A vertical deviation indicator and predictor includes a vertical deviation scale having a plurality of vertically spaced markers, one of the markers indicating the vehicle's present vertical position. Current vertical flight path segment symbols are selectively superimposable over the vertical deviation scale in accordance with the vehicle's current vertical flight path segment. Next vertical flight path segment symbols are selectively superimposable over the vertical deviation scale in accordance with the vehicle's next vertical flight path segment, the position thereof being determined by backward extrapolation of the next vertical flight path segment. Thus, the type and position of the current and next vertical flight path segment symbols on the vertical deviation scale provide situational awareness of the present vertical flight path deviation and an indication of an efficient and timely manner for intercepting the desired flight path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to aircraft instrumentation displays and more particularly to a vertical deviation indication and prediction system for providing situational awareness of the present vertical flight path and an efficient indication of a manner for intercepting the desired flight path.
2. Description of the Related Art
The depiction of lateral navigation (LNAV) information in the flight deck has matured significantly over recent years. It is fairly easy for pilots to visualize their position on the active (FMS) flight plan, understand where the next waypoint occurs, the direction of the next leg, and visualize any offsets when deviating. Furthermore, when navigating by heading/track, it is also a straightforward matter to manually create an intercept path to rejoin the flight plan.
The same cannot be said for Vertical Navigation (VNAV). One of the principal reasons that pilots become confused when using VNAV is that they do not have a comprehensive visualization tool for the vertical flight plan. Recent designs by air transport aircraft manufacturers have implemented vertical situation displays. However, many smaller/older aircraft do not possess anything more than simple vertical deviation indicators that show the current deviation from the vertical flight plan. No information is provided about the next vertical flight plan segment beyond the next flight plan waypoint.
An example, of a Vertical Situation Display (VSD) for use with Boeing aircraft is described in the article entitled, "Vertical Situation Display for Improved Flight Safety and Reduced Operating Costs", Aero, No. 20, October 2002, pages 3–11. The Boeing VSD works in conjunction with the terrain-mapping feature of the terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS), a Honeywell enhanced ground proximity warning system. It provides an intuitive presentation of the vertical situation relative to the surrounding terrain and the final approach decent path. In addition to terrain alerting, the TAWS provides a lateral, or top-down, view of terrain. The VSD depicts a profile, or side view, of terrain and flight path data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,720,891, issued to Chen et al., entitled, "Vertical Situation Display Terrain/Waypoint Swath, Range to Target Speed, and Blended Airplane Reference" discloses a flight information display for the flight deck of an aircraft showing a pictorial side view of the flight path or the area directly in front of the aircraft area having a selected distance of at least 0.5 nautical miles, comprising (a) a pictorial representation to scale of the profile of the highest elevations of a swath of terrain along said path or area, (b) an icon positioned on the left or right side of the display representing the aircraft, the altitude of which is to scale with the height of the terrain, and (c) an altitude reference scale; wherein the width of the swath is at least 0.1 nautical miles and no greater than the distance of the minimum accuracy of the means for determining the aircraft's location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,552, issued to Wichgers et al., entitled, "Integrated Horizontal and Profile Terrain Display Format For Situational Awareness", discloses a visual display format for a terrain situational awareness system comprising a horizontal terrain elevation view and a profile terrain elevation view of potential terrain hazards integrated onto a single display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,151, issued to Wichgers et al., entitled, "Integrated Vertical Situation Display for Aircraft", discloses an integrated vertical situation display (IVSD) for an aircraft, and method of displaying vertical situation information. The IVSD includes an electronic display for displaying the vertical situation of the aircraft, input interfaces for receiving vertical profile information signals, and a processing circuit for reading the information signals and generating display signals applied to the display therefrom. The display has a vertical profile view area to display the vertical situation in front of, above, and below the aircraft. The information sources may include a flight management system, traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) and a ground proximity warning system. Vertical situations are displayed by visual indicia representing, for example, aircraft position, path angle, flight path, waypoints, TCAS targets, altitude preselect, decision height, runway, ground contour, and vertical speed. The integrated display minimizes the cognitive workload of the operator in assessing the total vertical situation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,151, issued to Barber et al., entitled, "Enhanced Vertical Terrain Profile Display", discloses a flight display for use in an avionics system that has a visual display format to show an enhanced vertical situation of an aircraft. Included is a vertical terrain profile display that displays terrain in front of the aircraft over a selected range and a selected swathe width. The vertical terrain profile display shows a side-on terrain profile view with a digital display of the selected swathe width and a display of range in front of the aircraft. A plan view of the aircraft position is included that shows swathe lines on either side of an aircraft to show the selected swathe width. A means for selecting the swathe width by the pilot is provided. The vertical terrain profile display may be changed into a end-on vertical terrain profile view over the selected swathe width. The end-on terrain profile view has a digital display of the selected range and a digital display of the selected swathe width on each side of the aircraft.
As will be disclosed below, the present invention affords a simple method and symbology for providing the pilot with much improved situational awareness, regarding the position of the airplane relative to the current vertical flight plan segment, and the position relative to an extension (rearwards extrapolation) of the next vertical flight plan segment.

Vertical deviation indication and prediction system


The image forming apparatus has: a head which has a liquid ejection surface and performs liquid ejection in which liquid is ejected from the liquid ejection surface; an intermediate transfer body moving in a movement direction with respect to the head and having an image forming surface opposing the liquid ejection surface of the head and a rear surface which is reverse to the image forming surface and on which a line pattern constituted by pattern elements is formed, the image forming surface having an image forming region in which an image is formed by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejection surface of the head, the pattern elements being arranged equidistantly in the movement direction; a transfer device which transfers the image formed in the image forming region of the intermediate transfer body to a recording medium; a reading device which is provided on an upstream side of the head in terms of the movement direction of the intermediate transfer body and reads light reflected by the line pattern; and an ejection control device which determines a movement speed and a movement distance of the intermediate transfer body from result obtained by reading the light by means of the reading device, generates an ejection control signal for the head according to the determined movement speed and the determined movement distance of the intermediate transfer body, and controls the liquid ejection of the head according to the ejection control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method, and more particularly, to technology for preventing decline in image quality caused by variation in the speed of an intermediate transfer body when forming an image on the intermediate transfer body in the image forming apparatus which uses a transfer method by which an image is formed on the intermediate transfer body by means of a liquid ejection device, such as an inkjet head, and the image is then transferred to a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an inkjet recording apparatus which uses a transfer method in which an image is formed on an intermediate transfer body from an inkjet head and then transferred to a recording medium, a desired image is formed on the intermediate transfer body by ejecting ink at prescribed timing while moving the intermediate transfer body at a prescribed speed. When a load is placed on the intermediate transfer body, for instance, when the image is being transferred from the intermediate transfer body to the recording medium, or when the intermediate transfer body is being cleaned, then a speed variation occurs in the intermediate transfer body, even if the drive source of the intermediate transfer body is controlled to a uniform speed. When an image is formed by an inkjet head on the intermediate transfer body, in a state where speed variation occurs in the intermediate transfer body in this way, then displacement occurs in the positions at which the dots are formed, due to the speed variation of the intermediate transfer body directly below the inkjet head, and therefore the image quality is markedly degraded. In order to resolve this problem, various methods have been proposed for preventing decline in the image quality caused by speed variation of the intermediate transfer body in an image forming apparatus based on a transfer method which uses the intermediate transfer body.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-326559 discloses an invention related to a transfer type of inkjet recording apparatus in which deterioration of image quality is prevented by avoiding use of devices which are involved in image formation, such as a device which applies treatment liquid to the intermediate transfer body, a transfer device, a separating device, during image recording by the inkjet head.
However, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-326559, since image formation onto the intermediate transfer body is halted during transfer or cleaning. Although this is effective in preventing image deterioration, productivity is adversely affected.

Image forming apparatus and method for preventing image deterioration due to speed variation in an imtermediate transfer body


The present invention relates to a column decoder for low power consumption in a semiconductor memory apparatus. The semiconductor device according to the present invention includes a column select signal decoder, which has a driving voltage input node and uses a driving voltage, for producing a plurality of column select signals by decoding a column select control signal; and a driving voltage supply controller for controlling a supply of the driving voltage to the driving voltage input node.

