In some embodiments, extemporaneous control of remote objects can be made more natural using the invention, enabling a participant to pivot, tip and aim a head-mounted display apparatus to control a remote-controlled toy or full-sized vehicle, for example, hands-free. If the vehicle is outfitted with a camera, then the participant may see the remote location from first-person proprioceptive perspective.

An age-old predicament in the field of human-computer interaction is that multi-dimensional virtual spaces (a.k.a. virtual environments, "VEs") are far more difficult for people to navigate than the real world. The VE's navigational interface is an important factor because it dictates the type and scope of body-based feedback provided to a participant. The Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. ("ACM") research paper Walking improves your cognitive map in environments that are large-scale and large in extent ("Ruddle") provides an informative overview of historical research and theoretical foundations [Roy A. Ruddle, Ekaterina Volkova and Heinrich H. Bülthoff, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, v.18 n.2, p. 1-20, June 2011].
A particular design challenge arises when crafting natural interactions for systems in which participants are to be afforded control over both location and orientation in a VE. This is due to the fact that there are a limited number of ordinary gestures that translate to intuitive proprioceptive and vestibular relations between people, objects and the environment. Any control variables not readily mapped to natural body movements are therefore mapped to artificial user interfaces, such as joysticks, keyboards, multi-touch gestures and on-screen buttons and slider controls.
FIGS. 4A-5F illustrate a range of primitive motions readily sensible by handheld computing devices. The difficulty lies in picking the right combination of sensor mappings to compose an aggregate set of affordances that provide for natural and rewarding human-computer interaction. The objectives of the present invention prioritize participant motions for peripatetic locomotion control and side-to-side orientation control over up-and-down orientation control.
Virtual reality ("VR") applications have demonstrated different sets of tools and interaction methods in association with different types of devices for traversing fictional and/or simulated environments. While VEs on desktop computers provide almost no body-based information, head-mounted audio-visual displays ("HMDs") replace the sights and sounds of the physical world with those of a virtual world. Movement of the participant's head—rotations around the x-axis (looking up/down), the y-axis (turning head left/right) and the z-axis (cocking head left/right)—may be detected by the system and used as input to respectively influence the drawing of the elements of the virtual world on a visual display from the perspective of a virtual camera that tracks with the participant's eyes. The body's own kinesthetic awareness in motion furnishes proprioceptive and vestibular cues—boosting the participant's navigational sense.
Participants' control of their apparent locomotion within the VE has been accomplished using physical locomotion (i.e. literally walking through physical space), hand gestures (e.g. pointing in a direction to move), as well as directional and omnidirectional treadmills. Treadmills enable a 1:1 translation of directional participant movement into virtual locomotion. This is advantageous because physically moving the body supports participants' formation of mental models of distances traversed in the VE. Such interaction techniques have been shown to improve the accuracy of participant cognitive/spatial maps.
Ruddle reported on the effect of rotational vs. translational body-based information on participants' navigational performance (distance traveled) and cognitive mapping (direction and straight line distance estimates). Ruddle's research suggested that physical locomotion for spatial translation was not only more important than physical rotation in establishing participants' sense of where they are and where they have been in VEs, but that rotational body-based information had no effect on the accuracy of participants' cognitive maps over using a joystick. Ruddle teaches away from the invention disclosed herein by prioritizing physical locomotion over physical rotation.
Augmented reality ("AR") applications have demonstrated sets of tools and interaction methods for bridging the physical and virtual worlds, overlaying fictional and/or modeled objects and information elements over live views of the physical world. This has typically been accomplished by adding a real camera to the device, enabling the device to composite rendered objects into or over the scene captured by the real-world camera. On mobile phones and tablet computing devices so configured, the participant's movement of the device drives the display of content. As the viewfinder of a camera tracks with the location and orientation of the camera's lens, the displayed environment and augmented objects and information on the device may track with the movement of the handheld computing device.
Camera-based AR applications on handheld computing devices naturally rely upon sensing rotation around a device's y-axis (as in FIGS. 4C and 4D) and rotation around the x-axis (as in FIGS. 4A and 4B) for enabling participants to fully rotate the camera left, right, down and up. And because AR applications rely upon the physical environment as a framework, movement though the augmented space generally depends on a participant's physical location in real space (leveraging global positioning satellite ("GPS") data and magnetometer sensors). FIGS. 5E and 5F illustrate a participant moving a device backward and forward in physical space which could translate to moving backward and forward, respectively, in augmented space.
A related class of application are stargazing astronomy guides. Stargazing app interactions operate like AR app interactions, displaying labeled stars, constellations and satellites that correspond with the location (on Earth) and posture of the handheld device. Some stargazing apps operate in an AR mode, superimposing stellar information with a live camera feed from the device. Others forgo the camera feed to dedicate the entire visual display to stellar information. A participant located in Austin, Tex. sees representations of celestial objects in virtual space relative to their location in Austin. If, however, the participant desires to see the celestial objects as they would be seen from San Francisco, Calif., the participant would need to travel to San Francisco. This is impractical in the span of a single participant experience. Yet, the interaction mappings employed by AR applications seem to logically preclude virtual locomotion based on device posture. Since pivot up and down, for example, are used to look up and down in the sky, pivot up and down might logically preclude being mapped to locomotion backward and forward.
Physical locomotion can be impractical when using a virtual environment application on a handheld computing device—especially when operated in a space physically smaller than the virtual dimensions of a VE. Imagine, for example, walking around your living room in order to travel isometrically through a virtual museum. Your very real furniture and walls would present obstacles almost certainly not correlated to the galleries, corridors and three-dimensional sculptures available to be explored in the VE. Thus, a challenge is to develop techniques for providing participants as much body-based (proprioceptive and vestibular) sensory information as possible in the context of non-physical-locomotion-based interfaces for successful path traversal and path integration (i.e. cognitive mapping of a space based on navigational movements).
First-person shooter ("FPS") games have made use of a subset of VR techniques, modeling a virtual world for a participant to traverse while attempting to kill the inhabitants of said virtual world. The rendered world is generally drawn from the perspective of the eyes of the protagonist, with the protagonist's weapon portrayed at the bottom of the visual display. As with VR applications, the camera tracks with the facing and point-of-view of the protagonist. Screen real estate is a limiting factor in the design of controls for FPS games on handheld devices, thus solutions that avoid touchscreen interactions are advantageous.
A "rail shooter" or "on-rail game" is a similar type of game where participants cannot, however, control their direction of travel through the virtual environment—as if the course is confined to a fixed rail. A limited set of choices promise a choose-your-own adventure story, but the participant can neither deviate from the course nor backtrack along the way. Thus, the experience commonly focuses on shooting. Point of view is first-person or from just behind the protagonist, with a phallocentric gaze looking down the barrel of a gun as in FPS games. The participant does not need to worry about movement and generally does not have control over the camera.
In less-restrictive games, a participant may be afforded freedom to control both the location of a protagonist in space and the orientation of the protagonist's view. In such instances, the computer modifies both the coordinates and facing of the virtual camera in the virtual space to render the scene on the visual display. On handheld computing devices, motion sensors have been used to enable participants to aim weapons and simultaneously adjust the viewing orientation in the space. Movement through the virtual space, however, has generally been limited to on-screen directional controls.
Driving games on handheld devices have been designed to simulate driving real cars in a VE, providing both a physical interface for rotation and techniques for virtual locomotion not based on physical movement. Such games often use accelerometer and/or gyro sensors to detect rotation of a device around the z-axis (i.e. like an automobile steering wheel as in FIGS. 4E and 4F) for steering a virtual racecar. But despite the direct and seemingly obvious analogy to steering a real automobile, the present inventors have observed participants attempting to steer a virtual racecar in a racing game by swinging the device left or right around their own bodies. This performance error seems surprising, especially on the part of skilled drivers. While unsolicited, such reflex behaviors hint at the intelligence of body rotation as an actuator for rotation in more "intuitive" VEs.
SEGA Corporation's Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition is an example of a sensor-based navigation game that runs on Apple iPhone and iPad devices (collectively "iOS devices") [available at the time of writing in the Apple iTunes app store via http://www.sega.com/games/super-monkey-ball-2-sakura-edition/]. A participant controls the movement of an animated monkey sprite enclosed in a translucent ball (a "monkey ball") through a series of mazes in a VE by pivoting the device simultaneously around two axes. Pivoting up (i.e. rotating the device around its x-axis as in FIG. 4A) causes the monkey ball to roll forward; and the velocity of the monkey ball is related to the degree of pivot down from an origin. Pivoting down (i.e. rotating the device around its x-axis as in FIG. 4B) while the monkey ball is rolling forward causes the monkey ball to slow down. Pivoting down while the monkey ball is stationary causes it to turn around and face in the opposite direction. Pivoting right (i.e. rotating the device around its y-axis as in FIG. 4C) causes the monkey ball to rotate right; and pivoting left (i.e. rotating the device around its y-axis as in FIG. 4D) causes the monkey ball to rotate left.
