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a cast on strap machine 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is arranged to provide liquid lead into the mould cavities of a mould 50 before tabs 82 of a set of battery plates 80 are moved into position by a jig box 70 with the tabs 82 within the mould cavities and the lead can solidify so as to form straps connecting the tabs . a lead delivery apparatus 5 is provided for delivering a predetermined volume of lead to the mould 50 . the lead delivery apparatus 5 generally comprises a housing 2 , which defines an inlet reservoir 4 , a block 10 , a mechanism 20 , a runway 30 and a chute 40 . the lead delivery apparatus 5 is connected to a lead supply 60 . it will be noted that in the illustrated embodiment a pair of identical lead delivery apparatus are provided to deliver to opposing sides of the mould 50 ( and fed from a common lead supply 60 ). it will be appreciated that this will depend upon the type of mould to be formed and therefore the invention may be used in a single or multiple arrangements . for clarity , the following description will describe the operation of only a single side of the apparatus but it will be appreciated from the figures that the two sides operate in an identical fashion ( albeit with their motions mirrored ). the housing 2 defines a lead reservoir 4 in its interior and is generally arranged to have an open upper surface such that dross which accumulates maybe easily skimmed from the lead in the reservoir . an inlet 8 is provided for the supply of lead and an outlet 6 is provided in the base of the reservoir . the housing may further be provided with a cover 3 which encloses the reservoir 4 but which is spaced apart from the lead fill level of the reservoir . as such an ullage 4 b ( i . e . an unfilled space ) is defined above the reservoir 4 . a gas inlet 9 is provided at the rear of the housing 4 which extends into the ullage 4 b such that , in use , the ullage 4 b may be filled with an inert gas ( for example pure nitrogen or argon ). typically , the gas will be introduced at atmospheric pressure ( so as not to effect the flow of lead ) but with a flow rate which is sufficiently high to expel the air from the ullage 4 b . the housing is further provided with a bleed opening 7 which ( as described in below ) is arranged to be aligned with the through cavity 12 when the block 10 is in the second position . the bleed opening 7 is in fluid communication with the ullage 4 b of the housing 2 . spaced apart from , and below , the housing 2 is a runway 30 which is arranged parallel to the lower surface of the housing and defines a slot therebetween which is shaped and sized to receive a block 10 . the runway is provided with a through hole 34 aligned with the inlet 8 on the housing 2 and a blind recess 36 in alignment with the outlet 6 of the housing 2 ( the blind recess 36 will form a sump as described below ). the runway 30 is sloped relative to the horizontal such that it &# 39 ; s inward ( i . e . closest to the mould 50 ) end is higher than its rearward end . this ensures that any lead which escapes during operation of the machine will run away from the mould 50 . adjacent to the rearward ( and lowermost ) point of the runway 30 there is provided a gully 39 ( which may be formed as part of the runway 30 or the lead supply pipe 66 which is positioned below the runway ) for catching any lead leakage . the gully may be arranged to return the lead to the lead supply 60 . the block 10 is provided with a through cavity 12 and a through hole 18 . in the non - displaced position of the block 10 the through hole 18 is aligned with the inlet 8 and through hole 34 to form the inlet path to the lead reservoir 4 . in the same position , the through cavity 12 is aligned with the outlet 6 of the lead reservoir 4 and the blind hole 36 of the runway 30 such that lead from the reservoir will enter the blind hole 36 and cavity 12 . the mechanism 20 comprises a crank mechanism attached to the block 10 and arranged ( as described below with reference to fig2 to 5 ) to move the block between its neutral position and a lead delivery position . a chute 40 is provided which defines a passageway 42 which , in use , is arranged to deliver lead from the block 10 to the mould 50 . the passageway 42 defines an inclined pathway for the lead and is provided with radiused corners to ensure smooth flow and minimise turbulence of the lead . the chute is provided with a moveable support 48 which is arranged to move the chute between a delivery position and a retracted position ( as will be described in more detail with reference to fig2 to 5 ). a wall 44 is provided at the end of the chute 40 proximal to the mould 50 and a gap 45 is provided between the passageway 42 and wall 44 . the gap 45 , thus , forms an outlet to the chute 40 . fig2 shows the apparatus in its starting position in which the block 10 is aligned such that the through cavity 12 is below the outlet 6 of the lead reservoir 4 and the through hole 18 is aligned with the inlet 8 of the lead reservoir 4 . thus , lead will flow from the constant head lead supply 60 ( as shown in fig1 ) through supply pipes 66 a and 66 b ( which may typically be heated ) and hole 34 in the runway 30 into the reservoir 4 . the reservoir will be maintained at a fill level defined by the head of the lead supply 60 ( which is defined by a weir 64 ). as the through cavity 12 is in fluid communication with the lead reservoir 4 , a predetermined volume of lead will fill the cavity 12 and an additional volume of lead will enter the blind hole 36 so as to provide a sump below the cavity 12 . it will be noted that in this step the chutes 40 are already in the delivery position in which the passageway 42 is below the end of the runway 32 and the gap 45 which defines the outlet of the chute is positioned above the mould recess of the mould 50 . to commence filling of the mould , the mechanism 20 is actuated to slide block 10 relative to the housing 2 and runway 30 , as shown by the arrows a in fig3 . the actuation mechanism will be described in more detail with reference to fig7 below , but may be any convenient mechanism which provides a reciprocating action of the block 10 . the block 10 slides inwards towards the chute 40 until it reaches its second position ( as shown in fig3 ) in which the delivery port 16 of the through cavity 12 is aligned with the end 32 of the runway 30 . in this position the bleed opening 7 provided in the housing 2 is in fluid communication with the inlet of the through cavity 12 such that gas may be drawn into the upper portion of the through cavity 12 . this arrangement helps to avoid any vacuum effect which may hinder the release of the lead within the through cavity 12 . further , since the bleed opening 7 is in fluid communication with the ullage 4 b the gas drawn into the cavity is inert gas . advantageously , this has been found to reduce or avoid the formation of lead oxides on the surfaces of the through cavity 12 which would otherwise ( over the course of many cycles ) reduce the volume defined by the through cavity 12 . this will , therefore , reduce the downtime required for cleaning and maintenance of the machine . the end 32 of the runway 30 and the outermost portion of the open passageway 42 are arranged to provide a gradual downward transition to guide the lead onto the chute with minimal turbulence which could otherwise result in splashing . the lead passes along the downwardly curved passageway until reaching the gap 45 which provides the outlet to the chute 40 . the wall 44 ensures a clean downwardly directed delivery of the lead into the mould cavity 50 with any lead which overshoots the gap 45 striking the wall and being downwardly directed back through the gap 45 . once the lead pouring has completed , the block 10 returns to its first position in which the through cavity is aligned with the outlet 6 of lead reservoir 4 ( moving in the direction of arrows b shown in fig4 ). in this position the reservoir is again in fluid communication with the lead supply such that the level of the reservoir will be replenished and the through cavity 12 will be refilled . at this stage the chute 40 is retracted from its lead delivery position by being moved away from the mould 50 towards the housing 2 . the chute is moved by rotation of the moveable support 48 in the direction shown by arrows c , resulting in the chute 40 moving in the direction of arrows d . a cut - out 38 is provided in the lower surface of the runway 30 to accommodate the initial movement of the chute . the cut - out is a stepped portion in the lower surface and may for example be a slot of substantially equal width to that of the chute . as shown in fig5 , the battery plates 80 are brought into position above the mould 50 by a downward motion ( in the direction of arrow e ) until the tabs 82 of the plates lie within the mould cavity ( which now contains molten but cooling lead ). a mechanical connection is provided between the moveable support 48 of the chute 40 and the jig box 70 such that the chutes move down ( as shown by arrow f ) below the upper surface of mould 50 in conjunction with the movement of the battery plates 80 towards the mould 50 . this is advantageous since the chute 40 will be hot ( and may typically be heated to ensure the required delivery temperature of the lead is achieved ) and may help to avoid any damage to the battery plates ( or , more specifically , to the separators between the battery plates ). this arrangement may , for example , enable the height of the tabs 82 to be reduced and / or may eliminate the need for providing a cooling air supply over the mould 50 as is known in conventional arrangements . finally , as shown in fig6 , the battery plates 80 are moved away from the mould 50 by the jig box 70 ( in the direction of arrow h ) and eject the formed straps with the tabs 82 . in conjunction with the movement of the jig box 70 the chutes 40 are moved upwards ( in the direction of arrow g ) and rotated inwards ( in the direction of arrow i ) to return to the delivery position . fig7 shows a mechanism 20 suitable for use in embodiments of the invention . the mechanism comprises a drive motor 100 arranged to rotate a crank 110 which is connected via a lever arm 120 to the block 10 . it will be noted that a plurality of blocks 10 a , 10 b and 10 c may each be connected to a common mechanism for actuation in use . each block 10 is associated with a separate housing 2 a , 2 b and 2 c defining an independent lead reservoir , each of which is in fluid communication with the feed line 66 . a simple connection may be provided between the block 10 and the mechanism 20 , for example a bar 21 and hook arm 22 arrangement , such that the block 10 and mechanism 20 may easily be disconnected for example to clean the block , housing or runway , or to replace the block ( for example , to provide a block with a different capacity through cavity 12 ). in some embodiments it may be desirable to provide a plurality of through cavities in a single block 210 as shown in fig8 . each cavity 212 a and 212 b may have a different predetermined volume depending on the mould feature for which the lead is acquired . for example , a larger mould cavity 212 a may be provided for forming a post detail while a small mould cavity 212 b may be provided for forming a strap . the cavities 212 a and 212 b may be suitably shaped such that their delivery ports 216 a and 216 b are of a standard profile such that no modification is required to the chute 40 . all of the invention has been described above with reference to one or more preferred embodiments . it will be appreciated that various changes or modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims . for example , the skilled person will appreciate that while the embodiment above has been primarily described in relation to the forming of straps , other formations may also be cast onto the lugs of battery plates ( for example posts ) and that a cast on strap machine may be used for the formation of any such formations without departing from the scope of the invention . in some embodiments it may be advantageous to provide a plurality of cavities 12 arranged to deliver lead to a single mould cavity . for example , this may be desirable for relatively large mould cavities . the plurality of cavities could be in multiple blocks or in single multiple cavity block ( of the type shown in fig8 ) for example , each cavity may measure a separate volume of lead and the total volume of the cavities may provide the volume require for the particular mould cavity . the cavities may for example deliver to different areas of a single mould cavity to ensure an even distribution of lead .
| 1 |
referring to the drawings , a fabric shade screen 1 is a soft and flexible material made from an open mesh , non shrink , and water resistant material , such as nylon or plastic , that is of an appropriate shading effect , and that will conform to different sizes , shapes and contours of mirrors 7 . in fig1 the round outside rear view mirror 7 attached at the back side to the mirror frame 8 requires a round piece of the shade screen 1 , approximately four inches larger in diameter than the mirror 7 , and a strip of elastic 5 having a length smaller than the circumference of the mirror 7 . the shade screen 1 will be held in place using the following method . the elastic 5 is to be stretched to its fullest extent and sewn , while extended , to the perimeter of the shade screen 1 . when the shade screen 1 is attached to the mirror 7 , the larger diameter of the shade screen 1 will allow the shade screen 1 to lap over the edge to the back side of the mirror 7 , fig2 and be held snugly to the mirror 7 , fig3 by the contraction of the elastic 5 . the mirror shade screen has a number of pleats 10 taking up material about the circumference of the shade screen . in fig4 a rectangular or square outside rear view mirror 7 attached at the back side to the mirror frame 8 , requires a rectangular or square piece of the shade screen 1 approximately four inches wider and longer than the width and length of the mirror 7 , and a piece of elastic 5 having a length smaller than the perimeter of the mirror 7 . the shade screen 1 will be held in place using the following method . the elastic 5 is stretched to its fullest extent and sewn , while extended , to the perimeter of the shade screen 1 . when the shade screen 1 is attached to the mirror 7 , the larger size of the shade screen 1 will allow the shade screen 1 to lap over the edge to the back side of the mirror 7 , fig5 and be held snugly to the mirror 7 , fig6 by the contraction of the elastic 5 . in fig7 a rectangular or square outside rear view mirror 7 attached at the edge to the mirror support frame 8 , will require an envelope type shade screen 1 . the envelope type shade screen 1 will require two pieces of shade screen 1 , each being approximately four inches longer and wider than the mirror 7 . the two pieces of shade screen 1 are to be placed one on top of the other and sewn together on three sides 6 , thereof fig8 leaving the side on which the mirror 7 is attached to the mirror support frame 8 open . the shade screen 1 will be held in place using the following method . a strip of velcro 3 , ( nylon hook & amp ; loop tape fastener ), is sewn to the inside edges of the open side of the shade screen 1 , fig9 the hook part to one edge and the loop part to the other edge . when the shade screen 1 is placed on the mirror 7 , the velcro 3 ( nylon hook & amp ; loop tape fastener ) is pressed together closing the open side and holding the shade screen 1 in place . alternatively , the envelope type shade screen can be provided with a hem along the open side . a draw string is then installed in the hem , and is used to draw together the open side to hold the mirror shade screen in place on the mirror . fig1 shows a truck type outside rear view mirror 7 , that is rectangular in shape and attached to the mirror support frame 8 at the top and bottom edges with the shade screen 1 in place . the shade screen 1 for this type mirror 7 requires a piece of shade screen 1 wider than the width of the mirror 7 and approximately one inch longer than the mirror 7 , two strips of seam binder 2 , each equal in length to the width of the shade screen 1 , two pieces of string 4 approximately eight inches long , and two strips of velcro 3 ( nylon hook & amp ; loop tape fastener ) sufficient in length to extend across the back of the mirror . one strip of seam binder 2 is to be sewn to the top , and one strip to the bottom horizontal edges of the shade screen 1 , as an edge finisher to prevent raveling . the shade screen 1 will be held in place using the following method . one piece of string 4 is to be sewn with the seam binder 2 to the top and bottom edges of the fabric , in the center , for the purpose of tying the shade screen 1 to the mirror frame 8 to prevent movement of the shade screen 1 up or down . the velcro ( nylon hook and loop tape fasteners ) strips 3 extend horizontally from the respective edges of the shade screen fabric 1 . a hook portion of a velcro strip 3 , noting fig1 and 11 , is sewn to one edge , with a portion thereof extending beyond the edge of the shade screen , and a loop portion is sewn to the opposite edge of the shade screen , also extending beyond the shade screen , at a corresponding vertical position . as can be seen from fig1 and 11 , two such sets of hook and loop portions are provided , vertically spaced on the shade screen fabric &# 39 ; s edges . when the shade screen 1 is placed on the mirror 7 , it is wrapped around the mirror 7 , the velcro ( nylon hook & amp ; loop tape fastener ) strips are placed and pressed together at the back side of the mirror 7 , and the string 4 are tied to the frame 8 at the top and bottom , holding the shade screen 1 snugly in place , as seen in fig1 .
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the hybrid in - band on - channel ( iboc ) digital audio broadcasting system permits simultaneous transmission of analog and digitally encoded audio signals in the same channel . the transmitted signal includes of the current analog am signal , bandlimited to an audio bandwidth of about 5 khz , and digital carriers that extend about ± 15 khz from the am carrier . in addition to transmitting digitally encoded audio , the digital carriers also periodically carry known data called a training sequence . this broadcasting is accomplished by transmitting a digital waveform by way of a plurality of orthogonal frequency division modulated ( ofdm ) carriers , some of which are modulated in - quadrature with the analog am signal and are positioned within the spectral region where the standard am broadcasting signal has significant energy . the remaining digital carriers are modulated both in - phase and in - quadrature with the analog am signal and are positioned in the same channel as the analog am signal , but in spectral regions where the analog am signal does not have significant energy . in the united states , the emissions of am broadcasting stations are restricted in accordance with federal communications commission ( fcc ) regulations to lie within a signal level mask defined such that : emissions 10 . 2 khz to 20 khz removed from the analog carrier must be attenuated at least 25 db below the unmodulated analog carrier level , emissions 20 khz to 30 khz removed from the analog carrier must be attenuated at least 35 db below the unmodulated analog carrier level , and emissions 30 khz to 60 khz removed from the analog carrier must be attenuated at least [ 35 db + 1 db / khz ] below the unmodulated analog carrier level . fig1 shows the spectrum of an am digital audio broadcasting signal of a type that can be utilized by the present invention . curve 10 represents the magnitude spectrum of a standard broadcasting amplitude modulated signal , wherein the carrier has a frequency of f 0 . the fcc emissions mask is represented by item number 12 . the ofdm waveform is composed of a series of data carriers spaced at f 1 = 59 . 535 · 10 6 /( 131072 ), or about 454 hz . a first group of twenty four of the digitally modulated carriers are positioned within a frequency band extending from ( f 0 − 12 f 1 ) to ( f 0 + 12 f 1 ), as illustrated by the envelope labeled 14 in fig1 . most of these signals are placed 39 . 4 db lower than the level of the unmodulated am carrier signal in order to minimize crosstalk with the analog am signal . crosstalk is further reduced by encoding this digital information in a manner that guarantees orthogonality with the analog am waveform . this type of encoding is called complementary encoding ( i . e . complementary bpsk , complementary qpsk , or complementary 32 qam ) and is more fully described in the previously discussed u . s . pat . no . 5 , 859 , 876 . complementary bpsk modulation is employed on the innermost digital carrier pair at f 0 ± f 1 to facilitate timing recovery . these carriers are set at a level of − 28 dbc . all other carriers in this first group have a level of − 39 . 4 dbc and are modulated using complementary 32 qam for the 48 and 32 kbps encoding rates . complementary 8 psk modulation is used on carriers ranging from ( f 0 − 11 f 1 ) to ( f 0 − 2 f 1 ) and from ( f 0 + 2 f 1 ) to ( f 0 + 11 f 1 ) for the 16 kbps encoding rate . for all three encoding rates , the carriers at ( f 0 − 12 f 1 ) and ( f 0 + 12 f 1 ) carry supplementary data and may be modulated using complementary 32 qam . additional groups of digital carriers are placed outside the first group . the need for these digital waveforms to be in - quadrature with the analog signal is eliminated by restricting the analog am signal bandwidth . the carriers in a second and a third group , encompassed by envelopes 16 and 18 respectively , may be modulated using , for example , 32 qam for the 48 and 32 kbps rates , and 8 psk for the 16 kbps rate . the carriers are set at levels of − 30 dbc for all encoding rates . fig2 is a block diagram of a receiver constructed to receive the composite digital and analog signals of fig1 . an antenna 110 receives the composite waveform containing the digital and analog signals and passes the signal to conventional input stages 112 , which may include a radio frequency preselector , an amplifier , a mixer and a local oscillator . an intermediate frequency signal is produced by the input stages on line 114 . this intermediate frequency signal is passed through an automatic gain control circuit 116 to an i / q signal generator 118 . the i / q signal generator produces an in - phase signal on line 120 and a quadrature signal on line 122 . the in - phase channel output on line 120 is input to an analog - to - digital converter 124 . similarly , the quadrature channel output on line 122 is input to another analog - to - digital converter 126 . feedback signals on lines 120 and 122 are used to control the automatic gain control circuit 116 . the signal on line 120 includes the analog am signal which is separated out as illustrated by block 140 and passed to an output stage 142 and subsequently to a speaker 144 or other output device . an optional highpass filter 146 may be used to filter the in - phase components on line 128 to eliminate the energy of the analog am signal and to provide a filtered signal on line 148 . if the highpass filter is not used , the signal on line 148 is the same as that on line 128 . a demodulator 150 receives the digital signals on lines 148 and 130 , and produces output signals on lines 154 . these output signals are passed to an equalizer 156 and to a switch 158 . to obtain higher signal - to - noise ratios ( snr ) for the complementary carriers , the fft outputs for pairs of complementary carriers are combined . the output of the switch is sent to a deinterleaving circuit and forward error correction decoder 164 in order to improve data integrity . the output of the deinterleaver / forward error correcting circuit is passed to a source decoder 166 . the output of the source decoder is delayed by circuit 168 to compensate for the delay of the analog signal at the transmitter and to time align the analog and digital signals at the receiver . the output of delay circuit 168 is converted to an analog signal by a digital - to - analog converter 160 to produce a signal on 162 which goes to the output stage 142 . additional control features are provided by a mode control and data synchronization processor 163 and a normal / training synchronization block 165 . mode control and data synchronization processor 163 processes the control information and determines the audio encoding rate and the boundaries of the inner interleaver . normal / training synchronization block determines if the received baud is a normal baud or a training baud . fig3 is a functional block diagram that illustrates the operation of a demodulator 150 and an adaptive equalizer 156 in accordance with the present invention . the snr estimates can be used to control the convergence factors of an equalizer to permit rapid response to channel changes when the snr is high and robustness against noise when the snr is low . also , the snr estimates can be used in the error correction processing to obtain improved performance . both in - phase ( i ) and quadrature ( q ) signals are provided on lines 148 and 130 as inputs to a windowing and guard interval removal circuit 170 . these signals may be provided by using down converter elements similar to those shown in fig2 . the window should be applied such that the digital carriers remain orthogonal , or at least the lack of orthogonality among the digital carriers is small enough not to impact system performance . the i and q signals are synchronized to the transmitted baud intervals and each baud is input to an fft circuit 172 . in some cases it may be advantageous to perform the windowing and guard band removal operations prior to processing by highpass filter 146 . the outputs from the windowing and guard interval removal circuit 170 are input to the fft 172 . the output of the fft is input by way of lines 154 to the coefficient multiplier 174 . the coefficient multiplier adjusts the magnitude and phase of the data for each digital carrier to compensate for channel effects , transmitter and receiver filtering , and other factors that can affect the magnitude and phase of the received digital information . the coefficient multiplier output is used to make symbol decisions , which determines the constellation point that was transmitted . processor 176 determines which of the frequency domain constellation points was transmitted . these decisions , along with the pre - equalized constellation points and the previous values of the equalizer coefficients are used to update the equalizer coefficients as illustrated by block 178 . block 178 can utilize a known algorithm such as the least mean squares ( lms ) or recursive least squares ( rls ) to update the equalizer coefficients . this invention is particularly applicable to receivers that use trellis coded modulation and make use of the snr of the information at the input to the trellis decoder . the invention includes a method in which two estimates of the snrs for the carriers in an ofdm digital audio broadcasting system are calculated , one based on the received digitally encoded audio information and one based on the received training sequences . the more reliable one of the snr estimates is chosen and used to perform hypotheses testing for typical interference scenarios and possibly improve the estimates so that the more reliable estimates can be used in the trellis decoder . the more reliable estimate can also be used to set the convergence factors in an equalizer . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 559 , 830 describes one mode of operation for an equalizer having an equalizer coefficient update algorithm . the present invention enhances the operation of the equalizer and equalizer coefficient update algorithm by estimating the snr as illustrated in block 180 . block 182 illustrates that the snr estimates are used to adjust the equalizer convergence factor . the snr estimates can also be used to improve the performance of the error correction processing . error correction that uses convolutional or turbo codes and trellis coded modulation are examples of cases where the snr estimates can be used to improve the error correction performance . as shown in fig2 and 3 , the carrier snr estimates from block 180 are input to a switch 158 . when the current baud is determined to be a normal baud by block 165 , the switch passes the carrier snr estimates to the deinterleaving and fec processing block 164 . as shown in fig3 the symbol decision information and the equalized frequency domain data are used to estimate the snr for the digital carriers . the operation of the carrier snr estimate processing is detailed in fig4 . for each digital carrier , the equalizer output , shown as being supplied on lines 184 and 186 , is subtracted from the symbol decisions , supplied on lines 188 and 190 , when a normal data baud is received by closing switches 192 and 194 , or from the known training information , supplied on lines 196 and 198 , when a training baud is received by closing switches 200 and 202 . the result of the subtraction , which is the norm of the vectors a and b , is squared to give an estimate of the power of the noise , as illustrated in blocks 204 , 206 , 208 and 210 . note that when the symbol decisions are correct , such as will be the case when the received snr is high , the information from the normal data baud results in a good estimate of the snr . however , when the symbol decisions are not correct , the information from the normal data baud can be unreliable and only the information from the training baud results in a good estimate of the snr . however , because the normal data baud information is transmitted more frequently than the training baud information , it is desirable to use the normal data baud information when possible . the information from the normal and training baud actually estimates the power of the noise , but if the digital carriers are transmitted at a constant average power , the snr can be determined by normalization of the noise power estimate . as shown in fig4 lowpass filters 212 , 214 , 216 and 218 can be used to smooth the snr estimates . the parameters of the lowpass filter can be adjusted such that the lowpass filter bandwidth is decreased as the number of snr estimates is increased . following lowpass filtering , the normal and training baud snr estimates from all carriers are input to a hypotheses testing circuit 220 . the hypotheses testing circuit 220 processes the snr information , determines the most likely interference scenario based on known typical interference scenarios in the am band , and can improve the estimates based on the most likely interference scenario . one of the most likely scenarios is that of second adjacent channel interference . fig5 shows the spectral overlap that occurs when a second adjacent interfering hybrid digital audio broadcasting signal 222 that is lower in frequency is present . as can be seen , the digital carriers from the interfering signal 222 overlap the digital carriers from the desired hybrid digital audio broadcasting signal 224 in the region 226 from about − 15 khz to about − 5 khz . a hypothesis test to determine the presence of a second adjacent interferer has been developed and simulated . the test processes the snr estimates in two groups of about 10 khz , with the two groups extending from about − 15 khz to about − 5 khz and about 5 khz to about 15 khz to detect a second adjacent station that is lower or higher in frequency , respectively . for each region , the average snr , in db , is calculated . if the average level is less than a preset threshold , the estimated snr from the training baud is used for all of the carriers in that region because the estimated snr from the normal baud may be inaccurate . conversely , if the average level is greater than the preset threshold , the snr estimates from the normal baud are used . the advantage of comparing the average snr over a 10 khz region to a threshold instead of comparing each carrier to a threshold is that when a second adjacent interferer is present the average over the 10 khz region gives an snr estimate with a lower variance . similar hypotheses tests can be developed for other typical interference scenarios such as third adjacent , first adjacent , and co - channel interference . for example , fig6 shows the spectral overlap that occurs when a first adjacent interfering hybrid digital audio broadcasting signal 228 is present . because there is no digital carrier at about ± 10 khz , where a first adjacent am carrier would be located , the presence of significant energy at this spectral location could be used as an indicator of the presence of a first adjacent station . in addition , if the snr estimates for the digital carriers increases for carriers that are farther from this location , up to about ± 5 khz away , this would further indicate the presence of a first adjacent interferer . also , the snr estimates for the digital carriers about − 5 khz to about 5 khz from the desired am carrier could be averaged to determine the presence of the digital portion of a first adjacent interfering station . if a first adjacent interferer is determined to be present , snr estimates for the carriers near about ± 10 khz could be calculated based on the snr estimate of the carriers in the regions that are about 5 khz away from the interfering am carrier and knowledge of a typical spectral slope of the analog portion of an am station . the advantage of this approach is that the snrs for the digital carriers that are about 5 khz away from the interfering am carrier will be higher than for the digital carriers located near the interfering am carrier , and the power spectral densities for different am stations is similar . processing in this manner could improve the snr estimates in the region near the interfering am carrier . as described above for the second adjacent interferer , the hypothesis testing could use only the training baud estimates if the data baud estimates are below a threshold . the carrier snr estimates are used to control the convergence factor , or adaptation constant , for the equalizer update algorithm . each digital carrier has two associated equalizer convergence factors , one for normal baud and one for training baud . the equalizer coefficients can be updated using an algorithm such as least mean squares ( lms ) or recursive least squares ( rls ). these algorithms have a parameter that controls the response time to changing channel conditions . fast response , corresponding to a large convergence factor , permits rapid tracking of channel conditions . a slower response , corresponding to a small convergence factor , allows more robust performance in the presence of noise . as shown in fig3 the carrier snr estimates are used to adjust the equalizer convergence factors . when the snr estimate for a carrier is relatively high , its convergence factor can be large . the equalizer coefficient update algorithm relies on correct symbol decision information . because the symbol information is known for each training baud , a larger convergence factor can be used for training baud than for normal baud because the symbol decisions will not be reliable if the carrier snr is low . the use of this equalizer convergence factor adjustment algorithm with the carrier snr estimate algorithm as described above has been shown to result in improved performance over systems that utilize a constant convergence factor or do not use hypotheses testing to estimate the snr of the digital carriers . in an alternative embodiment , a combination of the two signal - to - noise ratio estimates can be used to form one signal - to - noise ratio estimate . this resulting signal - to - noise ratio estimate can be used to control the convergence factor and used in the error correction processing . this invention provides a system for estimating snr and adaptively equalizing an amplitude modulated compatible digital audio broadcast signal . in the foregoing specification certain preferred practices and embodiments of this invention have been set out , however , it will be understood that the invention may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims .
| 7 |
fig1 to 5 are directed to a first embodiment in which the frame is manufactured as two castings . fig1 and 2 illustrate the assembled stator assembly 1 and rotor assembly 2 . the stator assembly is illustrated in fig3 and the rotor assembly in fig4 . the rotor assembly 2 consists of a conventional squirrel cage rotor characterized by an iron core 3 constructed of punched electrical grade steel laminations with either a brazed , welded , or cast copper or aluminum rotor cage 4 . the rotor assembly 2 is attached to a steel shaft 5 which is supported on both ends with bearing assemblies 7 and 8 . the bearing assemblies 7 and 8 are fit into bearing housings 9 and 10 which are designed to allow the rotor assembly 2 to be inserted through the cylindrical bore of the stator assembly 1 . the stator assembly 1 includes a laminated iron core 12 that is totally enclosed by a frame 17 about its outer diameter and a canister seal 11 on its inner diameter . the laminated iron core 12 is constructed of punched electrical grade steel laminations , welded at the outside diameter to solidify the core ( only exemplary laminates are illustrated in fig1 and 3 ). winding coils 13 are inserted into slots in the iron core 12 , connected and insulated . the canister seal 11 forms a cylinder covering the winding coils 13 placed into the slots punched in the iron core laminations . an electrically insulating silicone potting compound 14 ( see fig5 ) is poured into the pocket formed by the canister seal 11 , the winding coils 13 , and the laminated iron core 12 . this compound seals the joint and provides corona discharge resistance between the coil windings and core . a flexible and compressible conformal coating 15 is applied to the winding coil extensions . the conformal coating 15 is a modified silicone , polyester , or epoxy product with additions to improve heat conductivity . to allow assembly , the frame 17 is split into two sections 17 a , 17 b which are heated , bolted together while maintaining separation between the frame 17 and iron core 12 , then allowed to cool and shrink around the iron core 12 and follows the contour of the winding coils . it is not necessary for the sections to be separate along a single diametrical plane . the canister seal 11 is then bolted to the frame 17 . the resulting sealed assembly is subjected to a process which fills the voids at the coil end turns 13 et , the frame 17 , the canister seal 11 , and the iron core 12 , with a modified thermosetting compound 16 , including additions to improve thermal heat transfer . bearing assemblies 7 and 8 and bearing housings 9 and 10 are added to the rotor assembly 2 and then rotor assembly 2 is dropped through the bore and bolted by bolts 32 to the frame 17 at each axial end . an external fan 23 with axial air passages 18 is shrunk onto the end of the shaft 5 . the frame 17 has a plurality of radially extending fins 25 . air from the external fan 23 is directed axially over the fins with fan baffle 19 and through an axial passage 21 by the pressure developed by external fan 23 . the preferable solution for potting compound 14 is a silicone - based product that is pourable . other embodiments of the present invention might use compounds based on epoxy , ceramics , or thermo - plastics . the characteristics important to the present invention are that the compound provide good dielectric properties and corona discharge resistance . the preferable solution for conformal coating 15 is a silicone - based putty . other embodiments of the present invention might use compounds based on epoxy , polyester , or ceramic materials , or the application of silicone tapes during coil forming . the characteristic important to the present invention is that the coating be flexible and expand and contract with the thermal expansion and contraction of the coils , yet bond well to the coil windings 13 and iron core 12 . there are many examples of thermosetting compounds 16 . among these are filled silicone resins , filled silicone gels , filled ceramics , filled thermo - plastics , and filled epoxies . the preferred fillers are mineral , glass , aluminum oxides , and metals . the properties important to the present invention are that the compound be free of voids or air pockets after filling , have good thermal conductivity , and bond well to the frame 17 and canister seal 11 . examples of potting compounds 14 , conformal coatings 15 , and thermosetting compounds 16 could also be a single compound that is applied to all three locations and meets all the properties of the present invention . the canister seal 11 may be a temporary fixture that is removed after thermoset compound 16 is applied and cured . according to one embodiment of this invention , a frame 17 is made from two half castings 17 a and 17 b of nodular or spheroidal iron which are secured together at the edges parallel to the shaft by bolts to make a whole cylindrical frame . referring to fig6 and 7 , in a second embodiment of this invention , frame 17 is an extruded aluminum or iron half frame , machined after extrusion to accommodate the iron core 12 and coil windings 13 . frame 17 is extruded in two parts which are secured together at the edges parallel to the shaft by bolts to make a whole cylindrical frame . two additional end housings machined from steel plate 38 , 39 or cast nodular iron are used to complete the frame ends . referring to fig7 , the closely hatched area is indicative of the volume that is machined away from the extrusion of casting . fig8 to 11 relate to a third embodiment which comprises a frame , two end pieces , and two split rings which assembled together form a frame according to this invention . fig8 is an end view of the cast frame 31 that requires little or no machining . fig9 illustrates all pieces that comprise the assembled frame , the frame 31 , end pieces 33 , 34 , and the split rings 35 , 36 . this third embodiment involves more parts than the first and second embodiments but has the advantage that it can be assembled without special machines and the split occurs in smaller end rings . the preferred method of air cooling is a small internal fan 6 ( see fig4 ) to cool the rotor and an external fan 23 ( see fig1 ) to blow air over the fins 25 as shown in fig2 . there are other possible embodiments for air flow as depicted in fig1 , 13 , 14 , and 15 . “ series air flow ”, fig1 , requires one fan 23 that draws air through passage 20 , rotor passage 21 , and passage 22 and discharges it over the fins in the frame . air inlets and air outlets are on the same end of the motor . “ dual fan arrangement ”, fig1 , requires a fan on both ends . one fan 26 a draws air through the rotor passage 21 . the other fan 27 a blows air over the fins in the frame . air inlets are on the opposite end of the motor from the air outlets . “ parallel flow ”, fig1 , requires one fan 27 drawing air from the fins in the frame and from the rotor passage 21 and then discharging the air to ambient . air inlets are on the opposite end of the motor from the outlets . “ mixed flow ”, fig1 , requires fan 27 b with blades on both sides of a fan hub . the inside set of blades draws air from the rotor passage 21 . the outside set of blades blows air over the fins in the frame after mixing with the rotor vent air . the air inlets and outlets are on the same end of the machine . a die cast aluminum or brazed , welded , copper rotor is impervious to rain and snow ingestion . enclosing it in the frame structure serves no beneficial purpose . by opening up the rotor to external air flow , rotor losses can be dissipated into the air stream directly from rotor surfaces , increasing heat dissipation efficiency . air also will flow past the bearing housings keeping the bearings cool . the ingestion of dust , dirt , or moisture to the stator coils can damage motor insulation . by encapsulating just the stator coils in an enclosed housing that completely surrounds the coils , a motor is realized with the sealed winding benefits of a standard tefc motor , yet air can now flow over both the interior enclosure surfaces as well as the exterior enclosure surfaces , doubling the enclosure surface area available for heat dissipation . the encapsulation of the coils within a sealed enclosure that surrounds the coils seals the coil insulation from dirt and moisture . the present invention may be realized by a cylindrical stator assembly , coaxial with the rotor assembly bolted to bearing housings . the rotor assembly is cooled by a small radial fan drawing air over the bearing housing , through axial air gaps or axial rotor vent holes , and discharging air through the opposing bearing housing . the stator parts are placed inside a cylindrical frame that surrounds the parts . the coils are encapsulated and molded into the frame structure using heat conductive compounds . a first heat conductive layer fills the gaps between coils and encases the coils in a flexible , heat conductive , electrically insulating , compound . the first layer is covered by a second layer that is a highly thermal conductive non - hygroscopic material . the second layer fills the internal air gap between the coils and enclosure with maximum contact pressure and fit to ensure good heat transfer into the enclosure walls . this structure increases the effective surface area of the coil end turns , increasing the heat transfer rate into the enclosure . the first layer is flexible to allow for movement and thermal expansion of the coil windings . the stator assembly has a plurality of fins extending radially from the frame . an external fan and fan shroud direct air through the fins . the hub of the external fan has air passages under the hub to allow air to enter the rotor assembly . a feature of the present invention is obtaining a sealed stator enclosure with a good thermally conductive layer to allow heat from the coil end turns to flow directly into the enclosure walls rather than flowing back through the iron core . the heat transfer surface , the sum of the core to enclosure interface and the encapsulate to enclosure surface , needs to be large , in order to overcome thermal capacitance of the encapsulate . a unique feature of the present invention is the selection of materials to achieve the required heat transfer rates to realize a motor with the same overall size as a self - cooled open ventilated motor . the use of an open rotor and sealed stator is unique to the transit industry . the joining of the first and second layers to allow for thermal expansion and mechanical movement of the coil end turns while maintaining long term heat transfer rates also has not been previously achieved . having thus described our invention with the detail and particularity required by the patent laws , what is desired protected by letters patent is set forth in the following claims .
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the present invention relates to an ink jet recording medium . the ink jet recording medium of the present invention comprises a receiving layer which is water resistant and offers long term durability of the printed image , which includes a blend of an ethylene vinylacetate copolymer and a hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol . for it has been found that ethylene vinylacetate copolymers form the backbone of an excellent water resistant ink jet coating , which coating can also provide ink jet prints exhibiting excellent uv light resistance and resistance to moisture sensitivity . in particular , the ethylene vinylacetate copolymers are blended with a hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol . an ethylene vinylacetate copolymer is important for the purposes of the present invention as use of simply a polyvinyl acetate does not provide a receiving layer which exhibits the same level of water fastness as the ethylene vinylacetate copolymers . any ethylene vinylacetate copolymer will generally be suitable for purposes of the present invention . such copolymers are commercially available , e . g ., such as random ethylene vinylacetate copolymers available from air products and chemicals , inc . it is also important to blend the ethylene vinylacetate copolymer with a hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol to achieve the water resistance as well as long term durability of the printed images . the polyvinyl alcohol is most preferably fully hydrolyzed , which is 98 - 99 % hydrolyzed . the polyvinyl alcohol should generally be at least 88 % hydrolyzed for purposes of the present invention . the blend of ethylene vinylacetate copolymer and hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol can range from about 0 . 5 : 1 to about 15 : 1 in weight ratio of the ethylene vinylacetate copolymer to the polyvinyl alcohol , with a weight ratio of from 1 : 1 to about 4 : 1 being most preferred . ethylene vinylacetate copolymers and hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol are both commercially available , for example , from air products and chemicals inc . of allentown , pa . the blend of polymers used as the receiving layer of the recording medium can also include solid particulates such as pigments . the addition of such solid particulates can be added in order to obtain a coating that works well for both dye based and pigmented ink systems . the solid particulates that work best for the present invention are small particle sized hydrated silica . such silica can be obtained , for example , from grace davidson . another type of preferred particulate that gives both good water fast and print quality properties is synthetic calcium silicate . the use of the calcium silicate such as commercially available hubersorb 600 from j . m . huber is preferred as such a calcium silicate has a very high oil absorption . the blend of ethylene vinylacetate copolymer and polyvinyl alcohol ( and optionally solid particulate ) can be coated onto a suitable substrate using any conventional coating process or method . a mixture of the polymers , generally in a solution having sufficient water such that the solution has a viscosity suitable for coating , is simply coated onto the substrate using a coating rod or another suitable coating method . once coated , the coating can be dried using any conventional technique , such as air drying or oven drying . the substrates upon which coating can be applied can vary greatly . it is preferred that the coating be applied to a substrate such as white film , polyethylene clad paper ( photobased paper ), adhesive backed vinyl paper , plain paper or canvas . other suitable substrates can also be coated with the receiving layer in accordance with the present invention to provide an aqueous waterfast ink jet receiver sheet . the invention will be illustrated in greater detail by the following specific examples . it is understood that these examples are given by way of illustration and are not meant to limit the disclosure or the claims that follow . all percentages in the examples , and elsewhere in the specification , are by weight unless otherwise specified . the reagents used in the following examples are commercially available and may be generally described as follows : airflex 110 -- vinyl acetate / ethylene copolymer latex , from air products and chemicals , inc . of allentown , pa . airvol 325 -- fully hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol from air products and chemicals , inc . of allentown , pa . hubersorb 600 -- synthetic calcium silicate , from j . m . huber corporation of havre de grace , md . pvp k90 -- polyvinyl pyrrolidone molecular weight ˜ 1 , 000 , 000 , from international specialty polymers of wayne , n . j . carbowax 1450 -- polyethylene glycol , molecular weight 1450 , from union carbide of danbury , conn . cyanamer p - 21 -- acrylamide / acrylic acid copolymer , from cytec industries inc . of west patterson , n . j . agefloc a - 50hv -- poly ( hydroxyalkene ammonium chloride ), from c . p . s . chemicals of old bridge , n . j . gafquat 755n -- quaternized copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone and dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate , from international specialty products of wayne , n . j . ______________________________________deionized water 47 . 16syloid w - 300 - amorphous silica 16 . 81airflex 110 - polymer latex 3 . 6710 % airvol 325 - pva 30 . 26agefloc a50hv 2 . 02zonyl fsn - surfactant 0 . 08______________________________________ the above mix was prepared by dispersing the syloid w - 300 amorphous silica in water with a waring blender for 4 minutes . the airflex 110 was then mixed for about 5 minutes in a mixer . the final three ingredients ( airvol 325 , agefloc a - 50hv , and zonyl fsn ) were added and stirred for an additional 5 minutes . the composition was then coated onto v400f vinyl with a gapped 130 rod to achieve a coating weight of about 6 . 0 lb ./ msf . the coating was dried in a laboratory blue m convection oven for 8 minutes at 265 ° f . the sample was then printed on an encad novajet ii ink jet printer using a full color test pattern . visual densities of cyan , magenta , yellow , red , green , blue , and black were run using an xrite 938 color densitometer . the print was allowed to air dry for one hour , then it was completely immersed in water for ten minutes . after immersion , one section of the print containing all seven colors was allowed to air dry for one hour , and then remeasured on the densitometer . the other section was blotted dry to remove excess water , then rubbed with a cloth rag . all results are recorded in table 1 below . the following mixture was prepared in the same manner as described in example 1 . the coating , printing and waterfast testing were all run in the same manner as example 1 . the results can be seen in table 1 below . ______________________________________deionized water 56 . 41hubersorb 600 - calcium silicate 7 . 56airflex 110 - polymer latex 3 . 6710 % airvol 325 - pva 30 . 26agefloc a50hv 2 . 02zonyl fsn - surfactant 0 . 08______________________________________ the following mixture was prepared in the same manner as described in example 1 . the coating , printing and waterfast testing were all run in the same manner as example 1 . the results can be seen in table 1 below . ______________________________________deionized water 15 . 46ethanol 65 . 68silcron g - 100 6 . 86pvp k90 - polyvinyl pyrrolidone 5 . 71zonyl fsj - surfactant 0 . 18glycerin 6 . 10______________________________________ the following mixture was prepared in the same manner as described in example 1 . the coating , printing and waterfast testing were all run in the same manner as example 1 . the results can be seen in table 1 below . ______________________________________deionized water 80 . 22syloid 234 - silica 5 . 44pvp k90 - polyvinyl pyrrolidone 4 . 28carbowax 1450 8 . 66agefloc a - 50hv 1 . 40______________________________________ the following mixture was prepared in the same manner as described in example 1 . the coating , printing and waterfast testing were all run in the same manner as example 1 . the results can be seen in table 1 below . ______________________________________deionized water 65 . 32syloid 620 - silica 2 . 11cyanamer p - 21 3 . 6728 % ammonium hydroxide 1 . 522 - pyrrolidone 0 . 44cx - 100 0 . 15______________________________________ table 1______________________________________print water immersion wet wet / dryquality ( delta e ) rub rub comments______________________________________exam - very good black - 1 . 15 good good no inkple 1 cyan - 2 . 75 seen in yellow - 1 . 44 water magenta - 1 . 12 red - 0 . 54 green - 1 . 65 blue - 1 . 49exam - good black - 2 . 22 good good / no inkple 2 cyan - 1 . 76 fair seen in yellow - 2 . 90 water magenta - 4 . 91 red - 3 . 48 green - 2 . 95 blue - 1 . 14com - fair black - 70 . 18 poor poor high inkparative cyan - 41 . 36 loss inexam - yellow - 41 . 43 waterple 1 magenta - 36 . 57 red - 86 . 85 green - 39 . 82 blue - 41 . 07com - good black - 58 . 12 poor poor moderateparative cyan - 52 . 25 ink lossexam - yellow - 15 . 38 in waterple 2 magenta - 59 . 71 red - 11 . 67 green - 7 . 58 blue - 33 . 46com - good black - 0 . 63 good fair some inkparative cyan - 3 . 28 loss inexam - yellow - 1 . 36 waterple 3 magenta - 1 . 98 red - 3 . 67 green - 9 . 72 blue - 5 . 67______________________________________ from the foregoing results , it can be seen that the recording media of the present invention provide an ink jet print exhibiting excellent water resistance and stability as compared to other media containing other recording layers . the recording media of the present invention also provide excellent uv fade resistance for ink jet prints . while the invention has been described with preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that variations and modifications may be resorted to as will be apparent to those skilled in the art . such variations and modifications are to be considered within the purview and the scope of the claims appended thereto .
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fig1 illustrates a seal designated 10 constructed in accordance with one embodiment of this invention . the seal is designed to contain within the housing a pressurized process fluid such as a gas or a highly volatile carbon - based liquid . the housing is indicated at 12 enclosing the interior 14 of the device for which the seal is provided . such a device may be a pump , a compressor or the like . a shaft 16 extends through an opening 18 in the housing 12 to the ambient environment 20 . generally speaking , the seal 10 has a tandem arrangement of spiral groove mechanical end face seal modules , each module having portions thereof mounted on the housing and shaft . each seal module is generally of the type shown in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 212 , 475 . the seal may include dual or double seal module arrangements . alternatively , a single seal module , such as disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 212 , 475 , could be used to obtain the benefit of this invention . the disclosure of u . s . pat . no . 4 , 212 , 475 is incorporated herein by reference for providing a disclosure of the pumping of fluid by each of the seals . the tandem seals include an upstream or inboard seal module 22 and a downstream or outboard seal module 24 which define an annular chamber 26 between them . the inboard seal module 22 includes a pair of annular rings comprising an inboard primary ring 28 having a radially extending face 30 and an inboard mating ring 32 having a radially extending face 34 opposite the face 30 of the primary ring 28 . similarly , the outboard seal module 24 has a pair of annular rings comprising an outboard primary ring 38 having a radially extending face 40 and an outboard mating ring 42 having a radially extending face 44 opposite the face 40 of the primary ring 38 . the primary rings 28 , 38 are each affixed to the housing by a retainer assembly . similarly , the mating rings 32 , 42 are affixed for rotation with the shaft 16 by one or more sleeve assemblies . an inboard shaft sleeve 46 which fits upon the shaft 16 is held against rotation by a drive pin 48 or other means ( not shown ). sleeve 46 is fixed to the shaft by appropriate means ( not shown ) to prevent outward axial motion of the sleeve . an o - ring is also positioned at a flanged portion of sleeve 46 to seal between the sleeve and shaft . an outboard shaft sleeve 50 also fits upon the shaft 16 and adjoins the inboard shaft sleeve 46 so that adjoining surfaces of the two sleeves 46 and 50 do not permit fluid leakage between them . the connection between outboard shaft sleeve 50 and inboard shaft sleeve 46 is completed by an appropriate attachment means , such as a screw 52 ( shown in phantom ). the sleeves 46 , 50 further include a spacer sleeve 54 which extends to and engages the radial surfaces 34 , 44 adjacent the inside diameter of the mating rings 32 , 42 . thus , the mating rings 32 , 42 are locked in place between the flanged portions of the respective shaft sleeves 46 , 50 . an o - ring 55 seals between a shoulder in the spacer sleeve 54 and the ring face 42 . the seal 10 further comprises inboard and outboard retainers 58 and 60 for retaining inboard and outboard primary rings 28 , 38 , respectively . retainers 58 and 60 are connected to each other by an appropriate fastener , such as cap screws 62 ( shown in phantom ). the inboard retainer 58 mounts the inboard primary ring 28 . the outboard retainer 60 similarly mounts the outboard primary ring 38 . a protruding portion 59 of the inboard retainer 58 is shaped and dimensioned to conform to an annular groove 61 in the outboard retainer 60 , so that when the cap screws 62 are tightened , retainer 60 becomes sealed against retainer 58 . each retainer carries multiple springs 64a , 64b and discs 66a , 66b which urge the primary rings into engagement with the mating rings . the discs 66a , 66b and springs 64a , 64b permit primary rings 28 and 38 to move axially of the shaft 16 . o - ring seals 68a , 68b provide a secondary seal between discs 66a , 68b and the respective retainers 58 , 60 . the outboard seal assembly provides for another o - ring 70 for further secondary sealing between the disc 66b and the primary ring 38 . a gland plate 72 connects to housing 12 . the plate is attached to the housing by screws 74 ( shown in phantom ). the gland plate has a flanged portion 76 for engaging the outer end face of the outboard retainer 60 . the retainer 60 is connected to the flanged portion by cap screws 78 ( in phantom ). suitable o - rings are provided as shown to seal the gland plate against the housing 12 and against the retainers 58 , 60 . a vent passage 80 communicates with an opening 82 in the retainer 60 and with chamber 26 . the vent passage 80 is connectable to a flare stack or other combustion apparatus ( not shown ) for disposing of the controlled amount of gas passing across the rotating faces of upstream seal module 22 . such gas may , for example , be used for heating buildings associated with the apparatus containing the seal or the gas may be recompressed for other uses . fig2 shows a portion of a mating surface which may comprise either the mating ring or primary ring of the upstream or inboard seal module 22 . the sealing , mating surface can be a conventional spiral groove surface according to the teaching found in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 212 , 475 . for purposes of description , the face 34 of mating ring 32 is shown . the face has a plurality of downstream pumping spiral grooves 92 extending from the outer circumference partially across the width of the face 34 . an ungrooved annular surface defines a sealing dam 94 which provides a contacting static seal when the seal faces are not rotating relative to each other . fig3 shows a portion of a mating surface on either the mating ring or the primary ring of the downstream or outboard seal module 24 . the sealing , mating surface is not identical to that of the sealing face 34 shown in fig2 but instead has a grooved portion adjacent the inside diameter of the ring 42 . the sealing mating surface may have a configuration similar to the grooved seal face shown in u . s . patent no . 4 , 212 , 475 with the major obvious difference being the location of the grooves adjacent the inner diameter . also for purposes of description , the face 44 of mating ring 42 is shown . the face 44 also has a plurality of downstream pumping grooves 98 which are disposed adjacent the inner diameter of ring 42 . unlike the seal face shown in fig2 which during rotation of the shaft is intended to pump fluid across the seal interface from the outer diameter toward the dam 94 , which is disposed adjacent the inner diameter , the seal face shown in fig3 pumps fluid across seal face 44 from the inner diameter of ring 42 toward the dam 100 which is disposed adjacent the outer diameter of the ring . another difference between mating seal ring faces 34 and 44 is in a second annular band 102 between the inner diameter of the ring 42 and the inner circumferential boundary 104 of the grooves 98 . as used in the context of this invention , &# 34 ; adjacent the inner diameter &# 34 ; does not require the ends of grooves 98 to be contiguous with the inner diameter of ring 82 . as can be seen in fig3 the phantom lines which indicate the grooves 98 in ring 42 do not extend to the inner diameter of the ring . the portion of the face 44 which corresponds to annular band 102 abuts one end of the spacer sleeve 54 . o - ring 56 seals the abutment between the ring face 42 and the spacer sleeve 54 , and a smooth surface is provided by the annular band 102 for more effecting sealing by the o - ring . the grooves 98 do , however , extend beyond the interface area of the two rings 38 , 42 and into chamber 26 . this configuration permits the grooves to more effectively pump the fluid from chamber 26 across the seal interface and out to the ambient environment 20 . in general , spiral grooves are conventionally disposed adjacent to or extending from the outer diameter of the rotating ring , as is shown in fig2 . it has been suggested in the prior art that the pumping effect would also be expected to arise in a configuration in which the spiral grooves are disposed on the stationary ring or on the rotating ring adjacent to or extending from the inner diameter of the seal ring . spiral grooves disposed on the inner diameter also have been proposed by the assignee of the present invention for upstream pumping of an inert buffer fluid against the pressure of the process fluid which is sealed in the upstream chamber . for inner diameter pressurized seal rings , however , considerations of outwardly directed hoop stress enter into the seal ring design . specifically , carbon graphite rings which heretofore have been used in o . d . pressurized seals cannot normally withstand the radially outwardly directed hoop stresses which result from inner diameter pressurization and the rings are therefore susceptible to cracking or breaking when the seal is i . d . pressurized . in o . d . pressurized seals , the o . d . pressure provides compressive force on the ring radially inward from all directions and the ring is able to withstand this pressure . the compressive force strengthens the resistance of the ring , as by analogy , a semicircular arch is able to bear the weight of the arch resting on it . for i . d . pressurized rings , however , the process fluid presents pressure that is exerted from the inner diameter outwardly , resulting in stress on the ring . this stress is sometimes referred to as hoop stress . the hoop stress generated by the outwardly directed pressure works against the ring , and subjects the ring to forces which tend to fracture the ring into pieces . referring again to fig1 both seal modules 22 and 24 pump fluid downstream or from the side where fluid pressure is higher toward the lower pressure side . however , the fluid which is passing through inboard seal module 22 is propelled inwardly by the spiral grooves 92 of the rotating ring 32 , whereas the fluid which is passing through the outboard seal module 24 is propelled outwardly from the seal interface because of the spiral grooves 98 and also because of centrifugal force imparted to the fluid by the rotation of ring 42 . the direction of fluid flow in the radially outward direction which is imparted both by the fluid pressure differential and by the rotational centrifugal force of ring 42 greatly increases the resistance to upstream seepage of fluid flow in the opposite direction from that provided by the pumping action of the grooves 98 . thus , the seal configuration minimizes contaminants , such as oil , from entering the sealing gap . under normal use parameters , an o . d . pressurized stationary primary ring 28 is subject to structural stress from centrifugal and dynamic pressure forces . these forces are countered by the compressive resistance of the primary ring , which resistance increases with increasing inwardly directed force . however , in an i . d . pressurized configuration , a carbon graphite primary ring is subject to an outwardly directed pressure on its inner circumferential surface which is not countered by the tensile resistance of the material . thus , to maintain structural integrity , the primary ring must be capable of withstanding pressures in excess of 1200 psi . current typical primary rings made of carbon graphite material are very fragile when used in this fashion . one feature of the present invention is thus providing a primary ring comprising a material which can withstand pressures normally encountered in pumps or compressors . the invention contemplates that certain types of composite plastic materials , such as polyamide - imide , commercially available under the trade name torlon from amoco torlon products of atlanta , ga ., can be used in the manufacture of the primary rings , and in certain applications , also of the mating rings . torlon is known to be approximately three times stronger than carbon graphite in withstanding the hoop stress which results from inner diameter fluid pressures of great magnitude , i . e ., up to about 1200 psi . another dual seal arrangement in which the features of the present invention may be incorporated is a seal in which the buffer fluid is disposed in an intermediate chamber between two seal modules . such an arrangement is illustrated in fig4 . the buffer fluid seal modules are also disposed upstream and downstream , respectively , of each other . the seal 110 is constructed in accordance with another embodiment of this invention , and in many respects the seal 110 is similar in construction and operation to seal 10 ( fig1 ). where possible , similar elements in each of the seals have been indicated with similar identification numerals by adding one hundred for the identification numerals in seal 110 , so that the numerals correspond to the numerical sequence of the seal elements of seal 10 shown in fig1 . the housing 112 encloses the interior chamber 114 of the device for which the seal 110 is provided . a shaft 116 extends through an opening 118 in the housing 112 and to the ambient environment 120 . the upstream or inboard seal module 122 and the downstream or outboard seal module 124 define an annular chamber 126 between them . the inboard seal module 122 includes a pair of annular rings comprising an inboard primary ring 128 having a radially extending face 130 and an inboard mating ring 132 having a radially extending face 134 opposite the face 130 of the primary ring 128 . similarly , the outboard seal module 124 has a pair of annular rings comprising an outboard primary ring 138 having a radially extending face 140 and an outboard mating ring 142 having a radially extending face 144 opposite the face 140 of the primary ring 138 . the primary rings 128 , 138 are each affixed to the housing by a retainer assembly . similarly , the mating rings 132 , 142 are affixed for rotation with the shaft 116 by one or more sleeve assemblies . an inboard shaft sleeve 146 which fits upon the shaft 116 is held against rotation by a drive pin 148 or by other means ( not shown ). sleeve 146 is fixed to the shaft 116 by appropriate means ( not shown ) to prevent outward axial motion of the sleeve . an o - ring is also positioned at a flanged portion of sleeve 146 to seal between the sleeve and shaft . an outboard shaft sleeve 150 also fits upon the shaft 116 and adjoins the inboard shaft sleeve 146 so that adjoining surfaces of the two sleeves 146 and 150 do not permit fluid leakage between them . the connection between outboard shaft sleeve 150 and inboard shaft sleeve 146 is completed by an appropriate attachment means , such as by cap screws 152 ( shown in phantom ). the sleeve assemblies 146 , 150 further include a spacer sleeve 154 which extends to and engages the radial surfaces 134 , 144 adjacent the inside diameter of the respective mating rings 132 , 142 . thus , the mating rings 132 , 142 are locked in place between the flanged portions of the respective shaft sleeves 146 , 150 . an o - ring 156 is also provided for sealing between the spacer sleeve 154 and the ring face 144 , similar to the arrangement in seal 10 , ( fig1 ). the retainer assembly comprises inboard and outboard retainers 158 and 160 for retaining the inboard and outboard primary rings 128 , 138 , respectively . retainers 158 and 160 are connected to each other by cap screws 162 ( one of which is shown in phantom ). the inboard retainer 158 mounts the inboard primary ring 128 . the outboard retainer 160 similarly mounts the outboard primary ring 138 . a protruding portion 159 of inboard retainer 158 is shaped and dimensioned to conform to an annular groove 161 in the facing portion of outboard retainer 160 . tightening of cap screws 162 attaches the outboard retainer 160 to the inboard retainer 158 . each retainer carries multiple springs 164a , 164b and discs 166a , 166b which urge the primary rings into engagement with the mating rings . the discs 166a , 166b and springs 164a , 164b permit primary rings 128 and 138 to move axially of the shaft 116 . o - ring seals 168a , 168b provide a secondary seal between discs 166a , 168b and the respective retainers 158 , 160 . another o - ring 170 is provided in each module for further secondary sealing between each disc 166a , 166b and each primary ring 128 , 138 . a gland plate 172 connects to housing 112 . the gland plate is attached to the housing by screws 174 . the gland plate has a flanged portion 176 engaging the outer end face of the outboard retainer 160 . the flanged portion 176 is connected to the retainer 160 by cap screws 178 . suitable o - rings are provided , as shown , to seal the gland plate against the housing 112 and the retainers 158 , 160 . the spacer sleeve 154 is dimensioned to provide enough clearance between the retainers 158 , 160 to define a space for intermediate chamber 126 . intermediate chamber 126 , which may also be called the buffer chamber , lies between the two seal modules 122 and 124 and between the retainers 158 , 160 . the seal modules 122 , 124 seal chamber 126 from the process fluid chamber 114 and from the ambient environment 170 , respectively . a buffer fluid passage 180 extends through the housing 112 to a buffer fluid pot ( not shown ). the buffer fluid passage 180 communicates with an opening 182 ( shown in phantom ) which provides fluid communication between the buffer fluid passage 180 and the intermediate seal chamber 126 . another significant difference between the seal 10 embodiment shown in fig1 and the seal 110 embodiment shown in fig4 is that seal 10 has a vent 80 for venting process fluid out from the intermediate chamber 26 . the seal 110 , on the other hand , has a buffer fluid passage which provides an inert buffer fluid , such as nitrogen gas , into the intermediate chamber 126 from the buffer fluid pot ( not shown ). moreover , in seal 10 the process fluid in housing 14 is at the highest pressure and is at a higher pressure than the intermediate chamber 26 . in seal 110 , on the other hand , the buffer fluid in chamber 126 and is maintained at a higher pressure than either the process fluid in chamber 114 or the ambient pressure at 120 . both the rotating mating seal rings 132 and 142 have spiral grooves which are adjacent the inner diameter . as shown in fig4 and 5 , the spiral grooves do not extend to the edge of the inner diameter of mating rings 132 , 142 , but the spiral grooves 198 ( fig4 ) extend at least partially into the intermediate chamber 126 formed between the two seals , so that the mating rings 132 , 142 both have a similar configuration to ring 42 ( fig1 and 3 ). an outer diameter dam 200 is provided against which grooves 198 pump fluid . during operation of the seal 110 , the spiral grooves 198 of ring 132 pump buffer fluid across the seal interface between the faces 130 and 134 , from the inner diameter to the outer diameter of the seal rings , and into the housing chamber 114 . an inner diameter annular band 202 provides a sealing surface for an o - ring between band 202 and spacer sleeve 154 . the buffer fluid pressure in chamber 126 is also greater than the pressure of the process fluid in chamber 114 . thus , the pressure differential further aids the leakage of the buffer fluid across the seal interface and into the process fluid chamber 114 . it is contemplated that seal 110 is for use in specific conditions where it is important that no leakage of the process fluid occur , and where the contamination of the process fluid by an inert buffer fluid does not present a difficulty . an appropriate use of this type of seal may be in the sealing or pumping of a process fluid which is toxic . use of a nitrogen gas buffer fluid may be acceptable because the nitrogen will not react with other reactants in the process fluid and also because nitrogen will not interfere with any proposed use of the process fluid . at the outboard seal module 124 , the spiral grooves are also disposed adjacent the inner diameter of mating ring 142 to provide pumping of the buffer fluid from the intermediate chamber 126 across the seal interface to the ambient environment 120 . the operation of seal module 124 is similar to that described above in relation to seal module 24 ( fig1 ). the inner diameter higher pressure of the buffer fluid chamber 126 relative to the pressure of the ambient environment 120 , as well as the centrifugal force of the rotating mating ring 142 , inhibit leakage of fluid , such as bearing oil , from traveling upstream . the seal configuration also avoids or prevents contamination of the seal which may result from fluid seepage from the ambient chamber 120 into the gap between the seal faces .
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as shown in fig1 and 9 the panoramic light emitter of the present invention is particularly adapted for installation adjacent the ends of airport runways . a series of such emitters is located so as to flash at fraction of a second intervals leading toward the runway and identifying the front corners of the runway . these lights in the series repeat themselves each every second so as to guide the pilots of aircraft safely to the landing . the emitters are mounted on vertical support members , as shown in fig1 and are erected a minimal distance above the plane of the runway . as may be noted especially in fig1 and 9 , the light emitters of the present invention are constructed to provide a flashing light in a 360 ° arc so that pilots of aircraft may immediately determine the proper landing end of the runway from innumerable points around the airport . referring now to fig2 the panoramic light emitter comprises a plastic refractor 2 imaging a reflector 4 which is illuminated by a circular lamp 6 . the top edge of the reflector 4 is imaged by horizontal lenses 8 on the outside of refractor 2 to create the bottom edge 10 of the light beam 12 . the relationship of the optical components , refractor 2 and reflector 4 , is maintained by insulators 14 , supports 16 , base pan 18 and clamp 20 . preferably , the clamp 20 extends all the way around the interface of pan 18 and refractor 2 . the circular lamp 6 , which is a form of flash tube , is triggered to its &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; state by high voltage generator 22 . heat is primarily removed by convection through the open bottom and open top of the reflector 4 and rises into dome 24 through which heat is transferred to the outside air . the cooled air within the dome 24 then falls down the interior walls of refractor 2 and of base pan 18 and between insulators 14 and supports 16 to repeat its convection cooling of reflector 4 and of the flash tube 6 . base pan 18 and dome 24 are preferably constructed of lightweight aluminum , which is corrosion protected , as are supports 16 and clamp 20 . the reflector 4 is preferably formed of aluminum with a specular reflective surface 26 . the surface 26 reflectors at least eighty percent of the light which is incident upon it . preferably , the surface has a clear anodized coating to insure a long life of reflectivity . the reflector 4 is operated at the same voltage as trigger wire 28 ( see fig3 ) which is wrapped around flash tube 6 to avoid voltage breakdown . the reflector 4 is supported by low capacity insulators 14 to minimize the required trigger energy which is supplied in the 15 kv range . the nominal 15 kv energy is supplied by the high voltage generator 22 once each second to trigger the flash tube 6 . the anode and cathode of flash tube 6 are by - passed with low inductance capacitors contained in the high voltage generator 22 directly to the return connection of the 15 kv high voltage generator 22 , thus preventing the 15 kv energy from being expended anywhere other than in the flash tube 6 . such an arrangement reduces the insulation requirements in the light emitter 1 . referring now to fig3 the flash tube 6 and the reflector 4 form a source of illumination . the source is comprised of a generally conically shaped reflector 4 which is internally illuminated by circular flash tube 6 . the generally conically shaped surface is optimized for the single turn circular flash tube which is illustrated by having each vertical section , when viewed in a plane which includes the vertical axis of the source , seen as a parabola with its focus at the tube 6 . a generally conical surface for cooperation with a two - turn tube would itself have a different element shape . because the reflector 4 and the tube 6 are within the depth of field of the focal plane of the associated refractor 2 , they are accurately imaged in the vertical cross - section of beam 10 . the electrodes 30 and 32 , which are disposed in the adjacent ends of flash tube 6 are so close to each other that light variations caused by them are integrated in the horzontal plane by blondel prisms 34 ( see also fig2 b ) on the interior surface of refractor 2 . referring now to fig4 a source similar to that shown in fig3 is illustrated . the source in fig4 is comprised of a generally conically surfaced reflector 4a illuminated by a linear flash tube 6a . the image 6a &# 39 ; of the flash tube 6a is located in the focal plane of a cooperating refractor ( not shown ) situated with respect to the reflector 4a in the same relationship as refractor 2 is situated with respect to reflector 4 . when the image 6a &# 39 ; is viewed by the cooperating refractor , the image 6a &# 39 ; extends beyond and off the top edge of the reflector 4a . because the image 6a &# 39 ; is at full reflected brightness at the top edge of the reflector 4a and does not exist off the reflector 4a , the image 6a &# 39 ; has a very sharp edge which is projected as a sharp edge of a beam . referring now to fig5 a radiation sensitive matrix 36 is illustrated . the construction of the emitter 1 , shown in fig2 may be readily modified by substituting the matrix 36 for the combination of reflector 4 and flash tube 6 , and with suitable sensitive electronic registry means the emitter construction becomes a radiation sensitive receiver which discriminates in azimuth and elevation . matricies of custom photodiodes are recommended as being available on page 2 of eg & amp ; g catalog entitled &# 34 ; electro - optics division , condensed catalog &# 34 ; salem , mass ., printed january 1978 . each segment , of the group of segments 38a , 38b , 38c , 38d and 38e in the matrix 36 , produces a separate electrical signal when radiation to which it is sensitive falls upon it . the matrix 36 is located in the focal plane of a cooperating refractor ( not shown ). the cooperating refractor for matrix 36 would not have blondel prisms because integration in the horizontal plane is not desired . when the optical system which includes matrix 36 in its focal plane has a common axis vertically oriented , a signal from segment 38a indicates a source of radiation in the lower - most portion of the imaged far field . similarly , a signal from segment 38b indicates a radiation source just above the lowermost portion of the imaged far field , but still below the center of the imaged far field . similarly , a signal from segment 38c indicates a source of radiation above the center of the imaged far field , and a signal from segment 38d indicates a source of radiation at the top edge of the imaged far field . a signal from segment 38e indicates a source of radiation at the same elevation as the source of radiation imaged on 38d , but at a different azimuth . electronic scanning of the segment signals eliminates the need for mechanical scanning in an omnidirectional azimuth and elevation discriminating receiver . referring now to fig6 a schematic drawing and block diagram of a flashlamp discharge controlling circuit is shown for use with the panoramic light emitter shown in fig1 . further detailed discussion of this figure will be reserved to follow the discussion of the schematic drawing in fig7 the concept of which is applied to the discharge controlling circuit of fig6 . in fig7 most of the energy to be discharged into a flash tube 40 is stored in the electrolytic capacitor 42 at voltage levels which are usually below the minimum flashing requirement voltage specified by the lamp manufacturer . the conventional triggering of the lamp 40 is accomplished by discharging the trigger capacitor 44 through the trigger impedance transformer 46 when the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 is charged to a voltage level always above the minimum flashing requirement and below the maximum anode voltage . when the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 discharges down to a voltage below the capacitor 42 , which &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 discharging through the arc to a lower voltage constitutes a dynamic impedance matching , then capacitor 42 begins to discharge through the diode 50 into the partially ionized lamp 40 and increases the ionization of the lamp 40 until discharged down to a voltage level which can no longer sustain ionization in the lamp . then the lamp 40 ionization percentage gradually decreases , and the lamp impedance gradually rises to such a high value that , when the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 subsequently is recharged to a value above the lamp minimum flashing requirement , the lamp 40 will conduct to such an insignificant extent as to be considered an open circuit , and the lamp is then considered extinguished . the cycle timing of the circuit of fig7 is complete in one second , and it repeats itself every second . switch 52 and switch 54 operate at the same time and cycle once per second . switch 56 and switch 58 are operated to change the effective candella power of the lamp 40 output . the circuit of fig7 conveniently models the disclosed flashlamp discharge control method . at 0 . 25 seconds after the lamp 40 has been triggered , flashed , and allowed to cool , switch 52 is opened and switch 54 is closed . if switch 56 and switch 58 are opened , then the lowest effective candella power has been selected . the lamp 40 minimum flashing requirement is 250 volts , and maximum anode voltage is 315 volts when it is a radio shack 272 - 1145 flashlamp . the trigger impedance matching transformer , which may be a radio shack 272 - 1146 , puts out a 4 kv minimum pulse when 250 volts from the trigger capacitor 44 is connected to the primary winding through switch 52 . the trigger is a class 1 trigger in voltage and energy . when the power switch 54 is closed , the 240 volt 60 hertz a . c . line source 60 is connected to the anode of the power rectifier 62 which is a 1 n 5062 rectifier , and current flows on 45 positive half cycles of the a . c . line source 60 . this current through resistor 64 charges the 1 . 0 microfarad capacitor 48 to 300 volts and through resistors 64 and 66 charges the 0 . 1 microfarad trigger capacitor 44 to above 250 volts . forty - five cycles after the power switch 54 was closed , the power switch 54 is open - circuited and the trigger switch 52 is closed . three millijoules of energy flows from the trigger capacitor 44 into the primary of the trigger transformer 46 , where its impedance is changed to produce a 4 kilovolt pulse from the secondary . that pulse is applied through a conductor of less than twelve inches in length to the trigger electrode 68 distributed along the outside wall of the lamp 40 . a portion of the 3 millijoules is then coupled through the high impedance wall of the lamp to the interior xenon gas . because the lamp cathode 70 is 4 kilovolts away from the trigger electrode 68 and the lamp anode 72 is held by the capacitor 48 to within 300 volts of 4 kilovolts away from the trigger electrode 68 , the voltage stresses across the xenon gas cause ionization of the gas . this reduces the anode - to - cathode impedance of the lamp 40 , so that energy stored at 300 volts in &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 will start to discharge into the lamp 40 . referring momentarily to fig8 a and 8b which depict lamp anode - to - cathode voltages , in conventional fashion the discharge of &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 will follow the solid curves on the graphs of the lamp anode - to - cathode voltage with respect to time and a low effective candella power flash will be the output . referring back to fig7 resistor 66 allows the trigger capacitor 44 to be quickly discharged into the primary of transformer 46 without substantially affecting the charge on the capacitor 48 in 0 . 1 milliseconds . when medium power output is desired for each flash , the power switch 56 is closed . when the power switch 54 is closed , the 100 microfarad electrolytic capacitor 42 is charged through the resistor 74 more slowly than the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 is charged through its associated resistor 64 . the associated resistor 74 is chosen so that , at the end of 45 cycles of charging from the 60 hertz line source 60 , the electrolytic capacitor 42 has reached approximately 100 volts plus or minus the inverse capacity tolerance of the 100 microfarad electrolytic capacitor 42 . to discharge for a medium effective candella power output from the flashlamp the previous sequence for a low power flash is initiated . however , when the 1 . 0 microfarad &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 discharges down to just below the voltage level of the 100 microfarad capacitor 42 , energy begins to flow from the main storage electrolytic capacitor 42 through the diode 50 and into the lamp 40 . referring momentarily again to fig8 a and 8b , depicting lamp anode - to - cathode voltages , the discharge of the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 follows the solid curve from 300 volts down to 100 volts , and then it proceeds along the dotted line , supported by the discharge of the electrolytic capacitor 42 for a discharge of greater energy than the low power discharge . referring back to fig7 when high power is desired for each flash , the power switch 56 and the power switch 58 are both closed . when the power switch 54 is closed , the 100 microfarad electrolytic capacitor 42 is charged through the resistor 74 , and through the resistor 76 , in parallel , and still more slowly than the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 is charged through its associated resistor 64 . the resistor 76 is chosen so that , at the end of 45 cycles of charging from the 60 hertz line source 60 , the 100 microfarad capacitor 42 has reached approximately 150 volts plus or minus the inverse capacity tolerance of the 100 microfarad capacitor 42 . to discharge for a high effective candella power output from the flashlamp 40 , the previous sequence for a low power flash is initiated . however , when the 1 . 0 microfarad &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 discharges down to just below the voltage level of the 100 microfarad capacitor 42 , energy begins to flow from the main energy storage electrolytic capacitor 42 , through the diode 50 , and into the lamp 40 . referring momentarily again to fig8 a and 8b , after conventional triggering of the lamp 40 , the discharge of the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitor 48 follows the solid curve from 300 volts down to 150 volts and then proceeds along the dashed line , supported by the discharge of the electrolytic capacitor 42 for a discharge of greater energy than the medium power discharge . the diode 50 is preferably type 1n 3663 operated entirely within its manufacturer &# 39 ; s integrated forward and reverse limits . motorola , inc ., rates its 1n 3663 diode at a peak repetitive reverse voltage of 400 volts maximum at 25 ° c . diode case temperature and an average half - wave rectified forward current with a resistive load of 25 amperes at 150 ° c . case temperature . at 150 ° c ., the instantaneous forward conduction drop at 25 amperes is 0 . 87 volts . the diode heating equivalent to that endured in a peak 1 - cycle surge - current of 400 amperes from a 60 hertz source when the case temperature is 150 ° c . is to be avoided . referring now to fig6 the power line 78 , rated at 240 volts 60 hertz , center tapped for 120 volts 60 hertz on either side of the grounded neutral conductor 80 , supplies the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 , a module which is a conventional one and well known to those skilled in the art of semi - conductor switching , and the optical relays 84 , 86 and the interlock relay 88 through line fuses 90 and 92 , and is connected to transient overvoltage limiters 94 , 96 . the fuse circuits include inductance , and the overvoltage limiters include by - pass capacitance , to prevent electromagnetic interference from passing into or out of the power line 78 at the flasher power supply . the interlock relay 88 is controlled by the power supply interlock switch 98 and flasher interlock switch 100 for safety purposes and controls power to the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 , to the optional thermostatically controlled heater 102 , controlls the operation of line power semiconductor switch 104 and controls the 120 volt 60 hertz current - limited trigger 106 , and high signal input 108 from the system distant control box . the open circuiting of either one of the interlock switches 98 or 100 turns off all 120 volt and 240 volt circuits coming into the power supply which also turns off all optical isolator outputs from the logic module 82 . power at the power line 78 is controlled at the system distant control box ( not shown ) and only exists when the flashlamp system operation is desired by activating the system distant control box . a plurality of flashlamp optical pulses from a plurality of locations distributed from the end of each airport runway is controlled in intensity and sequence from the system distant control box to prevent any single flash from occurring at the wrong time in a sequence which would mislead an aircraft pilot . power at the power - line 78 is in parallel with the powerline connection of other similar flasher units so that intensity and sequence of flashing arc controlled entirely through the trigger 106 and high signal input 108 control wires . when 120 volt / 240 volt 60 hertz grounded neutral power appears at the power line 78 , the interlock relay 88 will close and turn on the power switch 104 . the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 will reset its internal clock and start clocking the power line cycles in order to turn on the low optically controlled switch 84 for forty - five cycles of the 60 hertz powerline 78 . if low intensity was selected at the system distant control box , then no 120 volt 60 hertz voltage will appear at the high signal input 108 line , and the high optically controlled switch 86 will never turn on . if high intensity operation was selected , then 120 volt 60 hertz voltage will appear continuously on the high signal input line 108 , and the high optically controlled switch 86 will be turned on for the same forty - five cycles of the 60 hertz powerline 78 for which the low switch 84 was turned on . if medium intensity operation was selected , then 120 volt 60 hertz voltage will appear continuously on the high signal input line 108 , but the high optically controlled switch 86 will be turned on only during the last fifteen cycles of the time in which the low switch 84 is on . this medium mode is accomplished by the lengthening of the 120 volt 60 hertz voltage trigger signal in the control box from 0 . 25 seconds duration , which is 15 cycles of the 60 hertz voltage trigger signal . the trigger signal is lengthened to prevent high charging through the high optically controlled switch 86 , and the longer trigger signal voltage on line 106 is converted to a shorter charging time by the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 . because the flashlamp discharge controlling method of this invention uses dynamic impedance matching to a capacitance whose voltage can be varied over a wide range , the system distant control box can be made to incrementally select any intensity of flash over a wide range from near minimum intensity to maximum intensity just by incrementally varying the length of the trigger signal produced at the distant control box . however , practical applications as airport signaling devices indicate that 5000 , 1500 and 700 effective candella powers are sufficient variations . each time a trigger signal starts , the clock in the logic module 82 is reset and begins counting again . if another trigger signal is not received in 1 . 1 seconds , then the charging switches 84 , 86 are turned off and the module 82 , optically isolated outputs to the power schmitt triggers 110 , 112 are also turned off , and this allows the power schmitt triggers 110 , 112 to begin their 4 second discharge of the 2000 microfarad of electrolytic energy storage capacitance to below 50 volts . this assures that the lamp will not flash at a wrong time . when a trigger signal is received by the logic module 82 , one second plus or minus 4 / 60 of a second from the beginning of the preceding trigger signal , then that subsequent trigger signal is accepted for normal flasher operation and the logic module 82 passes a portion of the trigger signal through an optical isolator to the trigger amplifier 114 . the trigger amplifier 114 derives its power from the charged electrolytic energy storage capacitance and passes the trigger signal through the cable 116 and the transient limiting resistors 118 and 120 . the trigger signal is transient limited by the zener diode 122 and is time integrated by the resistor 124 and the capacitor 126 to enhance system noise immunity . when the capacitor 126 is charged to 8 volts by the processed trigger signal , then the five layer diode 128 turns on to begin an 8 volt discharge which is developed across the resistor 130 and turns on the transistor 132 . the pulse output from the emitter of transistor 132 is current limited by the resistor 134 and turns on the triac 136 . the triac gate is shunted by a resistance 138 , built into the triac 136 which further enhances system noise immunity . the supply voltage to triac 136 is limited to 340 volts by the zener diode 138 and allowed to ring for a greater a . c . component in the trigger voltage of the lamp 140 by the diode 142 . the 0 . 3 microfarad lamp trigger capacitor 144 is charged to 340 volts through the diode 146 and the limiting resistor 148 . the turn - on of the triac 136 discharges the 0 . 3 microfarad capacitor through the primary of the trigger transformer 150 which has a 50 to 1 turns ratio raising the trigger impedance so that a 15 kv class ii trigger pulse is delivered to the lamp 140 through the trigger electrode 152 . because the return of the 15 kv pulse developed in the secondary of the trigger transformer 150 is directly by - passed through the 0 . 15 microfarad capacitor 154 to the lamp anode 156 , and through the 0 . 15 microfarad capacitor 158 to the lamp cathode 160 , the maximum available trigger energy is applied to the high impedance xenon gas inside the lamp 140 and begins to reduce that gas impedance . just prior to the start of the 120 volt 60 hertz trigger signal pulse at the trigger line 106 , the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitors 154 , 158 , 162 and 164 , which are of identical ratings for this lamp 140 , completed charging to 560 volts each in the polarity provided by the voltage multiplier diodes 166 , 168 , 170 and 172 and the charging current limited by the foil - and - film capacitors 174 , 176 through the low power switch 84 and through the damping resistor 178 . at the same time , most of the energy for the low 700 effective candella power flash had been stored as a charge of constant current into the electrolytic capacitances 180 , 182 at approximately 270 volts each in the polarity provided by the voltage multiplier diodes 184 , 186 , 188 and 190 , and was current - limited by the foil - and - film capacitors 192 and 194 . the power diodes 196 and 198 isolate the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitors 162 and 164 from the low ecp capacitances 180 and 182 , and the resistor 200 damps transients . storage of a portion of the main discharge energy at a voltage not much below the lamp 140 minimum operating requirement assures not only an easy dynamic impedance matching step from the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitors &# 39 ; impedance level while using only a minimal capacity at the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; voltage level , but also provides an intermediate impedance step to the last main energy storage voltage , when that voltage is at a low value , for the medium 1500 effective candella power flash output . when medium intensity operation is selected , the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitors 154 , 158 , 162 and 164 and the low ecp electrolytic capacitances 180 and 182 will charge as they did when the low intensity mode of operation was selected . additionally , the trigger 120 volt 60 hertz signal on the signal line 106 from the distant control box will be 45 cycles long , and 120 volt 60 hertz voltage will exist on the high signal line 108 , causing the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 to turn on the high optically controlled switch 86 during the last fifteen cycles of the time in which the low switch 84 is on . conduction of the high switch 86 for fifteen cycles of the 60 hertz line source 78 raises the voltage of the main energy storage electrolytic capacitances 202 and 204 to approximately 160 volts each in the polarity provided by the voltage multiplier diodes 206 , 208 , 210 and 212 and current - limited by the foil - and - film capacitors 214 and 216 . the power diodes 218 and 220 isolate the low energy storage electrolytic capacitances 180 and 182 from the main energy storage electrolytic capacitances 202 and 204 whenever the main energy storage capacitances 202 and 204 are at voltages lower than the voltages on the low capacitances 180 and 182 . when high intensity operation is selected , the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; capacitors 154 , 158 , 162 and 164 and the low electrolytic capacitances 180 and 182 will charge as they did when the low intensity operation was chosen . the trigger 120 volt 60 hertz signal at the trigger input line 106 will be the same as it was for the low intensity operation , namely , 15 cycles long , and 120 volt 60 hertz will exist on the high line 108 , causing the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 to turn on the high optically controlled switch 86 during all forty - five cycles of the available charging time . using all forty - five cycles for charging the main energy storage electrolytic capacitances raises them to their maximum charged voltage of approximately 270 volts so they can supply the energy for the high intensity flash of 5000 plus or minus 2000 effective candella power . using the foil - and - film capacitors 214 , 216 , 192 , 194 , 174 and 176 conveniently limits the input currents on any cycle of the line source 78 so that surges associated with resistive charging are avoided , and the foil - and - film capacitors accurately convey controlled amounts of charge to be accumulated by the energy storage capacitances 202 , 204 , 180 , 182 , 162 , 164 , 154 and 158 . because high intensity operation applies approximately maximum rated electrolytic capacitor working voltage during routine operation of the flashlamp system , the electrolytic capacitors will not deform . overvoltage stress on the electrolytic capacitors is avoided by the threshold voltage sensor in each of the two power schmitt triggers 110 and 112 . when the threshold of either of the sensors is exceeded , the associated power schmitt trigger is activated , which latter then immediately activates the other power schmitt trigger through the logic module 82 . while the scmitt triggers are conducting and dissipating energy in their load resistances 222 and 224 , they also signal the logic module 82 that they are in heavy conduction , and the low and high optically isolated power switches 84 and 86 are held in a nonconducting mode , although trigger signals are allowed to pass to the lamp 140 to enable the lamp 40 to be triggered at the proper times . surges in line source 78 can be accommodated , and the flashing of lamp 140 can be continued with this arrangement of the power schmitt triggers 110 and 112 , although the primary function of these power schmitt triggers is to safely discharge the main energy storage capacitances 202 , 204 , 180 and 182 when the line source 78 voltage is removed . neon lamps 226 and 228 , and their respective ballast resistors 230 and 232 regulate the &# 34 ; kindling &# 34 ; voltage to within the flashlamp 140 manufacturers &# 39 ; specifications and also indicate circuit functioning for rapid and safe maintenance evaluation . light emitting diodes ( not specifically shown ) in the control logic module and in the power schmitt triggers also indicate circuit functioning for rapid and safe maintenance evaluation . the optional thermostatically controller heater 102 warms the electrolytic capacitances 202 , 204 , 180 and 182 when the ambient temperature falls below minus 35 ° c . (- 31 ° f .). use of this heater in combination with premium electrolytic capacitors designed for - 55 ° c . operation insures immediate adequate operation of the flasher down to - 55 ° c . the heater is operated by applying the line source 78 voltage to the power supply while providing no trigger voltage pulse at connection 106 . the charge and discharge timing and control logic module 82 and the circuit components may be appropriately chosen to produce a variety of flashlamp controlled discharge optical output waveforms varying from short high instantaneous intensities of high rms current value to long low instantaneous intensities of low rms current value . other arc devices can be similarly controlled in various applications of the present invention . such applications are not limited to those which require visual detection . while particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown , it will be understood , of course , that the invention is not limited thereto since modifications may be made by those skilled in the art , particularly in light of the foregoing teachings . it is , therefore , contemplated by the appended claims to cover any such modifications as incorporate those features which come within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
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fig1 is a diagram showing , as an example , the overall arrangement of a distributed control network to which this invention is applied , including a plurality of communication stationa 1a - 1e and a ring transmission path 2 interconnecting the stations . the transmission path 2 may be a double ring . an example of this type of network constituted by a plurality of stations operating on the basis of equally distributed control is the foregoing token ring ( ieee 802 . 5 ) lan . fig2 shows in brief the arrangement of the station 1 . each station includes a communication circuit section 11 for communication control of the physical layer , and a communication circuit section 12 for communication control of the media access control layer ( termed simply mac hereinafter ). other circuit blocks included in each station , such as the interface with other communication stations in connection , are not directly related to this invention and they are not shown in the figure . the following deals with the determination of a master station ( that is a candidate master station ) in the network . in this case , the master station can be a station located on the immediate downstream side of a fault point , as has been mentioned previously , or an active monitor which supervises the normal circulation of a token in the above - mentioned token ring lan . determination of a master station is to distinguish one of a plurality of stations which are related equally with one another . in this case , each station performs the master station ( or active monitor ) determination control operation through mac - level information . this information ( master station determination frame ) is sent from the mac 12 . the mac 12 , upon receiving a master station determination frame from the transmission path , implements the master station determination control based on the information included in the frame . the master station determination control implemented here includes a method in which , for example , a station repeats only master station determination frames including source addresses smaller ( or larger ) than its own address so that only a master station determination frame with a minimum ( maximum ) address is allowed to circulate the network thereby to determine a specific station , i . e ., a station having the minimum ( maximum ) address , to be the master station . the scheme of master station determination control is not related directly to this invention . the substance of this invention is to allow each station to determine as to whether or not the state of the currently running master station determination control is to be continued . fig3 shows , as an example , the structure of the master station determination frame 20 . indicated at 21 is a start delimiter ( sd ) indicative of the top of the frame , 22 is a destination address ( da ) indicative of the destination of the frame , 23 is a source address ( sa ) indicative of the frame transmission source , 24 is a field ( info ) including information to be sent , 25 is a frame check sequence ( fcs ), and 26 is an end delimiter ( ed ) indicative of the end of the frame . in accordance with this invention , a master station determination frame includes , in the information field 24 , a function code ( fc ) indicating that this frame is a master station determination frame and an identifier ( id ) 28 for identifying the time of transmission of the frame . the id 28 may be a serial number which indicates the order of transmission time , a value which indicates the time of transmission , or any other value which can distinguish individual master station determination frames . fig4 is a flowchart of the program for the transmission of a master station determination frame executed by the mac 12 in each station . the program is initiated at the detection of a fault in the network or at the start - up of the network , for example as mentioned previously . initially , the first step 110 sets an initial value &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; to the counter which indicates the id value to be appended to the transmission frame . next , a master station determination frame which contains the id counter value in its id field 28 is created , and it is sent onto the ring transmission path by way of the physical layer circuit 11 :( step 120 ). after that , a check is conducted as to whether the master station determination is completed :( step 130 ), and if it is not yet completed the id is updated :( step 140 ) and the sequence returns to the step of frame creation and transmission 120 . the transmission operation for the master station determination frames including different id &# 39 ; s continues until the master station determination completed . the completion of from determination transmission of a master station can be known , for example , by the reception of a master station determination frame which includes a source address smaller than its own address or by the reception of the master station determination frame having its own address in the reception operation for master station determination frames , as will be explained in detail with reference to fig5 . fig5 is a flowchart of the program which is executed by the mac 12 at the time of reception of a master station determination frame . upon receiving a master station determination frame , each station extracts the id 28 to check the validity of the frame :( step 210 ). this check may be the usual serial number check used in data communication . namely , serial numbers ( id &# 39 ; s ) of already received frames are memorized in correspondence to source addresses sa , and absence of data or duplication of data is detected from the values . the rationality of the received frame is checked :( step 220 ), and in case it is irrational the master station determination frame transmission operation described in connection with fig4 is commenced :( step 230 ). if the received master station determination frame is rational , the following master station determination process will be executed . irrationality mentioned here includes a case , for example , in which a newly received master station determination frame has its sa 23 , fc 27 , id 28 , etc . coincident with the counterparts of an already received master station determination frame , and in this case the master station determination process for the new frame is not carried out . the master station determination process is , for example , to extract the source address sa from the received frame and compare it with the address assigned to its own station ( self address ) ma :( step 240 ). if the self address is larger than the source address ( ma & gt ; sa ), the received frame is repeated :( step 250 ), and the transmission operation for the master station determination frame ( fig4 ) from that station is terminated . in case the self address ma is equal to the source address sa in the master station determination frame ( ma = sa ), the station established itself as the master station and completes the master station determination operation :( step 270 ). subsequently , it notifies the end of master station determination to the other stations , creates a new token for the resumption of communication , and sends it onto the ring transmission path :( step 280 ). if the self address is smaller than the source address ( ma & lt ; sa ), the received master station determination frame is removed :( step 290 ), and the master station determination frame transmission operation for established that station as the source commences or proceeds :( step 300 ). although in the above example the master station determination frame sending station sets the id in the master station determination frame and each receiving station judges the rationality based on the id , the above id may not be set , as another conceivable method . for example , when stations of a first group provided with the reconfiguration function and stations of a second group without the provision of the reconfiguration function coexist in a network , the above master station determination operation may be carried out by assuming that only master station determination frames having specific source addresses sa inherent to the first group are rational . in addition , in order to speed up the recovery of the communication function , an alternative scheme may be adapted in which , when all master station determination frames have been received , the rationality check for the frames is omitted and the master station determination process ( steps 240 - 300 in fig5 ) is conducted for the all received master station determination frames , and thereafter the rationality check is conducted . in this case , if a master station determination frame is judged to be irrational , the result of a process which has been done is invalidated and the master station determination frame transmission operation is commenced . what is required is to carry out master station determination by checking the rationality of received master station determination frames , instead of validating all master station determination frames addressed to the self station .
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referring to fig1 there is shown in generic form two connectors 10 and 12 , the connector 10 to plug into the microprocessor and the connector 12 to plug into the crt monitor , either directly or through a cable at either end . it is not important to the invention as to whether one is male or female , or as to whether the other is female or male . all that is important is that they have corresponding pins or receptacles numbered 1 through 9 . assuming male connectors , like pins are connected directly together except the video intensity signal pin 7 and the vertical sync signal pin 9 . these pins are connected to contacts of a three - pole double - throw switch 13 in the following manner : pin 9 of either connector 10 or 12 to contact a 1 ; and pin 7 of connector 10 to the moving contact c 2 and pin 7 of connector 12 to the moving contact c 3 . contacts b 2 and b 3 are connected together , and contact b 1 is left open . the moving contact c 1 provides power (+ 4 vdc ) to an inverter 14 , such as a 74hco4 high performance cmos ( low - power complementary mos silicon ) gate . the contact a 2 is connected to the input of the inverter 14 , and the contact a 3 is connected to the output of the inverter 14 . a capacitor 16 ( 50 pf ) is connected between the moving contact c 1 and circuit ground to filter the power supply thus provided by the vertical sync signal , and a resistor 18 is connected between the contact a 2 and circuit ( chassis ) ground . note that pins 6 of the connectors provide a common circuit ground between the microprocessor and the crt monitor ( not shown in fig1 ), and that the connectors are conventional in that their housings are metal to make electrical connection bewteen them , thus assuring that the microprocessor and monitor are at the same reference ground . for instance , the outer conductors of a coaxial cable are &# 34 ; grounded &# 34 ; at the monitor and microprocessor , and connected to the connector housings so that the monitor and microprocessor have a common ground . the select switch box is than connected to the connector housings to provide a common ground for the circuit . if the &# 34 ; box &# 34 ; is provided in the form a potting compound , the circuit ground could be provided by connections to pins 6 , such as through a circuit board , while connecting the pins 6 to the ground conductors of the cables to the monitor and microprocessor . this is represented by a ground symbol connected to pins 6 . when the three - pole double - throw switch is in the &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; position shown , the video signal at pin 7 of the connector 10 to the microprocessor is inverted and applied to the crt monitor via the inverter 14 and pin 7 of the connector 12 . when the switch is placed in its alternate &# 34 ; off &# 34 ; position , the connection for power supplied to the inverter via pin 9 of the connector 10 is open , and the video signal at pin 7 of the connector 10 bypasses the inverter 14 through contacts b 2 and b 3 . the &# 34 ; off &# 34 ; position provides conventional white character display on a dark background . the &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; position provides dark character display on a white background . this is so because the video signal which normally intensifies the electron beam for a white dot to be displayed is inverted to virtually shut off the electron beam for a dot generation , thus leaving the crt screen dark , and intensifies the electron beam at all other times . fig2 illustrates in waveform a the vertical sync signal typically provided to the crt monitor . it is typically high (+ 4 v ) and drops to a low ( 0 v ) during vertical scan retrace at the end of each sequence of raster scans that fill the crt monitor screen . waveform b illustrates a typical video signal which may vary from a high (+ 4 v ) to a low ( about - 0 . 5 v ) according to the characters displayed . a white dot display on a dark background would normally be produced by a high video signal , but in the &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; position of the switch 13 shown in fig1 the video would be inverted , and the dot display would become a dark dot on a white background , or vice versa . in that way , the select switch box shown in fig1 in which the &# 34 ; box &# 34 ; is represented by a dotted line 20 , provides the selection of black on white , or white on black for data display without the need for any external power and with equal bandwidth response for both selections . the select switch box is noise free , injects no interference in the video signal and places no dc on the pins that is not otherwise present . consequently , the select switch box requires no fcc approval since it will not radiate rf energy , and requires non ul approval ( or the equivalent ) since it does not connect to any outside source of power . the very low power required ( v cc ) by the inverter is derived from the vertical sync signal at + 4 v . when the inverter is driven by a high input (+ 4 v ), its output will be low ( 0 to - 0 . 5 v ), and vice versa . for that reason the inverter , functions as a logic gate such that the output y in response to an input a is equal to the complement a . the description of fig1 was with generic terminology for the connectors 10 and 12 . normally the connector 10 would be a male connector , and the connector 12 would be a female connector which normally receives the male connector at the end of a coaxial cable provided with the crt monitor . that is the first arrangement illustrated in fig3 ( a ), but other possibilities are illustrated in fig3 ( b ) through 3 ( d ). still other possibilities will occur to those skilled in the art . a preferred arrangement would be two male connectors for the select switch box with cables to both the microprocessor and the crt monitor as illustrated in fig3 ( b ), but one connector may be a female connector as shown in fig3 ( c ) for connection to the microprocessor with a cable having a male connector at both ends , or both connectors may be female connectors as shown in fig3 ( d ). note that the possibilities illustrated in fig3 ( a ) and ( d ) assume the crt monitor has a fixed cable with a male connector at the end . this is quite common , so if the select switch box is provided with two male connectors , a short patch cable with two female connectors will be required . still other possibilities may occur , as noted hereinbefore . consequently , the term connectors used in the claims to define the invention is to be construed generically to apply to either a male or a female connector . the qualification &# 34 ; input &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; output &# 34 ; will distinguish which is to be connected to the microprocessor and which is to be connected to the monitor . also the term &# 34 ; pin &# 34 ; is to be construed generically to apply to either a pin of a male connector , or a receptacle for a pin in a female connector . finally , the term box as used herein may be a metal or plastic box , or simply a mass of plastic of any suitable shape into which all elements , including the connectors , have been potted or encapsulated . the only difference between potting and encapsulating is that in potting , the container for the potting compound remains as part of the assembly , whereas in encapsulating , the container ( mold ) is removed after the encapsulating material has set ( solidified ). the &# 34 ; box &# 34 ; itself need not be grounded , although in the case of a metal box , it would be good practice to connect it to one of the ground pins .
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referring now to the drawings , a vertical window 10 of tempered glass is provided as a closure for a window opening in one side of a tractor cab . the window 10 is hinged ( not shown ,) at its forward edge to a part of the tractor frame structure which forms the opening . the opposite edge portion 12 bears against a part of the frame structure which is a vertical post 14 . the vertical post 14 is a u - shaped channel and has a vertical leg portion 16 that is positioned opposite the edge portion 12 of the window 10 . a u - shaped rubber seal 18 is provided between the edge portions of the window 10 and the frame structure 14 that forms the opening for the window . while only a part of the seal 18 and the frame post structure 14 is shown , the remainder of the frame structure and its seal 18 is of conventional nature and it is believed that further detail is not necessary for purposes of understanding the present invention . welded to the bight portion 20 of the post 14 and extending inwardly behind the window 10 is an upright u - shaped latch element 22 that has the upper and lower horizontal legs welded to the vertical portion 20 of the post 14 . the latch element 22 includes a vertical portion 24 that is parallel to the post 14 and also to the window 10 . a latch mounting bracket 28 is mounted on and projects inwardly from the window 10 . the bracket 28 is composed of two parts , the main part having a threaded section 30 that extends through the window pane 10 and receives a matching internally threaded head end 32 . suitable seals , such as at 34 , are provided between the glass of the window 10 and the respective surfaces of the mounting bracket 28 . the innermost end of the mounting bracket 28 carries a vertical pivot pin 36 that is both parallel to the latch rod 24 and the window 10 . mounted on the vertical pin 36 is a latch plate 40 . the latch plate 40 is composed of a hard plastic material and has integral therewith a vertical handle 42 that has portions thereof extending above and below the plate 40 . the plate 40 has an edge 44 facing the rod portion 24 and the post 14 . the edge contains notches 46 , 48 . the notch 46 is adjacent the vertical pin 36 and the notch 48 is spaced further from the pin 36 . as is clearly apparent , the notches 46 , 48 are for purposes of receiving the latch rod portion 24 . the notch 46 opens toward the window 10 and has a cam edge 50 that extends from the notch entry area to the base of the notch 46 . when it is desired to close the window , the operator uses the handle 42 to swing the latch plate inwardly with respect to the post 20 until the outermost end of the cam edge 50 engages the rod or latch portion 24 . the handle 42 is then pushed towards the post 14 and the latch rod 24 moves along the cam edge 50 to the base of the notch 46 . at the same time , the edge portion of the glass adjacent the edge 12 compresses the weather seal 18 . such compression creates or series as a biasing force tending to separate the window 10 from the post 20 . however , the latch portion 24 is trapped in the notch 46 and the latch plate 40 is then positioned to resist the force . thus , the window 10 is held in its closed position . when it is desired to open the window or disengage the latch , handle 42 is pulled in a direction away from the post 20 and the window 10 is forced away from the seal 18 . the second notch 48 is a keyhole shaped notch having a comparatively narrow throat 52 which is smaller than the outside dimension of the latch rod portion 24 . when it is desired to hold the window 10 in a slightly opened position , as shown in fig3 the handle 42 is moved toward the post 14 and the latch portion 24 is forced through the throat 52 to seat in the base of the notch 48 . the latch plate 40 , being of a plastic or resilient material , will permit the throat 52 to expand sufficiently to permit the rod portion 24 to move through the throat . however , once seated in the base of the notch 48 , the throat will tend to resist dislodgment of the rod portion 24 from the notch 48 . also , there is no weight or force tending to separate the latch rod 24 from the notch 48 and consequently , it will retain in a seated position in the notch 48 until the handle 45 is utilized to pull the latch plate 40 clear of the rod portion 24 . while only one notch 48 is provided , it is clearly apparent that there could be a plurality of notches which would position the window 10 at different open positions by merely expanding the length of the latch plate 40 and cutting the keyhole notches as desired . however , in most instances , it is only desirable to open the window 10 a slight amount for ventilation and / or prevention of condensation within the cab . it should be understood that the window can be opened entirely if such is desired , or it can be placed in a completely closed position . the present latch adds the additional feature of latching it in the slightly opened position .
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in the following description , color references are made to the royal horticultural society colour chart , 2001 edition , except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used . plants used for the description were approximately two years old and were grown in 11 . 8 l containers under outdoor conditions in watkinsville , ga . colors are described using the royal horticultural society colour chart ( r . h . s .). botanical classification : lagerstroemia l ., cultivar ‘ purple magic ’. parentage : female , or seed , parent : lagerstroemia 16 - 02 ( unpatented ). male , or pollen parent : unknown ( open - pollinated ). propagation : terminal cuttings . time to initiate roots , summer : about 21 days at 32 ° c . plant description : flowering shrub ; compact , rounded to upright growth habit . freely branching ; pruning enhances lateral branch development . root description .— numerous , fine , fibrous and well - branched . plant size .— the original plant , now about four - years - old in the ground , is about 116 cm high from the soil level to the top of the inflorescences and about 90 cm wide . first year stems have a diameter of about 2 . 5 mm . shape : squarish . second year and older stems have a diameter of about 5 mm or more . shape : round . trunk diameter .— 3 cm at the soil line . color : n199b . i internode length .— about 1 . 9 cm . strength .— flexible when young , easily broken once mature . first year stem color ( young ).— 183a . color ( woody ): 200d . second year and older stem color .— n199b . bark .— exfoliates in strips beginning on second or third year stems . vegetative buds : sub - opposite to alternate in arrangement , imbricate , conical , with no pubescence . color : 183b . size : about 2 . 5 mm in length and 1 mm in width . foliage description : arrangement .— sub - opposite to alternate , simple . length : about 4 . 7 cm . width : about 2 . 5 cm . shape : elliptical . apex : acuminate . base : cuneate . margin : entire . texture ( upper and lower surfaces ).— glabrous and glossy . venation pattern .— pinnate . venation color of emerging foliage ( upper and lower surfaces ): 178b . venation color of fully expanded foliage ( upper and lower surfaces ): 178b at the base , changing to 35c at the apex . color in developing foliage ( upper and lower surfaces ).— 178b . color in fully expanded foliage ( upper surface ): 147a . color in fully expanded foliage ( lower surface ): 146b . petiole length .— about 2 mm . petiole diameter : about 1 mm . petiole color ( upper and lower surfaces ): 177a . pubescence : none . flower description : flowers are produced from about june to september in watkinsville , ga . an inflorescence is showy for about two weeks , and individual flowers last about one day and are self - cleaning . inflorescence type .— panicle . inflorescence length : about 10 cm . inflorescence width : about 8 cm . peduncle .— about 8 cm in length , about 2 mm in diameter , color is 183a , and no pubescence . individual flowers .— about 2 cm in height and 3 . 6 cm in diameter . flower buds .— length : about 8 mm ; diameter : about 8 mm ; color : 178b . pedicels .— about 7 mm in length , 178b in color , and no pubescence . calyx .— about 9 mm in length , about 1 . 1 cm in diameter , 176a in color , and no pubescence . arrangement / appearance .— usually 6 or 7 per flower . petal length .— about 1 . 8 cm . petal width .— about 1 . 2 cm . petal shape .— fan - shaped . petal apex : ruffled , rounded . petal base : sagittate . petal margin : ruffled . petal texture ( upper and lower surfaces ): glabrous . petal color .— upper and lower surfaces are 77a . quantity / arrangement .— about 25 to 30 short stamens clustered in the center , about 8 mm long , filament color is 62b , and anther color is 13b . the short stamens are surrounded by 6 longer stamens , about 1 . 2 cm long , filament color is 63a , and anther color is n199c . the stamens are not pubescent . pollen : produced in moderate quantities and is 13b in color on the short stamens and 144c in color on the long stamens . quantity .— one superior pistil per flower . pubescence : none . pistil length : about 1 . 8 cm in length . stigma shape : round , about 1 mm in diameter . stigma color : 146a . style color : 183c and about 1 . 5 cm in length . ovary color : 5d and about 2 mm in diameter . type / appearance .— six - valved , dehiscent , broad ellipsoidal capsule . length : about 8 mm . diameter : about 7 mm . immature color : 144a . mature color : 200c . each capsule contains many seeds that are about 5 mm long , 3 mm wide , and 200c in color . disease / pest resistance : plants of the claimed lagerstroemia variety grown in field and container trials have exhibited resistance to powdery mildew and cercospora leaf spot .
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it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the particular methodology , compounds , materials , manufacturing techniques , uses , and applications , described herein , as these may vary . it is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is used for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only , and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention . it must be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims , the singular forms “ a ,” “ an ,” and “ the ” include the plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . thus , for example , a reference to “ an element ” is a reference to one or more elements and includes equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art . similarly , for another example , a reference to “ a step ” or “ a means ” is a reference to one or more steps or means and may include sub - steps and subservient means . all conjunctions used are to be understood in the most inclusive sense possible . thus , the word “ or ” should be understood as having the definition of a logical “ or ” rather than that of a logical “ exclusive or ” unless the context clearly necessitates otherwise . structures described herein are to be understood also to refer to functional equivalents of such structures . language that may be construed to express approximation should be so understood unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . unless defined otherwise , all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs . preferred methods , techniques , devices , and materials are described , although any methods , techniques , devices , or materials similar or equivalent to those described herein may be used in the practice or testing of the present invention . structures described herein are to be understood also to refer to functional equivalents of such structures . all references cited herein are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety . as described in this specification , applied force is shown as being in the same general direction and magnitude to each element . the type of force is immaterial to this explanation and thus a generic force vector will be used . cases involving a different force applied versus film area or changes in force direction may readily be inferred from this case by an ordinarily skilled artisan . small variables due to discrete component characteristics are not shown as specific component values because they can vary ; and further because , although this may optimize performance , it does not affect primary performance . in general , force applied to a pvdf film may cause longitudinal motion of at least a portion of the film . this longitudinal displacement of a portion of the film can generate a voltage output . the magnitude of the voltage output depends , for example , on the force applied , the physical dimension of the pvdf film , and the capacitance of the film . the pvdf film may be coated with a conductive surface to remove coulombs of charge . in another embodiment , the pvdf film may be in contact with a conductor to remove charge . this process may be reversible , thus , for example , voltage applied to a conductively coated pvdf film surface may cause physical motion in the film . in axially poled pvdf , most of such voltage induced movement may be in the longitudinal direction . typically only about 1 / 1000 of the movement will be in any other direction . pvdf film that may be used in accordance with the present invention may be such film as dt - 1 film from measurement specialties incorporated . fig1 is a circuit diagram of an embodiment of the present invention . the diagram illustrates one way in which five piezoelectric elements 150 may be electrically connected together . although the piezoelectric elements 150 are similar to each other , they are not identical . the segments of piezoelectric material 130 may be of increasing size and the capacitors 140 may be selected to correspond to the particular segment of piezoelectric material 130 . an example of such an arrangement is described in fig7 a , 7 b , and 7 c , which is further described below . referring again to fig1 , each piezoelectric element 150 may include a bridge rectifier 120 . the bridge rectifier 120 may , for example , be a full - wave rectifier including four diodes 110 . the bridge rectifier 120 may be connected to the piezoelectric material 130 , and may be connected to a capacitor 140 . a stacked array of piezoelectric elements 150 may be connected electrically by connecting their capacitors 140 in series . one terminal of one of the capacitors 140 may be provided as a sensor output 170 , and another may be connected to ground 160 . it may be observed that a four element stack may be created by removing the connection between the bottommost piezoelectric element 150 and instead connecting directly to ground . fig2 a and 2b provide two examples of ground switching applications of the present invention : a single pulse diagram in fig2 a , and a latched power diagram in fig2 b . in one embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig2 a , the sensor output 170 may be connected to the gate of an n channel fet 210 . the source of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to monitor circuit ground 240 . a battery 220 may provide a voltage differential between monitor circuit power 230 and ground 160 . thus , a sensor high pulse from the sensor output 170 may apply the monitor circuit ground for the pulse duration . in another embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig2 b , the sensor output 170 may be connected to the gate of an n channel fet 210 . the source of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to monitor circuit ground 240 . a battery 220 may provide a voltage differential between monitor circuit power 230 and ground 160 . additionally , a monitor circuit power latch 250 may be connected through a diode 110 to the gate of the n channel fet 210 . thus , the high pulse from sensor output 170 may indirectly activate the monitor circuit power latch 250 , enabling the circuit to latch power beyond the duration of the pulse . fig3 a , 3 b , and 3 c provide three examples of power switching application of the present invention : a single pulse diagram in fig3 a , an active - high power latching diagram in fig3 b , and an active - low diagram in fig3 c . in one embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig3 a , the sensor output 170 may be connected to the gate of an n channel fet 210 . the source of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to a resistor 310 and the gate of a p channel fet 320 . the resistor 310 may be connected to the source of the p channel fet 320 . the source of the p channel fet 320 may also be connected to a battery 220 which may , in turn , be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the p channel fet 320 may be connected to monitor circuit power 230 . thus , a sensor high pulse may apply monitor circuit power 230 for the pulse duration . in another embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig3 b , the sensor output 170 may be connected to the gate of an n channel fet 210 . the source of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to a resistor 310 and the gate of a p channel fet 320 . the resistor 310 may be connected to the source of the p channel fet 320 . the source of the p channel fet 320 may also be connected to a battery 220 which may , in turn , be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the p channel fet 320 may be connected to monitor circuit power 230 . thus , a sensor high pulse may apply monitor circuit power 230 for the pulse duration . additionally , a monitor circuit power latch 250 may be connected through a diode 110 to the gate of the n channel fet 210 . thus , the high pulse from sensor output 170 may indirectly activate the monitor circuit power latch 250 , enabling the circuit to latch power beyond the duration of the pulse . in another embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig3 c , the sensor output 170 may be connected to the gate of an n channel fet 210 . the source of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the n channel fet 210 may be connected to a resistor 310 and the gate of a p channel fet 320 . the resistor 310 may be connected to the source of the p channel fet 320 . the source of the p channel fet 320 may also be connected to a battery 220 which may , in turn , be connected to ground 160 . the drain of the p channel fet 320 may be connected to monitor circuit power 230 . thus , a sensor high pulse may apply monitor circuit power 230 for the pulse duration . additionally , a monitor circuit power latch 250 may be connected to the gate of the p channel fet 320 . thus , the high pulse from sensor output 170 may indirectly activate the monitor circuit power latch 250 , enabling the circuit to latch power beyond the duration of the pulse . fig4 a and 4b provide two examples of relay power switching applications of the present invention : a single pulse diagram in fig4 a , and a latched power diagram in fig4 b . in one embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig4 a , a sensor output 170 may be attached to a relay 410 at pin one . a resistor 310 may be connected between the relay 410 at pin two and ground 160 . a battery 220 may be connected between the relay 410 at pin three and ground 160 . the relay 410 at pin five may remain open . the relay 410 at pin four may be connected to monitor circuit power 230 . thus , a sensor high pulse may apply the monitor circuit power for the pulse duration . in another embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig4 b , a sensor output 170 may be attached to a relay 410 at pin one . a resistor 310 may be connected between the relay 410 at pin two and ground 160 . a battery 220 may be connected between the relay 410 at pin three and ground 160 . the relay 410 at pin five may remain open . the relay 410 at pin four may be connected to monitor circuit power 230 . additionally , a monitor circuit power latch 250 may be connected via a diode 110 to the relay 410 at pin one . thus , a sensor high pulse may apply the monitor circuit power for the pulse duration . thus , the high pulse from sensor output 170 may indirectly activate the monitor circuit power latch 250 , enabling the circuit to latch power beyond the duration of the pulse . fig5 a and 5b provide two examples of motion sensing with the sensor mounted on the object of interest : a window example in fig5 a and a door example in fig5 b . in one embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig5 a , the sensor 510 may be mounted on a portion of the window 520 . in one embodiment , the sensor 510 may be disguised as a sticker that is advertising a security company . in another example , the sensor 510 may be placed on an opaque portion of the window 520 . in another embodiment , as shown , for example , in fig5 b , a sensor 510 may be placed on a door 530 . the sensor 510 may , for example , be attached by means of an adhesive . the sensor 510 may be placed on a portion of the door 530 that is particularly likely to move in the event that there is an attempt made to open or shut the door 530 . fig6 is an example of a sensor 510 that is pre - loaded by being placed beneath an object of interest : in this case , a diamond 610 . the sensor 510 may initially be placed on the surface of , for example , a pedestal 620 . in this embodiment , if the diamond 610 is lifted from the pedestal 620 , the sensor 510 will provide an output . fig7 a , 7 b , and 7 c are drawings of a five - element stack . fig7 a corresponds to a top view of a five - element stack . fig7 b corresponds to a bottom view of a five - element stack . finally , fig7 c shows the application of force though a force application center 720 in view that superimposes top and bottom views . this embodiment , for example , converts ambient mechanical energy . a single pvdf film may be sectioned into five segments of increasing lengths as shown . these segments ( or elements ) 711 , 712 , 713 , 714 , and 715 ( which may correspond to particular segments of piezoelectric material 130 in fig1 ) may be ordered from smallest to largest as depicted . elements may be created in different sizes to provide specifically higher voltages as the film size increases for an evenly applied force across the pvdf film . this permits the stack to obtain a positive charge from top to bottom ( for example , from the sensor output 170 to ground 160 in circuit diagram , fig1 ). capacitors 140 ( as shown in fig1 ) may preferably be matched in size to the specific capacitance value of the pvdf element with which they are paired . they may be paired via rectification bridges — shown as 120 in the circuit diagram . these rectification bridges 120 ( as shown in fig1 ) may preferably be full - wave rectification bridges , but may alternatively be half - wave bridges . one advantage of full - wave bridges may be the ability to capture energy of both polarities . such a matched pairing may permit maximum charge transfer from the film . essentially , the charge transfer may preferably allow the maximum voltage generated on the pvdf film , minus two diode forward voltage drops , to be collected on the associated capacitor . a preferred rectification block , for use with the present invention , is a full wave rectifier as this allows voltages lower in the stack to appear on both surfaces of elements higher in the stack . this configuration may also help , for example , in preventing or diminishing the effect of individual segments of piezoelectric material 130 that may convert applied voltage on one side to mechanical motion within the film in a direction contrary to applied force . force may be applied to the film of an embodiment of the present invention roughly perpendicular to the top surface at the center of the film , along the force line in the drawing , via an attached mass . for any applied force , a voltage may be generated across each piezoelectric element inversely proportional to the size of the element . fig7 a , 7 b , and 7 c are an embodiment of the present invention in which the five elements are in a single film . in , for example , rectangular areas , such as the areas for segments 711 , 712 , 713 , 714 , and 715 , the elements may be defined by the application of silver ink . care may be taken in the definition of the areas to avert the creation of parasitic capacitances , by controlling the geometry of the application . fig8 a and 8b are depictions of an embodiment of the present invention that employs a piezoelectric element 150 in a rotational setting . as such an embodiment rotates , the gravitational force on the piezoelectric element 150 changes through 360 degrees of rotation . in a situation in which gravitational attraction is 1 g , the force ( in the longitudinal direction ) on the element ( due to gravity ) will vary between 1 g ( as seen in fig8 b ) and − 1 g ( as seen in fig8 a ) over the course of the rotation . fig9 is a graph of voltages output from an embodiment of the present invention including a pvdf film and stack capacitors . the voltages , in this example , are generated by a pvdf film and stored in five stack capacitors by percentage of total output . this percentage may be based on the ratio of film element capacitance to total element capacitance using the element sizing depicted in , for example , fig7 a - 7c . if a circuit such as the one shown in fig1 is employed , the voltages across the individual capacitors 140 may vary as shown in corresponding proportional voltages ( 931 , 932 , 933 , 934 , and 935 ) depicted as waveforms . in this example , the proportional voltage 931 of the capacitor 140 connected to sensor output 170 is 25 . 7 % of the total output voltage 936 ( also depicted as a waveform ). similarly , the proportional voltage 935 of the capacitor 140 connected to ground 160 is 14 . 3 % of total voltage 936 . fig1 is a circuit diagram of another embodiment of the present invention . the diagram illustrates one way in which five piezoelectric elements 150 may be electrically connected together . although the piezoelectric elements 150 are similar to each other , they are not necessarily identical . the segments of piezoelectric material 130 may be of increasing size and the capacitors 140 may be selected to correspond to the particular segment of piezoelectric material 130 . an example of such an arrangement is described in fig7 a , 7 b , and 7 c , described above . referring again to fig1 , each piezoelectric element 150 may include a bridge rectifier 120 . the bridge rectifier 120 may , for example , be a full - wave rectifier including four diodes 110 . the bridge rectifier 120 may be connected to the piezoelectric material 130 , and may be connected to a capacitor 140 . each piezoelectric element 150 may also include a signal phase delay element , such as an inductor 180 , provided between each bridge rectifier 120 and said capacitive element . a stack of piezoelectric elements 150 may be connected electrically by connecting their capacitors 140 in series . one terminal of one of the capacitors 140 may be provided as a sensor output 170 , and another may be connected to ground 160 . it may be observed that a four - element stack may be created by removing the connection between the bottommost piezoelectric element 150 and instead connecting directly to ground . other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and the practice of the invention disclosed herein . it is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only , with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims .
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in fig1 , there is shown a contact centre system , enclosed by broken line 10 . the contact centre 10 line allows a contact centre management system or manager 12 to connect to customers 14 via public switch telephone network pstn 16 . connection is made by means of appropriate telephony equipment , such as the illustrated session initiation protocol ( sip ) server 18 and telephony gateway 20 . similarly , customers 22 who are connected to the internet 24 may be contacted using , for example , the sip protocol via sip server 18 . in this way , and is as generally known in the art , a hardware implemented or software - implemented predictive dialler 26 may place multiple calls to a plurality of customers 14 , 22 . when calls are successfully answered and are determined to be connected to a live customer , an agent call allocation application 28 connects the call to a conference bridge 30 via a contact centre local area network ( lan ) 32 . typically , this will occur in the seconds before an agent becomes free , or in a brief idle period allocated to the agent . a plurality of human agents are provided in the contact centre , but only one agent workstation 36 is shown . the agent workstation is provided with software which runs a contact centre agent desktop application 38 , and , in the context of a particular outbound telemarketing campaign , an outbound campaign script 40 is created , and this is running on each agent workstation 36 . the agent will be provided with telephony hardware ( not shown ) which is integrated with the agent desktop application 38 , such that the agent call allocation software 28 can “ push ” a call to the agent workstation , with call details appearing within the agent desktop application 38 , and the call being connected to the agent telephony equipment , in a known manner . when a call is connected , the outbound campaign script initialises and operates according to a workflow 42 . typically , a workflow will present a series of lines to be spoken by the agent , and will provide for different branching outcomes according to the response of the customer . normally , the goal is to identify customers who are interested in a product or service or who are willing to provide information or participate in research , and to complete the transaction as quickly and efficiently as possible , and the workflow will be tailored to that end . as the skilled person is aware , the predictive dialler will operate an algorithm which takes account of the number of agents currently active , the number of calls currently in progress , the number of calls currently being dialled , the statistical likelihood of a dialled number giving rise to a live customer interaction , the average idle time allowed for each agent between terminating a call and being presented with the next call , including time for the agent to complete “ wrap up ”, and so on . while conventional predictive diallers may be aware of the time spent by a particular agent on a call , and may attempt to predict from this the time before the agent is free to accept the next call , based either on a contact centre average , an agent group average , or even an individual agent average time to complete a call in a particular campaign , the system of fig1 provides additional benefits . in particular , the outbound campaign script 40 is designed to notify certain trigger events 44 to an event notification aggregator 46 . the aggregator 46 is a service running within the contact centre manager which receives , from each agent workstation , notified trigger events . other applications and services within the contact centre ( or indeed , external to the contact centre ) can subscribe to the event notification aggregator in respect of particular classes of events . this allows other components and services in the contact centre to monitor the progress of an agent through a script in a particular call , and to take action in response to the script progress . as an example , a supervisor workstation 48 may subscribe to notifications aggregator 46 to be informed when a particular agent reaches a particular point in a script , where it has been noted that agent is experiencing particular difficulty or is achieving success rates greatly above or below other agents in relation to that point in the script . further examples of how the event notification may be used will now be described . fig2 shows a flowchart of a process involving ( generally on the left hand side of fig2 ) the predictive dialler and ( generally on the right hand side of fig2 ) the agent workstation , with the aggregator providing a link between these entities . the predictive dialler 26 ( fig1 ) subscribes to the aggregator for call progress events , step 50 . as each agent progresses through the script on every call , trigger events 44 are automatically detected by the script 40 and notified to the event aggregator 46 , as will be described further below , and thus the predictive dialler receives an updated status of each calls progression , step 52 . as will be described further with reference to fig3 , the predictive dialler adjusts the current outbound call - dialling rate based on the actual progress of each call , step 54 . it will be appreciated that this is a more sophisticated and accurate method of monitoring call progress than estimating the time to completion , since such estimates cannot take account of the difficulty or ease with which an agent is progressing towards a conclusion in the script , and nor can such estimates take account of what branch within the script an agent is currently traversing . accordingly , as the outbound call dialling rate is adjusted in line with the actual activity of each agent ( and thus the expected time for the agent to become free ), the predictive dialler makes a certain number of outbound calls to customers , step 56 , in order to balance the number of expected live connections with the number of agents becoming free over the same time period . a certain proportion of these calls will result in non - completion step 58 , such as if the call is not answered or the customer hangs up , or an answer machine or invalid number tone is detected . such non - completions are noted by the predictive dialler in step 54 , which adjusts its call rate accordingly . when a call is connected and a live customer is detected , step 60 , this call is allocated to an agent by the agent call allocation software 28 , step 62 . on the agent workstation , step 62 occurs at the point in time when an agent is free , step 64 , following which the agent receives the call which has been allocated to it , step 66 . upon receiving the call , a call script is initiated on the agent workstation for the agent to follow in speaking with the customer , step 68 . the event aggregator is notified of each significant step occurring in relation to the agent workstation and in particular , in relation to the agent script . thus , when the agent became free , this may have been notified , as may the fact that the agent received the call in step 66 , as indicated by step 70 . when the call script initiated on the agent workstation , this is a significant event and is notified to the aggregator , as it provides a start point for the interaction between the agent and the customer , and this may be of interest to the predictive dialler . because the dialler subscribes to the aggregator in step 50 , all such events are notified to the predictive dialler . as the script progresses , when it reaches the next significant stage , as stored within the script as a trigger event , step 72 , that event is also notified to the aggregator , step 70 . after each significant event , a check is conducted whether the script has ended , step 74 , and if not , the script progresses to the next significant stage , step 72 . in this way , an agent who progresses unusually quickly or slowly through a call , or who is directed into a branch of the script which is likely to significantly affect the call duration , will cause such events to be notified to the predictive dialler . when the script eventually finishes , as detected in decision 74 , the call will end , this event will similarly be notified to the aggregator , which indicates to the predictive dialler that the agent is entering the wrap up / idle time and is expected to become free in a known period . because this event will have been foreseen more accurately than the previously , the likelihood that the predictive dialler has balanced the number of dialled calls with the number of agents becoming free is greatly increased . the additional steps used by the predictive dialler to adjust the call dialling rates are illustrated in fig3 . the predictive dialler employs an algorithm which is based on a conventional algorithm , which is well known to a skilled person . such conventional algorithms operate to predict the time at which an agent will become free following termination of the call , wrap up and allowed idle time . such algorithms maintain , for each active call , an indication of the time at which the agent will become free , or a clock is used to countdown towards that expected time at which the agent will become free . in such conventional algorithms , the expected time for the agent to become free is fixed throughout the call duration , based on a prediction made according to the campaign and / or agent in question . the only adjustment to this expected time occurs when the call ends , as it is then known that the wrap up and idle time will complete in ( say ) 15 seconds . the process of fig3 begins in a similar way , receiving a notification that a call has been connected to a particular agent , step 80 . the predictive dialler software consults campaign and agent averages for call duration , step 82 , and makes an estimate of the time to completion of the call , step 84 . the connection of the call to the agent is one of the events used as an input for the algorithm , step 86 . when the estimated time to completion of the call has been calculated , this is also input to the algorithm , step 86 , as in conventional predictive algorithms . when each event notification is received , indicating further progress through the script , step 88 , the predictive dialler updates the estimated time to completion of the call , step 90 and notifies this updated estimate to the algorithm in step 86 . thus , whereas conventional algorithms are only notified of the call commencement , the estimated time to completion , and the call termination , this algorithm is provided with variations to the estimated time to completion as the call progresses . when each such updated estimate is provided , the current outbound call rate can be adjusted to take account of the new estimated time to completion , in step 92 . the process continues in this way as further event notifications of progress through the script are received , step 94 , with each such relevant event leading to an updated estimate , step 90 . when notification is received that the script or call has been completed , step 96 , a wrap up time for that agent is estimated , step 98 , and this is notified to the algorithm in step 86 . the skilled person will appreciate that by varying the estimated time of outbound call rates , an improved management of a call centre can be obtained , with consequent increases in efficiency for the call centre and less likelihood of breaching regulatory limits on the number of dropped calls . further use for the event notifications is shown in fig4 . this process is carried out in software running within a supervisor workstation . the software subscribes to the aggregator for call progress events ( i . e . trigger events based on the outbound campaign script as described previously ), step 100 . in step 102 , a supervisor can input into the software application a definition of combinations of agent identifiers and particular script trigger events , step 102 , such events when occurring on the specified agent &# 39 ; s workstation , being referred to herein as “ flag ” events . as each agent works through the script on each call , the trigger events specified in the campaign script are notified to the aggregator , as described previously , step 104 . the software application running on the supervisor workstation may subscribe for all such events , or may only subscribe for a limited sub - set of events . the subscription can be placed on the supervisor &# 39 ; s input on step 102 . in preferred embodiments , the supervisor workstation will subscribe for all events , and this will then allow the supervisor to filter for flag events based on the input in step 102 . thus , the supervisor &# 39 ; s workstation application receives an updated status of each call &# 39 ; s progression , step 106 , and of the occurrence of a flag event , step 108 . matching the specified trigger event and agent identifier in step 102 , various possibilities are available , depending on the wishes of the system designer . first , the supervisor can be alerted by an alert appearing on the screen of the supervisor workstation , step 110 . alternatively , or additionally , an automated call recorder can be conferenced into the call automatically step 112 . as a further alternative or additionally , the supervisor may be conferenced automatically into the call , step 114 . the skilled person will appreciate that in conventional systems , call monitoring is either conducted on a random basis , or the supervisor must listen to an agent &# 39 ; s call without knowing in advance whether or not the agent will reach the point in the script in which the supervisor has a particular interest . by employing the agent &# 39 ; s workstation to notify trigger events to the supervisor &# 39 ; s workstation ( using , in this embodiment , the intermediary of the event notification aggregator ), improved supervision can be achieved . it should be appreciated that the event notification aggregator can be omitted , and the supervisor workstation can subscribe directly to each agent workstation to be notified of events , or a subscription module may not be employed , and instead communication systems are set up between the various pieces of software to ensure event notifications arriving at the supervisor workstation from the agent workstations . in fig5 , improved real time statistics are generated according to the illustrated process . a statistics generation application ( or “ statistics package ”) is provided within the contact centre . conventionally , such statistics have been generated on a historical basis , e . g . during agent wrap up , data from the call is notified to the statistics package , which collates and aggregates the statistics for presentation to supervisors and for later reporting purposes . in fig5 , the statistics package subscribes to the aggregator for call progress events , step 120 . a statistics designer defines statistics of interest based on script events , step 122 . the statistic definitions may be revised frequently , in particular when outbound campaigns are being modified in competitive environments to optimise the effectiveness of the scripts . in such cases , the supervisors may wish to obtain information as to where the “ sticking points ” are for customers , e . g . if the wording of an offer is changed , do customers progress more frequently to the point of enquiring about price ? if the customer enquires about price , does the progress of the script indicate resistance to that price ? what happens if the wording “ discounted price ” is substituted for “ low price ” in the script ? in this way , the events within the modified script can be flagged as important for statistical monitoring purposes in step 122 . when an event is notified to the aggregator , step 124 , the statistics package receives an updated status of the call &# 39 ; s progression , step 126 as previously described . this is used to update the real time statistics , assuming that the event in question is defined as having an impact on the collation of statistics , step 128 . such statistics may optionally be notified to the supervisor &# 39 ; s workstation , step 130 . in this way , the operation of the call centre in real time can be monitored , and the generation of statistics can be varied in a more useful and time effective manner . the invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein but can be amended or modified without departing from the scope of the present invention .
