An inline measuring device serves for measuring a medium, especially a gaseous and/or liquid medium, in a pipeline. It includes, a vibration-type measurement pickup and a measuring device electronics electrically coupled with the measurement pickup. The measurement pickup has at least one measuring tube vibrating during operation and communicating with the pipeline, an electromechanical, especially electrodynamic, exciter mechanism acting on the at least one measuring tube for producing and maintaining mechanical oscillations of the measuring tube, a sensor arrangement for producing at least one oscillation measurement signal representing oscillations of the measuring tube and having at least one oscillation sensor arranged on the measuring tube or in its vicinity, and a measurement pickup housing. In an inline measuring device of the invention, it is additionally provided that the measuring device electronics monitors a static internal pressure within the measurement pickup housing and/or a hermeticity of the at least one measuring tube.

In process and automation technology, physical parameters, such as e.g. mass flow rate, density and/or viscosity, of a medium flowing in a pipeline are often measured using inline measuring devices, which, by means of a vibration-type measurement pickup flowed-through by the medium and a measuring and operating circuit connected thereto, bring about, in the medium, reaction forces, such as e.g. Coriolis forces corresponding with the mass flow rate, inertial forces corresponding with the density of the medium and/or frictional forces corresponding with the viscosity of the medium, etc. and produce, derived from these, a measurement signal representing the current mass flow rate, the current viscosity and/or the current density of the medium.
Such measurement pickups, especially such as are embodied as Coriolis mass flow meters or Coriolis mass flow/density pickups, are described extensively and in detail e.g. in WO-A 04/099735, WO-A 04/038341, WO-A 03/076879, WO-A 03/027616, WO-A 03/021202, WO-A 01/33174, WO-A 00/571/41, WO-A 98/07009, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,880,410, 6,851,323, 6,807,866, 6,711,958, 6,666,098, 6,308,580, 6,092,429, 5,796,011, 6,006,609, 5,602,345, 5,301,557, 4,876,898, 4,793,191, EP-A 553 939, EP-A 1 001 254, EP-A 12 48 084, EP-A 1 448 956, or EP-A 1 421 349. For conveying the, at least at times, flowing medium, the measurement pickups include at least one pickup tube held appropriately oscillatably in a, most often, thicker, especially tubular and/or beam-like, support cylinder, or in a support frame. In addition, these measurement pickups have a second pickup tube, mechanically coupled with the first pickup tube at least by means of two, especially, however, four, coupling elements (also called node plates, or couplers) and likewise vibrating, at least at times, wherein at last the first pickup tube is embodied as a first measuring tube communicating with the pipeline and serving to convey the medium to be measured. For producing the aforementioned reaction forces, the two pickup tubes are caused to vibrate during operation, driven by a, most often, electrodynamic exciter mechanism, with the two pickup tubes executing, at least at times, bending oscillations about an imaginary oscillation axis essentially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the measurement pickup. For registering vibrations, especially inlet-end and outlet-end vibrations, of the pickup tube and for producing at least one oscillation measurement signal representing the vibrations, such measurement pickups have, additionally, in each case, a sensor arrangement reacting to movements, and, to such extent, also to mechanical oscillations, of the pickup tube.
During operation, the measurement-pickup inner oscillation system, formed by the at least one pickup tube embodied as measuring tube, the medium conveyed at least instantaneously therein, and, at least partly, by the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement, is excited by means of the electromechanical exciter mechanism to oscillate mechanically, at least at times, in a wanted oscillation mode at at least one, dominating, wanted oscillation frequency. These oscillations in the so-called wanted oscillation mode are, most often, and especially in the case of use of the measurement pickup as a Coriolis mass flow- and/or density-meter, developed, at least partially, as lateral oscillations. Selected as the wanted oscillation frequency is, in such case, usually a natural, instantaneous resonance frequency of the inner oscillation system, which, in turn, depends both on the size, the shape and the material of the pickup tube and also on an instantaneous density of the medium; under the right circumstances, the wanted oscillation frequency can also be influenced significantly by an instantaneous viscosity of the medium. As a result of fluctuating density of the medium to be measured and/or as a result of medium change produced during operation, the wanted oscillation frequency is naturally changeable during operation of the measurement pickup, at least within a calibrated and, to such extent, predetermined, wanted frequency band, which has, correspondingly, a predetermined lower limit frequency and a predetermined upper limit frequency.
The inner oscillation system of the measurement pickup formed in common by the least one pickup tube, the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement is, additionally, usually housed by a pickup housing including, as an integral component thereof, the support frame, or support cylinder, as the case may be. The pickup housing is mechanically coupled with the pipeline via an inlet end and an outlet end. Pickup housings appropriately suited for vibration-type measurement pickups are described, for example, in WO-A 03/076879, WO-A 03/021202, WO-A 01/65213, WO-A 00/57141, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,776,052, 6,711,958, 6,044,715, 5,301,557, and EP-A 1 001 254. Especially in the case of measurement pickups with bent pickup tubes, the pickup housing has a housing cap connected with the support frame, especially welded therewith. The housing cap surrounds the pickup tube, at least partially.
The measurement pickup housing serves, besides holding the at least one measuring tube, especially also for protecting the measuring tube, the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement, as well as other internal components, from external, environmental influences, such as e.g. dust or water spray. Examples of corresponding housing caps for a vibration-type measurement pickup for housing at least one bent tube segment, which, as part of a fluid-conveying measuring tube, vibrates during operation of the measurement pickup, are described e.g. in WO-A 03/021202, WO-A 03/021203, WO-A 00/57141, U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,557, and EP-A 1 001 254.
Users frequently demand of such housings that, in the case of an unsealed or bursting measuring tube, they withstand, leak-free, at least for a specified period of time, the static internal pressure, which then, most often, lies distinctly above the external pressure; compare, in this connection, also WO-A 00/57 141, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,044,715, 5,301,557, or EP-A 1 001 254. At least for applications with toxic or easily ignitable fluids, the measurement pickup housing must also, in certain circumstances, be able to fulfill the requirements for a safety container. A problem associated therewith is, however, especially for applications with media under high static pressure of over 100 bar, that, after the measuring tube has become unsealed and, therefore, the measurement pickup housing is, under the right circumstances, loaded with an increased internal pressure, an explosion of the measurement pickup housing and/or an electronics housing appropriately affixed to the measurement pickup housing for the measuring device electronics can unexpectedly occur, which, while delayed, is nevertheless just as devastating in effect. This can especially occur, when the pipeline conveying the medium is loaded with unpredictably high pressures and/or with a series of pressure shocks of unpredictably high frequency and/or repetition rate. Beyond this, the measuring tube and measurement pickup housing can also fail due to material flaws and/or fatigue, even after long periods of operation, at pressure values which are really quite within specifications.
On the other hand, it is oftentimes not possible, especially in the case of environmentally endangering media, for example highly toxic and/or highly explosive substances, to use otherwise appropriate safety outlets, such as e.g. burst disks and/or excess pressure valves, for reducing possible excess pressures in the measurement pickup, since a contamination of the environment with the medium must, most often, be prevented with certainty.

Inline measuring device with a vibration-type measurement pickup


A height adjustment mechanism for a chair armrest contains: an inner tube, an adjusting member, an outer tube, a driving block, a fixing member, and a resilient element. The inner tube includes a base, an accommodating groove, and an elongated hole. The adjusting member includes a guiding slot, two toothed racks, and a plurality of guide teeth, wherein each guide tooth has a first crown portion, a first root portion, and a first bottom face. The outer tube includes a support plate an orifice. The driving block includes a pressing portion, two flanges, and plural positioning teeth, wherein a number of the plural positioning teeth is less than that of the plurality of guide teeth. The fixing member includes a first segment and a second segment. The resilient element is fixed in the inner tube and includes a first end abutting against the driving block and the fixing member.

Chair armrests are fixed on two sides of a chair and are employed to adjust a height of the chair armrests. A conventional height adjustment mechanism is in a step adjusting type or a stepless adjusting type, wherein when the conventional height adjustment mechanism is in a step adjusting type, it contains an inner tube with two racks and an outer tube with plural adjustment teeth for meshing with the two racks, thus adjusting the chair armrests toward a desired height. However, a pith of each adjustment teeth is too large, so an adjusting range is limited. Moreover, when the conventional height adjustment mechanism is in a stepless adjusting type, it contains an inner tube, an outer tube, and a forcing element, such that the forcing element forces the inner tube and the outer tube to adjust the chair armrests toward a desired height. Nevertheless, the inner tube and the outer tube cannot be fixed securely.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

Height adjustment mechanism for chair armrest and driving block thereof


A sheet for temporarily marking a portion of a document. The sheet comprising an elongate layer of flexible polymeric material having a coating of repositionable pressure sensitive adhesive on a second end portion while being free of adhesive on both of the side surfaces along a first end portion thereof. The first end portion is visually distinctive, and the adhesive coated second end portion is generally transparent when adhered to a substrate. The second end portion has a coating along one of its side surfaces that visually distinguishes the second end portion from a substrate when the second end portion is adhered to a substrate while being sufficiently transparent to afford reading indicia on the substrate through the second end portion.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,320 describes a product sold by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company under the commercial designation "Post-it" brand tape flags. The tape flags are sheets for temporarily marking portions of documents, each of which sheets comprises an elongate layer of flexible polymeric material having a coating of repositionable pressure sensitive adhesive on one of its side surfaces along a second end portion, while being free of adhesive on both of its side surfaces along a first end portion thereof. Both of its end portions are adapted to be written on. Its first end portion is visually distinctive, and its adhesive coated second end portion is generally transparent when adhered to a substrate. Such a tape flag or sheet is useful for marking a portion of a document by having its second end portion adhered thereto while its first end portion projects beyond an edge of the document so that the marked portion of the document can be readily identified. In many cases, the portion of the document adjacent which the tape flag is adhered is that portion on which a person is to write information or sign the document. The portion of the tape flag adhered to the document is transparent, which is an advantage in that the person can then read information on the document adjacent the portion of the document on which the person is to add information or sign. It has been found, however, that persons often write information or sign at least partially over the transparent second end portion of the tape flag, thereby causing at least a portion of the information or of the signature to be lost when the tape flag is subsequently removed.

