A shade structure assembly includes at least one column member. A horizontal beam is secured at a top end of the column member. A first rail is secured to a first end and a second rail is secured to a second end of each horizontal beam. At least one truss assembly is secured to the rails. The truss assembly includes at least two truss members arranged in spaced parallel relation. Structural supports connect the truss members along two of the truss beams and panel supports connect the truss members along two of the truss beams. The panel supports mount a panel array. Each truss member may comprise a center truss portion and one or both of a first and second truss extension. Each truss member may be comprised of a universal center truss portion and one or both of a first and second truss extension.

Solar shade structures in use today typically provide shade and electricity generation. However, the current state of the art of construction of such structures, misses the opportunity to pre-engineer and pre-fabricate and as a result each solar shade structure is typically custom identified, engineered, and fabricated on-site. Whether a large or small installation of solar canopy structures, the typical process identifies the length, width, and height of each canopy in a sales proposal for each potential parking lot and pedestrian area, then those same solar canopy structures are evaluated by a licensed engineer for structural code conformance and submitted to the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) for a building permit. Once the design is approved by the AHJ, the structural components must be custom shop fabricated, assembled, and erected on-site for a complete installation. And furthermore the electrical system design of each solar canopy structure must be individually evaluated for electrical code conformance and good solar energy production. Once the design process is complete and the construction process begins, the typical solar shade structures do not incorporate pre-fabricated assemblies and instead each solar shade structure is custom built on-site with individual structural members. These individual structural members are often the only pre-fabricated elements of current solar canopy structures. For example the typical supporting steel purlins and beams are fabricated to precisely work for the specific solar canopy structure length, width, and height having a quantity of solar photovoltaic modules with a specific length, width, and height having no additional dimensional tolerance for different configurations or module sizes. The resulting cost of the design process and capital investment in the solar canopy structures yields a substantial financial barrier to property owners for installing such solar canopy structures. In addition such solar canopy structures typically are permanently installed in such a manner so as to make disassembly, relocation, and reuse virtually impossible. Again the permanent installed nature of such solar canopy structures in parking lots and pedestrian areas creates a disincentive for property owners who must maintain flexibility of land use for the purpose of constructing permanent enclosed structures (buildings).
The invention proposes to standardize design of solar canopies/shade structures, as well as, the structural and electrical engineering of the solar shade structures owing to the fact that discrete building blocks can be pre-engineered, pre-fabricated, and pre-approved to meet regulatory/code standards. To further elaborate, the potential solar and shade benefits, as well as, costs of the solar shade structures can be quickly quantified and understood through the use of pre-designed discrete building blocks overlaid onto satellite photographs or other planning mechanisms. During the design and engineering phase, the use of pre-designed discrete building blocks can flexibly adapt to individual site characteristics and constraints with various planning layouts. Once energy outputs and costs are established, a customer can then approve a set of design documents and obtain AHJ approval. This task is made much quicker and easier through the use of pre-designed and pre-engineered standard solar shade structure assembly elements. Pre-engineered standard solar shade structure assembly elements can be pre-fabricated, transported to the project site, constructed and installed while accommodating and adapting to the individual site characteristics and constraints without need of re-engineering and re-work. Post installation, these same standard solar shade structure assembly elements can be disassembled, relocated, and reused in the event there is a land use change or change in purpose requiring the removal of the solar shade structures.
The invention incorporates a variety of foundation assemblies to provide a range of solutions including permanent in-ground foundations, as well as, temporary above grade relocatable mass that resists wind uplift, seismic, gravity and other such structural forces. The invention can adapt to various application and site requirements by allowing the incorporation of in-ground structures such as columns and concrete piers and/or above grade mass such as shipping containers or similar. The capability of having standard foundation options is a further embodiment of the building block concept offered by the invention.
Currently there are commercial solutions that provide structures which deliver temporary power generation, or, temporary shade/shelter in an emergency situation, natural disaster, or similar event. The subject invention incorporates building blocks that can provide energy generation, energy storage, and shade in a single structure that can be easily assembled and disassembled. In addition the temporary power solution can assist with energy needs in non-emergency settings in order to support microgrids or similar community oriented electric utilities while also offering shade to further promote community focused gathering space.
Accordingly there is a need for a system which uses pre-fabricated standardized sub-structures that can be used as building blocks to assemble a final solar shade structure on-site and that can be selectively removed and/or upgraded to accommodate future advancements. The present invention fills these, as well as other, needs.


A pass-through camera in a head-mounted device may capture image data for displaying on a display in the head-mounted device. However, only low-resolution image data may be needed to display low-resolution images in the periphery of the user's field of view on the display. Therefore, the pass-through camera may only capture high-resolution images that correspond to the portion of the user's field-of-view that is being directly viewed and may capture lower resolution image data that corresponds to the real-world objects in the user's peripheral vision. To enable the camera module to selectively capture high-resolution images, the pass-through camera may include an image sensor with two or more pixel densities, a distortion lens, and/or one or more planar or curved mirrors. Any of the components in the camera module may be adjusted to change which portion of a scene is captured with high-resolution image data.

This relates generally to head-mounted devices, and, more particularly, to head-mounted devices with displays and image sensors.
Electronic devices often include displays and image sensors. Particularly when high-resolution images are being displayed for a viewer, it may be burdensome to display images at full resolution across an entire display. Foveation techniques involve displaying only critical portions of an image at full resolution and can help reduce the burdens on a display system. In some cases, images of the environment of the user may be displayed on the display. However, it may be burdensome to use the image sensor to obtain high-resolution images of the user's entire environment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Head-mounted device with active optical foveation


Disclosed is a method of restoring a client device following failure of the client device, the client being connectable to a network comprising a server device. The method comprises saving to the server device a configuration state of the client device, the saved configuration state comprising client network interface configuration information, and a file of the client device. The method further comprises, following failure of the client computer, recording on a medium bootable on the client device program instructions for configuring the client device according to the saved configuration state, booting the client device from the bootable medium, configuring a network interface of the client device in accordance with the program instructions and the saved configuration state and restoring the file to the client device by copying over the network.

In enterprise computing environments, typically a large number of client computers of a computer network are distributed throughout the enterprise. On each client computer, an operating system and applications are installed, which are configured to provide network connectivity, and customized depending on both the client computer hardware and the needs of the employee using the client computer. Numerous tools exist for remote, network-based administration, software distribution and backup of such client computers, which help to reduce the workload of administrators. However, the task of restoring a client computer after a catastrophic system failure such as a boot disk crash that involves the loss of its network connectivity remains problematic, often requiring extensive manual reconfiguration and restoration of operating system, application, and data files.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,558 provides a method for restoring a client device of a network on major failure of the client device. The client device is incapable of automatically booting on its own. The network includes a server computer. The method includes booting the client device over the network in the restoration operation, configuring the client device according to the boot program and saved configuration states for the client device, and copying files to the client device in accordance with the configuration. Remote re-boot and restoration of the client computer are possible if the client computer, upon failure, retains sufficient unaffected resources to communicate over the network.
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 offers automated system recovery for recovering from a catastrophic system failure. As a prerequisite, an "Automated System Recovery Set" including a floppy disk has to be created. For recovery, at least the floppy disk, previously created backup media, and the original operation system installation CD are required. The user is guided by on-screen messages.
The System Restore feature of Microsoft Windows XP enables administrators to restore their personal computers, in the event of a problem, to a previous state without losing personal data files. While System Restore is useful to undo harmful changes to system files, the system must be bootable for System Restore to restore these changes. The "Last Known Good" function of Microsoft Windows XP can restore a subset of Registry keys to recapture a bootable state, after which "System Restore" can be used. However, these methods do not apply in the event of a catastrophic failure of the boot disk.
The Hewlett-Packard AutoBackup is a network appliance that includes a built-in hard drive, a CD recorder, and storage-management software to protect local and remote network clients. The appliance is capable of writing customized CDs for disaster recovery of a client. However, the limited capacity of the CDs does not allow a full restore of the client, requiring an administrator to manually copy files from the appliance in order to perform a full restore of the client.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The invention claimed is a novel front feed document imaging device input tray which accommodates varying types and widths of media by providing front feed capability in a single tray attachment, and which tray can pivot out of the way of the document path by virtue of torsion springs when the user wishes to alternate media types. The input tray may be locked into position depending upon the user's requirements.

