hardness of 50 to 60 is used because the use of a rubber material that is too soft would absorb the pressure on the movable plate 103.
A display panel 107 is placed in a space formed by the cushion pillars 106 between the support substrate 103 and the housing 105. Parts formed on the support substrate 103 are made of a transparent material to permit display of the display panel 107 seen from above the movable plate 101.
A piezoelectric actuator 108, formed by laminating multiple piezoelectric substrates made of piezoelectric ceramic or the like, is disposed at one end of the rear side of the support substrate 103. The piezoelectric actuator 108 uses an electrostriction effect to vibrate itself. The piezoelectric actuator 108 serves as a vibration generating source when a drive voltage is applied thereto.
The piezoelectric actuator 108 has its base end fixed on a support stand 109 and its center rotatably supported by a support shaft 110. A contactor 111 is fixed to the outer end of the piezoelectric actuator 108 in contact with a rear surface of the support substrate 103.
When a position on the movable plate 101 is pressed for an input operation, the conductor layers come into contact with each other at the pressed position. A pressure detecting means (not shown) detects the pressure and the pressed position, and provides a processing device such as a personal computer with pressed position data.
When a pressure is detected, a drive voltage is impressed on drive electrodes of the piezoelectric actuator 108. This causes the piezoelectric actuator 108 to vibrate. The vibration is transmitted to the support substrate 103 through the contactor 111 at the end of the piezoelectric actuator 108. A fingertip pressing the movable plate 101 feels the vibration.
Thus, when an operator who presses the touch panel input device presses the movable plate 101, the operator feels the vibration at the fingertip to confirm that the input operation is conducted.
While the conventional touch panel input device uses a vibrator such as a piezoelectric actuator or a vibrating motor as a source for generating vibration to vibrate the movable plate 101 and/or the support substrate 103, because the vibration generating source is provided in a space independent to the movable plate 101 or the support substrate 103 constituting the touch panel, the thickness and the size of the housing 105 and thus the size of the entire input device increases. The design of the exterior of the device is also restricted.
Because the piezoelectric actuator 108 as the vibration generating source has to transmit sensitive vibrations to the touch panel 100A in contact with the piezoelectric actuator 108, the piezoelectric actuator 108 must generate a displacement with a certain amplitude, and is constituted while laminating multiple piezoelectric substrates. As a result, the thickness of the piezoelectric actuator 108 is increased. Because the manufacturing process for laminating multiple piezoelectric substrates comprises multiple processes including attaching a pair of drive electrodes to the individual layers, and then laminating the piezoelectric substrates to which the drive electrodes are attached in the thickness direction for integration, the cost of the part is relatively high.
When a vibrating motor is used as the vibration generating source, the size of the vibrating motor itself is large, and the parts cost is high.
Because the vibration of the touch panel 100A is an indirect vibration transmitted from the vibration generating source, it is difficult to transmit a delicate feeling of the vibration from the vibration generating source to the touch panel 100A. For example, if the frequency of the vibration is changed to transmit different information to an operator, because the touch panel 100A does not precisely move accordingly, it is impossible for the operator to discern the different information.
Because a delay exists between the generation of the vibration of the vibration generating source and the vibration of the touch panel 100A, it is difficult to directly transmit a slight change of the vibration.
Because it is necessary to vibrate the vibration generating source such as the piezoelectric actuator 108 and a vibrating motor continuously for a certain time period, a drive circuit for driving the vibration generating source is a complicated circuit which uses an oscillation circuit. That is, because the vibration source such as a vibrating motor does not respond to a drive voltage in a momentary pulse waveform, the drive circuit must operate for a certain time period including a start operation control. When a drive voltage in the form of a momentary pulse waveform is applied to the piezoelectric actuator 108, although the piezoelectric actuator 108 momentarily contracts and expands accordingly, because of damping of the expansion and contraction (a vibration) transmitted to the touch panel 100A, as described before, an operator cannot sense the momentary vibration. There is also a problem of generating an input operation feeling as well.
In addition, a complicated structure such as the support stand 109 and the support shaft 110 for rotatably supporting the center of the vibration generating source 108 as described above is necessary to secure the vibration generating source 108 in the housing 105. The vibration generating source 108 merely vibrates to generate noise which is not transmitted to the touch panel 100A unless the vibration generating source 108 is secured in a mounting.
Manufacturing precision is required for the vibration generating source 108, and the vibration transmission mechanism of the touch panel 100A such as the support substrate 104. If a gap is present between the contactor 111 and the support substrate 104, for example, noise is generated during vibrating, but the vibration is attenuated during transmission.


A method of managing a data storage device including a memory controller and a memory device includes: calculating a first sequential and consecutive write cost (SCWC) according to a garbage collection (GC) write operation policy, a second SCWC according to a slack space recycling (SSR) write operation policy and a third SCWC according to an in-place updating (IPU) write operation policy respectively, in response to a write request in the memory controller; determining a write operation policy which has a minimum cost of the first through third SCWCs; and writing data in a selected segment in the memory device according to the determined write operation policy.

The inventive concept relates to data storage devices, and more particularly, to a method of managing data storage devices.
In general, in a log-based data storage device, a total volume that is partitioned is considered as one big log, and data is sequentially stored in the volume according to physical orderings without regard to logical block numbers of the volume for enhancing performance of random small write operation in response to write requests.
However, when repeated write requests are issued on a same logical space, the data previously stored in the same logical space is not valid and a garbage collection (GC) operation is required in a file system. In this case, a cost of the GC operation rapidly increases as utilization of partitions increases.
In a flash-based solid-state drive (SSD), performance of the GC operation is dependent on the sequentiality or randomness of valid pages. When a same amount of data is written, the throughput of a sequential write operation is higher than the throughput of a random write operation.

