The invention is directed to a crimp plug having a front portion, a center portion, and a securing portion. A conductor receiving cavity extends from the front e into the center portion. A stop shoulder within the center portion provides transition from the conductor receiving cavity to a plurality of conductor receiving passageway extending to a rear end. Each conductor receiving passageway serves to properly position the conductors while the stop shoulder serves to control the insertion length. A securing portion extends from the center portion and provides for securing of the cable.

The invention is related to fiber optic or electrical connectors. More particularly, the invention is related to a crimp plug for use in such connectors.
Connectors typically are utilized for terminating a plurality of conductors. These conductors may be either electrical wires or fiber optic light guides such as fibers. The conductors are typically arranged in a cable having an outer jacket surrounding a plurality of insulated conductors. In between the conductors and the outer jacket, other optional components of the cable include shielding, strength members, or intermediate insulated layers. In order to terminate the conductors, the outer jacket and the other optional components are typically stripped back from the individually insulated conductors. Individually insulated conductors may be utilized without an outer jacket. Each of the insulated conductors is then further stripped to expose and terminate the respective conductor to the connector. The conductors are typically inserted from a rear end of the connector. Various terminations may be utilized. For example, in electrical connectors, each wire is typically terminated to either a pin or a socket and then inserted into the connector housing. For fiber optic connectors, each individual fiber or a plurality of fibers is typically terminated to a l-rule which is then inserted into the connector housing.
The conductors are often passed through intermediate components before entering the conductor receiving end of the housing. These intermediate components may be utilized to properly position a plurality of conductors for terminations at a mating end of the housing. One such intermediate component is known as a crimp plug. Typically, a crimp plug is positioned at the rear end of the connector housing and receives the plurality of conductors through a cavity passing from the rear end into the connector housing. An outer surface of the crimp plug receives the outer jacket of the cable and a crimp ring is compressed over the outer jacket to secure the outer jacket to the crimp plug. In the case where individually insulated conductors are used the crimp ring is not used. The stripped conductors pass through the crimp plug for termination at the mating end of the connector housing and the crimp plug is typically secured within the rear end of the connector housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,595 (Jennings et al.) discloses a fiber optic connector for joining a bundle of jacketed optical fibers to an optical device that requires a linear array or arrays of stripped optic fibers at the connection interface. Block shaped portions are provided in the connector for receiving jacketed fibers. The grooves have a transition portion so that a front portion is large enough to accommodate only stripped cores of the fibers. Complementary posts and holes are utilized for assembling block portions to each other. An inner wedge member is attached to an outer cell which encases the assembled block portions. Resilient latch fingers are provided on the back wall of the shell for retaining fibers which have been prepared as shown in FIG. 4 of that patent. Alternate embodiments are also shown wherein slots have transition sections each for receiving a jacketed fiber or a stripped core.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,055 (Bennett et al.) shows a method and apparatus for connectorizing fiber optic cable. The apparatus has a jumper buffer seat and a jumper insert. The jumper buffer seat features bores having tapered openings to facilitate insertion of stripped and of jumpers or fibers through the bores. a Small flats are provided along the tapered sections for allowing only stripped fibers to pass into the forward sections, of the bore. The jumper insert has a singular tapered channel for transitioning the plurality of fibers into a linear array. A completed splice is enclosed in the splice housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,948 (Despouys) teaches a fiber optic connector ferrule having a support sleeve preferably made of a deformable metal material. The support sleeve is inserted into a barrel having a passage which is large enough to only pass a stripped fiber. The fiber is fixed to the ferrut by crimping the sleeve.
While these patents show devices for limiting conductor insertion, none provide a method for terminating or securing an outer jacket. Known crimp plugs, while providing a method for securing an outer jacket, do not provide control of conductor insertion length. A problem therefore exists with such crimp plugs in that during assembly, the pre-stripped cable is manually inserted into the rear end of the crimp plug until a desired length of stripped conductors extend out of the front end. When handling a plurality of conductors, it is often difficult to achieve equal lengths of stripped conductors extending out of the front end. If some conductors are inserted farther than others, additional stresses will be applied to these conductors when a pulling force is applied to the terminated cable in a completed connector assembly.
An additional problem exists in that crimp plugs having a singular cavity for receiving a plurality of conductors present difficulty in properly arranging the conductors for termination at the mating end of the connector. Once the singular cavity is populated with conductors, the conductors must be manually arranged to be terminated in their respective positions at the mating end of the connector.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved crimp plug for use in a connector wherein insertion length and positioning of the conductors are controlled.
This and other objects have been achieved by providing a crimp plug having a front portion which is insertable into the cable receiving end of a connector, a mid portion having a passageway for receiving a plurality of conductors, and a securing portion extending rearward from the mid portion. The securing portion has a plurality of conductor receiving passageways extending from a rear end into the mid portion. A stop shoulder is provided within the crimp plug to control conductor insertion length.


A method includes determining a rate of resource occupancy of a constituent stage of an unbalanced instruction pipeline implemented in a processor through profiling an instruction code. The method also includes performing data processing at a maximum throughput at an optimum clock frequency based on the rate of resource occupancy.

Instruction pipelining is a technique used in processors (e.g., microprocessors, microcontrollers) to allow for parallel processing of instructions. For example, one instruction is associated with a first stage of an instruction pipeline and another instruction is associated with a second stage of the instruction pipeline. The instruction pipeline allows for "breaking" of the timing associated with a large data path, and provides parallelism in executing the instructions at an increased clock frequency.
The instruction pipeline offers optimum performance only when the constituent stages are perfectly balanced. A balanced pipeline implies that processing associated with a constituent stage of the pipeline takes a completion time equal to the completion time associated with all other constituent stage(s) of the instruction pipeline. However, there are scenarios (e.g., hard macro(s) such as memory/memories being in the data path of the pipeline, Arithmetic Logic Units (ALU units) such as multipliers, adders, bit shifters and dividers being in a same constituent stage of the pipeline) where a programmer/user is not able to perfectly balance the instruction pipeline. Here, the maximum frequency at which the unbalanced pipeline is clocked is determined through the constituent stage therein offering the maximum delay.
Assuming no stalls in an unbalanced instruction pipeline, the maximum frequency, fmax, at which the unbalanced instruction pipeline is clocked is expressed in example Equation (1) as:
                                          f            max                    =                      1            d                          ,                            (        1        )            where d is the maximum delay offered by a constituent stage.
Assuming the time taken for executing N instructions to be (N+ns) cycles (ns being the number of constituent stages of the unbalanced instruction pipeline), the effective throughput, E, is be expressed in example Equation (2) as:
                    E        =                                            f              max                        ·                          N                              (                                  N                  +                                      n                    s                                                  )                                              ∼                      f            max                                              (        2        )            The throughput, E as seen in Equation (2), is the number of instructions per second. Increased throughput is associated with a higher fmax, which implies a lower maximum delay offered by the constituent stage of the unbalanced instruction pipeline.
The pipeline can be clocked at a frequency higher than that computed based on the max-delay, and when the usage of timing-path involving the max-delay is detected, then the pipeline can be stalled for a number of cycles equivalent to the delay offered by the timing-path. This is known as pipeline stalling.
With the above approach, the frequency might not be optimal, if the usage of the timing-path involving max-delay is not frequent. It would lead to unnecessary dynamic power dissipation. Hence, there is a need to arrive at an optimum frequency for a given rate of usage of the timing-path involving the maximum delay.

Different clock frequencies and stalls for unbalanced pipeline execution logics


An apparatus and method is disclosed for determining the amount of drug remaining in a bellows type or bladder type drug reservoir. With a bellows type drug reservoir, a strain gauge is connected to one end of the bellows and to the bulk head to which the bellows reservoir is attached. With a bladder type drug reservoir, a strain gauge is connected at one end to an end plate attached to the bladder and at the other end to a bulk head. In a variant of these embodiment, the strain gauge is attached at one end to either the bellows or end plate and at the other end to an anchor point that has a fixed distance from the bulk head. In a further embodiment with a bladder type drug reservoir, the reservoir is constrained between a bulk head and an immovable end plate. A strain gauge is attached at one end to a point on the reservoir that moves in response to the filling or depletion of drug from the reservoir. The other end of the strain gauge is attached to an immovable point.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to implantable drug infusion pumps and more specifically to means on such pumps for measuring the amount of drug remaining in the reservoir of such pumps.
2. Description of the Related Art
Implantable devices such as drug pumps are frequently used to deliver drugs or other liquid medications over long periods of time to selected locations in the human body. These devices commonly include a drug reservoir, catheter means connected to the reservoir to transport the drug and a pumping mechanism to propel the drug in some metered or constant flow dosage to the desired location.
Often the drug reservoir is a bellows shaped reservoir such as is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In a bellows reservoir, as the drug leaves the reservoir, the bellows collapses making the volume contained within the reservoir diminish. An example of a drug pump using a bellows-type reservoir as the drug reservoir is the Synchromed.RTM. pump sold by Medtronic, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn.
In FIGS. 1 and 2, the bellows type reservoir is generally referred to as 2. Reservoir 2 is attached at one end to a bulk head 4. Reservoir 2 has an end plate 6 opposite bulk head 4. A series of pleats 8 connect end plate 6 to bulk head 4 and define a space 10 for containing the drug or other fluid to be contained within the reservoir 2. Bulk head 4 contains an opening 12 through which the drug to be stored within reservoir 2 can either enter or leave space 10. Bulk head 4 may have an additional opening 12A so that drug or other fluid may enter reservoir 2 through opening 12 and leave reservoir 2 through opening 12A.
In an alternate embodiment, shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a bladder type drug reservoir 2' is attached to a bulk head 4. Bulk head 4 preferably contains openings 12 and 12A through which the drug to be stored within reservoir 2' can either enter or leave space 10'. As drug is added to reservoir 2', a point A on the outer surface of reservoir 2' opposite bulk head 4 moves away from bulk head 4. Conversely, as drug is removed from reservoir 2', point A moves closer to bulk head 4.
It is often desirable for physicians to know exactly how much drug remains in an infusion drug pump reservoir when a patient returns for a refill. To date, electronics on the pump containing the reservoir have estimated the amount of drug in the remaining reservoir based on how much drug should theoretically have been removed from the reservoir by the pumping or metering mechanism of the pump. This amount is then subtracted from the amount of the drug originally inserted into the reservoir to arrive at the amount remaining in the reservoir. The physician then confirms the amount delivered to the patient by removing the old drug from the reservoir by syringe and then subtracting the amount removed from the volume originally injected into the pump. This method has the disadvantage that it is cumbersome, a nuisance and results in the waste of the remaining drug withdrawn from the reservoir. This is a problem in need of a solution.


