A semiconductor photodetector which can obtain spectral sensitivity characteristics close to relative luminous characteristics compared to a conventional semiconductor photodetector is obtained at low cost. The semiconductor photodetector includes a semiconductor light receiving element having high spectral sensitivity in wavelengths in a range from approximately 400 nm to 1,100 nm and an optical transmitting resin where micro particles is dispersed in a transparent resin with an amount which can be obtain photocurrent from the semiconductor light receiving element by transmitting light in wavelengths in the visible light region while blocking light in wavelengths in the infrared region. The semiconductor photodetector further includes a converging structure on a light receiving surface of the semiconductor photodetector.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor photodetector including a semiconductor light receiving element having spectral sensitivity to light in wavelengths from the visible light region to the infrared region and an optical transmitting resin where micro particles which block light in wavelengths in the infrared region are dispersed in a transparent resin, and having spectral sensitivity to light in wavelengths in the visible light region.
As an illumination sensor which is a type of a photodetector in the visible light region, a CdS cell having spectral sensitivity characteristics as shown in FIG. 11 has been widely used. However, since cadmium is high in environmental burdens and falls under a controlled substance by RohS command of EU, cadmium will be prohibited to use within EU from July 2006. As a replacement of cadmium, photodetectors formed from silicon have attempted to be used. In order to compose an illumination sensor with silicon, spectral sensitivity of silicon needs to be coordinated with relative luminous characteristics which are sensitivity of human eyes. FIG. 12 shows spectral sensitivity characteristics of a silicon phototransistor. From FIG. 12, it is grasped that the silicon phototransistor has sensitivity to light in wavelengths of at least 800 nm (infrared region). On the other hand, human eyes do not have sensitivity to the light in the infrared region as shown in standard relative luminous characteristics in FIG. 13.
From the above-mentioned reason, a conventional photodetector of such type is provided with a filter composed of multilayer film in which an oxide silicon (SiO2) film and a titanium oxide (TiO2) film are alternatively laminated at a light receiving surface side to lower spectral sensitivity of the infrared region within the spectral sensitivity of silicon, to thereby approximate to relative luminous characteristics (FIG. 13) (see, for example Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 15044/1997).
However, formation of the multilayer film in which an oxide silicon film and a titanium oxide film are alternatively laminated is a troublesome task in terms of time and processes, and results in high cost. Therefore, the applicant of the present invention has been proposed a semiconductor photodetector having spectral sensitivity characteristics close to relative luminous characteristics at low cost (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 12885/2005).
The semiconductor having been previously proposed by the applicant of the present invention is shown in FIG. 14. In FIG. 14, numeral 1 is a substrate, 2 is a semiconductor light receiving element having high spectral sensitivity in wavelengths from at least the visible light region to infrared region, 3 is a metal wire, and 4 is an optical transmitting resin in which the optical transmitting resin is boride of one or more elements selected from La, Pr, Nd, Ce, Y, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo or W and is formed by dispersing micro particles whose particle diameter is not more than approximately 100 nm in a transparent resin. By sealing at least the light receiving surface of the semiconductor light receiving element 2 with the optical transmitting resin 4 in which micro particles are dispersed, the micro particles attenuate the light in wavelengths of the infrared region of the incident light to achieve spectral sensitivity characteristics which close to relative luminous characteristics.
However, in the case of dispersing micro particles with the quantity for blocking light in the infrared region in a transparent resin, the semiconductor photodetector previously proposed by the applicant of the present invention also blocks light in the visible light region when the quantity of micro particle is too much. Therefore, output of a semiconductor light receiving element (photocurrent) becomes small.
In specific, FIG. 15 shows changes of transmissivity when the quantity of micro particles (lanthanum boride) to be dispersed in a transparent resin (epoxy resin) is changed. The optical transmitting resin is prepared by mixing a suspension in which micro particles are suspended in an organic solvent such as toluene with the transparent resin (epoxy resin). Therefore, the quantity of micro particles to be dispersed is increased with the increased quantity of suspension. From the figure, it is grasped that light in the visible light region is correspondingly blocked when the transmissivity of light in the infrared region decreased. It has been also confirmed that light in the visible light region is blocked together with the decrease in transmissivity of light in the infrared region in the case the thickness of the resin is increased.
FIG. 16 shows the relative transmissivity when the peak value of transmissivity of an optical transmitting resin with a thickness of 1 mm which includes 2.0 wt. % of suspension of lanthanum boride is 100%. Compared with the relative luminous sensitivity, the optical transmitting resin transmits light in the infrared region.
When a semiconductor photodetector is formed by using such optical transmitting resin, no problem occurs by fluorescent light which does not include light in wavelengths of the infrared region in which light receiving sensitivity of the semiconductor light receiving element is high. However, photocurrent may be generated by incidence of light in the infrared region by sunlight which includes light in wavelengths in the infrared region.
Accordingly, when the quantity of micro particles is increased enough to substantially block light in the infrared region, light in wavelengths of the visible light region is blocked and photocurrent of a semiconductor light receiving element (output signal) becomes significantly small. In such a case, there is a need for additionally providing an amplifying means for an output signal.
There has been a problem that cost is increased in the case of additionally providing such amplifying means for an output signal. On the other hand, there has been also a problem that relative luminous characteristics cannot be obtained when a semiconductor photodetector is formed to transmit light in the infrared region to some extent. An object of the present invention is to resolve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a semiconductor photodetector which can achieve spectral sensitivity characteristics close to relative luminous characteristics compared to a conventional semiconductor photodetector at low cost.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor photodetector with converging structure on light receiving surface sealed with optical transmitting resin containing micro particles


A clutch release bearing assembly is provided that includes a housing that encloses a bearing, release sleeve and bushing. The housing defines a reservoir for grease that is supplied to the bearing and bushing. Slots are provided in the release sleeve through which grease is provided to the bushing and the input shaft through holes formed in the bushing. An end cap seal prevents contaminants from entering the clutch release bearing assembly on one end and a multi-lip seal is provided between the housing and release sleeve on the other end of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clutch release bearing assembly for a vehicle powertrain that is manually greased to lubricate a bearing and a bushing.
2. Background Art
Vehicles with manual transmissions generally have a clutch release bearing that is used to engage and disengage a clutch. The clutch is interposed between the engine and transmission on the input shaft of the transmission.
The clutch is engaged and disengaged to selectively transfer torque from the engine to the transmission. The clutch transmits torque to the transmission from the input shaft when the clutch is engaged. The clutch release bearing assembly remains stationary relative to the rotating input shaft and clutch. A release fork is manipulated by either a mechanical or a hydraulic linkage which engages the release bearing assembly. When a clutch pedal is depressed, the release fork is rotated by the linkage to cause the release bearing assembly to move parallel to the input shaft. Depression of the clutch pedal releases the clutch and interrupts the flow of torque to the transmission.
The relative motion between the release bearing and the shaft makes it necessary to provide a bushing and a bearing in the clutch release bearing assembly. The bushing and bearing require lubrication to prevent undue wear of the input shaft, bushing and bearing. Lubrication is provided to both the bearing and the bushing of the release bearing assembly to extend the life of the release bearing assembly. Some release bearing assemblies have grease zerks for lubricating the bearing and the bushing at scheduled maintenance intervals. Conventional clutch release bearing assemblies are designed to allow grease to flow to an unsealed bearing. However, current designs fail to provide a direct path for grease to flow from the grease zerk to the bushing.
Alternatively, some clutch release bearing assemblies may have a sealed bearing and a durable bushing. Sealed bearings and durable bushings reduce the need to lubricate the clutch release bearing assembly but are expensive options. Sealed bearings do not require manual or external lubrication because they are sealed to retain lubricant within the bearing assembly. Sealed bearings tend to interfere with the flow of grease to the bushing which may become starved of lubrication. Sealed bearings minimize problems presented by contamination as a result of their sealed construction but do not generally provide an effective way of preventing contamination from reaching the bushing of the clutch release bearing assembly.
A leaf spring may be included in a clutch release bearing assembly for the purpose of preventing an outer race of the bearing from rotating with the inner race of the bearing that rotates with the same angular velocity as the clutch. The use of such a leaf spring increases the cost of the release bearing assembly.
In current clutch release bearing designs, sufficient lubrication may be provided to the bearing when the bearing is relubricated but the flow path of the lubricant may be obstructed by the outer bearing race. At regular service intervals, grease is applied through the zerk until the grease purges through the cover of the release bearing housing. Grease flow to the bearings is indirect in that it must flow in a serpentine path through the bearing before it reaches the input shaft and bushing. Grease may be initially injected into the clutch release bearing when assembled to provide lubrication to the bushing, however, it is difficult to reliably relubricate the clutch release bearing assembly after the vehicle is put into service.
Prior art release bearing designs that do not use a sealed bearing tend to be more subject to contamination of the bearing. With either a sealed bearing or a non-sealed bearing, contamination is not effectively excluded from the bushing because the bushing is left open to contamination.
There is a need for a clutch release bearing assembly that effectively retains grease and excludes contamination from entering and contaminating the bearing and bushing. As summarized below, Applicants have addressed the above problems and have fulfilled the need for a clutch release bearing assembly that provides adequate lubrication to both the bearing and bushing while excluding contamination from the bearing and bushing.


