A radius of curvature controlled mirror for controlling precisely the focal point of a laser beam or other light beam. The radius of curvature controlled mirror provides nearly spherical distortion of the mirror in response to differential expansion between the front and rear surfaces of the mirror. The radius of curvature controlled mirror compensates for changes in other optical components due to heating or other physical changes. The radius of curvature controlled mirror includes an arrangement for adjusting the temperature of the front surface and separately adjusting the temperature of the rear surface to control the radius of curvature. The temperature adjustment arrangements can include cooling channels within the mirror body or convection of a gas upon the surface of the mirror. A control system controls the differential expansion between the front and rear surfaces to achieve the desired radius of curvature.

It is often necessary to control the radius of curvature of a mirror in order to control precisely the location of the focal point occurs. This is important, for example, when using laser beams for machining or to compensate for changes in other optical components due to heating or other physical changes.
Among the various methods commonly used to achieve such control of the radius of curvature of a mirror are those that utilize pressure on the rear surface of the mirror while the periphery of the mirror is held in a constant position, thus resulting in the desired corrective distortion of the mirror. Such methods include those disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,153 to Okada, issued Feb. 1, 2000 that describes a variable-curvature reflecting mirror in which the radius of curvature is adjusted with a piezoelectric actuator that applies pressure against the back of the mirror; U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,619 to Danyluk et al., issued Jul. 3, 2001 that describes an adjustable acoustic mirror in which the radius of curvature is adjusted with a screw, rod, or voltage modulator; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,364 to Graves et al., issued Oct. 15, 2002 that describes a deformable curvature mirror in which the deformation is controlled by applying electrical voltages to electrode segments on the back of the mirror.
While each of these and similar prior art devices attempt to provide control of the radius of curvature of a mirror, they are substantially complex mechanically and consequently expensive to implement and often do not provide the desired perfectly spherical distortion of the mirror.
There is therefore, a need for a relatively simple radius of curvature control system that provides nearly spherical distortion of the mirror in response to external influences, especially heating such as that caused by laser beams.

Mirror with thermally controlled radius of curvature


A method to produce an anti-swelling mica having following steps:                mixing powdery mica with an alkaline compound to form a mixture;        heating the mixture at a temperature between 150° C.˜230° C. for lasting 30 minutes to make metal ions out of the alkaline compound to diffuse into the mica homogeneously;        using water to reduce temperature of the mixture so as to form an alkaline solution;        separating the powdery mica from the alkaline solution to obtain a solid mica;        neutralizing excessive alkaline compound adhering to the solid mica by an acid solution that is diluted by cold water and the mica anti-swells after adjusting pH of the solid mica to less than 7.0; and        diluting the acid solution again by adding water and separating the solid mica from diluted acid solution to obtain a production—anti-swelling mica.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method to produce an anti-swelling mica, and more particularly to a method to produce the anti-swelling mica in acid to decrease a production cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
A nanocomposite produced by an aluminosillicate (3Al2O3.3SiO2) such as clay minerals (montmorillonite) and a mica is a common technique. Generally, the mica is swelling, but a swelling mica is not practical. The swelling mica is only used as a packing material in semiconductor industry. Therefore how to transfer the swelling mica to an anti-swelling mica is an important objective in material industry.
To produce the anti-swelling mica, someone used a grind assistant to grind a sericite (a kind of mica) mechanically to form a sericite powder. The grind assistant can be lithium nitrate (LiNO3), sodium nitrate (NaNO3), potassium nitrate (KNO3) and rubidium nitrate (RbNO3) and the alkaline compound has alkaline ions. The sericite has potassium ions and a crystal structure. The mica has a surface area increasing after grinding the sericite to form a sericite powder. The potassium ions are out of the sericite and the alkaline ions diffuse into sericite to take place the potassium ions. According to the said research, the amount of potassium ions of the sericite is related to a specific area of the sericite. The crystal structure will be destroyed after grinding, so that the potassium ion proceeds an ion exchange step with the grind assistant. The result from the research also indicates the rubidium nitrate (RbNO3) is the best grind assistant.
R.O.C Pat. No. 460427 discloses a method about how to produce the anti-swelling mica. Generally, the inventor used the sericite powder grinding by grind assistant, lithium nitrate (LiNO3), to proceed the ion exchange step to produce the anti-swelling mica.
However, the research above both disclosed the grind assistant is neutral. Take the R.O.C patent for example, when proceeding the ion exchange step, the inventor further took a heating step having an operational temperature and a heating time. When the lithium nitrate (LiNO3) proceeds the ion exchange step, the operational temperature reaches 260° C. to 420° C. The first embodiment in the patent discloses the heating time takes 40 hours and the second embodiment discloses the heating time respectively takes 16, 40 and 96 hours. Although the method produces the anti-swelling mica, it needs too much energy and takes too much time to heat. Consequently, the method spends too much energy and money. Furthermore, the lithium nitrate (LiNO3) is expensive, which increases the production cost of the method. If there were a method to produce the anti-swelling mica without spending too many production costs, the anti-swelling mica would be much available on the market.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a method to produce an anti-swelling mica to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned drawbacks.


A loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle includes a section which is fixed to the vehicle, cannot be displaced and, viewed in the driving direction, is arranged in the front in the cargo space. Another section is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The two sections each extend over the entire width of the cargo space. The displaceable section is displaceable over the section fixed to the vehicle. In its most rearward position viewed in the driving direction, the displaceable section may be lowered into the cargo space so that it adjoins the section fixed to the vehicle flush with the surface.

This application claims the priority of German Application No. 10 2005 027 510.9, filed Jun. 15, 2005, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle, which includes a section which is fixed to the vehicle, cannot be displaced and, viewed in the driving direction, is arranged in the front in the cargo space, and also includes a section which can be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.
A movable loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle is known from German Patent document DE 103 17 539 A1. The vehicle has a seat arrangement which is situated in front of the cargo space and can be changed from its in-use position into a not-in-use position, and the loading floor can then be moved into the area taken up by the seat arrangement in its in-use position.
It is an object of the invention to create a loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle, which permits a comfortable loading and unloading of the cargo space.
This object is achieved by providing a motor vehicle having a loading floor for a vehicle cargo space which includes a section which is fixed to the vehicle, cannot be displaced and, viewed in the driving direction, is arranged in the front in the cargo space, and also includes a section which can be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The two sections each extend over the entire width of the cargo space, with the displaceable section being displaceable over the section fixed to the vehicle. The displaceable section is lowerable, viewed in the driving direction, in its most rearward position in the cargo space, so that it adjoins the vehicle-fixed section flush with the surface.
According to the invention, a loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle includes a section which is fixed to the vehicle, cannot be displaced and, viewed in the driving direction, is arranged in the front in the cargo space, and of a section which can be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The two sections each extend over the entire width of the cargo space, the displaceable section being displaceable over the section fixed to the vehicle. In its most rearward position—viewed in the driving direction—, the displaceable section can be lowered in the cargo space, so that it adjoins the section fixed to the vehicle flush with the surface.
For explaining the advantages of the invention, a passenger car constructed as a station wagon is described here, which has a large tailgate for loading the cargo space. When a heavy or large object to be transported is to be loaded, the latter is normally first deposited in the rearward area of the cargo space close to the rear opening. If the vehicle has a loading floor according to the invention, the object can be deposited on the displaceable section which is situated in the rearward position. The displaceable section (with the object deposited thereon) can now, with a low expenditure of force, be displaced toward the front, viewed in the driving direction, so that the rearward, easily accessible area of the cargo space will be free again for loading additional objects. Inversely, the object can also at any time be easily displaced together with the displaceable section back toward the loading opening, so that it can be unloaded with little effort. Nevertheless, in the case of very large objects, a loading floor is available which is flat over the entire surface of the cargo space, when the displaceable section is in the rearward lowered position. As a result, there is no jump in height between the section fixed to the vehicle and the displaceable section, so that the loading and unloading of large objects extending over both sections is not made difficult. The arrangement according to the invention, therefore, permits a comfortable loading and unloading of the cargo space.
Preferably, a locking mechanism prevents the displaceable section from being displaced in the driving direction when it is in a completely or partially lowered position. In this manner, it is ensured that the displaceable section cannot collide with the section fixed to the vehicle. This also ensures that, in the event of an accident, the displaceable section cannot undesirably shift toward the front on its own.
A particularly advantageous further development of the lowering and lifting mechanism consists of the fact that at least one carriage is guided on the displaceable section, which carriage has a guideway sloped in the lifting direction for a pin fixed to the vehicle in the cargo space, so that, by displacement of the carriage on the displaceable section, the latter is lowered or lifted. The displacement of the carriage may take place by a cable control which, in turn, may be operable by an operating element mounted on the displaceable section.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Loading floor for a cargo space of a vehicle