A fuel feed apparatus is provided to a fuel tank. The fuel feed apparatus includes a lid member, a pump module, and an electric connector. The lid member plugs an opening of the fuel tank. The pump module is accommodated in the fuel tank for pumping fuel from the fuel tank. The electric connector is provided to the lid member. The electric connector includes at least one terminal and at least one sheath. The at least one terminal electrically connects with the pump module. The at least one sheath covers the at least one terminal partially on a side of the pump module. The at least one sheath has an outer periphery that is surrounded by a recess. The at least one sheath has an end on an opposite side of the pump module. The recess is concaved from the end of the at least one sheath toward the pump module.

According to JP-A-2002-237348, a connector for electrically connecting wirings has a structure adapted to restricting terminals from causing a shortcircuit therebetween. In this structure, the terminals are partitioned by a wall member, so that terminals adjacent to each other are restricted from causing a shortcircuit therebetween.
Here, a fuel feed apparatus is provided to a fuel tank for supplying fuel from the fuel tank to an engine outside the fuel tank. In general, when sealing property of a fuel tank provided with a fuel feed apparatus is examined, a submersion test is conducted while the fuel feed apparatus is installed on the fuel tank. In this submersion test, for example, the fuel tank installed with the fuel feed apparatus is submerged under water for examining the sealing property of the fuel tank. The fuel tank has an opening, which is plugged using a lid member of the fuel feed apparatus. The lid member may have an electric connector. When the submersion test is conducted, the electric connector provided to the lid member may be covered with a cap. After conducting the submersion test, air may be blown onto the electric connector to restrict water from remaining in the electric connector.
However, it is difficult to strictly restrict water from remaining in the connector, even providing the cap, and even blowing air onto the electric connector. In addition, when the electric connector is exposed to wind and weather after conducting the submersion test, water may intrude into the electric connector. When the electric connector is attached with a water-proof coupling device while water remains in the electric connector, the remaining water cannot be drained. As a result, terminals in the connector may be corroded. In addition, the terminals may cause a short circuit therebetween.

Fuel feed apparatus having electric connector


A lock cylinder that includes a housing and a plug. The housing includes a wall that defines a hollow portion and a pin portion that defines a first pin chamber that is configured to receive a first pin. The plug includes a body rotatably housed within the hollow portion of the housing. A key slot is defined in the body in part by a pin resting surface 90, and a second pin chamber is disposed in communication with the key slot. A second pin is disposed within the second pin chamber and is configured to engage the pin resting surface 90. An engagement member is disposed within the body as a separate piece, and engaged with the second pin to space the second pin a distance from the pin resting surface 90 in the absence of a key in the slot.

The present invention relates to a lock cylinder. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lock cylinder that is mounted in a door and that includes a housing and a plus.
Generally, lock cylinders include a housing and a plug that define respective pin chambers to receive pin pairs. The pin pairs include outer pins substantially disposed within the housing and inner pins disposed within the plug. Springs are often used to bias the pin pairs toward a key slot defined in the plug. More specifically, the springs are engaged with the outer pills, which in turn engage the inner pins and force the inner pins into the key slot. In the absence of a correct or proper key, the outer pins are partially disposed in the plug and block rotation of the plug within the housing.
The plug is rotatable relative to the housing in most conventional lock cylinders. A shear line is defined where the plug and the housing come together. When a proper key is inserted into the key slot, the inner pins are moved and, as a result, move the respective outer pins. The ends where the inner pins and the outer pins contact each other are aligned with the shear line upon insertion of the proper key, and allow the plug to be turned to a locked or unlocked position. In other words, the proper key will move the inner and outer pins such that the outer pins are disposed completely in the housing, and the inner pins are disposed completely in the plug.
In some lock cylinders, the inner pins engage a surface defined by the key slot such that the portions of the inner pins that are engaged by a key are at the same plane (i.e., extend the same distance into the key slot). Inner pins positioned along the same plane within the key slot may provide easy access to each pin in the lock cylinder. As such, it may be possible to unlock the lock cylinder without using a proper key.
When re-keying a lock cylinder using a typical lock cylinder design, appropriate inner pins must be replaced so that a new key can be used to operate the lockset. The process usually employs special tools and requires maintaining an inventory so that the inner pins can be exchanged with new inner pins. These inner pins are relatively small, and can become lost during the re-keying process.


A method for enhancing the performance of pentacene organic field-effect transistor (OFET) using n-type semiconductor interlayer: an n-type semiconductor thin film was set between the insulating layer and the polymer electret in the OFET with the structure of gate-electrode/insulating layer/polymer/pentacene/source (drain) electrode. The thickness of n-type semiconductor layer is 1˜200 nm. The induced electrons at the interface of n-type semiconductor and polymer electret lead to the reduction of the height of the hole-barrier formed at the interface of polymer and pentacene, thus effectively reducing the programming/erasing (P/E) gate voltages of pentacene OFET, adjusting the height of hole barrier at the interface of polymer and pentacene to a reasonable scope by controlling the quantity of induced electrons in n-type semiconductor layer, thus improving the performance of pentacene OFET, such as the P/E speeds, P/E endurance and retention characteristics.

Non-volatile electronic devices with the OFET memory units have attracted much attention in past two decades due to its application prospects from radio-frequency identification tags to flexible and large-area active-matrix displays(1, 2). In order to promote the practical application of the OFETs, great efforts have been made in developing p-channel or n-channel organic semiconductors, including small molecules and polymers, and charge-trapping dielectrics such as polymer electrets. As one of the most promising p-channel organic semiconductors, pentacene, a planar molecule composed of five benzene rings fused along their sides, has been widely investigated for the OFET memory structures. With chargeable polymer electrets, such as polystyrene (PS), PVN and poly(α-methylstyrene) (PαMS), etc., pentacene OFETs shows favorable shifts of threshold voltage in its transfer curves at large enough gate voltages(3). Baeg et al. programmed pentacene OFET with PαMS charge-storage layer under a gate pulse of 200V/1 μs, and erased the device under a gate pulse of −100V/1 μs1. Leong et al. programmed pentacene OFET with chargeable block copolymer polystyrene-block-poly-4-vinylpyridine (PS-b-P4VP) by applying a gate pulse of −30 V/1 s, and erased it by applying a gate pulse of 100 V/30 s(4). The present performance of pentacene OFETs such as high operation voltage, low P/E speed, serious endurance and retention degradation and instability in air is still far from reaching the industrial requirements of commercial application in the future. Therefore, up to now, pentacene OFETs using polymer films as charge trapping dielectric has not been used in practical applications.
Many basic researches have been carried out on the background of pentacene OFETs devices using polymer films as charge trapping dielectric. Both theoretical and experimental studies(5, 6) have shown that there are positively charged defects associated with the external environment (e.g., hydrogen and oxygen) at the boundary of pentacene near the interface of pentacene/polymer, and the body density of the positive charge is up to 4×1018 cm−3(7). The thickness of the positively-charged defect layer is about 1.5 nm. Due to the defects, the thin layer is no longer of semiconductor characteristics. The electric field formed by the positive charges of thin layer points to p-type semiconductor pentacene thin film, and impedes the transfer of holes from pentacene thin film to polymer thin film. The positively-charged defects act as a positive-charge barrier layer, and the existence of the positive-charge barrier, which results in the high working voltage of pentacene OFETs using polymer films as charge trapping dielectric.