Method of managing data storage device and data storage device


A dynamic communications rate setting apparatus, system and/or method is applicable to digitized and analog communications networks. This dynamic communications rate setting apparatus, system and/or method concerns the load carried by the network at the time the call attempt is made. The loads may be continuously measured on all lines above the subscriber line level, for instance, with the aid of load measuring groups. The load measuring groups may be composed of a traffic measurement unit, connected to the trunks or trunk groups and a rate calculator, or pre-calculator, which dynamically determines the rate weight, passing it on to the corresponding exchange at a higher level of the hierarchy. The rate payable for a particular call may be indicated to the calling subscriber. After the customer has dialed the last digit of the trunk code, the rate calculator may calculate the currently applicable rate as a function of the result of the latest measurement of the traffic flowing to that destination, transmitting the computed rate to the calling subscribers terminal to be displayed there. Then, the apparatus, system and/or method may assume an offer status which is maintained for a certain time. Once a decision has been taken by the calling subscriber, the dialing process may be discontinued or, after the input of the number of the person called, the rate displayed may be used for calculating the amount payable for the call. After completion of the call, the rate payable may be displayed for the calling subscriber or also for the called subscriber if both customers share the cost. In digital networks, dynamic communications rate setting may be both suitable for voice communications and any other type of electronic communications such as data and video transmissions.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus used to set rates in communications networks.
Methods for setting communications rates have already been employed in conventional analog communications networks. These methods allow the traffic in the networks to be controlled by the price. In the 1980s, for example, use was made of so-called xe2x80x9cmoonlight ratesxe2x80x9d based on a rigid rate structure consisting of a very limited number of rate categories. Although these methods allowed, in principle, the traffic to be controlled by the price, this approach makes possible only a very rough type of traffic control because the mere application of certain time-dependent price categories does not take into account the actual line loads.
The reference European Patent Application No. A 0 526 118 A2 purportedly concerns a system for communications rate setting in digitized or analog communications networks, implemented in wire, radio, or laser-supported terrestrial or satellite communications networks, using the terminals of a calling and a called subscriber, the system measuring the load on lines of the communications network above the subscriber terminal line, in order to include the load in the process of setting rates. The resulting measuring values are stored in special rate computers and are available upon demand. In the rate computers are computing algorithms in the form of programs which take into account the traffic load for the current rate to be determined with regard to an individual call, the current individual rate being displayed at the terminal of the calling subscriber. The load measurement is, however, not an integral component of the switching node, and the calculation of the current rate is carried out using a basic rate for long distance calls and an amount representing the traffic load and the distance to be spanned. Thus the rate is exclusively determined by technical factors and such important customer parameters as speaking behavior and customer factors are not taken into account. As a result, there is apparently relatively small flexibility in the setting of rates. In addition, after dialing the entire number and after the display of the valid rate, one additional specific key must be pressed. Further, an ongoing measurement of the load on all lines cannot be implemented in this case even without the concrete request for this measurement by a calling subscriber and the storing of the measuring values in the switching nodes.
In addition, the reference German Patent Application No. 33 05 978 A1 purportedly concerns a system is disclosed that activates and deactivates in a time-variable manner fixed rates only. In this system, the reference appears to refer only to making the rate model, which is still used today and which provides for rate levels dependent both on distance as well as time, more flexible. The system apparently activates the rate levels as a function of the measured total network load.
Exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention are directed to creating a method and a system or circuit arrangement for dynamically setting communications rates in analog and digitized communications networks and taking into account the specific degree of capacity utilization of the communication network at the time of a particular call attempt such that, given a high traffic load on the communications infrastructure, the use or utilization of the network is more expensive than given a smaller load, an effective control of the traffic load being achievable as a result of a continuous traffic control that is influenced by the specific spatial and temporal situation in the network.
Further exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention are directed to dynamic communications rate setting in digitized communications networks which is based, in principle, on the continuous measurementxe2x80x94performed by traffic measuring equipmentxe2x80x94of the loads carried by all lines above the subscriber line level. The values measured may be stored in a system or circuit in special rate calculators, or rate xe2x80x9cpre-calculators,xe2x80x9d where they are available on demand. The traffic measuring equipment may be connected to rate calculators which jointly constitute the load measuring groups. Rate combination calculators located at the corresponding exchanges may be used to combine the rate weighting factors of the high-usage routes with those of the main route (final route) in accordance with certain parameters defined by the carrier in order to obtain new rate weighting factors which will be passed on to the next highest level. The actual rate calculators may be located at the line terminations at the terminal exchanges. The hardware may be implemented either as separate units or as components such as modular printed circuit boards at digital exchanges. Depending on the structure of the digital switching equipment, the three components of the dynamic communications rate setting system may be implemented, in part or as a whole, as software elements incorporated in the program system of the exchange.
Further exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention are directed to providing dynamic communications rate setting which may be based on the following or combinations of the following:
1. The loads carried by all lines above the subscriber line level are continuously measured. The values measured are stored in special rate calculators where they are available on demand.
2. The amount of traffic load determines the rate which is payable for a particular call and has to be determined using a special algorithm. The algorithms used for the calculation are stored as programs in the rate calculators.
3. The rate payable for a particular call is shown, for example, on the display of the calling telephone after all digits of the trunk code of the destination network have been dialed. Immediately after the input of the last digit of the trunk code, the corresponding rate calculator uses the latest data measured for the traffic flowing to that destination to calculate the rate that is valid at that moment and show it on the display of the calling telephone. This means that all subscribers should have a telephone having a display at their disposal. However, it is also possible to use a personal computer, a connected printer, a fax, or other type of communications equipment for the call and the display. Even announcements using synthetic speech are imaginable and technically feasible.
4. Unless further digits are dialed after the input of the trunk code, the system will remain, for a certain time (for instance, five seconds) in this offer-making status in order to enable the subscriber to decide whether to have the conversation at the rate displayed or to interrupt the dialing process, for example, by replacing the receiver. When the xe2x80x9ctime granted for decision-makingxe2x80x9d has elapsed, the dialing process will be discontinued by the system.
5. If the subscriber dials the number of the person he wishes to call, the charges payable for this call will be calculated according to the rate displayed.
6. The charges actually payable for this call will be displayed on the telephone of the calling subscriber upon completion of the call.
7. Dynamic communications rate setting is also applicable to large local networks since it is possible, in principle, to use a dynamic method for setting the rates payable for all local calls outgoing to other exchange areas. As soon as the calling subscriber has dialed the code of the exchange he wishes to access, the rate valid at that moment will be transmitted, in the same way as for trunk calls, by the rate calculator to the calling terminal to be displayed there. If the subscriber continues dialing, the call charges will be calculated according to the rate displayed as in the case described above.
Dynamic communications rate setting in digitized networks may be suitable both for voice communications and for any other type of electronic communications such as video, data and fax transmission.
Exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention may be directed to eliminating entirely the dependence on distance, for example, by measuring the loads carried by cross connections and according to the numbering scheme. In this case, the only yardstick used for calculating the rates may be the line utilization, i.e., in the case of the heavy use of a dialed line, a higher rate may be calculated than in lighter use. Moreover, a flexible rate setting system may be achieved with the aid of an algorithm calculating the current rate by setting parameters (weighting factors); in this way, for instance, minimum and maximum rates can be set. In an equally simple way, it is possible to introduce parameters for special rates into the algorithms. An equivalent solution can be implemented for specifying discounts for frequent callers or major users. The minimum rate should cover, for instance, the cost price, whereas the maximum rate payable in the event of high traffic loads should represent the maximum price accepted by the customer. The achievable maximum price level can be identified by international comparisons and market research. The rates may always apply to the entire duration of a call, i.e., a higher rate will be charged for calls initiated after an increase in traffic load whereas this does not hold for calls already in progress at that particular moment. In the reverse case, this principle shall apply accordingly. Moreover, program modifications may be introduced that will enable the algorithm to include in the call rates international factors characteristic of different types of international calls. Thus, exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention may allow an entirely dynamic communications rate setting to be implemented both in digital and analog networks, as a result of which, rate setting on the basis of the specific actual traffic load of the network structure may be realized.

Method and circuit arrangement used for rate setting in communications networks


An integrated optical communications receiver/alignment system and method. In one embodiment, a method and an apparatus are disclosed in which a semiconductor substrate includes a plurality of outer optical detectors disposed in the substrate. An optically transparent center region such as for example an optical waveguide or an optical fiber is integrated in the semiconductor substrate in a central location relative to the plurality of outer optical detectors. The optically transparent center region is optically coupled to receive an optical communications beam and the plurality of outer optical detectors are employed for alignment and/or tracking purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications and, more specifically, the present invention relates to free-space optical communications systems.
2. Background Information
With the increasing popularity of wide area networks (WANs), such as the Internet and/or the World Wide Web, network growth and traffic has exploded in recent years. Network users continue to demand faster networks and more access for both businesses and consumers. As network demands continue to increase, existing network infrastructures and technologies are reaching their limits.
An alternative to present day hardwired or fiber network solutions is the use of wireless optical communications. Wireless optical communications utilize point-to-point communications through free space and therefore do not require the routing of cables or fibers between locations. Thus, wireless optical communications are also known as free space or atmospheric optical communications. For instance, in a free space optical communications system, a beam of light is directed through free space from a transmitter at a first location to a receiver at a second location. Data or information is encoded into the beam of light, and therefore, the information is transmitted through free space from the first location to the second location.
An important aspect of a free space optical communications system is tracking. In particular, it is important that the optical communications beam (e.g. laser beam) is aligned properly between the transmitter at the first location and the receiver at the second location. For example, assume that a transmitter is mounted on a first building and that a receiver is mounted on a different second building. It is important for the transmitter on the first building to be configured to accurately direct or aim the optical communications beam at the receiver on the second building.
Tracking is utilized for maintaining the alignment of the optical communications beam between the transmitter and receiver in various situations or disturbances. Examples of these various situations or disturbances include the swaying of the buildings due to for example windy conditions, vibration of the platforms on which the transmitter and/or receiver are mounted, atmosphere induced beam steering, etc. If the tracking system is unable to compensate for disturbances, the optical communications beam is no longer properly aimed at the receiver and, consequently, communications between the transmitter and receiver are lost or impaired.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method and an apparatus are disclosed in which a semiconductor substrate includes a plurality of outer optical detectors disposed in the substrate. An optically transparent center region is integrated in the semiconductor substrate in a central location relative to the plurality of outer optical detectors. The optically transparent center region is optically coupled to receive an optical communications beam. Additional features and benefits of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description, figures and claims set forth below.