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the present invention finds particular application in a decimal character execution unit for executing a predetermined class of instructions , namely decimal arithmetic and character operations . before describing the present invention , it will be helpful to understand its operating environment , which will now be described . referring to fig1 a central processing unit ( cpu ) is shown as a module of a data processing system ( dps ) 10 . a first central processing unit ( cpu 0 ) 20 and a second central processing unit ( cpu 1 ) 20 &# 39 ; comprise the cpu modules of dps 10 , each having full program execution capability and performing the actual information processing of the data processing system 10 . cpu 0 20 and cpu 1 20 &# 39 ; are each operatively connected to a first main memory unit ( mmuo ) 21 and a second main memory unit ( mmu1 ) 21 &# 39 ;, through a first central interface unit ( ciu 0 ) 22 and a second central interface unit ( ciu 1 ) 22 &# 39 ;, respectively . mmu 0 and mmu 1 store programs and data utilized by cpu 0 and cpu 1 . ciu 0 and ciu 1 act as the memory managers for the respective memories . ciu 0 and ciu 1 are each connected to an input / output multiplexer ( iox ) 23 which provides an interface between the mmu and the various system peripherals . all cpu communication and interaction with other system modules is via the ciu . the dps 10 of fig1 shows a two cpu / two ciu configuration . it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various configurations are possible , including a single ciu / cpu configuration . referring to fig2 there is shown a block diagram of the preferred embodiment of the cpu 20 in which the present invention may be found . a cache memory ( or more simply cache ) 201 is provided for storing small blocks of words read from the main memory unit 21 . the small blocks of words stored in cache 201 contain some instruction words and data words ( or operand words ) which will presently be executed and operated on by the execution units of cpu 20 . an instruction unit 202 is included which comprises an instruction prefetch logic 203 and an instruction execution pipeline 204 . the instruction prefetch logic 203 provides the instruction execution pipeline 204 with a supply of instructions to be executed . this is accomplished by including logic to predict the instruction sequence , prefetching instruction words from the cache memory 201 , and storing them within the instruction prefetch logic block 203 . the instruction execution pipeline 204 ( also referred to herein as a central unit pipeline structure ( cups )) performs the steps required for the execution of an instruction in individual stages . the first stage ( i - decode ) 205 receives the instruction to be executed from the instruction prefetch logic 203 and decodes the instruction . the second stage ( prepare address ) 206 prepares the virtual address . the third stage ( page / cache ) 207 performs a paging operation of the operand address and cache directory lookup . the fourth stage ( compare / select ) 208 initiates an operand access from cache 201 or from the main memory unit 21 in the case of a cache miss . the fifth stage ( execute / transmit ) 209 performs the actual execution of the instruction or dispatches information to an appropriate execution unit for execution . in the preferred embodiment of the cpu , while all instructions must pass through all five stages of the central unit pipeline structure 204 , not all instructions are fully executed in the fifth stage 209 of the pipeline . some instructions are transmitted to other execution units outside the central unit pipeline structure 204 , while the central unit pipeline structure 204 continues execution of succeeding instructions . the fifth stage 209 includes a basic operations execution unit ( not shown ) and central execution unit ( not shown ). the basic operations execution unit ( not shown ) performs the execution of those predetermined instructions which may be classified as basic operations . these are mostly very simple instructions requiring one or two cycles , including fixed point arithmetic ( except multiply and divide ), boolean operations , fixed point comparisons , register loads and shift operations . the central execution unit ( not shown ) executes a different set of predetermined instructions which refer to other instructions , move the contents of address registers or address related quantities between registers and storage , or alter processor stages . three additional instruction execution units are provided outside the central unit pipeline structure 204 . a binary arithmetic execution unit 210 ( binau ) performs the execution of both binary and hexadecimal arithmetic operations and a fixed point multiply and divide . a decimal character execution unit ( deccu ) 211 executes instructions involving decimal arithmetic , move and translate operations , character manipulations and binary string operations . the virtual memory execution unit ( vmsm ) 212 performs the execution of many privileged instructions including segment descriptor register manipulation , and handling fault and interrupt situations which manipulate the respective fault and interrupt registers . each of the aforementioned execution units receives operands from the cache 201 , and instructions ( or commands ) and descriptors from logic ( not shown ) of the fifth stage 209 . further , each execution unit usually operates independently of any activity occurring in the other execution units . a collector execution unit , or more simply collector , 213 is the execution unit for most store instructions and is also the final execution unit involved in all other instructions . the collector 213 retrieves results from various results stacks of the other execution units , and updates cache 201 through a ports unit 214 . the collector 213 also keeps a master copy of all program visible registers ( not shown ). the collector 213 permits the execution units to generate results independently and at different rates of speed , then updates the respective registers and cache in the original program sequence . the collector is more fully described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 434 , 129 filed 13 oct . 1982 , entitled &# 34 ; collector &# 34 ; by r . guenthner , g . edington , l . trubisky , and j . circello , assigned to the same assigness as the present application , the aforementioned application being incorporated by reference herein to the extent necessary for an understanding of the present invention . the ports unit 214 handles the ciu / cpu command interface processing , and the hierarchy control communication , i . e ., the ciu / cpu memory hierarchy . although the preferred embodiment of the cpu 20 described above includes among its features paging , a 5 - stage pipeline , instruction prefetch , virtual addressing , etc ., it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the architecture of the dps 10 or the cpu 20 described above is in no way intended to limit the decimal character execution unit 211 ( or more simply decimal character unit ) or to limit the present invention incorporated into the decimal character unit . referring to fig3 there is shown a 36 - bit computer word of the preferred embodiment having a nine - bit character format , a four - bit character format , and a six - bit character format . the nine - bit character format ( fig3 a ), also referred to as unpacked data , utilizes 9 bits to define a character , bits 0 - 8 , 9 - 17 , 18 - 26 , and 27 - 35 defining characters 0 , 1 , 2 and 3 , respectively . the four - bit character format ( fig3 b ), also referred to as packed data , utilizes four bits to define a character , bits 1 - 4 , 5 - 8 , 10 - 13 , 14 - 17 , 19 - 22 , 23 - 26 , 28 - 31 , and 32 - 35 , defining characters 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 7 , respectively . characters 0 and 1 of the four - bit character format are defined by dividing character 0 of the nine - bit character format in half . the remaining bit assigned to the high order bit ( i . e ., the left most bit as shown in the figure ), bit 0 , is essentially a &# 34 ; dont &# 39 ; t care &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; irregular &# 34 ; bit . likewise , characters 2 and 3 , 4 and 5 , and 6 and 7 , of the four - bit character format is defined by dividing characters 1 , 2 , and 3 of the nine - bit character format , respectively , in half . the high order bit , or dont &# 39 ; t care bit , of the four - bit character format word , bits 0 , 9 , 18 and 27 can always be set to zero . the six - bit character format ( fig1 c ) utilizes 6 bits to define a character , bits 0 - 5 , 6 - 11 , 12 - 17 , 18 - 23 , 24 - 29 , and 30 - 35 defining characters 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 respectively . four additional bits in both the 9 and 4 bit character formats p 0 , p 1 , p 2 , and p 3 , can be carried along as the parity bits of respective characters . the &# 34 ; don &# 39 ; t care &# 34 ; bit of the four - bit character bit is utilized , in the preferred embodiment , as a parity bit , and will be described in detail hereinunder . fig4 a shows the computer instruction format of the preferred embodiment . the instruction word is the first word of the grouping and resides in the main memory unit 21 of the dps 10 at a location y . up to three operand descriptor words , or simply descriptor words , reside in contiguous locations y + 1 , y + 2 , and y + 3 , the number of descriptor words being determined by the particular instruction word . the instruction word contains the operation code , op code , which defines the operation to be performed by the cpu . a second field mf 1 is the modification field which describes the address modification that is performed for descriptor 1 . a third field , the variable field , contains additional information concerning the operation to be performed and will differ from instruction to instruction . when descriptors 2 and 3 are present , the variable field will contain information to describe the address modification to be performed on these operands . the descriptor words can be either the operand descriptor or an indirect word which points to the operand descriptor . the operand descriptors which describe the data to be used in the operation , and provide the address for obtaining it from the main memory unit 21 are shown in fig4 b , 4c , and 4d . a different operand descriptor format is required for each of the three data types , the three data types comprising the bit string , alpha - numeric , and numeric types . the field denoted y defines the original data word address , c defines the original character position within a word of nine bit characters , b defines the original bit position within a 9 bit character , and n defines either the number of characters or bits in the data string or a 4 - bit code which specifies a register that contains the number of characters or bits . cn defines the original character number within the data word referenced by the data word address . ta defines the code that defines which type alpha - numeric characters are in the data , i . e ., 9 bit , 6 bit , or 4 bit . tn defines a code which defines which type numeric characters are specified , i . e ., 9 bit or 4 bit . s defines the sign and decimal type , that is leading sign - floating point , leading sign - scaled , trailing sign - scaled , or no sign - scaled . sf defines the scale factor , the scale factor being treated as a power of 10 exponent where a positive number moves the scaled decimal point to the right and a negative number moves the scaled decimal point to the left . the decimal point is assumed to be immediately to the right of the least significant digit . referring to fig5 there is shown the decimal character execution unit ( deccu ) 211 in functional block diagram form where the apparatus of the present invention can be found . the deccu 211 is the execution unit of the cpu 20 for a predetermined set of multiword instructions , including decimal arithmetic instructions , various character manipulation instructions , and instructions which operate on binary strings . the deccu 211 is partitioned into two functional units , the character unit ( dcu ) 30 and the arithmetic unit ( dau ) 40 . the dcu 30 comprises two stages , a first stage 31 , and a second stage 32 . the dau 40 comprises the third stage of the deccu 211 . the deccu 211 receives operands from cache 201 and command information from instruction unit 202 . the cache 201 and instruction unit 202 comprise the central unit 200 which is also operatively connected to main memory 21 . results from the deccu 211 are transmitted to cache 201 ( via the action of the collector 213 as discussed . the dcu 30 executes the character manipulation instructions including bit string instructions , and the dau 40 executes the arithmetic instructions . the instructions executed by deccu 211 are listed in table 1 . a complete description of each instruction is included in a honeywell software document entitled , &# 34 ; dps 8 assembly instructions ,&# 34 ; copyright 1980 by honeywell information systems inc . ( order no . dh03 - 00 ), and can be referred to for more detailed information . referring to fig6 a functional block diagram of the stages ( or also referred to herein as levels ) of the deccu 211 is shown . the first stage 31 receives instruction and descriptor information from the instruction unit 202 , and further receives the operand information from cache 201 . the operands are stored in an input buffer 310 within the first stage 31 , and the instructions are decoded and held in temporary registers and control flip flops of the first stage 31 . table 1______________________________________alphanumericmlr move alphanumeric left to rightmrl move alphanumeric right to leftmvt move alphanumeric with translationcmpc compare alphanumeric character stringscd scan character doublescdr scan character double in reversetct test character and translatetctr test character and translate in reversescm scan with maskscmr scan with mask in reverseeis numericmvn move numericcmpn compare numericad3d add using three decimal operandsad2d add using two decimal operandssb3d subtract using three decimal operandssb2d subtract using two decimal operandsmp3d multiply using three decimal operandsmp2d multiply using two decimal operandsdv3d divide using three decimal operandsdv2d divide using two decimal operandseis bit stringcsl combine bit strings leftcsr combine bit strings rightsztl set zero and truncation indicator with bit strings leftsztr set zero and truncation indicator with bit strings rightcmpb compare bit stringseis conversiondtb decimal to binary convertbtd binary to decimal converteis edit movemve move alphanumeric editedmvne move numeric editednew eis multiwordcmpct compare characters and translatemrf move to register formatmmf move to memory formatten instructions : ebcdic / overpunched sign capabilitymvnxcmpnxad3dxad2dxsb3dxsb2dxmp3dxmp2dxdv3dxdv2dxmvnex move numeric edited extended______________________________________ second stage 32 contains edit logic 321 , sign / exp logic 322 , alignment network 323 , and compare network 324 required to perform the character manipulation and alignment operations . the output of the second stage 32 is either the final result which is transmitted to an output buffer 311 to be stored in cache 201 , or is aligned data passed to the dau 40 . the dau 40 , which comprises the third stage of the deccu 211 , performs the arithmetic operation on the aligned data ( arithmetic operation may also be referred to herein as numeric execution ). each stage of the deccu 211 will be described in detail hereinunder . the input buffer 310 and output buffer 311 of the decimal character unit is shown in fig7 . the input buffer 310 comprises a first and second operand input stack , rdca and rdcb 330 and 331 , respectively ( also referred to as stack a and stack b , respectively ), and an instruction / descriptor input buffer 333 , ibuf . a third stack rdcc 332 ( also referred to as a wraparound buffer or stack c ) forms the wraparound buffer for repetitive decimal numeric operations of the present invention and will be described in further detail hereinunder . a first and second switch 334 and 335 ( also denoted as the zdca and zdcb switches , respectively ) is included as part of input buffer 310 . first switch 334 is operatively connected to stack a 330 and stack c 332 for transferring selected data , zdca , to alignment network 323 . second switch 335 is operatively connected to stack a 330 , stack b 331 , and stack c 332 for transferring selected data zdcb to compare network 324 . a rewrite register 336 , rwrt , is operatively connected to stack b 331 , the output of rwrt being connected to output buffer 311 . the loading of ibuf 333 , and the operand input stacks 330 , 331 is from cups 204 and cache 201 , respectively under the control of cups 204 . the ibuf 333 is a 16 word by 36 bit buffer . upon receipt of an instruction available signal from cups 204 , an instruction / descriptor word is read into the corresponding location of ibuf 333 . ibuf is organized in 4 four - word blocks , thereby capable of storing up to a maximum of four instructions at a time . the first word of the block is for storing the instruction word i , the second word of the block is for the first descriptor word d1 , the third word of the block is for the second descriptor word d2 and the fourth word of the block is for the third descriptor word , if any . the information contained in the instruction / descriptor words is transferred to the various control logic for the generation of control signals to effect the execution of the functions required to execute the instruction . an ibuf - full control signal is sent to cups 204 when ibuf 333 is full . the format of the instruction / descriptor words and the significant control signals are described in the related patent application , paragraph ( 4 ) identified above and incorporated by reference herein . operand input data ( also denoted by signal name rd ) is loaded into stack a 330 and stack b 331 as a function of the instruction . in the preferred embodiment , stack a 330 and stack b 331 are each 16 word × 72 - bit memory devices . double word writes are made into the operand stacks 330 , 331 and can hold operands awaiting execution for a maximum of 4 instructions . when the deccu 211 receives a control signal from cups 204 indicating operands are available , the operands are fetched by doubleword reads . the input operands are loaded into stacks a and b 330 , 331 according to steering control signals . an operand full control signal is transmitted to the cups 204 from the deccu 211 when either operand stack is full . a stack full signal from stack a 330 and a stack full signal from stck b 331 is ored to generate the operand full control signal to cups 204 . operand 1 data is loaded into stack a 330 , and operand 2 data is loaded into stack b 331 for character type instructions . operand 1 and operand 2 data are loaded into stack a 330 for numeric - type instructions ( instructions sometimes being referred to as operations or ops ). rewrite data and translated data are loaded into stack b 331 . the loading of the operands into the operand stacks is selected according to the instructions as shown in table 2 . table 2______________________________________deccu stack a stack binstruction rdca rdcb______________________________________mlr , mrl op1 op2mrf , mmf op1 -- mvt op1 op2 , op3mve , mvne op1 op2 , op3tct , tctr op1 op2scm , scd op1 op2cmpc op1 op2cmpct op1 op2 , op3csl , cmpb , sztl op1 op2dtb op1 , op2 -- btd op1 op2mvn op1 , op2 op2ad2d , mp2d op1 , op2 op2ad3d , mp3d op1 , op2 op3cmpn op1 , op2 -- lpl , spl op1 -- ______________________________________ operand data can be read from stack a 330 a double word at a time if it is to be packed 9 - bit to 4 - bit . this can occur with unpacked numeric operands and the mlr and mrl instructions . otherwise the operand data is read on a single word basis . operands from stack b 331 are single word reads . rewrite data from stack b 333 is loaded into the rwrt ( the rewrite register ) 336 by a double word read . it can be seen that either a double word can be selected from stack a 330 or two single words from stack a 330 and b 331 by the zdca and zdcb switches 334 , 335 , but not both . deccu numeric results are stored in stack c 332 as well as result stack rdrs 314 ( the result stack will be described in detail hereinunder in conjunction with the output buffer 311 ) in case the result is to be one of the input operands for a numeric instruction immediately following . the normal operand fetches for that operand are cancelled , and that operand is read instead from stack c 332 thereby eliminating the delay introduced by waiting for the writing of the data into cache 201 followed by reading the data from cache 201 , the delay referred to as a store - load break . the reading of operand data ( also referred to as wraparound data ) from stack c 332 ( also referred to as the wraparound buffer ) will be described in further detail hereinunder . wraparound data from stack c 332 can be read on either a double word or single word basis just as if the operand were in stack a 330 . the selected operand data , zdca and zdcb , are sent to the alignment network 323 for alignment , to the compare network 324 for character comparison and selection , and to the sign / exp logic 322 to extract signs and exponents . the control logic , which will be described in detail hereinunder , generates the read and write addresses for the stack a 330 , stack b 331 , and stack c 332 . the control logic also generates the select controls for the zdca and zdcb switches 334 , 335 . in addition , the control logic generates data available signals that allow the input registers of the alignment network 323 and the compare network 324 to be loaded . the control logic signals the cups 204 when ten or more locations in either stack a 330 or stack b 331 are used to prevent writing over good data . the output buffer 311 comprises a 1 - of - 4 select double word register 312 ( more simply referred to as the rdcr register ), having inputs zds , arithmetic results from dau 40 , zas from alignment network 323 , and resultant output from edit logic 321 ( rwc register to be discussed hereinunder ). an output buffer selected switch 313 ( or more simply referred to as zdcr switch ) receives inputs from rdcr register 312 , rwrt register 336 , the sign , ovp data from sign / exp logic 322 , and the exp , fill data from compare network 324 . the data selected by the zdcr switch 313 is stored in a results stack rdrs 314 . the results stack rdrs 314 is a 16 word by 72 bit memory device or stack . the results stack 314 stores data to be stored in cache 201 via a rcwr register 315 . the output buffer 311 also includes an indicator results stack 316 and a fault results stack 317 . indicator results stack 316 is a 14 bit × 15 high stack , and fault results stack 317 is a 3 bit × 15 high stack . inputs are received from edit control logic and output results are transferred to the collector 213 . the format of the deccu instruction / descriptor words is shown in fig8 . the words are generated by the cups 204 in the format shown . the instruction word includes the scale factor and sign information of the first operand . this format is important from timing considerations which will be described in detail hereinunder . sf , indicates scale factor for numeric operands . typ identifies the data type as follows : 00 for 9 - bit format , 01 for 6 - bit data , and 10 for 4 - bit data . sn indicates sign and decimal type for numerics . seq # inidicates a sequence number and fill is the fill character field . dcw indicates position within double word of first character , bp indicates position within first byte of first bit , and w indicates this operand is in stack c 332 . ln indicates the length of operand n , zn is set if ln is zero , and gn is set if ln is greater than 256 . referring to fig9 there is shown a logic block diagram of the control logic for reading ( and writing ) operand data from stack a 330 . the control logic can read operand data stored in stack a 330 in a forward or reverse direction , wherein the operand data can be multiple variable length data . the first operand input stack 330 ( stack a ) stores operand data , stack a being a 16 high × 72 bit stack . as mentioned above , the computer word of the preferred embodiment of cpu 20 is a 36 - bit word . therefore , each addressable location of the stack a 330 is a double word . the stack a 330 is divided into an even and odd half , each half storing single computer words , bits 0 - 35 define the even half of the stack and bits 36 - 71 define the odd half of the stack . control logic 500 , which controls the reading and writing of operand data into stack a 330 , includes a write address register ( rdca - wa ) 501 and a read address register ( rdca - ra ) 502 , both registers being operatively connected to stack a 330 . operand data from the central unit 200 is stored into sequential locations indicated by a write address value stored in the write address register rdca - wa 501 , the write address value denoted herein as the write address pointer ( wa or wa pointer ), and the write address value being incremented by one by an adder add 503 . the first write address value of a set of data is also a starting address value for that data set , and is stored in a starting address register ( rdca - sa ) 504 . the starting address register 504 is a 4 - high × 4 - bit bank of registers . since as many as four sets of operand data can be stored in stack a 330 ( a data set being associated with an instruction ), four starting address values ( sa or sa pointer ) can be stored in the starting address register 504 and four bits are required to address the 16 locations of stack a 330 ( the numbers in the parenthesis of fig1 indicate the bits , e . g ., 0 - 3 references bits 0 through bits 3 ). the starting address register 504 is operatively connected to the read address register 502 through a start address switch 505 . the start address switch 505 operates to load the read address register 502 with either the start address value or the sum from adder2 403 . the start address value stored in the starting address register 504 is concatenated with a wa - 4 signal ( one bit , bit 4 of wa , whereby a 0 value indicates the even half of stack a , and a 1 value indicates the odd half of stack a ) and makes up the rdca - sa : wa - 4 signal . the sum from adder2 403 comprises the adca - ra signal . the wa - 4 signal is the output of odd / even memory switch 510 . the wa - 4 signal ( from odd / even select switch 510 ), which indicates the odd or even half of memory for single word reads , is generated by selecting the word bit from the ibuf 333 for the operand to be read , namely , bit 0 or d 1 for operand 1 and bit 0 of d 2 for operand 2 . since double word reads are performed on double word boundaries ( i . e ., from bits 0 to 71 ), the wa - 4 signal from odd / even select switch 510 for double word reads is a logic ` 0 `. included as part of control logic 500 is adder1 506 which adds the length of the operand ( l - 1 ) and the position within the double word of the first character ( p ). these quantities are received from cups 204 is discussed above in conjunction with fig8 . the output of adder 1 506 indicates the number of double words minus one which are to be loaded and defined as signal apr ( 0 - 4 ). the apr signal is loaded into a constant register ( rdca - k ) 507 via an apr switch 508 and a constant switch 509 . the output of apr switch 508 is a zapr signal which is either the apr signal or two times the apr signal , the apr signal being utilized for four - bit data format words ( packed data ) and two times the apr signal being used for the nine - bit data format words ( unpacked data ). adder1 506 and apr switch 508 are utilized for detecting a predetermined trailing character , described more fully in the application of related patent applications par ( 5 ). adder2 403 generates the read address by adding the current read address stored in read address register 502 to a constant value stored in the constant register 507 , the resulting sum being loaded in read address register 502 via start address switch 505 . the constant switch 509 is utilized in part for controlling the selection of single word reads or double word reads of stack a 330 and for controlling the forward or reverse read of the operand data stored in stack a 330 as will be described in further detail hereinunder . although not shown , it is understood that a duplicate set of control logic 500 &# 39 ; exists for stack b 331 ( the reference numerals with a prime denote the duplicate element for the stack b control logic ). the operation of the control logic 500 for reading operand data from the input stacks 330 , 331 , will now be described in conjunction with fig9 , and 11 . fig1 shows a timing diagram of the steps performed in the overall operation of the control logic 500 for the reading of stack a 330 in a forward or reverse direction . for purposes of example , assume that operand data is loaded into stack a 330 ( rdca ) and stack b 331 ( rdcb ) starting at location 4 and location 2 , respectively , as shown in fig1 a , a cross - hatched area denoting the words to be read . further , for purposes of example here , the first word to be read from stack a 330 is in the odd half of location 4 of stack a 330 , and the first word to be read from stack b 331 is in the even half of location 2 . in the execution of the instruction shown here starting at cycle 6 , such as a cmpc instruction , the operand data stored a 330 will be read . the starting address of the data in stack a 330 will have a binary value of 4 ( 0100 ) in this example . thus , the starting address register ( rdca - sa ) 504 will contain the starting address value of 4 . the starting address value contained in starting address register rdca - sa 504 will be selected by start address switch 505 along with the wa - 4 signal which indicates the odd or even half of memory , in this example the wa - 4 signal will have a value of 1 indicating the odd half of memory . the start address switch 505 initially selects switch position 0 and subsequently selects switch position 1 . therefore , the read address register 502 will contain the rdca - sa : wa - 4 value , that is , the start address value concatenated with the wa - 4 signal ( a resultant binary value of 01001 ). constant switch 509 selects position 0 such that constant register 507 will contain a binary value of 00001 . switch position 0 of constant switch 509 is for forward signal word reads , switch position 1 ( a constant value of 2 ) is for forward double word reads , and switch position 2 whereby xxx varies between logic one and logic zero , i . e ., a value of - 1 and + 3 is for reverse reads . position 0 of constant switch 509 is selected here since single word reads from the stack are to be performed , i . e ., a single word of 36 bits is to be read . during cycle 7 , the stack a 330 location is read as specified by the read address register 502 , in this example the odd half of location 4 will be read and directed to the alignment register 341 . also , the control signal fanld1 is set to enable the loading of the operand into the raln register 341 . also , during cycle 7 , the reading of stack b 331 is initiated . the starting address value of stack b , in this example a value of 2 , which has been stored in the starting address register for stack b ( rdcb - sa ) 504 &# 39 ; is loaded into the read address register for stack b ( rdcb - ra ) 502 &# 39 ;. [ note here that the ` b ` designation and prime nomenclature indicates the equivalent elements of the duplicated control logic 500 &# 39 ; for the control for stack b .] also , the constant kb is loaded into the constant register for stack b ( rdcb - k ) 507 &# 39 ;. also during cycle 7 , the value initially stored in the read address register 502 ( 01001 binary ) is added to the value stored in the constant register ( 00001 binary ) by adder2 403 , and stored in the read address register 502 through the start address switch 505 , the start address switch on subsequent cycles selecting position 1 ( i . e ., the adca - ra signal ). during cycle 8 the value now stored in read address register 502 ( 01010 binary ), the value specifying the even half of location 5 of memory , is now read and transmitted to the alignment register 341 . the value stored in the read address register 502 ( 01010 binary ) is added to the value stored in the constant register 507 ( 00001 binary ) and transmitted to the read address register 502 . the constant register 507 is loaded with constant k ( position 0 , having a value of 00001 binary ). also during cycle 8 , the value stored in read address register rdcb - ra 502 &# 39 ; ( having a value of 00100 binary ) specifies the location to be read from stack b 331 , namely the even half of memory of location 2 . the word read from stack b 331 is transmitted to the rcmp register 380 of the compare network 324 . the control signal fanld2 is raised to enable the loading of the data read from stack b into the rcmp register 380 . the value stored in the read address register rdcb - ra 502 &# 39 ; ( 00100 binary ) and the value stored in constant register rdcb - k 507 &# 39 ; ( a value of 00001 binary ) is added by adder2 403 &# 39 ; resulting in a sum having a value of 00101 binary , this value specifying the odd half of location 2 of memory , and is directed to the read address register rdcb - ra 502 &# 39 ;. cycle 9 repeats the steps of cycle 8 , reading the next sequential word from the stack from the respective stacks , until cycle 11 when all the data has been read . from the above example , it can be seen that adding a constant of + 1 to the old read address value achieves the forward single word read operation . since the address of stack a 330 is defined by the upper four bits n of fig1 b ( i . e ., bits 0 -- 3 of the read address value in read address register 502 ), and bit 4 ( m of fig1 b ) indicates the odd or even half of the stack a 330 , it can be seen that a constant of + 2 adds a one to the address value each cycle , resulting in a sequential double word read . the m bit ( wa - 4 signal from the odd / even memory select switch 510 ) is a logic 0 for double word reads , as discussed above . for a reverse single word read , the operand data is loaded in stack a 330 as shown in fig1 c by the central unit 200 . for reverse reads , it is desired to read the data out lsb first . in this case , the initial value loaded into the read address register is 00011 binary indicating the odd half of location 1 of stack a 330 ( this is the value of the rdca - sa : wa - 4 signal ). on the next cycle the constant of - 1 is added to the value contained in the read address register 502 . this is achieved by selecting switch position 2 of constant switch 509 in which the values of x are caused by control logic ( not shown ) to have a logic 1 value . this results in an output signal adca - ra from adder2 403 to have a 00010 binary value which is the even half of location 1 of stack a 330 . this is the location read out on this cycle . on the subsequent cycle , a constant of + 3 is added to the value of the read address register 502 , the value in the read address register now being 00010 binary . the constant of + 3 is formed by the control logic causing x to have a logic 0 value which when added to the contents of the read address register 502 results in a sum ( adca - ra signal ) of 00101 which is the odd half of location 2 . thus it can be seen that a reverse single word read occurs by causing the constant values selected to vary between - 1 and + 3 on alternate cycles . cycles 1 through 5 are utilized by the central unit 200 to fetch and decode the instruction as explained in detail in related application , noted in paragraph ( 4 ) above . the control signal flvl2 - bsy indicates the second stage of the deccu 211 is busy . it was assumed in the above example that the stack a 330 and stack b had been loaded sometime prior to cycle 6 . the operand data selection from the input stacks , stack a 330 ( rdca ) and stack b 331 ( rdcb ), incorporating stack c ( rdcc ) 332 ( i . e ., the wraparound buffer ) of the present invention will now be described . referring to fig1 , there is shown a functional block diagram of the data processing system ( dps ) 10 specifically showing the data flow through the dps 10 . operand data is loaded into stack a 330 and stack b 331 from cache 201 under control of cups 204 . the first switch 334 is operatively connected to stack a 330 and the second switch 335 is operatively connected to stack b 331 , and is also operatively connected to stack a 330 . stack a 330 and stack b 331 are each operatively connected to execution logic 390 , as discussed above , the execution logic 390 comprising edit logic 321 , sign / exp logic 322 , alignment network 323 , compare network 324 , and dau 40 . the output of the execution logic 390 ( results ) is transferred to the results stack rdrs 314 and wraparound buffer 332 via rdcr register 312 and the output buffer select switch 313 . the data stored in the result stack 314 is subsequently stored in cache 201 under control of the collector 213 , as discussed above . the output of wraparound buffer 332 is further operatively connected to first switch 334 and second switch 335 . hence , the results stored in wraparound buffer 332 can also be used as an input operand by the next instruction . ( note that the result is a completed or final result of the extended instruction and not a temporary or partial result that would occur during the execution of the instruction .) in cases where the operand can be obtained from the wraparound buffer 332 rather than from the cache 201 , a speedup is realized since the fetch from cache 201 is eliminated . the conditions which allow an operand to be obtained from the wraparound buffer 332 rather than from the cache 201 are detected by the cups 204 , and are as follows : a . the immediately preceding instruction must have been one of the following : b . the current instruction must be one that requires a numeric input operand . instructions in this category are : c . the result descriptor for the immediately preceding instruction must compare exactly with the input descriptor for the current instruction . d . the mf fields ( discussed above in conjunction with fig4 ) associated with these descriptors must also compare exactly . when these conditions are detected , the cups 204 sets the &# 34 ; w &# 34 ; bit in the descriptor sent to the deccu 211 indicating that the input operand is to be fetched from the wraparound buffer 332 . ( the w bit of the descriptor was discussed above in conjunction with fig8 .) still referring to fig1 , select control logic 391 receives inputs from ibuf 333 , including the w bit and provides the control to first and second switches 334 , 335 for selecting the input operand , the select control logic to be discussed in further detail hereinunder . referring to fig1 , there is shown the control logic 500 &# 34 ; for reading ( and writing ) operand data from wraparound buffer 332 . the wraparound buffer 332 of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is a 16 - high × 72 - bit stack . data is input from the output buffer select switch 313 by double word writes ( i . e ., 72 bits ) and can be packed or unpacked data . a single register , read / write register 502 &# 34 ;, is provided for addressing the wraparound buffer 332 for read and write operations . when data is to be loaded into wraparound buffer 332 , a start address switch 505 &# 34 ;, operatively connected to the read / write register 502 &# 34 ;, initially loads the read / write register 502 &# 34 ; with zero value . hence , data is always loaded into wraparound buffer 332 starting at location 0 . adder2 403 &# 34 ;, operatively connected to the read / write register 502 &# 34 ; and also operatively connected to a constant register 507 &# 34 ;, decrements the current address contained in read / write register 502 &# 34 ; by the value of the constant provided by constant register 507 &# 34 ;. hence , the next address loaded in wraparound buffer 332 will be location 15 . a wa - 4 signal for indicating odd / even half of wraparound buffer 332 , and a constant switch 509 &# 34 ; for providing the constant to constant register 507 &# 34 ; corresponding to packed or unpacked data , are provided in control logic 500 &# 34 ;. from the above discussion , it can be seen that data is therefore loaded into wraparound buffer 332 as shown in fig1 . referring to fig1 , the wraparound buffer 332 is shown after the write operation is completed , and is redrawn showing the wraparound condition , i . e ., location 0 is the first location loaded , location 15 is the next contiguous location loaded , etc ., since adder2 403 &# 34 ; decrements the current address by the constant from constant register 507 &# 34 ;. the first location loaded , location 0 , will contain the least significant digit ( lsd ), since the results are generated lsd first . for a read operation , if the w1 bit is set ( i . e ., the w bit of descriptor 1 ), operand 1 data is to be obtained from the wraparound buffer 332 . since , for operand 1 data , it is desired to read the most significant digit ( msd ) first , read / write register 502 &# 34 ; will contain the address of the last value loaded , i . e ., the address of the msd . each read cycle for operand 1 data , adder2 403 &# 34 ; is incremented by the constant , thereby reading operand 1 data in the desired order . still referring to fig1 , stack a 330 contains only operand 2 data as shown . in this example , operand 2 will be read from stack a 330 starting at location 2 to obtain the msd , i . e ., to obtain the sign as described more fully in the related application of para . ( 8 ). subsequent operand 2 data is then read in order starting from location 3 , 4 . . . etc ., the data having previously been preloaded by cups 204 into stack a 330 in order that the data may then be read least significant digit first to most significant digit . this order is desired such that arithmetic operations may start without requiring the execution to be held up until all the data has been read . still referring to fig1 , and also referring to fig1 , the read sequence of the above example is in accordance with table 1 . the first step reads the msd of operand 1 ( op 1 ) data , the operation of the control logic 500 &# 34 ; being as discussed above . the select control logic 391 causes first select switch 334 to select position 2 on the first read cycle and then position 3 on the second read cycle for packed data . for unpacked data select control logic 391 causes first select switch 334 to select position 2 and causes second select switch 335 to select position 1 . the second step reads operand 2 ( op 2 ) data from stack a 330 , the select control logic 391 selecting the positions of the select switches as indicated in table 1 . step 3 reads op 1 data from wraparound buffer 332 , step 3 being repeated as many times as is necessary to read all of the op 1 data . step 4 reads op 2 data and is repeated as often as is required to read all of the op 2 data from stack a 330 . referring to fig1 , there is shown a timing diagram of the read operation discussed above . starting at cycle 6 , control logic 500 &# 34 ; for reading operand 1 data from wraparound buffer 332 is set up such that at that start of cycle 7 the actual read is performed . a state flip - flop ( not shown ) forming part of select control logic 391 indicates a state fg6 ( also denoted as fg11 ). fg xy denotes the states of the logic where x = 1 or 2 signifying operand 1 or operand 2 data respectively , and where y = 1 , m , or l , signifying first word , more words , or last words . in this example , operand 1 data is read until operand 1 data is exhausted ( exh1 ), cycle 10 is this example , and then operand 2 data is read until operand 2 data is exhausted ( exh2 ). the data read from the input stacks is transferred to the alignment registers ( not shown ) as discussed more fully in the related application of para . ( 8 ). fig1 shows a state diagram corresponding to the timing diagram of fig1 . table 2 shows the constant selected by the control switch 509 of the control logic 500 . constant switch 509 &# 34 ; selects a constant of + 2 for unpacked data and a constant of + 1 for packed data . wrap1 signifies a wrap 1 condition in which the w bit of descriptor 1 is set , i . e ., operand 1 data is to be fetched from the wraparound buffer 332 . wrap2 indicates a wrap 2 condition , that is operand 2 data is to be obtained from the wraparound buffer 332 . table 1______________________________________ select read 1st switch 2nd switchstep data from for 334 position 335 position______________________________________1 op1 rdcc packed 2 , 3 -- unpacked 2 12 op2 rdca packed 0 , 1 -- unpacked 0 03 op1 rdcc packed 2 , 3 -- unpacked 2 14 op2 rdca packed 0 , 1 -- unpacked 0 0______________________________________ table 2______________________________________constant selected unpacked packedstate data data condition______________________________________fg6 2 2 no wrap 0 0 wrap1 2 1 wrap2fg21 2 - 1 wa - 4 = 0 2 2 wa - 4 = 1 2 2 wrap1 notfg12 2 3 wa - 4 = 0 exh1 2 1 wa - 4 = 1 2 1 wrap2fg1m 2 1fg21 2 2fg12 2 3 wa - 4 = 0 exh1 2 2 wa - 4 = 1fg1m 2 2fg2l 2 3 wa - 4 = 0 2 - 1 wa - 4 = 1fg2m 2 3 wa - 4 = 0 2 - 1 wa - 4 = 1______________________________________ referring to fig1 , there is shown a logic circuit diagram of the select control logic 391 for causing the first select switch 334 and the second select switch 335 to select the operand data from the proper input stack . the input stack is selected in accordance with the boolean equations as follows : ## equ1 ## ( fwrap1 is a f / f set by the w1 bit .) the logic equations above indicate that if op2 data is not being read ( i . e ., op1 data is being read ) and a wrap1 condition exists , then the op1 data is to be read from rdcc ( wraparound buffer 332 ), or if op2 data is to be read and a wrap2 condition exists , then the op2 data is to be read from rdcc . rdcb is selected if the data to be read is not numeric and the data is packed data . still referring to fig1 the control signals czdca - 0 and czdca - 1 are utilized to control the first select switch 334 . likewise , signal czdcb - 0 and czdcb - 1 are utilized to control the second select switch 335 . the logic of fig1 essentially implements the select switch positions indicated in table 1 , and other combinations of op1 , op2 data and packed and unpacked data . rdcb - ra ( 4 ) is bit 4 of the read address register 502 &# 39 ;, rdca - ra ( 4 ) is bit 4 of the read address register 502 of control logic 500 shown in fig9 and rdcc - rwa ( 4 ) is the contents of read / write register 502 &# 34 ; of control logic 500 &# 34 ; of fig1 . bit 4 of these signals indicates the odd or even half of memory which is utilized in making the selection of the first or second select switch . flip flops 392 and 393 are set by the respective select signals defined above by the logic equations . while there has been shown what is considered to be the preferred embodiment of the invention , it will be manifest that many changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the essential spirit and scope of the invention . it is intended , therefore , in the annexed claims , to cover all such changes and modifications which fall within the true scope of the invention .
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referring now to the drawings in greater detail , fig1 shows in exploded view a chassis or frame 12 and a float 14 employed in the novel watercycle . the float 14 is generally do - nut shape , made of expanded or cellular plastic and provided with protective skin to shield from damage which may be caused by weather , rough handling or impact with hard objects . inflatable rubber or plastic or any other selected from highly buoyant material may also be used . underneath the front end of the float 14 is a longitudinally oriented concave portion 16 to provide sufficient room for the knees of a pedaling rider 18 like for example when the seat 20 is at higher and / or forward adjustments . an underside bulge 22 rearward of the float is provided . the bulge is adapted to displace additional volume of water in the rear portion and thereby become a buoyant booster for that portion of the watercycle wherein more weight is anticipated . channels 24 ( not shown ) are provided in the region of the underside bulge 22 to accommodate the elevated members 26 of the frame when mounting the float . the frame 12 shown in fig1 includes two generally parallel runners 28 with front ends 30 bent diagonally upwardly and joined together by a transverse member 32 , for resting the watercycle on solid surface . two generally parallel elevated members 26 are provided for suitably mounting the float thereto . the front ends 36 are bent downwardly , each connecting a respective runner 28 immediately after the upwardly bent portion 30 . the rear ends 38 of the elevated members 26 are likewise bent downwardly and each connecting a respective rear end of the runners . the frame 12 is preferably of metal tubing , closed - end in order to provide strength and added buoyancy . a horizontal twin beam 40 is provided about midway between the runners 28 and the elevated members 26 , for supporting the handlebar column 42 , rider &# 39 ; s seat 20 , plurality of pulleys 44 , 46 and 48 therealong underneath and a swivel arm 50 for the steerable propeller units 52 - a and 52 - b . a front arch 54 and a rear arch 56 are welded transversely apart at their ends along the length of the runners . the front arch 54 , with an upstanding riser 58 welded on top , supports the twin beam on its forward end . the rear portion of the twin beam 40 is welded crosswise underneath the upper portion of the rear arch 56 , for support . upper and lower plates 60 and 62 respectively are fixedly attached opposed the front end of the twin beam adapted to support a handlebar column 42 . a bushing or plain bearing 43 is affixed tight through the holes 64 and 66 ( not shown ) on the plates 60 and 62 for rotatably mounting the handlebar column 42 . a retainer collar 68 is secured to the handlebar column immediately above the plain bearing 43 to keep the handlebar column from sliding down . at a convenient distance above the collar 68 is a rather loose sleeve 70 with support braces 72 as shown , provide strength to the steering column . on the rear end of the twin beam 40 is welded with another pair of opposed upper and lower plates 74 and 76 . a plain bearing 78 is likewise affixed tight through openings 80 and 82 ( not shown ) on plates 74 and 76 for rotatably mounting the shaft portion 84 of swivel arm 50 . fixedly attached to the bottom end of the handlebar column 42 ( fig4 ) is a front or first pulley 44 , and at about mid - portion of the swivel arm shaft 84 is also attached with a rear or second pulley 46 . a center or third pulley 48 is rotatably mounted underside a plate 88 welded underneath the twin beam . fig5 shows in schematic an operative hitching of an endless actuating cord 90 onto the pulleys 44 , 46 and 48 for translating steering movement from handlebar to the steerable propeller units 52 - a and 52 - b . the cord &# 39 ; s front segment 92 , between the front and center pulleys 44 and 48 , are hitched in parallel , while the cord &# 39 ; s rear portion 94 , between the center and rear pulleys 48 and 46 respectively are crossed in figure “ 8 ” pattern . thus , when the handlebar , and hence the front pulley 44 , is rotated in one direction for example , the rear pulleys 46 including the shafted swivel arm 50 will rotate in the opposite direction , as shown . the rider &# 39 ; s seat 20 is rigidly affixed atop a threaded seat post 96 and is adjustable vertically for desired submergence of a seated rider . likewise , the seat is adjustable horizontally for convenient foot - reach to the pedals 98 . a mechanism for adjusting the seat vertically and / or horizontally is shown in fig6 , taken along line 6 — 6 of fig4 . the seat post 96 is threadably mounted to cooperating nut 100 connected fixed to a slidable base plate 102 that straddles along the twin beam 40 . a clamping plate 104 with large center opening is loosely positioned below the twin beam and being supported by flanges 106 of the guide portion 108 of the base plate 102 . a spacer 110 with large center opening is welded to the underneath of the clamping plate 104 . a wing nut 112 is threadably connected to the lower portion of the seat post 96 below spacer 110 . to adjust the seat 20 either vertically or horizontally , or both , is to first loosen the wing nut 112 until the clamping plate 104 drop down fully to about one - eight inch and thereby loosen its grip against the underside of the twin beam 40 . the slidable base plate 102 ( and thus the seat post ) is then moved forward or backward for convenient pedalling distance to the pedals 98 . and , to adjust the seat vertically , the seat , and thus the seat post , is appropriately rotated until the right height for desired submergence of the rider is obtained . finally , the wing nut 112 is tightened to secure the seat from wobbling . shown better in fig1 is a pedal unit 114 which includes a jointer 116 and cranks 118 with outwardly extending shafts 120 ( see fig7 ) on either ends and having a common axis , is utilized with this concept . the extended shafts 120 include coupling jaws 122 for connection with corresponding jaws 124 on an input shaft 126 located in a gearbox unit 128 . the coupled extended shafts 120 of the pedal unit and the input shafts 126 of the gearbox unit 128 is journalled in plain bearing 129 . the gearbox unit 128 is suitably mounted onto a support bracket 130 welded to the intermediate of the downwardly bent front ends 36 of the elevated member of the frame 12 . the gearbox unit 128 , shown in fig7 , is adapted to transform a relatively low rpm input from the pedal unit 114 into much higher rpm output for the propeller units 52 - a and 52 - b . it includes a gear train utilizing a pair of spur gears 132 - a and 132 - b and a pair of bevel gears 134 - a and 134 - b , with respective ratios . other gearing combinations familiar in the art of gearbox designed may also be used . conventional design propeller is employed to propel the watercycle of the present invention . one propeller unit is shown mounted on each side , however , any other setup may be incorporated . the front end of a main propulsion shaft 136 is connected , by use of coupling jaws 138 , to corresponding jaws 140 on the output shaft 142 of the gearbox unit 128 , as shown in fig3 and 7 . a universal joint 144 each interpose the propeller units 52 - a and 52 - b and the propulsion shafts 136 , seen better in fig3 and 5 . an upright post 146 ( fig3 ) is connected in any suitable means , on its top and bottom ends , to lugs 148 and 150 welded intermediate the elevated member 26 and the runner 28 respectively . a plain bearings 152 is positioned about mid - point of the post 146 for rotatably supporting the propeller main shaft 136 on its rear portion thereof . extended pivotal arms 154 and 156 , each with upright pivot pin 158 and 160 , are attached rigidly to post 146 . in fig3 , 4 and 8 is shown a c - frame 162 provided to support the propeller unit 52 . the c - frame is swivelable such that the supported propeller unit can swing sidewise to a certain extent . the vertical leg 164 of the c - frame is fitted with bearing 166 to rotatably support the rear end of the propeller unit . on the ends of the upper and lower horizontal legs 168 and 170 of the c - frame are lugs 172 and 174 with openings ( not shown ) for receiving pivotal pins 158 and 160 . the universal joint 144 and the pivotal pins 158 and 160 are aligned perfectly vertically , as viewed in fig3 and 8 . shown in fig5 , lugs 176 - a and 176 - b are welded horizontally inwardly to the vertical leg 164 of the c - frame in the vicinity of bearing 166 , ( see also fig3 ). lugs 176 - a and 176 - b have each an opening 178 - a and 176 - b of size on their free ends . the swivel arm 50 , located between propeller units 52 - a and 52 - b , includes adjacent openings 180 - a and 180 - b on its free end . links rods 182 - a and 182 - b have on their respective end portions a bend of about 90 - degrees . the outboard bent end 183 - a ( not shown ) of link rod 182 - a is inserted through opening 178 - a , while its inboard bent end 183 - b ( not shown ) is inserted through opening 180 - a . similarly , the outboard bent end 184 - a ( not shown ) of link rod 182 - b is inserted through opening 178 - b , while its inboard bent end 184 - b ( not shown ) is inserted through opening 180 - b . it is evident therefore that any steering movement initiated on the handlebar is imparted onto the interlinked propeller units 52 - a to better understand the steering operation of the watercycle , when a pedalling rider wants to steer to the right for example , the handlebar 186 is rotated clockwise as shown by dotted lines in fig5 . with the operative hitching arrangement of pulleys 44 , 46 , and 48 and including the cord 90 as has been earlier discussed , the swivel arm shaft 188 will rotate counter - clockwise and will cause the swivel arm 50 and including the interlinked swivelable or steerable propellers 52 - a and 52 - b to assume their new positions shown by dotted lines . hence , the rear end of the forwarding watercycle tends to swing to the left side and thereby will cause the forward end of the craft an apparent turn to the right . oppositely , to steer the watercycle to the left for example , the operation is a complete reversal of the above example just discussed . the embodiment having been described , changes in shape and form may be incorporated by those skilled in the art and such may be within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claim herein appended .
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in the design of the digital instrument control for a nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor , the master control room is responsible for signal logic operation and automatic and manual signal generation . various types of signals subject to signal logic operation come from reactor building , control room building , steam generator building and switch building , where the detection units are located . the signal actuation r equipment in the control room is also located in the above buildings . the signal transmission between buildings , switch buildings and master control room is completed through network system . to comply with the characteristic for network system to transmit digital signals only , the analog signal generated by the detection unit is converted to digital signal before entering network system . the digital signal from the network system is also converted to analog signal first to comply with the characteristic for equipment actuation to accept analog signal only . the digital instrument control design for the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor can be divided into the following eight different units , which can facilitate the simulation for signal transmission and operation by boolean algebra during fault tree analysis . the following provides details about the function and characteristics for each unit : they are responsible for detecting signals of water level , pressure , temperature and rotation speed and output continuously analog signals . they are responsible for signal conversion . when the input signals are analog , they will be converted to corresponding digital signals and sent out . when the signals are digital , they will be converted to corresponding analog signals and sent out and sent out . each signal conversion unit is only responsible for a single signal conversion . thus , each measurement unit or actuation unit has its own designated signal conversion unit to handle single conversion for a single signal . they are responsible for verifying digital signals from measurement units . when the signal meets the default setting , it outputs digital trip signal , which can be transmitted to equipment end to actuation single equipment or to logic processing unit for logic operation . they are responsible for signal transmission between main control room and other remote control unit . although network units can transmit massive volume of signals , to prevent single failure to adversely affect instrument control system , the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor divides the network units to safety and non - safety related types . all the non - safety related signal transmission is through a single non - safety related network unit . since the safety related signal transmission involves safety related system operation , network units are deployed according to safety system division . each safety related division has a completely independent network unit . all safety related signals are transmitted through the network unit in their designated division . they are responsible for all signal logic operation and output the results to equipment actuation units to activate the equipment startup , shut off , operation and stop . besides outputting single signals to actuation single equipment , they also output multiple signals to actuation multiple equipments according to logic setting . because of the need of receiving signals from different terminals , the unit is always located in the control room and all digital signals through network unit transmission are concentrated in the logic processing units in the control room for further logic operation . the output signals are also transmitted to the destination through the network unit . equipment actuation unit is located near the equipment to be actuated and responsible for equipment startup , shut off , operation or stop according to the input signals . since the unit only accepts analog signal , when the source signal is digital , it is necessary to convert it to analog signal through signal conversion unit . the manually generated equipment actuation signal can be designed to be digital or analog . when the designed output signal is digital , it can be transmitted to destination through network unit or after logic operation by logic processing unit it become single equipment actuation signal or multiple equipment actuation signal . if the designed output signal is analog , it will be transmitted through the designated signal transmission line directly to the equipment actuation unit . the unit is located on the control panel of the control room and operated by the operation room personnel through press button or turn knob to drive the unit to generate the preset analog or digital output signal . this is a unique design for the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor . through a single screen , it enables a large number of system or module operations . through tough screen function the operator can touch and select the control menu for the operation system or module to be operated and through the operation function on the control menu touch and select the desired system or module . the unit is located in the control room and comprised of the screen for display and operation , the computer for display management and operation , and the unit to generate and output digital signals according to the setting . after the operator makes a selection on the touch screen , the unit generates the corresponding digital output signal , which then through logic processing unit drives multiple systems or is directly transmitted through network unit to the corresponding equipment actuation unit to drive single system or equipment . after dividing the entire digital instrument control system into the above eight units , the related digital instrument control for the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor according to the actual design can be divided into six operation modes as shown in the figures from fig1 to fig6 . the blocks in the figures represent instrument control units . signal transmission is represented by solid line for analog signal and by dot line for digital signal through optical fiber . the standard fault tree corresponding to each operation mode is shown in sequence from fig7 to fig1 . the failure mode for each instrument control unit is the traditional hardware failure mode . it is all simulated by externally connected fault tree . besides , in fig1 a common type is used to represent the development mode for the fault tree for each instrument control unit . in addition to the spontaneous hardware failure for instrument control unit itself , there are also failure modes indirectly caused by foreign support system like power and air conditioning . further , the common cause failure as a critical cause to system failure is also simulated in the developed standard fault tree . according to the design concepts for the digital instrument control for the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor , the essential common cause failure mainly includes the following reasons : 1 . several detection units ( du ) for the same type or identical signal detection fail at the same time due to design flaw , poor environment for equipment location , poor maintenance or incorrect calibration . 2 . several data trip units ( dtu ) for verifying signals fail at the same time due to software design flaw , poor database or maintenance . 3 . several network units ( nu ) for massive signal transmission fail at the same time due to software design flaw , failure for network system to support simultaneous signal transmission needs or poor maintenance . 4 . several logic - processing units ( lpu ) for signal logic operation fail at the same time due to software design flaw or poor maintenance . according to the above reasons for common cause failure , in the standard fault tree simulation is conducted for common cause failure mode with focus on measurement unit , data trip unit , network unit and logic processing unit , while other instrument control units do not simulate common cause failure . the following briefly describes the characteristics for each operation mode and important subjects for the development of standard fault tree . the operation process as shown in fig1 is mainly for actuation of supporting equipments to non - safety or safety related equipments . it is the instrument control design without fault tolerance . after the analog signal from single measurement unit is converted to digital signal by the signal conversion unit and input to data trip unit to verify with the setting . then the data trip unit outputs trip signals to the designated signal conversion unit to the specific equipment . the digital signal is converted to analog signal and output to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . the developed fault tree is shown in fig7 . since it is serial linear process , the failure of any unit will cause the failure of the entire instrument control process . mode 1 only has single signal measurement unit and therefore does not simulate common cause failure for measured signals . mode 2 : multiple measurement unit after logic operation automatically actuates multiple equipments the operation process as shown in fig2 is mainly used for safety related equipment . to prevent unnecessary action due to failures for some measurement units or data trip units , the measurement signals from several different measurement units of the same design are concentrated in the logic - processing unit for logic operation . with fault tolerance , the logic - processing unit undergoes logic operation and outputs single or multiple equipment operation signals . the signals are transmitted to the signal conversion unit through the network unit . the input digital signal is converted to analog signal and then input to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . the operation for the safety related equipments of the nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor is handled by four independent instrument control divisions . signal measurement , conversion and transmission are all conducted by the specific independent division . when the logic - processing unit is undergoing logic operation , it adopts two - out - of - four fault - tolerant strategy . it means it is not until at least two divisions input trip signals , the logic - processing unit will output equipment operation signal . in the development for the standard fault tree as shown in fig8 a ˜ 8e , the fault - tolerant strategy should be changed and therefore it is not until at least three divisions have fault the logic processing unit will output equipment operation signals . the standard fault tree for mode 2 is developed with focus on unit e failure . since unit e belongs to division i ( div i ), after the operation signal is processed and output by the logic processing unit in div i , the logic units in other divisions ( div ii ˜ div iv ) also process and output the signals that are verified and come from their own measurement unit . in the simulation of common cause failure , measurement unit , data trip unit , network unit and logic processing unit are involved . for failure of other units ( unit f ˜ unit j ), except for the use of their own designated signal conversion unit and equipment actuation unit , they have the same signal source and the simulation mode for common cause failure as unit e . the operation process is shown in fig3 . when the operator presses the button or turns the knob on the operation panel , the corresponding mechanical signal generation unit will output a digital signal and transmit the signal through the network unit to the signal conversion unit . then the digital signal will be converted to analog signal and input to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . the developed standard fault tree is shown in fig9 . since it is serial linear process , the failure of any unit will cause the failure of the entire instrument control process . since the equipment actuation relies on manual operation by the operator , the fault tree also includes the failure mode for manual operation by the operator . the operation process is shown in fig4 . when the operator presses the button or turns the knob on the operation panel , the corresponding mechanical signal generation unit will output a digital signal . since it is to actuate multiple equipments , the output signal is transmitted to the corresponding logic - processing unit , through which multiple equipment signals are output . through network unit , the signals are transmitted to the designated signal conversion unit . after the digital signals are converted to analog signals , they are output to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . since the fault tree uses equipment failure as top event , the developed standard fault tree as shown in fig1 is also a serial linear process . the failure of any unit will cause the failure of the entire instrument control process . since the equipment actuation relies on manual operation by the operator , the fault tree also includes the failure mode for manual operation by the operator . since the standard fault tree in mode 4 is developed with focus on unit a failure , for failure of other units ( unit b ˜ unit f ), except for the use of their own designated signal conversion unit and equipment actuation unit , they have the same signal source and the simulation mode for common cause failure as unit a . the operation process is shown in fig5 . when the operator touches and makes selection on the selection menu , the screen touch signal generation unit will output the corresponding digital signal to the signal conversion unit through the network unit , and then the digital signal will be converted to analog signal and output to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . the developed standard fault tree is shown in fig1 . since it is serial linear process , the failure of any unit will cause the failure of the entire instrument control process . since the equipment actuation relies on manual operation by the operator , the fault tree also includes the failure mode for manual operation by the operator . the operation process is shown in fig6 . when the operator touches and makes selection on the selection menu , the screen touch signal generation unit will output the corresponding digital signal . since it is to actuate multiple equipments , the signal is output to the corresponding logic - processing unit , which will output multiple equipment operation signals through the network unit to their own designated signal conversion unit . after the digital signal is converted to analog signal , it is output to the equipment actuation unit to actuate the equipment . since the fault tree uses equipment failure as top event and the developed standard fault tree as shown in fig1 also belongs to a serial linear process , the failure of any unit will cause the failure of the entire instrument control process . since the equipment actuation relies on manual operation by the operator , the fault tree also includes the failure mode for manual operation by the operator . the standard fault tree for mode 6 is developed with focus on unit a failure . for failure of other units ( unit b ˜ unit f ), except for the use of their own designated signal conversion unit and equipment actuation unit , they have the same signal source and the simulation mode for common cause failure as unit a . the establishment of the fault tree for equipment operation is based on the above eight instrument control units and six standard digital instrument control processes , which all function by splitting signal source and connecting to standard fault tree to build the fault tree for the nuclear power plant with boiling water reactor that involves complicated operation signals . the establishment procedures are described as follows : step 1 . analyze signal source for equipment operation with the instrument control logic diagram when analysis is conducted for signal source for equipment operation for the advanced boiling water reactor that not only involves signals for traditional automatically and manually operated single equipment but also automatic and manual signals to simultaneously operate multiple equipments , it is necessary to summarize and structure all the signals for the target equipments in the same system in details . after summarizing and structuring all the operation signals for the target equipments , the first thing necessary is to build the process flow diagram for all equipments to clarify the details with the generation and transmission of signals associated with each instrument control unit . all the instrument control units in the process flow control diagram should correspond to the above eight standard instrument control units . fig1 shows the signal process flow diagram for all target equipments in a single system in a nuclear power plant with advanced boiling water reactor . the system includes seven equipments ( eau - 1 ˜ eau - 7 responsible for actuation ) that participate in the analysis . each equipment has its own signal source . there are seven sources of signals to actuate the seven equipments . water level detection unit , first pressure detection unit and second pressure detection unit provide automatic operation signals . the signals from these units will be sent to different logic processing units ( lpu - 1 , lpu - 2 ) for logic operation . upon meeting the preset operation conditions for each equipment , the logic - processing unit will generate equipment operation signals that enable multiple equipment operation . there are four sources for manually generated operation signals . the manual signal from the mechanical signal generation unit msgu - 1 can go through lpu - 1 and lpu - 2 and simultaneously handle multiple equipment operation . the manual signal from the mechanical signal generation unit msgu - 2 is directly transmitted through hard wire to the equipment end . the manual signals from video signal generation units , vsgu - 1 and vsgu - 2 , have different functions . vsgu - 1 and msgu - 1 have the same function , complimentary to each other as backup signal generation unit . the signal from vsgu - 2 can only operate one equipment at a time . fig1 clearly shows that a single instrument control module can be designed to handle multiple signal logic processing or transmission . nu - 1 from the figure , as an example of network unit , is responsible for transmitting not only detection unit signals but also automatic and manual operation signals for equipment operation . therefore , the establishment of a detailed system signal process flow diagram not only helps check the rationality for signal transmission and logic operation but also facilitates simulate common cause failure in the fault tree analysis . after completion of the signal process flow diagram for system instrument operation , it is to split all the signal sources into an independent typical digital instrument control process based on the previously mentioned eight instrument control units and six typical digital instrument control flow processes . all the operation signals in fig1 , as an example , can be split into 12 signal flow processes , including ( 1 ) 2 automatic operation signal flow processes provided by water - level detection unit , ( 2 ) 2 automatic operation signal flow processes provided by the first pressure detection unit , ( 3 ) 2 automatic operation signal flow processes provided by the second pressure detection unit , ( 4 ) 2 manual operation signal flow processes provided by msgu - 1 , ( 5 ) 1 manual operation signal flow processes provided by msgu - 2 , ( 6 ) 2 manual operation signal flow processes provided by vsgu - 1 , ( 7 ) 1 manual operation signal flow process provided by vsgu - 2 . after splitting , it is necessary to match all the signal flow processes to the six modes from fig1 to fig6 . after splitting in step 3 for system equipment operation signals , every signal flow process can match one of the six modes . each signal flow process should be revised by the corresponding standard fault tree . the instrument control units in an actual flow process are used to revise the standard fault tree . in revising fault tree , special attention shall be paid to the common instrument control unit shared by different signal sources . the common units shall use the same basic event name in different standard fault tree . next , the signal logic operation in the fault tree shall select the suitable logic gate for actual design . with the system instrument control flow process in fig1 as an example , the manual operation signal flow process provided by the water - level detection unit , first pressure detection unit and second pressure detection unit can be classified as the mode 2 process in fig2 ; the manual operation signal flow process provided by msgu - 1 can be classified as the mode 4 process in fig4 ; the manual operation signal flow process provided by msgu - 2 can be classified as the mode 3 process in fig3 ; the manual operation signal flow process provided by vsgu - 1 can be classified as the mode 6 process in fig6 ; the manual operation signal flow process provided by vsgu - 2 can be classified as the mode 5 process in fig5 . in revising fault tree , special attention shall be paid to the common instrument control units such as nu , dtu and lpu shared by different signal sources . the common units shall use the same basic event name in different standard fault tree . next , regarding the signal logic operation for the three detection units in the fault tree , it adopts two - out - of - four fault - tolerant design strategy and three - out - of - four logic gate . after completion of the fault tree for all signal sources , it is to link the fault tree to establish the specific fault tree to specific equipment operation . for specific equipment in the system , it is to select all the signal sources on the signal flow process diagram to operate the specific equipment , and then link all the corresponding standard fault trees into the fault tree for the specific equipment operation . with the eau - 1 ˜ eau - 7 actuated equipments in fig1 as example , eau - 2 and eau - 3 can accept all automatic or manual operation signals in the figure . the difference is that eau - 2 and eau - 3 receive the operation signal from different logic processing units , lpu - 1 and lpu - 2 . eau - 7 cannot be operated by the automatic signals in the figure and is manually operated by the signals from msgu - 2 or vsgu - 2 .
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as shown in the drawings , the towel drier includes a drum 10 having a pair of laterally spaced flanges 12 mounted on an axle 14 . the axle 14 is journalled at 16 in the frame 18 of the system and is rotated by any suitable means , such as a hydraulic motor diagrammatically indicated at 20 . the frame 18 supports the drum 10 over the path of advance 22 of a vehicle 24 to be washed . the drum 10 is sufficiently wide ( typically 7 feet or more ) that it spans the entire width of the vehicle to be dried . spaced circumferentially around the periphery of the drum 10 are towel holders 26 . each towel holder 26 includes a flat plate 28 welded to an axle 30 . each axle 30 is journalled in bushings 31 in the flanges 12 for free rotation about its own axis . the axles 30 together define a circle with the central axle 14 at its centre . each flat plate 28 is of width nearly equal to the distance between the flanges 12 , and is of length sufficient to bridge the gap between adjacent axles 30 . thus , when a towel holder 26 is pivoted in a counter clockwise direction , its flat plate 28 moves against and is stopped by the axle 30 of the next towel holder , as shown in fig1 . attached to the outer surface of each flat plate 28 , by any suitable means , is a towel 32 . each towel 32 is of substantial length , typically 6 feet , so that it can reach down to contact the vehicle 24 to be dried . each towel 32 is of width slightly less than that of its flat plate 28 and has a side edge 33 inset from that of its flat plate 28 for a reason to be described . normally each towel 32 consists of an upper support portion 34 , made of canvas , plastic or other relatively low friction material , and a lower drying portion 36 made of chamois or other suitable water absorbent material . in a typical embodiment of the invention , utilizing a 4 foot diameter drum 10 with 12 towel holders 26 , each support portion 34 is about 41 / 2 feet long and each drying portion 36 is about 11 / 2 feet long . as shown in fig2 the axle 30 of each towel holder 26 projects outwardly past one of the flanges 12 . the outward projection is indicated at 38 . welded to each outward projection 38 is a lever 40 which is also shown in fig1 . each lever 40 typically extends at right angles to its associated flat plate 28 . a fixed trip pin 42 extends inwardly from the frame 18 in a position to be engaged by each lever 40 as the drum rotates , as will be explained . located beneath the drum 10 is a guide rail 44 . the guide rail 44 is secured to the frame 18 by struts 46 and is located laterally between the edges 33 of the towels 32 and the edges of the flat plates 28 . as best shown in fig1 and 3 , a wringer 50 is provided to squeeze access water from the towels 32 after the towels have absorbed water from the vehicle being dried . the wringer 50 includes a large roller 52 rotatably mounted on a central axle 54 . the axle 54 is fixedly mounted at the free ends of a pair of laterally spaced l - spaced arms 56 . the arms 56 are pivotally mounted at their apex on axles 58 which are secured to the frame 18 . the other ends 60 of the arms 56 extend upwardly and rearwardly and carry heavy counterweights 62 at their ends . the counterweights 62 bias the roller 52 bodily clockwise as indicated by arrow 64 . the operation of the system as so far described is as follows . the path through which the drum 10 locates may be divided into two sectors , namely a vehicle drying sector 66 , and a return sector 68 . as shown in fig1 as the towel holders 26 pass through the vehicle drying sector 26 , they assume a position in which the flat plates 28 project at least partly radially outwardly of the drum 10 . the reason for this will be described shortly . then , as each towel holder 26 passes through the return sector 68 , its towel 32 begins to wrap around the drum 10 , due to gravity . this pivots each towel holder 26 counterclockwise , until the free end of its flat plate 28 rests against and is stopped by the axle 30 of the adjacent towel holder . when a towel holder 26 leaves the return sector 68 and enters the vehicle drying sector 66 , the operation is as follows . consider the towel holder 26a in fig1 . the towel 32a of this towel holder is wrapped nearly half way around the periphery of the drum 10 ( assuming a 4 foot diameter drum and a 6 foot long towel ) and would not normally fall down into vehicle drying position until the towel holder 26a had rotated most of the way through the vehicle drying sector 66 . according to the invention , and as shown in fig4 when the lever 40a of towel holder 26a is carried into contact with trip pin 42 , the towel holder 26a is caused to rotate clockwise in the direction of rotation of the drum 10 . as shown , the extent of the rotation is typically more than 80 ° and may be nearly 90 ° or more . since each flat plate 28 will typically be slightly more than 1 foot in length ( assuming 12 towel holders on a 4 foot diameter drum ) the free end of the flat plate 28 will typically rotate through an arc 69 of about 18 inches or more in length . this will pull the towel 32a partly off the drum 10 . the portion of the towel 32a suspended in the air will be between about 2 and 3 feet in length . since the remainder of the towel 32a rests on the support portion 34b of the next towel 32b , and since the support portion 34b is relatively smooth and slippery ( as contrasted with the drying portion 36b of the towel ), the weight of the suspended portion of the towel 32a is sufficient to drag the entire towel 32a off the drum and to cause it to fall into the hanging position shown in fig1 . if necessary , the diameter of the drum 10 can be increased so that the length of the flat plates 28 can be correspondingly increased , to increase the distance through which the towels are pulled . however , it is preferred to keep the drum diameter no larger than about 4 feet , to reduce the height requirements of the car wash in which it is installed . however , the angle through which each towel holder 26 is rotated can be controlled by the position of the trip pin 42 and also by the angle between the lever 40 and the flat plate 28 of each towel holder . if this angle is increased beyond 90 °, then the angle through which each towel holder is rotated can also be made greater than 90 ° , increasing the length of the arc through which the free end of each flat plate 28 travels . for example , if the angle between the flat plate 28 and the lever 40 of a towel holder is 110 °, then the arc through which each towel holder rotates may typically be about 100 ° or more , which would pull a towel down about 22 inches for the 4 foot diameter drum mentioned . it will be appreciated that in the example given , in which the length of the flat plates 28 is about 1 foot and the length of the drying portion 36 of each towel is about 18 inches , the drying portion of one towel will overlap the drying portion of the next towel ( when both are wrapped around the drum 10 ) only by about 6 inches . the distance by which each towel 32 is pulled by its towel holder is preferably substantially greater than this , so that in all cases , the drying portion of the towel being pulled will rest , after it has been pulled by its towel holder , only on the relatively smooth support portion 34 of the next towel . this facilitates unwrapping of the towels . as best shown in fig1 the extent to which the towel holders 26 can pivot is limited by the guide rail 44 . the guide rail 44 slopes downwardly from front to rear , so that the rear towel 32 hangs lowest , and the towels forwardly of the rear towel hang at progressively higher positions . this permits the water load on the towels to be more evenly distributed and produces improved drying of the vehicle . in effect it improves the distribution of towels on the vehicle . after the towels have dried the vehicle 24 , they are carried upwardly past the roller 52 . the towels are here squeezed between the roller 52 and the flat plates 28 , forcing excess water from the towels . to prevent the excess water from running back onto the following towels or onto the vehicle being dried , a wiper 80 is provided . as shown in fig1 and 3 , the wiper 80 includes a wiper sheet 82 having a trough 84 formed at its lower end . both the wiper sheet 82 and the trough 84 extend the width of the roller 52 . the wiper 80 is secured at its lower end to an axle 86 pivotally mounted at 88 to the frame 18 . connected to the axle 86 are counterweights 90 which bias the free end of the wiper sheet 82 against the towels . a tube 92 connected to one or both ends of the trough 84 leads the water removed from the towels to a suitable drain , not shown . after the towels pass through the wringer 50 , they are carried through the return sector 68 and back to the vehicle drying sector 66 . if desired , other means may be employed to pull the towels part way off the drum when the towel holders enter or approach the vehicle drying sector 66 . for example , and as indicated in fig4 where primed reference numerals indicate parts corresponding to those of fig1 to 4 , each towel holder 26 &# 39 ; may be a radially oriented member mounted for radially reciprocating movement and guided by pins 100 in slots 102 in the flanges 12 &# 39 ;. an actuating device , not shown , may be used to drive each towel holder 26 &# 39 ; radially outwardly as it enters the vehicle drying sector 66 , and appropriate means ( e . g . a spring ) may be used to return the towel holders immediately thereafter to their withdrawn position . alternatively , the towel holders may be drawn radially inwardly , pulling their towels over an appropriate fixed bar , not shown , to pull the towels along the circumference of the drum . however , the rotary motion shown for the towel holders in the fig1 to 4 embodiment is much preferred because of its greater simplicity , lower cost , and more inherently trouble - free performance .
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a top view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig1 . bottom portion 4 of pawl plate 1 is rigidly connected to surgical plate 9 . six hex screws 7 a - 7 f are inserted through holes 10 in surgical plate 9 . each hex screw has a ratchet wheel 8 . torsion bars 5 a - 5 f of pawl plates 1 engage the ratchets on ratchet wheels 8 to prevent counter - clockwise rotation of hex screws 7 a - 7 f after surgical plate 9 has been screwed into the bone of a patient . fig2 shows a top view of surgical plate 9 . fig3 shows a cutout side view of surgical plate 9 and fig4 shows a perspective view of surgical plate 9 . fig5 shows a bottom view of surgical plate 9 . in the first preferred embodiment , surgical plate 9 is stainless steel and is cast by sintered powder metallurgy . as shown in fig2 surgical plate 9 is approximately 1 . 8 inches long and approximately 0 . 7 inches at its widest point . as shown in fig3 surgical plate 9 is slightly curved and is approximately 0 . 1 inch thick . as shown in fig1 and fig4 surgical plate 9 has three recesses 11 cut into the top of the plate . recesses 11 are preferably approximately 0 . 02 inches deep . six holes 10 are drilled through surgical plate 9 . preferable , holes 10 are wider at the top of surgical plate 9 than they are at the bottom . in the preferred embodiment hole 10 is approximately 0 . 2 inches in diameter across the top of surgical plate 9 and approximately 0 . 14 inches in diameter across the bottom of surgical plate 9 . preferably , the walls of hole 10 are slightly curved , as shown in fig3 . as shown in fig3 and 5 , the bottom of surgical plate 9 preferably has seven “ v ” shaped compression ridges 13 . when surgical plate 9 is screwed onto a bone , compression ridges 13 are able penetrate soft tissue that may be covering the bone and grip solid bone underneath the soft tissue . fig6 shows a top view and fig7 shows a side view of pawl plate 1 . pawl plate 1 has bottom portion 4 and torsion bars 5 a and 5 b . a preferred pawl plate 1 is approximately 0 . 02 inches thick . as shown in fig7 pawl plate 1 is slightly curved so that it fits appropriately into recess 11 ( fig4 ). as shown in fig8 each pawl plate 1 is fitted into each recess 11 . bottom portions 4 are then rigidly bond to surgical plate 9 . in the preferred embodiment , bottom portions 4 are brazed to surgical plate 9 . fig9 - 10 illustrate a preferred method for drilling holes into the bone . fig9 shows a cutout side view of surgical plate 9 positioned on top of bone 20 . note that the curvature of plate 9 conforms to the curvature of bone 20 . also “ v ” shaped compression ridges 13 assist in the gripping of bone 20 . in the preferred embodiment , drill bushing 28 is connected to spring 30 . spring 30 is connected to drill chuck 26 , which is connected to drill 22 . drill bit 24 is inserted inside and rigidly held by drill chuck 26 and extends through spring 30 . as shown in fig9 drill bushing 28 is positioned over hole 10 of surgical plate 9 . as shown in fig1 , drill bushing 28 is lowered so that it mates with hole 10 of surgical plate 9 . drill bushing 28 aligns drill bit 24 so that it is properly directed through the center of hole 10 and into bone 20 . as shown in fig1 , drill bit 24 is pressed downward and into bone 20 . as the hole is drilled , spring force from spring 30 helps keep bushing 28 properly positioned in hole 10 and keeps the axis of the drilled hole centered . after the holes have been drilled into the bone , surgical plate 9 is securely fastened to the bone via screws 7 a - 7 f . fig1 - 16 illustrate how pawl plate 1 prevents screws 7 a and 7 b from backing out after they have been screwed into the holes in the bone . in fig1 , torsion bar 5 a is engaged with ratchet wheel 8 of screw 7 a so as to prevent counterclockwise rotation of screw 7 a and torsion bar 5 b is engaged with ratchet wheel 8 of screw 7 b so as to prevent counterclockwise rotation of screw 7 b . in fig1 , screw 7 a has been turned clockwise ½ of a notch so that pawl 80 of torsion bar 5 a has been moved downward as it has ridden along a ratchet of ratchet wheel 8 . in fig1 , screw 7 a has been turned clockwise another ½ of a notch so that torsion bar 5 a has snapped back upward and is in a position to prevent counterclockwise rotation of screw 7 a . in this manner , screw 7 a is continually tightened until it is tightly pressing plate 9 against the bone . screw 7 a is prevented from backing out through unwanted counterclockwise rotation by pawl 80 of torsion bar 5 a engaging ratchet wheel 8 of screw 7 a . in fig1 , screw 7 b has been turned clockwise ½ of a notch so that pawl 82 of torsion bar 5 b has been moved downward as it has ridden along a ratchet of ratchet wheel 8 . in fig1 , screw 7 b has been turned clockwise another ½ of a notch so that torsion bar 5 b has snapped back upward and is in a position to prevent counterclockwise rotation of screw 7 b . in this manner , screw 7 b is continually tightened until it is tightly pressing plate 9 against the bone . screw 7 b is prevented from backing out through unwanted counterclockwise rotation by pawl 82 of torsion bar 5 b engaging ratchet wheel 8 of screw 7 b . in a similar fashion , screws 7 c - 7 d ( fig1 ) are all tightened . as described above , all screws are prevented from accidental unwanted backout by pawl plates 1 . however , it may be desirable to eventually purposely remove a screw after it has been tightly secured against surgical plate 9 . for example , to intentionally unscrew screw 7 a , a surgeon would move pawl 80 of torsion bar 5 a downward to a position shown in fig1 with a scalpel ( or other sharp instrument ). the surgeon could then merely turn the screw counterclockwise to back it out . fig3 shows a side view of two surgical plates 9 screwed into broken bone 100 . fig1 and 18 illustrate the utilization of conventional ratchet screws with the present invention . it should be noted that holes 10 of plate 9 allow for screw 30 to be inserted through plate 9 in a variety of angles . in this manner , the surgeon can screw conventional ratchet screw 30 into the bone at the optimum angle . fig1 and 20 illustrate another preferred embodiment in which ratchet screw 32 has bottom hemisphere portion 33 . as with conventional ratchet screw 30 shown in fig1 and 18 , ratchet screw 32 can be inserted through plate 9 in a variety of angles . however , hemisphere portion 33 of ratchet screw 32 enables it to also achieve a more secure fit against the curved walls of hole 10 . fig2 shows a side view and fig2 shows a top view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention in which holes 10 have dimples 40 protruding from their walls . in this preferred embodiment , screw 32 is seated against dimples 40 when tightened down . by seating against dimples 40 , unwanted debris 50 ( such as skin tissue or bone chips ) will not accidentally get squeezed between screw 32 and the surgical plate . while the above description contains many specifications , the reader should not construe these as limitations on the scope of the invention , but merely as exemplifications of preferred embodiments thereof . those skilled in the art will envision that many other possible variations are within its scope . for example , although approximate measurements were given for the first preferred embodiment , the size of the plate could be easily modified to accommodate various bone sizes . also , although fig3 shows that surgical plate 9 is only slightly curved , the degree of curvature could be increased to have a plate that is more curved or eliminated to have a flat plate . also , although it was stated that pawl plate 1 was brazed to surgical plate 9 , pawl plate 1 could be rigidly attached to surgical plate 9 utilizing other known methods , such as welding . also , although it was stated that surgical plate 9 was cast from of stainless steel , surgical plate 9 could be made from other materials , such as titanium . also , although fig1 shows surgical plate 9 having a specific shape , it would be easy to modify the shape of the plate . for example fig2 - 31 show surgical plates having a variety of shapes . also , although pawl plate 1 was shown in discussed in the above preferred embodiments , it would also be possible to torsionally connect a pawl directly to the surgical plate . for example , as shown in fig2 , pawl 90 is connected to torsion bar 60 , which has been welded to recess 70 of surgical plate 9 at its base 62 . likewise , pawl 92 is connected to torsion bar 64 , which has been welded to recess 70 of surgical plate 9 at its base 66 . also , the present invention can not only be used for human bone repair , but it can also be used for bone repair for animals . also , in addition to the repair of a broken bone , the present invention may be used for the repair of a fractured bone , unstable vertebra and for spinal fusion . accordingly the reader is requested to determine the scope of the invention by the appended claims and their legal equivalents , and not by the examples which have been given .
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preferred embodiments of pattern defect inspecting apparatuses and methods thereof according to the present invention will hereinafter be described with reference to fig1 through 12 . fig1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a pattern defect inspecting apparatus according to the present invention . in the present invention , an ultraviolet laser light source ( ultraviolet laser generating device ) 3 for emitting duv laser light is provided to carry out high - luminance illumination in a duv region . a stage 2 has degrees of freedom in x , y , z and θ directions and places an inspected object ( e . g ., a semiconductor wafer ) formed with an inspected pattern thereon as a specimen 1 . further , the stage 2 is connected to a central processing unit 19 through a stage control circuit 320 . an illumination optical system for illuminating a duv laser light beam on the specimen 1 comprises an ultraviolet laser light source 3 which increases a source voltage for excitation laser light l 1 under the control of a control device 350 to thereby perform an output adjustment to the excitation laser light l 1 and which comprises a laser device 80 and a wavelength converting device 81 , a detector ( amount - of - light or light intensity monitor means ) 215 which is placed in an optical path of the laser light emitted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 and allows the intensity of some laser light free of trouble upon inspection using the laser beam to branch by a mirror 214 , followed by detection thereof , a density adjusting device ( light intensity adjuster ) 210 placed in the illumination optical path , for adjusting the amount of laser light l 2 , a beam expander 5 for enlarging a laser beam spot , a multispot shaper 65 and a coherence reduction optical system 6 for reducing coherence , a polarizing beam splitter 9 for reflecting polarized laser light , a polarizing devices group 10 , and an objective lens 11 . the illumination optical system is further provided with an observation optical system 25 through 27 capable of observing the duv laser light . a detection optical system for detecting an ultraviolet reflected - light image from the specimen 1 comprises the objective lens 11 , the polarizing devices group 10 , the polarizing beam splitter 9 for allowing the reflected light to pass therethrough , an image forming lens 12 , and an image sensor 13 . the detection optical system is further provided with an observation optical system 29 and 30 capable of observing a spatial image for a pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 . owing to the above construction , the ultraviolet laser light l 2 emitted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 is launched into the objective lens 11 through a mirror 4 , the mirror 214 , the density adjusting device ( light intensity adjuster ) 210 equipped with a large number of density filters 220 having transmittances different from one another , the beam expander 5 , the multispot shaper 65 , a lens 66 , the coherence reduction optical system 6 , a lens 7 , the polarizing beam splitter 9 and the polarizing devices group 10 and is applied onto an inspected object 1 formed with an inspected pattern . the laser light l 2 whose light flux is expanded with the beam expander 5 , is focused on the neighborhood of the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 by means of the lens 7 , followed by application onto the specimen 1 . the ultraviolet reflected light from the specimen 1 is detected by the image sensor 13 through the objective lens 11 , the polarizing devices group 10 , the polarizing beam splitter 9 and the image forming lens 12 as viewed vertically from above the specimen 1 . the polarizing beam splitter 9 has the function of reflecting the light when the polarizing direction of the laser light is parallel to its reflected surface ( as viewed in an x direction ) and allowing it to pass therethrough when it is vertical thereto . in the present embodiment , the polarizing beam splitter 9 is placed in such a manner that the laser light l 2 is totally reflected . the polarizing devices group 10 has the function of changing polarizing conditions for the ultraviolet laser illumination light and the ultraviolet reflected light from the specimen 1 . meanwhile , in the case of the duv laser light , the intensity of the reflected light thereof subtly changes according to the shape of an inspected pattern formed on the specimen 1 and the difference in density thereof . therefore the polarizing devices group 10 adjusts a polarization ratio of the illumination light so that the difference in the intensity of light reflected from the pattern does not reach the image sensor 13 as the unevenness of lightness , and comprises a ½ - wavelength plate 10 a and a ¼ - wavelength plate 10 b for applying a change in phase to the illumination light . when the ¼ - wavelength plate 10 b is turned 45 ° about the optical axis , for example , the illumination light is brought to circularly polarized light and applied to the specimen 1 . further , since the reflected light passes through the ¼ - wavelength plate 10 b twice , it is placed in the direction of polarization orthogonal to the illumination light and passes through the polarizing beam splitter 9 , followed by arrival onto the image sensor 13 . the image sensor 13 comprises , for example , a storage type image sensor ( e . g ., a tdi sensor or the like ) having detection sensitivity for the duv region and outputs a density image signal 13 a corresponding to the lightness ( light and shade or density ) of the light reflected from the inspected pattern formed on the specimen 1 . namely , the image sensor 13 detects lightness information ( density signal 13 a ) of the inspected pattern formed on the specimen 1 while the stage 2 is moving in a y direction to move the specimen 1 at a constant speed . a focal - point detection optical system 300 is used to detect a displacement of the specimen 1 as viewed in a z direction while the stage 2 is being moved . a signal 301 detected by the focal - point detection optical system 300 is inputted to a central processing unit 19 through a position detecting circuit 340 . the central processing unit 19 drives the stage 2 through a stage control circuit 320 in such a manner that the surface of the specimen 1 is always placed in a focusing focal position , and sets its position by offsetting as a focal position detected by using a reference specimen 55 placed in a position free of interfere upon inspection , thereby making it possible to carry out focal - point focusing control at an arbitrary position of a thin - film surface formed on the specimen 1 . thus the density image signal 13 a obtained from the image sensor 13 is inputted to an image signal processing circuit 23 where a detect inspection for a circuit pattern is performed . the image signal processing circuit 23 comprises a nd converter 14 , a gradation converter 15 , a delay memory 16 for forming a reference image signal and a comparator 17 , etc . the nd converter 14 converts the density image signal 13 a obtained from the image sensor 13 into a digital image signal . the gradation converter 15 comprises , for example , a 8 - bit gradation converter and effects such gradation or tone conversion as described in japanese patent application laid - open hei 8 ( 1996 )- 320294 on the digital image signal outputted from the nd converter 14 . namely , the gradation converter 15 performs logarithmic , exponential and polynomial conversions , etc . to thereby correct a thin film formed on the inspected object 1 , such as a semiconductor wafer or the like in a process , and the unevenness of lightness of an image produced by interference of a laser light beam . the delay memory 16 stores and delays an image signal outputted from the gradation converter 15 with a scanning width of the image sensor 13 by one cell , one chip ( one die ) or one shot repeatedly configured on the specimen 1 to thereby form a reference image signal used as the reference for comparison . the comparator 17 compares the detected image signal outputted from the gradation converter 15 with the reference image signal obtained from the delay memory 16 and detects a portion determined as inconsistency on the basis of a criteria for determination as a defect or a defect candidate . namely , the comparator 17 is used to compare a reference image signal delayed by an amount equivalent to a cell pitch or a die pitch or the like outputted from the delay memory 16 , with a detected image signal . in short , the comparator 17 detects a defect candidate such as a pseudo defect or the like without detecting a true defect in relation to the detection of a defect of from about 20 nm to about 50 nm by the duv laser light . it is further necessary to analyze the defect candidate in detail by use of a review apparatus ( e . g ., a sem length measuring apparatus , a sem visual inspecting apparatus or the like ). incidentally , the details of the comparator 17 may be one disclosed in japanese patent application laid - open no . sho 61 ( 1986 )- 212708 , for example . the comparator 17 comprises , for example , an image registration circuit , a difference image detecting circuit for detecting a difference between the aligned or registered images , an inconsistence detecting circuit for binarizing or digitizing the difference image , a feature extracting circuit for extracting an area , a length , coordinates , etc . from the digitized output , etc . the central processing unit 19 is used to control and process the whole pattern defect inspecting apparatus . further , the central processing unit 19 takes input thereto of coordinates such as sequence data obtained based on design information , on the specimen 1 such as the semiconductor wafer by input means 18 comprising a keyboard , a recording medium , a network or the like , thereby creating defect inspection data on the basis of the result of comparison and inspection by the comparator 17 according to the input coordinates such as the sequence data or the like on the specimen 1 and allowing a memory device 20 to store the data therein . the defect inspection data can also be displayed on display means 21 such as a display as needed . further , the data is outputted to output means ( including a network as well ) 22 , where a defective point can also be observed through the use of another review apparatus or the like , for example . an embodiment of the ultraviolet laser light source ( ultraviolet laser light generating device ) 3 will next be explained . obtaining high resolution needs to bring the wavelength into short - wavelength form . an improvement in inspection speed needs to high - luminance illumination . for example , a discharge lamp such as mercury xenon or the like is used as illumination means . of an emission spectrum ( emission line ) of the lamp , a visible region is extensively used to obtain a light intensity . however , a light intensity based on an emission line in each of ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet regions is only a few percentages as compared with a broad band for visible light . a large light source is needed to ensure a desired light intensity . there are restrictions such as the provision of a lamp light source away from an optical system for the purpose of taking all possible measures against radiation when the lamp light source is used , and preventing the transfer of heat to the optical system since the lamp light source generates heat . in the present invention , ultraviolet laser light ( duv : deep ultraviolet rays ) capable of easily ensuring a short wavelength is set as the light source 3 from such a viewpoint . the ultraviolet laser light indicates laser light whose wavelength ranges from about 100 nm to about 400 nm , whereas the duv laser light indicates laser light whose wavelength ranges from about 100 nm to about 314 nm . the ultraviolet laser light source ( ultraviolet laser generating device ) 3 comprises a laser device 80 for emitting a laser fundamental wave light l 1 having a wavelength of 532 nm , for example , and a wavelength converting device 81 for changing the fundamental wave light l 1 into a double wave as shown in fig2 by way of example . the wavelength converting device 81 includes mirrors m 1 through m 4 placed thereinside . excitation laser light l 1 emitted from the laser device 80 passes through the mirror m 1 so as to reach the mirror m 2 . the mirror m 2 allows some of the incident light to pass therethrough and reflects the remainder therefrom . the laser light reflected by the mirror m 2 reaches the mirror m 3 . a non - linear optical crystal 85 is placed in an optical path between the mirrors m 3 and m 4 . the laser light totally reflected by the mirror m 3 passes through the non - linear optical crystal 85 so as to reach the mirror m 4 . an optical member comprising these mirrors m 1 through m 4 and having high reflectance constitutes a resonator . further , since the non - linear optical crystal 85 is placed in an optically - calculated suitable position , the incident light l 1 of 532 nm is converted into a second harmonic wave l 2 having a wavelength of 266 nm by the crystal 85 . only the ultraviolet laser light l 2 of the second harmonic wave is outputted through the mirror m 4 . namely , reflecting coating is applied to the mirror m 4 so that the second harmonic wave is transmitted therethrough and waves other than that are reflected . laser light l 3 non - converted by the non - linear optical crystal 85 is reflected by the mirror m 4 so as to reach the mirror m 1 . the laser light l 3 then traces the same optical path again as the laser light l 1 having passed through the mirror m 1 . here , some incident light transmitted through the mirror m 2 is one for synchronizing the frequency of the incident light with the resonance frequency of the wavelength converting device 81 in such a manner that an error therebetween is detected by unillustrated detecting means and both are always kept in a resonant state . by means of an unillustrated servo mechanism ( e . g ., an actuator such as a piezoelectric device ), the mirror m 3 , for example , is precisely moved at high speed to control a resonator length with high accuracy and thereby electrically feed it back so as to produce stable resonance . simultaneously , the laser light l 1 launched into the wavelength converting device 81 is also controlled by an unillustrated mirror serve mechanism provided in the laser device 80 so that the laser light l 1 always coincides with the optical axis of the wavelength converting device 81 . the ultraviolet laser light l 2 of 266 nm outputted from the wavelength converting device 81 has ability coherence and leads to the occurrence of speckles ( interference patterns ) when laser is illuminated to the circuit pattern on the inspected object 1 . thus it is necessary to reduce the coherence upon illumination of the ultraviolet laser light l 2 . in order to reduce the coherence , either of time coherence and spatial coherence may be reduced . thus the coherence reduction optical system 6 is used to reduce the spatial coherence in the present invention . fig3 is a typical diagram showing one embodiment of an illumination optical system including the coherence reduction optical system 6 according to the present invention , and fig4 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the coherence reduction optical system 6 , respectively . in the present invention , two scan mirrors 41 and 44 ( swinging optical devices ) orthogonal to each other , which are provided in an optical path , two - dimensionally scan ultraviolet laser light to thereby reduce coherence . namely , ultraviolet laser light l 2 emitted from an ultraviolet laser light source 3 is expanded to a given magnitude by a beam expander 5 , which in turn is launched into a multispot shaper 65 , where a plurality of laser spots ( multispot image ) are formed at a focal position 52 of the multispot shaper 65 . afterwards , the ultraviolet laser light l 2 is focused on a pupil 11 a of an objective lens 11 through lenses 66 , 62 and 63 , a lens 7 and a polarizing beam splitter 9 . meanwhile the focal position 52 of the multispot shaper 65 is conjugated with respect to a focal position 42 for the lenses 62 and 63 and the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 . further , the reflected surfaces of the mirrors 41 and 44 are conjugated with respect to the surface of a specimen 1 . multispot light ( shown in fig5 ( a )) formed at the focal position 52 of the multispot shaper 65 is two - dimensionally scanned on the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 by means of the mirrors ( swinging optical devices ) 41 and 44 mounted to reciprocatingly rotated motors 61 and 64 shown in fig4 . the motors 61 and 64 are reciprocatingly rotated according to the continuous input of an electric signal such as a triangular wave , a sine wave or the like . a turning angle of each motor is changed according to a change in the width of a signal waveform , whereby a scan trajectory on the pupil 11 a of the objective lens can be adjusted to change illumination conditions ( illumination sigma ). however , the ultraviolet laser light used as the light source is invisible light and invisible . thus as shown in fig1 , the mirror 24 is placed in the illumination optical path to cause the optical path to branch off . thereafter , the scan trajectory of the laser light is projected onto the screen 25 to enable its observation . the screen 25 is placed in a position conjugated with respect to the pupil 11 a of the objective lens . the screen 25 has the action of emitting fluorescence according to the radiation of the ultraviolet light and is capable of obtaining such a laser scan trajectory 35 as shown in fig5 ( a ). the laser scan trajectory 35 on the screen 25 is detected by the lens 26 and tv cameral 27 . in such a case as shown in fig5 ( b ), a diffusion plate ( rotating optical device ) 50 is rotated at high speed as will be described later to thereby make it possible to reduce coherence of multispot light 33 b . incidentally , designated at numerals 34 in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ) respectively indicate pupils 11 a of objective lenses 11 . the magnitudes or sizes of the multispot light 33 a and 33 b formed in the pupils 11 a of the objective lenses 11 are determined according to the ratio between the focal distances of the lens 66 and lens 7 . therefore some of the illumination optical system including the coherence reduction optical system 6 is changed into unitization or replaced with another to thereby make it possible to change the magnitudes of the multispot light 33 a and 33 b formed in the pupils 11 a ( 34 ) of the objective lenses 11 . in this case , the optical length extending from the focal position 52 of the multispot shaper 65 to its corresponding pupil 11 a of the objective lens is set so as to remain unchanged . fig5 ( a ) is a reduced or scaled - down example of the multispot light 33 , and fig5 ( b ) is an enlarged example of the multispot light 33 , respectively . when the multispot light 33 is scaled down , the illumination sigma can be varied with a change in the amplitude of the waveform of a drive signal inputted to each of the motors 61 and 64 . on the other hand , when the illumination sigma is scaled up , the amplitude of the waveform of the drive signal inputted to each of the motors 61 and 64 can be reduced . further , for example , a circular aperture stop is provided at a position ( e . g ., the focal position 42 of the lens 62 ) conjugated with respect to the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 to restrict light flux of laser , whereby the illumination sigma can be changed . on the other hand , it is necessary to thinly narrow down the diameter of each multispot light 33 on the pupil 11 a of each objective lens 11 for the purpose of increasing an illumination visual field on the specimen 1 as large as possible . further , an increase in the number of multispots and high - speed rotation are needed to bury the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 by the multispot light 33 from thereabove . in the laser scan example shown in fig5 ( a ), scanning may preferably be carried out at least once or a whole number of times within a storage time of the image sensor 13 . a drive signal may be supplied from outside through a signal generator . as one example , a scan trajectory may be set so as to reach at least one scan or more within the storage time of the image sensor 13 through the use of a clock pulse or the like of a linear encoder for coordinate position control , which is provided at the stage 2 . incidentally , as multispot forming means , for example , even one can be achieved wherein a cylindrical lens array 71 shown in fig6 ( a ) is placed in a vertical form , or a rod lens 72 is placed on a two - dimensional basis ( see fig6 ( b )). in this case , a mask 110 ( see fig6 ( c )) comprised of transmissive portions 112 and a light - shielding portion 11 is placed in the focal position 52 of the multispot shaper 65 to enable the removal of stray light other than spots . changing the curvature of a lens in an orthogonal direction enables even rectangular illumination . here , the ultraviolet laser light used as the light source has linear polarization . since the resolution of the optical system changes according to the illumination or the polarized state of detection , the polarizing devices 10 a ( e . g ., ½ - wavelength plate ) and 10 b ( e . g ., ¼ - wavelength plate ) placed in the optical path are respectively rotatably constructed and detect polarized light in a specific direction , of reflected light emitted from a circuit pattern formed on the specimen 1 in accordance with a semiconductor process . incidentally , the mirror 28 , lens 29 and detector 30 , which are provided in the optical path extending from the polarizing beam splitter 9 to the image sensor 13 , are used to detect spatial images on a pupil surface of the objective lens 11 . fig7 is a typical diagram showing a state in which spatial images 142 through 144 in the pupil 11 a of the objective lens 11 are detected as light or bright images by the detector 30 such as the tv camera or the like . reference numeral 140 indicates a field of view for detection of the detector 30 . reference numeral 142 indicates a bright image of zero - order reflected light ( o - order diffraction reflected light : regular reflected light ) from a circuit pattern . reference numerals 143 and 144 respectively indicate bright images of 1 - order reflected light ( 1 - order diffraction reflected light ). of these , one largest in the reflected amount of light corresponds to the 0 - order reflected light from the surface of the specimen 1 . this occurs in excess at a portion where micro patterns on the specimen 1 are in close formation . since the 1 - order reflected light is low in regular reflection component when compared with the 0 - order reflected light , its light intensity is low . thus the uniform or even detection of both by the image sensor 13 needs to make adjustments to the balance between the reflected pieces of light . attention is now paid to specific regions p 1 through p 5 of the spatial images detected by the detector 30 . the average brightness of each region is calculated by an image processing apparatus ( not drawn ), and the polarizing device 10 is rotated by drive means ( not drawn ) so that the 0 - order and 1 - order reflected pieces of light are made uniform . while this work is made possible by , for example , measuring light reflected from each circuit pattern pre - formed on the specimen 1 through the use of design data or the like to thereby control the polarizing device 10 , the details thereof are determined according to experiments . meanwhile in the pattern defect inspecting apparatus according to the present invention , the image sensor 13 detects the brightness information about the inspected pattern formed on the specimen 1 with high accuracy in the state of the specimen 1 being focused on the inspected pattern while the specimen 1 is being moved at the constant speed by the stage 2 . the comparator 17 compares the image signal detected with a high degree of accuracy with the reference image signal lying within the delay memory 16 , which has been stored by one cell , one chip ( die ) or one shot , whereby the inconsistent portion is detected as the defect . therefore when , for example , the lightness unevenness of an image due to a variation in the amount of illumination light occurs in either of the delay image ( reference image signal ) outputted from the delay memory 16 and the detected image signal , the normal portion of the circuit pattern is determined as a defect , thereby causing a possibility of misdetection . as factors responsible for the lightness unevenness , there are considered a variation in the amount of ultraviolet laser light emitted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 , etc . the ultraviolet laser light source 3 is one wherein as described above , the laser fundamental wave light l 1 is launched into the non - linear optical part 85 provided inside the wavelength converting device 81 and caused to pass therethrough , thereby obtaining the second harmonic wave having the wavelength corresponding to one half that of the incident light . in order to obtain stable oscillations of the ultraviolet laser light , the error between the frequency of the incident light from the laser device 80 and the resonant frequency of the wavelength converting device 81 is detected , and the servo mechanism using the actuator such as the piezoelectric device or the like is electrically fed back so that the two are always kept in the resonant state , thereby allowing the optical axis thereof to coincide with the laser light . thus the ultraviolet laser light source is so delicate thereinside . therefore in the pattern defect inspecting apparatus according to the present invention , the central processing unit 19 detects the output of the ultraviolet laser light emitted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 by means of the detector ( amount - of - light or light intensity monitor means ) 215 and an integration circuit 216 to thereby detect the malfunction of the ultraviolet laser light source 3 based on a signal obtained from a comparator 218 , and feeds back it for inspection . namely , as shown in fig1 , some of the ultraviolet laser light l 2 emitted from the ultraviolet light source 3 is reflected by the mirror 214 and then received by the detector 215 comprised of a division type light - detecting device or the like , after which it is compared with a reference value ( ith ) 217 by the comparator 218 , whereby the malfunction of the ultraviolet laser light source is detected . fig8 is a typical diagram showing a state in which ultraviolet laser light emitted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 is detected by the detector 215 and the detected amount of light is represented with the elapse of time ( the vertical axis indicates a light intensity i and the horizontal axis indicates time t ). upon the pattern defect inspection , the stage 2 with the specimen 1 mounted thereon is controlled so as to move by an inspection width of the image sensor 13 within the storage time of the image sensor 13 to thereby obtain a pattern image having tetragonal pixels . therefore when the amount of light received within the storage time of the image sensor 13 changes , the unevenness of lightness occurs in the detected image . fig8 ( a ) is a diagram typically showing the relationship between the time t ( t = 1 ˜ n ) at which the stage is moved by an inspection width , and the amount of light p ( p = 1 ˜ n ) stored in the image sensor 13 . the light - received signal outputted from the detector 215 is integrated by the integration circuit 216 within the storage time of the image sensor 13 and converted into an electric signal , followed by transfer to the comparator 218 for each storage time . the comparator 218 compares the electric signal sent from the integration circuit 216 with the reference value ( ith ) 217 inputted from and set by the input means 18 or the like in advance . when the electric signal sent from the integration circuit 216 is judged to be an abnormal value exceeding an allowable value with respect to the reference value 217 , the position of coordinates of the specimen 1 at a time tx thereof is stored in the central processing unit 19 . the coordinate position of the specimen 1 can be recognized from a position signal ( linear encoder pulse ) of the stage 2 . therefore the central processing unit 19 is also capable of inspecting that point again based on the coordinate position data stored in the memory device 20 or the like . reflecting it on the result of inspection obtained from the comparator 17 or the like allows prevention of disinformation caused by the instabilization of the light source . further , when the electric signal sent from the integration circuit 216 frequently exceeds the allowable value for the reference value 217 , the central processing unit 19 may judge the system lying within the laser light source as faulty and thereby may stop inspecting . as described above , the central processing unit 19 is capable of detecting the prediction of the life of the ultraviolet laser light source 3 and the malfunction thereof , based on the result of detection of the variation in the amount of laser light detected by the detector ( amount - of - light monitor means ) 215 , and thereby determining whether the inspection should be carried out continuously . meanwhile , the excitation laser light l 1 is gathered at and applied to the non - linear optical crystal 85 provided within the wavelength converting device 81 of the laser light source 3 to improve the conversion efficiency of the second harmonic wave . therefore the laser focused - point on the crystal surface is degraded with the elapse of time , and the transmittance of the crystal is reduced . fig8 ( b ) is a typical diagram showing the manner thereof ( the relationship between a light intensity i of ultraviolet laser light outputted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 and the elapse of time t ). a reduction in transmittance gradually proceeds during the use of laser and is quickened or made faster with the elapse of time . the output of the ultraviolet laser light emitted from the ultraviolet light source 3 is reduced when the transmittance of the crystal is lowered . therefore , for example , the central processing unit 19 sends a command to the control device 350 of the ultraviolet laser light source 3 to set the ultraviolet laser light l 2 received by the detector 215 to a set value , thereby increasing the source voltage for the excitation laser light l 1 so as to adjust the output of the excitation laser light l 1 . alternatively , each of the density filters 220 attached to the density adjusting device 210 placed in the illumination optical path is rotated by the motor 200 so as to be set to suitable transmittance . as a result , the transmitted amount of ultraviolet laser light l 2 is adjusted . incidentally , the density adjusting device 210 takes such a construction that it is provided on the stage 250 movable in a y direction by a motor 251 as shown in fig3 and moved for each predetermined time , thereby making it possible to change a position to apply laser to each of the density filters 220 . however , when the ultraviolet laser light l 2 does not reach the set value ( when the light intensity i is lowered by δi from a constant value 165 a ) even if the output of the excitation laser light l 1 is raised as described above , an unillustrated moving mechanism moves the non - linear optical crystal 85 provided within the wavelength converting device 81 by a predetermined amount to thereby change the position to apply laser light to each density filter . while this work is automatically executed inside the wavelength converting device 81 , the central processing unit 19 manages and controls the crystal so that it is not moved freely in the course of the inspection of the specimen 1 . about several tens of position coordinates are determined in advance as the positions to apply the laser to the crystal , and the lifetime per one laser - irradiated position is mostly determined according to the internal property of the crystal . when all the laser - irradiated positions are used up , the crystal per se is replaced with another . the number of the laser - irradiated positions for the crystal has been inputted to the central processing unit 19 in advance . when the last laser - irradiated position is reached , the central processing unit 19 produces a warning signal . incidentally , as another factor responsible for deterioration of the crystal , there is also considered that contaminants floating in the air are attached to the crystal by the irradiation of the laser light to thereby reduce or deteriorate transmittance . thus while the central processing unit 19 generates the warning signal when the last position to apply the laser light to the crystal is reached , it may produce a warning signal where the life of the crystal expires when it is used over , for example , 50 hours with the maximum power , e . g ., where it is used over 40 hours at which its life is brought to a rate ( 80 %) determined with respect to 50 hours . thus in the present invention , a second embodiment according to a defect inspecting apparatus will be explained with reference to fig9 and 10 . fig9 is a diagram showing an ultraviolet laser light source 3 as viewed from a z direction and shows a schematic structure ( section ) provided within a container 86 . a laser device 80 and a wavelength converting device 81 both constituting an ultraviolet laser light source 3 are first formed as structures provided within the closed container 86 . further , the container 86 is provided with a supply or feed port 90 and an exhaust port 91 . a clean gas 93 is supplied to within the container ( particularly , a container 87 of the wavelength converting device 81 ) formed as a closed structure from the feed port 90 through a dustproof filter 92 and a flexible piping 90 ′. the gas is discharged from the exhaust port 91 through ventilation holes 88 defined in the container 87 and circulated therethrough , thereby cleaning the interior of the container is cleaned inclusive of even the interior of the wavelength converting device 81 , whereby the lifetimes of the optical parts and crystal placed inside the container can be made long . in this case , a structure is used wherein connecting cables or the like can detachably be mounted in a state of being independent of the interior thereof . incidentally , the container 87 of the wavelength converting device 81 is formed as a closed structure without providing the ventilation holes 88 . further , the piping 90 ′ is omitted and the clean gas 93 is supplied to within only the container 86 from the feed port 90 through the dustproof filter 92 and discharged from the exhaust port 91 to circulate it . by doing so , the interior of the container 86 is cleaned and hence the optical parts placed inside the container 86 can be made long - lived . particularly , the clean gas 93 is circulated between a transparent window 89 through which the ultraviolet laser light l 2 is outputted from the wavelength converting device 81 and a transparent window 95 defined in the container 86 , through which the ultraviolet laser light is outputted from the ultraviolet laser light source 3 , whereby the lifetime of each optical part lying between the transparent windows 89 and 95 inclusive of the transparent windows 89 and 95 can be made long . in addition to the above , the whole optical system including an illumination optical system 5 through 11 , a detection optical system 9 through 13 , etc . is covered with a cover ( container ) 100 as shown in fig1 . a clean gas 150 is supplied to within the optical system from a feed port 151 and set to such a flow rate as not to exert an influence such as fluctuations on each internal optical system , followed by discharge from an exhaust port 152 to circulate it . thus each optical part or the like provided inside the optical system can also be made long - lived as well as an ultraviolet laser light source 3 . incidentally , since the clearance defined between a specimen 1 and an objective lens 11 cannot be increased , an air curtain is provided therebetween to bring it to negative pressure . thus the interior of the cover ( container ) 100 can be held in an atmosphere of the clean gas . the ultraviolet laser light source 3 , stage 2 , and illumination optical system 4 through 11 and detection optical system 9 through 13 covered with the cover ( container ) 100 are mounted on an antivibration table 120 . in particular , the ultraviolet laser light source 3 is positioned by being engaged or fit in an engaging or fitting member 171 provided on the antivibration table 120 , thus making it possible to place it on the antivibration table 120 . as a result , when the ultraviolet laser light source 3 reaches the end of its life and is thereby replaced with anther , a new ultraviolet laser light source 3 can be placed on the antivibration table 120 so that the light - outgoing optical axis of the ultraviolet laser light source substantially coincides with the optical axis of the illumination optical system . in the present invention in this manner , in order to facilitate an optical - axis adjustment , the outside of the container for the ultraviolet laser light source 3 is first mechanically positioned by use of the engaging or fitting member 171 or the like . next , for example , 4 - division type light - detecting devices are used for a detector 215 , and the mirror 4 or the like is precisely moved by an unillustrated actuator or the like so that the outputs of the light - detecting devices lying in x and z directions become equal to each other , whereby the adjustment to the optical axis can be simplified . further , when all the positions to apply the laser to the non - linear optical crystal 85 are used up within the wavelength converting device 81 , the entire ultraviolet laser light source 3 , the whole wavelength converting device 81 , or the non - linear optical crystal 85 lying within the wavelength converting device 81 is replaced with another . thus the whole ultraviolet laser light source 3 or the whole wavelength converting device 81 may be replaced with another because the time required to replace it with another can be shortened . in either case , the position to apply the ultraviolet laser light l 2 with respect to the container 86 or the illumination optical system changes after the replacement of the crystal or the like . it is therefore necessary to re - align the optical axis of the ultraviolet laser light source 3 with that of the illumination optical system ( inspecting apparatus ). another embodiment of the coherence reduction optical system 6 will next be described . in the present embodiment , as shown in fig1 ( a ), a circular diffusion plate ( rotating optical device ) 50 is placed in a focal position 49 in an optical path in place of the scan mirrors ( swinging optical devices ) 41 and 44 shown in fig4 and rotated at high speed by means of a motor 51 . namely , the diffusion plate 50 whose surface has been processed to suitable roughness , is placed in the focal position 49 of a lens 63 ( and a lens 7 ). an ultraviolet laser spot which converges on a pupil 11 a of an objective lens 11 with a certain degree of expansion , is scanned under the rotation of the motor 51 to reduce spatial coherence , thereby reducing coherence . in fig1 ( b ) as well , a relay system 60 including a diffusion plate ( rotating optical device ) 50 is newly provided between a scan mirror 44 and a lens 7 . the diffusion plate ( rotating optical device ) 50 is rotated in combination with the scan mirrors ( swinging optical devices ) 41 and 44 at high speed by means of a motor 51 to thereby achieve a reduction in coherence . further , fig1 ( c ) shows a case in which two types of diffusion plates 50 a and 50 b , and motors 51 a and 51 b for respectively rotating them are used . one diffusion plate 50 a is placed in a focal position 42 of a lens 62 ( and a lens 63 ), i . e ., a position conjugated with respect to a pupil 11 a of an objective lens , whereas the other diffusion plate 50 b is placed in a focal position 49 of a lens 7 ( and the lens 63 ) in a manner similar to fig1 ( a ) and 11 ( b ). they are rotated ( in the same direction or opposite direction ) at high speed by means of the motors 51 a and 51 b to thereby reduce coherence . while ultraviolet laser light is expanded to some extent by the diffusion plate 50 , the lens 7 will be selected as a lens having a numerical aperture , which covers it . the detailed specifications of the diffusion plate 50 will be determined according to experiments . incidentally , it is needless to say that the rotating cycles of the scan mirrors 41 and 44 and the diffusion plate 50 are set in accordance with the storage time of the image sensor 13 . the coherence reduction optical system is not limited to the above - described construction . a polyhedral mirror or the like may be used in place of the scan mirrors . using a two - dimensional scan mirror such as a dmd ( digital mirror device ) or the like enables the lightening of a mechanism portion . these coherence reduction optical systems 6 can also be attached in unitized form as shown in fig1 . in this case , there is an effect in that an exchange working time can be shortened owing to the provision of positioning means 170 a and 170 b comprising engaging portions or fitting portions for facilitating the positioning of units to an illumination optical system ( inspecting apparatus ) at their corresponding ends . according to the present invention as described above , an advantageous effect is brought about in that micro patterns can be implemented with high resolution and a stable pattern defect inspection can be achieved with high reliability , with ultraviolet laser light as a light source . according to the present invention as well , even if an output variation is produced from the ultraviolet laser light source due to some influence during inspection , inspection information at that time can be stored and reflected on the result of inspection . thus the occurrence of disinformation caused by the influence of an output variation in laser can easily be analyzed , and re - inspection can also be carried out , thus making it possible to prevent the inspection from being missed and improve the reliability of the inspection . further , according to the present invention , an advantageous effect is brought about in that the work of replacing each optical part or the like with another can also be carried out with ease , and a clean gas is circulated through the interior of an optical system to enable the prevention of contaminants peculiar to ultraviolet rays from being attached to the optical parts , whereby a pattern defect inspecting apparatus can be made long - lived . while the present invention has been described with reference to the illustrative embodiments , this description is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense . various modifications of the illustrative embodiments , as well as other embodiments of the invention , will be apparent to those skilled in the art on reference to this description . it is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover any such modifications or embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention .
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the present invention provides a bioactive glass composition which is useful in , for example , enamel remineralization , incipient caries remineralization , carious dentin remineralization , caries prevention , arresting decay , reversing decay , anti - caries , pit and fissure sealants , prophylactic pastes , fluoride treatments , dentinal sealants , etc . it can also be included in toothpastes , liners , bases , gels , and restorative material e . g . packing , indirect pulp capping agent , etc . compositions in accordance with the present invention are also useful in the treatment of surfaces after periodontal surgery to decrease dentinal sensitivity and enhance tissue attachment . the compositions are active in treating various defects associated with a variety of dental and other conditions and actually chemically and physically bond to the tooth thereby remineralizing tooth structure . as referred to herein , remineralization is the formation of hydroxyapatite . the formation of hydroxyapatite begins with exposure of a bioactive glass composition to aqueous solutions . it is believed that the sodium ions ( na +) in the bioactive glass exchanges with h + ions in body fluids causing ph to increase . calcium and phosphorus then migrate from the bioactive glass forming a calcium - phosphorous rich surface layer . an underlying silica rich zone slowly increases as the sodium ion in the bioactive glass continues to exchange with the hydrogen ion of the solution . after time , the calcium - phosphorous rich layer crystallizes into a hydroxyapatite material . collagen can become structurally integrated with the apatite agglomerates . as hereinafter referred to , an effective remineralizing amount is any amount capable of forming hydroxyapatite . as the term &# 34 ; a tooth structure &# 34 ; is used herein , it is intended to refer to any feature or features of a tooth including but not limited to enamel , dentin , pulp , tooth root structure , cementum , root dentin , coronal dentin , any dental manufacture , etc . a bioactive glass in accordance with the present invention is a glass composition that will form a layer of hydroxycarbonate apatite in vitro when placed in a simulated body fluid . for example , the following composition by weight will provide a bioactive glass : ______________________________________ sio . sub . 2 40 - 60 cao 10 - 30 na . sub . 2 o 10 - 35 p . sub . 2 o . sub . 5 2 - 8 caf . sub . 2 0 - 25 b . sub . 2 o . sub . 3 0 - 10 k . sub . 2 o 0 - 8 mgo 0 - 5______________________________________ bioactive glasses with these properties provide a more efficacious material for interaction with the tooth structure . a biocompatible glass in accordance with the present invention is one that does not trigger an overwhelmingly adverse immune response . in accordance with the present invention , it has been found that bioactive glasses of specified particle sizes are particularly useful in treating the above - mentioned conditions . specifically , surprising results are obtained by the present invention where small and very small particles are combined . for example , when compositions including small particles that are capable of bonding with tooth structure ( e . g . less than about 90 microns ) as well smaller particles ( e . g . less than about 10 ) are used in combination , the larger of these particles adhere to tooth structure and act as ionic reservoirs while the smaller are capable of entering and lodging inside of various tooth structure surface irregularities . the larger of these particles provide a reservoir of additional calcium and phosphorous so that the mineralization , or depositing of the calcium phosphate layer begun by the small particles can continue . additional calcium and phosphorous can be leached to all tooth structure as well as to particles which have become attached to the inside or at the openings of surface irregularities of tooth structure such as dentinal tubules . this in turn provides for continuation of the entire reaction and continued growth of the smaller of these particles which have lodged inside or over the openings of such surface irregularities and can result in effectively coating or filling the surface irregularity . this excess concentration of ions of calcium and phosphorous is necessary for continued reaction of the smaller of these particles to take place because the smaller particles quickly exhaust their ions as a result of their relatively high surface area . the larger of these particles will react and release their ions more slowly as a longer term effect . furthermore , the larger of these particles will mechanically abrade the tooth surface opening various surface irregularities allowing small particles to enter and react with the surface irregularity . this effect is very beneficial in a variety of applications . for example , in preventing caries or decay , the composition of the present invention is capable of penetrating into the depths of the smallest of surface irregularities and receiving a continued supply of ions from larger nearby particles so that it is able to grow after exhausting its stored ion supply . this is also very useful in sealing pits and fissures and a much more effective and long lasting seal is obtained . in some embodiments of the present invention , extremely small particles are used . for example , particles that are in the range of 2 μm to submicron fit inside dentin tubules that are approximately 1 - 2 μm in diameter . the occlusion of these tubules leads to a significant reduction in the amount of sensitivity after , for example , periodontal surgery . preferably , a mixture of particles less than two microns and larger than 45 microns in diameter are used . it has been found that this combination yields a particularly effective composition . compositions in accordance with the present invention generally do not require time to set . previous compositions were easily washed away by mechanical abrasion caused by brushing , exposure to mild acids in food , salivary flow or other liquids which normally come in contact with the teeth . however , some compositions in accordance with the present invention have been able to generally withstand significant agitation , rinsing with water and long term soaking in simulated saliva for five days . moreover , many of the small particles of the present invention do not require a set time because they begin to chemically react and adhere to tooth structure as soon as they come into contact with these surfaces and fluids naturally present in the mouth . although compositions in accordance with the present invention are effective with a single application , it is likely that multiple applications will be more efficacious . surprisingly , the relatively small bioactive particulate glass of the present invention does not generate a significant immune response . moreover , it is generally not engulfed by macrophages and rendered inactive in this application . the composition of the present invention is capable of providing a bioactive layer that will form a new structural layer which is a lasting remineralization of tooth structure . this has been verified by the reformation of a hydroxycarbonate apatite layer on dentin surfaces after treatment with compositions in accordance with the present invention with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy ( ftir ). in one embodiment in accordance with the present invention , the particles have a particle size of about 20 microns with about 30 percent of the particles less than 10 microns . in another embodiment in accordance with the present invention the particles have an average particle size of 10 microns with at least 25 % smaller than 2 microns . the compositions of the present invention may be formulated into toothpaste . in fact , the particles may replace the silica currently used in toothpastes . the addition of fluoride in the glass composition will enhance and strengthen the tooth structure . in addition to direct application of the bioactive glass to the teeth , the bioactive glass composition of the present invention can also be applied in a saline or distilled water based medium . the compositions of the present invention may also be formulated into mouthwash , gel or they may be applied by a dentist as a paste . in vitro experiments were performed using a standardized slab of human tooth dentin from extracted teeth . these discs were cut from the extracted teeth using an isomet diamond saw ( buchler ltd .). the discs were 1 . 0 mm thick and the size of the tooth . the occlusal surfaces were ground on a series of wet silicon - carbide papers ranging from 320 to 600 grit . this was done to standardize the test surfaces . the surfaces were treated with 37 % phosphoric acid for 60 seconds to remove the smear layer created during the grinding process and open and enlarge all the dentin tubules ( see fig1 and 2 ). the surface was rinsed with distilled water for 20 seconds and dried with a stream of oil free air . each slab was split in half and the experimental material placed on one - half of the specimen as described in the examples . an untreated slab with open and enlarged tubules is shown in fig1 and 2 . scanning electron microscopy was performed on the slab surface in each group . the slabs were mounted on scanning electron microscope stubs using sliver paste . all specimens were vacuum dried , sputter coated and examined in a jeol - t200 scanning electron microscope . ______________________________________ sio . sub . 2 45 cao 24 . 5 na . sub . 2 o 24 . 5 p . sub . 2 o . sub . 5 6______________________________________ the mixture was melted in a covered platinum crucible at 1350 ° c . for 2 hours to achieve homogenization . the mixture was later quenched in deionized water at 0 ° c . fritted glass was placed in an appropriate milling apparatus including ball mill , impact mill . the glass is milled for 2 hours and separated into appropriate size ranges . the particle size range less than 90 μm was obtained using this process and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and laser light scattering technique ( coulter ls 100 ). these mixtures were placed on the dentin slabs previously described . the exposure times to the dentin varied between two minutes with scrubbing to 3 days with no agitation . the occlusion of the tubules is depicted in fig3 - 7 . visible in fig3 - 7 are total and partial occlusion of the dentin tubules with multiple size of small ( 1 - 5 μm ) particles present . in addition , larger particles that are visible that will act as reservoirs for the chemical composition . early formation of hydroxyapatite crystals is beginning on the dentin surface confirmed by ftir . fig8 and 9 indicate the results obtainable by using submicron particles made in accordance with example 1 . the samples of fig8 and 9 are dentin surfaces which have been acid etched with phosphoric acid , treated with a bioactive glass for 2 minutes and immersed in a phosphate buffered saline for 5 days . with the lack of large particles for reservoir activity , there was less complete regeneration as confirmed by ftir . example 3 was conducted to illustrate the benefits associated with multiple applications of compositions in accordance with the present invention . first , an acid etched dentin surface was treated with a single treatment of bioactive particulate glass for two minutes and is depicted in fig1 . a dentin surface which has been acid etched and treated three times for two minutes is depicted in fig1 . fig1 shows significant penetration and occlusion of the tubules with a bonding over the surface of the dentin . there are not many large particles visible in fig1 . in fig1 , there is even more significant penetration and occlusion of the tubules and a greater number of particles present . this demonstrates the benefits associated with multiple application including the tubules as well as increased presence of larger reservoirs of ca and p ions . this also demonstrates interparticle welding of the larger particles to the smaller particles already bound to the surface . example 4 further illustrates the benefits associated with the use of particles less than 2 microns in combination particles greater than 45 microns in size . ftir spectra for the following samples are included in fig1 to illustrate remineralization : sample no . 3 treated with particles of bioactive glass less than 2 microns in particle size for two minutes sample no . 4 treated with particles of bioactive glass wherein 40 % were less than 2 microns , 15 % were in the range of 8 to 2 microns , 15 % were in the range of 8 to 20 microns , 15 % were in the range of 20 to 38 microns and 15 % were in the range of 38 - 90 microns . as illustrated in fig1 , the control sample provides a representative view of the spectrum of hydroxycarbonate apatite ( hca ). the shape of the peaks between wave number 1150 to 500 are very characteristic of hca . in sample 2 , the peaks are disrupted after treatment with the acid etchant , especially in the 1150 to 900 range . this indicates a loss of the mineral components of the tooth structure , calcium and phosphorous . sample 3 shows a partial remineralization of the ca and p on the tooth structure . sample 4 was treated with the optimal size and shape mixture of bioactive glass and shows an almost complete remineralization . a photomicrograph of sample 4 is included as fig1 . comparative example 5 shows the benefits associated with the use of particles less than 10 microns in combination with particles greater than 45 microns in size over the use of just particles less than 2 microns or 53 - 90μ . a control sample of untreated dentin surface was used in addition to treated surfaces as described below : ______________________________________number of sampleapplications composition score observations______________________________________single 53 - 90μ 2 about 50 % occluded tubules with large particles present control 0 no particles presentsingle & lt ; 2μ 2 above 50 % closure , no large particles seen control 0 open tubulessingle 50 % 53 - 90μ + 3 75 % + tubules occluded 50 % & lt ; 2μ control 0 open tubulesmultiple 53 - 90μ 2 partial closure of tubules with large particles present control 0 minimal occlusion seenmultiple & lt ; 2μ 2 partial closure of tubules with small particles present control 0 minimal occlusion seenmultiple 50 % 53 - 90μ best results -- tubules closed ; difficult 50 % & lt ; 2μ to find open tubules control 0 minimal occlusion seen______________________________________ all samples in the above table were subjected to a moist environment for 24 hours and then dried for 48 hours . as seen above , the combination of particles less than 2 microns and 53 - 90μ provided the best results . it is believed that the presence of both size ranges permits the smaller particles which have lodged in the tubules to continue growth after they have exhausted their own ca and p ions and are able to make use of such ions from other nearby larger particles acting as reservoirs of ca and p ions . the composition of the starting product for the following examples was the same as example 1 except the level of sio 2 was 45 %, 55 %, and 60 %. also , the method of preparation was different . the mixture was melted in a covered platinum crucible at 1350 ° c . for 2 hours to achieve homogenization . the mixture was poured into a slab , allowed to cool to room temperature and crushed with a hammer . crushed glass fractions were then separated by sieving through a standard screen . fractions were then separated and retained . the particle size range less than 90 μm was obtained using this process and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and laser light scattering technique ( coulter ls 100 ). these mixtures were placed on the dentin slabs previously described . samples containing 45 %, 55 %, and 60 % sio 2 were utilized in the preparations with the same results seen in example 1 . again , the key to this data was the presence of the size range of particles . present in these examples are ranges up to 60 % silica with a size range in particles from submicron to 90 micron showing like reactions to example 1 on the dentin surfaces . although the present invention has been described in one or more embodiments , this description is not intended to in any way limit the scope of the claims .
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while embodiments are described with reference to certain liquid delivery systems , embodiments may be applicable to any liquid delivery system requiring a purge of a liquid delivery line . additionally , embodiments may be particularly useful when the liquid is susceptible to contamination or poses a potential health risk . referring to fig1 , a chemical delivery system 101 is shown . the chemical delivery system 101 includes a remote cabinet 125 which is physically and electronically coupled to a reactor 175 as shown . in other embodiments , the remote cabinet 125 may be coupled to other semiconductor fabrication equipment . however , in the embodiment shown , the reactor 175 is for chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ) where a liquid chemical such as tetraethylorthosilicate ( teos ) is delivered to a surface of a semiconductor substrate to form a teos film thereat . the teos may be delivered in this manner as part of a conventional semiconductor fabrication technique . additionally , other semiconductor materials such as titanium tetrachloride , tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane , tetrikis dimethylamino titanium , tetraethylorthosilicate , trimethylborate , triethylborate , trimethylphosphite , trimethylphosphate , triethylphosphate , trimethyl silane , and others may be employed . in the embodiment shown in fig1 , a bulk canister 105 is coupled to a process canister 120 ( or ampule ) through a manifold assembly 106 . the manifold assembly 106 couples to the bulk canister 105 through a delivery line 115 and a guarded coupling 100 . the manifold assembly 106 similarly couples to the process canister through a refill line 107 . through a series of pressurization and depressurization techniques , the manifold assembly 106 allows delivery of liquid chemical from the bulk canister 105 and for purging of the delivery line 115 as described further herein . with the chemical delivery system 101 of fig1 , a liquid chemical , such as that indicated above , may be driven from the bulk canister 105 to the process canister 120 for eventual delivery to the reactor 175 through a transfer line 150 . the bulk canister 105 may be a removable container for storing between about 5 and about 10 gallons of liquid chemical , whereas the process canister 120 may be a smaller container remaining in place within the remote cabinet 125 . in another embodiment , however , the bulk canister 105 is coupled directly to the reactor 175 and no process canister 120 is present . delivery of liquid chemical may be directed by a user at a user interface 127 of the remote cabinet 125 . the user interface 127 may be a touch screen coupled to a central processor of the chemical delivery system 101 for directing a delivery procedure . in the embodiment shown , the central processor is contained within cabinet hardware 128 of the remote cabinet 125 and coupled to reactor hardware 176 of the reactor 175 by manifold wiring 155 . in this manner , communication is provided between the central processor and the reactor hardware 176 which further directs a cvd procedure of the reactor 175 as described further below . during a cvd procedure the bulk canister 105 may be depressurized by a conventional technique . the delivery line 115 is opened to allow a liquid chemical , such as high purity teos , to be removed from the bulk canister 105 and into the process canister 120 as directed through the manifold assembly 106 . the manifold assembly 106 may simultaneously direct an inert gas , such as helium , into the bulk canister 105 to help force the high purity teos out of the bulk canister 105 . the process canister 120 includes a process level sensor 111 coupled to the central processor for indicating when the process canister 120 is filled . once filled , the process canister 120 may deliver a liquid chemical therefrom to a storage chamber 177 of the reactor 175 through the transfer line 150 as described above . depending upon the parameters of the delivery procedure , the reactor hardware 176 directs the high purity liquid material from the storage chamber 177 to a reaction chamber 179 where a cvd technique is used to form a film of semiconductor material on a substrate . as procedures such as that described above are run , the bulk canister 105 may periodically deliver liquid chemical to the process canister 120 . the bulk canister 105 is configured for removal from the remote cabinet 125 and replacement . thus , the bulk canister 105 includes a bulk level sensor 110 to indicate when replacement of the bulk canister 105 is required . before the bulk canister 105 is changed , a line purge procedure may be employed to ensure that any liquid chemical is removed from the delivery line 115 . in one embodiment , purging is coordinated through the manifold assembly 106 wherein the bulk canister 105 is pressurized through the delivery line 115 following removal of high purity chemical therethrough . that is , once the bulk canister 105 is substantially emptied through the delivery line 115 , air pressure is applied through the delivery line 115 in the opposite direction toward the bulk canister 105 . the pressure applied may be in the range of between about 45 psi and about 60 psi . this purges the delivery line 115 forcing any remaining high purity liquid chemical back into the bulk canister 105 . referring to fig1 and 2 , the guarded coupling 100 is open as the purging described above takes place . this allows the escape of air , which may include an inert gas as described above , as pressure is applied to the bulk canister 105 during the pressure applied through the delivery line 115 . in the embodiment shown , purging as described above substantially removes all of the high purity chemical from the delivery line 115 . thus , the bulk canister 120 may be replaced without contamination or safety concerns through the delivery line 115 . in order to ensure that similar concerns are not present with respect to the guarded coupling 100 , a guard 200 is provided as described further herein . fig5 is a flow - chart summarizing an embodiment of employing the guard 200 in a canister such as the bulk canister 120 during a liquid delivery and line purging process . fig5 is referenced throughout the remainder of the specification as an aid in describing embodiments of the guard 200 and chemical delivery system 101 generally . referring now to fig2 and 5 a guard 200 is shown coupled to a guarded coupling 100 at the bulk canister 105 as indicated at 520 . the guard 200 is about a 4 inch to 6 inch long shield that may be removably inserted into the bulk canister 105 as indicated at 520 . the bulk canister 105 may then be coupled to the chemical delivery system 101 as indicated at 530 for removal of a liquid chemical therefrom as indicated at 540 . continuing with reference to fig5 , a purge , for example , of the delivery line 115 , may be applied as indicated at 550 . as the bulk canister 105 is pressurized through the delivery line 115 during purging , splattering and splashing of the high purity chemical may occur . as described below , the guard 200 is configured to prevent liquid chemical from escaping the bulk canister 105 through the guarded coupling 100 . referring to fig2 and 3 , guard 200 is equipped with lower inlets 350 with baffle inlets 310 thereabove to allow air through to the guarded coupling 100 exterior of the bulk canister 105 . as shown in fig3 , air may exit the bulk canister 105 during purging as shown by arrows 375 . as described further herein , the air must traverse baffles 300 as it escapes the bulk canister 105 . thus , as the air escapes the bulk canister 105 , the baffles 300 shield any high purity chemical from also escaping the bulk canister 105 . the guard 200 terminates at a sealed bottom 325 limiting the likelihood of high purity chemical entering the guard 200 . air may only enter the guard 200 through the lower inlets 350 and the baffle inlets 310 at the side of the guard 200 . once air enters the guard 200 it encounters and passes around the baffles 300 as described above . the baffles 300 may extend at least half the distance ( d ) across the guard 200 from sidewalls thereof . thus , the baffles 300 may overlap one another to ensure that the path of air exiting through the guard 200 is not linear . in this manner , any high purity chemical traveling with the air as shown at arrows 375 must encounter the baffles 300 . this configuration serves to block the high purity chemical from exiting the guard 200 with the exiting air . in one embodiment , the uppermost baffles 300 lack baffle inlets 310 in order to ensure that exiting air and any high purity chemical are forced to traverse lower positioned baffles 300 . this further prevents any direct escape route of exiting air and high purity liquid chemical . the guard 200 and baffles 300 may be formed of stainless steel , a synthetic fluorinated hydrocarbon , or other suitable material . the materials chosen may be selected based on the high purity chemical contained within the bulk canister 105 , ease of manufacture , and other factors . additionally , in one embodiment , the entire guard may be replaceable for cleaning and reuse with the same or another bulk canister 105 as described below . continuing with reference to fig2 and 3 , a replaceable guard 200 may be used to retrofit currently existing bulk canisters 105 . for example , where the guarded coupling 100 as shown in fig2 , couples to about a 1 inch orifice at the top of an industry standard bulk canister 105 , the guard 200 may have a diameter ( d ) which does not exceed 1 inch . in such an embodiment , the guard 200 may be between about ½ and about ¾ inches allowing it to fit through the orifice at the top of the bulk canister 105 . the guard 200 may further include a lip 360 greater than about 1 inch in diameter at the top thereof to allow the guard 200 to rest within the bulk canister 105 without falling through the orifice . in this embodiment , the lip 360 may rest at a rim of the orifice similar to a gasket for a conventional fitting for coupling to the guarded line 100 . similarly , in an alternate embodiment , where the orifice is about ½ inch in diameter , the guard may have a diameter ( d ) of between about ⅛ and about ¼ inches with a lip 360 exceeding about ½ inches in diameter . with reference to fig1 – 3 and 5 , once a purge of the delivery line 115 , as indicated above , is complete , the bulk canister 120 may be disconnected of or disassociated from the chemical delivery system 101 as indicated at 560 . the guard 200 may then be removed as indicated at 570 . the user then has the option of refilling and reusing the bulk canister 120 with a new guard ( see 540 ), coupling the used guard 200 to a new canister ( see 580 ), or neither , before coupling the canister to the chemical delivery system 101 to begin delivery and purge anew . referring to fig4 an alternate configuration of a bulk canister 405 is shown employing a guard 401 . in the embodiment shown , the delivery line 415 enters the bulk canister 405 from a position opposite the guard 401 and guarded coupling 400 . preferably , the delivery line 415 enters from the bottom of the bulk canister 405 to facilitate emptying of the bulk canister 405 . additionally , the delivery line 415 terminates at an angled portion 450 within the bulk canister 405 . the angled portion 450 is directed away from the guard 401 to discourage splashing of residual liquid chemical toward the guard 401 during purging as described above . the embodiments described substantially prevent liquid chemical from exiting a canister through an outlet even though the canister is being pressurized through an inlet . in this manner a liquid chemical line of a liquid delivery system may be purged into the canister without subsequent contamination or health risk concerns once the canister is removed from the system . although exemplary embodiments describe particular liquid delivery systems and guard configurations additional embodiments are possible . additionally many changes , modifications , and substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of these embodiments .
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the present invention is directed to improving object preservation through a hybrid methodology involving quantization parameter ( qp ) offset , a weighted distortion metric , and perceptual quantization ( qp ) offset . the invention is applicable to various types of object - aware encoders and can involve decreasing the qp or quantization step size for macroblocks constituting important objects or regions and can further involve decreasing the qp or quantization step size for macroblocks constituting unimportant objects or regions . in an embodiment of the invention , a method preserves important objects in a video . based on some criteria , the encoder can use , for example , qp offsets , a weighted distortion measure , and perceptual qp offsets ( or a combination thereof ) for relevant macroblocks ( mbs ). a novel weighted distortion measure is introduced which allows object information to influence encoding mode decisions . fig1 shows the object highlighting system applicable to embodiments of the invention . in particular , an object enhancing system , constructed in accordance with the present invention , may span all the components in a transmitter 10 , or the object enhancement component may be in a receiver 20 . there are three stages in the process chain where object highlighting may be performed : ( 1 ) pre - processing where the object is enhanced in transmitter 10 prior to the encoding ( i . e ., compression ) stage ; ( 2 ) encoding where the region of interest that contains the object is given special treatment in transmitter 10 by the refinement of information about the object and its location ; and ( 3 ) post - processing where the object is enhanced in receiver 20 after decoding utilizing side - information about the object and its location transmitted from transmitter 10 through the bitstream as metadata . an object enhancing system , constructed in accordance with the present invention , can be arranged to provide object highlighting in only one of the stages identified above , or in two of the stages identified above , or in all three stages identified above . the fig1 system for enhancing the visibility of an object in a digital picture includes means for providing an input video containing an object of interest . the source of the digital picture that contains the object , the visibility of which is to be enhanced , can be a television camera of conventional construction and operation and is represented by an arrow 12 . the fig1 system also includes means for storing information representative of the nature and characteristics of the object of interest ( e . g ., an object template ) and developing , in response to the video input and the information representative of the nature and characteristics of the object , object localization information that identifies and locates the object . such means , identified in fig1 as an object localization module 14 , include means for scanning the input video , on a frame - by - frame basis , to identify the object ( i . e ., what is the object ) and locate that object ( i . e ., where is the object ) in the picture having the nature and characteristics similar to the stored information representative of the nature and characteristics of the object of interest . object localization module 14 can be a unit of conventional construction and operation that scans the digital picture of the input video on a frame - by - frame basis and compares sectors of the digital picture of the input video that are scanned with the stored information representative of the nature and characteristics of the object of interest to identify and locate , by grid coordinates of the digital picture , the object of interest when the information developed from the scan of a particular sector is similar to the stored information representative of the nature and characteristics of the object . in general , object localization module 14 implements one or more of the following methods in identifying and locating an object of interest : object tracking — the goal of an object tracker is to locate a moving object in a video . typically , a tracker estimates the object parameters ( e . g . location , size ) in the current frame , given the history of the moving object from the previous frames . tracking approaches may be based on , for example , template matching , optical flow , kalman filters , mean shift analysis , hidden markov models , and particle filters . object detection — the goal in object detection is to detect the presence and location of an object in images or video frames based on prior knowledge about the object . object detection methods generally employ a combination of top - down and bottom - up approaches . in the top - down approach , object detection methods are based on rules derived from human knowledge of the objects being detected . in the bottom - up approach , object detection methods associate objects with low - level structural features or patterns and then locate objects by searching for these features or patterns . object segmentation — in this approach , an image or video is decomposed into its constituent “ objects ,” which may include semantic entities or visual structures , such as color patches . this decomposition is commonly based on the motion , color , and texture attributes of the objects . object segmentation has several applications , including compact video coding , automatic and semi - automatic content - based description , film post - production , and scene interpretation . in particular , segmentation simplifies the object localization problem by providing an object - based description of a scene . fig2 illustrates approximate object localization provided by object localization module 14 . a user draws , for example , an ellipse around the region in which the object is located to approximately locate the object . eventually , the approximate object localization information ( i . e ., the center point , major axis , and minor axis parameters of the ellipse ) can be refined . ideally , object localization module 14 operates in a fully automated mode . in practice , however , some manual assistance might be required to correct errors made by the system , or , at the very least , to define important objects for the system to localize . enhancing non - object areas can cause the viewer to be distracted and miss the real action . to avoid or minimize this problem , a user can draw , as described above , an ellipse around the object and the system then can track the object from the specified location . if an object is successfully located in a frame , object localization module 14 outputs the corresponding ellipse parameters ( i . e ., center point , major axis , and minor axis ). ideally , the contour of this bounding ellipse would coincide with that of the object . when , however , the parameters might be only approximate and the resulting ellipse does not tightly contain the object and object enhancement is applied , two problems might occur . first , the object might not be wholly enhanced because the ellipse does not include the entire object . second , non - object areas might be enhanced . because both these results can be undesirable , it is useful , under such circumstances , to refine the object region before enhancement . refinement of object localization information is considered in greater detail below . the system in fig1 further includes means responsive to the video input and the object localization information that is received from object localization module 14 for developing an enhanced video of that portion of the digital picture that contains the object of interest and the region in which the object is located . such means , identified in fig1 as an object enhancement module 16 , can be a unit of conventional construction and operation that enhances the visibility of the region of the digital picture that contains the object of interest by applying conventional image processing operations to this region . the object localization information that is received , on a frame - by - frame basis , from object localization module 14 includes the grid coordinates of a region of predetermined size in which the object of interest is located . in addition , as indicated above , object enhancement helps in reducing degradation of the object during the encoding stage which follows the enhancement stage and is described below . the operation of the fig1 system up to this point corresponds to the pre - processing mode of operation referred to above . when enhancing the object , the visibility of the object is improved by applying image processing operations in the region in which the object of interest is located . these operations can be applied along the object boundary ( e . g . edge sharpening ), inside the object ( e . g . texture enhancement ), and possibly even outside the object ( e . g . contrast increase , blurring outside the object area ). for example , one way to draw more attention to an object is to sharpen the edges inside the object and along the object contour . this makes the details in the object more visible and also makes the object stand out from the background . furthermore , sharper edges tend to survive encoding better . another possibility is to enlarge the object , for instance by iteratively applying smoothing , sharpening and object refinement operations , not necessarily in that order . this object highlight system which is shown in a more simplied view in fig3 detects important objects 310 in input video 305 , performs object enhancement by appropriate pre - processing 315 , and has the object - aware encoder 320 preserving objects . the object - aware encoder uses the object information from the object localization module in order to better preserve objects of interest during the encoding process . the object information for a video frame is represented by an “ encoder weights array ” w ( x , y ) which is a sequence of values , one for each pixel ( x , y ) in the frame . more important objects have larger weights for their constituent pixels . the background pixel weights could be set to 0 by convention . to better preserve objects , several methods may be used in an object - aware video encoder . these preservation methods can be naïve qp offset , weighted distortion measure and perceptual qp offset . the naïve qp offset method generally involves using the encoder weights array such that it is possible to determine which macroblocks ( mbs ) in a frame contain objects of interest . depending on the object weights and the number of object pixels in the mb , it is possible to apply an appropriate offset to reduce the qp of the mb . this allocates more bits to these mbs resulting in better perceived quality . the weighted distortion measure involves having the encoder makes several mode decisions for each mb such as intra / inter / skip / direct coding and mb partitioning method ( 16 × 16 , 8 × 8 , 4 × 4 , etc .) shown in fig4 . these decisions are based on a rate - distortion ( r - d ) tradeoff where rate corresponds to the number of bits allocated and distortion is a measure of coding fidelity . the distortion is normally computed as a sum of absolute differences ( sad ) between the original and the encoded mb pixel values . in order to better preserve objects , the process uses a weighted sad instead , wherein the differences at object pixels are weighted higher ( i . e . multiplied by a value greater than 1 ) than non - object pixels . the object pixel weights are obtained from the encoder weights array . the weight of pixel ( x , y ) is given by w ( x , y )+ 1 . by emphasizing the distortion at object pixels , the weighted distortion measure results in better object preservation , since the r - d optimization tries to choose modes that minimize the overall mb distortion . the perceptual qp offset method can be characterized as the perceptual frame - level qp offset approach . perceptual qp offset is especially useful when the objects to be preserved span many mbs . essentially , perceptual qp offset yields a better quality in the reference frame ( i - and p - frame ) and subsequently yields to better total coding efficiency . perceptual qp offset is premised on the following relationship : where qp i , qp p , and qp b denote qp of i -, p - and b - frame , respectively . the formulation of rate control with constant frame qp , the ultimate qp of a frame is the summation of the assumed constant qp ( i . e ., same for all frames ) with that frame &# 39 ; s particular qp offset . in this case , the preferred qp offset for each frame type is equivalently : where δqp i , δqp p , and δqp b denote qp offset of i -, p - and b - frame , respectively . another important factor for frame - level qp offset calculation is the temporal or motion masking effect of human visual systems ( hvs ). basically , human eyes are less sensitive to quality degradations of high motion frames than to low motion frames . as such , smaller qps should be applied to high motion frames than that for low motion frames , due to their higher temporal masking effect , while the same level of perceptual quality can still be perceived in the coded video . the approach seeks to effectively calculate per - frame qp offset contribution from the amount of temporal masking effect at a frame , and then , properly combine that with the original qp offset contribution from frame type . the resultant frame - level qp offset accounts for both the frame type and temporal masking effect , and hence , is more comprehensive . the approach fine tuned for frame bit allocation ( fba ) of a whole video clip or sequence in offline video coding . in spite of this , the approach is generally applicable to online real - time video coding as well , with various degrees of quality improvement depending on the involved look - ahead time . extensive experiments have demonstrated that accounting for temporal masking effect into per - frame qp offset is more necessary and critical than the frame type factor to guarantee significant visual quality improvement from the global optimized fba in offline video coding . most rate control schemes for either online or offline video coding only account for the frame type factor in fba , but not any impact from hvs masking effect at all . hence , in the offline coding case , even if their objective coding efficiency measured in average peak signal - to - noise ratio ( psnr ) can be significantly improved over online coding via fba of frame - type based per - frame qp offset , significant perceptual quality improvement still cannot be observed . it has been found that due to the global optimization of all frames &# 39 ; bit allocation of a sequence , high motion frames are allocated and coded with more bits than they are in the case of online coding . in the online coding case , bits are first allocated to each gop ( group of pictures ), and in order to guarantee constant bit rate ( cbr ), the allocated bits of a gop are proportional to the involved number of frames , i . e . gop size , only , but not affected by their different coding complexity , e . g . high or low motions , etc . therefore , in the offline coding case , given more bits , high motion frames are coded with higher psnrs than they are in online coding . on the other hand , since the total amount of bits is the same , low motion frames are coded with lower psnrs . the psnr variations are indeed greatly reduced in this case . however , more constant psnr does not mean more constant perceptual quality . due to the hvs temporal masking effect , the high motion frame psnr gains are much less perceivable than the low motion frame psnr drops . thus , the overall perceptual quality is , more often than not , worse than that of online coding . as such , the approach identifies that considering temporal masking effect in global fba of a whole clip is necessary and critical for perceptual quality enhancement . it is important to note that particular approaches that involve fba accounting for temporal masking often have an underlying rate model that is either classification based or frame complexity based , which is not as accurate and general as the widely adopted r - qp modeling approach for rate control . furthermore , widely adopted way of considering temporal masking is not via per - frame qp offset in fba , and hence , cannot be applied for r - qp model based rate control solutions . accordingly , the perceptual frame - level qp offset approach is actually a proper combination of qp offset portion due to temporal masking , denoted by δqp masking , and the portion due to frame type , denoted by δqp type . this scheme is critical to render significant perceptual quality improvement of offline multi - pass coding over real - time single pass coding . the temporal masking effect with frame complexity metric is defined as follows : where , cmpl denotes the complexity of a frame . r mv denotes the average mv coding bits per mb of the frame . mad denotes the averaged mean - absolute - difference ( mad ) of the prediction residue over all the mbs in a frame . hence , their sum indeed represents the motion intensity of the current frame , which also equivalently signifies the coding complexity , and inter - frame change . the simple summation form in ( 3 ) is derived from good heuristics via extensive experiments . in the encoder , r mv , mad , and hence , cmpl are all computed based on original input frames before the encoding of a frame , and mad only accounts for the luma component . the calculation follows a simplified encoding process , including : only checking inter 16 × 16 and intra 16 × 16 mode , and only searching integer motion vectors . complexity of a frame , calculated from ( 3 ), is further constrained via ( 4 ). when the complexity is below 0 . 1 , the prediction residue will be considered present due to inherent image noise , and hence , one can set the minimum complexity as 0 . 1 , which also serves to prevent possible “ dividing with zero ” errors . also , even without motion vector differences , the minimum average motion vector bits r mv in ( 3 ) is still 2 . hence , this portion is always removed . note that herein the frame complexity is calculated for each frame via forward inter - frame prediction only , as the frame display or viewing order follows the forward direction . that is for any frame , no matter its frame type ( i . e .. either i , p , or b - frames ), one will just use the frame complexity calculated in ( 3 ) to measure its motion intensity , and hence , its motion masking effect . as can be seen from equation ( 10 ) below , that the final qp offset is actually a proper combination of qp offset portion due to temporal masking , denoted by δqp masking , and the portion due to frame type , denoted by δqp type . this scheme is critical to render significant perceptual quality improvement of offline multi - pass coding over real - time single pass coding . the scheme involves the following calculations : here , k = 1 . 2k + 1 = 3 is the window size . complmax = 40 . a = 0 . 5 . n denotes total number of frames in the video clip . δqp masking , max = 8 , δqp masking , min = − 8 . • calculate δqp type : for frame n : • if i - frame : if gopsize = 1 → δqp type ( n ) = 0 . else if gopsize ≦ 10 { if gopavgcompl & lt ; 6 → δqp type ( n ) = − 6 . else if gopavgcompl & lt ; 14 → δqp type ( n ) = − 4 . else → δqp type ( n ) = − 2 . } else { if gopavgcompl & lt ; 6 → δqp type ( n ) = − 8 . else if gopavgcompl & lt ; 14 → δqp type ( n ) = − 6 . else → δqp type ( n ) = − 4 . } • if p - frame : if it is used for prediction of b - frames → δqp - type ( n ) = − 2 . else → δqp type ( n ) = 0 . • if b - frame : → δqp type ( n ) = + 4 . herein , gopavgcompl is the average frame complexity of the current gop excluding the 1 st i - frame . in ( 5 ), temporal masking complexity of a frame is calculated as the average frame complexity of the current frame &# 39 ; s neighboring frames in a certain size of window ( i . e . 2k + 1 ). this is to apply some low - pass filtering to avoid high dynamic change of the temporal masking complexity of a frame due to possible high dynamic change of frame complexity . for a scene - change frame , its frame complexity will be very high . hence , its temporal masking complexity is specially calculated as in ( 6 ), where a maximum constraint is applied for its frame complexity , and the averaging only applies to its forward neighboring frames in the same scene . given the temporal masking frame complexity , the portion of qp offset from temporal masking effect is calculated via linear mapping as in ( 7 ). this is derived from good heuristics , which works effectively with the complexity metric . δqp masking ( n ) from ( 7 ) is then normalized with the average δqp masking , and bounded within a certain reasonable range , as shown in ( 9 ). the δqp type calculation of the present invention embodies the heuristic rule as described in ( 2 ). specifically , if a gop has more frames , or if a gop is of lower motion , more bits for the first i - frame in the gop will be more preferred , as this will bring more coding efficiency benefit for the following frames in the gop . therefore , in these cases , a more negative qp offset will be desired , and vice versa . the qp offset contributions from both the temporal masking effect and the frame type impact are then combined together via simple addition and bounding in ( 10 ). the resultant per - frame qp offset from ( 10 ) will then be used in an r - qp modeling based rate control solution to calculate allocated bits for every frame in a sequence , while assuming constant op for constant quality in bit allocation . a brief description of such a rate control solution for frame - level bit allocation is described as follows . 1 . search for the optimal qp , denoted as qp opt , s . t . 2 . calculate allocated bit budget for each frame based on qp opt : here , r total denotes the total number of bits for the whole video sequence . n is the total number of frames in the video sequence . r i is the number of bits for frame i . δqp i is the perceptual frame - level op offset as calculated in ( 8 ). ri , alloc is the allocated number of bits for frame i . an example of the process 500 of a whole video sequence using the perceptual frame - level qp offset in globally optimized r - qp model based frame - level bit allocation is illustrated in the flow diagram of fig5 . as shown , the whole input video sequence is received and for each frame , the frame complexity is calculated ( 502 ) using simplified encoding as described above ( equations ( 3 ) and ( 4 )). then for each fame , the frame type is selected ( 504 ) using decisions on gop boundary and gop coding pattern of each gop . then , for each frame , the δqp masking is calculated ( 506 ) using equation ( 7 ) and the δqp type as discussed above . the average δqp masking is then calculated ( 508 ) over all the frames . for each frame , δqp masking is normalized using equation ( 9 ) and calculate ( 510 ) the final δqp using equation ( 10 ). using the calculated final δqp , one then calculates the allocated bit budget ( 512 ) for each frame using r - qp based rate control as described above with respect to equations ( 11 ) and ( 12 ). at this stage , the whole sequence is encoded ( 514 ) with the allocated bit budget for each frame achieved using the mb - level rate control and encoding . extensive experimental results show that : without considering the temporal masking effect , using δqp type only as frame qp offset , the globally optimized rate control with the whole sequence available as in equations ( 9 ) and ( 10 ) performs no better than the locally optimized rate control with only one current gop available . however , with further considering the temporal masking effect as set forth in the embodiments of the invention , significant perceptual quality improvement can be achieved . specifically , compared with gop optimized rate control , the sequence optimized rate control with the proposed frame - level qp offset approach can achieve much better coding quality on : ( i ) low motion frames that are neighboring with high motion frames ; and ( ii ) low motion short gops at the end of a scene , while a little worse quality on low motion gops . overall , the visual experience of coded video is always better . fig6 shows an block diagram of an exemplary video encoder 600 to which the present invention may be applied . initially , the processor 601 and memory 602 are in signal communication with all elements of the encoder and operate to control the same . an input to the video encoder 600 is connected in signal communication with a non - inverting input of a summing junction 610 . the output of the summing junction 610 is connected in signal communication with a transformer / quantizer 620 . the output of the transformer / quantizer 620 is connected in signal communication with an entropy coder 640 . an output of the entropy 640 is available as an output of the encoder 600 . the output of the transformed / quantizer 620 is further connected in signal communication with an inverse transformer / quantizer 650 . an ouput of the inverse transformer / quantizer 450 is connected in signal communication with an input of a deblock filter 660 . an output of the deblock filter 660 is connected in signal communication with reference pictures stores 670 . a first output of the reference picture stores 670 is connected in signal communication with a first input of a motion estimator 680 . the input to the encoder 600 is further connected in signal communication with a second input of the motion estimator 680 . the output of the motion estimator 680 is connected in signal communication with a first input of a motion compensator 690 . a second output of the reference pictures stores 670 is connected in signal communication with a second input of the motion compensator 690 . the output of the motion compensator is connected in signal communication with an inverting input of the summing junction 610 . regarding the naïve qp offset process , it changes the qp after a frame - level rate control method has determined the qp of the mb . changing many mbs this way , however , could cause instability in the rate control process and reduce the overall perceived quality . it is been determined that it is better to specify the desired qp offset for each mb ( based on its desired perceptual quality ) prior to the frame - level rate control process . the rate control process then takes into account all the information in order to allocate resources accordingly to each mb . strategies to preserve objects of interest according to the invention could be determined by combinations of the above three processes ( i . e . naïve quantization parameter ( qp ) offset , a weighted distortion metric , and perceptual quantization ( qp ) offset ). the combination may depend on several criteria which can take into account the characteristics of the objects to be preserved and the scene . one strategy involves considering the total area of the objects of interest in the frame . if the number of pixels with encoder weights exceeding 0 ( i . e ., w ( x , y )& gt ; 0 ) encompasses an area that is less than a predetermined threshold area ( t area ), then the perceptual qp offset methodology should be employed . a second strategy involves considering the total number of mbs containing object pixels or the number of object pixels . if the total number of mbs containing object pixels or the number of object pixels have an area less than a threshold ( t area ), use the naïve qp offset methodology or the weighted distortion measure . the two strategies are based on the expectation that the perceptual qp offset methodology is more robust when the number of mbs to be preserved is large . however , the naïve qp offset methodology and the weighted distortion measure methodology provides better results when only a few mbs are involved . the criteria that determine the strategy is determined based on a number of objects and scene characteristics such as , areas of the objects of interest , importance of the objects , velocities of the objects , and history of object preservation ( e . g . whether the corresponding mb in previous frames was given a higher qp ). in one application of the invention , face regions are detected in video - conferencing videos and used to control the quantization granularity of the background regions . the foregoing illustrates some of the possibilities for practicing the invention . many other embodiments are possible within the scope and spirit of the invention . it is , therefore , intended that the foregoing description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting , and that the scope of the invention is given by the appended claims together with their full range of equivalents .
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in fig1 a portable , battery powered cableless starting device 10 generally includes a housing 100 , connector terminals 210 , and control terminal 211 . the housing 100 has an elongated stick shape , with a connector terminal or plug end 110 . as used herein the term &# 34 ; portable &# 34 ; means something that weighs no more than 25 pounds , and has total linear dimensions ( avg . length plus avg . height plus avg . width ) of no more than 108 inches . in fig2 the battery powered cableless starting device 10 has , within the lower portion of housing / enclosure 100 , connector terminals / contacts 210 , control terminal 211 , batteries 220 , and recharge socket 230 . batteries 220 ( see fig2 , and 7 - 9 ) are preferably of the thin film type , having thin metal electrodes separated by insulating materials like glass cloth , with the electrode and cloth layers rolled up . any suitable chemistry can be employed , including nickel cadmium , nickel zinc , nickel metal hydride , and lithium ion chemistries . preferred batteries provide power surges of up to approximately 500 amps for short durations , are compact in size and light in weight , operate in cold temperatures , have a relatively flat discharge voltage , are capable of storing at least 1 . 0 ah of energy , have little or no memory effect from partial discharge / charge cycles , generate only minor excess heat while operating , and are cost effective . the term &# 34 ; compact in size &# 34 ; is used herein to mean that an embodiment &# 39 ; s size is kept relatively close to that of the batteries enclosed within it , and that the volume taken by the batteries is less than v cubic inches where v is 160 , 120 , 90 , 80 , 60 , 50 , 40 , 30 , or 20 . the &# 34 ; light in weight &# 34 ; is used herein to indicate that an embodiment may weigh less than n lbs . where n is 50 , 25 , 20 , 15 , 10 , 5 , or 3 . fig3 shows a highly preferred embodiment in which batteries 220 are serially connected . less preferred embodiments may , however , use other configurations such as having all the batteries in parallel , or having some batteries in parallel and some serially connected ( series - parallel ). alternative embodiments may augment one or more of batteries 220 with one or more capacitors having capacitance of at least one , five , or ten farads . recharge socket 230 ( see fig2 ) may be included in a particular embodiments to allow recharging of the batteries 220 . recharge socket 230 may have any reasonable size or dimensions , and may be positioned in any reasonable position on device 10 . less preferred embodiments may recharge batteries 220 by providing power to connector terminals 210 . connector terminals 210 ( see fig1 , and 3 ) each have a contact surface 215 sized and dimensioned to electrically contact an auxiliary power or electric starter input terminal and are electrically coupled to batteries 220 . connector terminals 210 are preferably incorporated where applicable so as to provide easy insertion into the external power connector of various apparatus , especially aircraft and other vehicles . of course , the connector terminals 210 and or plug end 110 may be specific to individual manufacturers , and could vary according to the nominal voltage of the electrical system . thus , a 12 volt dc piper type 2 - conductor connector will generally differ from a cessna 3 - conductor 24 volt dc or nato 24 / 28 volt dc systems . in some embodiments , connector terminals 210 and or plug end 110 may be configured in a manner particularly suitable for starting a particular type of vehicle ( i . e . a cessna ™ or an piper ™ airplane ) or use anderson connectors for certain starting motor connections like race cars . in other embodiments , the connector terminals 210 and or plug end 110 may be configured in a manner particularly suited for starting engines not contained in vehicles such as those utilized in power generators . although the position of connector terminals 210 may be varied , it is preferred that connector terminals 210 be positioned at an end of the housing 100 such as plug end 110 . plug end 110 ( see fig1 , and 4 - 6 ) may be removably coupled to the rest of housing 100 to facilitate replacing connector terminals 210 and plug end 110 having a configuration suitable for one type of vehicle with one having a configuration suitable for another type of vehicle , or application . in such an embodiment , plug end 110 could be sized and dimensioned to be coupled to an electric power input terminal which is part of a standard connector sized and dimensioned to receive a mating connector or plug . in addition to , or as an alternative to being removably coupled to the rest of housing 100 , plug end 110 may be movably coupled to the rest of housing 100 , possibly through the use of a flexible or expandable coupling . movably coupling the plug end 110 to the rest of the housing would allow the orientation or position of the plug end to be changed relative to , and independently of , that of the rest of the housing . housing 100 ( see fig1 , and 4 - 6 ) may be sized and dimensioned in a variety of ways , but it is contemplated that embodiments having housings which are approximately 1 &# 34 ;× 3 &# 34 ;× 14 &# 34 ;, 2 &# 34 ;× 3 &# 34 ;× 14 &# 34 ;, 3 &# 34 ;× 4 &# 34 ;× 15 &# 34 ;, 4 &# 34 ;× 3 &# 34 ;× 6 &# 34 ;, and 1 &# 34 ;× 3 &# 34 ;× 7 &# 34 ; will have particular utility and may vary in weight between 1 . 6 and 10 lbs . such &# 34 ; stick &# 34 ; and special shaped configurations are thought to facilitate convenient handling , and are contemplated as having a length which is between l and l + 1 feet where l is 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 or 0 . although the embodiment of fig1 shows a housing which at least partially encloses both the terminal connectors and the batteries , other embodiments may only partially enclose the batteries or the terminal connectors , or a subset of the batteries or terminal connectors . alternatively , less preferred embodiments may not even have a housing but use some other coupling mechanism to keep the batteries and terminal connectors coupled . possible alternatives may include , but are not limited to , coupling the batteries and terminal connectors to or within a flexible or a rigid rod , cable , or sleeve . other configurations are contemplated as well , however , including a shoulder hung pack or a back pack . it is preferred that the coupling mechanism prevents the contact surface from being positioned more than x inches from the battery where x is one of 60 , 36 , 24 , 12 , 6 , 3 , and 1 , or alternatively prevent the distance between the contact surface and at least one battery from being varied by a factor y where y is greater than or equal to one of 10 , 5 , 2 , and 1 . it is thought that a device in which the distance between the contact surfaces of the connector terminals and the batteries is limited is desirable despite the potential loss of flexibility . the term &# 34 ; potential loss &# 34 ; is used because one of the advantages of the claimed device is that it is able to perform the same function as prior art devices without having many of the limitations of the prior art devices . thus there is no need to have a special vehicle in order to use this device , nor is there any need to fuss with cables which must be coiled and uncoiled and which must be maintained , transported , and tracked in addition to maintaining , transporting , and tracking the prior art device . furthermore , electric power losses in the connecting cables are minimized , making more power available for the starting motor . preferred embodiments can be readily recharged using known circuits from the electrical output of the engine generator or alternator of the device being started , or from an external ac power supply . since preferred embodiments of the invention will hold a charge for extended periods of time , they are contemplated to be kept in airplanes or other vehicles and be available when needed . in some configurations a small additional set of parallel batteries may be connected for maintaining full charge voltage of the device . these optional &# 34 ; maintenance charge &# 34 ; batteries may be located within the device housing or external to the device . preferred embodiments may also include a special monitor and control circuit board which allows the user to check the voltage of the device prior to use and requiring the user to recharge the device before use if the voltage is too low . when a user decides to employ the device to start an engine and pushes the control button to activate the monitor / control board circuit , power is provided to the control terminal contact 211 for a period of up to 10 minutes , as long as sufficient voltage is available in device to safely start engine without damage to batteries . ( a positive voltage is required on contact 211 to cause the aircraft or other vehicle to switch the main power bus over to connect to the external power input , thereby connecting the power from pins 210 and the device to the aircraft or vehicle main power bus . this special control circuit continually monitors the voltage during use of the device and will disable power to the control contact 211 should the output voltage of the device drop below a preset level , thus protecting the batteries in the device from potential damage . once the control circuit has disabled the power to the control contact 211 , the device cannot be used again until it is fully recharged . referring to fig1 , a method for a person to temporarily provide power to an electric starting motor of an engine comprises the following steps : step 310 , providing a portable battery powered starting device containing at least one battery ( such as device 10 of fig1 ); step 320 , the person grasping and lifting the starting device in one or two hands ; step 330 , the person positioning the device so that it electrically contacts at least one input terminal of the external power connector 910 for an apparatus 900 and at least one battery is within z inches of at least one input terminal where z is one of 60 , 36 , 24 , 12 , 10 , 8 , 6 , 4 , and 2 ; and step 340 , the person repositioning the device so that it is no longer in electrical contact with at least one input terminal of the electric starter . in an alternative embodiment , the step of positioning the device may involve lifting the device at least partially over the person &# 39 ; s head . it is contemplated that the claimed invention can be advantageously used when apparatus 900 is a vehicle . referring to fig1 , a preferred method for a person to temporarily provide power to an electric starting motor comprises the following steps : step 410 , providing a portable battery powered starting device containing at least one battery ( such as device 10 of fig1 ); step 420 , the person pushing down the control button for 3 or more seconds and grasping and lifting the starting device in one or two hands ; step 430 , the person positioning the device so that it electrically contacts at least one input terminal of the external power connector for an electric starter and the at least one battery is within z inches of at least one input terminal where z is one of 60 , 36 , 24 , 12 , 10 , 8 , 6 , 4 , and 2 ; and step 440 , the person repositioning the device so that it is no longer in electrical contact with the at least one input terminal of the electric starter . in an alternative embodiment , the step of positioning the device may involve lifting the device at least partially over the person &# 39 ; s head . referring briefly to fig1 , in some instances an apparatus 900 may comprise an auxiliary power input 910 , a power bus 915 , a power solenoid 916 which acts as a switch for controlling whether power from auxiliary power input 910 reaches power bus 915 , an electric starter 920 and an engine 950 . the electric starter of the vehicle may comprise an electric motor 930 for starting engine 950 , and a starter solenoid 940 , the starter solenoid 940 coupled to the power bus 915 and acting as a switch for controlling whether power applied to power bus 915 reaches electric motor 930 . for such embodiments , a positive voltage on contact 211 activates power solenoid 916 to allow power from the auxiliary power input 910 to pass through the power bus 915 of apparatus 900 . once power is provided to power bus 915 , it is available to all systems of apparatus 900 including , when starter solenoid 940 is activated , the electric motor 930 . thus , specific embodiments and applications of the battery powered cableless starting device have been disclosed . it should be apparent , however , to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein . the inventive subject matter , therefore , is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims .
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the present invention is directed to a laminated printed package comprising a cellulosic substrate having a sheet of metalized paper printed with graphics applied to the outer surface of the substrate through use of an adhesive . it is a further benefit of the present invention over prior art metalized film cartons that the metalized paper cartons are more environmentally friendly than metalized film cartons because metalized paper repulps and cleans with relative ease promoting recycling . the paper web used in the present invention is preferably a free sheet or groundwood paper that has been metalized . in an embodiment , the metalized paper in coiled form is unwound and printed by conventional techniques , preferably by high speed , offset printing , operating at a speed generally in the range of 1500 to 3200 ft . per minute . after printing , the paper is rewound into coiled form and stored for subsequent application to a cellulosic substrate at the location of the carton manufacturer . alternatively , after the metalized paper is printed , the paper can be used in an inline process , so that it is attached to the cellulosic substrate without having to be wound first . the cellulosic substrate can be produced by conventional procedures and can consist of unbleached virgin kraft pulp , recycled pulp produced from old corrugated containers , newsprint , white office waste , and the like , or mixtures or virgin pulp and recycled pulp . the substrate is produced in one or more plies and generally has a basis weight of 40 lbs . to 90 lbs . per 1 , 000 sq . ft ., and a thickness of 0 . 012 to 0 . 025 inches . when producing beverage carrier , where high tear strength is required in the laminated product , long fiber , virgin soft wood pulp is preferred as the base layer of the substrate , and an outer or top ply of finer fiber hardwood pulp can be applied to the base ply . wet strength chemicals may also be added to the pulp to enhance tear strength characteristics in the presence of moisture . when producing a laminated product that is designed to contain products of lesser weight , such as cereal boxes , milk cartons , or the like , the substrate can be formed of one or more plies of recycled pulp , produced from old corrugated cartons , newsprint , office waste , and the like . the cellulosic substrate , when producing a high strength product , such as a beverage carrier , can be produced by a typical kraft process , in which wood chips are cooked at a temperature of approximately 340 degrees f . with the addition of sodium hydroxide and sodium hydrosulfide ( conventional kraft white liquor ) for a period of about 20 to 60 minutes to dissolve the lignin and hemicellulose . after cooking , the pulp is washed which acts to remove up to 98 % of the treating chemicals . the pulp is then diluted with water to a solids content of about 4 % and treated with sulfuric acid and alum to obtain the desired ph . the pulp stock is then delivered to the headbox of the forming section of the paper making machine , and the pulp slurry is fed from the headbox onto the forming fabric to provide a pulp mat . water is removed from the pulp mat by both gravity and mechanical induced vacuum , and the partially dewatered pulp then passes through the press section and drying section of the paper making machine , in a conventional manner , to produce the dry cellulosic substrate . if the substrate consists of multiple plies , the pulp for each additional ply is fed from a second headbox located downstream of the first headbox onto the base ply to provide the composite structure in a conventional manner . when producing paperboard packaging , such as cereal box , the cellulosic substrate will generally consist of multiple plies of recycled fibers . the pulping of the recycled fibers is carried out in a conventional manner , in which the recycled cellulosic waste is mixed with water and chemical dispersants , such as sodium hydroxide . the mixture is then subjected to a shear type of pulping agitation to break down the cellulosic waste into individual fibers and to liberate inks and toners . during pulping , the dispersant chemicals act to dissociate the ink from the fibers , and disperse the ink particles in the aqueous pulp slurry . following the dispersion , the pulp can then be subjected to conventional ink removal operations , which can be accomplished either by froth floatation or dilution washing . when utilizing virgin unbleached kraft pulp , the cellulosic substrate will be brown in color , while the substrate formed from recycled materials will generally be grey in color . at the site of the carton manufacturer , the printed metalized paper is uncoiled , and continuously bonded to the moving sheet of the cellulosic substrate through use of an adhesive . the metalized paper with the adhesive on its under surface is then applied to the upper surface of the cellulosic substrate to provide a laminated product which is passed through compression rolls to firmly bond the printed metalized paper to the substrate . in the laminated product , in a preferred embodiment , the printed metalized paper extends over the entire surface area of the substrate . the laminated product is then die cut into a plurality of sections or segments of the desired shape or configuration . each section is then folded and glued to form an open - ended box - like structure , and the flat boxes are then shipped to the manufacturer of the product to be contained . at the site of the product manufacturer , the flat boxes are opened , the product inserted , and the end flaps are then glued to provide the final packaged product that can be sent for distribution . in certain instances , items , such as beverage cans , inserted into the laminated package may be cold or refrigerated , and in this case , moisture may condense on the cans . it has been found that the condensed moisture may tend to warp or disfigure the laminated package . to overcome this problem , a layer of water absorbent kraft paper , corrugated medium or newsprint , can be applied to the inner surface of the cellulose substrate or base layer , through use of a water resistant adhesive which can take the form of an epoxy resin , urea formaldehyde resin , or the like . any moisture condensing on the refrigerated cans will be absorbed in the inner layer of cellulosic material and will not migrate through the laminated package due to the barrier created by the water resistant adhesive , thus eliminating warping or other disfigurement of the package . in a further embodiment , a layer or film of water resistant material , such as polyethylene film , can be applied to the inner face of the cellulosic substrate prior to cutting and folding of the laminated material . the water resistant film will prevent migration of water or moisture through the laminated package to aid in minimizing any warpage or disfigurement of the package . the invention combines the strength of the publishing business with the need for enhanced graphics in packaging , by laminating printed rolls of metalized paper to a heavier weight cellulosic substrate , immediately preceding the die cutting , folding and gluing process .
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in the following description , for the purposes of explanation , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention . it will be apparent , however , to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details . fig1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a lta device in accordance with the present invention . in fig1 lta device 100 includes buoyant element 102 containing a lta gas , and a flexible surface 104 . seam 106 runs along the length of buoyant element 102 , whereas seams 108 and 110 runs along the height of buoyant element 102 . as for the shape of the element , for the same reasons as applied to conventional lta devices , a sphere is the most efficient shape , i . e ., it encloses the greatest volume with the least surface area . it is noted that a spherically shaped lta device may practically be considered only in the academic sense . in particular , an lta device must respond to several forces , and corresponding moments . non - limiting examples of forces include gravity , buoyancy , thrust , and pressure , whereas the corresponding non - limiting examples of moments include the moments which act upon the center of gravity , center of buoyancy , center ( or axis ) of thrust , and center of pressure , respectively . unfortunately , the vector quantities ( weight , buoyancy , thrust , and aerodynamic lift and drag ) are never co - located , and all are capable of fairly large changes in location and magnitude over relatively short periods of time . consequently , an lta device that is generically termed “ spherically shaped ,” is not in actuality in the shape of a sphere . more specifically , as a result of the external forces and moments acting upon the lta device , the shape is distorted , so as not to resemble a sphere . however , the terms “ sphere ” and “ spherical ” are used herein to describe an lta device that would be a sphere , absent the effect of external forces and moments . similarly , for the same reasons as applied to conventional lta devices , a simple cylindrical , or tubular , balloon of equal volume may be lighter than a spherical balloon as a result of fewer seams . further , for the same reasons as described above with respect to a spherical lta , a cylindrical or tubular lta may not have , in actuality , the shape of a cylinder or tube , respectively . however , the terms “ cylindrical ” and “ tubular ” are used herein to describe an lta device that would be a cylinder or tube , absent the effect of external forces and moments . of course , most any shape element may be used for an lta device in accordance with the present invention , so long as its size and shape permit sufficient lift for the element itself in addition to the flexible material attached thereto . the flexible material may be created as a unitary fabric or assembled by connecting multiple segments of similar or dissimilar fabrics . an individual working surface may incorporate embedded or attachable power and signal lines , special tensile strength members and attachment points , such as eyelets or “ velcro ” pads . as for the flexible material , the types , sizes , shapes , and other characteristics of materials may be chosen depending on the intended use of the lta device non - limiting examples of materials that may be used in accordance with the present invention include existing gas tight fabrics such as those used in the present generation of airships and aerostats . the sizes and shapes of flexible materials of a lta device in accordance with the present invention may be chosen to fit design parameters commensurate with the designed lift of the buoyant element . non - limiting examples of characteristics of materials to be considered when choosing the flexible materials of a lta device in accordance with the present invention include density , tensile strength , elasticity , reflectance , transparency , opacity , color , cost , and durability in field service . as described above , the choice of the material for the flexible material of the lta device in accordance with the present invention may be dependent , among other things , upon the intended use of the lta device . for example , for use as a fog harvester , a porous material having proficient hydrophobic properties should be chosen , so as to permit the condensed water to drip down the flexible surface to a water collector at the bottom . for use as an air dam / wind break , a material with high tensile strength and low elasticity may be chosen so as to be sturdy without stretching under the wind force . for use as a turning vane for windmills , as a stirring vane for frost prevention , or as a sail , primary or secondary ship propulsion , the material should be highly flexible so that it can be folded and stowed for extended periods without damage . for use as a visual barrier ( e . g . a privacy screen or alternatively a movie screen ) a material may be chosen having a desired reflectance , transparency , opacity , and color . for use as various mechanical barriers , a material may be chosen having a desired filtration ability in light of the particulate to be filtered ; a porous membrane for filtering vapor or small pollen and dust particles , a screen for larger items such as bugs , leaves and construction debris , and netting for birds and large items . fig2 depicts another exemplary embodiment of a lta device in accordance with the present invention . in fig2 lta device 200 includes buoyant element 202 having two end faces 208 and 210 and containing an lta gas , and a flexible surface 204 . seam 206 runs along the length of buoyant element 202 , whereas seams 212 and 214 runs along the circumference of each respective end face 208 and 210 . fig3 a - 3c illustrate an exemplary method of manufacturing a lta device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . a top portion of sheet 300 of material , as depicted in fig3 a , is rolled onto itself to form a tubular element , as depicted in fig3 a . sheet 300 may be a unitary piece of material . alternatively , sheet 300 may be a composition of a plurality of segmented pieces attached together by known methods , non - limiting examples of which include sewing , buttons , pressure sensitive adhesives , thermo - sensitive adhesives , etc . as for the composition of sheet 300 , many materials may be used , limited by factors such as their respective density , cost , and availability , in addition to their respective characteristics pertaining to a particular intended use as will be described further below . once the top portion of sheet 300 is rolled onto itself , it may be attached along a seam 302 . the seam 302 may be created by known methods , non - limiting examples of which include sewing , buttons , pressure sensitive adhesives , thermo - sensitive adhesives , etc . end portions 304 and 306 , which may or may not be comprised of a material different than that of sheet 300 , may then be attached to both open ends of the rolled top portion of sheet 300 by known methods along respective seams 308 and 310 . a device 314 is thus produced , comprising element 306 and flexible surface 312 . in the embodiment of fig1 end portions are not attached to both open ends of the rolled top portion of the sheet . alternatively , in this embodiment , the end portions of the rolled top portion of the sheet are closed with seams 108 and 110 by known methods . non - limiting examples of other methods of attaching the flexible material to the element , as opposed to direct attachment , include remote attachment with lines , chains , netting , etc . fig4 depicts yet another exemplary embodiment of a lta device in accordance with the present invention . specifically , fig4 illustrates how a preexisting lta device may be modified include a usable flexible surface in accordance with the present invention . in fig4 lta device 400 includes ; spherical balloon 402 containing a lta gas , and a flexible surface 404 . seam 406 runs along the lower perimeter of buoyant element 402 . fig5 depicts yet another embodiment of lta device 500 in accordance with the present invention in which a plurality of flexible surfaces 504 and 506 are attached to element 502 . anchors 510 and 514 are attached to respective flexible surfaces 504 and 506 by lines 508 and 512 , respectively . as such , flexible surfaces 504 and 506 may be disposed at a desired distance x , thereby providing a floating enclosure for containing flow of materials such as wind or artificial snow from a snow making machine . furthermore , the lta device 500 may be moved , while retaining its shape , by moving the anchors such as by towing each with a vehicle . further applications of a lta device in accordance with the present invention will now be discussed . fig6 depicts an exemplary method of using a lta device in accordance with the present invention as a mast - less sail for a boat . in fig6 lta device 602 includes ; element 606 containing a lta gas , and a flexible surface 608 , wherein the lta device 602 attached to the deployment rigging 626 , which is pivotally mounted to boat 604 . seam 610 runs along the length of buoyant element 606 , whereas seams 618 and 620 runs along the circumference of each respective end face 612 and 614 . control lines 622 and 624 may optionally be added to inhibit twisting of the element 606 relative to the deployment rigging 626 . in operation as a mast - less sail , as exemplified in fig6 first the element 606 must be inflated with a lta gas . once inflated , the buoyancy of element 606 enables deployment of the mast - less sail , which will be discussed in detail below . fig7 depicts an exemplary deployment rigging to be used with boat having a lta device in accordance with the present invention . the deployment rigging 626 includes left and right crossbars 702 and 704 respectfully , meet at a t - section 706 , which is mounted into rotatable base plate 708 , which is fastened into the deck of the boat . winding bar 714 is rotatably mounted between crossbars 702 and 704 . end plates 710 and 712 , concentrically mounted to the winding bar 714 , assure even retracting and deploying of the flexible material . gear 728 , additionally concentrically mounted to winding bar 714 , is meshed with chain 726 . motor 716 provides power to turn the winding bar 714 in either one of a retracting and deploying direction . a manual crank may be used in place of motor 716 . the power transmission system includes chain 718 , receiving gear 722 , transfer bar 720 , gear 724 and chain 726 . the transfer bar 720 is mounted to crossbar 704 by support members 730 and 732 . in operation , motor 716 drives chain 718 to rotate transfer bar 720 via gear 722 . the rotation of transfer bar 720 , and consequently gear 724 , drives chain 726 , which then rotates winding bar 714 , via gear 728 , to thereby retract or deploy the flexible material . motor 716 thus fully deploys or detracts the flexible material , thereby raising or lowering the mast - less sail once deployed , the mast - less sail may be steered by rotating the rotatable base plate 708 , such as with a controllable motor ( not shown ). fig8 a is a cross - sectional view of the winding bar 714 with the flexible material 608 mounted therein and fully deployed . as seen in fig8 a , the flexible material includes an end 802 , which contains a member 806 , wherein circumference of end 802 is too large to pass through slit 804 in the winding bar 714 . fig8 b is a cross - sectional view of the winding bar 714 with the flexible material 608 mounted therein , after the winding bar 714 has been rotated in a direction w , for a time t . fig9 illustrates an exemplary system and method for assembling the flexible material 608 with the winding bar 714 . as illustrated in fig9 endplate 710 is removeably mounted to winding bar 714 via a collar 906 , that contains projections 908 that slidably mate with slots 904 in winding bar 714 . as a result of the mated connection of projections 908 and the slots 904 , as the winding bar 714 rotates , endplate 710 additionally rotates . endplate 710 additionally includes mounting bar 910 to be mounted into left crossbar 702 . with endplate 710 removed from winding bar 714 , the flexible material 608 may be inserted into winding bar 714 by guiding the end 802 into inlet 902 such that the remainder of the flexible material may slide along slit 804 . once the flexible material 608 is inserted into the winding bar 714 , endplate 710 is remounted to contain the flexible material 608 therein . fig1 illustrates an exemplary system and method for assembling the winding bar 714 with left cross bar 702 . as illustrated in fig1 , the end of crossbar 702 includes a locking latch portion 1002 , having a receiving groove 1004 therein . although a locking mechanism is not shown , any known locking mechanism may be used . once latch portion 1002 is opened , mounting bar 910 of endplate 710 may be inserted to rest on a groove 1004 located therein . a second groove , not shown , formed in the non - latch portion of the end of crossbar 702 additionally receives the mounting bar 910 when the latch portion is closed . of course , various lubricants , bearings , or other friction reducing mechanisms may be used at the junction of the left cross bar 702 and endplate 710 , in order to decrease friction and permit smooth rotation of the winding bar 714 . fig1 illustrates an exemplary system and method for assembling the winding bar 714 with right cross bar 704 . as illustrated in fig1 , the end of crossbar 704 includes a locking latch portion 1104 , having a receiving groove 1106 therein . although a locking mechanism is not shown , any known locking mechanism may be used . once latch portion 1104 is opened , mounting bar 1102 of endplate 712 may be inserted to rest on a groove 1104 located therein . a second groove , not shown , formed in the non - latch portion of the end of crossbar 704 additionally receives the mounting bar 1102 when the latch portion is closed . of course , various lubricants , bearings , or other friction reducing mechanisms may be used at the junction of the left cross bar 704 and endplate 712 , in order to decrease friction and permit smooth rotation of the winding bar 714 . in the exemplary embodiment of the winding bar as described above with reference to fig1 - 11 , the winding bar is loaded into the crossbars in a direction between the direction facing down and a direction facing the rear of the boat . this loading direction is chosen to maximize the integrity of the latches in the crossbars retain the winding bar . more specifically , the buoyancy of the mast - less sail will produce a force pulling the winding bar in a direction up from the deck of the ship , while the wind will produce a force pulling the winding bar in a direction toward the front of the ship . as such , the exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides the integral portion of the end of the crossbars to withstand such pulling forces , whereas the latches in the crossbars merely retain the winding bar . however , the latches may be provided in any position of the crossbar in order to provide numerous winding bar mounting designs . deployment of an lta device is not limited to the exemplary embodiment as described above with respect to fig7 - 11 . on the contrary , any deployment and corresponding retrieval technique known in the sailing industry may be used . a non - limiting example of which includes reefing . in another exemplary method of using an lta device in accordance with the present invention as a mast - less sail . for example , the combination of element and flexible surface is mounted to the port or starboard side of the vessel . in particular , one end of the flexible surface is fastened to the vessel . non - limiting examples of means for fastening may include a plurality of lines and individually controlled winches , or any other known spar , boom , or sail deployment system . the other end of the flexible surface is connected to the element as described , for example , above . mounting the lta device along the hull of the ship lowers the applied force and reduces the healing moment , over that of conventional mast - sail systems . furthermore , such a use of an lta device in accordance with the present invention may be employed to propel other objects through fluids . in another application , for example as a fog harvester , an lta in accordance with the present invention may work best under calm or light wind conditions . the large exposed surface and its supporting balloon , with or without additional cooling , efficiently condenses and collects airborne aerosols . if there is insufficient wind , or if the purpose is to clear fog from a specific area , such as an airport runway , the entire assembly 1202 can be propelled against the wind down the entire length of the runway , for example by way of towing from a vehicle 1204 , as illustrated in fig1 . in another application , as illustrated in fig1 , an lta 1300 in accordance with the present invention includes a low - tethered ( low - tethered as differentiated from high tethered . . . fastened close to the ground .) balloon 1302 having an attached segmented skirt 1304 , wherein the lta 1300 may be used as a tent . fig1 illustrates a modification of the lta device of fig1 , wherein a displacement ring 1402 is provided to increase the usable area under the low - tethered balloon 1302 . although certain specific embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed , it is noted that the present invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof the present embodiments are therefor to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive , the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims , and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein .
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the present invention provides a solution to the disadvantages of the first and second conventional methods of checking design rules as explained above . from a broad perspective , the method generally applies the right set of rules to the right regions of the mask pattern data . to simplify the process ( i . e ., to avoid having to create an entire set of design rule checks from scratch , or to harmonize several different types of design rules from different memory cell vendors ) and ensure its accuracy with respect to any particular set of foundry rules , the customized design rules are based on modifying a standard set of logic rules as needed to reflect needs of particular regions in the chip . thus , a customized design rule is created for each different type of region that may be present on the chip , and this customized design rule is in fact simply based on pushing more liberal parameters onto stricter parameters contained in the standard logic rules , and only in circumstances where it is necessary to do so . accordingly , because different types of circuitry ( logic , memory ) may require different processing steps , lithographic constraints , etc ., they can be treated independently by the present invention to ensure that design rules are accurately resolved for a system on chip integrated circuit design which uses a mix or blend of such circuitry . for instance , since memory circuits tend to be more aggressively sized and manufacturable than comparably sized and spaced logic designs , the former are subject to fewer layout constraints . these constraints include , among other things , minimum feature size , allowed feature shapes . ( i . e ., avoiding notches and similar undesirable shapes ), minimum distances between different types of feature shapes , etc . for example , a gate width might be smaller in a memory design than a logic design , and the minimum spacing between two signal lines may be smaller as well . allowable contact sizes and feature shapes may vary from region to region . other examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art . this system and method is described below with reference to fig4 . a system 400 includes a conventional computer system and various software routines and libraries for performing a design rule check as now explained . in particular , system 400 includes a standard logic design rule ( for logic areas ) 410 that is supplemented by additional customized logic rules 411 - 414 ( for other types of areas such as specialized memory areas ). one or more rules from this set are used to check a design in gds form 430 , depending on the types of regions presented in the ic . for example , if logic and ( bdsp ) sram were included in a design , both of these design rules would be used by design rule checker 440 ( a software routine operating on the computer system ) to check different areas of an ic layout as explained below . as seen in fig4 , each type of memory has its own set of customized rules to check against with . note that in fig4 , “ bdsp sram ” stands for bordered single port static random access memory ; “ blsp sram ” stands for borderless single port static random access memory ; “ dp sram ” stands for dual port static random access memory and “ rom ” stands for read only memory . the result is that a design rule check result 450 includes a number of separate error reports for layout violations detected in a layer ( or layers ) of an ic , including 451 ( for real logic errors ) 452 ( for real bdsp sram errors ) 453 ( for real blsp sram errors ) 454 ( for real dp sram errors ) and 455 ( for real rom errors ). similar customized design rules could be created , of course , for embedded dram , flash , etc . the necessity for manual checking , and the possibility of so - called “ false ” errors , is substantially eliminated . this principle could be extended beyond just memories , of course , to include other design rules for other areas that have differing design rule requirements . a system 500 which derives the customized memory rules from standard logic design rules is shown in fig5 . note that the system 500 also can be any conventional computing system appropriately configured with the libraries , files and routines explained herein , and in fact , in a preferred embodiment , is the same system as system 400 noted earlier . the first step performed by system 500 is to run a design rule check with checker 540 on a memory bit cell mask pattern data 530 ( from the appropriate memory type ) against a design rule command file 520 that consists of only standard foundry logic rules 510 . from this report 550 — an example of which is shown in fig7 a for a bdsp sram — a list of violations is created at 551 as presented by the bit cells . in other words , the various features of the memory cell are checked against standard logic rules to determine where they will fail , and to generate a comprehensive list of all possible errors . these errors are analyzed to determine how the standard logic rules 510 should be modified for a customized design rule set for the particular memory cell for this vendor . thus , an analysis of the actual memory design rules of such memory cell is made at step 560 , and then the appropriate parameter ( minimum dimension ) is then “ pushed ” onto a modified form of the standard logic design rules to create a set of distinct and separate design rules 571 - 575 at step 570 . further examples are illustrated in fig7 b and 7c for blsp and dp sram cells in such memories for a 0 . 18 micron design as tested against the present assignee &# 39 ; s own generic design rules as published as of the current date ( version 2 . 2 p0 ). it is apparent that different violations would be presented by different logic and memory design rules , so that different types of parameters would be pushed as needed onto standard logic rules when creating customized design rules . all these extracted values are used to derive customized memory rules ( 571 - 575 ) for each type of memories . thus , this invention can be applied to any mask pattern database , including one having no memory blocks , or even multiple types of memory blocks . the only modification required to implement the present invention using conventional gds formatted data is that different types of memory should be identified in some way , such as with different memory id layers to defined core bit cell regions . this can be done in advance , by modifying the gds data file directly , by adding a distinct memory id layer on top of each type of memory to identify such different respective memory region types . other techniques for identifying such layers will be apparent to those skilled in the art , and the present invention is by no means limited to any particular embodiment in this respect . the main goal is simply to ensure that design rule checker 540 is able to correlate a particular region in a layer with a particular set of design rules , and this can be accomplished in any number of ways either explicitly or implicitly . fig6 a and 6b illustrate the relationships of different polygons on a mask pattern data , and shows how different design rules are effectuated on a layer 600 within the chip layout . for polygons 610 , 615 within a logic area 605 , logic rules 620 should be applied . for polygons 630 , 635 within a memory area 625 , memory rules 640 should be applied . for a polygon 660 that is an intermediate area , i . e ., extending from a logic area 605 to a polygon within a memory area 625 , logic rules 620 are also applied in a preferred embodiment . this is because memory rules can only apply to polygons within the memory area due to different process impact . as suggested earlier , the conventional prior art methods do not and cannot distinguish between logic polygons and memory polygons within a layer . therefore , the same set of rules is used to check against all polygons in a mask pattern data regardless of logic and memory regions , and this leads to improper results . the manner in which the invention checks different regions with different design rules is shown in fig6 b as follows . first , in a particular layer a 600 of a layout , a polygon 605 in a logic area is derived as a_logic whereas a polygon 625 of layer a in a memory area is derived as a_memory . to satisfy a foundry &# 39 ; s design rules for implementing a design into silicon , some minimum geometric constraints or dimensions must be observed ; these include : a ) minimum a_logic to a_logic spacing defined as logic_value ; b ) minimum a_memory to a_memory spacing defined as memory_value ; and c ) minimum spacing between a_logic and a_memory is also defined as logic_value . accordingly , an appropriate standard logic design rile check is executed on region a_logic 605 using logic rules 571 , and not on any other region . a_logic is derived as layer a not memory ). this yields any appropriate errors for this logic region of this layer , and is accurate for such region . next , any memory regions 625 are treated ( by examining their id ) in accordance with an appropriate memory region design rule ( 572 - 575 ). the a_memory layer is derived as ( layer a and layer memory ). this yields any appropriate errors for this memory region of this layer , and is accurate for such memory region . any other memory regions are examined in the same way , with a design rule selected based on a particular memory id . it is apparent , of course , that the sequence is not critical , and that the steps could be reversed . it is only important that the appropriate region receive proper treatment in accordance with an appropriate design rule . all of the above processes can be performed in software with a conventional computer system as noted earlier that is adapted to execute the types of code described herein . moreover , the aforementioned software routines / programs may be implemented using any number of well - known computer languages known to those skilled in the art in this area , and thus the invention is not limited in this regard . accordingly , the invention ensures that all types of memory regions have to fulfill all memory rules of their group . correspondingly , all logic regions have to fulfill logic and memory rules ( all logic regions that passed logic rules should have also passed memory rules since memory rules are looser compare to logic rules ). the process is superior to prior art techniques in that it avoids false errors , and is more reliable , mote efficient , etc . thus , as noted fig4 , mask pattern data 430 is fed into design rule checker 440 to check against both the logic and different memory rules as such may be needed . it is understood , of course , that in the case where an ic does not require mixed types of circuit types ( i . e ., logic and memory ) that it may not be necessary to run both types of checks on each layer . the output of this process is a design rule check result file 450 . the results consist of only real logic 451 and real memory errors 452 . thus , the present method divides layers of a mask pattern data into logic , bdsp , blsp ; dp and rom regions ( or as many regions as there are different circuit types ) so that the right sets of rules will only apply to the right regions . in this manner , false design rules are eliminated , and the implementation of circuit designs into silicon form is expedited as well . although the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many alterations and modifications may be made to such embodiments without departing from the teachings of the present invention . in addition , many other industries , including liquid crystal display manufacturing and similar micro - patterned technologies , may benefit from the teachings herein . accordingly , it is intended that the all such alterations and modifications be included within the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims .
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the non - rotating protector p is illustrated in fig2 . the drillpipe 28 supports split collar 30 . split collar 30 has two pieces that are bolted , screwed , or clamped together . the bolts , the threads , the clamps are not shown in fig2 . split collar 30 has an internal shoulder 32 adjacent surfaces 34 and 36 ( see fig3 ). radial surface 38 is covered by the wear pad 40 . the sleeve 42 has a cage 44 extending therethrough , as shown in fig2 and 3 . the cage 44 is a rigid reinforced member which is attached to and stiffens the sleeve and additionally handles the radial and axial bearing function . in other words there is now load transmission throughout the sleeve 42 which transfers mechanical wear to a location other than the od wear of the sleeve itself . the sleeve 42 itself see &# 39 ; s only od wear no shoulder wear . the cage 44 extends beyond the upper end 46 of sleeve 42 . cage 44 has a radially extending tab 48 on which is found radial surface 50 . wear pad 52 is mounted in opposed orientation with wear pad 40 for eventual contact in response to loads applied to the sleeve 42 when in contact with the casing or borehole ( not shown ) such that a longitudinal force in an uphole direction is applied to sleeve 42 which will be happen when drilling or tripping in the hole . this condition is depicted in fig4 . wear pad 52 and wear pad 40 can be made of one singular ring structure or of multiple segments . the cage 44 has a tab 54 which defines an annularly shaped radial top surface 56 . as seen in fig4 when the wear pads 40 and 52 make contact , a gap 58 exists between surface 56 and surface 36 , which is part of split collar 30 . thus , when an uphole force is delivered to the sleeve 42 , while the drill pipe 28 is rotating , wear pads 40 and 52 contact each other to absorb the thrust load . the cage 44 can be hinged ( not shown ) in an effort to allow easy installation because the open - end could not be easily spread to go around the pipe if a hinge isn &# 39 ; t used . the cage 44 can also have a wavy fluted or corrugated appearance ( not shown ) and openings like holes and slots ( not shown ) to enhance the bonding effect of other materials to the cage 44 . the sleeve 42 can be made of heat resistant nitrile rubber or polyurethane . the split collar 30 can be made of steel , aluminum or zinc alloy . referring to fig2 the sleeve 42 has an outer surface 64 which can contain a series of elongated wear pads 66 . the pads 66 can also be in segmented form , as shown on the left - hand portion of fig2 . thus , the outer surface 64 can be substantially covered with a wear sleeve 66 or with longitudinal segments serving as wear pads 66 , or even split circumferential bands , as illustrated on the left - hand side of fig2 as an alternative embodiment . referring again to fig3 it can be seen that the split collar 30 has a wear pad 68 mounted to shoulder 32 . the cage 44 comprises radial surface 70 on which is mounted a wear pad 72 . when downhole thrust forces are applied to the sleeve 42 , the wear pads 68 and 72 connect , as shown in fig3 such that relative rotation exists as the movement of the sleeve 42 stops when it encounters the casing and the split ring or collar 30 continues to rotate because it is connected to the drillpipe 60 . wear pad 68 and wear pad 70 can be made of one singular ring structure or of multiple segments . when the sleeve 42 is subjected to a longitudinal force in a downhole direction , as illustrated in fig3 a gap 74 exists as wear pads 72 and 68 make contact . by virtue of the gap 74 , shown in fig3 and gap 58 , shown in fig4 the sleeve 42 does not come into rubbing contact with a metallic component such as the split collar 30 . the wear pads , such as 38 , 68 , 70 , and 52 , can be formed from any variety of materials depending on the particular well application and the durability that is desired . to some extent , the circulating drilling fluids in the annular space will facilitate lubrication and removal of heat generated due to the mating rotating contact between pairs of wear pads as previously described . additional grooves 39 which are placed in the mating surfaces of the wear pads 38 , 68 , 70 , and 52 will support the lubrication and heat removal . fig5 illustrates an alternative embodiment wherein the split collar 30 is of a nonrenewable design featuring an integral wear pad 76 that rubs directly on radial surface 78 of tab 80 , which is part of the cage 44 . the top of the cage 44 has an integral wear pad 82 which opposes radial surface 84 and forms a clearance 86 when wear pad 76 contacts surface 78 , as illustrated in fig5 . this occurs when the sleeve 42 is subjected to a longitudinal load in an uphole direction . wear pad 76 and wear pad 82 can be made of one singular ring structure or of multiple connected segments . when the load on sleeve 42 is reversed , the cage 44 with sleeve 42 moves downwardly until surfaces 88 and 90 connect to resist loads placed on the sleeve 42 in a downhole direction . again , in this embodiment , the cage 44 is part of the bi - directional thrust bearing and , in conjunction with split collars 30 , forms the balance of the bi - directional thrust bearing . under load , the thrust bearing assembly wears by design while protecting the softer rubber or other resilient component used to make sleeve 42 from direct contact with the thrust bearing components , thereby minimizing the wear from thrust loading on sleeve 42 . the relative rotation between the drillpipe 28 and the sleeve 42 can be improved by use of bearings or bearing segments 92 and 94 . each of the bearings 92 and 94 are preferably of the roller type , split into two 180 ° components and retained by cages 96 and 98 , respectively . the bearing cages 96 and 98 with are interposed between the cage 44 of the sleeve 42 and the pipe 28 function as planet gears relatively to the sleeve 42 which acts as an outer ring and the pipe 28 which acts as a sun gear of a planetary train . that means the non - rotating pipe protector system is actually a friction driven planetary train . the cages 96 and 98 which connect the balls or rollers are the arm of the planetary train systems . therefore , the rotating torque will be even more reduced by an amount of approximately 10 - 20 % due to the rolling movement as compared to frictional sliding movement . the seal 110 which is placed in the id of the shoulder of the sleeve 42 in opposite to the split rings 30 will reduce cuttings and mud flowing between the pipe 28 and the sleeve 42 . fig7 shows a cross - section through one of the bearings illustrating the use of rollers 100 against the drillpipe 28 . the bearing cages 98 which are interposed between the cage 44 of the sleeve 42 and the pipe 28 are illustrated in fig7 . those skilled in the art will now appreciate that the illustrated design for a non - rotating protector describes features which present a clear improvement over prior designs . the illustrated design of the preferred embodiment is an economical construction which , if used with the wear pads as shown in fig3 and 4 , facilitates reuse upon renewal of the wear pads . the thrust loads are conveyed from the sleeve 42 directly into the thrust bearing assembly illustrated in fig3 , or 5 , and the sleeve material is protected from contact with the thrust bearing components . the cage 44 , which is provided to give strength to the sleeve 42 and to be used in securing the sleeve 42 around the drillpipe 28 , also acts as the conduit for longitudinal forces in both directions . the thrust bearing assembly can be used above the sleeve 42 , as shown in fig2 or it could be used below the sleeve 42 without departing from the spirit of the invention . if desired , the thrust bearing can be made unidirectional and a pair of thrust bearings employed above and below the sleeve 42 , using a construction where the cage 44 extends outwardly from both ends of the sleeve 42 to form a portion of two thrust bearings located at opposite ends , each functioning to resist a thrust load in an opposite direction from the other . the wear pads 66 , as shown in fig2 can be secured to the cage 44 , as shown schematically in fig6 using ties 102 . the illustrated design of the preferred embodiment is also a construction which , if used will reduce the time to install the non - rotating pipe protector by 50 % compared to presently utilized designs . the amount of initial clearance between the drillpipe 28 and the sleeve 42 can be varied according to the application , as well as the construction dimensionally of the bi - directional thrust bearing illustrated in fig3 and 4 . the sleeve 42 can also have internal liners which can wear preferentially before the actual material of sleeve 42 wears on its internal diameter . the foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrative and explanatory thereof , and various changes in the size , shape and materials , as well as in the details of the illustrated construction , may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention .
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the basic elements for the apparatus described by this invention are shown as a block diagram in fig1 . the apparatus consists of a light source , excitation filters , focusing optics , collection optics , emission filters and detectors . electromagnetic radiation is directed from the light source towards the sample , passing through the excitation filters and focusing optics if necessary , to excite the intrinsic fluorophores in the sample . the scattered and reflected excitation radiation , along with the emitted fluorescence radiation , are collected with the collection optics and directed towards the detectors . emission filters ensure that only the energies of interest are measured . various embodiments of the invention , including different configurations and utilizing diverse components , are possible . the fundamental components for this microbial detection method permit : the excitation of multiple intrinsic microbial fluorophores , collection and detection of emitted and reflected / scattered light energies , and analysis of the detected signals with a method that is able to correct for background interferences and compare the relative signal strengths to known physiological parameters . the configuration and components employed in any apparatus using this method should be matched with the application requirements and expected interferences . it is possible , and sometimes desirable , to utilize a light source that provides a broad band illumination . the kind of light source employed is influenced by its ability to produce electromagnetic radiation of the wavelengths required to excite the intrinsic microbial components of interest . additionally , it is sometimes desirable to use a pulsed light source allowing measurement of the environmental background during the off cycle . the light sources that can be used include lamps with various bulbs ( e . g ., mercury , tungsten , deuterium , xenon ), light emitting diodes ( leds ), and diode lasers specific for the required excitation energies . the kind of light source used depends upon the intensity of excitation radiation needed and detection limit required . the excitation and emission filters used in the various embodiments of the invention include interference filters , impregnated glass , series of cutoff filters , gelatin filters , monochrometers , gratings and the like . the light cutoff characteristics of the emission filters used depend on how much of the scattered and reflected excitation radiation signal can be tolerated by the analysis method or what detection limit is required . if light sources having only the energies of interest are employed , the excitation filters may not be necessary ; if the light source is collimated ( such as a laser ) then the focusing optic may not be required . ( the purpose of the focusing optic is to direct the excitation radiation to the sampling area or volume .) it is important to note that with multi - photon excitation it is possible to use light sources with energies less than the excitation energies of the fluorophores of interest . the purpose of the collection optics is to deliver the light emitted from the excited microbial fluorophores and that scattered and reflected from the sample to the detectors . if interference filters are utilized to discriminate these emission energies , then the collected light needs to be collimated for these filters to work optimally . fiberoptic cables can also be used to both deliver the excitation radiation to the sample and to collect the emitted radiation and direct it towards the detectors . it is possible , and sometimes desirable , to utilize polished metal reflective , sapphire , fused silica , quartz , mgf 2 , and / or caf 2 optical components as many optical components exhibit fluorescence in the ultraviolet and visible range . the detectors are used to convert the emitted electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal that can be measured . numerous detectors , with different sensitivities , can be utilized in the embodiments of the invention : photomultiplier tubes ( pmts ), avalanche photodiodes ( apds ), pin diodes , ccds , and the like . the detector chosen would depend upon the energy of the radiation to be detected , the strength of the emission signal , and the required detection limit of the apparatus . the collected emission energies , having been converted to amplified electrical signals , are analyzed with a method capable of removing any background fluorescence and scattered excitation contributions . the choice of excitation and emission energies used in a specific embodiment depends upon the target microbes and their expected physiological status . table i lists the excitation and emission ranges of some of the more abundant intrinsic fluorescent compounds found in various microbes ( and proteinaceous toxins ) and indicates their likely presence in each . ( proteinaceous microbial toxins can be detected using this method and apparatus in a manner similar to that used for the detection of viruses .) table i excitation and emission ranges for microbial fluorophores . excitation emission non - range range viable viable ( nm ) ( nm ) fluorophore cells cells spores viruses toxins 260 - 285 340 - 360 nucleic acids x x x x 265 - 280 340 - 360 tryptophan x x x x x 265 - 280 340 - 360 tyrosine x x x x x 270 - 280 380 - 400 atp x 270 - 290 460 - 480 ca - dipic x 310 - 330 400 - 430 ca - dipic x 320 - 330 430 - 450 rpn x 340 - 365 430 - 450 rpn x 340 - 360 470 - 490 rpn x 430 - 450 520 - 535 flavins x 470 - 485 560 - 580 flavins x 560 - 585 615 - 680 porphyrins x x 560 - 580 620 - 700 flavins x x 610 - 650 750 - 800 unknown x x 650 - 670 730 - 780 unknown x x ( in table i , atp is adenosine triphosphate and rpn refers to the reduced pyridine nucleotides .) [ 0043 ] fig2 shows the emission spectra of a bacterial solution ( bacillus thuringiensis ) in a minimally fluorescing media when excited with light at 345 nm . the solid line shows the observed emission spectra of the bacteria and the dashed line indicates the contribution of the rayleigh scattering to this spectra . subtraction of the rayleigh background from the observed spectra results in the true emission spectra due to the metabolites excited by 345 nm light ( fig3 d ). the magnitude of the background from rayleigh scattering at wavelength λ can be described by the equation : ( in this equation , i is the intensity of the incident light ; a is determined by the experimental conditions ; the value for the constant c is typically determined by the characteristics of the instrument used to collect the data .) the combined emission spectrum of the bacterial solution when excited with 325 nm , 345 nm and 570 nm shows minima near 515 nm and 850 nm . the measured fluorescence intensities at 515 nm and 850 nm are used to calculate the unknown values of a and c from the aforementioned equation , ultimately allowing for the subtraction of the background signal from the detected signal . ralyleigh scattering background subtraction is particularly suited for liquid and air samples ; other sample media exhibit different backgrounds and can be treated with the appropriate methods ( e . g ., mie scattering , etc .). [ 0045 ] fig3 shows the background - subtracted emission spectra of viable bacteria , non - viable bacteria and spore solutions ( bacillus thuringiensis ) due to the various intrinsic fluorophores excited at 280 nm ( a ), 315 nm ( b ), 325 nm ( c ), 345 nm ( d ), 570 nm ( e ) and 660 nm ( f ). fig4 shows the obvious differences of the fluorescence signals ( normalized to the emission at 440 nm after background subtraction ) between said viable cell ( a ), non - viable cell ( b ) and the spore ( c ) solutions . the analysis method uses these differences between the viable cells , non - viable cells and spore solutions to distinguish between these in samples . the magnitudes of the detected and background - subtracted signals are used to quantitate the number of microbes in the sample . in the one embodiment of the invention , the use of excitation filters at 325 nm , 345 nm and 570 nm would allow for the detection of and discrimination between live cells , dead cells and spores . these excitation filters would allow the excitation of reduced pyridine nucleotides , various flavins , calcium dipicolinate , hemoproteins and other components . the selection of filters for the emission detection of the excited fluorophores would include those at 405 nm , 440 nm , 480 nm and 650 nm ; these filters correspond to maxima in the emission spectra of the excited flurophores . additionally , other emission filters ( 545 nm and 850 nm ) allow for the determination of the magnitude of the reflected / scattered background . to achieve a low detection limit , the following configuration was constructed . a pulsed xenon lamp was used as the light source with interference excitation filters . a focusing optic is added to collimate the light before the interference filters . the focusing and collection optical pieces were constructed from polished reflective optics to eliminate any background fluorescence . the parabolic collection optics , which collected ca . 90 % of the emitted signal , were fitted with interference emission filters , collimating optics and pmts . the instrument functions , data collection , integration and analysis were controlled by a microcontroller . in this embodiment of the invention , the detection method required the relative ratios of the detected and background - corrected signals to lie within certain physiological ranges . analysis of greater than 500 samples from more than twenty different species of bacteria and spores showed that the numerous ratios could be used to ensure a statistically significant identification . fig5 shows the distribution for just one of these ratios ( 440 nm / 480 nm ratio after background subtraction ) of 22 species of bacteria , thus defining the physiological range required for the detection method . the method could also discriminate bacteria - containing solutions from sterile media and other biochemical buffers . using a variety of methods and the following ratios ( 650 / 405 , 405 / 440 , 480 / 440 , 650 / 440 , 405 / 480 and 650 / 480 ), e . g ., neyman - pearson test , fuzzy logic and a trained neural network ( utilizing a multilayer perceptron ), these gave a 99 %, 95 . 6 % and 100 % probability of detection , respectively for the presence of bacteria . ( false alarm probabilities of the 500 data points taken for these detection algorithms were as follows : neyman - pearson ( 0 . 01 %), fuizzy logic ( 0 %), and neural net ( 0 %).) [ 0048 ] fig6 shows data from one emission ( rpn ) of the instrument for viable and non - viable salmonella typhi cells on the surface of a glass slide . the difference between viable and non - viable cells in the signal from this fluorescence is clear . fig7 shows the response of the rpn emission to escherichia coli on the surface of turkey . a detection limit well below that observed for other microbial detection methods is observed in real - time , without the need for reagents or touching the meat surface . in another embodiment of the invention , leds centered around 570 and 660 nm are used to excite the component ( s ) found in spores and dead cells shown in fig3 d and 3f . fig8 shows the emission spectra of paper and various samples of envelopes when excited with light at 660 nm ; the arrow in this figure shows the location of the emission expected from spores and non - viable cells at this excitation . as the paper and envelopes contain this spectroscopic window it is possible to detect bacterial endospores behind paper and inside envelopes . it is possible , and sometimes desirable , to include excitation at 570 nm as the resulting emission from non - viable cell component ( s ) between 610 and 680 nm excites the spore components that fluoresce in the aforementioned spectroscopic window . fig9 shows the differences between the 780 nm background - corrected fluorescence signals of an envelope and a sample of freeze - dried bacillus thuringiensis spores sealed inside of the same envelope . with this embodiment of the invention it is possible to quickly detect spores in envelopes without the need for reagents , sample processing , contact with the sample or opening the envelope . the embodiments of the present invention described above are intended to be merely exemplary , with other configurations , variations and modifications utilizing the fore mentioned basic ideas available to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . the scope of this method and apparatus to detect microbes includes utilization of simultaneous excitation of multiple intrinsic microbial fluorophores with subsequent analysis of the detected emissions with methods that concurrently account for background signals and require said signals to lie within physiological ranges . all variations , modifications and configurations are intended to be within the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims .
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fig1 shows an end member 10 such as an electric contact , prior to its connection to the end of an electric cable 12 formed from a core 14 and an insulating sheath 16 . the core 14 of the cable 12 can be made from a random metal , although the invention is advantageously applicable to the case where said core is made from a light metal such as aluminium . the insulating sheath 16 is made from a plastics material having high mechanical and electrical performance characteristics . it covers the core 14 of the cable 12 , with the exception of its end , which is bared or stripped over a predetermined length l . the end member 10 is made from an electrically conductive material having good cold deformation characteristics , such as a copper alloy . the end member 10 has a symmetry of revolution about a longitudinal axis and has a standardized front portion 10a strictly identical to the front portion of existing contacts , as well as a rear connection portion 10b , whose shape has been modified in accordance with the invention . in the case where the end member is constituted by an electric contact in the manner illustrated in fig1 the front portion 10a is identical to that of standardized male contacts . however , said front portion 10a can assume other shapes and dimensions in accordance with the envisaged application . these shapes can in particular be those of a female contact or an end fitting . for a reason which will become apparent hereinafter , it is important to observe that the front portion 10a of the end member 10 has a flange 18 defining a shoulder 20 turned towards the rear connection portion 10b . the rear connection portion 10b of the end member 10 , which commences immediately to the rear of the shoulder 20 , has an outer surface which successively defines , starting from the said shoulder , a uniform diameter , cylindrical portion 22 and a truncated cone - shaped portion 24 , whose diameter increases from the cylindrical portion 22 up to the rear end of the member 10 . as illustrated by fig1 the length of the truncated cone - shaped portion 24 is substantially double the length of the cylindrical portion 22 . moreover , a stepped blind hole or bore 26 is formed coaxially in the rear connection portion 10b of the end member 10 and extends up to the interior of the flange 18 . starting from the bottom , said bore or hole 26 has a cylindrical bottom section 26a with a relatively small diameter , an intermediate , cylindrical section 26b , whose diameter slightly exceeds that of the bottom section 26a and a cylindrical , entrance section 26c , whose diameter slightly exceeds that of the intermediate section 26b . at their entrance end , each of the cylindrical sections 26a , 26b and 26c has a chamfer 28a , 28b and 28c respectively . outside its end located within the flange 18 , the bottom section 26a of the hole 26 is completely located within the cylindrical portion 22 of the outer surface of the rear connection portion 10b . the intermediate section 26b of the hole 26 , whose length slightly exceeds that of the bottom section 26a is mainly located within the truncated cone - shaped portion 24 of the outer surface of the rear connection portion 10b and extends slightly into the cylindrical portion 22 . finally , the entrance section 26c of the hole 26 is totally located within the truncated cone - shaped portion 24 and has a length less than that of the cylindrical sections 26a and 26b . it should also be noted that the length l of the bared portion of the cable 12 is predetermined so as to slightly exceed the combined length of the sections 26a and 26b of the hole 26 , but is significantly less than the total length of said hole 26 . the bottom section 26a of the hole 26 has a calibrated diameter equal to the diameter of the core 14 of the cable 12 , increased by a slight clearance and two thicknesses of a transparent sealing sleeve 30 provided for slight force fitting in said bottom section 26a . the transparent sealing sleeve 30 can be manufactured from a tubular , extruded plastics material sheath cut at regular intervals . it has a totally symmetrical shape , so that it can be fitted in the bottom section 26a of the hole 26 without having to carry out a long and costly foolproofing . an inspection hole 32 is made radially in the rear connection portion 10b of the end member 10 , so as to issue onto the cylindrical portion 22 of the outer surface of said rear portion 10b and in the bottom section 26a of the blind hole 26 . this inspection hole 32 facilitates the treatment of the surface of the blind hole 26 , i . e . the optional deposition of protective coatings on said surface , as well as its rinsing . it also makes it possible to visually check the presence of the core 14 of the cable 12 when the connection has been made . the intermediate , cylindrical section 26b of the blind hole 26 has a calibrated diameter equal to the diameter of the core 14 of the cable 12 , increased by a very slight clearance and two thicknesses of an interface ring 34 . the interface ring 34 is slightly force fitted into the intermediate section 26b of the hole 26 . it is machined in a highly conductive material making it possible to improve the contact between the core 14 of the cable 12 ( e . g . of aluminium ) and the end member 10 ( e . g . of a copper alloy ). the interface ring 34 also makes it possible to compensate the expansion difference between the materials forming these two parts ( expansion coefficient approximately 17 for a copper alloy and approximately 23 for an aluminium alloy ). in order to best fulfil these two functions , the interface ring 34 is advantageously made from silver . thus , the conductivity of silver is satisfactory and its expansion coefficient is approximately 19 . it is also an easily machinable and relatively malleable metal . it should be noted that it is sometimes possible to avoid the presence of the interface ring 34 . this is in particular the case when the core 14 of the cable 12 is also made from a copper alloy . it is also the case when the interface ring can be replaced by a metal deposit fulfilling the same function within the hole 26 . in order to facilitate the introduction of the cable 14 , the interface ring 34 has at each of its ends an internal chamfer 36 . this symmetrical configuration of the interface ring 34 avoids having to use a long and costly foolproofing during installation . the different stages of the connection of the electric cable 12 to the end member 10 will now be described with successive reference to fig2 a to 2h . firstly , a certain number of surface treatments are carried out on the end member 10 using conventional procedures . these surface treatments usually consist of a copper coating of all the internal and external surfaces of the member 12 , facilitating the adhesion of the other deposits . a nickel coating can also take place on the front portion 10a of the member 10 . there can also be either a thin gilding of all the internal and external surfaces of the member 10 , or a thick , selective gilding on the front portion 10a of said member . finally , as stated , a silver deposit can be made within the hole 26 , particularly when it is wished to obviate the need for the interface ring 34 . the inspection hole 32 permits the escape of the air contained within the hole 26 during electrolytic deposition and facilitates the various rinsing operations . finally and as illustrated in fig2 a , the transparent sealing sleeve 30 is slightly force fitted in the bottom section 26a of the hole 26 . this operation is facilitated by the presence of the chamfer 28a at the entrance of the section 26a . when completed , the transparent sealing sleeve 30 extends over the entire length of the bottom section 26a and thus tightly caps the inspection hole 32 ( fig2 b ). the interface ring 34 is slightly force fitted in the intermediate section 26b of the hole 26 . this operation is facilitated by the chamfer 28b located at the entrance of the section 26b . when completed , the interface ring 34 occupies the entire length of the intermediate section 26b . into the hole 26 , equipped with the sleeve 30 and the ring 34 , is then introduced the partly bared end of the cable 12 , as illustrated in fig2 b . as the length l of the bared portion of the cable 12 is less than the total length of the hole 26 and scarcely exceeds the combined length of the sections 26a and 26b of said hole , the end of the unbared portion of the cable 12 is located in the interior of the entrance section 26c of the hole 26 in the vicinity of the chamfer 28b , when the end of the cable 10 abuts against the bottom of the hole . it should be noted that the introduction of the cable 10 is facilitated , for its core 14 , by the chamfer 36 formed at the entrance of the interface ring 34 and , for its sheath 16 , by the chamfer 28c formed at the entrance of the entrance section 26c of the hole 26 . the penetration of the end of the core 14 into the transparent sealing sleeve 30 causes no particular problem , as a result of the internal diameter of said sleeve being slightly larger than the internal diameter of the interface ring 34 . it is visually checked through the inspection hole 32 through the transparent sleeve 30 . as is also illustrated by fig2 c , the introduction of the end of the cable 12 into the end member 10 is preceded or followed by the putting into place of the end member 10 in the crimping or swaging tool illustrated in a very diagrammatic manner . this crimping tool comprises pliers 38 and a calibrated die 40 . the pliers 38 are formed by at least two jaws locking the end member 10 around the cylindrical portion 22 of its outer surface , so that it can bear on the shoulder 20 , as illustrated in fig2 d . the die 40 is also formed from two half - shell portions , which are closed on the cylindrical portion 22 of the outer surface of the end member 10 , when the pliers 38 are closed in the manner illustrated by fig2 d . this is followed by the radial compacting of the rear connection portion 10b of the end member 10 by wiredrawing , as illustrated by fig2 e and 2f . as indicated by the arrows f therein , this wiredrawing or crimping operation is carried out by exerting a tensile stress on the end member 10 , along the axis thereof , by means of the pliers 38 , so as to pass over its entire length the rear connection portion 10b through the calibrated die 40 . this operation transforms the outer surface of the rear connection portion 10b into a cylindrical surface , whose uniform diameter is substantially equal to the initial diameter of the cylindrical portion 22 . thus , the intermediate section 26b and the entrance section 26c of the hole 26 are given truncated cone shapes , whose diameter decreases towards the open end of the hole 26 . the deformation of the intermediate section 26b of the hole leads to an identical deformation of the interface ring 34 . consequently and as illustrated in fig2 g , when this wiredrawing operation is at an end , there is a mechanical connection both between the end member 10 and the core 14 of the cable 12 and between the end member 10 and the cable sheath 16 . this mechanical connection prevents any accidental tearing away of the end member and ensures an adequate mechanical strength when the core 14 of the cable 12 has a small diameter and is formed from a light metal such as aluminium . moreover , the mechanical strength obtained between the end member 10 and the sheath 16 of the cable 12 ensures the sealing of the connection , together with the transparent sealing sleeve 30 to the right of the inspection hole 32 ( fig2 h ). thus , a connection is obtained which is particularly appropriate for the use of an aluminium core cable , but whose sealing and non - aggressive character make it possible to envisage its application in the case of a cable having a core made from any other material and in particular copper .
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fig1 shows an example of prior art demodulator used for infrared light wireless communication . modulated infrared light signals ( 101 ) are detected by a photo diode ( 102 ). the output current ( lip ) of the photo diode is magnified and filtered by a preamplifier ( 103 ) and a band - pass filter ( 105 ) to separate the carrier signal ( ia ) from background noise . the carrier signal ( ia ) is sent to a phase detector ( 111 ). the phase detector ( 111 ) calculates the phase difference between the carrier signal ( ia ) and the output ( sv ) of a voltage controlled oscillator ( vco ). the output of the phase detector ( 111 ) is filtered by a low - pass filter ( 112 ) to generate the control voltage ( vvco ) of the vco ( 113 ). the phase detector ( 111 ), the low - pass filter ( 112 ), and the vco ( 113 ) form a pll ( 110 ) which forces the vco output signal sv to be in - phase with the carrier signals ( ia ). the digital signal ( sv ) generated by the pll ( 110 ) is sent to a mixer ( 121 ) and a low - pass filter ( 122 ) to extract information signals ( vout ). operation principle of this prior art demodulator is well known to the art ; there is no need to describe it in further details . many components of this prior demodulator are not suitable for integrated circuit implementation . the high frequency band - pass filter ( 105 ) needs discrete passive components that are not suitable for ic implementation . the pll is a sensitive linear feedback circuitry that requires careful calibration the maximum operational frequency of the demodulator is also limited by the stability of the pll . the mixer is often manufactured as a separated discrete ic chip . the prior art system in fig1 needs many discrete components , it is not optimized for ic implementation . fig2 ( a ) shows a demodulator of the present invention that serves the same functions as the prior art demodulator shown in fig1 . the input stages contain a light detector ( 202 ) and a preamplifier ( 203 ) identical to those in fig1 . the output current ( io ) of the preamplifier 203 is duplicated by a current mirror ( 204 ). the output currents ( iai , ibi ) of the current mirror ( 204 ), are sent to two sets of current switches ( 205 ). detailed designs of those current switches ( 205 ) are shown in fig2 ( b ) the input current ( ii ) to the current switch ( 205 ) is duplicated by an n - channel current mirror ( 221 ) that comprises four transistors ( mn 0 , mn 1 , mn 2 , mn 3 ). one of the output currents ( im ) of the n - channel current mirror ( 221 ) is connected to the input of a p - channel current mirror ( 222 ) that contains three transistors mp 1 , mp 2 , mp 3 ). one output of the p - channel current mirror ( ip 2 ) is connected to the source of a p - channel transistor ( mp 4 ) that is controlled by a reference control signal sw . the other output of the p - channel current mirror ( ip 3 ) is connected to the drain of another p - channel transistor ( mp 5 ) that is controlled by a reference control signal ( sw #). the second reference control signal ( sw #) is the inverted signal of the first reference control signal ( sw ). the second output of the n - channel current mirror ( im 2 ) is connected to the source of an nchannel transistor ( mn 4 ) that is controlled by the same reference control signal ( sw ) of transistor mp 4 . the third output of the n - channel current mirror ( im 3 ) is connected to the source of an n - channel transistor ( mn 5 ) that is controlled by the same reference control signal ( sw #) of transistor mn 5 . sources of transistors mp 4 and mn 4 are connected as the first output node ( iout #) sources of transistors mp 5 and mn 5 are connected as the second output node ( iout ). when the reference control signal ( sw ) is high , the output current at the first output node ( iout #) has the same magnitude as the input current ( ii ) but of opposite direction , while the output current at the second output node ( iout ) equals the input current ( ii ) in both amplitude and direction . when the reference control signal ( sw ) is low , the output current at the second output node ( iout ) has the same magnitude as the input current ( ii ) but of opposite direction , while the output current at the first output node ( iout #) equals the input current ( ii ) in both amplitude and direction . those two output currents ( iout , iout #) always equals in amplitude but opposite in directions . going back to fig2 ( a ), the outputs of those two current switches ( iaout , iaout #, ibout , ibout #) are sent to low - pass filters ( 206 ) to generate filtered low frequency output signals ( iaf , iaf #, ibf , ibf #). these low - pass filters ( 206 ) are manufactured using the switching capacitor technique for ic implementation . those information signals are sent to an output signal generator ( 209 ) to generate output currents ( ioutf , ias , ibs ). this output signal generator ( 209 ) comprises two absolute current generators ( 207 ) and one current adder ( 208 ). details of the output signal generator ( 209 ) is shown in fig2 ( c ). the output current of the first current switch ( iaf ) is sent to the input of an n - channel current mirror 231 . the inverted output current of the first current switch ( iaf #) is sent to the input of another n - channel current mirror 232 . the outputs of those two current mirrors ( 231 , 232 ) are connected together to generate an absolute current ( ias ). since iaf and iaf # are always equal in amplitude but opposite in direction , the combined output current ias always equals to the positive current of those two inputs ( iaf , iaf #). on the other word , those two n - channel current mirrors ( 231 , 232 ) form an absolute current generator . similarly , the other two n - channel current mirrors ( 233 , 234 ) form another absolute current generator . its output current ( ibs ) equals the absolute value of its inverted input current pairs ( ibf , ibf #). the two outputs of those two absolute current generators ( ias , ibs ) are connected before they are sent to the input of a p - channel current mirror ( 237 ). the output ( ioutf ) of the p - channel current mirror ( 237 ) is therefor equal to the summation of those two absolute currents ( ias , ibs ). going back to fig2 ( a ), the reference control signals ( swa , swb ) for those two current switches ( 205 ) are provided by a reference signal generator ( 200 ). the frequency of the input clock signal ( clk ) to the reference signal generator ( 200 ) is four times higher than the carrier signal frequency . this clock signal is used to generate two reference control signals ( swa , swb ) of the same frequency as the carrier signal . the timing relationship between the clock signal ( clk ) and those two reference control signals ( swa , swb ) are illustrated in fig2 ( d ). both reference control signals have 50 % duty cycles , and their frequencies are identical to the carrier frequency ; the phase difference between them is 90 degrees . fig3 shows the timing relationships between the reference control signals ( swa , swb ) and the input signals . for simplicity , we assume that the input carrier signals 301 are square waves with their amplitudes modulated by low frequency information signals 302 . two cycles of those signals are magnified to reveal more details as shown in fig3 . all of those signals have the same period ( t ). we define th as the time when the input carrier signal is high in each period , twa as that of the first reference control signal ( swa ), and twb as that of the second reference control signal ( swb ). the rising edge of swa is lagged by da after the rising edge of the carrier signal ( 301 ). the rising edge of swb is lagged by db after the rising edge of the swa . based on the above definitions , the filtered output signals ( iaf , ibf ) and the final output signal ( ioutf ) can be written as iaf = [ ∫ da da + twa amp t - ∫ da + twa da + t amp t ] / t ( 1 ) ibf = [ ∫ da + db da + db + twa amp t - ∫ da + db + twa da + db + t amp t ] / t ( 2 ) ioutf = abs ( iaf ) + abs ( ibf ) ( 3 ) where amp is the amplitude of the carrier signal . those integrals are limited in one period of the carrier signal based on the assumption that the low pass filter will filter out high frequency components in amp ; we also can treat amp as a constant within one period based on the same assumption . at ideal condition , the input carrier and the switching signals are all ideal square waves with 50 % duty cycles ; we have twa = twb = th = t / 2 and db = t / 4 . from eqs . ( 1 - 3 ), we have iaf = ( 1 / 2 - 2 da / t ) * amp when da & lt ; t / 2 = ( 2 da / t - 3 / 2 ) * amp when da & gt ; t / 2 ( 4 ) ibf = - 2 da / t * amp when da & lt ; t / 4 = ( 2 da / t - 1 ) * amp when t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; 3 t / 4 = ( 2 - 2 da / t ) * amp when 3 t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t ( 5 ) ioutf = abs ( iaf )+ abs ( ibf )= ias + ibs = amp / 2 ( 6 ) where ias = abs ( iaf ) is the absolute value of iaf , and ibs = abs ( ibf ) is the absolute value of ibf . these relationships are further illustrated in fig4 ( a ). there are many useful results described in eqs . ( 4 - 8 ). eq . ( 6 ) shows that the summing output current ( ioutf ) of the demodulator in fig . ( 2 a ) is proportional to the amplitude ( amp ) of the information signal , and it is completely independent on the phase difference ( da ) between the carrier signals ( 301 ) and internal reference control signals ( swa , swb ). on the other word , we do not need to use a pll to synchronize internal control signals with the carrier signals ; the phase difference between them does not influence results if we use a demodulator of the present invention to extract am signals . when da is a constant , any one of the signals iaf , iaf #, ibf , ibf #, ias , and ibs can be used to determine am signals . eqs . ( 4 , 5 ) show that there is a linear relationship between the filtered output currents ( iaf , ibf ) and da within each quadrant ( q 1 , q 2 , q 3 , q 4 ) of a period , as illustrated in fig4 ( a ). on the other words , fm signals can be determined from iaf and ibf , as long as the fm signal does not move the operation condition cross one of the quadrant boundaries . as a matter of fact , iaf , ia #, ibf , ibf #, ias , and ibs all can be used to extract fm signals under the same constraint . again , there is no need to use a pll . eqs . ( 7 , 8 ) show that the ratios of filtered outputs ( iaf / ioutf , ibf / ioutf ) are independent on the amplitude ( amp ) of the input signal while they have linear relationship with da within each quadrant ( q 1 - q 4 ) of a period . it is therefore possible to determine both am and fm signals simultaneously ; am signals are determined by ioutf ; fm signals are determined from any one of the normalized output signals ( iaf / ioutf , iaf #/ ioutf , ibf / ioutf , ibf #/ ioutf , ias / ioutf , ibs / ioutf ). there is no need to use a pll . in the above discussions , we assumed that both input signals and switching signals are ideal square waves with 50 % duty cycles . in a practical environment , the input signals are not likely to be ideal after they are transmitted through complex , noisy environments . the switching signals ( swa , swb ) can be very close to ideal because they are generated internally from the same clock signal . however , we still need to make sure that the outputs of our circuits are stable when those switching signals are not ideal . non - ideal conditions are discussed in the following sections . practical methods to avoid undesired effects caused by non - ideal conditions are described thereafter . assume that we still have ideal switching signals so that twa = twb = t / 2 , and db = t / 4 , but the carry duty cycle is less than 50 % so that th =( 1 − δ ) t / 2 . using eqs . ( 1 - 3 ), we have iaf = [ ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 - 2 da ] * amp when da & lt ; ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 = - ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 * amp when ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 2 = [ 2 da - ( 2 - δ ) t / 2 ] * amp when t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 2 + ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 = ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 * amp when t / 2 + ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; t ( 9 ) ibf = [ ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 - 2 da - t / 2 ] * amp when da & lt ; ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 - t / 4 = - ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 * amp when ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 - t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 4 = [ 2 da - ( 2 - δ ) t / 2 ] * amp when t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 4 + ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 = ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 * amp when t / 4 + ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; 3 t / 4 = [ ( 4 - δ ) t / 2 - 2 da ] * amp when 3 t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t ( 10 ) ioutf = [ ( 1 - δ ) t - 2 da ] * amp when ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 - t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; ( 1 - δ ) t / 4 = 2 da * amp when ( 1 - δ ) t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 4 = [ t / 2 + ( 1 - δ ) t - 2 da ] * amp when ( 1 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; ( 2 - δ ) t / 4 = ( 2 da - t / 2 ) * amp when ( 2 - δ ) t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t / 2 = [ ( 2 - δ ) t - 2 da ] * amp when ( 3 / 2 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; ( 3 - δ ) t / 4 = ( 2 da - t ) * amp when ( 3 - δ ) t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; 3 t / 4 = [ ( 5 / 2 - δ ) t - 2 da ] * amp when ( 2 - δ ) t / 2 & lt ; da & lt ; ( 4 - δ ) t / 4 = ( 2 da - 3 t / 2 ) * amp when ( 4 - δ ) t / 4 & lt ; da & lt ; t = t / 2 * amp otherwise . ( 11 ) results in eqs . ( 9 - 11 ) are plotted in fig4 ( b ). in similar ways , we can determine the output currents ioutf , iaf , ibf , for the case when the carrier duty cycle is larger than 50 %, that is , when th =( 1 + δ ) t / 2 . the results are plotted in fig4 ( c ). fig4 ( b , c ) reveal many interesting results . the output ioutf remains identical to the ideal value ( amp / 2 ) except at the regions within δt / 2 to the boundaries of each quadrant . the linear relatonships between filtered output currents ( iaf , ibf ) and da remain the same except the regions within δt / 2 to the boundaries of each quadrant . for all the outputs ( iab , ibf , ioutf ), the maximum error caused by the above non - ideal effect is δ times their ideal values . the above observations show that non - ideal carrier duty cycle has no effect to the demodulation methods of the present invention if we can operate away from the quadrant boundaries . the width of the regions we need to avoid is directly proportional to the magnitude of the non - ideal effect ( δ ). the effects of non - ideal reference control signals also can be calculated from eqs . ( 1 - 3 ). for simplicity , the results are plotted graphically in fig4 ( d , e ). fig4 ( d ) illustrate s the non - ideal effect when the phase difference between swa and swb is not 90 degree . the conditions plotted in fig4 ( d ) are twa = twb = th = t / 2 , and db =( 1 − δ ) t / 4 , the results show that ioutf remains as a constant in each quadrant ( q 1 - q 4 ) except at regions near the quadrant boundaries . the amplitude of ioutf is reduced to ( 1 − δ ) times of its ideal value in quadrants q 1 and q 3 . the amplitude of ioutf is increased to ( 1 + δ ) times of its ideal value in quadrants q 2 and q 4 . lbf still has a linear relationship with da , except its phase is shifted by δ . fig4 ( e ) illustrates the non - ideal effects when the duty cycle of one of the switching signal ( swb ) is less than 50 %. the conditions plotted in fig4 ( e ) are twa = th = t / 2 , db t / 4 and twb =( 1 31 δ ) t / 2 . the results show that ioutf remains as a constant in each quadrant ( q 1 - q 4 ) except at regions near the quadrant boundaries . the amplitude of ioutf is reduced to ( 1 − δ ) times of its ideal value in quadrant q 3 . it is increased to ( 1 + δ ) times of its ideal value in quadrant q 2 , and it remains at its ideal value in quadrants q 1 and q 4 fbf still has a linear relationship with da , except at quadrant boundaries . the non - ideal effects of other parameters , including the conditions when multiple parameters are not ideal , also can be calculated and plotted in similar ways . we will not repeat more descriptions on the effects of other parameters because all of such studies lead to the same conclusions as : conclusion 1 : for most conditions , the output ioutf does not depend on da except at the regions within δ * t / 2 to the boundaries of each quadrant , where δ is a ratio representing the combined non - ideal effects from all sources . conclusion 2 ; the linear relationships between filtered output currents ( iaf , ibf ) and da remain the same except at the regions within δ * t / 2 to the boundaries of each quadrant . conclusion 3 : for all the outputs ( iaf , ibf , ioutf ), the maximum error caused by the above non - ideal effect is δ times their ideal values . the above discussions show that the effect of non - ideal input or control signals are negligible if δ is small . even when δ is significant , we still can avoid it by operating at regions away from error sensitive regions that are represented by the shaded regions ( 460 ) in fig4 ( f ). as soon as we stay in the “ safe zones ” around the center regions ( 462 ) in one of the quadrants q 1 - q 4 , the outputs of the represent invention are the sane as ideal results in eqs . ( 4 - 8 ). it is noteworthy to point out one difference between conventional pll demodulators and demodulators of the present invention . pll circuits require internal clock to be in phase with carrier signals . on the other word , pll only operates at one “ safe point ” when the phase difference is zero . demodulators of the present invention can operate at wide ranges of safe zones . it is therefore obvious that the present invention is by far more stable . view fig4 ( a - f ) carefully , we have another important conclusion as : conclusion 4 : the absolute values of ioutf and the absolute values of the slopes of the filtered output currents ( iaf , iaf #, ibf , ibf #, ias , ibs ) remain roughly the same when da is shifted by an integer multiple of 4 / t . conclusion 4 is not absolutely true because none - ideal effects cause by internal reference control signals ( swa , swb ) can cause small differences . however , it is a practical approximation because the non - ideal effects of swa and swb are typically very small in practical integrated circuits of the present invention . we will call this special property of the present invention the “ quadrant independence ” property this quadrant independence property of the present invention leads to novel modulation methods as illustrated in fig5 ( a - c ). fig5 ( a ) shows an example of a typical pulsed am signal . fig5 ( b ) shows an example of modulated carrier signals of the present invention that contain the same am information signal . the differences between the signals in fig5 ( a ) and the signals in fig5 ( b ) are that the phases of the carrier pulses in fig5 ( b ) are shifted by 180 degrees for every two pulses . prior art demodulators will not be able to extract the information carried by the signals in fig5 ( b ), while demodulators of the present invention will obtain the same results when those pulses are shifted by integer multiples of 90 degrees . another example of this type of encoding method is shown in fig5 ( c ); 180 degree phase shifts are done for every two pulses then for every three pulses . there are infinite numbers of ways for such encoding methods of the present invention . the phase shift can be any integer multiples of 90 degrees at any combinations . both am and fm information can be carried by this encoding method . the resulting signals will not be detectable with conventional demodulators . the information can be extracted only by systems equipped with demodulators of the present invention . this is therefore an excellent method to protect the information in the transmitted data . if the transmission channel has enough bandwidth , the carrier signal of the present invention can carry three types of information simultaneously : ( 1 ) am signal represented by variations of the amplitudes of carrier pulses , ( 2 ) fm signal represented by small variations of the phase of the carrier pulses , and ( 3 ) carrier codes represented by 0 , 90 , 180 , or 275 degree phase shifts of carrier pulses . the carrier codes can be used for security purpose or for digital data transfer . the fm signals also can carry digital data . the difference between the fm signal and the carrier code is in the magnitudes of phase shifts . the fm signal use small phase shifts of the pulses to transfer low frequency data while the security codes use 90 , 190 , or 275 degree phase shifts to represent digital data at carrier frequency . for simplicity , we assumed that the input carrier signals are square waves in the above discussions . in fact , the present invention is applicable to input signals of any shapes we will discuss another common condition when the input carrier is sine wave . based on the examples for square wave and sine wave , applications of the present invention to other shapes of input waves should be obvious to those skilled in the art . using the same definitions of the parameters in fig3 and assuming the carrier is a sine wave , the filtered output signals ( iaf , ibf ) and the final output signal ( ioutf ) can be written as where we assume that amp can be treated as a constant within a few periods of the carrier . at ideal conditions we have twa = twb = th = t / 2 and db = t / 4 . from eqs . ( 12 , 13 ), we have eq . ( 16 ) shows that the am signals is proportional to ( iaf 2 + ibf 2 ) 1 / 2 , and the result does not depend on the phase difference da . the fm signal can be determined by iaf , ibf , or ibf / iaf as shown in eqs . ( 14 , 15 , 17 ). simultaneous demodulation of both am and pm signals can be done based on eqs . ( 16 , 17 ). although analog circuits for calculating ( iaf 2 + ibf 2 ) 1 / 2 are known in current art ic design , we prefer using digital signal processing ( dsp ) methods as illustrated in fig6 . the outputs of low pass filters ( 606 ) are captured by sample - and - hold ( s / h ) circuits . the outputs of those s / h circuits are digitized by analogy - to - digital ( a / d ) converters , and the resulting digital data are analyzed by a dsp processor ( 609 ). such dsp circuits are well known to the art ; they provide flexibility to adapt for different cases . for cost - sensitive applications , we can avoid using dsp methods by using any one of the output signals ( iaf , iaf #, lbf , ibf #, ias , ibs ) to extract the information signals . those signals are proportional to amp as soon as the phase difference da can be treated as a constant . the non - ideal effects for the cases when the carrier signals are not square waves also can be analyzed in similar ways as shown in fig4 ( b - f ). those who are familiar with the art should be able to reach the conclusion that we can obtain near - ideal results if we can operate away from those error - sensitive quadrant boundaries . theoretically , results obtained by demodulators of the present invention are independent of the phase difference between internal clock and the carrier signal . practically , we should avoid non - ideal effects by operating away from the quadrant boundaries . a demodulator designed to avoid those non - ideal effects are shown in fig7 ( a - e ). fig7 ( a ) shows the system block diagram of another demodulator of the present invention . this system has the same input stages as the one in fig2 ( a ) so that the mechanism to generate the filtered outputs ( iaf , iaf #, ibf , ibf #) are identical . its output signal generator 709 is similar to the one in fig2 ( a ) except that it has more p - channel current mirrors ( 750 , 751 ) as shown in fig7 ( b ). one p - channel current mirror ( 750 ) duplicates absolute current ias to generate an identical current ias ′; the other p - channel current mirror ( 751 ) duplicates absolute current ibs to generate identical currents ibs ′ and ibs ″. one output from each p - channel current mirror ( 750 , 751 ) is connected together to generate the summing output current ioutf . referring back to fig7 ( a ), output currents ioutf and ibs ″ are sent to a divider ( 702 ) to generate an output voltage ( vout ) that is proportional to ibs / ioutf . fm signals can be extracted from vout , and am signals can be extracted from ioutf . the output current ias ′ and ibs ′ are sent to a reference signal generator ( 700 ) that contains mechanisms to avoid non - ideal effects . fig7 ( c ) is the block diagram of the reference signal generator ( 700 ) in fig7 ( a ). the clock signal ( clk ) is sent to binary counters ( 721 ) to generate four reference control signals ( swa , 5 wa ′, swb , swb ′). fig7 ( d ) illustrates the timing relationships between those reference control signals . all of those signals have the same period ( t ) that is 4 times longer than the clk period . the rising edge of swb lags that of swa by t / 4 ; the rising edge of swb ′ lags that of swa ′ by t / 4 ; the rising edge of swa ′ lags that of swa by t / 8 . referring back to fig7 ( c ), reference control signals swa , swa ′, swb , swb ′ are connected to two multiplexers ( 722 ). those multiplexers select either pair ( swa , swb ) or pair ( swa ′, swb ′) as the reference control signals ( swa , swb ) for current switches ( 205 ) in fig7 ( a ) based on a select signal ( sl ) provided by an error margin detector ( 723 ). details of the error margin detector ( 723 ) are shown in fig7 ( e ). current ias ′ is sent to an n - channel current mirror ( 741 ) that has two outputs ( ian 1 , ian 4 ). the maximum amplitude of ian 4 is four times larger than that of ias ′, and the amplitude of ian 1 is the same as that of ias ′. output current ibs ′ is sent to another n - channel current mirror ( 742 ) that has two outputs ( ibn 1 , ibn 4 ). the maximum amplitude of ibn 4 is four times larger than that of ibs ′, and the amplitude of ibn 1 is the same as that of ibs ′. output currents ian 1 and ibn 1 are sent to p - channel current mirrors ( 745 ) to generate currents iap and ibp . the maximum magnitude of iap is the same as that of ias . the maximum magnitude of ibp is the same as that of ibs . the output node for iap is connected to the output node for ibn 4 at node ag . the voltage at ag will be low unless the magnitude of ias ′ is more than four times larger than that of ibs ′. the output node for ibp is connected to the output node for lan 4 at node bg . the voltage at bg will be low unless the magnitude of ibs ′ is more than four times larger than that of ias ′. nodes ag and bg are connected to an or gate ( 747 ). the output ( fl ) of the or gate remains low unless one of the filtered absolute currents ( ias , ibs ) is more than four times larger than the other current . the signal fl is connected to the clock input of a binary counter that contains a flip - flop ( 748 ) and an inverter ( 749 ). the output of the flip - flop is connected to the select signal sl . when sl stays low , which means current operation condition of the demodulator in fig7 ( a ) is away from quadrant boundaries , sl will not change . when sl goes high , which means that the operation condition of the demodulator in fig7 ( a ) is close to the error sensitive quadrant boundaries , sl will change value to select another set of reference control signals that is 45 degrees out of phase relative to the original reference control signals . the new selection will make the demodulator operate in the safe zone . another method to shift the reference control signals by roughly 45 degrees is illustrated in fig . ( 7 f ). when the error margin detector ( 723 ) senses that current operation condition is too close to quadrant boundaries , a blocking signal ( bk ) is sent to pause the input dock ( clk ) so that the reference control signals ( swa , swb ) are shifted by roughly 45 degrees as shown in fig7 ( t ). in this way , we do not need to generate 4 reference signals ; the 45 degrees shift is provided by pausing the clk signal . the examples in figs . ( 7 a - f ) contain feedback mechanisms to adjust the phase difference between internal clock and carrier signals . these feedback mechanisms are different from pll by the fact that the present invention allows a wide range in phase difference . it is therefore possible to use switching circuits to put the internal control signals within effective operation conditions . there is no need for sophisticated calibration . there is no need to use slow and sensitive feedback mechanism . fig7 ( g ) describes a method to avoid non - ideal effects without using any feedback mechanisms the input stages of the system in fig7 ( g ) are the same as the one in fig2 ( a ). carrier signal lip is processed by pre - amplifier ( 203 ). the output ( ia ) of the pre - amplifier ( 203 ) is duplicated by a current mirror ( 204 ). three duplicated currents are sent to three signal processing units ( 800 , 845 , 890 ). each signal processing unit contains a current switch ( 205 ), low pass filters ( 206 ) and an absolute current generator ( 207 ). the current switch has been described in fig2 ( b ). the absolute current generator ( 207 ) has been described in fig2 ( c ). a reference signal generator ( 891 ) provides reference control signals ( sw 00 , sw 45 , sw 90 ) to the current switch ( 205 ) in each signal processing unit ( 800 , 845 , 890 ). the phase of sw 45 is roughly 45 degrees behind sw 00 . the phase of sw 90 is roughly 90 degrees behind sw 00 . the phase differences between those reference control signals ( sw 00 , sw 45 , sw 90 ) do not need to be 45 degrees . those phase differences can have any arbitrary combination , and they do not need to be accurate . the filtered output of the current switch ( iif ) follows similar relationship as those described in eqs . ( 2 ), except that the parameter db should be replaced with the phase difference of each reference control signals . the absolute current generator ( 207 ) sends the absolute value of iif to a multiplexer ( 895 ) and a “ middle amplitude select logic ” ( masl ). we know that among three outputs , the output with the largest amplitude and the output with the smallest amplitude would be doser to quadrant boundaries than the one with middle amplitude . the masl ( 893 ) determines which one of the three outputs from those three signal processing units ( 800 , 845 , 890 ) has an amplitude in the middle , and sends a select signal ( msel ) to control the multiplexer ( 895 ) to select the output with middle amplitude as the final output ( iout ). this method does not use any feedback mechanism . the circuitry is therefore very stable . fig8 is a general symbolic block diagram for demodulators of the present invention the carrier input signal ( ic ) is processed by switching circuits ( 851 ) that are controlled by at least one reference control signal ( sw ). the output of the switching circuit ( ia ) changes sign when sw switches . the signal ia is filtered by a low pass filter to generate output signal iaf . an error margin detector ( 857 ) checks if the reference signal sw is close to quadrant boundaries or not . outputs of the error margin detector controls the reference signal generator ( 855 ) to make sure the operation condition of the demodulator is in the safe zone . while specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein , it is realized that other modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art . for example , signal processing circuits disclosed in the above discussions are transferring signals using currents . it will be obvious for those skilled in the art to change part of those circuits using voltage processing circuits . another obvious modification is to execute part or all of those analyses using digital signal processing methods . the inputs are infrared light signals in our examples while the present invention will be able to support any other types of modulated signals such as radio , television , telephone lines , microwaves , . . . etc . there are many ways to generate the reference control signals . other than square waves , the reference control signals can be any type of shapes . these and other modifications and changes are considered within the spirits of the present invention , one major advantage of the demodulation methods described in previous sections is the “ quadrant independence ” property . we can shift the phases of individual carrier pulses by an integral of 90 degrees without changing the demodulation results . these quadrant independent demodulation methods make it possible to transmit digital signals at the carrier frequency while carrying am and / or fm signals simultaneously . a carrier signal of the present invention is shown in fig1 . individual pulses of the carrier signal can carry three types of signals : ( 1 ) am signals represented by the amplitudes ( ap 1 - ap 4 ) of individual pulses , ( 2 ) fm signals represented by small phase shifts ( ph 1 - ph 4 ) of individual pulses , and ( 3 ) digital signals ( dg 1 - dg 4 ) represented by 90 or 180 degrees phase shifts . the quadrant independent demodulation methods described in previous sections already demonstrated their capability to extract fm signal while individual pulses are shifted by an integral of 90 degrees . now we will describe methods to extract digital data when each individual pulse may have a small phase shift caused by overlapping fm signals . fig1 ( a ) shows the block diagram of an example circuitry designed to extract digital data from carrier signals of the present invention . the input carrier signal hip is digitized by an input amplifier ( 911 ) to generate a digital input signal ( din ). a delay circuit ( 912 ) generates a delayed signal ( dinb ) that is identical to din but delayed by a few gate delays , roth din and dinb are sent to an xor gate ( 913 ) to generate a transaction signal ( xr ). internal clock signal ( clk ) is processed by a counter logic ( 916 ) to generate a valid signal vldc . vldc and xr are sent to an and gate ( 914 ) to generate a latching signal ( lat ). the digital input signal ( din ) is inverted by an inverter ( 917 ) then sent to the input of a flip - flop ( 915 ). the flip - flop latches its input at the falling edges of lat to generate digital output data ( dout ). fig1 ( b ) shows further details of the counter logic in fig1 ( a ). the transaction signal ( xr ) is sent to an initial pulse detector ( 951 ). the output ( cnt ) of the initial pulse detector ( 951 ) is turned on at the first pulse of xr after an idle state , and turned off at the second pulse of xr . signal cnt turns on a counter ( 953 ) to count the number of internal clock ( clk ) pulses between the first and the second xr pulses . the counter ( 953 ) holds the final count ( c 3 q ) after cnt is turned off . the latching signal ( lat ) is sent to a delay circuit ( 959 ) that delays lat by a pre - defined margin . the output signal ( crst ) of the delay circuit ( 959 ) is sent to another counter ( 954 ). after each latching signal ( lat ), the counter ( 954 ) is reset by crst , then starts to count the number of internal clock ( clk ) pulses as ct . c 3 q and ct are compared by a comparator ( 955 ) to generate the valid signal ( vldc ). the valid signal ( vldc ) is turned off when ct is smaller than c 3 q plus a small number ( as additional margin ). fig1 ( c ) shows the waveforms of critical signals in fig1 ( a , b ). for the digitized input signal ( din ), digital “ 1 ” is represented by a pulse with 0 degrees phase shift plus a small fm modulation , while digital “ 0 ” is represented by a pulse with 180 degrees phase shift plus a small fm modulation . at idle state , the signal stay at ground voltage . data transmission pulses always start with a digital “ 1 ” as a reference cycle . this type of data format has been used by the well - known ethernet local area network . the difference is that ethernet data transmission started with 5 digital “ 1 ” pulses . the transaction signal ( xr ) generated by the xor gate ( 913 ) always output a pulse ( 901 , 902 ) whenever din has a high - to - low or low - to - high transaction . the signal xr has two types of pulses as represented by solid lines ( 902 ) and dashed lines ( 901 ) in fig1 ( c ). the first type of xr pulse is called “ data transaction pulse ”; they always happen in the middle of each carrier cycle . since din represents a digital “ 1 ” by a high - to - low transaction in the middle of a carrier pulse and a digital “ 0 ” by a low - to - high transaction , xr always has a data transaction pulse ( 902 ) in the middle of each carrier cycle . if we latch inverted values of din at the falling edges of those data transaction pulses ( 902 ), we will obtain the digital data correctly . when a carrier pulse contains a digital signal that is the same as its previous pulse , xr also has a pulse ( 901 ) at the beginning of a din cycle ( called the “ false transaction pulse ”), as shown in fig1 ( c ). in order to screen out the false transaction pulses , we use an internal clock signal clk to generate a valid signal vldc . after each data transaction pulse , the counter logic ( 916 ) in fig1 ( a ) turns off the valid signal ( vldc ) for a period of time ( toff ) long enough to screen out false transaction pulses but short enough to detect the next data transaction pulse . it is very important to have enough margins in toff so that overlapping fm signals will not influence the results . this time toff is defined by the counter logic ( 916 ) shown in fig1 ( b ). vldc and xr are sent to an and gate ( 914 ) to generate a latching signal ( lat ) that contains only the data transaction pulses . the digital data signal ( dout ) is therefore extracted using a flip - flop ( 915 ) controlled by lat . the above method works only when we are able to locate the first data transaction pulse . that is why the first pulse of any data transmission must be a digital “ 1 ”. the circuits in fig . ( 10 a ) allow us to decode digital data at carrier frequency without using phase - locked loop . with proper definition of toff , the same carrier signal can carry fm data without influencing detection of digital data . it is therefore possible to carry and detect all three types ( am , fm , digital ) of data simultaneously in one carrier signal . all the circuit elements used are ready for manufacture using typical logic ic technologies . no feedback mechanisms are used ; the circuits are stable , reliable , and fast . detection of ghz digital signal can be easily done . while specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein , it is realized that other modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art . for example , we can request the first pulse to be digital “ 0 ”, and the second pulse to be “ 1 ”, while still define toff using the same circuitry . there are many other ways to define toff . for example , one can use charging and discharging of a capacitor to define toff . if the frequency of the carrier is know , toff can be pre - defined without using internal timing mechanisms . these and other modifications and changes are considered within the spirits of the present invention . comparing with prior art modulation and demodulation methods , the present invention has the following advantages : ( 1 ) all the circuit modules used by the present invention are suitable for implementation using standard ic technologies . it is therefore possible to integrate all elements into a single ic chip to achieve optimum performance . ( 2 ) all the high frequency circuits can be implemented by switching circuits or current mirrors ; there is no need to use filters or linear feedback circuits such as pll . it is therefore possible to support carrier frequency higher than ghz using existing ic technologies . ( 3 ) practical methods are provided to avoid distortions caused by non - ideal operation conditions . ( 4 ) reliability and stability are improved significantly by avoiding noise sensitive circuits . ( 5 ) maximized data transfer rate by carrying three types of data , ( am , fm , and digital ) simultaneously . ( 6 ) provide flexible data transmission methods that are not detectable using conventional demodulation methods . while specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein , it is realized that other modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art . it is therefore to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
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disclosed is a bag stand to assist holding and filling refuse bags . fig1 displays a bag stand 100 having a plurality of side panels 110 ( a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h ) connected together and arranged along the outside of the bag stand 100 to form a hollow structure for holding a refuse bag . the current embodiment of the bag stand 100 includes eight side panels 110 a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h . any number of side panels 110 may be used in alternative embodiments . in the current embodiment , all side panels 110 a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h are dimensioned about the same size and are about rectangular in shape . however , in alternative embodiments , the side panels 110 may be of different sizes or shapes from each other and from the current embodiment . each of the side panels 110 has a top end 112 , a bottom end 114 , a left end 116 , and a right end 118 . the side panels 110 are connected to each other having the left end 116 of one side panel 110 connected to the right end 118 of an adjacent side panel 110 . all references to “ left ” and “ right ” in this disclosure are intended to refer to the left and right directions when viewed from the outside with the top end up and the bottom end down . all connections to which this disclosure refers may be any connection sufficient to hold together the elements to be connected , including an integrated construction , glue , a notched end , or other types of connecting means . located adjacent to each side panel 110 and connecting each side panel 110 to another side panel is a connecting panel 111 . in the current embodiment , each connector is rounded or filleted so that each side panel 110 is flat and each connecting panel 111 provides an angle of curvature between each side panel 110 and each adjacent side panel 110 . because there are eight side panels 110 a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h in the current embodiment , each connecting panel 111 provides 45 - degrees of angle between the two side panels 110 to which that connecting panel 111 connects . connected to the bottom end 114 of each side panel 110 is a foot panel 120 . each foot panel has a top end 122 , a bottom end 124 , a left end 126 , and a right end 128 . each foot panel 120 is connected to another foot panel 120 by a connecting panel 121 . because there are eight foot panels 120 a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h in the current embodiment , each connecting panel 121 provides 45 - degrees of angle between the two foot panels 120 to which that connecting panel 121 connects . a foot panel cutout 135 b , d , f , h is defined in the bottom end 124 b , d , f , h of every other foot panel 120 b , d , f , h . the foot panel cutouts 135 b , d , f , h allow air to pass from inside the bag stand 100 to the outside . the foot panel cutouts 135 are semi - circular in shape in the current embodiment but may be any shape in other embodiments . further , although four foot panel cutouts 135 are present in the current embodiment , any number of foot panel cutouts 135 may be included in various embodiments . handle cutouts 140 b and 140 f ( not shown ) are defined in side panels 110 b and 110 f . the bag stand 100 is composed of one - piece blow molded plastic . however , other generally - rigid materials may also be used to compose the bag stand 100 , including corrugated cardboard or paper , linerboard , polymer , metal , alloy , wood , mesh , laminate , reinforced woven or nonwoven fabric , cellulose , resin , styrofoam , composite , and combinations or mixtures of the foregoing , among others . the bag stand 100 of the current embodiment is not collapsible , although a collapsible bag stand 100 is considered part of this disclosure . fig2 displays a bottom view of the bag stand 100 . in fig2 , the draft angle of the bag stand 100 can be seen as the bottom of the bag stand is larger than the top . as seen in fig3 , the bag stand 100 is capable of nesting with another bag stand 100 ( 2 ). additionally , it can be seen that each foot panel 120 is not directly connected to each side panel 110 in the current embodiment . instead , a step panel 210 connects the two pieces and allows a step out for the foot panel 120 . this allows the region of the foot panel 120 to be substantially vertical while the region of the side panel 110 is drafted , as discussed above . additionally , a connection step panel 211 connects each connection panel 111 with each connection panel 121 . the step panel 210 and connection step panel 211 can be seen in cross - sectional detail view in fig4 . a perspective view of the nesting bag stands 100 , 100 ( 2 ) can be seen in fig5 . in another embodiment , seen in fig6 , a bag stand 1000 is composed of two half stand panels 1100 ( denoted as 1100 and 1100 ′ in fig6 for reference ). each half panel 1100 includes four side panels 410 a , b , c , d . each side panel 410 includes a top end 412 , a bottom end 414 , a left end 416 , a right end 418 , an inner surface 417 , and an outer surface 419 . a panel foot cutout 435 is defined in the bottom end 414 of each side panel 410 , although any number of panel foot cutouts 435 may be included . in the current embodiment , the panel foot cutout 435 is semi - circular in shape , although it may be various shapes in various embodiments . a handle cutout 440 c is shown defined on the side panel 410 c , although handle cutouts 440 may not be included in some embodiments , may be included on any of the side panels 410 in some embodiments , and may be included on more than one side panel 410 in some embodiments . fig7 shows one half panel 1100 alone in a flattened arrangement . the arrangement of the half panel 1100 includes a living hinge 510 between side panels 410 in the current embodiment such that living hinge 510 a connects side panel 410 a to side panel 410 b , a living hinge 510 b connects side panel 410 b to side panel 410 c , and a living hinge 510 c connects side panel 510 c to side panel 510 d . a clearance void 515 is shown between connected side panels 410 . the clearance voids 515 allow the side panels 410 room to flex inwardly to create the shape required to build the bag stand 1000 . also shown on left end 416 a is a matching slope 520 a . a matching slope 520 d located on the right end 418 d . the matching slopes 520 a , d allow the ends 416 a , 418 d to align flushly with the side panels 410 when the bag stand 1000 is assembled . in the current embodiment , each side panel 410 a , b , c , d has a visible thickness between the outer surface 419 and the inner surface 417 . in various embodiments , the thickness may be small or large . with embodiments of smaller thickness , matching slopes 520 a , d and clearance voids 515 may not be included or may be negligible . further , in other embodiments , matching slopes 520 a , d and clearance voids 515 may not be included although thickness is visible , as in the current embodiment , or large . fig7 displays the connection mechanism for the half panel 1100 to connect to another half panel 1100 . connection recesses 550 a , b are defined in side panel 410 a proximate the left end 416 a . connection fingers 560 a , b protrude from matching slope 520 d . the connection fingers 560 a , b are intended to insert into the connection recesses 550 a , b . a top view of the bag stand 1000 is seen in fig8 . the clearance voids 515 are smaller , as the side panels 410 have been bent along the living hinges 510 . various connection mechanisms known in the art may also be used without deviating from the scope of the current embodiment . as can be seen in fig9 , a bottom view of the half panel 1100 , the connection finger 560 b can be seen . each connection finger 560 a , b includes a clearance portion 562 a , b and a clasp portion 564 a , b . an inner profile of the half panel 1100 can be seen in the side view of fig1 showing the connection fingers 560 a , b and the connection recesses 550 a , b . as can be seen in fig1 , a detail view of the inner surface 417 a at the bottom end 414 a of side panel 410 a , each connection recess 550 a , b includes a clearance portion 552 a , b and a lock portion 554 a , b . fig1 displays a top view of the half panel 1100 . the unbent profile of the living hinges 510 and the clearance voids 515 can be seen . moreover , the matching slopes 520 a , d are also seen in the profile from the top view . as seen in fig1 , to assemble the bag stand 1000 , the half panel 1100 is bent along the living hinges 510 a , b , c until it covers a path of approximately 180 - degrees . another half panel 1100 is introduced ( not shown ). each clearance portion 562 a , b is aligned with and inserted into each corresponding clearance portion 552 a , b . once the clearance portion 562 passes fully into the clearance portion 552 , each clasp portion 564 is allowed to slide downward into each lock portion 554 . once the clasp portion 564 slides into the lock portion 554 , the connection finger 560 cannot be removed from the connection recess 550 without first raising the clearance portion 562 above the lock portion 554 . although half panels 1100 are shown in pairs in the current embodiment , any number of subpanels may be used to accomplish the objective of a collapsible bag stand . in some embodiments , three third panels may be utilized , each third panel include a certain number of side panels . in some embodiments , quarter panels may be used . in further embodiments , various arrangements of side panels may be used to make the bag stand expandable or contractible in size to accommodate various bag sizes . various arrangements would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art . to use the bag stand 100 or the bag stand 1000 , a user places a refuse bag over the bag stand 100 , 1000 . the user may fill the refuse bag , remove the refuse bag , and discard the refuse bag separately of the bag stand 100 , 1000 . the bag stand 1000 may be disassembled after use by removing each connection finger 560 from each connection recess 550 and unfolding the side panels 410 a , b , c , d . the bag stand 100 as disclosed herein is not collapsible , although a collapsible bag stand is included in this disclosure . although this disclosure describes bag stands 100 , 1000 including all side panels ( 110 , 410 ) connected to each other , this disclosure is intended to include an embodiment of a bag stand 100 , 1000 with fewer side panels or with some side panels absent to achieve certain advantages . it should be emphasized that the embodiments described herein are merely possible examples of implementations , merely set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the present disclosure . many variations and modifications may be made to the described embodiment ( s ) without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the present disclosure . further , the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover any and all combinations and sub - combinations of all elements , features , and aspects discussed above . all such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of the present disclosure , and all possible claims to individual aspects or combinations of elements or steps are intended to be supported by the present disclosure . one should note that conditional language , such as , among others , “ can ,” “ could ,” “ might ,” or “ may ,” unless specifically stated otherwise , or otherwise understood within the context as used , is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include , while alternative embodiments do not include , certain features , elements and / or steps . thus , such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features , elements and / or steps are in any way required for one or more particular embodiments or that one or more particular embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding , with or without user input or prompting , whether these features , elements and / or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment . unless stated otherwise , it should not be assumed that multiple features , embodiments , solutions , or elements address the same or related problems or needs . various implementations described in the present disclosure may include additional systems , methods , features , and advantages , which may not necessarily be expressly disclosed herein but will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following detailed description and accompanying drawings . it is intended that all such systems , methods , features , and advantages be included within the present disclosure and protected by the accompanying claims .
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the ability to monitor physiological data for the study of brain performance during the normal course of daily activities including but not limited to sleep , in the past , has required cumbersome detection and analysis equipment and in many instances has required the need for technical assistance . the present invention disclosed herein provides a benefit over existing conventional methods by allowing the collection of data related to a physiological event from the comfort of the patient &# 39 ; s home . the present invention employs a novel physiological data acquisition assembly and easy to follow system that is user friendly and overcomes the disadvantages of the conventional monitoring methods . referring to fig1 , an exploded perspective view of the physiological data acquisition assembly for use in combination with a head harness 10 is depicted . the head harness 10 may house one or more devices or wires . the head harness is worn over the head and hair of a patient . the head harness includes a front pad 12 having a first end 14 and second end 16 . the front pad 12 is adapted to extend across the patient &# 39 ; s forehead . the first end 14 and second end 16 are adapted to be adjustably secured around the circumference of a user &# 39 ; s head using a fastener preferably a hook 22 and loop 24 . in another embodiment , the fastener may be a hook and loop , velcro , snap , button , buckle or any other fastening device that allows for custom fit , adjustment and comfort . the head harness also includes an upper portion 40 including longitudinally extending straps 18 and 20 for detachably securing the upper portion 40 to the base strap 12 , 14 , & amp ; 16 . the longitudinally extending straps 18 and 20 are detachably secured to the base strap at 14 & amp ; 16 using a fastener , preferably a hook 26 & amp ; 28 and loop 42 , fig2 . in another embodiment , the fastener may be a hook and loop , velcro , snap , button , buckle or any other fastening device that allows for custom fit , adjustment and comfort . in a preferred embodiment , the head harness may be made of one or more layers of material to create a hollow core through all parts of the harness . the physiological data acquisition module 50 is removably received in the hollow core 42 & amp ; 44 , fig2 of the upper portion 40 . in this preferred embodiment , the upper portion 40 and longitudinally extending straps 18 & amp ; 20 include a plurality of slots 32 , 34 , 36 & amp ; 38 for receiving the electrode snap connector assemblies 68 & amp ; 69 and associated lead wires 56 , 58 & amp ; 60 coupled to the physiological data acquisition module 50 . the electrode snap connector assemblies 68 represent a combination of a biased ground electrode and a reference electrode snap connectors and in the preferred embodiment the electrodes 67 are placed behind the left and right ear of the patient , fig2 . the biased ground electrode snap connector assembly and the reference electrode snap connector assembly 68 may be color coded to distinguish the two . in another embodiment of the present invention , only a reference electrode snap connector assembly is required for the acquisition of electrical physiological data . the electrode snap connector assembly 69 represents the active electrode snap connector and in the preferred embodiment the electrode 67 is placed on the forehead of the patient . the active electrode and reference / biased ground electrodes 67 may be a self - adhesive conductive electrode , a wet , dry , contact , non - contact or ekg electrode . the electrode snap connector assemblies also include a noise reducing or cancelling amplifier 62 at the electrode connection level to reduce any electrical noise that may be picked up by the lead wires 56 , 58 & amp ; 60 . to further improve the performance of the physiological data acquisition module 50 , the module or the electrode snap connector assemblies 68 & amp ; 69 are configured to continuously monitor electrode impedance and may include lights indicative of the current status of the integrity of the electrode contacts . in another embodiment of the present invention , both active and reference electrodes 67 are placed in close proximity with respect to each other but are not electrically connected . in this embodiment , the active and reference electrodes are located on a singular sensor patch . in a preferred embodiment , the physiological data acquisition module 50 includes a battery power component that includes a rechargeable small form factor , high capacity battery . the physiological data acquisition module 50 includes a power supply and recharging circuitry for receiving power through an electrical power cord 82 and ac unit 80 . the electrical power cord 82 is coupled to the physiological data acquisition module for recharging the small form factor , high capacity battery through a port 54 , which may be but is not limited to usb , db - 25 or the like . the physiological data acquisition module 50 includes a power on and off function 52 for preserving the power supply of the small form factor , high capacity battery when not in use . the physiological data acquisition module 50 may also include power on and off indicator lights indicative of the current status of the physiological data acquisition module 50 . in another embodiment , the physiological data acquisition module rechargeable small form factor , high capacity battery may be recharged through a usb connection to a computer . the physiological data acquisition module 50 is configured to record , transmit and store encrypted data collected from the electrode snap connector assembly 69 for use on an active electrode 67 applied to the forehead region of a patient . the electrode snap connector assemblies 68 for use on a reference and biased ground electrode 67 are placed behind the ears of the patient . the biased ground electrode 67 functions to stabilize the baseline and improve immunity from external interferences . in a preferred embodiment , the physiological data acquisition module 50 is configured to include a wireless transmitter / receiver for transmitting wirelessly the recorded and stored encrypted data to a remote center or computer for further display , storing , processing and analysis or for transmitting wirelessly in real time the encrypted data to a remote center or computer for further display , storing , processing and analysis . in another aspect of the present invention , the recorded and stored data may be transmitted wirelessly to a device including but not limited to a cellular telephone , smart - phone , ipad ® and / or computer . the wireless transmitter / receiver may also be included on the singular sensor patch to transmit wirelessly to a device including but not limited to a cellular telephone , smart - phone , ipad ® and / or computer . the recorded and stored data may also be transmitted directly to a computer , cellular telephone , smart - phone and / or ipad ® via usb transfer capabilities incorporated at port 54 of the physiological data acquisition module 50 . referring now to fig2 , a front perspective view of the physiological data acquisition assembly for use in combination with a head harness as applied to a patient is depicted . in a preferred embodiment , the physiological data acquisition module 50 is housed in a hollow cavity 44 of the upper portion 40 of the head harness . in another embodiment , the physiological data acquisition module 50 is removably affixed to the head harness by a fastener that may be a hook and loop , velcro , snap , button , buckle or any other fastening device that allows for custom fit , adjustment and comfort . in yet another embodiment of the head harness there may be openings that allow access to the interior of the harness as well as allow for connections to be made from the interior of the harness and exterior components . in another embodiment the design may be independent of any specific device or wire purpose other than those listed here . the head harness allows any devices or wires or electronic components to be removed for service , replacement or safety . the head harness may be washable , cleaned or sterilized . the head harness may be disposable , independent of the devices or wires housed . referring now to fig3 , a flowchart of the system according to the present invention is depicted . in the preferred embodiment , a user is supplied with the invention and allowed to use its application in the home 100 . it is to be understood that the nature of the present invention allows the user to apply the device in any setting and is not limited to home or clinical use . at 102 , due to the ease of application , the user applies at least one electrode designated the active electrode and at least one electrode designated the reference electrode . in one embodiment , the active and reference electrode may be applied to the forehead and behind the ear respectively . in another embodiment , the active electrode is applied to the forehead while a reference electrode and a biased ground electrode are applied behind the ears of the user . in yet another embodiment , the active electrode and reference electrode are contained in close proximity on a singular sensor patch and applied to the head of the user . it is to be understood that the application of the electrodes may or may not be used in combination with a head harness . once the electrodes have been placed by the user , physiological electrical data is collected . at 104 , the physiological data is transmitted either wirelessly by a physiological data acquisition module 50 or is transmitted wirelessly directly from the singular sensor patch to a peripheral device that may be but is not limited to a computer , cellular telephone , smart - phone and / or ipad ®. the peripheral device is configured to record and store the data 106 . further , the peripheral device is configured to display , store , process and analyze 108 the transmitted encrypted data . the means for displaying , storing , processing and analyzing may be but is not limited to a computer , cellular telephone , smart - phone and / or ipad ® or any other remote display device . in certain alternative embodiments of the present invention , the assembly and system are configured to accommodate more than one channel of physiological data . for example and not by way of limitation , the assembly and system incorporate sensors , i . e ., head position sensor , airflow sensor using acoustics , nasal pneumotachometer , body temperature sensor and oximeter , alone or in various combinations for collecting data . the assembly and system may also be in communication with a remote control device . the remote control device may function as a gateway device to other peripheral devices . in this capacity , the remote control device is configured to record and store encrypted data transmitted by the assembly and system , monitor the small form factor , high capacity battery life and recorded and stored data levels maintained by the physiological data acquisition module . further , the remote control device in its capacity as a gateway device may transmit and receive recorded and stored encrypted data either through a wired or wireless connection with a peripheral device for display , storage , processing and analysis . systems and materials are described herein . however , systems and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be also used to obtain variations of the present invention . the materials , systems , and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein . it is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only , with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims . the previous description of some aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention . various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , and generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention . for , example one or more elements can be rearranged and / or combined , or additional elements may be added . thus , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein .
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in the following , an embodiment of the invention is described referring to the drawings . in this embodiment , a projection lens 5 corresponds to a “ projecting portion ” in the claims . a prism cover 10 corresponds to a “ cover ” and a “ second cover ” in the claims . a lamp cover 11 corresponds to a “ cover ” and a “ first cover ” in the claims . a lamp unit 13 corresponds to a “ light source ” in the claims . a prism unit 16 corresponds to an “ optical component ” in the claims . a prism opening 602 corresponds to an “ opening ” and a “ second opening ” in the claims . a lamp opening 606 corresponds to an “ opening ” and a “ first opening ” in the claims . guide ribs 603 correspond to a “ holding portion ” and a “ second holding portion ” in the claims . guide grooves 609 and guide holes 609 a correspond to a “ holding portion ” and a “ first holding portion ” in the claims . the description regarding the correspondence between the claims and the embodiment is merely an example , and the claims are not limited by the description of the embodiment . fig1 a and 1b are diagrams showing an arrangement of a projector . fig1 a is a perspective view of the projector when viewed from a front of the projector . fig1 b is a perspective view of the projector when viewed from a rear of the projector . referring to fig1 a and 1b , the projector includes a cabinet 1 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape with a longer size in left and right directions . the cabinet 1 is constituted of a lower cabinet 2 with an upper surface thereof being opened , and an upper cabinet 3 for covering the upper surface of the lower cabinet 2 . a projection opening 4 is formed in a central part on a front surface of the lower cabinet 2 . a front portion of a projection lens 5 is exposed through the projection opening 4 . a left side surface of the lower cabinet 2 is constituted of an air inlet cover 6 , except for a front end and a rear end of the left side surface . the air inlet cover 6 has a hinge structure ( not shown ) at a lower end thereof , and is pivotally opened in the left direction about the lower end ( see fig2 a and 2b ). an air inlet 7 is formed in the air inlet cover 6 . the air inlet 7 is constituted of a large number of slit holes . an exhaust port 8 is formed in a right rear corner of the lower cabinet 2 . the exhaust port 8 is constituted of a large number of slit holes . an av terminal portion 9 is formed on a rear surface of the lower cabinet 2 , and an av ( audio visual ) signal is inputted from the av terminal portion 9 . the upper cabinet 3 has a prism cover 10 and a lamp cover 11 . the prism cover 10 is a cover for covering a prism opening formed in the upper cabinet 3 . the prism opening is used for e . g . replacement of a prism unit or adjustment of a polarizer . the lamp cover 11 is a cover for covering a lamp opening formed in the upper cabinet 3 . the lamp opening is used for replacement of a lamp unit . upper surfaces of the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are formed flush with an upper surface of the upper cabinet 3 . an attachment structure as to how the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are attached to the upper cabinet 3 will be described later . an indicator portion 12 is formed on a right - side front end of the upper cabinet 3 . the indicator portion 12 has plural leds . a user is notified of whether the projector is in an operation state or in a standby state , or notified of various error statuses by on / off states of the respective leds . for instance , the indicator portion 12 may notify the user of a timing when the lamp unit is to be replaced . fig2 a and 2b are diagrams showing an inner structure of the projector . fig2 a is a perspective view of the projector in a state that the upper cabinet 3 is detached . fig2 b is a perspective view of the projector in a state that a control circuit board 26 , the av terminal portion 9 , and an air inlet member 22 are detached from the state shown in fig2 a . referring to fig2 b , the lower cabinet 2 is internally provided with a lamp unit 13 , and an optical system 14 for modulating light from the lamp unit 13 to generate image light . the lamp unit 13 is disposed at a central part on a right side surface of the lower cabinet 2 in such a manner that the lamp unit 13 is detachably attached from above . the lamp unit 13 is constituted of a light source lamp 300 , and a lamp holder 400 for holding the light source lamp 300 ( see fig1 a and 10b ). a fan unit 15 is disposed in front of the lamp unit 13 . the fan unit 15 supplies an air to cool the light source lamp 300 . the lamp holder 400 is formed with an air duct through which the cooling air from the fan unit 15 is guided to the light source lamp 300 . the detailed arrangement of the lamp unit 13 will be described later . the optical system 14 is disposed on the left of the lamp unit 13 and in a central part of the lower cabinet 2 . the optical system 14 includes a prism unit 16 . the prism unit 16 is disposed inside the lower cabinet 2 in such a manner that the prism unit 16 is detachable from above . the detailed arrangement of the optical system 14 will be described later . a lens shift unit 17 is disposed in front of the optical system 14 . the projection lens 5 is mounted on the lens shift unit 17 . the projection lens 5 enlarges image light generated by the optical system 14 , and projects the enlarged image light onto a projection plane such as a screen . the lens shift unit 17 shifts the projection lens 5 in up and down directions and left and right directions by using a driving force of a motor . by performing the above operation , the position of a projected image can be adjusted . a power source unit 18 is disposed behind the optical system 14 . the power source unit 18 has a power source circuit , and supplies a power source to each of the electrical components of the projector . a lamp ballast 19 is disposed at an upper portion of the power source unit 18 . the lamp ballast 19 converts a power source supplied from the power source unit 18 into a power source suitable for the light source lamp 300 , and supplies the converted power source to the light source lamp 300 . the lower cabinet 2 is further internally provided with a cooling device 20 . the cooling device 20 has six cooling fans , and supplies the external air drawn in through the air inlet 7 to the exothermic components of the optical system 14 such as the prism unit 16 to cool the exothermic components . the detailed arrangement of the cooling device 20 will be described later . a power source cooling fan 21 is disposed on the left of the power source unit 18 and the lamp ballast 19 . the power source cooling fan 21 supplies an air to the power source unit 18 and the lamp ballast 19 to cool the power source unit 18 and the lamp ballast 19 . an axial fan is used as the power source cooling fan 21 , for example . next , referring to fig2 a , the air inlet member 22 is mounted on a left side portion of the lower cabinet 2 . the air inlet member 22 is constituted of a frame member 23 , and a filter member 24 mounted on the frame member 23 . an air inlet ( not shown ) is formed in a surface of the frame member 23 opposing to the filter member 24 . the filter member 24 is covered by the air inlet cover 6 . in replacing the filter member 24 , the air inlet cover 6 is opened , and the filter member 24 is detached from the frame member 23 . an air flow velocity sensor ( not shown ) is disposed in the air inlet member 22 at a position downstream of the filter member 24 . a determination is made as to whether the filter member 24 is clogged , based on an air flow velocity to be detected by the air flow velocity sensor , and the user is notified of whether the filter member 24 is clogged by e . g . the indicator portion 12 . in response to activation of e . g . the lamp unit 13 , the cooling device 20 , and the power source cooling fan 21 , the external air is drawn in through the air inlet 7 of the air inlet cover 6 , the filter member 24 , and the air inlet of the frame member 23 . an exhaust fan 25 is disposed at the right rear corner of the lower cabinet 2 . the exhaust fan 25 is disposed in oblique direction with respect to the right side surface and the rear surface of the lower cabinet 2 , and an intake surface of the exhaust fan 25 is directed obliquely leftward in the front direction . an axial fan is used as the exhaust fan 25 , for example . in response to activation of the exhaust fan 25 , as shown in fig2 b , the cooling air which has cooled the power source unit 18 and the lamp ballast 19 is drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 in the direction from the left side , and the cooling air which has cooled the light source lamp 300 and exited the lamp unit 13 is drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 in the direction from the front side . further , the cooling air which has cooled the optical system 14 is drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 obliquely leftward from the front direction . in performing the above operation , since the intake surface of the exhaust fan 25 is directed obliquely leftward in the front direction , the cooling air to be supplied in the three directions i . e . from the side of the lamp unit 13 , the side of the power source unit 18 , and the side of the optical system 14 is easily drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 . thus , the above arrangement enables to smoothly discharge the cooling air which has cooled the exothermic components to the exterior of the projector , thereby advantageously cooling the exothermic components . further , since the air inlet 7 is formed in aside surface ( the left side surface ) opposite to the position where the exhaust fan 25 is disposed , the external air drawn in through the air inlet 7 is drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 , after having been sufficiently used for cooling the lamp unit 13 , the power source unit 18 , and the optical system 14 . thus , the arrangement is further advantageous in cooling the exothermic components . furthermore , the cooling air to be supplied in the three directions is not discharged immediately after exiting the exhaust fan 25 , but is discharged after having been sufficiently mixed in a space between an exhaust surface of the exhaust fan 25 and a corner of the lower cabinet 2 . the light source lamp 300 is heated to an exceedingly high temperature , as compared with the power source unit 18 or a like member . accordingly , the cooling air from the side of the lamp unit 13 is heated to an exceedingly high temperature , as compared with the cooling air in the other directions . however , as described above , since the cooling air which has been drawn in toward the exhaust fan 25 from the side of the lamp unit 13 is discharged after having been sufficiently mixed with the cooling air in the other directions , the temperature of the discharged air can be lowered . furthermore , since the exhaust fan 25 is disposed in oblique direction , it is possible to dispose a largest possible exhaust fan in a limited space enclosed by the corner of the lower cabinet 2 , the lamp unit 13 , and the power source unit 18 . furthermore , since the exhaust port 8 is formed in the corner of the lower cabinet 2 , it is possible to increase the opening area of the exhaust port 8 . thus , a more smooth air discharge operation can be performed . the exhaust fan 25 may be disposed at a corner other than the right rear corner , depending on the dispositions of the respective constituent components in the lower cabinet 2 . as shown in fig2 a , the control circuit board 26 is disposed above the optical system 14 and the power source unit 18 . the control circuit board 26 is provided with a control circuit for controlling driving components such as liquid crystal panels and the light source lamp 300 . the control circuit board 26 is cut away at a position above the prism unit 16 . in this arrangement , the prism unit 16 is detachably attached from above in a state that the control circuit board 26 is mounted . fig3 is a diagram showing an arrangement of the optical system 14 . white light emitted from the light source lamp 300 is transmitted through a condenser lens 101 , a fly - eye integrator 102 , and a pbs array 103 . the fly - eye integrator 102 makes a light amount distribution of light of each of the colors to be irradiated to liquid crystal panels ( which will be described later ) uniform . the pbs array 103 aligns polarization directions of light of the respective colors toward a dichroic mirror 105 in one direction . light transmitted through the pbs array 103 is transmitted through a condenser lens 104 , and entered into the dichroic mirror 105 . the dichroic mirror 105 reflects only light ( hereinafter , called as “ b light ”) in a blue wavelength band , and transmits light ( hereinafter , called as “ g light ”) in a green wavelength band and light ( hereinafter , called as “ r light ”) in a red wavelength band , out of the light entered into the dichroic mirror 105 . b light reflected on the dichroic mirror 105 is irradiated onto a liquid crystal panel 108 for b light in a proper irradiation state by a lens function by the condenser lens 104 and a condenser lens 106 , and reflection on a reflection mirror 107 . the liquid crystal panel 108 is driven in accordance with an image signal for b light to modulate the b light depending on a driven state of the liquid crystal panel 108 . one incident - side polarizer 109 is disposed on the incident side of the liquid crystal panel 108 . b light is irradiated onto the liquid crystal panel 108 through the incident - side polarizer 109 . further , two output - side polarizers 110 are disposed on the output side of the liquid crystal panel 108 , and b light emitted from the liquid crystal panel 108 is entered into the output - side polarizers 110 . g light and r light transmitted through the dichroic mirror 105 are entered into a dichroic mirror 111 . the dichroic mirror 111 reflects the g light and transmits the r light . g light reflected on the dichroic mirror 111 is irradiated onto a liquid crystal panel 113 for g light in a proper irradiation state by a lens function by the condenser lens 104 and a condenser lens 112 . the liquid crystal panel 113 is driven in accordance with an image signal for g light to modulate the g light depending on a driven state of the liquid crystal panel 113 . one incident - side polarizer 114 is disposed on the incident side of the liquid crystal panel 113 , and g light is irradiated onto the liquid crystal panel 113 through the incident - side polarizer 114 . further , two output - side polarizers 115 are disposed on the output side of the liquid crystal panel 113 , and g light emitted from the liquid crystal panel 113 is entered into the output - side polarizers 115 . r light transmitted through the dichroic mirror 111 is irradiated onto a liquid crystal panel 121 for r light in a proper irradiation state by a lens function by the condenser lens 104 , a condenser lens 116 , and relay lenses 117 and 118 , and reflection on reflection mirrors 119 and 120 . the liquid crystal panel 121 is driven in accordance with an image signal for r light to modulate the r light depending on a driven state of the liquid crystal panel 121 . one incident - side polarizer 122 is disposed on the incident side of the liquid crystal panel 121 , and r light is irradiated onto the liquid crystal panel 121 through the incident - side polarizer 122 . further , two output - side polarizers 123 are disposed on the output side of the liquid crystal panel 121 , and r light emitted from the liquid crystal panel 121 is entered into the output - side polarizers 123 . b light , g light , and r light modulated by the liquid crystal panels 108 , 113 , and 121 are transmitted through the output - side polarizers 110 , 115 , and 123 , and entered into a dichroic prism 124 . the dichroic prism 124 reflects b light and r light , and transmits g light , out of the b light , the g light , and the r light , to thereby combine the b light , the g light , and the r light . thus , image light after the color combination is projected toward the projection lens 5 from the dichroic prism 124 . an imager constituting the optical system 14 may be a reflective liquid crystal panel or an mems device , in place of the transmissive liquid crystal panels 108 , 113 , and 121 . further , the optical system 14 may be constituted of e . g . a single - panel optical system incorporated with an imager and a color wheel , in place of the three - panel optical system incorporated with three imagers as described above . fig4 a and 4b are diagrams showing an arrangement of the prism unit 16 . fig4 a is a perspective view of the prism unit 16 , and fig4 b is a bottom plan view of the prism unit 16 . the prism unit 16 is assembled into one unit by assembling the liquid crystal panels 108 , 113 , and 121 , the output - side polarizers 110 , 115 , and 123 , and the dichroic prism 124 on a prism holder 125 . the liquid crystal panels 108 , 113 , and 121 are fixedly attached to the prism holder 125 via brackets 126 . an attachment leg 127 is provided at three positions on a bottom portion of the prism holder 125 . each of the attachment legs 127 is formed with an attachment hole 128 and a positioning hole 129 . further , an insertion hole 130 is formed in a central part on a bottom surface of the prism holder 125 . an inwardly protruding annular flange portion 131 is formed at an entrance of the insertion hole 130 . fig5 is a perspective view showing an arrangement of an attachment frame 132 on which the prism unit 16 is mounted . the attachment frame 132 on which the prism unit 16 is mounted is provided in the lower cabinet 2 . the attachment frame 132 is provided with three bosses 133 corresponding to the three attachment holes 128 of the prism holder 125 . the attachment frame 132 is further provided with positioning projections 134 corresponding to the three positioning holes 129 of the prism holder 125 . the attachment frame 132 is furthermore provided with a stopper pin 135 corresponding to the insertion hole 130 . fig6 a is a perspective view showing a state that the prism unit 16 is fixedly mounted on the attachment frame 132 . fig6 b is a cross - sectional view showing essential parts of the prism unit 16 in a state that the stopper pin 135 is received in the insertion hole 130 . the prism unit 16 is placed on the attachment frame 132 in such a manner that the positioning projections 134 are received in the corresponding positioning holes 129 . thereby , the attachment holes 128 of the prism holder 125 are aligned with the corresponding bosses 133 . in the alignment operation , the stopper pin 135 is fitted into the insertion hole 130 of the prism unit 16 . then , by fastening the attachment legs 127 of the prism unit 125 to the bosses 133 by screws , the prism unit 16 is fixedly mounted on the attachment frame 132 . as shown in fig6 b , an engaging portion 136 which is flexed in the circumferential direction is formed at a lead end of the stopper pin 135 . by inserting the stopper pin 135 in the insertion hole 130 , the engaging portion 136 is engaged with the flange portion 131 . in this state , there is no likelihood that the stopper pin 135 may come out of the insertion hole 130 , even if a force substantially equal to the weight of the prism unit 16 is exerted in a direction of disengaging the stopper pin 135 from the insertion hole 130 . the installation manner of a projector includes a ceiling mount , wherein a projector is suspended from a ceiling , in addition to a fixed mount , wherein a projector is mounted on a floor surface or a desk surface . in the case of the ceiling mount , a projector is mounted upside down . in this embodiment , in the case where a projector is suspended from a ceiling , there is no likelihood that the prism unit 16 may come out of the attachment frame 132 by the weight thereof , even if screws are unfastened from the bosses 133 . accordingly , mounting / dismounting operations of the prism unit 16 can be easily performed in replacing the prism unit 16 . in this embodiment , the stopper pin 135 as an independent member is fixedly attached to the attachment frame 132 . alternatively , a stopper portion formed with the engaging portion 136 may protrude from the attachment frame 132 . in the modification , the stopper portion may be integrally formed with the attachment frame 132 . fig7 a and 7b , fig8 a and 8b , and fig9 a and 9b are diagrams showing an arrangement of the cooling device 20 of the optical system 14 . fig7 a and 7b are perspective views of the cooling device 20 . in fig7 a , only the prism unit 16 and the pbs array 103 in the arrangement of the optical system 14 are shown together with the cooling device 20 . fig8 a and 8b are respectively a top plan view and a bottom plan view of an upper casing 202 , a first duct 210 , a second duct 211 , and a third duct 212 . fig9 a and 9b are respectively a top plan view and a bottom plan view of a lower casing 203 , a fourth duct 217 , a fifth duct 218 , and a sixth duct 219 . the cooling device 20 has a fan casing 201 . the fan casing 201 is constituted of the upper casing 202 and the lower casing 203 . a rear surface and a bottom surface of each of the upper casing 202 and the lower casing 203 are opened . the lower casing 203 is mounted on the bottom surface of the lower cabinet 2 , and the upper casing 202 is mounted on the lower casing 203 . the interior of the upper casing 202 is divided into three housing portions ( a first housing portion 204 , a second housing portion 205 , and a third housing portion 206 ) by two partition walls 202 a and 202 b . likewise , the interior of the lower casing 203 is divided into three housing portions ( a fourth housing portion 207 , a fifth housing portion 208 , and a sixth housing portion 209 ) by two partition walls 203 a and 203 b . the first housing portion 204 , the second housing portion 205 , and the third housing portion 206 of the upper casing 202 are respectively connected to the first duct 210 , the second duct 211 , and the third duct 212 . each of the first duct 210 , the second duct 211 , and the third duct 212 has a bottom surface thereof opened , and extends to a position below the prism unit 16 . the first duct 210 , the second duct 211 , and the third duct 212 are integrally formed with the upper casing 202 by a resin material . an air outlet 213 is formed in a lead end of the first duct 210 . the air outlet 213 is directed toward the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 for g light . a partition member 213 a is formed in the middle of an exit of the air outlet 213 to guide the cooling air to each of the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 . an air outlet 214 is formed in a lead end of the second duct 211 . the air outlet 214 is directed toward the output - side polarizers 115 for g light . two air outlets 215 and 216 are formed in a lead end of the third duct 212 . the air outlet 215 is directed to the incident - side polarizer 122 and the liquid crystal panel 121 for r light , and the air outlet 216 is directed to the output - side polarizers 123 for r light . the fourth housing portion 207 , the fifth housing portion 208 , and the sixth housing portion 209 of the lower casing 203 are respectively connected to the fourth duct 217 , the fifth duct 218 , and the sixth duct 219 . each of the fourth duct 217 , the fifth duct 218 , and the sixth duct 219 has a bottom surface thereof opened . the fourth duct 217 extends to a position below the pbs array 103 , and the fifth duct 218 and the sixth duct 219 each extends to a position below the prism unit 16 . the fourth duct 217 , the fifth duct 218 , and the sixth duct 219 are integrally formed with the lower casing 203 by a resin material . an air outlet 220 is formed in a lead end of the fourth duct 217 . the air outlet 220 is directed toward the pbs array 103 . an air outlet 221 is formed in a lead end of the fifth duct 218 . the air outlet 221 is directed toward the incident - side polarizer 109 and the liquid crystal panel 108 for b light . an air outlet 222 is formed in a lead end of the sixth duct 219 . the air outlet 222 is directed to the output - side polarizers 110 for b light . another air outlet 223 is formed adjacent to the air outlet 220 for the pbs array 103 . the air outlet 223 is communicated with a cooling fan ( not shown ) different from the cooling device 20 , and the cooling air from the cooling fan is drawn through the air outlet 223 . an air deflector 220 a is provided at exits of the air outlets 220 and 223 to guide the air toward the pbs array 103 . as shown in fig9 a , bottom surface members 210 b , 211 b , and 212 b corresponding to the first duct 210 , the second duct 211 , and the third duct 212 are integrally formed on upper surfaces of the fourth duct 217 , the fifth duct 218 , and the sixth duct 219 . when the upper casing 202 is mounted on the lower casing 203 , the bottom surfaces of the first duct 210 , the second duct 211 , and the third duct 212 are closed by the corresponding bottom surface members 210 b , 211 b , and 212 b , whereby an air duct having an airtight structure is formed . on the other hand , when the lower casing 203 is mounted on the lower cabinet 2 , the bottom surfaces of the fourth duct 217 , the fifth duct 218 , and the sixth duct 219 are closed by a bottom member ( not shown ) which is integrally formed with the lower cabinet 2 , whereby an air duct having an airtight structure is formed . cooling fans ( first through sixth fans 224 through 229 ) are respectively disposed in the first through the sixth housing portions 204 through 209 of the fan casing 201 . as shown in fig8 b and 9b , air outlets 224 a through 229 a of the respective cooling fans 224 through 229 are connected to entrances 210 a through 212 a of the corresponding first through the third ducts 210 through 212 , and entrances 217 a through 219 a of the corresponding fourth through the sixth ducts 217 through 219 . each of the cooling fans 224 through 229 is a centrifugal fan having the same performance , with both surfaces thereof being formed into intake surfaces . air inlets 224 b through 229 b are formed on both ends of each of the cooling fans 224 through 229 . each of the first fan 224 , the second fan 225 , and the third fan 226 is fixedly fastened to an attachment boss 230 provided on the upper surface of the lower casing 203 by a screw . likewise , each of the fourth fan 227 , the fifth fan 228 , and the sixth fan 229 is fixedly fastened to an attachment boss 231 provided on the bottom surface of the lower cabinet 2 by a screw . in a state that the first through the sixth fans 224 through 229 are fixedly attached to the attachment bosses 230 and 231 , a clearance for drawing in the external air is formed between upper end surface of each of the cooling fans 224 through 229 and the upper surface of each of the first through the sixth housing portions 204 through 209 , and a clearance for drawing in the external air is formed between the bottom surface of each of the cooling fans 224 through 229 and the bottom surface of each of the first through the sixth housing portions 204 through 209 . as shown in fig2 a , the rear surface of the fan casing 201 is covered by the air inlet member 22 . in the above arrangement , in response to activation of the cooling fans 224 through 229 , the external air is drawn into the cabinet 1 through the air inlet member 22 . the drawn external air passes through the upper and lower clearances of the first through the sixth housing portions 204 through 209 from the rear of the fan casing 201 , and is drawn to the cooling fans 224 through 229 through the air inlets 224 b through 229 b formed in both end surfaces of each of the cooling fans 224 through 229 . the cooling air from the first fan 224 passes through the first duct 210 , and is drawn in toward the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 for g light through the air outlet 213 . as a result of the above operation , the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 are cooled . the cooling air from the second fan 225 passes through the second duct 211 , and is drawn in toward the output - side polarizers 115 for g light through the air outlet 214 . as a result of the above operation , the output - side polarizers 115 are cooled . the cooling air from the third fan 226 passes through the third duct 212 , and is drawn in toward the incident - side polarizer 122 and the liquid crystal panel 121 for r light through the air outlet 215 , and is also drawn in toward the output - side polarizers 123 for r light through the air outlet 216 . as a result of the above operation , the incident - side polarizer 122 , the liquid crystal panel 121 , and the output - side polarizers 123 are cooled . the cooling air from the fourth fan 227 passes through the fourth duct 217 , and is drawn in toward the pbs array 103 through the air outlet 220 . as a result of the above operation , the pbs array 103 is cooled . the cooling air from the fifth fan 228 passes through the fifth duct 218 , and is drawn in toward the incident - side polarizer 109 and the liquid crystal panel 108 for b light through the air outlet 221 . as a result of the above operation , the incident - side polarizer 109 and the liquid crystal panel 108 are cooled . the cooling air from the sixth fan 229 passes through the sixth duct 219 , and is drawn in toward the output - side polarizers 110 for b light through the air outlet 222 . as a result of the above operation , the output - side polarizers 110 are cooled . in the prism unit 16 , concerning the light amounts to be absorbed at the time of modulation , the calorific value generated by a green imager ( constituted of the liquid crystal panel 113 , the incident - side polarizer 114 , and the output - side polarizers 115 ) becomes largest , and the calorific value generated by a blue imager ( constituted of the liquid crystal panel 108 , the incident - side polarizer 109 , and the output - side polarizers 110 ) becomes second largest . as compared with the calorific values generated by these imagers , the calorific value generated by a red imager ( constituted of the liquid crystal panel 121 , the incident - side polarizer 122 , and the output - side polarizers 123 ) is small . as compared with the calorific values generated by the liquid crystal panels 108 , 113 , and 121 , and the incident - side polarizers 109 , 114 , and 122 , the calorific values generated by the output - side polarizers 110 , 115 , and 123 are large . thus , the calorific values are different from each other depending on the imagers . in this embodiment , applied voltages to the second fan 225 and the third fan 226 are set equal to each other . this is because there is no significant difference in the required air volume between the second fan 225 and the third fan 226 . further , applied voltages to the first fan 224 , the fifth fan 228 , and the sixth fan 229 are set equal to each other . this is because there is no significant difference in the required air volume between the first fan 224 , the fifth fan 228 , and the sixth fan 229 . further , applied voltages to the second fan 225 , the third fan 226 , and the fourth fan 227 are set higher than the applied voltages to the first fan 224 , the fifth fan 228 and the sixth fan 229 . the applied voltage to the second fan 225 is set high , because the calorific value generated by the output - side polarizers 115 for g light is largest , and it is necessary to increase the air volume for the output - side polarizers 115 for g light . the air volume for the third fan 226 is set high , because the red imager constituted of the incident - side polarizer 122 , the liquid crystal panel 121 , and the output - side polarizers 123 is cooled only by the third fan 226 , and it is necessary to increase the air volume for the red imager . as described above , by setting the air volumes of the second fan 225 and the third fan 226 larger than the air volumes of the first fan 224 , the fifth fan 228 and the sixth fan 229 , it is possible to efficiently cool the output - side polarizers 115 for g light , and the red imager . the applied voltage to the fourth fan 227 is set equal to the applied voltages to the second fan 225 and the third fan 226 . this is because the length of the fourth duct 217 extending to the pbs array 103 is longer than the lengths of the other air ducts , and a pressure loss of the fourth duct 217 is large . as described above , in this embodiment , the cooling air from the third fan 226 is supplied to the red imager , the cooling air from the third fan 224 and the second fan 225 is supplied to the green imager , and the cooling air from the fifth fan 228 and the sixth fan 229 is supplied to the blue imager . thus , the embodiment is configured to supply the cooling air from the individual cooling fans to each of the imagers . accordingly , it is possible to set the air volumes of the cooling fans 224 , 225 , 226 , 228 , and 229 depending on the calorific values generated by the respective imagers . this is advantageous in efficiently cooling the prism unit 16 , while reducing noises and electric power consumption . further , with respect to the green imager , the cooling air from the first fan 224 is supplied to the air outlet 213 directed toward the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 , and the cooling air from the second fan 225 is supplied to the air outlet 214 directed toward the output - side polarizers 115 . thus , since the cooling air is supplied from the plural cooling fans to the green imager whose calorific value becomes largest , it is possible to secure a sufficient air volume to thereby sufficiently cool the target imager . further , by setting the air volume of the first fan 224 depending on the calorific value generated by the incident - side polarizer 114 and the liquid crystal panel 113 , and setting the air volume of the second fan 225 depending on the calorific value generated by the output - side polarizers 115 , it is possible to efficiently cool these optical elements . similarly , with respect to the blue imager , the cooling air from the fifth fan 228 is supplied to the air outlet 221 directed to the incident - side polarizer 109 and the liquid crystal panel 108 , and the cooling air from the sixth fan 229 is supplied to the air outlet 222 directed to the output - side polarizers 110 . thus , since the cooling air is supplied from the plural cooling fans to the blue imager whose calorific value is second largest to the green imager , it is possible to secure a sufficient air volume to thereby sufficiently cool the target imager . further , by setting the air volume of the fifth fan 228 depending on the calorific value generated by the incident - side polarizer 109 and the liquid crystal panel 110 , and setting the air volume of the sixth fan 229 depending on the calorific value generated by the output - side polarizers 110 , it is possible to efficiently cool these optical elements . in the case where the projector is configured to supply the cooling air from a single cooling fan to the two air outlets 213 and 214 ( 221 and 222 ) for the green ( blue ) imager through individual ducts , a large - sized cooling fan is necessary . an increase in the size of a cooling fan results in an increase in the size of an air outlet . as a result , a difference in opening area between the air outlet of the cooling fan , and the air outlets 213 and 214 ( 221 and 222 ) is increased . then , the air flow rates of the respective air passages from the cooling fan to the air outlets 213 and 214 ( 221 and 222 ) are increased , which resultantly increases the pressure loss , and lowers the air supply rate of the cooling fan . in this embodiment , since each of the cooling fans 224 and 225 ( 228 and 229 ) individually supplies the cooling air to the air outlets 213 and 214 ( 221 and 222 ) for the green ( blue ) imager , it is possible to reduce the size of the individual cooling fans 224 and 225 ( 228 and 229 ). thus , since it is possible to reduce a difference in opening area between the air outlets 224 a and 225 a ( 228 a and 229 a ) of the cooling fans 224 and 225 ( 228 and 229 ), and the air outlets 213 and 214 ( 221 and 222 ), it is possible to enhance the air supply rate of the cooling fans 224 and 225 ( 228 and 229 ). in this embodiment , the six cooling fans 224 through 229 are divided into two groups , in each of which a required air volume is approximate to each other , and an applied voltage is set for each of the groups . alternatively , for instance , the six cooling fans 224 through 229 may be divided into three or more groups depending on a required air volume , and an applied voltage may be set with respect to each of the groups . further alternatively , applied voltages may be set individually with respect to all the six cooling fans 224 through 229 . further alternatively , temperatures of the optical elements of the prism unit 16 , and the pbs array 103 may be detected , and applied voltages to the cooling fans 224 through 229 may be changed , based on the detected temperatures . the modification is further advantageous in reducing noises and reducing electric power consumption . further , in this embodiment , one cooling fan ( the third fan ) is provided for both of the air outlets 215 and 216 . alternatively , a cooling fan may be provided for each of the air outlets 215 and 216 . further alternatively , three or more cooling fans may be provided for at least one of the imagers , as necessary . fig1 a and 10b , fig1 , fig1 a and 12b , fig1 a and 13b , and fig1 are diagrams for describing a cooling structure of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 a is a perspective and elevational sectional view of the lamp unit 13 , when viewed from a rear of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 b is a perspective and transverse sectional view of the lamp unit 13 , when viewed from a front of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 is a perspective view of the lamp unit 13 , when viewed from the front of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 a and 12b are respectively a left side view and a rear view of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 a and 13b are respectively a top plan view and a bottom view of the lamp unit 13 . fig1 is a front view showing a state that the lamp unit 13 is connected to the fan unit 15 . in fig1 , the general contour of a housing 503 is shown by the dotted line so that cooling fans 501 and 502 disposed in the fan unit 15 can be seen . referring to fig1 a through 14 , the lamp unit 13 is constituted of the light source lamp 300 , and the lamp holder 400 for holding the light source lamp 300 . the light source lamp 300 is provided with an arc tube 301 and a reflector 302 . in this embodiment , a metal halide lamp is used as the arc tube 301 . alternatively , other lamp such as an ultra high - pressure mercury lamp or a xenon lamp may be used . an inner surface of the reflector 302 is formed into a paraboric shape to reflect white light emitted from the arc tube 301 on the inner surface of the reflector 302 , and guide the reflected light in the forward direction . a reflector base 303 made of e . g . plaster is formed on a rear end of the reflector 302 to fixedly mount the arc tube 301 on the reflector 302 . the arc tube 301 has a seal portion 304 at an inner position of the reflector base 303 . the lamp holder 400 is provided with a holder main body 401 , an upper plate 402 mounted on a rear end of an upper surface of the holder main body 401 , and a bottom plate 403 mounted on a rear end of a bottom surface of the holder main body 401 . an emission window 404 through which light from the light source lamp 300 is emitted is formed in a front surface of the holder main body 401 . a heat resistant concave lens 405 is fitted in the emission window 404 . a rear surface of the holder main body 401 is opened , and the light source lamp 300 is mounted in the opening from a rear side . a guide piece 406 is formed on both ends of a front portion of the holder main body 401 . a guide member ( not shown ) having vertically extending guide grooves is formed in the lower cabinet 2 at a housing position of the lamp unit 13 . the guide pieces 406 are fitted in the guide grooves from above in housing the lamp unit 13 in the lower cabinet 2 . a first air outlet 407 is formed in the upper surface of the holder main body 401 . a first air deflector 408 extending obliquely downward in rearward direction is provided in the first air outlet 407 . further , a second air outlet 409 is formed in the bottom surface of the holder main body 401 . a second air deflector 410 extending obliquely upward in rearward direction is provided in the second air outlet 409 . exhaust ports 411 and 412 are formed in a right side surface and a left side surface of the holder main body 401 , respectively . filters 411 a and 412 a in the form of a mesh are provided in the exhaust ports 411 and 412 , respectively , to prevent pieces of the arc tube 301 from coming out of the projector , in case that the arc tube 301 be damaged or broken . a third air outlet 413 is formed in the upper plate 402 at a position substantially right above the reflector base 303 . further , a fourth air outlet 414 is formed in the bottom plate 403 at a position substantially right below the reflector base 303 . an upper duct portion 415 is mounted on an upper surface of the lamp holder 400 . as shown in fig1 a , the upper duct portion 415 has a substantially t - shape in plan view to guide the cooling air that has been drawn in through an entrance 415 a formed in a right side surface of the upper duct portion 415 to the first air outlet 407 and the third air outlet 413 . on the other hand , a lower duct portion 416 is mounted on a bottom surface of the lamp holder 400 . as shown in fig1 b , the lower duct portion 416 has a substantially t - shape in plan view to guide the cooling air that has been drawn in through an entrance 416 a formed in a right side surface of the lower duct portion 416 to the second air outlet 409 and the fourth air outlet 414 . similarly to the filters 411 a and 412 a , filters 415 b and 416 b in the form of a mesh are provided in the upper duct portion 415 at a position near the first air outlet 407 and in the lower duct portion 416 at a position near the second air outlet 409 , respectively , to prevent pieces of the arc tube 301 from coming out of the projector , in case that the arc tube 301 be damaged or broken . as shown in fig1 , the fan unit 15 is disposed in the housing 503 in a state that two cooling fans 501 and 502 are vertically stacked one over the other . when the lamp unit 13 is mounted in the lower cabinet 2 , the entrance 415 a of the upper duct portion 415 is connected to an upper exit 504 of the housing 503 , and the entrance 416 a of the lower duct portion 416 is connected to a lower exit 505 of the housing 503 . in the above arrangement , in response to activation of the cooling fans 501 and 502 , cooling airs generated by the cooling fans 501 and 502 are respectively allowed to flow through the upper duct portion 415 and the lower duct portion 416 . in fig1 a and 10b , flows of the cooling air are shown by the arrows . the cooling air through the upper duct portion 415 is branched out in the duct portion into a flow in the forward direction and a flow in the rearward direction . the flow of the cooling air in the forward direction is passed through the filter 415 b , drawn into the holder main body 401 through the first air outlet 407 , has its direction changed by the first air deflector 408 , and flows into the reflector 302 . further , the cooling air through the lower duct portion 416 is branched out in the duct portion into a flow in the forward direction and a flow in the rearward direction . the flow of the cooling air in the forward direction is passed through the filter 416 b , drawn into the holder main body 401 through the second air outlet 409 , has its direction changed by the second air deflector 410 , and flows into the reflector 302 . the interior of the reflector 302 is cooled by the flows of the cooling air which have flown into the reflector 302 from both sides i . e . from the upper and lower duct portions . thereafter , the cooling air in the reflector 302 is passed through the filters 411 a and 412 a , and discharged to the exterior of the lamp unit 13 through the exhaust ports 411 and 412 . on the other hand , the flow of the cooling air in the rearward direction in the upper duct portion 415 is drawn in through the third air outlet 413 , and impinges on the reflector base 303 of the light source lamp 300 from above . further , the flow of the cooling air in the rearward direction in the lower duct portion 416 is drawn in through the fourth air outlet 414 , and impinges on the reflector base 303 of the light source lamp 300 from below . as a result of the above operation , the reflector base 303 is cooled from both sides i . e . from the upper and lower duct portions , and the seal portion 304 is cooled via the reflector base 303 . as described above , the cooling air which has exited the lamp unit 13 is discharged to the exterior of the cabinet 1 by the exhaust fan 25 . the upper portion of the light source lamp 300 is heated to a high temperature , as compared with the lower portion of the light source lamp 300 at the time of light emission , due to an influence of a gravitational force . in the case where the projector is mounted in a fixed position , the lamp unit 13 is brought to a state as shown in fig1 a , and a portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the upper duct portion 415 is heated to a high temperature , as compared with a portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the lower duct portion 416 . on the other hand , in the case where the projector is suspended from a ceiling , the lamp unit 13 is brought to a state opposite to the state shown in fig1 a , and the portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the lower duct portion 416 is heated to a high temperature , as compared with the portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the upper duct portion 415 . in this embodiment , since the flows of the cooling air branched out by the upper duct portion 415 and the lower duct portion 416 are guided into the reflector 302 from both sides i . e . from the upper and lower duct portions , it is possible to efficiently cool a high - temperature portion of the light source lamp 300 , without depending on whether the projector is mounted in a fixed position or mounted from a ceiling . in the case where the projector is mounted in a fixed position , it is desirable to set the air volume of the cooling fan 501 for supplying the air to the upper duct portion 415 higher than the air volume of the cooling fan 502 for supplying the air to the lower duct portion 416 to efficiently cool the portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the upper duct portion 415 . on the other hand , in the case where the projector is mounted from a ceiling , it is desirable to set the air volume of the cooling fan 502 higher than the air volume of the cooling fan 501 to efficiently cool the portion of the light source lamp 300 corresponding to the lower duct portion 416 . further , in the light source lamp 300 , the seal portion 304 is heated to a high temperature by heat generation in the arc tube 301 resulting from light emission of the arc tube 301 . if the seal portion 304 is exceedingly heated , the seal portion 304 may be deteriorated , with the result that the performance of the light source lamp 300 may be deteriorated . since the seal portion 304 is disposed at a position relatively away from the inner surface of the reflector 302 , the seal portion 304 may not be sufficiently cooled by the cooling air that has been draw into the interior of the reflector 302 . it may be possible to enhance the cooling performance by increasing the air volume of the cooling air . however , an enhanced cooling performance may excessively cool the arc tube 301 , which may obstruct a normal light emission . in this embodiment , since the flows of the cooling air which have branched out by the upper duct portion 415 and the lower duct portion 416 are directly supplied to the reflector base 303 from both sides i . e . from the upper and lower duct portions , the entirety of the reflector base 303 is efficiently cooled , and the seal portion 304 is efficiently cooled via the reflector base 303 . thus , it is possible to prevent lowering of the performance of the light source lamp 300 due to deterioration of the seal portion 304 . fig1 is a perspective view of the upper cabinet 3 in a state that the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are detached . a recess 601 in which the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are mounted is formed in an area of the upper cabinet 3 from a central part to a right side surface of the upper cabinet 3 . the recess 601 has a first area 601 a where the prism cover 10 is mounted , and a second area 601 b where the lamp cover 11 is mounted . a prism opening 602 is formed in the first area 601 a . the prism opening 602 is formed at a position substantially right above the prism unit 16 disposed in the lower cabinet 2 , and has a size capable of mounting and dismounting the prism unit 16 . guide ribs 603 are formed at two positions on each of a front wall surface and a rear wall surface of the first area 601 a . predetermined clearances are formed between the guide ribs 603 and a bottom surface of the recess 601 . further , an insertion hole 604 is formed at two positions on a left wall surface of the first area 601 a . furthermore , a nut 605 is embedded in upward direction in a central part on a right end of the first area 601 a , and a screw hole of the nut 605 faces upward . a lamp opening 606 is formed in the second area 601 b . the lamp opening 606 is formed at a position substantially right above the lamp unit 13 disposed in the lower cabinet 2 , and has a size capable of mounting and dismounting the lamp unit 13 . a pair of guide portions 607 is formed on a front edge and a rear edge of the lamp opening 606 . each of the paired guide portions 607 is constituted of two ribs arranged side by side in transverse direction with a predetermined clearance . when the lamp unit 13 is housed in the lower cabinet 2 , the guide pieces 406 of the lamp holder 400 are guided between the respective rib pairs . in the second area 601 b , the lamp opening 606 , and left and right portions of the lamp opening 606 are recessed from the first area 601 a . an insertion hole 608 is formed at two positions in a wall surface corresponding to the step difference between the first area 601 a and the second area 601 b . a transversely extending guide groove 609 is formed in each of the front edge and the rear edge of the second area 601 b . a transversely extending guide hole 609 a is formed in a side surface of each of the guide grooves 609 . further , an opening 609 b for passing a stem portion 808 of the lamp cover 11 is formed at an outer position substantially in the middle of each of the guide grooves 609 . a nut 610 is embedded in transverse direction in a right end of the second area 601 b , and a screw hole of the nut 610 faces transversely through an attachment hole 611 formed in a side surface of the recess 601 . further , an attachment hole 612 for screw fastening is formed in a right end of the second area 601 b in fixedly mounting the upper cabinet 3 on the lower cabinet 2 . furthermore , a transversely extending groove portion 613 is formed in the right end of the second area 601 b . an opening 613 a is formed in a left end of the groove portion 613 , and a micro switch ( not shown ) for detecting whether the lamp cover 11 is completely closed faces the groove portion 613 through the opening 613 a . fig1 a and 16b are diagrams showing an arrangement of the prism cover 10 . fig1 a is a perspective view of the prism cover 10 , when viewed from a front side of the prism cover 10 , and fig1 b is a perspective view of the prism cover 10 , when viewed from a back side of the prism cover 10 . the prism cover 10 is formed into a rectangular shape , and has a thickness substantially equal to the depth of the recess 601 . a projection 701 is formed at two positions on a left end of the prism cover 10 . further , an attachment piece 702 having an attachment hole 702 a is provided substantially in the middle on a right end of the prism cover 10 . a metal shield plate 703 is mounted on a back surface of the prism cover 10 to suppress unwanted radiation from e . g . the prism opening 602 . further , a transversely extending guided rib 704 is formed on each of a front end and a rear end of the prism cover 10 . fig1 a and 17b are diagrams showing an arrangement of the lamp cover 11 . fig1 a is a perspective view of the lamp cover 11 , when viewed from a front side of the lamp cover 11 , and fig1 b is a perspective view of the lamp cover 11 , when viewed from a back side of the lamp cover 11 . the lamp cover 11 is constituted of an upper plate 801 and a side plate 802 . as shown in fig1 a and 1b , the upper surface of the upper cabinet 3 has a moderately curved shape such that the upper surface is lowered from a central part thereof in leftward and rightward directions . the upper plate 801 is moderately inclined toward the side plate 802 in conformity with the upper surface shape of the upper cabinet 3 . a metal shield plate 803 is provided on a back surface of the upper plate 801 . the shield plate 803 is mounted on a holding portion 804 which is slightly bulged from the back surface of the upper plate 801 . the shield plate 803 shields the lamp opening 606 in mounting the lamp cover 11 on the upper cabinet 3 . the shield plate 803 suppresses unwanted radiation from the lamp opening 606 , and protects the lamp cover 11 from a heat generated in the lamp unit 13 ( light source lamp 300 ). a projection 805 is formed at two positions on a left end of the holding portion 804 . support ribs 806 are respectively formed on a front end and a rear end on the back surface of the upper plate 801 . because of the arrangement that each of the support ribs 806 has such a shape that a certain part thereof is cut away between a left end and a right end thereof , and the upper plate 801 is inclined , the height of each of the support ribs 806 is reduced toward the side plate 802 . the support ribs 806 support the upper plate 801 with respect to the bottom surface of the recess 601 in mounting the lamp cover 11 on the upper cabinet 3 ( see fig1 b ). further , an arm portion 807 is formed on each of the front end and the rear end of the back surface of the upper plate 801 . each of the arm portions 807 has a lead end thereof bent toward the side plate 802 , and the outwardly extending stem portion 808 is formed at the lead end of each of the arm portions 807 . further , a stopper portion 809 extending in parallel to the lead end is formed on each of the arm portions 807 ( see fig2 ). further , a rib 810 to be housed in the groove portion 613 of the upper cabinet 3 is formed on the back surface of the upper plate 801 . when the lamp cover 11 is completely closed , the micro switch is pressed by the rib 810 . then , the micro switch is turned on , and it is detected that the lamp cover 11 is completely closed . an attachment hole 811 is formed in the side plate 802 . thus , when the prism cover 10 is mounted on the upper cabinet 3 , the prism cover 10 is housed in the recess 601 from the right end of the first area 601 a , and slidingly moved in leftward direction . then , as shown in fig1 a , the guided ribs 704 are housed in the clearances between the guide ribs 603 and the bottom surface of the recess 601 . this suppresses an upward movement of the prism cover 10 . when the prism cover 10 is completely closed , the projections 701 are received in the insertion holes 604 of the recess 601 . this suppresses an upward movement of the left end of the prism cover 10 . further , the attachment hole 702 a of the prism cover 10 is aligned with the screw hole of the nut 605 . then , by screw - fastening the nut 605 , the prism cover 10 is fixedly mounted on the upper cabinet 3 . next , as shown in fig1 b , when the lamp cover 11 is mounted on the upper cabinet 2 , the arm portions 807 are housed in the guide grooves 609 from above , and the stem portions 808 are received in the guide holes 609 a . in the insertion operation , the stem portions 808 are received in the guide holes 609 a through the openings 609 b . thereafter , the lamp cover 11 is slidingly moved in leftward direction . then , the stem portions 808 are moved in leftward direction along the guide holes 609 a . as a result of the above operation , an upward movement of the lamp cover 11 is suppressed by the stem portions 808 received in the guide holes 609 a and the support ribs 806 . when the lamp cover 11 is completely closed , the left end of the lamp cover 11 is placed over the right end of the prism cover 10 . as a result of the above operation , the screws of the prism cover 10 are covered by the lamp cover 11 . further , the projections 805 of the lamp cover 11 are received in the insertion holes 608 of the recess 601 . as a result of the above operation , an upward movement of the left end of the lamp cover 11 is suppressed . further , the attachment hole 811 of the lamp cover 11 is aligned with the screw hole of the nut 610 . then , by screw - fastening the nut 610 , the lamp cover 11 is fixedly mounted on the upper cabinet 3 . as described above , as shown in fig1 a and 1b , by performing the above operations , both of the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are mounted on the upper cabinet 3 . the lamp unit 13 ( light source lamp 300 ) and the prism unit 16 are deteriorated by a long - time operation . in such a case , it is necessary to replace the lamp unit 13 and the prism unit 16 with new ones . the lamp unit 13 is easily deteriorated , as compared with the prism unit 16 , and the replacement frequency of the lamp unit 13 is larger than the replacement frequency of the prism unit 16 . in the case where the lamp unit 13 is replaced , the lamp cover 11 is opened to mount or dismount the lamp unit 13 through the lamp opening 606 . replacement of the lamp unit 13 may be performed by the user . fig1 a and 19b are diagrams showing a state that the lamp cover 11 is opened . fig1 a shows a state that the lamp cover 11 is halfway opened , and fig1 b shows a state that the lamp cover 11 is completely opened . fig2 is a cross - sectional view showing essential parts of the upper cabinet 3 for describing an operation to be performed for the lamp cover 11 in the case where the lamp cover 11 is opened . in the case where the lamp unit 13 is replaced , the user unfastens the screw , and slidingly moves the lamp cover 11 in rightward direction . by performing the above operation , as shown in fig1 a , the lamp opening 606 is gradually opened . then , as shown by the broken line in fig2 , the user is allowed to move the stem portions 808 in rightward direction within the guide holes 609 a . when the stem portions 808 reach the right end of the guide holes 609 a , the lamp cover 11 is not slidingly moved any more . in this state , a right end portion of the lamp opening 606 is still covered by the lamp cover 11 . next , the user pushes a portion of the lamp cover 11 projecting from the right end of the upper cabinet 3 in downward direction . then , as shown by the solid line in fig2 , the lamp cover 11 is pivotally moved about the stem portions 808 . in this state , as shown in fig1 b , since the support ribs 806 are cut away at a position around the arm portions 807 , there is no likelihood that the support ribs 806 may be abutted against a corner of the upper cabinet 3 in pivotally moving the lamp cover 11 . as described above , as shown in fig1 b , the lamp cover 11 stands upright along the right side surface of the upper cabinet 3 , and the lamp opening 606 is completely opened . in this state , as shown in fig2 , the stopper portions 809 are abutted against the right side surface of the upper cabinet 3 . as shown in fig2 , a bulging projection 609 c is formed below and at a right end of each of the guide holes 609 a . the height of the projection 609 c is very small . accordingly , by applying a small external force in slidingly moving the lamp cover 11 , the stem portions 808 are moved over the projections 609 c , and reach the right ends of the guide holes 609 a , respectively . in this state , left portions of the stem portions 808 are supported by the projections 609 a . since the stem portions 808 are easily rotatable , the lamp cover 11 is smoothly and pivotally moved . when the lamp opening 606 is completely opened , the user is allowed to dismount the deteriorated lamp unit 13 through the lamp opening 606 . then , the user is allowed to house a new lamp unit 13 in the lower cabinet 2 through the lamp opening 606 . then , the user is allowed to close the lamp cover 11 , and fasten the screw to fixedly mount the lamp cover 11 on the upper cabinet 3 by a sequence opposite to the sequence to be performed in opening the lamp opening 606 . in the case where the prism unit 16 is replaced , the prism opening 10 is opened , and the prism unit 16 is mounted or dismounted through the prism opening 602 . replacement of the prism unit 16 is performed by a serviceperson . fig2 a and 21b are diagrams showing a state that the prism cover 10 is opened . fig2 a shows a state that the prism cover 10 is halfway opened , and fig2 b shows a state that the prism cover 10 is completely opened . in the case where the prism unit 16 is replaced , a serviceperson opens the lamp cover 11 by the above sequence . then , the serviceperson unfastens the screw , and slidingly moves the prism cover 10 in rightward direction . then , as shown in fig2 a , the prism cover 10 is slidingly retracted in the space of the recess 601 which is defined by opening the lamp cover 11 . then , as shown in fig2 b , by slidingly moving the prism cover 10 to the right end of the recess 601 , the prism opening 602 is completely opened . when the prism opening 602 is completely opened , the serviceperson is allowed to dismount the deteriorated prism unit 16 through the prism opening 602 . then , the serviceperson is allowed to house a new prism unit 16 in the lower cabinet 2 through the prism opening 602 . then , the serviceperson is allowed to close the prism cover 10 , and fasten the screw to fixedly mount the prism cover 10 on the upper cabinet 3 by the sequence opposite to the sequence to be performed in opening the prism opening 602 . lastly , the lamp cover 11 is closed . as described above , in this embodiment , by slidingly moving the prism cover 10 , the prism opening 602 is opened . further , by slidingly moving the lamp cover 11 , the lamp opening 606 is opened . in this way , even if the space defined above the cabinet 1 is small in installing the projector , the prism opening 602 and the lamp opening 606 can be sufficiently opened . further , in this embodiment , since both ends of each of the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are securely fixed so that the both ends are not moved in upward direction in slidingly moving the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 , there is no or less step difference between the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 , and the upper cabinet 3 . thus , a sophisticated appearance of the projector is secured . further , the embodiment is configured to slidingly move the prism cover 10 with respect to the second area 601 b in opening the prism cover 10 . accordingly , there is no need of additionally forming a recess in the upper cabinet 3 to house the slidable prism cover 10 . this is advantageous in simplifying the arrangement of the upper cabinet 3 . in the above case , it is necessary to open the lamp cover 11 to open the prism cover 10 . however , since the replacement frequency of the prism unit 16 is smaller than the replacement frequency of the lamp unit 13 , a burden of operation is reduced . further , in this embodiment , when the lamp cover 11 is slidingly moved to some extent , the lamp cover 11 is bent downward , thereby completely opening the lamp opening 606 . this enables to reduce the sliding amount of the lamp cover 11 , and suppress a projecting amount of the lamp cover 11 from the cabinet 1 in slidingly moving the lamp cover 11 . thus , it is possible to reduce the space for sliding movement , which is necessary in opening or closing the lamp cover 11 . further , even if an external force is applied from above by e . g . hitting of a user &# 39 ; s / serviceperson &# 39 ; s hand in a state that the lamp cover 11 is opened to the right end , the force is absorbed by pivotal movement of the lamp cover 11 . thus , it is possible to prevent damage or breakage of the lamp cover 11 . in this embodiment , the prism unit 16 is disposed in the central part of the cabinet 1 , and the lamp unit 13 is disposed near the right side surface of the cabinet 1 . alternatively , the prism unit 16 may be disposed at a position near the side surface of the cabinet 1 , depending on the structure of the projector . in the modification , the arrangements of the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 are opposite to those in the embodiment . in the modification , since it is necessary to open the prism cover in order to open the lamp cover , a burden of operation may be slightly increased . further , it is not necessary to dispose the prism opening 602 and the lamp opening 606 independently of each other . alternatively , the prism opening 602 and the lamp opening 606 may be communicated with each other . specifically , a single opening for covering the disposition areas of the lamp unit 13 and the prism unit 16 may be formed in the cabinet 1 so that the lamp unit 13 and the prism unit 16 can be dismounted through the single opening . in the modification , the prism cover 10 and the lamp cover 11 may be formed into one cover . the embodiment of the invention has been described as above , but the invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiment . further , the embodiment of the invention may be changed or modified in various ways as necessary , as far as such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the claims of the invention hereinafter defined .
