A computerized method/system is provided for planning motion of a robot within a free space confined by obstacles, from an initial position to a goal position. In executing the method/system, a plan is generated so that the robot can hold and maneuver a workpiece throughout a sequence of bending operations to be performed by a bending apparatus. A plurality of proposed movements to be made by the robot are proposed for an mth movement within a sequence of movements, and at least a portion of the robot and the obstacles that confine the free space are modeled. A determination is made as to whether a collision will occur between the robot and an obstacle for each proposed movement, and a plan is generated including the sequence of movements by choosing for each movement in the sequence of movements, a proposed movement that will not result in a collision and that will bring the robot closer to the goal position. In choosing proposed movements, an estimated cost associated with each proposed movement may be taken into account. The estimated cost may be based upon a euclidian distance to the goal position from the position of the robot after the particular proposed movement is made as the mth movement, and/or the estimated cost may be determined as a function of the robot travel time from an (mxe2x88x921) th movement to the mth movement. Different methods are provided for performing fine motion planning and gross motion planning.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present disclosure is related to the disclosures provided in the following U.S. applications filed on even date herewith: xe2x80x9cIntelligent System for Generating and Executing a Sheet Metal Bending Plan,xe2x80x9d filed in the names of David Alan Bourne et al. U.S. Application Ser. No. 08/338,113 xe2x80x9cMethods for Backgaging and Sensor-Based Control of Bending Operations,xe2x80x9d filed in the names of David Alan Bourne et al. U.S. Application Ser. No. 08/338,153; and xe2x80x9cFingerpad Force Sensing System,xe2x80x9d filed in the names of Anne M. Murray et al. The contents of each of these related applications are expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for planning/controlling the motion of a robot, and various systems and sub-components related to the operation thereof.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Various methods have been disclosed in the literature for providing a geometric model of the xe2x80x9camount of free spacexe2x80x9d, a robot has to move within, and for producing a motion plan for the robot to move from a start position to a goal position within the free space. Approximate decomposition methods are among such methods for modeling a robot""s free space, as disclosed by Jean-Claude Latombe in xe2x80x9cRobot Motion Planning,xe2x80x9d Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston/Dordrecht/London (1991), the content of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Approximate cell decomposition may be utilized to determine the amount of free space in a given physical environment. In some such methods, a rectangloid (i.e., a rectangle or parallelepiped) decomposition P is formed of xcexa9=Cl(R), which is a rectangloid of Rm, where m is the dimension of the configuration space. The resulting rectangloid decomposition P is utilized to search for a solution path connecting a start position Qinit to a goal position Qgoal. An algorithm that may be utilized to find the solution path is as follows:
(1) An initial rectangloid decomposition P1 of a rectangloid xcexa9 within R is computed, and cells are thus produced, each of which is classified as: empty, if it does not intersect a C-obstacle region; full, if it is entirely contained in a C-obstacle region; and mixed if it partially intersects a C-obstacle region.
(2) The resulting decomposition Pi is searched in order to obtain a channel that connects the initial cell containing Qinit to the goal cell containing Qgoal. The channel may either be an E-channel, comprising all empty cells, or an M-channel, comprising one or more mixed cells. If the outcome of the search is an E-channel, the algorithm will return with the free-space empty cell E-channel. If, however, the outcome of the search is an M-channel, the process will proceed to step (3) below. Otherwise, the algorithm will return with failure.
(3) For every mixed cell within a generated M-channel, a further rectangloid decomposition Pi will be computed, and the process will return to step (2).
In computing a rectangloid decomposition of a MIXED cell, a divide-and-label method may be performed, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The method comprises the steps of first dividing a cell into smaller cells, as illustrated in FIG. 1, and then labeling each newly created cell according to whether it intersects a C-obstacle region. A widely used technique for decomposing a rectangloid xcexa9 into smaller rectangloids is to compute a 2m-tree decomposition. In a 2m-tree decomposition, a tree is formed having nodes, each of which represents a rectangloid cell which is labeled as either EMPTY, FULL or MIXED. The root node of the tree is xcexa9. Each node which represents a MIXED cell will then be decomposed to form 2m children nodes. Each child of a parent cell has the same dimensions, and is formed by dividing each edge of the parent cell into two segments of equal length. If m=3, the tree is called an octree.
FIG. 1 shows an octree decomposition of a parallelepiped representation 10 of a portion of configuration space, and displays a portion of an octree graph 12. The overall height h of the tree (i.e., the depth of the deepest node) determines the resolution of the decomposition, and hence the size of the smallest cells in the decomposition. A maximum height hmax of the tree may be specified to thereby limit the iterative process carried out by steps 2 and 3 of the algorithm noted above.
It is noted that octree graph 12 does not correspond precisely to the parallelepiped 10 depicted in FIG. 1. Rather, the various rectangloids depicted in octree graph 12 are chosen randomly in order to simplify the illustration.
The above described approximate cell decomposition method utilizes a configuration space approach to spatial planning, whereby the position and orientation of an object A in relation to obstacles B is characterized as a single point in a configuration space, in which the coordinates of the point represent a degree of freedom of the object in relation to the obstacles. The configurations (i.e., the placements) forbidden to the object A, due to the presence of other objects/obstacles, are characterized as regions in the configuration space, called configuration space obstacles (C-obstacles). Much literature has been published concerning the use of a configuration-space representations of an object with respect to obstacles, including a paper by Tomas Lozano-Perez, entitled xe2x80x9cSpatial Planning: A Configuration Space Approachxe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. C-32, No. 2 (February 1983), the content of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This paper presents several algorithms for computing configuration space obstacles formed by objects which are polygons or polyhedra.
FIG. 2A illustrates a two-dimensional representation of a peg 26 and a hole 28, wherein the goal is to place peg 26 within hole 28, so that a bottom surface 27 of peg 26 makes flush contact with a bottom surface g of hole 28. The position and orientation of peg 26 may be represented in two-dimensional euclidian space as a set of Cartesian coordinates (x,y,xcex8), the origin of which is positioned at the center of bottom surface 27 of peg 26. At the location illustrated in FIG. 2A, peg 26 will have the coordinates xcex8=0, x=0, and y=0.
FIG. 2B illustrates a configuration space representation of the real-space problem of FIG. 2A. A point P is shown in its initial position (as shown in FIG. 2B) and may be moved to any position along a portion G of C-surface 29. C-surface 29 represents a C-obstacle 30 that corresponds to an obstacle (hole) 31 represented in real-space in FIG. 2A, and point P represents peg 26.
The position of P determines the position of peg 26 in relation to hole 28. The boundary of the shaded area shown in FIG. 2B represents the positions at which peg 26 would be in contact with obstacle 31, if point P was along the boundary. The transformation from FIG. 2A to FIG. 2B amounts to shrinking the peg 26 to a point P, and expanding obstacle 31 to form a C-obstacle 30. The transformation from FIG. 2A to FIG. 2B is a limited example of how one may reformulate a problem of moving a rigid object among other rigid objects as an equivalent problem of moving a point among transformed objects in a higher-dimensional space called the configuration space (C-space).
It is noted that FIG. 2B corresponds to the points at which peg 26 will collide with obstacle 31, if the axes (x,y) of peg 26 and hole 28 are constrained to be parallel, thereby keeping xcex8 equal to 0.
FIG. 2C illustrates how the C-surface changes as the orientation of peg 26, with respect to hole 28, changes, i.e., as xcex8 increases from 0 by rotating the orientation of peg 26 in a counter-clockwise direction. FIG. 2C thus shows in a three-dimensional C-space (x,y,xcex8) the configurations of peg 26 with respect to hole 28. In this space, hole 28 is defined as a C-obstacle. The lines illustrated in FIG. 2C represent surfaces at which some surface of peg 26 is just touching a surface of hole 28.
Another approach to motion planning may be utilized by which the configuration is discretized into a fine regular grid of configurations, and is then searched for a free path from an initial position Qinit to a goal location Qgoal. In searching the grid for a free path, several types of heuristics have been proposed. Latombe notes in xe2x80x9cRobot Motion Planningxe2x80x9d (1991) that the most successful types of heuristics, for searching a fine regular grid of configurations for a free path, include the use of functions that are interpreted as xe2x80x9cpotential fieldsxe2x80x9d. The functions are called xe2x80x9cpotential fieldsxe2x80x9d because the robot is represented as a point in configuration space which can be viewed as a particle moving under the influence of an artificial potential produced by the goal configuration (i.e., the point within the configuration space at which the point representing the robot will be at the goal) and the C-obstacles. Typically, the goal configuration generates an xe2x80x9cattractive potentialxe2x80x9d which pulls the robot toward the goal, and the C-obstacles produce a xe2x80x9crepulsive potentialxe2x80x9d which pushes the robot away from them. The direction of the resulting force is considered to be the most promising direction of motion.
In industry, in order to plan the gross motion of a robot which will be utilized to implement a particular process step, the robot is xe2x80x9cwalked throughxe2x80x9d the needed movements to bring the robot from a starting position to a goal position. Automated gross motion planning systems may be utilized to simulate the movement of the robot on a computer. However, in industry, automatically generated robot motion plans are seldom (if ever) used because the accuracy of such plans is not trusted and/or because the algorithms used to generate such plans are complicated and time-consuming.
In academics, many sophisticated automated robot motion planning algorithms have been proposed. However, a common focus in academia is to obtain optimal results, i.e., to generate a robot motion plan that moves the robot along the most efficient path from an initial position to a goal position. Since such methods concentrate on the obtention of optimal results, the resulting algorithms tend to be complicated and time-consuming.
