An approach is provided for securely printing electronic documents using a portable media. The approach is applicable to a wide variety of contexts and implementations and includes secure direct printing of electronic documents, secure direct printing of electronic documents with remote user authentication and secure printing of electronic documents with remote data management. The particular information provided on the portable media varies, depending upon the implementation. Furthermore, the approach provides varying degrees of security and may be used in conjunction with conventional printing of electronic documents.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section may not be prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The proliferation of computer technology and the growth of the Internet have greatly increased access to electronic information. One of the continuing issues is how to prevent unauthorized access to electronic documents that contain confidential or sensitive information. As a result, approaches have been developed to control access to electronic documents. For example, electronic documents are sometimes encrypted when being transmitted over public networks, such as the Internet. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, depending upon the encryption used, for an unauthorized party who intercepts an encrypted electronic document to recover the original electronic document. As another example, some organizations store electronic documents in secure locations, such as on a secure server. Access policies that indicate who has access to certain electronic documents may be used to control access to the electronic documents.
The concerns over unauthorized access to electronic documents that contain confidential or sensitive information also apply when electronic documents are being printed. Electronic documents are conventionally transmitted to printing devices in unencrypted form. Thus, an unauthorized party who can gain access to a communications link to a printing device can obtain electronic documents in unencrypted form. For example, an unauthorized party may eavesdrop on a wired communications link to gain access to electronic documents. Wireless networks are particularly vulnerable because an eavesdropper does not need physical access to a wired network and can instead eavesdrop remotely. Thus, a party can monitor wireless communications with a printing device and intercept electronic documents being transmitted to the printing device. In addition to intercepting electronic documents being transmitted to a printing device, unauthorized parties can acquire printed versions of electronic documents. For example, an unauthorized party may gain access to a printing device and removed a printed electronic document before the person who printed the electronic document. Based on the foregoing, there is a need for an approach for securely printing electronic documents that does not suffer from limitations of prior approaches.

Approach for securely printing electronic documents


A dual band antenna assembly is described to include a pair of dual band active radiating elements disposed upon a dielectric substrate. A pair of LC traps and conductor elements are electrically coupled to the radiating conductor elements to provide dual band resonance for cellular telephone and PCS device bandwidth ranges. Additional performance may be achieved with parasitic reflector and director elements. The multi-element directional antenna finds particular applicability for in-vehicle and wireless communication use.

A substantial need exists for a low cost, structurally compact and rigid antenna assembly for efficient operation over the cellular, PCS, and wireless LAN operational frequency ranges. A further need exists for such an antenna to be sufficiently directive to discriminate against multipath signals in high signal strength areas.
Additionally, a need exists for an antenna assembly suitable for dual frequency band operations. Conventional antenna assemblies have not adequately addressed the combined performance and structural characteristics of a low cost, directive antenna for dual-band operation.


A molding method and apparatus includes movable die 30 and fixed die 20 which form cavity 50, and extrusion plate 40 movable in the die closing/opening direction. A die surface 32b corresponding to the undercut portion is formed by separate push-up block 32, which is fixed to push-up pin 42, which is tiltably held by extrusion plate 40, and passes through insertion hole 34 in movable die 30. A gap 34a enables push-up pin 42 to tilt in the insertion hole. Push-up block 32 releases the part from the movable die by relative movement between extrusion plate 40 and movable die 30, and, by further movement of the part, the slanted surface of the undercut portion pushes the die surface of the push-up block in a direction which intersects with the die closing/opening direction to free the undercut portion by tilting the push-up pin and push-up block.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a molding method and apparatus for a vehicular lamp part. More specifically, the invention relates to a molding method and apparatus for molding a vehicular lamp part having an undercut portion without making a die complex.
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicular lamp part, there are cases in which forming an undercut portion is unavoidable.
For example, when a light source bulb 3 is attached to the center of a rear portion of a lamp body 2, as in a vehicular lamp 1 shown in FIG. 5, a waterproofing rib 4 protrudes toward the rear so as to surround a portion of the light source bulb 3 (or a socket holding the light source bulb 3) that protrudes from the rear surface of a lamp body 2. The rear end of this waterproofing rib 4 is abutted against a vehicle body (not shown) via a seal member 5, to make the area around the light source bulb 3 watertight.
When this type of waterproofing rib 4 is formed, the protruding length is quite large. As a result, if the waterproofing rib 4 is formed with an equal thickness from the front end (the end adjacent to the lamp body 2) to the rear end, it is not possible to release it from the die during injection molding. Therefore, the waterproofing rib 4 is formed with tapered surfaces 4a, 4a, referred to as so-called draft angles (see FIG. 6). When these kinds of tapered surfaces 4a, 4a are formed and a predetermined thickness is maintained at the rear end for strength, the thickness of a base portion 4b inevitably correspondingly increases. An increase in the thickness of the base portion 4b means an increase in mass of material resin around the base portion 4b, which results in a large difference in cooling speed, after injection, between the surface and the inner portion. This difference causes a depression 6, referred to as a so-called sinking, and therefore compromises the appearance. With a lamp body of a vehicular lamp, reflective surface treatment by vapor deposition or painting or the like is often applied to the inside surface, so even a slight deformation of the surface is highly visible.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, a tapered surface 4′a is formed on one side of a waterproofing rib 4′ and an undercut portion 4′c is formed on the other side. Undercut portion 4′c has a slanted surface which is slanted with respect to a die closing/opening direction, i.e., the moving direction of a movable die when the die is closed and a cavity is formed, and the moving direction of the movable die when the die is opened and the cavity is opened. Thus, the thickness of the base portion 4′a of the waterproofing rib 4′ is not made too thick and, as a result, the sinking 6 described above can be inhibited from occurring.
However, when a molded part has an undercut portion, the undercut portion is not able to be released from the die by simply moving the die in the die opening direction. Therefore, a portion of the movable die, i.e., a die surface which corresponds to the undercut portion, is constructed of a sliding core that moves in a direction that intersects with the die closing/opening direction with respect to the movable die. That is, after injection molding, the sliding core is first moved and separated from the undercut portion, and then the die is opened.
Providing the sliding core, however, is problematic in that it leads to an increase in the cost of the die due to the complexity of the movable die. Thus, methods have been developed to enable a molded part that has an undercut portion to be released from a die without using a sliding core so that the cost of the die does not increase remarkably, such as shown in: (1) Japanese Utility Model Publication Sho. 57-6515; (2) Japanese Utility Model Publication Sho. 59-29216; (3) Japanese Utility Model Publication Hei. 5-58249; and (4) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Hei. 9-155930.
However, these methods still fail to provide a die construction and operation that are sufficiently simple and have sufficient cost reduction.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the invention to mold a vehicular lamp part having an undercut portion without making the die complex.

Molding method for vehicular lamp part and molding apparatus for vehicular lamp part


An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section that discharges droplets of recording liquid to form an image on a recording medium, a body including the image forming section, and a conveyor section that conveys the recording medium having thereon the image formed in the image forming section. An output unit is removably attached to the body and includes at least the conveyor section. The output unit may further include a face-down output path, a straight output path, a straight output tray, and the like.

1. Technical Field
This specification generally relates to an apparatus that forms images, and more particularly describes an apparatus that forms images by discharging droplets of recording liquid.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An image forming apparatus, which may serve as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copier, or a combination thereof, forming images by using an electrophotographic process (i.e. electrophotographic image forming apparatus) is generally known. There is also known an ink-jet image forming apparatus that forms images by depositing droplets of recording liquid (i.e. ink droplets) on a conveyed recording medium.
In a background electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an output unit, to which sheets are output, may be removed from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In another background electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a bottom of a sheet-output space is formed as an output tray, which may be removed from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Removing the output tray, a sheet-handling unit including an optional output unit and a sheet finisher may be removably mounted in the sheet-output space.
A background ink-jet image forming apparatus includes an ink cartridge connected to a record head via a channel, a feed tray from which a sheet is supplied, and an output tray to which a sheet after recording is output. The ink cartridge may be loaded or unloaded from a predetermined side of the image forming apparatus. The feed tray and the output tray are disposed so that a user may supply or pick up the sheet on the side from which the ink cartridge may be loaded or unloaded.
In another background electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a sheet output unit is removably attached to a top of the image forming apparatus. Removing the sheet output unit, an optional stacking unit may be removably attached to the top of the image forming apparatus. Further, the removed sheet output unit may be removably attached to a top of the optional stacking unit.