Pentacene organic field-effect transistor with n-type semiconductor interlayer and its application


Disclosed are a display panel in which all or some portions of an inspection pad and an inspection wire for inspection of a panel are formed in the display panel, and a display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a display panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the information society develops, the demand for display devices for displaying an image in various forms has increased, and in recent years, various display devices such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), Plasma Display Panels (PDPs), and Organic Light Emitting Diode displays (OLEDs) have been utilized. Such display devices include a display panel corresponding to the display device.
The display panel included in the display device may be one of various display panels produced from one substrate. That is, elements, signal lines, or power lines constituting pixels in one substrate are formed in a unit of display panels according to several process procedures, and then a substrate is cut into units of display panels by using scribing equipment to produce several display panels.
During a panel manufacturing process, inspection of panels (for example, aging inspection) for identifying characteristic changes and state of elements and lines constituting pixels in a display panel, and for the inspection of a panel, when, before, or after elements, signal lines, or power lines constituting pixels in units of display panels on a substrate are formed, an inspection pad and an inspection wire for inspection of the panels may be formed together.
The inspection pad and the inspection wire for inspection of the panels are formed substantially at an outer portion of the display panel. Thus, if the substrate is cut into units of display panels by using the scribing equipment, an inspection pad or an inspection wire for inspection of a panel is not left in the display panel.
However, since a separation between areas in which display panels are produced on a substrate is considerably small, it is not easy to form an inspection pad and an inspection wire for inspection of a panel in an outer area of a display panel.
Accordingly, since a separation between areas in which display panels are produced cannot be sufficiently narrowed on a substrate, it is difficult to produce many display panels from one substrate.


A system and method that enables sellers to control all aspects of their sales transaction and customer data, while still providing taxing jurisdictions with the assurance that sales and use taxes are properly being accounted for and calculated This is accomplished by placing the tax calculation and accounting functions at the seller's site, executed by a secure tax meter.

From the dawn of history to the present day, governments have collected taxes to pay for their expenditures. One type of tax levied by governments is tax on the sale and/or use of goods and/or services. "Sales taxes" are usually imposed at a certain percent of the receipts from every retail sale of tangible personal property made in the taxing jurisdiction. "Use taxes" are usually imposed on the use of tangible personal property or taxable services within the taxing jurisdiction.
Currently in the United States, some cities, states, counties, districts, and boroughs collect sales and/or uses taxes on commercial transactions that take place in their jurisdictions. In fact, there are approximately 6,000 jurisdictions in the United States collecting sales and/or use taxes. The sales and/or use taxes are at many different rates and apply to different types of goods and/or services. For instance, the sales tax on clothing may be exempt from taxation in one jurisdiction and subject to taxation in another jurisdiction at a rate of 6% for all clothing sales over $100.00. The sales tax may also be based upon the amount of the substance that is contained in the product, i.e., juices having different amounts of concentrates are taxed at different rates in some jurisdictions. Some entities, like charities, Indian tribes, etc., may be subject to taxation in one jurisdiction and not in another.
Generally, a jurisdiction has the right or power to tax a commercial transaction if the commercial transaction takes place within the taxing jurisdiction, i.e., goods subject to a sales tax are sold by a store that is physically located within the taxing jurisdiction. Goods subject to a use tax are goods that are used, consumed or stored in the taxing jurisdiction. The taxing jurisdictions usually have no difficulty collecting sales taxes on sales in their taxing jurisdiction made by merchants physically located in the taxing jurisdiction. A buyer is responsible for the payment of the tax if the seller does not collect the tax. However, the taxing jurisdictions usually find it difficult to collect taxes on the sale and/or use of goods and/or services that are made in a different jurisdiction and delivered and/or performed in the taxing jurisdiction. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of commercial transactions that are or may be subject to a sales and/or use tax that are taking place over the Internet or from catalogs. The taxing jurisdictions are having difficulty collecting sales and/or use taxes that are made via the Internet and catalogs.
Currently, sellers of goods and/or services have difficulty complying with the sales and/or use tax, government-mandated seller administrative functions. Sales tax administrative functions include determination and calculation of the amount of tax due, collection of the tax, remittance of the tax, and filing reports of the tax to the appropriate governmental agency. The seller of the goods/and or services also has to maintain adequate records since the government may audit the seller.
In some existing tax collection systems, a representative of a taxing jurisdiction must physically visit a seller in order to audit the seller. As a result, the seller, to some degree, can control the amount of information and content of information to which any given taxing jurisdiction has access. For example, a seller may not show the taxing jurisdiction all of the relevant information, or the taxing jurisdiction may view information that it is not entitled to view.
In other existing tax collection systems, an agent provides an online service that performs the sales tax administration functions of a seller, thereby relieving the seller of a portion of the tax compliance burden. However, some sellers are uneasy about relying upon an agent as an integral part of their sales tax transaction processing and providing the agent with a significant amount of transaction detail, e.g., customer addresses. Sellers would prefer to control all aspects of their transaction processing, including tax compliance. Taxing jurisdictions are concerned that sellers might modify their tax compliance systems and defraud the taxing jurisdictions. Therefore, the taxing jurisdictions would prefer that a trusted third party (which the States could more easily audit) be responsible for tax calculation and collection.

Secure tax meter and certified service provider center for collecting sales and/or use taxes on sales that are made via the internet and/or catalog


A lane deviation prevention control apparatus of a vehicle calculates a lane width direction vehicle lateral position and a yaw angle of the vehicle with respect to a lane, calculates, on the basis of the lane width direction vehicle lateral position, the yaw angle, and vehicle speed, a lane deviation predicted time in which the vehicle deviates from the lane, calculates, on the basis of the yaw angle and the lane deviation predicted time, a target yaw moment applied to the vehicle for preventing deviation from the lane, observes a change rate of the target yaw moment, and, when the change rate of the target yaw moment is equal to or larger than a threshold set in advance, limits the change rate of the target yaw moment to be equal to or smaller than a change rate limit value variably set according to at least traveling road information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a lane deviation prevention control apparatus of a vehicle that, when the vehicle is about to deviate from the traveling lane, actuates an actuator to thereby apply a yaw moment to the vehicle to prevent deviation from a lane.
2. Related Art
In recent years, various devices for supporting driving have been developed and put to practical use for vehicles. A lane deviation prevention control apparatus that prevents deviation from a lane is one of such devices. For instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H7-105498 discloses a technique of a traveling state determining device of an automobile that predicts a deviation state from a lane on the basis of a distance to a point of intersection of an estimated traveling path of a vehicle and a side edge of a line and on the basis of an angle formed by the estimated traveling path and the side edge at the point of intersection and performs automatic steering correction in order to prevent deviation on the basis of the prediction. JP-A No. 2008-195402 discloses a technique of a driving support device that, when a lane deviation determining unit determines that a traveling vehicle will deviate from a lane, applies warning torque to the vehicle and prevents lane deviation. The driving support device sets, on the basis of a maximum of the warning torque applied to the vehicle, a change rate of the warning torque to the maximum of the warning torque such that time until the warning torque reaches the maximum is fixed.
In the technique of the traveling state determining device disclosed in JP-A No. H7-105498, when a value of a change rate of a target turning amount applied to the vehicle in order to prevent vehicle deviation is a fixed value and a set target turning amount is abruptly output, a steering system and vehicle behavior suddenly fluctuate and give a sense of discomfort to a driver. Therefore, in JP-A No. 2008-195402, the change rate of the warning torque (the target turning amount) to be generated is changed to prevent the vehicle behavior felt by the driver from being increasing. However, only with the change of the change rate of the target turning amount, it is likely that not only suppression of vehicle behavior fluctuation but also deviation prevention for the vehicle is made difficult by being affected by change rate suppression, for instance, during deviation to an outer (inner) side of the curve or during deviation due to disturbance action.

Lane deviation prevention control apparatus of vehicle


The present invention provides a one-piece golf ball having good durability, good shot feel and excellent flight performance. The present invention relates to a one-piece golf ball formed by vulcanizing and press molding a rubber composition comprising a base rubber, co-crosslinking agent, organic peroxide and inorganic filler, wherein

