One aspect of the invention relates to a method for signaling information to the operator of the remote control for a parking assistance system which can be controlled by remote control from outside of a motor vehicle for automatically parking the motor vehicle into a parking space. The method includes detecting surroundings information with respect to the vehicle surroundings on the motor vehicle side using a surrounding sensor system of the motor vehicle. The parking assistance system in the motor vehicle detects a parking space on the basis of the surroundings information, and information on the detection of a parking space is transmitted from the motor vehicle to the remote control via a wireless communication connection. On the basis of the received information, the remote control signals the presence of the detected parking space to the operator.

The invention relates to the signaling of information to the operator of the remote control for a parking assistance system, controllable by remote control from outside a motor vehicle, for automatically parking the motor vehicle in a parking space.
Various types of parking assistance systems are known. Simple parking assistants comprise an ambient sensor system, for example a radar sensor system or an ultrasonic sensor system, for identifying obstacles, the distance to the identified obstacle being communicated to the driver in a visual and/or audible fashion. Above that, parking assistance systems having automated transverse guidance are known that take the driving task of steering away from the driver during parking and steer the vehicle along a computed parking trajectory into a parallel parking space or a perpendicular parking space, with the driver continuing to operate the brake and gas pedals. Furthermore, parking assistance systems having automated transverse and longitudinal guidance are known that additionally control the drive and the brake as well. The parking assistance system in this case performs the driving task for as long as the driver operates a pushbutton switch in the vehicle. Using the pushbutton switch in the vehicle, the driver exercises control over the parking process. In the case of these parking assistants, the driver remains in the driver's seat. However, parking assistance systems are known, for example for forward parking spaces (e.g. a single garage) that can be parked in a forward direction or reverse direction, in which the driver is situated outside the vehicle during the parking process. In this case, control of the parking process is relocated to a remote control. Such parking assistance systems for forward parking spaces are also referred to as a garage parking assistant.
The document WO 2013/053776 A2 describes a parking assistance system controllable by remote control for automated parking in a forward parking space (particularly a single garage), wherein the remote control comprises a control element for controlling the forward travel and a control element for controlling the reverse travel. When the vehicle has been stopped in front of a forward parking space, the operator can steer the vehicle into the parking space using automated longitudinal guidance from outside the vehicle by operating the control element for controlling the forward travel. In this case, the remote control is used not only for sending control information to the parking assistance system in the vehicle, but also for receiving information provided by the parking assistance system in the vehicle about the presence of an obstacle, the presence of an obstacle in the forward direction or reverse direction being signaled using signaling means, e.g. using a screen on the remote control.
It is an object of the invention to provide the operator of a parking assistance system controllable by remote control for automated parking with further information by means of the remote control.
The object is achieved by the features of an independent patent claims. Advantageous embodiments are described in the dependent claims. It is pointed out that additional features of a patent claim dependent on the independent patent claim can, without the features of the independent patent claim or just in combination with a subset of the features of the independent patent claim, form a separate invention that is independent of the combination of all of the features of the independent patent claim and that can be turned into the subject matter of an independent claim, of a divisional application or of a subsequent application. This applies in the same way to concepts disclosed in the description that are able to form an invention independent of the features of the independent patent claims, particularly for the exemplary concepts, described as part of the application, of identification of the parking space based on anchor points and lateral parking space orientation lines, determination of a parking line and adjustment of the vehicle longitudinal axis to the parking line.
A first aspect of the invention relates to a method for signaling information to the operator of the remote control for a parking assistance system, controllable by remote control from outside a motor vehicle, for automatically parking the motor vehicle in a parking space.
Preferably, a parking assistance system for (head-on and/or reverse) parking in a forward parking space, particularly for parking in a forward parking space that can be parked in head-on (for example a single garage or double garage) is involved. The parking assistance system comprises automated longitudinal guidance and preferably also automated transverse guidance. By way of example, the parking assistance system supports automated steering into a forward parking space identified by the system when the motor vehicle is parked slightly at an angle in front of the forward parking space.
In accordance with the method, the motor vehicle determines surroundings information regarding the vehicle surroundings by means of an ambient sensor system that the vehicle comprises, for example by means of an ultrasonic sensor system in the vehicle front and/or by means of a forward-directed camera in the vehicle. By way of example, the ambient sensor system is used to determine the position of objects, for example the position of lateral boundaries of a parking space such as vehicles, lateral walls of the parking space or markings put on the ground, and these objects are entered in a surroundings map of the vehicle surroundings.
The parking assistance system in the motor vehicle identifies a parking space based on the surroundings information. By way of example, the identification of a parking space involves a left and a right anchor point (typically the two corners), which denote the entrance of the parking space, and a left and a right lateral parking space orientation line being sought, which are defined by the two lateral boundary objects of the parking space. The parking space orientation line preferably has no defined length and is preferably of arbitrary length. By way of example, a parking space is rated as identified when at least one anchor point and a lateral parking space orientation line on the same side or a second anchor point is found.
A parking space is identified when the motor is started before driving away, for example. However, the surroundings information and the structure of the surroundings map are actually preferably determined before the vehicle is parked. Preferably, when a parking space has not been identified, continual attempts are made during an automated parking maneuver to identify a parking space.
Information about the identification of a parking space is sent from the motor vehicle to the remote control via a wireless communication link, said information then being received by the remote control.
Based on the received information, the remote control signals to the operator the presence of an identified parking space. Provided that, for example initially, particularly prior to driving away, no parking space has been identified, the parking assistance system preferably allows a parking space still to be identified later too, in the course of the parking maneuver; the later identification of the parking space is then preferably communicated to the driver via the remote control.
The method according to the invention affords the advantage that the driver is informed about the status of the parking space identification via the remote control. Provided that the parking assistance system also supports automated transverse guidance for an identified forward parking space, for example, and, when a forward parking space is not identified, merely steers the vehicle straight on without turning the steering wheel or does not steer the vehicle in automated fashion at all, the driver knows that in the absence of an identified forward parking space being signaled or in the case of explicit signaling of a parking situation where a parking space has not been identified, the vehicle will not be steered into the forward parking space using automated transverse guidance.
Preferably, the identification of the parking space involves, or the identification is followed by, the motor vehicle using a criterion or multiple criteria in respect of the ability of a parking space to be parked in to establish that the parking space can be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control using the parking assistance system. When a forward space can be parked in, a criterion in respect of the ability of the parking space to be parked in can relate to the orientation of the vehicle with respect to the parking space, e.g. the angle formed by the vehicle and the forward parking space. To establish the ability of a parking space to be parked in, for example, it is possible to check that the absolute value of the angle between the orientation of the vehicle and an orientation of the parking space is less than or less than or equal to a defined threshold value (e.g. 15° or 30°). An alternative or additional (cumulative) criterion can relate to the lateral offset of the vehicle with respect to the parking space, i.e. the extent to which the vehicle and the forward parking space are offset from one another at the side. By way of example, within the context of the ability of a parking space to be parked in, it is possible to check that the lateral offset of a reference point on the parking space and a reference point on the vehicle is less than or less than or equal to a threshold value (e.g. 1.0 m or 1.5 m). An alternative or additionally checked criterion can relate to the width of the parking space, i.e. whether the width of the parking space is adequate. Within the context of the ability of a parking space to be parked in, for example, it is possible to check whether the width of the parking space is greater than or greater than or equal to a defined threshold value (e.g. the vehicle width plus 70 cm). An alternative or additionally checked criterion can relate to the distance of the vehicle from the parking space. The background to this is, by way of example, that the maximum displacement path can be limited (e.g. to 1.5 times the vehicle length) and the vehicle then possibly cannot enter the parking space completely if the distance is too great. In this regard, it is possible, by way of example, to determine the distance between a vehicle reference point (e.g. the middle of the rear axle) and a reference point on the parking space (e.g. the central point between the two anchor points) and to check whether this distance is less than or less than or equal to a defined threshold value (e.g. 9 m).
On establishment of a parking space that can be parked in and that can be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control, the vehicle then sends information about the identification of a parking space that can be parked in to the remote control. This information is received by the remote control, and the remote control signals the presence of an identified parking space that can be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control to the operator of the remote control.
Preferably, the parking assistance system in the motor vehicle can distinguish between at least two different parking situation types having a parking space that can be parked in with a different Q factor for the ability of the parking space to be parked in, e.g. forward parking spaces that can be parked in without a problem in one move in a forward direction or reverse direction from the current vehicle position by remote control and forward parking spaces that, although they can fundamentally be parked in using the remote control, possibly require several moves, and the driver then needs to reverse the vehicle, in the course of a parking process in a forward direction, the vehicle a certain distance in a reverse direction by remote control so as then to be able to complete the parking process in the forward direction.
