One embodiment described relates to a method of electron beam imaging of a target area of a substrate. An electron beam column is configured for charge-control pre-scanning using a primary electron beam. A pre-scan is performed over the target area. The electron beam column is re-configured for imaging using the primary electron beam. An imaging scan is then performed over the target area. Other embodiments are also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electron beam imaging apparatus and methods of using same.
2. Description of the Background Art
Automated inspection and review systems are important in process control and yield management for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. Such systems include optical and electron beam (e-beam) based systems.
In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, detection of physical defects and electrical failure earlier in the fabrication process is becoming increasingly important to shorten product development cycles and increase product yield and productivity. Advanced wafer inspection systems based on scanning electron microscopy technology have been used to detect defects and electrical failure as voltage contrast defects. However, as device design rules further shrink, and new processes (such as, for example, high aspect ratio (HAR) contacts in front-end-of-line (FEOL), HAR vias in back-end-of-line (BEOL), and dual damascene copper processes) are being widely implemented, it becomes more challenging to detect defects in device structures with smaller design rules and higher aspect ratios. Further, image contrast variation caused by uneven charge distribution can make e-beam inspection unstable or un-inspectable. Such contrast variation can occur from inside a die, from die to die, row to row, or wafer to wafer. In order to successfully inspect a wafer, control of surface charge is advantageous to 1) detect defects effectively, and 2) reduce image contrast variation during inspection.
In a conventional scanning electron microscope, a beam of electrons is scanned over a sample (for example, a semiconductor wafer). Multiple raster scans are typically performed over an area of the sample. The beam of electrons either interact with the sample and cause an emission of secondary electrons, bounce off the sample as backscattered electrons, or are absorbed by the sample. The secondary electrons and/or backscattered electrons are then detected by a detector that is coupled with a computer system. The computer system generates an image that is stored and/or displayed on the computer system.
Typically a certain amount of charge is required to provide a satisfactory image. This quantity of charge helps enhance the contrast features of the sample. Although conventional electron microscopy systems and techniques typically produce images having an adequate level of quality under some conditions, they produce poor quality images of the sample for some applications.
For example, on a sample made of a substantially insulative material (e.g., silicon dioxide), performing one or more scans over a small area causes the sample to accumulate excess positive or negative charge in the small area relative to the rest of the sample. The excess of positive charge generates a potential barrier for some of the secondary electrons, and this potential barrier inhibits some of the secondary electrons from reaching the detector. Since this excess positive charge is likely to cause a significantly smaller amount of secondary electrons to reach the detector, an image of the small area is likely to appear dark, thus obscuring image features within that small area. Alternatively, excess negative charge build up on the sample can increase the collection of secondary electrons causing the image to saturate. In some cases, a small amount of charging is desirable since it can enhance certain image features (by way of voltage contrast) as long as it does not cause image saturation.
The excess charge remaining from a previous viewing or processing may therefore cause distortion. One solution used in SEM devices is to flood the sample with charged particles from a separate flood gun at a time separate from the inspection. The flooding beam is typically separate from the main inspection column of the e-beam inspection system, though in some instances the flooding beam may be implemented in the main inspection column. The intent of using such flooding is to equalize the charge appearing across the sample, thus improving contrast uniformity of the images. However, while flooding may equalize longer time scale charging effects, shorter time scale charge decay between the flooding and the imaging times may still cause undesirable charging distortion.
Some conventional systems average together multiple scans of a wafer surface to create an image for inspection. However, such averaging merely uses statistics to "hide" the undesirable effects of charging in the image.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional electron beam imaging apparatus with a separate flood gun for charge control. As shown, the apparatus includes a primary (imaging) column 102. The column 102 includes an electron gun 104 that is the source of electrons for the primary (imaging) electron beam 106. Condensing lenses 108 condense the beam 106 into a tighter cross-section (and higher density). The beam 106 is controllably deflected using scanning coils 110 so as to scan the beam across the desired area. An objective lens 112 focuses the beam onto the wafer 114. A detector 116 is arranged to detect secondary electrons (and/or backscattered electrons). Electronics connected to the detector 116 is used to store the detected data so as to be able to form useful images for processing and analysis.
As further shown in FIG. 1, an electron beam flood gun 118 may be arranged so as to emit a flooding electron beam 120 over the sample 114. The use of this flood beam 120 to control charging is discussed below in relation to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a conventional method of pre-flooding with a separate e-beam 120 and subsequently imaging the wafer 114 with a primary e-beam 106. In this conventional technique, before imaging, the wafer 114 is flooded 202 with electrons using the separate flooding e-beam 120. This flooding 202 is applied for a period of time sufficient to control a charge level at the wafer 114. Thereafter, the electron flooding 202 of the wafer 114 is stopped 204, and the imaging of the wafer 114 is subsequently begun. The primary e-beam 106 is scanned 206 across the wafer 114, and scattered (secondary and/or backscattered) electrons are detected 208. An image is formed 210 from the detected data. In some cases, several scans 206 may be used and the data may be averaged.
It is desirable to improve e-beam inspection and review apparatus. In particular, it is desirable to better control effects of charging and discharging on images used for inspection and review.

Charge-control pre-scanning for e-beam imaging


A system for automatically measuring piling results of a piling operation. The system comprises a pile numbering unit, an operational date setting unit, a reference sinking amount setting unit, an average times of hammering setting unit, a stop signal generating unit, a start signal generating unit, a pile sinking displacement measuring unit, a pile perpendicularity detecting unit, a hammering sound detecting unit, a central processing unit, a data printer, a signal display, an informing speaker, a pile perpendicularity display, and a measuring arm for mounting the pile sinking displacement measuring unit and the pile perpendicularity detecting unit. The system of this invention provides an advantage in that it carries out the piling operation without an error, and needs no piling operator for controlling the piling operation, resulting in curtailment of personnel expenditures, efficiently preventing a safety accident, and another advantage in that the results of the piling operation are stored in an electronic circuit which can not be fabricated, and printed by a printer, thereby accomplishing an automatic superintendence for the piling operation. The system of this invention can visually display the perpendicularity of the pile in order to provide an easy and exact observation of the perpendicularity of the pile.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for controlling a piling operation performed by a piling machine, and more particularly to a system for automatically controlling a piling operation by which piling results are automatically measured at every hammering action, displayed by means of a display in order to inform the operator of the piling results and printed by means of a printer in order to leave operational data corresponding to the piling results.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional piling operation, the piling results, such as piling depth, perpendicularity of a pile and the like, have been generally measured by virtue of an eye-measurement and an experience of the operator.
Especially for determining whether the pile is inserted into the ground to a desired depth, a wooden scale is mounted on the pile in order to allow the operator to put a mark thereon with a pen at every hammering action of the piling machine. In result, the operator has to continuously measure the marks with his eyes and experience in order to measure the piling depth at every hammering action until the pile is inserted into the ground to the desired depth, thereby making it possible to determine a point of time when the piling operation has to be stopped.
However, the known measuring method has several disadvantages in that the piling operational data representing the piling depth can not often remain due to gradual burying of the marks put on the wooden scale as the pile is gradually inserted into the ground by the piling machine. Even if the marks on the wooden scale are not buried, it may be possible to occur an error in writing, on the basis of the marks, the piling depth on a piling recorder. In addition, the writing of the piling depth on the piling recorder may cause a fabrication, and the marks on the wooden scale may be gradually erased as time goes by, thereby causing a disadvantage of unreliability in the measurement data. Also, the wooden scale mounted on the pile may cause a relative unstableness thereof with respect to the pile so that the scale often relatively moves with respect to the pile as the pile is inserted into the ground by hammering of the piling machine. In result, the known measuring method has a disadvantage in that the wooden scale can not efficiently functions as absolute coordinates owing to the relative movement of the wooden scale, thereby causing the displacement data of the piling operation, resulting from being measured on the piling operation, resulting from being measured on the basis of the scale, not to be recognized to have a reliability.
Furthermore, the known method for measuring the piling results does need an auxiliary worker such as a piling control operator who generally works closely near the pile in order to efficiently observe the marks on the wooden scale, thereby causing a safety accident to occur and the personnel expenditure to considerably increase.
On the other hand, the piling operation needs to be measured in the perpendicularity of the pile in order to secure the pile to be vertically inserted into the ground. A known method for measuring the perpendicularity of the pile is generally performed by using a balance weight. The balance weight is vertically suspended to the wooden scale by a thread so that the thread will parallel with the vertical scale in case that the pile is vertically inserted. In result, the balance weight allows the operator to determine by his eye-measurement whether the pile is vertically inserted into the ground.
However, the known method for measuring the perpendicularity of the pile can not secure a reliability in the measurement as the measurement is carried out by the operator's eyes. Also, it is impossible to write the measuring results on the piling recorder, thereby causing a superintendence for determining whether the piling operation has been exactly carried out in accordance with the rules not to be practicable. In addition, the known method generally uses only one balance weight so that, if the pile leans to a side of the balance weight, the thread looks like as if it parallels with the wooden scale. Hence, the known method has a disadvantage in that the operator may erroneously determine that the pile is vertically inserted even though it leans to the side of the weight. In the known method for measuring the perpendicularity, the piling control operator always works closely near the pile in order to exactly observe the parallelism between the thread and the pile so as to determine the perpendicularity of the pile, thereby causing a safety accident to occur.