For purposes of clarification, and to assist readers in an understanding of the present invention, a number of terms used herein are defined as follows:
Bending Apparatus/Bending Workstationxe2x80x94a workstation or apparatus for performing modern sheet metal working functions, including bend operations.
Bending Sheets of Malleable Materialxe2x80x94working of sheets of malleable material, such as sheet metal, including, but not limited to, up-action air bending, V bending, R bending, hemming, seaming, coining, bottoming, forming, wiping, folding type bending, custom bending and so on.
Maximal Overlapping Rectangloidxe2x80x94a rectangloid with its sides expanded in each orthogonal direction to the maximum possible location within a defined free space, such as described below in the text corresponding to FIG. 11D.
m-Tree Representation of a Work Spacexe2x80x94a decomposition of a rectangloid representative of a work space into smaller rectangloids, such decomposition being utilized to represent which portions of the work space rectangloid are empty, full, or mixed. The resulting decomposition being defined in terms of a tree. An example of an octree representation of a work space, which is a type of m-tree representation, is given in FIG. 1 and FIG. 11A and 11B.
Rectangloidxe2x80x94a rectangle in a two-dimensional space, or a parallelepiped in a three-dimensional space.
In view of the above, the present invention, through one or more of its various aspects and/or embodiments, is thus presented to bring about one or more objects and advantages, such as those noted below.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer-implemented robot motion planner for planning the motion of a robot within an industrial environment such as within a sheet metal bending work station. It is an object of the present invention to provide such a gross motion planning system which generates a motion plan in an efficient and timely manner, without excessively infringing upon the computer""s resources, such as memory.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an automated intelligent motion planning system. The motion planning system may be provided with one or more mechanisms for adjusting the optimal nature of the resulting motion path for the robot so that, depending on the circumstances, an optimal, more refined computation method will be utilized, or a cruder but faster computation method will be utilized, in order to produce a motion path.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide mechanisms for modeling the relevant Euclidean space of the environment within which the robot is placed, the mechanism utilizing a small amount of memory space to fully represent the Euclidean space, and being configured to accurately represent the Euclidean space with a sufficient amount of resolution so that the system will be able to operate efficiently, and without the occurrence of collisions between the robot and any physical components.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a motion planning system having a collision checking procedure which can be performed in order to determine if a collision will likely result by simulating movement of the robot in accordance with the generated motion plan. If a collision will likely occur based upon collision checking, the plan may then be modified accordingly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a motion planning system which interacts with, and thereby helps, other systems and subsystems in the development of a sequence plan. The motion planning system provides incremental advice to a sequence planning system in order to guide the planning process. The advice is provided in terms of explicit costs and parameters that may be used to program the final robot motion. The motion planning system also serves as a guide for various subsystems which work together with the sequence planning system to create a plan toward a final goal. The subsystems can query the motion planning system about costs and parameters associated with a particular proposed motion, and use the information provided by the motion planning system in order to development several subplans. A motion planning system of this type is in contrast from other motion planning systems that are essentially stand-alone motion planners. Such stand-along motion planners do not provide advice to other systems and subsystems about the costs and parameters associated with various moves.
The present invention, therefore, is directed to various methods and systems, including a computerized method for planning motion of a robot within free space, the free space being confined by obstacles, and the motion being planned from an initial position to a goal position. A plurality of proposed movements are proposed for an mth movement within a sequence of movements to be made by the robot. At least a portion of the robot and the obstacles that confine the free space are modeled, and a determination is made as to whether a collision will occur between the robot and an obstacle for a proposed movement being executed as the mth movement. A plan is then generated, including the sequence of movements, by choosing, for each movement in the sequence of movements, a proposed movement that will not result in a collision and that will bring the robot closer to the goal position. The robot may comprise a robot for holding and maneuvering a workpiece through a sequence of bending operations to be performed by a bending apparatus.
In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, the method may further include a step of estimating a cost to be associated with each proposed movement, whereby the generating step comprises choosing, for each movement in the sequence of movements, a proposed movement that will not result in a collision, that will bring the robot closer to the goal position, and that has a lowest/lower estimated cost. The estimated cost for a particular proposed movement may include a Euclidian distance to the goal position from the position of the robot after the particular proposed movement is made as the mth movement. In addition, or in the alternative, the estimated cost for a particular proposed movement may comprise an estimated value indicative of the robot travel time to move from a position after an (mxe2x88x921)th movement to a position of the robot after the particular proposed movement is made (for the mth movement).
Additional steps may be provided before the proposing step, such additional steps including specifying a plurality of movements in C-space for an mth movement in the sequence of movements, and identifying which ones of the specified plurality of movements are feasible by performing collision checking. The proposing step may then include proposing movements from among the movements identified as feasible. In addition, the specified plurality of movements specified for an mth movement in the sequence of movements may include a plurality of movements in directions which collectively surround the position at which the robot is after the (mxe2x88x921)th movement in the sequence of movements. The specified plurality of movements for an mth movement in the sequence of movements may also comprise movements in a plurality of intelligent movement directions. In this regard, the method may be designed so that it plans the motion of the robot in order to unload a malleable workpiece from a tooling punch of a bending apparatus after completing a bend. The intelligent directions may comprise a downward movement of the robot causing the workpiece to move downward. In addition, or in the alternative, the intelligent directions may comprise a backward movement of the robot causing the workpiece to be backed out of the bending apparatus. An additional type of intelligent direction may include moving the robot to thereby cause the workpiece to change in pitch from an inclined position towards a horizontal position.
The method may further include the steps of forming an m-tree representation of a work space of the robot and computing maximal overlapping rectangloids (forming channels) within the free space of the m-tree representation of the work space. The m-tree representation may be an octree representation, and the maximal overlapping rectangloids may comprise maximal overlapping parallelepipeds.
The proposing step may include proposing, for an mth movement, a set of movements of the robot to locations that fall within a maximal overlapping rectangloid within which the robot is located immediately after an (mxe2x88x921)th movement of the sequence of movements. In this regard, the set of movements may include translating the robot to any one of eight corners of the present maximal overlapping rectangloid, and moving the robot along any one of a plurality of predetermined axes/directions which bring the robot to a position along a predetermined axis/direction coincides with the goal position.
In accordance with an additional aspect of the invention, the set of movements may comprise moving the robot in a first of three orthogonal directions to a position along the first orthogonal direction which corresponds to the goal position; moving the robot: in a second of the three orthogonal directions to a position along the second orthogonal direction which corresponds to the goal position; moving the robot in a third of the three orthogonal directions to a position along the third orthogonal direction which corresponds to the goal position; moving the robot in order to adjust a pitch of a gripper of the robot; and/or moving the robot in order to adjust both the pitch and yaw of the gripper of the robot.
In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, the set of movements, from which movements may be proposed (for generation of the motion plan from the initial position to the goal position), may include moving along one of a plurality of orthogonal directions only when such movement would bring the robot to an orthogonal position that corresponds to the goal position.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, the method may further include fine motion planning for planning a plurality of free-space fine motion solution paths that extend between a plurality of respective pairs of positions, qi and qg. The method may also comprise gross motion planning for planning a plurality of free-space gross motion solution paths that extend between a plurality of respective pairs of positions, Qi and Qg. The fine motion planning may comprise performing the above-noted steps of proposing, modeling, determining and generating, for each pair of positions, qi and qg. In this regard, the proposing step may comprise specifying a plurality of movements in C-space for the mth movement and identifying which ones of the specified plurality of movements are feasible by performing collision checking. The gross motion planning may comprise performing the steps of proposing, modeling, determining and generating for each pair of positions, Qi and Qg. The proposing step may comprise proposing a set of movements within a maximal overlapping parallelepiped within the free space of the robot.
In accordance with an additional aspect of the present invention, the method may calculate whether the simple collision-free path can be determined, and form a plan including movements for traversing the simple collision-free path. If a simple collision-free path can be determined, the method may inhibit operation of the steps of proposing, determining, and generating, since such time-consuming steps are unnecessary in view of the already formed simple collision-free path.
The above-listed and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be more fully set forth hereinafter.