The present invention relates to a method, a computer program product and a system for managing virtual instances of a physical port attached to a network. The method is based on the Fiber Channel N_Port virtualisation for a physical Fibre Channel N_Port. Multiple virtual Fibre Channel adapters share a single physical N_Port among multiple operating system instances. The invention discloses means for the automatic and persistent generation and administration of unique Worldwide Port Names needed for the N_Port virtualisation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, a system, and a computer program product for managing virtual instances of a physical port attached to a network.
2. Background Art
More specifically, the invention relates to a network, in which each connected computer or device has a unique identifier. As an example, a network with Fibre Channel connections is described.
Functionally, the Fibre Channel (FC) is a bi-directional, full-duplex, point-to-point, serial data channel structured for high performance data communication. The FC provides a generalized transport mechanism that has no protocol of its own or a native input/output command set, but can transport any existing Upper Level Protocols (ULPs) such as FCP, the "Fibre Channel Protocol for SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)", and IP, the Internet Protocol.
The smallest, indivisible unit of information transfer used by FC is called a frame. Frames are used for transferring data. The frame size depends on the hardware implementation and is independent of the ULP or the application software. These frames are aggregated to form messages called sequences. The frames of a sequence can be received out of order. One or more sequences form an exchange, which is a basic transaction. The frames are divided in two categories: link control frames without data payloads, which are used for the flow control, and data frames with data payloads such as encapsulated ULP data.
Various FC standards exist, for example the following references:                1. Information Technology—Fibre Channel Protocol for SCSI, 2nd Version (FCP-2), ANSI/INCITS 350        2. Information Technology—Fibre Channel Framing and Signalling Interface (FC-FS), ANSI/INCITS 373.
Further details about FC can be found for example in Robert W. Kembel, "The Fibre Channel Consultant—A Comprehensive Introduction", 1998.
Connecting a computer or other device to a FC requires specific hardware. FC hardware is usually provided in the form of FC adapter cards which are plugged in existing input/output (I/O) hardware such as PCI/PCI-X/PCI-Express slots of a computer system. Every FC adapter contains at least one N_Port, a FC hardware entity which performs the actual data communication over the FC link.
An N_Port is identifiable by a unique Worldwide Port Name (WWPN) implemented as a 64-bit value. This WWPN is normally assigned at manufacturing time of the FC hardware, but may also be assigned by other means, provided that the port name can be guaranteed to be unique worldwide. An N_Port can act as an originator or a responder.
FC connections may be implemented as a point-to-point link, or an arbitrated loop or a switching network, called a fabric.
A FC fabric is an interconnection network that allows multiple N_Ports to intercommunicate. The entry/exit ports on a fabric are called F_Ports, and each N_Port has to connect to one F_Port. The fabric allows each connected N_Port to communicate with any other N_Port that is attached to the fabric.
The FC fabric assigns to each attached N_Port an identifier, which is an address by which an N_Port is uniquely known for the fabric. Since the N_Port identifier is a 24-bit value, a FC fabric can support up to 16.7 million N_Ports. The N_Port identifier consists of a Domain (most significant byte), an Area, and a Port, each 1 byte long. The N_Port identifier is used in the Source Identifier (S_ID) and Destination Identifier (D_ID) fields of the header of a FC frame.
Initiating communications in a fabric requires a multistage login process in which communications are first established between an N-port and an F-port in the fabric and then with the destination N-port. In the first step, the fabric login of the N_Port establishes the classes of service to be used within the fabric and other communications parameters including flow control information. After the fabric login of the N_Port completes, the initiating and recipient N-ports in the network establish communications with each other through a second login process called node login. Several communication parameters are exchanged and the transmission starts. As FC can be used to connect systems with multiple types of internal resources and processes within, an additional login called a process login is used. For example, the process login is used to select parameters related to an ULP supported by processes within two communicating N_Ports.
The vast majority of today's FC adapters provide one N_Port only. In a computer executing multiple operating system (OS) instances, the problem occurs how to share such an N_Port among these instances. Such sharing would be advantageous to minimize the number of FC adapters, to reduce cost and to maximize adapter utilization, especially for large scale virtualisation environments. The problem exists even when using FC adapters providing multiple N_Ports since the number of processes needing to be supported often exceeds the number of N_Ports provided by the FC adapters.
The capability to execute multiple OS instances is usually provided by a software layer called (execution) hypervisor that encapsulates the underlying hardware and provides virtual hardware interfaces either for the underlying hardware or for different hardware architectures. For example, a hypervisor can be part of the firmware of a computer system, it can be part of an operating system, or it can be a regular program running as a process within an OS instance. The work of the hypervisor is often supported by additional hardware features, for example special processor instructions or firmware layers.
Some hypervisors can effectively create multiple virtual images of a computer system, giving an OS instance executing in such a virtual computer system almost the illusion as if it was running exclusively on the real server. These OS instances access real I/O entities (like adapters) via I/O ports, which can be defined and assigned to a virtual computer system in a configuration step. An OS instance may only perform I/O operations using I/O ports assigned to the particular virtual server on which it is running.
The U.S. patent applications No. 2003/0200247A0 and No. 2004/0025166A1 describe a method for the concurrent sharing of a FC adapter among multiple OS instances in a computer system. However, this sharing capability has various deficiencies caused by the fact that the same N_Port identifier is used for all FC frames sent from or destined to a particular FC adapter. Consequently this N_Port identifier cannot be used to distinguish multiple OS instances: All of the frames seem to come from the same initiator, and responses are accordingly sent back to the same address. The solution proposed in the above patent applications is to intercept, analyse, and modify the FC frame traffic between the multiple OS instances and the physical N_Port.
A major disadvantage is that this solution is host-based, which means that the approach needs to be performed on a host computer system that is attached to a FC fabric. Since FC is a technology used mainly for Storage Area Networks (SAN), and the usual method for access control in the SAN and its attached storage devices is managed by the SAN itself (using databases stored in the fabric), this adds additional complexity to the SAN management and administration.
Another disadvantage is that it is not possible to initiate a FC transaction to a particular OS instance from outside of the computer system executing the multiple OS instances. This limitation is caused by the need for the unequivocal response identifier that gets added to the frame header when it gets intercepted. There is only one response identifier to be used for frames that will be sent to a particular OS instance. Without being able to identify the specific OS instance, any incoming frame has to be forwarded to every OS instance. An OS instance needs to decide then if it will accept and process the frame.
Other deficiencies that exist in such a shared adapter environment are related to ULPs such as FCP; for example, SCSI reservations do not work properly, correct SCSI status and sense data handling cannot be guaranteed, SCSI task management functions do not work properly, and vendor-unique SCSI commands might not work at all.
SAN access control for the connected storage controllers of a fabric is typically implemented by methods like zoning and SCSI Logical Unit (LUN) masking. Zoning and LUN masking rely on WWPNs to identify users of controlled assets. Using a LUN and FCP as the ULP, a FC host can address multiple peripheral devices that may share a common controller. Zoning allows partitioning the N_Ports of a fabric into N_Port groups, called zones. The N_Port within a zone can only communicate with other N_Ports in the same zone.
One way to solve the FC adapter sharing problem was disclosed in the U.S. patent application No. 2003/0103504A1 and later on incorporated in the INCITS/ANSI FC Framing and Signalling (FC-FS) standard 1.6, which describes how a fabric needs to handle N_Port identifier virtualisation. The application describes a method to obtain multiple N_Port identifiers (N_Port IDs) for a single physical N_Port.
In order to obtain an N_Port identifier, the N_Port first logs in with the fabric by sending a "Fabric Login" (FLOGI) extended link service (ELS) command (a special link control frame) to the attached F_Port. In this step additional service parameters will be transferred, and the first N_Port identifier is assigned. After FLOGI is complete, the fabric prepares itself to assign additional N_Port identifiers. In order to obtain another N_Port identifier, the N_Port sends a "Fabric Discover" (FDISC) ELS command using an S_ID of zero. The FDISC ELS is used instead of additional FLOGI commands to avoid disruption of the operating environment. When the N_Port sends the FDISC ELS to the fabric, it provides the following functions:                1. It provides the means for the physical N_Port to transfer a WWPN to the fabric.        2. It provides a signal to the fabric to validate and assign an additional N_Port identifier for the physical N_Port, and allows both the fabric and the physical N_Port to begin normal frame reception and transmission using the new N_Port identifier.        3. It provides a signal which causes the fabric to update databases maintained within the fabric.
When the new N_Port ID has been assigned, the physical N_Port can associate the new N_Port ID with a virtual adapter, which is an entity behind the physical N_Port that generates and receives frames using the new N_Port ID on behalf of an OS instance. Therefore, multiple virtual adapters can be associated with a physical adapter and its N_Port, where each virtual adapter uses a unique N_Port ID.
The assignment of new N_Port IDs requires the availability of unique WWPNs and means for the automatic and persistent assignment of these WWPNs to virtual adapters, where persistent can mean surviving e.g. a reboot of an OS instance, a power-off/power-on cycle of the computer system, or a reboot of a FC adapter. In large scale computer centres with complex SAN installations it can become therefore a very complex task to ensure that every WWPN in use is really unique.

