A hub retainer device for maintaining the position of a bicycle wheel, particularly the wheel hub, with respect to a bicycle fork dropout. The hub retainer device includes a base portion dimensioned to fit securely within a recess defined in an outer surface of a bicycle fork dropout. The bicycle wheel skewer rod is passed through a hole defined in the base portion of the hub retainer device. The hub retainer further includes a projecting portion shaped to fit securely within the dropout slot. Preferably, a shoulder portion extends from the projecting portion beyond the inside surface of the dropout and is shaped to receive a shoulder on the wheel hub or an axle stub. Thus, loads on the wheel are transferred to the interface between the hub and hub retainer rather than to the interface between the skewer rod and the dropout as in prior art configurations not having a hub retainer as described.

The present invention relates to a device that secures the connection between a wheel and a bicycle fork dropout.
A typical bicycle frame has at least one bicycle fork for mounting a wheel to the bicycle. A typical fork has a pair of spaced apart fork legs (or at least one fork leg), each leg having a dropout at a first end. The dropouts have inner sides (facing each other), outer sides opposite the inner sides, and an elongated aperture formed therein to form a slot for receiving a wheel axle or skewer rod. The hub of the bicycle wheel is mounted on the skewer, and a wheel may be mounted on the bicycle frame by inserting the skewer into the slot.
Skewer-type quick release devices are commonly used for attaching wheel axles to bicycle fork dropouts. They are advantageous because they secure the wheel assembly to the fork yet permit fast engagement and disengagement of the wheel assembly with respect to the fork with a quick, simple step, such as the turning and loosening of a quick release lever. The diameter of the skewer is smaller than the width of the slot in the fork dropout so that the skewer may readily slide radially into the dropout.
A problem with these skewer rods arises when braking forces are applied to the wheel, and particularly when such braking forces are applied to the wheel by a bicycle disk brake. Disk brakes have typically been used in off-road and racing applications, both downhill and cross-country. Disk brakes include a brake disk mounted on the wheel adjacent the center of the wheel and a brake pad mounted adjacent the brake disk. The brake pad engages the brake disk to slow down rotation of the bicycle wheel. Due to the large forces that arise when the disk brake is applied to slow rotation of the bicycle wheel, the skewer and quick release assembly tends to be insufficient to hold the wheel hub assembly and dropout rigidly together and in their proper position. The hub assembly thus tends to shift with respect to the dropout during braking. As all bicycle hubs are mounted in the same area of the dropout and therefore experience similar forces, such slippage is a problem in all standard applications of disk brakes on bicycles. In addition, the large forces generated during braking and the resulting relative movement between the skewer and the dropout load the skewer such that the skewer may become weakened or damaged by the dropout.
One solution to the slippage problem is to knurl both the inside face of the fork dropout and the outside mating face of the hub. The friction created by this process may be sufficient to hold the dropout and hub in place in many instances. However, such a solution requires special manufacturing, or at least modification, of both the dropout and the hub and does not provide the level of secured attachment desired for rigorous braking applications. An attachment of a bicycle wheel to a bicycle fork dropout that relies on more than just frictional forces therefore would be desirable.


The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, comprising: a display unit; a wireless communication unit for providing a communication interface for communication with a vehicle or an external server; and a control unit for setting, when reserving a vehicle, an amount of advertisement to be consumed in the vehicle, and for providing fee deduction information, according to the set amount of advertisement, to the display unit.

Terminals may be divided into mobile/portable terminals and stationary terminal according to their mobility. Mobile terminals may be further divided into handheld terminals and vehicle mounted terminals according to whether a user may carry the mobile terminal directly.
The functions of mobile terminals are being diversified. For example, a mobile terminal may provide functions such as data and voice communication; photographing and video shooting by using a camera; voice recording; playback of music files through a speaker system; and displaying an image or a video on a display unit. As such, mobile terminals are being implemented in the form of a multimedia player providing heterogeneous functions as their functions are diversified.
Meanwhile, a vehicle is an apparatus which moves a user riding in the vehicle in his or her desired direction. A car is a typical example of the vehicle. In recent years, research on communication between a vehicle and an external device (namely a mobile terminal) is being conducted actively. Moreover, research on self-driving vehicles which move autonomously without intervention of a driver is also conducted actively.
With the advancement of communication technology connecting vehicles and mobile terminals, mobile vehicle reservation services that connect passengers and vehicles through applications installed in smartphones are gradually increasing.
However, most of mobile vehicle reservation services serve as a relay for connecting a passenger and a driver to each other but do not provide a passenger with a variety of contents through a separate display mounted inside a vehicle. Therefore, it is highly required to develop a user interface environment capable of providing various contents and fee discount options to passengers who use the mobile vehicle reservation service.

Mobile terminal and method for controlling same


Method, apparatus, and programs for customizing a web site are provided. In one example, a method for customizing a web site is provided. One or more representations corresponding to one or more customizable components of a web site are provided. The one or more representations are to be displayed on a display screen to a user. An input entered by the user and directed to a specific customizable component of the web site is received. How to customize the specific customizable component of the web site is determined based on the input. An instruction is generated with respect to the customizable component. The instruction is used to implement customization of the specific customizable component of the web site in accordance with the input from the user.

1. Technical Field
The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for Internet services. Particularly, the present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for customizing a web site.
2. Discussion of Technical Background
Search is a commonly used feature on every web site, and users expect high quality results and experience from it. However, search is a very hard technological and scientific problem for most online publishers, who do not have existing core competency in search or the resources to build one. Making it even more challenging is that the search needs vary by publisher verticals and even from one publisher to another within the same vertical. For example, the web site search needs for a news publisher are different from that of an online forum site or an online shopping merchant. Plus each web site would like to have a search experience that is consistent with the look and feel of their web site.
Domain-specific search (also known as vertical search) solutions focus on one specific area of knowledge and create customized search experiences. Because of the domain's limited corpus and clear relationships between concepts, domain-specific search solutions provide extremely relevant results for searchers. The content domain or the vertical content area may be based on topicality, media type, or genre of content. Common verticals include shopping, automotive industry, legal information, medical information, and travel. In contrast to general web search engines, which attempt to index large portions of the World Wide Web using a web crawler, vertical search engines typically use a focused crawler that attempts to index only web pages that are relevant to a predefined topic or set of topics.
Some known solution offers users a partially customizable version of its web search service. The solution is based on general web search index and web search ranking. So, customers get a slice of web search rather than the domain-specific (vertical) search. In addition, the known solution does not have the ability for partners to influence ranking through promotions. Another known solution is mainly positioned as a search service for corporate sites. This solution uses partner content instead of general web search index, but the ranking is not based on the vertical. None of these known solutions offer the ability for the partner to customize the web site to include promotions and paid inclusions as part of the results.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a solution for customizing a web site with an improved domain-specific search capability.

