A content decoder is split into a decoder core and remaining portions. The decoder core implements decryption of encrypted content according to a selected encryption scheme, and the remaining portions provide an interface between the decoder core and content presentation systems/devices. Isolating the selected encryption scheme within the decoder core allows the content decoder to be produced and delivered to end users before the encryption scheme has been selected or developed. A logical separation of the content decoder from the decryption core allows the decryption core software to be updated and/or changed as needed.

The present application describes systems and techniques relating to secure delivery of encrypted digital content.
Conventional encryption/decryption technologies use various techniques to securely deliver encrypted digital content (e.g., music, movies, images, text) to a media player, such as a software application (e.g., RealPlayer, Windows Media Player) residing on a client computer system or a media player device (e.g., a digital versatile disk (DVD) player, a satellite signal decoder box). Generally, these techniques involve increasing the difficulty and/or computational expense of breaking the encryption scheme. Commonly used techniques include increasing an encryption scheme's complexity, using device authentication and authorization protocols, software obfuscation (i.e., making the decryption software difficult to reverse engineer), and reducing accessibility of encryption keys.
Common encryption schemes include asymmetric encryption and symmetric encryption. In symmetric encryption (AKA common key cryptology), the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt information. In asymmetric encryption (AKA public key cryptology), a public key is used to encrypt the information and a private key is used to decrypt the information (e.g., Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)).
Device authentication protocols typically involve an exchange of digital certificates. A digital certificate is an electronic attachment to a message commonly used to identify the message sender. Digital certificates are typically implemented using a public-key-based digital signature algorithm.
Device authorization protocols typically involve a central authority maintaining and transmitting access information defining which devices are authorized to access encrypted content.
A common software obfuscation technique is referred to as "spaghetti coding" in which the software is purposefully written to include an excessive number of jumps or branches, irrelevant code, self-modifying code, and the like. Other software obfuscation techniques include merging application data and instructions into the same address space, and setting debugger traps that discourage setting of breakpoints by a debugger program.
A "trusted" media player is one that, to a reasonable degree of certainty, will present content only to an authorized customer and will prevent the content from being obtained and saved in an unencrypted form. A media player includes software, or a combination of software and hardware, that implements a decryption and authorization scheme. Trusted media players typically use software obfuscation to discourage users from tampering with the media player to gain unauthorized access to encrypted digital content.
Moreover, some encryption schemes may depend on restricting access to the decryption software and hardware in a media player to discourage reverse engineering. For example, in real-time data exchange situations (e.g., streaming digital content on the Internet), typical encryption techniques include key handshakes, dynamic key exchange, and random key challenges. The security of these techniques typically depends on the decryption software and hardware being made available only to manufactures of media player devices.
Details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages may be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

Secure delivery of encrypted digital content


A computer system includes a desk, and a first display and a first keyboard arranged on a desk panel of the desk and flexibly connected to the desk panel. The panel board includes at least two layers; an edge of a top layer of the panel board is flexibly connected to a second layer of the panel board; a lower surface of the top layer of the panel board is used as a second display and an upper surface of a second layer of the panel board is used as a second keyboard; and the first display, the first key board, the second display, and the second keyboard are all connected to the computer. The computer system of the present disclosure effectively protects eye sights, reduces the probability of shortsightedness, greatly increases the amount of exercise, consumes unnecessary energy, reduces the storage of energy and production of fat, further results in loss of weight, and at the same time strengthens physical exercise and improves health states.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to technologies of computers and, particularly, to a new computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Owing to the coming of the information and computer age, almost all of the students and white-collar workers need a computer. They always sit in the school or the office for 7 or 8 hours, keeping their eyes on the small displays of the computers all the time, which may cause shortsightedness. Furthermore, their necks are kept immobile, which may cause cervical spondylosis. What is worse it that after meal they just use their fingers before their computers without doing any exercise, which may cause fat body and increase the probability of hypertension, heart disease, and so on. All of these violate natural rules of a human being, that is, the body of a human being needs an appropriate amount of exercise, greatly increase the fee of social insurance for medical care which is unaffordable to the country, and make the people become fat and ugly and further result in a vicious cycle of the psychology and physiology.


The invention relates to a method for informing on the presence of a remote devices holder, said remote devices holder carrying a remote device (10,11), characterized in that it detects when the remote devices holder (1) enters under coverage of a femto-cell (2,20) or leaves the coverage of the femto-cell (2,20).

Mobile Networks (MNOs) may propose a Location Based Service (LBS) using macro cell ID. It is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network which use geographical position of the mobile device. Thanks to such services, it is possible to determine a time positioning of a mobile device to connect end users to nearby points of interest, advise them of current conditions such as traffic and weather, or provide routing and tracking information via wireless devices.
Nevertheless, the use of Cell ID based triangulation is not very precise. A user is only informed with an approximated accuracy, from 3 kilometers to 200 meters accuracy.
An alternative technical solution for localization is the usage of GPS. However, all handsets are not GPS enabled, which prevents a user from using GPS services, such as tracking services, marketing services, etc. . . . There is then a need in the art for a solution which provides a precise accuracy for such services.
It is then an object of the invention to provide information on the location of a remote device's holder with a better accuracy.
Thereto, the present invention provides a method for informing on the presence of a remote device's holder, said remote device's holder carrying a remote device, characterized in that it detects when the remote device's holder enters under coverage of a femto-cell or leaves the coverage of the femto-cell.
According to other aspects of the invention,                the method may comprise sending a message to a remote server said message comprising data able to identify said femto-cell;        the method may comprise determining the location of said remote device's holder;        the method may comprise sending data on the location of the remote device's holder to a predetermined list members, said predetermined list members being beforehand stored in said remote server, said location data being stored in said remote server;        the remote server may update and may store data on the location of the remote device's holder;        the method may comprise checking data on the location of the remote device's holder directly on a dedicated website or on a smart card web server (SCWS) connected to said remote server;        the method may comprise sending promotional data of a second remote server to the remote device's holder;        the method may comprise processing a profiling of said remote device's holder based on data determined by the second remote server;        the method may comprise using a handset as remote device;        the method may comprise using a Universal Integrated Circuit Card(UICC) as remote device;        the method may comprise using an over-the-air server as remote server.
Thanks to the invention, it is advantageously possible to check more precisely, with better granularity than cell ID, the presence of a person such as a family member in an identified place equipped with a femto-cell.
The invention provides advantageously a targeted advertising.

Method for informing on the presence of a remote device's holder


A portable battery charging apparatus having two or more battery charging interfaces on separate panels. Wires electrically couple the battery charging apparatuses to a charger unit. The wires are routed for flexibility to fold and unfold the panels. The battery charging apparatuses and the charging unit may be connected to a flexible material. Each battery charging apparatus may include two or more charging jacks for the same or different batteries. The charger unit has an input to receive a power source, and an output to power a further device, for example a further battery charging apparatus.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a foldable battery charger.
2. Description of the Related Art
Battery chargers are relatively large, bulky pieces of equipment. They typically have a rigid housing which can be moved but is difficult to transport by foot because of the weight and volume they occupy. Persons working in the field and military personnel have a need to carry battery chargers with them.
Some foldable equipment having batteries or chargers has been proposed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,615 discloses a flexible belt with a charger and batteries for a video camera. The power belt has a dedicated charging unit which can only charge one type of battery. The battery packs do not include hinges between them to allow the packs to stack on top of each other.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0052156 shows a charging mat having an embedded control switching circuit. The charging mat does not include wires that connect discrete battery charging interfaces to allow stacking The charging mat does not include charging jacks of different types which nest together in a mating fashion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,089 discloses a flexible sheet material having embedded cables to couple various electronic devices. The device uses flat cables 46, 56, and 64, which has been shown to prematurely fail when bent repeatedly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,942 shows a battery pack with foldable panels, attached batteries and a charger. The battery pack does not include an on-board charging unit and does not fold into a compact state.
None of the references show battery charging interfaces for different types of batteries, jacks disposed in staggered patterns to facilitate storage and transport, or the ability to couple several units together.


A low-cost display apparatus whose display section can have its angle and height adjusted easily through a stand of a simple structure is provided. The stand of the display apparatus includes first and second arms that form a V shape. The first arm is attached to the display section through a hinge. By having the second arm extend to the front and the back underneath the display section so that the second arm is laid on a surface, the display section is supported in a first supported state at a distance from this surface. By having the second arm extend downward diagonally from the tip of the first arm so that the tip of the second arm and the lower end of the display section stand on a surface, the display section is supported in a second supported state where the display section is in contact with this surface.