Image forming apparatus having a removable output unit


A display formed of two colorless, transparent plastic cylinders mounted concentrically with a vertical axis upon a base. The space between the two cylinders forms a tank which is filled with liquid and some plastic snowflakes having a slightly greater specific gravity than the liquid. An object to be displayed is positioned within the inner cylinder and, so, is not in contact with the liquid. The object and the liquid are illuminated by a light within the base. A motor operates a pump having an uncased spiral rotor projecting vertically downwardly into the liquid. Rotation of the pump causes a diffuse upward flow of the liquid and the snowflakes in the vicinity of the pump. Though this causes the snowflakes to move upwardly in a gentle and diffuse manner, this motion isn't particularly noticed by an observer. When the snowflakes reach the top of the liquid, they are diffused sidewardly and begin dropping, creating a snowfall effect.

Devices which include a liquid in which flakes resembling snow fall slowly through a liquid are, of course, old. In these devices, the snow has to be recirculated by shaking or overturning the device periodically; any figure shown in the scene is positioned within the liquid.
In my device, the snow is recirculated by a type of pump which is within the scene, but is substantially invisible. Thus, the unit does not have to be turned or shaken to keep it operating. In addition, any figure or object depicted in the scene is not subject to contact with the liquid. This is valuable because, for example, when a bottle is being displayed, its label does not get constantly soaked, resulting in eventual deterioration.


An FM-CW radar apparatus capable of detecting a stationary object, in particular, an overbridge, located above the road ahead in a simple manner uses a traveling wave antenna as a transmitting antenna, and includes a means for varying, in upward and downward directions the projection angle of a combined beam pattern of a transmitted wave radiated from the traveling wave antenna, and an overbridge is detected by varying the projection angle of the combined beam pattern in the upward direction using the varying means. Further, a phase shifter for varying the projection angle of the beam pattern in upward/downward directions by controlling the phase of the radio wave to be transmitted or received is provided on either a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna or on a transmitting/receiving antenna, and an overbridge is detected by controlling the phase shifter and varying the projection angle of the beam pattern in the upward direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an FM-CW radar apparatus that uses a frequency-modulated (FM) continuous wave (CW) as a signal for transmission and, more particularly, to an FM-CW radar apparatus that can detect an overbridge, that is, a stationary object such as a bridge, a road sign, a billboard, or the like, located above the road ahead or on the roadside.
2. Description of the Related Art
A scanning radar scans a given area by turning the radar in lateral directions with very fine step angles within a predetermined time. At each step angle, a radar beam is projected from the radar-equipped vehicle toward a vehicle traveling on the road ahead, and the wave reflected from the vehicle ahead is received; the reflected wave thus received is processed to detect the presence of a vehicle ahead and to compute the distance and relative velocity of that vehicle.
With a conventional radar, however, as the beam is scanned in lateral directions as described above, it is difficult to obtain accurate height information. As a result, when an overbridge, that is, a structure such as a bridge over the road ahead, is detected, it may not be possible to clearly identify whether it is really an overbridge or a vehicle traveling ahead.
In one disclosed method (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-202365), the detected object is determined as being an overbridge candidate when, of the peak frequencies generated based on the reflected radar signal, the number of frequency peaks larger than a predetermined value is not smaller than a predetermined number.
There is also disclosed a radar apparatus that radiates a transmitted wave over a prescribed range of angles in the vehicle width direction and in the height direction, and detects angles in the two directions, i.e., the vehicle width direction and the height direction (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 11-38141 and 11-38142).


In order to suppress leak current at the time of high voltage application to a fluorescent lamp so as to improve the luminous efficiency, the present invention provides a fluorescent lamp driver, which includes switching means that switches a DC power supply voltage, and a first transformer and a second transformer configured to obtain AC voltages each having reverse polarity, as AC voltages excited from primary winding to secondary winding of the respective transformers, on the basis of output voltages of the switching means, in which the first transformer and the second transformer are positioned in the vicinity of both ends of the fluorescent lamp, and the AC voltage obtained in the secondary winding of the first transformer is applied to one terminal of the fluorescent lamp and the AC voltage obtained in the secondary winding of the second transformer is applied to the other terminal of the fluorescent lamp.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluorescent lamp driver for driving a fluorescent lamp to emit light and to a liquid crystal display apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, in a display apparatus that is not of a self-luminous type such as a liquid crystal display, a backlight using a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) as a light source is provided. FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a constitution of a fluorescent lamp driver of a related art for driving the cold cathode fluorescent lamp as a backlight provided in such a liquid crystal display apparatus. In FIG. 7, a drive/control circuit 50 is provided with a switching element or the like therein so as to receive power supply from a DC power source not shown in the figure to generate an AC voltage. This AC voltage generated by this drive/control circuit 50 is supplied to primary winding N1 of a transformer TR.
The transformer TR is a step-up or step-down transformer and excites an AC voltage received from the drive/control circuit 50 to output to secondary winding N2. One end of the secondary winding N2 of the transformer TR is connected to one terminal t10a of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp 10, while the other end of the second winding N2 is connected to the other terminal t10b of the cold cathode fluorescent lamp 10, and at the same time, connecting points of them are grounded.
In the example of the related art, there has been employed a constitution in which the terminal t10b of the cold cathode fluorescent lamp 10 is set to an earth potential or a potential close thereto while an AC voltage is applied to the terminal t10a. Namely, in the fluorescent lamp driver in this case, as shown in FIG. 8, for example, by applying a voltage V having±V level taking 0 level as a reference to the terminal t10a of the cold cathode fluorescent lamp 10, the cold cathode fluorescent lamp 10 is driven to emit light.
As the related art, the following patent document can be cited.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 11-8087

Fluorescent lamp driver and liquid crystal display apparatus


In order to avoid problems caused by baseline drift, it is expedient in a method of an embodiment of the present application not to measure a signal rise in a detection space, but to allow a certain time period to elapse in order to enrich a detectable product (enrichment phase), then to measure a first detection signal, and to measure the baseline signal as second detection signal only after rinsing out the detection space and removing the enriched product. In at least one embodiment, the enriched product is not detected from a signal rise with reference to a baseline, but from a signal difference of first and second detection signals.

It is an aim of chemical and biochemical analytics to develop detection methods with an increased sensitivity. Sensitive and highly specific analytical methods based on molecular interactions, for example of nucleic acids or proteins, have been developed in biochemical analytics, in particular. Such methods are used, for example, in process analytics, in molecular diagnostics, in molecular biological research, in clinical diagnostics, in food analysis and in environmental analytics.
Patent DE 100 583 94 C1 describes an electrochemical sensor that can be used for nucleic acid analytics. This sensor has electrodes to which there is applied a microarray arrangement of catcher oligonucleotides that can specifically bind nucleic acids to be detected. These nucleic acids to be detected can be marked or labeled with an enzyme that converts a substrate to an electrochemically detectable product. The current rise can be measured at the electrodes upon the emergence of the product. To raise the sensitivity of this measurement method, DE 100 583 94 C1 teaches the use of small volume detection spaces in order to amplify the local increase in concentration of the electrochemically detectable product, and thus to raise the sensitivity.
The sensitivity of such measurement methods is limited, on the one hand, by signal noise and, on the other hand, by the so called baseline drift that leads to a shift in the baseline in the course of time such that in the event of very small analyte concentrations it is not possible to make any reliable statement relating to a signal rise with reference to the baseline. This problem of baseline drift occurs not only in electrochemical measurement methods, but also with other detection methods, for example optical, magnetic and other methods. Baseline drift is conditioned by a multiplicity of causes, for example by temperature fluctuations, by interface effects at the interface from sensor to sample volume, in particular when use is made of measuring electrodes on the basis of polarization effects on measuring electrodes and sample solution, and by other effects.