The present invention relates to a column decoder of a semiconductor memory apparatus; and, more particularity, to a column decoder for low power consumption in the semiconductor memory apparatus.
Generally, a semiconductor memory apparatus includes a plurality of bit lines and word lines for storing data in a plurality of cells and reading out stored data from the cells, a selection circuit for selecting one of the plurality of bit lines and word lines, and a peripheral circuit, such as a plurality of sense amplifiers.
To select a cell of the memory device, the semiconductor memory apparatus also includes a row decoder, which produces a word line select signal XI to select a word line by decoding row address signals, and a column decoder, which produces a column select signal YI to select a bit line by decoding column address signals.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating a conventional driver for producing a column select signal YI in a column decoder.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the case where a column decoder does not operate, all the input signals are at a logic low level. In the case where the column decoder operates, signals YA345C and YA678C of the column select signals are at a logic high level and, when any of the signals YA12P<0>, YA12P<1>, YA12P<2> and YA12P<3> go to a logic high level, their respective column select signals YI<0>, YI<1>, YI<2> and YI<3> are enabled.
Since the circuit block described above is selected by column select control signals YA345C<0:7> and YA678C<0:7>, the semiconductor memory apparatus shown in FIG. 1 can have 256 number of column select signals YIs, e.g., YI<0:255>. As shown in FIG. 1, a driver to produce a column select signal YI in the conventional memory device comprises an inverter using an external voltage VDD and a ground voltage VSS as operating voltage sources.
The driver to produce a column select signal YI which is representative one of all column select signals, comprising an inverter using the external voltage VDD and the ground voltage VSS as the operating voltage sources, has a large size because of a large load applied thereto. Moreover, the drivers to produce the column select signals YI, comprising inverters using the external voltage VDD and the ground voltage VSS as the operating voltage sources, occupy a significant area of a semiconductor memory apparatus because the drivers are disposed in an array structure to produce the column select signals YI.
For example, in the case of a 512M DRAM, it requires the driver to produce the column select signals YI of 16×1024. Assuming that a width of a PMOS transistor, which is employed in a driver to produce the column select signal YI, is approximately 40 μm, a theoretical total width of the PMOS transistors employed in the driver to produce the column select signal YI is approximately 655360 μm in the abstract. Substantially, since all plural MOS transistors in the driver are not formed on the same plane and parts of the plural MOS transistors can be overlapped, a practical total width of the PMOS transistors employed in the driver inside a chip of the semiconductor memory apparatus is very smaller than above theoretical total width.
Furthermore, assuming that a leakage current of the PMOS transistor which is employed in driver to produce the column select signal YI is approximately 50 pA/μm, the total amount of leakage current caused by the driver for producing the column select signal YI becomes approximately 33 μA. This is 20% of the entire IDD 2P value. Here, the IDD 2P, as a specification of a precharge standby DC current of the semiconductor memory apparatus, defines an amount of the current consumed in a power down mode. 20% is a substantial portion of the entire IDD 2P value, and can have an effect on the yield of low power mobile DRAMs.

Semiconductor memory apparatus having column decoder for low power consumption


The present invention relates to a mobile communication system in which variable bandwidths are set in this manner, and a base station controller for setting these variable bandwidths. A base station controller sends a value indicating a requested bandwidth required for a channel of variable bandwidth to a base station. The base station, upon receiving the request, returns a response of an allocatable bandwidth equal to or lower than the requested bandwidth, to the base station controller. The base station controller, upon receiving the response, sets the channel of variable bandwidth between a mobile station and the base station, and between the base station and the base station controller, according to the allocatable bandwidth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for setting channels of variable bandwidth in a mobile communication system comprising mobile stations, base stations and a base station controller. Moreover, the present invention also relates to a mobile communication system in which variable bandwidths are set in this manner, and a base station controller for setting these variable bandwidths.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of a mobile communication system, for instance, cellular phones, and the like, a cdma2000 (MC-CDMA) system for broadening the bandwidth of a cdmaOne system is coming into practical use.
In addition to the fundamental channel (Fch: Fundamental Channel) in the cdmaone system, the cdma2000 system newly provides a dedicated control channel (DCch) and a supplementary channel (hereinafter, called "Sch"). A communication circuit between the respective mobile stations (cellular phones, car phones, etc.) and the base station and base station controller is constituted by Fch, DCch and Sch.
Fch and DCch are jointly called the traffic channel (hereinafter, "Tch"). This traffic channel Tch is used for both voice communications, and data communications by packet transmission, or the like. The Sch, on the other hand, is used only for packet communication of data, or the like. Moreover, the Fch and DCch included in the Tch are both assigned a fixed size bandwidth (resource, rate). For example, they are assigned a 9.6 kbps bandwidth.
The Sch, on the other hand, can be assigned a bandwidth, (resource, rate) of variable size, it being possible to assign any requested bandwidth that can be guaranteed, below a predetermined maximum value. For example, at 9.6×m [kbps] (where m is a positive integer), a bandwidth up to the predetermined maximum value of 144 [kbps] (in other words, m=15), can be assigned.
If data communications are being performed between a mobile station and the base station, then generally, the Tch (either Fch or DCch) is used first, and if the Tch bandwidth is not sufficient, then the Sch is used as well. In this case, the necessary bandwidth is allocated to the Sch. Therefore, when the mobile station is only performing voice communications, or when it is performing data communications by Tch only, then only Tch is in use and Sch is not set up.
In a current cdma2000 system, the allocation of bandwidth to the Sch is performed equally for each mobile station. In other words, if the requested bandwidth can be guaranteed for each one of the mobile stations, this requested bandwidth is assigned to the Sch of those mobile stations. On the other hand, if the requested bandwidth cannot be guaranteed, then communications are continued using Tch only, without setting the Sch for the mobile stations.
Furthermore, during hand-off performed by a mobile station moving between cells or sectors, if the bandwidth of Sch set between the mobile station and the source side base station cannot be guaranteed between the mobile station and the target side base station, then the Sch between the mobile station and the target base station is not set and no hand-off is implemented for the Sch.
In this way, in the current cdma2000 system, if the bandwidth requested for the Sch cannot be guaranteed, then even if a smaller bandwidth can be guaranteed, that bandwidth is not assigned to the Sch and hence efficient use of the bandwidth (resource) is not achieved.
Furthermore, although the bandwidth usable for the Sch is limited by the maximum value 144 [kbps], any mobile station is assigned directly with the full requested bandwidth as long as the bandwidth is less than this maximum value. Consequently, situations may arise where Sch is set in some of the mobile stations, whilst no Sch at all is set in the remaining mobile stations. This in turn leads to a risk that the appeal of the service will decline.

Channel setting method in mobile communication system


A method and apparatus for filling a container having an opening with a liquid includes a valve assembly, disposed in the opening of the container, and a nozzle assembly. The valve assembly includes a housing having a plug detachably mounted therein. An inlet passageway extends through the plug to the interior of the container. An inlet valve is located in the inlet passageway. A relief passageway also extends through the plug to the interior of the container, and a relief valve is located in the relief passageway. The nozzle assembly is coupled to a liquid supply and is adapted to matingly engage an inlet port of the valve assembly. The nozzle assembly engages the inlet port to allow liquid from the liquid supply to flow through the inlet passageway into the interior of the container, and opens the relief valve to vent the interior of the container during the filling operation.

There are numerous instances in which a tank or cylinder or other closed container is to be filled with a liquid, including a liquefied gas. One such instance involves small tanks or cylinders of liquid carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) which are used to supply propellant gas to a paint ball gun. A "typical" tank or cylinder for this particular application holds approximately 9 ounces of liquid CO.sub.2.
One procedure now followed in filling a 9 ounce CO.sub.2 cylinder involves "syphoning" liquid CO.sub.2 from a larger supply tank into the cylinder to be filled. A filling procedure of this type is generally accomplished using the same valved opening into the cylinder which is used to supply gas to the operating elements of the gun. This requires, of course, that the cylinder be removed from the gun for filling.
More specifically, one prior art procedure for filling a small CO.sub.2 tank begins with the step of venting or emptying the tank of existing liquid and gas. The tank must typically be emptied unless the exact weight of the tank is known in advance. The tank is then chilled to reduce the volume of the remaining vapor in the tank. This allows liquid to flow into the tank without venting the existing vapor from the tank. Chilling of the tank may be accomplished by emptying a partially-filled tank. As the liquefied gas expands and escapes from the tank, the temperature of the tank drops significantly. Once the tank is emptied and cold, it is weighed. Following this step, the tank is connected to a supply tank to allow liquid CO.sub.2 to flow into the tank. The weight of the tank is monitored during filing to determine the amount of CO.sub.2 liquid placed in the tank. In some cases (e.g., if the tank is not chilled enough), the initial fill operation does not result in the required amount of liquid in the tank (for example, 9 ounces in tanks typically used with some paint ball guns). In that case, the tank is vented to further reduce the temperature, and the fill procedure is repeated.
Under "field" conditions a typical 9 ounce tank may take 2-3 minutes. A "full" tank is about 3/4 filled by volume to allow for some expansion of the gas to occur as the tank warms. Overfilling a tank can result in hazardous pressure buildups. To guard against over pressurization, rupture disks are typically used with prior art tanks.
One embodiment of the present invention includes a valve assembly which fits into the threaded opening of a cylinder, such as a standard 9 ounce CO.sub.2 cylinder. The valve assembly is used in conjunction with a nozzle assembly which is attached to a hose which, in turn, is connected to a source of supply of liquid CO.sub.2. The valve assembly and nozzle of the present invention allow for filling a warm cylinder with liquid CO.sub.2, filling a 9 ounce CO.sub.2 cylinder in a matter of seconds, rather than minutes, providing a visual indication that a tank has been properly filled to the appropriate level without requiring that the tank be weighed before or after the fill operation, and filling the cylinder through a separate fill inlet in the valve assembly which allows the cylinder to be filled while remaining mounted to the gun (or other appliance).
This embodiment of the valve and nozzle assembly of the present invention provides a separate, valved inlet which communicates with the interior of the tank or cylinder for receiving liquid into the tank. A vent opening, also communicating with the inside of the tank, allows vapor inside the tank to exit as liquid enters through the inlet. A shoulder or surface on the fill nozzle opens a vent on the valve assembly when the nozzle engages the valve assembly during the filling operation. A double-valve connection is provided between the supply tank and the tank or cylinder to be filled (i.e., one valve in the nozzle and one valve in the valve assembly).
Other advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A method is provided for operating an electrical writable and erasable memory cell, which has a channel region that can be operated in a first and a second direction, wherein information is stored as the difference of an effective parameter.