Method and system for customizing a web site


A shape measuring apparatus is provided, which is capable of accurately measuring the shape of an observed surface of an object to be measured and which can be designed to be compact in size and light in weight. An optical reflected image from an observed surface of an object to be measured and an optical reflected image from a reference surface are interfered with each other to generate interference light. The interference light is dispersed into at least three beams, which are shifted in phase by respective predetermined phase shifting amounts. At least three interference fringe images are simultaneously captured by at least one image pickup device which is smaller in number than the interference fringe images. At least three pieces of interference fringe image information are calculated using the at least three obtained interference fringe images and the predetermined phase shift amounts to thereby calculate a shape of the observed surface from the at least three pieces of interference fringe image information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shape measuring apparatus, and particularly, to a shape measuring apparatus for measuring the shape of an object to be measured by simultaneously picking up images of a plurality of phase-shifted interference fringe images obtained by a phase shift method.
2. Prior Art
Conventional measuring apparatuses for measuring the surface shape of an object to be measured include a type that performs a measuring operation in a non-contact manner using the phase shift method. The phase shift method comprises causing a part of light emitted from a light source to be reflected from a reference surface, while causing light passing through the reference surface to be reflected from an observed surface of the measured object, subsequently causing optical images reflected from the reference surface and from the observed surface of the measured object to interfere with each other to induce an interference fringe, then phase-shifting the interference fringes by predetermined amounts to obtain at least three pieces of interference fringe image information from the observed surface of the measured object, and finally capturing these pieces of interference fringe image information by respective corresponding image pickup devices.
As the phase shift method, it is generally employed to vary the phase of interference fringes with the lapse of time using an optical-path varying method of moving the reference surface along an optical axis to physically vary an optical path length by a very small amount or a wavelength varying method of varying a wavelength from a light source by a very small amount with the optical path length fixed.
However, the phase shift method of varying the phase of interference fringes with the lapse of time requires a certain amount of time to obtain at least the interference fringe image information before capturing the interference fringes, on which a subsequent analysis is based. Consequently, not only the amount of time required for the analysis increases but also the results of the analysis are affected by fluctuation, vibration, or the like of air in which the analysis is carried out, thereby making it difficult to keep the results of the analysis reliable.
To solve this problem with the phase shift method of varying the phase of interference fringe images with the lapse of time, a three-way dispersing phase shift method has been proposed, which comprises simultaneously obtaining three interference fringe images of different phases by splitting light from a laser beam source into three beams using two beam splitters, passing these beams through respective corresponding wavelength plates, and then picking up images using three image pickup devices (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 10-281738 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 11-337321).
However, the three-way dispersing phase shift method enables three interference fringe images to be simultaneously obtained using three image pickup devices, but it is difficult to completely match a sensitivity characteristic or the like between the image pickup devices. The interference fringe images obtained by the image pickup devices actually are different from each other in positional deviation, relative size (bias value) and brightness (contrast value), so that differences in sensitivity characteristic between the image pickup devices are superposed on each other to cause errors, resulting in a failure to obtain accurate shape errors.
Further, since, for example, the conventional three-way dispersing phase shift method requires the use of three image pickup devices, measures must be taken to synchronize these image pickup devices with each other, and moreover, this requires the use of an image input device that can simultaneously capture three pieces of interference fringe image information.
Thus, due to the needs for a plurality of (for example, three) image pickup devices, the above conventional phase shift method has several problems; for example, it is difficult to electrically adjust these image pickup devices and to adjust their physical locations so as to match them with each other, which makes it difficult to achieve accurate shape measurement, and an image pickup system that is necessarily large in size and complicated in structure is required to implement this method.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a shape measuring apparatus which is capable of accurately measuring the shape of an observed surface of an object to be measured and which can be designed to be compact in size and light in weight.
To attain the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a shape measuring apparatus comprising an interference optical system including a reference surface member having a reference surface, for causing an optical reflected image from an observed surface of an object to be measured and an optical reflected image from the reference surface to interfere with each other to generate interference light, dispersing means for dispersing the interference light generated by means of interference by the interference optical system into at least three beams, shifting means for shifting the at least three dispersed beams by respective predetermined phase shifting amounts, interference fringe image obtaining means for simultaneously obtaining at least three interference fringe images obtained by means of shifting by the shifting means, and calculating means for calculating at least three pieces of interference fringe image information using the at least three obtained interference fringe images and the predetermined phase shift amounts to thereby calculate a shape of the observed surface from the at least three pieces of interference fringe image information, wherein the interference fringe image obtaining means comprises at least one image pickup device which is smaller in number than the interference fringe images.
With the above construction, the interference fringe obtaining means comprises at least one image pickup device which is smaller in number than the at least three interference fringe images, so that the at least three phase-shifted interference fringe images are picked up by the at least one image pickup device smaller in number than the at least three interference fringe images, thereby enabling errors between the individual image pickup devices to be reduced, which errors may occur if the at least three interference fringe images are picked up using at least three image pickup devices. As a result, the size of the observed surface of the measured object can be accurately measured and the entire size and weight of the apparatus can be reduced.
Preferably, the interference fringe image obtaining means comprises a single image pickup device.
Also preferably, the at least three beams have geometrically the same optical path length.
With this construction,- by virtue of the use of the same geometrical optical path length, each of the three phase-shifted interference fringe images can be reliably picked up under the same conditions by the single image pickup device.
Further preferably, refractive-index media having different refractive indices or the like are arranged and disposed on respective corresponding optical paths for the at least three beams such that the optical paths for the at least three beams have optically the same length.
With this construction, by virtue of the use of the same optical path length, each of the three phase-shifted interference fringe images can be reliably picked up under the same conditions by the single image pickup device.


Systems and methods to provide electrical contacts to a workpiece to facilitate electrotreating processes, including electroplating and electroetching processes are presented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor integrated circuit technology and, more particularly, to electrotreating techniques such as electroplating and electroetching that are applied to the entire face of a workpiece.
2. Background of the Related Art
Conventional semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits generally include a semiconductor substrate, usually a silicon substrate, and a plurality of sequentially formed dielectric interlayers such as silicon dioxide, and conductive paths or interconnects made of conductive materials. Copper and copper alloys have recently received considerable attention as interconnect materials because of their superior electromigration and low resistivity characteristics. The interconnects are usually formed by filling a conductor such as copper in features or cavities etched into the dielectric interlayers by a metallization process. The preferred method of copper metallization process is electroplating. In an integrated circuit, multiple levels of interconnect networks laterally extend with respect to the substrate surface. Interconnects formed in sequential layers can be electrically connected using features such as vias or contacts.
In a typical interconnect fabrication process, first an insulating layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate. Patterning and etching processes are performed to form features such as trenches, pads and vias etc. in the insulating layer. Then, copper is electroplated to fill all the features. In such electroplating processes the wafer is placed on a wafer carrier and a cathodic (−) voltage with respect to an electrode is applied to the wafer surface while the electrolyte wets both the wafer surface and the electrode. The voltage is typically applied using contacts surrounding the circumference of the wafer. The contacts are usually electrically sealed and isolated from the electrolyte by a clamp covering the circumference of the wafer surface. The clamp inhibits copper deposition on the contacts but it also inhibit copper deposition along the circumference of the wafer and causes loss of important space on the wafer. In the semiconductor industry, this unused or wasted wafer area is called edge exclusion. In the semiconductor integrated circuit industry, there is always a drive towards reducing edge exclusion on the wafers.
Once the plating is over, a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) step, an electroetching (or electropolishing) or etching step, or a combination of these steps are conducted to remove the excess copper layer or copper overburden and other conductive layers that are above the top surface of the substrate. This process electrically isolates the copper deposited into various features on the wafer and thus forms the interconnect structure. The interconnect process is then repeated as many times as the number of interconnect layers desired.
In the electroetching process both the material to be removed and a conductive electrode are dipped into the electropolishing or electroetching solution. Typically an anodic (positive) voltage is applied to the material to be removed with respect to the conductive electrode. With the applied voltage, the material is electrochemically dissolved and removed from the wafer surface.
Whether a CMP process, an etching process or an electroetching process is employed, it is desirable to reduce the copper overburden thickness that needs to be removed by these processes. The importance of overcoming the copper overburden problem is evidenced by technological developments directed to the deposition of planar and thin copper layers on the wafer surfaces. Such planar deposition techniques are generally called Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition (ECMD). In such planar processes, a pad, a mask or a sweeper, which is collectively called a Workpiece Surface Influencing Device (WSID), can be used during at least a portion of the electrodeposition or electroetching processes when there is physical contact or close proximity, and relative motion between the workpiece surface and the WSID.
The edge exclusion problem may be overcome using deposition technologies that deposit materials across the full face of wafers. For example, U.S. application Ser. No. 09/735,546, entitled "Method and Apparatus For Making Electrical Contact To Wafer Surface for Full-Face Electroplating or Electropolishing," filed on Dec. 14, 2000 and commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention, now U.S. Pat. No. 6.482,307, describes in one aspect a technique for providing full face electrotreating. It should be noted that electrotreating refers to all electrochemical processes, which are sometimes called by different names. Therefore, electrotreating includes, for example, electrodeposition or plating, electroetching or electropolishing, etc. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/760,757, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Electrodeposition of Uniform Film with Minimal Edge Exclusion on Substrate," filed on Jan. 17, 2001 and commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,757, describes in one aspect a technique for forming conductive layers on a semiconductor wafer surface without losing space on the surface for electrical contacts. As exemplified in these applications, copper deposition or electroetching on a wafer surface can be achieved using electrical contacts to contact the wafer in a slidable manner, i.e., a relative motion is established between the contacts and the wafer surface during process so that material is deposited on or removed from the whole workpiece surface including the areas right under the contacts. While previously described electrical contacts are adequate, needed is an improved contact structure, which provides for even greater consistency than the established electrical contacts.

Method and system to provide electrical contacts for electrotreating processes


First, first cell wiring members from the first solar cell and second cell wiring members from the second solar cell are sandwiched between a wiring member film and a second bridge wiring member. Subsequently, the first cell wiring members and the second cell wiring members are connected to the second bridge wiring member by applying heat to at least the first cell wiring members, the second cell wiring members, and the second bridge wiring member by induction heating.