By way of example, a parking situation type with a higher Q factor for the ability of a parking space to be parked in exists when one or more parameters checked for the ability of the parking space to be parked in are within narrower limits (e.g. less than or equal to or less than 15° for the absolute value of the orientation difference between the parking space and the vehicle and less than or equal to or less than 1 m for the absolute value of the lateral offset), and a parking situation type with a comparatively lower Q factor for the ability of a parking space to be parked in exists when said parameter or said parameters are within (in comparison with the narrower limits) less narrow limits (e.g. less than or equal to or less than 30° for the absolute value of the orientation difference between the parking space and the vehicle and less than or equal to or less than 1.5 m for the absolute value of the lateral offset). By way of example, an identified parking space is categorized as not able to be parked in when a parameter checked for the ability of the parking space to be parked in is outside the less narrow limits, for example for an orientation difference greater than 30° or a lateral offset greater than 1.5 m.
When a parking situation having a parking space that can be parked in with a higher Q factor for the ability of the parking space to be parked in is established, a piece information about the presence of such a parking situation is sent to the remote control; after reception of this information by the remote control, the presence of a parking space that can be parked in with a higher Q factor for the ability of the parking space to be parked in is signaled to the operator of the remote control.
When a parking situation having a parking space that can be parked in with a comparatively lower Q factor for the ability of the parking space to be parked in is established, a piece of information about the presence of such a parking situation is sent to the remote control; after reception of this information by the remote control, the presence of a parking space that can be parked in with a lower Q factor for the ability of the parking space to be parked in is signaled to the operator of the remote control.
This idea is not just limited to two different parking situation types with a different Q factor for the ability of an identified parking space to be parked in: it would also be conceivable to distinguish between more than two parking situation types with a different Q factor for the ability of an identified parking space to be parked in, for example 3, 4 or 5 such types. It is also possible to select a very low resolution for the distinction.
By way of example, the parking assistance system in the motor vehicle can distinguish between two, three or all of the following parking situation types:
1. no identified parking space,
2. an identified parking space that can be parked in, which can be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control using the parking assistance system,
3. an identified parking space that can be parked in, which can be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control using the parking assistance system, wherein the Q factor of the ability of the parking space to be parked in is lower than in the case of the aforementioned parking situation type having a parking space that can be parked in, and
4. an identified parking space that cannot be parked in from the current vehicle position by remote control using the parking assistance system.
Preferably, all of the parking situation types under 1.-4. are distinguishable by the parking assistance system.
Information about the identified parking situation is sent from the parking assistance system in the vehicle to the remote control.
By way example, the remote control is sent a byte, the value of which indicates which parking situation type currently exists.
Preferably, two parking situation types from the parking situation types under 1.-4., all of the parking situation types from the parking situation types under 1.-4. or just a subset of the parking situation types under 1.-4. can be signaled to the user via the remote control in a manner distinguishable for the user by different signals associated with the individual parking situation types. By way of example, four different signals (for example 4 different pictograms on a screen on the remote control) are used for signaling the 4 parking situation types. Alternatively, however, it would be possible for situations 1. and 4. to be signaled to the user by remote control using the same signal (for example by using the same pictogram for these parking situations).
As already explained above, the parking assistance system is preferably a parking assistance system that is suitable for parking in forward parking spaces situated in front of the motor vehicle by traveling forwards (with the vehicle being parked with its front in front of the parking space). The parking assistance system may, however, additionally or alternatively also be suitable for reverse parking in forward parking spaces (where the vehicle is parked with its rear in front of the parking space). To this end, the remote control preferably comprises a control means for controlling the forward travel and/or a control means for controlling the reverse travel of the motor vehicle. By way of example, a parking assistance system is involved that is suitable for parking at least in a forward direction, and that depicts a virtual control key for controlling the forward travel and a virtual control key for controlling the reverse travel on a touch sensitive screen (touchscreen) of the remote control, which keys, when touched, respectively prompt the vehicle to be made to travel forwards or in reverse, and the forward travel or reverse travel is maintained until the touch is ended or another termination condition (e.g. a critical obstacle or arrival at the maximum displacement path) for terminating the movement is met. Instead of virtual keys on a touch sensitive screen, it is alternatively or additionally also possible for physical keys to be provided for controlling the forward and reverse travel.
It is advantageous when the parking assistance system comprises automated transverse guidance, so that the vehicle is steered into the parking space in automatically directed fashion. By way of example, it is thus possible for a lateral offset between the vehicle and the parking space or an orientation difference between the vehicle and the parking space to be compensated for by the automated transverse guidance when a vehicle is parked in front of the forward parking space.
Preferably, when no parking space has been identified, operation of the control means prompts the vehicle be automatically steered straight on without turning the steering wheel in a forward direction or reverse direction. In this case, it is advantageous when the parking space identification remains activated during straight-on travel, so that the parking space can be identified later in the course of the straight-on travel and, if need be, automated transverse guidance can then be activated for parking in the parking space. When a parking space has been identified, particularly when an identified parking space has also been identified as being able to be parked in (i.e. the simple identification of a parking space is not necessarily sufficient for active transverse guidance), operation of the control means prompts the vehicle to be steered into the parking space in a forward direction or reverse direction in a manner directed using automated transverse guidance. The remote control preferably signals to the operator whether the vehicle is steered into the parking space straight on without turning the steering wheel, or the vehicle is steered into the parking space in a manner directed using automated transverse guidance. By way of example, when a parking space that can be parked in is identified, a different pictogram is depicted on the screen of a remote control than when a parking space is not identified; the pictogram for the identified parking space that can be parked in implicitly signals to the user that the vehicle is steered into the parking space using automated transverse guidance, whereas a pictogram that is depicted on the remote control when a parking space is not identified signals straight-on travel to the user. It is naturally conceivable for the statement "directed parking maneuver" or "undirected parking maneuver" also to be able to be signaled to the driver explicitly by an applicable pictogram (e.g. in the form of a depicted steering wheel) or by absence of this pictogram or by another pictogram (e.g. a crossed-out steering wheel) or by an appropriate text indicator.
Preferably, the remote control comprises a visual display and the identification of the parking space or of a parking space that can be parked in is signaled to the user via this visual display, for example via one or more light-emitting diodes on the remote control. Advantageously, the visual display is an, in particular matrix-based, screen, for example an LCD or OLED screen, however; the screen may be configured as a touchscreen. In this case, the signaling to the user is preferably effected via one or more different pictograms.
A second aspect of the invention relates to a remote control for a parking assistance system, controllable by remote control from outside of a motor vehicle, for automatically parking the motor vehicle in a parking space. The vehicle-based parking assistance system comprises an ambient sensor system for determining surroundings information regarding the vehicle surroundings, parking space identification means for identifying a parking space based on the surroundings information and a bidirectional wireless communication device for sending information about the identification of a parking space from the motor vehicle to the remote control. The remote control has a bidirectional wireless communication device for receiving the information about the identification of a parking space. Further, the remote control comprises signaling means for signaling the presence of an identified parking space to the operator of the remote control based on the received information.
The above explanations pertaining to the method according to the invention in accordance with the first aspect of the invention accordingly also apply to the remote control according to the invention in accordance with the second aspect of the invention. Advantageous exemplary embodiments of the remote control according to the invention that are not explicitly described at this juncture and in the patent claims correspond to the advantageous exemplary embodiments of the method according to the invention that are described above or described in the patent claims.
A third aspect of the invention is directed at the vehicle-based parking assistance system that is controlled via the remote control in accordance with the second aspect of the invention. The parking assistance system comprises an ambient sensor system for determining surroundings information regarding the vehicle surroundings, parking space identification means for identifying a parking space based on the surroundings information and a bidirectional wireless communication device for sending information about the identification of a parking space from the motor vehicle to the remote control.
The above explanations pertaining to the method according to the invention in accordance with the first aspect of the invention accordingly also apply to the vehicle-based parking assistance system according to the invention in accordance with the third aspect of the invention. Advantageous exemplary embodiments of the vehicle-based parking assistance system according to the invention that are not explicitly described at this juncture and in the patent claims correspond to the advantageous exemplary embodiments of the method according to the invention that are described above or described in the patent claims.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Signaling information on a detected parking space to the operator of a remote control for a parking assistance system which can be controlled by remote control for automatically parking a motor vehicle

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A hydraulic shock absorber enables its piston rod to be locked near its minimum length position and allows the locked condition to be visually confirmed easily. A cap member is secured to a distal end portion of a piston rod extending from a cylinder part, and a dust cover is secured to the cap member. A lock member is secured to an end of the cylinder part from which the piston rod extends to the outside. The lock member is cut and bent upward to form engaging portions. The cap member is cut and bent downward to form engaging pieces and windows. With the piston rod contracted to near its minimum length position, the cap member is rotated to engage the engaging portions and the engaging pieces with each other, thereby locking the piston rod. The engaged condition of the engaging portions and the engaging pieces can be visually confirmed through the windows.