Exemplary patent documents material to the consideration of sensor-based human interfaces for virtual space and video navigation on handheld devices include, but are not limited to U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,566 ("Motosyuku" et al.), WO 98/15920 ("Austreng"), U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,544 ("Lands"), WO 01/86920 A2 and WO 01/86920 A3 (collectively "Lapidot"), WO 03/001340 A2 ("Mosttov" et al.), GB 2378878 A ("Gaskell"), U.S. Pat. No. 7,631,277 ("Nie" et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,834 ("van Os" et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 7,688,306 ("Wehrenberg" et al.), WO 2008/094458 A1 ("Cook" et al.) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/831,722 ("Piemonte"). Note that the below summaries are not meant to be exhaustive descriptions of each set of teachings, and the present inventors acknowledge that they may have unintentionally overlooked aspects disclosed that may be relevant to the present invention. Furthermore, these citations are not to be construed as a representation that a search has been made or that additional information may or may not exist that is material or that any of the items listed constitute prior art.
Motosyuku teaches scrolling a two-dimensional document on a display screen in accordance with pivot of a device. Rotation around the device's x-axis (as in FIGS. 4A and 4B) causes the document to scroll up or down. Rotation around the device's y-axis (as in FIGS. 4C and 4D) causes the document to scroll right or left.
Austreng teaches a method of storing and retrieving a series of two-dimensional images of a three-dimensional object taken along different viewing angles. In response to directional input, varying two-dimensional images are displayed, thereby creating the appearance of three-dimensional rotation of the displayed object. Austreng mentions in passing that "it is to be understood that the invention can be used with other digital data, such as digitized video," but it is unclear how said rotation simulation teachings could relate to video.
Lands teaches a modal use of device pivot to control operations selected from a group consisting of document paging, document zoom, device volume control and device brightness control. Sensor(s) are configured to measure changes in rotation of the device around the device's x-axis (as in FIGS. 4A and 4B) or around the device's y-axis (as in FIGS. 4C and 4D). Variables are changed by an amount proportional to the change in pivot of the device relative to a reference pivot.
Lapidot teaches a modal use of device movement to control selection of one of multiple options, to control panning within a document or to control zoom within a document (i.e. changing the resolution of a displayed image or the size of displayed text or picture). Lapidot teaches sensing movement of the device along the x-axis (as in FIGS. 5A and 5B), along the y-axis (as in FIGS. 5C and 5D) and along the z-axis (as in FIGS. 5E and 5F) using either accelerometers or a camera mounted on the device. Lapidot also teaches ignoring movements measuring below a pre-defined threshold value, and relating the rate of change of control variables with the speed or acceleration of the movement of the device.
Mosttov teaches gesture recognition techniques for a handheld device, discriminating between and prioritizing interpretation of inertial sensor data according to a hierarchy of classes of gestures. One or more discriminators is configured to recognize a specific class of gestures and each discriminator is associated with an interpreter that identifies specific gestures in the class. In one embodiment, if a discriminator detects linear or planar motion, then motion data is transferred to a planer gesture recognizer. But if no linear or planar motion is detected, then motion data may be transferred to a pivot gesture recognizer that determines the direction and degree of pivot of the device.
Gaskell teaches interaction techniques for simultaneously zooming and scrolling a two-dimensional image on a handheld device. The image is enlarged when the device, held parallel to the ground in a horizontal posture, is moved down (i.e. along the device's z-axis (as in FIG. 5F) perpendicular to the ground); and reduced in size or resolution when the device is moved up (as in FIG. 5E). The image is scrolled in any of four directions when the device is pivoted around the device's x-axis (as in FIGS. 4A and 4B) or y-axis (as in FIGS. 4C and 4D). The direction of scrolling corresponds to the direction of pivot, and the speed(s) of effect(s) are responsive to the speed(s) of movement of the device. Gaskell also makes a passing remark about "altering the apparent nature of the horizontal 'dead band' in which the moving stops" without further elaboration; and it is unclear what is meant.
Nie teaches techniques for creation of a three-dimensional VE scene containing layers of two-dimensional sprite objects that are displayed in such a way as to appear three-dimensional. Visual representations of each object corresponding to different orientations are assembled from a series of still images, animations or video clips to give each two-dimensional object three-dimensional characteristics. The source content for each sprite can be a single bitmap, a bitmap image sequence, a vector image, a video track, a live stream or a source specified by a universal resource locator ("URL"). Nie is clear that object movies are "not truly movies" and "not truly 3D."
Nie also teaches manipulation of the VE scene using desktop-computing interaction techniques (e.g. mouse movement, mouse clicking and keyboard input)—to effectuate rotating, panning, pivoting and zooming of objects and/or scenes using three-dimensional data translation vectors and rotation matrices. In this context, Nie teaches associating audio with scenes and objects, such that a soundtrack plays upon participant selection of an object. When the location of an object in the VE is changed, the three-dimensional location of the audio associated with the object may also be changed.
van Os teaches techniques for simultaneously displaying multiple video panes of videoconference streams in a single user interface designed to simulate a three-dimensional VE without the need for participant navigation or manipulation of said simulated VE. Apple first distributed this feature in the application iChat as part of Mac OS X v10.4 (a.k.a. Tiger). One participant hosts a group videoconference with up to three other participants, and everyone in the videoconference sees and hears the other participants. Video panes are displayed with orthographic projection relative to the participant so as to impart a sense of perspective. Side panes are angled inwardly towards a center location and foreground reflections are used to enhance the sense of presence of the participants, as if they are seated around a table. Animation is used to transition between events when participants enter and leave a videoconference; sliding video panes on or off screen. Otherwise, the video panes and the virtual camera remain in fixed locations.
Wehrenberg teaches techniques for performing a variety of functions in response to accelerometer-detected movement and orientation of a handheld device without a participant having to press and/or click buttons. Exemplary functions include reorienting a displayed document, triggering display of a page of a document, navigating an object or document that normally cannot be displayed entirely at once within the visual display of the device, activating/deactivating a device, motion compensation, impulse detection for controlled momentum transfer and other applications based on an accelerometer. With regards to navigating an image, Wehrenberg teaches zooming out in response to a participant pivoting the device up and zooming in when pivoting down.
In gaming contexts, Wehrenberg teaches holding and turning a device like a steering wheel; accelerating a vehicle when pivoting the device up and decelerating when pivoting down; aiming an airplane in a flying game up and down when pivoting up and down; and using pivot to look up, down and/or around. With regards to a VE, Wehrenberg teaches using a handheld device as a "window into a virtual reality image database. For example, a user holding the tablet can turn around and see the view looking backward from a position in a two or three dimensional image or object database as if the user walks into a virtual reality game space." That said, the present inventors do not believe such an interaction can be accomplished reliably, if at all, using the Wehrenberg taught accelerometer-based techniques due in part to the fact that accelerometers do not separate gravitational and inertial forces.
Cook explains another problem with Wehrenberg's enablement-lacking comment about looking backward: "accelerometers suffer from an inability to detect rotation around the force vector. So, for example, a motion application that depended on measuring rotation of a stationary device around the device's Y axis would work quite well when the device is horizontal, would become less accurate as the angle between the Y axis and the horizontal plane increases, and would become unpredictable as the Y axis becomes aligned vertically with the gravity vector." To address this problem, Cook uses camera data to help detect changes in orientation.
Cook teaches interaction techniques for circumscribing a virtual object using a handheld device. Pivoting the device (i.e. rotating around the device's x-axis or y-axis, as in FIGS. 4A-4D) controls the angle of view of the image and moving the device perpendicular to the screen (as in FIGS. 5E and 5F) controls the magnification. The result is analogous to orbiting around a real object in the physical world with a camera while looking through the camera's viewfinder. Yet in Cook's case, the visual display shows a virtual object that may not exist in the physical world. When the user moves the device, the view on the display moves; and when the user pivots the device, either the view pivots so that the image is displayed at an angle related to the pivot angle or the image scrolls in the direction of the pivot. A maximum pivot viewing threshold angle may be used to prevent from pivoting past a certain angle and to switch between control modes, such as between pivoting the view and scrolling the view. Cook teaches that pivot angle may be mapped to velocity using a linear, exponential or geometric equation and that "it may be useful to have the viewing angle change more or less than the [pivot] angle depending on usability factors." Cook also teaches techniques for centering the virtual camera view on a desired center-point of an image, bringing the line of sight perpendicular to that point on the image—using a motion of the device, a button push, a screen tap and/or a voice command.
Piemonte teaches use of orientation data from one or more sensors to navigate a three-dimensional perspective projection without a participant touching the visual display. As the participant pivots the device left or right around its y-axis (as in FIGS. 4C and 4D), the virtual camera view is turned left or right to reveal the left or right sides of a three-dimensional user interface VE, respectively. As the participant pivots the device down or up around its x-axis (as in FIGS. 4A and 4B), the virtual camera view is angled down or up to reveal the floor or ceiling of the VE, respectively. Angular rotation "can be measured or estimated from data provided by gyro sensors, accelerometers, magnetometers or any combination of sensor data that can provide an estimate of the orientation of mobile device relative to a reference axis of rotation." Piemonte also teaches constraining and scaling sensor data so that small rotations cause small virtual camera view changes while large rotations or motions (such as shaking the device) result in a "snap-to" jump of the virtual camera view to a predetermined orientation.