The present invention relates to a one-piece golf ball. More particularly, it relates to a one-piece golf ball having good durability, good shot feel and excellent flight performance.
Golf balls are typically classified into two types, that is, golf balls for round games and golf. balls for driving ranges. It is difficult to say that performance, which is required for these two types of golf balls, is the same with each other. The performance required for the golf ball for round games is good shot feel, excellent flight performance, good durability and the like. If the golf balls for round games are used as a golf ball for driving ranges, good shot feel and excellent flight performance are maintained, but the durability is very poor as a golf ball for driving ranges, which is repeatedly hit. Therefore, at driving ranges, the durability is regarded as more important than the shot feel and flight performance, and golf balls having much better durability than that of the golf balls for round games is used.
In the golf balls for driving ranges, there are golf balls having low rebound characteristics, low trajectory and high trajectory, golf balls for using on the water and the like other than a standard ball depending on the extent of the driving ranges, the height of net and the like. There are various golf balls, such as one-piece golf ball, two-piece golf ball and the like, depending on the structure of the golf ball. At present, one-piece solid golf ball, which is standard ball, is mainly used as golf balls for driving ranges.
Recently, since performance as good as golf balls for round games, such as shot feel, has been required for golf balls for driving ranges, good shot feel and excellent flight performance have been required for the one-piece golf ball having excellent durability. However, when softening the golf ball in order to improve the shot feel or improving the flight performance, the durability is degraded. It is very difficult to improve shot feel and flight performance, while maintaining excellent durability.
A one-piece solid golf ball, of which the hardness distribution is adjusted so that an outer portion is hard and an inner portion is soft, is proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. 244418/1999 and the like). In Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. 244418/1999, a one-piece solid golf ball, of which the hardness distribution is adjusted so that an outer portion is hard and an inner portion is soft, and the deformation amount is adjusted to a specific range, is described. However, in the golf ball, the shot feel is improved, but it is problem that excellent durability is not maintained.
Since it is required for the golf ball for driving ranges to be low cost, it is difficult to use expensive materials in order to solve the problem. Therefore one-piece solid golf ball, which is superior in all of durability, shot feel and flight performance, has not been yet obtained.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a one-piece golf ball having good durability, good shot feel and excellent flight performance.
According to the present invention, the object described above has been accomplished by using two types of polybutadiene having a specific weight average molecular weight and number average molecular weight in a specific weight ratio as a base rubber in a rubber composition comprising a base rubber, co-crosslinking agent, organic peroxide, inorganic filler and the like, thereby providing a one-piece golf ball having good durability, good shot feel and excellent flight performance.
The present invention provides a one-piece golf ball formed by vulcanizing and press molding a rubber composition comprising a base rubber, co-crosslinking agent, organic peroxide and inorganic filler, wherein
the base rubber comprises
(1) polybutadiene (A) having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 55xc3x97104 to 69xc3x97104 and a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 10xc3x97104 to 20xc3x97104, and
(2) polybutadiene (B) having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 70xc3x97104 to 120xc3x97104 and a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 13xc3x97104 to 25xc3x97104, in a weight ratio (A/B) of 3/97 to 70/30.
In order to put the present invention into a more suitable practical application, it is desired that
the polybutadiene (A) have Mw/Mn of 2.0 to 4.0, and the polybutadiene (B) have Mw/Mn of 4.2 to 5.0, and
the golf ball have a center hardness (C) in JIS-C hardness of 55 to 63, a surface hardness (D) in JIS-C hardness of 75 to 88 and a hardness difference (Dxe2x88x92C) of 18 to 25.
The one-piece golf ball of the present invention is formed from vulcanized integrally molded article of rubber composition. The rubber composition comprises a base rubber, co-crosslinking agent, organic peroxide, inorganic filler and the like.
It is required for the base rubber used in the present invention to comprise
(1) polybutadiene (A) having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 55xc3x97104 to 69xc3x97104 and a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 10xc3x97104 to 20xc3x97104, and
(2) polybutadiene (B) having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 70xc3x97104 to 120xc3x97104 and a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 13xc3x97104 to 25xc3x97104, in a weight ratio (A/B) of 3/97 to 70/30.
It is required for the polybutadiene (A) to have Mw of 55xc3x97104 to 69xc3x97104, preferably 55xc3x97104 to 65xc3x97104, more preferably 57xc3x97104 to 65xc3x97104. When the Mw is smaller than 55xc3x97104, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mw is larger than 69xc3x97104, the processability is degraded. It is required for the polybutadiene (A) to have Mn of 10xc3x97104 to 20xc3x97104, preferably 12xc3x97104 to 16xc3x97104, more preferably 13xc3x97104 to 16xc3x97104. When the Mn is smaller than 10xc3x97104, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mn is larger than 20xc3x97104, the processability is degraded. It is desired for the polybutadiene (A) to have Mw/Mn of 2.0 to 4.0. When the Mw/Mn is larger than 4.0, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mw/Mn is smaller than 2.0, the processability is degraded. Therefore the Mw/Mn is within the range of preferably 2.5 to 4.0, more preferably 2.7 to 4.0, most preferably 3.0 to 4.0.
It is required for the polybutadiene (B) to have Mw of 70xc3x97104 to 120xc3x97104, preferably 75xc3x97104 to 110xc3x97104, more preferably 80xc3x97104 to 110xc3x97104. When the Mw is smaller than 70xc3x97104, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mw is larger than 120xc3x97104, the processability is degraded. It is required for the polybutadiene (A) to have Mn of 13xc3x97104 to 25xc3x97104, preferably 17xc3x97104 to 25xc3x97104, more preferably 17xc3x97104 to 24xc3x97104. When the Mn is smaller than 13xc3x97104, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mn is larger than 25xc3x97104, the processability is degraded. It is desired for the polybutadiene (A) to have Mw/Mn of 4.2 to 5.0. When the Mw/Mn is larger than 5.0, the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the Mw/Mn is smaller than 4.2, the processability is degraded. Therefore the Mw/Mn is within the range of preferably 4.2 to 4.8, more preferably 4.2 to 4.5, most preferably 4.3 to 4.8.
It is desired for a ratio (MwA/MwB) of the Mw of the polybutadiene (A): (MwA) to the Mw of the polybutadiene (B): (MwB) to be within the range of 0.45 to 0.95, preferably 0.50 to 0.90. When the MwA/MwB is smaller than 0.45, the processability and durability are degraded. On the other hand, when the MwA/MwB is larger than 0.95, the rebound characteristics are degraded. It is desired for a ratio (MnA/MnB) of the Mn of the polybutadiene (A): (MnA). to the Mn of the polybutadiene (B): (MnB) to be within the range of 0.50 to 1.30, preferably 0.55 to 1.20. When the MnA/MnB is smaller than 0.50, the processability is degraded. On the other hand, when the MnA/MnB is larger than 1.30, the degraded.
Generally, when the Mw of polybutadiene rubber is large, the rebound characteristics are improved, but the processability tends to be degraded. On the other hand, when the Mw of polybutadiene rubber is small, the processability is good, but the rebound characteristics tend to be degraded. If the polybutadiene (A) is only used, the processability is good, but the rebound characteristics are degraded. If the polybutadiene (B) is only used, the rebound characteristics are improved, but the processability is degraded. A one-piece solid golf ball having good rebound characteristics, good processability and excellent durability can be obtained by using the polybutadiene (A) and the polybutadiene (B) together.
It is required for a weight ratio (A/B) of the polybutadiene (A) to the polybutadiene (B) to be within the range of 3/97 to 70/30, preferably 5/95 to 70/30, more preferably 5/95 to 50/50. When the amount of the polybutadiene (A) is smaller than 3% by weight or that of the polybutadiene (B) is larger than 97% by weight, the durability is degraded. On the other hand, when the amount of the polybutadiene (A) is larger than 70% by weight, the processability is degraded and the flight performance is degraded. When the amount of the polybutadiene (B) is smaller than 30% by weight, the rebound characteristics are degraded. The polybutadiene (A) and the polybutadiene (B) may be respectively comprised by one polybutadiene or the mixture of two or more polybutadienes as long as the above requisites are fulfilled.
The xe2x80x9cprocessabilityxe2x80x9d as used herein is determined by evaluating the winding of the rubber composition on the mixing roll during mixing, and the chapping of the surface of plug when extruding the plug (unvulcanized molded article) used at molding. When the processability is poor, it is difficult to wind the rubber composition on the mixing roll, the surface of plug is chap, the dispersibility of formulation materials is poor, and the performance of the resulting golf ball is uneven. In addition, the appearance is poor because of the chapping of the surface of plug, or the durability is degraded because the release agent gets into the chap surface of plug.
The base rubber may only consist of the polybutadiene rubber (A) and polybutadiene rubber (B), but may be optionally mixed with natural rubber, polyisoprene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) and the like. If used, it is preferable to adjust the amount of the rubber other than the polybutadiene so that the total amount of the polybutadiene rubber (A) and polybutadiene rubber (B) is within the range of not less than 80% by weight, preferably not less than 90% by weight, based on the total weight of the base rubber. When the total amount of the polybutadiene rubber (A) and polybutadiene rubber (B) is within the range of less than 80% by weight, the rebound characteristics are degraded, or the processability is degraded.
Examples of the co-crosslinking agents include xcex1,xcex2-unsaturated carboxylic acids having 3 to 8 carbon atoms (e.g. acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, etc.) or a monovalent or divalent metal salt such as zinc or magnesium salt thereof, polyfunctional acrylic esters such as trimethylolpropane triacrylate, polyfunctional methacrylic esters such as trimethylpropane trimethacrylate, and the like. The amount of the co-crosslinking agent is from 19 to 29 parts by weight, preferably from 22 to 26 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the base rubber. When the amount of the co-crosslinking agent is larger than 29 parts by weight, the core is too hard, and the shot feel of the resulting golf ball is poor. On the other hand, when the amount of the co-crosslinking agent is smaller than 19 parts by weight, it is required to increase the amount of the organic peroxide in order to obtain the desired hardness, and high rebound characteristics of the resulting golf ball are not obtained.
Examples of the organic peroxides, which act as a crosslinking agent or curing agent, include, for example, dicumyl peroxide, 1,1-bis (t-butylperoxy)-3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexane, 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-di(t-butylperoxy) hexane, di-t-butyl peroxide, 2,2-di(t-butylperoxy)butane, t-butyl perbenzoate and the like. The preferred organic peroxide is dicumyl peroxide. The amount of the organic peroxide is 0.1 to 3.0 parts by weight, preferably 1.5 to 2.0 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the base rubber. When the amount of the organic peroxide is smaller than 0.1 parts by weight, the core is too soft, and high rebound characteristics are not obtained. On the other hand, when the amount of the organic peroxide is larger than 3.0 parts by weight, it is required to decrease the amount of the co-crosslinking agent in order to obtain the desired hardness, and high rebound characteristics are not obtained. When these organic peroxides are heated, they decompose to form radicals, which increase the degree of crosslinking between the aforedescribed co-crosslinking agents and base rubber, and enhance the rebound characteristics.
Examples of the fillers include inorganic fillers such as zinc oxide, silicon oxide, barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, aluminum silicate and mixtures thereof. The inorganic fillers are used as a reinforcing agent, which improves the hardness or strength, or a specific gravity (weight) adjuster. However, the preferred filler is zinc oxide, which functions as a vulcanization aid. The amount of the filler is 10 to 60 parts by weight, preferable 12 to 50 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the base rubber. When the amount of the filler is larger than 60 parts by weight, the weight ratio of the rubber component in the resulting golf ball is small, and the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the amount of the filler is smaller than 10 parts by weight, it is difficult to adjust the weight of the resulting golf ball, or the durability is degraded.
Where appropriate, it is possible to compound a component which is typically used in the manufacture of one-piece solid golf ball together with the rubber composition for the one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention; pigments such as titanium dioxide and the like, and other additives such as antioxidants, peptizing agents and the like.
The one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention can be obtained by mixing the rubber composition with a mixer such as a mixing roll and the like, and then press-molding and vulcanizing the mixture under applied heat in a mold. The vulcanizing, of which the condition is not limited, is conducted at 130 to 240xc2x0 C. and 2.9 to 11.8 MPa for 15 to 60 minutes. The vulcanizing may be conducted in two or more stages of the temperature.
At the time of molding the golf ball, many depressions called xe2x80x9cdimplesxe2x80x9d may be optionally formed on the surface of the golf ball. Furthermore, paint finishing or marking with a stamp may be optionally provided after the cover is molded for commercial purposes.
In the one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention, it is desired to have a center hardness in JIS-C hardness (C) of 55 to 63, preferably 56 to 62, more preferably 57 to 61. When the center hardness is smaller than 55, the durability is degraded. On the other hand, when the center hardness is larger than 63, the shot feel is poor.
In the one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention, it is desired to have a surface hardness in JIS-C hardness (D) of 75 to 88, preferably 75 to 85. When the center hardness is smaller than 75, the shot feel is heavy and poor, and the flight performance is degraded. On the other hand, when the center hardness is larger than 88, the durability is degraded. The term xe2x80x9ccenter hardnessxe2x80x9d as used herein refers to the hardness, which is determined by cutting the resulting golf ball into two equal parts and then measuring a JIS-C hardness at its center point in section. The term xe2x80x9csurface hardnessxe2x80x9d as used herein refers to the hardness, which is determined by measuring a JIS-C hardness at the surface of the resulting golf ball.
In the one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention, it is desired to have a hardness difference (Dxe2x88x92C) between the center hardness in JIS-C hardness (C) and the surface hardness in JIS-C hardness (D) of 18 to 25, preferably 19 to 24. When the hardness difference (Dxe2x88x92C) is smaller than 18, the shot feel is heavy and poor and the flight performance is degraded. On the other hand, when the hardness difference is larger than 25, the durability is degraded.
In the present invention, the core has a diameter of 36.5 to 42.5 mm, preferably 36.7 to 40.8 mm. When the diameter of the core is smaller than 36.5 mm, the thickness of the cover is large, and the impact force at the time of hitting is large. In addition, the volume of the core is small, and the rebound characteristics are degraded. On the other hand, when the diameter of the core is larger than 42.5 mm, the thickness of the cover is small, and the durability is degraded.
Generally, polybutadiene rubber having large Mw, such as the polybutadiene rubber (B) is used in larger amount in order to improve the rebound characteristics. Thereby, the difference between the center hardness and surface hardness is large, and the shot feel is improved, but the durability is degraded with using only the polybutadiene rubber (B). The one-piece solid golf ball having excellent rebound characteristics (flight performance), excellent durability and excellent processability is obtained by using a combination of the polybutadiene (A) and polybutadiene (B). In addition, the shot feel is good by controlling the hardness difference to a specified range.
The weight of the golf ball is limited to the range of not more than 45.92 g when it is large size golf ball, but the lower limit is not limited. The one-piece solid golf ball of the present invention has a weight of 44.0 to 45.8 g, preferably 44.2 to 45.8 g. When the weight of the golf ball is smaller than 44.0 g, the golf ball loses inertia on a flight, and stalls, which reduces the flight distance. On the other hand, when the weight of the golf ball is larger than 45.8 g, the shot feel is heavy and poor.
The diameter of the one-piece golf ball of the present invention can be within the range of 41.0 to 44.0 mm, but it is preferably within the range of not less than 42.67 mm in accordance with the regulations for large size golf balls, typically it is about 42.75 mm.

