A brake monitoring system generally includes a plurality of brake monitors mounted on each of a plurality of brake actuators. Each brake monitor generally comprises a sleeve mounted to a push rod which moves relative to a stone shield on the brake actuator. The displacement of the sleeve relative to the stone shield is measured to determine the stroke of the brake actuator. This information is sent via an RF transmitter to a controller which determines the condition of each of the brakes.

The present invention relates to an improved brake monitoring system, particularly for use on vehicles such as a tractor and trailer combination.
In the prior art, heavy duty trucks and other large vehicles are typically equipped with an air brake actuating system. The air brake actuating system applies air to a service chamber to move a diaphragm in a first direction. A push rod typically moves with the diaphragm, and the push rod is connected to a linkage that actuates the vehicle brakes. An emergency chamber is generally also attached adjacent to the service chamber, and is operable to move the push rod in the event that the air system fails. To this end, a high strength power spring is typically incorporated into the emergency chamber to actuate the push rod when there is a failure in the system air line. This spring also typically actuates the push rod when the vehicle is parked.
A brake actuator has a predetermined amount of available movement, or stroke, for the push rod. The amount of movement of the push rod required to fully actuate the brakes must be carefully monitored such that it is within the stroke of the brake actuator. The prior art has experienced situations wherein there has been an excessive amount of push rod movement for actuation of the brake system. This excessive required push rod movement can be created by any one of several factors. Typically, excessive movement is due to brake lining wear. As the brakes wear, more movement of the push rod is required to actuate the brakes. Further, as the linkages, connections, etc. between the members connecting the push rod to the brakes bend or become loose or excessively worn, additional push rod movement may be required to adequately stroke the brake. A combination of these several features may sometimes cause the amount of push rod movement required to actuate the brakes to approach the available push rod movement, or stroke, from the brake actuator. This is, of course, an undesirable situation.
The prior art has attempted to monitor the amount of push rod movement during actuation of the brake, and provide some indication to an operator of when there is excessive push rod movement. The determination of when there is excessive push rod movement is dependent upon the designed stroke, or rated stroke, of the brake actuator. In addition, an apparatus known as a slack adjuster is typically placed between the push rod and the foundation brake. The slack adjuster is incrementally adjusted to compensate for slack in the braking system and to decrease the required push rod movement. Automatic slack adjusters are now available which automatically adjust the foundation brake system.
Electronic indicator systems have been proposed. However, there are several obstacles to overcome. First, powering and monitoring electronic indicators on each of the brake actuators on an 18-wheel vehicle is costly. The cost in wiring alone for the vehicle exceeds the cost of all the electronic indicators and monitoring equipment combined. Further, the hostile environment in which the brake actuators are mounted can damage the wires connecting the brake actuators to a controller.
Further, there are numerous configurations for the tractors as well as the trailers. For example, the number of axles on tractors and trailers can vary. Each axle may include a spring brake actuator or just a service brake actuator. For efficiency, it would be desirable to have a single electronic controller which could be permanently programmed to recognize the specific configuration of the vehicle on which it is installed.
The present invention provides a brake monitoring system including a plurality of brake monitors mounted on each of a plurality of brake actuators on a vehicle. Each of the brake monitors includes at least one magnet and a magnet sensing device which move relatively during brake actuation, and move increasingly as the brake wears. The brake monitoring system further includes a controller receiving a signal from each of the magnet sensing devices, a brake signal indicating when the brake actuator is activated by a driver and pressure signals from each of the brake actuators indicating when air pressure in each brake actuator reaches a predetermined level. Each brake monitor further includes an RF transmitter which periodically transmits the condition of the brake actuator to the controller.
Each magnet is preferably formed on a generally hollow cylindrical sleeve which is mounted to a push rod in the brake actuator. As the push rod is actuated, the sleeve moves relative to a plurality of switches embedded in a stone shield in the brake actuator. As the brake actuator is actuated, the sleeve moves relative to the magnetic sensing device, thereby generating a signal indicative of the displacement of the push rod.
In one embodiment, the sleeve includes a plurality of magnets secured to the sleeve. In other embodiments, the sleeve comprises particles in a nylon matrix. Portions of the sleeve are selectively magnetized or the sleeve is magnetized from one axial end to the other axial end. The magnetization of the sleeve at one axial end is high and decreases linearly to the opposite axial end. A hall effect device mounted in the stone shield detects the level of the magnetic field and determines the displacement of the push rod accordingly.


A modular system and method using the system for the high speed high resolution inspection of printed webs are provided. Each module inspects one lane of a printed web for print defects. Each gray scale or bipolar gray scale gradient pixel value of a digitally converted input image is compared to the minimum and maximum threshold values of the image template by a real-time digital signal processor. The image template is created in a secondary non-real-time processor by producing a statistical representation of a number of input images. The image template is desensitized to longitudinal and transverse jitter of the printed web so that jitter is not identified by the system as a print defect. The user is signaled if actual print defects exist and the lanes in which the defects exist are identified.

The present invention relates to a system which permits high speed, high resolution inspection of printed webs.
In many industries packaging materials are printed at extremely high rates of speed up to 1200 feet per minute. Some automatic method of detecting flaws in the printed web must be employed since human inspectors cannot discern errors, other than gross errors, at such rates of speed. This invention permits the detection of misprinted areas in a printed web at the rate of speed of printing presses used in the printing of packaging for consumer products, for example cigarette packs.
It is known that flaws in webs of printed fabric can be detected by passing light through the fabric, sensing the light electrically, converting the amount of light sensed into a proportional voltage signal and then comparing the input to the standard signal for flawless fabric, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,062. However, these types of systems do not operate at the high rates of speed needed in the packaging industries. Also, these systems do not provide a means for the detailed analysis of printed patterns on more opaque heavy coated paper stock web.
Inspection systems that convert the printed matter to video images, and then digitally process the video images, are also known. However, the difficulty of detecting flaws in images at such a high rate of speed is the amount of data generated for an entire image. The use of algorithms which detect flaws by comparing an entire image to a predetermined pattern requires too much processing power to be cost effective in a real-time operation.
A printed web which is 102.4 millimeters (or approximately 4 inches) wide would require 1 kilobyte (1024 bytes) of data per video scan line in order to detect flaws of 0.1 millimeter. Each 0.1 millimeter square could be considered one pixel. Each pixel requires 8 bits of binary data (1 byte) to represent the 256-level gray scale value assigned to describe the reflectivity of each pixel. At 500 feet per minute, 25,400 lines at a resolution of 0.1 millimeter pass every second. Therefore, the total data throughput at 500 feet per minute is approximately 25,400 kilobyts per second (24.8 megabytes per second). For complex pattern recognition algorithms, this rate of data throughput is too great to permit real-time recognition of flawed patterns with currently available cost effective technology.
Another difficulty with such web speeds is the inherent jitter of the web in both the longitudinal and transverse axes. Longitudinal jitter results from longitudinal movement of the web which is greater than the movement detected by the shaft encoder (i.e., a phase change between the web and the shaft encoder). This longitudinal "slipping" can occur due to wearing of the mechanical components of the web transport apparatus. Transverse jitter is the movement of the web perpendicular to the direction of movement of the web. Transverse jitter occurs due to the inherent difficulties in providing exact tolerances in a mechanical web printing apparatus. Such jitter causes the input image of the inspection system to be misaligned with respect to the target image resulting in incorrect flaw determinations.
In the consumer products packaging industries a flexible system is also required. Since label requirements are often dictated by marketing needs or federal and state administrative agencies, a system which is easily trained to detect flaws in different label configurations is necessary. In the cigarette industry the four Surgeon General's warning labels rotate on a quarterly basis. Reprogramming, or "training", of a web inspection system to accommodate changes in the printed matter must be reduced to a minimum to deal with such frequent changes.
It would be desirable to provide a web inspection system which is capable of high speed inspection of webs to provide for the real-time detection of flaws in printed webs produced at high speeds--e.g., up to about 1200 feet per minute.
It would also be desirable to provide a web inspection system capable of being trained quickly and easily on different image sets.
Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a web inspection system which is capable of minimizing the effect of misalignment of input images due to jitter in the longitudinal and transverse axes.
It would further be desirable to provide a web inspection system that accepts or rejects inspected webs based on statistical rules ascertained through prior inspections.
Finally, it would be desirable to provide a web inspection system which is an expandable modular design using cost-effective available hardware.

High speed, high resolution web inspection system


A pet watering device for use in a vehicle that has a basin with sidewalls, a bottom and a porous member mounted over the bottom, forming an upper and a lower chamber. The porous member permits the passage of water from the upper to the lower chamber but preferably does not permit the reverse flow of water there through. Water is pumped from the lower to the upper chamber, the amount being substantially equal to the water passing through the porous member and sufficient to maintain the presence of a thin, constant layer of water over the porous member. The device is securely mounted in the vehicle. When the watering device is jostled by the moving vehicle water does not pass from the lower to the upper chamber through the porous member and only a small amount, if any, of water slops out over the upper rim of the basin.

