A system and method for entering data on a portable device includes determining a tilt state (tilt sensor 304) as a button (keypad 306) is being pressed. The determined tilt state can be used to disambiguate from among a plurality of characters associated with the pressed button. In a preferred embodiment, the portable device is a mobile phone and the button is part of a standard 12-button keypad.

Most mobile phones are equipped with a simple 12-button keypad, similar to the keypad 100 shown in FIG. 1. Such a keypad is an inherently poor tool for generating phrases for a 26-letter alphabet. Using traditional text-entry techniques, such as MultiTap, an average text message of 7 words requires roughly 70 key presses. The GSM Association (www.gsmworld.com) estimates that in 2003, nearly 500 billion text messages will be sent worldwide from mobile phones. Using current text-entry techniques, this would require approximately 35 trillion key presses. While research has gone into devising a variety of more efficient text input techniques, none has yet emerged as a new standard.
Entering text from the 26 character English alphabet (or practically any other Roman alphabet) using the standard 12-key (0-9, *, #) mobile phone keypad forces a mapping of more than one character per key. The typical mapping has keys 2-9 representing either three or four alphabetic characters in addition to the numerals. All text input techniques that use this standard keypad have to somehow resolve the ambiguity that arises from this multiplexed mapping. The problem may be characterized as involving two main tasks necessary for entering a character: between-group selection of the appropriate group of characters, and within-group selection of the appropriate character within the previously chosen group. Most text input techniques to date can generally be divided into two categories: those that require multiple presses of a single key to make between-group followed by within-group selections, and those that require a single press of multiple keys to make these selections. Because both categories require consecutive key presses, the research focus has been on reducing the average number of key strokes per character ("KSPC") required to enter text. Advances in the area generally make language specific assumptions to "guess" the desired within-group character, thus reducing or eliminating the key presses required for the within-group selection. The success of these techniques, however, is based almost entirely on how closely the text entered conforms to the underlying language model. Given that text entered on mobile phones often involves significant abbreviations and even evolving new "languages" by frequent users of SMS messaging, making language assumptions may not be the best approach to solving the text input problem.
A small number of mobile phones today utilize QWERTY style keypads that enable text entry with techniques similar to typing on a regular keyboard, albeit at a much smaller physical scale (e.g., the Nokia 5510, www.nokia.com). More recently, hybrid devices that combine phones with Personal Digital Assistants ("PDAs"), such as the Handspring Treo (www.handspring.com) and PocketPC Phone (www.microsoft.com), utilize pen-based text input techniques common to PDA's such as Palm's Graffiti (www.palm.com). While these devices are making small inroads into the mobile phone market, the vast majority of mobile phones are equipped with the standard keypad, which has 12 keys: 0-9, *, and #.
Entering text from a 26 character alphabet using this keypad forces a mapping of more than one character per button of the keypad. A typical mapping has keys 2-9 representing either three or four characters, with space and punctuation mapped to the other buttons. All text input techniques that use this standard keypad have to somehow resolve the ambiguity that arises from this multiplexed mapping. There are three main techniques for overcoming this ambiguity: MultiTap, two-key, and linguistic disambiguation.
1. MultiTap
MultiTap works by requiring the user to make multiple presses of each key to indicate which letter on that key is desired. For example, the letters pqrs traditionally appear on the "7" key. Pressing that key once yields "p", twice "q", etc. A problem arises when the user attempts to enter two consecutive letters on the same button. For example, tapping the "2" key three times could result in either "c" or "ab". To overcome this, MultiTap employs a time-out on the button presses, typically 1-2 seconds, so that not pressing a button for the length of the timeout indicates that you are done entering that letter. Entering "ab" under this scheme has the user press the "2" key once for "a", wait for the timeout, then press "2" twice more to enter "b". To overcome the time overhead this incurs, many implementations add a "timeout kill" button that allows the user to skip the timeout. If we assume that "0" is the timeout kill button, this makes the sequence of button presses to enter "ab": "2-0-2-2". MultiTap eliminates any ambiguity, but can be quite slow, with a keystrokes per character (KSPC) rate of approximately 2.03. (See MacKenzie, I.S. (2002). KSPC (keystrokes per character) as a characteristic of text entry techniques. Fourth International Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices. p. 195-210.)
2. Two-Key Disambiguation
The two-key technique requires the user to press two keys in quick succession to enter a character. The first keypress selects the appropriate group of characters, while the second identifies the position of the desired character within that group. For example, to enter the character "e", the user presses the "3" key to select the group "def", followed by the "2" key since "e" is in the second position within the group. This technique, while quite simple, has failed to gain popularity for Roman alphabets. It has an obvious KSPC rate of 2.
3. Linguistic Disambiguation
There are a number of linguistic disambiguation schemes that utilize knowledge of the language to aid the text entry process. One example is T9 (see www.tegic.com), which renders all possible permutations of a sequence of button presses and looks them up in a dictionary. For example, the key sequence "5-3-8" could indicate any of 27 possible renderings (3×3×3 letters on each of those keys). Most of these renderings have no meaning, and so are rejected. Looking each of them up in a dictionary tells the system that only "jet" is an English word, and so it is the one rendered. Ambiguity can, however, arise if there is more than one valid rendering in the language, in which case the most common is presented. For example, the sequence "6-6" could indicate either "on" or "no". If the system renders the wrong word, a "next" key allows the user to cycle through the other valid permutations. An analysis of this technique for entering text from an English corpus found a KSPC close to 1 (see MacKenzie, I.S. (2002) "KSPC (keystrokes per character) as a characteristic of text entry techniques," Fourth International Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices, pp. 195-210). Newer linguistic disambiguation techniques such as LetterWise and WordWise (see www.eatoni.com) also perform similarly well, with subtle advantages over earlier techniques. While these all have excellent KSPC rates, the success of linguistic-based systems depends on the assumption that users tend to enter "English-like" words when sending text messages. However, users often use abbreviations and incomplete English when text messaging. Further, users of text messaging often communicate in acronyms or combinations of letters and numbers (e.g., "b4" for "before"). Another problem with these linguistic techniques is that users have to visually monitor the screen in order to resolve potential ambiguities, whereas the MultiTap and two-key techniques can be operated "eyes-free" by skilled users.
Using Tilt Sensors in Portable Devices
Attempts have been made to incorporate tilt sensors in portable devices. Unigesture uses tilt as an alternative to button pressing, eliminating the need for buttons for text entry. (See Sazawal, V., Want, R., & Borriello, G. (2002), "The Unigesture Approach. One-Handed Text Entry for Small Devices," Mobile HCI, p. 256-270.) Rather than having the user make one of 8 ambiguous button presses (as is the present case with mobile phones), Unigesture has the user tilt the device in one of 7 directions to specify the group, or "zone", of the character that is desired. The ambiguity of the tilt is then resolved by using dictionary-based disambiguation.
TiltType combines button pressing and tilt for entering unambiguous text into a small, watch-like device with 4 buttons. (See Partridge, K, Chatterjee, S., Sazawal, V., Borriello, G., & Want, R. (2002), "TiltType: accelerometer-supported text entry for very small devices," ACM UIST Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 201-204.) Pressing a button triggers an on-screen display of the characters that can be entered by tilting the device in one of eight directions. The user then makes the appropriate tilt and releases the button.
Chording Keyboards
Chording keyboards typically have a series of chording keys that can be used in conjunction with a keypad to enter text. Two-handed chorded keyboards have been used by the U.S. postal service for mail sorting, and are still used today by stenographers. The Twiddler (see www.handykey.com) and the Septambic Keyer (see wearcam.org/septambic/) are examples of modem-day one-handed chording keyboards. Designed to be held in the hand while text is being entered, both are commonly used as part of a wearable computer. The Twiddler is equipped with 6 keys to be used with the thumb, and 12 for the fingers, while the traditional Septambic Keyer has just 3 thumb and 4 finger switches. The Septambic Keyer allows for 47 different combinations of key presses, while the Twiddler allows over 80,000, though not all keys are used for text entry.
None of the approaches described above have been commercially successful. What is needed is an efficient system and method for entering data into a numeric keypad of a portable device.

Concurrent data entry for a portable device


Disclosed are mechanisms for creating and communicating with computer processes. An application programming interface (API) presents services of the system to applications. The API is usable with all processes, local and remote, and is transparent with respect to the location of processes. A process table stores information about processes created using the system. The process table supports centralized process control and peer-to-peer process communication and synchronization. Each process is assigned a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) that uniquely identifies the process no matter the computing device on which it runs. A parent UUID and a group UUID may be attached to the process and used for enforcing dependencies (e.g., for halting the process and all of its child processes) and for managing arbitrary, user-defined groups, respectively. A global event is associated with each process. When a process receives this event, it performs a controlled shutdown, cleans up, and reports status.