A solar cell module includes a plurality of solar cells. A solar cell is available as a cell of a standard size (156 mm×156 mm) and a half-cut cell of a size (156 mm×78 mm) half the standard size. When a half-cut cell is used, a plurality of solar cells are grouped into, for example, two sections, and three solar cell strings are included in each section. Further, the two sections are connected in parallel by being connected to a bridge wiring member at the central portion (see, for example, non patent literature 1).    [Non Patent Literature 1]    [online], Internet<http://www.js-ge.cn/product.asp?Product_ID=321&classid=69>

Solar cell module manufacturing method and solar cell module


A battery compartment for a hearing aid. The battery compartment comprises a first portion for accommodating a battery and a second portion, where the second portion comprises at least one retaining element for securing the position of the battery compartment with respect to a housing of said hearing aid. The first and second portions of the battery compartment are provided as first and second separate parts (1, 2) comprising releasable interlocking means (12, 14) for mutual engagement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hearing aids. More specifically the invention relates to a removable battery compartment for a hearing aid. The invention also relates to a hearing aid comprising such a battery compartment.
2. The Prior Art
Battery compartments for hearing aids may be constructed in various ways. One common way is to construct the battery compartment as a drawer or a holder, in which the battery is placed, upon which the drawer is pushed from an open position into a closed position in the housing. In this way the housing serves to close the battery compartment. Such a drawer is illustrated in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,566. Typically the holder has a pivot point about which the holder rotates while being pushed into the housing. Such holders are illustrated in e.g. WO-A-00/21335 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,064.
Moreover the pivoting motion, or at least a part of it, is in some designs used to slide the battery terminals over a set of contacts, thereby allowing the motion also to be used for switching the hearing aid on and off, or for performing other switching functions as in the above U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,064. Retaining means may be provided to hold the battery compartment in the closed position, and possibly in an intermediate position where the power supply to the hearing aid is interrupted but the battery is not accessible for removal.
For removal of the battery, the compartment is removed from, withdrawn from or pivoted out of the housing to a position where the battery is accessible for removal. This however involves a concern, because different people have different needs. For certain persons, such as small children, it is desirable to restrict the access to the battery compartment, as there is otherwise a risk that they could remove the battery and possibly swallow it. On the other hand, generally providing hearing aids, or the drawers of such, with a child-proof locking mechanism is not desirable, because a considerable number of hearing aid users are elderly people not always physically able to perform the delicate manipulations necessary to overcome the child-proof locking mechanism. There is thus a problem in providing a hearing aid that serves the above different needs of different people.


An ice maker includes a mold with least one cavity for containing water therein for freezing into ice. A temperature sensor is positioned in association with the mold and provides an output signal. An auger is positioned partly within the at least one mold cavity. A mechanical drive rotatably drives the auger. A controller is coupled with the sensor and the drive, and controls operation of the drive depending upon the output signal from the sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to freezers, and, more particularly, to ice makers within freezers.
2. Description of the Related Art
The freezer portion of a refrigeration/freezer appliance often includes an ice cube maker which dispenses the ice cubes into a dispenser tray. A mold has a series of cavities, each of which is filled with water. The air surrounding the mold is cooled to a temperature below freezing so that each cavity forms an individual ice cube. As the water freezes, the ice cubes become bonded to the inner surfaces of the mold cavities.
In order to remove an ice cube from its mold cavity, it is first necessary to break the bond that forms during the freezing process between the ice cube and the inner surface of the mold cavity. In order to break the bond, it is known to heat the mold cavity, thereby melting the ice contacting the mold cavity on the outermost portion of the cube. The ice cube can then be scooped out or otherwise mechanically removed from the mold cavity and placed in the dispenser tray. A problem is that, since the mold cavity is heated and must be cooled down again, the time required to freeze the water is lengthened.
Another problem is that the heating of the mold increases the operational costs of the ice maker by consuming electrical power. Further, this heating must be offset with additional refrigeration in order to maintain a freezing ambient temperature, thereby consuming additional power. This is especially troublesome in view of government mandates which require freezers to increase their efficiency.
Yet another problem is that, since the mold cavity is heated, the water at the top, middle of the mold cavity freezes first and the freezing continues in outward directions. In this freezing process, the boundary between the ice and the water tends to push impurities to the outside of the cube. Thus, the impurities become highly visible on the outside of the cube and cause the cube to have an unappealing appearance. Also, the impurities tend to plate out or build up on the mold wall, thereby making ice cube removal more difficult.
A further problem is that vaporization of the water in the mold cavities causes frost to form on the walls of the freezer. More particularly, in a phenomenon termed xe2x80x9cvapor flashingxe2x80x9d, vaporization occurs during the melting of the bond between the ice and the mold cavity. Moreover, vaporization adds to the latent load or the water removal load of the refrigerator.
Yet another problem is that the ice cube must be substantially completely frozen before it is capable of withstanding the stresses imparted by the melting and removal processes. This limits the throughput capacity of the ice maker.
What is needed in the art is an ice maker which does not require heat in order to remove ice cubes from their cavities, has an increased throughput capacity, allows less evaporation of water within the freezer, eases the separation of the ice cubes from the auger and does not push impurities to the outer surfaces of the ice cubes.
The present invention provides a control system and corresponding method of operation which allows ice cubes to be automatically harvested in an efficient manor.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, an ice maker including a mold with least one cavity for containing water therein for freezing into ice. A temperature sensor is positioned in association with the mold and provides an output signal. An auger is positioned partly within the at least one mold cavity. A mechanical drive roatably drives the auger. A controller is coupled with the sensor and the drive, and controls operation of the drive depending upon the output signal from the sensor.
The invention comprises, in another form thereof, a method of making ice in an automatic ice maker, including the steps of: providing a mold in at least one cavity; filling at least one mold cavity at least partially with water; providing an auger at least partly within the at least one mold cavity; coupling a mechanical drive with the auger for rotatably driving the auger; coupling a controller with the drive; measuring a temperature of the mold; and controlling operation of the drive using the controller, depending upon the measured temperature of the mold.
An advantage of the present invention is that ice cubes may automatically be harvested depending upon the temperature of the mold over time, thereby increasing the throughput rate of the ice maker.
Another advantage is that a frozen or blocked fill tube may be sensed and heat applied thereto for the purpose of clearing the fill tube


In a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) system, a receiver is implemented with at least one additional receive path beyond the number of transmit antennas used to transmit the signals (e.g., wireless OFDM signals) received at the receiver. In one embodiment, the additional receive path is used to reduced co-channel interference (CCI) in the recovered OFDM signals. In particular, each receive path applies recursive filtering to generate separate subcarrier signals. A processor converts the separate subcarrier signals from the different receive paths into a first set of subcarrier signals corresponding to each transmitted OFDM signal, where each first set of subcarrier signals has desired signal and possibly CCI. The processor also generates a second set of subcarrier signals corresponding to the CCI. The processor subtracts portions of the second set of subcarrier signals from each first set of subcarrier signals to generate recovered OFDM signals having reduced CCI.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications, and, in particular, to receivers for multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems, such as MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless local area network (WLAN) systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional M×M MIMO-OFDM WLAN system, a transmitter with M transmit antennas transmits M OFDM signals (a type of multi-carrier signal) to a receiver having M receive paths that are used to generate M recovered versions of the transmitted OFDM signals.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the front end of a prior-art receiver 100 for use in a conventional 2×2 (i.e., M=2) MIMO-OFDM WLAN system. As shown in FIG. 1, 2×2 receiver 100 has two receive paths 102 and a processor 104. Each receive path 102 has a receive antenna 106, an RF/analog block 108, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 110, a cyclic-prefix (CP) removal block 112, and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) block 114.
Within each receive path 102, receive antenna 106 receives mixed versions of the M OFDM signals transmitted by a two-antenna MIMO-OFDM WLAN transmitter. In RF (radio frequency) implementations, RF/analog block 108 downconverts the analog RF OFDM signals from receive antenna 106 to an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband, and ADC 110 digitizes the resulting downconverted analog OFDM signals to form a digital stream consisting of OFDM symbols separated by cyclic prefixes. CP removal block 112 removes the cyclic prefixes from between the OFDM symbols in the digital stream. FFT block 114 converts frames (e.g., 20 msec) of digital OFDM symbols in the time domain into frequency-domain coefficients for different OFDM subcarrier signals.
Processor 104 has a matrix 116 for each subcarrier in the multi-carrier OFDM signals. Each matrix 116 receives, from the different FFT blocks 114, all of the coefficients for one of the OFDM subcarriers. Note that the data from each FFT block 114 typically contains information for OFDM signals transmitted from all of the transmit antennas. Each matrix 116 is adapted to process the set of corresponding subcarrier coefficients to recover separate and equalized subcarrier coefficient streams 118, each different recovered subcarrier coefficient stream 118 corresponding to the OFDM signal transmitted from a different transmit antenna. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the recovered OFDM subcarrier coefficient streams 118 can then be processed using conventional OFDM decoding techniques, e.g., to detect the data encoded in the received OFDM signals.
One problem with MIMO-OFDM WLAN systems relates to co-channel interference (CCI), where a receiver simultaneously receives signals from spatial locations other than those of the transmitters of interest. CCI can occur when one or more additional transmitters operate at the same channels (e.g., using the same OFDM subcarriers) as the transmitters of interest, such that signals from the additional transmitter(s) interfere with the recovery of the desired signals from the transmitters of interest. Another scenario of CCI occurrence may be due to poor channel selectivity filtering of the receiver, where adjacent channel signals fold into the channel of the interest.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

MIMO receivers having one or more additional receive paths


A method for locating wiring swap in a hi-fix structure of a simultaneous multi-electronic device test system is introduced to screen the complicated wiring state of the hi-fix structure and to pinpoint the wiring swap thereinside as well. The hi-fix structure has at least S socket slots for testing electronic devices which each of the electronic devices has at least R leads. The present method, firstly, is to prepare R test unit sets which each of the test unit set includes S identical lead-off elements. Then, all R test unit sets are tested, in order, on the hi-fix structure and the respective test results are recorded. Finally, by analyzing the test results, the wiring swap inside the hi-fix structure can be accurately located.