Remote controlled vehicle with a head-mounted display apparatus


A scheduler may receive a plurality of jobs for scheduling of execution thereof on a plurality of computing nodes. An evaluation module may provide a common interface for each of a plurality of scheduling algorithms. An algorithm selector may utilize the evaluation module in conjunction with benchmark data for a plurality of jobs of varying types to associate one of the plurality of scheduling algorithms with each job type. A job comparator may compare a current job for scheduling against the benchmark data to determine a current job type of the current job. The evaluation module may further schedule the current job for execution on the plurality of computing nodes, based on the current job type and the associated scheduling algorithm.

It is often difficult for users of computing resources to utilize such computing resources in an efficient, cost effective manner. For example, such users may have computing needs which vary greatly in time, and may not wish to invest in a quantity of computing resources necessary to manage computational loads during periods of high usage. For example, a business with a large number of employees may wish to process payroll for all employees only once, e.g., at the end of each month. In such scenarios, the business may require computing resources at the end of each month in a quantity that is disproportionate to computing resources needed during the remainder of the month. Consequently, it may be inefficient for the business to invest in sufficient computing resources to handle the payroll processing of the above example, since a significant portion of such computing resources would sit idle during the remainder of the month. In these and other scenarios, users of computing resources may be unwilling or unable to bear the costs associated with purchasing and managing a level of computing resources necessary to meet all of the user's computing needs.
Therefore, providers of software, infrastructure, and other computing resources have implemented a business model in which computing resources are provided to users on an as-needed, on-demand, dynamic basis, according to the particular and fluctuating demands of the customers of such providers. Such providers are known as, or may be referred to as, "software as a service" (Saas) providers, and/or "infrastructure as a service" (Iaas) providers. Such providers typically invest in the relatively large amount of servers and related computer/network equipment needed to remotely provide computing resources to their customers. For example, in the example described above, the business with the described payroll processing needs may have an agreement in place with a Saas provider to utilize a relatively low amount of computing resources through much of the month, and to have access to a relatively larger amount of computing resources at the end of each month when payroll processing occurs.
Thus, such service providers may provide software, infrastructure, and other computing resources to a large number of businesses or other customers, and may therefore bear the burden of utilizing available computing resources in an efficient, cost effective manner. In order to do so, such service providers typically receive requests for computing resources, and dynamically schedule the received requests among available servers or other computing nodes. In many cases, such service providers may deploy a very large quantity of computing resources, and may have service agreements in place with a relatively large number of service consumers, each of which may require varying and potentially large amounts of the available computing resources. As a result, it may be difficult for service providers to allocate the available computing resources in a desired, efficient, and cost effective manner.

Heuristics-based scheduling for data analytics


A mobile communication system includes a switching unit, a plurality of radio base stations, and a mobile station. The switching unit processes a call from an originating terminal. The radio base stations have service areas allowing radio communication and are connected to the switching unit. The mobile station performs radio communication with the radio base station within the service area. The switching unit includes a switching section, a database, and a message forming section. The switching section performs switching/connection between the originating terminal and the mobile station on a terminating side through the radio base station. The database stores last registration time recognized by the mobile station. The message forming section forms a speech message including the last registration time stored in the database and outputting the message to the originating terminal when there is no response from the mobile station with respect to a terminating operation.

The present invention relates to a mobile communication system and a message output method therefor, in which information indicating that a mobile station is outside a communication zone is sent to an originating terminal.
In a conventional mobile communication system, when a terminal generates an outgoing call to a mobile station outside a communication zone, a message of this type is sent to the originating terminal to notify that the terminating mobile station is outside the communication zone and hence cannot perform speech communication. The contents of this message are, for example, "We cannot connect you because the telephone set you have dialed is outside the service area or the power switch is off".
However, when a terminal generates an outgoing call to a mobile station outside the communication zone, such a conventional message, however, only notifies the originating terminal that speech communication cannot be performed because the terminating mobile station is outside the communication zone. For this reason, on the originating terminal side, the user cannot know a specific point of time at which the mobile station is set in a communication disable state.

Mobile communication system and message output method therefor


Lactone/alkylene oxide polymers are useful as additives to inhibit or prevent the deposition of paraffin in hydrocarbon fluids, particularly crude oil produced from a subterranean formation. These polymers are random or block polymers made from addition reactions of a hydroxyl- and/or amine-containing base compound with at least one lactone monomer and at least one alkylene oxide monomer. In one non-limiting embodiment the lactone monomer is optional.

Fluids produced from oil wells penetrating an oil-bearing formation primarily include crude oil and water and are herein referred to as formation fluids. A formation fluid may also contain natural gas and natural gas condensate which may or may not be desirable and may be the primary product of a given well in which case the well is referred to as a gas/gas condensate well. A formation fluid may also contain carbon dioxide (CO2) and insoluble clay and silica particles from the reservoir. Contained within the formation fluids are components that under certain conditions can precipitate and impede the production of oil and gas. These components include paraffin and asphaltenes from crude oils and gas condensates and inorganic mineral scales from formation water. Paraffin is a hydrocarbon compound that can precipitate or deposit on production components as a result of the changing temperatures and pressures within the production system. Paraffin may precipitate and deposit as waxy substances that may build up, and if severe, may restrict production and can also gel crude oil. Asphaltenes are organic materials consisting of aromatic and naphthenic ring compounds that may contain nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen molecules; the asphaltene fraction of crude may be understood as an organic part of the oil that is not soluble in straight-chain solvents such as n-pentane or n-heptane.
It is known in the art of oil and gas production to eliminate or mitigate the effects of undesirable paraffin, asphaltene, and scale precipitation. For example, to aid oil and gas production, many chemicals, referred herein as "additives", which include paraffin inhibitors, asphaltene inhibitors, scale inhibitors, and the like, are often injected from a surface source into wells or through flowlines, such as umbilicals, to treat the formation fluids flowing through such wells and flowlines to prevent or control the effects of precipitation of paraffin, asphaltenes, and mineral scale.
These additives can be injected continuously or by batches into wellbores, at wellheads, or other locations in flowlines or pipelines carrying formation fluids. In addition, an additive can be injected into a near wellbore formation via a technique commonly referred to as "squeeze" treatment, from which the additive can be slowly released into the formation fluid. Injection of additives upstream of the problem location is preferred. Sometimes, additives are introduced in connection with electrical submersible pumps, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,131, or through an auxiliary line associated with a cable used with the electrical submersible pump, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,824. In addition, in wells without a packer in the completion, additives may be applied via pump or truck into the annular space between the tubing and the casing with a fluid flush driving the additive into the formation fluids.
Of the additives that can be added to formation fluid from oil and gas wells, the paraffin inhibitors are especially important. U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,283 to Capelle discloses that a copolymer of 4-vinyl pyridine and acrylic acid esters dispersed in an aqueous medium can prevent the deposit of solid paraffin on the walls of containers and pipelines carrying oil. U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,161 to Rohrback, et al., discloses a method of using electrical contact resistance to detect the formation of paraffin solids in oil and gas wells. U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,682 to McManus, et al., discloses a method for removing paraffin deposits. All of these patents illustrate the need to control the formation of paraffin deposits.
Paraffin inhibitor additives are typically applied in the form of organic solutions or aqueous microemulsions or admixtures. The use of liquid additives is not without problems. At cold temperatures, such as in cold weather or deepwater subsea locations, the additives may freeze or gel during transportation or use. Stated another way, existing commercial paraffin inhibitors may lose solubility at high pressures and low temperatures. Supplying a source of heat, particularly for deepwater and remote well sites can be a problem. Also, when supplying additives in the form of liquids, any solid active components must be co-shipped in solution. The use of a solvent to form the solution requires that inert or non-active components must be co-shipped with the active components, which increases the cost of shipping.
Besides preventing or inhibiting the deposition of paraffin, additives may be introduced into hydrocarbon fluids to modify the crystal structure of the paraffin to inhibit or prevent paraffin from depositing. In one non-limiting explanation, some additives serve as dispersants to disperse already deposited paraffin, to keep the paraffin in a hydrocarbon fluid from depositing or otherwise combining or agglomerating to cause difficulties. It will be appreciated that the term "hydrocarbon" as used herein is broader than simply to mean organic compounds consisting only of hydrogen and carbon, although those are intended. For instance, "hydrocarbon fluid" as used herein encompasses oil and gas, including crude oil and natural gas. However, "hydrocarbon" as used herein does not encompass polymers unless otherwise noted.
Additionally, it is known to introduce additives to hydrocarbon fluids to modify their pour points. The pour point of a liquid is the lowest temperature at which it will pour or flow under the conditions of interest. For instance, it is a rough indication of the lowest temperature at which oil is readily pumpable. For crude oil, a high pour point is generally associated with a high paraffin content. Thus, it is desirable to include additives that will lower the pour point of crude oil and other hydrocarbon fluids.
It would be desirable in the art of oil and gas production to use paraffin inhibitor compositions that have a higher concentration of active components than conventional paraffin inhibitors. It would be particularly desirable to use such compositions that allow for higher active component concentrations under cold temperatures—that are more soluble at the high pressure and lower temperatures typical for umbilical applications. It would thus be very desirable and important to discover methods and compositions for economically inhibiting or preventing paraffin formation in hydrocarbon fluids, such as formation fluids from an oil well or gas well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Copolymers for use as paraffin behavior modifiers