A typical pet drinking bowl is a circular container, often of pottery or molded from a plastic material, having a wide base to give good stability to the bowl, so as to minimize the likelihood of spillage. Owners of pets, particularly dogs, like their pets to accompany them when traveling in a vehicle. Additionally, communities have come to rely upon dogs as the daily partner of police officers. The police dog spends most of its day riding in the back seat of a vehicle while awaiting the call of duty and requires a constant supply of fluids to remain healthy. Usually, the dog is provided water by the use of a bowl placed on the floor of the vehicle. However, one vehicle turn may result in the water splashing over the side of the bowl and onto the floor. Additionally, failure to refill the bowl may be detrimental to the dog's health. Continued refilling of the bowl, if the attendant officer remembers, may result in a soaked floor and unnecessary distractions. These problems are not limited to automobiles but are inherent in transportation by commercial and private aviation, boating, campers, and so forth.
If the typical pet drinking bowl containing water is placed in a car, almost inevitably the water will spill when the vehicle is in motion. Various sized bowls have been used in an attempt to minimize spillage. Even if the bowl is only half full, typical vehicle motions such as starts, stops, turns and bumps can cause the water to slosh, creating waves which exceed the height of the bowl rim. Spills can soak into the vehicle carpet resulting in the growth of molds, mildew, odors, and rust of the vehicle body. Previous efforts to reduce spills in vehicles have focused primarily on beverage containers for human use and little effort has been dedicated to pet water containers.
One solution to this problem is to provide water to the pet only when the vehicle is stopped, and remove the water when the travel resumes. While this method certainly avoids sloshes and spills, the pet may not receive adequate water. Pets are often excited at the start and end of a trip and may be too preoccupied with the people and events to drink adequate water. A dehydrated pet may also drink too much water too fast resulting in the animal becoming sick. In addition, on long trips, infrequent water stops may result in poor time coordination with the pet's need for water and need to urinate.
Additionally, many animals have a preference for drinking flowing water. Flowing water may provide a number of advantages, including improved taste and quality, more dissolved oxygen, which can make the water taste better as well as provide potential health benefits. Further, such flowing water encourages the pet to drink more liquids. Increased water intake can help reduce problems with the pet's kidneys or urinary tract.
Additionally, pets will often demonstrate a preference for cold, e.g., recently poured, water and clinical tests have shown that cooler water helps lower the pets overall body temperature. So there is clearly a need for a refrigerated pet-feeding dish to thermally control food and water temperature at all times.
Pet fountains are well known in the art and generally include a spout or other water-directing means for providing a continuous flow of water from a reservoir to a container such that the pet is able to drink either directly from the flowing water stream or from the container. Such fountains may contain a plurality of containers or basins, can occupy a large amount of floor space and are open to permit easy access by the pet. Typically, they are stationary and placed on the floor in the residence or kennel. These fountains are designed to be stationary in the pet owner's residence. Typically, if they are moved, sometimes even to a minor extent, water flows out of the fountain to the surrounding area onto the floor. Such pet fountains typically use electronic pumps to pump the water through the device and may have a means for filtering the water.
To Applicant's knowledge there have been no pet fountains that are designed for use in a moving vehicle, such as an automobile or recreation vehicle.
The following are references that may (but not necessarily) be relevant to the claimed invention herein:
US Publication No. 2013/0087102 to Lipscomb describes a pet fountain that has circulating water that is continuously filtered and pumped through the fountain. The fountain includes a basin and a cover. A pump assembly is housed between the basin and cover, and circulates water through the pet fountain by pumping the water from the basin to an upper drinking bowl of the cover. The water spills out of the upper drinking back to the basin. An opening is provided between the cover and the basin which allows a pet to drink directly from the basin in addition to the upper drinking bowl of the cover.
US Publication No. 2012/0216751 to Rowe describes a watering device for pets that includes a bowl that includes a dispensing unit and means to filter the water flowing through the bowl.
US Publication No. 2007/0272163 to Leary describes a pet feeding bowl with an attached splashguard that acts as a retention barrier to protect walls, floors and other adjacent surfaces from over spray, splashes, and splatters that occur when a pet feeds from the bowl.
US Publication No. 20070227456 to Borey describes a refrigerated pet feeding assembly with a removable thermally conductive dish designed to contain food, water or both that is continuously cooled by a thermoelectric Peltier-effect conditioning source and powered by an external DC voltage source such as a wall mount power supply or battery.
US Publication No. 2006/0060149 to Skowronski describes a spill-resistant fluid container that includes a chamber for holding a quantity of fluid. Within the chamber is a plurality of cavities. The cavities are circumferentially arranged so as to define a central chamber area. Each of the cavities has at least one opening so that the plurality of cavities is in restricted fluid communication with the central chamber area.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,486 to Ellis describes a drinking bowl for a pet adapted for use in a moving vehicle that has a base section which defines a liquid reservoir having a cylindrical side wall and a removable in-turned rim at the upper end thereof. An inner section has sufficient buoyancy to float on liquid in the reservoir, the inner section being a close sliding fit within the side wall and having a dished upper surface with a central liquid-receiving area. A plurality of liquid feed holes extends through the inner section to permit liquid to flow into the central area from which a pet may drink.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,824 to Barrow describes a spill-less wave bowl for use by pets and small children. The wave bowl is designed to prevent contents such as liquids in the bowl from spilling out over the edge of the bowl and from the bowl overturning. The spill-less wave bowl includes an inner bowl snapped to the inside of an outer shell. The inner bowl includes a bowl base in a lower portion of the bowl, sloping sides extending upwardly and outwardly from the bowl base and a circular bowl flange with snap arm disposed around an edge of an upper portion bowl. When the wave bowl is hit or bumped, any liquid therein rides up against the inside of the inner bowl and into the interior concave-shaped cavity in the upper portion of the shell forming a wave which returns to the interior of the inner bowl.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,740 to Pelsor describes a splash and spill-resistant container for holding a fluid for consumption by an animal. The container forms a cavity with a top access aperture which defines an inverted channel. A partition divides the cavity into first and second chambers. The partition curves downward from the periphery substantially to the floor of the container and is provided with a flow aperture, thereby allowing fluid communication between the first and second chambers. A valve is also provided to release air from the second chamber. After filling the container with a volume of fluid, the container may be subjected to lateral jarring or inverted without spilling the fluid contained therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,287 to Gruber describes a vessel (bowl) for transportation of water for animals that has resistance to splashing while offering easy access to the liquid. Most of the water within the vessel is below a substantially concave floating dish, while a smaller portion of water is within the dish; the animal accesses only the smaller portion. Water flows from below the dish to above through an opening in the dish. The floating dish prevents the splash of water by floating against an arched lid, blocking the flow of water, and by directing the flow of water under the lid, made possible by protrusions in the lid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,504 to Carrico describes a spill-resistant container having an automatic refill feature and a low profile design that allows the animal ease of access to drinking water and resists tipping of the container. Water within the container is prevented from spilling by use of an annular housing that maintains water spillage from an upwardly facing substantially concave internal dish within the housing. The dish defines at least one aperture therein to allow spilled water to re-enter the dish for consumption by the animal. Apparatus may be provided for automatically or manually actuating a flow of water from an external reservoir to refill the dish to a predetermined level.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,546 to Moore describes an anti-splash animal watering container including a water holding dish or bowl having straight sides in combination with an apertured disc which floats upon the liquid carried therein. The floating disc floats in the liquid with a substantial portion extending above the liquid level. At its center, an aperture is located through which an animal has access to the liquid in the bowl. This aperture may be changed to enable the use of the watering device for different sized animals and still retain its anti-splash characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,063 to Buffum describes a pet feeding dish that resists tipping and spilling. The dish is weighted and is a pivotally supported bowl or container with a turned-in lip for reducing spillage during use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,576 to Faurot describes an anti-splash watering bowl for animals.
Canadian Patent 2,708,704 to Danie describes a travel mug for small animals, e.g., cats, dogs, to drink fluids while travelling in vehicle. The mug is designed to fit in a cup holder in the vehicle and to eliminate spill and waste of the fluids inside the travel mug during the travel or the drinking process. The mug consists of two parts—a bottom part with anti-splash features that fits into a standard cup holder or beverage holder and an off center top part wider than the bottom part also with anti-splash features. The fluid only resides in the bottom part of the mug and the animal's head enters the top part of the mug and the animal's tongue extends into the bottom part to lick up the fluid.
The pet watering device of this invention provides substantially continuously-moving, drinking water, optionally filtered, heated and/or cooled, that can be used in a moving vehicle without fear of water falling out of the device into the vehicle.


A light-transmitting roof panel assembly, having the same shape as adjoining metal roof panels in a standing seam metal roof, includes an outer transparent panel made of a polymeric material and an inner reinforcing panel made of perforated metal. The inner and outer panels nest together and lie flush with the roof. Crimpable side corrugation pieces are attached to the reinforcing panel so that the assembly can be connected to neighboring roof panels by seaming.

