This invention provides a method for creating/writing defect management information of an information recording medium and an apparatus and optical disc based on the method. In the present invention, it depends on the type of data to be reproduced whether or not defective sectors which are detected during reproduction operation are replaced with non-defective sectors. If read-out errors are detected in reproducing non-audio/video data, linear replacement algorithm is applied to the corresponding defective sectors. On the other hand, in case of audio/video data, location information of the corresponding defective sectors is just kept without any sector replacement. Therefore, this invention enables to reproduce audio/video data in real-time regardless of the presence of defective sectors and to avoid writing data to the defective sectors when new data is overwritten to the information recording medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for managing defects which arise in an information recording medium, more particularly, to a method for creating/writing defect management information for an information recording medium, and to an apparatus and an optical disc using the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical discs have come into wide use since the advent of CD (compact disc) and the demand for optical discs is expected to grow steadily with popularization of DVD (digital versatile disc). Optical discs include read-only discs such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, write-once discs such as CD-R and DVD-R, and rewritable discs such as CD-RW and DVD-RAM. Standard formats of CD-RW and DVD-RAM have released and standardization for VDR (video disc recorder) is in progress.
For rewritable optical discs such as DVD-RAM, defects which arise in their recording surface should be managed to achieve high reliable write/reproduction operation in a manner that data is not written to sectors in which read-out errors are detected beyond a predetermined level (hereinafter referred to as "defective" or "bad" sectors). To accomplish this, defect management is performed such that addresses of defective sectors are stored in a defect management table on the optical disc and data access to the defective sectors, write or read-out, is prohibited.
As shown in FIG. 1, the rewritable physical area of DVD-RAM has a lead-in area, a data area, and a lead-out area. The data area is divided into contiguous 24 groups, and guard area is situated before and behind each group. Each group is made up of a user area for recording data and a spare area which provides a storage area in place of defective portion of the user area.
The data area is also made up of a plurality of blocks, each of which consists of 16 sectors. The position of each sector is specified by a physical address which is given uniquely to each sector. When data is recorded, LSN (logical sector number) is assigned sequentially to every sector except defective ones.
Defect management information, or physical addresses of defective sectors within the data area are stored in DMA (defective management area), which is provided in four places, two in lead-in area and the other two in lead-out area, as shown in FIG. 1, to protect against the defects which may arise in the four DMA themselves.
The DMA is made up of two ECC (error correction code) blocks, or 32 sectors. The first ECC block consists of one sector for DDS (disc definition structure) and 15 other sectors for PDL (primary defect list). Sixteen sectors of the second ECC block are used for SDL (secondary defect list).
The examples of DDS, PDL, and SDL are illustrated in tables 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
TABLE 1DDS structureSizelocation(in byte)contents0~12DDS identifier (0A0Ah)21Reserved (00h)31Disc Certification flag4~74DDS/PDL8~92The number of groups 10~20472038Reserved (00h)
TABLE 2PDL structureSizelocation(in byte)contents0~12PDL identifier (0001h)2~32The number of entries in PDL4~74The 1st bad sector address 8~114The 2nd bad sector address.........
TABLE 3SDL structureSizelocation(in byte)Contents0~12SDL identifier (0002h)2~32Reserved (00h)4~74SDL update counter 8~158Spare area full flags16~216Reserved (00h)22~232The number of entries in SDL24~318The 1st bad sector address & the1st replacement sector address.........
Methods for creating and managing defect management information such as PDL and SDL are explained below with reference to DVD-RAM.
PDL Creation and Management (in Write Operation)
The optical disc, or DVD-RAM is tested by the manufacturer to determine the validity of each sector. To do this, data is written to each sector and then read out from that sector to check whether that sector is bad or not. Sectors in which read-out errors are detected beyond a predetermined level are classified as defective ones at the manufacturing time and their physical addresses are stored in the PDL one after another, as shown in FIG. 1.
If a user requests to write data to the optical disc, a write command is sent to the optical disc drive and then the data begins to be written to unused sectors on the user area sequentially, as shown in FIG. 2. Each time data is written to the target sector, the physical address of the target sector is compared to those of defective sectors in the PDL. If the target sector is matched with one of defective sectors in the PDL, the target sector is skipped and the data is written to the next valid sector. This scheme to compensate for defective sectors is called "slipping replacement".
In case where there is no defective sector on the user area, data is written only on the user area, as shown in the upper layout of FIG. 2. On the other hand, if there are defective sectors in the PDL, as many sectors in the spare area as defective sectors in the user area are used for sector replacement, as shown in the lower layout of FIG. 2.
A sector may become defective due to a deterioration in quality by cyclic reproduction operation of the optical disc. Such a defective sector is referred to as a "grown" defective one. Hence, when data is written to the optical disc, every sector which has not been listed in the PDL is examined to determine if it has a grown defect. Each sector identified as defective one is subjected to the sector slipping algorithm and the address of that sector is added to the PDL to guarantee that data is not written to the defective sector without sector verification process from the next write operation on.
In this way, the number of entries in the PDL increases as the write operation is repeated.
The criterion by which a sector is identified as bad one is as follows. A sector with ECC (hereinafter referred to as "ECC sector") is constructed by data of 182 bytes×13 rows, as shown in FIG. 5, and a PID (physical identification) is assigned uniquely to each sector. The PID is written on each sector at four reserved locations. The sector is determined as defective sector if there are three or more errors in the PID read-out in one sector or if the number of rows having four or more error bytes in one sector is one or more. ECC block is classified as bad one when the number of rows having four or more error bytes in one ECC block is six or more.
SDL Creation and Management (in Reproduction Operation)
When the optical disc is placed into service, sectors on the disc may become defective. Hence, while reproducing the optical disc, sectors which have not been listed in the PDL are examined to determine whether or not they became grown defective sectors. If one sector is determined as bad one, data recorded in 16 logical sectors of the ECC block having the bad sector (bad ECC block) is transferred to a valid ECC block which is available on the spare area sequentially, as shown in FIG. 3. This scheme is called "linear replacement". Then, a pair of the physical address of the first or head sector of the defective ECC block and the physical address of the first sector of the replacement ECC block is stored as an entry of the SDL.
When there is a lack of usable spare blocks in a present group, full flag corresponding to the group in the SDL is set to 1 and valid spare blocks are borrowed for linear replacement from the spare area of another group.
In reproduction operation, each ECC block is determined as bad one if the number of rows having four or more error bytes in one ECC block is eight or more or if there are one or more sectors in which more than three PID read-out arise.
When data is written to or read out from a DVD-RAM, a logical block address which is sent from the associated host computer to a DVD-RAM drive is translated to a physical target address. The PDL is then reviewed to determine if any slip adjustment is needed. That is, the physical target address is compared to those of defective sectors in the PDL. If it is determined that the sector at the physical target address is defective, the defective sector is skipped and the subsequent sectors are examined until a valid sector is found. Then the physical target address is adjusted so as to locate the next valid rector. In reproduction operation, the physical target address is compared to the list of the SDL to check if any sector replacement is required. If the physical target address is matched with one of those in the SDL, the physical target address of the replacement sector is read out from the SDL.
In case of optical disc which is dedicated to moving pictures or speech, it is crucial that the audio/video data is reproduced in real-time. However, the reproduction operation is interrupted for a short period of time corresponding to the sector replacement requiring data movement on the optical disc when grown defective sectors which have not been listed in the SDL are detected during reproduction. In this case, the reproduction speed of data recorded on the defective sectors is lowered, resulting in a short interruption of reproduction of audio/video data.
No management of new defective areas which have not been listed in the PDL and SDL at the reproduction time can be a method for solving the short interruption by the linear replacement. In this case, however, when the already-written audio/video data is erased and then a new audio/video data is overwritten to the VDR, the new data may be written to the defective sectors or blocks. As a result, read-out error of audio/video data which is newly recorded on such defective sectors or books cannot be avoid.

Method for creating defect management information in an recording medium, and apparatus and medium based on said method


A wireless communication method of repetition system and the like for ensuring that when the same data symbols are combined, a diversity gain is achieved. In a step (ST 420), a data symbol placing part (105) decides destination places of respective replicated data symbols (S1-S4) such that the same data symbols are not placed at destination place numbers (7,8) of data symbols that exhibit poor channel estimation precisions. In a step (ST 430), the data symbol placing part (105) places, in accordance with the decision in the foregoing step (ST 420), the four data symbols (S1-S4), which are received from a repetition part (102), in one frame received from a channel estimation error predicting part (104).

Conventionally, a Repetition type radio communication method has been known where a transmitting-side radio communication apparatus transmits a radio signal including a plurality of same data symbols, and a receiving-side radio communication apparatus combines symbols of the same data symbols included in the received radio signal and obtains diversity gain. For example, for next-generation mobile communication, a Repetition-OFDM scheme has been proposed where a transmitting-side radio communication apparatus repeatedly arranges the same data symbols in the time domain and the frequency domain in an OFDM signal randomly and discretely (for example, see Non-patent Document 1). Non-patent Document 1: "Performance Comparison of Repetition OFDM and 2-D MC-CDMA for 4G Cellular Downlink Communication" 9th International OFDM-Workshop, Dresden, Germany, September. 2004

Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method


It is known that overshoot in fuel flow rate as a result of compensating for engine heat soak effects can create transient over values in desired thrust parameters. These over values may be displayed and/or utilised in other engine control systems, and although transient may create problems within the engine and apprehension with a user. By adjusting the normally calculated fuel flow rate to a fuel regulator by the introduction of a fuel flow adjustment dependent upon a variable which is related to heat soak effects it is possible to reduce the extent of overshoot as well as the transient time period of that overshoot to ongoing operational state. The variable used may be direct or indirect and will generally utilise a temperature sensor within the engine and/or other engine control procedures which may be extrapolated from such sensor values to provide a variable for heat soak compensation.

It will be understood that efficient operation of engines such as gas turbine engines used for aircraft propulsion is important in terms of economy of operation as well as with respect to engine durability. In such circumstances, it is increasingly common to utilise relatively accurate sensing mechanisms in terms of monitoring engine performance for display to a user, as well as for utilisation within automatic control loops. Unfortunately, inherent thermal as well as mechanical variations between start up or other transients to steady state operation can be difficult to accommodate within these control regimes or may appear temporarily alarming to a user.
Of particular concern with respect to the present engine control is a situation with regard to fuel flow into a turbine engine during initial engine start up and rapid acceleration. It will be understood that an engine is generally cold at start up and therefore a proportion of the fuel flow, rather than being directed towards thrust or other prime movement is utilised in order to heat the engine components. This is known as "heat soak" within the engine and is generally accommodated by initial provision of additional fuel or a choke mechanism. This additional fuel, as indicated, acts to compensate for the heat soak effect of warming the engine components, but as the engine warms up it will be understood that there may be too much fuel flow and therefore effectively the engine is generating more than 100% of its rated performance. Thus, additional fuel is being used when not required and secondly through more accurate displays an alarming indication of such factors as turbine rotational speed as 2 or 3% above that acceptable may be displayed to users for a few seconds. This at least may cause anxiety and possibly lead to interactive compensation by the user.


Provided is a method for detecting stored data and device, a storage medium and an electronic device. The method includes: the first check information of first data stored in a memory in the current period is determined; the first check information is compared with second check information to obtain a check result, wherein the second check information is check information of second data stored in the memory in a period prior to the current period; and the correctness of storage of the second data is detected according to the check result.

A chip of a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) includes an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Network Processor (NP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), etc. During the use of the TCAM, errors may occur in the TCAM due to the external use environment.
For the above technical problem, no effective solution has been proposed in related art.

Data storage detection method and apparatus, storage medium and electronic apparatus


A method and apparatus for color replacement using an extended ink set in a color printing system. A color replacement apparatus receives a color signal of a device dependent color space after being generated in response to a colorant signal of a device independent color space. The color replacement apparatus receives the color signal of the device dependent color space, and generates as a function of the received signal, a second color signal including a first hue and a first saturation, and a third color signal including the first hue and a second saturation, different from the first saturation. Multiple color planes for all of the inks of the extended ink set are generated according to a preselected threshold.

Liquid ink printers of the type frequently referred to as continuous stream or as drop-on-demand, such as piezoelectric, acoustic, phase change wax-based or thermal, have at least one printing mechanism, such as a printhead, from which droplets of ink are directed towards a recording sheet. Within the printhead, the ink is contained in a plurality of channels. Power pulses cause the droplets of ink to be expelled as required from orifices or nozzles at the end of the channels.
In a thermal ink-jet printer, the power pulses are usually produced by resistors, each located in a respective one of the channels, which are individually addressable to heat and vaporize ink in the channels. As voltage is applied across a selected resistor, a vapor bubble grows in the associated channel and initially bulges from the channel orifice followed by collapse of the bubble. The ink within the channel then retracts and separates from the bulging ink thereby forming a droplet moving in a direction away from the channel orifice and towards the recording medium whereupon hitting the recording medium a dot or spot of ink is deposited. The channel is then refilled by capillary action, which in turn, draws ink from a supply container of liquid ink. Operation of a thermal ink-jet printer is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,774.
The ink jet printhead may be incorporated into either a carriage type printer, a partial width array type printer, or a page-width type printer. The carriage type printer typically has a relatively small printhead containing the ink channels and nozzles. The printhead can be sealingly attached to a disposable ink supply cartridge and the combined printhead and cartridge assembly is attached to a carriage which is reciprocated to print one swath of information (equal to the length of a column of nozzles), at a time, on a stationary recording medium, such as paper or a transparency. After the swath is printed, the paper is stepped a distance equal to the height of the printed swath or a portion thereof, so that the next printed swath is contiguous or overlapping therewith. This procedure is repeated until the entire page is printed. In contrast, the page width printer includes a stationary printhead having a length sufficient to print across the width or length of a sheet of recording medium at a time. The recording medium is continually moved past the page width printhead in a direction substantially normal to the printhead length and at a constant or varying speed during the printing process. A page width ink-jet printer is described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,959.
Printers typically print color and/or monochrome images received from an image output device such as a personal computer, a scanner, or a workstation. The color images are produced by printing with several colored inks or colorants of different colors at a time. The color of the ink and amount of ink deposited by the printer is determined according to image information received from a document creator such as a scanner or a computer workstation. The document creator provides an input digital signal gray-scale image, which is either defined in monochromatic terms, calorimetric terms, or both. The amount of gray level is typically defined by an input pixel value ranging from 0 to 255 where 0 is equal to white, 255 is equal to black, and values therebetween are shades of gray. For an image defined in colorimetric terms, the input pixel values are typically digital signals of R, G, B (red, green, and blue). Commonly this description may be part of a Page Description Language (PDL) file describing the document. In the case of computer generated images, colors defined by the user at a user interface of a workstation can be defined initially in a color space of tristimulus values. These colors are defined independently of any particular device, and accordingly reference is made to the information as being "device independent".
The printer, on the other hand, often has an output which can be defined as existing in a color space called CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-key or black) which is uniquely defined for the printer by its capabilities and colorants as well as the media upon which the printer deposits ink. Printers operate by the addition of overlapping multiple layers of ink or colorant in layers to a page or by the adjacent deposition of colorants. The response of the printer tends to be relatively non-linear. These colors are defined for a particular device, and accordingly reference is made to the information as being "device dependent". Thus, while a printer receives information in a device independent color space, the information must be converted to print in a device dependent color space, which reflects a possible range of colors of the printer, and secondly, printing of that image with a color printer in accordance with the colors defined by the scanner or computer generated image.
The perceived color of the image is determined not only by the relative amounts of each colorant put down on the recording medium, but also by the order in which the colorants are printed and the media type. Consequently, there are a multitude of variables which affects a final printed image. To accurately reproduce an original image, therefore, requires a transformation from a device independent color space to a multitude of device dependent color spaces, each one being determined, at least in part by, the combined effects of colorant, image density, media type, and print speed.
Various color printing systems and methods for printing color images on a recording medium are illustrated and described in the following disclosures which may be relevant to certain aspects of the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,538 to Kouzato, a tone recording method wherein ink dots having at least two different concentrations per color are provided and the number of dots for each concentration to be printed in a pre-determined area is described. High and low density dots for yellow, magenta and cyan are described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,010 to Birnbaum, describes an apparatus to determine the intensity of signals generated by a raster input scanner. Signals generated from a delay circuit and a gray detector are sent to a logic circuit which determines whether to output a gray signal or a non-gray signal to a raster output scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,438 to Harrington, describes a method and apparatus for improving full color images using process black and printer black. An undercover removal and halftoning method which avoids abrupt density shifts and textures is described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,748 to Harrington, describes halftone screens which are generated for each separation in accordance with a goal of avoiding overlapping whenever possible and with a goal of reducing interpixel contrast. Under color removal is selectively used to optimize the dot appearance. Black is increased or reduced in association with color increase or decrease to allow the appropriate space for filling with reduced luminance contrast.
The described invention applies to color systems having more than four colorants.

Method and apparatus for color replacement using an extended ink set


A magnet having an annular coolant fluid passage is generally described. Various examples provide a magnet including a first magnet and a second magnet disposed around an ion beam coupler with an aperture there through. Each of the first and second magnets including a metal core having a cavity therein, one or more conductive wire wraps disposed around the metal core, and an annular core element configured to be inserted into the cavity, wherein an annular coolant fluid passage is formed between the cavity and the annular core element. Furthermore, each annular core element may have a first diameter and a middle section having a second diameter, the second diameter being less than the first diameter. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

Ions are often used during manufacturing of semiconductor devices. For example, ions may be implanted into a substrate to dope the substrate with various impurities. Ions may be deposited onto a substrate to build up features on the substrate. Ions may also be used to etch away material during the manufacturing process. In general, ions are emitted from an ion source chamber. Magnets are often used to filter the ions and also shape the ions into an ion beam having desired characteristics and direct the ion beam at the substrate. Some of these magnets are formed by wrapping conductive wire around a metal core. Current is then passed through the conductive wire to create a magnetic field. During operation, the magnets often require cooling in order to operate at the required power levels necessary to create magnetic fields having desired characteristics. As such, a cooling passage is formed in the metal core through which cooling fluid is passed during operation. One deficiency in some current designs is that they may use a cooling passage at the centerline of the core. As such, heat generated in the windings must be conducted through the thickness of the core in order to reach the cooling fluid. The removal of a substantial amount of material in order to form a cooling passage of requisite size, as will be appreciated, reduces the amount of material in the metal core and undesirably reduces the strength and effectiveness of the magnetic field created by the magnet. Thus, there is a need for an improved cooling arrangement for magnets used in substrate processing operations.

Annular cooling fluid passage for magnets

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


A method for achieving bit rate controlled encoding, e.g., constant bit rate, uses a bit rate control model based on bits allocated per macroblock and based on error in estimating bits consumed in an encoding process in a macroblock. The method computes bits consumed per macroblock as a function of the formed bit rate control model, and allocates bits for the macroblock. To this end, a quadratic (second order) equation is used for the model, which equation might default into a first order equation requiring fewer computations, in the event that no second order solutions exist. In one form, the bit rate control model computes the bit rate to satisfy video buffer verifier (VBV) compliance in accordance with MPEG requirements. The bit rate control model makes allowances for the type of macroblock, i.e., inter, intra or bidirectional, and provides for any frame-skips.

Motion estimation is an indispensable tool in processing video information, wherein frames of information are encoded for processing. A typical encoder may read a video frame from memory, and generate and send an encoded bit stream back to memory for processing. Typically, an encoder core comprises several pipelined components that process macroblock sized chunks of data. When encoding video sequences as per MPEG (motion pictures experts group) standards, the number of bits required varies from frame to frame, depending on the type of macroblock/frame, i.e., inter (P), intra (I) or bidirectional (B). For transporting the information over a channel (which might have a constant bandwidth), one can send a constant number of bits per time period. There is therefore a need for a regulating mechanism that controls bit rate allocation, or otherwise decreases the number of bits for frames with high information content and increases it in other frames to achieve the best possible quality. From another angle, encoders need to keep track of the bit consumption for the encoded macroblocks or units to ensure proper regulation.

Model based bit rate control for a macroblock encoder


A method and system for saving and retrieving data includes saving data in data storage fields of a data storage device in a computer. A back-up data storage field is selected in the data storage device. A data changing operation including new data is initiated on specified data saved in a current data storage field. A copy of all the data stored in boundary data storage fields is copied and stored in the back-up data storage field before changing the current data to provide data retrieval if the data is unrecoverable in the current data storage field, when a loss of power to the data storage device occurs.

Serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) disk drives use a rigid 512-bytes per sector format, however, many applications require a larger block size e.g. 520-byte, 524-byte, 528-byte, etc. Thus, to use SATA drives with these application requires a conversion process in which the larger block sizes are "mapped" across a number of 512-byte SATA sectors. Well-known mapping algorithms arrange the larger "logical" blocks across contiguous 512-byte "physical" sectors, so that each logical block will start and end at some offset into a physical sector. When logical blocks are being accessed by the application, it is necessary to calculate the physical sectors which contain the required logical blocks, and also the offsets which mark the start and end of the logical blocks within the physical sectors. For read accesses, it is a simple matter to locate and read the appropriate physical sectors, then discard the "unwanted" data, i.e., data before the starting offset or after the ending offset. However for write accesses it is not possible to simply discard the "unwanted" data, because that data belongs to adjacent logical blocks and must not be altered when the physical sectors are written. Thus, for write operations it is necessary to first read the required physical sectors, then modify only the portion of those sectors which represent the logical blocks being written, and then write the physical sectors back to the media, This read/modify/write process (r/m/w) is a known feature in disk drive architecture, and is currently implemented in many applications.
A drawback to the current r/m/w operation is that a power loss during the r/m/w operation can cause unrecoverable data loss. This possibility occurs during every r/m/w operation, at the point where the two part-modified sectors at the start and end of the logical blocks (i.e., the "boundary" sectors) are being written to the media. If the storage system suffers a power failure while the disk drive is writing one of the boundary sectors, that sector will be corrupted, which results in the data from two different logical blocks being corrupted. For one of these logical blocks (the one which was being written by the application), this is a recoverable situation because the application will have retained a copy of the data being written, and can save it elsewhere if it does not receive a confirmation from the storage system. However, for the other logical block there is no such recovery. The application was not involved in writing that logical block and does not hold a copy of its data, and thus, that data is lost.
There are several methods of avoiding the potential problem, but all have drawbacks and disadvantages. Most methods rely on detecting the "imminent power loss warning" provided by the system. Typically, this warning alerts devices that they have only a few milliseconds to complete vital operations before power is lost. A SATA adapter which has just issued a r/m/w operation to the drive cannot know if that write will complete in the time available, so it must assume that data on the media may become corrupted as described above. The SATA adapter will use the available time to save data which is exposed, but to save the two boundary sectors in non-volatile memory (i.e. 1024 bytes) requires more time than is available before power loss, so the SATA adapter cannot guarantee to save the exposed data. To be certain of avoiding this exposure, the SATA adapter may save the boundary sectors to nonvolatile memory on every r/m/w operation, however, this adds a long delay in the r/m/w process and substantially reduces the write performance. Another solution uses battery backup systems which allow current write operations to complete if the main system power is lost, however, this is very expensive to implement, and significantly reduces the cost benefits of using SATA drives.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a r/m/w operation which guarantees boundary data cannot be lost due to a power loss event. It would further be desirable for the operation to be inexpensive to implement (since a main benefit of using SATA drives is the relatively low cost), and be efficient in operation (since there is already a performance penalty imposed by the standard r/m/w process, a further performance penalty would be undesirable).

Method for protecting exposed data during read/modify/write operations on a SATA disk drive

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to a method and device for automatically optimizing the send parameters in a mobile communication system wherein, in order to optimize the BCCH reception performance, a terminal stores information relating to BCCH reception failure reasons or the number of instances of packet combination for BCCH reception, and this information is reported to a base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for optimizing transmission parameters in order to improve Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) reception performance in such a way that a terminal retains BCCH reception failure reason or a number of packet combinations for BCCH reception and reports this to a base station in a mobile communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication systems have developed to provide the subscribers with voice communication services on the move. With the rapid advance of technologies, the mobile communication systems have evolved to support high speed data communication services as well as the standard voice communication services.
Recently, as the next generation mobile communication system of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Long Term Evolution (LTE) is under development. The LTE system is a technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communication at about 100 Mbps, aiming at commercialization in around 2010.
With the evolvement of the LTE standard, it is discussed how to configure and optimize system parameters automatically in building a radio network. Such a technology is referred to as Self-Organizing Networks (SON). SON is a network which optimizes parameters related to the system resources of a cell automatically. That is, the system resource-related parameters are automatically optimized based on the data received from User Equipment or statistical values acquired through self-management of the network. A mobile communication system is configured with a plurality of system parameters that are set suitably to optimize reception performance on multiple channels. In order to achieve this purpose, it should be performed first to measure the properties of the signals on the channels within the service area of the radio network.

Method and device for sending and receiving a broadcast control channel in a mobile communication system


A filter element made of nonwoven filter fabric includes a plurality of pleated portions and a flange portion formed integrally with the filter portion. The flange portion is formed by a pair of press-forming dies to have a thin and compressed connecting portion formed along the outer periphery of the filter portion, a thick and uncompressed seal portion formed along the outer periphery of the connecting portion and a thin and compressed protecting portion formed along the outer periphery of the seal portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filter element and a process for manufacturing the same for use in an air cleaner for an internal combustion engine of an automobile.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a filter element for use in an air cleaner for an engine of an automobile is composed of a filter portion of a wave sheet and a flange portion framing the filter portion. Further, the air cleaner includes two housing members (case and cap) which construct a housing when assembled to each other.
When the filter element is assembled into an air cleaner having upper and lower housing members, the flange portion of the filter element is held between peripheral holding portions of the upper and lower housing members.
In the conventional air cleaner, a separate rubber gasket (seal member) is attached to the flange portion of the filter element to seal the holding portions of the housing members and the flange portion of the filter element, resulting in an increase in the number of parts of the air cleaner and the cost thereof. Further, the gasket must be removed every time the filter element is exchanged, thereby reducing the sealing performance.
If the flange portion of the filter element is directly inserted between each of the holding portions of the housing members the air cleaner without the gasket does not work because of poor sealing performance.
Further, EP 0692294A1 proposes a filter element having an integral flange portion. However, if the flange portion is inserted, as a seal member, between the upper and lower parts of the air cleaner housing members (or a cap and a case), the flange portion may deform under a high temperature because of the adhesive fiber included therein. Thus, when the filter element is re-assembled after cleaning, a clearance results between the flange portion and the parts of the air cleaner housing.
Particularly, as the thickness of the flange portion increases, the deformation increases.

Method of manufacturing a filter element


Collapsible containers configurable to provide a plurality of seaparate compartments are described, each having a back wall (84) carrying elements (104B, 104C) hingeably movable from positions parallel to the back wall to positions extending normally of that wall and defining compartments. In one embodiment stackable rigid structures (formed from inter-engageable boarding pieces) are placed within the container with the movable elements located between pairs of structures. In another embodiment the movable elements are rigid and form (when extended) bases for trays and lie immediately beneath side supports hinged to the back wall and rotatable from positions parallel to that wall to positions extending normally of that wall to act as end (and possibly) divider walls for the trays. A front wall (110) for each tray may be provided by a web carried between free edges of the side supports or by a rigid front wall part hinged to the free edge of the movable element and rotatable from a position parallel to that element to position extending normally thereof. The container may be of a foldable fabric, the movable parts being pockets carrying rigid planar pieces stitched to the back wall and resting when extended against parts of the frame. When not in use the fabric part may be folded and the frame collapsed for storage or transportation. The container may also be implemented in plates of metal or other rigid material with hinges between the movable parts.

One application of the invention is the secure transport of postal items from and between sorting offices and provides for the ready transport of those items between offices after they have been sorted.
Traditionally mail is carried to and from, and between, Post Offices in mail bags--fabric bags--in which all the mail items for a particular place (for example a City, a general postal or zip code) is placed.
On arrival at the it's destination the mail is removed from the bag and then re-sorted for particular sub-divisions of the area to which it has been sent (for example: a particular postman's walk, blocks or more detailed postal and zip codes).
When transporting postal items in a mail bag they become jumbled and when removed from the bag must be re-sorted in order that the address and postal or zip code can be seen. With the increasing use of mechanised sorting the need for ensuring that all the items of mail have their addresses on a surface which is to pass a machine scanner has increased and the traditional method of transporting mail requires the use of a number of operatives to ensure that this is the case by checking the orientation of the mail items.
It will be appreciated therefore that there is significant manpower required simply taking mail from a mail bag and reorienting it so that the surfaces on which the addresses and postal codes are located are in a position in which they can readily be scanned by a machine.
Proposals have been made, and in some countries have been put into practice, that after the initial sorting of mail it is transported between Post Offices in rigid trays in which all the mail items for a particular destination are stacked side-by-side such that the address on each of the items is orientated in the same way.
To effect this a number of rigid trays each carrying mail are placed in a large container, usually of metal, which is used to carry all the mail items to be taken from one particular Post Office to another at which the mail in the trays may again be sorted for delivery.
When transported in this way the mail in the trays does not need to be re-sorted to ensure the addresses on the mail items are in the same orientation--the mail items are held in the desired orientation within the rigid trays.
This proposal substantially reduces the cost of sorting the mail but requires the use of trays which are costly to produce and heavy and the use of containers (for the trays) which are costly, heavy and bulky. The result therefore is that the transportation cost of the trays and the containers--both when full of mail and when empty--is significant.
It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus usable for storing and transporting mail items which substantially alleviates the difficulties of the traditional method of transporting mail between Post Offices and overcomes the disadvantages of the above noted proposals.
Objects of the invention include the provision of forms of container for use in transporting, inter alia mail, which substantially alleviates and/or overcomes the difficulties noted above.


A method for controlling a plurality of lamps is applied to an electrical apparatus, such that the user can control the plurality of lamps by the electrical apparatus. The method includes the following steps: receiving a plurality of different identification codes, with the identification codes representing each of the lamps respectively; setting at least two different identification codes of the plurality of identification codes to be in the same control group according to a group setting command; and setting the control parameter of each of the plurality of lamps represented by each of the plurality of different identification codes of the same control group to be the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a plurality of lamps and a computer program product thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a computer program product thereof which can set a group to control the plurality of lamps at the same time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electrical apparatus (such as a cellphone or a tablet computer) is becoming an indispensable piece of standard equipment for modem life and work. In particular, the smartphone is almost considered a necessity by the majority of people. Since the smartphone, unlike the traditional cellphone, which has only the communication function, is also a small portable computer with great computing and a processing power, and since the smartphone is small and light, it has gradually taken on some former functions of the notebook computer.
Currently, most lighting control of lamps is controlled by hardware. Even a remote controller for distance control of lighting of lamps, the size of the remote controller is limited, and cost is a consideration. In addition, the controlling functions of the remote controller is very limited. As smartphones become increasingly common, and if the operation and control of lamps can be controlled by smartphones, the production cost of the remote controller can be reduced, and via software applications, there can be various controlling methods of the lamp light.

Method for controlling lamps and computer program product thereof


Customers wanting to deploy software packages, or updates to those packages, across a group of servers or other computing resources can rely upon a component such as a resource manager to manage the deployment. The resource manager can utilize a data structure that stores deployment information by Revision number, and merges information for each verified deployment into a Mainline for those resources. Each Deployment can involve an Individual Release or a Baseline Release, and the importance of those Releases can be determined with respect to a current snapshot of the Mainline. Such an approach enables important Release and Deployment information to be quickly determined and obtained, which can help with configuring and scheduling future Deployments.

As an increasing number of applications and services are being made available over networks such as the Internet, an increasing number of content, application, and/or service providers are turning to technologies such as cloud computing. Cloud computing, in general, is an approach to providing access to electronic resources through services, such as Web services, where the hardware and/or software used to support those services is dynamically scalable to meet the needs of the services at any given time. A customer typically will rent, lease, or otherwise pay for access to resources through the cloud, such that the customer does not have to purchase and maintain the hardware and/or software to provide access to these resources. In many cases, the resources will include a fleet of host machines or servers that are operable to execute various applications, and in at least some cases can run one or more virtual machines associated with those applications. The environment can be a distributed environment, such that portions of the fleet of servers can be located in different geographical areas. When updates to various applications are to be deployed for a large number of servers in a variety of different areas, it can be desirable to stagger the deployment to these various areas in order to be able to more easily manage and/or monitor aspects of the deployment. For a large number of users who can each deploy a number of application updates to a variety of different servers across the environment, managing the versions and deployments over time can be complex, and failure to properly determine which versions of which applications are deployed on which servers can potentially result in errors or even data loss or corruption, among other such potential problems.


In one embodiment, irregular electronic disturbance signals in a partial-response read channel are detected by a disturbance detector using state metrics generated by maximum-likelihood sequence detector. For example, a thermal asperity (TA) detector detects the occurrence of TAs in the read channel of perpendicularly recorded magnetic media by using the state metrics generated by a Viterbi detector. Changes in state metrics (e.g., magnitudes of the branch metrics of the trellis diagram) used by the Viterbi detector are tracked. If the magnitude of the rise of the path metric increases above a set threshold, then a TA is detected. Alternatively, or additionally, the rate of change of the magnitude of the path metrics is tracked. If the rate of change within a set time window is above a specified threshold, then a TA is detected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the detection of signal disturbances, and, in particular, to the detection, in partial response read channels, of signal disturbances such as those caused by thermal asperities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data transmission systems are susceptible to noise from various sources. One such source of noise is a thermal asperity (TA), which can occur in the reading of data from magnetically recorded media, such as hard disk drives. A thermal asperity occurs when a magneto-resistive (MR) read head, which typically flies at a high speed and low height or distance over the surface of the hard disk drive platter, collides with a particle on the surface of the platter, with a bump or similar imperfection on the platter, or with the platter itself. The collision causes a spike in the temperature of the magneto-resistive read head, which therefore temporarily increases the resistance of the read element in the magneto-resistive read head, which in turn can cause erroneous data readings for the period corresponding to the temperature spike. The amplitude of a typical TA can exceed the value of a normal read signal by a factor of more than 10. Unless appropriately handled, a TA can substantially degrade system performance during its occurrence. Read errors due to a TA can last for several hundred bits, or longer.
FIG. 1 shows a typical thermal asperity disturbance, labeled as "Raw TA," which shows a signal with a rapid rise and a slow decay. Some basic techniques known in the art to combat TAs include analog TA recovery, channel detection, coding, and Reed-Solomon erasure decoding, each of which involves the detection of a TA followed by an attempt to correct for the detected TA by adjusting some aspect of the processing of the signal corresponding to the duration of the TA.
For example, temporarily shortening the time constant τ of an AC coupler (ACC) in a read channel detector can substantially shorten the period of the TA, as can be seen in FIG. 1 by comparing the curve labeled "Raw TA" with the curve labeled "TA after ACC." However, the TA must first be detected before corrective measures can be taken.
FIG. 2 shows a typical prior-art read channel detector 200 for detecting and correcting for TAs. TA detector 200 operates based on the difference in frequency between a TA and the normal read-back signal. A TA is a low-frequency disturbance, while normal read-back signals are high frequency. Therefore, one method to detect a TA is to use a low-pass filter. Since the high-frequency normal read-back signal is filtered out, the TA signal that remains can be detected by thresholding the amplitude of the surviving signal.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, signal 201a from the read head goes into pre-amplifier 201. The output of the pre-amplifier during a typical TA is shown in FIG. 1 as "TA after pre-amp." Output 202a of the pre-amplifier goes into AC coupler (ACC) 202. An AC coupler, as is well known in the art, acts as a high-pass filter. ACC 202 has a variable time constant τ. Output 203a of the ACC goes into variable gain amplifier (VGA) 203, which smoothes the signal amplitude. Output 204a of VGA 203 forms an input for three elements of prior-art read-channel detector 200. Output 204a goes into continuous time filter 204, which is part of the normal signal-processing path not associated with the detection of TAs. Output 204a also goes into low-pass filter 205. Output 206a of low-pass filter 205 is compared by comparator 206 with a specified threshold value 206b to detect the rising edge of a TA. If comparator 206 determines that output value 206a of low-pass filter 205 is greater than threshold value 206b, then output 207b of comparator 206 indicates this to control logic 207, which generates control signal 202b to reduce the time constant τ of ACC 202, and thus changing the frequencies filtered by ACC 202. FIG. 1 shows output 203a of the ACC during a typical TA, after its time constant τ has been reduced, as "TA after ACC."
Zero-crossing detector 208 detects the transition of the value of output 204a from positive to negative, as exemplified in the curve "TA after ACC" in FIG. 1, and thus confirms the occurrence of a TA. Output 207a of zero-crossing detector 208 goes into control logic 207. Based on inputs 207a and 207b, control logic 207 determines whether a TA has occurred, and, if so, outputs a signal 207c indicating that a TA has occurred. After the control logic has determined that the TA has passed, the time constant τ of ACC 202 is returned to its normal value. Thermal asperities and the prior-art method for their detection and correction are further described in "CMOS Circuits for Thermal Asperity Detection and Recovery in Disk-Drive Read Channels," by A. Lee et al., IEEE International Midwest Symp. on Circuits and Systems, Tulsa, pp. III-364 to III-367, August 2002, incorporated herein by reference.
The prior-art systems for detecting TAs are effective for relatively large TAs, with amplitudes of about two or more times the amplitudes of normal read-back signals. However, the prior-art systems do not reliably detect TAs of relatively small amplitudes, such as those of about the same amplitude as the amplitude of a normal read-back signal. Such relatively small TAs are more common in perpendicularly recorded magnetic media than in longitudinally recorded magnetic media. Furthermore, relatively small TAs typically are not problematic in longitudinally recorded magnetic media because the read channels of such media use DC-free partial-response targets and the relatively small TAs can be effectively eliminated by the inherent equalization.
Perpendicularly recorded magnetic media allow for greater recording densities and their use is likely to overtake that of the easier-to-implement longitudinally recorded magnetic media. However, in perpendicular-recording read channels, DC-full or DC-partial targets are used, and small TAs cannot be effectively eliminated by equalization and therefore may cause long burst errors.
In addition, baseline wander, which can be caused by high-pass filtering of the low-frequency signals abundant in perpendicular recording, makes detection of relatively small TAs difficult. Furthermore, if the threshold for TA detection, as shown in FIG. 2 as signal 206b, is set too low, then frequent mis-detection of TAs (i.e., declaring something to be a TA which is not a TA) can occur. On the other hand, if the threshold is not low enough, then some small TAs will go uncorrected. In other words, it is difficult to differentiate a small TA from baseline wander. If small TAs are undetected and not handled appropriately, then the resultant error propagation in the read channel would be problematic for iterative decoding systems in next-generation devices.

Detection of signal disturbance in a partial response channel


The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, which calculates the histogram of an image on the basis of moving image information that is input in real time, and corrects and outputs the brightness of the image using the histogram in real time. The apparatus for controlling the brightness of moving image signals according to the present invention includes a cumulative difference function detection means, an image storage means and a brightness adjustment means. The cumulative difference function detection means calculates a cumulative difference function using upper n bits of each input image. The image storage means stores therein the input image. The brightness adjustment means adjusts the brightness of the image in real time using the cumulative difference function calculated by the cumulative difference function detection means when the input image stored in the image storage means is displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus and method for controlling the brightness of moving image signals in real time and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling the real time brightness of moving image signals, which applies an image processing technique of equalizing images using a cumulative distribution function, obtained by accumulating histogram information extracted from images, to image quality improvement fields for a moving image display device in real time, thus automatically correcting in real time the brightness of output images depending on the brightness of moving images that are input in real time, and outputting the corrected output images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a histogram equalization technique, which is a method of automatically adjusting the brightness of an image, is an image processing technique for converting a very dark image into a bright image and maximizing the contrast of an input image. This technique allows an image, which is difficult for a human to see, to be easily seen by improving the contrast of the image, so that the technique has been successfully applied to various fields.
However, in order to perform histogram equalization, as shown in FIG. 1, a histogram detection unit 20 reads image data stored in an image memory 10, and then calculates first the histogram distribution of an entire image. A cumulative distribution function calculation unit 30 accumulates the histogram distribution to obtain a cumulative distribution function. Thereafter, the cumulative distribution function is normalized to obtain a normalized cumulative distribution function suitable for mapping. The normalized cumulative distribution function is constructed in the form of a lookup table, so that a histogram-equalized image is obtained as an output signal if the cumulative distribution function is applied to an input image. As described above, the histogram equalization process is executed through a complicated algorithm. In most image processing, such a histogram equalization process has been executed in a software manner. Further, even though the histogram equalization is implemented using hardware, only a histogram generation part, which is the first processing step, is implemented using hardware, and the remaining data processing parts are implemented using software.
In this way, the histogram equalization process for still images can be implemented using software processing through the above-described technique, but 60 frames per second must be processed so as to apply the histogram equalization technique to moving images. Therefore, for such high-speed data processing, an entire algorithm needs to be implemented using hardware. However, there are several difficulties in implementing the above-described algorithm using hardware. That is, the histogram information of image data, which are input at very high speeds, must be calculated with respect to each frame, and cumulative distribution function data must be stored and used at the time of displaying images. At this time, in order to store a cumulative distribution function corresponding to one frame, at least 256-byte or greater histogram information should be stored in real time even though the stored histogram information differs with the number of image data bits and the size of screens. Further, according to the characteristics of moving image information, cumulative distribution functions can be normally calculated in the image input stage and applied in the display stage. Therefore at least three sets of cumulative distribution functions are stored. Accordingly, since a very large storage space is required to store cumulative distribution functions, and the cumulative distribution functions should be stored in registers, not a memory, there are many difficulties in actually implementing the histogram equalization algorithm using hardware.

Apparatus and method for controlling brightness of moving image signals in real time


In the continuous conching of chocolate mass in a conche (10) it is important to ensure essentially constant contents of the conche (10). For this purpose, the infeed of starting material and/or the discharge of the conched chocolate mass is monitored, namely measured, especially by means of weighing. In response to the measurement results, the infeed or the discharge is controlled, especially by means of altering the conveying capacity of a compulsory conveyor (screw conveyor 21) for discharging the conched mass. The conched chocolate mass is dry, i.e. it contains neither lecithin nor cocoa butter. Lecithin is added in the region of the screw conveyor (21) which is followed by a mixing device (22).

The invention relates to a process for continuously conching chocolate (starting) mass in a conche, into which starting material is continuously introduced and from which, correspondingly, conched chocolate mass is continuously discharged. Furthermore, the invention relates to an apparatus for conching the chocolate mass and for discharging same.
After being pretreated in the usual way, the (dry) starting material for the production of chocolate mass is intimately mixed in a mixing vessel (conche) for a longer period. Thereafter, the (conched) chocolate mass can be discharged to be further processed. A continuous conching of chocolate mass, i.e. a continuos operation of a conche with a continuous infeed of starting material and a likewise continuous extraction of conched chocolate mass is already known. DE-A-39 18 813 proposes to connect a plurality, namely three conches with one another for a continously running operation. The starting material is fed to a first conche, the partially conched material is fed to a second conche and finally to a third conche. From the latter, the ready-conched chocolate mass is discharged.
In this known proposal, screw conveyors are used as conveying means for the partially or completely conched chocolate mass. Each conche forms a lateral top overflow and each overflow is connected to a screw conveyor. The screw conveyors assigned to the first and second conche transport the chocolate mass to the (upper) inlet side of the following conche. The screw conveyor of the third or last conche serves for discharging the ready-conched chocolate mass.
Process and apparatuses for continuously conching chocolate mass have not yet prevailed in practice, the reason being problems occurring in maintaining an invariably constant quantity of chocolate mass in the conche. Moreover, the known solutions provide an unsatisfactory discharge of the conched chocolate mass.
The invention is therefore based on the object to further develop and improve the continuous conching of chocolate mass. The proposed measures shall particularly ensure an optimum mixing of the ingredients of the chocolate mass in the conche in a continuous mode of operation.
To attain this object, the process according to the invention is characterized in that the quantity of the fed in starting material and/or the quantity of the discharged conched chocolate mass is determined, especially by means of weighing, and that the infeed of starting material and/or the quantity of the discharged conched mass is or are controlled accordingly.
The basic idea of the invention is that the complex interrelations in the conching of chocolate mass can only be mastered, if the quantity of chocolate mass (constantly) present in the conche is measured as accurately as possible. This means that the infeed of the starting material as well as the discharged quantity of conched chocolate mass have to be accurately dosed to avoid any variations regarding the contents of the conche.
In the process and the apparatus as taught by the invention, the conched chocolate mass is extracted from the conche by means of a compulsory conveyance, especially by means of a screw conveyor. The drive or the conveying capacity of the screw conveyor is controlled such that with a predefined infeed of starting material, the quantity of chocolate mass in the conche remains nearly constant.
Expediently, the fed in starting material as well as the extracted conched chocolate mass are measured continuously or intermittently and the discharge of the conched chocolate mass and/or the quantity of the fed in starting material are regulated accordingly.
According to the invention, the quantity of the chocolate mass discharged from the conche can be determined by weighing and in response, the conveyor drive of the screw conveyor can be temporarily or intermittenly interrupted. The desired quantity of chocolate mass to be discharged can be based on a specific unit of time. In response to the measured discharge quantity, the conveyor drive of the screw conveyor can be shut off several times, if required, during this unit of time, so that the exact desired quantity is discharged during a unit of time. The quantity of fed in starting material can in this process be kept constant by means of a respective dosing, or it may also be continuously or intermittently measured.
The invention is further concerned with an optimum mixing of the chocolate mass. According to a further feature, a mixing device is arranged outside the conche, especially downstream of the screw conveyor. According to the invention, this mixing device is connected to the screw conveyor, so that from the conche and via the screw conveyor, the chocolate mass directly reaches a mixing device located in an elongate cylindrical housing. In this mixing device, the chocolate mass is mixed until it is pumpable.
Further features of the invention relate to the structure of the conche, especially for reliably discharging the conched chocolate mass, and to the structure of the screw conveyor and the mixing device.

Apparatus for continuously conching chocolate mass


Disclosed is a method and apparatus for use in a wireless terminal for detecting a position of a retractable antenna relative to a fixed antenna. The method has steps of positioning an electrical contact for being electrically coupled to the retractable antenna only when the retractable antenna is retracted within a body of the wireless terminal, and at least partially contained within the fixed antenna; detecting a presence of RF energy that is coupled into the retractable antenna from the fixed antenna, wherein the detected presence of the RF energy is indicative of the retractable antenna being in the retracted position; and, if the retractable antenna is not indicated to be in the retracted position, transmitting RF energy from the retractable antenna using more RF power than if the retractable antenna were indicated to be in the retracted position. In the preferred embodiment the retractable antenna is used when operating in the AMPS mode, and the fixed antenna is used when operating in other than the AMPS mode, such as when operating in the CDMA mode.

This invention relates generally to radio frequency (RF) antennas and antenna circuitry and, more particularly, pertains to extendable/retractable antennas.
It is well known in the art to provide RF antennas that can be extended so as to protrude from a device during use of the device. For example, in a radiotelephone, which could also be referred to as a wireless terminal, a personal communicator, a mobile station or as a cellular telephone, it is known to provide two different antennas. Referring also to FIG. 1, a first antenna 1 intended for use with a first set of transmission and reception frequency bands is formed as a meander transmission line, or simply as a helically wrapped length of conductor, that is disposed about a circular cylindrical or otherwise shaped form 2. The first antenna 1 is assumed to be fixed in position. The form 2 is hollow, and contains within (when fully retracted) a second antenna 3. The second antenna 3 can be a rod-shaped whip-type antenna that is capable of sliding within the form 2 so that it can be extended by the user. In the presently preferred embodiment the form 2 is contained within the body of a wireless terminal 4. When the second antenna 3 retracted only the first antenna 1 is electrically active. The first antenna 1 is coupled, via a duplexer 5, to an RF transceiver 6. When the second antenna 3 is fully extended, shown in dashed outline, it makes electrical contact at 3A with the distal end of the first antenna 1, and is coupled through the first antenna 1 to the RF transceiver 6 (or to a second RF transceiver, not shown).
It can be important to detect the position of the second antenna, as the specified maximum radiated power may be different when using the first antenna as compared to the second antenna. For example, one may reasonably assume that the first antenna 1 is used when transceiving RF signals in accordance with a CDMA air interface standard, and that the second antenna 3 is used when transceiving RF signals in accordance with a second air interface standard, such as one known as AMPS. Generally, when in the AMPS mode it is typically desirable to use more transmitted power than when in the CDMA mode. The increase in transmitted power is preferably made, however, when the second antenna is extended out of the body of the wireless terminal 4, and not retracted into the body of the wireless terminal 4. This enables an increase in performance in the AMPS mode, while still meeting predetermined RF emission limits.
It is possible to position a mechanical switch 7 so as to detect when the second antenna is in the fully retracted position, and to couple an output of the switch 7 to a control unit 8, such as a microprocessor, within the wireless terminal 4. By detecting the state of the switch 7 the control unit 8 is enabled to determine whether it can transmit with maximum power using the second antenna 3.
However, the use of the mechanical switch 7 has several disadvantages, including increased cost, decreased reliability, and increased manufacturing and testing complexity.
It is a first object and advantage of this invention to provide an improved technique for detecting a position of a moveable antenna.
It is a further object and advantage of this invention to provide a technique for detecting the position of a retractable antenna that does not use a mechanical switch, and that thus does not experience the problems inherent in the use of a mechanical switch.
The foregoing and other problems are overcome and the foregoing objects and advantages are realized by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.
A circuit and method are disclosed for detecting a position of a movable antenna relative to a fixed antenna. The circuit includes an electrical contact positioned for being electrically coupled to the movable antenna only when the movable antenna is in a first predetermined position relative to the fixed antenna; and an RF detection circuit having an input coupled to the electrical contact for detecting a presence of RF energy that is coupled into the movable antenna from said fixed antenna. The detected presence of the RF energy is indicative of the moveable antenna being in the predetermined position relative to the fixed antenna. The fixed antenna is disposed along a length of the movable antenna when said movable antenna is in said first predetermined position. For example, the fixed antenna is disposed circumferentially about a hollow form and the movable antenna is a rod-shaped, whip-type antenna that is disposed within the form such that it is slidable therein between a fully retracted position and a fully extended position. When in the first predetermined position the movable antenna is in the fully retracted position. In the presently preferred embodiment the RF detection circuit includes a detection diode, at least one RF filter coupled in series between an input of the detection diode and the electrical contact, a capacitance coupled to an output of the detection diode for storing charge detected by the detection diode such that the capacitance has a potential impressed thereon by the charge, and a comparator for comparing the potential to a predetermined potential. The comparator has an output the state of which indicates whether or not the first antenna is in the first predetermined position.
Also disclosed is a method for use in a wireless terminal for detecting a position of a retractable antenna relative to a fixed antenna. The method has steps of positioning an electrical contact for being electrically coupled to the retractable antenna only when the retractable antenna is retracted within a body of the wireless terminal, and at least partially contained within the fixed antenna; detecting a presence of RF energy that is coupled into the retractable antenna from the fixed antenna, wherein the detected presence of the RF energy is indicative of the retractable antenna being in the retracted position; and, if the retractable antenna is not indicated to be in the retracted position, transmitting RF energy from the retractable antenna using more RF power than if the retractable antenna were indicated to be in the retracted position. In the preferred embodiment the retractable antenna is used when operating in the AMPS mode, and the fixed antenna is used when operating in other than the AMPS mode, such as when operating in the CDMA mode.

Method and apparatus for detecting physical position of a retractable antenna


A water closet with a tilting cover acting as a bowl includes one mobile portion forming a bowl for receiving solid and liquid matter and pivoting around a horizontal axis and able by rotating through approximately 180.degree. to occupy two positions, namely one position for the bowl receiving the matter and the other position when the bowl is upturned and with one fixed portion disposed under the bowl and into which the contents of the bowl is emptied when the latter passes from the first position to the second position.

The object of the invention is to provide a water system with a newly-designed and practical water flusher using less water for flushing, which is more hygienic and offers more comfort than traditional water closets with a fixed bowl.
To this effect, the purpose of the invention is to provide a water closet with a tilting cover acting as a bowl, wherein it comprises one mobile portion forming a bowl for receiving solid and liquid matter and pivoting around a horizontal axis and able by rotating through approximately 180 degrees to occupy two positions, namely one for said bowl receiving said matter and the other when the bowl is upturned and forming a cover and with one fixed portion placed under the bowl and into which the contents of the bowl is emptied when the latter passes from said first position to said second position.
According to one embodiment, said fixed portion forms a seating unit or seat defining a horizontal orifice, the mobile portion being joined onto said seat around an axis placed approximately inside the plane of said orifice in the centre of the latter and perpendicular to the sagittal plane from the person situated in the position for using the water closet.
The fixed portion is preferably equipped with means for evacuating matter and for possibly crushing or processing said matter before being removed.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the water closet is advantageously provided with a paper magazine or similar device for sheets or strips and suitable means for being deployed above the bowl when the latter is in said first position, a sheet or strip portion of said paper or other similar material to be subsequently inserted between the bottom of the bowl and the waste matter and removed by gravity at the same time as this matter.
Preferably, the water closet is provided with a water flushing system for cleaning the bowl and constituted by a washing ramp placed either on the bowl or on the fixed portion of the water closet, this ramp operating when the bowl moves to reach said second position.
The movement of the bowl is effected either manually or controlled by any suitable mechanical device.

Water closet with a tilting cover acting as a bowl

Societe Nationale Industrielle et Aerospatiale


A mobile device has several ways to determine position, some of which rely on interaction with the network. Once mobile device establishes a call, the call may remain on the network access technology and band over which the call was established, even if the call requires services not supported by the network access technology and/or band. So, when a call requires a position determination (e.g. emergency call), the mobile device selects a network access technology and band which will potentially improve the probability and accuracy of position determination, even if interaction with the network is not required because other position determination techniques (e.g. GPS) may be available.

A determination of the location of a mobile device is required as part of the processing of an emergency call, such as a E911 call, from the mobile device. Location information (e.g. street address) is provided for the personnel at a public safety answering point (PSAP) that receives the call, to allow a call taker to dispatch assistance in response to the emergency. The location information is based on positional information (e.g. latitude and longitude) provided to the PSAP via a position determining element (PDE) which provides the positional information of the mobile device for updating an automatic location identification (ALI) database. The PDE may be network based, such as part of a mobile positioning center (MPC) within a mobile communication network serving the mobile device; or the PDE may be implemented at the mobile device, such as a global positioning system (GPS) chip in the mobile device. Whether in the network or the mobile device, the PDE determines the position of the mobile device based on information received from the mobile device and/or the mobile communication network serving the mobile device. The PDE provides the positional information to the MPC and the MPC updates a corresponding record in the ALI database. When the PSAP receives the E911 call, the PSAP queries the ALI database, receives the positional information from the ALI database, determines the location of the mobile device based on the positional information, and displays the positional information along with the location to the call taker.
The PDE receives information from the mobile device and/or the mobile communication network via various protocols. Most often, an individual PDE implements support for multiple protocols. A mobile device based PDE, for example, supports a protocol for receiving GPS information from a GPS receiver in the mobile device and a protocol for receiving timing information from the mobile communication network. The mobile device based PDE, however, may not support all of the various protocols for determining positional information of the mobile device. In addition, in some situations, the protocols supported by the mobile device based PDE may not successfully provide the necessary information for the mobile device based PDE to determine the position of the mobile device. In these situations, the MPC must rely on a network based PDE, which requires the mobile device to utilize a particular mobile network access technology.
Hence a need exists for a way to identify when a mobile device based PDE is unable to determine the mobile device position and ensure the mobile device is utilizing the mobile network access technology that will allow the MPC to provide positional information to the ALI database.


The present invention is provided a method for allocating uplink resources in a communication system. The method includes calculating a scheduling metric for each Mobile Station (MS), selecting an MS with a high priority according to the scheduling metric, determining a Modulation order Product coding Rate (MPR) and a number of subchannels for the selected MS, and allocating the determined MPR and the determined number of subchannels to the selected MS and updating the scheduling metric for the each MS.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a communication system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for efficiently allocating resources in uplink scheduling in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Provisioning of services with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) levels at about high-speed to users is an active study area for the future-generation communication system. Particularly, active research is being conducted on the development of a new communication system that supports high-speed services by ensuring mobility and QoS to Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) supporting relatively high data rates and Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN).
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16a and IEEE 802.16e communication systems adopt Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing/Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM/OFDMA) for the physical channels of the WMAN system in order to support a broadband transmission network. Because a physical channel signal is transmitted on a plurality of subcarriers in OFDM/OFDMA in the WMAN system, IEEE 802.16a and IEEE 802.16e enable high-speed data transmission, and are in effect, OFDM/OFDMA-Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication systems.
IEEE 802.16a considers only a single-cell structure with no regard to mobility of Subscriber Stations (SSs). In contrast, IEEE 802.16e supports the SS' mobility to the IEEE 802.16a communication system. For the IEEE 802.16e system to ensure the mobility of SSs in a multi-cell environment, the operations of the SS and the Base Station (BS) must be modified. Particularly, handover for the SS in the multi-cell structure is under active study. Hereinafter, a mobile SS will be referred to as an MS.
FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of a conventional BWA communication system.
Referring to FIG. 1, the BWA communication system is configured in a multi-cell structure. Thus, it includes cells 100 and 150, a BS 110 that covers the cell 100, a BS 140 that covers the cell 150, and a plurality of MSs 111, 113, 130, 151 and 153. Signaling between the BSs 110 and 140 and the MSs 111, 113, 130, 151 and 153 is based on OFDM/OFDMA.
In OFDMA proposed for the BWA communication system, subchannels are composed of subcarriers that constitute one OFDM symbol, and a plurality of OFDM symbols form one frame.
FIG. 2 illustrates the structure of a data frame in the conventional BWA communication system. Particularly, the data frame is an Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) frame for an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access-Time Division Duplex (OFDMA-TDD) BWA communication system.
Referring to FIG. 2, the data frame is divided into a DL frame and a UL frame in time. A Transmit/receive Transition Gap (TTG) is interposed for transition from the downlink to the uplink and a Receive/transmit Transition Gap (RTG) is interposed for transition from the uplink to the downlink. The horizontal axis represents OFDMA symbol numbers and the vertical axis represents the logical numbers of subchannels.
On the downlink, a preamble resides in a Kth OFDMA symbol, for synchronization acquisition, and data information broadcast commonly to MSs such as a Frame Control Header (FCH) and a DL-MAP is located in a (K+1)th OFDMA symbol.
The preamble delivers a synchronization signal, i.e. a preamble sequence by which synchronization is acquired between a BS and an MS. That is, the preamble is required for the MS to acquire synchronization to data transmitted by the BS. The MS extracts the synchronization information from the preamble through its MODEM.
The FCH is composed of two subchannels, carrying basic information about subchannels, ranging and modulation. An analysis of the FCH reveals the size of the DL-MAP and the frequency reuse factor (referred to as reuse) of the BS, for example, reuse 1 or reuse 3.
The DL-MAP delivers a DL-MAP message. It has information required for data extraction and service provisioning to MSs, such as the positions and sizes of data in the DL frame. Therefore, data can be extracted from the DL frame by analyzing the DL-MAP information.
In (K+3)th through (K+15)th OFDMA symbols, Downlink bursts (DL bursts) are positioned, for example, DL burst #1 to DL burst #6. Data is extracted from the DL bursts based on general data information, such as information acquired from the DL-MAP.
On the uplink, Uplink bursts (UL bursts), UL burst #1 to UL burst #5 are located in (K+17)th to (K+26)th OFDMA symbols. A Ranging Subchannel also occupies the (K+17)th to (K+26)th OFDMA symbols. Data is extracted from the UL bursts based on general data information such as information acquired from an Uplink MAP (UL-MAP) delivered in DL burst #1.
Each subchannel is composed of a plurality of subcarriers. Depending on system situation, a number of subcarriers form one subchannel. As described above, the IEEE 802.16e OFDMA communication system configures subchannels each being a set of subcarriers according to system situation and allocates resources to a plurality of users (i.e. MSs) by the subchannels.
FIG. 3 illustrates traffic transmission in the conventional BWA communication system. Particularly, a BS 350 allocates uplink resources to, for example, an MS 320 that transmits traffic using the allocated resources.
Referring to FIG. 3, the BS 350 selects an MS (e.g. the MS 320) to allocate resources to from among MSs 310, 320 and 330 in its coverage area by a scheduling procedure. The BS 350 determines the amount of resources and a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) for the MS 320. Also, the BS 350 determines the position of the resources by which the MS 320 will transmit data. This operation is repeated until all uplink resources are allocated.
After the scheduling is completed, the BS 350 broadcasts uplink scheduling information indicating the result of the scheduling in a UL-MAP message to all the MSs 310, 320 and 330 in the cell.
The MSs 310, 320 and 330 receive the UL-MAP message and, if resources have been allocated to them, transmit traffic at the positions of the allocated resources on the uplink. For example, if the UL-MAP message indicates the existence of resources allocated to the MS 320, the MS 320 transmits uplink traffic at the position of the allocated resources.
Basically, the BS seeks to maximize radio channel throughput and minimize the transmission delay of traffic in uplink scheduling. The BS aims to reduce interference with neighbor sectors, reduce UL-MAP overhead, expand cell coverage, reduce the power consumption of the MSs and maintain stable link performance between the BS and the MSs. Thus, the BS selects an operation algorithm that serves the above purposes. However, some objectives of the BS scheduling may be contradictory to one another. Hence, the scheduler of the BS attempts to fulfill the objectives appropriately according to their priority levels by adjusting parameters such as an MCS level preference and the amount of resources allocated per time.
Yet, there is no specified scheduling method and apparatus for satisfying the foregoing objectives in allocating uplink resources through frame-basis uplink scheduling in a broadband mobile communication system, particularly an OFDMA-TDD mobile communication system.

Apparatus and method for allocating resources in a communication system


One or more embodiments of the invention provide a method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for modifying a three-dimensional model. A composite three-dimensional model is displayed in a computer implemented solid modeling system. The composite model comprises a first primitive and a second primitive. A first face of the first primitive is selected. Once selected, a first boundary representation of the first primitive is modified using the selected first face. Thereafter, a second boundary representation of the second primitive is automatically modified based on the modification to the first boundary representation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a three-dimensional modeling system, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for directly repositioning a face of a three-dimensional model.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of constructive solid geometry (CSG) application programs is well known in the art. CSG application programs ate often expensive, complex, and difficult to learn how to use. Three-dimensional (3D) models displayed in a CSG application are made up of one or more features or primitives of various types. The geometry of individual features or primitives is determined by parameters. To modify the 3D model, each parameter of each primitive must be individually modified by a user. Such modifications are typically performed by a user using dialogs or handles on an attribute-by-attribute basis. Further, when modifying a face of a 3D model having multiple different features, each feature must be independently modified using a handle or dialog. Such modifications are time consuming and require the performance of multiple actions by a user. These problems may be better understood by a description of CSG modeling systems and prior art modification methods.
In a CSG 3D modeling system, a 3D model (also referred to as an object model) may be constructed, displayed, modified, etc. as illustrated in FIG. 1. An object model is comprised of one or more geometries such as a block 100, cylinder, sphere, polyline extrusion, etc. Each type of geometry is also referred to as a primitive or geometric primitive.
In addition to simple primitives (e.g., a block, sphere, etc.), a geometry may be made up of several primitives. Such a geometry is referred to as a composite or composite model and is created through one or more Boolean operations (such as addition [joint model] or subtraction [holes]). FIG. 2 illustrates a composite model created through one or more Boolean operations. The components 200A–200B (i.e., geometries/primitives) that make up a composite model 200 may also be referred to as features. Several primitives/features 200A–200B that are joined through addition and have a common (merged) face are referred to as merged features. For example, two joined blocks with the same height that are tied together is referred to as a composite with merged block features. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the block 200A and cylinder cutout 200B are merged and have a common face.
Parameters are used to describe each geometry/primitive/feature. For example, a block 100 may have parameters for width, depth, length, side wall tapers, etc. Similarly, a cylinder may have parameters for radius, height, side wall taper, etc. Further, the boundary or outline of the geometry is referred to as a boundary representation for the geometry.
For each primitive, a control is utilized to adjust the parameters for the primitive. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2A, each control has several user interface elements (referred to as handles 102A–102F, 104A–104B, 106, and 202A–F, 204, and 206) that allow a user to input information for a parameter through the use of a mouse. For example, a handle may provide how much the width of a block 100 should be changed. A handle may either be a linear handle (to adjust linear parameters) (e.g., handles 104A, 104B, and 204) or a planar handle (to adjust planar parameters) (e.g., handles 102A–F and 202A–F). Accordingly, a block's 100 control may have one or more of the following handles 102–106: a width handle (e.g., handles 102B and 102E), depth handle (e.g., handles 102C and 102F), height handle (e.g., handles 102A and 102D), edge (changes the side wall taper) handle (e.g., handles 104A–104B), a hidden handle on each face of the block 100, and a block 100 handle (e.g., handle 106) for moving the entire block 100. Both block 200A and cylinder cutout 200B may be independently selected to display the appropriate handles (i.e., handles 102–106 and 202–206) for use in modifying each component 200A/200B.
An algorithm for modifying a geometry is implemented in a method of a control (referred to as a handle dragged method). For example, if a hidden face handle is being dragged (e.g., using a mouse or cursor control device), the algorithm for modifying the geometry's appropriate face will be implemented such that the face is moved locally. Accordingly, only the face will be moved while any other part of the geometry remains unchanged. In this respect, to move a face of a composite, the merged faces must be independently and individually modified through user input (i.e., through the face handles) so that the faces remain consistent (e.g., planar). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, if the front face of block 200A is modified, the cylindrical cutout 200B is not moved simultaneously. Thus, if the front face of block 200A is moved forward, the cylindrical cutout 200B would likely disappear with the length of the cylindrical cutout 200B remaining in the same location. Accordingly, the user must independently select cylindrical cutout 200B and extend its length to match any modification to block 200A.
Once modified, a view, for each primitive, implements the functionality for displaying a model using information from the geometry. A tool may be used to implement functionalities for getting and passing user interface information (i.e., handle information), such as mouse events to create or modify geometry.
As described above, to modify the primitives/features, the individual parameters of the primitives/features are modified. Accordingly, each parameter is typically modified by the user using dialogs or handles on a feature-by-feature basis. The same result can also be achieved by changing the model's boundary representation directly (i.e., not by modifying feature parameters). However, when the boundary representation of the model is changed directly, either the entire model is converted to a simple boundary representation (thereby discarding the knowledge of the primitives that were originally used to create the model), losing the procedural CSG history and thus the ability/advantages to modifying the model using feature parameters, or an additional operation is added to the procedural history. Such a conversion and/or additional operation is time consuming, complicated, and adds unnecessary complications to the modification process. Alternatively, the modifications to the geometry can be added as specific operations to the CSG history, but this introduces additional layers of complexity to subsequent interaction with the model.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method, system, and article of manufacture for easily modifying a composite geometry without requiring multiple steps from a user, without converting a model to a boundary representation, and without adding an additional operation to the procedural history.