As display apparatuses that are used, for example, as peripherals for personal computers, there have been apparatuses of such a structure in which a flat panel-shaped display section comprised of, for example, a liquid crystal panel is supported by a stand section.
Recently, there has been proposed an apparatus in which, by adopting a fold structure for the stand section, the display section is supported not only at a first supported state in which the display section is not in contact with the surface of the desk it is placed upon, but also at a second supported state in which the display section is lowered to be on the desktop, thus improving convenience for users (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-73214, FIGS. 24 and 25).


A method is disclosed for tightening laces of an article of clothing. The method may include the steps of receiving an input code; determining if the input code matches a stored code; and if the input code matches the stored code, actuating a tightening device to tighten the laces. A system is disclosed for tightening laces of an article of clothing. The system may include a controller and a tightening device configured to engage the laces. The tightening device may be operatively coupled to the controller. The controller may place the tightening device in one of a plurality of configurations.

Shoelaces often become untied when not desired. Shoelaces may be tightened manually. This involves leaning over or raising the foot to permit the hands to actuate the laces. A need exists for a system and method to permit the laces of a shoe to be tightened without manual actuation by the hands.

Shoelace tightening method and apparatus


A memory module is built up from a power distribution assembly in the form of plates forming a capacitor of low inductance and a flexible circuit substrate. The circuit substrate is populated with precisely positioned contact pads for the power, read, write and address lines of memory chips that contact the substrate. Memory chips are fixed to heat spreaders and loaded into a chip holder which positions the chips for contact with the contact pads on the substrate. The substrate contact pads are plated to form dendritic crystals of palladium and the memory chips are provided with solder balls on the contact pads of the memory chip. The solder balls are held in contact with the contact pads by the compressive forces of clamping a heat sink over the heat spreaders for testing, and the assembly may be readily disassembled to replace any defective memory. The compression connection of the chips to the substrate may be relied on or the solder balls may be reflowed to establish permanent solder connections.

As computers operate at higher rates and perform more operations in a given time, and perform tasks and operate programs which involve graphics and graphical displays, the amount of memory required for the computer increases dramatically and the need for higher density memory assemblies or modules increases likewise. Graphics and graphical display computer applications, together with the manipulation of the graphical representation, require very large quantities of memory which must be quickly and reliably accessible to the central processing unit and/or related other processors in the computer.
An example of a computer with such a need for a very large amount of memory is the IBM RISC System/6000 computer which typically may have a need for 32-500 megabytes of memory capacity.
When a computer speed approaches MIPS (million instructions per second), the speed of processing instructions ceases to be limited by the member of cycles per second at which the processor can operate. Rather, the operational speed is limited by the speed of the electricity traveling through the connectors to and from adjacent electrical elements and, particularly, into and back from the memory in order to access and retrieve stored data and/or access and store data in the memory. It is necessary to minimize the length of conductors to and from and within the memory modules in order to minimize the amount of time lost in processing. It is necessary, therefore, to make the memory chip assemblies as compact as possible and minimizing memory cycle response time, therefore, making the computer more efficient.
Presently, when memory is manufactured, the memory chips are formed by depositing conductive and semi-conductive circuits onto the surface of silicon wafers in standard and conventional patterns. These circuits, which when appropriately powered and accessed, either will accept "write" commands or signals and retain them representing stored bits of data or information or will provide electrical signals in response to "read" commands, permitting the computer to determine the status of bits of information stored in the memory circuits, which represents bits of data previously stored.
The manufacturing techniques for making the particular memory chips and memory circuits are well known conventional techniques. While these manufacturing techniques are understood and practiced widely, they may result in memory chips and memory circuits which will have varying response speeds, i.e., memory response cycle times of 20, 25 or 30 nanoseconds. The varying response times occur because the manufacturing process is subject to variables which may not be accurately enough controlled or may not be economically controllable to yield only the highest speeds or the desired speeds for the memory.
Further, due to problems or variables in the manufacturing process, memory chips which may be designed to contain a multiple megabit storage capacity may have a portion of its capacity rendered inoperable or defective. For example, a stray airborne object or contaminate particle may be deposited upon the surface of the chip during the manufacturing process which results in shorting adjacent circuits or improper connections to positions of a circuit, rendering at least that portion of the chip defective or inoperable. One characteristic of memory chips and computer memory is that even though a portion of a memory chip may be defective or inoperable, the remainder of the chip may be fully functional and unaffected by the defect. Therefore, a chip having a nominal capacity of one megabits of data in fact may have a smaller capacity, and yet remain economically and physically usable in a device which may use additional chips to offset the defective shortfall or where there are smaller demands for memory capacity.
After the memory chips have been manufactured, they may be tested to determine their capacity for retaining data. The chips may be sorted into categories such as one-quarter good, one-half good, or full good chips depending upon the amount of usable and operable memory capacity on the chip. These memory chips then can be assembled into memory modules or memory arrays in sufficient numbers to provide the necessary minimum amount of memory for a particular computer or application.
As advances in the design and manufacture of memory circuits and memory chips occur and the density on the chips increases, the cost of memory capacity has decreased. One approach has been merely to install excess memory capacity in the computer to assure that the minimum stated memory requirement for the computer or application is adequately met by operational memory circuits, even though additional memory is in fact present and usable.
One step of the manufacturing and testing procedure for the manufacture of memory is to assemble it or connect it to test apparatus in such a manner that it may be operated and tested; and then it is placed in an environment of elevated temperatures and operated to cause any marginal or weak circuits on the chip to fail prior to installation. This process is commonly referred to as burn-in. The burn-in process causes an early failure of marginal circuits, thereby allowing the identification of those chips and the quantifying of the available remaining operational memory prior to installation into a memory module or computer. Burn-in is most efficiently accomplished when the memory modules are assembled and, thus, most easily connected and tested. The cost of replacing defective memory greatly increases after assembly.
Memory at the time of test may provide indications of false failures. When false failures occur, the memory circuits themselves cannot be relied upon and, therefore, must be detected at an early stage to prevent undue re-work or repair costs. As an alternative, the individual testing of each chip is prohibitively expensive.
With short response times required and large quantities of memory capacity desired in a particular computer environment, it becomes very important to have an adequate quantity of good and operational memory chips installed in an appropriate assembly or module which is then installed into the computer.
Several approaches exist in the prior art. One approach to memory fabrication involves what is commonly referred to a memory cube. To form a memory cube, several chips in a semi-finished state are joined together, typically, by use of an adhesive or other bonding material to form a cube or stack of chips. After the chips have been joined together, at least one of the external surfaces of the assembly of chips is then ground and polished to expose the read, write and address lines (conductors) and power connections controlling the individual memory circuits. After the conductors are exposed, through conventional steps of masking and vapor deposition of metals, contact pads are formed in electrical continuity with the respective conductors to provide an interface by which the memory cube may be powered and operated.
One serious drawback to the memory cube fabrication procedure is that the memory chips of the cube typically cannot be tested until such time as adequate electrical contacts have been formed and connected to the conductors. Therefore, the memory cube may be fabricated from untested memory chips or chips that have not been fully tested after burn-in. If, after assembly and fabrication of the finished memory cube, a chip within the cube is found to be partially or completely defective, the alternatives available to the memory fabricator are: the cube be discarded, the cube be disassembled and the defective portions of the cube removed, or additional memory cubes be fabricated and installed in the system to compensate for the defective memory in the cubes within the system if the system design permits.
Disassembling the memory cubes, breaking the bonding between chips, and removing the defective chips from the assembly may result in damage to otherwise good remaining chips in the memory cube.
The building of oversized or over-capacity memory assemblies to circumvent the defect fallout associated with the manufacturing process of the chips, can result in substantial excess costs associated with the computer. While the cost of memory chips and memory capacity has steadily declined, if it is necessary to install excess capacity in the computer in order to meet at least the minimum memory requirements for the computer or its applications, the computer manufacturer suffers substantial economic disadvantage.
Another prior art approach to overcoming the problem of defective memory while avoiding the economic cost of over populating the computer memory with memory capacity in order to compensate for the defective memory, is the use of connectors on substrates or motherboards to permit the replacement of memory boards carrying memory chips. When a defective memory chip is detected and need replacement, the memory board carrying that chip may be removed by disconnecting the memory board contacts from the connector and a replacement memory board installed. While this approach certainly solves the problem of having to install substantial quantities of excess memory, the expense of many connectors and associated circuit boards for the memory chips may not be an attractive economic alternative.
Further, use of connectors includes, within the system, additional possible failure points where electrical continuity between the computer processor and the memory chips may not be reliable.
Further, if the memory chips that are found to be defective or inoperative must be removed from the memory boards, the re-work of those memory board assemblies may damage substantially other memory chips installed on the boards or destroy the memory board or substrate upon which the memory chips have been mounted. A not insignificant consideration is the cost of the re-work labor involved in such repair of the memory modules and memory boards.
The use of memory chips bonded to memory boards or memory cubes may require the complete assembly of the memory module prior to testing. This eliminates opportunities early in the manufacturing and assembly process for detecting defective memory chips and the substitution of operative memory chips, therefore.
On the other hand, the individual testing of discrete memory chips to determine which memory chips are partially defective and the extent of the defects, is very expensive, time consuming and relatively inefficient.
When memory is assembled in a cube or other stack type structure and fixed to form the module or assembly, the cooling of the memory chips becomes a problem. As electricity is conducted to and from the chips and the circuits formed thereon, heat is created. If the heat is not adequately dissipated and the memory chips are not maintained at a cool operating temperature, the resistance of the conductors becomes sufficiently high as to interfere with proper memory operation and potentially cause the destruction of the circuits of the memory chip itself.
Therefore, it is necessary to accommodate a cooling system in the memory module. In the past, efforts have involved alternating the memory chips and cooling spreaders within the memory cubes.
In other instances, air circulation between chips has been relied upon for cooling. In some cases, the memory chips have been mounted to heat spreaders which then extend out substantially past the edges of the chips forming larger surfaces from which the heat may be dissipated either by radiation or convection as air passes over the heat spreader extensions.
The more densely populated a memory module is, the more difficult to dissipate any internally generated heat resulting from the normal operation of the memory chips. Not only are the stacked and bonded or cubed memory chips the most efficient from a density standpoint, but also have the shortest read/write power and address lines. Also, they are the most difficult to cool because heat is difficult to remove from the solid cubic memory chip structures.
Examples of prior art which describe and show some of the aspects described above, include Eichelberger, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,946, which shows chips which have been bonded into a memory cube. The chips rely upon edge contacts exposed through the surface or the edge spaces of the individual chips together with the conductive paths interconnecting those contact points with contact points on other chips or outside the integrated circuit assembly.
Kato U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,865 shows chips bonded together using an adhesive, and then hazing heat sink plates positioned intermediate some adjacent chips to acquire and conduct away the heat.
Fassbender, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,943, illustrates a stack of integrated circuit chips having connections adjacent at least one edge of the circuit surface of each chip.
Baudouin, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,763, illustrates metal conductors extended out from a circuit package for surface mounting on a circuit board.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,264 and 5,059,557 both by Cragon, et al., illustrate circuit chips being attached to a motherboard and connected to conductors on the motherboard by solder connections near the edge of the chip on the circuit face of the chip. Malhi, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,072 illustrates a plurality of integrated circuit chips inserted into retaining slots in a silicon baseboard and solder connected from contact points on the circuit face near the edge of the chip to contacts on the baseboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,533 discloses electronic isolation of defective or inoperative circuits on integrated circuit chips and specifically states that this technique is applicable to dynamic RAMs (Random Access Memory), static RAMs and Read-Only-Memory as well as logic units and arithmetic units.
One may appreciate that the assembly of the memory chips, as described above, is a substantial deterrent to easy and economical removal and replacement of defective memory chips where a significant portion of a memory chip is inoperative.