Abstract: the base rubber comprises


A method of verifying the accuracy of blocks of data. In one embodiment, a method of verifying the accuracy of data in a message that includes a checking mechanism with hidden data is provided. The method comprises observing two or more initial messages. Comparing the residual error of each of the observed initial messages. If the residual errors of at least two of the initial messages match each other, storing the matched residual error. For subsequent messages, comparing residual errors of the subsequent messages with the stored matched residual error.

In data communication systems that require the detection (and possibly correction) of errors in the data transmission, the data is typically divided into units over which independent error checking is done. These units could be frames, messages, packets, or blocks; and often, these terms are used synonymously.
A method of checking for errors in data blocks is by incorporating a checking mechanism such as a cyclic redundancy checking protocol. Such a protocol uses a CRC code (or CRC) that is generated from each data block of data at a transmission end by a transmitting device. The CRC code has properties well known in the art. The transmitting device calculates the value of the CRC code and appends it to its associated data block. At the receiving end, a receiving device makes a similar calculation on the data block and compares it with the received CRC code. If the received and calculated CRC codes match, the data block is considered to be error free. If the codes do not match, an error has been detected. Alternatively, and with the same effect, a receiver can perform a CRC calculation over the received message and its appended CRC code: and then, compare the results against a constant (typically zero) with a mismatch indicating a message error.
Another common method of checking for errors in data blocks is by incorporating a checksum. This behaves the same as a CRC except that the mathematics used to calculate the check code is modular integer addition over the block rather than the CRC's division of the block by a Galois field of two polynomial. There are additional error checking methods in use or which are possible that create redundant data via some mathematical operations over a block of data.
Some communication protocols utilize a CRC that covers not only the contents of the data block but also an additional constant data that is not transmitted (hidden data). That is, in this protocol, the CRC is calculated based on each packet of data (block of data) and the hidden data. This hidden data, however, can provide problems for receivers receiving a block of data with a CRC that is calculated based not only on the data but also hidden data when the receiver does not have knowledge of the hidden data. These receivers cannot determine the correctness of the CRC of a received message or distinguish between packet corruption during transmission or source data corruption if there is an error. Similarly, the hidden data can also provide a problem for diagnostic testing of blocks of data in a bus. That is, test equipment used to monitor the blocks of data in a bus will not be able to accurately test the reliability of the CRC if the CRC includes hidden data that the test equipment does not know about. Moreover, having to determine what the hidden data is using current methods and then having to program the test equipment to take the hidden data into consideration is difficult and inefficient. All of the error checking methods that create redundant data via some mathematical operations over a block of data can hide data in a manner similar to the CRC method.
In some time-triggered communication systems, each node is required to have instructions for communications that controls behaviors such as time triggering and synchronization so each node knows how to communicate with the other nodes. The instructions are typically given to the nodes through a table. The tables are occasionally updated and identified by their version number. For proper communication between nodes, the same version of the table must be used between nodes. Therefore, it is important for each node to know which version of the table to use. One method of ensuring that each node is using the same version of table is by explicitly sending (i.e. dedicating a bit or bits in a block of data) over a communication signal that can be read and verified by the nodes in communication. This however, reduces the possible bandwidth for sending data since one or more bits are designated as a table identifier. Another method is to put the table version in a message as hidden data. However, if the table identifier bits are incorrect, an incorrect version of the table will be identified and errors in the communications between the nodes will occur. The possibility of incorrect table bits leading to incorrect table use occurs both in the explicitly sending methods and the hidden data methods currently practiced in the art. In addition, the hidden data method as practiced in the art can't distinguish between message data errors and incompatible table versions.
In addition, current practices require the explicit sending of communication related schedule position data in order to facilitate the integration or re-integration of powering-up or recovering nodes. This requires dedicated bandwidth to be consumed with such data and lowers network efficiency. Also, if this data is not sent in every transmission, the frames carrying such data need to be differentiated from frames not carrying such data. The requirement for differentiation leaves the frame vulnerable to errors of invalid frame type identifiers.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of providing message validity checking using hidden data even if the hidden data is not known or is incompatible between transmitters and receivers and a need for extraction of the value of the hidden data directly from the message stream without the expense of an alternate path to convey the hidden data.

