The present invention relates to a triblock copolymer, that is multipurpose yet has sufficient properties particularly for medical applications, and is useful as a material having excellent flexibility and water absorbability, as well as to a method for producing the same, and a biocompatible material. The copolymer of the present invention is composed of segments A1 and A2 each composed of a polymer having a depsipeptide unit, such as a segment selected from a homopolymer of depsipeptide or a copolymer of lactide and depsipeptide, and segment B composed of polyalkylene glycol, such as PEG, and is a A1-B-A2 triblock copolymer having a number average molecular weight of 8000 to 500000. The biocompatible material of the present invention contains the triblock copolymer as a main component, and may be used as a tissue anti-adhesion barrier.

Aliphatic polyesters have recently been attracting much attention from the environmental point of view for their gradual degradability by climate or biological environment into non-toxic degradation products when left in natural environment. Aliphatic polyesters have also been a subject of many researches in medical field, as bioabsorbable materials. As a typical aliphatic polyester, polylactide is known.
Polylactide has a melting point of as high as 173° C. and excellent mechanical strength, but, on the other hand, its high crystallinity results in rigid property (314 Kpsi) and lack of flexibility and water absorbability. Such properties of polylactide limit its application mainly to medical joint and screws for bones or the like, or plates. In order to overcome such disadvantages, block copolymers of aliphatic polyester and flexible polyalkylene glycol are proposed in Non-patent Publications 1 to 5 and other publications. However, there has been no discussion made to date about random copolymerization of polylactide and polydepsipeptide.
Even block copolymers of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polylactide that are available from the researches to date, have not given biocompatible materials that could stand for clinical use. For achieving sufficient flexibility and water absorbability, the polymerization degree of polylactide must be reduced, which inevitably lowers the mechanical strength and results in severely limited applications. On the other hand, if the polymerization degree of polylactide is increased, the bioabsorbability of the resulting copolymer is lowered, and flexibility and water absorbability can no longer be expected. Thus the copolymer cannot sufficiently exhibit functions as a biocompatible material.
Patent Publication 1 discloses to add PEG having a molecular weight of not lower than 2000 as a third component to a copolymer of polylactide and polyalkylene ether, such as PEG, which is a hydrophilic polymer. This publication, however, discloses merely a blend with a plasticizer, and does not disclose copolymerization with amino acid. The technical point of this example is to blend PEG as a plasticizer, which achieves improvement in rigidity compared to polylactic acid alone, but is not expected to achieve elasticity like living tissues. In addition, the plasticizer (PEG), which leaks in water, has limited in vivo applications.
Patent Publication 2 discloses an A-B-A triblock copolymer of PEG and aliphatic polyester polycaprolactone as an injectable polymer for drug delivery that is degradable in living organisms. This solution, however, disperses in water, and naturally mechanical strength cannot be expected. This publication is silent about a copolymer of PEG and polylactide, polyglutamic acid, or polyaspartic acid as a hydrophobic segment.
Patent Publication 3 discloses a polylactic acid block copolymer having an amide bond. However, this copolymer is not expected, from its molecular structure, to have absorbability and flexibility sufficient for a biocompatible material.
Non-patent Publications 6 and 7 report on copolymerization of depsipeptide and lactide. However, this copolymerization aims at introduction of functional groups into lactide, and sufficient water absorbability and flexibility cannot be expected in the copolymer per se. A triblock copolymer of PEG and a random copolymer of lactide and depsipeptide, or an A-B-A block copolymer of PEG and depsipeptide is not known.
Patent Publications 4 to 6 disclose reverse thermal sensitivity and various applications, such as preparation for sustained drug delivery, of a block copolymer of PEG and polylactide. However, the PEG constituting this copolymer has a molecular weight of 500 to 10000, so that both the mechanical strength and the moisture retaining ability of the gel can hardly be met at the same time. On the other hand, when the compositional ratio of polylactide is increased to achieve sufficient gel strength, other problems will arise, such as reduced biodegradability, due to the crystallinity of polylactide, and thus the material can no longer be used as a biocompatible material.
Patent Publication 1: JP-8-199052-A
Patent Publication 2: JP-8-176016-A
Patent Publication 3: JP-11-302374-A
Patent Publication 4: JP-2002-533377-T
Patent Publication 5: JP-2002-519333-T
Patent Publication 6: JP-2002-516910-T
Non-patent Publication 1: Y. Kimura, et al., Polymer 30, p1342 (1989)
Non-patent Publication 2: X. M. Deng, et al., J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Lett., 28, p 411 (1990)
Non-patent Publication 3: K. J. Zhu, et al., J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 39, p 1 (1990)
Non-patent Publication 4: H. R. Kricheldorf, et al., Makromol. Chem., 194, p 463 (1993)
Non-patent Publication 5: S. M. Li, et al., Macromolecules, 29, p 57 (1996)
Non-patent Publication 6: T. Ouchi, et al., J. Polym. part A: Poly. Chem., 35, p 377-383 (1997)
Non-patent Publication 7: G. John, et al., J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem., 35, p 1901-1907 (1997)

Triblock copolymer, method for producing the same, and biocompatible material


An electronic tag system and a method of updating electronic tag information are provided. The electronic tag system includes: a communication device, configured to receive updated annual inspection information; a display device, configured to display the updated annual inspection information; and a power control device, connected to the communication device and the display device respectively and configured to: connect, when the communication device receives the updated annual inspection information, a power source to the display device electrically to power the display device, so as to perform updating of annual inspection information on the display device; and disconnect the power source from the display device when the updating is over.

A vehicle needs to undergo annual inspection, and an annual inspection sticker is attached on the vehicle. Currently, the sticker is usually made of paper, and can not be reused. One sticker has to be made for each vehicle every year, and with increasing number of vehicles, hundreds of millions of pieces of paper are wasted annually. Moreover, the paper sticker is inconvenient to check, and it is unable to acquire previous annual inspection information of the vehicle from the sticker, which is neither convenient to use nor environment-friendly.
In a technical solution in related technologies, vehicle inspection information is generally displayed by adopting an electronic tag, however, remote updating of the electronic tag can not be achieved in the technical solution, and vehicle owner has to go to vehicle administration office regularly for the updating, which is very inconvenient; moreover, the electronic tag has to be powered (by battery or vehicle-mounted power source) all the time during its usage, which leads to tremendous waste of electric power and high cost.

Electronic tag system and method of updating electronic tag information


A three fluid phase change material (PCM) heat exchanger for a vehicle comprises (i) an intake air channel having a first set of fins disposed therein and configured to receive and output intake air prior to combustion by an engine of the vehicle, (ii) a PCM layer surrounding the intake air channel and configured to cool the intake air, the PCM layer comprising a second set of fins, a PCM fluid that expands when freezing, and a set of elastomeric devices are configured to compress to compensate for the PCM fluid expansion during freezing, and (iii) a refrigerant channel surrounding the PCM layer and configured to circulate a refrigerant to cool the PCM layer to a solid, frozen state.

A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between two or more fluids. For vehicle applications, heat exchangers are often utilized to cool intake air being provided to an engine. Colder air has a higher density, which allows for knock mitigation and reduced spark retard, which in turn allows for more power to be produced by the engine at high loads. One example of a typical vehicle heat exchanger is a radiator. A mixture of antifreeze (e.g., ethylene glycol or propylene glycol) and water (e.g., a 50/50 mixture) is typically utilized as one fluid (the coolant) with the engine intake air being the other fluid. Antifreeze prevents the water from freezing, which would cause the water to expand and potentially damage the heat exchanger or other engine components. The addition of antifreeze to water, however, also lowers its latent heat of fusion, i.e., the amount of energy needed to change the mixture from solid (frozen) to liquid. Accordingly, while these conventional heat exchanger systems work well for their intended purpose, there remains a need for improvement in the relevant art.

