Provided is a cleaning device, comprising a wiper, a first clamping plate, a second clamping plate, a first elastic clamp and a second elastic clamp. The first clamping plate comprises a first plate body, a first bent portion and a first end portion. The first bent portion extends between the first plate body and the first end portion in a bent manner. The second clamping plate comprises a second plate body, a second bent portion and a second end portion. The second bent portion extends between the second plate body and the second end portion in a bent manner. The wiper is positioned between the first clamping plate and the second clamping plate. The cleaning device is moved relative to the nozzle to wipe the nozzle for cleaning. The wiper will not generate pollution and basically causes no wear to the nozzle.

In the liquid crystal display industry production line, there are equipments, having knife nozzle such as a clip clasp, a liquid knife or an air knife. The nozzles are widely used in the TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) panel manufacturing industry to act for spraying photoresist or a solution. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are structure diagrams of a liquid knife or an air knife according to prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, the clip clasp, the liquid knife or the air knife comprises a nozzle 20 and a nozzle tip 30. As shown in FIG. 2, the nozzle tip 30 has angles R1 and R2 with the nozzle 20 and forms a spout 301. In the TFT-LCD panel manufacturing process, after the clip clasp, the liquid knife or the air knife are used for some time, the nozzle will be clogged with impurities, to cause a spray bifurcation to result in poor process. Currently, for solving the spray bifurcation phenomenon of the spout of the liquid knife or the air knife, the operator holds a metal foil or a film flake to scrape off the plugging and impurities at the spout. However, with the metal foil for scraping, it is easy to cause friction to generate foreign object contamination or to wear nozzle structure. The film flake is easily bent and not easy to insert into the spout, which wastes more time and is low in efficiency. As moving for scraping, the film flake may be easy to be bent and frustrated, thus it needs to be kept straight with both hands all the time. The operation is very inconvenient.

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A therapy system for treating a subject with focused acoustic waves for use with a separately available x-ray examination device for forming a high-grade acoustic therapy work station with x-ray locating disclosed. The therapy system includes a therapy head having an x-ray impermeable mark used to align the therapy system with a subject during the x-ray locating, and an acoustic sensing component, which identifies the distance between an acoustic wave source in the therapy head and a region of the subject to be treated, for relatively positioning the subject and the therapy head so that the region is in the focus of the acoustic waves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a therapy apparatus for treating a patient with focused acoustic waves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Therapy systems which employ acoustic waves are utilized, for example, for treating stone complaints (lithotripsy), tumors and bone pathologies (osteorestoration). These therapy systems usually are in the form of completely equipped work stations which, in addition to comprising a source of focused acoustic waves with application means for introducing the generated acoustic waves into a patient to be treated, include a locating system and a patient supporting device, whereby the source and the patient supporting device are adjustable relative to one another. During the treatment, the region of the patient to be treated is first localized with the locating system, and the region to be treated is then positioned by adjusting the patient supporting device with the patient thereon and the source relative to one another so that this region is situated in the focus of the acoustic waves. The region to be treated is then charged with acoustic waves in the required way. Although therapy systems having a locating system functioning exclusively on the basis of ultrasound are suitable and are frequently used, therapy systems are normally preferred that have an x-ray locating system, since it is desirable in nearly all applications (and indispensable in many applications) to be able to locate a region to be treated with x-radiation. Some therapy systems have an x-ray locating system, in addition to an ultrasound locating system, since the latter is capable of supplying additional information.
Therapy systems having an x-ray locating system are extremely expensive. This does not represent a disadvantage when the clinic in which the therapy system is operated has an adequately large number of patients in order to enable an economical operation of the therapy system. In the interests of the patient, however, it would be desirable to be able to have a high-performance therapy system of the type described above in smaller clinics or in a doctors's office as well. In the case of a therapy system equipped with an x-ray locating device, however, the comparatively high price thereof does not allow an economical utilization of the therapy system under those conditions.

Therapy apparatus for treating a patient with focused acoustic waves


A refill case is provided with: an accommodating part (2) for accommodating staple-sheets (1); a staple pressing member (4) for pressing a top of the staple-sheets (1); locking saw-toothed portions (6a, 6b) having saw-toothed shapes; and return-preventing claws (5) formed ends of the staple pressing member (4) and engaged with the locking saw-toothed portions. A phase of the saw-toothed shape of the right locking saw-toothed portion is shifted from a phase of the saw-toothed shape of the left locking saw-toothed portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refill case in which staples for stapling paper sheets are accommodated in straight states before formation.
2. Related Art
An electric stapler is so constituted as to be capable of attaching and detaching a staple cartridge. The staple cartridge is so constituted as to be capable of attaching and detaching a refill case in which staple-sheets, each of which is formed by connecting straight staple members with an adhesive in a sheet shape, are accommodated in a stacking manner. The refill case includes a staple pressing member which is arranged inside an accommodating part and presses a top of the accommodated staple-sheets, and return-preventing claws formed at left and right ends of the staple pressing member. These return-preventing claws are provided so as to be capable of locking in locking saw-toothed portions (return-preventing grooves), each having a saw-toothed cross section, which are formed in left and right inner walls of the accommodating part and extending along a stacking direction of the staple-sheets (Patent Document 1).
To the contrary, the staple cartridge includes a feeding path which is connected to a leading-out port from which the lowermost staple-sheet in the accommodating part of the refill case is led out, and a feeding means which leads out the lowermost staple-sheet in turn to the feeding path and feeds the led-out staple-sheet to a drive-out part side. In the feeding means, a feeding pawl is formed obliquely upward. The feeding pawl is so constituted as to feed out the staple-sheet in a state locked to a groove between front and rear staples on a bottom of the lowermost staple-sheet. Accordingly, when the staple-sheet is moved in the feeding direction, the feeding pawl acts so as to stick up the staple-sheet obliquely upward
[Patent Document 1] US2008/0083805
However, in a device which adopts, as a feeding mechanism for feeding a staple-sheet to a drive-out part, such the structure that a feeding pawl is arranged obliquely to the staple-sheet, a leading end of a feeding pawl is engaged with a groove between adjacent staple members, and the feeding pawl feeds the staple-sheet so as to stick up the staple-sheet obliquely upward so that the leading end is disengaged, there is no problem in case that the number of the staple-sheets is large and the whole weight of the staple-sheets is heavy. However, for example, in case that only the last one sheet remains, when this staple-sheet is tried to be fed, there is possibility that the staple-sheet floats when stuck up by the feeding pawl and a return-preventing claw of a staple pressing member which presses the staple-sheets unlocks from a return-preventing groove. The unlocked return-preventing claw floats and engages with a peak of a return-preventing groove located immediately above the return-preventing groove. The floating amount of the staple pressing member at this time corresponds to the distance between the adjacent teeth, that is, a pitch. Therefore, there is fear that the feeding paw might disengage from the floating staple-sheet and poor feeding might be produced.
Further, when the refill case is conveyed, the return-preventing claw is liable to unlock from the locking saw-toothed portion due to large vibration. Further, in case that the return-preventing claw has unlocked, since the staple-sheet floats greatly, there is possibility that the adhesive bonding the staple members peels off at a part of the staple-sheet, the staple-sheet breaks and the connected staple members are separated. Further, also when the stapler is operated or an attaching table to which the stapler is attached moves, there is possibility that the vibration is produced in the refill case and the similar disadvantage is produced.
In order to solve these problems, it is thought to make a pitch between the teeth of the return-preventing groove small. However, since the staple-sheet is considerably thin, it is necessary to make the pitch between the teeth of the locking saw-toothed portion smaller than the thickness of the staple-sheet. In case that the refill case is formed of synthetic resin, since there is a limit in forming, it's not to say that the above pitch can be freely made small. There is a limit in making the pitch small.


A calibrated medical sensing catheter system in which a catheter-mounted sensor may be calibrated in a simple and reliable manner. In one embodiment the calibration may be performed using a disposable vessel containing two volumes of calibrating fluid, each volume separately accessible by the sensor to be calibrated. Preferably, such a vessel takes the form of an elongated tube having a first volume at one end and a second volume at the other end, each volume containing distinct calibrating fluids. Each volume may be accessed through the respective ends of the tube by introducing a sensor through a pierceable membrane, such as a foil-plastic membrane or seal. In an alternative embodiment the calibrated vessel takes the form of an elongated cylinder having two separate volumes of calibrating fluid separated by a common pierceable membrane or seal. The second embodiment may be used to calibrate a sensor by introducing the sensor into a first volume of the tube and therefore piercing the common pierceable membrane and thus introducing the sensor into the second volume of the vessel. In other embodiments the catheter further features a fitting to facilitate the piercing of the membranes, the fitting designed so as to remain in the vessel once the catheter is withdrawn. In such a manner the vessel may not be reused.