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


An apparatus for and a method of single-sided MRI with a palm-sized probe. The probe includes a planar permanent magnet having a gap between the north and south poles of the magnet. Positioned in the gap are an RF coil and a pair of gradient coils. The gradient coils are located on either side of the RF coil. The probe further includes an RF tuning circuit and a gradient input. In use, the pair of gradient coils produce a controlled magnetic field gradient over the field of view thereby improving image resolution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pertains more specifically to an apparatus for and a method of single-sided MRI with a palm-sized probe.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Single-sided or remotely positionable MRI devices have many advantages which stem primarily from the fact they can produce images of in situ specimens without requiring that the device surround and confine the specimen being imaged. Fields of study include a wide range of heterogeneous specimens with diverse compositions such as polymers, epoxies, biological tissues, food products, construction materials, and porous media. By virtue of being single-sided, however, they also have unique characteristics which must be taken into consideration. For instance, a single-sided MRI device generates an inhomogeneous magnetic field. This fact, alone, has a very significant effect on how the device is designed and how it operates.
In order to obtain useable images of in situ tissue, for example, with a single-sided MRI device, there needs to be a defined measurement region within the inhomogeneous magnetic field which is specifically configured for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. More specifically, it is the measurement region which coincidently covers the tissue that is to be imaged during the operation of the MRI device. Although the specific configuration for the measurement region can be varied somewhat according to the desires of the operator, for medical and industrial applications the measurement region will typically have a nearly flat planar configuration. Further, the measurement region will typically be relatively thin.
As is well known to skilled artisans, MRI is a diagnostic apparatus that is extensively used in the medical field to non-invasively image internal biological tissue. As is also well known, MRI relies on the magnetic resonance of nuclei, and the fact that when nuclei are placed in the environment of a strong external magnetic field B0 they will each assume a discrete energy state. Further, NMR takes advantage of the fact that while nuclei are influenced by an external magnetic field, radio frequency (RF) energy will induce changes in their energy states to generate signals which are characteristic of the nuclear spin and its surroundings. The RF radiation which is most effective for inducing such changes has a particular frequency (known as the Larmor frequency) which depends on the magnitude of the magnetic field at the location of the nucleus.
One advantage of a small portable MRI system is that it provides a non-destructive mobile scanning tool that renders information in situ which would otherwise not be attainable. One disadvantage of the small portable models is that they conventionally provide a narrow field of view requiring frequent repositioning of the probe.
Ideally, a portable MRI system would have a lower cost and a higher productivity than conventional systems. With a system of this type, system performance can be enhanced. A primary purpose of the present invention is to solve this need and provide further, related advantages.
An apparatus for and a method of single-sided MRI with a palm-sized probe is disclosed. The probe includes a planar permanent magnet having a gap between the north and south poles of the magnet. Positioned in the gap are an RF coil and a pair of gradient coils. The gradient coils are located on either side of the RF coil. The probe further includes an RF tuning circuit and a gradient input. In use, the pair of gradient coils produce a controlled magnetic field gradient over the field of view thereby improving image resolution.

Apparatus for and method of single-sided magnetic resonance imaging with palm-size probe


The disclosure is related to transmitting control information in a transmission/reception point and to receiving the control information in user equipment. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to transmitting the control information for user equipment which receives downlink control information through a downlink control channel newly defined in a data region. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to performing a resource mapping for enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs) of an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH).

The present disclosure relates to transmitting control information in a transmission/reception point and to receiving the control information in user equipment. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus (e.g., a transmission/reception point) for transmitting control information for user equipment which receives downlink control information through a downlink control channel newly adopted (or defined) in a data region. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus (e.g., user equipment) for receiving the control information.
A wireless communication system has been designed to transmit a mass amount of data to many subscribers. However, increasing the capacity of the wireless communication system is difficult due to the limited resources of a control region. For overcoming such limitation, using a downlink control channel in a data region might be required to transmit downlink control information.
Meanwhile, typical control channel elements (CCEs) are associated with assignment of a downlink control channel in a control region. Lately, enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs) are newly defined for assigning the downlink control channel in a data region. Accordingly, developing a resource assignment scheme associated with the newly-defined ECCEs might be required.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Transmission and reception of control information


According to various embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus for aligning lenticular screen with substrate image, comprising a lenticular screen with plurality of lenticules, alignment tab, and optical alignment device formed on alignment tab. In some instances, alignment tab has magnifying lens with focal point at a registration groove; in other instances, alignment tab has distorting channel for alignment with a registration line. According to other embodiments, methods comprising providing a lenticular screen attached to first alignment tab, the lenticular screen having a plurality of lenticules, the alignment tab having an optical alignment device, providing a substrate image removably attached to a second alignment tab having a registration line parallel to a printed row of substrate image, aligning first alignment tab with registration line using optical alignment device, affixing first alignment tab to second alignment tab, affixing lenticular screen to substrate image, and removing first and second alignment tabs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to creating an autostereoscopic image or animation flip with a lenticular screen, and more particularly to an improved lenticular screen and/or printed substrate image having removable alignment tabs to permit easier alignment of the lenticular screen and the printed substrate prior to their attachment.
2. Description of Related Art
An autostereoscopic image, or an animation flip, typically consists of a lenticular screen and a printed substrate image. The lenticular screen comprises rows of lenticules, which are lenses that permit different portions of the printed substrate image to be visible from different viewing angles through the lenticular screen. For example, rows of two or more images may be interlaced and printed to form the printed substrate image, such that when the printed substrate image is viewed through the lenticular screen, different images may be seen from different viewing angles, creating an "animation flip." Various other effects can be achieved based on the geometry of the lenticules and/or lenticular screen, as well as on the configuration and/or layout of the printed substrate image. For example, in addition to creating an "animation flip" effect, different lenticular screens and printed substrate images may be employed to create three-dimensional and/or "fly's eye" effects.
Once a lenticular screen has been selected and a printed substrate image obtained, they must be attached to one another to create the autostereoscopic image. At this stage, proper alignment of the lenticular screen with the printed substrate image is important. For instance, with respect to three-dimensional or "flip animation" images, the rows of lenticules on the lenticular screen must be lined up parallel with the printed image rows on the printed image substrate. If the lenticular screen is slightly askew with respect to the printed substrate image, a phenomenon known as "banding" will be present, in which a band of misaligned rows appears across the face of the autostereoscopic image. The larger the angle of skew between the lenticular screen and the printed substrate image, the more banding will be noticeable. In addition, a smaller lenticule size, a greater lenticule frequency, or a greater number of interlaced images on the printed substrate image increases the difficulty of aligning the lenticular screen, particularly with the naked eye.
Current methods for aligning the lenticular screen include sliding the lenticular screen over the printed substrate image prior to attachment, until the naked eye perceives an alignment between the two and the image appears correctly through the lenticular screen. In such cases, the lenticular screen is held in place by hand until it can be affixed to the printed substrate image. The lenticular screen is typically affixed to the printed substrate image with an optical cement. However, this process often leads to slippage or tilting of the lenticular screen as the optical cement is applied and/or the lenticular screen is secured to the printed substrate image. Holding the lenticular screen in place by hand while optical cement is applied may also increase the occurrence of air bubbles between the lenticular screen and the printed substrate image, as both hands are not always available to control the placement of the lenticular screen and/or the smoothing out of bubbles. In addition, care must be taken to not overly bend the lenticular screen, so as to damage it.
Various other methods exist for aligning the lenticular screen with a printed substrate image. For example, the lenticular screen and the printed substrate image may be cut precisely along a straight line such that they may be properly aligned by lining up the straight edges of the lenticular screen and the printed substrate image. However, this method may require special tools, and although effective for large-scale production of autostereoscopic images, is not as accessible to a home user or creator of a single autostereoscopic image. In other embodiments, an image may be printed, in reverse, directly onto the flat surface of a lenticular screen. However, this method may require a special printer; further, this method requires increased precision in the printing process that leads to a higher risk of "banding."
Thus, for these and other reasons, there exists a need in the art for methods and a relatively self-contained apparatus for more easily aligning and affixing a lenticular screen to a printed substrate image, so as to facilitate the alignment and to set and preserve the alignment prior to attachment of the lenticular screen to the printed substrate image.