Electrical writable and erasable non-volatile memory cells, which can especially be used in a virtual ground NOR architecture, also include so-called charge trapping memory cells, in which, between the channel region and/or the source/drain region and the gate electrode, there is a part of the gate dielectric having a non-conducting memory layer between boundary layers for the trapping of charge carriers and thus for changing the programming state of the memory cell. Such memory cells are described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,192, U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,725 and PCT Patent Publication WO 99/60631. In these memory cells each boundary layer is an oxide and the memory layer is a nitride of the semiconductor material, usually silicon.
Charge-trapping memory cells are preferably programmed by channel hot electrons (CHE) and can be erased with hot holes from the channel region or by Fowler-Nordheim tunnels. A SONOS memory cell provided for a special operating mode with a read voltage (reverse-read) applied in the opposite direction to the programming process, having a thickness of the boundary layers matched to this operating mode, is usually designated as an NROM memory cell. Further details on this can be found in Boaz Eitan et al.: "NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Non-Volatile Memory Cell" in IEEE Electron Device Letters 21, 543-545 (2000).
The memory layer of a charge-trapping memory cell is located between a boundary layer comprising a material having a higher band gap than the band gap of the memory layer so that the charge carriers captured in the memory layer remain localized there. A nitride is preferably considered as material for the memory layer. An oxide is primarily suitable as surrounding material. As an example of such an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) memory layer sequence in the material system of silicon, the silicon nitride memory layer is provided with a band gap of about 5 eV. The surrounding boundary layers are silicon oxide having a band gap of about 9 eV.
The memory layer can be a different material whose band gap is smaller than the band gap of the boundary layers wherein the difference of the band gaps should be as large as possible for good electrical confinement of the charge carriers. In conjunction with silicon oxide as the boundary layer, for example, tantalum oxide, hafnium silicate, titanium oxide (in the case of a stoichiometric composition TiO2), zirconium oxide (in the case of a stoichiometric composition ZrO2), aluminum oxide (in the case of a stoichiometric composition Al2O3), or intrinsically conducting (undoped) silicon can be used as the material of the memory layer.
Such a 2-bit NROM memory cell is programmed, as described for example in PCT Patent Publication WO 98/03977, such that by means of a gate voltage and a drain source voltage in the channel region of the memory cell, a vertical and a lateral electric field is produced which accelerates the electrons along the channel length. Some electrons are accelerated such that in the vicinity of the drain region where the electric field is strongest, they jump over the potential barrier and reach the nitride layer. In this way, the threshold voltage of the channel region changes, which can be detected by applying a read voltage in the reverse direction. The second bit in this memory cell is programmed by exchanging drain and source compared with the previous described programming process for writing the memory cell and thus the significant adjustment of charges into the charge-trapping layer. In this way, 2-bit information can be stored in a non-volatile memory cell, such as an NROM cell for example.
A disadvantage of this known procedure is that during incorporation of charges into the charge trapping layer on one side of such a cell, reactions are observed on the threshold voltage of the respectively other side of the memory cell. So-called crosstalk thus results. The crosstalk increases with increasing difference between the threshold voltages of the two sides of a cell.
That crosstalk may have the following influences. For reading a NROM memory cell a particular gate voltage and particular drain/source voltage is supplied to the cell. Drain and source are defined so that the desired part of the cell will be read. If no charge is stored in the charge-trapping layer a significant drain current will flow if a specific gate voltage is supplied. When a particular charge is stored in the charge-trapping layer (the nitride layer), this charge will hinder the development of a channel between source and drain and no drain current will flow at the same gate voltage or the drain current will be at least significantly lower. This behavior is viewable in a usual transfer characteristic. Programming of one side of the NROM cell can result in a modification of the transfer characteristic of the other side so that, for an example, a drain current will flow even when no charge was stored within the charge trapping layer.
As the technology is further developed, the effective channel length and thus the physical distance between the charges of both sides of a cell decreases. This results in stronger crosstalk. It can thus be reckoned that in the future there will be an increased number of errors that come about as a result of crosstalk.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for operating an electrical writable and erasable memory cell and a memory device for electrical memories


A surgical lighthead having a stacked elliptical reflector (20) directs light from a lamp (10) to an illumination zone (Y) without the need for a refractor to redirect the reflected light. The reflector is formed of at least three annular reflector segments (22, 24, 26) stacked on top of each other to form a continuous reflector surface. Each of the reflector segments has a longitudinal cross section of a different conical shape such as elliptical or parabolic for directing the light to a different portion of the illumination plane. The stacked elliptical reflector provides the benefits of reduction of the image of the filament in the light field and reduction of shadowing due to objects passing between the lighthead and the illumination plane.

The present invention relates to the field of lighting. It finds particular application to surgical lights and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated, however, that the present invention may also find application in conjunction with other types of non-surgical lighting systems.
Surgical lights used to illuminate surgical sites generally include one or more lamps disposed inside the dome of a dome-shaped reflector which directs light from the lamp to the area to be illuminated. Surgical lights are generally suspended above an operating table by one or more adjustable, articulated arms so that the lamp can be positioned as necessary during surgery.
Typically, surgical lights employ a lamp such as a tungsten halogen lamp which is positioned at or near the focal point of the dome-shaped reflector. The light from the lamp is reflected downward by the reflector through an optical lens or refractor positioned at a lower surface of the light fixture. The refractor is particularly designed to coordinate with the reflector to direct the light in a defined column or cone to an illumination zone. A typical refractor for a surgical lighthead includes up to many thousands of prisms each having a specific prescription in order to direct the light from the reflector to the illumination zone.
In order to prevent shadows when the surgeon's hand or head passes between the lamp and the patient, the reflector is generally quite large and focuses the light at an illumination zone which is the same size or smaller than the refractor. The refractor functions as a diffuser to diffuse the light which helps to prevent shadows. The diffuse light also helps to prevent the image of the filament from appearing prominently in the illumination zone. The size of the illumination zone in most surgical lights can be adjusted by a rotatable sterile handle provided at the center of the face of the light head.
A typical tungsten halogen lamp used in surgical lights includes a tungsten filament that emits energy when electric current passes through the filament. These lamps emit visible light and also emit ultraviolet, infrared, and other undesirable energy. In fact, about 81 percent of the input power to a lamp of this type is converted to infrared energy. However, if this infrared energy is directed to a surgical site, heating of the surgical site will occur which may cause tissue damage. Removal or filtering of the infrared energy from the light directed to the surgical cite to prevent tissue damage may be accomplished by one or more different devices including heat absorbing glasses, cold mirror coatings, and hot mirror coatings. Hot and cold mirror coatings are called dichroic coatings and transmit energy of some wavelengths while reflecting energy of other wavelengths.
The reflectors and refractors which are used in many known types of surgical lights are large precision devices formed of glass which is coated with a dichroic coating material. One of the drawbacks of the known surgical lightheads is that the reflectors and refractors, due to the use of glass and their large size, are extremely heavy and are expensive to manufacture. The refractor is particularly expensive because of the thousands of individual prescription prisms, generally constituting about 12% of the cost of the lighthead.
It is important that the light field or illumination zone created by a surgical light, when focused on a planar surface, have a consistent uniform intensity at all diameters of the zone when viewed by the human eye. However, if the light zone has a completely uniform intensity, the human eye will perceive the edges of the light zone as having a higher intensity than the center. Thus, the light intensity should be manipulated to have a desired intensity profile which will appear constant and uniform to the human eye.
In addition, the human eye is most sensitive to light in approximately the center or the green portion of the visible light spectrum. Thus, a light which has more green and less of the other visible light colors is most desirable for surgical lighting applications. However, one of the drawbacks of known surgical lights is that typical lamps, such as tungsten halogen lamps, used in these surgical lightheads do not have a desirable visible light color distribution.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved surgical lighthead and technique for overcoming the above-referenced drawbacks and others.

Surgical light with stacked elliptical reflector


The difference between the divergences between the determined PR and RR intervals (dPR-dRR) is measured, cycle by cycle, and compared to two selected thresholds S1 and S2. If the difference exceeds threshold S1, a signal corresponding to a ventricular tachycardia is triggered. If the difference is below threshold S2, a signal corresponding to a supraventricular tachycardia related signal is triggered. The trigger signals may be used to control the therapeutic treatment of an implantable tachycardia treatment device accordingly.