The invention relates to a method for locating wiring swap in a hi-fix structure of a simultaneous multi-electronic device test system, and more particularly to a rapid and whole-scale test method which utilizes standard sets of test devices to screen and further locate possible wiring swap in the hi-fix structure.
In the industry of testing electronic devices, one of efficient methods is the one which applies a simultaneous multi-electronic device test system to carry out target testing automatically simultaneously upon batches of electronic devices. Such a simultaneous multi-electronic device test system can be usually seen as a testing dynamic test handler, a memory test system, a silicon-on-chip test system, a liquid crystal display driver test system, a radio frequency integrated circuit test system, or the like.
In any test system mentioned above, the test system generally has a control unit to operate several test heads, and each test head further includes a hi-fix structure. The hi-fix structure includes a plurality of socket slots arranged typically in an array pattern. Each socket slot is used to receive or mount an electronic device for testing, or a so called device under test (DUT).
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical test head of a conventional simultaneous multi-electronic device test system is shown. In the test head 1, a performance board 3, a hi-fix structure 5 and a plurality of socket slot 51 are constructed in a bottom-to-top layer order. Generally speaking, array patterns for arranging the socket slots 51 on the hi-fix structure 5 vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and also from system to system. As shown in FIG. 2, a top view of a typical array pattern for the socket slots 51 of the hi-fix structure 5 is schematically illustrated. In the N×M array pattern, a total number of N×M socket slots 51, labeled from TS[1] to TS[NM], are shown. While in testing, N×M electronic devices (not shown in the figure) are automatically and simultaneously transferred onto or removed from the hi-fix structure 5, in which each electronic device is targeted to a respective socket slot 51.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a cross-sectional view along line a—a of FIG. 1 is shown. It is seen that a socket board 50 for receiving leads of electronic device is sandwiched between the socket slot 51 and the hi-fix structure 5. Also, a number of connecting cables 53 for engaging with respective leads of the electronic device are located to extend from the socket board 50 to the performance board 3.
Electric conjunction among the electronic device 10 having P leads, the hi-fix structure 5 and the performance board 3 is schematically shown in FIG. 4. Each connecting cable 53 inside the hi-fix structure 5 is applied to connect electrically a respective one of the leads labeled from L(1) to L(P) and extending from the lead side 101 of the electronic device 10 to a respective predetermined location on the performance board 3. In FIG. 4, normal or correct wiring of the connecting cables 53 among the electronic devices 10, the hi-fix structure 5 and the performance board 3 are illustrated by the dashed lines.
In case that the wiring in the hi-fix structure cannot present a normal state as described in FIG. 4, the testing performed by the test head having the hi-fix structure would be definitely incorrect. Practically, possibility of mis-wiring or, say, wiring swap in the hi-fix structure is not rare, and the existence of such a wiring swap does cause real and not-easy-to-be-detected problems in the application of the simultaneous multi-electronic device test system. Referring now to FIG. 5, a comparison to the FIG. 4 is illustrated to present a typical wiring swap in the hi-fix structure 5. As shown, cables 53′ represented by solid lines (correct wiring by dashed lines also presented for reference purpose) inside the hi-fix structure 5 corresponding to the leads L(k) and L(1) of the electronic device 10 are swapped. It is obvious that the hi-fix structure 5 having the wiring swap in FIG. 5 will lead to inaccurate testing results.
In some cases, fortunately, the wiring swap in the hi-fix structure can be detected and fixed by the manufacturer during the quality control session, or can be detected during the pilot run in the application field. The wiring swap in the hi-fix structure exists in the simultaneous multi-electronic device test system during its assembly stage in the manufacturer, but an indication of the wiring swap problem usually rises at the moment when a field engineer questions the test results after a substantial period of usage. Under such a situation, the damage caused by the test system having the wiring swap problem may already be significant.
In the art, in case that a wiring swap is encountered, substantial time and labor are usually required for locating and further correcting the swapped cables. Generally, to avoid time wasted for the shipment between the user end and the manufacturer, the maintenance is usually carried out in the application field, i.e., at the user end. The maintenance targeted to a possible wiring swap includes shutting-down of the test system, disassembling of the test head as well as the hi-fix structure, the connection testing cable by cable, re-assembling, and a final test run to examine if there is another wiring swap. Notably, the maintenance described above is inefficient.
Empirically, wiring swap in the hi-fix structure usually cannot be resolved in a routine or standard maintenance. The reason is that various cables exist in a limited space inside the hi-fix structure, which significantly complicates the pinpointing of all swapped cables. For example, in a hi-fix structure with N×M socket slots, the number of connecting cables inside the hi-fix structure would be N×M×P if each socket slot is designed to receive an electronic device with P leads. Therefore, verification upon each connecting cables is a tedious and labor-intensive task.

Method for locating wiring swap in a hi-fix structure of a simultaneous multi-electronic device test system


A hydraulic punching machine is disclosed which has a casing having formed therein a piston chamber in which a piston is reciprocably mounted to define a pair of opposed fluid chambers, and a fluid reservoir for containing a hydraulic fluid. The piston has a piston rod carrying a punch for movement into and out of engagement with a die on the casing. Also mounted to the casing is a motor driven pump for pressurizing the fluid. A solenoid actuated spool valve alternately places the fluid chambers in communication with the pump and with a fluid drain. The solenoid is connected to an electric control circuit capable of sensing the extension and contraction of the piston rod. Therefore, upon extension of the piston rod, with the consequent creation of a punch in the work such as sheet steel, the control circuit cases the spool valve to automatically contract the piston rod under fluid pressure.

The present invention relates to a fluid actuated, double acting, linear actuating machine suitable for use in the punching of sheet metal, the cutting or bending of reinforcing steel rods or tubes, clinching and stamping, among other applications. More specifically, the invention pertains to such a machine of the .portable class integrally comprising a fluid pressure circuit with provisions for automatic retraction of the piston rod under fluid pressure.
The hydraulic linear actuating machine of the type under consideration comprises a piston slidably housed in a cylinder to define a pair of opposed fluid chambers therein, a piston rod coupled to the piston and slidably extending through one end of the cylinder, and a hydraulic circuit for the delivery and discharge of a hydraulic fluid under pressure into and out of the fluid chambers. The machine lends itself to use for punching, cutting and other applications by having an appropriate tool such as a punch or cutter replaceably mounted to the end of the piston rod. It is used in factories where steel sheets and steel rods are worked upon, as well as at sites of construction.
Conventionally, the linear actuating machine has been usually divided into two parts, one being the machine part comprising the cylinder, piston and so forth, and the other being a hydraulic unit comprising a hydraulic fluid reservoir and a pump. The machine part and the hydraulic unit have been intercommunicated via flexible conduits. For use at construction sites, the hydraulic unit has been placed in a convenient position, and the machine part has been carried about for working on desired parts.
The machine of such conventional make is not totally devoid of advantages. Being of relatively compact, lightweight construction, the machine part is convenient for use at factories or under other tidy circumstances. At construction sites, however, where many unexpected obstacles are to be encountered, much care has been needed in moving the machine part so that the flexible conduits may not be caught by such obstacles. Further the machine part has been movable only within the range permitted by the lengths of the flexible conduits, and the hydraulic unit itself has had to be replaced for moving the machine part beyond that range. An additional inconvenience is that the flexible conduits have had to be freed from their air contents at the cost of considerable time and labor preparatory to the commencement of actual operation.
The applicant is aware of a known portable hydraulic actuating machine in which the machine part and the hydraulic unit are integrally combined, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,699. This known machine incorporates all of the cylinder, piston and pump into a single housing and relies on fluid pressure for the power stroke of the piston and on spring means for its return stroke.
Being free from elongate flexible conduits, the integrated actuating machine is highly portable and easy of use. Moreover, because of the shorter distance between pump and cylinder, the machine is good in piston response to pressurized fluid pressure. The portability and operability of the integrated actuating machine has earned it an increasing acceptance at construction sites in recent years.
The integrated actuating machine has one drawback, however. Relying on the force of a spring for its return stroke, the machine has had difficulties in retracting the piston rod in applications where much force is required for the return stroke. Take, for example, the use of the prior art machine as a punch. The machine will encounter great frictional resistance when the work being punched is very thick or when holes are created in the work with very small clearances for dimensional accuracy. The frictional resistance can be such that the piston rod has become unretractable solely by the force of the spring.
A conventional solution to this problem has been to mount a sleeve or sheathe of resilient material such as polyurethane rubber around the piston rod to which a punching tool is also attached. As the resilient sleeve becomes compressed upon punching, the energy thus stored in the sleeve is utilized for withdrawing the tool from within the hole.
This solution is unsatisfactory because of the relatively small force offered by the resilient sleeve. Additionally, the resilient sleeve itself represents an impediment to punching operation.
The applicant is not to claim that double acting machines have not so far existed in the art under consideration. Such a machine, complete with a manual directional control valve, has been used for the reshaping of reinforcing steel rods or the like that have been subjected to compressive or tensile bending. This double acting reshaping machine presupposes such use that the extension or retraction of the piston rod is manually controlled while visually observing the bend of a reinforcing steel rod or the like.
The above known double acting machine is not applicable to punching or like operations. When used as a punch, for example, the machine requires manual actuation of the direction control valve each time a hole is created. Further the electric motor driving the pump has had to be temporarily set out of operation for such manual actuation of the valve.