The present invention relates to cylinder apparatus such as a hydraulic shock absorber, a gas spring, etc. in which a rod extends from one end of a cylinder part.
In cylinder-type hydraulic shock absorbers attached to suspension systems of automobiles, for example, it is desirable to lock the piston rod near its minimum length position during transport and storage in view of the space efficiency and from the viewpoint of protecting the surface of the piston rod from rusting and being contaminated. However, in a hydraulic shock absorber having a gas sealed in the cylinder to pressurize the hydraulic fluid in the cylinder at all times in order to prevent cavitation or the like, the piston rod is, generally, extended by the gas pressure.
Conventionally, the piston rod is restrained in its minimum length position by using a synthetic resin band or a metallic wire. Alternatively, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. Hei-2-132147, mutually engageable engaging members are attached to the hydraulic shock absorber body and the distal end of the piston rod, and these engaging members are engaged with each other to thereby lock the piston rod in its minimum length position.
However, the above-described conventional method using a synthetic resin band or a metallic wire involves the problem that it takes time and effort to cut the band or to untie the wire at the time of attaching the hydraulic shock absorber to a vehicle or the like. In addition, the conventional method needs time and effort to dispose of or recycle the used band or wire.
In the hydraulic shock absorber equipped with engaging members as disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. Hei-2-132147, the engaged condition of the engaging members cannot be visually confirmed for the reason, for example, that the piston rod is covered with a dust cover. It is conceivable to provide a window in the dust cover to allow visual inspection of the engaged condition. In such a case, however, visibility is not good because the engaged part is viewed through the window. Therefore, the provision of a window in the dust cover cannot be said to be a satisfactory solution.


Disclosed is a computer-implemented method for visualizing/rendering a computer model, the computer model comprising a plurality of components wherein the method comprises: storing a plurality of parts of at least one of the plurality of components, each part including geometry information for visualizing/rendering the part, storing information indicative of the position and orientation of a plurality of components in a coordinate system, determining a spatial relationship between individual components, determining for the at least one component a number of stored parts to use for visualizing/rendering the component, based on the determined spatial relationship between the individual components. By using the spatial relationship between the components to determine the number of parts to use for visualizing/rendering a component, knowledge about the geometry of individual components and the connections of the components with other components can be used to find hidden parts that can be removed.

3D computer graphics is used in a wide range of fields such as computer aided design (CAD) and computer games. 3D computer graphics may be used to generate perspective views of 3D models. This may be used in a design process as is the case with CAD or for the purpose of entertainment as is the case with computer games. A common problem facing 3D compute graphics is the large computational resources needed. This is especially a problem for real time 3D computer graphics as the lack of computational resources will result in a decreased frame rate with a corresponding decreased user experience.
The intensive research in computing has been matched by an analogous increase in complexity of the computer models. This is both the case for CAD where larger structures are design as well as computer games where an increased detail level results in more complex models. A common group of objects to represent with 3D computer graphics are composite products. Composite products are products comprised of a number of smaller physical components.
Examples of composite products comprising a large number of components include large machines, cars, airplanes and other vehicles, buildings, as well as products that are sold and shipped unassembled, such as furniture, toy models, etc. A particular example of products that are composed of a large number of smaller components, include toy construction sets including a plurality of interconnectable toy construction elements.
There are various known types of modelling concepts of such toy construction sets. Especially modular or semi-modular concepts are very popular as they provide an interesting and challenging play experience. Typically, these concepts provide a set of pre-manufactured building elements that can be interconnected with each other in some predetermined way by means of connection elements or other coupling means of the pre-manufactured elements. The pre-manufactured building elements may resemble well-known objects adapted to a specific modelling task. Thus in e.g. building a model of a house the building elements may resemble wall bricks, roof tiles, doors, and windows. An advantage of selecting the building elements in this way is that the play is put into system and the work involved with the building of a model of a house is reduced significantly compared to a situation where all details of the house are to be defined each time a new model should be made. However, the complete freedom in building a house or another object is traded off for the simplicity of building the model.
For example, the toy construction sets available under the name LEGO comprise a plurality of different types of interconnectable building elements having protrusions and corresponding cavities as connecting elements. The connecting elements are arranged according to regular grid patterns, thereby allowing a wide variety of interconnections between building elements.
A known way of reducing the computational load needed for visualising/rendering a computer model is occlusion culling. Occlusion culling works by finding faces hidden from a given viewing perspective. Known occlusion culling algorithms are however slow and need to be run every time the view changes. This is especially a problem for computer aided design and computer games as the view in these application typically changes often resulting in an a large computational load caused by the occlusion culling algorithm.
It remains thus a problem to visualise/render composite products, in a computationally efficient way.

Connectivity depended geometry optimization for real-time rendering


A dual glazing window having a removable glazing panel is provided with a breather system connecting the air chamber between the glazing panels with the outside ambient air by routing an outwardly facing channel into the window rail or stile member either on its end edge or side face. The abutting rail or stile member will close the open side of the channel in the end edge while the adjacent glazing panel closes the channel in the side face. A breather sleeve is press fitted into the channel to protect the wood from absorbing moisture.

Many windows are manufactured for high energy efficiency by utilizing dual glazing panels with an insulating air space therebetween. Typically, the interior glazing panel is removable. Such a design requires that the insulating air space be vented to the atmosphere to prevent excessive moisture build up which results in condensation on the glazing panels. Such ventilation is usually provided by drilling holes through the sash frame. An example of this is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,206. A pair of drilled interconnecting holes are illustrated in prior art FIG. 6.
A breather system is needed that involves a minimum number of manufacturing steps but is effective in venting the insulating air space.


The present invention provides a maintenance history information management system for a construction machine that is capable of enhancing the reliability of temporal information about maintenance history data. A data recording device 30 is incorporated in a hydraulic excavator 1 or other construction machine to process operating time or date and time. A mobile terminal 34 includes a CPU 36 for displaying construction machine maintenance items on a monitor 38. A worker can input data for the maintenance items as the maintenance history data. The mobile terminal 34 inputs the operating time or date and time from the data recording device 30 via a communication cable and a communication connector and stores the input operating time or date and time in a storage device 35 in association with the maintenance history data.

When a hydraulic excavator or other construction machine was to be inspected in the past, a worker, who belonged, for instance, to a construction machine manufacturer or servicing company, visited a work site with having a maintenance form (checklist) and wrote maintenance results into the maintenance form. Then, the worker brought the maintenance form back and typed the maintenance results by use of a terminal to enter them into a management server. The maintenance result input process was not efficiently performed because it took a lot of trouble to write the maintenance results into the maintenance form and to type them by use of the terminal. To solve such a problem, a maintenance information transmission/reception system is proposed, for instance, by Patent Document 1. This maintenance information transmission/reception system includes a cellular phone, which allows the user to enter, for instance, hydraulic excavator maintenance results and transmit the entered information, and a management server, which is installed, for instance, at a manufacturer's facility or at a servicing company to transmit information to and receive information from the cellular phone.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-325060

Maintenance history information management system for construction machine

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


A method provides for manufacturing a flap carrier for an exhaust gas flap, especially for the exhaust gas stream of an internal combustion engine. The method includes providing a flap housing (50) and providing a stop ring (48). The stop ring (48) is inserted into the flap housing (50) in a position corresponding to an installed position. The stop ring (48) is fixed to the flap housing (50). Subsequently to fixing the stop ring (48) to the flap housing (50), at least one shaft opening (60, 62) for a pivot shaft carrying a flap diaphragm with at least one flap wing is inserted into the stop ring (48).