Lenticular screen with removable alignment tab


A card game that can be used for wagering purposes. A series of successive stages is played by a player against a dealer. At each stage, the player tries to obtain a predetermined point total without going over, and the dealer does the same. The party (dealer or player) with the closest point total to the predetermined point total without going over will win that respective stage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium directed to a casino wagering game in which wagers can place multiple wagers for respective stages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Casino games are currently a billion dollar industry. Casinos are always looking for new games to attract players to their casinos. Brag has always been a popular wagering game, in which players can make three card poker hands. Blackjack has also always been a popular wagering game, in which players try to achieve a particular point total without exceeding the point total.
A game that can have elements of both brag and blackjack would be exciting for players. Therefore, what is needed is a new type of wagering game that can combine elements of both of these games as well as that can generate a lot of casino action which results in more profit for the casino.


A DC-motor-driven whisk blends soap remnants with water until creamy. The blending is done in a translucent housing over the motor where the shaft of the motor rotates the whisk. The soap cream is dispensed through a pump dispenser that extends into the housing. The whisk has two differently-shaped arms for more efficient blending and to avoid interfering with the pump dispenser. Water and soap are added through holes in the top of the housing that also enable soap fragrances to vent into the vicinity of the device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for creaming and dispensing soap. More particularly, the present invention is a device that whisks water and small pieces of soap into a cream for dispensing.
2. Discussion of Background
Typically, hand soap is found in the form of bars or creams. Soap creams are typically placed in containers for dispensing by pump dispensers. Although soap cream dispensers have become increasingly popular, bars of soap are still found in most bathrooms and kitchens.
A bar of soap becomes somewhat difficult to handle when it is nearly used up because of its small size. Nonetheless, many people hesitate to throw away small bars and remnants of soap until they are completely used up.
There remains a need for an effective way to use remnants of soap and soap chips.


A coil electric conductor has an insulating substrate, a first conductive layer, and a second conductive layer. The first conductive layer is formed at a depression provided on a face of the insulating substrate. The second conductive layer is formed on the first conductive layer with the first conductive layer interposed between the second conductive layer and the insulating substrate. This construction realizes a coil electric conductor having a highly precisely uniformized cross-sectional shape.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coil electric conductor and a laminated coil electric conductor which are used in various kinds of electronic components such as transformers and choke coils. The invention further relates to a production method for these conductors as well as an electronic component using these conductors.
2. Background Art
Related-art production methods for coil electric conductors are described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-267166 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) and H11-204361 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2).
FIG. 16A to FIG. 16E are cross-sectional views showing a production method for a coil electric conductor, which is described in Patent Document 1.
First, in a background conductive layer forming process (FIG. 16A), background conductive layer (hereinafter referred to as the background layer) 51 is formed on insulating substrate 50. In a resist pattern forming process (FIG. 16B), resist pattern 52 is formed so that a face of background layer 51 is spirally exposed. In a first electroplating process (FIG. 16C), electroplating using background layer 51 as a background is performed and central conductor (hereinafter referred to as conductor) 53 having a substantially rectangular cross section is formed. In a resist pattern peeling process (FIG. 16D), resist pattern 52 is peeled. In a second electroplating process (FIG. 16E), electroplating using conductor 53 as a background is performed and conductive face layer (hereinafter referred to as conductive layer) 54 is formed. In this manner, coil electric conductor 55 made of conductor 53 and conductor layer 54 which coats conductor 53 is produced.
However, coil electric conductor 55 is formed so that conductor layer 54 coats conductor 53, by means of the electroplating using conductor 53 as a background, and since the circulation in a plating bath for electroplating varies according to individual patterns of coil electric conductor 55, variations occur in the concentration distribution in the plating bath. Furthermore, plating layers become thin at positions remote from a power supply section (not shown). For this reason, the cross-sectional shape of coil electric conductor 55 is difficult to produce with high precision.
The cross-sectional shape of coil electric conductor 55 should be originally uniform in any section thereof. However, variations in precision cause nonuniformity of the cross-sectional shape. As a result, the conductivity of coil electric conductor 55 lowers. Precision is improved by reducing the current during electroplating, but this increases the operating time and lowers productivity.
Furthermore, since background layer 51 is peeled by etching after the resist pattern peeling process (FIG. 16D), the production process becomes complicated. In addition, if background layer 51 is not completely peeled, adjacent turns of coil electric conductor 55 are easily connected and electrically short-circuited.
Furthermore, the turns of coil electric conductor 55 are juxtaposed at narrow intervals, so that some of the turns of coil electric conductor 55 are easily brought into contact with one another and electrically short-circuited, by external impact during mounting of coil electric conductor 55.
In addition, if an electronic component using coil electric conductor 55 is used for a long time, a metal constituent used in coil electric conductor 55 moves through the faces of an insulator. As a result, mutually adjacent turns of coil electric conductor 55 or coil electric conductor 55 and other electronic components can cause short-circuits or insulating failures; that is to say, a migration phenomenon occurs. In addition, it is generally recommended that the same kind of material be used as the constituent material of each of conductor 53 and conductor layer 54, and a material of high conductivity is used for conductor 53 and conductor layer 54 in order to improve the conductivity of coil electric conductor 55. However, in general, metals of high conductivity tend to easily cause a migration phenomenon. Accordingly, if a material which does not easily cause a migration phenomenon is used for conductor 53 and conductor layer 54, the conductivity of coil electric conductor 55 becomes low.
FIGS. 17A to 17G are cross-sectional views showing a production method for a coil electric conductor, which is described in Patent Document 2.
First, background thin film layer (hereinafter referred to as background layer) 57 is formed on insulating substrate 56 (FIG. 17A). Then, positive photo resist layer (hereinafter referred to as resist layer) 58 is laminated on background layer 57 (FIG. 17B). Then, positive photo resist mask pattern (hereinafter referred to as the mask) 59 is formed from resist layer by a photolithography method (FIG. 17C). Then, coil electric conductor plating layer (hereinafter referred to as plating layer) 61 having a mushroom-shaped cross section is formed by electroplating. Plating layer 61 grows and is formed on both exposed section 60 of background layer 57 and mask 59 close to exposed section 60 (FIG. 17D). Then, protecting metal thin film layer (hereinafter referred to as protective layer) 62 which coats the whole of plating layer 61 is formed by electroplating (FIG. 17E). Then, the whole face of protective layer 62 is irradiated with activating radiation, whereby mask 59 exposed through gap 63 in plating layer 61 is developed and removed (FIG. 17F). Furthermore, background layer 57 is removed by etching (FIG. 17G). In this manner, coil electric conductor 64 made of background layer 57, plating layer 61 and protective layer 62 is produced.
Background layer 57 on insulating substrate 56 is electroplated, whereby plating layer 61 grows and coil electric conductor 64 is formed. Furthermore, protective layer 62 formed by electroplating coats a face of plating layer 61. As described above, in the case of electroplating, coil electric conductor 64 having a mushroom-shaped cross section is difficult to produce with high precision. In addition, the cross-sectional shape of coil electric conductor 64 becomes non-uniform.
In addition, after the coating of protective layer 62, mask 59 is peeled by exposure and development, and background layer 57 is peeled by etching, so that the production process becomes complicated. Furthermore, if background layer 57 is not completely peeled, electrical short-circuiting easily occurs.
Furthermore, the adjacent turns of coil electric conductor 64 are juxtaposed at narrow intervals, so that some of the adjacent turns of coil electric conductor 64 are easily brought into contact with one another and electrically short-circuited, by external impact during mounting of coil electric conductor 64.

Coil electric conductor, laminated coil conductor, production method of the same and electronic component using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An electrical connector includes an insulating body, and a plurality of pins received in the insulating body. The pin has a main portion and a flexible arm. Two separate supporting arms extend upwards from main portion. The flexible arm extends along the lengthwise direction of the main portion. There is a slot opening between the two supporting arms. The flexible arm is compressed and passes through the slot opening. Compared to the prior art, the structure of the electrical connector of the present invention is simple, and the pins can be disposed in a dense manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,495 discloses an electrical connector. Its pin 5 is formed by punching the metal material belt. Reference is made to FIG. 1. The electrical connector has a horizontal welding base portion 50 for welding the pin 5 to a circuit board (not shown in the figure) so that the pin 5 is electrically connected with the circuit board. The base portion 50 includes a rear portion 501 and a front portion 503. A flexible arm 52 extends forwards and upwards from the rear portion 501 of the base portion 50. The flexible arm 52 can be electrically connected with a plate grid array module. A connecting portion 54 extends forwards and upwards from the front portion 503 of the base portion 50. A board-shaped fastening portion 56 extends from the front end of the connecting portion 54. The upper end of the fastening portion 56 diverges and has two fastening arms 561. On the opposite two sides of the fastening arms 561, there are a plurality of protruding splinters 562 for fastening the pin 5 onto an insulating body (not shown in the figure). However, because the base portion 50 and the flexible arm 52 of the pin 5 transversely extend, it is not easy to dispose the pins on the electrical connector in a dense manner.