Fluid actuated, double acting machine for punching, cutting, bending or the like


An occupant safety cage (1, FIG. 1) for a transportation vehicle (e.g., a car, truck, etc.) that is separable from but tethered to the vehicle's mainframe and/or remaining portions of the vehicle, is attached by means of stretch and deform cushion mounts (2, FIG. 2) and/or stretch and tear strap mounts (3, FIG. 3) and/or extendable tether cable mounts (4, FIG. 4) and allows the occupant safety cage (1) to separate in any and all relative directions and remains tethered at a safe distance by a controlled design intent of said mounts from the sacrificial areas of the vehicle in stages of implementation (see FIGS. 5 and 6) as resulting from the forces and/or inertia level(s) from thereof as caused by a high-speed collision at the front and/or rear and/or sides of the vehicle as shown in the drawings (see FIGS. 7A and 7B).

The exemplary embodiment of the present invention, herein embodied and titled as the "Tethered Separable Occupant Safety Cage For Transportation Vehicles," is intended to offer a single solution to the many problems addressed by the NHTSA, (know as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) but not limited to its goals to "Improve The Protection Of Occupants" and to "Address Incompatibility Between Passenger Cars And Light Trucks" and to "Make Larger Trucks Safer" and further is a solution to the problem as undefined to date by the NHTSA to "Address The Incompatibility Between All Sizes Of Passenger Cars and All Sizes Of Trucks."
Existing safety technologies and vehicle construction designs, as known by common knowledge and manufactured for public use to date, fail to protect the occupants when the vehicle's passenger and driver compartment is crushed from the resulting forces of a high-speed collision with vehicles of compatible and incompatible sizes or with other fixed or movable obstacles.
Further prior art of like intent that are of movable passenger compartments also fail to demonstrate any solution(s) for movement and or separation of the passenger compartment in all the related directions of possible impact(s) from a collision that are without elements that can bind and/or constrict full movement in any and all direction(s) from impact of for example from a high speed collision.
Currently, it is believed that there are no known inventions or other prior art to encompass the mechanical design intentions of the current invention as herein exemplified and more generally defined.
As in prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,209 to Farris, U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,378 to Yazejian the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend on any type of separable and/or splitting frame member in which the engine and/or transmission and/or axel is dependent upon to separate and/or split from the occupant compartment that is still attached to the remainder of the vehicle to include frame and/or axel(s). The embodiment hereof and to like art, is of a completely separable occupant compartment safety cage.
As in prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 2,929,637 to Papacosta, U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,077 to Noviello, the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend on any driver reaction, such as hitting the brake and/or other pedal and/or device, to initiate and/or activate separation movement of the passenger compartment.
As in prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 2,927,817 to Raup, U.S. Pat. No. 2,929,637 to Papacosta, U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,446 to Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,162,479 to Hewitt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,077 to Noviello, U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,080 to Hilfiker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,347 to Shaw, U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,998 to Hewitt, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,695,629 and 3,837,422 to Schlanger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,911 to Blake, U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,275 to Laurent, the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend on any electrical motors or mechanical ratchets, wedges, gears, springs, pulleys or hydraulic, pneumatic or pyrotechnic devices to initiate and/or activate and/or control separation movement of the occupant compartment.
As in the prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 2,927,817 to Raup, U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,446 to Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,162,479 to Hewitt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,077 to Noviello, U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,080 to Hilfiker, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,508,783, 3,695,629, 3,837,422, all to Schlanger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,466 to Dudley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,347 to Shaw, U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,998 to Hewitt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,911 to Blake, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,245 to Muhihausen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,775 to Martin, U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,275 to Laurent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,534 to Peng, the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend any mechanical tracks, rails or slotted mounting points or flexible cord wrap and/or any like mechanisms to guide and/or limit the direction(s) of separation movement of the passenger compartment.
As in the prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,911 to Blake the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend on metal like rod(s) and or mount(s) of design intent to require fragility and/or breakage to allow separation movement of the occupant compartment. The exemplary embodiment hereof uses anchor like mount(s) each on the occupant compartment and the remaining vehicle to interconnecting rubber pad like cushion mount(s) that stretch and/or deform to allow directionally unrestricted separation of the occupant compartment.
As in prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,246 to Muhlhausen, the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend fastening means which are dimensioned for absorbing a set force peak and which, when the force peak is exceeded, either stretch or even rupture and/or are of pad like designs of intent to stretch or rupture at a set force in a short distance as known by common practice of mounting, for example, engines and transmissions and/or is of design intent to not allow a separation movement until set force is exceeded and/or to not allow a gradual separation movement of the occupant compartment. The exemplary embodiment hereof uses anchor like mounts each affixed on the occupant compartment and the remaining vehicle to interconnecting rubber strap like mount(s) that stretch gradually before tearing and/or rupturing to allow directionally unrestricted separation of the occupant compartment.
As in prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,534 to Peng the exemplary embodiment hereof does not depend on lateral displacement sufficient to displace a cross member that transforms the tensile member comprises of a metallic cable from a un-tensioned state to a tensioned state and/or to arrest said lateral movement of the passenger compartment and/or is of design intent to limiting movement and/or to limiting distance on a lateral plane and/or is of a design intent to not allow a completely separable movement in any direction(s) of a tethered occupant compartment. The exemplary embodiment hereof uses anchor like mount(s) connecting to spooled cable(s) each on the occupant compartment and the remaining vehicle to allow directionally unrestricted tethered separation of the occupant compartment.
Thus it is believed that the present invention hereof represents innovative advancements in the prior arts and a valuable contribution to the useful arts.

Tethered separable occupational safety cage for transportation vehicles


A seat cover for covering and protecting a seat when the seat is not being used. The seat cover has a collapsible jacket being securing to one end of the seat and having a free end that is releasably securable to the opposing end of the seat. The jacket is dimensioned to substantially overlay the portions of the seat which are generally exposed to the elements when not in use. A pouch is also provided for storing and protecting the jacket when the jacket is not in use. The pouch may be permanently or releasably affixed to the seat.

Seats, particularly for convertible automobiles and open air watercraft, are typically made from vinyl, leather or other non-fabric and smooth coverings that protect the inner cushion of the seat. The seat coverings, especially on watercraft, are exposed to the sun, rain and wind for extended periods of time. Exposure to the elements may cause some seat coverings to fade, change colors or even crack and tear after prolonged and unprotected exposure. In certain watercraft, such as recreational boats, and in automobiles, the seat covers may have been specially designed or custom-made to match the design, color and style of the boat or automobile. Such seat covers, especially those that are custom-made or made of leather, are expensive and often difficult to replace.
A damaged or weatherworn seat cover is unattractive and may diminish the resale value of the boat or automobile. Further, if the seat cover becomes cracked or torn, the underlying cushion may become waterlogged or simply begin to deteriorate from the exposure to sun and water, and will need premature replacement. It is common, even if the seat cover is not cracked or torn, that water will penetrate the seat cover and not only cause premature deterioration of the seat cushion, but also make it quite uncomfortable for the person who sits on that seat.
Currently known and available seat protection typically entails the use of supplemental seat covers that are held to the seat by a complicated system of hooks and/or elastic bands and buttons. These supplemental seat covers are typically stored separately from the seat, must be retrieved when used and subsequently returned to storage thereafter. Additionally, known currently available supplemental seat covers often collect water, thereby making it unpleasant and messy to remove the seat cover. Some people may simply decide to leave the seats exposed instead of expending the effort of having to search for and install the cover over the seat. Additionally, some people may apply specially formulated treatment creams to the seats. These treatment creams may offer some limited protection to sun and water, but are typically messy, expensive and only short term solutions.
Thus, there is a need for a seat cover which protects seats from damage and deterioration due to exposure to the sun, wind and water which is inexpensive and which is easy to use. There is also a need for a seat cover that is stored and integral with the seat, and which may be sold as a unit along with the seat.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved seat cover which is inexpensive and easy to use, and which will effectively protect a seat from exposure to sun, wind, water and the like.
Another object of the present invention to provide a pouch which is secured to the seat and which is dimensioned to store and protect a seat cover.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a seat cover, which is stored within a pouch, and which can be folded out of the pouch for application over the seat to protect the seat from exposure to sun, wind, water and the like.
Other features and advantages of the present seat cover and cover pouch will become apparent upon review of the following detailed description, claims and drawings.