The use of various sensors to measure gaseous and non-gaseous constituent parameters of fluids has become common in recent years. Such sensors may include electrodes and the like, and are often used to measure constituent parameters of fluids such as biochemical fluids (e.g. blood), natural or sewage water, ferments, laboratory fluids, and the like.
Fluid constituent parameters which are frequently measured by such sensors include partial pressure of a gas constituent (e.g. pO.sub.2 and pCO.sub.2), pH, concentrations of various ions (e.g. sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride and the like), and concentrations of various organic molecules such as sugars (e.g. glucose), hormones and enzymes.
Prior to an accurate measurement of a fluid constituent parameter, often it is necessary to calibrate a sensor, including its associated instrumentation. Calibration techniques generally involve bringing a sensor into communication with a reference (calibration) liquid having a known concentration of the constituent to be measured.
A calibration fluid may be prepared for immediate use, however, such preparation is time-consuming and requires skill and accuracy. Once a calibration fluid is prepared, care must be taken to prevent interaction of the fluid with the surrounding environment which might alter its make-up and result in faulty calibrations. Such alterations in the make-up of a calibration fluid may result from permeation, diffusion, chemical reaction, and the like.
Because of the time and skill involved in the preparation of a reference fluid, and as a result of the problems associated with maintaining a reference fluid in usable condition over time, sensors are frequently calibrated using pre-packaged calibration fluids.
Two examples of packaging arrangements for reference solutions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,457 to Kater. One package includes a pair of electrodes for use as a potassium ion sensor, mounted in openings along the length of a cylinder containing a reference fluid. The cylinder has plastic caps at each end to seal the package. After calibration of the sensor, the caps are removed from the cylinder, the fluid is drained, and the cylinder may be inserted into an extracorporeal blood loop for measuring the potassium ion concentration of a patient's blood.
Another package described in the Kater patent includes a stoppered vial containing a reference fluid. A pair of electrodes for use as a potassium ion sensor are mounted in a catheter which is inserted through the stopper bringing the electrodes into communication with the fluid in the vial. After calibration of the sensor, the catheter may be removed from the vial and inserted into a blood vessel for measuring the potassium ion concentration of a patient's blood.
Thus, there remains a need for a system having a calibrated medical sensor which permits calibration to be performed in both a simple and reliable manner.

Calibrated medical sensing catheter system


Method for controlling a display device in an electronic device and associated control device. The electronic device includes a control unit and the display device comprising a plurality of display elements, a display controller and a switching circuit. The display elements have a plurality of pictograms. The display controller having a plurality of storage elements associated with the display elements. The method includes the steps of writing into the storage elements of a contents for display on the display elements, the configuration in standby mode of the electronic device making the storage elements associated with the display elements by the control unit inaccessible, the detection of an event to be indicated by display, and the control of a switching circuit to vary the active pictograms by alternately displaying the contents of at least two of the storage elements on the same display element.

The receivers/decoders of audiovisual programmes offer more and more functionalities to the user. In addition to the essential functions aimed at receiving, recording and displaying programmes, the equipment has numerous interfaces for, for example, the communication with third devices, the configuration or even electronic money. The increasing development of digital products for domestic use, such as, for example, television, computers, organizers, mobile phones, data storage devices, printers, also increases the number of interfaces of programme receivers to make the interconnection to different home equipment possible.
While configurations including a large number of devices and interfaces make it possible for the user to benefit from comfortable functionalities, they induce however a high energy consumption through circuit multiplication. So, it becomes more and more important to control the energy consumption of devices for domestic use and also the energy consumption of an entire installation and more widely of an entire home.
There are now European directives in terms of energy consumption. These directives must be considered with care during the design steps of general public devices.
The energy consumption high reduction constraint, coupled with the necessity to be able to wake up the devices creates problems. It is necessary to have standby modes corresponding to the lowest possible energy consumptions and necessary to be able to wake up a device in standby mode, which requires that a sub-assembly of the device enabling waking-up remains operational in standby mode.
It is then usual, with the purpose of meeting these constraints, to use an architecture which comprises a power supply, a motherboard and a keyboard and display management board, sometimes called KDB, from the English acronym "Key and Display Board".
In the following lines, the designations "motherboard", "power supply" and "Key and Display Board" or even "KDB" do not however correspond necessarily to independent electronic boards but designate all the components which participate in the associated function.
So, "motherboard" designates all the electronic circuits fulfilling the functions supported by the equipment apart from those supported by the KDB and the supply of energy lines supported by the power supply.
The "KDB" designation designates all the circuits corresponding to the remote control receipt, keyboard management and display functions, as well as the control unit functions in standby mode. But these circuits can however be located on the same electronic board as all the circuits called here "motherboard".
In the same way, the power circuits which enable the various supply lines to be provided in voltage and current from the electrical network to which the equipment is connected can be located on the same board as the circuits called here "motherboard".
The designations used here only enable the person skilled in the art to better understand the overall architecture of the equipment within the scope of which the invention falls.
The KDB supports the elements necessary for data receipt for equipment control by a remote control. The remote control can however use any other type of communication such as Bluetooth as an example.
This architecture based on a motherboard and a KDB enables an economical management of the energy since, in standby mode, it is possible and easy to cut off the power supply of a very large number of functions present on the motherboard, or even the entire motherboard by maintaining the KDB supplied and operational for display and keyboard management and the receipt of the remote control frames. It is indeed usual, when a device receiving audiovisual programmes is configured in standby mode, to use the keyboard or the remote control to wake up the device and return to active mode.
In standby mode, it is also usual that the display remains operational to indicate to the user the operating mode (standby mode) as well as other information like the time for example. In this mode, the KDB is sometimes fully autonomous, the motherboard not being operational and not implementing a software application likely to update the contents of the display memory.
An important constraint during the design of a device designed on the basis of this architecture is to simplify as much as possible the KDB for implementation, cost and modularity reasons.
The KDB generally consists of a microcontroller, a clock circuit for time stamping; a display module sometimes comprising a display controller, a keyboard constituted by a set of keys connected to the microcontroller and a remote control frame receiver, also connected to the microcontroller.
The inputs-outputs ports of the KDB microcontroller are used for the interconnections with the different elements and in particular to constitute the keyboard, often by key matrixing in lines and columns and receive the signals from the receiver of the remote control.
The display controller manages the display autonomously. The modification of the information to be displayed is done by writing into the memory of the display controller from the motherboard and when the device is not in standby mode. The main control unit of the device receiving audiovisual programmes writes into the memory of the display controller via a communication interface such as for example a bus 120.
During the design of a general public device such as, for example, a receiver recorder of audiovisual programmes, it is not rare to reuse the basic architecture of an existing product and adapt it to the specific needs defined in specifications. The display can, for example, be of various types, such as electroluminescent with LED ("Light Emitting Diode" or VFD ("Vacuum Fluo Display") or even of the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) type and the information to be displayed for the user differ from one device to another.
According to the defined needs and the number of functions carried out by the device, the display must be able to display a more or less large number of information for the user like the number of the displayed programme, the time, messages constituted of alphanumeric characters, icons or pictograms symbolizing functions being used, maintenance or error information.
The adaptation of a display on an already existing KDB architecture is sometimes delicate since it can be necessary to integrate a display model while keeping the same display controller and the same microcontroller of the KDB.
The invention described enables, in the context defined above, the clever realisation of a display function when the memory of the display controller cannot be accessed in write mode, the equipment being in standby mode. The display must be modified according to the occurrence of an event.

Method for controlling the display for an item of equipment in standby mode and associated device


A lacrosse handle having two sidewalls each with a channel and two arched walls extending between the sidewalls is disclosed herein. The channels contribute to increased gripping ability by the user and overall increased strength of the handle. Each channel is capable of receiving an insert that includes individualized information, for example, a school name or colors. Further, one of the arched walls may have a textured surface and the other arched wall may have a smooth surface to provide the user with a more accurate handle to head orientation than conventional lacrosse handles.