An elevator shaft closure, which separates an elevator shaft of a building from a story of the building, has a door frame. An elevator control arrangement is arranged in a chamber of the door frame, wherein the elevator control arrangement includes an elevator control unit and at least one electronic power unit for operation of an elevator motor.

In some cases, an elevator shaft closure of a building comprises a door frame, which is fastened in the building, and movable doors. The elevator shaft closure separates an elevator shaft of the building from a story of the building, wherein an elevator control arrangement is arranged in a chamber of the door frame. The disposition of the elevator control arrangement within the door frame is made possible, inter alia, by the fact that the elevator control arrangement can nowadays be of smaller construction and the power consumption as well as the resulting waste heat could be reduced and thereby, for example, ventilating installations are not required. An elevator control arrangement comprises, for example, an elevator control unit and means for mounting and for protection of the elevator control unit. The elevator control arrangement is therefore mountable and demountable as an entire unit with few handling operations in an elevator installation.
The elevator control unit substantially comprises subassemblies required for control and/or regulation of the elevator installation. Moreover, such an elevator control unit can contain interfaces and input modules necessary for servicing of the elevator installation and for diagnostics and comprise a power supply unit for voltage supply.
Door frame elements of elevator installations should usually not, as a consequence of their dimensions, be dominant in appearance and therefore have very small cross-sections. In existing elevator installations the dimensions of the cross-section are seldom more than 0.1 meters×0.15 meters.
In addition, an electronic power unit, which is usually arranged in the elevator shaft, is usually necessary for operation of an elevator motor. The elevator motor, which is similarly arranged in the elevator shaft, can be connected by way of the electronic power system with the power supply unit and is activated by control signals of the elevator control unit.

Elevator shaft door frame including elevator control


Systems and methods for providing a visualization of satellite sightline obstructions are provided. An example method includes identifying an approximate position of a receiver antenna. The method further includes providing a rendering of a physical environment surrounding the receiver antenna for display within a user interface. The user interface can be provided on a display. Satellite positional data associated with the position of a satellite is accessed and a sightline between the approximate position of the receiver antenna and the position of the satellite is determined. The method further includes presenting the sightline within the user interface in association with the rendering. An example system includes a data capture system and a computing device to provide a visualization of satellite sightline obstructions.

Global positioning receivers calculate their position by precisely timing the signals sent by GPS satellites. Each GPS satellite transmits a message which includes the time of message transmission and the satellite's position at the time of message transmission. By differencing the given time of message transmission from the time of message receipt, GPS receivers can determine the transit time of each satellite message. By multiplying the transit time by the speed of light, the GPS receiver can calculate an approximate distance from the receiver antenna to the transmitting satellite, also known as a pseudorange. Taking the pseudoranges calculated from several satellites together with the given satellite positions at the time of message transmission, a GPS receiver can estimate its current position and clock offset.
Thus, accurate GPS positioning relies upon receiving clear, direct signals from the GPS satellites. Unfortunately, GPS signals can bounce or reflect off objects prior to being received by a receiver antenna. Such reflected signals travel a longer distance than unreflected signals, resulting in a longer transit time and therefore distorting positional calculations. This effect is known as the multipath effect and it causes significant positional calculation error. One form of multipath error occurs when a GPS receiver antenna observes a multipath signal from a satellite even though the direct sightline is obstructed. Knowledge of whether a sightline to a GPS satellite is obstructed can help detect possible multipath error and improve the accuracy of positional calculations.


The present application thus provides a tray for use with a number of products. The tray may include a base and a lid enclosing the base. The base may include a first wall and a second wall. The lid may include a first lid tab and a second lid tab such that the first lid tab of the lid is attached to an exterior of the first wall of the base and the second lid tab of the lid is attached to the exterior of the second wall of the base.

Corrugated paperboard trays and cartons are in wide use to pack, ship, store, and display many different types of products. These cartons and trays must securely retain and protect the products therein during shipping and storage while providing easy access to the products for later display and/or removal. Moreover, existing supply chain requirements also must be met so as to ensure efficient production, transport, and use of the tray or carton across one or more industries or across one or more geographies.
There is thus a desire for an improved paperboard tray or carton. Such an improved tray or carton may accommodate a number of products of a predetermined size, shape, and configuration in a secure fashion but with less material and, hence, lower weight and overall lower material costs. Moreover, such an improved tray or carton should be easy to erect, easy to use, and economical to produce.


A broadcasting signal processing apparatus and a control method thereof are provided. The broadcasting signal processing apparatus includes a wireless antenna; a radio frequency (RF) module which tunes a broadcasting signal; a variable part which adjusts an impedance to match an impedance of the wireless antenna with an impedance of the RF module; and a controlling part which pre-stores impedance variable values for impedance matching and which controls the variable part to adjust the impedance based on one of the pre-stored impedance variable values corresponding to a broadcasting frequency of a selected broadcasting channel. The method includes tuning to a broadcasting frequency; determining whether an impedance used to match a wireless antenna with a radio frequency (RF) module is different from an impedance variable value; and if the impedance is different, adjusting the impedance.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a broadcasting signal processing apparatus and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a broadcasting signal processing apparatus, which is capable of reducing a difference in receiving sensitivity between channels which occurs in changing a broadcasting channel when a broadcasting signal is received through a wireless antenna, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a broadcasting signal processing apparatus for allowing a user to select a broadcasting channel and for receiving and/or processing a broadcasting signal corresponding to the selected broadcasting channel includes an antenna for receiving the broadcasting signal, an RF module for selecting a broadcasting frequency corresponding to the selected broadcasting channels from the received broadcasting signal, and a broadcasting signal processor for processing the broadcasting frequency selected in the RF module, that is, a broadcasting signal of the selected broadcasting channel.
In recent years, such a broadcasting signal processing apparatus has a tendency to be provided to receive and/or process broadcasting signals while the broadcasting signal processing apparatus is moving, without being stationary, in order to develop broadcasting systems and meet many desires of users. According to this tendency, broadcasting signal processing apparatuses are equipped with wireless antennas, not wired antennas, to allow the broadcasting signal to be received and/or processed without any restriction on the movement of the broadcasting signal processing apparatus.
A Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) may be an example of representative broadcastings received and/or processed by the broadcasting signal processing apparatuses equipped with the wireless antennas. At present, the DMB offers seven broadcasting channels from CH 7 to CH 13 using different broadcasting frequency bands. In a related art broadcasting signal processing apparatus equipped with a wireless antenna, the length of the wireless antenna is determined to meet a broadcasting frequency band corresponding to a specified broadcasting channel. For example, the related art broadcasting signal processing apparatus is equipped with a wireless antenna having a length determined to meet a broadcasting frequency band of about 202 MHz to about 209 MHz corresponding to a broadcasting channel CH12.
More specifically, when the length of the wireless antenna in the broadcasting signal processing apparatus is determined to meet the broadcasting channel CH12, the length of the wireless antenna is equal to a half wavelength, i.e., a wavelength (γ)/2, and the wavelength (γ)=propagation velocity (v)/frequency (f). Accordingly, the wavelength (γ) of the broadcasting channel CH12 is about 148 cm (propagation velocity (v=300,000 km/s)/frequency (f=about 202 MHz) and the length of the wireless antenna is determined as about 148 cm/2, i.e., about 74 cm.
However, in addition to the broadcasting channel CH12, the broadcasting signal processing apparatus equipped with the wireless antenna may receive many other broadcasting channels, for example, CH7, CH8, CH9, CH10, CH11 and CH13, using broadcasting frequencies different from the broadcasting frequency of CH12. However, if the related art broadcasting signal processing apparatus equipped with the wireless antenna whose length is determined to meet one broadcasting channel (e.g., CH12) receives a broadcasting signal of a different broadcasting channel (e.g., CH8), since the length of the wireless antenna is determined to meet the broadcasting channel CH12, capability to receive the broadcasting signal of the different broadcasting channel is lowered, which results in a difference in receiving capabilities between broadcasting channels.
Hereinafter, the receiving capability difference between broadcasting channels will be described in brief with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 shows a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) a′ in selecting the broadcasting channel CH12 and a VSWR b′ in selecting the broadcasting channel CH8 in the related art broadcasting signal processing apparatus in which the length of the wireless antenna is determined to meet the broadcasting channel CH12. A lower VSWR of an antenna means a higher signal receiving capability. As can be seen from FIG. 5, since the length of the wireless antenna is determined to meet the broadcasting channel CH12, when the wireless antenna receives a broadcasting signal having a broadcasting frequency band (f6˜f7) corresponding to the broadcasting channel CH12, the VSWR a′ of the wireless antenna has a very small value R1. On the other hand, when the wireless antenna receives a broadcasting signal having a different broadcasting frequency band (f2˜f3) corresponding to the broadcasting channel CH8, since the length of the wireless antenna meets the broadcasting channel CH12, not the broadcasting channel CH8, and accordingly, there is no impedance matching between the wireless antenna and the RF module, the VSWR b′ of the antenna has a relatively large value R2.
As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 5, the length of the wireless antenna in the related art broadcasting signal processing apparatus is determined to meet one broadcasting channel (e.g., CH12). Therefore, when broadcasting channels other than the broadcasting channel which has been used to determine the length of the antenna from the broadcasting signal processing apparatus (e.g., CH12) are selected for reproduction of broadcasting, there may arise a problem of irregularity and instability of broadcasting receiving conditions in the absence of impedance matching.