Industrial buildings often have skylights to provide natural lighting and to conserve energy. For buildings with metal roof systems, skylights or "light panels" may be provided in the roof system. The light panels typically have a clear or translucent sheet material formed into a shape similar to the shape of the structural metal panels of the roof, and metal sides for seaming into a standing seam type metal roof system. The light panels are lapped and sealed to the metal roof panels to provide weather-tight joints. An example of such a panel is shown in FIG. 1.
Because metal roofs typically are insulated underneath with blanket or rigid board insulation, sometimes insulation trim-flashing also is provided to terminate the insulation around the light panel opening. This allows sunlight to come into the building through the light panel.
Current light panels for metal roofing offer no permanent fall protection for people who walk on them. Usually, the light-weight, clear/translucent material of the light panels is, when new, strong enough to support the weight of a typical person and/or light equipment, or the impact from falls or dropped objects. However, as the material ages, it weakens and may lose the ability to support the design weights and impacts. Additionally, years of dirt and or debris may cover the light panel and make it hard for people on the roof to distinguish the light panels from adjacent metal roof panels, thereby increasing the risk of the light panel being stepped on. And in case of fire, the material may melt or weaken, posing a risk to a roof-borne firefighters.
Building authorities have attempted to resolve these safety issues by requiring that new building roofs have skylights installed on a roof curb, thereby elevating the light panel above the plane of the roof, and/or that security bar systems (FIG. 2) be installed over the light panel.
Both of these approaches make it easier to know where the light panels are on a roof, and both deter people from walking or standing on them. However, the additional material and labor required to implement these safety features on each of the many light panels of a large building are great.
Complicating the growing need for safer skylights that have inherent structural strength to avoid personnel or equipment fall-throughs, building codes are increasing the amount of roof area that is permitted or required to transmit light.
Thus, what is needed is a roof panel that maximizes light transmission while providing a sufficiently strong structure over the years, even in case of fire, to prevent people or equipment from falling through it.

Safety reinforced light transmitting panel assembly


A method of protecting a charge trapping dielectric flash memory cell from UV-induced charging, including fabricating a charge trapping dielectric flash memory cell in a semiconductor device; depositing over the charge trapping dielectric flash memory cell at least one UV-protective layer; forming at least one layer over the at least one UV-protective layer; and etching the at least one layer to form an opening therein with an etchant species selective to stop on a layer below the at least one UV-protective layer, wherein the UV-protective layer comprises a substantially UV-opaque material.

Non-volatile memory devices are currently in widespread use in electronic components that require the retention of information when electrical power is terminated. Non-volatile memory devices include read-only-memory (ROM), programmable-read-only memory (PROM), erasable-programmable-read-only memory (EPROM), and electrically-erasable-programmable-read-only-memory (EEPROM) devices. EEPROM devices differ from other non-volatile memory devices in that they can be electrically programmed and erased. Flash EEPROM devices are similar to EEPROM devices in that memory cells can be programmed and erased electrically. However, flash EEPROM devices enable the erasing of all memory cells in the device using a single electrical current pulse.
Product development efforts in EEPROM device technology have focused on increasing the programming speed, lowering programming and reading voltages, increasing data retention time, reducing cell erasure times and reducing cell dimensions. One important charge storage material for EEPROM devices is a charge storage layer in a charge trapping dielectric, for example, silicon nitride in an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) structure. One EEPROM device that utilizes a charge trapping dielectric charge storage layer is a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) type cell. In other such devices, the charge storage is in a charge trapping dielectric layer, but the materials of the various layers may vary from those used in SONOS devices. That is, the silicon, the oxide and/or the nitride of the respective layers may be replaced with another material. For example, silicon may be replaced by germanium or silicon-germanium, oxide and/or nitride may be replaced by, e.g., a high-K dielectric material. Such devices, as well as the SONOS device, are generally included within the designation "charge trapping dielectric flash memory" device, as used herein.
In charge trapping dielectric devices, during programming, electrical charge is transferred from the substrate to the charge storage layer in the charge trapping dielectric of the device, e.g., the nitride layer in a SONOS device. Voltages are applied to the gate and drain creating vertical and lateral electric fields, which accelerate the electrons along the length of the channel. As the electrons move along the channel, some of them gain sufficient energy to jump over the potential barrier of the bottom oxide layer and become trapped in the charge storage layer. This jump is known as hot carrier injection (HCI), the hot carriers being electrons. Electrons are trapped near the drain region because the electric fields are the strongest near the drain. Reversing the potentials applied to the source and drain will cause electrons to travel along the channel in the opposite direction and be injected into the charge storage layer near the source region. Because the charge storage layer material is not electrically conductive, the charge introduced into the charge storage layer tends to remain localized. Accordingly, depending upon the application of voltage potentials, electrical charge can be stored in discrete regions within a single continuous charge storage layer.
Non-volatile memory designers have taken advantage of the localized nature of electron storage within a charge storage layer and have designed memory circuits that utilize two or more regions of stored charge within the charge storage layer. This type of non-volatile memory device is known as a dual-bit or multi-bit EEPROM. A dual-bit EEPROM is available under the trademark MIRRORBIT™ from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. The MIRRORBIT™ dual-bit EEPROM is capable of storing twice as much information as a conventional EEPROM in a memory array of equal size. A left bit and a right bit are stored in physically different areas of the silicon nitride layer, in left and right regions of each memory cell, respectively. The above-described programming methods are used to enable the two bits to be programmed and read simultaneously. Each of the two bits of the memory cell can be individually erased by applying suitable erase voltages to the gate and to either the source or drain regions. Multi-bit memory cells recently have been developed in which more than two bits can be stored in separate regions of a single charge storage layer of the flash EEPROM memory cell. As used herein, the term "dual-bit" refers to both dual-bit and higher-bit memory cells, unless otherwise specifically stated.
A key concept associated with the charge trapping dielectric flash memory device is that for the device to operate properly, both bits must be able to be written and read separately. If one of the bits is programmed, a reverse read on the programmed bit must sense a high Vt, i.e., a "0", and a reverse read on the non-programmed bit must sense a low Vt, i.e., a "1". Thus, a reverse read on the non-programmed bit, which is equivalent to a forward read on the programmed bit, must punch through the region of trapped charge in order to generate a high enough read current. If this does not happen, the non-programmed bit will not be able to be read as a "1", i.e., a conductive bit.
One problem which has been encountered with charge trapping dielectric flash memory devices including a charge storage layer is the buildup of charge in the charge storage layer, and subsequent increases in Vt, as a result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation during fabrication, and particularly in BEOL process steps, i.e., following formation of the flash memory cell. Processes which include high levels of UV radiation cause such charge buildup and concomitant increase in Vt. This increase in Vt would make all the bits appear to be high, i.e., "0". In addition, if the charge buildup is sufficiently large, it cannot be easily erased by the available voltages. As a result, the charge trapping dielectric device would be rendered useless as a charge storage device.
UV exposure is not a problem for floating gate flash devices which have a polysilicon or other conductive material for a charge storage element. In such devices, the floating gate may be purposely exposed to UV radiation, in order to neutralize any electronic charge which builds up on the floating gate memory cell during processing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,651 uses UV radiation in this manner.
Such processing is not an option for charge trapping dielectric flash memory devices, since the charge storage layer can be irreversibly damaged by exposure to UV radiation which builds up a large charge, and the charge cannot be neutralized by further exposure to UV radiation.
Another problem is the requirement of depositing one or more etch stop layers for multiple etch steps required to fabricate the charge trapping dielectric devices. The depositing of these etch stop layers is not only time consuming but adds significant cost to the production of such devices.
Therefore, a need exists for a method which will provide, and a device which includes provision for, protection of the charge storage layer in charge trapping dielectric devices from exposure to UV radiation during BEOL processing. Accordingly, advances in such fabrication technology are needed to insure that charge buildup and increase in Vt in charge trapping dielectric structures does not occur, particularly during BEOL processing. Further, there exists a need to reduce the number of etch stop layers used in the fabrication process.

UV-blocking etch stop layer for reducing UV-induced charging of charge storage layer in memory devices in BEOL processing


This invention relates to a cellular telecommunications systems that utilizes the telephone number the cellular telephone is calling, with the number of telephone calls placed on that cellular telephone, i.e., call count and a seed number to create a digital certificate of the data. The digital certificate is used to make it more difficult to make unauthorized cellular telephone calls. The seed number may be changed after a predetermined number of calls has been made, i.e. one hundred, one thousand, etc. Thus, the transmission of seed numbers between data centers would be substantially reduced.