Phase change material heat exchanger for three fluids


A gear transmission system (20) comprising at least a first cylindrical gear (21) and a second cylindrical gear (22). Each of the first and the second cylindrical gears (21, 22) comprise a plurality of teeth (23, 26). The teeth (23) of the first cylindrical gear (21) having a first tooth flank (24) for contacting a first tooth flank (27) of the teeth (26) of the second cylindrical gear (22) according to a predefined first contact line (30). The first tooth flanks (24, 27) of the teeth (23, 26) of each of the first and second cylindrical gears (21, 22) have a tooth shape and tooth properties determined by the predefined first contact line (30).

Gear transmission systems are used for transmitting motion by means of successively engaging teeth. During operation of a machine, one flank of a tooth of one gear meshes with one flank of a tooth of another gear. In order to obtain optimal meshing between the teeth of the gears, the tooth profile of the teeth of the gears is often optimized. In the past, tooth profile optimization has already extensively been studied in order to optimize tooth contact between meshing gears, which has led to different known tooth profile optimization methods.
For example, in SI 21810 Hlebanja et al. describe an internal gearing pair with S-gearing which comprises a gearwheel with internal teeth 1 and a gearwheel with external teeth 2 featuring lateral tooth profiles which conforms to a curved semi-symmetrical S-shaped fitting track or contact line 5 (see FIG. 1). The geometrical shape of the fitting track or contact line 5 is determined by the slope in its center αC=20°+/−2° and increasing curve factor between the center and the ends. Typical and predefined are the point A at the beginning of fitting, the point E at the end of fitting and the center of the fitting curve, which coincides with the kinematic pole C of the gearwheel pair. The distance between the starting point of fitting A and the final point of fitting E on one side, as well as the center 9 of the worm wheel gearing on the other corresponds to the module value. The distance of points A and E from the vertical axis of symmetry 10 of the gearwheels depends on the angle αE=38°+/−1°, which results between the straight line E-C, or on the other side the straight line A-C with the axis of symmetry of the wormwheel gearing 9.
Another example is described in EP 0 974 016, which discloses a gearing system which includes a pair of gears (see FIG. 2). The tooth profile of the first gear 11 has three portions: a concave portion 11b lying within the dedendum of the first gear 11, a convex portion 11c lying within the addendum of the first gear 10 and a transition zone 11a disposed between the concave portion 11b and convex portion 11c. Similarly, the tooth profile of the mating gear 12 has three portions; a concave portion 12b lying within the dedendum of the mating gear 12, conjugate to the convex portion 11c of the tooth profile of the first gear 11; a convex portion 12c lying within the addendum of the mating gear 12, conjugate to the concave portion 11b of the tooth profile of the first gear 11; and a transition zone 12a disposed between the concave portion 12b and convex portion 12c. The pair of gears 11, 12 may be designed such that no contact between meshing teeth is made along the transition zones 11a, 12a.
A drawback of the above described methods is that they only allow optimizing one tooth contact, i.e. one flank of a tooth. Therefore, these methods may be less suitable to be used for idler gears, i.e. for gears which are interacting with two other gears. The teeth of idler gears on one side, also referred to as first flank, make contact with teeth of a first other gear and on the other side, also referred to as second flank, make contact with teeth of a second other gear. The first tooth flanks of the teeth of the idler gear may be subject to a different load distribution than the second tooth flanks of the teeth. For example, in case of a planetary gear unit comprising planet gears for mutual interaction with a sun gear and a ring gear, the tooth flanks of the planet gear teeth at the side of the sun gear are subject to a different load distribution than the tooth flanks of the planet gear teeth at the side of the ring gear.
Hence, when known tooth profile optimization methods as described above are performed on idler gears, they would only allow to optimize contact between a first flank of the teeth of the idler gear with teeth of another gear, and may thus still have drawbacks for the other tooth contact.
Disadvantages hereof may, for example, be that this may limit the allowable torque of the gear transmission systems, for example because of low tooth root strength. This may furthermore have disadvantages with respect to the dynamic behavior of the gear transmission systems.
In both the above described examples, the tooth profiles have a convex/concave geometry. Also examples are known of asymmetric tooth profiles. One example of such asymmetric tooth profiles and how to design these tooth profiles is described by Alexander Kapelevich in "Geometry and design of involute spur gears with asymmetric teeth. The method described in this paper is based on the following considerations. A first one is that for an external gearing a larger pressure angle is proposed for the drive tooth side but not for the coast tooth side. A second consideration is that the parameters of asymmetric gears are defined independently form any generating rack parameters. On the contrary, the choice of the generating rack parameters is based on results of the asymmetric gear synthesis. The generating rack parameters for the pinion and the gear are optimized independently and, as a rule, they are different.
Again, similar as the methods described above, this method only allows optimizing one tooth contact, i.e. one flank of a tooth, and may thus be less suitable for being used for idler gears.


Magneto-electric spin orbital (MESO) structures having functional oxide vias, and method of fabricating magneto-electric spin orbital (MESO) structures having functional oxide vias, are described. In an example, a magneto-electric spin orbital (MESO) device includes a source region and a drain region in or above a substrate. A first via contact is on the source region. A second via contact is on the drain region, the second via contact laterally adjacent to the first via contact. A plurality of alternating ferromagnetic material lines and non-ferromagnetic conductive lines is above the first and second via contacts. A first of the ferromagnetic material lines is on the first via contact, and a second of the ferromagnetic material lines is on the second via contact. A spin orbit coupling (SOC) via is on the first of the ferromagnetic material lines. A functional oxide via is on the second of the ferromagnetic material lines.

For the past several decades, the scaling of features in integrated circuits has been a driving force behind an ever-growing semiconductor industry. Scaling to smaller and smaller features enables increased densities of functional units on the limited real estate of semiconductor chips. For example, shrinking transistor size allows for the incorporation of an increased number of memory or logic devices on a chip, lending to the fabrication of products with increased capacity. The drive for ever-more capacity, however, is not without issue. The necessity to optimize the performance of each device becomes increasingly significant.
Non-volatile logic may be necessary for lowering power dissipation of integrated circuits by more efficient sleep states when the circuit is idle. However, improvements are needed to enable non-volatile logic with switching energy and delay approaching those for conventional logic circuits.

Magneto-electric spin orbit (MESO) structures having functional oxide vias


A system for eliminating unauthorized email messages (“spam email”) blocks all email messages except those that successfully pass through a matching process to verify certain characteristics of the email message, which may include the recipient's email address, the sender's email address, and the sender message handler Internet Protocol (IP) address. The invention provides a mechanism for authorizing a sender by “Adaptive Inheritance,” whereby a recipient can designate other email users to authorize senders on behalf of the recipient. In the preferred embodiment if the sender message handler Internet Protocol (IP) address does not match the sender's email address, the sender's message is automatically rejected. If the sender's email address or domain name is not contained within the recipient's PSD, the message is held and the message sender is given directions for requesting permission to send email to the recipient, with a Permission Request Form (PRF) posted at a web site. The completed PRF is made available to the recipient for review, and the recipient must add the sender to the PSD before any message from that sender can be forwarded to the recipient.