Broadcasting signal processing apparatus and control method thereof


An emulating agent and method is provided that receives numbers having si, exponents and significands of varying lengths and possibly configured in a variety of incompatible formats and to reformat the numbers into a standard uniform format for uniform arithmetic computations in processors operating with different architectures. In one embodiment, the emulating agent has a three-field superset register configured to receive the sign of a number in a first field, the exponent of a number in a second field and the significand of a number in a third field, regardless of the original format of the number, resulting in a number represented in a standard uniform format for computation. The embodiment also allows high level access to the fields to allow users to control the size of the numbers inserted into the fields.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data formatting in computer systems and, more particularly, relates to an emulating agent for uniform formatting of data.
2. Background
In a computer systems having a single central processing unit, numbers are transferred using a uniform number format. The format typically allows the system to distinguish among the sign, exponent, and a significand of a number. In a properly designed system, there would be no reason to have incompatible formats in a single system.
In contrast, in a computer system having multiple processors with different architectures, there may arise incompatibilities of formats among number values produced by separate processors. The incompatibilities typically involve numbers that have signs, exponents, or significands represented in a format corresponding to a particular processor that are a different length from those of another processor in the same system. Each processor will typically have registers that are designed to accommodate its own format. As a result, registers of one processor architecture may not be able to accommodate numbers produced by another processor having a different format. This incompatibility will cause errors in computations when numbers are transferred to a processor having a format that is incompatible with the processor sending the number.
One solution is to use a different register for each number format. The Motorola 88000 series of processors was made compatible to the Intel single, double and double-extended precision formats. In this application, a different register was used for each size of precision. Thus, no numbers of incompatible formats went to the same register.
Another solution to this problem was accomplished by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to employ both the VAX format and the IEEE format in a single size register file. The operands for numbers were encoded in the same size 64-bit register file. Both encodings, however, were the same size and both single and double precision results were stored in the same register. Both the VAX and the IEEE format had 32-bit registers for storing and retrieving single precision numbers as well as 64-bit registers for storing and retrieving double precision numbers. Formats of varying and incompatible lengths did not exist in that application and, thus, no incompatible formats occurred. Thus, the formats were essentially compatible in that a varying size register was not required to accommodate the different formats.
Yet another example was incorporated in the Pentium.TM. microprocessor produced by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., that had a 17-bit exponent range internal to the microcode. This allowed for varying-sized exponents of numbers that were used in the microcode. This application with the extended exponent range, however, was not accessible using compilers or other high level languages, such as assembly language programmers and was, thus, not accessible to a computer user.
Therefore, it would be of great use in the microprocessor industry if a device and method were available to emulate processors of different architectures so that numbers of incompatible formats could be transferred, exchanged and computed upon among processors having different architectures. Also, it would be most useful if the ability to transfer, exchange and compute numbers of incompatible formats among processors of different architectures were made available to the user so that the advantage of using incompatible numbers were realized by users of compilers, high level languages and assembly language. As will be seen, the present invention accomplishes this in a simple and elegant manner.

Emulating agent and method for reformatting computer instructions into a standard uniform format

Institute For The Development Of Emerging Architectures, L.L.C.


A system and process for providing progressively higher quality versions of an audio and/or video program over a client-server based network. In response to a user command to view a particular program, the client requests layered data associated with the program from the server. The client also specifies how many consecutive layers are to be transmitted based on the bandwidth available on the network. The client then receives the data from the server, caches it, renders it as it is received, and presents it to the viewer. Upon a request from the user for a higher quality version of the program, the client requests as many enhancement layers associated with the program as possible given the available bandwidth. The client receives the requested data, combines it with the previously stored lower-level layer data, renders the higher quality version of the program, and presents the new version to the user.

1. Technical Field
The invention is related to streaming media rendering, and more particularly to a system and process for obtaining progressively higher quality versions of an audio and/or video program over a client-server based network.
2. Background Art
Audio and video information is commonly sent from a server to a client over a network connection, particularly over the Internet. For example, many news and sports web sites on the Internet contain short video clips which can be accessed by a user. One typical way that this happens is for a user to download the data associated with the desired clip. This is accomplished by a client computer associated with the user making a request for the data from a server upon which the data is resident. The server then transfers the requested data to the client via the network. Once all the data has been received by the client, the client computer renders it and presents it to the user in the normal manner. However, when data is transferred over a network, and particularly over the Internet, the channels between the server and client can vary dramatically in capacity, often by two or three orders of magnitude. These differences in capacity exist because the data transmission rates associated with the connections to a particular client can vary (e.g., phone line capacity, LAN and/or modem speeds). This heterogeneity in capacity can cause problems, particularly if high quality audio and video is desired. For example, downloading a high quality, and therefore large bandwidth, version of an video clip from a website on the Internet could mean waiting for much longer than the duration of the clip itself. Thus, the user has to wait to see the video clip, often with the result of frustrating the user. Furthermore, the user may not know if the video clip is of interest without viewing it, so waiting to download something that may not even be interesting is doubly unattractive.
The downloading issue can be avoided by using a form of audio and video data transfer referred to as a real-time unicast multimedia presentation. Essentially, this scheme involves streaming data associated with a requested video program from the server to the client over the network. As the data is received by the client, it is rendered and presented to the user on a nearly real time basis. However, the aforementioned bandwidth limitations typical of a network, and particularly the Internet, also create problems for this type of transfer. For example, the typical bandwidth available on a network like the Internet is inadequate to allow the streaming of a high quality color video. Thus, a particular client may not have the bandwidth available to receive the highest quality transmission that a server is capable of providing.
To overcome this bandwidth problem, audio and video information can be transmitted via a layered scheme. In a layered scheme, audio and video information is encoded in layers of importance. Each of these layers is transmitted in a separate data stream, which are in essence a sequence of packets. The base layer is an information stream that contains the minimal amount of information, for the least acceptable quality. Subsequent layers enhance the previous layers, but do not repeat the data contained in a lower layer. In order to obtain the higher quality, a client must receive the lower layers in addition to the higher layers that provide the desired quality. Thus, the layers are hierarchical in that there is at least one base layer, and one or more additional higher level enhancement layers. There can in fact be several hierarchical layers building up from a base layer with each subsequent layer being dependent on the data of one or more lower level layers and enhancing those lower level layers. An illustrative (but perhaps not particularly realistic) example of a layered video program would include a base layer that consists of black and white video of every odd numbered video frame, a second layer that consists of black and white video of every even numbered video frame, and a third layer that consists of color information for all frames. Playing only the first layer would get a black and white video at ½ frame rate (i.e. somewhat jerky). Playing the first and second layers together would yield a black and white video at full frame rate (smooth motion). Playing all three layers would yield a color video at full frame rate.
In a layered scheme, a client can request as many layers as desired, provided the total bandwidth of the layers is not greater than the bandwidth available on the network. For example, if the client is connected to the Internet by a 28.8 Kbps modem, then it can feasibly subscribe to one, two, or three 8 Kbps video layers. If it subscribes to more than three such layers, then congestion will certainly result and many packets will be dropped randomly, resulting in poor video quality. By observing packet drops the maximum number of layers that can be supported can be determined.