An exhaust gas flap that can be used, for example, in an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine and is disclosed in the subsequently published German Patent Application DE 10 2016 111 681 is generally designated by 10 in FIG. 1. A flap drive 12, which operates, for example, by means of an electric motor, is associated with the exhaust gas flap 10. A drive shaft 14 of the flap drive 12 is coupled to the exhaust gas flap 10 for the joint rotation with a pivot shaft 16. The pivot shaft 16 is carried pivotably about a pivot axis A in its two end areas 18, 20 via bearings, not shown, at a flap housing 22.
A flap diaphragm, which is generally designated by 24, is carried at the pivot shaft 16 in the interior of the flap housing 22, which is configured with an essentially circular cross section as well as with a correspondingly circular inner contour in this exemplary embodiment. The flap diaphragm 24 comprises two flap wings 28, 30, which are mounted with a respective mounting area 26 at the pivot shaft 16 by means of welding.
A wing stop 32, 34 having a ring segment-like configuration is provided at the flap housing 22 in association with each of the two flap wings 28, 30. The two wing stops 32, 34 are connected in substance to the inner circumference 36 of the flap housing 22. As is illustrated in FIG. 1, for example, on the basis of the wing stop 34, this [wing stop] extends without interruption along the inner circumference 36 of the flap housing 22 starting from a first circumferential end area 38 located close to the first axial end area 18 of the pivot shaft 16 to a second circumferential end area 40 located close to the second axial end area 20 of the pivot shaft 16. The wing stop 34 provides a stop surface 44 for the flap wing 30 at an end face 42 oriented in the direction of a flap housing longitudinal axis. The wing stop 32 also provides a corresponding stop surface on the opposite side.

Method for manufacturing a flap carrier for an exhaust gas flap

Eberspächer Exhaust Technology GmbH & Co. KG


A brake system includes a hydraulic actuating unit, which can be actuated by way of a brake pedal, a travel simulator interacting with the hydraulic actuating unit, a pressure medium reservoir under atmospheric pressure assigned to the hydraulic actuating unit, a first electrically controllable pressure supply device, a second electrically controllable pressure supply device, an electronic control unit and an electronically controllable pressure modulation device for setting wheel-specific brake pressures. The brake system preferably operates in a “brake-by-wire” mode but can also operate in a fallback mode. The second electrically controllable pressure supply device can provide boost volume during braking in a fallback mode.

There are known hydraulic vehicle brake systems which are designed as power brake systems and, in addition to a muscle-powered brake master cylinder, to which wheel brakes are hydraulically connected and which supplies pressure and volume for actuating wheel brakes, comprise a further, electrically controllable pressure and volume supply device which activates the wheel brakes in a "brake-by-wire" operating mode. If the electrically controllable pressure and volume supply device fails, the wheel brakes are actuated exclusively by the muscle power of the vehicle driver (unboosted fallback operating mode).
WO 2011/029812 A1 has disclosed an electrohydraulic brake system having a brake master cylinder that can be actuated by a brake pedal, a travel simulator and a pressure supply device. In a "brake-by-wire" operating mode, the wheel brakes are supplied with pressure by the pressure supply device. In the fallback operating mode, the wheel brakes are supplied with the pressure applied by the driver by way of the brake master cylinder, which can be actuated by way of the brake pedal. It is felt to be a disadvantage with the previously known brake system that, if the control or drive of the electrically controllable pressure supply device fails, the driver has to produce large brake pedal travels to achieve adequate service braking deceleration.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to improve a brake system of the type stated at the outset in such a way that the vehicle driver can comfortably achieve adequate service braking deceleration despite failure of the pressure supply device.

Brake system for motor vehicles and method for operating a brake system


Indirect detection of current using a current mirror circuit is performed with good accuracy, with a small sized circuit. In a current detection circuit, a current detection current mirror circuit includes an output current transistor which supplies an output current, and a current detection transistor which supplies a detection current proportional to the output current. A compensation current mirror circuit is connected to a current supply side of the current detection current mirror circuit, so as to make a collector voltage of the output current transistor and a collector voltage of the current detection transistor equal. A current detector detects the detection current, to indirectly detect the output current.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current detection circuit which uses a current mirror circuit to indirectly detect a current.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current detection circuits are used in various applications such as motor drivers, power supplies, and the like. In a current detection circuit, in general, a resistor is inserted in a current supply path to a load, and current is directly detected from the two end-voltages thereof, but a method of indirect detection using a current mirror circuit is also being attempted. FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1 discloses a current mirror circuit 1 formed of transistors 3 and 2. When a size ratio of the transistors 3 and 2 is n:1, current flowing in the transistors 3 and 2 also has a ratio of n:1. When a predetermined voltage is given to a control terminal 4, the transistor 3 supplies a current IL1 to a load 13, and the transistor 2 supplies a detection current IS1=IL1+n to a resistor 11 via a transistor 9. Consequently, if the resistance value of the resistor 11 is R, a detection voltage R×IS1=R×IL1÷n is outputted at a detection terminal 12.
As described in Patent Document 2, this type of circuit can detect a load current with good accuracy and with no loss, without interposing a sense resistor in a load current path, and when detecting the load current, it is possible to easily switch gain in accordance with the size of the load current.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application, Laid-Open No. 2001-264365
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application, Laid Open No. H7-113826
In FIG. 1 of the abovementioned Patent Document 1, with the transistors 3 and 2, which make up the current mirror circuit 1, in an unsaturated state, a current IDS between source-drain terminals has a dependency with a voltage VDS across the source-drain terminals. Consequently, a feedback circuit 5 formed of an operational amplifier 6 and a transistor 7 performs control so that voltages VDS across the source-drain terminals of the transistors 3 and 2 become equal.
However, since capacity for phase compensation is necessary inside the operational amplifier 6 included in the feedback circuit 5, when this type of feedback circuit is provided, the circuit size becomes large.


A filtering device including a lower housing engaged on a base and communicated with the base, an upper housing disposed above the lower casing, a tube communicating the base to the upper housing, a motor disposed in the upper housing for drawing the water contained in the base, and a pipe extended into the tube for supplying air into the tube and for forcing the water move upward through the tube when the motor is not energized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filtering device, and more particularly to a filtering device for aquariums.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical filtering device for aquariums is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,951 to Tominaga, in this patent, water is filtered and forced to flow to the bottom portion of the aquarium, and tends to flow upward through the gravels. Obviously, the impurities and wastes deposited on the gravels will be forced to move upward into the water contained in the aquarium, such that the water will be contaminated. In addition, the parts can not be easily disassembled, such that the parts can not be easily cleaned or replaced.
Another type of filtering device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,093 to Willinger. In this patent, the contaminated water is drawn into the filtration compartment by upward flowing air; however, actually, the contaminated water can not be effectively drawn by the upward flowing air. In addition, the parts can not be easily disassembled, such that the parts can not be easily cleaned or replaced.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional filtering devices for aquariums.


A separate filter circuit is inserted between the D/A converter and the summing junction in the feedback path of a conventional sigma delta modulator. This additional filter allows control of the quantization noise transfer function profile independently of the forward signal transfer function. By proper tailoring of the transfer functions a third or higher order modulator can be constructed without instability developing. The modulator can also be constructed as a completely digital circuit and used as a noise shaping circuit in a digital digital-to-analog converter.