Arrangement and method for detecting small substance concentrations


There is disclosed a fluid supply manifold for use with various surgical instruments, such as, electrosurgical instruments. The fluid supply manifold includes two or more connection ports for receipt of sources of fluid supply by either bulk sources or sources contained within canisters. The manifold may include a mixing chamber for mixing the various sources of fluids within the manifold or may include flow tubes for providing the sources of fluid directly to the surgical instrument to be mixed within the surgical instrument. Control valves are associated with each of the connection ports to control the flow of fluids through the manifold. The manifold may also include a gas inlet to facilitate drawing the fluids out of the various sources as well as mixing the fluids within the manifold.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to gas enhanced electrosurgical instruments. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a supply manifold for use with a gas enhanced electrosurgical instrument having multiple material supply cylinders.
2. Background of Related Art
Various surgical instruments are known for treating tissue. For example, surgical instruments used for tissue division, dissection, ablation, or for arresting blood loss and coagulation are well-known. In a particular application, for example in a coagulation instrument, an electrode is used in conjunction with a heated probe to arrest bleeding.
Some prior art devices include a tube-like coagulation instrument in which an ionizable gas is supplied to the instrument and ionized by the electrode. The provision of an atmosphere of ionized gases is beneficial because it helps focus the energy adjacent the electrode and it displaces oxygen from the area and reduces oxidative stress of the tissue. The gas is propelled from the instrument toward the tissue.
Many surgical procedures are enhanced by the use of wound mediating substances to assist in the healing of tissue. The substances may include blood clotting factors, wound closing adhesives, growth factors, interleukins, cytokines, inflammatory mediating factors, chemokines, meta-metalloproteinase or other biochemicals known to mediate wound healing.
In certain surgeries it may be advantageous to provide other fluids, such as, for example, saline, various dyes, etc. to the surgical instrument for application to tissue. In some instances, it may be advisable to provide one or more of these fluids to the tissue at the same time.

Manifold for gas enhanced surgical instruments


The invention relates to multi-layered composite materials and methods for making multi-layered composite materials having good adhesion between the layers. The adhesion between a polymer layer and a metal layer of a multi-layered composite material may be improved by a process including a step of pre-treating a surface of the metal layer prior to contacting the metal surface with the polymer layer, and by including filler particles in the polymer layer. Using this approach, it is possible to increase the peel strength by about 10% or more, by about 20% or more, by about 40% or more, or by about 100% or more, compared with an otherwise identical composite material that does not include both of these features.

The adhesion between polyolefins and aluminum has long be recognized as being poor due to the generally hydrophobic characteristic of polyolefins. For example, the adhesion between polyethylene and aluminum is generally low and for nearly all applications, an improvement in the adhesion of the polyolefin and aluminum is required. Various approaches have been employed to improve the adhesion between aluminum and polyolefins. These include treating the surface of either the polymer or the aluminum, using an adhesive coating or primer, and adding functional groups to the polymer. Examples of these approaches are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,035,953, 3,470,056, and 3,635,938, and in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2011/0129887 A1, and in Hjertberg et al., "Functional Group Efficiency in Adhesion between Polyethylene and Aluminum", J. of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 37, 1287-97 (1989), the contents of which are all incorporated herein by reference.
These approaches require the use of special polymers, additional layers of material between the polymer and the aluminum, or special treatments steps, which can be costly, affect the performance of the composite, alter the physical properties of the material. Furthermore, some of these approaches only provide marginal improvements in adhesion.
There continues to be a need for new composite materials and new methods for producing the composite materials having good adhesion between an aluminum layer and a polyolefin layer. For example there is a need for such materials that does not rely on the use of a functionalized polymer, does not rely on the use of polymeric coating, or both.

Composites having improved interlayer adhesion and methods thereof


A method and system is provided in which MAN traffic is segregated at a customer and a provider domain level. A switch at the edge of the MAN encapsulates a data packet in a new header, which is used to specify the customer domain tags. The data packet is encapsulated further in another new header, which is used to specify new VMAN tags. The nested encapsulation is repeated as necessary until the data packet is forwarded to a remote switch at the edge of the MAN in accordance with the VMAN configuration or the source and destination address in the original data packet. The remote switch strips the VMAN tags from the data packet, and forwards the stripped data packet to the receiving customer domain as specified in the customer domain tag.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of virtual metropolitan area network (VMAN) topologies and internetwork communications technologies. In particular, the present invention relates to a protocol for use in a VMAN network architecture to route and forward data packets according to the VMAN configuration.
2. Background Information and Description of Related Art
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered by a local area network but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network. The term is typically applied to the interconnection of networks in a city into a single larger network (which may then also offer efficient connection to a wide area network). The amount of data traffic being sent over MANs is increasing at an exponential rate. This is due in part to the increasingly ubiquitous use of the Internet by consumers and businesses, as well as the increasingly bandwidth-intensive nature of the Internet applications that are being deployed.
An important aspect of MANs is the ability of MAN service providers to create virtual private network network connections (VPNs) across a single MAN infrastructure, referred to as a virtual metropolitan area network (VMAN). VMANs allow customers having multiple locations within a metropolitan area to transport private traffic, including virtual local area network (VLAN) traffic, over the shared single MAN.
However, the use of vMANs to handle traffic from multiple customers over a single MAN creates access and security issues. Therefore, it is important to segregate one customer from another so that there is no co-mingling of traffic.
In addition, customer traffic must be transported over the MAN without interfering with the customers' own higher-layer protocols such as DECnet, or private IP subnets. For example, the DECnet Phase IV protocol can cause problems when routed to a Layer 2 MAN because the DECnet protocol changes the media access control (MAC) address in the packet's datalink header. Since duplicate MAC addresses are typically not allowed, MAN service providers end up managing DECnet streams by hand—something which neither the provider nor the customer wants.
Accordingly, a new approach is needed to securely manage traffic in a VMAN network architecture while not interfering with higher level protocols.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for VMAN protocol Layer-2 packet nested encapsulation


A baffle plate assembly for installation in a rack structure is disclosed. In one aspect, the baffle plate assembly is configured to direct cooling air from a front side of the rack structure to cooling air inlet(s) of equipment located directly above the baffle plate assembly, and to block heated air from below or behind the baffle plate assembly from entering the equipment cooling air inlet(s). In one aspect, the baffle plate assembly includes a baffle plate defining a first surface plane, a pair of side plates, and a pair of mounting brackets. The side plates are configured to extend along the baffle plate while the mounting brackets may be attached to the side plates. In one aspect, the baffle plate first surface plane forms an oblique angle with respect to a plane defined by a first plate member of the mounting brackets.

In many data and telecommunications rack systems, the equipment installed within the rack must be provided with adequate cooling air to ensure proper operation of the equipment. In some cases, heat emanating from adjacent or nearby equipment can interfere with the cooling of other equipment. Also, some racks are configured such that cooling air is provided from the front side of the rack and ejected to the back side of the rack. In the case of equipment that has a bottom inlet for cooling air, it is therefore desirable to guide the air from the front of the rack into the bottom inlet, and to block airflow from the rear of the rack. While systems have been developed to achieve this purpose, improvements are desired, particularly with regard to structural integrity and adjustability.