A network management gateway device, method, and software is disclosed which communicates and translates between more sophisticated digital data network monitoring devices and managers, such as SNMP managers, and managed network devices, such as OpenFlow packet switches, which often are not sophisticated enough to respond to SNMP or REST type monitoring methods. This gateway may communicate with managed devices in one or more of a variety of modes. The manager may communicate with the gateway directly, or be configured to communicate with the managed device while the communications are redirected to the gateway and processed by the gateway. In some embodiments, the gateway may use the OpenFlow protocol to communicate management data with an OpenFlow switch and to install a flow in the switch to redirect management traffic to the gateway. Other routers and switches may also be used to redirect network management traffic to the gateway as well.

Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of communications network management methods and devices.
Description of the Related Art
Modern, packet-based digital, communications networks are typically large, complex and geographically distributed. Such networks need to be monitored and managed. To do this, typically network management equipment and protocols are used which enable remote observation and control of the various types of other equipment (e.g. computers, servers, routers, and switches) that may both make up the network or are attached to the network. Other network virtual assets such as applications, virtual machines, and virtual switches, also need to be monitored and managed.
These monitoring and management equipment and protocols are typically used for various applications such as to find or prevent network faults, understand or change network configuration, account for network usage, understand and ensure high network performance, and to ensure network security. In particular, Network Management Systems (NMS's) are usually the focal point of remote monitoring and management of these various physical and virtual network elements.
One problem that exists in such networks is that often a given managed element, such as a packet switch, or even a more complex device such as a server, may not be compatible with the network management protocols that a NMS wishes to use or that the features supported by the element may be insufficient for the NMS's task. This problem is particularly acute with OpenFlow switches, which to achieve speed have very limited computational capability, and thus may either not support popular network management protocols such as SNMP at all, or alternatively may only provide limited access to switch data through SNMP or related higher level network management protocols.
As mentioned above, implementing various types of standard network management protocols with devices like OpenFlow switches is particularly difficult. Such switches may have very high switching capacity (e.g. can often handle and process incoming network packets at the very high speeds or line rates, thus generally avoiding being a network bottleneck). Such switches achieve such high speeds due to their specialized electronic circuitry, but the design tradeoff is that they have a relatively small supervisory processor to handle management tasks like NMS requests, configuration tasks and control plane activity.
OpenFlow switches are described in McKeown et. al., "OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation In Campus Networks", ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review archive Volume 38 Issue 2, April 2008 Pages 69-74. As of Oct. 14, 2013, OpenFlow Switch Specification 1.4.0, provided by the Open Networking Foundation, defines the specification more precisely as of this date. Other work in this area includes Leong, US patent publication 2013/0272135; and Kawai, US patent publication 2013/0304915.
More specifically, in OpenFlow switches, for example, a main goal of the switch is to perform packet switching at the same line-speed as the incoming data packets, which will often be coming in at very high speeds. To do this, for OpenFlow devices, the design decision was made that to achieve such high speeds the actual "intelligence" of the switch is greatly limited. The switch, for example, can be viewed (in a very oversimplified manner) as comprising a flow-table type design that mainly comprises enough hardware functionality to compare the packet headers of incoming packets against a series of previously stored flow table entries, and to dispatch an incoming packet to an outward bound port depending on the corresponding flow-table instructions stored in the corresponding flow-table instructions for that particular flow-table entry. An OpenFlow switch can also do a few other functions, such as recognize exception packets and forward them on to an OpenFlow controller for further analysis and action, at a huge time penalty, but the point is that for this type of device, in order to achieve high speed, the intelligence of the device, such as intelligence useful to perform network diagnosis and monitoring, is greatly limited.
Another problem that often exists with higher functionality network managed elements, such as routers and servers, is that even if that element's processing capability is, in theory, sophisticated enough to support network management protocols such as SNMP requests at a low speed or low volume, in practice such devices may not have enough processing capacity to handle a higher volume of network management requests from one or more NMS's, while still performing their routine functions in a timely manner. That is, such devices may have to make an unhappy decision between either performing their basic network function, or responding to network monitoring requests, but can't do both functions well at the same time.
Further, in this and other situations, often the processor of a networked element may have other constraints, such as a fixed speed that cannot be scaled up if conditions warrant.
Another problem that exists in the current state of the art is that many switches and servers exist in a multi-tenant datacenter environment where they are shared by customers who each demand privacy. In order to provide customers with access to network management, the network management protocol must provide robust authentication, access control and privacy, which may be too expensive to provide on a network switch especially with multiple customers accessing the data simultaneously. Further, the data may need to be converted from a physical view to a virtual view that matches the customer's network service and this conversion might need the services of a general-purpose server and higher level customer data. Finally, security and stability requirements may dictate some separation between the customer's network management requests and the physical infrastructure.
In the past, workers in the field have tried to solve protocol translation, scalability and security problems in network management through the use of proxy agents or gateways. Such solutions sometimes solved the original problems but achieved limited adoption because they added complexity. In particular, it imposed a significant computational and management burden on network managers to have to remember and use a different network address for their network management requests that were other than the "real" address of the device that they would use for other functions. Further, if a proxy agent provided access to multiple managed devices, little-used and complex facilities like contexts and communities would have to be used to identify the managed device. Further still, critical auto-discovery and auto-configuration processes designed to learn of the existence and configuration of network elements could not perform these tasks in the presence of proxy agents, leaving important parts of the infrastructure unmanaged.
OpenFlow is an architecture that allows OpenFlow switch controllers to remotely control OpenFlow flow-table driven switches. The OpenFlow architecture does not provide a way for Network Management Systems, which primarily use SNMP, to monitor and manage the OpenFlow switches with SNMP. Further, it does not provide visibility into a number of pieces of information that managers need in order to efficiently manage OpenFlow networks.
Virtual services (including virtual switches) on virtual machines may be started or stopped or be moved to other physical locations, possibly requiring changed in addressing. It can be difficult to manage such a service directly when such virtual services, switches, or other machine's address is changing or when it is intermittently reachable.
Network elements are often monitored by polling techniques, in which the status of the network element is assessed whenever the network monitoring equipment issues a poll request. However the problem with such approaches is such polling methods can thus omit important information about conditions or events that have occurred between polls. Further, there may be important information a given network element doesn't return via polling.
Thus, again returning to our OpenFlow example, when one attempts to use polling methods to monitor an OpenFlow switch using the prior-art OpenFlow Protocol—critical resource shortfalls in between polls may not be noted. Indeed in this situation, there is a lot of other useful and important network monitoring information about the switch's interaction with its controller that also cannot be obtained using such prior-art approaches.

Monitoring gateway systems and methods for openflow type networks


A method for determining the probability a handling truck tipping over includes determining a respective normal force acting in the z direction for at least two of at least three wheels of the handling truck. At least two normal forces are compared and the probability of the tipping of the handling truck is determined on the basis of the comparison.