The invention most closely corresponds with USPTO Class 358, wherein the invention involves the communication or reproduction of a static image or sequence of static images in which the density variations composing the image do not vary with time (e.g., a document image) by a method or apparatus.
In its simplest form, the invention comprises a novel front feed document imaging device input tray which allows for varying types and widths of media by providing front feed capability in a single tray attachment, and which tray can pivot out of the way of the document path when the user wishes to alternate media types or perform maintenance on the imaging device. By way of example, this application will use a document scanner with an ADF (automatic document feed) for uniformity and clarity of explanation.
With current traditional document scanners, front feed devices are typically limited to a single function, i.e. user scans a sheet of paper and then affixes an alternate type of input attachment to accommodate a different size media. By way of example, to scan business cards, one type of input attachment is placed by a user and said user is required to remove the attachment to return to standard size media input device. The present invention provides a solution for both modalities within a single front feed attachment.

Front feed document imaging device input tray


An ultrasonic treatment instrument includes an ultrasonic transducer for generating ultrasonic oscillation, a hand piece containing the ultrasonic transducer, and a probe having a proximal end portion connected to the ultrasonic transducer and a distal end portion to which the ultrasonic oscillation of the ultrasonic transducer is transmitted. A sheath covers the probe and has a front end portion extending toward the distal end portion of the probe and a rear end portion connected to the hand piece. A hook-shaped treatment section is provided at the distal end portion of the probe and has a hook portion bent which is substantially perpendicular to an axis of the sheath and an axial body extending from a proximal end of the bent hook portion. The axial body is eccentric with respect to the axis of the sheath, and an operating section is provided which moves the sheath and the probe relative to each other along the axis of the sheath to thereby enable an organic tissue to be held between the hook-shaped treatment section and the front end portion of the sheath.

This invention relates to an ultrasonic treatment instrument for performing treatments such as incision, excision, coagulation, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,943, for example, discloses a general ultrasonic treatment instrument constructed as below. This ultrasonic treatment instrument comprises a substantially cylindrical sheath, and an ultrasonic probe mounted in the sheath such that it can slide along the axis of the sheath.
The sheath has, at its tip, a hook-shaped reception member of a substantially L shape. At the time of using the ultrasonic treatment instrument, the ultrasonic probe is slid relative to the sheath along the axis thereof, thereby holding an organic tissue such as a blood vessel between a tip portion of the probe and the hook-shaped reception member. Further, in this state, ultrasonic oscillation is transmitted to the tip portion of the probe, thereby subjecting the organic tissue held therebetween to an ultrasonic treatment such as a ligation thereof.
The instrument of U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,943 has a structure in which ultrasonic oscillation is transmitted, in an ultrasonic treatment, to the tip portion of the ultrasonic probe, and not to the hook-shaped reception member at the tip of the sheath. In other words, the hook-shaped reception member is kept still. This means that it is difficult for this instrument to peel a thin organic tissue using the hook-shaped reception member since the thin tissue may well slip from the reception member.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,055, for example, discloses an ultrasonic treatment instrument with a structure in which a soft contact member for absorbing noise is attached to a hook-shaped reception member provided at the tip of a sheath. In this case, however, it is impossible at the tip of the hook-shaped member to perform peeling, etc. of an organic tissue using ultrasonic oscillation, or to perform a treatment using high frequency current. Thus, it is difficult to impart many functions to the ultrasonic treatment instrument.


A system for controlling the communication of medical imaging data is disclosed generally comprising a computer, a plurality of sources of medical imaging data and a plurality of destinations of medical imaging data in communication with the computer, and a touchscreen for simultaneously displaying a plurality of source icons and a plurality of destination icons controlled by the computer. The source icons correspond to the plurality of sources to allow a user to select a particular source of imaging data, and the destination icons correspond to the plurality of destinations to allow the user to select at least one particular destination for the imaging data. In certain embodiments, the touchscreen includes a display window for displaying medical images generated from the imaging data supplied by the presently selected source. In some embodiments, the touchscreen includes a set of controls associated with the presently selected source.

Today, a wide variety of medical imaging systems are known for performing diagnostic and surgical procedures. Specifically, systems have been developed to increase a surgeon's ability to perform surgery on a patient by providing the surgeon with intra-operative images of anatomical structures within a patient's body. Accordingly, during various types of minimally invasive surgeries—such as endoscopic, arthroscopic, and laparoscopic procedures—a surgeon is able to visually examine the interior of an organ or joint while the surgeon is conducting the surgery.
These systems typically include the use of some specialized form of camera or medical endoscope. Additionally, recent developments have resulted in systems incorporating various audiovisual devices to allow both the surgeon, as well as others in the surgical suite or located remotely therefrom who may be assisting or observing, to better monitor the procedure. Accordingly, both still images and live video being acquired during the surgery can be output to various different screens or recording devices. Additionally, various devices have been incorporated into these systems to allow the surgeon, or other individuals assisting or observing, to utilize the imaging capabilities of the system in different ways, simultaneously or at different times, for a variety of different objectives.
For example, a surgeon may wish to view a live video feed, and freeze and capture images as he does so, and then compare those frozen images with other images of the same patient that were stored during a previous procedure. As another example, a doctor may wish to record a clean copy of video on a linear tape deck, yet also annotate or telestrate on that video and then digitally record this marked video as well. As yet another example, an observer may wish to view the surgical suite and the doctor's movements, while simultaneously viewing the results of those movements taking place inside the patient's body.
In light of the many capabilities that have emerged with respect to medical imaging, and the many devices (and interconnection of those devices) necessary to realize those capabilities, many surgical suites have become fairly complex just with respect to the imaging aspect of the procedure alone. Though certain systems presently exist for centrally controlling various medical devices in an operating room, there is presently a need to provide a way of interfacing with all of the imaging devices available for the procedure that is simpler to use and permits quicker execution than present systems for controlling devices, which may entail detailed command inputs, such as by a keyboard, or hierarchies of menus and sub-menus.
As a result, there is a need to provide users with a system for interfacing with many imaging devices potentially useful in a medical procedure that allows the user to easily and quickly select particular devices and route imaging data from various devices to various other devices. Additionally, there is a need to allow the user to easily control the devices that are presently selected. Finally, there is a need to allow a user to easily preview or alter the images that are being routed to the other individuals to whom the images are ultimately being communicated.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for controlling the communication of medical imaging data that allows a user to easily and quickly select sources of imaging data. What is further desired is a system for controlling the communication of medical imaging data that allows a user to easily and quickly select particular destinations for the medical imaging data. What is also desired is a system that allows a user to view the medical imaging data presently being routed. What is further desired is a system that allows a user to easily control the sources of the imaging data.

System for controlling the communication of medical imaging data


A method is provided for the automated determination of the indirect and direct extent of damages in objects resulting from a failure of technical components integrated in a production cycle. The invention involves the detection of the components that are affected by a failure, a determination of the number of clients and/or users dependant on each affected component, and a determination of the point in time of the expected renewed availability of each affected component. The extent of the resulting indirect and indirect monetary damages is determined on the basis of this information.

The invention is directed to a method for automatically determining the direct and direct extent of damages resulting from a failure of technical components in objects integrated in a production cycle, such as components of a computer network or telecommunication network, in objects, by taking into account network structure, emergency planning, startup planning, as well as client and user behavior.
Guaranteeing the availability of technical components, for example in IT networks, telecommunication networks, etc., is essential for maintaining excellent client relations. The total failure of an object, for example a room or an entire building, with all the industrial components housed in that room or building, can ruin a company within a short time.
To alleviate this situation, many companies have instituted measures, for example a redundant network structure, emergency and startup planning, to minimize or neutralize any negative effects for the clients following a total failure of technical components.
These measures should prevent or minimize the extent of expected damages. The expenditures associated with these measures should be cost-effective and should have an acceptable economic correlation with the extent of the expected damages.
The investments and the costs for a measure can be determined quite accurately, whereas a large number of parameters and complex interdependencies have to be considered for determining of the extent of the expected damage.
To date, only the replacement value of the component(s) and the consequential damage due to the unavailability of the components was directly considered when the damage resulting from the failure of one or more several technical components was computed. It was assumed that the component would not be available for a certain period of time, and the component would again be 100% available after that time. However, emergency planning, so-called workarounds, have the effect that the failed components do not become available again at the same time, but are rather returned to service sequentially, so that the affected users will suffer the consequences of such failure for different lengths of time, which was not overlooked.

Method for the automatically determining the indirect and direct extent of damages resulting from a failure of technical components in objects integrated in a production cycle


A controllable magnetic field generator applies a magnetic field to a transistor device at a particular orientation for producing a corresponding Lorentz force on the flow of carriers in the device to advantageously deflect the carriers to facilitate performance of a corresponding desired circuit function. Such a component arrangement is useable in a variety of circuit configurations for performing different circuit functions with a reduced number of devices and complexity relative to conventional circuit configurations. Exemplary circuit configurations for signal mixers, differential amplifiers, switches, and multiplexers and demultiplexers are possible using as little as one or two devices. According to another aspect of the invention, an inductor coil is used for the magnetic field generator and is formed on a substrate containing the transistor device to provide a component arrangement having relatively compact dimensions.