Cellular mobile radio or cellular telephone systems have been developed for mobile communications. Typically, the planned service area is divided into a number of geographical areas or cells. The available frequency channels for the service area are divided among the cells. A cellular telephone communicates with a nearby cell base station via one of the several radio frequency channels assigned to the cell. Conventional circuits link the base station to the mobile telecommunications switching office, which switches calls between the cellular telephone system and the rest of the telephone network.
Current cellular telephones gain access to the base station, by transmitting to the base station a series of numbers or characters, specific to the cellular telephone being used. The numbers or characters represent the telephone number of the cellular telephone being used and the manufacturer's electronic serial number of the cellular telephone being used. The foregoing characters and numbers are checked at the base station to determine if the cellular telephone being used is allowed to use the base station selected and that the telephone number of the cellular telephone being used has the correct manufactures electronic serial number. If the telephone number and manufacturer's electronic serial number are found to be correct, the base station may further determine if the time elapsed and distance traveled by the cellular telephone from the last cellular telephone call are feasible. If, the cellular telephone traveled a feasible distance in the time elapsed from the last telephone call, the cellular telephone will be connected to the telephone network.
Unfortunately, people using off the shelf electronic receiving equipment are able to intercept and determine the telephone number and manufacturer's electronic serial number of cellular telephones, while the telephone number and manufacturer's electronic serial number are being transmitted at specific radio frequencies to the base station. During, 1993 United States Cellular Telephone companies lost approximately three hundred ninety four million dollars ($394,000,000.00) from the unauthorized use of cellular telephone numbers and manufacturers electronic serial numbers. It was estimated that the unauthorized use of cellular telephones cost United States Cellular telephone companies six hundred million dollars ($600,000,000.00) during 1994. If nothing is done to prevent the unauthorized use of cellular telephones, the above figure is expected to be higher each successive year.
Cellular telecommunications systems that utilize encryption and employ encrypted seed number signals have been developed to make it more difficult to make unauthorized cellular telephone calls. One of the difficulties with prior art encrypted cellular telecommunications systems is that encrypted seed number signals are generated in the cellular telephone and the data center that is used by the specific cellular telephone. In addition synchronization must be maintained between the cellular telephone and data center. If, the user of the cellular telephone traveled outside of the area of the data center and made a telephone call, i.e. in a different state, the data center in the different state would probably not know the encrypted seed number signal. The reason for the above is that the data center in the traveled to state would not be in synchronization with the cellular telephone and would probably be unable to determine the encrypted seed number. Furthermore, when the cellular telephone user returned to use the data center in the state that was traveled from, the original data center would be out of synchronization with the cellular telephone. The data centers in different states would have to know the call history of each cellular telephone in order to determine the encrypted seed number. The foregoing would involve a large amount of communications between data centers that may be owned by different entities.

Cellular telephone authentication system using a digital certificate


A new family of crystalline and microporous compositions having indium and silicon as essential framework elements have been synthesized. These compositions are characterized by unique x-ray diffraction patterns and an empirical formula of: EQU A.sub.p (In.sub.1-n M.sub.n).sub.y Si.sub.1-z Ge.sub.z O.sub.x. where A is a cation such as sodium or potassium and M is a metal having a valence of +3, +4 or +5 such as iron (+3), titanium (+4) and niobium (+5).

The number of microporous crystalline compositions number well in the hundreds. These range from zeolites which are crystalline aluminosilicate compositions to metal sulfide molecular sieves (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,761). In general, the crystalline zeolites are formed from corner-sharing AlO.sub.2 and SiO.sub.2 tetrahedra and are characterized by having pore openings of uniform dimensions, having a significant ion-exchange capacity, and being capable of reversibly desorbing an adsorbed phase which is dispersed throughout the internal voids of the crystal, without significantly displacing any atoms which make up the permanent crystal structure.
Non-zeolite molecular sieves are those which do not contain both AlO.sub.2 and SiO.sub.2 tetrahedra as essential framework constituents, but which exhibit the ion-exchange and/or adsorption characteristics of the zeolites. These include: 1) crystalline aluminophosphate compositions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,440; 2) silicon substituted aluminophosphates as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,871; 3) metal substituted aluminophosphates as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,197; and 4) metallo zinc-phosphate compositions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,362.
Applicants have now synthesized a new family of crystalline microporous compositions which have indium and silicon as the framework elements. These compositions can be described by the empirical formula: EQU A.sub.p (In.sub.1-n M.sub.n).sub.y Si.sub.1-z Ge.sub.z O.sub.x
where A is a cation selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metal, ammonium ion, hydronium ion and mixtures thereof, "p" is the mole fraction of A and varies from about 0.5y to about 3y, M is an element having a valence of +3, +4 or +5, "n" is the mole fraction of M and varies from 0 to about 0.9, "x" has a value from about 2+y to about 2+5y, "y" has a value of about 0.25 to about 1 and "z" has a value from 0 to about 0.9.
Although indium silicates are known in the art, to applicants' knowledge there is no disclosure of crystalline and microporous indium silicates as described above. For example, T. Gaewdang et al. in Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 620 (1994) 1965-1970 describe indium silicates and indium germanates with crystal structures similar to thortveitite which is a dense phase composition. A. N. Christensen and R. G. Hazell in Acta Chemica Scandinavica 21 (1967) 1425-1429 disclose that a composition with the formula NaIn(SiO.sub.3).sub.2 has the diopside structure, also a dense phase. Bukeikhanovie et al. in Catalysis Letters 50 (1998) 93-105 disclose an amorphous indium silicate which is microporous. Finally, Chatterjee et al. in Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 20 (1998) 87-91 disclose the synthesis of a zeolite beta containing indium. The ratio of SiO.sub.2 /In.sub.2 O.sub.3 is 40 or higher. In contrast, applicants' compositions have a Si/In ratio from 4:1 to 1:1 in non M-containing compositions. Further, applicants' compositions differ from the other references in that they are both crystalline and microporous.

Family of microporous indium silicate compositions


Embodiments described in the present disclosure relate to an array microphone apparatus for generating a beam forming signal. The apparatus includes first, second, and third omni-directional microphones, each converting an audible signal into a corresponding electrical signal. The three microphones are arranged in a horizontal coplanar alignment, and the second microphone is disposed between the other two microphones. The apparatus includes a first directional microphone forming device to jointly output a first directional microphone signal with a first bi-directional pattern, and a magnitude and phase response handler device to output a second directional microphone signal with an omni-directional pattern shifted by a prefixed value with respect to first directional microphone signal. The apparatus further includes a combining device receiving the first and second directional microphone signals and outputting a combined directional microphone signal with a combined beam pattern correlated to the first bi-directional and second omni-directional patterns, the combined directional microphone signal being perpendicular to the horizontal coplanar alignment of the first, second, and third omn-directional microphones.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an array microphone apparatus and in particular to an array microphone apparatus for generating a beam forming signal and a beam forming method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
For ease of understanding, the following is a glossary of certain terms used herein:                First order difference pattern: a pattern that is formed as the difference in pressure between two points in space. The two-port microphones often used in hearing aids are of this type.        Cardioid: a first order difference pattern that has maximum response in the forward direction and a single null to the rear.        Bidirectional: general name for any pattern that has equal maximum response in both the front and rear directions.
Many communication system and voice recognition devices are designed for use in noisy environments. Examples of such applications include communication and/or voice recognition in cars or mobile environments (e.g., on street), conference calls, Flat panel TV's, Laptop or other computers, camera modules, Smartphones, and the like.
For these applications, the microphones in the system may pick up both the desired voice and also noise. The noise can degrade the quality of voice communication and speech recognition performance if it is not dealt with in an effective manner able to improve communication quality and voice recognition performance.
Noise suppression may be achieved using various techniques. One of these techniques, known in the state of the art, is the so called array microphone technique.
With reference to this technique, it is to be noted, as known to a skilled man, that a substantial directivity can only be obtained with a spatial distribution larger than the minimum relevant wavelength.
In the array microphone technique it is possible to distinguish two meaningful groups of linear arrays characterized by the position of the microphones and the main source angles:                End Fire beam forming, and        Broad Side beam forming.
It is defined broadside beam forming in the array depicted in FIG. 1 where the microphones M1, . . . , Mn are placed along the x-axis, and the main beam is perpendicular (y-axis) to the line of microphones. Particularly the sound coming from a 90° direction is kept, and the sound coming from the 0° direction is deleted.
It is defined end fire beam forming in the array depicted in FIG. 2 where the microphones M1, . . . , Mn are placed along the y-axis and the main beam is in the direction of the microphones, i.e., the x-axis. Particularly the sound coming from a 0° direction is kept, and the sound coming from the 90° direction is deleted.
It is to be noted also that, the end fire technique is simpler with respect to the broad side beam forming. However the end fire technique has few applications since deleting front signal sources is generally not suitable for Laptop or Flat panel TV modules.
On the other side the broad side beam forming technique is the solution most implemented since it provides noise suppression, wind noise suppression (mobile phones makers), and speech enhancement sound equalization.
However, the broad side beam forming technique is generally realized with a complex algorithm performing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), adaptive suppression, and also inverse FFT.
Therefore, the broad side beam forming technique often uses a powerful digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller, software development memory, and several million instructions per second (MIPS) allocation for the algorithm.
Further it is to be noted that the simplest broad side beam forming technique works by taking advantages from the placement of the microphones or by using delays, but this technique works properly only for a fixed frequency.
These techniques appear to be very capable but are not always cost-effective and flexible to use in practical situations.
Thus effective suppression of noise in communication system and voice recognition devices is desirable using a cost effective apparatus.