Method for planning/controlling robot motion


Disclosed is a silver halide photographic material for medical use, in which the coated amount of silver per surface of the support is 2.8 g/m.sup.2 or less, the silver halide grains in the coated silver halide emulsion layer have a silver chloride content of 10 to 50 mol %, they contain 10.sup.-8 mol or more, per mol of silver, of an iridium compound and they have been spectrally-sensitized to be sensitive to rays of from 600 to 700 nm wavelength range. The material may be processed by rapid processing and has a high sensitivity and high covering power. Also disclosed is a silver halide photographic material for laser exposure, in which the emulsion contains 10.sup.-8 mol or more, per mol of silver, of an iridium compound and is spectrally-sensitized with a sensitizing dye of formula (III): ##STR1## where V.sub.1, V.sub.2, V.sub.3, V.sub.4, V.sub.5, V.sub.6, V.sub.7 and V.sub.8 each represent a hydrogen atom or a monovalent substituent, and they satisfy the following conditions:. where f value of Vk (k=1 to 8) is Vkf, PA2 A.sub.1 =V.sub.1 f+V.sub.2 f+V.sub.3 f+V.sub.4 f, and PA2 A.sub.2 =V.sub.5 f+V.sub.6 f+V.sub.7 f+V.sub.8 f; PA2 then A.sub.1 <1.63, or A.sub.2 <1.63;. R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 each represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; PA1 L.sub.1, L.sub.2 and L.sub.3 each represent a substituted or unsubstituted methine group; PA1 M.sub.1 represents a charge neutralizing pair ion; and PA1 m.sub.1 is a number of 0 or more, which is necessary for neutralizing the charge of the molecule.. This has high sensitivity and may be processed by ultra-rapid processing system to result in little residual color in the processed material.

Laser imagers, in which an image is recorded in a photographic material by laser ray scanning, have become popular as a system for recording an output image from a diagnostic instrument such as X-ray CT or MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance instrument). The laser imager system must record and develop the output image in a shorter period of time to obtain a rapid diagnosis.
Known recording lasers used as laser imagers, are He-Ne and semiconductor lasers.
The wavelength range of rays for exposure with a laser imager is, for example, from 600 to 700 nm with a He-Ne laser and an AlGaP (semiconductor) laser and within the infrared range of semiconductors. Of them, a laser imager operated with exposing rays of from 600 to 700 nm has become most popular, since the rays are within the visible range and therefore an optical system with them may be more easily adjusted than one with infrared rays.
However, a laser imager system must use photographic materials containing visible color sensitizing dyes. Additionally, the materials should be more suited to rapid processing than infrared-sensitive photographic materials, especially with respect to the harmful color retention in materials which have been subjected to rapid processing.
To reduce residual color in processed photographic materials, the amount of the dyes therein may be reduced. In accordance with this method, however, the sensitivity of the materials unfavorably lowers. In another method, color retention is reduced by incorporating an adsorbent in the materials. However, this method is also defective in that it reduces residual color by the substantial substitution of the dyes with added adsorbent on the surfaces of silver halide grains in the materials, with an inevitable lowering of the sensitivity of the materials.
The photographic materials to be used with a laser imager should have various characteristics. In particular, since they are exposed in a short period of time of from 10.sup.-7 to 10.sup.-3 second, they must be highly sensitive.
It is known that the output image from a laser imager has portions having a distinctly different density from that of the areas adjacent to the image. These portions cause unevenness in the developed image when developed by rapid development with an automatic processor. Since this may be avoided by promoting the developability of the photographic material to be used therein, it is necessary that the fluctuation of the sensitivity of the photographic material caused by variation of development time is small.
Recently, high temperature rapid processing of photographic materials has become popular, and the processing time of various photographic materials with an automatic machine has been remarkably shortened. In order to attain rapid processing, a developer is needed which is capable of yielding a sufficient sensitivity in a short period of time. Also needed is a photographic material which has a high rate of development to yield a sufficient density in a short period of time and which may be dried in a short period of time after rinsing. In a method which is generally satisfactorily employed for the purpose of improving the easy driability of photographic materials, a suitable amount of a hardening agent (gelatin crosslinking agent) is previously added to the photographic material in the coating step during its preparation, so that the swelling rate of the emulsion layer and the hydrophilic colloid layer constituting the material so that the water content in the processed photographic material before initiation of drying is reduced during the process of development, fixation and rinsing. In accordance with the method, when a larger amount of a hardening agent is added to the material, the drying time may be shortened. However, in the method, the swelling rate of the layers constituting the material is lowered so that development of the material is delayed, causing depression of sensitivity and hardness or to cause depression of the covering power. In addition to this method, other rapid processing methods are known, for example, as described in JP-A 63-136043 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), in which a developer and a fixer both having substantially no gelatin-hardening effect are used. The method is advantageous in promoting the rate of development and the rate of fixation with the processing solutions, while it delays the rate of drying. Therefore, the method could not be said to be sufficiently effective.
On the other hand, as a method of promoting the rate of development and enhancing covering power, the addition of various additives to silver halides is known. For instance, such additives include polyacrylamides as polymer additives in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,271,158 and 3,514,289 dextran compounds, as saccharide additives, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,063,838 and 3,272,631. However, when these compounds are added to photographic materials in such a amount as to sufficiently satisfy the objects, the driability of the materials and this film strength would defectively lower.
Apart from rapid processability, further elevation of the sensitivity and covering power of photographic materials is a goal which has heretofore been sought in this technical field. When elevation of the sensitivity of photographic materials is realized by enlarging the grain size of the silver halide grains therein, this covering power generally lowers. Therefore, if elevation of the sensitivity of photographic materials could not be attained by the use of silver halide grains having the same grain size or if elevation of the covering power thereof could not be attained by the use of silver halide grains having the same sensitivity, then such a result would be meaningless.
Under these circumstances, photographic materials having a high sensitivity and a high covering power and having a high rate of development with rapid processability are desired as those for popular laser imagers which may be easily subjected to optical adjustment and which have an ordinary exposure range of from 600 to 700 nm.
On the other hand, even though the rate of development of photographic materials could be elevated, delay in fixation of the materials due to excess hardening of them would cause other problems of silver remains, hypo remains and residual color from the sensitizing dyes used, which preclude shortening of the processing time.
Some methods of elevating the activity of processing solutions are also known. For instance, effective are increases in the amounts of the developing agent and the developing aid in a developer, elevation of the pH value of a developer, and elevation of the processing temperature. However, all of these methods have the drawbacks that the time-dependent stability of the processing solutions is lowered and the processed materials are often softened or quite fogged.
In addition, in accordance with the proposed methods in which the processing time of development, fixation and rinsing is shortened, photographic sensitivity is lowered, and silver and hypo residues increase due to depression of the fixing capacity. For spectrally-sensitized photographic materials, these methods have the additional problem of residual color due to the sensitizing dyes therein.

Silver halide photographic material and method of processing the same


Embodiments of the present invention provide a system for mitigating intentional and unintentional exposures using solution data modelling. The system is typically configured for generating solution data models comprising a plurality of asset systems and a plurality of users, wherein each of the plurality of asset systems is associated with at least one user of the plurality of users and wherein at least a first of the plurality of asset systems is associated with at least a second of the plurality of asset systems, storing the solution data models in a model database, identifying an exposure associated with a user, accessing a solution data model associated with the user from the model database, identifying one or more relationships associated with the user from the solution data model, and implementing mitigation steps to mitigate the exposure associated with the user based on the one or more relationships.

Present conventional systems do not have the capability to identify all existing relationships within an entity. Lack of sufficient information associated with one or more relationships within an entity makes it difficult to mitigate intentional and unintentional exposures within the entity. As such, there exists a need for a system to identify all existing relationships within the entity and to mitigate intentional and unintentional exposures arising within the entity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for mitigating intentional and unintentional exposure using solution data modelling


A circuit can include multiple data input ports and data output ports, pickoff tees coupled therebetween, and a resistive network coupled between the pickoff tees. A differential signal generator can be coupled with the resistive network and the pickoff tees. Resistances of the pickoff tees and resistive network can be selected such that impedances looking into the data input ports and data output ports are matched to a desired system impedance.

