A poultry nest bank for housing laying hens is described. The nest bank unit is formed from plastic material and includes molded plastic trays or shelves therein in which the hens nest. The trays slope toward the rear of the nest bank unit housing, so that eggs laid by the hens roll to the back of the housing where they can be gathered by an attendant, through an access opening in the rear of the housing. The housing includes front and back molded housing portions, having outwardly extending peripheral rims or edges. The rims are secured together by suitable fasteners to hold the body together as a rigid, integral unit. The trays of the unit are removable to facilitate easy cleaning thereof.

This invention relates to a nest bank unit for housing laying hens. In the commercial production of chicken eggs, for example, it is necessary that a large number of chickens be housed and attended with a minimum expenditure of labor and and money. This requires that the nesting arrangement for the hens be easily attended by an individual to permit rapid gathering of the eggs, and of particular importance, to permit the quick and effective cleaning of the unit.
One type of nesting unit that has been used in the past is comprised of a galvanized metal housing that is partitioned into twelve individual bins or nests that are arranged in two tiers, or levels, of six bins each. The housing unit is formed by seven spaced apart, vertical galvanized panels or partitions that are aligned with their broad sides parallel to each other. The partitions are maintained as a rigid and fixed unit by metal bracing strips that extend from one end to the other along the front and back edges of the partitions. Metal bottoms or floors are placed horizontally between the bottom ends and between the mid regions of adjacent partitions to form the upper and lower bins or nests. In this manner, each nest bank forms twelve nests for as many hens.
The hens nest and lay their eggs in the individual bins. To gather the eggs, an attendant must search in each bin for the eggs laid therein. This is somewhat time consuming. A further disadvantage of this type of nest bank is that the hens frequently break some of the eggs when walking around the nests. This requires that the attendant make frequent rounds to gather the eggs before the hens can break them.
Furthermore, the hens frequently have dirty feet, and otherwise dirty the nests, so that that the eggs become dirty. This requires that the eggs be washed, a further expenditure of time and labor. Moreover, dirty eggs can lead to diseased chicks. This can lead to a serious loss to the producer.
Galvanized nest banks of the type described above are difficult to effectively clean. The bottoms of the bins rust out and must be replaced every several years.
The improved plastic nest bank unit of my invention eliminates the above, and other, problems and provides an easily attended nest bank that is relatively inexpensive to acquire and to maintain, is more sanitary, and affords a greater yield of eggs.


The invention is a cable identifier apparatus and a method for fast identification of multi-wire or multi fiber cable. The method is based on illumination of colored buffer of the wire or fiber, registration the reflected light and comparison the measuring data with reference data stored in the memory. The reference data is loaded by measuring the color parameters of the buffer of known identification. The cable identifier apparatus comprises a portable hand-held device with a probe for fixing the buffer in a holder, illuminating the buffer, controlling the incident light and detecting the reflected light with photodetectors. The data is proceed by a microcontroller and an identification symbol of the buffer is displayed in LCD. The variation of the ambient light is compensated by separate measurement of dark and light signals from photodetectors.

1. Field of the invention
This invention in general relates to telecommunication. More particularly, this invention relates to a method for fast identification of colored wires in a multi-wire cable. The wires can be typical electrical wires covered with colored plastic buffers and assembled together in an electrical cable or they can be optical fibers covered with colored plastic buffers and assembled together in an optical fiber cable.
2. State of the Art
Cable identification is a common problem during installation the cable into a telecommunication path. This problem arises with increasing number of the wires in the cable. Conventional methods for cable identification are based on the testing of each individual wires by sending electrical or optical signals in one end of the cable end detecting the corresponding signals at the another end of the cable. This approach is labor intensive because it requires at least two operators to be involved. Besides, a complex specialized technique is required for generating and detecting signals at the both ends of the cable. Also, this technique is expensive and it can only work with certain cables that employ specialized connectors.
The task for cable identification is usually simplified by making the outer layer (buffer) of each wire of different colored plastics. An operator identifies pins and connectors by addressing one color to one connector at the one end of the cable and repeating corresponding sequence of colors and pins at the another end of the cable. This way is acceptable for a limited number of wires in a single cable that can be visually identified. According to a standard TIA-598-A, the number of colors in a cable is limited by 12; they are blue, orange, green, brown, slate (gray), white, red, black, yellow, violet, rose, and aqua. The operator is not able to distinguish more colors in the field conditions. Modern cables, particularly fiber optic cables for local area network (LAN), include more than 100 individual fibers. Secondary buffer of the fibers can be markered by removing the material with a laser, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,523 or by adding an extra buffer with a special pattern on it as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,905. However, the laser ablative technique is too complex and microscopic markers are difficult to recognize in the field because the outer diameter of the buffer can be as small as 0.9 mm.
The conventional colorimetric technique is not acceptable for cable identification due to its complexity and size. A miniature colorimeter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,454 cannot be applied for measuring color of wires in the cable because its light pipe with an axial bore will provide an excess of ambient light leaking around the wire and a flat front aperture. The ambient light is not measured in this calorimeter, and thus, the device will be inaccurate in field conditions with variation of ambient illumination.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a device and method for fast and accurate identification of multi-wire or multi-fiber cable.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a device for fast identification of multi-wire or multi-fiber cable that will be inexpensive and portable.
It is further an object of the invention to provide a device and method for fast identification of multi-wire or multi-fiber cable that can be used in field conditions.
According to the present invention, the colored wires or fibers in the cable are identified by illuminating of each colored plastic buffer with a white light and by detecting reflected light with at least three photodectors with attached color filters that are close to standard R, G and B filters. Measured RGB signals are compared by a microcontroller with reference RGB signals that are stored in the memory. Each reference RGB signal from certain buffer is in accordance with a certain identification number, such as number of pin or connector to be connected to wire or fiber that is covered by this buffer. By comparing measured and reference RGB signals the wire or fiber is recognized including the identification of the proper pin or connector. In another embodiment of the method, the plastic buffer is illuminated with a plurality of light emitting diodes (LED) having different colors, particularly those close to primary colors. Light reflected from the buffer is detected by photodetector or plurality of photodetectors and stored in the microcontroller. The wire or fiber is identified in the same way as in previous embodiment, e.g. by comparison measured and reference data.
For both embodiments, the measured and reference data are taken in two steps. Initially, the dark signals are measured from photodetectors without the turning on light sources. These signals are caused by photodetector noise and ambient illumination. In second step, the light sources are turning on and photodetectors"" outputs are measured as light signals. The differences between light and dark signals are actually used for cable discrimination, and thus, the effect of ambient light is minimized.
A number of colors measured by the proposed device exceeds the existing limit of 12 by many folds because with only 8 bit microprocessor the device will have a 24 bit color resolution, or more than 16 million colors. In addition, the device can be inexpensive and portable and very easy to use in field conditions; the identification procedure can be performed by one operator that significantly reduces labor cost.


An image recognition apparatus includes a storage unit which stores a plurality of pieces of identical recognition reference data which are used as references for recognizing a specific object from an image, an image recognition unit which recognizes the specific object by alternately making a switch between the plurality of pieces of recognition reference data, on a frame basis, stored in the storage unit, for consecutive frames of the image acquired by an image acquisition unit, and a recognition determining unit which, on condition that recognition results obtained by the image recognition unit by using the plurality of pieces of recognition reference data meet a predetermined matching condition, outputs the recognition results as effective recognition results.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image recognition apparatus that recognizes a specific object from an image, by using recognition reference data for image recognition.
Related Art
Techniques for detecting objects, such as persons, vehicles, or the like, are well known. According to such a technique, an image is captured by a camera or the like and the captured image is subjected to image recognition which is based on an image recognition algorithm, such as pattern matching, using recognition reference data in which image features of objects are described. For example, JP-A-2014-063281 describes a technique with which template matching processing is performed using models representing image features of eyes (recognition reference data), and the position of a retrieved eye is traced.
In the image recognition technique as mentioned above, a fault that may be caused in the recognition reference data can cause erroneous recognition of an object. To cope with this, the recognition reference data may be monitored on a real-time basis in case of fault, but this is not realistic because the processing load is unavoidably increased.


Methods and devices for processing web content are disclosed. The method may include receiving a webpage with a browser and parsing the webpage with the browser to obtain subcomponents from the webpage. The browser identifies whether there is an indication that one or more subcomponents of the webpage are potentially malicious, and when there is an indication that the one or more subcomponents of the webpage are malicious, the browser loads the one or more of the subcomponents of the webpage in an auto-sandbox instance for isolated execution by the browser.