Email messaging has become one of the most popular communications tools in industrialized society. The proliferation of personal computers for domestic and business use, coupled with the widespread use of the Internet as a global communications network, have resulted in email messaging being one of the most convenient forms of communication, in many instances more convenient than the telephone. Email messaging allows for the transmission of the written word in a form that is private and virtually instantaneous, and with the ability to attach documents is essentially unlimited in terms of the possible content and format of the message.
Email messaging also allows for the simultaneous transmission of messages to multiple senders. For this feature alone email messaging has become a very desirable marketing medium. All that is required is a mailing list or "group' of email addresses, and the same promotional message can simultaneously be sent to a virtually unlimited number of recipients. Where a recipient has not previously indicated any interest in receiving messages from the sender, this practice is known as "spamming", or Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE.) Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) prohibit spamming, which is considered undesirable and, to many recipients, irritating and wasteful of their time. Because spamming has become so popular, with the large number of purely promotional email messages received by many recipients (especially business recipients) it can be very time consuming for a recipient to regularly sort through their email messages to separate those that are wanted or necessary from those that are merely promotional and should be discarded.
Various types of solutions have been proposed and implemented to try to reduce spamming. Software is available that conceals an Internet user's email address, so that the owners of web sites visited by the user cannot determine the visitor's email address and therefore cannot add the user to a mailing list. This solution has limited utility, however, because as soon as the email address has been willingly provided by the user to a third party (for example with a request for information, goods or services), it can very quickly be disseminated for inclusion in email address lists maintained many other entities. As in the case of postal addresses, this type of demographic information is highly marketable. Moreover, an email address can often be fairly easily determined by other means, particularly in the case of a business where having a visible presence and being readily accessible is important to the success of the email user's business.
Email messaging programs often provide filters which allow a user to block or redirect received messages having, or missing, certain user-defined characteristics. However, this solution also has limited utility, because the recipient either has to have already received a message from the sender in order to block further messages from that sender (and there are also ways that a sender can hide or fake their identity to defeat such a blocking filter); or the recipient risks blocking messages that are actually useful or desirable, thereby generating "false positives." In the case of a business in particular, it is often not practical for the recipient to ignore email messages just because they originate from unknown senders, as these can be a source of new business or an unknown party related to an existing business transaction or situation.
However, in many instances it is also not practical for a recipient to qualify or verify every email sender that tries to send the recipient a message, as this can become even more time consuming than the existing practice of vetting and discarding unwanted email messages.

Email message filtering system and method


A surface-coated cutting tool according to the present invention includes a base material and a coating film formed on the base material. The coating film includes one or more hard layer and one or more oxygen-rich hard layer. The hard layer is crystalline in its entirety or crystalline with a part thereof being amorphous. The oxygen-rich hard layer and the hard layer are stacked and the oxygen-rich hard layer is amorphous in a region of interface with the hard layer.

A surface-coated cutting tool including a coating film on a base material has conventionally been used. In such a surface-coated cutting tool, various improvements in the coating film have been made in order to further enhance wear resistance or chipping resistance.
For example, a surface-coated cutting tool in which a hard coating layer composed of titanium nitride or the like and a composite oxide layer composed of Al, Si, and Ti are stacked to implement a coating film formed on a base material has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-248702 (Patent Document 1)). The surface-coated cutting tool has been stated as excellent in chipping resistance even under severe conditions. On the other hand, as the composite oxide layer is formed in an amorphous state, its hardness is poor and further improvement in wear resistance has been required.
Meanwhile, a surface-coated cutting tool in which an inner layer containing a nitride of Ti or the like and an outer layer composed of aluminum oxide are stacked to implement a coating film formed on a base material has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-138210 (Patent Document 2)). The surface-coated cutting tool has intended to improve chipping resistance by forming a part of the outer layer as amorphous and absorbing external shock there. Expansion of an amorphous region in the outer layer, however, may lead to poorer wear resistance as in Patent Document 1 above. Therefore, it is considered that the amorphous region is preferably limited only to a part of the outer layer and other regions should be crystalline.
If a region other than the amorphous region in the outer layer is formed as crystalline, crystals different in crystal structure come in contact with each other at the interface between the inner layer and the outer layer. Then, adhesion therebetween becomes poor and disadvantage such as separation between layers may be caused. In order to improve adhesion between the layers, it has been necessary to lower compressive stress of the inner layer or to form another intermediate layer. If compressive stress of the inner layer is lowered, sufficient wear resistance is not obtained during high-speed cutting and formation of another intermediate layer lowers manufacturing efficiency.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-248702    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-138210


A method and system adaptively substitutes a single dialing button sequence for a selected action in a voice menu of a telephone system. A shortcut message in the voice menu prompts a caller to select a shortcut button to achieve a shortcut action. The system then accumulates counts related to frequencies of occurrence of a plurality of actions prompted by the voice menu. The system then ranks the plurality of actions by their respective accumulated counts and determines if any one of the plurality of actions has an accumulated count greater than an accumulated count of the shortcut action. If it does, then the system causes the substitution the one of the plurality of actions and a corresponding message for the shortcut action and the shortcut message in the voice menu.

In existing telephone systems, whether in a private branch exchange or in a large scale telecommunications network, voice response units are employed to enable a caller to select from a touchtone dial button pad, actions from a voice menu based in the network. Sometimes, voice menus are referred to as touchtone menus, since the dialing button pad is typically a touchtone key pad. Voice menus have employed nested menus which are accessed by the caller pressing a sequence a buttons in response to a sequence of voice response messages or prompts. The voice response messages can be used to obtain help desk services, for example, to direct the caller to particular actions or to particular agents or attendants sought by the caller. Callers tend to follow standard paths through the voice menus, for example, callers to a help desk seeking a particular service, will repeat the same sequence of touchtone buttons to obtain the desired service. It would be desirable to have a method and system which would adaptively reconfigure the voice menus so that popular sequences of touchtone buttons used by many callers can be reconfigured into a single shortcut button to obtain the desired action or attendant service.

Voice menu optimization method and system


A behavioral recognition system may include both a computer vision engine and a machine learning engine configured to observe and learn patterns of behavior in video data. Certain embodiments may provide image stabilization of a video stream obtained from a camera. An image stabilization module in the behavioral recognition system obtains a reference image from the video stream. The image stabilization module identifies alignment regions within the reference image based on the regions of the image that are dense with features. Upon determining that the tracked features of a current image is out of alignment with the reference image, the image stabilization module uses the most feature dense alignment region to estimate an affine transformation matrix to apply to the entire current image to warp the image into proper alignment.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments presented herein disclose techniques for analyzing a sequence of video frames. More particularly, embodiments provide techniques for stabilizing camera images captured by a video surveillance system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some currently available video surveillance systems provide simple object recognition capabilities. For example, a video surveillance system may be configured to classify a group of pixels (referred to as a "blob") in a given frame as being a particular object (e.g., a person or vehicle). Once identified, a "blob" may be tracked from frame-to-frame in order to follow the "blob" moving through the scene over time, e.g., a person walking across the field of vision of a video surveillance camera. Further, such systems may be configured to determine when an object has engaged in certain predefined behaviors. For example, the system may include definitions used to recognize the occurrence of a number of pre-defined events, e.g., the system may evaluate the appearance of an object classified as depicting a car (a vehicle-appear event) coming to a stop over a number of frames (a vehicle-stop event). Thereafter, a new foreground object may appear and be classified as a person (a person-appear event) and the person then walks out of frame (a person-disappear event). Further, the system may be able to recognize the combination of the first two events as a "parking-event."
However, such surveillance systems typically require that the objects and/or behaviors which may be recognized by the system to be defined in advance. Thus, in practice, these systems rely on predefined definitions for objects and/or behaviors to evaluate a video sequence. Unless the underlying system includes a description for a particular object or behavior, the system is generally incapable of recognizing that behavior (or at least instances of the pattern describing the particular object or behavior). More generally, such systems are often unable to identify objects, events, behaviors, or patterns (or classify such objects, events, behaviors, etc., as being normal or anomalous) by observing what happens in the scene over time; instead, such systems rely on static patterns defined in advance.

Image stabilization techniques for video surveillance systems


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for determining if a user-defined software function is a memory allocation function during compile-time. The methods and apparatus determine if a user-defined function returns a new memory object every time the user-defined function is invoked. In addition, the methods and apparatus determine if the memory objects created by the user-defined function are available outside the scope of the user defined function. If the user-defined function returns a new memory object every time the user-defined function is invoked, and the memory objects created by the user-defined function are not available outside the scope of the user defined function, then the user-defined function is determined to be a memory allocation function. Otherwise, the user-defined function is determined to be a non-memory allocation function.