Tachycardias are pathological accelerations of the heart rhythm. They can be classified into two distinctive categories based on the focus of their origin. Thus, a distinction is made between supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which originates in the atrium, and ventricular tachycardia (VT), which originates in the ventricle. There is a suitable mode of treatment for each of these tachycardia based on delivery stimulation pulses of electric energy.
For SVTs, there are several possible known modes of treatment ranging from the absence of specific treatment to emitting stimulation pulses having an energy limited to a few micro-joules.
For VTs, it is known to be sometimes necessary to apply an electric shock stimulus of a few joules as soon as possible after the phenomenon has been observed. Such electric shocks are usually unpleasant and painful for patients and must be applied advisedly.
It is, therefore, important, when analyzing cardiac signals in the event of detection of an acceleration of the heart rhythm, to distinguish whether the situation is that of SVT or VT to avoid unnecessary shocks.
French patent No. 2,598,920 describes a system which senses the cardiac signal in the ventricle and detects therefrom the accelerations and decelerations of the heart rhythm. According to the analysis of this rhythm and of the series of accelerations and decelerations, the device evaluates the presence of an arrhythmia susceptible of being treated.
European patent No. 360,412 bases its interpretation of the tachycardia type on a classification, into several adjoining regions, of the rhythms analyzed from the cardiac signal detected in the ventricle.
These two systems have the drawback of relying solely on the signals picked up in one single cardiac chamber. It is difficult for devices that only detect the occurrence of tachycardia from signals picked up in the ventricle to distinguish SVT and VT conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,749 describes a device that picks up the signals representative of the cardiac activity in both the ventricle and the atrium. The device defines different types of tachycardia by means of an algorithm using several rate thresholds and comparison with delays introduced into the device for each patient.
However, due to the numerous tests that must be conducted, such an algorithm is difficult to use in an implantable device.

Method and apparatus for analyzing cardiac activity for implantable tachycardia detection and treatment


A feeding device (1) for feeding hogs and pigs. The feeding device (1) consists of a tube (2) mounted on a frame (7) which is fixedly mounted on a base (3). The tube (2) is suspended in at least two members (5, 6); in a suspension member (5) and a guiding member (6). The tube (2) is suspended freely rotatably in the suspension member (5). The guiding member (6) may be displaced in vertical direction on the frame (7) and is provided on its inner side with an elastic, flexible annular body (10). The elastic flexible, annular body (10) of the guiding member (6) will actuate the tube (2) so that after a swing it will return to its neutral, vertical original position. This feature combined with the vertical displacement of the guiding member (6) makes the feeding device easily adaptable to animals of different sizes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding device for feeding animals, especially hogs and pigs, said feeding device comprising a base designed with a trough over which, on a frame fastened to the base, a tube is suspended, said tube constituting at its upper end a container for storing feed and at its lower end a dispenser unit for dispensing the feed, said tube being suspended and guided at least two members, an upper suspension member and a lower guiding member, the upper suspension member is fixedly mounted on the upper part of the frame and the tube is suspended on the frame in the upper suspension member, said tube is mounted non-adjustable and non-displaceable in the vertical direction in relation to said upper suspension member,
2. Description of Related Art
A feeding device for feeding hogs and pigs is known from WO-93/13652. The feeding device comprises a base on which a trough is formed. Mounted on this base is a frame partitioning the trough. On this frame and directly over the centre of the trough a tube is mounted. This tube serves as a feed dispenser at its bottom and as a feed container at its top.
The function of the feeding device is such that the animal, when hungry, presses its snout against the dispenser part in order to displace it. This is possible since the dispensing part is made from an elastic flexible material. The deflection of the tube will result in a larger opening between the trough and the opening of the tube, and feed will be dispensed onto the trough,
However, a feeding device of the above-mentioned type involves disadvantages. Among other things, it has turned out to be difficult to provide an elastic flexible tube for a young pig, Firstly, it is hard to modify the physical properties of the feeding device so as to adapt it optimally to the forces which the animals exert on the tube, i.e. the sizes of the animals, Secondly, the tube will be costly in production since an elastic flexible material is relatively expensive. Thirdly, it is not possible in a simple manner to adjust the amount of feed to be dispensed from the tube.
FR 2,660,155 describes another feeding device also with a flexible tube, mounted inside a rigid tube. The function of the feeding device is, however, similar to the function of the feeding device described above and thus exhibits the same disadvantages.
DE 2,652,788 describes a feeding device, which is provided with an annular ring around a stiff tube. The amount of feed that is determined by the angle to which the stiff tube can be pivoted. This angle is determined by the ring, the lower it is put, the smaller the angle the tube can make, the less feed comes out of the tube.
All the feeding devices described control the amount of food being led to the trough by adjusting the distance between the outlet of the feeding tube and the trough. This adjustment is made by a vertical movement of the feeding tube.


A crawler shoe for a mining vehicle includes a first wear surface, a second wear surface positioned opposite the first wear surface, a recess formed within the first wear surface and including a measurement datum formed at a bottom portion of the recess, wherein the measurement datum is positioned below the first wear surface such that the measurement datum is subjected to less service wear than the first wear surface, and an approximately linear transmission path configured to receive an ultrasonic signal and extending from the measurement datum to the second wear surface.

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Large industrial vehicles (e.g., mining shovels) may include an undercarriage or other framework for supporting the vehicle and enabling movement of the vehicle about a work site. The undercarriage may include a track having a series of segments, or crawler shoes, that are pivotally connected and driven about a frame to propel the vehicle. As the undercarriage is operated (e.g., the track is driven about the frame), components of the undercarriage, including the crawler shoes, may become worn due to inherent friction between the undercarriage components, the weight of the vehicle, climatic conditions, and the varied terrain, among other factors. Further, various components of the undercarriage may be "dry-running," or operated without oil or grease lubrication. The crawler shoes for instance, may be configured to interface with load rollers of the undercarriage, and thus may be particularly subject to wear. The undercarriage components may thus require frequent inspection, repair, and/or replacement to maintain efficient operation of the vehicle.
Ultrasonic measurement devices may be used to measure or estimate the wear of the crawler shoes and other undercarriage components. For instance, an ultrasonic measurement device may be configured to send an ultrasonic signal (e.g., a high frequency sound wave) from a first surface of the crawler shoe in the direction of a second opposite surface. The ultrasonic measurement device may then measure the elapsed time before the signal is reflected from the second surface and received at the device in order to determine a thickness of the crawler shoe. However, the crawler shoe may have multiple wear surfaces, such that the wear of a particular surface may not be determinable based on the thickness of the crawler shoe. Also, the wear may occur unevenly across the surface of the shoe, such that the thickness measurement may be different depending on the location of the measurement. Further, some surfaces of the crawler shoe may be rounded or uneven. Thus, an accurate measurement or estimate of the wear of a conventional crawler shoe may be difficult or, under certain circumstances, impossible to obtain using the ultrasonic measurement device or a mechanical measurement device.

Crawler shoe having wear measurement features


An apparatus for a stacked silicon interconnect technology (SSIT) product comprises an interposer die, a plurality of integrated circuit dies, a plurality of active components forming an active connection between the integrated circuit dies and the interposer die, and a plurality of dummy components at the interposer die, the dummy components not forming an active connection between the integrated circuit dies and the interposer die. At least a subset of the dummy components forms a pattern, and the pattern comprises an identifier for the interposer die.

Silicon stacked interconnect technology (SSIT) involves packaging multiple integrated circuit (IC) dies into a single package that includes an interposer die and a package substrate. Utilizing SSIT expands FPGA products into higher density, lower power, greater functionality, and application specific platform solutions with low cost and fast-to-market advantages. While SSIT products provide several advantages, the logistics associated with tracking such SSIT products becomes quite challenging.
Tracking components of the SSIT product, particularly the interposer die of the SSIT product is important for several reasons. Tracking an interposer die to its wafer of origin, its location on the wafer of origin, and its wafer lot, allows defective interposer dies to be easily identified and further provides quick feedback for identifying other potentially defective SSIT products that may be associated with the defective interposer die. Furthermore, particular characteristics for interposer dies (e.g., leakage current) may be easily identified to facilitate establishment of performance criteria for SSIT products.
Conventional methods for tracking integrated devices use active electrical circuits within the integrated device. For example, integrated devices may include fuses which may be blown to create unique identifiers for the integrated device. Currently, however, interposer dies of an SSIT product are passive components that include only metal interconnects and do not include any active circuitry. Even if interposer dies of an SSIT product are implemented with active circuitry for future use, the use of polysilicon or metal fuses for identification is impractical because of its high costs. Besides having a higher cost, the fuse circuits will also require additional die area. Moreover, fuse circuits will also have potential design, process defect and variation issues associated with technologies that have critical dimensions less than 65 nm. As such, existing tracking methods cannot be used to track interposer dies of an SSIT product.

Method and apparatus for tracking interposer dies in a silicon stacked interconnect technology (SSIT) product


A downhole apparatus for reaming a borehole incorporates two sets of cutting structures into two integral blade stabilizers, one oriented downhole and the other oriented uphole. The cutting structures comprise polycrystalline diamond cutters that are brazed into a wedge of steel that is inserted into the body of the reamers in an axial direction and retained by a stop block and retention cover that is bolted into the reamer. The two integral blade stabilizers have a combination left hand/right hand blade wrapping to provide 360° support around the circumference of the reamer. Between the two stabilizers, an impeller and a flow accelerator agitate cuttings on the low side of the borehole to mix the cuttings in with the drilling mud.

