An agent for enhancing brightness and opaqueness in paperboard comprises a reaction product selected from the groups consisting of:

In paper and paperboard manufacture, sheet formation is generally obtained on wire webs in a wet end from pulp slurry and is followed by the gradual removal of moisture in a press section and drier section. A calender section follows the drier section with the purpose of obtaining a desired finish (e.g. smoothness, thickness, gloss).
Despite the real advantages of using mechanical action to impart certain characteristics to the sheet, these advantages are limited. Complementary solutions for improving even further certain paper or paperboard characteristics can be applied internally in the wet end or externally with size-presses or coaters when these are available. These solutions are related to the use of fillers and functional additives.
Fillers are generally white pigments that can be divided in two major categories:    a) regular fillers having wide application and cost lower than that of cellulosic fiber, e.g. kaolin clay, ground calcium carbonate and precipitated calcium carbonate;    b) specialized fillers having usually lower volume applications and costs sometimes comparable with or even higher than cellulosic fiber; Some examples are: anatase titanium dioxide, rutile titanium dioxide, composite pigments, e.g. clay and titanium dioxide, PSS (precipitated synthetic silica—silica oxides and precipitated silicate—aluminum silicate), talc (industrial grade hydrated magnesium silicate), aluminum trihydrate, calcium sulfate, natural or precipitated barium sulfate, zinc oxide, zinc sulfur—surface treatments only, Satin White (calcium sulfo-aluminate complex)—surface treatments only, urea formaldehyde resin (organic pigment), plastic pigments (empty or full spheres)—surface treatments only.
The advantages brought by fillers in paper or paperboard manufacture are mostly related to cost reduction (except with some of the specialized fillers, especially titanium dioxide). The process disadvantages are however important and concern mostly wire, felt, doctor blade, refiners abrasion, machine deposits increase, increased Tinting dust, breaks related to sheet strength decrease and filler retention difficulties requiring retention program solutions.
On the other hand, the functional advantages (with respect to final product characteristic) brought by fillers are also important: optical properties (brightness and opacity) improvement, improved printability, better sheet formation, increased smoothness, improved dimensional stability. The functional disadvantages are mostly related to increased two sidedness, reduced rigidity, increased linting and decreased sheet strength.
As mentioned earlier improving the paper or paperboard characteristics beyond the mechanical limits of a paper or paperboard machine often requires the use of fillers for their functional advantages and the use of functional additives for even better results.
Examples of functional additives (which can improve the sheet characteristic) are dyes and optical brighteners, coating polymers, wet and dry strength resins, sizing agents, fluorocarbons and other specialty additives, while process additives (that improve the production process) are biocides, deposit-control agents, felt conditioners and cleaners, defoamers, and effluent treatments.
Sizing agents, opacifying agents, optical brighteners are important functional additives used to improve the sheet characteristics obtained with mechanical means and with filler use. Resistance to water penetration, better printing characteristics, increased opacity brightness and whiteness, increased bulk and caliper, better formation, were investigated and often obtained with one or several of these products. Some process improvements related to reduced abrasion, cost reduction, were also noticed in some cases.
Many compositions have been added to the slurry in an attempt to size the paper, i.e. render the paper water repellent. Most known sizes, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,142,986 to Arnold, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,232 to Chapman, employ a type of wax. For example, Arnold Jr. discloses that an emulsion of wax in a solution of deacetylated chitin, paraffin waxes, Japan wax, carnauba wax, higher aliphatic alcohols, or synthetic waxes may be employed as the waterproofing agent in a sizing composition. A softening agent such as aliphatic alcohols containing 12 to 20 carbons is also present in the composition of Arnold, Jr. Chapman discloses the use of paraffin waxes or water-insoluble derivatives of resins for producing aqueous wax emulsions with cationic modified starches.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,024 and 5,292,363 a papermaking composition is disclosed for enhancing opaqueness comprising the reaction product of a fatty acid and a diamine. Even if this composition is effective, there are still further improvements needed for strength of the paper, and coefficient of friction.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,967 Padbury et al shows a paper sized by adding thereto a salt of a high molecular weight composition prepared by reacting a dialkanolamine or trialkalonamine with a long chain fatty acid. The salt is diluated with water to form a dispersion containing a 5% concentration of sizing agent before being applied to the cellulosic fibers. Apparently, such a dilution of strength was necessary heretofore because until the present invention, preparation of the stearamides which would allow the composition to remain pourable at concentration greater than 5% was unknown. Without the ability to remain in an emulsion and, hence, be poured, concentration of stearamides approaching those disclosed therein had apparently not been possible for use on pulp fibers. An important feature also disclosed by the patent is that the salts are cationic and are, therefore, absorbed by the anionic cellulosic fibers.
Numerous sizing agents are known. Generally, the known sizes are cationic materials. Although the sizes' cationic nature increases their absorption by the fibers to which they are applied, their cationic nature generally prevents them from being used to the full extent possible in connection with a brightener and opacifying agent. It is well known in the art that although cationic materials often increase sizing, they have the disadvantage that they reduce the brightness of the material to which they are applied. The use of cationic sizes in the paper industry reduces the quality of the paper made therefrom. Because the addition of cationic sizing agents to paper generally reduces the brightness thereof, cationic sizes have not been preferred as a size for paper, and in particular, as a size for paper made from recycled pulp which often lacks the inherent brightness of paper made from virgin pulp.
Although the prior art shows agents for sizing paper and agents for increasing the brightness and opaqueness of paper, the particular features of the present invention are absent from prior art. The prior art is generally deficient in affording a composition for use in a papermaking process that has the ability to provide sizing to paper without reducing brightness or opacity.
The different US patents related to U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,024 indicate that the resulting amide of the diamine, which forms the cationic softener base, is the fatty acid monoamide or the diamide or a mixture thereof.
It is further indicated that the diamides are preferred to the monoamide and it is indicated that the diamides are more active cationic bases, and have stronger affinity for the cellulosic fibers to which they are absorbed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,024).
In this instance of a monoamide, however, the monoamide is the monoamide of a diamine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,139 describes an opacifier which is a reaction product of an alkanol amine and a dimerized acid, wherein the diamine (aminoethylethanol amine) is preferred, in this atent, the principal reactant with the amine is a dimerized acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,967 describes a size produced by reaction between a fatty acid and water soluble dialkanol amine or trialkanol amine. Thus, the reactants in the patent are a fatty acid and a monoamine. In this patent, however, the objective appears to be to perform an esterification reaction to produce esters between the fatty acid and the alcohol groups rather than amides between the fatty acid groups and the amine group.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,967 refers only to an esterification product as a sizing agent and not as an opacifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,024 indicates that concentrations greater than 5% were not possible with the sizing agents made by esterification mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,967.

Opacifying composition for paper or paperboard, processes using same and paper or paperboard produced therefrom

Abstract: A) an amide reaction product of a C12-C22 fatty acid, condensed with an amine selected from monoalkanol amines, dialkanol amines or diethylene triamine or a mixture thereof.

Abstract: B) an amide reaction product of a triglyceride of a C12-C22 fatty acid condensed with an amine selected from monoalkanol amine, dialkanol amine, or diethylene triamine or a mixture thereof.

Abstract: C) an amide reaction product of an ester of a C12-C22 fatty acid condensed with an amine selected from monoalkanol lower alkyl amine, dialkanol amine, diethylene triamine or a mixture thereof; and

Abstract: D) an ester reaction of a C12-C22 fatty acid condensed with an alcohol selected from glycerine, ethylene glycol or propylene glycol.


A preferred embodiment of the invention enables I/O port POST codes to be accessed via a universal serial bus (“USB”) port of the computer system: BIOS writes an I/O port POST code to a USB port. A device coupled to the USB port reads the I/O port POST code and presents the code on a display.

Almost immediately after a typical computer system is powered on, the basic input-output services ("BIOS") firmware performs a series of brief tests on some of the more fundamental hardware components of the system such as the central processing unit, memory, display controller and keyboard controller. This series of tests is commonly known as the power-on self test ("POST"). The POST is capable of generating a variety of error messages as a result of performing its routines, and can halt the boot process in addition to generating error messages if it discovers severe problems. The error messages generated by the POST normally take three different forms: audio codes, display-screen messages, and hexadecimal numeric codes sent to an input/output port address. The latter form will be referred to hereinafter as "I/O port POST codes".
The I/O port POST codes are useful during the prototype phase of motherboard development and also when diagnosing failures in systems that lock or hang during POST. Because the POST runs before even the operating system has been loaded, I/O port POST codes often represent the best available information about problems in the system. The most common prior art method for extracting I/O port POST codes is to place a special-purpose printed circuit board into one of the PCI or ISA expansion slots of the computer system. The special-purpose printed circuit board monitors the expansion bus to detect writes to certain I/O ports, and displays the information written to those ports on an LED display.
Such prior art circuit boards are inconvenient to use for a variety of reasons. In some computer systems, it is not even possible to use them because of expansion slot crowding or because expansion slots are not provided.

System and method for processing computer I/O port post codes

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, I.P.


Methods, apparatus, and computer platforms and architectures employing many-to-many and many-to-one peripheral switches. The methods and apparatus may be implemented on computer platforms having multiple nodes, such as those employing a Non-uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture, wherein each node comprises a plurality of components including a processor having at least one level of memory cache and being operatively coupled to system memory and operatively coupled to a many-to-many peripheral switch that includes a plurality of downstream ports to which NICs and/or peripheral expansion slots are operatively coupled, or a many-to-one switch that enables a peripheral device to be shared by multiple nodes. During operation, packets are received at the NICs and DMA memory writes are initiated using memory write transactions identifying a destination memory address. The many-to-many and many-to-one peripheral switches forwards the transaction packets internally within the switch based on the destination address such that the packets are forwarded to a node via which the memory address can be accessed. The platform architectures may also be configured to support migration operations in response to failure or replacement of a node.

Access to computer networks has become a ubiquitous part of today's computer usage. Whether accessing a Local Area Network (LAN) in an enterprise environment to access shared network resources, or accessing the Internet via the LAN or other access point, it seems users are always logged on to at least one service that is accessed via a computer network. Moreover, the rapid expansion of cloud-based services has lead to even further usage of computer networks, and these services are forecast to become ever-more prevalent.
Expansion of network usage, particularly via cloud-based services, as been facilitated via substantial increases in network bandwidths and processor capabilities. For example, broadband network backbones typically support bandwidths of 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) or more, while the standard for today's personal computers is a network interface designed to support a 1 Gbps Ethernet link. On the processor side, processors capabilities have been increased through both faster clock rates and use of more than one processor core. For instance, today's PCs typically employ a dual-core processor or a quad-core processor, while servers may employ processors with even more cores. For some classes of servers, it is common to employ multiple processors to enhance performance. In addition, it is envisioned that much if not most of the future processor performance increases will result from architectures employing greater numbers of cores, and that future servers may employ greater numbers of processors.
In computer systems, network access is typically facilitated through use of a Network Interface Controller (NIC), such as an Ethernet NIC. In recent years, server NICs have been designed to support for many optimizations for multi-core, multi-processor platform architectures. These optimizations include Receive Side Scaling (RSS) and Application Targeted Routing (ATR). These optimizations were designed around the prior art front-side bus (FSB) platform architecture, as illustrated in FIG. 1.
In further detail, FIG. 1 depicts a simplified front-side bus architecture diagram for a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) platform. The architecture includes multiple processors 100 coupled to a front-side bus (FSB) 102. Also coupled to FSB 102 is a North bridge 104, which in turn is coupled to memory 106, a high-bandwidth Input/Output (I/O) interface (as depicted by a Platform Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) x8 interface 108), and a South bridge 110. South bridge 110 was typically configured to interface with various platform I/O devices and peripherals, such as depicted by PCIe x4 interfaces 112 and 114.
Under this legacy architecture the network interface controllers were attached via a PCIe interface to either North bridge 104 or South bridge 110, as depicted by NICs 116 and 118. In either case, the NICs communicated to a uniform memory 106 via North bridge 104. All processor 100 accesses to memory 106 were also via North bridge 104. Implementation of RSS and ATR distributed network workloads across cores and, although cache impacts were considered, the primary goal was workload distribution.
Processor architectures have also changed in recent years, moving from discrete components toward a highly integrated approach. For example, for many years, the North-bridge, South-bridge architecture was implemented using physically separate chips for North bridge 104 and South bridge 110 using wired (e.g., board traces) interconnects for the FSB and the interconnect between the North and South bridges. Under a typical highly integrated design employed by today's processors, a processor employing one or more processor cores and logic providing functionality somewhat similar to a North bridge and South bridge are integrated on a single chip with corresponding interconnect wiring embedded in the chip. Under this highly integrated architecture, the processor cores are referred to as the "core" and the rest of the processor circuitry is referred to as the "uncore."

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A terminal assembly for a power converter is provided. The terminal assembly includes first and second conductive components and a current sensor. The first conductive component has first and second releasable attachment formations. The second conductive component has first and second portions with respective first and second widths. The first width is less than the second width. The first portion is releasably attached to the first conductive component with the second releasable attachment formation. The current sensor has an opening therethrough and is positioned between the first conductive component and the second portion of the second conductive component such that the first portion of the first conductive component extends through the opening. The current sensor is responsive to current flowing through the first portion of the second conductive component.

In recent years, advances in technology, as well as ever-evolving tastes in style, have led to substantial changes in the design of automobiles. One of the changes involves the complexity of the electrical systems within automobiles, particularly alternative fuel vehicles, such as hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles. Such alternative fuel vehicles typically use one or more electric motors, perhaps in combination with another actuator, to drive the wheels. Additionally, such automobiles may also include other motors, as well as other high voltage components, to operate the other various systems within the automobile, such as the air conditioner.
Due to the fact that alternative fuel automobiles typically include only direct current (DC) power supplies, direct current-to-alternating current (DC/AC) inverters (or power inverters) are provided to convert the DC power to alternating current (AC) power, which is generally required by the motors. Such vehicles, particularly fuel cell vehicles, also often use two separate voltage sources, such as a battery and a fuel cell, to power the electric motors that drive the wheels. Thus, power converters, such as direct current-to-direct current (DC/DC) converters, are typically also provided to manage and transfer the power from the two voltage sources.
As the power demands on the electrical systems in alternative fuel vehicles continue to increase, there is an ever increasing need to maximize the efficiency and reliability of such systems. Additionally, there is a constant desire to reduce the space required by the components within the electrical systems in order to minimize the overall cost and weight of the vehicles.
A need exists for a new inverter design with a high current angled terminal. No known terminal existed with the following attributes; high current, compact design, right angle, current sensor mount, electrically isolated, sealed for vacuum and pressure, capable of clamping to motor power leads.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a terminal with attributes of high current, compact design, angled, current sensor mount, electrically isolated, sealed for vacuum and pressure, and capable of clamping to motor power leads. Moreover, it is desirable to minimize volume of an inverter/motor. Furthermore, other desirable attributes, features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Compact terminal assembly for power converters


A spiral wound type membrane module is formed by winding membranes onto a shaft by way of outer spacers. An inner spacer is inserted into the membrane. Raw water is fed from one end of a membrane roll into channels between the membranes. The raw water flows in a direction substantially parallel to the axis of the roll and is taken out from the other end of the roll as nonpermeated water. Water permeated through the membranes flows in the membranes spirally in the winding direction and is taken out from the opening formed on the circumference of the roll.

The present invention relates to a spiral wound type membrane module or used in a membrane separation device such as a microfiltration device, an ultrafiltration device, or a reverse osmosis membrane separation device.
A spiral wound type membrane module has membranes which are wound around a water collection pipe.
FIG. 7 shows a conventional spiral wound type membrane module wherein a plurality of envelope-like membranes 2 are wound around a water collection pipe 1 with mesh spacers 3 therebetween to form a roll 5. The pipe 1 is provided with slits or openings communicating between the outside and the inside of the pipe 1.
Each membrane 2 in an envelop shape has an inside which communicates with the inside of the pipe 1. The envelope-like membrane 2 contains an inside spacer 4 therein such as a mesh-like spacer, so that the inside of the membrane 2 constitutes a permeated water channel.
The roll 5 of the membranes 2 is provided with unti-telescopers 6,7 at its both ends and brine seals 8 are fitted around the unti-telescopers 6,7.
Feed water flows from the front end of the roll 5 into each feed water channel between the membranes 2 and further flows in the longitudinal direction of the roll 5. Concentrate water flows out of the rear end of the roll 5. During the water flows in the feed water channels, the water permeates through the membranes 2 and flows into the pipe 1 and is taken out from the end of the pipe 1 as permeated water.
The conventional spiral element described above requires the water collection pipe 1 having large diameter for large amount of water flowing therein, whereby the diameter of the spiral wound type membrane element becomes large.


A lightweight, compact image projection module, especially for mounting in a housing having a light-transmissive window, is operative for causing selected pixels in a raster pattern to be illuminated to produce an image of high resolution of VGA quality in color.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to projecting a two-dimensional image in color while maintaining low power consumption, high resolution, miniature compact size, quiet operation and minimal vibration.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is generally known to project a two-dimensional image on a screen based on a pair of scan mirrors which oscillate in mutually orthogonal directions to scan a laser beam over a raster pattern. However, the known image projection systems project the image with limited resolution, typically less than a fourth of video-graphics-array (VGA) quality of 640×480 pixels, and not in true color. The physical size and power consumption of the known projection systems are relatively high, thereby rendering them impractical for use in miniature, hand-held, battery-operated applications. Also, the low scan rates of the scan mirrors generate objectionable noise and vibration during use.

Color image projection arrangement and method


Methods and apparatus are provided for improved chroma transforms for inter frames in video encoding and decoding. The apparatus and method encode at least a portion of a picture using inter-coding, wherein a transform is adaptively selected, from among a plurality of transforms, to apply to chroma components of the portion responsive to at least one selection criterion.

A popular and effective video coding method, often referred to as a block-based hybrid encoding method, involves using block-based temporal prediction and transform coding. This method is essentially the core of all the international video coding standards.
In a block-based hybrid video encoder, each picture is divided into blocks. Each block in an inter picture is coded using a combination of motion-compensated prediction and transform coding. While the motion-compensated prediction removes the temporal correlation, the transform coding further de-correlates the signals in the spatial domain and compacts the energy into a few coefficients.
Different transforms have been developed for various international standards. In the standards prior to the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG-4) Part 10 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) Standard/International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Sector (ITU-T) H.264 Recommendation (hereinafter the "MPEG-4 AVC Standard"), the transform block size has typically been 8×8. The 8×8 transform size has the advantages of being dyadic, large enough to capture trends and periodicities while being small enough to minimize spreading effects due to local transients over the transform area.
In the MPEG-4 AVC Standard, three additional transforms are also available for use as follows:                A Hadamard transform for the 4×4 array of luma DC coefficients in intra macroblocks predicted in 16×16 mode;        A Hadamard transform for the 2×2 array of chroma DC coefficients in any macroblock; and        A 4×4 DCT-based transform.
This smaller size of 4×4 enables the encoder to better adapt the prediction error coding to the boundaries of moving objects, to match the transform block size with the smallest blocks size of the motion compensation, and to generally better adapt the transform to the local prediction error signal.
To encode the residual data of the luma component for inter frames, the encoder chooses from 8×8 and 4×4 transforms. In contrast, the transform is fixed for the chroma component as follows: a 4×4 transform cascaded with a 2×2 Hadamard transform for DC coefficients.
Transforms for Luma and Chroma Residue for Inter Pictures in KTA
VCEG "key technical area" (KTA) software has provided a common platform to integrate the new advances in video coding after the finalization of the MPEG-4 AVC Standard. The proposals to use extended block sizes and large transforms were adopted into KTA. In the current KTA software, motion partitions larger than 16×16 pixels are implemented. In particular, macroblocks of sizes 64×64, 64×32, 32×64, 32×32, 32×16, 16×32 are used in addition to the existing MPEG-4 AVC Standard partitioning sizes. Larger block transforms are also used to better capture the usually smoother content in high-definition video. The larger block transforms include 16×16, 16×8, and 8×16 transforms. Note that all these new transforms are applied to the luma components. The transform for the chroma component is the same as the MPEG-4 AVC Standard, which is a cascaded 4×4 transform. Such a fixed transform does not consider the characteristics of the video content.
Typical Chroma Transform
Turning to FIG. 1, a conventional method for chroma encoding in a video encoder is indicated generally by the reference numeral 100. The method 100 includes a start block 110 that passes control to a loop limit block 120. The loop limit block 120 begins a first loop (Loop (1)), using a variable j having a range from 1, . . . , number (#) of pictures (e.g., in an input video sequence), and passes control to a loop limit block 130. The loop limit block 130 begins a first loop (Loop (2)), using a variable i having a range from 1, . . . , number (#) of blocks (e.g., in a current picture of the input video sequence), and passes control to a function block 140. The function block 140 encodes the luma components for block i in picture j, and passes control to a function block 150. The function block 150 encodes the chroma components for block i in picture j with a fixed transform, and passes control to a loop limit block 160. The loop limit block 160 ends the Loop (2), and passes control to a function block 170. The function block 170 ends the Loop (1), and passes control to an end block 199.
Turning to FIG. 2, a conventional method for chroma decoding in a video decoder is indicated generally by the reference numeral 200. The method 200 includes a start block 210 that passes control to a loop limit block 220. The loop limit block 220 begins a first loop (Loop (1)), using a variable j having a range from 1, . . . , number (#) of pictures (e.g., in an input video sequence), and passes control to a loop limit block 230. The loop limit block 230 begins a first loop (Loop (2)), using a variable i having a range from 1, . . . , number (#) of blocks (e.g., in a current picture of the input video sequence), and passes control to a function block 240. The function block 240 decodes the luma components for block i in picture j, and passes control to a function block 250. The function block 250 decodes the chroma components for block i in picture j with a fixed transform, and passes control to a loop limit block 260. The loop limit block 260 ends the Loop (2), and passes control to a function block 270. The function block 270 ends the Loop (1), and passes control to an end block 299.
Hence, regarding method 100, as noted above, the transform is fixed for each block and each picture for chroma, while the luma component may use adaptive transforms. As part of method 100, the luma component of the block is encoded, possibly with an adaptively chosen transform. However, the chroma component is always encoded and, hence, also decoded (e.g., by method 200), with a fixed transform. Disadvantageously, as noted above, such a fixed transform does not consider the characteristics of the video content.

Methods and apparatus for improved chroma transforms for inter frames in video encoding and decoding


The meta tetramethylxylenediisocyanate-based polyether urethane acrylate oligomer reduces the viscosities of polymerizable formulations, as compared to other isocyanate-based oligomers, significantly enhances adhesion to certain substrates, and imparts increased elongation-to-break valves to cured products produced therefrom.

Aliphatic polyether urethane acrylate oligomers are widely used as ingredients in radiation-curable formulations for producing films, coatings, adhesives, and the like. When formulated with monofunctional monomers, films containing such oligomers may be highly flexible, elastomeric and tacky. The oligomers may also serve as base resins, adhesion promoters, and reactive tackifiers in pressure-sensitive and laminating adhesive formulations that exhibit significantly improved adhesion to a wide variety of films and foils.
One oligomer having the foregoing attributes is commercially available from Bomar Specialties Co., of Winsted, Conn., under the trade designation BR-3741AB. That oligomer is a reaction product of a propylene oxide-based polyol (i.e., alpha-hydroxy, omega-hydroxy poly[oxy(methyl-1,2-ethanediyl)]) with 1,1′-methylenebis[4-isocyanatocy-clohexane], end-capped with 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA).

TMXDI-based oligomer and formulations containing it


A pontoon raft having a hand controlled steering mechanism and solar cells for powering an outboard electric motor. The raft has an adjustable lounge chair located between the pontoons, for supporting an occupant in a seated or reclined position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to small watercraft and, more particularly, to a solar powered chair float of the pontoon type.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to mount a reclining chair between a pair of parallel elongated floats. Most common among these floats are those used to float freely in a pool or to move with the aid of manual locomotion, such as use of the hands or hand-held paddles. Other floats with pontoons that are used for larger bodies of water include those that move with the aid of manual locomotion, such as the use of a foot rotated paddle or propeller. Such small watercraft have also included the use of electric and internal combustion powered marine propulsion equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,066, issued to William R. Spenser, Jr. et al., on May 9, 1995, shows a manual propulsion mechanism removably mounted to a frame supported by a pair of inflatable pontoons. An inflatable pontoon boat with a wooden transom that can be used for either mounting a small outboard engine or a rudder is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,805, issued to Dag C. G. Forssel et al., on May 28, 1974. A catamaran type watercraft with two floats and a platform overlying them carrying an upright power unit for propulsion of the watercraft is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,008, issued to Robert W. Craig on Jun. 25, 1996. U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,220, issued to Christopher F. Goad on Apr. 4, 1995, discloses a jet-propelled chair float that utilizes a pair of electric sump pumps powered by a battery as propulsion means. A propelled pontoon chair with hand operated controls for controlling the propulsion speed and rudder linkage is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,568, issued to George M. Trefethern et al., on Nov. 6, 1984. U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,058, shows a powered watercraft with a hull consisting of separate portions which may be operated in a divided position as a multiple hull watercraft or may be joined together into one unit as a single hull watercraft.
None of the prior art watercraft include solar photovoltaic cells to charge batteries that are used to power an electric motor, nor do they provide wiring shielded from water. None of the prior art watercraft use a guidance system having a control stick and linkage of the type according to the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


A method and system for a dynamic metric and wireless hello protocol for use in a wireless mesh network are disclosed. In one embodiment a computer-implemented method, comprises determining a route for a packet to travel through a mesh network. A first time period needed to transmit the packet between a first node and a second node in the mesh network is estimated. The first time period is normalized to generate a normalized value. A route is calculated using the normalized value.

With recent technological advancements in computer and wireless communications, mobile wireless computing has seen increasingly widespread use and application. Not constrained by wires, users with mobile computing devices can move around freely at their convenience, and may often need to communicate with each other in circumstances where there is no fixed infrastructure. In such cases, they can form a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) or mobile wireless mesh network. A mobile wireless mesh network is an autonomous system of wireless mobile routers (and associated hosts), which can move randomly and re-organize themselves into an arbitrary network without any underlying backbone and infrastructure.
Besides mobile wireless mesh networks, recently, interesting commercial applications of fixed wireless mesh networks have also emerged. One example of such a commercial application is "community wireless networks," which are used to provide broadband Internet access to communities that previously did not have such access. In these fixed "community wireless networks", each wireless router in the network not only provides Internet access for attached users but also becomes part of the network infrastructure and can route data through the wireless mesh network to its destination. A routed wireless mesh network is highly flexible and inherently fault-tolerant. It simplifies line-of-sight problems and extends the reach and coverage of the network with a minimal amount of network infrastructure and interconnection costs.
There are also hybrid wireless mesh networks where some mesh routers are mobile and the others are not. In whatever cases (whether mobile or fixed or hybrid), wireless mesh networks have some salient characteristics, such as: highly dynamic, autonomous, peer-to-peer, multi-hop, often limited bandwidth and computing power etc. The wireless mesh networks are highly dynamic for two reasons: First, the routers themselves may move (e.g. in mobile or hybrid wireless mesh networks), causing fast topological changes. Second, even if the routers themselves do not move (e.g. in fixed wireless mesh networks), the radio link qualities can change very quickly because of interference, geographical and environmental factors etc. The traditional routing protocols (e.g. OSPF, RIP), designed for wired infrastructures, can not handle such fast changes. Many of the ad hoc routing protocols (e.g. AODV), on the other hand, lack the ability to flexibly adapt to the radio link quality changes.
Routing protocols have traditionally focused on finding paths with minimum hop count. However, such paths can include slow or lossy links, leading to poor throughput. These lossy links are bad enough to impair packet forwarding performance, but not so bad as to prevent routing protocol from using these links to forward traffic.

Method and system for dynamic metric and wireless hello protocol


Electromagnetic attenuation of an object is accomplished by attaching a boot to a surface of an operational part of the object. The boot includes a thermoplastic material, such as in a thermoplastic layer, and an electromagnetic attenuation material, such as in an electromagnetic attenuation layer that overlies at least part of the thermoplastic layer. The attaching is accomplished by placing the boot onto the operational part, and then heat shrinking the boot to attach the boot to the operational part. The electromagnetic attenuation layer may have gaps in it prior to the heat shrinking, gaps that are closed during the heat shrinking, to the greater contraction of the thermoplastic layer. The boot and method may be used to advantageously provide electromagnetic attenuation without a need for spraying processes. The method may be used to retrofit and/or repair an object, without needed to remove it from the field.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of electromagnetic attenuation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electromagnetic attenuation coatings are often applied to objects, such as missiles or other air vehicles, to reduce their visibility to radar. Such coatings are generally applied by spraying. Spraying has the disadvantage of being costly and labor intensive. It also may require specialized equipment and environments, and use of potentially dangerous chemicals. It would be desirable to avoid these problems with current methods of applying electromagnetic attenuation coatings.

Electromagnetic attenuating object and method of electromagnetic attenuation


The upper limit value and lower limit value of a control target value are alternately supplied to a single D/A converter in synchronism with a clock, an analog output from the D/A converter is compared with an output from a PBR serving as a position detector, and a motor is driven by the difference voltage, thereby positioning the control object. In this case, control of the moving direction and drive/stop of the motor is performed by a combination between the setting states of the upper and lower limit values and the polarity of the difference voltage, and the switching operation of the selector is stopped during a control operation, thereby making it possible to smoothly perform the control operation at a high speed. The control system can be digitized as a whole by detecting a position by an encoder, and integration of the system can be enhanced, thereby realizing a compact and stable control system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to feedback control of a drive device such as a motor which stops a control object at a target position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when the position of a control object is to be set, for example, when control is performed such that a control object such as a lever rotated about one point is rotated to a target position, a positioning apparatus having an arrangement shown in FIG. 1 in which the target position is given as a digital value to cause a motor to move the control target to a position near the target position is generally used.
This conventional positioning apparatus comprises an addition circuit 401 for adding a predetermined value to a target value given as a digital value to obtain an upper limit value, a subtraction circuit 402 for subtracting a predetermined value from the target value to obtain a lower limit value, two D/A (digital/analog) converters 403 and 404 for converting the upper and lower limit values into analog values, respectively, a window comparator 405 having outputs from the D/A converters 403 and 404 as two threshold values, and a drive circuit 408 which receives two outputs from the window comparator 405 to perform rotating (angular) control of a motor 409. Since the window comparator 405 receives an output from a PBR (Potentio Balance Resistor) 410 for detecting a present position of the motor 409 serving as a drive Means for moving the position of the control object, the drive circuit 408 checks the present position and the upper and lower limit values on the basis of the two outputs from the window comparator 405 to determine forward rotation, backward rotation or stop of the motor 409. More specifically, if the output from PBR 410 is larger then the upper limit value, the motor 409 is rotated in a direction to decrease the output value of the PBR 410. If the output from PBR 410 is smaller than the lower limit value, the motor 409 is rotated in a direction to increase the output value of the motor 409. In this manner, the output value of the PBR 410 is controlled to be stopped between the upper limit value and the lower limit value.
The interval between the upper limit value and the lower limit value, i.e., a stop range, must be set to be larger than the overrun amount of the control object from when the drive operation of the motor 409 is stopped to when the rotation of the motor 409 is actually stopped so as to prevent hunching.
As described above, in the conventional positioning apparatus, two D/A converters are required to convert the upper and lower limit values into analog values.
In the above arrangement, since the outputs from the two D/A converters independently vary, the interval between the upper limit value and the lower limit value which have been converted into analog values considerably varies in different converters.
FIG. 2 shows the relationship between variations in output from each D/A converter and the interval between an upper limit value and a lower limit value, i.e., a stop range. It is assumed that the value of an output from a D/A converter for converting the upper limit value into an analog amount is smaller than the target upper limit value, that the error is maximum, that the value of an output from a D/A converter for converting the lower limit value into an analog amount is larger than the target lower limit value, and that the error is maximum. In this case, the stop range has a minimum value (range F in FIG. 2). In contrast to this, it is assumed that the value of an output from a D/A converter for converting the upper limit value into an analog amount is larger than the target upper limit value, that the error is maximum that the value of an output from a D/A converter for converting the lower limit value into an analog amount is smaller than the target lower limit value, and that the error is maximum. In this case, the stop range has a maximum value (range G in FIG. 2).
To prevent hunching, the stop range must be larger than the overrun amount of the motor 409 serving as a control object. For this reason, in consideration of variations in D/A converters, addition/subtraction values for a target value must be set such that a set stop range (range E in FIG. 2) is not lower than the overrun amount of the motor 409 serving as a control object even if the stop range has the minimum value (range F in FIG. 2).
On the other hand, the maximum value of the stop range is a factor for determining stop precision for which the control object is stopped at a target position. More specifically, the stop precision which can be assured by a positioning apparatus is the maximum value (range G in FIG. 2) of the stop range determined in consideration of the variation in D/A converter, and this value must satisfy the required precision of a system using this positioning apparatus.
Therefore, when the overrun amount of the control object is close to the stop precision required by the system, prevention of hunching and assurance of the stop precision may not be achieved at once.
In addition, due to the presence of two D/A converters, a circuit scale extraordinarily increases with an increase in the number of bits of a digital value given as a target position. Therefore, problems such as an increase in cost and difficulty in integration are posed.


A modular stand system is adjustable in the transverse direction and height and is adapted for HVAC system components that need to be elevated above a support surface. In certain embodiments, the modular stand systems herein are advantageously used to support HVAC variable refrigerant flow (VRF) units.

The present disclosure relates to improved systems and methods for hanging or standing shelving units for a number of applications including without limitation support units for building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning ("HVAC") systems and components, as well as suspended shelving units for holding, for example, children's games and toys, closet organizers with hangers and shelves, adjustable pipe hangers with preset means to ensure proper drainage pitch, for storage space in a garage or workshop, storage shelves over a garage door, and as a hanging unit for audio/visual equipment.


The present invention provides a surface emitting semiconductor laser that, with a relatively simple construction, can control the polarization of laser beam to a given direction and obtain a low threshold current and high output. Also, the present invention provides a laser array that has substantially no variations in polarization properties among plural laser devices arranged on a single substrate. In a surface emitting semiconductor laser in which upper and lower reflecting mirror layers are formed on a main face of a semiconductor substrate to sandwich an active layer, at least one of the upper and lower reflecting films including a selective oxidation layer oxidized in a circumferential part thereof, the main face of the semiconductor substrate is tilted with respect to a face containing a reference crystal axis, and the selective oxidation layer is formed by oxidizing a layer to be oxidized from a circumferential part thereof, wherein the circumferential shape of the layer, when cut by a face parallel to the main face, has at least no singular point and is macroscopically smooth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface emitting semiconductor laser and a laser array thereof, and more particularly to a surface emitting semiconductor laser of polarization control type used in optical information processing and optical communications, or as a light source of an image forming apparatus using light, and a laser array in which plural surface emitting semiconductor lasers are arrayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In laser application technology, which often requires that an emitting spot be circular, since a surface emitting semiconductor laser has the property that an emitting spot can be easily made circular, and can be two-dimensionally integrated, it is in the limelight, centering on the field of communications as a light source having a high degree of usability. By the way, except for surface emitting semiconductor lasers of the so-called distortion type having a distortion quantum well active layer, since surface emitting lasers do not have the anisotropy of oscillation threshold gains within a plane perpendicular to an emission direction, polarized light faces to all directions with an equal probability. That is, they have a different polarization direction for each laser device.
If polarization directions differ depending on laser devices, where optical devices having polarized wave dependence such as mirrors and polarization beam splitters not provided with special coatings are used in combination, a change in optical properties occurs in light beams having passed through the optical devices. Use of a large number of laser devices by use of an identical optical system would cause variations in light quantities and other problems because of the influence of polarization properties different for each laser device. For this reason, efforts have been so far made to stabilize the polarization of laser devices to one direction.
Although various methods for polarization control has been heretofore devised, they cannot be said to be satisfactory in terms of perfect control, and polarization control methods are presently contemplated in various quarters.
Recently, a polarization control method using a tilted substrate has become dominant.
There is described in xe2x80x9cIEEE Photonics Technology Lettersxe2x80x9d, Tenth Volume, page 633, a surface emitting laser of selective oxidation type of an indium gallium arsenic (InGaAs) system that uses a tilted substrate with gallium arsenic (GaAs) (311) B face as anormal direction. An optical wave (active) region formed by selective oxidation is of rectangular shape having a diameter of 6 xcexcmxc3x973 xcexcm, with a major axis in [xe2x88x92233] direction and a polarization direction also in the [xe2x88x92233] direction. By using such an extremely special tilted substrate, the surface emitting laser of selective oxidation type provides the properties of polarization mode suppression ratio 30 dB or more.
Although this method seems to be highly effective for polarization control, since the GaAs tilted substrate with the (311) B face as a normal direction is designed for special uses, it is more expensive than general-purpose substrates with (100) face as a normal direction. Since crystal growth is different in condition from growth on the (100)face, which is widely performed, huge costs and a great deal of time will be required to find growth conditions excellent in reproducibility for actual use.
There is described in xe2x80x9cApplied Physics Lettersxe2x80x9d, 71st Volume, page 741, a surface emitting laser of proton injection type of an aluminum gallium arsenic (AlGaAs) system fabricated using a (001) substrate (different in notation from the above (100) substrate and crystallographically denotes an equivalent crystal face orientation) tilted by approximately 2xc2x0 toward (111) A direction. The surface emitting laser of proton injection type has the property of a polarization mode suppression ratio exceeding 400 at the maximum. The substrate tilted by approximately 2xc2x0 used herein is easily available because of widespread use as a low dislocation (highly smooth) substrate and has almost the same crystal growth condition as when a substrate not tilted is used. Therefore, this method can be said as a simple method for polarization control.
However, an obtained laser is a surface emitting laser of proton injection type.
Since a laser of proton injection type is a device employing heat caused by current injection called thermal lens effects, it has the following property problems attributed to its construction: (1) a current must keep being injected for a certain period of time to form a waveguide by heat, which is required to cause laser oscillation; and (2) the light response property is bad in addition to a threshold current as high as several milliamperes. For this reason, recently, a surface emitting laser of selective oxidation type is going mainstream which narrows a current and confines light by forming an oxidation region and thereby provides high output with a low threshold current. However, in the surface emitting laser of selective oxidation type, since it is known that the shape of an oxidation region affects the polarization property, and the polarization property is highly governed by a fabrication process history, the polarization direction of the surface emitting laser of selective oxidation type cannot be sufficiently controlled in the same way for a surface emitting laser of proton injection type.
The surface emitting laser of proton injection type described in the above literature provide a polarization mode suppression ratio of 100 or more before a light output value reaches a peak, and is required to provide higher output and be capable of controlling polarization.
Although a laser array driven with plural laser devices arranged is particularly required to be controlled so that the polarization directions of the devices are identical, a measured polarization mode suppression ratio is merely for one device, and it is not guaranteed that, when the devices are formed into an array, all of the devices would exhibit the same property without variations in polarization directions.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a surface emitting semiconductor laser that, with a relatively simple construction, can control the polarization of laser beam to a given direction and obtain a low threshold current and high output. Also, the present invention provides a laser array that has no variations in polarization properties among plural laser devices arranged on a single substrate.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the surface emitting semiconductor laser has upper and lower reflecting films formed on a main face of a semiconductor substrate to sandwich an active layer, at least one of the upper and lower reflecting films including a selective oxidation layer oxidized in a circumferential part thereof, wherein the main face of the semiconductor substrate is tilted with respect to a face containing a reference crystal axis, and the selective oxidation layer is formed by oxidizing a layer to be oxidized from a circumferential part thereof, wherein the circumferential shape of the layer, when cut by a face parallel to the main face, has at least no singular point and is macroscopically smooth.
According to the present invention, by using a semiconductor substrate tilted with respect to a face containing a reference crystal axis, oxidizing a layer whose circumferential shape has substantially no singular point and is macroscopically smooth, from a circumferential part thereof, and forming a selective oxidation layer selectively oxidized in a circumferential part thereof, a non-oxidation region having a circumferential shape almost analogous to the circumferential shape of the oxidation layer is formed, the anisotropy of oscillation threshold gains of optical mode is induced, and polarization is controlled to a given direction without causing switching or the like.
Since the passage of little current through the oxidation region causes a refractive index waveguide to be formed within a face parallel to the main face of the semiconductor substrate to narrow a current and confine light, devices having excellent properties such as stable horizontal mode and low threshold current are obtained.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser, the face containing the reference crystal axis has a crystal face orientation crystallographically equivalent to the (100) face.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser of the present invention, the main face is tilted at an angle in the range from xe2x88x925xc2x0 to +5xc2x0 to [110] direction with respect to [100] direction.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser of the present invention, when the layer to be oxidized is cut by a face parallel to the main face, a circumferential shape thereof is circular or elliptic.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser of the present invention, when the layer to be oxidized is cut by a face parallel to the main face, the circumferential shape is elliptic, and the direction of the major axis is [011] or [01-1] direction.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser of the present invention, the non-oxidation region of the selective oxidation layer has a diameter within a range in which fundamental transverse mode oscillation is obtained.
According to the above-described aspects of the present invention, since each of the aspects provides an optimum condition for deriving the anisotropy of oscillation threshold gains of optical mode, synergistic effects of these aspects provide further increased polarization control for the surface emitting semiconductor laser.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the surface emitting semiconductor laser of the present invention, an upper wiring is disposed at an upper portion of an emission part in a direction extended at an angle in the range from at least xe2x88x9210xc2x0 to +10xc2x0 with respect to the projection of the reference crystal axis to the semiconductor substrate main face.
According to the present invention, since stress is applied to an active region along a wiring direction because of the difference of thermal expansion coefficients between the wiring and materials disposed at lower portions of the wiring, by making an off angle direction of the substrate and the extension direction of the wiring almost identical, anisotropy attributed to the stress dependence of oscillation threshold gains occurs and the surface emitting semiconductor laser with polarization controlled to a given direction can be obtained.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the laser array has the plural surface emitting semiconductor lasers of the present invention arranged on a single substrate, i.e. monolithic.
According to another aspect of the present invention, equally in the laser devices, the anisotropy of oscillation threshold gains of optical mode is induced and polarization is controlled to a given direction. Therefore, the laser array without substantial variations in polarization properties among the laser devices can be obtained.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in the laser array of the present invention, an upper wiring is disposed at an upper portion of an emission part in a direction extended at an angle in the range from at least xe2x88x9210xc2x0 to +10xc2x0 with respect to the projection of the reference crystal axis to the semiconductor substrate main face.
According to the present invention, since stress uniform in directionality among plural devices is applied to an active layer, the surface emitting semiconductor laser array without sybstantial variations among the devices and with identical polarization directions can be obtained.

Surface emitting semiconductor laser with oxidized post structure


A method of improving co-operation between entities in a cellular mobile radio communications network, wherein during inter-cell call handover, a new server cell is chosen from a set of candidate cells as being a candidate cell to which a requested handover is possible, and candidate cells to which a requested handover is not possible are referred to as rejected cells. When executing an external call handover from a current server cell controlled by a current server entity to a new server cell chosen from the set of candidate cells and controlled by a new server entity which is distinct from the current server entity, the new server entity is informed of any previously rejected cells.

The present invention relates generally to cellular mobile radiocommunications systems, more particularly to managing radio resources in such systems, and even more particularly to managing radio resources in such systems while handing over a call between cells (referred to as xe2x80x9cinter-cell call handoverxe2x80x9d).
With reference to FIG. 1, the general architecture is recalled of a cellular mobile radiocommunications system such as, in particular, the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). Such a system essentially comprises:
a plurality base stations or xe2x80x9cBase Transceiver Stationsxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cBTSsxe2x80x9d), such as those referenced BTS1, BTS2, BTS3, and BTS4; in the example shown, each of the base stations is assigned to a respective cell, the cells being referenced C1, C2, C3, and C4 (other examples naturally being possible in which the same BTS is assigned to a plurality of cells), and the base stations co-operate with mobile stations, such as MS1, MS2, MS3, MS4, situated in the cells;
a plurality of xe2x80x9cBase Station Controllersxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cBSCsxe2x80x9d), such as those referenced BSC1 and BSC2, each of the BSCs controlling a respective subset of cells from the point of view of managing the radio resources; in the example shown, the Base Station Controller BSC1 controls the cells Cl and C2, and the Base Station Controller BSC2 controls the cells C3 and C4; and
a plurality of xe2x80x9cMobile Switching Centersxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cMSCsxe2x80x9d), such as that referenced MSC1, each of the MSCs co-operating with external networks, such as, in particular, Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs) or Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs), and controlling a subset of Base Station Controllers from the point of view of managing calls; in the example shown, the Mobile Switching Center MSC1 controls the Base Station Controllers BSC1 and BSC2.
In such a system, a decision to hand over a call is made by the network on the basis of a certain number of parameters, such as, in particular, the results of measurements taken on radio signals for the current server cell and for cells neighboring the current server cell.
The cell to which the call is to be handed over may be referred to as the xe2x80x9cnew server cellxe2x80x9d, and it is more precisely chosen from a set of cells referred to as xe2x80x9ccandidate cellsxe2x80x9d (determined by the network from said neighboring cells on the basis of said measurement results) in the following manner.
Firstly a request is made to hand over the call to the best of the candidate cells. When such handover is possible, the best candidate cell constitutes the new server cell. When such handover is not possible, a request is made to hand over the call to the following candidate cell, in the order of preference of candidate cells, and so on.
A candidate cell to which handover is requested may also be referred to as the xe2x80x9ctarget cellxe2x80x9d.
A target cell to which a requested handover is not possible is also referred to as a xe2x80x9crejected cellxe2x80x9d. A target cell can be rejected in particular because the mobile station does not succeed in setting up a link with the network in the target cell, or else because no radio resource is available in said target cell, because of traffic overload, or because a testing or maintenance operation is in progress in the target cell, this list naturally not being exhaustive.
When the target cell is controlled by the same BSC as the current server cell (in FIG. 1, this situation corresponds, for example, to handover being requested from cell C1 to cell C2, or from cell C3 to cell C4, such handover also being referred to as xe2x80x9cinternal handoverxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cintra-BSC handoverxe2x80x9d), the BSC in question is capable, by itself and internally, of determining whether or not handover to the target cell is possible, i.e. whether or not the target cell is a rejected cell, since said BSC manages the radio resources for both of the cells.
When the target cell is controlled by a BSC (referred to as the xe2x80x9ctarget BSCxe2x80x9d) other than the BSC (referred to as the xe2x80x9ccurrent server BSCxe2x80x9d or more simply below as the xe2x80x9cserver BSCxe2x80x9d) that controls the current server cell (also referred to more simply below as the xe2x80x9cserver cellxe2x80x9d), this situation corresponding for example, in FIG. 1, to a request to hand over a call from one or other of the cells C1 and C2 to one or other of the cells C3 and C4 (such handover also being referred to as xe2x80x9cexternal handoverxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cinter-BSC handoverxe2x80x9d), the server BSC is not capable itself and internally of determining whether or not handover to the target cell is possible, i.e. whether or not the target cell is a rejected cell, and the procedure is then as shown in one or other of FIGS. 2 and 3, namely:
the server BSC, referenced BSCs, firstly sends a handover request message (referenced HO REQ in this example for xe2x80x9chandover requiredxe2x80x9d) to the MSC;
the MSC in turn sends a message of the same type (referenced HO REQxe2x80x2 in this example for xe2x80x9chandover requestxe2x80x9d) to the target BSC, referenced BSCc;
after having determined internally whether or not such a handover to the target cell is possible, i.e. whether or not said target cell is a rejected cell, the target BSC sends to the MSC either, when the target cell is not a rejected cell (FIG. 2), a handover request acknowledgment message (referenced HO REQ ACK in this example) itself containing a handover command message, or else, when the target cell is a rejected cell (FIG. 3), a message indicating that it is impossible to perform handover to said target cell (this message being referenced HO FAIL in this example for xe2x80x9chandover failurexe2x80x9d); and
the MSC in turn sends a message of the same type to the server BSC, namely either a handover command message (referenced HO COMM in this example), or else a message indicating that it is impossible to perform handover to said target cell (this message being referenced HO REJ for xe2x80x9chandover request rejectedxe2x80x9d).
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, once a handover (or xe2x80x9ctransferxe2x80x9d) T1 from one cell Ci to another cell Cj has actually been performed, it is possible that a request might be made for a handover T2 to a cell Ck that was rejected previously during the handover T1. If the cell Ck was rejected previously, then a handover to it was requested previously, i.e. it was probably one of the best candidate cells, and it is thus normal, in particular if the request for handover T2 is made soon after handover T1, that it reappears as one of the best candidate cells for handover T2, and thus that handover to it is requested once again.
As shown in FIG. 4, when both of the cells Ci and Cj are controlled by the same BSC, referenced BSCij, the BSC is aware of that fact that the cell Ck was rejected during handover T1, and is thus able to decide that, temporarily, a request for such a handover T2 to cell Ck must not be made.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the two cells Ci and Cj are not controlled by the same BSC, the current server BSC, referenced BSCj, is not aware of the fact that cell Ck was rejected during handover T1 (because only the initial server BSC, referenced BSCi, is aware of that fact), and it is thus not able to decide that, temporarily, such a request for handover T2 to cell Ck must not be made.
Thus:
if the cells Cj and Ck are not controlled by the same BSC, then the current server BSC (BSCj) uses the procedure recalled above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 to send a handover request to the target BSC (not shown) controlling the cell Ck, and it then might receive from the target BSC a message indicating that it is impossible to perform handover to the cell Ck. An unnecessary handover request will then have been made, thereby lengthening handover time unnecessarily, and giving rise to unnecessary consumption of transmission resources for the purpose of interchanging the corresponding signalling messages, and thus degrading the quality of service; and
if the cells Cj and Ck are controlled by the same BSC, the current server BSC (BSCj) might unnecessarily and internally have to determine whether a handover to the cell Ck is possible, thereby lengthening call handover time unnecessarily, and thus also degrading the quality of service.
A particular object of the present invention is to avoid those drawbacks, i.e. to optimize operation of the network in such cases, and more generally to improve co-operation between entities of the network during inter-cell call handover.
The present invention provides a method of improving co-operation between entities in a cellular mobile radio-communications network, during inter-cell call handover, during which a xe2x80x9cnew server cellxe2x80x9d is chosen from a set of xe2x80x9ccandidate cellsxe2x80x9d as being a candidate cell to which a requested handover is possible, candidate cells to which a requested handover is not possible being referred to as xe2x80x9crejected cellsxe2x80x9d, wherein, during xe2x80x9cexternalxe2x80x9d call handover, namely when handing over a call from a xe2x80x9ccurrent server cellxe2x80x9d controlled by a xe2x80x9ccurrent server entityxe2x80x9d to a xe2x80x9cnew server cellxe2x80x9d controlled by a xe2x80x9cnew server entityxe2x80x9d which is distinct from said current server entity, said new server entity is informed of any previously rejected cells.
Thus, since the new server entity is informed of the previously-rejected cells, it does not attempt unnecessarily to make requests for handover to previously-rejected cells, thereby avoiding the above-mentioned drawbacks.
According to another characteristic, said information as to any previously-rejected cells further includes an indication as to the reason for which the cells were rejected, or as to a lapse of time after which a handover to said previously-rejected cells can, if necessary, be requested again.
Thus, the new server cell is then able to determine the time at which a request can, if necessary, be made again for handover to the previously-rejected cells, thereby making it possible to optimize network operation further.
The present invention also provides a cell control entity for a cellular mobile radiocommunications network, in particular a BSC for a network such as a network of the GSM type, for implementing such a method.

Method of improving cooperation between entities during call handover


An aft heat shield for a fuel nozzle tip includes: an annular shield wall; an annular shield flange extending radially outward from an aft end of the shield wall; an annular baffle flange surrounding the conical section, and disposed such that an axial gap is defined between the shield flange and the baffle flange, the baffle flange including a radially outer rim extending axially forward therefrom; and a plurality of impingement cooling holes passing through the baffle flange and oriented to as to direct air flow towards the shield wall.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to gas turbine engine fuel nozzles and, more particularly, to aft heat shields at the aft ends of fuel nozzle tips.
Aircraft gas turbine engine staged combustion systems have been developed to limit the production of undesirable combustion product components such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO), particularly, in the vicinity of airports where they contribute to urban photochemical smog problems. Gas turbine engines also are designed to be fuel efficient and have a low cost of operation. Other factors that influence combustor design are the desires of users of gas turbine engines for efficient, low cost operation, which translates into a need for reduced fuel consumption while at the same time maintaining or even increasing engine output. As a consequence, important design criteria for aircraft gas turbine engine combustion systems include provisions for high combustion temperatures, in order to provide high thermal efficiency under a variety of engine operating conditions, as well as minimizing undesirable combustion conditions that contribute to the emission of particulates, and to the emission of undesirable gases, and to the emission of combustion products that are precursors to the formation of photochemical smog.
Effective intermixing of the injected fuel and the combustion air helps to minimize the production of the undesirable combustion product components. In that regard, numerous swirlers, mixer designs, and venturi designs have been proposed over the years to improve the mixing of the fuel and air. In this way, burning occurs uniformly over the entire mixture and reduces the level of HC and CO that result from incomplete combustion. Venturis promote better mixing of fuel and air in fuel nozzles which is useful in reducing undesirable combustion emissions. Venturis have been designed with aft heat shields at the aft end of the fuel nozzle to protect the venturi and the rest of the fuel nozzle tip from heat for reducing undesirable effects from thermal exposure. Heat shields have also been designed for use at the end of other conical wall sections in the fuel nozzle tip such as an annular pilot housing which supports a pilot nozzle in the fuel nozzle tip. An example of such a heat shield at the aft end of a conical section of an annular pilot housing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,171,735 to Mancini, et al. which issued on May 8, 2012, entitled "Mixer Assembly For Gas Turbine Engine Combustor", assigned to the assignee of this patent, and incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a more effective heat shield to protect a venturi used for mixing fuel and air in fuel nozzles to protect the fuel nozzle tip from heat for reducing undesirable effects from thermal exposure. It is desirable to have venturis with integral heat shields having features that promote heat exchange and cooling of structures. It is highly desirable to provide better cooling of the aft heat shield in order to reduce effects of the high thermal loading on heat shield life. It is also desirable to provide a better design for replacing and welding in a new heat shield.


A thin film bulk acoustic resonator includes a piezoelectric film, and a pair of electrodes between which the piezoelectric film is interposed. The piezoelectric film includes an outer region extending outwards from at least a portion of the periphery of a resonator portion composed of the pair of electrodes and the piezoelectric film. The outer region includes, in at least a portion thereof, an acoustic damping region for damping acoustic waves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film bulk acoustic resonator, and more particularly to an improved thin film bulk acoustic resonator which effectively suppresses spurious response and which provides excellent frequency characteristics. The present also relates to a method for producing such a thin film bulk acoustic resonator. The present also relates to an improved filter which provides excellent filter characteristics by incorporating such a thin film bulk acoustic resonator. The present also relates to a composite electronic component device comprising such a filter. The present also relates to a communication device comprising such a filter and a composite electronic component device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Component elements to be internalized in an electronic device such as a mobile device are required to be reduced in size and weight. For example, a filter to be used in a mobile device must be small in size, and yet have finely-adjusted frequency characteristics.
As one type of filter satisfying such requirements, filters employing a thin film bulk acoustic resonator (Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator: FBAR) are known.
FIG. 18 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator. In FIG. 18, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 is provided upon a substrate 91. The thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 includes a piezoelectric film 92 and an upper electrode layer 93 and a lower electrode layer 94, in such a manner that the piezoelectric film 92 is interposed between the upper electrode layer 93 and the lower electrode layer 94. A cavity 95 is formed through the substrate 91 so as to expose a lower face of the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90, this being in order to allow free vibration of the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90.
When an electric field is applied between the upper electrode layer 93 and the lower electrode layer 94, the electric energy is converted to a mechanical energy due to piezoelectric effects of the piezoelectric film 92. For example, in the case where a piece of aluminum nitride (AlN) having a polarization axis extending in the thickness direction is used for the piezoelectric film 92, the mechanical energy is chiefly converted to vibrations of expansion and compression along the thickness direction. In other words, owing to this mechanical energy, the piezoelectric film 92 expands and compresses in the same direction as that of the electric field.
The equivalent circuit of the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 is a circuit which contains a serial resonant circuit and a parallel resonant circuit. Therefore, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 has a resonance frequency as well as an anti-resonance frequency. Given that the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 has a thickness t, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 resonates with a resonance frequency fr(=v/λ), which corresponds to a wavelength λ satisfying t=λ/2. Here, v is a sound velocity within the material composing the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90. Similar to the resonance frequency, the anti-resonance frequency fa is in inverse proportion to the thickness t of the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90, and is proportional to the sound velocity within the material composing the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90. In the case of setting the resonance frequency and/or the anti-resonance frequency in a frequency band of several hundred MHz to several GHz, any thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 supporting such a resonance frequency and/or anti-resonance frequency will have a thickness which allows easy thin film formation at the industrial level. Therefore, in the aforementioned frequency band, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 is useful as a small-sized resonator having a high Q value.
Ideally, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90 would only experience vibration in the thickness direction P of the piezoelectric film 92. In practice, however, vibrations along a lateral direction Q may also occur in the thin film bulk acoustic resonator 90, thus resulting in a plurality of lateral propagation modes. These lateral propagation modes are unwanted vibration modes. The lateral propagation modes propagate in a parallel direction to the electrode surfaces, undergo multiple reflections at the side walls of the piezoelectric film 92 or at the ends of the upper electrode layer 93 and the lower electrode layer 94, thus contributing to spurious response. In the case of a device including a plurality of adjoining thin film bulk acoustic resonators, the unwanted vibration modes interfere between adjoining thin film bulk acoustic resonators, and thus the unwanted vibration modes similarly contribute to spurious response. The spurious response ascribable to such lateral propagation modes deteriorates the frequency characteristics of the thin film bulk acoustic resonator.
In order to solve this problem, various techniques have been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-31552, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-332568).
FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B are schematic structural diagrams showing a conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator which is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-31552. As shown in FIG. 19A, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator includes an acoustic damping material 97a (shown as a region surrounded by dotted lines in the figure), which is provided around a rectangular-shaped electrode 96a (shown as a region surrounded by solid lines in the figure), separately from the electrode 96a and the piezoelectric layer. The acoustic damping material 97a is formed through printing or the like. The acoustic damping material 97a absorbs a substantial amount of lateral-direction acoustic energy, thus alleviating the lateral-direction acoustic energy and suppressing the spurious response. As shown in FIG. 19B, the spurious response can also be suppressed by an acoustic damping material 97b (shown as a region surrounded by dotted lines in the figure) which is provided around an inequilateral rectangular-shaped electrode 96b (shown as a region surrounded by solid lines in the figure) separately from the electrode 96b and the piezoelectric layer. FIG. 19C is a graph showing the passing frequency characteristics in the case where neither acoustic damping material 97a or 97b is provided. FIG. 19D is a graph showing the passing frequency characteristics in the case where the acoustic damping material 97a or 97b is provided. As seen from FIGS. 19C and 19D, the spurious response is suppressed when the acoustic damping material 97a or 97b is provided.
FIG. 19E is a schematic structural diagram showing a conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator which is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-332568. The thin film bulk acoustic resonator does not include an acoustic damping material as described above. The thin film bulk acoustic resonator includes an electrode 96c having the shape of an inequilateral non-parallel polygon (i.e., no sides are equal in length, and no sides are parallel) . Due to the use of the electrode 96c having the shape of an inequilateral non-parallel polygon, the thin film bulk acoustic resonator ensures that acoustic waves 98 which originated from a point 900 on a wall are reflected at an opposite wall, thus being prevented from returning to the same point. As a result, the lateral propagation modes are damped, whereby the spurious response is suppressed.
However, in the conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-31552, it is necessary to additionally provide the acoustic damping material 7, which complicates the production process. Furthermore, the conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator also has a problem in that not only the unwanted vibration modes but a portion of the desired vibration mode is also damped, thus resulting in deteriorated frequency characteristics.
In the conventional thin film bulk acoustic resonator disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-332568, it is necessary to use an electrode 96c having the shape of an inequilateral non-parallel polygon, which means that the shape of the resonator cannot be freely selected. This problematically reduces the design freedom. Specifically, when the thin film bulk acoustic resonator needs to be subjected to integration, it is difficult to obtain a high degree of integration. The unwanted vibration modes are not completely reflected at the ends of the electrodes but rather are leaked and propagated, thus unfavorably affecting an adjoining resonator.

Thin film bulk acoustic resonator, method for producing the same, filter, composite electronic component device, and communication device

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a cloud-storage-based file processing method and system. The method includes: a cloud server receiving a trigger request from a mobile terminal and the trigger request is a cloud processing task request triggered by the mobile terminal; the cloud server performing a corresponding processing operation according to the trigger request; and, when the trigger request is an uploading request, selecting a file which needs to be uploaded from the cloud server's cloud storage space and transferring the selected file to a target website. According to the present invention, by using the cloud server on behalf of a user to carry out the file processing operations, such as downloading and uploading, it helps the user completing the online file sharing process, prevents the file uploading and downloading processes from being affected by the network access condition and the mobile terminal's hardware quality, and saves the user the data volume of the mobile terminal throughout the process.

With the development and progress of society and technology, people are becoming more and more used to access information through wireless access terminal, and most commonly, browsing the Internet using mobile terminals. Downloading resources and uploading files are the most frequently-performed on-line file operations. According to individual requirements on work and entertainment, etc., users frequently download/upload various resources, such as documents, movies, stories, MP3, software-applications, etc., make/reply posting in online forums, insert attachment when sending/replying emails, or publish information by inserting uploaded files or pictures in web blogs. Because of its convenience and flexibility to browse the Internet at anytime and anywhere, mobile terminals become the most popular and widely accepted way to browse the Internet.
With existing technologies, when a user comes across a file or a picture online and wants to share it with other people by web posts, emails or blogs, the most common way is to download the file to the user's mobile terminal itself, then upload the locally stored file from the user's mobile terminal to the website by publishing posts on Internet forum websites, sending emails or writing blogs. Such process is restricted by the user's current network access speed and the device's quality level. For example: when connected in a GPRS link, it takes longer time to download a slightly larger file. As for those low-end mobile terminals, they often have smaller storage space, limiting file downloading.
When a user browses the Internet by a mobile terminal, the user not only cares about the browsing speed and the convenience of the mobile terminal, but also cares about the data volume of the mobile terminal. When a webpage is downloaded from the Internet to the user's mobile terminal itself and then uploaded back again to a website, it consumes at least twice the data volume of the mobile terminal. If the user wants to share the file in multiple web pages or platforms, it will consume even more times of data volume of the user's mobile terminal. And today's high data traffic cost may greatly affect the users' willingness to forward and share online files.
Thus, the file processing operations in existing technologies, while browsing the Internet by mobile terminals, consume a large amount of data volume, which makes it vulnerable to the network access condition and the mobile terminal's hardware quality, and brings inconveniences to users.

Cloud-storage-based file processing method and system

GUANGZHOU UCWEB COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD


A modifiable rack system can be connected to a vehicle such as a truck or a tractor, and includes a receptacle for holding a variety of items including materials and equipment. The rack system includes a variety of add-ons for organizing and retaining equipment, and a hinged tail gate for easy access. The rack system includes a trailer hitch so a rolling trailer, or the like, can be daisy-chained off the back end. Wheels can be mounted to the rack system so the rack system can used as a rolling cart. The rack system is able to withstand large forces during use because of a tow support spine, and associated structures, which impart tremendous strength.

Field
The present invention relates to devices for the transportation and storage of various implements, and more specifically, to a multi-functional rack that is configured for connection to a vehicle, for free standing, and/or for rolling.
Related Art
There are a variety of devices for storing and/or transporting implements such as tools, lawn equipment, farm apparatus and so forth. These devices include simple trailers that connect to road vehicles (for example the CARRY-ON TRAILER 5-ft×8-ft Wire Mesh Utility Trailer with Ramp Gate); trailers that connect to tractors (for example the AGRI-FAB Light Duty Dump Cart); vehicle mounted tool racks (for example TRADESMAN 48″ Steel Mid-Size Flush Mount Truck Box); and rolling toolboxes (for example CH ELLIS Rolling Tool Case Tele Handle with Bumpers and Wheels). However, all of these devices have limitations.
Trailers used with road vehicles are typically large and cumbersome, and therefore are limited in where they can be used. The fully enclosed styles are secure, but it is difficult to access the contents inside. Alternatively, the open styles, which typically include a platform floor and partial vertical walls, provide accessibility, but must be secured when not in use because the contents are vulnerable to theft and the environment. Also, because road vehicle trailers connect to the vehicle's tow ball, the vehicle is limited to towing just the trailer. Trailers that connect to tractors typically have the same limitations as road vehicle trailers. Vehicle mounted tool racks are typically lockable, and therefore secure. In addition, because they are mounted in the back of a truck, they don't occupy the trailer ball and the vehicle may tow. However, vehicle mounted tool racks are limited in space, and simply too small to hold certain equipment including most landscaping items with long handles. Moreover, it isn't practical to remove the vehicle mounted box and bring it to a location, for example inside a dwelling, in order to have all the tools readily available. Also, because the items are typically piled up in these boxes, accessibility is limited. Finally, while rolling toolboxes are useful insofar as they can easily be moved from one place to another, for example from one section of the garage to another, they are not easily transported by vehicle. Also, they are limited in storage space and can't reasonably store larger items such as landscaping tools.
As can be seen, there is a need for a system of storing and transporting tools, and in particular a modifiable rack system that is configured for connection to a vehicle, for free standing, and/or for rolling. It is desirable that this rack system provides free access to the implements that it is holding, is relatively compact, yet can secure both large and small items. It is desirable that this rack system can be towed, but allows for towing additional items. It is desirable that this rack system can be moved from one place to another by towing, or by rolling, and that it lends itself to a use as a semi-stationary system when not being transported. It is also desirable that the system is durable, and can withstand substantial dynamic load weight forces, up to 600 lbs., during use and transport. It is also desirable that the system is compatible for connection to 3 point hitch assemblies, or conventional vehicle trailer hitches.


Apparatus for making prints of exposed and developed film frames on discrete sheets of photographic paper and for developing the sheets has a copying station for successive exposed and developed film frames and a printing station where a discrete sheet of photographic paper receives an image of the frame at the copying station. A platform at the printing station carries a turntable which can change (when necessary) the orientation of a sheet, e.g., through 90.degree., to thus properly position a larger or smaller sheet for reception of the image. The turntable can receive sheets which are severed from different webs of unexposed photographic material, and each such web has a different width. The turntable can attract a sheet by suction during turning and/or during exposure. Such turntable can cooperate with one or more conveyors to maintain a sheet at the printing station in a predetermined plane during imaging of a film frame.

The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for reproducing the images of exposed and developed films, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for imaging portions of exposed and developed photographic films onto discrete sheets of photographic paper or other suitable photosensitive material.
An amateur photographer, as well as a professional photographer, often desires that prints of a series of freshly made exposures be completed as expeditiously as possible. Such services are rendered by certain establishments which specialize in so-called instant service. Thus, an exposed film which has been delivered to an establishment offering the so-called instant service is developed, its frames copied onto photographic paper, the paper developed, and individual prints made ready (with the exposed and developed film) within 60 minutes from the time of delivery. Establishments offering instant service or one-hour service can be found in all or nearly all larger cities but also in numerous smaller or medium sized cities or towns. As a rule, an establishment which specializes in instant service will operate with two units, namely a film developing machine and a so-called miniature laboratory wherein a copying machine is united with a developing machine for photographic paper. A miniature laboratory is often designed in such a way that it can accept and make copies of various types of exposed and developed photographic films.
Many photographers often desire that the exposed and developed film frames be imaged onto sheets of photographic paper having a particular size (e.g., 13.times.18 cm, 9.times.13 cm and/or others). Heretofore known proposals to meet such requirements include the utilization of several cassettes which contain webs of unexposed photographic paper. Each web has a different width. Thus, if the format of photographic prints is to be changed, an operator must remove a first cassette and replace it with a second cassette containing a web of photographic paper having a different width. Such repeated exchange of cassettes which contain webs of photographic paper having different widths is time consuming, and this is particularly undesirable in establishments which offer the aforediscussed instant service. Therefore, such establishments normally offer instant service only if the customer accepts prints of a single format. Accordingly, there exists an urgent need for equipment which can be utilized by establishments offering instant service and which is designed in such a way that prints of any one of a plurality of different formats can be made upon request and with no loss, or with little loss, in time.

Apparatus for making prints of exposed and developed photographic films


An image recording and reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces image data shot at a frame rate higher than a normal reproduction rate employed during reproduction of a moving image can generate a still image by attaching still image recording information to at least one frame image included in the recorded image data and combining a plurality of frame images of the recorded image data in accordance with the still image recording information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to image recording and reproducing apparatuses. More particularly, a technique for recording and reproducing high frame rate images resulting from high speed image shooting.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital cameras for capturing images of a subject, converting the captured image into image data, and recording the image data on recording media are widely used. Such digital cameras are categorized into digital still cameras that mainly capture still images and digital video cameras that mainly capture moving images.
Digital cameras having a still image shooting function and a moving image shooting function have been developed recently. In one method for simultaneously recording moving images and still images, one frame of a moving image is recorded as a still image during shooting of the moving image. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-103361 discloses one example of such digital cameras.
The digital camera disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-103361 switches an operation mode thereof into a still image shooting mode from a moving image shooting mode in response to pressing of a still image shooting button during shooting of a moving image and shoots a still image by still image shooting conditions. A user can shoot a still image at the right moment to shoot a good still image using such a digital camera during shooting of a moving image.
However, since shooting of a moving image is temporarily suspended when a still image is shot in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-103361, loss of frames may affect the recorded moving image.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-054053 discloses an example of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recorded moving image. The reproducing apparatus captures one frame of the reproduced moving image as a still image.
The still image capturing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-054053 temporarily stores a reproduced frame image displayed on a display screen in a storage device, thereby capturing a still image. In addition, the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-054053 allows a user to set a time interval between capturing of frame images and a size of the storage device. As a result, the apparatus can selectively capture frame images that the user wants to capture.
However, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-054053 is for simply extracting one frame of a reproduced moving image. If an interval between frames of the reproduced moving image is set approximately equal to 1/30 seconds, the apparatus is unable to capture another still image after at least 1/30 seconds elapses since capturing of one still image. Furthermore, long and short time still image capturing, which can be realized by changing the shutter speed as in digital cameras having a still image shooting function, is not available.

Image recording and reproducing apparatus