Method and apparatus for receiving and aligning an optical communications beam with an integrated


A control apparatus/method curbs the degradation of emission gas, for a vehicular driving apparatus including an engine and a second driving power source that assists the engine in the output of driving power. Torque assist is executed by a hybrid controller through the use of a first motor-generator and/or the second motor-generator so that the EGR rate achieved by an EGR device becomes greater than or equal to an EGR rate threshold value (first EGR rate) determined on the basis of the load state of an engine. Therefore, it becomes possible to put the engine in a low load state where the EGR rate, which decreases as the engine shifts to higher load states, is greater than or equal to the EGR rate threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control apparatus/method of a vehicular driving apparatus comprising an engine and a second driving power source that assists the engine in the output of driving power. More particularly, the invention relates to a technology of controlling the load state of the engine in order to curb degradation of the emission gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles equipped with an emission gas recirculation device, a so-called EGR device, which refluxes a portion of the emission gas of an engine, such as a diesel engine or the like, to the intake system, that is, recirculates it to the intake system in order to reduce the amount of emission of NOx (oxides of nitrogen) are well known. See, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. JP-A-2004-197703; Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. JP-A-2004-204778; and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. JP-U-6-4344. In such vehicles, an EGR valve is provided in an EGR passageway that connects an exhaust passageway and an intake passageway of the engine. The amount of opening/closure of the EGR valve is controlled in accordance with the state of operation (state of load) of the engine so as to adjust an emission gas reflux amount (emission gas recirculation amount, or EGR amount) which is the amount of emission gas refluxed, or an emission gas reflux rate (emission gas recirculation rate, or EGR rate), which indicates the emission gas reflux amount with respect to the amount of inflow air.
However, if the intake negative pressure decreases as the engine shifts to a higher-load operation state, the EGR rate may decrease so that the NOx (oxides of nitrogen) emission amount cannot be reduced. Moreover, if the emission gas recirculation (EGR) device is required to operate in a high engine load region, PM (particulate matter) in the emission gas may increase; that is, there is a possibility that performance of EGR may be substantially impaired in the high engine load region.

Control apparatus and control method of vehicular driving apparatus


A positive resist composition having excellent size controllability, and a resist pattern forming method are provided. This positive resist composition contains a resin component (A) comprising an alkali soluble constituent unit (a1) which comprises a constituent unit (a11) derived from (α-methyl)hydroxystyrene, and a constituent unit (a2) which has an acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group including an acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group (II) represented by the following general formula (II) and/or a specific chain acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group (III); an acid generator component (B) which generates an acid upon exposure; and preferably contains an aromatic amine (C).

A photolithography technology comprises the steps of forming a resist film made of a resist composition on a substrate, selectively exposing the resist film to radiation such as light or electron beam through a photomask having a predetermined pattern formed thereon, and subjecting the resist film to a development treatment to form a resist pattern having a predetermined shape on the resist film. A resist composition capable of being changing into characteristics wherein the exposed area is dissolved in a developing solution is referred to as a positive resist composition, while a resist composition capable of being changing into characteristics wherein the exposed area is not dissolved in a developing solution is referred to as a negative resist composition.
In the production of semiconductor devices and liquid crystal displays, rapid progress has recently been made in miniaturizing of a pattern with the progress of a lithography technology. As a technique for miniaturizing of the size, shortening of the wavelength of an exposure light source is generally performed. Specifically, while ultraviolet rays typified by g-ray and i-ray have hitherto been used, KrF excimer laser (248 nm) is now introduced and also ArF excimer laser (193 mm) having a shorter wavelength than that of the above excimer laser begins to be introduced. Also, a study about F2 excimer (157 nm) laser having a shorter wavelength than that of these excimer lasers, EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet ray), electron beam and X-ray have been made. Exposure to electron beam or EUV is usually conducted by exposure through a desired mask pattern or direct drawing in vacuum.
To reproduce a pattern having a fine size, a resist material having high resolution is required. As the resist material, a chemically amplified resist composition containing a base resin and an acid generator which generates an acid upon exposure is used. For example, a positive chemically amplified photoresist contains a resin component in which alkali solubility enhances by an action of an acid, and an acid generator component which generates an acid upon exposure. When an acid is generated from an acid generator upon exposure in the case of forming a resist pattern, the exposed area becomes soluble in an alkali.
As the resin component of the positive resist composition, for example, a resin in which a portion of hydroxyl groups of a polyhydroxystyrene-based resin are protected with an acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group, or a resin in which a portion of carboxy groups of an acrylic resin are protected with an acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group is used. As the acid dissociable dissolution inhibiting group, a so-called acetal group, for example, a chain ether group such as 1-ethoxyethyl group or a cyclic ether group such as tetrahydropyranyl group, tertiary alkyl group such as tert-butyl group, and a tertiary alkoxycarbonyl group such as tert-butoxycarbonyl group are mainly used (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-341538).
On the other hand, the photomask used in the case of forming a pattern comprises a transparent substrate and a shielding layer formed thereon in the form of a predetermined pattern. Also in the case of producing such a photomask, a resist composition is used similar to the above case. That is, a shielding substrate material comprising a transparent substrate (glass substrate) and a shielding layer (chromium oxide layer) made mainly of chromium oxide formed on the transparent substrate is prepared, and a resist film is formed on the chromium oxide layer. Then, the resist film is selectively exposed through a resist for forming a photomask and developed to form a resist pattern on the chromium oxide layer. Then, the chromium oxide layer of the area, on which no pattern is formed, is etched through the resist pattern as a mask and the pattern is transferred onto the chromium oxide layer to obtain a photomask comprising a glass substrate and a chromium oxide layer having a predetermined pattern formed thereon (see, for example, written by Isamu TANABE et al., "Lecture on Photomask Technology", Kogyo Chosakai Publishing, Inc., First Edition, Aug. 20, 1996, pp. 10-19).
In the production of the photomask, the exposure is mainly conducted by direct drawing using electron beam because a fine pattern can be formed.

Positive resist composition and resist pattern forming method


A semi-flexible laminar silicone foam rubber-base heater for high temperature gas supply and exhaust lines used in microelectronic semiconductor fabrication uses superimposed adhesively bonded layers of an etched foil heater element containing layer, a high-to-low heat thermal transition layer, a thermal fuse laden silicone foam rubber insulation layer and a durable wrapping layer. The system can provide for the combined use of highly controllable etched foil heater elements, clean silicone foam rubber insulation, and inexpensive mechanical thermal fuses safely in a high heat gas supply and exhaust line environment.