Directional drilling involves controlling the direction of a wellbore as it is being drilled. It is often necessary to adjust the direction of the wellbore frequently while directional drilling, either to accommodate a planned change in direction or to compensate for unintended and unwanted deflection of the wellbore.
In the drill string, the bottom-hole assembly is the lower portion of the drill string consisting of the bit, the bit sub, a drilling motor, drill collars, directional drilling equipment, and various measurement sensors. Typically, drilling stabilizers are incorporated in the drill string in directional drilling. The primary purpose of using stabilizers in the bottom-hole assembly is to stabilize the bottom-hole assembly and the drilling bit that is attached to the distal end of the bottom-hole assembly, so that it rotates properly on its axis. When a bottom-hole assembly is properly stabilized, the weight applied to the drilling bit can be optimized.
A secondary purpose of using stabilizers in the bottom-hole assembly is to assist in steering the drill string so that the direction of the wellbore can be controlled. For example, properly positioned stabilizers can assist in increasing or decreasing the deflection angle of the wellbore by supporting the drill string near the drilling bit or by not supporting the drill string near the drilling bit.
Drilling operators frequently have a need to open up tight restrictions in a borehole prior to running casing, liners, and packers in the hole. In addition, reamers may be used to remove ledges in the borehole profile. Reaming a borehole reduces the frequency of stuck pipe, helps in running wireline tools that may get stuck on ledges, and reduces the frequency of stick slip, which reduces the amount of vibration and the damage to the bottom hole assembly and the drilling bit.
In addition, reaming or opening a borehole reduces the annular fluid velocities to manage the equivalent circulating density (ECD) more effectively, an important factor in the drilling of a well.


A method, system, and computer program product for identifying at least one three-dimensionally extended lesion within a volumetric region encompassing an inner surface, an outer surface, and intervening tissue of a target organ. The method includes: (1) generating a set of voxels representing a total scanned volume from a set of cross-sectional images of the target organ; (2) performing segmentation to extract a set of voxels representing the volumetric region from the set of voxels representing the total scanned volume; (3) detecting a set of candidate lesions based on geometric feature values of each voxel in the set of voxels representing the volumetric region; and (4) selecting the at least one three-dimensionally extended lesion from the set of candidate lesions based on at least one of volumetric, morphologic, and texture feature values of each lesion in the set of candidate lesions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for the computer-aided detection of three-dimensionally extended organ lesions.
The present invention also generally relates to automated techniques for the detection of abnormal anatomic regions, for example, as disclosed, in particular, in one or more of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,907,156; 5,133,020; 5,832,103; and 6,138,045; all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention also generally relates to computerized techniques for automated analysis of digital images, for example, as disclosed in one or more of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,839,807; 4,841,555; 4,851,984; 4,875,165; 4,918,534; 5,072,384; 5,150,292; 5,224,177; 5,289,374; 5,319,549; 5,343,390; 5,359,513; 5,452,367; 5,463,548; 5,491,627; 5,537,485; 5,598,481; 5,622,171; 5,638,458; 5,657,362; 5,666,434; 5,673,332; 5,668,888; 5,732,697; 5,740,268; 5,790,690; 5,873,824; 5,881,124; 5,931,780; 5,974,165; 5,982,915; 5,984,870; 5,987,345; 6,011,862; 6,058,322; 6,067,373; 6,075,878; 6,078,680; 6,088,473; 6,112,112; 6,141,437; 6,185,320; 6,205,348; 6,240,201; 6,282,305; 6,282,307; 6,317,617 as well as U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/173,935; 08/398,307 (PCT Publication WO 96/27846); 08/536,149; 08/900,189; 09/027,468; 09/141,535; 09/471,088; 09/692,218; 09/716,335; 09/759,333; 09/760,854; 09/773,636; 09/816,217; 09/830,562; 09/818,831; 09/842,860; 09/860,574; 60/160,790; 60/176,304; 09/990,311; 09/990,310; 09/990,377; and 60/331, 995; and PCT patent applications PCT/US98/15165; PCT/US98/24933; PCT/US99/03287; PCT/US00/41299; PCT/US01/00680; PCT/US01/01478 and PCT/US01/01479, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention includes the use of various technologies referenced and described in the above-noted U.S. patents and patent applications, as well as described in the references identified in the following LIST OF REFERENCES by the author(s) and year of publication and cross-referenced throughout the specification by reference to the respective number in parentheses, of the reference:

Method for computer-aided detection of three-dimensional lesions


A hydrostatic transaxle is disclosed of the type including a hydrostatic transmission (11;221), a differential gear means (19;243), and first (21;213) and second (23;215) axle shafts. The hydrostatic transmission includes a transmission case (34;229,231) having a second case portion (31;231) including an output hub portion (97;235). The transaxle includes axle housing casing halves 133,135:209,211) joined together on a plane containing the axis of rotation of the axle shafts, and including an output portion (163,165;209,211) in tight engagement about the output hub portion. Another portion (173;229,231,249) of the transmission case cooperates with one of the axle casing halves to define a secondary mounting means and a torque reaction means which, together with the output hub portion, comprise the only portions of the transmission case operatively associated with the axle housing (131;208). The disclosed mounting or coupling of the hydrostatic transmission and the axle housing makes it possible to integrate the hydrostatic transmission and gear axle assembly, while at the same time segregating the hydraulic fluid of the hydrostatic transmission from the lubricant of the gear axle assembly, but still simplifying the overall structure of the assembly.

The present invention relates to hydrostatic transaxle assemblies, and more particularly, to such transaxle assemblies of the type including a hydrostatic transmission (HST) and an axle assembly including gearing, a differential, and a pair of axle shafts.
Hydrostatic transaxles of the type to which the Present invention relates have been used commercially on relatively small lawn and garden tractors. For a number of years, it has been known to combine a hydrostatic transmission, such as the Model M-7 HST sold commercially by Eaton Corporation, with a mechanical axle assembly, typically including speed reduction gearing, a differential gear set and a pair of axle shafts. Although such HST-gear axle assemblies have generally operated in a satisfactory manner, the overall configuration of the HST and gear axle assembly has generally not been considered optimum, especially for use on relatively smaller lawn and garden tractors.
More recently, some of those skilled in the art have attempted to combine the HST and the gearing and differential in a single assembly, thus improving the overall configuration (i.e., the size and shape relative to the rest of the tractor) An example of such a device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,368, in which an axial piston pump and axial piston motor are disposed within a fairly complex assembly of housing portions. Although the device of the '368 patent could have improved the overall configuration of the transaxle, one disadvantage of the particular construction is that the hydraulic fluid utilized by the axial piston pump and motor would be in communication with the fluid or grease used to lubricate the gear train and differential. As is now well known to those skilled in the art, the level of contamination (i.e., small metal or dirt particles) must be kept much lower in a hydrostatic pump and motor than what is acceptable in a gear train or in differential gearing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,583, there was an attempt to overcome the problem of mixing of fluids by "encapsulating" a complete hydrostatic transmission between a pair of axle casing halves which parted on a horizontal plane containing the axis of rotation of the axle shafts. Furthermore, the stated intent in the '583 patent was to accomplish the encapsulation in a way which would segregate the hydrostatic transmission from the gearing, thus keeping contamination from the gearing out of the hydraulic circuit of the HST.
Although allegedly solving the contamination problem, the device of the '583 patent inherently involved fairly complex structure, in order to achieve the encapsulation of the hydrostatic transmission between the upper and lower axle casing halves. Another disadvantage of the '583 patent relates to periodic servicing of the device. As is well known to those skilled in the art, it is frequently necessary or desirable to service or repair either the hydrostatic transmission or the gearing only. In the device of the '583 patent, it would be necessary to completely disassemble the axle casing halves, in order to have access to the HST, for purposes of performing service or repair.

Hydrostatic transaxle assembly and improved coupling arrangement therefor


An encrypted part of the encrypted program loaded in an memory device is received by a one-chip microcomputer and decrypted according to a decrypting program which is stored in advance in an ROM and which cannot be read out to an external bus. The decrypted program is stored in an cache memory, and a cache function inhibition flag is set in a control register in accordance with a storage area of the decrypted program in the cache memory. Therefore, the decrypted program is inhibited from being read out to the external bus. The decrypted program is combined with the non-encrypted part of the program stored in the memory device, and the combined program is executed by a CPU. The encrypted program is prevented from being illegally copied.

A variety of types of software have recently been contrived in accordance with the remarkable spread of computers and can be utilized as general-purpose software irrespective of a type of computer. However, an illegal copy of software is increasing and thus some measures have to be taken immediately to prevent an illegal copy.
As one measure to prevent software from being illegally copied, there is provided a copy prevention method wherein a software is encrypted and only an authorized user is informed of a decrypting program and the encrypted software is decrypted before execution.
The conventional encryption is performed mainly using a software conversion algorithm. The more complicated the conversion algorithm, the more difficult the decryption of software, however, it is actually very hard to create such an encryption algorithm. Further, the conventional encryption method has drawbacks in which a decrypting program itself is copied and the encrypted software is decrypted and the decrypted program is copied and used, and so on.
Stated another way, the copy of the software is prevented in the conventional system by a software method using a password. However, the software method is not an almighty measure and can not perfectly prevent an illegal copy. It is possible to completely copy the software. The complete copy can not be distinguished from the original.
The present invention has been developed in consideration of the above and its object is to provide an encrypted program executing apparatus capable of preventing an encrypted program from being copied and used.