A far-field measurement instrument has multiple imaging lenses cut into a pentagon shape and arranged in geodesic spherical configuration with a common field of view focused on the source of the scattered light to be measured. Aspheric lenses are used to facilitate collimation of large incident angles of scattered light. A measurement module, such as a camera, is used behind each lens. The measurement module may consist of an interferometer or Shack-Hartman wavefront sensor, thereby enabling the measurement of both intensity and phase of the scattered light.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to scatterometry. In particular, it relates to far field measurements involving the simultaneous measurement of reflected or transmitted scattered wavefronts through the use of hemispherical and/or spherical light-scatter and phase-measuring technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
Scatterometers are used to analyze light sources and material properties by measuring how a particular material or surface reflects or transmits light in spherical ("scattered") radiation. If the surface is not radiating its own light, such as in the case of an LED, a light source, such as a laser, can be directed at some angle onto the surface to produce scattered light from the point of incidence. If the surface is specular or otherwise radiates the incident light in a unidirectional fashion, all the light will be directed away from the surface along a single beam. Otherwise, the reflected light will be scattered and radiated throughout the hemisphere above the test surface. The science and mathematics of scattered light are well developed. See, for example, the book by J. C. Stover, "Optical Scattering: Measurement and Analysis," McGraw-Hill, N.Y. (1990).
A typical scatterometer includes a laser shining a beam on a test surface and a single detector that is mechanically scanned over a 180-degree circular arc around the illuminated spot. The detector's field of view is kept on the illuminated spot regardless of the viewing angle. At each view angle, a measurement is made of the light intensity, thereby generating a spatial distribution of the scattered light. The distribution over the scan arc is dependent on the characteristics of the test surface, including the type of material, surface roughness, reflectivity, color, surface structure, sub-surface damage, and others.
Scanning a single detector has greatly limited the ability to measure scattering over large areas, such as over an entire hemisphere, and to measure large dynamic ranges of intensity. Moreover, scanning over an entire hemisphere takes a lot of time. Thus, measuring scattering over many spots on the test surface has been quite impractical with a single detector. Measuring dynamic events at multiple measurement positions has also not been possible with this approach.
In order to overcome these limitations, multiple detectors with a single detecting element distributed over a larger hemispherical area have been used. For example, a limited number of detectors (from 10 to 120 detectors) have been placed along an arc, where the arc center is the measurement point. This approach works well when the scatter field (or far-field pattern, as defined herein) is uniform, but it does not work when the far field pattern is random or has a high frequency content.
Another prior-art approach is to shine a laser beam through a hole in a translucent dome onto a test sample positioned at the center of the dome. The scattered light from the test sample illuminates the interior dome surface, which, because it is translucent, permits the use of a camera to view the scattered light from the dome's exterior face. This approach works satisfactorily for some basic applications. However, the light can also scatter laterally between the dome's interior and exterior surfaces producing corrupted measurement results. This method also does not allow for easy measurement of the light scattered at angles approaching 90 degrees from the direction normal to the surface of the camera (i.e., the hemispherical dome's edge).
Another method for hemispherical scattered-light measurements is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,542, U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,617, U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,294, U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,246, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,640. This approach is based on the use of a fiber-optic bundle to measure a portion of the hemisphere in three dimensions. This is done by cutting a spherical surface onto a tapered portion of a fiber bundle. The opposite end of the fiber bundle is tapered to a much smaller size for coupling to a camera. This method allows very high-resolution measurements over a portion of the hemisphere. However, its main disadvantages are a lower dynamic range, the expense of the fiber bundles, the loss of phase information as the light travels though the fiber, and the mechanical scanning requirements for full hemispherical measurements.
Thus, all of these prior-art methods have common limitations in the degree of far-field coverage and angular measurement resolution. In addition, they cannot measure phase. Therefore, a system capable of measuring both spherical scatter and phase with a single instrument in real-time would be very desirable in the art and would provide unprecedented medical diagnostic capability. The present invention provides a solution to many of the problems of the prior-art devices and enables the acquisition of significantly more measurement data at speeds not possible before. Moreover, both spherical and phase information from scattered light can be acquired simultaneously.

Spherical scattering-light device for simultaneous phase and intensity measurements


A system and method for page composition in a processor-controlled printing system. Formatted image data is first received to a processor, the data representing image elements to be merged into a new document. At least one compressed cell describing each of the page elements is generated based on the formatted image data. A compressed cell contains pixilated image data of a predetermined pixel size. An element table including at least one cell pointer for each page element is generated. Each cell pointer includes a memory location and a cell type for each compressed cell that is pointed to by the generated element table. A merged page is composed based on the cell type entries of the element tables. A page composition system and a computer readable media having computer instructions for implementing the method of page composition are also provided.

Imaging systems typically integrate a processor and software that work together to provide various imaging functions such as printing. Imaging systems are often required to combine multiple images, called elements, onto a composed page. A composed page is generally a composite of page elements from several sources, such as user-placed images, scanned data, text and other types of images. The page composition process positions images in the appropriate location on a page and also provides rotation and mirroring effects. For color imaging systems, in order to first determine a color for each pixel on the page, it is necessary to first read all of the elements which potentially affect the pixel, even if only one of several elements will eventually define the color of the pixel. One page composition technique uses a frame buffer for the composed page. All of the elements are drawn into the frame buffer, which then represents the composite image. However, a large frame buffer is required and the image elements must be moved from memory into the frame buffer. When elements overlap, some of the element data may be moved into the buffer but subsequently ignored because another element covers it. Additionally, image elements are typically compressed in memory and must be decompressed into the frame buffer which operates only on uncompressed data. Subsequently, a large bandwidth overhead is incurred in the imaging system to move data in and out of the frame buffer during a page composition.

System and method for improved page composition

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A charge recycling integrated circuit and a method for integrated circuit charge recycling. In one aspect, a charge storage collector is interposed between a high voltage supply or a low voltage supply and a function block of the integrated circuit. The charge collector is operable to selectively store a charge dissipated in the function block when the logic circuitry of the function block switches between a high voltage value and a low voltage value. The dissipated charge resulting from the switching in the logic circuitry of the function block is selectively stored to the charge collector and the charge collector selectively returns the charge stored on the charge collector to the high voltage supply, the low voltage supply or to another node in the integrated circuit as appropriate.

Low-power integrated circuits are desirable in most applications, and particularly in the field of mobile technology where power consumption is critical to the successful operation of the mobile device. Minimizing power in an integrated circuit typically starts at the gate level in any technology, but in CMOS technology in particular, some common techniques for power reduction are known in the art.
Leakage dissipation, short-circuit dissipation and dynamic dissipation in CMOS circuitry combine to form the total power dissipation of the integrated circuit. Leakage dissipation arises from substrate injection and sub-threshold effects and is primarily determined by the fabrication technology of the transistor. Dynamic or switching power consumption of a CMOS inverter arises when the capacitive load (CL) is charged through the PMOS transistor to make a voltage transition from zero to the high voltage level, which is usually the supply, Vdd. As such, the energy drawn from the power supply for this positive going transition is CLVdd2, half of which is stored in the output capacitor and half is dissipated in the PMOS device. Conversely, when the output switches from Vdd to zero, no charge is drawn from the supply, but the energy stored in the output capacitor is dissipated in the pull-down NMOS transistor. In the case of an inverter, short-circuit power dissipation arises when a PMOS and an NMOS transistor are simultaneously active, conducting current directly from the supply to ground. While this is unavoidable in CMOS gates due to the inability to instantaneously switch the gates, in sufficiently quickly switched gates, the fraction of short-circuit power is small in comparison to the dynamic power in most cases.
A prototypical integrated circuit includes pull-up circuitry and pull-down circuitry, as is commonly known as an inverter circuit, a capacitive load, CL, a high voltage node, Vdd, and a low voltage node, Vss. In this configuration, the energy drawn from the power supply for a positive going transition of the output node from a zero, to a one, is CLVdd2, half of which is stored in the output capacitor and half of which is dissipated in the pull-up circuitry. Conversely, when the output switches from Vdd to zero, no charge is drawn from the supply, but the energy stored in the output capacitor is dissipated in the pull-down circuitry. During this process of switching between a zero and a one, there is a fraction of time in which both the pull-up and the pull-down circuitry are simultaneously active. This results in a short-circuit situation from Vdd to Vss. As such, a current flow results in a dissipation of charge in the inverter.
Since the leakage dissipation is inherent in the design of the components themselves and weakly tied to the operating voltage, integrated circuit designers have little control over the static leakage of the circuit. Accordingly, power reduction techniques are commonly focused on minimizing the short-circuit and dynamic power dissipation of the integrated circuit. Low-power integrated circuit designs are commonly focused on either designing low-power circuitry or efficient power management. Low-power designs seek to reduce the power dissipation by lowering the operating voltages or the switching frequency thereby reducing the overall dynamic power of the device. However, lower operating voltages and slower frequencies also result in slower operating speeds. Efficient power management techniques strive to reduce the dynamic power dissipation in the integrated circuit through the optimization of the physical, circuit and logic levels. Some common techniques for efficient power management include optimizing placement of devices and routes of signals, transistor sizing, reducing swing logic, logic minimization and logic level power down. The techniques known in the art for efficient power management rely on architecture or algorithm level optimization of the integrated circuit to realize a reduction in power dissipation.
Power dissipation in an integrated circuit is a measure of the efficiency of the system. The efficiency of the system affects the design of the power supply for the system. Accordingly, systems that are inefficient waste more energy and therefore require a larger power supply. In battery-operated systems, such as mobile devices, the power dissipation in the system reduces the life of the battery. The more power dissipated, the larger the battery required to operate the device. Larger batteries requirements inherently increase the cost and weight of the system, which is undesirable in mobile devices. In addition to the wasted energy generated by an inefficient system, power dissipation generates heat. An inefficient system must therefore accommodate the increased heat dissipation in the system by utilizing heat sinks to protect the circuitry. Such heat sinks also add undesirable cost, size and weight to the mobile system.
While the techniques known in the art for reducing the power dissipation of integrated circuits have achieved, noted success, there exists an ongoing need in the art for additional systems and methods for minimizing the power dissipated by a digital system.

System and method for integrated circuit charge recycling


Various embodiments of the present invention pertain to the organizing of digital content by events, so that retrieval of such digital content in a manner meaningful and logical to users is achieved. In this regard, an event may be defined at least by event boundaries, such as a span of time, a geographic area, an acquirer of digital content, or a subject of digital content. Digital content that can be deemed to accord with the event boundaries may be associated with the event and made available for access and retrieval.