System for automatically measuring piling results in a piling operation


Shift-invariant wavelet transform with properly selected wavelet base and decomposition level(s), is used to characterize rough-wavelet granules producing wavelet granulation of a feature space for a multispectral image such as a remote sensing image. Through the use of the granulated feature space contextual information in time and/or frequency domains are analyzed individually or in combination. Neighborhood rough sets (NRS) are employed in the selection of a subset of granulated features that further explore the local and/or contextual information from neighbor granules.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Granular computing refers to computation and operations performed on information granules (group of similar objects or points). Its applicability covers conceptual and computational paradigms of studying information and knowledge processing. Information granules may be constructed specifically in spatial domain and applied to various areas, including automatic target recognition, color image segmentation, and remote sensing image classification. Multispectral remote sensing images may contain information over a large range of variation of frequencies, which may also change over regions. Such data have both spectral features with correlated bands and spatial features correlated in the same band. Simultaneous utilization of the spectral and spatial (contextual) information in an effective manner may enhance the analysis. Methods utilizing the merits of local information in a band for the classification of images, for example, texture features extracted from angular second moments, contrast, correlation, entropy and variance based on the grey-level co-occurrence matrices have found wide applications. However, these methods are typically computationally expensive.
Wavelet transform (WT) is employed as a tool for analyzing texture regions of images, in both spatial (time) and spectral (frequency) domains. Thus, WT may be used for extraction of contextual information of pixels in images by wavelet granulation (i.e., group of similar information in WT domain) of a feature space. Although shift variant WT is quite attractive for various applications, it does not maintain the indispensable property of textural analysis, like time invariance, and makes it insufficient for dealing with texture analysis. Furthermore, the redundant representation of input using WT may increase the feature dimension and bring additional complexity in solving tasks associated with pattern recognition, machine learning and data mining.
Rough set theory has been shown to be an effective tool for feature selection, uncertainty handling, knowledge discovery, and rule extraction from categorical data. The theory enables the discovery of data dependencies and performs the reduction/selection of attributes contained in a data set using the data alone, requiring no additional information. While rough sets may be used as an effective tool to deal with both vagueness and uncertainty in data sets and to perform granular computation, they may be used for numerical data with the discretization of the data, which may result in the loss of information and introduction of noise.

Rough wavelet granular space and classification of multispectral remote sensing image


The present invention is to provide a system for backing up cache memory in a double backup server structure, which comprises a first backup server having a first SAS controller; a second backup server having a second SAS controller; and a SAS channel for connecting said first and second SAS controllers; wherein said first SAS controller and said second SAS controller each having a sending end initiator defining a cache mirror command. When said first backup server received a write command and write data through a Fiber Channel or iSCSI channel into a first cache memory, said first SAS controller also establishes a first Command Descriptor Block (CDB) with an operation code of a cache mirror command as well as a first data header for the cache data. Said first CDB and first data header are subsequently transmitted through said SAS channel to said second SAS controller and said second backup server writes said data into a second cache memory of its own. Accordingly, with the higher bandwidth facilitated by the SAS channel, considerable amount of cache data can be processes in high speed to improve the storage efficiency in a double backup server structure.

With the exponential rise in the quantity of data and restrictions imposed by government regulations, so grow the continuous demands by companies in searching for data storage means with a higher capacity and efficiency. Conventional Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) has encountered a bottleneck. To resolve this issue, storage device manufacturers re-evaluated existing storage device structures and started experimenting with new serial technologies to improve storage efficiency in enterprise server systems.
The current high speed serial technologies used in the enterprise server market can be generally categorized into two types, namely Fiber Channel and iSCSI. Fiber Channel is a gigabit speed serial technology standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), an American National Standard Institute (ANSI) accredited standards committee. It is mostly implemented on fiber optic cables but can also run on twisted-pair copper wire or coaxial wire. Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP) is commonly known as the next generation SCSI protocol as it employs the SCSI transmission protocol in a fiber channel environment. On the other hand, iSCSI implements the SCSI transmission protocol in an Internet Protocol (IP) environment and transmits data over TCP/IP networks, resulting in a communication protocol standard of its own. The advantage of iSCSI is that with IP as the medium, it goes beyond the limitation in distance associated with traditional SCSI. In addition, it accommodates the existing IP network in an enterprise user's Information Technology (IT) environment and has the same structure of data access as in a current Fiber Channel Storage Area Network (FC-SAN). In fact, the difference between traditional FCP and iSCSI is the medium carrying the protocol. Both put emphasis on the concept of SAN. Therefore, the type of storage device used in the storage network will not be affected by the protocol implemented, be it iSCSI or FCP, both adapt high spin rate optical drives or SATA hard drives. The only noticeable differentiation lies in the efficiency disparity between the iSCSI and FCP protocols. From a host system's perspective, both iSCSI and FCP storage devices communicate to it via standardized Logic Unit Numbers (LUN). In other words, for storage device manufacturers, the interface to and iSCSI or FCP usually allows interoperability with affecting data accessibility.
In existing double backup server structures, the host interface to the disk array typically adopts iSCSI or Fiber Channel with a bandwidth reaching 2 Giga Byte (GB) or 4 GB. This means that the amount of data transfer has increased tremendously. However, the current known connection among disk arrays still employs Giga Byte Ethernet (GbE) protocol for cache mirroring. The 1 Gb bandwidth provided by GbE apparently can not handle the 2 GB or 4 GB data transfer required by the host interface, resulting in a starvation of storage efficiency in a double backup server structure.