Electronic devices (16, 17) can be controlled by a control unit (11), which in turn is responsive to infrared commands (33) received from a remote (12) utilized by an operator. The remote has a touch-panel display (49), on which images can be displayed. The images are part of a user interface created by a program (86) running in a personal computer (13). An operator enters into the computer an identification of the devices (16, 17) which are to be controlled, and the computer then takes predefined images and automatically customizes them for the these devices. Some of the images have a size which is less than the overall size of the display, so that when one of these images is displayed, a portion of at least one other image will also be visible. For a controlled device which does not recognize each of a discrete power on, discrete power off and power toggle command, the computer automatically effects configuration so as to provide all three functions using a subset of commands which the controlled device actually does recognize.

This invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for operationally controlling at least one device in response to input provided by an operator through a user interface and, more particularly, to an arrangement which can be used to configure the system and user interface.
There are various environments which each include a number of electrical or electronic components, where it is desirable to be able to control each of these components through a single user interface. For example, a corporate boardroom may be used for multi-media presentations to clients or management, and may include equipment such as a video cassette recorder, laser disk player, compact disk player, cassette tape deck, digital satellite system, slide projector, video projector, AM/FM receiver with speaker system, two retractable projection screens, and dimmable overhead lighting. Similarly, a home theater environment may include a large-screen television, an AM/FM receiver with speaker system, a compact disk player, a laser disk player, a video cassette recorder, and a cassette tape deck.
In order to facilitate central control of several electrical or electronic devices, an existing system includes a control unit which is operationally coupled to each of the devices to be controlled, and a hand-held remote with a touch-panel display. The touch-panel display is used to present a user interface to the operator, through which the operator can specify how the control devices are to be controlled. In response to input from the operator, the remote sends wireless signals to the control unit. The control unit responds to these wireless signals by sending commands to the controlled devices, for example by issuing infrared commands that the controlled devices are inherently designed to recognize and implement. In order to configure the control unit and the remote, a personal computer is used. While this existing arrangement has been generally adequate for its intended purposes, it has not been satisfactory in all respects.
More specifically, the user interface is generated from predefined images or pages for the touch-panel, which are usually designed to work with a number of devices in a given equipment class. For example, a particular page may be designed for use with a number of different AM/FM receivers, which are all classified in a common receiver class. However, a given receiver may not be able to carry out all of the functions which the predefined page is designed to provide. Thus, the resulting user interface may have pages which include operator actuatable buttons that are visible to the user but that do not do anything, because they correspond to a function which the particular receiver is not capable of carrying out. Problems of this type are aesthetically undesirable. Another consideration is that the existing system has no mechanism for providing a page which takes up only a part of the display, in order that a portion of another page can also be viewed at the same time, at least without substantial manual programming work.
A further consideration relates to power control for controlled devices. It is desirable to be able to carry out a discrete power on, a discrete power off, and a power toggle operation for many types of controlled devices, but some of these devices do not inherently recognize all three types of commands. For example, a given device may recognize only the power toggle command, or may recognize only the discrete power on and off commands. The known system has no convenient capability for implementing all three functions for a device which is not capable of inherently performing all three functions. This presents a problem in a situation where it is desirable to be able to use a single button in the user interface to turn on power to most or all system components, or to turn off power to most or all system components. For example, if a particular device inherently has only a power toggle capability, it is difficult to know whether that device is already on or off at a given point in time when it is desirable to force it to an on state or an off state. The existing system is not capable of readily and efficiently providing the capability to do all three functions with respect to a particular controlled device. At best, a substantial amount of manual effort would be required for configuration and programming in order to achieve this result.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for a method and apparatus for configuring a system and a user interface so as to control one or more control devices. The present invention is provided to address this need. A first form of the present invention involves: maintaining a device database which contains respective device information for each of a plurality of different devices; maintaining an initial interface definition for a device class which includes a plurality of the devices in the database; permitting an operator to select a device in the device class to be the controlled device; automatically preparing a modified interface definition by modifying the initial interface definition based on the device information in the device database which corresponds to the controlled device; and controlling the user interface portion using an interface control definition which is a function of the modified interface definition.
A further form of the present invention relates to configuration of a user interface portion of a system which controls a controlled device, where the user interface portion includes a display. This form of the invention involves: maintaining a device database which identifies a plurality of different devices; maintaining an interface database which includes information defining a plurality of images each capable of being displayed on the display, each of the devices in the device database being associated with at least one of the images, and at least one of the images having a reduced size smaller than the size of the display; permitting an operator to select as the controlled device a device in the device database which is associated with a first image which has the reduced size; preparing an interface control definition which includes at least two images, one of which is the first image, the interface control definition displaying the first image by overlaying the first image over at least a portion of a second image which is one of the images in the interface control definition other than the first image; and controlling the user interface portion using the interface control definition.
Yet another form of the present invention involves: maintaining a device database which contains respective device information for each of a plurality of different devices, the device information including for each of the different devices an indication of whether that device is responsive to each of a power on command, a power off command and a power toggle command; permitting an operator to select as the controlled device a device in the device database; automatically evaluating the device information in the database to determine whether the controlled device is responsive to each of the power toggle command and the power on and off commands; responding to a determination that the controlled device is responsive to the power toggle command and nonresponsive to the power on and power off commands by automatically adding to the system configuration a power sensor for the controlled device which detects a current power state of the controlled device; automatically preparing a control definition for the system which selectively effects power toggle control of the controlled device by transmitting the power toggle command to the controlled device, and which selectively effects discrete power on and power off control of the controlled device by interrogating the power sensor to determine the current power state of the controlled device and by then conditionally transmitting the power toggle command to the controlled device in dependence on the result of the interrogation of the power sensor; and controlling the system using the control definition.
Still another form of the present invention involves: maintaining a device database which contains respective device information for each of a plurality of different devices, the device information for each of the different devices including an indication of whether that device is responsive to each of a power on command, a power off command and a power toggle command; permitting an operator to select as the controlled device a device in the device database; automatically evaluating the device information in the database to determine whether the controlled device is responsive to each of the power toggle command and the power on and off commands; responding to a determination that the controlled device is responsive to the power on and off commands but nonresponsive to the power toggle command by automatically preparing a control definition for the system which includes a variable that mirrors the current power state of the controlled device, which selectively effects power on and off control of the controlled device by selectively transmitting the power on and off commands to the controlled device while updating the variable to indicate the current power state of the controlled device, and which selectively effects power toggle control of the controlled device by transmitting one of the power on and off commands to the controlled device in dependence on the current state of the variable and by inverting the state of the variable; and controlling the system using the control definition.