Modern electronic products including, for example, consumer electronics, computers, telecommunication equipment and automobile electronics use semiconductor devices, such as transistors, to perform a desired function. Exemplary functions performed by semiconductor devices in such products include electrical signals routing switches, multiplexer/demultiplexers, differential amplifiers, and signal mixers such as up and down signal converters for modulation or demodulation. Typical circuit configurations of at least four transistors, in integrated circuit form or otherwise, are used for producing a 1.times.2 signal routing switch circuit or multiplexer/demultiplexer, which is described in greater detail in, for example, N. Weste and K. Eshraghian, Principles of CMOS VLSI Design, ch. 1, pp. 4-29 (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1985), and incorporated by reference herein. Also, typical circuit configurations of at least seven transistors are used for producing an up or down signal converter circuit, such as a conventional Gilbert cell, which is described in greater detail in, P. Gray and R. Meyer, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, pp. 590-593 (John Wiley & Sons 1984), and incorporated by reference herein.
Reduction in the size, complexity and cost of electronic components has been a general goal of the electronic industry. A limited reduction in the size of typical components has been achieved by reductions in the size of the fabricated devices and other circuit elements. However, the complexity and number of devices required to perform such circuit functions has not been reduced in conventional electronic components.
Accordingly, a circuit configuration to perform such functions with a reduced number of devices and complexity is desirable.

Component arrangement having magnetic field controlled transistor


User profile information for a user may be determined by (a) determining initial user profile information for the user, (b) inferring user profile information for the user, and (c) determining the user profile information for the user using both the initial user profile information and the inferred user profile information. Initial user profile information for the user may be determined using past search queries submitted by the user, and/or past document selections by the user. User profile information for the user may be inferred by (a) defining a node for each of a number of documents and the user, (b) adding edges between nodes if there is an association between the nodes to define a graph, and (c) inferring user profile information for the user using a topology of the graph and user profile information of other documents. Similarly, user profile information for a document may be determined by (a) determining initial user profile information for the document, (b) inferring user profile information for the document, and (c) determining the user profile information for the document using both the initial user profile information and the inferred user profile information. The initial user profile information for the document may be determined using content information from the document, and/or document meta information. User profile information for the document may be inferred by (a) defining a node for each of a number of documents and for each of a number of users, (b) adding edges between nodes if there is an association between the nodes to define a graph, and (c) inferring user profile information for the document using a topology of the graph and user profile information of users and of other documents. Document, user, and/or ad user profile information may be used when serving ads.

§1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns advertising. In particular, the present invention concerns determining particularly relevant advertisements or advertisement creatives to serve for a user request, such as a search query or document request for example.
§1.2 Background Information
Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armed with demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about the typical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize that much of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficult to identify and eliminate such waste.
Recently, advertising over more interactive media has become popular. For example, as the number of people using the Internet has exploded, advertisers have come to appreciate media and services offered over the Internet as a potentially powerful way to advertise.
Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt to maximize the value of such advertising. In one strategy, advertisers use popular presences or means for providing interactive media or services (referred to as "Websites" in the specification without loss of generality) as conduits to reach a large audience. Using this first approach, an advertiser may place ads on the home page of the New York Times Website, or the USA Today Website, for example. In another strategy, an advertiser may attempt to target its ads to narrower niche audiences, thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response by the audience. For example, an agency promoting tourism in the Costa Rican rainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travel subdirectory of the Yahoo Website. An advertiser will normally determine such targeting manually.
Regardless of the strategy, Website-based ads (also referred to as "Web ads") are typically presented to their advertising audience in the form of "banner ads"—i.e., a rectangular box that includes graphic components. When a member of the advertising audience (referred to as a "viewer" or "user" in the specification without loss of generality) selects one of these banner ads by clicking on it, embedded hypertext links typically direct the viewer to the advertiser's Website. This process, wherein the viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a "click-through" ("Click-through" is intended to cover any user selection.). The ratio of the number of click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is rendered) is commonly referred to as the "click-through rate" of the ad.
A "conversion" is said to occur when a user consummates a transaction related to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion may vary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when a user clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's web page, and consummates a purchase there before leaving that Web page. Alternatively, a conversion may be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on the advertiser's Web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). In yet another alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser to be any measurable/observable user action such as, for example, downloading a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of a Website, viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending at least a predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page, registering on a Website, etc. Often, if user actions don't indicate a consummated purchase, they may indicate a sales lead, although user actions constituting a conversion are not limited to this. Indeed, many other definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible. The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the conversion rate. If a conversion is defined to be able to occur within a predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possible definition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have been served more than the predetermined time in the past.
Despite the initial promise of Website-based advertisement, there remain several problems with existing approaches. Although advertisers are able to reach a large audience, they are frequently dissatisfied with the return on their advertisement investment.
Similarly, the hosts of Websites on which the ads are presented (referred to as "Website hosts" or "ad consumers") have the challenge of maximizing ad revenue without impairing their users' experience. Some Website hosts have chosen to place advertising revenues over the interests of users. One such Website is "Overture.com", which hosts a so-called "search engine" service returning advertisements masquerading as "search results" in response to user queries. The Overture.com Website permits advertisers to pay to position an ad for their Website (or a target Website) higher up on the list of purported search results. If such schemes where the advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the ad (i.e., cost-per-click) are implemented, the advertiser lacks incentive to target their ads effectively, since a poorly targeted ad will not be clicked and therefore will not require payment. Consequently, high cost-per-click ads show up near or at the top, but do not necessarily translate into real revenue for the ad publisher because viewers don't click on them. Furthermore, ads that viewers would click on are further down the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads is compromised.
Search engines, such as Google for example, have enabled advertisers to target their ads so that they will be rendered with a search results page and so that they will be relevant, presumably, to the query that prompted the search results page. Other targeted advertising systems, such as those that target ads based on e-mail information (See, e.g., the systems described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/452,830 (incorporated herein by reference), titled "SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS USING INFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH E-MAIL", filed on Jun. 2, 2003 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors.); or those that target ads based on content (See, e.g., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900 (incorporated herein by reference), titled "SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT", filed on Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik, Deepak Jindal, and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors.) may have similar challenges. That is, advertising systems would like to present advertisements that are relevant to the user requested information in general, and related to the current user interest in particular.
As can be appreciated from the foregoing, targeted advertising systems, such as keyword-targeted advertising or content-targeted advertising provide very useful forms of advertising. However, even online advertising systems that can serve generally relevant advertisements often cannot select relevant advertisements best suited for a particular user.
Accordingly, there is a need to improve the performance of online advertising. More specifically, there is a need to increase the relevancy of ads served for some user request, such as a search query or a document request for example, to the user that submitted the request.

Generating user information for use in targeted advertising


Fluid analyzing apparatus includes: an advection step density analyzing unit; an advection step internal energy analyzing unit; and an advection step pressure analyzing unit. The apparatus further includes: an advection step velocity analyzing unit; a nonadvection step small perturbation analyzing unit; and a nonadvection step velocity analyzing unit. The apparatus further includes: a nonadvection step density analyzing unit; a nonadvection step internal energy analyzing unit; and an iterative calculation control unit which iterates calculation in a predetermined order.

In general, numerical analysis of an incompressible fluid and numerical analysis of a compressible fluid are performed by using different fluid analyzing apparatuses or separate fluid analyzing methods.
Although not general, there is a unified analyzing method for an incompressible fluid and a compressible fluid. The unified analyzing method for an incompressible fluid and a compressible fluid are classified by the following three types. A method of the first type extends a solution of an incompressible fluid to make it possible to analyze a compressible fluid. A method of the second type subjects a solution of an incompressible fluid to a preconditioning matrix to make it possible to analyze an incompressible fluid. A method of the third type is an analyzing method which advects a physical quantity by a nonconservative discrete equation as in a CIPCUP (CCUP) method (for example, see CIP introductory, "Simulation Summer School of Celestial Body and Space Plasma" document, Sep. 11 to Sep. 15, 2002) or a QCAM method (for example, see Mikiya AKAMATSU et al., "Computational Method Based On a Quasi-Conservative Formulation for Fluid Flows under Arbitrary Mach Number Condition", Transactions of the Japan society of mechanical engineers, (Ser. B), Vol. 69, No.682 (June 2003), pp. 1386 to 1393).
The reasons why a unified analyzing method for an incompressible fluid and a compressible fluid is not general are as follows. That is, the method of the first type cannot analyze an unsteady fluid with time developing. The method of the second type depends on nonphysical parameters in a preconditioning matrix. In the method of the third type, an iterative calculation performed in pressure calculation is deteriorated in convergence and makes a calculation load large.
The reason why the convergence of an iterative calculation is deteriorated will be described below. In general, an error caused by a numerical calculation occurs because the number of significant figures of a fluid analyzing apparatus is finite and because a calculation using an iterative solution is terminated at a finite number of times. Since the number of significant figures is finite, when the number of calculations increases, errors caused by a cutoff value following the significant digit are accumulated. In the iterative method, a solution is expected to be converged. However, when the calculation is terminated at a finite number of times, errors occur. These errors deteriorate the convergence of the iterative calculation.
As a patent document which discloses an analyzing method (in which an advection term and a nonadvection term are separated from each other) for advecting physical quantity by a nonconservative discrete equation, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-312342 (the 62nd and 65th paragraphs FIG. 4, and the like) or the like is known.