The present disclosure relates to a method for determining a probability of tipping in the case of an industrial truck, such as, for example, a fork-lift truck.
Fork-lift trucks (known as FLTs) from different manufacturers are of very similar design in terms of the chassis. A front axle drive with a front axle which is permanently mounted on the body, a rear axle steering system with a pendulum axle and virtually complete elimination of a suspension system (only the tire has elastic properties) are predominant. The steering system is usually embodied as a hydrostatic steering system, i.e. the steering wheel angle is transferred to the wheel steering angle via hydraulic connection elements. The lift mast with the load fork is mounted in from of the front axle, and the driver is seated between the axles. The drive of the fork-lift truck generates both the driving torques and the braking torques via the drive train. A service brake which acts on all four wheels is usually not provided.
Fork-lift trucks are very compact, i.e. narrow and short, in design, very maneuverable and can lift large loads to a great height. In this context, there is, under certain circumstances, a high risk of tipping over during the taking up of the load, during driving and in particular on roadways which have an incline since the loads on the fork shift the entire center of gravity of the fork-lift truck to a great extent, and, under certain circumstances, very greatly reduce the static and dynamic tipping stability of the fork-lift truck during travel, which cannot always be predicted by the driver.
Within the scope of this disclosure, subsequent terms and definitions are used:
The x axis points in the direction of travel, and the y axis points perpendicularly thereto to the right along the front axle. The z axis is perpendicular to the x-y plane and points downward. (right-handed system). The rotation about the x axis (longitudinal axis) is referred to as rolling, the rotation about the y axis (transverse axis) as pitching and the rotation about the z axis (vertical axis/yaw axis) as yawing.
DE 103 04 658 A1, to which reference is expressly made for details regarding the stability model on which a fork-lift truck is based, discloses a device for controlling the driving stability of an industrial truck and a method for actuating an industrial truck. The load, the inclination of the mast and the lifting frame, the lifting height of the load, the tipping forces acting on the mast and the accelerations acting in the longitudinal direction and transverse direction on the vehicle are detected by means of a sensor system and compared with predefined limiting values. These limiting values which are dependent on the driving state cannot be arbitrarily exceeded by the driver, with the result that the vehicle generally remains stable irrespective of the driving state (cornering, straight-ahead travel, downhill travel . . . ).
It is desirable to specify an improved method for determining a probability of tipping in order then, if appropriate, to able to react more quickly in order to prevent tipping.

Method for determining the probability of a handling truck's tipping over


An exhaust system for a marine propulsion system includes first through fifth exhaust conduit members, including a pair of serially connected marine exhaust elbows laterally spanning the engine.

The invention relates to exhaust systems for marine engines.
Marine propulsion systems include an internal combustion engine having a plurality of exhaust ports and mounted in a marine vessel for propelling the vessel. An exhaust system is provided for conducting exhaust gas exteriorly of the vessel. The present invention arose during continuing development efforts directed toward such exhaust systems.


A display panel and a display device comprising the same are disclosed. The display panel of the present invention comprises: a first substrate comprising a display region and a border region surrounding the display region, wherein a plurality of circuits are disposed on the border region, and an insulating layer is disposed on the first substrate and covers the circuits; a second substrate; a conductive unit disposed on the insulating layer, and partially overlapping with the circuits; and a sealant disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and covering the conductive unit, wherein the sealant comprises a plurality of conductive particles dispersed therein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel and a display device comprising the same and, more particularly, to a display panel and a display device comprising the same in which the panel damage causing by the point discharge occurred at the conductive particles in the sealant during the electrostatic discharge test can be prevented.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, all the display devices are developed toward having small volume, thin thickness and light weight as the display techniques progresses. A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is a flat panel display device with a thin thickness, so a conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) display is gradually replaced by the LCD device. Especially, the LCD device can be applied to various fields. For example, the daily used devices such as cell phones, notebooks, video cameras, cameras, music players, navigation devices, and televisions are equipped with liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.
In all the aforementioned display devices, an electrostatic discharge test (ESD test) has to be performed thereon before delivery, to evaluate the circuit damage causing by the static electricity from operators or machines during the transportations or operations of the products, and also to confirm that whether the product can satisfy the internal and international standard of the compatibility test or not.
In the conventional display panel, the conductive particles are usually dispersed in the sealant, and point discharge may be occurred at these conductive particles during the electrostatic discharge test, resulting in the damage of the circuits. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a display panel, wherein the damage of the circuits causing by the point discharge occurred at these conductive particles can be prevented, to further improve the reliability of the obtained display panel.

Display panel and display device comprising the same


Flat or semi-flat element (1) including a partly or completely circumambient frame (2), which element (1) is manufactured through molding of a polymeric material. The element (1) includes a carrying structure, constituted by the frame (2), and an intermediate wall section (3). The wall section (3) is connected to the frame (2) via a resilient section (4), the resilient section (4) being a part of the wall section (3). The differences in the temperature related shrinkage between the frame (2) and the wall section (3) is absorbed by the resilient section (4), whereby warping of the element (1) is avoided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat or a semi-flat element including a partly or completely circumambient frame and an intermediate wall section.
2. Description of Related Art
Products made of plastic material are seen almost everywhere today. One way of manufacturing these products is through injection moulding of a thermoplastic material. It is a well known fact that the material thickness in such injection moulded products may not differ too much within the product since problems with warping will otherwise occur. This warping is caused by the temperature related shrinking, which is relatively great in most thermoplastic materials. An injection moulded product will normally be removed from the mould before it is completely cooled since the cycle time is an important economical factor in plastic manufacturing. The remainder of the cooling will hereby take place outside the mould. The shrinkage is related to the temperature which means that a part removed from the mould when hot will shrink more than a part removed when cold since some of the natural shrinkage can be counteracted by "freezing" the shape of the part in the mould. This means that thicker parts, which naturally contains more heat than thinner parts in the same product, will continue to shrink when cooling outside the mould. This will inevitably cause warping in the product. This problem has so far been prevented by designing the products with uniform material thickness.
There are however some cases where it would have been an advantage to be able to design products with different material thicknesses. One such example is containers where the walls and the bottom does not have to be particularly strong and the carrying structure of the container has to be strong since a lot of containers are to be stacked on top of each other, adding load to the container in the bottom of the stack. The thickness of the side walls and the bottom will in this case have to be over-dimensioned to be adapted to the injection moulding process since the carrying structure has to be sturdy. This will lead to a container heavier than necessary and that more material than necessary is used. This will of cause lead to an uneconomical product.

Flat or semi-flat element including a frame


A method for manufacturing a composite assembly with a continuous skin for a rear end of an aircraft by obtaining an upper part of the rear end by composite tooling. The upper part comprises a multi-spar vertical tail plane. The spars of the vertical tail plane comprise widening roots that form an upper shell of the rear end and an upper skin. Furthermore, a lower part comprises a lower shell of the rear end including semi-complete frames and stringers and a lower skin. The upper and lower parts are assembled with a joining procedure. The upper and lower skins are joined to obtain the composite assembly with the continuous skin.

Conventionally, to build an aircraft fuselage, a series of frames in the shape of the fuselage cross sections are held in position on a rigid fixture. These frames are then joined with the fuselage skin panels that include lightweight longitudinal elements called stringers that increase the buckling resistance of the skin. The stringers are attached to the skin by means of riveting, by cured resin or by bonding with special adhesives. The junction of the skin panels and the frames is performed by means of angular interface parts called shear ties that join the frame web and the fuselage skin, to conform the complete fuselage. In some cases, these angular parts can be part of the frame as an integrated flange.
The vertical tail plane, also known as empennage, is conventionally formed by a structural primary torsion box, a leading edge, a trailing edge and a movable surface. The primary box is formed by a skin, two or more spars and internal ribs. When the number of spars is sufficient, total of part of the ribs could be removed.
In known aircraft, the junction between the vertical tail plane and the fuselage rear section is performed by means of interface fittings to form the tail cone section. These fittings are responsible for transferring the continuum load distribution on the skins of the torsion box of the empennage, into punctual loads that are transferred to the frames of the fuselage. Frames then distribute the load to the fuselage skin.
The loads at those interface fittings are very high because they concentrate on punctual areas of the structure, leading to significant reinforcement and penalty weight for the fittings and surrounding elements. Additionally, the fittings need to be covered by aerodynamic fairings that produce a significant penalty of drag, and on assembly lead time. Examples of interface fittings and associated aerodynamic fairing are shown on FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2 and 3.
Therefore, a new assembly of the empennage of an aircraft that includes at least the tail cone section and the vertical tail plane (and additionally the horizontal tail plane) with a continuous skin that solves the aforementioned drawbacks and methods for its manufacturing is desired.

Method for manufacturing a multi-spar box with a continuous skin upper shell of a tail cone section for a rear end of an aircraft and a composite assembly


Disclosed are various systems and methods for monitoring and maintaining networks, such as networks associated with a wireless access point. In an aspect, a user device that was connected the wireless access point and loses connectivity to the access point can receive network parameters for implementing a new wireless network, where the network parameters are associated with the network as implemented by the wireless access point that is no longer available. The user device can activate a new wireless hotspot mode using the received network parameters. The resulting new wireless hotspot can implement various aspects of the wireless access point and associated network. The new wireless hotspot enabled by the user device can allow other devices, previously connected to the access point, to automatically connect to the new wireless hotspot.

Users commonly connect user devices to wireless networks to access the Internet or other network-enabled services. A user may have a wireless network to which their devices most frequently connect, typically a home wireless network. When away from the home wireless network, these user devices may have to connect to publically accessible wireless networks. This may require manual configuration of security or authentication parameters for each public network. This may also require the device to remember profiles for each network to which it is connected. Over time, storing of multiple profiles for various networks in user devices may result in unpredictable connectivity and reliability. These and other shortcomings are addressed by the methods and systems disclosed herein.