FIG. 1 is functional diagram illustrating an example of a prior system 100 that includes three resistive combiners 108, 110, and 112 and two directional couplers 114 and 116. In the example, the system 100 includes a first signal generator 102 that provides a differential data signal to the directional couplers 114 and 116. The system 100 also includes a second signal generator 104 that provides an input signal, such as a 2.1 GHz sine wave, to a balun 105. Balun 105 creates a differential mode signal from the single-ended signal it receives from signal generator 104, and provides one end of the differential mode signal to resistive combiner 108 and the other end to resistive combiner 110. The system 100 also includes a common mode (CM) signal generator 106 that provides a CM signal to an amplifier 107 before being passed to resistive combiner 112.
Resistive combiner 112 is electrically coupled between the amplifier 107 and each of the other two resistive combiners 108 and 110, which also receive signals from the balun 105. In this manner the resistive combiners 108, 110, and 112 effectively combine the input signal from the second signal generator 104 with the CM signal from the CM signal generator 106. Directional couplers 114 and 116 effectively apply the differential data from the first signal generator 102 to the resulting signals from resistive combiners 108 and 110, respectively.
Prior implementations such as the one illustrated by FIG. 1 are physically large and expensive. Such implementations also have a number of disadvantages. For example, loss from input data to output data is generally higher at high frequencies than at low frequencies. In other words, such loss is not flat aver frequency. Also, loss from other inputs to output data tends to roll off as frequency decreases and can be inadequate at certain frequencies, some of which can be important.
FIG. 2 is a functional diagram illustrating an example of a prior apparatus 200 that includes five resistive combiners 202 and 206-212, balun 204, and no directional couplers. In the example, resistive combiner 202 may receive the common mode (CM) input and balun 204 may receive the differential mode (DM) input. Resistive combiners 206 and 208 are each electrically coupled with resistive combiner 202 and balun 204 and also with resistive combiners 210 and 212, respectively. Resistive combiners 210 and 212 are typically pickoff tees.
Prior systems such as would use the apparatus of FIG. 2 generally use resistive combining, e.g., pickoff tees 210 and 212, for a flatter loss in input data to output data aver frequency. Such systems have loss in the input data to output data path that is relatively low (2 dB). However, a consequence is that a pickoff tee that injects the differential mode and common mode signals onto the data generally has higher impedance at the injection point than the system impedance of 50 Ohms, thereby causing reflections that lead to a non-flat transfer function from the CM input and DM input to the data output.
Another disadvantage of prior approaches is that, in order to avoid further impedance mismatches, the balun that the DM input signal goes into, e.g., balun 204 of FIG. 2, must have a 2:1 turn ratio, which limits its frequency response relative to what is achievable with transmission line baluns having a 1:1 ratio.
FIG. 3 is a functional diagram illustrating an example of a prior system 300 that includes four resistive combiners 310-316 that effectively combine a DM signal from a DM source 302 and CM signal from two separate CM sources 306 and 308 with an input signal from a pattern generator 304. As with the apparatus 200 of FIG. 2, this system 300 also uses resistive combining for flat loss in the input data to output data over frequency. The system 300 also has the disadvantage of high through loss, i.e., 6 dB, from the input data to the output data. It also cannot receive as input a single-ended differential mode input but instead requires two signals that are 180 degrees out of phase and each have 50 Ohm impedance.
FIG. 4 is a graphing that illustrates an example 400 of a data signal resulting from a prior system or apparatus such as that illustrated by FIG. 1. One having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the attenuation over frequency in the example 400 is not flat, thus resulting in a data signal that is not clean.
Accordingly, a need remains for improved systems that add CM and DM signals onto differential data.

Integrated combiner with common mode correction


The present invention relates to the use of post source decay (PSD) or collision induced dissociation (CID) direct tissue (DT) MALDI-TOF or DT-MALDI-TOF-TOF mass spectrographic identification of biological molecules in a tissue or cellular sample without the need for further protein extraction. This method provides for studying cells or tissues by direct tissue MALDI (DT-MALDI), thereby substituting in situ protein release for further protein extraction. Mass/intensity data was processed with Mascot© software interrogation of the NCBI database. These results are proof of principle that DT-MALDI, combined with bioinformatics, can directly identify proteins in cells and tissues from their mass spectra.

Time of flight mass spectrometry from gel isolates or chromatographic columns are accepted means of identifying proteins based on mass and charge (m/z). In 1988, Koichi Tanaka reported that laser irradiation of a mixture of methanol-ethylene glycol-cobalt ultra fine powder (Co UFT) transferred energy to proteins, chymotrypsinogen and lysozyme, generating a vapor/ion-phase of intact macro molecules that could be detected by time of flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (Tanaka, et al., Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 1988, 2, 151-153). This demonstration paved the way for using laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry on solid tissue, direct tissue MALDI (DT-MALDI).
MALDI (TOF) identifies proteins and peptides as mass charge (m/z) spectral peaks. Further advances, post-source decay (MALDI-PSD) and collision-induced dissociation (MALDI-CID), have become standard methods to identify proteins from cell or tissue homogenates that are responsible for these peaks. (Hansen, et al., Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 2003, 2, 299-314; Norris, et al. Anal Chem. 2003, 75, 6642-6647; Zhang, et al., Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2003, 14, 1012-1021; Wang, et al. Journal of Proteome Research 2005, 4, 2397-2403; Vasilescu, et al., Journal of Proteome Research 2005, 4, 2192-2200; Vandermoere, et al., Oncogene 2005, 24, 5482-5491; Luo, et al., Molecular Biotechnology 2005, 29, 233-244; Le Guezennec, et al., Molecular and Cellular Biology 2006, 26, 843-851. However, most of these procedures utilize harsh digestion conditions and protein extraction procedures prior to analysis by MALDI-TOF methods. Matrices have evolved to include small organic molecules and heavy metals that that can be applied to or mixed with the analyte (Tanaka, et al., Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 1988, 2, 151-153). The most often used matrices absorb light at 337%, the wavelength of a nitrogen laser, and thereby facilitate desorption and ionization of adjacent biological materials. Ions of the same charge acquire a similar kinetic energy; however, their velocity in the ion chamber depends on their respective masses. The ion time of travel to an anode is measured, precisely by the detector and is recorded as a time-mass/charge spectrum with peaks representing proteins in the sample. Based on instrument calibration of standard samples, these values are converted to mass values for National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database analysis of peptide fragments with Mascot©, and Blast© software. Protein m/z Spectra can be obtained from fluids, cells and tissues of matrix coated protein extraction preparations with Maldi tof and Maldi tof tof. Although protein signature peaks are reported (Norris, et al., Analytical Chemistry 2003, 75, 6642-6647), there have been no reports of proteins identified directly from cells or tissue using these technologies. Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a more rapid, yet accurate method to identify proteins directly from a tissue sample without a need for further protein extraction of the sample to be followed by protein determination using standard methods such as 1D, 2D or capillary electrophoresis. These needs are addressed by the agents and methods of the present invention.
All publications, patent applications, patents and other reference material mentioned are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In addition, the materials, methods and examples are only illustrative and are not intended to be limiting. The citation of references herein shall not be construed as an admission that such is prior art to the present invention.

Methods for direct biomolecule identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry


In a method for storing vibration waveform data sequentially detected by a vibration sensor. The vibration storing method includes detection of a reference level terminal point (P.sub.3) between a preestablished reference level and a vibration waveform. The detected reference level terminal point serves as a trigger. Also, vibration waveform data from a predetermined point (P.sub.0) before a reference level starting point (P.sub.1) to a predetermined point (P.sub.4) after the reference level terminal point (P.sub.3) are stored in a memory. A first preliminary memory and a second preliminary memory are utilized so that the vibration waveform data from those two memories are alternately transferred and stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shock vibration data storing method in which required vibration waveform data generated during transportation, for example, are efficiently gathered and stored.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A typical conventional shock vibration data storing apparatus, as discussed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 2-8272, is constituted such that when vibration waveform data have reached a pre-established reference level (when reference level starting points of the waveform and reference level have been detected), this serves as a trigger for storing future vibration waveform data from the reference level starting point to a predetermined point of the vibration waveform in a memory within a range of the capacity of the cyclic memory, and supplementarily storing vibration data before the reference level starting point within the limit of the remaining capacity of the cyclic memory. Also, vibration waveform data including a peak point exceeding the reference level are stored in the memory. Those arrangements are made for the purposes of grasping the transportation status.
The basic idea prevailing in any one of the conventional techniques is that data which have exceeded the reference level, among all vibration waveform data, are to be gathered.
However, as a result of repeated observation and analysis of a large number of transportation examples under various transportation conditions, the inventors of the present invention have found out that it is indispensable for factor analysis of vibration data equal to or more than the reference level including the peak point, and improvement of transportation conditions to grasp the vibration status of not only the vibration including the hazardous peak point but also as to how this vibration is induced, how the induced vibration is terminated and what peak point is reached after the preceding peak point has been terminated.
In the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 2-8272, since it is only a predetermined number of words after the reference level starting point of the reference level that can be stored in a memory, it is practically impossible to ensure that the peak point is included in this predetermined number of words. This being the case, it is more difficult to make sure that the vibration waveform data, before the reference level starting point and after the reference level terminating point, contribute to the grasp of factors of waveform data which have exceeded the reference level.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems.