Many industries such as the telecommunication, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries require heated conduit lines for fluids used in manufacturing. The microelectronic semiconductor fabrication industry in particular involves the need for highly regulated gas transmission lines leading to and from the fabrication vessels used to process semiconductor wafers. These specialized gasses are used for processing applications such as low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), high density chemical vapor deposition (HDCVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma etch.
Generally speaking, gas delivery and exhaust lines used in semiconductor fabrication can include all the components which carry gas from the gas canisters or bottles, to the process chamber, and thereafter to the abatement equipment or scrubbers. These components can include for example valves, regulators, mass flow controls, pumps, elbows, tees, reducers and manifolds. Exhaust lines which carry gasses away from the process chamber can also be referred to as fore lines, or pump lines.
Gas delivery and exhaust lines are typically made from stainless steel. Supply lines can typically have a diameter of between about 0.25 and 0.75 inch, while exhaust lines can typically range from between about 1.5 and 6.0 inches.
The gasses delivered to and removed from the wafer fabrication reaction chamber often must be kept within a narrow range of temperatures, typically between about 70 degrees centigrade (70° C.) and 250° C., in order primarily to prevent condensation from occurring in supply lines, and sublimation of materials in the exhaust lines. Condensation or sublimation can cause defects in semiconductor devices, reducing production yields and increase the need for more frequent and/or difficult costly maintenance.
Depending on the application gas supply and exhaust lines can be heated to temperatures between about 70° C. and 250° C. The evolution of fabrication processes appear to likely require even higher temperatures. Heating the transmission lines to such temperatures requires the use of heaters which need to be insulated from the surrounding environment for heat control and safety purposes. The heaters typically operate around the clock. Control of the temperature of the lines is usually to within +/−10° C. of a target temperature. Heat time from room temperature to the processing temperature varies but is often about 30 minutes.
A typical CVD tool can have up to 30 or more individual gas transmission line heaters internal to the tool which can be controlled individually or in a master/slave configuration. Gas supply canisters can be located several hundred feet away and require multiple heaters along the transmission line. Similarly, exhaust lines are often many tens of feet long leading to scrubbers or other abatement equipment.
Lines can be heated using a heater blanket or mantle heater which wraps around the gas carrying component such as a pipe. Some heaters use fiberglass insulation and sowing materials that can unfortunately generate unwanted particulates that contaminate the surroundings.
Heater equipment using wire wound heater elements covered by a silicone foam rubber insulating material has been developed as disclosed in Hauschulz et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,738, incorporated herein by reference. Silicone foam rubber provides a much cleaner, flexible solution and can be readily adapted to carry inexpensive mechanical thermal fuses rather than more expensive electronic temperature limit control devices.
However, existing silicone foam rubber heaters suffer from not being able to withstand temperatures beyond about 162° C. for extended periods of time without becoming brittle and flaking apart, leading to premature failure. These temperatures also exceed the functional limit for mechanical thermal fuses.
Another problem with wire wound heater elements is that their temperature can more easily overshoot a preferred target temperature. Further, the heat flux provided by the wire wound element can be less uniform or consistent between separate regions of the heater element. Foil etch heater elements have been used which can provide greater control and uniformity of the heat generated by separate regions of the energized element.
The instant invention results from efforts to provide an improved gas transmission line heater system which addresses one or more of the above problems.

High temperature gas line heater system including silicone foam rubber


A commodity trading system having a centralized computer and data base. Each commodity, such as a bale of cotton, or a block of bales, is represented in the data base as a file having all the information unique to such bale, including a title flag. The title flag field of bale record and block record indicates whether the title to the cotton bale, or block of bales, is carried by way of a card-type warehouse receipt, or electronically. The electronic representation of title eliminates the transferral of documentary type title which is traditionally mailed to various locations to follow the trading transactions.

Many natural resources and goods undergo numerous trading transactions from the initial harvesting, manufacturing, etc. stage until the time such goods or commodities are integrated into a final product. Many of these goods or commodities are unique within themselves, and thus carry an identity throughout the trading process. Cotton is one such commodity which, when compressed into a bale, has a certain quality, weight, etc. such that it maintains an individual identity throughout the trading process, until woven into a fabric, or otherwise used by the textile industry. A warehouse receipt is initially associated with each bale, which receipt is evidence of title to the goods throughout the various trading transactions. Other types of goods such as grain, are similarly represented by warehouse receipts, or other evidences of title. As other examples, many types of personal property, such as automobiles, are bought and sold using a documentary type of title.
When trading commodities, as perhaps other types of goods, a group or lot of the commodities can be collectively traded together and thus be represented by a single document that evidences title to the entire group. In this situation, the number of documents evidencing title is reduced, as a single document represents title to the entire group, however, such type of title is yet susceptible to loss, damage or theft. In the cotton trading industry, a block warehouse receipt is utilized in many trading transactions for the entire group of bales. The block warehouse receipt, comprising a single document, includes a listing thereon of the warehouse receipt number of each of the individual bales. Under this system, the entire group of cotton bales must be traded together.
The documentary form of title, whether individual or by blocks, is one of the oldest and most well known types of title systems. The problems involved in buying, selling or otherwise trading such titled goods are apparent. For example, the documentary form of title is usually guarded by storing it in a safe place. When dealing in large quantities of such goods, the space required can be substantial. In addition, in the actual trading transaction, the title documents must be physically exchanged between the buyer and seller, which exchange generally involves mailing the documents from the seller to the buyer. In such transactions, it is obvious that the documents themselves can be lost, damaged or stolen. Importantly, and especially with the warehouse type of receipts, such documents are bearer documents in which the holder, even a wrongful holder, can sell the goods, or carry out a trading transaction involving the goods. Other disadvantages of the document title system are apparent, in that the documents themselves can be wrongfully modified or changed, can be forged, or illegal title documents can be generated.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that a need exists for an improved title system which overcomes the foregoing problems. A further need exists for a title system which is electronic in nature, and which is easily implementable with other computerized trading systems. Yet another need exists for a system which can accommodate electronic titling, as well as the documentary form of title. An additional need exists for a computerized trading system that can accommodate the individual titling of goods as well as the block titling of goods.

Method for carrying out transactions of goods using electronic title


According to an embodiment, a communication apparatus includes a security control unit. The security control unit establishes first and second secure communication channels to a first server which manages communication security keys and second server which provides a service regarding a smart meter, respectively when operation to the smart meter is started, performs mutual authentication with the first server and acquire a first key from the first server via the first secure communication channel, and relays mutual authentication with the first server and acquisition of a second key from the first server via the first secure communication channel for the smart meter.

Recently, smart grids have become globally popular. For a smart grid, an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system has been suggested, whereby various services are provided by means of smart meters connected to a TCP/IP network. For example, with the AMI system, an automatic meter reading (AMR) service in which a remote server acquires metering data from a smart meter via the TCP/IP network and analyzes the acquired data can be realized. In addition, with the AMI system, a demand response (DR) service in which the remote server controls a switch of the smart meter via the TCP/IP network can also be realized.
A networking protocol, the Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL), developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) of the International Standards Organization, provides a way of connecting a smart meter to a TCP/IP network. With RPL, smart meters distributed over a wide geographic area form a dynamic multi-hop mesh network and connect to a TCP/IP network.
To achieve secure communication over the multi-hop mesh network, a protocol called Protocol for Carrying Authentication for Network Access (PANA) Relay has been developed by the IETF. With PANA Relay, a key management server that manages encryption keys can securely distribute such keys, thereby enabling secure communication over the TCP/IP network and the multi-hop mesh network.
For the AMI system to provide various services (such as AMR and DR), a fully developed network infrastructure should be in place. Thus, there will be cases where smart meters that cannot independently communicate with remote servers exist locally unless not only the smart meters and remote servers (key management server, AMR server, DR server and so on) forming the AMI system, but also concentrators connecting these devices are deployed in sufficient numbers. In areas where such smart meters exist, various services are unavailable. On the other hand, there may be cases where smart meters are provided prior to installing concentrators while the AMI system has spread. Thus, there may occur isolated areas in which smart meters are already provided but AMI services are unavailable.