Method and configuring a user interface for controlling a controlled device based upon a device class


A process is disclosed for recovering a volatile organic compound at a recovery of 90 to 96% by volume from a gas generated from gasoline, kerosine, benzene, and alcohol discharged from storage tanks, tank trucks, and tank lorries. In the process comprising absorption stages followed by desorption stages for the volatile organic compound, the pressure at the desorption stages is controlled within the area below, for instance, curves C' and B in FIG. 1 of the drawings according to the concentration of the volatile organic compound in the gas to be fed to a first absorption stage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology by which a volatile organic compound can be recovered effectively from a mixed gas containing the organic compound in the state of gas to avoid the compound from being diffused in atmospheric air.
2. Discussion of the Background
Volatile hydrocarbons are diffused from storage tanks in atmospheric air when atmospheric temperature rises. Also, the volatile hydrocarbons are diffused in atmospheric air when they are flowed into storage tanks or when they are filled in tank lorries from storage tanks. Diffused hydrocarbons are said to form substances causing "photochemical smog". Accordingly, regulations have been carried out in Japan and other countries to control the concentration of the hydrocarbons in an exhaust or flue gas, and more severe regulations have lately been issued in several countries, the United States being a leading country.
For instance, a standard hydrocarbon concentration in the exhaust or flue gases at outlets is established under a prefectural regulation in Nagoya, Japan, which is the severest regulation in the past and by which the hydrocarbon concentration at the outlets is prescribed to be lower than 5% by volume (corresponding to about 80% by volume in terms of the recovery (as referred hereinafter) of hydrocarbon from a gas having a hydrocarbon concentration of 21% by volume at inlets). Under EPA in the United States, however, such harsh standards have been issuing that the discharge of VOC (volatile organic compound) shall be less than 35 mg/l gasoline for bulk gasoline terminals newly constructed or expanded after Dec. 17, 1980 and that recovery at vapor recovery systems shall be higher than 95% by weight for facilities storing petroleum products having a vapor pressure of 78 to 570 mmHg and newly constructed or expanded after May 19, 1978.
Several methods can be taken into consideration for recovering a hydrocarbon from a vapor. For instance, there have been proposed methods in which the hydrocarbon is separated from a vapor containing the hydrocarbon by adsorption with porous adsorbents such as activated carbons or separated by low temperature processing.
In the adsorption method, however, there is a danger of firing since a large amount of the heat of adsorption will be generated. In the low temperature processing method, the hydrocarbon vapor must be cooled down to a temperature lower than -35.degree. C. in order to increase the recovery percentage since the vapor has a very low liquefying temperature and thus this method is economically disadvantageous.
On the other hand, a method is known for separating a hydrocarbon from a hydrocarbon vapor safely and effectively wherein the vapor is washed with a liquid to absorb at an ambient temperature under an atmospheric pressure, the hydrocarbon absorbed in the liquid is separated to recover, and then the liquid is recycled to the washing.
Suitable liquids used for the absorption are ones which are insoluble in water, have a strong absorption power to hydrocarbon gas, and having such a low vapor pressure such that the liquids will not be lost when hydrocarbon is separated for recovery. Examples of the liquids comprise, as a major component, at least one compound selected from the group consisting of phthalic acid esters, silicic acid esters, phosphoric acid esters, fatty acid esters, alkylbenzene, alkylnaphthalene, and .alpha.-olefins. The liquids may additionally contain less than 75% by weight of a refined mineral oil having a viscosity of 5 to 20 cst at a temperature of 37.8.degree. C., a boiling point of 250.degree. to 450.degree. C., and an average molecular weight of 200 to 350.
According to the absorption method, the hydrocarbon concentration at the outlets can be controlled lower than 5% by volume by using a system composed of an absorption column, desorption column, recovery column, and vacuum pump. However, the absorption method has a defect that a severer standard regulated under, for example, the EPA in the United States can not be cleared.
An improved method for recovering a volatile organic compound from a gas by an absorption method has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,983 wherein a liquid mixture of an ester of phosphoric acid, silicic acid, or fatty acid with a mineral oil is used, an absorption liquid containing a volatile organic compound dissolved therein is subjected to flashing under a reduced pressure in a desorption column, and the liquid subjected to the flashing is recycled.
Another method has been proposed in Japanese patent publication 22503/1983 in which the flashing is carried out in two or more stages using two or more vessels kept under different reduced pressures.
However, in the method wherein the absorption liquid is recycled, the volatile organic compound will remain in the desorption column in an amount corresponding to the compound's vapor pressure under a reduced pressure at the stage of regeneration of the absorption liquid in the desorption column, and the remaining compound will obstruct the increase of the recovery percentage of volatile organic compound in the absorption column.

Process for separating a volatile organic compound from a gas


In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method for managing wavelength drift in an optical network is provided. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving traffic in one or more optical channels transmitted by one or more transmitters, each channel having successive timeslots, each transmitter assigned to transmit in a channel in allocated timeslots in the channel. The method also includes determining whether the traffic received in a particular channel in a particular timeslot was transmitted by one of the transmitters that was not assigned to transmit in the particular channel. The method further includes, if the traffic in the particular channel was transmitted by one of the transmitters that was not assigned to transmit in the particular channel, identifying the transmitter that was not assigned to transmit but that did transmit in the particular channel, assigning the identified transmitter to transmit in the particular channel, and allocating timeslots in the particular channel to the identified transmitter.

A general goal of communication systems, including optical networks, is to provide greater bandwidth to satisfy ever-increasing demand. In optical networks, greater bandwidth may be provided using new technologies such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Optical networks using WDM combine optical traffic in multiple wavelengths (assigned to multiple corresponding communication channels) into one signal and may transmit the combined signals to a particular destination. At the destination, the traffic in each wavelength may be directed based on wavelength to a separate receiver and processed. If the wavelength at which a transmitter transmits has drifted into a channel to which the transmitter was not assigned, collisions in traffic from other transmitters and/or other signaling disruptions may occur.

System and method for managing wavelength drift in an optical network


An optimal package structure and an amount of refrigerant to insert into the package structure are determined based upon product information, consumer preference information, and weather information. The optimal package structure and the amount of refrigerant are an optimized combination that is effective to both protect the product from damage and preserve the product from spoilage. A package is constructed to contain the product according to the optimal package structure and the amount of refrigerant is inserted into the structure.

Various types of products are shipped from shipping sources (e.g., warehouses) to shipping destinations (e.g., homes of consumers). Some products that are shipped may need to be kept frozen (or chilled) during the shipping process in order to prevent the spoilage of these products. Additionally, many types of products typically need to be protected from damage occurring along the shipping route. To take two examples, pizza or ice cream may need to be kept frozen while being shipped as well as being protected from damage that might occur during the shipping process.
Standard-sized packages or boxes are often used to ship products. To prevent spoilage, these standard shipping containers sometimes include predetermined amounts of refrigerant materials that are used to cool the products. That is, the amount of such refrigerant materials cannot be varied. As for protection from damage, only standard protection structures are offered by these previous approaches.
Unfortunately, these previous approaches sometimes resulted in wasted packing materials and wasted amounts of refrigerant being used since the item may be, for example, much smaller than the shipping package, and not need as much of the provided refrigerant in order to be preserved. In other situations, the amount of refrigerant was too little, thereby allowing the product to spoil or otherwise become unusable before the product was delivered. In still other examples, the amount of refrigerant was adequate, but the structure of the package was inadequate to protect the product from damage that occurred to the package along the shipping route.

System and method for package construction


A lower electrode (4), a dielectric layer (5) made of a ferroelectric material or a high dielectric constant material, and an upper electrode (6) are formed in order on an insulating film (2). The dielectric layer (5) is formed to extend off the lower electrode (4). Between the portion of the dielectric layer (5) at which the dielectric layer is extending off the lower electrode and the insulating film (2), an insulation barrier layer (3) made of a composite metallic oxide including at least two metals containing a Si or a silicon nitride compound is interposed. In another mode, a plug for contact is provided in an insulating film, and an adhesion layer is provided between the plug and the lower electrode. An insulation barrier layer made of an oxide of the same material forming the adhesion layer is provided between the dielectric layer and the insulating film. As a result, Ti and Pb, which are constitutive elements of the ferroelectric material or high dielectric constant material do not diffuse and enter into an SiO2 film and a semiconductor layer, enabling easy formation of a barrier layer.