The analog-to-digital (A/D) converter is a key component in many electrical reproduction and measurement systems such as high-quality audio systems (including compact disks and digital audio tape) and high-accuracy measurement systems. Typically, in such systems, high converter resolution and speed are required for overall system accuracy.
Conventionally, high resolution, high-speed A/D converters have used either successive approximation or dual ramp conversion techniques to achieve the required accuracy. In converters using the successive approximation technique, an amplifier with a feedback weighting network is used to successively approximate an analog input signal. However, when such converters are fabricated with conventional monolithic integrated circuit technology, it is usually necessary to adjust the weighting network after fabrication by physical trimming. The trimming must be accurate to achieve high conversion accuracy, and, consequently, as the need for higher converter accuracies increases and the size of the circuit decreases, the trimming operation has become more and more difficult.
Converters using the dual ramp conversion technique require components such as integrators, current sources, comparators and sample-and-hold circuits which have both high speed and accuracy. Typically, these circuits utilize switched capacitors to sample and hold the analog input signal. However, with present integrated circuit technology, it is difficult to fabricate a high-accuracy sample and hold circuit because the charge on the sample and hold capacitor leaks through parasitic capacitances and the switch impedances.
Recently, another A/D conversion technique, called sigma-delta conversion, involving a combination of oversampling and noise shaping has been developed to obtain the required accuracy and speed. This latter technique has an advantage over the successive approximation or dual ramp conversion techniques in that it does not require device trimming or high device tolerances while still achieving the required speed and accuracy.
A typical sigma delta system employs a sigma-delta modulator followed by a digital decimation filter. The modulator converts an analog input signal into a pulse density modulated (PDM) single-bit digital output bit stream. The digital filter, in turn, receives this PDM bit stream and generates a multi-bit pulse code modulated (PCM) output.
While this latter technique has advantages in lowering the device tolerance, the digital decimation filter that is required to convert the PDM signal into a PCM signal is highly complex involving many thousands of transistor elements. Consequently, sigma-delta converters have not been economically competitive with successive approximation or dual ramp converters. However, with the advent of competitively-priced VLSI integrated circuit technology, the sigma-delta converter has been greatly reduced in price and can now compete with the other designs.
The general configuration of a typical sigma-delta converter is shown in FIG. 1 and consists of a modulator 102 in series with a digital decimation filter 108. A frequency-band-limited analog input 100 is applied to the modulator where it is sampled by a sampling clock 104 which operates at frequency that is typically many times greater than the Nyquist sampling frequency. For example, for analog signals in the audio signal bandwidth, the sampling clock may be 2-10 MHz. In such a system, the ratio of the actual sampling frequency divided by the Nyquist frequency is called the "oversampling ratio".
In a manner which will be hereinafter described in detail, modulator 102 produces a PDM at its output 106 (pulse-density-modulated means that the average density of the digital pulses in the output bit stream over a given period of time is approximately equal to the mean value of the analog input over the same period of time). The PDM output is a one-bit output stream at the frequency of the sampling clock. In order to reduce the complexity of modulator 102, a very low resolution analog-to-digital converter is often used in the circuit. This, in turn, produces a large amount of "quantization" noise in the modulator output. However, because the modulator frequency shapes this noise, most of the output quantization noise power is located at frequencies outside of the input signal bandwidth.
Conventional quantization noise analysis indicates that the spectral density of the quantization noise is constant from DC up to one-half the sampling frequency. Consequently, it can be easily shown that as the oversampling ratio increases, the amount of noise in a given bandwidth decreases. As the maximum resolution of the converter is dependent on the amount of noise in the PDM output, the resolution of the converter can be increased by increasing the oversampling ratio. Unfortunately, the converter resolution increases only as the log of the sampling frequency and, consequently, high-resolution converters require prohibitively high sampling frequencies if no noise shaping is performed.
Digital decimation filter 108 is essentially a low-pass digital filter which passes signals in the band of interest but cuts off the quantization noise which is out of band. The filter produces a multi-bit PCM output (typically 12-18 bits) at a frequency which is much lower than the incoming PDM bit stream, and consequently, can be viewed as a PDM to PCM converter. During the PDM to PCM conversion, the output frequency may be lowered from the sampling clock frequency to a frequency range close to the Nyquist sampling rate for the analog input frequency range. While such a filter is complex, it is conventional in construction and operation and will not be described further herein.
A more detailed block diagram of a conventional modulator 102 is shown in FIG. 2 wherein the modulator consists of an A/D converter 212 surrounded by a feedback circuit. The feedback circuit includes summing junction 202, filter circuit 204 and a D/A converter 218. In particular, an analog input X(z) at input 200 is provided to sampling switch 201 which samples the input at the frequency of the sampling clock. The output of switch 201 is provided to summing junction 202 and the output of summing junction 202 is, in turn, provided to filter 204 and from there to A/D converter 210. A/D converter 210 is also controlled by sampling clock 212 to convert the analog signal produced by filter 204 to an output PDM digital signal Y(z).
The output Y(z) is fed back by means of line 216 to D/A converter 218 which reconverts the digital output to an analog signal. This analog signal is then applied, via lead 206, to the negative input of summing junction 202. Consequently, unless the output Y(z) is exactly the same as the input X(z), an error signal will be developed by summing junction 202 which will then pass through the loop to correct the output. The operation of the feedback loop causes the digital output Y(z) to oscillate around the value of the analog input with the amplitude of the oscillations constituting quantization noise. In a typical sigma delta modulator, both A/D unit 210 and D/A unit 218 are very coarse converters and may, in fact, consist of single-bit converters. Consequently, the quantization noise introduced into the system by these devices is considerable. However, with certain assumptions, it is possible to treat the quantization noise as if it were produced by a white noise source Q(Z) and added to the output signal at the position of A/D converter 210 a shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 2.
Overlooking the sampled data nature of the modulator for the present time and viewing the circuit as a linear circuit, it can be shown by conventional filter theory that the forward transfer function of such a circuit is given by: ##EQU1##
However, the transfer function from the noise source Q(Z) to the output is given by: ##EQU2##
FIG. 3A is a plot of the signal gain (in dB) versus frequency of the forward transfer function Y(z)/X(z) whereas FIG. 3B is a plot of the quantization noise transfer function Y(z)/Q(z). In accordance with equation (1) above, FIG. 3A the transfer function Y(z)/X(z) appears as a low-pass filter determined by the characteristics G(z) of filter circuit 204. However, as FIG. 3B illustrates the transfer function for the noise Q(z) is that of a high-pass filter. Consequently, the effect of the feedback and filter circuit is to reduce the quantization noise Q(z) power at lower frequencies and increase it at higher frequencies.
If, for example, the cutoff frequency of decimation filter 108 (FIG. 1) is of (shown by the dotted lines in FIGS. 3A and 3B), then for the frequency band between DC and of the input signal as shown by FIG. 3A will not be attenuated whereas the quantization noise (as shown by FIG. 3B) will be highly attenuated.
The configuration suffers from several problems. More particularly, if filter 204 is a first "order" filter, the quantization noise passing through the system is highly correlated so that the oversampling ratio needed to achieve resolution greater than approximately 12 bits is prohibitively large. One prior art method to overcome this problem is to add a small "dither" signal to the input of filter 204. This signal spreads the input signal spectrum over a larger range and de-correlates the quantization noise from the input signal.
Another prior art method to avoid noise correlation and to reduce the amount of quantization noise in the digital filter passband is to either increase the sampling frequency (as mentioned above) or to increase the slope of the noise transfer function in the passband by increasing the "order" of filter 204.
A circuit utilizing a higher order filter is shown in FIG. 4. The modulator shown in FIG. 4 has characteristics similar to FIG. 2 and analog input 400 is provided to a summing junction 402. However, filter 204 shown in FIG. 2 has been split into two single order integrators 404 and 418 joined by a second summing junction 412. The output 406 of summing junction 402 is provided to integrator 404 and the output of 410 of integrator 404 is, in turn, provided to summing junction 412. The output 414 of junction 412 is provided to the second integrator 418. The output 420 of integrator 418 is provided to A/D converter 422 which generates the PDM output 424.
As with the single order modulator, the digital output is fed back, via lead 426, to a D/A converter 428. The output of the D/A converter is provided via leads 408 and 416 to the summing junctions 402 and 412, respectively. This modulator operates in similar manner to that shown in FIG. 2 with the exception that the slope on the noise transfer curve shown in FIG. 3B is steeper in accordance with conventional filter theory.
Higher order sigma delta modulators containing more than two integrators in the forward path theoretically offered the potential of even further increases in resolution. However, it was found that modulators with more than two integrators suffered from instability due to the accumulation of large signals and phase lags in the integrators which tends to reduce the average gain of the quantizer. Consequently, third or higher order modulators with the basic architecture shown in FIG. 4 were not designed because these modulators were marginally stable and it was believed that they would oscillate.
Various alternative approaches, however, have been used to construct higher order modulators. One such scheme is shown in FIG. 5. This circuit uses a second order filter comprised of integrators 514 and 520 combined with both feed-forward and feedback paths to achieve the required noise shaping. In particular, the analog input on lead 500 is provided to a summing junction 502. The output of summing junction 502 is provided to integrator 514 and the output 516 of integrator 514 is, in turn, provided to integrator 520. Summing junction 502 is provided with feedback 510 from the feedback D/A converter 536. However, in addition, the summing junction 502 is provided with feedback from another summing junction 504 which in turn receives feedback from the output of each of the integrators. More particularly, the output of integrator 514 is applied, via lead 518 and amplifier 508, to summing junction 504 and the output of integrator 520 is applied, via lead 522 and amplifier 506, to summing junction 504.
In a similar manner, the outputs of integrators 514 and 520 as well as the output of summing junction 502 are applied to a further summing junction 530 via amplifiers 524-528. The output of this latter summing junction is, in turn, applied, via lead 538, to A/D converter 534 which produces the PDM modulated output 540. The circuit in FIG. 5 is a combination of both an interpolative and a predictive modulator. The feedback signal developed by summing junction 504 acts in an interpolative manner and causes the feedback loop to filter the quantization noise generated by the A/D converter 534. Alternatively, the feed-forward signal developed by summing junction 530 acts as in a predictive manner and causes the output of the feedback loop to predict the input. Any resulting error is quantized and used to make the next prediction.
The filter arrangement shown in FIG. 5 can improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the modulator. However, the configuration requires coefficient summing junctions 504 and 530 at both the input and the output of the circuitry. Thus, either a high-accuracy, high-speed amplifier must be used to implement the summing junctions or the signals must be added by connecting them to a summing capacitor. In the latter case, the outputs are subject to distortions and inaccuracies due to parasitic capacitances in parallel with the summing capacitor.
A third type of prior art circuit is shown in FIG. 6. This circuit utilizes what is known as "MASH" technology. In this arrangement, three first-order sigma-delta modulators (each with a configuration shown in FIG. 2) are cascaded in series and their outputs are summed together to form the final PDM output. In particular, the analog input on lead 600 is applied to a first sigma-delta modulator (SDM) 602. The PDM output 604 is summed with the output of the internal filter circuit P(z) shown in FIG. 2. The error signal developed by summer 606 is provided, via lead 608, to a second first-order SDM 610. The output of modulator 610 (on lead 614) is, in turn, summed with the filter signal P(z) on lead 619 in summer 618. The output of summer 618 is, in turn, provided, via lead 620, to a third first-order SDM 612.
The outputs 604, 614 and 622 of the three SDMs 602-612 are then processed to generate the final output. More particularly, the output of the second SDM 610 is differentiated, via differentiator 616, and applied to summing junction 634 via lead 630. The output 622 of the third SDM 612 is differentiated twice by differentiators 624 and 626 and provided, via lead 632, to summing junction 634. The output of summing junction 634 is summed with the output of SDM 602 on lead 628 in junction 636 to produce the final output 638.
The circuit shown in FIG. 6 has the potential of achieving high resolution since the coarse quantization error produced by the first SDM 602 is successively corrected in each further stage. Unfortunately, this prior art arrangement has two significant problems. In particular, since the output 638 is the sum of several different signals, it is no longer a single-bit signal but rather a multi-bit signal. The multi-bit signal requires more complex processing circuitry in the remainder of the converter (in particular, in the digital filter). Secondly, the outputs of the second and third sigma delta modulators 610 and 612 must be differentiated to combine them. An error will occur if the differentiation is not the precise inverse of the integration implicitly performed by modulators 602 and 610. Since the outputs 614 and 622 of modulators 610 and 612 are digital signals, a near-perfect differentiator can be constructed. Thus, integrator errors will allow quantization noise from SDM 602 and 610 to "leak" into the PDM output (since the noise from these stages is shaped with low order SDM's, it contains appreciable spectral tones).
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sigma delta modulator which has both high-resolution and high speed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sigma delta modulator in which the filter order can be increased beyond second order without suffering instability.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sigma delta modulator which has reduced complexity and can be easily fabricated by monolithic circuitry.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a sigma delta modulator in which recovery from transients can be accomplished easily.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sigma delta modulator which can be fabricated using switched capacitor circuitry.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a digital sigma delta modulator which can be used as a digital noise shaper in a digital digital-to-analog converter.