Original lacrosse handles were constructed of wood. These wooden handles were shaped such that the lacrosse handle and lacrosse head were a single one-piece wood structure. These one-piece wooden lacrosse handles suffered from a variety of disadvantages. Initially, they were susceptible to damage from excess exposure to water. Further, these prior wooden handles were heavy and somewhat cumbersome. Additionally, the wooden handles were also susceptible to breakage. Moreover, because the wood had to be bent to form the single sidewall and the scoop, a significant amount of time was involved in forming or making each of these wooden lacrosse sticks. Accordingly, if any portion of the head or the handle broke or was damaged, the entire wooden stick needed to be replaced, which was a costly endeavor.
Subsequently, plastic lacrosse heads were developed. Thus, the lacrosse heads and the lacrosse handles were separate components that could be manufactured individually. Moreover, if either the lacrosse handle or the lacrosse head was damaged or broken, each of these components could be individually replaced.
Thereafter, metal lacrosse handles were developed for engagement with the plastic lacrosse heads. The initial metal handles were relatively heavy, which provided disadvantages from both a playability standpoint as well as from a safety standpoint. These lacrosse handles were constructed of a durable metal, such as aluminum. While these aluminum handles were acceptable from a strength standpoint and are still commonly used today, they are susceptible to damage from external forces. It is known that lacrosse is a fast-paced, high-contact sport and that the lacrosse handles can be subjected to large forces during play, such as when contacted by another stick. Lacrosse handles are most commonly subjected to external forces when a player is checked by an opponent's stick in an attempt to dislodge the lacrosse ball from the head. Further, if the external force is great enough, the stick can even break. Players, therefore, desire stronger and more durable handles with increased impact strength.
Therefore, a need exists for a lacrosse handle that has increased strength and durability and provides increased resistance to damage from external forces. It would also be desirable to provide a handle or stick with these characteristics that does not significantly add to the weight of the stick.
Accordingly, titanium handles were introduced that provided increased strength and resistance to damage from external forces. However, both the titanium and aluminum handles are still susceptible to damage. The damage can be in the from of dents or dings which will typically cause the stick to look worn or used. This is an undesirable feature for many players and can require a player to prematurely replace the handle or render a handle unplayable. Additionally, players seek a lacrosse stick that has an obvious head to handle orientation so that they can very quickly determine the proper grip on their handle. Finally, accuracy is another key element during the play of a lacrosse game. Therefore, players seek a very precise handle having a particular flex characteristic that increases accuracy when shooting the ball.


A high-frequency apparatus includes a shielding plate that electrically shields any of a plurality of terminals protruding from a frame. An exposed portion of the terminal disposed between the frame and a motherboard is shielded by the shielding plate. Therefore, especially, a terminal that is likely to be adversely affected by an external wave can be electrically shielded by the shielding plate, the entry of an interfering wave into the terminal can be prevented, and high performance can be achieved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency apparatus that is suitably used in, for example, a digital broadcasting receiving tuner for a CATV.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 7 and 8 are a side view and a bottom view, respectively, showing the configuration of a high-frequency apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2908967. In the high-frequency apparatus, a frame 51 is formed of a metal plate and is shaped like an open square. Two covers 52 are attached to the frame 51 so as to respectively cover two opposing open faces of the frame 51.
Although not shown, a circuit board having electronic components is placed in the frame 51. A plurality of terminals 53 are arranged in line on the circuit board. The terminals 53 protrude downward from a bottom wall 51a of the frame 51. Two legs 51b also protrude from the frame 51 in the same direction as that of the terminals 53.
As shown in FIG. 7, the high-frequency apparatus having this configuration is mounted on the motherboard 54 by fitting the legs 51b and the terminals 53 in a hole (not shown) of a motherboard 54, and soldering the legs 51b and the terminals 53 to a conductive pattern (not shown) of the motherboard 54 while there is a space between the motherboard 54 and the bottom wall 51a through which the terminals 53 extend.
However, when the above-described high-frequency apparatus is mounted on the motherboard 54, the terminals 53 are exposed from the space between the motherboard 54 and the bottom wall 51a, and an interfering wave enters the terminals 53 through the open space. In particular, an interfering wave enters an antenna terminal serving as one of the terminals 53, and this reduces the performance of the apparatus.

High-frequency apparatus having high performance and capable of preventing entry of interfering wave into terminal


Password Hidden Characters is a security method which creates characters which are invisible. It is a method comprising steps used to insert time intervals between specific password characters, or to replace characters which have been withdrawn from the password or message, with the objective being to disguise a true password or message meant to be secret, and by so doing to create an invisible code. The invisible code allows messages which are supposed to be secret to remain that way. This protection evolves from the withdrawal of any six characters out of a total of 26 available, and the number of permutations created when this is done.

Because of the ever increasing importance of security, the ability of hackers to get access to a password could have devastating results. Some hackers have set up covert video recording devices to observe credit card usage at receptacles, to obtain the passwords.
To combat identity theft, it is necessary to have more than conventional passwords, pin numbers or fingerprints. You need a covert procedure which hackers cannot pick up even from a hidden video. You also need a method to send messages that cannot be intercepted and hacked.
Even fingerprints can be obtained over a period of time by skilled sleuths.
Facilities access depends on a card being presented, and the most advanced passwords incorporate fingerprints, numbers of prints, and combinations. If skilled sleuths have the fingerprints, and a covert video shows prints used and in what combination, then access can be compromised. A method has to be developed that accomplishes three things:                1. It will not be detected as in use from even a covert video of a user at a receptacle.        2. It must prevent access even if password, prints, pin numbers and combinations of prints have been compromised.        3. It must make it possible to disguise secret messages with five barriers to hacker entry. The barriers are: invisibility, the time unit used to differentiate pauses, time units per character, ability to change the code, and ability to change the time unit.