Fluid analyzing apparatus, fluid analyzing method, and fluid analyzing program


A full-color liquid crystal display device (TFT-LCD) installed in a monitor system for a vehicle includes a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LCD electronic control unit (ECU). The LCD has a backlight unit that includes white LEDs and red LEDs. The LCD ECU performs a display control process for selectively displaying navigation information, a tachometer image, or other information. A warning sign is displayed in a single color red in a display area of the LCD if required. The LCD ECU selects information to display and determines whether the information is a warning. If the information is a warning, the white LEDs and the red LEDs are turned on for displaying a warning sign indicative of the warning at high intensity so that the sign is easily recognized. If the information is not a warning, only the white LEDs are turned on.

For full-color display devices, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), and an electroluminescent display (ELD) are commonly known. The LCD is a reactive-type (non-luminescent-type) display and has a display region consists of many pixels. Each pixel is divided into a red (R) region, a green (G) region, and a blue (B) region. The R, G, and B regions have a red filter, a green filter, and a blue filter, respectively. RGB components in a white light emitted from the backlight unit are selectively passed to a front surface of the LCD. In the LCD, a full-color image is displayed by adjusting a balance of the RGB components. The balance is adjusted by controlling a voltage applied to a liquid crystal cell corresponding to each region of each pixel.
The PDP is an emissive-type display that includes a discharge cell for each RGB region of each pixel. For example, the discharge cell arranged corresponding to a red region emits a red light when red phosphors are exposed to ultraviolet rays produced by a discharge and excited. RGB components of light are balanced by controlling the intensity of the discharge cell corresponding to each RGB region for full-color display.
A full-color display device displays meters, warning signs, and navigation information is proposed in JP-A-11-91461. In this device, the warning signs are displayed in red or orange. However, the visibility of the warning sings is not good if they are lit in one of or close to the three primary colors, such as red or orange. This is because two other colors in each pixel used for warning display are blocked by the LCD layer and the intensity is reduced to one third of white luminance. In the case of the PDP and ELD, the light emission of the two colors is reduced and the intensity is also reduced to one third of white luminance.


Improved NMR sample tube shapes and inserts for standard tubes to shape the sample for greater homogeneity to provide symmetry of liquid sample and tube to a greater distance from the observe region for the same volume of sample as used in the prior art.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has been an important analytical technique since it became available in 1946. When atomic nuclei are placed in a constant, homogenous magnetic field of high intensity and subjected at the same time to a certain selected frequency RF alternating field, a transfer of energy can take place between the radio frequency field and the atomic nuclei to produce what is pictured as a flipping of the nuclei, which nuclei will immediately relax, i.e. flip back where they can reabsorb again resulting in a flipping back and forth. This flipping is called a resonance. More precisely, when a system of nuclei are exposed to radiation of frequency f.sub.o, such that the energy hf.sub.o of a quantum of radiation, where h equals Plank's constant, is exactly equal to the energy difference between two adjacent nuclear energy levels, then energy transitions may occur in which the nuclei may be pictured as flipping back and forth from one allowed orientation to another. The apparatus for such NMR experiments is relatively simple in concept and comprises a large magnet to create a fixed field H.sub.o and electronic equipment to generate RF excitation energy (transmitter) which is coupled to an excitation coil which is positioned around and excites a sample and an electronic receiver which is also coupled to the coil in a part of the spectrometer known as the probe. In modern NMR spectrometer equipment the receiver and transmitter are ordinarily turned on and off very quickly so that the receiver is not receiving when the transmitter is on and vice versa.
It is important that the receiver coil be very closely coupled to the sample atoms which are normally dissolved in a solvent and placed in a sample test tube and that the receiver coil be filled as much as possible with sample material, i.e., have a large filing factor, because the intensity of the received signal in the receiver coil is related to the number of nuclei that couple to the coil and because the emitter signal from each nucleus is very small. A large proportion of the total NMR spectrometer improvement effort in recent years has been spent in improving the probe part of the NMR spectrometer instrument to improve the techniques for coupling to the sample.
Early in NMR development it was appreciated that a most important parameter in NMR was the homogeneity of the DC magnetic field, H.sub.o. In fact when the homogeneity was first improved from the earliest magnets, the ability of the NMR spectrometer to perform high resolution spectroscopy was discovered. High resolution spectra are those spectra where the resonance lines are narrower than the major resonance shifts caused by differences in the chemical environment of the observed nuclei, such as are caused by secondary magnetic fields of the molecules of a sample. Homogeneity is a quality of the DC magnetic field. The goal is to have perfect homogeneity, meaning that all atoms of the sample are influenced by a magnetic field having identical direction and magnitude.
It has been heretofore appreciated that elements of the probe can also influence the homogeneity of the DC field lines across the sample. Since the probe contains different materials and shapes, each material and its shape influences the magnetic field differently and can accordingly affect the homogeneity deleteriously.
A prior patent by Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,732 sought to make the probe coils and adhesives therefore from materials in which the mixed magnetic susceptibility matched that of the air surrounding the sample tube. Other inhomogeneity correction probe patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,516 to correct for holes in a coil form, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,002 was directed to correcting for edge effects when an insufficient amount of the sample liquid itself was available to completely fill the observation area and well beyond. U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,136 teaches use of plugs of materials to be added to the sample tube whose susceptibility is equal to the sample tube solvent.
It has been standard for several years to employ long small diameter cylindrical sample tubes to conserve sample. When only very small sample volume is available, or the sample is very expensive even this approach is problematical and requires dilution of sample, with concomitant reduction in signal. In such cases sample plugs have been used in order to avoid end effects when the sample does not fill the sample space and beyond a satisfactory amount.
It was also known in the prior art to introduce a nylon plug into a sample tube which provided a spherical volume sample space. Also known were spherical glass bulbs. Spherical volumes have poor filling factor and suffered from imperfections in the glass of the sphere as well as perturbations introduced by the sample in the glass stem attached to the glass bulb.
It is an object of the present invention to enable improved magnetic field homogeneity and improve filing factor in an NMR sample probe by providing an improved shape of a sample with a reduced volume of sample.
It is a feature of the current invention that the diameter of the sample tube outside of the observe region decreases in diameter pursuant to a shape defined as a solid of revolution.
It is a further feature that the region of symmetrical shape of said sample tube on both sides of the observe region extend substantially further from said observe region for the same volume of sample liquid as in the prior art sample tubes.
It is a still further feature that appropriately configured plug inserts can be inserted into standard sample tubes to achieve the desired shape of the sample.


Embodiments of golf bag having a stabilization and reinforcement system with a flexible one-piece hinge and methods to manufacture such a golf bag are generally described herein.