Computing devices such as smartphones, netbooks, gaming devices, PDAs, desktop computers, televisions, and laptop computers are now ubiquitous. A common use for these types of devices is browsing webpages utilizing the Internet. Existing versions of hypertext markup language (e.g., HTML5) provide a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to access a user's private and sensitive information easily, and in many instances, the responsibility for security is shifted to the users.
In addition, uniquely identifiable user information and browsing behaviors are increasingly being tracked by a collection of methods known as "ever-cookies," and these methods use several Web-standard APIs to store persistent information that is accessible across websites. Currently there is no effective solution to protect users from tracking using ever-cookies.
Moreover, ad-publishing platforms are increasingly using browser fingerprinting techniques to uniquely identify users with low bits of entropy, and modern browsers do little, if anything, to prevent fingerprinting currently.
Adblock and other similar add-ons provide very limited protection from trackers and malicious web contents by using crowd-sourced curated lists. But malicious websites can circumvent these measures easily.
Although process based sandbox architectures in web browsers may take advantage of protected memory and restricted permissions given to the render process by the underlying operating system, they still allow websites to access sensitive information via standard HTML APIs.
Private and incognito browsing options provide some protection against information theft, but the user must opt-in, and the private browsing applies to the entire tab/window. Even private browsing is susceptible to fingerprinting and phishing attacks.
Chrome safe-browsing, XSS auditor, third-party cookie blocking, first-party origin policy, and other currently available security measures provide very limited protection from malicious content. Moreover, some of these measures rely on user intervention.
Legitimate websites may have compromised third-party contents that the websites have no control whatsoever. These legitimate sites can gain user's trust easily, but can compromise their privacy and security unknowingly.

Auto-sandboxing website or parts of website in browser to protect user privacy and security


A smart toilet includes: a toilet body; a urine cup disposed outside the toilet body; a urine collection device disposed in the toilet body, including a rotation shaft and a front urine storage cup, a middle urine storage cup and a rear urine storage cup distributed around the rotation shaft, the front urine storage cup is provided with a first urine detection sensor and a first valve, the middle urine storage cup is provided with a second urine detection sensor and a second valve; a drive motor, connected with the rotation shaft; a controller, configured to control the drive motor to drive the rear urine storage cup to rotate to the urine collection position and control the second valve to be turned on upon urine volume in the middle storage cup reaching a volume threshold. An operation control method and device of a smart toilet are also provided.

Currently, as a pace of people's life is getting faster and faster, work pressure is getting greater and greater, and the health problem is also getting more and more attention of people. A regular physical examination may help people to understand more about their own health. Urine examination is the most basic items in the physical examination projection, and a general procedure for a patient to go to a hospital for the urine examination is: taking a container from a designated place according to a slip write out by a doctor, and taking a urine sample in a bathroom, and then setting the urine simple to a staff member who collect simples to test. Therefore, a hospital needs to arrange for a dedicated staff member to manage containers for collecting urine samples and intensively collecting the urine samples of patients.
A drawback of the prior art is that in a procedure of the urine examination as mentioned above, the patient needs to collect the urine sample by himself, which is more inconvenient to operate and poor health. In addition, a standard urine simple is middle urine, so as to ensure the accuracy of the examination result; however, a patient is difficult to obtain the middle urine accurately in a sampling process, which is also resulted to an error of the examination result.

Smart toilet, operation control method and operation control device of smart toilet


This invention relates to ultraviolet absorbing lenses, particularly corneal contact lenses, comprising a polymeric shaped body having an ultraviolet absorber dispersed substantially uniformly throughout said body and being in a steady state with respect to extraction thereof from said body by an aqueous medium, and to the method of making such lenses.

Many who have had the natural lens of the eye damaged as by injury or by disease require surgery resulting in removal of the natural lens. This condition of lens removal is known as aphakia and must be corrected by the use of a high plus corrective lens in order to restore vision.
Such corrective lenses may be in the form of spectacles or contact lenses, but contact lenses are preferred since spectacles are not only cosmetically undesirable because of their thickness to provide the correct vision, but in addition produce an excessively large image on the retina. Even with the most suitable lenses, including contact lenses, presently in use, vision is not as desirable as it should be for the aphakic individual since such lenses do not adequately compensate for certain changes in light transmission which occur in the absence of the natural human crystalline lens. The result is a lack of visual acuity and high chromatic aberration in aphakic individuals.
A considerable portion of incident light entering the eye is absorbed by various parts of the eye, as described herein, so that only the unabsorbed or transmitted portion strikes the retina. The incident light is, of course, comprised of the entire spectrum of wavelengths including the ultraviolet, visible and infrared.
Specifically, the cornea preferentially absorbs that portion of the light with wavelengths up to about 340 mmu. The crystalline lens preferentially absorbs the wavelengths from about 340 up to about 400 mmu. There is also a characteristic absorption of the visible portion of the spectrum by various parts of the eye. The overall result of the various absorptions in the human eye is to permit the unabsorbed light to be transmitted to the retina, this light being defined by wavelength and intensity at each wavelength. It is apparent that in the aphakic eye, where there is no crystalline lens, light from 340 to 400 mmu will be transmitted to the retina and that absorption in the visible range of the spectrum will also be changed to the extent that such visible light was absorbed by the crystalline lens. In other words, the spectrum of the light striking the retina in the aphakic eye is different from that in the normal eye.

Ultraviolet absorbing corneal contact lenses


When a transition control section stochastically determines on the basis of a temperature, an energy change, and a random number whether to allow one of a plurality of state transitions according to a relative relationship between the energy change and a thermal excitation energy, the transition control section adds an offset to the energy change and exercises control so as to set the offset at a local minimum, at which an energy is locally minimized, to be larger than an offset at the time of the energy not being minimized.