An image encoding method and apparatus, an image decoding method and apparatus, and an image recording medium are provided for suppress the diffusion of the quantizing noise components of the wavelet coefficient or the subband coefficient caused by the band division with the wavelet filter or the subband filter and the quantization, thereby narrowing the area where the ringing takes place. The image encoding method is arranged to detect a motion vector from an input image signal, derive a difference between the input image signal and a predicted image signal, detect a meaningless area from the difference image signal and output information about the meaningless area; subband-convert the difference image signal for outputting a subband coefficient, quantize the subband coefficient, de-quantize the quantized subband coefficient, invert the decoded subband coefficient for outputting a decoded difference image signal, smooth the decoded difference image signal based on the information about the meaningless area, add the predicted image signal to the smoothed difference image signal for producing a decoded image signal, motion-compensate the decoded image signal with the motion vector for outputting the predicted image signal, and output the quantized subband coefficient, the information about the meaningless area, and the motion vector as encoded data. The decoding method takes the substantially reverse operation as the encoding method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for encoding an image, a medium for recording an image signal, as well as a method and an apparatus for decoding an image, and more particularly to a system arranged to convert an image signal of a moving picture into storage codes and record the corresponding storage codes on an image recording medium such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk or a magnetic tape as well as a method and an apparatus for encoding an image, an image signal recording medium, and a method and an apparatus for decoding an image which can be all used in a system for transmitting an image signal of a moving picture through a transmission path.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of the encoding/decoding systems for the purpose of compressing a digital signal, there has been proposed such a sort of method as being arranged on a band division caused by a wavelet filter or a subband filter. This sort of method is arranged to perform a plurality of filtering operations having respective passage bands with respect to an inputted signal, sub-sample the filtered signal at intervals corresponding to the band widths. The shift of energy of the output signal from each filter is used for compressing an image.
FIG. 1 shows a basic arrangement for band division and synthesis based on the wavelet filter or the subband filter. Herein, an input signal is a one-dimensional signal x [i].
In FIG. 1, a numeral 300 denotes a divider, which provides an analytic lowpass filter 301 for dividing a band and an analytic highpass filter 302 for dividing a band. These two filters 301 and 302 are served to divide the input signal into a low frequency band signal XL[i] and a high frequency band signal XH[i]. Numerals 330A and 330B denote subsamplers, which operate to perform a thinning operation at a sample unit as indicated in the following expressions (1) and (2) with respect to the band-divided signals XL[i] and XH[i]. EQU XL[j]=XL[i], j=i/2 (1) EQU XH[j]=XH[i], j=i/2 (2)
A numeral 400 denotes a synthesizer, which provides up-samplers 431A and 431B, a synthesizing lowpass filter 411, a synthesizing highpass filter 412, and an adder 436. In operation, the up-samplers 431A and 431B are served to double a sampling interval in length and insert a sample with a zero value at a center of the sampling interval as indicated in the following expressions (3) and (4). ##EQU1##
The synthesizing lowpass filter 411 and the synthesizing highpass filter 412 perform an interpolation with respect to the band signals XL[i] and XH[i]. The interpolated signals are added through the adder 436 for restoring the input signal x[i].
The analytic lowpass filter 301 and the analytic highpass filter 302 located in the divider 300 and the synthesizing lowpass filter 411 and the synthesizing highpass filter 412 located in the synthesizer 400 are all composed to fully or approximately meet the relations of the following expressions (5) and (6). EQU H.sub.0 (-z)F.sub.0 (z)+H.sub.1 (-z)F.sub.1 (z)=0 (5) EQU H.sub.0 (z)F.sub.0 (z)+H.sub.1 (z)F.sub.1 (z)=2z.sup.-L (6)
H.sub.0 (z), H.sub.1 (z), F.sub.0 (z), and F.sub.1 (z) are transfer functions for the analytic lowpass filter 301, the analytic highpass filter 302, the synthesizing lowpass filter 411, and the synthesizing highpass filter 412, respectively. L is any integer. This constraint condition guarantees that the output signal X"[i] from the adder 436 located in the synthesizer 400 completely or approximately coincides with the input signal x[i].
In the case of applying the foregoing band division or synthesis based on the wavelet filter or the subband filter to an encoding operation, the encode/decode process is executed between the subsamplers 330A and 330B and the up-samplers 431A and 431B, respectively. The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 divides the input signal into two bands. In actual, for encoding for the purpose of data compression, each band may be recursively divided twice or three times for achieving more efficient compression.
FIGS. 2 and 3 show the band division and synthesis based on the wavelet filter and the band division and synthesis based on the subband filter.
In FIG. 2, a numeral 500 denotes an encoder for dividing a band through the wavelet filter. In the encoder 500, an analytic lowpass filter 501A and an analytic highpass filter 502A are served to divide the input signal x[i] into a low frequency band XL0[i] and a high frequency band XH0[i]. Then, the low frequency band signal XL0[j], which is subsampled like the operation of the expression (1) by a subsampler 530A, is further band-divided through a second analytic lowpass filter 501B and a second analytic highpass filter 502B and then is subsampled by subsamplers 530C and 530D.
On the other hand, the high frequency band signal XH0[i] passed through the analytic highpass filter 502A at a first stage is subsampled by the subsampler 530B and then is applied into a delaying unit 537 for taking synchronization with the low frequency band signal. The first-stage high frequency band signal XH0[j] delayed by the delaying unit 537 and the high frequency band signal XH1[k] and the low frequency band signal XL1[k] sabsampled by the second-stage subsamplers 530C and 530D are applied to the corresponding quantizers 532A, 532B and 532C. Those signals are quantized at the quantizing steps QHO, QH1 and QL1 according to the following expressions (7), (8) and (9). ##EQU2##
The quantized data XL1'[k], XH1'[k], and XH0'[j] are then applied into a reversible encoder/multiplexer 534, in which the reversible encoding such as the Huffman coding or the arithmetic coding as usual and the multiplexing are executed with respect to the quantized data. Then, the results are sent to a decoder 600 shown in FIG.3 through a storage medium 535 and a transmission path 536.
In FIG. 3, the decoder generally indicated at 600 performs a wavelet synthesis. In the decoder 600, a de-multiplexer/reversible decoder 635 performs a decoding process against the multiplexing and the reversible encoding executed in the encoder 500 for restoring the data XL1'[k], XH1'[k], and XH0'[j]. The restored data XL1'[k], XH1'[k], and XH0'[j] are applied to the corresponding de-quantizers 633A, 633B and 633C. Those de-quantizers 633A, 633B and 633C perform the reverse conversion to the quantizers 432A, 432B and 432C. The reverse conversions of the de-quantizers correspond to the expressions (10), (11) and (12), respectively. EQU XL1"[k]=XL1'[k].times.QL1 (10) EQU XH1"[k]=XH1'[k].times.QH1 (11) EQU XH0"[j]=XH0'[j].times.QH0 (12)
The low frequency band signal XL1"[k] and the high frequency band signal XH1"[k] derived at the second stage division are applied into the up-samplers 631A and 631B. The high frequency band signal XH0"[j] at the first stage division is applied into a delaying unit 637 for delaying the signal by a time required for re-composing the low frequency band signal XL0"[j] at the first stage division.
The low frequency band signal XL1"[j] and the high frequency signal XH1"[j], which are subject to the same up-sampling process as the expressions (3) and (4) by the up-samplers 631A and 631B, are applied into synthesizing lowpass filer 611A and synthesizing highpass filter 612A that have the relations of the expressions (5) and (6) with the analytic lowpass filter 501B and the analytic highpass filter 502B, respectively. The outputs of the filters 611A and 612A are applied into an adder 636A for adding them. Then, the added result is made to be the signal XL0"[j] corresponding to the low frequency band signal XL0[j] obtained by the first-stage division in the encoder 500.
The first-stage low frequency band signal XL0"[j] and the first-stage high frequency band signal XH0"[j] delayed by the delayer 637 are up-sampled by the up-samplers 631C and 631D, respectively. The up-sampled signals are interpolated through the effect of the synthesizing lowpass filter 611B and the synthesizing highpass filter 612B and then are added to one signal by an adder 636B. The added signal is made to be a regenerative signal x"[i] corresponding to the input signal x[i].
In turn, the description will be oriented to an apparatus for encoding a moving image through the wavelet conversion and an apparatus for decoding a moving image therethrough with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.
In an encoder generally indicated at 700 in FIG. 4, a motion vector detector 711 operates to detect a motion vector v from the input image stored in a frame memory 712. The method for detecting a motion vector normally employs a block matching system at a block unit consisting of 16.times.16 pixels in vertical and horizontal. In place, for realizing higher precision, the matching at a half-pixel unit may be employed.
A numeral 703 denotes a motion compensator provided with a frame memory (not shown). The motion compensator 703 operates to predict a pixel value at each location of an image to be encoded based on the images which have been already encoded and decoded and then stored in the frame memory. The predicted value I'[i, j, t] of the pixel value I[i, j, t] at the location (i, j) on the image inputted at a time point t is determined by the following expression (13) using the motion vector v-(vx(i, j, t), vy(i, j, t)) at that location. ##EQU3## wherein T denotes a difference between a time point when the image I being currently predicted and a time point when the image on the frame memory is inputted. The right side of the expression (13), I[i', j', t-T], I[i'+1, j', t-T], I[i', j'+1, t-T], and I[i'+1, j'+1, t-T], represents the pixel value on the frame memory (not shown). int(x) represents a maximum integer value that does not exceed x.
A numeral 790 denotes a subtracter, which operates to calculate a difference between a value of a pixel to be encoded and a predicted value calculated by the motion compensator 703. A wavelet converter 714 performs a wavelet conversion with respect to the difference calculated by the subtracter 790. A quantizer 715 performs a quantizing process as indicated in the following expression (14) using a proper step size Q with respect to a wavelet coefficient c obtained by the wavelet converter 714. EQU c'=int(c/Q) (14)
The wavelet coefficient quantized by the quantizer 715 is supplied to a variable-length encoder 716 and a de-quantizer 725. The de-quantizer 725 performs a de-quantizing process as indicated in the following expression (15) using the same step size as that used in the quantizer 715. EQU c"=c'.times.Q (5)
The de-quantized data is applied into a wavelet inverter 724, where the data is de-waveletted for restoring the difference between the pixel values. The difference value is added to the predicted value outputted from the motion compensator 703 by an adder 791 for composing the data of the pixel value. Then, the pixel value data is sent to the motion compensator 703 in which the data is stored in the frame memory (not shown). The variable-length encoder 716 performs a variable-length encoding operation with respect to the wavelet coefficient quantized by the quantizer 715 and the motion vector v detected by the motion vector detector 711. The encoded data is outputted as a bit stream. Then, the bit stream is transmitted to the decoder 800 shown in FIG. 5 through a storage medium 726 and a transmission path 727.
On the other hand, FIG. 5 shows a decoder generally indicated at 800. The decoder 800 receives the bit stream generated by the encoder 700. At first, the bit stream is applied into a variable-length decoder 826 in which the reverse process to the variable-length encoder 716 included in the encoder 700 is performed with respect to the bit stream. The inversion makes it possible to restore the quantized wavelet coefficient and the quantized motion vector v from the bit stream. The wavelet coefficient is applied to a de-quantizer 825 and the motion vector v is applied to a motion compensator 803. The de-quantizer 825 and a wavelet inverter 824 are the same as those included in the encoder 700. The de-quantizer 825 and the wavelet inverter 824 perform the de-quantizing process and the wavelet inversion indicated in the expression (3) with respect to the inputted data for restoring each difference between the pixel values.
The difference is added to the predicted value generated by the motion compensator 803 for composing pixel value data by an adder 891, which leads to re-composition of the image corresponding to the image inputted to the encoder 700. Then, the re-composed image is outputted as a restored image. Each pixel value of the restored image is stored in a frame memory (not shown) provided in the motion compensator 803 for aiding in generating the predicted image.
The motion compensator 803 is the same as that included in the encoder 700. The motion compensator 803 operates to predict each pixel value of an image to be currently decoded by using the motion vector v obtained by the variable-length decoder 826 and the image stored in the frame memory (not shown) provided in the motion compensator 803. Then, each predicted pixel value is supplied to a subtracter 891.
The foregoing description concerns with the arrangement for the inter-coding operation. If a large difference takes place between a value of a pixel to be currently encoded and a predicted value given by the motion compensator 703, for preventing increase of an encoded bit quantity, the below-indicated intra-coding operation may be executed. That is, the operation is executed to send to the wavelet converter the value derived by subtracting an average value (average offset value) of luminance values in one block from each pixel in the block as a difference image and send the average value of the luminance value (average offset value) to the variable-length encoder 716 in place of the motion vector.
The wavelet encoding system, in general, utilizes the grammar as indicated in FIGS. 6A and 6B for generating an encoded bit train (see a system diagram of multiplexing process). In addition, FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate part of the process executed by the variable-length encoder 716. FIG. 6A shows the process for generating the encoded bit train, while FIG. 6B shows a process about the output of the motion vector or the average offset value. Though the discrete cosine conversion (DCT) used for the MPEG1 or MPEG2 is executed to calculate a conversion coefficient at a block unit, in general, the encoding system based on the wavelet conversion is executed to calculate a quantizing wavelet coefficient over the overall image in place of each block. Hence, as shown in FIG. 6A, about the image to be encoded, all the encoded vectors (for the inter-coding) or the average offset value (for the intra-coding) are outputted and then all the encoding wavelet coefficients are outputted. According to the grammar shown in FIG. 6B, about a unit block at which the motion vector is detected and the motion is compensated, at first, a flag indicating the number of vectors is outputted. Since the intra-block has no vector, for the intra-block, the average offset value corresponding to the dc component of the wavelet coefficient is outputted as motion information. If an inter-block has one or more vectors (two or more vectors are allowed in one block in some cases), the encoded vector derived by encoding the motion vector detected for the area is outputted as motion information.
In the encoding method based on the band division done by the wavelet filter or the band division done by the subband filter, the quantization after the wavelet conversion or the subband conversion brings about the quantizing noises mainly in the high frequency component, so that the image formed by doing the wavelet inversion or the subband inversion after the de-quantization may disadvantageously bring about a ringing phenomenon. In particular, when performing an intra-image prediction, though lots of still areas included in the difference image is meaningless, the influence of the subsampling caused by two or more divisions results in increasing taps in number relatively as the band division is repeated more and more. Hence, the meaning values around the moving area are diffused into the meaningless values of the still area, so that the ringing disadvantageously takes place in a wide area of the resulting image.