Message error verification using checking with hidden data


A magnetic press (10) for performing a manufacturing operation includes tooling (60) operatively connected to reciprocating parts comprising rods (22), and a magnet (41) connected to the rods (22) through a stationary plate (31). A control circuit (200) electrically operates a reciprocating magnet (41) and a stationary magnet (51) for inducing flux fields of attraction in the magnets (41,51), and for reversing the polarity of the flux fields to eliminate residual magnetism and for cushioning the landing of magnet (41) on a return stroke.

Presses for terminating electrical terminals to wires typically employ linear pneumatic or rotary electric actuators to provide the forces necessary for crimping a terminal to a wire. Because these actuators are often energy inefficient, difficult to control from a quality standpoint, and are particularly susceptible to maintenance problems, a distinct group of presses employing the use of electromagnets has been developed. In a general design scheme of such magnetic presses, a pair of electromagnets is connected to an electrical circuit, which circuit is operative to supply electrical current to the magnets' windings in a way that induces attractive magnetic fields. One of the magnets is operatively connected to a displaceable shaft which transmits forces to a crimping tool, which, in turn, transmits crimping forces to a terminal thereby crimping the terminal to an electrical wire. Magnetic presses are advantageously capable of generating compressive forces in the order of several tons of crimping pressure, but problems have arisen regarding the control of such forces.
Prior devices which address the control of magnetic presses of the foregoing design are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,496('496) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,662('662). Referring first to the '496 patent, two circuits are therein described. The first circuit defines an embodiment applying a pulse of current from a power source to the windings of a pair of magnets. One of the magnets is stationary, and the other magnet is reciprocable and is attached to a tooling shaft. The pulse has been predefined in current and amplitude based on prior experience with a particular work piece. The circuit does not provide for a sensor or feedback system to control the current sent to the magnets. The second circuit results in application of a constant crimp force through the use of a feedback system including a force transducer, e.g. a piezoelectric device or strain gauge. The force transducer is strategically placed to sense the force applied to an anvil of the crimp tooling. The force transducer is operative to send a proportional electrical signal to a comparator which compares the transducer signal to a reference signal, if there is a differential between the signals, the comparator then sends a control signal to the power source to modify the power input to the magnets until the transducer signal sufficiently approximates the reference signal. A timing circuit then controls the interval of time, i.e. the dwell time, that the crimping force is applied to the terminal, which time is equal to a predetermined interval of time. At the end of the dwell time, the terminal has been crimped, the magnets are de-energized, and the reciprocable magnet is returned, under a spring force, to an original position in preparation for the next crimp cycle.
The device described in the '662 patent is an improvement over the '496 device in that a let down circuit has been added for the purpose of limiting the initial current to the magnets, thereby controlling the velocity of the crimp tooling and avoiding excessive kinetic energy in the tooling on the down stroke. After the tooling makes the initial contact with a work piece, the current supplied to the magnets is increased for generating sufficient crimping forces. A transducer/comparator circuit, such as described above in respect of the '496 patent, is used to control the force applied during the dwell time. When the reference signal is met by the transducer signal value, the power to the magnets is cut off, and the reciprocating magnet returns to an undisplaced position in preparation for the next cycle.
A disadvantage of the foregoing magnetic presses is that magnetic flux fields exist between the magnets even after the power signal to the magnets has been zeroed. This occurs because the electromagnetic material does not return to its original state, i.e. an insubstantial magnetic flux, but, rather, after removal of the circuit induced magnetic field a residual magnetism inheres in the electromagnetic material. Such residual magnetism results in a continuation of the forces of attraction between the magnets, thereby retarding their relative separation in preparation for the next crimp cycle, and, thereby disadvantageously resulting increased cycle time. Moreover, the use of a transducer to sense the pressure of the crimp tooling and send a control signal to a comparator for processing adds delay in response time of the overall control system. Furthermore, the use of a transducer increases the capital equipment and maintenance expenses of the prior devices. Additionally, when the magnet is returned under the force of the spring the magnet will tend to come to an abrupt stop, i.e. slam, into an abutment on the up-stroke thereby potentially damaging the component parts of the press. A further disadvantage of the prior devices is that they are not adapted to receive standard application tooling with an automatic terminal feed mechanism.
In view of the above, what is needed is a magnetic press which has a minimum cycle time, avoids slamming on the up-stroke, is adapted to receive standard application tooling with an automatic terminal feed mechanism, and is inexpensive to manufacture.


A battery charger is disclosed for charging a battery from a vehicle electrical system. The battery charger includes switching devices and a storage element for providing a supply from the vehicle electrical system. The regulator is connected to the switching devices and the storage element for regulating a voltage applied to the battery. The regulated voltage is controlled to have a first value during charging and a second value after the battery is charged.

This invention relates to battery chargers and more particularly, it relates to circuits for supplying a charging potential from a power source to a battery. Still more particularly, the invention relates to a circuit for supplying a charging potential from a vehicle electrical system to a separately carried battery, such as a sealed lead-acid battery in a towed vehicle, i.e., trailer, or the battery power pack of a portable cellular phone, etc.
It is highly desirable, and indeed a requirement, that certain towed vehicles, i.e., trailers of a certain size rating, have a system for actuating the towed vehicle brakes should the towed vehicle break away from a towing vehicle. These towed vehicles typically include electric brake-actuation components powered from the towing vehicle electrical system during normal towing conditions. However, power for energizing the electric brake-actuation components is not available from the towing vehicle when the towed vehicle separates from the towing vehicle.
To provide a power source on the towed vehicle for energizing the brakes if a breakaway occurs, a battery is provided on that vehicle. In order for the battery to apply sufficient power to the towed vehicle brakes to stop the towed vehicle and hold it for a prescribed time, the battery must be fully charged while the vehicle is being towed. For example, a fully charged battery will hold the towed vehicle brakes engaged for at least fifteen minutes for purposes of stopping the towed vehicle and preventing rolling once the towed vehicle stops. However, prior to being towed, the vehicle may remain inactive for an extended time period, during which the battery charge may be significantly or completely depleted. Furthermore, as noted hereinafter, the steady-state or "float" level of a lead-acid battery is well below its fully charged level in any event.
Accordingly, it is desirable to charge the towed vehicle battery from the towing vehicle electrical system while the vehicle is being towed. Prior art systems connect the battery of the towed vehicle to the electrical system of the towing vehicle through a diode, or a series connection of a diode and a resistor. Thus, a voltage drop, at least equal to the forward voltage drop of the diode, exists between the tow vehicle electrical system and the towed vehicle battery. This voltage drop slows the rate at which the battery charges and in most cases prevents the towed vehicle battery from being fully charged. A depleted battery charged from a low supply voltage may take hours, or even days, to charge to the level of the applied voltage. During that time, should the trailer disconnect from the towing vehicle, the battery will not have sufficient capacity to adequately actuate the towed vehicle brakes.
Known circuits for charging a battery from a vehicle electrical system have a number of other disadvantages and limitations. In particular, they apply a voltage to the battery which is directly proportional to the supply voltage of the vehicle electrical system and, accordingly, they are unable to effectively control the voltage applied to the battery. For example, the optimum charging voltage for the battery is dependent upon the ambient temperature. However, prior art circuits for charging a battery from a vehicle are unable to compensate for ambient temperature variations. Thus, prior art circuits are unable to charge the battery to a higher voltage at low ambient temperatures than at a higher ambient temperatures. Additionally, such prior art circuits are unable to supply a relatively high charging potential until the battery is fully charged and a lower "floating potential" once the battery reaches the charging voltage. On the one hand, if the optimum charging voltage is applied to the battery after it is fully charged, the electrolyte will boil away. On the other hand, if a smaller voltage is used to charge the battery, a significant time period is required to fully charge the battery.
Chargers are known for charging a battery from a stable power supply such as an AC wall outlet. These chargers use either a step-up converter or a step-down converter, depending upon the relationship between the supply source potential and the battery charging potential. The supply voltage must be greater than the charging voltage for a step-down converter and less than the charging voltage for a step-up converter for the charger to supply an appropriate voltage to the battery. However, the supply voltage from a vehicle, e.g., a car or truck, will vary substantially, depending upon whether the car engine is running or off, the length of time that the engine has been off, etc. The voltage on the battery being charged will also vary widely depending upon how long the battery being charged has been idle. Accordingly, the voltage output by a vehicle electrical system may be larger or smaller than the voltage on the battery being charged at any given time. Thus, step-up and step-down voltage converters are unable to reliably provide an adequate battery charging voltage from a vehicle power supply.


The invention provides an optical multiplexing device comprising: a plurality of optical sources with integrated collimators (31-37) whose output beams are combined by mirrors (41-47) or other beam deflecting elements, which combine the beams into a single composite beam diverging from a common origin point (30). This is done by arranging the mirrors (41-47) staggered at different distances from the origin point, and at different angles to each other taking accourt of the dependence of the beam divergence in far field on the distance from the origin point.