Often, a process running on one computing device may need to create or communicate with a process on another device. The use of remote devices may simply be a convenience as, for example, when a program requires so many resources that it cannot effectively be run on one device. The work of the program may then be shared among several devices by invoking processes on the remote devices to perform pieces of the overall task. The results produced by the remote processes are collected in a central, coordinating process. In other cases, the use of remote devices is inherent in the nature of the work at hand. For example, communications protocols cannot be fully tested on one device. A script for testing a protocol may be run on a test host device. To perform the test, the script may start an application on a second device, start a peer application on a third device, and start an application on a fourth device to monitor the communications between the applications on the second and third devices.
Methods exist for a process running on a host computing device to create a process on a remote device. However, these methods provide much less functionality for communicating with the remote process than is available for processes running locally. Often, these methods only allow the host device to start the remote process, receive output from it, and terminate it. The termination is uncontrolled, not giving the remote process a chance to clean up before exiting. Another drawback of these methods is the distinction they draw between local and remote processes. This makes it very difficult to debug a program on one device and know that it will work correctly when it is running on multiple devices.
Even for purely local processes, current methods of communication are in some ways inadequate. Local processes may be limited in their ability to log ongoing status information. Termination of local processes may be as uncontrolled as for remote processes.
What is needed is a method that enhances the communications abilities of all processes and that provides the full functionality of local processes to processes on remote computing devices. The method would ideally hide the distinction between local and remote processes, allowing all processes to be treated in the same manner.

Methods and systems for creating and communicating with computer processes


Absorbent garment such as a diaper and an incontinence guard, said garment has a first body panel, a second body panel and a crotch portion there between. The garment is provided with opposed laterally extending belt members attached to the waist portion of the first body panel and are adapted to be wrapped around the waist of the wearer of the garment and fastened together by a first fastener. The second body panel at its waist portion is provided with second fasteners adapted to be fastened to the belt members, in such a way that the garment will assume a pant-like shape. An elastic member extends in transverse direction along the waist portion of the first body panel and extends into at least a portion of each belt member.

So called belted absorbent garments comprise a front body panel adapted to be applied over the stomach of the wearer, a back body panel adapted to be applied over the back of the wearer and a crotch portion adapted to extend over the crotch of the wearer between the legs. The garment further comprises a pair of opposed laterally extending belt members usually attached to the back panel at the waist portion thereof. These belt portions are adapted to be wrapped around the waist of the wearer of the garment and fastened together by a first fastener, such as an adhesive tape or mechanical fasteners, for example a hook-and-loop fastener. The front panel is then passed between the legs of the wearer and fastened to the outside or inside of the belt members by second fasteners provided at the waist portion of the front panel. The garment will then assume a pant-like shape. Alternatively the belt portions are arranged at the front panel and the second fasteners at the back panel. Since often the front and back panels are more or less identical as to shape and size the wearer or caretaker may apply the article after individual preference, so that the front panel may be used as back panel and vice versa.
The belt provides for improved possibilities to adjust the fit of the absorbent garment. It further simplifies the change of the garment especially when the wearer is standing up.
Examples of belted absorbent garments are found in for example EP-A-0 287 388, EP-A-0 409 307, EP-A-0 605 012 and FR-A-2 586 558.
It is also known to make part of the belt elastic in order to further improve comfort and fit. JP-B-3471999 discloses a belted diaper wherein the belt portions have a stretchable part at the respective base end thereof, which allows the belt portions to be extended along their length direction. The back panel of the diaper is further provided with an elastic portion (waist elastics).
EP-B-0 487 758 also discloses a belted diaper in which at least one belt member has an elastic portion. The back panel of the diaper is also provided with elastic members.
The incorporation of several separate elastic members in an absorbent garment is however complicated in a manufacturing process and makes the garment more expensive.


An apparatus and a method are provided for using semantic role labeling for spoken language understanding. A received utterance semantically parsed by semantic role labeling. A predicate or at least one argument is extracted from the semantically parsed utterance. An intent is estimated based on the predicate or the at least one argument. In another aspect, a method is provided for training a spoken language dialog system that uses semantic role labeling. An expert is provided with a group of predicate/argument pairs. Ones of the predicate/argument pairs are selected as intents. Ones of the arguments are selected as named entities. Mappings from the arguments to frame slots are designed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to speech processing and more specifically to using semantic role labeling for spoken language understanding.
2. Introduction
Spoken language understanding aims to extract the meaning of the speech utterances. In the last decade, a variety of practical goal-oriented spoken dialog systems (SDS) have been built for limited domains. These systems aim to identify intents of humans, expressed in natural language, and take actions accordingly, to satisfy their request. In such systems, typically, first the speaker's utterance is recognized using an automatic speech recognizer (ASR). Then, the intent of the speaker is identified from the recognized sequence using a spoken language understanding (SLU) component. Finally, the role of a dialog manager (DM) is to interact with the user in a natural way and help the user to achieve the task that the system is designed to support.
A typical SDS example may be a machine-initiative system, in which the user answers the computer prompts using the allowed corresponding phrases, for example, "Please say hotel reservation or car reservation." In such a directed dialog, "understanding" is reduced to the task of detecting one of the keywords allowed in the users' utterances.
A more sophisticated understanding system would allow the users to talk naturally about a single given intent. Such systems have been developed mostly in the framework of government funded projects. For example, in the early 90s, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had initiated the Airline Travel Information System (ATIS) project, in which the aim was to integrate the efforts of the speech and language processing communities. In this task, the users could utter queries regarding flight information. An example would be, "I want to fly to Boston from New York next week." In this case, understanding is reduced to the problem of extracting task specific arguments in a given frame, such as Destination and Departure Date. Participating systems either employed a data-driven statistical approach (mostly from the speech processing community), or a knowledge-based approach (mostly from the computational linguistics community). Although both DARPA ATIS and the following Communicator projects are over, they left a test-bed for other SLU approaches and lead to similar mixed or machine-initiative commercial applications.
A more general approach would be both determining the intent of the user and extracting the corresponding arguments as in the AT&T How May I Help You?SM (HMIHY) spoken dialog system used for customer care centers. As an example, consider the utterance, "I have a question about my June bill." Assuming that the utterance is recognized correctly, the corresponding intent (call-type) would be Ask (Bill) and the argument for this call-type, i.e., the named entity Date would be extracted as June. Then the action that needs to be taken depends on the DM. The DM may ask the user to further specify the problem or route this call to the billing department. Following the HMIHY system, a number of similar systems were built.
In all these previous works, the semantic representation of the meaning heavily depended on the corresponding task and was predefined. For example, ATIS includes flight reservation related arguments, such as arrival and departure cities. In HMIHY, it is the call-type and the corresponding arguments (named entities) designed according to the incoming call traffic. Call-type classification is used to determine the intent and named entity extraction is used to find the associated arguments. For this purpose, one can use a domain-dependent approach as in the previous works. But this approach has some serious drawbacks:                Training statistical models for intent classification and named entity extraction requires large amounts of labeled in-domain data, which is very expensive and time-consuming to prepare. If rule-based methods are used for these tasks, this requires some human expertise and has similar problems.        Preparation of the labeling guide (i.e., designing the intents and named entities) for a given spoken language understanding task involves non-trivial design decisions. For example if the user says "I wanna cancel my long distance service," one alternative would be labeling it as the intent Cancel(Service) with a named entity Service Type with values such as long distance, international, local, etc. The other option is calling it as a single intent Cancel(LD_Service) with no associated named entity and have other intents such as Cancel(Local_Service), etc. Such decisions depend on the expert who is designing the task structure and the frequency of the intents and named entities for a given task. Furthermore, one expects the intents and named entities to be clearly defined in order to ease the job of the classifier and the human labelers.        Another issue is consistency between different tasks. This is important for manually labeling the data quickly and correctly and making the labeled data reusable across different applications. For example in most applications, utterances like "I want to talk to a human not a machine" appear and can be processed similarly.
On the other hand, in the computational linguistics domain, task independent semantic representations have been proposed over the last few decades. Two notable studies are the FrameNet and PropBank projects. The Propbank project aims at creating a corpus of text annotated with information about basic semantic propositions. Predicate/argument relations are added to syntactic trees of the existing Penn Treebank, which is mostly grammatical written text. Very recently, the PropBank corpus had been used for semantic role labeling (SRL) at the 2004 Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (ConLL-2004) as the shared task. SRL aims to put "who did what to whom" kind of structures to sentences without considering the application using this information. More formally, given a predicate of the sentence, the goal of SRL is to identify all its arguments and their semantic roles.
The relationship between the arguments of the predicates in a sentence and named entities have been previously exploited by Surdeanu et al. as described in "Using predicate-argument structures for information extraction," Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 1993, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Apparatus and method for spoken language understanding by using semantic role labeling


Described herein are systems and methods for content streaming with bandwidth management. Prior to shipment of a streaming device, partial content and remaining content from content may be generated. The partial content may be configured to be unusable for presentation at the streaming device without at least a portion of the remaining content, and the remaining content may be configured to be unusable for presentation at the streaming device without at least a portion of the partial content. The partial content may be combinable with the remaining content by the streaming device to form a presentable file corresponding to the first content. The partial content may have a filename extension indicating that an associated media file includes the partial content, and the associated media file is different from the presentable file. The partial content on the streaming device may be stored prior to the shipment of the streaming device.