Information processing is performed in all fields in the present society. This information processing is performed by the use of arithmetic units such as computers. Various pieces of data are calculated and processed to obtain meaningful results. By doing so, prediction, determination, control, and the like are performed. One field of this information processing is an optimization process and the optimization process is an important field. The problem of finding a solution which minimizes resources or costs needed for performing a process, the problem of finding a solution which maximizes a result obtained by performing a process, and the like are known. It is clear that these problems are very important.
Linear programming is a typical optimization problem. With linear programming, a vector of variables which maximize or minimize an evaluation function represented by the linear sum of plural continuous variables under restrictive conditions represented by linear sums is found. Linear programming is used in various fields such as a product production plan. With linear programming, excellent algorithms, such as a simplex method or interior point methods, are known. Even a problem including hundreds of thousands or more of variables is efficiently solved.
On the other hand, many optimization problems in which variables have not continuous values but discrete values are known. For example, a traveling salesman problem in which the shortest path at the time of going the rounds of plural cities in turn and making a return is found or a knapsack problem in which a combination that maximizes the sum of the value of different articles put in a knapsack is found is known. These problems are referred to as a discrete optimization problem, a combinatorial optimization problem, or the like. With these problems it is known that it is very difficult to obtain an optimum solution.
The major cause of difficulty in solving a discrete optimization problem is as follows. Because each variable has only a discrete value, the technique of reaching an optimum solution by continuously changing a variable so as to improve an evaluation function is not usable. Furthermore, in addition to a value of each variable (optimum solution, a global solution, or a global minimum) by which an optimum solution is obtained, there are a great many solutions (minimal (maximal) solutions, local solutions, or local minimums) by which the extreme value of an evaluation function is locally obtained. Accordingly, in order to reliably obtain an optimum solution, it is inevitable that an algorithm, such as substituting a value for each variable one by one, will be adopted. This leads to a very long calculation time. Discrete optimization problems include many problems for which it is expected that calculation time taken to find an optimum solution exponentially increases with respect to the size of a problem (that is to say, the number of variables). These problems are referred to as non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-hard problems in computational complexity theory. The above traveling salesman problem and knapsack problem are NP-hard problems.
As stated above, it is very hard to reliably find an optimum solution of a discrete optimization problem. Accordingly, with a discrete optimization problem which is practically important, an algorithm using a property inherent in the problem is devised. As stated above, with many discrete optimization problems it is expected that calculation time taken to obtain an exact solution exponentially increases. Therefore, many practical solutions are approximate solutions. An optimum solution is not obtained, but a solution by which a value of an evaluation function is approximate to an optimum value is obtained.
Not only these approximation algorithms specializing in individual problems but also approximation algorithms which may handle a wide range of problems because of solving them without using their properties are known. The latter approximation algorithms are referred to as metaheuristics. A simulated annealing (SA) method, a genetic algorithm, a neural network, and the like are metaheuristics. These metaheuristics may be inefficient compared with an algorithm which properly uses the property of a problem. With these metaheuristics, however, it is expected to obtain a solution at a high speed compared with an algorithm by which an exact solution is obtained.
The present disclosure relates to a simulated annealing method.
A simulated annealing method is a type of Monte Carlo method and stochastically finds a solution by the use of random numbers. Description will now be given with the problem of minimizing a value of an evaluation function to be optimized as an example. A value of an evaluation function will be referred to as energy. In the case of maximization, a sign of an evaluation function should be changed.
The beginning is an initial state in which one discrete value is substituted for each variable. A state (state in which a value of only one variable is changed, for example) close to the current state (combination of values of variables) is selected and the state transition from the current state to the selected state is discussed. A change in energy caused by that state transition is calculated. Whether to adopt that state transition and make a change in state or to keep the original state without adopting that state transition is stochastically determined according to a calculated value. If an adoption probability at the time of a decrease in the energy is larger than an adoption probability at the time of an increase in the energy, then it is expected that on average, a change in state occurs in a direction in which the energy decreases and that a state transition to a more suitable state is made with time. Finally, an optimum solution or an approximate solution by which an energy close to an optimum value is obtained may be obtained. If adoption and non-adoption are deterministically performed in the case of a decrease and an increase, respectively, in the energy, then a change in the energy decreases with respect to time. However, if the state reaches a local minimum, no further change occurs. As stated above, with a discrete optimization problem there are a great many local minimums. As a result, it is approximately certain that a state is trapped into a local minimum not very close to an optimum value. Therefore, it is important to stochastically determine whether to perform adoption.
With simulated annealing, it is proved that a state reaches an optimum solution at a limit at which time (the number of iterations) is infinite by determining an adoption (allowance) probability of a state transition in the following way.
(1) An energy change (energy decrease) value associated with a state transition is −ΔE. An allowance probability p of the state transition is determined by one of the following functions f(x):
                              p                                (                                          Δ                                                                                E                            ,              T                        )                          =                  f                                (                                          -                Δ                                                                                E                /                T                                      )                                              (                  1                                -                              1                )                                                      f            metro                                          (            x            )                          =                              min                                      (                              1                ,                                  e                  x                                            )                                                      (                          METROPOLIS                                                                                METHOD                        )                                              (                  1                                -                              2                )                                                      f            Gibbs                                          (            x            )                          =                              1                          1              +                              e                                  -                  x                                                                                (                          GIBBS                                                                                METHOD                        )                                              (                  1                                -                              3                )            where T is a parameter referred to as a temperature and is changed in the following way.
(2) The temperature T is lowered logarithmically in accordance with
                    T        =                                            T              0                                                  log                                            (                c                )                                                          log                                      (                              t                +                c                            )                                                          (        2        )            where t is the number of iterations and T0 is an initial temperature. It is desirable to set T0 to a sufficiently large value according to a problem.
It is assumed that an allowance probability given by the expression in (1) is used and that a steady state is reached after a sufficient number of iterations. Then an occupation probability of each state follows Boltzmann distribution in a thermal equilibrium state in the thermodynamics. When a temperature is gradually lowered from a high value, an occupation probability of a low energy state increases. Therefore, when a temperature is sufficiently lowered, the lowest energy state will be obtained. This is very similar to a change in state which occurs at the annealing of a material. Accordingly, this method is referred to as a simulated annealing method. At this time a state transition by which energy increases occurs stochastically. This corresponds to thermal excitation in the physics.
As stated above, with a simulated annealing method an optimum solution is obtained by setting an infinite number of iterations. In reality, however, there is a need to obtain a solution by setting a finite number of iterations. Therefore, it is impossible to reliably find an optimum solution. Furthermore, according to the above expression, temperature lowers very slowly. As a result, temperature does not sufficiently lower in a finite time. Accordingly, with an actual simulated annealing method, temperature does not change logarithmically. That is to say, in many cases, temperature is lowered more quickly.
FIG. 13 illustrates the schematic structure of an optimization apparatus based on a simulated annealing method. The following description includes a case where a plurality of candidate state transitions are generated. With an original basic simulated annealing method, however, one candidate state transition is generated at a time.
First an optimization apparatus 10 includes a state holding section 11 which holds a current state S (values of plural state variables). Furthermore, the optimization apparatus 10 includes an energy calculation section 12. When one of the values of the plural state variables changes, a state transition from the current state S occurs. The energy calculation section 12 calculates an energy change {−ΔEi} for each state transition. The optimization apparatus 10 also includes a temperature control section 13 which controls a temperature T and a transition control section 14 which controls a change in state.
On the basis of a temperature T, energy changes {−ΔEi}, and random numbers, the transition control section stochastically generates at most one state transition according to relative relationships between the energy changes {−ΔEi} and thermal excitation energies.
The transition control section 14 is subdivided further. That is to say, the transition control section 14 includes a candidate generator 14a which generates candidate state transitions and a transition assessor 14b which stochastically determines from an energy change {−ΔEi} and a temperature T whether to allow a corresponding candidate state transition. Furthermore, the transition control section 14 includes a transition determiner 14c which selects a candidate state transition to be adopted from among allowed candidate state transitions and a random number generator 14d which generates random numbers.
The following operation is performed in one iteration. First the candidate generator 14a generates one or more candidate state transitions (candidate number {Ni}) from the current state S held in the state holding section 11 to a next state. The energy calculation section calculates an energy change {−ΔEi} for each candidate state transition by the use of the current state S and the candidate state transition. The transition assessor 14b uses a temperature T generated by the temperature control section 13 and a random variable (random number) generated by the random number generator 14d to determine, according to an energy change {−ΔEi} for each candidate state transition, whether to allow the candidate state transition with an allowance probability given by the expression in the above (1). Furthermore, the transition assessor 14b outputs the propriety {fi} of each candidate state transition. If there are a plurality of allowed candidate state transitions, then the transition determiner 14c selects one of them at random by the use of a random number. In addition, the transition determiner 14c outputs a transition number N and a transition propriety f of the selected state transition. If there is an allowed candidate state transition, then a value of a state variable stored in the state holding section 11 is updated according to the adopted state transition.
The operation is started from an initial state. At the same time that a temperature is being lowered by the temperature control section 13, the above iteration is repeated. When the end determination condition that the number of iterations reaches a certain number, the end determination condition that energy falls below a certain value, or the like is met, the operation ends. A solution outputted by the optimization apparatus 10 is a state at end time. In reality, however, a temperature does not become zero if the number of iterations is finite. Accordingly, even at the end time an occupation probability of a state has distribution represented by Boltzmann distribution or the like. An optimum value or a good solution is not always obtained. That is to say, a realistic solution is to hold the lowest energy state obtained until then in the course of an iteration and to output it at the end.
FIG. 14 is a circuit-level block diagram illustrative of an example of the structure of a calculation part needed for a transition control section, more particularly for a transition assessor based on ordinary simulated annealing which generates one candidate state transition at a time.
A transition control section 14 includes a random number generation circuit 14b1, a selector 14b2, a noise table 14b3, a multiplier 14b4, and a comparator 14b5.
The selector 14b2 selects an energy change {−ΔEi} corresponding to a transition number N which is a random number generated by the random number generation circuit 14b1 from among energy changes {−ΔEi} calculated for candidate state transitions and outputs it.
The function of the noise table 14b3 will be described later. For example, a memory, such as a random access memory (RAM) or a flash memory, is used as the noise table 14b3.
The multiplier 14b4 outputs the product (corresponding to the above thermal excitation energy) of a value outputted by the noise table 14b3 and a temperature T.
The comparator 14b5 outputs as a transition propriety f a comparison result obtained by comparing a multiplication result outputted by the multiplier 14b4 and −ΔE which is an energy change selected by the selector 14b2.
The transition control section 14 illustrated in FIG. 14 basically has the above function. However, a mechanism for allowing a state transition with an allowance probability given by the expression in (1) is not yet described. This mechanism will now be described.
A circuit which outputs 1 with an allowance probability of p and which outputs 0 with an allowance probability of (1−p) is realized in the following way. A comparator having two inputs A and B is used. When A>B, the comparator outputs 1. When A<B, the comparator outputs 0. An allowance probability of p is inputted to the input A. A uniform random number having a value in the interval [0, 1) is inputted to the input B. Therefore, by inputting to the input A of this comparator a value of an allowance probability p calculated by the use of the expression in (1) on the basis of an energy change and a temperature T, the above function is realized.
That is to say, it is assumed that f is the function used in the expression in (1) and that u is a uniform random number having a value in the interval [0, 1). Then the above function is realized by a circuit which outputs 1 when f(ΔE/T) is greater than u.
The above function is realized in this way. By making the following modification, however, the same function is also realized. Even if the same monotone increasing function is made to operate on two numbers, the magnitude relationship between them does not change. Therefore, even if the same monotonically increasing function is made to operate on two inputs of a comparator, its output does not change. If f−1 which is an inverse function of f is adopted as this monotonically increasing function, a circuit which outputs 1 when −ΔE/T is greater than f−1(u) may be used. Furthermore, a temperature T is positive. Therefore, a circuit which outputs 1 when −ΔE is greater than Tf−1(u) may be used. The noise table 14b3 illustrated in FIG. 14 is a conversion table for realizing the inverse function f−1(u) and outputs values of the following functions for an input obtained by discretizing the interval [0, 1):
                                          f            metro                          -              1                                                      (            u            )                          =                  log                                (            u            )                                              (                  3                                -                              1                )                                                      f            Gibbs                          -              1                                                      (            u            )                          =                  log                                (                          u                              1                -                u                                      )                                              (                  3                                -                              2                )
The transition control section 14 also includes a latch which holds a determination result and the like, a state machine which generates that timing, and the like. For the sake of simplicity, however, these are not illustrated in FIG. 14.
FIG. 15 illustrates the flow of the operation of the transition control section 14 based on conventional simulated annealing. The flow of the operation includes a step (S1) in which one state transition is selected as a candidate, a step (S2) in which the propriety of the state transition is determined by comparing an energy change for the state transition and the product of a temperature and a random number, and a step (S3) in which the state transition is adopted if the state transition is allowed and in which the state transition is not adopted if the state transition is not allowed.
As will be imagined in some degree from the above description, a simulated annealing method is widely used and is very attractive. However, because there is need to slowly lower temperature, calculation time is comparatively long. Furthermore, it is hard to properly adjust according to a problem how to lower temperature. This will be described in the following way by the use of FIG. 16.
There are many local minimums whose approximation degrees are low along a state transition path from an initial state to an optimum solution or good approximate solutions. In order to escape from these local minimums sufficiently quickly, a high temperature which enables sufficient thermal excitation is needed. However, an energy spread in Boltzmann distribution is wide at a high temperature. Therefore, the difference in occupation probability between an optimum solution or good approximate solutions whose energy is low (hereinafter referred to as a good solution) and a local minimum whose energy is comparatively high and whose approximation degree is low (hereinafter referred to as a bad solution) is small. Accordingly, even if a quick escape from a local minimum is made, destinations are dispersed to many bad solutions and the probability that a good solution will be reached is very small. In order to increase an occupation probability of a good solution, a low temperature at which thermal excitation energy is sufficiently low compared with the difference in energy between the good solution and a bad solution is needed. In this case, however, thermal excitation energy is low. As a result, the probability of going beyond a peak of energy along the path is very low and a change in state hardly occurs. Therefore, there is need to gradually increase an occupation probability of a good solution by slowly going through an intermediate temperature at which it is possible in some degree to go beyond a peak of energy and at which there is a little difference in occupation probability. If temperature is lowered too slowly, it does not fall appreciably in finite time. As a result, an occupation probability of a good solution does not finally increase. Conversely, if temperature is lowered too quickly, it falls before an escape from a local minimum is made. As a result, a state remains trapped into a bad solution. Therefore, as temperature falls, the rate of a change in the temperature is made sufficiently small. There is need to substantially wait until Boltzmann distribution at the temperature is approached.
As has been described, with the original simulated annealing, an escape from a local minimum is made only by thermal excitation based on temperature. Accordingly, there is need to slowly lower temperature. Furthermore, there is need to properly adjust according to a problem how to lower temperature.
The problem of being trapped into a local minimum may be alleviated by a method other than temperature adjustment. A temperature control method or an evaluation function is dynamically changed (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 06-19507 or Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 09-34951). A method for generating a neighbor which is a state transition destination is dynamically changed (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 10-293756). With these methods, a search is conducted in a wide range during the early stages of calculation and a search is conducted with high accuracy in a narrow range in the last stage of calculation. By doing so, calculation time is reduced.
With these methods, for example, plural functions are dynamically replaced or statistics are collected to grasp the progress of a search. That is to say, comparatively complex calculations are needed. It is desirable to reduce calculation time by a simpler general-purpose method.
As stated above, with the simulated annealing method it takes a long time to escape from a local minimum. This is the main cause of a long calculation time. Therefore, if there is a method which promotes an escape from a local minimum, it is expected that calculation time is significantly reduced. However, simply escaping from a local minimum does not always reduce calculation time. As stated above, there are a great many bad solutions. Therefore, even if an escape from a local minimum is made at random, a state is simply trapped again into a surrounding bad solution. Not a simple escape but an escape for making a state transition to a better state is desirable.
There is a hint about an escape for proceeding in a good direction in the convergence theorem of the above simulated annealing method. This theorem indicates determining the propriety of a state transition in accordance with a state transition probability of the Metropolis method or the Gibbs method leads to proceeding in a good direction.
At a local minimum, a state transition probability is very small. Accordingly, a candidate state transition is selected many times. The branching ratio of state transitions after that is proportional to a state transition probability of the Metropolis method or the Gibbs method. Therefore, if the absolute values of allowance probabilities of state transitions are increased with the relative ratio of the allowance probabilities maintained, then the branching ratio of the state transitions is maintained. This makes it possible to reduce the length of a stay at a local minimum without exerting a bad influence upon convergence. As a result, calculation time is reduced.
A problem to be solved in the present disclosure is to obtain means to promote an escape from a local minimum without dynamically changing an evaluation function, a state transition generation method, or the like or marring convergence. More specifically, a problem to be solved in the present disclosure is to obtain means to increase the absolute values of allowance probabilities of state transitions at a local minimum are increased with the relative ratio of the allowance probabilities maintained.
H. Zhu et al., "A Boltzmann Machine with Non-rejective Move", IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals vol. E85-A, No. 6. pp. 1229-1235, June 2002 is one of these means. There are errors in the description of this literature. However, the above problem is solved by making suitable corrections. This means is as follows. Allowance probabilities of all state transitions are calculated. When the maximum ratio of an allowance probability to a random number having exponential distribution is obtained, this allowance probability is adopted. This makes it possible to select a state transition to be adopted at a rate proportional to an original allowance probability. With this means, the relative ratio of allowance probabilities is maintained and the probability of staying in an original state is zero. Therefore, this means is very effective. However, an increase in computational complexity is caused by calculating an allowance probability and generating a random number.