Methods and systems for managing network hotspots


A method and computer program are disclosed for reducing routing congestion in an integrated circuit design that include steps of: (a) receiving as input a design for an integrated circuit die having an inner metal layer and a top metal layer wherein the design includes electrical constraints of each of a plurality of I/O circuits in the integrated circuit die; (b) selecting a number of vias for a via array to form an electrical connection between the inner metal layer and the top metal layer of the integrated circuit die that connects a solder bump formed on the top metal layer to a corresponding one of the plurality of I/O circuits wherein the number of vias is selected to satisfy the electrical constraints of the corresponding one of the plurality of I/O circuits; and (c) generating as output the number of vias determined for the via array.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the manufacture of integrated circuits. More specifically, but without limitation thereto, the present invention is directed to the design of via arrays and interconnects for flip chip integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Connections between a flip chip integrated circuit die and a flip chip integrated circuit package are typically made by solder bumps formed on the top metal layer of the die. The solder bumps are connected to I/O circuits inside the die. Current methods for connecting I/O circuits inside the die to the solder bumps include forming via arrays that connect the top metal layer of the die to an inner metal layer of the die in which the wire traces to the I/O circuits are formed. The solder bumps are connected to the via arrays by wire traces formed in the top metal layer.

Method of sizing via arrays and interconnects to reduce routing congestion in flip chip integrated circuits


A flexible plastic soil reinforcing element is secured to the retaining face for an earthen formation by folding an end portion of the element upon itself and then securing the end portion to the face. An anchor extends rearwardly from the face and a retaining rod is engaged with the end portion of the soil reinforcing element and the anchor to secure the reinforcing element against separation from the anchor. In one embodiment, the end portion of the reinforcing element is folded upon itself multiple times to increase the shear strength of the element to either side of the anchor. In another the end portion of the reinforcing element is folded back over the reinforcing element for embedment in the earthen formation.

Prior art connections between soil reinforcing polymer geo-grids and the face elements for retained earthen formations have required that the connection be made within the concrete face elements, either by passing pins through openings in the geo-grids, or by sandwiching the geo-grids between the face elements. In the case of the pin connections, the integrity of the connection has been dependent upon the shear strength of the joinder between the longitudinal tension members of the geo-grids and the transverse tying members extending across the tension members. In the case of connections which rely upon sandwiching of the geo-grid between face panel elements, the connection has been dependent upon capturing the grid between the concrete elements and the frictional inter-engagement of the grid and concrete elements. Such dependence upon friction results in a connection which is never as strong as the structural properties of the geo-grid polymer. The geo-grid also has a thickness which causes the panels to gap when stacked and be uneven and result in uneven stresses at the connection. Typical prior art connections between polymer geo-grids and concrete face panel elements may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,616,959 and 5,257,880.
The prior art also teaches various types of connections between welded wire geo-grids and the facing elements for retained earthen formations. These connections have been made both within and without the confines of the face elements. In some instances, the connection is made directly to the longitudinal soil reinforcing elements of the welded wire gridwork. In others, it is made to the transverse tie elements of the gridwork. Although connections of the latter type are dependent upon the shear strength of the joinder between the longitudinal and transverse elements of the gridwork, the problem is not as troublesome as it is with flexible plastic geo-grids because of the increased shear strength of the welded wire joinders, as compared to polymer joinders. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,324,508, 4,661,023, 4,929,125 and 5,484,235 disclose connections which are typical of those used for joining welded wire gridworks to face panels.


Nozzle structures for fuel injectors are fabricated from silicon wafers assembled together to accurately control valve lift so that a separate step of setting valve lift is unnecessary. Sealing surfaces are P+ silicon.

It is known to fabricate the valves of electromechanical actuated fuel injectors from materials, such as stainless steels, by metalworking processes, such as milling and grinding. While such processes can produce high degrees of accuracy in finished parts, they possess certain inherent limitations. Specifications for tolerable leakage are becoming increasingly strict, pushing such processes to their limits.
Fuel injectors having valves made from silicon elements, have been suggested to provide even closer tolerances in finished parts; for example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,628,576; 4,647,013; 4,756,508; 4,826,131; 4,808,260 and 4,907,748.
The present invention relates to improvements in such silicon valves.
One aspect of the invention relates to an organization and arrangement of a composite silicon valve that provides for precise control of valve lift while also disposing the gate directly in the flow path through the valve so that when the injector is flowing, the gate remains in the flow path, rather than to one side of the flow path, and this is especially important for a single stream fuel injector that injects fuel coaxial with the fuel injector's main longitudinal axis.
Another aspect of the invention relates to improved compliancy of the gate to the seat when the valve is closed. This is achieved by making one or both of the silicon sealing surfaces of the gate and/or seat of P+ silicon preferably as a surface layer having a preferred thickness in the range of about 10 microns to about 30 microns.
Still another aspect of the invention relates to the inclusion of a thin disc orifice member formed from silicon which comprises one or more metering orifices for metering the flow from the valve.

Fuel injector having a composite silicon valve


In a 2.sup.m (m=1, 2, . . . )-valued semiconductor memory device, including a plurality of word lines, a plurality of bit line pairs, and a plurality of memory cells each connected to one of the word lines and one bit line of the bit line pairs, each of the bit line pairs are divided into m divided bit line pairs, and a ratio of capacitances of the m divided bit line pairs is 1:2: . . . :2.sup.m-1. Also, each sense amplifier is connected to one of the bit line pairs. Further, each of coupled capacitor pairs is cross-coupled between two adjacent divided bit line pairs of the divided bit line pairs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-valued semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor memory device such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, if m-bit information is stored in each memory cell, the storage capacity becomes m times that of a conventional single-valued memory device.
In a prior art four-valued DRAM device (see: JP-A-63-149900), three sense amplifiers are provided for one bit line pair, and also, dummy memory cells are provided. As a result, the chip area is still larger than the conventional single-valued devices, which reduces the manufacturing yield.

Small-sized multi-valued semiconductor memory device with coupled capacitors between divided bit lines


A process for forming a solder bump on an under bump metal structure in the manufacture of a microelectronic device comprising exposing the under bump metal structure to an electrolytic bath comprising a source of Sn2+ ions, a source of Ag+ ions, a thiourea compound and/or a quaternary ammonium surfactant; and supplying an external source of electrons to the electrolytic bath to deposit a Sn—Ag alloy onto the under bump metal structure.

Solder wafer bumps conventionally comprise solders of the tin-lead (Sn—Pb) alloy group. The Sn—Pb solders may be formed in a variety of compositions including the low melting eutectic comprising 63% Sn and 37% lead. High Sn alloys are called fine solders and are used extensively in electrical work. Many Sn—Pb alloy compositions exhibit broad pasty temperature ranges which enhance their workability.
Recent regulatory and environmental developments have increased interest in Pb-free solders. Accordingly, pure Sn, Sn—Cu, Sn—Bi, Sn—Ag, and ternary Sn alloys have been explored as potential alternatives to Sn—Pb alloys. Of particular interest are the Sn—Ag alloys because of their performance advantages such as low resistivity, stability, the ability to achieve a wide range of melting points, and the elimination of alpha particle emissions by using pure Sn sources.
A particular problem associated with the use of Ag in Sn—Ag alloy solder wafer bumping is associated with the spontaneous reduction of Ag ions from the electroplating bath. For example, Ag ions, being very noble, have a tendency toward immersion/displacement plating upon exposure to certain UBM layers, particularly Cu layers. Accordingly, precise control of the Ag ion concentration in the electroplating solution and therefore control of the Ag metal content and uniformity in the Sn—Ag solder wafer bump is rendered difficult. There is a need for a plating method which allows for control of the Ag ion content in solution, and thus control of the Ag metal content in the alloy solder wafer bump.
Another problem facing microelectronic device manufacturers using Sn—Ag alloy solder wafer bumps is low throughput due to the limited current densities which may be achieved using conventional electroplating baths. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,847, it was reported that current densities appropriate for electroplating Sn-based alloys, include Sn—Ag, were in the range of 3-5 ASD. Kim et al. report current densities for plating a Sn—Ag solder using thiourea as a complexing agent in the range of 1 to 3 ASD. See Effects of Electroplating Parameters on Composition of Sn—Ag Solder, J. Electronic Materials, December 2004. Accordingly, there is a need for a plating composition which can plate at high current densities to achieve higher throughput.