Method and apparatus for encoding image, method and apparatus for decoding image, and medium for recording image signal


A system and method for distributing data to multiple computer locations associated with a computer network determines which of the multiple network computer locations are to receive a data distribution, and then generates a first message indicating the data comprising the data distribution and the network computer locations intended to receive the data distribution. The first message and the data distribution are transmitted to the network such that each of the multiple network locations is capable of receiving the data distribution. The multiple network computer locations examine the first message so that each network computer location can determine whether it is an intended location for receiving the data distribution. Then, one or more intended network locations receive the data distribution.

Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in the use of computer networks for data communications. Data communications networks were developed to allow users to share computer and information resources and to provide a common communications system. A communications network provides common transmission, multiplexing, and switching functions that enable users to transport data between many sources and many destinations. Under ideal circumstances, the data that arrives at the destination is identical to the data sent. With the wide use of computer networks in business and industry, there has been an increasing use of internetworking which allows users of one network to access and share the resources of computers and databases associated with other networks. At the present time, the Internet has rapidly become the internetwork of choice for millions of users.
Two commonly used categories of networks are Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN). LANs often parallel organizational structures. For example, a LAN may connect the computers of a single workgroup, all of the groups in a department on a floor of a building, or all of the departments of a division occupying an office building. By contrast, WANs are communication networks that are regional or nationwide in geographic area, with minimal distances typical of that between major metropolitan areas. Computers that are connected to a LAN or a WAN use data packets to communicate information. A packet contains a few hundred to a few thousand bytes of data and generally two addresses--a source address and a destination address.
In order for computers from different networks to communicate and share information, protocols have been established. Protocols are the conventions and procedures used by computers to communicate with each other. Protocols are used for multiple purposes such as to establish and remove connections, ensure reliable delivery, provide necessary information for delivery of information, and format the information for proper interpretation at the destination. One of the standard protocols currently in use, particularly in connection with the Internet, is the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Another communication environment used in network computing is the Network Basic Input/Output System (NetBIOS). NetBIOS is a programming gateway to services that allow computer applications and devices to communicate. Typically, data exchange occurs between NetBIOS applications residing within separate machines connected by a LAN.
In the context of communications protocols, there are generally two types of operations for data communication: connectionless protocols and connection-oriented protocols. With connection-oriented operations, a user and a network establish a logical connection before the transfer of data occurs. Typically, some type of relationship is maintained between the data units being transferred through the user/network connection. With connectionless-mode operations, no logical connection between the user and the network is established prior to the data transmission. The data units are transmitted as independent units.
Connection-oriented service requires a three-way agreement between the two end users and the network. During the connection establishment, all three parties store information about each other, such as addresses and quality of service functions. Once data transfer begins, it is not necessary for Protocol Data Units (PDUs) to carry significant overhead Protocol Control Information (PCI). Instead, only an abbreviated identifier is needed to allow the parties to access necessary tables and look up the full addresses and quality of service features. Connection-oriented service also provides for the acknowledgment of all data units. Additionally, if problems occur during the transmission, a connection-oriented protocol provides mechanisms for the retransmission of the units in error. Moreover, most connection-oriented protocols ensure that the data arrives in the proper order at the final destination.
Connectionless operations manage user PDUs as independent and separate entities. No relationship is maintained between successive data transfers, and minimal records are maintained concerning the ongoing communications process through the network. In contrast to connection-oriented service, connectionless service provides neither positive acknowledgments nor negative acknowledgments regarding the data transmission. Thus, by its very nature, connectionless service can achieve significant independence from: (a) specific protocols within a subnetwork, (b) subnetworks from each other, and (c) subnetworks from user-specific protocols. Additionally, connectionless networks are not concerned with flow control or any type of resequencing operations at the final destination. Connectionless networks may also allow multiple copies of the same message to arrive via bridges. As noted, each PDU is handled as an independent entity such that data units can take different routes to avoid failed nodes or congestion at a point in the network. However, connectionless protocols do consume more overhead than their connection-oriented counterparts in relation to the length of the headers and in proportion to the amount of user data in the PDU.
Particularly in the context of organizational networks, data distribution systems are used to distribute files and maintain file version control within the networked computers. Several existing data distribution packages are available for this purpose, such as Frye Utilities for Networks, IBM NetView DM, Microsoft System Management Server, and Norton Administrator for Networks. These distribution packages operate on a variety of operating platforms such as DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, OS/2, MacIntosh, etc. Moreover, certain of these distribution packages can operate on more than one transport protocol, including both NetBIOS and TCP/IP.
A significant limitation of each of the above-referenced file distribution packages relates to the method in which data is distributed. Specifically, in each of these distribution packages, all data is distributed to multiple client computers one at a time. Thus, data sent to one hundred client computers, for example, must be sent one hundred times (once to each computer) and thus takes one hundred times longer than would be required to send the data to one client computer. Consequently, when large numbers of client computers associated with the network require a data distribution, existing file distribution systems require a significant amount of network bandwidth and increased distribution time.

System and method for distributing data simultaneously to multiple computers on a network, with advanced notice to intended recipients