System for backing up cache memory in a double backup server structure


The invention aims to provide a lumber drying method which can dry lumbers in a short period without causing cracks and a lumber impregnation method to permeate processing agents deep into the lumbers at a low cost. The lumber drying method comprises a process to place lumbers in an airtight container and to heat them, a process to vacuum the inside of the airtight container, and a process to restore the air pressure after the vacuuming process. And, the lumber impregnation method comprises a process to heat lumbers, a process to place the heated lumbers under a vacuumed pressure, a process to immerse the heated lumbers in processing agents under the vacuumed pressure, and a process to restore the pressure of the lumbers immersed in the processing agents under the vacuumed pressure to the air pressure, and to immerse the lumbers in the processing agents under the air pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lumber drying method and an impregnation processing method to have the lumber absorb various agents such as preservative, mothproofingg agent, preservative/mothproofing agent, anti-ant agent, anti-fungus agent, dimensional stabilizer and resin.
2. Related Art
As shown in FIG. 3, lumbers are conventionally dried, for example, by a drying apparatus 1 consisting of a drying chamber 2 to accommodate lumbers 6, a heating boiler 3 to send heated air into the drying chamber 2, heat stirrers 4 installed in the drying chamber 2 and an exhaust pipe 5 to discharge the water vapor generated from the lumbers 6.
The lumbers 6 are, for example, placed on a carriage 7 and accommodated in the drying chamber 2. These lumbers 6 are cedars having an end face of about 105 mm.times.105 mm and a length of 3 to 4 m. The lumbers 6 are piled up on the carriage 7 with inserting a 1 to 2 cm thick spacer 8 between each pair of lumbers. Further, the initial moisture content of the lumber 6 is 50 to 70%.
The drying apparatus 1 maintains the temperature in the drying chamber 2 at 60 to 70.degree. C. with the heated air sent from the heating boiler 3 to dry the lumbers 6. Drying by this apparatus is continued for 15 to 20 days. The final moisture content is 15 to 20%.
According to the conventional lumber drying method as shown in FIG. 3, however, the heated air is discharged to outside via the exhaust 5 together with the water vapor from the lumbers 6, which makes the energy cost expensive.
Another drawback is that variation of the water vapor in the drying chamber 2 prevents uniform drying of the lumbers 6.
Further, the heated air drying may cause crack in lumbers 6 when the temperature is raised.
In addition, long drying time (15 to 20 days) means that the apparatus can be used only once or twice a month.
The lumber is inferior to other materials in its dimensional stability, uniformity, preservability, moth-proof, flame retardancy and strength. To improve such drawbacks of lumber and to add functions, the lumber is made composite with chemicals by impregnation. For example, large wooden products such as telephone poles and railroad ties are impregnated for preservation and moth-proof processing.
On the other hand, under the situation with shortage of lumber resources and lower prices in international competition, improvement of unused wood species and low quality wood, development of high durability technology and wooden product manufacturing by such methods are eagerly awaited.
In particular, it is expected that woods are improved or provided with new functions for higher additional values in the field of building materials, furniture members and art objects.
As a conventional method to improve drawbacks of or add functions to lumbers, the impregnation method to have the lumber absorb the agent has been known.
Impregnation methods include vacuum/pressure injection, compression and pressurizing methods. Vacuum/pressure injection methods are, for example, disclosed in Chapter II "Research on Function Enhancement by High Impregnation of Lumbers" contained in researches about processing of wooden members for higher functions issued by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency in October 1990, the article titled "Pressurized Injection Conditions and Their Characteristics in Impregnation of Lumbers" in Vol. 28 of the Research Report from Shimane Prefectural Industrial Engineering Center (1991), and "Lumber Storage (1)--Focusing on Processing Technology--" in "Lumber Industry" Vol. 49, No. 7, 1994.
The vacuum/pressure impregnation method repeats pressurizing and vacuuming to impregnate the lumber with the processing agent.
The above article "Pressurized Injection Conditions and Their Characteristics in Impregnation of Lumbers" has made impregnation of lumbers with the injection conditions changed as follows: 1) Temperature, pressurizing force and pressurizing time of the injection system; 2) Combination of processes such as repetition of vacuuming and pressurizing; and 3) Pressure atmosphere before injection. It is reported that the following results are obtained about these factors.
1) Time and pressure have direct correlations with the injection amount. Temperature affects little in practice. PA1 2) Combination method of vacuuming and pressurizing did not distinctively affect the injection amount and impregnation cross section. PA1 3) The lower the pressure atmosphere before injection is, the more the injection amount becomes, and the impregnation is substantially affected by the injection time. But, the higher, the pressure atmosphere before injection, the deeper the impregnation becomes for the injection amount.
As a compression method, the method disclosed in "Liquid injection into hardly permeable lumbers by compression method" in Nara Prefectural Experimental Forestry Station Report No. 21 (1991), for example, is known. According to this method, the lumber is pressed and crushed in radial direction before pressurized injection for improvement of liquid permeability. In this compression method, it is found that compression in air-dried state before pressurized injection is effective for improvement of permeability at least for small test pieces.
Further, as a pressurizing method, the method disclosed in "Lecture: Mothproofing of Lumbers (13), Mothproofing, Pressurizing Method" in Vol. 33-5 of "Lumber Industry", for example, is known.
According to the pressurizing method, after putting the lumbers in an injection case and sealing it, chemicals required for preservation, mothproof and dyeing are injected under the pressure of 10 to 15 kgf/cm.sup.2 in one to ten odd hours.
The pressurizing method is widely used as a method to have the lumber absorb the largest quantity of chemicals. In particular, railroad ties, telephone poles and base lumbers to be used outdoors for a long time are subjected to pressurized impregnation of preservation agent for a longer service life.
The absorption amount in this method is much larger than that in application, spraying and immersing. Since sufficient absorption and infiltration length can be achieved, this is the most effective processing method.
However, the conventional lumber impregnation methods as described above have drawbacks of necessity of quite costly processing equipment and low production efficiency.
In addition, there is a concern that cells might be destroyed during processing.
Besides, due to difference in permeability of the processing agent depending on species, individual lumbers and sections, it is difficult to uniformly impregnate processing agents deep into the lumbers by the conventional methods.

Method of drying wood and method of subjecting wood to impregnative treatment

Common Facility Co-Operatives Forest Nishikawa


The stabilizer for shoeing a horse is trailer-style apparatus for securely holding horses for close work such as shoeing operations or veterinary procedures. The unit consists of an open-back rectangular perimeter frame with a trailer hitch assembly and an outboard-mounted wheel assembly on each side. The support frame consists of a vertical support in each corner connected by an upper and lower horizontal support on the front, right and left sides and an upper support on the rear side. Mounted in the center of the right and left sides are adjustable retainer bars which slide horizontally inward to restrain the sides of the horse. Elongated spines with retention notches are mounted upon the retainer bars and allow the handler to attach a number of chains for further restraint purposes. An underbelly harness, a back restraint strap, and a neck restraint strap are also connected to the spines and restraint bars. A removable hoof positioner can be attached to either the lower left or right horizontal support, allowing the handler to slide the positioner to the desired location for the task at hand.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a restraining apparatus for use in connection with horses. The stabilizer for shoeing a horse has particular utility in connection with securely holding horses for shoeing operations or veterinary procedures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Close-in work with horses, such as shoeing and veterinary procedures, have long been necessary, yet dangerous, tasks. At any moment during the shoeing process, the horse can kick, bite, or otherwise injure the individual attempting to place the shoe on its hoof. Additionally, if the shoeing is being carried out in a stable, the horse can use its weight to pin the shoer against the stable wall. Beyond the danger of the horse injuring the individual, the process of shoeing can be tedious since the hoof of the horse must be stabilized to effectively complete the task. Therefore, a device which would restrict the horse from injuring the individual attending to it while allowing free access to the horse and providing hoof support would not only increase the safety of the individual working with the horse but also reduce the time and the effort necessary to perform tasks related to the horse's hooves. In addition, the ability for such a device to be portable via a trailer hitch setup would allow the horse owner to safely administer any close attention his horses might need at any desired location, which could be extremely useful if the horses are transported to various events.
The use of specialty horse stabilizers is known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 877,947 to Lewis Pendleton discloses a horseshoeing stall that consists of a supporting frame, rollers supporting adjustable straps for restraining the horse, a breeching strap, a windlass, hopples, and foot rests for the horse's hooves. However, the Pendleton '947 patent fails to provide for the mobility of the device since it has neither a trailer hitch nor wheels for easy movement. In addition, the supporting frame of the Pendleton '947 device is not adjustable according to the girth of the animal. Although the restraining straps can be adjusted to hold the animal, a smaller animal will be harder to reach through the sides of the frame than will be a larger animal. Finally, the foot rests of the Pendleton '947 device are not moveable, forcing the horse handler to correctly position the horse according to the foot rest position instead of positioning the foot rest according to the horse's position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,361 to Norman C. Kaplan discloses an animal elevating means that includes a collapsible open-walled frame stall with a means for independently elevating either the front or rear of the animal and a harness structure for supporting the animal when it is lifted. However, while the Kaplan '361 patent discusses portability as a consideration, it does not provide wheels for easy mobility of the device, nor does it provide a trailer hitch for easy hookup to a motor vehicle. Moreover, the Kaplan '361 device makes no provision for a foot holder upon which the horse's hoof can be stabilized for work to be completed thereupon.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,214 to Robert E. Walker discloses a hoof-trimming stall that includes a platform, a framework extending upward from the platform, a hammock, right and left lateral supports for the hammock, means for simultaneously raising and lowering the supports, and means for positioning and retaining any selected leg of an animal within the stall. However, the Walker '214 patent fails to provide mobility considerations for the stall in question. In addition, the hoof positioners of Walker '214 device are inclined boards with holes into which a looped rope can be inserted for through passage of the animal's hoof and subsequent tightening thereof. Since the rope, or other means for securing the hooves is not a permanent part of the Walker '214 device, it could easily be lost or misplaced, rendering it unavailable at the necessary time. Moreover, the procedure of looping the rope, inserting it through the opening, and securing the animal's hoof could be a tedious procedure, especially if often repeated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,332 to William S. Riley discloses a portable chute for immobilizing an animal that has a front gate, a rear gate, and a stanchion for immobilizing the animal, all of which are operable from a single location at the rear of the chute. The chute is pivotably mounted onto the bed of a vehicle and is rotatable between a horizontal position on the bed of the vehicle and a vertical animal-loading position. However, the Riley '332 patent requires the use of a pickup truck, which could cause added expense for the owner. Furthermore, the use of the bed of the pickup truck by the Riley '332 patent can lead to animal excrement in the truck bed, thereby leaving the owner an undesirable clean up job. Finally, the Riley '332 patent fails to provide a means by which the animal's hooves can be restrained for the further safety of the animal caregiver.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,662 B1 to Theresa Miale, Gloria Miale, David Giuntoli, and Tom Bailey discloses an animal lift and transport apparatus having a collapsible gurney style structure with wheels, a guide handle, restraining straps, and multiple handholds for carrying purposes. However, use of the Miale, et al. '662 B1 device is limited to immobile animals, providing a minimal amount of restraint for the animal in question; therefore it would not be helpful when attempting to shoe a horse or when working on a healthy animal's hooves. Additionally, use of the Miale, et al. '662 B1 device requires multiple individuals to move the animal onto the support sheet. Finally, no provision is made in the Miale, et al. '662 B1 patent for securing an animal's hooves for individual work required thereon.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,443 to John James Steinfort discloses an animal lifting apparatus that comprises a harness and support suspended from a frame gambrel that is connected to a weight lifting device. However, the Steinfort '443 device requires the use of some sort of lifting device which might not be available to all users and in all locations. Furthermore, the Steinfort '443 device would be more useful for working on a docile animal since the animal must be positioned in a particular fashion in order to fasten the harness and support correctly; therefore, it would be better suited for working on cows rather than feistier quadrupeds such as horses. Finally, the Steinfort '443 patent makes no provision for individually securing and supporting an animal's hooves for required work in that area.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a mobile stabilizer for shoeing a horse that securely holds horses for shoeing operations or veterinary procedures and affords the maximum safety for the animal caretaker while providing maximum accessibility to the animal upon which the work is being performed. The Pendleton '947, Kaplan '361, and Walker '214 patents fail to provide for the mobility of the device since they have neither a trailer hitch nor wheels for easy movement. Furthermore, the Riley '332 patent requires the use of a pickup truck and the Steinfort '443 patent requires the use of some sort of lifting device, neither of which might be available to all users and in all locations and either of which could cause added expense for the owner. Additionally, the Kaplan '361, Riley '332, Miale, et al. '662 B1, and Steinfort '443 patent makes no provision for individually securing and supporting an animal's hoof for work that might need to be performed thereon, whereas the foot rests provided by the Pendleton '947 device are not adjustable, forcing the horse handler to correctly position the horse according to foot rest position instead of positioning the foot rest according to the horse's position. The Miale, et al. '662 B1 and Steinfort '443 devices are more useful for work on docile or immobile animals and would not easily lend themselves for use on feisty horses. Moreover, the Miale, et al. '662 B1 device requires multiple individuals to move the immobile animal onto the support sheet. The supporting frame of the Pendleton '947 device is not adjustable according to the girth of the animal; therefore, it would be more difficult to reach a smaller animal through the sides of the frame. Furthermore the procedure of looping a rope through the opening in the hoof restraint could be a tedious chore associated with the Walker '214 device and could result in a missing restraint at an inopportune time. Finally, the use of the bed of the pickup truck by the Riley '332 patent could lead to animal excrement in the truck bed, thereby leaving the owner an undesirable clean up job.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved stabilizer for shoeing a horse that can be used for providing increased safety with maximum animal accessibility to an individual performing close work on a horse or other large quadraped. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the stabilizer for shoeing a horse according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a mobile device that is used for securely holding horses for shoeing operations or veterinary procedures.