A surface mount LED package having a tight footprint and small vertical image size is fabricated by a method comprising: forming light emitting diode chips each having a substrate and a plurality of layers configured to emit electroluminescence responsive to electrical energizing; forming electrical vias in a sub mount, the electrical vias passing from a front side of the sub-mount to a back-side of the sub-mount; flip chip bonding the light emitting diode chips on the front-side of the sub mount such that each light emitting diode chip electrically contacts selected electrical vias; thinning or removing the substrates of the flip-chip bonded light emitting diode chips; and after the thinning, disposing a phosphor over the flip chip bonded light emitting diode chips.

Tight footprint white light emitting diode (LED) packages usually include at least one conformal coating of phosphor applied on the LED chips. However, the vertical emission profile of the light source is limited by the height of the chip substrate. Also due to the side emission of the substrate, the phosphor is advantageously coated on the vertical sidewall to capture all the light. Phosphor coating on the sidewall can result in poor goniometric color uniformity due to phosphor thickness non-uniformity. Another disadvantage of a conformally coated small light source is heat-induced degradation of the host material for the phosphor layer, due to the fact that the phosphor blend is close to the chip and absorbs more radiometric power per unit area and in turn generate more heat per unit area. However, heat dissipation of the phosphor layer is poor due to lack of heat conduction.
To address these problems, it is known to use a light emitting package that employs a plurality of light emitting diode chips. Using several chips provides higher light output, and if the colors of the chips are suitably selected (for example, by selecting red, green, and blue chips or a similar combination of saturated colors) the light output can approximate white light. Alternatively, it is known to employ light emitting diode chips that emit in the blue, violet, or ultraviolet range, and to coat such chips with a suitable phosphor blend to approximate white light. The output can be substantially completely converted light (e.g., ˜100% conversion efficiency with the phosphor producing approximately white light) or can be a blend of direct chip emission and converted phosphor emission (e.g., blue direct chip emission and yellowish converted phosphor emission that blend to approximate white light).
In addition, yield of wafer level substrate lift off is very low due to epitaxial layer cracking after lift-off. The yield is expected to be worse when larger size substrates are used.

Wafer level package for very small footprint and low profile white LED devices


Apparatus for coating a webbing uses rollers in contact with each other. The coating is applied to a first roller and coating thickness is limited by a knife blade. The coating travels to a point of contact with the second roller about which the webbing is wound, and the coating is thereby transferred to the webbing. By controlling the relative speed between the two rollers, the knife blade can be raised or lowered with respect to the first roller to attain greater control over the coating operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to apparatus for coating a substrate such a paper or plastic webbing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Two important techniques are used today in the art to apply a coating to a substrate. Each, however, has its own drawbacks. In one coating technique, a substrate is passed underneath a knife blade Positioned generally perpendicular to the path of travel of the substrate. A coating is applied with a greater thickness to the substrate, upstream of the knife blade. The material is typically much thicker than the desired final coating. The bottom, working edge of the knife blade is spaced a precise distance above the surface of the webbing to be coated, to meter the coating while setting a maximum thickness limit for the coating downstream of the knife blade. Also, the coating is spread onto the substrate surface by the knife blade, a feature which is sometimes relied upon to impart a desired finish to the coating. It is generally preferred that the coatings applied in this Manner are continuous and unchanging throughout the length of a production run, that is, from one section of substrate to another.
As those familiar with the art are aware, the knife blade application process offers significant advantages such as applying multiple coatings to a single substrate, but is subject to streaking which must be carefully monitored during a production run. The problems considered here are associated with small particles present in the coating material, which are of a size approaching the gap between the knife blade and the webbing surface. The knife gap in commercial applications is typically very small, of the order of 1 to 2 mils. The particles may comprise airborne contaminants, or perhaps paper fibers which are present in the environment. The particles may also comprise constituents of the coatings. Paint formulations typically include a liquid vehicle to which one or more colorants are added. These colorants often take the form of solid particles which are finely ground and dispersed throughout the paint base. Different colors and types of coatings have different coloring agents exhibiting a fairly wide variety of particulate sizes and characteristics. Some colors and coating types are especially prone to having larger size particles in the liquid suspension. Coatings containing these particles are applied to the substrate immediately upstream of the knife blade and are made to pass underneath the knife blade due to the momentum of the substrate. If the particles are of a size on the order of the gap between the knife blade and the substrate, an imperfection in the coating, which frequently is visible to the unaided eye as a streak, will result. In some applications, it is important that the coating be uniform throughout a relatively long production run. For example, in the manufacture of color samples, a substrate many feet in length will be coated with one or more stripes of different coating materials, and later divided into swatches or "chips" on the order of a inch square in size. Very often, a coating imperfection due to an overly large particle passing underneath a knife roller will be of a size sufficient to spoil several chips. While the coatings can be subjected to unusual preprocessing steps such as filtration or ultra-filtration techniques, these steps are of themselves costly to operation and may prove commercially impractical for some jobs.
In another popular technique used today, a series of rollers apply coating to a substrate. A primary roller is partly immersed in a coating material and transfers the material to a series of downstream rollers, which in turn, convey the material to a substrate. Roller coating devices can deliver a good quality coating across the width of a web, but cannot simultaneously apply multiple coatings to the same substrate, as can be done with the knife coating process.