The present invention relates to a capacitor and a method for manufacturing the same wherein a dielectric layer is made of ferroelectric material or a material of high dielectric constant and which is formed on an insulating film on a surface of a substrate. More particularly, it relates to a capacitor capable of preventing dispersion of the metallic component(s) of the dielectric material into the insulating film or a semiconductor layer or preventing occurrence of cracks in the dielectric material, by patterning a lower electrode and by making the dielectric layer of the capacitor directly contact with the insulating film, and which is further capable of preventing influences of adhesion of the electrode or interdiffusion also in case the electrode is electrically connected to the semiconductor layer via the plug within the contact hole formed in the insulating film.
In forming a plurality of dielectric capacitors on a same substrate such as a semiconductor substrate, it is necessary to perform patterning of a formed electrode or a dielectric layer. It is possible to employ a method as illustrated in FIG. 8(a) in which an upper electrode 6, a dielectric layer 5 and a lower electrode 4 are processed in a lump. The example as illustrated in FIG. 8(a) is a sectional explanatory view of an example in which an insulating film 2 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 1, and electric connection is achieved with a semiconductor layer formed below the insulating film 2 via a plug 7 formed within a contact hole 11 formed in the insulating film 2, the plug being made of conductive layer of, for instance, poly-silicon. In this method, it is required to sequentially perform etching of the three layers by using the same mask while processing thereof is difficult in view of selection of etching conditions and others, and etching damages may be formed at side wall portions that undergo etching that will cause degradations in capacitor characteristics.
It is known for a method to perform separate patterning of the three layers of the lower electrode 4, the dielectric layer 5 and the upper electrode 6 as illustrated in FIG. 8(b) in order to avoid such etching damages. However, in performing separate patterning of the three layers, it will be required for mask alignments for each of the layers, and alignment margins A and B, which depend on alignment accuracies for forming the etching pattern, will further be required. It is therefore necessary to secure a larger area than an actual area of the capacitor and will cause an increase in cell area (chip area).
In order to solve such problems, it would be possible to employ a method as illustrated in FIG. 8(c) in which the lower electrode 4 is patterned prior to forming the dielectric layer 5, and in which the dielectric layer 5 is either refrained from etching of the dielectric layer 5 or etching thereof is performed for an area that is larger than the lower electrode 4, whereupon the upper electrode 6 is formed. Such a method will be effective in achieving smaller etching margin and less etching damages. However, since SiO2 is usually used as the insulating film 2 formed on the substrate to form a base for the capacitor, the dielectric film 5 will directly contact the SiO2 film in this method. This method is further disadvantaged in that a weak point (see point C) is formed on an edge portion of the lower electrode 4 at which the dielectric layer 5 is thin. In such a case, though troubles can be eliminated if patterning would be performed to make the upper electrode 6 face the lower electrode 4 to be identical in size, it may also be the case that it is used as a common plate (wiring) so that short deficiencies of both electrodes 4, 6 are apt to occur.
In case the dielectric layer of the capacitor is made of ferroelectric material or a material of high dielectric constant, Pb or Ti of the ferroelectric layer may be diffused into the SiO2 film and may further be diffused into the semiconductor layer formed downward thereof upon direct contact of the ferroelectric layer with SiO2 to thus cause degradations not only of the capacitor but also of element characteristics of the semiconductor elements, and it may, in some cases, cause to crack in the dielectric layer.
On the other hand, it is suggested in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 7-99290 (1995) that for the purpose of preventing interactive reaction, which may be caused upon contact of a ferroelectric layer of a ferroelectric capacitor with a silicon-containing layer, a titanium dioxide layer or an oxide layer of magnesium zirconium, tantalum or the like shall be formed at portions that come in contact with the ferroelectric layer. However, oxides of titanium, magnesium, zirconium, tantalum or the like exhibit extremely poor workability and thus lead to a drawback that it is difficult to perform precise patterning owing to time-consuming processing through dry etching or adhesion of liberated heavy metal, which is a constitutive element thereof, on the surface exposed by etching. It is thus of disadvantage that they cannot be used particularly for the case as illustrated in FIG. 8(a) in which a contact hole is formed in the insulating film on which the capacitor is to be formed for electric connection with a plug formed therein.
When manufacturing a ferroelectric capacitor in which the lower electrode is connected to the semiconductor layer via the plug formed in the contact hole of the insulating film, interactive reaction may be caused between the ferroelectric layer and poly-silicon, which is a material usually used for forming the plug, to cause degradations in capacitor characteristics or degradations in element characteristics of semiconductor elements in case the lower electrode is made of Pt, which exhibits superior orientation for the ferroelectric layer, and thus makes constitutive elements such as Pb, Zr or O of the ferroelectric layer easily pass through. Moreover, adhesion between the lower electrode made of Pt, which is suitable for forming the ferroelectric film, and the plug is not necessarily favorable and may cause in worsened ohmic contact.
The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving such problems, and it is an object thereof to provide a capacitor and a method for manufacturing the same which is capable of improving workability through dry etching while preventing diffusion and immersion of constitutive elements of the ferroelectric material or material of high dielectric constant such as Ti or Pb into the SiO2 film or the semiconductor layer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor and a method for manufacturing the same that is of a structure in which weak points are hardly occurring in the dielectric layer.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a capacitor of a structure in which preventing the interaction between the dielectric layer and the SiO2 film or the semiconductor layer may be achieved while improving adhesion between the lower electrode of the capacitor and the plug formed within a contact hole of the insulating film and preventing the interaction between the dielectric layer and the plug through the lower electrode.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a capacitor in which the oxide of high melting point metal such as Ti, Ta or Zr exhibiting high barrier effects with respect to the ferroelectric layer may be interposed between the dielectric layer made of ferroelectric or the like and the insulating film made of SiO2 film or the like as a barrier layer without the necessity of patterning, also in case the lower electrode is electrically connected to the underlying layer through the contact hole.
The capacitor according to the present invention comprises; a lower electrode formed on a silicon oxide film, a dielectric layer formed on the lower electrode and made of ferroelectric material or a material of high dielectric constant (permittivity), and an upper electrode formed on the dielectric layer, wherein the lower electrode is patterned such that the dielectric layer is formed to extend off the lower electrode, and wherein an insulating barrier layer made of a composite metallic oxide including at least two metals containing a Si or a silicon nitride compound is interposed between a portion of the dielectric layer at which it extends off the lower electrode and the silicon oxide film.
In the description, the term xe2x80x9ccapacitorxe2x80x9d includes, in addition to an ordinary capacitor in which a dielectric layer is sandwiched by metallic electrodes from both sides, one of a FET type structure such as a ferroelectric memory (FRAM) of MFMIS structure in which a gate electrode of a MOS transistor and the lower electrode of the capacitor are used in common. Further, the term xe2x80x9csilicon nitride based compoundxe2x80x9d includes, besides silicon nitride, SiOuNx (0xe2x89xa6u, 0 less than x, wherein u and x indicate content ratios when Si is set to be 1) in which oxygen may be contained in the silicon nitride.
With this arrangement, the insulating barrier layer will exhibit a smaller diffusion constant of elements constituting the ferroelectric such as Ti or Pb when compared to SiO2 (in case of SiOuNx), or will function as a barrier for the metal of the same sort (in case of a composite metallic oxide including at least two metals), and diffusion thereof will be prevented. On the other hand, since it contains Si, it is easy to be etched and also exhibits superior workability.
It is especially preferable that the insulating barrier layer includes the above constitutive elements of the dielectric layer to function as a barrier and for preventing diffusion of the element from the dielectric layer.
It is preferable that the composite metallic oxide of the insulating barrier layer is SiZryOz (0 less than y, 0 less than z, wherein y and z indicate content ratios when Si is set to be 1), SiTiyOz (0 less than y, 0 less than z, wherein y and z indicate content ratios when Si is set to be 1), or SiTayOz (0 less than y, 0 less than z, wherein y and z indicate content ratios when Si is set to be 1), since it is possible to improve workability of dry etching while preventing diffusion of Ti or Zr of the ferroelectric.
It is preferable to form the insulating barrier layer to be substantially on the same plane as the lower electrode, since weak points will be hardly formed on the dielectric layer thereby.
According to another aspect of the capacitor of the present invention, the capacitor is comprises; a plug for connection formed in a contact hole formed in an insulating film, a lower electrode formed to be in electric connection with the plug, a dielectric layer formed on the lower electrode, an upper electrode formed on the dielectric layer, an adhesion layer made of a high melting point metal or a nitride of a high melting point metal that is interposed between the plug and the lower electrode, and an insulating barrier layer made of an oxide of the identical material to that of the adhesion layer that is interposed between a portion of the dielectric layer, which extends off the lower electrode to extend on the insulating film, and the insulating film.
With this arrangement, the adhesion layer will be interposed between the plug and the lower electrode and the insulating barrier layer will be interposed between the portion of the dielectric layer, which extends off the lower electrode to extend on the insulating film, and the insulating film, so that it is possible through both of these to prevent diffusion of constitutive element of the dielectric layer into the insulating film or the semiconductor layer. Moreover, since the insulating barrier layer is formed of an oxide of a high melting point metal, it may be formed by selective oxidation treatment of the simultaneously formed layer, and although the oxide of high melting point metal or the like is hard to be processed through etching or the like, it may be employed as an insulating barrier layer without the necessity of patterning. It will consequently act as an extremely favorable insulating barrier layer, while the adhesion layer will act as a junction layer to maintain the electric connection between the lower electrode and the plug in an extremely favorable manner.
Such effects are especially remarkable in case the dielectric layer is formed of a ferroelectric or a dielectric of high dielectric constant. The adhesion layer may be formed of the high melting point metal, a nitride of the high melting point metal or a conductor which contains further a Si in the nitride.
A method for manufacturing the capacitor of the present invention includes the steps of; (a) forming a contact hole in an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate for electric connection with an underlying layer, (b) forming a plug by filling a conductive material into the contact hole, (c) forming a conductive layer containing a high melting point metal on the plug and the insulating film, (d) forming a lower electrode by depositing an electrode material on the conductive layer and patterning the same, (e) making an adhesion layer under the lower electrode and an insulating barrier layer on an outer periphery thereof from the conductive layer, upon selective oxidation treatment of the conductive layer at the portion exposed from the lower electrode by utilizing the lower electrode as a mask, (f) forming a dielectric layer on the lower electrode to extend on the insulating barrier layer, and (g) forming an upper electrode on the dielectric layer.
By employing this method, an insulating barrier layer exhibiting superior characteristics for barricading heavy metal owing to oxide of a high melting point metal may be extremely easily be formed without patterning the contact hole portion.
The selective oxidation treatment of the conductive layer may be either performed through heat treatment in an oxygen atmosphere or through implantation of oxygen ion.
According to another aspect of a method for manufacturing the capacitor, the method includes the steps of; (a) forming an insulating barrier layer by depositing a composite metallic oxide including at least two metals containing a Si on an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate, (b) forming a contact hole through the insulating barrier layer to make the insulating film expose, (c) forming a plug by filling a conductive material into the contact hole, (d) forming a lower electrode to contact with the plug, and (e) forming a dielectric layer and an upper electrode on the lower electrode.
According to this method, etching may be easily performed, even though the capacitor is formed to contact with the plug while interposing the insulating barrier layer between the dielectric layer and the insulating film, since the insulating barrier layer contains Si, and the contact hole may be easily formed.
It is preferable to perform flattening of the surface of the dielectric layer prior to forming the upper electrode to thereby eliminate generation of weak points on the dielectric layer.