Most golf bags may be in the form of a tubular fabric or leather container having a generally cylindrical configuration with a closed bottom end and an open top end through which golf clubs are inserted into and removed from the golf bag. Although golf bags are manufactured in a variety of sizes and materials so as to better suit various intended uses, golf bags are conventionally grouped into two basic classes. The first class of golf bags are relatively larger and heavier golf bags designed to be carried by a pull cart or transported by a golf cart, while the second class of golf club bags are generally smaller and lighter golf bags designed to be carried by the individual during play.
The second class of golf bags are usually referred to as "carry bags" which are carried by the individual using a carrying strap that may be used to lift and carry the golf bag. Many of these types of carry bags have an extensible bag stand devised for supporting the golf bag in a substantially upright angular position whenever the individual sets down the golf bag on a surface. A widely used and well known extensible golf bag stand has been devised for demountable attachment to the side of golf bags and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,235 which describes a golf bag stand having a pair of legs with one end pivotally attached to one portion of the golf bag and another end engaged to a retraction mechanism. The retraction mechanism is configured to operate with a toggle mechanism that causes the retraction mechanism to retract and collapse the pair of legs from a deployed position to a retracted position whenever the golf bag is lifted and carried by the individual. In addition, such carry bags having an extensible bag stand may include a stabilization system that allows the closed bottom end of the golf bag to remain substantially flat and along the same plane when the golf bag is placed from a substantially upright position when initially placed on a surface to a substantially upright angled position after the pair of legs of the extensible bag stand have been deployed. Known stabilization systems that allow the closed bottom end of the golf bag to remain on the same plane between the substantially upright position to the substantially upright angled position may include a bottom portion disposed adjacent or proximate to the closed bottom end of the golf bag and an top portion disposed adjacent or proximate to the open top end of the golf bag. The stabilization system further includes a flexible stay having a first end engaged to the top portion and a second end disposed within a pocket formed by the fabric of the golf bag adjacent or proximate to the bottom portion located along the closed bottom end of the golf bag. In addition, the stabilization system allows the closed bottom end of the golf bag to flex slightly when the golf bag is placed on a surface and the extensible bag stand is deployed such that the golf bag assumes a substantially upright angled position. However, the flexible stay can become loose or disengaged from the fabric pocket at times, which can require the individual to take the time to adjust or reinsert the flexible stay back into the fabric pocket.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding elements among the various views of the drawings. The headings used in the figures do not limit the scope of the claims.

Golf bags with a stabilization and reinforcement system and methods to manufacture golf bags with the stabilization and reinforcement system


Described herein are biological devices and methods for using the same to produce a polyactive carbohydrate. The biological devices include microbial cells transformed with a DNA construct containing genes for producing a chitin synthase, a chitosanase, and a chitin deacetylase. In some instances, the biological devices also include a gene for lipase. Methods for using the polyactive carbohydrate are also provided herein, including, but not limited to, enhancing the physiological properties of plants; medical applications; applications in the construction, materials science, and home goods industries; personal care, grooming, cosmetics, and oral care compositions containing the polyactive carbohydrate; methods for water decontamination; and the production of polyurethanes.

Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide derived from chitin, a polymer found in the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans as well as in some fungal cell walls. Chitosan is composed of D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units, which are β-(1→4) linked and randomly distributed.
Chitosan has been employed for a wide variety of commercial uses. However, several drawbacks to the widespread use of chitosan exist. Few facilities worldwide are able to process chitosan, and the separation of chitosan from crustacean shells is laborious. Separation methods are inefficient as the necessary reagents cannot easily access the polymer due to the crystalline nature of chitin. Existing methods for producing chitosan are destructive and wasteful in addition to being expensive, and they employ corrosive chemicals and hazardous solvents. Further, since chitosan is typically extracted from shellfish, individuals with shellfish allergies, vegans and vegetarians, and people with religious prohibitions against consuming shellfish may want to avoid products containing chitosan extracted from shrimp, crabs, and the like.
What is needed is a polyactive carbohydrate and a process for making the same that shares the properties of chitosan. Purification would not require the use of harsh chemicals or solvents, thus reducing materials costs and the production of hazardous waste. Further, the polyactive carbohydrate would be suitable for use in all of the industrial applications traditionally associated with chitosan. The present invention addresses these needs.

Methods for producing a polyactive carbohydrate and applications thereof


A circuit is adapted to activate a writer head of a data storage media drive during both the boost periods as well as the steady state periods. The current supplied to the writer head during the boost periods exceeds the steady state current and flows between positive and negative voltage supplies so as to provide the required magnetic flux change in the inductor disposed in the write head. During the steady state periods, a switch circuit is turned on to provide a second current path across the writer head. During the steady state periods, the current flows between the positive voltage supply and the ground to reduce power consumption. The switch circuit is turned off during the boost periods.

The present invention relates to electronic circuits, and more particularly to a technique for reducing power consumption of a writer head driver circuitry disposed in a data storage media driver.
FIG. 1 is a simplified transistor schematic diagram of a driver circuit 100 used to supply current to a writer head 150 via nodes Hx and Hy. FIG. 2 shows the timing characteristic of the write current Iw so supplied across nodes Hx and Hy. As is seen from FIG. 2, during the boost periods, i.e., (T2-T1) or (T4-T3), current Iw overshoots the steady state current Iwss to provide the required magnetic flux change in the inductor disposed in the write head 150. This current flows, in part, either through transistor pair 102, 108, or 104, 106.
At the end of each boost period, the active transistor pair 102, 108, or 104, 106, is turned off and one of transistor pairs 112, 118, or 114, 116 is turned on so as to start and maintain the steady state operation. FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of a number of signals associated with driver circuit 100.
During the first boost period TB1, voltage signals BSTPL and BSTNL are lowered and voltage signals BSTPR and BSTNR are either raised or are maintained at previously high levels. Accordingly, transistors 102, 108 are turned on and transistors 104, 106 are turned off or maintained off. Therefore, a current path is established from supply voltage VCC to supply voltage VEE via transistors 102, 108, and writer head 150. Boost period TB1 is equal to (T2-T1).
During the second boost period TB2, voltage signals BSTPR and BSTNR are lowered and voltage signals BSTPL and BSTNL are either raised or are maintained at previously high levels. Accordingly, transistors 104, 106 are turned on and transistors 102, 108 are either turned off or maintained off. Therefore, a current path is established from supply voltage VCC to supply voltage VEE via transistors 104, 106, and writer head 150. Steady state transistors 112, 114, 116 and 118 are kept off during the boost periods TB1 and TB2. Boost period TB2 is equal to (T4-T3).
The power consumed by driver circuit 100 during the boost periods is defined by the following expression:
                              (                                    V              CC                        -                          V              EE                                )                                  (                                                    I                wpr                            ×                              T                B                                                                    T                B                            +                              T                s                                              )                                    (        1        )            where TB represents the boost duration and TS represents the steady state duration.
Positive voltage VP is generated from positive supply voltage VCC. Similarly, negative voltage VN is generated from negative supply voltage VEE. Therefore, the power consumed by driver circuit 100 during the steady state periods is defined by the following expression:
                              (                                    V              CC                        -                          V              EE                                )                                  (                                                    I                wss                            ×                              T                S                                                                    T                B                            +                              T                S                                              )                                    (        2        )
As is known, the steady state typically has a much longer duration than the boost period. Consequently, driver circuit 100 has a relatively high power consumption during the steady state periods.

Low power preamplifier writer architecture


Provided is a method of preparing a combustible oil, the method comprising adding and mixing: a petroleum-based combustible oil; a water having an oxidation-reduction potential of −300 mV or lower, a pH of 9.0 or higher, and a dissolved hydrogen concentration of 0.8 ppm or higher; a fatty oil; and an activated carbon to obtain a mixture.

The petroleum-based fuel oils are used as sources of power, heat, light, electricity and the like. The petroleum-based fuel oils are so important that the modern industry could not possibly exist without them. Since the petroleum reserves are not unlimited, development of alternative energy sources is actively sought, but no alternative energy source has emerged that could eliminate the dependency on the petroleum-based fuel oils. For example, in a typical manufacturing industry, the purchasing of the petroleum-based fuel oils accounts for a large portion of the costs, and the current state is such that the fluctuations in the crude oil price have a major impact on the profits of the companies. The industries continue to face the problem of how to efficiently utilize the existing petroleum-based fuel oils.
Another problem associated with the petroleum-based fuel oils is that they contain undesirable impurities originating from the crude oils. For example, the sulfuric components in the fuels are known to produce harmful sulfuric compounds during the burning which become a major cause of the pollution and the environmental destruction. Other examples of the undesirable impurities include the nitrogenous components.
Technologies are known which use a fuel comprising oil and water wherein the water is comprised as a dispersed phase in the oil (e.g. Patent Document 1). This is called an emulsion fuel, a water-added fuel, etc., and since this fuel represents a reduction of oil content per fuel volume, it can provide the effect of reducing the petroleum-based fuel oil consumption as well as reducing the impurity concentrations. However, these technologies require the use of special apparatuses and/or emulsifiers (surfactants) to disperse water, which tend to make the preparation equipment more expensive or more complex. Further, these technologies may also have potential problems associated with the burning of the fuel in the presence of the extraneous chemical substance, namely the emulsifier.
The petroleum-based combustible oils may also be used for other purposes than fuel, for example as solvents (including cleaning liquids, extracting liquids, and the like).