Optimization apparatus and optimization apparatus control method


A door hook includes a top member, a back member, a front member, a hook and a leg. The back member is attached to the first end of the top member and the front member is attached to the opposite end of the top member. The leg and hook are also attached to the front member. The leg extends below the hook. A resilient foot is attached to the leg such that the resilient foot is below the hook. The front member is configured to flex into a generally convex shape after a downward force acts on the hook and the resilient foot is configured to flex after the downward force is exerted on the hook.

There are a variety of hooks that fit over the top of a door. One common type of hook has a U-shaped bracket having an opening not greater than the width of the door hook to which it is to be attached. One or more hooks extend from either or both sides of the bracket. Examples of door hooks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,207,088, 7,185,864, 6,854,610, 6,311,851, 6,302,365, 5,607,131, 5,553,823, 5,413,297, 5,158,186, 4,817,239, and 3,907,118, and U.S. Design Pat. Nos. D549,083, D455,947, D422,198, D393,970, D374,168, D360,572, D360,355, D345,096, D342,889, D326,021, and D275,917. These door hooks are typically made of plastic or metal and are usually unitary structures.
In designing an over-the-door hook, the objective has always been to create an inexpensive hook that will fit the door while that door is open or closed and that will hold significant weight. Plastic is often used for many of the over-the-door hooks being sold, particularly those sold for hanging wreaths and other holiday decorations. However, the weight of the object being hung often causes the hook to laterally move or sway when the door is opened or closed and when the object is initially placed on the hook. If a wreath is hung on the outside of a door on a conventional U-shaped hook, the wind may cause the wreath to move laterally or swing like a pendulum. Such swaying can cause the wreath or other object to fall from the hook. Further, the swinging object or hook can scratch or otherwise mar the door when swinging back and forth. This damage is a significant problem for those who live in windy areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,186 discloses the use of a bumper that has a box-like structure to prevent a door hanging file system from contacting a door surface. The bumper is a rigid box-like structure that is affixed to rails in the file system and also affixed to the door. The bumper spaces the rails of a door hanging support or file system from contacting the vertical surface of the door.
Such a bumper system is impractical for many door hook applications because users prefer to easily remove door hooks without using tools or time consuming removal steps. This is particularly true for door hooks that are designed for being temporarily positioned on a door for a holiday season to hold a decoration, such as the hook disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D360,355.
There is a need for an over-the-door hook that can hold significant weight when the door is open or closed and which permits the door to be moved without damaging the door or causing the hook to laterally sway. Such a hook must also stay in place when exposed to windy conditions. Preferably, the door hook is easily mounted and unmounted from a door.