Events in people's lives are one of the most popular motivations for capturing digital imagery. An event is an activity of common interest to one or more people that has a finite time duration occurring at one or more geographic locations. An event may be defined by, among other things, its unique combination of time, place, or participants. Events may be planned in advance or spontaneously occur. Some events may be recurring. People use digital content captured at private as well as public gatherings to relive memories and share experiences with others. Combining digital content from a plurality of event participants generates a richer experience when reliving an event.
At present, digital images and videos captured at events with digital still cameras, cell phones, video cameras and other random access digital capture devices are often shared between event participants using internet websites. These websites provide services such as online content storage, blogging areas, digital image print fulfillment, photo albums, CDs, and DVDs. Participants upload their digital content to the online website and organize the content into collections based on the events in which the content was captured. The collections, often called albums, are then proactively shared with others that attended the event by sending email invitations containing an event specific web address to those specified by the content owner. One example of this type of system is the Kodak EasyShare™ Gallery website, which requires knowing the email address of each event attendee.
While the above-described processes for organizing and sharing digital imagery are useful and effective, such processes can be improved.

Event-based digital content record organization


A cover module of an electronic device and a control method thereof are provided. The cover module includes a body, a flexible connecting element, and a flip cover. The body has an opening exposing the connector. A sidewall of the opening has a first fixing structure. The flip cover is in the opening, and a sidewall of the flip cover has a second fixing structure locked with the first fixing structure. The flexible connecting element is connected between the body and the flip cover. When a force is applied to the flip cover, the flexible connecting element is deformed, the flip cover moves with the deformation of the flexible connecting element, and the locking between the first and the second fixing structures is released to cause the flip cover swinging open away from the body with a part of the flexible connecting element as an axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cover, and more particularly, to a cover module assembled with an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, electronic devices are usually designed very small, slim, and light therefore can be conveniently carried around by users. For example, many users like to bring their notebook computers when they are on business trip or vacation because notebook computers can provide many different functions, such as text editing, report generating, networking, instant messenger, and e-mail box, etc.
However, because there are many dust particles in the outdoor environment and the ports on a connector of a notebook computer are exposed by the casing of the notebook computer, the dust particles may accumulate in the connector and accordingly affect the connections between the connector and other external devices. In particular, the dust particles may even cause short circuit between the connector and the external devices or even damage the connector and the external devices.
In order to resolve foregoing problems, conventionally, a cover is provided, and a user can assemble the cover with a notebook computer when the notebook computer is not in use, so that the cover can cover the connector of the notebook computer and accordingly prevent dust particles from accumulating in the connector. In addition, the cover can also protect the connector of the notebook computer from unwanted foreign substances.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional cover and a connector of an electronic device. Referring to FIG. 1, the housing 43 has an open slot 6. When the electronic device is placed in the housing 43, the open slot 6 exposes a connector 5C of the electronic device. In order to prevent foreign substances (for example, dust particles) from entering the connector 5C, two blocking covers 3 and 4 are disposed for hiding the connector 5C. Besides, the blocking covers 3 and 4 are connected to a hinge 51 so that the blocking covers 3 and 4 can hide the connector 5C normally.
When an external device is to be electrically connected to the electronic device through the connector 5C, a user pushes the plug 34 of the external device toward the connector 5C. The plug 34 first pushes the blocking covers 3 and 4. Herein the blocking covers 3 and 4 respectively rotate around the axles 10a and 11a and drive the ends of the hinge 51 so that the plug 34 can enter the open slot 6 and be plugged to the connector 5C. When the user wants to cut off the electrical connection between the external device and the electronic device, the user pulls the plug 34 out of the connector 5C in a reverse direction. Herein the blocking covers 3 and 4 are restored to their original positions by the resilience of the hinge 51.
However, because the hinge 51 is usually made of a twisted metal bar, the user has to apply a very big force to push the blocking covers 3 and 4 with the plug 34 and accordingly drive the hinge 51. Besides, because the blocking covers 3 and 4 require a gyration radius when they are opened, some space in the housing 43 is wasted, and which is not very economically beneficial.

Cover module of electronic device and control method thereof


Techniques for representing directory structure in content-addressable storage systems are provided. A directory structure of a file system is represented using a plurality of chunks in a content-addressable storage system. The directory structure includes a set of objects arranged in an object hierarchy. The set of objects includes a particular directory that has, within the object hierarchy, a set of child objects. The plurality of chunks includes a directory object chunk for the particular directory. The plurality of chunks further includes a particular set of child object chunks. The particular set of child object chunks are object chunks for each child object in the set of child objects. The plurality of chunks further includes at least one hash set chunk with hash values for object chunks in the particular set of child object chunks.

In typical file systems, stored items are retrieved based on (a) the location at which the items are stored, and (b) a name or identifier of the items. For example, if a file named "foo.txt" is located in a directory named "c:\myfiles\text", then applications may use the pathname "c:\myfiles\text\foo.txt" as the access key to retrieve the file from the file system.
Because conventional access keys are based on the location of the items being retrieved, the access keys change when the items are moved within a directory structure of a file system. In addition, each copy of an item has a different access key, because each copy is stored at a different location. On the other hand, when the content of the item is changed, the access key remains the same.
In contrast to conventional file systems, content-addressable storage systems allow applications to retrieve items from storage based on data that is generated from the content of the items, such as a hash value for the content. Because content-addressable storage systems perform storage-related operations on items based on the hash values generated for the items, and the hash values are based on the content of the items rather than where the items are stored, the applications that request the operations may do so without knowing the number or location of the stored copies of the items. For example, a content-addressable storage system may store multiple copies of an item X at locations A, B and C. An application that desires to retrieve item X would do so by sending a request with a hash value based on the contents of item X. Based on that hash value, the content-addressable storage system would provide to the application a copy of item X retrieved from one of the locations A, B, and C. Thus, the application would obtain item X without knowing where item X was actually stored, how many copies of item X existed, or the specific location from which the retrieved copy was actually obtained.
A chunk storage system is a storage system that performs storage operations without understanding the format or content of the digital information itself. Such storage systems are referred to as chunk storage systems because the systems treat all forms of digital items as if those items were merely opaque chunks of data. For example, the same chunk storage system may be used by word processing applications, image management applications, and calendaring systems to respectively store documents, images and appointments. However, from the perspective of the chunk storage system, only one type of item is being stored: opaque chunks of digital information.
Chunk storage systems may be implemented as content-addressable storage systems. For example, a chunk storage system may generate a hash value for a chunk by applying a cryptographic hash function (e.g. MD5, SHA-1 or SHA2) to the chunk. The chunk store may then store the chunk, and maintain indexing data that associates the hash value with the location at which the chunk is stored.
When an application subsequently requests retrieval of the chunk, the application provides the hash value to the chunk storage system. The chunk storage system uses the indexing data to locate the chunk associated with the hash value, and provides the chunk thus located to the requesting application.
When an item is represented by one or more chunks in a content-addressable storage system, additional chunk/s must be added to the content-addressable storage system when the item is modified. Because the access key is based on the content, the access key for any chunk corresponding to the modified item will be different from the access key for a chunk corresponding to the original item. Furthermore, references to the original item, such as hash values or other access keys, with only be usable to access the original item.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Representing directory structure in content-addressable storage systems


A frequency synthesizer SYNT intended to supply an output signal Sout having an output frequency which depends on the average frequency, referred to as symbol frequency, of an input signal Sin beset with a strong phase noise. This synthesizer SYNT includes: a phase/frequency detector PHD comparing the symbol frequency with a predetermined fraction of the output frequency, and supplying a control signal; a low-pass filter LPF filtering the control signal; and an oscillator VCO supplying a signal Sout with a frequency which is adjusted by the filtered control signal Cs. Reference pulses having the symbol frequency are generated within the synthesizer SYNT by means of pulses from an internal clock, which pulses are validated by active states of the input signal Sin.