Tape flag with transparent boundary indicating coating


According to one embodiment, a card connector for receiving digital broadcasting includes a store portion into which a card for receiving digital broadcasting is inserted so as to be ejectable, and an ejection prevention mechanism configured to prevent the card stored in the store portion from being ejected. The card connector can automatically release the ejection prevention mechanism when the card is inserted into the store portion, and can automatically actuate the ejection prevention mechanism after the card is inserted into the store portion.

Electronic apparatuses such as televisions, tuners, set-top boxes, etc., for receiving various types of digital broadcasting such as digital satellite broadcasting, digital terrestrial television broadcasting, and 110 degrees east longitude CS digital broadcasting are known. Such an apparatus is equipped with a card connector which stores a card such as a BS Conditional Access Systems card (B-CAS card) to enable digital broadcasting to be received so as to limit recipients of video or audio digital data.
The card connector may be equipped with an ejection prevention mechanism which prevents the stored card for enabling digital broadcasting to be received from being ejected. According to a conventional eject prevention mechanism, ejection prevention must be released manually when the card is inserted and manually engaged again after the card has been inserted.

Card connector for receiving digital broadcasting and electronic apparatus


A system and method is provided for designing (or re-architecting) a personal digital assistant (PDA) as a portable thin client of a network. The portable thin client is a small, stateless, “plug and work” computer whose main function is to process all input and output for the user, as well as to manage communication with at least one server. All other computational tasks (or services) for the user of the PDA are performed on the server which is shared amongst a community of thin clients. As a result of re-architecting the PDA as a portable thin client, there is no need to download application(s) and operating system(s) running the application(s) to the PDA because the server—through the network—provides these services. In addition, no data is lost when a PDA is faulty or has to be changed. Moreover, in one embodiment, the portable thin client (or thin client PDA) includes smart card capabilities so that an enterprise (or business organization) can pool its PDAs with the users of the PDA on a need-to-use basis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems and, in particular, to portable computer systems.
2. Background
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a small hand-held computer for storing addresses and phone numbers, taking notes, and keeping track of daily appointments. And, unlike a paper organizer, a PDA can download e-mail and play music. Though originally intended to be simple digital calendars, PDAs have evolved into machines for crunching numbers, playing games or music, and downloading information from the Internet. However, typically a PDA is intended to complement a desktop or laptop computer (PC), not replace one.
PDAs can be categorized into two major categories: hand-held computers and palm-sized computers. Compared to palm-sized computers, hand-held computers tend to be larger and heavier. They have larger liquid crystal displays (LCD) and use a miniature keyboard, usually in combination with touch-screen technology, for data entry. Palm-sized computers are smaller and lighter. They have smaller LCDs and rely on stylus/touch-screen technology and handwriting recognition programs for data entry. Regardless of the type of PDA, conventional PDAs all include microprocessors, operating systems, local memories, and input/output devices.
The microprocessor is the brain of the PDA and coordinates all of the PDA's functions according to programmed instructions. The operating system of the PDA contains the pre-programmed instructions that tell the microprocessor what to do (e.g., how to operate the applications executed by the microprocessor). The PDA stores its basic programs (address book application, calendar application, memo pad application and operating system) in a read-only memory (ROM) chip, which remains intact even when the machine shuts down. The other data and programs that are added later are stored in the PDA's random-access memory (RAM), static RAM, and/or flash memory.
Because a typical PDA is intended to work in tandem with a PC, they need to work with the same information in both places. That is, if a PDA user makes an appointment on its PC, it also needs to transfer the appointment to its PDA; if the user jots down a phone number on its PDA, it should upload the number later to its PC. So, a PDA needs to be able to communicate with a PC. The communication between PDA and PC is referred to as data synchronization or "syncning." This is typically done through a serial or USB port on the PDA. Some PDAs also offer wireless methods to transfer data to and from a PC/PC network, e.g., through a wireless e-mail/Internet service provider. In addition, some PDAs offer modem accessories to transfer files to and from a PC/PC network.
While PDAs are starting to have wireless network connectivity to facilitate data synchronization or syncing with the PC, they still rely on a locally stored operating system and applications to provide their functionalities. In this respect, the hardware resources available on the PDAs and the applications downloaded to the PDAs limit the capabilities of the conventional PDAs. Similarly, users of the PDAs have to configure the PDAs for their usage with the correct applications and parameters. In addition, if a user needs a new PDA due to a fault (or failure) of the current PDA or due to the current PDA having insufficient hardware resources, the user has to repeat the configuration process. Moreover, each PDA user needs to have its own PDA even if it only needs a PDA for a small fraction of the time. Therefore, a lot of time and cost are lost because conventional PDAs have to be periodically and individually provided, reconfigured and/or upgraded. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a PDA system and method with the advantages of a conventional PDA but avoiding the need to periodically and individually provide, reconfigure, and upgrade the PDA.
Moreover, conventional PDAs need to have sufficient memory (or storage) capacity and processing capability to execute applications locally. These requirements may conflict with the need or aim of having smaller and smaller PDAs, which may not have enough storage capacity or processing capability for storing or processing, respectively, large applications (or software programs or large parts of software programs). Accordingly, it is further desired to provide a system and method for providing a small (or thin) PDA without reducing the PDA's capabilities.

Portable thin client for the enterprise workspace


A medicament nebulizer in which a liquid medicament is drawn through capillary flow along a bell shaped path to an annular medicament orifice. Pressurized atomization air is discharged from an orifice and is directed against a deflector which causes the air to flow with a swirling turbulence over one or more medicament orifices. The atomization air aspirates medicament from the medicament orifice and atomizes the medicament. The turbulent swirling flow of the atomization air decreases the average size of the droplets in the resulting aerosol. The flow path of the aerosol through an aerosol chamber to a mouthpiece may rapidly change directions to facilitate condensation of any large droplets in the aerosol. Alternately, a swirling or spiral flow direction may be imparted to the aerosol as it passes through the aerosol chamber to cause any larger droplets to contact and condense on the walls of the chamber.