A multiple image camera for measuring the alignment of objects in different planes. The camera includes two coupled imaging devices configured to directly image objects in different planes without any intervening reflective optics between the imaging devices and the objects. The camera thus allows measurement of the alignment between the first and second objects without the need for repeated calibration between the image from the two imaging devices.

There are myriad instances in which it is necessary to precisely align two objects. For example, an electronic component to be placed on a carrier such as a printed circuit board must be aligned to within very tight tolerances with the conductors on the circuit board, before it is placed. In the same industry, it is also necessary to align a stencil with a printed circuit board when applying solder paste to the board. These are but two examples of this alignment need.
The object alignment in such instances can be accomplished using direct vision, either unassisted or with assisting optics ranging from a simple magnifying glass to sophisticated microscopes. Direct camera vision may be used to assist the operation. More sophisticated methods employ superimposition or juxtaposition of images of the objects on a video monitor. Typically, the two images are created using a single video camera or CCD, (or perhaps two image sensors), and reflecting optics such as prisms to direct light rays from both objects to the imaging device. Examples of such imaging systems may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,304, to Monno; U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,535, to Hickman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,813, to Wilder; U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,579, to Toriumi; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,921, to Bendat et al., and the Summit Series rework systems made by Sierra Research and Technology, Inc., Westford, Mass. 01886.
Direct vision alignment leads to parallax errors, and often has insufficient resolution for fine alignment needs. In addition, direct operator vision alignment is subject to operator error. Imaging systems employing reflecting optics between the image capture device and the objects being imaged are also problematic. Reflecting prisms and mirrors can cause image distortion, leading to alignment errors. Reflecting optics are also subject to thermal instability, which can also lead to alignment errors. Also, since a single image capture device is being used to capture images of two objects, each image is by definition not as bright as the entire image, making such systems more difficult to use, and more likely to result in alignment errors.
There are also imaging systems having a single camera which is moved to sequentially image the two objects. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,304, and Re. Pat. No. 34,615, both to Freeman. Such systems require precision mechanical systems to accomplish the necessary movement of the camera or the imaging optics. Such mechanical systems are expensive, require careful calibration, and are prone to error, particularly as they wear.
Similar systems exist which use two separate imaging devices, usually oriented in parallel, or normal to one another. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,948, to L'Esperance; U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,099, to Morcos; U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,565, to Cipolla et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,830, to Davis et al. The use of separate sensors, however, requires careful calibration before use, and is prone to misalignment errors because the alignment is dependent on the accuracy of two separate camera positioning and moving devices; if either one wears or introduces error, the entire system will be in error.

Multiple image camera for measuring the alignment of objects in different planes


The invention provides a method and apparatus for localizing error recovery activities to specific ones of logically parallel processes ongoing within a computer and to the initiators of error-infected ones of such processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to computing systems. The invention relates more specifically to a method for recovering transparently and automatically from different types of error conditions which may develop inside a digital computer.
2a. Cross Reference to Related Applications
The following copending U.S. patent application(s) is/are assigned to the assignee of the present application, is/are related to the present application and its/their disclosures is/are incorporated herein by reference:
(A) Ser. No. 07/813,891 filed Dec. 23, 1991, by Christopher Y. Satterlee et al, and entitled, IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCATING SOURCE OF ERROR IN HIGH-SPEED SYNCHRONOUS SYSTEMS;
(B) Ser. No. 07/670,289 entitled "SCANNABLE SYSTEM WITH ADDRESSABLE SCAN RESET GROUPS", by Robert Edwards et al, which was filed Mar. 15, 1991.
(C) Ser. No. 07/814,389, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAINTAINING DETERMINISTIC BEHAVIOR IN A FIRST SYNCHRONOUS SYSTEM WHICH RESPONDS TO INPUTS FROM NONSYNCHRONOUS SECOND SYSTEM, James Millar, et al., filed Dec. 26, 1991.
2b. Cross Reference to Related Patents
The following U.S. patent(s) is/are assigned to the assignee of the present application, is/are related to the present application and its/their disclosures is/are incorporated herein by reference:
(A) U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,861, DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM HAVING AN INSTRUCTION PIPELINE FOR CONCURRENTLY PROCESSING A PLURALITY OF INSTRUCTIONS, issued to Amdahl et al, Oct. 8, 1974;
(B) PROGRAM EVENT RECORDER AND DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM, U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,611, issued to Grant et al, Jan. 6, 1976;
(C) U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,019, DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM INCLUDING A PROGRAM-EXECUTING SECONDARY SYSTEM CONTROLLING A PROGRAM-EXECUTING PRIMARY SYSTEM, issued to Anderson et al, Jan. 6, 1981;
(D) U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,953, ERROR TRACKING APPARATUS IN A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM, issued to Venkatesh et al, Apr. 28, 1987;
(E) U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,195, ERROR TRACKING APPARATUS IN A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM, issued to Dewey Jul. 7 1987;
(F) U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,058, TWO-STAGE PIPELINED EXECUTION UNIT AND CONTROL STORES, issued to Lee et al, Aug. 4, 1987;
(G) U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,907, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT SCANNING APPARATUS HAVING SCANNING DATA LINES FOR CONNECTING SELECTED DATA LOCATIONS TO AN I/O TERMINAL, issued to Si, et al. Jun. 21, 1988;
(H) U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,088, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING A PSEUDO BRANCH IN A MICROWORD CONTROLLED COMPUTER SYSTEM, issued to Rawlinson et al, Jan. 31, 1989;
(I) U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,166, MULTI-MODE SCAN APPARATUS, issued to Si et al Apr. 4, 1989; and
(J) U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,947, MICROPROGRAMMABLE PIPELINE INTERLOCKS BASED ON THE VALIDITY OF PIPELINE STATES, issued to Zmyslowski et al, Aug. 8, 1989.
3. Description of the Related Art
The terms "automatic error recovery" and "fault tolerant" are used here to refer to the ability of a certain class of computers to automatically correct internal error conditions and to continue operations at near-top-speed. When such computers are employed, and correctable error conditions occur, end users receive correct computational results without ever being aware that the error conditions had occurred and that the computer self-corrected these. (It should be noted that not all errors are self-correctable by the machine.)
One previous form of automatic error recovery is referred to as "check-point recovery". This type of recovery is found, by way of example, in the IBM 3080 family of mainframe computers.
In checkpoint recovery, operations within the computer are periodically halted at prescheduled "checkpoints." A back-up copy of the machine state is made at each checkpoint to safeguard against the possibility that an error condition will develop before the next checkpoint.
When the computer is first turned on, system clocks are turned off, a master reset is applied and all parts of the computer are tested to make sure they are error free. A snapshot of the entire machine state is taken and saved in memory. This snapshot is defined as the last-known error-free machine state.
System clocks are then turned on for a brief period of time (e.g., 1,000,000 clock cycles), allowing a burst of operations to take place within the computer. When a first post-reset checkpoint is reached, clocks are again halted and a search is conducted for raised error flags. If no errors are found to have occurred Within the brief run, a snapshot of the new machine state is taken and preserved as the last-known error-free state. Operations are allowed to resume until a second post-reset checkpoint is reached. The process repeats as long as there are no errors.
If any errors are found to have occurred within the a last run, the computer is reloaded with its last-known error-free state and the run is tried again. If the error does not reappear in the retry, as is common with many types of "soft" errors (e.g., noise induced or alpha particle induced errors), users of the computer are left unaware that an error ever occurred. Such recovery is referred to as end-user transparent.
If the error does not go away after a predetermined number of retries, a "machine-check" flag is raised and operations are halted to await high-level intervention (correction by the system operator). This condition is undesirable because the error condition is made very apparent to end-users. Their terminals become nonresponsive and they quickly realize that the computer has been brought "down" by some sort of defect. If shut-downs occur too often, end-users begin to lose faith in the reliability of the machine.
An important feature of checkpoint recovery is that it automatically corrects all sorts of soft errors. Special software does not have to be written for figuring out where in the machine each error occurred or what instruction was being executed when the error arose. Checkpoint recovery inherently provides coverage for all instructions and all errors that are correctable by way of retry. This is an advantageous property of checkpoint recovery.
Unfortunately, checkpoint recovery also comes with a major disadvantage. It inherently slows the computational speed of the computer. This is so because the computer halts at every checkpoint and waits for a snapshot of its machine state to be taken. Overall system performance suffers.
A second form of automatic error recovery has been developed to overcome the performance shortfalls of checkpoint recovery. The second type of recovery is commonly referred to as "instruction retry". It may be found, by way of example, in mainframe computers belonging to the IBM 3090 family.
Instruction retry focuses on the stream of instructions that were most-recently executed by the computer's central processor unit (CPU). The start of each instruction execution is used as a marker for identifying the point in time where the machine first entered an error-infected state.
As instructions stream through the CPU, a record of the most-recently executed instructions is maintained. When an error is detected, it is associated with a particular one of the instructions held in the record of most recently-executed instructions. The state of the computer is stepped back to where it was just before the particular instruction was fetched and executed. The stream of subsequent machine operations is then retried.
A major drawback to the instruction retry approach is that not every error can be readily associated with a particular instruction. If, for example, an error occurs in the circuitry that is responsible for maintaining cache to mainstore coherency, and the error does not arise from an action initiated by a recent CPU instruction, there is no CPU instruction which can be specifically associated with the timing of the cache-coherency error. Also, modern machines have pipelined architectures wherein the execution flows of multiple instructions are moving down the pipeline at the same time. The instruction retry approach has to determine which of the concurrently executing instructions is the one that is to be retried. Stepping back and retrying an arbitrarily selected CPU instruction will not correct a cache coherency error. It will merely slow down the CPU. The system is eventually forced to take a non-transparent machine check for each cache-to-mainstore related error after it is realized that numerous retries of the last CPU instruction do not clear the cache error. Similarly, a non-transparent machine check is eventually taken for all other errors that are not logically associable with a specific instruction. The end result is that users lose access to the machine even for errors which in theory should be self-correctable by the machine.
There is yet another drawback to the instruction retry approach. Specialized hardware is often necessary for resetting or stepping the machine state back out of each peculiar type of partially-executed or fully-executed instruction to the state it was in at the very start of that instruction. Due to cost and other considerations, machine designers tend to take short cuts and build step-back/retry capabilities into the machine only for the more commonly used instructions. Retry coverage is thus provided for only a small fraction (e.g. 15%) of all instructions which may be executed on the machine. Non-transparent machine checks have to be disadvantageously taken for all errors not associable with this small fraction of instructions.
Moreover, there is a growing trend in the industry to improve computational speed through the use of parallelism. Parallel processors may be operating on data stored within a shared memory. If an error condition is detected within the shared memory, the conventional instruction-retry approach is left with the dilemma of not knowing which instruction of which parallel processor is to be retried.