The invention relates to a frequency synthesizer intended to receive an input signal having an average frequency referred to as symbol frequency, a clock signal having a fixed frequency, and to supply an output signal having a frequency referred to as output frequency, said synthesizer comprising:
a phase/frequency detector intended to compare the symbol frequency with a predetermined fraction of the output frequency and to supply a control signal for adjusting the value of said output frequency, PA1 a low-pass filter having an output and an input intended to receive the control signal, PA1 an oscillator having a control input which is connected to the output of the low-pass filter and an output which is intended to supply the output signal of the synthesizer whose output frequency depends on the signal at the control input. PA1 a time delay module intended to supply a signal referred to as end-of-cycle signal assuming an active state at the end of a period referred to as counting cycle which is equal to the multiplication of the duration of a period of the output signal of the synthesizer by a first predetermined digital value, PA1 a counting device having a clock input which is intended to receive the clock signal, an output having a value which is incremented, when the counting device is activated, at each new period of said clock signal, the counting device being only activated when the input signal of the synthesizer has an active logic state, the value of the output of the counting device being re-initialized when the end-of-cycle signal is in the active state, PA1 comparison means allowing a comparison of the value obtained at the output of the counting device at the of the counting cycle with a second predetermined digital value, the result of this comparison being used for generating the control signal. PA1 a module intended to generate a clock signal within the device, PA1 a tuner allowing selection of a data signal from the network, PA1 a digital demodulator rhythmed by the clock signal and intended to receive the data signal from the network and to generate, on the basis of said signal, a signal having an average frequency referred to as symbol frequency and a demodulated data signal, PA1 a first and a second register intended to comprise a first and a second predetermined value, respectively, PA1 a frequency synthesizer intended to generate a signal having a frequency referred to as output frequency, the ratio between the output frequency and the symbol frequency being substantially equal to the ratio between the first and second predetermined values, PA1 a digital modulator rhythmed by the output signal of the frequency synthesizer and intended to transmit another data signal to the network, PA1 characterized in that the frequency synthesizer is a synthesizer as described above.
A frequency synthesizer of this type is known from European patent application EP 0 727 877 A2. This synthesizer comprises first and second programmable dividers which supply signals at the output whose frequencies have a first and a second software-programmable division rate with respect to the output frequency and with respect to the symbol frequency, respectively. The frequencies of the output signals of the programmable dividers are compared by means of a phase/frequency detector which supplies a control signal intended to adjust the output frequency in order that the ratio between this frequency and the symbol frequency is equal to the ratio between the first and second division rates. Here, the input signal of this synthesizer is a reference signal having a frequency which is known and invariable and constituting the symbol frequency. In certain applications, particularly in the reception of signals from a communication network, the input signal, elaborated on the basis of said signals, may have a phase noise which becomes manifest by variations of the cyclic ratio and of the frequency around an average frequency which corresponds to the symbol frequency. The active edges of such a signal can thus no longer serve as reference pulses, as is the case in the known frequency synthesizer described above.

Programmable frequency synthesizer having a low sensitivity to phase noise


An aromatization process for converting a portion of a cracked gasoline feedstock to aromatics utilizing a catalyst comprising an acid leached zeolite and tin under process conditions suitable for converting a portion of the cracked gasoline feedstock to aromatics.

The invention relates to an aromatization process for converting a cracked gasoline feedstock to yield incremental aromatics with a low rate of coke formation during the conversion of such cracked gasoline feedstock using a modified zeolite material.
It is known to catalytically crack heavy hydrocarbons, particularly hydrocarbons in the gas oil boiling range, to lower boiling hydrocarbons such as those that are in the gasoline boiling range. Specifically, the reaction products of the catalytic cracking processes contain a multitude of hydrocarbons such as unconverted C.sub.5 + alkanes, lower alkanes (methane, ethane, propane), lower alkenes (ethylene and propylene), C.sub.6 -C.sub.8 aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylenes, and ethylbenzene), and C.sub.9 + aromatic hydrocarbons. It can be desirable to further process the cracked gasoline product from a catalytic cracking process in order to increase the yield of more valuable aromatic compounds. This may be done with the use of certain zeolite catalyst materials.
One concern with the use of zeolite catalysts in the conversion of hydrocarbons to aromatic hydrocarbons, or lower olefins, or both, is the excessive production of coke during the conversion reaction. Coke formed during the zeolite catalyzed aromatization of hydrocarbons tends to cause catalyst deactivation. It is desirable to improve processes for the aromatization of hydrocarbons and the formation of lower olefins from hydrocarbons by minimizing the amount of coke formed during such processes. It is also desirable to have a zeolite catalyst that is useful in producing significant quantities of the aromatic and olefin conversion products.

Process for aromatization of a cracked gasoline feedstock using a catalyst containing an acid leached zeolite and tin


An optical semiconductor relay comprises a light emitting element converting an electrical signal into an optical signal, a first photodiode array receiving the optical signal from the light emitting element. The first photodiode array converts the optical signal into an electrical signal. The relay is further provided with a first diode having one electrode connected to one end of the first photodiode array and a MOSFET. The MOSFET has a gate terminal connected to other electrode of the first diode, and a source terminal connected to other end of the first photodiode array. A second photodiode array is arranged to receive the optical signal from the light emitting element. The second photodiode array converts the optical signal into an electrical signal and has both ends connected to the respective electrodes of the first diode. A control circuit connected between the gate and source terminals of the MOSFET.

An optical semiconductor relay is generally provided with an input light emitting element such as an LED (hereinafter, referred to as LED), an output photodiode array (hereinafter, referred to as PDA) and a switching MOSFET. The PDA receives input light from the LED and converts the light into a voltage. This voltage becomes a gate voltage of the switching MOSFET, and the optical semiconductor relay performs the switching by driving the MOSFET. Since electrical signals are converted into light to be transmitted, it is possible to insulate between the input and output electrically. At the same time, it is possible to drive a small-size optical semiconductor relay with low power consumption at high speed without contact wear, unlike a mechanical relay.
An optical semiconductor relay is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,926 (FIG. 4). FIG. 1 shows the circuit structure of such an optical semiconductor relay. As shown in the FIG. 1, an anode end of a first PDA 2 which receives light from an LED 1, a diode 5 and a gate terminal of a MOSFET 4 are connected in series. A cathode end of the first PDA 2 is connected to the source terminal of a MOSFET 4. The anode end of first PDA 2 is connected to a cathode end of a second PDA 3, and an anode end of second PDA 3 is connected to a cathode electrode of diode 5 through an impedance element 10. First PDA 2 and second PDA 3 have a plurality of photodiodes respectively the same polarities of which are connected in series. Connection area of the photodiodes constituting the second PDA 3 is smaller than those of first PDA 2. First PDA 2 and second PDA 3 are connected in series as a whole.
A normally-on transistor (hereinafter, referred to as J-FET 12) constituting a control circuit with impedance element 10 is connected as to enclose impedance element 10 by the gate and source terminals thereof. The control circuit controls speed and photosensitivity of the optical semiconductor relay by controlling charging and discharging time of the switching MOSFET constituting the optical semiconductor relay.
In this optical semiconductor relay, when an input electrical signal is turned on (ON-state), LED 1 emits light, and first PDA 2 received this light converts the light into an electrical signal. Current flows to the gate terminal of MOSFET 4 through diode 5, and the gate of MOSFET 4 is charged and shifted to an ON-state. Meanwhile, part of current converted at first PDA 2 is supplied to the gate terminal of J-FET 12 through impedance element 10. Second PDA 3 also receives the light from LED 1 and generates a current. This current is supplied to the gate terminal of J-FET 12 with the current converted at first PDA 2. A potential difference between both ends of impedance element 10 is applied between the gate and source of J-FET 12 as a bias voltage, J-FET 12 is shifted to an OFF-state.
When the input electrical signal is turned off (OFF-state), the optical signal is not output from LED 1, and the electrical signals from first PDA 2 and second PDA 3 is not output either. Accordingly, the current vanishes, and the bias voltage of J-FET 12 becomes 0 volt. Thus, J-FET 12 is shifted to an ON-state. When J-FET 12 shifts to an ON-state, it is short-circuited between the gate and the source of MOSFET 4. Therefore, a stored electric load is quickly discharged, and MOSFET 4 is shifted to an OFF-state.


A testing apparatus for testing an electronic device, includes a deterministic jitter applying means for applying deterministic jitter to a given input signal without any amplitude variation component occurring and supplying the input signal applied with the deterministic jitter to the electronic device, a jitter amount controlling means for controlling magnitude of the deterministic jitter to be applied by the deterministic jitter applying means and a judging means for judging quality of the electronic device based on an output signal outputted by the electronic device in response to the input signal.