A wide variety of content is available for consumption by users via streaming over a network. This content may include books, music, video, and so forth. Users seek to access this content at home, while travelling, and so forth. However, increasing demands for higher quality content, such as high-definition audio and video, combined with increasing network congestion as many users access these and other services, may result in poor customer experiences while accessing this content.
Certain implementations will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various implementations and/or aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

Establishing an initial configuration of a streaming device


A pulse width modulated pulse signal is generated and its duty cycle adjusted according to at least two different schedules, for example, a coarse tuning cycle and a fine tuning cycle. The target duty cycle is derived according to an offset between output voltage and target voltage, as well as the rate of changes in the offset. In the coarse tuning cycle, large changes in the control signal pulse width is used to drive output voltage to target at a fast pace. As output voltage approaches target voltage, smaller adjustment are made to the duty cycle of the control pulse width in the fine tuning cycle. The rate of pulse width change is also taken into consideration, to further improve operation of the DC-DC converter.

The present invention is directed to integrated circuits. More particularly, the invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling a DC-DC converter used to supply power to various electronics and telephony devices. Merely by way of example, the invention provides techniques for generating a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal in a DC-DC converter and adjusting its duty cycle using multiple thresholds according to at least two separate schedules, namely a coarse tuning cycle and a fine tuning cycle. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability. For example, the invention can be used to improve convergence efficiency of PWM signals in other applications.
DC to DC converters are often found in electronic devices. These devices include cellular phones and laptop computers which may require certain voltage levels different than supplied by the power source, or even negative voltages. In telephony applications, a subscriber line interface circuit (SLIC) often needs a high voltage to drive a POTS (plain old telephone service) phone.
DC to DC converters can be used to convert a DC voltage level to another. These circuits generally perform the conversion by first applying a DC voltage across an inductor or transformer for a period of time, which causes current to flow through it and store energy magnetically. During the time the DC voltage is switched off, the stored energy is transferred to an output terminal in a controlled manner. By adjusting the ratio of on/off time, also known as duty cycle, of the control pulse, the output voltage can be regulated even as the current demand changes. In addition, DC-DC converters can convert a DC input power to a DC output power while maintaining isolation between input and output, generally allowing differences in the input-output ground potentials. Further details of conventional DC-DC converters are provided throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
As an example, FIG. 1 shows a simplified schematic for a conventional DC-DC converter 100 capable of generating an output voltage either greater than or less than the input voltage. This DC converter is often useful in electronic or telephony applications The output voltage is adjustable based on the duty cycle of a switching transistor 120. A simplified explanation of a general operation of the converter is described below. While transistor 120 is in the ON state, input voltage source Vcc 115 is directly connected to inductor 130, accumulating energy in inductor 130. In this stage, capacitor 150 supplies energy to an output load connected to Vout 145. When transistor 120 is in the OFF state, inductor 130 is connected to capacitor 150 and an output terminal, so energy is transferred from inductor 130 to capacitor 150 and output terminal 145. The magnitude of output voltage is determined by the ratio of on/off times, or the duty cycle, of the pulse width modulated control signal 125.
In applications related to DC-DC converters, a feedback control loop can be included such that converter output tracks a predetermined reference voltage. In such an application, an error signal is first generated representing the offset between output voltage and target voltage. Then the error signal is compared with a triangular or saw tooth wave signal to generate a pulse-width modulated control signal, which can be used to control a switching device, such as transistor 120 in FIG. 1. Transistor 120 responds to the PWM signal to regulate output voltage to a predetermined voltage level.
Conventional pulse width modulators generally fall into one of two classes, analog PWM and digital PWM. In an analog PWM, control pulses are generated in analog circuits such as operational amplifiers and comparators, whereas in a digital PWM, control pulses are generated by digital logic circuits designed to implement a certain control algorithm. Analog PWMs generally provide more accurate pulse width control and faster response time. Unfortunately, conventional analog PWM controlled DC-DC converters suffer from certain limitations. For instance, conventional analog PWM controlled DC-DC converters can be susceptible to temperature and process variation and often consume more power and larger silicon area. There may also be other limitations with these conventional analog PWM controlled DC-DC converter.
To overcome certain limitations of the analog PWM converter, a digital PWM has been introduced. The Digital PWM can be used to avoid the complexity and high power consumption of its analog counterpart. In a digital PWM, a control signal is generated with a duty ratio in accordance with a difference between an output voltage and a target input voltage. A digital waveform generator is then used to produce a PWM signal having a duty cycle determined by the control signal. Alternatively, a digitized triangular waveform can be compared with a digitized output voltage to generate a digital PWM signal. Although successful, conventional digital PWM converters suffer from certain drawbacks. Conventional DC-DC converters utilizing digital PWMs tend to suffer from limited accuracy, because adjustment time step is limited by clock rate and incremental voltage change is dictated by digitization limitations. Further, conventional digital PWM converters tend to have relatively long response time, causing noise and output voltage overshoot or undershoot. These and other limitations of these conventional converters may be further explained throughout the present specification.
From the above, it is seen that an improved technique for controlling a DC-DC converter is desired.

Method and apparatus for a pulse width modulated DC-DC converter


The disclosed technology generally relates to wireless communication. More specifically, the disclosed technology relates to activating and suspending diversity in transmission and reception of packets for hearing devices that are streaming audio information from a wireless communication device. For example, when a first hearing device is waiting for an acknowledgment of a signaling packet, the disclosed technology can suspend the transmission of acknowledgement packets in response to correctly received audio packets by a second hearing device until the first hearing device has successfully received an acknowledgment of the signaling packet. The disclosed technology also includes a policy that ensures correct sequence numbers are used in a packet header after diversity is resumed.

A hearing device can stream audio from an audio source using an Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). For example, a hearing device can use Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate™ (Bluetooth BR/EDR™) to stream music from a smartphone configured to transmit audio using A2DP.
Because Bluetooth BR/EDR™ is generally a point-to-point communication, it may be necessary for one of two hearing devices worn by a user to eavesdrop an audio stream to hear audio in stereo while the other hearing device maintains a point-to-point Bluetooth BR/EDR™ connection. Specifically, a primary hearing device may establish a wireless connection with an audio source and begin streaming music, and a secondary audio device can eavesdrop the audio stream (e.g., without a wireless connection to the audio source). The primary hearing device can receive audio packets for the left stereo channel and the secondary hearing device can eavesdrop audio packets for the right stereo channel (or vice versa). Accordingly, A2DP eavesdropping allows the hearing device user to listen to an audio stream in stereo despite Bluetooth BR/EDR™ being a point-to-point connection.
To provide a reliable audio stereo stream experience for a hearing device user, an audio source should quickly receive an acknowledgment; otherwise, it cannot proceed with transmission of a next audio packet and a level of an audio buffer of the hearing device begins to decrease, which may cause annoying interruptions for the hearing device user if the buffer is empty. Yet, receiving an acknowledgment quickly is not always possible for at least a few reasons.
For example, in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, wirelessly transmitting information from an audio source to a hearing device can include errors and/or signal degradations because of body shadowing. Body shadowing refers to the interference of a body part with the transmission or reception of packets. Depending on the position of the hearing devices and an audio source, wireless communication can be difficult. For example, a person's head can block the reception or transmission of an acknowledgment packet. Additionally, body movements can further exacerbate the body shadowing problem. Other technologies in the ISM band such as Bluetooth Low Energy™, Wi-Fi™, and ZigBee™ experience similar errors and/or signal degradation due to body shadowing.
Also, due to stringent size and battery life requirements, hearing devices typically radiate wireless signals with a significantly smaller strength than typical audio sources (e.g., a smartphone). This power asymmetry may result in situations where (at least one of) a pair of hearing devices correctly receives audio packets but the audio source fails to receive acknowledgments.
Accordingly, a need exists to address at least the above identified problems and provide additional benefits. Specifically, a need exists for a system, method, software, or hearing device that is capable of improving wireless communication between a wireless communication device and hearing devices.
The drawings are not to scale. Some components or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the disclosed technology. The disclosed technology is not limited the selected implementations described in the Figures. On the contrary, the disclosed technology is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosed technology as defined by the appended claims.