A n-gram statistical analysis is employed to acquire frequently appearing character strings of n characters or more, and individual character strings having n characters or more are replaced by character translation codes of 1 byte each. The correlation between the original character strings having n characters and the character translation codes is registered in a character translation code table. Assume that a character string of three characters, i.e., a character string of three bytes, xe2x80x9csta,xe2x80x9d is registered as 1-byte code xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and that a character string of four characters, i.e., a character string of four bytes, xe2x80x9ction,xe2x80x9d is registered as 1-byte code xe2x80x9cf1.xe2x80x9d Then, the word xe2x80x9cstation,xe2x80x9d which consists of a character string of seven characters, i.e., seven bytes, is represented by the 2-byte code xe2x80x9ce5 f1,xe2x80x9d so that this contributes to a compression of five bytes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine translation method for translating or converting original text in a first language (foreign language; e.g., English) to translated text in a second language (native language; e.g., Japanese), and in particular to a machine translation method whereby a computer system performs a translation process using an electronically stored dictionary. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a method for compressing entry word index data in a dictionary; to entry word indexes for a dictionary that have been compressed; and to a method for searching for a word based on an entry word index that has been compressed.
2. Background Art
Over the years, much time and effort has been expended in the study of so-called xe2x80x9cmachine translationxe2x80x9d (or xe2x80x9cautomatic translationxe2x80x9d), a technique involving the use of the hardware resources of a computer system to translate text in one language to text in a second language.
Not long after the end of the Second World War, for example, following the development in 1946 of ENIAC, the first general purpose computer, many researchers became greatly interested in the possibility of using computers for xe2x80x9cmachine translation.xe2x80x9d And over the next ten years universities and research institutes invested an enormous amount of time, energy and money in its study; but with generally unsatisfactory results.
Thereafter, interest in machine translation waned somewhat. But today, impelled by recent developments related to the use of the Internet, the focus is once again on machine translation; once again great interest is being shown in developing and producing software for this purpose. This has come about because many users of the Internet, outside the English speaking community of nations, either cannot read English or read it imperfectly, and since most text on Web pages are written in English, these users can not fully utilize the new global information system, the WWW (the World Wide Web). As a result, translation software that once, when first developed, was priced in the tens of millions of yen can now be purchased for tens of thousands of yen, and since such software is therefore more easily acquired by users, it is now widely used on personal computers. Of the machine translation software products that are presently available, some are specifically intended for the translation of text on the Internet, i.e., the translation of Web pages. One example of such a product is the xe2x80x9cKing of Translation,xe2x80x9d which is sold by IBM Japan Co., Ltd.
In short, machine translation is a technique by which the processing capability of a computer system is applied for the translation of text written in a foreign language, such as English, into text in a native language, such as Japanese (or vice versa). For machine translation, a database is constructed by employing, as a model, the enormous amount of language knowledge that a human possesses (or is assumed to possess), and a translation engine, a type of data processor, is employed to refer to this database and to perform the actual translation.
An example database for a machine translation system is a dictionary. Recent machine translation systems prepare a dedicated dictionary for each genre, such as an art dictionary and a sports dictionary, in addition to a system dictionary that serves as a basic dictionary. Machine translation systems use dictionaries in accordance with the genre to which an object to be translated belongs, and thus the accuracy of a translation can be improved (see the specification in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Hei 8-272755. and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,078 issued on Sep. 12, 2000. Generally, a single machine translation dictionary is constituted by an entry word index portion and a main portion that describes translation data for entry words (includes xe2x80x9cmorpheme analysis data). The translation engine searches through the entry word indexes to acquire corresponding translation data.
For distribution, a machine translation system, i.e., the machine translation software, is generally recorded on a storage medium, such as a CD (compact disk) or a FD (floppy disk). To activate the machine translation software, an end user inserts into a drive unit of his or her computer system a CD or FD he or she purchased and installs a program recorded thereon in the computer.
An entry word index portion of a machine translation system is generally not stored in text form; usually it is compressed or encoded before being stored. This is done because an index portion that has an easily readable form may be employed or examined by a third party, especially by a competitor, and because the size of compressed entry word index data is reduced and can thus be held resident in memory. This last is important because the entry word index data must be accessed each time a word search is conducted, and when the entry word index data is resident in memory, the speed of a search is greatly increased. In particular, the sizes of entry word indexes for a machine translation system that prepares some dictionaries must be reduced, so that all of them can be held resident in memory. Conventionally, a common compression algorithm, such as xe2x80x9cLHAxe2x80x9d for the general-purpose personal computer (PC) or a compression command xe2x80x9ccompressxe2x80x9d for UNIX, is employed to compress entry word index data, or only an encoding process is performed for the index data without being compressed. However, these conventional techniques have the following shortcomings.
First, time is required for compression and recovery processing. In particular, once entry word index data are compressed, a search for data can not be performed, and thus, two steps are required: the decompression of the entry word index data and a search for the resultant data. As a result, the search efficiency is deteriorated.
In addition, since the individual entry words are short character strings (20 to 30 bytes at most), the compression rate is not good.
Further, only the simple encoding of data does not reduce data size.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a method for compressing entry word index data for a dictionary to be used for machine translation, compressed entry word indexes for a dictionary, and a method for searching for a word using the compressed entry word index data.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compression method that enables a search for compressed data to be performed without a decompression process being required, entry word indexes for a dictionary to be generated by such a compression method, and a method for searching for a word using the compressed entry word index.
To achieve the above objects, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a compression method comprises the steps of: (a) extracting character strings, constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters that frequently appear in an object to be compressed, which consists of many words; (b) calculating compression contribution values for the individual extracted character strings; (c) assigning highly ranked character strings having a high compression contribution value to empty columns in a character translation code table; and (d) substituting for a corresponding character translation code the character strings that are registered in the character translation code table.
According to the compression method in the first aspect of the present invention, the object to be compressed may be the entry word index data in a dictionary used for machine translation.
At step (b), for calculating the compression contribution value, the compression contribution value may be represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), a compression value obtained by replacing a character string S having n characters with a character string having k characters (n greater than k), and count, the frequency at which the character string S of the object to be compressed appears.
The character translation code table may be an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code table that conforms to the specifications prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute).
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method for compressing entry word index data for a dictionary used in a machine translation system, comprises the steps of: (a) extracting character strings constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters that frequently appear in the entry word index data; (b) calculating compression contribution values for the individual extracted character strings; (c) assigning highly ranked character strings having a high compression contribution value to empty columns in a character translation code table; and (d) substituting for a corresponding character translation code the character strings, in the entry word index data, that are registered in the character translation code table.
According to the compression method in the second aspect, at step (b), for calculating the compression contribution value, the compression contribution value may be represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), a compression value obtained by replacing a character string S having n characters with a character string having k characters (n greater than k), and count, the frequency at which the character string S in the entry word index data appears.
The character translation code table may be an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code table that conforms to the specification prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute).
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a machine translation system for employing the processing capabilities of a computer system to translate text in a first language into text in a second language, comprises: a dictionary, including entry word index data compressed using the compression method according to the second aspect, and a main body in which are described translation data concerning entry words; and a translation engine for referring to the dictionary when translating text in the first language into text in the second language.
In the machine translation system according to the third aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine searches through the entry word index for a word included in text in the first language, the translation engine may, first, replace a character string included in a word registered in a character translation code table with a corresponding character translation code, and then perform search of the entry word index.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, provided is a computer-readable storage medium for physically storing a machine translation program that is operated by a computer system, which includes a processor for performing a software program, a memory for temporarily storing program code and data being progressed, an external storage device, input devices used by a user to enter data and a display for displaying processed data, the machine translation program comprising: (a) an entry word index data module compressed using the compression method according to the second aspect; (b) a dictionary main body module in which are described translation data concerning individual entry words; and (c) a translation engine module for referring to the dictionary constituted by the modules (a) and (b) to translate text in a first language into text in a second language.
In the computer-readable storage medium according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine module searches the entry word index for a word included in the text in the first language, the translation engine module may, first, replace a character string in the word, which is registered in a character translation code table, with a corresponding character translation code, and then perform search of the entry word index.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a method for compressing entry word index data, for a dictionary used in a machine translation system, comprises the steps of: (a) translating original entry word index data into first entry word index data in which individual entry word character strings are represented by a difference from an entry word character string immediately above; (b) selecting, at step (a), an entry word I character string that has a large difference from an entry word character string immediately above, as a reference entry word character string to be described, unchanged, into the first entry word index data; (c) extracting character strings constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters that frequently appear in the first entry word index data; (d) calculating compression contribution values for the individual extracted character strings; (e) assigning highly ranked character strings having a high compression contribution value to empty columns in a character translation code table; and (f) replacing, with corresponding character translation codes, character strings in the first entry word index data that are registered in the character translation code table and generating second entry word index data.
According to the compression method in the fifth aspect, at step (d), for calculating the compression contribution value, the compression contribution value may be represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), a compression value obtained by replacing a character string s having n characters with a character string having k characters (n greater than k), and count, a frequency at which the character string S in the entry word index data appears.
The character translation code table may be an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code table that conforms to the specifications prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute).
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a machine translation system, for employing the processing capability of a computer system to translate text in a first language into text in a second language, comprises: a dictionary including the second entry word index data compressed by the compression method according to the fifth aspect and a main body in which translation data concerning entry words are described; and a translation engine for referring to the dictionary to translate the text in the first language into the text in the second language.
In the machine translation system according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine conducts search of the entry word index for a word included in the text in the first language, the translation engine may, first, recover the original entry word character strings from character strings in the second entry word index data in accordance with the character translation code table, and compare the word with the recovered entry word character string.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, provided is a computer-readable storage medium for physically storing a machine translation program that is operated by a computer system, which includes a processor for performing a software program, a memory for temporarily storing program code and data being progressed, an external storage device, entry means used by a user to enter data and a display for displaying processed data, the machine translation program comprising: (a) a second entry word index data module compressed using the compression method according to the firth aspect; (b) a dictionary main body module in which translation data concerning individual entry words are described; and (c) a translation engine module for referring to the dictionary constituted by the modules (a) and (b) to translate text in a first language into text in a second language.
In the computer-readable storage medium according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine module performs search of the entry word index for a word included in the text in the first language, the translation engine module may, first, recover the original entry word character strings from character strings in the second entry word index data in accordance with the character translation code table, and compare the word with the recovered entry word character string.
In the natural language processing field, the statistical characteristics of languages have been pointed out as the basic characteristics, and have been studied and researched. One of the statistical characteristics of language that has been focused on most is the frequency at which a character appears. Especially since a number of Indo-European languages have alphabets of only 26 characters, the use frequencies of the individual letters in the alphabets have been examined in detail.
To represent the feature of an English character string, not only the frequency at which a single character appears has been studied, but also the frequencies at which combinations of two or three characters appear have been examined. These combinations are called 2-gram or 3-gram, but generally xe2x80x9cIn-gram strings.xe2x80x9d The order of the frequencies is affected by the type of text used to derive the statistics. In 2-gram statistics, character strings th, he, in, an, er, re and on frequently appear; in 3-gram statistics, character strings that seem to be part of a spelling of a word are extracted; and in n-gram statistics, character strings that appear frequently and conform to the English characteristics are extracted.