A tensioned touch panel includes a support structure having a substrate with a generally planer conductive surface disposed thereon and an insulating spacer generally about the periphery of the substrate. A pretensioned conductive member overlies the support structure. The spacer separates the conductive membrane and the conductive surface thereby to define an air gap therebetween. A conductive membrane is secured to the support structure under sufficient tension to inhibit slack from developing in the conductive membrane as a result of changes in environmental conditions. A method of assembling a tensioned touch panel is also provided.

Touch panels such as for example digitizers and analog resistive touch screens that make use of one or more tensioned membranes, are known in the art. Tensioned touch panels of this nature typically include a conductive membrane that is stretched tautly over and spaced from a conductive substrate. When a pointer is used to contact the tensioned membrane with sufficient activation force, the tensioned membrane deflects and contacts the conductive substrate thereby to make an electrical contact. Determining voltage changes induced by the electrical contact allows the position of pointer contact on the tensioned touch panel to be determined.
In order for such tensioned touch panels to work effectively, the spacing between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate must be maintained so that the tensioned membrane only contacts the conductive substrate when a pointer contact is made on the tensioned membrane.
As will be appreciated, over time the tensioned membrane may sag creating slack in the tensioned membrane. Changes in environmental conditions such as humidity and/or temperature may also cause the tensioned membrane to expand resulting in slack developing in the tensioned membrane. If the tensioned membrane sags or expands, the slack developed in the tensioned membrane may result in undesirable contact between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate. This problem becomes more severe as the size of the touch panel becomes greater.
A number of techniques have been considered to avoid undesirable contact between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate. For example, electrically insulating spacer dots may be disposed between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate at spaced locations over the active contact area of the touch panel to maintain the spacing between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,136 to Kent discloses a contact touchscreen including such insulating spacer dots.
Although the use of insulating spacer dots maintains separation between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate, the use of insulating spacer dots is problematic. In order to maintain separation between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate over the active contact area of the touch panel, the insulating spacer dots must be positioned at locations within the active contact area. Thus, the insulating spacer dots interrupt the active contact area of the touch panel. As a result, contacts with the tensioned membrane over insulating spacer dots will not register as contacts since the tensioned membrane cannot be brought into electrical contact with the conductive substrate at those contact points. Also, the use of insulating spacer dots to separate the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate is expensive. It is also difficult to maintain an even spacing between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate over the active contact area using insulating spacer dots.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,309 to Robsky et al. discloses a self-tensioning membrane touch screen that avoids the need for insulating spacer dots. The touch screen includes a support structure having a base and a substrate support on which a conductive surface is disposed. A peripheral insulating rail surrounds the conductive surface. A peripheral flexible wall extends upwardly from the base. A conductive membrane is stretched over the conductive surface and is attached to the peripheral flexible wall. The insulating rail acts to space the conductive membrane from the conductive surface. To inhibit sagging and maintain tension on the conductive membrane, during assembly of the touch screen the conductive membrane is attached to the flexible wall when the flexible wall is in a pretensioned state. In the assembled condition, the flexible wall is biased outwardly and downwardly. As a result, tension is continuously applied to the conductive membrane by the flexible wall thereby to inhibit sagging of the conductive membrane.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,950 to Blanchard discloses a resistive touch panel having a removable, tensioned top layer and a base plate. The touch panel may be situated relative to a display screen such that an air gap exists between the base plate and the display screen. The top plate includes a transparent, flexible substrate having a hard transparent coating, one or more anti-reflective coatings and an anti-fingerprint coating thereon. The underside of the substrate is spaced from the upper surface of the base plate by an air gap. To prevent wrinkling of the top plate, a stiff frame is bonded to the anti-fingerprint coating. The stiff frame maintains tension in the top plate despite temperature changes.
Although the above references show touch panels having mechanisms to maintain tension in the conductive membrane, manufacturing and labour costs are associated with these tensioning mechanisms. Accordingly, improvements in tensioned touch panels to maintain the spacing between the tensioned membrane and the conductive substrate are desired.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel tensioned touch panel and method of making the same.