Capacitor and method for manufacturing the same


A zoom lens including a plurality of lens units, and two variable stops having an aperture diameter changing for zooming, the lens units being configured to change intervals between the respective neighboring lens units for zooming, the zoom lens having an F-number which is constant over an entire zoom range, the two variable stops including a first variable stop disposed on an object side, and a second variable stop disposed on an image side. A distance (Sw1) from the first variable stop to an image plane at a wide-angle end, a distance (Sw2) from the second variable stop to the image plane at the wide-angle end, and a distance (Tkw) from an exit pupil position to the image plane at the wide-angle end are each set appropriately.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens and is suitable as an imaging optical system used for an image pickup apparatus such as a digital still camera, a video camera, a TV camera, or a monitoring camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a zoom lens having a wide angle of field is demanded for an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera and an image projection apparatus such as a projector. As a zoom lens having a wide angle of field, there is known a zoom lens having a wide angle of field that can perform zooming from a wide angle range having an entire imaging angle of field of 100 degrees or larger. Usually, as the zoom lens having a wide angle of field, there is widely used a negative-lead type zoom lens, which includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having a negative refractive power, and a rear lens group that includes one or more lens units and has a positive refractive power as a whole.
As to the negative-lead type zoom lens, there is demanded a zoom lens having a wide angle of field and the same minimum f-number (maximum aperture) over the entire zoom range so that exposure change does not occur in zooming.
A zoom lens disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-046208 includes a first lens unit having a negative refractive power, a second lens unit having a positive refractive power, a third lens unit having a negative refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-046208 discloses a zoom lens having a wide angle of field, which has an entire imaging angle of field of 106 degrees at a wide-angle end, a zoom ratio of 2.1, and a minimum f-number of 2.8 over the entire zoom range. A zoom lens described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-233284 includes a first lens unit having a negative refractive power, and a second lens unit having a positive refractive power. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-233284 discloses a zoom lens having a wide angle of field, which has an entire imaging angle of field of 113 degrees at the wide-angle end, a zoom ratio of 1.7, and a minimum f-number of 2.8 over the entire zoom range.
In the zoom lens having a wide angle of field described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-046208 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-233284, extreme peripheral light intensity of the screen is lower than or equal to 30% of that in the screen center at the wide-angle end. If a light intensity ratio in the extreme periphery of the screen is decreased in the lens having a wide angle of field in this way, a decrease of the extreme peripheral light intensity of the screen of a taken image can be recognized by eyes when a uniform luminance surface such as the sky is photographed, and the taken picture is not good.
In particular, in the zoom lens having a wide angle of field, in which the minimum f-number is constant over the entire zoom range as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-046208 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-233284, a decrease of peripheral light intensity is apt to be conspicuous at the wide-angle end. The same is true not only for a retrofocus type optical system but also for a positive-lead type zoom lens including, in order from the object side to the image side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power and a rear lens group including one or more lens units.

Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus including the same


A method for transitioning between therapeutic substances to be delivered at different flow rates to a patient. The first therapeutic substance is delivered to the patient at a known flow rate, a bridge duration equal to the known volume divided by the known flow rate is calculated; and the flow rate is controlled following introduction of a second therapeutic substance into the reservoir. If the second flow rate is lower than the first flow rate, delivery is begun of at least one of the first therapeutic substance and the second therapeutic substance at the second flow rate at least as soon as the bridge duration is over. If the second flow rate is higher than the first flow rate, delivery is begun of the at least one of the first therapeutic substance and the second therapeutic substance at the second flow rate at least as late as when the bridge duration is over.

The medical device industry has produced a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices for treating patient medical conditions. Depending upon medical condition, medical devices can be surgically implanted or connected externally to the patient receiving treatment. Clinicians use medical devices alone or in combination with therapeutic substance therapies and surgery to treat patient medical conditions. For some medical conditions, medical devices provide the best, and sometimes the only, therapy to restore an individual to a more healthful condition and a fuller life. One type of medical device is an implantable therapeutic substance delivery device.
An implantable therapeutic substance delivery device may be implanted by a clinician into a patient at a location appropriate for the therapy. Typically, a catheter is connected to the device outlet and implanted to infuse the therapeutic substance such as a drug or infusate at a programmed infusion rate and predetermined location to treat a condition such as pain, spasticity, cancer, and other medical conditions. An example of an implantable therapeutic substance delivery device is shown in Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., USA, product brochure entitled "SynchroMed® Infusion System" (1995). The implantable therapeutic substance delivery device typically has a housing, a power source, a therapeutic substance reservoir, a therapeutic substance pump, and associated electronics.
An external programmer is a device that allows an attending medical person to change the therapeutic substance delivery parameters, for example, increase the infusion flow rate of the implanted pump, e.g., by radio frequency transmission to the pump. The parameters can be stored in the electronics of the therapeutic substance delivery device which appropriately controls the pump of the therapeutic substance delivery device. Using an external programmer to program an implantable pump allows the attending medical person to routinely, safely, and painlessly change the infusion parameters of the pump to more effectively treat the patient. The external programmer can also be used to obtain store data from the pump, do pump performance diagnostics, do patient diagnostics, and other such functions.
The therapeutic substance delivered to a patient can be stored in a reservoir in the pump. The therapeutic substance in the reservoir flows from the reservoir via internal fluid handling components to a motor and pump where it is appropriately metered in accordance with parameters which can, for example, be downloaded from the external programmer. A catheter, sometimes lengthy, fluidly connects the pump to the target sight for therapy in the patient.
Many therapeutic substance delivery devices are configured so the device can be refilled with therapeutic substance through a septum while the device is implanted. Thus, the length of time that the device may be left implanted is not limited by the amount of therapeutic substance that can be stored in the device. This allows the attending medical person to routinely, safely, and painlessly refill the therapeutic substance reservoir in the therapeutic substance delivery device to continuously treat the patient with explanting and re-implanting the therapeutic substance delivery device.
A syringe can be used to refill the implanted therapeutic substance delivery device when all, or nearly all, of the therapeutic substance has been infused and the pump reservoir has been emptied, or nearly emptied. A syringe is filled with a new supply of therapeutic substance and the syringe needle inserted into the pump to refill the pump reservoir with the contents of the syringe.