The invention relates to a device for multiplexing laser beams into a common output beam. An important application of this kind of multiplexing is for coupling together beams from a plurality of multimode laser diodes (LDs).
FIG. 1 shows parameters of a typical multimode LD 1. The LD 1 has a stripe 2 of length 100 μm, and width 2 μm. The direction along the stripe is often called the slow axis and the direction across the stripe the fast axis. In the figure, the fast axis coincides with the Y-axis and the slow axis coincides with the X-axis. The output beam from the LD 1 is characterised by waist sizes Wx and Wy. The output beam diverges from the near field to the far field. The divergence is highly asymmetric, resulting in a correspondingly asymmetric spatial distribution of optical radiation in the far field, illustrated schematically in the figure by the far-field beam cross-section 3. The divergence across the fast axis is characterised by an angle βx˜40° and is almost diffraction limited. The divergence in the Y-direction is characterised by an angle βy˜10°-14°. To characterise spatial distribution of an optical beam it is convenient to introduce the following parameter:M2=π(W/2)sin(β/2)/λ  (1)which defines the degree of dissimilarity of a beam under consideration from a diffraction-limited beam. From Eq. (1) one can find that for typical laser diode M2x=18 and M2y=1.2. In other words, output radiation from a laser diode is almost diffraction limited in the Y-direction (along the fast axis) and 18 times "worse" than diffraction limited beam in the X-direction.
The fact that output beam from LDs is essentially diffraction-limited in one direction and non-diffraction limited in the orthogonal direction allows for efficient spatial multiplexing when a number of beams are stacked in such a way that M2 is approximately equal in both directions. For example, if one stacks 15 beams along the Y-axis then such a source will have M2x˜M2y=18 (since 15×1.2=18). In applications where a single mode beam is not required, for example coupling light into a circular multimode fibre, the coupling efficiency is determined by M2max so that the coupling efficiency from a single stripe LD with M2x=18 and M2y=1.2 is approximately the same as from a LD stack with M2x=M2y=18, but the coupled optical power will be 10 times greater in the latter case.
This multiplexing or coupling principle was first used in 1968, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,344 [1] in which beam combining is achieved by collimating the fast axis and focusing by a cylindrical lens. More recent multiplexing designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 5,319,528 [2] and U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,912 [3].


A method for ordering telemetry messages containing attributes individually not sufficient to establish total ordering is provided. An initial rank value is assigned for a first telemetry message. For a subsequent telemetry message, it is determined if an attribute of the subsequent telemetry message indicates an ordering of the subsequent telemetry message with respect to the first telemetry message. If the attribute indicates the ordering of the subsequent telemetry message, a subsequent rank value is assigned to the subsequent telemetry message one higher than a highest rank value already assigned, otherwise a correct slot of the subsequent message is determined by minimizing a distance from an S slot corresponding to the highest rank value already assigned to a first non-empty slot by application of a Lazy Walker algorithm.

Telemetry is an enabling technology for large complex systems such as missiles, spacecraft, oilrigs, and chemical plants because it allows automatic monitoring, alerting, and record-keeping necessary for safe, efficient operations. Organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and other agencies use telemetry/telecommand systems to collect data from a monitored asset, such as operating spacecraft and satellites. Often this data is received from the monitored asset in the form of a series, or set, of messages.
Telemetry data is important in the development phase of missiles, satellites and aircraft because, at least in part, the monitored asset might be destroyed after/during the test. Engineers need critical system parameters in order to analyze (and improve) the performance of the system. Without telemetry, these data would often be unavailable.
Establishing a total ordering relationship among the elements of a set of messages received from a monitored asset may sometimes be difficult or impossible if the attributes of the elements based on which total ordering has been defined is complex (interdependent and bounded). This is particularly true in case of telemetry. The messages generated by the recording equipment of the monitored asset may contain attributes that may individually not be enough to establish total ordering. A combination of message metadata along with the some information contained within the message may have to be used to establish relative ordering.
Accordingly, a need exists for a mechanism to establish a total ordering relationship of a set of messages where establishing the relationship among a dynamically growing set of messages is difficult or impossible due to complex elements as described above. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.


There is disclosed a damping coefficient switching-type hydraulic damper that may automatically switch a damping coefficient without needing supply of energy from the outside at all, and also may always surely exert an energy absorption capacity greater than that of a typical hydraulic damper. While a piston is moving in a direction A, a mechanical drive means composed of a straight gear and a crank mechanism allows an on-off control operation valve, that is, a flow regulating valve to be placed in a closed state, and a damping coefficient is switched to a maximum value Cmax. When a movement of the piston is turned in a direction B at a left-side maximum point of amplitude, the mechanical drive means works to once open the flow regulating valve to perform elimination of a load, so that the damping coefficient is switched to a minimum value (Cmin). When the piston further moves in the direction B, the mechanical drive means works to close the flow regulating valve again, and the damping coefficient is returned to the maximum value (Cmax). Similar working to the above is also applied to a right-side maximum point of amplitude, and seismic response control is attained with repetition of the above operations.

As one of damper-type seismic response control devices useful in reducing shaking of a structure, there is a variable damping device (as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 11-336366, for instance) or the like structured so that a valve opening of an on-off control valve is controllable in two stages so as to be switched between a full open position and a full closed position.
The above hydraulic damper has a basic structure as shown in the prior art drawings of FIGS. 11–14, specifically, includes a cylinder 2, a double rod-type piston 3 movable in a reciprocating manner within the cylinder 2, hydraulic chambers 4, 4 provided at the opposite sides of the piston 3, an on-off control valve 6 provided in a passage 5 for connecting both the hydraulic chambers, and other components. This hydraulic damper causes the on-off control valve (electromagnetic valve) 6 to be on-off controlled in two stages so as to be switched between the full open position and the full closed position with supply of control current from a controller 7, and thereby allows a damping coefficient of a hydraulic damper 1 to be switched in two stages, that is, between a maximum value Cmax and a minimum value Cmin.
Thus-structured hydraulic damper 1 is mounted between stories of a structure through a structural component such as a brace as shown in FIG. 12. Thus, mechanical characteristics of a device part including the brace are represented as Maxwell-type model configured so that a spring and a dashpot are joined in series as shown in FIG. 13.
The device of FIG. 11 performs large energy absorption as shown in FIG. 14 by switching the damping coefficient of the device, that is, the valve opening of the on-off control valve 6 at a maximum point of amplitude of vibrations, and attains a reduction of vibrations of the structure. In FIG. 14, a load L of the hydraulic damper is scaled at a vertical axis, and a story deformation (deformation between Maxwell-type model ends) δ is scaled at a horizontal axis. In addition, a portion plotted by a broken line represents a result of energy absorption using a conventional damper D0 whose damping coefficient is constant, while a portion plotted by a solid line represents a result of energy absorption using a damping coefficient switching-type damper D1. Further, control of the valve opening C will do only in two stages so as to be switched between extreme positions such as the full closed position and the full open position. Thus, the device of FIG. 11 may have a more simplified structure as compared with a device (as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-45781, for instance) structured so that the valve opening is variably-controllable in a continuous manner.
However, the conventional device as described above requires an uninterruptible power supply unit and a special-purpose power supply wiring, because of indispensable use of electric components such as a sensor, a controller and an electromagnetic valve. In addition, the above electric components include those needing to be exchanged regularly, so that the above conventional device brings about a need for a cost involving a maintenance cost.
The present invention is conceived in order to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a variable damping-type hydraulic damper, more specifically, a damping coefficient switching-type hydraulic damper, which may automatically switch a damping coefficient without needing supply of energy from the outside at all, and also may always surely exert an energy absorption capacity greater than that of a typical hydraulic damper.

Damping coefficient switching-type hydraulic damper


A chattering vibration inhibiting mechanism capable of inhibiting chattering vibration of a machine tool without increasing weight nor requiring a time-consuming adjustment work is provided. A box-shaped package body 21 attached to a spindle head 6, a supporting member 22 disposed to bridge between front and rear walls 21a, 21b in the box-shaped package body 21, and a damper 23 composed of an elastic member 27 and a weight 26 supported by the supporting member 22 are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool provided with a spindle equipped with a tool and a spindle head supporting the spindle in a rotatable manner, and more specifically to, a chattering vibration inhibiting mechanism designed to inhibit chattering vibration generated in machining of a work.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a machine tool, accuracy in machining of a work possibly degrades due to chattering vibration generated in the machining of the work. In order to inhibit the chattering vibration as described above, for instance, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho56-102441, there is one, in which a container accommodating many solid fine particles made of metal particles having a spherical shape or a tip shape is disposed at an irrotational portion in the vicinity of a cutting tool.
Meanwhile, a structure disposing a container accommodating many solid fine particles as in the above-described conventional device causes problems that the weight increases due to the solid fine particles and that the adjustment by increasing/decreasing the solid fine particles is a time-consuming work.

Chattering vibration inhibiting mechanism of machine tool


A method for operating a safety system of a motor vehicle includes the steps of determining a target trajectory of the motor vehicle to be realized with the safety system after an unavoidable collision, wherein the target trajectory is assigned to a target position of the motor vehicle, which target position is safe with regard to secondary collisions, and performing at least one autonomous and/or supporting driving intervention in the form of at least one of a longitudinally guiding intervention and a transverse guiding intervention after the collision for realizing the target trajectory.