An applicating machine for applying a flexible carrier to a plurality of containers provided from an infeed includes a jaw drum moveable between an operating position and a storage position away from the operating position. In the operating position the jaw drum is positioned with respect to the infeed to accept the plurality of containers and apply the flexible carrier to the plurality of containers. A second jaw drum may be moveable into the operating position to enable packaging of containers having different dimensions and/or packages having different configurations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine for unitizing a plurality of containers using a flexible container carrier.
2. Description of Prior Art
Container carriers connect two or more containers into a sturdy unitized package of containers. Carriers are generally planar arrays of rings, sometimes referred to as "six-pack carriers," typically formed from a thermoplastic sheet material. Carriers are applied to containers of various sizes and shapes along various points along the sidewall or under the chime of the container. A preferable machine would be capable of application of a container carrier to a wide range of container sizes in a number of different package sizes in one of several positions along the container sidewall and/or chime.
Prior art multi-packaging devices and methods generally require several different versions or configurations of machines to accommodate different container carrier, package sizes and package configurations. Machines are traditionally a limitation on the range of container diameters, size of package or configuration of package that can be effectively packaged by a single system.
In addition, different machines or complex set-up procedures would also be required for different sizes of packages, for instance 4-packs, 6-packs and/or 12-packs. Each different package size would typically require different machines and/or complex set-up of machine configurations to accommodate division and diversion of differently sized packages.
Finally, different machines or complex set-up procedures would also be required for containers having different heights or requiring application along different points along the container sidewall and/or chime. Two traditional configurations of container carrier to container are the sidewall-applied carrier (SAC) position and the rim-applied carrier (RAC) position. A sidewall-applied carrier requires that the carrier is applied lower along the container than the rim-applied carrier. In addition, containers having different heights typically require positioning of the carrier along different heights of the sidewall. As such, different machines and/or set-up procedures are traditionally required to bring the carrier up or down along the container. Likewise, such different equipment and/or set-up procedures are traditionally required to package containers having different overall heights.
Conventional applicating machines include a single jaw drum used to apply carriers to individual containers. The conventional jaw drum is typically fixed into position on the applicating machine and used in connection with a fixed range of container diameters, such as a range of approximately 0.2 inches and up to a range of approximately 0.5 inches, based upon the size of the jaw drum. Such conventional applicating machines typically include an infeed conveyor for supplying a plurality of containers within a limited range of diameters to the jaw drum. Additionally, a reel stand is positioned upstream of the jaw drum to supply a reel of carriers to a feed drum and then on to the jaw drum.
The string of carriers are then traditionally applied to the containers and, following application, cut into a desired package configuration. The resulting package is then fed into a turner-diverter that moves and/or rotates the package to a correct position for placement on a pallet or similar shipping unit.
Accordingly, an entirely distinct applicating machine is typically required when packaging a second plurality of containers outside of a size range that can be accommodated with the standard applicating machine.


The therapy apparatus described for treating concretions and tissue in the body of a patient by means of sound waves comprises a sound wave generator and an available X-ray device for locating an object for therapy, wherein the therapy apparatus has a spot film device. The spot film device is arranged within the axial passage of an X-ray cone for the available X-ray device attached to the sound wave generator and with its central longitudinal axis aligned with the focus thereof to be able to precisely adjust and fix a known X-ray device available to the therapy apparatus relative to the therapy apparatus quickly and safely.

a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an extracorporeal therapy apparatus for treating concretions and tissue by means of sound waves in the body of a patient, having a generator device for producing the sound waves, having a spot film device and using an available X-ray device for locating an object for therapy.
b) Description of the Prior Art
European patent application no. 0 402,584 describes a therapy apparatus of the type mentioned above in the form of a lithotripter. A spot film device consisting of a substrate of X-ray negative material and several spot film markers of X-ray positive material embedded therein, is mounted externally and directly on the head of a shock wave generator. Four spot film markers or reference points are provided, and in each case two spot film markers on the substrate each define one spot film line, so that two intended spot film lines are defined. This shock wave generator thus equipped is used in conjunction with an available X-ray device of C-arm construction. The two spot film lines intersect at a point which has to be brought into line with the focal point of the shock wave generator and where the object for therapy in the patient is adjusted later.
Although this spot film device makes for easier adjustment of the X-ray device onto the focus of the shock wave generator and hence onto a concretion in the body of a patient, carrying out adjustment and hence location using this spot film device is nevertheless still awkward and unsafe. After coarse adjustment of the available X-ray device onto the spot film device, initially the bundle of rays from the X-ray device must be aligned with the first spot film line of the spot film device. Then a hypothetical focal point on the shock wave generator must be fixed on a first line corresponding to the first spot film line on the screen of a monitor and then the object for therapy in the patient also visible on the screen must be adjusted onto the hypothetical focus. Several X-ray images are taken to obtain this result. The third spatial coordinate of the therapy point in the patient with respect to the hypothetical focus can be seen by pivoting the X-ray device into the second spot film line of the spot film device. By conventional adjustment of the operating table, on which the patient is situated, the object for therapy in the patient is then adjusted into the final hypothetical focal point; this means that the true focus of the shock wave generator is then in fact aligned with the object for therapy. Several X-ray images are also taken for this result. Overall the X-ray load is thus relatively high. Furthermore, the spot film device is unprotected and may itself be easily displaced, for example by bumping.
German Offenlegungsschrift 4,007,669 describes a lithotripter, the shock wave generator of which is provided with an X-ray device, the ray axis of which coincides with the focus of the generator and which consists of an X-ray cone and the actual X-ray source. German Offenlegungsschrift 3,916,093 describes a further lithotripter which is also rigidly connected to an X-ray device of C-arm support construction which can be adjusted in three spatial coordinates. These lithotripters have a special C-arm for the X-ray device which is always rigidly connected to the shock wave generator.
The object of the invention consists in improving an extracorporeal therapy apparatus of the type mentioned in the introduction so that it is possible to position an available X-ray device with respect to the therapy apparatus for the purpose of more rapid X-ray location of the patient's object for performing the therapy quickly, safely and simply.


A control device includes a magnetic actuator, a final control element, a regulating unit and a measuring device. The magnetic actuator has a coil, a core, and an armature. The actuator is connected to the final control element. The measuring device determines an inductance value L of the coil and generates, as a function of the inductance value L, a first control signal by which a theoretical value of the amplitude of the current through the coil is changed to a holding value. When a pulse signal P is present, the current through the coil is regulated to the theoretical value by the regulating unit.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control device for an internal combustion engine. The control device has a magnetic actuator with a coil and an armature, a final control element connected to the armature, a regulating unit for regulating a current in the coil and a measuring device for generating test signals which act on the coil.
A control device including an actuator having a coil, a core and an armature, a final control element and a regulating unit are described in Published European Patent Application EP 0 400 389 A2. To attract the armature to the core, the coil is supplied with an attraction current which has an amplitude that is large enough that the force required to accelerate and move the armature is available through the magnetic flux. When the armature abuts against the core, the current through the coil is limited to a holding current. An amplitude of the holding current is provided so that at least a holding force required to hold the armature on the core is applied through the magnetic flux.
The current through the coil is reset by an on-off controller to the respective theoretical value of the attraction current or of the holding current. In this case, the pulse/pause ratio of the actuation signal is dependent upon the attainment of an upper and a lower threshold value of the current.
The recognition of an instant of impact of the armature on the core has extremely great importance, since in the event of a delayed switch over to the holding current very high losses occur in the coil, which may lead to the thermal destruction thereof.
In the above-mentioned control device, the temporal duration of the pulses of the actuation signal is determined by the regulating unit and is used as an indirect measure of the inductance of the coil, which increases as the spacing between the core and the armature decreases. On this basis, the holding current is predetermined as a theoretical value when the determined time duration is above a limiting value. In this connection, it is a significant disadvantage that the instant of impact of the armature cannot be determined precisely. If the armature impinges on the core shortly before the current reaches its lower threshold value, then the impact cannot be detected until after the following pulse of the actuation signal. Accordingly, high losses arise in the coil, since the current is limited to the holding current too late. The losses can be reduced only in circumstances in which the attraction current has an appropriately low magnitude. However, this brings about an increase in the time which the armature requires to pass from a neutral position to abutment against the core. Accordingly, the final control element can no longer be driven as rapidly. This is a disadvantage, in particular in the case of injection valves or in the case of inlet/exhaust valves of an internal combustion engine.