Software programs typically include numerous "memory allocation" functions. A memory allocation function, such as the C "malloc" function, sets aside a portion of the computer's memory resources (i.e., a "memory object") for use by the associated software program.
Software compilers often attempt to disambiguate references to memory objects during compile time in order to produce more efficient object code. For pointers to static memory objects, the compile-time names of the memory objects may be used to abstract the target memory. However, dynamically allocated memory objects do not have compile-time names. Instead, the compiler may use the static allocation site of the memory object as a compile-tie name.
However, using this scheme, the compiler cannot disambiguate between objects associated with the same allocation site if a call is made to a standard memory allocation function within a user defined function (i.e., the compiler cannot tell the difference between two different memory objects produced by two different calls to the same user-defined function which allocates memory). As a result, memory objects produced by memory allocation functions which are included in a user-defined function are not distinguished during compile-time when more than one call to the user-defined function is made by the software. In other words, the compiler does not recognize the user-defined function as a memory allocation function, because the compiler does not know if the user-defined function returns a new memory object every time the user-defined function is invoked, and the compiler does not know if variables being assigned are available outside the scope of the user defined function (i.e., the address of the allocated memory object may or may not be stored in a variable or a data structure that is accessible by a function that is not within the user-defined function.)

Methods and apparatus for determining if a user-defined software function is a memory allocation function during compile-time


A circuit breaker controller is mounted on each vehicle of an electric train together with a receiver that detects a track antenna beacon installed at a predetermined position before and after the dead section, to control a circuit breaker by detecting the track antenna beacon by the receiver. The circuit breaker controller includes a running-position calculation unit that calculates a running position of the vehicle based on a speed of the electric train, a circuit-breaker control-position calculation unit that calculates a circuit-breaker off-control position, and a circuit breaker control unit that executes off-control of the circuit breaker at a point in time at which the running position and the circuit-breaker off-control position match each other.

When a train enters a dead section (a section with no power distribution) in a state where a power collector is connected to a main circuit device, an arc is generated between an overhead line and the power collector due to a contact loss, and a device may be damaged. Therefore, when the train passes through the dead section, a vacuum circuit breaker provided between the power collector and the main circuit device needs to be on/off-controlled. Conventionally, there is a method of on/off-controlling the vacuum circuit breaker by installing a track antenna beacon before and after the dead section and detecting the track antenna beacon.
Furthermore, for example, there has been disclosed a circuit interruption technique in which an antenna that detects a trolley voltage is provided at opposite ends of a train formation to detect the dead section beforehand (for example, Patent Literature 1).

Circuit breaker controller for electric train


The present invention is intended to provide automated lamination method and device that can efficiently perform automated lamination by using a thin-layer tape. A thin-layer tape automated lamination device 1 includes a provisional formation unit 2 configured to form lamination tapes having thicknesses different from each other by laminating a plurality of thin-layer tapes each having a thickness of 5 μm to 80 μm, and a lamination-shaping unit 3 configured to laminate and shape each formed lamination tape in a lamination region of a basal body surface.

A fiber reinforcement composite material made of a reinforcement fiber material and a resin material has excellent characteristics such as lightweight, high strength, and high elasticity and is used in various fields of aircraft, automobile, sport instrument, and the like. The fiber reinforcement composite material is fabricated in a prepreg form in which the reinforcement fiber material and the resin material are integrated, and is used in shaping fabrication, and in a known fabrication technology, a prepreg laminated body is acquired by laminating a plurality of prepreg layers in accordance with the shape of a shaped product and then is shaped through heating pressurization to manufacture the shaped product.
Automated lamination technologies such as automated fiber placement (AFP) and automated tape layer (ATL) have been developed as prepreg lamination technologies, and it is possible to achieve a technology of manufacturing a shaped product with increased cost effect by introducing such an automation process.
The present inventors have developed technologies related to opening processing for a carbon fiber bundle as a reinforcement fiber material, and have developed a thin-layer prepreg tape obtained by forming a fiber bundle such as carbon fiber into a thin layer of a tape shape by opening and combined with a resin material. Then, the present inventors have researched and developed technologies related to lamination-shaping of such a thin-layer prepreg tape (refer to Patent Literature 1 and Non Patent Literature 1), and have found that a laminated body obtained by laminating and shaping such thin-layer prepreg tapes has significantly improved mechanical characteristics such as an impact resistance characteristic as compared to a laminated body having the same thickness and obtained by laminating and shaping prepreg tapes having a normal thickness.

Thin-layer tape automated lamination method and device


A system includes a transmitter including: an aligner configured to align the phases of an input clock signal and data signal; and a transmission circuit configured to generate a transmission signal of which the phase and amplitude are controlled according to the aligned clock signal and the aligned data signal. The system may also include a receiver including: a clock extraction circuit configured to extract a temporary clock signal from the transmission signal; a data extraction circuit configured to extract a temporary data signal from the transmission signal; a clock delay selector configured to generate the clock signal by delaying the temporary clock signal according to a value of the temporary data signal; and a data recovery circuit configured to sample the temporary data signal according to the clock signal outputted from the clock delay selector and output a data signal.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a transmitter, a receiver, and a system including the same, and more particularly, to a transmitter which transmits a clock signal and data through a transmission line to a receiver, and a system including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates clock signals and data signals being transmitted and received between a transmitter 10 and a receiver 20. The transmitter 10 and the receiver 20 transmit and receive clock signals and data signals through separate transmission lines.
In the illustrated transmission scheme, the number of transmission lines is increased with the increase in number of types of data to be transmitted. As a result, the area occupied by the transmission lines is increased, and power waste is also increased during the signal transmission.
Furthermore, a clock synchronization circuit, such as a phase locked loop (PLL), may be used in the receiver 20 to recover clock signals and data signals. However, the clock synchronization circuit occupies a large area, and consumes a large amount of power.

Transmitter, receiver and system including the same

KOREA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND BUSINESS FOUNDATION


A method and apparatus for synthesizing texture images that match the texture appearance of a given digitized sample of an image. This synthesis is completely automatic and requires only the "target" texture image as an input. It allows generation of as much texture as desired so that any object or surface can be covered with the synthesized texture. The apparatus generates texture parameters for the target texture sample image that reflect the texture in that image. These texture parameters are used to modify the noise image such that the modified noise image attains the texture of the target texture image. To further improve the texture of the modified noise image, an image pyramid is constructed for both the modified noise image and the target texture sample image. The apparatus then iteratively updates the modified noise image on a coarse-to-fine basis using the subbands of the image pyramids. The output image is an updated modified noise image that has attained the texture of the target texture sample image.

Generally speaking, computer renderings of objects with surface texture are more interesting and realistic than those without texture. Texture mapping is a technique that adds an appearance of surface detail by wrapping or projecting a digitized texture image onto a computer generated surface. Digitized textures can be obtained from a variety of sources, e.g., cropped from a photo CD image as a texture "chip", but the resulting texture chip may not have a desired size or shape corresponding to a surface that is to be textured. Furthermore, to cover a large object, an image rendering system may need to repeat the texture; this can lead to unacceptable artifacts either in the form of visible seams, visible repetition, or both.
Texture mapping suffers from an additional fundamental problem; often there is no natural map from the (planar) texture image to the geometry/topology of the surface, so the texture may be distorted unnaturally when mapped. There are some partial solutions to this distortion problem but there is no universal solution for mapping an image onto an arbitrarily shaped surface.
An alternative to texture mapping is to create (paint) textures by hand directly onto a computer generated, three-dimensional surface model, but this process is both labor intensive and requires considerable artistic skill.
Another alternative is to use computer-synthesized textures so that as much texture can be generated as needed to cover a particular surface. Furthermore, some of the synthesis techniques produce textures that tile seamlessly.
Using synthetic textures, the distortion problem has been solved in two different ways. First, some techniques work by synthesizing texture directly on the object surface. The second solution is to use so-called "solid textures". A solid texture is a three-dimensional array of color values. A point on the surface of an object is colored by the value of the solid texture at the corresponding three-dimensional point. Solid texturing can be a very natural solution to the distortion problem; there is no distortion because there is no mapping. However, existing techniques for synthesizing solid textures can be quite cumbersome. One must learn how to "tweak" the parameters or procedures of the texture synthesizer to get a desired effect.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method and apparatus for generating textures that can cover, without seams or significant distortion, surfaces of any size.