Various types of nebulizers have been designed for generating a liquid medication aerosol for delivery to a patient's lungs. In designing a medicament nebulizer, a common goal is to produce an aerosol having as droplets which are very small and as uniform as possible. Only the small droplets will remain in suspension to penetrate deep into a patients lungs. Because of their mass and inertia, any larger size droplets inhaled by a patient will tend to collide with and collect on the walls of the respiratory tract before penetrating deep into the lungs. Generally, the medicament must penetrate deep into the lungs to produce the desired therapeutic effect. Medicament which never reaches the effective areas of the lungs is wasted and consequently increases the cost of the treatment.
As a patient inhales through a mouth piece in one common type of nebulizer, ambient air is drawn through a chamber to the patient. Pressurized air also is delivered to the chamber and is directed over a liquid orifice to aspirate and atomize liquid medicament, thereby forming an aerosol. Normally, the aerosol is mixed with the flow of ambient air which the patient inhales. However, the aerosol may be mixed with oxygen or with oxygen enriched air when required by the patient. Various techniques have been used to deliver the liquid to the orifice, to the make the liquid droplets in the aerosol as small as possible and to separate any larger droplets from the aerosol while the droplets remain in the nebulizer.
In one prior art nebulizer design, pressurized atomization air is discharged through an orifice and is deflected to flow over a fluid orifice to aspirate a fluid stream from the orifice and to atomize the fluid into small droplets as the fluid stream is drawn into the stream of atomization air. The droplets will have a range of sizes. The resulting aerosol is mixed with a larger volume flow of ambient air as it is drawn into the patient's lungs when the patient inhales. Various types of deflectors have been used to direct the atomization air over the fluid orifice to aspirate and atomize the fluid. In one nebulizer design, two fluid orifices are provided on diametrically opposite sides of an atomization air orifice. The atomization air is directed against a deflector bar which splits the air flow into two streams, one flowing over each orifice. In another nebulizer design, the atomization air is discharged from an orifice which is concentric with an annular fluid orifice. The atomization air is directed against a rounded or conical deflector to direct the air flow in a radial pattern over the annular fluid orifice. After the liquid is atomized, it is mixed with a larger volume flow of ambient air when the patient inhales. When the patient is not inhaling, the droplets in the aerosol condense on the interior walls of the nebulizer and flow back to the reservoir. Typically, the aerosol is directed either downwardly towards a fluid reservoir or radially outwardly towards the walls of the reservoir and then flows upwardly towards an aerosol outlet. When the aerosol is caused to follow a tortuous flow path in the nebulizer, the larger droplets tend to collide with and condense on the walls of the chamber and flow back to the fluid reservoir.
One problem with certain prior art nebulizer designs is that the fluid will flow to the fluid orifices for atomization only when the nebulizer is held in an upright orientation. As the atomizer is tilted, the fluid flow to the fluid orifice may decrease and the quantity of droplets generated may drop off and eventually cease, and the average size of the droplets may change. When a patient confined to a bed requires respiratory therapy using a nebulizer, it may be necessary to significantly tilt the nebulizer in order to administer the therapy. Also, sometimes younger children may not hold the nebulizer in an upright position while receiving therapy. Even when nebulizers have been designed to permit tilting during use, they often had a significant residual volume of medicament which could not be atomized by the tilted nebulizer.
Some nebulizers use capillary feed for delivering a flow of liquid from a reservoir to the liquid discharge orifice where the liquid is atomized. So long as a portion of the capillary flow passage is submerged in liquid in the reservoir, liquid will tend to flow to the liquid discharge orifice. In one prior art design, the reservoir has a rounded bottom which delivers the liquid to the lower end of a generally tubular capillary flow passage. However, tilting this nebulizer to any significant degree will interrupt liquid flow, since the inlet end of the capillary feed passage will no longer be submerged in the liquid. In another prior art design, the reservoir has a generally flat bottom extending to a circular side wall. A disk is spaced slightly from the bottom and from the side wall to form a disk shaped capillary fluid feed passage. Near the center of the reservoir, the disk shaped passage connects with a tubular shaped capillary fluid feed passage which leads to the liquid discharge orifice. This construction creates a long fluid feed passage with a 90.degree. bend in the middle. In still another prior art design, an upwardly extending conical capillary passage extends from near a circular side wall of the reservoir to a fluid discharge orifice which surrounds an atomization air orifice. The conical capillary fluid feed passage has a disadvantage in that the upwardly extending conical center in the reservoir limits the capacity of the reservoir unless the size of the reservoir is increased.
Many of the prior art nebulizers are designed to be used only once or a few times and to then be thrown away. The nebulizer design may not lend itself to be easily cleaned so that the nebulizer can be reused.


The horizontal address and the vertical address of a picture image are arrayed at the lower and upper order sides, respectively, and allocated to a lower order side column address and an upper order side column address of the synchronous DRAM employed as a picture memory, respectively. A bank switching address is allocated between the upper most bit of the horizontal address and the lower most bit of the row address to enable data to be read continuously to achieve high-speed accessing and improve the utilization efficiency of the data bus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a moving picture decoding device for reading picture data from a picture memory responsive to a motion vector for decoding the moving picture.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of systems for compressing and encoding moving picture signals, such as television telephone or television conference signals or telecast signals. Recently, a hybrid encoding system, such as MC-DCT, which consists in a combination of a so-called motion compensated (MC) inter-frame prediction and discrete cosine transform (DCT), is thought to be promising.
FIG. 1 shows a circuit for an encoding device conforming to the above-mentioned MC-DCT hybrid system. In this figure, moving picture signals, such as television signals, are supplied as input signals to an input terminal 111. These input signals are supplied to a motion detection circuit 113 and a subtractive node 114 via a picture memory 112 employed as a frame memory. An output of the subtractive node 114 is transmitted to a DCT circuit 115 for discrete cosine transformation and thence supplied to a quantizer 116 for quantization before being supplied to a series circuit consisting of a inverse quantization unit 117 and an inverse DCT (IDCT) circuit 118 as a local decoder. An output of the IDCT circuit 118 is supplied via an additive node 119 to a picture memory 120 employed as a frame memory. An output read from the picture memorv 120 is transmitted to the motion detection circuit 113 and to a motion compensation circuit 121. The motion detection information such as the motion vector from the motion detection circuit 113 is transmitted to the motion compensation circuit 121 and to a variable length coding circuit 123. An output of the motion compensation circuit 121 is supplied to the subtractive node 114 and to the additive node 119.
It is noted that the input signals are stored temporarily in the picture memory 112 and subsequently read out and processed on the basis of a block of a pre-set size. The motion detection circuit 113 compares the values of pixels of a signal block from the picture memory 112 to the values of pixels of locally decoded signals from the picture memory 120 for detecting the motion vector. The motion compensation circuit 121 outputs a reference block to the subtractive node 114 based on this motion vector. The subtractive node 114 outputs a difference between the input signal block and the reference block. The difference output is discrete cosine transformed by the DCT circuit 115 and quantized by the quantizer 116 before being supplied to the variable length coding unit 123 such as an entropy coding unit for variable length coding. The motion vector from the motion detection circuit 113 is also supplied to the variable length coding unit 123.
An output of the variable length coding unit 123 is supplied to a transmitting buffer memory 125 where the coded data to be transmitted is stored transiently. These coded data are supplied to the quantizer 116 and to the variable length coding unit 123. In this manner, the operation of quantization and variable length coding is carried out by the quantizer 116 and the variable length coding unit 123 so that the amount of transmitted data per unit time will be constant. The coded data, which is caused to be transmitted in a constant quantity per unit time, is transmitted over a communication network via an output terminal 126 or recorded or reproduced on or from a recording medium.
In decoding the signals, processed with the above-described MC-DCT hybrid coding operations, by the local decoder within the encoder or within the moving picture device, it is necessary to read out data of a frame directly preceding the current frame from the frame memory depending on the motion vector to perform motion compensation thereon.
The frame memory is made up of a number of memory elements, such as DRAMs, and is adapted for reading out data from the memory elements by parallel reading with four bytes, as an example, as a word, at a rate of one byte from each memory element. Consequently, in decoding the signals coded in accordance with the above-described MC-DCT hybrid coding, by way of picture decoding, it is necessary to have a high-speed access to the frame memory.
However, if a DRAM shown in FIG. 2, in which access to the data is had by row and column addresses, is employed as a frame memory, it has been impossible to read out data continuously.
An illustrative method for reading out data from this DRAM is explained with reference to a timing chart of FIG. 3. In this figure, "CLK" denotes clock pulses. "/CS" denotes a logical signal to be supplied to an L-active chip select terminal and its timing. "/RAS" denotes a logical signal to be supplied to a random access terminal for a row which is L-active and its timing. "/CAS" denotes a logical signal to be supplied to a random access terminal for a column which is L-active. "/WE" (not shown in FIG. 3) denotes aolgical signal to be supplied to a write enable terminal which is L-active and its timing. "Add" denotes the state of the setting line for the row and column addresses. "Out" denotes a readout data output. More precisely, the logical signal of chip select (CS) is L-active, so that it is expressed as "/CS". Similarly, the row and column addresses are also L-active, so that they are expressed as "/RAS" and "/CAS", respectively. The logical signal of write enable is also L-active, so that it is expressed as "/WE". The setting line for the row and column addresses is "Add". The readout data output is "Out". When an L-level logical signal is applied as "/CS" and "/RAS", and an H-level logical signal is supplied as "/CAS", "Add" is set to a row address R.sub.0. When an L-level logical signal is applied as the logical signals "/CS" and "/CAS", and an H-level logical signal is supplied to "/RAS", "Add" is set to a column address C.sub.o. Data D.sub.00, D.sub.10 . . . , D.sub.70 are then outputted as "Out" after the third clock after the setting of the column address C.sub.0.
After outputting of a data D.sub.70, an L-level logic signal is again applied to the terminals "/CS" and "/RAS", and an H-level logic signal is applied to the terminal "/CAS". At this time, the state "Add" is set to a row address R.sub.1. Then, an L-level logic signal is applied to each of the terminals "/CS" and "/RAS", and an H-level logic signal is applied to the terminal "/RAS". At this time, the state "Add" is set to a column address C.sub.1. Then, after the third clock after such setting of C.sub.1, data D.sub.01, D.sub.11, D.sub.21, . . . are outputted as "Out".
That is, if the DRAM is employed as the picture memory as described above, it becomes necessary to set the row address each time the row is changed, such that continuous data reading is not possible, that is data D.sub.01 cannot be outputted after data D.sub.70 without setting a time interval corresponding to five clocks.