Method for managing virtual instances of a physical port attached to a network

International Business Machines Corporation


Spectrometric methodology for non-invasively obtaining optical spectra from heterogeneous material for the identification and quantification of constituent compounds. There is provided a transient or steady state subsurface thermal gradient spectroscopic methodology for obtaining in vivo optical spectra relating to the concentration of .eta. analytes at depths to around 330 microns in human tissue, and for determining that concentration from the spectra. The methodology is employable on a wide variety of spectrometric devices, and enables: a real time determination of both surface and reference intensities; a fast, efficient calibration of the spectrometric device; and results in the provision of an analytical parameter which avoids the measurement of the optical path length to enable the extremely accurate calculation of a ratio of concentrations of .eta. analytes in the system under analysis.

Infrared spectrometry is an accepted and widely practiced technique for identification and quantification of compounds. The most common method of spectrometric analysis utilizes a transmission spectra. In traditional transmission spectrometry, an analysis beam of infrared light is passed through the substance being analyzed. The sample substance absorbs light in varying amounts at different wavelengths producing a transmission spectra which is a graph of the energy passed through the sample vs. wavelength. It will be appreciated that the use of transmission spectrometry generally requires that the substance being analyzed be contained in a "cell" which is placed inside the instrument for scanning. The analysis beam enters one side of the cell and exits the other. This is clearly an in-vitro technique, and is not suitable for non-invasive measurements.
In another common spectrometric technique the phenomena of Attenuated Total Internal Reflection (ATIR) is used. In this technique the sample is deposited on a plate fabricated of infrared transmissive material. The analysis beam is reflected off of this plate and back into the analyzer. At the point of reflection a portion of the analysis beam (evanescence wave) actually travels through the plate and interacts with the sample, then this portion of the beam returns to the analyzer along with the other reflected beam. A 1000 cm-1 infrared ATIR beam typically penetrates 10 microns into the sample under study. This technique, although potentially non-invasive, is not suitable for studying the composition of deeper layers of a material.
Transmission mode measurements are ideal for gasses which transmit a large percentage of incident energy and can be easily contained in a cell. Solids and liquids are traditionally measured by using either very thin transmission mode samples or the ATIR technique. The transmission mode technique has severe limitations if the substance being measured is very dense in the wavelength region of interest. For instance if one was analyzing glucose dissolved in water or human blood the 9 to 10 micron wavelength region would be ideal however the incident analysis beam would be totally absorbed with less than 200 microns of path length. Maintaining a sample of such thin proportions is difficult. In such a case of high absorption, the ATIR technique might be useful, however, in that technique the analysis beam is only probing the surface of the substance being analyzed. The technique is useful only if the properties being measured exist at the surface of the sample.
Transmission and ATIR mode analyses are very useful in the laboratory: however if one wishes to measure something in-vivo, such as glucose in blood where even the most peripheral capillaries are covered by a typical minimum of 40 microns of epithelial tissue, clearly neither technique is adequate.
To enable in-vivo measurement of various analytes, infrared detection has been introduced in several applications. Infrared detection techniques are widely used for the calculation of oxygen saturation and the concentration of other blood constituents. For example, non-invasive pulse oximeters have been used to measure absorption signals at two or more visible and/or near infrared wavelengths and to process the collected data to obtain composite pulsatile flow data of a person's blood. Sample pulse oximeters of this type are described by Corenman et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,372; by Edgar, Jr. et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,080; and by Zelin in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,752.
Infrared detection techniques have also been used to calculate the concentrations of constituents such as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide in the expired airstream of a patient. For example, Yelderman et al. describe in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,081,998 and 5,095,913 techniques for using infrared light to non-invasively measure the absolute concentrations of the constituents of the respiratory airstream of a patient by placing an infrared transmission/detection device on the artificial airway of the patient. These infrared detection techniques and those described above have proven to be quite accurate in the determination of arterial blood oxygen saturation, the patient's pulse, and the concentrations of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and other respiratory constituents.
Spectrophotometric methods have also been used to non-invasively monitor the oxidative metabolism of body organs in vivo using measuring and reference wavelengths in the near infrared region. For example, Jobsis describes in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,223,680 and 4,281,645 a technique in which infrared wavelengths in the range of 700-1300 nm are used to monitor oxygen sufficiency in an organ such as the brain or heart of a living human or animal. In addition, Wilber describes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,290 a technique in which visible and near infrared light emitting diodes and detection circuitry are used to non-invasively measure changes in blood thickness of predetermined blood constituents relative to total change in blood thickness at a test area so as to determine the concentration of such constituents in the blood. Such constituents include hemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin, and the measured concentrations are used to determine the oxygen saturation of the blood. Wilber further suggests at columns 11-12 that such techniques may be extended to the measurement of glucose in the bloodstream; however, Wilber does not tell how to make such measurements, what wavelengths of energy to use, or the form of the mathematics necessary for the calculation of glucose concentration.
Long wavelength spectroscopic glucose monitoring techniques using infrared light are presently believed to be the most accurate and are the subject of the present application. Unlike the non-invasive oxygen saturation measurement techniques described above, prior art spectroscopic glucose monitoring techniques have typically used extra-corporeal "flow through" cells that allow continuous measurements using infrared light. Indeed, attenuated total internal reflection (ATIR) cells have been employed in the long wavelength infrared to measure the glucose content of extracted blood samples. However, as previously discussed, such techniques require samples of blood to be taken from the person and are thus undesirable for widespread consumer use.
Laser Raman Spectroscopy is another spectroscopic technique which uses a visible spectrum range stimulus and the visible red spectrum for measurement. As with ATIR cells, extra-corporeal blood is also used with Raman Technology. The Raman technique is based upon the principle that if excited with a specific wavelength certain constituents will re-emit optical energy at composition dependent specific wavelengths. Over the entire visible spectrum range whole blood has a high degree of absorption.
Another class of spectroscopic technique is described by Barnes in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,874. According to this technique, often referred to as non-invasive near infrared spectroscopy, light is passed though a finger or suitable appendage and monitored upon exit for measuring glucose levels in vivo. Unfortunately, this technique suffers from two sources of inaccuracy: tissue interference and lack of specificity. Moreover, while the near infrared wavelengths used are easily and economically generated by light emitting diodes (LEDs) and solid state lasers, and easily transmitted through human tissue, they are not in a range specifically absorbed by glucose. This lack of "fingerprint" absorbance and interference from tissue pigment and condition render the technique unsuitable for accurate concentration determination but possibly acceptable for trending if stability can be maintained.
In an attempt to overcome the limitations of near infrared wavelengths Kaiser describes in Swiss Patent No. 612,271 a technique in which a high power infrared laser is used as the radiation source for measuring glucose concentration in a measuring cell. The measuring cell consists of an ATIR measuring prism which is wetted by the person's blood and an ATIR reference prism which is wetted with a comparison solution. CO.sub.2 laser radiation, typically at 10.5 microns wavelength, is led through the measuring cell and gathered before striking a signal processing device. A chopper placed before the measuring cell allows two voltages to be obtained corresponding to the signal from the sample and the reference prisms.
Due to absorption corresponding to the concentration of the substance measured in the blood, the difference between the resulting voltages is proportional to the concentration. Unfortunately, the infrared laser used by Kaiser needs to be very powerful to get the 10.5 micron energy to pass through the blood and has the undesirable side effect of heating the blood, which may be harmful to the person if the blood were returned to the body. Although Kaiser suggests that over heating the blood may be prevented by using extra-corporeal cuvettes of venous blood and high blood flow rates, Kaiser does not describe a non-invasive technique for measuring glucose concentration.
March in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,560 describes a "non invasive" automatic glucose sensor system which senses the rotation of polarized near infrared light which has passed through the cornea of the eye. March's glucose sensor fits over the eyeball between the eyelid and the cornea and measures glucose as a function of the amount of radiation detected at the detector on one side of the person's cornea. Unfortunately, while such a technique does not require the withdrawal of blood and is thus "non-invasive", the sensor may cause considerable discomfort to the person because of the need to place it on the person's eye. A more accurate and less intrusive system is desired.