Method and apparatus for generating image textures


A system, a method and a computer readable medium are provided for simulating a combined musculoskeletal and augmentation device system. The dynamics model of the combined musculoskeletal and augmentation device system receives computed torques at the joints as inputs and delivers simulated kinematic data of the segments as outputs. The augmentation device controller for control of the augmentation device, receives the simulated kinematic data as inputs and delivers assist torques as outputs. The inverse dynamics model for the musculoskeletal and augmentation device system, receives the simulated kinematic data, desired kinematic data of the segments and the assit torques as inputs and delivers the computed net joint torque and muscle torque. The muscle force and muscle capacity module for checking and adjusting the computed torques, receives the computed torques as inputs and delivers computed torques as outputs after the checking and adjustment.

Effective usage of human assistive systems or augmentation devices for restoration or enhancement of motor function is an important area of research in rehabilitation and performance enhancement. A partial list of important and desired features of an effective assistive system include: (1) a decrease in energy rate and cost with respect to able-bodied subjects performing the same task, (2) minimum disruption and maximum comfort of normal activities when employing the assistive system, and (3) practicality.
The third requirement considers the ease of wearing such a device and its power consumption needs. These requirements and available technology have led to the development of externally powered orthoses and prostheses that interface directly or indirectly with the human neuromuscular system. Although significant progress has been made in meeting many of the requirements needed for development of practical human assist devices (Popovic, D., Externally Powered and Controlled Orthotics and Prosthetics. The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, Editor Bronzino, J. D., 2nd ed. Vol. 2, Chapter 142, 2000), realization of such systems for daily applications is still in its infancy. The complexity of the central nervous system (CNS) control and the interface between voluntary control and external artificial control are still challenging, unanswered questions.
At Honda's Wako Research Center, a mechanically powered walking assist prototype system was recently unveiled (Katoh and Hirata, The Concept of a Walking Assistance Suit, Welfare Engineering Symposium, The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, August 2001). The target application is to help the elderly and disabled people to either execute daily tasks they could not previously perform, or use less physical exertion than they currently employ for these tasks. The tasks considered include walking, lifting, sitting/standing, and climbing stairs. Two important and challenging questions to consider in the implementation of the Honda prototype and similar human augmentation systems include: 1) analysis and monitoring of biomechanical as well as physiological quantities which cannot be readily measured and 2) the synthesis of an active control which can safely and effectively augment voluntary control. By developing computational methods to study these issues, future performance of human augmentation devices can be studied through simulation, without constraints imposed by hardware implementations of current technology. Simulation studies also enable us to estimate physiological quantities that cannot be easily measured, including muscle forces, joint forces, and energetics of motion. We can simulate effects of aging, predict muscular activity, estimate muscle fatigue and capacity, and detect potential dangerous physiological conditions. It should be mentioned that the exclusive use of simulation is not a substitute for eventual testing on live human subjects. However, an accurate subject-specific simulation allows control algorithms to be designed and refined for the walking assist device. This is especially relevant in our target user population because they already have existing health constraints.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,890 discloses a device and a method for the recording, presentation and automatic classification of biomechanical variables measured on a freely moving test person during a work shift.
Japanese patent publication unexamined No. 2000-249570 discloses a method for generating human kinematic data.
"Gruber, K. et. al., 1998. A comparative study of impact dynamics: wobbling mass model versus rigid body models. Journal of Biomechanics 31, 439–444" discloses inverse dynamics model used to simulate the human body.
However, any of the above documents does not deal with analysis and synthesis of human motion under assist from powered augmentation devices.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and a method for analysis and synthesis of human motion under assist from powered augmentation devices.

Simulation system, method and computer-readable medium for human augmentation devices


Provided is a communication system including a plurality of base stations, a plurality of communication terminals that communicates with one of the plurality of base stations, and a relay device, the relay device including a selection unit that selects a communication terminal to be relayed from among the plurality of communication terminals on the basis of communication quality information received from each of the plurality of communication terminals, and a relay unit that relays communication between the communication terminal selected by the selection unit and the corresponding base station.

In IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.16j, a relay technology is standardized. In addition, in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) LTE-A (Long Term Evolution Advanced), a technology of using a relay device (relay station) is also actively studied in order to realize an improvement in the throughput of a communication terminal located at a cell edge.
Such a relay device, upon receiving a signal transmitted from a base station in a downlink, amplifies the signal and transmits the amplified signal to a communication terminal. By performing such relay, the relay device can increase the signal-to-noise ratio compared to when a signal is transmitted directly from the base station to the communication terminal. Likewise, in an uplink, the relay device can also maintain the high signal-to-noise ratio by relaying a signal transmitted from the communication terminal to the base station. Such a relay device is described in, for example, Non-Patent Literature 1 to 3.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Communication system, relay device, communication terminal, and base station