A gateway and method for distinguishing between different types of messages without requiring the gateway to be fully aware of the communication protocol. The gateway passes through messages from application entities to network elements and vice versa. The gateway determines a transaction identifier or sequence step information, and compares the transaction identifier or sequence step information with ones previously stored. The comparison result is used to determine whether a message is an initial message or a response message to the initial message, and whether the message is a first or subsequent message, respectively.

In the field of communication it is known to provide entities of different functionality in a communication system that may comprise one or more networks. An entity within the meaning of the present application and claims is a device or a plurality of devices for providing a particular functionality, e.g. a single unit or node, or a collection of units or nodes that act together. One known type of entity is a gateway entity that acts as a gate between one or more entities on one side and one or more entities on the other side. For example, gateway entities can be provided at the transition between two different networks, for allowing communication between the entities of the two networks. Another example of a gateway entity is in a context where a plurality of application components are provided in a redundant structure (also referred to as a high availability system or fault tolerant systems), connected to a gateway entity that offers entities of an outside network access to the application components, where one application component can take over when another fails.
A basic problem with such gateway entities is their complexity. Namely, the gateway entities are designed to process messages being sent between the entities on either side, such that the gateway entities must be able to understand the protocol being used for the messages.
For example, in the case of a gateway entity between two different networks, the gateway entity should be arranged to implement every protocol used for messages passed by the gateway entity.
In redundant systems, further problems occur in the gateways.
Due to the complexity of telecommunication networks, there are various reasons for possible failures, which may occur in the network components themselves, e.g. the hardware or the software running on those components but may also be triggered by environmental effects on the network components, preventing users from receiving the offered services.
Service retainability is the key to success of these networks, which means that even during the failure process, when a backup process takes over to provide for continuous service, there is no or only a minimal impact on the user receiving the service.
Offering telecom grade high availability in general entails hardware and software components that are designed to have or support high availability functions. These kinds of platforms have telecom grade operating systems and specifically written applications to make use of high availability functions. The design and implementation process of such operating systems and applications are long and expensive.
There are many high availability solutions that can be categorized as being stateless or stateful depending on the state of the application preserved during failover so that they can continue smoothly, or those states have to be re-built after failover. Stateful solutions are more appropriate for smooth services, because re-building states may take a considerable amount of time possibly leading to service disruption or degradation.
For example a stateful high availability system may comprise one or more primary and backup components and additional mechanisms to ensure that states of the primary components are replicated to the backup components. The most widely known system uses the hot-standby or 1+1 redundancy scheme, in which a primary and backup component work in a mated pair relationship and the primary component serves all requests, while the backup component waits to take over when the primary component goes down due to a failure. During normal operation application states from the primary component are periodically copied to the backup component to have an up-to-date version in case the primary component stops. The failover process changes the role of the backup component to be the primary component as long as the failed primary component has recovered.
Another example is a fault tolerant system, in which, two or more identical components work parallel with the same input data. The outputs of these components are compared to identify if there is a faulty one among them. These dual or multiple modular redundant systems have redundant hardware setups and are inherently stateful as each component processes the same data in exact parallelism with other components. Therefore, if one component fails, it can be disabled, while the others can provide the service immediately as there is no switchover time or other delay in its simple failover mechanism.
However, the approaches discussed above that are built up following the primary-backup principle have to apply additional mechanisms to be able to replicate states in the backup component. State replication imposes several requirements, e.g. states need to be consistent and up-to-date in corresponding components, the mechanism that is responsible for moving states has to be resilient in itself. Therefore, for state replication, both the operating system and the application have to be designed to support this feature. The operating system has to implement and handle resilient databases and processes, manage failover of these ones and also support various high availability functions, like fault detection and failover control logic. Further, applications have to be specifically coded to assist the state replication. Therefore, this implies a long and expensive design and implementation process and a complex system with a long time to market cycle. Moreover, neither the operating systems nor the applications are portable among different platforms.
Furthermore, dual or multiple modular redundant systems require exact parallel processing in each component, which generally is extremely hard to achieve. It is not only that instructions have to be processed simultaneously in terms of clock cycle in different processors but randomness is also introduced by both the operating system (e.g., port selection, interrupts, task scheduling) and the applications (e.g., adding random fields) that have to be controlled to achieve exact parallel operation. Moreover, the systems require additional mechanism to decide on the correct value when there is a comparison mismatch at the outputs. This support comes from the board (hardware) itself or from software components, those are proprietary extensions that are unknown in detail. To fulfill these requirements special hardware and operating systems are usually needed rendering fault tolerant systems very costly.
EP 1 599 099 A1 describes improvements in message-based communications. Here, a method of communicating information between an intermediate element and a source element in a message-based communication system in which request messages are sent from the source element and in response a corresponding response message is sent from a destination element is provided. An exchange of messages is known as a transaction in SIP, wherein a transaction comprises all messages from the first request message up to a final response message. The proxy is a stateful proxy determining whether the received message is part of the current transacation, e.g. by matching a transaction identifier for the current message with the information stored in a transaction context. Further, another proxy is provided, which is stateless, i.e., it does not maintain a transaction context and thus does not require a context storage means.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,270 B1 describes hybrid and prediction admission control stragegies for a server. Here, and admission control system for a server including an admission controller that receives a stream of messages from one or more clients targeted for the server is described. The admission controller relays the messages to the server in a stream that corresponds to a number of sessions underway between the clients and the server. The admission controller processes individual ones of the arriving messages based upon the indications provided by the resource monitor and a determination of whether the arriving messages correspond to session already underway with the server. For example, a transaction list identifies any session.

Gateway entity for distinguishing between different messages without full knowledge of underlying protocol


A security splicing system of aligned pipes against an expansion and/or contraction thereof due to variations in temperatures, has a flange unit providing a stability and watertightness of a splice, and including a double flange with two identical fastening elements gripping an outer face of an end area of two previously spliced pipes with a watertight connecting flange, so that an accidental displacement of the watertight connecting flange is prevented in an event that dimensions of the end area of the pipes vary due to an expansion or contraction.

The present patent relates to a security splicing system of aligned pipes, against the expansion and/or contraction thereof.
More particularly, the present patent relates to a system devised to carry out the splicing of piping with identical diameters and situated aligned one with respect to the other, featuring as its essential characteristic that the watertightness achieved by means of the splice with suitable flanges will not be altered by expansions and/or contractions that the aforementioned piping may suffer due to changes in temperature. The elements which constitute the system are described below.
The use of prefabricated piping is generalized for the construction or installation of fluid pipes, both liquid and gas, at various pressures, often high, for requirements of the type of pipe or transport to be carried out and for the characteristics of the fluid to conduct or transport.
This piping can be supplied in factory-produced sections, of several dozen metres, so that the time necessary to lay the piping is relatively short. This piping is preferably manufactured in polyethylene, a material of optimal characteristics for the transport of different fluids, and especially aggressive liquids and/or gases, including the United Nation's list of hazardous materials.
However, a basic and characteristic element of these installations are flanges and fastenings that are used for the joining or splicing of two pipes, aligned and of equal diameter, flanges and fastenings of various types that grip both ends of the pipes to splice and which must guarantee the watertightness of that splice, especially if the phenomenon of expansion/contraction due to changes in temperature and the drawbacks that can arise in that spliced area are taken into consideration, since the movements caused by the expansion/contraction will directly affect the position of the flange/fastening device, and can bring about leaks due to the loss of watertightness in that place, with the ensuing danger.
The system being disclosed and which is object of the present invention completely eliminates the possibility of the excessive movement of the flange/fastening placed on the two aligned ends of the piping that has been joined, guaranteeing the stability of that area and the impossibility that any leak due to an improbable movement of said flange/fastening occurs.
Patent ES200202246 (M. J. Pires) discloses flanges for the splicing of piping with smooth ends which achieve watertightness with help from metal rings which support and drive into the piping surface, providing that most of them increase the number of fixed vertices and, therefore, improve the watertightness.
If the function desired is obviously correct, the difficulty arises when the piping to be spliced expands or contracts, given that especially those made of propylene increase in length with heat and shrink in cold.

Security splicing system of aligned pipes, against the expansion and/or contraction thereof


A compact, portable carrier for a flexible bag containing a comminuted material and having a bottom discharge spout, including a frame structured to encompass such bag and attach such bag in suspended relation thereto, be transported to a spaced site and be operated to jostle the material contained in such suspended bag to facilitate the discharge thereof through the spout thereof.