Communication apparatus and communication method


A method for measuring a length in a mobile terminal, and which includes selecting a virtual measuring tape function on the mobile terminal for measuring a size of an object; setting, via a controller of the mobile terminal, a reference object; setting, via the controller, a spaced distance of the reference object with respect to the mobile terminal to be zero when the reference object is brought into contact with the mobile terminal; measuring, via a laser of the mobile terminal, the spaced distance of the reference object with respect to the mobile terminal as the reference object is moved away from the mobile terminal; and outputting the measured spaced distance.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This specification relates to a mobile terminal having a smart measuring tape, capable of measuring a length of a subject, which is captured or has been captured through a camera, and a length measuring method thereof.
2. Background of the Disclosure
Terminals may be generally classified as mobile/portable terminals or stationary terminals. Mobile terminals may also be classified as handheld terminals or vehicle mounted terminals. Mobile terminals have become increasingly more functional. Examples of such functions include data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files via a speaker system, and displaying images and video on a display.
Some mobile terminals include additional functionality which supports game playing, while other terminals are configured as multimedia players. More recently, mobile terminals have been configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of content such as videos and television programs. As it becomes multifunctional, a mobile terminal can capture still images or moving images, play music or video files, play games, receive broadcast and the like, so as to be implemented as an integrated multimedia player.
In general, an auto focus (AF) function is used upon capturing a subject using a camera. The distance is measured from the camera to the subject upon carrying out the AF function. The distance measurement up to the subject may be performed according to a method using infrared rays or supersonic waves or a through-the-lens (TTL) method.
The method of measuring the distance using the supersonic waves calculates the distance by measuring a time which is taken for supersonic wave emitted from a supersonic generator of the mobile terminal to come back to the mobile terminal by being reflected from an object (or subject). Further, the method of measuring the distance using infrared rays calculates the distance by measuring a strength or a time of infrared ray which comes back by being reflected from an object.
Further, the TTL method brings a camera lens into focus on an object by analyzing an image obtained through a CCD/CMOS image sensor, and calculates the distance up to the object based on a position of a lens in the focus-on state. However, the method using the infrared rays or ultrasonic waves has a limit of the distance that the infrared ray or the ultrasonic wave can reach, so as to cause a difficulty in measuring the distance up to a subject located at a far distance. Also, in this method, an accurate adjustment of focus on an object which is very close to a camera lens is hardly executed due to parallax.
Further, the TTL method can adjust the focus even on an object located at a far distance or an object very close to the camera lens, without any trouble. However, the CCD/CMOS image sensor cannot accurately detect contrast (details) of an object, such as an object (a blue sky, a monochromic wall, etc.) with a low contrast ratio, an object located at a place with less light, an object with high reflectivity, and the like, which results in a difficulty of distance measurement.
Therefore, a mobile terminal which measures the distance according to the related art method using the infrared rays or ultrasonic waves and the TTL method cannot measure an accurate distance, and thereby fails to perform an accurate AF function using those methods. Also, in the related art, the distance measurement technology is merely applied to a limited function, such as the auto focus, but fails to provide various functions and user interfaces (UIs) in association with a capturing scene of a camera or an object online.

Mobile terminal having smart measuring tape and length measuring method thereof


A method for minimizing the amount of catalyst inactivating agent that is present in a liquid fraction recovered from a slurry-based polymer production process, the liquid fraction comprising diluent used in the polymer production process, is disclosed. The method includes steps for controlling the pressure over the liquid fraction collected during diluent recovery so as to minimize the concentration of catalyst inactivating agent that is retained in the recovered liquid fraction. Embodiments of apparatus suitable for conducting the disclosed method are also provided.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,344 describes a slurry loop polymerization (SLPE) system that includes diluent recovery following separation of polymer product and other heavies from a vapor phase that includes diluent, residual monomer(s) and fines of both product and catalyst in a first flash tank and cyclone. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,344 includes a heat exchanger and condenser for liquefying the vapor stream and an accumulator tank in which the liquid is collected. Accumulated condensed diluent is then recycled back to the polymerization reactor.

Vent gas purge optimizer for slurry loop polyethylene reactors


The present invention relates to an improved belt guiding device for treadmill including a rubber roller jacket on both rollers and the rubber rollers jackets are of proper thickness and the length is slightly less than the length of the rollers. So two ends of the rollers are exposed and is equal in length, also, the length of belt strip is narrower than the lengths of rollers and wider than the length of roller jacket. Therefore, after the belt strip is installed and tightly wrapped on the two rollers, the two roller jackets will generate the bent parts of equal length on the belt strip and these bent parts are able to accurately and effectively guide the belt strip along the rollers during the rotation of the belt strip.

(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an improved belt guiding device for treadmill, and more particularly, to a newly invented belt guiding device for treadmill that is structurally simple and has a good belt guiding capability.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
A treadmill is an indoor belt-containing exercise machine that consists of rollers and a belt strip running through these rollers. So, it is desirable that the belt strip remains at the same position when users walk or run on it. Therefore, to prevent the unwanted displacement or shifting of a belt, a belt guiding device is needed to keep a belt at a fixed position.
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment according to prior art of a commonly used belt guiding design. As shown, an angled strip 11 is soldered on both side of the base of the support board 10. These two angled strips 11 press against both sides of the belt, so the object of belt guiding is achieved. However, the advantages of this embodiment including these angled strips are difficult to solder, and these angled strips can be bent, displaced or damaged by transporting or moving this machine.
Therefore, FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the prior art that has been on the market. This embodiment consists a larger guiding disk 14 on both sides of the front rollers 13; these two guiding disks 14 restrain the belt 15 in position so that the belt guiding is achieved. These two guiding disks do have belt guiding function; however, these guiding disks 14 are not a part of the rollers 13 and considered as "extra parts". In addition to the existing rollers, the assembling of these guiding disks is time-consuming and, in turn, increase the manufacturing cost and these guiding disks adversely affect the appearance of the treadmill machine.


The present subject matter is directed to a system and method for controlling an electrical component, e.g. a power bridge, of a wind turbine using contingency communications. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving, by the electrical component, a standard set of commands for a first time frame. A next step includes receiving, by the electrical component, one or more contingency sets of commands for time frames beyond the first time frame. The method also includes determining if the standard set of commands is received within a start window of the first time frame. A further step includes implementing, by the electrical component, the standard set of commands during the first time frame if the standard set of commands is received within the start window. The method also includes implementing, by the electrical component, one of the contingency sets of commands received during a previous time frame if the standard set of commands is not received within the start window.

Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, a nacelle, one or more rotor blades, a gearbox, a generator, and a power converter. The rotor blades capture and transmit kinetic energy in the form of rotational energy so as to turn a shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The gearbox steps up the inherently low rotational speed of the rotor for the generator to efficiently convert the rotational mechanical energy to electrical energy, which is fed into a utility grid via at least one electrical connection. A power converter or bridge is typically used to convert a frequency of a generated electric power to a frequency substantially similar to a utility grid frequency. Conventional wind turbines also typically include a main controller to control various operational modes of the wind turbine.
Various wind turbines also include a converter controller configured to control the power converter. More specifically, the converter controller may be communicatively coupled to the power converter via a bridge logic interface. The bridge logic is a programmable logic device that generally refers to the quasi-intelligent Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). In other words, the bridge logic is the program that is carried in the controller code and downloaded to the power bridge interface card at power-up of the wind turbine. In addition, the bridge logic typically interfaces with the converter controller over a serial link, e.g. a High-Speed Serial Link (HSSL), and the power bridge via discrete signals.
Typically, the communications between the controller and the bridge logic occurs periodically at regular intervals, generally referred to as a "frame." For example, feedback communications are sent from the bridge logic to the controller at the beginning of each frame, and upon receipt of the feedback communications, the controller performs calculations that result in new command communications for the bridge logic for the next frame. The controller then sends the new command communications to the bridge logic before the start of the next frame. Upon receipt, the bridge logic uses information in the new command communications to configure the gating and feedback logic for the next frame.
Due to the number of asynchronous processes running in the controller, however, the bridge logic may not receive the new command communications in a timely fashion. Further, noise in the transmission of the new command communications and/or the feedback communications may delay the communications from being transmitted or received on time. Thus, the gating and feedback logic for the next frame may not be configured properly. For these and other reasons, the bridge logic may experience a resulting disturbance to its gating/command operations and fail to acquire and transmit feedback communications to the controller. Still further electrical components of the wind turbine may experience similar issues when communicating with the controller.
Accordingly, a system and method that addresses the aforementioned problems would be welcomed in the technology. More specifically, a system and method that incorporates contingency communications for the upcoming gating frame and one or more subsequent frames would be advantageous.

System and method of controlling an electronic component of a wind turbine using contingency communications


In a processor employing a delayed branch method, delayed branch control which does not complicate instruction execution sequence and improves the readability of a program on the assembler level is implemented without providing a control bit in an instruction code. The delayed branch control according to the present invention involves the use of a branch-information storing circuit for storing the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a branch in a specified one of a continuous sequence of cycles immediately before a current execute cycle which are equal in number to delay slots in the processor. In executing a delayed branch instruction, when the branch-information storing circuit stores the occurrence of a branch in the specified cycle, a branch is disabled. This prevents instruction execution sequence from being complicated even when individual branch conditions for consecutive delayed branch instructions are satisfied, so that the program on the assembler level is improved in readability. The branch-information storing circuit can simply be composed of a combination of a shift register, a counter, and a latch.

The present invention relates to control of a branch operation in a processor. More particularly, it relates to control of a delayed branch operation in a processor employing a delayed branch method and to control of the rewriting of a conditional flag to be referenced by a conditional branch instruction.
In so-called pipeline processing whereby instructions are executed in a pipelining manner, a method termed delayed branch has conventionally been used. By way of example, a consideration will be given to the case shown in FIG. 10, wherein instructions are executed by pipeline processing consisting of three stages of instruction fetch (F), instruction decode (D), and instruction execute (E). According to the pipeline processing shown in FIG. 10, the decoding of a branch instruction is followed by the fetching of an instruction at the branch destination. What results is a blank slot (delay slot) for at least one stage. The number of the resulting blank slots is given by the number of stages other than the fetch and execute stages in the pipeline processing.
Delayed branch is a method of eliminating a useless blank slot by inserting, in the delay slot, an instruction residing at an address subsequent to a branch instruction. By using the method, improved performance is expected of a processor (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication HEI 4-127237 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication HEI 3-122718).
A conditional branch instruction determines whether or not a branch is implemented based on a conditional flag reflecting the result of executing an operate instruction, a transfer instruction, or the like. There has been a conventional method wherein the flexibility with which instruction execution sequence is determined is increased by controlling the rewriting of a conditional flag. In a RISC processor SPARC, e.g., one control bit for determining whether or not a conditional flag is rewritten is provided in the code of an operate instruction. When the value of the control bit is "1", the result of the operation is reflected in the conditional flag. When the value of the control bit is "0", the conditional flag is not rewritten (see "SPARK Architecture Manual," Sun Microsystems Inc., 1991). The method permits the determination of whether or not the conditional flag is rewritten for each instruction, so that the flexibility with which instruction execution sequence is determined in a compiler or the like is increased.
However, the conventional method has the following problems.
First, in the delayed branch method as mentioned, instruction execution sequence is complicated when a sequence of delayed branch instructions are given consecutively.
FIG. 11 shows an example of a program on the assembler level when a sequence of delayed branch instructions are given consecutively. A first delayed branch instruction br200 (specifying a branch to an address 400 when a condition is satisfied) resides at an address 100. A second delayed branch instruction br400 (specifying a branch to an address 400 when a condition is satisfied) resides at an address 101. FIG. 12 shows a relationship between the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a branch specified by each of the delayed branch instructions and instruction execution sequence in executing the program shown in FIG. 11. The operation of the program shown in FIG. 11 is divided into the two cases where a branch is caused or not caused by the first delayed branch instruction br200 and then further divided into the two cases where a branch is caused or not cause by the second delayed branch instruction br400. As a result, the total of four cases should be considered, as shown in FIG. 12.
In the case where the condition for each of the first and second delayed branch instructions br200 and br400 is satisfied and branches occur, the instruction at the address 200 is fetched because the branch condition for the first delayed branch instruction br200 is satisfied (the instruction at the address 200 is designated at (200)) and then the instruction at the address 400 is fetched because the branch condition for the second delayed branch instruction br400 is satisfied (the instruction at the address 400 is designated at (400)), as shown in FIG. 13. Consequently, the processor performs a complicated operation of jumping to the destination (address 200) of the branch caused by the first delayed branch instruction br200 to execute only one instruction and then further jumping to the destination (address 400) of the branch caused by the second delayed branch instruction br400 to execute an instruction, as shown in FIG. 12.
This seriously impairs the readability of the program on the assembler level, causing a bug in the program.
In particular, an unskilled programmer who does not have full understanding of delayed branch would produce a program without expecting such an operation, so that the program inevitably suffers from a bug. In addition, since the bug is recognized only when individual conditions for consecutive delayed branch instructions are satisfied to cause branches, previous debugging is extremely difficult. Oftentimes, the bug cannot be discovered until the apparatus is activated.
A skilled programmer who has better knowledge of delayed branch would make a proper modification to the program by inserting a no-operate (NOP) instruction between the consecutive delayed branch instructions with a view to avoiding the problem. However, since the modification is troublesome, it is forgotten many a time. Moreover, if the processor has an increased number of delay slots, it is necessary to insert as many no-operate instructions as the delay slots, so that the program becomes redundant and the memory capacity for storing the program is increased accordingly.
The problem may arise even when the delayed branch instructions are not consecutively given but they are relatively close in sequence in the program. Although FIGS. 12 and 13 are based on the assumption that the number of delay slots in the processor is 1, a similar problem occurs when the processor has a larger number of delay slots and the spacing between inconsecutive delayed branch instructions is small relative to the number of delay slots in the processor, which complicates the sequence in which the instructions are executed when individual branch conditions for the instructions are satisfied.
There is another type of processor wherein a control bit for determining whether or not a delayed branch is implemented is provided in the code of a delayed branch instruction (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication HEI 4-127237). If the control bit is 0, the processor does not execute an instruction placed in a delay slot when a branch is enabled. FIG. 14 shows a relationship between the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a branch specified by each of delayed branch instructions and instruction execution sequence when the program shown in FIG. 11 is executed by the processor of this type. In FIG. 14, "***" indicates that the instruction placed in the delay slot is not executed. In this case, if the control bit for the first delayed branch instruction br200 is set to 0, the first delayed branch instruction br200 determines whether or not a branch to the address 200 is implemented and the second delayed branch instruction br400 is executed only when no branch occurs, so that the readability of the program on the assembler level is not impaired.
However, the provision of the control bit for determining the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a delayed branch in the instruction code increases the bit width of the instruction code by 1 bit, so that the memory capacity for storing the program is increased disadvantageously. In particular, an increased memory capacity forms a fatal drawback to a portable telecommunication device in terms of device size, power consumption, manufacturing cost, and the like. Moreover, the processor requires an additional circuit for controlling delayed branch based on the control bit in the delayed branch instruction code, which is to be provided in the instruction decoder of the processor.
Furthermore, in the case where the bit width of the instruction code is preliminarily determined by specifications, the provision of even one control bit adds constraints to device design. If the instruction code is composed of 24 bits, e.g., at most only several bits other than the bits required to represent an instruction type, a specified address, and the like can be used for design. As a result, even one control bit may significantly reduce design flexibility.
A similar problem also occurs in the conventional method of controlling the rewriting of a conditional flag. The provision of a control bit for the rewriting of the conditional flag causes the problem of an increased memory capacity for storing a program, the problem that the instruction decoder requires an additional internal circuit for controlling the rewriting of the conditional flag based on the control bit in an instruction code, and the problem of reduced flexibility with which device design is conducted.