A method for processing data in the form of a stream of messages regarding, for example, stock price information, implemented using a computer system wherein the data may arrive at a rate faster than the computer system can process individual messages. Each message is tagged with a phase number as it arrives; only the data in the messages received at the end of a phase are stored in the computer system's database. Periodically, at the end of at least one phase and perhaps at the end of many phases depending on the rate messages are received, the computer queries its database to select information regarding the data. Algorithms, according to the present invention, allow the efficient selection of data by disregarding a portion of the information in some cases, and, in other cases, by finding the phase ranges wherein data messages overlap between phase ranges. In the former, data is lost; it the latter, data processing may be slowed. The selected information is then output.

Rapid growth in the amount of information available on the Internet has contributed to a growing demand for a technique of processing data. For example, a computer user could be interested in gathering information from the Web that corresponds to specific criteria set by a potential buyer, such as information describing automobiles for sale or airline flights provided at discount, making a list of the information gathered and selecting specific items from the list that match the buyer's criteria.
Traditional techniques exist for gathering information from the Internet and from other static sources. However, these traditional techniques lack judgment and processing ability. All the matching information is extracted, and no judgments are made by the system as to the usefulness of the information or its applicability to the present circumstances.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved technique for evaluating the applicability of information to the various criteria developed by different users.


There is provided doll hair having an unprecedented curly hairstyle using a multifilament having a spiral structure with many random overlaps through a twisting step, a thermal fixing step, an untwisting step, and a thermal provisional fixing step. Specifically, the doll hair of the present invention is achieved by a multifilament processed through a twisting step, a thermal fixing step, an untwisting step, and a thermal provisional fixing step, wherein the number of twist in the twisting step is 100 to 600 times/m, the thermal fixing step is performed by treatment at 60 to 100° C. for 1 to 60 minutes, the number of twist in the untwisting step is 1.1 times or more of the number of twist in the twisting step, the thermal provisional fixing step is performed by treatment at 50° C. to 70° C. for 5 to 30 minutes in a cone or hank, and the multifilament preferably has an apparent specific gravity of 0.02 to 0.1 g/cm3 and a stretching ratio of 1.0 to 15.0%.

There are generally many doll hairstyles, and among them hairstyles with a straight or curl fiber rooted are known. As a processing method for curling hair, a method of crimping hair angularly by causing the hair to pass through a heated gear, a method of crimping hair wavily by holding the hair in a wavy heated metal plate, a method of curling hair spirally while winding the hair around a heated rod, or the like is known. However, any of the above conventional methods has drawbacks in that hair is only regularly crimped and has unnatural appearance.
Patent Document 1 describes that a straight fiber is mechanically rooted on the doll head, and then the doll hair is non-uniformly crimped by heating. However, the doll hair is not bulky. Patent Document 2 describes a technique of a fiber for doll hair in which a multifilament is twisted 20 to 200 times/m. However, this technology improves bundling properties, gloss, and feeling, and does not provide hair with a specific wave shape and bulkiness. Patent Document 3 describes a technique of doll hair composed of a fiber obtained by unraveling a knit. However, the technique employs a regular and bent fiber, and thus the doll hair has inferior natural styling properties and rooting density (covering properties) and is not bulky. Further, Patent Document 4 describes a technique of a bulky fiber for doll hair in which a multifilament is crimped by woolly processing or gear crimp processing. However, the doll hair has improved natural gloss and combing properties by finely crimping each strand, and does not have a novel curly-like hairstyle and bulkiness.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-287801
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-216678
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-123284
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-309275

Fiber for doll hair and doll hair comprising the same


A portable electronic device includes a display unit, a first audio unit, a second audio unit, a first sensing unit, a second sensing unit, and a controlling unit. The first audio unit includes a first speaker and a first microphone. The second audio unit includes a second speaker and a second microphone. The first sensing unit senses an orientation of the portable electronic device. The second sensing unit senses whether a user is close to one of the first speaker and the second speaker. The controlling unit triggers one of the first audio unit and the second audio unit to output and input audio signals according to the orientation of the portable electronic device and turns off the display unit when the user is close to the one of the first speaker and the second speaker.

Portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), commonly include a speaker and a microphone arranged at opposite ends thereof. To obtain acceptable communication quality, a user usually holds a portable electronic device in a certain direction/orientation so that the speaker and the microphone are respectively located near an ear and a mouth of the user.

Portable electronic device having plurality of speakers and microphones


The present invention in various aspects and embodiments provides methods for the treatment or prevention of degenerative disc disease or chronic lower back pain.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a leading cause of disability and hospitalization. Although many conditions lead to CLBP, degenerative disc disease (DDD) is among the most common diagnoses. Because correlations among clinical symptoms, radiological signs of disc degeneration, and treatment outcomes are not satisfactory, a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms of DDD and CLBP are needed to enable more effective treatment outcomes.

Methods for treating degenerative disc disease and chronic lower back pain


A mechanism for holding surgical instruments includes a carrier mounted on a machine tool and multiple holding modules mounted on the carrier. At least one of the holding modules is selected to be used during surgical operation. A swing element of the selected holding module enables a guidance sleeve to be swung to allow a guidance hole on the guidance sleeve to face toward a surgical operation region. The guidance sleeve is provided to hold one surgical instrument for surgical operation.

Surgical accuracy and success rate are increased with medical advances, particularly improvement of surgical instruments. Some of surgical instruments, e.g. bone anchor, anchor clamp, soft tissue probe, spinal stabilizer and bone screw instrumentation for minimally invasive spinal surgery, need to be held by surgeon using a sleeve.
Conventionally, at least one surgical instrument has to be inserted into a guiding hole of the sleeve and held by the sleeve during surgical operation. However, multiple sleeves having different sizes of guiding holes may be required for replacement and assembly of different surgical instruments having different outer diameters, or more than one sleeves having the same size of guiding holes are required for surgical instruments with the same outer diameter. In practice, replacement of sleeves is annoying and time wasted during surgical procedures, furthermore, it may cause operation disorder with increased risk.

Holding mechanism for surgical instruments and holding module thereof

METAL INDUSTRIES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE


Method of invisibly embedding and hiding data into a text document by modifying selected invisible attributes of invisible characters on a plurality of inter-word intervals, comprising the steps of selecting (10) at least one attribute that is invisible on the space characters used as inter-word intervals, transforming (14) the document into a canonical form by setting on all inter-word intervals the values of the selected attribute to the same default value, encoding (18) the data to be embedded and hidden into the document as an ordered set of values corresponding to the different values of the selected attribute, selecting (20) a set of inter-word intervals among all inter-word intervals corresponding to a set of space characters and replacing (22) on each space character of this set of space characters, default attribute values by the corresponding encoded data.