Tensioned touch panel and method of making same


A 525i (interlace) signal can be converted into a 1050i signal or a 525p (progressive) signal. A calculating circuit generates pixels of an output picture signal with a linear estimation expression of predictive taps received from a tap selecting circuit and a coefficient received from a coefficient memory. The coefficient memory stores coefficients pre-obtained for individual classes. A class is determined by combining a spatial class corresponding to spatial class taps received from a tap selecting circuit and motion class taps received from a tap selecting circuit. A line sequential converting circuit converts a scanning line structure of an output signal of the calculating circuit 34 and obtains an output picture signal. The output picture signal is designated with a conversion method selection signal. Information corresponding to the selection signal is loaded from an information memory bank to the coefficient memory and registers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information signal processing apparatus, a picture information converting apparatus, and a picture displaying apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an output picture signal is generated with an input picture signal in such a manner that the scanning line structure of the output picture signal is different from the scanning line structure of the input picture signal, a dedicated circuit for the output picture signal may be used. When a sum-of-product calculation is performed, a plurality of calculated results may be required. To obtain a plurality of calculated results, respective calculating circuits may be switched over. However, when the circuits are switched over, since the hardware scale may become large and the circuits may become redundant.
As a practical application, when an SD signal is converted into an output signal with high quality and high resolution, circuits corresponding to the types of output signals are disposed. A relevant circuit is used corresponding to a designated output signal. In this method, the hardware scale becomes large and circuits become redundant. To obtain an output picture signal corresponding to a picture pattern of an input picture signal, a plurality of output signals are required. It is considered that an interlace SD (standard definition) picture signal having 525 scanning lines is converted into an interlace HD (high definition) picture signal having 1050 scanning lines. Since the number of scanning lines is doubled, in the case of a natural picture, an output picture signal with high quality and high resolution is obtained. However, since the output picture signal is an interlace picture signal, in the case of a graphic picture, a line flicker becomes conspicuous. Thus, corresponding to the type of an input picture signal, the scanning line structure of an output picture signal should be switched over.
As a known method for removing a line flicker component, an interlace signal is converted into a progressive signal. However, in this method, an input signal is linear-interpolated and an interpolated signal is obtained. Thus, the resolution of the output signal cannot be improved against that of the input signal. In addition, when an interpolating method (for a still picture process or a moving picture process) is switched over corresponding to the detected result of a motion, the difference of resolution between the original signal and the interpolated signal becomes large. In particular, when a motion is incorrectly detected, the picture quality largely deteriorates.
As related inventions of the present invention, the applicant of the present invention has obtained the following US patents.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,072: Digital Video Signal Resolution Converting Apparatus
2. U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,164: Image Signal Converting Apparatus
An object of the present invention is to prevent a hardware scale from increasing against a plurality of circuit blocks being switched over. In other words, an object of the present invention is to provide an information signal processing apparatus that allows the operation state of a signal processing circuit thereof to be varied corresponding to an external operation condition setup signal. Another object of the present invention is to provide a picture information converting apparatus and a picture displaying apparatus that allow an output picture signal with a designated scanning line structure to be obtained.
A first aspect of the present invention is an information signal processing apparatus, comprising a signal processing circuit for performing a predetermined process for an input information signal, a control signal source, disposed outside the signal processing circuit, for supplying a control signal to the signal processing circuit, an operation condition setting circuit for generating an operation condition setup signal for the signal processing circuit corresponding to the control signal, and a signal varying circuit for varying an operation state of the signal processing circuit corresponding to the control signal.
The signal processing circuit may have at least two processing portions, the signal processing portion causing the operation state of at least one (referred to as designated processing portion) of the processing portions to vary corresponding to the operation condition setup signal, the operation state of the other process portion being varied corresponding to the variation of the operation state of the designated process portion.
A second aspect of the present invention is a picture information converting apparatus for generating a plurality of output picture signals having different scanning line structures with an input picture signal, the apparatus comprising a first data selecting means for selecting a plurality of second pixels of the input picture signal present in the vicinity of a first pixel generated as an output picture signal, a second data selecting means for selecting a plurality of third pixels of the input picture signal present in the vicinity of the first pixel generated as the output picture signal, a memory means for storing a pre-obtained estimation expression coefficient, a pixel value generating means for generating the first pixel with the second pixels selected by the first data selecting means and a linear estimation expression of the estimation expression coefficient, a class determining means for generating class information corresponding to the third pixels selected by the second data selecting means and supplying the estimation expression coefficient to the pixel value generating means corresponding to the class information, a scanning line structure converting means, connected to the pixel value generating means, for converting a conversion picture to a designated scanning line structure, and a controlling means for receiving a control signal that designates a scanning line structure of the output picture signal and switching over the second pixels and the third pixels selected by the estimation expression coefficient, the first data selecting means, and the second data selecting means corresponding to the control signal.
A third aspect of the present invention is a picture displaying apparatus for receiving an input picture signal and displaying the input picture signal to a displaying unit, the apparatus comprising a picture information converting unit, disposed between an input picture signal source and the display unit, for generating a plurality of output picture signals having different scanning line structures with the input picture signal, wherein the picture information converting unit comprises a first tap selecting means for selecting a plurality of second pixels of the input picture signal present in the vicinity of a first pixel generated as an output picture signal, a second tap selecting means for selecting a plurality of third pixels of the input picture signal present in the vicinity of the first pixel generated as the output picture signal, a memory means for storing a pre-obtained estimation expression coefficient, a pixel value generating means for generating the first pixel with the second pixels selected by the first tap selecting means and a linear estimation expression of the estimation expression coefficient, a class determining means for generating class information corresponding to the third pixels selected by the second tap selecting means and supplying the estimation expression coefficient corresponding to the class information to the pixel value generating means, a scanning line structure converting means, connected to the pixel value generating means, for converting a conversion picture to a designated scanning line structure, and a controlling means for receiving a control signal that designates a conversion method and switching over the second pixels and third pixels selected by the estimation expression coefficient, the first tap selecting means, and the second tap selecting means corresponding to the control signal.
According to the present invention, since one signal processing circuit that accomplishes a plurality of signal processing functions corresponding to an operation condition setup signal, the hardware scale can be reduced in comparison with a structure of which a plurality of circuits are switched. In the picture information converting apparatus according to the present invention, an input picture signal can be converted into a designated one of a plurality of output picture signals having different scanning line structures. Thus, an input picture signal can be converted into an output picture corresponding to a picture pattern of the input picture signal. In this case, the hardware scale can be prevented from becoming large. In addition, according to the present invention, since pixel values are generated with an estimation prediction expression that is optimum in each class. Thus, a still picture and a moving picture can be output with high picture quality.
The above, and other, objects, features and advantage of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description thereof which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Information signal processing apparatus, picture information converting apparatus, and picture displaying apparatus


An X-ray apparatus includes a mount, an X-ray source, a detector, an actuator, and a controller. The mount is configured to hold a sample. The X-ray source is configured to direct a beam of X-rays toward a first side of the sample. The detector is positioned on a second side of the sample, opposite the first side, so as to receive at least a portion of the X-rays that have been transmitted through the sample and to output signals indicative of an intensity of the received X-rays. The actuator is configured to scan the detector over a range of positions on the second side of the sample so as to measure the transmitted X-rays as a function of a scattering angle. The controller is coupled to receive the signals output by the detector and to control the actuator, responsively to the signals, so as to increase an acquisition time of the detector at first positions where the intensity of the received X-rays is weak relative to the acquisition time at second positions where the intensity of the received X-rays is strong.

X-ray scatterometry techniques are used for measuring geometrical structures of semiconductor devices.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,481,579 describes a method for inspection that includes directing a beam of X-rays to impinge upon an area of a sample containing first and second features formed respectively in first and second thin film layers, which are overlaid on a surface of the sample. A pattern of the X-rays diffracted from the first and second features is detected and analyzed in order to assess an alignment of the first and second features.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,606,073 describes apparatus that includes a sample-support that retains a sample in a plane having an axis, the plane defining first and second regions separated by the plane. A source-mount in the first region rotates about the axis, and an X-ray source on the source-mount directs first and second incident beams of X-rays to impinge on the sample at first and second angles along beam axes that are orthogonal to the axis. A detector-mount in the second region moves in a plane orthogonal to the axis and an X-ray detector on the detector-mount receives first and second diffracted beams of X-rays transmitted through the sample in response to the first and second incident beams, and outputs first and second signals, respectively, in response to the received first and second diffracted beams. A processor analyzes the first and the second signals so as to determine a profile of a surface of the sample.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,895,075 describes apparatus for inspection of a sample, the apparatus includes a radiation source and an array of detector elements arranged to receive radiation from a surface of the sample due to irradiation of an area of the surface by the radiation source.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,551,719 describes apparatus for analysis of a sample, the apparatus includes a radiation source, which is adapted to direct a first, converging beam of X-rays toward a surface of the sample and to direct a second, collimated beam of the X-rays toward the surface of the sample. A motion assembly moves the radiation source between a first source position, in which the X-rays are directed toward the surface of the sample at a grazing angle, and a second source position, in which the X-rays are directed toward the surface in a vicinity of a Bragg angle of the sample.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,243,878 describes a method for analysis including directing a converging beam of X-rays toward a surface of a sample having an epitaxial layer formed thereon, and sensing the X-rays that are diffracted from the sample while resolving the sensed X-rays as a function of angle so as to generate a diffraction spectrum including a diffraction peak and fringes due to the epitaxial layer.

X-ray detection optics for small-angle X-ray scatterometry


The invention relates to a method for machine milking an animal, particularly a cow, according to which a stimulation phase precedes a main milking phase, whereby during the entire stimulation phase, essentially no milk is withdrawn, and the duration of the stimulation phase is determined according to the amount of expected cisteral milk and/or alveolar milk.

The object of the invention refers to a method for machine-milking of an animal, especially a cow, with the characteristics of inserting a stimulation phase before a milking phase.
A method for machine-milking of an animal, especially a cow, is known from European Patent Document EP 0 032 752 A1, in which a stimulation phase is included before a milking phase, so that no milk is removed for a period of 40 to 90 seconds after the beginning of this stimulation phase and the removal of milk is begun only directly afterwards. This procedure is based on the consideration that removal of milk should begin only when the animal was made ready for milking and interested in milking by a complete milk ejection and a still high internal pressure in the udder.
Each milking species and each animal reacts very differently to the stimulation performed stimulation effectiveness also depends on the animal's lactation stage, so that a duration of 40 to 90 seconds, during which essentially no milk is removed, represents a compromise stimulation phase for all animals. It was found in practice that negative reactions can occur in animals from overstimulation. Such phenomena occur especially clearly at the beginning of the lactation phase of an animal. At the beginning of the lactation phase of the animal, the production level is very high, so that overstimulation as a result of long stimulation times could lead to an adverse effect on the milk production behavior of the animal.
A comparable problem occurs in the end of the lactation phase when the stimulation phase is chosen to be too short.
A method for machine milking of an animal is already known from German Patent Document DE 36 21 666 A1, in which the duration of the stimulation phase and the time ratio of the excitation phase and rest phase is determined as a function of the different stimulation requirements of the animals to be milked and thus the stimulation performed is individual for the animal. In case of individual stimulation of animals, the lactation stage of the animal is taken into consideration.