Tin-silver solder bumping in electronics manufacture


A unitary construction device for temporarily attaching an object to a support of generally elongate shape along a reference axis, has a first part attached to the support and a second part attached to the object and joined to the first part by a coupling portion flexible in bending. This coupling portion includes a pair of identical axial tangs aligned on a first line transverse to the reference axis and coplanar therewith, flexible parallel to a second line transverse to the reference axis and perpendicular to the first transverse line, and requiring the same energy to fracture in tension parallel to the axis. The coupling portion further includes at least one pair of first feet attached to the first part, one on each side of the first transverse line and extending axially towards the second part, and at least one pair of second feet attached to the second part and extending axially towards the pair of first feet and separated therefrom by the same predetermined axial distance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a temporary mechanical attachment device flexible in bending and designed to fracture at a predetermined tensile load, particularly but not exclusively suitable for temporarily attaching to a support an object intended to be ejected under precise kinematic and kinetic conditions.
It finds an advantageous but by no means exclusive application in spacecraft such as satellites in which a temporary attachment phase is followed by a separation phase, possibly with more or less forcible ejection. It can also find application in various terrestrial vehicles, maritime vehicles (surface vessels and submarines) and airborne vehicles (aircraft of all kinds in which a temporary connection is made that is to be released subsequently, possibly with immediate and precise movement of the object in question, for example to launch it with no external guidance.
A particular application of the invention is to the conducting of scientific experiments in the upper atmosphere of the Earth or to exploring the planets of the solar system using an automatic probe. It can be used, for example, to secure and then release or eject a storage vessel containing a chemical substance to be used as a tracer to study winds or magnetic fields: a storage vessel of this kind can be ejected from an artificial platform such as a sounding rocket or an interplanetary probe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various mechanisms are already known for providing temporary attachment of this kind followed by separation and more or less forcible ejection, in practice for achieving clean separation between the object and its support.
The following documents are particularly noteworthy in this respect: U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,905, WO-82/02527, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,887,150, 2,888,294, 3,196,745, 3,597,919, 4,002,120, 4,187,759, FR-2,616,856 and FR-2,616,857.
The temporary attachment of the object to its support is in practice designed to be as stiff as possible, both in traction and in bending.
Temporary couplings relying on pyrotechnic separation are known: explosive bolts, explosive cutters and pyrotechnic release systems which retract an abutment member. Apart from the fact that they sometimes require a large number of parts, these various solutions always assume release commands separate from the ejection commands. Also, separation can disturb ejection and compromise its accuracy.
Also known are fragile couplings which are fractured by the ejection itself. This is the case with shear pins which are disposed transversely to the direction of ejection and anchored at their respective ends into the object and into the support. However, the shear pin technique has the following drawbacks.
It requires an extremely accurate fit between the moving parts; there is a risk of unwanted friction between the parts after the pin fractures; there is an additional part (the pin) whose two portions must be held in place after it fractures and which may scrape against the surface of the opposite other part; it is difficult to release the object, which is in practice retained by a number of pins, without unbalancing the system (through rotational (tilting) movement in particular).
This solution is complex because it is necessary to manufacture a number of parts and to assemble them accurately. Finally, it is not always reliable.
It has been found that a stiff coupling between the object and its support is not always advantageous and that, to enable ejection in any accurately defined direction with an accurately defined amplitude, it may be advantageous to make the coupling flexible but stiff in traction to enable the orientation of the object relative to the support before and after ejection to be defined only by the rod which applies the ejection thrust.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,925 in the name of the assignee hereof issued Aug. 11, 1992, discloses a simple and reliable temporary attachment device enabling relative movement of an object relative to its support in bending, which has a fragile area designed to fracture at a predetermined tensile load and advantageously adapted to center the object at least locally with reference to a possible ejection direction.
This patent discloses a device for temporarily attaching an object to a support having a body designed to be fixed to the support and including an annular end portion fixed to the object and joined to the body by a coupling. The coupling between the annular end portion of the receptacle fixed to the object and the body is flexible and fragile. An intermediate ring is joined to the annular end area and to the body by respective pairs of flexible axial tangs on respective diameters at 90.degree. to each other, the tangs of each pair being identical.
The central axial opening of the device enables sliding movement of the ejector rod, if any. Alternatively, it can enable the passage of electrical conductors (which are protected by it) or any other kind of connecting or transmission tube or cable that must be protected against relative tilting bending movement of the object and support.
According to preferred features of U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,925, the tangs of each pair have the same tensile strength and the tangs of one pair have a lower tensile strength than the tangs of the other pair. The tangs of each pair have the same tensile strength and tangs joining the intermediate ring to the annular end area have a lower tensile strength than the tangs joining the intermediate ring to the receptacle body. The tangs of each pair have the same characteristics in bending about the respective diameters, and the tangs of each pair have the same thickness transversely to the respective diameters and the same height parallel to the predetermined direction. The tangs of each pair have the same radial dimension and the tangs of one pair have a smaller radial dimension than the tangs of the other pair.
The intermediate ring and the tangs are an integral part of the body and include the annular end portion.
The body is hollow and contains an ejector rod having a rear portion designed to be subjected to ejection pressure and a front end designed to abut against the object.
The device further includes a spring member compressed axially between a flange inside the body and a bearing surface on the rear portion of the ejector rod to prestress the fragile coupling in traction; in particular, this prevents the attachment of the annular end portion to the object from loosening.
The annular end portion of the receptacle includes an externally screwthreaded portion cooperating with an internal screwthread formed at the mouth of the recess in the object, and the device also has a centering portion adapted to enter the recess with slight clearance.
An object of the present invention is to improve the performance of the temporary mechanical attachment device described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,925 by simplifying its construction and minimizing the risk of unwanted deterioration, notably in bending, but also and advantageously in torsion or even in shear, in service or at the time of ejection.
To be more precise, a first object of the invention is to provide a simple and reliable way of delimiting axial movement in bending (or even in torsion or, better still, in shear) of the device during handling, during storage or in service so as to protect the tangs from any excessive loading likely to degrade their fracture characteristics under tensile loading in particular or during possible ejection so as to limit relative movement in bending during such ejection to prevent any risk of binding/impact during movement of the piston within the device (for a piston 15 mm in diameter the sliding clearance in the attachment device may be only 0.5 mm). The invention is thus directed to improving the reliability of ejection, if any.
It has been found that in practice a small amount of relative movement in bending is sufficient to benefit from the flexibility in bending required in the aforementioned patent.
From the manufacturing point of view, another object of the invention, possibly in conjunction with the first mentioned object, is to reduce the precautions to be observed when machining the tangs and in particular to avoid the need for additional structures for stiffening the blank in bending during the machining of the tangs in the latter so as to minimize the risk of damage caused in particular by vibration during machining, so as to enable industrial scale manufacture at moderate cost.

Temporary mechanical attachment device flexible in bending and designed to fracture at a predetermined tensile load, and method of manufacturing it

Societe Nationale Industrielle et Aerospatiale


The educational toy includes a toy figure having a body, a frame affixed within a portion of the body, and an earth globe disposed within the frame. The globe is configured to rotate within the frame. The globe is configured to represent the earth, and has outlines representing the continents and at least larger countries or geographical regions, and may have contours representing mountains or other features. The globe may alternatively be retained on an outstretched hand or limb of a figure and may be rotated on a shaft attached to the limb or limbs of the figure. Optionally, the educational toy may be illuminated, play back an educational audio message, or include a motor for rotating the globe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an educational toy and, more particularly, to a toy figurine which has a revolving globe disposed therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Knowledge of geography is essential for appreciating the physical and social aspects of the complex global world in which we live. Traditional teaching devices for facilitating comprehension of world geography are rarely useful for most children. A conventional world globe, for example, is a teaching device which is frequently used to educate children on world geography. In the classroom, however, few children feel comfortable familiarizing themselves with a heavy globe which may rest on a teacher's desk or bookshelf. Outside of the classroom, most children would prefer to amuse themselves with toys rather than a traditional learning device, such as a globe of the earth. Thus, an educational toy incorporating a globe to teach world geography and the earth's rotation about an axis is desirable.
Educational toys associated with geographical or multicultural concepts are described or disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. 67,422, issued May 26, 1925 to V. C. Thompson (a doll); U.S. Design Pat. No. 367,686, issued Mar. 5, 1996 to Lolita B. Decanay (a doll); U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0045400, published Apr. 18, 2002 (set of dolls for simulating a universal beauty pageant); U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0102909, published Aug. 1, 2002 to Derraugh et al. (cloth shape with pockets for objects; U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,457, issued Jul. 22, 1975 to E. Koskiewicz (global sphere yo-yo device); U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,935, issued Feb. 25, 1992 to C. S. Monson (composite toy having interconnectable toy components); U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,938, issued Feb. 25, 1992 to C. Reynolds (toy or other object alterable between two different shapes); U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,840, issued Dec. 9, 2003 to Chastain et al. (set of dolls for simulating a universal beauty pageant); U.K. Patent No. 2,235,805, published Mar. 13, 1991 (educational globe toy); and Japanese Patent No. 7-631, published Jan. 6, 1995 (toy for intellectual training).
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, an educational toy solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A toner bottle that is composed of a main part, a toner loading portion, a bottle cap that can hermetically close and open a toner loading opening in the toner loading portion, and a bottle-side toner discharge port. This toner bottle is constructed such that the bottle cap that encloses the toner loading opening has a locking projection which can limit the rotation in the loosening direction while the toner loading portion has a cap locking projection which will engage the locking projection and can limit the rotation in the loosening direction.