Hutchinson describes in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,230 a personal glucose monitor which also uses polarized near infrared light to non-invasively detect glucose concentrations in the person's bloodstream. The amount of rotation imparted on the polarized light beam is measured as it passes through a vascularized portion of the body for measuring the glucose concentration in that portion of the body. Although the monitor described by Hutchinson need not be mounted on the person's eye, the accuracy of the measurement is limited by the relatively minimal and non specific absorption of glucose in the 940-1000 nm range, dictated by the requirement of polarization, used by Hutchinson.
Mendelson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,023 also found that wavelengths in the near infrared range are useful for non-invasively measuring the concentration of an analyte such as glucose using pulsatile photoplethysmography. In particular, Mendelson et al. describes a glucose measuring instrument which uses the principles of transmission and reflection photoplethysmography, whereby glucose measurement is made by analyzing either the differences or the ratio of two different near infrared radiation sources that are either transmitted through an appendage or reflected from a tissue surface before and after blood volume change occurs in the systolic and diastolic phases of the cardiac cycle. The technique of photoplethysmography can thus be used to adjust the light intensity to account for errors introduced by excessive tissue absorptions. However, despite the assertions by Mendelson et al., the wavelengths in the near infrared (below 2500 nm) are not strongly absorbed by glucose yet are susceptible to interference from other compounds in the blood and thus cannot yield sufficiently accurate measurements.
Rosenthal et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,787 disclose a non-invasive blood glucose monitor which also uses infrared energy in the near infrared range (600-1100 nm) to measure glucose. However, as with the above-mentioned devices, these wavelengths are not in the primary absorption range of glucose and, accordingly, the absorption at these wavelengths is relatively weak. A more accurate glucose measuring technique which monitors glucose absorption in its primary absorption range is desirable.
As with other molecules, glucose more readily absorbs infrared light at certain frequencies because of the characteristic and essential infrared absorption wavelengths of its covalent bonds. For example, as described by Hendrickson et al. in Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Chapter 7. Section 7-5, pages 256-264, C--C, C--N, C--O and other single carbon-hydrogen bonds have characteristic absorption wavelengths in the 6.5-15 micron range. Due to the presence of such bonds in glucose, infrared absorption by glucose is particularly distinctive in the far infrared. Despite these characteristics, few have suggested measuring glucose concentration in the middle to far infrared range, likely due to the strong tissue absorption that would attenuate signals in that range.
In one known example of such teachings, Mueller describes in WO 81/00622 a method and device for determining the concentration of metabolites in blood using spectroscopic techniques for wavelengths in the far infrared range. In particular, Mueller teaches the feasibility of measuring glucose in extra-corporeal blood samples using a 9.1 .mu.m absorption wavelength and a 10.5 .mu.m reference wavelength for stabilizing the absorption reading. However, Mueller does not describe how such wavelengths may be used in vivo to measure glucose concentration non-invasively while overcoming the above-mentioned tissue absorption problems. Without overcoming the large absorption by tissue in the 9 to 10 micron wavelength range, typically 90% absorption within about 30 microns of optical path in human tissue, high power infrared energy must be incident on the measurement site which can cause tissue damage and discomfort.
On the other hand, infrared emissions of bodies have been used to determine the absolute temperatures of those bodies. For example, some of the present inventors disclose a tympanic thermometer in U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,936 which measures the absolute temperature of a person from the sum total of all infrared energy emissions from the person's tympanic membrane. However, such broadband infrared energy emissions have not been used to perform constituent composition and concentration analysis.
Another prior art device developed by some of the inventors of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,941 by Braig et al. In this device high intensity infrared energy of the optimal wavelength, 3 to 12 microns is passed through the finger to make a transmission mode measurement. This device requires high incident energy levels to overcome the high absorbance of tissue in this wavelength band. In this device the energy is pulsed at very low duty cycles to avoid overheating the skin.
McClelland in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,242; 5,075,552; and 5,191,215 describes a method for applying a cooling medium to cool a thin surface layer portion of the material and to transiently generate a temperature differential between the thin surface layer portion and the lower portion of the material sufficient to alter the thermal infrared emission spectrum of the body from the black-body thermal infrared emission of the material. The altered thermal emission spectrum is detected while the emission spectrum is sufficiently free of self-absorption by the material of the emitted infrared radiation. The detection is effected prior to the temperature differential propagating into the lower portion of the material to an extent such that the altered thermal infrared emission spectrum is no longer sufficiently free of self-absorption by the material of emitted infrared radiation. By such detection, the detected altered thermal infrared emission spectrum is indicative of the characteristics relating to the molecular composition of the homogenous material.
Transient thermal emission spectrometry, for instance as taught by McClelland in U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,552; and by Imhof, (SPIE Vol. 2329), is useful for the analysis of surface layer composition. Such spectrometry has also been applied to in-vivo skin research. Heat (in the form of radiation or hot gas) is applied to a surface and an emission spectrum is measured that contains spectral information about molecular composition of several conventional transmission spectrum. Spectra of respectable quality have been obtained by this methodology. Further, depth profiling has been carried out by time-resolved use of a laser at different wavelengths and different thermal penetration depths as a function of time. Radiation intensity is absorbed exponentially with depth leaving much more energy in the surface layers. A significant fraction of the absorbed energy is emitted from that surface layer without being "self-absorbed" again. It is this phenomenon of emission emanating largely from the immediate surface layer, that limits the usefulness of the emission technology to the top surface. This is because these emissions contain only specific spectral content of the top surface layer. Analysis of the deeper layers is also hampered by this, and a second effect: Specific emissions from deeper layers are self-absorbed by the top layers of material closer to the surface and are thereby largely converted to a non-specific blackbody emission. Thus, transient thermal emission spectrometry may be useful for top surface analysis but offers less potential for subsurface layer compositional analysis.
A possible solution to the shortcomings of previous transient thermal emission spectroscopic methodologies as used for subsurface layer compositional analysis lies in the fact that a natural thermal gradient exists across human skin between the body's core temperature of close to 37.degree. C. and the skin surface temperature. Skin temperature is largely determined by skin capillary perfusion and temperature of the extraneous material in contact with the skin, e.g. air, fabric, solid material. The natural gradient is however small, sometimes no more than 1 degree Celsius per millimeter. However it can be substantially enlarged transiently or steady-state by the application of heat to the skin followed prior to or simultaneous to efficient heat withdrawal.
For analysis of the composition of subsurface layers, such as human skin for example, there are several advantages to using transmission spectrometry rather than emission spectrometry. In contrast to thermal emission spectrometry, in thermal gradient transmission spectrometry (whether transient or steady-state), the contribution of the immediate top surface layer to the overall transmission spectrum is relatively small because 1) it is the coldest layer and therefore contributes the smallest amount of blackbody radiation of all layers, 2) it is too thin to provide sufficient optical depth in many cases and 3) it's absorptive characteristics are not necessarily larger than those of deeper layers. Transient thermal transmission spectrometry has also been described by McClelland (No. 5,070,242), and by some of the inventors of the present invention in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/544,267. This technique holds significant promise for the accurate, non-invasive measurement of in-vivo physiological constituents, if certain problems inherent in the interpretation of raw radiometric data provided thereby can be overcome. Further, the technique may be useful for other non-invasive metrologies, including but not necessarily limited to the measurement of materials through packages, e.g. food packages, and the measurement of blood pH.
To put these problems into perspective, it should be noted that thermal gradient spectrometry is similar in concept to conventional un-referenced single beam transmittance spectrometry with a simultaneous continually dimming light source and variable cuvette depth. From these facts, it is clear that several major problems exist in the interpretation of the raw radiometric data from an infrared source.
At any wavelength the total infrared emission I.sub.t reaching a detector, for instance the detector of an infrared spectrometer, can be defined as: EQU I.sub.t =I.sub.i +I.sub.r +I.sub.s +(I.sub.o *T),
where
I.sub.i is the instrument background emission intensity, PA1 I.sub.r is the reflected emission, PA1 I.sub.s is the surface emission, PA1 I.sub.o is the reference intensity, PA1 T is the transmittance, generally defined as the ratio I/I.sub.o. PA1 c is the concentration of a constituent, such as glucose; and PA1 L is the optical path length.
and
The problems of I.sub.o and I.sub.s
One major problem in the interpretation of transient or steady-state thermal gradient subsurface spectrometric data is in the determination of the Reference Intensity I.sub.o. If one approximates the material to be analyzed as consisting of layers of equal or variable composition, then I.sub.o is the total integrated emission from all the deep layers before modification by absorption in each individual layer. The reference intensity is produced while the thermal gradient exists, and is radiated out of the material under analysis, then convoluted with the instrument response function without the self-absorption effect of the cooler surface layer and without emission from the surface. In conventional spectrometry I.sub.o is simplified as just the energy source intensity and approximated by a separate measurement. In transient or steady-state thermal gradient spectrometry the integral parts of I.sub.o are the effective emission intensity, as well as the blackbody and specific spectral emissions coming from the deeper layers of the material during the thermal gradient.