Method for delivery of therapeutic substances


A system for amplifying GPS and satellite digital radio signals is provided. The system includes a GPS antenna configured to receive signals transmitted by a GPS satellite, and a satellite digital radio antenna configured to receive satellite digital radio signals. The system also includes an amplifier that is electrically coupled to the GPS antenna and satellite antenna. The amplifier is configured to amplify GPS and satellite digital radio signals received by the satellite digital radio antenna and GPS antenna. A method for amplifying GPS and satellite digital radio signals is also provided.

Trucks, boats, automobiles and other vehicles are commonly equipped with various signal communication devices such as radios for receiving broadcast radio frequency (RF) signals, processing the RF signals, and broadcasting audio information to passengers. Satellite digital audio radio (SDAR) services have become increasingly popular, offering digital radio service covering large geographic areas, such as North America. Other geographic areas, such as Europe, are also beginning to offer SDAR services. These services typically receive uplinked programming which, in turn, is provided to subscriber RF receivers via satellites or terrestrial receivers. Each subscriber to the service generally possesses a digital radio having an RF receiver and one or more antennas for receiving the digital broadcast and providing it to receivers coupled to the one or more antennas. When a digital broadcast signal is received by an antenna, it is typically amplified in a low-noise amplifier coupled to the antenna prior to being provided to additional processing circuitry in the receiver for decoding. This amplification process typically improves the quality of the received signal provided to the additional processing circuitry.
FIG. 1A generally illustrates one example of a conventional satellite digital audio radio system 90. In this system 90, satellite digital audio radio signals are received by an antenna 30. The received signals are amplified by a low-noise amplifier 32, filtered by a filter 34, and further amplified by amplifier 36 prior to being provided to SDAR processing circuitry 38. The received, amplified, and filtered satellite digital audio radio signals are further processed by SDAR processing circuitry 38 to extract audio and/or other data.
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are also becoming increasingly popular as vehicle accessories. GPS receivers are typically employed in systems to help vehicle drivers and/or passengers determine their location and navigate to various locations. GPS receivers typically receive signals from multiple satellites via an antenna or multiple antennas. By receiving signals from multiple satellites, the GPS receiver is able to determine the location of the GPS receiver, and therefore the vehicle in which the receiver is located, based on the received GPS signals. As with SDAR signals, the GPS signals received by a GPS antenna are typically amplified by a low-noise amplifier coupled to the antenna prior to being provided to additional processing circuitry in the GPS receiver for the calculation of GPS information. This amplification process typically improves the quality of the signal provided to the processing circuitry of the GPS receiver.
FIG. 1B generally illustrates one example of a conventional GPS system 92 for processing GPS signals. In this system 92, GPS signals are received by an antenna 40, amplified by a low-noise amplifier 42, filtered by a filter 44, and amplified again by an amplifier 46 prior to being provided to GPS processing circuitry 48. GPS processing circuitry 48 utilizes the amplified, filtered GPS signals to determine location information.
When both a conventional GPS system 92 and a conventional satellite digital audio radio system 90 are employed in the same vehicle, each of the systems typically requires its own low-noise amplifier (LNA) for amplifying the received GPS and SDAR signals, respectively. The requirement that each system have its own LNA increases the size of the systems and increases the total system cost.
What is needed is a system and method for cost-effectively amplifying both GPS and SDAR signals received by vehicle antennas.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for processing GPS and satellite digital radio signals using a shared LNA


According to an embodiment, a smoothing device includes an acquiring unit, a determining unit, and selecting unit. The acquiring unit acquires weather information of a plurality of operation areas. A facility device that performs environmental control according to a control value resulting from operation based on the weather information is installed in each of the operation areas. The determining unit determines whether or not an amount of change in weather exceeds a predetermined first threshold in each of the operation areas. The selecting unit selects at least one first operation area that is an operation area in which the amount of change exceeds the first threshold as a halt area for which the operation of the control value used by the facility device installed in the first operation area is halted when the number of first operation areas exceeds a predetermined second threshold.

In recent years, remote energy saving services mainly targeted at buildings are provided. Remote energy saving services are services that provide power supply/demand control such as air conditioning control and lighting control to predetermined areas in buildings or the like through the Internet. Control values used for the power supply/demand control such as air conditioning control and lighting control are calculated by operation executing units of servers or the like and distributed to facility devices installed in the areas.
It is known to equalize the calculation load of the operation by distributing the operation over a plurality of executing devices such as servers. It is also known to attempt to reduce the calculation load by performing the operation of control values used for power supply/demand control according to weather information. Specifically, it is known to attempt to reduce the calculation load by performing the operation when the weather has greatly changed and not performing the operation when the change in the weather is small.
With the relate art, however, it is difficult to smooth the calculation load at a time slot in which the weather changes continuously.

Smoothing device, smoothing system, and computer program product


Methods and apparatus for providing suggested completions to search results are disclosed which employ locating nodes in a stored ontology, wherein nodes consist of classes or instances of information, that correspond to the at least one search term, retrieving neighbors of located nodes in the stored ontology, and generating suggested completions in a format which separates homonymic terms. Methods and apparatus are disclosed for building ontologies and dynamically expanding ontologies.

Information needs of users in the digital era can be fulfilled by keyword-based search engines. Such search engines have become the universal catalogs for world-wide resources. Unlike the old library catalogs that are mostly searchable by fixed fields (e.g., by authors, titles, and keywords predefined by authors), modern Web search engines provide a flexible, easy way to express search terms. However, the search results are typically long lists of hits that contain many irrelevant links. Radev, D. R., et al., WebInEssence: A Personalized Web-Based Multi-Document Summarization and Recommendation System. In: NAACL Workshop on Automatic Summarization. Pittsburgh, Pa. (2001).
Past research has concentrated either on refining the search keywords or on sifting and filtering the search results, to improve the precision of the returned hit lists. Search engines face an additional complication when a search term is a homonym (a keyword with multiple meanings or multiple references) and the user is not aware that there are several concepts for this term. She might not be aware of this homonymy at all, or it might escape her attention at the moment of performing the Web search. For example, when looking for information about former President George W. Bush she might momentarily forget about President George H. W. Bush, the father of President George W. Bush. She would then get results about both of them, which is not what she desired.
When using a search engine to satisfy an information need about a homonymous concept, a user is faced with two kinds of problems. She might get an overwhelming number of responses about one homonym, especially if this meaning is more popular, while the second homonym with a less popular meaning that she might be really interested in is hidden in a snippet on a much later page of hits returned by the search engine. This is the case with lopsided preferences in meanings. For instance, the "Michael Jackson" who is a singer is much more popular than the basketball player of the same name. Hence many more search results contain references to the singer. In this situation, the user is at least aware that the results she is getting are not about the basketball player that she has been looking for. When formulating the initial query, it escaped her attention that there are two concepts for her search term and that more information might be available on the Web about the homonym that she is not interested in. At this point, she needs to wade through pages of reported hits for the wrong Michael Jackson or append terms to her query that will exclude the unwanted homonym and re-execute the search. This constitutes a kind of feedback loop between the user and the search engine.
The situation is even worse if the user is completely unaware of the fact that the search term is a homonym with two (or more) references, and all results that appear on the first few pages of hits are to the "wrong" reference. For example, a user located in the New York area, who types "Penn Station" into Google® will see many references to Penn Station in New York City (NYC) and some references to Penn Station in Newark. These two Penn Stations are separated by a 20 minute train ride. Unbeknownst to her, there is also a Penn Station in Philadelphia, Pa. However, a reference to the latter does not appear on the first page of search results.
In a previous ontology-supported Web search systems, the user was presented with a number of choices of additional search terms for her input. She could mark such terms as positive, i.e., they should be included in the Web search results, by clicking on associated check boxes. One problem with this approach was that users did not want to be bothered by many questions. A more benign approach to eliciting additional information from a user can be seen in the use of suggested completions. While a user types in the first (few) word(s) of her search, the search engine displays up to ten suggested search completions, which will possibly describe the search that the user had in mind. These completions are presumably based on the observed frequencies of many searches of other search engine users. While the user continues to type, the suggested completions change rapidly and are often limited to fewer than ten.
Another weakness of the aforementioned Web search system was that it did not make use of the information that may be inferred by a form of closed-world assumption from the terms that the user did not select with a check mark. According to the documentation of major search engines, the use of negative search words, marked with a minus sign before the word(s), constitutes a particularly powerful tool for discriminating between different results.
Current popular search engines do not reflect distinctions between different concepts that are expressed by the same word or the same multi-word term (homonyms). Suggested completions also do not appear to be optimized for discrimination between homonyms. These suggested completions are disorganized from a conceptual point of view.