Polymer composite including a compatibilizer and having selective permeability to chemical permeants due to interaction differences between the compatibilizer and the chemical permeants, includes 50-99 wt % of an amorphous thermoplastic resin selected from the group polyethylenepropylendienterpolymer, poly(1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne), amorphous nylon, polystyrene and polycarbonate; 0.9-50 wt % of a semi-crystalline polymer selected from the group polyamide (nylons), polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyetheretherketone, polyvinylidene fluoride, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyphenylene sulfide, and thermotropic or lyotropic liquid crystal polymer, and dispersed in the amorphous thermoplastic resin to provide a dispersed phase having an interface with the amorphous thermoplastic resin; and 0.1-10 wt % of a compatibilizer positioned at the interface of the dispersed phase with the amorphous thermoplastic resin and having different interactions with different chemical permeants so that the selective permeability of the polymer composite is affected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymeric composite separation membrane and its preparation method. The separation membrane of the present invention is produced by blending an amorphous thermoplastic resin, a semi-crystalline polymer and a compatibilizer which controls the dispersion state of the semi-crystalline polymer in the thermoplastic resin and adhesion at the interface. Then, a thin film of the blended mixture is prepared which is capable of increasing a selective permeation rate in such a manner that the dispersed semi-crystalline polymer is morphologically altered to serve as an obstacle to permeation, by which the permeation distance of chemicals (liquid or gases) is extended. When applied to a gas separation process, this enhances the selective permeability over the so-called trade-off limit. More particularly, a semi-crystalline polymer, which is hardly permeable to a gas or chemicals, is dispersed in an amorphous thermoplastic resin, and at this time, an appropriate amount of compatibilizer is added so that the semi-crystalline polymer has a uniform size and is in a well-dispersed state. Then, the mixture obtained from an extruder is passed through a die as a thin film, whereby, the semi-crystalline polymer phase is evenly dispersed and morphologically controlled in the film, and works as an obstacle to diffusion of chemicals or gases, to thereby morphologically altering path length of permeants. The chemicals or gases are separated according to interaction difference between the compatibilizer and permeant molecules, which induces diffusion time difference during which they pass the deformed path by the diffusion constant difference depending on the size of the chemicals or gas molecule and the interaction with the compatibilizer, thereby exhibiting a highly superior selectivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polymeric separation membranes are used for various separation processes which are technologically important, such as liquid separation, drug delivery, drug release, artificial kidney and lung, separation of air, separation of carbon dioxide from a natural gas, or separation of nitrogen and oxygen, or separation of hydrocarbon and hydrogen in a petrochemical process.
In the gas separation process, the basic factors determining the separation performance of polymeric gas separation membranes for a pair of gases, i.e., oxygen/nitrogen, carbon dioxide/methane or hydrogen/nitrogen, etc., are permeability constant and selectivity. Permeability constant is typically obtained by dividing the multiplied value of a gas concentration difference and the thickness of separation membrane by a pressure difference on both sides of the separation membrane. Selectivity is a ratio of permeability of two gases. That is, when the selectivity ratio is represented by A/B, 'A' is the permeability of the high permeable gas and 'B' is the permeability of the low permeable gas.
High performance separation membranes are desired to have a high permeability and a high selectivity, because a high permeability allows reduction of the area of separation membranes required for separating a certain amount of gas or chemicals and a high selectivity allows enhanced purity of product.
However, generally, if a separation membrane has a high permeability, it has a low selectivity, whereas if a separation membrane has a high selectivity, it has a low permeability.
According to Robeson's observation, as to separation of several pairs of gases, most polymer separation membranes have a negative slope in the correlation between the selectivity and the permeability (see Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 62, 165, 1991, USA). That means the selectivity is reduced as the permeability is increased.
In addition, upon observation of performance of numerous polymer separation membranes, it has been revealed that most of the polymer separation membranes do not exhibit a performance higher than a certain level. That is, for a given permeability there exists an upper limit of selectivity, along which an inversely proportional relationship exists between the selectivity and the permeability all the time. The reason why such an upper limit exists is a natural result as the hard chains of a glass phase polymer substance screen the gas molecules. The slope of the upper limit has no relation to the chemical structure of the polymer separation membrane.
For the past 30 years, in order to simultaneously increase the selectivity and the permeability, most researchers in the separation membrane industrial field have directed their energy to synthesizing novel polymers (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,633). However, though much research have been conducted, there has been no report of polymeric gas-separation membranes having a performance exceeding the existing upper limit. Very recently, we could make a polymeric-composite gas-separation membrane that has a selectivity going over the upper limit (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,606B2). In that case, the permeability of the prepared composite membrane was found to be rather low for practical use for the gas separation process.
The present invention is directed to a fabrication process for a polymeric, gas or chemicals, separation membrane that can overcome such an upper limit on the basis of a novel concept of a polymer composite instead of synthesizing a new polymeric material. The prepared membrane has a permeability that is high enough for application in real processes.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a process for fabricating a polymer blend allowing a uniform dispersion and having an improved interface adhesion by adding a semi-crystalline polymer to an amorphous thermoplastic resin and at the same time, adding a compatibilizer so that the compatibilizer works at the interface of the semi-crystalline polymer and the thermoplastic resin to lower the interfacial tension, to provide a process for fabricating membranes with a desired thickness by performing extrusion and drawing, and to produce polymeric gas- or chemical-separation membranes exhibiting a high selectivity in such a manner that an almost impermeable semi-crystalline polymer is uniformly dispersed in the film and is formed in a thin and long plate type, working as an obstacle to chemical or gas permeation to change the curvature of diffusing molecules so that they pass through the channel at the interface where the compatibilizer is located and the mixed molecules are separated because of the interaction difference with the compatibilizer.
Another object of the present invention is to optimize dispersion of a semi-crystalline polymer by using an optimum amount of the compatibilizer.
Still another object of the present invention is to utilize a drawing process, for fabricating thin film membranes to let the dispersed phase have a different axial ratio.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for fabricating a semi-crystalline polymer blended high-selective gas separation membrane.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for separating a gas or chemicals in the liquid state by using the semi-crystalline polymer blended high selective separation membrane. For the liquid separation process, the liquids do not dissolve the membrane or its components.

Polymer composite, film thereof and separation membrane made therefrom


Patterned conducting polymer surfaces exhibiting excellent properties may be prepared by:. (a) forming a surface of a conducting polymer on a surface of a substrate; PA1 (b) forming a surface of a blocking material on said surface of said conducting polymer in a pattern-wise fashion, to obtain a first patterned surface containing regions of exposed conducting polymer and regions of blocking material; PA1 (c) treating said first patterned surface with an agent which: (i) removes said conducting polymer from said regions of exposed conducting polymer; (ii) decreases the conductivity of said conducting polymer in said regions of exposed conducting polymer; or (iii) increases the conductivity of said conducting polymer in said regions of exposed conducting polymer; and PA1 (d) removing said blocking material to obtain a second patterned surface containing an exposed pattern of conducting polymer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a simple, convenient process for preparing high-resolution patterns of a conducting polymer on a substrate. The present invention also relates to the patterned conducting polymer surfaces so prepared and to devices, such as liquid crystal displays, which contain such a patterned conducting polymer surface. The patterned conducting polymer, e.g. polypyrrole, may serve as a conducting material to provide a means of addressing selected pixels of a lightweight, flexible liquid crystal display.
2. Discussion of the Background
In current liquid crystal (LC) display fabrication technology, the most widely used conductive material is indium tin oxide (ITO). However, the use of ITO has several disadvantages in manufacturing. One drawback is the relatively high temperature (about 250.degree. C.) at which ITO is deposited onto glass or other solid substrates, which can damage other components of the display such as polymeric color filters. Another problem is that when ITO is deposited on plastic substrates for purposes such as fabrication of flexible LC displays, the ITO becomes brittle and fails when the display is in a curved configuration for extended times. Thus, there is a need for a pliable conducting material to replace ITO for long-term operation of flexible and/or large area LC display devices.
An electrically conducting polymer is a desirable alternative to ITO as the conducting material, because it can be processed at ambient temperature and it is a flexible organic material similar to the plastic substrate. A general reference on the subject of conducting polymers is the monograph Organic Conductors, J. P. Farges, Ed., Marcel Dekker, NY, N.Y., 1994. The concept of using a conducting polymer as a replacement for ITO in a LC display is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/401,912, filed on Mar. 9, 1995.
The conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy) is an excellent choice as a replacement conducting material for ITO, because PPy can be prepared by a convenient, in-situ polymerization method, and PPy films can be produced with surface resistance, electrical conductivity, and optical transparency characteristics that are appropriate for LC displays and other applications. The in situ method can be used to deposit thin, transparent films of electrically conducting polymers such as polyaniline and polypyrrole from aqueous solutions of the parent monomers, aniline and pyrrole, as they are undergoing polymerization. This method eliminates the necessity of first synthesizing the polymer and then dissolving it in a solvent for film deposition and is the simplest and least time-consuming approach for preparation of conducting polymer films. The use of aqueous solutions for the in-situ polymerization method also alleviates environmentally-related organic solvent disposal problems. Both of these factors are important for technological scale-up and commercialization of processes using conducting polymers.
PPy films deposited by the in-situ method can be prepared with conductivities >300 S/cm using the anthraquinone-2-sulfonate counterion in the presence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid (see for example: R. V. Gregory, W. C. Kimbrell, and H. H. Kuhn, Synthetic Metals, vol. 28, p. C-823 (1989)). This translates to a surface resistance of between 600-3000 .OMEGA./square, nearly two orders of magnitude lower than that for typical polyaniline films deposited by the in situ method. These PPy films can also be obtained with optical transparencies in the range of >65%-70% transparent. In-situ-deposited PPy films therefore have properties that make them very useful as conductive elements for the fabrication of a variety of liquid crystal display devices.
To fabricate an addressable LC display, one of the conducting elements must be patterned to a particular geometry and linewidths that constitute the designated output of the display. Depending on the nature of the LC display, the geometry may be in an alphanumeric pattern, a grid pattern, an array of dots, or some other pattern. The minimum dimension of the patterned features typically ranges from relatively large (>100 .mu.m) to very fine (.about.10 .mu.m). A process for patterning conducting polymers must be able to meet the resolution requirements of the display. Additionally, the process for patterning the conductive polymer must not adversely affect the electrical surface resistance or the optical transparency of the conducting polymer in the active regions, or the properties of the underlying substrate. Finally, the patterning process must be simple, reproducible, cost-effective, and compatible with existing manufacturing equipment used in the LC display industry.
A number of methods have been reported for producing patterns of PPy on various substrates. In one method, long-chain alkyl self-assembled monolayer (SAM) films are stamped onto a gold substrate. The SAM-modified electrode is immersed in a solution of pyrrole, and the SAM film blocks electron transfer so that PPy is deposited only in the bare regions of the substrate. For a detailed description of this approach, see: C. B. Gorman, H. A. Biebuyck, and G. M. Whitesides, Chemistry of Materials, vol. 7, pp. 526-529 (1995). In related approaches, the patterned deposition of PPy can be initiated at semiconducting substrates by patternwise exposure of the substrate through a solution containing pyrrole monomer. The polymerization and deposition of PPy is then initiated photoelectrochemically at the substrate in the irradiated regions of the substrate. For a description of these approaches, see: M. Hikita, O. Niwa, A. Sugita, and T. Yamamura, Japan Journal of Applied Physics vol. 24, pp. L79 (1985); and M. Okano, I. Itoh, A. Fujishima, and K. Honda, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, vol. 134, p. 837 (1987). These methods are limited to metallic substrates such as gold or semiconducting substrates such as silicon, and are not appropriate for use on flexible, insulating polymeric substrates.
In a second method, a fluoropolymer substrate is modified by a plasma treatment to create regions of greater or lesser adhesion for a PPy film formed from an in-situ deposition method. The plasma is prevented from accessing the substrate in certain regions by the use of a physical mask such as a metal grid. The PPy is deposited initially over the entire substrate, but is then removed from the unmodified regions by either ultrasonication in solution or by removal with adhesive tape. For a description of these approaches, see: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/401,912 (see above) and L. S. van Dyke, C. J. Brumlik, W. Liang, J. Lei, C. R. Martin, Z. Yu, L. Li, and G. J. Collins, Synthetic Metals, vol. 62, pp. 75-81 (1994). These methods are limited to relatively low resolution PPy pattern formation, characterized by rough edges, and the use of physical masks is not compatible with standard manufacturing techniques for preparing commercially useful addressable liquid crystal displays.
In a third method, a PPy film deposited on a fluoropolymeric substrate was removed from selected regions of the substrate by laser ablation. For a description of this approach, see: L. S. van Dyke, C. J. Brumlik, C. R. Martin, Z. Yu, and G. J. Collins, Synthetic Metals, vol. 52, pp. 299-304 (1992). This approach is not preferred for practical applications due to the need for expensive, high-power laser exposure tools which are not desirable for cost-effective manufacturing, as well as the damage caused by laser ablation to the underlying substrate and the edges of the patterns.
In a fourth method, pyrrole vapor is absorbed into a film of a chlorine-containing polymer such as polychloroacrylonitrile (PCAN), and the polymer is then irradiated in a patternwise fashion. In the photolyzed regions, free radicals are created from dissociation of the chlorinated polymer, and the radicals initiate polymerization of the absorbed pyrrole monomer to form a PPy/PCAN composite. For details of this method, see: R. Baumann, K. Lennarz, and J. Bargon, Synthetic Metals, vol. 54, pp. 243-249, (1993). No electrical conductivity data for the polymerized pyrrole composite was reported. However, because this material is a mixture of PPy and an insulating material, the conductivity of the composite is almost certainly much lower than that of pure PPy which is a severe disadvantage for use of the composite as a conductive material for display fabrication. In addition, this process is limited to those chlorinated polymers that produce sufficient free radicals to initiate the polymerization of pyrrole. Of the four polymers tested, only PCAN required as little as 5 minutes of exposure with a high intensity (1000 W) lamp. Also, the reported times for sorption of pyrrole into the chlorinated polymer were .about.5-10 hours, which is impractical for use of this process in routine manufacturing.
Several methods have been described for patterning polyaniline (PAni). In one method, a film is prepared from a water-soluble derivative of PAni that contains a cross-linkable group on the polymer backbone. The film is exposed to electron-beam or UV irradiation, which crosslinks the polymer in the exposed region, and the unexposed areas are dissolved in water to produce the final patterns. Conductivities reported for the patterned PAni films produced by this method range from 10.sup.-2 to 10.sup.-5 S/cm, which are much lower than the value of 1 S/cm that is characteristic of the best films of unsubstituted PAni films (and again several hundred times worse than typical values for PPy films). For a description of this method, see: M. Angelopoulos, J. M. Shaw, N. C. Labianca, and S. A. Rishton, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, vol. B11, pp. 2794-2797 (1993). This method is limited to specially-derivatized PAni polymers, and the inherent requirement of derivatizing the PAni backbone with a cross-linkable group for pattern formation leads to severe degradation of the electrical properties of the conducting polymer, making it undesirable for use as an active element in LC display fabrication.
Thus, all of the above-described methods have inherent limitations with respect to their suitability for practical fabrication of high resolution patterns of highly conductive polymers on polymeric substrates. Thus, there remains a need for a process for preparing patterned conducting polymer surfaces which does not suffer from such drawbacks. In particular, there remains a need for a simple, convenient process for producing fine patterns of conducting polymers which exhibit good conductance and optical transparency.