Further, there is a surface emission I.sub.s, directly from the surface of the material under analysis. It consists of both blackbody and spectral emissions. A theoretically separate component from the surface is reflected emission I.sub.r. Surface emission is not part of I.sub.o ; that is to say that it has not gone through the colder absorptive layer, and therefore it is not modified by self-absorption. Although surface emission is variable in intensity during the gradient as the surface is being cooled, it is possible to define an effective surface temperature during a time element.
The quality of I.sub.o and I.sub.s measurements are as important as the quality of the sample intensity I measurements in determining the analytical accuracy of the constituent of interest. As the thermal gradient progresses to the deeper layers, the intensity and wavelengths of the emission peak of the initial blackbody radiation are dynamically changing. These layers are not only cooled in the process but their radiative emission is both substantially decreased and shifted to longer wavelengths. For non-intrusive in-vivo measurements, the actual effective temperature is inaccessible to physical measurements with a temperature probe. Nonetheless, it is necessary to know the effective deep layer emission or equivalent deep temperature because it is needed to calculate the effective deep, or reference intensity I.sub.o.
Transmittance is generally defined as the ratio T=I/I.sub.o. Accordingly, the quality of the I.sub.o measurement or semi-empirical determination yields the resolution and accuracy of the resulting analytical constituent calculation. In addition to the emission from the material of interest there is the emission intensity I.sub.i from instrument components. Since I.sub.t =I.sub.i +I.sub.r +I.sub.s +(I.sub.o *T), it becomes apparent that transmittance can only be calculated properly after the intensities emitted from the surface and from instrument components have been determined and subtracted.
By taking the ratio of I.sub.t /I.sub.o, with I.sub.o being the result of an approximate determination, it is relatively easy to obtain an approximate transmittance spectrum that may be sufficiently accurate for less demanding applications, such as taught by McClelland No. 5,070,242. In fact for many applications, such as simple mixtures of relatively few components present in large relative amounts such a simple treatment may be perfectly satisfactory. With more critical metrology however, the use of this approximation leads to erroneous results. This is particularly true in applications with samples having relatively many components and which contain small amounts of one or more components that need to be measured accurately, such as clinical determinations of glucose or alcohol concentrations in body fluid. It is also true in applications that require larger percentages of components to be measured very accurately. Mathematically and physically, the problem lies in an incomplete elimination of all interfering emissions that originated either from any surface and/or from the deeper layers of the material during the thermal gradient.
The simplistic approach of taking a ratio will, by definition, give an exact transmittance spectrum only when all components that contribute to I.sub.t are exactly accounted for. This can only occur if and when the individual components can be determined independently from the superposition of the relative contributions from blackbody radiation and the emission/absorption depth dependent information. In conventional spectrometry the problem of sufficiently exact measurement of I.sub.o and I.sub.t was largely solved when dual beam and/or highly stabilized energy source and detector systems were invented. A major limitation to accuracy improvements in conventional spectrometry is the fact that the reference measurement cannot be taken from the actual measurement energy while the measurement is taken without disturbing the measurement itself.
Neither the experimentally calculated deep emission nor the calculated surface emission are truly blackbody radiations, but rather are essentially blackbody radiations with specific spectral emission components superimposed onto them. It is appropriate, however, to treat them as blackbodies because the specific components are exactly the mirror images of the transmittance spectra of any layer of the material being analyzed. These spectral emission components are small in comparison to the effective absorption components induced by cooling and simply reduce the magnitude of the final transmission spectra without distorting them.
Several approximations for I.sub.o may be useful in spectrometry less critical than in-vivo titer analysis. These include, but are not necessarily limited to:
1) The utilization of a reference scan that is taken in a timely manner before the surface is cooled while the thermal infrared emission spectrum is substantially free of self-absorption, as taught by McClelland in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,242.
2) Alternatively, one may try to experimentally approximate the deeper layer gradient temperature emission by measuring the sample at different temperatures without a thermal gradient and subsequently use the one scan that gives the best approximation as judged from the results.
3) As a further alternative, one can physically measure the surface temperature and the core temperature of the material, and thereafter derive an effective deeper layer radiation intensity by interpolation from the gradient temperature-depth profile. These temperatures can be converted to intensities by applying Planck's function.
What is really required however to enable the use of thermal gradient spectrometry as an accurate diagnostic technology is a novel method that reveals the effective I.sub.o more accurately than any of the preceding approximations.
Because the prior art does not teach an accurate measurement methodology for I.sub.o, or even the importance thereof, the work of others does not, in general, teach:
1) how to use wavelength ranges in a semi-empirical fashion such that the effective deeper gradient layer emission intensity and blackbody-equivalent emission temperature can be derived and can subsequently be used as the reference or standard intensity I.sub.o in the calculation algorithm for transmittance;
2) the importance, determination and elimination of the effects caused by variable contribution of surface emission in the determination and spectral calibration for 0% transmittance;
3) the separation of deep layer radiation and surface emission; nor
4) the utilization of wavelength ranges for the best possible spectral calibration for 100% transmittance calculation.
The Problems of Calibration and Instrument Drift
All radiometers, including spectrometers, require calibration. Further, instrument settings can change over time, resulting in an error-inducing "drift". These facts are especially significant in transient thermal gradient transmission spectrometry, where a single "reading" is actually a continuous series of readings which result in a whole value. Ideally, a radiometer should be calibrated between individual measurements, and any drift corrected for. Since a single transient thermal gradient transmission spectrometric reading is an event measured in fractions of a second, and composes a number of individual measurements, a means for calibrating the instrument in near real time will render substantial improvements in instrument accuracy over previous thermal gradient transmission spectrometric methodologies. Similarly, a methodology for compensating, again in near real time, for any instrument drift which accumulates will significantly improve the accuracy of previous efforts at thermal gradient spectrometric constituent analysis.
The Optical Path Length Problem
Another major problem not contemplated by the prior art in the interpretation of transient or steady-state thermal gradient spectrometric data is in the determination of the optical path length. In conventional terms optical path length is equivalent to the cuvette dimension through which the light beam is traveling. In thermal gradient spectrometry there is no strictly defined cuvette thickness. In fact, effective cuvette thickness increases continually as the thermal gradient develops. The useful range though, is only a few optical depths, defined as the distance after which any intensity is reduced to 1/e by absorption. The equivalent in conventional terms would be a cuvette that increased in dimension while the measurement is being taken. According to Beer's law, which can be applied as the simplest case, ##EQU1## where: .beta. is the absorption coefficient;
It is immediately apparent, using this classical application of Beer's Law, that the concentration C cannot be determined if the path-length L is unknown. A methodology which allows the determination of a parameter whereby the concentration c of an analyte can be ascertained without the necessity for making an explicit determination of path-length L would finally enable transient thermal gradient spectrometry as a precision measure of such concentrations.
Summarizing the preceding discussion, thermal gradient spectrometry (either transiently or steady-state) holds promise as a methodology for obtaining in vivo optical spectra relating to the concentrations of analytes at depths to around 100-200 microns, and for determining those concentrations from the spectra. To fulfill this promise certain problems must be overcome and certain relationships defined. None of these solutions, unfortunately are taught or suggested by the cited reference. Specifically, what is required is:
a. Explicit, real time determination of I.sub.o and I.sub.s.
b. Fast, efficient calibration of infrared spectrometer.
c. A relationship like the Beer-Lambert Law between light intensity and analyte concentration which is operative for thermal gradient spectrometry (TGS).
d. Determination of a parameter which avoids having to measure path length explicitly.
e. A means for determining a ratio of the concentrations of .eta. analytes within a solution of analytes.
A technique for the non invasive measurement of physiological constituents, specifically glucose, must address the problems that tissue is heterogeneous in composition with the tissue layers containing the physiological concentration of interest laying 20-150 microns below the surface. Furthermore, the technique must assure a safe and effective measurement that will not cause temporary or permanent damage to the surface or underlying tissues in the measurement site nor cause discomfort to the human subject. The technique must also overcome the potential problem that glucose and other physiological constituents are present in combination with a number of other similar molecules and must be distinguished for accurate quantification. Ideally such a technique would not require a high power source of infrared energy so that a device could be made portable and lightweight.