Provided is a method of generating a scientometric model that tracks the emergence of an identified technology from initial discovery (via original scientific and conference literature), through critical discoveries (via original scientific, conference literature and patents), transitioning through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and ultimately on to commercial application. During the period of innovation and technology transfer, the impact of scholarly works, patents and on-line web news sources are identified. As trends develop, currency of citations, collaboration indicators, and on-line news patterns are identified. The combinations of four distinct and separate searchable on-line networked sources (i.e., scholarly publications and citation, worldwide patents, news archives, and on-line mapping networks) are assembled to become one collective network (a dataset for analysis of relations). This established network becomes the basis from which to quickly analyze the temporal flow of activity (searchable events) for the example subject domain.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to scientometric data analysis systems and methods and more specifically to a system and method for analyzing data related to an emerging technology and determining the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the technology at any given time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Scientometrics is defined as the science of measuring and analyzing science. In practice, scientometrics is often accomplished using bibliometrics, a measurement of scientific publications. Modern scientometrics is mostly based on the work of Derek J. de Solla Price and Eugene Garfield. The latter founded the Institute for Scientific Information which is heavily used for scientometric analysis. One significant finding in the field is a principle of cost escalation to the effect that achieving further findings at a given level of importance grow exponentially more costly in the expenditure of effort and resources.
With today's ability to access extremely large datasets through electronic means, such as the internet, it can be difficult to determine if a trend is developing in a certain area, sector or technology. Disparate datasets (e.g., patents, papers, articles, citations, product offerings, etc. . . . ) are typically interspersed with one another in the search results, so it's difficult to understand what level of maturity a particular technology is. This becomes even more difficult as an emerging technology matures and ever-more data becomes available for analysis by the interested party. For example, automobile technology continues to evolve and the amount of data continues to be overwhelming. In some instances, it's not uncommon to find hundreds of thousands of individual data points while searching for a topic of interest. The ability to identify trends and the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of a technology is often impossible due to the volume of available information and its disparate nature.
Government agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), and numerous commercial entities have developed sets of graded definitions/descriptions of stages of TRL. An example of TRL 1-9 descriptions follow below.
TRL 1: Basic principles observed and reported. Lowest level of technology readiness. Scientific research begins to be translated into applied research and development. Examples might include paper studies of a technology's basic properties.
TRL 2: Technology concept and/or application formulated. Invention begins. Once basic principles are observed, practical applications can be invented. Applications are speculative and there may be no proof or detailed analysis to support the assumptions. Examples are limited to analytic studies.
TRL 3: Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof of concept. Active research and development is initiated. This includes analytical studies and laboratory studies to physically validate analytical predictions of separate elements of the technology. Examples include components that are not yet integrated or representative.
TRL 4: Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment. Basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is relatively "low fidelity" compared to the eventual system. Examples include integration of "ad hoc" hardware in the laboratory.
TRL 5: Component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment. Fidelity of breadboard technology increases significantly. The basic technological components are integrated with reasonably realistic supporting elements so it can be tested in a simulated environment. Examples include "high fidelity" laboratory integration of components.
TRL 6: System/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment. Representative model or prototype system, which is well beyond that of TRL 5, is tested in a relevant environment. Represents a major step up in a technology's demonstrated readiness. Examples include testing a prototype in a high-fidelity laboratory environment or in simulated operational environment.
TRL 7: System prototype demonstration in an operational environment. Prototype near, or at, planned operational system. Represents a major step up from TRL 6, requiring demonstration of an actual system prototype in an operational environment such as an aircraft, vehicle, or space. Examples include testing the prototype in a test bed aircraft.
TRL 8: Actual system completed and qualified through test and demonstration. Technology has been proven to work in its final form and under expected conditions. In almost all cases, this TRL represents the end of true system development. Examples include developmental test and evaluation of the system in its intended weapon system to determine if it meets design specifications.
TRL 9: Actual system proven through successful mission operations. Actual application of the technology in its final form and under mission conditions, such as those encountered in operational test and evaluation. Examples include using the system under operational mission conditions.
The identification of the emergence of a new technology creates funding opportunities for researchers and helps business leaders predict when capital expenditures, infrastructure improvements, and hiring is needed. It's also important for businesses to know when a technology has matured enough to evaluate what opportunities exist for expanding into the repair and service businesses. A decision concerning a financial investment in a technology will benefit from knowing what the TRL is. There are many other technical and business-oriented decisions that can be influenced by knowing the present TRL of a technology.
What is needed is a system and method for easily identifying new technology trends, and for developing a technology evolution model of a technology from disparate data sets.

Scientometric methods for identifying emerging technologies


A device with laminated conductive patterns and dielectrics which can be selected without consideration of its bonding characteristics in regard of copper metal comprises a conductor means comprising a support frame with a window in which one or more etched conductors are arranged. The conductor means is located on one surface of a dielectric sheet or between two such sheets.

In the manufacture of electrical circuit boards one usually starts from a laminate of copper foil and plastics. The surfaces of the copper foils are coated with a resist in a certain pattern, which resist may be photosensitive, i.e. a photoresist, or by means of silkscreen printing. Subsequently, the exposed copper surfaces are etched in order to leave a conductive pattern on the surface of the plastics board. In circuits which are to be used at high frequencies, for instance for radio frequencies, often the conductors are arranged on one side of the plastics sheet and a ground plane is located on the other side. The ground plane usually is a metal foil without any patterning and covering the entire side on the plastics sheet, where it is located and it will in use be coupled to ground voltage or some reference voltage. In this way an electric signal in the conductor is inductively coupled to the ground plane and this is called microstrip technique. In the similar way the conductor may be enclosed by plastics and ground planes on both the top side and the bottom side and this is stripline technique. In this way circuit functions, including inductances and capacitances, may be accomplished which can be used for instance in frequency filter structures. The characteristics of these circuits are dependent on the plastics material on which the circuit pattern is arranged. Thus the electromagnetic losses, the dimensional tolerances and the dielectric constant of plastic material are determinative of the characteristics of said circuits and the variations of said characteristics.
In conventional circuit board technique often the characteristics of the dielectric must be adjusted in such a way, that the lamination, often with a high pressure, to a copper foil will be possible. Further, the characteristics of the dielectrics must be such, that the dielectric will be relatively easily manipulated in the process for patterning the copper coating.
A large problem is that these requirements highly restrict the choice of possible dielectrics, this implying that material having the best possible electrical characteristics often cannot be selected. Another restricting factor in this context is the requirement that the mechanical dimensions of the conductive pattern should not be influenced too much by temperature changes, since this may cause detrimental stresses on the mounting of components and wire elongation effects in the conductors. Finally, the ambition practically always is that the manufacturing costs should be low and thus, the possibility of achieving low manufacturing costs will generally be restricted due to the restricted possibilities of material selection.

Device comprising laminated conductive patterns and easily selectable dielectrics


In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention, a method is offered that includes providing a low-pass filter in an adaptive filter architecture employing a fast steepest descent method. The method further includes decomposing an error signal, injecting a small change to one or more weight parameters for a linear combiner, measuring changes in an error correlation vector, and calculating one or more gradients, wherein the gradients are processed by the low-pass filter. In more particular embodiments, one or more of the gradients are processed by the low-pass-filter in order to remove measurement noise and improve accuracy. In addition, a real gradient of the error correlation vector is monitored such that adaptations can be made due to non-linearity and non-constant characteristics of a channel. The low-pass filter may be replaced with a Kalman Filter for faster convergence.

In mathematics, the term optimization refers to the study of problems in which one seeks to minimize or maximize a real function by systematically choosing the values of real or integer variables from within an allowed set. A resulting formulation is called an optimization problem or a mathematical programming problem. Many real world and theoretical problems may be modeled in this general framework. Problems formulated using this technique in the fields of physics and computers may refer to the technique as energy minimization.
The branch of applied mathematics and numerical analysis that is concerned with the development of deterministic algorithms that are capable of guaranteeing convergence in finite time to the actual optimal solution of a non-convex problem is generally labeled optimization.
In particular, the steepest descent method is a generic optimization algorithm that optimizes the system input step by step using the gradient of the cost function. As with all such optimizations, of critical importance are issues relating to speed, accuracy, and automation.

Method and system for providing fast and accurate adaptive control methods


A computer apparatus is provided for determining one or more peripheral device positions. A primary display of the computer apparatus may be provided with two or more signal receivers disposed at different locations in relation to the primary display and may be configured to receive signals from a signal transmitter at a peripheral device. The computer apparatus may include a processor and a memory configured to provide computer program instructions to the processor to execute a method of: determining a distance from the signal transmitter to each of the two or more signal receivers based on a strength of the received signal; using positioning determination to determine a direction and/or distance to a position of the signal transmitter from the primary display; and configuring the peripheral device based on the determined direction and/or distance.