A plurality of utility devices which are each formed for a respective purpose, such as belt clips, handles and the like, and which are releasably attachable to attaching members which are fixedly secured to substantially any desired object to provide added usefulness and utility to the desired object.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to utility devices and is particularly directed to a plurality of utility devices which are each formed for a respective purpose, such as belt clips, handles and the like, and which are releasably attachable to attaching members which are fixedly secured to substantially any desired object to provide added usefulness and utility to the desired object.
2. Prior Art
Many times people encounter objects which they feel could be much more useful, if they had a handle, clip or the like which, unfortunately, they do not have. This is generally a personal matter and the desirability of such a handle or clip may vary from person to person. For example, insulated covers for beverage containers are generally not provided with handles or clips for attaching the cover to a bicycle, wheel chair, window ledge, fence or the like. The reason that such handles or clips are not provided may be added cost of production, need for larger packaging, display space, etc. Furthermore, many people are satisfied to grip the beverage cover with their hands for drinking and to set it on a table or the ground, when they are not drinking from it. On the other hand, there are many other people who would prefer to have a handle for gripping the beverage cover or who would like to be able to releasably attach the beverage cover to a bicycle or the like, when they are not drinking from it. Many prior art devices have been proposed to overcome such problems. However, most of the prior art devices have been capable of serving only one specific purpose. Thus, holders have been provided, into which insulated beverage covers may be inserted, and these holders frequently have handles. On the other hand, these holders have no provision for attaching the beverage cover to a bicycle or wheel chair. Again, clips have been provided for releasably attaching beverage containers to bicycles or wheel chairs, but these clips do not have handles for use when drinking from the container. In the same light, belt clips have been proposed for releasably attaching a beverage container to the user's belt, but these belt clips are not adaptable for attaching the beverage container to a beach chair or boat railing. Numerous other instances will come immediately to mind in which the user may wish to adapt substantially any given object in a manner which the manufacturer did not contemplate or chose to ignore.
In a related vein, campers, backpackers and the like often desire to attach a plurality of duffle bags, knapsacks, tents and the like together, although the manufacturers often have not provided straps or attaching means for accomplishing this. In the past, such problems have been solved by employing ropes, belts, straps or the like to tie the desired objects together as best they could. More recently, Nexus Company, whose address is 230 W. Gerry Drive, Wooddale, Ill. 60191, has developed connecting devices, called "lash points", comprising plastic rectangles, which may be sewn or otherwise fixedly secured to a desired object and which have a plurality of slits provided along the edges of the rectangles through which belts or straps may be passed to facilitate tying the desired object to another object. However, no means has been provided which will enable these lash points to serve in adapting a desired object for a plurality of purposes, as discussed above. Thus, none of the prior art attaching devices have been entirely satisfactory.


The method is disclosed for coating or impregnating a metal cutting tool with a metal oxide. The method includes the steps of applying a liquid metal carboxylate composition, or a solution thereof, to a substrate material, and exposing the metal cutting tool to an environment that will cause vaporization or dissipation of any excess carboxylic acids in the liquid metal carboxylate composition and conversion of the metal carboxylates to metal oxides.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of providing a coating or film on the surfaces of cutting tools. In particular, the invention relates to a method of coating metal cutting tools by applying to one or more surfaces of the cutting tool a composition containing a liquid metal carboxylate, followed by heat treatment of the cutting tool.
2. Description of Related Art
Cutting tools are used in many different industries, and can generally be thought of as a cutting insert (plate, drill, blade, etc.) fixed on a holder. The cutting inserts are typically made of steel and/or metal-ceramic hard alloys containing tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, tantalum carbide, and other additives. Hard-alloy materials generally contain more that 90% of metal carbides and 3–8% of metal cobalt. One method of making hard-alloy cutting inserts is baking a mixture of metal carbide powders with the metal cobalt powder in a vacuum or reductive atmosphere (argon-hydrogen mixture) at 1300–1500° C.
Cutting inserts are often coated to increase their hardness, to increase their useful life, to increase the time between sharpenings or other maintenance, to prevent fouling of the tool with the material being cut, and to provide other desirable properties, i.e. improvement of the quality of the surfacing process, efficiency increase (cutting speed.) The coatings can be applied to steel cutting inserts and to hard-alloy inserts as well.
Currently, cutting tools are typically coated in one of two ways. One method is chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of oxides, nitrides, and oxynitrides. CVD involves thermal decomposition of volatile metal chlorides (aluminum, titanium, zirconium) on the surface of a cutting tool in a controlled atmosphere containing nitrogen and some oxygen. This process is widely used by major cutting tool manufacturers, such as ISKAR (Israel), Hertel (Germany), and other manufacturers in the U.S., Sweden, Japan.
However, there are several problems associated with the CVD method. First, CVD requires the use of a carefully developed system of safety equipment, as some components used in this process, such as β-diketones and metal-carbonyl complexes, are toxic. Second, the CVD process significantly improves the adhesive properties of the coating, but the coating should be at least 5–15 micrometers thick to provide life extension of the tool. In order to prevent the coating from cracking and peeling it is necessary to match up the respective coefficients of thermal expansion of the cutting tool and the coating. This cannot always be achieved due to differences in these coefficients for the commonly used substrate materials and the common CVD coating materials. Third, the CVD method requires high material and power consumption, increasing the cost of the coated tool. Finally, use of the CVD method results in the production of toxic chloride hydrogen and metal chlorides, whose emission must be controlled from environmental and health standpoints.
The other typical method currently utilized in coating cutting tools is by magnetron spraying of the metal nitrides (using a machine known in Russia as a "Bulat" type machine). During this process a tool and a titanium target plate are placed into a bath filled with nitrogen (pressure about 0.1–1 mm Hg). The bath gets heated up, and the target gets "bombed" by accelerated electrons. Titanium sputters and reacts with nitrogen forming titanium nitride, which settles on the surface of the tool. This process requires control and thorough preparation of the surface of the tool being coated, and it is expensive because of its high material and power consumption.
Other methods for extending the life of tools exist, but cannot be considered as coating processes (for example, nitriding in an ammonia atmosphere, surface modifications in a salt melt). Spraying (plasma, detonation) is primarily used for coating parts for cars and heavy machinery.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a method of coating cutting tools to extend the life of the tool while avoiding the cost and toxic materials handling problems associated with the methods described above.


A positioning device which positions an optical film set in a backlight module is proposed. The backlight module includes a back plate. The optical film set is disposed on the back plate. The positioning device includes an assembly sheet and a fixing device. The assembly sheet is disposed at one end of the positioning device for penetrating an opening formed on at least one edge of the optical film set. The fixing device is used for fixing the positioning device to a side plate of the back plate. A backlight module in which the positioning device is used and a liquid crystal display (LCD) in which the positioning device is used are proposed as well. Owing to the present invention, the positioning of each optical film in the optical film set is simple. Also, an LCD featuring a thin bezel design is implemented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD), and more particularly, to a positioning device for positioning an optical film set, a backlight module having the positioning device, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) having the positioning device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, TFT-LCDs are a very important display for modern information technology and video products. An optical film set is disposed in the frame of a backlight module and is fixed with rivets or rivet-like objects in some conventional technologies. Specifically, rivets are disposed on a back plate. Openings disposed on the optical film set and corresponding to the rivets can be penetrated by the rivets.
However, inventers of the present invention observe a tendency toward LCDs. Since optical LCDs featuring a thin bezel design become more and more popular, the structure of the conventional backlight module becomes more and more difficult to meet the demand of engineering design.

Positioning device for positioning an optical film set, backlight module, and liquid crystal display