Subsurface thermal gradient spectrometry


An engine starting system and technique for transitioning from an electric drive mode to a hybrid drive made in a hybrid electric vehicle is disclosed. In an electric drive mode the torque demand of the hybrid electric vehicle is met by an electromechanical device. The starting technique includes slipping a clutch between the engine and electromechanical device with the vehicle in the electric drive mode to rotate the engine, disengaging the clutch so that the engine is fueled to obtain a speed that approximates a speed of the electromechanical device, and engaging the clutch to couple the engine and the electromechanical device to the drive shaft to meet driver torque demand.

Hybrid electric vehicles supplement the internal combustion engine power with one or more electric machines and selectively allocate demanded power to the engine and the electric machines during a drive cycle. These arrangements improve fuel economy and reduce emissions as compared to conventional power systems that solely rely on an internal combustion engine as a power source. The ability to maximize these benefits is a function of the allocation of the power split between the engine and the electric machines utilized to meet driver torque demand. For example, hybrid electric vehicles allow the engine to be shut down when the electric machines and stored energy are capable of meeting driver torque demand, and the engine can be automatically restarted when the available stored energy and/or torque demand requires operation of the engine. Hybrid electric vehicles also allow regenerative energy to be captured and stored or utilized immediately to power the electric machines to drive the vehicle. Furthermore, the engine and electric machines can be controlled to operate at points of highest efficiency during a drive cycle to minimize the use of fuel while meeting output torque requirements.
One problem encountered during a drive cycle of a hybrid electric vehicle involves transitioning from an electric drive mode in which driver torque demand is met solely by the electric machines to a hybrid drive mode in which driver torque demand is met by both the engine and the electric machines. While the electric machines can be employed to start the engine during this transition, the driver can feel a reduced torque at the wheels as torque from the electric machines is allocated to start the engine, or if the transmission is disengaged or slipped relative to the electric machines during engine starting. If the torque from the electric machines remains engaged to the drive wheels during starting of the engine, the driver may feel an increased torque at the wheels as the engine speed increases to meet the speed of the electric machines. Also, the vehicle can jerk during transition from the electric drive mode to the hybrid drive mode, which can be unsettling for the driver and impart undesirable loading to the drive train components. While various solutions have been proposed to address this problem, there remains a need for further technological advancements in this area.

Engine start systems and technique for hybrid electric vehicles


Disclosed herein is a continuous hinge. The continuous hinge comprises a first hinge portion comprising a first plurality of knuckles; and a second hinge portion opposing the first hinge portion and comprising a second plurality of knuckles. The second plurality of knuckles is interdigitated with the first plurality of knuckles and pivotally coupled to the first plurality of knuckles. Each knuckle is a separate piece.

Continuous hinges, for example of the type disclosed in GB2516093, are known. Continuous hinges are elongate, with interdigitated knuckles that run the full length of the hinge. Continuous hinges are robust, and are therefore of particular use in high-security environments. Additionally, because there are no gaps between adjacent knuckles, continuous hinges do not to include anchor points upon which clothing or body parts could become snagged, or around which a rope or cable could be secured to create a ligature. Continuous hinges are therefore also of particular use in environments in which users may be vulnerable.
However, the manufacture of continuous hinges, such as the continuous hinge disclosed in GB2516093, can be expensive, wasteful, and environmentally damaging. This is particularly the case where continuous hinges are constructed from materials that confer robustness, such as metal.
There is demand for a continuous hinge whose construction and manufacture is inexpensive and environmentally considerate, without sacrificing on robustness and safety.


A transponder-equipped ID tag is provided, deriving its power from an incoming interrogating optical signal. The invention relates to a transponder-equipped ID tag that is able to extract power from the incident corresponding interrogation signal and temporarily store it in an internal energy storage device. Optionally, optical transmission is used as either a transmission mode only into the tag or a transmission mode only away from the tag. The inventive optical means of transmission may be combined with either RF transmission into the tag and/or RF transmission away from the tag.

Currently, an active area of technological development is the field of radiofrequency (RF) identification (ID) transponder tags. Designers of these tags envision ubiquitous usage throughout commercial, scientific and military spheres. An oft-cited advantage of RFID tags, when compared to optical barcode tags, is the relaxation of the requirement for establishment of direct line of sight between the transponder tag and its corresponding interrogation device. Another advantage of RFID tags, when compared to optical barcode tags, is the large informational space available on the transponder and the design freedom to include supplementary electronic circuitry on the RFID transponder chip to allow informational processing functions beyond simple reporting of an ID number. A further advantage of prior art RFID technologies is that the need for a power source for the informational processing functions and transmission of signals away from the ID tag is satisfied by deriving energy directly from the incoming RF interrogation signal. Said energy can be stored in an energy accumulation device within the tag to provide for short term functioning of the tag's internal mechanisms and to provide energy for an outgoing signal to the corresponding external interrogation device as described, for example, in prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,774 issued to Schuermann.
The prior art describes simple informational functions resident on ID tags such as the simple reporting of a fixed number, for example as detailed in U.S. Pat No. 5,287,113. More elaborate informational functions resident on ID tags also are known such as encryption, computation, and environmental measurement as shown for example in U.S. Pat Nos. 5,532,686; 5,257,011; 6,078,251; and 6,617,963. Moreover, there is ongoing development of external information processing technology in support of RFID tags in order to better extract economic, scientific and social value from RFID technology. Examples of such external information processing include the development of RFID standardized code formats, database systems, means of allocation of RFID serial numbers and the like. Hence, the informational functions resident on the ID tags are associated with corresponding informational functions external to the tags.
Provision of an RF antenna appropriate for the intended wavelength of the RF interrogation signal is required in order to couple energy from said signal into the internal mechanisms of the RFID tag. The necessity of an antenna adds to the size, packaging complexity and cost of each tag and limits the applicability of RFID tags. Thus, there exists a need for coupling the energy of the interrogating signal into an internal energy storage device of the ID tag, without using an RF antenna, so as to minimize the size, packaging complexity and cost of said ID tag.
In the course of design and manufacture of microelectronic circuits and other microminiature devices, it is common practice to provide, in modular fashion, optionally alternative functions co-localized within the same manufactured product. Means is provided to activate, at the time of manufacture or at some later time, each option alone or in combination. Such modular construction lowers the cost of manufacture by allowing a single assembly process to produce products which serve a broad range of end user applications. A problem associated with conventional RFID tags is the lack of certainty as to which of multiple tags in proximity is actually responsive to an input signal. This lack of assurance requires human inspection to confirm tag identity. Several attempts have been made to provide a confirmatory visual signal on an activated RFID tag. Nonetheless, the broadcast nature of radiofrequency signals inevitably suffers from a lack of discrete focus. There exists a need for transponder-equipped ID tags which are manufactured with more than one means of transmission to be optionally activated, alone or in combination, at the time of manufacture or at some later time.

Optical transponder containing identification tag


A method and apparatus for generating and distributing program code written initially in terms of a virtual processor (at authoring suite 10-18) and then translated (24) to the native code of a target processor (26) system. In order to improve efficiency, the virtual machine code includes pseudo-instruction generated and inserted in the code stream by the compiler stage (18) of the authoring suite. These pseudo-instruction are not translated to the native code of the target processor but instead provide guidance other than selection of registers for the operation of the translation process (24) to improve its efficiency.

The present invention relates to methods for encoding and decoding program code according to a first data format for use by apparatuses supporting modified versions of that format, and also to a receiver or decoder apparatus employing such methods.
Such methods may be used to provide a common format for the transmission and exchange of data (for example audio and video data and/or programming commands) between the products of different manufacturers, or between products supporting differing formats but having such a common format defining a basic level of shared functionalities. The common format data is in the form of program code written for an imaginary processor which is then translated into the native code of the processor it is to finally run on in the target or receiving apparatus.
Titles written according to the common data format will include both an application program and data for use by that program, with the format specifying the environment in which the application program will run and the form in which the data, including the application program itself, is distributed. The titles themselves will be distribution medium independent, such that the application may be constructed with little or no knowledge of the distribution medium up until a mastering stage where it is committed to a particular one of a number of distribution formats (for example via data network or on optical disc) consistent with the common format. The only cases where knowledge of the distribution medium may be required in advance of the mastering stage is where the application needs to know distribution medium size, data rate or latency.
A title written according to the common format will also be platform independent, which means that it will play on any platform supporting the format. It is independent of platform characteristics such as processor choice or graphics system architecture, although there will be a minimum base level of capabilities specified by the common format standard below which a platform cannot support the common format.
To allow for upgrades and different performance-level models of a manufacturers products, titles written according to the format are scalable which means that they will play on a platform of any level of capability, provided that that platform supports the common format standard. A title must always be capable of running on a player with the base level of capabilities. Where more than base performance is available, then there will often be more application features or a higher level of presentation quality.
Whilst the above techniques allow developers to develop for one platform only and still have their applications run on many platforms, the method of code production does not always result in code that is as fast as the native code on a given platform. This may be due, for example, to differences between the number of registers of the virtual machine and those of the actual machine.