Diverse eavesdropping for a hearing device


A monitor includes a display circuit used for controlling display of the monitor. A camera is disposed on a frame of the monitor, and includes a plurality of signal pins. A power circuit is used for providing power to the display circuit and the camera. A monitor video interface mates with a video interface of a motherboard of a host computer. The monitor video interface includes a plurality of video pins connected to the display circuit, and a plurality of idle pins connected to the plurality of signal pins of the camera. A power pin and a ground pin of the camera are correspondingly connected to a power pin and a ground pin of the power circuit.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to computer monitors, and particularly to a monitor with a camera.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, computers are widely used by persons for word processing, multimedia playing, and accessing the Internet for both research and communication. Cameras are computer peripherals which may be used for carrying out video communication between peers connected by the Internet. The cameras are used for capturing images and/or video and transmitting the images and/or video to another computer via the Internet. However, since cameras are not conveniently positioned, they are not used efficiently.
What is needed, therefore, is a camera to amend the aforementioned problems.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


Roofing granules, methods for their preparation, having a Total Solar Reflectance of at least 25% on a substrate or carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to roofing compositions having enhanced solar reflectance. More particularly, the invention relates to roofing granules having enhanced solar reflectance and to roofing shingles incorporating said granules.
2. Reported Developments
Roofing granules, both natural and artificially color-coated granules, are extensively used in roll roofing and asphalt shingle compositions. The roofing granules are typically embedded in the asphalt coating on the surface of an asphalt-impregnated felt base material, the granules thus forming a coating that provides a weather-resistant exterior roofing surface. In addition to weather-resistance, the color-coated granules also provide an esthetic effect observable with respect to the coating compositions; the appearance of the granules is of major marketing interest (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,607,781). For this reason, a pigmented color coating is ordinarily applied to the base mineral granules. In addition to pigments, the granule coatings may contain additives such as algaecides to help extend the color and appearance of the roofing material.
In recent years interest in mineral-surfaced roofing of increased solar reflectance has gained momentum as a way to reduce summer cooling costs and to mitigate smog-producing urban "heat island" effects. The EPA Energy Star Initiative requires steep-slope residential roofing to have a minimum Total Solar Reflectance (TSR) of 0.25 (25%). Conformance to this requirement is already possible for many light-colored shingles and blends, but most existing popular dark-colored roofing products have TSR well below 0.25. There is, therefore a great need for dark roofing granules of enhanced solar reflectance that will allow production of residential steep-slope mineral-surfaced roofing products that can meet the EPA Energy Star requirements. Illustrative examples of the prior art follow.
U.S. Publication No. 2005/0074580 relates to a non-white construction surface having reflective coatings for enhancing solar reflectance for use on roofs, such as on asphalt shingles. The method of manufacture is a "bilayer" process, i.e. it involves two distinct coatings: a first coating on the outer surface of a substrate to achieve a direct solar reflectance of at least 25%; and a second coating applied over the first coating to achieve a final TSR of at least 20%. Both coatings use solar reflective materials therein.
U.S. Publication No. 2005/0072114 relates to solar-reflective roofing granules of deep-tone colors formed by coating base mineral particles with a coating composition including an IR-reflective pigment. Color is provided by colored infrared pigments, light-interference platelet pigments, or metal oxides. Both single-coat and bilayer coatings are described.
U.S. Publication No. 2005/0072110 relates to roofing shingles with increased solar heat reflective and a process of making such shingles. The infrared reflective material can be applied to the shingles as a powder in a carrier fluid or a film. Infrared reflective granules can be applied along with the IR-reflective powder.
Simple replacement of existing "hot" pigments, such as Carbon Black and Black Iron Oxide, with new IR-reflective mixed metal oxide pigments during roofing granules manufacture is only partially effective in raising the solar reflective properties of dark roofing granules due to the significant loss of reflectance caused by multiple reflections as a result of the rough granular surfacing of standard asphalt shingles and roll products. Use of the bi-layer or two-coating process in which a highly IR-reflective bright white undercoat is covered by a pigmented overcoat, is effective in enhancing the solar reflectance of roofing granule products. In this two-coat system, IR radiation not reflected or absorbed by the pigmented overcoat is reflected by the undercoat to enhance total IR reflectance. However, this process is very expensive and consumes manufacturing capacity since these roofing granules must be processed twice in order to apply the two coatings. In addition, the resulting product has a very spotty appearance with the bright white undercoat showing through portions of the dark-colored overcoat. The color of such granules would be expected to lighten over time as the outer coat weathers away and more undercoat is exposed. What is needed is an improved process to efficiently and cost-effectively manufacture dark-colored roofing granule products of uniform color, appearance and enhanced solar reflectance.
It is an object of the present invention to produce roofing granules that generally have a minimum of Total Solar Reflectance (TSR) of 0.25 (25%) to meet the EPA Energy Star Initiative. However, roofing granules darker than a Hunter L-value of 25.0 will have a minimum TSR of 0.20 (20%).
It is another object of the present invention to meet the Total Reflectance requirement in non-white colored roofing granule products to satisfy visual appearance requirements.
It is a further object of the present invention to make possible the use of a one coat coloring process system on granule products to minimize the cost of manufacturing.
These and other objects will be addressed as the description of the invention proceeds.

Roofing granules of enhanced solar reflectance


A bottom adjusting action control system for an adjustable bed is provided that facilitates adjustment of the adjustable bottom sections of the bed via a predetermined path of angular adjustment in reaching final set positions for the back and knee bottom sections. In particular, the control system of the present invention provides a means of adjusting the angular positions of adjustable bottom sections of the bed to predetermined final positions via preset bottom coordinative action patterns carried out by a controller means. The preset bottom coordinative action patterns raise and lower adjustable back and knee bottom sections of the bed in a coordinated manner, so as to adjust the bottom sections of the bed to the chosen angular positions without causing the user to slide relative to the bed, and without exerting uncomfortable abdominal pressure on the user.

At present, the position adjusting functions for an adjustable bed or the like include such functions as adjusting the inclinations of the adjustable bottom sections (such as the back bottom section and the knee bottom section), adjusting the heights of the bottom sections, adjusting the expansion and contraction, and rolling. These functions are actuated based on control commands issued from either remote control switches, or control switches mounted on a control panel which can be operated by an attendant, nurse, or the like, to bring the bottom sections to respectively desired final positions.

Coordinative control system for adjusting the back and knee bottom sections of an adjustable bed


A hybrid system and method for recording wave fronts of light. This system combines elements of two imaging systems, Holography and Integral imaging, to produce an imaging system that has higher efficiency and better resolution than Integral imaging, and few of the limitations of holographic recording.

There are many approaches to recording wave fronts of light. These approaches can be arbitrarily divided into three classes of recording:
1. Approaches that record the amplitude of a real image on a recording medium, the real image being produced by an optical system. Typically, these processes are called photography.
2. Approaches that record the phase of the wave front of light by recording the amplitude of an interference pattern on a recording medium produced by a signal wave front and a reference wave front. Typically, these processes are called holography.
3. Approaches that record the phase of a wave front of light through the simultaneous recording of light amplitude on a recording medium of a large number of points of view. These processes are often known as integral imaging.
Each of the above approaches has advantages and limitations.
For example, photography produces an image that is easily processed and understood, but is limited to a single point of view and a single focal plane. Technologies for recording photographs are well understood, are widely used, and its recording and computational components have benefited from cost efficiencies from mass production. Unfortunately, photography has poor efficiency in the use of the energy of the input wave front of light. This is due to the fact that the photography process must filter the light spatially using a small aperture for optimal depth of field, and by frequency, to record color. The use of a small aperture also limits the amount of information a photograph may capture due to the diffraction limits of an optical system using a small aperture.
Holography produces an image that is a full recreation of the wave front of light over the aperture of the recording media, with no limitations on viewpoint or focal plane. Holography is very efficient in its use of the energy of the input wave front of light. The entire incident light from the two wave fronts is recorded. Holograms are recorded using interference, which is matched to the diffraction limits of the wave fronts recorded. Since the recording aperture is the entire recording area, holograms approach the theoretical information and resolution limits of recording visual information. Unfortunately, there are severe constraints limiting when a hologram may be recorded that makes them impractical as a general approach to recording a wide variety of imagery. For example, holograms may only be recorded using light that has spatial and frequency coherence.
Integral imaging can record multiple points of view, and through use of additional computation, is free of focal plane constraints. The use of classic optical systems in integral imaging imposes the same efficiency and information limits as photography, with the additional resource burden of imaging many points of view, often on a single recording device or surface.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an imaging system and method that overcomes the above limitations with the known approaches and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.