Apparatus and methods are provided for wirelessly broadcasting large multimedia files to vehicles. The apparatus includes a vehicle-based receiver configured to wirelessly receive at least one group of encoded data packets at a data rate based on a number of concurrently broadcasted groups of encoded data packets, a decoder coupled to the data storage device, a data storage device coupled to the receiver, and a media playback unit coupled to the data storage device. The group of data packets corresponds to at least a portion of a multimedia content, and each of the data packets contains at least a portion of the multimedia content. The data rate is based on an average vehicle operation duration and/or a probability of occurrence of the average vehicle operation duration. The decoder is configured to assemble at least a portion of the multimedia content from the first data file upon the data storage device receiving a pre-determined number of data packets. The data storage device is configured to store the group of data packets and assembled multimedia content. The playback unit is configured to play the assembled multimedia content.

Vehicle operators tend to spend a significant amount of time in their respective vehicles particularly when commuting from a home to a workplace, running errands, conducting business, vacationing, or for many other reasons. This time is significant enough that some vehicles come equipped with a variety of consumer electronics such as compact disc (CD) players, cassette tape players, radios, satellite radios, electronic gaming, and digital video disc (DVD) players. Some owners may also choose to equip their vehicle with aftermarket consumer electronics in the event their vehicles lack such consumer electronics or for purposes of customization. These and other entertainment or infotainment electronic devices provide a passenger in the vehicle with time-occupying options and may improve the passenger's quality of time.
Consumer electronics such as CD players, cassette tape players, DVD players, and electronic gaming generally have related media content for playback residing on a localized storage medium. For example, many on-board navigation systems utilize geographic information stored on CD's. This information may be downloaded to a memory associated with the navigation system, located in the vehicle, or directly accessed from the CD by the navigation system. In another example, DVD players commonly play media that is stored on DVD.
Consumer electronics such as radios, satellite radios, and cellular phones generally have related media content transmitted in real-time. For example, satellite radios receive audio broadcasts carried in a selected frequency band and play such broadcasts when the satellite radio is activated. In general, these forms of consumer electronics use transmission methods that may have limited types of transmitted media and reception modes.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system for wireless broadcast of relatively large and multiple types of multimedia data to vehicles. In addition, it is desirable to provide a multimedia system for a vehicle that is capable of receiving large multimedia data during intermittent operation of the vehicle. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

System and method for wireless broadcast of multimedia files to vehicles


A golf club head includes a golf club head body and at least one club head component. The golf club head body provides with an assembling opening which includes a welding inner circumference, a supporting bottom periphery and a tapered portion. The club head component correspondingly provides with a welding outer circumference and a rear periphery. In welding, the welding inner circumference of the assembling opening is engaged with the welding outer circumference of the club head component, and the supporting bottom periphery of the assembling opening is further engaged with the rear periphery of the club head component. The tapered portion of the assembling opening is used to form a space for releasing inert gas from a welding portion in welding operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connecting structure for welding a club head component to a golf club head body. Particularly, the present invention relates to an assembling opening of the golf club head body providing with a supporting bottom periphery for intensively supporting the club head component for welding operation. More particularly, the present invention relates to the assembling opening of the golf club head body further providing with a tapered portion used to release inert gas from a welding channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,617,537, entitled "method for combining a golf club head and a ball striking plate," discloses following steps: separately prefabricating a golf club head body and a striking plate, the club head body forming an assembling opening with an inner circumference and a shoulder, and the striking plate having an outer circumference so that the inner circumference of the assembling opening corresponding to the outer circumference of the striking plate; commonly forming an inclined surface on each of the inner circumference of the assembling opening and the outer circumference of the striking plate, and the assembling opening further providing with an engaging protrusion; a block pressing the engaging protrusion for deformation after positioning the striking plate on the shoulder of the assembling opening; melting a boundary between the inner circumference of the assembling opening and the outer circumference of the striking plate; surface-finishing the golf club head body and the striking plate.
In welding operation, the golf club head and the striking plate may be selectively used a variety of welding methods, such as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, laser welding, plasma welding or other suitable welding methods. However, the welding operation needs using argon as a protection gas for covering a welding portion (i.e. welding channel). A surplus of the inert gas may remain between the assembling opening of the golf club head body and the striking plate if a rear surface of the striking plate closely confront with the shoulder of the assembling opening. Due to obstruction of the shoulder of the assembling opening, void defects may be generated in the welding portion that causes incomplete welding if the inert gas cannot be properly released from the welding portion. Consequently, the void defects may reduce welding intensity between the golf club head body and the striking plate, and deteriorate welding quality and reliability. Additionally, the elastic deformation of the striking plate may be ineffective while striking golf if the rear surface of the striking plate closely confront with the shoulder of the assembling opening.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 6,780,124, entitled "golf club head for welding," discloses a golf club head body and a striking plate. The golf club head includes an assembling opening at its front side, and the assembling opening provides with a filling protrusion on its periphery instead of a shoulder. The filling protrusion further includes a series of engaging notches disposed thereon. Correspondingly, the striking plate further includes a plurality of support rods mounted on a front surface thereof. In assembling operation, the striking plate is received in the assembling opening of the golf club head body, and the support rods of the striking plate are correspondingly engaged with the engaging notches of the filling protrusion of the assembling opening so as to position the striking plate on the golf club head body. Consequently, the striking plate and the golf club head body can be rapidly pre-assembled in preparing for a welding procedure. In welding operation, the inert gas remained in a clearance between an outer circumference of the striking plate and an inner circumference of the assembling opening of the golf club head body may be properly released through a rear surface of the striking plate since no shoulder of the assembling opening may obstruct the inert gas. Consequently, no void defect may be generated in the welding portion of the golf club head.
However, the support ribs of the striking plate and the engaging notches of the golf club head body may sophisticate the entire structure of the golf club head. Moreover, a deburring operation for eliminating the support ribs and the engaging notches is required and thus complicated the manufacture method for the golf club head after the welding operation. Accordingly, there is a need for improving and simplifying the welding structure of the golf club head.
The present invention intends to provide a connecting structure for welding a club head component to a golf club head body. The golf club head body provides with a welding inner circumference of an assembling opening while the club head component correspondingly provides with a welding outer circumference. Furthermore, the assembling opening of the golf club head body provides with a supporting bottom periphery for intensively supporting the club head component, and a tapered portion to form a space for releasing inert gas from a welding channel that may increase welding quality, intensity and reliability. Additionally, a buffer space of the golf club head body formed by the tapered portion of the assembling opening permits deformation of the club head component.

Connecting structure for welding a club head component to a golf club head body


A metering system for distributing particulate material includes a meter housing containing a metering wheel. An inlet and/or outlet of the meter housing provides a projection extending into the opening of the inlet and/or outlet so that the flow of particulate material is optimized. This can provide even distribution of such material, including at low rotating speeds such as 5 RPM, while using a polyurethane metering wheel with straight vanes. In one aspect, projections extending into the inlet on opposing sides can substantially form an hourglass shape, and the outlet can comprise a substantially diagonal shape, analogous to a parallelogram, instead of more traditional rounded/rectangular shapes.

Agricultural product delivery systems are known to utilize various mechanisms, including mechanical and pneumatic systems to move granular or particulate material or product, such as fertilizer, seed, insecticide or herbicide, from a product supply chamber, through a series of elongated tubes that extend from a product supply chamber to a product applicator, and placing the product on, or in a growing medium, such as soil. Such agricultural product delivery systems are commonly employed in planters, air drills, fertilizer and pesticide applicators and a variety of other agricultural implements.
Systems for metering particulate material currently include a rounded/rectangular inlet from a bin and a rounded/rectangular outlet to a pressurized tube with a multi-vane metering wheel in between. The metering wheel typically includes multiple vanes to implement an airlock to prevent air flow from the pressurized tube from flowing into the bin and suspending material in the bin. Metering wheels with helical or spiral vanes are known for allowing more even distributions of material through a wide range of rotating speeds, such as 5 to 100 RPM. However, such helical or spiral vanes can sometimes lose air pressure due to deformation relative to the wheel. The helical or spiral shape also increases manufacturing complexity. A need therefore exists to provide a system for metering of particulate material which can maintain the evenness capability of helical or spiral vanes but without the foregoing disadvantages.

Metering system for distributing particulate material


An electronic device includes a main body, a reading mechanism and a moving mechanism. The reading mechanism includes a payment object input region. The reading mechanism is located at any side of the main body. The moving mechanism is arranged between the reading mechanism and the main body. In response to an account signal or an external force, the reading mechanism is moved relative to the main body. Consequently, the payment object input region is retracted back or protruded over an outer periphery of the main body for facilitating the user to perform a payment action in a card-inserting manner or a card-swiping manner.