In the current environment of computer networks characterized by an exponential growth in the circulation of electronic text documents such as e-mails over unsecured media (e.g., the Internet), a key issue is authentication. It is not always possible for the recipient of an electronic text document to make sure of its origin and that no one should be able to masquerade as someone else. It is also necessary to verify that it has not been modified, accidentally or maliciously, during transmission.
Accordingly, methods have been proposed to perform such an authentication. The standard solution, which fits well with electronic text documents, consists in adding an integrity information in the form of a Message Authentication Code (MAC)to soft-copy text documents. A MAC is a digest computed with a one-way hash function over the text and which is also made dependent on a key, e.g., a secret-key known only by the sending system and the receiving system so that the latter can check first, that the received document has well been originated by whom shares the secret-key, and second, that the document has not been altered. For example, Secure Hash
Algorithm or SHA specified by the National Institute of Standards and Technologies, NIST, FIPS PUB 180-1, "Secure Hash Standard", US Dpt of Commerce, May 93, produces a 160-bit hash. It may be combined with a key e.g., through the use of a mechanism referred to as HMAC or Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication, subject of the RFC (Request For Comment) of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) under the number 2104. HMAC is devised so that it can be used with any iterative cryptographic hash function, including SHA. Therefore, a MAC can be appended to the soft-copy of a text document so as the whole can be checked by the recipient.
Obviously, this method that assumes the addition of checking information to a file has the inconvenience of indeed separating text and checking information. Thus, this information can easily be isolated and removed intentionally, in an attempt to cheat, or accidentally just because intermediate pieces of equipment or communication protocols in charge of forwarding the electronic documents are not appropriate to handle this extra piece of information.
Then, the checking information should rather be encoded transparently into the body of the text document itself (i.e., in a manner that does not affect text format and readability whatsoever). So, it remains intact across the various manipulations it is exposed to on its way to the destination, still enabling the end-recipient to authenticate the document.
Another type of approach to authentication which applies mainly to soft-copy images (which thus may also be used on the image of a hard-copy text document) consists in hiding data into their digital representation, meeting thus the above requirement that checking information should better be merged into the document itself. Data hiding, a form of steganography, that embeds data into digital media for the purpose of identification, annotation, tamper-proofing and copyright has received a considerable attention, mainly because of the copyrights attached to digital multimedia materials which can easily be copied and distributed everywhere through the Internet and networks in general. A good review of data hiding techniques is in 'Techniques for data hiding' by W. Bender and al. published in the IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 35, Nos 3&4, 1996. An illustration to the way data hiding may be carried out is the replacement of the least significant luminance bit of image data with the embedded data. This technique which indeed meets the requirement of being unnoticeable (i.e., the restored image is far to be altered to a point where this would become noticeable) may serve various purposes similar to authentication, including watermarking, aimed at placing an indelible mark on an image, or tamper-proofing, to detect image alterations especially through the embedding of a MAC into the soft-copy image. However, having to consider a text as an image would be a very costly and inadequate solution in terms of storage and bandwidth necessary to transmit it. Thus, specially adapted methods have been proposed for encoding and hiding data into soft-copy textual documents.
As described in the above article by Bender, the text encoding and data hiding methods are either open space methods, which handle white spaces (blanks or spaces), or syntactic methods that utilize punctuation and contractions, or                semantic methods, that encode data using manipulation of the words themselves, or        steganographic methods, that encode data by modifying graphical attributes, like those known as line-shift coding, word-shift coding or feature coding methods, that operate by introducing small controlled variations on the spaces between lines, between words or on the bitmap images of characters on a text.
Open space methods that are based on the manipulation of white spaces and more specifically, inter-word blank characters, inserted by the originator of a text document have been considered as the most simple and convenient way of marking a text that is susceptible to be authenticated, without the addition of a separated MAC, since the information necessary for the checking is then imbedded, somehow hidden, into the text itself, that the casual reader is unlikely to take notice of. These methods are basically based on the idea of encoding and hiding information into a text by inserting, or in a more broad sense, by modifying the "number of blanks" on subsets of (cryptographically selected or not) intervals of the original input text.
However, inserting or deleting blanks for encoding information on a text has the main drawback of modifying and distorting the format of the original input text. Moreover, acting on the number of blanks on the intervals of a text to encode binary information usually requires to assign one inter word interval to encode a single bit. Thus, depending on the amount of information to encode, in order to apply those methods large size texts may be required.
As a conclusion, from the analysis of all above referenced methods for encoding and hiding data on soft-copy texts, a common characteristic to all of them consist in that they are based on encoding information by modifying, in a way or another, some visible features of the original text (e.g., by modifying the number of inter-word spaces, by changing or moving punctuation symbols, by shifting positions of words or lines, by modifying the form of text fonts, by using alternative words, etc.). Thus, all those encoding and data hiding methods modify the format or the visual appearance of the original input text, being thus potentially noticeable when editing.

Methods of invisibly embedding and hiding data into soft-copy text documents

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of manufacturing a shell construction part of a wind turbine blade, the shell construction part being made of a fibre reinforced polymer material including a polymer matrix and fibre reinforcement material embedded in the polymer matrix. The method comprises the steps of a) providing a forming structure comprising a mould cavity and having a longitudinal direction, b) placing the fibre reinforcement material in mould cavity, c) providing a resin in the mould cavity simultaneously with and/or subsequently to step b), and d) curing the resin in order to form the composite structure, wherein at least 20% by volume of the fibre reinforcement material consists of metallic wires.

Vacuum infusion or VARTM (vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding) is one method, which is typically employed for manufacturing composite structures, such as wind turbine blades comprising a fibre reinforced matrix material. During the manufacturing process, liquid polymer, also called resin, is filled into a mould cavity, in which fibre material priorly has been inserted, and where a vacuum is generated in the mould cavity hereby drawing in the polymer. The polymer can be thermoset plastic or thermoplastics. Typically, uniformly distributed fibres are layered in a first rigid mould part, the fibres being rovings, i.e. bundles of fibre bands, bands of rovings or mats, which are either felt mats made of individual fibres or woven mats made of fibre rovings. A second mould part, which is often made of a resilient vacuum bag, is subsequently placed on top of the fibre material and sealed against the first mould part in order to generate a mould cavity. By generating a vacuum, typically 80 to 95% of the total vacuum, in the mould cavity between the first mould part and the vacuum bag, the liquid polymer can be drawn in and fill the mould cavity with the fibre material contained herein. So-called distribution layers or distribution tubes, also called inlet channels, are used between the vacuum bag and the fibre material in order to obtain as sound and efficient a distribution of polymer as possible. In most cases the polymer applied is polyester or epoxy, and the fibre reinforcement is most often based on glass fibres or carbon fibres.
During the process of filling the mould, a vacuum, said vacuum in this connection being understood as an under-pressure or negative pressure, is generated via vacuum outlets in the mould cavity, whereby liquid polymer is drawn into the mould cavity via the inlet channels in order to fill said mould cavity. From the inlet channels the polymer disperses in all directions in the mould cavity due to the negative pressure as a flow front moves towards the vacuum channels. Thus, it is important to position the inlet channels and vacuum channels optimally in order to obtain a complete filling of the mould cavity. Ensuring a complete distribution of the polymer in the entire mould cavity is, however, often difficult, and accordingly this often results in so-called dry spots, i.e. areas with fibre material not being sufficiently impregnated with resin. Thus dry spots are areas where the fibre material is not impregnated, and where there can be air pockets, which are difficult or impossible to avoid by controlling the vacuum pressure and a possible overpressure at the inlet side. In vacuum infusion techniques employing a rigid mould part and a resilient mould part in the form of a vacuum bag, the dry spots can be repaired after the process of filling the mould by puncturing the bag in the respective location and by drawing out air for example by means of a syringe needle. Liquid polymer can optionally be injected in the respective location, and this can for example be done by means of a syringe needle as well. This is a time-consuming and tiresome process. In the case of large mould parts, staff have to stand on the vacuum bag. This is not desirable, especially not when the polymer has not hardened, as it can result in deformations in the inserted fibre material and thus in a local weakening of the structure, which can cause for instance buckling effects.
Often the composite structures comprise a core material covered with a fibre reinforced material, such as one or more fibre reinforced polymer layers. The core material can be used as a spacer between such layers to form a sandwich structure and is typically made of a rigid, lightweight material in order to reduce the weight of the composite structure. In order to ensure an efficient distribution of the liquid resin during the impregnation process, the core material may be provided with a resin distribution network, for instance by providing channels or grooves in the surface of the core material.
Resin transfer moulding (RTM) is a manufacturing method, which is similar to VARTM. In RTM the liquid resin is not drawn into the mould cavity due to a vacuum generated in the mould cavity. Instead the liquid resin is forced into the mould cavity via an overpressure at the inlet side.
Prepreg moulding is a method in which reinforcement fibres are pre-impregnated with a pre-catalysed resin. The resin is typically solid or near-solid at room temperature. The prepregs are arranged by hand or machine onto a mould surface, vacuum bagged and then heated to a temperature, where the resin is allowed to reflow and eventually cured. This method has the main advantage that the resin content in the fibre material is accurately set beforehand. The prepregs are easy and clean to work with and make automation and labour saving feasible. The disadvantage with prepregs is that the material cost is higher than for non-impregnated fibres. Further, the core material need to be made of a material, which is able to withstand the process temperatures needed for bringing the resin to reflow. Prepreg moulding may be used both in connection with a RTM and a VARTM process.
Further, it is possible to manufacture hollow mouldings in one piece by use of outer mould parts and a mould core. Such a method is for instance described in EP 1 310 351 and may readily be combined with RTM, VARTM and prepreg moulding.
WO03/008800 describes a number of prefabricated strips arranged in sequence in the periphery. The strips consist of fibrous composite material, preferably carbon fibres. In additionally an aluminium mesh is arranged within a blade shell for lightning protection.
As for instance blades for wind turbines have become bigger and bigger in the course of time and may now be more than 60 meters long, the impregnation time in connection with manufacturing such blades has increased, as more fibre material has to be impregnated with polymer. Furthermore, the infusion process has become more complicated, as the impregnation of large shell members, such as blades, requires control of the flow fronts to avoid dry spots, said control may e.g. include a time-related control of inlet channels and vacuum channels. This increases the time required for drawing in or injecting polymer. As a result the polymer has to stay liquid for a longer time, normally also resulting in an increase in the curing time. Additionally, the wind turbine industry has grown at a nearly exponential rate over the past few decades, thereby increasing the demand for throughput of manufactured wind turbine blades. This increased demand cannot be satisfied by building new factories alone, but also requires that the manufacturing methods are optimised.

Method of manufacturing a wind turbine blade comprising steel wire reinforced matrix material


In a female crimp terminal having a pressure-bonding section which allows pressure-bonding and connection of a conductor tip in an insulated wire obtained by coating a conductor with an insulating cover and having the conductor tip in which the conductor is exposed by peeling off the insulating cover in a tip side, the pressure-bonding section is constructed by arranging a conductor pressure-bonding section and a cover pressure-bonding section from a tip side to a base end side in a long length direction in this order, the conductor pressure-bonding section pressure-bonding the conductor tip, and the cover pressure-bonding section pressure-bonding a conductor tip portion in the tip side of the insulating cover, the cover pressure-bonding section is formed into a hollow shape which can surround the conductor tip portion, and the conductor pressure-bonding section is formed to have a smaller diameter than the cover pressure-bonding section, and is formed into a hollow shape which can surround the conductor tip.