Control device for an internal combustion engine


Vehicle window pane (16) has an arcuately curved vertical section having a single or same radius of curvature (R1) and a curved lateral section having a single radius of curvature (R2) or a compound radius of curvature. The single radius of curvature (R1) in the curved vertical section and the single radius of curvature (R2) and the compound radius of curvature in the curved lateral section are chosen to differ from each other. The vehicle window pane (16) constitutes a bidirectionally curved pane, which is neither a spherically curved pane (because the radii of curvature in the vertical and lateral sections are not equal to each other) nor a cylindrically curved pane (because both of the radii of curvature in the vertical and lateral sections are not infinite). With this arrangement, the vehicle window pane can significantly improve an aesthetic appeal of a motor vehicle employing the window pane.

Various window panes for use in motor vehicles have been proposed to date, one example of which is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO-62-273115 entitled "APPARATUS FOR GUIDING ASCENDING/DESCENDING MOVEMENTS OF AUTOMOBILE WINDOW PANE". The window pane disclosed in this publication is a curved pane. Although not specifically stated in the publication, the disclosed window pane is arcuately curved so as to form part of a cylindrical surface with its portion parallel to a longitudinal axis of the motor vehicle running linearly or substantially linearly. Namely, the disclosed window pane, i.e., "cylindrically-curved window pane", has an arcuately-curved vertical section as viewed from the front of the motor vehicle and a near-linear horizontal or lateral section as viewed from above the motor vehicle. However, an overall aesthetic appeal of the motor vehicle would be significantly improved if the window pane is arcuately curved in the lateral section as well as in the vertical section.
Demand for an improved aesthetic appeal may be met by forming the window pane into a spherically curved shape; that is, the spherically curved shape provides an arcuately-curved lateral section as well as an arcuately-curved vertical section. Because of the nature of the spherically curved shape, each and every section taken through the window pane has one and the same radius of curvature. However, for almost every vehicle window pane used today, it is necessary that the vertical section be curved relatively greatly (with a relatively small radius of curvature) toward a roof of the motor vehicle and that the lateral section be slightly curved or be almost like a straight line. Therefore, the spherically-curved window pane, which has a uniform curvature in all directions thereof, particularly, in the directions parallel to and transverse to the longitudinal axis of the motor vehicle, can not readily be put into practical use.
Another type of curved vehicle window pane, analogous in shape to the above-mentioned spherically-curved vehicle window, is proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-11-500796 (International Publication No. WO 96/25580) entitled "GUIDE FOR A LOWERABLE SPHERICALLY CURVED WINDOW PANE IN A VEHICLE DOOR". More specifically, the publication discloses a vehicle window pane that is curved to form part of an imaginary barrel-shaped envelope surface (hereinafter referred to simply as a "barrel-shaped window pane"), as shown in FIG. 23 hereof.
Specifically, part (a) of FIG. 23 is a side view of the barrel-shaped window pane disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-11-500796, while part (b) of FIG. 23 shows vertical sections of the disclosed vehicle door window pane taken along lines 31—31, 32—32 and 33—33 of part (a). Because of the barrel shape, the vertical section taken along line 31—31, which is closest to the center of the pane, has a greatest radius of curvature. The vertical section taken along line 32—32, which is farther from the center of the pane than the line 31—31, has a smaller radius of curvature. The vertical section taken along line 33—33, which is still farther from the center of the pane than the line 31—31, has a yet smaller radius of curvature. That is, the farther from the center of the pane, the smaller becomes the radius of curvature of the vertical section. Namely, where the radius of curvature of the line 31—31 vertical section is given as "R31", the radius of curvature of the line 32—32 vertical section as "R32", R32<R31. Again, where the radius of curvature of the line 33—33 vertical section is given as "R33", R33<R32.
Such a barrel-shaped window pane, which progressively varies in the radius of curvature along the horizontal axis or X-axis as shown, would require a complicated shape in guide rails that serve to guide the window pane relative to the door body, as well as a complicated construction in the door body accommodating the window pane. As a consequence, the manufacturing costs of the guide rails and door body will increase, thereby presenting a bar to practical use of the barrel-shaped window pane.
The cylindrically-curved window pane, as typically disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO-62-273115, has a drawback of insufficient aesthetic appeal, although it has been popularly used as a sliding vehicle window pane. The spherically-curved and barrel-shaped window panes, on the other hand, have the disadvantage that they are not suitable for practical use.
There has also been a demand for a glass sheet which has a compound curvature and is superior in aesthetic appeal to the above-described spherically-curved and barrel-shaped glass sheets.
An example technique to meet such a demand is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO-49-10331 entitled "METHOD FOR BENDING A GLASS SHEET". In this method, a glass sheet, held at a deformation temperature, is fed along an elongated path of travel on a gas support bed. The path of travel is bent both transversely and longitudinally in an up-and-down direction or vertically. As a result, the glass sheet is bent to have a compound curvature composed of curves extending both transversely and longitudinally of the sheet. Finally, the glass sheet is quenched to keep that compound curvature. However, in the disclosed technique, since the glass sheet is bent while it is floated by gaseous support means, it is quite difficult to provide the glass sheet with as many curves as desired, with precision. Stated otherwise, because it is bent while it is gas-supported, using a bed of a configuration copied from part of a rotary (e.g., a cylinder and a barrel) or a sphere, the glass sheet is provided with only curves of poor precision which extend transversely and longitudinally thereof at different radii of curvature.
Another similar technique is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-5-9037 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BENDING A GLASS SHEET". The proposed technique provides a glass sheet bent with a compound curvature. That is, the glass sheet is bent transversely and longitudinally at different radii of curvature while it is fed along a hearth bed. During feed of the glass sheet, a gas is blown from below the hearth bed to support the glass sheet in a floated fashion. Thus, the proposed technique can provide the glass sheet with only curves of poor precision extending transversely and longitudinally at two different radii of curvature.

Bi-directionally-curved vehicle window pane and vehicle door structure incorporating the same


A computer implemented system and method for image based location specific password construction and authentication is provided. The system helps users to recognize the password in terms of objects in an image rather than recalling the alphanumeric passwords. A graph walk generator present in the system guides a user to take unique pictures/images/photographs from user's geographical location which helps the user to recognize password easily in future. The system helps in creating and maintaining a strong password by using pseudorandom image presenter. It also allows a user to aid his photographic memory to get authenticated to the system. Every user generates certain number of images by capturing images in vicinity and select objects from an image to create a password. A user authentication module present in the system then authenticates the user based on sequence of the objects within the captured image to provide one-time image based authentication.

In recent years there has been a steady increase in vast pool of computer systems and applications that process and store huge amount of sensitive information via a computer network such as Internet, in order to meet the ever increasing needs of users. Internet users create accounts and get benefits of various services offered on Internet by accessing various computer systems. In many scenarios, to provide a proof of the user's identity, users are required to provide user credentials or sensitive information, which are then stored in servers for future authentications. Usually, such sensitive information that enables user authentication is stored in text format or is encrypted with some basic encryption technique. This provides considerably easy unauthorized access to computers and servers for accessing users' confidential information which finally leads to forfeiture of monetary transactions, fraud and unethical use of a user's information.
In a conventional authentication mechanism, it is mandatory for every user to create a password or passcode containing alphanumeric and special characters having fixed minimum length to avoid unauthorized access. If a password is weak, users are requested by the system to rethink and choose a stronger password. Generally, every system uses different techniques to choose password and calculate password strength for an account. Thus, users are prompted/suggested to use alphanumeric characters along with special characters by every individual service provider. Use of several such services tends to create multiple passwords for a single user. It is difficult to remember various passwords and then associate those passwords to the respective services. Additionally, at numerous occasions users fail to recall a password due to its complexity. Besides, it is not a good practice to keep a single password for all the services. As, if one account of a service is compromised, then, all the accounts of that user might be at stake. An alternative mechanism is to protect the passwords by appending them with biometric technology such as retina based authentication and finger print authentication. But, these techniques are not scalable enough when there is need for transmitting highly sensitive information through the network.
Therefore, a system and method that will successfully address the aforementioned problems is still considered to be one of the challenges of the field. Furthermore, a system that will enable the user to remember the complex passwords without compromising user's credentials is also considered to be a problem which requires to be solved.