Method and circuit for delayed branch control and method and circuit for conditional-flag rewriting control

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Digital cross-marketing into digital channels is triggered by a cue message in a linear and non-linear television programming stream. The cue message provides advance warning to a local service provider about an upcoming break in the programming stream and also provides information about the break. In addition to triggering insertion of a local ad into the programming stream in accord with the instructions in the cue message, the cue message also initiates action to run one or more ads in other digital media. For example, the cue message may trigger ads in mobile media, Internet-based media, the Internet of Things, and other media.

Consumers in a modern digital household have multiple electronic devices, each of which is capable of connection to a service provided through equipment that is controlled by one or more service providers. FIG. 1 illustrates the typical modern home digital environment, with services of various kinds originating at a national or regional level, then delivered to a local distributor, which in turn makes the services available in the home. For example, a television 10 in the home receives broadcasts through set-top box ("STB") 9 installed in the home near the TV, and the STB receives a signal having multiple channels from the local head-end 8 of a cable company, e.g., a multichannel video programming distributor ("MVPD"), which originates from a national or regional MVPD or network source 7. A smartphone 20 is carried by the user and configured to receive cell signals from local cell tower 19, which is a repeater for signals from the source station 18. Internet service is provided to the home through a modem 30, and a router 31 is coupled with the modem and configured to provide a home Wi-Fi network 35. The home Wi-Fi network 35 allows smartphones, tablets and the like to use the Wi-Fi connection rather than the cellular connection to access the Internet, for example. A desktop computer 32 may be hard-wired to the modem 30, e.g., with an Ethernet cable, or it may connect wirelessly through the Wi-Fi network 35.
In addition, controllers are now available for other household systems and devices to connect through the Wi-Fi network, such as heating and cooling systems through a climate control application 36, power and lights through a power control application 37, security (cameras, window sensors, etc.) through a security application 38, etc. Also, Bluetooth technology is incorporated into many digital devices to enable device-to-device IoT communications. The Internet of Things ("IoT") is a concept where any electronic device can be configured to connect to the Internet for the purpose of collecting and sending information, or receiving and acting on information. This information can be programming, messaging or advertising. A consumer example is the "smart home" where most or all electronic devices (computers, appliances, security systems, etc.) are connected to a home network, many for automated operation, and the devices may be monitored and, to some extent, controlled. A commercial example would be an automated building, with feedback from temperature sensors controlling HVAC equipment, cameras monitoring customer movements, among many other examples, with displays for customers to find information, and for employees to monitor and control aspects of the building operation.
As a result of the large digital footprint, many household devices are now incorporating computer-based controllers including display screens and are configured with an user interface to allow some degree of communication between the device controller, the home network and an Internet-based host application, e.g., for communicating and/or responding to security alerts, or trouble signals, or updates, etc.
Thus, the modern consumer has become accustomed to many digital "screens" not only their home environment, but in many locations, such as shopping malls, office buildings, community centers, etc. Further, consumers are regularly exposed to advertising of all forms, not only in their homes on television and the Internet, but in many public locations. While modern marketing efforts are strongly focused on digital channels for advertising, more conventional marketing efforts such as robo-calls are commonly directed to both landline (legacy) and computer-based telephones. Digital marketing efforts can also be explicitly addressed to reach Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-connected devices, and companies such as 4INFO and a4 Media provide tools and analytics related to targeting, delivering and tracking digital advertisements across multiple devices.
Until recently, digital marketing efforts for television programming have been focused on "over-the-top" ("OTT") digital streaming media rather than conventional linear television programming on cable TV networks. This is primarily because many MVPDs utilize different equipment and different communication and/or signal formatting standards, such that it is difficult for digital advertising platforms to interface effectively with the different MVPDs, but also because most of the advertising spots for linear television programming on cable TV networks are reserved for national advertisers, and there are very few opportunities for local cable head-ends to insert ads from local advertisers.
However, applicant's co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 16/227,160 entitled Integrating Linear TV and Digital Advertising Ecosystems, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a method for opening up the local ad opportunities in linear television programming to the digital marketplace, based on the detection of a "cue message" in the linear programming stream, which triggers selection of a local ad to insert into the linear programming avail. It would be desirable, however, to extend this concept to have the cue message and the selected television ad initiate a cross-marketing effort into other digital media, such as search engines, social media, smart devices, IoT, and other media.

Cross-channel digital and IOT advertising triggered by cable TV cue message


A method compensates for drift in macroblocks of a partially decoded input bitstream. The macroblocks include intra-mode and inter-mode macroblocks, and each macroblock includes DCT coefficients, and at least one motion vector. An estimate of drift is measured in the partially decoded input bitstream. The estimated drift is translated into an intra refresh rate. The modes of inter-mode macroblock are mapped to intra-mode macroblock according to the refresh rate. The DCT coefficients and the motion vector for each changed macroblock are modified in accordance with the mapping for each changed macroblock.