Optimized ontology based internet search systems and methods


Provided in embodiments of the present invention is a chair sled locking mechanism for use with a gaming device. In one example embodiment, a chair sled includes a sled body having a chair attachment connector disposed at a first end of the sled body and a cavity disposed at a second end of the sled body. A latching unit is disposed in the cavity of the sled body along with a spring that is configured to hold the latching unit in a locked position. A latch cover covers the cavity of the sled body. At least one of the latch cover or sled body includes an opening that allows an operator to manipulate the latching unit to an unlocked position.

Although gaming has existed in some form for many years, its present familiar form of slot devices, table games, sports books, etc. has mainly developed in the last few decades. During this development process, the need to make gaming stations comfortable for the player was recognized. These comfort improvements were advantageous to gaming casinos and other gaming businesses because it encouraged players to play for longer amounts of time. Gaming chairs were a major part of this development because they provide both support and comfort to players playing the gaming machines. Additionally, chairs allow gaming players with limited mobility or strength to comfortably position themselves during game play at a gaming device.
The gaming establishments, however, realized that although chairs provided a comfort increase for players, there were certain disadvantages to having them present. One disadvantage is that the presence of chairs takes up valuable floor space and can crowd aisles between gaming machines. This often means that banks of gaming machines must be separated by a greater margin to allow the chairs to fit into the aisles between the gaming machine banks. Another disadvantage is that the presence of chairs makes cleaning the floors and machines more difficult. The chairs must be moved to allow vacuums easy passage and allow cleaning staff to clean the faces of the gaming machines. Although not a problem on the same scale of the cleaning issues, slot technicians must also often move the chairs to access the gaming devices. A further disadvantage is that chairs separate from the gaming machines are relatively mobile resulting in various dangerous situations. For example, a careless or inebriated player may tilt back on a separated chair and fall over, which provides a risk both to that player and other people in the immediate vicinity. Other examples may include situations where angry or frustrated players attempt to pick up or throw the separated chairs. In addition to these more dangerous situations, chairs that are separated from the gaming machines may be moved and misplaced.
To address some of these problems, some gaming jurisdictions and casinos require that gaming chairs be physically attached to the gaming devices. This is typically done through a metal plate that attaches to the base of the gaming machine and the base of the chair. Since one of the goals of this setup is to prevent players from purposefully removing the chair, the physical connections between the chair, metal plate, and gaming device are generally structured to prevent players from being able to disconnect the chairs from the gaming devices. However, to accomplish this structure, the physical connections are generally very difficult and cumbersome for casino personnel to remove. This difficulty slows down gaming machine movement on a gaming floor during reorganizations of gaming floors and can make access to the lower doors of the gaming device difficult during routine maintenance or other repairs.
In addition, conventional chair connection systems include a mechanical latch to retain the chair in the gaming machine. That is, the metal plate generally has a hook or pin that fits into and interfaces with a latch located in the base of a gaming machine. This additional mechanical system in gaming devices, however, increases the cost of manufacturing the gaming machines due to the additional parts needed for the latch system. Since only some jurisdictions and casinos require that the chair be attached to the gaming device, this additional manufacturing cost becomes needless if all machines are manufactured with the latch system. However, if only a portion of the gaming machines are fitted with a latch, potentially costly adjustments must be made to the manufacturing process to accommodate both styles of gaming machines (i.e., ones without the latch system and ones with the latch system). Additionally, if there is a mechanical problem with the latch system, the entire game has to be taken out of service for repair, which can cost the casino potential revenue.
Conventional latching systems also generally have a raised portion at the connection point with the machine to facilitate an area for the latch pin or hook. This raised portion, however, can interfere with a player's foot room and can be incompatible with gaming devices that have a low profile base. Further, some conventional latching systems require an attachment point to the casino floor to prevent lateral or vertical movement (rocking) of the chair and metal plate. This requirement adds additional complexity and cost for a casino and limits the possible game floor arrangements of the gaming machines.
These and other problems in conventional gaming devices are addressed by embodiments of the present invention.

Chair sled locking mechanism for gaming device


The electrode comprises an anchor point sandwiched firmly between a protective insulating sheath and an enlarged end portion of the selfsame sheath in such a way that the tip of the point projects from the distal end, together with a stimulation head disposed coaxially with the sheath and connected electrically to a spiral wound conductor; when the anchor point is corkscrewed into a cardiac muscle, a conductive spring positioned between the head and the conductor allows a measured retraction of the head back into the sheath, with the result that the head is maintained constantly in contact with the surface of the cardiac muscle independently of the penetrating movement of the point.

The present invention relates to an actively anchored electrode for electrode catheters. Conventional electrode catheters as used currently with cardiac pacemakers, whether mono- bi- or tri- polar, are anchored by way of a distal electrode consisting substantially in a head or point of conductive material that is hooked into the cardiac muscle and associated directly (via a connection made internally of a protective insulating sheath) to a spiral wound conductive wire returning to one of the pacemaker terminals.
During implantation of the catheter, the surgeon uses a special tool operated from the remote end of the spiral wound conductor to corkscrew the point into the cardiac muscle of the patient, where it remains permanently anchored.
The principal drawback betrayed by these implanted elements stems in effect from the very embodiment of the electrode catheter, whereby the point, being connected directly and electrically to the spiral wound wire, also functions as a cardiac sensing and stimulation terminal; the surface area of such an electrode is therefore of generous proportions, so that the concentration of the stimulation current flowing through the lesion produced in the cardiac muscle by penetration of the point gives rise to a negative secondary phenomenon in the electrical activity of the heart, referred to in technical jargon as a "lesion wave".
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to overcome the drawback in question by providing an electrode capable on the one hand of allowing a secure penetration and anchorage in muscle tissue, and on the other, of producing electrical contact by way of a conductive surface that is proportioned to the requirements of stimulation, devoid of any traumatizing effect and with a greater stimulation sensitivity, the combined effect of which being to eliminate the "lesion wave".

Actively anchored electrode for electrode catheters


A method in a legacy access node for selecting a suitable RAN, of a plurality of RANs for a LTE UE, capable of both PS and CS sessions in a global communication network. The method comprises connecting the UE to a legacy RAN via a radio interface module and then establishing a PS session with the connected UE. The bandwidth that the UE currently is consuming is monitored and compared with a predefined bandwidth threshold. If the consumed bandwidth exceeds the predefined bandwidth threshold an attempt will be made to trigger transferring of the UE from the current legacy RAN to the LTE RAN. A corresponding method is disclosed in a eNodeB where the attempt to trigger transferring of the UE from the LTE RAN to the legacy RAN is made if the consumed bandwidth falls below the predefined threshold. Related legacy access nodes and eNodeBs perform the methods.

As is known voice services in mobile networks have strict regulations to allow emergency calls to operate correctly. When it comes to legacy Radio Access Technologies (RATs) such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000) and Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) they have been developed over quite some time to fulfill these regulations. However, when it comes to LTE that is now being rollout as a high bandwidth data service network the situation is different. The legacy RATs have native voice support whereas LTE can add voice support, including emergency services, using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) anchored in IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). If IMS is not supported, whenever an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) detects that a voice call is being set up, the UE will be ordered to perform a transfer to a voice capable RAT, i.e. 2G or 3G legacy networks are used as fallback in order to get access to CS voice capable radio resources.
The added signaling in the LTE network and the resulting transfer to the CS capable RAN will add time to the CS call setup time. Further, if a problem occurs in the process of signaling and transferring preceding the CS fallback, there is usually not enough time to perform a retry or switch of strategy. It is well known that a delay is perceived as particularly disturbing in relation to voice sessions in general. CS fallback might also cause call setup delay in the magnitude of seconds, or worst case, call setup failure. From a user's perspective, this will be perceived as poor quality of service.
One way to reduce or eliminate this call set up time is to let the LTE capable UE camp on one of the legacy RANs and thereby avoid the extra signaling and transferring of it to the CS capable RAN. However, camping on one of the legacy RANs will make it necessary to transfer the UE to the LTE RAN whenever the user needs to take advantage of the high bandwidth data service provided by LTE.
Thus, there is a need to be able to decide how and when to make such a transfer from the legacy RAN to the LTE RAN and also to be able to decide when to make a transfer back from the LTE RAN to the legacy RAN.

Methods and apparatuses in communication systems