Patterned conducting polymer surfaces and process for preparing the same and devices containing the same

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A housing of a switchgear includes: a framework formed by joining vertical frames to depth directional frames and width directional frames, the vertical frames being arranged in a standing condition at four corners of a cuboid shape; at least a left and right pair of intermediate vertical frames each provided at an intermediate portion in the depth direction; and steel partition plates fixed over the whole in the vertical direction of the intermediate vertical frames, the partition plates being provided for separating the front and the back of the intermediate vertical frames. Then, the depth directional frame on the floor side is formed with a fixing hole near a lower portion of the intermediate vertical frame, the fixing hole being provided for fixing the housing to a foundation surface.

There is disclosed a housing structure in which, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, hollow steel members are used for major welding framework steel members to which L-shaped steel members in cross section and channel-shaped steel members in cross section are combined, as a technique for a conventional switchgear taking into account quake resistant performance. More specifically, height directional hollow steel members 41, width directional hollow steel members 42, and depth directional hollow steel members 43 are combined with L-shaped foundation steel members in cross section 44 arranged in the depth direction of a foundation portion of the housing; and further, these members are appropriately combined with channel-shaped steel members in cross section and the whole is welded and joined to form a framework of the housing, thereby achieving an improvement in rigidity. Welding panels 45 are attached to outer surfaces (for example, see, Patent Document 1).


An image display device includes a display, an attitude angle detection unit and a controller. The display displays an image based on image data with photography information. The photography information includes position information and attitude angle information of a camera at a time of photography. If the attitude angle of the display is altered, the controller controls the display, based on the position information and the attitude angle information of the image displayed at the display and based on the attitude angle detected by the attitude angle detection unit, so as to display an image that was photographed within a predetermined region with respect to the position information of the image displayed at the display and that includes attitude angle information corresponding to the detected attitude angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device, an image display method, a portable device with a photography function, and a computer readable medium storing an image display program, and more particularly relates to an image display device, image display method, portable device with photography function, and computer readable medium storing an image display program that are for displaying an image in accordance with image data including photography information including position information and attitude angle information, which position information represents a photography position and which attitude angle information represents an attitude angle of a camera at a time of photography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with image data of an image photographed by a digital camera or the like, photography information including a photography position, a photography direction and the like at the time of photography is memorized. This photography information is utilized when the image is replayed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application (JP-A) No. 2007-129407 has proposed: memorizing position information and direction information detected at a time of photography together with image data; associating the memorized position information and image data with map data; displaying icons, with direction characteristics, in a map display screen; and, in accordance with selection of a displayed icon, displaying the corresponding image.
Furthermore, JP-A No. 10-233985 has proposed memorizing corresponding GPS information with photographic images and, based on the GPS information, displaying thumbnail images of the photographic images at corresponding positions of a map, which is displayed based on map data.
However, with the technologies of JP-A Nos. 2007-129407 and 10-233985, when photography information such as position information, direction information and the like that is memorized together with image data is used in implementing replay of an image, map data requiring bulky amounts of data is required in addition to the image data and photography information. Moreover, it is not possible to reproduce a sense of place of the time of photography during replay simply by displaying an icon, a thumbnail image or the like, in addition to which it is difficult to intuitively understand positional relationships with other photographs that were taken in the vicinity.