1. Field of the Technology
The present technology relates to a toner container and a toner loading method, in particular relating to a toner container and a method of loading toner into the toner container for use in an image forming apparatus that performs image formation with the toner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, in image forming apparatuses using toner, such as copiers, facsimile machines, etc., a toner supply device using a toner cartridge is used to supply toner to the developing unit to thereby achieve continuous operation of image output.
Examples of generally known methods for supplying toner to the developing unit include: a configuration in which toner stored in a toner cartridge is directly supplied to the developing unit (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 2003-162143); and a configuration in which toner in a toner cartridge is supplied by a screw from a predetermined position to the developing unit (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Hei 10-142936).
From a viewpoint of recent upsurge of conservation of natural resources, there are some proposals of toner cartridges that can be recycled by refilling toner after the toner runs out (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 2001-312129). Further, there is also a proposal of a toner cartridge which can display the number of times of recycled usage (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Hei 9-288415).
However, some conventional toner cartridges have configurations that are not suitable for being recycled, others have the problems that loading of toner into the toner cartridge is troublesome and that toner which spills out from the toner loading opening when toner is loaded, contaminates the operator and apparatus, causing bad influence on work performance.


A piezoelectric drive motor especially well adapted for use with flow control systems on commercial aircraft, military aircraft and spacecraft. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a support structure that supports a piezoelectric beam. A biasing element, for example a coil spring, is coupled between a free end of the piezoelectric beam and the support structure. The spring exerts a compressive force on the beam and serves to amplify its displacement when electric signals applied to piezoelectric layers on the beam cause deflection of the beam between two stable positions. The drive motor operates over a wider band of drive frequencies than conventional piezoelectric beams and is also suitable for use as a sensor and in a wide variety of actuator applications.

Many environments are rich in vibration energy that is ideal for powering machinery or electronics. Such environments often exist in aircraft and automotive applications where the vibration experienced by an aircraft or automotive vehicle represents energy that could be used to power sensors or other remotely located devices, provided such energy can be harvested by a suitable device.
Vibration energy harvesting (VEH) can be accomplished by developing relative motion, and hence energy, between a vibrating structure and a reaction mass coupled to the structure. This mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy by developing cyclic stress in a piezo electric structure. A simple form of this device is a cantilever beam that has piezo material attached to the surface. This is illustrated in FIG. 1. A reaction mass is attached to the tip of the beam to increase performance. When subjected to vibration, the tip of the beam tends to resist motion, thus placing the piezo material under stress. This stress results in electrical charge accumulation in the piezo material that results in an increase in voltage potential between two points of the material. However, for this topology to work efficiently, vibration energy must occur at or above the beam resonance frequency. Vibration energy with frequency content below the resonance frequency will produce very little motion between the tip mass and the base.
When the cantilever beam shown in FIG. 1 is used, the stiffness of the beam, including the piezo material, beam length (L) and the tip mass determine the lowest frequency where the VEH device will work. Additionally, piezo material is usually a ceramic and is fragile when subjected to tension loading which will limit the robustness of the VEH device and its life. FIG. 2 illustrates the relative tip displacement as a function of frequency for this device. At low frequency, the tip beam moves very little relative to the vibrating structure. Accordingly, the VEH device shown in FIG. 1, at low frequency, will provide very little power from low frequency vibrations. Vibration energy at resonance frequency will provide maximum VEH, but utility is limited by a very narrow bandwidth.
The limitation of needing to "tune" the system around the resonant frequency of the cantilever beam imposes a significant limitation in terms of efficient operation of the system shown in FIG. 1. This is because various structures often produce vibration energy over a much wider frequency bandwidth than what the system can be tuned for. The selection of the tip mass, to essentially tune the system to operate efficiently at the resonant beam frequency, means that the system will not be efficient in harvesting energy at other frequencies above and below the resonant frequency of the cantilever beam. Accordingly, a system that is not limited to efficient harvesting of vibration energy at only the resonant beam frequency, but that is able to harvest energy over a relatively wide frequency range, would be much more effective in generating electrical power from a vibrating structure.
Accordingly, there still exists a need for an apparatus able to be used with a piezo material to improve the harvesting of vibration energy at low frequencies, and also at frequencies above and below the resonant frequency of the structure from which vibration energy is being harvested. Such an apparatus would be extremely useful for powering remotely located sensors and various other components from low frequency vibration energy produced by wheeled vehicles, boats, ships, and aircraft. Such an apparatus would effectively make it possible to provide energy harvesting from a wide variety of structures experiencing low frequency vibration where such energy harvesting would have previously not been practicable.
Still another application for piezoelectric devices is in connection with active flow control on mobile platforms such as high speed jet aircraft. Active flow control is an emerging technology that can increase aircraft performance by manipulating airflow inside the viscous boundary layer at specific points on the aircraft, for example, at specific areas on the wings. This can increase the lift and reduce the drag of aerodynamic bodies such as wings, fuselages, cowlings, struts, flaps and tails. Proper application of active flow control can increase the fuel economy, increase the payload and reduce the operating costs of a wide variety of aircraft, both commercial and military.
All forms of active flow control require some form of actuator or motor to energize a flow control element, to thus modify or change the airflow within the viscous boundary layer. Many forms of actuation have been investigated, but all have been generally sufficiently massive and weight-laden that they negate many, or sometimes all, of the benefit of using active flow control technology.
Accordingly, there still exists a need for a system and method which can provide an extremely lightweight driving implement, for example, a lightweight motor, that can be used to make feasible a large variety of active flow control applications that have been heretofore impractical to implement with existing actuators.

Enhanced amplitude piezoelectric motor apparatus and method


A profile prediction system may identify one of multiple user profiles for a single computer. For example, a home computer may have multiple users that may not be targeted unless the user on the home computer can be identified. The system's user identification may be based on a clustering model that considers various browsing characteristics to identify different clusters that each correspond to a particular user or user profile. The model may be generated and refined by tracking web browsing over multiple sessions. Future activity on the computer may be used to identify which user is the source of the activity and the user may receive targeted content including advertisements.

Targeted online advertising may be an important source of revenue for enterprises engaged in electronic commerce. Processes associated with technologies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enable a web page to be configured to display advertisements. Those advertisements may be targeted based on a user's preferences. In addition to advertisements, other material and resources on a web page may also be targeted for a particular user. Accurate targeting typically requires an identification of a user and knowledge regarding that identified user. The knowledge may include demographics, past browsing history, past purchasing history, or other information that can help to understand a user. In certain situations, it may be difficult to identify a user and/or obtain knowledge regarding that user.


A semiconductor memory includes a transistor and a capacitor which are formed on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the capacitor comprises in superposed layers a first capacitor composed of an impurity diffused layer formed in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate, a first dielectric formed on the impurity diffused layer and a lower plate electrode formed on the first dielectric and serving as a field plate; a second capacitor composed of the lower plate electrode, a second dielectric formed on the lower plate electrode and a node electrode formed on the second dielectric; and a third capacitor composed of the node electrode, a third dielectric formed on the node electrode and an upper plate electrode formed on the third dielectric.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor memories, and more particular to MOS semiconductor memories occupying a small area and yet having a great capacitance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) comprising one transistor and one capacitor are known as the simplest DRAMs. With such memories, the amount of charge in the capacitor is altered by turning on and off a gate by the transistor to store data in the desired memory cell.
FIG. 3 is a sectional diagram showing a stacked DRAM cell. The stacked DRAM cell has a capacitor wherein a thin film of great dielectric constant is held between electrodes to give an increased capacitance per unit area.
With reference to the diagram, indicated at 20 is a silicon substrate formed with a device isolation region 28. With a device forming region thereby defined, the silicon substrate 20 is formed with a gate electrode 23 with an oxide film 22 provided therebetween. The gate electrode 23 is provided as a word line over the silicon substrate 20 to form a select transistor. Source/drain regions 21 are formed in a surface layer of the silicon substrate 20 at opposite ends of the gate electrode 23. A word line 24 for an adjacent cell is provided on the device isolation region 28. A node electrode 25 in contact with one of the source/drain regions 21 extends over the gate electrode 23, over this source/drain region 21 and over the word line 24. A plate electrode 27 is formed over the node electrode 25 with a dielectric 26 interposed therebetween. A bit line 30 is further provided over the plate electrode 27, with an interlayer insulating film 29 formed therebetween, and is connected to the other source/drain region 21 which is not in contact with the node electrode 25.
To hold the electric charge stored in the capacitor of the semiconductor memory described, there is a need to give increased capacitance to the capacitor. However, an increase in the capacitance of the cell is in conflict with a reduction in the cell size, so that attempts to reduce the cell size encounter the problem of necessitating ingenuity in various aspects.

Semiconductor memory with increased capacitive storage capabilities and reduced size