The present application relates to the field of bicycle manufacturing technology, and in particular to a bicycle and a crank assembly thereof, comprising a first handle and a second handle, wherein one of the handles is connected to a transmission shaft and the other of the handles is connected to a pedal, the first handle and the second handle are rotatably connected, and the axis of rotation coincides with the extending direction of the crank; and further comprising a locking mechanism, wherein the first handle is rotatable with respect to the second handle when the locking mechanism is in the first state, and the locking mechanism limits the relative rotation of the first handle and the second handle when the locking mechanism is in the second state.

The crank assembly of the bicycle is a mechanism for connecting the pedal and the crankset, and transmits the kinetic energy of the pedal to the crankset through the transmission shaft, and then transmits the kinetic energy to the driving wheel of the bicycle through the chain on the crankset, so as to realize the rotation of the driving wheel of the bicycle.
In the prior art, after being assembled, the pedal on the crank assembly of the bicycle is generally fixedly connected to the crank assembly, and the whole body cannot be folded. Due to the protruding body structure of the pedal, most of the finished bicycles are assembled by 85% during transportation, that is, the front wheel and the handlebar are disassembled and packaged, and the pedal is assembled by the store or the consumer. Thus, it is easy to have problems such as missing pedals, poor fit between the pedal and the denticulate hinge of the crank. It is very difficult to assemble, and additional configuration assembly tools are required. Another way is to deliver after the pedal is assembled. In this way, the pedal can easily collide with external objects and cause damage, and the space where the pedal protrudes can also cause a waste of the packaging box space, resulting in an excessive volume of the packaging box. In turn, the transportation cost is increased.
Therefore, how to solve the problem that the pedal position of the bicycle protrudes, the assembly is difficult when being packaged separately, the footprint is large during the whole packaging, and the transportation cost is high is a key technical problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.


A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for encoding and/or decoding video frame data. In one embodiment, the video coder comprises a noise filtering module to operate on transformed frame data and perform signal estimation on a plurality of transform coefficients by estimating signal power for each of the plurality of transform coefficients, comparing the signal power of said each coefficient with at least one threshold, and setting the value of said each transform coefficient based, at least in part, on results of comparing the signal power to the at least one threshold.

Conventional methods of hybrid video coding either encode a video frame by itself, without reference to other frames in the sequence, or encode a video frame by predicting it from other, already coded and reconstructed, frames in the sequence. This process routinely operates at block-level in the images. In either case, the frames that are reconstructed following the coding process contain distortions introduced by this process, which can be modeled as noise. This noise may manifest itself visibly as coding artifacts, such as blocking and ringing artifacts. Some of the reconstructed frames stored in a frame store typically used by a video coder and decoder are further used as reference for predicting other frames in the sequence while others are not. In the previous case, the quality of the reconstructed frame stored in the frame store is not only important for its display but, through its use in the prediction process, influences the quality of subsequently coded frames which rely on it for reference purposes. In the latter case, for frames that are not further used as reference, their quality is important for display purposes. Thus, in either case, a procedure to remove the coding noise is beneficial for the quality of the reconstructed video sequence and an increase in the objective coding efficiency.
Most modern codecs include some type of filtering to reduce the level of resultant coding noise. The filtering can operate outside or inside of the coding loop in a codec. For loop filters which operate inside the coding loop, generally the same operation is performed in the encoder and in the decoder using the same available data, such that no side information specific to this filtering needs to be transmitted explicitly from the coder to the decoder. Noise filtering methods commonly used include simple low-pass filtering of the reconstructed frame data to smooth out the images and decrease the visibility of coding artifacts, and loop filters that adapt their strength based on local image characteristics (such as block edges).
Out-of-coding-loop filtering techniques, such as a lowpass filtering of a reconstructed (noisy) frame at the decoder are usually not sufficient for improving the overall image quality of the decoded video sequence. See, H. C. Reeve and J. S. Lim, "Reduction of Blocking Effects in Image Coding," Opt. Eng., Vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 34-37. January/February 1984. In-loop filters that perform filtering inside the coding and decoding loop in an encoder and decoder, respectively, have superior performance. For more information, see Wiegand, et al., "Overview of the H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, on page(s): 560-576, vol. 13, Issue: 7, Jul. 2003. They usually adapt the filtering strength in a heuristic manner, based on the quantization regime used by the video codec and the characteristics of the signal being filtered. Also, since they operate in the coding loop, they cause an improvement in the quality of the reference frames used for prediction, thus improving the efficiency of the coding process.
In contrast to operating heuristically, there exist filtering techniques that are based on signal estimation from noise using a particular signal model. For more information, see A. Papoulis, "Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes", 3rd edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1991.
Overcomplete denoising techniques that operate in the transform domain provide additionally the advantage of determining multiple reconstructed instances (estimates) for the same sample position in a frame, which can then be combined (e.g., averaged) in order to improve the estimation quality. See, R. R. Coifman and D. L. Donoho, "Translation Invariant Denoising," in Wavelets and Statistics, Springer Lecture Notes in Statistics 103, pp. 125-150, New York, Springer Verlag. Existing denoising approaches, which attempt to extract the signal from coding noise, have at their core a signal estimator. Since usually the statistics of the problem are not known exactly, it is necessary to make some assumptions about the unknowns and choose a strategy for estimating the signal. One of the most popular strategies is to optimize the signal estimation for the worst-possible choice of unknowns, resulting in robust estimators. For more information, see Y. C. Eldar, A. B.-Tal, and A. Nemirovski, "Linear Minimax Regret Estimation of Deterministic Parameters with Bounded Data Uncertainties," IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 52, No. 8, August 2004. It is well-known that under this design constraint, the estimators that result tend to be too conservative because the performance is optimized for the worst-case scenario.
The performance of prior methods of coding noise filtering is limited by some intrinsic characteristics of these methods and the assumptions made about the nature of the noise. Simple low-pass filtering techniques that are applied to reduce coding artifacts are not effective in handling the diversity of visual information in video frames, and tend to have widely-varying performance for these sequences (lack of performance control). Adaptive, in-loop boundary filtering in video coding uses heuristics that do not guarantee optimal solutions in some well-defined sense. Also, existing denoising techniques based on the use of a signal model, determine estimators under unrealistic assumptions about the nature of the signal and noise, in particular by assuming that the signal and noise are uncorrelated. This is not the case for the signal and coding noise encountered in image and video coding. The performance of these filtering techniques suffers, since they are poorly matched to the existing problem conditions.

Method and apparatus for noise filtering in video coding


An ultrasonically pulsating high-pressure fluid jet coupled with a suction system serve as a tissue harvesting device. The pulsated fluid jet disrupts tissue, permitting both harvesting of cells for therapeutic delivery, and as a surgical dissector and aspirator, for liposuction, soft tissue dissection, etc. The jet is delivered to the target tissue through a cannula, coupled to an aspiration system. An ultrasonically actuated rod vibrates within the cannula engaging a nozzle, disrupting the fluid jet into droplets, permitting tuning of the jet to the resonant frequencies and impact pressures necessary to dissociate the target tissue. A suction recovery system may be separated or integrally formed with the fluid jet cannula, and is linked by a closed tubing system appropriate for sterilization and subsequent delivery of the harvested cells/tissues with or without growth factor or matrix addition for human re-implantation or for in vitro expansion for later re-implantation.

1) Technical Field
Embodiments herein relate to systems for generating pulsating liquid jets directed at a workpiece and for removal of material from the workpiece in areas thereof impacted by the pulsating liquid jet. Particular embodiments herein relate to fluid jet surgical devices and more specifically to ultrasonically pulsated fluid jet surgical devices for enhanced tissue harvesting suitable for both ablative therapy and for collection of cellular materials such as for regenerative medicine or other purposes.
2) Background Art
The use of basic fluid jets in surgery is well known in the art. These devices can be generally divided into two categories of continuous and pulsated jets. Examples of prior art disclosing continuous jets include U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,635 (Moutafis).
Examples of previously disclosed devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,818,913 and 3,930,505 (Wallach) interrupted jet, does not specify method for interrupting, European Patent EP 0636345 Sentinel Medical, and World Patents Surgical instrument with interrupted stream created by piston pump. Gonon—Interrupted fluid jet utilizing periodic interruption of stream alternating with suction with fluid delivery. WO-2006-026969 Pein and Tork—Continuous water jet with fan shaped pattern and integrated liposuction. WO/2008/074284 Kensy, Winkler et al—Continuous water jet with clear chamber to permit wound care without spray of material. Puchala, R. J. and Vijay, M M, Study of an ultrasonically Generated Cavitating or Interrupted Jet: Aspects of Design, Paper B2, Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Jet Cutting Technology, Paper B2: 69-82, 1984. Vijay, M M, Foldyna J, Remisz J, 1993.
Continuous flow water jets have several disadvantages. First, they rely upon stagnation pressure or erosive pressure of the fluid stream. The skilled practitioner will recognize that this leads to inefficient tissue disruption, the need for high pressures to effect tissue disruption, and potential unintended injury to tissues in the path of the fluid jet. Additionally, this additional pressure results in widespread cellular injury, rendering the aspirate unsuitable for use in regenerative medicine as a source of viable cells and tissue for engraftment. Examples of this approach include ((Moutafis)) which relies upon the delivery of a continuous fluid jet into the orifice of a suction tube. In order to ablate tissue, the stream is passed tangentially across the desired tissue, and suction draws the target tissue into the stream. The skilled practitioner will further recognize that devices of this design are bulky, relatively inefficient at tissue ablation, and unsuited to many types of surgery.
Later devices introduced interrupted fluid streams which were more efficient at tissue ablation. These devices have relied upon periodic interruption of a fluid jet to increase tissue destruction. The speed with which the fluid stream can be interrupted with mechanical devices is limited, however, resulting in inefficient droplet or slug formation, and permitting only an incremental increase in efficiency of tissue harvest. Further, at the frequencies and volumes attainable with these types of devices, the practitioner will recognize that tissue-specific tailoring of the frequency of the pulsation is unattainable.
Hansell, June 1950, disclosed a Jet Sprayer actuated by supersonic waves which relied upon but this device was generally unsuccessful.
Current technology for transplanting mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for cellular therapy utilizes conventional liposuction. Adipose tissue has thousands of fold more MSCs than other mesenchymally derived tissues. These cells are present in all adipose tissue, and can be used for reinjection either with or without further manipulation, culture, growth factors, etc, to regenerate tissues.