The present invention relates to determining a peripheral device position relative to a primary display.
A single display of a computing device may not be sufficient for a user to display multiple applications with which they are interacting. It is known to extend a display of a computing device by adding one or more additional peripheral displays. An arrangement of the peripheral displays in relation to the primary display may be set such that the user interface of the computing device is extended. When the user interface is extended, a cursor or pointer may be moved from the primary display into a peripheral display by extension in a configured direction.
An operating system of the computing device may gather peripheral displays that are connected to the computing device, and the user may then configure the arrangement of the peripheral displays in relation to the primary display.
Some operating systems utilize hardware profiles such as "docked" and "undocked" to setup extended displays based on user profiles. The user of a computing device may configure that a regularly attached display is to the left of the primary display. The result of the hardware profile may be that the pointer can slide from one screen to the other by the user moving a pointing device a further amount past the border of the primary display into the left display.
When the user switches to another location and uses a projector for customer demonstrations, or uses any other unfamiliar display, the hardware profile may be inaccurate and needs to be reset. Similarly, the regularly attached display may be moved for some reason, thereby invalidating the hardware profile.

Determining peripheral device position relative to a primary display

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems and methods for performing camera-guided browsing, such as web browsing, are described herein. A method for operating a camera-guided web browser as provided herein includes displaying a web page on a display associated with a portable device; passively detecting a first object within a field of view of a camera associated with the portable device; and altering at least part of the web page with first content associated with the first object in response to passively detecting the first object within the field of view of the camera.

Advancements in wireless communication technology have greatly increased the versatility of today's wireless communication devices. These advancements have enabled wireless communication devices to evolve from simple mobile telephones and pagers into sophisticated computing devices capable of a wide variety of functionality such as multimedia recording and playback, event scheduling, word processing, e-commerce, etc. As a result, users of today's wireless communication devices are able to perform a wide range of tasks from a single, portable device that conventionally required either multiple devices or larger, non-portable equipment.
For instance, many modern wireless communication devices utilize web browsers in order to enable users to access and traverse content located on the World Wide Web. Web browsers generally provide access to content in the form of web pages, which consist of content typically accessed over a network and defined by a markup language such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or the like. As mobile communication devices vary in terms of form factor and available input devices, mobile web browsers are generally designed for specific devices or classes of devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet or laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.) having similar form factor and input functionality. For instance, various mobile web browsers facilitate navigation via a touch screen or numeric keypad of the associated mobile device. Various other mobile web browsers facilitate navigation to a specific location (e.g., website or web page) by capturing a coded image, such as a bar code or QR (quick response) code, using a camera of the associated mobile device.
Various wireless communication devices additionally or alternatively utilize augmented reality (AR) applications to present a user with information relating to his or her surroundings. Generally, a camera of a mobile device running an AR application captures imagery of the surroundings of the mobile device. This live imagery is then displayed substantially in real time along with augmentations (e.g., graphics or other information) superimposed on the imagery. For instance, an AR application may be configured to detect one or more objects within view of the camera, retrieve information associated with the object(s), and superimpose the retrieved information on a display showing a live view of the camera imagery as augmentations proximate to the corresponding object(s).

Camera guided web browsing based on passive object detection


Laser systems with reduced apparent speckle are provided. The laser systems emit laser light having different mode structures that change within a time period of an integration period of an imaging system used to observe a field of view that is at least in part illuminated by the laser systems.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laser systems, and more particularly to laser illuminator systems.
Description of Related Art
Laser illumination systems project a beam of collimated light across an area. Often this is done to enable observation of a laser illuminated area in a particularly useful but limited range of wavelengths. This can be done for example to illuminate an area with light that is not visible to people but that can be detected electronically such as by illuminating an area with near infrared light or short wave infrared light, or this can be done to sense objects in a scene that may be fluoresce when illuminated when exposed to specific wavelengths of light.
One problem with observing laser illuminated areas is while a laser illumination may be generally uniform, non-specular surfaces in the illuminated area may reflect the coherent light from the laser such that interference patterns arise when the light is observed by a person or electronic imager. The interference creates areas that appear to be unnaturally bright and areas that appear to be unnaturally dark creating a high noise component in the reflected light observed in an area. The interference effect is known as speckle.
Speckle is visually distracting and can make it difficult for both human observers and automatic vision systems to detect contrast patterns in the illuminated areas.
Saloma, et al. in a paper entitled "Speckle reduction by wavelength and space diversity using a semiconductor laser", published in Applied Optics, Vol. 29, No. 6, (Optical Society of America 1990) describe a speckle reduction system that uses modulation of a laser to create additional longitudinal modes, with each mode having a different laser frequency. In operation, mode hopping is used and a grating is used to introduce a shift in a position of a point of a source of the illumination as a function of the change in frequency during the mode hopping. The change in position reduces the extent of the speckle contrast when averaged over time.
Trisnadi, in a paper entitled "Speckle contrast reduction in laser projection displays", published in Projection Displays VIII, Ming H. Wu, Editor Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 4657, (SPIE 2002) describes generally speckle reduction strategies as methods for averaging N independent speckle configurations with the spatial and temporal resolution of a detector and identifies three different mechanism for speckle reduction: wavelength diversity which requires a laser with a sufficiently large range of wavelengths to reduce speckle, polarization diversity which requires emission of laser light having two different polarizations and angle diversity which requires shifting the point of illumination. Trisnadi proposes a combination of polarization and angle diversity to achieve speckle reduction. In Trisnadi, angle diversity is accomplished using a moving diffuser.
Geske et al. U.S. Pat. No. 8,743,923 describe the use of a multi-wavelength VCSEL array to reduce speckle using wavelength diversity. In this embodiment, the VCSEL array has a plurality of laser emitters each with a different wavelength creating a laser emitter having a broad enough bandwidth to reduce the speckle effects.
What is need in the speckle reduction art is a solid state laser device that does not require the grating and extended optical path of Saloma, that does not require moving parts like the moving diffuser of Trisnadi and that does not require the complexity and cost of a VSCEL array.

Laser system with reduced apparent speckle


Two embodiments of a metal valve, each having a body with flow passages and curved internal sealing surfaces and a valve member with a flow passage and external curved sealing surfaces. Both the body and valve member sealing surfaces are curved as a portion of the involute of a circle and are sealingly engageable. The valve member is mounted in the body for rotation between open and closed positions, permitting and preventing flow through valve.

(1) Field of the Invention
This application pertains to valves and particularly pertains to valves having a valve member which is mounted in a body and rotated between open and closed positions.
(2) Background Information
Quite a number of valves have been developed which utilize resilient sealing materials for sealing between internal valve parts and metal valves and metal seats which rub on each other through the full arc as the valve member is rotated between open and closed positions. The resilient sealing materials often deteriorate rapidly as affected by high temperatures, chemical action and possibly erosion to a condition in which they no longer seal internal valve parts to one another. After metal valves and seats rub on each other through full turning arcs numerous times, metal sealing surfaces tend to gall ruining one or both of the sealing surfaces for sealing engagement with each other resulting in valve leakage. Particles of grit on metal sealing surfaces also may damage these surfaces to no longer sealingly engage. To have a reliable seal, the metal-to-metal valve and seats should have large areas for sealing engagement and should sealingly engage throughout the entire contacting area.
A mathematical analysis was made of arcs of circles, involutes, archimedean spirals, logarithmic spirals, epicycloids and hypocycloids to determine the most desirable curved surface for metal sealing surfaces. The involute of a circle was found to have all the required characteristics. The location of points on the involute curve was calculated and it was found there were a number of existing manufacturing processes which could be used to form involute curves on metal valve members and in metal valve bodies.


This invention relates to apparatus for scraping the inner surface of a wellbore. A scraper assembly (2) is provided comprising a scraper element (6) incorporating: a generally cylindrical member defined by a wall having a slot extending through the wall thickness; and at least one tooth member provided on the outer surface of the wall for scraping engagement with a wellbore. The present invention thereby provides a scraper assembly which is relatively convenient and inexpensive to manufacture and which may be considered as a disposable item of downhole equipment.