Method and apparatus for providing retry coverage in multi-process computer environment


It is described a filter (300) for at least partially compensating for an X-ray tube (10) the target angle heel effect and preserving the tungsten spectrum of the X-rays. The filter (300) has an anode side (302) and a cathode side (304), wherein the cathode side (304) has a higher attenuation coefficient than the anode side (302). The attenuation coefficient is determined to at least partially compensate for the target angle heel effect. The filter (300) is from the same material as an anode plate (110) or the anode (108) of the X-raysource (10) which is usually tungsten or a tungsten alloy.

In known CT systems X-rays are generated by directing a beam of accelerated electrons at an anode plate typically of tungsten. A certain depth of penetration is associated with the X-ray generation in the anode, so that the emitted radiation passes varying amounts of anode material before leaving the plate.
As a consequence, the intensity and the spectrum of the generated radiation show a cone-angle dependent variation, leading to detector row dependent beam hardening and intensity, the so-called well known heel effect.
Especially for cone angles spanned by the upcoming 256 row detectors, this heel effect is significant and needs to be corrected, so as to avoid image artifacts. An X-ray tube source generally includes an anode side and a cathode side. The anode side is also known as the target, which is bombarded with electrons to generate X-ray beam radiation. X-rays from the X-ray tube are generated at a small depth inside the target (anode) of the X-ray tube. X-rays traveling toward the anode side of an object being scanned travel through more volume of the target than X-rays traveling toward a cathode side of the object. Therefore, X-rays traveling toward the anode side leave the target more attenuated than X-rays traveling toward the cathode side.
Mori et al. introduce a heel effect compensating filter, which is placed in front of an X-ray beam and has a varying thickness along a anode-cathode direction or so-called z-direction. The filter is made of aluminum and is designed to equalize the beam intensity along the said direction. However, the filter can not correct the spectral distortions mentioned above (Mori et al., Prototype heel effect compensation filter for cone-beam CT, Phys. Med. Biol., 50 (2005) N359-N370).
As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,042 a filter with an anode side and a cathode side between an X-ray source and an X-ray detector, has a higher attenuation coefficient on the cathode side than on the anode side. The attenuation coefficient is determined to at least partially compensate for the target angle heel effect. The filter material is aluminum, copper, titanium or beryllium. However, due to the chosen material, the filter can not correct the spectral distortions mentioned above.

Spectrum-preserving heel effect compensation filter made from the same material as anode plate


A panel mounted power module is disclosed having an insulating housing and a conductive jacket. The insulating housing and the conductive jacket have corresponding flanges which oppose each other and are profiled to trap therebetween a panel. The power module includes a spring positioned between the insulating housing and conductive jacket, to spring load the flanges towards each other. The power module has at least one ground terminal and the spring commons the ground terminal and the conductive jacket together.

It is known in the power connector technology to provide an electrical connector for a power connection through the enclosure of equipment. The equipment is typically provided with a conductive shell into which all of the hardware is mounted. The power module is typically provided as a socket which is mounted to a cutout in the rear panel of the equipment. An electrical extension cord is then plugged into the socket where contacts of the cord electrically connect terminals in the power module socket to provide power to the equipment.
It is also known to common a conductive jacket of the module to the conductive panel of the desktop computer. This is shown in Applicant's SRB series modules.
It is also generally known in the connector art to common a shield of an electrical connector to a conductive panel, by way of contacts on the shield to increase the conductivity between the shield and the panel, see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,854. Such contacts however, may become plastically deformed or may provide only point contacts between the shield and the panel.


A box includes a floor, two end walls and two side walls. In the floor, a plurality of openings are provided, which are dimensioned to each receive a supporting bar. The openings are arranged to evenly lift a carrier introduced into the box with supporting bars introduced into the openings and position the same at a position above the floor. A rack for receiving such a box includes a supporting frame and the plurality of supporting bars which are mountable to the supporting frame. Further, a system and a method for the presentation of products are described.

Embodiments of the invention relate to a box, in particular a crate or a transport box for the transport of goods, for example food, and a rack for receiving the box for a presentation of the products located therein and to a system and a method for the presentation of products.
Boxes or crates for receiving products are known in conventional technology. Such crates are for example manufactured from plastics and apart from a rectangular floor include opposing end sides or end walls and opposing sidewalls. The height of the corresponding walls is selected to arrange a predetermined number of products within the crate. Such crates are for example used, during the harvest of food, like for example vegetables or fruits, to directly introduce the harvested vegetables or the harvested fruit on the field into the boxes and then provide the filled boxes to the resellers and finally to the points of sale, like for example supermarkets or the like. The boxes may for example be manufactured from plastics, wherein, however, also other materials are possible, like for example wood, metal or the like. The boxes may comprise foldable walls which enables folding down the boxes after emptying the same so that the sidewalls are folded down in the direction of the floor so that for the back transport of the boxes the volume of the same is minimal and thus a large number of boxes may be transported back simultaneously.
In the boxes a carrier or support is located for example in the form of a cardboard box or a plastics plate or the like which is introduced onto the floor of the box before filling same and on which the products rest.
Once the filled box for example reaches the supermarket, the same is arranged as a whole on a corresponding rack which is suitable for receiving the box. The rack may for example receive the box in an inclined way with respect to the footprint of the rack in order to present the product located within the box in an advantageous way for the customer.
If several layers of products are arranged on top of each other in the box, the above mentioned presentation works well as long as only one or only few layers of products have been removed from the box. If, however, ever more layers are removed, the situation may occur that from a point of view of the observer who looks at the box the products which are contained in the last or bottom layers may only hardly be seen or not be seen at all. This is for example the case when the box is arranged in an inclined way and the last layer of products has been removed by half. From an angle of view of a customer or observer the box then seems to be empty due to the inclined arrangement as the remaining products within the box are arranged in an area of the box floor which is shielded from the view of the observer by a wall of the box facing the observer so that the box already seems to be empty.
This situation is undesired as then the products may not be seen and thus remain within the box and finally have to be discarded as they were not sold.
Another disadvantage of this type of presentation is that the more products are removed the emptier the box seems to be which is undesired with respect to an optimal presentation of the products, as customers may for example not want to select products located in the lower part of the box as the same may unjustly be regarded as impaired by products arranged above the same.

Box, rack, system and method for the presentation of products