Fluid jet cell harvester and cellular delivery system


A semiconductor storage device includes: a plurality of I/O terminals configured in a block, and including a representative I/O terminal and a non-representative I/O terminal; a plurality of memory cells each associated with the plurality of I/O terminals to store data; a data input portion to which data to be stored in the plurality of memory cells is input; and a data output portion which outputs data stored in the plurality of memory cells, the data input portion including a branch circuit which distributes the data input to the representative I/O terminal to all of the plurality of memory cells when the data to be stored in the plurality of memory cells is input while in test mode, and the data output portion including: a selection circuit which is connected to the representative I/O terminal, and which selects one of the data output from the plurality of memory cells and outputs the selected data from the representative I/O terminal when the data stored in the plurality of memory cells is output while in the test mode; and a dummy circuit which is provided between the non-representative I/O terminal and the memory cell associated with the non-representative I/O terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor storage device, having a test function which shortens wafer tests.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-020779, filed Jan. 31, 2008, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
When manufacturing semiconductor storage devices, in order to perform processes efficiently when sealing chips into packages, defective chips are not processed. For this reason, characteristic and operation tests are performed in the wafer state insofar as possible to detect defective chips.
When performing tests in the wafer state, a plurality of probes (contact needles) provided on the probe card of a tester (semiconductor testing device) are brought into contact with the bonding pads of each chip. The tester exchanges control signals (signals controlling data writing and reading), data, and other signals with the chip, and by this means executes tests to judge whether each chip is defective or not.
A tester as described above includes numerous interfaces to perform input and output of the above described signals with a semiconductor storage device and driver circuits to output the various signals.
As semiconductor devices acquire more sophisticated functions, the number of chips on a wafer, and the number of input/output terminals (hereafter "I/O terminals") on each chip, increase. For this reason, when testing semiconductor devices formed on a wafer, limits are imposed on the number of interfaces to perform signal input/output and on the number of driver circuits to output the signals. As a result, testing of chips on a wafer must be performed in a plurality of sessions, and long lengths of time have been required for tests and inspections of semiconductor devices.
In order to shorten the time required for inspections, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-151299 discloses the general semiconductor storage device shown in FIG. 8. There is a method in which, when the data input circuit and data output circuit in this semiconductor storage device have the structures shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 respectively, probes are brought into contact with the bonding pads as explained below, and tests are performed.
A DQ shift test mode function is provided which, when for example there are 32 input/output data terminals, employs DQS (data strobe signals) to cause data output while shifting at every four I/O terminals and perform data writing and reading, in order to manage with a small number of pins to reduce the number of interface circuits and driver circuits.
Hence the probe card of the wafer tester has eight I/O pins connected in common, and probes must be contacted with the bonding pads of all the I/O terminals. Hence there is the problem that during design of the probe card, the number of probes is limited.
However, it is conceivable that, in response to the problem of the occurrence of limitations on the number of probes due to increases in the number of I/O terminals and the number of chips, when testing semiconductor storage devices having a plurality of output terminals, such as for example 32 input/output terminals corresponding to data input/output, tests may be performed by performing data input/output tests for a small number of four pins.
As a result, the probes of the probe card can be used efficiently, testing of numerous chips on the wafer can be performed, and the wafer test TAT (turn-around time) can be shortened.
On the other hand, when only four I/O terminals are selected and probes are contacted to perform tests, when there are 32 I/O terminals, tests of the remaining 28 I/O terminals are not performed, and so quality assurance of all the I/O terminals is not possible.
Hence by adopting a configuration in which a plurality of I/O terminals are consolidated into one block, and at the time of writing data are input to one among the I/O terminals comprised by the block, data are caused to be input to all I/O terminals for the block, and the number of probes can be greatly reduced (see for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-151299).
That is, in the case of the above configuration, when in the above-described DQ shift test mode, and when writing data as shown in the timing chart of FIG. 11, write operations to all I/O terminals are performed simultaneously, so that processing can be performed similarly to that of normal operation.
However, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. 12, when performing data reading the test mode signals TDQj to TDQj+7, which control activation and deactivation of the FIFO (First-In, First-Out) circuits for each of the I/O terminals, are respectively input.
Here, in FIG. 11, the same data are input to all of the bonding pads DQj to DQj+7. FIG. 11, the data WBSRj to WBSRj+7 on the clock rising side are all the same data, and the data WBSFj to WBSFj+7 on the clock falling side are all the same data. In FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, the timing chart for the other bonding pads DQj+8 to DQj+15, DQj+16 to DQj+23, DQj+24 to DQj+31, and for the bonding pads DQSi+1 to DQSi+3, are omitted, but are similar to the timing charts for the bonding pads DQj to DQj+7 and for the bonding pad DQSi.
By means of these test mode signals, one among the eight FIFO circuits connected in common to a single probe is activated and the others deactivated, so that there is no contention and collision of read-out data, and data read processing is performed in order for memory corresponding to each of the I/O terminals.
Hence during writing in the semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-151299, write operation is performed by means of processing similar to that of normal operations, as described above, and so a special circuit is not needed. On the other hand, during reading, the result of comparing and combining the data corresponding to I/O terminals in each block is output, so that there is the problem that it is not possible to judge whether data corresponding to any of the I/O terminals is defective.
Further, this semiconductor device is configured such that the data resulting from combination of data in each block are output from one of the I/O terminals within the block. Consequently a circuit to switch the I/O terminal between normal operation and test mode is necessary. As a result, there is the drawback that differences in the delay times of data output in normal operation occur among the I/O terminals.