Method and apparatus for improved translation of program data into machine code format


An object oriented framework mechanism provides a straightforward and convenient way to implement metering within an object-oriented computer program for any type of program that needs to be metered. The object metering framework includes core function and extensible function. Core classes and core class relationships define the core function of the framework mechanism. The extensible function is defined by extensible classes that can be extended by a programmer to implement a desired metering environment. The framework provides consistent programmer interfaces over a wide variety of different metering environments, which greatly enhances programmer efficiency and which makes the resultant code much easier to maintain.

The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices that are used in a host of different applications. In the early days of computers, software was bundled with hardware and the two were sold together. However, in more recent times, software became available separate from any hardware, which could then be installed and used on a compatible computer system.
When computer software is "sold", ownership of the software is typically not transferred to the buyer, but the buyer is licensed to use the software subject to certain terms and conditions that are contained in the license agreement that accompanies the software. With the growing popularity of computer networks, many people may now have access to run a particular software program that is available on the network. Some software licenses allow a relatively large number of users, but restrict the number of simultaneous users to a much smaller number. In such an environment, the execution of the software must be monitored to assure that the use of the computer software on the network does not violate the license agreement. Any monitoring of a computer program as it runs is referred to herein as metering.
Other situations also arise that require metering computer software as it runs. One such situation is for benchmarking the performance of a computer program to determine how often the different portions of the program are executed and to measure overall system performance. There are numerous different situations where the metering of a computer program is desirable.
In the past, computers have been programmed with metering software. Metering software has typically been custom-developed according to the specific needs of a particular program that needs to be metered. While the specific metering requirements of different computer programs may differ considerably, many of the metering functions are similar across different programs. However, the differences in prior art metering software has precluded reusing very much metering code from one computer program to the next. Each different computer program typically has its own custom, dedicated way of performing the desired metering that is not easily adapted to any new or different computer program.
With the development of Object Oriented (OO) programming techniques, computer programs consist of a collection of objects that each contain data and associated operations or methods for operating on the data. In an object oriented environment, metering implies measuring certain parameters on objects that have methods that are invoked while a computer program executes. However, even in an OO programming environment, the details of the desired metering function must be programmed to fit a desired metering environment. Without a mechanism that can be readily customized and extended to meter a computer program in a particular metering environment, the time required to program and maintain metering software will be excessively long and expensive.

Object oriented framework mechanism for metering objects

International Business Machines Corporation


To implement a dynamic, elegant motion performance of an actual robot, a motion editing system is provided which includes a motion editor to edit motions of an upper body and whole body of the robot and a foot trajectory editor to create a gait pattern and lower-body motion to stabilize the entire robot. The foot trajectory editor includes the same gait pattern generator and motion stabilized as those installed in the actual robot. Before performing the edited motions on the actual robot, the motions are created, corrected and stabilized on a 3D viewer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a motion editing system and method and a computer program, destined from supporting the motion creation and edition to describe a predetermined motion pattern of a robot, and more particularly to a motion editing system and method and a computer program, for a legged locomotion robot device which conducts various kinds of work.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mechanical apparatus designed based on the electrical and magnetic engineering to mimic human motions is called "robot". The term "robot" is said to have been derived from a Slavic word "ROBOTA (slave machine)". In Japan, the robots have become more widely prevalent at the end of 1960s. Many of such robots were industrial ones such as the manipulators and conveyance robots destined for automation and unmanning of the production operations in factories.
The recent researches and developments of the legged locomotive robots designed to have the physical mechanism and motions of bipedal upright-walking animals such as human beings, monkeys, etc., and it is more and more expected that such legged locomotive robots can be used in the practical applications. The bipedal motion in an upright posture is more unstable and difficult to control in posture and walking than the motions on crawlers, four or six feet. However, the bipedal upright motion is more advantageous in the flexible motion over irregular ground surfaces, irregular access routes on which there exist obstacles, and stepped surfaces such as a stepway or ladder.
Also, the legged locomotive robots designed to implement the biological mechanism and motions of the human being is generally called "humanoid robot". The humanoid robot can support the human activity in the residential environment and other daily life, for example.
Almost all the human working spaces and dwelling spaces are defined for compliance with the body mechanism and behavior of the human being making bipedal upright-walking, and thus have many barriers against the current mechanical systems using wheels or any other driving devices as the moving means. Therefore, to work for the human beings and also for a further acceptability in the human dwelling spaces, the mechanical systems or robots should desirably be able to move in nearly the same range as the human moving range. It is considerably expected just in this respect that the practical applicability of the robots can be attained.
The recent legged locomotion robots have a high capability of information processing. Hence, such a robot itself may be considered as a computer system. In other words, a series of complicated moving sequences comprised of motion patterns performed by a robot or a plurality of fundamental motion patterns in combination, that is, a motion, is formulated for the robot by making similar work to the computer programming.
Therefore, for further prevalence of robots, it is essential to popularize many motion data for operation of the robots. Accordingly it is demanded to build a development environment for edition of robot motions.
Robots will no doubt be used more widely in the industrial field as well as in the general households and daily life. As regards the entertainment robot products among others, choreographers and designers should desirably be able to create motion contents even with no great knowledge of the computer, computer programming and motion control, and common consumers will buy such robots for their amusement. For such common users, there should desirably be provided a supporting tool for creating and editing a sequence of operations for a robot relatively easily and efficiently by an interactive procedure, that is, a motion editing system.
A robot includes a plurality of control points such as joints. Therefore, by making input of a position and speed (joint angle and angular speed) of each of the control points, it is possible to edit a robot motion. In this respect, the edition of robot motions is similar to the creation of an animation of a character in a computer graphic. Naturally, however, an motion in a virtual space is different from a real motion. With only the articulation being changed, the legged locomotion robot cannot be made to perform any user-desired motion. The robot should be able to support itself stably on the feet in making a motion without falling down. In other words, the robot-motion edition should be able to have the robot keep a stable posture in making a motion while making sure that the motion is being positively performed by the robot itself.
Many legged locomotion robots have applied therein ZMP (zero moment point) as a stability criterion. With this technology, a point where the moment is zero is detected inside a support polygon formed between a sole touchdown point and floor or ground surface (cf. "LEGGED LOCOMOTION ROBOTS" by Miomir Vukobratovic). In the case of bipedal legged locomotion robots, since the support polygon is extremely small, it is very difficult to stabilize the posture of the robots.
There is already proposed a motion editing system to edit a robot motion by entering values for the control points of the robot from a monitor screen. However, there is not yet available any robot-motion editing system intended for use to have an actual robot perform an edited motion and which is also capable of checking the posture of the actual robot and correcting the actual-robot motion to stabilize the posture. If the robot cannot keep any stable posture with the edited motion and it cannot perform the edited motion itself, the motion edition is substantially useless.

Motion editing apparatus and method for robot device, and computer program


A method and apparatus is disclosed for aligning an optical instrument with respect to a celestial coordinate system, the optical instrument having a field of view and an optical instrument coordinate system, the celestial coordinate system having a plurality of objects each having celestial coordinates. The method includes the steps of receiving a plurality of captured optical instrument positions in the optical instrument coordinate system along with a plurality of associated capture times; calculating, for each associated capture time in the plurality of associated capture times, coordinates in the optical instrument coordinate system for the plurality of objects to create a plurality of calculated object positions for each associated capture time; and, determining, for each associated capture time, a match for each captured optical instrument position in the plurality of captured optical instrument positions with the plurality of calculated object positions to create a list of actual alignment objects.