The compression method of the present invention employs the statistical characteristics of language. More specifically, the n-gram statistical analysis is employed to acquire frequently appearing character strings of n characters or more, and individual character strings having n characters or more are replaced by character strings having fewer than n characters, (e.g., character translation codes of 1 byte each). The correlation between the original character strings having n characters and the character translation codes is registered in the correlation table i.e., a character translation code table.
Assume that a character string of three characters, i.e., a character string of three bytes, xe2x80x9csta,xe2x80x9d is registered as 1-byte code xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and that a character string of four characters, i.e., a character string of four bytes, xe2x80x9ction,xe2x80x9d is registered as 1-byte code xe2x80x9cf1.xe2x80x9d Then, the word xe2x80x9cstation,xe2x80x9d which consists of a character string of seven characters, i.e., seven bytes, is represented by the 2-byte code xe2x80x9ce5 f1,xe2x80x9d so that this contributes to a compression of five bytes. When a character string xe2x80x9ce5 f1xe2x80x9d is found in compressed text data, columns for xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cf1xe2x80x9d in the code table prepared in advance are referred to, and the character string can be easily translated to the original character string xe2x80x9cstation.xe2x80x9d That is, the original word can be searched for without decompressing the compressed text.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, character strings constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters are extracted that frequently appear in an object to be compressed that consists of many words, and a compression contribution value is calculated for the individual extracted character strings. The compression contribution value is represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), the compression value obtained by replacing a character string S having n bytes with a character string having k bytes, and count, a frequency at which the character string S of the object to be compressed appears.
Then, highly ranked character strings having a higher compression contribution value are assigned to empty columns in a predetermined character translation code table. Assuming that as a result of the n-gram statistics, the compression contribution values of character strings xe2x80x9cstaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctionxe2x80x9d are high and that the columns xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cf1xe2x80x9d in the table are unused, the character strings xe2x80x9cstaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctionxe2x80x9d are registered in the respective columns.
The character strings to be compressed that are registered in the character translation code table are replaced by the corresponding character translation codes. For example, a character string xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d of seven characters is compressed to a character code of xe2x80x9ce5 f1xe2x80x9d in accordance with the character translation code table.
The compression method according to the second aspect of the present invention is the one where the compression method of the first aspect is applied for the compression of entry word index data in a dictionary used for machine translation. According to the second aspect, first, character strings constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters that frequently appear are extracted from the entry word index data, and a compression contribution value is calculated for the individual extracted character strings. The compression contribution value is represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), a compression value obtained by replacing a character string S having n bytes with a character string having k bytes, and count, the frequency at which the character string S of the object to be compressed appears.
Then, highly ranked character strings having a higher compression contribution value are assigned to empty columns in a predetermined character translation code table. The character translation code table may be an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code table that conforms to the specifications prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). An ASCII code table is well known in this field as a table where alphanumeric characters are assigned for code. Assuming that as a result of the n-gram statistics, the compression contribution values of character strings xe2x80x9cstaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctionxe2x80x9d are high, the character strings xe2x80x9cstaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctionxe2x80x9d are assigned to the respective empty columns xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cf1xe2x80x9d in the ASCII code table.
The character strings in the entry word index data that are registered in the character translation code table are replaced with corresponding character translation codes. For example, an entry word xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d in the entry word index data is compressed to a character code of xe2x80x9ce5 f1xe2x80x9d in accordance with a modified ASCII code table that is newly generated. In this case, a word xe2x80x9cstation,xe2x80x9d which consists of a character string of seven characters, i.e., seven bytes, is represented by the 2-byte code xe2x80x9ce5 f1,xe2x80x9d so that this contributes to a compression of five bytes. This compression process is performed for all the entry word index data. It should be noted that as a result, a great amount of entry word index data can be compressed. Thus the compressed entry word index data can remain resident in a main memory having a limited storage capacity without being withdrawn (swapped out).
The third aspect of the present invention is a machine translation system that employs entry word index data compressed in the second aspect. The machine translation system, for employing the processing capability of a computer system to translate text in a first language into text in a second language, comprises: a dictionary including entry word index data compressed by the compression method according to the second aspect and a main body in which translation data concerning entry words are described; and a translation engine for referring to the dictionary to translate the text in the first language into the text in the second language.
In the machine translation system according to the third aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine conducts search of the entry word index data for a word included in the text in the first language, the translation engine, first, replaces a character strings in the word, which are registered in a character translation code table (the modified ASCII code table generated by the compression method in the second aspect) with corresponding character translation code, and conducts search of the entry word index. When, for example, a word xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d is found in an English document, which is the text in the first language, the word is translated into character codes xe2x80x9ce5 f1xe2x80x9d in accordance with the ASCII code table (assuming that the character codes xe2x80x9ce5xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cf1xe2x80x9d are assigned to xe2x80x9cstaxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctionxe2x80x9d). Then, search is conducted of the entry word index data for the character code xe2x80x9ce5 f1,xe2x80x9d and translation data corresponding to the original character string xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d are acquired.
In the compressed entry word index data, the character string xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d of seven characters, i.e., seven bytes, is compressed into the 2-byte code xe2x80x9ce5 f1.xe2x80x9d To search for the word xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d in the entry word index data, the word need only be translated into the corresponding character code xe2x80x9ce5 f1,xe2x80x9d and the entry word index data do not have to be decompressed. That is, since to examine the index data the decompression process of the compressed entry word index data is not required, a reduction in the search speed does not occur.
The compression method of the fifth aspect is an example where the compression method of the first aspect, as well as the second aspect, is employed for the compression of entry word index data in a dictionary used for machine translation. The compression method in the fifth aspect differs from the method in the second aspect in that, before entry word index data are compressed according the n-gram statistics, the differences between closely related entry word character strings is obtained to further increase the compression rate.
According to the compression method of the fifth aspect, first, original entry word index data are translated into first entry word index data in which individual entry word character strings are represented by a difference from an entry word character string immediately above. A character string for which a large difference exists with an immediately preceding entry word character string is maintained, unchanged, as the reference entry word character string in the first entry word index. When xe2x80x9cabatable,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cabatexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cabatementxe2x80x9d are arranged in ascending order in the original entry word index, entry word xe2x80x9cabatexe2x80x9d is substituted into character count 4, which is a count matching the immediately preceding entry word xe2x80x9cabatable,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ce,xe2x80x9d which is a difference with the word xe2x80x9cabatable.xe2x80x9d An entry word xe2x80x9cabatementxe2x80x9d is substituted into character count 5, which is a count matching the immediately preceding entry word xe2x80x9cabate,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cment,xe2x80x9d which is a difference with the word xe2x80x9cabate.xe2x80x9d These replacements are written into the first entry word index. Further, when the matching character count of the entry word xe2x80x9cabatablexe2x80x9d is extremely low relative to the immediately preceding entry word, that entry word is defined as the reference character string, so that the original entry word character string remains unchanged in the first entry word index and the matching character count is reset to 0.
Following this, the n-gram statistics is conducted for the character string difference in the first entry word index. The character strings constituted by n (n is an integer greater than 1) or more characters that frequently appear are extracted, and a compression contribution value is calculated for the individual extracted character strings. The compression contribution value is represented by (nxe2x88x92k)xc3x97count, which is a product of (nxe2x88x92k), a compression value obtained by replacing a character string S having n bytes with a character string having k bytes, and count, a frequency at which the character string S in the entry word index data appears.
Then, highly ranked character strings having a higher compression contribution value are assigned to empty columns in a predetermined character translation code table. The character translation code table may be an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code table that conforms to the specifications prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). An ASCII code table is well known in this field as a table in which alphanumeric characters are assigned to code. Assuming that as a result of the n-gram statistical analysis the compression contribution values of character strings xe2x80x9cablexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clityxe2x80x9d are high, the character strings xe2x80x9cablexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clityxe2x80x9d are assigned to the respective empty columns xe2x80x9c03xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cadxe2x80x9d in the ASCII code table.
The character strings in the first entry word index data that are registered in the character translation code table are replaced by corresponding character translation codes. For example, an entry word in the first entry word index, xe2x80x9c06 (matching character count) ion (character string difference)xe2x80x9d (original entry word is xe2x80x9cabjectionxe2x80x9d), is compressed to a character code of 1106 99xe2x80x9d in accordance with the newly generated ASCII code table. In this case, a word xe2x80x9cabjection,xe2x80x9d which consists of a character string of nine characters, i.e., nine bytes, is represented by the 2-byte code xe2x80x9c06 99,xe2x80x9d so that this contributes to a compression of seven bytes. This compression process is performed for all the entry word index data. Thus, the entry word index that has been substituted into the corresponding character translation code is the second entry word index, which is used for searching for a word in the dictionary during the machine translation processing.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, as is described above, an n-gram statistical analysis is conducted for a difference between the entry word character strings, and their compression contribution values are compared. As a result of the acquisition of the difference, the character string at the end portion of each entry word can be effectively extracted. For example, suffixes, such as xe2x80x9cion,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cnessxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cly,xe2x80x9d which are inherent to the English language and appear frequently, are extracted as character string differences. Therefore, compared with the compression method of the second aspect whereby an n-gram statistical analysis is conducted only for entry words, a long character string may be set in the high compression contribution ranks, and the compression rate can be further increased. The thus compressed entry word index data can be held resident in a main memory having a limited storage capacity without being withdrawn (swapped out). Especially for machine translation software program that prepares some dictionaries, compression of data and reduction in data size are effective means for holding the entry word index data resident in memory.
The sixth aspect of the present invention is a machine translation system that employs the entry word index data compressed in the fifth aspect. The machine translation system, for employing the processing capability of a computer system to translate text in a first language into text in a second language, comprises: a dictionary that includes the second entry word index data compressed by the compression method according to the fifth aspect, and a main body in which translation data concerning entry words are described; and a translation engine for referring to the dictionary to translate the text in the first language into the text in the second language.
In the machine translation system according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, when the translation engine performs search of the entry word index for a word included in the text in the first language, first, the translation engine recovers the original entry word character strings from character strings in the second entry word index data in accordance with the character translation code table, and then compares the word with the recovered entry word character string.
In the second entry word index, the reference entry word character string is maintained as the original entry word character string. Therefore, first, the reference character string that is most similar to a word is searched for in the second entry word index. When, for example, a word xe2x80x9cabjectionxe2x80x9d is found in an English document, which is the text in the first language, a reference character string xe2x80x9cabidancexe2x80x9d in the second entry word index is extracted as a candidate character string. If the word being searched for completely matches the candidate character string, the search of the dictionary is terminated. If the word does not match the candidate character string, an entry word that immediately succeeds the candidate character string is examined. If the immediately succeeding entry word is compressed, the original entry word character string must be recovered. If xe2x80x9c04 (matching character count) 65 (character string difference code)xe2x80x9d is an entry word that succeeds the reference entry word xe2x80x9cabidance,xe2x80x9d which is first extracted as a candidate character string, the first four characters xe2x80x9cabidxe2x80x9d are extracted form the immediately preceding entry word character string xe2x80x9cabidance,xe2x80x9d and a character xe2x80x9cell  greater than a assigned to column xe2x80x9c65xe2x80x9d in the ASCII code table. The character strings xe2x80x9cabidxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cexe2x80x9d are coupled to recover the original character string xe2x80x9cabide.xe2x80x9d When the candidate character string that is recovered matches the word being searched for, the dictionary search is terminated. If they do not match, the recovering and comparison process is repeated for a succeeding entry word in the index. As a result of repetition, the word xe2x80x9cabjectionxe2x80x9d is obtained from the entry word index, and corresponding translation data can be acquired.
In the second entry word index data, the character string xe2x80x9cabjectionxe2x80x9d of nine characters, i.e., nine bytes, is compressed into the 2-byte code xe2x80x9c06 99,xe2x80x9d which is held. The entire entry word index data do not have to be decompressed in order to search for the word xe2x80x9cabjectionxe2x80x9d from the entry word index data. That is, since the decompression process for the compressed entry word index data is not required for an examination of the index data, a reduction in the search speed does not occur.
According to a computer-readable storage medium of the fourth or the seventh aspect of the present invention, the structural or functional cooperative relationship between a computer program and a storage medium is defined in order to implement the function of a computer program in a computer system. That is, when the computer storage medium is loaded into a computer system (or a computer program is installed in a computer system), the cooperative operation can be demonstrated by the computer system. As a result, the same operating effect as in the machine translation system according to the third or the sixth aspect of the present invention can be obtained.