Array microphone apparatus for generating a beam forming signal and beam forming method thereof


The invention relates to wavelength-selective optical filters for allowing light of a narrow optical spectral band, centered around a wavelength (λc) to pass through them, while reflecting the wavelengths lying outside this band. According to the invention, the transfer function (T1,2(λ)) of the component is defined by multiplying two transfer functions of spectrally offset Fabry-Perot filters.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wavelength-selective optical filters that allow light of a narrow optical spectral band, centered around one wavelength, to pass through them while reflecting the wavelengths lying outside this band. Provision may be made for the central wavelength of the narrow spectral band to be adjusted by electrical means.
2. Background of the Invention
The word "light" is understood in the broad sense and in particular includes spectral bands in the infrared, as will be seen below, one main application of the invention being the filtering of light in the various fiber-optic telecommunications bands lying between 1.3 and 1.61 microns.
The advantage of these bands between 1.3 and 1.61 microns results from the fact that current optical fibers, made of glass, used in telecommunications networks have a low attenuation and the optical signals may therefore be transmitted over very great distances. In what follows, the invention will be explained with regard to this spectral band, it being understood that the invention can be transposed to other bands if the need to do so arises, using the materials suitable for these different bands. It is also understood that the invention is not limited to the telecommunications field, rather it may be employed in any field in which spectral analysis is required, such as for example in the petrochemical industry (as a hydrocarbon detector) or in the biological field (in blood analysis).
In a fiber-optic telecommunications network, a cable comprising several optical fibers may be used to produce several different transmission channels. It is also possible to carry out time-division multiplexing of the data in order to achieve the same result. However, the current trend, for a further increase in the data rate capacity of the network, is to transmit simultaneously, on the same optical fiber, several light wavelengths modulated independently of one another, each defining one data channel. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Standard 692 proposes to define adjacent channels with a 100 GHz optical spectral bandwidth that are centered on N adjacent normalized optical frequencies, the values of which are 200 terahertz, 199.9 terahertz, 199.8 terahertz, etc., corresponding to N wavelengths ranging from 1.52 microns up to 1.61 microns. In a channel with this bandwidth, it is possible to carry out light modulation at 10 to 40 gigabits per second without an excessive risk of interference with the channels of immediately adjacent spectral bands (using Gaussian modulation pulses to minimize the bandwidth occupied by this modulation). This frequency-division multiplexing technique is also called DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing).
In a telecommunications network, the problem is therefore to be able to collect the light corresponding to a given channel without disturbing the light in the neighboring channels. For example, at a transmission node of the network, assigned to transmitting data into channel i and for receiving data therefrom, it is necessary to be able to collect the light at a central frequency Fi (wavelength □i) without disturbing the transmission of the light modulating the central frequencies F1 to FN, although these optical frequencies are very close together.
To do this, there is a need to produce highly light-wavelength-selective optical filtering components capable of letting the central optical frequency Fi and the frequencies located within a narrow band of less than 50 GHz on either side of this frequency pass through them, while blocking the other bands. At the output of such a filter, only the light from channel i is collected and this can be demodulated in order to collect the useful data or to send it to another branch of the network.
More precisely, in order for it to be used in an optical telecommunications network, a filtering component must satisfy two major criteria:                a maximum modulation within a channel, which modulation must in practice be at most of the order of 0.5 dB. This modulation, well known in the literature as being called a "ripple", is the maximum variation of the signal output by the filtering component over the spectral band of the channel in question; and        a minimum isolation between two adjacent channels, which in practice must be at least of the order of 20 dB. The isolation is defined as being the difference measured between the minimum amplitude of the signal output by the filtering component in the channel in question and the maximum amplitude in an adjacent channel.
It has already been proposed to produce filtering components operating on the principle of Fabry-Perot interferometers produced by depositing semiconductor layers separated from each other by air gaps having thicknesses that are calibrated with respect to the wavelength □i to be selected. In practice, an interferometer comprises two mirrors consisting of superposed dielectric layers (Bragg mirrors), of high reflection coefficient, which are separated by a transparent plate of optical thickness k□i/2 (actual thickness k□i/2 if the plate is an air gap) where k is an integer defining the order of the interferometric filter. The mirrors, together with the space that separates them are called a cavity. Indiumphosphide (InP) is very suitable for these embodiments, in particular because of its transparency at the wavelengths in question, its very high refractive index, the possibility of growing layers of well-controlled thickness, and the possibility of using the technique of selective micromachining between InP layers and InGaAs layers.
If the layer thicknesses and the gaps between layers are very well controlled and if the materials have a large refractive index difference, such a filter proves to be highly selective with few layers or InP/air alternations.
Such a construction is described in the article by A. Spisser et al., entitled "Highly Selective 1.55 micrometer InP/airgap micromachined Fabry-Perot filter for optical communications" in Electronics Letters, No 34(5), pages 453-454, 1998. Other constructions have been proposed, made of micromachined silicon and of alloys based on gallium arsenide.
An intrinsic limitation occurs when a simple Fabry-Perot interferometer is used as a filtering component. Such a component does not make it possible to achieve, simultaneously, minimum ripple in a channel and sufficient isolation between two adjacent channels for use in an optical telecommunications network using a DWDM type multiplexing technique. This limitation will be better understood from FIG. 1 in which two mirrors a and b, having respective reflectivities Ra and Rb, define a Fabry-Perot cavity. The two mirrors a and b are separated from each other by a distance d. A light ray penetrates the filtering component at an angle of incidence θ. To simplify the reasoning, the mirrors a and b are considered to be infinite. In the particular case of a symmetrical cavity (Ra=Rb=R), the parameters λ and θ represent the wavelength and the angle of incidence, respectively, of the radiation in the cavity. The transmission curve T(λ) as a function of its wavelength λ is an Airy function and can be written as:
                                          T            1                                          (            λ            )                          =                  1                      1            +                          M                                                                                sin                  2                                                                  (                                                            2                                            π                                                                                n                                                                                d                                                                                cos                                                                                θ                                        λ                                    )                                                                                (        1        )            where
      M    =                  4                R                              (                      1            -            R                    )                2              ,and where n is the optical index of the cavity medium.
We will now consider an air cavity so as not to encumber the notations. Of course, the invention is not limited to an air cavity, and any optical material of index n different from 1 may be used.
When the resonance condition is fulfilled, that is to say for a wavelength λp such that d cos θ=λp/2 (p being an integer representing the interference order), the transmission is a maximum and equal to 100%.
In the case of a Fabry-Perot cavity used as filter, the order may be kept fixed. This makes it possible to obtain a wavelength-tunability range bounded by the interval that separates two consecutive transmission peaks, this being called the free spectral interval (FSI). Tunability is achieved by varying the length d of the cavity.
To illustrate the limitations of a simple Fabry-Perot cavity, the following numerical example is chosen:                wavelength λ at normal incidence (θ=0): λ0=1550 nm;        interference order: p=4;        cavity length d0=2λ0=2×1550 nm;        R=99.6%.
The aim is to obtain a filter for optical telecommunications with channels spaced apart by 100 GHz and a data rate of 10 Gb/s corresponding to a channel bandwidth of 0.2 nm (25 GHz) as described in the above paragraph.
The shape of the spectral response of the filter at normal incidence is shown in FIG. 2. It is centered on λ0=1550 nm. Being of Lorentzian type, it is quite different from the shape of an ideal filter, which would allow the entire bandwidth of the signal to pass through it and would cut off all of the rest. In this case, the ripple obtained is about 0.7 dB and the required −20 dB. The shape of the peak corresponding to an Airy function is therefore not satisfactory for the intended application.


An organic electroluminescent device is provided and includes: a cathode; an anode; and a light-emitting layer between the cathode and the anode. The light-emitting layer includes a compound represented by formula (1).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device.
2. Background Art
An organic electroluminescent device (hereinafter "organic EL device") has been studied extensively for providing high-brightness luminescence at a low driving voltage. An organic electroluminescent device has an organic light emitting layer sandwiched between a pair of opposing electrodes. With an electric field applied to the electrodes, electrons and holes are injected from the cathode and the anode, respectively, into the organic layer, where they are recombined to generate excitons, the energy of which is utilized for light emission.
Recently, the luminescence efficiency of devices has been increasing by the use of a phosphorescent material. Phosphorescent electroluminescent devices using an iridium complex or a platinum complex as a phosphorescent material are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,238 and WO 00/57676. Devices achieving both high efficiency and high durability, however, have not yet been developed. One of the reasons for the difficulty in developing a phosphorescent device with high efficiency and high durability is that there are limited host materials that have good chemical stability, excellent carrier injection/transport properties, and a high energy level of the lowest excited triplet state (T1 energy). A host material is required to have a higher T1 than a phosphorescent material because, and if not, the luminescence is quenched. When the T1 of a host material is higher than, but with only a small difference from, that of a phosphorescent material, back energy transfer from the phosphorescent material to the host material occurs partially, which causes a reduction in efficiency or durability. Therefore, a host material having a sufficiently high T1, good chemical stability, and excellent carrier injection/transport properties.
An organic electroluminescent device having a tetraphenylsilane compound of the following formula as a host material forming a light emitting layer along with a phosphorescent material is disclosed (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0209116). Although the T1 energy level of the host material proposed is high, the charge injection and transfer properties are low so that the device needs an increased driving voltage. Improvements in this respect have been demanded.

JP-4-126790A describes an organic electroluminescent device having an m-phenylenediamine compound of the following formula.

The above compound was turned out by the present inventors' study to have a low T1 energy level. When it is used with a phosphorescent material, the compound quenches the luminescence of the phosphorescent material, only to achieve low luminescence efficiency and insufficient driving durability.