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fig1 shows an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention applied to a voltmeter , wherein an analog signal as a measurement value detected by a voltage sensor 1 is converted by an a / d converter 2 into a digital signal at a predetermined sampling period . a latch circuit 3 retains the digital signal which is updated at the predetermined period and outputs the same as a piece of sampling data x to a first digital comparator 4 . the first digital comparator 4 is connected with a digital display unit 5 arranged to include a decoder driver and serves to compare the data currently retained by a latch circuit 6 , which is for retaining the display data y corresponding to the value displayed on the display unit 5 , with the above mentioned updated sampling data x from the latch circuit 3 . according to the difference w between the sampling data x and the display data y and a piece of data to be output from a later discussed third comparator , an addend c is provided by an adder 7 , and this addend c is accumulated in a first counter 8 . a second comparator 9 compares a reference value a , which is predetermined and used for determining a display updating period to indicate the timing for updating the display , with the above mentioned accumulated addends in the first counter 8 . a second counter 10 is for counting the number of times of the display updates made , for which display updating instructions have been output to the latch circuit 6 from the second comparator 9 when the value of the accumulated addends therein have exceeded the reference value a . a third comparator 11 is for comparing a preset reference value k for the number of times of display updates with the number of times of the display updates made counted by the second counter 10 . according to the result of this comparison and to the result of the comparison made in the first comparator 4 , the value of the above mentioned addend c is determined . a timer circuit 12 , depending on the result of comparison made by the third comparator 11 , determines the set time t for measurement to detect whether or not the sampling data x is in the stabilized state , i . e ., the state in which the difference w is smaller than a predetermined value , as well as clears the count of the display updates made in the second counter 10 , so that a stabilized state of display updating is provided as soon as possible . a sign comparator 13 makes a successive comparison of the accumulated addends in the first counter 8 to detect a change of the sign of the addend input from the adder 7 , i . e ., a change of the sign of the difference between the sampling data x and the display data y , and clears the second counter 10 when the change of the sign is detected . operations of the present invention structured as above will be described below with concrete values used by way of example . first , the difference between the sampling data x , updated at intervals of a predetermined sampling period of 1 / 128 second and retained by the latch circuit 3 and the display data y , maintained in the latch circuit 6 and corresponding to the value currently displayed on the display unit 5 , w (= x - y ), inclusive of its plus or minus sign , is detected by the first comparator 4 . the dotted line in fig2 indicates the sampling data x , and the solid line indicates the display data y , and it is assumed that these data x and y were virtually equal and in a stabilized state at the start . then , suppose that the sampling data x is increased from 100 to 110 and a difference w = 10 is produced between the same and the display data y . the adder 7 decides the value of the addend c depending on whether or not the difference w is less than a predetermined value s (= 4 ) and whether or not the number of times of the display updates made is detected to be less than the reference value k (= 1 ) of the number of times of display updates in the third comparator 11 . more specifically , the same judges the sampling data x to be in a changed state since the difference w is more than the predetermined value s , and , further , judges the state to be the first changed state a since it is detected in the third comparator 11 that the display updates made is 0 -- because any display update was not made within a set time t set by the timer circuit 12 on the ground that the difference w before the sampling had been smaller than the predetermined value s and the sampling data x then had been in a stabilized state -- and less than the reference value k of the number of times of display updates , and thus the same sets up c 1 (= 2 ) as the value for the addend c . this value c 1 is supplied to the first counter 8 . the second comparator 9 compares the reference value a (= 52 ) with the value of the accumulated addends in the first counter 8 in order to determine the timing for the display updating . this comparison is made at intervals of the sampling period and the display updating is not made until the value of the accumulated addends exceeds the reference value a . since c 1 is accumulated every sampling period , 1 / 128 second , the value of the accumulated addends amounts to the reference value a after 26 / 128 second , when the latch circuit 6 is allowed to retain 101 , the earlier display data y plus the unit value b (= 1 ) for display updating , and the display on the display unit 5 is updated by the new display data y . at the same time , the second counter 10 counts the number of times of the display updates made every time the updating is made . the third comparator 11 , when the number of times of the display updates made reaches the reference value k (= 1 ) of the number of times of display updates , issues an instruction to the adder 7 to change the value of the variable c . the adder 7 sets the variable c to c 2 (= 18 ) on the ground that the difference w has exceeded the predetermined value s in absolute value and the number of times of the display updates made has exceeded the reference value k and hence the sampling data is now in the second changed state b . thereafter , when the difference w is larger than the predetermined value s every sampling period , the first counter 8 accumulates the value c 2 , and therefore , the value of the accumulated addends exceeds the reference value a after 3 / 128 second , when 1 is again added to the display data y and the display is updated . then , the display updating is made by an increment of 1 in like manner every 3 / 128 second until the difference w becomes smaller than the predetermined value , and thus , the display data rapidly approaches the actual sampling data . when , after the above described operations have been repeated , the different w becomes a value smaller than the predetermined value s (= 4 ), i . e ., 3 , the adder 7 judges the sampling data to have reached a stabilized state and sets the variable c to c 0 (= 1 ). and , if the difference w is smaller than the predetermined value s , the first counter 8 accumulates the value c 0 . therefore , after that time , the display on the display unit 5 is updated with an increment of 1 every 52 / 128 second . in the described manner , when the sampling data has approached the display data to a certain degree , the display updating period is made longer than before so that a stable state is brought about as soon as possible . the timer circuit 12 is for setting the set time t to find if the sampling data x is in a stabilized state in the first and second changed states a and b , that is , the timer circuit 12 sets the set time t to t 0 (= 36 / 128 ) in the first changed state a since the sampling data was brought from a stabilized state to a changed state , and unless the number of times of the display updates made is increased in the second counter 10 within the set time , it judges the sampling data x to be in a stabilized state and clears the second counter 10 . and , in the second changed state b , the same sets the set time t to t 1 (= 5 / 128 ). these set times t 0 and t 1 are determined by the third comparator 11 . the sign comparator 13 successively compares the accumulated addends in the first counter 8 and detects if the plus or minus sign of the addend c from the adder 7 differs from the previous one , and if a change of the sign is detected , the same judges that a different state from the earlier changed state has been produced and clears the second counter 10 . such a change of the sign is regarded as an indication of a stabilized state . that is , on the ground that it is uncertain whether the one time of change of the sign of the addend c output from the adder 7 is just that of a transient nature due to noise or that of the real change in the opposite direction to the earlier change of the sampling data x , and therefore , the real state cannot be found until the succeeding behaviors of the sampling data x are observed , the change of the sign is regarded as an indication of a stabilized state . incidentally , the first comparator 4 detects the difference w inclusive of a plus or minus sign and the adder 7 outputs the addend inclusive of the plus or minus sign to the first counter 8 . as described above , when the sampling data abruptly changes from a stabilized state in which the display data y has been unchanging for some time , the period for updating the display is changed depending on the difference between the sampling data x and the display data y and the number of times the display updates made , and thereby , as shown in fig2 the display updating period is made relatively long in the earlier stage when the sampling data x has just started to abruptly change , then the display updating period is made shorter so that the display data is rapidly brought closer to the sampling data x , and then , as the display data y is brought close to the sampling data x , the display updating period is again prolonged . thus , as shown in fig3 the displayed value , in the normal changed state , is made to change following the change in the measured value with the display updating period shortened and the response quickened , and in case of the noise having a large amplitude but a narrow width , the accumulation therefor is not made continuously , and hence , the display is not updated , i . e ., the displayed value does not change following the change in the measured value , and therefore , the occurrence of flickers can be prevented . while an embodiment of the present invention has been described in the foregoing , appropriate variations can be made therein without departing the spirit of the present invention . for example , the above mentioned value of the addend c , reference vale a for display updating period , reference value k for the number of times of display updates , the set time t set in the timer circuit , etc . can be modified in various ways and established depending on the apparatus to which the invention is applied . and , the apparatus to which the invention is applicable may be fuel gages , and so on , in addition to the above described voltmeter .
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referring to the drawings , and particularly to fig1 there is shown a convertible , multiple sports apparatus embodying features of the present invention , and indicated generally by the reference numeral 10 . multiple apparatus 10 is defined by two support members 12 , each of which is substantially triangular in outline , and has a base 14 , a rear leg 16 , and a front leg 18 , the base 14 and the two legs of each support member being joined together by junction units 20 , 22 and 24 . all of these parts are suitably hollow and may be formed from any convenient material , such as a molded plastic , e . g . each part may be formed separately and joined to the adjacent part by means of screws or bolts but , most conveniently , parts 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 and 24 , are all formed as a unitary structure , e . g . as a single molding . when hollow , the support members 12 can be filled with water or sand to stabilize them , if desired . the enlarged junction units 24 at rear as shown are particularly useful for this purpose . this not only reduces the cost of manufacture , but adds to the strength and rigidity of the support units . lightness of weight is also achieved by using a plastic . extending upwardly from junction units 22 are hollow shafts 26 , which are suitably separately formed from metal and connected to junction units 22 by means of screws or bolts or other securing means 25 as seen in fig4 passing through appropriately aligned holes . connecting the two support members 12 and shafts 26 is an inverted u - shaped extension unit 27 defined by two vertical members 28 , a horizonal member 30 , and elbows 32 . the vertical members 28 and the elbows 32 are hollow and can be formed as a unit , e . g . by molding , and the two elbows 32 are connected by the horizontal member 30 in any convenient manner , e . g . by means of screws 34 , which are received in a corresponding openings ( not shown ) in horizontal member 30 . suitably , vertical members 28 have an internal diameter greater than the external diameter of shafts 26 so that shafts 26 telescopically receive vertical members 28 . each of shafts 26 and members 28 are formed with apertures 36 into which a bolt or screw or like securing means ( not shown ) is received , ( i . e ., the bolt passes through the aperture at member 28 , and and then into the aligned aperture of shaft 26 at which it can be threadingly received .) by providing a plurality of such apertures 36 in shafts 26 , the height of u - shaped extension unit relatively to support members 12 , and thus the height of horizontal member 30 relatively to the ground , can be readily adjusted . shafts 26 can be longer than illustrated and can be provided with additional apertures to permit additional adjustability . disposed between the rear portions of support members 12 is a net 40 , which is suitably secured at its lateral ends to support members 12 , and the net 40 suitably has a height such that it extends between at least portions of vertical members 28 , and is suitably secured to them , as by screws or bolts ( not shown ). the net serves as an effective back - stop for thrown , batted , or kicked balls , so that they will be contained within the playing area . a principal feature of the apparatus of the invention is the adjustably rotatable backboard 45 , which is rotatably mounted upon horizontal member 30 , and can be positioned in the upright or vertical position as shown in fig1 or , by simple adjustment , can be positioned horizontally as shown in fig2 . the backboard 45 can be formed from any convenient material , such as plastic , and is preferably hollow , to decrease weight . for the purpose of mounting and adjusting the position of backboard 45 on horizontal member 30 , there are provided blocks 48 attached to the rear of back - board 45 . each of blocks 48 is formed with a concave , contoured recess for smoothly receiving horizontal member 30 , as seen fig3 . each of the blocks 48 has extending from it the threaded end of a bolt 50 , which is suitably embedded in the block . cooperating with block 48 is an arm 52 , which is hingedly connected at 54 to block 48 , and is shaped to accommodate the arcuate surface of horizontal member 30 . at its non - hinged end , the arm 52 is apertured ( not shown ) to receive bolt 50 and , for adjustably tightening arm 52 and block 48 around horizontal member 30 , bolt 50 is provided a wing nut 56 , which suitably cooperates with a washer 58 . it will thus be seen that by loosening wing nut 56 , the backboard 45 can be adjustably rotated about horizontal member 30 , from a vertical position to a horizontal position , and held in either of these positions , or in any intermediate position , by tightening the nut 56 associated with each arm 52 , and each block 48 . referring now particularly to fig1 the forward face of back - stop 45 is suitably provided with a basketball goal which is in the form of a ring or annular 55 attached to a supporting block 60 , which in turn is attached in any convenient manner , as by bolts or screws , to backboard 45 . the ring or annular member 55 of the basketball goal is provided on its inner surface with the usual hooks ( not shown ) by means of which can be hung the strands of a basketball goal net 64 or conventional form . there is thus provided an apparatus for multiple sports activities , and for practicing and developing skills in several sports involving a ball or other sports projectile . for example , as previously mentioned , the net 40 stretchd between the support members 12 effectively serves as a back - stop for a thrown or batted baseball , whiffle ball , or a kicked soccer ball , or these parts serve as a goal for practicing soccer , lacrosse or hockey . at the same time , the backboard 45 , with its goal 55 , serves as a goal for practicing the shooting of basketballs when the back - board 45 is in its upright or vertical position , and the goal 55 extends horizontally . however , the backboard 45 can be rotated by 90 °, either downwardly or upwardly into a horizontal position with the goal 55 extending vertically , either below or above the horizontal backboard , and the goal 55 can then effectively serve as a target for footballs or basketballs to practice throwing these sports projectiles . when so used , the net can be left in place to slow or stop the thrown ball or projectile ; or the net can be removed as shown in figure 2 . also the degree of rotation can be selected to meet an individual interest -- i . e . an angle of greater or less than 90 ° can be set . as previously mentioned , the height of the backboard , and thus of the goal 55 , can be readily adjusted by reason of the adjustable connection between the shafts 26 and vertical members 28 , to increase or decrease the difficulty of using the goal 55 as a basketball goal or as a target , or to accommodate the growing size and / or experience of the child using the apparatus . even when the basketball goal 55 is not being used either as a goal or a target as described above , it is advantageous to rotate the backboard 45 , and secure it with the goal 55 extending upwardly in order that there will be free access to the net 40 so that there will be no interference when the net 40 is used as a backstop for baseball , whiffle ball , soccer , hockey , or the like , or when it is used as a soccer , hockey , or lacrosse goal . there is thus provided a single apparatus unit which can be used without the need for any interchangeable parts which have to be separately stored , and the convertible features of the apparatus make it possible to carry out a wide variety of sports activities . the apparatus is easily assembled , readily portable , and can be used in a field , or playground , or in the child &# 39 ; s backyard at any time and , because of its versatility , it offers increased incentive for the child to increase his skills at several sports , as he chooses . it will be obvious that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the impended claims , and is intended therefore , that all matter contained in the foregoing description and in the drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative only , and not in a limiting sense .
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[ 0026 ] fig5 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention for terminating unwanted signal propagation . in fig5 as is known , each physical stripe is configured with a virtual stripe by , for example , writing a configuration word to the physical stripe . a detailed explanation of configuration management and data management is provided in schmit , et al , “ managing pipeline - reconfigurable fpgas ” published in acm 6 th international symposium on fpgas , february 1998 , the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference . the reader desiring more details on the task of writing a configuration word to a physical stripe is referred to the above - identified article . additional details regarding the construction and operation of reconfigurable fabrics may be found in schmit , et al , “ piperench : a virtualized programmable data path in 0 . 18 micron technology ”, in proceedings of the ieee custom integrated circuits conference ( cicc ), 2002 , the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference , schmit , “ piperench : a reconfigurable , architectural and compiler ”, ieee computer , pages 70 - 76 ( april 2000 ), the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference , schmit , “ incremental reconfiguration for pipelined applications ”, proceedings of the ieee symposium on fpgas for custom computing machines , pp . 47 - 55 , 1997 , the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference and schmit et al , “ piperench : a coprocessor for streaming multimedia acceleration ”, international symposium on computer architecture , pp . 38 - 49 , 1999 , the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference . one aspect of the present invention is to include some additional information in the encoding of a stripe ( e . g . in the configuration word ) that indicates whether a read from the register file is the last read of that data value in the application . the “ last read ” information can be generated by the compiler or physical design tool that generates the virtual stripe information , or it can be done by a separate program that analyzes a set of virtual stripes to determine when is the last read . the first and last stripes in an application present special cases . in the last stripe in a virtual application , there are no subsequent stripes . therefore , there are no further reads of values in the register file . in the first virtual stripe , none of the values currently in the register files in physical stripes that are located before the first virtual stripe are going to be used . for stripes other than the first and last stripes in an application , the information about the last time a value in a register needs to be read ( sometimes referred to as the last read information ) can be used in a number of ways to reduce power consumption . [ 0028 ] fig5 illustrates one embodiment for using the last read information to reduce power consumption by masking the value after a final read . in fig5 there are four register files 42 , 44 , 46 , 48 each having one register 42 ′, 44 ′, 46 , 48 ′, respectively , for purposes of simplicity . the reader will understand that in practice each register file will have a plurality of registers as shown , for example , in fig3 . in addition , the reader will understand that each register could store more than one bit . in the actual piperench implementation described in the previous publications , each register in each register file stores eight bits . in the embodiment of fig5 the last read information is used to fix the value in subsequent stripes in the fabric to a constant value . in the embodiment of fig5 that is accomplished with an and 52 gate located prior to ( or in ) register file 42 , and 54 gate located prior to ( or in ) register file 44 , and 56 gate located prior to ( or in ) register file 46 , and and 58 gate located prior to ( or in ) register file 48 . assuming that the value read from register 44 ′ is the last time that value needs to be read , inputting a zero on one of the input terminals of the and gate 56 forces the value at the output terminal of the and gate 56 , and in the subsequent pass register files , to zero . the value input to the input terminals of the other and gates 52 , 54 , and 58 is not of significance in terminating the propagation of the signal produced by the register 44 ′. other gates that can be used in place of the and gates include or gates , a nand gate . any type of gate that exhibits a monotonic function , i . e . a gate that “ forces ” the output based on a controlling value at one of the inputs , can be used . it will be noticed that the value output by register 44 ′ is terminated , i . e . prevented from propagating , by and gate 56 by forcing that value to zero . in a register , clocking in a constant value consumes less power than clocking in a changing value . thus , forcing the value to zero results in power savings . a similar result can be achieved by masking of the multiplexor read bit for the appropriate multiplexor responsive to the last read register so that the value output by the register is no longer read when no longer needed . in fig6 another method of using the last read information to stop a signal from propagating and for saving power is illustrated . the circuit of fig6 is similar to the circuit of fig5 except that the and gates 52 , 54 , 56 , 58 are positioned to receive a clock signal 60 . the clock signal output by and gates 52 , 54 , 56 , 58 is input to registers 42 ′, 44 ′, 46 ′ and 48 ′, respectively . another way the last read information can be used to reduce power in a register is to stop the register from clocking . in fig6 that is performed by masking ( blocking ) the clock signal 60 to those registers 42 ′, 46 ′, 48 ′ that are unused by inputting a zero to one of the input terminals of and gates 52 , 56 , 58 , respectively . only the one register 44 ′ in use is actually clocked by inputting a one to one of the input terminals of the and gate 54 , which saves significant clock distribution power , as well the power dissipated in the register itself . the set of values input to and gates 52 , 54 , 56 , 58 ( e . g . 0100 ) may be referred to as a clocking mask . [ 0031 ] fig7 illustrates a somewhat more complex embodiment of the circuit shown in fig6 in that instead of the providing a plurality of gates and a clocking mask to the gates , information is provided to a plurality of mask units 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 which locally determine if registers within register files 42 , 44 , 46 , 48 , respectively , should be clocked . the design of fig7 requires the additional circuitry of the mask units 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 and two and gates per mask unit to compute the value of the clock mask variable for each stripe ( register file ). the clock mask bit is determined based on what happened “ most recently ” in each register within each register file . what happened most recently is determined from the inputs “ readadd 0 ”, “ readadd 1 ”, “ writeadd ”, “ lastread 0 ”, “ lastread 1 ”, and “ lastvirtual ”, as well information on the state of the previous mask unit . if that register has been “ read for the last time ”, then the clock is masked off . if the register has been written more recently than it has been “ read for the last time ”, the clock is enabled . that can be implemented with a small finite state machine receiving the inputs identified above . in this state machine , shown in fig8 a register in the register file would be clocked if that register is not in the last virtual stripe and was either written in this stripe ( as indicated by the write address ) or was clocked in the previous stripe and was not the last read ( as indicated by the read address and the last read bit corresponding to that port ). [ 0033 ] fig9 illustrates the circuit of fig6 modified to provide local mask units . the previous embodiments use exactly the same information , whether a value in a register is being read for the last time , to determine that the value should not be allowed to propagate , either by forcing the value to a constant ( e . g . zero ) or not clocking the registers , to reduce power . when the pass register file includes more than one register , the combination of the read port address ( which specifies which register is being accessed ), and the bit indicated “ last read ” can be combined to determine which value is being read for the last time in the application . there are other ways to encode this information which , at present , seem less efficient . for example , it is possible to have an explicit “ in - use ” bit for each register in each register file such that it would not be necessary to combine the information with the read port address . thus , the present invention is directed to using any “ register use ” information for power savings . furthermore the information that a stripe is either the first or last virtual stripe can also be used by the mask unit to save power . at the first virtual stripe , the application knows that any data coming from previous stripes is not meaningful for this application . this bogus data could be the results from a prior computation that was executed on the stripes in the fabric . as a result , a mask unit that is informed that a stripe is the first virtual stripe could mask the clock or gate the data for any data arriving from a physical stripe prior to the physical stripe containing the first virtual stripe . [ 0036 ] fig1 shows a complex register file with four registers , two read ports , one write port , and a set of four gates that can make the output values from a register that has been read for the last time constant . fig1 shows a register file with the same parameters as fig1 , but with separate clocks that would be generated by a mask unit . the register file in fig1 , if it were reduced to containing two registers , could be used in fig7 to replace 44 . finally , to address the special cases of the first and last virtual stripe , a register file should have unused register file entries masked ( e . g . see fig1 ) or have their clocks gated by , for example , providing separate clock signals for each register ( see fig1 ). while the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof , those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that many modifications and variations are possible . the present invention is intended to be limited only by the following claims and not by the foregoing description .
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the present invention is described with reference to the enclosed figures wherein the same numerals are used . in a most preferred embodiment , the invention is a system and method for paying off a plurality of debts , specifically , debts with a shorter term to maturity , highest interest rate , and / or high balance , highest interest expense . in a most preferred embodiment , the invention is directed to more rapidly paying off a plurality of consumer or business debt items such as installment and revolving debt . in one embodiment , the consumer pays off a pre - set amount in excess of the minimum or monthly payment required . referring to fig1 , the initial embodiment is based upon categorizing payments according the length of the payment term , i . e ., whether the debt or loan is 24 , 48 , 60 months of longer . the debt with the shortest payoff term is set in the first position sequentially and the debts with longer payoff terms are then set forth in ascending sequence . the debtor may determine an additional monthly amount ( the excess amount ), which can be paid . it is assumed that the total monthly debt of the consumer plus the additional excess amount can be paid throughout the full term of all the debts . initially , the additional excess amount is used to pay off the shortest - term debt . with the addition of the excess amount , paid monthly , the payoff of the shortest - term debt is accelerated . after the payoff of the shortest term debt , the excess amount , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the shortest term debt is then used to pay off the second shortest term debt . the additional payments from the excess and shortest - term debt accelerate the payment schedule of the second shortest - term debt . after the second shortest term debt is paid off , the excess , shortest term and second shortest term debts may be applied to the third shortest - term debt . this process repeats until all debts are paid off . referring to fig2 , in a second embodiment , the priority is given to the highest interest rate of the debts . here the additional excess amount is used to pay off the highest interest rate debt . with the addition of the excess amount , paid monthly , the payoff of the highest interest rate debt is accelerated . after the payoff of the highest interest rate debt , the excess amount , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the next highest interest rate debt is then used to pay off the second highest interest rate debt . the excess , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the payment schedule of the second highest interest rate debt is then used to pay off the second highest interest rate debt . after the second highest interest rate debt is paid off , the excess , which may include the payment of paid off accounts plus the payment schedule of the next highest interest rate debt may be applied to the third highest interest rate debt . this process repeats until all debts are paid off . in a third embodiment of fig3 , the priority is given to the largest - aggregate periodic balance . here , the system identifies the largest aggregate balance for the period ; the additional excess amount is used to pay off the largest aggregate balance debt . with the addition of the excess amount , paid monthly , the payoff of the largest aggregate balance debt is accelerated . after the payoff of the largest aggregate balance debt , the excess amount , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the next largest aggregate balance debt is then used to pay off the second largest aggregate balance debt . after the payoff of the second largest aggregate balance debt , the excess amount , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the next largest aggregate balance debt is then used to pay off the third largest aggregate balance debt . this process repeats until all debts are paid off . in a fourth embodiment of fig4 , the priority is given to the highest periodic interest expense amount , which is the interest rate multiply by the balance , multiple by the number of days , divided by the total business days in a calendar year . the system identifies the highest interest expense amount for each period . here the additional excess amount is used to pay off the highest interest expense debt . with the addition of the excess amount , paid monthly , the payoff of the highest interest expense debt is accelerated . after the payoff of the highest periodic interest expense debt , the excess amount , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the next highest interest expense debt is then used to pay off the second highest interest expense debt . after the payoff of the second highest interest expense debt , the excess amount , which may include the payment of paid off accounts , plus the amount of the monthly payment of the next highest interest expense debt is then used to pay off the third highest interest expense debt . this process repeats until all debts are paid off . as can be seen , the present invention suggests a plurality of permutations . in general , the invention can group all amortizing debt accounts as a portfolio . it computes the initial minimum periodic total cash flow and may maintain that amount in schedule until the last debt is paid off . whenever additional amounts of money are added to the portfolio or become available by paying off any of the creditors , the invention identifies the creditor to be paid next and increase the periodic payment respectively . this feature of the invention helps determine the most optimal method for paying off the debts based on the largest amount of economic savings , which is the different between the total scheduled repayment and the total actual repayment of the portfolio , for each method . investment features can be applied to determine the most optimal method of paying off the debts that would produce the highest investment return . as additional monies become available when each debt is paid off , the system considers the possible return on investment for each method . in the first embodiment where the priority was given to the shortest - term debt , after paying off the last debt the excess amount used in the portfolio is considered for investment until the maximum scheduled term of the portfolio . in the second embodiment where the priority was given to the highest interest rate of the debts , after paying off the last debt the excess amount used in the portfolio is considered for investment until the maximum scheduled term of the portfolio . in the third embodiment where the priority was given to the aggregate periodic balance debt , after paying off the last debt the excess amount used in the portfolio is considered for investment until the maximum scheduled term of the portfolio . in the fourth embodiment where the priority was given to the highest interest expense debt , after paying off the last debt the excess amount used in the portfolio is considered for investment until the maximum scheduled term of the portfolio . these methods are weighted against each other and against the investment return of a situation where no excess amount was applied to pay off debt . the feature help to consider the most optimal method that would produce the highest investment return when paying off debts is a consideration . the present invention has been described with reference to the enclosed detailed description , the true nature and scope of the invention is to be determined with reference to the attached claims . these and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the claims attached hereto .
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the rotary engine ( 1 ) consists of a housing ( 24 ) with a first , center main well ( 23 ), a second , compression well ( 21 ) communicating with the first side of the main well ( 23 ), and a third , separation well ( 22 ) communicating with a second side of the main well ( 23 ). the well ( 23 ) contains the main rotor ( 2 ) with three evenly spaced lobes ( 3 ) mounted on the first output shaft . the compression well ( 21 ) contains the c / c rotor ( 4 ) with three evenly spaced cavities ( 5 ) ( 6 ) mounted on the second output shaft . the separation well ( 22 ) contains the separation rotor ( 7 ) with three evenly spaced cavities ( 8 ) ( 9 ) mounted on the third output shaft . an air / fuel intake port ( 10 ) in the housing ( 24 ) communicates with the main well ( 23 ). an exhaust port ( 11 ) communicates with the main well ( 23 ) opposite from the intake port ( 10 ). a first stage compression chamber ( 12 ) in the main well ( 23 ) between the intake port ( 10 ) and the compression well ( 21 ). an expansion power chamber ( 13 ) in the main well between the compression well ( 21 ) and the exhaust port ( 11 ). a passage ( 18 ) communicates the compression well with the main well at the expansion power chamber ( 13 ) from the compression well power port ( 19 ) to the main well power port ( 20 ). a passage ( 17 ) connects the compression well at compression well relief port ( 14 ) with the exhaust port at the secondary exhaust intake port ( 15 ). a spark plug ( not shown ) communicates with the compression well ( 21 ) at the combustion chamber ( 6 ) to ignite the fuel . the spark plug is replaced by a fuel injector when the design parameters are used for compression ignition . three gears ( not shown ) operatively connect the three output shafts together to hold the lobes of the main rotor ( 3 ) in the main well ( 23 ) in mesh with the cavities in the second ( 4 ) and third ( 7 ) rotors . the design geometry of the lobe ( 3 ) and compression chamber ( 5 ) enable compressing air / fuel mixture directly into a combustion chamber ( 6 ) in the c / c rotor ( 4 ) thence sealing the combustion chamber with the top of the lobe at maximum compression . given two cylinders with cross section and geometry in plane c with planes a and b in c , with centers at points a and b respectively , and that are free to rotate about their center points . point a is not equal to point b . point q is the midpoint between a and b ( fig1 & amp ; 2 ). ar is a circle with center point a with radius r , as is a circle with center point a with a radius s . br is a circle with center point b and radius r . points i and j define the intersection points of the circles as and br . i a and i b are the points on circles as and br respectively at point i . point q is the intersection of ar and br with p a and j b on circles ar and br respectively at q . m a is a point on ar where the arc p a m a is congruent to the arc j b i b . the compression chambers ( 5 ) ( 8 ) ( fig1 b ) in the secondary rotors ( 4 ) ( 7 ) respectively comprise the area defined primarily by two arcs i a and j a . i a is a set of points in br defined by i a as a and b rotate at the same rate in opposite directions ( fig2 ) until i a again intersects br ( fig2 b ). a and b counter rotate until m a and i b intersect q ( fig3 a ). j a on as is defined at intersection j with m a at q . j b is also now at j . j a is the set of points in br defined by j a as a and b continue to counter rotate until j a again intersects br ( fig3 b ). i a and j a intersect at a point d in b . with p a and j b set at q , lobe 3 ( fig1 c ) of the first main rotor ( 2 ) comprise the area defined primarily by the two arcs i b and j b . i b is a set of points in as defined by i b , and j b is a set of points in as defined by j b as a and b rotate at the same rate in opposite directions ( fig4 ) until i b intersects ar , which is at point m a . i b intersects m a at the same time j b intersects j a . the top of the lobe between i a and j a is recessed for clearance at d ( fig1 c ). the combustion chamber ( 6 ) ( fig1 b ) in the secondary rotor ( 4 ) is expanded by creating an elliptical arc with endpoints between e and f ( fig1 b ). the segment ef is congruent to the segment i a j a . e is a point on the arc j a between j b and d . f is a point on the arc i a between d and i b . the chamber is shaped and sized for the desired compression . the corresponding chamber ( 9 ) in the separation rotor ( 7 ) is constructed in much the same manner as the combustion chamber . however this chamber need not be of the same size , shape , or placement since its function is to communicate the separation chamber with the transfer port ( 25 ) and vacuum relief port ( 27 ) at the proper time . in the rectangular cartesian system of coordinates the faces of the lobe and chamber is the set of ordered pairs ( x , y ) where x = 2r cos ( u )− s cos ( 2u ) and y = 2r sin ( u )− s sin ( 2u ). for the face of the lobe r = s and for the face of the chamber s = ar where 1 & lt ; a & lt ; 2 . the engine design can vary by choosing the number of lobes and chambers desired for each rotor then setting a for the desired design . utilizing the law of cosines the domain of u is readily determined to construct the rotors . in the diagrams a = 1 . 5 for the three lobe / chamber design . by construction as the synchronized rotors turn the lobe and compression chamber make contact at the base of the leading face of the lobe with the base of the leading wall of the compression chamber while the trailing peak of the lobe makes contact with the base of the trailing wall of the compression chamber ( 3 c ) ( fig9 ). the trailing peak of the lobe and the trailing wall of the compression chamber , and the base of the trailing wall of the compression chamber and the trailing face of the lobe maintain contact making a double seal ( 3 a ) ( fig5 ), and the base of the leading wall of the compression chamber and leading face of the lobe maintain contact ( 3 a ) ( fig5 ), until the combustion chamber is reached and closed by contact of the leading peak of the lobe ( 3 a ) ( fig6 ) with the leading wall of the compression chamber . this results in the compressed gases being forced into the combustion chamber as the leading face of the lobe and the leading wall of the compression chamber close . the combustion chamber is then sealed on either side by the two peaks of the lobe against the leading and trailing walls of the compression chamber and the two base points of the compression chamber against the leading and trailing face of the lobe ( 3 a ) ( fig6 ). after combustion , as the lobe and compression chamber open , the leading peak of the lobe and the leading wall of the compression chamber , and the base of the leading wall of the compression chamber and the face of the leading lobe maintain contact making a double seal . the trailing face of the lobe and the base of the trailing wall of the compression chamber maintain contact . these seal points are maintained until lobe and compression chamber separate ( 3 a ) ( fig7 ). the improvements further include a lobe and combustion chamber design that at peak compression and ignition results in a positive moment arm in the desired direction of rotation of the main rotor ( 2 ) and c / c rotor ( 4 ) ( fig6 ). this is accomplished by moving the center of the opening of the combustion chamber forward of point d . the exact placement is easily adjusted to the specific design parameters desired . the improvements further include an improved seal . as a result of the two peaks the lobe creates a double seal while operating within the center main well ( 23 ) along the housing wall of the first stage of the compression chamber ( 12 ) during the first stage compression phase ( 3 c ) ( fig7 ) and the housing wall of the expansion power chamber ( 13 ) during the power phase ( 3 a ) ( fig9 ). the improvements further include extending the availability of expanding gases from the combustion chamber to the power chamber . after the lobe separates from the c / c rotor a passageway ( 18 ) ( fig9 ) communicates the expanding gases in the chamber ( 5 a ) ( 6 a ) in the secondary compression well ( 21 ) to the expansion power chamber ( 13 ) behind the lobe ( 3 a ) utilizing the kinetic energy of those expanding gases in the power phase thereby increasing engine efficiency . the compression well power port ( 19 ) and the main well power port ( 20 ) are positioned such that as the trailing base of the compression chamber enters the compression well the leading peak of the lobe is forward of the main well power port ( 20 ), the trailing peak of the lobe passes the trailing side of the main well power port ( 20 ), and the leading base of the compression chamber passes the trailing side of the compression well power port ( 19 ). the improvements further include a means of reducing residual exhaust gases from entering the separation chamber ( 8 ) and clearing the exhaust gases from the compression / combustion chamber ( 5 ) ( 6 ). the separation rotor ( 7 ) in addition to separating the intake from the exhaust also serves as a pump to clear exhaust gases from the system . as the lobe ( 3 b ) ( fig7 ) enters the separation chamber ( 8 b ) the gases start to compress in the same manner as described for the c / c rotor . however , the relief chamber ( 9 b ) starts communicating with the separation relief port ( 25 ) in which the gases are forced through . separation relief port ( 25 ) is communicated to secondary compression well ( 21 ) at the compression purge port ( 16 ) by a passageway ( 26 ), providing means for communicating a compression zone of the female separation rotor with a cavity of the c / c rotor to purge the cavity of the c / c rotor of residual exhaust gases . the passageway may contain a one - way check valve ( not shown ) to prevent any back flow of gases . the system is timed ( fig8 ) such that the purging gases are communicated through the combustion chamber ( 6 b ), through the compression chamber ( 5 b ), out the compression well relief port ( 14 ), through the secondary exhaust manifold ( 17 ), and into the main exhaust at the secondary exhaust intake port ( 15 ). the secondary exhaust intake port ( 15 ) is configured such that as the primary exhaust flows past the port a low pressure area is created which is transmitted by passage ( 17 ) to the compression well relief port ( 14 ) further aiding in clearing the combustion and compression chambers of residual gases . this compression well relief port ( 14 ) provides a means for communicating the combustion chamber of the c / c rotor with an exhaust port in order to assist the purging of combustion chamber of residual exhaust gases . as the rotors continue to rotate a vacuum is created in the expanding cavity in the separation chamber ( 8 b ) ( fig9 ) as the lobe ( 3 b ) separates from the separation chamber ( 8 b ). the relief chamber ( 9 b ) is now communicating with the vacuum relief port ( 27 ) and fresh air is being drawn into the separation chamber ( 8 b ). as lobe ( 3 b ) again approaches the separation chamber ( 8 b ) ( fig5 ) ( fig6 ) purging the exhaust gases from lobe ( 3 c ) exhaust gases are restricted from entering the separation chamber which is already occupied by the air drawn . the improvements further include a wiper and wiper groove ( 30 ) ( fig1 ) designed with a toe ( 28 ) at the base . this toe limits the distance the wiper can extrude outside the groove . the portion of the wiper that extends past the wiper groove in the rotor is profiled similar to the section of the rotor it replaces . the wiper facilitates a smooth transition alternately between the surface of the opposing rotor and the surface of the rotor housing compensating for any backlash in the timing gears and adjusting for any thermal expansion of the system . this limited range allows the wiper to maintain contact and form a seal with the opposing rotor and wall of the rotor housing during rotation while preventing the wipers from extending past the profile required for a smooth transition of the wipers between surfaces . a spring ( 29 ) under the foot of the wiper maintains an outward pressure so the wiper will maintain contact with the opposing surfaces . a wiper is located at the leading and trailing base of each compression and separation chamber and the tips of the lobes .
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a detailed description of one preferred embodiment of a shape measurement apparatus embodied by the present invention is provided below with reference to the accompanying drawings . the description will be given with an example of a handheld - type ophthalmic apparatus capable of measuring eye refractive power and a corneal shape ( corneal radius of curvatures ). fig1 is an external view schematically showing an ophthalmic apparatus used in the preferred embodiment , and fig2 is a view schematically showing an optical system included in the apparatus . a measurement window 4 is placed on an examinee &# 39 ; s side ( a side of an object to be examined ) of an apparatus 1 , and measurement light from an eye refractive power measurement optical system described later is irradiated ( projected ) onto an eye e to be examined along a measurement optical axis l1 which goes through the center of the window 4 . besides , an image of an anterior segment of the eye e is picked up via the window 4 . two illumination windows 7 a and 7 b are provided below the window 4 , and illumination light from anterior segment illumination light sources described later illuminates the eye e through each of the windows 7 a and 7 b . in addition , four irradiation ( projection ) windows 8 a to 8 d are provided vertically and horizontally symmetrical about the window 4 being their center . target light from a target projection optical system described later is irradiated ( projected ) onto the eye e through each of the windows 8 a to 8 d . right below the windows 8 a and 8 b are two irradiation ( projection ) windows 9 a and 9 b which target light used for detecting alignment condition in a z - direction ( a direction of a working distance ) goes through . a lcd monitor 5 and a switch part 6 are placed on an examiner &# 39 ; s side of the apparatus 1 . the image of the anterior segment of the eye e , alignment information and measurement information are displayed on the monitor 5 . the lower part of the apparatus 1 is a grasping part 2 for the examiner . in fig2 a half mirror 10 is placed on the optical axis l1 which is a central axis of the apparatus 1 opposed to the eye e , and the eye refractive power measurement optical system 20 is placed on the rear side of the half mirror 10 . on the side of an optical axis l 2 made coaxial with the optical axis l1 by a half mirror 21 , a light source 22 shared for measurement of eye refractive power and detection of alignment condition in x and y directions ( horizontal and vertical directions ), a rotation sector 23 having a slit aperture , a projection lens 25 , and a limiting diaphragm 26 are placed . the light source 22 emits infrared light . in addition , on the rear side of the half mirror 21 on the optical axis l1 , a photo - receiving lens 31 , a diaphragm 32 , and a photo - receiving part 33 including three pairs of photodetectors are placed . eye refractive power is measured by obtaining signals indicating the phase difference in accordance with the scanning direction of slit light using the three pairs of photodetectors on the photo - receiving part 33 . the measurement of the eye refractive power has little relationship with the present invention , and the details are omitted ( see japanese patent application unexamined publication hei10 - 108836 corresponding to u . s . pat . no . 5 , 907 , 388 for the details ). on an optical axis l 3 made coaxial with the optical axis l1 by the half mirror 10 a light source 11 which emits visible light , a fixation target plate 12 on which a fixation target is formed , and lenses 13 and 14 are placed to form a fixation target optical system . the light source 11 and the fixation target plate 12 integrally move in the direction of the optical axis l 3 by a fixation target moving part described later to fog the eye e . in addition , a dichroic mirror 15 is placed between the lens 14 and the half mirror 10 . on an optical axis l 4 on the reflecting side of the dichroic mirror 15 ( the optical axis l 4 is mode coaxial with the optical axis l 3 by the dichroic mirror 15 ), an image forming lens 16 , a telecentric diaphragm 17 and a ccd camera 18 having an image pickup element are placed to form an observation optical system . the ccd camera 18 has a sensitivity of near - infrared and infrared regions . the observation optical system serves as a target detection optical system for detecting targets projected onto the eye e , and as a part of a corneal shape measurement optical system . reference numeral 40 indicates the target projection optical system , which is composed of four groups of first target projection optical systems 40 a to 40 d as a part of the corneal shape measurement optical system placed on the circumference of a single circle having the optical axis l1 at its center , and of second target projection optical systems 50 a and 50 b for irradiating ( projecting ) the target light used for detecting the alignment condition in the z - direction . the first target projection optical systems 40 a and 40 b are placed so that each of their projection optical axes intersects with the optical axis l1 at a predetermined angle in the horizontal direction of the apparatus 1 . likewise , the first target projection optical systems 40 c and 40 d ( illustrations are omitted in fig2 ) are placed so that each of their projection optical axes intersects with the optical axis l1 at a predetermined angle in the vertical direction of the apparatus 1 . reference numeral 41 a to 41 d are point light sources which emit infrared light , 42 a to 42 d are spot diaphragms , and 43 a to 43 d are collimating lenses which project targets at a infinite distance onto the eye e . the second target projection optical systems 50 a and 50 b are placed below the first target projection optical systems 40 a and 40 b ( in fig2 a and 50 b are deviated toward the optical axis l1 for convenience in illustration ), and are placed symmetrically with respect to the optical axis l1 . the second target projection optical systems 50 a and 50 b are provided with point light sources 51 a and 51 b which emit infrared light , and spot diaphragms 52 a and 52 b , and project targets at a finite distance onto the eye e . [ 0029 ] fig3 is a view schematically showing a configuration ( arrangement ) of the light sources 41 a to 41 d included in the first target projection optical systems 40 a to 40 d and the light sources 51 a and 51 b included in the second target projection optical systems 50 a and 50 b , when viewed from the examinee &# 39 ; s side . the light sources 51 a and 51 b are placed at positions not symmetrical about a point with respect to the optical axis l1 ( an asymmetric pattern ). the target projection optical system 40 irradiates light to form totally six reflexes ( target images ) at the periphery of a cornea ec of the eye e off the corneal center . besides , in fig2 the anterior segment illumination light sources 45 a and 45 b which emit near - infrared light are placed at the same height as the distance from the optical axis l1 , and placed to have a predetermined positional relationship with the optical axis l1 , so as to illuminate the eye e from an oblique - lower direction . the light sources 45 a and 45 b irradiate light at a finite distance , and form two reflexes on the cornea ec . the reflexes are detected by the camera 18 as target images not symmetric about a point with the optical axis l1 ( an asymmetric pattern ). [ 0031 ] fig4 is a block diagram schematically showing primary parts of a control system of the apparatus 1 . an output image from the camera 18 is provided with a predetermined processing and captured in an image memory 61 . besides , the image from the camera 18 is displayed on the monitor 5 via an image synthesizing part 62 . a character generating part 63 generates various characters and letters to be displayed on the monitor 5 , and a signal therefrom is electrically synthesized with a picture signal from the camera 18 by the image synthesizing part 62 . an image processing part 65 detects a signal from the image captured in the image memory 61 , and a calculating / controlling part 60 obtains positions of the target images based on the signal detected by the image processing part 65 to measure a spherical shape such as a shape of the cornea ec , a shape of a contact lens , or the like . in addition , the calculating / controlling part 60 is connected to the light source 22 , the light sources 41 a to 41 d , and the light sources 51 a and 51 b , the photo - receiving part 33 for measuring the eye refractive power , a fixation target moving part 57 and the like , and controls measurement of the corneal shape and measurement of the eye refractive power and calculates the eye refractive power . further , a memory part 66 is capable of storing the obtained spherical shape data ( the radius of curvatures and the axial angles of the steepest and flattest meridians ) such as the obtained corneal shape data or the like , the obtained eye refractive power data and the like . various data stored by the memory part 66 are sent to a printer 70 via an outward output part 67 so that measurement data are printed out . with the configuration as described above , the operation will be described referring to a flowchart shown in fig7 . firstly , measurement of a spherical shape of a convex surface of the cornea ec will be described . secondly , measurement of a spherical shape of a concave surface of a contact lens will be described . & lt ; measurement of a spherical ( convex surface ) shape of a cornea & gt ; the light source 22 , the light sources 45 a and 45 b , the light sources 41 a to 41 d , and the light sources 51 a and 51 b light up , and the window 4 is positioned opposed to the eye e , corneal reflexes of those light sources and an image of the anterior segment are thereby picked up by the camera 18 to be displayed on the monitor 5 . on the display of the monitor 5 shown in fig4 reference numerals 22 ′, 41 a ′ to 41 d ′, and 51 a ′ and 51 b ′ indicate the corneal reflexes of the light sources 22 , 40 a to 40 d , and 51 a and 51 b , respectively . reference numeral 45 a ′ and 45 b ′ indicate the corneal reflexes of the light sources 45 a and 45 b . light emitted from the light source 22 is irradiated ( projected ) onto the eye e along the optical axis l1 to form the reflex 22 ′ on a corneal vertex . further , at a predetermined position on the monitor 5 , an aiming marker 110 having a square shape generated by the character generating part 63 is displayed being electrically synthesized by the image synthesizing circuit 62 , the center of the aiming marker 110 is considered as an alignment center in x and y directions , and the examiner performs alignment in the x and y directions by moving the apparatus 1 with respect to the eye e so that the reflex 22 ′ is positioned at the center of the aiming marker 110 . furthermore , an alignment condition in the z - direction is detected by comparing the distance between the reflex 41 a ′ and the reflex 41 b ′ with the distance between the reflex 51 a ′ and the reflex 51 b ′ ( see japanese patent application unexamined publication hei 6 - 46999 corresponding to u . s . pat . no . 5 , 463 , 430 for judgment of the alignment condition ). from the image of the anterior segment captured in the image memory 61 by the image processing part 65 , central coordinates of each reflex ( target image ) are detected . the control part 60 judges whether the object is measured on the convex surface shape ( the measurement of the corneal shape ) or on the concave surface shape ( the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens ), according to the positional relationship among the detected reflexes ( a relation in the configuration ( arrangement ) of the reflexes ). precisely , a configuration ( arrangement ) pattern of the reflexes at the time of the measurement of the convex surface shape is stored in advance as a reference pattern , then the positional relationship among the reflexes detected by the image processing part 65 is compared with the reference pattern in order to judge whether the measurement is performed on the convex surface or concave surface . [ 0037 ] fig5 a is a schematic diagram showing a positional relationship among the reflexes detected at the time of the measurement of the convex surface shape . at the completion of the alignment , the reflex 22 ′ being the central reference point , the reflexes 41 a ′ to 41 d ′, the reflexes 51 a ′ and 51 b ′, and the reflexes 45 a ′ and 45 b ′ are detected in a positional relationship as shown in fig5 a . in other words , the reflexes 51 a ′, 51 b ′, 45 a ′ and 45 b ′ are positioned below the reflex 22 ′ being the central reference point . the configuration pattern is stored in the memory part 66 as the reference pattern . when this configuration pattern is detected , the control part 60 judges that the convex surface shape is measured , and controls measurement in the mode for the concave surface shape measurement . based on the judgment of the alignment condition in the z - direction and in the x and y directions , the control part 60 starts the measurement automatically giving a trigger signal when the predetermined alignment condition is completed . the control part 60 calculates the corneal shape data of the eye e such as the corneal radius of curvatures , the axial angle and the like , based on a photo - received position ( a detected position ) of the reflexes 41 a ′, to 41 d ′, detected by the image processing part 65 , the calculated corneal shape data are stored into the memory part 66 while being displayed on the monitor 5 by the character generating part 63 . at the time of the corneal shape measurement , the corneal radius of curvatures and the axial angle may be calculated if three reflexes ( target images ) are detected as described in japanese patent no . hei1 - 19896 . the corneal shape data are sent to the printer 70 via the outward output part 67 using the print switch provided in the switch part 6 in order to be printed out . at this time , the data may be clearable if provided with a notice informing whether the convex surface shape measurement or the corneal shape measurement . next , the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens will be described . after pouring water into a concave part formed on a holder 101 of a fixed jig 100 shown in fig8 the convex surface of the contact lens is mounted on the holder 101 . then , the same alignment as that for the measurement of the corneal shape is performed on the concave surface of the contact lens , and an automatic measurement is performed . at this point , the control part 60 , as described above , detects the positional relationship among the reflexes ( target images ) detected by the image processing part 65 from the image of the anterior segment captured in the image memory 61 by the camera 18 , and judges whether the object of the corneal shape ) or the concave surface shape ( the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens ). [ 0042 ] fig5 b is a schematic diagram showing a positional relationship among the reflexes detected at the time of the measurement of the concave surface shape . in measuring the concave surface shape , a configuration ( arrangement ) pattern of the reflexes is obtained by vertically and horizontally reversing that obtained at the time of the measurement of the convex surface shape shown in fig5 a with respect to the reflex 22 ′. that is , the reflexes 51 a ′, 51 b ′, 45 a ′ and 45 b ′ are positioned above the reflex 22 ′. when the reflexes are detected with such a configuration pattern , that pattern does not coincide with the reference pattern . therefore , the coordinates of all of the detected reflexes are reversed vertically and horizontally ( rotated 180 degrees about the measurement optical axis on the image ). then , the configuration pattern becomes applied to the condition of the reference pattern . if the configuration pattern after the calculation coincides with the condition of the reference pattern , the control part 60 confirms that the analysis common to the measurement of the concave surface shape can be performed , and sets the mode for the concave surface shape measurement . further , when the concave surface shape of the contact lens is judged to be under measurement , the control part 60 displays letters “ cl ” on the monitor 5 using the character generating part 63 to inform the examiner of the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens . furthermore , in order to suppress reflection light ( a back - surface reflection ) from the convex surface of the contact lens , the control part 60 makes adjustments so that target projection light intensity of each light source is reduced within a range where the radius of curvatures may be calculated while the back - surface reflection is suppressed ( the reduction of the light intensity may be applied to light sources used at least for the spherical shape measurement .) detecting sensitivity to the reflexes may be reduced instead . this reduction may be performed by adjusting photo - receiving sensitivity of the camera 18 , using the circuit of the image processing part 65 or a processing software thereof , and the like . as in the case of the measurement of the corneal shape , when the predetermined alignment condition is completed , the control part 60 starts the measurement automatically giving the trigger signal , calculates the radius of curvatures and the axial angle of the concave surface of the contact lens , and displays the calculated result on the monitor 5 . at this time , if the contact lens to be measured is for astigmatic correction , it is necessary to calculate the axial angle . for this purpose , the control part 60 performs calculation for horizontally reversing a principal meridian axial angle ( axis ) obtained from the four reflexes for the spherical shape measurement ( i . e . transform the axial angle of 45 to 135 degrees ), and displays a value applied to the axial angle in the case of wearing contact lens ( the axial angle when viewed from the convex surface ) as the measurement result . in addition , at the same time , the control part 60 makes the memory part 66 store the obtained shape data ( the radius of curvatures and the axial angle on the concave surface ) as the data from the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens . the shape data stored into the memory 66 is sent to the printer 70 via the outward output part 67 using the print switch provided in the switch part 6 , and printed out with the letters “ cl ” indicating that the shape data is obtained from the measurement of the base curve of the contact lens . besides , the measurement mode in the initial state of the apparatus 1 is set for the convex surface shape , which is for the corneal shape measurement . after setting the mode for the concave surface shape measurement , the mode is kept the same till it is changed to the mode for the convex surface shape measurement . once the mode is changed for the concave surface shape measurement , if the coordinates of all the reflexes are reversed vertically and horizontally , and a judgment is made whether or not they comply with the condition of the reference pattern , the calculation may be performed effectively . and , when the convex surface shape is measured again , since the configuration pattern of the reflexes is not compatible with the condition of the reference pattern , the configuration pattern is reversed vertically and horizontally again . if the reversed configuration pattern coincides with the condition of the reference pattern , it is judged that the convex surface shape measurement has been performed . then , the vertical and horizontal reverse may be stopped . the vertical and horizontal reverse of the reflexes requires a simple calculation and a short processing time . therefore , if the configuration pattern of the reflexes is judged not compatible with the condition of the reference pattern , the reflexes may be reversed vertically and horizontally so as to be judged with respect to the condition of the reference pattern again . in addition , in the preferred embodiment , when the concave surface shape is measured , the reflexes are reversed vertically and horizontally , and the same calculation as that for the convex surface shape measurement is performed thereon to obtain measurement data . however , the present invention is not limited thereto . when the reflexes are not arranged intendedly , another program different from that program for the convex surface shape measurement may be run for the concave surface shape measurement to calculate the measurement data . further , the mode for the convex surface shape measurement and that for the concave surface shape measurement are not set automatically , but may be set by manual operation by the examiner using a mode changing switch 6 a placed in the switch part 6 . furthermore , the mode for the concave surface shape measurement may be that for the contact lens as well . generally , in measuring a contact lens using this kind of ophthalmic apparatus , a concave surface shape is measured to obtain the base curve data . when the measurement mode is selected for the contact lens , the control part 60 displays the letters “ cl ” on the monitor 5 and on the printed - out data , and sets the measurement condition such as reducing the light intensity of the measurement light for the spherical shape measurement . in the preferred embodiment described above , totally nine reflexes are provided on the eye e , including the illumination light , but the present invention is not limited thereto . for example , the reflexes of a number which is capable of performing the measurement of the corneal shape and the like , may be formed on the object , while the targets projected onto the object may be arranged in an asymmetric pattern with respect to the optical axis l1 . since the corneal radius of curvatures may be measured by projecting two targets being symmetrical about a point and one target on the circumference of the same circle as the two targets , the targets for judging whether the convex or concave surface may be used as the measurement targets . moreover , it is essential only that the targets for judging whether the convex or concave surface have an asymmetric pattern . for example , a triangle - shaped pattern as shown in fig6 may be used . furthermore , in the preferred embodiment , the reference pattern stored in advance and the configuration pattern of the actual reflexes are consistent with each other , but the present invention is not limited thereto . for example , among the plural reflexes detected by the camera 18 , the detecting condition of part of the reflexes are captured to detect whether the convex or concave surface is measured . when using the nine reflexes presented in the preferred embodiment , as shown in fig5 a , if one of the reflexes at the upper edge of the image of the anterior segment and two of the reflexes at the lower edge are detected , it may be judged that the convex surface shape is measured . as above , in the preferred embodiment , the description is given to the handheld - type ophthalmic apparatus provided with functions of the corneal shape measurement and the eye refractive power measurement . however , the present invention is not limited thereto . for example , the present invention may be applied to an ophthalmic apparatus of a stationary type or an apparatus having only the function of the corneal shape measurement . additionally , the present invention may simply be applied to an apparatus for measuring a spherical shape of the convex and concave surfaces of correctives like the contact lens , the spectacles lens and the like . in this case , it is judged whether the measurement is on the convex or concave surface , and the judgment result is therefore added to the measurement data to be displayed and printed out , thereby eliminating the trouble of management by the examiner . as described above , according to the present invention , the apparatus may be provided , which is capable of avoiding troubles for the examiner and has an excellent operability . in addition , the measurement accuracy is improved . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed , and modifications and variations are possible in the light of the teachings described above or may be acquired from practice of the invention . the embodiments chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto , and their equivalents .
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[ 0017 ] fig1 illustrates a diagram of a system 10 incorporating features of the present invention . although the present invention will be described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings , it should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in many alternate forms of embodiments . in addition , any suitable size , shape or type of elements or materials could be used . the present invention provides a post with the ability to authenticate indicia without the need to maintain a database relating indicia to a specific customer . the embodiments relate to a database maintained by a service provider , from which information is extracted as necessary to authenticate indicia at post sites which may be remote from the database and from each other . the embodiments also relate to a methodology and system for providing authentication without requiring a post to access to a customer database . referring to fig1 system 10 generally includes an indicia generating facility 15 and an indicia verification facility 20 . the indicia generating facility is generally adapted to mark a mail piece 155 with unique identifying information and may include a computer 105 , a database 135 , and a franking device 115 . the indicia verification facility 20 is generally adapted to receive the marked mail piece 155 to verify the unique information and generally includes a scanner , or other reading device 145 , and a computing device 120 . a more detailed embodiment of a system 100 incorporating features of the present invention is illustrated in fig2 . a computer 105 is coupled to a first data communications network 110 . one or more devices suitable for providing indicia , in this example a psd 115 , are also coupled to first communications network 110 , and may communicate bi - directionally through first communications network 110 with computer 105 . computer 105 may also be connected to a remote computing device 120 through a second communications network 125 . computer 105 may be any type of processing device capable of performing the functions described herein . while a single computer 105 is shown , computer 105 may represent a plurality of computers , servers , or other suitable devices , which may be situated at a single location , or may be widely distributed and remotely sited . for example , a plurality of distributed computers 105 may be used for servicing psds 115 in different geographic locations , according to particular postal regulations , such as north america , south america , europe , africa , japan and southeast asia . alternately , a single computer 105 can be used for servicing all psd &# 39 ; s 115 . computer 105 could be located at an enterprise location or site 130 , which could be an office of a psd provider , or other provider of postal indicia . computer 105 may also include or be connected to one or more databases 135 that hold indicia authentication data 185 . the one or more data bases 135 may be centralized at a specific location or may be distributed among a number of distributed computers . indicia authentication data 185 present in database 135 may include psd serial numbers , psd public keys , vendor public keys specific to a vendor of psd &# 39 ; s , other public key information , cryptographic parameters , and any other parameters that may be required for verification and authentication of indicia . first and second communications networks 110 , 125 may include any suitable communications network , for example , the public switched telephone network ( pstn ), a wireless network , a wired network , a local area network ( lan ), a wide area network ( wan ), virtual private network ( vpn ) etc . psd &# 39 ; s 115 and remote computing device 120 may communicate with the computer 105 using any suitable protocol , or modulation standard , for example , x . 25 , atm , tcp / ip , v34 , v90 , etc . in an alternate embodiment , first and second communications networks 110 , 125 may be the same communication network . one or more devices suitable for providing postal indicia , in this example a psd 115 , are also connected to first communications network 110 , and may communicate bi - directionally through first communications network 110 with computer 105 . psd 115 may include a communications port 117 and a microprocessor 118 for performing electronic accounting and control functions , franking functions , and mail handling functions according to programs stored in a storage device 119 . microprocessor 118 typically performs electronic accounting functions in relation to franking mail items with postage charges . data associated with the accounting functions may include an accumulated total value of credit entered into psd 115 , an accumulated total value of postage charge dispensed by psd 115 by franking mail items , a count of the number of mail items franked by psd 115 , and a count of the number of mail items franked with a postage charge in excess of a predetermined value . the accumulated total value of credit may be stored in an ascending credit register 160 , the accumulated total value of postage charges dispensed may be stored in an descending tote register 165 , the count of items may be stored in an items count register 170 , and the count of items franked with a postage charge in excess of a predetermined value may be stored in a large items register 175 . the various registers may be located in storage device 119 . the franking functions typically include marking items with indicia and reporting the number of items , value marked and other parameters to the accounting functions . the control functions may include uploading postage funds , downloading accounting data , and secure communications with computer 105 through network 110 , including implementing new public key , private key combinations . according to the present invention , the control functions may also include encrypting information into the indicia for verification and authentication . to support the control functions , storage device 119 may also include a psd public key , private key combination specific to psd 115 , a vendor public key , private key combination specific to the vendor of psd 115 , a psd serial number , the present time and date , and other cryptographic parameters . psd 115 may also include or be integral to a device for marking objects with postal indicia , shown in this embodiment as a printer 140 . computer 105 may also be connected to a remote computing device 120 through a second communications network 125 . remote computing device may be a dedicated controller , a work station , a desktop personal computer , a laptop or other portable computer , or any other computing device suitable for providing the functions of the present invention . remote computing device 120 may be operably connected to a scanner 145 capable of scanning indicia . remote computing device 120 may optionally operate scanner 145 in conjunction with a mail handling facility 180 . the operation of the embodiment of fig1 will now be described with reference to fig3 and 4 . a user utilizes psd 115 to provide for secure imprinting of postal indicia 150 onto a mail piece . postal indicia 150 includes all indicia required by the governing post , for example , an identifier such as a psd serial number 185 , ascending and descending registers , postage value , mailing date , rate category , etc . in accordance with the present invention , postal indicia 150 also includes information for authentication and verification which may take the form of a digital signature . [ 0033 ] fig3 shows a diagram of an exemplary digital signature technique . device data 310 , for example , the psd serial number , postage amount , contents of the accounting registers , date , etc . is provided to a first hash function 315 . the resulting first hash value 320 is then provided to a first digital signature function 325 which utilizes the psd private key 330 . the resulting first signature value 335 , the “ unsigned ” first hash value 320 , and optionally , the psd public key 332 are incorporated into the indicia 150 . additional information is incorporated in the indicia 150 for authenticating the psd public key 332 . referring again to fig3 a certificate authority may utilize predetermined components from psd data 310 and psd public key 332 which are provided to a second hash function 340 . the resulting second hash value 345 is provided to a second digital signature function 350 which utilizes the vendor private key 355 . the resulting second signature value 360 , the “ unsigned ” second hash value 345 , and the vendor public key 365 are then also incorporated into the indicia 150 . in one embodiment , the first and second hash functions may be the same function and the first and second digital signature functions may be the same function . mail piece 155 is marked with the indicia and deposited into the mail stream . at some point in the mail stream , the indicia is authenticated . returning to fig1 as part of the authentication process , scanner 145 is used to scan indicia 150 . the indicia information is conveyed to remote computing device 120 which in turn conveys the indicia information to computer 105 through network 125 . upon receiving the indicia information , computer 105 invokes an indicia signature verification function . referring to fig4 the indicia signature verification function 410 first identifies the psd serial number 185 ( fig1 ) and the unsigned first hash value 320 embedded in the indicia information . computer 105 then determines the psd public key 332 for the particular psd 115 , either from a stored table , database 135 , or any other location accessible by computer 105 . optionally , the psd public key 332 may be determined from the indicia information itself . the indicia signature verification function 410 then uses the psd public key 332 to extract the first hash value 320 a from the first digital signature value 335 . the extracted first hash value 320 a and the “ unsigned ” first hash value 320 are then compared 415 and if they do not match , the indicia 150 is determined to be invalid and this determination is conveyed to the remote computing device 120 . if the extracted first hash value and the “ unsigned ” first hash value do match , computer 105 then invokes a key signature verification function 420 to verify the psd public key 332 . the key signature verification function 420 identifies the second digital signature value 360 and the unsigned second hash value 345 embedded in indicia 150 . the computer 105 then determines the vendor public key 365 for the particular psd 115 , either from a stored table or optionally from the indicia 150 itself . the key signature verification function 420 then uses the vendor public key 365 to extract the second hash value 345 a from the second digital signature value 360 , and performs a comparison 425 . if the extracted second hash value 345 a and the “ unsigned ” second hash value 345 do not match , the indicia is determined to be invalid . if they do match , the indicia is determined to be valid . the determination of validity or invalidity is then conveyed to remote computing device 120 . referring to fig2 upon receiving a determination of indicia validity or invalidity , remote computing device 120 may operate to cause mail handling facility 180 to process the mail piece accordingly . for example , mail pieces may be sorted according to valid and invalid indicia , and those with valid indicia may be processed for delivery while those with invalid indicia may be held for further inspection or investigation . [ 0040 ] fig5 shows another embodiment of system 100 according to the present invention . in this embodiment , verification procedures are accomplished within the remote computing device 120 , eliminating the need for a link to computer 105 . remote computing device 120 includes or has access to a database 500 that includes indicia authentication data 505 . in this embodiment , indicia authentication data 505 may include information similar to that stored in database 135 , that is , psd serial numbers , psd public keys , vendor public keys specific to a vendor of psd &# 39 ; s , other public key information , cryptographic parameters , and any other parameters that may be required for verification and authentication of indicia . indicia authentication data 505 may be periodically updated and distributed to remote computing device 120 by the post . distribution mechanisms may include mail , email , the internet or other network communication , paper documentation , etc . remote computing device 120 is operable to perform the indicia signature verification function and key signature verification function as described above and may include a storage device 510 and processing capability 520 to support such operations . in this embodiment , psd 115 franks mail piece 155 with indicia 150 as mentioned above , incorporating the first and second signature values , the first and second “ unsigned ” hash values , and optionally , the psd and vendor public keys . mail piece 155 is deposited into the mail stream and at some point is authenticated . scanner 145 is used to scan indicia 150 and indicia information is conveyed to remote computing device 120 . remote computing device performs the indicia signature verification function and , if required , performs the key signature verification function as described above using indicia authentication data 510 . the resulting determination of indicia validity or invalidity may then be used to further process the mail piece as described above . an infrastructure in which the invention may be practiced may employ public key cryptography techniques that incorporate both encryption and digital signing techniques . to protect the integrity of data being communicated through the infrastructure and to authenticate its origin , communications may be digitally signed . to protect the confidentiality of the communications , they may be encrypted . one type of infrastructure in which the invention may be practiced could be a key management system or a public key infrastructure that supports secure operation of devices suitable for providing postal indicia . such a system could have a “ star ” configuration with a key management system server 200 in the center and postage payment entities such as psd &# 39 ; s 210 at the end of the spokes as shown in fig6 . the use of psds is advantageous because their electronics and software are housed within a cryptographic boundary and within a secure , tamper responsive enclosure . while the present invention has been described in the context of postal indicia , it should be understood that the present invention may be used with any suitable type of indicia or marking scheme . furthermore , while the present invention has been described in the context of utilizing public key , private key based encryption , hashing techniques and digital signature techniques , it should be understood that the present invention may utilize any other suitable techniques for securing and verifying the origin of data . thus , the present invention provides a facility that allows authentication in one embodiment by using a database maintained by a service provider . in another embodiment , the present invention provides an authentication facility that includes all the data required for authentication locally , eliminating the need for access to the service provider database . it should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the invention . various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention . accordingly , the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims .
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fig1 shows a barrel shaped cart 10 . cart 10 is comprised of a middle section 12 and wheels 14 and 16 connected to opposite ends of middle section 12 . preferably , middle section 12 remains stationary while wheels 14 and 16 rotate . extending from wheels 14 and 16 are legs 18 and 20 of a handle 17 . legs 18 and 20 extend out away from cart 10 and attach to opposite ends of a cross bar 22 . wrapped around cross bar 22 is a shade 24 which can extend out as is shown in fig4 . fig2 shows a disassembled view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention . middle section 12 is comprised of a lower section 26 , a chair assembly unit 28 , a removable upper storage compartment 30 and a lid 32 which is connected to lower section 26 by means of hinges 29 , 31 and 33 . lid 32 shuts to contain upper storage section 30 and chair assembly 28 within middle section 12 . chair assembly is comprised of a seat 34 and backrest 36 . chair assembly 28 is pivotally connected to lower section 26 such that chair assembly 28 can be lifted up to expose storage space within lower section 26 . when lid 32 is unfolded it also serves to support the backrest of the chair . wheels 14 and 16 are attached to wheel connection assemblies 38 and 40 respectively which extend up from opposite ends of lower section 26 . holes 42 and 44 extend through wheel connection assemblies 38 and 40 respectively . axle pins 46 and 48 extend through holes 42 and 44 respectively and extend into and through holes 50 and 52 contained within the center of wheels 14 and 16 respectively . rods 54 , 56 , 58 and 60 extend out of the four corners of lower section 26 . rods 54 and 56 insert into annular groove 62 ( not shown ) recessed within the inner side of wheel 14 . likewise , rods 58 and 60 insert into annular groove 64 recessed within the inner side of wheel 16 . in this manner the wheels can rotate while middle section 12 remains stationary and stable . cart handle 17 is comprised of legs 18 and 20 joined together by cross bar 22 . leg 18 is comprised of two sections , upper leg 66 and lower leg 68 . lower leg 68 is wider than upper leg 66 and lower leg 68 has side edges which extend out in an ` l ` shape such that upper leg 66 slides into lower leg 68 . lower leg 68 has an elongated slot 70 . upon exiting hole 50 within wheel 14 axle pin 46 proceeds through slot 70 of lower leg 68 so as to connect leg 18 to barrel 12 . likewise , leg 20 has an upper leg 72 and a lower leg 74 . lower leg 74 is wider than upper leg 72 and lower leg 74 has side edges which extend out in an ` l ` shape such that upper leg 72 can slide into lower leg 74 . lower leg 74 has an elongated slot 76 present towards its lower end . upon exiting hole 52 within wheel 16 axle pin 48 proceeds through slot 76 of lower leg 74 so as to connect leg 20 to barrel 12 . in this way handle assembly 17 is attached to cart 12 thus allowing 12 to be pushed or pulled . shade 24 is wrapped around rod 25 which has a hollow core 27 which fits over cross bar 22 . shade 24 is further supported by support rods 78 and 80 which are attached to opposite corners of the end of shade 24 which is not connected to rod 25 . the end of support rod 78 which is not connected to a corner of shade 24 is pivotally connected to leg 18 and the end of support rod 80 which is not connected to a corner of shade 24 is pivotally connected to leg 20 . fig3 shows cart 10 of the present invention in a folded compact position applicable for storing in an automobile trunk . upper legs 66 and 72 are inserted totally within lower legs 68 and 74 respectively . lid 32 is closed and shade 24 is rolled up and upper section 30 is in place . fig4 shows lid 32 unfolded and upper section 30 having an outer lid 35 which is shaped to conform to the circumference of lid 32 is removed . upper section 30 is shown in more detail in fig5 . upper section 30 is comprised of lid 35 having two halves 37 and 39 which swing open along axis 41 to reveal storage space . within upper section 30 is a cooler 43 having lid 45 and storage compartment 47 . also contained within upper section 30 is a convenient holding compartments for drink containers 49 , 51 , and 53 . fig6 shows cart 10 being opened so that it converts into a seat . lid 32 is opened and placed rearward to give support to the cart . back 36 is flipped up to expose seat 34 thus creating a chair . shade 24 is drawn out to give protection from the sun . the present invention is a multipurpose cart applicable in the recreation industry . the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention . further , since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art , it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described , and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to , falling within the scope of the invention as claimed .
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the first embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to fig1 a - 1 d . these figures show an improvement of the two piece insulator disclosed in co - pending u . s . application ser . no . 09 / 170 , 054 , wherein the improvement consists of a “ snap - on ” detent feature on the inner piece that allows the insulator to be removably attached to the tip . fig1 a shows a hot runner tip 1 having an insulator assembly 2 ′ comprising an inner piece 2 and an outer piece 3 attached thereto . the outer piece is held in place on the inner piece by a shoulder 5 and a lip 6 . the insulator assembly is “ snapped ” onto the tip by deflecting the inner piece &# 39 ; s flange 4 over the protruding lip 7 of the hot runner tip so that the flange 4 moves into groove 8 machined on the tip . fig1 b - 1 d are additional three - dimensional views of the nozzle tip with the insulator removably attached thereon . the inner piece is a conductive material capable of withstanding high temperatures without deforming , cracking , or otherwise deteriorating . the preferred material for the inner piece may be , or include , titanium . the outer piece is an insulating material that is also capable of withstanding high temperatures without deforming , cracking , or otherwise deteriorating . the preferred material for the outer piece may be , or include , vespel . an alternate version of this insulator style , not shown , is a one - piece insulator made of or including an elastic , heat - resistant material such as vespel comprising both the inner and outer shapes into one item having the same external dimensions as the two - piece insulator it replaces . the one - piece insulator is attached to the tip 1 in the same fashion , i . e . “ snapping ” over the flange 7 into groove 8 . it is to be understood that in the context of the present invention , the term nozzle or nozzle tip may be used interchangeably , and may refer to either of a nozzle tip for a hot runner application , or a nozzle tip on the end of an injection molding machine &# 39 ; s injection unit that is coupled to a mold sprue bushing . insulators that can be removably attached to either type of injection molding nozzle tip are considered useful and within the scope of the present invention , which should not be limited to one application or the other . it is to be further understood that the present invention should not be limited only to the use of hot runner nozzles with molds . the present invention includes the use of hot runner nozzles that are installed as extensions between machine injection units and inlets to mold hot runners , which are outside the mold structure . as shown in the block diagram of fig1 , the hot runner nozzle tip 1402 may form a connection between hot runner structures 1404 , 1406 , or between an injection machine nozzle and a heating channel for conveying melted materials . insulators that can be removably attached to hot runner nozzle tips used in any setting are considered useful and within the scope of the present invention , which should not be limited to the use of hot runner nozzles with molds . an assembly tool for use with the insulator shown in fig1 a - 1 d and described above is illustrated in fig2 a - 2 d . the assembly tool aids with the assembly of the insulator and nozzle tip using the “ snapping ” action of the first embodiment . the assembly tool 20 is designed to securely hold the insulator 2 while properly positioning the insulator over the hot runner nozzle tip 1 in order to releasably attach it to the nozzle tip . pressure is applied to the assembly tool 20 in a direction parallel to and toward the nozzle tip , causing the flange 4 of the insulator to deflect over the protruding lip 7 of the hot runner nozzle tip , moving the flange 4 into the groove 8 on the nozzle tip , causing the insulator to become releasably attached to the nozzle tip . although it is possible to attach the insulator of the present invention to the nozzle tip without the use of an assembly tool , it is advantageous to use the tool of fig2 a - 2 d to attach the insulator so that it is applied to the hot runner nozzle tip in such a way that a proper attachment is formed without placing unnecessary pressure on the tip , which may cause damage , and without causing excessive wearing of the flange 4 , protruding lip 7 , and groove 8 . thus , the functional life of both the nozzle tip and the insulator are extended by use of an assembly tool . the assembly tool is preferably made of a material that can be machined to fit the dimensions of the nozzle tip and insulator while remaining strong and durable for repeated use in attaching insulators to tips that may or may not be at an elevated temperature . such materials may include , but are not limited to , metal ( such as steel ), heat - resistant plastic , and fiberglass . a disassembly or removal tool for use with the insulator shown in fig1 a - 1 d and described above is illustrated in fig3 a - 3 d . to aid with the disassembly of this “ snapping ” action releasable attachment , a removal tool 30 is used . the disassembly tool 30 is designed to securely hold the insulator 2 while deflecting arms 31 are positioned under the insulator . when pressure is applied to the disassembly tool 30 in a direction parallel to and away from the inujection molding nozzle tip , the deflecting arms 31 cause the flange 4 of the insulator to be pulled out of the groove 8 and over the protruding lip 7 on the nozzle tip , causing the releasably attached insulator to become unattached from the nozzle tip , allowing easy removal . although it is possible to remove the insulator from the nozzle tip without the use of a removal tool , it is advantageous to use the tool of fig3 a - 3 d to remove the insulator so that the insulator is removed in such a way that no damage or excessive wearing of any of the nozzle tip , the insulator , or the snap - on attachment assembly occurs . use of the disassembly tool helps to extend the functional life of both the nozzle tip and the insulator . the disassembly tool is preferably made of a material that can be machined to fit the dimensions of the nozzle tip and insulator while remaining strong and durable for repeated use in removing insulators from tips that may or may not be at an elevated temperature . such materials may include , but are not limited to , metal ( such as steel ), plastic , and fiberglass . as shown in a second embodiment illustrated in fig4 a - 4 d , a two - piece vespel and titanium insulator 41 is releasably attached to the tip 43 by an end - acting clip 42 . the clip 42 attaches the insulator 41 to the tip 43 by snapping over the end of the insulator assembly into a groove 44 in the tip . the clip 42 has a “ u ” or semicircular shape , and clip 42 has a flange 45 that engages a groove 47 in the insulator , and another flange 46 that engages the groove 44 in the tip . the clip 42 is designed to engage the groove 44 in the tip and the groove 47 in the insulator tip by being pushed toward the tip and insulator in a direction transverse to the tip &# 39 ; s centerline . the insulator is removed by pulling the clip out of the two grooves , 44 and 47 , simultaneously . as described above , the two - piece insulator assembly can also be made of a single piece comprising one material , such as vespel . the clip 42 may be made of a material that retains its resilience after being repeatedly subjected to elevated temperatures in the range of 450 - 700 ° f . such materials include , but are not limited to , spring steel and stainless steel . the third and most preferred embodiment is illustrated in fig5 a - 5 f , and encompasses a two - piece vespel and titanium “ hot tip ” insulator that is releasably attached to the nozzle tip by a through - acting clip . fig5 a shows cross - sectional view of a “ hot tip ” nozzle assembly comprising nozzle housing 50 , into which is threaded a nozzle tip 51 . a heater 52 is clamped to the outside of the housing . the tip 51 is thermally insulated from the cooled mold plate 53 by a nozzle tip insulating assembly comprising an inner titanium sleeve 54 , and an outer vespel sleeve 55 , that is removably fastened to the tip 51 by retaining clip 56 . the inner sleeve may be comprised of any conducting material capable of withstanding elevated temperatures without deforming , such as titanium . the outer sleeve may be comprised of any insulating material that is capable of withstanding elevated temperatures without deforming , such as vespel . the retaining clip design of the preferred embodiment is simpler than the clip shown in the embodiment of fig4 a - 4 d . the clip 56 slides transversely into a groove and / or slot that is common to both the tip and the insulator . as can be seen in the cross - section shown in fig5 a , injection molding nozzle tip 51 has a groove 510 . the titanium inner piece 54 of the insulator has two partially circumferential slots 520 through which the clip 56 is pressed so as to engage groove 510 , thereby fastening the titanium inner sleeve 54 and attached vespel outer sleeve 55 to the tip 51 . removal is accomplished by pressing the clip out of the groove / slot combination . application or removal of the clip can be easily accomplished by using one hand , making the installation or removal of the insulator very convenient . note that the clip is located in an area of the assembly not touched by the plastic being processed , which allows the insulator to be removed without having to clean off the tip , thus increasing efficiency . the insulator can alternatively be made of one piece of material , as shown in the inset , and still utilize the same attachment means described above . the third and preferred embodiment is further described in fig5 b and 5 c , which show one method of attaching the outer piece shown in fig5 b ( 55 in fig5 a ) to the inner piece shown in fig5 c ( 54 in fig5 a ). the inner and outer pieces are attached by trapping the outer piece between shoulder 530 and flange 531 , shown in fig5 c . the outer piece is comprised of a material that is able to deflect as it passes over flange 531 , allowing it to abut against shoulder 530 , then returning to its original shape so that it is held in place on the inner piece by flange 531 . fig5 c also shows additional details of the inner piece and the slots 520 cut through its upper wall . fig5 d ′ and 5 d ″ show the flat clip that fits through the slots 520 in the inner piece s 4 and simultaneously engages the retaining groove 510 in the nozzle tip 51 , as shown in fig5 a . fig5 e shows an alternate construction of the third and preferred embodiment where a one - piece hot tip nozzle housing is used . in this alternative , the tip and the housing are made of the same material , and are formed as a single piece . the combination of the one - piece hot tip nozzle housing and the insulator attachment is shown in fig5 f , which depicts the use of the through - acting clip as a retaining means , as described above in fig5 a . another alternate version of the preferred embodiment is shown in fig6 a - 6 c , which show a “ valve gate ” version . in fig6 a , tip 62 is threaded into the nozzle housing go and valve stem 61 passes through the center hole in the tip . the insulator design and retention means are the same as described above in fig5 a , with the exception that the method of attaching the outer sleeve 66 to the inner sleeve 65 is different from the hot tip version described in fig5 a above in that no flange is used at the lower end of the inner piece . instead , as is shown in more detail in fig6 b ′, 6 b ″, 6 b ″′, 6 b ′″′ and 6 c , a shoulder 69 on the outer piece 66 is able to deflect over a corresponding shoulder 68 on the inner piece 65 , and then return to its original shape . the shoulders are located at the upper end of the insulator assembly , and the outer piece has a tapered bottom that extends up to the bottom of the inner piece of the insulator , allowing the bottom of the insulator to be covered by the insulating material , for superior heat retention in the nozzle tip . fig6 b ′, 6 b ″, 6 b ″′, 6 b ′″′ are plan and [ fig6 b is a ] cross - sectional views detailing the construction of the inner piece according the valve gate version of the preferred embodiment . fig6 b ′, 6 b ″, 6 b ″′, 6 b ′″′ also illustrate the slots 63 cut through the upper wall of the inner piece 65 . the slots are absent between “ a ” and “ b ” in the plan view and their opposite counterparts ( not shown ), so that there are two slots in the inner piece , each having an equal length on opposing sides . fig6 c shows the outer piece detail . it is “ snapped ” over the inner piece 65 so that shoulder 69 deflects over corresponding shoulder 68 on the inner piece 65 shown in fig6 b . alternate styles of retaining clips to be used with the preferred third embodiment shown in fig5 a and the alternate preferred embodiment of fig6 a are shown in fig7 a - 7 c , 8 a - 4 c , and 9 a - 9 c . 7 a - 7 c is a flat stamping retaining clip , 8 a - 8 c is a retaining clip formed of wire having a circular cross - section , and 9 a - 9 c is a retaining clip formed of wire of square cross - section . all of the retaining clips are made of spring steel , stainless steel or other suitable material that retains its resilience when subjected to elevated temperatures in the range of 450 - 700 ° f . the retaining clips may have any shape that allows them to removably engage the groove or slot common to both the insulator and the nozzle tip . fig1 a - 10 b , 11 a - 11 c , 12 a - 12 c , and 13 a - 13 e show other additional embodiments for attaching the insulator assembly to the nozzle tip . the insulator may consist of an inner and an outer piece , or it may have a unitary construction . if the insulator has two pieces , the inner piece is a conductive material capable of withstanding high temperatures without deforming , cracking , or otherwise deteriorating . the preferred material for the inner piece may be , or include , titanium . the corresponding outer piece is then an insulating material that is also capable of withstanding high temperatures without deforming , cracking , or otherwise deteriorating . the preferred material for the outer piece may be , or include , vespel . a one - piece insulator should be constructed of or include an elastic , heat - resistant material such as vespel , such that the insulator has the same external dimensions as the inner piece and outer piece combination it replaces . for those embodiments where use of assembly and disassembly tools may be beneficial , the assembly and disassembly tools are preferably made of a material or materials that can be constructed to correspond to the dimensions of the nozzle tip and insulator while remaining strong and durable for repeated use in attaching and removing insulators to and from tips that may or may not be at an elevated temperature . such materials may include , but are not limited to , metals ( such as steel ), plastics , fiberglasses , and ceramics . fig1 a - 10 b show a fourth “ set screw ” embodiment in which the insulator 100 is attached to a nozzle tip 102 by means of one or more set screws 101 . fig1 a shows that the insulator 100 has one or more pre - formed openings 103 with threads corresponding to the set screws 101 , and the nozzle tip 102 has one or more threaded openings 104 corresponding to the openings 103 on the insulator . the screws are threaded into the openings in the insulator and nozzle tip , thereby causing the insulator to be removably attached to the nozzle tip . fig1 b shows a socket driver 105 having an opening 106 that is specially adapted for grasping the set screws 101 and threading them into the threaded openings 103 and 104 of the insulator 100 and nozzle tip 102 , respectively . fig1 a - 11 c show a fifth “ bayonet ” embodiment in which a locking feature 110 in the insulator 112 engages a corresponding tab 111 on the tip 113 when placed on the nozzle tip and twisted . the locking feature in the insulator and the tab on the tip would be formed by machining the parts , allowing for the use of different tab and locking groove configurations . the only limitation on the configurations of the tabs and locking grooves , which may have a variety of shapes , is that they must be capable of being securely fastened together to releasably and removably attach the insulator to the tip . preferably , the tab and locking groove would be designed so that it is unlikely that the insulator could rotate and disengage from the tip during the injection molding process . the insulator may be installed and removed manually or with assembly and disassembly tools similar to those shown in fig2 a and 3 a . such an assembly tool would be capable of securely holding the insulator while allowing the user to twist the insulator onto the nozzle tip until the locking feature 110 has fully engaged the tab 111 on the nozzle tip . a suitable removal tool would be capable of securely holding the insulator while allowing the user to twist the insulator off of the nozzle tip by disengaging the locking feature 110 from the tab 111 . fig1 a - 12 c show a sixth “ thread and flats ” embodiment in which an insulator 120 has threads 123 on its inner surface and is threaded onto the tip 121 that has threads 124 on its outer surface corresponding to the threads 123 on the inner surface of the insulator . the insulator 120 may be further tightened onto the nozzle tip 121 by means of wrench flats 122 . fig1 a - 13 e show a seventh “ snap ring ” embodiment in which the insulator 130 has an internal groove 131 for retaining a snap ring 134 . the snap ring 134 then engages a corresponding groove 132 in the tip 133 when the insulator is pushed onto the tip , thus causing the insulator to become releasably attached to the tip . the snap ring may comprise any material capable of retaining its resilience when subjected to elevated temperatures in the range of 450 - 700 ° f ., such as spring steel or stainless steel . the snap ring and grooves in the insulator and tip have corresponding shapes to allow the best possible fit , but there are no limitations on the particular shape chosen . the insulator may be installed and removed manually or with assembly and disassembly tools similar to those shown in fig2 a and 3 a . such an assembly tool would be capable of securely holding the insulator while allowing the user to push the insulator onto the nozzle tip until the snap ring 134 is securely positioned in the groove 132 on the nozzle tip 133 . a suitable removal tool would be capable of securely holding the insulator while allowing the user to pull the insulator off of the nozzle tip , thereby disengaging the snap ring 134 from the groove 132 on the nozzle tip 133 and the internal groove 131 of the insulator 130 . while the present invention has been described for what are presently considered the preferred embodiments , the invention is not so limited . to the contrary , the invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope or the appended claims . the scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions .
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referring now to the figures and first to fig1 , there is shown a stentless support structure 10 of the present invention in an extended configuration . the valve support 10 includes a first end 12 , a second end 14 and an elongate tubular body 16 extending between the first end 12 and the second end 14 . the elongate tubular body 16 is preferably formed from one or a plurality of braided strands 18 . the braided strands 18 are strands of a super - elastic or shape memory material such as nitinol . the strands are braided to form a tube having a central lumen 20 passing therethrough . in one embodiment , the tubular body 16 is folded in half upon itself such that the second end 14 becomes a folded end and the first end 12 includes a plurality of unbraided strands . the tubular body 16 is thus two - ply . the unbraided strands of the first end 12 are gathered and joined together to form a plurality of gathered ends 22 . the gathered ends 22 may be used as commissural points for attaching a prosthetic valve to the support structure 10 . ( see , e . g . fig2 ). alternatively , as shown in fig1 , the gathered ends 22 may be used as attachment points for a wireform 24 defining a plurality of commissural points 26 . notably , the commissural points 26 are positioned such that , when a valve is attached to the support structure in the extended configuration , the valve is longitudinally juxtaposed with the support structure rather than being located within the support structure . this juxtaposition allows the support structure 10 and valve to be packed into a very small catheter without damaging the delicate valve . this longitudinal juxtaposition may be maintained when the support structure assumes a folded or constructed configuration ( see fig1 for example ), or the valve may become folded within the support structure . fig3 - 6 show the second end 14 emerging from the catheter 28 to expose a first layer 30 . in fig7 , the first layer 30 is completely exposed and has assumed its constructed configuration . notably , the first layer 30 contracts longitudinally when fully deployed . also shown in fig7 is a second layer 32 beginning to emerge from the catheter 28 . as the second layer exits the catheter , the pre - set super - elastic fold inverts the mesh , such that a second , inner layer is formed within the first outer layer . alternatively , the first layer can be deployed against the wall of the vascular structure ( such as an artery , vein , valve or heart muscle ). as the second layer exits the catheter , the physician can aid inversion of the mesh my advancing the deployment system . in another embodiment , the mesh support structure can be advanced in the vasculature such that it is deployed in a reverse direction ( such as deployment through the apex of the heart ventricle or from the venous system ), where the mesh inversion occurs as a result of pulling or retracting the deployment system . in fig1 , the second layer 32 is fully deployed and the third layer 34 is fully exposed , but has not yet been inverted . retracting the catheter 28 , relative to the device 10 , while advancing the catheter 28 slightly , relative to the target site , causes the third layer 34 to “ pop ” inwardly , thereby inverting itself against an inside surface of the second layer 32 , as seen in fig1 . in fig1 , additional material has been ejected from the catheter 28 such that the third layer 34 is fully expanded against the second layer . one skilled in the art will realize that numerous additional layers can be achieved in this manner , and that each layer adds additional radial strength to the resulting support structure 10 . throughout the deployment process , the stentless support structure 10 emerges from the delivery catheter 28 gradually . this characteristic also allows the structure 10 to be pulled back into the delivery catheter 28 , in the event that it is desired to relocate the support structure 10 . doing so causes the support structure 10 to reacquire its extended configuration . having described the mechanics of building a support structure in situ , attention can now be turned to various embodiments made possible by the present invention . fig1 - 15 show a support structure 10 having many layers 38 and a first end 12 with numerous gathered ends 22 formed from unbraided strands . some of the gathered ends 22 are attached to a wireform 24 having three commissural points 26 . a prosthetic valve 36 , either harvested or manufactured , is attached to the wireform 24 . fig1 shows the internal lumen 20 of the support structure 10 . fig1 - 18 show a support structure 10 having fewer layers 38 and a wireform 24 with a prosthetic valve 36 attached thereto . the first end 12 ( hidden ), to which the wireform 24 is attached , has been preformed to fold inwardly upon deployment . thus , the wireform 24 and prosthetic valve 36 , is located in the inner lumen 20 of the support structure 10 when the support structure 10 is in a constructed configuration . fig1 - 21 show a support structure 10 with several layers 38 and a first end 12 preformed to have a smaller diameter than the rest of the layers and the second end 14 , which is folded . the terminal ends of the braided strands at the first end 12 have not been formed into gathered ends . rather , the wireform 24 is attached to the braids . the prosthetic valve 36 is attached to the wireform 24 and has skirting tissue 40 , which is placed around the outside of the end 12 . the skirting tissue 40 may be adhered to the first end 12 . fig2 shows a stentless support structure 10 with a folded end 14 , which has been folded back on itself , and a material 42 trapped between the two layers of the fold . the material 42 is provided to further improve the paravalvular leak prevention and embolic trapping characteristics of the stentless support structure 10 . the material 42 could consist of a non - woven material , woven or braided fabric , a polymer or other material . fig2 shows a stentless support structure 10 that includes a fiber 44 that is larger than the rest of the strands comprising the support structure 10 . thus , fig2 demonstrates that strands of different sizes may be used in the braided support structure 10 without significantly affecting the minimum delivery size of the device . different sized strands may be used in order to improve strength , provide stiffness , create valve attachment points , provide radiopaque markers , and the like . fig2 - 26 show a stentless support structure 10 that has a first end 12 that has had the unbraided strands trimmed such that they do not extend past the first end 12 of the folded structure 10 . this embodiment may be used to create , preserve or enlarge a lumen . a prosthetic valve may or may not be attached to this embodiment . turning now to fig2 - 36 , a deployment sequence of a preferred embodiment of the stentless support structure 10 is shown whereby a clear piece of tubing 46 is used to demonstrate a targeted location of a native vessel , such as a native valve . in fig2 , the delivery catheter 28 is advanced beyond the targeted valve 46 and the stentless support 10 is starting to be ejected from the catheter 28 . in fig2 , enough of the stentless support 10 has been ejected that the second , folded end 14 has begun to curl back on itself slightly , forming a cuff 48 . in fig2 , the cuff 48 is more visible and has assumed its full , deployed shape . the cuff 48 acts as a catch that a physician can use to visually or tactilely locate the targeted valve 46 and seat the stentless support 10 thereagainst . the cuff also acts to ensure the entire native lumen through the targeted valve 46 is now being filtered by the support 10 . unlike balloon expandable stents , blood flow is not significantly inhibited by the deployment of the stentless support structure 10 . also shown in fig2 is that the first layer 30 has been fully ejected from the catheter 28 , as has much of the second layer 32 . the first layer 30 , being very flexible prior to reinforcement by subsequent layers , is able to conform to any shape of the targeted vessel . the second layer 32 has not yet inverted itself into the first layer 30 . in fig3 , the first layer 30 is deployed , the cuff 48 is acting against the valve 46 , and the second layer 32 has been inverted . in fig3 , material forming the third layer 34 is ejected from the catheter 28 but the third layer 34 has not yet inverted . in fig3 - 33 , the catheter 28 is being advanced to allow the third layer 34 to invert into the second layer 32 . the angle of fig3 shows the relatively low profile created by the first and second layers 30 and 32 , and how little resistance to blood flow is presented by the support structure 10 . in fig3 , the first end 12 has emerged from the catheter 12 , and the gathered ends 22 are showing . a wireform 24 is attached to some of the gathered ends 22 and is nearly completely deployed from the delivery catheter 28 . in fig3 - 36 , the support structure 10 has been completely released from the catheter 28 . fig3 shows the size of the lumen 20 of the support structure 10 . fig3 - 39 show a preferred embodiment 100 of the present invention including a mesh support structure 102 , a wireform 104 and a valve 106 . the support structure 102 differs slightly from support structure 10 , described previously , as it is constructed from a two individual wires 108 . upon completion of the braiding process , the two free ends of the wire are spliced together . as such , there are no free wire ends and the structure can be loaded into a delivery catheter in a single - ply state ( not shown ). in the deployed state shown in the figures , the support structure 102 is folded once to form a two - ply device . the support structure 102 is preferably formed of a memory alloy such as nitinol . the single - wire construction allows the device to be compressed into an extremely small catheter , such as one sized 16 fr or smaller . though the support structure gains rigidity by the two - ply deployed configuration , radial strength is a function of a several factors and can thus be varied widely . first , as with the other embodiments , radial strength may be increased by incorporating more folds or layers into the deployed configuration of the support structure 102 . the three - ply configuration shown in fig3 - 39 is the most preferred configuration because it only has to be folded in on itself twice , making deployment less complicated . second , strength may be increased by using a heavier wire . because the support structure 102 is made from a single - wire , and can thus be loaded into a catheter in a single - ply configuration , a larger diameter wire may be used while maintaining a small diameter elongated profile . support structures 102 have been constructed according to the present invention using single wires having diameters between 0 . 005 and 0 . 010 inches in diameter . preferably , the diameter of the wire is between 0 . 007 and 0 . 008 inches . third , strength may be increased by increasing the braid density . a tighter braid will result in a stronger support . fourth , the strength may be increased by altering the heat setting parameters . super - elastic and shape memory alloys , such as nitinol , attain their deployed shape within the vasculature by being heat set . the wires are held in a desired configuration and heated to a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time . after the wires cool , they become set to the new configuration . if the wires are later disfigured , they will return to the set configuration upon heating or simply releasing the wires . the force with which a super - elastic or shape memory alloy returns to a set configuration can be increased by modifying the temperature at which the configuration is set , or by modifying the period of time the alloy is maintained at the elevated setting temperature . for example , good results have been attained setting a nitinol support structure of the present invention at 530 ° c . for 7 minutes . stiffer support structures can be made using the same nitinol wire by setting the structure at a temperature other than 530 ° c . or by setting the structure at 530 ° c . for a time other than 7 minutes , or both . the device 100 includes a wireform 104 , to which a valve 106 is attached . the wireform 104 form commissural points 109 separated by arcuate portions 110 . the arcuate portions 110 are attached to an inside surface of the support structure 102 . the commissural points 109 facilitate natural and efficient opening and closing of the valve 106 . alternatively , the valve commissural points can be attached to an outer surface of the support structure ( not shown ). the valve 106 may be any form of prosthetic or harvested biological valve . preferably , as shown in the figures , the valve 106 is a valve having three leaflets . the valve 106 is sutured or otherwise attached to the wireform 104 . preferably , the valve 106 is cut or constructed to include a skirt portion 112 which continues along the length of the support structure 102 in its deployed configuration . although the invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments and applications , one of ordinary skill in the art , in light of this teaching , can generate additional embodiments and modifications without departing from the spirit of or exceeding the scope of the claimed invention . accordingly , it is to be understood that the drawings and descriptions herein are proffered by way of example to facilitate comprehension of the invention and should not be construed to limit the scope thereof .
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the present invention relates to disposable polymer - structured filtering kits . the kits , as will be described in detail below , each include disposable polymer - structured filter funnels , non - disposable adapters , and glass receptacles . with reference to fig1 , a first embodiment of the disposable polymer - structured filtering kit , generally indicated by numeral 100 , is shown . the kit 100 includes a disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel 110 , a glass vacuum take - off adapter 112 , and reusable glass round bottle flask 114 . the funnel 110 has a stem 115 which , as shown , is relatively long and has a flow discharge end 116 formed at the distal tip thereof . the stem 115 is relatively long such that the flow discharge end 116 extends past the glass vacuum take - off adapter 112 and into the reusable glass round bottle flask 114 , as shown . the flow discharge end 116 extends into the flask 114 so as to prevent contamination of adapter 112 by filtrate when under negative pressure from an attached vacuum source ( not shown ). the polymer fritted filter 119 is placed on the bottom of the barrel 118 of funnel 110 for trapping insoluble materials . the funnel 110 further includes an inner joint 117 positioned between the stem 115 and barrel 118 . the inner joint 117 provides a snug and secure fit between the funnel 110 and the adapter 112 . the glass vacuum take - off adapter 112 has a vacuum take - off port 120 for connection to the vacuum source , a funnel ground joint 122 , and a bottom flask ground joint 124 . the funnel ground joint 122 receives the stem 115 of the funnel 110 and the inner joint 117 of the funnel 110 fits the funnel ground joint 122 . the stem 115 passes through the bottom flask ground joint 124 and is positioned such that the flow discharge end 116 is received within the flask 114 , as shown . the flask 114 is a commonly used receptacle in chemistry laboratories , and it should be understood that the contouring and relative dimensions of flask 114 are shown for exemplary purposes only . after filtration is complete , the funnel 110 is removed , safely discarded and disposed of , and replaced with another disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel . the adapter 112 does not need to be replaced , as the length of the stem 115 of the funnel 110 positions the distal end of the flow discharge end 116 within the flask 114 , past the vacuum take - off port 120 , thus removing the risk of contamination during filtration . the flask 114 is cleaned and may be reused . fig2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the disposable polymer - structured filtering kit , generally indicated by numeral 200 . the kit 200 includes a disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel 210 , a screw - threaded joint adapter 212 , and a removable and disposable glass screw - threaded receiving vial 214 . funnel 210 has a stem 215 that is relatively long , as shown , with a flow discharge end 216 formed at the distal tip thereof . as in the previous embodiment , the stem 215 is long so that the flow discharge end 216 extends past the screw - threaded joint adapter 212 and into the disposable glass screw - threaded receiving vial 214 . the flow discharge end 216 extends into the vial 214 such that the adapter 212 is not contaminated by filtrate when under negative pressure generated by the vacuum source . the polymer fritted filter disc 219 is placed on the bottom of the barrel 218 for trapping any insoluble materials . the funnel 210 further includes an inner joint 217 formed between the stem 215 and barrel 218 . the inner joint 217 provides a snug and secure fit between the funnel 210 and the adapter 212 . the funnel 210 also preferably has a relatively wide top opening 225 , allowing for easy insertion therein of the liquid sample . the screw - threaded joint adapter 212 includes a vacuum take - off port 220 for connecting to the vacuum source for providing negative pressure , along with a funnel ground joint 222 and a bottom vial joint 224 . the bottom vial joint 224 is threaded to releasably screw on to the adapter 212 and the vial 214 . the funnel ground joint 222 receives the stem 215 of the funnel 210 , and the inner joint 217 of the funnel 210 fits the funnel ground joint 222 . the stem 215 passes through the bottom vial joint 224 such that the flow discharge end 216 is positioned within the vial 214 . the vial 214 is preferably disposable . following filtration , the funnel 210 is removed , safely discarded and disposed of , and replaced with another disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel . the adapter 212 does not need to be replaced , because the length of the stem 215 of the funnel 210 positions the flow discharge end 216 thereof within vial 214 , thus placing end 216 past the vacuum take - off port 220 . the vial 214 may be easily removed , because it is removably screwed on to the adapter 212 , and may be discarded . the kit 200 is preferred for either taking filtrate or taking insoluble materials that are collected by the fritted disc 219 . with reference to fig3 , a further alternative embodiment of the disposable polymer - structured filtering kit , generally indicated by numeral 300 , is shown . the kit 300 includes a disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel 310 , an adapter 312 , and an erlenmeyer shaped filtering flask 314 with a vacuum port 320 . a funnel base 321 ( best seen in fig6 ) has a stem 315 that is relatively long with a flow discharge end 316 formed at the distal tip . as in the previous embodiments , the stem 315 is long so that the flow discharge end 316 extends past the adapter 312 , into the erlenmeyer shaped filtering flask 314 , and past the vacuum port 320 of the flask 314 . the flow discharge end 316 extends past the vacuum port 320 such that the filtrate does not contaminate the adapter 312 during vacuum filtration . the funnel base 321 further includes an inner joint 317 at the top of the stem 315 . the inner joint 317 provides a snug fit with the adapter 312 . the funnel 310 also preferably has a relatively wide top opening 325 , for easy reception of the liquid sample . additionally , a clamp 327 is preferably provided for holding the funnel barrel 318 to the funnel base 321 , with the polymer fritted filter disc 319 being positioned therebetween . the adapter 312 has a glass funnel ground joint 322 and a polymer stopper joint 324 . the glass funnel ground joint 322 receives the stem 315 of the funnel 310 , and the inner joint 317 of the funnel 310 fits the funnel ground joint 322 . the stem 315 then passes through the polymer stopper joint 324 and is positioned such that the flow discharge end 316 is located below the vacuum port 320 of the flask 314 . after filtration is complete , the funnel 310 is removed , safely discarded and disposed of , and replaced with another disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel . the adapter 312 does not need to be replaced , because the length of the stem 315 of the funnel 310 and the positioning of the distal end of the flow discharge end 316 within flask 314 is positioned beyond the vacuum take - off port 320 of the flask 314 , thus preventing contamination of adapter 312 . fritted disc 319 can similarly be disposed of . the kit 300 is preferred for taking insoluble materials that are collected by the fritted disc 319 , since the funnel 310 can be disassembled so that the solid materials are easily removed . fig4 better illustrates the disposable polymer - structured filter funnel 110 of fig1 . the disposable filter funnel 110 is preferably barrel - shaped , having an open upper end 125 and a lower stem 115 having a flow discharge end 116 . funnel 110 , formed from a low cost polymer material , and fritted filter disc 119 are both disposable and may be easily replaced . the filtering funnel 110 and fritted filter disc 119 must resist corrosion from various organic solvents . accordingly , an inexpensive polypropylene is preferably selected as the material of funnel 110 . however , other polymer materials may also be utilized , such as acrylic , polycarbonate , styrene , polyfluoroethylene , polyvinylidene fluoride , or polyethylene . the minimum length of the stem 115 , to position the flow discharge end 116 within flask 114 , is preferably approximately twenty mm . the preferred length for the stem 115 is approximately eighty mm . the top end of the stem 115 includes inner joint 117 , which fits the funnel ground joint 122 of the glass adapter 112 tightly to prevent leaking . the size of inner joint 117 is preferably between approximately five and sixteen mm in diameter , and between approximately five and twenty mm in length . it should be understood that the funnel 110 may be used in combination with the filtering kits of fig2 and 3 . an exemplary internal volume for 110 is approximately 40 ml . fig5 illustrates the disposable polymer - structured filter funnel 210 of fig2 . funnel 210 preferably has a relatively wide top opening 225 , as shown , and has contouring and dimensions similar to those described above with regard to funnel 110 . however , barrel 218 has an open upper end 225 . the top end of the stem 215 has an inner joint 217 , which fits the funnel ground joint 222 of the glass adapter 212 tightly to prevent leaking . the size of inner joint 217 is preferably between five and sixteen mm in diameter , and from between five and twenty mm in length . it should be understood that the funnel 210 may be used in combination with the filtering kits of fig1 and 3 . as noted above , funnel 210 is designed for relatively small quantities of fluid . the exemplary internal volume for funnel 110 is given above as being approximately 40 ml . a corresponding exemplary internal volume for funnel 210 is 18 ml . it should be understood that the funnels may have any desired dimensions , or be provided in sets of varying sizes , dependent upon the particular needs of the user . fig6 illustrates the disposable polymer - structured filter funnel 310 for trapping solid samples of fig3 . the barrel 318 has an open top end 325 and an open bottom end 328 . the barrel 318 uses a wider open end 325 ( similar to that described above with regard to upper end 225 of funnel 210 ) for transferring relatively small volumes of fluid samples . the open bottom end 328 is provided for easily removing solid samples from the funnel 310 . a concavity 329 is formed at the top end of the funnel base 321 , as shown . the filter disc 319 is placed in the concavity 329 , enclosing the filter disc 319 when the kit is assembled . the metal clamp 327 is used to tightly clamp bottom end 328 of the barrel 318 and the top end of the base 321 . as shown , the barrel 318 forms an upper portion of the funnel , with the stem 317 forming a detachable lower portion . this arrangement is adapted for trapping solid samples and transferring relatively small volumes of liquid samples . it should be understood that the funnel 310 may be used in combination with the filtering kits of fig1 and 2 . preferably , filter discs 119 , 219 and 319 are formed from a polymer material , such as polyethylene , for example , having a relatively coarse or medium porosity . alternatively , a conventional glass fritted filter disc may also be utilized . fig7 illustrates the vacuum take - off adapter 112 , with a bottom flask ground joint 124 and the funnel ground joint 122 , of fig1 . the vacuum take - off port 120 is formed on the side of adapter 112 for connection to the vacuum source . the funnel ground joint 122 on the top end is coupled with inner joint 117 of the funnel 110 , and is preferably between approximately five and sixteen mm in diameter , and between five and twenty mm in length . the bottom flask ground joint 124 coupled with the receiving receptacle or flask 114 preferably is manufactured in sizes of 14 / 20 , 19 / 22 , 24 / 25 , 24 / 40 or 29 / 42 . as is conventionally known , a size of 14 / 20 , for example , means that the bottom flask ground joint 124 is fourteen mm in diameter , and twenty mm in length . the bottom ground joint 124 fits reusable glass round bottle flasks , such as exemplary flask 114 of fig1 . adapter 112 is preferably formed from conventional glass , though , alternatively , may be formed from a polymer material , metal or any other suitable material . fig1 illustrates an alternative embodiment of adapter 112 in which stopcock or valve 121 may be integrated into the vacuum take - off port 120 in order to adjust the vacuum and prevent the filtrate from being sucked into the vacuum line . fig8 illustrates the vacuum take - off adapter 212 , with a bottom vial joint 224 and the funnel ground joint 222 , of fig2 . the vacuum take - off glass adapter 212 , which is designed for coupling with disposable glass vial 214 , is shown joined to vial 214 in fig2 . the adapter 212 includes funnel ground joint 222 on its top end , a bottom vial joint 224 on its bottom end , and a vacuum take - off port 220 projecting from its side . the funnel ground joint 222 fits the inner joint 217 of the funnel 210 , and is preferably between five and sixteen mm in diameter , and between five and twenty mm in length . the bottom vial joint 224 has a top threaded joint 226 for screwing to the glass adapter 212 , having threads 228 , and a bottom threaded joint 227 for screwing to the disposable glass vial 214 , as shown in fig2 . the thread of the joint 226 preferably uses g . p . i . ( glass packaging institute ) 20 - 400 thread . the inside diameter of the threaded joint 226 is approximately twenty mm . the numeral “ 400 ” designates a specific style of the finish . fig1 illustrates an alternative embodiment of adapter 212 . as shown , a stopcock or valve 221 may be integrated into the vacuum take - off port 220 in order to adjust the vacuum and prevent the filtrate from being sucked into the vacuum line . adapter 212 is preferably formed from conventional glass , but may alternatively be formed from polymer materials , metal or any other suitable material . fig9 illustrates an alternative vacuum take - off adapter 412 , for use with the kit of fig1 , with a bottom ground joint 424 and a filter funnel screw - threaded joint 422 . the glass adapter 412 can replace adapter 112 . the adapter 412 has an interface screw - threaded joint 436 on its top end , with an inner diameter between approximately five and sixteen mm . a cap 438 , having an aperture formed therethrough , and a sealing ring 439 are placed on the interface screw - threaded joint 436 to seal an attached filter funnel , which functions to adjust a position of a flow discharge end of the funnel . a vacuum take - off port 420 is further provided . fig1 illustrates an alternative vacuum take - off adapter 512 , for use with the kit of fig2 , having a bottom vial joint 524 and a funnel screw threaded joint 522 . a side vacuum port 520 extends outwardly , as shown . the adapter 512 includes a funnel screw - threaded joint 536 on its top end . to connect the adapter 512 to a funnel , a cap 538 , having an aperture formed therethrough , is provided for receiving a flow discharge end of the funnel , and positioning the flow discharge end beneath the side vacuum port 520 . a sealing ring 539 and the cap 538 are placed on the funnel screw - threaded joint 536 to seal an attached funnel . the bottom vial joint 524 has an interface screw - threaded joint 526 that attaches to the adapter 512 by threads 528 , and a vial screw - threaded joint 527 for coupling with a receiving receptacle or vial . fig1 illustrates adapter 312 of the kit of fig3 . adapter 312 includes a stopper 324 having an aperture formed centrally therethrough . the adapter 312 is designed for coupling with a vacuum erlenmeyer shaped filtering flask , such as exemplary flask 314 of fig3 . the stopper 324 is formed from a polymer material , such as rubber , silicone rubber or neoprene . glass tubing 330 , with funnel ground joint 322 formed on its top end , is inserted tightly into the center of the stopper 324 . the glass funnel ground joint 322 has a diameter between approximately five and sixteen mm , and a length between approximately five and twenty mm . fig1 illustrates an alternative adapter 612 , for use with the kit of fig3 , with a screw - threaded joint 622 on its top end . the stopper 624 is formed from polymer materials , such as rubber , silicone rubber or neoprene and is similar to stopper 324 except for the screw - threaded joint 622 . the adapter 612 is used to couple a filter funnel with the vacuum erlenmeyer shaped filtering flask . a glass screw threaded tube 630 is inserted tightly into the center of the stopper 624 . a cap 638 , having an aperture formed therethrough and a sealing ring 639 , are placed on a screw - threaded top 636 of the adapter 612 to seal an attached filter funnel . thus , the flow discharge end of the funnel is positioned below the vacuum take - off port when the kit is assembled . fig1 illustrates the disposable glass - receiving receptacle 214 of fig2 . receptacle 214 includes a screw - threaded joint 230 . the diameter of the threaded joint 230 is preferably between twenty and thirty mm . a typical diameter of the joint 230 is approximately twenty - three mm , fitting g . p . i . 20 - 400 thread . the vial 214 has a semi - round bottom to prevent cracking under negative or positive pressure . the volume of the vial 214 is preferably between 60 and 300 ml . multiple vials having differing volumes may be provided , such as an 100 ml vial and a 200 ml , for example . fig1 illustrates an alternative cone - shaped disposable filter funnel 610 , to be used with any of the kits of fig1 , 2 or 3 . funnel 610 includes an upper portion 602 , having a substantially frusto - conical contour , with a long stem 615 projecting downwardly therefrom . the upper portion has an open upper end 625 , and an annular flange 604 is formed within the upper portion 602 , adjacent the junction between the lower end of upper portion 602 and the stem 615 , as shown . filter disc 619 is removably received by annular flange 604 , as shown . as described above , filter disc may be formed from a disposable , porous polymeric material , or may be formed from fritted glass or the like . as a further alternative , the filter disc 619 may be formed as a polymer disc . fig2 illustrates exemplary polymer disc 619 , having a main body 700 with a plurality of relatively small apertures or pores 706 formed therethrough . polymer disc 619 is covered in disposable filter paper or a porous , polymeric membrane in order to trap the solute or insoluble materials . fig2 illustrates an alternative polymer disc 819 having a main body 800 and a plurality of slots 802 formed in an upper surface thereof . a central aperture or pore 804 is further formed therethrough . fig1 illustrates an alternative cone - shaped disposable filter funnel 710 , similar to funnel 610 described above . funnel 710 includes an upper portion 702 , having a substantially frusto - conical contour , with a long stem 715 projecting downwardly therefrom . the upper portion 702 has an open upper end 725 . instead of the annular flange 604 of funnel 610 , the filter disc 719 is formed integrally with the upper portion 702 , as shown . fig1 illustrates a further alternative filter funnel 810 , to be used with any of the kits of fig1 , 2 or 3 . funnel 810 includes a substantially cylindrical upper portion 802 with a long stem 815 projecting downwardly therefrom . the upper portion 802 has an open upper end 825 , and an annular flange 804 is formed within the upper portion 802 , adjacent the junction between the lower end of upper portion 802 and the stem 815 , as shown . filter disc 619 is removably received by annular flange 804 , as shown . as described above , filter disc 619 may be formed from a disposable , porous polymeric material , or may be formed from fritted glass or the like . filter disc 619 may , alternatively , be replaced by filter discs 719 or 819 , as desired . as a further alternative , the filter disc 619 is wrapped in disposable filter paper . fig1 shows an alternative filter funnel 850 , similar in contour to filter funnel 810 , described above , but lacking the inner , annular flange 804 . funnel 850 includes a lower , stem portion 860 and an upper portion 862 , having an open , upper end 855 . a filter disc , such as filter disc 719 , described above , for example , is received within the upper portion 862 and the filter funnel 850 and / or the filter disc 719 are sized such that the filter disc 719 mates with the inner circumferential wall of the funnel 850 at or near the junction between the upper portion 862 and the lower portion 860 . the filter disc 719 is held in place by frictional engagement with the inner wall . filter disc 719 may , alternatively , be replaced by filter discs 819 , as desired . as a further alternative , the filter disc 719 is wrapped in disposable filter paper . with reference to fig2 , another embodiment of the disposable polymer - structured filtering kit , generally indicated by numeral 1000 , is shown . the kit 1000 includes a disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel 1010 , a glass vacuum take - off adapter 1012 , and reusable glass flask or disposable vial 1014 . funnel 1010 , adapter 1012 and flask or vial 1014 may have any of the above - described configurations , as fig2 is intended to illustrate an alternative where flask or vial 1014 is positioned within adapter 1012 , rather than beneath it . as in the previous embodiments , the funnel 1010 has a stem 1015 with a flow discharge end 1016 formed at the distal tip thereof . the stem 1015 , however , extends within the glass vacuum take - off adapter 1012 and into the reusable flask or disposable vial 1014 . the flow discharge end 1016 extends into the flask 1014 to prevent contamination of adapter 1012 by filtrate when under negative pressure from an attached vacuum source ( not shown ). a polymer fritted filter 1019 is placed on the bottom of the barrel 1018 of funnel 1010 for trapping insoluble materials . the funnel 1010 further includes an inner joint 1017 positioned between the stem 1015 and barrel 1018 . the inner joint 1017 provides a snug and secure fit between the funnel 1010 and the adapter 1012 . the glass vacuum take - off adapter 1012 has a vacuum take - off port 1020 for connection to the vacuum source , and a funnel ground joint 1022 . a cap 1025 , formed from a polymer material , is further provided for sealing the adapter . the funnel ground joint 1022 receives the stem 1015 of the funnel 1010 and the inner joint 1017 of the funnel 1010 fits the funnel ground joint 1022 . rather than the bottom flask ground joint of the previous embodiments , a tube 1024 is provided within the adapter 1012 , as shown , at the upper end thereof , so that stem 1015 passes through the tube 1024 and is positioned so that the flow discharge end 1016 is received within the flask or vial 1014 . glass tube 1024 , with funnel ground joint 1022 on its top end , are inserted tightly through the center of cap 1025 . the flask or vial 1014 is a commonly used receptacle in chemistry laboratories , and it should be understood that the shape and relative dimensions of flask 1014 are shown for exemplary purposes only . the glass funnel ground joint 1022 preferably has a diameter between approximately five and sixteen mm , and a length between approximately five and twenty mm . after filtration is complete , the funnel 1010 is removed , safely discarded and disposed of , and replaced with another disposable polymer - structured filtering funnel . the cap 1025 of adapter 1012 is also opened to remove the flask or vial 1014 . the adapter 1012 does not need to be replaced , as the length of the stem 1015 of the funnel 1010 positions the distal end of the flow discharge end 1016 within the flask or vial 1014 , thus removing the risk of contamination during filtration . it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above , but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims .
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fig2 presents a coarse representation of a configurable device in accordance with the principles of this invention . for sake of comparison , to the extent possible , the structure of fig2 parallels the structure of fig1 . as in fig1 fig2 includes a selector at the input , which in this case is also a part of the routing fabric . selector 20 has 12 direct inputs and 4 feedback inputs . the outputs of selector 20 are applied to a routing logic network 21 , and connected to routing logic network 21 are four essentially independent arithmetic / logic / memory ( alm ) units 22 , 23 , 24 , and 25 . routing logic network 21 allows for various interconnections of the alm units develops output signals which are applied to a plurality of latches 26 , and the outputs of latches 26 form the feedback signals that are applied to selector 20 . a selector 27 is responsive to the signals applied to latches 26 and to the signals developed by latches 26 and selects the desired outputs in accordance with a configuration specification . elements 22 - 25 are termed herein &# 34 ; arithmetic / logic / memory &# 34 ; elements , or alm elements , because they have the inherent capacity to serve in any of the three modes : arithmetic , logic , and memory . this inherent capacity is brought to light through configuration control of the elements . fig3 and 5 , which describe the configurable function element , comprising elements 21 - 25 , describe those modes in greater detail . fig3 depicts the configuration for logic operation . alm element 22 has 8 bit banks of memory cells 221 and 222 . the other alm elements also have two banks of memory cells each . the logic performed by the memory banks is simply a function of the contents of the memory . this contents basically reflects the &# 34 ; truth table &# 34 ; of the logic function , which is carried out by virtue of the accessing of the &# 34 ; truth table &# 34 ; memory . this accessing is accomplished through selector circuits 223 and 224 . circuit 223 is a 8 - to - 1 selector that is controlled by the three signals on lines 225 , 226 and 227 . the output of selector 223 appears on line 228 . the same three signals also control selector 224 ( although for sake of simplicity , this is not shown ) to deliver a signal to line 229 . memory bank 221 can hold the &# 34 ; truth table &# 34 ; for any three input - one output logic function because the three &# 34 ; address &# 34 ; inputs of selector 227 can deliver to line 228 the truth table response to the three inputs , stored in the 2 3 , or 8 , bits of memory 221 . by extension , it is clear that memory bank 222 can also hold the &# 34 ; truth table &# 34 ; for any three - input one output ( line 229 ) logic function . leads 228 and 229 are connected to selector circuit 233 , which is responsive to control lead 230 , and the output of selector 233 forms a first data output that is connected to bus line 261 . with the aid of selector 233 , the two memory banks of alm element 22 can carry out any logic function of 4 bits in ( lines 225 , 226 , 227 and 230 )- 1 bits out ( line 231 ). alm elements 23 , 24 and 25 are identical to alm element 22 . element 24 is responsive to the same 4 inputs as is element 22 and it develops an output signal on line 232 . that signal is applied to i / o bus line 262 . elements 23 and 25 are responsive to input signals on lines 330 , 331 , 332 , and 334 and they develop an output on lines 234 and 235 , respectively , which are connected to i / o bus lines 263 and 264 . thus , elements 22 and 24 combine to offer a logic element that provides two outputs in response to four inputs , and elements 23 and 25 combine to offer a logic element that also provides two outputs to four different inputs . the operation of the configurable function element is expanded in the fig3 embodiment through selectors 240 , 245 and 250 . selector 250 accepts the signals of lines 231 and 232 and , under control of line 236 , delivers an output signal to i / o bus line 261 via line 237 . similarly , selector 240 accepts the signals of lines 234 and 235 and , under control of line 238 , delivers an output signal to i / o bus line 262 via line 239 . selector 250 converts elements 22 and 24 to a single logic element having five inputs and one output . similarly , selector 240 converts elements 23 and 25 to a single logic element having five inputs and one output . selector 245 accepts the signals of lines 237 and 238 and under control of line 265 , delivers an output signal to i / o bus line 261 . selector 245 combines elements 22 - 25 to form a single logic element capable of performing any arbitrary function of up to 6 inputs and one output . note that it can also do some functions of up to 11 variables . fig4 depicts the arithmetic mode of the configurable function element . before proceeding with the detailed description , it may be useful to keep in mind that arithmetic operations are also logic operations although , typically , we divide the data that represents arithmetic quantities into small groups and each group represents a binary digit . consequently , the &# 34 ; truth tables &# 34 ; that are needed for arithmetic operations are smaller . however , connections must be provided from one digit to the next . that is , arithmetic operations carry out a logic function which considers at any one time only one pair of input bits in addition to a &# 34 ; carry &# 34 ; bit from a previous pair of bits . for example , a logic element having 8 inputs can assume any response pattern and , therefore , a &# 34 ; truth table &# 34 ; having 2 8 states is needed for such a logic element . an arithmetic element having 8 inputs , on the other hand , typically is considered to have four two bit sets , and the operation on the four two bit sets is typically carried out on only two input bits at a time ( one from each set ) and an incoming information propagation bit ( from lower significance bits ). the output is typically one computation result bit and one outgoing information propagation bit . thus , when an arithmetic truth table is created from a look - up memory ( for any bitwise arithmetic operation ), each bit set requires only 2 3 , or 8 bits of memory , twice ; and the full set of 8 bits at the input ( plus the input information propagation bit ) requires only 64 bits of memory . that is the structure depicted in fig4 . in conformance with the above , fig4 contains 4 sets of bitwise arithmetic units . the three input signals that control selectors 223 and 224 ( lines 226 , 227 and 230 ) form the two input bits a 0 and b 0 and the incoming information propagation bit c in 0 . the output of selector 224 forms the computation result bit ( connected to i / o bus line 261 ) and the output of selector 223 forms the outgoing information propagation bit . the outgoing information propagation bit of selector 223 is connected directly to selectors 271 and 272 in alm element 23 wherein it serves the function of incoming information propagation bit c 1 for the input bits a 1 and b 1 that are also connected to selectors 271 and 272 from lines 225 and 236 . the arithmetic operation signal flow continues with the outgoing information propagation bit of selector 271 being applied to selectors 273 and 274 in alm element 24 , and the outgoing information propagation bit of selector 273 being applied to selectors 275 and 276 . the computation result bit of selector 272 is connected to i / o bus 266 and the computation result bit of selector 274 is connected to i / o bus 262 . finally , the computation result bit of selector 276 is connected to i / o bus line 263 and the outgoing information propagation bit of selector 275 is delivered to output lead 269 for use by the next configurable element in the array , if needed . from the above it is clear that the alm elements weigh in with a total of 64 bits . in the logic mode ( fig3 ) and in the arithmetic mode ( fig4 ) the contents of each of the bits is fixed at the time the configuration is set . that may be at the time of initial assembly , or at any time thereafter . it is not the intent of these memory cells to store data temporarily but rather to define the behavior , or response characteristic , of the configurable function element . it is one object of this invention , however , to permit just such a use . moreover , it is deemed beneficial to permit flexibility in the manner in which the data is stored in and in the manner in which the data is retrieved . this flexibility extends to dual port operation of the &# 34 ; memory &# 34 ;, which means writing into one address of the memory at the same time that the memory contents at other addresses are being read . with the 64 bits that are available , the memory may be organized in a number of ways , and the writing organization and the reading organization need not even be the same . for illustrative purposes , fig5 describes a 4 bit organization where the number of different addresses that one may access is 16 . with 4 bits for an input address , 4 bits for input data , 4 bits for output address and 4 bits for output data , a total of 16 i / o bits is required . in fig5 the four write address bits are applied to a 1 - to - 16 demultiplexer 268 , and each of the 16 outputs of the demultiplexer is connected to the write enable lead of a different one of the cells in the memory banks of each of the alm elements ( 22 - 25 ). the input data line d in 0 is connected to each of the memory cells in alm element 22 , the input data line of d in 1 is connected to each of the memory cells in alm element 23 , the input data line d in 2 is connected to each of the memory cells in alm element 24 , and the input data line d in 3 is connected to each of the memory cells in alm element 25 . reading the memory in fig5 is quite simple , given the circuitry that is already available from the &# 34 ; logic configuration &# 34 ; ( shown in fig3 ). the read address lines are applied to leads 225 , 226 , 227 and 230 and the output of selectors 235 , 281 , 282 , and 283 form the 4 bits output of the memory . in fig3 the number of inputs is 11 and the number of outputs is 4 ; in fig4 the number of inputs is 9 and the number of outputs is 5 ; and in fig5 the number of inputs is 12 and the number of outputs is 4 . clearly , for fig3 - 5 to be realizable in a single integrated circuit , some i / o lines have to be used for different purposes when operating in different mode , and those lines must be routed to different locations internally . this is accomplished by extending each line to all of its potential destinations and by interposing switches in those lines at the right places , so that the lines apply their signals to the appropriate places . this is demonstrated in fig6 where the fig3 - 5 circuits are combined ( the reference numerals being deleted for sake of simplicity ). some of the configuration switches are shown with the mark x . as mentioned above , it is contemplated that the configurable function element described in fig3 and 5 in its various modes shall be used most often as an element embedded in a configurable routing fabric . fig7 presents a &# 34 ; tileable &# 34 ; module of the routing fabric which includes the configurable function element ( elements 21 - 25 ), the switching of elements 20 and 27 ( which are illustrated in fig2 and embedded in routing network 200 ) and latches 26 . more specifically , the &# 34 ; tileable &# 34 ; module 100 comprises vertical a leads , vertical b leads , horizontal c leads and horizontal d leads . the vertical leads and the horizontal leads ( perimeter leads ) are arranged to form a center area where switching elements 20 and 27 ( i . e ., element 200 ), latches 26 and the configurable function element ( 21 - 25 ) reside . the module is &# 34 ; tileable &# 34 ; because an identical other tileable module may be connected on each of the four sides of the module via some or all of the a , b , c , and d perimeter leads , and the connection of &# 34 ; tileable &# 34 ; modules can be extended for as many modules as desired , to form a rectilinear arrangement . it may be observed that when such tiling occurs , leads b of one tiled module are adjacent to leads a of the next tiled module next to it , and the a leads at the top of one module are connected to the a leads at the bottom of the adjacent module that is above it . it may also be observed that some of the a , b , c , and d leads include interposed switches that are controlled by configuration information . the pattern of switches need not be the same . in fig2 switching elements 20 and 27 are depicted as separate elements but , in reality , they can be constructed from a single switching network and , therefore , in fig7 they are represented by routing network 200 . network 200 is depicted as a crossbar network . input lines 277 , 278 , 279 and 280 come from the perimeter lines , line 281 comes from routing network 21 and line 282 comes from the outputs of latches 26 . actually , each of the depicted lines represents a set of lines , as described in greater detail below . from a perusal of fig3 and 5 is can be seen that the necessary number of inputs to block 21 is 12 and , hence , the number of outputs of network 200 is likewise 12 . in considering the viability of the fig6 arrangement where tileable modules are interconnected one important aspect is the speed with which the arrangement can operate . more particularly , the resistive and capacitive load that is found on each of the perimeter lines must be carefully considered . it must be remembered , for instance , that each lead to 1 from the perimeter to network 200 presents a load to the perimeter line even when that line is disabled . this load is minimized , in accordance with one feature of this invention , through an isolation mechanism that , in effect , fans out the signal of a perimeter lead through a number of crosspoints . this is depicted in fig8 . fig8 shows one arrangement in accordance with the principles of this invention . it depicts only one c lead ( from network 288 in fig7 ) and one a lead ( from network 287 in fig7 ), but it should be understood that similar circuitry is included in the tileable modules any number of c and a leads , for interconnecting leads b and d into network 200 and for interconnecting the a , b , c , and d leads to each other . the primary isolation ( and load limiting ) is provided to lead c by virtue of fet switch 301 . when it is &# 34 ; off &# 34 ;, all of the circuits that follow fet 301 do not present a load the c lead . the output of fet 301 is connected to any number of secondary fets , and in fig8 two are shown : 302 and 303 . those , in turn can be connected to tertiary fan - out fets , such as fets 304 and 305 , etc ., depending on the routing flexibility that is desired . eventually , the set of leads that are developed by the chain of fets stemming from fet 301 is applied to network 200 . similarly , fet 401 is connected to lead a and it , too , fans out through fets 402 , 403 , 404 and 405 to network 200 . a connection between the a lead and the c lead is achieved through fet 410 .
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referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first , particularly , to fig1 thereof , there is shown a schematic block diagram of an ic in whose memory 12 security - relevant data are stored . the integrated circuit 10 is thus provided with a memory 12 , which is connected to a read - out circuit 14 . the read - out circuit 14 conducts the data read from the memory 12 to the output designated by “ data ”. furthermore , a block with access control circuits 16 is provided , which contains the corresponding blockade functions . these functions ensure that , for example , only the authorized user , after inputting a password , can access the data stored in the memory 12 . as illustrated in fig1 the power supply of the access control circuits 16 and of the read - out circuit 14 is provided in such a way that both branches of the power supply , v dd and v ss , are conducted firstly to the access control circuits 16 and then to the read - out circuit 14 . a simple interruption of v dd or v ss upstream of the access control circuits 16 automatically also renders the read - out circuit 14 voltageless , so that data can no longer be read from the memory 12 . in this case , the supply potentials v dd and v ss are conducted as usual in the aluminum layer . this means that , in principle , there would be the possibility of an attack by interrupting v dd upstream and downstream of the blockade functions and separately supplying the read - out circuit through the use of a power supply applied there directly to the aluminum . in order to avoid this , at the point at which the power supply of the read - out circuit 14 branches from that in the aluminum layer v dd , an nmos switch 18 is additionally connected between v dd and the read - out circuit 14 , the gate 20 of which switch is connected to the power supply of the access control circuits 16 in the diffusion plane via a line 22 routed in a security layer or in the diffusion . this ensures that , in the event of any interruption of the power supply to the access control circuits 16 , the nmos switch 18 opens and the read - out circuit 14 becomes de - energized , thereby making it impossible to read the memory 12 . in addition , as illustrated in fig1 provision is made for the enable signal blck to be conducted doubly and inversely from the access control circuit 16 to the read - out circuit 14 . this means that the signal is present once in positive form as blck signal and once in negative form as { overscore ( blck )} signal . the read - out circuit can only read out data when both signals are correct . if the power supply to the access control circuits 16 is interrupted , then at least one of these signals becomes “ false ” and the read - out circuit is blocked . in this case , it does not even depend on whether v dd or v ss is interrupted . the read - out circuit 14 is always blocked . the security can be increased still further by the respectively mutually associated inverse blocking signals being conducted parallel to one another in the integrated circuit and preferably in the diffusion or in a security layer . according to the invention , then , it is possible to provide the circuit blocks with regard to the supply wiring such that the block which generates the control signal precedes the circuit blocks which generate the secret signals . with the blockade signal , the secret signal is then also destroyed when the supply is disconnected . as a second measure , it is additionally possible for the inverse blockade signal to be generated in parallel and be concomitantly evaluated when the secret signal is generated . this ensures that both supplies are present at the block which generates the control signal . in this case , the supply within this block must be conducted in inseparable layers . the inverse control signals are advantageously conducted one above the other to the evaluating block , in order to make forcing more difficult . if the supply is disconnected upstream of the block which generates the control signal , the secret signal is thus inhibited at the same time . in this case , it is not necessary for the supply wiring to be conducted twice between the blocks , and wiring area is gained for the signal wiring . as an alternative to the measures described , the supply of the block which generates the secret signal can be conducted via a switch which switches on or off depending on the supply of the control block . in this case , it is necessary to conduct a security signal from the supply , inseparable within the control block , to the gate of the switch . in order to make the physical manipulation possibilities more difficult , the invention proposes with regard to the supply wiring a block configuration which makes a configuration robust with respect to destructive attacks , without giving rise to an additional outlay on supply wiring ( redundant supply in diffusion ). this block placement will usually appear differently than that of an ad hoc corridor planning which does not consider the boundary conditions described . the control signals are conducted with their inverse counterparts in a parallel manner from block to block in order to ensure at the evaluating block that both supply polarities are present at the generating block . as a modification , it is proposed to make the supply of the block to be inhibited dependent on the supply of the control function via a switch , the configuration being configured such that a physical manipulation for generating a “ stuck at ” error on a control signal does not have a harmful effect . that is associated with an additional outlay on circuitry ( addition of a switch ) which would not be justified if one did not wish to safeguard against this possibility of manipulation . fig1 shows , as an exemplary embodiment , a configuration in a memory module in which the data read from the memory 12 are inhibited for a read access through the use of a blockade function . blockade and read - out circuits are provided in such a way that disconnection of the blockade function from the supply simultaneously disconnects the read - out circuit from the supply and thus blocks the read - out circuit . the blockade signal blck is conducted parallel to its inverse counterpart to the read - out circuit , where both control signals are evaluated . fig2 illustrates circuit details 24 and 26 of a specific embodiment of a configuration in which the supplying of the blockade function is conducted or routed in the diffusion region and is supplied to the gate of an nmos switch which supplies power to the read - out circuit . if the blockade circuit is disconnected from v dd , the read - out address is simultaneously decoupled from the supply .