A jitter test is one of many very important tests with regard to a serial communication device or serial I/O device. For example, the recommendation of International Telecommunication Union, Bellcore or the like specifies the measurement of jitter tolerance, jitter generation, and jitter transfer function. Particularly, the jitter tolerance test is important because this test makes it possible to evaluate the behavior limit of a device to the jitter added to a transmission medium. The measurement of jitter tolerance is to measure the magnitude of the jitter applied to an input signal, by which a bit error begins to occur in a device, with the magnitude of the applied jitter being changed.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional measurement of jitter tolerance. In the conventional measurement of jitter tolerance, random jitter is applied to an input signal shown in FIG. 1A by overlapping white noise shown in FIG. 1B and the input signal. FIG. 1C shows the input signal to which the random jitter applied. Then, the input signal, to which the random jitter applied, is supplied to an electronic device so that whether or not a bit error occurs in the electronic device is measured.
FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a conventional apparatus 200 for applying jitter to an input signal. The input signal generated by a pattern generator 202 is applied with sinusoidal jitter by a sinusoidal jitter source 206, and further applied with deterministic jitter and random jitter by a deterministic jitter source 208 and a random jitter source. The jitter amount to be applied to the input signal is adjusted according to the magnitudes of the random jitter and the sinusoidal jitter. Then, the input signal is amplified by a limiting amplifier 214, and is outputted after the amplitude components of the input signal, which are more than or equal to a predetermined value or less than or equal to another predetermined value, are clipped.
FIG. 3 shows behavior of the limiting amplifier 214. The limiting amplifier 214 is given the input signal shown in FIG. 3A. The input signal has amplitude variation components because it is applied with the random jitter.
Although the limiting amplifier 214 reduces the amplitude variation components by eliminating the amplitude components more than or equal to a first threshold and the amplitude components less than or equal to a second threshold among the amplitude components of the input signal as shown in FIG. 3B, the amplitude variation components that are within a range less than the first threshold and more than the second threshold cannot be eliminated. In order to measure the jitter tolerance of an electronic device, it is necessary to supply an input signal without any amplitude variation component like the input signal shown in FIG. 3C to the electronic device and detect a bit error caused by only the jitter components in the amplitude direction. However, the bit error caused by the amplitude variation components is bound to be detected in the conventional apparatus 200 because the amplitude variation components remain in the input signal as shown in FIG. 3B. Accordingly, the jitter tolerance of the electronic device is evaluated too small. In addition, since the conventional apparatus 200 for applying jitter has the three jitter sources, i.e., the sinusoidal jitter source 206, the deterministic jitter source 208, and the random jitter source 212, the manufacture cost is large.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a testing apparatus and a testing method, which is capable of overcoming the above drawbacks accompanying the conventional art. The above and other objects can be achieved by combinations described in the independent claims. The dependent claims define further advantageous and exemplary combinations of the present invention.


An elevator car operating panel includes a plurality of push buttons corresponding to floors of a building, wherein the push buttons act on a touch screen to register elevator calls. The push buttons are mounted on an outer surface of the touch screen at locations corresponding to sensors behind the touch screen. A method to modernize and/or update a touch screen elevator car operating panel includes mounting at least one push button on a touch screen to act on the touch screen to register elevator calls.

The present invention concerns an elevator with a car operating panel to register elevator calls, push buttons for an elevator car operating panel and a method to change, respectively modernize, a touch screen elevator car operating panel.
In the new generations of inexpensive elevators for small buildings, there was introduced the concept of a car operating panel with a keypad exhibiting ten digits (0 to 9). This decade-keypad system has reached the target of a unique factory produced car operating panel for all elevators, with evident cost and logistic advantages.
As an added feature, due to the presence of a decade-keypad and several displays, the car panel could also be used as a maintenance tool.
These car operating panels are often based on the touch screen principle. Behind a flat touch screen of steel, aluminum or glass, sensors are located, which generate an electromagnetic field. When this field is disturbed by the touch of a finger, this touch is detected and an elevator call is placed through the electronics of a printed circuit board.
The advantage of this technology is that no displaceable part is necessary to place an elevator call and a closed front screen can be used as an interface with the passenger, which exhibits no opening, through which liquids or dirt could penetrate. These screens are furthermore easy to clean and safe in respect of vandalism.
A disadvantage of these car operating panels consisting in a touch screen is, however, that they do not conform to the standards concerning handicapped people, in particular those prescribed for elevator installations.
If a handicapped or blind person touches the elevator touch screen, an elevator call is placed without the will of that person and without the perception of that person that an elevator call has been actually placed.
According to the standards EN 81-70 and ISO/DIS 4190-5 (draft), these requirements must be fulfilled for the elevator push buttons of a car operating panel: an operating force between 2.5 and 5 N, an operating and registration feedback and floor numbers in relief with a minimal height of 0.8 mm.
In the field of elevators it is in particular often required to update or modernize elevator car operating panels, so that they conform to standards concerning handicapped people, when, for example, the use of a building is changed and some parts of the building become open to public access. Normally this problem is solved by demounting the touch screen car operating panel and mounting another mechanical car operating panel based on the principle of the conventional push buttons. Several cables and printed circuits must be de-installed and newly connected during these time-consuming operations.
It is desirable therefore to develop a method and an apparatus to modernize a touch screen car operating panel, which can make it conform to the standards concerning handicapped people and which is practical, inexpensive and fast.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a car operating panel for an elevator installation which conforms to the standards concerning handicapped people, and to provide an apparatus and a method to modernize a touch screen car operating panel, in order to make it conform to the standards concerning handicapped people, which is easy, fast and inexpensive.

Push button for elevator car operating panel


A wind turbine blade has a suction side surface and a pressure side surface. A plurality of dynamic vortex elements are formed on at least one of the suction side or the pressure side surfaces. The vortex elements are activatable between a first retracted position that is inwardly recessed relative to a neutral plane of the surface on which they are formed and a second extended position that is outwardly protruding relative to the neutral plane of the surface.

Turbine blades are the primary elements of wind turbines for converting wind energy into electrical energy. The working principle of the blades resembles that of airplane wings. The blades have the cross-sectional profile of an airfoil such that, during operation, air flows over the blade producing a pressure difference between the sides. Consequently, a lift force, which is directed from a pressure side towards a suction side, acts on the blade. The lift force generates torque on the main rotor shaft, which is geared to a generator for producing electricity.
Airflow over the leading edge of the blade is mainly laminar in an "attached-flow" region. The lift force is generated primarily in this attached-flow region. As the air moves towards the trailing edge of the blade, flow separation occurs and the air flow transitions to a "detached-flow" region where the flow is more turbulent. Flow separation depends on a number of factors, such as incoming air flow characteristics (e.g. Reynolds number, wind speed, in-flow atmospheric turbulence) and characteristics of the blade (e.g. airfoil sections, blade chord and thickness, twist distribution, pitch angle, etc). The detached-flow region also leads to an increase in drag force, mainly due to a pressure difference between the upstream attached-flow region and the downstream detached-flow region.
Hence, in order to increase the energy conversion efficiency during normal operation of the wind turbine, it is desired to increase the lift force while decreasing the drag force. To this purpose, it is advantageous to increase the attached-flow region and to reduce the detached-flow region by having the flow separation nearer the trailing edge of the blade, i.e. in a downstream region of the blade. Also, it is generally desired to have a stable flow separation in order to increase the working stability and decrease noise generation of the blade.
It is know in the art to change the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine blades by adding dimples, protrusions, or other structures on the surface of the blade. These structures are often referred to as "vortex generators" and serve to create micro-turbulent regions of airflow over the surface of the blade. This results in flow transition stability in relatively low velocity regions of the blade generally closer to the blade root. At the relatively higher velocity regions of the blade closer to the blade tip, the vortex generators serve to extend the flow separation of the airflow towards the trailing edge of the blade to generate more lift and reduce drag.
Static or fixed vortex generating elements are known. Reference is made, for example, to WO 2007/065434; WO 00/15961; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,604,461. The vortex elements in these references have a defined shape, size, and configuration that does not change and, thus, the versatility of the elements for varying airflow conditions is limited.
Retractable or pivotal vortex generators that are deployed relative to the surface of a blade are also known. Reference is made, for example, to U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,161; U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,828; U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,904; U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,948; and WO 2007/005687.
EP 1 896 323 B1 describes a pivotal vortex generator in the form of a flat member that lies on the flow control surface in a retracted state and pivots at an angle from the surface in an extended state. The vortex generator may be formed from a shape memory alloy that is actuated by a heater. The reference describes that other types of actuators may be used to impart a pivoting action to the vortex generator, including a piezoelectric bimorph actuator.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,959 describes a wind turbine blade having lift-regulating means in the form of flexible flaps extending in the longitudinal direction along the trailing edge and leading edge of the suction side of the blade. The flaps are activated at high wind speeds to reduce the lift of the blade. The activating means may be piezoelectric.
Although the vortex generators discussed in the references cited above may be considered "dynamic" in that they are deployed to an active state, the usefulness of the elements in the "at rest" state is minimal.
Accordingly, the industry would benefit from a wind turbine blade having dynamic vortex generating elements that provide enhanced aerodynamic surface characteristics in both an active and non-active state over a wider range of wind and airflow conditions.