Compression method, method for compressing entry word index data for a dictionary, and machine translation system

International Business Machines Corporation


An axle assembly includes a carrier housing having a deflector, a differential assembly, and an input shaft. The carrier housing has a main body and a pinion nose extending from the main body. The pinion shaft and the differential assembly are each rotatably supported by the carrier housing in driving engagement with one another. The pinion shaft extends through an aperture in the pinion nose. The deflector extends across at least a portion of an outer surface of the pinion nose to redirect contaminants from entering the carrier housing.

A conventional vehicle rear axle assembly typically includes a differential carrier housing having a main body and a pinion nose extending from the main body. An input pinion shaft extends through an aperture in the pinion nose and transfers torque from a vehicle power train to a differential assembly. A pinion seal is positioned generally between the input shaft and an interior surface of the pinion nose to prevent undesired materials and liquids, originating from the vehicle or elsewhere, from contacting the seal and/or entering the interior of the differential carrier housing. The materials often slide down an exterior surface of the pinion nose to reach the seal.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved axle assembly that prevents undesired materials from contacting the pinion seal and from possibly entering the interior of the differential carrier housing.

Pinion housing with contaminant deflector


Disclosed is a method of forming a thin film using a surface protection material, the method comprising supplying the surface protection material to the inside of a chamber on which a substrate is placed so that the surface protection material is adsorbed to the substrate, discharging the unadsorbed surface protection material from the inside of the chamber by purging the interior of the chamber, supplying a metal precursor to the inside of the chamber so that the metal precursor is adsorbed to the substrate, discharging the unadsorbed metal precursor from the inside of the chamber by purging the interior of the chamber, and supplying a reaction material to the inside of the chamber so that the reaction material reacts with the adsorbed metal precursor to form the thin film.

In the semiconductor process field, the deposition process is an important process for depositing a material on a substrate, and the aspect ratio of the feature increases more and more as the appearance of electronic devices continues to decrease and the density of the device increases. Accordingly, a process having good step coverage is attracting attention, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) is receiving considerable attention.
During the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, reaction gases are sequentially supplied to a process chamber on which a substrate is placed. A first reaction gas is supplied to the process chamber and adsorbed to the surface of the substrate. The second reaction gas is supplied to the process chamber to react with the adsorbed first reaction gas, so that a thin film is formed.
An object of the present invention is to provide methods of forming a thin film having good step coverage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide methods of forming a thin film, which are capable of significantly improving the temperature range in which the ALD process is possible.
Other objects of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description.

Method of forming a thin film using a surface protection material


An extensible draw bar device comprises a pair of outer pipes, a pair of middle pipes disposed in the corresponding outer pipes respectively, a pair of longitudinal inner pipes disposed in the corresponding middles pipes respectively, and a pair of press rods disposed in the corresponding inner pipes respectively. A transverse crossbar has two ends to receive two hollow plug seats respectively. The hollow plug seats receive two upper ends of two press rods respectively. The hollow plug seats are inserted in two upper ends of the two inner pipes respectively. An upper connecting seat has two hollow arms to receive two upper ends of the two outer pipes respectively. A lower connecting seat crosses the lower ends of the two outer pipes respectively. The upper connecting seat and the lower connecting seat connect a suitcase. Two wheel are disposed at the lower end of the lower connecting seat respectively.

The invention relates to a draw bar device. More particularly, the invention relates to an extensible draw bar device for a suitcase.
There are various conventional handles for suitcases. Most extensible handles are not convenient to operate. The user has to use both hands to push the buttons at the same time, and the user should hold the suitcase simultaneously. Thus the user needs an extra hand to operate the conventional extensible handles.