System and method for image based location specific password construction and authentication


A rotary valve is provided with an elliptical valve disc that seats against a seal element operatively mounted in an elliptically shaped depression formed in the rigid annular portion of a seal cartridge structure carried by the valve body. Due to the elliptical shapes of the disc and corresponding seating structure, and a conical configuration of the disc periphery, sealing of the valve disc, the integrity of the seal, and the ability of the seal to completely stop the flow of fluid through the valve body are desirably improved. The centering of valve disc relative to the seal cartridge is facilitated by a specially designed disc mounting structure that eliminates any necessity of adjusting the disc along its rotational axis, and a one-piece actuator bracket is removably mounted to the valve body to substantially simplify and reduce the expense of operatively associating an actuator with the valve.

The present invention generally relates to valves and methods for fabricating them and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to rotary valves, such as "butterfly" valves, and associated valve fabrication methods.
Rotary valves, also commonly referred to as "butterfly" valves, are typically provided with a shut-off disc which is rotationally drivable between open and closed positions about an axis diametrically extending across the interior of a generally annular valve body. In its open position the disc permits fluid flow through the valve body, and when the disc is rotated to its closed position its periphery is brought into operative engagement with an annular seal member, which is part of an annular seal cartridge structure supported by the valve body, to shut off further fluid flow through the valve and piping sections that are suitably secured to opposite sides of its body portion.
Although rotary valves of this general type have been utilized for many years in both fluid throttling and shut-off applications, and have been refined in a variety of manners over this time span, they are still subject to several well-known problems, limitations and disadvantages. For example, rotary valve discs are customarily formed as a segment of a sphere and thus have a rounded peripheral seating surface. Because of this conventional disc configuration it is often difficult to reliably and accurately conform the valve seal to the peripheral disc seating surface without undesirably stretching the seal element to a substantial degree. Due to this geometric seal/seat interface problem the integrity of the seal is often compromised and it is difficult to completely stop the flow of fluid through the valve.
Because the periphery of the disc is used as the seal contact surface for the valve, it is critical to proper seal performance that the disc be precisely centered within the valve body. To this end, various structures have been incorporated into conventional rotary valve assemblies to permit the installed disc to be adjusted within the valve body in a manner effecting this necessary disc centering. This centering adjustment, of course, must be carefully and accurately performed to achieve the desired sealing effectiveness. Adjustment error, on the other hand, can seriously reduce the valve's sealing efficiency.
Another limitation present in rotary valves of conventional construction is related to the manner in which an actuator, a motorized device used to forcibly rotate the closure disc between its open and closed positions, is operatively mounted on the valve. In rotary valves of conventional construction an actuator base structure is formed integrally with the valve body (or permanently secured to as by welding) and projects radially outwardly from the valve body. In order to mount an actuator on the valve, an adapter structure is interposed between the actuator and the outwardly projecting base structure and secured to the actuator and base structure. This overall adapter mounting structure undesirably adds to the construction cost of the overall valve assembly and makes the fabrication of the assembly more complex and timeconsuming.
AS can readily be seen from the foregoing, a need exists for an improved rotary valve assembly, and associated fabrication methods therefor, which eliminate or at least substantially reduce the above-mentioned problems, limitations and disadvantages typically associated with rotary valves of conventional construction as generally described above. It is to this need that the present invention is directed.

Rotary valve apparatus and associated methods


A method of producing a printing plate comprises:

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a method for making a printing plate and to a printing plate made according to such a method. More particularly, this invention is directed to a process in which a printing plate precursor is provided which comprises a topmost etchable first layer and a second layer located below the first layer, wherein the first and second layers have different affinities for at least one printing liquid. The first layer is imagewise etched by kinetic energy obtained from the rapid vaporization of liquid droplets. The vaporization is achieved by impinging the liquid droplets with laser energy in close proximity to the topmost first layer.
2. Background Information
The art of lithographic printing is based upon the immiscibility of oil and water, wherein the oily material or ink is preferentially retained by the image area and the water or fountain solution is preferentially retained by the non-image area. When a suitably prepared surface is moistened with water and an ink is then applied, the background or non-image area retains the water and repels the ink while the image area accepts the ink and repels the water. The ink on the image area is then transferred to the surface of a material upon which the image is to be reproduced, such as paper, cloth and the like. Commonly the ink is transferred to an intermediate material called the blanket which in turn transfers the ink to the surface of the material upon which the image is to be reproduced.
A very widely used type of lithographic printing plate has a light-sensitive coating applied to an aluminum base support. The coating may respond to light by having the portion which is exposed become soluble so that it is removed in the developing process. Such a plate is referred to as positive-working. Conversely, when that portion of the coating which is exposed becomes hardened, the plate is referred to as negative-working. In both instances the image area remaining is ink-receptive or oleophilic and the non-image area or background is water-receptive or hydrophilic. The differentiation between image and non-image areas is made in the exposure process where a film is applied to the plate with a vacuum to insure good contact. The plate is then exposed to a light source, a portion of which is composed of UV radiation. In the instance where a positive plate is used, the area on the film that corresponds to the image on the plate is opaque so that no light will strike the plate, whereas the area on the film that corresponds to the non-image area is clear and permits the transmission of light to the coating which then becomes more soluble and is removed. In the case of a negative plate the converse is true. The area on the film corresponding to the image area is clear while the non-image area is opaque. The coating under the clear area of film is hardened by the action of light while the area not struck by light is removed. The light-hardened surface of a negative plate is therefore oleophilic and will accept ink while the non-image area which has had the coating removed through the action of a developer is desensitized and is therefore hydrophilic.
Lithographic plates may be divided into classes based upon their affinity for printing ink. Those which require dampening water which is fed to the non-image areas of the plate, forms a water film and acts as an ink-repellant layer; this is the so-called fount solution. Those which require no fount solution are called driographs or water-less lithographic plates. Most lithographic plates at present in use are of the first type and require a fount-solution during printing. However, lithographic plates of this type suffer from a number of disadvantages. Some of these are:
Adjustment of the proper ink-water balance during press operation is difficult and requires great experience. If the correct ink-water balance is not achieved scumming is occasioned when the printed ink image extends into the non-image areas thereby ruining the printed image.
Adjustment of the ink-water balance at start-up or re-start up is particularly difficult and can not be stabilized until a large number of sheets have been printed, thus incurring waste.
The ink tends to become emulsified which leads to poor adherence of the ink onto the plate which causes problems in color reproduction and in dot reproduction.
The printing press has to be provided with a dampening system, thus increasing its size and complexity. These dampening solutions contain volatile organic compounds.
The plate care chemistry and fount solutions require careful control and selection. In addition, plate cleaners contain significant levels of solvent which is not desirable.
However, with water-less plates in which the ink-releasing layer is, for example, a cured silicone layer there is no scumming and clearer images can be produced. Very often water-less plates comprise a base material, for example aluminum plate, on which a photosensitive layer is coated, on this photosensitive layer there is coated a silicone layer. After imagewise exposure and development in which selected areas of the photosensitive composition are altered, the overlying silicone layer is removed and the plate is inked up. The ink adheres only to those areas of the plate not covered by the silicone remaining after development. Thus the plate can be printed without the need to use a fount solution. In practice it is difficult and costly to formulate and manufacture the silicone layer composition with sufficient adhesion to the photosensitive composition in these multilayer assemblies. Thus the only commercially available water-less lithographic plates are expensive and of complex design.
There exists in patent literature water-less lithographic plate designs which do not exhibit these disadvantages. These inventions disclose photosensitive water-less lithographic plate precursors comprising a support with an oleophilic surface and a single layer, photosensitive, ink-releasing composition such that imagewise exposure causes changes in developer solubility of the composition where development produces an ink accepting image pattern on the uncovered support surface and an ink-releasing non-image area corresponding to unremoved composition.
There are numerous known methods for creating image and non-image areas. Some methods rely on the differential solubility of exposed and non-exposed areas in a developer; others use incident radiation to break covalent bonds of radiation sensitive formulations or to ablate a layer of material.
Lithography and offset printing methods have long been combined in a compatible marriage of great convenience for the printing industry for economical, high speed, high quality image duplicating in small runs and large. Known art available to the industry for image transfer to a lithographic plate is voluminous but dominated by the photographic process wherein a hydrophilic plate is treated with a photosensitive coating, exposed via a film image and developed to produce a printable, oleophilic image on the plate.
While preparing lithographic plates by photographic image transfer is relatively efficient and efficacious, it is a multi-step, indirect process of constrained flexibility. Typically, a photographically presensitized (PS) plate is prepared from a hydrophilic surface-treated aluminum. A positive or negative film image of an original hard copy is prepared and the PS plate exposed to the film image, developed, washed and made ready for print operations. Any desired changes in the film image must be made by first changing the original hard copy and repeating the photographic process; hence, the constrained flexibility. As sophisticated and useful as it is to prepare plates by photographic image transfer, the need for a lithographic plate fabricating process that obviates the above problems associated with the photographic process has long been recognized.
Clearly, it would be highly beneficial to the printing industry to directly produce a quality printable image on a plate without proceeding through a multi-step photographic process. It would also be highly efficacious if a process were developed whereby changes could be made in an original image in some predetermined manner without incurring the need to correct hard copy and repeat the photography, particularly if those changes could be made xe2x80x9con line.xe2x80x9d Consistent with these goals, artisans in the field of lithographic plate production have recently come to direct their efforts toward the development of a means to integrate digitally controlled image-making technology, i.e., the ubiquitous personal computer, with a means to directly convey the digital image onto a lithographic plate that will be usable for large production runs (100,000 or more copies).
Image forming by digital computer aided design of graphical material or text is well known. Electronically derived images of words or graphics presented on the CRT of a digital computer system can be edited and converted to final hard copy by direct printing with impact printers, laser printers or ink jet printers. This manner of printing or producing hard copy is extremely flexible and useful when print runs of no more than a few thousand are required but the print process is not feasible for large runs measured in the tens or hundreds of thousands of pieces. For large runs, printing by lithographic plate is still the preferred process with such plates prepared by the process of photographic image transfer.
As disclosed, for example, at col. 2, line 21 to col. 3, line 10 of co-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,705 and the references cited therein, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,737 and the references cited therein, lasers and their amenability to digital control have stimulated a substantial effort in the development of laser-based imaging systems. Early examples utilized lasers to etch away material from a plate blank to form an intaglio or letterpress pattern. This approach was later extended to production of lithographic plates, e.g., by removal of a hydrophilic surface to reveal oleophilic underlayers. These systems generally require high-power lasers which are expensive and slow.
A second approach to laser imaging involves the use of thermal-transfer materials. With these systems, a polymer sheet transparent to the radiation emitted by the laser is coated with a transferable material. During operation the transfer side of this construction is brought into contact with an acceptor sheet, and the transfer material is selectively irradiated through the transparent layer. Irradiation causes the transfer material to adhere preferentially to the acceptor sheet. The transfer and acceptor materials exhibit different affinities for fountain solution and/or ink, so that removal of the transparent layer together with non-irradiated transfer material leaves a suitably imaged, finished plate. Typically, the transfer material is oleophilic and the acceptor material hydrophilic. Plates produced with transfer-type systems tend to exhibit short useful lifetimes due to the limited amount of material that can effectively be transferred. In addition, because the transfer process involves melting and resolidification of material, image quality tends to be visibly poorer than that obtainable with other methods.
Lasers have also be used to expose a photosensitive blank for traditional chemical processing. In an alternative to this approach, a laser has been employed to selectively remove, in an imagewise pattern, an opaque coating that overlies a photosensitive plate blank. The plate is then exposed to a source of radiation with the unremoved material acting as a mask that prevents radiation from reaching underlying portions of the plate. Either of these imaging techniques requires the cumbersome chemical processing associated with traditional, non-digital platemaking.
Lithographic printing plates suitable for digitally controlled imaging by means of laser devices have also been disclosed in the prior art. Here, laser output ablates one or more plate layers, resulting in an imagewise pattern of features on the plate. Laser output passes through at least one discreet layer and imagewise ablates one or more underlying layer. The image features produced exhibit an affinity for ink or an ink-abhesive fluid that differs from that of unexposed areas. The ablatable material used to describe the image is deposited as an intractable, infusible, IR absorptive conductive polymer under an IR transparent polymer film. As a consequence, the process of preparing the plate is complicated and the image produced by the ablated polymer on the plate does not yield sharp and distinct printed copy.
Flexographic printing plates are also well known to those skilled in the art. Flexographic printing typically involves one of three different types of image carriers:
Rubber plates, in which a negative of the desired image is placed on a metal alloy coated with a light sensitive acid resist. Upon exposure, the exposed resist areas harden and become insoluble, but the unexposed areas remain soluble and are washed away. An etchant is applied to the surface, thereby engraving the areas unprotected by the hardened resist, and resulting in a metallic relief plate. A mold is then made of the relief plate, and a rubber sheet is pressed into the mold to obtain a rubber relief plate.
Photopolymer plates, in which a photographic negative of the desired image is placed on a photopolymeric material which is then exposed to UV radiation, thereby hardening the photopolymer in the exposed areas. The unhardened areas of the photopolymer are removed via washing, leaving the image areas in relief.
Design rolls, in which a layer of vulcanized rubber is applied to the surface of a plate cylinder, and the desired image is engraved thereupon using a high energy laser, which atomizes rubber in the non-image areas, thus leaving the image areas in relief. The height of the image above the floor of the cylinder can be varied in the engraving process, depending upon the level of relief desired.
The use of laser radiation to cut or ablate materials in medical and dental applications is well known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,020,995; 5,194,005; and 5,762,501 disclose the use of laser radiation having a selected wavelength to cut, by vaporization, dentin, tooth enamel, gum tissue, vascularized tissue, bone, metal fillings and the like. In addition, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,741,247 and 5,785,521 disclose the use of a laser in medical and dental applications for accurate cutting of hard and soft tissue and other materials. More particularly U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,247 discloses an apparatus in which laser energy is used to vaporize or explode atomized fluid particles in the vicinity of the target area. The explosive forces released from the vaporized fluid particles impart mechanical cutting forces onto the target.
It is one object of this invention to provide a method of preparing a printing plate, in which a printing plate precursor is directly imaged by imagewise etching the precursor using kinetic energy derived from the rapid vaporization of liquid droplets which have absorbed laser energy. It is another object of this invention to provide a printing plate prepared using the method of this invention. This invention advantageously permits the desired image to be etched directly upon the printing plate precursor, thereby avoiding the need for films, masks, wet chemistry or exposure techniques. It is one feature of this invention that the imaging may be accomplished via a digital system which controls the placement of the laser radiation and targeting of the kinetic energy to selected portions of the etchable material portion of the precursor. It is another feature of this invention that no pre-exposure, post-exposure, or post-imaging chemical treatments are required to xe2x80x9cdevelopxe2x80x9d the desired image. It is another advantage of this invention that it is xe2x80x9cwhite light safe,xe2x80x9d i.e., since the method does not depend upon a photochemical change to occur in the precursor to obtain the desired image, the need of protecting the precursor from xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d light (e.g. sunlight) is obviated. It is another feature of this invention that the thermal stability of the resulting printing plate is not compromised due to direct response of the imageable portion of the precursor to the laser. This invention also advantageously results in a low amount of residue material (typically dust) remaining on the plate surface after ablative imaging, thereby avoiding possible damage to the imaging and printing equipment due to the presence of such dust. It is another feature of this invention that the laser imaging and plate system described herein is less expensive than conventional laser thermal imaging and plate systems. Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
This invention is directed to a method of producing a printing plate comprising:
(a) providing a printing plate precursor comprising a topmost etchable first layer and a second layer located below the first layer, wherein the first and second layers have different affinities for at least one printing liquid;
(b) imagewise providing atomized fluid particles in an interactive zone located above the top surface of the first layer; and
(c) directing laser energy into the interactive zone, wherein the laser energy has a wavelength which is substantially absorbed by the atomized fluid particles in the interaction zone, and the absorption of the laser energy causes the atomized fluid particles to imagewise impart kinetic energy to and etch the first layer.
This invention is also directed to printing plates prepared by the above-described method. Printing plates which may be prepared in accordance with this invention include waterless plates, positive-and negative-working plates, and flexographic plates.

Abstract: (b) imagewise providing atomized fluid particles in an interaction zone located above the surface of the first layer; and

Abstract: (c) imagewise directing laser energy into the interaction zone, wherein the laser energy has a wavelength which is substantially absorbed by the atomized fluid particles in the interaction zone, and the absorption of the laser energy causes the atomized fluid particles to imagewise impart kinetic energy to and etch the first layer. Lithographic and flexographic printing plates may be prepared according to this method, including waterless plates, negative-and positive-working plates, and processless plates.