An optical projection type display apparatus wherein the first MLA forming the integrator optical system is arranged integrally at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror so as to function as a surface plate so that the distance between the effective reflecting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror and the first MLA can be shortened. In addition, being formed integral to function as a surface plate of the reflecting and condensing mirror, the number of optical elements is reduced by one.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical apparatus used as an illuminating apparatus for a display apparatus such as a liquid crystal projector and to a projection type display apparatus using the optical apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A projector apparatus utilizing-a spatial light modulator (hereinafter abbreviated as SL2) such as a liquid crystal panel or a DMD of Texas Instruments of the U.S. is suitable for reducing size.
Below, an optical system of a projector making use of an SLM will be, explained.
FIG. 1 is a view of an example of the configuration of an optical system in a projector using an SLM.
The projector 1, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a light source 2, a reflecting and condensing mirror 3, an integrator optical system 4, a condenser lens 5, an SLM 6, and a projecting lens 7 as main components.
In a projector using an SLM, since the SLM itself does not emit light, a separate light source is necessary. A discharge lamp is often used as the light source 2 from the viewpoint of the luminous efficiency etc.
The reflecting and condensing mirror 3 condenses light beams from the light source 2, that is, a discharge lamp, and emits the result in approximately the same direction.
The integrator optical system 4 spatially equally illuminates the SLM 6, that is, spatially uniformly distributes the light emitted from the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 in order to illuminate the SLM 6 with a uniform distribution of luminous intensity.
The reason of realizing this uniform illumination is for achieving a high quality image.
The integrator optical system 4, as shown in FIG. 2, is comprised of a first multi-lens array (MLA) 4A and a second multi-lens array 4B both of which include a plurality of lens LNS arranged in an array.
The first MLA 4A divides the light emitted from the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 into a plurality of images and lays out their images of the light source in the vicinity of light incident plane of the second MLA 4B.
The second MLA 4B guides the images of light source divided by the first MLA 4A to the condenser lens 5 so that they can be incident as the illuminating light of the SLM 6.
In a projector having an optical system of such a configuration, the light emitted from the light source 2 is condensed by the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 having a reflecting surface of a parabolic shape, becomes nearly parallel light, and is incident on the first MLA 4A.
The light incident on the first MLA 4A is incident on the second MLA 4B arranged in the proximity of the focal distances of the lenses LNS of the first MLA 4A.
The light emitted from the second MLA 4B is condensed by the condenser lens 5 so that the images of the lenses of the first MLA 4A are superposed and is incident on the SLM 6 as illuminating light.
By superposing the images of the lenses of the first MLA 4A, even if the light incident on the first MLA 4A is not spatially uniform, the condensed image becomes spatially uniform.
In addition, a video signal is applied to the SLM 6. At the SLM 6, the incident light is spatially modulated and emitted in accordance with the applied video signal. For example, if the SLM is a liquid crystal panel, the intensity modulation is carried out by using deflection. If a DMD is used, the intensity modulation is carried out by changing the angle of emission of the emitted light (deflection).
The light emitted from the SLM 6 passes through the projecting lens 7 and is projected on the screen 8. An image of the SLM 6 is projected on the screen 8 by the projecting lens 7, whereby the video signal applied to the SLM 6 is displayed.
Summarizing the problem to be solved by the invention, reducing the size of an apparatus is important from the point of view of reducing weight, the amount of material, and so on.
To reduce the size of a projector using an SLM, for example reduction of the size of the SLM panel may be mentioned. This results in reduced size of the optical system, reduced size of the projecting lens, etc. Many optical elements forming an optical system can be made smaller.
The discharge lamp that forms the light source 2, however, cannot be made small easily. The reasons are as follows.
That is, a discharge lamp has a high pressure gas sealed in its interior. Further, its temperature is elevated in order for emitting light. Due to this, considering safety when the lamp is broken, it is necessary to give the lamp sufficient strength. Therefore it cannot be made small easily.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a discharge lamp that forms a light source 2.
A high pressure gas is sealed in the interior of the glass 2A at the center of the lamp. Electrodes 2B and 2C stick out from the portion sealing the high pressure gas. Light is emitted by passing a current through the electrodes 2B and 2C.
In addition, FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the reflecting and condensing mirror 3.
As shown in FIG. 4, the reflecting surface 3 of the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 is shaped as a parabolic surface. A mount 3B for plugging in the discharge lamp is formed at its approximate center.
The discharge lamp is mounted to such a reflecting and condensing mirror 3 as shown in FIG. 5.
To facilitate change of the discharge lamp, or considering safety when the discharge lamp is broken, the discharge lamp is integrated with the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 by the insertion mount 3B. Further, a surface plate 3C being a plane plate just for passing light is provided at the plane from which the light leaves the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 so as to prevent pieces of glass from flying out from the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 when the discharge lamp is broken.
As described above, since the discharge lamp cannot be made small, the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 has to be large.
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, even if the cross-section of the light emitted from the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 is small, the total length of the discharge lamp does not change, so the total length of the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 does not become shorter.
In this way, because the discharge lamp 2 and the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 cannot be made small and because the integrator optical system 4 is arranged on the outgoing optical path of the light from the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 and at a position apart from the discharge lamp 2 and the surface plate 3 before that, the optical path of the illuminating light coming from the discharge lamp 2 through the reflecting and condensing mirror 3 becomes longer, the illumination optical apparatus becomes large, and consequently there is a problem that reduction of size of the projector is difficult.
The present invention was made in consideration of the above situation and has as an object to provide an optical system able to realize reduced size and a projection type display apparatus using the same. to a first aspect of the present
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided the optical apparatus comprising a light source, a reflecting and condensing mirror for reflecting and condensing a light beam from the light source, guiding the light beam to substantially the same direction, and emitting the light beam from a light emitting part, a first multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens are arranged, and which divides an incident light into a plurality of images, and lays out the light spots of the divided images at predetermined locations, and a second multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens corresponding to the plurality of light spots condensed by the first multi-lens array are arranged and which is arranged in the proximity of the focal distance of the first multi-lens array, wherein the first multi-lens array is arranged integrally at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror so that the light reflected and condensed by the reflecting and condensing mirror is incident as the incident light.
Alternatively, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the optical apparatus comprising a light source, a reflecting and condensing mirror for reflecting and condensing a light beam from the light source, guiding the light beam to substantially the same direction, and emitting the light beam from a light emitting part, a first multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens are arranged, and which divides an incident light into a plurality of images, and lays out the light spots of the divided images at predetermined locations, and a second multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens corresponding to the plurality of light spots condensed by the first multi-lens array are arranged and which is arranged in the proximity of the focal distance of the first multi-lens array, wherein the first multi-lens array is arranged away from the light emitting part at the side where the light source is arranged away so that the light reflected and condensed by the reflecting and condensing mirror is incident as the incident light.
In the present invention, an aperture is formed in approximately the center portion of the first multi-lens array, and the light source is inserted into the aperture.
In the present invention, a transparent plate passing the light emitted from the first multi-lens array is arranged at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror.
In the present invention, the second multi-lens array is arranged integrally at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror.
Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a projection type display apparatus comprising a modulating means for modulating and emitting a light emitted from an optical apparatus based on image information and a projection optical system for projecting the light emitted from the modulating means on a screen, the optical apparatus comprising at least a light source, a reflecting and condensing mirror for reflecting and condensing a light beam from the light source, guiding the light beam to substantially the same direction, and emitting the light beam from a light emitting part, a first multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens are arranged, and which divides an incident light into a plurality of images, and lays out the light spots of the divided images at predetermined locations, and a second multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens corresponding to the plurality of light spots condensed by the first multi-lens array are arranged and which is arranged in the proximity of the focal distance of the first multi-lens array, wherein the first multi-lens array is arranged integrally at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror so that the light reflected and condensed by the reflecting and condensing mirror is incident as the incident light.
Alternatively, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a projection type display apparatus comprising a modulating means for modulating and emitting a light beam emitted from an optical apparatus based on image information and a projection optical system for projecting the light emitted from the modulating means on a screen, the optical apparatus comprising at least a light source, a reflecting and condensing mirror for reflecting and condensing a light beam from the light source, guiding the light beam to substantially the same direction, and emitting the light beam from a light emitting part, a first multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens are arranged, and which divides an incident light into a plurality of images, and lays out the light spots of the divided images at predetermined locations, and a second multi-lens array in which a plurality of lens corresponding to the plurality of light spots condensed by the first multi-lens array are arranged and which is arranged in the proximity of the focal distance of the first multi-lens array, wherein the first multi-lens array is arranged away from the light emitting portion at the side where the light source is arranged away so that the light reflected and condensed by the reflecting and condensing mirror strikes the incident light.
According to the present invention, by integrally arranging the first multi-lens array at the light emitting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror so as to have the functions as a surface plate, the distance between the effective reflecting part of the reflecting and condensing mirror and the first multi-lens array can be shortened.
In addition, since the reflecting and condensing mirror is formed integrally to have the function of a surface plate, the number of optical elements is reduced by one. Therefore, loss of light due to surface reflection occurring on a boundary surface having a difference of the refractive indexes is decreased, and a larger amount of light can be directed to an object to be illuminated.
In addition, according to the present invention, by arranging the first multi-lens array on the inner side of the reflecting and condensing mirror relative to the light emitting part, the optical path length is further shortened.

Optical apparatus and projection type display apparatus using the same


During normal use, the time indicator (2) is driven by a mechanism (3) controlled by the gear train (4) of the timepiece. This mechanism is arranged for uncoupling the gear train from the indicator when the time-setting member (1) is actuated, this action causing the indicator to move forward through a step of one hour. The time-setting member includes a push-button (5) which actuates a device (6) that in turn acts on said mechanism (3).

This type of device is known from and disclosed in EP Patent No. A-1544691. In that document, the timepiece includes an hour hand able to be moved forward through one-hour steps by means of a manually actuated time-setting stem without affecting the minute display. In order to do so, the hour hand is constantly coupled to the going train, i.e. to the motor element carried by the timepiece except at the moment when the time is set when said hand is uncoupled from the going train, the rotation of the stem then moving said hand forward one hour. This system avoids affecting the hour decimals, which are preserved. For example, if the hour hand indicates 10 hours and 30 minutes, the rotation of the stem will move the hand forward to 11 hours and 30 minutes.
In order achieve this result the timepiece disclosed in the aforecited document includes a first wheel meshing with the gear train and a second wheel able to be driven by the stem when the time is being set. The wheels are coupled to each other by a limited torque mechanism including a spring. It will be clear that, outside periods when the time is being corrected, the first and second wheels remain rigidly coupled to each other, which allows the hour display to be altered without affecting the minutes that complete the hour.
Obtaining the same results, no longer from a stem that is rotated, but from a push-button that is pressed constitutes an advantageous technical advance since it means that a new timepiece can be proposed with combinations that are as yet unknown.
Using a push-button to correct certain time units is known. This is the case for the display of the date or the day of the week, which, for example, implements an actuating finger, which drives the toothing of a ring on which the date or day of the week is displayed which, appears through an aperture. However, this is a simple passage from one number to another, namely a step-by-step movement forward, where there is no need to take into account a fraction or a decimal of the number.

Time-setting member for a time indicator

Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A.