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A method of applying a metallic paint to an object conveyed by means of a conveyor, by reciprocating one or more rotary atomizing electrostatic painting machines at right angles to the direction in which the object is conveyed. The speed of the reciprocation of the painting machines is controlled according to the speed of the conveyor so that the pitch between the adjacent orbits of the strokes of the reciprocation of the machines drawn on the object may become a predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of applying a metallic paint using a rotary atomizing electrostatic painting machine and, more particularly, to a method of applying a metallic paint by reciprocating a painting machine at right angles to the direction in which an object to be painted is conveyed at a constant speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since rotary atomizing electrostatic paint spraying can apply paint at a higher transfer efficiency than air atomizing electrostatic spraying and airless atomizing electrostatic spraying, it has often been used to paint automotive bodies and the like in recent years.
FIG. 4 shows the conventional rotary atomizing electrostatic spray equipment. The body of this equipment is indicated by numeral 1. A rotor 3 is supported by an air bearing 2 inside the body 1 and extends out through the body 1. An atomizing head 4 is firmly fixed to the front end of the rotor 3 which is located outside the body 1. A head member 5 is mounted to the front end of the body 1 and provided with a multiplicity of blowoff holes 6 for ejecting shaping air toward the outer fringe of the atomizing head 4. A paint supply tube 7 extends along the axis of the body in such a way that it is not in contact with the rotor 3.
In the operation of the conventional rotary atomizing electrostatic spray equipment constructed as described above, the atomizing head 4 is spun at a high speed by a drive means (not shown) and, at the same time, a high voltage is applied to the head 4. Under this condition, a paint is supplied through the paint supply tube 7. Then, the paint flows out to the front surface of the head 4 from a hole 4a formed in the head 4, runs across the front surface, and shifts to the outer periphery. Then, the paint is atomized by centrifugal force. Concurrently, the atomized paint is electrically charged and travels toward the object to be painted. At this time, the paint is applied in the desired pattern by the shaping air ejected from the blowoff holes 6.
It is known that where a metallic paint including fragments of aluminum or mica is applied using the above-described rotary atomizing electrostatic spray equipment, the appearance of the finished object is much darker than the case in which it is painted by the use of an air atomizing spray machine. This phenomenon is understood in the manner described now. Since the particles of the paint are applied to the target surface mainly by electrostatic force, the speed of the paint particles colliding against the sprayed surface is lesser than in the air atomizing electrostatic spraying. Therefore, the fragments of aluminum or mica do not easily orient themselves parallel to the sprayed surface. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 315361/1989 discloses a painting method which solves the above problem. In particular, the pressure created by shaping air is increased to increase the speeds at which the paint particles collide against the object to be painted, for enhancing the lightness of the surface sprayed with the metallic paint. This technique yields considerably satisfactory results.
Another painting method has been used in which a painting machine is reciprocated perpendicularly to the direction of conveyance of a painted object conveyed at a constant speed. This method is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 165064/1982 and 255170/1985. In this reciprocating painting method, the reciprocating painting machine draws a sinusoidal orbit on the sprayed surface of the painted object, as shown in FIG. 5. This method permits an object having a wide painted area such as an automotive body to be painted efficiently.
Accordingly, where an object having a wide coated area is painted with a metallic paint through the use of a rotary atomizing electrostatic spraying machine, this machine, of course, must be reciprocated.
However, in the painting method disclosed in the above cited Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 315361/1989, the pressure created by the shaping air is increased. As a result, a negative pressure is produced ahead of the atomizing head. The particles of the paint are attracted into the region where this negative pressure is developed. This reduces the width of the pattern in which the paint is applied. This reduction in the width of the depositional pattern means an improvement of the transfer efficiency of the paint. If the aforementioned painting method is directly applied to the reciprocating painting to spray a metallic paint, and if the speed of the conveyor varies at all, then the boundary between the adjacent orbits drawn by the spraying machine becomes conspicuous. That is, so-called nonuniform paint spraying tends to occur. It substantially follows that the utilization of this method is urged to be abandoned. Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 13557/1987 discloses another rotary atomizing electrostatic spraying machine in which shaping air is tilted outward about the axis of the atomizing head to widen the spraying pattern. This machine also inevitably produces a negative pressure ahead of the atomizing head. Therefore, this machine is unsuccessful in essentially solving the above-described problem.


A predatory lending detection system and method are described. The system is adapted to receive information pertaining to loans, store general loan information, as well as predatory lending laws, and process the loan information to detect violations of applicable predatory lending laws. In particular, the system compares the loan information to the general loan information and to the applicable predatory lending laws, detects variances therebetween, and scores such detected variances to determine a risk category for the loan.

With the deregulation of the consumer credit industry and inflation of property values, a market for equity-secured lending has emerged. For example, most home improvement loans are tied to the equity on the home. Regrettably, a practice known as predatory lending has also emerged. Predatory lending involves financial institutions which use high fees, outrageous costs and other unscrupulous or deceptive lending practices to strip the equity from a homeowner's home. Such practices are usually targeted to the poor, elderly and minorities, who typically lack access to traditional banking services and rely on financial companies or other less regulated lenders.
The Federal Trade Commission has identified several practices for which homeowners should be "on the lookout" and has posted them on its website located at www.ftc.gov. Such predatory practices include (1) equity stripping (e.g., the lender gives a homeowner a loan based on the equity in his or her home and not on the homeowner's ability to repay); (2) loan flipping (e.g., the lender encourages the homeowner to repeatedly refinance the loan and often to borrow more money); (3) credit insurance packing (e.g., the lender adds credit insurance to the homeowner's loan, regardless of need); (4) steering (e.g., the lender puts borrowers with good credit into loans with high interest rates and away from more affordable options); (5) pre-payment penalty charges (e.g., the lender tries to lock borrowers into predatory loans for as long as possible, making it extremely difficult or impossible for borrowers to refinance or otherwise get out from under the loan); (6) "hidden balloon" payments (e. g., the lender sets up the loan so at the end of the loan, the borrower still owes most of the principal amount borrowed, and offers to refinance the mortgage at excessive fees to eliminate the balloon payment); (7) "bait and switch" (e.g., the lender offers one set of loan terms when the borrower applies, then pressures him or her to accept higher charges when he or she signs to complete the loan.); (8) packing (e.g., packing the loan with exorbitant fees); and (9) fraud (e.g., the manipulation of data to qualify unqualified borrowers).
In addition, federal credit laws and consumer protection statutes have been enacted to deter such practices. For example, the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 ("HOEPA") includes restrictions on financing of points and fees, limitations on the payment of prepayment penalties, and prohibition on balloon payments. Several states, cities and counties have also passed similar predatory lending laws to combat this problem. In fact, given the increased occurrence of predatory lending, legislation is being introduced to expand the number of loans subject to HOEPA.
The above measures are helping to try to reduce the occurrence of predatory lending. However, at least with respect to the poor, elderly, and minorities, the ability to get access to such information let alone any sort of legal assistance is very difficult. Moreover, these measures do not prevent predatory lending from happening in the first place. In addition, the variations between the current predatory lending laws at the federal, state, city and county levels, makes it is very difficult for lenders to keep track of these laws and ensure compliance with them. This problem is becoming increasingly worse as more states, cities and counties adopt their own version of such laws.
While the effects of predatory lending are most directly felt by the individual applying for a loan, lenders are also significantly affected by it, especially wholesale mortgage companies who purchase loan pools or individual loans that have originated elsewhere, such as by mortgage brokers and mortgage bankers. In the secondary market, purchasers and assignees can be held liable for all claims on loans in their possession. Penalties for predatory lending violations include substantial monetary penalties such as repayment of twice the amount of all interest, fees, discounts and charges as well as court and attorney fees to the borrower. In addition, violations of predatory lending laws can result in the temporary or permanent suspension of business privileges of the lender, such as the ability to sell to quasi-governmental agencies (e.g., Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) in secondary markets or the ability to sell certain types of loans. In some cases, lenders can lose their licenses and face imprisonment. Moreover, given the ever changing state of the law in this area, the time and costs required by a lender to stay abreast of new developments, as well as understand all of the variations of the state, city and county laws that currently exist is becoming prohibitive, especially for smaller lenders.
There is, therefore, a need for a system and method for automatically detecting any instances of predatory lending during the closing of a loan regardless of its geographic origin.

Predatory lending detection system and method therefor


A package made of cardboard, includes a sleeve and an insert, the sleeve being provided with at least one catch tab located on the inside of the sleeve and provided with at least one projection, so that the catch tab forms an angle with the upper wall of the sleeve. At least one locking tab is provided on the insert, which is arranged so as to be at least in part inserted between the catch tab and the upper wall. At least one operating tab is provided, in addition to which the sleeve is provided with at least one cutout next to the operating tab, the operating tab being arranged so as to be pressed by a user against the locking tab, movement of the insert in the sliding direction (S) towards the opening being made possible.

In packages for products, the contents of which may be dangerous for small children, it is desirable that the packages are designed so that the risk of small children opening them, in the event that they fall into their hands, is reduced.
EP 0 031 547 A1 describes a package, for example for pharmaceutical preparations, with a storage part and a lid which is displaceable on the storage part. Tabs form catches which prevent a relative movement between the storage part and the lid. The tabs can be folded aside, after which the lid can be pushed aside on the storage part. A disadvantage of the package in EP 0 031 547 A1 is that it does not afford adequate protection against small children gaining access to the contents. One reason for this is that the tabs are visible, which makes unlocking easier. Moreover the package can be opened easily after the tabs have been folded aside, if they are not subsequently actively folded back into the locking position again.
EP 1 002 744 A1 describes a cardboard package with a locking system for children, with an outer casing and an inner sliding part. The sliding part is prevented from being drawn out of the casing if a locking system has not been inactivated by pressing on a release button. The locking system functions by virtue of a tab on the sliding part coming into contact with a shoulder on the inside of the casing. The shoulder is formed by virtue of an inner cardboard ply, glued to an outer ply, being provided with a cutout. A disadvantage of this construction is that, for the locking system to function, it relies on the shoulder having sufficient height by virtue of the thickness of the inner cardboard ply. The locking function is thus made dependent on the selection of a sufficiently thick material for the casing. A material which is too thin can result in the locking security being put at risk. Moreover, it is likely that the construction will lead to the shoulder being worn down on repeated use, and that its function is impaired after a number of openings of the package.
One object of the present invention is to produce a package, for example for pharmaceutical preparations, in which the contents are better protected against children gaining access than in packages according to the known art.
Another object of the present invention is to produce a package, for example for pharmaceutical preparations, which has protection against children gaining access which is as good after repeated openings and closings as on the first opening.
A further object of the present invention is to produce a package, for example for pharmaceutical preparations, which is easier, and therefore less expensive, to manufacture than such packages according to the known art.