Organic electroluminescent device having specific diamine compound

Abstract: In formula (1), L represents a linking group; A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, and A10 each independently represent a carbon atom or a nitrogen atom, provided that at least two of A1, A5, A6, and A10 each represent a carbon atom having R′; R′ represents a substituent having a carbon atom at a bonding position thereof; a plurality of Rs each independently represent a substituent; m represents an integer; and n represents an integer of 2 to 10.


A new Verbena plant particularly distinguished by large, red-purple flowers with white centers, a semi-upright plant habit, good tolerance to powdery mildew, and early flowering, is disclosed.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct variety of Verbena, botanically known as Verbena sp., and hereinafter referred to by the variety name 'KLEVP12427'. 'KLEVP12427' originated from a cross-pollination conducted in September 2008 in Sydney, Australia between the proprietary female Verbena variety '13 112' (unpatented), and the proprietary male Verbena variety 'V 842' (unpatented).
The seeds from the cross were sown and plants were grown for evaluation, where an individual plant designated 'KLEVP12427' was selected from the group of plants in Cobitty, NSW, Australia in April 2009.
In April 2009 'KLEVP12427' was first vegetatively propagated by vegetative cuttings in Cobitty, NSW, Australia. 'KLEVP12427' was found to reproduce true to type in successive generations of asexual propagation via vegetative cuttings.


The present invention is directed to a protective hat suitable for every day wear by infants, children, senior citizens or physically disabled individuals. Such hat protects at least the sides, top or rear of the wearer's head from injuries due to falls or bumps against hard objects while conducting routine, daily activities. Generally, the head protector of the present invention may comprise: (1) a cap member: and (2) one or more flexible, resilient shock absorbent pads. The cap member may be constructed so as to fully enclose and/or encapsulate the one or more pads.

Infants, small children, physically disabled adults and seniors are especially susceptible to banging their heads on hard surfaces due to falls or slips while conducting daily, routine activities. The typical infant or small child will sustain multiple falls on hard surfaces before it can learn to sit, crawl or walk. For example, infants often crawl beneath chairs and tables. While underneath these items, the child will bang her head when attempting to stand up or lift her head. While the resulting injuries are not life threatening, they cause swelling and bruising about the head. Moreover, the bang or bump to the head is quite traumatic, causing the child to cry or become agitated.
Small children capable of walking or running are particularly vulnerable to falls against table corners, walls and other hard, pointed surfaces. In some instances, serious head injuries can result when a child bangs his or her head against any of these items. Indeed, head trauma is a common accident in childhood. It has been reported that such accidents account for 600,000 emergency room visits per year in the U.S. Most cases of pediatric head trauma do not require intervention or result in negative sequelae. However, in developed countries, brain injury remains one of the most common causes of death and disability in childhood. Further, children or adults who are disabled, developmentally delayed or who suffer from neuro motor or muscular/skeletal impairments often have difficulty standing and/or walking independently, or accomplishing everyday activities. Such individuals are also susceptible to head injuries due to falls or slips.
Much of the protective headgear currently available for infants, children and adults is neither fashionable, comfortable nor effective. Many are usually bulky and restrictive. Also, most of the current protective headgear is not enjoyable to wear, nor is it designed for use in the house during daily activities such as walking, playing, crawling, or learning to walk, nor are they designed for daily, non-sport activities such as playing in a playground. Much of the protective headgear is designed for outdoor athletic or sport activities, such as soccer, baseball and other contact sports, and is not suitable for everyday wear.
The present invention overcomes the problems of currently available protective headgear by providing a head protector that is attractive, comfortable and effectively provides an infant, child or adult head protection for extended periods of time in a fun, enjoyable manner. The present invention may be worn daily by an individual during ordinary indoor or outdoor activities, including but not limited to, crawling, walking, playing (e.g., playing in a playground), non sport activities, and other activities. The present invention is particularly suitable in any non-sport environment.
The present invention may also be suitable for senior citizens. Many seniors fear falling while conducting daily, routine activities. The protective hat of the present invention may be utilized by seniors to reduce the risk of head injury during a fall and to alleviate the fear of falling while they conduct daily activities.
The present invention may also be adapted to protect an individual from self mutilation injuries to the head. For example, it is known that some autistic children are prone to self mutilation activities such as head banging. Some children with Attention Deficit Disorder are more prone to accidents and injuries due to impulsivity and thus require more protection from falls and bangs against hard objects.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Head protector for infants, small children, senior citizens, adults or physically disabled individuals


A wager-based domino game is suited for individual play, particularly as presented at a gaming machine. In accordance with the game, a player attempts to play one or more dominos. Various outcomes of game play are defined as losing. A number of outcomes are defined as winning and have associated awards, such as defined by a paytable. In one embodiment, winning outcomes may be awarded in the event a minimum number of dominos are played, or based upon a summed value of all dominos played. Domino-based bonus events offer a player additional winnings. The bonus events may be triggered by particular events of the wager-based domino game.

Domino games are very popular in various regions of the world. Domino games are particularly popular in the Caribbean and South and Central American countries.
Generally, domino games are played with a set of dominos. Each domino is a tile (generally a rectangular member) marked on one side with markings which represent value. Each domino has a pair or markings or two values. Generally, these marking comprise pips (usually circular dots).
The number of dominos used in a particular game may vary. For example, a set of dominos may comprise a collection of dominos marked with values 0-0 through 6-6. Each domino of the set is unique in that no other domino is marked with the same two values. The set of dominos comprises all combinations of potential values from the minimum to the maximum. Thus, in the set of dominos including the values 0-0 to 6-6, the set will include 28 dominos marked with the following values: 0-0, 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, 0-6, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6, 5-5, 5-6 and 6-6. In other games, the set of dominos may include dominos marked with values up to 8-8 or even 12-12.
Currently, known dominos games are all multi-player games. Most games involve two to four players, though some games may accommodate more players. Some of these games include Chickie, Matador, Muggins, Texas 42 and others.


A bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) circuit, which includes an alternating current power supply module, a power module, and a control module; the power module includes one or more interleaved PFC circuits, each interleaved PFC circuit includes one inductor, one pair of first switching components, and at least one capacitor, a first end of the inductor is connected to the alternating current power supply module, and a second end of the inductor is connected to one end of each capacitor through one of the first switching components and is also connected to the other end of each capacitor through the other one of the first switching components; and the control module samples a current of each first switching component in the power module, and turns off a first switching component through which a negative current flows.

A conventional bridge PFC circuit has many conduction devices therein and a large on-state loss, and is not suitable for application in scenarios of medium or large power. However, a bridgeless PFC circuit may reduce the on-state loss and improve the efficiency. As the market demand for a high efficiency and high power density power supply increases, the replacement of the conventional bridge PFC circuit with the bridgeless PFC circuit becomes a trend. FIG. 1 shows a topology of a bridgeless PFC circuit, which is a two-phase interleaved bridgeless PFC circuit.
An existing bridgeless PFC circuit generally adopts a critical mode (CRM) control method. That is, when an inductive current approaches zero, a switching component (for example, a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)) is turned off, the current continues to flow through a body diode of the switching component, and zero voltage switching (ZVS) is implemented depending on a reverse recovery current of the body diode of the switching component.
In the two-phase interleaved bridgeless PFC circuit shown in FIG. 1, two bridge arms work with a 180-degree phase difference between drives of the bridge arms. In the same way, if the bridgeless PFC circuit has three bridge arms, three bridge arms work with a 120-degree phase difference among drives of the bridge arms. A working principle of a single bridge arm (that is, a bridge arm connected to an inductor L1) is briefly introduced herein. In the positive half cycle of inputting an alternating current, a MOSFET Q2 acts as a main transistor. In the on time Ton of the MOSFET Q2, a current loop passes through the inductor L1, the MOSFET Q2, and a diode D2, and at this time, the inductor L1 stores energy. In the off time Toff of the MOSFET Q2, the current loop passes through the inductor L1, a MOSFET Q1, a capacitor C, and the diode D2, and at this time, the inductor L1 outputs energy. Similarly, in the negative half cycle of inputting an alternating current, the MOSFET Q1 acts as the main transistor. In the on time Ton of the MOSFET Q1, the current loop passes through a diode D1, the MOSFET Q1, and the inductor L1, and at this time, the inductor L1 stores energy. In the off time Toff of the MOSFET Q1, the current loop passes through the diode D1, the capacitor C, the MOSFET Q2, and the inductor L1, and at this time, the inductor L1 outputs energy.
The bridge arm connected to the inductor L1 is still taken as an example to illustrate the principle of a CRM control manner in the following. For the sake of simplicity, only a working principle in the positive half cycle of inputting the alternating current is introduced herein.
In the positive half cycle of inputting the alternating current, the MOSFET Q2 acts as the main transistor. In the on time Ton of the MOSFET Q2, the current loop passes through the inductor L1, the MOSFET Q2, and the diode D2, and in the off time Toff of the MOSFET Q2, the current loop passes through the inductor L1, the MOSFET Q1, the capacitor C, and the diode D2. At this time, the MOSFET Q1 acts as a synchronous rectifier transistor, and in this period of time, the MOSFET Q1 is driven, so that the MOSFET Q1 is turned on, and a current flowing through the inductor L1 drops linearly. When it is detected that the current of the inductor L1 drops near zero ampere (A), the MOSFET Q1 is turned off, so that the current continues to flow through the body diode of the MOSFET Q1. Because of a reverse recovery characteristic of the body diode of the MOSFET Q1, a certain reverse recovery current exists, and this reverse recovery current is used to conduct the body diode of the MOSFET Q2, thereby implementing zero voltage switching of the MOSFET Q2. FIG. 2 shows the current waveform (a triangular wave) of the inductor L1 and the drive voltage waveform (a square wave) of the MOSFET Q1. The principle in the negative half cycle of inputting the alternating current is similar to that in the positive half cycle of inputting the alternating current.
However, the reverse recovery current flowing through the body diode of the switching component (for example, a MOSFET) is uncontrollable, and the reverse recovery current changes with the input voltage and the load. Meanwhile, the reverse recovery current also influences a soft switching state of the switching component. In addition, in the case of inputting a high voltage, the inductor cannot obtain a negative current, and therefore, zero voltage switching of the switching component (that is, a MOSFET) cannot be implemented.