A detection device includes a drive circuit of a physical quantity transducer, a synchronization signal output circuit, and a detection circuit that performs detection of a physical quantity signal based on a physical quantity. The synchronization signal output circuit includes a delay locked loop (DLL) circuit that includes: a delay control circuit that outputs a delay control signal and a delay circuit that includes a plurality of delay units in which a delay time is controlled by the delay control signal; an adjustment circuit that includes at least one delay unit in which a delay time is controlled by the delay control signal, and outputs a signal obtained by delaying an input signal based on the output signal from the drive circuit to the DLL circuit; and an output circuit that outputs the synchronization signal based on multi-phase clock signals from the DLL circuit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a detection device, a sensor, an electronic apparatus, a moving object and the like.
2. Related Art
A gyro sensor for detecting a physical quantity that changes due to external factors is used in electronic apparatuses such as a digital camera or a smart phone, or a moving object such as a vehicle or an airplane. The gyro sensor detects a physical quantity such as an angular velocity, and is used for image stabilization, posture control, GPS autonomous navigation or the like.
For example, a vibration gyro sensor such as a quartz crystal piezoelectric vibration gyro sensor is known as one of the gyro sensors. In the vibration gyro sensor, a physical quantity corresponding to a Coriolis force generated by rotation is detected.
In such a gyro sensor detection device, a synchronization detection circuit for removal of an unnecessary signal is often provided. In order to perform appropriate synchronization detection, it is necessary to appropriately adjust the phase relationship between a detection signal from a vibrator and a synchronization signal (reference signal or detection signal) used in the synchronization detection circuit. As a related art technique relating to such phase adjustment, for example, techniques disclosed in JP-A-2012-163477 and JP-A-2009-281888 are known.
For example, JP-A-2012-163477 discloses a technique in which a phase adjustment circuit configured by a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit is provided to perform synchronization signal phase adjustment. JP-A-2009-281888 discloses a technique in which a phase adjustment circuit configured by a delay locked loop (DLL) circuit is provided to perform synchronization signal phase adjustment.
However, in the technique of JP-A-2012-163477 in which the phase adjustment circuit is configured by the PLL circuit, for example, there are problems in that power consumption increases or the size of the circuit increases.
Further, in the technique of JP-A-2009-281888 in which the phase adjustment circuit is configured by the DLL circuit, in order to realize fine phase adjustment, it is necessary to provide a delay circuit in which plural delay units with a small phase adjustment amount (for example, 0.5 degrees) are serially connected. Accordingly, the number of the delay units increases, which increases the size of the delay circuit. Also, when a selector that selects a synchronization signal from multi-phase clock signals from the DLL circuit is provided, the circuit area of the selector increases, and the area of an interconnect region of the signal lines that connect the DLL circuit to the selector increases, which increases the size of the detection device.

Detection device, sensor, electronic apparatus and moving object


A wireless terminal stores shared information, which is shared in authentication processing executed between the wireless terminal and an authentication device when the wireless terminal logs on to a first base station. When the connection destination is to be switched from the first base station to another base station (a second base station), a new shared key is created from the shared information which has been stored, and is sent to the authentication device via the second base station. In the case where the authentication device judges the new shared key as valid through validity judging processing with the use of the shared information, a new shared key is created to be sent from the authentication device to the second base station. An encryption key that is encrypted with this new shared key to be used in wireless communications between the wireless terminal and the second base station is received from the second base station. The encrypted encryption key is decrypted with the new shared key and, using this encryption key, the wireless terminal executes wireless communications with the second base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless terminal and an authentication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various wireless communication systems, typically, IMT-2000 and wireless LANs, are increasing in number. Also, the popularization of information terminals such as PCs (personal computers) and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) with a wireless communication function, has paved the way to an environment where various services can be received over a network at any time and any place. Real-time applications including telephone services and video distribution with the use of mobile terminals, such as mobile PCs, PDAs and IP cellular phones, are especially attracting attention in recent years.
On the other hand, there is a concern that the increase in number of users of services provided via a network could increase crimes utilizing communication networks such as impersonation and eavesdropping. Security measures for preventing those crimes therefore take importance.
The security measures include user authentication and communication encryption technologies. User authentication is used to prevent impersonation of a user or a communication device and alteration of communications. Also, for service providers, user authentication is a necessary function in order to provide services to authorized subscribers. Communication encryption is used to prevent eavesdropping of communications. Cases that are considered to need communication encryption in particular are the ones where wireless LANs or the like are employed as devices relaying communications over radio waves that are available to general public.
When a user logs on to a network such as a public wireless LAN, a mobile terminal first has to detect a wireless LAN access point where a service is provided and start wireless access. In most cases, the provider of the service performs authentication (user authentication) at this point in order to identify the user as a subscriber of the service. In some cases, the user performs authentication (server authentication) in order to identify the detected access point as authentic equipment installed by the service provider. After the authentication, the wireless access is established and the network can be used while eavesdropping of communications is prevented with the use of an encryption key (access key) shared between the wireless LAN access point or the like and the user's mobile terminal. The service is executed over the established network by an application such as VoIP.
In radio wave communications over a wireless LAN or the like, the limited propagation range of radio wave necessitates handover processing, in which wireless LAN access points or other communication bases that the user can log on to are detected again for reconnection when the user is on the move. Upon reconnection, the mobile terminal needs to perform authentication between the mobile terminal and a new wireless base station (access point). Accordingly, the mobile terminal cannot use radio wave for communications since the mobile terminal reconnection processing is started until the reauthentication is completed. In the case where the handover processing takes place while the user is communicating through VoIP, a prolonged communication interruption is felt by the user as audio disruption. Therefore, the quality of the service is deteriorated.
The communication interruption depends on how long user reauthentication takes. Methods employed for user reauthentication include one that uses MAC address assigned to communication interfaces of mobile terminals, one that uses mobile terminal ID, one that uses user ID and password, and one that uses an electronic certification form.
The method using MAC address and the method using mobile terminal ID are capable of relatively quick authentication processing, and thereby do not cause audio disruption to be felt by a user during handover. The MAC address method, in particular, is employed at many wireless LAN access points and is relatively easy to introduce. However, the MAC address method allows the act of faking an MAC address, thus providing weak security with regard to identifying and authenticating a user. Another problem is that the MAC address method is incapable of server authentication for identifying a false wireless LAN access point.
Proposed as the method that uses user ID and password is MIS protocol, which contains authentication processing quick enough to prevent a user from registering audio disruption. MIS protocol makes server authentication, user authentication, and distribution of encryption keys through wireless communications possible with the use of a key shared in advance between a user and a server and dynamic random numbers. However, being a unique protocol, MIS protocol requires dedicated wireless LAN access points, the introduction of which is costly and therefore could be difficult.
The method that uses an electronic certification form makes it possible to execute user authentication and server authentication with a high security level. This method is employed by, among others, IEEE 802.1x and IEEE 802.11i, which are lately becoming popular. Accordingly, the electronic certification method is employed at many wireless LAN access points as one of standard functions of mobile terminals. The method has many authentication sequences that have to be executed between a mobile terminal and an authentication server, and requires a lot of calculation for session keys and encryption keys as well. A problem arisen from employing the electronic certification method is that the speed of authentication processing is not quick while the security level of user authentication and server authentication is high. The method therefore causes audio disruption to be felt by a user during handover processing.
FIG. 10 shows an example of sequence processing for wireless LAN handover authentication in prior art. There are a mobile terminal (PC) 25, which is a wireless terminal, an authentication server 28, a wireless LAN access point (may be simply referred to as "access point" below) 26, and a wireless LAN access point 27. The access point 26 and the access point 27 are connected to the same authentication server 28, and the distance between the two is set such that their radio wave propagation ranges partially overlap. Hereinafter, wireless LAN handover processing in prior art will be described with reference to FIG. 10.
In the initial state, the wireless terminal 25 is kept turned off or is not logged on to the access point 26. The access point 26 and the access point 27 are connected to the authentication server 28 via a safe network that does not allow eavesdropping, data alteration, and the like. The access point 26 and the access point 27 notify the wireless terminal 25 of their existence by way of beacons or the like, so that the wireless terminal 25 can log on (connect) to the access point 26 or 27.
When the wireless terminal 25 is powered on by a user, or starts logging on to the network via one of the access points, the wireless terminal 25 catches a beacon from the nearer access point and determines an access point to which the wireless terminal 25 makes a wireless LAN connection. In this example, the wireless terminal 25 catches a beacon from the access point 26. The wireless terminal 25 then starts authentication in accordance with the access point 26 and an IEEE 802.1x access control function which is set in advance to the access point 26.
The wireless terminal 25 executes TLS negotiation (an authentication procedure by TLS with the use of an electronic certification form) (S46) with the authentication server 28, and shares an authentication session key (referred to as "session key (1)") with the authentication server 28.
The authentication server 28 creates a connection key (referred to as "connection key (1)") from the session key (1). The authentication server 28 sends the created connection key (1) to the access point 26, where the connection key (1) is used to create an encryption key for use in encrypted communications between the access point 26 and the wireless terminal 25 (the key is referred to as "encryption key (1)"). The access point 26 creates the encryption key (1) from the connection key (1), encrypts the created encryption key (1) with the connection key (1), and sends the encryption key (1) to the wireless terminal 25.
The wireless terminal 25 receives from the access point 26 the encryption key (1) that has been encrypted with the connection key (1). The wireless terminal 25 creates the connection key (1) from the session key (1) that has been kept in the wireless terminal 25, thereby decrypting the encryption key (1) that has been encrypted by and received from the access point 26 and obtaining the encryption key (1). Using the obtained encryption key (1), the wireless terminal 25 executes encrypted communications with a communication partner device 29.
In the case where a user carrying the wireless terminal 25 moves to such a location that lowers the intensity of a radio wave reaching the wireless terminal 25 from the access point 26 while the wireless terminal 25 is logged on to the access point 26, the wireless terminal 25 executes handover processing. The wireless terminal 25 catches a beacon from, for example, the access point 27 near the wireless terminal 25, and determines the access point 27 as a handover destination access point.
The wireless terminal 25 starts authentication in accordance with an IEEE 802.1x access control function which is set in advance to the access point 27. In this case, the TLS authentication processing (S47) is executed as when the wireless terminal 25 logs on to the access point 26. The wireless terminal 25 and the authentication server 28 then discard the session key (1) and the connection key (1), so that a new session key (referred to as "session key (2)") is shared between the wireless terminal 25 and the authentication server 28.
The authentication server creates from the session key (2) a new connection key (referred to as "connection key (2)"), and sends the created connection key (2) to the access point 27, where the connection key (2) is used to create a new encryption key for use in encrypted communications between the access point 27 and the wireless terminal 25 (the key is referred to as "encryption key (2)"). The access point 27 creates the encryption key (2) from the connection key (2), encrypts the created encryption key (2) with the connection key (2), and sends the encryption key (2) to the wireless terminal 25.
The wireless terminal 25 receives from the access point 27 the encryption key (2) that has been encrypted with the connection key (2). The wireless terminal 25 creates the connection key (2) from the session key (2) that has been kept in the wireless terminal 25, thereby decrypting the encryption key (2) that has been encrypted by and received from the access point 27 and obtaining the encryption key (2). Using the obtained encryption key (2), the wireless terminal 25 executes encrypted communications with the communication partner device 29.
When the wireless terminal 25 switches the wireless connection destination (handover) from the access point 26 to the access point 27 as this, the authentication takes approximately one second, which is long enough to cause a problem that it is impossible for the wireless terminal 25 to avoid an interruption in sound received from the other wireless terminal 29 during handover.
The following is a list of prior art documents related to the present invention:
[Patent document 1] JP 2004-207965 A
[Patent document 2] JP 2004-254277 A
[Patent document 3] JP 2003-60653 A


Described are a method and a device for posting a microblog message. The method includes: acquiring text content input by a user in a microblog text box; monitoring a posting operating instruction for the text content; calculating the number of the characters of the text content; determining whether the number of the characters of the text contents exceeds a preset-threshold; if the number of the characters of the text content exceeds the preset threshold, converting the text content into a format of messages according to a user selection from a plurality of format settings, and posting the format of the messages as a microblog message, or splitting the text content into multiple microblog message being less than the preset threshold; and if the number of the characters of the text content does not exceed the preset threshold, directly posting the text content as the microblog message.

Instant messaging (IM) tool is widely used by using point to point technology with a development of computer network communication technology. IM tool is accepted by many users and is served as an important part of daily life and work. Users can communicate with friends, colleagues, and classmates by using the IM tool.
Micro blog (microblog) is a part application of IM tool, and the microblog is information sharing, transmitting and acquiring platform based on a relationship of a plenty of microblog users. Microblog user can login microblog, express emotion by posting microblog messages or pictures, share information with other users who focus on him/her through clients such as personal computers (PC), mobile phones. Usually, the number of the characters is limited to a preset number, such as the number of the characters is less than 140. The application of the microblog supplied by the IM tool can realize a posting of personal instant message and an interaction of microblog users. The microblog becomes an internet business which develops the most rapidly now.
It can be seen from above description, the posting microblog message method in typical technology, a character number of each item of microblog message is less than a predetermined number, for example 140, is required. Thus the user does not have enough text content room to express his/her emotion clearly within the 140 characters. If a user wants to express his/her emotion clearly, a microblog message is edited first, and then the microblog message is posted. The number of the characters of the microblog message is less than 140. After the microblog message is post, another microblog message is edited, then posited. Repeat the method continuously until the user expresses his/her emotion clearly. However, it takes much time for posting all of the microblog messages. From the above description, it can be seen that, in typically technology, the method for posting microblog takes much longer time when the microblog message includes more characters. The process of posting the microblog message is complex and frequently operations are needed. Thus an efficiency of posting the microblog message is low and an experience of using the microblog message is reduced.

Method and device for posting microblog message

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited


A flexible polyurethane foam is produced by blending a polyurethane raw material containing a polyol, a polyisocyanate, a blowing agent, and a catalyst with an inorganic compound hydrate having a specific gravity of 1.5 to 4.0 and reacting the above polyurethane raw material to effect foaming and curing. The inorganic compound hydrate is preferably an iron sulfate hydrate, a calcium sulfate hydrate, or a magnesium sulfate hydrate. The above inorganic compound hydrate preferably has decomposition temperature of from 100 to 170° C. Then, an increase in exothermic temperature owing to the above foaming and curing is diminished by evaporation of water formed through decomposition of the above inorganic compound hydrate.

Hitherto, at the production of a flexible polyurethane foam having a density of 25 kg/m3 or less, in the case that water alone is used as a blowing agent, exothermic temperature at foaming and curing reaches 170° C. or higher because the amount of water to be added increases. Therefore, there is a possibility of autoignition owing to oxidative degradation (scorch) of polyurethane and also coloration of the resulting flexible polyurethane foam occurs by scorch. In order to avoid such situations, it is known to add methylene chloride or liquid carbon dioxide as a blowing aid without changing the conventional amount of water to be added.
However, methylene chloride is one of substances exerting a bad influence on the environment and the like and hence its use is regulated. On the other hand, foaming with liquid carbon dioxide necessitates a specialized apparatus for feeding liquid carbon dioxide under high pressure and, for smooth foaming, production conditions are limited and also a production cost increases. Thus, for the purpose of absorbing heat, there is known a technology of adding a polyolefin powder such as polyethylene powder (for example, cf. JP-T-2002-532596 (page 2) and JP-A-6-199973 (pages 2 and 3)).
In the above conventional technology of adding a polyolefin powder, though an effect on the decrease of the exothermic temperature at foaming and curing is observed, it is necessary to increase the amount of the polyolefin powder in order to lower a calorific value effectively. In that case, the increased amount of the polyolefin powder results in too high density of the resulting flexible polyurethane foam and also deterioration in physical properties such as compressive residual strain. Since the polyolefin powder cannot be blended in a sufficient amount in order to prevent the deterioration of such physical properties, there is a problem that the exothermic temperature cannot be effectively lowered at foaming and curing and, as a result, coloration by scorch cannot be reduced.

Process for producing flexible polyurethane foam


An auger carrier designed to hold augers and to be towed behind a snow machine. The device has a curved bottom plate that holds the auger cutting head. Two extension arms are attached to the curved plate. The extension arms are used to extend the length of the auger carrier so that the full length of the auger can be carried. At the top of the extension arms is the mounting plate assembly. This assembly has a fixture for mounting the auger carrier to the back frame of a snow machine, which is then connected by a pivot to a locking mechanism that secures the handle of the auger. The pivot allows the auger carrier to move freely with respect to the snow machine while under tow.

Ice fishing is an increasingly popular winter activity. To go ice fishing, one needs basic fishing gear and a way of making a hole through lake or river ice. Typically these holes are made by lightweight power augers. These augers have a cutting head, a long thin shaft and a pair of curved handles. A motor is attached to the shaft to turn the cutting head. Using an auger makes light work of ice fishing holes, but it is an awkward tool to carry. Unless one has access by road to a lake or river, one needs to go cross country to reach the fishing location. To travel significant distances, one typically uses a snow mobile (or snow machine) to reach the fishing spot. Although sleds are available for snow machines, these sleds are not shaped to easily carry an auger. This makes carrying an auger into remote spots difficult at best. The augers tend to roll off sleds and do not fit completely in the sleds. Nor are they easily carried on a snow machine seat.


The invention relates to a high-voltage generator which is proportioned so as to realize a particularly low weight in combination with a high output power and is suitable notably for use in rotating X-ray systems such as computed tomography apparatus. To this end, the high-voltage generator is provided with a hybrid insulation which is formed as far as possible by a high resistance foam (30 to 35) and an insulating liquid (50). The foam is shaped and arranged in such a manner that there are formed channels (40 to 45) wherethrough the insulating liquid (50) can flow in areas requiring a discharge of heat or an electric strength stronger than can be endured by the high- resistance foam alone.

The invention relates to a high-voltage generator which is provided with a hybrid insulation and is intended notably for rotating X-ray systems involving a high speed of rotation and also for systems in which the high-voltage generator is integrated with an X-ray system so as to form one unit (a so-called single-tank generator).
Generally speaking, X-ray systems include an X-ray source with an X-ray tube for generating X-rays as well as a high-voltage generator which delivers the high voltage necessary for operation of the X-ray tube.
Low weight is particularly important for rotating X-ray systems as used, for example, in computed tomography apparatus (CT apparatus). Such systems notably operate with a speed of rotation amounting to several revolutions per second, for example, subsecond scanners in which centrifugal forces of 30 G or more may occur.
JP-A-06 111 991 discloses an X-ray system provided with a hybrid insulation which is formed by an-insulating oil for the X-ray tube and an insulating gas under a high pressure for the high-voltage generator. The insulating means used for the high-voltage generator consists of a gas in order to reduce the quantity of oil and hence the weight. It is a drawback of this system, however, that it requires an appropriate pressure vessel which may lead to significant additional costs, and that the thermal loadability, and hence also the electrical loadability, is comparatively low because, in comparison with oil, the gas is capable of discharging heat to a very limited extent only.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a high-voltage generator which is capable of generating a significantly higher electric output power, its weight being low nevertheless.
This object is achieved by means of a high-voltage generator which is provided with a hybrid insulation which includes at least one insulating member which is shaped and arranged in such a manner that there is formed a plurality of interconnected flow channels for an insulating liquid, the cross-sections of said channels being proportioned such that, in comparison with other areas, a higher flow speed can be realized in areas with a high field strength and/or a strong development of heat in the operating condition.
A special advantage of this solution consists in that the formation of flow channels results in a significantly higher discharge of heat, that is, a significantly higher thermal effectiveness of the flow-type insulating medium (in areas exposed to particularly high thermal loads).
Moreover, the electric strength (in areas with a particularly high field strength) is increased in that on the one hand the higher flow speed and the configuration of the channels significantly reduces the probability of formation of fiber bridges, being a frequent cause of voltage flash-over, and on the other hand the direct path between the components carrying the high voltage and ground potential is interrupted by the insulating member.
As a result of the foregoing, the power density, that is, the ratio of the (maximum) output power to the size or the weight of the high-voltage generator, can be significantly increased.
Granted, U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,409 discloses a xe2x80x9cradiogenic unitxe2x80x9d consisting of a single-pole X-ray tube and other components that are arranged in a given manner and are enclosed by a liquid cooling medium as well as a synthetic material. The aim is to improve the cooling in conjunction with other steps. However, therein the weight of the unit in relation to the output power and the voltage strength is of no importance; moreover, no use is made of different flow speeds, notably at the area of the high-voltage components of the high-voltage generator.
Advantageous further embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The voltage generation in conformity with claim 2 is particularly suitable for an embodiment having a comparatively low output power and offers the advantage that it does not require additional devices such as, for example, pumps.
The embodiment disclosed in claim 3 is particularly advantageous, because on the one hand use can be made of the positive properties of an insulating liquid such as, for example, a high thermal conductivity in the case of flow and a high electric strength as well as self-restoration in the case of a voltage flash-over, while on the other hand the essential drawback of the generally comparatively high weight has to be accepted to a very small extent only, since the quantity of insulating liquid can be reduced significantly further as its effectiveness is enhanced by the flow.
The embodiment disclosed in claim 4 offers the advantages that on the one hand the surface of such a high resistance foam is very smooth, so that the flow of the insulating liquid is hardly impeded whereas on the other hand a very high electric strength can be achieved because of the microporosity.
The embodiment disclosed in claim 5 also enhances the electric strength of the overall system further, because the electric field lines at the interface between the insulating member and the insulating liquid are not interrupted to any significant extent, thus avoiding the inherent negative surface effects such as the formation of space charges as well as tangential components of the field strength along the interface.
The embodiment of claim 6 is particularly advantageous when the main object is to minimize the weight of the high-voltage generator.
The discharging of heat is particularly high in the embodiments in conformity with the claims 7 to 10, so that comparatively high output powers can be realized.
Finally, it is to be noted that the high-voltage generator in accordance with the invention can be combined with practically any type of X-ray source so as to form an X-ray system, because its continuous power can be scaled within broad limits by appropriate configuration in conformity with the above description. This also holds for the use in a computed tomography apparatus for which the high-voltage generator can be proportioned so as to have a particularly low weight.

High-voltage generator provided with a hybrid insulation


A stringed instrument, such as a guitar, having components made from glass, and methods of manufacturing and assembling the same are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides for manufacturing a glass fretboard, manufacturing glass frets, assembling the glass frets to the fretboard, and assembling the fretboard to the neck of the stringed instrument. In addition to the fretboard and frets, other components of the stringed instrument may also be made from glass. For example, the present invention further provides a method for manufacturing glass saddles and top nuts to allow the strings of the stringed instrument to substantially entirely contact glass. This produces a clean, crisp sound and overcomes the problem of generating an inferior sound that results from the imperfections found in natural wood components, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stringed instruments having components made from glass and methods of manufacturing and assembling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stringed instruments, such as guitars, typically include a neck and/or a fretboard against which a musician may hold a string of the instrument to change the musical note produced by the vibration of the string. Specifically, by plucking the string with a finger or pick or by passing a bow across a string of the stringed instrument, the string is vibrated. By depressing the string against the neck and/or fretboard of the stringed instrument at different positions therealong, the musical note that is produced by the vibrating string may be modified. This allows a musician to create a variety of musical notes utilizing a single stringed instrument.
Typically, the neck and/or fretboard of a stringed instrument is manufactured from wood, which produces an acceptable sound. However, natural imperfections in the wood may result in the stringed instrument producing sounds that may vary slightly from the ideal or desired sound. Attempts to overcome this problem have included manufacturing the neck and/or fretboard, as well as the other components of the guitar, from alternative materials, such as glass. However, the difficulty in manufacturing a neck and/or fretboard from alternative materials have prevented the use of such alternative materials from gaining mainstream appeal.

Stringed instrument having components made from glass and methods of manufacturing and assembling the same


The invention concerns a machine tool for the bovelling of a gear, in which two topfaces are simultaneously milled, with a rotationally driven workpiece carrier and two rotationally driven mounting spindles (13) which can be placed on the workpiece in an axial direction and whose rotationally driven angle of orientation towards the workpiece axis is adjustable in order to receive a milling machine at any one time, especially face milling cutters or single-tooth fly cutters. The workpiece is alternatively clocked or rotationally driven in a continuous manner and the mounting spindles (13) can be moved on a forwards or backwards axis in synchronization with the workpiece cycle or in synchronization with the continuous rotation of the workpiece on a fixed axis. The workpiece is moved forwards in the direction of the axis and each mounting spindle (13) is provided with a slide (12), which can be moved by an axial displacement drive (15). In order to obtain short operation times quick, easy resetting of the machine tool during modification of the machining process the invention proposes that the tool feed should be determined during the machining process by the form of a replaceable axial radial cam (17), which is rotationally driven by an axial displacement drive (15) and whose stroke corresponds at least to the machining section, in which both flanks (20) of the axial radial cam (17) are placed between the jockey rollers (21) of the slide (12), free from backlash.

The invention relates to a machine tool for sloping the tooth flanks of a gear, with two flanks being milled simultaneously, with a rotationally driven workpiece holder and with two rotationally driven tool spindles adjustable relative to the workpiece along their axes, with the angular alignment relative to the workpiece axis being adjustable for each to receive a milling cutter, especially a face milling cutter or a one-tooth fly cutter, with the workpiece optionally being rotationally driven cyclically or continuously, the tool spindles being correspondingly displaceable forward and backward axially in synchronization with the workpiece cycle, or rotating, fixed axially, in synchronization with the continuous workpiece rotation, with the workpiece being advanced in the axial direction and with each tool spindle having a carriage associated therewith, said carriage being displaceable by an axial displacement drive.
A machine tool of the this type under discussion is known from DE 41 34 925 C1, with the tool spindles received by a carriage being moved back and forth by means of an oscillator at a very rapid sequence of 1200 or more strokes per minute, in synchronization with the rotation of the workpiece. Continuous adjustment of the tool spindles in the direction of the workpiece in order to produce the slopes is superimposed on this. Accordingly, two separate movements take place along the tool spindle axes, namely the oscillating movement and the actual advance displacement that makes the design of such a machine tool more expensive. This document shows that the workpiece can also be indexed one division at a time when impact milling operation is desired, which corresponds to cyclic operation. In this case also, the actual tool feed would be superimposed on the oscillating movement of the tool spindle.

Machine tool for bevelling of tooth flanks of a gear


Disclosed is an automotive headlamp system which can control an illumination pattern of headlamps by rotating a headlamp unit and/or adjusting the light intensity of a light source included in the headlamp unit based on the position of a front vehicle located ahead in a driving direction, and a method of controlling the automotive headlamp system. The automotive headlamp system includes an image capture unit capturing an image of an area ahead of a vehicle in a driving direction of the vehicle, a position determination unit determining a position of a front vehicle based on the captured image, a headlamp unit comprising an array of a plurality of light sources, and a control unit controlling an illumination pattern of the headlamp unit by rotating the headlamp unit and/or adjusting a light intensity of a light source based on the determined position of the front vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive headlamp system and a method of controlling the same, and more particularly, to an automotive headlamp system which can control an illumination pattern by rotating a headlamp unit and/or adjusting the light intensity of a light source included in the headlamp unit based on the position of a front vehicle located ahead in a driving direction, and a method of controlling the automotive headlamp system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles are equipped with automotive lamps that in the most basic configuration have a lighting function and a signaling function, among others. Automotive lamps enable the driver of the vehicle to easily see objects around and ahead of the vehicle while driving at night or in a dark area. They also notify other vehicles and road users of the vehicle's location in the dark. For example, a headlamp and a fog lamp are designed for the lighting function, and a direction indicator, a taillight, a brake light, and a side marker are designed for the signaling function.
When a driver is driving a vehicle at night or through a dimly lit tunnel, light emitted from light sources used in headlamps or tail lamps of the vehicle enables the driver to see the area ahead of and behind the vehicle. Thus, the light ensures safe driving. Here, an automotive lamp includes an optical functional body and a plurality of reflective surfaces in order to properly disperse light emitted from light sources or polarize or concentrate refracted light to the front.
Recently, there have been increasing demands for safety to ensure safer driving environments for the driver and others on the road. For example, when a vehicle is being driven at night, the headlamps may dazzle the driver of a preceding or oncoming vehicle located ahead of the vehicle in the driving direction, thereby obstructing the driver's view in the preceding or oncoming vehicle. Accordingly, this can increase the likelihood of car accidents. Thus, there is a need for a solution that can ensure the visibility of the driver of the vehicle without obstructing the view of drivers in preceding or oncoming vehicles.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Automotive headlamp system and method of controlling the same


An exhaust heat exchanger for an exhaust gas recirculation system, including a first flow path for the intake air for an internal combustion engine, a second flow path for the exhaust of an internal combustion engine, and a housing enclosing the first and second flow paths. The first and second flow paths are each divided into a plurality of flow channels in heat-conducting, metallically connected contact with each other, and the flow channels include elements promoting heat exchange between the flow channels.

Exhaust heat exchangers in exhaust gas recirculation systems often use the liquid coolant of the internal combustion engine to cool the exhaust gas. However, air that is heated in heat exchange with the exhaust and then used to heat the passenger compartment is often used in vehicle heating. An exhaust heat exchanger in an exhaust gas recirculation system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,408,846, where the surrounding air cools exhaust air by flowing around the housing of the exhaust heat exchanger provided with cooling ribs on the outside. Also, DE 199 30 416 A teaches a cooling device in which the exhaust recirculation line is passed through the intake line of the internal combustion engine in order to cool the exhaust with the intake air.
The present invention is directed toward improving upon exhaust heat exchangers which use intake air.


A method for controlling operation of a transfer case in a motor vehicle driveline that includes by an engine controlled by a throttle having a variable position, and a transmission driveably connected to the engine for producing multiple ratios of the speed of a transmission input relative to the speed of a transmission output. The transfer case transmitting rotating power in response to an electric signal applied to a clutch. The method includes determining that the engine throttle position is less than a first reference throttle position during a period of predetermined length; determining that a speed of the vehicle speed is in a predetermined range; determining that the transmission is operating in a speed ratio greater than a reference speed ratio; determining that the engine throttle position is greater than a first reference throttle position; and increasing the torque capacity of the clutch for a predetermined period.

The preferred embodiment relates generally to a strategy for controlling a motor vehicle. More particularly, it pertains to electronically detecting potential inertial transfer case engagements in two wheel drive (2WD) mode and manipulating a transfer case clutch to eliminate harshness.
Some four wheel drive (4WD) systems use a ball ramp mechanism to transmit rotary power to a secondary driveline while continuing to transmit power to a primary driveline. Such drive systems are intended to be activated electronically, but sudden accelerations of the input shaft can activate a torque transfer mechanism due to inertial effects. If the system is operating in 2WD mode, this activation can cause a rapid acceleration of the secondary driveline, resulting in a sharp, objectionable noise, called clunk.
During tip-ins from a coasting state at higher speeds while operating in 2WD mode, the transfer case clutch may inadvertently engage and cause a significant clunk. Addressing the clunk through mechanical methods can decrease torque capacity of the 4WD system, increase parastic losses, and/or make the system slower and more difficult to control. Alternatively, increasing the amount of drag in the transfer case clutch system to prevent the secondary driveline from slowing enough to produce a clunk necessarily increases parasitic losses and decreases vehicle fuel economy.
There is a need, therefore, to anticipate the likely occurrence of a clunk in a transfer case due to this cause, to detect electronically the conditions under which such a clunk is likely to occur, and to take corrective action to avoid its occurrence without compromising vehicle fuel economy, diminishing control responsiveness, or increasing parastic losses.

Prevention of inadvertent inertial engagement of a transfer case clutch


A two-tier groove cutting circular saw blade includes a circular core having sectors defined in circumferentially spaced relation to one another along the periphery, and lands defined in circumferentially spaced relation to one another between the periphery and center of the core. Pluralities of outer and inner cutting segments are secured to the respective core sectors and lands. First and second pluralities of anti-undercut elements are defined on the core respectively between the center and periphery thereof and along the periphery thereof between preselected ones of the lands and sectors for defining first and second exit paths away from the inner and outer cutting segments for flow of material particles generated from the cutting of the groove and flushing of the groove by fluid coolant so as to reduce wear and undercutting of the core adjacent to the inner and outer cutting segments. The core has an outer annular portion extending between the lands and sectors of the core and an inner annular portion extending between the lands and the center of the core. The thickness of the inner annular portion of the core is greater than the thickness of the outer annular portion of the core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to circular saw blades used to cut a two-tier expansion groove in a concrete surface or the like and, more particularly, is concerned with features incorporated in such blades which reduce wear, increase structural integrity, and prolong useful life of the blades.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common practice to cut two-tier grooves in concrete surfaces or the like in order to provide expansion joints therein. The grooves are filled with a compression sealant of neoprene or other similar synthetic rubber-like material which allows the grooves to function as expansion joints in response to temperature-induced expansion or contraction. Until recently the two-tier groove has been made in two cutting passes. In the initial pass, a first narrow groove is cut having the maximum desired depth of the two-tier groove. In the final pass, a second wider groove is cut into the surface superimposed over the first narrower groove but to a lesser depth than the first groove.
More recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,487 to Younger, a design of a circular saw blade has been proposed for cutting the two-tier groove in a single pass. The saw blade of this patent includes a circular core of uniform thickness having a plurality of outer cutting segments secured to circumferentially spaced support sectors defined about the periphery of the blade core and a plurality of inner cutting segments disposed in openings and secured to support lands defined in the blade core between the periphery and the center of the blade. In order to cut the two tier groove, it is necessary that the outer cutting segments be wider than the blade core and that the inner cutting segments be wider than both the outer cutting segments and blade core. In one pass of the saw blade, the outer cutting segments will cut the deeper and narrower tier of the groove, whereas the inner cutting segments will cut the shallower and wider tier of the groove above the deeper narrower tier of the groove.
For such applications, it is common practice to continuously flush the cutting area during the cutting operation with a fluid coolant in order to keep the blade as cool as possible. The coolant also serves to flush loose rock-like material, spent abrasive, and the like from the cutting site, all of which in combination with the coolant is generally referred to in the art and throughout the subject application as "swarf".
Although the design of the circular saw blade of the Younger patent represents a step in the right direction toward achieving the cutting of a two-tier expansion groove in a single pass operation, nonetheless there are certain drawbacks with the design. The first drawback is that swarf tends to flow in a path that contacts and causes abrasion and erosion of the blade core in a manner which is commonly referred to as "undercutting". The undercutting occurs at core portions located adjacent to and radially inwardly from where the outer and inner cutting segments are attached to the blade core because the lateral portions of the outer and inner cutting segments extend beyond opposite surfaces of the core and tangentially intersect with the swarf flow path. Such undercutting of the blade core can significantly reduce the life of the blade necessitating its early replacement. The second drawback is that the blade core is of substantially uniform thickness. Given the greater width of the inner cutting segments than the outer cutting segments for cutting the wider upper tier of the groove, there is inadequate structure in the blade core for attaching the inner cutting segments thereto in a way which will withstand the forces imposed on the inner cutting segments during cutting of the upper tier of the groove.
Consequently, a need exists for improvements which will reduce undercutting of the blade core and increase the structural integrity of the blade core so as to allow for the employment of the circular saw blade over a longer normal useful life.

Two tier groove cutting circular saw blade with anti-undercut features


An improvement to a shovel used while grading or cleaning out the area adjacent to a previously constructed surface such as a curb and gutter adjacent to a road bed comprising a guide for fixing the depth the shovel blade can penetrate the soil, aggregate, or other debris adjacent to the previously constructed surface so that when the shovel is moved parallel to the structure when the guide is located on top of the structure the debris is cleared away. The guide is rotatably and slidably connected to the handle of the shovel so that: (a) the guide can be located any where along the shovel handle to set the distance the guide is above the shovel blade's lower end and (b) the guide can be located on either side of the shovel blade.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved shovel that predetermines the depth that the shovel blade will clear away the soil to achieve a uniform grade for a road bed or other surface which is adjacent to a previously located structure such as a curb.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When roads are constructed, a curb and gutter are first formed. Then the road bed is graded prior to laying the road surface or asphalt concrete. In order to bring the subgrade or aggregate base of the road bed adjacent to the curb to the specified elevation, a laborer is required to dig away aggregate or other debris from the area adjacent to the gutter which is integral with the curb. This is done because the grader or other mechanical equipment required to complete the grade cannot move close enough to the gutter to remove the debris without damaging the curb and gutter previously constructed. The laborer is required to continually bend down and with a measuring instrument locate the depth of the soil or debris to be removed by inserting the measuring instrument into the soil. After this is done, the laborer stands erect and removes the aggregate, repeating this procedure along the entire length of the previously formed curb and gutter. This procedure is time consuming, back breaking and inaccurate. The time consuming and back breaking nature of the current manner of doing work occurs because of the repetitious bending and straightening required by the laborer. The inaccuracy occurs as each penetration of the measuring instrument differs. This inaccuracy is compounded if the intervals that the measuring instrument is used is infrequent.
A study of the prior art did not disclose any invention or patent that eliminates the time consuming, back breaking and inaccurate work that my invention does.