With the development of modern business, the electronic devices using the point-of-sale information management system are widely used in many commercial sales places. For example, these electronic devices are cash registers (e.g., sales terminals), tablet computers, and the like. For allowing the user to use payment cards more conveniently, the store in the sale terminal needs to have an electronic device with a reading mechanism to implement the modern sale behaviors.
Since the reading methods for different reading mechanisms are different, an electronic device with diverse reading mechanisms is introduced into the market. However, this electronic device is not user-friendly. For example, the checkout area has limited available space to place plural reading mechanisms for facilitating the user to perform the payment action. In addition, the reading mechanisms cannot be movably disassembled or assembled according to the commercial requirements of the store. In addition, the installation position of the payment object input region of the reading mechanism (e.g., an insertion card reader or a magnetic stripe) is usually inconvenient for the consumer to perform the payment action in a card-inserting manner or a card-swiping manner. Since the conventional electronic device with diverse reading mechanisms is not user-friendly, the conventional electronic device cannot meet the commercial requirement and the cost is high.
For overcoming the above drawbacks, there is a need of providing an electronic device for a point-of-sale information management system in order to make good use of the installation space and facilitate the consumer to perform the payment action in a card-inserting manner or a card-swiping manner.


A variable focal length light source is constructed using a tunable focus length lens which can be adjusted in synchronization to the focal length of a camera lens. In one embodiment, a deformable lens is used in conjunction with an LED light source to provide the tunable focal length required for a camera flash device.

It has become standard practice to use light emitting diodes (LEDs) as flash modules in mobile applications that have camera functions. For example, mobile phones or PDAs are increasingly equipped with camera modules for image capture and a flash module serves as an illumination source in low ambient light situations. These flash modules must produce a large amount of light each time they are activated and in some cases the light from the LED is not sufficient for a camera flash. This is particularly true if the image to be captured is far from the camera in a total dark (Zero lux) condition.
Mobile device cameras (such as cameras in phones, PDAs, etc.) have zoom functions for bringing distant images into closer focus. These zoom lenses allow the user to zoom in on small objects located far from the camera. If the light from the flash is unable to properly illuminate the subject, particularly under dark conditions, the resultant picture may not look good.
Some prior art flash arrangements have a moveable optical lens to channel the light from the flash to the desired viewing angle (focal length) to match the viewing angle (zoom focal length) of the camera.

Light source having a variable focal length


A cable bolt comprising a plurality of flexible steel filaments formed around a central member, the cable bolt having spaced bulbous portions along the length of the bolt each bulbous portion defining a cavity containing a segmented ring that surrounds the central member to engage the filaments of the bulbous portion.

Cable bolts are usually made from cable comprising a plurality of steel filaments wound together around a central wire to form a tendon. Resin and/or cement grout is used to fix the cable bolt to a borehole. To increase the effective bond strength between the cable bolt and resin or grout the bolts are often provided with spaced protuberances along the length of the cable. These protuberances are often known as bulbs or cages. The protuberances assist in preventing cable bolts from being pulled through the resin or grout, thus providing improved anchorage and load transfer between the cable, resin/grout and the surrounding strata.
It is known that tensioning of the cable prior to cement grouting can cause the protuberance to collapse thus reducing the cable's effectiveness. In Australian patent 2004260817 there is a proposal to insert ball bearings into the cavities defined by the protuberances to reduce the likelihood of the protuberances collapsing when the cable is tensioned. This proposal has proved expensive to manufacture and unreliable due to the ball bearings being pushed out of the protuberances. There is also a need to displace the central wire to locate each ball bearing. In some cable bolts the central wire is replaced by a hollow tube which extends along the centre of the cable. Other disadvantages relate to the difficulty in automating the placement of the ball bearings and the ball bearing creates a stress concentration on the strands of the cable creating loads that lead to failure loads up to 25% less than the original strands ultimate tensile strength.
In our earlier Australian patent application 2008200918 we disclose a cable bolt having a hollow strand which facilitates the passage of grout along the cable. It is important that the hollow strand does not get crushed by radial loads in non collapsible protrusions.
It is these issues that have brought about the present invention.


A device for temporarily loading, storing and unloading a container without deforming the container and affecting its contents. An enclosure (2) having struts (3) at both its left and right sides is provided. A support beam (4) of a transporter (10) that is provided with a pair of horizontal retaining fingers (13, 13) is attached in a vertically movable manner between the struts on the rear-surface side of the enclosure (2), and a plurality of horizontal shelves (20) is arranged between the struts on the rear-surface side of the enclosure with spaces (H) in a height direction of the container (19), the spaces being larger than the height dimension (h) of the container (19). Further, the retaining fingers (13, 13) of the transporter (10) are made to protrude toward the shelves (20) and the distance (L) between the pair of retaining fingers (13, 13) is made to be suitable for lifting the container.

Flat precision electronic products such as semiconductor wafers or substrates for liquid crystal display, and the like are made by inspection steps and all kinds of fabrication steps such as painting of photo-resist, thin film deposition, creation of oxidization film or nitration film, etching and heat treatment. In these steps, the flat precision electronic products are contained in clean containers to be transported. However, since the processing times needed for each step are not the same, generally, various plans for possibly decreasing waiting time are designed. For example, in a step whose throughput speed is slow, a plurality of shelves is provided to store the clean containers temporarily. In a step whose processing time is lengthy by necessity, the shelves are divided in rows to operate in parallel. In these circumstances, clean containers, which are used in semiconductor fabrication steps, are designed in a hand-held size, and manually stored on the shelves. However, since the precision electronic products hate contaminants, such as dust, it is desirable that the containers are transported and temporarily stored not manually but automatically.
A medium or small automatic storage device for cassettes, which transports substrates for semiconductor devices, has been already proposed in Japanese Provisional Publication No. 2001-298069. This device is so constructed that two docking stations for transferring the semiconductor wafers from the cassettes are provided on the bottom, a vertical transportation space is formed therebetween, and a plurality of shelves is arranged to left and right sides of the space over the docking stations. Here, a cassette mover moving vertically and horizontally holds a cassette and transports it inside the space, and then, places it on a docking station. However, this cassette mover comprises a horizontally movable vertical strut and an end effector that holds an upper handhold (flange) of a clean container. One end of the end effector is attached below the device, and the end effector serves as an elevator. When a heavy cassette (container) is started moving or stopped just holding by a strut, a large moment of inertia acts to cause oscillation and vibration. Besides, since the oscillation and the vibration can not be easily prevented, the transport speed is not increased and the cassette can not be precisely placed on a transfer stage. Moreover, the cassette mover is constructed so as to hold a protrusion of the upper side of the cassette. Then, the top surface of the cassette is deformed so as to expand, thereby increasing the capacity of the cassette and decreasing the internal pressure thereof. Therefore, when opening a cover, dust flows into the cassette together with outside air, and conditions in the container sometimes come under the influence of the dust.
An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic device for temporarily loading, storing and unloading a container, which never affects content materials of the container by a holding means deforming the container during transportation.

Device for temporarily loading, storing and unloading a container


A method for synthesizing noise in a digital image comprises the steps of (a) estimating noise statistics based on a set of spatial autocorrelation coefficients and a set of spectral correlation coefficients that correspond to the color channels of the image, where at least one of the spatial autocorrelation coefficients is weighted by at least one of the spectral correlation coefficients, thereby providing a weighted set of autocorrelation coefficients, and where a set of filter coefficients is obtained from the weighted set of autocorrelation coefficients; and (b) synthesizing a synthetic texture by using the filter coefficients to filter a random noise field in each of the color channels, thereby producing output noise fields in each of the color channels that replicate a synthetic texture, e.g., a desired grain appearance, when combined into the digital image.