The present invention relates to a method for operating a safety system of a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Active safety systems, which are configured for avoiding collisions or for mitigating the consequences of a collision, are known in the state of the art. Such systems analyze, mostly by way of a collision probability, the risk of a collision and can attempt by various measures to avoid a collision and/or to at least keep the damages in case of a collision low. The measures can include active driving interventions however also the issuance of warnings and/or instructions and the control of further vehicle systems. For example, it is known, to adjust the operating parameters of vehicle systems in anticipation of a possible or unavoidable collision to the special situation for example in accordance with a pre conditioning of dead times and the like.
In case of an unavoidable collision i.e., when the dynamic possibilities of the motor vehicle are no longer sufficient to avoid a collision with a collision partner even in case of driving interventions, severe secondary collisions can occur after the first collision. In order to counteract these secondary collisions the current state of the art mostly only contemplates interventions of the driver which however, requires that the driver is physically able to perform the intervention and the intervention is within the scope of his driving skills. However, based on experience the driver is not able in these situations to avoid further collisions by taking his own measures or at least mitigate the caused damage.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide a method for operating a safety system which increases the safety after an initial collision with regard to further collisions.

Method for operating a safety system of a motor vehicle and motor vehicle


There is provided a contrast medium composition comprising: (a) a first contrast agent comprising a physiologically tolerable manganese compound together with an uptake promoter, having a manganese concentration of at least 0.3 mM or being in a dosage unit form containing at least 300 .mu.mol manganese, wherein the uptake promoter comprises a physiologically tolerable reducing compound containing an .alpha.-hydroxy ketone group or a physiologically tolerable acid containing .alpha.- and/or .beta.- hydroxy or amino groups, or a salt thereof, and/or vitamin D; together with (b) a second contrast agent.. Such compositions are particularly suitable for imaging of the liver.

MRI is now well established as a medical diagnostic tool. The ability of the technique to generate high quality images and to differentiate between soft tissues without requiring the patient to be exposed to ionizing radiation has contributed to this success.
Although MRI can be performed without using added contrast media, it has been found that substances which affect the nuclear spin reequilibration of the nuclei (hereinafter the "imaging nuclei"--generally water protons in body fluids aid tissues) responsible for the magnetic resonance (MR) signals from which the images are generated may be used to enhance image contrast and accordingly, in recent years, many such materials have been suggested as MRI contrast agents.
The enhanced contrast obtained with the use of contrast agents enables particular organs or tissues to be visualized more clearly by increasing or by decreasing the signal level of the particular organ or tissue relative to that of its surroundings. Contrast agents raising the signal level of the target site relative to that of its surroundings are termed "positive" contrast agents whilst those lowering the signal level relative to surroundings are termed "negative" contrast agents.
The majority of materials now being proposed as MRI contrast media achieve a contrast effect because they contain paramagnetic, superparamagnetic or ferromagnetic species.
For ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic contrast agents, which are negative MRI contrast agents, the enhanced image contrast derives primarily from the reduction in the spin reequilibration parameter known as T.sub.2 or as the spin-spin relaxation time, a reduction arising from the effect on the imaging nuclei of the fields generated by the ferromagnetic or superparamagnetic particles.
Paramagnetic contrast agents on the other hand may be either positive or negative MRI contrast agents. The effect of paramagnetic substances on magnetic resonance signal intensities is dependent on many factors, the most important of which are the concentration of the paramagnetic substance at the imaged site, the nature of the paramagnetic substance itself and the pulse sequence and magnetic field strength used in the imaging routine. Generally, however, paramagnetic contrast agents are positive MRI contrast agents at low concentrations where their T.sub.1 lowering effect dominates and negative MRI contrast agents at higher concentrations where their T.sub.2 lowering effect is dominant. In either event, the relaxation time reduction results from the effect on the imaging nuclei of the magnetic fields generated by the paramagnetic centres.
The use of paramagnetic, ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic materials as MRI contrast agents has been widely advocated and broad ranges of suitable materials have been suggested in the literature.
An example of a physiologically tolerable paramagnetic material known for use as an MRI contrast agent is manganese ion, which may conveniently be used in the form of its salts or chelates. Indeed, even at very low i.v. dosages (about 5-10 .mu.mol/kg bodyweight) manganese has been found to be particularly effective as a contrast agent for imaging of the liver.
However manganese, when administered intravenously as a contrast agent, may be teratogenic at clinical dosages. Administered intravenously, manganese is also known to interfere with the normal functioning of the heart by replacement of calcium in the calcium pump of the heart.
In order to reduce the direct effect on the heart, oral administration has been proposed. This ensures passage of the contrast agent through the liver before going to the heart.
Oral administration of MnCl.sub.2 as a liver imaging MR contrast agent has been proposed and orally administered MnCl.sub.2 has not been found to be teratogenic. However, the absorption of MnCl.sub.2 through the gut is poor, and as a result the dosage required for clinical efficacy is of the order of 100-1000 .mu.mol/kg bodyweight. In the event of damage to the gut resulting in increased uptake, such a high dosage level still has the potential for causing undesired adverse effects, eg. cardiac effects.

Composition and method of MRI using both a positive and a negative contrast agent


In a bypass filter unit, in particular, for filtering supplies of hydraulic oil in a bypass flow, comprising a motor-driven pump and a fixedly mounted filter housing closeable by a cover and containing an exchangeable filter element, it is proposed that the drive of the pump, the pump and the filter housing be arranged coaxially with one another, with the end of the filter housing that is closeable by the cover pointing upwards, that the filter housing be directly connected to the pump, and that the filter housing form a receptacle for the clean oil while the filter element is being changed, so as to enable changing of the filter element and renewal of the filter in a simple way and without risk of soiling the clean oil side.

The invention relates to a bypass filter unit, in particular, for filtering supplies of hydraulic oil in a bypass flow, comprising a motor-driven pump and a fixedly mounted filter housing closeable by a cover and containing an exchangeable filter element.
In a large number of cases, the bypass filter units defined at the outset are used for cleaning supplies of hydraulic oil in hydraulic systems in order to clean the supply of hydraulic fluid outside of the working flow of the hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid, in particular, the hydraulic oil, is taken from the oil supply, conveyed through the bypass filter unit, filtered and returned as clean oil to the hydraulic oil supply.
These bypass filter units can also be used for transferring hydraulic fluids by pumping (e.g. filling a hydraulic tank from a barrel).
In addition to the technology explained hereinabove with an exchangeable filter element, a second form of bypass filter unit operating with so-called spin-on filters, in which the filter element and the filter housing form one unit, has established itself.
In both technologies, however, the problem of changing the filter has been solved in an unsatisfactory way, in that either dirt particles deposited on the filter element are able to get back to the clean oil side or large quantities of hydraulic fluid have to be discarded on both the clean oil side and the dirty oil side when the filter is changed. In both cases, the handling of the filter elements, whether it be the filter elements as such, which are exchangeable, or the spin-on unit consisting of filter element and filter housing, involves a lot of work and often enough causes soiling of the environment with oil.


Systems and methods for optimizing the use and availability of storage space in a video data recording system. An intelligent disk recording and management system selectively assigns tags to determine the manner and/or priority of recording programs onto a storage device and the priority of maintaining the programs on the storage device once the programs are recorded. The tags are automatically assigned based on known user preferences or are assigned by the viewer, and can be modified once a program is replayed. The tags allow the system to automatically determine whether or not to record over a previously recorded program and which previously recorded program to record over so as to allow the storage device to be more efficiently and optimally used. The system further includes an interface that provides improved assistance and explanations that relate to the recording of programs and the maintaining of the recorded programs on the storage device.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for optimizing the use and availability of storage space. More specifically, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for selectively and intelligently tagging programs that a viewer desires to have recorded on a storage device to indicate the manner or priority for recording the programs in order to optimize the use of the storage space, and for selectively and intelligently eliminating programs that have been recorded to optimize the availability of the storage space.
2. The Prior State of the Art
Home entertainment systems are able to receive a variety of different programming channels from various sources at any time of the day or night. The channels carry public, cable and/or satellite television programming. When a viewer desires to record a program, the viewer usually programs a videocassette recorder ("VCR"), a digital video recorder ("DVR"), or another recording system of the home entertainment system to record the program.
When a VCR is used to record a program, the viewer supplies a videocassette and determines where on the videocassette the program is to be recorded. If other programs have been recorded on the videocassette so that an insufficient amount of space is available, the viewer obtains another videocassette that has sufficient space available, records over one or more of the previously recorded programs, or chooses to not record the program. Frequently, the viewer is unsure of what has been previously recorded and therefore must manually scan the videocassette to determine what has been recorded, which can be a time consuming process. Often, a new videocassette is obtained to record the desired program. As such, it is common for a viewer to obtain over time a collection of videocassettes upon which the viewer is uncertain as to what has been recorded. The collection is rarely reduced, as viewers normally do not take the time to determine which programs are not needed, and can be recorded over in order to eliminate the amount of storage space used to store recorded programs.
When a DVR is used to record a program, a storage disk is used that generally is internal to the system, thereby eliminating the clutter of videocassettes. However, since the amount of storage space available on a disk is limited, the disk can become full. As such, once all of the disk space has been used for recording programs, the viewer must still manually determine from the recorded programs which programs can be erased or recorded over to free up space on the disk for the recording of new programs. As with the VCR, this manual process is time consuming and can result in programs being inadvertently recorded over.

Optimizing use of storage space in a video data recording system