An electric apparatus equipped in a motor vehicle is connected to the other electric apparatus or an electric power unit via a wire harness obtained by bundling insulated wires so as to construct an electric circuit. At this time, the wire harness is connected to the electric apparatus and the electric power unit by the connectors which are installed respectively.
Various crimp terminals have been proposed as the crimp terminal provided in the connector mentioned above, and a conductor member disclosed in Patent Document 1 is one of the crimp terminals mentioned above.
The conductor member disclosed in the Patent Document 1 is constructed by a wire connection portion which is provided with a connection surface connected to the other member and corresponds to a base material, and a fastening portion which is protruded in relation to the wire connection portion and fastens a tip portion of an electric wire.
The fastening portion has an insertion hole which can insert a tip portion of the electric wire thereto, and is formed into a tubular shape which is open in a tip side of a protruding direction. The connection of the electric wire to the conductive member in the Patent Document 1 can be achieved by inserting the tip portion of the electric wire to the insertion hole of the fastening portion, and caulking the fastening portion in this state.
In the meantime, in the case where the electric wire connected to the crimp terminal is the insulated wire obtained by coating the conductor with an insulating cover, there is generally taken measures to prevent the conductor tip from being exposed to an outer portion from a base end side of a caulking portion after caulking, by caulking by the caulking portion in a state of not only inserting only the conductor tip exposing the conductor by peeling off the insulating cover in the tip side in the insulated wire to the insertion hole of the caulking portion, but also inserting the conductor tip portion which is a portion closer to a rear side than the conductor tip and forms the tip portion of the insulating cover, to the insertion hole together with the conductor tip.
However, in the case where the conductor tip portion is inserted to the caulking portion in "conductor member" disclosed in the Patent Document 1 together with the conductor tip, it is necessary to diameter-reduce the portion corresponding to the conductor tip in a long length direction of the caulking portion with a greater diameter reduction rate according to the caulking, the caulking portion being previously formed with a large diameter for allowing insertion of the conductor tip portion, since the conductor tip has a smaller diameter by a thickness of the insulating cover than the conductor tip portion.
As a result, the caulking portion cannot be closely contacted firmly with the conductor tip after being caulked, an air gap tends to be generated in an inner portion of the caulking portion, and there has been a problem that stable conductivity cannot be obtained between the conductor of the electric wire and the pressure-bonding section of the crimp terminal.

Crimp terminal, connection structural body, connector and pressure-bonding method of crimp terminal


The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to a wireless network. A processor allows only data transmissions from the directions of the authorized users to access the network. Data transmissions from other directions are not allowed to access the network. The present invention also relates to a method and apparatus fore transmitting information only in selected directions, while in directions not selected, information cannot be inferred from the transmitted signal or signals.

Wireless networks bring voice and data communications to both mobile and stationary users. The present invention is particularly suited to two types of wireless networks.
The first type of wireless network is called a wireless local area network (WLAN or Hotspot) where data and voice communications are provided within a building or within close proximity of a building. In a WLAN, users typically employ laptop computers with antennas that communicate with wall-mounted antennas connected to a wired network. The second type of wireless network is called a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) where data and voice communications are provided to residential and business premises via radio links that connect to the Internet backbone. The radio links are typically obtained by mounting antennas on houses and lampposts. Additionally, the present invention may be well suited for other types of wireless networks.
In wireless networks, the data signals are transmitted through air, so there is no shield protecting transmitted signals from eavesdroppers. For this reason, it is more difficult to create a secure wireless network than a secure wired network. Unauthorized users of a wireless network may potentially gain access to the network to actively steal information and change network parameters.

Method and apparatus for security in a wireless network


A filter cartridge is provided which includes (a) a wound depth filter or a cylindrical seamless depth filter and (b) a pleated filter having a lower micron retention rating than the depth filter. The depth filter and pleated filter surround a central opening. The cartridge is sealed and an appropriate inlet or outlet is provided in order to assure sequential fluid flow first through the depth filter and then through the pleated filter.

This invention relates to a filter cartridge construction suitable for filtering liquids and gases.
At the present time a wide variety of filter cartridge constructions are utilized to purify fluids. These cartridge constructions are designed to remove solids and colloidal particles as well as microorganisms. The basic two separate and distinct types of cartridges used in filtration of gases and liquids are depth filters (typically wound) and surface or screen filters (usually pleated). A depth filter is primarily used to remove most of the contaminants and particles. It is typically utilized upstream of a surface or screen filter. The most important properties for a depth filter are its "dirt holding capacity" or throughput, pressure drop and retention. The filter design allows contaminants and particles to be trapped in stages within the depth of the filter due to the construction of the multiple layers of various media types. A wound depth filter has multiple layers with the most open media (largest micron retention rating) i.e. largest pore size usually the outermost layer, adjacent the liquid inlet with the tightest media (smallest micron retention rating, i.e. smallest pore size) adjacent the liquid outlet. The tightest media at the core adjacent the liquid outlet will have the least amount of surface area due to the smallest diameter around which it is wrapped. This layer at the core contributes to most of the pressure drop of the cartridge because the media has the highest pressure drop and the least amount of filtration surface area. Likewise, this layer will significantly reduce the capacity of the filter due to both the low filtration surface area and the smallest micron retention rating.
A surface or screen filter will retain virtually 100% of the particles or contaminants for which it is rated. The media used in a surface or screen filter typically has a high pressure drop and low "dirt holding capacity" or throughput because of its high retention efficiency. The media normally used in a surface filter comprises glass or polymeric microfibers. The normally used medium in a screen filter comprises a polymeric microporous membrane. Particles are retained by size exclusion primarily on the surface of the screen filter rather than within the depth of the filter. Particles are retained primarily on the surface of a surface filter which has a controlled pore size. Particles smaller than the controlled pore size tend to be trapped within the media of the surface filter. However as a result of the controlled pore structure, they provide more predictable filtration than depth filters. For the surface or screen filter to be economical, the media is pleated to obtain a large filtration surface area. Presently, the wound depth filter and the surface or screen filter are utilized in series in separate housings to effect the desired level of purification.
The useful life of a filter construction is the time the filter construction functions to remove particles of a size for which it is rated while avoiding a desired maximum pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the filter construction. When the filter construction either fails to retain particles of a size for which it is rated or a pressure drop larger than desired results due to particle retention within the filter construction, it is replaced.
It is economically desirable to maximize the useful life of a filter construction. Convenient measures of useful life of a filter construction are the volume of fluid satisfactorily filtered prior to experiencing a pressure drop between its inlet and outlet which equals or exceeds the maximum pressure drop desired.
It is also desirable to minimize the volume of filter used to attain satisfactory filtration for a given time in order to minimize the cost of filter material. In addition, it is desirable to utilize a single filter housing rather than a plurality of filter housings in order to minimize filter housing cost and to eliminate the need for conduits and associated structures such as valves for connecting the housings. While a single housing is desirable, the filter construction positioned therein must be capable of retaining particles equal to and larger than a desired size while affording an economically satisfactory useful life.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,553 to provide a dual media filtration cartridge formed from a pleated filtration medium positioned adjacent a liquid outlet from the cartridge and a porous foam medium adjacent a liquid inlet to the cartridge. The foam medium surrounds the pleated medium. This filter cartridge is undesirable since the foam medium has a random porosity which results in a random micron retention characteristic throughout the foam layer. This micron retention characteristic is undesirable since retained particles tend to be located within a narrow stratum within the foam which results in a portion of the foam thickness not being utilized for filtration.
It has also been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,334,752 to provide a dual filter construction in a single housing. The filter construction comprises a pleated paper tube filter positioned on a hollow core and an upstream filter comprising napped wound yarn which surrounds the pleated filter. The wound yarn portion functions to remove slimy constituents while the pleated paper filter functions to remove even minute solid particles. The yarn, which has the same porosity through the depth of the upstream filter, is wound to form rhombic openings which diminish in cross-sectional area when proceeding from an outermost surface to the surface of the upstream filter positioned adjacent the pleated filter. Thus, the yarn utilized does not have progressive lower micron retention characteristics as one progresses toward the pleated filter.
It would be desirable to provide a filter cartridge construction which avoids the undesirably high pressure drop such as that due to the tightest filtration medium positioned adjacent the liquid outlet from the filter cartridge. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a filter cartridge having a significantly improved useful life as compared with filter cartridge of the prior art having at least about the same retention efficiency. Such filter cartridges would provide substantially improved economic benefit from the standpoint of increased satisfactory throughput fluid volume capacity while minimizing the cost of filter cartridge support apparatus to achieve this capacity.

Dual media filter cartridge construction