Bulk comminuted materials typically are deposited in bags formed of a flexible material which commonly are stored on pallets, transmitted by means fork lift trucks and/or overhead cranes and deposited in various bins or hoppers for blending, processing or other purposes. Generally, such bags include a peripheral wall, a closable top wall provided with a set of looped straps and a bottom wall including a spout which may be tied closed for storing and transportation purposes. In circumstances where the contents of such bags are to be fed into a bin or hopper for storage, blending, processing or other purposes, they are suspended from a carrier by means of the looped straps thereof, connected to a hook of an overhead crane, transported by such crane to and positioned over an inlet of a selected bin or hopper and opened to permit the contents thereof to be gravity discharged into the selected bin or hopper.
Often, the material thus being transported and charged into a bin or hopper, has poor flow properties which impair or possibly prevent the free gravity discharge of such material from the bag. To contend with such occurrences, many of such bins or hoppers in which some materials are to be fed are provided with various means for jostling such bags positioned over such bins or hoppers to dislodge and impel the material and thus enhance its flowability in discharging such material from such bags. Such jostling means may consist of any form of device which impacts a bag being emptied to dislodge and propel the contents of the bag through the spout thereof.
In the use of such jostling devices for the purpose as described, it has been found that the provision of such devices on each bin or hopper in which bags are to be emptied can be costly and often impractical or impossible to provide because of space limitations. Accordingly, the general object of the present invention is to provide an improved system for handling a bulk comminuted material utilizing flexible bags for holding and carrying a material to be transferred to a receptacle, and an improved carrier for use in such a system, which is more effective and economical in use.

Bulk material handling system and carrier therefor


During a reconfiguration of a software-based system, an addition process for loading software components onto the system is performed, followed by a removal process for purging therefrom those components which are no longer required in the new configuration. In accordance with the invention, the dependencies of the software components currently in the system and those to be added thereto are identified. Using the knowledge of such dependencies, the addition process ensures the minimal addition of software components to the system, and the removal process ensures the maximal removal of software components therefrom in realizing the new configuration.

Nowadays, a product or service is usually designed according to customer specifications. However, when the customer's needs change, the product or service has to be re-designed to meet the new specifications. Software-based systems have been built to generate a generic set of products or services, each of which may be individualized according to the customer's requirements by dynamically reconfiguring the systems.
To save the system cost, interchangeable hardware components for use in the aforementioned systems are standardized and their interfaces are compatible. In addition, the capacity of the storage for software components in such systems is limited.
Because of the storage space limitation, it is desirable that those software components which are no longer needed after reconfiguring the system are removed therefrom. Moreover, to save time for dynamic reconfiguration, only those software components that are needed but not currently available in the system are loaded thereon. Since no known technique can effectively accomplish these tasks, there thus exists a need for a methodology for efficiently maintaining the system software components during a system reconfiguration.

Technique for efficiently maintaining system configuration


A method and apparatus for laser beam drift compensation. A portion of the laser beam is split off and focused onto a photocell through a reticle. As the laser beam scans the reticle, the actual position of the laser beam is determined and compared with its anticipated position. Compensation is made for any deviation in the beam position in a closed-looped manner to provide accurate optical alignment of the laser beam to the workpiece.

This invention relates to laser beam processing of materials, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for laser beam drift compensation in a materials processing machine.
Manufacturing and materials processing machines that employ lasers for their source of processing energy are subject to variations in the laser because of temperature, vibration, power-up and shutdown of the laser source, and random drifting of the laser pointing direction. Over relatively short periods of time, the precise direction of laser beam wanders slightly. This laser beam characteristic appears to be random and cannot be predicted.
Many laser processing machines use acousto-optic deflectors to deflect or scan the laser beam. Acousto-optic deflectors are sensitive to their immediate past use. It appears that heating of the piezoelectric deflector crystals that make up the heart of the acousto-optic scanner depends on the deflection required from each of the x or y deflectors. That is, if deflection is required at the upper-right of the field of scan, the x and the y deflector crystals will heat up a certain amount. If deflection is required in another part of the scan field, the crystals will heat up to a different degree. As a pattern is written by scanning the laser beam, the crystals heat up in varying amounts according to the particular pattern. The variations in heating cause beam shape distortion, pin cushion distortion, and pointing direction errors depending on the difference in the temperature of the crystals at the time of the last alignment of the laser beam and the temperature at the time of writing. These deflection distortions are dependent on the pattern written.
The deflection distortions discussed above are unimportant in many laser processing applications, but can easily amount to several micrometers of error on the working surface of the workpiece to be processed by the laser. Employing a laser processing machine to write patterns on an integrated circuit surface, which is used to make gate arrays, may cause deflection distortions that are intolerable.
It is possible, but very expensive, to design the mountings of passive optical components to eliminate virtually all effects of temperature variations. The expense and difficulty of insuring temperature independence of the optical components is cost prohibitive in all but the most exacting laser processing machines.
Accordingly, there is a need for an inexpensive method and apparatus to compensate laser beam drift.

Method and apparatus for laser beam drift compensation


A motion activated, voice control communications device interactive with voice mail systems and electronic mail systems and effective as a stand-alone unit. In general, when a motion detector detects motion in the vicinity of the device, a microprocessor receives input therefrom to initiate a software command to check for messages. If messages are present, the device provides an audible report stating the number of messages waiting and provides a list of voice commands by which the user may initiate the next action, which may include review, erase or skip message or end session. The presently described communications device can be used in conjunction with voice messaging platforms or electronic messaging systems via a personal computer.

In today's busy world, many households depend on electronic messaging, voice messaging or answering machines in order to communicate with others. Voice mail and electronic mail have become preferred methods of communicating with family, friends and acquaintances who cannot be reached directly, particularly those who live outside of a local calling area.
Important messages are often left unheard or unread for an extended period of time, sometimes because it can be inconvenient to check for messages. Many people simply forget to sign onto an email system or to promptly check their answering machine or voice mail system for the presence of messages. Moreover, some systems include an automatic deletion feature wherein voice messages and e-mails are automatically removed after a certain number of days, thus resulting in the possibility that some messages are never heard or read.
There are devices available wherein checking for messages is made more convenient. For instance, an audible signal can be provided in the form of a special telephone dial tone to alert a user that unheard voice mail messages are present. This, however, requires a person to go to the telephone to listen for the special dial tone, often to find no messages present. Although visual message indicators such as light accessories are available, such devices are often not effective. For electronic mail, many systems place an indicator on a service provider's home page to indicate whether mail messages are waiting. This disadvantageously requires visual contact and an affirmative act.
An additional inconvenience associated with retrieving messages from voice mail and electronic mail is that one must be within physical proximity of the telephone or the computer in order to provide the telephone pad control or the keyboard and cursor manipulation necessary to control the playback commands.
Electronic message retrieval can be even more restrictive than voice message retrieval because it requires the user to remain at the personal computer in order to access, read and respond to the message. In addition, a user must typically go through a sign-on sequence before they can check for the presence of messages, with no assurance that messages are present. This process wastes time with disadvantageous and irritating inconvenience when no messages are present.
An automatic, convenient method of announcing to a user that messages are present would eliminate this waste of time, increase the convenience of using electronic messaging and/or voice messaging and eliminate unnecessary efforts that result when no messages are present. A new and improved messaging system would free electronic messaging and voice messaging operations from the physical limitations of the workstation or telephone. It is, therefore, to the provision of such an improvement that the present invention is directed.


A vehicle bus, of a vehicle, configured to provide data communication among a plurality of controllers of the vehicle. An identity controller is programmed to collect voltage samples over the vehicle bus from the plurality of controllers to create a voltage profile indicating consistent electrical aspects of the data communication between the controllers, the electrical aspects being independent of data content of the data communication, and generate a voltage fingerprint uniquely identifying the vehicle using the voltage profile.

Connected and autonomous vehicles (or CAVs) may be connected to various cloud-based services. Applications currently executed by mobile devices may be adopted into CAVs directly or indirectly through wireless connectivity capabilities of the vehicles. In CAVs, remote vehicle identification may be useful to track vehicles, applications, and services in the infotainment and telematics. However, the connected environment of CAVs requires consideration of security and privacy issues of vehicle identifiers, similar to as is done for mobile device identification.

Voltage-characteristic-based vehicle identification number


A field test kit for determining quantity of hydrogen sulfide in a liquid st sample. The test kit includes a test container with an opening for a liquid test sample containing hydrogen sulfide gas and a cap provided over the opening. The cap has calorimetric particulate indicator on its top inside surface. A silicone barrier disposed over the indicator protects the indicator from contact with the test sample.

Hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2 S) is a toxic gas that is detectable by humans as a rotten egg odor at a concentration in air of 0.001 ppm or less. A human begins to lose ability to smell hydrogen sulfide at about 100 ppm thereof. Hydrogen sulfide becomes very toxic at about 800-1000 ppm accompanied sometimes with a brief sickeningly sweet smell. Human death occurs in 30 minutes when exposed to a concentration of 1000 ppm of hydrogen sulfide. The threshold limit value (TLV) imposed by OSHA for human exposure to hydrogen sulfide is 10 ppm for 8 hours, not to exceed 15 ppm for more than 15 minutes.
Serious hydrogen sulfide toxicity problems have arisen on ships employing a foaming agent mixed with water in fire fighting systems. Sulfate in seawater is chemically reduced by anaerobic bacteria present in the seawater to produce hydrogen sulfide in toxic amounts. Seawater contains about 800 ppm sulfur as sulfate. If all of the sulfate in seawater were converted to dissolved hydrogen sulfide, the concentration would be about 850 ppm, an amount which can be highly toxic to humans if released as a gas in air in a confined space.
The rate at which sulfate-reducing bacteria generate hydrogen sulfide from sulfate-containing waters depends on the activity of the bacteria which remove oxygen, on nutrients, temperature and other conditions. It may take several weeks or months to produce a dangerously high concentration of hydrogen sulfide in a fire fighting system. At that time, the system is normally flushed out and refilled with fresh foaming agent and seawater. This operation is expensive and may be damaging to the marine environment.
In crude oil, hydrogen sulfide is present in widely varying concentrations from zero to several hundred ppm, depending on the source of the crude oil. A knowledge of the concentration of hydrogen sulfide in crude oil, or in any commercially used liquid containing hydrogen sulfide, is desirable in dealing with possible problems of human toxicity arising during transportation and storage, environmental pollution, or subsequent refining operations.
Laboratory analysis procedures are available for determining hydrogen sulfide in liquids and gases and calorimetric test kits are on the market in the form of detector tubes and papers, badges and electronic instruments to test for hydrogen sulfide in the field. However, field test kits employing calorimetric indicators are rendered inoperable by samples producing foam on aeration which wets the indicator or by samples which are colored by dissolved, particulate or soluble matter. Field test kits for direct determination of hydrogen sulfide in crude oil and in fire-fighting foams are not available.

Hydrogen sulfide analyzer with protective barrier

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy

428
FSC 116
FSC 95
FSC 215
FSC 55
FSC 436
FSC 422
FSC 23


A snow-plow system having four major features: lighting system, a quick and easy disconnect/connect system, a reactive controlled pressure mechanism for applying a controlled pressure to the bottom edge of the moldboard of the plow, and a simple electric control to activate or de-activate the reactive controlled pressure mechanism. The present invention may be summarized as a snow-plow system that is mounted to a vehicle having a mounting frame by an easy connect and disconnect system connecting to the A-frame of the snow-plow by use of three mounting pins which hold the snow-plow system in place on the mounting frame of the vehicle and thereby rigidly connect the system to the vehicle. A light bar or lighting system also is rigidly mounted to the A-frame of the snow-plow at the mounting pins so that once the position of the lighting system is determined the relative position of the lighting system with respect to the vehicle does not change. A reactive controlled pressure mechanism that consists of a hydraulic control unit is operated by an electric control unit mounted in the vehicle. A reactive controlled pressure cylinder is pivotally mounted to the bottom of the A-frame and mechanically connected to the moldboard of the plow.

The present invention relates generally to the field of snow-plows and specifically to snow plows that are designed to be mounted to vehicles like a car or truck.
Snow-plows that are mounted to a vehicle, e.g. a snow-plow mounted to a pick up or sport utility truck, typically are designed so that much of the apparatus that is part of the snow-plow system is mounted directly and permanently to the vehicle. The equipment that remains upon the vehicle before the plow is mounted or after the plow has been removed forms a metal frame work on the front of the vehicle that increases the front end weight of the vehicle, affects the life of suspension components of the vehicle and affects the ride and steering characteristics of the vehicle.
The present invention is designed so that there is only a small mounting subframe located beneath the front bumper of the vehicle which is attached to the vehicle frame. All other components of the snow-plow system are mounted to this mounting subframe so that they can be easily and quickly removed from the vehicle. Consequently there is no substantial amount of mounting equipment covering the front end of the vehicle and little added weight permanently attached to the vehicle.
Also, the quick connecting/disconnecting structure of the present invention makes it very easy to attach or disengage the snow-plow system from the vehicle. This saves the operator of the vehicle both time and effort when installing and removing the snow-plow system.
Also, the present invention addresses the problem of light weight snow-plow moldboards. Typically snow-plow moldboards mounted to smaller vehicles (e.g. pick-up trucks) are of such a light weight that they do not effectively plow or cut through all types of snow. Hard, drifted, or icy snow such as that found in the Western United States is not easily plowed by a light plow moldboard, e.g., a plow moldboard weighing 250 pounds or less. The present invention includes a reactive controlled pressure system that places a controlled predetermined pressure upon the moldboard of the plow system so that a portion of the weight of the vehicle to which the plow system is attached is actually transferred to the bottom edge of the plow moldboard and the plow moldboard acts as a moldboard weighing 2 to 3 times its actual weight. This snow-plow system is thereby able to easily plow through snow that a light weight snow-plow normally could not plow through.
Further the invention provides the flexibility of having, in effect, both a light weight plow (which is advantageous for certain conditions such as plowing light snow on a gravel driveway) and a heavy weight plow (which is advantageous for plowing drifted and hard packed snow and for scraping hard surfaces). This flexibility is obtained by having a reactive controlled pressure system which can be activated and de-activated by means of a simple electric control switch. The controlled pressure mechanism maintains a pressure within a certain predetermined low pressure and high pressure limit with a predetermined nominal pressure within these limits.
Further, the present invention addresses the problem of lights mounted to vehicles for plowing. Typically an additional set of headlights and parking lights are mounted to the front end of a vehicle for plowing. This is because the regular headlights and parking lights of the vehicle are usually hidden behind the plow moldboard and thus are obstructed by the plow moldboard especially in the raised position. As such, the lights are rendered ineffective. Consequently it is has been the case that an additional set of lights are mounted either upon the hood or up on the front grill of the vehicle so that they project over the front edge of the plow moldboard. The problem with this procedure is that these lights and their housings in and of themselves create obstructions in the driver's field of vision due to the fact that they are mounted on the vehicle. The device of the present invention moves these lights off of the vehicle and positions them so that they shine over the top edge of the moldboard while presenting a minimal obstruction to the field of vision of the driver or operator of the vehicle. The additional lights are removed when the snow-plow is removed (as the additional lights are not needed) so that they do not present any obstruction to vision or add any weight to the vehicle.
The inventor does not know of any prior art that either teaches or discloses the unique features of the present invention.

Reactive controlled mechanism for a snow-plow


An apparatus for displaying a floating image is disclosed. The apparatus includes a light source that extends in a planar direction and emits light for realizing the floating image, a collecting lens, which extends parallel to the light source and refracts the light, a reflective plate, which faces the collecting lens and reflects the light that is refracted at the collective lens, and a dihedral reflector array, which extends in a planar direction and includes mirrors extending in directions intersecting each other, where a first surface of the dihedral reflector array facing the reflective plate such that the reflected light is incident on the first surface, and the reflected light is emitted from a second surface of the dihedral reflector array by being reflected by the mirrors, thereby realizing the floating image at a position spaced apart from the second surface.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Recent multimedia content has been harmonized with advanced technologies so as to realize expression in various manners and novel display systems. At the time of the fourth industrial revolution, sensory content is attracting more and more attention with the emergence of mixed reality (MR) as a successor to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
To this end, as technologies for floating an image, which is displayed on a display panel, in the air, a transmission type using a dihedral reflector array and a reflection type using a retro reflector are employed.
Because the reflection-type technology poses problems in that the height of a floating image is limited and brightness is lowered due to the use of a beam splitter, the transmission-type technology using the dihedral reflector array is attracting more attention.
However, in the transmission-type technology using the dihedral reflector array, there is a need to overcome problems in which the volume of the system must be increased in order to adjust the height of a floating image and in which an unwanted ghost image is generated.
Details described as the background art are intended merely for the purpose of promoting the understanding of the background of the present disclosure and should not be construed as an acknowledgment of the prior art that is previously known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Apparatus for displaying floating image and vehicular display module including the same

University-Industry Cooperation Group of Kyung Hee University