Child resistant package with slidable tray section


A liquid transport system has a number of access points, referred to generally as nodes, connected to an endless loop of piping such that liquid flowing in the system, to move the liquid from one node to another, flows in two generally discrete paths from a source node to a destination node. In general, any node can be associated with either a liquid source or a liquid destination. A source in a first liquid transfer can act as a destination in a subsequent liquid transfer, and vice versa. A single pigging system can be used to clean substantially the entirety of the liquid transport system among all sources and all destinations, except for leads from the nodes to the sources and/or destinations. The liquid transport system can be cleaned in place, thus to clean all of the piping which runs between the respective nodes in the liquid transport system.

This invention relates to liquid transport systems, and especially to sequential transportation of multiple products through a single transport system defined by one or more pipes or tubes. More specifically, this invention relates to distribution of liquids from one or more source nodes in the liquid transport system to one or more destination nodes in the liquid transport system.
This invention relates especially to removing and/or cleaning product liquid from the pipeline system upon completion of the transport of one product through the pipeline system, and before commencing transport of the next product through the pipeline system.
This invention further relates to methods and apparatus for cleaning in place a pipeline system which transports food or other liquid product from a source node in the pipeline system to a destination node in the pipeline system.
Sanitation in the food processing industry is critical to maintaining purity of the food supply. Accordingly, where more than one food product is transported through a pipeline system, it is necessary to clean the pipeline system between the transport of a first food product and the transport of a second different food product through the same pipeline system.
Where the frequency of changes between different food products is infrequent, it is common to disassemble the pipeline system and clean each component individually. Where the frequency of changes is relatively more frequent, the incremental cost of such disassembly and cleaning between products can be prohibitively costly as to a given product, which may dictate against the cost effectiveness of producing relatively smaller quantities of a given product whereby other aspects of the production/distribution system may be adversely affected.
One solution to the process of cleaning the pipeline, without disassembly of the pipeline system, is to install a pigging system whereby a pig is forced through the pipeline from an entrance locus to a destination locus in the pipeline. As the pig is forced through the pipeline, the pig cleans residual material from the pipeline thus to leave the pipeline system generally cleaned and ready to receive the next product.
Pigging systems are generally known for use between the transport of related products in a pipeline system. Pigging systems are represented generally by U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,954 McNeal et al. McNeal et al teach pushing a pig through a relatively shorter pipeline, from a source node 15 to a destination node 9, using compressed air, thus to push a final portion of the product to the destination node, and accordingly into the representative truck. The pipeline is thus cleaned of product, and is empty, and the pig is returned along the same pipeline to a starting locus beyond the source node, and out of the line of travel of the product liquid.
Another pigging system, useful for cleaning a portion of a pipeline which is used in transporting petroleum products sequentially, is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,278 Foord et al. Foord et al teach use of a closed loop system of piping 1, 2, and 11 to transport liquid from a first tank to a destination. After completion of transporting the first product from the source node to the destination node, a pig is forced between first and second traps by a second product liquid, to clean a portion, but not substantially all, of the first product from the pipeline system. Indeed, a portion of the first product liquid remains in the pipeline system, in one or more main paths by which the second liquid is transported through the pipeline system to the destination node. Since less than substantially all of the first product liquid is removed from the pipeline system by the pigging operation, the second product liquid ultimately mixes with the remainder portion of the first product as the second product is being transported to the destination node. While Foord et al provide generally for a partial removal of that portion of the first product which remains in the pipeline after completion of the first product transport step, Foord et al do not provide for any cleaning of the pipeline before introduction of the second product into the pipeline system. Neither do Foord et al provide for cleaning of substantially all of the first product from the pipeline system before introduction of the second product into the pipeline system, and transport of the second product from a source node to a destination node.
It is an object of this invention to provide liquid transport systems which provide closed loop pipelines having multiple source/destination nodes connected to an endless loop of piping, wherein a first product liquid can be substantially cleaned from the closed loop of piping before a second product liquid is introduced into the closed loop of piping.
It is an object to provide liquid transport systems which contain at least product source/destination nodes connected to the endless loop of piping.
It is another object to provide such endless loop of piping with a cleaning system comprising at least one of a compressed gas inlet and a non-product liquid inlet, and a cleaning manifold which is disposed between first and second pig launchers, and wherein the pig launchers are between the cleaning manifold and all except no more than one of the source/destination nodes.
It is yet another object to provide such endless loop of piping wherein each product source/destination node is connected to a single product source structure or a single destination structure outside the endless loop of piping.
It is still another object to provide such endless loop of piping wherein a node control valve is disposed at or adjacent each product source/destination node, less no more than one node, wherein the node control valves are effective to control flow of liquid through the respective nodes and into or out of the endless loop of piping.


A system and method enables a file server, to support multi path input/output operations for Fibre Channel devices. Upon each Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop initialization event generated, the system and method updates a path and device instance to track multiple paths to a given device. While the file server is attempting input/output operations, the failure of a given path can be corrected by the use of another path associated with a given device. The data structures generated by the low levels of the storage operating system are exposed for use by upper level services for routing a storage device identification purposes.

A file server is a computer that provides file service relating to the organization of information on storage devices, such as disks. The file server orfiler includes a storage operating system that implements a file system to logically organize the information as a hierarchical structure of directories and files on the disks. Each "on-disk" file may be implemented as a set of data structures, e.g., disk blocks, configured to store information. A directory, conversely, may be implemented as a specially formatted file in which information about other files and directories are stored.
A filer may be further configured to operate according to a client/server model of information delivery to thereby allow many clients to access files stored on a server. In this model, the client may comprise an application, such as a database application, executing on a computer that connects to the filer over a computer network. This computer network could be a point to point link, a shared local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or a virtual private network (VPN) implemented over a public network such as the Internet. Each client may request the services of the file system on the filer by issuing file system protocol messages (typically in the form of packets) to the filer over the network.
The disk storage typically implemented has one or more storage "volumes" comprised of a cluster of physical storage disks, defining an overall logical arrangement of storage space. Currently available filer implementations can serve a large number of discrete volumes (150 or more, for example). Each volume is generally associated with its own file system. The disks within a volume/file system are typically organized as one or more groups of Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAID). RAID implementations enhance the reliability and integrity of data storage through the redundant writing of data stripes across a given number of physical disks in the RAID group, and the appropriate caching of parity information with respect to the striped data. The redundant information enables recovery of data lost when a storage device fails.
In the operation of a storage system comprising, for example, a number of filers, disk shelves, switches and other routing and networking devices, it is possible that a device will fail or suffer an error condition. A principle goal of a high-performance storage system is to ensure that data read/write operations can be performed even when a component of a storage network has failed. In one common implementation of a storage system, the physical disks used to store data may be connected to the file server by a Fibre Channel connection. Fibre Channel is a series of protocols defining a transport mechanism for high-speed data access. Fibre Channel a collection of different specifications which are defined in a variety of documents published by the American National Standards Council. These various Fibre Channel standards are available from the Fibre Channel Industry Association of San Francisco, Calif. Specifically, disks may be interconnected with a computer through a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop architecture. This architecture is defined in Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL-2), published by the American National Standards Council, which is hereby incorporated by reference. With the use of Fibre Channel switches and other networking devices, an overall switching fabric of interconnected switches, disks and file servers can be provided. Many Fibre Channel disks employ dual connectors, labeled A and B. Through the use of the dual connectors, the disk can support connections through two discrete data paths. Typically, this dual-connection is used to provide a redundant second data path in the event of a failure of a first path. Note that by "data path" or "path" it is herein meant generally a connection from a file server to a storage device through various interconnections such as switches, disk shelves or other disks.
The Fibre Channel transport mechanism is a token-ring protocol. By "token-ring protocol" it is meant generally that each node in a Fibre Channel switching network participates in each data transaction at least to the point of buffering and retransmitting the data. This arrangement can be disadvantageous in certain circumstances. For example, should any node in a Fibre Channel network fail, the ring is broken and data will not reach its intended destination. Additionally, errors or failures in the physical cabling can result in a break of the ring with its associated loss of data delivery. These breaks in the Fibre Channel network can result in data failing to reach its destination and, in a file server environment, data loss or corruption.
In non-multi-path systems utilizing file servers and a plurality of data paths to and from disks, a low-level device driver operates to effectuate the multi-path operation of the disks. This can be accomplished, for example, by using a static routing table identifying the multiple paths from a file server to a given disk device. However, a noted disadvantage of known multi-path operations is that upper level services of the operating system are not exposed to, or do have access to, such routing information. Such upper level services generally include higher layers of an operating system above a disk driver or a routing layer, for example, a disk storage layer, a file system layer and a user interface or maintenance layer. It should be noted that the term "upper level services" should not be construed to only include these named storage operating system layers, but to include any other layers or processes executing on a computer that implements the teachings of this invention. Such upper level services can fail in the event of a path failure. The failure of such upper level services can result from the service remaining unaware of the existence of or use of multiple data paths to a given storage device. Such upper level services can fail, even though the lower level routing or disk driver layers are still capable of delivering data and input/output operations to a given storage device.