The alignment and determination of an initial orientation is critical to the operation of any observation instrument, such as a telescope. Traditionally, a telescope is aligned by a two-star alignment process, where the telescope is aligned to a first star, and then the telescope is aligned to a second star. One of the requirements of the two-star alignment system is that the stars must be known.
There are numerous designs for mounting astronomical telescopes, including equatorial and altitude-azimuth (altazimuth or Alt-Az) mounts. A mount is said to be equatorial if one of its two axes can be made parallel with the Earth's axis of rotation. The equatorial mount includes a rotatable polar shaft (to be made parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation), a stationary support for the polar shaft, a rotatable declination shaft that is secured to the telescope, and a member which is secured to the polar shaft and which rotatably supports the declination shaft. In an equatorial mount configuration, aligning the telescope to the Earth's axis is needed for tracking objects across the sky (either manually or with a motor drive) at high magnifications. The alignment is also needed in order to use setting circles to locate faint or hard-to-find objects.
To achieve alignment, the polar shaft is initially positioned with its axis in the direction of the North Star, and the telescope is initially fixed on a target object (e.g., star, planet or moon), by rotating it on the shaft axes to a certain position. Because of the rotation of the earth, the polar shaft must be slowly rotated in order to hold the telescope fixed on the selected object. Both automatic and manual drive mechanisms have been provided for this purpose. The automatic devices usually include a motor that is secured to the stationary support and is connected to the polar shaft for rotating the polar shaft at sidereal rate.
Although the operation of the equatorial mount is simple in concept (i.e., only one axis has to be rotated to maintain tracking once the telescope is aligned), it has a number of drawbacks. For example, the drive mechanism for the equatorial mount can be a relatively complicated and expensive mechanism that cannot readily be installed by an average amateur astronomer. In addition, as the size of the telescope increases, a rather large diameter gear must be attached to the polar shaft to obtain the necessary torque to turn the polar shaft. Further, it is difficult to make small changes in the rate of rotation to maintain a fix on a planet or the moon with drive mechanisms that do not have variable drive rates.
An Alt-Az mount is a mount in which, with respect to the surface of the Earth, one axis (altitude) is vertical and the other (azimuth) is horizontal. Although both axes must be driven at rates that vary with the position in order to maintain tracking to the target object, a computer can easily handle the variable drive rates. The benefits of the Alt-Az mounting become more important as the telescope becomes larger. For example, rotation about the vertical altitude axis does not change the orientation of the telescope tube with respect to gravity, so that this motion does not change any aspect of the flexure of the support. In effect, an Alt-Az mount is a fork mounting with one of the axes vertical so that the tines have no transverse load at all. The Alt-Az mount obviates the twisting of the fork tines that makes it so difficult to design the declination axle bearings of the equatorially mounted telescope. Longer tines are now practicable and the horizontal elevation (altitude) axis can be nearer the mid-point of the telescope tube.
Regardless of which type of mount is used, it must be aligned in order for any telescope to be setup. For example, for a computerized telescope to be aligned to the sky, it needs at least two alignment stars as reference. For experienced telescope users and astronomers, this is not a problem because they can identify many of the stars in the sky. However, for a beginner, the alignment process can be a big obstacle. A beginner may not be able to locate or identify any of the stars to be able to align the telescope. Thus, a beginner cannot point the telescope to a star and tell the telescope that it is pointed at a particular star. Further, even in conventional alignment systems such as that described by U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,799, entitled "Fully Automated Telescope System with Distributed Intelligence," where the mount may be aligned by being positioned with respect to terrestrial orientations (such as being leveled and pointed in a particular magnetic direction), the user has to know a particular magnetic direction (e.g., North), and level the mount with respect to the horizontal.
A "fully" automated alignment system has been proposed in "Automatic Telescope", filed as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/438,127 on May 14, 2003, and published as U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US2004/0233521, describes an alignment system that does not require the user to interact with the telescope during the alignment process. Specifically, this system describes the use of angular separations between a group of "bright" stars that is chosen by an imager in the telescope as data points to help identify the stars.
As angular separation between stars does not change with the observer's time or location (and hence the time/location does not need to be known), this system has the advantage of not needing an accurate time or location input and also has the advantage of being able to derive the local sidereal time (a relative measurement of time based on the observer's location) once the identification is complete. However, this system anticipates the need to use four stars to generate six unique data points that can then be used to reliably identify the stars from an exemplary field of stars in FIG. 1, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In addition, this system is less accessible to beginning users with small telescopes because the system includes the added cost of an imaging system along with the cost for a processor that can support the processing needed for the images generated by the imaging system as well as the alignment procedure of the align system itself.
Further, certain environments can make locating bright stars difficult with a fully automated system. For example, transient objects like airplanes can confuse the system as the warning strobes on the planes may fool it into identifying the plane as a "bright object." Also, automated systems do not have awareness of—and therefore will not avoid scanning of—obstructed portions of the sky (e.g., portions of the sky blocked by trees, clouds, building, etc.). A particularly problematic situation would be where a user wishes to perform an automated alignment from a location such as the balcony of a high-rise building.
One benefit often touted for automated alignment systems is that they are supposed to make set-up enjoyable and simple for the novice user. Ironically, a fully automated approach reduces the educational aspect of setting up a telescope because, during the setup process performed by these automated systems, it is often not obvious where the telescope is pointing to acquire alignment objects and hence the user would not gain any insight into the night sky. Even if the automated system included an imager, and a display is attached to it so as to display the images captured from the imager, the user still will not gain any sense for where the telescope is actually pointing. For example, if the user is standing at a telescope that is pointing somewhere, it will be difficult for the user to tell which one of the stars in the sky at which the telescope is actually pointing—even if the display is displaying the star and the star's name. Thus, the user would have to go to the telescope and sight along the tube or look through a finderscope.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the issues noted above.

Alignment system for observation instruments


For providing a semiconductor memory device that includes a plurality of cross-point memory cells each having a fine device structure and a high capacitance, a bit line is formed on an insulating substrate, and a word line is disposed above the substrate so as to cross the bit line. A MOS transistor with a vertical structure, whose gate electrode is used as the word line, is provided on the bit line. A MIM (Metal-Insulator-Metal) capacitor is provided on the MOS transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device having cross-point DRAM cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the integration density of DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access Memories) has been increased. As the integration density is increased, a capacitor area is reduced. Therefore, the contents of the memory may be erroneously read out, and data may be also broken by radiation.
In order to eliminate the above problems, capacitors having various structures have been proposed. As one of the structures, a conventional stacked capacitor cell structure is shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 30 denotes a semiconductor substrate; 31, a field oxide film for isolation selectively formed on the substrate surface; 32, a gate oxide film formed on the substrate surface; 33, a gate electrode (word line) of a transfer-gate MOS transistor; and 34, the source/drain regions of the MOS transistor, respectively. The MOS transistor thus isolated is covered with a first insulating film 35. A first contact hole is formed in the first insulating film 35, through which a lower capacitor electrode (storage node electrode) is provided so as to be in contact with on of the source/drain regions 34 of the MOS transistor, and an upper capacitor electrode (cell plate electrode) 38 is disposed above the lower capacitor electrode 36 through an insulating film 37 to provide an MIM (metal-insulator-metal) capacitor, which includes the lower capacitor electrode 36, the insulating film 37 and the upper capacitor electrode 38. The MIM capacitor formed as described above is covered with a second insulating film 39, in which a second contact hole is formed. A bit line 40 is provided so as to be in contact with the other of the source/drain regions 34 of the MOS transistor through the second contact hole.
Although the MIM capacitor region has a three-dimensional structure, the stacked capacitor cell has a large occupied area given by the isolation region, the MOS transistor region, the bit line contact region, and spacings thereamong. Therefore, it may be difficult to provide a memory cell having hyperfine geometry structure. Even in a trench capacitor cell, the same disadvantages as described above cannot be avoided.
In Published Examined Japanese Patent Application Nos. 64-25461, 64-25462, and 64-25466, as shown in FIG. 5, a memory cell having a vertical MOS transistor structure is described. The memory cell is provided as follows. A trench 42 is formed in an N-type semiconductor substrate 40 having a P.sup.+ -type semiconductor layer 41, and a dielectric film (e.g., SiO.sub.2 film) is formed on the inner surface of the trench as an insulating film 43. Thereafter, and an N.sup.+ -type charge storage electrode 44 is provided. A word line (gate electrode) 45 and a gate oxide film 46 surrounding the periphery of the word line 45 are provided on the upper surface of the charge storage electrode 44, and a P-type semiconductor layer 47 is provided so as to bury the gate oxide film 46. An insulating film 48 is formed on the upper surfaces of the gate oxide film 46 and the p-type semiconductor layer 47. A contact hole is formed in the insulating film 48, and an N.sup.+ -type semiconductor layer 49 is deposited in the contact hole. In addition, a conductive film (e.g., polysilicon film) is deposited on the entire surface of the substrate to be in contact with the N.sup.+ -type semiconductor layer 49. Thereafter, the conductive film is patterned to provide a bit line 50.
In the memory cell that includes the trench capacitor provided in the semiconductor substrate and the MOS transistor with the vertical structure located on the trench capacitor, the planar area occupied by the MOS transistor region is decreased. Therefore, a cross-point memory cell in which a memory cell is located at the cross point of the bit line 50 and the word line 45 can be provided.
However, in the above conventional cross-point memory cell, it is difficult to obtain a sufficiently high capacitance of the capacitor as the device structure of the memory cell is reduced. That is, as a method of increasing the capacitance, it may be considered to use a dielectric film (e.g., a Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 film or a PZT film) having a high dielectric constant as an insulating film 43. However, it is difficult to make such a film having the high dielectric constant. For example, it has been known that the properties of the film are remakably degraded by a high temperature heat treatment. On the other hand, it has been required that when the memory cell having the vertical MOS transistor structure is made, a process after forming the capacitor is performed at a low temperature. However, since the word line 45 and the bit line 50 are provided after the formation of the capacitor, it is difficult to reduce the heat treating time or to decrease the temperature of the heat treatment.

Semiconductor memory device having cross-point DRAM cell structure