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embodiments of the invention relate to safety plugs for power ports , such as those found in automobiles and boats . a safety plug in accordance with embodiments of the invention includes a locking device . the locking device can be disengaged by a control device with a child - proof mechanism . therefore , a safety plug in accordance with embodiments of the invention can prevent children from pulling the safety plug out of a power port . fig2 illustrates a schematic of a safety plug in accordance with one embodiment of the invention . as shown , the safety plug 100 comprises a body 10 that has a first end 11 and a second end 12 . the first end 11 of the safety plug 100 is adapted to be inserted into a power port ( or electric socket , shown as 51 in fig1 ). the safety plug 100 also includes a locking device 13 , which is controlled by a control device 20 . the locking device 13 engages the inside of the power port ( socket ) to prevent it from being removed . in preferred embodiments , the locking device 13 is configured to the locked state by default . alternatively , the locking device 13 may be switched to the locked state after it is inserted into a power port . to remove the safety plug 100 from the power port , the control device 20 is activated . activation of the control device 20 disengages the locking device 13 and converts it to the unlocked state to allow the safety plug 100 to be removed . in accordance with embodiments of the invention , the control device 20 has a child - proof mechanism that may be activated in a counter - intuitive manner such that a child is less likely to pull the safety plug 100 out of the power port . examples of child - proof mechanisms may include the following . the control device 20 may need to be “ pushed ” in , while the safety plug 100 is being “ pulled ” out of the power port . the control device 20 may need to be turned to a specific angular position , like a child - proof medicine bottle , before the safety plug 100 can be removed from the power port , the control device 20 may need to be turned to one direction and then the other , like a combination lock , before the locking mechanism 13 is disengaged from inside the power port . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that other variations of the child - proof mechanism may be used with embodiments of the invention , and , therefore , the invention is not limited to these specific examples . the control device 20 , which may include a shaft slidably disposed in the body 10 , is attached at its first end 21 to the locking device 13 , while the second end of the control device 22 may protrude from the second end 12 of the body 10 of the safety plug 100 . the protrusion of the second end 22 allows a force to be applied to rotate or push the control device 20 towards the first end 11 of the body 10 . thus , the force needed to unlock the locking device 13 is applied in an opposite or orthogonal direction relative to the force needed to pull the safety plug 100 out of a power port . fig2 illustrates minimum features of a safety plug 100 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention . according to some embodiments of the invention , the safety plug may further include other components to enhance its utility . as shown in fig3 , a safety plug 200 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention also includes an attachment 15 . the attachment 15 may be attached to the second end 12 of the body 10 or to the second end 22 of the control device 20 . if the attachment 15 is attached to the second end 12 of the body 10 , then it may have an opening to allow access to the control device 20 . alternatively , the control device 20 may protrude from the side of the attachment 15 . the attachment 15 may be any item that enhances the utility and / or aesthetic of the safety plug 200 , such as a picture , a display , a sign ( e . g ., a no smoking sign ), an air freshener , a clock , or a connector for other electronic devices . if the attachment 15 is ( or is for ) an electronic or electrical device , such as a clock or any electronic device , or a connector for such a device , then the safety plug 200 may include conductors ( electrical contacts ) to transmit electricity from the power port . examples of a display may include light - emitting diode display , a liquid - crystal display , a thin - film - transistor display , and a plasma display . examples of an electrical connector may include a jack for a stereo mini plug , a jack for an rca plug , etc . fig4 shows a safety plug 300 in accordance with another embodiment of the invention . as shown , the safety plug 300 includes two conductors ( electrical contacts ) 31 , 32 and a wire 33 for providing electrical power to the attachment 15 . as shown , the electrical contact 31 is adapted to contact the positive terminal in the power port and the electrical contact 32 is to provide a current return . the current return electrical contact 32 may not be needed , if the body 10 is made of a conductive material and can provide the conductive path . if the control device 20 is made of a conductive material , the electrical contact 31 may be connected directly to the control device 20 . otherwise , the electrical contact 31 may be connected to the attachment 15 via a conductive wire ( not shown ). the locking device 13 may use any reversible mechanism that can prevent the safety plug from being pulled out of a power port by a child . fig5 shows one embodiment of a locking device 13 that comprises an adjustable diameter member . as shown , the locking device 13 is made of a flexible material that is disposed between the first end 11 and the second end 12 of the body 10 . the flexible material , for example , may be rubber , plastic , or the like . the flexible material permits the locking device 13 to change its diameter . while a single fold structure is illustrated for the locking device 13 in fig5 , one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that other configurations may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention . for example , the locking device 13 may have multiple folds as in an accordion , or other suitable structures . as shown in fig5 , a spring 17 is provided to bias the control device 20 in the up position so that the locking device 13 is at its maximum diameter ( i . e ., the locked state ). to unlock the safety plug 400 from a power port , the diameter of the locking device 13 can be reduced by pressing the control device 20 towards the first end 11 of the body 10 . thus , to remove the plug , two forces of opposite directions need to be applied . this counter - intuitive mechanism can prevent a child from pulling the safety plug out of a power port without adult assistance . the embodiment shown in fig5 is for illustration only , other configurations of the locking device 13 are possible . for example , the locking device 13 may have selected portions protruding from slots cut in the body 10 . alternatively , the locking device 13 may not be made of a flexible material . fig6 shows another embodiment of the locking device 13 that comprises one or more protruding members 19 adapted to extend from the body 10 to engage a power port ( not shown ). the protruding members 19 are linked to the control device 20 by levers 18 such that when the control device 20 is pushed in , the protruding members 19 are pulled towards the body 10 to disengage the safety plug from a power port ( not shown ). the levers 18 and the protruding members 19 shown in fig6 are for illustration only . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that many modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention . for example , the protruding members 19 may be hinged at one of its ends to the body 10 , and the levers 18 may be replaced by springs . the levers or springs 18 are generally referred to as a “ retracting mechanism ” in this description . advantages of the invention may include the following . a safety plug in accordance with the invention can be easily deployed to block a power port to prevent potential injuries to children . a safety plug of the invention has a locking device with a child - proof control mechanism that unlocks the locking device in a counter - intuitive manner . therefore , children are not expected to be able to remove the safety plugs from the power ports .. in addition , a safety plug of the invention may further provide other functions such as a sign or a display . the safety plug may also provide a conduit to the power terminals in the power port such that other electrical or electronic devices may be conveniently connected . while the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments , those skilled in the art , having the benefit of this disclosure , will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein .
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referring first to fig1 there is shown the first embodiment of the device of the present invention . the first embodiment is directed to a pneumatic tool device 20 having a metal body 22 with an integral handle 24 . because the first embodiment has special utility as a chisel it is sometimes referred to herein as chisel device 20 . it should be understood that the pounding action of the piston described below could be used in many other embodiments . a coupling 26 is disposed on one end of handle 24 such that air hose 28 can be readily attached thereto . air hose 28 as well as coupling 26 are well known in the prior art and will not be discussed in detail herein . such coupling 26 and air hose 28 are used to direct air or other pneumatic fluid under pressure from a source ( not shown ) to the tool device 20 . the handle 24 is configured so that it may be easily grasped and manipulated by the user . a button actuator 30 is disposed on the handle and , when depressed , permits fluid to activate the device 20 as hereinafter described in greater detail . extending outwardly from an opening in the device 20 is a tool holder assembly 32 having a cylindrical body element 34 and a tool retaining spring member 36 . spring member 36 is used to join a tool shaft 38 to the holder assembly 32 . it should be recognized that while such method of joining does provide a number of unique benefits , other means of joining a tool to the assembly 32 are also within the scope of the present invention . referring now to fig2 one can see that the body 22 has an opening or bore 40 defined by the body into which the assembly 32 extends . integral teeth 42 on holder assembly 32 intermesh with teeth 70 internally formed within the bore 40 of the body 22 . body 22 has an internal terminis 43 at one end thereof and has a generally cylindrical rim 44 adjacent the other end thereof . as one can see , by having an open bore 40 and cylindrical rim 44 , holder assembly 32 can be easily joined to and removed from body 22 . this is one distinct advantage of the present invention in that it enables the device 20 to be easily assembled . in the prior art , many devices include end caps or complex means for joining the tool assembly to the body so as to substantially seal the open end thereof . handle 24 has an internally formed , generally rectangular opening 46 which enables the chisel device 20 to be mounted if so desired . a first conduit or channel 48 is also disposed through handle 24 and permits pneumatic fluid from hose 28 to pass into the chisel tool 20 as hereinafter described in greater detail . a second channel or conduit 50 extends from the handle 24 into the bore 40 . to regulate the amount of fluid , button actuator 30 is used . its construction is similar to that of a throttle valve . a bushing 52 and seal rings 54 retain the button actuator 30 in handle 24 . a spring 56 urges button member 30 in a generally outward or closed position such that rod 48 prevents fluid from flowing through channel 48 into channel 50 . rod 58 has a flared end 60 which is attached to spring 56 . when button member 30 is depressed , flow communication is then permitted from channel 48 , through a channel 62 , formed in bushing 52 , into channel 50 . this can be seen with reference to fig5 . referring again to fig2 one can see that the tool holder assembly 32 has a first end 67 adjacent terminus 44 and a second end 68 which extends outwardly from the body 40 . tool holder assembly 32 extends into body 40 so as to define an annular space 64 adjacent terminus 43 . adjacent second end 68 are a plurality of notches 72 which engage spring 66 . other means for holding spring 66 to the assembly 32 are also within the scope of the present invention . however , certain advantages are achieved by the use of a spring and notch method . first , the desirable action similar to that of a chisel is achieved . second , various tools can be quickly mounted or removed . third , mounting of spring 66 on assembly 32 is relatively straightforward . referring to fig2 and 5 , one can see that cylindrical tool holder assembly 32 defines a first bore 74 which is in axial communication with a second , larger bore 76 . the first end 67 of assembly 32 forms a generally cylindrical rim 78 . rim 78 engages valve 92 and retains valve 92 in a generally fixed position against terminus 43 . orthoginal ports or openings 80 extend radially from the assembly 32 , and permit the pneumatic fluid to exit therefrom . extending axially into the assembly 32 , and disposed adjacent the terminis 43 of body 22 , is the piston and valve assembly 82 . assembly 82 consists of a generally cylindrical piston 84 , a hollow rod or guide member 86 and a valve 92 . guide member 86 permits piston 84 to travel along a straight path in a smooth manner even after much use . it thus represents yet another advantage of the present invention . also disposed within the assembly 32 is a circular impaction element 88 which is impacted by movable piston 84 . as more clearly shown in fig5 impaction element or anvil 88 defines a recessed area 90 which is configured so as to matingly engage tool shaft 38 . anvil 88 enables the force of piston 84 to be readily transferred to tool shaft 38 . direct impact of a piston on a tool can lead to wear of the tool . the use of anvil 88 is yet another advantage of the present invention over the prior art . cylindrical valve 92 , in the preferred embodiment , is comprised of a first section 94 and a second section 96 both of which can be made of metal . in the preferred embodiment , section 94 is made of a hard plastic such as pvc , polypropylene or polycarbonate . the use of a plastic permits valve 92 to absorb some of the shock when impacted by piston 84 . as is more clearly shown in fig3 the first section 94 has a plurality of openings 98 axially disposed therethrough . openings 98 extend from area 110 formed in section 96 and located between the sections 94 and 96 , to recessed area 102 formed in section 94 adjacent terminis 43 . an opening 100 , also formed in valve section 94 , has a portion which extends radially outward from the axis of section 94 , and another portion which makes a right angle bend as can be seen from fig2 and 3 . in this manner , flow communication between recessed area 110 , formed in section 96 , and the annular space 64 is achieved . referring now to fig2 and 4 , one can see that valve section 96 also has an opening 106 which extends outward so as to communicate with recessed area 110 and space 64 . openings 108 extend through section 96 so as to permit flow communication between recessed area 110 and bore 76 . disposed between sections 94 and 96 , and occupying some of the space formed by recessed area 110 is a movable seal member 112 . as discussed in greater detail hereinbelow , seal 112 shifts in position slightly as indicated in fig2 and 5 which enables pneumatic fluid to be alternatingly directed to each end of piston 84 . the operation of the pneumatic chisel device 20 will now be discussed . referring to fig2 one can see that the seal member 112 is initially disposed across openings 98 and 100 in the first section 94 of valve 92 . as indicated in fig5 air or other pneumatic fluid flows through hose 28 into conduit 48 formed in handle 24 . flow through channel 48 is generally indicated by arrow 114 . as the pneumatic fluid continues to flow in that direction , it flows into a chamber 116 formed in handle 24 . one can see in fig2 that the button actuator 30 has not been depressed and thus the fluid is not permitted to pass beyond chamber 116 . referring now to fig5 one can see that button actuator 30 has been depressed thereby permitting the fluid to flow around rod 58 and , more specifically , a tapered portion 118 thereof . the fluid would continue to flow through the handle 24 as indicated by arrow 120 and into the annular space 64 adjacent the terminus 43 of the body 22 . fluid would then flow through either opening 100 or 106 or both depending on the resistance . should air initially flow through openings 100 as indicated by arrow 122 , it would cause the seal 112 to shift against section 96 of valve 92 thereby sealing openings 106 and 108 . fluid would then flow through opening 100 , into area 110 and back towards the terminis 43 as indicated by arrow 124 . from here , it would flow through recessed area 102 , formed in valve section 94 , and into conduit 86 as indicated by arrow 126 . the pneumatic fluid would then flow through conduit 86 and exit therefrom as indicated by arrow 128 . continued flow in this direction forces the piston 84 to axially move along guide member 86 and against second section 96 of valve 92 . movement of the piston 84 past ports 80 permits venting of the pneumatic fluid outwardly from the tool device 20 as indicated by arrows 130 . any fluid between piston 84 and valve 92 would be urged toward seal 112 through opening 108 . if the pressure was great enough , seal 112 would axially move from space 110a into space 110 as shown in fig2 . this would uncover opening 106 through which the fluid would flow into space 64 . as soon as the seal 112 shifted into the position shown in fig2 pressure would build up in space 64 . when the pressure was great enough , fluid would flow back through opening 106 , into space 110a and out opening 108 . flow through openings 100 would be discouraged as it is closed off by seal 112 . as pressure built up behind piston 94 , ultimately the piston 94 would be driven forward guide member 86 with a high degree of velocity so as to strike anvil 88 . this forward trajectory along guide member 86 and the impact on anvil 88 would cause an outward projection of tool 38 . this chisel - like action can thus be used to , for example , aid in removal of a u - joint in an auto , loosen a brick or other material from a surface , and the like . once piston 84 traveling along rod 86 passed beyond ports 80 , additional fluid would flow through ports 50 thereby decreasing the pressure behind piston 84 . this decrease in pressure would , in turn , permit additional pressure to build up behind seal 112 , i . e ., additional fluid would flow through opening 100 so as to again shift the seal 112 back into area 110a . additional fluid flowing through opening 100 would flow into space 110 , and out toward the terminus 43 through openings 98 . as stated above , additional fluid flow through openings 98 would , in turn , flow into space 102 and then through conduit 86 . as fluid exited from conduit 86 , it would urge the piston 84 in the opposite direction . in this manner , a reciprocal action is achieved by piston 84 . this reciprocal action is transferred to a pounding action or chisel - like action by the constant hammering of piston 84 on anvil 88 and , in turn , tool shaft 38 . referring now to fig6 - 12 , the second embodiment of the present invention will now be discussed . in the second embodiment , a pneumatic rotary sander 200 is illustrated . it should be understood that other rotary - type devices are also within the scope of the present invention . sander 200 is comprised of a metal body 202 having an integral handle 204 . an air coupling 206 informed on body 22 and an associated air hose 208 is joined thereto . air hose 208 would be connected to a source of pneumatic fluid ( not shown ) so as to drive the sander 200 as hereinbelow described in greater detail . a button actuator 210 similar in nature to that described with reference to actuator 30 is also disposed on handle 204 . extending outwardly from body 202 is a total holder and motor assembly 212 . tool holder and motor assembly 212 has a sanding disc 214 attached thereto . as shown in fig7 tool holder and motor assembly 212 extend into a bore 216 defined by body 202 . internal teeth 218 formed on body 202 are disposed adjacent a first end 220 of the bore 216 , and a trapezoid section 224 is formed in body 200 adjacent the terminus 222 thereof . disposed in handle 204 is a first channel or conduit 226 which permits pneumatic fluid to flow to the tool holder and motor assembly 212 as hereinbelow described in greater detail . a second channel or conduit 228 directs the fluid into the bore 216 . this flow is regulated by means of actuator 210 which is held in position by a bushing 230 and associated seal ring members 232 . a spring 234 urges a shaft or rod 236 of the actuator 210 so as to remain in the closed position until depressed . one can see that rod element 236 has a flared end 238 which is engaged by spring element 234 . when actuator 210 is depressed , fluid is permitted to flow through channel 226 , passed the actuator 210 by flowing through channel 240 in flow communication both with channel 226 and channel 228 . in the preferred embodiment , tool holder and motor assembly 212 has a first end 242 and a second end 244 . a threaded ring member 246 is disposed adjacent end 242 and is used to join the assembly 212 to the body 202 . more specifically , teeth 218 on body 202 engages similar elements on member 246 . ring member 246 has a plurality of openings 248 which permit pneumatic fluid to exhaust outwardly therethrough as hereinafter described in greater detail . a disc or tool holder 250 is joined to a shaft 252 which is securely joined to the assembly 212 . in the preferred embodiment , a disc 214 made of a flexible material upon which sanding paper or the like can be mounted is joined to holder 250 . the tool holder 250 is threadingly engaged on shaft 252 which is joined to a rotor 254 which also forms part of the assembly 212 . rotor 254 is rotatably and axially disposed within and circumferentially surrounded by a housing or cage 256 . in order to help secure housing 256 to body 202 , an o - ring seal 258 is circumferentially disposed about housing 256 . seal 258 prevents some movement of housing 256 in bore 216 , but is aided by means of the ring member 246 . housing 256 also has a first end plate 260 and a second end plate 262 . inlet openings 264 are disposed through end plate 260 , while outlet openings 266 are disposed through end plate 262 . disposed adjacent each end of the housing 256 are bushings 268 are bushings 268 which have associated ball bearing members 270 therein . in this manner , rotor 254 is secured in body 202 and is axially rotatable within the motor housing 256 . as shown by reference to fig7 and 10 , spring loaded blade or vane members 272 extend radially outward from the rotor 254 . vanes 272 have a generally flat upper surface and a curved lower surface . they are disposed in associated arcuous slots 274 and engage the upper surfaces of an inner wall of housing 256 along the length thereof . the operation of the device 200 of the second embodiment will now be discussed . after the pneumatic rotary sander 200 is connected to a suitable pneumatic fluid source by means of air hose 208 , upon pressing actuator 210 fluid is directed through channels 226 , 240 and 228 . from here , the fluid flows through inlet openings 264 , ultimately proceeding through slot 264a . this flow path is generally shown by reference to arrow 276 . upon entry into housing 256 , the pneumatic fluid would impinge upon one of the vane members 272 . this causes the vane and hence the rotor 254 to rotate in housing 256 . because there is no axial alignment between cylindrical housing 256 and cylindrical rotor 254 , the vanes 272 move in and out of associated slots 274 . this is perhaps best shown in fig9 and 10 . there one can see that while rotor 254 is in axial alignment with body 202 , the bore in housing 256 is off - center . as the vanes 272 rotate , fluid initially trapped between two vanes is vented when exposed to outlet openings 266 formed in plate 262 . this is generally indicated by arrows 278 and 280 . from here , the fluid flows through ports 248 formed in the ring member 246 and to the exterior of the sander 200 . unlike many prior art devices , venting the fluid through ports 248 formed in ring member 246 has a number of advantages . for example , many prior art devices closed off the end of the sander body and vented through a mid - portion thereof . this required difficult masking of the body . other prior art devices also closed off the end of the bore with a complex member used to join the rotor assembly to the housing . the present invention uses a straight - forward ring 246 which not only securely joins elements 212 and 262 together , but permits fluid to readily flow therethrough . with respect to said sander 200 , speeds of 16 , 000 rpm at an air pressure of 90 - 100 psi . the chisel 20 delivers 2500 blows per minute at air pressure of 90 - 100 psi . by the use of the device of the present invention , a substantial number of disadvantages associated with the prior art can be overcome . in addition to those advantages described above , the device of the present invention permits one body to be made which can then be dedicated either as a sander or as a chisel . it should be understood that while the preferred examples relate to the embodiments set forth in the drawings , it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in claims . this invention , therefore , is not to be limited to that which is specifically shown or discussed herein .
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various embodiments described below were developed to enable a mobile device user to capture an intent to print a content item at a time when a printer having a desired characteristic is not available printer . later , a printer having the desired characteristic is automatically caused to produce the content item . a content item , as used herein , is any electronic information that can be printed . examples include electronic files containing text , images , and combinations thereof . desired characteristics can include locations known to the user or compatible features . the following description is broken into sections . the first , labeled “ environment ,” describes an exemplary environment in which various embodiments may be implemented . the second section , labeled “ components ,” describes examples of various physical and logical components for implementing various embodiments . the third section , labeled as “ operation ,” describes steps taken to implement various embodiments . fig1 depicts an exemplary environment 10 in which various embodiments may be implemented . environment 10 is shown to include client devices 12 , 14 , and 16 , printers 18 , 20 , and 22 , production service 24 , and data store 26 . while environment 10 is shown to include three client devices 12 - 16 and three printers 18 - 22 , environment 10 may include any number of such components . client devices 12 - 16 each represent generally any computing device capable of network communication though which a user &# 39 ; s intent to print a content item can be captured . in the example of fig1 , devices 12 and 14 are shown as mobile devices , a smart phone and laptop or net - book respectively . device 16 is depicted as a workstation or desktop computer . device 12 and 14 are mobile in that they are configured to travel with a user . device 16 , while it can be moved , is intended to maintain a generally fixed position such as at a desk or kiosk . printers 18 - 22 represent generally any devices or combination of devices configured to produce a physical printed representation of a content item . in the example of fig1 , printer 18 may be a monochrome laser printer located in an office . printer 20 may be a color ink printer located in a home , and printer 22 may be a commercial printing system located in a commercial printing facility . production service 24 represents generally a network service configured to capture a user &# 39 ; s intent to print a content item or otherwise aid a client device 12 - 16 in capturing that intent . in particular , the user &# 39 ; s intent to print is captured at a time when none of printers 18 - 22 have a desired characteristic . in an example , that characteristic may be printer 18 , 20 , or 22 sharing a general geographic location with a client device 12 , 14 , or 16 that is under the user &# 39 ; s control . in another example , the desired characteristic may be a feature such as the ability to print color or print photos . production service 24 is also responsible for causing a printer 18 , 20 , or 22 to produce the content item upon a determination that the given printer 18 , 20 or 22 has the desired characteristic . data store 26 represents any device or collection of devices for storing data that can be accessed by production service 24 and client devices 12 - 16 . data store may be integrated into one or more of client device 12 - 16 and production service 24 , or it may be separate device or group of devices . stored data can include information for determining whether a printer 8 - 22 has a desired characteristic . stored data may also include content items or representation &# 39 ; s thereof for which a user &# 39 ; s desire to print has been captured . in an example , capturing a user &# 39 ; s intent to print a content item can include communicating the content item to data store 26 . upon a determination that a printer 18 - 22 has a desired characteristic , the content item or its representation can be acquired from data store 26 and used to cause that printer to produce the content item . components 12 - 26 are interconnected via link 28 . link 28 represents generally one or more of a cable , wireless , fiber optic , or remote connections via a telecommunication link , an infrared link , a radio frequency link , or any other connectors or systems that provide electronic communication . link 28 may include , at least in part , an intranet , the internet , or a combination of both . link 28 may also include intermediate proxies , routers , switches , load balancers , and the like . the paths followed by link 28 between components 12 - 26 as depicted in fig1 represent the logical communication paths between these devices , not necessarily the physical paths between the devices . fig2 depicts various physical and logical components for implementing various embodiments . in particular , fig2 depicts delayed production system 30 in communication with data store 26 . system 30 includes capture engine 32 , notification engine 34 , monitor engine 36 , and production engine 38 . data store 26 is show to include production data 40 and characteristic data 42 . referring back to fig1 , each component 32 - 38 may be implemented on a client device 12 - 16 , production service 24 or distributed across the devices . capture engine 32 represents generally any combination of hardware and programming configured to capture a user &# 39 ; s intent to print a content item . a user &# 39 ; s intent may be captured by storing the content item or a representation thereof . a representation of a content item may include a reference such as an url ( uniform resource locator ) for retrieving the content item . a representation can also include a pdf ( portable document format ) or other print ready representation rendered from the content item . thus , capture engine 32 may perform its function in a number of fashions . it may communicate the content item for storage as production data 40 in data store 26 . it may communicate a reference for acquiring the content item for storage as production data 40 in data store 26 . capture engine 32 may communicate a print ready version of the content item for storage as production data 40 in data store 26 . in an example , discussed below with respect to fig4 , capture engine 32 may be triggered by a user selecting a print action from a client device 12 , 14 , or 16 at a time when none of a plurality of printers has a desired characteristic . characteristics can include location and features . thus , a desired characteristic can be a desired or known location — that is — a location shared with a client device under a user &# 39 ; s control . a desired characteristic can include the ability to print in color or print photos . notification engine 34 represents generally any combination of hardware and programming configured to cause a user to be notified when one of the plurality of printers has the desired characteristic . an example of such a notification is discussed below with respect to fig5 where a notification takes the form of a user interface through which a user can select content items for which a user &# 39 ; s intent to print has been captured . monitor engine 36 represents generally any combination of hardware and programming configured to determine if any of a plurality of printers has a desired characteristic . in performing its function , monitor engine may access characteristic data 42 an example of which is discussed below with respect to fig3 . when no printer has a desired characteristic , monitor engine 36 causes capture engine 32 to capture the user &# 39 ; s intent to print . that intent may be manifested through the selection of a print action such as in fig4 or , for example , by interacting with a content item . such interaction can include selecting , opening , or accessing . upon a determination by monitor engine 36 that a printer has a desired characteristic , notification engine 34 causes the user to be notified . production engine 38 represents generally any combination of hardware and programming configured to cause a printer to produce a content item . production engine 38 does so only upon a determination by monitor engine 36 that the printer has a desired characteristic . further , production engine 38 may proceed with its function automatically only after a user &# 39 ; s section of the content item in a notification by notification engine 34 . in performance of its task , production engine 38 may access or otherwise reference production data 40 . production engine 38 may render the content item to a print ready format and communicating the rendered content to the printer . production engine 38 may communicate the content item itself or a reference for acquiring the content item to the printer or to an intermediary the renders the content item for the printer . in fig3 , characteristic data 42 is depicted as including table 46 having an entry 44 for each of a plurality of printers . each entry 44 includes data identifying a given printer in field 46 , data identifying a location of that printer in field 48 , and data identifying features of the printer in field 50 . data in field 46 may identify the printer by a user defined name , model , network address , physical address , or any other information that can be used to distinguish the corresponding printer from other printers . data in field 48 may identify a geographic location of a corresponding printer , a network or domain on which the printer resides , a network address , or any other information that can be uses to determine if a client device under a user &# 39 ; s control is within a desire proximity to the printer . data in field 50 may identify the features of a corresponding printer in a positive fashion or negatively by identifying those features the printer does not have or the features that are not currently operational . thus , an offline printer may be identified as having no features . in determining if a printer has a desired characteristic , monitor engine 36 may compare a known location of a client device under a user &# 39 ; s control with the location data identified in fields 48 of entries 44 . where the client device is a smart phone , the location of the device may be discerned from the phone &# 39 ; s carrier or a position application running on the device . where a client device is more fixed , the location may be discerned from its network address , information provided by a user , or even a database that defines its location . to determine if a printer has a desired feature , monitor engine 36 may compare the requirements for producing a content item with the features data in field 50 of entries 44 . the requirements may be specified by the user or discerned from the content item itself . fig4 depicts a screen view 52 displayed to a user of a client device . screen view 52 includes a representation of content item 54 opened by application 56 . screen view 52 also includes a number of iconic representations of actions 58 a user can instigate to control the operation of application 56 . one of those action is the printing of the content item through the selection of print icon 60 . in this example , print icon 60 includes a modification 62 to indicate that monitor engine 36 has determined that none of a plurality of printers has a desired characteristic . thus , the user &# 39 ; s selection of print icon 60 will trigger capture engine 34 to capture the user &# 39 ; s intent to print content item 54 . in one example , monitor engine 36 may be responsible for adding modification 62 to print icon 60 . when a printer has a desired characteristic , modification 62 will not appear , and selection of print icon 60 will lead to the more immediate production of content item 54 . in another example , modification 62 is a permanent feature , and print icon 60 has a dedicated function of being used to trigger the capture of a user &# 39 ; s intent to print when a printer is not available . fig5 depicts a screen view 64 of a notification 66 displayed to a user of a client device . notification 66 alerts a user of client device that one or more printers having desired characteristics are available to produce content items . notification engine 34 may cause notification 66 to be displayed automatically upon detection by monitor engine 36 that a printer has a desired characteristic with respect to one or more content items for which a user &# 39 ; s intent to print has been captured . in another example , notification engine 34 may communicate some other message that alerts a user of the client device to open or otherwise access notification 66 . such a communication may be an e - mail , a text message , an alert tone , an icon , or any other communication that can garner a user &# 39 ; s attention . in the example of fig5 , notification 66 includes user selectable controls 68 - 74 . controls 68 - 72 allow for the individual selection of content items ( 1 ) through ( n ). the presumption here is that a user &# 39 ; s intention to print these content items was captured during a time period when none of a plurality of printers had a desired characteristic . at a later time , monitor engine 36 detected that a printer had a desired characteristic . the same or different printers may be identified by notification 66 for each of content items ( 1 ) through ( n ). selection of a given control 68 - 72 triggers production engine 38 to cause a corresponding printer to produce a corresponding content item . selection of control 74 triggers production engine 38 to cause the production of all content items ( 1 ) through ( n ). in foregoing discussion , various components were described as combinations of hardware and programming . such components may be implemented in a number of fashions . looking at fig6 , the programming may be processor executable instructions stored on tangible memory media 76 and the hardware may include a processor 78 for executing those instructions . memory 76 can be said to store program instructions that when executed by processor 78 implement delayed content production system 30 of fig2 . memory 76 may be integrated in the same device as processor 78 or it may be separate but accessible to that device and processor 76 . in one example , the program instructions can be part of an installation package that can be executed by processor 78 to implement system 30 . in this case , memory 76 may be a portable medium such as a cd , dvd , or flash drive or a memory maintained by a server from which the installation package can be downloaded and installed . in another example , the program instructions may be part of an application or applications already installed . here , memory 76 can include integrated memory such as a hard drive . as a further example , fig7 depicts a block diagram illustrating various elements of client device 12 , 14 , or 16 , resource service 20 , and data store 22 . client device 12 is shown to include memory 80 , processor 82 , display 84 , and interface 86 . processor 82 represents generally any processor configured to execute program instructions stored in memory 80 to perform various specified functions . display 84 represents generally any display device capable of presenting a graphical user interface to a viewer . display 84 , for example , may be a touch screen responding to a viewer &# 39 ; s touch to select user interface controls such as controls 60 and 68 - 74 of fig4 and 5 . interface 86 represents generally any wired or wireless interface enabling client device 12 , 14 of 16 to communicate via link 28 . memory 80 is shown to include operating system 88 and applications 90 . operating system 88 represents a collection of programs that when executed by processor 82 serve as a platform on which applications 90 can run . examples of operating systems include , but are not limited , to webos , microsoft &# 39 ; s windows ®, linux ®, and android . applications 90 represent program instructions for various functions of client device 12 , 14 , or 16 . such instructions relate to functions such as web browsing , document viewing , and printing . production service 24 is shown to include a number of server devices 92 . each server device includes memory 94 , processor 96 , and interface 98 . processor 96 represents generally any processor configured to execute program instructions stored in memory 94 to perform various specified functions . interface 98 represents generally any wired or wireless interface enabling that server device 92 to communicate via link 28 . memory is shown to include operating system 100 and applications 102 . operating system 100 represents a collection of programs that when executed by processor 96 serve as a platform on which applications 102 can run . examples of operating systems include , but are not limited , server versions of microsoft &# 39 ; s windows ® and linux ®. applications 102 represent program instructions for various functions of a given server device 92 . such instructions relate to functions such as assisting client device 12 , 14 , or 16 in causing printers 18 - 22 to product content items . looking at fig2 , engines 32 - 38 are described a combinations of hardware and programming . the hardware portions may , depending on the embodiment , be implemented as processor 82 , processor 96 , or a combination of both . the programming portions , depending on the embodiment can be implemented by operating system 88 , applications 90 , operating system 100 , applications 102 , or combinations thereof . fig8 is an exemplary flow diagram of steps taken to implement an embodiment . in discussing fig8 , reference may be made to the diagrams of fig1 - 7 to provide contextual examples . implementation , however , is not limited to those examples . fig8 begins with capturing a user &# 39 ; s intent to produce a content item ( step 104 ). the intent is captured at a first time when none of a plurality of printers has a desired characteristic . referring to fig2 , step 104 may be implemented by capture engine 32 . step 104 can include storing or causing to be stored the content item itself , a reference such as an url for retrieving the content item , or a representation of the content item . such a representation may be a version of the content item rendered in a print ready format . fig4 depicts an example in which step 104 is triggered by a user selecting print icon 60 which results in capture engine 32 capturing a user &# 39 ; s intent to print content item 54 . in another example , step 104 may be triggered by a user accessing or otherwise interacting with the content item . referring to fig7 , where capture engine 32 is implemented on client device 12 , 14 , or 16 , step 104 can include communicating the content item , a reference for acquiring the content item or a representation of the content item to be stored as production data 40 . production data 40 may be stored locally on the client device 12 , 14 , or 16 when a network connection is not available and in a central repository when a connection is or becomes available . where capture engine is implemented on production service 24 , step 104 can include acquiring the content item or representation thereof from client device 12 , 14 , or 16 or using a reference acquired from client device 12 , 14 , or 16 . continuing with fig8 , it is determined , at a second later time , that one of the plurality of printers has the desired characteristic ( step 106 ). referring to fig2 , step 106 may be implemented by monitor engine 36 . printer characteristics can include locations and features . a desired characteristic can be a user specified feature or a feature that is compatible with the content item . examples include color and photo printing capabilities . other examples include duplexing and binding . step 106 can include determining that the one of the plurality of printers has the desired feature . desired feature may be discerned by examining the content item . for example , the content item may be a photograph , so a desired feature may be photo printing . the desired feature may be specified explicitly by a user or through a recognition of user habits . referring to fig3 , the features of a printer can be discerned from characteristic data 42 . when the characteristic in question includes location , step 106 can include determining that the user and the one of the plurality of printers share the location . this may be accomplished by detecting that the client device under the user &# 39 ; s control and the particular printer are on a common network , subnet , or domain . step 106 may include determining that the user and the printer a geographically proximate to one another using positioning data for the client device under the user &# 39 ; s control and a known location of the printer . where the client device is a smart phone , such position data can be acquired directly from the client device . the known location of the printer can be obtained , for example , from characteristic data 42 of fig3 . in a particular example , a user &# 39 ; s intent to print the content item may be captured when the user is in control of a first device such as client device 12 or 14 of fig2 . later a user may take control of a second device such as client device 16 of fig2 that shares a location with a particular printer — a kiosk at a print service provider , for example . step 106 can then include detecting that the particular printer has the desired characteristic upon detecting the user to be in control of that second device . control may be discerned when a user logs into the second device or access an application or web service using the second device . continuing with fig8 , the one of the plurality of printers is caused to produce the content item only following the determination in step 106 ( step 108 ). referring to fig2 , production engine 38 may be responsible for implementing step 108 . referring to fig7 , step 108 may include accessing or otherwise referencing production data 40 . step 108 may include rendering the content item to a print ready format and communicating the rendered content to the printer . step 108 may include communicating the content item itself or a reference for acquiring the content item to the printer or to an intermediary the renders the content item for the printer . step 104 can include capturing a user &# 39 ; s intent to print a plurality of content items during a time frame in which none of a plurality of printers has a desired characteristic . in such a case , step 106 includes determining that one of the plurality of printers has a desired characteristic with respect to one or more of the plurality of content items . step 108 then includes causing the printer to produce the one or more of the plurality of content items . the method depicted in fig8 can include , prior to step 108 , causing the user to be notified that the content item can be produced with the one of the plurality of printers determined to have the desired characteristic in step 106 . referring o fig2 , this additional step may be implemented by notification engine 34 . step 108 may then be performed automatically only upon receiving an indication to produce the content item following the notification . upon receiving an indication to print after a user selection . fig5 depicts an example of such a notification where a user is able to provide an indication to print upon selecting one or more of the controls 68 - 74 . where the intent to print has been captured for a plurality of content items , step 108 may include automatically causing the one of the plurality of printers to produce only those of the plurality of content items selected following the notification . the diagrams of fig1 - 7 show the architecture , functionality , and operation of various embodiments . various components illustrated in fig2 are defined at least in part as programs . each such component , portion thereof , or various combinations thereof may represent in whole or in part a module , segment , or portion of code that comprises one or more executable instructions to implement any specified logical function ( s ). each component or various combinations thereof may represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits to implement the specified logical function ( s ). also , the present invention can be embodied in any computer - readable media for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system such as a computer / processor based system or an asic ( application specific integrated circuit ) or other system that can fetch or obtain the logic from computer - readable media and execute the instructions contained therein . “ computer - readable media ” can be any tangible media that can contain , store , or maintain programs and data for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system . computer readable media can comprise any one of many physical media such as , for example , electronic , magnetic , optical , electromagnetic , or semiconductor media . more specific examples of suitable computer - readable media include , but are not limited to , a flash drive , a hard drive , random access memory ( ram ), read - only memory ( rom ), erasable programmable read - only memory , a compact disc , and digital video disc . although the flow diagram of fig8 shows specific orders of execution , the orders of execution may differ from that which is depicted . for example , the order of execution of two or more blocks may be scrambled relative to the order shown . also , two or more blocks shown in succession may be executed concurrently or with partial concurrence . all such variations are within the scope of the present invention . the present invention has been shown and described with reference to the foregoing exemplary embodiments . it is to be understood , however , that other forms , details and embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention that is defined in the following claims .
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referring now to fig2 and 3 , major components of a spectrofluorometer 10 are shown . optical radiation traveling along an excitation light path 12 passes into a linear variable spectral filter 14 . spectral filter 14 is a device which has bandpass wavelength characteristics which vary along its length . more particularly , at the bottom of filter 14 , one wavelength would be passed in the region defined by the dashed lines . in the next filter region above that filter region like having a different wavelength will be passed , perhaps a wavelength which is 5 nm longer . this sort of device is made by advancing a mask having the width of one of the regions illustrated in dashed lines in the figure , from one discrete position to another and applying a different multilayer structure at each position to give the corresponding stripe of bandpass material the desired optical bandpass characteristic . the manufacture of such a filter is known in the art and forms no part of the present invention . such filters may be purchased on the open market and are available from , for example , reynard corporation under their catalog no . 4610 . such a filter has a spectral range of 400 to 700 nm . it is relatively small and compact , being 60 mm long , 25 mm wide and 5 mm thick . a typical spectrum length would be 44 mm , with dispersion varying between 0 . 12 and 0 . 17 mm / nm . the linear variable spectral filters sold by this corporation tend to vary in their characteristics , with a spectrum length varying form 37 to 51 mm . matching of the filters used in the embodiment of fig2 is desirable . alternatively , a computer reading the output of the system may calibrate the software against a known source . a sample receiver 16 is located between the first spectral filter 14 and a second linear variable spectral filter 18 . sample receiver 16 is a vessel which defines a volume for receiving a sample which is to be analyzed . it may be a rectangular solid made of glass , plastic or any suitable material . it may also be as simple as a glass slide with a smear of the sample , or even a solid film of the sample material , such as tissue , paper from a paper mill whose operation is being monitored , and so forth . such a sample may be a solution derived from a material being tested , blood , the output of an hplc liquid chromatography column , or the like . if the output of an hplc column is being monitored , the receiver 16 may have a liquid input port and a drain , and the dimensions of the receiver would be such that capillary action insures the presence of sample material throughout the excited regions of receiver 16 . a close - coupled discharge ( ccd ) sensing element 20 measures the relative position and intensity of light rays traveling along a resultant light path 12 . see fig3 . sensing element 20 is preferably a ccd type of sensor although other types can be used depending upon the type of excitation light used and the sample to be tested . in fig3 and 5 , detector 20 is shown as a 36 element matrix detector . the small number of elements or pixels is merely for the convenience of illustration and the illustration of the principles of the invention . in a real device , the number of detectors easily ranges into the hundreds of thousands of elements , and , depending upon the performances desired and the nature of the software reading out the signal from the detector , the number of elements in detector 20 may range into the millions of pixels . in principle , even film can be used in place of detector 20 . an absorption spectrum and lamp profile ( without sample ) is shown as diagonal line 56 in fig5 . in connection with the preferred embodiment of the invention , a suitable sensing element is the ccd sold by instruments sa on the spectrum one . each of these elements are described in detail below . referring back to fig3 the borders defining the filter regions with different spectral characteristics in the first and second optical filters 14 and 18 are shown as dashed lines . first filter 14 is a linear variable spectral filter that changes its bandpass wavelength along the length or planar axis 15 of the filter . wavelengths outside the desired transmission ranges are blocked by the respective filter regions . in a preferred embodiment , the spectral range from 400 to 700 nm is oriented vertically , e . g ., with shortest wavelength filter region 24 at the bottom , then longer wavelength filter region 26 , still longer wavelength filter region 28 , a filter region 30 which passes a range of wavelengths longer than those of filter region 28 , a filter region 32 which passes a range of wavelengths longer than those of filter region 30 , and the longest wavelength bandpass filter region than 34 at the top . while the invention has been implemented with a spectral filter having the aforementioned wavelength characteristics , other visible and non - visible bandpass characteristics can be used depending on the nature and characteristics of the sample to be tested . the second optical filter 18 is substantially the same as the first optical filter 14 except that it is oriented in such a manner that its gradations are not in line with those of first filter 14 . the strips defining the bandpass filter regions on filter 18 are preferably at ninety degrees to those of filter 14 . the advantages of this relationship will now be described in connection with the operation of the inventive system . a light source 36 which may comprise a xenon lamp whose output is collimated by a lens or reflector , or any other suitable optical components produces an excitation white light ray bundle 38 , sometimes referred to as illumination light , that travels along excitation light path 12 with a wide range of wavelengths striking the surface of filter 14 . as white light ray bundle 38 passes through filter 14 , selected wavelengths are passed by each filter region , such that a wavelength “ gradient ” from short to long wavelengths is produced . this is referred to herein as a sample excitation light 42 . as sample excitation light 42 passes through second filter 18 , only those wavelengths of light that are not blocked pass completely through the filter 18 . since filter 18 is oriented at a right angle to filter 14 , most of sample excitation light 42 is blocked . by way of example , λ 1 passes through filter 14 and filter 18 , while λ 2 passes through filter 14 , but is blocked by filter 18 . in this manner a diagonal spectral line 56 is transmitted onto sensing element 20 . the theoretical center of this line it illustrated in fig5 by phantom line 56 . this intrinsic relationship between the two linear variable spectral filters provides for simplicity of design , ruggedness and compact size of the inventive spectrofluorometer 10 . referring now to fig4 a sample receiver 16 is located between filter 14 and filter 18 . sample receiver 16 may be any of a number of conventional sample holding types or techniques . as sample excitation light passes through sample 44 some of the light energy is converted into fluorescence emissions . the physics of this conversion are well understood and generally involve the photon of excitation radiation raising the energy level of electrons in the excited atom to a higher energy level or shell . when the electron snaps back into its unexcited state , it emits a photon with an energy level lower that the exciting photon , thus resulting in the fluorescence having a wavelength longer than the excitation wavelength . some of the sample excitation light is “ absorbed ” by sample 44 and does not contribute to the emission . the net result is to increase the kinetic energy of the atoms of the sample , and thus raise the temperature of the sample . a resultant light ray bundle 50 , exiting sample receiver 16 , comprises light rays which have exited filter 14 and fluoresence emissions from molecules that have been excited by light rays which have exited filter 14 . resultant light ray bundle 50 then passes into filter 18 where a selected wavelengths of both spectral light and fluorescent light are selectively blocked along the spectral gradient . the portions of light ray bundle 50 passing through to sensing element 20 constitutes the absorption spectrum 52 of the material being analyzed and appears along imaginary line 56 in fig5 . this can be used to identify sample 44 . as may be understood with reference to fig4 filters 14 and 18 are substantially identical , but are positioned with their bandpass filter strip filter regions 24 - 34 and 35 - 44 oriented at right angles to each other . in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention , filter region 24 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 34 . in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention , filter region 26 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 42 . filter region 28 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 40 . filter region 30 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 37 . filter region 32 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 36 . filter region 34 has the same bandpass characteristic as filter region 35 . thus , the ccd elements 70 , lying along line 56 in fig5 are the only elements that will be illuminated by the white light ray bundle 38 coming from the excitation source . moreover , because the fluorescence spectrum constitutes only wavelengths longer than the excitation wavelength , they will be blocked from reaching elements 70 by filter 18 . thus , only the absorption spectrum can be seen along imaginary line 56 to provide a first identification of the sample . likewise , because the fluorescence spectrum constitutes only wavelengths longer than the excitation wavelength , these longer wavelengths will be passed by filter 18 to those elements 58 of the ccd which lie below line 56 in fig5 . thus , the elements 58 of the ccd which lie below line 56 in fig5 produce the fluorescence emission spectra of the sample under analysis . the resultant fluorescence emission is used to identify sample 44 . referring back to fig4 the operation of the inventive system may be better understood . in particular , the output of the xenon lamp 36 constituting a broadband emission which is collimated into white light ray bundle 38 is caused to fall on filter 14 , which outputs a plurality of stripes of light energy at different wavelengths . because filters 14 and 18 are very thin , as is sample container 16 , the output of filter 14 is effectively “ imaged ” on the sample in sample receiver 16 . the output of sample container 16 is likewise effectively “ imaged ” on filter 18 . finally , in turn , the output of filter 18 is effectively “ imaged ” on the surface of ccd elements 58 . the system works because all of the above thin elements are in contact with each other and ccd 20 to form the sandwich illustrated in fig2 . as noted above , light ray 72 , which is one of the light rays in white light bundle 38 , because it is in the bandpass range of filter region 34 on filter 14 , and , naturally , in the bandpass of optically identical filter region 35 , will pass through both filters and fall on ccd 20 , if it is not absorbed by the sample . the same is true for light ray 74 , which is in the bandpass of filter regions 24 and 44 . light rays 76 and 78 will , on the other hand , be blocked by filter 18 , after being limited to the different bandpass of facing filter regions of filter 14 . moreover , any fluorescence emissions 77 and 79 , corresponding respectively to light rays 76 and 78 will also be blocked by filter 18 , as they must be longer in wavelength than the bandpass of the filter region of filter 14 that they pass through , and they fall on filter regions of filter 18 that are formed by filter regions that have shorter wavelength bandpass characteristics . in contrast , light ray 80 has a wavelength corresponding to filter region 28 , and thus more energy than light passed by filter region 36 . thus , it is physically possible that the sample will fluoresce with a lower energy and correspondingly longer wavelength light ray 81 that will pass through filter region 36 of filter 18 . likewise , highest energy light ray 82 which passes through filter region 26 and the sample may emit a low energy photon 83 , which passes through filter region 35 and falls on the ccd detector . conversely , it is physically impossible that a sample will fluoresce with a higher energy and correspondingly shorter wavelength . thus , a photon of light energy 84 passing through filter region 34 of filter 18 has the lowest energy in the system and the sample cannot emit a higher energy photon , and thus any light 85 , whether transmitted or emitted by the sample will be blocked by filter region 38 which has a shorter bandpass wavelength than filter region 34 . thus , any such light will not reach the ccd detector . referring to fig6 it can be seen that line 56 , in the case where filter 14 is identical to filter 18 , is a simple diagonal line . however , due to the nature of the manufacturing process use to produce filters 14 and 18 , the layout of the various bandpass filter regions varies rather considerably . accordingly , it is necessary to accommodate such variations if one cannot go to the trouble of trying to match identical filters very carefully . such variations may cause line 56 to shift to the position illustrated by reference number 56 a in fig6 . such variation occurs because the distance of oval which the series of spectral filters is dispersed is greater in filter 18 as compared to filter 14 . in the case of such variations , it is merely necessary to calibrate the software to the pattern on ccd 20 . this can be done by determining the presence of the absorption spectrum and then mathematically adjusting the position of the fluorescence spectrum accordingly . this is done on the basis that the opposite ends of the absorption spectrum represent the horizontal and vertical limits of the fluorescence spectrum . such determination can most easily be made without having a sample in the inventive fluorescence instrument 10 . as is alluded to above , filters 14 and 18 are made by depositing stripes of material which form bandpass filters on a substrate . as is also alluded to above , maximizing the thinness of instrument 10 will also maximize performance . more precisely , improved performance can be obtained by minimizing the distance between the active filter layer of filters 14 and 18 as well as minimizing the distance between the active layer of filter 18 and the sensitive face of detector 20 . thus , exceedingly thin substrates may be used to optimize the performance of the instrument . yet another approach is illustrated in fig7 . in fig7 the convention of labeling parts with identical or analogous functions with numbers which vary by multiples of 100 has been followed . in fig7 the inventive spectrofluorometer 110 is excited by excitation light 138 along path 112 . excitation light 138 first falls on filter 114 , causing it to pass through the active layer 115 of filter 114 on the far side of filter 114 . light 138 then passes through the sample in receiver or carrier 116 . light 138 then passes through the active layer 117 of filter 116 . active layers 115 and 117 are formed on the substrates of their respective filters . such substrates may be glass , plastic or any other suitable material . after passing through active layer 117 , light 138 passes through the substrate of filter 116 and on to the sensitive face of detector 120 , from which it is sent to a computer or other suitable device for interpreting and displaying the output of the detector . yet another approach is shown in fig8 . here spectrofluorometer 220 is excited by excitation light 238 along path 212 . excitation light 238 first falls on filter 214 , causing it to pass through the active layer 215 of filter 214 on the far side of filter 214 . light 238 then passes through the sample in receiver or carrier 216 . light 238 then passes through the active filter layer 217 , which is disposed and manufactured onto the output face of carrier or receiver 216 . alternatively , active filter layer 217 may be disposed on and manufactured onto the input face of detector 220 . after passing through active layer 217 , light 238 passes onto the sensitive face of detector 220 , from which it is sent to a computer or other suitable device for interpreting and displaying the output of the detector . as will the apparent from fig8 the distance between filtered light exiting the first active bandpass layer in the inventive system 220 , and the sensitive face of detector 220 is minimized in fig8 . accordingly , light which is not traveling perpendicular to the faces of the filters , then , accordingly , is dispersed in itself , travels over a minimized path length and , accordingly , the dispersion is minimized , thus eliminating the need for the focusing optics , which are so important in prior art systems . referring to fig9 a spectrofluorometer 310 having the feature of being able to block the excitation wavelength of the system is illustrated . this is desirable because the amplitude of the excitation wavelength will often spread and overload the detector receiving light from adjacent filter regions . the instrument illustrated in fig9 operates in the same manner as the instrument illustrated in fig4 except for this additional feature . in particular , it has a filter 314 , a sample carrier 316 , a filter 318 , and a detector 320 . the characteristics of all of these systems is the same as the instrument illustrated in fig4 . however , it also has a spectral band reject filter 354 , which is aligned , filter region by filter region , to substantially identically opposite filter 314 . more particularly , in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention , filter region 323 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 324 . in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention , filter region 325 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 326 . filter region 327 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 328 . filter region 329 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 330 . filter region 331 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 332 . filter region 333 has a band reject characteristic with the same wavelength range as the wavelength range of the bandpass characteristic of filter region 334 . the blocking of excitation wavelengths is thus assured and the detection of low amplitude fluorescence signals is enhanced . another embodiment , shown in fig1 , is substantially identical to the instrument of fig9 except that active filter layer 415 of spectrofluorometer 410 is deposited on the substrate of filter 414 on the side of filter 414 closer to the sample to be analyzed , and active filter layers 417 and 455 are deposited on the sensitive face of ccd 420 ( on the side of filter 414 closer to the sample to be analyzed ). this is done in order to minimize the lengths of paths of dispersion , and thus minimize dispersion and optimize the operation of the instrument . active filter layer 455 is identical to filter 354 in fig9 . active filter layer 415 is made by advancing a mask along the substrate of filter 414 having the width of one of the regions illustrated in the figure , from one region to the next and applying the appropriate multilayer structure at each position to give the desired stripe of bandpass material the desired optical bandpass characteristic . active filter layer 417 is made by performing the same process , first applying to the sensitive face of ccd 420 the same series of different multilayer structures at their respective positions to give the corresponding stripes of filter layer 417 the desired optical bandpass characteristic . ccd 420 is then rotated in the plane of its sensitive face by 90 degrees . active filter layer 455 is made by advancing , along the rotated substrate of ccd 420 , a mask having the width of one of the regions illustrated in fig1 , from one region to the next and applying the appropriate multilayer structure at each position to give the desired stripe of band reject material the desired optical band reject characteristic . when the process is completed , the result is a filter layer 455 is the band reject analog of bandpass filter layer 415 . in accordance with the present invention , it is may be desirable , in order to accommodate the insertion of different sample receivers or carriers 416 , to vary the distance between filter layers 415 and 417 . this may be achieved by mounting filter 414 on a horizontally moveable table 491 or other mechanism . this enables movement in the directions indicated by arrow 492 . the positions of layers 417 and 455 may be reversed by reversing their order of deposit . likewise , the active filter layers may be deposited on the sample receiver or carrier to provide sample carriers that have filter patterns which may embody the operation of any of the systems described above . such sample carriers may be specialized to optimize the analysis of certain classes of analysis tasks , such as blood work , where it may be desirable to perform special filtering , to block , transmit or study certain portions of the spectrum . one or more filter layers may be placed on either or both sides of the sample carrier . while an illustrative embodiment of the invention has been described , it is , of course , understood that various modifications of the invention may be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is limited and defined only by the appended claims .
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fig1 shows an exemplary ofdma pon architecture . the system of fig1 supports communication between olt 10 and onus 1 - n through splitter 20 . in the system of fig1 , upstream / downstream data traffic is transmitted over one wavelength channel , which is further divided into ofdm subcarriers . each ofdma subcarrier can be allocated to different onus 1 - n in different time slots . to avoid collision in accessing upstream ofdma subcarriers , proper control schemes are used to coordinate data transmissions of onus 1 - n . in scheme 1 , the current mac protocols of tdm pons are adapted to an ofdma pon . basically , tdm pons including epon and gpon employ the following upstream bandwidth control scheme : onus report their queue length information to olt using the time slot specified by olt ; olt allocates time slots in a frame / cycle to onus and notifies onus with its decisions ; onus transmit their data traffic over time slots allocated by olt . with this scheme , all subcarriers are shared among all onus . thus , statistical multiplexing gain among traffic of onus can be exploited . however , onus need to synchronize with olt . in scheme 2 , the system divides all ofdma subcarriers into multiple non - overlapping sets , each of which is fixedly allocated to an onu . since no sharing of ofdma subcarriers exists among different onus , onus can send their traffic over the dedicated subcarriers any time they want without getting collision . the communication between olt and an onu can be actually regarded as a point - to - point system . the elimination of synchronization need , mac control protocols , and sophisticated inter - onu bandwidth arbitration algorithms simplifies the onu structure , and thus reducing the onu cost . however , low bandwidth utilization and therefore low network performance will be resulted due to the failure of exploiting statistical multiplexing gain . the low bandwidth utilization problem is not negligible particularly in pons where the onu traffic exhibits bursty and strong self - similarity which is characteristics of many user applications such as variable bit rate video . to eliminate the synchronization need and also exploit the traffic statistical gain , a third mac control protocol can be used . similar to scheme 1 , onus report its traffic information to olt , and olt allocates subcarriers to onus based on the real - time onu reports . similar to scheme 2 , each onu is dedicated with upstream / downstream ofdma subcarriers . however , these dedicated ofdma subcarriers are used for control message transmission only . olt sends out the grant message to an onu right before the allocated time begins , i . e ., the grant is sent out at time t − rtti , where t is the beginning time of the allocation to onu i , and rtti refers to the round trip time between olt and onu i . the grant message contains the allocated subcarriers and the time duration on each allocated subcarriers . upon receiving grants sent from olt , an onu immediately starts its data transmission on the allocated subcarriers for the time duration specified in the grant message . taking advantages of the abundance of ofdma subcarriers , the third mac protocol for ofdma pon enables the asynchronous property of onus but also exploits the statistical multiplexing gain of onu traffic . the protocol is uniquely applicable in ofdma pons with abundance sub - channels . the advantageous properties of the protocol further leverage the advantages of ofdma pon as compared to tdm pon and wdm pons . fig2 illustrates an exemplary pon architecture with control channels 50 . fig2 shows that a number of subcarriers are dedicated for control message transmission and the other subcarriers are shared by all onus 1 - n . fig3 shows that onus can keep updating their queue status to olt using its control channel , and olt sends out the grant to onus just before the allocation time begins . in this embodiment , rtti (∀ i ) is known to olt during the onu registration process . the protocol separates control channel from data channel . by dedicating each onu with one control channel , the control message can be transmitted any time without constraints . the protocol also sends out the grant message to an onu just before the allocated time is about to start . then , an onu can send out its data traffic immediately after receiving the grant message without synchronizing with the olt clock . in one embodiment , each onu is dedicated with one or more upstream / downstream ofdma subcarrier for its control message transmission . by using dedicated subcarriers for control message transmission , each onu keeps updating its queue information to olt such that olt can own the latest queue information of onus . all the other ofdma subcarriers except those dedicated for control message transmission are shared among all onus . olt sends out grant messages to an onu just before the allocated time duration to the onu is about to begin , and an onu begins its data traffic transmission immediately after receiving the grant message . the system of fig2 exhibits three main advantages . first , with dedicated upstream control subcarriers for each onu , an onu can update its latest queue status to olt and make sure olt get the most recent queue information . second , with the dedicated downstream control subcarriers , olt can send the grant just before the allocated time begins such that onus can begin transmission immediately after receiving grants without synchronizing with the olt clock . third , all the other ofdm subcarriers besides control subcarriers are shared by onus , thus facilitating the exploration of the statistical multiplexing gain . to eliminate the synchronization need and also exploit the traffic statistical gain , one embodiment of a mac control protocol contains the following : in order to exploit the statistical multiplexing gain , the report / grant control mechanism is employed . that is to say , onus report their traffic information to olt , and olt allocates subcarriers to onus based on the real - time onu reports . each onu is dedicated with some upstream / downstream ofdma subcarriers . however , these dedicated ofdma subcarriers are used for control message transmission only . olt sends out the grant message to an onu just before the allocated time begins , i . e ., the grant is sent out at time t i rtt i , where t is the beginning time of the allocation to onu i , and rtt i refers to the round trip time between olt and onu i . the grant message contains the allocated subcarriers and the time duration on each allocated subcarriers . upon receiving grants sent from olt , an onu immediately starts its data transmission on the allocated subcarriers for the time duration specified in the grant message . the system eliminates the synchronization needs of onus while exploiting the traffic statistical multiplexing gain by taking advantage of the abundance of ofdma subcarriers . in ofdma pon , ofdma is used as the network modulation and access scheme . the system divides the upstream / downstream bandwidth in baseband into multiple subcarriers with orthogonal frequencies . these subcarriers are dynamically allocated to different onus based on their real - time incoming traffic information . to eliminate the synchronization needs of onus , the following is done : 1 ) each onu is dedicated with one or more upstream / downstream subcarriers for the transmission of control messages only . by using the dedicated control channel , onus can report to olt any time the traffic arrives , and olt can send grant messages to onus at any time . 2 ) olt sends out grant messages to an onu just before the transmission of the onu begins , and an onu begins data transmission immediately after receiving grant control message instead of transmitting at the time stamp specified in the grant message . with this scheme , onus do not need to maintain synchronization with the olt clock . fig3 shows that onus can keep updating their queue status to olt using its dedicated upstream control channel , and olt sends out the grant to an onu just before the allocation time begins . an onu begins its data transmission immediately after receiving the grant message sent from olt . rtti ( 8i ) is known to olt during the onu registration process . then , olt can derive the time that the grant should be sent . next , the packet delay and throughput performances produced by the mac control scheme are simulated . in this simulation , the pon supports 32 onus , and onus are 20 km away from olt . rtti , ∀ i is set as 0 . 2 ms . the upstream / downstream data rate is set as 10 gb / s , and 2048 ofdma subcarriers are tested , among which each onu is dedicated with one subcarrier for control message transmission . then , each onu is allocated with 4 . 88 mb / s upstream / downstream bandwidth for control traffic , and an onu can update its queue information every 10 . 5 μs if the length of the report message equals to 64 bytes . for the onu traffic , a finite time horizon with the time duration of 8 seconds is chosen . the traffic of an onu arrives in bursts , and the burst size obeys pareto distribution with the pareto index α = 1 . 4 and the mean equals to 31 . 25 k bytes , which takes about 25 μs to transmit if all ofdma subcarriers except those dedicating for control messages are allocated to it . the burst inter - arrival time also obeys the pareto distribution with α = 1 . 4 . the mean is varied to produce different network traffic loads . fig4 a compares the delay performance produced by the three mac control schemes . traffic load is defined as the ratio between the total arrival traffic over the network capacity . in scheme 2 , each onu is fixedly assigned with 2048 / 32 = 64 subcarriers for their data transmission . in the other two schemes , all subcarriers except those dedicating for control messages are allocated to the same onu at a time . thus , scheme 2 produces longer packet transmission delay as compared to the other two schemes . when the network is lightly loaded , the transmission delay dominates the overall delay , and hence scheme 2 yields the largest delay among the three schemes under this traffic condition . besides , in our proposed scheme , traffic arrival can be immediately reported to olt while the incoming traffic has to wait for some time before being reported in scheme 2 . thus , when the network is lightly loaded that queuing delay is negligible , our proposed scheme yields smaller delay than scheme 2 . fig4 a shows that the proposed scheme produces the smallest delay when the network load is as large as 0 . 97 . when the network is heavily loaded ( load & gt ; 0 . 97 as shown in fig4 a ), the proposed scheme results in the largest delay because of the large queuing delay resulted by reduced number of subcarriers for data transmission . fig4 b compares the throughput performance of the three schemes . when load & lt ; 0 . 93 , throughput of the three schemes are similar , which equals to the arrival traffic rate ; when load & gt ; 0 . 93 , throughput of scheme 2 is the smallest because of the failure of exploiting the statistical multiplexing gain , and throughput of our proposed scheme is slightly smaller than that of scheme 1 because 32 ofdma subcarriers are dedicated for control message transmission . in sum , an efficient mac control protocol for ofdma pon is disclosed that exploits the abundance of ofdma subcarriers . with the preferred embodiment , packet delay is reduced since the onu traffic can be immediately reported to onu upon arrival ; traffic statistical multiplexing gain is exploited since ofdma subcarriers are dynamically assigned to onus according to their real - time traffic . more importantly , the synchronization need is eliminated at onu side , thus simplifying the onu constitution and reducing the onu cost .
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referring to fig1 a representation of a patient &# 39 ; s intra - abdominal cavity 10 is illustrated . this is the area within a patient &# 39 ; s abdomen , behind the abdominal wall 12 , where internal organs are located . two conventional , laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 are shown in fig1 having been inserted through the abdominal wall 12 of the patient , such that the ports extend into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 . before proceeding with a detailed description of the present invention , a brief description of the laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 is first provided . laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 both include a cylindrically - shaped , hollow tube 18 extending forwardly from an enlarged , generally rectangular body portion 20 . at the forward end of the body portion 20 , adjacent the hollow tube 18 , are two shoulders 22 , projecting laterally from opposite sides of the body portion 20 . each shoulder is generally in the shape of a right triangle to present an abutment for the user &# 39 ; s fingers when grasping the port . the hollow tube 18 mates with the body portion 20 so that the longitudinal axes of each part are coincident . the laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 are inserted into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 up to near the body portion 20 . the remaining portions of the laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 are disposed outside the body of the patient . laparoscopic operating port 16 includes a valve 24 , for the introduction of pressurization gas into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 . valve 24 on laparoscopic operating port 16 is shown attached to a delivery tube 26 . the other end of the tube 26 , in turn , connects to a source of pressurization gas 28 . when valve 24 on laparoscopic operating port 16 is open , pressurization gas flows from source 28 , through tube 26 , through valve 24 , and through the laparoscopic operating port 16 into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 of the patient . the intra - abdominal cavity 10 is normally pressurized in this way with carbon dioxide during a laparoscopic surgery to approximately 15 mm hg . this properly inflates the intra - abdominal cavity 10 , permitting medical procedures to be more easily accomplished within the intra - abdominal cavity . the body portions 20 of the laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 have an internal passageway 30 extending through it coincident with the longitudinal axis of the body portion . the hollow tube 18 mates with the body portion 20 of the laparoscopic operating port 14 , 16 , such that internal passageway 30 extends from hollow tube 18 through body portion 20 of the laparoscopic operating port . the laparoscopic operating ports 14 , 16 include an internal gate valve , not shown , for closing off the internal passageway 30 within the body portions 20 . pivot handles 34 are provided for manually operating the valves . when the valve is closed , its handle 34 is positioned generally perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of hollow tube 18 and body portion 20 . ideally , the valve is spring biased in closed position . when the handle 34 is rotated clockwise approximately 30 °, the valve is opened . a lip seal 32 is located just inside the rearward entrance to the internal passageway 30 , in the body portion 20 of laparoscopic operating ports 14 , 16 . seal 32 is generally annularly shaped and surrounds the internal passageway 30 . seal 32 is designed to extend around instruments that are inserted into laparoscopic operating ports 14 , 16 through the gate valve as long as the exterior size of the instrument closely corresponds with the interior size of the port , to prevent fluid leakage through passageway 30 of the laparoscopic operating ports 14 , 16 , and into the environment . a medical instrument 36 is shown inserted through laparoscopic operating port 16 and into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 of the patient . the seal 32 , within the internal passageway of the port , presses against the circumference of the instrument 36 as it is inserted into the port and substantially prevents pressurization gas from escaping through the port while instrument 36 is being used . a drain tube 38 is shown inserted through the laparoscopic operating port 14 . the seal 32 within the laparoscopic operating port 14 presses against the tube 38 to prevent the leakage of fluid between the port and the tube . a plug 40 in accordance with the present invention is shown inserted into the end of the drain tube 38 that extends through laparoscopic operating portion 14 into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 of the patient . illustrated in fig2 is an enlarged view of the plug 40 , shown engaged with the drain tube 38 . the plug 40 is preferably made of plastic , or other appropriate material , that is lightweight , substantially impervious to the passage of fluids , and has good moisture resistant properties to body fluids . in a preferred embodiment , the plug is of integral , one - piece construction . in alternate embodiments , the different sections of the plug may be separately formed and then combined . the plug 40 includes an elongated insertion section 42 which is sized to be inserted into the end of the drain tube 38 . drain tubes , such as tube 38 , used in laparoscopic surgery typically have internal diameters ranging from about 5 to 10 mm . the insertion section 42 is substantially cylindrical in shape having a rounded , generally hemispherical distal end 44 . the hemispherical shape of the distal end 44 facilitates insertion of the plug 40 into the drain tube 38 . preferably , the diameter of the insertion section 42 is sized such that the insertion section 42 can be snugly slid into the end of the drain tube 38 . the plug 40 includes a retaining section 46 that extends longitudinally from the opposite end of the insertion section 42 . the retaining section 46 is substantially cylindrical and is generally coaxially aligned with the insertion section 42 . the retaining section is substantially shorter in length relative to the insertion section 42 . the diameter of the retaining section 46 is somewhat less , at least 0 . 02 inch , than the diameter of the insertion section 42 . the insertion section 42 of the plug 40 is inserted into the drain tube 38 until the drain tube 38 extends beyond the proximal end of the insertion section , and surrounds the retaining section 46 . because the insertion section 42 snugly fits within the drain tube 38 , the drain tube 38 is somewhat radially stretched as the insertion section is inserted therein . thus , when the end of the drain tube 38 is slid past the proximal end of the insertion section 42 , the drain tube tends to radially contract around the smaller diameter retaining section 46 . this helps to retain the drain tube 38 over the insertion section 42 of the plug 40 . the plug also includes a gasping section 48 that extends longitudinally from the end of the retaining section 46 , in the direction opposite the insertion section 42 . the gasping section 48 preferably includes a generally cylindrical portion 50 that extends substantially coaxially from the retaining section 46 . ideally , but not mandatorily , the cylindrical portion is larger in diameter than the diameter of the insertion section 42 . thus , the plug 40 is inserted into the drain tube 38 until the end of the drain tube abuts the cylindrical portion 50 . the larger diameter of the cylindrical portion 50 therefore serves as a stop to limit the distance the plug 40 is inserted into the drain tube 38 . however , preferably the diameter of the cylindrical portion 50 does not exceed the outside diameter of the drain tube 38 as will be discussed more fully below . the gasping section of the plug 40 also includes a generally conical portion 52 extending substantially coaxially from the end of the cylindrical portion 50 , opposite the retaining section 46 . the conical portion 52 gradually decreases in diameter to a distal tip 56 . a thin tab 58 extends from the tip 56 . preferably , the tab 58 is generally in the shape of a circle . however , in alternate embodiments of the present invention , the tab 58 may have other geometries , such as an oval , or a triangle by way of illustrative , nonlimiting examples . in the preferred embodiment , the tab 58 extends from the conical portion 52 such that the central axis of the tab 58 is generally aligned with the central axis of the conical portion 52 . preferably , the tab 58 includes a generally planar central region 60 which is surrounded by a marginal rim 62 that projects on either side of the planar region 60 to form a raised , annular lip . the tab may be quite thin , but still be of sufficient structural integrity to be gasped by the instrument 36 and the attached tube 38 pulled through port 14 and out port 16 , as described below . in this regard , if the plug 40 is composed of polypropylene , polyurethane or similar polymer plastic , the tab may be of a thickness of from about 0 . 01 to 0 . 04 inches . the lip may extend above and below the tab from about 0 . 01 to 0 . 04 inches . in alternate embodiments , the planar area 60 of the tab can be eliminated , leaving a loop , or opening bounded by the rim 62 . in the alternate embodiments , the rim 62 may be flexible . thus the ring may be formed of string , nylon filament , plastic or other similar materials . in general , the purpose of the loop or tab 58 is to form a projecting member that presents a thin cross section for grasping by the medical instrument 36 . the plug 40 is used as follows : prior to inserting the tube 38 through a laparoscopic operating port 14 , the plug 40 is inserted into the drain tube 38 . thereafter , the plug 40 is inserted through the laparoscopic operating port 14 into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 of the patient , with the drain tube 38 trailing the plug 40 . the plug 40 serves to substantially seal the end of the drain tube 38 so that pressurization gas within the intra - abdominal cavity 10 cannot escape through the drain tube while it is being inserted through the laparoscopic operating port 14 . after the plug 40 has been inserted into the intra - abdominal cavity 10 , a medical instrument 36 is extended through a second laparoscopic operating port 16 . the end of the instrument 36 is used to grasp the tab 58 at the end of the plug 40 . subsequently , the instrument 36 is withdrawn through the second laparoscopic operating port 16 , thereby threading the plug 40 and drain tube 38 through the second laparoscopic operating port . thus , it is desirable that the largest outside diameter of the plug 40 not exceed the outside diameter of the drain tube 38 to facilitate threading the plug and drain tube through the ports 14 and 16 . the drain tube 38 and plug 40 are withdrawn through the second laparoscopic operating port 16 , until the trailing end of the drain tube 38 is properly positioned within the intra - abdominal cavity 10 . when the trailing end of the drain tube 38 has been properly positioned and the surgical procedure completed , the laparoscopic operating ports 14 and 16 are removed . in particular , the second laparoscopic operating port 16 is withdrawn over the drain tube 38 , and the skin tissue of the patient is sutured around the drain tube 38 . the use of the plug 40 in accordance with the present invention provides several advantages . first , the plug 40 serves to substantially seal the end of the drain tube 38 when it is being inserted through the laparoscopic operating port 14 . this prevents pressurization gas in the intra - abdominal cavity 10 of the patient from escaping through the drain tube 38 . second , the tab 58 at the end of the plug 40 facilitates grasping by the medical instrument 36 . moreover , tab 58 is thin enough that when the medical instrument 36 is grasping the plug 40 , the jaws of the instrument do not remain open to the extent that the medical instrument cannot be withdrawn through the laparoscopic operating port 16 . if the plug is not used so that the instrument must clamp on to the end of the tube 38 itself , the jaws of the medical instrument 36 remain open to the extent that the medical instrument cannot be withdrawn through the laparoscopic operating port 16 . third , the rim 62 around the outer periphery of the tab 58 serves to facilitate a firm grasp by the medical instrument 36 , i . e ., help prevent the jaws of the instrument from disengaging from the tab . as noted above , in alternate embodiments , the central planar area 60 of the tab 58 may be removed , leaving a loop . thus , in the alternate embodiments , a medical instrument having a hook - type end could be used to hook the loop . fourth , the conical portion 52 of the plug 40 serves to center the plug as it is being drawn into the second laparoscopic operating port 16 by the medical instrument 36 . in alternate embodiments , the cylindrical portion 50 of the plug 40 can be eliminated . the plug 40 also provides advantages in surgical procedures that are accomplished without the use of laparoscopic operating ports . as discussed above in the background of the invention section of this specification , a drain tube is typically extended out of a second , smaller incision , separate from the major incision through which the surgical procedure is performed . when it is desired to extend a drain tube 38 out of the second , smaller incision , the drain tube , having the plug 40 engaged therewith , may be inserted into the patient through the major incision . a medical instrument 36 inserted through the second , smaller incision , can be used to grasp tab 58 of the plug 40 . the drain tube 38 is threaded through the second , smaller incision by withdrawing the medical instrument from the smaller incision . use of the plug 40 in the foregoing manner is advantageous because the medical instrument 36 can be used to more readily and securely grasp the tab 58 of the plug , as opposed to the drain tube 38 itself . further , the tab 58 is significantly thinner than the drain tube 38 . thus , the jaws of the medical instrument 36 are substantially contracted even when grasping the tab 58 . the medical instrument 36 can therefore be used to thread the drain tube 38 through a smaller incision to help reduce patient trauma and recovery time . the same advantages are provided in alternative embodiments where the planar area 60 of the tab is removed to form a loop for grasping by the medical instrument 36 . finally , the conical portion 52 of the plug 40 serves to center the plug as it is being withdrawn through the second , smaller incision . while a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described , it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .
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fig1 and 2 are diagrams showing one embodiment of an ion source 15 . electrons e emitted by a heated filament 1 are accelerated by an electric field e1 produced by a split cylindrical electrode 10 . they penetrate into a magnetic induction field b produced by ring - shaped magnets 2 and 3 . in the air gap 4 they describe circular trajectories such as 5 having the outside circumference 6 of the magnets as their envelope . the ions formed in the vicinity of this circumference are directed by the induction b ( dashed line trajectories 7 ) towards an accelerating electric field e2 produced between two split cylindrical electrodes 11 and 12 which then injects the ions into the analyzer system ( not shown ). fig3 and 4 show a simplified embodiment of the analyzer system . the above - described ion source 15 is in the center of the system . the ions are injected radially into the gap between two ring - shaped magnets 13 and 14 at a kinetic energy corresponding to the accelerating potential v . they describe circular trajectories of radius r =( 1 / b )√( 2mv / e ). for a given value v , all the trajectories corresponding to the same mass have an envelope in the form of a large circle of radius : ## equ1 ## the ions are selected by a circular slot 16 of radius ro provided in a screen 17 disposed between the magnets 13 and 14 . the slot 16 is disposed between two reflector electrodes 18 and 19 which produce a field e3 . for r ≃ ro , the ions pass through the slot and continue their circular trajectory towards the axis of the system and are captured by a mutiplier 20 . ( each mass corresponds to a value of v such that r = ro . by varying v , it is possible to successively select all masses ). fig5 and 6 show an inverse embodiment : the source of ions is of the same type as in the preceding example but it is located around the analyzer system in this case . the same references designate the same items , but in this case the filament 1 is outside the magnets 2 and 3 and these are disposed around the magnets 13 and 14 . the ions describe circular arcs in the magnet gap 21 of radius : ## equ2 ## at the output from the gap 21 they receive a small axial speed component by virtue of a field e4 produced by an annular electrode 22 . this action is selective and is more marked for ions which pass this electrode at a small angle . the ions are then distributed by a radial electric field e5 produced between cylindrical electrodes 23 and 24 , with the electrode 24 including a slot 15 . ions which have a quasi - circular trajectory between the cylinders ( mv 2 / r = ee ( r )) may leave the analysis space without encountering the inside cylinder 23 and are collected by the multiplier 20 . in fig6 the potentials of the various electrodes are illustrated by a potential divider 51 . fig7 and 8 show an inverse embodiment like the preceding embodiment , but in which the radial electric field e5 of the previous example is replaced by a second magnetic induction b2 produced by magnets 26 and 27 situated at the center of the ring magnets 13 and 14 . the magnetic field b2 is in the opposite direction to the field b1 produced by the magnets 13 and 14 . the trajectories have the shape shown in fig7 . an annular electrode 28 raised to a potential which is slightly less than that in the space filled with the field b2 collects only those ions whose trajectory is at least partially parallel with the electrode 28 . it will be observed that in this case ( two oppositely directed magnetic fields ) a magnetic circuit can be provided which is closed by external yokes . in all the systems described , the resolution can be further improved by causing the magnetic induction to increase or decrease with distance from the axis ( by using conical gaps ). to clarify ideas on the dimensions of the device , it may be noted that the overall diameter is approximately equal to three or four times the radius r of the ion trajectories . for b = 2 . 10 - 2 wb / m 2 , ( a value which is easily obtained ), and for v varying from 1600 to 16 v , and for the mass number from 100 to 1 , ( mv / e = c ), it turns out that r = 1 . 10 - 2 m . the outside diameter of the apparatus is thus about ten centimeters . such apparatus is essentially intended for qualitative and quantitative analysis of gas mixtures at low pressure , a problem which is fundamental to manufacturing numerous electronic components in vacuo . in prior devices , a very long ion source injects a sheet of ions parallel to the surface of the pole parts of a magnetic circuit , said sheet substantially occupying the mid plane of the system . all ions having the same mass number describe circular orbits of equal radius . the set of these orbits give a common tangential envelope along which ion density is at a maximum and where they are collected under identical conditions . compared with existing magnetic spectrometers , systems in accordance with the invention have two essential advantages : ( 1 ) the sensitivity of a spectrograph is the product of the source ion density and the useful volume of the source . this volume is proportional to the length of the ion extraction slot . in the present invention the slot is parallel ( and not perpendicular ) to the plane of the pole parts . it is thus very long ( like the ion source ) without increasing the gap in the magnetic circuit . the sensitivity can thus be much greater . ( 2 ) all the ion trajectories are in the mid plane of the gap and the gap can therefore be of reduced size . the bulk of the magnetic circuit is thus greatly reduced . it may be observed that in conventional devices the extraction slot is perpendicular to the plane of the pole parts . its length and the useful volume of the ion source cannot be increased , even slightly , without giving rise to an excessively large magnetic circuit . the magnetic circuits are ring shaped . the variant embodiment now described completes the definition of the source , and of the collector , and develops a particular case which corresponds to selecting an infinite value for the radius of the ring . the geometry is then rectilinear and the implementation of the magnetic circuit is greatly simplified . reference is made to fig9 which is a cross section through the device . it comprises a soft iron magnetic circuit 30 whose section , as can be seen in fig9 is c - shaped and which defines a gap between two facing pole faces 31 and 32 , which gap is in the form of a very elongate rectangular parallelipiped . magnets 33 and 34 produce the magnetic field . two filaments , 35 and 36 are placed in the gap and parallel thereto . an extraction slot 42a is likewise parallel to the filaments . the source is immersed in a weak magnetic field obtained by a shunt from the main magnetic circuit . the electrons emitted by the filaments 35 and 36 are accelerated by a potential of about 100 volts between the filaments and the slotted electrodes 37 and 38 . they describe helical trajectories in the ionization chamber and they are reflected by two auxiliary electrodes 39 and 40 which are at a potential which is slightly negative : the trajectories can thus be very long . a variable potential v for extracting and accelerating ions is established between electrodes 41 and 42 . this potential could penetrate far enough into the ionization chamber to extract the ions . however , the ions would then not be formed in a region which was strictly equipotential , and this would lead to a degree of dispersion in their initial speeds . this effect may be eliminated and resolution may be improved by adding two grids 43 and 44 and a repulsion electrode 45 which is raised to a positive potential . after being injected into the magnetic circuit gap 46 , ions of the same mass number n describe circular trajectories in the mid plane having the same radius r : ## equ3 ## ( where e = proton charge ; m = proton mass ; b = induction ). for a suitable value of v , all the trajectories corresponding to ions of the same mass number have their common tangent level with the rectilinear deflection electrodes 47 . the corresponding ions are captured by a faraday cage 48 . by varying v , ions of different masses can be successively captured . to keep the value of v in a reasonable range , a system may be used having two ion sources and two collectors . the first collector ( closer to the source ) serves to select masses in the range 10 to 1 , and the second serves to collect masses in the range 100 to 10 for a given scan voltage v in the range 100 to 100 volts . finally , the profile of the pole parts 49 and 50 may be modified as shown diagrammatically in fig1 . the radius of curvature of the trajectories is thus greatly increased at the collector , thereby improving resolution without greatly increasing bulk . relative to existing mass spectrographs , such a system has greatly increased sensitivity and much reduced bulk . it is thus naturally intended for applications where high sensitivity is required with minimum bulk . ( gas analysis in ultra - high vacuum systems , helium detection , monitoring gases in industrial processes , etc . ).
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a molded case circuit breaker 10 is shown in fig1 wherein a plastic cover 7 and case 11 support a load lug 12 at one end , which is connected to a heater 14 by means of a load strap 13 . a thermally responsive element such as a bimetal 15 is arranged ahead of the heater and in thermal proximity therewith . the heater electrically connects with a movable contact arm or carrier 16 , hereafter &# 34 ; contact carrier &# 34 ;, by means of a contact carrier support 9 , which is electrically connected with the heater by means of a rigid conductor 8 . to promote good electrical conductivity , the contact carrier is made of copper or a copper alloy . the contact carrier is arranged to pivot about a pivot pin 44 upon the occurrence of a severe overcurrent condition independent of the circuit breaker operating mechanism , which is generally depicted at 58 . the electric circuit through the breaker is completed by the transfer of current between the movable contact 17 attached to the contact carrier and a fixed contact 18 , which connects with the line terminal screw 20 by means of the line terminal strap 19 . the contact carrier connects with the operating mechanism by means of a lower link 21 , which in turn connects with an upper link 22 through a toggle pin 26 . a pair of operating springs 23 connect between the toggle pin and the operating handle yoke 24 , one on each side of the upper link , and are moved overcenter from the on and off positions by means of an operating handle 25 . the contacts are held in the closed position by means of a cradle 28 , which engages a primary latch 29 by means of a cradle hook 27 formed at one end of the cradle , as fully described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 679 , 016 , entitled &# 34 ; interchangeable mechanism for molded case circuit breaker &# 34 ; which application is incorporated herein for purposes of reference . the primary latch is , in turn , captured by a secondary latch 30 , which responds to the motion of a trip bar 31 to first release the secondary latch and then the primary latch , whereby the cradle is free to rotate in a counterclockwise direction as the toggle pin collapses under the bias provided by the operating springs . a crossbar 60 connects with the lower link 21 by means of the pivot pin 44 and serves to interconnect the separate poles of a multi - pole circuit . a complete description of the operation of the crossbar assembly is found within the aforementioned u . s . patent . the magnetic trip unit 34 which encompasses the heater 14 responds to severe overcurrent conditions through the breaker causing the armature 33 to move into contact with the trip bar 31 to articulate the operating mechanism . the bimetal 15 contacts the trip bar 31 in response to less severe overcurrent conditions which persist for a predetermined time duration . the contact spring 37 , which encompasses the contact carrier , is designed to hold the movable and fixed contacts 17 , 18 in good electric connection under normal operating conditions , yet allow the contact carrier to rapidly rotate independent of the operating mechanism under the forces of electrodynamic repulsion generated between the line strap 19 and the contact carrier upon short circuit overcurrent conditions before the magnetic trip unit and bimetal respond . upon the instant of separation between the fixed and movable contacts , an arc is formed therebetween which motivates into the arc chute 35 wherein it becomes deionized and cooled upon impingement with the metal arc plates 36 . the unitary relationship between the load strap 13 , heater 14 , rigid conductor 8 and contact carrier support 9 can best be seen by referring now to fig2 and 3 . these components are welded or brazed together and are later downwardly inserted within the circuit breaker case as part of the trip unit assembly 65 in a single operation . a spring clip 45 made from a copper or iron alloy is positioned outboard of the support posts such that the protrusions 46 , 47 formed on the side arms 53 , 54 capture the posts therebetween . the trip unit assembly 65 , as an integral arrangement of the magnet 34 , bimetal 15 , heater 14 and contact carrier support 9 , is positioned within the circuit breaker case . the spring clip itself can be fabricated from a shaped memory alloy such as nickel - titanium alloy or a brass alloy such as described within u . s . pat . no . 4 , 524 , 343 entitled &# 34 ; self - regulated actuator &# 34 ;, which patent is incorporated herein for reference purposes . the shaped memory alloy then provides a compression force on the sidearms 53 , 54 upon reaching a predetermined temperature above a selected current level , thereby causing the sidearms to bend toward each other . the contact carrier is next inserted within the upstanding posts 40 , 41 integrally formed and extending upward from the contact carrier support side arms 38 , 39 such that the pivot pin 44 nestles within the grooves 42 , 43 formed on the top surface of the posts . the interface copper substrate surfaces between the posts and the contact carrier can be coated with a layer of silver to decrease the electrical resistance therebetween or tin to maintain an oxide free surface . when a suitable lubricant , such as a coloidal dispersion of graphite particles in water or grease , is applied to the pivot end of the contact carrier subjacent the pivot pin , the contact carrier is easily rotated from its on to its off position , as indicated in phantom , without deterring from the good electrical connection provided between the contact carrier and the contact carrier support imparted by the tension exerted by the side arms of the spring clip . alternatively a coating of a silver and graphite mixture can be plated or sprayed onto the copper substrate surface . the parallel arrangement of the contact carrier support arms allows the circuit current to divide between the arms and thereby generates an attractive electromagnetic force . the induced electromagnetic force increases the pressure exerted between the contact carrier and the contact carrier support posts to eliminate the occurrence of arcing between contact carrier arms and the support posts upon extreme overload conditions . the unitary curvilinear - u - shaped structure of the contact carrier support 9 is best seen by referring now to fig2 and 4 . the sidearms 38 , 39 of the contact carrier support are integrally joined by a bight 63 at one end and terminate at the opposite end in a pair of posts 40 , 41 which are formed from the same unitary piece and extend perpendicular from the top of the sidearms . referring now to fig5 a , the planar spring clip 45 is depicted as a u - shaped configuration wherein a pair of adjacent sidearms 53 , 54 are integrally joined by a bight 52 at one end . the width at the bight end of the sidearms , indicated at d 1 , is greater than the width d 2 at the opposite end to ensure a uniform stress distribution along the sidearms . to facilitate the downward loading of the contact carrier 16 within the slot 64 defined between posts 40 , 41 , shown earlier in fig . 2 , the trifurcate spring clip arrangement 45 depicted in fig5 b is employed . an additional intermediate arm 55 is formed between the sidearms 53 , 54 and extends in the same plane as the side arms from the bight 52 . the width of the additional arm is slightly larger than the width of the slot 64 and holds the slot open until the contact carrier is inserted within the slot , which thereby displaces the additional leg out of the slot , leaving the contact carrier in a press - fit relation therein . the additional arm , which is lanced from the same steel sheet from which the sidearms 53 , 54 are formed can be in the same plane as the sidearms or offset from and extend a greater distance in the vertical plane than the sidearms , as indicated in phantom . the trifurcate spring clip differs from the spring clip depicted earlier by using a pair of protrusions 73 formed along the sidearms and a pair of tabs 50 , 51 formed at the ends of the sidearms to trap the posts 40 , 41 shown in fig2 after the additional arm is displaced by the contact carrier 16 . the holes 48 , 49 formed within the tabs facilitate the implementation of a separation tool to expand the side - arms sufficiently apart to allow for clearance over the posts . the tongued extension 66 at the end of the intermediate arm 55 is the only part of the intermediate leg that extends within the slot 64 . pre - inserting the spring clip over the contact carrier support 9 with the slightly oversized additional extension 66 between the posts 40 , 41 sufficiently expands the slot 64 such that the movable contact carrier 16 readily fits within the slot . when the contact carrier is inserted between the posts , the additional arm is displaced out of the slot and is forced down within the cruciform slot 67 defined between the flat sidearms 68 , 69 shown integrally formed within the carrier support 9 depicted in fig6 before welding to the trip unit assembly 65 of fig2 . this carrier support differs from the earlier carrier support by the omission of the semicircular grooves 42 , 43 described earlier with reference to fig2 . the upstanding radial sidearms 71 , 72 formed at the ends of the flat side arms are joined by a flat bight 70 which is shaped and formed in a single operation from a single piece of copper stock . a pair of arcuate slots 56 , 57 are cut into the sidearms to increase the flexiblity of the sidearms and to allow the sidearms to be separated without taking a set . the slotted configuration of the contact carrier support 9 , as shown in fig6 provides even greater flexibility to the sidearms 71 , 72 by reducing the amount of material in the vicinity of the region between the sidearms 71 , 72 and the bight 70 . a pair of arcuate slots 56 , 57 , formed therein , facilitates the separation of posts 40 , 41 when the movable contact arm carrier is inserted within the slot , without decreasing the contact pressure provided between the posts 40 , 41 and the contact carrier , by the spring clip .
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fig2 is a schematic diagram of a system in which a first satellite signal can be acquired in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . the system comprises a mobile terminal 20 , a network element 26 of a mobile communication network 25 and a plurality of gps satellites , which are also referred to as ‘ space vehicles ’, sv 1 , sv 2 , sv 3 , sv 4 . each of the gps satellites sv 1 to sv 4 transmits a signal modulated with a c / a code and navigation information as described above . the mobile terminal 20 comprises in addition to conventional components required for of a mobile communication via the mobile communication network 25 a gps receiver 21 . the gps receiver 21 includes as part of conventional components an acquisition module 22 and a decision module 23 . the acquisition module 22 may be a conventional acquisition module 22 , which comprises four correlation paths as presented in fig1 , each for another replica code . the decision module 23 , however , is supplemented in accordance with the invention . it assumed by way of example that the decision module 23 is realized by a software code ( sw ) running in a processing unit of the mobile terminal 20 , even though it may equally be implemented in hardware . the implementation of the software will be explained further below with reference to fig3 . the network element 26 of the communication network 25 is able to provide gps assistance data to the gps receiver 21 by means of a regular mobile communication with the mobile terminal 20 . the assistance data can comprise , for instance , the position of the network element 26 as a reference position and navigation data extracted from gps signals received in the communication network 25 . in addition , the network element 26 might comprise a decision module 27 . this decision module 27 corresponds to the decision module 23 . fig3 is a flow chart illustrating the acquisition of a first satellite signal by the gps receiver 21 . at the top , the operation in the acquisition module 22 is indicated , while further below and separated by a dashed line , the operation in the detection module 23 is shown . in the acquisition module 22 , samples of a received signal are processed in parallel for four different replica codes , as described with reference to fig1 for one replica code . each replica code is associated to another one of the four satellites sv 1 to sv 4 . the matched filter operation with n code phases and the subsequent frequency correction with m dft bins results for each replica code in nxm correlation values which are stored in a respective non - coherent memory 17 ( step 301 ). fig4 presents for each satellite sv 1 to sv 4 a diagram with an exemplary sequence of n = 2046 correlation values for one dft bin . corresponding correlation values exist for all other considered dft bins . in the decision module 23 , the correlation values are retrieved from the non - coherent memories 17 of the acquisition module 22 and compared to a first threshold value ( step 302 ). if one of the correlation values is detected to exceed the first threshold value , this correlation value is assumed to represent a correct replica code at a correct code phase for the received signal . ( step 303 ) if only a correlation value for one of the checked replica code exceeds the threshold value , knowledge about this replica code can be made use of for acquiring further satellite signals in a conventional manner . if none of the correlation values exceeds the first threshold value , the highest correlation value which is provided by the acquisition module 22 is selected ( step 304 ). in the example of fig4 , the first threshold value is assumed to be 2 . 5 . it can be seen that none of the depicted correlation values exceeds this threshold value . it is further assumed that none of the correlation values for the other dft bins exceeds the first threshold value . the highest correlation value 41 among all correlation values has a value of approximately 2 and belongs to the first satellite sv 1 . this correlation value is thus selected . based on the selected correlation value , which has been obtained with a replica code associated to a certain satellite , a code phase prediction is performed for the other three replica codes sequences . the code phase prediction as such is well known and can be realized for example as described above with reference to the document u . s . pat . no . 6 , 133 , 874 . it results in a predicted code phase for each of the other replica codes . when a respective predicted code phase is combined with an uncertainty value , a prediction interval is obtained for the associated replica code , which can be assumed to cover the correct code phase . ( step 305 ) since the doppler prediction has an accuracy of a few hz , the correct search results for all satellites s 1 to s 4 can be assumed to be located in the same dft bin . therefore , only the dft bin in which the selected correlation value has been found is considered when determining a prediction interval for the remaining satellites . in the example of fig4 , resulting prediction intervals for each of the satellites sv 2 to sv 4 are indicated by a respective rectangle 42 to 44 . the correlation values in the prediction intervals are then combined with the selected correlation value ( step 306 ), for example in accordance with the following relation : for the example of fig4 , this means more specifically that in each of the prediction intervals 42 to 44 , the maximum correlation value is determined . even though not pointed out separately , in each of the prediction intervals 42 to 44 a clear maximum correlation value can be seen . the selected correlation value 41 and the maximum correlation values determined for each of the prediction intervals 42 to 44 are then summed . it is to be understood that presented method of combining the search results constitutes only an example . it will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art that many other combination methods can be used as well . the combined value is compared to a second threshold value ( step 307 ). if the combined value exceeds a second threshold value , the selected correlation value is assumed to correspond to a correct code phase for a certain satellite signal ( step 303 ). otherwise , the next highest correlation value among all correlation values is determined ( step 309 ), and steps 305 to 307 are repeated proceeding from this next highest correlation value as a selected correlation value . once a correct code phase for a first replica code has been found , the code phases for the remaining three replica codes can be searched for in a conventional manner within the respective prediction interval . steps 305 to 309 are repeated in a loop , until a correct code phase for a certain satellite signal has been found , or until the five highest correlation values have been evaluated , which is checked in each iteration between steps 307 and 309 as a step 308 . when the five highest correlation values have been evaluated without success , it is assumed that a signal acquisition based on the current correlation values is not possible . the signal acquisition is thus terminated and started anew ( step 310 ). it is to be understood that evaluating up to five highest correlation values is just an example ; any other number can be used also . it has to be noted that the processing performed by the decision module 23 of the gps receiver 21 could also be taken care of at least partly by the decision module 27 of the network element 26 . to this end , the gps receiver 21 provides any required information to the network element 26 , making use of a regular mobile communication link between the mobile terminal 20 and the mobile communication network 25 . this approach is of advantage for enabling gps receivers 21 to make use of the invention , even though they are not provided with a supplemented decision module 22 themselves , and / or for saving processing power at the mobile terminal 20 . simulations show that when trying on the one hand to acquire several gps satellite signals each by itself from full code uncertainty and on the other hand to acquire all gps satellite signals with the presented approach from full code uncertainty , the same acquisition probability of e . g . 90 % can be achieved with a significantly lower signal level compared to individual searches . new receivers are able to search up to eight satellites in parallel . using eight satellites in the evaluation would further improve the results . doubling the number of satellites which are used for a peak check from four to eight results in an optimum case in a gain which is increased by 3 db . this is due to the fact that even in a parallel search noise in the search results is not correlating , as the incoming signal is ‘ de - spread ’ with the replica codes . the prediction uncertainty diminishes the gain only to a limited extent . it is to be noted that the described embodiment can be varied in many ways and that it moreover constitutes only one of a variety of possible embodiments of the invention .
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using the method and system of our invention , teams of developers can work together cooperatively , to rapidly customize all aspects of software applications without modifying application source code , sql , or vendor supplied base classes ( referred to herein as “ business objects ”). this approach to customization results in dramatically lower development and maintenance costs , and provides seamless upward compatibility with future product releases . 2 . a language , such as microsoft visual basic , microsoft visual c ++, microsoft visual j ++ or the like . the business object designer gives developers the ability to quickly and easily customize software applications . it includes a business object explorer . this is a graphical editing tool for modifying and managing object definitions . it includes a hierarchical object explorer that allows developers to browse the various object types , an object list editor viewing and editing object definitions , and a properties window for editing object property values . the business object explorer also includes a windows - style “ find ” capability that allows developers to quickly locate objects in the repository . the object visualization views are a set of graphical representations of the relationships between the various object definitions in the business object repository that help simplify the configuration process . a typical application configuration contains thousands of objects . developers can use these views to understand and navigate through the object hierarchies . then , using the editing tools , they can modify the properties of these objects . these views help assess the impact of these modifications , and track down configuration errors . the visualization views can be printed and used as a valuable reference during configuration . fig1 illustrates a screen shot of a business component definition , 1 , with an objects field , 11 , a field indicating the source and type of components , 12 , and a field indicating the actions to be taken with respect to a component , 13 , while fig2 illustrates a screen shot of the details of a business component definition with the account object explorer , 21 , the account external products , 22 , and the object attributes , 23 . it depicts the various fields in the business component , their types , and points to their respective sources — either columns in underlying database tables , or fields in other business components . a developer can further introspect the properties of an object in this view , by using the properties window . the other visualization views work similarly . the hierarchy view describes the object hierarchy as it relates to the selected object i . e . the objects used by the selected object and the objects that use it . for example , the hierarchy view for a view object will show the applets contained in that view , the business components on which each of these applets are based , the screens and applications in which this view appears . the applet designer module is an intuitive drag - and - drop visual programming interface for modifying and extending list , form , dialog , and chart user interface objects ( applets ). these objects can be populated with standard windows controls , including buttons , combo boxes , check boxes , labels , and text fields , as well as activex controls . the applet designer of the method and system of our invention leverages the familiarity of developers with popular graphical application development tools such as microsoft visual basic . features of the applet designer are illustrated in fig3 . these include the object explorer , 31 , and the applet being designed or modified , 32 . an account information form is being designed in block 32 . the developer can add , delete , and modify the properties of the controls . the controls can be configured using the properties window . for example , a control can be associated with a field in the underlying business component . this is accomplished by setting the field attribute of the control to one of the fields in the business component . the choice of fields is limited to those that belong to the business component that the applet is based on . the behavior of controls can be scripted using the visual basic or other script editor . the applet designer also helps ensure visually accurate and correctly translated configurations by providing a design - time preview of the applet on various screen resolutions , and under different language settings . in this mode , the applet designer simulates the applet being viewed under the specified settings and allows the developer to quickly detect any presentation errors such as truncation or overlapping controls . features of the applet designer are illustrated in fig3 . the view designer module of the development tool method and system of our invention allows developers to visually modify existing views and construct new views by simply dragging and dropping the desired applets onto the view canvas . there is no additional specification or code required to define the relationships between the applets . most other application customization tools require developers to write significant amounts of code to achieve this same functionality . in the prior art , this code had to be replicated for each and every screen in the application . this was inefficient and error - prone . features of the view designer 4 are illustrated in fig4 . to create a view based on a specific business object , the developer is presented with a blank canvas with eight sectors and a window 41 containing the list of applets that can be included in the view ( based on the business object of the view ). the desired applets can then be simply dragged from the applets window and dropped on the view canvas in the desired sector . the applets may be resized at this point , if necessary . the underlying business components , and their context within the business object determine the relationships between the applets in the view . hence , these relationships do not need to be specified again in the definition of the view . they are simply re - used . the menu designer module of the development tool method and system of our invention allows developers to customize and extend siebel menu structures using a visual metaphor . a menu can be created by adding menu items , defining the command to be executed when the menu is clicked , and specifying an accelerator key for easy navigation . the development tool method and system of our invention provides a set of wizards to assist developers in the creation of new objects in the underlying repository . examples of wizards include a form applet wizard , chart applet wizard , list applet wizard , and business component wizard . the user clicks on the type of the new object he or she wants to create , and the wizard guides them through the entry of the properties needed for that type of object . typically , the graphical user interface guides the user through the various steps of creating an applet , such as selecting the business component that it is based on , the dimensions of the applet , the fields to be included , the buttons that appear in the applet , and the like . wherever possible , the list of choices are restricted to only those that are applicable — fields in the underlying business component , projects that have been locked by the developer , etc . once the developer has gone through the various screens in a wizard , a new object is created based on the attributes specified . a default layout is generated for the type of object being created . for example , for a form applet , text box and check box controls are created for each business component field that is to be included in the applet , depending on the data type of field . labels are also created right next to the text boxes and check boxes . all these controls are laid out in an aesthetically pleasing columnar layout . the business object repository manager of our invention provides application developers with an efficient multi - user development environment that includes access to check - in / check - out functionality and version control . in a typical development environment , there is a server repository that contains the master application definition . each developer on the team has a local repository that the development tools method and system of our invention connects to . the various object definitions in the business object repository are grouped into projects . developers lock and check out projects from the server repository onto their local repositories in order to make changes to the object definitions . if another developer tries to check out the same project , he / she is unable to do so , and is informed that the project is locked . this prevents other developers on the team from modifying the same project . once the developer has made the changes and tested them , the project can be checked into the server repository . before checking in a project , the developer can review the changes that have been made thereby minimizing check - in errors . the check - in / check - out process can be integrated with an external version control system such as microsoft visual sourcesafe , pvcs , or clearcase . this allows the development team to maintain a version history of all changes to the repository . this tool that is part of the development tool method and system of our invention allows developers to compile the repository or projects either completely or incrementally . incremental compilation involves a compilation of only a subset of the projects ( typically those that have been modified ). the definitions of objects in these projects are the only ones that are updated . the remainder of the repository file is left untouched . this significantly speeds the development cycle of any project . the compiler generates a repository file that is used to run the underlying application . the storage of the application definition in the repository file is optimized for high - speed access and performance . this repository file is then deployed to the end - users of the application . the application executable reads the application definition from the repository file and instantiated objects based on their definitions stored in the repository file . the development tool method and system of our invention includes a development platform . for example , a microsoft visual basic or microsoft visual c ++ programming platform for integrating enterprise applications with third - party cooperative applications and extending the base functionality of the application screens and business components . in a preferred embodiment of our invention , the visual basic provides a visual basic - compliant environment that includes an editor , debugger , and interpreter / compiler . this allows application developers to extend and further configure applications . this capability may be integrated with the applet designer so developers can attach scripts to user interface element controls such as buttons , fields , and activex controls . business component behavior can also be further configured using the programming platform . fig5 illustrates some aspects of the editor and debugger screen 5 . it includes the object explorer 51 and the object code view , 52 . not only can application developers extend applications with the development platform , e . g ., visual basic , they can also use com interfaces to access data from third - party applications , provide integration with legacy systems , and automate applications from other external applications . this allows developers to extend application behavior , provide client - side integration to other applications , and enable access to data and business rules from other programs that use microsoft visual basic , powerbuilder , java , or activex . com interfaces expose selected objects to custom routines external from the applications . developers can access these com interfaces using a wide variety of programming languages . when developers require extensions beyond built - in database extensions , the database extension designer module of the method provides a point - and - click interface to extend application tables . developers can use these database extensions to capture data from new fields in application screens , or from external sources using enterprise integration managers . the database extension designer is integrated with the business object repository . the developer first defines the extensions in the repository and makes use of these extensions in business components and applets . these changes are then applied to the local database by clicking on the apply button . this causes the database schema of the local database to be updated . the developer then tests these extensions in the local environment . once the testing is complete , the changes are checked into the server repository and made available to the rest of the team . this process allows developers to make one set of changes that automatically triggers updates to client applications that reflect and incorporate the new database extension into mobile users &# 39 ; databases . these changes reflect the appropriate visibility rules for database extensions . new columns are automatically reflected in the business object repository and named appropriately to ensure easy migration to , for example , future releases of applications . the database extension designer works with client - server applications to provide seamless integration of database extensions for mobile user databases . the database extension designer automatically applies database extension instructions to the server database and these extensions are automatically routed to mobile user databases via remote software distribution applications such as siebel remote . changes take effect automatically the next time mobile users synchronize . the changes are “ in - place ,” so mobile users do not need to refresh or reinitialize their local database . the application upgrader module of the method and system of our invention dramatically reduces the time and cost of version upgrades by allowing customers to better determine what changes are available with each release and compare unique object customizations from the prior release with changes in the new release . the application upgrader provides systems administrators with notification of conflicts between object customizations and new releases , automatically merges differences between object definitions , and allows administrators to manually override and apply any changes . this tool obviates the need to manually migrate changes from release to release and significantly reduces the total lifecycle cost of ownership of typical business applications as compared to traditional client / server applications . fig6 illustrates the components of the application upgrader 6 of the method and system of our invention . the application upgrader screen has two views , an “ application upgrades ” view , 61 , and an “ object differences ” view , 62 , as well as a “ merge repositories ” choice box 63 . the application upgrader identifies customizations made to an application , and applies these customizations to the newer release of that application . application definitions are contained in a repository . the application upgrader compares three repositories — the prior standard repository , the customized repository , and new standard repository — and generates a fourth repository ( new customized repository ) based on the new repository but containing the customizations made by the customer . any object definitions that have been added to the customized repository , but not in the new standard repository are added to the new customized repository . if an object definition has been modified in the customized repository and also in the new standard repository , the upgrader compares each attribute of the two versions of object definition , and for each conflict encountered ( i . e . differing attribute values ), selects the value from one of the versions based on a set of pre - determined rules . all conflicts and their resolutions are presented to the user who then has the option of reviewing these and overriding the default resolution adopted by the application upgrader . the result of the upgrade process is an upgraded version of the application that incorporates the features of the new release with the customizations made to the prior release . while the invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments and exemplifications , it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention thereby , but solely by the claims appended hereto .
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fig1 illustrates a database 100 which includes input from the railroad &# 39 ; s management information system , field sensors , and dispatch input to provide planning attributes . the planning attributes may include train characteristics 110 , line - of - road resources 120 and terminal resources 130 . the database 100 may include ( a ) trip plan including route requirements and activities for each train , ( b ) locomotive consist , describing the characteristics and on train and off - train location of each current and future locomotive , ( c ) pick - up and set out locations , ( d ) consist constraints such as speed , height , width , weight , hazmat and special handling need as a function of location along planned route , ( e ) consist summaries along the planned route ( loads , empties , tonnage and length ), and ( f ) crew information , including on - train and off - train locations and service expiration times . the integrated database 100 automatically provides accurate information to the movement planner without additional attention from the dispatcher . the movement planner my use well known optimizing techniques including those disclosed in the referenced patents and applications . train schedule 150 is supplied by the railroad and an optimized movement plan is generated by movement planner 140 based on the most current train characteristics , line of road resources and terminal resources from database 100 . detailed train activity information such as activity duration , specific work locations and alternate work locations are automatically monitored from day to day , updating the activity profiles in the database . in this manner , the accuracy of the planning information is continuously improved and manual intervention which was typically required in prior art systems is eliminated . in one embodiment , the information can be based on historical performance , and appropriate averaging and weighting can be used to emphasize some measured samples based on temporal or priority constraints . the information in the database can be forecast for each point along the route . for example , the train attributes of length , hazmat content , high / wide restrictions , horsepower , speed , stopping distance and acceleration may be dynamically altered along the route as cars and locomotives are picked up and set off . the train movement plan is based on the forecasted attributes at each point along the route . thus changes in the train consist ; specified route or track constraint anywhere along the planned route can be immediately identified and can cause the movement plan to be revised to take the most current conditions into account . in another embodiment , the dynamic planning database can be monitored and upon the detection of a change to a planning attribute contained in the database , auto - routing of a train can be disabled until the movement planner has had time to revise the movement planner consistent with the updated planning attributes . thus , at each time within the planning horizon , the movement planner can apply the expected attributes of trains , line of road resources and terminal applicable at that time . if any of the data changes , the movement plan can revise the movement order based on the updated data . train characteristics can include locomotive consist forecast , train consist forecast , crew expiration forecast , current train location upon plan calculation , expected dwell time at activity locations and train value variation along the route . the line of road resources may include reservations for maintenance of way effective and expiration time , form - based authority expiration time , bulletin item effective and expiration time and track curfew effective and expiration time . terminal resources may include work locations , interactions with other trains , and available tracks . in the present disclosure , movement plans are enhanced because the train characteristics and planning data are correctly accounted for as they change along the planned route . the methods of maintaining the database of dynamic planning attributes and planning the movement of trains using the current planning attributes can be implemented using computer usable medium having a computer readable code executed by special purpose or general purpose computers . while embodiments of the present invention have been described , it is understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the invention is to be defined solely by the appended claims when accorded a full range of equivalence , many variations and modifications naturally occurring to those of skill in the art from a perusal hereof .
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referring now more particularly to the drawings , a material handling vehicle 10 has a load receiving receptacle 12 movably supported by a pair of laterally spaced center wheels 14 and 16 rotatably mounted beneath rceptacle 12 as by an axle 18 . in this manner , wheels 14 , 16 movably support receptacle 12 together with a pair of casters to be described in greater detail below . a deadman brake arrangement 20 according to the present invention is mounted on the receptacle 12 for normally frictionally engaging wheels 14 , 16 and restraining wheels 14 , 16 from rotation . as will become apparent below , brake arrangement 20 will be set except when grasped by an operator ( not shown ) of vehicle 10 . receptacle 12 advantageously has longitudinally spaced end walls 22 and 24 , laterally spaced side walls 6 and 28 , and a bottom wall 30 , all of which walls are advantageously planar as illustrated . further , receptacle 12 is provided with a lip 32 arranged along at least the upper edges of side walls 26 , 28 , with lip 32 axially extending around end walls 22 and 24 in the illustrated vehicle 10 . as mentioned above , center wheels 14 , 16 are laterally spaced beneath bottom wall 30 and adjacent the lower edges of side walls 26 , 28 , and are arranged substantially mid - way between end walls 22 and 24 . as perhaps can best be seen from fig2 of the drawings , the end walls 22 , 24 converge toward one another in the direction from lip 32 toward wheels 14 , 16 in order to form a receptacle that flares toward the open top thereof . vehicle 10 also includes a pair of handles 34 and 36 affixed to , for example , end walls 22 and 24 of receptacle 12 . as can be appreciated from the drawings , one handle 34 , 36 is associated with a respective one of the end walls 22 , 24 . brake arrangement 20 advantageously , and preferably , includes a substantially rectangular framework 38 arranged about the side walls 26 , 28 and end walls 22 , 24 of receptacle 12 , and resiliently supported from the receptacle 12 by a pair of laterally spaced coiled tension springs 40 , 42 and the like . a pair of brake shoes 44 , 46 , shaped as a shallow v arranged opening downwardly , are mounted on framework 38 for normally frictionally engaging wheels 14 , 16 . more specifically , the upstanding plates which facilitate attachment of brake shoes 44 , 46 to framework 38 themselves form anchors for the adjacent ends of side rails 48 and 50 which make up parts of framework 38 ; that is , side rails 48 , 50 form the portions of framework 38 which extend along , and are substantially parallel to , side walls 26 , 28 and receptacle 12 . cross handles 52 and 54 connected together side rails 48 , 50 across end walls 22 , 24 of receptacle 12 in order to complete framework 38 . since brake arrangement 20 will usually be constructed from a suitable steel , and the like , rails 48 , 50 , as well as brake shoes 44 , 46 , may be attached to the upstanding plates and to the cross handles 52 and 54 in a conventional manner , such as by welding . vehicle 10 further includes a pair of longitudinally spaced , swiveling wheels 56 and 58 similar to conventional casters , rotatably mounted on end walls 22 and 24 of receptacle 12 as by triangular shaped brackets 60 and 62 . one wheel 56 , 58 is associated with a respective one of the end walls 22 , 24 , as perhaps can best be seen from fig2 of the drawings . as can also best be seen from fig2 of the drawings , one end of framework 38 , that formed with side rails 48 and cross handle 52 , and supported by springs 40 , 42 , is arranged above its associated affixed handle 34 while the other end of framework 38 , that associated with affixed handle 36 and formed by side rails 50 and cross handle 54 , is arranged below the associated handle 36 . thus , handle 52 is depressed to release brake shoes 44 , 46 from wheels 14 , 16 , and handle 54 is lifted to effect the release of the brake shoes 44 , 46 . on both ends , the associated handle 52 , 54 is moved until it is in contact with the associated stationary handle 34 , 36 . this moved position is not shown in the drawings . as can be readily appreciated from the above description and from the drawings , a brake arrangement 20 according to the present invention forms a novel combination with material handling vehicle 10 in order to achieve a desired deadman braking function in a simple yet rugged and reliable manner conducive for use with mortar carts and similar construction equipment . the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention . further , since numerous modification and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art , it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described , and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to , falling within the scope of the invention .
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the present invention comprises a system and method for throttling memory usage in a compressed memory system . fig1 illustrates a block diagram detailing a generic operating system employing the compression management software architecture 10 according to the present invention . particularly , the compression management software architecture 10 of fig1 comprises employs two major software components : 1 ) a device driver 20 ; and 2 ) a compression management service (“ cms ”) 50 . the device driver component 20 includes a compressed memory statistics module 24 for monitoring and exporting physical memory usage statistics and provides other services related to the compressed memory controller hardware 80 . the cms component 50 is implemented as a high priority process , which monitors real memory usage and the compressibility of the data contained in the real memory . with more particularity , the compressed memory controller 80 , functions as follows : first , it provides for transparent address translation between the real addresses provided by the cpu and the actual locations in physical memory ; and , second , it additionally provides an l3 ( level 3 ) cache of memory in which frequently accessed pages of memory are stored in an uncompressed format . as referred to herein , the term ctt ( compression translation table ) represents the data structures used by the memory controller to perform the address translation . the ctt itself consumes some portion of the physical memory of the system and must be accounted for in managing the memory . this level of indirection between the real and physical addresses provided by the ctt allows the memory controller to provide a set of fast operations to manipulate memory on the page level granularity . the page operation that is most useful is the zero page operation which allows for memory zeroing by marking the ctt for a particular real memory page as containing all zeros and allows the physical memory associated with that page to be freed and reused . furthermore , as will be described in greater detail herein , the memory controller additionally functions to generate an interrupt when physical memory usage exceeds a programmable usage threshold . the cms component 50 particularly includes a compressed memory management service module 54 which polls a device driver compressed memory statistics module 24 , gathers compressed memory usage statistics and , based on these statistics , determines whether or not physical memory must be made available . in the case of deteriorating compressibility and oncoming physical memory exhaustion it will allocate memory from the o / s . because it is a high priority task , the o / s 75 responds by trimming pages of memory from other lower priority tasks in order to fulfill the request . the pages that are trimmed from the other tasks are written out to the o / s &# 39 ; s swap space ( not shown ) in order to preserve the data contained within them . upon receiving the memory pages , the cms will fill them with data that is known to compress into a trivial pattern , i . e ., one that compresses to the point of using virtually no physical memory . the result is that the physical memory that was backing the pages is released and may be used elsewhere by the memory controller . the maximum amount of memory that cms must be prepared to recover is calculated as follows : where “ tr ” is the total amount of real memory as seen by the o / s ; “ tp ” is the total amount of physical memory in the system ; and , “ maxmemtotakeaway ” is the total real memory to recover in bytes . it is important that the o / s be configured with enough swap file space to accommodate maxmemtotakeaway bytes . the compressed memory controller hardware 80 further generates interrupts 81 when physical memory exceeds a programmable threshold value . using this capability , the memory system is considered to be in one of the following three states at any given time : 1 ) a steady state — where adequate physical memory is available and data is compressing at least at the boot compression ratio ; 2 ) a warning state — where physical memory is beginning to run low and corrective action should be taken ; and 3 ) an emergency state — where physical memory is nearing exhaustion , corrective action must be taken and all other applications in the system should be blocked from running until enough physical memory is made available to re - enter the warning or steady state . aside from polling the memory usage statistics to make corrections , the cms 50 will receive notifications from the device driver as memory state changes occur . this allows cms to take corrective action immediately instead of waiting until it is ready to poll again . as a result , the cms 50 will utilize fewer cpu cycles because memory state change notifications alleviate the need for polling the compressed memory statistics module aggressively . the cms 50 additionally is included with functionality for spawning a blocker thread 55 ( referred to as a “ cpu blocker ”) per each cpu in the system . this thread remains suspended and awaits a notification from the device driver that the physical memory is entering the emergency state . once the notification is received the cpu blocker 55 will monopolize the cpu it is bound to and prevent other applications in the system from executing . correspondingly , this only allows the cms 50 and its associated tasks to execute . this is necessary because the severity of the emergency state dictates that other applications cannot be allowed to execute as they can further deteriorate the state of the memory system . with more particularity , the compressed memory controller hardware 80 appears as a peripheral component interconnect ( pci ) device and communicates with any other device in the system via the compressed memory device driver 20 which provides a standard set of software services as proscribed by each individual o / s . application software or o / s software may then communicate with the memory controller hardware using the services of the device driver . according to the preferred embodiment of the invention , the device driver 20 provides the following facilities : 1 ) provides various memory compression statistics from module 24 ; 2 ) from module 26 , enables the programming of low physical memory threshold registers on the compressed memory controller 80 , which will initiate generation of an interrupt when the value of the threshold register is exceeded ; 3 ) from module 26 , broadcasts notification of low physical memory interrupts to interested client applications ; and , 4 ) from module 28 , provides access to special memory manipulation functions referred to as “ pageops ” that are unique to the memory compression chip . pageops are so named because they operate on the typical page size ( 4k ), e . g ., as used by the intel x86 architecture . the cms 50 interacts with the device driver 20 by sending device i / o control code messages to it . the device driver particularly tracks an internal memory state variable based upon the amount of physical memory in use . the system is considered to be in one of three states ( steady , warning , or emergency ) at any given time . each memory state has an associated physical memory usage threshold . a state &# 39 ; s threshold is considered to be the transition point between itself and the next memory state . a state &# 39 ; s threshold is set by sending a device i / o control code message to the driver . the following rule concerning thresholds must hold true when threshold assignments are made : the driver will initially set the threshold low register ( tlr ) to the threshold that exceeds the physical memory used by least amount . the current memory state is considered to be the state associated with this threshold . when the physical memory used grows to exceed the value in the threshold register , an interrupt will be sent to the device driver . the driver handles the interrupt by re - programming the tlr based upon the rule described above . interrupts cause the threshold to be moved higher . when the current memory state is either warning or emergency , the driver will periodically poll to see if the threshold should be adjusted downward . that is , interrupts move the threshold ‘ higher ’; while polling the memory controller for a reduction in physical memory usage reduces the threshold ( relaxation ). the threshold associated with the emergency state is used to program the threshold high register ( thr ). if this threshold is exceeded the memory controller will generate a non - maskable interrupt which when received is used to gracefully shutdown the o / s . reaching this condition means that physical memory is exhausted and there is only enough left to shut the machine down . this condition is considered a catchall and should not normally be reached . coupled with the memory state tracking described above , the driver provides the ability for cms and other client applications ( termed memory state observers ) to be notified as to memory states changes . the mechanism for notifying applications of events is o / s dependent and is known to skilled artisans . as mentioned , the device driver 20 includes a pageops module 28 that supports the ability to access the memory operations on pages of physical memory . the key page operation that the driver exposes in terms of compressed memory management is called the zero page operation to user mode applications and is referred to as the zero page op . the application may pass down to the driver a virtual address in its process space and a length . the driver will convert the address from virtual to physical and invoke the zero page operation on each page in the range . this page operation has the effect of flushing the page out of the l3 cache ( if present ), freeing any physical memory in use by the page , and writing the trivial data pattern ( i . e ., zero bit pattern ) to the page &# 39 ; s ctt entries . the compression management service ( cms ) is the user mode portion of the compressed memory control system . it runs as a background process at a priority level above the normal application execution . for example on windows 2000 it runs at real - time priority . this is done so that it may pre - empt other user mode process in the system . at its core is the compmemmgr component 54 which performs the compressed memory management . during initialization compmemmgr 54 determines the difference ( real memory size — physical memory size ). this result called maxmemtotakeaway is the maximum amount of memory that would have to be removed from the virtual memory manager sub - system 77 of the o / s kernal 75 if an application ( s ) completely fills memory with incompressible data . memory is removed from the virtual memory manager 77 via an o / s specific call that allows an application to allocate memory . for example on windows 2000 it is called virtualalloc . compmemmgr spawns one or more processes that are called memory eaters 60 . the number of memory eaters processes spawned is calculated by the following formula : an interprocess communication ( ipc ) mechanism is used to allow the compmemmgr to instruct the memory eaters to allocate and release memory and to also allow the memory eaters to provide feedback on their progress to the compmemmgr . modem o / ss support many mechanisms to allow processes to communicate with each other . for example in implementing this algorithm for windows 2000 , an area of shared memory is used as the means of communication . compmemmgr determines the physical memory thresholds for the low physical memory interrupt . this is done by summing the size of the size of the compression translation table ( ctt ), any memory regions that have been setup as uncompressed , size of the resident portion of the o / s kernel , and the size of the l3 cache to back any of the maximum spill over from the l3 cache . after passing the thresholds for each of the memory states down to the driver , it will register itself for notifications from the device driver as the state of memory system changes . these thresholds will be re - calculated by cms periodically as part of its memory usage monitoring . once the interrupt thresholds have been calculated , the minconsumptionphysical value is calculated . this variable represents the amount of physical memory that must be in use for compmemmgr to perform the calculation that determines whether or not a memory adjustment is necessary . it is to be placed at a level of physical memory usage , which is below the point of threshold associated with the steady state . the actual calculation is an o / s dependent heuristic but in general it is a factor of how much memory is reserved for the warning and emergency states . the minconsumptionphysical variable calculation serves two purposes : 1 ) to get a head start on taking corrective action in advance of the moving into an elevated memory state ; and , 2 ) to function as a watermark that below which any held memory will be returned to the system . it is understood that this value will also be re - calculated along with the memory state thresholds . next compmemmgr spawns and binds one cpu blocker thread per processor in the system . as mentioned , the cpu blockers are utilized when all user ( e . g ., third - party ) applications 65 must be prevented from running . finally , the compmemmgr 54 spawns a thread in which it executes the compressed memory management algorithm depicted in fig2 ( a )- 2 ( b ). fig2 ( a )- 2 ( b ) is a block diagram illustrating the compressed memory management algorithm . fig2 ( a ) particularly depicts the main loop 100 of the compressed memory management algorithm which is a loop executed by the compmemmgr for waiting on one of the memory state notification events from the driver , the terminate event , or a wait timeout value . in a first step 110 , the variables waittimeout and totalmemconsumed are initialized . particularly , the variable waittimeout is a constant value that is operating system independent and represents a polling interval which is set a default value default_sleep_timeout , and may range anywhere between 0 to 1000 msec ., for example . as memory pressure increases driving the system into warning and emergency state , the rate of polling is increased . thus , a waittimeout value of 0 msec means that a waitformemorystatechangesignalfromdriver function will check for any events being triggered ( i . e ., a memory state change signal from the driver ) and will return immediately . conversly , when waittimeout is 1000 msec , the waitforstatechangesignalfromdriver function will wait for a maximum of a second before returning from the function call so as to yield the processor to other tasks . the variable initial totalmemconsumed is the memory consumed , and is initially set to zero ( 0 ). then , at step 115 , the process waits for a state change signal ( interrupt ) from the device driver , and sets a variable result equal to the state change value , i . e ., waitformemorystatechangesignalfromdriver ( waittimeout ). next , at step 120 , a decision is made as to whether a notification event ( state change ) has been received from the driver . if no state change has occurred , i . e ., then the process proceeds to step 150 where the process is invoked for obtaining updated statistics and performing any memory usage correction calculations as described with respect to fig2 ( b ). if there is a state change , a determination is made at step 125 as to whether the change is a terminate event . if the event received is a terminate event , then the process exits at step 130 . if a state change has occurred and it was not a terminate event , then the process proceeds to step 140 where the current memory state value is set to the result . the step 150 of gathering of memory usage statistics is then performed and the process repeats by returning to step 110 . as will be explained in greater detail , memory usage statistics come from three sources : the device driver , the o / s , and randomly selected memory page sampling . a c ++- like pseudocode depiction of the process exemplified by fig2 ( a ) is now provided : fig2 ( b ) particularly depicts the make memory usage corrections process 150 as shown in fig2 ( a ). in the memory usage corrections process loop 150 , a first step 155 involves gathering the memory status , i . e ., the memory statistics . then , at step 160 , the current real memory ( currrealused ) used is computed in accordance with the statistics provided by the device driver . then , at step 165 , the current physical memory ( currphysused ) used is computed . this value includes the size of the physical memory usage plus the size of the compression translation table ( ctt ) ( cttlength ), the size of any defined uncompressed memory regions , and the size of the nonswappablepages ( sizeofnonswappages ). typically the uncompressed memory region is 1 mb and is setup by the bios . this is necessary because the physical memory usage reported by the compressed memory controller chip does not account for these values . at the next step 170 , an evaluation is made as to whether the current memory state ( determined in the main loop 100 of the compressed memory management algorithm ) is the steady state and that the current physical memory computed in step 165 is less than usage is below a minimum usage water mark ( minconsumptionphysical ). if at step 170 , it is determined that the current memory state is the steady state and the current physical memory computed in step 165 is not less than a minimum threshold , then the process proceeds to step 175 to compute a targeted real memory usage ( targetedrealusage ) representing how the size of memory is to be adjusted . that is , a variable targetedrealmemoryuse is calculated by multiplying the amount of physical memory in use by the boot compression ratio . to determine the memory adjustment needed , the actual amount of real memory in use plus the total amount of memory already held by the memory eaters is subtracted from the targetedrealmemoryuse . this is the variable adjustmentreal . a negative result means that the compressibility of the system is equal to or greater than the boot compression ratio . this means that the memory eaters should release adjustmentreal units of memory back to the system . particularly , based on the amount of physical memory in use , a calculation is made as to how much real memory should be in use which is equal to the boot compression ration of the memory system multiplied by the current physical memory used currphysused calculated at step 165 . then at step 180 , a value for the real memory adjustment ( adustmentreal ) is computed as being equal to the targetedrealusage minus a quantity comprising the currrealused plus the totalmemconsumed . then , at step 182 , a determination is made as to whether adjustmentreal & lt ; 0 . if adustmentreal is less than 0 , then the process proceeds to step 185 where the adustmentreal variable is set equal to max_of ( adjustmentreal , totalmemconsumed ). this is to ensure that there is released only as much available . particularly , it is desired to release memory slower than it is acquired in case conditions quickly deteriorate . a release ratefactor may be applied to the amount that will be released in any one iteration of memory adjustment . returning to step 182 , if it is determined that adjustmentreal is greater than or equal to 0 , then the memory eaters must allocate adjustment units of memory . in doing so the memory eater calls the o / s &# 39 ; s memory allocation facility for the required memory . the memory eater then passes a pointer to the memory its length to the device driver to perform a zero page operation on the all the pages the area contains . these steps are depicted from steps 188 , 190 , 192 and 195 . particularly , at step 188 , the adustmentreal variable is set equal to min_of ( adjustmentreal , the quantity maxmemtotakeaway - totalmemconsumed ) where maxmemtotakeaway is the total real memory to recover in bytes as defined herein . this calculation is made to ensure that the requested adjustment lies within the bounds of what the memory eaters can eat . for example , if maxmemtotakeaway is 100 mbytes , adjustmentreal is 100 mbytes , and the totalmemconsumed ( the amount that the eaters are already holding ) is 25 mbytes , then the eaters can only hold another 75 mbytes , i . e ., adjustment is min_of ( 100 , 100 - 25 )= 75 mbytes . next , at step 190 , the memory eaters are put to work by writing the adjustment value into the shared memory block via the monitor . the internal statistics are then updated at steps 192 , 195 . a c ++- like pseudocode depiction of the process exemplified by fig2 ( b ) is now provided : // get current memory statistics . getmemorystatus ( stats ); memunits currrealused = stats . usedreal ; memunits currphysused = stats . usedphysical ; // add onto the physical memory usage the size of the ctt , // the size of the uncompressed region , and the size of // the nonswappablepages . currphysused = cttlength + uncompressedregion + stats . sizeofnonswappages ; // as long as the system is in memory state and the physical memory // usage is below the minimum usage water mark // release all the memory held by the memory eaters . if (( currmemstate == steadystate ) & amp ;& amp ; ( currphysused & lt ; minconsumptionphysical )) { // release all the memory held by the eaters . // except for any guaranteed awe regions on w2k . adjustmentreal = m_totalmemconsumed ;; if ( adjustmentreal & lt ; 0 ) adjustmentreal = 0 ; else adjustmentreal = − adjustmentreal ; } else { // calculate how the size of memory is to be adjusted . // based on the amount of physical memory in use calculate // how much real memory should be in use . memunits targetedrealusage = static_cast & lt ; memunits & gt ;( m_bootcompratio * currphysused ); adjustmentreal = targetedrealusage − ( currrealused + totalmemconsumed ); if ( adjustmentreal & lt ; 0 ) { // releasing memory . // want to release memory slower than it is acquired in case // conditions quickly deteriorate . apply a release rate // factor to the amount that will be released in any one // iteration of memory adjustment . memunits rateadjusted = adjustmentreal / memreleaserate ; if ( 0 == rateadjusted ) { rateadjusted = adjustmentreal ; } // make sure to release only as much as we have . adjustmentreal = max ( rateadjusted , − totalmemconsumed ); } else { // consuming memory . adjustmentreal = min ( maxmemtotakeaway − totalmemconsumed , adjustmentreal ); } } // put the eaters to work by writing the adjustment value into the // shared memory block via the monitor . notifymemoryeaters ( adjustmentreal ); if ( recalculatememorystatethresholds ( )) setmemorystatethresholds ( ); // update our internal stats . totalmemconsumed += adjustmentreal ; } } if compmemmgr is notified of the warning or emergency state being entered , it will switch the timeout for the next iteration to 0 . this is done so that as much cpu time as possible may be spent on compmemmgr analyzing memory conditions and on the memory eaters compensating for the memory condition . recall that there is also one cpu blocker thread per processor waiting on a signal from the driver indicating that the memory usage has moved into the emergency state . once the cpu blocker is notified of the emergency condition it will hog the cpu it is bound to . this has the effect of blocking all other user applications from running which is necessary because once the system enters the emergency state it is getting very close to running out of physical memory . allowing user applications to run might further deteriorate memory conditions causing the machine to stop running . the cpu blocker runs at the priority level just below compmemmgr and the memory eaters . this allows the compressed memory management to pre - empt the blocker threads but also allow the blocker threads to block other user mode applications . the cpu blocker threads will stop “ hogging ” the cpu when it is signaled that the memory system has moved back into the steady or warning state . it is than safe to allow other applications to continue running . the o / s itself has threads that run at high priority normal or higher . these threads are not problematic for the compression controls because they run for very short durations and cannot change the overall compressibility of the system . however , it is possible for other applications to be run at priority levels which are higher than the compression controls for long durations , which in theory can be problematic for the compression controls . it should be noted that applications running at these priority levels do not yield the cpu could interfere with the normal operation of the virtual memory manager itself and cause the o / s to behave erratically . one way to avoid having these applications interfere with the compression control software is to have the controls dynamically lower the process priority ( or suspend the process entirely ) while in the emergency state . the priority may be restored after the crisis has been rectified . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to illustrative and preformed embodiments thereof , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
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as required , detailed embodiments of the present inventions are disclosed herein ; however , it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention , which may be embodied in various forms . therefore , specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure . first referring to fig1 , a perspective top and right side view of the overall apparatus 10 is shown . the structure of the apparatus 10 will now be described in the sequence that a textile article or workpiece 11 would take in passing through the apparatus 10 . the soiled textile is first deposited onto a soil counting table or work table 12 where an operator sorts the workpiece from other textile workpieces and determines which sorting bin 14 the particular selected textile should be directed toward . the operator ( not shown ) then examines the options presented on operator selection panel 16 to select the proper sorting bin 14 to which the textile is to be deposited . operator selection panel 16 provides , in this embodiment , three possible sorting bin 14 selections for each of flow tubes 18 a , 18 b . in the embodiment shown in fig1 , three sorting bins 14 are presented in general linear array , and each sorting bin 14 is provide with a collection bin 20 which resides at the bottom of a cyclonic cone 21 . a suitable touch screen display for use as operator selection panel 16 is the model elo et1537l - 80wa - 1 - g manufactured by elo touchsystems , inc . of menlo park , calif . and which is controlled by computer controller 60 . the operator at work table 12 retrieves a textile item or a workpiece such as a napkin from a pile of pieces to be sorted on work table 12 and then examines the options on screen 16 to determine the bin selection for the item selected . the operator then makes the selection on selection panel 16 for either of flow tubes 18 a , 18 b into which the operator will deposit the workpiece . when the operator selects the particular sorting bin 14 into which the workpiece is to be deposited , the series of diverters 22 which are set in sequential fashion along the length of flow tubes 18 a , 18 b are switched to permit the workpiece that is introduced into a flow tube 18 a , 18 b to be deposited into the correct sorting bin 14 that the operator selected on selection panel 16 . the specific operation of diverters 22 will be discussed hereinafter . when the textile or workpiece 11 is introduced into flow tube 18 a , 18 b , it is pulled through flow tube 18 a , 18 b by the suction of a reduced pressure which is created in flow tube 18 a , 18 b , and the system in general , by vacuum fan 24 which is operator by motor 26 . motor 26 is provided with a variable - frequency drive , the operation of which and the effect on the apparatus 10 will be described hereinafter . the operation of fan 24 by motor 26 generates an air flow , or vacuum air flow as it is commonly referred , within vacuum connection tube 28 which is connected to vacuum distribution duct 30 . the low pressure created by vacuum fan 24 is thereby communicated to the remainder of the system including cyclonic cones 21 and receiving arms 32 which are attached to cyclonic cone 21 . in this manner , a directional air flow is created throughout the entirety of apparatus 10 which permits the operator at work table 12 to rapidly direct selected textile workpieces through either of flow tubes 18 a , 18 b and into the plurality of sorting bins 14 . the operator can , through proper switching of diverters 22 at selection panel 16 , select the proper sorting bin 14 for the workpiece 11 . the processing unit controller 60 of the apparatus 10 then automatically orients the sequence of diverters 22 on the selected flow tube 18 a , 18 b to result in the depositing of the workpiece 11 into the selected sorting bin 14 once the workpiece is introduced into the mouth 34 of the selected flow tube 18 a , 18 b . for the embodiment shown in fig1 , a suitable fan is model hdaf or hdbi manufactured by cincinnati fan and ventilator company , inc ., of mason , ohio . for the embodiment shown in fig1 and 11 , a suitable fan is model pb - 14 manufactured by cincinnati fan and ventilator company , inc ., of mason , ohio . referring now to fig2 , the operation of the diverters 22 will be described . each diverter 22 is comprised of a housing which contains , generally , a diversion tube 36 , 40 that can be selectably positioned between a first exit position 38 a and a second exit position 38 b to achieve the selection of a path of travel of a workpiece 11 through the apparatus . this selection of the diversion tube positions is made by the operator at panel 16 and allows the operator to select a pathway through tubes 18 that will lead a workpiece 11 to the particular sorting bin 14 into which the workpiece 11 is to be placed . in a preferred embodiment , two diversion tubes 36 and 40 are used together and shift position in tandem between a first exit position 38 a and a second exit position 38 b to direct the path taken by textile articles or workpieces 11 through the apparatus to reach the operated selected sorting bin 14 . it can be appreciated that additional selectable diversion tube positions could be added to the diverter 22 in an alternate embodiment . referring now to fig2 and 3 , diverters 22 have a single inlet position 23 used by both diversion tubes 36 , 40 to receive a workpiece 11 from tube 18 that leads to inlet 23 . diverters 22 have two exit positions 38 a , 38 b . only one exit position ever is active and this depends on which of diversion tubes 36 or 40 is in position to receive a workpiece from inlet 23 . a first exit position 38 a sends the workpiece 11 into receiving arm 32 and into a particular sorting bin 14 which was selected for the workpiece 11 by the operator at selection panel 16 . a second position 38 b sends the workpiece 11 past receiving arm 32 ( fig3 ) and onto a different diverter 22 or to another pathway . in operation of a preferred embodiment of the apparatus , the operator makes the desired pathway selection at selection panel 16 . a means for shifting 27 ( fig2 ) diversion tubes 36 , 40 , such as a pneumatic cylinder , is activated by the operator &# 39 ; s selection and diversion tubes 36 , 40 shift up or down , in tandem , to position either the inlet end of diversion tube 36 or the inlet end of diversion tube 40 in front of inlet 23 of diverter 22 ( fig2 ). this selectable positioning allows the workpiece 11 introduced into the flow tube 18 by the operator to be directed into one of two paths by diverter 22 . if the inlet end of diversion tube 36 is positioned in front of inlet 23 then the workpiece 11 will be directed through diversion tube 36 and sent out first exit position 38 a to send the workpiece 11 into receiving arm 32 ( shown in fragmentary view in fig3 ). if the inlet end of diversion tube 40 is positioned in front of inlet 23 then the workpiece 11 will be directed through diversion tube 40 and sent out second exit position 38 b to send the workpiece 11 into a different diverter 22 and different receiving arm 32 or into another pathway . as may be observed by inspecting fig3 and fig1 , in apparatus 10 , each receiving arm 32 is connected to one of sorting bins 14 and to a diverter 22 for each tube 18 that is intended to direct workpieces 11 to a particular sorting bin 14 . the workpiece , upon entering receiving arm 32 , travels down receiving arm 32 and into the selected sorting bin 14 which the operator previously selected at selection panel 16 . it further will be appreciated that the selectable shifting , or selectable movement of the diversion tubes 36 and 40 within diverter 22 can be mechanically operated by a number of alternate means . a means for shifting 27 ( fig2 ) may be comprised of a pneumatically or hydraulically motivated arm or piston or a solenoid can be employed by those skilled in the art to achieve the movement of diversion tubes 36 and 40 between the first and second positions 38 a , 38 b for the selectable repositioning of diversion tubes 36 and 40 . alternatively , a motorized gear mechanism could be employed to shift the diversion tubes 36 and 40 to orient the desired diversion tube 36 or 40 inlet in front of inlet 23 . referring now to fig8 the features of diverters 22 will be further discussed . as is shown in fig8 receiving arms 32 are connected to sorting bins 14 and diverters 22 . the selectable shifting of diversion tubes 36 , 40 within diverters 22 is indicated by arrows as providing two pathways . when diversion tube 36 is in use the pathway shown by arrow “ a ” is the active position and vacuum or suction is provided to the tube 36 , and in turn also to the associated tube 18 . this application of suction draws the textile or workpiece 11 through diversion tube 36 from the associated tube 18 and into the receiving arm 32 . when a diversion tube 40 is in use the pathway shown by arrow “ b ” is the active position . in this position a textile or workpiece 11 passes through diverter 22 on the way to another diverter 22 and receiving arm 32 of different sorting bin 14 . also , when all of the diversion tubes 40 of a flow tube 18 all are in the arrow “ b ” position no vacuum or no suction is provided to the particular tube 18 of the apparatus as the tube 18 then has no connection to the vacuum or suction source which is provided by a connection to on of receiving arms 32 . this ability to selectably eliminate the application of vacuum or suction to a particular tube 18 provides an energy savings by the apparatus . a particular feature of the apparatus 10 is the use of variable frequency drive control 60 ( fig1 ) to operate the fan motor 25 in providing the suction or air flow with in the flow pathway that is the motive force for moving the textile workpieces 11 through the flow pathway . the flow pathway , generally , comprising tubes 18 and diversion tubes 36 , 40 and receiving arm 32 and sorting bin 14 . the benefit to the use of the variable frequency drive control is that the fan , and therefore the suction or air flow in the flow pathway , can more rapidly be controlled . the fan 24 ( fig1 ) rapidly can be started and stopped and operated at selectable speeds depending on the number of tubes 18 a , 18 b , ( fig1 ) being used at any particular time . in this way the apparatus is made more energy efficient and the noise level of the apparatus , and the workplace , can be reduced . in one embodiment , a brake 25 ( fig1 & amp ; 11 ) also is employed on motor 26 to assist in rapidly changing the speed of fan 24 . alternating - current electric motors run at speeds closely determined by the number of poles in the motor and the frequency of the alternating current supply . this is unlike the steam engine , which can be made to run over a range of speeds by adjusting the timing and duration of valves admitting steam to the cylinder . ac motors can be made with several sets of poles , which can be chosen to give one of several different speeds ( say , 720 / 1800 rpm for a 60 hz motor ). the number of different speeds available is limited by the expense of providing multiple sets of windings . if many different speeds or continuously variable speeds are required , other methods are required . direct - current motors allow for changes of speed by adjusting the shunt field current . another way of changing speed of a direct current motor is to change the voltage applied to the armature . an adjustable speed drive might consist of an electric motor and controller that is used to adjust the motor &# 39 ; s operating speed . the combination of a constant - speed motor and a steplessly adjustable mechanical speed - changing device might also be called an adjustable speed drive . electronic variable frequency drives are rapidly making older technology redundant . process control and energy conservation are the two primary reasons for using an adjustable speed drive . historically , adjustable speed drives were developed for process control , but energy conservation has emerged as an equally important objective . an adjustable speed drive often uses less energy than an alternative fixed speed mode of operation . fans and pumps are the most common energy saving applications . when a fan is driven by a fixed speed motor , the airflow may sometimes be higher than it needs to be . airflow can be regulated by using a damper to restrict the flow , but it is more efficient to regulate the airflow by regulating the speed of the motor . adjustable - frequency drives ( afd ) control the speed of either an induction motor or a synchronous motor by adjusting the frequency of the power supplied to the motor . adjustable frequency drives are also known as variable - frequency drives ( vfd ). a variable frequency drive control is essentially an electronic power conversion circuit . the conversion circuitry first converts the input ac power to dc intermediate power using a rectifier or rectifier bridge . the dc intermediate power is then converted to a quasi - sinusoidal ac power , at the desired frequency using inverter switching circuitry . the motor used in a vfd system is usually a three - phase induction motor . some types of single - phase motors can be used , but three - phase motors are usually preferred . various types of synchronous motors offer advantages in some situations , but induction motors are suitable for most purposes and are generally the most economical choice . motors that are designed for fixed - speed supply voltage operation are often used , but certain enhancements to the standard motor designs offer higher reliability and better vfd performance . ac motor characteristics require the applied voltage to be proportionally adjusted whenever the frequency is changed in order to deliver the rated torque . for example , if a motor is designed to operate at 460 volts at 60 hz , the applied voltage must be reduced to 230 volts when the frequency is reduced to 30 hz . thus the ratio of volts per hertz must be regulated to a constant value ( 460 / 60 = 7 . 67 v / hz in this case ). for optimum performance , some further voltage adjustment may be necessary , but nominally constant volts per hertz is the general rule . this ratio can be changed in order to change the torque delivered by the motor . an embedded microprocessor governs the overall operation of the vfd controller . the main microprocessor programming is in firmware that is inaccessible to the vfd user . however , some degree of configuration programming and parameter adjustment is usually provided so that the user can customize the vfd controller to suit specific motor and driven equipment requirements . in addition to manual control of the motor speed , the controller circuitry for a variable frequency drive may alternatively be controlled by signals from external processes . referring now to fig5 and 7 , in the present apparatus 10 the variable frequency drive control 62 is employed to selectably change the fan speed and therefore the amount of generated suction in the flow pathway , depending on the number of tubes 18 a , 18 b in use . for the apparatus shown in fig1 and 11 , a suitable variable frequency drive control 62 is the powerflex 40 240vac 22b - b017n104 with a ak - r2 - 030p1k2 brake resistor manufactured by the allen bradley division of rockwell automation of milwaukee , wis . for the apparatus shown in fig1 a suitable variable frequency drive control 62 is the durapulse gs3 - 2050 manufactured by the automation direct of atlanta , ga . during the operation of the apparatus one or more tubes 18 ( fig4 ) may be in use at anytime . the more tubes in use at a time , the greater the amount of fan suction is required to produce sufficient air flow in tubes 18 to move the textile articles from table 12 to bins 14 . conversely , when only one or two tubes 18 are in use less suction is required in the apparatus . this variable need is accounted for and provided by the present apparatus with the use of the variable frequency drive control for the fan motor 26 ( fig1 ) that operates fan 24 . in particular , when the apparatus has only one ( 1 ) or two ( 2 ) tubes 18 operating , the variable frequency drive control will operate the fan motor 26 at approximately 54 hz to produce a slower fan 24 speed and a reduced amount of suction by fan 24 . when the programmable controller 60 determines apparatus 10 has three ( 3 ) to four ( 4 ) tubes 18 operating , variable frequency drive control 62 is then directed by controller 60 to operate at an increased frequency and variable frequency drive control 62 will operate the fan motor 26 at approximately 58 hz to produce a greater fan 24 speed and an increased amount of suction by fan 24 . when five ( 5 ) to six ( 6 ) tubes 18 are in use the variable frequency drive control 60 will operate the fan motor 26 at 60 hz to produce a sufficient fan 24 speed to provide sufficient suction by fan 24 to operate all six tubes . it will be appreciated that in this manner the energy consumption of motor 26 is reduced and the associated noise level in the plant also is reduced . in prior art apparatus , the motor and fan had only a single operational speed . therefore , substantial unnecessary suction was generated by the fan when less than all of the apparatus of being used . this also provided unnecessary noise in the plant . a programmable logic controller ( plc ) or programmable controller 60 ( fig6 ) is provided to control the operation of apparatus 10 including the operator selection panel 16 and the diverters 22 responsive thereto . a suitable programmable logic controller ( plc ) or programmable controller 60 is the micrologix 1100 1763 - l16bwa manufactured by the allen bradley division of rockwell automation of milwaukee , wis . the variable frequency drive control 62 ( fig7 ) is responsive to the plc controller detecting the number of tubes 18 in operation at anytime . the controller 60 detects the number of tubes 18 in use . in response to the detected number of operational tubes 18 controller 60 determines the electrical frequency to be supplied to motor 26 by the variable frequency drive control 62 . as previously described , this variation in electrical frequency provided to motor 26 results in a change in fan 24 speed . this change in fan speed can rapidly be altered by the operation of controller 60 and the variable frequency drive control 62 in response to detected changes in the number of tube 18 being used at any moment . this then provides real time response of fan 24 suction generation to the operational demands of the textile cleaning plant and the apparatus 10 . in fig1 , programmable controller 60 and variable frequency drive control 62 are located new bins 14 on control panel 40 . the programmable controller 60 also monitors the counts of textile pieces or work pieces from the sorting stations 12 to determine when to dump the accumulated textile pieces or work pieces from one of the holding bins 20 at the apical end of the cone 21 . in the foregoing description , certain terms have been used for brevity , clearness and understanding ; but no unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirements of the prior art , because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed . moreover , the description and illustration of the invention is by way of example , and the scope of the invention is not limited to the exact details shown or described . certain changes may be made in embodying the above invention , and in the construction thereof , without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not meant in a limiting sense . having now described the features , discoveries and principles of the invention , the manner in which the inventive apparatus for textile sorting is constructed and used , the characteristics of the construction , and advantageous , new and useful results obtained ; the new and useful structures , devices , elements , arrangements , parts and combinations , are set forth in the appended claims . it is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween .
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referring now to the drawings there can be seen an air dropped weapon , designated generally by the reference numeral 10 , having a body section 11 and an ogive section 12 . a plurality of wrap - around fins 14 , shown in their deployed positions , are mounted on the after end of the body section 11 . the weapon 10 may be provided with any suitable warhead and fuze as well as any appropriate means for stowing and deploying the wrap - around fins since specific details of these elements of the weapon 10 form no part of the present invention . each fin 14 is provided with a fence 15 fixed to the convex side of the fin adjacent the outer extremity thereof and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the weapon 10 . a slot 16 is formed in each fin 14 in a generally central location . a roll tab 18 is fixed to the aft edge of each fin 14 to provide a predetermined stabilizing roll rate . the present invention was extensively wind tunnel tested . the basic wrap - around fin configuration was first tested and found to exhibit large , negative , steady - state roll rates at high angles of attack . for comparison purposes a cruciform fin configuration with the same planform as the basic wrap - around fin configuration was also tested . as expected , this configuration exhibited roll speed - up in both the positive and negative directions . it had been shown in applicant &# 39 ; s aforementioned patent that fin slots eliminated roll speed - up of cruciform finned weapons . consequently , centrally located fin slots were tested on the basic wrap - around fin configuration . the ratio of slot area to fin area ( c / c ) was approximately 0 . 3 . the slots resulted in a reduction in roll rates at high angles of attack by about 50 %. this reduction , while encouraging , indicated a need for additional modifications of the fins to obtain roll rate stablization . since wrap - around fin configurations are not symmetrical , in roll , i . e ., retreating and advancing fins when rotating in a cross - flow would produce different amounts of drag , it was concluded that part of the high angle of attack roll rate might be produced by differential drag . accordingly , unslotted wrap - around fins were treated with fences fixed at various positions adjacent the outer ends of the fins . these configurations allowed roll at lower , but still excessive , rates in either direction . the final configurations tested employed both slots and fences . roll tabs were added to the aft ends of the fins to provide the required driving torque . these configurations were found to eliminate excessive roll in either direction and provide roll rate stabilization in incompressible flow . obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings . it is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described .
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embodiments and other aspects of the invention described herein , including the system embodiments described below , may be made or used in conjunction with inventions described , in whole or in part , in co - pending u . s . patent application ser . no . 09 / 692 , 483 filed on oct . 20 , 2000 in the name of inventors daniel r . neal , darrell j . armstrong , daniel m . topa and richard j . copland , entitled “ dynamic range extension techniques for a shack - hartman sensor including use in ophthalmic measurement .” [ 0024 ] fig1 shows a functional diagram of an embodiment of an integrated laser treatment system 100 , comprising a laser refractive surgery instrument that is integrated with a wavefront aberrometry system . the system 100 includes a wavefront aberrometer 110 , a laser 130 , an aperture - sharing element 120 , first and second lenses 135 , 140 operating as a microscope , a camera 150 , and a heads - up display ( hud ) 160 . the wavefront aberrometer 110 operates by injecting a beam or pattern near the center of the pupil and then recording and monitoring the resulting light that is scattered from the retina . beneficially , the wavefront aberrometer 110 includes a target for the patient &# 39 ; s eye . the wavefront aberrometer 110 is arranged to monitor the central part of the optical zone . the wavefront aberrometer 110 may be a hartmann - shack sensor , scanning refractometer , tscheming aberrometer or other aberrometer system . the wavefront aberrometer 110 operates with the aperture - sharing element 120 to simultaneously inject the refractive laser beam ( s ) from the laser 130 . beneficially , the aperture - sharing element may comprise a dichroic mirror that passes visible light ( and a scanning beam from the wavefront aberrometer 110 ) straight through while reflecting infrared ( ir ) light from the laser 130 , as shown in fig1 . the laser 130 should , beneficially , be arranged to illuminate the region outside the optical zone . however , it should not be limited to this case , since accurate real - time measurement can be performed even when the laser 130 modifies the optical zone directly , so long as the modification does not result in scattering or other phenomenon that is not consistent with the desired refractive change . the wavefront aberrometer 110 beneficially communicates with the laser 130 through a hardware or software link ( not shown ). the wavefront aberrometer 110 provides a feedback signal to the laser 130 for end - point detection and supports the hud 160 . the feedback signal from the wavefront aberrometer 110 may control the progress of the corrective procedure administered by the laser 130 based upon one or more characteristics of the patent &# 39 ; s eye measured by the wavefront aberrometer 110 . a surgeon can use the hud 160 to evaluate the progress of the procedure . the wavefront aberrometer 110 may operate in conjunction with the laser 130 to terminate the treatment once a desired correction has been obtained and measured by the wavefront aberrometer 110 . [ 0028 ] fig2 shows a functional diagram of another embodiment of an integrated laser treatment system 100 , comprising a laser refractive surgery instrument that is integrated with a wavefront aberrometry system . the major difference between the embodiments of fig1 and fig2 is that the embodiment of fig2 includes a tracking mirror which allows both the laser 130 and the wavefront aberrometer 110 to track movements of a patient &# 39 ; s eye during a procedure . again , a feedback signal from the wavefront aberrometer 110 may control the progress of the corrective procedure administered by the laser 130 based upon one or more characteristics of the patent &# 39 ; s eye measured by the wavefront aberrometer 110 . [ 0029 ] fig3 shows a structural configuration of a laser treatment system including a laser refractive surgery instrument and an objective aberrometer , such as an embodiment having the functional diagram of fig1 . a goal of the wavefront measurement is to monitor the change in the spherical value of the eye during the corrective procedure . it is important that measurement not be confused by changes in the accommodative state of the crystalline lens in the patient &# 39 ; s eye . in the case of the making a hyperopic patient more emmetropic , the change in the sphere value will tend to make the target more blurry during the treatment . in the case of making a myopic patient more emmetropic , the change in sphere will tend to make a fogged target clear . once the target becomes clear , the accommodation of the eye would tend to follow the target . then large changes in the corneal shape could occur while the wavefront aberrometer 110 shows no change in the sphere value . to prevent either of these outcomes , the eye target can be moved during the treatment to maintain the presentation of a fogged eye target to the patient . this movement can be controlled by inputs from wavefront sensor , by predictions from the treatment nomogram , or by inputs from other measurements of the patient &# 39 ; s accommodative state . it is possible to monitor the accommodative state of the patient &# 39 ; s eye by several means . for instance , a camera can be located conjugate to the position of the fogged target of the eye . when the target intensity is very bright , the fogged eye target can be viewed on the retina through the eye lens . if the target becomes clearer , the eye is not longer focused at infinity but instead is focusing on the target . a more practical system results if an additional probe beam is added that has a divergence that corresponds to fogged target . a retinal camera will show a small spot when the patient is focused at infinity . the spot size increases as the eye is focused nearer . additional cameras located a various location on either side of the conjugate location can also be used to measure the accommodative state , with each camera location corresponding to a different distance that the eye is focused . to make a more compact system , a diffractive optic can be made that maps different regions on a single charge coupled device ( ccd ) camera to different accommodative states . the different beam sizes in the different regions can be evaluated to determine at what range the eye is focused . a compact beam viewed on the retina corresponds to the eye adjusted for far vision as the eye tries to focus on the fogged target . it is also possible to monitor the accommodative state of the eye with a retinal camera that is positioned conjugate to the target in its fogged position and that views the primary injected laser beam . an alternative is to paralyze the accommodative response of the eye by pharmaceuticals . [ 0032 ] fig4 and 5 illustrate characteristics obtained from measurements taken by a wavefront aberrometer during ltk procedures using the system of fig3 having the functional diagram of fig1 . fig4 illustrates changes to a first patient &# 39 ; s eye &# 39 ; s spherical characteristics as a series of laser pulses are applied to the eye . a correction of − 2 . 22d is obtained after 14 pulses are applied . if , for example , a correction of only − 2 . 00 was desired , the data provided by the wavefront aberrometer would have indicated that the procedure should be terminated after only 9 pulses . in that case , a feedback control signal from the wavefront aberrometer may operate to shut of the energy source ( laser ) applying the corrective procedure aft6er the ninth pulse . meanwhile , fig5 illustrates changes to a second patient &# 39 ; s eye &# 39 ; s cylindrical characteristics as a series of laser pulses are applied to the eye . the following are some features that may be provided by a system and method as disclosed herein . ( 1 ) the refractive surgery laser and the diagnostic system are beneficially provided in the same instrument . ( 2 ) a signal may be used for refractive adjustment end - point detection . ( 3 ) the laser pattern may be adjusted based on information received from the diagnostic instrument ( 4 ) the laser exposure may be adjusted based on the information received from the diagnostic instrument . ( 5 ) a higher order aberration may be controlled by a signal from the diagnostic instrument to the laser . ( 6 ) an eye target may be incorporated that the patient views during the treatment . ( 7 ) an eye target may be adjusted to maintain proper patient accommodation state during treatment . ( 8 ) an accommodation state of a patient &# 39 ; s eye may be measured during treatment . ( 9 ) two video cameras may be used to set an angle to the optical axis of eye . when imaged pupils appear at correct places in the cameras , the eye will be at the proper distance from the optical system . ( 10 ) a heads - up display may be included to provide a real - time update of display of the sphere , cylinder and axis . a treating physician may view these values through the oculars when the patient is lined up to the optical system . ( 11 ) an indication may be provided on the heads - up display if the patient is not properly lined up for good wavefront measurements to be performed . ( 12 ) algorithms and electronics may be provided to synchronize the firing of the pulses of the ltk laser in between sample times of the wavefront aberrometer . ( 13 ) algorithms and electronics may be provided to move the optical stage of the wavefront aberrometer at optimal times during laser pulses so that the wavefront sensor will have the best measurements and the wavefront sensor will stay in range while the treatment progresses from beginning to end . ( 14 ) algorithms may be provided to match particular zernike polynomials to the firing of the pulses of the laser and the influence functions . ( 15 ) an eye tracker may use the video signal of infrared light that fills the pupil as it comes from the eye and appears on a camera that images the iris . ( 16 ) an eye tracker may use the light disk that appears to fill the entire pupil of the eye and is projected onto a high speed quad cell to follow the eye at a kilohertz rate . ( 17 ) an eye tracker arrangement may use a fold mirror such that both the wavefront sensor and the treatment laser follow any small motions of the eye . ( 18 ) a wavefront aberrometer with a wide field of view may be used that can obtain good wavefront measurements even if the tracking mirror only directs the treatment beam and not the wavefront aberrometer field of view . ( 19 ) a small pickoff mirror situated in between the field of view of the two oculars may be used to send the beam to a wavefront aberrometer . ( 20 ) relay telescopes may be incorporated to image pupil into a wavefront abberometer . ( 21 ) a fixture that acts as a model eye may be automatically inserted and measured by the wavefront aberrometer before each treatment to verify proper operation of the aberrometer before each patient procedure . ( 22 ) a model eye test fixture may be automatically varied to verify proper operation of control loop operation of the aberrometer and treatment laser control system before each patient procedure . ( 23 ) a stabilized laser diode ( sld ) illumination beam may be aligned off - center from the optical axis to reduce stray reflections off lenses from coming back onto the wavefront sensor . ( 24 ) a sld beam may be aligned on the optical axis with polarizing elements used to reduce stray reflections off lenses from coming back onto the wavefront sensor . ( 25 ) although the above - described embodiments describe correction procedures involving lasers , other energy sources and wavelengths may be employed . for example , it has been discovered that certain corrective procedures ( e . g ., presbyopic corrections — both ciliary and lenticular pliancy modifications ) may be achieved through the application of ultrasound energy to the eye . in such cases , it is still possible to employ the principles described herein to perform a procedure to modify the refraction of the eye and , while the procedure is being performed , measure the refraction and / or an aberration of the eye , and terminate the procedure when a change the measured refraction and / or the measured aberration reaches a desired value . ( 26 ) an adaptive algorithm may be employed to automate the corrective procedure based upon a feedback signal derived from the wavefront measurements . in that case , an initial wavefront measurement of a patient &# 39 ; s eye may be taken prior to the start of corrective procedures . based upon one or more measured characteristics of the eye , an adaptive algorithm may begin the corrective procedure . a dynamic nomogram may be obtained from real - time sampled wavefront errors measured during the corrective procedure . from the nomogram , a minimized aberration profile endpoint may be determined during the corrective procedure . while preferred embodiments are disclosed herein , many variations are possible which remain within the concept and scope of the invention . such variations would become clear to one of ordinary skill in the art after inspection of the specification , drawings and claims herein . the invention therefore is not to be restricted except within the spirit and scope of the appended claims .
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fig1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention . in the illustrated embodiment , microporous pan hollow fiber 1 travels vertically upward through a coating apparatus 2 comprising a pre - wetting section 3 , a coating section 4 , and a drying column 5 . the fiber 1 first passes through the pre - wetting section 3 where a perfluoroether mixture is applied to the fiber 1 through an inlet 6 . the fiber 1 then passes through an air gap 7 and into the coating section 4 where a solution or dope containing a selective polymer is applied to the fiber 1 through an inlet 8 . the dope - coated fiber 1 enters the drying column 5 , which is maintained at an elevated temperature to promote evaporation of the solvent from the polymer solution coating . the dried coated fiber 1 is then collected by a take - up apparatus 9 . a gas , e . g . nitrogen , may be passed through the drying column 5 from the upper opening 10 thereof to facilitate drying . the perfluoroether is applied to the fiber by any suitable method known in the art . for example , it may be slowly dripped onto the fiber , or applied with an applicator , e . g . a sponge , swab or cloth . any perfluoroether or mixture of perfluoroethers may be used in the practice of this invention , including commercially available products such as fc - 72 fluorinert ™ brand electronic liquid ( sold by 3m corporation , and containing a mixture of perfluoroethers having from 5 - 18 carbon atoms ), or the like . the polymer dope also may be applied by any means known in the art . the polymer may be any suitable polymer that exhibits a significant degree of preferential permeability to a first fluid in a mixture of fluids than to a second fluid in said mixture , i . e ., a permselective polymer . for example , a polymer that is more permeable to oxygen than nitrogen may be applied to form a gas separation membrane suitable for air separations . any permselective polymer capable of being coated on a fiber or film may be used in this invention , provided that the polymer dope is not miscible with the perfluoroether . examples of suitable permselective polymers include polyimides , such as sixef ™- durene polyimide ( the polymerization product of 2 , 2 - bis [ 3 , 4 - dicarboxyphenyl ] hexafluoropropane dianhydride and 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 - tetramethylphenylene diamine monomers , made by hoechst celanese corporation ), and the like . these permselective polymers suitably have an oxygen permeance of at least about 60 barrers / cm and an oxygen / nitrogen separation factor of at least about 4 . 0 at room temperature ; this separation factor is the ratio of the oxygen permeance divided by the nitrogen permeance . the permselective polymer dope may include any suitable solvent , i . e ., one in which the polymer is sufficiently soluble and which will evaporate during the drying operation . the optimum temperature and time period used for drying will depend on chemical composition and polymer concentration of the polymer dope . preferably , the concentration of the polymer in the dope is no more than about 5 %, because higher concentrations generally produce thicker coatings . the optimum dope concentration will depend on many factors , such as the polymer and solvent used , the desired coating thickness , and the fiber speed through the coating apparatus . the preferred perfluoroethers are volatile and evaporate from the fiber at a significant rate . it is necessary , therefore , to coat the fiber with the selective polymer dope before all the perfluoroether evaporates . however , if too much perfluoroether is present on the fiber it will get into the polymer dope and make it more difficult to uniformly coat the fiber . for this reason , an air gap may be used to allow partial evaporation of the perfluoroether ( s ) prior to coating . whether an air gap is needed , and the exact size of the air gap , will depend on several factors , such as the rate of application of perfluoroether , the fiber &# 39 ; s speed , the volatility of the perfluoroether used , the temperature and humidity at which the operation occurs , and the like . those skilled in the art will be able to determine the optimum gap and other parameters for a given system . the presence of perfluoroether in the pores of the fiber is believed to prevent the polymer dope from deeply penetrating the pores , thus reducing the effective thickness of the polymer coating and increasing the permeability therethrough . this effect appears to depend on the relatively small pore size of the microporous pan fiber , since in a fiber having large pores the perfluoroether would not be expected to prevent penetration of the coating into the large pores . preferably , the applied thickness of the selective coating is no greater than about one micron , and the apparent thickness is no greater than two microns . a ratio of apparent thickness divided by applied thickness less than about three is desirable , and a ratio less than about two is more desirable . the perfluoroether treatment of the present invention reduces the apparent thickness of the coating , and thus the ratio , presumably by reducing the penetration of the selective layer into the fiber &# 39 ; s pores . apparent thickness is calculated by dividing the known permeability of a uniform layer of the selective coating material by the measured permeance of the selective layer ; preferably , a correction is made for nonselective flow , i . e ., the portion of the flow that passes through small holes in the material ( calculated from the measured separation factor and the theoretical separation factor for the selective material ). applied thickness is calculated by dividing the applied mass of the material by its density and the area over which it is applied . applied mass is calculated from the dope flow rate and concentration , and area is calculated from the fiber diameter and length . a pan fiber coated in accordance with the present invention may exhibit an oxygen permeance at 25 ° c . of about 400 , 000 barrers / cm or more and have an oxygen / nitrogen selectivity of at least about 3 . 0 . oxygen permeances exceeding one million barrers / cm have been achieved , in combination with o 2 / n 2 selectivities greater than 3 . 0 . in a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention , the pan microporous hollow fiber is coated directly after it is spun . a continuous process can be set up wherein pan fiber is spun and the spun fiber is fed directly into the coating apparatus of the present invention , so that both operations are in one line . however , previously spun and collected pan fiber may also be coated according to the present invention . the pan fiber may be made according to any method known in the art for producing a microporous pan fiber . preferably , the fiber will be hollow . although the above embodiments have focused on pan fiber , film may also be coated according to the present invention , either in a continuous or discontinuous process . by treating a surface of the microporous film with perfluoroether and then coating the treated surface with a permselective polymer , a composite membrane having enhanced permeability may be obtained . the present invention is not limited to pan composite membrane film or fiber ; microporous film or fiber made of other polymers may also be used in the practice of the present invention . these films and fibers may be made according to any method known in the art , provided that the resulting film of fiber is suitably microporous . the following examples are presented to illustrate the present invention , but should not be construed as limiting the scope of this invention . pan microporous hollow fiber having an inner diameter of 300 microns and an outer diameter of 510 microns was coated with a 2 % solution of sixef ™- durene polyimide in chloroform ( chcl 3 ), both with and without pre - wetting with fluorinert ™ fc - 72 perfluoroether liquid , to examine the effect of the perfluoroether treatment . gas separation modules were made from the coated fibers so that the separation parameters of the fibers could be evaluated . these modules were each about 20 cm long and contained 50 - 100 fibers . the modules contained a shell having inlet / outlet ports that allowed gas to be introduced either in the hollow interior ( bore side ) of the fibers or on the exterior ( shell side ) of the fibers . table i shows the results of these experiments . in some cases , identified by an asterisk (*), the coating was done in line with a pan fiber spinning operation , i . e ., the deposition of the selective coating was performed immediately after the pan fiber was spun and dried . the pan fiber was spun from a pan / nmp ( n - methylpyrrolidone ) dope at a speed of 6 meters / min using a core solvent of 95 % nmp / 5 % water . the spun fiber was coagulated in water at 50 ° c ., washed with water at 60 ° c ., and dried at 65 ° c ., and then immediately fed into a coating apparatus as illustrated in fig1 . in table i , p / l indicates the oxygen permeance of the coated fiber in barrers / cm , α indicates the o 2 / n 2 selectivity of the coated fiber measured using shell - side pressure ( the ratio of the oxygen permeance to the nitrogen permeance ), and l indicates the coating thickness in microns for the selective layer ; apparent thickness was calculated from permeance , and applied thickness was calculated from mass balance ( mass of polymer applied per unit area can be calculated from the dope flow rate and concentration , and the fiber length and diameter ). l ratio indicates the ratio of the apparent thickness divided by the applied thickness . the tests were done at a temperature of 25 ° c . and a pressure of 20 - 100 psi . table i______________________________________fc - 72 p / l α ( o . sub . 2 / n . sub . 2 ) apparent l applied l l ratio______________________________________none 62 , 000 4 . 2 12 0 . 8 15 . 0yes 440 , 000 3 . 4 1 . 8 0 . 8 2 . 25none * 150 , 000 3 . 8 5 . 2 0 . 8 6 . 5yes * 660 , 000 3 . 4 1 . 2 0 . 8 1 . 5yes * 650 , 000 3 . 5 1 . 2 0 . 8 1 . 5______________________________________ these results show that perfluoroether treatment of the fiber , prior to coating the fiber with the permselective polymer , substantially reduces the apparent coating thickness and improves the ultimate permeance of the coated fiber . this is believed to occur because the perfluoroether prevents the polyimide solution from penetrating or intruding into the pores of the fiber . pan fiber was spun , coated , and tested as in example i except that a 1 % solution of sixef ™- durene polyimide in chloroform was used , reducing by roughly one - half the thickness of the polyimide coating applied to the fiber . the results are shown in table ii . the thinner polyimide coating contributed to an approximate doubling of oxygen permeance and a relatively small decrease in selectivity , as compared to the last two fibers in table i . table ii______________________________________fc - 72 p / l α ( o . sub . 2 / n . sub . 2 ) apparent l applied l l ratio______________________________________yes * 1 , 327 , 000 3 . 2 0 . 54 0 . 25 2 . 2______________________________________ many variations of the present invention not illustrated herein will occur to those skilled in the art . the present invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated and described herein , but encompasses all the subject matter within the scope of the appended claims .
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first is discussed the gas turbine or plant and how it is modeled . then a simplified model is introduced that will be used inside the control and the state estimator . in the following section a novel nmpc formulation is presented . [ 0035 ] fig1 illustrates a schematic of a layout of an engine 10 as well as the station designations , sensors , and actuators for engine 10 . engine 10 is an aerodynamically coupled , dual rotor machine wherein a low - pressure rotor system ( fan and low - pressure turbine ) is mechanically independent of a high - pressure ( core engine ) system . air entering the inlet is compressed by the fan and then split into two concentric streams . one of these then enters the high - pressure compressor and proceeds through the main engine combustor , high - pressure turbine , and low - pressure turbine . the other is directed through an annular duct and then recombined with the core flow , downstream of the low - pressure turbine , by means of a convoluted chute device . the combined streams then enter the augmenter to a convergent - divergent , variable area exhaust nozzle where the flow is pressurized , expands , and accelerated rearward into the atmosphere , thus generating thrust . the plant model is a physics based component level model ( clm ) of this turbine configuration , which was developed by ge aircraft engines . this model is very detailed , high - fidelity , and models each component starting at the inlet , through the fan , compressor , combustor , turbines , and exhaust nozzle . since nmpc is a model based control , an internal model is used to predict the future responses of the plant to control inputs . as the clm is a very large and complicated model , a new model was developed to be used in the nmpc that has a small number of states , executes quickly , can be analytically linearized , and is accurate to within 20 percent transiently and 5 percent steady state over the area of the flight envelope that is most used . the srtm has two control inputs , fuel flow demand ( wfdmd ), and exhaust nozzle area demand ( a 8 dmd ), as well as ambient condition inputs ; altitude ( alt ), mach ( xm ), and ambient temperature deviation from iso ( dtamb ). the outputs from the srtm is all of the outputs currently used in the production control plus any other parameters such as stall margin and thrust that can be used in future studies and form the basis of the constrained operation . the outputs are , percent core speed ( pcn 25 ), percent fan speed ( pcn 2 ), fan inlet pressure ( p 2 ), fan total exit pressure ( p 14 ), fan static exit pressure ( ps 14 ), compressor inlet pressure ( p 25 ), engine pressure ratio ( pp ), compressor discharge static pressure ( ps 3 ), compressor discharge total pressure ( p 3 ), fan airflow ( w 2 r ), compressor airflow ( w 25 r ), fan inlet temperature ( t 2 ), compressor inlet temperature ( t 25 ), high pressure turbine exit temperature ( t 4 b ), fan stall margin ( sm 2 ), core stall margin ( sm 25 ), and thrust ( fnav ). a simplified real - time model ( srtm ) of an aircraft engine along with the main fuel metering valve ( mfmv ) and variable exhaust nozzle ( a 8 ) actuators is developed that meets the above specifications . the model is designed to replicate both transient and steady state performance . the inertias of both rotors are considered in the srtm because they are the main factors affecting the engine transient performance . other states include p 3 which represents something similar to combustor volume , t 42 which approximates the bulk flame dynamics , two states that represent fuel actuator dynamics , and 1 state that represents the a 8 actuator dynamics . the model is data driven and is designed to use the steady state relationships / data from either a complex non - linear model , or from real engine data , and then fit parameters to transient data that account for the dynamics between the inputs and the other model states . the srtm considers the low pressure and high pressure rotor speeds as the main energy storage components , or the states of the model . these speeds can change state if an unbalanced torque is applied . simply put , the speed increments of the engine are the integral of the surplus torques . this is stated mathematically as ω t = 1 i ∑ i = 1 n q i equation 1 is the rotor angular acceleration , n is the number of unbalanced torques , i is the rotor inertia , and q i is the ith torque . the torques arise from any mismatches to the steady state relationships . for example , for a given pcn 2 there is a steady state fuel flow . if the actual fuel flow is greater than the steady state relationship from pcn 2 then a positive unbalanced torque will increase pcn 2 dot . pcn 2 dot can be similarly acted upon by the other rotor pcn 25 . the same logic is used on the pcn 25 rotor . the other engine dynamic elements of the srtm including t 42 and ps 3 act in a similar way to the rotors . also included in the srtm are the inner loop and actuator dynamics for fuel flow and a 8 . in this part of the model there is a delay that is associated with computational delays , actuator delay , and transport delay of the fuel to the combustor . there is a gain that accounts for the change from commanded position to fuel flow . the actuator dynamics are modeled as 2nd order with rate and position limits . the a 8 actuator is similar but is only 1st order actuator dynamics . except for the fmv gain , all of the other parameters for this part of the model are found using nonlinear system identification . the other outputs from the model specified above are generated from table lookups based on the dynamic element outputs . for validation the srtm is run open loop versus the clm . the inputs profiles for the validation are a large step increase in fuel at 2 sec ., small step decrease in fuel at 4 sec ., small step increase in a 8 at 6 sec ., and a large step decrease in a 8 at 8 sec . the results of one such comparison are shown in fig2 for pcn 2 and ps 3 . while for this comparison both parameters are within 10 percent transiently and 5 percent steady state , for all of the parameters over all tested points in the defined envelope the maximal deviation transiently is 22 percent and the maximal deviation steady state is 7 percent . these results are just outside of the requirements , but are still quite remarkable given the simplicity of the model structure . these adaptive model - based control systems and methods are designed to reduce operator workload and enable autonomous gas turbine operation by : ( 1 ) providing sufficient information to the supervisory control so that the supervisory control can manage propulsion , power and / or electrical output for the given mission or event ; ( 2 ) elevating the level of autonomy in the engine control ; ( 3 ) aiding the integration of the engine control with the supervisory control ; and / or ( 4 ) improving engine - related decision - making capabilities . many model - based control systems are created by designing a model of each component and / or system that is to be controlled . for example , there may be a model of each engine component and system — compressor , turbine , combustor , etc . each model comprises features or dynamic characteristics about the component &# 39 ; s or system &# 39 ; s behavior over time ( i . e ., speed accelerations being the integral of the applied torques ). from the model ( s ), the system may control , estimate , correct or identify output data based on the modeled information . for example , if thrust or power is lost because an actuator is stuck in a specific position , the system can hold the control to that actuator fixed as an input constraint , and then adapt the controls that are output to the other actuators so that no other constraints are violated , and as much lost thrust power as possible can be regained so that the gas turbine may can continue operation . the models in the model - based controls are designed to replicate both transient and steady state performance . the models can be used in their non - linear form or they can be linearized or parameterized for different operating conditions . model - based control techniques take advantage of the model to gain access to unmeasured engine parameters in addition to the normal sensed parameters . these unmeasured parameters may include thrust , stall margins , and airflows . these controls can be multiple - input multiple - output ( mimo ) to account for interactions of the control loops , they are model - based to get rid of the scheduling , and they have limits or constraints built as an integral part of the control formulation and optimization to get rid of designing controllers for each limit . the current strategy for this invention involves trying to collapse the controller into an objective function ( s ) and constraint ( s ) that is used as part of a finite horizon constrained optimization problem . the herein described methods allow either performance or operability to be optimized . if the performance - optimizing mode is selected , the objectives include attempting to maximize , minimize or track thrust , power , electricity , specific fuel consumption , part life , stress , temperatures , pressures , ratios of pressures , speed , actuator command ( s ), flow ( s ), dollars , costs , etc . this leads to longer engine run times , fuel savings , increased transient performance , increased parts life , and / or lower costs . if the operability - optimizing mode is selected , the objectives include attempting to manage stall margin , increase operability , and prevent in - flight mishaps . this leads to reduction of loss of thrust or loss of power control events , increased engine operating time in presence of faults , failures , or damage and increased engine survivability . the herein described model - based control systems and methods that comprise a system model , estimators , and model - based control or model - predictive control . physics - based and empirical models provide analytical redundancy of sensed engine parameters and access to unmeasured parameters for control and diagnostics purposes as well as provide prediction of future behavior of the system . estimators associated with the various models will ensure that the models are providing accurate representations of the engine and its subsystems and components as well as estimate the model state . nonlinear model predictive control maintains robust , high - performance control of the engine in the presence of system faults and mission segment - specific operational goals , using the predictive capabilities of model and information from the model - based diagnostics . because each engine is different , deteriorates , and may become faulted or damaged , the model should be able to track or adapt itself to follow these changes . one helpful idea is to get a model to reveal information about the particular engine running at the current time . this facilitates the ability to predict more accurately future behavior and to detect smaller faults or damage levels . two areas of the model that can be modified to match the engine model to the current engine are engine parameters and states . the tool used to determine the engine parameters is called a parameter estimator , and the tool used to determine the states is a state estimator . a parameter estimator estimates and modifies parameters in the engine model in order to reduce the error between the engine sensors and the model sensors , or this is called tracking the model to the engine . the parameters that are modified usually fall in the class called quality parameters , e . g . component efficiencies , flow , input or output scalars or adders . these quality parameters like component efficiencies can then be used as inputs to the diagnostic algorithms . for example , if the compressor efficiency drops by a couple of points during steady state operation , it may indicate damage has occurred in the compressor . in this realization the parameter estimator works in real - time on both transient information and steady state information . a state estimator is used to also aid in tracking and is the state information is also used to initialize the model - based control at each time interval . since the model - based control is a full state controller , it will use the estimate of the current state of the engine to initialize and function correctly . the goal of the state estimator is to determine the optimum gain k to account for the differences between the model and the engine , given the model dynamics and the covariance of w and v . [ 0052 ] fig3 illustrates an implementation of nmpc based on the constrained open - loop optimization of a finite horizon objective function . this optimization uses a plant model to describe the evolution of the outputs and commences from an assumed known initial state . fig3 illustrates the concept of receding horizon control underpinning nmpc . at time k the input variables , { u ( k ), u ( k + 1 ), . . . , u ( k + p − 1 )}, are selected to optimize a performance criterion over the prediction horizon , p . of the computed optimal control moves , only the values for the first sample , u ( k ), are actually implemented . before the next time interval and its calculation of another p input values , { u ( k + 1 ), u ( k + 2 ), . . . , u ( k + p )}, the initial state is re - estimated from output measurements . this causes the seemingly open - loop strategy actually to implement a closed - loop control . the nmpc and the ekf state estimator are both model - based procedures in which a model of the plant is calculated for the generation of state predictions . there is a clear hierarchy of models in this specific problem , the real plant , whose dynamics are not fully known , the clm , which is a high - fidelity but computationally complex model which is difficult to linearize , and the srtm , which is linearizeable and relatively simply iterated as part of the optimization procedure . in an empirical study implementing the herein described methods , the controlled inputs are fuel flow demand ( wfdmd ) and exhaust area demand ( a 8 dmd ). since the control is model based it can be designed to follow the unmeasured but estimated or computed parameters of interest such as thrust and stall margin , but this studies first goal is to perform to the same requirements as the production control already running an engine . for engine 10 the references are fan speed ( ref 1 ) and engine pressure ratio ( ref 2 ). while operating to these two references , the control is constrained by other operating limitations , such as , for example , maximum t 4 b , minimum and maximum ps 3 , minimum and maximum n 25 , maximum n 2 , rotor speed acceleration , and rotor speed deceleration . also , both actuators are rate limited and have minimum and maximum slew positions . the formulation of nmpc used to work within this framework is now detailed . an objective function j is defined over the prediction horizon p . j = ∑ i = 1 p ( pcn 2 r i - ref 1 i ) 2 + γ * ∑ i = 1 p ( pp i - ref 2 i ) 2 + ρ 1 * ∑ i = 1 p δ wf i 2 + ρ 2 ∑ i = 1 p δ a 8 i 2 + δ 1 ∑ i = 1 p ( ( ps 3 i - ps 3 max ) ) 2 + δ 2 ∑ i = 1 p ( ( pcn 2 i - pcn 2 max ) ) 2 + δ 3 * ∑ i = 1 p ( ( t4b i - t4b max ) ) 2 + δ 4 ∑ i = 1 p ( ( pcn 25 i - pcn 25 max ) ) 2 + ⋯ ( 2 ) where γ , ρ , and δ are weighting factors . the srtm is used as the predictor to obtain the turbine cycle parameters &# 39 ; response over the prediction horizon . the constraints on cycle parameters like ps 3 and t 4 b are included as soft constraints or penalty functions . this is implemented by using an exponential term that is very small , i . e . little effect on j , when operating away from the constraint , but penalizes j heavily when the parameter comes near the constraint . the awf and aa 8 terms are added to both to make sure that the control does not attempt to take unfeasibly large steps , and also they are set to be just outside of the range of the actual input constraints to make sure that the gradient follows a direction that will correspond with the final solution . a generic objective function j is defined over the prediction horizon p . j = ∑ i = 1 p ( y1 i - y1ref i ) 2 + γ * ∑ i = 1 p ( y2 i - y2ref i ) 2 + ρ 1 * ∑ i = 1 p δ u 1 i 2 + ρ 2 ∑ i = 1 p δ u 2 i 2 + δ 1 ∑ i = 1 p ( ( out 1 min - out 1 i ) ) 2 + δ 2 ∑ i = 1 p ( ( out 2 i - out 2 max ) ) 2 + … ( 3 ) where γ , ρ , and δ are weighting factors , min and max represent minimum and maximum constraints . the tracking of references ( y 1 , y 2 , . . . ) can be any state or output parameter . the number of tracked references can be less than or equal to the number of actuator inputs u . the number of actuators in this formulation is not limited . the constraints on cycle parameters or states like out 1 , out 2 , . . . are included as soft constraints or penalty functions . this is implemented by using an exponential term that is very small , i . e . little effect on j , when operating away from the constraint , but penalizes j heavily when the parameter comes near the constraint . the number of constraints is not limited . the δu 1 and δu 2 terms are added to both to make sure that the control does not attempt to take unfeasibly large steps , and also they are set to be just outside of the range of the actual input constraints to make sure that the gradient follows a direction that will correspond with the final solution . where u is the vector of p future wfcmd and a 8 cmd control inputs . this is accomplished using a gradient descent method with central differences . the gradient computation is shown in eq . ( 5 ). ∇ j = j ( u + du ) - j ( u - du ) 2 du = ∂ j ∂ wfdmd t ∂ j ∂ a8dmd t ⋮ ⋮ ∂ j ∂ wfdmd t + c ∂ j ∂ a8dmd t + c 0 0 ⋮ ⋮ 0 t + p 0 t + p ( 5 ) the control inputs are then computed by taking n steps in the negative gradient direction until j is minimized , or the maximum number of iterations or search time is reached . projection of the inputs is applied at this time to ensure that the actuator rate and position limits are not violated . the control values are calculated using where β is a weighting matrix that accounts for gradient step size and weighting between the two control inputs . nmpc is a full state feedback controller and hence all states need to be measured or estimated from available measurements . typically not all states are measured because of the cost or availability of sensors . moreover sensors have dynamics , delays , and noise . hence a dynamic observer is useful to reconstruct the states and reduce noise . an extended kalman filter ( ekf ) is used for this purpose . useful ekf &# 39 ; s are described in athans , m . ( 1996 ), the control handbook , pg . 589 - 594 , crc press , united states , and b . d . o . anderson and j . b . moore , optimal filtering , prentice - hall , englewood cliffs n . j ., 1979 . the ekf is a nonlinear state estimator which is based on a dynamical system model . while the model underpinning the ekf is nonlinear , the recursion is based on a linear gain computed from the parameters of the linearized model . thus the design concepts inherit much from the realm of kalman filtering . in the instant implementation , the srtm is used as the core of the ekf , which is a parallel with its use in the nmpc . akin to the gradient - based nmpc , the ekf need not provide the truly optimal state estimate to the controller in order to operate adequately well . it is usually a suboptimal nonlinear filter in any case . however , its role in providing the state estimates to the nmpc for correct initialisation is a key feature of nmpc which is often overlooked . the ekf and srtm are wrapped into the nmpc logic and this is connected to the clm for simulation or to the real engine . fig4 illustrates a block diagram representation of how ekf , srtm , nmpc , and clm or engine are connected . the assembled control process starts with the ekf using the srtm to determine the current state of the engine . this information is used as the initial conditions for the predictions used in the gradient calculation . the srtm is then run 2 * c times where 2 is the number of control inputs and c the control horizon used is 15 steps . the sample time is dependant upon the application , but is 10 mseconds for each time step in this application . each run corresponds to a perturbation at a different point in the control horizon . this information is assembled into the gradient and a search path is followed in the negative gradient direction . while nmpc can recreate the current production control , using this technology may unlock many potential benefits . using the model based properties of nmpc can lead to running to other more attractive references like thrust and stall margin . while the invention has been described in terms of various specific embodiments , those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims .
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embodiments according to the present invention are described below referring to the accompanying drawings . it is to be noted that the terms ( for example , terms including “ upward ,” “ downward ,” “ sideways ,” and “ end .”) expressing specific directions and positions be used if necessary in the following description , but these terms be used only for an easy understanding of the present invention that is described with reference to the drawings and the meanings of these terms not limit a technical scope of the present invention . furthermore , the following description is only an example in nature , and is not intended to limit the present invention , applications thereof , or uses thereof . fig1 is an overall view illustrating a connector according to a first embodiment , and fig2 is a perspective exploded view illustrating the connector . the connector is configured by mounting a contact point member 2 , a latching member 3 , and a movement member 4 to a housing 1 . as illustrated in fig3 a and 3b , the housing 1 is a product manufactured by molding resin material having electrical insulation into the approximately rectangular parallelepiped shape . the housing 1 has a recess 5 and which is open at the upper surface side and the front surface side , and an insertion recessed portion 6 which is provided under the recess 5 and is open at the front surface side . the recess 5 and the insertion recessed portion 6 are separated by a partition wall 7 . a plurality of guide holes 8 are formed in the partition wall 7 , at predetermined intervals in the width direction . the plurality of guide holes 8 are formed to communicate with the upper and lower surfaces and extend in the backward direction . furthermore , guide groove portions 9 are formed in the bottom surface which makes up the insertion recessed portion 6 . the guide groove portions 9 are formed to correspond to the guide holes 8 and extend in the forward and backward directions . the guide holes 8 and the guide groove portions 9 communicate with insertion holes 10 in the rear surface side of the housing 1 . the insertion holes 10 are open in the direction of the rear surfaces of the recessed hole 5 and the insertion recessed portion 6 and in the direction of the rear surface of the housing 1 . the guide holes 8 , the guide groove portions 9 , and the insertion holes 10 positioned at both side ends , make up a first attachment portion 11 for installing the latching member 3 . the plurality of insertion holes 10 , arranged in parallel between the insertion holes 10 , make up a second attachment portion 12 for installing the contact point member 2 . in each of the first attachment portions 11 , a latching portion 13 , which has a latching pawl 13 a protruding upward from a leading end portion , is formed in a bottom surface trailing end portion making the first attachment portion 11 , in such a manner as to be elastically deformable downward . a latching hole 14 in the rectangular shape , which communicates with the first attachment portion 11 , is formed in a position corresponding to the latching portion 13 , in an upper wall making up the insertion hole 10 . the front end lower surface of the partition wall 7 is an upward - inclined surface that is gradually inclined upward , along the direction of facing toward the front direction . furthermore , the bottom surface front end part of the insertion recessed portion 6 is a downward - inclined surface that is gradually inclined downward , along the direction of facing toward the front direction . furthermore , the inside surface front end part of each of both side walls is a sideways - inclined surface that is gradually inclined from side to side , along the direction of facing toward the front direction . these inclined surfaces are for facilitating an insertion of a substrate 15 ( refer to fig1 ) into the insertion recessed portion 6 . at this point , an fpc ( flexible printed circuit ) substrate is used as the substrate 15 . a release recessed portion 16 is formed in each of both end portions of the front surface of the housing 1 , and an approximately l - shaped groove portion 17 being open in the direction of the front surface is formed in the release recessed portion 16 . a fixation fitting 18 is fixed by being pressed into each groove portion 17 from the front side . the fixation fitting 18 is a metal plate bent in the shape of a letter approximately like “ c ”. in the fixation fitting 18 , the upper end wall and the side wall are pressed into the groove portion 17 , the lower end wall is narrow in width , and the lower surface side protrudes from the lower surface of the housing 1 . as illustrated in fig5 , the contact point member 2 includes an installation portion 19 , installed in the insertion hole 10 , a first arm portion 20 and a second arm portion 21 that extend forward from the upper and lower parts of the front end edge of the installation portion 19 , respectively , and a terminal portion 22 that extends from the lower part of the rear end . the contact point member 2 is formed by performing process working on a conductive and elastic plate . the contact point members 2 are installed in the second attachment portions 12 , respectively that are installed in parallel in the housing 1 . protrusion portions 23 are formed in an upward position in the first arm portion 20 and a downward position in the second arm portion 21 , respectively in the front end edge of the installation portion 19 . furthermore , a press - in protrusion portion 24 , which protrudes upward in the vicinity of the protrusion portion in the upward position , is formed in the upper end edge of the installation portion 19 . the first arm portion 20 protrudes forward from installation portion 19 , and a contact point portion 25 is formed in a manner to protrude downward from the leading end part of the first arm portion 20 . the downward side of the leading end edge of the contact point portion 25 has an inclination portion 26 that gradually faces upward , along the direction of the leading end . a holding piece 27 is formed in the leading part of the contact point portion 25 . the holding piece 27 extends upward in the shape of a letter approximately c . the holding piece 27 is in the form that conforms the upper half of a shaft portion 39 of the movement member 4 described below . the holding piece 27 holds the shaft portion 39 to support the movement member 4 in a manner that the movement member 4 is rotatable . the second arm portion 21 obliquely extends downward and thereafter protrudes from the installation portion 19 in parallel with the first arm portion 20 . a protrusion portion 28 , which protrudes upward from the leading end part of the second arm portion 21 , is formed in a position facing the contact point portion 25 of the first arm portion 20 . an inclination portion 29 is formed on the upper side of the leading end edge portion of the protrusion portion 28 . the inclination portion 29 faces the inclination portion 26 of the first arm portion 20 . as illustrated in fig6 , the latching member 3 includes an installation portion 30 , installed in the insertion hole 10 , and an arm portion 31 , which extends forward from the upper part of the front end edge of the installation portion 30 . the latching member 3 is obtained by performing press working on metal material , or by performing a molding process using synthetic resin . the two latching members 3 are installed in the first attachment portions 11 positioned on both sides of the second attachment portions 12 that are installed in parallel , respectively . a pressure receiving portion 32 , which protrudes forward , is formed on the lower side of the front end edge of the installation portion 30 . the pressure receiving portion is pressed by the substrate 15 inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 of the housing 1 . an elastic portion 33 , which winds in the shape of a letter approximately u , and a stopping portion 34 in succession to the elastic portion 33 are formed to extend from the rear end edge of the installation portion 30 . the elastic portion 33 elastically deforms as the front end edge of the installation portion 30 is pressed by the substrate 15 inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 as illustrated below . the stopping portion 34 elastically deforms the latching portion 13 formed in the first attachment portion 11 of the housing 1 , so that the rear end upper part of the latching member is latched into the latching hole 14 of the housing 1 and the latching pawl which is on the top is latched to the rear end lower part thereof . a latch protrusion portion 35 , which protrudes forward , is formed on the upper side of the front end edge of the arm portion 31 . as illustrated in fig7 a and 7b , the movement member 4 is manufactured by performing a molding process using resin material , to be in the shape of a plate , long in length . multiple guide walls 37 are formed in the upper surface half part of the movement member 4 . the plurality of guide walls 37 are configured from a plurality of groove portions 36 that are provided at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction . furthermore , the shaft portion 39 is formed between the guide walls 37 , by a communication hole 38 that is provided in the bottom surface of the groove portions 36 to communicate upward and downward . the shaft portion 39 is configured from two plane surfaces , which are opposite to and in parallel with each other , and a pair of arc surfaces , which swells outward . the shaft portion 39 is supported by the holding piece 27 of the contact point member 2 , and the movement member 4 is rotatably supported . a latch receiving portion 40 protrudes from each of the leading end parts of the guide wall 37 that is positioned in both end parts of the movement member 4 . a first latch recessed portion 41 is formed in the upward side of the latch receiving portion 40 , and a second latch recessed portion 42 is formed in the downward side . the arc surface and the plane surface are in succession to each other in the first latch recessed portion 41 and the second latch recessed portion 42 . the latch protrusion portion 35 , which is formed in the arm portion 31 of the latching member 3 , is latched to or unlatched from each of the latch recessed portions 41 and 42 . the movement member 4 is position - determined in a standing position ( a first position ) that protrudes from the recess 5 , in a state where the latch protrusion portion 35 is latched to the first latch recessed portion 41 . on the other hand , in the state in which the latch protrusion portion 35 is latched onto the second latch recessed portion 42 , the movement member 4 is positioned in a horizontal position ( second position ) where the lower surface of the movement member 4 comes into contact with the upper surface of the recess 5 , and the upper surface of the movement member 4 is flush with the upper surface of the housing 1 . when the movement member 4 is positioned in the standing position , the first arm portion 20 of the contact point member 2 is elastically deformed to urge the shaft portion 39 to move downward . for this reason , when the latch protrusion portion 35 is unlatched from the first latch recessed portion 41 , the urging force makes the movement member 4 return back to the horizontal position . it is to be note that the remaining half part ( the side in which the guide wall 37 is not formed ) of the movement member 4 serve as an operation unit 43 which is held by fingers for operation . the connector with the configuration described above is assembled as follows . first , the contact point members 2 are inserted into the insertion holes 10 in the second attachment portion 12 of the housing 1 , respectively from the rear end side of the insertion holes 10 . the contact point member 2 is installed in the housing 1 , by inserting the installation portion 30 into the insertion hole 10 and bringing the press - in protrusion portion 24 into pressure contact with the inside surface of the insertion hole 10 . in this mounted state , the leading end of the contact point portion 25 of the first arm portion 20 approaches the front inside surface of the guide hole 8 formed in the partition wall 7 . the holding piece 27 protrudes inside the recess 5 , and a gap occurs between the leading end part of the holding piece 27 and the upper surface of the partition wall 7 . furthermore , the contact point portion 25 protrudes inside the insertion recessed portion 6 . subsequently , the movement member 4 is installed by using the holding piece 27 of the contact point member 2 protruding inside the recess 5 in the housing 1 . the shaft portion 39 of the movement member 4 is inserted into the gap that is formed between the leading end portion of the holding piece 27 and the bottom surface of the recess 5 , from the front side . the holding piece 27 is elastically deformed by the shaft portion 39 of the movement member 4 and then returns back to the original shape to hold the shaft portion 39 . thus , the installation of the movement member 4 is complete . in this state , the movement member 4 is positioned in the horizontal position . thereafter , the latching member 3 is inserted into the insertion hole 10 in the second attachment portion 12 , from the rear surface side . the latching member 3 may be installed only by inserting the arm portion 31 into the insertion hole 10 and pressing the installation portion 30 . in this state , the positioning is achieved in a manner that the latch protrusion portion 35 of the latching member 3 is latched to the second latch recessed portion 42 of the movement member 4 that is positioned in the horizontal position . in the connector that is assembled in this manner , in the case where the substrate 15 is installed , first , the operation unit 43 of the movement member 4 is rotated by the finger - used picking and is positioned in the standing position that protrudes from the recess 5 , as illustrated in fig8 a . at this time , as illustrated in fig8 b , the latch protrusion portion 35 of the latching member 3 is switched from the second latch recessed portion 42 to the first latch recessed portion 41 . for this reason , the movement member 4 maintains a state of being position - determined in the standing position . furthermore , the arm portion 31 of the latching member 3 is elastically deformed upward , and the contact point portion 25 is retracted from the insertion recessed portion 6 . when the substrate 15 is inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 as illustrated in fig9 a , the leading end edge of the substrate 15 may come into contact with the pressure receiving portion 32 of the latching member 3 , and the installation portion 30 may be pushed inwards against the urging force of the elastic portion 33 . thus , the arm portion 31 extending forward from the installation portion 30 retreats , and as illustrated in fig9 b to 10b , the latch protrusion portion 35 of the latching member 3 thereof is unlatched from the first latch recessed portion 41 . since an elastic force from the holding piece 27 of the contact point member 2 acts on the shaft portion 39 , the movement member 4 returns to the horizontal position from the standing position depending on the elastic force , as illustrated in fig1 a . as a result , the contact point portion 25 of the contact point member 2 protrudes inside the insertion recessed portion 6 , and comes into pressure contact with a conductive layer of the substrate 15 inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 to make an electrical connection . moreover , when the conductive portion 15 a of the substrate 15 is inserted toward the lower surface side , the electrical connection between the conductive portion 15 a and the protrusion portion 28 of the contact point member 2 may be made ( in this case , the protrusion portion 28 functions as the contact point portion ). when the substrate 15 is inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 of the housing 1 in this manner in the state in which the movement member 4 is position - determined in the standing position , the latching member 3 operates and the elastic force of the first arm portion 20 of the contact point member 2 may automatically rotate the movement member 4 to be positioned in the horizontal position . therefore , a user may easily determine whether or not the electrical connection between the conductive layer of the substrate 15 and the contact point member 2 is made , by checking the position in which the movement member 4 has rotated . fig1 illustrates a connector according to a second embodiment . because this connector is different from that of the first embodiment only in terms of one part of the constructions of a housing 1 and a movement member 4 , and is almost the same in terms of the other configurations , a description of same construction is not repeated . as illustrated in fig1 , the housing 1 has groove portions 44 extending upward and downward , which are formed in the front sides of both lateral surfaces which make up a recess 5 . as illustrated fig1 a to 12b , a plurality of guide walls 46 are formed in the upper surface half part of the movement member 4 . the plurality of guide walls 46 are configured from a plurality of first groove portions 45 that are provided at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction . furthermore , a shaft portion 48 is formed between the guide walls 46 , by a communication hole 47 that is provided in the bottom surface of the first groove portions 45 to communicate upward and downward . a protrusion portion 49 is formed to protrude from each of both of the end surfaces of a shaft portion 39 . a first latch recessed portion 50 and a second latch recessed portion 51 are formed in an edge portion of each of the protrusion portion 49 . furthermore , a guide shaft 52 protrudes from the end surface of each of the protrusion portions 49 . the guide shaft 52 is arranged in a groove portion 36 of the housing 1 . a second groove portion 53 corresponding to the first groove portion 45 is formed in the lower surface half part ( the opposite side of a groove portion 17 ) of the movement member 4 . each arm portion 31 of the latching member 3 is inserted via the groove portions 17 that are positioned in both sides , and the latch protrusion portion 35 that is provided in the leading end thereof is unlatched in each latch recessed portion . furthermore , a holding portion of a contact point member 2 is inserted via the second groove portions 53 so that each shaft portion 48 is held . in the connector with this configuration , the movement member 4 is positioned inside the first groove portion 45 , and there is no part that juts out from the housing 1 . therefore , the connector is made compact , and may not be damaged even though an external force is exerted on the movement member 4 while the connector is being in transit . in the case where the substrate 15 is inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 of the housing 1 , an operation unit 43 of the movement member 4 is held and lifted up . at this time , the latch protrusion portion 35 , which is provided in the leading end of the arm portion 31 of the latching member 3 , is unlatched from the second latch recessed portion 51 , and is latched into the first latch recessed portion 50 . for this reason , the movement member 4 is maintained in a standing position , the arm portion 31 of the contact point member 2 is elastically deformed , and the contact point portion 25 is retracted from the insertion recessed portion 6 . when the substrate 15 is inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 of the housing 1 , a pressure receiving portion of the latching member 3 is pushed inwards against an urging force of an elastic portion 33 , and the latch protrusion portion 35 provided in the leading end of the arm portion 31 is unlatched from the first latch recessed portion 50 . as a result , the movement member 4 can perform a free rotational movement , and thus rotates in the direction in which the substrate 15 is inserted with respect to the shaft portion 48 , that is , rotates to roll into the first groove portion 45 of the housing 1 , because the elastic force of the arm portion 31 of the contact point member 2 acts on it . furthermore , the contact point portion 25 of the contact point member 2 protrudes into the insertion recessed portion 6 and thus comes into pressure contact with a conductive portion 15 a of the substrate 15 . fig1 illustrates a connector according to a third embodiment . because this connector is different from that of the first embodiment in terms of the configurations of one part of a contact point member 2 and one part of a movement member 4 and in terms of the configurations of a housing 1 and a latching member 3 , but is almost the same in terms of the other configurations , a description of what has not any different construction is not repeated . the contact point member 2 includes a first contact point member 2 a and a second contact point member 2 b . the first contact point member 2 a having almost the same construction as those of the embodiments described above and the second contact point member 2 b having a different construction from those of the embodiments described above are alternately arranged in the arrangement direction . as illustrated in fig1 , the first contact point member 2 a has the straight shape in which a holding piece 54 at the leading end only protrudes in a simple manner . furthermore , in the second contact point member 2 b , a contact point portion 56 is formed in a base portion of a first arm portion 55 , and a protrusion portion 59 is formed in the leading end of a third arm portion 58 that diverges from a second arm portion 57 . a holding piece 60 , which is shaped approximately like a letter c as in the embodiments described above , is formed in the leading end side of the first arm portion 55 . the leading end side of the second arm portion 57 serves as a terminal portion 61 that is formed in the shape of a hook which curves downward . as illustrated in fig1 a and 15b , in the movement member 4 , the shaft portion 39 is configured to include a first shaft portion 39 a and a second shaft portion 39 b . the first shaft portion 39 a is cylindrical - shaped , with which the holding piece of the first contact point member 2 a comes into contact . the second shaft portion 39 b has the same shape as in the embodiments described above , and is held in the holding piece 60 of the second contact point member 2 b . furthermore , a latch receiving portion 62 is formed in each of both end parts of the movement member 4 . each of the latch receiving portions 62 has a latch recessed portion 63 formed in the bottom thereof . as illustrated in fig1 a and 16b , in the housing 1 , an accommodation room 64 is formed in each of both end parts . the accommodation room 64 has a cross section , which has an approximately rectangular shape , and extends forward and backward . the accommodation room 64 is open at the rear end of the housing 1 ( rear end opening ), and has an abutting receiving portion 65 , which protrudes inwards , is formed in one surface ( an outer side surface ) of the internal surfaces thereof . furthermore , the accommodation room 64 is open at an upper part near the front side of the housing 1 ( front end opening ) and is also open in the inner side lateral wall . as illustrated in fig1 , the latching member 3 is made by bending a plate member made of elastic material , and includes an abutting portion 66 in the rear end , a pressure receiving portion 67 protruding inwards and sideways in the shape of a chevron in succession to the abutting portion 66 , and a latching portion 68 protruding inwards and sideways in the shape of a chevron in the front end part . the latching member 3 is inserted into the accommodation room 64 in the housing 1 from the rear end opening . in an insertion condition , the abutting portion 66 of the latching member 3 comes into contact with the abutting receiving portion 65 formed in the accommodation room 64 of the housing 1 , and the latching portion 68 is exposed from the front end opening . according to the connector described above , before inserting the substrate 15 into the housing 1 , the movement member 4 is rotated to a standing position where the movement member 4 protrudes from the housing 1 . at this time , the latching portion 68 of the latching member 3 is latched onto the latch recessed portion 63 of the movement member 4 in the sideways direction , and the movement member 4 is maintained in the standing position . furthermore , a contact point portion 25 of the contact point member 2 is retracted from an insertion recessed portion 6 . for this reason , the insertion of the substrate 15 into the insertion recessed portion 6 may be smoothly performed without receiving any resistance . when the substrate 15 is inserted into the insertion recessed portion 6 , a leading end corner portion thereof comes into contact with a pressure receiving portion 67 of the latching member 3 . when the substrate 15 is pushed more inwards , the latching member 3 is elastically deformed and the latching portion 68 moves sideways . the latching portion 68 is separated from a latch recessed portion 63 of the movement member 4 , and the movement member 4 has a free rotational movement . as a result , the movement member 4 rotates to a horizontal position by an urging force of the contact point member 2 , and the substrate 15 is interposed between the contact point portion 25 and the protrusion portion 28 . the contact point portion 25 comes into pressure contact with a conductive portion 15 a of the substrate 15 , so that the electrical connection is made . in this manner , the substrate 15 may be interposed between the contact point portion 25 and the protrusion portion 28 of the contact point member 2 only by inserting the substrate 15 into the insertion recessed portion 6 of the housing 1 . a rotational position of the movement member 4 and a movement position of the latching portion 68 of the latching member 3 may be visually recognized , and the installation of the substrate 15 in the proper position may be recognized from the outside of the housing 1 . fig1 illustrates a connector according to a fourth embodiment . because this connector is different from that of the first embodiment only in terms of one part of a housing 1 and one part of a substrate 15 and in terms of a configuration of a latching member 3 , and is almost the same in terms of the other configurations , a description of same construction is not repeated . as illustrated in fig1 a and 19b , a housing 1 has guide groove portions 72 at both end portions thereof . each of the guide groove portions 72 is made from an inside groove 69 extending backward from the rear surface of a recess 5 , a successive groove 70 that is bent sideways , and an outside groove 71 that is bent forward from the successive groove 70 and of which the sideways position extends more forward . a complementary groove 73 is formed to extend further sideways from the rear side of the outside groove 71 . a communication passage 74 extends in a manner to be continuous from the rear end of the outside groove 71 and the part , exclusive of the upper end , of the successive groove 70 to the rear surface of the housing 1 . press pieces 15 b are formed in a substrate 15 . the press pieces 15 b protrude sideways from both lateral parts , respectively . the protrusion position of the press piece 15 b is a terminal end part of a conductive portion 15 a that extends from a leading end . as illustrated in fig2 , a latching member 3 is made by shaping a plate - like body into a body with the shape of a letter approximately like u . the latching member 3 is configured from an arm portion 76 having a latch protrusion portion 75 in the leading end , a slide portion 78 that is wider in the upward and downward directions than the arm portion 76 and in which an abutting receiving portion 77 is formed in a lower part of the leading end , a connection portion 79 that connects the arm portion 76 and the slide portion 78 to each other , and an elastic portion 80 that extends sideways from the slide portion 78 . in the arm portion 76 , a base portion side is arranged in the inside groove 69 of the housing 1 . the latch protrusion portion 75 may be latched / unlatched onto each of latch recessed portions 41 and 42 of a movement member 4 . the connection portion 79 is arranged in the successive groove 70 of the housing 1 . the slide portion 78 is arranged in the outside groove 71 in the housing 1 , and causes the abutting receiving portion 77 to protrude from the front end surface of the housing 1 . the elastic portion 80 is arranged in the complementary groove 73 of the housing 1 . the latching member 3 is configured to be movable from in the state of being arranged inside the guide groove portion 72 to in the state of being position in the communication passage 74 on the rear side . according to the connector with the configuration described above , when the substrate 15 is inserted into an insertion recessed portion 6 , the press pieces 15 b formed in the substrate 15 come into contact with the abutting receiving portion 77 that protrudes from the front surface of the housing 1 . when the substrate 15 is further pushed inwards , the abutting receiving portion 77 is pushed inwards , thus the latching member 3 moves backward while elastically deforming the elastic portion 80 and the latch protrusion portion 75 is unlatched from a first latch recessed portion 41 of the movement member 4 . accordingly , the movement member 4 moves from a standing position to a horizontal position by an urging force of a first arm portion 20 of a contact point member 2 . therefore , the user may visually be aware from the outside of the housing 1 that the substrate 15 is inserted to a proper position and thus an electrical connection between a conductive portion 15 a of the substrate 15 and a contact point portion 25 of the contact point member 2 is made , based on the rotational movement of the movement member 4 . furthermore , the present invention is not limited to the configurations of the embodiments described above , and various modifications thereto are possible . for example , in the embodiments described above , from the rotational position of the movement member 4 , it may be determined whether or not the electrical connection between the substrate 15 and the contact point member 2 is made , but the configuration , in which sound is outputted when the movement member 4 rotates , may be further adopted . movement sound due to friction is generated when the latch protrusion portion 35 formed in the arm portion 31 of the latching member 3 is unlatched from a second latch recessed portion 42 of the latching member 3 , but furthermore research may be intensively done to come up with a method of separately providing a laminated protrusion so as to make the generated movement sound greater . there has thus been shown and described a connector which fulfills all the objects and advantages sought therefore . many changes , modifications , variations and other uses and applications of the subject invention will , however , become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering this specification and the accompanying drawings which disclose the preferred embodiments thereof . all such changes , modifications , variations and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention , which is to be limited only by the claims which follow . although the invention has been described in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what is currently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments , but , on the contrary , is intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . for example , it is to be understood that the present invention contemplates that , to the extent possible , one or more features of any embodiment can be combined with one or more features of any other embodiment .
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the device of this invention can be best understood as a complete assembly in fig1 - 3 of the drawings . this device is attached to the ventilation passage which joins the crankcase of the engine to the intake manifold . to accomplish this purpose an outlet conduit 10 is connected at 13 to a rubber hose which leads to the ventilation passage connecting the pcv valve to the air intake manifold at the outlet of the carburetor . this attachment is accomplished by cutting the ventilation passage , which normally is a flexible rubber hose , inserting a tee connector and attaching all three hose ends to it as shown in fig7 which will be described more fully below . the device of this invention comprises a valve housing 30 into which is formed a valve seat 15 , which in this instance is a 45 ° countersunk recess . connected to valve seat 15 is a vertical bore 31 which is designed to contain a cylindrical valve body 16 having a 45 ° conical head 17 adapted to mate with seat 15 . inlet passages 14 provide conduits for ambient air outside of the device to enter into bore 31 and to pass through the opening between valve head 17 and valve seat 15 ( when the valve is opened ) and to conduct that ambient air into outlet conduit 10 and thence into the ventilation passage and on to the intake manifold . when the valve is closed between head 17 and seat 15 ambient air is not admitted into outlet conduit 10 . a suitable sponge - like air filter 40 is placed around valve body 30 to prevent dirt from entering passages 14 , and may be attached to valve housing 30 by a suitable adhesive . a preferred material for filter 40 is polyurethane foam having pores of about 0 . 0025 mm . in size . the components of the device which control the functioning of the valve body 16 are enclosed in a cylindrical housing 24 with two identical removable covers 25 to permit access to the moving parts inside and a bracket 56 for attachment of the device of this invention to a suitable location on an internal combustion engine . covers 25 are preferably fitted onto housing 24 with a rabbet joint and a suitable number of machine screws 64 . other methods of attachment are also useful . the moving parts of the device comprise a rotatable cam plate 21 which is followed by a roller means 19 on the bottom of valve body 16 . plate 21 is mounted on shaft 26 which is journaled in suitable holes 61 in each of covers 25 . the preferred embodiment of the cam surface 20 is a slot passing through plate 21 and having the necessary configuration to permit a roller to be positioned through the slot and attached to valve body 16 by a yoke - containing means for attaching roller 19 firmly to valve body 16 . plate 21 is moved clockwise by means of flexible cable 23 attached to arm 60 and to the accelerator linkage such that when the accelerator is depressed arm 60 is moved from left to right causing plate 21 to rotate clockwise . plate 21 is returned to its original position as shown in fig2 by means of spring 27 which is attached at one end to plate 21 by screw 28 and at the other end to housing 24 by screw 29 . it will be seen that as plate 21 rotates clockwise from the position shown in fig1 and 3 roller 19 will pass through a reverse curved portion 41 of cam slot 20 causing valve body 16 gradually to move downwardly and thereby to open the valve to permit ambient air to pass into outlet conduit 10 until at the bottom of reverse curved portion 41 of slot 20 that valve is at its widest open position . as plate 21 is rotated still further clockwise valve body 16 will be urged upwardly until at the end of the reverse curved portion 41 the valve will be closed and no further ambient air will be admitted into outlet conduit 10 . as plate 21 rotates still further clockwise slot 20 remains in a position to maintain the valve closed , admitting no ambient air . plate 21 is fixed , as by welding to shaft 26 . at one end of shaft 26 arm 60 is fixedly attached by screw 62 so that arm 60 moves whenever shaft 26 rotates . any other means of fixing arm 60 to shaft 26 is acceptable , e . g . keyways , welding , etc . the other end of shaft 26 is journaled in respective cover 25 by means of shoulder bolt 63 or other equivalent means . flexible cable 23 is attached to arm 60 through a suitable hole 22 . flexible cable 23 preferably is a stainless steel cable covered with nylon . valve body 16 is mounted in bearing 34 which may be teflon or other nonlubricated or lubricated bearing material . bearing 34 is retained in base plate 35 which is attached to housing 24 by suitable bolts 36 or other known fastening means . encircling valve body 16 is spring 32 which is biased in the direction of maintaining valve head 17 against seat 15 such that the valve is closed when no other forces are operating against valve body 16 . in fig6 the structure of valve body 16 is seen in more detail as having a conical head 17 , a groove 33 , and a yoke structure 38 . groove 33 provides a means for securing spring 32 at the end of valve body 16 adjacent head 17 . yoke structure 38 provides a means for attaching valve body 16 to rotatable cam plate 21 and having roller 19 pass completely through slot 20 in plate 21 . roller 19 is preferably made of nylon or other suitable resilient material and is attached to valve body 16 by a suitable central pin shaft 39 . the structure of cam plate 21 is shown in fig4 and 5 as a thin circular plate having a suitable cam surface 20 in the form of an arcuate slot passing completely through the plate and extending longitudinally adjacent the circumference of plate for a distance necessary to operate this device . screw 28 is provided for attachment of one end of spring 27 that returns plate 21 to its position when the engine is idling or not operating . in place of screw 28 there may be used a projecting pin or a hole through plate 21 for attachment of spring 27 . in order to retain spring 27 as plate 21 rotates there is provided a guide plate 65 attached to shaft 26 or to plate 21 and having a semicircular groove 66 on its outer perimeter to mate with the outside contour of spring 27 . cam slot 20 may be conveniently divided into three portions . portion 40 is designed to maintain the valve in a closed position whereby no ambient air is admitted to the ventilation passage between the pcv valve and the intake minifold . portion 42 is designed to maintain the valve in the same closed position , and these two portions are essentially arcuate sections concentric with the outer perimeter of plate 21 . in between these portions 40 and 42 is reverse curved portion 41 which smoothly connects the two concentric portions with a downwardly directed curved section that is essentially symmetrical about a radius of plate 21 passing through the lowest point of reverse curved portion 41 . it will be appreciated that as roller 19 moves downwardly in a smooth gradual manner valve body 16 moves downwardly and permits ambient air to pass into the outlet conduit 10 in an increasing amount until roller 19 reaches the lowermost extent of the curve in portion 41 . beyond this point the roller will move upwardly and gradually close the valve until it reaches the beginning of portion 42 when the valve will be completely closed and will permit no ambient air to pass into outlet conduit 10 at any higher speeds . in fig7 there is shown how the device of this invention is attached to a typical automotive internal combustion engine . carburetor 41 sits on top of engine block 45 and is attached to the accelerator through linkage 42 to cam 43 . as the accelerator is depressed to increase the engine speed , cam 43 is caused to rotate clockwise increasing the volume of fuel - air mixture from carburetor to intake manifold 46 leading to the cylinders of the engine . spring 44 is attached to cam 43 to provide a force in the counterclockwise direction so as to return cam 43 to the idling position when the pressure on the accelerator is released . pcv valve 47 is located on the transmission housing and fumes therefrom are conducted through tubing 48 to an inlet fitting 55 on intake manifold 46 . the control device of this invention 49 is mounted on block 45 through an appropriate bracket support 56 . flexible cable 51 is connected to cam 43 , the other end being connected to arm 60 of device 49 to cam plate 21 ( see fig2 ). flexible cable 51 is attached to cam 43 such that as the accelerator is depressed , cable 51 will be pulled outwardly from control device 49 , and cam 43 rotates clockwise . the additional ambient air admitted through device 49 as described above is conducted through tubing 52 to a tee fitting 53 and thence into conduit 48 leading to inlet 55 of manifold 46 . since tubing 48 normally is rubber tubing it can be cut at a convenient location , tee 53 inserted therein , and tubing 52 ( also normally rubber tubing ) attached easily . an added feature of this invention which is preferable , but not necessary in all instances , is the inclusion of valve 50 in tubing 52 . valve 50 performs an added safety function of keeping tubing 52 closed until the engine reaches an acceptable operating temperature . a preferred device for valve 50 is a thermowax switch which is attached to the outside surface of intake manifold 46 and opens tubing 52 when the switch senses a temperature of about 38 ° c . another type of device for this purpose is a helical coil switch which performs the same function . valve 50 is inserted in tubing 52 by cutting the tubing attaching both ends to opposite ports of valve 50 and thereby permitting the flow from tubing 52 to tubing 54 to be unobstructed when the engine is above a minimum operating temperature and to be stopped when the engine temperature is too low . it has been determined that for optimum operation of the internal combustion engine there should be no ambient air admitted to the ventilation passage when the engine is at low speeds such that the vehicle is moving up to about 56 km ./ hr . which is represented by point 43 on slot 20 . as the vehicle speed is increased ambient air is admitted to the ventilation passage in increasing amounts until the speed reaches about 88 km ./ hr . which represents point 44 on slot 20 . as the speed is increased beyond this point less and less ambient air is needed until the speed reaches about 113 km ./ hr . represented at point 45 , and thereafter at higher speeds no ambient air is admitted to the ventilation passage . it has been found that in the normal operation of an internal combustion engine which has no fuel - air control device such as that of this invention there will be an air - to - fuel ratio of about 13 . 2 to 13 . 5 . when the engine of this invention is involved the air - to - fuel ratio is increased through the same range of engine speeds to about 14 . 2 to about 14 . 4 , thus providing an increased amount of air for total combustion of the fuel and hydrocarbons in the intake manifold . while the invention has been described with respect to certain specific embodiments , it will be appreciated that many modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . it is intended , therefore , by the appended claims to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention .
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[ 0020 ] fig1 shows a first embodiment of the transport device 1 of the present invention . the trunk space 2 of a motor vehicle contains , on its bottom 3 , a transport belt 5 with the pertinent rollers 6 , around which the transport belt 5 moves on the bottom 3 of the trunk space . a tailgate 4 , which can be pivoted down by means of two hinges 17 to open trunk space 2 , has a portion 5 ′ of the transport belt on its top when in the opened state . the portion 5 ′ of the transport belt located on the tailgate 4 is directly connected to the transport belt 5 located on the bottom of the trunk . this portion 5 ′ of the transport belt likewise turns around guide rollers 9 located in the area of the inside of the tailgate 4 to guide the transport belt . an additional tension roller 8 performs the function of tensioning the transport belt via spring loading . at the same time , the tension roller 8 functions as the center of gravity , around which the transport belt is pivoted or placed when the tailgate is folded up . [ 0022 ] fig2 shows a second embodiment of the transport device of the present invention . the components which are identical in the two embodiments are labeled with the same reference numbers . on the trunk floor 3 , a transport belt 5 with a guide roller 6 located front and back is attached . in contrast to the first embodiment , however , a second transport belt 7 , which is separate from the first transport belt 5 , is located on the top of the opened tailgate 4 with its own two rollers 9 . the rollers 6 , 9 facing one another on the side of the tailgate 4 and on the side of the trunk floor 3 are connected to one another by means of a connection device , for example a toothed belt 10 , in order to synchronize the motion of the two transport belts with one another . in addition , the roller 6 , 9 can be driven to rotate by a drive means , for example , an electric motor 19 , in order to facilitate continued motion of the cargo on the transport belts 5 , 5 ′ and 7 . one of the rollers 6 , 9 can be elastically supported in the direction of increasing the axial distance to the other rollers in order to ensure continuous tensioning of the transport belt . as shown in fig2 this elastic support may be achieved by a guide slot 22 for the axle of roller 6 and a spring 23 for prestressing the roller 6 in order to keep the belt in a properly tight condition . as is apparent from fig1 and 2 , the surfaces of the transport belts 5 , 5 ′ ( fig1 ) and belts 5 , 7 ( fig2 ) are advantageously located horizontally in one plane with the tailgate 4 opened . but a transport belt tilted slightly toward the trunk space 2 on the tailgate 4 is conceivable in order to facilitate the delivery of cargo into the trunk space 2 as a result of the steep incline . referring to fig3 by placing several parallel running transport belts on common or separate guide rollers , one or more attachment devices 20 can be located on or between the individual transport belts in order to attach bicycles which have been delivered via the transport belts . to ensure smooth functioning of the transport belts in the loaded state , sliding surfaces 21 , for example , surfaces formed of sheet metal with a plastic slide coating , can be located between the rollers to support the transport belt or belts . as shown in fig3 a license plate 12 and pertinent vehicle tail lights 11 may be provided on the termination edge of the tailgate 4 for folding up and down with the tailgate 4 . by the arrangement of one such folding license plate 12 with the pertinent tail lights 11 , a traffic - safe motor vehicle is easily and promptly established even with the tailgate 4 opened in the loaded state . [ 0027 ] fig4 shows , as another option , another transport belt 15 with two rollers 16 mounted on the back of a backrest 13 . when the backrest 13 is pivoted forward around a hinge 18 ( in the direction of the arrow ), the backrest 13 lies roughly horizontally over the seat surface 14 . the surface of the transport belt 15 is thus preferably at the height of the transport belt 5 so that , if necessary , with the opened tailgate 4 pulled open , a continuous cargo surface is formed and extends over the transport belts 7 , 5 and 15 to allow easy cargo loading and unloading . to enable simple loading of the trunk space , the tailgate - side transport belt can be equipped with a braking device ( not shown ) and which can be locked and unlocked , for example , via a brake lever , acting on the rear roller . in this way , it is possible that during loading of the transport belt surface , for example , with bicycles , the transport belt surface does not move and thus optimum positioning of the bicycle on the transport belt surface is possible . likewise the other transport belts 5 and 15 can be fixed by braking means . the term “ backrest ” is defined both as the back of the front seat of a motor vehicle with only one row of seats and also the back of the rear seat when there are several rows of seats .
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fig1 - 6 show generally the preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention designated generally by the numeral 10 . the downhole tool 10 of the present invention is used to catch and retain one or more plugs , balls or darts 11 that have been used as part of a cementing operation or other downhole oil well operation . the present invention could be applied to any operation that requires separation of fluid in an oil and gas well environment . any severely deviated hole where the top and bottom of the cement needs to be defined accurately would typically require plugs . the downhole tool 10 of the present invention provides a tool body 20 having an upper end portion 21 and a lower end portion 22 . a main flow bore 23 or first channel extends substantially the length of tool body 20 . the bore or channel 23 can be open - ended as shown in fig1 . tool body 20 is typically mounted in a well string or work string 12 or pipe string , being attached to joints of pipe 13 , 14 and lowered into the well bore 15 . well bore 15 can be lined with casing 16 or other known liner . joint 13 of string 12 connects to tool body 20 at upper end portion 21 . joint 14 of string 12 connects to tool body 20 at lower end portion 22 . the tool body 20 thus provides at its upper end portion 21 an internally threaded section 24 for enabling attachment to the joint of pipe 12 that is above tool body 20 . similarly , the lower end portion 22 of tool body 20 provides an externally threaded section 25 for enabling it to be attached to the joint of pipe 14 that extends below tool body 20 . tool body 20 can be a multi section tool body as shown in fig1 a - 1b . the tool body 20 thus can provide an upper tool body section 26 , a lower tool body section 27 and a central tool body section 28 . these tool body sections 26 , 27 , 28 can be assembled together using threaded connections for example . in fig1 a - 1b , a threaded connection 29 can be used for joining upper tool body section 26 to central tool body section 28 . similarly , a threaded connection 30 can be used for joining lower tool body section 27 to central tool body section 28 . upper tool body section 26 provides a restriction or a smaller diameter bore section 31 as shown . below the restriction or smaller diameter bore section 31 is provided a larger diameter bore section 32 that is adapted to hold and retain one or more plugs , balls , or darts 11 as shown . thus , the internal diameter of larger diameter section 32 can be about the same as the external diameter of the ball , plug or dart 11 to be contained . a tapered surface 33 is provided on upper tool body section 26 immediately below internally threaded section 24 . a generally cylindrically shaped surface 34 is provided below tapered surface 33 . another tapered surface 35 is provided below the generally cylindrically shaped surface 34 . sleeve 36 extends downwardly from upper tool body section 26 as shown in fig1 a - 1b . sleeve 36 can be attached to upper tool body section 26 using a threaded connection 37 . the sleeve 36 can be a generally cylindrically shaped sleeve that is concentrically placed inside of the central tool body section 28 as shown in fig1 a - 1b . sleeve 36 provides an upper enlarged portion 46 having one or more flow ports 43 . sleeve 36 also provides a lower enlarged portion 47 . check valve 40 is attached to the tool body 20 and can be attached to the lower enlarged portion 47 of sleeve 36 . an o - ring 39 can be provided as a seal in between sleeve 36 and check valve 40 . check valve 40 provides a valving member 41 . valving member 41 only allows flow in the direction of arrow 42 . check valve 40 can be a commercially available check valve such as is sold under the trademark conbraco , such as a series 61 stainless steel ball - cone type check valve . flow ports 44 extend between second channel 50 and first channel 23 at a position below larger diameter section 32 of first channel 23 and preferably below check valve 40 . thus , fluid flow can circumvent the balls , plugs or darts 11 that are contained within the larger diameter section 32 or first channel 23 . flow through second channel 50 thus begins in first channel 23 at a position near restriction 31 . flow then circumvents the plug , ball , dart 11 by passing from first channel 23 via ports 43 to second channel 50 and then downwardly in second channel 50 to ports 54 which are in the lower end portion 22 of tool body 20 ( see fig3 - 5 ). from ports 44 , flow again enters first channel 23 at a position that is next to tapered surface 45 and generally below lower enlarged portion or below check valve 40 . during use , one or more plugs , balls , darts 11 are used in a downhole oil well environment as part of a cementing operation . these plugs , balls , darts 11 are typically used to provide a well - defined front and rear to a volume of cement 17 that is pumped down hole as indicated schematically by arrows 18 in fig2 - 5 . thus , the first ball , dart or plug 11 can be put in front of the volume of cement 17 while a second plug , ball or dart 11 is placed above or at the rear of volume of cement 17 . when the ball , plug or dart 11 that is in front of the volume of cement reaches restriction 31 , it can be pumped through the restriction 31 by increasing pressure behind it , forcing it to deform and pass through the restriction 31 ( see arrow 19 in fig2 ). such plugs , balls , darts 11 are typically of a deformable material such as a rubber material , an elastomeric material , a polymeric material or the like . once inside the larger diameter section 32 of bore 23 , the ball , plug or dart 11 has a memory and it regains its original shape ( see fig3 ). from its position within enlarged diameter section 32 ( fig3 ), only an increase of pressure from a position below the ball or dart or plug 11 can force it upwardly back through the restriction 31 . however , check valve 40 prevents such a rearward or upward flow of pressurized fluid . because the ball , plug or dart 11 blocks the flow of cement downwardly in the main bore 23 , it circumvents the tool body 20 by traveling in the second channel 50 . cement 17 is able to bypass section 32 by entering ports 43 , then channel 50 , and then ports 44 until it is below check valve 40 ( see arrows 48 , fig3 - 4 ) and can exit the tool body 20 in the direction of arrows 49 . the volume of cement 17 can then be pumped to and below packer 51 via perforations 53 in casing 16 and into producing formation 52 , as indicated by arrows 54 . packer 51 is commercially available and / or known in the art . the following is a list of parts and materials suitable for use in the present invention . all measurements disclosed herein are at standard temperature and pressure , at sea level on earth , unless indicated otherwise . the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only ; the scope of the present invention is to be limited only by the following claims .
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there are a great many possible implementations of the invention , too many to describe herein . some possible implementations that are presently preferred are described below . it cannot be emphasized too strongly , however , that these are descriptions of implementations of the invention , and not descriptions of the invention , which is not limited to the detailed implementations described in this section but is described in broader terms in the claims . the descriptions below are more than sufficient for one skilled in the art to construct the disclosed implementations . unless otherwise mentioned , the processes and manufacturing methods referred to are ones known by those working in the art . referring to fig1 , the diagram visually describes what might be encountered in the pre - hospital environment during a cardiac arrest . a similar diagram can be presented for the cardiac arrest in the hospital environment or other specific medical event . in the case of the pre - hospital cardiac arrest , when a bystander witnesses a cardiac arrest , they will call 911 . a computer aided dispatch system ( cad ) 2 receives the call and dispatches an appropriate emergency crew to the scene . referring to fig2 , the call time , dispatch time , and time on scene are recorded in the cad 2 database . a paramedic crew will sometimes have a second rescuer whose responsibility is to log specific events into the pda . in the preferred embodiment , rrpc software is used ( manufactured by zoll data systems of boulder , colo . called rescuenet code review . software may also be available for use on a laptop computer 6 , similar in functionality to the rescue net code review ). when the ambulance arrives on scene , a paramedic will record on the pda 5 the time on scene and subsequent times such as defib turn on . the patient 11 is treated by the paramedic with the defibrillator 1 , which records a variety of digital information in non - volatile memory , often in the form of removable datacards . during the course of the treatment of the patient , the patient may be monitored by a physiological monitor 7 . physiological readings are recorded on the monitor 7 preferably in fixed or removable non - volatile memory . through the use of bluetooth technology , it is now possible to sense physical proximity to other devices . preferably , the defibrillator 1 , pda 5 , and monitor 7 all incorporate bluetooth wireless technology . the software in those devices can then automatically detect the presence of the other devices , identify themselves to each of the devices and share the current time with each other . this can be accomplished using bluetooth “ discovery ” features defined by the bluetooth special interest group standards . referring to fig3 , in some implementations of the invention , the clock information for each of the clocks characterizing the time source may identify the time source as one of a list of system - wide reference clocks , as shown in fig3 with the clock_id field equal to 6 or 8 . the clock information may also include means for specifying the particular reference clock used as the time base source . clock information may also describe which device the time base was used for ; for instance , the information might include device type such as a defibrillator , device manufacturer , e . g . zoll , serial number , and model number . the clock information may be in the form of codes or extended markup language ( xml ). the clock information may include time base quality information ( tbqi ) that includes information regarding the length of time since the local clock was last synchronized with one of the reference clocks ( last_synchronization in fig3 ). tbqi may include information regarding the drift of the local clock ( drift in fig3 ) as calculated by initially synchronizing the local clock to a reference clock then measuring the time error relative to a reference clock after an extended period of time such as a month . it is not necessary that there be a master clock that acts as the absolute time reference . time correlation of the multiple electronic records is an extended process with all time bases and their associated electronic record event sequences allowed to coexist and be displayed to the user . in some implementations , at least some portion of the structure of each multiple electronic record ( mep ) is preserved in the integrated electronic patient record ( iepr ) composed of those individual electronic records . as part of the process of viewing the iepr , the individual events from each of the meps can be sorted and displayed to the user based on the time base information . in other implementations , the particular source and quality of the time base determines which of the time bases will act as the reference clock . for instance , a defibrillator 1 in use in the field , such as the m - series manufactured by zoll medical chelmsford , may have a built - in global positioning system ( gps ) receiver providing the device with millisecond - level timing accuracy while the clock on the computer aided dispatch ( cad ) system 2 or the medical director &# 39 ; s computer 4 have been unable to synchronize with an internet - based atomic clock 3 for an extended period of time and the normal drift of the computer clocks have introduced more error into these centralized ‘ master ’ clocks than is found on the field defibrillator . in such a case , the gps - based time base would be used as the reference clock . the defibrillator , itself , may be able to provide better relative times related to the exact timing of a defibrillator shock than the pda 5 or cad 2 system ; therefore in the case of relative timing of defibrillation shocks or other interventions , the defibrillator device or other interventional device may be used as the reference clock in the case of relative times of interventions delivered by that interventional device . the clock information shown on the display of the iepr viewer may be a single time such as that of the gps defibrillator clock along with an indication of the source for that clock . the clock information may also be shown as relative timing information such as the time from initial call into emergency services . the iepr viewer user interface may include such features , known to those skilled in the art , as pull - down menus or pop - up menus to provide a list of all the time bases contained in the iepr and the capability of manually selecting which time base will be used as a reference . alternatively , the determination of which time base to use as the reference may be based on decision logic employed by the computer running the iepr viewer software . that decision logic may be some simple deterministic if - then - else logic using the time base source and quality information , but given the fact that the uncertainties in time accuracies can be better modeled as probabilistic , decision techniques such as bayesian methods and fuzzy logic are of benefit . one of the criteria in the decision - making logic may be what provides the least amount of uncertainty in the particular duration measures the user is attempting to make . another criteria in the decision - making logic may be a user - entered value for the maximum desired error in time based calculations . this may take on the form of a list of maximum desired errors for particular durations ( the value may not be the same for different durations ). the user would be notified that the uncertainty had exceeded a maximum desired error threshold . by maintaining the clock information along with the time of occurrence , relative time base information is not lost at the time of data download from one device to another . maintaining that relative time base information as part of the iepr has advantages . referring to fig4 , the relative time base information can be stored in what can be termed a δ - matrix , which provides , in a two - dimensional matrix , the relative offsets for each possible time source ( time base ) pair . each cell in the matrix may be composed of a data object that includes the value of the relative offset as well as the determination method for that value . for instance , it may be that the relative offset was determined during the communications protocol between two devices during download of data as in the prior art . alternatively , the relative offset may have been calculated during a calibration procedure performed automatically by the devices which would communicate , for instance via the internet , with each other ; in this instance , the determination method as well as when the calibration occurred would be included as part of the data object . also included as part of the data object is an estimation of the accuracy of the relative offset . the initial form of the δ - matrix will be sparsely populated , typically , but additional relative offsets can be calculated utilizing intermediate relative offsets . for instance , if the relative offset of time base ‘ a ’ to time base ‘ b ’, a − b +/−‘ x ’ milliseconds , is known , and the relative offset of time base ‘ b ’ to ‘ c ’, b − c +/−‘ y ’ milliseconds is known , then relative offset a - c is likewise known . the error in such case is calculated as the root mean sum of squares ( rms ). determination of relative offset information from electronic records transmitted by indirect means such as file - based methods like email or file transfer protocol ( ftp ) can be accomplished by first updating , if necessary , the relative offset of the file sending device to an accurate reference clock such as an internet - based atomic clock and storing the offset into the electronic record . the file - receiving device may also update its relative offset to a reference clock as necessary . then , using a method such as that incorporating the δ - matrix , the relative offset can be calculated between the computers . on the display of the iepr viewer , visualization means may be provided for each displayed event time to indicate what the uncertainty is with that particular time . the uncertainty can be of the absolute accuracy of the time base or the relative accuracy of it with respect to another time base in the iepr . the visualization can be in the form of error bars ; multiple error bars can be presented for event , such as overlapping the bars and using such techniques as color - coding the bars . color - coding of durations can be employed in reporting formats for care and outcomes , such as the utstein style format . for instance , colors can be used to indicate the potential accuracy of a particular duration , e . g ., green to indicate highest accuracy , orange and red to indicate lesser degrees . fig5 is a table showing relevant parameters that could be determined during synchronization of the multiple clocks encountered during a medical event such as a “ code ” ( cardiac incident ) occurring in the hospital setting . in this situation , many of the devices are in close proximity , allowing for easier synchronization by such means as bluetooth technology described earlier . there is a point in time when the code actually starts ( clock_start_time in fig5 ). this is the earliest time at which the code was announced and is from the point of view of the clock used to announce the code . this may be the one time that is not local to the scene of the code , but may be a computer clock located at some central location from which a so - called “ code team ” is dispatched . a code team is the group of trained doctors and nurses designated for each shift to be on call in case of a cardiac arrest . the clock_start_time may be a particularly important time in that it determines the calculation for the downtime , which typically is a very important measure with regard to analyzing the efficacy of the defibrillation therapy , as it establishes the length of time from a cardiac arrest until a defibrillation shock is delivered . as was mentioned previously , through the use of bluetooth technology , it is now possible to sense physical proximity to other devices . preferably , the defibrillator 1 , pda 5 , and monitor 7 all incorporate bluetooth wireless technology . the software in those devices can then automatically detect the presence of the other devices , identify themselves to each of the devices and share the current time with each other . this can be accomplished using bluetooth “ discovery ” features defined by the bluetooth special interest group standards . when these devices are turned on at the time of a code , they will automatically synchronize with each other . in the prior art , one of the devices , such as the pda became the reference device , and data was downloaded from the defibrillator and monitor at the end of the code into a single record ; this scheme has the drawback that data download is a slow and cumbersome process that is not appropriate to have nurses or other caregivers perform . this may be avoided at least in some implementations of the invention , by each device calculating the relative time differences to each of the other devices to create a δ - matrix in each device . the data from each device may then be separately downloaded to a central computer containing the iepr viewer 4 . download may be accomplished by an ethernet connection or simply by removing a data storage card and carrying it to the iepr viewer 4 . because the δ - matrix is stored on each device including the datacard , this is now possible . in the situation where the clock_start_time may be unknown to the various devices or clinical personnel at the time of the code ( the code was called in to a remote central call location ), the clock_start_time may be transmitted from the centralized call computer to the iepr viewer computer 4 via such common means as the ethernet . one of the clocks listed in the δ - matrix will then be the iepr viewer computer clock and the centralised call center clock . as long as at least one of the data sources , e . g . the pda , is actively synchronized with the iepr computer 4 , accurate relative times can be determined in order to provide an accurate measure of downtime . in the implementation for the hospital cardiac arrest , each clock that is encountered throughout the code is synchronized using an algorithm that can calculate the difference between this clock and the “ base clock ” as the “ clock delta ”. this is the difference , or “ error ” between the two clocks . where possible , this clock delta is calculated by sampling the actual current time from each clock . in other cases , it is calculated by the use of an adjustment that requires user input . in these cases where no digital interface exists with the clock in question , the user is asked to enter the current time from the point of view of the external clock , thus providing a clock delta between it and the data entry device . this is best understood by example . assume that there is a common wall clock in the room where the code is called . the clock delta cannot be captured directly , so the software asks the user for the current time from the point of view of the wall clock . the computing device asking this question presents the current time of the computing device , a time that is likely to be reasonably close to the time shown on the wall clock . the user is then given an easy way to adjust this time to what they see on the wall clock . by way of example , if the current time on the computing device is 13 : 05 : 27 , and the user provides a current time for the wall clock of 13 : 04 : 05 , then we can calculate the clock delta between the wall clock and the computing device as − 00 : 01 : 22 . based on the type of clock encountered , the algorithm always arrives at a clock delta . at some point , the user must enter the code start time and the clock used to record that time . continuing with our example , if the code started at 12 : 31 : 00 from the point of view of the clock on the wall in the room , then the base clock start time is 12 : 31 : 00 and the base clock is the wall clock . this closely mimics the real world situation , in that any clock may be used to initially begin the code . this algorithm may be applied to any clock , but in any case we always arrive with a known base clock and a known base clock start time . this base clock start time is stored in the database ( see fig1 , fields 2 and 3 ). the type of base clock is stored in this table as well ( fig1 , field 4 ). in fig5 , fields 5 , 7 , and 9 - 14 store the corresponding clock delta value . once the data arrives to the data review computer where the incident will be reviewed , the user can select any of the clocks that were encountered , and all times are adjusted to be from the point of view of the selected clock . this solves a very real world problem in that other paperwork or computing systems need only to have one clock in common ( even if it is only the wall clock ) and the user can see everything from the point of view of the other system . this is done by allowing the user to select the reference clock via an application menu . based on the selected clock , all times are visually offset by the clock delta for that clock . many other implementations of the invention other than those described above are within the invention , which is defined by the following claims .
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before discussing the figure in detail it should be understood that the only partially illustrated machine has a plurality of compressing stations , only one of which is shown , which are all circumferentially spaced about a central upright shaft 8 . the shaft 8 may be stationary and the stations turn about the central axis 8 &# 39 ; defined by the shaft 8 . since the compressing stations are all the same , illustration of one of them will suffice for an understanding of the invention . with the above in mind it will be seen that the figure illustrates one compressing station having an upper plunger 1 , a lower plunger 3 and a mold or matrix 2 with which the two plungers cooperate . the manner in which pulverulent or similar material is admitted into the matrix 2 for subsequent compression , and the manner in which the finished tablet 42 is expelled from the matrix 2 , forms no part of the invention , being known per se in the art . the plungers have respective leading endfaces 1a , 3a which enter into the cavity of the matrix 2 from opposite ends of the cavity , so as to compress pulverulent material therein between themselves and form the tablet 42 . the matrix 2 is mounted in a matrix table 4 which also mounts the ( not illustrated ) matrices of the other stations . the plunger 1 is axially reciprocable in a plunger guide 5 and the plunger 3 is similarly axially reciprocable in a plunger guide 6 . again , the guides 5 and 6 also guide the upper and lower plungers ( not illustrated ) of the other stations . the guides 5 , 6 , the plungers 1 , 3 and the matrix table 4 with matrix 2 are all connected together ( known per se ) so as to jointly turn about the upright axis 8 &# 39 ;. the purpose of this invention is to avoid the deposition of dust on the plungers 1 , 3 and its entry into the guides 5 , 6 . to achieve this purpose the invention surrounds the forward parts of the plungers 1 , 3 with respective cuffs 11 , 13 of an elastomeric material , such as natural or synthetic rubber or synthetic plastic material . these cuffs have respective beads or collars 14 which engage in appropriate recesses of the guides 5 , 6 so that the cuffs are supported by these guides . the inner cross - section of the tubular cuffs 11 , 13 decreases in direction towards the face 1a , 3a of the respectively associated plunger ; in this manner the annular air passage bounded by the cuffs and plungers also decreases so that air flowing towards the respective faces 1a , 3a is accelerated . air supply passages 10 , 12 communicate with the upstream ends of the cuffs 11 , 13 so that air admitted into the annular air passages of the cuffs 11 , 13 flows therethrough , as indicated by the arrows . the air is supplied via an upper air supply chamber 46 which is provided in a stationary upper part 30 serving as the cam carrier of the machine ( the cams are not illustrated ; they are known per se ). from chamber 46 the air ( derived from a suitable not - illustrated supply ) enters into distribution chamber 48 of part - circular ( in top view ) outline ; the distribution passages 10 branch off from this chamber 48 which is in part bounded by a stationary sheet - material housing . the lower edges of housing 43 extend into oil seals ( oil - filled grooves ) 44 , 45 to effect a seal with reference to the rotating components located beneath the housing 43 . a connecting passage 7 extends from the bottom region of chamber 48 into a lower air supply chamber 50 which is also of part - circular outline . the lower end of chamber 50 is closed off by a bottom wall . air passages 12 , 12 &# 39 ;, 12 &# 34 ; etc . distribute air from chamber 50 to the respective lower plungers 3 ( only one shown ). the chambers 48 and 50 could also be formed in the hollow shaft 8 and the passages 10 , 12 would then extend about radially to the respective plungers 1 , 3 . however , the generally segment - shaped ( part - circular ) chambers 48 ( one shown ) of which each supplies several of the plungers as illustrated , are currently preferred . these chambers could also service the lower plungers 3 , in lieu of the provision of the lower chamber 50 . the exit openings at which the passages 10 , 12 discharge air into the cuffs 11 , 13 are centered on the longitudinal axes of the plungers 1 , 3 , respectively . however , such centering is not absolutely necessary and may be dispensed with if , for example , a circulating air flow or increased air turbulence is to be produced in the air gaps of the cuffs 11 , 13 . the air admitted via the cuffs 11 , 13 blows along the exposed parts of the plunger shafts , i . e ., those parts which in operation become exposed outside the guides 5 , 6 and thus prevents the deposition of dust on these parts which during the reciprocation , could be carried into the guides 5 , 6 . it is , of course , not desired that this dust now be blown by the air to another part of the machine , there to create new problems . to avoid this , the machine is provided with suction chambers 25 and 26 which surround the cuffs 11 , 13 and the exposed parts of the plungers . the chamber 25 is defined by the guide 5 and a stationary hood or cover 15 , and the chamber 26 is defined by the guide 6 and a stationary hood or cover 16 . unlike the chambers for the incoming air , the suction chambers 25 , 26 are not sealed . instead , openings or gaps 20 are provided at the juncture of the edges of covers 15 , 16 with the guides 5 , 6 . thus , the suction produced in the chambers 25 , 26 via the suction channels 60 , 61 ( leading to any known - per - se source of suction ) causes not only the dust and the air from cuffs 11 , 13 to be withdrawn through the channels 60 , 61 , but also causes ambient air to be aspirated through the gaps 20 ( see arrows 21 , 22 ) so that an escape of dust is prevented without special seals even with the covers 15 , 16 being stationary relative to the other , rotating components . an air - inlet passage 32 communicates with the chamber 25 at the bottom thereof ( it need , however , not be located at the bottom ). its purpose is to prevent the deposition of dust on or in the region of the face 1a of plunger 1 and on the upper surface of the matrix table 4 . it is a particular advantage of the invention that it not only serves to prevent the previously identified dust problems , but can additionally be used to cool parts of the machine , especially the plungers which tend to heat up . all that is required to obtain this additional function is to cool the incoming air ( instrumentalities for this are known per se ). the term &# 34 ; air &# 34 ; as used herein can , of course , refer to air in all its forms , i . e ., including air which has been pretreated to remove moisture and make it dry , as well as to any suitable gases . while the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a tabletting machine , it is not intended to be limited to the details shown , since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention . without further analysis , the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can , by applying current knowledge , readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that , from the standpoint of prior art , fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention . what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by letters patent is set forth in the appended claims .
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the simulation operation can be carried out in the following way : at least one image is acquired of a unit for simulating the patient &# 39 ; s bones and soft tissue only , and at least one image is acquired of this unit and of the device for simulating the patient &# 39 ; s opacified blood vessels , and using image subtraction , an image of the simulation device is obtained . this simulation device is optimized so as to be sensitive to the slightest error of the x - ray apparatus and to allow its detection . in a three - dimensional angiography system with c - shaped arms , it is possible to acquire images of the blood vessels while the acquisition system , i . e ., the x - ray tube and the means for receiving the x - ray beam , rotates around the patient . a three - dimensional image of the vessels is then reconstructed from the series of two - dimensional digital images produced . in order to perform this reconstruction , a model of the geometry of the image acquisition is necessary . this model is estimated in a calibration phase , and it is subsequently determined whether the acquisition geometry is the same during the acquisition of the images of the patient as it was during the calibration . if the acquisition geometry is not exactly the same , i . e ., if the performance of the acquisition system is degraded , the quality of the reconstructed three - dimensional images will also be degraded : the vessels will less rich in contrast and certain vessels of small diameter will not be properly reconstructed or will appear blurry . measuring the performance level of the acquisition system for the reconstruction of three - dimensional images is important , both during the production of the x - ray apparatus and while it is in service , but it constitutes a relatively difficult operation . in fact , a poor image quality observed on a patient is not invariably due to the acquisition system . many other parameters can be involved , such as a movement of the patient , the propagation of the opacifying liquid that is injected into the patient &# 39 ; s bloodstream , etc . an error in the repositioning of the acquisition system is not easy to detect . an element of the display device can be different for an acquisition of an image of the patient and for the calibration that was done previously , even though the quality of the two - dimensional images derived from the acquisition of images of the patient may be perfectly acceptable . in order to control the performance level of a three - dimensional angiography system , it is necessary to simulate a rotating acquisition of images of the patient with a specific simulation device , also called a “ phantom .” the images of this phantom must be representative of the patient &# 39 ; s blood vessels . as seen in fig1 and 2 , the simulation device has a generally spherical shape with a top pole 1 and a bottom pole 2 , centered on an axis 3 represented in a broken line , and comprises semicircular elements 4 extending from the top pole 1 to the bottom pole 2 . a supporting piece 5 is provided at the top pole 1 and a supporting piece 6 is provided at the bottom pole 2 . the semicircular elements 4 are attached at each of their ends to the supporting piece 5 and the supporting piece 6 . the semi - circular elements 4 are made of a material with low x - ray absorption , for example plexiglas , polycarbonate , or another material of equiva - lent density . the simulation device comprises six semicircular elements 4 distributed uniformly in the circumferential direction . however , as a variant , it is possible to provide a different number , for example four or eight . the semicircular elements 4 are flat and have on their outer edge 7 a tiered area 8 comprising steps 9 through 13 whose distance from the axis 3 differs from one step to another . a central shaft 14 coaxial to the axis 3 connects the supporting pieces 5 and 6 of the top 1 and bottom 2 poles . the central shaft 14 ensures the mechanical strength of the entire simulation device and is made of a material with average x - ray absorption , for example aluminum . as a variant , it is possible to provide a central shaft 14 made of another material , for example ceramic or titanium , but with the respective drawbacks in terms of weight and cost . the semicircular elements 4 are pierced with a plurality of holes 15 and 16 of small diameter , passing through the thickness of the semicircular elements 4 and disposed perpendicular to a plane passing through the axis 3 near the outer edge 7 at the level of the steps 9 through 13 . wires labelled 17 through 21 are passed through the holes 16 , the holes 15 remaining free of wires . the wires 17 through 21 are each disposed on one complete spire of the simulation device so as to form an angle on the order of 15 ° with a radial plane . for example , the wire 17 that passes through the holes 16 of the step 9 of the various semicircular elements 4 , passes through the hole 16 a provided at the bottom of the step 9 of the semicircular element 4 visible on the right of fig1 then through the hole 16 b in the middle of the step 9 of the next semicircular element 4 , then through the hole 16 c of the next semicircular element 4 before passing through the hole 16 b in the middle of the step 9 of the semicircular element 4 visible on the left of fig1 . of course , the concepts of right and left , and top and bottom , are relative and refer to fig1 since the simulation device can be used in any position in space . the other wires 18 through 21 are disposed in similar fashion through the holes 16 of the other steps 10 through 13 . the wires 17 through 21 are made of copper , a material with high x - ray absorption , but could also be made of another metal or alloy , as long as their diameter is adapted in accordance with the x - ray absorption of the material . the diameters of the wires are uniformly graduated , between 0 . 2 and 0 . 6 mm . the ends of the wires 17 through 21 are passed through a hole 16 and fixed with a dot of adhesive . extending from the central shaft 14 is a cylindrical element 22 disposed on an axis 23 that is oblique relative to the axis 3 . the cylindrical element 22 is connected to the central shaft 14 by a portion 24 of small diameter . the cylindrical element 22 is also made of a material with high x - ray absorption and makes it possible to simulate an aneurysm , which often has a neck of reduced diameter , simulated by the portion 24 . the central shaft 14 also supports a ringed element 25 disposed obliquely relative to the central shaft 14 and provided with a succession of portions 26 of large diameter and portions 27 of small diameter , in order to make it possible to verify whether said portions 26 and 27 are displayed satisfactorily . as seen more particularly in fig2 the semicircular elements 4 are uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction so that the wires 17 through 21 form a hexagon approaching a spherical shape , which is particularly well adapted to the case where the field of vision of a camera of the x - ray apparatus is circular . it would also be possible to provide a simulation device with eight semi - circular elements defining an octagon , or even four or five semicircular elements defining a square or a pentagon . thus , the central shaft 14 , with a large diameter relative to that of the wires 17 through 21 and an average x - ray absorption makes it possible to simulate the vessels of large diameter such as the carotid arteries and to provide a density reference for quantitative measurements from the reconstructed three - dimensional image . the large diameter of the central shaft 14 makes its image less sensitive to degradations . thus , a stable reference is provided . the various wires 17 through 21 with a small diameter and a high x - ray absorption coefficient make it possible to simulate vessels of very small size , for example the small cerebral arteries , in order to estimate the resolution of the three - dimensional image reconstruction . the wires have various diameters , from 0 . 2 to 0 . 6 mm , in 0 . 1 mm increments . the distance between each wire and the central shaft 14 is determined so that the wires are as close as possible to the contour of the image in the two - dimensional projections , in order to obtain a satisfactory sensitivity to repositioning errors in the rotation of the camera of the x - ray apparatus , in the case of a camera that rotates around its axis . the three - dimensional orientation of each wire is such that the angle between the axis of the wire and a plane that is radial relative to the axis 3 is small , less than or equal to 15 °, but not null . in fact , if the wires were parallel to such a radial plane , the image would be extremely sensitive to the degradation of the quality , which is an advantage . the axis 3 is normal to the plane defined by the various positions of the axis of the x - ray beam , which is rotatable . but in certain incidences of two - dimensional projection , there would be a risk of superpositions of the horizontal wires , which would not make it possible to properly detect the errors . thus , as seen in fig1 certain wires 17 through 21 can cross at points , but are not superposed . likewise , as seen in fig2 the wires 17 through 21 , are disposed so as not to superpose one another . of course , the same disposition of the wires could be obtained with a different support structure , for example with a polystyrene ball replacing the semicircular elements 4 . during its utilization , the simulation device is positioned on a table of the x - ray apparatus on which the patient is normally disposed , in such a way that the central rod 14 is approximately parallel to the axis of rotation of the image acquisition system . the utilization of wires of different diameters and crossing one another facilitates the automation of the calibration process by counting the number of visible wires , the quality of the image being proportional to the number of visible wires . fig3 shows a two - dimensional side view of a reconstructed three - dimensional image . it may be seen that all of the elements of the simulation device present in fig1 are visible in fig3 . the wires of larger diameter appear more clearly than the wires of smaller diameter . the same is true of fig4 which is a two - dimensional top view obtained from the same three - dimensional image used for fig3 . it is noted that the wire 18 of smaller diameter appears in this figure , which is a gauge of the good quality of the image reconstruction . fig5 is a two - dimensional partial cross - section of the reconstructed three - dimensional image , in which appear portions of three adjacent wires , the image quality being satisfactory . conversely , in fig6 which is a cross - section identical to that of fig5 the image quality is not satisfactory in that the wires seem to divide in two . this degradation of the quality of the image is due to an error in the positioning of the arm supporting the x - ray tube and of the means for receiving and displaying incident x - rays , such as the scintillator , camera , ccd , etc . the repositioning error , in this case several tenths of a degree , is clearly shown . fig7 shows several bright spots corresponding to wires sectioned transverse to their axes . the image of these wires is approximately circular , which is satisfactory . conversely , in fig8 the image of the same wires tends to spread out , forming a segment of a straight line , which reveals a repositioning error in the rotation of the camera of the image acquisition system , this error being on the order of several tenths of a degree . as a result , a slight degradation in the performance of the acquisition system produces a visible degradation in the three - dimensional reconstruction of the simulation device . this simulation device can therefore be used to estimate the quality of the three - dimensional image reconstruction of a system . a synthetic view of the quality of the reconstruction can be obtained from the three - dimensional image using a two - dimensional view corresponding to fig4 such that the display is produced parallel to the axis of the central shaft . certain errors of the acquisition system produce specific errors in the three - dimensional image . the simulation device can therefore be used to characterize image quality problems . the simulation device can be used for a visual inspection by an operator or for an automatic process allowing a quantitative evaluation of the quality of the three - dimensional reconstruction . this process can be carried out by detecting the central shaft using a series of steps for eroding and enlarging the image , by determining the density of the central shaft , by determining a series of elementary densities obtained by predetermined linear coefficients , by applying a threshold to each elementary density , by creating a two - dimensional image in an orientation parallel to the central shaft , by detecting and counting the wires visible in the image , the final quality criterion being the sum of all the visible wires . various modifications in structure and / or function and / or steps can be made by one skilled in the art to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention .
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referring to the drawings , fig1 shows a femur 2 which has been resected at its upper end . cancellous bone has been removed from the centre of the femur at the upper end to form a cavity 4 in which a prosthesis 6 is to be located . the prosthesis comprises a stem which is received in the cavity and a head which engages an acetabular cup component , as is known . the stem of the prosthesis is bonded to the bone of the cavity by means of bone cement injected into the cavity under pressure . pressure in the cement injected into the cavity is maintained during and after injection ( while the cement hardens ) by means of a sealing gasket positioned over the end of the bone . the gasket comprises a sealing plate 10 having an opening 12 in it , and a plug 14 located in the opening in which the nozzle 16 of bone cement delivery apparatus can be received . force can be applied to the gasket against the bone directly , or by means of a u - shaped tool 19 which can be located around the opening 12 in the sealing plate . referring to fig2 and 3 , the sealing plate is formed from a resiliently deformable material such as a silicone by moulding . it has a thin central portion 18 surrounding the opening 12 and a relatively thick edge portion 20 defining a lip . the lip has an inclined under - surface for engaging the upper edge of the resected bone in line contact . for example , the thickness of the plate in the portion surrounding the opening might be about 7 mm and the thickness at the edge might be about 12 mm . the width of the edge portion is about 10 mm at its widest along the long edges of the sealing plate and about 5 mm at its narrowest along the short edges of the sealing plate . the dimensions of the sealing plate will be selected according to the bone against which it is to be used and the prosthesis which is to be inserted into the bone cavity . for example , a sealing plate to be used against the femur of an adult human might have dimensions 60 mm by 55 mm . the opening in the plate has dimensions 20 mm by 11 mm . the opening 12 in the sealing plate is generally oval , having semi - circular portions at each end joined by straight portions . referring to fig4 and 5 , the plug 14 is formed from a resiliently deformable material by moulding . it can be formed from the same material as that of the sealing plate , although a material that is more rigid than that of the sealing plate can be preferred for some applications . it comprises a neck portion 22 which is generally oval in cross - section with a shape corresponding substantially to that of the opening 12 in the sealing plate 10 . there is a back plate 24 on the neck , by which the plug can be gripped and manipulated , in particular during insertion into and removal from the opening 12 in the sealing plate . the back plate can be curved upwardly as shown in fig5 to facilitate manipulation of the plug . an injection port 26 extends through the plug , in which the nozzle of bone cement delivery apparatus can be received . a laterally extending lug 28 in the manner of a flange depends from the lower end of the neck portion 22 , which can engage the lower face of the sealing plate when the plug is located in the opening 12 , restricting inadvertent removal of the plug from the opening . the lug has a profiled lower edge to facilitate insertion into the opening in the sealing plate . fig6 shows a plug 30 for use in the sealing plate of a sealing gasket , such as described above with reference to fig2 and 3 . the plug has a neck portion 36 and a flange - like lug 38 which extends around its periphery . an injection port 32 extends through the plug , in which the nozzle of bone cement delivery apparatus can be received . the plug 30 is made from a relatively rigid material so that , on insertion into the opening in a sealing plate , the material of the sealing plate is deformed by the lug 38 . the plug has a back plate 34 which is flat . a plug with a flat back plate formed from a rigid material can be used to apply pressure to the sealing plate , to form the seal between the plate and the bone . fig7 shows the plug 30 located in the opening 12 in the sealing plate 10 with the neck portion of the plug engaging the edges of the opening . the lug 38 extends laterally in contact with the lower face 30 of the sealing plate , restricting removal of the plug from the opening . the nozzle 16 of bone cement delivery apparatus is received in the injection port 32 which extends through the plug , for delivery of cement through the sealing gasket into the cavity of a bone against which the gasket is positioned in use . in use , after injection of bone cement into the bone cavity , the plug 30 is removed from the opening 12 in the sealing plate 10 . the plug can be removed soon after injection of the cement . however , it can be preferred for its removal to be deferred until the cement has partially hardened , for example , until it has hardened sufficiently for insertion into the cavity of the prosthesis . the prosthesis to be located in the bone cavity can be inserted in the cavity through the opening 12 after removal of the plug . once the bone cement has hardened sufficiently to bond the prosthesis to the bone , the sealing plate can be removed from the bone . preferably , the sealing plate is severed before removal , for example by tearing or more preferably by cutting , from the opening 12 to an edge of the plate , so that it can be removed by lateral movement rather than having to be passed over the end of the prosthesis . fig8 shows a sealing gasket in which the sealing plate 40 has an opening 42 in it to accommodate a plug 44 , generally as described above in relation to other embodiments . the sealing plate also has a flap portion 46 extending from the portion with the opening 42 in it , which can be used to pressurise and to control flow of bone cement from an opening into the bone cavity other than the opening into which cement is to be injected through the opening in the sealing plate and the plug inserted therein . for example , it can be used to extend over the resected trochanter on a femur , and to control egress of bone cement from the trochanter region and to apply pressure to that cement . the sealing gasket of the invention has the advantage that the component by which cement is retained in place in the bone cavity does not need to be moved from the end of the bone throughout the period from injection of bone cement to hardening of the cement to form the bond between the bone and the prosthesis located in the cement in the cavity . this allows pressure to be maintained on the cement throughout the period in which it hardens , as preferred for secure bonding of the cement to the bone . while the invention has been described with reference to the drawings as applied to a hip joint , it will be understood that the invention is applicable to other joints .
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the following description is of the best mode presently contemplated for carrying out the invention . this description is not to be taken in a limiting sense , but is made merely for the purpose of describing one or more preferred embodiments of the invention . the scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims . a prior art motorcycle 10 with a stock ( or original ) fork rake is shown in fig1 . the prior art motorcycle 10 includes forks 12 mounted to a steering head 16 by original triple trees 14 and 15 . custom motorcycle riders often desire to increase the fork 12 rake to obtain a more custom appearance . generally , significantly increasing the fork rake requires significant modifications to the motorcycle frame to alter the steering head angle , at significant expense and time . while small increases in rake may be achieved by using “ raked triple trees ” which increase rake without modification to the original steering axis , such raked triple trees adversely affect trail and is therefore limited to small rake increases due to these affects on trail . a motorcycle 10 a with a rake extension kit according to the present invention installed is shown in fig2 . the fork rake extension kit includes an upper adapter block 22 and a lower adapter block 23 attached to the unmodified steering head 16 . an upper triple tree 18 and a lower triple tree 19 connect to the adapter blocks 22 and 23 , and the forks 12 attach to the triple trees 18 and 19 . fork extensions 12 a are provided to maintain the original ground height of the motorcycle 10 a . a more detailed view of the motorcycle forks 12 with the fork rake extended using the present invention is shown in fig3 . the lower adapter block 23 pushes the lower triple tree 19 forward , and the lower triple tree 19 pushes the forks 12 forward , both contributing to increased fork rake while maintaining a desired trail . a diagram of trail and rake is shown in fig3 a . the combination of trail and rake is an important factor in motorcycle handling . the present invention provides some rake increase in the adapter blocks 22 and 23 , and some rake increase in the triple trees 18 and 19 . the result is a preferred trail t 1 . if the triple trees 18 and 19 did not provide some of the rake increase , a much larger and less desirable trail t 2 would result , and conversely , if all of the rake increase is obtained by the triple trees , a much smaller and less desirable trail would result . a cross - sectional view of the fork rake extender attached to the steering head 16 is shown in fig4 and an exploded view of elements of the fork rake extender kit are shown in fig5 . a rear spacer shaft 28 resides in the unmodified steering head 16 . the spacer shaft 28 includes shaft alignment features 28 a and 28 b at the top and bottom of the spacer shaft 28 respectively . preferred alignment features 28 a and 28 b comprise a cylindrical center coaxial with the spacer shaft 28 , and opposed rectangular blocks extending radially from the cylindrical center . the upper adapter block 22 resides on the top of the steering head 16 , and the lower adapter block resides on the bottom of the steering head 16 . each adapter block 22 and 23 includes a cylindrical portion 43 configured to fit into bearing seats in the steering head 16 . the cylindrical portions 43 further include block alignment features which are preferably rectangular notches configured to engage the shaft alignment features 28 a and 28 b . the upper and lower adapter blocks 22 and 23 are held to the steering head by at least one adapter block fastener , and preferably by a main assembly bolt 40 inserted though the lower adapter block 23 , through the spacer 28 , and threaded into the upper adapter block 22 . tightening the bolt 40 secures the upper and lower adapter blocks 22 and 23 to the steering head 16 and preferably vertically squeezes the adapter blocks 22 and 23 against steering head 16 . continuing with fig4 and 5 , upper and lower bearings 36 and 38 reside in the upper and lower adapter blocks 22 and 23 respectively . a steering shaft 26 is inserted upward through the lower triple tree 19 , the bearing 38 , the lower adapter block 23 , a front spacer shaft 24 , the upper bearing 36 , and the upper adapter block 22 . a lock nut 34 is threaded onto the upper end of the steering shaft 26 , and a double lock nut 32 is threaded onto the upper end of the steering shaft 26 and against the nut 34 . the upper triple tree 18 is then placed over the upper end of the steering shaft 26 , and a triple tree retainer nut 30 is threaded onto the steering shaft 26 over the upper triple tree 18 . set screws 42 extend through the lower adapter block 23 to engage surfaces of the steering head 16 or motorcycle frame to prevent rotation of the lower adapter block 23 . the lower adapter block 23 has a lower steering head end 23 a and a lower triple tree end 23 b ( see fig6 b ) spaced apart by a lower adapter spacing and the upper adapter block 22 has corresponding upper steering head end and upper triple tree end spaced apart by an upper adapter spacing . the lower adapter spacing is preferably greater than the upper adapter spacing resulting in an increase in the fork rake of angle a 1 between a bolt centerline 41 and steering shaft centerline 27 . further , the forks 12 have a fork centerline 13 offset from the steering shaft centerline 27 by a second angle a 2 . a total increase in fork rake of a 1 + a 2 results . a perspective view of the top and side of the lower adapter block 23 is shown in fig6 , a side view of the lower adapter block 23 is shown in fig6 a , a top view of the lower adapter block 23 is shown in fig6 b , and a rear view of the lower adapter block is shown in fig6 c . a cross - sectional view of the lower adapter 23 taken along line 7 - 7 of fig6 c is shown in fig7 . the lower adapter block 23 is approximately oval with the cylindrical portion 43 for cooperation with the steering head 16 bearing seats and the spacer 28 at one end , and a stepped mouth 48 for cooperation with the lower triple tree 19 and the spacer 24 at the opposite end . the cylindrical portion 43 includes a bolt passage 52 for the main assembly bolt 40 ( see fig4 ), a bolt shoulder 54 for cooperation with the bolt 40 , and rectangular notches 44 for cooperation with the spacer 28 ( see fig4 and 5 ). the stepped mouth 48 provides a passage for the steering shaft 26 and a seat 50 for the lower steering bearing 38 ( see fig4 and 5 ). the set screws 42 are positioned to tighten against features of the steering head 16 , for example the steering stop pads , or features on the motorcycle frame , and the positions of the set screws 42 may be varied for different motorcycles or motorcycle frames . the screws 42 may be used during installation for adjustment of the lower adapter block 23 , or for subsequent adjustment . the screws 42 may also be tightened to aid in preventing the lower adapter block 23 from rotating during use . a perspective view of the bottom of the upper adapter block 22 is shown in fig8 , a side view of the side view of the upper adapter block 22 is shown in fig8 a , a top view of the upper adapter block 22 is shown in fig8 b , and a rear view of the upper adapter block 22 is shown in fig8 c . a cross - sectional view of the upper adapter block 22 taken along line 9 - 9 of fig8 c is shown in fig9 . the upper adapter block 22 is approximately oval with the cylindrical portion 43 for cooperation with the upper bearing seat of the steering head 16 and the spacer 28 at an upper steering head end 22 a , and a stepped mouth 48 for cooperation with the lower triple tree 19 and the spacer 24 at the opposite end . the cylindrical portion 43 includes a bolt passage 52 for the main assembly bolt 40 ( see fig4 ), and notches 44 for cooperation with the spacer 28 ( see fig4 and 5 ). the stepped mouth 48 provides a passage for the steering shaft 26 and a seat 50 for the lower steering bearing 38 ( see fig4 and 5 ). a top perspective view of a lower triple tree 19 according to the present invention is shown in fig1 , a front view of the lower triple tree 19 is shown in fig1 a , a top view of the lower triple tree 19 is shown in fig1 b , a rear view of the lower triple tree 19 is shown in fig1 c , and a side view of the lower triple tree 19 is shown in fig1 d . a cross - sectional view of the lower triple tree 19 taken along line 11 - 11 of fig1 a is shown in fig1 . the lower triple tree 19 includes two lower fork passages 16 which include gaps 60 a and may be tightened to clamp fork tubes of the forks 12 into the lower triple tree 19 . the lower triple tree 19 further includes a lower steering shaft passage 62 for the steering shaft 26 ( see fig4 and 5 ). the separate of the fork passages 60 from the steering passage 62 is a first length l 1 . a bottom perspective view of the upper triple tree 18 according to the present invention is shown in fig1 , a rear view of the upper triple tree 18 is shown in fig1 a , a top view of the upper triple tree 18 is shown in fig1 b , a bottom view of the upper triple tree 18 is shown in fig1 c , and a side view of the upper triple tree 18 is shown in fig1 d . a cross - sectional view of the upper triple tree 18 taken along line 13 - 13 of fig1 a is shown in fig1 . the upper triple tree 18 includes two upper fork passages 70 , and upper steering shaft passage 72 . the separate of the upper fork passages 70 from the upper steering passage 62 is a second length l 2 . the length l 1 ( see fig1 b ) is larger than the length l 2 , thereby increasing the fork rake . while the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof , numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims .
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the present disclosure provides methods that utilize sigma 1 receptor ( s1r ) in conjunction with interleukin - 24 ( il - 24 ) to induce cell death . s1r , a ligand - regulated protein chaperone , has been shown to contribute to il - 24 induction of apoptosis . il - 24 , a member of the il - 10 cytokine family , is an immunomodulatory cytokine that also displays broad cancer - specific suppressor effects . the tumor suppressor activities of il - 24 include inhibition of angiogenesis , sensitization to chemotherapy , and cancer - specific apoptosis . il - 24 generated from an adenovirus expressing il - 24 ( ad . il - 24 ) induces cancer - specific apoptosis by inducing an endoplasmic reticulum ( er ) stress , reactive oxygen species production , and calcium mobilization . several lines of evidence are provided to confirm a physical and functional interaction between il - 24 and s1r including : ( a ) s1r and il - 24 co - localize , as judged by immunocytochemical analysis studies ; ( b ) s1r and il - 24 co - immunoprecipitate using either s1r or il - 24 antibody ; ( c ) s1r agonist (+)- skf10047 inhibits apoptosis by ad . il - 24 ; ( d ) (+)- skf10047 — mediated inhibition of ad . il - 24 results in : diminished er stress protein expression ; ( e ) calcium mobilization ; and ( f ) ros production . collectively , these data demonstrate that s1r interacts with il - 24 and suggest that il - 24 : s1r interaction determines apoptosis induction by ad . il - 24 . the disclosure identifies s1r as an initial mediator of il - 24 induction of cancer - specific killing . s1r is a ligand - regulated protein chaperone . s1r is a receptor chaperone whose activity can be activated / deactivated by specific ligands . manipulation of s1r can yield either cytoprotective or cytotoxic actions . the stimulation with sigma agonists induces s1r dissociation from bip and s1r delocalization , while sigma ligands classified as antagonists impede this process . s1r agonists promote cellular survival by preventing oxidative stress caused by ischemia , diabetes , inflammation , and amyloid toxicity . conversely , antagonists of the s1r inhibit tumor cell survival and induce apoptosis . sigma antagonist - mediated cell death is inhibited by the prototypic sigma - 1 agonists (+)- skf10047 . furthermore , systemic administration of sigma antagonists significantly inhibits the growth of mammary carcinoma xenografts , prostate tumors , and lung carcinoma in the absence of side effects . on the other hand , several normal cell types such as fibroblasts , epithelial cells , and even sigma receptor - rich neurons are resistant to the apoptotic effects of sigma antagonists . cellular susceptibility appears to correlate with differences in s1r coupling rather than levels of expression . in cancer cells only , sigma antagonists evoke a rapid rise in cytosolic calcium that is inhibited by s1r agonists . in tumor cells , sigma antagonists cause activation of phospholipase c and concomitant inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 3 ′- kinase pathway signaling . this disclosure shows , for the first time , that s1r plays a decisive role in il - 24 - mediated apoptosis . several lines of evidence are provided to confirm a physical and functional interaction between il - 24 and s1r . these studies define s1r as a key initial mediator of il - 24 . these findings have important implications for the understanding of il - 24 as a tumor suppressor protein as well as an immune modulating cytokine . treatment of cells with sigma 1 receptor ( s1r ) agonist prevents il - 24 killing . without wishing to be bound to any particular theory , il - 24 is believed to act as a s1r antagonist in mediating tumor cell death . referring to fig1 a , fig1 b and fig1 c , to test this hypothesis ad . il - 24 was used to treat normal human immortalized epithelial cells ( rwpe1 ), and three metastatic prostate cancer cell lines ( lncap , du145 and pc - 3 ) in the presence or absence of the specific s1r agonist , (+) skf - 10047 , and measured cell viability and induction of apoptosis by mtt , clonogenic , and annexinv - fitc / pi assays . (+) skf - 10047 inhibited ad . il - 24 - mediated killing in pc - 3 , lncap and du145 cells . ad . il - 24 had only a slight effect on viability , clonogenic capacity , or apoptosis of normal rwpe1 cells . the results show treatment of cells with a sigma 1 receptor ( s1r ) agonist prevents il - 24 - induced apoptosis . in fig1 a , cells were infected with 100 pfu / cell of ad . vector or ad . il - 24 , and treated with or without 10 μm (+)- skf10047 — a s1r agonist . cell viability was determined by mtt assay 4 days post - infection . mtt absorbance of untreated control cells was set at 1 to determine relative number of viable cells . fig1 a shows the cytotoxic effect of ad . il - 24 could be substantially negated by the addition of the s1r agonist . in fig1 b , cells were incubated in the absence or presence of 10 μm (+)- skf10047 after infection with ad . il - 24 . forty - eight hours post - infection , percentage of apoptosis was determined by staining with annexinv - fitc / pi . fig1 b also shows the cytotoxic effect of ad . il - 24 could be substantially negated by the addition of the s1r agonist . in fig1 c , cells were incubated in the absence or presence of 10 μm (+)- skf10047 after infection with ad . il - 24 . cells were subjected to clonogenic assay for 2 weeks . results shown are an average of three independent experiments ± sd . fig1 c also shows the cytotoxic effect of ad . il - 24 could be substantially negated by the addition of the s1r agonist . taken together , the data of fig1 a , fig1 b and fig1 c suggest that il - 24 - induced cell death in cancer cells would be achieved by antagonizing s1r , and is therefore inhibited by an s1r agonist . as shown in fig2 a , fig2 b and fig2 c , s1r is involved in ad . il - 24 - induced er stress , calcium mobilization , and ros production . cells were infected with 100 pfu / cell of ad . vector or ad . il - 24 , and treated with or without 10 μm (+)- skf10047 ( skf ) for indicated times . in fig2 a , changes in bip , chop , and p - eif2a proteins were evaluated by western blot analysis 48 h after indicated treatments . fig2 a shows ad . il - 24 infection causes il - 24 protein localization in the er and induces er stress resembling an upr . up - regulation by il - 24 of several er stress markers is shown , including p - eif2a , chop , and bip , were inhibited by treatment with (+) skf - 10047 . fig2 b depicts a ratio of calcium ratios for cells infected with 100 pfu / cell of ad . vector or ad . il - 24 , and treated with or without 10 μm (+)- skf10047 . the ratios are the levels cytosolic calcium at t = 0 and t = 12 hours . a determination was made concerning whether ad . il - 24 caused any changes in the cytosolic levels of ca ++ in prostate cancer cells and if ca ++ mobilization is s1r - dependent after ad . il - 24 infection . ad . il - 24 infection increased cytosolic ca ++ levels in prostate du145 within 12 hours . the increase in ca ++ was blocked by s1r agonist (+)- skf10047 . fig2 c graphically shows the fluorescence of du - 145 cells infected with ad . vector or with ad . il - 24 and treated with or without 10 μm (+) skf - 10047 for 24 h . intracellular ros levels were measured with 10 μm dcf - da 30 min after treatments . the results are expressed as the mean ± s . d . of three independent experiments . the time course of mitochondrial changes ( ros generation ) were determined after treatment of du145 cells with ad . il - 24 . cells were infected with ad . il - 24 , collected at 24 h , and stained for ros production with dichlorofluorescin diacetate ( dcfh - da ). fig2 c shows ad . il - 24 increased ros , were inhibited by treatment with (+) skf - 10047 . taken together , the inhibition by an s1r agonist of il - 24 - mediated er stress , ca ++ mobilization and ros production , further strengthen the hypothesis that il - 24 action in cancer cells is mediated by an antagonistic effect of il - 24 on s1r . in fig3 a and fig3 b , comparative co - localization of il - 24 and s1r proteins was analyzed in du145 cells after infection with the ad . il - 24 virus . comparison of the immunofluorescence data using different cells and secondary antibodies performed at independent times , yielded similar reproducible patterns of staining , demonstrating that il - 24 co - localized with s1r . du - 145 cells were infected with ad . il - 24 . after 24 h , cells were fixed and il - 24 and s1r proteins were detected by immunofluorescence using anti - il - 24 and anti - s1r antibodies . the analysis of co - localization of il - 24 and s1r was performed using a dmi6000b inverted confocal microscope with tcs sp5 system ( leica microsystems cms ). without wishing to be bound to any particular theory , s1r is believed to interact with il - 24 . referring to fig3 a , infection with ad . il - 24 followed by immunoprecipitation using anti - s1r antibody and immunoblotting with anti - il - 24 antibody confirmed a physical interaction between these molecules ( fig3 a ). in fig3 a , du145 cells were infected with 100 pfu / cell of ad . vector or ad . il - 24 and immunoprecipitation analysis was done 48 hours later using s1r antibody . as shown in fig3 b , experiments were also done in a reverse direction : immunoprecipitation was done using anti - il - 24 antibody and the membrane was probed with the anti - s1r antibody ( fig3 b ). il - 24 protein coimmunoprecipitated with s1r , demonstrating a physical interaction between these two molecules , converging with the above results in supporting the hypothesis that il - 24 could antagonize sir . in fig3 b , du - 145 cells were infected with 100 pfu / cell of of ad . vector or ad . il - 24 and immunoprecipitation analysis was done 48 hours later using il - 24 antibody . defining the biochemical basis of cancer - selective activity of il - 24 provides an important entry point for rationally devising combinatorial approaches to enhance the therapeutic impact of this intriguing multifunctional antitumor molecule . il - 24 displays a broad range of antitumor properties including cancer - specific induction of apoptosis , inhibition of tumor angiogenesis , and modulation of anti - tumor immune responses . the results presented here identify s1r as a key mediator of il - 24 induction of cancer - specific killing . s1r agonist (+) sk - 10047 blocks ad . il - 24 — mediated cancer - selective apoptosis in prostate cancer cells ( fig1 a , fig1 b , fig1 c ). er stress response , ros production , and calcium mobilization triggered after ad . il - 24 infection is mediated through a s1r - dependent pathway ( fig2 a , fig2 b , fig2 c ). co - immunoprecipitation and co - localization studies revealed for the first time that il - 24 interacts with s1r ( fig3 a , fig3 b ). ad . il - 24 induces apoptosis through a s1r antagonistic mechanism . il - 24 exerts a tumor - selective , er stress , ros production , calcium mobilization effect by acting through a s1r antagonistic mechanism . one possible mechanism of operation is shown in the model of fig4 wherein il - 24 induces growth inhibition and apoptosis through a s1r - dependent pathway . il - 24 induces er stress and this response could be the common upstream event . downstream targets of il - 24 after induction of er stress include p38 mapk , calcium mobilization , ros , and ceramide production . ad . il - 24 induces ceramide production , and that plays a key role in ros production , which in turn , can generate additional molecules of ceramide . il - 24 protein generates additional molecules of il - 24 that induce more er - stress culminating in an untenable imbalance resulting in apoptosis in cancer cells . secreted il - 24 protein , generated from ad . il - 24 - infected cells , promotes antiangiogenic , immunostimulatory , radiosensitizing and “ bystander ” antitumor activities . il - 24 stimulates the immune system to generate secondary cytokines , such as tnf - α , ifn - γ , and il - 1 that evokes an antitumor immune response . secreted il - 24 protein , generated from ad . il - 24 - infected cells , exerts antiangiogenic activity by inhibiting endothelial cell differentiation and by blocking the activities of vegf and tgf - a via inhibition of src activity within tumor cells . il - 24 protein generates additional molecules of il - 24 that induces more er - stress culminating in an untenable imbalance resulting in apoptosis in cancer cells . specifically , exogenous il - 24 protein induces growth inhibition and apoptosis only in cancer cells through a mechanism identical to ad . il - 24 infection . these observations coupled with the present findings suggest that il - 24 - mediated il - 24 induction could involve an s1r - mediated mechanism as an event down - stream of il - 20 receptor activation by extracellular il - 24 . as discussed in the present work these findings have important implications for the understanding of il - 24 as a tumor suppressor protein as well as an immune modulating cytokine . in accordance with what has been observed with il - 24 , the combination of immunosuppression , along with anti - inflammatory properties makes s1r ligands attractive molecules for therapeutic applications such as autoimmune diseases in which both immune and inflammatory disorders are involved . interestingly , s1r to translocate and remodel the plasma membrane . accumulating evidence indicate that s1r is overexpressed in many cancer cell lines , and contributes to the invasion and metastasis in many human tumors . this disclosure support the hypothesis that sigma 1 receptor ( sir ) may be the upstream initial signal transduction molecule common to these cascades of events involving il - 24 - induced er - stress dependent and independent downstream pathways . in summary , the identification of s1r as a mediator of il - 24 - cancer - specific apoptosis significantly broadens their therapeutic potential for tumors as well as provides new important knowledge for the understanding of il - 24 as an immune modulating cytokine . virus infection . the il - 24 expressing replication defective ad . il - 24 and corresponding empty adenovirus vector lacking exogenous gene , used as a control ( ad . vector ) were custom engineered by vector biolabs , inc . ( philadelphia , pa .). cells and culture conditions . rwpe1 , lncap , du145 , and pc3 ( atcc , rockville , md .) cell lines were grown in dmem with 10 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ) 1 % penicillin / streptomycin . all cell lines were cultured in humidified atmosphere at 37 ° c . with 5 % co 2 and media was replaced every alternate day . (+)- skf10047 was purchased from tocris ( tocris , uk ). western blot analysis . protein extracts were prepared with ripa buffer containing a mixture of protease inhibitors as described in sauane m , su z z , dash r , et al . “ ceramide plays a prominent role in mda - 7 / il - 24 - induced cancer - specific apoptosis ” j cell physiol . 2010 march ; 222 ( 3 ): 546 - 55 . fifty micrograms of protein was applied to a 12 % sds / page and transferred to nitrocellulose membranes . the membranes were probed with polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies to il - 24 , p - eif2a , bip , chop , sigma 1 receptor , and beta - actin . mtt assays . cells were plated in 96 - well dishes ( 1 × 10 3 cells / well ) in dmem containing 10 % fbs and allowed to attach for 12 h prior to treatment ( s ). inhibitors were added 4 h after infection with adenovirus . cell growth and viable cell numbers were monitored by 3 -( 4 , 5 dimethylthiazol - 2 - yl )- 2 , 5 - diphenyltetrazolium bromide ( mtt ) staining as described in sauane m , su z z , dash r , et al . “ ceramide plays a prominent role in mda - 7 / il - 24 - induced cancer - specific apoptosis ” j cell physiol . 2010 march ; 222 ( 3 ): 546 - 55 . annexin v binding assays . cells were trypsinized , washed once with complete medium and pbs , resuspended in 0 . 5 ml of binding buffer containing 2 . 5 mmol / l cacl2 , and stained with allophycocyanin - labeled annexin v ( becton dickinson biosciences , palo alto , calif .) and propidium iodide ( pi ) for 15 min at room temperature . flow cytometry assays were performed as described in sauane m , su z z , dash r , et al . “ ceramide plays a prominent role in mda - 7 / il - 24 - induced cancer - specific apoptosis ” j cell physiol . 2010 march ; 222 ( 3 ): 546 - 55 . colony formation assays . cells were infected with 100 pfu / cell with ad . vector or ad . il - 24 . the next day , 200 to 500 cells were seeded to determine colony - forming ability . after 2 weeks of incubation , colonies were fixed , stained with 5 % giemsa solution , and colonies of & gt ; 50 cells were enumerated as described in sauane m , su z z , dash r , et al . “ ceramide plays a prominent role in mda - 7 / il - 24 - induced cancer - specific apoptosis ” j cell physiol . 2010 march ; 222 ( 3 ): 546 - 55 . immunofluorescence . cells were seeded onto chamber slides ( falcon ; bd biosciences , san jose , calif .) and maintained in dmem with 10 % fetal bovine calf serum , 24 hours postinfection , cells were fixed with 2 % paraformaldehyde , permeabilized by 0 . 1 % triton x - 100 , and then incubated with primary antibodies : il - 24 , and s1r . controls were incubated with only the secondary antibodies under the same experimental conditions . co - immunoprecipitation of s1r with il - 24 . cells were infected with ad . vector or ad . il - 24 . after 48 hours , protein was extracted from subconfluent cultures using lysis buffer ( pierce , rockford , ill .) containing 1 mm phenylmethlsulfonylfluoride ( sigma - aldrich , inc ) and quantified using the bca protein assay kit ( pierce , rockford , ill .). antibodies were conjugated to protein - g beads according , the sigma protein - g immunoprecipitation kit manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions ( sigma - aldrich , inc ). western blot analysis was done as described before using the following primary antibodies at 1 : 1 , 000 dilutions : anti - il - 24 , and anti - s1r . secondary antibodies specific for heavy chain of immunoglobulin g ( igg ) were used as the light chain of igg interfered with detection of il - 24 because of similar size . calcium imaging . for calcium ( ca ++ ) imaging , cells were plated in 35 mm glass bottom petri dishes ( mattek ) and allowed to attach for 12 h prior to treatment ( s ). inhibitors were added 4 h after infection with adenovirus . after 12 h , cells were then rinsed with a ringer &# 39 ; s solution maintained at 37 ° c . cells were then incubated in ringer &# 39 ; s solution containing 0 . 5 μm fura - 2 tetra - acetoxymethyl ester ( fura - 2 ) ( molecular probes ), 10 % pluronic f127 and 250 μm sulfinpyrazone ( sigma - aldrich , inc ) for 40 min at 22 ° c . fura - 2 was excited by alternating 340 and 380 nm light and images were obtained every 50 ms as a measure of ca ++ concentration . background intensity was zero . a bolus injection brought the stimulant concentration in the cell bath to either 1 mm glutamate ( sigma - aldrich , inc ) or 1 mm n - methyl - d - aspartic acid plus the co - stimulator 1 mm glycine . prism software ( graphpadvare inc version 6 . 0c ) was used to analyze the results . intra - group analysis was done with ordinary one - way anova to compare the mean of raw calcium ratios of each treatment group with a control group . a dunnet &# 39 ; s multiple comparison test with a single pooled variance was also performed on the four treatment groups . a significance of 0 . 01 was used in the analysis . assessment of reactive oxygen species ( ros ) generation . du - 145 cells were seeded in 96 - well plates at a concentration of 1 × 10 4 cells / well and were infected with ad . il - 24 for 12 h . the cell cultures were treated with 10 μm 2 , 7 - dichloro - fluorescein diacetate ( dcfh - da ; sigma - aldrich , st . louis , mo .) in pbs for 30 min . after incubation , the media was discarded , and the cells were washed with pbs . the fluorescence intensity was determined using a fluorescence plate reader at 485 nm for excitation and 530 nm for emission . in one embodiment , a method for treatment of a hyperproliferative or autoimmune disorder is provided . examples of hyperproliferative and / or autoimmune disorders include various cancers , including , breast , lung , ovarian , liver , pancreatic , gliomas , gastric , colorectal , renal , prostate human cancers etc . examples of autoimmune disorders include treatment of keloid lesions , rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathy , inflammatory bowel disease etc . the tumor suppressor activities include inhibition of angiogenesis , sensitization to chemotherapy , and induction of cancer - specific apoptosis . the method comprising steps of introducing a nucleic acid comprising interleukin 24 ( il - 24 ) into a biological cell under conditions permitting expression of the gene so as to thereby induce apoptosis in the biological cell . in one embodiment , a tumor sample is first verified to expresses sigma 1 receptor ( s1r ). if the tumor sample is positive for s1r expression , then il - 24 can be effective . if the tumor sample is negative for s1r expression , then il - 24 will not be effective . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is introduced into the biological cell via naked dna technology using histone - free dna . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is introduced into the biological cell via an adenovirus vector , an adeno - associated virus vector , an epstein - barr virus vector , a herpes virus vector , an attenuated hiv vector , a retroviral vector , or a vaccinia virus vector . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is introduced into the biological cell via a liposome or an antibody - coated liposome . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is introduced into the biological cell via a means for mechanically introducing nucleic acids . examples of means for mechanically introducing include microinjection of nucleic acids . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is introduced into the biological cell via means for electrically introducing nucleic acids . examples of means for electrically introducing include electroporation and electropermeabilization . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid comprises a vector , an adenovirus vector , a replication - defective adenovirus vector expressing mda - 7 , an adeno - associated virus vector , an epstein - barr virus vector . in one such embodiment , the vector is a herpes virus vector , an attenuated hiv vector , a retrovirus vector , or vaccinia virus vector . in one embodiment , the nucleic acid is linked to a cytomegalovirus promoter , or a ersv ) promoter . in another embodiment , a method for identifying a compound capable of acting as a surrogate of il - 24 by binding to sigma 1 receptor intracellularly is provided . the method comprising steps of contacting a biological cell with a test compound , wherein the biological cell expresses sigma 1 receptor ; determining whether diminished endoplasmic reticulum ( er ) stress protein expression ; calcium mobilization ; or reactive oxygen species ( ros ) production is produced , wherein the activation of er stress , the mobilization of calcium or ros production indicates that the test compound acts as a surrogate of il - 24 . in another embodiment , a composition of matter for treatment of a hyperproliferative or autoimmune disorder is provided . the composition of matter comprising interleukin 24 ( il - 24 ) and sigma 1 receptor ( s1r ), wherein the composition of matter is in a form of a controlled dosage form . examples of controlled dosage forms including , one part injectables , two part injectables , oral dosage forms , adhesive pads , time release compositions , and the like . this written description uses examples to disclose the invention , including the best mode , and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention , including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods . the patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims , and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art . such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims , or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims .
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the term “ module ” is used herein to demarcate a functional operation that may be embodied either as a stand - alone component or as one of a plurality of components in an integrated assembly . in fig1 schematically illustrates a computer software system (“ system ”) 100 . system 100 has an application 120 . application 120 accesses an associated customer database , results of which are displayed on a user interface , although system 100 is illustrated as software modules . in system 100 , static resource names , that is , the non - localized names which do not differentiate among different language formats , etc ., are embedded in the source code of application 120 . the associated customer database has stored within dynamic resource names for use with localized presentations on the user interface and static resource names . a dynamic resource name may be defined as those resource names that are not known at the time when application 120 was created . dynamic resource names can from the customer database or another similar external source . a static resource name may be generally defined as a resource name known by the programmers at the time when application 120 was created . although static definitions can be handled in a resource file , because static names they are defined during application 120 development time , a dynamic resource name , appropriate to present data or graphics over the user interface to an end user , also should be presented . a user interface requests a resource to enable it to display or present an item of interest . application 120 can get either a dynamic resource name from the customer database or a static resource name from the source code of application 120 , or both . although both the static and dynamic resource names are defined inside the end - user database or application 120 , the resource name , such as a dynamic name , might not be updated within a resource file . however , the resource , either dynamic or static , should be put in a cultural or linguistic format that is appropriate to the user interface . therefore , application 120 generates an application programming interface ( api ) call 140 to determine if there is a more appropriate value to be used for presentation of the resource to user interface 130 . api call 140 originates from application 120 , and invokes a resource manager wrapper 150 , as indicated by double - arrows connecting api call 140 and resource manager wrapper 150 . resource manager wrapper 150 can be generally defined as a module , program or script that makes possible the running of a resource manager 160 , as will be described below . api call 140 also has a return value 180 . return value 180 is the value that is used in when presenting a resource through the user interface . for instance , if resource name is “ total . value ,” and the return value is “ kokonaismäärä ,” this is the value that will be used when presenting the resource name corresponding to “ total . value ” on the user interface . the default value of api call 140 is used for two purposes . first , the default value is copied into return value 180 by resource manager wrapper 150 in cases where the resource name was not found in a localized resource file 175 . for instance , if the resource name were “ poisonous liquid ”, the default value within api call 140 could be a color of “ day - glow green ”. therefore , “ day - glow green ” is the value that will be used to select a color in the user interface in the absence of a localized value with a localized resource file 175 . second , the default value of api call 140 is recorded in a resource file 170 together with the resource name of api call 140 if the resource name was not previously recorded in resource file 170 . resource manager wrapper 150 receives information from api call 140 . resource manager wrapper 150 can be a class and api call 140 can be a method in a class according to object oriented programming . resource manager 160 queries localized resource file 175 as to whether the resource name is defined within localized resource file 175 . resource manager 160 can be generally defined as a module , script or code that sorts , indexes , organizes , and can carry out access requests to localized resource file 175 . generally , localized resource file 175 contains various resource names and localized ( i . e . non - default ) values corresponding to the resource names . the manner of entering non - default names into localized resource file 175 will be discussed below . if localized resource file 175 has the resource name stored within it , localized resource file 175 will so indicate to the resource manager 160 . furthermore , localized resource file 175 will convey the associated localization value back to resource manager 160 . however , if the resource name is not found within localized resource file 175 , resource manager wrapper 150 writes the resource name and the received default value into resource file 170 . in other words , system 100 can dynamically update its resource file 170 . for instance , if localized resource file 175 does not have the resource name of “ stress overload ,” resource manager wrapper 150 writes the resource name “ stress overload ,” to resource file 170 . furthermore , resource manager wrapper writes the corresponding default value into resource file 170 . writing values to resource file 170 helps avoid computer crashes because resource file 170 is used to collect the resource names and default values that are not yet localized . the automatic saving of resource names covers both the static resource names embedded in application 120 code and the dynamic names embedded in the customer database or in the external world that the customer database represents . the likelihood of a crash occurring is reduced by sending return value 180 to application 120 . a misspelling in the resource name is corrected through automating the resource name collection . an example of the external world is an english alarm message coming from a third party vendor system . by capturing the alarm message in resource file 170 , it can be translated into local language in localized resource file 175 , and then used in a presentation on the user interface . however , the default values can not go directly from resource file 170 to localized resource file 175 . human intervention is required to do the actual translations and other localization acts . resource file 170 can be viewed with the aid of a localization tool 172 , and contents can be copied , altered and stored in localized resource file 175 . with the aid of localization tool 172 , it can be determined by an operator or a programmer that a resource name within resource file 170 has an inappropriate corresponding default value , as received from api call 140 , and that the resource name should have a corresponding value that is more correct in the translated language to the end user of the user interface . localization tool 172 copies the resource name and the default value from resource file 170 . localization tool 172 is then used to generate an appropriate localization value to correspond to the resource name . generally , the localization value is a value that is used for presenting the resource in user interface 130 in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner . for instance , for the resource name of “ poisonous liquid ”, instead of a default value of “ day - glow green ,” the corresponding localized value of “ burnt umber ” could be generated . the localization value and the resource value are then stored in localized resource 175 . in other words , resource file 170 is used to only capture those resources that are not yet included in localized resource file 175 . the localized resource files within localized resources 175 can be organized by two criteria : 1 ) by language and 2 ) by application area . the language can be specific for a culture , geographical area , or local practice . the application area can be part of an application , specific for an application , or shared by multiple applications . an application area can be generally defined as an application having independent parts , such as displays or reports . a computer can support substantially independent applications that need to share the same translations . the choice of languages / cultures can be independent of the application areas . if there was no resource name defined within localized resources 175 , then the default value from api call 140 becomes return value 180 . if there was a resource found in localized resource file 175 , the corresponding localization value becomes return value 180 . api call 140 then returns resource name and return value 180 to application 120 . application 120 interprets returned value 180 and employs it in user interface 130 for presentations to the end user . localization tool 172 is used to generate a localization value for storage within localized resource file 175 . for instance , in localized resource file 175 created for finnish speakers , localization tool 172 writes the resource name “ stress overload ” with a corresponding localized value of “ ylipaine ” ( finnish for “ stress overload ”). before the finnish localized value of the resource name is written to localized resource file 175 , user interface 130 will show the default value string “ stress overload ”. this value of “ stress overload ” would be return value 180 . after the finnish translations are available in localized resource file 175 for finnish speakers as a localized value , return value 180 of “ ylipaine ” will be shown in the user interface 130 . alternative languages for use within localized resource 175 can be , for instance , english , spanish , finnish , mandarin chinese , or german . the values are not restricted to words , phrases , and text , but can be used for all culture and language specific user interface items , such as colors , icons , pictures , audio , and video . in this example the resource name “ stress overload ” was also used as the “ default value ” in the application code . within localized resource file 175 , there is a hierarchical structure for the languages and geographical areas . the hierarchical structure for geographical areas is a practical way to reduce the translation effort to support the same language on similar environments . this is a concept supported by resource manager 160 , such as the microsoft resource manager . for example , there can be translations for german in general and german spoken in switzerland specifically . if the specific swiss dialect of german is not found within localized resource file 175 , the generic german translation is used . if the german translation is missing , the default value specified in application 120 is used . when application 120 generates api call 140 , it does its initialization corresponding to application area and the target language and / or cultural area of use are indicated . the language can be changed , say from english to finnish , after the initialization of api call 140 to support immediate language changes without restarting the application 120 . this would occur through selecting different files within localized resource file 175 , each file having the appropriate localized values for individual languages . application 120 can use api call 140 by indicating the target language during initialization . in that case the language selection is static . if the language is not indicated , then the language currently selected in the operating system or application management is used . resource manager wrapper 150 can detect the language change in the operating system or application management . after the change , resource manager wrapper 150 will explicitly change the language selection in resource manager 160 . with this feature , a developer of application 120 does not need to write any code to support a dynamic language changes . fig2 illustrates a flow chart 200 for using and updating a resource file . after an enter step 205 , in step 210 , resource manager wrapper 150 is activated by api call 140 . api call 140 has a resource name and corresponding default value . in step 220 , it is determined whether the resource name is defined within localized resource file 175 . if it is , then the corresponding localized value is returned from localized resource file 175 . in step 250 , localized value is copied to application 120 through use of return value 180 , and method 200 exits in step 270 . however , if in step 220 it is determined that the resource name is not in localized resource file 175 , resource manager wrapper 150 adds the resource name and default value to resource file 170 . in step 260 , a copy of the default value is returned to application 120 through return value 180 , and method 200 exits in step 270 . referring to fig3 , illustrated herein is a block diagram of a computer system 300 adapted for dynamically updating resource file 170 according to method 200 . computer system 300 includes a user computer 310 coupled to user interface 305 , a memory 330 , a storage media 340 , a network 350 , a developer computer 351 , and a translator computer 352 . memory 330 is used to run application 120 on user computer 310 . memory 330 contains application 120 , resource manager wrapper 150 , and resource manager 160 . application 120 , resource manager wrapper 150 , and resource manager 160 were coded originally in developer computer 351 . the resource names used are either embedded in the application code 120 or application 120 retrieves the resource names from customer database 110 or another external location . the storage media 340 contains customer database 110 , resource file 170 , and localized resources 175 . when application 120 is executed , the items in storage media 340 can be partially or completely loaded into memory 330 . customer database 110 was originally coded and had data input from developer computer 351 and can be modified and updated in user computer 310 . application 120 uses resource manager wrapper 150 to determine if a localized value matches the resource name for a cultural context and / or selected language . resource manager wrapper 150 uses resource manager 160 for the actual retrieval based on the information stored in localized resources 175 . if the localization value is found , this value is returned to application 120 as return value 180 by resource manager 150 . return value 180 is then used by application 120 in presentations on user interface 130 . if a resource name is not specified for the selected language and cultural context in localized resource file 175 , ( i . e ., there is no corresponding localized value for that resource name ), the default value specified by api call 140 of application 120 is copied as the return value 180 and the resource name and the default value are stored in resource file 170 . return value 180 is then used by application 120 in presentations on user interface 130 . after executing the application 120 during development , testing , production , or other periods , the names of all new resources and their default values are stored in resource file 170 . then , the new resource names and default values are downloaded into a translator computer 352 . localization tool 172 is used by translator computer 352 to generate localized values for various language and cultures for the new resources that are found in resource file 170 . these localized values and corresponding resource names are input into localized resource file 175 for all the languages and cultures that are used in conjunction with user interface 130 . the user interface 130 shows the retrieved localized value on windows on a monitor screen 321 and on a reports printer 322 or other man - machine output devices , such as a speaker . it should be understood that various alternatives , combinations and modifications of the teachings described herein could be devised by those skilled in the art . the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications and variances that fall within the scope of the appended claims .
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the premix for the fracturing fluid of this invention comprises a gelling composition which is a solvatable polysaccharide having a molecular weight of at least about 100 , 000 . this includes the galactomannan gums , glucomannan gums , and cellulose derivatives . cellulose derivatives are rendered solvatable by reacting cellulose with hydrophyllic constituents . guar gum , locust bean gum , karaya gum , sodium carboxymethylguar , hydroxyethylguar , sodium carboxymethlhydroxyethylguar , hydroxypropylguar , sodium carboxymethylhydroxypropylguar , sodium carboxymethylcellulose , sodium carboxymethylhydroxycellulose , and hydroxyethylcellulose are examples of useful gelling compositions . preferred gelling compositions are hydroxypropylguar , hydroxyethylcellulose and the carboxymethyl - substituted derivatives of each , carboxymethylhydroxypropylguar ( cmhpg ) and carboxymethylhydroxyethylcellulose ( cmhec ), with the carboxymethyl - substituted derivatives of each ( cmhpg and cmhec ) being most preferred . the crosslinking agents are compositions containing polyvalent metal ions , preferably metal ions having a valence of + 3 or + 4 , more preferably compositions containing zirconium + 4 ions , and most preferably zirconium acetal acetonate . a ph - adjusting agent , or buffer is added to the system as necessary to adjust the ph to optimise the hydration of the gelling composition , the dissolution and activation of the crosslinking agent , and provide the necessary acidity to react with materials , such as basic clay minerals , in the formation as desired . raising the ph of the composition has a slowing effect on the hydration of some gelling compositions . raising the ph may also retard the activity of the crosslinking agent , but the effect of ph on both of these rates is not necessarily uniform . since it is desirable that the gelling composition be hydrated prior to the time the crosslinking agent becomes active , it will be necessary to determine the exact ph required for the specific gelling composition and the specific crosslinking agent to be utilized , and then to select the ph - adjusting agent accordingly . any acidic or basic material may be used to adjust ph which does not adversely react with the other materials present in the system . examples of suitable ph adjustors are hydrochloric acid , fumaric acid , phthalic acid , potassium , biophthalate , sodium hydrogen fumarate , sodium dihydrogen citrate , adipic acid , disodium phosphate , sodium carbonate , sodium diacetate , and sulfamic acid , and more preferably furmaric acid , sodiumdiacetate , and sulfamic acid , with sodium diacetate , fumaric acid and sodium bicarbonate being most preferred . the proportions of crosslinking agent to gelling composition are in the range of between about 1 : 5 and 1 : 10 , preferably between about 1 : 7 and about 1 : 9 , and most preferably about 1 : 8 . the amount of ph - adjusting agent will depend upon the ph - adjusting agent used and the desired final ph , and will generally be at a ratio to gelling composition of between about 1 : 5 and about 1 : 20 , preferably between about 1 : 7 and about 1 : 9 , and more preferably about 1 : 8 . the final ph will depend upon the combination of gelling composition and crosslinking agent chosen , as well as upon the makeup of the subterranean formation , and will generally be between about 2 and about 8 . 5 , more preferably between about 4 and about 7 . 5 , and most preferably between about 5 and about 6 . the physical form in which the crosslinking agent is provided in the mix is selected so as to provide a solubility rate compatible with the hydration rate of the gelling composition . preferably all the gelling composition has been hydrated prior to dissolution of the crosslinking agent . slowly soluble crosslinking agents such as zirconium acetyl acetonate are thus preferred . the size of the particles of the crosslinking agent may be altered to affect its solubility . the particles may also be pretreated with such compositions as wax to retard their solubility . the desired solubility rate for the crosslinking agent will be such that the crosslinking agent does not substantially act until the gelling compositions is well - hydrated . preferably , a commercially available crosslinking agent such as powdered zirconium acetyl acetonate made by kay fries company of stoney point , n . y . or harshaw company of los angeles , calif . is used for reasons of process economy . the dry mixed ingredients are blended to disperse the crosslinking agent and ph - adjusting agent uniformly throughout the gelling composition . propping agents ( including sand , bauxite and other particulate materials known to the art ) may be added to the dry ingredients . the dry mix is added to an aqueous stream as it is pumped into the well . rapid hydration of the gelling composition is facilitated by the turbulence of the material in the well bore . the aqueous stream may be aqueous liquid , including hard water , having a chloride concentration up to about 3 , 000 ppm , and preferably less than about 2 , 000 ppm . the proportion of dry mixed ingredients to water will be a function of the desired peak viscosity . in general , for a desired peak viscosity of between about 800 cps and about 2 , 000 cps and about 9 . 6 grams of dry mix per liter of water will be utilized . the relationship between peak viscosity and ratio of gelling composition to water is well known to the art when pregelling tanks are used . however , if the gelling composition is not 100 percent hydrated when the crosslinking agent becomes active , as may occur in the practice of this invention , when the solubility of the crosslinking agent is not precisely fitted to the hydration rate of the gelling composition , the ability of the gelling composition to bind up the water will be less than the norm for the same gelling composition and the same crosslinking agent when the gelling composition is prehydrated in a gelling tank prior to the addition of the crosslinking agent . the proportion of the dry mixed ingredients to water must therefore be increased over that of prior art processes when practising the process of this invention , typically in an amount of between about 0 . 4 and about 0 . 6 weight percent , preferably between about 0 . 45 and about 0 . 55 percent , and most preferably between about 0 . 47 and about 0 . 52 percent , for any given desired viscosity . the precise increase will , of course , depend on the particular crosslinking agent and gelling composition used , and should be minimized within the limits dictated by process economies . complete gellation of the fracturing fluid , including crosslinking thereof , will generally occur in a period of time specific for the particular gelling composition and crosslinking agent selected , dependent on the temperature of the formation , although it may be somewhat speeded or retarded within the operative ph limits for the reaction by adjusting the ph . in general , matching of the gellation time with the amount of time required for the fracturing fluid to reach the bottom of the well bore will be controlled by varying the pumping rate . the duration necessary for completion of the crosslinking reaction will also depend upon the temperature within the well bore . in general , the crosslinking reaction goes to completion within the range of about 80 ° f . to about 130 ° f . with no problem . the final crosslinked fracturing fluid will have a viscosity of between about 800 and about 2 , 500 , preferably between about 1 , 000 and about 2 , 000 , and most preferably between about 1 , 200 and about 1 , 600 , which is comparable to prior art fracturing fluids requiring prehydration of the gelling composition in gelling tanks . at ambient temperature , 20 grams cmhec was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 2 . 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate ( solubility about 1 . 2 minutes in water ) and 2 . 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 5 . 5 . crosslinking occurred in one minute . at ambient temperature , 40 grams hpg was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate and 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 5 . 29 . weak crosslinking developed . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhec was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams aluminum acetyl acetonate ( solubility about 45 seconds ) and 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 5 . 5 . no crosslinking occurred . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhec was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams potassium pyroantimonate ( solubility about 30 minutes ) and 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1000 gal . the final ph was 5 . 36 . no crosslinking occurred . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhec was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams potassium pyroantimonate and 5 grams sulfamic acid . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 4 . 46 . no crosslinking occurred . at ambient temperature , 20 grams hec was thoroughly blended using sand rollers with 2 . 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate and 2 . 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 5 . 5 . no crosslinking occurred . at ambient temperature , 40 pounds cmhpg was thoroughly blended for 30 minutes using powder rollers with 5 pounds zirconium acetyl acetonate and 5 pounds sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . and stirred with a waring blender . the final ph was 5 . 73 . crosslinking occurred in 41 . 1 seconds . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhpg was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate and 5 grams powdered fumaric acid . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 4 . 96 . crosslinking occurred in 1 minute 4 seconds . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhpg was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate , 5 grams aluminum acetyl acetonate , and 5 grams sodium diacetate . the dry ingredients were dispersed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 4 . 78 . crosslinking occurred in 58 . 8 seconds . at ambient temperature , 40 grams cmhpg was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 grams zirconium acetyl acetonate , 13 grams aluminum acetyl acetonate , and 5 grams fumaric acid . the dry ingredients were dispursed in tap water at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the final ph was 4 . 89 . weak crosslinking occured in 2 minutes 30 seconds . at ambient temperature , the formula of example 1 was dispersed in aqueous solutions having varying ph &# 39 ; s at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . the ph &# 39 ; s of the aqueous solution , ph &# 39 ; s of the mixture after addition of the dry ingredients , hydration time and crosslink time are set forth below in tabular form : ______________________________________beginning ph after hydration crosslinkingaqueous ph mixing time ( sec .) time ( sec . ) ______________________________________2 . 99 4 . 78 30 903 . 02 4 . 96 60 n . a . 3 . 54 4 . 90 30 & lt ; 603 . 54 5 . 20 60 1203 . 96 4 . 94 30 & lt ; 604 . 01 5 . 28 & gt ; 30 604 . 50 5 . 32 & gt ; 30 604 . 51 4 . 94 30 504 . 98 4 . 98 30 & lt ; 605 . 06 5 . 35 & gt ; 30 605 . 48 4 . 99 20 455 . 57 5 . 35 & gt ; 30 456 . 02 5 . 04 20 456 . 08 5 . 36 & gt ; 30 406 . 55 5 . 44 30 557 . 05 5 . 42 & lt ; 30 457 . 49 5 . 43 & lt ; 30 407 . 96 5 . 43 & gt ; 30 & gt ; 458 . 12 5 . 47 & lt ; 30 508 . 47 5 . 48 & lt ; 30 509 . 03 5 . 47 & gt ; 30 559 . 08 5 . 56 & lt ; 30 609 . 56 5 . 46 & lt ; 30 6010 . 0 5 . 67 & lt ; 30 & gt ; 6010 . 06 5 . 49 & lt ; 30 6010 . 88 5 . 60 & lt ; 30 6011 . 03 5 . 93 & lt ; 40 & gt ; 6011 . 07 5 . 79 & lt ; 30 6011 . 25 6 . 19 30 6811 . 51 7 . 14 45 n . a . 11 . 52 6 . 83 45 n . a . 12 . 00 9 . 86 60 n . a . ______________________________________ the formula of example 1 was hydrated with water containing 2 percent potassium chloride at various temperatures , to a concentration of 2 , 000 ppm , and the crosslink time measured . results are set forth in tabular form below : ______________________________________temp . (° f .) cross - link time ( sec . ) ______________________________________ - 2 n . a . 34 240 ( weak ) 45 90 72 & lt ; 60100 & lt ; 60110 60130 50 ( weak ) 150 n . a . ______________________________________ the formula of example 1 ( formula 1 ) was compared with formulas containing two buffers . each formula was hydrated with water to a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 000 gal . at two different ph &# 39 ; s . the formulas are as follows : ______________________________________formula 1 : 40 pounds cmhec 5 pounds zirconium acetyl acetonate 5 pounds sodiumdiacetateformula 2 : 40 pounds cmhec 5 pounds zirconium acetyl acetonate 4 pounds sodium diacetate 1 pound sodium bicarbonateformula 3 : 40 pounds cmhec 5 pounds zirconium acetyl acetonate 4 . 5 pounds sodiumdiacetate . 5 pounds sodium carbonate______________________________________ ______________________________________ beginning ph after hydration cross - linkformula aqueous ph mixing time ( sec .) time ( sec . ) ______________________________________1 6 . 90 5 . 55 & lt ; 30 & lt ; 451 11 . 01 6 . 07 & lt ; 30 & lt ; 902 7 . 00 6 . 05 & lt ; 30 & lt ; 902 11 . 04 6 . 83 & lt ; 30 n . a . 3 6 . 93 6 . 24 & lt ; 30 n . a . 3 11 . 02 7 . 35 & lt ; 30 n . a . ______________________________________ at ambient temperature , 45 pounds cmhec was thoroughly blended using powder rollers with 5 pounds zirconium acetyl acetonate , 1 pound sodium bicarbonate , and 4 pounds fumaric acid having a particle size of 80 mesh ( tyler ). the dry ingredients were dispersed in aqueous solutions having different ph values , at a concentration of 50 lbs / 1 , 00 gal . results are set forth in tabular form below : ______________________________________beginning ph after hydration time cross - link timeaqueous ph mixing ( sec .) ( sec . ) ______________________________________9 . 48 5 . 60 & lt ; 30 3007 . 00 6 . 40 & lt ; 30 100______________________________________ although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail by the way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding , it will be obvious that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the spirit of the invention , as limited only by the scope of the appended claims .
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reference now will be made to the embodiments of the invention , one or more examples of which are set forth below . each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention , not as a limitation of the invention . in fact , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in this invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . melt flow index ( mfi ), also known as melt flow rate ( mfr ), is a measure of viscosity of a material ( such as a polyolefin resin ) at a given temperature , expressed as grams / 10 minutes . astm 1238 - 04 is an internationally known standard for determining the rate of extrusion of molten resins through a die of specified length and diameter under prescribed conditions . astm d 1238 - 04 is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes . in general , the lower the viscosity of a material at a given temperature , the higher will be the mfr of that material . high mfr values indicate low viscosity . it is believed that 3 , 4 - dmdbs has not been widely used in low temperature processing applications , such as polyolefin processes employing relatively high melt flow rate ( mfr ) resin . this may be because it is known that at relatively low processing temperatures , 3 , 4 - dmdbs loses its ability to provide low and desirable levels of haze . thus , there is a strong need in the industry to produce high quality polyolefin or polypropylene parts exhibiting low haze , using high mfr formulations . this invention addresses that need . in the practice of the invention , an unexpected and relatively high amount of synergy has been discovered in the use of an additive blend composition at relatively low temperatures for polyolefins that employs both : ( 1 ) bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol ( dmdbs ) and ( 2 ) dibenzylidene sorbitol ( dbs ). this synergistic effect is especially useful and applicable when using high melt flow resins at relatively low processing or molding temperatures , such as below about 210 degrees c . in some applications , the invention may be employed for processing temperatures no greater than about 200 degrees c . in yet other applications , processing temperatures no greater than about 190 degrees c . are desirable . the resin ratio of bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol to dibenzylidene sorbitol may in some applications be between about 80 : 20 and 10 : 90 . desirable and unexpectedly favorable haze values in molded plastic parts may be obtained using processing temperatures ( compounding temperatures , and molding temperatures ) much lower than previously known for this combination of nucleating agents . a lower processing temperature enables the use of less energy in the molding of plastic parts . energy is required to bring the polymer up to the compounding and molding temperatures . a lower temperature leads to reduced energy costs , which can be significant in high volume manufacturing operations . one advantage of lower temperatures is that the cycle time ( time required to mold one plastic part ) may be reduced using lower temperatures . this enables the manufacture of a significantly greater number of parts per unit time . a polyolefin comprising a blended dbs - containing additive composition is provided in one aspect of the invention comprising ( a ) a polypropylene resin , said polypropylene resin having an mfr value of at least about 20 ; ( b ) a first compound comprising bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol ; and ( c ) a second compound comprising dibenzylidene sorbitol . the polypropylene ( pp ) resin may exhibit an mfr value of at least about 20 , and in other instances at least about 30 , or 40 . in other applications , the mfr value of the pp resin may be about 50 or higher , depending upon the application . a method for reducing haze in a polypropylene resin composition is possible in the practice of the invention . the method is directed to providing a polypropylene ( pp ) resin , and then combining the pp resin with a first compound comprising bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol and a second compound comprising dibenzylidene sorbitol , forming a nucleated resin . the nucleated resin is processed at a temperature no greater than about 210 degrees c . in other applications , the resin is processed at a temperature no greater than about 190 degrees c . the polypropylene resin may be vis - broken from a lower mfr ( i . e . 12 mfr ) to an mfr value of at least about 30 , in one aspect of the invention . vis breaking is a process of controlled rheology or breaking the polymer chains in the polymer to raise the mfr value of a polyolefin resin . this chain breaking is typically accomplished with an organic peroxide during the melt compounding process . however , vis breaking is not always used to obtain high mfr resins , and may not be required . in some cases , for example a polypropylene ( pp ) resin providing an mfr of at least about 30 may be produced in the reactor . melt flow index ( mfi ), also known as melt flow rate ( mfr ), is a measure of viscosity of a material ( such as a polyolefin resin ) at a given temperature , expressed as grams / 10 minutes . astm 1238 - 04 is an internationally known standard for determining the rate of extrusion of molten resins through a die of specified length and diameter under prescribed conditions . astm d 1238 - 04 is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes . in general , the lower the viscosity of a material at a given temperature , the higher will be the mfr of that material . high mfr values indicate low viscosity . in one aspect of the invention , an additive composition is adapted for application to high melt flow rate polyolefins . the additive provides a combination of at least two nucleating agent compounds , bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol , and dibenzylidene sorbitol . the weight percentage of the bis ( 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ) sorbitol ( dmdbs ) is in the range of about 15 to about 60 percent of the total of the combined dmdbs / dbs total . such a blend is particularly helpful and adapted for reducing haze in high melt flow rate polyolefins . the weight percentage of the first compound as a percentage of the total is greater than 25 percent and less than 50 percent , in one particular application being deployed . fig2 shows unexpected and superior results in one aspect of the invention revealing a blend of 3 , 4 - dimethylbenzylidene ( 3 , 4 - dmdbs ) and dibenzylidene sorbitol ( dbs ). greatly reduced haze values , and previously unknown synergy , may be obtained . this data shown in fig2 and table 3 was obtained when operating at relatively low processing temperatures ( compounding temperature of about 190 degrees c . and molding temperature of about 190 degrees c .). the resin was vis - broken to reduce viscosity , having a 50 - 60 mfr range , measured as grams / 10 min . blend loading was 1800 ppm . thus , the resin was much less viscous than the resin used in the conventional process described above with respect to fig1 . this invention facilitates reduced cycle times and reduced energy consumption in the manufacture of products . the amount of synergy observed is more significant , compared to prior art processes employing this blend . the area between the dashed line and the curved line represents the amount of synergy observed in this combination , at this processing temperature and condition ( s ). this “ synergy ” area is shaded in fig2 . the synergy level is most pronounced at 15 - 60 weight % dmdbs for the blend , and peaks at the lowest haze values , corresponding to 25 - 50 weight % dmdbs ( as a percentage of the dmdbs / dbs total ). this substantial haze improvement is unexpected and significant . the synergy factor for the data reported in fig2 was calculated as 806 haze %* dmdbs %. this represents a calculated synergy about 4 times as much as the synergy calculated for the prior conventional process shown above in fig1 ( 806 for this particular application of the invention , as compared to 204 for the prior conventional process of fig1 ). this is a substantial , unexpected , and surprising result . this difference is believed to be due to the use of such blends in applications that employ lower temperatures for resin compounding and extrusion . this enables the use of a less viscous high mfr resin while still achieving superior haze characteristics . the term polyolefin or polyolefin resin is intended to encompass materials comprised of at least one polyolefin compound . examples may include polypropylene , polyethylene , polybutylene , and any blends or copolymers thereof , whether high or low density in composition . however , the invention is most useful as applied in polypropylene . the typical definition of a “ high melt flow ” polypropylene ( pp ) composition (“ resin ”) is a pp resin having an mfr of greater than about 30 . high mfr resins can be processed at relatively low temperatures . mfr values , for purposes of this published data , may be measured using the standard astm test d1238 which is hereby incorporated by reference . crystallization is important to determine the time needed to form a solid article from molten polyolefin resins . the polymer crystallization temperature is measured using a differential scanning calorimeter ( dsc ). the sample ( for example , a polypropylene control sample , or a nucleated polypropylene sample ) may be heated from 60 degrees c . to 220 degrees c . at a rate of 20 degrees c . increase per minute to produce a molten formulation . then the formulation may be held at 220 degrees c . for 2 minutes . at that time , the temperature is lowered at a rate of 20 degrees c . per minute until the sample reaches the starting temperature of 60 degrees c . the polymer crystallization temperature is measured as the peak maximum during the crystallization exotherm . the onset crystallization temperature of the polymer is the temperature at the beginning of the crystallization process , which may be calculated using dsc software . haze measurements for samples analyzed herein were provided according to astm d1003 - 00 using a haze meter such as a byk gardner haze guard plus on 2 inch × 3 inch × 0 . 05 inch plaques . nucleating agents affect the temperature at which crystallization occurs . dbs - type nucleating agents typically are most effective when they come out of solution and become insoluble in molten polymer at a temperature slightly above onset crystallization temperature . when small well - dispersed nucleating agent particles become insoluble in a molten polymer they provide nucleation sites for the polymer to crystallize as the polymer cools . the balancing of the relationship between nucleator composition and amount and processing conditions is important in achieving desired haze characteristics in a finished polymer article . this invention achieves a favorable balance between these factors . it is desirable that a polyolefin article not impart undesirable taste or odor ( known as exhibiting “ good organoleptics ”). this feature is critical for use in many applications , particularly food contact applications . it is widely known in the industry that 3 , 4 - dmdbs has very good organoleptic qualities . in blind taste tests , the inventive combination performed equivalent to the use of 3 , 4 - dmdbs alone , in resins of various mfr , including vis - breaking resins . bis ( o - 4 - methylbenzylidene ) sorbitol ( mdbs ) is another commercial clarifier for polypropylene . it is not preferred in many applications , particularly food contact applications , because of its poor organoleptic property . polypropylene parts containing mdbs transfer the undesirable odor to the food which is in contact with the polypropylene part . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 049 , 605 to rekers demonstrates that dmdbs is superior to mdbs in organoleptic properties . in blind taste tests , the current inventive combination performed superior to mdbs in organoleptics , in both a reactor grade polypropylene resin of 12 mfr and in a vis breaking polypropylene resin of about 50 - 60 mfr . the ability to run a process at a broad range of conditions ( such as temperature ) is valuable in the polyolefin molding industry . this is known as a “ broad processing window ”. this refers to the ability to perform a process over a large temperature range . such a broad “ window ” enables ease of manufacturing and may lead to a more consistent finished product . the ability to manufacture a polyolefin article at comparatively low processing temperatures is desirable to reduce manufacturing cost . the claimed invention facilitates a broader processing window . the total concentration of dbs and 3 , 4 - dmdbs within the polyolefin formulation is equivalent to the typical concentration of 3 , 4 - dmdbs within the polyolefin formulation when 3 , 4 - dmdbs is used alone . the haze of various nucleating agent combinations , injection molded at 190 ° c ., 210 ° c ., and 230 ° c ., respectively , are shown in table 3 and table 4 . these measurements were obtained in a vis - broken 50 - 60 mfr polyolefin formulation prepared and compounded as detailed herein . haze values at 190 degrees c . molding temperature in table 3 was provided in fig2 , which is discussed herein . table 4 data indicates that an injection molding temperature of about 230 ° c ., the haze measurements for both formulations decrease as total clarifier loading increases . at injection molding temperatures of about 210 ° c . the optimum haze values for containing 3 , 4 - dmdbs as the only clarifier were obtained at a total clarifier loading of approximately 1600 ppm . in comparison , for samples containing a clarifier mixture comprised of a blend of dbs and 3 , 4 - dmdbs the haze measurements decrease as total clarifier loading increases . this indicates that clarifier mixtures comprised of both dbs and 3 , 4 - dmdbs facilitate a larger processing window as compared to 3 , 4 - dmdbs alone . when injection molding is performed at 190 ° c ., samples containing only 3 , 4 - dmdbs show markedly increased haze values as the total clarifier concentration increases . in contrast , the mixture of 3 , 4 - dmdbs / dbs reaches an optimum haze at a total concentration of approximately 1800 ppm and remains relatively constant up to levels of approximately 2200 ppm . this indicates that when injection molded at temperatures of about 190 ° c ., the 3 , 4 - dmdbs / dbs blended mix exhibits much improved performance . in summary , blends of 3 , 4 - dmdbs and dbs have a much wider processing window than 3 , 4 - dmdbs alone , which is desirable . the claimed invention can be made in a manufacturing environment by physically blending the desired mixture , by weight , of dbs ( millad ® 3905 ) and 3 , 4 - dmdbs ( millad ® 3988 ), which are two separate products , that are prepared in separate reactions . thus , the relative amount of one to the other may be varied to any degree desired , since they are added independently . both compounds are commercially available as high purity powders , as well as masterbatch formulations , from milliken & amp ; company of spartanburg , s . c . both products allow for the component ratios to be tailored to suit the cost and clarity requirements for a given application . the base resin is a random copolymer (“ rcp ”) with an mfr of approximately 12 g / 10 min . the base resin and all additives ( as indicated in table 1 ) were weighed and then blended in a high intensity henschel mixer for about one minute . samples were then extruded using a deltaplast 25 mm single screw extruder having an lid ratio of 30 : 1 . all zones on the extruder were set for 190 ° c . the pelletized samples were molded into 2 ″× 3 ″× 0 . 05 ″ plaques on an arburg 40 ton injection molder , for the examples shown in table 2 . plaque thickness was checked by a digital micrometer . it is understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present discussion is a description of exemplary embodiments only , and is not intended as limiting the broader aspects of the present invention .
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referring now to fig1 , a shrouded injector 4 for use in accordance with the present disclosure is shown . the injector 4 includes an inner tube 8 that forms an inner passage 5 . hydrated lime or pulverized quicklime is pneumatically conveyed through the inner passage 5 of the inner tube 8 to discharge the lime into an exhaust duct as more fully described below . the injector 4 also includes an outer tube 6 that shrouds the inner tube 8 . generally the outer tube 6 is concentric to the inner tube 8 . however , the present disclosure also includes embodiments wherein the outer tube 6 and inner tube 8 are not concentric along a portion of their length ( e . g ., at their outlet ) or even are not concentric along their entire respective lengths . the inner tube 8 and outer tube 6 form an annular passage 3 between the inner tube and outer tube . a shrouding gas is introduced into the annular passage 3 to prevent the injector from occluding . the injector 4 has an outlet end 10 which , as shown in fig2 , corresponds to the outlet end of the outer tube 6 and not that of the inner tube 8 as the outer tube 6 extends past the inner tube 8 . it should be noted however that , in some embodiments , the inner tube 8 and outer tube 6 terminate at the same point and the outer end 10 of the injector 4 corresponds to the outlet end of both the inner tube and outer tube . as shown in fig2 , the outer tube 6 extends past the inner tube 8 by a distance d 1 . this offset d 1 helps ensure that the shrouding air completely purges the outlet end 10 of the injector 4 , thereby preventing reaction between lime ( the hydrate ) and acidic gas as lime is introduced into the effluent gas . d 1 should be sufficiently small such that the shrouding gas prevents lime ( e . g ., hydrated lime ) from contacting the effluent gas as lime exits the injector 4 and may depend on the velocity of the shrouding and conveying gases . in several embodiments , the offset distance d 1 is at least about 0 . 125 inches ( about 0 . 318 cm ) or even about 0 . 25 inches ( about 0 . 635 cm ) or more ( e . g ., from about 0 . 125 inches to about 2 inches ( about 0 . 318 cm to about 5 . 080 cm ) or from about 0 . 125 inches to about 1 inch ( about 0 . 318 cm to about 2 . 540 cm )). as stated above , d 1 may be zero and the inner tube 8 and outer tube 6 may terminate at the same point . as shown in fig2 , the outlet end of the inner tube 8 and outlet end of the outer tube 6 may be beveled to reduce the metal surface area upon which scale may begin to form at the outlet 10 . the bevel also creates a venturi effect as lime exits the injector 4 to help distribute lime into the exhaust duct . in some embodiments , the inner tube 8 and / or outer tube 6 narrow at their respective outlet ends to increase the velocity of the shrouding gas and / or conveying gas prior to their discharge into the exhaust duct to facilitate their distribution into the exhaust duct . in some embodiments of the present disclosure , the ratio of the diameter of the inner tube 8 to the diameter of the outer tube 6 is at least about 1 : 4 . higher ratios such as at least about 1 : 3 , at least about 2 : 3 , at least about 3 : 4 or at least about 4 : 5 may be used so as to reduce the amount of shrouding gas . suitably the ratio of the diameter of the inner tube 8 to the diameter of the outer tube 6 may be less than about 9 : 10 , less than about 7 : 8 , less than about 3 : 4 or less than about 2 : 3 . the diameter of the outer tube 6 may be from about 1 . 5 inches to about 4 inches ( about 3 . 81 cm to about 10 . 16 cm ) and the diameter of the inner tube 8 may be from about 1 . 25 inches to about 3 inches ( about 3 . 18 cm to about 7 . 62 cm ). tube diameters listed above are exemplary and other tube diameters may be used without limitation . referring now to fig3 , the inner tube 8 may be generally centered within the outer tube 6 by use of three or more spacers 25 that are attached ( e . g ., by welding ) to the inner tube 8 and center the outer tube 6 ( e . g ., by welding the spacers 25 to the inner tube 8 and not the outer tube 6 ). the spacers 25 may run the length of the injector 4 or may be used intermittently along the length without limitation . in some embodiments of the present disclosure and as shown in fig4 , a dispersion cone 20 is attached to the injector 4 to help distribute lime into the exhaust duct . the dispersion cone 20 may be attached by a bracket 22 which is attached ( e . g ., by welding ) to the injector 4 . the injector 4 includes an imaginary axis a that extends through the cone 20 . the cone 20 forms an angle θ with the imaginary axis a . angle θ may suitably be from about 30 ° to about 60 °. in this regard it has been found that by shrouding the inner tube 8 ( fig1 ) of the injector 4 , less scale is formed between the outlet end 10 of the injector 4 and the cone 20 relative to conventional injectors . the materials of construction for the injector 4 and dispersion cone 20 should generally be resistant to corrosion in the environment in which they are used and , in particular , should be resistant to corrosion when exposed to acidic gases . suitable materials of construction include any material ( e . g ., metals ) that can reliably withstand the temperatures and pressures used within the injector 4 such as carbon steel , stainless steel or brass . referring now to fig5 , a plurality of injectors 4 and , optionally , dispersion cones ( not shown ), may be used in a system for introducing lime sorbent into a duct 16 in which effluent gas passes , with the direction of effluent gas being indicated by the arrow . the injectors 4 may be arranged in parallel as shown in fig5 . the injectors 4 may extend through a common wall as shown in fig5 or , alternatively , the injectors may be arranged at spaced intervals along the exhaust duct circumference . the injectors 4 may also be arranged in configurations other than as shown or described ( e . g ., in series ) without limitation . each injector 4 is in fluid communication with a shrouding gas 24 and a conveying gas 20 , the conveying gas having sorbent entrained therein . the conveying gas 20 is introduced into the inner passage 5 of the inner tube 8 ( fig1 ) of each injector 4 to disperse the sorbent into the exhaust duct 16 . the shrouding gas 24 is introduced into the annular passage 3 formed between the inner tube 8 and outer tube 6 ( fig1 ) to shroud the sorbent as it enters the exhaust duct 16 . in this regard , the inner tube 8 of the injector 4 may form part of and be integral with the pneumatic conveying system ( e . g ., conveying lines ) used to transfer sorbent ( e . g ., lime ). in conventional injection systems in which a shrouded injector is not used and , in particular , in which the sorbent is hydrated lime , as the hydrated lime is discharged from the outlet end of the injector , the injector forms scale deposits as it contacts certain gaseous compounds ( e . g ., so 3 , co 2 or hcl ) at the outlet end ( e . g ., forms calcium sulfate , calcium chloride and / or calcium carbonate deposits ). in accordance with the present disclosure , use of shrouded gas prevents the sorbent from contacting the effluent gas as the sorbent exits the outlet end of the injector , thereby preventing scale from forming on the injector outlet . in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure , the shrouding gas 24 is ambient air . as used herein , “ ambient air ” is air drawn from the atmosphere and has not had the composition thereof altered ( e . g ., reduction in co 2 so as to produce a “ conditioned ” ambient ). in this regard , ambient air that is introduced into the injector 4 may have the pressure and / or temperature thereof altered without departing from the scope of the present disclosure . as shown in example 1 below , it has been found that use of ambient air as a shrouding gas results in reduction or even elimination of scale deposits at the outlet of the injector despite ambient air containing a substantial amount of co 2 . additionally or alternatively , ambient air may be used as a conveying gas to transfer sorbent ( e . g ., hydrated lime ) from its source to the exhaust duct through which the effluent gas to be treated passes . if the exhaust duct 16 in which the injectors 4 are placed has a positive pressure , the ambient air used for shrouding is pressurized ( e . g ., by a blower or compressor ) prior to being introduced into the injectors . however , if the exhaust duct operates under negative pressure , the ambient shrouding air may be drawn in directly from the ambient with use of a throttling valve to control the ambient shrouding air flow rate . as an alternative to using ambient air as a shrouding gas , moistened air may be used . as used herein , “ moistened air ” is air to which water or water vapor has been added to increase the moisture content of the air above ambient conditions . in this regard , the amount of moisture in the moistened air after water ( which then vaporizes ) or water vapor is added is at least about 20 mg per g of air . in other embodiments , the amount of moisture in the moistened air is at least about 30 mg per g of air or , as in other embodiments , at least about 50 mg per g of air , at least about 100 mg per g of air , at least about 150 mg per g of air , at least about 200 mg per g of air , from about 20 to about 250 mg per g of air , from about 50 to about 250 mg per g of air or from about 100 to about 250 mg per g of air . the moistened air may also be conditioned prior to use by reducing the amount of co 2 therein below ambient conditions ( e . g ., to below about 330 ppm by volume ). by using moistened air , the relative humidity within the exhaust duct 16 may be increased . an increase in relative humidity has been found to favor removal of acidic gases as shown by , for example , liu et al . in “ kinetics of the reaction of hydrated lime with so 2 at low temperatures : effects of the presence of co 2 , o 2 , and no x ,” industrial and engineering chemistry research , vol . 47 , pp . 9878 - 81 ( 2008 ), bausach et al . in “ kinetic modeling of the reaction between hydrated lime and so 2 at low temperature ,” aiche journal , vol . 51 : 5 , pp . 1455 - 66 ( 2005 ) and “ kinetics of the reaction of ca ( oh ) 2 with co 2 at low temperature ,” industrial and engineering chemistry research , vol . 38 , pp . 1316 - 22 ( 1999 ), each of which is incorporated herein by reference for all relevant and consistent purposes . in embodiments wherein moistened air is used as a shrouding gas , the conveying gas used to pneumatically convey the sorbent may be ambient air or conditioned air ( e . g ., low co 2 air ). conditioned air may be produced according to any method available to those of skill in the art and may be produced , for example , by the methods disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 200 , 543 , which is incorporated herein by reference for all relevant and consistent purposes . the flow rate of the shrouding gas should generally be sufficiently high to prevent lime ( e . g ., hydrated lime or pulverized quicklime ) from contacting the effluent gas as the lime exits the injector so at prevent occlusion of the injector outlet . in several embodiments of the present disclosure , the ratio of the velocity of the shrouding gas to the velocity of the conveying gas is at least about 1 : 6 and , in other embodiments may be at least about 1 : 4 , at least about 1 : 2 , at least about 1 : 1 or even at least about 2 : 1 ( e . g ., from about 1 : 6 to about 3 : 1 or from about 1 : 6 to about 1 : 1 ). in these and other embodiments , the flow velocity of the shrouding gas may range from about 2 , 500 ft / min to about 10 , 000 ft / min ( about 762 meters / min to about 3 , 048 meters / min ) and the flow velocity of the conveying gas may range from about 3 , 000 ft / min to about 15 , 000 ft / min ( 914 meters / min to about 4 , 572 meters / min ). in this regard , the recited ratios and velocities are exemplary and the ratios and velocities chosen for use may depend on a number of system parameters ( e . g ., exhaust gas pressure , lime flow rate , duct sizing and the like ). ratios and velocities other than as recited may be sued without limitation . the flow rates of the shrouding gas and the amount of lime introduced into the exhaust duct ( and the amount of conveying gas which is used to transfer lime ) may vary depending on a number of system factors including , for example , throughput of the exhaust gas to be treated , the concentration of the acidic gases therein , the target acidic gas concentration of the treated gas , sorbent residence time and the like . a typical loading rate is at least about 2 moles calcium per mole of acid gas to be treated or , as in other embodiments , at least about 4 moles of calcium per mole of acid gas to be treated or at least about 6 moles or even at least about 10 moles of calcium per mole of acid gas to be treated ( e . g ., from about 2 moles to about 15 moles of calcium per mole of acid gas to be treated ). when so 3 is targeted for removal from the effluent gas , the weight ratio of calcium to so 3 may be from about 2 : 1 to about 10 : 1 . in this regard , the loading rates described above are exemplary and the loading rate may depend on a number of system factors ( e . g ., residence time , injection array efficiency and / or particle collection device efficiency ). loading rates may be adjusted by measuring so 3 content at a test point ( e . g ., at the stack ) and adjusting the loading ratio to achieve a desired so 3 concentration at the test point . the number of injectors 4 used to supply sorbent ( e . g ., hydrated lime ) into the exhaust duct ( fig5 ) may vary depending on the size of the gas duct . the number should be selected to allow lime to sufficiently contact all acidic gas in the duct to thereby neutralize the acidic gas . in addition to the size of the duct , the number of injectors used may depend on the flue gas temperature , acidic gas content and residence time . the pressure of the shrouding gas introduced into the annular passage 3 of the injector 4 and the pressure of the conveying gas introduced into the inner passage 5 formed by the inner tube 8 should be selected to be greater than the pressure of the effluent gas in the exhaust duct to assure adequate flow rates of lime ( e . g ., hydrated lime ) and shrouding gas . the temperature of the shrouding gas and / or conveying gas are generally above ambient as these gases are pressurized prior to use . the temperature should be maintained above the dew point of the respective gas to prevent condensation from occurring in the annular passage 3 or the inner passage 5 of the injector 4 . generally lime that is introduced into the inner passage 5 of the inner tube 8 ( fig1 ) is either hydrated lime ( ca ( oh ) 2 ) or pulverized quicklime ( cao ). in some embodiments , a mixture of hydrated lime and pulverized quicklime may be used to reduce the acidic gas content of the effluent gas . suitable sources of hydrated lime and / or quicklime include all sources available to those of skill in the art . hydrated lime may be produced on site ( i . e ., at the general location of the exhaust gas to be treated ) by reacting water with lime ( cao ) or may be obtained from commercial suppliers ( e . g ., mississippi lime company ® ( st . louis , mo .)). the hydrated lime may have a surface area of at least about 14 m 2 / g , at least about 17 m 2 / g or even at least about 21 m 2 / g ( e . g ., from about 14 m 2 / g to about 28 m 2 / g ). generally , at least about 92 wt % or at least about 95 wt % ( e . g ., from about 92 wt % to about 99 wt %) of the hydrated lime will be ca ( oh ) 2 compounds . the hydrated lime may have a particle size distribution such that at least about 85 %, at least about 92 % or at least about 95 % of the particles have an average nominal diameter of less than about 0 . 044 mm ( corresponding to mesh sieve size of 325 ). the hydrated lime may be relatively porous ( e . g ., from about 0 . 07 cm 3 / g to about 0 . 14 cm 3 / g ) and may be relatively dry ( e . g ., less than about 3 wt % moisture or less than about 1 wt % moisture ). in this regard , it should be noted that the listed parameters ( e . g ., surface area , purity , particles sizes , moisture content and the like ) are exemplary and hydrated lime parameters other than as listed may be used without limitation . in embodiments wherein quicklime is used , the quicklime is generally pulverized prior to use ( either before shipping or at the site at which the exhaust gas is treated ). pulverized quicklime may also be obtained commercially ( e . g ., from mississippi lime company ® ( st . louis , mo .)). lime may be stored in a bulk lime storage silo and may be transferred into a pneumatic conveying line by a variable rotary airlock . in embodiments wherein more than one injector is used , the pneumatic conveying line may be divided into one or more feeder lines by use of one or more line splitters . each feeder line is in fluid communication with a respective injector 4 . shrouding air may also be introduced into the injector by use of a main conveying line and several feeder lines . generally a portion of the injector 4 extends through the exhaust duct wall . the distance to which the injector 4 extends in the duct should be selected such that lime becomes well distributed in the duct and may vary depending on a number of system factors including the size of the duct , the respective effluent gas and lime flow rates and whether a dispersion cone is used . the effluent gas which is treated to reduce the acidic gas content thereof may be formed in any number of industrial processes . the effluent gas may be a gas produced in operation of , for example , a waste incinerator , a sulfuric acid plant , a non - coal fired power plant ( e . g ., oil ), a large - scale diesel generator , a boiler , a furnace ( brick or ceramic ) or a kiln ( lime or cement ). the injector is particularly well suited for treating flue gas produced during coal - fired power generation . in coal - fired power plants , the exhaust duct to which the hydrated lime and / or pulverized quicklime is introduced may be the boiler exhaust duct , ducts downstream of any catalytic processes ( e . g ., selective catalytic reduction ), the pre - heater exhaust duct or ducts that are upstream of an electrostatic precipitator . the hydrated lime and / or pulverized quicklime may alternatively be added at other process points . as used herein , the phrases “ exhaust duct ” and “ effluent gas ” should not be limited to any particular process or to any particular process point . further , the term “ duct ” should not be limited to any particular duct shape or to any particular type of conveying apparatus . in some embodiments , lime ( e . g ., hydrated lime ) may be added to one or more unit operations directly or to the discharge portions of the unit operations themselves ( e . g ., air pre - heater ). in general , the term “ exhaust duct ” should not be considered in a limiting sense . the effluent gas that is treated may include any number of acidic compounds such as , for example so 2 , so 3 , h 2 so 4 , hcl , and / or hf . further the concentration of these gases before treatment may be from about 600 ppm to about 3000 ppm . the majority of the acidic gas present may be so 2 ( e . g ., from about 600 ppm to about 3000 ppm so 2 ) and each of the remaining gases may be present ( if at all ) at a concentration within the range of about 1 ppm to about 200 ppm . it should be noted that concentrations other than as listed may be used without limitation . in this regard , conventional injectors have been found to more likely occlude when increased amounts of co 2 are present in the effluent gas due to scale ( e . g ., caco 3 ) that forms upon contact with co 2 . the injector of the present disclosure may suitably be used to treat flue gases containing at least about 10 vol % co 2 , at least about 15 vol % co 2 or even at least 20 % co 2 without occlusion . the temperature of the effluent gas may be from about 250 ° f . to about 800 ° f . ( about 121 ° c . to about 427 ° c .). comparison of scale formation when a shrouded injector and a non - shrouded injector are used to introduce hydrated lime into an exhaust duct five injectors ( i . e ., “ lances ”) were installed on the exhaust duct of a rotary lime kiln to determine the effectiveness of a shrouded injector . two injectors were shrouded with an outer pipe and about 50 ft 3 / min ( 1416 liters / min ) of ambient air was used as a shrouding gas . two other injectors were not shrouded and were composed of a single tube . the fifth injector was shrouded and used conditioned air as the shrouding gas . the flow rate of hydrated lime was 100 lbs / hr ( 45 . 4 kg / hr ) and the flow rate of conveying gas was about 75 ft 3 / min ( 2124 liters / min ) per injector . the effluent gas that was treated was at a temperature of about 500 ° f . ( 260 ° c . ), contained 20 vol % co 2 and was loaded with about 7 . 5 tons per hour of dust . each injector was inspected after about 364 hours of use . photographs of the outlet ends of the two non - shrouded injectors are shown in fig6 and 7 , and a typical photograph of the outlet end of the shrouded injectors is shown in fig8 . as can be seen from fig6 - 8 , the shrouded injectors did not form an occlusion and both non - shrouded injectors were substantially plugged after use . when introducing elements of the present disclosure or the preferred embodiment ( s ) thereof , the articles “ a ”, “ an ”, “ the ” and “ said ” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements . the terms “ comprising ”, “ including ” and “ having ” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements . as various changes could be made in the above apparatus and methods without departing from the scope of the disclosure , it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying figures shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .
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the compound claimed can be prepared by various methods . one proven synthesis starts with chlorotris [ tris ( sodium m - sulfonatophenyl ) phosphane ]- rhodium ( i ) nonahydrate ( clrh ( tppts ) 3 . 9h 2 o ), which is obtained , for example , by reaction of rhcl 3 . 3h 2 o with tppts . the complex compound purified by gel permeation chromatography is treated with hydrazine hydrate in aqueous solution . the reaction is carried out at room temperature or slightly elevated temperature . the hydrazine hydrate is usually used in a stoichiometric ratio . according to a different method , the complex hrh [ p ( c 6 h 5 ) 3 ] 4 , which is known from the literature , is reacted in a two - phase system ( for example methylene chloride / water ) with excess tppts , resultingin the formation of elemental hydrogen . in this reaction , the complex ( oh ) rh ( tppts ) 3 is also formed ; this complex is obtained by treating rhcl 3 . 3h 2 o in aqueous solution with excess tppts at room temperature over a period of more than 15 hours . to isolate the new compound which , regardless of the method of preparation , is present in aqueous solution , the water is evaporated in vacuo , if necessary after filtration of the solution . in general , this method does not give the pure compound , but an impure product or even a mixture of various tppts complex compounds which have been formed side by side duringthe preparation . it is therefore necessary to apply special purification and separation processes , in order to obtain the pure substance . it has been proven that gel chromatography , which is the subject matter of germanpatent application p no . 38 22 036 . 9 , is a particularly suitable method forachieving this object . after this treatment , the compound is present in analytical and spectroscopic purity . the new compound crystallizes from the aqueous solution in the form of a hydrate . the anhydrous compound can be prepared therefrom by dehydration under mild conditions , i . e . at temperatures below the melting or decomposition point and by applying reduced pressure , advantageously high vacuum , without decomposition . the protection claimed therefore extends , not only to the water - containing compound but also to the anhydrous tppts complex . the compound according to the invention is catalytically active and is used successfully as catalyst or component of catalysts in various reactions . the invention is illustrated in more detail in the example which follows . synthesis of bis {( μ - hydroxy ) bis [ tris ( sodium m - sulfonatophenyl ) phosphane ] rhodium ( i )} dodecahydrate of the formula {( μ - oh ) rh [ p ( c 6 h 4 - m - so 3 na ) 3 ] 2 } 2 . 12 h 2 o 5 ml ( 5 . 15 g , 0 . 102 mol ) of hydrazine hydrate are added to a solution of 250 mg ( 0 . 13 mmol ) of clrh ( tppts ) 3 . 9h 2 o in 20 ml of distilled water , and the mixture is stirred at room temperature for 48 hours . the solvent is then completely removed under vacuum produced by an oil pump . the solid residue is taken up in 10 ml of water and purified by column chromatography over sephadex g - 15 ( dextranes crosslinked with epichlorohydrin ). the product is detected by uv / vis spectrometry and refractometry . 31 p - nmr ( 109 . 3 mhz , d 2 o , 21 ° c . ): δ = 58 . 9 ppm [ d ]; 1 j ( rh , p ) = 203 hz ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 1635 ( m ), 1464 ( m ), 1396 ( m ), 1192 ( sh , vs ), 1037 ( s ). elemental analysis : ( c 72 h 72 na 12 o 50 p 4 rh 2 s 12 ; 2729 . 6 ): calculated : c 31 . 58 h 2 . 73 cl 0 . 0 o 29 . 31 , p 4 . 53 , rh 7 . 53 s 14 . 09 ; found : c 32 . 35 h 2 . 62 , cl 0 . 0 o29 . 57 , p 4 . 33 rh , 7 . 20 s 14 . 42 .
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the subject matter of embodiments of the invention disclosed herein is described with specificity to meet statutory requirements . however , the description itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent . rather , the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways , to include different features , or combinations of features similar to the ones described in this document , in conjunction with other technologies . referring to the drawings , and particularly to fig1 - 4 , there is depicted an illustrative gathering device 10 . as illustrated , the gathering device 10 includes a main body 12 having a front side 14 , a back side 16 , a perimeter 18 , and a depth 20 . the dimensions of the gathering device 10 can vary and can , in embodiments , be configured for particular types of applications . for example , in an embodiment , the main body 12 can have a diameter 21 of approximately 2 - 3 inches and a depth 20 of approximately ⅛ inches . it should be understood that , in various embodiments , any other desired diameter , depth , and / or other dimensions can be employed , and that all of such configurations are considered to be within the ambit of the invention . the gathering device 10 further includes at least one slotted opening 22 defined within the main body 12 and extending through the main body 12 , between the front side 14 and the back side 16 . according to various embodiments of the invention , the main body 12 can include any number of different types of material suitable for providing a strong , yet flexible , body 12 . in embodiments , the main body 12 includes a resilient , flexible material having a high coefficient of friction such as , for example , vinyl , nylon , or the like . additionally , according to embodiments , the main body 12 can have any desired level of opacity , any desired color , and the like . for instance , in an embodiment , the main body 12 is made of translucent vinyl . in some embodiments , the main body 12 can be composed of a glow - in - the - dark material ( or , alternatively , covered with a glow - in - the - dark film ), a scented material , or the like . according to embodiments of the invention , the main body can be configured according to any desired shape . for example , as shown in fig1 - 4 , the main body 12 can have a substantially circular shape , defined by the perimeter 18 . in other embodiments , the main body 12 can have a shape , defined by the perimeter 18 , that is substantially rectangular ( e . g ., see the illustrative gathering device 56 in fig5 ), square , triangular , or the like . ornamental designs can also be used . for example , in embodiments , the main body can be configured in the shape of a sun , a star , a flower , mickey mouse ears , bunny ears , or the like . additionally , in some embodiments , the main body 12 has a generally flat configuration , as shown , for example , in fig3 , while in other embodiments , the main body 12 can be contoured ( e . g ., see the illustrative gathering device 56 in fig5 ). turning briefly to fig5 , a number of illustrative gathering devices 50 , 52 , 54 , and 56 , are depicted , each having a different design . it should be understood that any number of different types of designs and configurations can be implemented in accordance with embodiments of the invention , and that the examples illustrated and described herein are merely examples of the various alternative configurations possible . as shown in fig5 , for example , the illustrative gathering device 50 ( which is shown in a front view ) has a rounded main body 50 a that has a substantially circular shape . disposed at least in the front side 50 b of the main body 50 a are a first slotted opening 50 c and a second slotted opening 50 d . as illustrated , the first slotted opening 50 c has a zig - zag shape , somewhat like a “ w ” on its side . the second slotted opening 50 d is positioned below the first slotted opening 50 c to give the appearance of part of a “ smiley ” face , further defined by a set of decorative eyes 50 e . in embodiments , the eyes 50 e could be drawn , painted , or otherwise applied to the surface of the front side 50 b of the gathering device 50 , while , in other embodiments , the eyes 50 e can be rounded openings defined through the main body 50 a . as another example , the illustrative gathering device 52 ( which is shown in a front view ) is configured to appear somewhat like a tennis ball . as illustrated , the gathering device 52 includes a main body 52 a that is substantially circular in shape . the main body includes a front side 52 b having two curved slotted openings 52 c and 52 d disposed therein that are configured to give the appearance of the lines on a tennis ball . of course , it will be appreciated by individuals having skill in the relevant arts that any number of different types of coloring schemes , decorations , and adornments can be used to produce any number of different appearances and effects . all of these are considered to be within the ambit of the invention . for example , in fig5 , the illustrative gathering device 52 may have a green - yellow color trimmed by white outlines of the slotted openings 52 c and 52 d , to approximate the color of a standard tennis ball . as another example , the illustrative gathering device 54 ( which is shown in a front view ) is configured to appear somewhat like a broken heart . as illustrated in fig5 , the gathering device 54 includes a main body 54 a that is shaped substantially like a heart . the main body includes a front side 54 b having a slotted opening 54 c disposed therein that is configured to give the appearance of a “ break ” in the heart . that is , for example , as shown , the slotted opening 54 c has a longer zig - zag shape over one portion of the main body 52 a . as discussed above , the main body 54 a can be colored to further improve the aesthetic design . for example , in embodiments , the main body 54 a can be colored red , while the slotted opening 54 c can be outlined in black , to contrast with the red colored main body 54 a . according to various embodiments , any number of other types of designs can be printed on an illustrative gathering device 50 , 52 , 54 , 56 . the designs can be printed on the front side , the back side , and or both sides , and in embodiments , the perimeter as well . in embodiments , the designs can be ornamental designs , logos , messages , colors , and the like . according to embodiments , the designs are printed on the device using a process that holds the designs on the device such that the designs do not fade or break up over time . as yet another example , the illustrative gathering device 56 ( which is shown in a front perspective view ) includes a contoured main body 58 having a front side 58 a , a back side 58 b , and a perimeter 58 c ( which , in fig5 , has a substantially rectangular shape , although any other desired shape could be used instead ). according to various possible implementations , the contoured main body 58 can be configured , for example , to roughly follow the contour of a wearer &# 39 ; s hip or waist area , such that the back side 58 b of the main body 58 rests relatively flush against the wearer &# 39 ; s body . in other implementations , the contoured main body 58 can be configured , for example , to wrap around a knot made from flexible fabric , to roughly follow the contour of a window frame ( e . g ., in an implementation where the gathering device 58 is used to gather and secure a window covering ), to produce some desired aesthetic presentation , or the like . returning to fig1 , 2 , 3 a , and 4 , the gathering device 10 preferably includes a first slotted opening 22 and a second slotted opening 24 . in other embodiments , the gathering device 10 can include any number slotted openings . according to some embodiments , the gathering device 10 can also include an opening ( such as , e . g ., a rounded opening ) that can be used , for example , to hang the device 10 on a hook or nail either for storage or , for example , to use the device to gather and secure a window covering along the side of the window frame . in other embodiments , the device 10 includes a pair of wider , rectangular openings ( in addition to the slotted openings 22 and 24 ) that are configured to receive a belt such that the device 10 can be hung from a wearers belt and used , for instance , to secure ribbon , cinch a gift bag , or the like . according to various embodiments of the invention , the slotted openings 22 , 24 can be configured in any number of different shapes and the gathering device 10 can include two or more slotted openings 22 , 24 having the same shape or different shapes . for example , in the illustrated embodiment , the first slotted opening 22 is linear and the second slotted opening 24 includes a zig - zag shape , defined by a number of teeth 26 , which aid in the securement of fabric 11 . in other embodiments , one or more of the slotted openings 22 , 24 can be curved , angled , or any other desired shape . the securing functionality of the gathering device 10 of the present invention can be enhanced if a slotted opening 24 has a shape that is , at least partially , nonlinear . for instance , in fig1 , 2 , and 3 a , the second slotted opening 24 comprises a zig - zag shape having a plurality of peaks 26 . each of the plurality of peaks 26 functions as a tooth 26 to assist in securing and gathering the flexible fabric 11 , which is passed through the two openings 22 and 24 , as depicted , for example , in fig4 . in some embodiments , the peaks 26 can be sharply defined ( as shown , for example , in fig4 ), while in other embodiments , the peaks 26 can be curved ( as shown , for example , in fig6 ). turning briefly to fig6 , an illustrative gathering device 60 is depicted in a front view . the illustrative gathering device 60 includes a main body 62 . the main body 62 includes a front side 64 having a first slotted opening 66 and a second slotted opening 68 disposed therein . as illustrated , the first slotted opening includes two curved peaks 70 and a curved trough 72 , which is disposed between the two peaks 70 , defining a shape somewhat similar to a rounded capital “ m .” the second slotted opening 68 is disposed below the first slotted opening 66 and is configured to be a mirror - image of the first slotted opening 66 . that is , the second slotted opening 68 includes tow curved troughs 74 and a curved peak 76 , which is disposed between the two troughs 74 , defining a shape somewhat similar to a rounded capital “ w .” in this manner , the slotted openings 66 and 68 provide for enhanced fabric - securing functionality without damaging , creasing , or wrinkling the fabric . returning now to fig2 and 3a , the configuration of the slotted openings 22 and 24 will be discussed . as shown in fig2 and 3a , the first slotted opening 22 comprises a first side 30 a and a second side 30 b and is preferably a slit ( that is , the slotted opening 22 is created without material being removed from the main body 12 between the first side 30 a and the second side 30 b ). in this manner , the first side 30 a and second side 30 b remain closely positioned to better gather and secure the flexible fabric . similarly , the second slotted opening 24 includes a first side 30 c and a second side 30 d that are closely positioned ( e . g ., the second slotted opening 24 also is a slit ). in some embodiments , some material can be removed to create the slotted openings 22 and 24 , so long as the first 30 a , 30 c and second 30 b , 30 d sides are positioned close enough together , respectively , to effectively secure fabric 11 that is passed therethrough . any number of different manners of constructing illustrative gathering devices such as those described herein can be implemented in accordance with embodiments of the invention . accordingly , slotted openings can include varying configurations , depending upon the manner of construction utilized . for example , in some embodiments , the slotted openings 22 and 24 can be defined by sides 30 a , 30 b , 30 c , and 30 d that have the same depth 20 as the main body 12 . in other embodiments , as depicted in fig3 b and 3c , the slotted openings 22 and 24 can be defined by sides 34 a , 34 b , 36 a , and 36 b that are not characterized by the same depth 20 as the main body . for example , fig3 b depicts a cross - sectional side view of a slotted opening 34 . as illustrated in fig3 b , the slotted opening 34 is defined by a first side 34 a and a second side 34 b . the first side 34 a and the second side 34 b each include a tapered portion 34 c and 34 d , respectively . as illustrated , the tapered portions 34 c and 34 d each taper inwardly ( that is , the sides 34 a and 34 b get narrower toward the slotted opening 34 ) such that the depth 34 e of the main body 34 f is shallower near the slotted opening 34 than in other portions of the main body 34 f . a similar configuration achieved without tapering the sides 34 a and 34 b is shown in fig3 c . fig3 c depicts a cross - sectional side view of a slotted opening 36 . as illustrated in fig3 c , the slotted opening 36 is defined by a first side 36 a and a second side 36 b . thin inserts 36 c and 36 d extend into the opening 36 and provide edges of the opening having a depth 36 e that is shallower than that of the rest of the main body 36 f . in embodiments , the thin inserts 36 c and 36 d can be individual and distinct inserts 36 c and 36 d disposed within the main body 36 f . in other embodiments , for example , the thin inserts 36 c and 36 d can be two portions of a single insert 36 c / 36 d disposed within the main body 36 f , whereby the opening 36 can be constructed by cutting a slit in the insert 36 c / 36 d . any number of additional configurations can be implemented in accordance with embodiments of the invention , as well . with reference to fig4 a , in particular , the method of use of the gathering device 10 is described . a portion of material 11 is threaded through a slotted opening 22 . according to various embodiments , the material 11 can include flexible fabric , ribbon , or the like . due to the resiliency , flexibility , and coefficient of friction of the material of the main body 12 , and the proximity of the first side 30 and second side 32 of the slotted opening 22 , if enough material is threaded through the opening 22 it will be gathered and secured . more preferably , however , the gathering device 10 includes two slotted openings 22 and 24 and the portion of flexible fabric 11 is threaded through the first slotted opening 22 in a first direction and then the second slotted opening 24 in a second direction . alternatively , the portion of flexible fabric 11 could be threaded through the first slotted opening 22 and the second slotted opening 24 in the same direction ; this could be accomplished by threading the fabric 11 through the first slotted opening 22 from back to front , drawing the portion of material 11 around to the back and then threading it through the second slotted opening 24 , also back to front . with reference to fig4 b , the illustrative gathering device 10 can be used to secure two separate portions 11 and 11 a of material . although there are several alternative ways to accomplish this , the simplest is to thread each of the portions 11 and 11 a through a different slotted opening 22 , 24 , in a single direction . or , each of the portions 11 and 11 a could be threaded back to front through different slotted openings 22 and 24 , then threaded front to back through a different slotted opening 22 or 24 . of course , an alternative that would also work is to thread each portion 11 and 11 a through a slotted opening 22 , 24 ( same or different ), then draw the material portions 11 and 11 a around to the other side of the device 10 and thread each portion 11 and 11 a through a slotted opening 22 , 24 ( same or different ) in the same direction as that portion 11 or 11 a was threaded the first time . any number of other methods of threading material through slotted openings on an illustrative gathering device described herein can be utilized and are considered to be within the ambit of embodiments of the invention . the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments , which are intended in all respects to be illustrative rather than restrictive . alternative embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from its scope . from the foregoing , it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all the ends and objects set forth above , together with other advantages which are obvious and inherent to the system and method . it will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations . this is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims .
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[ 0020 ] fig1 is a block diagram of a high definition television receiver 1 which selects the desired rf input signal by means of rf tuner 14 . the rf tuner 14 sends the selected signal to an if processor 16 which produces an if passband output signal . the received signal is a carrier suppressed vsb modulated signal ( 8 or 16 levels ) as adopted for use in hdtv systems in the united states . such a vsb signal carries successive symbols represented by a one - dimensional data symbol constellation in which only the real axis contains quantized data to be recovered by the receiver . the passband if output signal from processor 16 is converted into an oversampled digital datastream by an analog to digital ( a / d ) converter 19 , which samples the analog signal at a frequency of , say , 27 mhz . a reference pilot carrier signal is embedded in the received vsb datastream , and this carrier is recovered by the phase locked carrier tracking loop ( ctl ) 22 , which also operates at the same sample rate of 27 mhz . the purpose of the carrier tracking loop is to remove the frequency offset caused by differences between the transmitter oscillator and the receiver local oscillator so that the signal is accurately translated to , and can be processed directly at , baseband . the ctl produces an output real , or in - phase ( i ) demodulated datastream . as described above , the a / d converter 19 oversamples the 10 . 76 million symbols / second input vsb datastream with a 27 mhz sampling clock , or about 2 . 5 times the received symbol rate , thereby providing at least two samples per symbol . the use of at least two samples per symbol sampling , rather than one sample per symbol , produces advantages in subsequent signal processing functions . following the a / d converter 19 and ctl 22 is a field and segment synchronization ( sync ) and symbol clock recovery circuit 12 , which includes the symbol timing loop ( stl ) 26 and the sync detector 8 . the stl 26 is a feedback loop much like the ctl 22 . the stl 26 regenerates a properly phased 10 . 76 mhz clock signal , which is used to recover the symbol stream from the sampled data stream . the symbol stream is then processed by subsequent stages such as the sync detector 8 , the equalizer 34 and the phase tracking loop 36 . the sync detector 8 detects the field and segment synchronization signals by correlation and provides this information to all subsequent receiver blocks for synchronization purposes . some prior art hdtv receivers use the detected synchronization signal as the basis for symbol timing recovery . other hdtv receivers utilize timing recovery techniques such as decision directed or band edge timing . both techniques can be employed simultaneously , such as the mueller & amp ; muller decision directed algorithm , along with the gardner band edge timing recovery algorithm . the present invention may be advantageously used with any such symbol timing recovery scheme . after leaving the clock recovery circuit 12 , the signal is adaptively equalized by a channel equalizer 34 , which may operate in a combination of blind , training and decision directed modes . equalizer 34 may be of the type described in the atsc hdtv system specification and in an article by w . bretl et al ., entitled “ vsb modem subsystem design for grand alliance digital television receivers ”, ieee transactions on consumer electronics , august 1995 . equalizer 34 may also be of the type described by shiue et al . in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 712 , 873 , issued on jan . 27 , 1998 and entitled multi - mode equalizer in a digital video signal processing system . the equalizer 34 corrects for channel distortions , but phase noise may randomly rotate the symbol constellation , and the amplitude of the equalized signal may vary . phase tracking network 36 removes the residual phase and gain noise in the output signal from equalizer 34 , including phase noise which has not been removed by the preceding ctl 22 in response to the pilot carrier signal . the phase corrected signal is then trellis decoded by decoder 40 , de - interleaved by unit 42 , reed - solomon error corrected by decoder 44 , and descrambled by descrambler 46 . after the foregoing processing steps , the decoded datastream is subjected to audio , video and display processing by unit 50 . rf tuner 14 , if processor 16 , sync detector 8 , equalizer 34 , phase tracking loop 36 , trellis decoder 40 , de - interleaver 42 , reed - solomon decoder 44 and descrambler 46 may employ circuits of the type described in the atsc hdtv system specification of apr . 4 , 1994 , and in the bretl , et al ., article previously mentioned . the stl 26 may be any known timing recovery network . circuits for performing the functions of a / d converter 19 and processors 50 are well known . the sync detector 8 is a conventional sync detector which detects both segment and field syncs . the sync detector 8 includes an output terminal 13 which produces two synchronization signals ( segment and field ) indicating the presence of the corresponding synchronization signal in the data stream . the hdtv vsb transmission system conveys data with a prescribed data frame format . each data frame includes two fields with each field including 313 segments of 832 multilevel symbols . the first segment of each field is referred to as a field sync segment and the remaining 312 segments are referred to as data segments . each data segment includes a four symbol segment sync character . each field sync segment includes the four symbol segment sync character followed by a field sync component comprising a predetermined 511 symbol pseudorandom number ( pn ) sequence and three predetermined 63 symbol pn sequences , the middle one of which is inverted in successive fields . a vsb mode control signal ( defining the vsb symbol constellation size , i . e ., 8 - vsb or 16 - vsb ) follows the last 63 pn sequence , which is followed by 96 reserved symbols and 12 symbols copied from the previous field . as each sync signal is detected in the datastream , sync detector 8 generates a sync output signal 13 , which is the equivalent of a sync enable pulse for the respective sync component . the sync output signal 13 is high whenever the sync signals appear in the datastream and otherwise remain low . the sync output signal 13 ( or a signal derived from it ) is also used in some form by the subsequent processing units 34 , 36 , 40 , 42 , 44 and 46 . as stated earlier , a matched filter may be placed prior to or after the a / d converter 19 , after the ctl 22 or after the stl 26 . however , in the demodulator illustrated in fig1 the matched filter is not located prior to the equalizer 34 , and thus is not illustrated . instead , the equalizer 34 performs the matched filtering function . this placement of the matched filter creates additional linear distortion in the ctl and stl . the output signal 15 produced by the stl 26 and the output signal 13 produced by the sync detector 8 are both inputs to the equalizer 34 . although not depicted in fig1 a slicer function is also present inside the equalizer 34 and clock recovery circuit 12 . at each symbol time , the slicer selects , from a programmed look up table , a data symbol corresponding to the point in the symbol constellation that is closest to the input symbol sample as its decision . that is , the slicer selects as its decision the symbol in its alphabet which is closest in euclidean distance to the input symbol sample . more specifically , the slicer expects an input signal at predetermined signal points along the real axis corresponding to the transmitted symbols . the ctl input signal 21 is rotating in phase and may be matched ( i . e . a fully raised cosine filtered signal ) or unmatched ( i . e . only a root raised cosine filtered signal , as is illustrated in fig1 ), meaning that the ctl input signal may have a level up to 1 . 7 ( matched case ) or 2 . 0 ( unmatched case ) times the level expected by the 8 - vsb slicer . additional information regarding carrier recovery , slicing and derotating operations may be found in the text by lee and messerschmidt entitled digital communication published by kluwer academic publishers , boston , mass ., u . s . a . in order to avoid nonlinearities in the demodulation process introduced by data overflow in the ctl 22 , the ctl 22 must have a higher dynamic range than the demodulator stages 8 , 34 , 36 , etc . which follow the stl 26 . this requires a higher dynamic range in the a / d 19 as well . however , in order to save in a / d and ctl hardware , it is desirable to keep the same dynamic range for the entire demodulator , e . g ., 10 - bit samples in the data stream . if the same dynamic range is used for the different demodulator blocks ( 19 , 22 , 26 , 8 , 34 and 36 ), and considering that the ctl signal dynamic range is 1 . 7 to 2 . 0 greater than the dynamic range of the symbol stream past the stl 26 , it means that the blocks past the stl 26 will utilize a smaller dynamic range than the hardware allows . the smaller the signal dynamic range is , the more critical quantization noise becomes . quantization noise is the difference between the actual value of a signal at the sampling time and the nearest quantization interval value . one source of quantization noise is created by the slicer , when it approximates an input sample by its closest slicer level . in addition , the stl may be dependent on the slicer levels , therefore achieving optimum performance when the signal levels are close to the slicer levels . also , the equalizer convergence speed increases when the signal levels are close to the slicer levels and the equalizer does not need to provide gain control in addition to correcting for linear distortion . although in theory the equalizer can provide some level of gain control , it runs the risk of false convergence when the signal level at its input is far away from the slicer levels . for all the reasons given above , the most desirable demodulator solution requires : use of the same dynamic range in entire demodulator , use of the full hardware dynamic range throughout the demodulator , and str output and equalizer input signal levels close to the slicer levels . the present invention addresses the internal gain imbalance between ctl signal output and stl signal output , as well as the different possibilities of signal dynamic range available at the ctl input due to different placements of the matched filter . due to different design possibilities , such as whether the processed if signal will be matched or unmatched , and in order to optimize the connection between the ctl 22 and the stl 26 , a first embodiment of the present invention couples a switchable fixed gain control between the ctl 22 and the stl 26 . referring to fig2 an hdtv receiver including an internal gain control 10 is shown . the gain control 10 may be placed as shown at the output of the ctl 22 , or alternatively it may be placed after the output of an interpolator ( not shown ), which is typically one of the internal components of stl 26 . the interpolator is able to generate signal samples temporally in between the 27 mhz samples actually taken by the a / d converter 19 . that is , it interpolates between the 27 mhz samples to generate the 10 . 76 mhz symbol time samples , and in a preferred embodiment to generate further samples at times halfway between the symbol times . by generating these intermediate samples as needed , the interpolator allows the stl 26 to adjust the effective sampling frequency and phase . the internal gain control 10 receives the output of ctl 22 along signal path 23 . the ctl output signal level is adjusted prior to entering stl 26 along signal path 25 . the absolute gain of the gain control 10 is controlled by the gain_cntl signal 11 , as illustrated in table i , below . one skilled in the art will understand that , internally , the internal gain control 10 may be comprised of a plurality of fixed gain amplifiers respectively having the gains specified in table i , and that the gain_cntl signal may control switching circuitry to select the desired one of the fixed gain amplifiers to provide the gain adjusted output signal along signal path 25 . the gain_cntl control signal may be supplied by circuitry outside of the demodulator . in fig3 an alternative adaptive gain control embodiment of the present invention is illustrated . the adaptive gain control loop in fig3 is an automatic gain control loop having a relatively low bandwidth ( on the order of a few khz or less ) so as to not interfere with other loops in the hdtv receiver 1 . the gain control input signal 23 is derived from the ctl 22 ( fig2 ). gain control input signal 23 is processed by adaptive gain control 2 , which has an output signal 25 that is coupled to the input to stl 26 . the attenuation provided by gain control 2 is adjusted by output signal 3 of detector 4 . gain detector and accumulator 4 is a detector and accumulator responsive to three input signals : control signal ( s ) 5 , the reference signal 6 and the sliced reference signal 43 , representing ideal symbol representative signals , from the slicer 41 . reference signal 6 may be the stl output signal 15 , in which case the entire datastream or sequence is evaluated . alternatively , the reference signal 6 may be gated by sync output signal 13 , in which case only the field or segment sync signals would be evaluated after being identified within the datastream by the sync detector 8 . the control signal ( s ) 5 are symbol clock enable pulses if the clock rate is higher than the symbol rate . alternatively , the control signals 5 are segment sync detector output signals and / or field sync detector output signals 13 . the segment or field sync detector output signals 13 are enable signals which indicate the presence of segment or field sync , respectively , within the datastream , as described above . for example , the segment sync detector output goes high when the four segment sync symbols appear in the datastream ; otherwise the output signal 13 is low . the gain detector & amp ; accumulator 4 may be implemented according to either of the following formulas : y is the output signal 3 of detector 4 ; xs is the slicer 41 sliced reference signal 43 ; and the gain detector and accumulator 4 may further accumulate the y values derived from either of the above equations , and use the accumulation as the gain control signal 3 .
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fig1 shows a plan view of a disk drive assembly 10 , with the top cover removed . fig1 is representative of any number of common disk drives . the disk drive assembly 10 illustrated herein includes at least one disk 12 , typically having magnetic media on both the upper and lower surfaces thereof . the disk 12 along with other components of the disk drive are contained within a housing 14 . the disk 12 is mounted over a hub 16 which is driven by a motor ( not shown ) enabling the disk to rotate at high revolutions per minute during operation . an actuator assembly 18 is shown rotatably mounted to an actuator pivot 24 . basic components of the actuator assembly 18 shown include one or more read / write heads 20 mounted on a flexure arm or suspension arm assembly 21 . suspension arm 21 , in turn , is attached to an actuator arm 22 , as further discussed below . in solid lines , the actuator assembly 18 is shown parked over the landing zone . the landing zone has been represented by the area of the disk 12 on or adjacent disk track 30 . the landing area of the disk is allocated for takeoff and landing of the read / write heads 20 during spin - up and spin - down of the disk . the actuator assembly 18 is rotated to a desired disk track by a voice coil motor shown as voice coil 26 . the voice coil 26 is immersed in a magnetic field generated by the magnet 28 . an actuator control circuit ( not shown ) causes current flow in the voice coil motor 26 , and ultimately controls the position of the actuator assembly 18 by varying current through the voice coil . the dotted position of actuator assembly 18 illustrates the manner in which actuator assembly 18 rotates about actuator pivot 24 in response to the voice coil motor 26 . the magnet 28 is mounted to a mounting plate 32 . fig1 also shows other common elements of a disk drive including a communications bus 36 which transfers electronic signals to and from the read / write heads 20 . now referring to fig2 , the distal end of the actuator arm 22 is illustrated , along with the head gimbal assembly ( hga ), and a swage plate . more specifically , the distal end of the actuator arm 22 includes a through - hole or opening defined by inner face or wall 38 . the proximal end of the suspension arm 21 includes a base portion 41 having an opening or hole formed therethrough , defined by inner face or wall 40 . other components of the suspension arm are also shown including a flexure member 42 which is attached to the distal end of the suspension arm 21 , and a slider 44 mounted to the flexure member 42 . the slider 44 houses the transducer / read / write heads 20 . although a specific design is shown for the actuator arm and suspension arm , it shall be understood that the invention is not limited by this specific design , and the methods and apparatuses claimed herein apply to any actuator arm assembly including a swage - type connection . one form of a swage plate 46 is also illustrated in fig2 . the swage plate 46 includes an integral swage boss 48 extending from the swage plate 46 . the swage boss 48 is a cylindrical shape member which is inserted through openings 40 and 38 when assembled with the actuator arm and suspension arm . swage plate 46 may be welded to the base portion 41 , or may be attached by other known means in the art . as shown in fig3 , the boss 48 has been inserted through openings 40 and 38 for attachment of the suspension arm 21 to the actuator arm 22 . fig4 illustrates the suspension arm 22 and the actuator arm 21 along with the swage boss 48 and swage plate 46 prior to swaging . as shown , there is a definable gap between the exterior surface of the swage boss 48 , and the openings 38 and 40 . a swage ball 60 is forced through the opening in the swage boss 48 . the swage boss 48 opening may include a larger diameter portion 50 , a smaller diameter portion 54 , and a stepped or interconnecting portion 52 . the swage ball 60 is forced through the opening and because the diameter of the swage ball 60 is larger than portions 54 and 52 , the boss is deformed to accommodate passage of the swage ball . this deformation results in expansion of the swage boss 48 so that the exterior surface thereof is pressed in contact with surfaces 38 and 40 . absent an applied lubricant as described herein , swaging is a harsh process that generates significant debris , due to the severe metal deformation . by lubricating the surfaces that come in contact during swaging , damage to the components is lessened and chipping or creation of metal debris is reduced . the swaging process can also impart a bend or curve into the actuator arm thereby altering its performance . the lubrication described herein also reduces the forces that tend to distort the actuator arm and help maintain the actuator arm within its design criteria . during a deswaging process to separate the actuator arm from the suspension arm , a forcing implement or tool ( not shown ) presses the swage boss 48 back through the openings defined by surfaces 38 and 40 . this forcing action can also result in damage to the actuator arm and suspension arm , and therefore can result in disk drive contamination due to particles generated by chipping and other material failures . by lubricating the surfaces that come in contact during swaging , torque retention values are reduced , which provides better predictability in application of a load to deswage the actuator arm from the suspension arm . this predictability can therefore prevent overloading , underloading , and multiple loading attempts to deswage . accordingly , there is less of a chance that damage will occur to the suspension arm and actuator arm . various methods are contemplated in applying the lubricating film . additionally , it is also contemplated that application of the lubricating film can be conducted prior to attaching the swage plate to the suspension arm , as well as selected application of the lubricant to different components . one method in which to apply the lubricant film is to first attach the swage plate 46 to the base portion 41 of the suspension arm 21 , immerse the entire base portion 41 in a dilute solution of the fc 722 ( for example , a 1 . 0 % fluorine containing polymer in 99 . 0 % pf 5060 fluorocarbon solvent ), and then drain away the dilute solution from the base portion 41 at a preselected , constant rate ( for example , 200 mm / sec ) leaving a uniform film of the polymer on the surfaces of the base portion 41 . of course , the surface which is desired to be coated is the outer surface of the swage boss 48 which will inherently become coated by dipping of the base portion 41 . increasing or decreasing the drain rate and adjusting the concentration of the coating solution will determine the thickness of the coating applied . as mentioned above , it has been found that a polymer film having a thickness ranging from 20 to 175 angstroms is adequate and , in the case of solid films , a lubricant having a thickness ranging from 20 to 2700 angstroms is adequate ; however , thinner or thicker films can be applied as desired , including a layer one molecule thick . an additional advantage of utilizing a fluorocarbon solvent is the cleaning effect upon the components . application of the thin film lubricant can be conducted in a two step drain process , with the first step providing solvent cleaning and an initial coating , and the second step providing the final desired thickness of coating . another method in which to coat the components would be to only immerse the swage plate 46 and boss 48 , prior to attaching the swage plate to the suspension arm . in this method , there would be no film lubricant applied to any surfaces of the suspension arm . this method may be preferred if it is desired to also limit the components of the disk drive subject to coating . alternatively , the inner face or wall 38 of the actuator arm 22 may be coated with the film lubricant to provide the desired lubrication . accordingly , the distal end of the actuator arm 22 may also be immersed in a dilute solution of the fc 722 , or any other acceptable polymer or solid film . examples of such include thin films formed from organic sulphurs , organic phosphorus , oxygen containing organics ( such as carboxylic , esters and alcohols ), nitrogen containing organics , organic boron compounds and metal containing compounds . depending upon the type of materials making up the actuator arm and suspension arm , as well as desired torque out retention - values , it is also contemplated that one may select only the inner face 38 to be lubricated , only the outer surface of the swage boss 48 to be lubricated , or both surfaces may be lubricated . in addition to immersing , other methods of applying the lubricant are also contemplated for each of the components to include localized spraying , and the various deposition processes listed above . an unexpected result of lubrication of the swage contact surfaces is that gram load uniformity was also improved . as understood by those skilled in the art , gram load uniformity refers to the normal load placed on the disk by the suspension elements of the actuator assembly ( i . e ., the suspension arm , and complimentary elements ). it is desirable to have gram load uniformity among each of the actuator assemblies in a disk drive . gram load uniformity affects a number of disk drive operation variables , to include fly height of the read / write heads . it is believed that by lubricating the swage contact surfaces by a solid lubricant , the lubricant minimizes deleterious effects which the swage process may impart upon the structure of the actuator arm and suspension arm , thus improving gram load uniformity . coating the swage contact surfaces with a thin film lubricant enhances the deformation characteristics of the swage boss , facilitates reduction in the retention torque , and provides better consistency in torque out retention values . each of these attributes contributes in reducing chipping and other potential material failure of the swage contact surfaces . because of the many methods available in applying thin film lubricants , many options are available for application of the lubricant . additionally , one or more selected surfaces may be lubricated to achieve desired results . this invention has been described with respect to a particular disclosed embodiment ; however , it will be understood that various other modifications can be made which fall within the spirit and scope of this invention .
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a technical aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a method for controlling an electronic device using an ip camera with a wireless remote controlling function which is capable of monitoring an area of interest based on images acquired from the ip camera while concurrently controlling the electronic device at a remote distance by using at least one of a plurality of ir leds mounted to the surveillance ip camera as an ir remote control to control the electronic device . another technical aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a method for controlling an electronic device using an ip camera with a wireless remote controlling function which can simplify a procedure of registering data to be learned for controlling the electronic device using the ip camera system at a remote distance through a user terminal . according to an embodiment of the present invention , a method for controlling an electronic device using an internet protocol ( ip ) camera with a wireless remote controlling function is provided . the method may include steps of : in response to a request signal for learning a remote control signal and a remote control signal for learning that is received from the ip camera , learning a remote control signal of the electronic device by matching the received remote control signal for learning with a remote control menu item , by the ip camera , receiving a learned control signal for the electronic device from the user terminal and registering the same , and in response to a remote control signal of the electronic device from the user terminal , controlling by the ip camera operation of the electronic device based on the learned information . the process of learning at the user terminal may include receiving a learning request signal , receiving a signal to select an electronic device as a target device of learning , displaying on a screen a remote control information and a remote control menu item corresponding to the electronic device for which the learning is requested , transmitting control signal for an electronic device to the ip camera according to a user input signal , determining whether or not the electronic device operates in accordance with the user input signal based on an information acquired by the ip camera , and when the electronic device is determined to be operating in accordance with the user input signal , downloading a corresponding remote control signal information from outside . further , the process of learning at the user terminal may include receiving a learning request signal , receiving a signal to select an electronic device requested for learning , displaying on a screen the remote control menu item necessary for controlling the electronic device selected for learning , receiving a plurality of remote control signals for learning one after another at the ip camera , assigning an identification code for each of the received remote control signal and displaying the identification code on the screen , transmitting , in response to a user manipulation signal , at the ip camera , the remote control signal for which the identification code is assigned such that the electronic device is controlled , and matching the identification code with the remote control menu item displayed on the screen in response to a user manipulation signal . further , the process of learning at the user terminal may include receiving a learning request signal , receiving a signal to select an target electronic device , receiving a remote control signal to be learned via the ip camera , and registering a menu name corresponding to the received remote control signal in accordance with a user manipulation signal . further , the process of learning at the user terminal may additionally include receiving a signal to select an ip camera , and receiving pan / tilt information of the selected ip camera and registering the same in association with the identification information of a target electronic device . the process at the user terminal of receiving the signal to select target electronic device for learning may include acquiring a shape information of the target electronic device from a camera captured image and causing the electronic device to be automatically identified and selected using a pattern matching between the acquired shape information of the electronic device and a pre - set shape information . further , the method may include controlling operation of the ip camera in accordance with a control request from the user terminal and transmitting an obtained image to the user terminal , receiving a remote control signal from the user terminal , reading and obtaining an electronic device control signal by matching the received remote control signal with the learned information , and then controlling the operation of the electronic device in accordance with the obtained control signal . further , the process of controlling the operation of the electronic device , at the ip camera , may include receiving the remote control signal from the user terminal , reading and obtaining an ip camera actuation control signal and an electronic device control signal by matching the received remote control signal with the learned information , controlling actuation of the ip camera in accordance with the recovered ip camera actuation control signal , and controlling the operation of the electronic device in accordance with the obtained electronic device control signal . also , the method may include transmitting , at the ip camera , information about an operating electronic device based on an acquired image information or sound information to the user terminal , and the ip camera may calculate a pan / tilt information of the ip camera based on location information of a control target electronic device and the ip camera and control the operation of the ip camera based on the calculated pan / tilt information of the ip camera . further , the ip camera may perform the steps of acquiring a sound signal outputted from the electronic device requested for controlling through a microphone , calculating a location of the electronic device requested for controlling , angle information between the electronic device requested for controlling , and the ip camera based on the sound signal acquired through the microphone , calculating a pan / tilt information of the ip camera based on the location , the angle information as calculated , and controlling the actuation of the ip camera in accordance with the calculated pan / tilt information of the ip camera . according to embodiments of the present disclosure , it is possible to obtain an enhanced efficiency of energy management while externally controlling electronic devices remotely without an additional communication network between a network device and the electronic devices by using one of a plurality of ir leds amounted to a surveillance ip camera as an ir remote - control for controlling the electronic devices . further , the embodiments of the present disclosure advantageously enhance function of the ip camera by utilizing the ip camera to control electronic devices remotely as well as perform surveillance . furthermore , user convenience is also increased as the process of registering remote - control - function - learning data of the ip camera is simplified . fig1 illustrates configuration of an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to an embodiment of the present disclosure ; fig2 is a perspective view of the ip camera of fig1 ; fig3 illustrates configuration of the ip camera of fig1 ; fig4 is a flowchart provided to explain a learning method of an ip camera system employing a wireless remote - control capability according to an embodiment of the present disclosure ; fig5 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a first method of a present disclosure ; fig6 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a second method of a present disclosure ; fig7 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a third method of a present disclosure ; fig8 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for controlling an electronic device from an ip camera system that employs a wireless remote controlling function according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure ; and fig9 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for controlling an electronic device from an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure . to fully understand the purpose achieved by the embodiments of the present invention and operational advantages thereof , reference is made to the appended drawings illustrating preferred embodiments of the present invention and also to the contents shown in the drawings . fig1 illustrates a configuration of an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to an embodiment of the present disclosure ; fig2 is a perspective view of the ip camera of fig1 , and fig3 illustrates a configuration of the ip camera of fig1 . referring to fig1 to 3 , the ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to an embodiment includes a plurality of ip cameras 1 , a user terminal 2 , a plurality of electronic devices 3 and a remote control 4 . the ip cameras 1 acquires image data of a location the ip cameras 1 are installed , transmit the acquired data to the user terminal 2 or send out a control signal to control the electronic devices 3 in response to an external control signal , and learn and store information to control the electronic devices 3 according to a user setting . when requested by the user terminal 2 to capture image in real - time , the ip cameras 1 provide the current real - time image to the user terminal 2 , or compress and store a captured image in a memory 17 and provide the compressed image to the user terminal 2 upon being requested by the user terminal 2 . ip camera 1 includes a body 11 , a pan / tilt actuator 12 , an image acquirer 13 , a microphone 14 , an led 15 , an rf transmitter 16 , a communication interface 17 , a controller 18 , and a database 19 . the body 11 is installed such that operation of the pan / tilt actuator 12 is controlled in accordance with an externally - received control signal or an operation signal received from an operation unit which is separately installed on the body 11 . the image acquirer 13 is provided to acquire image data of surroundings of the body 11 and includes a lens 131 provided on a front surface of the body 11 as well as an image processor 132 configured to receive the light entering through the lens 131 and generates a image with an image processing method . the microphone unit 14 is provided to acquire , from an audio signal , operation status , volume , location or direction of the electronic device , or presence , location or direction of a person , or the like , and to trace a sound source by calculating direction and distance of the sound source based on intensity , phase difference , and time associated with the sound source detected through two microphones . each microphone employs a bi - directional microphone that has directivity to a specific direction , rather than an omni - directional microphone . the led module 15 includes a plurality of leds 151 for image capturing , a led 152 for receiving remote control signal , and a led 153 for transmitting remote control signal . the plurality of leds 151 for image - capturing are arranged in an annular fashion around the front lens 131 of the body 11 . the plurality of leds 151 for image - capturing do not operate when it is bright enough to meet the required level of illumination for image capturing , while the leds 151 operate when it is dark at night ( i . e . when the required level of illumination for image capturing is not met ) to allow infrared image capturing to be performed . the led 152 for receiving remote control signal is provided for a remote - controlling - function - learning process ( to be explained below ) in which when the user presses a key on the remote control 4 , the led 152 for receiving remote control signal receives an infrared signal sent from the remote control 4 . the led 153 for transmitting remote control signal is configure to transmit an infrared signal to control the operation of a corresponding electronic device 3 in accordance with a received control signal , when the control signal is received from the user terminal 2 . meanwhile , not all the electronic devices used at home are infrared - controllable . for example , it is not possible to infrared - control a digital door lock as the digital door lock is only controllable with an rf signal . accordingly , an aspect of the present disclosure additionally includes an rf transmitter 16 , which sends out an rf signal to control the electronic devices 3 that react exclusively to the rf signals . meanwhile , unlike the infrared signal , the rf signal does not have directivity . accordingly , the install location of the rf transmitter 16 is not limited , and may be any place inside or outside the body 11 of the ip camera 1 . the communication interface 17 is provided for data transmission and reception with the user terminal 2 , and for control of the electronic devices 3 by a wired or wireless method other than an infrared method , and includes a wireless communication module and a wired communication module . in response to a control signal received from the user terminal 2 , the controller 18 controls the pan / tilt of the ip camera 1 or operation of the electronic devices 3 , based on a previously configured information in the memory 17 and in accordance with the control signal . in addition to the image db 191 for storing captured images , the database 19 includes a universe remote control db 192 and a leaning data db 193 for storing information necessary for the control of the electronic devices 3 . the universe remote control db 192 stores control signal information corresponding to manufacturer &# 39 ; s information , product information and remote control menu of the control target electronic device for facilitating the remote - control - signal - learning process . that is , the universe remote control db 192 enhances learning convenience , as the universe remote control db 192 allows the user to select and store only wanted menu icons from the remote control menus displayed on a screen rather than to operate through all the menu buttons of the remote control to set the information . the information on the universe remote control is accessible to the user terminal 2 through a webpage or downloadable via an application . the learning data db 193 stores remote control signal information of the respective electronic devices and pan / tilt control information of the ip cameras , location information of the ip cameras and the electronic devices , or the like . that is , in order to control each electronic device , different infrared signals are used depending on manufacturer &# 39 ; s product models and supported functions . further , because infrared signal has directivity , the control signal is limited to a predetermined range of angles . accordingly , to ensure effective control on the control target electronic device , it is necessary to store pan / tilt information of the ip camera which can place the electronic device within the infrared signal reception range as well as to store the control signal information that matches the respective electronic devices . to that end , the user can have remote control signal information corresponding to the remote controlling functions of the electronic device stored in the universe remote control db 192 as well as the ip camera pan / tilt information to be learned and stored in in the learning data db 193 . the user can have remote control signal information acquired by direct operation of menu buttons on remote control of the electronic device as well as the pan / tilt information to learned and stored in the learning data db 193 . the method for remote - control - learning will be explained in detail below . meanwhile , the user terminal 2 connected to the ip cameras 1 by a wired or wireless communication network externally controls the operation of the ip cameras 1 and plays a role of monitoring the images captured through the ip cameras 1 at a remote distance . the user terminal 2 may be a portable terminal such as a smartphone , a laptop computer , or a desktop pc . to be specific , the user terminal 2 may externally control the pan / tilt of the ip cameras 1 in response to a user &# 39 ; s operation signal to change the direction of image capturing when the user wants to monitor an image in certain direction , or may input learning information required for controlling of the electronic device 3 , or may transmit a control signal in accordance with the user &# 39 ; s operation signal to the ip cameras 1 . fig4 is a flowchart provided to explain a learning method of an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to an embodiment of the present disclosure . the learning method will be explained below with reference to fig1 to 3 . first , with the user terminal 2 the user executes an ip camera control program and selects a remote control registration menu . accordingly , a list of ip cameras 1 appears on the screen and the user selects an ip camera 1 to control the electronic device 3 intended for learning ( s 100 ). the user adjusts the pan / tilt of the selected ip camera 1 while viewing the images displayed on a screen of the user terminal 2 , and when completing adjusting the pan / tilt , stores the pan / tilt information by matching it with the id of the corresponding electronic device 3 ( s 102 ). the pan / tilt adjustment needs to be done in a way that the transmission range of the infrared signal of remote control signal transmitting led 153 with directivity of the ip camera is aligned with the angle of infrared light reception of the electronic device and that image information and sound information for monitoring of the operational status of the electronic device 3 can be received . it is determined if the corresponding electronic device 3 is in a list of the universe remote control db 192 ( s 104 ), and if so , the corresponding electronic device 3 is selected from the list ( s 106 ). the screen may display the product model of the electronic device or the manufacturer , thus allowing the user to select the product model and the manufacturer in an order . selecting the electronic device 3 may be directly done by the user from the list or , rather than direct selecting , an alternative embodiment may acquire the shape of the electronic device with the camera and automatically identify and select the model of the electronic device based on the acquired shape information . after selecting the electronic device 3 from the list , the user presses one of the icons displayed on the screen , and when noting the corresponding electronic device to be in power - on / off state or to be in operation ( s 108 ), the user causes downloading and storing of the remote control information by matching it with the ip camera information and the ip camera pan / tilt information acquired at s 100 and s 102 ( s 110 ). meanwhile , when it is determined that the corresponding electronic device 3 is not present in the list of the universe remote control db 192 at s 104 , while the user operating the remote control the remote control signals can be learned , via the ip camera , and stored . the process of the learning and storing involves the user inputting information about the electronic device using a keypad screen , step - wise learning of control signals that match the remote control menus of the corresponding electronic device , and storing the control signals . the information of the electronic device may include i product information and manufacturer information which may be directly inputted in a text form by the user or selected by the user from a list . fig5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a first method of the present invention . first , when a product of the electronic device is selected , a menu list corresponding to the operational functions of the corresponding electronic device is displayed on a screen ( s 300 ). then , the user selects a necessary item from the menu list on the screen ( s 302 ), and presses a menu button of the remote control 4 that matches the corresponding item toward the ip camera 1 ( s 304 ). as an infrared signal of the remote control 4 is received at the led for receiving remote control signal 152 of the ip camera 1 , a remote control signal for learning is acquired ( s 306 ). when the remote control signal for learning is acquired at the step s 306 , the user cause storing of the learned data by matching the item on the screen ( s 308 ). after that , the operation from the step s 302 to the step s 308 are repeated until learning of the desired menu item is completed . according to the first learning method of the present invention , the learning process can be simplified since the user does not have to input the remote control menu items one by one as text . fig6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a second method of a present disclosure . first , when the user presses the remote control button toward the ip camera ( s 400 ), a remote control signal for learning is acquired as an infrared signal of the remote control 4 is received from the led 152 for receiving remote control signal of the ip camera 1 ( s 402 ). at this time , the user presses all the buttons on the remote control 4 in order , so that all the remote control signals for learning can be acquired . the remote control menu list necessary to drive the corresponding electronic device appears on the screen along with a button identification number ( id no . )( s 404 ). then , as the user presses the button id nos . on the screen in order , thereby reproduces control signals and then identifies type of the control signals based on operational status of the electronic device ( s 406 ), and matches the button id nos . with menu items , respectively ( s 408 ). for example , when the user identify power - on / off in case no . “ 2 ” code ( given an id no .) was selected , the user may drag and match the id no . “ 2 ” code to the “ power ” item . accordingly , the infrared signal generated by pressing id no . “ 2 ” matches with the “ power ” item , which simplifies the learning data setting as the user is not required to input the text information about the remote control menu item . when matching the button id nos . and the menu items is completed , the learned information that matches the items on the screen and the remote control signals is stored ( s 410 ). fig7 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for learning electronic - device remote - control information and registering the learned data according to a third method of a present disclosure . first , when the user presses a remote control button toward the ip camera ( s 502 ), a remote control signal for learning purpose is received via the remote control signal receiving led 152 of the ip camera 1 . when , the user terminal 2 receives a remote control signal for learning from the ip camera 1 ( s 502 ), the user inputs a menu name so that the user can identify information about the function that corresponds to the pressed remote control button ( s 504 ). although the operating the remote control button is performed prior to inputting a menu name , in another embodiment it is possible to input the menu name and to operate the remote control button subsequently . when operating the button on the remote control and inputting menu names are completed , learning is completed and the learned data of matching between the items on the screen and the remote control signals is stored ( s 506 ). herein below , a method for controlling an electronic device at an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be explained . fig8 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for controlling an electronic device at an ip camera system that employs a wireless remote controlling function according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure . accordingly , embodiments will be explained below with reference to fig8 , along with fig1 to 3 . referring to fig8 , first , an ip camera list appears on a screen as the user executes an electronic device control program ( s 600 ), and the user selects an ip camera and an image captured through the ip camera is displayed on the screen ( s 602 ). at this time , the user terminal displays the operational status of the electronic device on a screen thereof as well as image information about the electronic device . the operational status of the electronic device may be recognized based on light emitting status of a display panel provided in the electronic device or a manufacturer name or a product name appearing on the image , or in the case of a tv or an audio equipment , based on the audio information inputted through a microphone provided in the ip camera 1 . it is possible to automatically recognize the currently - operated electronic device before the user selects an ip camera , and , in order to do so , relative location information between the ip cameras and the electronic devices or shape information needs be set in advance . that is , it is necessary to identify the electronic device in order to detect the operational status of the electronic device based on the panel light emitting status or audio information of the electronic device and notify the operational status of a corresponding electronic device . accordingly , the embodiments of the present disclosure set in advance the shape information of the electronic devices , extract shape of the electronic device from the image acquired through the ip camera , and identifies the type of the electronic device by matching patterns between the extracted shape and preset shape information . alternatively , it is possible to calculate distance between the ip camera and the electronic device and locations based on the audio information generated from the electronic device and identify the electronic device by matching the calculated result with the preset location information . meanwhile , while observing the screen of the user terminal 2 , the user adjusts pan / tilt of the ip camera 1 so that the remote control transmitting led 153 is directed toward the electronic devices 3 ( s 604 ). when the pan / tilt adjustment of the ip camera 1 is completed , the electronic - device - remote - control menus are displayed on the screen . the user selects a desired remote control from the displayed list and selects a desired function from the menu list of the remote control ( s 606 ). in one embodiment , the user may select a remote control from the screen of the user terminal , but not limited thereto . that is , selecting a remote control may be performed automatically . accordingly , when the ip camera 1 is selected , the ip camera 1 captures images of the electronic devices within a recognition range , and the user terminal 2 may automatically identify the electronic devices based on the manufacturer names or product names marked on the electronic devices from the captured images , or may extract shape information of the electronic devices , match patterns between the extracted shape information and preset shape information , and automatically identify the electronic device so that the remote controls corresponding to the electronic devices are automatically selected . this automatic selecting of a remote control may be equally applicable to not only the first embodiment of fig9 but also the second embodiment of fig1 . the user terminal 2 sends out the inputted signal to the ip camera 1 ( s 608 ), and the ip camera 1 recovers the stored remote control signal from the database based on the received control signal ( s 610 ). after that , the ip camera 1 transmits the remote control signal to the electronic device 3 via the remote control signal transmitting led 153 to thus control the operation of the electronic device 3 ( s 612 ). fig9 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for controlling an electronic device at an ip camera system employing a wireless remote controlling function according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure . accordingly , embodiments will be explained below with reference to fig9 , along with fig1 to 3 . referring to fig9 , first , as the user executes an electronic device control program ( s 700 ) a list of ip cameras and a list of remote controls are displayed on a screen ( s 702 ). after that , the user selects a desired remote control from the displayed list and also selects a desired function from a menu list of the remote control ( s 704 ). the user terminal 2 sends the inputted signal to the ip camera 1 ( s 706 ), and the ip camera 1 recovers the ip camera 1 pan / tilt information and the remote control signal from the database based on the received control signal ( s 708 ). the pan / tilt information of the ip camera 1 may be previously determined for individual control target electronic devices or may be calculated based on preset relative positions or angle information between the ip camera 1 and the electronic devices 3 . the ip camera 1 automatically adjusts the pan / tilt according to the recovered pan / tilt information ( s 710 ), and sends out a remote control signal via the remote control signal transmitting led 153 to the electronic devices 3 to thus control operation of the electronic devices 3 ( s 712 ). the pan / tilt information of the ip camera 1 may be controlled according to predetermined information , but in another embodiment it is possible to detect , in real - time , the location of the control target electronic device and calculate the pan / tilt information based on the detected location . accordingly , it is possible to obtain the location of the electronic devices and angle information between the electronic devices and the ip camera by acquiring sound signals outputted from the control target electronic devices through two microphones and by calculating direction and distance between the ip camera and the electronic devices based on the intensity and phase difference or time regarding sound source detected by two microphones . accordingly , pan / tilt information of the ip camera for controlling electronic devices can be obtained without setting pan / tilt information of the ip camera corresponding to the control target electronic devices or location information of the electronic devices in advance . moreover , the embodiments of the present disclosure may additionally include a method for automatically adjusting pan / tilt of the camera based on the location and distance information between the electronic devices and the ip camera when an error in the pan / tilt information is accumulated due to change deliberately made in the pan / tilt of the camera or repetition of the operation . while the present invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment shown in the drawings this is merely an example and it will be understood to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made from the above description . accordingly , the scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical concept of the following claims . the present disclosure relates to a camera system that is externally accessible via a communication network which is applicable in the industrial field to enhance security and convenience by enabling a user to externally view the images acquired through the camera , and also to remote - control an electronic device with the camera .
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referring to fig2 a , there is shown a block of digital image signal which includes 8 × 8 pixels , each of them being denoted by a square . the block contains an object region which is represented by shaded pixels and a remaining background region . the shaded pixels are called as object pixels while the other pixels are called as background pixels . the object pixels are extended to fill the entire block as shown in fig2 b to 2c by using the extension - interpolation (&# 34 ; e - i &# 34 ;) technique of the present invention . to achieve this , a horizontal and a vertical extensions are performed separately as shown in fig2 b and 2c , respectively . either the horizontal or the vertical extension is performed prior to the other and the priority may be decided according to image characteristics . the horizontal or the vertical extension may be performed row - by - row or column - by - column . in case that a block includes n × n pixels , for each row or each column , m - dimensional (&# 34 ; m - d &# 34 ;) vector , m being an integer ranging from 1 to n , is converted to n - dimensional (&# 34 ; n - d &# 34 ;) vector , wherein elements of the m - d vector are m object pixel values included in each row or each column , and elements of the n - d vector are n extended pixel values . for example , in case of the third row of the block shown in fig2 a , 5 - dimensional vector is converted to 8 - dimensional vector representing the third row of a horizontally extended block shown in fig2 b . a transformed m - d vector f 1 obtained by applying m - point 1 - dimensional (&# 34 ; 1 - d &# 34 ;) dct to the m - d vector f 1 are represented as follows : ## equ1 ## wherein f 1 ( n 1 ) is n 1 th element of f 1 ; f 1 ( k 1 ) is k 1 th element of f 1 ; n 1 and k 1 are integers ranging from 0 to m - 1 ; and b ij is represented as : ## equ2 ## similarly , when the m - d vector f 1 is extended to form an n - d vector f 2 by using the e - i technique of the present invention , a transformed n - d vector f 2 obtained by applying n - point 1 - d dct to the n - d vector f 2 are represented as follows : ## equ3 ## wherein f 2 ( n 2 ) is n 2 th element of f 2 ; f 2 ( k 2 ) is k 2 th element of f 2 ; n 2 and k 2 are integers ranging from 0 to n - 1 ; and a ij is represented as : ## equ4 ## two methods for extending the m - d vector to the n - d vector will be described hereinafter : one is an optimal e - i method and the other is a linear interpolation method . in accordance with the optimal e - i method , the m - d vector f 1 is extended to n - d vector f 2 without generating any additional frequency domain data . that is , the following equation is satisfied , ## equ5 ## wherein μ 0 is a scaling factor used to make the dc component of f 2 equal to that of f 1 and is given as , ## equ6 ## when eq . ( 3 ) is satisfied , the e - i procedure is optimal because no additional data is generated in the frequency domain . from eqs . ( 1 ) and ( 2 ), it can be deduced that f 2 is obtained from f 1 as follows : ## equ7 ## or wherein a and b denote the n × n and the n × m matrices whose components are a ij and b ij used in eq . ( 4a ), respectively . eqs . ( 4a ) and ( 4b ) are further simplified as follows : ## equ8 ## wherein c is an n × m matrix and equal to a - 1 b . by using the above relationship , an arbitrary shaped object is extended to fill an n × n block without generating additional frequency domain elements . conversely , the original data of fig2 a is recovered from the n × n block shown in fig2 c . in case n is identical to m , c is an identity matrix . therefore , the extension procedure dosen &# 39 ; t change the original vector f 1 and can be ommitted . another method for extending m - d vector to n - d vector is a well - known linear interpolation method . since a matrix multiplication is not involved in the extension procedure , the linear interpolation method is simpler in view of the computational complexity . referring to fig3 the linear interpolation method is illustrated in case that m and n is 3 and 8 , respectively . in the example depicted in fig2 a to 2c , third to eighth rows of the block shown in fig2 a are first horizontally extended by using the optimal e - i or the linear interpolation methods to those of the block shown in fig2 b . similarly , columns of the horizontally extended block shown in fig2 b are vertically extended by using the optimal e - i or the linear interpolation methods to those of the extended block shown in fig2 c . referring to fig4 there is shown a block diagram of an apparatus for encoding a digital image signal in accordance with the present invention . the encoding apparatus comprises a first and a second encoding channels 100 and 500 , and an extension - interpolation device 400 for producing extended processing blocks in order to effectively encode a portion of a boundary of an object in the image signal , wherein the first encoding channel 100 serves to encode a contour signal of the object and the second encoding channel 500 operates to encode the digital image signal on a block - by - block basis . the digital image signal , which is generated from a known image source ( not shown ), e . g ., a hard disk or a compact disk , is inputted to a frame memory 50 for the storage thereof . a frame of the digital image signal has an object and includes object pixels which are located within the object and background pixels which are located outside thereof . the background pixels may be represented as pixels whose values are much larger or smaller than the range of the ordinary pixel value . an image frame signal from the frame memory 50 is then retrieved to a contour detector 110 in the first encoding channel 100 and a block generator 200 . the first encoding channel 100 , which includes the contour detector 110 and a contour coder 120 , serves to detect and encode the contour signal of the object in the image frame signal from the frame memory 50 by employing a known contour detecting and coding technique to produce an encoded contour signal . as well known in the art , the contour signal of the object can be derived from edge points defined as pixel locations at which a significant change occurs on a physical aspect of the image frame signal to form the object thereof . the contour signal detected at the contour detector 110 is then provided to the contour coder 120 for the encoding thereof . at the contour coder 120 , the contour signal from the contour detector 110 is encoded by using , e . g ., a binary arithmetic code of jpeg ( joint photographic experts group ) and then the encoded contour signal is supplied to a formatting circuit 600 . in the meantime , the block generator 200 divides the image frame signal from the frame memory 50 into a multiplicity of processing blocks having an identical size of n × n pixels , n being a positive integer , and provides the processing blocks to a switching circuit 300 on a block - by - block basis . at the switching circuit 300 , each of the processing blocks from the block generator 200 is selectively coupled to the e - i device 400 or the second encoding channel 500 in response to a control signal cs from a system controller ( not shown ). the system controller generates the control signal cs based on the contour information of the object in the image frame signal , the control signal . cs indicating whether or not a part of the object boundary in the image frame exists in each of the processing blocks . if the part of the object boundary exists in a processing block , i . e ., the processing block has an object region and a background region simultaneously , the processing block is coupled to the e - i 400 for generating an extended processing block ; otherwise , it is sent to the second encoding channel 500 . in accordance with the present invention , the e - i device 400 converts each of the processing blocks from the switching circuit 300 into the extended processing block for improving a data compression efficiency at the second encoding channel 500 . specifically , the processing block fed to the device 400 is similar to the one shown in fig2 a and converted therein to the extended processing block as explained with reference to fig2 a to 2c . the second encoding channel 500 , which includes a transform coder 510 , a quantizer 520 and an entropy coder 530 , serves to encode the image data included in each of the extended processing blocks from e - i device 400 or a non - extended processing block from the switching circuit 300 by using a conventional transform and statistical coding technique . that is , the transform coder 510 transforms the image data of each processing block in the spatial domain from the e - i device 400 or the switching circuit 300 into a set of transform coefficients in the frequency domain by employing , e . g ., a discrete cosine transform ( dct ) and provides the set of the transform coefficients to the quantizer 520 . at the quantizer 520 , the set of the transform coefficients is quantized by using a known quantization method ; and then the set of the quantized transform coefficients is fed to the entropy coder 530 for further processing . the entropy coder 530 encodes the set of the quantized transform coefficients from the quantizer 520 for each of the non - extended or extended processing blocks by using , e . g ., a combination of run - length and variable length coding to generate an encoded image frame signal . the image frame signal encoded by the entropy coder 530 is then provided to the formatting circuit 600 . the formatting circuit 600 formats the encoded contour signal from the contour coder 120 in the first encoding channel 100 and the encoded image frame signal from the entropy coder 530 in the second encoding channel 500 , to thereby provide a formatted digital image signal to a transmitter ( not shown ) for the transmission thereof . as demonstrated above , the present invention is capable of considerably reducing high frequency components present between the pixels within an object and those pixels outside thereof during the coding process using the optimal e - i or the linear interpolation methods , thereby improving the overall coding efficiency . referring to fig5 there is shown a detailed block diagram of the e - i device 400 in accordance with the optimal extension - interpolation method , which includes a controller 410 , a first and a second extension blocks 420 and 421 , and an extension matrix memory 430 . the processing block from the switching circuit 300 and the contour signal from the contour detector 110 are coupled to the controller 410 which generates control signals for controlling the other part of the e - i device 400 . for example , the controller 410 may generate a h / v priority signal denoting either horizontal or vertical extension which is to be done prior to the other based on , e . g ., shape of the object region in the processing block ; an m - value signal representing the number of object pixels in a row or a column which is currently processed in the first or the second extension block 420 and 421 ; and / or an object pixel start signal identifying the position of the first object pixel in a row or a column which is currently processed in the first or the second extension block 420 and 421 . the control signals generated at the controller 410 are coupled to the extension matrix memory 430 , the first and the second extension block 420 and 421 . the extension matrix memory 430 stores extension matrices , i . e ., c in eq . ( 5b ), for converting an m - d vector to an n - d vector . n is preset according to a system design and is 8 in many cases . therefore , it is possible to precalculate the extension matrix c for all values of m , i . e ., 1 to n and to store them at the extension matrix memory 430 . the extension - interpolation for a row ( or a column ) of the processing block can be easily done by multiplying an appropriate extension matrix stored at the extension matrix memory 430 to the m - d vector formed with values of the object pixels in the row ( or the column ). the processing block from the switching circuit 300 and the control signals from the controller 410 are fed to the first extension block 420 . for the purpose of illustration , it will be assumed that the horizontal extension has the priority . at the first extension block 420 , in response to the control signals from the controller 410 , m - d vectors to be processed are selected . in case of the processing block shown in fig2 a , the third to seventh pixel values of the third row are selected first . an extension matrix for an m value of 5 is provided from the extension matrix memory 430 to the first extension block 420 in response to the m - value signal from the controller 410 and is multiplied to the 5 - d vector representing the object pixels of the third row . the fourth to eighth rows of the processing block shown in fig2 a are processed in a similar manner . after the horizontal extension is finished , the horizontally extended processing block similar to the one shown in fig2 b is supplied to the second extension block 421 . the second extension block 421 multiplies each of 8 m - d vector derived from 8 columns of horizontally extended processing block with corresponding extension matrices provided from the extension matrix memory 430 in a substantially similar manner as that of the first extension block 420 . the extended processing block from the second extension block 421 is provided to the second encoding channel 500 shown in fig4 and encoded therein . meanwhile , in case the linear interpolation method is used in converting the processing block to the extended processing block , the extension matrix memory 430 is not necessary . in addition , instead of matrix multiplication , the first and the second extension blocks 420 and 421 perform a 1 - d linear interpolation on an m - d vector derived from each row or each column of the processing block as shown in fig3 to form an n - d vector . besides that , the overall function of the e - i device shown in fig5 is similar to the one which is explained above in accordance with the optimal e - i method . while the present invention has been described with respect to the particular embodiments , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims .
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a multilevel dryer for pasta , as described for example in wo 85 / 00090 or the applicant &# 39 ; s de 10158446 . 6 , not published before the priority date , the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties , has individual dryer sections , which in turn have an outer casing . the casing comprises individual , shaped plates . in the example , a top plate 1 is connected to a further top plate 2 ( fig1 ). the connection takes place by a butt joint at the end faces 3 and 3 ′. in this case , neither a sealing abutment of the end faces 3 and 3 ′ against each other nor particularly fine working of the end faces 3 , 3 ′ is required , so that the separating gap 4 does not have to meet any special requirements . parallel to the end face 3 , 3 ′, the plates 1 and 2 respectively have through - bores or blind - bores 5 . placed on the inner side of the separating gap 4 is a top crosshead 6 with a planar supporting surface and through - bores analogous to the through - bores 5 of the plates 1 , 2 and , on the outer side , a planar sealing strip 7 with analogous through - bores . a further crosshead 8 may be placed on the sealing plate . the positionally fixed fastening of the individual elements takes place as depicted by means of screw connections 9 . the outer regions of the sealing strip 7 are l - shaped parallel to the path of the sealing gap 4 , so that a flexible sealing element , here a silicone tube 10 , can be additionally placed between the sealing strip 7 and the plates 1 , 2 . as a result of the screw connections 9 , adequate sealing of the separating gap 4 against vapor or gases is consequently obtained . if need be , however , a further sealing plate 11 may be provided , as depicted , between the separating gap 4 and the sealing strip 7 or the top crosshead 6 . positional compensation perpendicular to the plane of the separating gap 4 is possible . in the case of a sealing joint according to fig2 , two casing parts 20 , 21 of a multilevel dryer are connected to each other in a sealed manner , forming a separating gap 4 , positional compensation parallel to the separating gap 4 being possible . both on the inner side and on the outer side of the separating gap 4 , a sealing strip 7 ′ is in turn arranged over the entire length thereof , containing a silicone tube 10 to the right and left of the separating gap 4 . on the outer side of the sealing joint there is additionally a cover plate 22 ( analogous to the top plate 11 ) between the sealing strip 7 ′ and the casing parts 20 , 21 . as in the first example , the two sealing strips 7 ′ are clamped against each other by means of a screw connection 9 and reliably seal off the separating gap . the invention is not restricted to these exemplary embodiments . it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof . the presently disclosed embodiments are therefore considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restricted . the scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and all changes that come within the meaning and range and equivalence thereof are intended to be embraced therein .
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the present invention relates to wireless communication with programmable logic devices . in the following description , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention . however , it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details . in other instances , well - known features have not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the present invention . fig1 is a block diagram showing a wireless programmable logic device 102 of the present invention connected to an antenna 104 . wireless programmable logic device 102 contains a programmable logic device die 106 , a base band unit 108 , a radio frequency ( rf ) transceiver 110 , and an optional power amplifier 112 . programmable logic device die 106 could be a fpga , pla , cpld , or pprom die . base band unit 108 and transceiver 110 may be fabricated into one rf die 114 . in one embodiment , dies 106 and 114 and power amplifier 112 are combined in a multi - chip module ( mcm ). in another embodiment , cmos process is used . currently , both the programmable logic device die and base band unit 108 can be implemented using cmos process . recently , there are tremendous advances in implementing rf circuit using cmos process . for example , a new ic built on 0 . 18 μm cmos process , called the tc2000 and is marketed by zeevo inc ., contains the radio , base band unit and interfaces . in this embodiment of wireless programmable logic devices , cmos process is used to integrate as many functional blocks as possible into a single ic . it should be noted that the word “ wireless ” is not limited to rf . it includes optical , audio and other means of communication without the use of wired connection . base band unit 108 performs data processing of wireless data sent and received by wireless programmable logic device 102 . examples of some of the operations performed by base band unit 108 are : error correction , data communication link control , digital offset cancellation and symbol synchronization , encryption , data buffering , etc . rf transceiver 110 preferably contains a voltage - controlled oscillator , a low noise amplifier , a modulator , a demodulator , filters , etc . antenna 104 may be fabricated on the mcm package itself . alternatively , it may be externally provided ( e . g ., in the form of a metal strip on a circuit board ) the present invention can be used with different wireless communication protocols . an exemplary protocol is bluetooth . this protocol uses spread spectrum frequency hopping signals in the unlicensed 2 . 4 ghz ism ( industrial , science and medical ) band . the current specification defines a range of around 100 meters supporting data rate of up to 720 kb / s per channel . other wireless communication protocols may provide for longer ranges and / or higher data rate . if wireless programmable logic device 102 is a fpga , it needs to be configured by a configuration bitstream after power is turned on . in a conventional system , an external nonvolatile memory ( not shown ), such as a prom ( programmable read - only memory ), is used to store the bitstream . the stored bitstream is transmitted to a configuration memory in the fpga via dedicated pins on the fpga . in one embodiment , this bitstream can be transmitted to a configuration memory 116 of device 102 using wireless means . as a result , there is no need to have dedicated pins for configuration . further , there is no need to place an external nonvolatile memory on the circuit board . as a result , real estate on the circuit board can be better utilized . fig2 shows a wireless based configuration system 130 of the present invention . it contains a configuration host 132 and a circuit board 136 having a plurality of ics , such as ics 139 - 143 . some of the ics may be programmable logic devices , such as fpgas 142 and 143 . host 132 contains memory ( not shown ) that stores the configuration bitstreams of fpgas 142 and 143 . the bitstreams are delivered to fpgas 142 and 143 via an antenna 134 . fig3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a configuration host 150 of the present invention . it comprises a processor 152 that controls its operation . host 150 contains a configuration data input interface 154 that receives configuration bitstream from an external source ( not shown ). processor 152 stores the bitstream in a memory 156 . whenever there is a need to configure a fpga , processor 152 retrieves the bitstream from memory 156 and delivers the data to a serial interface 160 . the serialized data is deliver to antenna 134 by a transceiver 162 . an optional amplifier may be inserted between transceiver 162 and antenna 134 . memory 156 is preferably , but not necessarily , nonvolatile . in another embodiment , host 150 can be designed as a self - contained state machine . the interaction between host 132 and a single fpga is now described . fig4 shows a flow chart 170 of the interaction . in step 172 , host 132 sends a query to search for a recognizable fpga . this query is preferably a digital pattern encoded on an electromagnetic wave of a predetermined frequency and duration . an fpga responds to the query by sending its identification to host 132 . in step 174 , host 132 determines whether the responding fpga is a target fpga . if no target is found , host 132 continues to search for a recognizable fpga . if a target is found , host 132 performs two types of operations at the same time : ( 1 ) sending out configuration bitstream data and ( 2 ) determining whether the target fpga is working properly . in step 176 , host 132 determines whether the fpga can continue to accept configuration data . in one embodiment , the fpga sends a predetermined signal to host 132 if it cannot accept configuration data . if no such signal is received , host 132 assumes that it can continue to send configuration signal . if such a signal is received , host 132 sends a command to reset the target fpga ( step 178 ). in step 180 , host 132 logs this failed operation . the information may be stored in nonvolatile memory 156 for later retrieval by a user who needs to know the status of the configuration . additional information related to the failure ( e . g ., the time of failure ) may also be logged . flow chart 170 then stops ( step 182 ). as mentioned above , host 132 sends out configuration data unless requested not to do so . in step 186 , host 154 determines whether all configuration data stored in nonvolatile memory 156 has been sent . if not all the data has been sent , host 132 continues to send the data ( step 188 ). if all the data has been sent , host 132 sends a command to configure the target fpga ( step 189 ). host 132 waits for the fpga to complete the configuration ( step 190 ). if configuration is successful , host 132 logs a successful configuration operation in its nonvolatile memory 156 ( step 192 ). host 132 then sends a start command to the target fpga to start normal operation ( step 194 ). flow chart 170 then ends ( step 182 ). if configuration fails , host 132 logs a failed operation ( step 202 ). it then sends a command to reset the target fpga ( step 204 ). the flow chart then terminates ( step 182 ). it can be seen from the above that the fpga does not need to have wired contact with a nonvolatile memory on the same circuit board . further , it is possible to log more information using the system of the present invention . the information could be used to improve product manufacturing . the present invention can be extended to configure multiple programmable logic devices on the same circuit board . fig5 a and 5b , combined , is a flow chart 230 showing the interaction between host 132 and two or more fpgas . in step 232 , host 132 sends query to the fpgas . in step 234 , each fpga delivers its id to host 132 . in step 236 , host 132 compares the received id with a list previously stored in its memory . if ids match , flow chart 230 proceeds to the steps shown in fig5 b ( delivering bitstream and configure the fpgas ). if there is no match , host 132 determines whether it needs to configure another set of fpgas ( step 238 ). if there is no need to do so , flow chart 230 terminates . if there is a need to do so , flow chart 230 branches back to step 232 . in one embodiment , the id could be used to uniquely identify a single programmable logic device . in this case , the id serves to ensure that only the correct device is configured . in another embodiment , the id could be a generic identification of a type of devices . one example of an id is the idcode used in the so - called boundary scan description language . this is a unique identification encoded in every fpga of certain vendors , and is used to identify family members of products . an example of an idcode is shown below : this type of id is preferably used in production situation when the same host is used to program a large number of identical circuit boards . the id can be used to identify the different fpgas on the circuit boards . after host 132 determines that the correct fpgas are present , it performs the following operations at the same time : ( 1 ) sending out configuration data to each fpga and ( 2 ) determining whether the target fpgas are working properly . turning now to fig5 b , host 132 determines whether the fpgas can continue to accept configuration data ( step 244 ). in one embodiment of the present invention , a fpga sends a predetermined signal to host 132 if it cannot accept configuration data . if no such signal is received , host 132 assumes that it can continue to send configuration data . if such a signal is received , host sends a reset command to that particular fpga ( step 246 ). in step 248 , host 132 logs this failed operation . the id of the fpga is preferably logged so that a user can identify the failed fpga . other information may also be logged . flow chart 230 then terminates ( step 250 ). host 132 also monitors the bitstream to determine whether all the data for the current fpga has been sent ( step 252 ). if not all the data has been sent , host 132 continues to send data ( step 254 ). if all the data has been sent , host 132 transmits a configuration command to the current fpga ( step 256 ). host 132 waits for a reply from the fpga to determine if there is a successful configuration ( step 258 ). if configuration is successful , host 132 determines whether this fpga should be started at this time or need to wait until another fpga completes configuration ( step 260 ). if configuration is not successful , host 132 sends a command to the fgpa requesting it to stop configuration ( step 262 ). host 132 then logs the failed operation ( step 264 ). flow chart 230 stops . host 132 continues to check if all the data for all the fpgas has been sent ( step 270 ). if some of the data has yet to be sent , and the remaining fpgas continue to indicate they would accept data , host 132 sends data to the appropriate fpga ( step 272 ). if all the data has been sent , host 132 determines whether all the fpgas indicate that configuration has been completed ( step 274 ). if configuration has been completed , host 132 sends start commands to the fpgas ( step 276 ). in the case where different fpgas need to start at different times , host 132 sends commands at appropriate times . at step 278 , host 132 logs a successful operation . flow chart 230 then terminates . if one or more fpgas indicate problems in configuration , host 132 sends a command to stop configuration ( step 262 ). host 132 then logs the failed operation ( step 264 ). the above - described invention may be modified to include a combination of wireless and regular fpgas on a single circuit board . fig6 shows such a combination 300 . it contains a wireless fpga 302 that functions as a master . a plurality of fpgas , such as 304 and 306 , are connected to wireless fpga 302 . wireless fpga 302 receives configuration data in the same way shown in fig4 . the configuration data is passed to the slave fpgas 304 and 306 . as a result , a single wireless fpga can be used to configure a plurality of fpgas . in a further embodiment , a target can send a request to a host to load a different set of configuration data into the target . an example is a handheld unit used to handle several jobs . the handheld unit contains a programmable logic device . a user can key in a job number , press a button , and the unit sends the job number to a host . the host then sends new data to reconfigures the programmable logic device inside the unit . in another embodiment , the programmable logic device may erase the information therein if it is not in wireless contact with a host for more than a predetermined time . this embodiment is useful to protect confidential data in the programmable logic device . it can be seen from the above description that a novel wireless programmable logic device and methods for using the same have been disclosed . those having skill in the relevant arts of the invention will now perceive various modifications and additions which may be made as a result of the disclosure herein . accordingly , all such modifications and additions are deemed to be within the scope of the invention , which is to be limited only by the appended claims and their equivalents .
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the basketball return mechanism 10 of the present invention is shown generally in fig1 . the device consists generally of a lower wheeled support frame 12 , a movable upper support frame 14 pivotally mounted on the lower support frame , a receiving basket 20 for receiving a ball after having passed through a net , a delivery track 16 , and a propelling mechanism 18 for propelling the ball to a player . a motor 250 on the lower support frame 12 is operable to cause the upper support frame to rotate in a spanning motion to direct balls in different directions . a sensing device 15 detects the presence of a player as the upper frame moves and provides an output signal used by the control circuitry , in manner described hereinbelow , to cause a ball release mechanism to eject a ball toward the player . as may be seen in fig1 and 2 , the receiving basket 20 is in the form of an inverted truncated cone . the basket 20 comprises an upper annular ring 22 , a lower annular ring 26 and a multiplicity of radially - spaced support bars 24 extending from the upper ring 22 to the lower ring 26 . a pair of rectangular guards 32 , 33 are attached to the lower ring 26 on opposite sides thereof to prevent lateral movement of the ball as it passes through the basket . the receiving basket 20 , as described above , may be used to direct a single ball to the propelling mechanism after the ball has passed through the net ; alternatively , a multiplicity of balls may be stored in a basket and delivered to the player at timed intervals in a manner to be described in greater detail below . when the basket is being used in the latter mode , the balls stored in the basket are prevented from jamming in the bottom of the basket by antijam bars 28 and 30 which are attached at oblique angles between pairs of support bars 24 of the basket as shown in fig1 and 2 . the upper support frame 14 is generally l - shaped and comprises a pair of laterally spaced l - shaped members 46 and 48 . the l - shaped members 46 and 48 are secured at their upright end by a cross member 43 and at the terminal ends of the lower horizontal portion by a cross member 54 . a centrally disposed mounting shaft 56 is attached to cross member 54 and connects the upper support frame 14 to a t - shaped mounting bar 240 which is pivotally mounted in lower support frame 12 . the upright portions of the l - shaped members each have longitudinally extending cavities adapted to receive vertical legs 42 and 44 of an inverted u - shaped bracket 40 which is attached to two of the longitudinal support arms 24 at the rear of the receiving basket 20 . the vertical legs 42 and 44 are received in inner concentric relation within the cavities of the upright portions of l - shaped members 46 and 48 and are movable therein so that the receiving basket 20 may be placed at a multiplicity of vertical positions beneath a basketball goal . the support bracket 40 is secured in the desired position by a pair of bolts 45 and 43 or other suitable fastening means extending through the upright portions of l - shaped members 46 and 48 , respectively . each of the bolts is received in one of a plurality of transverse bores 419 in each of the vertical legs 42 and 44 , depending on the desired position of the basket 20 . balls are transported from the receiving basket 20 to the propelling means 18 by a curved delivery track comprising a pair of curved tubular members 72 and 74 . as may be seen in fig2 the curved members 72 and 74 are attached at their upper ends to the upright portions of l - shaped members 46 and 48 , respectively , and at their lower ends to upper terminal ends of upright bars 50 and 52 , respectively said upright bars being attached at lower forward ends of l - shaped members 46 and 48 . lateral movement of the ball as it travels along the track is limited by arcuate rings 76 , 78 and 80 each of which is attached to curved members 72 and 74 as shown in fig2 . additional guidance is provided by a j - shaped rail 82 attached to upper portions of arcuate rings 76 and 78 as shown in fig1 and 2 . structural rigidity of the track assembly is enhanced by an upper support frame comprising a u - shaped upper frame member 92 attached to l - shaped members 46 and 48 of the upper support frame 14 . a first set of upright support bars 84 and 86 are each attached on one end to said u - shaped frame 92 at its forward end and depend downward therefrom with the opposite ends of the bars attached to the upper portion of arcuate ring 78 on either side of the point of attachment of j - shaped member 82 . a second pair of upright support bars 94 and 96 are attached to the upper frame 92 at an intermediate point on each of the leg members of said frame and depend downward with opposite ends attached to intermediate point on opposite sides of arcuate ring member 76 . support brackets 98 and 100 are attached to upright bars 94 and 96 at upper intermediate point thereof and are used in connection with a support apparatus for the gate of the ball dispensing mechanism , as described below . as may be seen in fig1 and 2 , the ball dispensing mechanism of the present invention comprises a ladder - like gate member 120 comprising vertical side members 121 and 123 and having a plurality of transverse bars or rungs 122 . the gate 120 is supported at a midpoint by a shaft 106 extending through vertical side members 121 and 123 , said shaft being received in apertures 102 and 108 in support brackets 98 and 100 , respectively . as may be seen in fig1 the gate 120 may be pivoted about its central transverse axis by upper support arms 126 and 128 which are hingedly attached to vertical members 121 and 123 , respectively , and slidably secured by brackets 153 and 155 to l - shaped members 48 and 46 , respectively . as may be seen in fig1 the gate is normally biased toward a position at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the upright portion of l - shaped members 46 and 48 . the gate is normally maintained in this position by a biasing force provided by spring members 141 and 143 . with the gate in the aforementioned position , the basketball may be captured on the upper portion of the track as shown in fig2 . a generally u - shaped bracket 138 with upwardly directed arms 134 and 136 is attached to the upper portion of the gate 120 to secure an additional ball for subsequent delivery to the track . electromagnetic actuators 150 and 152 are attached to the upright portion of l - shaped members 48 and 46 , respectively , and are operable to engage magnets 140 and 142 attached to support bars 126 and 128 and thereby change the position of gate 120 to allow a ball to pass to the delivery track . the actuators may be controlled by a timing circuit or by a sonar or photodetector circuit which senses the postition of a player on the court , as described in greater detail hereinbelow . when the actuators are engaged , the magnets on the support arms are drawn toward the actuators and the gate 120 rotates counterclockwise from the position shown in fig2 . the ball is thus released and allowed to move along the track and engage the propelling means . when the magnetic actuators are deactivated , the spring members 141 and 143 move the support arms 126 and 128 and the gate 120 rotates clockwise to resume its normal position and thereby capture another ball for subsequent delivery to the track . details relating to the ball propelling mechanism may be seen by referring to fig3 . the propelling mechanism comprises two electric motors 180 and 182 which are secured by mounting brackets 204 and 206 , respectively , attached to annular collars 200 and 202 . the annular collars 200 and 202 are slidably mounted on the horizontal shaft of a t - shaped mounting bar which is journaled for rotation on lower support frame 12 . fastening means 207 and 205 are attached to the collars and are operable to frictionally engage the mounting bar and thus secure the motors in a plurality of configurations depending on the desired attitude at which the ball is to be propelled . as may be seen in fig1 through 3 , rotatable heads 186 and 184 are attached to motors 180 and 182 , respectively , to engage a ball passing between the heads . in the preferred embodiment , the heads are covered with rubber to aid in gripping the ball , although bare metal heads may be employed if less gripping effect is desired . as may be seen most clearly in fig3 the head 184 on motor 180 rotates in a counterclockwise direction while the head 186 on motor 182 rotates in a clockwise direction . the spacing between the heads may be adjusted by securing the motors 180 and 182 at various locations along horizontal bar 240 , as described hereinabove . the spacing between the heads may , therefore , be adjusted to allow the heads to engage balls having different diameters , such as volley balls . the azimuthal position of the propelling mechanism is controlled by a motor 250 which causes the upper support frame to rotate with respect to the lower support frame . the motor 50 is secured to transverse member 230 of the lower support frame 12 by a rectangular mounting bracket 252 . movement of the motor is translated to the t - shaped mounting bar by a crank mechanism comprising connecting arms 254 and 256 which are coupled to form a crank arm which is attached to a circular platen secured to vertical shaft 242 . when the motor 250 is activated , the upper frame will rotate with respect to the lower support frame 12 sweeping an arc of approximately 100 degrees . details relating to the operation of the detection apparatus 15 in combination with the control circuitry can be seen by referring to fig4 , and 5a . the detection apparatus used in the preferred embodiment is an ultrasonic ranging sensor , hereinafter sometimes referred to as a sonar detector . although the sensor employed in the preferred embodiment is an ultrasonic device , a photodetector or other sensing apparatus could be employed . an ultrasonic ranging sensor of the type used in the preferred embodiment is manufactured by polaroid corporation . this sensor is capable of detecting the presence and distance of objects within a range of 0 . 9 feet to 35 feet . the sensor provides a 3 digit multiplexed binary coded decimal output which can be used for direct interface with a microprocessor or logic control circuitry . the use of the ultrasonic sensor , or sonar detector 15 , in conjunction with the control circuitry can be seen by referring to the schematic block diagram of fig4 . as was discussed above , the detector used in the preferred embodiment comprises a digital output circuit 280 which can be used to provide an input signal for the logic control circuit 282 . the logic control circuit 282 processes the data provided by the sonar digital output circuit 280 and provides an output signal which controls the operation of a timer circuit 284 . thus , when the output of the sonar digital output circuitry presents a signal indicating the presence of a player , the logic control circuitry will produce a signal activating the timer circuit 284 which , in turn , will provide a signal to the actuator 286 to cause the ball delivery system to eject a ball toward the player . the actuator , indicated schematically by the reference number 286 , corresponds to the electromagnet actuators 150 and 152 , shown in fig1 and 2 of the preferred embodiment . the timer circuit 284 can be adjusted to deliver balls at time intervals ranging from one second to 15 seconds . details relating to the logic control circuit 284 can be seen by referring to the schematic diagram shown in fig4 . the input to the logic control circuit 284 is provided by the 14553 counter circuit , shown in fig5 a , contained in the ultrasonic sensor of the preferred embodiment . as was discussed above , this circuit provides multiplexed data , illustrated by the outputs d1 - d4 , shown in fig5 a . these data output signals , together with the control strobe signals , provide the inputs for the logic control circuit of fig5 . as can be seen by referring to fig5 the logic control circuit 282 comprises two 4042 quad latch integrated circuits , a 4049 hexidecimal inverter integrated circuit and two 4001 quad nor integrated circuits . the output from pin 6 of the hexidecimal inverter provides the output from the circuit to control the operation of the timer circuit 284 . a panel switch 300 can be used to select the distance from the ball return mechanism which the player must be in order to cause the system to deliver a ball . the dotted lines shown in fig5 correspond to positions 1 , 2 , and 3 of the control switch 300 . with the switch in position 1 , the player must be between 10 and 14 feet from the machine in order for a ball to be delivered . position 2 corresponds to a distance of 14 - 20 feet and position 3 corresponds to a position of 20 to 30 feet from the return mechanism . the control circuitry used in the preferred embodiment can be effectively used by a player to increase the efficiency of his preactice session with the invention basketball return mechanism operating in either the stationary mode or the spanning mode . when using the device in the stationary mode , a multiplicity of balls can stored in the basket and the propelling mechanism is aimed to deliver balls to one particular location on the court . the player then sets the control circuitry to define a &# 34 ; zone ,&# 34 ; corresponding to the range from the machine which he must be in order to cause the machine to deliver a ball . each time the player enters the predetermined zone , the sensor will provide a signal causing the control circuitry to actuate the ball delivery system , thus delivering a ball to the player . the rate of delivery of the balls can be determined by the timer . with the basketball return device operating in the spanning mode , the upper portion of the device will rotate in an oscillatory motion . in this mode of operation , the player can move to different locations on the court within the predetermined zone of allowed distances from the detection device 15 . as the mechanism spans and the player is detected by the detection device , the cotrol circuitry described above will cause the ball delivery system to eject a ball toward the player . while the invention basketball return mechanism has been described in connection with the preferred embodiment , it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular form set forth , but on the contrary , it is intended to cover such alternatives , modifications , and equivalents , as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims .
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a remote controller for animal training includes a user hand - held transmitter for transmitting coded command signals . the command signals are transmitted via a microprocessor amplified through a rf system and outputted through an antenna . the remote controller further includes a training device worn by the animal to be trained . an rf receiver receives command signals with individual output levels of three different styles of stimuli to the sensory system of the animal in order to allow the animal to properly react or respond to these levels of stimuli . a hand - held transmitter uses a voltage frequency converter ( vfc ) for converting input from a three - terminal potentiometer voltage to a frequency proportional thereto . the frequency signal is input to a microprocessor . the microprocessor has a security code function to limit control of the training device to that of the remote controller . five function switches allow for the selection of one of five types of stimulation , 1 ) brief electrical impulse stimulation , 2 ) continuous electrical impulse stimulation , 3 ) boost continuous electrical impulse stimulation , at a preset level above the continuous stimulation setting , 4 ) magnetic buzzer stimulation , and 5 ) light stimulation . the switches are connected to the rf circuitry to produce and amplify signals denoting the selected stimulation then delivered to an antenna driver and in turn to a tuned broadcast antenna . an animal collar receiver receives the rf transmitted coded signals from the transmitter . a detector circuit detects the coded signals and send them to an on - board microprocessor . the microprocessor converts the coded signals and activates one of five driver circuits for then outputting the selected stimuli and the appropriate level to the animal . the same rf circuitry on both the remote controller and the training device can function as paired transceivers to broadcast intelligent data back to the hand - held transmitter . a stimulator adjustment control includes a voltage divider network with a three - terminal potentiometer . the potentiometer is coupled to a voltage to frequency converter circuit ( vfc ) which converts the voltage level into individual separate frequencies . these separate frequencies allow the microprocessor to send the appropriate signal to the individual stimuli drivers for the five different outputs at the animal collar to articulate many different gradual levels of output from each of the five individually selectable stimuli . both the transmitter and receiver employee a dc battery pack for operating each system through an on - board regulator and power switch . in one embodiment , rechargeable batteries and their charging circuits are installed . on / off power switches are provided in each the transmitter and the receiver to activate and deactivate each system independently . in one embodiment , an lcd screen is employed in the transmitter and offers the user the capability to observe in a visual display the level setting , the state of the transmitter battery and which one of the five select function buttons is powered up when that particular button is pressed , preferably by icon . with the capability to adjust gradual levels upward and downward while also providing different styles of stimulation , the control offers the animal opportunities to be successful while allowing the user to build a more meaningful relationship with the animal . to allow greater potential for successful training results , these sensory detectors and their drive circuitry would include utilizing optical , photo , infrared , air flow , vibration , tilt , pressure , reflective , magnetic , temperature , voltage , current , frequency , and percussion transducer / sensors of all sorts and kinds . such electronic control activations would include utilizing the following signal types as cues : sound — audible , ultrasonic , and subsonic created by mechanical speaker / microphone , relay buzzer , solid - state , piezoelectric , ceramic , ferrite , magnetic , condenser , and percussion ( utilizing all frequencies , pulse rates , duty cycles , pulse widths , amplitudes , duration , repetition rates and such .) light — all spectrum colors , brilliances , and such ( utilizing all frequencies , pulse rates , duty cycles , pulse widths , amplitudes , duration , repetition rates and such .) taste — sweet to poison . smell — pungent to flowery . electrical impulse — transformer control of low current ( 50 micro - amps to 100 milliamps ) with high - voltage ( 50 vac to 10 , 000 vac ) ( utilizing all frequencies , pulse rates , duty cycles , pulse widths , amplitudes , duration , repetition rates and such .) vibration — motor - drive , mechanical offset fulcrum , pancake , ceramic , percussion and transducer ( utilizing all frequencies , pulse rates , duty cycles , pulse widths , amplitudes , duration , repetition rates and such .) looking more specifically to the figures , fig2 and 4 depict a hand - held remote controller 100 . if any one of first to fifth function buttons ( switches ) of the remote controller is pressed , corresponding data and id codes set by an id code setting means are provided to an oscillator / modulator 151 . then , rf signals generated in the oscillator / modulator 151 are amplified at an rf amplifier 152 and an rf output terminal 153 , filtered at a low - pass filter 154 to remove harmonics , and then emitted through an antenna 155 as radio waves . a stimulation adjustment control 130 uses a potentiometer as a “ volume ” ( magnitude ) control which allows precise control or gradual change of the stimulation level suitably for an animal , differently from the prior art . a conventional stimulation adjustment means uses a mechanical selector switch , and such a selector switch cannot subdivide a stimulation level precisely . fig3 and 5 depict a training device 200 . the training device 200 receives the rf signals emitted in the transmission of the remote controller 100 of fig2 and 4 respectively through an antenna 221 included therein . then , a high - frequency amplifier 222 amplifies weak radio waves , and a mixer 224 makes a secondary intermediate frequency such that a detector 227 extracts the data sent from the transmitter via a filter 226 . the extracted data is input to a low - frequency amplifier included in a microprocessor 210 . the microprocessor 210 outputs a signal to a selected one of an electrical impulse stimulation generator if the id code contained in itself is identical to the id code sent from the transmitter . hereinafter , each component of the remote controller ( transmitter ) 100 and the training device ( receiver ) 200 shown in fig2 to 5 will be described in detail based on the first and second embodiments . in the following description , if “ the second embodiment ” is mentioned , the corresponding description will apply only to the second embodiment . however , the following description will apply to both the first and second embodiments unless otherwise specifically stated . 121 : brief stimulation button ( first function button ) brief low - frequency electrical impulse stimulation ( 3 to 5 pulses ) is generated at the training device regardless of the time during which the button of the remote controller is pressed . continuous low - frequency electrical impulse stimulation is generated at the training device during the time that the button of the remote controller is pressed ( 12 seconds at the maximum ). 123 : + 20 level boost continuous stimulation button ( third function button ) boost low - frequency electrical impulse stimulation is preset at 20 levels higher than the continuous impulse level and is generated at the training device during the time that the button of the remote controller is pressed ( 5 to 7 seconds at the maximum ). a brief buzz sound is generated at the training device ( 3 to 5 pulses ) regardless of the time during which the button of the remote controller is pressed . an led light at the training device is turned on at the first press and turned off at the second press regardless of the time between when the button of the remote controller is pressed . the volume control is used for adjusting the stimulation level of the training device . a low - frequency electrical impulse stimulation corresponding to the level set by the volume control is generated at the training device by means of the first , second and third function buttons . an analog voltage according to the level output from the volume control 130 is converted into frequency , which is a digital value recognizable by a microprocessor in the remote controller , and then transmitted to the microprocessor in the training device . for example , 20 hz signal is provided to the microprocessor in case a volume output voltage is 0 . 1v ( i . e . level 1 ), and 100 hz signal is provided to the microprocessor in case a volume output voltage is 0 . 5v ( i . e . level 5 ). the microprocessor controls all functions input from the function buttons 120 and outputs an id code signal . the microprocessor also has a power on / off function . the microprocessor recognizes and processes the frequency signal supplied according to a stimulation level operates a display 140 and operates a rf control 156 , which controls an rf oscillator 151 and an rf amplifier 152 when a function is operated . in the two - way system ( in the second embodiment ), the microprocessor processes the data received from the training device 200 . for instance , the microprocessor computes a distance between a user and an animal based on position data of the user and the animal . the level set by the volume control 130 , and a residual battery capacity of the remote controller is displayed . in the two - way system ( in the second embodiment ), a residual battery capacity of the training device , a direction and distance of an animal from the user , a moving speed of the animal , and so on are displayed on the display 142 . the remote controller uses fm ( frequency modulation ), and a modulation - allowable vcxo is applied to give rf oscillation and modulation at the same time . rf output from the oscillator and modulator 151 is low , so the rf amplifier amplifies the output rf such that a following output terminal can be operated . the rf output is for amplifying rf such that the remote controller and the training device are within a reachable distance . the low - pass filter blocks high frequencies in the rf signal other than fundamental waves . the antenna transmits rf composed of fundamental waves , which has passed through the low - pass filter 154 . in the two - way system ( in the second embodiment ), the antenna receives rf signal transmitted from the training device . when any one of the first to fifth button 121 ˜ 125 of the remote controller is pressed , the rf control supplies power to the oscillator / modulator 151 and the rf amplifier 152 such that the oscillator / modulator 151 and the rf amplifier 152 are operated . the regulator & amp ; power switch has a constant - voltage ic function that is operated in association with the microprocessor 110 . if the power switch of the remote controller is pressed over 0 . 5 second , the power is turned on . if the power switch is pressed for over 1 second again after the power is turned on , the power is turned off . the battery 162 is a rechargeable battery and thus the charging device is used . the gps module 170 receives signals from the gps of the training device 200 to provide the microprocessor 110 with position data of the trainer . the two - way receiver 180 is used for receiving the information of the training device , and the two - way receiver 180 gives data to the microprocessor 110 . the antenna receives rf signal transmitted from the remote controller 100 . in the two - way system ( in the second embodiment ), the antenna transmits rf signal to the remote controller 100 . it is preferable that the antenna 221 is an internal ( built - in ) antenna and a detachable external antenna 221 ′ ( see fig1 ) is further provided to extend a reachable distance . the high - frequency amplifier amplifies weak rf signals induced to the receiving antenna 221 . osc is an oscillator that oscillates in itself to give a secondary intermediate frequency . rf signal supplied from the high - frequency amplifier 222 is mixed with the signal supplied from the osc 223 to make an intermediate frequency that is a secondary frequency . the intermediate - frequency amplifier amplifies the intermediate frequencies made at the mixer 224 . the filter filters the intermediate frequencies made at the mixer 224 to remove noise . the detector detects function signals and id signals sent from the remote controller . a low - frequency amplifier included in the microprocessor amplifies analog signals detected by the detector 227 ; and , in case the received signal is identical to id code already stored , a signal of any one selected from the first to fifth button 121 ˜ 125 of the remote controller is output . in the two - way system ( in the second embodiment ), the microprocessor processes the information of the training device and gives the information to a two - way transmitter 280 . the d / a converter is used for outputting a stimulation level , set by the volume control of the remote controller , as analog signals . the electrical impulse stimulation generator generates high - voltage stimulations to give low - frequency electrical impulse stimulations to an animal utilizing a transformer output . the stimulation terminals are electrodes for supplying electrical impulse stimulation to an animal . when the first , second and third function button 121 ˜ 123 of the remote controller are pressed , the stimulation generating circuit control 234 supplies power to the electrical impulse stimulation generator 232 to operate the electrical impulse stimulation generator 232 . the buzzer driver is used for operating a magnetic buzzer when the fourth function button 124 of the remote controller is pressed . the magnetic buzzer 242 is used for converting electric signals into sound signals . the light driver 251 is used for operating at least one led light when the fifth function button 125 of the remote controller is pressed . two high - brightness led &# 39 ; s 252 are applied to convert electric signals into light signals . the regulator & amp ; power switch 261 has a constant - voltage ic function that is operated in association with the microprocessor 210 . if the magnet is contacted with the lead switch of the training device over 0 . 5 second , the power is turned on . if the magnet is contacted over 0 . 5 second again after the power is turned on , the power is turned off . the battery 262 is a rechargeable battery and thus the charging means 263 is used . the gps ( global positioning system ) 270 obtains reference signals from at least three satellites to provide the microprocessor 210 with position data of the animal . the two - way transmitter 280 is used for transmitting the information of the training device , and the two - way transmitting 280 emits data as radio waves . meanwhile , in the former embodiments , the training device 200 includes the d / a converter 231 for converting the set stimulation level to an analog signal capable of being processed by the electrical impulse stimulation generator 232 and then outputting the analog signal . the d / a converter may be implemented in various ways , but generally the d / a converter is connected to the number of output pins of the microprocessor 210 which corresponds to the number of the stimulation level . in other words , though it is depicted in fig3 and 5 that the d / a converter 231 is connected to the microprocessor 210 by one line , for example in the case where the number of the stimulation level is 256 (= 2 8 ), the d / a converter 231 is connected to eight output pins of the microprocessor 210 . therefore , there is a disadvantage in that the capacity and size of the microprocessor generally configured with asic increases . in order to solve this disadvantage , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 666 , 908 and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 637 , 376 teach or suggest a configuration not using a d / a converter . in other words , in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 666 , 908 and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 637 , 376 , a microprocessor outputting a digital value outputs a pulse train corresponding to a stimulation level ( intensity ), and the pulse train is intactly applied ( strictly , through a buffer ) to a transistor which controls a primary current of a transformer serving as an electrical impulse stimulation generator . in detail , in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 666 , 908 , the microprocessor generates a pulse train in which a pulse width is changed in proportion to the stimulation level while a pulse period , a pulse magnitude and a pulse train duration are fixed . in addition , in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 637 , 376 , a pulse train in which a pulse amplitude and a pulse train duration are fixed but the number of pulses included in a certain pulse train duration is changed in proportion to the stimulation intensity or in which the number of pulses is fixed but the separation between pulses is changed is generated ( as a result , the duty cycle is changed in proportion to the stimulation intensity ). the pulse train generated as above is applied to a transistor which controls a primary current of a transformer , and current flows to the primary side of the transformer during the pulse on period ( duty cycle ) to generate electrical impulse stimulation to the secondary side . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 666 , 908 and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 637 , 376 allow the circuit in the training device to simplify and the number of output pins of the microprocessor to reduce since a d / a converter is not used separately . however , since the configuration for generating a pulse train corresponding to the stimulation level must be provided in the microprocessor , the microprocessor becomes complicated and has a large capacity . in addition , since the intensity ( level ) of the electric impulse , a stimulus , is not controlled by the magnitude of pulses in the pulse train but controlled by only the pulse on period , only the time during which the electric impulse of the same intensity continues may be controlled . however , in the third embodiment of the present invention , the level ( intensity ) of stimulation is controlled in the true sense of the word without using a d / a converter and without increasing the complexity of the microprocessor . for this purpose , in the third embodiment , as shown in fig6 , a digitally controllable volume control ( hereinafter , referred to as a “ digital volume ”) 330 is used instead of the d / a converter . the digital volume 330 may be implemented with several resistance elements and cmos switches and may be configured as an integrated circuit chip . the digital volume 330 receives the digital signal representing a stimulation level from the microprocessor 210 and outputs a voltage proportional thereto . in other words , in the words of u . s . pat . no . 5 , 666 , 908 and u . s . pat . no . 6 , 637 , 376 , the digital volume 330 outputs a pulse in which the width or number of voltage pulses or the duty cycle is fixed but the pulse amplitude or magnitude is variable . the voltage with a variable magnitude which is an output of the digital volume 330 is intactly applied to a transistor which controls a primary current of a transformer of the electrical impulse stimulation generator to allow the current proportional to the voltage value to flow to the primary side so that the electrical impulse stimulation with a voltage proportional thereto is generated at the secondary side . the digital volume 330 of this embodiment may be considered as a d / a converter in a broad sense since the input , output and functions of the digital volume 330 are identical to those of the d / a converter 231 of the former embodiments . however , the d / a converter 231 of the former embodiments occupies a plurality of output pins of the microprocessor 210 , while the digital volume 330 of this embodiment occupies only a small number of output pins regardless of the number of stimulation levels . therefore , in this embodiment , it is possible to reduce the capacity and size of the microprocessor which allows the training device 200 worn by an animal to become lighter . for example , in the case where the number of stimulation levels is 256 , the d / a converter 231 of the former embodiments occupies eight output pins , while the digital volume 330 of this embodiment occupies only three output pins regardless of the number of stimulation levels . hereinafter , the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig6 and 7 , based on only the components of the training device ( receiver ) 200 , different from those of the former embodiments . in fig6 , the component designated by the same reference symbol as in fig3 and 5 is identical to that of the former embodiment . meanwhile , only the input and output pins of the microprocessor 210 associated with the digital volume 330 are shown in fig7 , and the input and output pins not associated with the digital volume 330 are not shown therein . a power is applied from the battery 262 to the power pin vcc , and the power pin vcc supplies the power to a circuit in the digital volume . the data pin da exchanges commands and data ( including stimulation level data ) with the microprocessor 210 in a serial communication . the commands and data input to or output from the data pin da include fields for command codes ( id codes ) such as writing and reading , address fields designating a register which is a target of each command , and data fields representing a data value ( a stimulation level value ) to be written in the designated register by the address field . the length ( bits ) of each field is suitably determined according to the number of command types , the number of registers , and the number of stimulation levels . for example , in the case where the number of stimulation levels is 256 , the length of the data field becomes 8 bits . the clock pin cl provides a basic clock regulating the operation timing of each circuit in the digital volume . writing is allowed in each register of the digital volume only when the write protection pin wp is activated . the high output pin vh outputs a highest voltage value ( a voltage value of the power received from the power pin vcc ) corresponding to the highest stimulation level . the low output pin vl outputs a lowest voltage value ( typically , 0 v ) corresponding to the lowest stimulation level . the wiper output pin vw outputs a voltage value corresponding to the stimulation level stored in a wiper register 332 . the wiper output pin vw is connected to a base of a transistor 232 b which controls a primary current of a transformer 232 a of the electrical impulse stimulation generator 232 , and current proportional to the output voltage ( stimulation level ) of the wiper output pin flows to the primary side of the transformer 232 a so that a high voltage proportional to the stimulation level is induced to the secondary side of the transformer 232 a and is applied to the stimulation terminal 233 . the wiper register 332 stores the stimulation level value input through the data pin da or stored in a non - volatile register 333 , and may be implemented as a volatile memory element . the length ( bits ) of the wiper register is identical to the length of data fields of the commands and data input or output through the data pin da . the voltage proportional to the stimulation level stored in the wiper register 332 is output from the wiper output pin vw . for example , in the case where the number of stimulation levels is 256 ( the length of the wiper register is 8 bits ) and the value presently stored in the wiper register is 25 , the highest voltage ( the voltage of the high output pin vh ) is divided by 256 and then the voltage corresponding to the twenty fifth is output through the wiper output pin vw . the non - volatile register 333 stores a value stored last in the wiper register 332 when the digital volume 330 or the training device 200 turns off , or stores an initial value ( an initial stimulation level value ) that needs to load to the wiper register 332 when the digital volume 330 or the training device 200 turns on . in the case where the initial stimulation level value is not specially set or the last value of the wiper register 332 is not stored , or if the wiper register 332 is configured with a non - volatile memory element , the non - volatile register 333 may not be provided . the control logic 331 is a logic circuit controlling each component of the digital volume 330 . the control logic 331 interprets commands and data input through the data pin da and reads or writes values of the wiper register 332 or the non - volatile register 333 according to logic values of the clock pin cl and the write protection pin wp . meanwhile , though it has been illustrated in the above third embodiment that the training device 200 communicates with the remote controller 100 and applies an electrical impulse stimulation to an animal according to the stimulation level set in the remote controller 100 , the training device 200 of the third embodiment may also be used solely without the remote controller 100 . in other words , the training device 200 has a sensor for sensing a specific behavior of an animal , which requires correction , for example barking or moving out of a set area , and when such a specific behavior of the animal is sensed by the sensor , the training device 200 may automatically apply a stimulation of a level defined by applying the number or degree of such specific behaviors to a predetermined algorithm . this algorithm may increase the stimulation level as the number or degree of specific behaviors increases , and may decrease or initialize the stimulation level if the specific behavior is not sensed for a predetermined time , in a traditional way . in this case , the remote controller and an antenna and circuits associated for communication with the remote controller are not needed . instead , a sensor for sensing a specific behavior of an animal is required . in addition , there is a need to program and store the predetermined algorithm in the microprocessor 210 of the training device . meanwhile , the animal training system of the present invention may also be configured to train two or more animals simultaneously by using a single remote controller . in other words , the animal training system may include a single remote controller , and two or more training devices capable of communicating with the single remote controller by rf communication , each respectively worn by the animals to be trained . the fourth embodiment is directed to such a system including a single remote controller and a plurality of training devices . hereinafter , the fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig8 to 10 , based on points that are different from the former embodiments . in fig8 to 10 , the component designated by the same reference symbol as in fig1 and 2 is identical to that of the former embodiment . the animal training system of the fourth embodiment includes a single remote controller 100 ′ and two training devices 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 , as shown in fig8 . even though fig8 is depicted as if two remote controllers 100 ′ are used , only one remote controller 100 ′ is depicted as being observed from different positions . in addition , even though the remote controller 100 ′ of fig8 has a different appearance from the remote controller 100 shown in fig1 , the remote controller 100 ′ of fig8 has the same basic functions as the remote controller 100 of fig1 except for some components required for controlling the two training devices 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 separately . in addition , each of the two training devices 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 is substantially identical to the training device 200 of the former embodiments . moreover , the above two training devices have the same basic configuration except that they have some different detailed configurations required for selectively responding to the remote controller . additionally , the above two training devices may be differently marked to be distinguished from each other . the remote controller 100 ′ of this embodiment includes an animal selection switch 126 for selecting a training device 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 ( or , an animal ) to be controlled ( to be trained ), which is a big difference from the former embodiments . in other words , a user may select an animal 1 ( e . g ., dog 1 ) or an animal 2 ( e . g ., dog 2 ) by using the animal selection switch 126 in the form of a toggle switch , and apply a stimulation such as an electric impulse stimulation , a sound stimulation and a light stimulation to the selected animal by the manipulation as in the examples described above . at this time , the remote controller 100 ′ may be set to use different communication frequencies or different id codes for the training devices 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 in order to control only a selected training device 200 - 1 or 200 - 2 ( in other words , in order that only a selected training device responds to the control of the remote controller ). accordingly , the training devices 200 - 1 and 200 - 2 are configured to communicate with the remote controller 100 ′ by using different corresponding communication frequencies or are endowed with different id codes . if the animal training system of this embodiment as described above is used , a plurality of animals may be controlled ( trained ) by using only one remote controller 100 ′. however , the plurality of animals controlled ( trained ) by one remote controller 100 ′ may have different sensitivities against stimulation . for this reason , whenever an animal to be trained changes , the stimulation level applied to the animal should be appropriately adjusted . however , adjusting the stimulation level whenever a selected animal changes is very cumbersome , and in a case where an urgent control is necessary , a user may fluster and not be able to easily adjust the stimulation level suitably . in this consideration , the animal training system of this embodiment finds and memorizes an appropriate stimulation level of each animal through trial and error , and then , when an animal is selected by the animal selection switch 126 , the animal training system automatically sets the stored appropriate stimulation level for the animal . further , in this embodiment , a locking function and an unlocking function are provided so that the stored appropriate stimulation level for each animal does not change even though a volume control 130 ′ is manipulated . in detail , the remote controller 100 ′ of this embodiment includes a locking unit for locking the level of presently set electric impulse stimulation so that the level does not change even though the volume control 130 ′ is manipulated . the locking unit includes a storage unit for storing the level of electric impulse stimulation set by the volume control 130 ′, and a locking button configured to be pressed by the user so that the level of electric impulse stimulation set for the training device 200 - 1 or 200 - 2 selected by the animal selection switch 126 is stored in the storage unit . the storage unit may be a memory element 111 provided in the microprocessor 110 , as shown in fig9 . the memory element 111 may be implemented into a register , and the memory element 111 is preferably a non - volatile memory whose contents do not erase even when the power is off . in this embodiment , the locking button is not a separate button , and the volume control 130 ′ also functions as the locking button . in other words , the volume control 130 ′ is configured to turn , and the volume control 130 ′ adjusts the level of electric impulse stimulation in proportion to its turning amount and a locking function which is performed when the volume control 130 ′ is pressed along its turning axis ( see the arrow in fig1 ). if the volume control 130 ′ is pressed in its axial direction as described above , the microprocessor 110 stores the level of electric impulse stimulation , presently set by the turning operation of the volume control 130 ′ and displayed at the center of the display 140 , in the storage unit 111 as a level of stimulation for the animal presently selected by the animal selection switch 126 . after that , even though the volume control 130 ′ is turned , the turning operation is ignored , and the stimulation level does not change . at this time , the display 400 displays the animal whose stimulation level is presently selected , stored and locked ( for example , in a case where the stimulation level is locked for dog 1 , an symbol “ 1d ” is displayed , and in a case where the stimulation level is locked for dog 2 , a symbol “ 2d ” is displayed , as shown in fig1 ) to inform the user of the animal whose stimulation level is locked . in a state where the appropriate stimulation level for each animal is stored and locked , if an animal selected by the animal selection switch 126 changes , the stimulation level stored for the selected animal is automatically displayed on the display 140 . in this state , if the user instantly pushes the stimulation button ( for example , the brief stimulation button 121 or the continuous stimulation button 122 ) without adjusting the stimulation level , the present stimulation level is sent to the selected training device 200 - 1 or 200 - 2 and is applied to the selected animal . meanwhile , when the level of electric impulse stimulation for a specific animal is in a locked state , if the locking button ( or , the volume control 130 ′) is pushed again , the locked state is released . in other words , the microprocessor 110 turns off the symbol (“ 1d ” or “ 2d ” in fig1 ) showing the selected animal whose stimulation level is stored and locked , and allows the level of electric impulse stimulation to be changed by the turning operation of the volume control 130 ′. as described above , the animal training system of this embodiment stores and locks appropriate stimulation levels for a plurality of animals , and therefore it is not necessary to separately adjust the stimulation level even though a selected animal is changed , which allows the user to rapidly and conveniently cope with the change of the selected animal . meanwhile , even though it has been described in the fourth embodiment that a user may select one of two animals ( in other words , the user may select one of two training devices ), the user may select one of three or more animals , not limited to the above . in addition , even though it has been described in the fourth embodiment that the volume control 130 ′ has a function of the locking button together , the locking button may be provided independently of the volume control 130 ′, not limited to the above . further , the first to fourth embodiments may be combined as desired . for example , the stimulation level storing and locking function of the fourth embodiment may be applied to an animal training system having a single remote controller and a single training device . in addition , the 2 - way function of the second embodiment may be applied to the third or fourth embodiment , and the digital volume of the third embodiment may be applied to the first , second or fourth embodiment . meanwhile , in the embodiments described above , by pressing the + 20 level boost continuous stimulation button ( third function button ) 123 , the electric impulse stimulation applied to the animal to be trained may be boosted by 20 levels during the time when the + 20 level boost continuous stimulation button ( third function button ) 123 is pressed ( for example , 5 to 7 seconds ) so that low - frequency electric impulse stimulation at 20 levels higher than the present level is applied . this boost stimulation mode may be effectively used when the animal to be trained repeats behaviors which should be corrected . however , the levels (+ 20 levels ) increased in the boost stimulation mode may be inappropriate depending on the sensitiviy of the animal to be trained . therefore , in a fifth embodiment of the present invention , the number of levels increasing in the boost stimulation mode ( or , a level increment ) may be set by the user as desired . for this , the remote controller of this embodiment further includes a level increment setting means for setting a level increment in the boost stimulation mode , compared with the remote controller 100 , 100 ′ of the former embodiments . in detail , the level increment setting means includes a mode start and end button for starting a level increment setting mode when being pressed over a predetermined time ( for example , 5 seconds ) and quitting the level increment setting mode when being pressed again over a predetermined time ( for example , 5 seconds ) after the level increment is set , a volume control manipulated by the user to set the level increment , a display for displaying the set level increment to be recognized by the user , and a storage unit for storing the set level increment if the level increment setting mode ends . here , the mode start and end button may be separately provided to the remote controller 100 , 100 ′ of the former embodiments or may also be implemented by using the existing buttons 120 . in other words , for example , the brief stimulation button 121 may operate as the mode start and end button when being pressed over a predetermined time . in addition , the volume control manipulated to set a level increment in the level increment setting mode may employ the volume control 130 , 130 ′ of the former embodiments , and the display for displaying a level increment may employ the display 140 of the former embodiments . in addition , the storage unit may be a memory element 111 provided in the microprocessor 110 of the fourth embodiment , which has been illustrated with reference to fig9 . the memory element 111 may be implemented in the form of register and is preferably a non - volatile memory whose contents are not erased even though power is off . a method for setting a level increment in the boost stimulation mode by using the level increment setting means configured as above will be described below . first , the mode start and end button , namely the brief stimulation button 121 in the above example , is pressed over a predetermined time ( for example , 5 seconds ). however , since the brief stimulation button 121 is originally configured to generate short low - frequency electric impulse stimulation ( three to five pulses ) in the training device regardless of the time during which the button is pressed in the remote controller , the level increment setting mode starts and simultaneously a stimulation level currently set by the volume control 130 , 130 ′ is applied to an animal to be trained . therefore , in order to prevent this problem , before the brief stimulation button ( mode start and end button ) 121 is pressed , the volume control 130 , 130 ′ is manipulated to set the stimulation level to 0 . the brief stimulation button 121 is pressed after the stimulation level is set to 0 . by doing so , if the level increment setting mode starts , the display 140 displays a level increment in the boost stimulation mode which is set to be 0 ( or , 20 as a default value ) to blink . since the level increment blinks , the user may recognize that the level increment setting mode starts . in this state , the user manipulates ( or turns ) the volume control 130 , 130 ′ to set the number of levels increasing in the boost stimulation mode ( or , a level increment ) as desired ( here , the level increment may be set within a certain range ). then , the display 140 displays the level increment value to blink according to the manipulation of the volume control 130 , 130 ′ by the user . if the set level increment is displayed by the display 140 in a blinking state , the user presses the brief stimulation button ( mode start and end button ) 121 again over a predetermined time ( for example , 5 seconds ). then , the blinking state of the level increment displayed by the display 140 is released ( namely , coming to a lighting state ) so that the level increment is displayed without blinking . in addition , the set level increment is stored in the memory 111 , and the level increment setting mode ends . meanwhile , in the above example where the existing brief stimulation button 121 is used as the mode start button , before the mode start button 121 is pressed , the volume control 130 , 130 ′ is manipulated to adjust the stimulation level to 0 . for this reason , even though the brief stimulation button 121 pressed to apply electric impulse stimulation to an animal to be trained after the level increment setting mode ends , the stimulation may not actually be applied to the animal to be trained . therefore , in this case , it is needed to set the level of electric impulse stimulation applied to the animal to be trained by manipulating the volume control 130 , 130 ′ after the level increment setting mode ends . as an alternative , the stimulation level storing and locking functions of the fourth embodiment above may be applied to this embodiment , so that the electric impulse stimulation level stored and locked may be maintained after and before the level increment setting mode . however , in this case , since the volume control 130 ′ is in a locked state , even though the volume control 130 ′ is manipulated after the mode start and end button 121 is pressed , the stimulation level is not set to be 0 , and so the level increment setting mode may not start . to solve this problem , the volume control 130 ′ which is also used as a locking button may be configured to exhibit its original locking / releasing function in case of being pressed along its turning axis over a predetermined time ( for example , 5 seconds ) and to allow the stimulation level to be temporarily set to 0 in order to start the level increment setting mode in case of being pressed for a shorter time ( or , vice versa ). each step of the level increment setting mode described above may be programmed and preferably implemented as software or firmware in the microprocessor 110 . by doing so , this embodiment may be implemented by changing only the software without greatly changing the hardware . as described above , the animal training system of this embodiment may allow more appropriate and convenient training since a user may set the number of levels increasing in the boost stimulation mode ( or , a level increment ) as desired according to the sensitivity of the animal to be trained . meanwhile , even though the fifth embodiment has been illustrated based on electric impulse stimulation as an example , the boost stimulation mode and the level increment setting mode may also be identically applied to other kinds of stimulations such as sound , vibration , light and smell , in addition to the electric impulse stimulation . in addition , even though the fifth embodiment has been illustrated based on the case where a single animal is trained ( or controlled ) by using a single remote controller , this embodiment may be identically applied to a system having a plurality of training devices as in the fourth embodiment . further , the first to fifth embodiments may be combined as desired . thus , an improved animal training system has been disclosed . while embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown and described , it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein . therefore , the invention is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims .
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subsequently a description of a preferred embodiment of the invention on basis of the production of alsi14 % formed parts is given , which up to now were usually hot sintered — but the invention is by no means restricted to this application , other sinterable metallic powders can also be processed using this method , for example ti , ta , mg , be , cs , cu . [ 0043 ] fig1 shows a diagrammatic view of the process sequence according to the teaching of the invention . as shown , the method comprises the manufacture of a continuously sintered part which is produced by the continuous isostatic pressing of a sinterable material mixture without lubricant , from a sinter form closed by a die plate . the initial material an inhomogeneously melting mixture of aluminium powder with 13 wt . % silicon powder ( alsi only melts homogeneously in the range 5 - 7 %) is homogeneously mixed and then transferred to a powder press for the manufacture of powder billets not close to the final contour . there it is cold pressed under high pressure to form a billet - like green compact . the billet - like green compact is transferred to a system for continuous isostatic sintering — here an extruding press — and is sintered as it is pressed through the die plate . the alsi14 sintered part leaves the die plate at temperatures of up to 70 % of the melting point of the main component as a continuous sintered profile , the external contour of which is close to the final form . the continuously sintered profile is now mechanically separated according to the required disc height and the material discs are heat treated at 250 ° c . for 30 minutes . when the sintered discs come from the heat treatment they are then calibrated in a calibration press at a force of 150 kn — that is , the final form is achieved with very close dimensional tolerances . unlike conventionally , hot isostatic pressed parts with the same composition , the sintered parts produced in this way do not have to be decapsulated and have suitable flow properties for calibration . they can then be used as finished parts without any further finishing . alsi14 % sintered parts were produced conventionally by sintering , by pressing a green compact , made of aluminium powder with 14wt . % of silicon with hoechst wachs c compression aiding material , into a disc , this disc was then treated for 20 minutes at 410 ° c . in a heat treatment stage , then sintered for 30 minutes at 590 ° c . in a sintering furnace and then heat - treated once more at 400 ° c . for 240 minutes , as a comparative product . [ 0046 ] fig2 shows a a comparison of the microstructures of the alsi14 sintered aluminium discs , produced with conventional hot sintering according to the comparative test , and produced by isostatic pressing according to the invention . it is clearly shown that the part produced according to the invention has a smaller grain size and fewer segregated areas — the sintered part produced according to the invention is therefore more homogeneous in its properties . [ 0047 ] fig3 shows friction coefficient curves of hot isostatic pressed alsi14 % formed bodies and continuously isostatically pressure sintered alsi14 % formed bodies according to the invention against 100 cr6 . it can clearly be seen that the isostatically pressure sintered material initially has greater surface roughness , which however is quickly rolled out , so that as the friction test continues , the friction coefficient for the isostatically pressure sintered material is lower than for the hot isostatically pressed product . this speaks in favour of higher ductility of the isostatically pressure sintered material . it can clearly be seen from table 1 that the sintered bodies produced according to the invention have a lower scatter — that is , they can be set more precisely and thus also supply fewer waste parts . the sintered parts are more homogeneous and can also be elongated more , thus providing improved elastic behaviour , as required in particular by mechanically stressed parts , such as chain wheels against steel chains , rotors and stators in a camshaft adjustment system or oil pump parts , bearing parts , pump wheels etc . finally , a hot pressure test was carried out with the isostatically pressure sintered part — it was shown that after exposure of the produced alsi14 products to air at 150 ° c . for 500 and 1000 h practically no change took place in heat pressure strength , pressure elongation or the pressure yield point ( table 1 ). table 1 shows that the strength of the isostatically continuously sintered alsi14 part produced according to the invention is considerably better than that of the hot isostatically pressed part . [ 0052 ] fig5 shows the result of the manufacture of parts sintered according to the invention with different material areas — here in fig5 a a section of a round sintered part with a different external layer — in fig5 b a two - layered square sintered part ; in fig5 c a tubular sintered part with different layers ; fig5 d shows a striped distribution in sintered parts . a combination of different sintering materials is thus possible with the simultaneous production of the sintered part — for example the application of an external layer reinforced with hard materials , as a separate process stage , can thus be prevented by direct “ application by sintering ”— etc . production of a sintered material disc with hard external material and easily workable internal material a powder mixture of alloyed almgl powder and 2 wt . % silicon powder for the mixture of the internal material , and a powder mixture of aluminium powder with 40 % sic for the external material are homogeneously mixed and pressed in a divided mould which produces the required powder billet with alsi as core and alsic as outer layer . this powder billet is transferred to a continuous isostatic press with a round die plate and processed under high pressure at temperatures of up to 70 % of the melting point of the main component to form a round sintered profile . the sintered profile produced in this way is cut into discs with a height of 15 mm by means of a water jet . these discs are suitable as pump gear wheels for oil and water pumps , said wheels having an easily workable internal zone for drilling holes , while the external zone with the sic hard part phase is resistant to wear by friction . obviously the invention is not limited to the exact design or the listed or described embodiments , but various modifications are obvious to the expert , without deviating from the essentials and the scope of protection .
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fig1 schematically shows an hvac system 20 incorporating a thermostat 22 . as shown , thermostat 22 incorporates a microprocessor 23 which is a central control for system 20 . the microprocessor 23 has available access to a memory 24 . an indoor heating unit 26 may be a furnace , or a heater and fan , and is also provided with a microprocessor 28 . an outdoor unit 30 which may be an air conditioner or heat pump , is also provided with a microprocessor 32 . an auxiliary device , shown as a ventilation device 34 , has its own microprocessor 36 . various zone controls 38 have microprocessors 40 shown schematically also . a connectivity kit , such as a remote access module 42 has a microprocessor 44 . a remote access module is typically a wireless link to an internet connection that allows a user to monitor or change temperature conditions from a remote location . this is an example system , and this invention does extend to systems with fewer units and systems with more units . as shown , each of the units 26 , 30 , 34 , 38 and 42 communicate with the microprocessor 23 . the microprocessors 28 , 32 , 36 , 40 and 44 associated with the several units control operation of each individual unit . the microprocessors 28 , 32 , 36 , 40 and 44 receive instructions from the microprocessor 23 . microprocessor 23 sends instruction to achieve temperature , etc . as requested by a user through the thermostat . moreover , and in accordance with this invention , the microprocessors 28 , 32 , 36 , 40 and 44 are operable to provide characteristic information to the microprocessor 23 . in particular , each of the units 26 , 30 , 34 , 38 and 42 come in optional sizes , capacities , etc . their individual microprocessors are able to communicate information to the microprocessor 23 at the thermostat 22 to report on the particular characteristic of the particular installed unit 26 , 30 , 34 , 38 and 42 . each of the microprocessors ( 28 , 32 , 36 , 40 and 44 ) associated with the particular reporting units have stored information that is associated with a particular characteristic of the units ( 26 , 30 , 34 , 38 and 42 ), and can distinguish between the available types of reporting units . as an example , if there are several available indoor units , the characteristic information stored in the microprocessor 28 of the indoor unit 26 would carry some code indicative of the particular characteristic . the microprocessor 23 is provided information such that the reporting information from the indoor unit 26 would let the microprocessor 23 know what the particular characteristics are . the characteristic information is preferably programmed into each unit &# 39 ; s microprocessor in the factory at the time the equipment is manufactured . one preferred method of factory programming the configuration information is by a factory run test computer , which can recognize the exact model being tested . the factory run test computer can then digitally download the model specific information , or the characteristic information , into the electronic control of the unit . alternatively , some configuration information may be factory set by means of jumpers , switches , or model plugs . when the system is initially installed , the microprocessor 23 is provided with this characteristic information on each of the units 26 , 30 , 34 , 38 and 42 . if a unit is ever changed , the replacement unit will need to report its characteristic information . thus , the reports preferably occur at least periodically . as shown in fig2 , an initial step in this invention , is to connect the units together . the units will then all report to the microprocessor 23 . microprocessor 23 can then access a memory 24 to determine how the several units are best controlled in combination with each other to achieve optimal results . the information in the memory 24 may be determined experimentally , or in other ways known to a worker of ordinary skill in the art . a worker of ordinary skill in the art would recognize how each of the several units are best utilized in combination with each other dependent upon the characteristic of each of the units , or how such optimal operation algorithms can be determined . as shown for example in fig1 , within the memory 24 are a plurality of available options for the indoor unit , the outdoor unit , and the ventilator . various combinations of types , shown here indicated by letters of the alphabet , are stored , and are associated with algorithms for operation of that preferred combination of type units . once the microprocessor 23 is provided with information of the types of indoor unit , outdoor unit , and ventilation device , it can identify and utilize appropriate controls for the particular combination . the illustrated memory is an oversimplification , in that there are other units such as shown in fig1 that would also have options within the memory . examples of the types of information , and some of the example types of units are shown in fig1 b . thus , and as an example , the furnace may be programmed to report information on its characteristics such as model number , serial number , furnace size , airflow range , and pressure constants . again , while the chart does show numerous other units and types of characteristic information , the listing is meant to be exemplary and not limiting . at the time of installation , the identified characteristics are displayed in some manner to the installer . one example display is shown in fig1 c . preferably , a display on thermostat 22 would report to the installer that reporting information has been successfully received from each of the units that should have reported . the installer can then ensure proper installation , and that the characteristic information has been properly reported . while the various units are shown reporting directly to the microprocessor 23 , in practice , it will be most preferred that they would communicate through a serial bus connection such as is disclosed in co - pending u . s . patent application ser . no . 10 / 752 , 626 , entitled “ communicating hvac system ” filed on even date herewith , and naming the same inventors as this application . as shown in fig3 , the preferred arrangement includes control wires providing a control communication bus between microprocessor 23 and 28 . the microprocessor 32 in the outdoor unit 30 preferably communicates through indoor unit microprocessor 28 to microprocessor 23 . further , the auxiliary microprocessors such as the microprocessor 36 in the ventilation unit may also communicate to the microprocessor 23 through the indoor unit microprocessor 28 . again , this aspect of the invention is disclosed in greater detail in the above - referenced co - pending patent application , and the details of the connection are incorporated herein by reference . as also shown in fig1 b , each of the reporting units may carry information from various accessing units to report to microprocessor 23 . examples are identified under “ identified field installed accessories ” column . one example is the capacity of an electric heater may be reported by the microprocessor 28 associated with the fan coil . the electric heater may report its capacity to microprocessor 28 such as disclosed in u . s . patent application ser . no . 10 / 707 , 524 , entitled “ identification of electric heater capacity ,” filed on dec . 12 , 2003 . the capacity of the electric heater will then be included in the characteristics communicated by microprocessor 28 to microprocessor 23 . again , other examples of accessory information are illustrated in fig1 b , but are not intended to be limiting . the stored control algorithms may be as known in the art . as mentioned above , in the prior art , when the system was initially configured , an installer set flags , switches , etc . which instructed the control on which algorithm to pick . the present invention is directed to providing the information to the control without any need for the installer to perform such steps . while microprocessor controls have been disclosed , other types of appropriate controls can be utilized to perform this invention . although a preferred embodiment of this invention has been disclosed , a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention . for that reason , the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention .
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fig1 illustrates a block diagram view of a surface mount production line 10 including an inline programming apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention . as shown , surface mount production line 10 includes a linear array of machines or components that perform unique functions . for example , component 30 may be a stencil printer machine 30 that controls the application of solder paste to a blank circuit board . component 40 may be a chip shooter machine that performs high speed placement of devices and circuit elements that do not require a high level of placement accuracy . such devices and elements include resistors , capacitors , and the like . component 50 may be a fine pitch placement machine that places devices at low speed with extreme accuracy . component 60 may be a reflow oven that “ cooks ” the solder paste , thereby soldering to the board all the devices and elements that were placed on the board by the previous machines . each component of production line 10 includes a printed circuit board conveyor for moving printed circuit boards within each machine . the conveyors within each component interface physically and electrically to form one continuous conveyor that allows circuit boards to flow from one end of the line to the other . circuit boards typically pause within each machine and are locked in place by the conveyor , e . g ., using a clamping mechanism , while being subjected to the particular processing that machine is designed to perform . fig2 illustrates a block diagram of an inline programming apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention . inline programming apparatus 20 receives and programs blank programmable devices and places the programmed devices on printed circuit boards as they pass through the apparatus on the conveyor . according to an embodiment of the present invention , the operation of in - line programming apparatus 20 relies on four parallel asynchronous processes . in one embodiment , these processes are embodied in four different components of in - line programming apparatus 20 : the concurrent programming subsystem 100 , the conveyor subsystem 110 , the pick and place subsystem 120 , and the central control unit 130 . each component depends on input signals representing events from the other systems . the interdependencies are described in the flow charts illustrated in fig3 - 6 as described in more detail below . control unit 130 provides overall coordination and control of the various subsystems . typically , control unit 130 communicates with the various subsystems , and with the upstream and downstream machines in some cases , through one or more busses 150 by sending and receiving control and status signals . although not shown , each subsystem includes a processor component for controlling functions of the subsystem , and for effecting communication with control unit 130 and with the other subsystems . conveyor subsystem 110 receives printed circuit boards from the upstream machine ( e . g ., fine pitch placement machine 50 ), moves the board through apparatus 20 and delivers a printed circuit board to the downstream device ( e . g ., reflow oven 60 ). conveyor subsystem 110 includes sensors 112 and 114 as are known in the art for detecting when a board has been received and delivered , respectively . for example , each sensor 112 and 114 detects a trailing edge of the board and signals conveyor subsystem 110 and / or control unit 130 . a third sensor ( not shown ) is also provided just upstream from a processing station location 116 of conveyor subsystem 110 . device input interface 140 is provided for receiving devices to be programmed from outside of system 20 . in one embodiment , device input interface 140 includes a device tray shuttle for receiving a tray holding one or more devices . other device delivery interfaces may be used as are well known , including interfaces capable of receiving device holding media such as tape , tubes and the like . pick and place subsystem 120 includes a pick and place head 122 that is capable of picking up the required programmable devices . pick and place subsystem 120 typically includes tracks or rails 118 a and 118 b , along which a portion of subsystem 120 is able to move so as to effect movement of head 122 for picking and placing devices within apparatus 20 . concurrent programming subsystem 100 is responsible for programming devices with the desired program pattern and for testing the programmed devices prior to placement on a printed circuit board . in one embodiment , concurrent programming subsystem 100 includes multiple sites 102 i to 102 n for concurrently programming and testing multiple devices . an example of such a concurrent programming system can be found in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 996 , 004 , assigned to bp microsystems , inc ., entitled “ concurrent programming apparatus and method for electronic devices ,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes . “ programming ” a device typically includes transferring or “ burning in ” a sequence of operating codes into the memory , or by specifying a particular arrangement of gating logic connections ( e . g ., for a programmable logic array device ). during operation , each programming site of concurrent programming subsystem 100 moves through the following states : empty , waiting , active , ready , and promised . empty indicates that the programming site , or socket , is physically empty . waiting indicates that the socket is waiting for the pick and place subsystem 120 to deliver a device to be programmed . active indicates that a device is in the socket and is being programmed . ready indicates that the socket contains a programmed device . promised indicates that the socket contains a programmed device that has been “ promised ” to conveyor subsubsystem 110 for assembly . once programming subsystem 100 has been configured for all programmable devices required by the boards to be processed , it is ordered by central control unit 130 to enter its processing loop , for example , as shown in fig3 a - b . fig3 a - b illustrate a flow chart showing the general operation of concurrent programming subsystem 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention . concurrent programming subsystem 100 operates by running a loop that repeats continuously until the job is over ( i . e ., programming of all devices is completed ). initially , for each programming site , the system determines whether the site is in the empty state in step 200 . if the site is empty , that site is transitioned to the waiting state in step 205 . concurrent programming subsystem 100 then asks pick and place subsystem 120 to deliver a device to the specific site in step 210 . ( the “ a ” in step 120 indicates that data is provided to pick and place subsystem 120 , e . g ., data indicating the locations at which to pick up and to place the device as well as a status variable .) if the site is not empty , in step 220 it is determined whether the site is in the waiting state . if the site is not waiting , the process proceeds to step 240 . otherwise , in step 225 it is determined whether a device has been delivered . if the site is waiting , and a device has been delivered , device programming is initiated in step 230 , and the site is transitioned to the active state in step 235 . in step 240 , it is determined whether the site is in the active state . if the site is active , it is determined whether the site has finished programming the device , and optionally whether the programmed device has been successfully tested ( e . g ., by applying voltages and waveforms to the programmed device ) in step 245 . if a device fails testing , the device is discarded and a new device is provided to concurrent programming subsystem 100 . if programming has finished , the site is transitioned to the ready state in step 250 . in step 255 the system determines whether the site is in the promised state . if the site is promised , concurrent programming subsystem 100 queries pick and place subsystem 120 to determine whether the device has been removed from the site in step 260 . ( the “ b ” in step 260 indicates that data is provided to and from pick and place subsystem 120 .) if the programmed device has been removed , the site is transitioned to the empty state in step 265 . in step 270 , it is determined whether all sites have been checked . if all sites have not been checked , the process returns to beginning step 200 for the next site . if all sites have been checked , the process proceeds to step 275 . with reference to fig3 b , in step 275 , concurrent programming subsystem 100 determines whether central control unit 130 is requesting a device location ( e . g ., identification of any site handling the programming for a specific device type ). ( the “ c ” in step 275 indicates that data is provided to and from central control unit 130 .) if central control unit 130 is not requesting a device location , the process proceeds to step 200 . if central control unit 130 is requesting a device location , it is determined in step 280 whether any site handling the specific requested device type is in the ready state . if no site handling the specified device type is ready , in step 295 , concurrent programming subsystem 100 provides a message to conveyor 110 indicating that no device is ready . the message may be provided directly to conveyor 110 , or it may be relayed first to central control unit 130 . the process then loops back to beginning step 200 . if a site handling the specified device type is ready , the site is transitioned to the promised state in step 285 , and the location of that site &# 39 ; s socket is provided to conveyor 110 . ( the “ c ” s in steps 290 and 295 indicate that data is provided to conveyor 110 either directly or through central control unit 130 .) the process then loops back to beginning step 200 . conveyor subsystem 110 interacts with the upstream machine to bring printed circuit boards into ilp system 20 . conveyor subsystem 110 also interacts with the downstream machine to provide a printed circuit board assembly thereto . for example , as shown in fig1 , the conveyor system of inline programming system 20 interacts with the fine pitch placement machine 50 ( i . e ., upstream machine ) to receive a printed circuit board to be processed , and with reflow oven 60 ( i . e ., downstream machine ) to deliver a processed printed circuit board assembly thereto . conveyor subsystem 110 also interfaces with central control unit 130 , concurrent programming subsystem 100 and pick and place subsystem 120 . in one embodiment , conveyor 110 uses four defined state variables to interact with the upstream and downstream machines : ready , available , upavail and downready as it moves through its states of operation . in one embodiment , these state variables are binary variables having two states . the status variables are communicated between conveyor subsystem 110 and the upstream and downstream machines through the electrical connections provided between ilp system 10 and the upstream and downstream machines . once conveyor subsystem 100 has been configured with velocity and acceleration limits , it is ordered by central control unit 130 to enter its processing loop to await the first board to be delivered . one example of such a processing loop is shown in fig4 a - c . in one embodiment , with reference to fig4 a - c , conveyor subsystem 110 has six defined states of operation as follows : state 0 : in this state , the conveyor is waiting for the upstream machine to indicate that a board is ready for delivery . the conveyor is preferably stationary to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on the belt and other mechanical components . in step 300 , ready is set to one state , e . g ., low , to indicate that conveyor 110 is not ready to receive a board from the upstream machine , and available is set to one state , e . g ., low , to indicate that conveyor 110 is not ready to deliver a printed circuit board assembly to the downstream machine . conveyor 110 transitions in step 305 from state 0 to state 1 when the upstream machine sets upavail to one state , e . g ., high , to indicate that it is ready to deliver a printed circuit board . state 1 : in this state , conveyor 110 is waiting to receive the board from the upstream machine . conveyor 110 will match the speed of the conveyor on the upstream machine to allow a smooth transfer from one machine to the next . in step 310 , ready is set high to indicate that conveyor 110 is ready to receive a printed circuit board . conveyor 110 transitions from state 1 to state 2 in step 320 when the trailing edge of the board is detected by entry sensor 112 . state 2 : in this state , conveyor 110 “ owns ” the board and may move the board as quickly as possible to the processing station location 116 . a clamping mechanism is provided in one embodiment for clamping , or holding , the device in place at processing station location 116 . in one embodiment , velocity and acceleration limits for conveyor 110 are preset by the system operator . in step 325 , ready is set low to prevent the upstream machine from sending another board before the current board has finished processing . once the board is at the processing station , in step 330 , conveyor 110 stops moving and a clamp is activated to hold the board in place during processing . in step 335 , central control unit 130 is notified by conveyor 110 that the board is ready for processing , and conveyor 110 transitions from state 2 to state 3 . ( the “ d ” in step 335 indicates that data is provided to central control unit 130 .) state 3 : in this state , conveyor 110 is waiting for central control unit 130 to indicate that the processing of the board is completed . in step 340 , conveyor 110 transitions from state 3 to state 4 when central control unit 130 indicates that the board is finished processing . ( the “ e ” in step 340 indicates that data is provided to and from central control unit 130 .) processing is complete when all required programmed devices have been placed on the printed circuit board . generally , one or more programmed devices are required for each printed circuit board assembly . state 4 : in this state , the assembled board is unclamped and conveyor 110 moves it as quickly as possible to the exit location ( e . g ., interface with downstream machine ). in step 345 , available is set high to indicate that conveyor 110 is ready to deliver an assembled board to the downstream machine . in step 350 , the board is unclamped and moved toward the exit . in step 355 , conveyor 10 stops movement until it is determined that the downstream machine is ready to receive the board in step 360 . conveyor 110 transitions from state 4 to state 5 when the downstream machine sets downready to one state , e . g ., high , to indicate that it is ready to receive a printed circuit board assembly . state 5 : in this state , in step 365 , conveyor 110 matches the speed of the conveyor on the downstream machine to provide a smooth transfer from one machine to the next . conveyor 110 remains in motion until , e . g ., the trailing edge of the board is detected by exit sensor 114 in step 370 . when the board has left conveyor 110 , available is set low , and conveyor 110 stops motion and transitions from state 5 to state 0 ( step 300 ) to wait for the next board to be processed from the upstream machine . pick and place subsystem 120 provides the ability to move devices from one location to another within the ilp system . in one embodiment , pick and place subsystem 120 includes self - teaching capability for determining the precise locations at which to pick and place devices . an example of such a pick and place system can be found in u . s . patent application ser . no . 09 / 361 , 791 ( atty docket no . 19530 - 000610 ), filed jul . 27 , 1999 , entitled “ pick and place teaching method and apparatus for implementing the same ,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes . pick and place subsystem 120 services requests from concurrent programming subsystem 100 and conveyor 110 to move devices from one location to another . these requests may be received directly from concurrent programming subsystem 100 and conveyor 110 , or through central control unit 130 . the system making the request will provide the location from which to pick up a device , the location at which to place the device , and the address of a status variable . as one example , pick and place subsystem 120 can be directed to pick up an unprogrammed device , e . g ., from a tray of unprogrammed devices , and place the device in a specific site &# 39 ; s socket of concurrent programming subsystem 100 for processing . blank devices may be provided to inline - programming apparatus 20 via device input interface 140 using a variety of media , including trays , tubes and tape as is well known . as another example , pick and place subsystem 120 can be directed to pick up a programmed device from concurrent programming subsystem 100 and place the programmed device on a printed circuit board at a specific location on conveyor 110 . pick and place subsystem 110 queues the requests and services them as soon as possible . the caller can monitor the status variable for the following states : not yet ready , underway , finished successfully , and finished with an error . pick and place subsystem 110 performs one move after another until the job is completed . if the queue becomes empty , pick and place subsystem 110 will wait idly until another request is made . the operation of pick and place subsystem 110 is described in more detail with reference to fig5 . fig5 illustrate a flowchart showing the general operation of pick and place subsystem 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention . in step 400 , pick and place subsystem 120 determines whether a request is received from concurrent programming subsystem 100 or from conveyor subsystem 110 to pick and place a device . ( the “ a ” in step 400 indicates that data is provided to pick and place subsystem 120 .) the entity requesting that a device be brought to it calls pick and place subsystem 120 and provides the location and status address information . if such a request is received , in step 410 , the system places the location information and the associated status variable address in a queue and proceeds to step 430 . in one embodiment , the queue is implemented in a memory , such as a fifo buffer . if no request is received , pick and place subsystem 120 checks to see whether any data is stored in the queue . if data is stored in the queue the process proceeds to step 430 , and if no data is stored in the queue , the process loops back to beginning step 400 . in step 430 , pick and place subsystem 120 reads the data in the queue having the highest priority , and proceeds to pick and place the requested part at the specified locations . in step 440 , the system determines whether any status requests have been made . ( the “ b ” in step 440 indicates that a request is provided to pick and place subsystem 120 .) if status variables are requested , the system provides them to the requesting entity in step 450 . the process then loops back to beginning step 400 . central control unit 130 coordinates the action of the other system components as described in more detail below . central control unit 130 is preferably implemented as an industry standard pentium - based personal computer executing the microsoft windows operating system , although any other processor and any other operating system may be used as desired . as part of its function , central control unit 130 coordinates the delivery of unprogrammed devices to concurrent programming subsystem 100 for programming , as well as the placement of programmed devices on the circuit boards . the operation of the central control unit is described in more detail with reference to fig6 . fig6 illustrates a flowchart showing the general operation of central control unit 130 controlling the operation of placing programmed devices on a printed circuit board according to an embodiment of the present invention . in step 500 , central control unit 130 checks whether conveyor 110 has indicated that a board in locked in place and ready for processing . ( the “ d ” in step 500 indicates that data is provided to and from central control unit 130 .) if a board is locked in place , in step 510 fiducial recognition techniques are used to identify the locations at which one or more programmed devices should be placed . in general , the boards will not be clamped in precisely the same locations in station location 116 . once clamped down , the board will not move , but the clamped positions will vary slightly from board to board . in one embodiment , a camera is used to detect the location of a pair of “ fiducial marks ”, e . g ., small circles or cross marks on the board to determine the location and orientation of the board . this location information is used in conjunction with the known board location ( s ) ( e . g ., where the device ( s ) are to be placed on the board ), by the pick and place subsystem 120 to compute the exact location , and orientation , at which to place a device on the board . in step 520 , control unit 130 queries concurrent programming subsystem 100 for the location of a programmed device . ( the “ c ” in step 520 indicates that data is provided to and from central control unit 130 .) if the location is valid , the process proceeds to step 530 . if not , the process loops back ( indicated by the “ 8 ”) and queries the concurrent programming subsystem 100 for a device location . in step 530 , central control unit 130 instructs pick and place subsystem 120 to pick and place the device identified by concurrent programming system in step 520 . ( the “ a ” in step 530 indicates that location and status data is provided to and from pick and place subsystem 120 .) after the device has been placed on the board , the specific location is marked as placed . in step 550 , the unit determines whether all devices required to be placed on the board have been placed thereon . if not , the process loops back ( indicated by the “ 8 ”) to step 520 where the central control unit queries concurrent programming subsystem 100 for the location of the next device to be placed . if all devices have been placed , in step 560 , central control unit 130 notifies conveyor subsystem 110 that the board has been processed and can be moved on . ( the “ e ” in step 530 indicates that data is provided to and from conveyor subsystem 110 .) in step 570 , central control unit waits until conveyor subsystem 110 acknowledges that the board has been processed and then reverts back to beginning step 500 to coordinate processing for the next board . according to one embodiment , in - line programming apparatus , and all of its components are operator configurable using computer code run on central control unit 130 . computer code for operating and configuring all components of in - line programming apparatus as described herein is preferably stored on a hard disk coupled to central control unit . the entire program code , or portions thereof , may also be stored in any other memory device such as a rom or ram , or provided on any media capable of storing program code , such as a compact disk medium , a floppy disk , or the like . while the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the specific embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments . to the contrary , it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art . therefore , the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements .
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enhanced output impedance current mirrors are conventionally used to mirror current from one portion of a circuit to another , while increasing the output impedance associated with the output current . reducing the minimum output voltage is desirable . in addition , reducing circuit complexity is desirable so long as the functioning of the circuit is not sacrificed . the principles of the present invention provide an enhanced output impedance current mirror in which very low output voltages are possible with few additional devices as compared to conventional enhanced output impedance current mirrors . fig2 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 200 in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention . as in conventional enhanced output impedance current mirrors , the enhanced output impedance current mirror 200 includes an nmosfet m 1 having a source terminal that is connected to a low voltage source low , and an nmosfet m 2 having a source terminal that is connected to a drain terminal of the first nmosfet m 1 . the current is mirrored from a different part of circuit by applying appropriate biases to the gate terminal of nmosfet m 1 as is conventionally known and as is illustrated in fig1 . the output current i out is the current going into the source terminal of nmosfet m 2 , and the output impedance is the impedance looking into the source terminal of nmosfet m 2 . a uniquely designed operation amplifier ( namely , the circuitry to the right of nmosfets m 1 and m 2 ) is connected to nmosfets m 1 and m 2 so as to apply the appropriate biases to nmosfet m 1 such that the minimum output voltage may be as low as the sum of the saturation voltages of both of the nmosfets m 1 and m 2 . the operational amplifier also provides the necessary gain to enhance output impedance thereby serving two roles with just a few additional devices configured in a certain previously unknown way . as in a conventional operational amplifier , the operational amplifier includes a current source ( i ) having a first terminal connected to a high voltage source . a differential pair is then provided having gate terminals as input terminals to the operational amplifier . specifically , one pmosfet m 3 has a gate terminal connected to the source terminal of the nmosfet m 2 . a source terminal of the pmosfet m 3 is connected to a second terminal of the current source ( i ). a drain terminal of the pmosfet m 3 is connected to a gate terminal of the second nmosfet m 2 . similarly , a second pmosfet m 4 has a source terminal connected to the second terminal of the current source ( i ). unlike conventional enhanced output impedance current mirrors , however , the operational amplifier includes four nmosfets m 5 - m 8 having a common gate terminal that is connected to the drain of pmosfet m 4 . more specifically , nmosfet m 5 has a gate terminal connected to a drain terminal of pmosfet m 4 , and has a drain terminal connected to the drain terminal of pmosfet m 3 . nmosfet m 6 has a gate terminal connected to the gate terminal of nmosfet m 5 , has a drain terminal connected to the drain terminal of pmosfet m 4 , and has a source terminal connected to a gate terminal of the second pmosfet m 4 . nmosfet m 7 has a gate terminal connect to the gate terminal of nmosfet m 5 , has a drain terminal connected to the source terminal of the nmosfet m 5 , and has a source terminal connected to the low voltage source . nmosfet m 8 has a gate terminal connected to the gate terminal of nmosfet m 5 , has a drain terminal connected to the source terminal of nmosfet m 6 , and has a source terminal connected to the low voltage source low . in this configuration , the reference voltage v ref would be defined by the following equation ( 5 ): v ref = i β 6 ( β 6 + β 8 β 6 β 8 - 1 ) ( 5 ) where β 6 is the channel length - to - width ratio of the nmosfet m 6 , and β 8 is the channel length - to - width ratio of the nmosfet m 8 . the channel length - to - width ratios are parameters that may be chosen by the circuit designer . accordingly , the reference voltage v ref may be chosen to be a minimal value above the saturation voltage ( v dsatl ) of the nmosfet m 1 . a typical minimal value might be for example , 100 millivolts above the saturation voltage . in a broader embodiment of the present invention , the minimal value may be any voltage greater than or equal to the saturation voltage . in yet another embodiment , the reference voltage v ref is somewhat below the saturation voltage ( v dsatl ) of the nmosfet m 1 . in that case , the performance of the current mirror would be somewhat degraded but may still be better than the conventional enhanced output impedance current mirror . if the reference voltage were chosen to be exactly v dsatl , then the lowest possible output voltage would be just the sum of the saturation voltages of the two nmosfets m 1 and m 2 . furthermore , since process and temperature variations that apply to nmosfet m 1 would also tend to apply to nmosfets m 5 through m 8 through device matching , the voltage v ref would tend to increase and decrease more proportionally with v dsatl with temperature and process variations , thereby reducing the impact of such process and temperature variations . another embodiment of the invention may be accomplished by substituting all nmosfets with pmosfets , and vice versa , and by tying any terminals that were connected to a lower voltage source to a high voltage source , and vice versa . fig3 illustrates such an embodiment in which pmosfets n 1 through n 8 are similar to mosfets m 1 through m 8 , except that p - type mosfets are switched for n - type mosfets , and visa versa . furthermore , current source j is connected to a low voltage supply instead of current source i being connected to a high voltage source . also , mosfets n 1 , n 7 and n 8 are connected to high voltage source high , instead of mosfets m 1 , m 7 and m 8 being connected to low voltage source low . additional embodiments of an enhanced output impedance current mirror will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after having reviewed this description . for example , fig4 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 400 that is similar to the enhanced output impedance current mirror 200 of fig2 and the enhanced output impedance current mirror 300 of fig3 except for the following characteristics . the ampl is a general amplifier that replaces the specific amplifier configuration of fig2 that includes transistors m 3 , m 4 , m 5 and m 6 ( or the specific amplifier configuration of fig3 that includes transistors n 3 , n 4 , n 5 and n 6 ). in addition , resistive elements r 1 and r 2 replace the transistors m 7 and m 8 of fig2 ( or the transistors n 7 and n 8 of fig3 ) in respective current return paths . furthermore , the current source k replaces the transistor m 1 of fig2 ( or the transistor n 1 of fig3 ). the terminal of the current source that is connected to the transistor o 2 will be also be referred to herein as the “ first current electrode ” of the transistor o 2 . the terminal on the other side of the channel region of the transistor o 2 will also be referred to as the “ second current electrode ” of the transistor o 2 . the current mirror operates to effectively increase output impedance rin when one of the resistive elements is properly sized so that the voltage drop across the resistor , when summed with the offset voltage between inverting terminal and the non - inverting terminal of the amplifier ampl , provides a voltage the current source k such that the current source k provides a predictable current . fig5 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 500 that is similar to the enhanced output impedance current mirror 400 of fig4 except that a specific amplifier configured comprising transistors p 3 , p 4 , p 5 , p 6 is used to perform amplification similar to how amplification was performed using transistors m 3 , m 4 , m 5 and m 6 of fig2 . in addition , nmos transistor p 2 replaces transistor o 2 , which could have been an nmos or pmos transistor . current source l of fig5 may be similar to current source k of fig4 and resistive elements r ′ 1 and r ′ 2 of fig5 may be similar to resistive elements r 1 and r 2 of fig4 . fig6 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 600 that is similar to the enhanced output impedance current mirror 500 of fig5 except that transistors q 7 and q 8 replace resistive element r ′ 1 and r ′ 2 . transistors q 3 , q 4 , q 5 , q 6 , q 7 and q 8 may be similar to the transistors m 3 , m 4 , m 5 , m 6 , m 7 and m 8 , respectively , of fig2 . also , current source m may be similar to the current source l of fig5 . fig7 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 700 that is similar to the enhanced output impedance current mirror 600 of fig6 except that the sources of transistors r 5 and r 6 are both tied to the drain of transistor r 8 , and transistor r 7 is absent . transistors r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , r 5 and r 6 may be similar to the transistors m 2 , m 3 , m 4 , m 5 and m 6 of fig2 . also , current source n may be similar to the current source m of fig6 . fig8 illustrates an enhanced output impedance current mirror 800 that is similar to the enhanced output impedance current mirror 700 of fig7 except that the there is no resistance in the return current paths . instead , the voltage across the current source o is maintained by an intentional offset voltage imposed by passing different current densities through the resistors s 3 and s 4 . transistors s 2 , s 3 , s 4 , s 5 and s 6 may be similar to the transistors m 2 , m 3 , m 4 , m 5 and m 6 of fig2 . also , current source o may be similar to the current source n of fig7 . accordingly , an enhanced output impedance current mirror is obtained using minimal additional devices while allowing for a reduced minimum output voltage . the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics . the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive . the scope of the invention is , therefore , indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description . all changes , which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims , are to be embraced within their scope .
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the result of a generalized fluctuation theory for multi - component static light scattering , assuming that the incident light is vertically plane polarized and the observation is made in the horizontal plane at an angle θ relative to the direction of the incident light , is : here r ( c x , θ ) represents the excess rayleigh ratio detected at any scattering angle from a solution of macromolecules at a composition c x , where x represents the various monomeric species and c x represents the totality of weight / volume concentrations [ c 1 , c 2 , c 3 . . . ] of each species ; the excess rayleigh ratio is the difference between the rayleigh ratio of the solution and that of the pure solvent ; the rayleigh ratio of a solution is is the intensity of scattered light per unit solid angle observed at a distance r s from the point of scattering due to an incident intensity i ; v is the scattering volume ; n 0 is the refractive index of the solution ; n a is avogadro &# 39 ; s number ; λ 0 is the wavelength of the incident light in vacuum ; m and n represent the different species present , including free monomers and complexes ; c n is the weight concentration , in units of mass per unit volume , of the n th species ; q l , m , n is some function of the scattering angle θ which generally depends on the size and mass distributions within the m and n molecules , and approaches a value of 1 as either θ approaches zero or the overall size is much smaller than where δ m , n equals 1 if m = n , and equals zero otherwise , γ n is the thermodynamic activity of component n , and q 2 , m , n is some function of θ which generally depends on the size and mass distributions within the m and n molecules , and approaches a value of 1 as either θ approaches zero or the size is much smaller than | ψ m , n ( θ )| is the determinant of ψ m , n ( θ ); ψ m , n ( θ ) is the m , n cofactor , or subdeterminant , of ψ m , n ( θ ); and dn / dc m is the differential refractive index increment of the m th species . if the m th species is a heterocomplex consisting of i x monomers of type x , i y monomers of type y , etc ., then dn / dc m is the weight average of the contributing refractive index increments of the constitutent molecules . the weight average of the refractive increment is where the subscript x refers to the different constituent monomers . equation ( 1 ) becomes very complex if more than two or three species are present , owing to the many terms incorporated in the determinant and subdeterminants . may be understood to represent the essential specific interaction volume v interaction /( m m + m n ) between macromolecular species m and n that leads to thermodynamic non - ideality . contributions to include the hard - core repulsion as well as various electrostatic and fluctuating dipole interactions . in a solution of at least intermediate ionic strength , long - range interactions are well - screened , and the non - ideality is dominated by short range interactions . at this condition the specific interaction volume is approximately proportional to the sum of the molecular volumes divided by the sum of masses , which may be written in terms of effective molecular density ρ m : if the various species in solution are formed as oligomers of just one type of monomer self - associating to form i - mers , then we may reasonably expect that the effective density of all i - mers is approximately a constant ρ , so is commonly approximated as a series in powers of the concentration : where the coefficients a 2 and a 3 are known as the second and third virial coefficients of the monomer in the particular solvent , respectively . applying this approximation , eq . ( 1 ) may be reduced to a simplified form heretofore unknown in the scientific literature , wherein all the non - ideal self - and cross - interactions are captured in just the two parameters a 2 and a 3 : here r ( c , θ ) is the excess rayleigh ratio observed at azimuth angle θ and a total macromolecular concentration c ; m is the molar mass of the monomer ; dn / dc is the differential refractive index increment of the molecules in the solvent ; i is the order of self - association ; c i is the weight concentration at equilibrium of the i - mer ; r g 2 is the angular dependence of the scattered light , within the plane perpendicular to the vertically polarized incident light , for the i - mer ; θ is measured relative to the direction of propagation of the beam ; and r g 2 is the mean square radius of the i - mer defined as r g 2 =∫ r 2 dm i /∫ dm i where r is the distance from the center of mass of the molecule to a molecular mass element m i , integrated over all mass elements of the molecule . the validity of eq . ( 2 ) may be illustrated with a relatively simple example as follows : is not only of higher order than the other terms , it is the difference of two quantities that are of comparable magnitude , and hence should be small compared to even one second - order term . it will also be small as one of the concentrations tends to zero . the final expression for the denominator will be likewise , for any number of species , the higher order terms may be ignored to yield may be expressed in terms of virial coefficients as described above , with the approximation that a 2 m and a 3 m , which are closely related to the inverse density , are approximately constants for the monomer and all oligomers : as again there is a term which includes the difference of high - order terms of very comparable magnitude and so may be ignored . likewise , for any number of oligomeric species , the final expression would be combining these approximations for the numerator and denominator of eq . ( 1 ) yields eq . ( 2 ) . numerical studies show that the terms that have been dropped only account for a small fraction of the total non - ideality correction , up to concentrations of tens of g / l , and thus the relationships that are the subject of this invention are applicable at such high concentrations . under certain common assumptions , a fixed relationship may be assumed between a 2 and a 3 , so that a single parameter captures all the non - ideal behavior . for example , if the molecules are assumed to behave like hard spheres then depending on the relative magnitudes of a 2 , a 3 and the sin 2 ( θ / 2 ) terms in the p i , some of the terms in eq . ( 2 ) may be ignored , as will be obvious to those familiar with numerical analysis . for example , for molecules in a solution of only moderately high concentration a 3 may be ignored , and if the complexes are all smaller than about λ / 70 , the angular dependence may be ignored as well , yielding a very simple form : if the various species in solution are formed as complexes of two different monomers x and y , then under similar assumptions to those stated above , eq . ( 1 ) may be reduced to a highly simplified form heretofore unknown in the scientific literature , wherein all the non - ideal self - and cross - interactions are captured in just two parameters a 2 x and a 2 y : where m x and m y correspond to the molar masses of the x and y monomers ; dn / dc x and dn / dc y correspond to the differential refractive index increments of the x and y monomers in the particular solvent ; i and j are the number of x and y monomers in the complex , m ij = im x + jm y is the molar mass and c ij is the weight concentration , at equilibrium , of the xiyj complex ; a 2 x and a 2 y refer to the second virial coefficients of the x and y monomers in the particular solvent ; and r g 2 is the mean square radius of the ij complex . the derivation is similar to that described for oligomers of the same monomer . if the complexes are smaller than about λ / 70 then the angular dependence may be ignored and eq . ( 4 ) may be reduced to : are the total weight / volume concentrations of x and y in solution . equations ( 4 ) and ( 5 ) may be readily generalized to more than two distinct monomeric species . the non - ideality parameter a 2 may be estimated a priori , or it may be a parameter of the fit of the data to the non - ideality - corrected light scattering equation and the association model equations described below . in order to estimate a 2 from a priori information , a known molecular radius may be substituted into the formula for computing a 2 of a hard sphere : the molecular radius of the monomer may be derived from structural information , e . g . as may be determined by x - ray crystallography , or estimated from a measurement of the hydrodynamic radius r h . the hydrodynamic radius may be calculated from measurements of dynamic light scattering or differential viscometry under dilute conditions , as is known to those familiar with macromolecular characterization . hence one method for representing cg - mals data from a reversibly self - associating solution at high concentration , in a highly simplified form amenable to further analysis , consists of the following steps as illustrated in fig1 : 1 . determine a suitable estimate of the effective molecular radius r either from the known structure of the molecule , or from a quasi - elastic light scattering or differential viscometry measurements of the hydrodynamic radius r h taken under non - associating conditions such as suitably low concentration or an appropriate association - restricting solvent ; 2 . based on the known molar mass of the monomer m and the estimated effective molecular radius r , estimate the monomer excluded volume value in some cases , the association is relatively weak and it is possible to estimate a 2 from a series of measurements at low concentrations . 3 . given the maximal concentration of interest c max , compute an estimate of the maximum non - ideality contribution ξ = 2a 2 mc max ; if ξ is greater than a predetermined cutoff value , e . g . 0 . 3 , retain the a 3 term in eq . ( 2 ); otherwise , drop the a 3 term ; 4 . estimate the mean square radius r max of the largest oligomer expected to form ; if r max & gt ; λ / 70 , retain the angular terms in eq . ( 2 ); otherwise , drop them . 5 . use the final form of eq . ( 2 ) to represent the cg - mals data . if some of the macromolecules are expected to be incompetent to reversible association , treat it in the equation as a distinct species that does not associate but has the same virial coefficient as the competent macromolecules . a method for representing cg - mals data from a reversibly hetero - associating solution at high concentration , in a highly simplified form amenable to further analysis , consists of the following steps as illustrated in fig2 : 1 . determine a suitable estimate of the effective molecular radii r x and r y either from the known structure of the molecule , or from quasi - elastic light scattering or differential viscometry measurements of the hydrodynamic radii r h , x and r h , y ; 2 . based on the known molar masses of the monomers m x , m y and the estimated effective molecular radii r x and r y , estimate the monomer excluded volume values in some cases , the association is relatively weak and it is possible to estimate a 2 from a series of measurements at low concentrations . 3 . estimate the mean square radius r max of the largest complex expected to form ; if r max & gt ; λ / 70 , retain the angular terms in eq . ( 4 ); otherwise , drop them . 4 . use the final form of eq . ( 4 ) to represent the cg - mals data . if some of the macromolecules are expected to be incompetent to reversible association , treat them in the equation as a distinct species that does not associate but has the same virial coefficient as the competent macromolecules . variants on these methods for determining suitable forms of the above equations will be apparent to those familiar with numerical analysis . with thermodynamic non - ideality accounted for in a simplified equation according to one of the forms shown above , characterization of the interaction in terms of stoichiometry and equilibrium association constants is straightforward and similar to the methods described by attri and minton in anal . biochem . 346 , 132 - 138 ( 2005 ) for ideal solutions and by fernandez and minton in biophys . j . 96 , 1992 - 1998 ( 2009 ) for concentrated solutions , but employing eq . ( 1 ) rather than one of the simplified forms described herein . the characterization method comprises the steps of : preparing a series of solutions comprising one or more macromolecular species ; allowing each solution to reach equilibrium between the free monomers and any reversibly - associating complexes ; measuring the light scattering intensity of each solution ; reducing the light scattering data to a series of excess rayleigh ratios ; and fitting the data simultaneously to the appropriate simplified representation of non - ideal light scattering and the equations for the specific association model described below . 1 . the equations for mass action , relating each equilibrium oligomer concentration c i to the corresponding equilibrium association constant k i for the specific stoichiometry , and the concentration of free monomer c 1 : where c tot is known for each solution as determined by the preparation procedure or measured by a concentration detector , and c inc is the concentration of macromolecules incompetent to associate and is considered a distinct species . the model equations for heteroassociations of two different monomer species x and y are : 1 . the equations for mass action , relating each equilibrium complex concentration c ij to the corresponding equilibrium association constant k ij for the specific stoichiometry , and the concentration of free monomer c x , c y : where c x tot and c y tot are known for each solution as determined by the preparation procedure or measured with concentration detectors ; and c x inc and c y inc are the concentrations of x and y macromolecules , respectively , incompetent to associate , and considered additional distinct species . various fitting algorithms , such as levenberg - marquardt nonlinear least squares algorithms and others , are well known from numerical analysis theory . these algorithms may be employed for fitting the data to the system of equations which includes the non - ideal light scattering equation , the mass conservation equations and the mass action equations , thereby obtaining fitted values of the interaction parameters k i or k ij , a 2 , etc . referring to fig3 , a set of aliquots of the macromolecule of interest , at concentrations c 1 , c 2 , . . . c k , are introduced into mals detector 1 , providing photodetectors at a plurality of scattering angles θ v . one example of a mals detector is the dawn - heleos ®, from wyatt technology corporation , santa barbara , calif . in a typical procedure , the concentration series corresponds to c s = αδc , where s = 1 , 2 , . . . k ; δc is a fixed concentration step , and k is the number of concentrations , usually at least five . aliquots of each of the k concentrations may be prepared and introduced to the detectors by means of various methods . in one method , these aliquots are prepared manually and placed in the mals detector by means of scintillation vials or cuvettes . in a second method , the aliquots are prepared manually and injected into the light scattering detector flow cell by means of a pump 2 . in a third method , the aliquots are prepared automatically by means of a dual pump 2 under computer control , which dilutes a stock solution 6 at a maximal concentration c max with a solvent 7 , and subsequently delivers sequentially each aliquot as produced to the detector . one example of an extant system capable of carrying out the dilution and delivery are the calypso ™ sp3 accessory using the calypso ™ software , from wyatt technology corporation , santa barbara , calif . the actual concentrations of the aliquots in the flow cell may differ from the original , as - prepared values c s , as the sample dilutes in the course of flowing through the system and interacting with filters 3 , surfaces , etc . a sufficient injection volume will fully equilibrate the detector flow cell at each injected concentration , so that knowledge of the as - prepared concentrations c s suffices to determine the actual concentration in the mals flow cell . alternatively , the optional in - line concentration detector 4 may be used to measure the actual sample concentrations . various methods are known for determining the concentration of a sample in solution . in one method applicable to manual preparation of the aliquots , appropriate masses of concentrated or lyophilized sample are weighed out and dissolved in a known volume of the solvent . in a second method , the concentration is determined by measuring absorbance with a spectrophotometer . in a third method , the concentrations are determined by means of a suitable in - line concentration detector 4 connected in series with the mals detector . an example of an in - line concentration detector is the optilab ® rex ™, also from wyatt technology corporation ; other in - line concentration detectors are known , including uv / v is absorption and fluorescence detectors . the in - line concentration detector may be connected in series or in parallel with the mals detector . if the mals and concentration detectors are connected in series , a sufficient volume of sample must be delivered so as to saturate both flow cells at the desired concentration . if the mals and concentration detectors are connected in parallel , then the sample flow must be split between them in a controlled fashion so as to ensure that at the completion of each sample injection , the concentrations in the two detectors are the same . sample flow splitting is typically controlled by a needle valve and monitored by means of suitable flow meters so as to maintain the required ratio . data is acquired from the detectors while the sample is flowing and while it is stopped between injections , then stored and analyzed by a computer 5 performing the fitting procedure described previously . optimally the data to be used for the analysis is that acquired after flow has stopped and the sample has equilibrated . each successive sample passes through the mals detector 1 , whereby the values of the excess rayleigh ratio , r s ( c s , θ v ), at each detector angle θ v , are measured at successive sample concentrations c s . the resultant light scattering and concentration signals are then stored and processed by a computer means 5 to calculate , for each injected aliquot s , the values c s , r s ( c s , θ v ). computer 5 also computes the molecular characteristics including m and & lt ; r g 2 & gt ;, and the molecular interaction characteristics a 2 and k i , by fitting the calculated results to eq . ( 2 ) or a simplified form thereof , together with the association model equations . various fitting procedures may be implemented to extract the molecular interaction characteristics . in a preferred embodiment , the fitting procedure consists of the levenberg - marquardt algorithm as applied to two variables ( c and sin 2 ( θ / 2 )), with m and a 2 fixed . from numerical analysis theory , the fitting of the measured data to the form of the light scattering equation and association model equations , whether by the levenberg - marquardt method , or other algorithms , may include statistical weighting whereby the data used to perform these fits is weighted by their reciprocal measured standard deviations . the measurement proceeds as for a single - species measurement , except that each aliquot contains different concentrations of two macromolecular species x and y in various association states to be determined . in one procedure , known as a crossover composition gradient , k aliquots are prepared wherein the composition of the s th aliquot is [ sδc x , ( k − s ) δc y ], and δc x and δc y are fixed concentration step sizes . in another procedure , known as a constant - ratio composition gradient , k aliquots are prepared wherein the composition of the s th aliquot is [ sδc x , sδc y ], and δc x and δc y are fixed concentration step sizes . the apparatus is similar to those of the single - species measurement , except that a computer - controlled triple - pump system is employed instead of a dual pump system , each pump controllable by means of computer to produce , mix and deliver an aliquot comprising species x , species y , and solvent at the desired compositions . such a triple - pump system and suitable controlling software are the calypso system , of wyatt technology corporation , santa barbara , calif . the total concentrations of constituents x and y , c x tot and c y tot respectively , may be determined from the predetermined stock solution concentrations and the mixing ratio as set in the preparation method , or by means of a method for measuring concentrations of two species in solution . in one method for measuring the concentrations of two distinct molecules in solution , the total concentration signal is measured by means of an on - line concentration detector 4 , and the constituent concentrations calculated from the known ratio between the two constituent species and the relative contributions of each to the total concentration signal . such a method has been described by attri and minton in anal . biochem . 346 ( 2005 ) 132 - 138 . in a second method for measuring the concentrations of two distinct molecules in solution , at least two different on - line concentration detection means are used , and the constituent concentrations determined from the concentration signals and the known responses of each constituent species to each concentration detection means . for example , the signals of a differential refractometer and uv absorption detector may be analyzed to yield the concentrations of each of two species present in the same solution , if the responses of the molecules to the respective concentration detectors differs for at least one measurement . as will be evident to those skilled in the arts of light scattering , macromolecular characterization , and numerical analysis , there are many obvious variations of the methods we have invented and described that do not depart from the fundamental elements that we have listed for their practice ; all such variations are but obvious implementations of the invention described hereinbefore and are included by reference to our claims , which follow .
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referring now to fig1 , there is shown a logic diagram illustrating a partial dedicated logic cell 100 employing the use of one or more dedicated lines 110 for connections between logic and routing blocks ( lrbs ), or connections from one dedicated logic cell ( dlc ) to another dedicated logic cell . the one or more dedicated lines 110 enter the partial dedicated logic cell 100 in a present logic and routing block through a control input line 111 . the first multiplexer 120 has a first input connected to the control input 111 for receiving the one or more dedicated lines 110 , a second input connected to line inputs 115 from a look - up table , a third input connected to a vdd 121 , and a fourth input connected a ground 122 , and an output 127 connected to an adjacent dedicated logic cell in the same logic and routing block . configurable select lines 125 allow selection from one of the four inputs 110 , 115 , 121 , or 122 in the first multiplexer 120 for generating the output 127 to the adjacent dedicated logic cell in the same logic and routing block . the second multiplexer 130 has a first input connected to a control input 111 for receiving the one or more dedicated lines 110 , a second input connected to line inputs 115 from the look - up table , a third input connected to a vdd 131 , and a fourth input connected to a ground 132 , and an output 137 connected to the next logic and routing block ( or the next dedicated logic cell .) configurable select lines 135 allow selection from one of the four inputs , 111 , 115 , 131 , or 132 in the second multiplexer 130 to the next logic and routing block . the logic and routing blocks that provide the additional inputs need not be adjacent to the current logic and routing block where the function is implemented . the one or more dedicated lines can be used either as data or control signals . by deploying the one or more dedicated lines , the connectivity of a logic and routing block for enabling input and output connections can be made seamlessly irrespective of a logic and routing block boundary 140 . the one or more dedicated lines 110 connect between logic and routing blocks that allow a logic and routing block to receive inputs from other logic and routing blocks when a given function implemented in the logic and routing block requires more inputs than provided by the switchbox 250 in the logic and routing block . the one or more dedicated lines 110 also allow the logic and routing block to drive more outputs than provided by the present logic and routing block . in this embodiment , the partial dedicated logic cell 100 employs eight dedicated lines 110 for each pair of dedicated logic cells . the eight dedicated lines 110 can be used as either data or control signal lines for various modes of operation . the eight dedicated lines are fed by eight outputs of a dedicated logic cell ( not shown ) or from a previous set of dedicated lines ( not shown ). each dedicated line in the eight dedicated lines 110 can be tied to a high or low voltage . the eight dedicated lines 110 are fed to functional blocks to enable creation of larger functional blocks than permissible from a switch box , as shown in fig2 . for example , 6 and 7 - input general purpose function generators ( i . e ., look - up tables or “ luts ”) and 8 - input limited function generators are possible by using the dedicated input lines to provide inputs from other logic and routing blocks . in fig2 , there is shown an architectural diagram illustrating a logic and routing block 200 comprising a first dedicated logic cell ( dlc 0 ) 210 , a second dedicated logic cell ( dlc 1 ) 220 , a third dedicated logic cell ( dlc 2 ) 230 , a fourth dedicated logic cell ( dlc 3 ) 240 and a switch box 250 for providing programmable switch matrices . a set of dedicated lines is used to interconnect between adjacent dedicated logic cells , either for connecting to adjacent dedicated logic cells within the logic and routing block , adjacent dedicated logic cells between the logic and routing block 200 and a previous logic and routing block , or adjacent dedicated logic cells between the logic routing block 200 and a next logic and routing block . a first set of eight dedicated lines 211 is connected from a previous dedicated logic cell 260 ( not shown ) to the first dedicated logic cell 210 . a second set of eight dedicated lines 212 is connected from the first dedicated logic cell dlc 0 210 to the second dedicated cell dlc 1 220 . a third set of dedicated lines 213 is connected from the second dedicated cell 220 to the next dedicated local cell 270 ( not shown ). a fourth set of eight dedicated lines 221 is connected from the previous dedicated logic cell 260 ( not shown ) to the third dedicated logic cell 230 . a fifth set of eight dedicated lines 222 is connected from the third dedicated logic cell 230 to the fourth dedicated logic cell 240 . a sixth set of eight dedicated lines 223 is connected from the fourth dedicated logic cell 240 to the next dedicated logic cell 270 ( not shown ). the switch box 250 functions as a source for feeding control of data signals to any one of the dedicated lines 211 , 212 , 213 , 221 , 222 , or 223 . while the first set of eight dedicated lines 211 and the fourth set of eight dedicated lines 221 are connected from the previous logic and cell block 260 , ( not shown ) the third set of eight dedicated lines 213 and the sixth set of eight dedicated lines 223 are connected to the next logic and cell block 270 ( not shown ). the one ore more dedicated lines can be driven by the previous corresponding one or more dedicated lines as well as driving the next corresponding one or more dedicated lines , which would extend the distance of the dedicated lines . in effect , one set of dedicated lines can be connected (“ stitched ”) to another set of dedicated lines , as may be called for by a particular programmable logic device , for concatenating different sets of dedicated lines together that extend across different logic and routing blocks . in fig3 , there is shown a logic diagram illustrating the first implementation of a dedicated logic cell 300 with eight dedicated lines 310 – 317 . the dedicated logic cell 300 comprises a first set of function generators , a first function generator ( fg ) 320 , a second function generator 322 , a third function generator 324 , and a fourth function generator 326 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving a [ 0 ] 301 , a [ 1 ] 302 , a [ 2 ] 303 , and a [ 3 ] 304 from the switch box 250 . the dedicated logic cell 300 comprises a second set of function generators , a fifth function generator 330 , a sixth function generator 332 , a seventh function generator 334 , and an eighth function generator 336 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving b [ 0 ] 305 , b [ 1 ] 306 , b [ 2 ] 307 , and b [ 3 ] 308 from the switch box 250 . a first multiplexer 340 has a first input connected to an output of the first function generator 320 , a second input connected to the eighth dedicated line c 7 317 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . a second multiplexer 341 has a first input connected to an output of the second function generator 322 , a second input connected to the seventh dedicated line c 6 316 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . a third multiplexer 342 has a first input connected to an output of the third function generator 324 , a second input connected to the fifth dedicated line c 5 315 , a third input connected to a ground , a fourth input connected to a vdd , and an output connected to the next dlc . a fourth multiplexer 343 has a first input connected to an output of the fourth function generator 326 , a second input connected to the fifth dedicated line c 4 314 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output to the next dlc . a fifth multiplexer 344 has a first input connected to an output of the fifth function generator 330 , a second input connected to the fourth dedicated line c 3 313 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . a sixth multiplexer 345 has a first input connected to an output of the sixth function generator 332 , a second input connected to the third dedicated line c 2 312 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . a seventh multiplexer 346 has a first input connected to an output of the seventh function generator 334 , a second input connected to the second dedicated line c 1 311 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . an eighth multiplexer 347 has a first input connected to an output of the eighth function generator 336 , a second input connected to the first dedicated line c 0 310 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output connected to the next dlc . a corresponding set of multiplexers is connected to the respective one of the multiplexers 340 – 347 for generating outputs to logic and routing blocks . a ninth multiplexer 350 has a first input connected to the output of the first function generator 320 , a second input connected to the eighth dedicated line c 7 317 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to a logic and routing block . a tenth multiplexer 351 has a first input connected to the output of the second function generator 322 , a second input connected to the seventh dedicated line c 6 316 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . an eleventh multiplexer 352 has a first input connected to the output of the third function generator 324 , a second input connected to the sixth dedicated line c 5 315 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . a twelfth multiplexer 353 has a first input connected to the output of the fourth function generator 326 , a second input connected to the fifth dedicated line c 4 314 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . a thirteenth multiplexer 354 has a first input connected to the output of the fifth function generator 330 , a second input connected to the fourth dedicated line c 3 313 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . a fourteenth multiplexer 355 has a first input connected to the output of the sixth function generator 332 , a second input connected to the third dedicated line c 2 312 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . a fifteenth multiplexer 356 has a first input connected to the output of the seventh function generator 334 , a second input connected to the second dedicated line c 1 311 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . a sixteenth multiplexer 357 has a first input connected to the output of the eighth function generator 336 , a second input connected to the first dedicated line c 0 310 , a third input connected to a vdd , a fourth input connected to a ground , and an output for connecting to the logic and routing block . the following diagrams , fig4 through 9 , show the different applications of adopting the use of the one or more dedicated lines . turning now to fig4 , there is shown a logic diagram illustrating the first implementation of a dedicated logic cell 400 that operates as a 7 - input function generator , which is equivalent to two 6 - input look - up tables . the dedicated logic cell 400 employs dedicated lines c 0 410 , c 1 411 , c 2 412 , and c 3 413 that function as select lines to 4 : 1 multiplexers 430 and 440 . if the eight inputs are referred to as i [ 0 : 7 ], the first four inputs i [ 0 : 3 ] are supplied by either a [ 0 : 3 ] 401 – 404 or b [ 0 : 3 ] 405 – 408 , the fifth and sixth inputs are generated from c 0 412 and c 1 411 , and the sixth and seventh inputs are generated from c 2412 and c 3412 . a first 6 - input look - up table in the logic dedicated cell 400 comprises a first function generator 420 , a second function generator 422 , a third function generator 424 , and a fourth function generator 426 that have outputs feeding into inputs of the 4 : 1 multiplexer 430 . each of the first , second , third and fourth function generators 420 , 422 , 424 , and 426 have four inputs for receiving the incoming signals a [ 0 : 3 ] 401 – 404 . the dedicated lines c 2 412 and c 3 413 function as select lines to the 4 : 1 multiplexer 430 for selecting one of the inputs from either the first , second , third , or fourth function generator 420 , 422 , 424 , 426 , as well as generating an output signal of out 0 435 . a second 6 - input look - up table in the logic dedicated cell 400 comprises a fifth function generator 430 , a sixth function generator 432 , a seventh function generator 434 , and an eighth function generator 436 that have outputs feeding into inputs of the 4 : 1 multiplexer 440 . each of the first , second , third and fourth function generators 430 , 432 , 434 , and 436 have four inputs for receiving the incoming signals b [ 0 : 3 ] 405 – 408 . the dedicated lines c 0 410 and c 1 411 function as select lines to the 4 : 1 multiplexer 440 for selecting one of the inputs from either the fifth , sixth , seventh , or eighth function generator 430 , 432 , 434 , 436 , and generating an output signal of out 1 445 . in fig5 , there is shown a logic diagram illustrating the second implementation of a dedicated logic cell 500 that serves as a 7 - input function generator . if the seven inputs are referred to as i [ 0 : 6 ], the first four inputs i [ 0 : 3 ] are supplied by either a [ 0 : 3 ] 501 – 504 or b [ 0 : 3 ] 505 – 508 , the fifth input i [ 4 ] is generated from either a configurable select line c 0 510 or c 2 512 , the sixth input i [ 5 ] is generated from either a configurable select line c 1 511 or c 3 513 , and the seventh input i [ 6 ] is supplied by a configurable select line c 4 514 . the dedicated logic cell 500 comprises a first set of function generators having a first function generator 520 , a second function generator 522 , a third function generator 524 , and a fourth function generator 526 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving a [ 0 : 3 ] 501 – 504 and an output connected to a 4 : 1 multiplexer 540 . the dedicated logic cell 500 comprises a second set of function generators having a fifth function generator 530 , a sixth function generator 532 , a seventh function generator 534 , and an eighth function generator 536 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving b [ 0 : 3 ] 505 – 508 and an output connected to the 4 : 1 multiplexer 550 . a third multiplexer 560 has a first input connected to the output of the first 4 : 1 multiplexer 540 , a second input connected to the output of the second 4 : 1 multiplexer 550 , and a third input connected to the dedicated line c 4 514 and an output 570 . fig6 shows a logic diagram illustrating the third implementation of a dedicated logic cell 600 employing four 2 : 1 multiplexers with a common select line . a dedicated line 610 c 0 functions as a common select line that runs through all four 2 : 1 multiplexers 640 , 642 , 644 and 646 . the dedicated logic cell 600 comprises a first set of function generators having a first function generator 620 , a second function generator 622 , a third function generator 624 , and a fourth function generator 626 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving a [ 0 : 3 ] 601 – 604 . the dedicated logic cell 600 comprises a second set of function generators having a fifth function generator 630 , a sixth function generator 632 , a seventh function generator 634 , and an eighth function generator 636 where each function generator has four inputs for receiving b [ 0 : 3 ] 605 – 608 . a first 2 : 1 multiplexer 640 has a first input for receiving the a [ 0 ] 601 and a second input for receiving the b [ 0 ] 605 , and generating an out [ 0 ] 650 . a second 2 : 1 multiplexer 642 has a first input for receiving the a [ 1 ] 602 and a second input for receiving the b [ 1 ] 606 , and generating an out [ 1 ] 652 . a third 2 : 1 multiplexer 644 has a first input for receiving the a [ 2 ] 603 and a second input for receiving the b [ 2 ] 607 , and generating an out [ 2 ] 654 . a fourth 2 : 1 multiplexer 646 has a first input for receiving the a [ 3 ] 604 and a second input for receiving the b [ 3 ] 607 , and generating an out [ 3 ] 656 . fig7 is a logic diagram illustrating the fourth implementation of using eight dedicated lines in large multiplexer circuits 700 . the eight dedicated lines , c 0 710 , c 1 711 , c 2 712 , c 3 713 , c 4 714 , c 5 715 , c 6 716 , and c 7 717 , serve as select lines or control lines for multiplexers 720 , 730 , 740 , and 750 . the first multiplexer 720 has first inputs for receiving a [ 0 : 3 ] 701 – 704 and second inputs for receiving b [ 0 : 3 ] 705 – 708 . the second multiplexer 730 has first inputs for receiving a [ 0 : 3 ] 701 – 704 and second inputs for receiving b [ 0 : 3 ] 705 – 708 . the dedicated lines c 0 710 , c 1 711 , and c 2 712 function as select lines s 0 , s 1 , and s 2 , respectively , for both the first and second multiplexers 720 and 730 . the three select lines s 0 , s 1 , and s 3 provide the capability to the first and second multiplexers 720 and 730 to function as 8 : 1 multiplexers , where one of the eight inputs will be selected for sending to the output . two multiplexer decode logics 730 and 740 operate to decode the inputs c 3 713 , c 4 714 , c 5 715 , c 6 716 , and c 7 717 . the dedicated lines c 3 713 , c 4 714 , c 5 715 , c 6 716 , c 7 717 function as select lines s 3 , s 4 , s 5 , s 6 , s 7 , respectively , for both the two multiplexer decode logics 730 and 740 . a first chaining logic 760 has a first input connected to the output of the first 8 : 1 multiplexer 720 , a second input connected to a previous multiplexer chaining multiplexer ( not shown ), a third input connected to the output of the first multiplexer decode logic 740 , and an output . a second chaining logic 770 has a first input connected to the output of the second 8 : 1 multiplexer 730 , a second input connected to the output of the first multiplexer chaining logic 760 , a third input connected to the output of the second multiplexer decode logic 750 , and an output . the combination of the eight dedicated lines , c 0 710 , c 1 711 , c 2 712 , c 3 713 , c 4 714 , c 5 715 , c 6 716 , and c 7 717 , provides 256 inputs into the circuit 700 that function as a 256 : 1 multiplexer . in fig8 , there is shown a logic diagram illustrating the fifth implementation of using dedicated lines as control lines in a configurable sequential circuit 800 . a set of dedicated lines c 0 810 , c 1 811 , c 2 812 , and c 3 813 , provides control signals to a set of sequential elements sharing the same set of control signals that includes a reset ( rst ) signal , a clear ( clr ) signal , a load enable ( lden ) signal , and a clock enable ( ce ) signal . in this embodiment , the configurable sequential circuit 800 comprises a first configurable sequential element 820 , a second configurable sequential element 830 , a third configurable sequential element 840 , a fourth configurable sequential element 850 , a fifth configurable sequential element 860 , a sixth configurable sequential element 870 , a seventh configurable sequential element 880 , and an eighth configurable sequential element 890 . the first dedicated line c 0 810 functions as a reset ( rst ) line , the second dedicated line c 1 811 functions as a clear ( clr ) line , the third dedicated line c 2 812 functions as a load enable ( lden ) line , and the fourth dedicated line c 3 813 functions as a clocking enable ( ce ) line . a clock signal 815 is also fed into each of the configurable sequential elements , 820 , 830 , 840 , 850 , 860 , 870 , 880 and 890 . the first configurable sequential element 820 has a first input for receiving in [ 0 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 0 ], and an output for generating an out [ 0 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 0 ] line is active to load the data in [ 0 ] into the first configurable sequential element 820 and generating the data to the out [ 0 ]. the second configurable sequential element 830 has a first input for receiving in [ 1 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 1 ], and an output for generating an out [ 1 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 1 ] line is active to load the data in [ 1 ] into the second configurable sequential element 830 and to generate the data to the out [ 1 ]. the third configurable sequential element 840 has a first input for receiving in [ 2 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 2 ], and an output for generating an out [ 2 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 2 ] line is active to load the data in [ 2 ] into the third configurable sequential element 840 and to generate the data to the out [ 2 ]. the fourth configurable sequential element 850 has a first input for receiving in [ 3 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 3 ], and an output for generating an out [ 3 ]. when the lden signal is asserted , the ld [ 3 ] signal 812 is active to load the data in [ 3 ] into the fourth configurable sequential element 850 and to generate the data to the out [ 3 ]. the fifth configurable sequential element 860 has a first input for receiving in [ 4 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 4 ], and an output for generating an out [ 4 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 4 ] line is active to load the data in [ 4 ] into the fifth configurable sequential element 860 and to generate the data to the out [ 4 ]. the sixth configurable sequential element 870 has a first input for receiving in [ 5 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 5 ], and an output for generating an out [ 5 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 5 ] line is active to load the data in [ 5 ] into the sixth configurable sequential element 870 and to generate the data to the out [ 5 ]. the seventh configurable sequential element 880 has a first input for receiving in [ 6 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 6 ], and an output for generating an out [ 6 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 6 ] line is active to load the data in [ 6 ] into the seventh configurable sequential element 880 and to generate the data to the out [ 6 ]. the eighth configurable sequential element 890 has a first input for receiving in [ 7 ], a second input for receiving a load data ld [ 7 ], and an output for generating an out [ 7 ]. when the lden signal 812 is asserted , the ld [ 7 ] line is active to load the data in [ 7 ] into the eighth configurable sequential element 890 and to generate the data to the out [ 7 ]. fig9 is a logic diagram illustrating the sixth implementation of a programmable logic circuit 900 that shares dedicated lines as control lines among multiple macro blocks . eight dedicated lines c 0 910 , c 1 911 , c 2 912 , c 3 913 , c 4 914 , c 5 915 , c 6 916 , c 7 917 , operate as control lines for larger functional macro blocks such as memory , multiplier and other such macro blocks such that a set of logic and routing blocks provide inputs , outputs and control signals . the eight dedicated lines c 0 910 , c 1 911 , c 2 912 , c 3 913 , c 4 914 , c 5 915 , c 6 916 , c 7 917 serve as common control signals that are shared among a first macro block 920 and a second macro block 930 . the eight dedicated lines c 0 – c 7 910 – 917 are connected to the first macro block 920 through a first dedicated logic cell 940 , and are connected to the second macro block 930 through a third dedicated logic cell 960 . the eight dedicated lines c 0 – c 7 910 – 917 are connected to the first dedicated logic cell 940 , a second dedicated logic cell 950 , the third dedicated logic cell 960 , and a fourth dedicated logic cell 970 . fig1 is a flow diagram illustrating the process of programming a programmable logic circuit having at least one or more dedicated lines in a logic and routing block 200 . at step 1010 , the process 1000 reads a particular programmable logic design selected by a user . the process 1000 identifies logic structures for implementation of the selected design at step 1020 . in a programmable logic circuit , a first dedicated logic cell in a first lrb receives a first set of dedicated lines at step 1030 . depending on the logic functions to be implemented , there are several options in connecting the first set of dedicated lines in the first dedicated logic cell in the first lrb . with a first option at step 1040 , the first set of dedicated lines in the first dedicated logic cell in the first lrb are connected to a second dedicated logic cell in the same lrb . with a second option at step 1050 , the first set of dedicated lines in the first dedicated logic cell in the first lrb are connected to a second lrb . with a third option at step 1060 , the first set of dedicated logic cell in the first logic cells in the first lrb is stitched to a second set of dedicated lines for connection to an lrb adjacent to the first lrb , or skip over an adjacent lrb to a non - contiguous lrb relative to the first lrb . those skilled in the art can appreciate from the foregoing description that the broad techniques of the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in a variety of forms . therefore , while the embodiments of this invention have been described in connection with particular examples thereof , the true scope of the embodiments of the invention should not be so limited since other modifications , whether explicitly provided for by the specification or implied by the specification , will become apparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings , specification , and following claims .
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in fig1 there is shown a diagram of the optical system which can be utilized with the novel mask design of this specification for the purpose of obtaining an indication of the sum of the linear dimension of the individual particles in a collection of particles . specifically , when the particles are spherical in shape the indication is an indication of the sum of the radii of the individual particles of the collection . if the particles are not spherical the indication would be of an average linear dimension which would vary depending on particle shape . the collection of particles forming the sample in container 10 may , for example , be a sample of fluid suspended particles either contained within an enclosure or in a flowing stream . that sample is placed in a position such that a collimated light beam is directed at the particles as by the laser 12 which is shown in fig1 directing a light beam 14 along the optical axis of the system . particles such as particle 11 which are in the sample collection 10 and lie in the path of the light beam 14 cause a diffraction of the light beam at an angle as for example along path 16 . the diffracted light is directed by a focusing element which consists of the collecting lens 20 through the mask 22 which lies in the fraunhofer plane of lens 20 . that portion of the diffracted light which passes through the mask 22 is focused by the lens 24 on detector 26 . the detector 26 in turn produces on its output lines 28 a signal into indicator 30 indicative of the total light flux falling on the detector 26 . in fig1 the mask 22 is shown in a side view . that mask may be rotated if desired for the purpose of averaging out any unsymmetrical characteristics in the sample collection . in fig2 there is shown one particular form which the mask can take ( fig2 being a front elevation of the mask 22 ). in general the opening 34 in the opaque mask 22 has a shape such that θ i the angle over which the mask is open at any particular radius r i is determined by the following equation : wherein θ 1 is the angle over which the opening occurs at the inner radius of the zone of interest , r 1 is the inner radius of the zone of interest , and r 2 is the outer radius of that zone . the outer angle may be considered θ 2 which is the opening existing at the radius r 2 while the exponent p has a value which is normally adjusted to give the desired response by the detector 26 of fig1 with the mask design used . that exponent would be approximately equal to ( 2 - n ) following the teaching of the prior art in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 809 , 478 issued to john henry talbot on may 7 , 1974 ; where n is the exponent of the radius of the particles for the particular measurement being made . thus , where the measurement is a measurement of the sum of the radii of the particles the exponential factor is theoretically 1 ( n being equal to 1 ). it is , however , necessary to adjust the exponent to obtain a reasonably accurate measurement . this adjustment is required due to the finite boundaries of the opening in the mask . it will be evident that the opening 34 of mask 22 may have any one of a number of different shapes which fulfill the requirements set forth above , however , a specific shape for the opening 34 using two zones is shown in fig2 . that shape is particularly applicable to an optical system as shown in fig1 wherein the lens 20 has a focal length of 7 . 6 in . and the wavelength of the light beam 14 is 0 . 6328 μ . the specific shape for opening 34 is described by the table below where the dimensions for the various parameters in each of two preselected zones is set forth with zone 1 being that area between the radii r a and r b and zone 2 being the area between the radii r b and r c . the curvature of the boundaries of the mask in each of the zones is in accordance with the equation set forth above for θ i where p is the particular filter function exponent set forth in the following table : ______________________________________r . sub . 1 θ . sub . 1 r . sub . 2 ( θ . sub . 2 ) pinner inner outer outer exponentzone radius angle radius angle ofno . ( inches ) ( degrees ) ( inches ) ( degrees ) filter fn . ______________________________________1 . 1650 3 . 424 . 6500 20 . 774 1 . 3152 . 6500 28 . 630 1 . 3400 89 . 793 1 . 580______________________________________ a mask designed as shown in fig2 can produce a relatively constant response for a distribution of particles from approximately 2 . 5 μm . to well over 200 μm . over that range responses within ± 10 % have been obtained . the indication obtained on the meter 30 of fig1 when using the mask of fig2 gives as mentioned an indication of the total sum of the radius of the individual particles in the collection of particles which form the sample 10 . that measurement can be utilized advantageously in statistical analysis of the distribution of the particles by their radius and when combined with others statistical parameters can be used for the determination , the mean of that distribution , its standard deviation , and also its skewness .
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reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout . fig1 illustrates an exemplary plastic container 100 , such as a bottle , to hold fluids such as detergent or bleach , or the like . the bottle may be manufactured by combining a first half 102 and a second half 104 through a molding part line 106 using well - known processes in the art of container manufacturing . in the preferred embodiment , the bottle may be made of high - density polyethylene . the bottle 100 may comprise a top portion 108 with a bottom portion 110 , and a body 112 of the bottle 100 is configured to retain fluids . a finish portion 114 is formed as an opening shaped as a neck or a short tube where the fluids are filled into or dispensed out of the bottle 100 . as shown in fig2 a , the finish portion 114 of the bottle 100 may be integrally connected to the body 112 through a shoulder portion 116 or shelf at a lower end 118 of the finish 114 . an outer circumferential side wall 120 extends between the lower end 118 and an upper end 122 of the finish 114 . on the outer circumferential side wall 120 , the bottle finish 114 may have threads 124 for retaining a cap ( not shown ). in this embodiment , the threads 124 are defined by an upper surface 126 and a lower surface 128 . the threads 124 project outwardly and extend along a spiral path around the finish 114 . further , the threads 124 extend generally , but not necessarily , between the upper and lower end 118 and 122 of the finish 114 . the upper surface 126 of the threads 124 may adjoin the side wall 120 under an obtuse angle and along an upper base line 130 . similarly , the lower surface 128 may adjoin the side wall 120 along a lower base line 132 . the upper base line 130 terminates at a thread start point 134 which forms the uppermost end of the thread 124 as in the manner shown in fig2 a . in this embodiment , the thread start point 134 is the first reference feature of an s - dimension 135 . as illustrated in fig2 b , in a top view of the bottle 100 , the finish 114 may comprise an upper surface 136 or rim and inner circumferential side wall 138 defining a finish opening 140 . in this embodiment , the upper surface 136 forms a second reference feature of the s - dimension 135 . accordingly , in this embodiment the s - dimension is the vertical distance between the thread start point 134 and the upper surface 136 of the finish 114 . as previously mentioned , for containers which will hold fluids , including consumer products such as detergents and bleaches , it is important that the s - dimension of the container be within predetermined dimensional tolerances so that a cap will be retained properly on the finish and leaks will be prevented . therefore , the s - dimension of the bottles must be routinely measured to determine whether the distance 135 between the upper surface 136 and the thread start point 134 is in predetermined manufacturing limits . a gauge system 200 of the present invention provides an effective tool to facilitate this measurement process . fig3 a and 3b show the gauge system 200 of the present invention which is placed on the finish portion 114 of the bottle 100 during the measurement process . the gauge system 200 of the present invention may comprise a base 202 , a gauge 204 , and a counterweight 206 . the counterweight 206 comprises a cylindrical weight member that allows the system 200 to be balanced on the finish portion 114 . the base 202 comprises a first side 208 , a second side 210 , a top surface 212 and a bottom surface 214 . the counterweight 206 is attached to and extends from the second side 210 on which the gauge 204 is positioned . in this embodiment , the second side 210 of the base 202 is comprised of an l - bracket having a first arm member 216 perpendicularly attached to a second arm member 218 . the l - bracket 210 is secured to the upper surface 212 of the base 202 through the second arm member 218 such that an upper surface 220 of the first arm member 216 is substantially parallel to the upper surface 212 of the base 202 . the gauge system 200 of the present invention can conveniently be custom manufactured for measuring the s - dimensions of various bottle sizes with differing finish opening diameters . in this embodiment , the gauge system 200 is adapted to operate on bottles having 33 and 38 millimeter finish diameters ( fig5 ). the gauge system may weight about 900 grams . exemplary dimensions may be 7 ″ length and 2 . 75 ″ width . the base 202 may have a 1 ″ height , and the overall height of the gauge ( including top of gauge 204 ) may be 6 ″. all machined pieces made from anodized aluminum except support member 242 made from delrin plastic , and the thumb screw is made of brass . referring to fig3 a and 3b , during the measuring process , a first region 222 of the bottom surface 214 is placed on the finish surface 136 of the finish 114 . a gauge actuator 224 of the gauge 204 is then extended to contact the upper base line 130 of the threads 124 , and next the gauge system 200 is rotated towards the thread start point 134 to record the s - dimension . as the gauge system 200 is rotated , the gauge 204 records the distance between the upper base line 130 and the finish surface 136 based on the vertical displacement of the gauge actuator 224 . as illustrated in fig3 a , the gauge 204 is placed on the upper surface 220 of the first arm member 216 and comprises a front side 226 having a digital display 228 , and control buttons 230 and 232 to control the gauge 204 . the control buttons 230 and 232 may serve to perform a variety of functions to control the gauge 204 , such as turning on and turning off the gauge 204 , setting the zero readout , as well as changing the measurement mode between different units , for example between millimeters and inches . the gauge 204 may have a memory to hold the height measurements as it is rotated . however , measurements may be read off the digital display 228 by a user as well . the gauge 204 may be available from the fred v fowler co , newton , mass . and sold under the brand name ultra digit mark v . as shown in fig2 b in detail and in fig3 b in cross - section , the gauge actuator 224 may comprise a gauge rod 236 extending through a hole 238 formed in the body of the first arm member 216 of the l - bracket 210 , and a contact member 240 , preferably a roller member , having a roller surface 242 to engage or contact the upper base line 130 of the bottle 100 , as in the manner shown in fig3 a - 3c . the roller member 240 is movably attached to a first end of the gauge rod 236 using any one of the well known attachment methods in the art . the rotation axis of the roller member 240 is preferably perpendicular to the gauge rod 236 . the second end of the gauge rod 236 has a tip 244 for manually controlling the vertical position of the gauge rod 236 . as an example , the roller may be sized to have diameter of approximately ⅜ ″ and a width of { fraction ( 5 / 32 )}″. the rod 236 may have a diameter of { fraction ( 5 / 32 )}″. the rod and the roller may be made of hardened and ground stainless steel . referring now to fig3 a , 3 b , and 3 c , the first side 208 of the base 202 comprises an inner cavity 246 to movably retain a support member 248 on a cavity floor 250 . the cavity floor 250 is a lateral extension of the bottom surface 214 and is in the plane of the bottom surface 214 . during the calibration of the gauge system 200 , the support member 248 is contacted with the threads 124 on the finish 114 thereby confining the finish 114 between the roller member 240 and the support member 248 . this , in turn , prevents lateral movement of the gauge system 200 but allows rotational movement of the gauge system 200 during the measurements . as will be described in detail below , the support member 248 may be moved into a first position to permit the gauge system 200 to operate on a 38 millimeter finish or it may be moved into a second position to permit the gauge system 200 to operate on a 33 millimeter finish . as it is moved in the cavity 246 and on the cavity floor 250 , the support member 248 moves along a button 252 or a thumb nut which is placed on the top surface 212 of the base 202 . the thumb nut 252 holds the support member 248 at the predetermined positions by tightening the thumb nut 252 . the thumb nut 252 is connected to the support member 248 by a pin 254 . the pin 254 is placed through a second hole 256 formed through the body of the base 204 . the second hole 256 may be a rectangular hole allowing the button 252 to switch between the two predetermined positions . as will be described below , the support member 248 can be moved between the predetermined positions by rotating an adjustment screw 258 and hence moving the support member 248 between these predetermined positions . as mentioned , once the position is selected , the thumb nut 252 may be temporarily locked at that position by tightening the thumb nut 252 . as shown in fig4 in a bottom view , the base 202 is surrounded by a rectangular - u shaped side wall 260 or lip projecting perpendicularly from the bottom surface 214 and extending along an outer wall 262 of the first side 208 of the base 202 . the support member 248 is generally rectangular in shape and in engagement with the correspondingly shaped side wall 260 . depending on the diameter of the finish being tested , the support member 248 may be laterally moved in the cavity 246 in a first direction 264 and in a second direction 266 by moving the adjustment screw 258 ( fig3 a , 3 c and 4 ). the adjustment screw 258 may comprise a threaded shaft 268 and a knob section 272 . the threaded shaft 268 is placed through a hole 270 formed in a rear wall portion 274 of the side wall 260 and engages with a threaded hole 276 formed in a rear end 278 of the support member 248 . depending on the direction of the rotation , the support member 248 moves in the first direction 264 and the second direction 266 . when the support member 248 moves in the first direction 264 and into the first position as shown with dashed lines , it contacts the rear wall portion 274 of the side wall . the thread pitch on the threaded shaft is finer than most adjustment screws , which makes the positioning of the support member 248 more precise . a front end 280 of the support member 248 comprises a v - shaped recess 282 having side walls 284 to contact the finish 114 when the first area 222 of the gauge 200 is placed on top of the finish 114 . in this respect , when the larger diameter finish is measured ( i . e ., the finish diameter of 38 millimeters ), the support member 248 is moved in the first direction 264 to provide sufficient space on the first region 222 . accordingly , when the smaller diameter finish is measured ( i . e ., finish diameter of 33 millimeters ), the support member 248 is moved in the second direction 266 to provide enough space on the first region 222 for the finish . in addition , through the side walls 284 the support member establishes two - point contact with the finish which also improves stability of the gauge system 200 . the calibration and measurement of the s - dimension with the gauge system 200 may be exemplified with reference to fig5 . as shown , a user may grasp the entire gauge system 200 and place it on the bottle finish 114 as in the manner described above . then , the calibration of the gauge 204 is initiated by turning it on by the on / off button 230 . next , the gauge 204 is placed on a substantially flat reference surface ( not shown ) and the roller surface 242 is contacted with the reference surface . the gauge 204 is zeroed using the zeroing button 230 while holding the roller 240 against the flat reference surface . after the calibration step , the measurement process is initiated . during the measurements , the base 202 can be gripped between the thumb and the middle finger while the ring finger is used to rotate the knob 270 permitting one handed operation . referring back to fig2 a and 2b , accordingly , the knob 270 of the adjustment screw 258 is rotated and the support member is positioned for the desired finish diameter , in this example , 33 millimeters . the gauge system 200 is then placed on top of the finish 114 as in the manner described above and aligned such that the roller 240 rests at the edge of the upper surface 236 of the finish 114 . then , the knob 270 is slowly rotated until the roller 240 slides on the side wall down to the upper base line 130 . in order to obtain accurate s - distance measurements , it is important that the roller be placed on the upper base line 130 . the finer thread pitch of the adjustment screw 258 advantageously facilitates this adjustment . at this point , the gauge system 200 is rotated so that the roller 140 rolls up to the thread start point 134 . the lowest reading displayed on the digital display 228 is recorded as the s - dimension 135 . upon completing the measurements , the on / off button 230 is pressed and the gauge system 200 is turned off . the gauge system may have a measurement range of 0 - 1 ″ with 0 . 00005 ″ resolution , 0 . 0002 ″ accuracy and 0 . 0001 ″ repeatability . it should be understood , of course , that the foregoing relates to preferred embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims .
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number 40 in fig3 indicates a circuit for preventing turn - on of parasitic components ; circuit 40 is housed in the same integrated device 1 including power vdmos 2 and relative drive circuit 3 . drive circuit 3 shows the n + - type region 6 as connected to input terminal 5 and biased to voltage v in , and isolating region 7 . circuit 40 comprises three switches s1 , s3 , s2 located along respective connecting lines l1 , l2 , l3 interposed between isolating region 7 and , respectively , the drain terminal of vdmos 2 , the source terminal of vdmos 2 , and region 6 ( i . e ., input terminal 5 ). the term &# 34 ; switch &# 34 ; is used in the broad sense of the word meaning that it can become conducting or non - conducting depending on certain conditions . switches s1 - s3 are driven so as to connect isolating region 7 instant by instant to the lowest - potential point as shown in the table below . in the table , &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; means the respective switch is conducting and &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; means the respective switch is non - conducting . table______________________________________condition v . sub . in v . sub . d s . sub . 1 s . sub . 2 s . sub . 3______________________________________1 + - 1 0 02 - + 0 1 03 + + 0 0 14 0 + 0 0 15 0 - 1 0 06 + 0 1 0 07a -& gt ; - 1 0 07b -= - 0 1 07c -& lt ; - 0 1 08 - 0 0 1 09 0 0 0 1 1______________________________________ consequently , when the drain terminal of vdmos 2 presents a negative potential with a positive or zero input voltage v in ( conditions 1 and 5 ), switch s1 connects isolating region 7 to the drain terminal ; when input voltage v in is negative and drain voltage v d is positive ( condition 2 ), switch s2 connects isolating region 7 to input terminal 5 ; when drain voltage v d is positive and input voltage v in is positive or zero ( conditions 3 and 4 ), switch s3 grounds isolating region 7 ; when v in is positive and v d is zero ( condition 6 ), then switch s1 connects isolating region 7 to the drain terminal of vdmos 2 ; when v in and v d are both negative , and v d is at a greater negative potential than v in ( condition 7a ), switch s1 connects region 7 to the drain terminal of vdmos 2 ; when v in and v d are both negative , but v in is at equal potential to ( condition 7b ) or at less negative potential than v d ( condition 7c ), then switch s2 connects region 7 to input terminal 5 ; when v in is negative and v d is zero ( condition 8 ), switch s2 connects region 7 to input terminal 5 ; and when v in and v d are both at zero ( condition 9 ), switches s2 and s1 connect region 7 to input terminal 5 and ground . thus , parasitic transistors 8 and 9 can never be turned one circuit embodiment of switches s1 - s3 including bipolar transistors and schottky diodes is shown in fig4 and 5 wherein the components are rearranged to show more clearly the behavior of the circuit in two different operating conditions . in both fig4 and 5 , switch s1 may be represented by transistor t1 , switch s2 by schottky diode d2 , and switch s3 by schottky diode d3 ; and to ensure correct operation of the circuit , there are two additional schottky diodes d4 , d5 , and a resistor r . more specifically , npn transistor t1 is shown turned upside down in fig4 and 5 to take into account the different voltage conditions involved . for example , the collector of t1 in fig4 is shown as an emitter in fig5 due to the different voltages being applied to the transistor t1 . in fig4 transistor t1 has the collector terminal connected to isolating region 7 ( shown as a line ), the emitter terminal connected to drain terminal d of vdmos 2 , and the base terminal connected to node 45 ; schottky diode d2 has the anode connected to isolating region 7 , and the cathode connected to input terminal 5 ; and schottky diode d3 has the anode connected to isolating region 7 , and the cathode grounded . node 45 is grounded via schottky diode d4 ( with its anode connected to node 45 ), and is connected to input terminal 5 via a resistor r and schottky diode d5 . resistor r and diode d5 are connected in parallel with each other , with the anode of d5 connected to node fig4 and 5 also show two parasitic transistors 47 and 48 associated with the schottky diodes . for a clearer understanding , refer to fig6 showing one possible implementation of part of circuit 40 . more specifically , fig6 shows a cross section of a wafer of semiconductor material in which the components are implemented using the same technology as in fig2 and wherein any parts common to both fig6 and 2 are shown using the same reference numerals . fig6 shows the implementation of transistor t1 and one of the schottky diodes . more specifically , transistor t1 is implemented by a vertical transistor including a p - type buried region 50 ( forming the base region ) separated from buried region 20 in which the cmos components are formed and in which the schottky diodes may be formed . over buried region 50 , there is provided an n - well 51 isolated by an isolating region 52 to be connected electrically to node 45 by base contacts 53 and metal lines ( not shown ). n - well 51 houses an n + - type region 55 connected to isolating region 22 by contact 56 and a metal line ( not shown ). the schottky diode implemented over buried region 20 comprises an n - well 60 isolated from the other well regions 24 , 25 by a portion of isolating region 22 , and housing an n + - type region 61 . region 61 is connected to a contact 62 for connection , for example , to input terminal 5 ( diodes d2 , d5 ) or ground ( diodes d3 , d4 ); while n - well 60 is connected to a contact 63 ( with which it forms a schottky barrier ) connected , for example , to isolating region 22 ( diodes d3 , d5 ) or to node 45 ( diodes d4 , d5 ). regions 51 and 55 constituting the collector of transistor t1 are formed simultaneously with n - well regions 24 , 25 , 60 and n + - type regions 29 , 30 , 61 . as can be seen , the schottky diode is associated with a parasitic transistor formed by regions 61 , 60 ( emitter or collector ), 22 , 20 ( base ) and 12 , 11 ( collector or emitter ). consequently , diodes d3 and d4 of fig4 are associated with transistors 47 , 48 having the emitter formed by regions 11 , 12 in fig6 the base formed by isolating region 22 , and the collector formed by region 61 . similarly , diodes d2 and d5 are associated with respective parasitic transistors ( not shown ) similar to parasitic transistor t1 . in fig4 circuit 40 is shown with a positive input voltage v in and a negative drain voltage v d . in this state , transistor t1 is turned on ( saturated ) and , like switch s1 in fig3 maintains isolating region 7 at a potential close to drain voltage v d . as such , parasitic transistor 9 &# 34 ; sees &# 34 ; a very low base - emitter voltage drop which is insufficient to turn that transistor on despite the charges injected by parasitic transistor 10 . in the above operating state , diodes d3 , d2 and d5 are reverse biased ; diode d4 is turned on and biases the base of t1 ; and , being insufficiently biased like parasitic transistor 9 , parasitic transistors 47 and 48 are also turned off . diode d4 and resistor r ensure that , during the falling half wave of voltage v d , transistor t1 is turned on before parasitic transistors 9 , 10 , thus preventing parasitic transistors 9 , 10 from being turned on . in fact , t1 &# 34 ; sees &# 34 ; a slightly higher base - emitter voltage drop -- equal to v d + vf ( where vf is the voltage drop over diode d4 )-- than transistor 10 which sees a base - emitter voltage drop equal to v d . consequently , as v d falls , and due also to resistor r supplying the base of transistor t1 , t1 is turned on in advance of transistor 10 , thus preventing any problems arising as v d falls . fig5 shows the circuit diagram of fig4 modified to illustrate the behavior of the circuit with a negative input voltage v in and a positive drain voltage v d . in fig5 parasitic transistor 8 , which is the one likely to be turned on in this bias state , is shown in place of parasitic transistor 9 ; and transistors t1 and 47 are turned upside down ( exchanging the collector for the emitter ) to show the possible turn - on condition . in fig5 t1 also represents the parasitic transistor associated with diodes d2 and d5 ( as in fig4 ) and the parasitic transistor associated with d3 ( as in fig4 ) and d4 ( the parasitic transistor of d4 in fact has a grounded emitter , a base formed by isolating region 7 , and a collector formed by layers 11 , 12 , in exactly the same way as transistor 47 ). under the operating state of fig5 parasitic transistor 8 is prevented from being turned on by schottky diode d2 maintaining isolating region 7 at a voltage close to input voltage v in ( approximately 0 . 2 v higher ) and producing an insufficient voltage drop at the base - emitter junction of transistor 8 ( which requires 0 . 6 - 0 . 7 v for it to be turned on ). moreover , diodes d3 , d5 and their associated parasitic transistors are turned off . d3 in fact is reverse biased , as is the base - emitter junction of the associated parasitic transistor 47 . diode d4 is also reverse biased . d5 is turned on and maintains the base of t1 at the same potential as the emitter , so that t1 remains off ( as required , particularly in the case of a high drain voltage v d , for preventing failure of transistor t1 ). finally , parasitic transistor 10 is also turned off , by virtue of its base presenting a higher potential as compared with the emitter and collector . in the circuits of fig4 and 5 , diode d3 provides grounding for isolating region 7 when input voltage v in and drain voltage v d are both positive , or when one is zero and the other is positive . in all these cases , diode d3 is turned on and maintains isolating region 7 at the minimum potential present in the circuit ; and transistors 8 , 9 and t1 are maintained in an off state . circuit 40 of fig4 and 5 may be easily implemented , for example , using the structure of fig6 . in particular , the resistor r may be integrated by using the polysilicon layer forming the gates of the mosfet transistors ( 27 and 15 in fig6 ), or by exploiting the diffused drain / source regions of the same mosfet transistors , or by defining a higher - resistivity p - type diffused layer in a region isolated from the power stage . fig7 shows an alternative embodiment of diodes d2 , d3 and transistor t1 using the same technique as in fig6 . any elements common to both are therefore indicated using the same reference numerals with no further description . number 70 in fig7 indicates the p - type buried layer over which the diodes are formed , and over which are provided two n - well regions 71 , 72 separated by isolating regions 73 similar to regions 22 , 23 , 52 . n - well regions 71 , 72 house n + - type regions 74 , 75 for connection to contacts 76 , 77 , and are directly contacted by aluminum contacts 78 , 79 for forming the schottky diodes of which regions 71 , 72 form the cathodes . contacts 78 , 79 ( diode anodes ) are connected by a metal line 80 for electrically contacting the anodes of schottky diodes d2 and d3 . the fig7 implementation is characterized by a p + - type ring 81 in n - well region 71 , surrounding contact 78 and which provides for increasing the breakdown voltage of diode d2 . in fact , if the breakdown voltage of the schottky diodes is below the maximum input voltage v in value , the potential of isolating region 7 ( anode of diode d2 ) is unable to follow v in , thus impairing operation of the device as a whole . the above breakdown voltage , as is well known , is limited by the rapid increase in the electric field along the periphery of the metal - semiconductor interface . this problem , however , may be solved by forming a guard ring , such as ring 81 , connected to the anode of the diode and located along the edge of the schottky junction . the advantages of the circuit described are as follows . first , tying the isolating regions instant by instant to the lowest potential prevents the junction between the drain region of the power vdmos and the isolating regions from being turned on and thereby impairing proper operation of the integrated device . second , the circuit is easily integrated , and presents a high degree of reliability . clearly , changes may be made to the circuit as described and illustrated herein without departing from the scope of the present invention . in particular , the switches may be formed using other components , the implementation shown being provided purely by way of example . accordingly , the scope of the present invention is not limited to the foregoing specification , but instead is given by the appended claims along with their full range of equivalents .
| 7 |
β - glucan is a cell wall polysaccharide comprising d - glucan units and is the main structural material in the cell walls of barley and oat grain . use of the term β - glucan is intended to refer to the name of a non - starchy polysaccharide in which individual glucose molecules , or glucans , are linked by β ( 1 → 3 ) linkages , β ( 1 → 4 ) linkages or a mix of β ( 1 → 3 ), β ( 1 → 4 ) linkages . any cereal grain with a β - glucan component therein may be used as a starting material in the present invention . such cereal grains include , but are not limited to , barley , oats , wheat , rice , rye , corn , sorghum and millet . typically , these cereal grains have a relatively low concentration of β - glucan . oats and barley are preferred because of their higher levels of naturally occurring β - glucan . for example , oat grain has a 4 % by weight β - glucan content while barley grain has a 5 - 7 % by weight β - glucan content . any processed grain product may likewise be utilized as a starting material in the present invention . processed cereal grain products include , but are not limited to , cereal flour , cereal flakes , cereal bran , defatted grain , and mixtures of grains including grain flour or grain fractions . for example , it is commonly known in the art how to grind oat groat to separate the bran layers from the endosperm . this grinding results in oat flour comprising the endosperm and oat bran flour comprising the bran of the oat with some endosperm attached thereto . as β - glucan is found in the endosperm , whole oat flour and oat bran flour are preferred starting materials in the present invention for their high β - glucan content . oat bran flour , for example , may contain up to 12 . 5 % by weight β - glucan . thus , compared to the final high concentration β - glucan product , a grain product with a relatively low β - glucan concentration would encompass any grain product , natural or processed , having about 13 % or less by weight β - glucan content . the extraction process of the present invention begins by forming a slurry of a relatively low concentration β - glucan grain product , preferably oat bran flour , in water . the slurry is then heated to an operating temperature , which is maintained within about 100 - 140 ° f ., preferably about 110 ° f .- 140 ° f ., most preferably at about 120 ° f . but not exceeding about 140 ° f . the temperature should not degrade the β - glucan . base , typically as a basic aqueous solution , is then added to the aqueous slurry to adjust the ph to between 7 . 0 to 12 . 0 , preferably to between about 7 . 0 to 10 . 0 and more preferably 7 . 0 to 9 . 0 or 7 . 9 to 8 . 1 . the base will generally be an inorganic base such as , but not limited to , naoh , koh , nahco 3 , or na 2 co 3 . the ph - adjusted slurry is then held in the operating temperature range , preferably at about 120 ° f . for 50 to 120 minutes and preferably for 50 to 75 minutes and more preferably 50 to 60 minutes . the time and specified conditions allow for extraction of at least 50 % and preferably more than 80 % of the β - glucan from the grain product cell wall . the extraction reaction is then terminated by acidifying the ph - adjusted slurry to a ph of less than 5 . 0 , preferably to a ph between 4 . 2 to 4 . 8 . any suitable inorganic acid may be used to acidify the slurry such as , but not limited to , h 2 so 4 , hno 3 , h 2 co 3 , or preferably hcl . after acidification , the β - glucan rich supernatant fraction can be immediately separated from the solid grain cell tissue components by means of decantation , centrifugation , or a combination thereof to provide a β - glucan concentration on a dry weight basis of at least about 18 %. the β - glucan fraction is then cooled to a temperature in the range of 40 ° f . to 500 ° f ., preferably 45 ° f . and subsequently concentrated by evaporation . the concentrated β - glucan fraction is then dried , preferably by spray drying . the particle size of the β - glucan product after drying is in the range of about 44 mμ to about 150 mμ . these particulates are then bound in any suitable manner to form a β - glucan product agglomeration . the agglomerated particles are in the size range of from about 75 mμ to about 840 mμ . the β - glucan content of the resultant product is at least 18 %, preferably at least 20 % to 30 %, by weight β - glucan . the agglomerated form of β - glucan in accordance with the invention is formed by any suitable method , and preferably by fluidized bed agglomeration done either on a batch or a continuous basis . typically , water is used to cause the small particles to agglomerate in the agglomeration process . the advantages of this β - glucan product are that it has a minimum of 18 % β - glucan and is readily soluble . this provides a high concentration β - glucan product with improved flexibility for formulating higher concentrations of β - glucan . the high concentration β - glucan product may also serve as a stand - alone dietary supplement whether in tablet , agglomerated or particulate form . the high concentration β - glucan product is particularly useful as a food additive . the extraction process removes substantially all of the insoluble grain material in the production of the high concentration β - glucan product . absence of grain fiber insolubles and the concomitant higher β - glucan content in the β - glucan food additive requires less β - glucan food additive to be incorporated into a target food product in order to impart the nutritional benefits of β - glucan into the food product . correspondingly , adding less β - glucan food additive reduces the possibility of adversely affecting the texture , taste or mouthfeel of the β - glucan enriched food product . agglomeration of the β - glucan product further enhances the usefulness of the β - glucan food additive . agglomeration increases the ability of the β - glucan food additive to be dispersed in both solid and liquid food applications . this is particularly advantageous when applying the β - glucan food additive to liquid food products . the agglomerated high concentration β - glucan food additive readily dissolves in water thereby minimizing any adverse effects the β - glucan food additive may have on the liquid food &# 39 ; s viscosity , taste , texture and mouthfeel while simultaneously imparting the nutritional benefits of β - glucan to the liquid food product . addition of the agglomerated high concentration β - glucan food additive to either a solid or liquid food can increase the β - glucan content to 0 . 1 % to 10 % or more by weight of the overall food composition . in a mix tank , 400 pounds of oat bran flour were added to 750 gallons of 120 ° f . soft water to form an aqueous 6 % solids slurry . the oat bran flour can be obtained from sources known to the skilled artisan such as the quaker oats company located in chicago , ill . to the slurry was added 17 ounces of 50 % naoh solution diluted to three gallons . addition of naoh solution adjusted the ph of the slurry to 8 . 0 . the ph - adjusted slurry was then transferred to an extraction tank , maintained at 120 ° f . and agitated for one hour . acidifying the ph - adjusted slurry with 40 gallons dilute hcl ( 7 liters of 28 be &# 39 ; hcl diluted to 40 gallons ) lowered the slurry ph to 4 . 5 . the slurry was first decanted and then centrifuged to remove the solid particulates from the β - glucan rich supernatant fraction . thereupon , the decantate was added to the supernatant fraction and was then cooled to 45 ° f . water was evaporated to condense the combined fraction to about 7 - 8 % solids . five # 68 / 21 nozzles at 4000 psig were used to spray dry the β - glucan product to a solid . this solid had a particle size range of 44 mμ to 150 mμ . the solid β - glucan product was subsequently agglomerated to a particle size ranging from 75 mμ to 840 mμ . this process recovered 80 % of the β - glucan present in the initial oat bran concentrate . the chemical composition of the resulting high concentration β - glucan product was as follows : while the invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments , as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , it is to be understood that the invention is capable of numerous changes , modifications and rearrangements and such changes , modifications and rearrangements are intended to be covered by the following claims .
| 2 |
an embodiment of the ventilation waterproof connector according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig2 a and 2b . fig2 a is a perspective view thereof and fig2 b is a cross - sectional view taken along the plane a shown in fig1 a . in the drawings , a ventilation waterproof female connector is composed of a synthetic resin female connector housing 10 , a rear holder 14 , a connector wire 24 , a ventilation tube 26 , a pair of female connector terminals 12 , and a pair of sealing rubbers 22 . the connector housing 10 is divided into two spaces by a partition 10a according to the shape of the female connector terminal 12 . further , the connector housing 10 is formed with a pair of lance - shaped engage portions 10b branched and extending from the partition 10a to hold the female connector terminals 12 in position within the connector housing 10 . the female connector terminal 12 is formed with a female terminal end 12b engaged with a terminal end 28 of a male connector ; a terminal stabilizer 12a fitted to the inner wall of the connector housing 10 to prevent the terminal 72 from being twisted or inserted reversely ; a wire barrel 12c for crimping one end of the conductor 24a of the wire 24 ; an insulation barrel 12d for crimping the sealing rubber 22 ; and a terminal holding portion 12e engaged with the lance - shaped engage portions 10b of the housing 10 . therefore , the wire 24 is connected to the female terminal 12 by crimping the wire barrel 12c to the conductor end 24a of the wire 24 . further , the sealing rubber 22 fitted to the wire 24 is fixed to the female terminal 12 by crimping the insulation barrel 12d to the sealing rubber 22 . in the same way , the ventilation tube 26 is connected to the female terminal 12 by crimping the wire barrel 12c to the free end of the ventilation tube 26 . further , the sealing rubber 22 fitted to the ventilation tube 26 is fixed to the female terminal 12 by crimping the insulation barrel 12d to the sealing rubber 22 . in general , since the tube 26 is made of a hard material such as nylon , the tube is not crashed when fixed to the female terminal 12 . in fixing the tube 26 , the wire barrel 12c is crimping by reducing the diameter of the tube 26 a little . once fixed to the female terminal 12 , the ventilation tube 26 will not be removed easily in cooperation with the frictional force generated between the ventilation tube 26 and the sealing rubber 22 or the rear holder 14 . further , when the ventilation tube 26 is not hard , a hard wire is inserted into the tube 26 before crimping , in order to prevent the tube diameter from being reduced and the ventilation efficiency from being lowered . in assembly , the wire 24 is passed through the rear holder 14 , and the sealing rubber 22 ; the wire conductor end 24a is fixed to the wire barrel 12c of the female terminal 12 by crimping ; and the sealing rubber 22 is fixed to the insulation barrel 12d by crimping . in the same way , the ventilation tube 26 is passed through the rear holder 14 , and the sealing rubber 22 ; the ventilation tube 26 is fixed to the wire barrel 12c of the female terminal 12 by crimping ; and the sealing rubber 22 is fixed to the insulation barrel 12d by crimping . after the wire 24 and the tube 26 have been fixed to the female terminals 12 , these two female terminals 12 are supported within the connector housing 10 by fitting the stabilizer 12a to the inner wall of the housing 10 to prevent the terminal from being twisted or inserted reversely ; and then the rear holder 14 is pressure fitted to the housing end . as described above , the ventilation tube 26 can be fixed to the connector in quite the same way as in the wire 24 . that is , it is unnecessary to prepare a special jig for fixing the ventilation tube 26 to the connector housing 10 . therefore , the above connector is desirable in particular when assemble by an automatic assembly system . thereafter , the female connector 10 is mated with another male connector ( not shown ) by engaging the female terminal 12 with an male terminal end ( pin ) 28 of the male connector . although not described , it is possible to form and assemble the male connector in quite the same way as in the female connector . in this case , the female connector terminal 12 is replaced with the male connector terminal . further , in the male connector , the male terminal end pin connected to the female connector terminal to which the tube 26 is fixed is preferably omitted to reduce the ventilation resistance of air passed through the tube 26 or to improve the response characteristics of pressure fluctuation on the external free end side of the ventilation tube 26 . in the embodiment described above , the female connector having only a single wire 24 and a single ventilation tube 26 has been explained by way of example . without being limited thereto , however , the present invention can be applied to other connectors having a plurality of wires , by replacing one of the wires with a single ventilation tube . as described above , in the ventilation waterproof connector of the present invention , since the ventilation tube can be fixed to the connector terminal simply by crimping the terminal , it is unnecessary to modify the ordinary connector structure or to prepare an additional parts and jig . that is , it is possible to easily change the ordinary waterproof connector to the ventilation waterproof connector . further , since the structure of the ventilation waterproof connector of the present invention is substantially the same as that of the ordinary waterproof connector , this is very convenient when the ventilation waterproof connector is assembled through automatic assembling steps .
| 7 |
the invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof , given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings , in which : fig1 is a diagrammatic side view of a rainwater treatment unit in accordance with the present invention ; fig2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the rainwater treatment unit of fig1 ; and , fig3 is a diagrammatic front view of an irradiator used in the rainwater treatment unit of fig1 . referring to fig1 and 2 , there is provided a rainwater treatment unit indicated generally by the reference numeral 100 . the rainwater treatment unit 100 comprises an inlet 102 and an outlet 104 . rainwater is collected in a conventional manner using guttering , piping and the like and is delivered to a rainwater holding tank 140 . such a system may be seen in the applicant &# 39 ; s own granted european patent ep 1 652 823 b1 . the rainwater is supplied from the rainwater holding tank to the rainwater treatment unit 100 , preferably by means of a pump ( not shown ). the rainwater is fed into the rainwater treatment unit 100 via the inlet 102 . an input valve 126 is provided for ease of maintenance of the rainwater treatment unit 100 . a flow meter 128 is provided to ensure that an optimum flow rate is being achieved by the pump ( not shown ). a particle filter 106 is used to remove any unwanted particles in the rainwater . the filter size of this filter may be preferably five microns or less . the filtered rainwater is then fed into an aerator that is embodied by a venturi injector 108 . alternatively , the aerator may be an air injection pump or a snifter valve . the venturi injector 108 entrains the filtered rainwater with a gas . the gas is input into the venturi injector 108 through a gas inlet 109 . in a preferred embodiment , the gas comprises ozone although it will be understood that other gases such as air may also be used to entrain the filtered rainwater . the entrained filtered water is fed into an irradiator 110 . in the embodiment shown , the gas inlet is connected to the irradiator 110 however it will be understood that the gas inlet may be open ended to allow air to be drawn into the venturi injector 108 . in a further embodiment , the filtered rainwater may be fed into an irradiator 110 . the irradiated water is then fed to an aerator that is embodied by a venturi injector 108 . the venturi injector 108 entrains the filtered rainwater with a gas . the gas is input into the venturi injector 108 through a gas inlet 109 . in a preferred embodiment , the gas comprises ozone although it will be understood that other gases such as air or oxygen may also be used to entrain the filtered rainwater . alternatively , the aerator may be an air injection pump or a snifter valve . the entrained , irradiated water flows down a treated water tank feed pipe 112 into a treated water tank 114 . referring now to fig3 , where like parts previously described have been assigned the same reference numeral , the irradiator 110 comprises an ultraviolet ( uv ) light source 302 which is housed within a quartz tubing 304 within a casing 306 of the irradiator 110 . a water inlet 308 is arranged at a lower portion of the casing 306 of the irradiator 110 , and a water outlet 310 is arranged at an upper portion of the casing 306 of the irradiator 110 . the water outlet 310 is directed ( into the page ) in a perpendicular fashion in relation to the water inlet 308 . a gas inlet 312 is arranged beneath the casing 306 , and a gas outlet 314 is arranged above the casing 306 of the irradiator 110 . the uv light source 302 is used to create ozone by passing air , or oxygen , in though the gas inlet 312 , over the uv light source 302 within the quartz tubing 304 , and out the gas outlet 314 . the uv light source 302 is used to sanitise the entrained filtered water by passing the entrained filtered water though the water inlet 308 , along the length of the irradiator 110 , between the casing 306 and the quartz tube 304 , and out the water outlet 314 . the quartz tubing 304 is sealed so that no liquid passing through the irradiator 110 can enter the interior of the quartz tube 304 . an electrical connection 316 is also shown for the uv light source 302 . the oxygen in the air is converted into ozone by creating free radicals of oxygen in the air and allowing these free radicals to join with oxygen molecules in the air : the ozone ( o 3 ) is entrained into the filtered rainwater to partially sanitise the rainwater . the entrained filtered rainwater , that is partially sanitised , is then fed into the irradiator 110 and flows outside of the quartz tubing 304 . ultraviolet rays from the uv light source pass through the quartz tubing 304 and irradiate the entrained filtered rainwater . this irradiation process completes the sanitisation of the entrained filtered rainwater . referring to fig1 and 2 again , treated water is output from the irradiator 110 and flows down a treated water tank feed pipe 112 into a treated water tank 114 . the treated water remains in the treated water tank 114 until it is required by a potable water supply ( not shown ). a pump 116 pumps treated water through an outlet filter 120 via an outlet filter feed pipe 118 . the outlet filter 120 may preferably comprise carbon , zeolite or other such minerals in order to improve the taste of the treated water by acting as a catalyst to convert any residual ozone into oxygen , and / or to add minerals to the water to improve the taste . moreover , colloidal silver , minerals or metal removal components may also form part of the outlet filter 120 in order to remove contaminants , such as lead , that may not have been removed by the process . the treated water is delivered through the outlet 104 to the potable water supply . an isolation outlet valve 130 is arranged adjacent the outlet 104 , and a pump control unit 122 is arranged adjacent the isolation outlet valve 130 . the pump control unit 122 is used to control either the operation of the pump 116 or is used to supply water at a predetermined output pressure through the outlet 104 . for example , 2 bar would be a typically outlet pressure . the components used to control the speed of the pump 116 are either located in the pump control unit 122 or a controller unit 124 . the controller 124 is used to control the pump 116 . the controller may also be used to monitor the level of rainwater in the rainwater holding tank 140 by means of a level indicator ( not shown ). the controller may top - up the amount of rainwater in the rainwater holding tank 140 with water from a supplementary water supply , such as a mains water supply . a mains supply inlet 132 is connected to a conventional mains supply . if the controller 124 detects that the rainwater has dropped below a predetermined threshold , a mains supply valve 136 is actuated by the controller to allow a flow of water from the mains supply flow into the rainwater holding tank 140 . in a preferred embodiment , a filter 136 is situated intermediate the mains supply inlet 132 and the mains supply valve 136 . thus , with the mains supply , an acceptable amount of water will always be available to be input to the rainwater treatment unit 100 from the rainwater holding tank 140 . in a preferred embodiment , the water from the mains supply is added to the rainwater holding tank 140 by feeding the water through an overflow pipe 138 which leads from the rainwater treatment unit 100 back to the rainwater holding tank 140 . an opening ( not shown ) in the treated water tank 114 leads to the overflow pipe 138 . furthermore , the controller 124 may also monitor the quality and / or quantity of the treated water being held in the treated water tank 114 . if the quality of the treated water falls below an acceptable level and become unsatisfactory , or non - ideal , then the controller will act to remove the unsatisfactory treated water from the treated water tank 114 . the unsatisfactory treated water is forced to flow through at least part of the rainwater treatment unit 100 again . in a preferred embodiment , the unsatisfactory treated water is fed back to the rainwater holding tank 140 by feeding the water through the overflow pipe 138 which leads from the rainwater treatment unit 100 back to the rainwater holding tank 140 . thus , an intentional overflow is created by pumping water into the rainwater treatment unit 100 and thus causing the treated water tank 114 114 to overflow . the overflow is fed down the overflow pipe 138 and recently treated water replaces the stagnant treated water which had become unsatisfactory . the treated water is refreshed as a result . the controller starts and stops the inlet pump ( not shown ) and / or the ozone generator in the form of the uv light source 302 which is used to create ozone by passing air , or oxygen , in though the gas inlet 312 , over the uv light source 302 within the quartz tubing 304 , and out the gas outlet 314 . it is envisaged in further embodiments to switch off the mains supply inlet using the mains supply valve 136 whilst this refresh process is occurring . the controller 124 can assess the quality of the treated water by assessing the duration of time since rainwater was fed into the rainwater treatment unit 100 . flow meters ( not shown ) may be optionally located at the inlet 102 and outlet 104 of the rainwater treatment unit 100 , as well as , prior to and subsequent to other components in the rainwater treatment unit 100 such as the particle filter 106 , the venturi injector 108 , the irradiator 110 , the pump 116 , the outlet filter 120 . in further embodiments ( not shown ), it is envisaged that the overflow pipe 138 may be connected to the input of the particle filter 106 , the venturi injector 108 and / or the irradiator 110 . in such an embodiment , the unsatisfactory treated water does not re - circulate through the entire rainwater treatment unit 100 . this will reduce the operational running cost of the rainwater treatment unit 100 . in the specification the terms “ comprise , comprises , comprised and comprising ” or any variation thereof and the terms “ include , includes , included and including ” or any variation thereof are considered to be totally interchangeable and they should all be afforded the widest possible interpretation . the invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described which may be varied in both construction and detail within the scope of the appended claims .
| 8 |
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