Wind turbine blades with controllable aerodynamic vortex elements


According to one or more embodiments a logical virtual device may provide the desired functionality using either a virtual device or a physical device connected to a virtual machine. When the physical device is available, a guest operating system executing on a virtual machine (VM) can be instructed to utilize the physical device. When the VM is migrated between hosts of different underlying hardware, or when the physical device becomes unavailable, e.g., through dynamic reconfiguration or reallocation of physical resources, the guest operating system can be instructed to utilize the virtual device instead.

Virtualization environments can provide multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a physical machine, with each VM looking like a full computer to "guest" software running inside the VM. This enables a user to concurrently run multiple copies of a guest operating system on one physical machine, with each guest having its own copy of "virtual hardware."
Many of today's virtualization environments support VM input/output (I/O) operations by providing virtual I/O devices that are emulated in software. This I/O virtualization approach has many advantages, including insulating the guest operating system from the specifics of the physical hardware on which it is running. This insulation in turn simplifies the task of moving a VM from one physical server to another, a process referred to herein as "VM migration." Such moves can occur "cold," when the VM is not booted up; "warm," when the VM is suspended; or "hot," when the VM is running and continues to run while it is moved from one physical server to another. With emulated virtual I/O devices, the emulation can run on any physical server, independent of the specifics of the physical I/O device. As such, a migrating VM continues to see the same set of virtual I/O devices across the migration. In essence, virtual I/O devices provide uniformity, with the emulation layer masking any diversity at the level of the physical I/O devices.
Another approach to providing VMs with I/O is to expose a subset of a physical machine's I/O infrastructure to each VM. The exposed physical I/O devices are then directly accessed by a guest device driver, e.g., software running inside the VM. This approach is referred to herein as "guest device pass-through" or simply "pass-through." There are a number of benefits to guest device pass-through, one of which is better performance. Emulation of virtual I/O devices consumes processor cycles, while the pass-through approach avoids much of the emulation overhead. As such, I/O operations from within a guest are likely to be faster with pass-through I/O devices then with emulated virtual I/O devices.
The pass-through I/O virtualization approach, however, makes it difficult to migrate VMs from one physical machine to another in a transparent manner because the specificity of physical I/O devices on the physical server is now exposed to guest software.
Additional information with regard to pass-through can be found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/939,819 by M. Mahalingam et al., filed on May 23, 2007, entitled "Handling Interrupts When Virtual Machines of a Virtualized Computer System Have Direct Access to a Hardware Device," for which a utility patent application was filed on May 21, 2008 having Ser. No. 12/124,893; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/939,818 by M. Mahalingam et al., filed on May 23, 2007, entitled "Providing Virtual Machines of a Virtualized Computer System with Direct Access to a Hardware Device," for which a utility patent application was filed on May 21, 2008 having Ser. No. 12/124,586; all of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application, and all of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Selecting between pass-through and emulation in a virtual machine environment


Linking of radio paging transmitters is accomplished through the utilization of TDM transmission on the same channel as that assigned to the paging service, thus eliminating the necessity of a separate channel for linkage of the remote transmitting sites to a central originating location. For data transmission, real time data is broadcast via a direct RF link to buffer storage at each of the remote transmitting sites, with the data being read out to each of the paging transmitters from the local buffers in a phase-adjusted synchronized fashion under control of sync signals generated at and broadcast from the central originating location. The data transmission rate from the central originating location to the remote sites may be made significantly higher than the radio paging data rate in order to minimize link time to minimize linkage overhead by reducing the amount of time the channel is used for linkage as opposed to paging. Additionally, analog material such as audio signals may be converted to digital signals and transmitted to the remote transmitting sites, with the digitized audio information being stored in buffers and converted back to audio when the buffer is read out. Directional antennas may be utilized between the central originating location and the remote transmitting sites to improve the signal to noise ratio over omni-directional broadcasting for increased link data rates.

As will be appreciated, radio paging consists of a number of remotely located radio transmitters which are controlled from a master transmitter at a central originating location to provide a simultaneous broadcast or simulcast of information destined to be received by a portable pager usually carried on the person, with the pager providing either audio or digital information, or both. The utilization of multiple remote transmitters is required for reliable transmission in urban areas where the remote transmitters may be as close as 2 or 3 miles apart to accommodate a very dense urban environment in which one is concerned about building penetration. On the other hand the remote transmitters may be quite distantly spaced apart, perhaps 30 or 40 miles in rural areas.
One method of linking remote transmitters has involved telephone land lines between the originating central location and the remote sites, with simulcast phasing problems being solved through the utilization of programmed phase delays. These delays are calculated to accommodate lump delays associated with switching equipment, as well as delays associated with transmission over a lengthy cable network. However, while it is theoretically possible to compensate for variable phase delay, phasing throughout the network is difficult to achieve. Moreover, the expense of leased telephone lines is oftentimes prohibitive.
The primary method used for linking the central originating location with remote transmitting sites involves the utilization of RF link channels, in which the RF link channel is different from the paging channel utilized in the transmission of signals from the remote transmitting sites to the individual pagers.
It should be noted that link frequencies or channels are allocated between the so-called midband of 72 MHz and a newly legislated band centering around 900 MHz. Presently, the carrier frequencies for pager transmission is in bands varying between 35 and 931 MHz. In general, two different channels are used in normal terrestrial radio paging, namely the link channel and the paging channel.
The problem with an RF link system is overcrowding in which there are not enough link channels to satisfy demand for paging, and the fact that two channels of similar bandwidth are needed to provide throughput on one channel.
Note that most radio paging apparatus presently licensed are frequency modulated (FM) and that the width of the radio link channel as assigned by the FCC is typically between 20 to 25 KHz with appropriate guardbands. This means that the opportunities for a clear channel link are scarce and becoming even more scarce with the proliferation of paging services. Further, with a proliferation of radio paging services, not only have the paging channels been spoken for or allocated, it is also true that link frequencies are no longer available. Since land line and fiber optic linking systems are prohibitively expensive or technically difficult, link frequencies or channels are almost as valuable as paging frequencies or channels due to present overcrowding and the numbers of parties seeking FCC licenses.
In view of the increased usage of radio paging for not only voice messages but also digital data, the problem is one of frequency allocation. There is therefore a necessity for a system which will not increase the number of channels used while linking the remote transmitters, all the while not disturbing the entire body of technology related to simultaneous broadcasting.
The history of simultaneous broadcasting or simulcast has been one of reducing interference between two adjacent remote transmitters when both their signals are received by a pager in an overlapping broadcast area. Traditionally this problem has been solved by synchronizing the transmission from all remote stations to provide as close to an in-phase modulation condition as possible at all locations within the broadcast area. While FM capture is responsible for a pager locking out all strongest signal, problems exist especially in dense urban areas, with the problems being particularly severe with respect to audio transmission in which audio waveforms as received by the portable pager must be exactly in sync or very close.
In simultaneous broadcasting, it is not the carrier phase which is controlled but rather the phase of the modulation. In general, synchronization is accomplished through the interposition of a delay, typically in microseconds, with the individual delays at certain overlap points adjusted for optimal reception by pagers in the intended coverage area through adjustment of the simulcast delay parameters, given field data at various overlap points.
Since present simulcasting techniques permit successful receipt of audio, this also benefits the transmission of data to alpha-numeric pagers, since data transmission is significantly less sensitive to phase variation.
Typically, what has been accomplished in the past for RF linking is to provide a master link transmitter typically at the highest possible location such as on a mountain or tower or the like. RF links do not suffer from multipath distortion mainly because the antennas at both the master link transmitter and the remote transmitter are fixed with an unobstructed line-of-sight transmission. Moreover, fixed antennas can be of higher gain or can even be made directional to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. As will be appreciated, RF links do not suffer the same type of phase variability problems as telephone lines because antenna locations are fixed and the landline paths are not, due to variable paths through the telephone network.