A cap assembly and a lithium secondary battery with the same, in which a shape of a safety vent of a cap plate is such that the safety vent is easily fracturable under low pressure even if the safety vent has a relatively large thickness, thereby improving reliability and safety of the lithium secondary battery. The cap assembly cap plate has a safety vent including at least one first directional weak component and at least one second directional weak component which is connected to the first directional weak component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to secondary batteries, and, more particularly, to a modified cap assembly plate for a lithium secondary battery providing improved reliability and safety characteristics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, electronic appliances having compact sizes and light weight, such as cellular phones, notebook computers and camcorders, have been actively developed and produced. Such electronic appliances are equipped with battery packs so that users can use the electronic appliances in various places even if electric power sources are not separately provided for the electronic appliances. The battery pack includes at least one bare cell capable of outputting an operational voltage having a predetermined level in order to operate the electronic appliance for a predetermined period of time.
Secondary batteries, which are rechargeable batteries, are currently employed in the secondary pack due to their economical advantages. Secondary batteries include Ni—Cd batteries, Ni-MH batteries and Li secondary batteries, such as Li batteries or Li-ion batteries.
In particular, lithium secondary batteries have an operational voltage of about 3.6V, which is three times higher than that of Ni—Cd batteries or Ni-MH batteries used as power sources for the portable electronic appliances. In addition, lithium ion secondary batteries have high energy density per unit weight so they are extensively used in the advanced electronic technology fields.
Lithium secondary batteries typically use lithium-based oxide as a positive electrode active material and carbon as a negative electrode active material. In general, lithium batteries are classified into liquid electrolyte batteries or polymer electrolyte batteries according to the kind of the electrolytes used therefor. Liquid electrolyte batteries are called "lithium ion batteries" and polymer electrolyte batteries are called "lithium polymer batteries." In addition, lithium secondary batteries may be fabricated with various shapes, such as cylinder type lithium secondary batteries, square type lithium secondary batteries, or pouch type lithium secondary batteries.
Typically, lithium ion secondary batteries include an electrode assembly having a positive electrode plate coated with a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode plate coated with a negative electrode active material and a separator interposed between the positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate for preventing a short circuit while allowing the movement of lithium-ions exclusively. Lithium ion secondary batteries also typically include a case for receiving the electrode assembly and an electrolyte contained in the case in order to enable lithium-ions to move.
In such a lithium ion secondary battery, the positive electrode plate coated with the positive electrode active material is connected to a positive electrode tap and the negative electrode plate coated with the negative electrode active material is connected to a negative electrode tap. The positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate are stacked with the separator therebetween and wound in the form of a jelly roll, thereby forming the electrode assembly. The positive electrode active material is composite oxide including lithium (Li). Typically, the positive electrode active material includes LiCoO2, which is obtained by mixing lithium carbonate and cobalt oxide in a ratio of about 1.2:1 and performing a plastic process under the temperature of between about 400 to 1000° C.
The electrode assembly is then accommodated in the case and a cap assembly is sealed to an upper end of the case in order to prevent the electrode assembly from separating from the case.
After sealing the cap assembly to the upper end of the case, the electrolyte is injected into the case and an electrolyte injection hole formed in the case is sealed, thereby providing the lithium ion secondary battery.
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the cap assembly includes a conventional cap plate 100 formed with a safety vent 110 for preventing accidental explosion of the lithium ion secondary battery caused by high internal pressure of the battery from gas generated during the charge operation of the lithium ion secondary battery. When the internal pressure of the lithium ion secondary battery reaches an unsafe level, the safety vent 110 fractures to allow gas contained in the lithium ion secondary battery to be discharged to the exterior, thereby ensuring the safety of the battery.
However, the safety vent 110 of the above lithium ion secondary battery has a thickness of about 20 μm, which is significantly smaller than the thickness (about 0.8 mm) of the cap plate 100, so the safety vent 110 may fracture even if external pressure is accidentally applied thereto, for example, when the lithium ion secondary battery is dropped.
Such a breakage of the safety vent 110 caused by external pressure may lead to leakage of the electrolyte contained in the lithium ion secondary battery, thereby degrading the safety of the lithium ion secondary battery.

Lithium secondary battery and a cap assembly therefor


Preferred embodiments of the present invention provides a sublimation system employing guidance structures including certain preferred embodiments having a high surface area support medium onto which a solid source material for vapor reactant is coated. Preferably, a guidance structure is configured to facilitate the repeated saturation of the carrier gas with the solid source for a vapor reactant. Methods of saturating a carrier gas using guidance structures are also provided.

In the fabrication of integrated circuits on substrates, such as semiconductor wafers, the vapor deposition of chemicals, such as chemical vapor deposition ("CVD") and more recently atomic layer deposition (ALD), is often desirable. The expansion of suitable source chemicals has increasingly led to use of precursor materials that are naturally liquid or solid at room temperature and atmospheric pressures.
In order to effectively deposit using precursors from a solid source material or chemical, a solid source material must, of course, first be vaporized. In pursuit of this goal, sublimation apparatuses are used to effectuate the vaporization of a solid source material. In addition, heat sources are often employed in conjunction with such an apparatus in order to increase the vapor pressure above the solid source material.
Unfortunately, existing semiconductor processing systems, of which a sublimation apparatus is a component, have a number of shortcomings including offering both an inadequate ratio of solid source surface area to vapor volume, and poor vapor/solid contact time. Often, current processing systems can allow carrier gas to flow from inlet to outlet without intimately contacting the solid source material, thus preventing the carrier gas from becoming saturated with solid source vapor. In addition, a conventional sublimation bed, which seeks to increase vapor/solid contact time, is often prone to "tunneling." Tunneling results from the tendency of gas to flow preferentially along low resistance paths, rather than through the bulk of the powder, such that progressively smaller solid precursor surface area is exposed to the gas flow as the tunnel through the powder widens. It is thus progressively more difficult to saturate the carrier gas, even though the sublimation bed contains plenty of unvaporized solid source powder.
The present invention provides improved semiconductor processing systems. In the illustrated embodiments, the systems include a guidance structure, such as a support medium having a surface onto which a solid source for vapor reactant is coated. The illustrated guidance structures are configured to facilitate the repeated saturation of the carrier gas with the solid source for a vapor reactant.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a substrate processing system is provided with a source of a carrier gas, a support medium having a surface onto which a solid source for vapor reactant is coated and a reaction chamber located downstream of the support medium. The support medium is configured to guide the carrier gas, which originates from the carrier gas source, through the support medium.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a sublimation system is provided with a source of carrier gas and flowable support elements onto which a solid source for vapor reactant is coated. The support elements are configured to guide the carrier gas through the support medium in a generally non-linear contact path.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a sublimation apparatus comprises a sublimation vessel, a bed of a solid source for vapor reactant within the vessel, and a guidance structure configured to guide the carrier gas to contact the vapor reactant from the bed of the solid source material.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the guidance structure is configured to segregate and guide the carrier gas over the surface area of the solid bed by providing a winding contact pathway. Preferably, this path is also long and narrow. A vessel inlet port is located at the beginning of the contact pathway, while a vessel outlet port is located at the end of the contact pathway. The carrier gas guidance structure is configured to ensure contact of the carrier gas with the vapor reactant along a substantially segregated and winding contact pathway having a length greater than about 2.5 times a linear distance measured from the inlet port to the outlet port.
In accordance with other preferred embodiments, methods of processing a substrate and methods of performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to deposit a layer on a substrate surface are provided. Preferably, these methods substantially saturate a carrier gas with precursor vapor. In certain preferred embodiments, a substantial plug flow of the carrier gas exits a sublimation vessel substantially saturated with precursor vapor by substantially exhibiting a plug flow residence time distribution by design within said vessel.
A feature of preferred embodiments of the present invention is that a precise and consistent quantity of reactant vapor can be delivered to a deposition chamber at high frequency. An additional feature of the preferred embodiments is an increased ratio of exposed solid source surface area to sublimation vessel volume as a result of, among other factors, the avoidance of problematic "tunneling." Another feature of preferred embodiments is increased vapor/solid contact time. Yet another feature of preferred embodiments is the allowance of relatively even gas flow resistance over the life of a sublimation bed. Another feature of certain preferred embodiments is the production of a substantially plug flow residence time distribution of the carrier gas substantially saturated with precursor vapor.
These and other features are outlined in greater detail in the preferred embodiments described below.
For purposes of summarizing the invention and the advantages achieved over the prior art, certain objects and advantages of the invention have been described herein above. Of course, it is to be understood that not necessarily all such features, objects or advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other objects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
All of these embodiments are intended to be within the scope of the invention herein disclosed. These and other embodiments of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments having reference to the attached figures, the invention not being limited to any particular preferred embodiment(s) disclosed.

Sublimation bed employing carrier gas guidance structures