Bridgeless power factor correction circuit and control method utilizing control module to control current flow in power module


A remote-control device for controlling an appliance having a plurality of appliance components is provided. The remote-control device includes a plurality of pushbutton units, each pushbutton unit including at least one physical operating pushbutton configurable to control at least one appliance component. Each of the pushbutton units is provided with a visually detectable distinguishing feature for visually distinguishing one pushbutton unit from another pushbutton unit. The remote-control device also includes a display unit configured to display representations of each controllable appliance component. Each representation of an appliance component includes the same visually detectable distinguishing feature as a corresponding pushbutton unit to which the appliance component is assigned.

Medical appliances such as operating tables can be controlled using a remote-control device to, for example, adjust table components such as different table segments or a table column. Although remote-control devices with virtual operating pushbuttons are commonly used in the present technical field, for reasons explained below, remote-control devices having physical operating pushbuttons rather than virtual pushbuttons are frequently preferred by medical appliance operators. "Virtual" operating pushbuttons include computer-generated graphical user interfaces, such as a button displayed on a touch-sensitive screen, of which the shape, size, appearance, and positioning can be changed relatively easily. In contrast, "physical" operating pushbuttons include concrete, physical elements of which the size, shape, appearance and positioning are typically fixed or unchangeable.
A remote-control device with virtual operating pushbuttons has the advantage of being adaptable in a relatively easy way to match the configuration of the medical appliance to be controlled, such as, a particular model of an operating table that is currently used. Such an adaptation is difficult to achieve for a remote-control device having physical operating pushbuttons. However, physical operating pushbuttons have advantages such as, for example, their haptic perceptibility. For example, a user can feel the physical operating pushbuttons and locate them on the remote-control device by touch or feel. Moreover, when actuating a physical operating pushbutton, the user receives mechanical feedback, so that the user knows whether or not the pushbutton has been depressed. Finally, in a remote-control device with physical operating pushbuttons, it is simpler to implement methods for preventing erroneous inputs.
When there is a plurality of operating table types, each type being configured differently and potentially having more than one configuration, it becomes difficult to design a pushbutton layout for a remote-control device having physical operating pushbuttons such that all possible table configurations can be addressed to an intuitive operation. Therefore, in conventional technologies, different remote-control devices have been designed for different operating tables. For example, a specific pushbutton layout is designed for a specific operating table for the adjustable table components thereof. In such a pushbutton layout, different configurations of the same operating table can be controlled using appropriate configurations of background illumination of the pushbuttons. For example, when a specific pushbutton has a corresponding function in a configuration of the operating table to be controlled, the background illumination of that pushbutton is activated. When a specific pushbutton has no corresponding function in the configuration of the operating table to be controlled, the background illumination of that specific pushbutton is deactivated.
The present disclosure provides a remote-control device having physical operating pushbuttons that can be configured to control a plurality of different appliances, including medical appliances such as operating tables, in an intuitive manner.

Remote control for controlling a medical appliance


A method for use with a magnetic racetrack device includes placing domain walls having a first structure and domain walls having a second, different structure along the racetrack at stable positions corresponding to different regions within the device. The domain walls having the first structure and the domain walls having the second structure occupy alternating positions along the racetrack. A current pulse is applied to the racetrack, so that each of the domain walls moves to an adjacent region. This results in a transformation of the domain walls having the first structure into domain walls having the second structure, and vice versa. The first structure may be a vortex structure and the second structure may be a transverse structure.

Racetrack memory devices are gaining interest as high-density storage devices. These devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,005 titled "Shiftable magnetic register and method of using the same" issued Dec. 21, 2004 to Parkin, which is hereby incorporated by reference. FIG. 1 (which includes FIGS. 1A and 1B) illustrates an exemplary high-level architecture of such a racetrack magnetic memory system 100 comprising a magnetic shift register 10 that utilizes a writing device (also referred to herein as writing element) 15 and a reading device (also referred to herein as reading element) 20. Both the reading device 20 and the writing device 15 form a read/write element of system 100.
The magnetic shift register 10 comprises a track 11 made of ferromagnetic material. The track 11 can be magnetized in small sections, or domains, in one direction or another. Information is stored in regions such as domains 25, 30 in the track 11. The order parameter of the magnetic material from which the track is fabricated, which is the magnetization direction or the direction of the magnetic moment, changes from one direction to another. This variation in the direction of the magnetic moment forms the basis for storing information in the track 11.
In one embodiment, the magnetic shift register 10 comprises a data region 35 and a reservoir 40. The data region 35 comprises a contiguous set of domains such as domains 25, 30 that store data. Additional length is provided to the magnetic shift register 10 in the form of a reservoir 40.
The reservoir 40 is made sufficiently long so that it accommodates all the domains in the region 35 when these domains are moved completely from region 35 across the writing and reading elements (for the purposes of writing and reading domains) into region 40. At any given time, the domains are thus stored partially in region 35 and partially in region 40, so it is the combination of region 35 and region 40 that forms the storage element. In one embodiment, the reservoir 40 is where the reservoir region is devoid of magnetic domains in a quiescent state.
Thus, the storage region 35 at any given time may be located within a different portion of the magnetic shift register 10, and the reservoir 40 would be divided into two regions on either side of the storage region 35. Although the storage region 35 is one contiguous region, and in one embodiment of this application the spatial distribution and extent of the domains within the storage region 35 would be approximately the same no matter where the storage region 35 resides within the shift register 10, in another embodiment, portions of the storage region may be expanded during the motion of this region particularly across the reading and writing elements. A portion of (or even the entire) data region 35 is moved into the reservoir 40 to access data in specific domains.
The reservoir 40 is shown in FIG. 1 as approximately the same size as the data region 35. However, other alternative embodiments may allow the reservoir 40 to have a different size than the data region 35. As an example, the reservoir 40 could be much smaller than the data region 35 if more than one reading and writing element were used for each magnetic shift register. For example, if two reading and writing elements were used for one shift register and were disposed equally along the length of the data region, then the reservoir would only need to be approximately half as long as the data region.
An electric current 45 is applied to the track 11 to move the magnetic moments within domains 25, 30 along the track 11, past the reading device 20 or the writing device 15. The domains arrayed along the track are separated from one another by boundaries which are called domain walls (DWs). In a magnetic material with domain walls, a current passed across the domain walls moves the domain walls in the direction in or opposite to the current flow, depending on the characteristics of the magnetic material comprising the racetrack. As the current passes through a domain, it becomes "spin polarized". When this spin polarized current passes through into the next domain across the intervening domain wall, it develops a spin torque. This spin torque moves the domain wall. Domain wall velocities can be very high, i.e., on the order of 100 m/sec or more, so that the process of moving a particular domain to the required position for the purposes of reading this domain or for changing its magnetic state by means of the writing element can be very short.
The domains, such as domains 25, 30, 31 are moved (or shifted) back and forth over the writing device 15 and reading device 20, in order to move the data region 35 in and out of the reservoir 40, as shown in FIG. 2 (which includes FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C). In the example of FIG. 2A, the data region 35 could initially reside on the left side of the well, i.e., bottom section 32 of the magnetic shift register 10, with no domains in the reservoir 40. FIG. 2C shows the case where the data region 35 resides entirely on the right side of the magnetic shift register 10.
In order to write data in a specific domain, such as domain 31, a current 45 is applied to the magnetic shift register 10 to move domain 31 over, and in alignment with, the writing device 15. All the domains in the data region 35 move when the current is applied to the magnetic shift register.
The movement of the domains is controlled by both the magnitude and direction of the current, and the time over which the current is applied. In one embodiment, one current pulse of a specified shape (magnitude versus time) and duration is applied to move the domains in the storage region in one increment or step. A series of pulses are applied to move the domains the required number of increments or steps. Thus, a shifted portion 205 (FIG. 2B) of the data region 35 is pushed (shifted or moved) into the reservoir region 40. The direction of motion of the domains within the track 11 depends on the direction of the applied current.
In order to read data in a specific domain, such as domain 25, additional current is applied to the magnetic shift register 10 to move domain 25 over, and in alignment with, the reading device 20. A larger shifted portion 210 of the data region 35 is pushed (shifted or moved) into the reservoir 40.
The reading and writing devices shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 form part of a control circuit that defines a reference plane in which the reading and writing devices are arrayed. In one embodiment, the magnetic shift register 10 stands vertically out of this reference plane, largely orthogonal to this plane.
In order to operate the magnetic shift register 10 the control circuit includes, in addition to the reading and writing elements, logic and other circuitry for a variety of purposes, including the operation of the reading and writing devices, the provision of current pulses to move the domains within the shift register, the means of coding and decoding data in the magnetic shift register, etc. In one embodiment, the control circuit is fabricated using CMOS processes on a silicon wafer. The magnetic shift registers will be designed to have a small footprint on the silicon wafer, so as to maximize the storage capacity of the memory device while utilizing the smallest area of silicon to keep the lowest possible cost.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the footprint of the shift register will be determined largely by the area of the wafer that the reading and writing devices occupy. Thus, the magnetic shift register will be comprised of tracks extending largely in the direction out of the plane of the wafer. The length of the tracks in the vertical direction will determine the storage capacity of the shift register. Since the vertical extent can be much greater than the extent of the track in the horizontal direction, hundreds of magnetic bits can be stored in the shift register yet the area occupied by the shift register in the horizontal plane is very small. Thus, the shift register can store many more bits for the same area of silicon wafer as compared to conventional solid state memories.
Although the tracks of the magnetic shift register are shown as being largely orthogonal (i.e., "vertical") to the plane of the reading and writing elements (the circuitry plane) these tracks can also be inclined, at an angle, to this reference plane, as an example, for the purpose of greater density or for ease of fabrication of these devices. The tracks can even be parallel to the surface of the reference plane, i.e., they may have a "horizontal" configuration.
In an entirely uniform, smooth and magnetically homogeneous track the energy of a domain wall does not depend on its position along the track and thus a domain wall may not be stable against thermal fluctuations and parasitic magnetic fields, e.g., those from nearby domain walls in the same or adjacent tracks. By varying the structure of the racetrack (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,005 to Parkin), preferred positions for the domain walls along the track can be formed where the energy of the domain wall is decreased. These "pinning sites" thus play an important role in defining energetically stable positions for the DWs and thereby the spacing between consecutive bits.