Image display device, portable device with photography function, image display method and computer readable medium which controls the display based on an attitude angle of the display


A compression technique compresses interaction data. The interaction data can include a matrix of interaction data used in solving an integral equation. For example, such a matrix of interaction data occurs in the moment method for solving problems in electromagnetics. The interaction data describes the interaction between a source and a tester. In one embodiment, directional sources and/or directional testers are described. The directional sources produce a very weak (or negligible) effect except in selected directional regions. The directional testers are relatively insensitive to an incoming effect except in selected directional regions. Depending on their locations and directional properties, relatively many of the directional sources and directional testers interact weakly (or negligibly). The weak interactions can be effectively removed from the interaction matrix, thereby reducing the effective size of the interaction matrix.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods for compressing the stored data, and methods for manipulating the compressed data, in numerical solutions involving radiation-type problems, such as, for example, antenna problems solved using the method of moments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many numerical techniques are based on a "divide and conquer" strategy wherein a complex structure or a complex problem is broken up into a number of smaller, more easily solved problems. Such strategies are particularly useful for solving integral equation problems involving radiation, heat transfer, scattering, mechanical stress, vibration, and the like. In a typical solution, a larger structure is broken up into a number of smaller structures, called elements, and the coupling or interaction between each element and every other element is calculated. For example, if a structure is broken up into 16 elements, then the inter-element mutual interaction (or coupling) between each element and every other element can be expressed as a 16 by 16 interaction matrix.
As computers become more powerful, such element-based numerical techniques are becoming increasingly important. However, when it is necessary to simultaneously keep track of many, or all, mutual interactions, the number of such interactions grows very quickly. The size of the interaction matrix often becomes so large that data compression schemes are desirable or even essential. Also, the number of computer operations necessary to process the data stored in the interaction matrix can become excessive. The speed of the compression scheme is also important, especially if the data in the interaction matrix has to be decompressed before it can be used.
Typically, especially with radiation-type problems involving sound, vibration, stress, temperature, electromagnetic radiation, and the like, elements that are physically close to one another produce strong interactions. Elements that are relatively far apart (usually where distance is expressed in terms of a size, wavelength, or other similar metric) will usually couple less strongly. For example, when describing the sound emanating from a loudspeaker, the sound will change in character relatively quickly in the vicinity of that speaker. If a person standing very near the speaker moves one foot closer, the sound may get noticeably louder. However, if that person is sitting at the other end of a room, and moves one foot closer, then the change in volume of the sound will be relatively small. This is an example of a general property of many physical systems. Often, in describing the interaction of two nearby objects, relatively more detail is needed for an accurate description, while relatively less detail is needed when the two objects are further apart.
As another example, consider a speaker producing sound inside a room. To determine the sound intensity throughout that room, one can calculate the movement (vibration) of the walls and objects in the room. Typically such calculation will involve choosing a large number of evenly spaced locations in the room, and determining how each location vibrates. The vibration at any one location will be a source of sound, which will typically react with every other location in the room. The number of such interactions would be very large and the associated storage needed to describe such interactions can become prohibitively large. Moreover, the computational effort needed to solve the matrix of interactions can become prohibitive.

Compression of interaction data using directional sources and/or testers


Methods and apparatus for nutrition tracking. In one exemplary embodiment, a methods and apparatus for nutrition tracking are provided which receive selections of consumable items from a user, identify at least one item to be purposefully omitted in nutrition calculation, and calculate total nutrition for a period of time based on the selections. The calculation comprises purposeful omission of the nutritional data of the identified at least one of the plurality of consumable items. In order to accomplish the calculation, each of the selected items is associated with a data record in a database, each data record in the database comprising nutritional data regarding a consumable item to which the data record corresponds.

In recent years, health and fitness tracking applications that track food consumption have become very popular. Food consumption is important to a healthy lifestyle and is known to be related to various health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity to name a few. Health and fitness tracking applications allow users to set and achieve personalized health goals by tracking the foods and beverages that they consume. These applications enable users to gain insights that help them make smarter choices and create healthier habits.
One challenge that exists for such health and fitness tracking applications is encouraging users to consistently and honestly track the foods and beverages that they consume. On occasion, users have days or meals during which they consume foods and beverages that they know to be unhealthy, are consumed in excess, or are otherwise adverse to their health goals (such occasions are sometimes referred to as "cheat days" or "cheat meals"). If the user choses to track those unhealthy foods and beverages, the health and fitness tracking applications may indicate that the user has failed to meet one or more of their health goals. In order to avoid feelings of guilt and failure, it is very tempting for the user to simply neglect to track these unhealthy foods and beverages. As a result, the users' food diaries are sometimes incomplete and do not provide an accurate picture of the users' consumption habits. In addition, if the user decides not to track a food or beverage, it may lead to more frequent decisions to not track foods and beverages in the future and eventually to complete abandonment of tracking of foods and beverages.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method of tracking foods and beverages that encourages users to track all foods and beverages consumed by the user, including foods and beverages that are unhealthy, consumed in excess or otherwise adverse to the user's own health goals.


An integrated and interactive real-time media creation system and method are disclosed that visually link the order and execution of media events to a scrolling on-screen text script that is spoken. As the user speaks, the on-screen text script scrolls under user control. Adjacent to the script text are visual images which represent associated media events. The visual images maintain a constant relative spatial relationship with the text. When the text reaches a predetermined region of the screen it is spoken out loud by the user and the media events are caused to occur at that time. The invention allows a single user with a single personal computer to easily self-produce a multimedia presentation of undetermined and variable length, featuring media events appropriately inserted in real-time without the assistance of a director or other operator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to multimedia creation and more specifically, to a system and method for creating visual presentations based on a text script.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional multimedia creation, which involves manipulating video and audio clips, has primarily used video production equipment based on television production techniques. Basic video production techniques are described in the "Television Production Handbook," Zettl, 1997 Wadsworth Publishing Company, which is incorporated herein by reference. The equipment and techniques generally use a similar paradigm to sequence events. The paradigm is a timeline where events, which include but are not limited to, effects, titles, graphics and media clips, are ordered in linear fashion along a time scale marked by seconds and or frames. On the timelines, events are ordered and executed depending on their relationship to said time scale based on the associated seconds and frames.
This approach allows events to be executed at a given pre-specified time. While suitable for orchestrating predictable presentations or editing presentations after the fact, this approach is poor for live presentations or those which are recorded live. In particular, presentations involving a live human speaker who by nature can frequently vary his or her pace of speaking are not well-served by conventional approaches. Previously, addressing these shortcomings involved having a separate operator or director trigger media events manually to keep the media events synchronized with the variable pace inherent in a live presentation of spoken material. This is the process by which live television newscasts are produced. For example, a professional director controls equipment and coordinates with other equipment operators in the sequencing and insertion of real-time media events into the television program as it happens. Recent improvements in professional newscast creation provide for eliminating additional operators, allowing the director to remotely control and trigger media events from a variety of separate production devices.
With the advent of low-cost webcams and the Internet many live multimedia presentations are now created on a personal computer by a single individual and transmitted over the Internet for business and or educational purposes. In this case all creation, playback, recording and transmitting functions are integrated in one low-cost device, the personal computer. Hence it is not feasible, due to space and economic factors, to have a separate director coordinate and sequence the real-time insertion of media events on behalf of the user appearing in the presentation. The predetermined timeline approach is not effective in such cases. Although the user can create a timeline in advance, the presentation itself is delivered and created in real-time and thus the pacing is variable due to the participation of a live human speaker. The sole user is presently left with the choice of doing without media events in their live presentation, securing the services of a separate director, or simultaneously filling the roles of presenter and director during the presentation. While the latter case is optimal, it presently requires the user to speak and while speaking simultaneously trigger the insertion of media events into the presentation at the appropriate times. Performing these tasks correctly and reliably while simultaneously delivering an effective verbal presentation is difficult for most users and not possible for many.
Therefore, a new system and method are needed to address the above problems.

System and method for script based event timing