System and method for multipath I/O support for fibre channel devices


A method and system are provided for architecture of a very fast programmable transport demultiplexer using a double-buffered approach. The method may involve utilizing a hardware assist block to process incoming packets, retrieve information about the packets, and write the retrieved information to a memory block. A firmware block may then utilize the information in memory to perform further processing on the packet data. The firmware and hardware assist blocks may work simultaneously so as to speed up the processing of the packet, which can comprise record data and/or audio/video data. The system may comprise the hardware assist block, the firmware assist block, and a memory block.

In a video system, a stream of data generally comprises many sub-channels, some of which go to video/audio decoders, and some of which may be recorded to memory for PVR applications. Video systems need to have the ability to extract and parse multiple sub-channels, usually in MPEG-2 format. However, with the explosion of the number of different input formats and higher bit rates, conventional systems may no longer be capable of functioning effectively and efficiently enough to provide the required functionality.
For example, conventional systems may not be adapted to receive a plurality of video streams encoded in different video standards, demultiplex one or more video streams and/or sub-streams, or achieve high video processing speeds as needed by modern video systems. As a result, conventional systems are no longer capable of providing the rapid processing that is desirable in ensuring efficiency and effective processing of data streams in advanced video systems. Different engines may be needed for each type of data, which creates system inflexibilities and complexities, and large system costs.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Method and system for architecture of a fast programmable transport demultiplexer using a double buffered approach


Asymmetric AC to DC autotransformer for turboelectric propulsion, and associated systems and methods are described herein. In one embodiment, an asymmetric AC to DC autotransformer includes: a first coil, a second coil and a third coil of a delta winding Each coil is energized at its corresponding input phase. A first plurality of correction windings coupled to the first coil, a second plurality of correction windings coupled to the second coil, and a third plurality of correction windings coupled to the third coil. A bridge rectifier having a plurality of rectifiers is coupled to respective individual correction windings. Phases of the individual correction windings are asymmetric such that individual phase voltages are controlled relative to the opposite input phase. Voltages are unbalanced relative to neutral.

Modern aircraft increasingly use electricity for on-board actuators. Furthermore, an entirely new category of electrically driven aircraft engines is being developed. As a result, power quality in AC to DC converters should be increased for the electric aircraft architectures.
Some conventional systems rely on a hexagonal winding configuration to establish 12 AC phases (allowing 24-pulse rectification) that are converted to a DC voltage. However, these conventional systems are prone to triplen harmonics, which limits their use for aerospace applications. Triplen harmonics are odd harmonics which become co-phasal in a 3-phase system. Such harmonics are 3rd harmonic, 9th harmonic, 15th harmonic, and so on. Being co-phasal, these harmonics do not cancel out in a 3-phase system and need a return path or a delta loop to circulate. In the absence of these provisions, presence of triplen harmonic currents create problems like unequal voltages and excessive power dissipation. Mitigating triplen harmonics typically involves additional windings or a larger core, resulting in increased weight and reduced efficiency. On the other hand, a conventional autotransformer configuration that requires 8 windings per phase would require 9 windings per phase to mitigate triplen harmonics. With conventional autotransformers, the additional winding per phase is necessary to form a delta winding dedicated to triplen harmonic mitigation to provide a low impedance pass for triplen harmonic currents.
Other conventional designs are based on delta-wound symmetrical autotransformers that provide 12 output phases from 3 input phases to a plurality of bridge rectifiers to allow 24-pulse AC to DC conversion. With delta-wound symmetrical approach, phases are designed to have even magnitude and phasing relative to neutral. The delta-wound symmetrical approach achieves low current distortion with inherent triplen harmonic mitigation, but it requires the addition of interphase transformers, and it requires the autotransformer to process all power supplied to the load and thereby incurs a weight and efficiency penalty relative to asymmetric power processing techniques. As a result, symmetrical solution has higher weight and lower efficiency than is acceptable for aerospace applications.
In summary, the above-described conventional approaches suffer from one or more following shortcomings: lack of inherent triplen harmonic mitigation, complex assembly processes requiring 8 or more windings per core leg, high weight, and low efficiency. On the other hand, AC to DC converters which provide less than 24-pulse behavior, for instance 18-pulse and 12-pulse ATRUs which are common in modern aerospace applications, are available with low weight, high efficiency, and inherent triplen harmonic mitigation. However, these 18-pulse and 12-pulse ATRUs cannot provide high power quality and low current distortion (<5% total harmonic distortion or THDi) provided by the 24-pulse conversion. Accordingly, systems and methods are needed for AC to DC converters capable of providing 24-pulse conversion and triplen harmonic mitigation with acceptable weight and operational efficiency in order to support aerospace application needs.

Asymmetric 24-pulse autotransformer rectifier unit for turboelectric propulsion, and associated systems and methods


A sunshade apparatus for shading a chair has a pair of vertical support legs, a pair of attachment elements, a pair of horizontally extending arms, and a flexible canopy element for shading the chair. Each of the attachment elements is attached to a bottom end of one of the support legs and is adapted for mounting the sunshade apparatus on the chair. Each of the pair of horizontally extending arms is attached to one of the support legs with a hinge. A locking element functions to lock the pair of horizontally extending arms in the extended configuration with respect to the pair of vertical support legs. A folding element joins the horizontally extending arms and folds between a collapsed configuration wherein the arms are adjacent, and a spread configuration wherein the arms are laterally spaced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sun shades, and more particularly to a sunshade apparatus that is easily portable and can be quickly and easily attached to a portable chair.
2. Description of Related Art
The following art defines the present state of this field: Wahl, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,557, teaches a portable and collapsible sunshade apparatus having a novel attachment clip. The universal clip enables any type of sunshade apparatus to be attached to any type of beach chair or lounge chair at any desired height above the occupant of the chair and at any desired angular orientation relative to the chair.
Gillins, U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,601, teaches a sunshade apparatus for use with recreational chairs having a seat back. The sunshade has a rigid support to which upper edge clips and side edge clips are connected for releasable attachment to the seat back upper edge and seat back side edge, respectively. The side edge clips can rotate about the support in a generally horizontal plane, and the side edge clips are constructed in a manner to flex in a generally vertical plane. The upper edge clips have a hook portion to enable the sunshade to hang on the seat back upper edge. A canopy frame, covered with a shade producing cover, is pivotally attached to the support. When not in use, the canopy frame can be pivoted to a collapsed, generally flat configuration with the support.
Brim, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,420, teaches a shade apparatus for use with a lawn mower. The apparatus includes a plurality of spaced U-shaped mounds for securement to handles of the lawnmower. Support rods pivotally mount at each respective end thereof with first canopy rods wherein the first canopy rods movably receive U-shaped canopy sliders wherein the organization is formable into a conveniently stored organization and easily errected and secured to the associated lawn mower. Further, the invention includes a storage container secured to the canopy wherein the storage container provides a tethered pair of ear protective devices for use in association with a lawn mower.
The above-described references are hereby incorporated by reference in full.
The prior art teaches various forms of sunshades that can be attached to a chair or other structure. However, the prior art does not teach a sunshade apparatus having the unique attachment elements, locking elements, and folding elements described below. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.


An automatic cleaning device of a smoke exhauster comprises a fluid emitting pump provided with a pump body of hollow construction and with a revolving rod having an upper end fastened to a spindle of a motor of the smoke exhauster and further having a lower end fastened with a spiral body located in the interior of the pump body, which is provided at the top wall thereof with a plurality of fluid emitting tubes communicating with the interior of the pump body and at the bottom wall thereof with a plurality of fluid admitting tubes in communication with the interior of the pump body. A cleaning fluid reservoir of basinlike construction is detachably mounted under an air inlet of the smoke exhauster. The cleaning fluid in the reservoir is drawn into the pump body via the fluid admitting tubes and is then emitted via the fluid emitting tubes by the rotating action of the spiral body of the pump body.

This invention relates to the auto-cleaning device of smoke-exhausting machine in kitchen.
The conventional smoke-exhausting machine in kitchen will accumulate smoke soot easily, and then become bad looking and hard to be cleaned. The most common way to clean the machine is manual cleaning, that seems to be inconvenient and take much time, and will result in environment contamination on cleaning. Thus we are trying to get the auto-cleaning device for smoke-exhausting machine in kitchen to improve the situation.

Automatic cleaning device of smoke exhauster

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