System and method for the efficient recording of large aperture wave fronts of visible and near visible light


A feeding device provided with a cassette rotatable between a longitudinal feed position from which paper is fed in a longitudinal direction and a lateral feed position from which paper is fed in a lateral direction and a feeding number memory for storing respective feeding numbers in a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction of the rotatable cassette. The feeding device is controlled such that after setting a priority of the feed direction of the rotatable cassette based on data stored in the feeding number memory, the rotatable cassette is rotated in the priority of the feed direction. As a result, the feeding device provides a more convenient and efficient operating process.

In a conventional feeding device designed for copying machines, etc., a rotatable cassette is generally provided. The rotatable cassette is designed such that a priority of a feed direction is set beforehand. Accordingly, the rotatable cassette rotates in the priority of the feed direction when a power switch is turned ON, or a predetermined elapse of time has passed in the stand-by state for the copying operation.
In addition, a feeding device provided with a plurality of the above-mentioned rotatable cassettes is also proposed. In this type of feeding device also, the priority of the feed direction is set beforehand for each rotatable cassette.
However, the above conventional feeding devices present the following problem. That is, a priority feed position of the rotatable cassette is fixed to a position set in an initial state. This means that if a user's desired copying direction (the most often used copying direction) differs from the fixed priority feed direction, an additional operation is required to rotate the rotatable cassette to the desired feed position, causing inefficiency and inconvenience in operating procedures.

Feeding device and method for determining feeding position by feeding number in both a longitudinal and lateral position


A message is divided into multiple message segments, and a network interface is selected from among a plurality of different types of network interfaces included within a communication device for transmitting each message segment. Each network interface is dedicated to a different type of communication protocol using a different encryption technique, and a network interface is selected for transmitting each message segment according to a pattern of the network interfaces. Secure transmission of the multiple message segments is initiated via the network interfaces according to the pattern.

Mobile computing, wireless networks, wireline networks, and the Internet have become convergent and pervasive. Modern communication devices, such as cellular phones as tablets, typically have multiple network interfaces capable of communicating with the Internet.
WiFi networks, in particular, have become increasingly popular for connecting to the Internet because they allow a communication device to connect wirelessly. Also, WiFi networks are typically easy to use and are not prohibitively expensive. However, the pervasive deployment of WiFi has provided an easy target for cyber criminals and hackers.
Other networks that connect to the Internet, e.g., cellular networks and wireline networks, are also subject to attack from hackers. While there have been efforts to prevent cyber attacks, e.g., encryption, such efforts are not fail-proof. If a cyber-attacker wants to "sniff" network traffic, he or she need only break the encryption for the network.

Communication devices, computer readable storage devices, and methods for secure multi-path communication


Systems and methods for using virtual keyboards for high dimensional controllers in accordance with embodiments of the invention are illustrated. One embodiment includes a virtual keyboard system including a processor, and a memory, including a virtual keyboard application, where the virtual keyboard application directs the processor to display a plurality of 3D keys in a virtual environment, where each 3D key represents at least one symbol via a display device, display a cursor in the virtual environment, where the cursor is movable in at least three dimensions via the display device, obtain a user input data from an input device, move the cursor to a 3D key in the plurality of 3D keys based on the user input data, and record the at least one symbol represented by the 3D key.

The invention of the typewriter revolutionized the written word. Perhaps the most recognizable keyboard layout is the QWERTY layout found today on the majority of modern computing systems has been used since the late 1800s. Keyboards today enable users to interface physically with a computing device by inputting specific symbols that are assigned to each key. Most commonly, by pressing a key, a circuit is completed which causes the input of the symbol assigned to the pressed key into the digital system.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), also known as brain-machine interfaces (BM's), mind-machine interfaces (MMIs), direct neural interfaces (DNIs), or neural-control interfaces (NCIs), read brain signals generated in a user and convert them into machine-usable signals. BCIs can be invasive (having an implanted component) or non-invasive (no implanted components). For example, electroenecephalography (EEG) has been used as a non-invasive BCI, often involving the recording of P300 signals.

Systems and methods for virtual keyboards for high dimensional controllers

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


The present invention relates to Dibenzonaphthyridine Derivatives, compositions comprising an effective amount of a Dibenzonaphthyridine Derivative and methods for treating or preventing a proliferative disorder, comprising administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of a Dibenzonaphthyridine Derivative.

Cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2004, there were 1.6 million new cases of cancer and 655,000 cancer-related deaths. There are currently over 10 million living Americans who have been diagnosed with cancer and the NIH estimates the direct medical costs of cancer as over $100 billion per year with an additional $100 billion in indirect costs due to lost productivity—the largest such costs of any major disease.
Cancer is a process by which the controlling mechanisms that regulate cell growth and differentiation are impaired, resulting in a failure to control cell turnover and growth. This lack of control causes a tumor to grow progressively, enlarging and occupying space in vital areas of the body. If the tumor invades surrounding tissue and is transported to distant sites, death of the individual can result.
The selective killing of cancer cells, while minimizing deleterious effects on normal cells, is a desired goal in cancer therapy. Modalities commonly used in the treatment of cancer include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery and biological therapy (a broad category that includes gene-, protein- or cell-based treatments and immunotherapy). Despite the availability of a variety of anticancer agents, traditional chemotherapy has drawbacks. Many anticancer agents are toxic, and chemotherapy can cause significant, and often dangerous, side effects, including severe nausea, bone marrow depression, liver, heart and kidney damage, and immunosuppression. Additionally, many tumor cells eventually develop multi-drug resistance after being exposed to one or more anticancer agents. As such, single-agent chemotherapy is effective for only a very limited number of cancers. Many chemotherapeutic drugs are anti-proliferative agents, acting at different stages of the cell cycle. Since it is difficult to predict the pattern of sensitivity of a neoplastic cell population to anticancer drugs, or the current stage of the cell cycle that a cell happens to be in, it is common to use multi-drug regimens in the treatment of cancer.
Despite the significant research efforts and resources which have been directed towards the development of novel anticancer agents and improved methods for treating cancer there remains a need in the art for novel compounds, compositions, and methods that are useful for treating cancer with improved therapeutic indices.

Dibenzonaphthyridine derivatives and methods of use thereof


A room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane composition which does not suffer from surface fissuring even when subjected to external stress (e.g., tensile stress, flexural stress) during the course of its cure was prepared and has a composition of a hydroxyl-terminated polydiorganosiloxane, a hydrophobic silica with a silanol titer not exceeding 2.0 mL, a dry-method silica with a silanol titer of at least 5.0 mL, and an oxime group-containing silane or siloxane.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane composition, and, more particularly, relates to a room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane composition which does not suffer from fissuring or cracking when its adherend (substrate) undergoes movement during the course of its cure.
2. Prior Art and Problems to Be Solved by the Invention
Room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane compositions have a number of excellent properties, and as a result are employed as sealants and adhesives in various fields, for example, in civil engineering and construction, in general industry for machinery and tools, and in the electrical and electronics sectors. A problem associated with this type of composition is the development of surface fissuring when the composition is subjected to external stress (e.g., tensile stress, flexural stress) during the course of its cure.
As a result, the substrate or device carrying the room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane composition cannot be moved until the composition has undergone some degree of curing and surface skin strength has developed. This requires a long, disturbance-free holding period.
The present inventors carried out extensive investigations directed at solving this problem, and as a result they discovered that this problem can be solved in a single stroke by the addition of a specific type of hydrophobic silica to room temperature-curable organopolysiloxane compositions. The present invention was developed based on this finding.


A furnace gas injection apparatus and process for delivering gaseous fuel to a furnace at a compound angle wherein one angle .alpha. of the compound angle is directed outwardly from the furnace burner centerline at an angle of between 75.degree. and 120.degree. to a line extending radially from the furnace burner centerline to the gas discharge openings of the gas injection means.

Many designs exist for the delivery of fuel to a furnace firebox.
Virtually all designs are intended to enhance combustion efficiency. In addition, tube metal temperatures and other furnace component limitations are considerations in the design of furnace fuel delivery equipment. Recently, carbon monoxide (CO) and NO.sub.x emission associated with furnace fuel combustion have entered into the factors that must be considered when designing furnace fuel delivery systems.
Poker tubes are one means of delivering gaseous fuel to a furnace firebox. Typically, the poker tubes extend from a gas plenum or manifold and protrude into the entry of the furnace firebox. One assembly is an array of poker tubes arranged around the outer periphery of the furnace burner.
Several years ago, Todd Combustion, Shelton, Conn., developed a furnace fuel delivery system that included six poker tubes arranged symmetrically around an air swirler in a furnace burner. As a result of the symmetrical arrangement of the poker tubes, the axial centers of the poker tubes form a circle around the centerline of the furnace burner. Three of the poker tubes are alternately arranged and oriented to deliver gas under pressure directly into the furnace firebox normal to the circle formed by the axial centerlines of the poker tubes. The three remaining poker tubes are arranged alternately between the poker tubes discharging gas normal to the circle formed by the axial centerline of the poker tubes and are oriented to discharge the fuel gas tangentially to the circle formed by the axial centerlines of the poker tubes. The arrangement of the prior art Todd Combustion poker tube assembly is shown in FIG. 3 herein.
The Todd Combustion prior art poker tube system functioned well, but it was believed that improvements could be made. As a result Todd Combustion expended considerable time and money on a project to improve the fuel combustion efficiency and reduce NO.sub.x emission associated with furnace fuel combustion.


A method for forming an ink jet recording head includes at least a step of forming an ink flow path pattern on a substrate by a photodecomposable positive type resist resin, a step of, once executing each of the steps of applying, exposing and baking thereon a nozzle-constituting resin layer which is a negative type resist containing an optical cation polymerization starting agent and having an epoxy resin as a chief component with respect to each of an ink flow path pattern and an ink discharge port pattern, collectively developing unexposed portions on the respective nozzle-constituting resin layers, and a step of removing the formed photodecomposable resin is minimized.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid discharging head for use in an ink jet recording process or the like, and particularly aims at an improvement in the discharging performance of a so-called side shooter type head from which liquid droplets are discharged in a direction perpendicular to a substrate on which an energy generating element is formed.
2. Related Background Art
As a liquid discharging head for discharging liquid, there is known one which, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,673, discharges an ink droplet by giving heat energy to a heat generating resistance member to thereby film-boil ink, and communicating a produced bubble with the atmosphere. As a schematic manufacturing method for realizing the above-described ink jet recording head, there is known a method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,606.
This method has the following steps:
(1) The step of forming an ink flow path pattern with a soluble resin on a substrate on which an ink discharge pressure generating element is formed;
(2) The step of dissolving a coat resin in a solvent, and solvent-coating a soluble resin layer with this to thereby form a nozzle-constituting resin layer providing an ink flow path wall on the soluble resin layer;
(3) The step of forming an ink discharge port in the nozzle-constituting resin layer above the ink discharge pressure generating element; and
(4) The step of eluting the soluble resin layer.
Now, in the above-described ink jet recording head, the shape of the ink flow path determines the discharge amount, the discharge direction and the discharge speed of an ink droplet, and it greatly affects the quality of print. Here, observing the cross-section of the ink jet recording head formed by the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,606, a minute projection-shaped object is sometimes observed near the interface between the soluble resin layer and the nozzle-constituting resin layer. Further, the phenomenon that the discharge direction of the ink droplet flying from a discharge port surface is bent by this minute projection-shaped object, whereby a printed image is deteriorated, has been observed.

Method of manufacturing a liquid discharging head


A method for preparing flavored unpopped popcorn kernels is disclosed involving dehydrating unpopped popcorn kernels to produce partially dehydrated kernels having retained sufficient moisture for popping and having an increased tendency to absorb an aqueous flavor liquid. Upon coating or soaking the kernels with flavor liquid and drying, popping of the kernels results in a flavored popcorn. The method provides for a low-fat or no-fat popcorn product.

Unpopped popcorn kernels have been coated or packaged in a vegetable fat or oil, flavor and salt. The fat layer serves to fry the popcorn during heating and also serves as a coating for the added salt, colorings or various other flavorings. The fat layer also causes adherence to some extent of the salt and flavoring to the surface of the popped kernels. The required oil or fat results in an oily and greasy texture and feel as well as a high calorie content in the popped kernels. There has been greater emphasis in recent years in developing a substantially fat-free flavored popcorn product. A number of past attempts have been hampered by the inability to coat the popcorn kernels with flavor and salt in the absence of a fat layer. Typically, the flavor and salt separate from the unpopped popcorn kernels and accumulate on the bottom of the bag, thereby contributing only aroma during microwaving or cooking but no flavor during consumption.
A number of patents have issued directed to different methods for preparing popcorn products as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,519,439; 3,704,133; 3,843,814; 3,851,574; 3,882,255; 3,961,091; 4,096,281; 4,571,337; 4,751,090; 4,767,635; 4,880,646; 4,888,186; 4,904,487; 4,904,488 and 5,132,125. While these patents have focused on various attempts to improve methods for the preparation of flavored popped corn, these methods are still hampered by the inability to coat kernels with flavor and salt in the absence of a fat layer. Thus, there has been no satisfactory fat-free or low-fat popcorn product that has the combined properties of superior popping ability, shelf-life stability, flavor and salt retention, mouth-feel and texture.
It would be very desirable to provide a method for preparing flavored unpopped popcorn kernels having superior popping ability, flavor and salt retention, yet that are substantially fat-free. It would also be desirable to provide microwavable popcorn kernels that have the no-fat or low-fat properties, yet with mouth-feel and texture upon being consumed.

Method for preparing flavored unpopped popcorn kernels


Provided is a dust removing device that can be designed and controlled appropriately and has high dust removal performance even at low temperature, and an imaging device using the dust removing device. In a dust removing device to be set on a base, including a piezoelectric element formed of a piezoelectric material and a pair of opposing electrodes, a vibration member, and a fixation member containing at least a high molecular compound component, a phase transition temperature T from a first ferroelectric crystal phase to a second ferroelectric crystal phase of the piezoelectric material is set to −60° C.≦T≦−5° C., and whereby, the dust removing device can be designed and controlled appropriately and high dust removal performance can be obtained even at low temperature.

In an imaging device such as a digital camera for picking up an image by converting an image signal into an electric signal, a photographing light flux is received by an image pickup element such as a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Then, a photoelectric conversion signal output from the image pickup element is converted into image data, and the image data is recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card. In such an imaging device, an optical low-pass filter and an infrared cut filter are disposed in front (on a subject side) of the image pickup element.
In the imaging device of this type, when dust adheres to a surface of a cover glass of the image pickup element or to surfaces of those filters, the dust may appear as a black spot in the picked-up image. In particular, in a single-lens reflex digital camera which includes an interchangeable lens, dust may enter the digital camera main body through the opening of the lens mount when the lens is being changed, and may adhere to the surfaces of the cover glass of the image pickup element or of the filters.
In view of the above, there has been proposed a digital camera which includes a dust removing device for removing dust adhering to the surface by using a vibration of a piezoelectric element (see, for example, PTL 1).
In the dust removing device included in the digital camera disclosed in PTL 1, an alternating voltage having a predetermined frequency is applied to a piezoelectric element fixedly bonded to a vibration member (dust filter in PTL 1) so as to drive the piezoelectric element, to thereby generate elastic vibration (hereinafter, defined as flexural vibration) for causing a displacement of the vibration member in an optical axis direction, that is, in a thickness direction of the vibration member. The dust removing device of PTL 1 removes dust adhering to the surface of the vibration member through application of the flexural vibration thus generated.
In the digital camera of PTL 1 having the above-mentioned configuration, a front surface side of the vibration member is held by a pushing member one end of which is fixed to a camera main body (imaging device) by a screw, and a rear surface side of the vibration member is held by a seal provided on the camera main body (imaging device). On the rear surface side of the vibration member, a sealed state is ensured by the vibration member, the seal, and the camera main body (a sealed space for preventing a foreign matter such as dust from entering therein is formed), and hence, dust is not projected on a picked up image only if dust on the front surface side of the vibration member can be removed.
In this case, the vibration member is pushed against the seal with a pressure from the pushing member. The pushing member made of a plate material of phosphor bronze for a spring or stainless steel for a spring has high bending stiffness, and the seal made of a rubber material has low bending stiffness, and hence, the seal is deformed with a pressure or an external force (inertia force, etc.).
Further, a receiving member bonded to the pushing member is interposed between the pushing member and the vibration member, and the receiving member receives the vibration member through the intermediation of a positioning member to position the vibration member in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis. The receiving member and the positioning member are made of materials having vibration damping such as rubber and a resin.
Further, a receiving portion is set on the rear surface side of the vibration member. The stiffness of the receiving portion having vibration damping, made of rubber, a soft resin, or the like, is higher than that of the seal, and hence, the seal is prevented from being deformed with respect to a certain pressure or more of the vibration member.
Incidentally, the receiving portion is arranged so as to support a node of the vibration member in which flexural vibration hardly occurs so as not to inhibit the vibration of the vibration member.
A piezoelectric element fixedly bonded to the vibration member is electrically connected to a flexible printed board for applying the alternating voltage having the predetermined frequency to the piezoelectric element, and this connection is performed generally through adhesion with an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) or a resin.
As described above, the dust removing device requires a fixation member for setting the dust removing device on a base such as an imaging device or a camera main body. The fixation member requires damping ability, as its function, so as not to transmit excess vibration to the base. On the other hand, as shown in a series of configurations as in PTL 1, the fixation member has an aspect of remarkably inhibiting the vibration of the vibration member to degrade the effect of removing dust. Therefore, a soft high molecular compound material such as rubber or a resin is used for the fixation member.
Further, in the dust removing device, a soft material such as a resin is used also for fixed bonding between the piezoelectric element and the vibration member and adhesion between the piezoelectric element and the flexible printed board.
The piezoelectric element of PTL 1 is in the form of a plate having a ring shape or a rectangular shape, and includes a piezoelectric material and a pair of electrodes opposed to each other. The pair of electrodes includes a first electrode and a second electrode which are disposed on plate surfaces of the piezoelectric material. The first electrode is also called lower electrode, and the second electrode is also called upper electrode. Here, an expanding and contracting distortion is generated in the piezoelectric material by an electric field applied between the electrodes, which generates an elastic vibration (hereinafter, defined as length vibration) for causing a displacement of the piezoelectric element of PTL 1 in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the vibration member, that is, in a direction (hereinafter, defined as length direction) perpendicular to the thickness direction of the piezoelectric element. Due to the length vibration of the piezoelectric element, a stress is generated between the piezoelectric element and the vibration member fixedly bonded to the piezoelectric element, to thereby generate a flexural vibration in the vibration member.
In the vibration member, a voltage to be applied to the piezoelectric element is controlled in frequency or phase so that the flexural vibration of the vibration member may generate a standing wave of multiple orders, which is called vibration modes, having multiple node portions and antinode portions, or a traveling wave which has node portions and antinode portions and moves in a length direction of the vibration member with respect to time. For example, in the dust removing device included in the digital camera disclosed in PTL 1, a pair of the piezoelectric elements are applied with voltages which are controlled in phase so that multiple vibration modes may be generated, and the multiple vibration modes are selectively used effectively, to thereby effectively remove dust adhering to a surface of the vibration member.
Here, the dust removing device of PTL 1 is driven at a frequency in proximity to the resonance frequency of the vibration member, and hence a larger flexural vibration may be generated in the vibration member even when a smaller voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element.
Further, the dust removing device of PTL 1 is configured so as to remove dust without any problem with respect to an individual variation of the dust removing device and a fluctuation in frequency with respect to temperature, by sweeping a frequency band in the vicinity of a resonance frequency. According to PTL 1, the frequency for oscillating the piezoelectric element is determined by the shape, size and material, and the support state of the piezoelectric element and a vibrator formed of a vibration member, and generally, the temperature is one factor for influencing the coefficient of elasticity of the vibrator and changing the resonance frequency thereof. Thus, the temperature is one factor for changing the resonance frequency of the vibrator and the dust removing device.
The magnitude of length vibration of the piezoelectric element is closely related to the magnitude of piezoelectric displacement caused by a traverse piezoelectric effect of a piezoelectric ceramics, and hence, a piezoelectric element excellent in piezoelectric characteristics is chosen.
Meanwhile, the piezoelectric element which is currently used in various devices uses a piezoelectric material containing a large amount of lead, such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT: PbZr1-xTixO3) containing lead, in many cases. For example, the piezoelectric element of PTL 1 uses lead zirconate titanate. However, it has been pointed out that such a piezoelectric material made of lead zirconate titanate containing a large amount of lead can be detrimental to ecosystems because the lead component in the piezoelectric material seeps into soil when the piezoelectric material is once discarded to be exposed to acid rain, for example. In view of this, in recent years, with consideration given to the environment and to comply with laws restricting the use of lead in various products, a piezoelectric material (lead-free piezoelectric material) containing no lead or a minimum amount of lead and product development therefor are under study and consideration. However, a prominent lead-free piezoelectric material having various properties equivalent to those of lead zirconate titanate has not been realized, and there are still only a few examples of commercialized devices using a lead-free piezoelectric material which is equivalent in quality to lead zirconate titanate.


A premixed combustor for a gas turbine, comprises, a combustion chamber for burning a fuel with an air therein, at least two premixed fuel/air mixture outlets which are juxtaposed with each other, and through each of which a premixed fuel/air mixture flows out into the combustion chamber, and a flow deflection member arranged between the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets, urging the permixed fuel/air mixture from one of the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets to go away from another one of the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets, and terminating in the combustion chamber so that the premixed fuel/air mixture from the one of the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets is permitted to move toward the premixed fuel/air mixture flowing out from the another one of the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets after going away from the another one of the premixed fuel/air mixture outlets.

The present invention relates to a combustor for generating a pressurized gas for driving a gas turbine and more particularly, to a premixed combustor for a gas turbine.
In a prior-art premixed combustor disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application Hei-2-100060, a fuel for diffusion combustion is injected into a combustion chamber by a fuel nozzle at a radially central portion of the combustion chamber, a lean fuel/air mixture is formed in each of the premixing chambers radially surrounding the fuel nozzle to be supplied into the combustion chamber with swirl motion thereof so that the fuel in the lean fuel/air mixture is burned with assistance of the diffusion combustion by the fuel nozzle.


The invention is related to a framed filter media comprising a pleated filter media having a fluid inlet face and a fluid outlet face with peripheral sidewalls. The peripheral sidewalls of the pleated filter are attached to the frame generally by an adhesive. The frame is preferably a flexible strip frame formed into three or more (up to an infinite number if the sidewall sections(s) is formed into a circular filter frame) sidewall sections each having a substantially flat sidewall and at least two projecting filter retaining tabs which form a flange on a first face of the sidewall section for containing the filter along its peripheral sidewalls and any adhesive. A cross brace is also inserted within the filter retaining tabs which fits into at least one pleat of the framed pleated filter media. The cross brace fits into the space formed by the pleated filter media but is not in continuous contact with the filter media forming the pleat. The cross brace can be flexible and has end keys or projections for insertion into the filter frame flanges and attachment to the sidewall sections and/or the flange. In a particular embodiment, the cross brace has a continuous non-linear profile with an internal profiled groove with a mating surface, for insertion and locking of removable end keys or other items, such as handles and labels, which removable items have a profile that mates with, or locks the mating surface of the profiled groove.

This invention is directed at a unitary framed filter where the filters form is capable of being formed by a continuous extrusion process.
Conventionally three dimensional filter frames are formed by injection molding or similar type processes. In its simplest variation, the frame is directly formed as a unitary structure. A simple technique for this is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,262 where a pleated filter is held in a jig with only the edge portions extending out of the jig. This jig is then inserted into a mold form and a plastic type material is injected, embedding the exposed pleat edges in the space between the jig and the mold form. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,229 shows an elastomeric filter frame formed directly on a pleated filter media by injection molding a foaming resin into the pleats of the pleated filter along the periphery of the pleated filter in one embodiment of the invention described. This filter requires a separate rigid frame in which the filter is fit into the frame by a friction type fit. A preformed molded frame is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,296,781. The filter media is subsequently attached to the molded frame by use of an adhesive or the like.
Three-dimensional filter frames can also be formed from multiple pieces, which are then assembled by use of adhesive, welding, friction fit, snap fits, mechanical fasteners or the like. This type of approach permits more flexibility in terms of frame forms and functionality than unitary filter frames, however, it generally results in framed filters which are complicated to manufacture. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,177 describes a two-piece snap fit filter frame where both of the two pieces are three-dimensional injection molded frame pieces. Fluid bypass is prevented in this particular arrangement by placing a bead of adhesive into a groove in one of the frame pieces and subsequently forcing a top edge of the pleated filter into the adhesive bead during the snap fit assembly process. This type of framed filter would be very difficult to implement in an automated production process due to the strategic placement of the adhesive within an enclosed space and the need for rapid assembly of three three-dimension pieces coming together simultaneously with very close tolerances. A similar approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,832,281, however, the filter media in this embodiment is friction gripped along the periphery of the filter media by mating flanges of the two frame elements, one of which comprises an exhaust flue. U.S. Pat. No. 2,058,669 describes a three-dimensional filter frame formed by cutting out the face portions of two corrugated boxes halves, which halves are subsequently cemented together with a pleated filter and comb-like pleat stabilizing elements. A similar approach is also discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,643 where the rectangular frame is described as a conventional multi-piece aluminum frame with the frame elements welded together and the filter adhesively attached to the frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,948 describes a filter for use in a respiratory device where the filter frame is a three-piece molded structure where the individual filter frame pieces and filter media are all formed of polypropylene and welded together. The filter media is held between two flanges of two injection molded polypropylene pieces with ultrasonic fusing of the three elements forming a fluid tight seal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,446 describes an injection molded filter frame provided with a peripheral groove on one face which accepts an injection molded elastic piece which snap fits into the groove. The elastic piece is suitably attached, generally by injection molding, to the periphery of a flat filter medium. This approach generally is only suitable for use in holding a flat filter media taut along the peripheral edge of the rigid frame similar to a window screen. WO 96/29138 describes an injection molded filter frame piece which grips the edge of a filter medium by two snap fit side pieces which move toward each other and snap into a central rigid structural element. The snap fit pieces have projections that come together and hold the edges of the filter medium. Comer snap fit, frame pieces are separately provided to hold the filter media and frame to a rectangular form. The object of this invention was to provide a simple and cost effective method of manufacturing a filter frame, which can be recycled if need be. Generally, with all the above designs, the filter frame is created by forming individual frame elements that are three-dimensional in form. These three-dimensional frame elements must be directly attached to the filter media during formation of the frame or require further assembly that requires bringing together multiple three-dimensional elements.
Other patents have proposed forming a filter frame from a die cut flat material which is subsequently formed into a filter frame by folding the frame elements together into the final three-dimensional filter frame shape. For example, Japanese Publ. Patent Appln. 7-299317 describes a steel-type frame blank into which notches are cut to allow for tabs to be folded inward creating u-shaped channels. The notches allow the frame to be folded into a rectangular frame shape and subsequently welded together. Additional filter elements such as wire retaining elements can be provided on the opposite faces of the filter media. A much more complex shape is described in WO 94/11089 where the frame blank is described as punched from any suitable sheet material such as cardboard. Two separate sheets are cut which are mirror images of each other. Each sheet is symmetrical having three sections. One section is designed to hold and maintain the pleat form along a side of the pleated filter. The second section is designed to snap fit so as to hold the terminal end of the pleated filter. The third section engages the other sheet at a corner. The two folded sheets are then brought together with the two halves held together by slats and corresponding slits of the third section. A peripheral compressible sealing material is then provided along the external portion of the assembled frame to allow the frame to be friction fit into a housing. Although this frame allows a filter to be formed from a sheet of flat material, the complex three-dimensional folding along three separate axis makes this an inherently complicated assembly to manufacture in a continuous process not to mention the need for subsequent adhesive application of a sealing strip.
The present invention is directed at trying to provide a simple and convenient way to reinforce a framed pleated filter media.


Disclosed is a method for forming a capacitor of a semiconductor device capable of improving the film quality of a dielectric film. The method includes the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate having a storage node contact; forming a metal storage electrode on the substrate; forming a dielectric film using any one chosen from a group including a single film made of HfO2, a single film made of Al2O3, and a lamination film made of HfO2 and Al2O3 on the metal storage electrode; performing CF4 plasma treatment on the dielectric film; and forming a metal plate electrode on the dielectric film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a capacitor of a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method for forming a capacitor of a semiconductor device capable of improving the film quality of a dielectric film.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the design rule of memory semiconductor devices becomes smaller, the height of the capacitor (i.e., the electrode height) is continuously increased and the thickness of the dielectric film is reduced to obtain desired charging capacity. This is because the charging capacity is proportional to the area of the electrodes and the dielectric constant of the dielectric film and is inversely proportional to the thickness of the dielectric film corresponding to the gap between the electrodes. Since increase in the electrode height is limited, particularly, recent researches to secure sufficient charging capacity are directly to reducing the thickness of the dielectric film and developing new dielectric film.
In addition, researches to secure sufficient charging capacity are directed not only to the development of a dielectric film itself, but also to using metal as the electrode material, instead of polysilicon. When Ta205 film is used as the dielectric material, for example, decrease in thickness of the dielectric film made of Ta205 results in increase of leak current if the electrode material is polysilicon. However, if the electrode is metal, both charging capacity and leak current characteristics can be secured by reducing the effective oxide film thickness (Tox), even when the thickness of the dielectric film made of Ta205 decreases.
In order to secure sufficient charging capacity to meet the trend of high integration of memory semiconductor devices, therefore, it is inevitable to use a metal electrode. A conventional method for forming an Metal/lnsulator/Metal (MIM) capacitor will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, which are sectional views thereof.
Referring to FIG. 1A, an etching stop nitride film 4 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 1 having an interlayer insulation film 2 and a storage node contact 3 formed in the interlayer insulation film 2. A spacer (not shown) made of nitride material is formed on the lateral surface of the storage node contact 3. A cap oxide film 5 is formed on the etching stop nitride film 4. A photoresist pattern 6 is formed on the cap oxide film 5 to define a region in which a storage electrode is to be formed.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the photoresist pattern is used as an etching mask to etch the cap oxide film 5 and the etching stop nitride film 4 to form a hole exposing the storage node contact 3. The photoresist pattern is removed and a metal silicide film, e.g., a titanium silicide film 7 is formed on the surface of the exposed storage node contact 3 in a conventional process.
Referring to FIG. 1C, a metal storage electrode 8 made of, e.g., titanium nitride, is formed on the hole surface including the titanium silicide film 7. A dielectric film 9 and a metal plate electrode 10 are successively formed on the front surface of the substrate including the metal storage electrode 8 to complete the formation of an MIM capacitor 12.
As for the dielectric film of the MIM capacitor 12, a single film made of HfO2 or Al2O3 having large dielectric constant or a lamination film made of both is generally used.
Although the charging capacity (Cs) and leak current characteristics required in devices of 100-80 nm grade may be satisfied to some degree by using a material having large dielectric constant as the dielectric film and forming a capacitor in MIM structure, it is difficult to satisfy both charging capacity and leak current characteristics as desired, if the design rule of semiconductor devices further decreases in the future, with a material having large dielectric constant as mentioned above. This means that film quality of the dielectric film must be additionally improved.

Method for forming capacitor of semiconductor device


A receiver unit includes a prefilter that receives as one of the inputs a channel impulse response (CIR) estimation data set and removes unnecessary data information from the CIR estimation data set and filters input signal so to form a first output data set. An equalizer core receives the first output data set and based on computed CIR length and SNR value of the first output data set so as to determine which portion of the first output data set are assigned to at least one of at least two low complexity equalization modules used for processing.

The invention relates to the field of communication receivers, and in particular to a receiver design that provides a unique way to reach and exceed the performance levels required by the EDGE cellular standard, taking into consideration propagation conditions, overall modem performance, and implementation complexity of a receiver.
Digital data receiver designs is a critical part of the EDGE system development, providing a base for performance differentiation through the type approval and operator acceptance process, and afterwards even more as a driver of complexity and power of the wireless terminal. In the case of EDGE, this is critical because of the complex modulation format, different modulation and coding scenarios, and possibility of link adaptation, which further stresses the importance of a high performance data receiver design. Furthermore, specific implementations of EDGE receivers have to take into account imperfections of RF front end (e.g., DC offset, I/Q gain and phase imbalance, phase noise, analog filters) and digital receive filters that can be part of a mixed signal chip. However, performance of the EDGE data receiver depends on a number of factors that a designer cannot influence (e.g., propagating conditions, interference) as well as selection of parameters of the receiver in a given scenario, which provides a multidimensional problem in making design choices even when the elements of the receiver are known from prior art.

Digital data receiver for edge cellular standard with DC offset correction, channel impulse response estimation, I/Q phase imbalance compensation, interference estimation, and selective equalization


A method of riveting two metal parts through a hole with an electro-hydraulic riveting tool. The electro-hydraulic riveting tool includes a tube that is inserted in the hole and an electrode that is inserted within the tube. A liquid is contained within the tube and the electrode is immersed in the liquid. A stored charge is discharged through the electrode to create a shockwave within the fluid that forms the tube into a rivet structure and creates solid state weld between the rivet flanges and the parts that are joined.

Manufacturers face problems relating to joining aluminum parts and other types of parts. For example, aluminum alloys are characterized by having less stiffness due to a lower modulus of elasticity. Aluminum is also difficult to spot, or resistance, weld because increased current is required and inconsistent results are obtained.
Aluminum parts are frequently joined by being riveted together. Self-piercing rivets formed of steel may be used, but the dissimilar metals may create a galvanic corrosion problem. Rivets are generally weak and tend to be anisotropic in that they have different strength characteristics in different directions.
In general, welds are stronger than rivets for connecting parts, such as sheet metal parts together. Applicant's co-pending application entitled "Metal Members and Assemblies that have Reinforced Punch Holes and Method of Forming the Holes", U.S. Ser. No. 13/157,357, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,545,157 discloses a method of punching holes and reinforcing holes in sheet metal members, but does not relate to joining panels together. Further, Applicant's co-pending application does not disclose electro-hydraulically forming the circular reinforcement ring about the hole.
The following references were considered before filing this application: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,301,766; 3,673,833; 6,094,809; 5,521,782; and 5,471,865.

Electro-hydraulic rivet and method of riveting and welding parts