Video compression enables the storing, transmitting, and processing of visual information with fewer storage, network, and processor resources. The most widely used video compression standards include MPEG-1 for storage and retrieval of moving pictures, MPEG-2 for digital television, and H.263 for video conferencing, see ISO/IEC 11172-2:1993, "Information Technology—Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio for Digital Storage Media up to about 1.5 Mbit/s—Part 2: Video," D. LeGall, "MPEG: A Video Compression Standard for Multimedia Applications," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 46-58, 1991, ISO/IEC 13818-2:1996, "Information Technology—Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information—Part 2: Video," 1994, ITU-T SG XV, DRAFT H.263, "Video Coding for Low Bitrate Communication," 1996, ITU-T SG XVI, DRAFT13 H.263+Q15-A-60 rev.0, "Video Coding for Low Bitrate Communication," 1997.
These standards are relatively low-level specifications that primarily deal with a spatial compression of images or frames, and the spatial and temporal compression of sequences of frames. As a common feature, these standards perform compression on a per frame basis. With these standards, one can achieve high compression ratios for a wide range of applications.
Newer video coding standards, such as MPEG-4 for multimedia applications, see ISO/IEC 14496-2:1999, "Information technology—coding of audio/visual objects, Part 2: Visual," allow arbitrary-shaped objects to be encoded and decoded as separate video object planes (VOP). The objects can be visual, audio, natural, synthetic, primitive, compound, or combinations thereof. Also, there is a significant amount of error resilience features built into this standard to allow for robust transmission across error-prone channels, such as wireless channels.
The emerging MPEG-4 standard is intended to enable multimedia applications, such as interactive video, where natural and synthetic materials are integrated, and where access is universal. In the context of video transmission, these compression standards are needed to reduce the amount of bandwidth on networks. The networks can be wireless or the Internet. In any case, the network has limited capacity, and contention for scarce resources should be minimized.
A great deal of effort has been placed on systems and methods that enable devices to transmit the content robustly and to adapt the quality of the content to the available network resources. When the content is encoded, it is sometimes necessary to further decode the bitstream before it can be transmitted through the network at a lower bit-rate or resolution.
As shown in FIG. 1, this can be accomplished by a transcoder 100. In a simplest implementation, the transcoder 100 includes a cascaded decoder 110 and encoder 120. A compressed input bitstream 101 is fully decoded at an input bit-rate Rin, then encoded at an output bit-rate Rout 102 to produce the output bitstream 103. Usually, the output rate is lower than the input rate. In practice, full decoding and full encoding in a transcoder is not done due to the high complexity of encoding the decoded bitstream.
Earlier work on MPEG-2 transcoding has been published by Sun et al., in "Architectures for MPEG compressed bitstream scaling," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Apr. 1996. There, four methods of rate reduction, with varying complexity and architecture, were described.
FIG. 2 shows a first example method 200, which is referred to as an open-loop architecture. In this architecture, the input bitstream 201 is only partially decoded. More specifically, macroblocks of the input bitstream are variable-length decoded (VLD) 210 and inverse quantized 220 with a fine quantizer Q1, to yield discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients. Given the desired output bit-rate 202, the DCT blocks are a re-quantized by a coarser level quantizer Q2 of the quantizer 230. These re-quantized blocks are then variable-length coded (VLC) 240, and a new output bitstream 203 at a lower rate is formed. This scheme is much simpler than the scheme shown in FIG. 1 because the motion vectors are re-used and an inverse DCT operation is not needed. Note, here the choice of Q1 and Q2 strictly depend on rate characteristics of the bitstream. Other factors, such as possibly, spatial characteristics of the bitstream are not considered.
FIG. 3 shows a second example method 300. This method is referred to as a closed-loop architecture. In this method, the input video bitstream is again partially decoded, i.e., macroblocks of the input bitstream are variable-length decoded (VLD) 310, and inverse quantized 320 with Q1 to yield discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients 321. In contrast to the first example method described above, correction DCT coefficients 332 are added 330 to the incoming DCT coefficients 321 to compensate for the mismatch produced by re-quantization. This correction improves the quality of the reference frames that will eventually be used for decoding. After the correction has been added, the newly formed blocks are re-quantized 340 with Q2 to satisfy a new rate, and variable-length coded 350, as before. Note, again Q1 and Q2 are rate based.
To obtain the correction component 332, the re-quantized DCT coefficients are inverse quantized 360 and subtracted 370 from the original partially decoded DCT coefficients. This difference is transformed to the spatial domain via an I inverse DCT (IDCT) 365 and stored into a frame memory 380. The motion vectors 381 associated with each incoming block are then used to recall the corresponding difference blocks, such as in motion compensation 290. The corresponding blocks are then transformed via the DCT 332 to yield the correction component. A derivation of the method shown in FIG. 3 is described in "A frequency domain video transcoder for dynamic bit-rate reduction of MPEG-2 bitstreams," by Assuncao et al., IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, pp. 953-957, 1998.
Assuncao et al. also described an alternate method for the same task. In the alternative method, they used a motion compensation (MC) loop operating in the frequency domain for drift compensation. Approximate matrices were derived for fast computation of the MC blocks in the frequency domain. A Lagrangian optimization was used to calculate the best quantizer scales for transcoding. That alternative method removed the need for the IDCT/DCT components.
According to prior art compression standards, the number of bits allocated for encoding texture information is controlled by a quantization parameter (QP). The above methods are similar in that changing the QP based on information that is contained in the original bitstream reduces the rate of texture bits. For an efficient implementation, the information is usually extracted directly from the compressed domain and can include measures that relate to the motion of macroblocks or residual energy of DCT blocks. The methods describes above are only applicable for bit-rate reduction.
Besides bit-rate reduction, other types of transformation of the bitstream can also be performed. For example, object-based transformations have been described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/504,323, "Object-Based Bitstream Transcoder," filed on Feb. 14, 2000 by Vetro et al. Transformations on the spatial resolution have been described in "Heterogeneous video transcoding to lower spatio-temporal resolutions, and different encoding formats," IEEE Transaction on Multimedia, Jun. 2000, by Shanableh and Ghanbari.
It should be noted these methods produce bitstreams at a reduced spatial resolution reduction that lack quality, or are accomplished with high complexity. Also, proper consideration has not been given to the means by which reconstructed macroblocks are formed. This can impact both the quality and complexity, and is especially important when considering reduction factors different than two. Moreover, these methods do not specify any architectural details. Most of the attention is spent on various means of scaling motion vectors by a factor of two.
FIG. 4 shows the details of a method 400 for transcoding an input bitstream to an output bitstream 402 at a lower spatial resolution. This method is an extension of the method shown in FIG. 1, but with the details of the decoder 110 and encoder 120 shown, and a down-sampling block 410 between the decoding and encoding processes. The decoder 110 performs a partial decoding of the bitstream. The down-sampler reduces the spatial resolution of groups of partially macroblocks. Motion compensation 420 in the decoder uses the full-resolution motion vectors mvf 421, while motion compensation 430 in the encoder uses low-resolution motion vectors mvr 431. The low-resolution motion vectors are either estimated from the down-sampled spatial domain frames yn1 403, or mapped from the full-resolution motion vectors. Further detail of the transcoder 400 are described below.
FIG. 5 shows the details of an open-loop method 500 for transcoding an input bitstream 501 to an output bitstream 502 at a lower spatial resolution. In this method, the video bitstream is again partially decoded, i.e., macroblocks of the input bitstream are variable-length decoded (VLD) 510 and inverse quantized 520 to yield discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients, these steps are well known.
The DCT macroblocks are then down-sampled 530 by a factor of two by masking the high frequency coefficients of each 8×8 (23×23)luminance block in the 16×16 (24×24) macroblock to yield four 4×4 DCT blocks, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,854, "Low-resolution HDTV receivers," issued to Ng on Nov. 16, 1993. In other words, down-sampling turns a group of blocks, for example four, into a group of four blocks of a smaller size.
By performing down-sampling in the transcoder, the transcoder must take additional steps to re-form a compliant 16×16 macroblock, which involves transformation back to the spatial domain, then again to the DCT domain. After the down-sampling, blocks are re-quantized 540 using the same quantization level, and then variable length coded 550. No methods have been described to perform rate control on the reduced resolution blocks.
To perform motion vector mapping 560 from full 559 to reduced 561 motion vectors, several methods suitable for frame-based motion vectors have been described in the prior art. To map from four frame-based motion vectors, i.e., one for each macroblock in a group, to one motion vector for the newly formed 16×16 macroblock, simple averaging or median filters can be applied. This is referred to as a 4:1 mapping.
However, certain compression standards, such as MPEG-4 and H.263, support advanced prediction modes that allow one motion vector per 8×8 block. In this case, each motion vector is mapped from a 16×16 macroblock in the original resolution to an 8×8 block in the reduced resolution macroblock. This is referred to as a 1:1 mapping.
FIG. 6 shows possible mappings 600 of motion vector from a group of four 16×16 macroblocks 601 to either one 16×16 macroblock 602 or four 8×8 macroblocks 603. It is inefficient to always use the 1:1 mapping because more bits are used to code four motion vectors. Also, in general, the extension to field-based motion vectors for interlaced images is non-trivial. Given the down-sampled DCT coefficients and mapped motion vectors, the data are subject to variable length coding and the reduced resolution bitstream can be formed as is well known.
It is desired to provide a method for transcoding bitstreams that overcomes the problems of the prior art methods for spatial resolution reduction. Furthermore, it is desired to provide a balance between complexity and quality in the transcoder. Furthermore it is desired to compensate for drift, and provide better up-sampling techniques during the transcoding.

Video transcoder with drift compensation