Magnetic racetrack with current-controlled motion of domain walls within an undulating energy landscape

International Business Machines Corporation


A printing machine includes a machine base, a lower box mounted on the machine base, an upper box mounted on the lower box in a vertically movable and adjustable position, a conveyor passing horizontally between the upper and lower boxes, and an upper printing device mounted in the upper box for printing a workpiece carried by the conveyor. The lower box has an adjustable support for adjustably supporting the upper box. The adjustable support has two upright support tubes mounted to the lower box, and driven shafts received rotatably in the support tubes. Each of the driven shafts has an upper end, a lower end which extends outwardly of a respective one of the support tubes, a threaded hole which extends longitudinally in the upper end, and an upright connecting rod with an externally threaded lower end that engages the threaded hole and an upper end connected to the upper box. The lower box further has a driving mechanism to drive the driven shafts. The driving mechanism has a horizontal driving shaft mounted to the lower box, an operating handle wheel mounted on the horizontal driving shaft, and a transmission unit connected to the horizontal driving shaft and the lower ends of the driven shafts.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing machine having upper and lower boxes for receiving upper and lower printing devices respectively, more particularly to a printing machine having an upper box which is supported above a lower box thereof and which can be moved easily and locked securely relative to the lower box.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional printing machine is shown to comprise a machine base 1, upper and lower boxes 2, 3 mounted on the machine base 1, right and left boxes 4, 5 mounted on the machine base 1, and a conveyor 9 passing horizontally between the upper and lower boxes 2, 3 and between the right and left boxes 4, 5. The upper and lower boxes 2, 3 have upper and lower printing devices S mounted therein, respectively. The right and left boxes 4, 5 have right and left printing devices 7 mounted therein, respectively. An ink-supplying device 8 is connected to the upper and lower printing devices 6 and the right and left printing devices 7 through connecting pipes 801. With the above structure, three side faces of a U-shaped workpiece 701 carried by the conveyor 9 can be printed respectively by means of the upper and lower printing devices 6 and the right and left printing devices 7 when the U-shaped workpiece 701 passes between the upper and lower boxes 2, 3 and between the right and left boxes 4, 5. The distance between the upper and lower boxes 2, 3, i.e., the distance between either one of the upper and lower printing devices 6 and the conveyor 9 is adjustable by rotating an operating handle wheel 207. The distance between the right and left boxes 4, 5 is adjustable by rotating an operating handle wheel 402.
Referring to FIG. 3, an adjustable support device is employed to support the upper box 2 on the lower box 3 in a vertically movable and adjustable position. The adjustable support device includes two dovetailed tenons 204 formed on two opposite sides of the upper box 2, and two dovetailed grooves 304 formed on two opposite sides of the lower box 3. The tenons 204 are received respectively in the grooves 304 so that the upper box 2 is disposed slidably on the lower box 3. A support block 205 is fixed to the upper box 2. A locking block 305 is fixed to the lower box 3. A threaded shaft 208 extends through a threaded hole 206 in the support block 205 and the locking block 305. The threaded shaft 208 has a diameter-reduced lower end portion 209 engaging a locking pin 306 in the locking block 305 such that the threaded shaft 208 is rotatable but not movable in the axial direction with respect to the locking block 305. When the handle wheel 207, and therefore the threaded shaft 208, is rotated, the upper box 2 can move vertically with respect to the lower box 3, thereby resulting in a desired gap between the upper and lower boxes 2, 3 to permit a workpiece of specified size to pass therebetween.
The adjustable support device suffers from the following disadvantages:
1. Since the adjustable support device has no positioning means to position the upper box 2 relative to the lower box 3 after the upper box 2 is moved to a desired position, the upper box 2 may move downward gradually by virtue of its weight. Thus, the distance between the upper and lower boxes 2, 3 is reduced undesirably. Therefore, the workpiece 701 may be prevented from passing through the upper and lower boxes 2, 3. PA1 2. Since the rotary shaft extends vertically through the upper box 2, and since the handle wheel 207 is located on the top of the upper box 2 at a relatively high position, the operation of the handle wheel 207 is relatively inconvenient to conduct.

Printing machine having a lower box and an upper box adjustably supported on to the lower box


Provided are a video decoding method and apparatus, in which, during video encoding and decoding processes: in which a first bin of a sub-block merge index indicating a candidate motion vector of a sub-block merge mode is obtained, the first bin being arithmetic-encoded using a context model, a second arithmetic-encoded in a bypass mode is obtained based on a first value obtained by arithmetic-decoding the first bin by using the context model, a second value is obtained by arithmetic-decoding the second bin in the bypass mode, and prediction on a current block is performed in the sub-block merge mode, based on the first value and the second value.

Image data is encoded by a codec according to a predetermined data compression standard, for example, a moving picture expert group (MPEG) standard, and then is stored in the form of a bitstream in a recording medium or is transmitted via a communication channel.
With the development and supply of hardware capable of reproducing and storing high-resolution or high-definition image content, there is an increasing demand for a codec for effectively encoding or decoding the high-resolution or high-definition image content. Encoded image content may be reproduced by being decoded. Recently, methods for effectively compressing such high-resolution or high-definition image content are performed. For example, the methods are proposed to effectively implement an image compression technology through a process of splitting an image to be encoded by a random method or rendering data.
As one of techniques for rendering data, it is general that context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) encoding and CABAC decoding are performed in entropy coding. Also, in inter prediction, it is general that a range of a motion vector is constant, which is 16 bits.

Video decoding method and apparatus, and video encoding method and apparatus involving sub-block merge index context and bypass model


A geolocation method and system for locating the source of interference to a high throughput satellite. The method involves determining relative power level differences between interference signals received by the victim spot beam and co-colored nearby spot beams on the same satellite. Using beam pattern data, the relative power levels for a pair of beams determines contour lines of possible location the correspond to the relative power difference in the signals received by the two beams in the pair. A point of intersection of contour lines from multiple pairs of spot beams indicates the location of the source of interference.

Conventional fixed-service satellite (FSS) systems use one or more large wide beams to cover a large geographic area. At times, the satellite may be subject to interference from an uplink signal in its operating frequency band. It is valuable to be able to identify the location of such a signal so as to take corrective action. Existing techniques for geolocating such a signal rely on time-difference-of-arrival and frequency-difference-of-arrival techniques involving the satellite and a ground station and a second nearby satellite using the same spectrum and a ground station. This can be difficult to realize in practice.
Modern satellite communication is moving away from FSS towards high throughput satellite (HTS) systems in which the satellite employs a large number of narrow spot beams and relies on color re-use to improve throughput at each beam. HTS is considered particularly attractive because it enables higher throughput for both uplink and downlink, and modern satellite communication needs place a greater emphasis on two-way traffic, i.e. both uplink and downlink to end equipment, such as for satellite-based mobile internet. This means that the HTS systems can expect significantly more uplink signals from end points, will rely more heavily on being able to accurately received and route those signals, and may be at greater risk of suffering interference from accidental or malicious uplink signals.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have improved methods and systems for geolocating the source of an uplink interference signal.
Like reference numerals are used in the drawings to denote like elements and features.

Uplink interference geolocation method and system for high throughput satellite

Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited