There are described compounds of formula (I): and there use as a medicament in the treatment of conditions involving abnormal activation and/or malfunction of the of the hedgehog pathway, such as cancer, fibrosis and chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).

The evolutionarily conserved Hh signalling pathway plays an important role in tissue development and is a major regulator of cell differentiation, cell proliferation and tissue polarity (Ingham & McMahon, 2001). Disruption of this pathway underlies a variety of developmental disorders affecting multiple organ systems and improper activation of the pathway can lead to malignancy (Pak & Segal, 2016), fibrosis (Fabian et al., 2012), GVHD (Zerr et al, 2012) and amongst other indications, angiogenic disorders.
The Hh signalling pathway is named after a gene first identified in Drosophila melanogaster. Mutations of this gene were found to result in a continuous lawn of denticles (spiky processes) covering the anterior half of the larval cuticle, rather than the posterior half where they are usually found (Nusslein-Volhard & Wieschaus, 1980). This unusual phenotype led to the gene name hedgehog (Hh). The Hh gene product was later identified as a secreted glycoprotein ligand that triggers an intracellular signalling cascade critical for segment polarity (Mohler & Vani, 1992). Whilst flies possess one Hh gene, three are found in mammals: Sonic (SHH), Indian (IHH) and Desert (DHH) (Echelard et al., 1993). SHH is the best studied and is of fundamental importance during embryo development and post-natal homeostasis (Echelard et al., 1993; Chiang et al., 1996). There are few parts of the vertebrate body plan that are not influenced in some way by a SHH signal. The other two members of the family, THE and DHH, have been shown to participate in bone development and spermatogenesis, respectively (Bitgood et al., 1996; St-Jacques et al., 1999). Although vertebrate Hh signalling is critical for many aspects of development, the importance of this pathway in later life appears more limited. During adulthood, the Hh pathway maintains normal tissue homeostasis and plays a regulatory role in stem cells (Lai et al., 2002; Levy et al., 2005).
All Hh proteins are initially synthesized as an inactive precursor protein with an amino-terminal signalling domain and a carboxy-terminal intein-like domain which is later removed by autocatalytic cleavage (Perler, 1998). The Hh signalling pathway is initiated when the Hh protein binds to its receptor, a 12-transmembrane domain (TMD) protein called Patched1 (PTCH1) (Stone et al., 1996). In the absence of the Hh ligand, PTCH1 blocks the downstream pathway by inhibiting the central positive mediator of Hh signalling, a 7-TMD G-protein-coupled-like receptor called Smoothened (SMO) (Alcedo et al., 1996; Murone et al., 1999). When the Hh ligand binds to PTCH1, repression of SMO is released due to internalization and degradation of both PTCH1 and Hh (Incardona et al., 2000). The mechanism by which PTCH1 inhibits SMO and how Hh releases this suppression is unknown, but it is thought that PTCH1 inhibits the transport or synthesis of SMO rather than a direct inhibitory interaction (Taipale et al., 2002). Upon release of PTCH1, SMO is able to enter the primary cilium and become phosphorylated by casein kinase 1 (CK1) and the G-protein coupled receptor kinase 2 (GPRK-2) to assume its activated conformation (Chen et al., 2011). Activated SMO results in nuclear localization and accumulation of the glioma-associated transcription factors (GLi) which are the terminal effectors of the Hh signalling cascade. In mammals there are 3 GLi transcription factors (GLi1, GLi2 and GLi3) (Ruiz i Altaba, 1999). Gli1 and Gli2 function as transcriptional activators of Hh signalling, whereas Gli3 functions primarily as a repressor. Ultimately, it is the balance of the collective activator and repressor functions of the Gli transcription factors that determines the status of the Hh transcriptional program.
Uncontrolled activation of the Hh signalling pathway has been implicated in a wide range of tumours with an estimated 25% of human cancer deaths resulting from cancers with hyperactivated Hh signalling (Berman et al., 2002; Tojo et al., 2002; Thayer et al., 2003; Watkins et al., 2003; Kubo et al., 2004; Sanchez et al., 2004; Dierks et al., 2008). Aberrant activation of the SHH pathway has been shown in a variety of human cancers, including, basal cell carcinoma, malignant gliomas, medulloblastoma, leukaemias, and cancers of the breast, lung, pancreas, and prostate. Tumorigenesis, tumour progression and therapeutic response have all been shown to be impacted by the SHH signalling pathway.
An explanation for this is that Hh pathway has been shown to regulate cell proliferation in adults by activation of genes involved in cell cycle progression such as cyclin D which is involved in G1-S transition. Also, SHH blocks cell-cycle arrest mediated by p21, an inhibitor of cyclin dependent kinases. Hh signalling is further implicated in cancer by inducing components in the EGFR pathway (EGF, Her2) involved in proliferation as well as components in the PDGF (PDGFα) and VEGF pathways involved in angiogenesis. Nuclear accumulation of GLi activates target genes that promote several oncogenic properties to tumour cells, including, genes involved in proliferation (cyclin D1, MYC), resistance to apoptosis (BCL-2), angiogenesis (ANG1/2), epithelial to mesenchymal transition (SNAIL) and stem cell self-renewal (NANOG, SOX2) (Hui & Angers, 2011). Improper activation of the Hh pathway can occur due to somatic mutations in upstream pathway elements such as SMO and PTCH1 (Epstein, 2008; Kool et al., 2008) or due to enhanced SHH ligand signalling (Varnat et al., 2009). Improper activation of the Hh pathway has been studied in detail in two tumour types in particular—basal cell carcinoma and medulloblastoma. Both of these cancers are prevalent in patients with basal cell nevus syndrome, an autosomal dominant disorder that presents itself with craniofacial and skeletal abnormalities. The cause of this syndrome has been found to be due to a loss of function mutation in the PTCH1 gene resulting in dysregulated Hh signalling (Kimonis et al., 1997). The SHH pathway has also been implicated in the regulation and maintenance of cancer stem cells. In chronic myeloid leukaemia and breast cancer, studies have shown that SHH signalling is essential for the maintenance of cancer stem cells and inhibition of the SHH pathway resulted in decreased stem cell propagation and renewal (Zhao et al., 2009). Furthermore, studies in epithelial cancers have found that tumours cells actually secrete the SHH ligand in a paracrine fashion to stimulate the production of growth factors to promote tumour progression and survival (Yauch et al., 2008).
Development of therapeutics targeting the Hh signalling pathway has primarily focused on targeting the SMO and GLi1 proteins. SMO inhibition prevents the downstream activation of the GLi transcription factors leading to suppression of the genes associated with cancer progression. SMO inhibition was first observed during binding studies with the natural steroidal alkaloid cyclopamine. Cyclopamine binds to the heptahelical TMD of SMO and prevents the conformational change that is required to activate SMO (Chen et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2007). Whilst treatment with cyclopamine was shown to effectively reduce tumour growth in vivo, its efficacy was undermined by many potent side effects (Mimeault et al., 2010).
Vismodegib was developed as a second generation cyclopamine derivative. It also binds to SMO and was the first in class drug approved for treating cancer by targeting of the hedgehog pathway (Robarge et al., 2009). Vismodegib is currently used in the clinic to treat basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (Sekulic et al., 2012). Sonidegib (LDE225, erismodegib) was the second SMO antagonist approved for the treatment of BCC and its mechanism of action has been determined as cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (Pan et al., 2010). There are also several other SMO antagonists currently in clinical trials including saridegib (Phase I), BMS-833923 (Phase I & II), glasdegib (Phase II) and taladegib (Phase I & II) (Rimkus et al., 2016). However, a major setback to the targeting of SMO in the Hh signalling cascade has been the observation of spontaneous mutations that develop as a response to SMO inhibitors (Sharpe et al., 2015). For example, despite initial tumour regression, after 3 months treatment with vismodegib, resistance was observed with the appearance of novel SMO mutations (Metcalfe & de Sauvage, 2011).
The GLi transcription factors have also been singled out as potential therapeutic targets due to their role as the terminal effectors of the hedgehog pathway. However, the list of GLi antagonists (GANTS) is not as extensive as that of SMO antagonists and the only FDA-approved inhibitor of GLi is arsenic trioxide (ATO) which has been approved for the treatment of promyelocytic leukaemia (List et al., 2003). ATO binds directly to GLi1 and GLi2 preventing their nuclear accumulation in response to the Hh signal. This is currently in several clinical trials for a wide range of other cancer types (phase I to IV) (Rimkus et al., 2016). GANTs, were discovered at the National Cancer Institute in a GLI-luciferase reporter assay screen in HEK293 cells. GANT-58 and GANT-61 were both discovered to inhibit GLI-mediated gene activation, though GANT-61 showed more specificity towards GLI proteins and more effectively reduced GLI1 and GLI2 DNA-binding ability. GANT-61 has shown potent inhibition of GLI1 and GLI2 in many cancer cell lines, including rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, neuroblastoma, and ovarian cancer (Rimkus et al, 2016). In a human prostate cancer xenograft model in mice, GANT-61 reduced tumour growth and proliferation and strongly reduced expression of PTCH1 mRNA (Rimkus et al, 2016). No clinical trials are currently ongoing using GANT-61 to treat any type of cancer.
Efforts have also been made to develop inhibitors directly targeting SHh as it is the most potent of the three Hh ligands (Pathi et al., 2001). These include a monoclonal antibody 5E1 (Coon et al., 2010) and an inhibitor of the enzyme SHH at which is critical to the synthesis of SHE (Petrova et al., 2013). Both are currently in pre-clinical development (Rimkus et al., 2016).
Due to the prevalence of Hh signalling pathway dysregulation in multiple cancers and the resistance problems associated with current therapeutics, there is a need for potent inhibitors of the Hh signalling pathway, especially those targeting components other than SMO.
Abnormal activation has also been shown to result in excessive extracellular matrix deposition, resulting in fibrosis.
In fibrosis, tissue parenchyma cell necrosis is caused by sustained inflammatory stimulation and is a pathologic process with enhanced production and excessive deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM). Fibrosis is a repairing process and also induces sclerosis and tissue hypofunction when the injury is persistent or the repair process is not sufficient. Tissue fibrosis is the common final outcome of a wide variety of chronic diseases, regardless of the initial causes (Liu, 2006; Boor et al., 2010; Zeisberg and Neilson, 2010). It is known that some signalling pathways have an important role in the occurrence and development of tissue fibrosis, such as Wnt/β-catenin (He et al., 2009), Notch (Bielesz et al., 2010), Ras-Raf-Mek (Grande et al., 2010), and the PI3K/Akt (phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B) pathway (Niu et al., 2007). Recently, evidence has suggested that the Hh signalling pathway may be involved in fibrogenesis in multiple tissues (Omenetti et al., 2007; Jung et al., 2011; Fabian et al., 2012). Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by aberrant activation of fibroblasts with increased release of extracellular matrix components. The hedgehog pathway is activated in patients with SSc. Hedgehog signaling stimulates the release of collagen and myofibroblast differentiation in vitro and is sufficient to induce fibrosis in vivo. These findings identify the hedgehog cascade as a profibrotic pathway in SSc. More specifically, Gli-2 is activated by Hh signaling and induces the transcription of hedgehog target genes. The expression of Gli-2 is significantly increased in the skin fibroblasts of SSc patients compared to healthy controls.
Hh signalling has also been found to be activated in human and murine chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) with increased expression of SHE and accumulation of the transcription factors GLi-1 and GLi-2. cGVHD is a prognosis limiting complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Treatment with a small-molecule antagonist of SMO, abrogated the activation of Hh signalling and protected against experimental cGVHD (Zerr et al, 2012).
The hedgehog pathway is therefore implicated in numerous conditions where there is unmet clinical need and current hedgehog inhibitors are limited by resistance due to mutations. The compounds of the present invention have been identified as hedgehog modulators useful as a medicament in the treatment of diseases and/or conditions associated with the abnormal activation and/or malfunction of the hedgehog signalling pathway.

Modulators of hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway


A method and device for separation of chalcogens from waste gases in process installations are provided so that complete and reliable removal of chalcogens occurs continuously during nonstop operation of the process installation in the most effective manner possible. The process installation is connected via a pipeline to an input connector of the device for separation of chalcogens arranged outside of the process installation. The pipeline and the input connector have a heat connection to the process chamber. The device for separation of chalcogens is provided with an outlet connector as well as a gas outlet is equipped with a cooling device so that the input connector is excluded from cooling.

The invention concerns a method for separation of chalcogens from waste gases at process installations, as well as a device for separation of chalcogens that form during industrial processes in process installations in the gaseous state.
Sulfur, selenium, tellurium and their chemical compounds with each other or other substances, or their mixtures are generally referred to as chalcogens and have a solid state of aggregation at room temperature around 20° C. The chalcogens can be used as process substances for conversion of metallic layers, so-called precursor layers, for example, on silicon or glass substrates, to a compound semiconductor layer.
Conversion or transformation of metallic precursor layers containing copper/gallium and indium by chalcogens to a compound semiconductor layer ordinarily occurs at high temperatures in a process installation for thermal processes, for example, tempering or muffle furnace. Typical conversion temperatures lie at 500° C. to 600° C. The conversion temperature is then so high that chalcogens present in the solid state of aggregation at room temperature assume a vaporous or gaseous state of aggregation within the process installation.
Chalcogen in excess is generally required for conversion/transformation of the precursor layer to a semiconducting compound semiconductor layer. Part of the vaporous chalcogen reacts with the metal atoms of the precursor layer to a semiconducting compound semiconductor layer. Another part of the chalcogen is released in the gaseous state or as vapor, like selenium vapor, and must be completely removed from the process installation, including the waste gas installations or pipelines, as well as from the waste gases leaving the process installation.
Temperatures from 400° C. to 600° C. generally prevail in process installations for production of semiconducting layers from compound semiconductors that contain copper, gallium, indium and selenium and/or sulfur. Metallic layers, which can contain copper, gallium and indium, are converted at these temperatures together with sulfur, selenium or tellurium, their chemical compounds with each other or with other substances or their mixtures, i.e., the chalcogen, to semiconducting layers. The chalcogen assumes the gaseous state of aggregation under the process conditions, i.e., the stipulated temperature and stipulated pressure and is introduced in excess to the thermal process installation used for conversion.
Part of the chalcogen reacts with the metallic layers to semiconducting compounds in semiconductor layers. Another part of the chalcogen is released in the process installation and must be removed from it. Typically the excess chalcogen, containing selenium, sulfur, tellurium and other substances condenses in or on cooler installation parts—generally at undesired locations—forming fixed deposits there that must be removed with effort from the process installation in the context of maintenance work.
Removal of deposits can occur by opening the process installation and mechanical or chemical removal. However, this is much too costly for industrial processes and therefore not an appropriate means to eliminate deposits, especially since the process in the process installation must be interrupted each time for this purpose.
Long shutdown times in process installations are the result. At the now common installation sizes a few kilograms of sulfur, selenium and/or tellurium are formed typically per process day. These are significant amounts of deposits that adversely affect functioning of the process installation. The deposits must therefore be continuously removed as effectively as possible from the process installation during its continuous operation.
Cooled separation plates for defined deposition of the excess chalcogens in the process installations, like tempering furnaces have thus far been used. These separation plates are arranged here in the gas stream, i.e., in the active part of the tempering furnace, and must be removed from time to time from the processing installation and replaced by clean separation plates. Defined cooling of the separation plates, as well as simple and effective replacement of the plates for maintenance purposes are problems in this case. Maintenance of such an installation part is therefore very time-consuming and laborious and leads to long shutdown times. Apart from this, the chalcogens cannot be completely eliminated from the waste gases in this way.

Method and apparatus for depositing chalcogens


Systems, constructs, and methods for reprogramming cells are provided. In one aspect, for example, a transformation construct for generating iPS cells can include an expression vector having a plurality of reprogramming factors, each reprogramming factor being under control of a separate promoter.

Current protocols for the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from somatic cells are slow (e.g. 30-45 days) and are inefficient (<0.1% of cells are reprogrammed). Additionally, the generation of iPS cells from somatic cells achieved by simultaneous viral transduction of defined reprogramming transcription factors using Lenti- or Retro- or Adeno-viruses requires multiple viral vectors for gene delivery. Lenti- or Retro-viruses can also result in insertional mutagenesis and can present significant barriers to research, clinical, and therapeutic application of iPS cells. A single gene delivery system does not ensure the infectivity and co-expression of all genes in one cell which is critical for reprogramming. Despite the progress in embryonic stem (ES) cells research in recent years, feeder cells such as inactivated mouse embryonic fibroblasts (iMEF) are still required to generate iPS cells from human or mouse fibroblasts. Feeder cells provide the essential support and nutrients to allow ES/iPS cells to grow, attach, and proliferate. The risk of contamination of viruses or other macromolecules from the mouse cells limits the use of such iPS cells for therapeutic purposes.

Constructs for making induced pluripotent stem cells


A communication device and method provide selective control of a level of buffering of at least one data stream. The communication device includes a jitter buffer (202), a jitter buffer control unit (204) and a user interface (206). An instruction received via an input to a user interface (206) indicates a jitter buffer strategy (510), such as enabling a jitter buffer or setting a size of a jitter buffer, based on the user input. The control unit (204) sets the buffer strategy based in the instruction, and a data stream transmitted via a packet-switched network is received (530) and buffered for play out based on the buffer strategy (540).

Sending "realtime" or "live" audio and/or video, and other media over a network involves a huge amount of quality properties that may affect the perception of the received media. First, the media must be properly recorded or captured. Additionally, the media often must be compressed before sending it over a network it to fit the bandwidth of the transport channel Compression often involves lossy processes, which compromise the quality of the media. For video, lossy compression often decreases spatial information, which may result in blocky and blurry image artifacts. Compression also may lower quality in the temporal domain by decreasing the frame rate and dropping frames for video parts that are difficult to encode.
Depending on which transport channel that is used, the transport also may introduce other temporal degradations such as delay and jitter. Delay may be defined as the time from capturing/sending media at a transmitting side to the time it is exposed at a receiving side. Some delay will always be present since all parts in the transport chain will have some amount of duration. For conversational sessions, the delay cannot be too long because users will be annoyed. The amount of delay that an individual user can tolerate may be subjective to an extent, but generally any user will become annoyed after reaching or exceeding a threshold amount (e.g., the International Telecommunications Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommends that a one-way transmission time (end-to-end) delay of voice transmission quality not exceed 400 ms). In a non-conversational session, however, a user may tolerate a greater amount of delay (e.g., delay exceeding 400 ms) if delay would not be considered a critical quality factor within that particular context.
For realtime applications, a sender of media transmits packets in a regular interval and the receiver should play them in the same regular interval. However, in a packet-switched (PS) network, jitter occurs when audio and/or video packets arrive at the receiver at times that vary from an expected or "ideal" position in time. Upon playback, the jitter results in a jerky playback of the video frames or noticeable decrease in voice quality. This type of jitter is sometimes referred to as "delay jitter."
FIGS. 1a and 1b illustrate the concepts of delay and delay jitter in a PS network. In FIG. 1a, an ideal or expected uniform delay d1 occurs for each of packets P1-P5 transmitted from a sender S to a receiver R. This uniformity in delay indicates absence of any delay jitter and the resulting audio or video will be perceived as a smooth playback of the media as originally transmitted. In FIG. 1b, a non-uniform delay d2 for packet P3 and d3 for packet P5 between the sender and receiver indicates presence of jitter because both packets P3 and P5 arrive later than an expected delay, d1. In such a case, the previous frames P2 and P4 would appear "frozen" to an observer of the playback until the arrival of the late packets P3 and P5.
Another form of jitter called "inter-stream jitter" or "skew" is associated with separate streams that pertain to a same application (e.g., voice and video). The inter-stream jitter or skew is a measure of the difference in delay, or an amount that the streams are "out-of-sync" with respect to one another. User perception of good media quality often requires good synchronization (i.e., low skew), such as when watching a person talk, viewing a musical performance etc. Related art within this field is disclosed e.g. in US 2006/0095612, which describes a jitter buffer element, and in US 2005/0226233, which describes trouble-shooting in a VoIP-System, by means of a user configurable jitter buffer size.

Method for manually optimizing jitter, delay and synch levels in audio-video transmission


A method and system of verifying and authenticating personal history data of a subject comprising requesting the personal history data of the subject from a data base provider, searching the data base for the personal history data of the subject, transmitting the requested personal history data to the requester, reviewing the personal history data by the subject and verifying the accuracy of the personal history data by the subject and authenticating the verified personal history data by the subject.

1. Field of the Invention
A method of verifying and authenticating personal history data or information from at least one data base.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous data bases available to acquire and verify personal information for numerous reasons such as individuals seeking or continuing employment, financial transactions such as loans and other selection or qualifying processes.
Unfortunately, information obtained from various data bases is often incomplete or inaccurate. This can result in wrongfully denying an applicant or individual an opportunity he or she might otherwise be eligible for. If an individual were permitted to review the information prior to a decision being made based upon the erroneous information, the deficiency could generally be rectified. Moreover, when the information is derogatory, individuals may not be afforded the opportunity to explain or mitigate the negative information.
Thus, there is a need for a method or system that provides a means for an individual to review, verify, authenticate and explain data or information obtained on his or her personal history that may impact on the decision making process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system of verifying and authenticating consumer reporting history


A hair perming device and its temperature control circuit are disclosed. The temperature control circuit for a hair perming device is electrically connected with a heater of the hair penning device and comprises a main control module and a trigger module. The main control module controls the trigger module to be switched on such that a control signal outputted by the main control module can be sent to the heater for heating, and meanwhile for detects a working state of the trigger module. When a failure of the trigger module is detected, the main control module controls the trigger module to be switched off such that a continuous heating of the heater is stopped. When a failure of the trigger module is detected, the electrical power supply path of the heater is disconnected, and a continuous heating of the heater is stopped for avoiding excessive high temperature.

The hair straightener and hair curler are the necessary hairdressing apparatus for the barber shops. For example, the hair straightener usually consists of two clamping plates with a heater arranged therebetween to shape the hair by heating. In order to prevent excessively high temperature, a temperature control circuit is needed to control the heating time of the heater, so as to control the temperature of the clamping plates, thus avoiding hair damage.
At present, PTC (positive temperature coefficient heater) or MCH (ceramic heater) are commonly used as the materials of heater in the hair straightener and hair curler, at the same time, the unidirectional and bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier can be used as the switching devices of the control board for controlling the power supplying state of the heater. When the hair straightener is in use, some reasons may result in the circuit failure, that is, when the silicon controlled rectifier is short-circuited, the heater would heat the clamping plates continuously and their temperature would go beyond control. The heater may heat the clamping plates to 270 degrees Celsius or even higher until the hair straightener and hair curler are damaged.
Excessively high temperature can easily cause damage to human hair and body, especially when the temperature of MCH (ceramic heater) is out of control, as its temperature will be higher and may cause fire. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a reliable temperature control circuit for the hair perming device.

Hair perming device and its temperature control circuit


A patient transport system for transporting a patient from a bed to a stretcher or vice versa, using a bed sheet and a conveyor attached to the bed or the stretcher. A first end of the sheet is removably attached to the conveyor and a second end of the sheet is free. The sheet is adapted to be positioned onto the patient supporting member of the bed or stretcher. The conveyor includes a roller received by bearings. The roller can be removably received by the bearings. The roller can also include a telescopic arrangement so that its length can be adjusted. A pawl and ratchet assembly can be provided on the conveyor to prevent unwinding of the conveyor. The sheet is removably attached to the roller by adhesive tape or a clip arrangement. A flexible belt attaches the clip to the conveyor and is removably secured to the roller. The clip includes a body member having a recess with a plug received therein.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to patient transport systems, and more particularly, to a patient transport system for transferring an immobile patient from a bed to a gurney or vice versa.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It appears to be widely accepted that a major, if not the major, work-related complaint among nurses and hospital nursing staff is back injuries caused by lifting patients and getting them in and out of a bed and to and from a gurney or a stretcher as it is commonly referred to. A survey of existing practices and techniques suggests that there is no widely adopted simple and safe method of transferring patients from a bed to a gurney, or vice versa, without lifting them. There are hoist-type lifts where the patient is suspended in a sling. The sling must be first manipulated under the patient and then the patient must be physically lifted, changing the shape of the body and applying pressures different from those existing on the patient when lying prone in bed. There are also roller boards which are inserted partially under the patient and then the patient is pulled onto the roller board. Again, the patient must be manipulated to allow the board to be inserted and then the body is pulled onto the board. In the end, the patient ends up on the board, not on the gurney or the bed. An additional disadvantage of the roller board is that either the patient must cooperate with the transferrer or more than one transferrer is required to effect the transfer. Patients have also been known to drop off the roller boards and to land on the floor between the bed and the gurney.
An earlier patent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808, which is hereby incorporated by reference, solves this age-old problem of transferring patients from a bed or a gurney and vice versa. That patent application discloses an apparatus for transporting a patient and includes a base, a patient supporting member attached to the base, a conveyor attached to the base and a removable sheet. The sheet has a first end and a second end where the sheet first end is removably attached to the conveyor and the sheet second end is free. The sheet is adapted to be positioned on the patient supporting member, such as a mattress. In operation, an end of the sheet, which is attached to the conveyor, is rotated around a roller thereby moving the patient from the bed to a gurney or vice versa.
However, the conveyor disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808 requires that the roller remain affixed to the bed or gurney, or the complete conveyor be removed from the bed or gurney. This results in a problem of storing the conveyor in a hospital room and transporting the conveyor when it is not attached to the bed or gurney.
Further, typically hospital beds vary in length and in many cases can be adjusted so that their lengths vary. In this case, a conveyor, such as that disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808, may be inoperative if the length of the roller is different from that of the length of the bed. Further, if the length of the bed is varied during operation, then such a fixed length roller could affect the operation of the bed.
Therefore, it is an object of my invention to allow a patient, while lying in a prone position and completely immobile, to be moved, by one person of relatively low strength, safely from the bed to the gurney and vice versa, and to accommodate various bed lengths with one conveying apparatus.
It is also an object of my invention to provide a patient transport system for a bed or a gurney which can be easily engaged with the bed or gurney and removed.


In the present accident reporting system for a land vehicle, when an emergency such as a crash-accident occurs and a sudden deceleration is exerted to a body, an calculating section time-integrates the acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor, and outputs an instruction to unfold an air bag when the integrated value exceeds a specified value, and unfolds an air bag. In parallel with the unfolding of an air bag, an emergency level determining section judges at least a slight accident occurs if an instruction to unfold an air bag is outputted, and after that, monitors the integrated value of acceleration of the calculating section, and judges a multiple impact accident occurs when the integrated value of acceleration after the unfolding of an air bag exceeds a specified value. An emergency communication operating section automatically sends an emergency information corresponding to the result of the judgment of the emergency level determining section concerning slight-accident/serious-accident to an emergency center with radio wave.

1. Technical field of the invention
The present invention relates to an accident reporting system for a land vehicle which automatically and urgently reports an emergency to a receiver in order to call a rescue with radio signals when an air bag equipped in a vehicle is unfolded.
2. Earlier Technology
Previously, an accident reporting system for a land vehicle, which automatically sends an emergency information to call the rescue including the information such as a positioning data of the vehicle, an information of the user, or an information of the vehicle to a receiver, an emergency communication center, for instance, when an accident occurs on the vehicle, is well known. This kind of system judges that an emergency such as a collision occurs and automatically sends an emergency information when an air bag is unfolded, by using an operation signal to unfold the air bag as a trigger signal for commence transmitting the emergency information automatically.
However, when an operation signal to unfold the air bag is used as a trigger for automatically sending an emergency report, only occurrence of an accident can accurately be judged, but the scale or the situation of the accident cannot be judged in detail. Consequently, for the emergency center receiving the emergency information, it is desirable to go to the rescue at the site where the accident occurs with rescue preparations capable of complying with any serious situation. However, even when an air bag is unfolded, the accident may be various in scales, i.e., it could be a slight accident or a complexed and serious accident. If the scale and/or the seriousness of the accident can be judged from the emergency communicating information, the rescue preparations can be organized according to them, and such a situation can be avoided that they go to the rescue with a large scale of rescue preparations for a slight accident.

Accident reporting system for a land vehicle


An electrical connector arrangement taps off electrical current from a plurality of coplanar parallel input insulated conductors and supplies the same to a plurality of output conductors, respectively. A rectangular base member is provided having a horizontal upper surface that supports a plurality of parallel coplanar longitudinally-extending input conductors, respectively. A pair of pivot members are connected with the ends of the base member for pivotal movement about transverse horizontal pivot axes, respectively. As the pivot members are pivoted from disengaged positions toward engaged positions parallel with and directly above the base member top surface, bifurcated insulation-piercing knives on the pivot members pierce the insulation layers of the insulated conductors and electrically engage the conductors. Junction blocks fastened to the pivot members include output contacts connected with the insulation piercing knives via bus bars, which output contacts are connected with the output conductors, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
An electrical connector arrangement for tapping off electrical current from a plurality of coplanar parallel input insulated conductors and supplying the same to a plurality of output conductors, respectively, includes a rectangular base member having a horizontal upper surface that supports a plurality of parallel coplanar longitudinally-extending alternately-staggered input conductors, respectively, and a pair of pivot members connected with the ends of the base member for pivotal movement about transverse horizontal pivot axes, respectively. As the pivot members are pivoted from disengaged positions relative to the base member toward engaged positions parallel with and directly above the base member top surface, bifurcated insulation-piercing knives on the pivot members pierce the insulation layers of the insulated conductors and electrically engage the conductors. Junction blocks fastened to the pivot members include output contacts connected with the insulation piercing knives via bus bars, which output contacts in turn are connected with the output conductors, respectively.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known in the patented prior art to provide connectors with insulation piercing contacts, as shown, for example, by the prior U.S. patents to Gaertner et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,315, Lux U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,804, Stuckmann et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,605, and Huiskamp et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,292, among others. It is also known to provide quick-fastening terminal blocks and junction blocks having one-way resilient contacts for automatically engaging and retaining a bare conductor end that is inserted through an access opening, as shown by the patents to Beege et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,280,233 and 6,712,641, and Fricke et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,855, among others.
In the German patent No. DE 297 06 750 U1, an electrical connector is disclosed in which a plurality of taps are provided for tapping off electrical current from an insulated conductor. For this purpose, a plurality of groove-like seats are provided on a base plate into which seats one can insert a flat cable or a plurality of electrical conductors that are parallel with respect to each other. Then an upper part is displaced in order to slacken the conductors or the flat cable. Upon this preassembled unit, which is provided with separating walls, one then locks clamp-like bodies in a pivotal motion, which bodies in each case are provided with an insulation-penetrating contact that is connected via a bus bar with, in each case, two traction spring clamps for connection of branching conductors. In this manner, one can make in each case two branches on each conductor without having to separate the continuous conductors.
It is also known that one can arrange connection devices on a shaft that is rotatably mounted on a bottom plate. This design did not prove effective because the conductors must be inserted sideways so that the arrangement is not suitable for assembly on already installed continuous cables.
The present invention therefore is an improvement over the typical state of the prior art and seeks to simplify said state of the art with respect to its design structure. A compact structure and easy handling are also to be achieved as a result.

Connector arrangement including insulated conductor tap-off means


A method for manufacturing green-emitting phosphor particles including the steps of producing a powder containing europium and strontium from a solution containing a europium compound and a strontium compound, mixing the resulting powder and a powdered gallium compound, and performing firing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to green-emitting phosphor particles, a method for manufacturing the green-emitting phosphor particles, a color conversion sheet, a light-emitting device, and an image display device assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
As for a phosphor material for a white-emitting diode (LED), a SrGa2S4:Eu phosphor has been common knowledge. In order to amplify the brightness of the SrGa2S4:Eu phosphor, it is necessary to increase absorption of excitation light through doping with europium (Eu) serving as an emission center at a high concentration. Doping with excessive europium increases the amount of absorption of excitation light, but a problem occurs in that an internal quantum efficiency is reduced due to saturation of concentration of the emission center and, conversely, the brightness is reduced. In general, this is referred to as concentration quenching. Therefore, in the doping with europium, there is an optimum value for the concentration.

Green-emitting phosphor particles, method for manufacturing green-emitting phosphor particles, color conversion sheet, light-emitting device, and image display device assembly


A transfer apparatus and an image forming apparatus are disclosed, in which a plurality of photosensitive drums corresponding to the respective colors are arranged along the outer peripheral surface of a transfer belt and a plurality of intermediate transfer rollers for applying a transfer field to the photosensitive drums are arranged offset downstream side from each of the photosensitive drums, respectively. In addition to that, the process, the intermediate transfer rollers are arranged in such positions that each of the nip width are increased progressively downstream side, respectively and each of the nip pressure are decreased progressively downstream side, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus and an image forming apparatus which form images by an electrophotographic method using developing agent transferred onto a transfer material (for example, a paper) with a transfer belt.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, demand has increased to form a full-color image as well as a monochromatic image by an image forming apparatus of electrophotographic type, and such an electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus is under development. Normally, the full-color image forming apparatus forms images using color toner (developing agent) corresponding to each image data of a plurality of colors decomposed from a color image. For example, the same color image is read through each of the filters of each color (red, green, blue) of the three primary colors for additive color mixture, and an image data of each color (cyan, magenta, yellow) of at least the three primary colors for subtractive color mixture is created from the read data. Based on the image data of each color, a visible image is generated using toner of the corresponding color, and these visible images of the respective colors are superposed one on another thereby to form a full-color image.
In this full-color image forming apparatus, the exposure process, the development process and the transfer process are required for each color, while at the same time occurring the problem of aligning the visible images of the respective colors in position. In view of this situation, the rate at which the full-color image is formed is apparently considered lower than the rate at which the monochromatic image is formed. To overcome this problem, a full-color image forming apparatus of tandem type has conventionally been proposed in which a plurality of image forming units for forming visible images of different colors are arranged in line on the outer peripheral surface of a rotatable semiconductive endless belt along the direction of movement thereof, so that a full color image may be formed before the endless belt makes at least one rotation.
To increase the speed of forming a full-color image, the full-color image forming apparatus of tandem type employs an intermediate transfer method in which the visible images of the respective colors formed in the image forming units are superposed one on another on the outer peripheral surface of the endless belt and then transferred onto the paper, or a transfer conveyance method in which the visible images of the respective colors formed by the image forming units are transferred sequentially onto the surface of a transfer material (for example, a paper) conveyed by adsorption on the outer peripheral surface of the endless belt (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-039651 (1998) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-293437 (1998) and Japanese Patent No. 2574804).
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the configuration of the essential portion of the conventional full-color image forming apparatus employing the intermediate transfer method. The full-color image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 comprises an image forming unit 200 of electrophotographic type, in which a full-color image is formed on the paper through a primary transfer process for transferring the toner images of the respective colors in superposed relation with each other on a transfer belt 201 and a secondary transfer process for transferring onto the paper the multi-color toner image formed on the transfer belt 201 in the primary transfer process. The transfer belt 201 is configured to move along the direction of the white arrow by a transfer belt driving roller 202 and a transfer belt driven roller 203. Photosensitive drums 204a through 204d corresponding to the respective colors (for example, yellow, magenta, cyan and black) and intermediate transfer rollers 205a through 205d in opposed relation to the photosensitive drums 204a through 204d, respectively, are arranged along the path of the transfer belt 201.
In such conventional full-color image forming apparatus, consider a case in which an image is printed based on the image data inputted from the external. First, the electrically charged toner images of the respective colors are formed on the surface of the respective photosensitive drums 204a through 204d. Then, high-voltage transfer bias is applied to the intermediate transfer rollers 205a through 205d, so that the toner images on the photosensitive drums 204a through 204d are sequentially transferred onto the transfer belt 201. In the process, the transfer timing of the respective toner images is controlled, so that the toner images of the respective colors are superposed one on another and a single multi-color toner image is formed on the transfer belt 201. Then, a high voltage of opposite polarity to the charge polarity of the toner is applied to the transfer roller 206 arranged in the subsequent stage of the primary transfer process, with the result that a multi-color toner image is transferred on the paper supplied from a paper feeding unit 210. The paper onto which the multi-color toner image has been transferred is conveyed to a fixing unit-not shown, where the multi-color toner image is fixed on the paper. Thus, a printed matter formed with a full-color image is completed.
The toner image transfer efficiency of the full-color image forming apparatus of intermediate transfer type described above is determined by the toner transfer field and the adherence between the toner and the transfer belt 201. The toner transfer field is controllable by adjusting the transfer current, the transfer voltage and the transfer nip. By optimizing these parameters and thus improving the transfer efficiency, the image quality can be improved. On the other hand, the adherence between the toner and the transfer belt 201 is the intermolecular attraction (Van der Waals force) between them, and therefore dependent on the material of the transfer belt 201 and the shape of the toner on the one hand and varies with the contact area between the toner and the transfer belt 201 at the same time.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the state of the toner attached on the transfer belt 201. In the case where the contact pressure between the photosensitive drum 204a and the transfer belt 201 is small, as shown in FIG. 2A, the contact area between the transfer belt 201 and the toner transferred in the primary transfer process is reduced, and so are both the intermolecular attraction between them and the cohesion between the toner. As a result, the electrostatic transfer in the secondary transfer process is facilitated, and the toner image can be satisfactorily transferred onto the paper. In the case where the contact pressure between the photosensitive drum 204a and the transfer belt 201 is large, on the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2B, the contact area between the toner and the transfer belt 201 is increased. Therefore, the intermolecular attraction between them and the cohesion between the toner are both increased, so that the electrostatic transfer of the toner image in the secondary transfer process becomes difficult. Especially in the full-color image forming apparatus of tandem type described above, the toner images corresponding to the respective colors are superposed sequentially on the transfer belt 201, and therefore, the cohesion between the toner is promoted with the progress of the transfer process, thereby causing the reduced transfer efficiency of toner image transfer from the transfer belt 201 onto the paper. Such reduction in transfer efficiency due to the intermolecular attraction between the toner and the transfer belt 201 cannot be easily improved by electrostatic control. It is necessary, therefore, to appropriately adjust the contact pressure between the photosensitive drums 204a through 204d and the transfer belt 201 and thereby to improve the transfer efficiency and the image quality.
When sequentially transferring the toner images of the respective colors to the transfer belt 201, the charge potential of the toner attached on the transfer belt 201 increases gradually. Therefore, the voltage applied to the intermediate transfer rollers 205a through 205d is required to be increased progressively. To differentiate the voltage applied to the intermediate transfer rollers 205a through 205d, however, a high-voltage transformer, etc. is required, thereby occurring the problem of the apparatus becoming bulky and an increased production cost.

Transfer apparatus and image forming apparatus


This invention relates to a novel finger toothbrush. More particularly, this invention pertains to a unique toothbrush which can fit on a finger of a user for brushing the teeth of the user or the teeth of another human being or animal. The invention comprises a base portion with a plurality of bristles secured in and protruding from the base. A first curved finger gripping device extends from a first side of the base away from the bristles with a second curved finger gripping device extending from a second side of the base away from the bristles. Friction enhancing device are formed in the interior facing surfaces of the first and second finger gripping device.

Traditional toothbrushes have a head with bristles adjoining a rigid handle which is held by the hand of the user while the user brushes his or her teeth with the bristles. Such toothbrushes have a number of recognized disadvantages including an inability to effectively clean the surfaces of all teeth, particularly those at the rear of the mouth, and a tendency to injure the gums by sharp contacting of the gums by the rigid handle. These conventional toothbrushes are not suitable for use by persons such as arthritics who cannot grip the toothbrush.
In other situations, such as cleaning the teeth of pets, it is more convenient to have the brush mounted on the finger of the person brushing the pets' teeth in order to access tight regions. A finger held toothbrush also permits the user to "feel" the toothbrush and its effects better than in the case where a handle toothbrush is used. Pets have been found by veterinarians and the like to resist a large toothbrush with a handle. However, they do not mind the veterinarian's finger.
Many attempts have been made to design a brush structure to be fixed or held upon the finger of the user. Much greater control and flexibility can be achieved when the brush is manipulated by a finger. However, the known finger brushes have a number of disadvantages. Many prior art finger brushes have a closed end finger sheath which does not adapt well to different finger and fingernail lengths. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. Des. 97,360 (Stevens).
Another disadvantage of many finger brushes is an inability to retain the brush in proper alignment on the finger during brushing. Prior attempts to overcome this problem include providing: an adhesive strip with overlapping ends, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,921,590 (Holton) and 2,915,767 (Vaughan); a slit through which the fingertip is inserted, U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,056 (Rathbun); a frustoconical finger holder which may be slit and formed of a resilient material, U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,548 (Allen); a ribbed expandable loop together with a fingernail cavity, U.S. Pat. No. 3,105,260 (Smith et al.); and an elastomeric tubular member of uniform inner dimension which is deformable to snugly (engage the finger, U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,987 (Alam). Many of these devices are undesirable because of their cost and/or they still do not adequately prevent slippage.
Another disadvantage of prior art toothbrushes is that they do not provide an efficient surface for brushing the surfaces of each tooth. Most brushes provide a flat brushing surface which does not effectively contact the contours of the tooth surface. One prior art device, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 97,360 (Stevens), provides an elongated concave brush surface, but this surface would be effective only if aligned vertically with each tooth being brushed. Such positioning is awkward at best, and impossible for teeth in the back of the mouth.
It has also been suggested to shape the brushes of a standard toothbrush to a point to provide a pick for cleaning between the teeth, U.S. Pat. No. 2,155,245 (Sekine). However, this pick has the previously-mentioned disadvantages of brushes on elongated handles and further, no surface is provided for efficiently brushing the surfaces of each tooth.
It has also been suggested to provide a rubber tip on the end of a tongue toothbrush for massaging the gums, and a slit storage compartment and mounting projection for a length of dental floss, U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,705 (Stouffer).
Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,548, Allen, discloses a toothbrush comprising an elongated back having parallel side edges, a flat bottom surface and a downwardly concave top surface. Bristles are embedded in the flat surface and extend therefrom. A finger receiving tapered loop is integral with the back overlying the concave surface. The taper of the loop extends along the length thereof. The loop is of substantial length and shorter than the length of the back and has a longitudinally central position with respect to the back. The sides of the loop are downwardly flared adjacent the point of attachment to the back. The longer edges of the flared portions are adjacent the lengthwise edges of the back and have a length substantially equal to the length of the edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,767, Vaughan, discloses a disposable toothbrush comprising a longitudinally elongated, flexible strip, a resilient pad fixed to one surface of said strip, pressure sensitive adhesive covering at least part of said strip surface not covered by said pad and a plurality of short spaced-apart bristles which are embedded in said pad and which extend through said strip above the surface thereof opposite to said pad forming a small brush which may be fixed upon the finger of a user by wrapping said strip around the finger, and held in place thereon by means of said pressure sensitive adhesive, said resilient pad cooperating with said strip to maintain said bristles in a brushing position during use of the toothbrush.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,921,590, Holton, discloses a disposable tooth cleaning implement comprising, a flexible strip element having bristles projecting from one face thereof. Adhesive flexible tape means laterally extends from the sides of the strip element for adhesive attachment by wrapping to the finger of the user of the implement. The strip means has the outer extremities formed to be free of adhesive to facilitate the stripping of the implement from the finger of the user upon completion of the tooth cleaning operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,113, Jacob, discloses a dental health tool and method of negating the ability of plaque forming bacteria to build plaque sanctuaries between and around the tooth structure. The tool is a means for securing bristles to the skin surface of a finger of the user in order to permit both the finger nerves and gum tissue nerves to guide the use of the tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,694, Bori, discloses a finger-mounted device for cleaning teeth having an improved teeth cleaning surface, pick means for cleaning between the teeth, a nonslip finger-engaging means, and means for providing a length of dental floss. The improved teeth cleaning surface consists of a plurality of concave surfaces joined along their raised edges. Each of the concave surfaces is adapted to clean a complimentary shaped convex tooth surface. The raised edges are adapted to clean the tooth edges. The teeth cleaning surface is preferably formed by soft bristles. The pick means comprises a section of hard bristles disposed within the soft bristle area. The distal ends of the hard bristles are tapered to form a point which lies beneath the soft bristle surface. The pick is exposed for cleaning between the teeth by applying a greater pressure than that required for brushing the teeth with the soft bristles. The improved fingerengaging means is a tubular holder having both ends open and including an arcuate portion on end edge defining a concave fingertip surface for engaging the palm side of the fingertip to retain the holder on the finger. A length of dental floss is attached at one end to the device and stored around a spool attached to the device. The opposite end of the floss is attached to ring means which is also mounted on the device but detachable therefrom for unwinding the floss from the spool and holding the floss taut between the ring and device in a teeth flossing position.


New topical medicaments are provided. The medicaments comprise menthol and camphor, preferably provided as part of a base gel, supplemented with potassium and a source of oxygen. The most preferred base gel is sold under the name SOMBRA, while the most preferred source of oxygen is a chlorite (e.g., sodium chlorite) and/or spirulina. The medicaments provide high metabolic activities and sustain those activities over prolonged periods of time, thus being useful for treating a large variety of ailments, including diabetic neuropathy, post hepatic neuralgia, scleroderma, psoriasis, strain, spasticity, headaches, neuropathy secondary to drugs, peripheral neuropathy, leg pain, muscle cramps, muscle aches and pains, bruise, sinusitis, sprain, arthritis, joint pain (arthralgia), and edema.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with improved topical medicaments in forms of creams or lotions which are useful in the treatment of a variety of conditions that are ameliorated by increased cell metabolism, circulation, and nerve function. More particularly, the invention is concerned with such medicaments having a gel base with menthol and camphor, and supplemented with potassium and an oxygen source such as an alkali metal chlorite.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of topically applied creams and lotions have been developed in the past for treatment of conditions such as arthritis and muscle pains. One such product is commercialized under the designation SOMBRA. This product contains 3% menthol and 3% camphor, in a gel base, and is used for the temporary relief of minor aches and pains of muscles and joints associated with simple backaches, arthritis, strains, bruises, and sprains.
However, many prior art creams and lotions do not adequately treat these conditions in most people. Furthermore, even those that are successful do not sustain metabolic activity for extended periods of time, thus making any relief experienced rather temporary. There is a need for new treatments that provide relief for a wide variety of conditions and for extended periods of time.


Systems and methods are provided that relate to frame formatting supporting mixed two and three dimensional video data communication. For example, frames in frame sequence(s) may be formatted to indicate that a first screen configuration is to be used for displaying first video content, that a second screen configuration is to be used for displaying second video content, and so on. The screen configurations may be different or the same. In another example, the frames in the frame sequence(s) may be formatted to indicate that the first video content is to be displayed at a first region of a screen, that the second video content is to be displayed at a second region of the screen, and so on. The regions of the screen may partially overlap, fully overlap, not overlap, be configured such that one or more regions are within one or more other regions, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for formatting video frames.
2. Background Art
Images may be generated for display in various forms. For instance, television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and displaying images in monochromatic ("black and white") or color form. Conventionally, images are provided in analog form and are displayed by display devices in two-dimensions. More recently, images are being provided in digital form for display in two-dimensions on display devices having improved resolution (e.g., "high definition" or "HD"). Even more recently, images capable of being displayed in three-dimensions are being generated.
Conventional displays may use a variety of techniques to achieve three-dimensional image viewing functionality. For example, various types of glasses have been developed that may be worn by users to view three-dimensional images displayed by a conventional display. Examples of such glasses include glasses that utilize color filters or polarized filters. In each case, the lenses of the glasses pass two-dimensional images of differing perspective to the user's left and right eyes. The images are combined in the visual center of the brain of the user to be perceived as a three-dimensional image. In another example, synchronized left eye, right eye LCD (liquid crystal display) shutter glasses may be used with conventional two-dimensional displays to create a three-dimensional viewing illusion. In still another example, LCD display glasses are being used to display three-dimensional images to a user. The lenses of the LCD display glasses include corresponding displays that provide images of differing perspective to the user's eyes, to be perceived by the user as three-dimensional.
Some displays are configured for viewing three-dimensional images without the user having to wear special glasses, such as by using techniques of autostereoscopy. For example, a display may include a parallax barrier that has a layer of material with a series of precision slits. The parallax barrier is placed proximal to a display so that a user's eyes each see a different set of pixels to create a sense of depth through parallax. Another type of display for viewing three-dimensional images is one that includes a lenticular lens. A lenticular lens includes an array of magnifying lenses configured so that when viewed from slightly different angles, different images are magnified. Displays are being developed that use lenticular lenses to enable autostereoscopic images to be generated.
Techniques for achieving three-dimensional image viewing functionality often use predefined frame formats in an attempt to ensure that displays and other components in display systems are capable of interpreting the data that are included in frame sequences. For instance, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) industry standard currently provides support for three-dimensional video communication cabling. However, HDMI and other such standards are directed to rigid frame structures supporting, for example, only a single full-screen left eye frame sequence and a single full-screen right eye frame sequence to be consumed by using shutter lens glasses.

Frame formatting supporting mixed two and three dimensional video data communication


Method and system for updating firmware on a beacon device. The system includes: a communication unit and a control unit. The system broadcasts a beacon signal within a certain radius and exchanges information with the service device and the control unit and inquires of the service device about a firmware program version at a predetermined period basis by receiving the firmware program version from the service device and comparing a preset firmware program version with the received firmware program version for controlling the communication unit to stop broadcasting of the beacon signal if both versions are different from each other. The system also requests the service device to update the firmware program through the communication unit, and installs the firmware program received from the service device through the communication unit.

1. Field of the Invention
Method for updating firmware on a beacon device, a beacon device and a system using the method are disclosed. The method is capable of allowing a beacon device to determine whether a firmware on the beacon device is required to be updated. The beacon device stops broadcasting of a beacon signal being currently broadcast, if it is determined that the firmware application is required to be updated, and the firmware on the beacon device is updated.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is just to provide background information for embodiments of the present invention but does not constitute any prior art.
A beacon device is installed at various sites depending on its purpose and provides a specified service to user terminals. In other words, the beacon device broadcasts a beacon signal within a certain radius according to a Bluetooth protocol system, is connected to the user terminals which scan this beacon signal, and provides the user terminals with a variety of information such as information on goods advertisement, discount coupons and so on to user terminals entering a store, and location-based services for checked user locations in a store.
Programs quipped in such a beacon device may be changed in terms of their functions depending on service requirements. However, in order to update programs equipped in current beacon devices, a manager who manages the beacon devices has to move to sites where the beacon devices are installed and has to connect the beacon devices to a computer to update the programs.
This is a high-expensive and time-consuming task to update programs of the beacons devices with increased number of beacon devices.

Method and system for updating firmware on a beacon device and a communication unit broadcasting beacon signal


In a direct conversion receiver, to cancel a DC offset generated in the baseband processing block, negative feedback arrangements comprising a gain control amplifier and a low-pass filter are respectively attached to the I and Q signal branches of the baseband block following mixer outputs. The gain control amplifier in each negative feedback circuit is gain adjusted so that the product G-B of the gain G of a primary gain control amplifier and its own gain B will be constant and thereby the DC offset is cancelled. This DC offset cancellation can be applied in a continuous receiving system with no intermittent time during a receiving operation. Capacitance elements located off-chip can be reduced to those to be used only in the low-pass filters in the negative feedback circuits, whereas many off-chip capacitance elements have been required to be inserted between each stage of gain control amplifiers in conventional baseband chains.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to direct conversion receivers and, more particularly, to a direct conversion receiver configured to attenuate a DC offset in a signal band which occurs in a baseband signal-processing block.
2. Description of Prior Art
As a method for canceling a DC offset in a direct conversion receiver, a method by means of high-pass filters employing capacitance elements 401 is known. Circuitry configured in accordance with this method is shown in FIG. 4. In this circuitry, because a part of a signal band is cut by the high-pass filters and these results in degraded signals, the cut-off frequency of the high-pass filters is required to be as small as possible.
If the amplification section of a receiver is configured to include multiple stages of gain control amplifiers 104, there is a possibility that the DC offset is over-amplified and saturated. Thus, capacitance elements are often employed between each stage of gain control amplifier. For example, this configuration is described in Harald Pretl et al., "Circuit and System Considerations for UMTS Zero-IF Receivers in SiGe BiCMOS," MWE2001 Microwave Workshop Digest WS11-4, pp. 264-268.
In another example, DC offset cancellation means are separately attached to all gain control amplifiers in an analog baseband signal processing block. This circuitry is shown in FIG. 5. For example, a direct conversion receiver using such circuitry has been disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-211098. In this direct conversion receiver, each amplification stage in the analog baseband block is configured such that an analog to digital converter (ADC) is connected to the output of each gain control amplifier, a DC offset voltage generated is detected by a control element CTL, and a digital to analog converter (DAC) applies a voltage to cancel the detected DC offset voltage to the gain control amplifier 104. In this arrangement, to use the direct conversion receiver in a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system and a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the DC offset cancellation operation must be performed within an intermittent time period.


A method for generating a linear block code is disclosed. A message is broken up into a plurality of sets of bits. A first group of sets is processed to determine a first partial linear block code. An adjusted partial linear block code is generated from the partial linear block code. A second group of sets is processed to determine a second partial linear block code. The adjusted partial linear block code and the second partial linear block code are combined into a single value.

Data communications and storage systems typically detect transmission or storage errors in blocks of data ("messages") by checksums over the message bits. A common class of checksums is the linear block code. Linear block codes include, for example, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), Reed-Solomon codes, and Bose, Chaudhuri, and Hocquengham (BCH) codes.
As data communications and storage systems transmit and receive transmitted messages at a faster rate, computation of checksums need to match this rate. In order to accelerate the processing of linear block codes, some techniques attempted to process messages bits in parallel. Many of these techniques still suffered the drawback of requiring a large amount of time because of the large number of message bits they handle and the size of the resulting expressions.
A 32-bit parallel computation of a CRC-32, for example, requires approximately 900 exclusive-OR gates. Some of the expressions handled by past techniques also include up to 33 terms. Logic limitations such as gate fan-in and the number of inputs in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) lookup table, required multi-level implementation and a large amount of interconnection wiring. This resulted in limiting the speed of the circuit. In addition, many of these techniques also require large amounts of hardware to handle fluctuations in the rate in which message bits arrived. This translated to additional costs and additional space requirement for the hardware on the system, which was undesirable.
Thus, what is needed is an efficient and cost effective technique for computing linear block codes.

Method and apparatus for parallel computation of linear block codes


A transistor having at least one passivated Schottky barrier to a channel includes an insulated gate structure on a p-type substrate in which the channel is located beneath the insulated gate structure. The channel and the insulated gate structure define a first and second undercut void regions that extend underneath the insulated gate structure toward the channel from a first and a second side of the insulated gate structure, respectively. A passivation layer is included on at least one exposed sidewall surface of the channel and metal source and drain terminals are located on respective first and second sides of the channel, including on the passivation layer and within the undercut void regions beneath the insulated gate structure. At least one of the metal source and drain terminals comprises a metal that has a work function near a valence band of the p-type substrate.

One of the most basic electrical junctions used in modem devices is the metal-semiconductor junction. In these junctions, a metal (such as aluminum) is brought into contact with a semiconductor (such as silicon). This forms a device (a diode) which can be inherently rectifying; that is, the junction will tend to conduct current in one direction more favorably than in the other direction. In other cases, depending on the materials used, the junction may be ohmic in nature (i.e., the contact may have negligible resistance regardless of the direction of current flow). In addition to diodes, such metal-semiconductor junctions are also present at source/drain-channel interfaces within a class of transistors known as MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors).
As explained in the above-cited patent application, there exists at a metal-semiconductor contact a so-called Schottky barrier. The Schottky barrier at a conventional metal-semiconductor junction is characterized by Fermi level pinning of the semiconductor, due to both extrinsic and intrinsic surface states. The extrinsic states may arise from defects in the crystal structure of the interface. The intrinsic states arise from the quantum-mechanical penetration of the electrons in the metal into the bandgap of the semiconductor. These so-called metal-induced gap states (MIGS) appear to be of fundamental importance in explaining the physics of such junctions. See J. Tersoff, "Schottky Barrier Heights and the Continuum of Gap States," Phys. Rev. Lett. 52 (6), Feb. 6, 1984.
The Schottky barrier height at a metal-semiconductor interface determines the electrical properties of the junction. Thus, if it were possible to control or adjust the barrier height of a metal-semiconductor junction, electrical devices of desired characteristics could be produced. To tune the barrier height, the Fermi level of the semiconductor must be depinned. As discussed in detail in the above-cited patent application, the present inventors have achieved this goal in a device that still permits substantial current flow between the metal and the semiconductor. Below, the inventors present an application of this technology to MOSFET devices.
MOSFETs which incorporate Schottky junctions have a long- and largely unfruitful-history. In 1966, Lepselter and Kahng were investigating Schottky diodes. In that year they received U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,127 directed to a device with a PtSi/Si interface. Use of the silicide was found to be an improvement over previous metal/Si contacts. The diodes were reproducible and stable, in part because the interface was sealed, as noted by the inventors at the time. The silicide also may reduce the extrinsic surface states (defects). The remaining pinning is most likely due to intrinsic surface states (MIGS), although this was not recognized at the time. Shortly thereafter, Lepselter and Sze incorporated the Schottky barrier into a MOSFET (see M. P. Lepselter and S. M. Sze, "SB-IGFET: An insulated-gate field-effect transistor using Schottky barrier contacts as source and drain", Proc. IEEE 56, 1088 (1968)). U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,471 to Lepselter discussed the incorporation of the Schottky barriers, but the channel was still essentially isolated by implanted regions. The first patent for a channel isolated by Schottky barriers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,360) was issued to Wakefield and Cunningham in 1973. This device also utilized silicide junctions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,152, Lepselter described a Schottky barrier MOSFET. By eliminating the pn-junction in the source-substrate region, Lepselter showed that the parasitic pnpn structure responsible for latch-up could be eliminated. The proposed devices still utilized PtSi for the source and drain metal, however.
An extension of Lepselter's early work is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,550 to Koeneke et al. In these devices, an extra implant is added to extend beyond the source metal. This is similar to modem CMOS halo implants. The extra implant improves the drive current capabilities of the transistor by bringing the channel edge under the gate. The channel isolation in this device is from a pn-junction, not the PtSi source metal. An attempt to bring the source under the gate was investigated by recessing the source/drain contacts by etching (see C. J. Koeneke et al., "Schottky MOSFET for VLSI", IEDM, 367 (1981)). Sidewall spacers were still a limiting factor, however. This was improved by Snyder as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,479, which also disclosed the ability to control vertical doping profiles without regard to horizontal profile control. The contacts were again made from PtSi.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,590 to Chan et al. describes a device in which the PtSi/Si junctions are not recessed. This yields a poor sub-threshold slope from reduced coupling of the gate at the edge of the channel. Exponential turn-on, indicative of the Schottky barrier being too high, is seen in measurements presented in the patent. Further, the gate-source capacitance will be high.
Recently, MOSFET devices having metal-semiconductor junctions between a source/drain and a channel have been demonstrated with sub-50 nm channel-lengths, using PtSi2 (see, e.g., C. Wang et al., "Sub-40 nm PtSi Schottky source/drain metal-oxide field-effect transistors", Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 1174 (1999); and A. Itoh et al., "A 25-nm-long channel metal-gate p-type Schottky source/drain metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor on separation-by-implanted-oxygen substrate", J. Journal Appl. Phys. Part 1 39, 4757 (2000)), ErSi2, (see, e.g., J. Kedzierski et al., "Complementary silicide source/drain thin-body MOSFETs for the 20 nm gate length regime", IEDM Tech. Dig., International Electron Devices Meeting 2000, San Francisco, Calif., p. 00-57 (2000); and W. Saitoh et al., "Analysis of short-channel Schottky source/drain metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor on silicon-on-insulator substrate and demonstration of sub-50-nm n-type devices with metal gate", J. Journal Appl. Phys. Part 1 38, 6226 (1999)), and CoSi2 (see, e.g., U. K. Matsuzawa et al., "Enhancement of hot-electron generation rate in Schottky source metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors", Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3992 (2000)) for the source/drain metal. Also, simulations have been performed all the way down to channel lengths of 10 nm (see, e.g., C. K. Huang et al., "Two-dimensional numerical simulation of Schottky barrier MOSFET with channel length to 10 nm", IEEE Trans. on Elect. Dev. 45, 842 (1998)), although a poor choice of device parameters limited the performance results, e.g., a large <DB. The performance of all of these devices is limited in part by the inability to control, and especially to lower, the height of the Shottkky barrier at the source and drain interfaces to the channel.
Only two disclosures of a non-silicide pure-metal/Si contact embodiment of a Schottky-barrier MOSFET have been found by the present inventors. Welch, U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,584, seems to describe Schottky barrier MOSFET systems and fabrication thereof; however, a contact of "metal or metal silicide" is mentioned. This is inappropriate for fabrication of a device with a controlled barrier height. That is, there is no surface treatment or interface dielectric disclosed.
The disclosure by Hebiguchi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,398 is perhaps more practical, and a method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor such as for use in displays is presented. In this device (which is a field effect transistor or FET), the source/drain contacts to the Si channel are metal (a list of possibilities is presented), but again, no surface preparation is mentioned.
FIG. 1 shows the FET 100 that was discussed by Hebiguchi. The transistor contains a glass substrate 110, a gate electrode 120, a gate insulating film 130, a drain electrode 140, a source electrode 150, and a semiconductor active film 160. During operation, voltage is applied to the source electrode 150 and to the gate electrode 120. The voltage applied to the gate electrode 120 changes the electrical properties of the semiconductor active film 160 allowing current to flow from the source electrode 150 to the drain electrode 140. In particular, the voltage applied to the gate electrode 120 creates a channel-generating region 170, in the semiconductor active film 160 a short distance from the gate insulating film 130, through which current may flow.
Hebiguchi describes the semiconductor active film 160 as being hydrogenated amorphous silicon, the drain and source electrodes 140 and 150 are formed of conductive materials (metals) such as chromium (Cr), aluminum (Al), tantalum (Ta), platinum (Pt), gold (Au), tungsten (W), nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), or certain mixtures of these materials, and the junctions between the semiconductor active film 160 and the source and drain electrodes 150 and 140 are insulating Schottky barriers. The metal selected for an n-channel thin film transistor is chosen on the basis of having a workfunction that is smaller than that of silicon and the metal selected for a p-channel thin film transistor has a workfunction that is larger than that of silicon.
A significant limitation with the transistor discussed in Hebiguchi, is the generally poor control over the Schottky barrier height. As is well known, use of different metals with widely varying work functions tends to result in Schottky barriers which vary in height over a dramatically reduced range. Further, no special effort is made in Hebiguchi to control or reduce extrinsic surface states.
Another type of junction to the channel is introduced by Yoshimura in U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,605, with the stated goal being to reduce short-channel effects. An oxide or nitride is disposed between Si source and drain contacts and a Si channel. The oxide is thicker farther away from the channel (down into the Si) to reduce currents not controlled by the gate. The thickness of the oxide is "sufficiently thin to permit charge tunneling", and is disclosed to be 0.5 to 2.0 nm. This differs from the present invention, which is described in detail below, in several ways, for example the use of Si as a source/drain, as opposed to a metal.

Insulated gate field effect transistor having passivated schottky barriers to the channel


A redundancy circuit for a diode circuit composed of a plurality of diodes connected in series, according to the present invention, includes: bypass circuits, each of which is connected in parallel to each group, the diode circuit being divided into a plurality of group, each group having one or more diodes connected in series, and each bypass circuit including a first voltage-controlled switching device connected in parallel to the corresponding group, and a detection circuit which has a constant voltage device and a fusing circuit, both of which are connected in series, the detection circuit being connected in parallel to the corresponding group; and when, because of increased resistance of any diode, a voltage applied to one of the groups exceeds a given voltage defined by the constant voltage device, the voltage-controlled switching device is turned on so as to bypass a current that is to pass through the corresponding group, whereby continuing the operation of the whole apparatus even when one or more diodes are broken down.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a redundancy circuit for series-connected diodes, which can be functionally substituted for a broken diode in a circuit composed of a plurality of diodes connected in series.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of diodes, such as light emitting diode, are arranged in array for usage of a display. There is a possibility that part of these diodes are broken during use. A conventional art for coping with breakage of a diode, e.g., Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (kokai) JP-A-2-244685 (1990), discloses a protection circuit for a laser diode, which is designed to detect the temperature of the laser diode. When the detected temperature is in a given range of temperature, the laser diode is supplied with a current based on a diode driving signal. If the detected temperature exceeds a maximum temperature, the current is shut down by the driving signal.
The protection circuit described above is a circuit for preventing a diode from breaking due to rise of temperature. Several other protection circuits for protecting a diode from a surge, over current or abnormal temperature are proposed. Since these circuits aim at preventing failure, once a diode is broken, an interlocking circuit will halt the whole apparatus.
An apparatus, which is configured of a number of diodes connected in series, has an advantage of easy wiring of the diodes. However, if one or more diodes among them are broken down without any conduction so as to open the circuit, no current can pass through the whole series-connected diodes, resulting in malfunction of the apparatus. Meanwhile, even under a condition of partial damage of the diodes, there are needs for continuous operation of the apparatus using the remaining diodes. In particular, a light-emitting panel or a display panel, in which a number of light emitting diodes are connected in series and arranged in array, could not lose the function even though a few diodes are broken down.
In another case one or more diodes among the array of diodes are broken down into an internal short-circuit, reduction of resistance may cause the broken diode to heat up, thereby causing damage to the neighboring diodes. In this case there are also needs for continuous operation of the whole apparatus by shutting off the diode being short-circuited.

Redundancy circuit for series-connected diodes


Compositions and methods related to ophthalmic use of polyvinyl caprolactam-polyvinyl acetate-polyethylene glycol graft copolymers and therapeutic uses are described herein.

Topically applied formulations, such as those applied to the cornea, conjunctiva, eyelid margin, etc., are frequently used in ophthalmology to treat acute and chronic conditions because they may be safer than systemically delivered formulations. However, some therapeutically active agents may have poor solubility in aqueous solutions, which may limit topical ophthalmic use. Solubility may be improved for some therapeutically active agents by using a nonionic surfactant, but further improvement may be needed.

Ophthalmic compositions comprising polyvinyl caprolactam-polyvinyl acetate-polyethylene glycol graft copolymers


The invention relates to a valve for high-pressure hydraulics, having a valve bore provided in a valve housing in which bore at least one valve seat dividing a guide on the high-pressure side of the valve bore from a guide on the low-pressure side of the valve bore and a valve needle actuatable directly by an actuator which needle is guided in the valve bore and has at least one sealing face which can cooperate with the at least one valve seat in which the valve needle is constructed in multiple parts and, in the region of the guide on the low-pressure side, has at least one sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
To supply fuel to combustion chambers of internal combustion engines, injection systems for injecting fuel are used whose injectors or valves are exposed to extremely high pressures. Especially valves in the area of Diesel injection technology are conceived such that they can withstand high hydraulic pressures. Such Diesel valves operate on either the inward-opening or the outward-opening principle and have extremely high-speed switching. The function that assures that they remain tight is determined in such Diesel valves in the closed state by minimal leakage and minimal hydraulic forces that act on the valve needle.
If such a valve is used for a fuel injection pump of the distributor type, it serves to provide communication for a pump work chamber with a low-pressure region by way of which fuel is delivered. In this way, the valve controls not only the delivery of fuel to the pump work chamber during an intake but also the end of injection, in which opening the valve prevents further pressure from building up in the pump work chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In Diesel injection valves, it is generally known to minimize the hydrolic forces operative in the opening direction by reducing the pressure engagement faces, which is done by embodying the sealing diameter as equal to the guide diameter of the valve bore.
In the open state, however, such valves are not pressure-compensated, or at least are only partly pressure-compensated. The consequences are that pressure waves which build up upon switching of the valves then generate hydraulic forces on the valve needle. Under some circumstances these undefined forces alter the switching behavior of the valve, which may result in a deviation in the injection quantities.
Moreover, the occurrence of so-called cavitation erosion is well known. If to terminate fuel supply or to determine the fuel injection quantity the valve is opened, a decrease in the pressure in the pump work chamber takes place; previously, this pressure was at a very high level, such as 1000 to 1200 bar, and now via the valve opening fuel flows to the low-pressure region and lowers the pressure in the work chamber. In this outflow, because of the high pressure difference between the high-pressure region and the low-pressure region of the valve, flow separations and so-called flow recirculations can occur. In them, gas or vapor bubbles are formed in the fuel. The cause of this is that the static pressure drops below the vapor pressure of the fuel. As soon as the pressure rises again, namely upon an ensuing implosion, the vapor in the vapor bubbles condenses, and the fuel strikes the valve housing and the valve member at high speed. This effect is all the more pronounced, the more turbulence there is in the flow. Such turbulence occurs especially because of the abrupt increase in the cross section downstream of the valve seat, because there the flow separates under the influence of strong eddy and vapor bubble development.
Especially in the vicinity of the surrounding walls, under some circumstances this can cause material damage, known as cavitation erosion, which occurs especially directly downstream of the valve seat. If this erosion spreads to the valve seat itself, over the long term this leads to malfunctions of the valve.
From the prior art, such as German Patent Disclosure DE 197 17 494 A1, to reduce the danger of cavitation damage it is known to provide a narrowed cross section in the outflow conduit from the chamber located downstream of the valve seat. This kind of narrowed cross section is intended to assure that upon inflow of the medium into the chamber, the medium can rapidly build up a pressure so that possible eddy currents and resultant bubble formation effects are at least reduced. However, the valve known from this reference has the disadvantage that to create this narrowing of diameter in the fuel connecting line that is embodied in the valve housing, additional metal-cutting work steps are necessary, which increase the cost for the production process.
Moreover, from German Patent Disclosure DE 199 40 296 A1, a valve for a fuel injection pump of the distributor type is known in which the cavitation effects are avoided by providing the valve needle with at least one guide face that cooperates, in the open state of the valve, with at least one baffle face provided in the valve bore of the valve housing, in such a way that a flow conduit is embodied that widens at a constant gradient in the flow direction, beginning at a minimal cross section in the region of the valve seat. The effect of this gradient is that the pressure increase is limited to a value that the flow boundary layer at this baffle face can still absorb, without allowing gas bubbles to be released. However, this kind of valve is not capable of completely eliminating the effects of cavitation, and moreover requires complicated, expensive evaluations in terms of flow technology. Accordingly, the valve has a complicated shape which can be achieved only at increased cost and expenditure of time.

Pressure-compensated, directly controlled valve


An apparatus for surface inspection comprises a terahertz emitter, a detector, and a computing device. The terahertz emitter is oriented to emit energy toward a surface having a surface layer disposed on the surface in a proximity of a surface feature. The detector is positioned to receive the energy from the terahertz emitter that is reflected by the surface. The computing device is in signal communication with the detector and is configured to detect the surface feature using a signal from the detector.

As structures age, periodic checks to assess a state of the structure are useful to identify points of fatigue and wear. Tests may be carried out through visual inspection by a technician or other trained individual. Augmented systems, which incorporate scanners, may be used to improve detection by at least partially automating the inspection. Penetrating sealants, adhesives, and other surface layers to inspect an underlying surface using current visual and augmented inspection systems can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Often, the surface layer must be removed through use of potent chemicals or demanding manual labor. Such removal of surface layers can be expensive and time-consuming and may require a reapplication of the surface layer after inspection.

Surface inspection system, apparatus, and method