It is generally known that compositing computer graphics and film imagery requires that the computer graphics elements be matched in terms of color and texture to the underlying background elements. Typically these background elements have been captured on film. It is also known that intercutting footage from different sources such as two kinds of film, or film and digital video, requires that the different elements match to create a seamless look for the entire image sequence. With more footage from mixed sources and computer graphics, there is a clear need for a robust grain simulation model. Moreover, there is a need for a fully automatic method of estimating grain parameters in image sequences to reduce the need for user interaction, which can be quite time consuming.
Grain in digitized film images is well characterized by zero-mean Gaussian distributed noise for the three color channels. Zero-mean Gaussian models are fully characterized by their second-order statistics (the auto-covariance function). Modelling the interactions between color channels requires analysis of the spectral correlations. These spectral and spatial correlations can then be used to shape a white noise signal to create synthetic grain. In this way, synthesis of a simulated grain pattern is essentially a texture synthesis problem. But correct shaping of the white noise is required to generate a visually indistinguishable "match" for a given film grain.
Texture analysis/synthesis methods are well known in the literature. Bergen and Heeger ("Pyramid-Based Texture Analysis/Synthesis" SIGGRAPH, 1995, pp. 229-238) describe a method for analyzing a texture pattern and then replicating it. This method suffers from improper color correlation techniques generating significant bias in different color channels. The problem lies with the simple fact that once white noise fields have been convolved, the autocorrelation function (ACF) is non-zero for each color channel. Adding these together using a color transformation generates the correct spectral correlations but biases the spatial correlations. Biased spatial correlations will result in synthesized textures that look different from the desired texture.
Chellappa and Kashyap considered autoregressive models for texture synthesis ("Texture synthesis using 2-d noncausal autoregressive models," IEEE Trans. on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. 33, pp. 194-203, February 1985) but the optimization methods required in that work are inefficient (i.e., long processing times for both analysis and synthesis).
The newer area of non-parametric synthesis requires templates of grain to perform the synthesis and is also known to be more computationally intensive than other methods. For example, Efros and T. Leung, ("Texture synthesis by non-parametric sampling," in ICCV99, pp. 1033-1038, 1999) considered how to sample pattern templates to generate new versions of the pattern. This is time consuming and cannot produce a wide enough variety of patterns when considering signal dependent noise.
With regard to noise estimation, most methods use single frames. Consider, for example, Olsen ("Estimation of Noise in Images: An Evaluation," GMIP(55), No. 4, Jul. 1993, pp. 319-323) and Immerkaer, ("Fast Noise Variance-Estimation", Computer Vision Image Understanding(64), No. 2, September 1996, pp. 300-302). These two methods estimate noise in generally flat regions of a single image. Motion compensated noise reduction methods are also known in the literature (see for example Dubois, E., Sabri, S., "Noise Reduction in Image Sequences Using Motion-Compensated Temporal Filtering," IEEE Trans. Communications (32), 1984, pp. 826-831). Although these methods are used for image sequences, they ignore the concept of iteratively estimating both motion and noise parameters.
There are also relevant patents in the prior art. Published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0034337 (entitled "System for Manipulating Noise in Digital images") discloses a method for shaping white noise to create synthetic noise with specific characteristics. The most obvious problem with this approach is the assumption that the color channels can simply be decorrelated and the noise synthesized independently. The subband decomposition procedure disclosed therein follows closely the treatment by Bergen and Heeger mentioned above. Indeed, it suffers from exactly the same improper color correlation techniques, thereby generating significant bias in different color channels.
In commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,596 (which issued Jun. 24, 1997 and is entitled "Adjusting Film grain properties in digital images" and), D. Cok and R. Gray disclose a method for synthesizing film grain using an autoregressive model that yields very good results. To achieve a better match to older or unknown film stocks, a larger spatial support is necessary. The model in that work had a limited spatial support and as scanning resolutions increase, spatial support needs to grow accordingly.
The prior art disclosed above is deficient in its ability to efficiently generate a visually indistinguishable "match" for a given film grain. What is needed is a method of synthesizing noise that visually approximates a given film grain and is also close in a numerical sense to the statistics in a given random field. In particular, it would be desirable to perform grain matching when given the statistics for two different images. Finally, it would be desirable to have a robust method for automatically determining those statistics for image sequences.

System and method for estimating, synthesizing and matching noise in digital images and image sequences


The invention corrects crosstalk induced between scanning electrodes and signal electrodes in a TFD liquid crystal display. The liquid crystal display is provided with a dummy scanning electrode that intersects with signal electrodes, and is arranged in the same manner as scanning electrodes. Since the dummy scanning electrode is connected to the inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier, the voltage of the dummy scanning electrode is maintained at a reference voltage. When the crosstalk from the signal electrodes occurs, a current flows through a resistor so as to maintain the voltage at the dummy scanning electrode at the reference voltage. The voltage applied to the scanning electrodes is increased or decreased in accordance with the current in order to correct the crosstalk.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a drive circuit for an electro-optical device, a method of driving an electro-optical device, an electro-optical apparatus, and an electronic appliance, all of which are preferably used to display a variety of information.
2. Description of Related Art
In an active matrix liquid crystal display with two-terminal devices or a TFD (thin film diode) active matrix liquid crystal display, a first substrate having a plurality of scanning electrodes is opposed to a second substrate having a plurality of signal electrodes. A liquid crystal layer is sandwiched between the two substrates. A device having a nonlinear current-voltage characteristic is interposed between the liquid crystal layer and each of the scanning electrodes or between the liquid crystal layer and each of the signal electrodes (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H10-039840). Nonlinear two-terminal devices include a device using a ceramic varistor (D. E. Casfleberry, IEEE, ED-26, p. 1123-1128, 1979), a device using an amorphous silicon P-N junction diode (Togashi et al., Technical Report of Institute of Television, ED 782, IPD 86–3, 1984 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 559-57273), and a device using an MIM (Metal Insulator Metal) element (D. R., Baraff et al, IEEE, ED-28, p. 736–739, 1981 and K. Niwa et al., SID 84, Digest, p. 304–307, 1984).
In some TFD liquid crystal displays, a differential waveform of a signal electrode voltage is superimposed on a scanning electrode voltage via a capacitance between a scanning electrode and a signal electrode. In other words, crosstalk occurring between the scanning electrode and the signal electrode disadvantageously damages the gradation characteristic on a display.

Drive circuit for electro-optical device, method of driving electro-optical device, electro-optical apparatus, and electronic appliance


The present invention provides an extension card incorporating a power management device applicable to electronic devices. During the operating process, if the removal of the top cover from the housing of the electronic device is detected, power supply to the electronic device is immediately cut off. The extension card incorporating the power management device is characterized in that a plurality of signal pins are disposed on a side of the power management device and electrically connected to a plurality of idle pins of the extension card, the idle pins conveying no signals processed by the extension card but transmitting a power-off signal to the motherboard when electrically connected to the connecting port of the motherboard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic extension cards, and, more particularly, to an electronic extension card incorporating a power management device which is installed on a side thereof to protect circuits during the blackout.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid development of electronic technology has accelerated the growth of various types of commercial electronic products with multifunction. In general, commercial electronic products may utilize a small memory card for data storage, and other types of small electronic cards for peripheral functions. As such, the configuration of electronic products becomes more and more complicated along with an increasing number of necessary components, resulting in power control wires intertwining with the surrounding distributing wires and causing difficulty to configure the systems.
For example, a removable top cover is often utilized in the housing of the present desktop computers that comprises a motherboard, an interfacing card on the motherboard, a memory unit, a CPU, a fan and distributing wires connecting the motherboard to each of the peripheral devices. And naturally, the more functions a system includes, the more number of interfacing card slots and distributing wires connected to its peripheral devices are required, thus leading to a dilemma of intertwisting wiring and insufficient slots within the limited space.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a power management device applied to an electronic device according to the prior art. The power management device comprises a detecting spring 11, a detecting body 12, a power control wire 13, and an adapter 14. The detecting spring 11 is used to detect the pressure when a top cover of a housing of the electronic device is closed, the detecting spring 11 receives the pressure of the top cover and is depressed to become nearly flush with the detecting body 12, such that the detecting spring 11 is pressed to deform and contact the circuits (not shown) and thus generate signals, which are then transmitted through power control wire 13 to the motherboard connected by the adapter 14.
Further, there is provided a housing cover 19 on the top of the housing, and one side of the housing 18′ has a fixing rack 15 for installing the power management device, the adapter 14 of the power control wire 13 of the power management device can be inserted into the face board connecting pins 16 to electrically connect with the motherboard 17. When the housing cover board 19 is tightly covered on the housing 18, as described above, the detecting spring 11 receives the pressure from the top cover and is pressed down to be parallel with the detecting body 12. Concurrently, the power management device transmits a signal via the adapter 14 connected with the power control wire 13 from the circuits of the motherboard 17 to a power supplier (not shown) to maintain the power-on status. When the housing cover 19 is ejected and removed from the housing 18, as indicated by the arrow, the detecting spring 11 restores to its original protrusive shape, and at this time, the power management device transmits a signal via the adapter 14 connected with the power control wire 13 from the circuits of the motherboard 17 to a power supplier (not shown) to cut the power off.
The prior art technique of opening the housing on one hand can detect the detachment of the top cover, but on the other hand necessitates adding a power management device that electrically connect with its power control wire and the motherboard, increasing complexity of an internal system by having more power wires intertwining with one another that in turn increases difficulty in installation, and thus the assembling components and costs as a result. The conventional technique fails to meet the trend of simplicity for easy installation and maintenance in computer systems.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an extension card incorporating a power management device within the limited space of an electronic device to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Extension card incorporating power management device