This invention relates to apparatus for scraping the inner surface of a wellbore.
This invention relates to apparatus for scraping the inner surface of a wellbore.
It is well known in the gas and oil drilling industry to run a scraper assembly down a wellbore so as to clean the inner surface of the wellbore casing wall. This operation is typically undertaken when there is a need to grip the inner surface of the wellbore casing with apparatus such as an inflatable packer. Naturally, the effectiveness of the apparatus gripping the casing is improved if the portion of casing to be gripped is substantially clean and free of loose fragments. In a conventional operation, a scraper assembly is attached to the bottom of the gripping apparatus so that cleaning of the casing may be completed as the gripping apparatus is run to the required depth. The scraping and gripping functions may be thereby executed in a single run.
A conventional scraper assembly is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. Typically, a prior art assembly incorporates a plurality of scraper elements mounted with compression springs about a mandrel. The scraper elements are arranged in such a way as to ensure full circumferential scraping of the casing when the assembly is run downhole without rotation. In the assembly of FIG. 1, this is achieved with the use of three longitudinally spaced pairs of scraper elements which are circumferentially offset relative to each other. A small degree of circumferential overlap is provided between the pairs of scraper elements so as to ensure uninterrupted circumferential scraping. Each scraper element covers approximately 60xc2x0 of the circumference of wellbore casing to be scraped. The scraper elements of each pair are located on opposite sides of the mandrel and are biased radially into scraping engagement with the wellbore casing by means of compression springs.
A number of problems are associated with the conventional scraper assembly described above. Firstly, the assembly is undesirably long due to the longitudinal spacing of the scraper element pairs. This longitudinal spacing is necessitated by the spring biasing system employed and the need to circumferentially overlap the pairs of scraper elements so as to ensure full scraping of the wellbore. Secondly, the multiple scraper element arrangement results in an item of downhole equipment which is relatively complex and expensive to manufacture.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a downhole scraper assembly which has a relatively short length whilst providing a full circumferential scraping capability.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a scraper assembly which is relatively convenient and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a scraper assembly which is reliable and which is sufficiently inexpensive to manufacture for it to be considered as readily disposable.
The present invention provides a scraper assembly for use in a wellbore, the scraper assembly comprising a scraper element incorporating: a generally cylindrical member defined by a wall having a slot extending through the wall thickness; and at least one tooth member provided on the outer surface of the wall for scraping engagement with a wellbore, the scraper assembly being characterised in that the slot extends helically along the length of the cylindrical member.
The scraper assembly of the present invention may thereby incorporate only one scraper element to ensure full circumferential scraping. The slot in the wall of the generally cylindrical member allows for radial deflection of the scraper element as the at least one tooth member engages the wellbore. The scraper element is sized so that the maximum diameter of the scraper element (as determined by the at least one tooth member), when in its relaxed state prior to use, is greater than the inner diameter of the wellbore casing to be scraped. Thus, as the scraper assembly of the present invention is pressed downhole, the at least one tooth member is deflected radially inward. The slot allows the radial deflection without undesirable buckling of the scraper element. Furthermore. the arrangement is such that the deflection is elastic. This results in the at least one tooth member applying an appropriate radial force on the wellbore casing during the scraping process.
Preferably, four tooth members are provided on the outer surface of the wall for scraping engagement with a wellbore. It is desirable for the or each tooth member to extend helically about the longitudinal axis of the scraper element. Furthermore, it is preferable for the slot to extend from one end of the generally cylindrical member to the opposite end of the generally cylindrical member. The slot may also extend helically along the length of the generally cylindrical member. It is also desirable for the or each tooth member to be defined on a central portion of the generally cylindrical member so as to provide end portions of the generally cylindrical member for mounting the scraper element adjacent a body member. The mounting of the scraper element adjacent the body member preferably permits radial deformation of the full length of the scraper element.
Furthermore, it is preferable for the scraper element to be configured so that, when radially deformed by a wellbore casing in use, the or each tooth member has a circular or part circular profile when viewed along the longitudinal axis of the scraper element and the outer diameter of this profile is equal to the inner diameter of the wellbore casing.
It is also desirable to provide the scraper element with at least one further slot which extends through the wall thickness, a portion of the at least one further slot extending helically along the scraper element and a portion of the at least one further slot extending in a circumferential direction at each end of the helically extending portion. It may also be preferable to provide at least one groove on the outer surface of the wall, the at least one groove extending helically along the length of the scraper element from one end of the scraper element to the opposite end of the scraper element. This at least one groove provides a fluid way which allows the passage of wellbore fluid past the scraper assembly when in use.
Thus, the scraper assembly of the present invention has the advantage of being relatively short in comparison to conventional scraper assemblies whilst providing a full circumferential scraping capability. Furthermore, since the inherent resilience of the scraper element is harnessed so as to obviate the need for discrete compression springs and since full circumferential scraping is provided by a single scraper element, the scraper assembly of the present invention is relatively convenient and inexpensive to manufacture and may be considered as a disposable item of downhole equipment.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.


A rotation transmission device includes inner and outer rings, a two-way clutch mounted between the outer and inner rings, and an electromagnetic clutch mounted adjacent to the two-way clutch. The electromagnetic clutch includes a rotor guide pressed onto the outer ring at its open end and a rotor pressed into the rotor guide. The rotor guide is made of a magnetic material having the same or substantially the same coefficient of linear expansion as the material of the rotor. Thus, even when the rotor guide and the rotor are heated and expanded, the interference between the rotor and the rotor guide remains substantially constant. Therefore, the rotor and the rotor guide can be reliably coupled together with a simple structure and at a low cost.

The present invention relates to a rotation transmission device for selectively transmitting power from input to output members of a drive train.
JP patent publication 2003-120719A discloses a rotation transmission device for selectively transmitting driving torque to the front, auxiliary drive wheels of a four-wheel drive vehicle of the front-engine, rear-drive layout.
This conventional rotation transmission device includes an outer ring coupled to a propeller shaft, an inner ring coupled to a pinion shaft of a differential, and a two-way clutch mounted between the outer and inner rings. An electromagnetic clutch is provided adjacent to the two-way clutch to selectively engage and disengage the two-way clutch. When the two-way clutch engages, the outer ring and the inner ring are coupled together, so that the rotation of the outer ring is transmitted to the inner ring.
The two-way clutch includes a cylindrical surface formed on the inner periphery of the outer ring and cam surfaces formed on the outer periphery of the inner ring. The cylindrical surface and the cam surfaces define wedge spaces having narrow circumferential ends. Rollers are mounted between the cam surfaces and the cylindrical surface and are retained by a retainer. Relative rotation of the retainer and the inner ring causes the rollers to engage between the cylindrical surface and the cam surfaces. A switch spring is mounted between the inner ring and the retainer to bias the retainer to its neutral position where the rollers are disengaged from the cylindrical surface and the cam surfaces.
The electromagnetic clutch includes an armature rotationally fixed but axially movable relative to the retainer, a cylindrical rotor guide connected to the outer ring at its open end and covering the armature, a rotor inserted in the rotor guide from its open end and axially facing the armature, and an electromagnet axially facing the rotor. When the electromagnetic coil of the electromagnet is energized, the armature is attracted to and pressed against the rotor. The armature thus begins to rotate together with the outer ring and relative to the inner ring. The rotation of the armature relative to the inner ring causes the rollers to engage the cylindrical surface and the cam surfaces.
If the magnetic field produced when the electromagnetic coil of the electromagnet is energized to attract the armature to the rotor leaks through the rotor guide to the outer ring, the electromagnetic force to attract the armature decreases. This in turn reduces the torque transmitted from the outer ring to the armature, thereby making it difficult to reliably engage the two-way clutch.
To avoid this problem, that is, to prevent leakage of the magnetic field, conventional rotor guides are typically made of non-magnetic materials such as aluminum.
In such conventional rotation transmission devices, the rotor and the rotor guide are made of materials having different coefficients of linear expansion. Thus if the rotor is pressed into the rotor guide, when the rotor and the rotor guide are heated and expanded, there will not be enough interference left for the rotor to remain secured to the rotor guide.
Similarly, the rotor guide and the outer ring are made of materials having different coefficients of linear expansion. Thus, if the rotor guide is pressed on the outer periphery of the outer ring at its open end, when they are heated and expanded, there will not be enough interference left for the rotor guide to remain secured to the outer ring.
It is therefore necessary to provide, between the rotor 50 and the rotor guide 51 (see FIG. 5), means for preventing relative rotation, such as a protrusion 52 formed on the outer periphery of the rotor 50 and received in a cutout 53 formed in the rotor guide 51 at its end, and means for preventing axial movement, such as a snap ring 55 engaged in a groove 54 formed in the inner periphery of the rotor guide 51 at its end. It is also necessary to provide such means between the rotor guide and the outer ring. These means complicate the structure of the rotation transmission device and thus increase its cost.
The snap ring 55 makes it impossible to increase the axial length of the rotor 50, and thus the length of the portion of the rotor 50 axially overlapping with the electromagnet 56. It is therefore impossible to increase the magnetic attraction force for attracting the rotor 50.
An object of the present invention is to provide a rotation transmission device of the abovementioned type in which the rotor guide and the rotor can be coupled together with a simple structure and at a low cost and which includes means for increasing the magnetic attraction for attracting the armature to the rotor.